statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy ser- | vaut and gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock."* Nehem. ix. 12. repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it. If the command was published for the first time in the wilderness, then it was immediately directed to the Jewish people alone; and something further, either in the subject or circumstances of the command, will be necessary to show, that it was designed for any other. It is. on this account that the question concerning the date of the institution was first to be considered. The former opinion precludes all debate about the extent of the obligation: the latter admits, and, prima facie induces a belief, that the Sabbath ought to be considered as part of the peculiar law of the Jewish Which belief receives great confirmation from the following arguments: The Sabbath is described as a sign between God and the people of Israel:-"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to ob for a perpetual covenant; it is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever." Exodus xxxi. 16, 17. Again: "And I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them; moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezek. xx. 12. Now it does not seem easy to understand how the Sabbath could be a sign between God and the people of Israel, unless the observance of it was peculiar to that people, and designed to be so. If a be inquired what duties were appointed for the Jewish Sabbath, and under what penalties and in what manner it was observed amongst the ancient Jews; we find that, by the fourth commandment, a strict cessation from work was enJoined, not only upon Jews by birth, or religious profession, but upon all who resided within the limits of the Jewish state; that the same was to be permitted to their slaves and their cattle; that this rest was not to be violated, under pain of death: "Whosoever doeth any work in the Sab-policy. fath-day, he shall surely be put to death." Exod. xxxi. 15. Beside which, the seventh day was to be solemnized by double sacrifices in the temple:* And on the Sabbath-day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth-deals of flour for a meat-offering, mingled with oil, and the drink-serve the Sabbath throughout their generations, offering thereof; this is the burnt-offering of every Sabbath, beside the continual burnt-offering and his drink-offering." Numb. xxviii. 9, 10. Also noly convocations, which mean, we presume, assemblies for the purpose of public worship or religious instruction, were directed to be holden on the Sabbath-day: "the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, an holy convocation." Levit. xxiii. 3. And accordingly we read, that the Sabbath was in fact observed amongst the Jews by a scrupulous abstinence from every thing which, by any possible construction, could be deemed labour; as from dressing meat, from travelling beyond a Sablath-day's journey, or about a single mile. In the Maccabean wars, they suffered a thousand of their number to be slain, rather than do any thing in their own defence on the Sabbath-day. In the final siere of Jerusalem, after they had so far overcome their scruples as to defend their persons when attacked, they refused any operation on the Sabbath-day, by which they might have inter-cited together. rupted the enemy in filling up the trench. After the establishment of synagogues, (of the origin of which we have no account,) it was the custom to assemble in them on the Sabbath-day, for the purpose of hearing the law rehearsed and explained, and for the exercise, it is probable, of public devotion: "For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day." The seventh day is Saturday; and, agreeably to the Jewish way of computing the day, the Sabbath held from six o'clock on the Friday evening, to six o'clock on Saturday evening.-These observations being premised, we approach the main question, Whether the command by which the Jewish Sabbath was instituted, extend to us? If the Divine command was actually delivered at the creation, it was addressed, no doubt, to the whole human species alike, and continues, unless The distinction of the Sabbath is, in its nature, as much a positive ceremonial institution, as that of many other seasons which were appointed by the Levitical law to be kept holy, and to be observed by a strict rest; as the first and seventh days of unleavened bread; the feast of Pentecost; the feast of tabernacles: and in the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, the Sabbath and these are re If the command by which the Sabbath was instituted be binding upon Christians, it must be binding as to the day, the duties, and the penalty; in none of which it is received. The observance of the Sabbath was not one of the articles enjoined by the Apostles, in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, upon them-" which, from among the Gentiles, were turned unto God." St. Paul evidently appears to have considered the Sabbath as part of the Jewish ritual, and not obligatory upon Christians as such:-"Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Col. ii. 16, 17. I am aware of only two objections which can be opposed to the force of these arguments; one is, that the reason assigned in the fourth commandment for hallowing the seventh day, namely, "because God rested on the seventh day from the nexion with the descent of God upon mount Sinai, and work of the creation," is a reason which pertains the delivery of the law from thence, one would be into all mankind: the other, that the command ded to believe that Nehemiah referred solely to the Berth commandment. But the fourth commandment *From the mention of the Sabbath in so close a con certainly did not first make known the Sabbath. And is apparent, that Nehemiah observed not