prieft a part of the confecrated bread which had been taken from the altar, and which it was not lawful for any but the priests to eat. The other instance he adduced, was that of the priests themselves, who in the neceffary fervice of the temple on the fabbath-day were obliged to work with their own hands, by lighting the fires, killing the victims, offering up the facrifices, &c. This in any other perfons would have been confidered as profanations of the fabbath; but in the priests who were engaged in the duties of religion it was not.

These arguments addreffed to a Jew were in themselves unanfwerable; because they appealed to the practice of perfons whom the Jews held facred, and whofe conduct they durft not condemn. But they went ftill further than this; they went to establifh this general principle, that there might be obligations of a force fuperior even to the law of Mofes, and to which it ought in certain cafes to give way; as in the first inftance to the preffing demands of neceffity, in the other to the fervices of the temple.

If then in thefe cafes the law might be difpenfed with, ftill more might it be overruled by a power paramount to every other power, by him who was far greater and holier than the temple itself, who was Lord even of the fabbath, who was indeed fupreme Lord over all, and might, therefore authorize his difciples, in a cafe of real urgency, to depart a little from the rigor of the fabbatical reft.

It fhould be obferved here, that where St. Matthew fays, "the Son of man is Lord even of the fabbathday;" St. Mark, in the parallel place, expreffes himself thus: "The fabbath was made for man, and not man for the fabbath." That is, the fabbath was given to man for his benefit, for the improvement of his foul, as well as for the rest of his body; and the latter, when neceffary, must be facrificed to the former. For man was not made for the fabbath; was not made to be a flave to it, to be fo fervilely bound down to the ftrict pharifaical obfervance of it, as to lose by that rigorous adherence to the letter, opportunities of doing effential fervice to himself and his fellow creatures.

To this irrefiftible force of reafoning our bleffed Lord adds another argument of confiderable weight: "If ye had known, fays he, what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not facrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltlefs." The quotation is from the prophet Hofea ;. the words are fupposed to be thofe of God himself; and the meaning is, according to a well-known Jewish idiom, I prefer mercy to facrifice; that is, when any ceremonial institution interferes with the execution of any charitable or pious defign, the former must give place to the latter; as in the present inftance, a ftrict obfervance of the fabbath muft not be fuffered to deprive my disciples of that refreshment which is neceffary to support them under the fatigue of following me, and difpending to mankind the bleffingsof the gofpel. We fee then with what fuperftitious rigor the Jews adhered to the letter of their law respecting the Jewish fabbath; and with what fuperior wifdom and dignity our Lord endeavored to raise their minds above fuch trivial things to the true fpirit of it, to the life and foul of religion.

The fault however here reproved and corrected is not one into which we of this country are likely to fall, nor is there any need to warn us against imitating the Jews in this inftance. There is no danger that we fhould carry the obfervance of our fabbath too far, or that we should be too fcrupulously nice in avoiding every the minutest infringement of the reft and fanctity of that holy day.The bent and tendency of the prefent times is too evidently to a contrary extreme, to an exceffive relaxation instead of an exceffive strictness in the regard fhewn to the Lord's day. I am not now fpeaking of the religious duties appropriated to the Lord's day, for these are not now before us, but folely of the reft, the repofe which it requires.This reft is plainly infringed, whenever the lower classes of people continue their ordinary occupations on the fabbath, and whenever the higher employ their fervants and their cattle on this day in needlefs labor. This, however, we fee too frequently done, more particularly by felecting Sunday as a day for travelling, for taking long journies, which might as well be performed at any other time.

This is a direct violation of the fourth commandment, which expressly gives the fabbath as a day of reft to our fervants and our cattle.

This temporary fufpenfion of labor, this refreshment and relief from inceffant toil, is most graciously allowed even to the brute creation, by the great Governor of the universe, whose mercy extends over all his works. It is the boon of heaven itself. It is a small drop of comfort thrown into their cup of mifery; and to wreft from them this only privilege, this fweeteft confolation of their wretched existence, is a degree of inhumanity for which there wants a name; and of which few people I am perfuaded, if they could be brought to reflect seriously upon it, would ever be guilty.

