bound in every age and under all dispensations to acknowledge one only God,* to worship him, not with graven images, but in spirit and in truth, to reverence the divine name, to obey their parents, to abstain from murder,|| adultery, theft,** false-witness, concupiscence, they are equally bound to consecrate a Sabbath to their Maker's service, after six days of ordinary labor and toil.§§ This proportion of time had been made known to man in paradise, and published in the very order of creation. The natural and essential duty, therefore, of devoting some time to the worship of God, being thus expounded by a revelation of what that time should be, the whole stands a moral and unchanging rule of man's obedience. As the first command fixes THE OBJECT of Worship, and the second the MEANS, and the third THE REVERENTIAL MANNER, so the fourth determines THE TIME. And as the preceding commands are founded in the real relations of things, and made clear to us by the authoritative will of God, so the fourth is founded on the real relation of things, and made clear to us by the authoritative will of God. The only difference is, that the other commands, requiring no limitation of time, were more obvious in all their parts to the consciences of men, whilst this depended, from the very nature of the case, upon the revelation of God's will as to the exact proportion of time to be consecrated to his service. The authority of that appointment, however, when once made known, is as inviolable as any of the others. The fourth commandment is an integral part of the moral law.

And now let us advert to THE TENOR of this fourth precept. It is unlike the rest, it is more detailed, more explicit, extended to more classes of persons, sustained by more reasons. Its introduction also is different. Instead of a mere injunction or prohibition, it refers to a preceding enactment, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" as if on purpose to connect the law of the Sabbath in paradise with its republication at the solemn establishment of the Mosaical dispensation-a design which is made yet more apparent at the close of the commandment, by the citation of the reason given, and of the blessing and sanctification

attached to the institution by the Almighty, when he first granted a day of rest to man at his creation.

Nor is THE PLACE which this fourth precept occupies in the decalogue to be overlooked. It is the last of the first

table of the law, and prepares for the second. It is the keeper and guardian of the preceding commands, and the preparation for the following. It makes the three first precepts practicable. For after faith in one God, worship to him, and reverence for his name, it prescribes the time in which this pure worship of the only true God is to be celebrated, the persons who are to unite in it, and the interruption to all ordinary labors without which it cannot be performed. So that as the tenth commandment shuts up the second table, and reduces, as it were, its injunctions to practice, by forbidding that concupiscence which would infallibly lead to their violation; so the fourth accomplishes the first table by assigning the time and season when its injunctions may be fulfilled.

We must not pass unnoticed, also, that the whole moral law, held together, as it were, by the fourth of its precepts,

WAS PUBLISHED BERORE THE CEREMONIAL ENACTMENTS

of Moses. It stands, not in the midst of the ceremonies, but distinct and separate from them. The Mosaical law did not, properly speaking, begin till after these primary rules of obedience, which man had almost lost through the corruption of his nature and the lapse of time, were restored by a solemn republication.

Nor can it be said with truth, that the law of the Sabbath is merely of a ceremonial nature, because THE STRICT

NESS OF ITS OBSERVATION WAS RELAXED UNDER THE

NEW TESTAMENT. For even allowing the fact; a change in the tone and spirit of a commandment, springing from a more benignant dispensation, affects not its fundamental moral authority. But we deny the fact. The ceremonial and judicial enactments which were afterwards connected with it, form no part of the fourth commandment, the tenor of which was always intended to be interpreted according to the merciful construction which our Savior put upon it, against the uncommanded comments of the Jewish doctors. The prohibition of doing any work never included, nor was intended to include, acts of real necessity and mercy. The whole moral bearing of this command is just as entire now,

as the whole moral bearing of any other of the divine code. "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," was an axiom of the Mosaic, as well as the Christian economy, as will be seen in our next discourse.

It is painful to have occasion to say so much on so plain a case; and nothing but the great importance of the subject would warrant such a detail. The fourth command, then, is not displaced from its station, nor weakened in its authority by the objection we have been considering. On the contrary, every aspect in which it is viewed, heightens our conception of the dignity which it derives, equally with the rest, from the broad line of demarcation which separates it from the merely ceremonial observances.

