the day depend upon merely Ecclesiastical authority; yet that, in the highest sense of the word, such institution and observance may be designated as Ecclesiastical. That though the Sabbath,55 as an ordinance, has passed away, and though neither Apostles nor early writers allude to it or to the Fourth Commandment as a precedent or as the ground for observing the Lord's Day, we may conceive the analogy of them to have been among the reasons which determined the proportion of time which should be the Lord's. That the same analogy 56 may direct us, though in a much fainter degree, because of the different characters of the two dispensations, to the employments and enjoyments suitable or not unsuitable to the Lord's Day. That on the Sabbath itself 57 there appears to have been a greater liberty of employment and enjoyment than is generally supposed; and that our Lord, so far as He dealt with it, concerned Himself, not with proving that it was about to expire, (this it was to do, of course, when the ceremonial and political laws generally were to expire), but in purifying it from superstitions, in making it practically useful so long as it should last, and in redeeming it from the charge of enjoining absolute inactivity. That still, though the Lord's Day 58 is not to be Judaic in the way of over-strictness, it is not to be Judaic, (in the sense in which the later Jews were often reproached by the Fathers for the use of their Sabbaths), in the way of license, i.e. it is not to be a mere gala-day, as on the Continent with the Romanists, and, to a great extent, even with the Protestant and Reformed Communions. That the origin and obligation 60 of the Lord's Day being such as is supposed, Divine and Apostolic, the Church, subsequent to the age of the Apostles, has not, (as Calvin and others imagined), ability to remove it to any other day in the week, but that her authority over it extends to arrangement of its services and recommendation of employments upon it, provided that "the diversity of countries and men's manners" is considered, and nothing is enjoined, of obligation, incompatible with the "law of liberty." 60 That the Lord's Day being intended for the visible Church, in which evil is ever mingled with the good, it is not very reasonable to urge that it would be better if we could do without it. This might be so; but then the present state of things would have disappeared. That the civil power1 should interfere as little as possible with the observance of the Lord's Day, but that, a due regard being had to the compound nature of man, it may fairly prohibit on that day what offers men profound temptations to forget their souls or to wear out their bodies. 62 Yet that, even here, care should be taken that there be not one law for the rich and another for the 63 poor. That the subject of prohibitions should be approached both by legislators and by clergy, as practical men, (so the preacher approaches it, having lived in a great city for years), and with a due consideration for the different circumstances of town and country, and for the exigencies of society. That the exercise 4 of such consideration is no compromise of principle, but a lawful and necessary discretion in a matter upon which no definite directions are found in Holy Scripture. 65 That care should be taken not to impose burthens upon men's consciences which are too heavy to be borne, or to make that a matter of right and wrong which is really a matter of expediency. And this on two principles: 1st, that to break a merely supposed obligation while it is supposed to be a real one, has a weakening effect upon the character; 2d, that an advocacy of what is right on insufficient grounds is sooner or later exposed and called a pious fraud, and produces disgust of all pious injunctions, whether frauds or no. That such an injunction as the following, if used by those who are not absolutely satisfied of the soundness of the Sabbatarian ground, is, (for truth can do no harm), a very faithless and timorous policy; "Do not loosen men's adherence to the Fourth Commandment, lest they neglect the Lord's Day altogether." That, since much will," after all, be left to individuals, the law of charity should induce every one who can rest when he likes, to promote and procure rest on the Lord's Day for those who are otherwise circumstanced. 68 That the present state of the controversy respecting the observance of the Lord's Day is owing to these facts: first, that each side overstates a truth by the implied addition of the word exclusively; one side saying, "Men's souls are to be cared for [exclusively]," the other, "Men's bodies are to be cared for [exclusively];" and, secondly, that while the Sabbatarian ground is wrongly presumed to be the true and only ground on which the care of men's souls can be maintained, the Dominical ground is unfairly charged with leading necessarily to exclusive regard for men's bodies. 69 That in reference to such social questions as whether places of mere amusement or of secular instruction should be opened, or travelling permitted at all, or if at all in what degree, and the like, on the Lord's Day, principles should rather be sought for than exact rules. That, on the whole, the Lord's Day, being an institution so Divine and especially Christian, so commended to us by prescription and universal adoption, even from the Apostles' time, so wonderfully preserved to us through many vicissitudes, so founded on moral obligation, so recommended to us by the analogy of the Jewish polity, so adapted a priori to the whole nature of man, so recommended a posteriori by the advantages which many ages have enjoyed under it, should be jealously guarded from vitiation, should not be made a yoke of bondage on the one hand, or a cloak for licentiousness on the other. "The Sundays of man's life Threaded together on Time's string, Make bracelets to adorn the wife Of the eternal, glorious King. On Sunday, heaven's gate stands ope; We shall, if God permit, begin our formal discussion in the next Lecture, taking as our starting-point the moment indicated in the text. The last Sabbath of the old dispensation, that is, the Saturday of our Lord's lying in the grave (called afterwards by the ancient Church the Sabbatum Magnum), has passed, and with it the honor of the seventh day has passed away. It is very early in the morning, the first day of the week. The sun has risen. The Sun of Righteousness has risen also. The first day of the week has become "The Lord's Day." LECTURE II. MARK XVI. 1, 2, 5, 6. AND WHEN THE SABBATH WAS PAST, MARY MAGDALENE, AND MARY THE MOTHER OF JAMES, AND SALOME, HAD BOUGHT SWEET SPICES, THAT THEY MIGHT COME AND ANOINT HIM. AND VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK THEY CAME UNTO THE SEPULCHRE AT THE RISING OF THE SUN. AND ENTERING INTO THE SEPULCHRE, THEY SAW A YOUNG MAN SITTING ON THE RIGHT SIDE, CLOTHED IN A LONG WHITE GARMENT, AND THEY WERE AFFRIGHTED. AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, BE NOT AFFRIGHTED: YE SEEK JESUS OF NAZARETH WHICH WAS CRUCIFIED: HE IS RISEN. Καὶ διαγενομένου τοῦ σαββάτου, Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ καὶ Μαρία ἡ τοῦ ̓Ιακώβου καὶ Σαλώμη ἠγόρασαν ἀρώματα, ἵνα ἐλθοῦσαι ἀλείψωσιν αὐτόν. Καὶ λίαν πρωὶ τῆς μιᾶς σαββάτων ἔρχονται ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον, ἀνατέλλοντος (v. 7. ἀνατείλαντος) τοῦ ἡλίου. Καὶ εἰσελθοῦσαι εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον, εἶδον νεανίσκον καθήμενον ἐν τοῖς δεξιοῖς, περιβεβλημένον στολὴν λευκήν· καὶ ἐξεθαμβήθησαν. ̔Ο δὲ λέγει αὐταῖς, Μὴ ἐκθαμβεῖσθε· Ἰησοῦν ζητεῖτε τὸν Ναζαρηνὸν τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον· ἀγέρθη. It is very early in the morning, the first day of the week. The sun has risen. The Sun of Righteousness has risen also. The first day of the week has become “The Lord's Day." With these words, you will remember, I closed my first Lecture. Perhaps you may be inclined to suppose that I meant to imply by them that at the moment to which they refer, or almost immediately afterwards, the Lord's Day |