and to the groffness of a people exceedingly addicted to exterior obfervances, which hypocrites and carnal Jews carried fo far as to neglect the interior, to improve which a just and reasonable practice of fuch rites was inftituted by God, but which thofe who dwelt in these forms multiplied to fuperftition. Some of thefe alfo falfely placed a pretended fanctity in their attachment to feveral fuperfluous external forms, neither appointed by God nor his church: others adhered in fuch manner to thofe that were fo appointed as to neglect the reformation of their hearts, and the purity and direction of their interior, without which they could never please God. The zealous cenfures of our Divine Redeemer, shew that the excess to which the hypocrify of the Pharifees carried this rigour, was a vicious fcrupulofity and fuperftition, contrary to right reason, and both to the letter and fpirit of the law, nor was it in them any thing better than an enormous pride, and an affected fpiritual blindness. For this feverity in certain points which flattered their pride and felf-love, they only affected in order to indulge a fecret felf-complacency and fond prefumption in themselves with a contempt of others, whilft in the mean time they freely entertained other capital vices in their hearts. Odious and execrable as this Pharifaical difpofition is, it is the cafe of many among Chriftians, who are severe to the fins of other men only that their own may pass unfufpected, or whilft they are fcrupulous in trifles, appear unconcerned for many things of the greatest moment; and in their favourite paffions can neither fee any guilt, nor fuffer the least controul. Such a one, as our English fatyris ingeniously says, "Compounds for Sins be is inclined to, CHA P. II. On the Inftitution of the LORD'S DAY; or, the CHRISTIAN SABBATH. LL the Ten Commandments of the Old Law, en A grayed by the finger of God in the Tables, and given by him to Mofes, and the whole nation of the Jews, his chofen people, are but a re-publication of fo many capital precepts of the Law of Nature; confequently are of all times, and equally bind under all difpenfations. And it is agreed agreed among theologians (1) that by the Law of Nature itfelf, a fet day which frequently occurs, that is, one day in feven or thereabouts, is neceffarily to be confecrated to the Divine Worship, with an interruption of worldly employments and corporal labour (2). Thus the Law of the Sabbath, inafmuch as by it one day a week was commanded to be kept holy, was a precept of the Law of Nature (a); yet as prefcribed in the Mofaic Law, it was ceremonial both as to the particular day of the week to which it was affixed among the Jews, and as to fome circumstances relating to the particular manner of obferving it. After Chrift's refurrection, and the defcent of the Holy Ghoft at Pente (1) S. Thomas 2. Secundæ, Qu. 22. Art. 4. &c. ibid. (2) S. Thomas Aquinas 2. Secundæ, Qu. 122. Art. 4. And among the Proteftants Amefius, Diff. de Sabbato in Præf. Dr. Clark in his Sermons, vol. x. p. 59. and in his Expofition of the Catechitin, p. 173, 174. Jephfon on the Sabbath, p. 12. (a) The Mahometans make Friday their weekly feftival, partly from the ancient cuftom of the Pagan Saracens before the birth of Mahomet, as Selden proves (De Diis Syris, 1. 2. c. 4. p. 289.) And partly in honour of the flight of their falfe prophet. (See Thomas Smith de Moribus Turcarum, p. 28. Reland, Vit. Mahometis. Pocock, Specimen Hiftoria Arabum, p. 317. Pearfon, of the Apostles, p. 472. Hottinger, Primatia Hedelbergenfes, p. 331, &c.) Plearan cum refut. a Maracc. Patav. 1698. Conttantine the Great commanded Friday to be kept a vacant final day in all courts of judicature, in honour of the death of Chrift. (See Eufeb. de Vita Conftantini, 1. 4. c. 18. Sozomen, p. 412. Tillemont, Hift. des Emp. p. 593, T. iv.) Friday feems to have been obferved in fome manner holy from the Apoftolic times. See James Godofred, in Cod. Theodof. T. i. p. 138. Affemani, Bibl. Orient. Vatican T. i. p. 217. 237. Martenne Thefaur. Anecdot. T. v. p. 66. Friday is alfo kept holy by the Czeremifes, an idolatrous people fubject to the Muscovites, upon the banks of the Volga, on the borders of Siberia, as we are informed by de Strahlenberg in his Account of Northern Europe and Af, or Siberia, (p. 419.) The primitive Chriftians kept a ftation on Wednesday, with fafting and public affemblies in prayer. See John Martin Caladen, Dif. de Stationibus veterum, Chriflian. Litfiæ, 1744. §. 