the order of events, for he speaks of what passed upon mount Sinai before he mentions the miraculous supplies of bread and water, though the Jews did not arrive at mount Finsi, till some time after both these miracles were wrought. which enjoins the observance of the Sabbath is inserted in the Decalogue, of which all the other precepts and prohibitions are of moral and universal obligation. Upon the first objection it may be remarked, that although in Exodus the commandment is founded upon God's rest from the creation, in house of Israel; neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman; and hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge; hath spoiled none by violence; hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; he that hath not given upon usury, neither hath taken any increase; that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity; hath executed true judgment between man and man; hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel xviii. 5-9. The same thing may be observed of the apostolic decree recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts:-"It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things, that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well." Deuteronomy the commandment is repeated with a reference to a different event :-"Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou: and remember 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." It is farther observable, that God's rest from the creation is proposed as the reason of the institution, even where the institution itself is spoken of as peculiar to the Jews:"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant: it is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: II. If the law by which the Sabbath was infor in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, stituted, was a law only to the Jews, it becomes an and on the seventh day he rested and was re-important question with the Christian inquirer, freshed." The truth is, these different reasons whether the Founder of his religion delivered any were assigned, to account for different circum-new command upon the subject; or, if that should stances in the command. If a Jew inquired, why not appear to be the case, whether any day was the seventh day was sanctified rather than the appropriated to the service of religion by the ausixth or eighth, his law told him, because God thority or example of his apostles. rested on the seventh day from the creation. If The practice of holding religious assemblies he asked, why was the same rest indulged to upon the first day of the week, was so early and slaves? his law bade him remember, that he also universal in the Christian Church, that it carries was a slave in the land of Egypt, and "that the with it considerable proof of having originated Lord his God brought him out thence." In this from some precept of Christ, or of his apostles, view, the two reasons are perfectly compatible though none such be now extant. It was upon with each other, and with a third end of the in- the first day of the week that the disciples were stitution, its being a sign between God and the assembled, when Christ appeared to them for the people of Israel; but in this view they determine first time after his resurrection; "then the same nothing concerning the extent of the obligation. day at evening, being the first day of the week, If the reason by its proper energy had constituted when the doors were shut where the diciples were a natural obligation, or if it had been mentioned assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and with a view to the extent of the obligation, we stood in the midst of them" John xx. 19. This, should submit to the conclusion that all were for any thing that appears in the account, might, comprehended by the command who are concerned as to the day, have been accidental; but in the in the reason. But the sabbatic rest being a duty 26th verse of the same chapter we read, that which results from the ordination and authority "after eight days," that is, on the first day of the of a positive law, the reason can be alleged no week following, “again the disciples were withfarther than as it explains the design of the legis-in;" which second meeting upon the same day of lator: and if it appear to be recited with an intentional application to one part of the law, it explains his design upon no other; if it be mentioned merely to account for the choice of the day, it does not explain his design as to the extent of the obligation. the week looks like an appointment and design to meet on that particular day. In the twentieth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we find the same custom in a Christian church at a great distance from Jerusalem :-" And we came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven With respect to the second objection, that in- days; and upon the first day of the week, when asmuch as the other nine commandments are con- the disciples came together to break bread, Paul fessedly of moral and universal obligation, it may preached unto them." Acts xx. 6, 7. The manreasonably be presumed that this is of the same; ner in which the historian mentions the disciples we answer, that this argument will have less coming together to break bread on the first day weight, when it is considered that the distinction of the week, shows, I think, that the practice by between positive and natural duties, like other this time was familiar and established. St. Paul distinctions of modern ethics, was unknown to the to the Corinthians writes thus: "Concerning the simplicity of ancient language; and that there are collection for the saints, as I have given order to various passages in Scripture, in which duties of the Churches of Galatia, even so do ye; upon the a political, or ceremonial, or positive nature, and first day of the week let every one of you lay by confessedly of partial obligation, are enumerated,him in store as God hath prospered him, that there and without any mark of discrimination, along be no gathering when I come." 