LECTURES

ON

THE DIATESSARON.

PART IV.

32. THE cure of a man who had been lame thirty-eight years, and had long waited in vain at the pool of Bethesda, gave rise to a memorable discourse. Like several of our Lord's miracles it was wrought upon the Sabbath-day, to try the faith both of the person cured and of spectators. On this occasion he takes a higher ground than before, and instead of referring to the nature of the work performed, justifies himself by the example of God, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;" an argument which could have no weight in the mouth of a mere man. His enemies con

Не

sidered it as equivalent to claiming equality with God; and instead of denying their conclusion, or explaining away his declaration, he goes on to confirm it by asserting, that the Son performs the same acts as the Father, and that the final judgment of mankind has been entirely made over to him, because of his partaking of the nature of man. declares that he ought to receive from men the same honour as the Father, and that whoever refuses to do this, does not really honour the Father. The Anti-Trinitarian pleads, that the worshipper of Christ robs the Father of the honour due to him, by paying it also to his Son; but if he believes that these words were indeed spoken by him, how can he satisfy himself with disobeying a positive command, and think that God can be dishonoured by our acting according to his pleasure. The apostle, when he tells us that every tongue is to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to prevent such an inference, adds, that it is to the glory of God the Father, Phil. ii. 1. He then tells his hearers that they are inexcusable in rejecting him, because he had in his favour the testimony of the Baptist, whom they acknowledged as an inspired teacher; and he had a more decisive testimony than

P

that of any man, the testimony of God himself, as proclaimed at his baptism by a voice from heaven, and as manifested by his power of working miracles. He appealed likewise to the Scriptures, as bearing such testimony to him, that Moses himself, who wrote of him, and in whom they trusted, would hereafter condemn them for wilful blindness; for they had no desire to come to him, they had no real love of God, though they affected to be jealous of his honour; and their thirst for human praise was incompatible with seeking the honour that came from him. Let it be noted that their inability to believe was not of a physical, but of a moral nature; they could not because they would not; it was not a natural defect, which would have made them objects of pity, but an unwillingness, which rendered them sinful. There have been modern Christians, who like these Jews could not discover Christ in the Pentateuch; yet surely after this speech, it becomes them to think that they, like Jews, must read it with a veil over their hearts.

33, 34. This is followed by two other events which likewise took place upon the Sabbath-day, and gave Jesus an opportunity of laying down the principle which ought to regulate its observance, the benefit of man. The first was the disciples plucking the ears of corn as they walked through the fields; the second, his curing a man with a withered band. The Pharisees chose to consider the first as a kind of reaping, and therefore a manual work. Our Saviour silenced them by the example of David, who when hungry on his flight from Saul, ate of the loaves* of the presence, which the priests alone were permitted to eat, and whom they did not blame, because necessity excused the dispensing with a ceremonial institution. He also proved that the rigid observance of the Sabbath which they required was impracticable, by shewing that the priests themselves were obliged on that day to perform many acts of manual labour preparatory to the temple service. He subjoins, "One greater than the temple is here," intimating that if the priests were blameless for an unavoidable breach of the Sabbath when incompatible with a higher duty, no censure should attach to his disciples, if they should break it by attendance on a master, who was more truly than that building, the temple of God.

The man with a withered hand was healed in the synagogue. His cure was the reward of faith. He is ordered

* These loaves, called by our translators the "shew-bread," were twelve, according to the number of the tribes; they were replaced every Sabbath, upon a table in the outer sanctuary, and were designed as a memorial of their dependence upon God for the necessaries of life.

to stretch out his hand; now the ability to do this is the very power he wants: had he refused, pleading inability, his hand would have continued as it was, but he endeavours to obey the order, and in the endeavour he obtains the power. Thus, in moral precepts, whatever God commands us to do, he likewise promises to do for us, " Make you a new heart and a new spirit," Ezek. xviii. 31. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you," Ezek. xxxvi. Whatever metaphysical difficulties may present themselves in the attempt to reconcile our freedom of action with the Divine decrees, still the language of the Bible is plain; "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean," saith the Almighty, without whose grace we can do nothing :-but how? Are we to wait in idleness for the accomplishment of his pleasure? No, no more than the cultivator of the soil, who ploughs and sows not the less, because it is "God that giveth the increase;" we must both labour and pray, "I will yet for this be inquired of to do it for them," Ezek. xviii. We must exert ourselves as much as if all was in our own power; our reliance upon Divine aid must be as strong as if we could do nothing. The subject of this miracle, and the others cured on the Sabbath-day, had, we may presume, the same prejudices upon that subject as the rest of their countrymen ; and therefore, this supposed infraction of the commandment heightened the trial of their faith.

