An extremely important inquiry is suggested by the preceding observations; viz. Do the Scriptures authorize any exception to the prohibitions of the fourth commandment, which have been quoted; or do they give such a construction to the law, as will justify a departure from the letter of it, in any sup posable circumstances? If they do not, then no human authority may presume to "make a single exception, or to give the law any such liberal construction. We may not go beyond the word of the Lord, to do less or more. To the law and to the testimony we must appeal in this case, as well as every other, and must cheerfully abide by the decision, what ever it may be. Let us, then, in the first place, see what further light we can obtain from the Old Testament. Turning to the sixteenth chap. ter of Exodus we find, that the Israelites, of their own accord, gathered twice as much manna on the sixth day, as they had gathered upon any preceding day. When this came to the ears of Moses, it met with his entire approbation; and he diVOL. XI. rected the people to bake and boil what was necessary for that day's use, and lay up the rest until the morning;-telling them, at the same time, that as the morrow would be the Sabbath, no manna would be found in the field. Most of the people did as they were commanded, but some went out on the seventh day. They, however, found nothing. And the Lord said unto Moses, how long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath giv en you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you, on the sixth day, the bread if two days; abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. We find no license here, for any kind of labor. The Israelites might not so much as go out to gather their daily por. tion of food. It must be brought into their tents the preceding day. It seems, however, that they were allowed to prepare, i. e. to bake or boil it, on the Sabbath; for Moses did not require them to cook the whole on the sixth day. Bake that, said he, which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye will seethe, and that which REMAINETH Over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. From this we may 26 fairly infer, I think, that the necessary preparations of plain and wholesome fare, on the Sabbath, is not inconsistent with the spirit of the fourth commandment. Having got all things ready on the day preceding, the children of Israel might cook their manna, in a plain way, and that was all. The law, I apprehend, allows us to do as much for our present comfort, but nothing more. The following passage in the thirty-first chapter of Exodus may serve to throw some additional light on the subject be fore us. and in harvest thou shalt rest. No instance of transgression is mentioned, till we come to the fifteenth chapter of Numbers. The crime and the punishment of one individual are there related in the following words. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they that found him gathering gathering sticks, brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done unto him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones and he died. The gathering of sticks, in this case, was no doubt a presumptuous violation of the preceding law, and the offender was executed, as a warning to others not to profane the Sabbath. There is a passage in Exodus xxxv, which seems to be attend Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you. Every one, that defileth it, shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people. Six days may work be done, but in the sev enth is the Sabbath of rest holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth ANY WORK in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath, throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a signed with some difficulty, and has between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. This seems to be a sort of commentary upon the fourth commandment, and, viewed in this light, confirms the literal import of its prohibitions. At any rate, the Israelites were forbidden under pain of death, to do any work upon the Sabbath. The same prohibition is repeated in chapter xxxiv. Six days thou shalt work; but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in caring time given rise to various expositions and conjectures. It is in the words following. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein, shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations, on the Sabbath day. The difficulty lies in the clause, Ye shall kindle no fire, &c. I have seen nothing more satisfactory on this text, than the following brief observations of Dr. Scott. "The Connexion favors the opinion, that the prohibition was meant of fires used in manufactories, or trades, by smiths, plumbers and others, of which many would be required in preparing the sanctuary; but none even of that work might be done on the Sabbath. If fires in general be understood, we must suppose, either that it was a temporary institution, for the time during which the people in the wilderness were miraculously provided for; or that some exceptions were allowed, in favor of the sick, infirm and children, who must suffer extremely at some seasons, even in warm climates, for want of fire. No intimation is given, that in the times of Christ and his Apostles, the Jews had no fires on the Sabbath, or even that they prepared no victuals. The sacred festivals would sometimes happen on that day, and the paschal lamb was roasted in the house where it was eaten; some exception therefore must be supposed, if we understand the prohibition concerning fires in general." I do not know that any light can be obtained from the Old Testament, in regard to the prohibitions of the Sabbath, which is not comprised in the preceding quotations. And what is the result of our examination? Why, upon the most liberal construction and comparison of the different texts, that the Israelites might prepare their meals upan the Sabbath, but that they were not allowed to do any thing on that day, which might be called work, at any season of the year; neither they, nor their sons, nor their daughters, nor their servants, nor their cattle. Let us now turn to the New Testament. The son of Man. was the Lord of the Sabbath. In what light did he regard the institution? I had occasion to show, in a former number, that the Gospels contain no hint of his having abrogated the fourth commandment, but much to the contrary. It is certain, however, that he gave it a more liberaland merciful construction than the Scribes and Pharisees did. When, on a particular Sabbath, he wrought a miracle of healing upon a woman who had been grievously afflicted for eighteen years, the ruler of the synagogue