twice and administered the sacrament; and those who were present will long remember the earnest manner in which he addressed them on that occasion. On the following Wednesday he was taken very ill, and from that time he was almost in constant pain, yet he maintained his usual composure and uttered not a murmuring word. When a particular friend came one morning to ask him how he was, after having a very restless night, "O," said he, "I thought that I should have been at my Father's house before this time;" and to an affectionate sister that attended him, when he saw her great anxiety for his recovery, he said, "God's ways

On the following Monday, with every mark of respect, his body was interred at All Samts Burying-ground, and there it will rest until the last trumpet shall sound, and the mortal body shall put on immortality. On Sunday Feb. 12, the Rev. David Lewis, of Aber, preached his Funeral Sermon, from Psalms xxxix. 9, and so much respect was shown to the deceased, that the Chapel at Eignbrook was crowded to excess a long time before the service commenced, and through the whole service many were seen weeping for their departed pastor. Aber.

D. L.

will be done." And when in the most excruciating pain, his language was, "that his heavenly Father laid not a stroke too heavy or too many upon him;" and he said to his medical attendant, "I have nothing to face death with but Christ." "Well," said the Doctor, "you have a sure foundation." He answered with great emphasis, "Yes, and it will never give way." A few hours before the struggle was over, he wanted to see his sister; and when the servant went to call her, a friend observed to him that to die was a hard work, he assented and exclaimed, "O Death where is thy-"; his breath would not allow him to proceed; and when his sister came, the scene was truly affecting; but he endeavoured to console her in the following manner- My dear sister, may God bless you and keep you all; I am going to my Father, and I commit all to the care of Jesus." you Soon after the Doctor was sent for, who, when he entered the room, asked him how he was? He answered struggling hard; all that I can say is, Lord Jesus receive my spirit." He continued to breathe a little longer, and his happy spirit took its flight to the realms of eternal day, about four o'clock on Friday morning, Feb. 3, 1826, in the 71st year of his age.

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ON

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

ESSAY IV.

The Sabbath and the Lord's Day.

THE opinion of our author on the Mosaic Law generally, which was the subject of our last Essay, included the

belief that the Fourth Commandment was intended solely for the Israelites, and to be of force only till the setting up of the Messiah's kingdom; and that, under the Gospel, no particular day is appointed by Divine authority to be kept holy above other days. After discussing these points at considerable length, he gives the following as the result of his inquiries:-" Since the Sabbath was originally an ordinance of the Mosaic Law-since it was given to the Israelites alone, and that for the express purpose of distinguishing them from other nations, it follows that, if those who live under the gospel are the law in general, least of all can they emancipated from the ordinances of be considered as bound by that of the Sabbath, the distinction being abolished which was the special cause of its institution. Hence we arrive at the the gospel no one day is appointed for following conclusions: first, that under divine worship in preference to another except such as the church may set apart of its own authority for the voluntary assembling of its members;

wherein, relinquishing all worldly affairs, we may dedicate ourselves wholly to religious exercises, as far as is consistent with the duties of charity: and, secondly, that this may conveniently take place once every seven days, and particularly on the first day of the week, provided always that it be observed in compliance with the authority of the church, and not in obedience to the edicts of the magistrate: and, likewise, that a snare be not laid for the conscience by the allegation of a Divine commandment, borrowed from the decalogue; an error against which Paul diligently cautions us (Col. ii. 16.) For, if we under the gospel are to regulate the time of our public worship by the prescriptions of the decalogue, it will surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, according to the express commandment of God, than, on the authority of mere human conjecture, to adopt the first. I perceive, also, that several of the best divines, as Bucer, Calvin, Peter Martyr, Musculus, Urisnus, Gomarus, and others, concur in the opinions above expressed."

The judicious translator, in one of his valuable notes, has shewn that Peter Martyr had an honourable title to be left out of the list just given. But we are concerned to say, that Luther must be added to it. The opinion which the two great leaders of the Re formation maintained on this subject was, that the moral obligation of the Fourth Commandment belonged to the Mosaic economy alone, that under the gospel every day is alike; but that, for the more edifying celebration of the public ordinances of religion, it is expedient that Christian societies should concur in the appropriation of one and the same stated day; that the Apostolic Churches, without any Divine precept, fell not unnaturally into the adoption of the day immediately succeeding the abrogated Jewish Sabbath; that, on account of the universal practice and convenience, it is the most advisable to adhere to this day; and that the obligation of ceasing from worldly employments, and cultivating private devotion, religious reading, meditation, and the like, arises solely from considerations of utility and harmony with the public exercises.

