J uandi' ctndiioe Mwv^s* fTQ. J D $fce tahittfl ajih (gn^Itssh (Ekrch in the mittfer-afl ito $aM>atft dedawd and ttmdtraid. A SEKMON PEEACHED BEFOEE THE UNIVEESITY OP OXPOED, ON THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 7 NOVEMBER, 1858. REV. JAMES BANDINEL, M.A., WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD; PEBPETUAL CUBATE OF COGGES, OXON. "Dominicum Bervasti?" ' ' Christianus sum : ilium diem in termittere non possum." (ibifttri Hitit " 'tn'v&m : JOHN HENRY and JAMES PARKER. 1858. FEINTED BT MESSES. PAEKEH, COENMAEKET, OXFOED. % £nm0n, &t. Exodus xx. 8 — 11. " Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of ihe Lord thy God : [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea , and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." " Remember !" There is something at once both awful and touching in the very word, associated as it is with many a sad farewell of loving hearts that have known no other meeting on this side the grave, with many an earnest supplication disregarded, with many a parting injunction seldom or never heeded, with many a solemn promise lightly broken. Remember ! How many thrilling moments and scenes of our own life-drama does that word call up ! how much of our inner as well as our outer existence does it bring vividly before us ! The word, even when taken alone, seems to remind us of the weakness and the wickedness which have so often elicited the injunction, which have so often set its requirements at nought. And if we turn from the world to the Church, from things earthly to things heavenly, from the voice of frail humanity to that of unfailing Divinity, from the requests of man to the commands of God, we shall find the same force in the utterance itself, the same sadness and sinfulness in the associations with which it is connected. b2 Twice in the course of God's dealings with mankind has the injunction which this word conveys been ut tered with peculiar emphasis and solemnity, — once when the Avords of my text were first delivered, and again when the Saviour addressed to His followers the incomparable entreaty, the inevitable command, "Do this in remembrance of Me."11 There seems something of prophetic warning, as well as forcible exhortation and absolute command, in these injunctions, both as regards the Sabbath and the Eucharist, as though in both cases the God who delivered them foreshadowed as well as foresaw the necessity which would require them, and commanded men especially to remember those duties which they would be especially liable to forget. Seeing these things, my brethren, and feeling them deeply too, it is my intention on the present occasion, firstly to set before you the teaching of the Church of England in the matter of the Sabbath, and secondly, to shew you that her teaching in this matter is an integral portion of that whole counsel of God .which all her pastors are bound to proclaim and all her children to receive, not only as the godly monition of their spiritual mother, but also as the divine com mand of their heavenly Eather ; and to exhort you therefore, as you reverence your Church, as you love your God, as you value your own souls, to maintain and observe the command, "Remember the Sabbath- day to keep it holyP To ascertain the mind of the Church of England we should examine her formularies : and first, let us con sult that service which is the very foundation of her system of doctrine and discipline, — the Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants ; and in that important service let us turn to that momentous portion of it, the baptismal vow. The fourth and last of the questions put by the minister on this occasion to the sponsors runs thus, — Wilt thou then obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same ail the days of thy life ? And each of the spon- sors is required to answer in the name of the infant, — ¦ I will \ Now what the Church means by the expression, " God's holy will and Commandments," is clear from the two exhortations addressed to the sponsors at the conclusion of the service. In the first of these, after reminding them that it is their part and duty to see that the infant be taught, so soon as he shall be able to learn, what a solemn vow, promise, and profession he hath here made, she directs them to see that the child should learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. In the second of these she adds, — Ye are to see that this child be brought to the bishop to be confirmed by him so soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose. If we follow the Church's lead, and refer to that inimitable manual of faith and duty which she has directed to be learned of every person before he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop^, we shall find her unmistakeably explicit on this matter. After treating of the Baptismal Yow in general, and the Renunciation and Creed in particular, she directs the catechist to address the catechumen in these words, — " You said that your godfathers and godmothers did promise for you that you should keep God's Commandments. Tell me how many there be." To which the catechumen is directed to reply, " Ten." That is to say, " My godfathers and godmothers did promise for me that I should keep God's Ten Com mandments." To avoid all doubt or ambiguity, the catechist is directed to ask further, " Which be they?" and the catechumen to reply, " The same which God spake in * In. " The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of riper years," the Serson intending to be baptized replies, " I will endeavour so to do, God eing my helper." b See title of Church Catechism. 