THE END.
NORWICH:PRINTED BY THOMAS PRIEST, RAMPANT HORSE STREET.
[7]It is the fashion to extol highly the power of man’s mental and moral perception of what is right and wrong. But from whom do we hear most on these subjects? From those who, having lighted their torch at the lamp of God, affect not only to be independent of divine illumination, but even to eclipse the light of heaven itself. If they will fairly test their own principles, let them try them by the condition of that portion of the human family on whom revelation never cast its direct rays. Let them seek in the records of the heathen nations of antiquity, or in the principles and practice of modern heathendom, for proofs of man’s inherent power to think and act aright. They will then find that their wisdom is folly, their religion the most degrading idolatry, and that their moral code allows and even commands actions of the most revolting kind. The moral sense of the New Zealander made him a cannibal. In the Hindu it is seen in the worship of the Linga, in the horrid rites of the Suttee, and in the filthy and unnatural crimes that form a part of what is considered their most acceptable worship. It is hardly necessary to refer the classical reader to such works as the Phædrus and Symposium of the greatest philosopher of the most civilized nation of antiquity.
[12a]Heb. x. 25.
[12b]Vide x. 26, et seq.
[13]After examining all the places in which the word σάββατον and the defective plural σάββατα occur, both in the New Testament and in the Septuagint, we are satisfied that the following extract from Bishop Horsley’s Third Sermon on the Sabbath, gives the proper exposition of the passage. “I must not quit this part of my subject without briefly taking notice of a text in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians, which has been supposed to contradict the whole doctrine which I have asserted, and to prove that the observation of a Sabbath in the Christian church is no point of duty, but a matter of mere compliance with ancient custom . . . From this text no less a man than the venerable Calvin drew the conclusion, in which he has been rashly followed by other considerable men, that the sanctification of the seventh day is no indispensable duty in the Christian church—that it is one of those carnal ordinances of the Jewish religion which our Lord hath blotted out. The truth however is, that in the apostolical age, the first day of the week, though it was observed with great reverence, was not called the Sabbath day, but the Lord’s day . . . and the name of the Sabbath days was appropriated to the Saturdays, and certain days in the Jewish church, which were likewise called Sabbaths in the law. The Sabbath days, therefore, of which St. Paul speaks, were not the Sundays of Christians, but the Saturdays and other Sabbaths of the Jewish calendar.”
[14]Rom. xiv. 5, 6.
[15]Isaiah i. 13, 14.
[16]We are reminded of certain expressions in some of the Fathers, from which it is inferred, that they did not deem it necessary to keep the Lord’s day so strictly as we contend it ought to be kept; and that Constantine passed a decree permitting persons in the rural districts, to get in their crops on Sunday, should the weather be such as to threaten their destruction or serious injury. Without discussing the propriety of the particular edict in question, we deem it a sufficient answer, that the Bible, and not the Fathers or Constantine, is our rule of faith and practice. Many erroneous notions were held by the Fathers; and no one will pretend that either Constantine or the church generally in his days, was so correct in practice, as to present a perfect model for us to follow.
We are also reminded, that there were some in the early church—slaves, for instance—who could not keep the Lord’s day; and these, it is argued, would rather have died than have desecrated it, had they considered it of the same obligation as the command to abstain from idolatry. To this it may be replied, that the question is not what certain individuals thought, or what was the practice of certain communities, but what the word of God teaches. There is, however, a marked distinction between the two cases here supposed, arising from the difference between the two commandments. Many instances may occur, in which it is physically impossible to obey the letter of some of the commandments. Thus, poverty, sickness, or other providential impediment, may incapacitate the most obedient child from ministering to the wants of his parents. In like manner, bodily infirmity, imprisonment, or other providential restraint, may prevent the observance of the fourth commandment in the letter, while the heart longs to honour God’s holy day, and to enjoy its blessings. The Christian slave, therefore, whose body (in the providence of God) was under the power of his master, might be compelled to work on the Lord’s day without incurring guilt. But he could not worship an idol, without an open renunciation of Christianity. Surely there is no need to insist on the difference between the two cases.
[17]Heb. iv. 9. σαββατισμὸς.