Upon this subject we submit the ensuing observations:-

I. To urge the sanctified observance of the Lord's Day, from the reasons and authority of the Mosaic law, is imprudent and inconclusive; for it is open to the perpetual objections which were described in our last Essay. The refutation of those objections is, to say the least, a matter of extreme difficulty and nice discrimination; and thus the obligation of a most important branch of practical religion would be left in a very precarious condition.

II. A real and cogent obligation, for the sanctification of the entire Lord's Day, may be solidly established from the positions laid down by Luther and Calvin, and avowed or implied by Milton. The design of public ordinances is to produce and improve spiritual and internal religion. Outward exercises are of no value, but as the effects and expressions of such a state of mind. To cultivate that state of mind, a cessation from worldly employments, conversation, and trains of thinking, is absolutely necessary: not, indeed, such a cessation as would be servile, and merely mechanical, which would avail nothing to the end designed, but such as is dictated by the enlightened mind and devotional feelings of the genuine Christian, the service of love, delight, and liberty. The necessity of this cessation, and its extent over the hours of domesticity and privacy, may be fully established, from the properties of the human mind, from the associations of sentiment and feeling, and from the advantages of a more abundant and regularly returning opportunity for secret devotion and family instruction. As, then, the great end of life, the noblest and the most universally obligatory, is to procure and advance the holiness and salvation of ourselves, and all whom we can influence, the MORAL OBLIGATION of a sanctified observance of the whole Lord's Day may be inferred in the most conclusive manner.

III. From many passages in the writings of Calvin, it is evident that he reasoned in the manner preceding: and so, it is probable, did others of the Reformers. But it is ever to be lamented that they did not pursue the train of thought to its proper length, nor enforce it agreeably to its vast importance. Perhaps their zeal against the superstitious festivals of the Papacy, betrayed them into an indiscreet break

Ing down of the barriers, and an insensibility to the consequences of the latitude which they were giving. Those consequences have been produced, throughout the Protestant countries of the continent, in that most fearful prostration of vital religion which is so well known; and in the notorious and widespread usurpations of profaneness and infidelity. The Memoir of Governor Bradford, in a contemporary periodical work, shows that, in even the early part of the seventeenth century, the English Puritan exiles found the practice of the Dutch Protestants, in this respect, insupportably distressing. We cannot refrain from transcribing a passage from that respectable work"The moral and religious pre-eminence of Britain over most of the Protestant countries is, in a considerable degree, to be attributed to the great deference she yields to the Lord's Day; and for this great deference she is indebted to the labours and sufferings of our Puritan ancestors. The duty of religiously observing the whole of the Lord's Day, was once regarded as (exclusively) a tenet of Puritanism. Happily the sentiment is not now regarded as a peculiarity of dissent. The Church of England may be considered as having, in this instance, embraced a distinguishing sentiment of the Nonconformists." (Congreg. Mag. July, 1826, p. 339.) A modern German divine, of distinguished learning and ardent piety, though he maintains the doctrine of Luther on the abrogation of the Sabbatical precept, yet mourns over the profanations of the Lord's Day which prevail in his country, and sighs for such an observance of it as English Christians enjoy. (C. H. F. Bialloblotzky, Philos. Doct. de Legis Mosaica Abrogatione, Gotting. 1824, p. 103.)

IV. It appears not to be in harmony with the genius of Christianity, to lay down positive precepts (such as have no intrinsic morality in them, but derive their obligation solely from the will of the lawgiver), and enjoin a rigorous punctuality in the outward or mechanical observance of them. Christianity is "the perfect law of liberty:" its essential precept is LOVE: and this, fixed and reigning in the heart, will bring forth the performance of every particular duty, and all the aids and circumstances of duty, as a 66 reasonable service," and "proving what is the good and acceptable and perfect

will of God." A positive injunction, similar to the Fourth Commandment, would, therefore, seem not to be in unison with the spirit of the gospel. But the end is more completely gained by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," acting upon all external circumstances, and using them so as to be the most subservient to universal sanctification.