6 the twentieth chapter of Exodus, saying, i I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' " That is to say, "My godfathers and godmothers did pro mise for me that I should keep the Ten Command ments which God spake in the twentieth chapter of Exodus." After these questions and answers follow the Ten Commandments thus indicated ; and Fourth on the list stands that Commandment which I have chosen as my text It is, therefore, undoubtedly clear that the Church of England makes the recognition of the Fourth Com mandment as universally binding upon all baptized persons, and the promise and vow to submit to the authority and obey the injunctions of the Fourth Com mandment an absolute and universal condition of Bap tism, and an integral and irremissible portion of that teaching which she enjoins and imposes on all those who have received Baptism as preparatory to Con firmation and introductory to Communion. Consistent with this teaching is her conduct at Confirmation, that holy rite which opens the door to them that knock, and gives in fulness to them that ask in faith ; which admits the neophyte to the inner shrine, and pours the abundant riches of the Spirit on those who seek His priceless gifts aright. " Do ye here," says the bishop, addressing the can didates for Confirmation, and speaking as the mouth piece of the Church, — "Do ye here, in the presence of God, and of this congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at your Baptism ; ratifying and confirming the same in your own persons, and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe, and to do, all those things which your godfathers and godmothers then undertook for you ? " "And every one," says the rubric, "shall audibly answer, lI will.' " It is therefore impossible that our holy mother could have more clearly asserted, more solemnly im- posed, or more carefully taught, the binding authority and continual obligation of the Fourth Commandment, nor can we conceive any measures more morally strin gent than those which she has adopted to ensure the obedience, pledge the faith, or bind the conscience of her members. This will appear even more strikingly manifest — if that be possible — upon an examination of the highest and holiest of all her services, " The Order for the Administration of the Holt Communion." After offering up that Prayer which is in an especial manner the heritage and the watchword of the faithful, and at once the impetration and the token of the Lord's presence, — after having further prayed for that especial influence which can alone sanctify and render acceptable the obedience which she is about to enjoin, and the faith which she is about to declare as neces sary conditions for rightly receiving the Holy Eucha rist, — she authoritatively promulgates each of the Ten Commandments, with the awful preface, " God spake these words, and said." And as the priest concludes each of the first nine Commandments, the people are emphatically commanded to ask God mercy for their transgression thereof for the time past, and grace to keep the same for tlie time to come, saying, " Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law," and adding at the conclusion, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these Thy laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee." It is manifest, therefore, that the Church of England makes the Fourth Commandment a term of communion as clearly as she does any one of the articles of the Nicene Creed. From a careful consideration, then, of her formu laries, it is clear — clear as the noon-day — that the Church of England asserts with no wavering mind, in no ambiguous language, the continuous obliga tion of the Fourth Commandment, that she makes the fact of that obligation a distinct and prominent part of her elementary instruction, and that she en- 8 forces the observance and the recognition of that obligation as a term of Communion and a condition of Baptism. I need not occupy your time in establishing the fact, patent to all, that our Church's constant and uni versal practice is to "keep holy" "the First Day of the week" whereas those to whom the Commandment was immediately delivered on mount Sinai observed the last day of the week. From which premises it unquestionably follows that she considers " The Lord's Day" as the Christian Sabbath, and the due observance of that day as the literal obedience which her children owe to the present requirements of the Fourth Com mandment. At the same time it is equally clear that she has made no explicit statement to this effect, nor has she taken upon herself the responsibility of declaring authoritatively when, how, or by whom the First Day was selected as the Christian Sabbath. She has taught us by her precept that we are still under the authority of the Fourth Commandment, by her prac tice that we are bound to observe " The First Day of the week" as the Christian Sabbath. She has said nothing more, but has placed the Bible in our hands, and mutely appealed for her justification to the "Written Word of God. I proceed, therefore, now to shew you that our Church's teaching in this matter is in strict con formity with that of God's "Word, and to bring for ward such additional and subsidiary arguments as the nature