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. with others which are natural and universal. Of Which direction affords a probable proof, that the this the following is an incontestable example. first day of the week was already, amongst the "But if a man be just, and do that which is law-Christians both of Corinth and Galatia, distinful and right; and hath not eaten upon the moun-guished from the rest by some religious applicatains, nor hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the tion or other. At the time that St. John wrote the book of his Revelation, the first day of the ment; the resting on that day from our employweek had obtained the name of the Lord's day;-ments longer than we are detained from them by "I was in the spirit," says he, on the Lord's day. Rev. i. 10. Which name, and St. John's use of it, sufficiently denote the appropriation of this day to the service of religion, and that this appropriation was perfectly known to the Churches of Asia. I make no doubt that by the Lord's day was meant the first day of the week; for we find no footsteps of any distinction of days, which could entitle any other to that appellation. The subsequent history of Christianity corresponds with the accounts delivered on this subject in Scripture. attendance upon these assemblies, is to Christians an ordinance of human institution; binding nevertheless upon the conscience of every individual of a country in which a weekly Sabbath is established, for the sake of the beneficial purposes which the public and regular observance of it promotes, and recommended perhaps in some degree to the Divine approbation, by the resemblance it bears to what God was pleased to make a solemn part of the law which he delivered to the people of Israel, and by its subserviency to many of the same uses. CHAPTER VIII. By what Acts and Omissions the Duty of the Christian Sabbath is violated. SINCE the obligation upon Christians to comply with the religious observance of Sunday, arises from the public uses of the institution, and the authority of the apostolic practice, the manner of observing it ought to be that which best fulfils these uses, and conforms the nearest to this practice. The uses proposed by the institution are: 1. To facilitate attendance upon public worship. 2. To meliorate the condition of the laborious classes of mankind, by regular and seasonable returns of rest. It will be remembered, that we are contending, by these proofs, for no other duty upon the first day of the week, than that of holding and frequenting religious assemblies. A cessation upon that day from labour, beyond the time of attendance upon public worship, is not intimated in any passage of the New Testament; nor did Christ or his apostles deliver, that we know of, any command to their disciples for a discontinuance, upon that day, of the common offices of their professions; a reserve which none will see reason to wonder at, or to blame as a defect in the institution, who consider that, in the primitive condition of Christianity, the observance of a new Sabbath would have been useless, or inconvenient, or impracticable. During Christ's personal ministry, his religion was preached to the Jews alone. They already had a Sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep; and did keep. It was not therefore prohable that Christ would enjoin another day of rest in conjunction with this. When the new religion came forth into the Gentile world, converts to it were, for the most part, made from those classes of society who have not their time and With the primitive Christians, the peculiar, labour at their own disposal; and it was scarcely and probably for sometime the only, distinction of to be expected, that unbelieving masters and the first day of the week, was the holding of remagistrates, and they who directed the employ-ligious assemblies upon that day. We learn, ment of others, would permit their slaves and labourers to rest from their work every seventh day or that civil government, indeed, would have submitted to the loss of a seventh part of the public industry, and that too in addition to the numerous festivals which the national religions indulged to the people; at least, this would have been an incumbrance, which might have greatly retarded the reception of Christianity in the world. In reality, the institution of a weekly Sabbath is so connected with the functions of civil life, and requires so much of the concurrence of civil law, in its regulation and support, that it cannot, perhaps, properly be made the ordinance of any religion, till that religion be received as the religion of the state. 3. By a general suspension of business and amusement, to invite and enable persons of every description to apply their time and thoughts to subjects appertaining to their salvation. however, from the testimony of a very early The opinion, that Christ and his apostles racant to retain the duties of the Jewish Sabbath, 2lly, By unnecessary encroachments on the rest shafting only the day from the seventh to the first, and liberty which Sunday ought to bring to the seems to prevail without sufficient proof; nor does inferior orders of the community; as by keeping any evidence remain in Scripture (of what, how-servants on that day confined and busied in preever, is not improbable,) that the first day of the parations for the superfluous elegancies of our week was thus distinguished in commemoration table, or dress. of our Lord's resurrection. 