And now we must go on to consider THE SOLEMNITIES

WHICH ATTENDED THE PROMULGATION OF THE MORAL

LAW, of which the fourth command is so distinguished a part. These differed from the majesty which accompanied the first institution of the day of rest in Eden. Then it was enregistered in the bold and legible characters of the six days' order of creation; whilst the written record was brief and general. Now it is surrounded, in common with the remaining elementary branches of duty, with those traits of visible glory, that awful voice of words, that detailed record, that reference to a preceding enactment, those reasons of universal application, which, after a lapse of two thousand five hundred years, were best adapted to explain its import, and ensure human obedience in all future periods of time. The moral law stands singular and alone, amidst the revelations made to Moses. The other communications were by more ordinary and usual means; the ten commandments by the immediate voice of God. The other parts of the Jewish economy were conveyed by calm impressions; this by thunderings and lightnings, and attendant angels, and the trembling mount, and the darkness, and all the terrors at which Moses "exceedingly feared and quaked." Recal to mind the solemn scene, that you may imbibe the full dignity of all the precepts of the moral law, and of the sabbatical amongst the number. Hear; the trump sounds, and the voice of words are uttered. See; no one but the holy prophet may approach—“if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it is stoned or thrust through with a dart." Behold; two tables of stone are

NO MORE.

prepared by the Almighty himself. Upon these the finger of God inscribes "The Ten Commandments," and addeth The tables are broken by Moses as he descends from the mount—and, lo, the law is re-written on second tables with the same hand; and is finally deposited, not with the rest of the Mosaic statutes, but separate and alone, within the ark of the covenant. Can any circumstances impress us with a more awful sense of the singular importance of every precept? Can any thing more distinguish and elevate the moral and perpetual, above the temporary and ceremonial law-and separate and single out the decalogue in point of dignity and prominence from all other enactments? The whole Bible contains nothing so peculiar and majestic, as this introduction to this new dispensation. Where is the man that will venture to lessen the number of the commandments? Where is the man that from ten will presume to reduce them to nine? Where is the Protestant that will expunge, with the Church of Rome, the command which happens most to militate against his corrupt practices?* Where is the man that will obliterate that precept especially, which so immediately respects the honor of God and the glory offered to his name, which, standing in the very heart of the code, binds its injunctions together, and gives strength and consistence to the whole?

I conceive it is impossible for simple-minded Christians to consider these things, and not to see at once the marked distinction between the shadow and types of a particular dispensation, and the eternal rules of right and wrong. Their prayer, I am persuaded, will continue to be, as to each particular commandment, and as to the fourth no less than the others, "Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law;" and as to the entire series, without exception or difference, "Lord, write all these thy laws on our hearts, we beseech thee."

II. But we proceed to show, that even when the CEREMONIAL USAGES WERE IN THEIR GREATEST VIGOR, THE SABBATH APPEARED HIGH AND DISTINCT ABOVE

THEM.

*The Popish catechisms have frequently omitted the second commandment; the practice may now be discontinued perhaps.

For the law of the weekly rest passes through the Mosaical dispensation. It will be important, then, to show its position during this part of its course. It entered this economy, or rather proceeded it, by the promulgation of the moral law, of whose majesty and perpetuity it partakes. It now, however, receives additional rules and appendages, which attend it during the continuance of the Mosaic dispensation. But it is remarkable that these ceremonial enactments are no part of the essential law of the Sabbath as inserted in the decalogue; and that even during the greatest vigor and first observance of them, the moral obligation of the day of weekly rest lifts up its head high and distinct above them. These are the points which we are now to prove.

For the Sabbath is now a part of that preparatory dispensation, and is attired with robes of state and ceremony during that period. Two Lambs are offered on its weekly return, beside the usual burnt-offering; the shew-bread is renewed on the golden table; the ministers of the temple enter on their courses; other times of holy solemnity are instituted and included under the general name of Sabbaths; its external rest is enforced with temporal sanctions; the presumptuous violater of it is subjected to the punishment of death; it is constituted a sign of the national covenant, and is enjoined as a public protest against idolatry; finally, the spirit of bondage and condemnation lowers over this part, as over every other, of the introductory economy of Moses.

Here, then, for the first time, we recognize the features of a ceremonial Sabbath. Many commandments of the decalogue, and the fourth amongst the number, are now invested with temporary statutes, as "shadows of good things to come," or parts of the peculiar theocracy of the Jews.

But the essential moral character of each precept of the decalogue loses none of its force by its ceremonial and judicial observances. The sin of worshipping any but the one true God, remains just as great, after all the numerous statutes peculiar to the Jews. The sin of making graven images, of taking God's name in vain, of disobeying parents, of committing murder, adultery, theft, of bearing falsewitness, of coveting the goods of our neighbor, are precisely the same violations of the immutable rules of right and wrong, as before the temporary enactments which af