ITS ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND PRESENT OBLIGATION, (CONSIDERED IN THE BAMPTON LECTURES PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN THE YEAR 1860. 1 BY JAMES AUGUSTUS HESSEY, HEAD MASTER OF MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL; PREACHER TO THE HONORABLE SOCIETY OF GRAYS' INN; D.C.L. GRINFIELD LECTURER IN THE SEPTUAGINT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; Third Edition, WITH A COPIOUS INDEX. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. Son-dayes. Bright shadows of true Rest! some shoots of blisse; The next world's gladness prepossest in this; Eternity in time; the steps by which We climb above all ages; Lamps that light The milky way chalkt out with Suns, a clue HENRY VAUGHAN, 17th Century. DIES RESURRECTIONIS DOMINICA... QUÆ TANTIS DIVINARUM DISPOSITIONUM MYSTERIIS EST CONSECRATA, UT QUICQUID EST A DOMINO INSIGNIUS CONSTITUTUM, IN HUJUS DIEI DIGNITATE SIT GESTUM. IN HAC MUNDUS SUMSIT EXORDIUM. IN HAC PER RESURRECTIONEM CHRISTI ET MORS INTERITUM, ET VITA ACCEPIT INITIUM. IN HAC APOSTOLI A DOMINO PRÆDICANDI OMNIBUS GENTIBUS EVANGELII TUBAM SUMUNT, ET INFERENDUM UNIVERSO MUNDO SACRAMENTUM REGENERATIONIS ACCIPIUNT. IN HAC SICUT BEATUS JOANNES EVANGELISTA TESTATUR, JANUIS CLAUSIS, CUM AD EOS DOMINUS INTROISSET, INSUFFLAVIT, ET DIXIT: ACCIPITE SPIRITUM SANCTUM ; 66 QUORUM REMISERITIS PECCATA, REMITTUNTUR EIS, ET QUORUM DETINUERITIS, DETENTA ERUNT." IN HAC DENIQUE PROMISSUS A DOMINO APOSTOLIS SPIRITUS SANCTUS ADVENIT: UT CŒLESTI QUADAM REGULA INSINUATUM ET TRADITUM NOVERIMUS IN ILLA DIE CELEBRANDA NOBIS ESSE MYSTERIA SACERDOTALIUM BENEDICTIONUM, IN QUA COLLATA SUNT OMNIA DONA GRATIARUM. LEON. EPIST. 9, olim 11. c. I. tom. I. col. 630. Fol. Venet. 1753. ΤΟ CHARLES WILLIAMS, D.D. PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD, HON. CANON OF BANGOR, AND PROCTOR IN CONVOCATION, WITH THE PREACHER'S SINCERE REGARDS. EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M.A. CANON OF SALISBURY. "I direct and appoint, that a Lecturer be yearly chosen by "the Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, to preach eight "Divinity Lecture Sermons, upon either of the following Sub 66 jects to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to "confute all heretics and schismatics-upon the divine authority "of the holy Scriptures-upon the authority of the writings of "the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the "primitive Church-upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour "Jesus Christ-upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost-upon "the Articles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds," &c. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. DURING the five or six years which have elapsed since the delivery of these Lectures, public attention has been drawn, by various circumstances, to the subject of Sunday; and its origin, history, and present obligation have been freely, and sometimes warmly, discussed. But in no part of the United Kingdom has it excited a more keen interest than in Scotland. There indeed it may be said, without exaggeration, that a new Chapter in the eventful history of this Holy Day has commenced. Dr. Norman Macleod, a distinguished Minister of the Kirk, and one of Her Majesty's Chaplains, has, with his characteristic vigour and eloquence, attacked the views prevalent in that country, and advocated, generally at least, the views contained in the following pages. The full results of this aggressive movement, or rather of the ebbings and flowings of thought of which it is the outward manifestation, belong to the future, and it is not the writer's intention to speculate upon them. Already, however, it is evident that many preachers and speakers who still hold theoretically the straitest Sabbatarian doctrines, have learned to be more tolerant, and more humane, and therefore more practical in their application of what they hold, to man's life and circumstances. The tone of the "Glasgow Kirk Presbytery," of Nov. 16, 1865, presents an agreeable contrast to that |