V. Arguments of analogy and inference are necessary to lead us to satisfactory conclusions upon many particulars in relation to Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Church - Discipline, FamilyWorship, and the Form or Order of Public Worship and Instruction; and thus we find that these, which are all the Ordinances of the Christian Dispensation, are governed by the principle just mentioned as the genius and spirit of the gospel. It is, therefore, in prior reason, credible that the circumstance of time, for the celebration of ordinances, should be determined upon the same principle: and the determination thus obtained is a part of "the mind of the Spirit," and a matter of moral obligation, as well as in the other cases.

VI. A brief sketch of the analogical argument, for the obligation of keeping holy the first day of the week, is as follows:

That some definite portion of our time ought to be set apart for a special occupation in the greatest of all our interests, is a dictate of reason. Nor less evident is it, that such portion of time should, so far as geographical position admits, be the same for all mankind: otherwise, interminable confusion and mutual annoyance would arise. Yet no human being, or 'collection of human beings, has a right to determine the proportion and the frequency of this appropriated time, and to enjoin the determination on the observance of their fellow-men. GOD alone possesses the wisdom and the authority to do this. The Sabbatic law given to Israel is of itself, were there no other intimations of the Divine will, a sufficient indication that every seventh day is the part and frequency of time most suitable to the end. The reference to a Sabbatic rest on the first day, after the six days of the creation, or disposition of our material system (Gen. ii. 3. Exod. xx. 8.), suggests a reason for the first selection of this aliquot part of time. Philo calls the Sabbath-day, "Tα Tov Koμov τα του κοσμου

Yeveola, the birth-day of the world." Among the heathens, we find the designation of the seventh day as holy, and Its consecration to the worship of the sun; whence it was called the day of the sun. (See Gale's Court of the Gentiles, vol. i. p. 270; and Grotius de Ver. I. xvi.) It cannot be deemed improbable that the honour paid to this day had been derived, by an easy tradition, from the family of Noah. Hence also the Sabbath of the Israelites might be fixed on the day preceding the Sunday of the heathens, for the avoidance of any apparent symbolizing with idolatry. To that precept also was annexed a new and specific reason, which made it a national memorial, and fixed upon it a temporary duration. (Deut. v. 15.) As, therefore, it became abrogated by the expiry of the Levitical dispensation, there appears a propriety in returning to what (if our supposition be correct) was the original appointment. That it was so abrogated is not, indeed, formally asserted, but is in the plainest manner implied, in the inspired declarations of the New Testament, (Gal, iv. 10. Rom. xiv. 5. Col. ii. 16.) The first day of the week, as the primeval Sabbath, commemorative of the creation and given to the parents of the whole human race, would most naturally be resumed by the Christian Dispensation, formed to be universal and perpetual.

But other and independent evidence is derived, in the same way of analogy and inference, from intimations of the New Testament. The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus was the great and crowning fact, confirming the truth of his mission, the merit of his obedience, the validity of his sacrifice, and the dignity of his person. The sun of righteousness lay under a dark eclipse during the Jewish Sabbath; but on the next morning he arose: and then began the renovated moral world, "the New Creation," which, as a display of the Divine perfections, was far to surpass the material earth and heavens: (Is. lxv, 17.) On that day the Lord Jesus shewed himself alive to his disciples, and graciously held communication with them. On the first day of the following week, he again stood in the midst of them and received their homage. On the same day, five weeks afterwards, he poured out his Spirit upon his people, and bore testimony to

the word of his grace in the conversion of three thousand souls. Among the subsequent facts of the New Testament, we find that, "on the first day of the week," the Christians at Troas were in the habit of assembling for the solemnizing of Divine ordinances: (Acts xx. 7.) The incidental manner in which this fact is mentioned, is a powerful evidence that such was the ordinary and well known practice of the churches. It is also worthy of remark, that Paul and his companions had ar rived at Troas on the preceding Monday, and that they resumed their journey on the following Monday; thus authorizing the probable inference, that a principal motive for the delay of a whole week, was, that the apostle might preach to the whole community on the day of their regular assembling for religious worship. The same apostle directed a charitable collection, for the relief of the distressed Christians in Jerusalem, to be made by the Church at Corinth " on the first day of the week" (1 Cor. xvi. 2.), and it appears from the preceding verse, that a similar direction had been given to the Galatian Churches. Thus it is evident, that this reference to the first day of the week, was not a matter of local convenience to the people at Corinth, but was an injunction common to other and far distant churches. Now such apostolic injunctions were 'commandments of the Lord," (chap. xi. 23. xiv, 37.) the dictates of inspiration, and of the very same obligation, as any doctrine or precept delivered by the Lord Jesus during his personal ministry. It is among the foundation principles of the Christian religion, that the ministry of the apostles was, in fact, the very ministry of Christ himself, the continuation and completion of the system which he had designedly left unfinished. (John xvi. 12-15. xx. 22. 1 Thess, iv, 8.) Further, "the Lord's Day" is mentioned in the last book of the New Testament, and is universally admitted to have been no other than the first day of the week: and why was it called the Lord's Day, but to designatę it as set apart by the authority of the Lord, and to his service and honour; as the Scripture authorizes us to say "the Lord's table," and "the Lord's supper?"