of the case and the compass of my discourse will allow. I may not dwell at any length on the circumstances under which the words of my text were first delivered, nor tarry to picture forth the desolate, howling wilder ness, the lofty mountain-ridge, the vast and anxious multitude with eyes upturned towards the rugged peak upon whose far-off summit rested the mysterious cloud which veiled the Ineffable Presence. It was no ordinary occasion upon which this Com- 9 mandment was delivered, neither did it form part of aijy ordinary revelation, nor did any intermediate channel convey these words of God to Man ; the voice of man did not utter them, nor the hand of man commit them to writing, nor were they entrusted to any perishable material; they were not addressed to any private individual, nor any particular genera tion : they form an integral and irremissible portion of those Ten Commandments which were uttered by the voice of God, written by the finger of God, written on tables of stone, — those Ten Commandments which formed the imperishable foundation upon which the temporary superstructure of the Mosaic economy was erected, and which are therefore referred to by the Jewish lawgiver as having an especial and pre-emi nent claim upon the respect and obedience of God's people. " Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it" says Moses, " that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command youc." " Take heed to thyself," adds he, " ajid keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life : but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons ; [specially] the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, ' Gather Me the people together, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.' And ye came near and stood under the mountain ; and the moun?? tain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with dark" ness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire : ye saw no simili tude, only ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform^ [even] Ten Commandments ; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone d." "The tables were written on both their sides ; on the one side and on the other were ° Deut. iy. 2. a Ibid. iv. 9—13. 10 they written. The tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables5." And as all the Commandments are of universal ob ligation, universal both in continuance and extent, so does the Fourth Commandment contain in itself especial proofs of the universality of its obligation. For the fact which is there stated as the ground for the institution and the inducement to the observation of the Sabbath- day, is one which tells with equal force on all nations, throughout all countries, and during all ages of time. "For," says God — for or because "in six day's the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it1." Whatever weight this argument could have with the Jew it must have with the Gentile, whatever force it possessed then it must possess now. To the whole Church of God collectively in all countries, of all nations, and throughout all ages, and to each member thereof individually, are the words therefore addressed, "Remember the Sabbath-day* to keep it holy." You will recollect, however, that shortly before his death Moses repeated the Ten Commandments to the assembled Israelites, with some variations of detail, especially in the case of that which we are now con sidering — the Fourth. He does not indeed change or modify the institution or the observance of the Sab bath, but he urges another ground for the observance of it. After giving a peculiar prominence to the pro vision, " That thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thous," Moses goes on to say, " And re member that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day \" • Exod. xxxii. 15, 16. ' Ibid. xx. 11. ' Deut. v. 14. h Ibid. v. 15. 11 If we compare this version or paraphrase uttered by Moses under the directing influence of God's Holy Spirit, with the commandment as delivered directly and immediately by God Himself, we shall find ad ditional grounds for maintaining the universal autho rity of the Fourth Commandment. "When God spake these words and said, He ad dressed them directly, immediately, absolutely, and universally to every descendant of Adam who either had been, or ever should be, brought into covenant with Him. The Israelites who heard them did so as the representatives of the whole human race, as the earnest of the elect, as the first-fruits of covenanted mercy. They were addressed to them collectively, not as a nation, but as the Church; individually not as Is raelites, but as human beings in covenant with God. The ground therefore given on this occasion for the observance, or rather for the institution, of the Sab bath-day, is one which applies equally to all nations, lands, and ages during the present order of things, and the commandment refers to the Israelite as the universal tp the particular. When, however, Moses repeated the injunctions contained in the Fourth Commandment, he did so as God's especial messenger to the Israelites ; and he added, under Divine guidance, a reason for the obe dience he enjoined, applying in the first instance decidedly, especially, and exclusively to the children of Israel. Such I say, my brethren, is the direct, literal, and primary force of the ground urged by Moses in Deu teronomy : veiled, however, behind, contained in, and