On this last occasion our Lord silenced them by an argumentum ad hominem. If a Jew did not scruple to take out of a pit his sheep, though it fell into it on the sabbath day, either out of regard to his property, or in compassion to the animal, could they object to his delivering a man from a disease, or restoring to him the use of a limb, upon that day? As the gospel contains several instances in which a rigid and servile observance of the sabbath is censured, in the present age, when the opposite error has succeeded, there are persons who justify the laxity of their own practice from our Lord's example and remarks. This example and these remarks however do not extend beyond works of necessity and charity; and as he assures us that (to use Hosea's words) "God prefers mercy to sacrifice," we need not scruple, whenever the two interfere, to omit the appropriate duties of the sabbath. But let us not deceive ourselves, but be satisfied that they really interfere, and remember that they cannot be fairly said to do so when the work proposed may be done as well on the day after. If it be (as we profess by calling it the Lord's day) consecrated to his service, we shall not consider that we have discharged our duty by

attendance on public worship: but how our time should be di vided between religious occupation, such as meditation, selfexamination, private prayer, the perusal of the Bible and other books of piety, and innocent relaxation, must be left to each individual's discretion: only let him remember, that what is a duty is at the same time the means of grace; and that if he follow the prophet's direction of not doing his own ways, or finding his own pleasure, or speaking his own words, on God's holy day, he will in the end find it a delight, (Isa. lviii.) and rejoice at its return. Worldly business desecrates it no less than worldly pleasure. Travelling or riding is a gross violation of it, which occasions the breaking of it by others, and deprives animals of the rest which God has kindly designed for them. The busy should resolve not to write letters upon it, the studious to refrain from secular study. The rule our Saviour gives is, that the Sabbath was made for the sake of man, that is, for the promotion of his true happi ness; and as man is an immortal and responsible being, his happiness must be considered with a reference to eternity.

Such an employment of the Lord's day would be a wise and a rational one, even if it was not obligatory, and many there are who consider the fourth commandment as no longer binding. These regard it only as they do saint days, that is, as enjoined to be kept holy by the church. I believe it to have been sanctified by the Creator, and commanded by him to be kept holy by all mankind; but as the case is not a plain one, I will briefly state the principal arguments upon this side. Paley argues for its abolition in his Moral Philosophy, considering it as an institution of the Jewish law; but his arguments (which do not seem worthy of him) have I think been decidedly confuted by Bishop Horseley, Sermons 21-23, and Dr. Dwight, System of Theology, vol. iv. 107. He supposes that it is mentioned in the beginning of Genesis by way of anticipation; but this the text does not warrant, and if it does not, a command given to the Parent of the human race long before the institution of the ceremonial law, must be binding upon all his descendants. This further appears from the reason there assigned for keeping it holy; and as to this is now superadded, on the change of the day, or it may be, substituted, the commemoration of redemption; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews the rest enjoined on it, is declared to be typical of the rest that remaineth to the people of God in heaven, it seems to be binding on Christians. The second time the sabbath is mentioned in the Bible is in the wilderness with a reference to the manna, Exodus xvi. 23, previous to the giving of the law, in a manner that implies it was already kept, for no explanation of it is

given. Besides it forms one of the ten commandments, the rest of which are allowed to be moral, and of universal and perpetual obligation. The presumption then is that the fourth is of the same nature, especially as the time of worshipping God is independent of the mode of doing it, and convenience and human frailty seem to require some season to be set apart for the duty. It is spoken of by Isaiah (lvi. 4, 7.) in a connection which shews that he is prophesying of gospel days; and finally, it is not probable that Christ, (who told the woman of Samaria that the time was come, when God looked only to the heart of the worshipper, not to a favoured spot,) when rectifying the Jewish errors concerning the Sabbath, should have given no hint if he had designed not to regulate but to abolish it. The church of England, by incorporating the fourth commandment into her service, and calling upon us to pray God to incline our hearts to keep it, seems to pledge her members to its observance. The change of day is the principal difficulty; yet we collect from the New Testament, that the alteration was made by the apostles, doubtless by Divine authority; and the substitution of the first instead of the last day of the week, seems to have been previously designed; for that great Jewish feast which became the commencement of the Christian church, when "the law went forth from Zion" instead of Sinai, was so arranged as to fall upon a Sunday, and both the Psalmist and Isaiah apparently foretel it. (Ps. cxviii.) "This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy," Isa. lxv. 17.

Our Lord's miracles, instead of producing as they would on candid minds, if not an acknowledgment of error, at least change of conduct, so irritated these perverters of the real design of the Sabbath, that they deliberated with the partisans of Herod, how they might even destroy him. He therefore retired to the lake side, being followed by multitudes, and performing a series of miraculous cures.

35. He next selected the twelve apostles to be constantly with him; and the preceding night he passed in solitude, in intense prayer; teaching us thereby that previous to any

* Εν τη προσευχη του Θεου, not therefore literally rendered by our translators in prayer to God; but probably as in the phrase EXETE TITIV OLOV, the name of the Deity, according to a well known Hebrew idiom, is added to mark a high degree, as Nineveh, a large and irreligious city, is said to be great to God; and Moses is described by Stephen as agsios v Oso, beautiful to God, "exceeding fair," (Acts