18. Bingham, Chr. Antiquit. 1. 21. ch. 3. p. 266. Bona, de Liturg. &c. The idolaters about Ormaz and Goa folemnize Monday; thofe of Guinea, Tuesday; many tribes in the territories of the Mogul, Thurfday. The Japonese keep no day holy, but the 15th and 28th of every month. See Franc. de la Mothe le Vayer. T. xii. ep. 11. p. 32. The principal Proteftant theologians teach with Catholics, that by the law of nature all men are bound to confecrate to the divine fervice, one day out of feven or thereabouts: See Juniys, Præk&. in Gen. Curcellæus, Rel. Chrif. Infit. 1. 7. c. 31. §. 14. Bp. Babington, "on the fourth Command." Hooker, Ecclef. Politie, b. v. p. 69, 70, &c. they alfo agree that the determination of the particular day is a ceremonial precept, Some have carried this fo far as to leave the determination of the coft, the festival of the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday, that is, from the laft to the first day of the week. This we only learn from the conftant practice and tradition of the church. We find indeed in fome part of the canonical writings of the Apostles, mention made of the Lord's Day. St. John was in the isle of Patmos on the Lord's Day, when the Divine Revelations which he has recorded concerning the state of the churches of Afia in particular, and of the univerfal church in times to come, were discovered to him (3). And St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (4), fpeaks of the first day of the week, on which the Difciples met together to break bread or celebrate the Holy Eucharift, and on which St. Paul preached till midnight. Alío St. Paul ordered charitable collections to be made among the Faithful in their religious affemblies on the first day of the week (5). But thefe paffages which mention, only indirectly the Lord's Day, and the first day of the week, as confecrated to the divine fervice in the time of the Apostles, no way fhew that the obligation of the Jewish Sabbath was transferred to that day, nor in what manner we are obliged to observe it, nor even that it is a weekly holy-day. All these points we learn from Apoftolical tradition, in which even Proteftants of all denominations acquiefce, A learned Archbishop of the church of England writes on this point as follows: "That the Apostles were not only as judges and magiftrates in a civil state, en"trufted with the execution of the laws and inftitutions of 66 our Bleffed Saviour, but had alfo hereby fuch constant, "certain, and even infallible affiftance from the Holy Ghoft (who guided them into all truth, John xvi. 13. taught "them all things, and brought all things to their remembrance, "whatfoever Chrift bad faid unto them, ch. xiv. 26.) as put them beyond all poflibility of error, to which even "the best magiftrates, and most learned judges in worldly "communities are subject (6)." Bifhop White faith, "It 66 (3) Rev. i. 10. (4) Ats xx. 7. (5) Cor. xvi. 2. (6) Archbishop's Synge's "Divine Authority of Church Government." p. 26. the day to particular churches, and even to private perfons. Tindal treated this day with fuch indifference, as to fay, in his anfwer to Sir Thomas More, that we are lords of the Sabbath, and may change it to Monday, or any other day; or appoint every tenth day, or two days a week. And Barclay fays of Calvin, that in honour of Chrift's afcenfion, he once defigned to tranflate it to Thurfday, as an inftance of Chriftian liberty. "is "is not neceffary to demonftrate out of Scripture that the Apostles ordained the Sunday as a weekly holy-day. For "it could not poffibly have come to pass, that all and every Apoftolical church throughout the univerfal world should "fo early and in the beginning of their plantation, have "confented together to make the Sunday a weekly feftival, unless they had been directed thus by their founders the "holy Apostles themselves (7)." Archbishop Bramhall makes the fame obfervation, and adds: "He that profef"feth Christianity, and will not be fatisfied with the perpe"tual and undoubted tradition of the univerfal church of "Chrift, i. e. of the whole world of believers, including "the