[18]We cannot see the distinction contended for by some, between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord’s day; namely, that the former was “rest,” while the latter is “public worship.” To us they appear identical. The Jewish Sabbath was not merely “rest,” butholyorsanctifiedrest. “Godblessedthe seventh day, andsanctifiedit.” Moses calls it “the rest of theholySabbath unto the Lord;” and God frequently declares that it was appointed as a “sign” between himself and his people, and commands them to keep itholy. Now, how could the Jewish Sabbath answer the description thus given of it, if mere rest, or cessation from bodily labour, was all that was required in its observance? We know that the Sunday, as kept by those who only lay aside their usual worldly employments, is neither “blessed,” nor “sanctified,” nor “holy,” nor a “sign” between them and God. On the contrary, it is made the occasion of the most awful immoralities, and is productive of the greatest misery. Instead of a blessing, it is converted into a curse. Besides, did not the instructions of the heads of families, and the teaching and ministrations of the Levites, in the earlier part of the Jewish history, and the services at the synagogue in after times, afford means of instruction very similar to those in the Christian church? By divine appointment the Levites were to teach the people (Lev. x. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 10), and the people were to teach their children (Deut. vi. 7); and we cannot conceive how this could have been done, or the Sabbath have been keptholy, according to the commandment, without some stated instruction and worship on the day of rest, from the first settlement of the Israelites in Canaan. A whole nation keepingholyevery seventh day, without the aids and restraints of public worship, appears to us an impossibility. Indeed, why is the Sabbath expressly called “a holyconvocation” [מקרא קדש] (Levit. xxiii. 3), if no assemblies of the people for worship took place on that day? But after all, what do the advocates of the strictest observance of the Sabbath require, more than was required of the Jews by God himself? (Isa. lviii. 13.) We therefore consider the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, the same in spirit, in character, and in their general religious requirements.
[20a]Isaiah, lvi. 6, 7.
[20b]The fourth commandment is in its nature partlymoraland partlypositive. Reason teaches the duty of devoting a portion of our time to the worship of God. Revelation determines the amount by a positive enactment. Now, it is very remarkable, that whileallthe other sabbatical institutions (which are peculiar to the Jews) are omitted in the moral law and inserted in the ceremonial law, that of the seventh day alone stands in the decalogue. Is not this a tacit indication of its moral character?
[22]See Appendix.
[23a]How often has the fondest love of parents become destructive to their offspring, for want of proper regulation in its expression. So, love to God and man, if mere feeling, without proper intellectual guidance, might produce results the reverse of its intention. It would be the propelling power without the regulator.
[23b]“It is a gross mistake to consider the Sabbath as a mere festival of the Jewish church, deriving its whole sanctity from the Levitical law. The contrary appears, as well from the evidence of the fact which sacred history affords, as from the reason of the thing which the same history declares. The religious observation of the seventh day hath a place in the decalogue among the very first duties of natural religion. The reason assigned for the injunction is general, and hath no relation or regard to the particular circumstances of the Israelites. The creation of the world was an event equally interesting to the whole human race; and the acknowledgment of God as our Creator, is a duty in all ages and in all countries, equally incumbent upon every individual of mankind.” FromBishop Horsley’s Second Sermon on the Sabbath.
Professor Blunt has elaborately demonstrated, that the Sabbath was observed in thePatriarchal age. SeeScriptural Coincidences, pp. 18–24. The hebdomadal division of time by the Pagan nations of the West, and by the Hindus and other people in the East, seems to indicate a traditional recognition of the Sabbath, though the observance of the day, as a day of rest, passed away with the worship of Him, in whose honour it was originally instituted.
[27]Matt. xxii. 37–40.
[28a]Rom. xiii. 8–10.
[28b]James ii. 10, 11.
[28c]Ephes. vi. 1–3.
[29a]Matt. v. 17, 18.
[29b]Our Lord refers to some of the moral precepts, and to some of the civil enactments of the law of Moses; because the meaning and application of both had been perverted or obscured by the glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees; and his intention evidently was, to remove those false glosses, and to teach the legitimate application, meaning, and extent of the divine commandments. Thus, the civil enactment, “An eye for an eye,” &c. was perverted by the Pharisees, so as to encourage the notion, that personal revenge was justifiable by the divine law. This perversion was met by our Lord’s command, “Resist not evil,” &c. Again, God had commanded the Jews to love their neighbours as themselves. The Scribes, it would seem, chose to infer that this command necessarily implied the inculcation of an opposite feeling towards enemies. They therefore interpreted the precept to mean “Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.” Our Lord gave the most decided negative to this gloss, by his injunction, “love your enemies,” &c. Moreover, the Scribes taught that the mere outward observance of the precept was all that the law required. Our Lord shewed that God regards the inward feelings and motives of men—that the unchaste desire was adultery, and that causeless anger was murder. In this, his object was not to condemn or contradict the teaching of the law and the prophets, but to free it from human perversion, to shew its real character, and to point out its moral beauty and excellency. Hence his solemn assertion, that not one jot or tittle should pass from the law.