conveyed by this, there is typical teaching of vast im portance and great value. For as Israel was the type of Christ's Holy Church Universal, that mystical com pany consisting of all those who have been baptized in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, so is Egypt the type of this world of trial and trouble, so is the Egyptian bondage a type of the bondage of sin. As before Israel lay the Canaan of c2 12 their earthly rest, the partial, shadowy, temporary fulfilment of the Sabbath-day, so before us lies the Canaan of our heavenly rest, the Sabbatism, as St. Paul emphatically calls it, the entire, actual, and eternal fulfilment of the Sabbath-day, the everlasting Sabbath. The Sabbath-day, therefore, stands in a twofold character as God's constant witness to man, with one hand pointing to the past, with the other stretching forward to the future ; at once a record of the first creation, and a promise and an earnest of the new; a Sacrament in time, as Baptism and the Eucharist are in matter. Let us, however, return once more for a few mo ments to the words of the Fourth Commandment. The very first word, the word " remember," evidently implies renewed mention, not only declaring the ne cessity of remembering, and intimating the danger of forgetting the ordinance of the Sabbath in times to come, but referring to a pre-existing and previously proclaimed obligation to observe it. "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy, " says God ; and then goes on to remind those whom He addresses that He is introducing no new ordinance, but merely promul gating afresh a law which had been in force ever since the era of the creation : for He does not say, (i "Where fore the Lord bless-eth and sanctifi-e*^ the Sabbath- day," as of something enjoined for the first time or instituted on the present occasion, — but, " Wherefore the Lord bless-e^ and sanetifi-ec*? the Sabbath-day," as of an ordinance re-published after the lapse of ages, a decree re-promulgated, a proclamation re-issued, an enactment of" the Adamitic code solemnly registered and emphatically repeated, a fundamental law which had come into force at the very commencement of man's existence, and which is thus formally declared to have been universally binding ever since, and to be so now and henceforward to all future time. And this accords exactly with that which we read in the second chapter of Genesis, where we find it writ- 13 ten, — -" Thus the heavens and the earth were finished^ and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made : and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: be cause that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and madek." These words are explicit ; when viewed by the light of reason, and more clearly still when illuminated by the effulgence of the Sinaitic manifestation, they en- join the universal observance of the Sabbath. From a careful consideration of the Pentateuch, then, we arrive at the conclusions that God, when uttering the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, enjoined the religious observance of the Sabbath ; and that not as a new, partial, or temporary institution, but as one dating back to the era of man's creation, binding on all those admitted into covenant with Him, and ex tending to the end of time. Let us now turn from the evidence of Moses to the testimony of the Prophets. I will not occupy your time in this phase of the question by any attempt at an elaborate or cumulative argument, but refer you at once to the expressive and explicit language of him who has been appropriately denominated the Evan gelical Prophet. Consider, my brethren, attentively the first eight verses of the fifty-sixth chapter of Isaiah, examine carefully their connection with the context both be fore and after, weigh well the force of each clause, and satisfy yourselves of the times, the matters, the people, and the dispensation to which they refer, and you will perceive that they have reference to a future period far distant from that in which the Prophet was writing ; that they sanction and enjoin in the strongest manner the observance of the Sabbath, extending the obligation of the Sabbath to the period contemplated by the prophecy, that prophecy conveying an especial blessing on the due observance of the Sabbath ; that k Gen. ii. 1—3. 14 they are addressed markedly and pointedly to all the families of the earth, and that they look forward to, anticipate, and are prospectively and virtually part and parcel of the Christian Dispensation. After alluding to times even now still future, to glories as yet unfulfilled, the Prophet bursts forth in the full tide of inspiration : — Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation [is] near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed [is] the man that doeth this, and the son of man [that] layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people : neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose [the things] that please Me, and take hold of My Covenant ; even unto them will I give in Mine house a name better than of sons and daughters : I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the Name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant ; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer : their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar ; for Mine house shall be called an HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE 1. If this passage does not enforce the universal and perpetual authority of the Fourth Commandment, lan guage is worse than useless, and words are less than vain. The natural, the necessary inference from these con siderations is, that any future revelation, any later dispensation addressed to man in his present state of existence by Him who delivered the Ten Command ments on Mount Sinai, by Him who in six days made 1 Isaiah lvi. 1—8. 