indignantly rebuked the people. There are six days, said he, in which men ought to work; in them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. Our Lord, knowing that the rebuke was intended for him, answered, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox, or his ass, from the stall and lead him away to the watering; and ought not thie woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? This was a mode of address which admitted of no reply; and accordingly the Evangelist says, that all his adversaries were ashamed. On another occasion, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn, and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold thy disciciples do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day Jesus justified his disciples on the ground, that it was proper, at any time, to satisfy the cravings of hunger; that to obtain relief from present distress, things might be done upon the Sabbath, which, under other circumstan ces, would be unlawful. If, said he, ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. The same day, our Lord found in the synagogue a man, whose hand was withered. The Jews, who were present, and who were anxious to find some accusation against Christ, asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And he said unto them, what man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much, then, is a man better than a sheep. Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. The preceding quotations contain what may be called our Lord's exposition of the prohibitory clause of the fourth commandment. From the whole taken together we learn, First, that the Jews themselves considered it proper to feed their cattle, and extricate them from any place of suffering, or danger, on the Sabbatli, while they absurdly objected to the healing of the sick, and to plucking a few ears of grain to satisfy hunger. Secondly, that works of mercy are lawful upon the Sabbath, and of course that they may be performed by any person, whenever occasion requires. It is worthy of remark, that works of mercy are the only works on the Sabbath, to which our Lord gives any countenance. It was to relieve the ox, or the sheep, from present suffering, that he might be pulled out of a pit, on the Sabbath day. It was to save him from suffering, that he might be led away to watering. It was to deliver men and women from pain and distress, that Christ healed them on the Sabbath. And it was because the disciples were then hungry, that he excused them for plucking and rubbing a few ears of grain, as they passed through a field, on their way, (as it would seem,) to public worship. Neither the precepts, nor the example, of Christ can be pleaded, to sanction works of any other character, than such as are here enumerated. In vain will those, who wish to make the law of the Sabbath void, by doing their own work, and finding their own pleasures; in vain will they look for a hint to justify them, either in the Old Testament or the New. The preceding observations will, if I mistake not, help us to understand and limit the word necessity, in the sixtieth answer of our Shorter Catechism. "The Sabbath is to be sanctified," say the venerable Assembly of Divines, "by an holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in public and private exercises of God's worship; except so much as is to be taken up, in works of necessity and mercy." Without presuming to express a decided opinion, in regard to the use of the word necessity here, I am sure that it has often been laid hold of, to justify works upon the Lord's day, which the pious authors of the catechism would have condemned with one voice. The word has so many significations, and is so abstract in some of them, that men who are wise to do evil, find no difficulty in making out a plausible justification for their weekly violations of the fourth commandment. When strongly prompted by interest, or inclination, mankind in general easily persuade themselves, that the things, which they propose to do on the Sabbath, are necessary, and therefore right. ters, it is extremely important to ascertain, in what scriptural sense, any works can be neces sary upon the Lord's day. To this end, we must keep close to the law and the testimony. To plead necessity for any word, or deed, which the Holy Spirit no where recognizes as lawful, can be nothing less, than setting up human opinions as paramount to the authority of God. With such explanations and limitations as the Scriptures afford, we may perhaps say, that certain things are necessary to be done on the Lord's day; but it becomes us to be extremely careful, that we do not go too far. What I mean is this;-If the law permitted the Israelites to feed and water their cattle, and to pull them out of the mire, or a pit, on the Sabbath day, these might in one sense be called works of necessity;-because food and water were necessary for the comfort of beasts, as well as men; and because, if left in a pit, till the Sabbath was over, a sheep, or an ox, would certainly suffer, and probably die. On the other hand, as the Israelites were pro Thus one man verily believes, that securing his grain on that day is a work of necessity. Another, that making hay is necessary. A third, that posting his books is fully justified by the same plea. A fourth, that the urgency of his secular affairs renders it necessary for him to spend the Lord's day in journey ing. A fifth, that this same imperious necessity, even makes it a duty to load and send out his ship. I am aware, that the Westminster Divines are not answerable for all the misconstructions which may be put upon their language. It would be most unreasonable to demand of them tohibited under pain of death, from do, what no writer or speaker ever has done, or ever can do. The imperfections of all human language afford ample scope, for miscoloring and perversion. But inasmuch, as the word necessity is no where used by the sacred penmen, in reference to the Sabbath; and inasmuch as it is liable to such mighty abuses, I have, I freely confess, sometimes wished, that it had not . found its way into the catechism. Since, however, we find it there, and since it has been -adopted by most theological wri doing any thing, which might be called labor on God's holy day, necessity was put entirely out of the question. It never could be pleaded, however urgent any man's secular business might be. In a strong and universal sense, food is necessary for the sustenance of man. No one can live long without it. In a more limited sense, it is necessary ev ery day. It is necessary, be cause we cannot in ordinary circumstances be comfortable for one day, if we are wholly destitute. In this last sense, it was |