instituted, I answer: By no means; this was not a Sabbath; it only marked the day afterwards to be observed as the Sabbath.

According to this view of the subject, then, the primitive Sabbath was not abrogated, but only the day of its observance changed. That a new period for reckoning the commencement of the year was established on this occasion, there has been no doubt; and that the same was fixed upon for the commencement and close of the week is, I affirm, equally probable: and, if so, the sixth, and not the seventh, day of the patriarchal week, has since that time been kept sacred by the Jews, as will presently appear.

Let us now examine a few passages, in which the mention of the Sabbath occurs. In Exodus, xx. 11, the commandment is enforced purely with regard to the primi-. tive institution of the Sabbath; whence I am led to suppose, that we have here the primitive form of the commandment. But in Deut. v. 15, the reason assigned is, "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence.... therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day" that is, as I understand it: The Lord thy God sanctified the Sabbath day, in primitive times, because he rested on that day, and, therefore, he made it a day of holy rest for all; but, because he brought thee out of Egypt, he appointed a peculiar observance of it to thee, and then named a day to be remembered throughout thy generations. In Exodus, xxxi. 13, 17, the Sabbaths are said to be appointed for signs between God and the Jews; and to these places reference is made, in the same sense, by Ezekiel (chap. xx. 12, 20, &c.) The Jews alone, it should be remembered, received the benefits of this wonderful deliverance: on the day of its occurrence, the period of the Sabbath afterwards the redemption from Egypt, and typical of the great and final redemption to be made once for all. The weekly or annual recurrences of these feasts, then, are not the whole had in view in these institutions; but the system of such recurrences: all of which take their date from the same remarkable period, and commemorate the same thing. Whatever, therefore, determines the commencing period of any one of them, determines that of them all: and, if such period was fixed at the egress, which I contend was the fact, the Sabbaths, &c. to be observed, so long as that period was intended to be in force, must have had an authority equal to that established at the creation.

to be observed by them, was fixed. It had, therefore, these peculiarities in it,—it was a mark or sign subsisting between God and them alone, with regard to this occurrence; and this occurrence it memorialised. But, on the same day, they were also commanded to memorialise the primitive Sabbath of rest. It also differed in point of time from the Sabbath held, but misunderstood and abused, by their heathen neighbours; which nevertheless was binding upon them; and which they still kept, dedicating it to their primary deity

the sun.

In the next place, it will be difficult to account in any other way for the fact, that the heathen, who had apostatised from the true religion, kept another day. No reason for their having made a change in the day can be adduced, as far as my information goes; and, from the circumstance that they appear to have been unanimous in dedicating their principal day of worship to the sun, and hence naming it Sunday, no reasonable doubt can, perhaps, be entertained that this was the day originally devoted to the Sabbath of

That the heathen kept a seventh day sacred, is generally, and fairly enough, inferred from the following passages, collected by Clemens Alexandrinus and others from the Greek poets. Εβδοματη δ' ηπειτα καθήλυθεν ἱερον ἡμαρ "Afterwards, on the seventh, the sacred day descended.”—'Eßdoμor ήμαρ έην, και τῳ τετελειετ ̓ ἅπαντα. "The seventh day was, and all things had been finished on it."-Eldoμn ny isgn. "The seventh was sacred.". Ἑβδοματη ηοῖ λιπομεν ροον εξ Αχεροντος. "And on the seventh morning we left the stream of Acheron."- - Και έβδομη ἱερον ἡμερ. "And the seventh sacred day." – Εβδοματη αυθις λαμπρον φαος ήελίοιο. "And again the seventh, the bright shining of the sun.”—Έβδομη ειν αγαθασι, και έβδομη εστι γενεθλη. "The seventh was among good things, and the seventh was the birth day."—'Ebdoμm ev πρωτοισι, και έβδομη εστι τελειη. "The seventh is among the first, and the seventh is perfect.”Εβδοματη δη, και τετελεσμένα παντα τετυκται. "The seventh, indeed, on which all things were finished."-Edoμary d' noï teridust' àæavta. "And on the seventh morning all things were finished." Dr. Wallis too cites the following, after Clemens, from Hesiod: "Begin we with the first, and the fourth, and the seventh, a sacred day, because that on this day Apollo, who has a golden sword, was born of Latona." Some of these passages identify themselves, beyond all doubt, with the original institution of the Sabbath, mentioned in Genesis, ii. 2, 3; and the last shews, what indeed innumerable other testimonies may be cited to shew, that this Sabbath was by the heathen dedicated to their supreme deity the sun, and is the same with our Sunday. Some have imagined, that the day dedicated to Saturn, our Saturday, was the great day with them; but this has not yet been proved, and, I conceive, cannot be. See Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. v.

holy rest. We have, therefore, now two distinct days marked as Sabbaths: the one set apart authoritatively by Moses at the time of the egress, and regulated in its recurrence by that event; another sanctified at the creation, and made holy on that account;-and this appears to be that which the heathen retained as their Sunday.

