the pressing demands of necessity, in the other to the services of the temple.

If then in these cases the law might be dispensed with, still 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 Sabbath, who was indeed supreme Lord over all, and might, therefore authorize his disciples, in a case of real urgency, to depart a little from the rigour of the sabbatical rest.

It should be observed here, that where St. Matthew says, "the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath-day;" St. Mark, in the parallel place, expresses himself thus: "The sabbatlı was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." That is, the sabbath was given to man for his benefit, for the improvement of his soul, as well as for the rest of his body; and the latter, when necessary, must be sacrificed to the former. For man was not made for the sabbath; was not made to be a slave to it, to be so servilely bound down to the strict pharisaical observance of it, as to lose by that rigorous adherence to the letter, opportunities of doing essential service to himself and his fellow creatures.

To this irresistible force of reasoning our blessed Lord adds another argument of considerable weight: "If ye had known," says he, "what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. The quotation is from the prophet Hosea; the words are supposed to be those of God himself; and the meaning is, according to a well-known Jewish idiom, I prefer mercy to sacrifice; that is, when any ceremonial institution interferes with the execution of any charitable or pious design, the former must give place to the latter; as in the present instance, a strict observance of the sabbath must not be suffered to deprive my disciples of that refreshment which is necessary to support them under the fatigue of following me, and dispensing to mankind the blessings of the gospel. We see then with what superstitious rigour the Jews adhered to the letter of their law respecting the Jewish sabbath; and with what superior wisdom and dignity our Lord endeavoured to raise their minds above such trivial things to the true spirit of it, to the life and soul of relgion.

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 instance. There is no danger that we should carry the observance of our sabbath too far, or that we should be too scrupulously nice in avoiding every the minutest infringement of the rest and sanc

tity of that holy day.-The bent and tendency of the present times is too evidently to a contrary extreme, to an excessive relaxation instead of an excessive strictness in the regard shewn to the Lord's day. I am not now speaking of the religious duties appropriated to the Lord's day, for these are not now before us, but solely of the rest, the repose which it requires.This rest is plainly infringed, whenever the lower classes of people continue their ordinary occupations on the sabbath, and whenever the higher employ their servants and their cattle on this day in needless labour. This, however, we see too frequently done, more particularly by selecting 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 sabbath as a day of rest to our servants and our cattle.

This temporary suspension of labour, this refreshment and relief from incessant 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 misery; and to wrest from them this only privilege, this sweetest consolation of their wretched existence, is a degree of inhumanity for which there wants a name; and of which few people, I am persuaded, if they could be brought to reflect seriously upon it, would ever be guilty.

These profanations of the sabbath are however sometimes defended, on the ground of the very passage we have been just considering. It is alledged, that as our Lord here reproves the Jews for too rigorous an attention to the rest of the sabbath, it conveys an intimation that we ought not to be too exact and scrupulous in that respect; and that many things may in fact be allowable, which timid minds may consider as unlawful. But it should be observed, that Jesus condemns nothing in the conduct of the Jews but what was plainly absurd and superstitious; and he allows of no exceptions to that rest from labour which they observed on the sabbath, except simply works of necessity and charity; such, for instance, as those very cases which gave occasion to the conversation in this chapter between Christ and the Jews, that of the disciples plucking the ears of corn on the sabbath-day to satisfy their hunger, and that of our Saviour's restoring the withered hand. It is lawful, in short, as our Saviour expresses it, to do well on the sabbath-day; to preserve ourselves, and to benefit our fellow creatures. Thus far then we may go, but no farther. other respects, the rest of the Lord's day is to be observed;

In

and those very exceptions which our Saviour makes, are a proof, that in every other case he approves and sanctions the duty of resting on the sabbath-day. It is also remarkable, that our own laws, grounding themselves no doubt on this declaration of Christ, make the same exceptions to the rest of the sabbath that he does; they allow works of necessity and charity, but no others.* To these, therefore, we ought to confine ourselves as nearly as may be; and with these exceptions, and these only, consecrate the sabbath as a holy rest unto the Lord.

This rest the Almighty enjoined, not, as is sometimes 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 sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." It is evident, therefore, that the seventh day was to be a day of rest 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 resurrection, was changed by his apostles to the first day of the week, on which our Lord rose from the dead, and rested from his labours; so that the rest of this day is now commemorative of both these important events, the creation and the resurrection.

