tivals in estimation, lowered the Lord's Day to a mere Church ordinance, and having done so, is unable to induce her members to consider it anything but a Church Day, or more binding on their consciences than many of her indefensible ordinances. She still teaches her children the Catechism drawn up by Bellarmine, and sanctioned by the Bulls of Clement the Eighth, A.D. 1558, and of Benedict the Thirteenth, A.D. 1728. That document, I should inform you, travesties the Fourth Commandment thus, "Remember to keep holy the festivals," (Ricordati di sanctificare le Feste), placing every other festival on an equality with the Lord's Day; and by the existence of more festivals than can possibly be observed, produces an irreverent use of all. Having thus lowered the Lord's Day, in vain does the Catechism afterwards enjoin, among "the few Commandments which the Church has added to the Commandments of God," (quelli pochi, che ha aggiunto la Santa Chiesa), that men should "hear Mass every Sunday, and on all other appointed festivals," (Udir la Messa tutti le Domeniche, ed altre Feste comandate). In the case of those who disagree with Rome, I believe that the indifference with which their Reformers spoke of the obligation to observe any one day in particular, has issued in a disregard of the particular day which they chose. It is Luther's day. It is Calvin's day. It is the day which the former

adopted out of consideration to the multitude; the day which the latter, after some hesitation, preferred for expediency's sake to Thursday. This it is; but it is not the Day of the Lord,that on which His Humanity had its triumph; which, if the indications of Scripture and the practice and language of the Apostles and of the early Church are to have weight with us, is the Day of Praise of God, and of Love to man; and which, bringing Christian (not Jewish) Rest in its train, refreshes the whole man, body and soul and spirit; which is the People's Day because it is the Lord's Day.

LECTURE VII.

JEREMIAH VI. 16.

STAND YE IN THE WAYS, AND SEE, AND ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS, WHERE IS THE GOOD WAY, AND WALK THEREIN, AND YE SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

Στῆτε ἐπὶ ταῖς ὁδοῖς καὶ ἴδετε, καὶ ἐρωτήσατε τρίβους Κυρίου αἰωνίους· καὶ ἴδετε ποία ἐστιν ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀγαθὴ, καὶ βαδίσατε ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ εὑρήσετε ἁγνισμὸν (v. Ι. ἁγιασμὸν) ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν.

(Conf. Matt. xi. 29, καὶ εὑρήσετε ἀνάπαυσιν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν.)

OUR inquiries have at length brought us to England. We will suppose ourselves to-day to be tracing the stream of thought and practice amongst us, in reference to the Lord's Day, from the Reformation to the present time. Not that we can allude, even by name, to more than a few of the writers on the subject, or touch upon any but the most striking events connected with it. We may, however, be able to exhibit in a compendious form a succession of facts, the careful consideration of which may lead us to some practical conclusion.

Some important questions present themselves.

Is it possible to discover, in the fully authorised documents of the English Church, such definite statements about the Lord's Day as will favour decidedly, either the Sunday-Sabbatarian view on the one hand, or the purely Ecclesiastical view on the other?

Is it possible to frame such a Catena of writers in the English Church, as will, by the number of its links and the solidity of each link, serve as an adequate interpretation of those documents in one direction or the other?

If neither of these courses is possible, should not the acknowledged moderation of the English Church be an element in the discovery of her view ? And may we not interpret her by antiquity, to which she has ever had regard?

Certain cognate questions, will, by God's permission, be discussed in the concluding Lecture.

Something has been said already to the effect that Sunday-Sabbatarianism at any rate is not authoritatively sanctioned by the Church of England. For this I may perhaps refer you to the latter part of my Fifth Lecture. Nor is what was stated there invalidated by the existence of the document usually styled the Westminster Confession, which was drawn up a.D. 1643. It was indeed examined and approved A.D. 1647 by the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and ratified by Scottish Acts of Parliament A.D. 1649 and 1690. But it had nothing

to do with England except during the abnormal period of the Great Rebellion, and was, de facto, ignored by the Savoy Conference. Its language is as follows:-"As it is of the law of nature that in general a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God, so, in His word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual Commandment, binding all men, in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him; which, from the beginning of the world to the Resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and from the Resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations; but are also taken up the whole time in public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy."

On the Continent this is frequently supposed to be our view. I confidently assert that it is not ours. It may have been, indeed it was, derived from the English Puritans, but it was not derived from the English Church. Their influence carried