3dly, By such recreations as are customarily forborne out of respect to the day; as hunting, shooting, fishing, public diversions, frequenting taverns, playing at cards or dice. The conclusion from the whole inquiry (for it our business to follow the arguments, to whater probability they conduct us,) is this: The sembling upon the first day of the week for the If it be asked, as it often has been, wherein purpose of public worship and religious instruc-consists the difference between walking out with tion, is a law of Christianity of Divine appoint- your staff or with your gun? between spending The prohibition of the third commandment is recognised by Christ, in his sermon upon the mount; which sermon adverts to none but the moral parts of the Jewish law: "I say unto you, Swear not at all; but let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil." The Jews probably interpreted the prohibition as restrained to the name JEHOVAHI, the name which the Deity had appointed and appropriated to himself; Exod. vi. 3. The words of Christ extend the prohibition beyond the name of God, to every thing associated with the idea :-"Swear not, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King." Matt. v. 35. the evening at home, or in a tavern? between | ligion and devotion, to express our anger, our CHAPTER IX. Of Reverencing the Deity. In many persons, a seriousness, and sense of awe, overspread the imagination, whenever the idea of the Supreme Being is presented to their thoughts. This effect, which forms a considerable security against vice, is the consequence not so much of reflection, as of habit; which habit being generated by the external expressions of reverence which we use ourselves, or observe in others, may be destroyed by causes opposite to these, and especially by that familiar levity with which some learn to speak of the Deity, of his attributes, providence, revelations, or worship. God hath been pleased (no matter for what reason, although probably for this) to forbid the vain mention of his name:-" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Now the mention is rain, when it is useless: and it is useless, when it is neither likely nor intended to serve any good purpose; as when it flows from the lips idle and unmeaning, or is applied, on occasions inconsistent with any consideration of re The offence of profane swearing is aggravated by the consideration, that in it duty and decency are sacrificed to the slenderest of temptations. Suppose the habit, either from affectation, or by negligence and inadvertency, to be already formed, it must always remain within the power of the most ordinary resolution to correct it; and it cannot, one would think, cost a great deal to relinquish the pleasure and honour which it confers. A concern for duty is in fact never strong, when the exertion requisite to vanish a habit founded in no antecedent propensity, is thought too much, or too painful. A contempt of positive duties, or rather of these duties for which the reason is not so plain as the command, indicates a disposition upon which the authority of Revelation has obtained little influence.-This remark is applicable to the offence of profane swearing, and describes, perhaps, pretty exactly, the general character of those who are most addicted to it. Mockery and ridicule, when exercised upon the Scriptures, or even upon the places, persons, and formis, set apart for the ministration of religion, fall within the meaning of the law which forbids the profanation of God's name; especially as that law is extended by Christ's interpretation. They are, moreover, inconsistent with a religious frame of mind: for, as no one ever feels himself disposed to pleasantry, or capable of being diverted with the pleasantry of others, upon matters in which he is deeply interested; so a mind intent upon the acquisition of heaven, rejects with indignation every attempt to entertain it with jests, calculated to degrade or deride subjects which it never recollects but with seriousness and anxiety. Nothing but stupidity, or the most frivolous dissipation of thought, can make even the inconsiderate forget the supreme importance of every thing which relates to the expectation of a future existence. Whilst the infidel mocks at the superstitions of the vulgar, insults over their credulous fears, their childish errors, or fantastic rites, it does not occur to him to observe, that the most preposterous device by which the weakest devotee ever believed he was securing the happiness of a future life, is more rational than unconcern about it. Upon this subject, nothing is so absurd as indifference; no folly so contemptible as thoughtlessness and levity. Finally; the knowledge of what is due to the solemnity of those interests, concerning which of our common nature are not altered or excluded Revelation professes to inform and direct us, may by distinctions of name, and that the characters of teach even those who are least inclined to respect men are formed much more by the temptations the prejudicies of mankind, to observe a decorum than the duties of their profession? A third finds in the style and conduct of religious disquisitions, delight in collecting and repeating accounts of wars with the neglect of which many adversaries of and massacres, of tumults and insurrections, exciChristianity are justly chargeable. Serious ar-ted in almost every age of the Christian æra by religuments are fair on all sides. Christianity is but gious zeal; as though the vices of Christians were ill defended by refusing audience or toleration to parts of Christianity; intolerance and extirpation the objections of unbelievers. But whilst we precepts of the Gospel; or as if its spirit could be would have freedom of inquiry restrained by no judged of from the counsels of princes, the inlaws but those of decency, we are entitled to de-trigues of statesmen, the pretences of malice and mand, on behalf of a religion which holds