15 heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, by Him who spake by the prophets, would — nay, must — acknowledge and retain the institution of the Sabbath. Let us, then, having derived thus much from the Old Testament, proceed to consider the Scriptures of the New. Let us begin with our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth verses of the fifth chapter of St. Matthew, our Lord says, — "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Our Lord here unmistakeably declares that His coming had not abrogated, and would not abrogate, any part of that law which had been delivered by Moses and expounded and enforced by the prophets, except those portions which it fulfilled, which were types He was about to realize, or badges of a tem porary state of things to which that realization put an end. So long as the present order of things con tinued to exist, so long would " The Law" continue binding, except in so far as its types were fulfilled, its shadows realized, or its requirements exhausted by Him, or through His agency. These words, therefore, by acknowledging the per* petual authority of the Law, declare the perpetual authority of the Sabbath. We are not, however, left to draw this conclusion for ourselves by applying the general principle to the particular case. If we refer to the last two verses of the fourth, and the first eleven verses of the fifth, chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, we shall see that he concludes a very interesting and important discussion by the striking Words, apa aTroXeLwerai a-a{3j3aTicr/j,6s t&> \am too Geov, "There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism" (or "fulfil ment of the Sabbath") " to the people o/GoDm." If the fulfilment of the Sabbath will not be accom- m Hebrews iv. 9. 16 plished, as St* Paul teaches us in this passage), till heaven and earth pass, in the regeneration of all things, it is clearly not " fulfilled" at present- It consequently has not yet "passed from the law," and is still therefore in force. Emphatic, too, are our Lord's words in the nine teenth verse, — -Whosoever therefore shall break (or re pudiate) one of these least Commandments, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach [them], he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven n. In this verse you will espe^ cially notice that the word tovtwv, "of these," has not an anticipatory, but a retrospective force; that it. refers not to that which is about to be mentioned, but to that which has been mentioned already, namely, " The Law," considered as an aggregate of " The Commandments." That our Lord in the following verses does not men tion the Fourth Commandment, in no way militates against or weakens its authority, any more than His silence therein on the First and Eighth sanctions poly theism or robbery. Nay, more, neither in the Sermon on the Mount, nor in any other discourse recorded by either of the four Evangelists, has He even noticed the existence of image-worship, though He has often condemned it implicitly by His own words, and ex plicitly by those of His apostles. Let us now turn to the nineteenth chapter of St* Matthew. In the third verse we are told that the Pharisees came to our Lord, tempting Him, and say^ ing unto Him, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause ?" And He answered and said unto them, "Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, ' For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh?' Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder0." - St. Matt. v. 19. • St. Matt. xix. 3—6 ; see Gen. ii. 24. 17 These words are of the utmost moment, not merely as deciding a particular point of the highest import ance, but as furnishing an irrevocable precedent rul ing far more than the case immediately under con sideration, as laying down a general principle of universal and perpetual application. For our Lord, by appealing to the supreme authority of the Adamite covenant,, acknowledges, sanctions, and enforces the authority of that covenant. "Whatever, therefore, can be said for or against the perpetual and universal authority of the teaching con tained in the passage commencing with the eighteenth and concluding with the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, can be said with equal force for or against the teaching contained in the first three verses of the same chapter. " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them," says the sacred narrative, after recording the creation of the material universe; "and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made ; and He rested from all His work which He had made." And then at the moment when the marvellous work was completed, He instituted the ordinance which was to record that work, and to be observed by the last formed of His creatures with peculiar devotion, for God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. The positive institution and so lemn inauguration of the Sabbath followed so im mediately upon the creation