These profanations of the fabbath are however fometimes defended on the ground of the very paffage we have been just confidering. It is alledged, that as our Lord here reproves the Jews for too rigorous an attention to the reft of the fabbath, it conveys an intimation that we ought not to be too exact and scrupulous in that refpect; and that many things may in fact be allowable which timid minds may confider as unlawful. But it fhould be observed, that Jefus condemns nothing in the conduct of the Jews but what was plainly abfurd and fuperftitious; and he allows. of no exceptions to that reft from labor which they obferv." ed on the fabbath, except fimply works of neceffity and charity; fuch for inftance as thofe very cafes which gave occafion to the converfation in this chapter between Christ and the Jews, that of the difciples plucking the ears of corn on the fabbath-day to fatisfy their hunger, and that of our Saviour's reftoring the withered hand. It is lawful, in fhort, as our Saviour expreffes it, to do well on the fabbath-day; to preferve ourselves, and to benefit our fellow creatures. Thus far then we may go, but no farther. In other refpects, the reft of the Lord's day is to be obferved; and those very exceptions which our Saviour makes are a proof, that in every other cafe he approves and fanctions the duty of refting on the fabbath-day. It is alfo remarkable, that our own laws, grounding themselves no doubt on this

declaration of Chrift, make the fame exceptions to the reft of the fabbath that he does; they allow works of neceffity and charity, but no others. To thefe, therefore, we ought to confine ourselves as nearly as may be; and with thefe exceptions, and thefe only, confecrate the fab. bath as a holy reft unto the Lord.

This reft the Almighty enjoined, not, as is fometimes pretended, to the Jews only, but to all mankind. For even immediately after the great work of creation was finished, we are told, "that God ended his work that he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and fanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and madet." It is evident, therefore, that the feventh day was to be a day of reft to all mankind, in memory of God having on that day finished his great work of creation; and this seventh day, after our Lord's refurrection, was changed by his apostles to the first day of the week, on which our Lord rose from the dead, and refted from his labors; fo that the rest of this day is now commemorative of both thefe important events, the creation and the refurrection.

I now proceed to confider the confequences of this converfation between our Lord and the Pharifees on the fub

"ject of the fabbath. One should have expected that fo wife and rational an explanation of the law refpecting that day, releafing men from the fenfelefs feverities imposed upon them by the fervile fears of fuperftition, but at the fame time requiring all that respite from labor which is really conducive to the glory of God and the happiness of man ; one fhould have expected, I fay, that fuch wisdom and fuch benevolence as this would have triumphed over even pharifaical obftinacy, and extorted the admiration and applaufe of his hearers. But ftubborn prejudices, and deeprooted malignity, are not fo eafily fubdued. For fee what actually followed. "The Pharifees went out," fays the evangelift," and held a council how they might deftroy him." Destroy him! for what? Why for giving cafe to

* See the Statute of 29 C. 2, c. 7. + Gen. ii. 2, 3.

timid minds and fcrupulous confciences, and for reftoring the withered hand of a poor decrepid man. And were thefe deeds that deferved deftruction? Would it not rather have been the just reward of those inhuman wretches who were capable of conceiving fo execrable a project: and would not our Saviour have been juftified in calling down fire from heaven, as he eafily might, to confume them? But his heart abhorred the thought. He purfued a directly oppofite conduct; and inftead of inflicting upon them a punishment which might have destroyed them, he chose to fet them an example that might amend them. He chofe to fhew them the difference between their temper and his own, between thofe malignant vindictive paffions which governed them, and the mild, gentle, conciliating difpofition which his religion infpired; between the fpirit of the world, in fhort, and the spirit of the Gofpel. He withdrew himself filently and quietly from them; and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all ; and, to avoid all irritation and all conteft, he charged them that they fhould not make him known. "Thus was fulfilled," fays the evangelift, that which was fpoken by Efaias the prophet, faying, "Behold my fervánt whom I have chofen; my beloved, in whom my foul is well pleafed. I will put my fpirit upon him, and he shall fhew judgment to the Gentiles. He fhall, not ftrive nor cry ; neither fhall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruifed reed fhall he not break, and fmoking flax fhall be not quench, till he fend forth judgment unto victory*.” A most fublime paffage; which may thus be paraphrafed. Behold my fervant whom I have chofen, my beloved, in whom my foul is well pleafed! I will put my fpirit upon him, and he shall teach true religion, not only to the people of Ifrael, but to the heathens alfo ; and this he fhall do with the utmost tendernefs, mildness, and meekness, without contention and noife, without tumult and disturb ance. A bruifed reed fhall he not break; he fhall not bear hard upon a wounded and contrite, and truly humble and penitent heart, bowed down with a fense of its infirmities. And fmoking flax fhall he not quench; the

* Ifaiah xlii. 1-3.