forth ambition, or the unauthorised cruelties of some to mankind assurances of immortality, that its gloomy and virulent superstition. By a fourth, credit be assailed by no other weapons than those the succession and variety of popular religions; of sober discussion and legitimate reasoning:-that the vicissitudes with which sects and tenets have the truth or falsehood of Christianity be never flourished and decayed; the zeal with which they made a topic of raillery, a theme for the exercise of were once supported, the negligence with which wit or eloquence, or a subject of contention for they are now remembered; the little share which literary fame and victory:-that the cause be tried reason and argument appear to have had in framupon its merits-that all applications to the fancy, ing the creed, or regulating the religious conduct, passions, or prejudices of the reader, all attempts of the multitude; the indifference and submission to pre-occupy, ensnare, or perplex his judgment, with which the religion of the state is generally by any art, influence, or impression whatsoever, received by the common people; the caprice and extrinsic to the proper grounds and evidence upon vehemence with which it is sometimes opposed; which his assent ought to proceed, be rejected the phrensy with which men have been brought from a question which involves in its determination to contend for opinions and ceremonies, of which the hopes, the virtue, and the repose, of millions:- they knew neither the proof, the meaning, nor the that the controversy be managed on both sides original: lastly, the equal and undoubting confiwith sincerity; that is, that nothing be produced, dence with which we hear the doctrines of Christ in the writings of either, contrary to, or beyond, or of Confucius, the law of Moses or of Mahomet, the writer's own knowledge and persuasion:- the Bible, the Koran, or the Shaster, maintained that objections and difficulties be proposed, from or anathematized, taught or abjured, revered or no other motive than an honest and serious desire derided, according as we live on this or on that to obtain satisfaction, or to communicate informa- side of a river; keep within or step over the bountion which may promote the discovery and pro-daries of a state; or even in the same country, and gress of truth-that in conformity with this design, every thing be stated with integrity, with method, precision, and simplicity; and above all, that whatever is published in opposition to received and confessedly beneficial persuasions, be st forth under a form which is likely to invite in-religion;-and with success. quiry and to meet examination. If with these being brought together, and set off with some agmoderate and equitable conditions be compared the gravation of circumstances, and with a vivacity manner in which hostilities have been waged of style and description familiar enough to the against the Christian religion, not only the votaries writings and conversation of free-thinkers, insenof the prevailing faith, but every man who looks sibly lead the imagination into a habit of classing forward with anxiety to the destination of his being, Christianity with the delusions that have taken will see much to blame and to complain of. By one possession, by turns, of the public belief; and of unbeliever, all the follies which have adhered, in a regarding it, as what the scoffers of our faith relong course of dark and superstitious ages, to the present it to be, the superstition of the day. popular creed, are assumed as so many doctrines But is this to deal honestly by the subject, or of Christ and his apostles, for the purpose of sub-with the world? May not the same things be said, verting the whole system by the absurdities which may not the same prejudices be excited by these it is thus represented to contain. By another, the representations, whether Christianity be true or ignorance and vices of the sacerdotal order, their false, or by whatever proofs its truth be attested? matual dissensions and persecutions, their usur- May not truth as well as falsehood be taken upon pations and encroachments upon the intellectual credit? May not a religion be founded upon éviberty and civil rights of mankind, have been dis-dence accessible and satisfactory to every mind complayed with no small triumph and invective; not petent to the inquiry, which yet, by the greatest so much to guard the Christian laity against a part of its professors, is received upon authority! repetition of the same injuries, (which is the only But if the matter of those objections be repreproper use to be made of the most flagrant exam-hensible, as calculated to produce an effect upon ples of the past.) as to prepare the way for an in- the reader beyond what their real weight and place sincation, that the religion itself is nothing but a in the argument deserve, still more shall we discoprofitable fable, imposed upon the fears and cre- ver of management and disingenuousness in the uity of the multitude, and upheld by the frauds form under which they are dispersed among the and influence of an interested and crafty priest-public. Infidelity is served up in every shape bed. And yet, how remotely is the character of that is likely to allure, surprise, or beguile the the clergy connected with the truth of Christiani-imagination; in a fable, a tale, a novel, a poem; What, after all, do the most disgraceful pages in interspersed and broken hints, remote and ob of ecclesiastical history prove, but that the passions lique surmises; in books of travels, of philosophy, by the same people, so often as the event of battle, or the issue of a negociation, delivers them to the dominion of a new master;-points, I say, of this sort are exhibited to the public attention, as so many arguments against the truth of the Christian For these topics, |