of man, that it may be said to date from that event; it even preceded in point of time the institution of marriage, and formed with it an integral portion of that divine code, which, given to man in the time of his first innocence as the rule of moral conduct during the continuance of the present conditions of his existence, must and will continue in force until those conditions shall have ceased to exist. In short, if we surrender the sacred ness and perpetual obligation of the Sabbath, Ave must be prepared to give up the sanctity and inviolability 18 of marriage. The authority of both is equal, the Author of both is One ; both were instituted in the earliest stage of man's existence, and will continue in being till the one be fulfilled in the Marriage of the Lamb, and the other in the Sabbath of Heaven. It is almost a waste of time to detain you with the frivolous objection which has been raised on the answer given by our Lord to the young man who came and said unto Him, " Good Master, what shall I do that I may have eternal lifev ?" namely, that the Fourth Commandment is not mentioned by our Lord in the enumeration given on that occasion, a plea urged also with the view of getting altogether rid of or greatly weakening the authority of the whole of the First Table. The solution is plainly this, that our Lord, for reasons known to Himself, was on the occasion in question enumerating exclusively those commandments which form part of our duty to our neighbour, and that He has elsewhere sanctioned and enjoined the performance of our duty to God. The same must be said of that passage where St. Paul, after enumerating five of the commandments of the second table, adds, — And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this say ing, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself q .- where it is clear that the Apostle does not wish to ignore the first table, but merely to enforce the second. Let us now proceed to the very striking and im portant passage which occurs at the close of the second chapter of St. Mark. Our Lord's disciples had excited the indignation of the Pharisees by plucking and eat ing ears of corn on the Sabbath-day; and a discussion thereupon ensued, at the conclusion of which our Lord uttered the memorable words, " 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of tlie Sabbath"." It is of course impossible, and it would be out of ' St Matt. xix. 1 R — 19. St. Matt. xvi. 13—20; St. Mark viii. 27—30; St. Luke ix. 18—21. See Greswell, in loco. • St. Matt. xvii. 1 ; St. Mark ix. 2 ; St. Luke ix. 28. ' St. Matt, xxviii. 1; St. Mark xvi. 2; St. Luke xxiv. 1; St. Johnxx.l,&c. * St. Luke xxiv. 36, &c. ; St. John xx. 19, &c. * St. Matt, xviii. 20. ' St. John xx. 26. k Acts ii. 1 — 4. " It is observable that in this year the fifteenth of Nisan fell on a Friday, the day on which man had been first created ; and so man was created in the first Adam and restored in the second Adam on the same 26 "We have thus in the very infancy of the Christian Church three several proofs that the apostles and im mediate disciples of our Lord observed the first day of the week, and three separate manifestations of Deity to sanction that observance. If we proceed further in the sacred volume we shall perceive further traces of this habitual practice. Four-and- twenty years later we find the Trojan Church assembled on the first day of the week for the purpose of Christian worship : the people praying, the Eucharist celebrated, the sermon preached by an apostle ; in fact, essentially the same service described some fifty years later by Justin Martyr as the recog nised Sunday service of the Church '. On the occa sion mentioned in the twentieth chapter of Acts a special miracle attested the Divine approval and blessing m. About the same time we find St. Paul recognis ing the habitual observance of the first day of the week as established in the Corinthian " and Galatian n Churches, and desiring them to set aside alms for a particular purpose on the recurrence of that day. And later still we find the same Apostle exhorting the Hebrew Christians0, some of whom may possibly have misunderstood the fourteenth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans p, and have applied to public day of the week. The resurrection, which, according to types and prophe cies, was to be the third day after the passion, took place on the first day of the week, the day on which God said, Let there be light, (Gen. i. 4, 5). And the feast of Pentecost in this year fell also on the first day of the week. And thus the first day of the week has been consecrated to all the three Persons of the ever-blessed and undivided Trinity ; and the blessings of creation, redemption, and sanctification are commemorated on the Chris tian Sunday." — Wordsworth, in loc. See also Greswell, in loc. 1 Acts xx. 6 — 8. See also Lewin and Wordsworth, in loc, and Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 85, p. 143, ed. Ashton, i. e. § 67, p. 269, ed. Otto. m Acts xx. 9—12. •** 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. ° Heb. x. 25. p Rom. xiv. 5 — 7. That St. Paul's observations must refer to private devotion, and not to public worship, is clear from the very nature of the case ; as they would otherwise render any regular public worsMp impossible. Eor they would rule that no person could be legitimately blamed for absenting himself from the periodical assemblies of Christians, that each person was at liberty to choose his own day and hour, not only for private, but public worship, a notion so manifestly irrational in conception and impossible in fact, that it needs no refutation. 