Now, upon the resurrection of our Lord taking place, we find a certain day observed in the Church as a day of sacred rest; and this appears to have been termed The Lord's Day, (ǹ nugianǹ żuśga); and, what is most remarkable, this falls upon the very day, which appears to have been observed as such by the Patriarchs. Upon what authority this was observed, we are no where told, as Dr. Whately has truly remarked; but I think we can ascertain even this point also. For, if the day appointed for the observance of the Sabbath among the Jews, as a peculiar people, originated on the egress from Egypt; will it not follow, that upon that people's ceasing to be so, that appointment also, which could have been only temporary, would cease to be binding, not in the spirit, but in the letter of it? Other things of this sort we find entirely ceased. The tribe of Levi was no longer to have an exclusive right to the priesthood; our Lord himself arising out of the tribe of Judah: which, as St. Paul tells us, intimates a change in the law as to these particulars,— in this case the elder system was restored, the Temple with its furniture "waxed old," and was ready to vanish away, as the same Apostle also teaches us. And my question is, Did not the temporary and ceremonial observance of the Jewish Sabbath as necessarily cease to be binding?* I must confess I believe it did; and if this be just, then the original time for observing the Sabbath, must, by right, have recurred.

So Justin Martyr, as I understand him, in the following passage: Ὡς οὖν ἀπὸ ̓Αβραὰμ ἤρξατο περιτομὴ, καὶ ̓ΑΠΟ ΜΩΣΕΩΣ ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟΝ, καὶ θυσίαι, καὶ προσφοραὶ, καὶ εορταὶ, καὶ ἀπεδείχθη διὰ τὸ σκληροκάρδιον τοῦ Λαοῦ ὑμῶν ταῦτα διατετάχθαι· οὕτως παύσαθαι ἔδει, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς βουλὴν, εἰς τὸν διὰ τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους τοῦ Αβραὰμ, καὶ φυλῆς Ιουδα, καὶ Δαβίδ, παρθένου γενηθέντα ὑιὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Χριστὸν, ὅστις καὶ αἰώνιος νόμος καὶ καινὴ διαθήκη τῷ παντὶ κόσμῳ εκηρυσσε το προελευσόμενος, ὡς αἱ προλελεγμέναι προφητείαι σημαίνουσι. — Dialog. cum Tryphone. p. 222, edit. 1722. If it be replied, that the observance of the Sabbath among the Jews was not purely ceremonial, and therefore could not necessarily cease with the ceremonial observances generally, I answer: I have no objec

Let us now see how the fourth commandment is framed; for if it refer to the primitive institution only for its sanctions, it must still be binding in its spirit. Exod. xx. 8—12: "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 the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 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 seventh day, and hallowed it." This contains, perhaps, the original form of the commandment; which is repeated nearly word for word in Deut. v. 12-14, as already remarked, with the additional charge given to the Israelites in remembrance of their delivery from Egypt. Separating all allusions of this sort, therefore, I think I may affirm, that our commandment loses all connection with the Jewish polity and its observances; and that its authority stands on totally different grounds, and those which must first have made it binding upon all; namely, the commandment of God himself with reference to the work of creation.

:

It is remarkable enough, that of those festivals which have remained, and are still kept by us in common with the Jews, none are retained in allusion to any thing purely Jewish, but with reference to something of a more general nature. Our Passover, for example, commemorates the death of Christ; for it is said, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed.... therefore let us keep the feast not with the OLD LEAVEN," &c.; which points out a blessing presented to all, and not merely to the family of Jacob. In like manner, our Pentecost, which falls in with that of the Jews, and which was celebrated by them for temporary considerations, is celetion to this statement. My argument is this: If the day was once changed and then fixed to memorialise the Exodus, merely with reference to the Jews as a peculiar people; upon a new system's coming in, or rather upon the old one's being restored, in which their peculiarity confessedly ceased, the change in the observance of this day could have been intended only as temporary and the fact is, it is mentioned as such, it was to be observed in "their generations for ever," i. e. so long as their generations alone should be matter of concern, or, as the Theocracy, to which this term is constantly applied, should last.

brated with us, in commemoration of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, vouchsafed for the instruction of all the heathen. The other feasts and fasts we totally disregard; not because they were not good, but because they ceased to be binding with the existence of the state for which they were given.

It is indeed truly remarkable, that our Lord's resurrection should give additional sanctity to this day; and further, that with this, not only should a door of faith be opened to the Gentiles; but that it should be put so entirely on the footing which it had in the days of the Patriarchs.

I think, therefore, I may conclude on this subject, in opposition both to Dr. Paley and Dr. Whately, that the ordinance of the Sabbath day is binding on Christians, and because its observance is enjoined in the fourth commandment. And I will affirm, that not only are we bound by the law of the land to keep it as good subjects; but that the legislature itself is bound to protect that law pure and inviolate not because it is expedient to do so, as Dr. Paley thinks; but because they are bound by this same commandment, which it will be at their peril to transgress.-We now return to our more immediate subject.

SECTION XII.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY, THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, AND OF THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST.

It will not be easy perhaps to name a question, on which more mistake, rashness, or bad feeling, has been exercised, than that which relates to the doctrine of the Trinity: not, I believe, because it involves any thing more difficult, as far as it can be understood, than those we have hitherto touched upon; but because either erroneous principles of reasoning have been resorted to, or many of the plainest declarations of Scripture on the subject have been misunderstood and misapplied. Hence have arisen the endless controversies which have divided society on this question; and the consequence has been, as on many other occasions, that victory rather than truth, has, with many, been the principal object had in view. In discussing this question, therefore, we shall endeavour to