Part 3

{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_,” but _holy_ or _sanctified_ rest. “God _blessed_ the seventh day, and _sanctified_ it.” Moses calls it “the rest of the _holy_ Sabbath unto the Lord;” and God frequently declares that it was appointed as a “sign” between himself and his people, and commands them to keep it _holy_. 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 kept _holy_, 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 keeping _holy_ every seventh day, without the aids and restraints of public worship, appears to us an impossibility. Indeed, why is the Sabbath expressly called “a holy _convocation_” [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 partly _moral_ and partly _positive_. 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 while _all_ the 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.” From _Bishop Horsley’s Second Sermon on the Sabbath_.

Professor Blunt has elaborately demonstrated, that the Sabbath was observed in the _Patriarchal age_. See _Scriptural 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.