27 worship a principle enunciated for private devotion, not to forsake the assembling themselves together as the manner of some is. If we proceed from hence to the last book of the New Testament, we find St. John saying in the first chapter of Revelations, the tenth verse, " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," words which contain im portant evidence both direct and inferential. Firstly, we perceive that St. John, — who had already in his Gospel drawn particular attention to two strik ing occasions on which our Lord gave His sanction to the observance of this day, — writing now sixty years after the occurrence of those events, and at least thirty years after St. Luke had recorded various instances of the observance of that day, — an observance evidently universal at the time of his writing, — mentions an occasion on which he thirty years later still had espe cially observed that day. Secondly, we observe that the first day of the week had not only been especially set apart for Christian worship, but had from that fact already received a specific and technical name — " The Lord's Day." Thirdly, we are, by this title Kvpiaicrj, "of," or "be longing to, the Lord," necessarily referred back to the origin of that appellation, the authority for that selection, the object of that observance : the origin, that on that day the Lord arose ; the authority, that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath; the object, the worship of Him who is Lord of all. After duly weighing these considerations, we shall feel constrained to exclaim with the Psalmist, — This is the Day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it\ Nor shall we wonder that the early Christians, when severally asked by their pagan persecutors, "Hast thou observed the Lord's Day?" replied, with the full certainty of lingering torture and i Psalm cxviii. 24. The ancient Church (according to Bishop Cosin) appointed this Psalna to be used on every Sunday ; and he is supported by a considerable weight of authority in his opinion that these words contain a direct prophecy of the Divine appointment of the Lord's d#y. 28 agonizing death before them, "I am a Christian ; I cannot neglect the observance of That Day r." Nor is it without its weight and significance that the vastest revelation ever vouchsafed to man, a reve lation which, commencing in times of trouble and trial, stretches forward to that holy and everlasting rest, that Sabbatism which awaiteth the people of God, should have been vouchsafed, or at any rate com menced, when " the disciple whom Jesus loved" "was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." Scripture is indeed silent as to the act or the mode by which the First Day of the week was set apart as the Christian Sabbath ; but by giving us full evidence of the accomplished fact, it proves the pre-currence of an act* and a mode sufficient for the requirements of the case6. "Whether, then, the Lord of the Sabbath enjoined the perpetual observance of the First Day of the week by word of mouth or other mode directly expressive of His will, or whether He did so by His Holy Spirit, matters not to us. For His own wise reasons God has withheld the knowledge from us : enough is told to declare God's truth and man's duty, enough is withheld to exercise our faith and evoke our humility ; our part is neither to dogmatize nor to cavil, but to believe and to obey. If we now, however, return for a few moments to the Old Testament, and peruse it by the light of the New, we shall find that the imaginary difficulty which has been a stumbling-block to many, crumbles into dust at the first touch; the imaginary difficulty, I mean, of reconciling the supposed teaching of the Law and the Prophets with the recognised practice of the Gospel. In the first instance, let me draw your attention to r *' The ancient martyrs died for the defence and observance of this day. In their examinations, ' Dominicum servasti V was the usual question pro pounded to them for their trial : and, ' Christianus sum, Mem diem inter- mittere non possum,' was ever their answer." — Bishop Cosin, vol. iv. p. 458. * Ovk a.7ratTr}T€ov 5e oySe rtyv alriav iu airaa'iy 6/j.oicost aAA' tKavhv %v tiffi rb '6rt deixQyvat «a\ws. — Arist., Eth. Nicom. i. 7'. § 20. 29 the important fact, (it is impossible too highly to estimate its importance,) that in the passage which I have already cited from Isaiah, and in others of the same drift which occur in the writings of the pro phets, the Sabbath is universally spoken of without any indication or even intimation of the day of the week on which it was to be celebrated ; the utterances of the prophets were, in fact, so framed as to apply universally to God's Sabbath, particularly to that day which for the time being was set apart by His autho rity for its observance. And if we refer to the Fourth Commandment, we shall see that, though naturally and intentionally con veying to the ancient Israelites the notion of a Sab bath to be observed upon the last day of the week, it was carefully and advisedly worded so as to admit, if literally interpreted, of a wider application, and to sanction prospectively the Christian, as it did imme diately the Jewish, Sabbath. Let us examine it clause by