the necessities of our nature, as the relief of hunger, or aid in sickness, may require, must be considered as consistent with the sanctification of the Sabbath. Our Saviour, by his precepts and example, has completely illustrated this part of the subject.

Here it is proper to observe, that "God sent forth his Son, made under the law." Christ lived and died under the Jewish dispensation. By his expositions of the moral law, he pointed out its real nature and extent; but made no alterations in it. When he declared that acts of necessity and charity were suitable to the Sabbath, he introduced no new doctrine, but appealed to the Jews themselves respecting the truth of what he taught. "Jesus spake unto the lawyers and pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbathday? And they held their peace." Luke xiv. 3. The question undoubtedly was of this import: Is it agreeable to the law of God, as delivered by Moses? Is it consistent with the Fourth Commandment, and with the illustration of that Commandment by the holy prophets? The silence of the Jewish rulers was a tacit acknowledgment, that such acts of mercy were consistent with the due observance of the Sabbath.

If the ordinary employment of any person

consists in those acts which the proper duties of the Sabbath require, or which are allowed on that day, they certainly cannot be considered as infringements of the Fourth Commandment. The blessed Jesus appealed to the law of Moses on this head. "Have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbathday, the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?" Matthew xii. 5.

Our Saviour also taught, that it is consonant to the law of God to take a due care even of the brute creation on the Sabbath, much more of our fellow-creatures; and on this ground he reproved the indignant ruler of the synagogue, who wished to represent our Saviour's healing of the diseased as a work forbidden on the Sabbath-day. Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him to watering?" And again, to the lawyers and pharisees, Which of you shall

have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbathday? And they could not answer him again to these things." Luke xiii. 15. xiv. 3. .

These passages of Scripture clearly prove that our Lord was not introducing any relaxation of the Sabbath, suited to the genius of the gospel-dispensation; but that he was speaking

the language of the law, as delivered to the Jews; and shewing, that acts of necessity, of mercy, and compassion, were duties suited to the strictest observance of the Sabbath. If this had not been the case, our Saviour could not have charged the ruler with hypocrisy, nor would his appeal to the law of Moses have silenced those who wished to accuse him of breaking that law.

It has been thought by some, that our Saviour exceeded the bounds of the Jewish law, when he directed the man, whom he had healed at the pool of Bethesda, to "take up his bed and walk;" John v. 8; because God had commanded the people, by the Prophet Jeremiah, to "bear no burden on the Sabbath-day;" chapter xvii. 21. Those who entertain such a thought, should consider, that our Lord perfectly understood the law; and if this was a breach of it, he was directing the poor man to commit a heinous offence against the law under which he was living, and also a capital offence against the state; for this, as well as several others of the Ten Commandments, was incorporated into the civil laws of the Jews. "Ye shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it, shall surely be put to death." Exodus xxxi. 14. But an attentive consideration of the

passages, prohibiting the bearing of burthens on the Sabbath, will shew, that they relate to such burdens as were borne in the carrying on of trade or ordinary labour." If If ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of the city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day to do no work therein;" Jeremiah xvii. 24. So likewise in the Book of Nehemiah. “In those days I saw in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also, wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day." Nehemiah xiii. 15. The cripple, whom our Saviour had healed at the pool of Bethesda, was friendless as well as poor ; and probably had nothing but his portable bed, or mattrass, whereon to rest his weary limbs: the Lord Jesus, therefore, directed him to take care of this necessary piece of furniture, when he had strengthened the body of this indigent creature, and enabled him to return to his own house.

Another passage of the Old Testament may be thought to express a degree of strictness in the observance of the Sabbath, which was peculiar to the Jewish dispensation. "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habita

tions on the Sabbath-day." Exodus xxxv. 3. But this, compared with its context, seems to relate only to fires made for the purposes of labour. The whole passage runs thus; " 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 doth work therein, shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire," &c. We may rest assured, that he who prefers mercy to sacrifice would not forbid the use of fire, for the purpose of warmth, in any country where the inhabitants might be compelled to say, "Who is able to abide his frosts?" Nor is it probable, that He who vindicated the conduct of his disciples, when they had plucked the ears of corn, as they walked through the fields, for the purpose of satisfying their hunger, would forbid the use of fire for the necessary preparation of their food. We may conclude, therefore, that the kindling of a fire, for the refreshment of the body, was not contrary to the Jewish law.

Upon the whole, I see nothing in the duties of the Sabbath, as subsisting under the Jewish dispensation, but a most spiritual and rational service; suitable, indeed, to the period of man's innocence, yet accommodated to the necessities which sin has introduced into the