Apostles themselves, is utterly incapable of any real "fatisfaction, and buildeth his religion more upon his own "wilful humour and private phantafy than upon true judg"ment (8)." The learned Bifhop Taylor who refolves the "authority of the Lord's Day into mere ecclefiaftical inftitution, affirms, “that the keeping of this day, befides all the "other reasons derived from the nature of the thing, yet 66 even for this alone, because it is derived from the "Apoftles, is to remain fo for ever, the reafon being at "first competent, and the fame reafon remaining for ever, " and another cannot come in place of it, and a greater "there cannot be." He farther remarks, that the Apostles were not only directed by the Holy Spirit in matters relating to divine worship and religion, but alfo had his immediate authority in their determinations upon fuch points, as is very evident from Acts xv. 28. where the Apostles fpeaking of their decifion in the affair of the circumcifion, exprefs themselves thus: It feemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us. The most ancient of the Fathers, and the immediate fucceffors of the Apoftles, mention the Lord's Day as fubftituted in the whole Chriftian church to the Jewish Sabbath. S. Ignatius, the difciple of S. Peter, clearly alludes to it when exhorting the Chriftians of Magnefia not to be feduced into error as to the observance of the Jewish legal ceremonies, he bids them not to keep the Sabbath of the Jews, but to lead a life agreeable to the Lord's Day, on which our life (7) Bp. White, "on the Sabbath." p. 192. (8.) Bramhall's Works, p. 916. He died Archbishop of Armagh, in 1663. (9.) Ductor Dubitantium, B. xi. ch. 2. Rule 6. §. 51. & B. iii. c. 4. Rule 13. §. 1. Bp. Pearfon "on the Creed," p. 469. Lewis Capell Tr. de Sabbato. Menard. in ep. S. Barnabæ, p. 202. Was was raised from the dead by him, and thro' his death (10). Clemens of Alexandria throws a light upon this paffage, when explaining what it is to lead a life conformable to the Lord's Day; he fays, he that obferves the precept of the gofpel makes his life the Lord's Day, whilft he cafts away every evil thought, and takes to himself the true Gnoftic, that is, fpiritual and chriftian thoughts of wifdom and fanctity, thereby glorifying the refurrection of the Lord (11). Hence we learn, that the Chriftians gave the weekly festival the name of the Lord's Day (b), and that to lead a life conformable to the Lord's Day (c), in memory of our Saviour's resurrection, was fuitably to that mystery by which we are freed from the flavery of fin and the lufts of the flesh, or the old man, to walk in the new life according to the spirit of Chrift, as S. Paul fo often exhorts us (12). Though they gave this Christian weekly festival the name of the Lord's Day, yet they fcrupled not, efpecially when they spoke to the Heathens, to call it Sunday: for though that appellation took its rife from an idolatrous fuperftition and the worship of the planets, yet it was become the ufual name by which this day was known, fo that it might be employed as a bare denominative term without refpect to any fuperftition. S. Juftin, Martyr, in his Greater Apology, which he delivered to the heathens, calls it Sunday (13). Tertullian speaks of it to the idolaters under the fame appellation (14), but when he writes to Chriftians only, he prefers that of the. Lord's Day (15). The Emperours Conftantine the Great (16), Valentinian the firft (17), and fecond (18), and Theodofius the elder and the younger in the laws which they enacted, called it Sunday; though they fometimes add the name of the Lord's Day. The latter appellation is employed by S. Dionyfius of Corinth (19), S. Irenæus (10) S. Ignat. ep. ad Magnef. p. 9. See Cotelier's Note, ib. (11) Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 7. p. 877. ed. Oxon. (b) Κυριακή (c) Κυριακὴν ζῆν or κυριακήν ήμεραν ποιεῖν (12) Col. iii. 1. Rom. vi. 4. 1 Cor. xv. 22. 49, &c. (13.) Apol. 2. (nunc 1. ed. Ben.) p. 99. (14) Apologetici c. xv. Nation. c. xiii. (15) De Corona c. iii. De Jejun. c. 15. Theodof. 1. 2. c. viii. De Feriis Leg. 1. Theodof. I. 8. de Executoribus, Leg. 1. & 3. & alibi fæpe. Apud Eus. his. 1. 4. c. 23.' & l. 1. ad (17) ib. Leg. 2. (16) Cod. (18) Cod. (19) (20), S. 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