clause. "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." This is the gene ral enunciation of the universal law. Then follow clauses particularly defining the Sabbath-day as it is to be observed by man whilst living on earth and dwelling in time, — "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Here we have language which, in its literal and grammatical meaning, suits and ap plies as exactly to the Sunday as the Saturday ; the rule laid down being that after six days of earthly work is to follow one of heavenly rest. Thus far there is no mention or suggestion of one day more than another, though the reason of the thing naturally re quires that some one day of the week thus indicated be selected and sanctioned by Divine authority. Then follow specific injunctions, framed so as to prevent any evasion of the Sabbatic institution, — " [In it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh ter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." Here still, 30 there is nothing suggestive even of the day of the week which was to be dedicated to the ordinance of the Sabbath. "We now come to the reason which God assigns in this place for selecting the number Seven as the index of proportion and succession in this matter, namely, " For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." I am aware that these words are considered conclusive by those who main tain opinions at variance with the views which I have been, I trust not altogether unsuccessfully, advocat ing ; but mark attentively what follows : " Where fore the Lord blessed," — what? The seventh day? No ! " Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." Even had the expression employed been " the seventh day," it would not have precluded the substitution, under the Christian dispensation, of the first for the last day of the week, since Sunday is just as much as Saturday the Seventh in rotation, though exclusively the First in position ; but the careful abstinence from that expression in this place, where the universal law is formally promulgated, and the employment instead thereof of the term Sabbath-day, is clearly calculated and intended to obviate, under the later dispensation, any misunder standing which might arise from a too servile con sideration of the practice observed under the older dispensation. "We are therefore justified in concluding that though the Fourth Commandment was intended to convey to the Israelites the idea not only of the universal law of a septenary Sabbath, but also that of a last day Sabbath, it was intended prospectively to sanction the observance of that day of the week which should, in the fulness of time, be selected as The Lord's Day by Him who is Lord also of the Sabbath. For such a conclusion is not repugnant to the literal interpre tation of the words of the Commandment, and is in strict accordance with the language of the prophets, which must, again and again, in whole or in part, 31 contemplate and enjoin the religious observance of The Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath. Divinely appointed by the " Lord of the Sabbath," " The Lord's Day" is " The Sabbath of the Lord." Divinely instituted "in the beginning," the ordinance of the Sabbath is irrevocable. Yes, my brethren, so long as the present state of being lasts, so long as the present course of nature endures, so long as the Church of Christ continues her earthly pilgrimage, so long as His saints await their full consummation of bliss ; whilst the sun and moon give light to the earth, and the winds and waves murmur upon its surface ; whilst seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night re main ; whilst the sevenfold light bears witness to the eye, and the sevenfold sound to the ear, — the authority of the Fourth Commandment will remain inviolable. If we would share that blessed Sabbatism, that ever lasting rest which will be the heritage of God's people when time shall be no more, bask in the blaze of that unclouded glory which shall combine and supersede the fairest tints and brightest hues of earth and hea ven, join that eternal hymn which shall absorb and blend into one mighty voice the music of the uni verse, let us jealously maintain and zealously observe the indelible decree, — "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Nominal believers, however, in these days, as in those of the ancient prophets and even of our Lord Himself, require a tangible proof, demand a sign from heaven. More gracious to them than to their repre sentatives of old time, the Lord accords a tangible proof, vouchsafes a visible sign. "Why is it that with all her faults and all her foibles, all her errors and all her mistakes, all her shortcomings and all her backslidings, all her sins and all her crimes, England is the undisputed mis tress of ocean, the freest, the strongest, the first of the nations of earth ? Hear the answer of God in the words of the evan- 32 gelical prophet, wonder at the mercy of Him who despiseth. not the day of small things, and learn to appreciate the value of that godliness which hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which i|3 to come : — • "*Lf. thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing l/iy pleasure on My Holy Day ; and call the Sab bath a delight, the Holy of the Lord, honourable ; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon ihe high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it*." ' Isaiah lviii. 13, 14.