I

I now proceed to consider the consequences of this conversation between our Lord and the Pharisees on the subject of the sabbath. One should have expected that so wise and rational an explanation of the law respecting that day, releasing men from the senseless severities imposed upon them by the servile fears of superstition, but at the same time requiring all that respite from labour which is really conducive to the glory of God and the happiness of man; one should have expected, say, that such wisdom and such benevolence as this, would have triumphed over even pharisaical obstinacy, and extorted the admiration and applause of his hearers. But stubborn prejudices, and deep-rooted malignity, are not so easily subdued. For see what actually followed. "The Pharisees went out," says the evangelist," and held a council how they might destroy him." Destroy him! for what? Why for giving ease to timid minds and scrupulous consciences, and for restoring the withered hand of a poor decrepid man. And were these deeds that deserved destruction? Would it not rather have been the just reward of those inhuman wretches who were † Gen. ii. 2, 3.

* See the Statute of 29 C. 2, c. 7.

capable of conceiving so execrable a project: and would not our Saviour have been justified in calling down fire from heaven, as he easily might, to consume them? But his heart abhorred the thought. He pursued a directly opposite conduct; and instead of inflicting upon them a punishment which might have destroyed them, he chose to set them an example that might amend them. He chose to show them the difference between their temper and his own, between those malignant vindictive passions which governed them, and the mild, gentle, conciliating disposition which his religion inspired; between the spirit of the world, in short, and the spirit of the Gospel. He withdrew himself silently and quietly from them; and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; and, to avoid all irritation and all contest, he charged them that they should not make him known. "Thus was fulfilled," says the evangelist, "that which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory."* A most sublime passage; which may thus be paraphrased: Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased! I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall teach true religion, not only to the people of Israel, but to the heathens also; and this he shall do with the utmost tenderness, mildness, and meekness, without contention and noise, without tumult and disturbance. A bruised reed shall he not break; he shall not bear hard upon a wounded, and contrite, and truly humble and penitent heart, bowed down with a sense of its infirmities. And smoking flax shall he not quench; the faintest spark of returning virtue he will not extinguish by severity; but will cherish and encourage the one, and will raise, and animate, and enliven the other; till by these gentle, conciliating means, he shall have triumphed over the wickedness and malevolence of his enemies, and completely established his religion throughout the world. What an amiable picture is here given us of the divine Author of our faith! and how exactly does this prophetic description correspond to the whole tenour of his conduct in the propagation of his religion!

The next remarkable occurrences which present themselves in this chapter, are those of our Saviour casting a devil out of

* Isaiah, xlii. 1,3.

a man that was both blind and dumb; the reflections which the Pharisees threw upon him in consequence of this miracle, and the effectual manner in which he silenced them, and repelled their calumny.

The passage is as follows: "Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand?"

This passage affords room for a variety of observation.

In the first place, it is evident from this, as well as from many other passages of holy writ, that at the time when our Saviour promulged his religion, there was a calamity incident to the human race, of which at present we know nothing, and that is, the possession of their bodies by evil spirits or devils (as they are usually called in scripture) which occasioned great torments to the unhappy sufferers, and often deprived them both of their sight and hearing, as in the present instance. Such possessions having long since ceased, they have appeared to several learned men so incredible, that they have been led to deny that they ever existed, and to maintain that they were only diseases of a violent and terrifying nature, attended with convulsive or epileptic fits; that this sort of disease was ascribed by the Jews to the operation of evil spirits; and that our Saviour, in compliance with their prejudices, treated them as cases of real possession, and pretended to cast out devils, when in fact, he only cured the disorder with which the patient was afflicted.

This opinion is supported by great names; but however great and respectable they may be it appears to me utterly indefensible.

Every expression that our Lord makes use of with respect to these demoniacs plainly supposes them to be really possessed; and it is not easy to assign any admissible reason why he should treat them as such, if they were not so, and why he should not correct instead of countenancing so gross an error; as such a conduct could answer no one good purpose, and seems hard to reconcile with his own uniform fairness and sincerity of mind. To have done it to magnify his own pow