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Finally the sanctification of the Lord's Day, from the beginning, as the appre

priated season of Christian ordinances, is one of the most certain facts in Ecclesiastical History. It is attested by Christian writers indubitably genuine, from the second century downwards. The Jewish Sabbath was long observed by some of the early Christians, as a day of religious exercises, not in the neglect of the Lord's Day, but as a kind of preparation for it. That custom went gradually into disuse. The superseded Sabbath was left, as it were, to expire of itself. But the observance of the Lord's Day shews itself, through the first five centuries, in full vigour. It is clearly impossible that the observance should have been thus universally received by the primitive Churches, if they had not known it to have been delivered by "the apostles of the Lord and Saviour;" a source of authority which he that despiseth, "despiseth not man but God."

VII. It is wonderful that our great poet should speak so complacently of "the authority of the Church,” as if it possessed a right to make appointments, to set things apart, and to enjoin their observance, though God had not so commanded. His views, generally just, on the nature of scriptural churches, should have presented to him the great principle, that they are not legislative bodies, that ONE is their Master, even Christ, and that theirs is the happiness of obeying his laws and institutions, without ever presuming to add to them. There are, indeed, some matters of circumstantial and, so to speak, mechanical necessity for the celebration of Divine ordinances; such as place, accommodation, hours of the day, and the length, order, and frequency of services. These must be settled by communities for themselves; and they will properly be regulated according to the convenience and the habits of society, in different ages and countries. In these, all that is wanted is, that the arrangements be simple, adequate but not superfluous, and left to the opinion of other churches, instead of any measures being resorted to in the way of assuming authority, or compelling obedience. A general concurrence in the most convenient plans, will then be the natural and unforced result. But, that the appointment of a stated weekly day of rest from earthly cares and toils, and engagement in the noblest anticipations of eternity, cannot fall under this class

of subjects, is sufficiently evident, from what has been already advanced.

The serious inquirer will find great satisfaction on this subject, in the peru. sal of President Edwards' Three Sermons on the Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath. J. P. S.

ON THE STATE OF OUR LARGE CITIES.

SIR,

I have had the pleasure of perusing the Evangelical Magazine from its commencement, and it forms a part of my library. When it was first ushered into the world, few, indeed, were the Societies and the exertions used for doing good to the souls of men; but now, we can say that the cloud, which was no bigger than a man's hand, has increased and spread, until its beneficial effects are felt to the utmost ends of the earth, and it must still spread, till the knowledge of the Redeemer shall cover the earth.

We have Foreign Missionary Societies, and Home Missionary Societies, with their different Branches, all over the United Kingdom; and it is delightful to hear and to read of the many thousands of pounds which are annually collected to send the Gospel to foreign lands, and the villages of our country; but how little has been done to evangelize our depraved and guilty metropolis, and the large cities and towns of Great Britain. I am, however, disposed to hope that the time is come to pay a more general attention to the heathen in London, of which there is a vast number, who stand as much in need of Missionaries as the heathen in Bengal, or the interior of Africa. I am glad to see, by your Magazine of last month, that "A WATCHMAN" has called the attention of the religious public to this important subject, and hope he will not lay down his pen until the ministers of this great city encourage the members of their churches to go out into the courts, lanes, and alleys, on some part of every Sabbath Day, and, by the distribution of religious Tracts, friendly and affectionate conversation and prayer, constrain Sabbath breakers to come under the sound of the Gospel. This may appear to be a Herculean task, but it really is not. I have no doubt that many thousands may be