Israel, are described as worshipping and made joyful together in God's Temple, here declared to be a House for Prayer for all nations. There can therefore be no doubt that it refers to the Gospel dispensation. The parallel drawn in the Epistle to the Hebrews (iv.) between resting from the works of Creation and of Redemption, has also convinced some eminent Theologians, that there remains in this sense to the people of God the keeping of a Sabbath. But the strongest argument is derived from the language of the Lord of the Sabbath, who strongly and repeatedly condemns a superstitious and uncharitable manner of keeping it, yet has never made a remark that has a tendency to annul or even lessen the obligation. He charges them to pray that their flight from Jerusalem should not be on the Sabbath day; and His declaration, that it was made for man, implies that it was designed to continue as long as the race for whose sake it was made. I conclude from these premises, that the commandment was prior to the grant of manna, and that it was given immediately after the Creation to our first parents in Paradise before their fall, and that the day which was the seventh to God, and the first of their existence, was consecrated to His service. If the conclusion be correct, the obligation is not impaired by the abrogation of the Mosaic Code, even if we give up the Fourth Commandment, but continues binding on all their posterity to whom it was transmitted by tradition. Homer and Hesiod, the earliest of profane writers, call the seventh day Holy; and Josephus says, no city of Greeks or Barbarians can be found which does not acknowledge this period of rest from labour."

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The change of Day is the principal difficulty, but it is by no means insurmountable. The institution obviously consists of two parts, the Sabbath, or holy rest, and the Day on which it is observed. These are kept distinct from each other in the original enactment. The Lord rested on the seventh day, and blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. The

keeping holy one day in seven I regard as an ordinance for ever; and this ordinance may be kept as beneficially on the first day of the week as on the seventh, and also as properly, if the festival be transferred by a competent authority. None, we allow, is competent but that which enjoined it. The change is not affirmed in Scripture; but Christians with few exceptions believe, that there are passages from which it may be inferred; and we know, that those who could not be ignorant of the practice of the Apostles, as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenæus, kept the Sabbath on the Lord's day. St. Paul's instructions to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. xvi. 2.) to lay by on the first day of the week, and the manner in which he passed it at Troas (Acts xx. 7.) in preaching and breaking of bread, afford a strong presumption, that the change had then taken place; and the Apocalypse informs us, that Sunday had, in St. John's time, (i. 10.) obtained its appropriate title, which it probably had enjoyed from the time that the Lord made it peculiarly His own, by rising on it from the grave. We infer, that the Apostles, whom He had authorized to bind and to loose, had been instructed to substitute the first instead of the seventh day for the Sabbath of the new Dispensation; and the Author of both seems to have prepared His people for the change, even in the promulgation of the old, by appointing the first day of the week for the Festival of Pentecost, on which Christianity was first announced, and was accredited by the descent of the Holy Ghost, when the Law went forth, instead of Sinai, from Zion. The cxviiith Psalm, memorable for its prediction of our Saviour's triumphant Resurrection, declaring this to be the day which the Lord has made, invites His Church to rejoice in it. The sabbath, after falling into disuse, was revived in the wilderness, as a sign between God and His chosen people, (Ezek. xx.) to keep them from relapsing into idolatry, by reminding them that on that day they were delivered from the Egyptian house of

bondage. As such it ceased with the Jewish economy; but the patriarchal Sabbath, which commemorates Creation, is unaffected by this abrogation; and though Christianity has transferred it to another day, it has not abolished but strengthened the institution, by superadding to its original intention a devout acknowledgment of the superior blessing of Redemption, that is, of the Creation of the New-Man, not like Adam, only in innocence, but like Christ, in righteousness and true holiness. (Eph. iv. 24.) We maintain that God hallowed a seventh portion of time from the beginning, that all men might also hallow it; and let us never forget, that He has also blessed it. All must perceive that it is a blessed institution to the lower classes, as far as their temporal good is concerned; and if we have any spiritual discernment, we shall discover that it is still more blessed to the soul without distinction of rank. It is a fact, that, in proportion as the Sabbath has been honoured in any country, Religion and Morality have flourished; and He who instituted it has often set His seal to the appointment, by making His ministers on this day the instruments of converting sinners, and of strengthening and improving His faithful servants.

35. The appointment of the twelve Apostles. Matt. x. 1—4. Mark iii. 13-19. Luke vi. 12-16.

We have already seen, that Jesus had chosen out of those who believed in Him a select few, to whom He might impart, in the first instance, those doctrines more fully and confidentially, which in due season, after He was withdrawn from them, they were under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, also to communicate to the world. He now called them to a constant attendance, and henceforward they never left Him, except by His command, when He sent them forth on a mission, strictly limited to the Jews. He afterwards con

ferred upon them the power to form, govern, and, through the ministers they should appoint, perpetuate the Church. As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you, is His commission; and as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls our Lord an Apostle, so our Lord designates them as His Apostles, that is, legates or envoys. Four of these had been with Him from the beginning, Peter and Andrew, Philip and Nathaniel; and probably James and John, whom He entitled Sons of Thunder. Levi was called afterwards, and James, Jude, Simon, Thomas, and Judas Iscariot, were now added to complete the number which seems chosen in order to show, that it was God's design, through their ministry, to gather into His fold His ancient people; and Christ Himself says of them, that they shall sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. After the distinction between Jew · and Gentile was done away, the eleven, with Matthias whom they had taken into their number to supply the place of the traitor, proclaimed salvation, in Christ's Name, to all who would accept it; but an extraordinary Apostle, himself also a Jew, and appointed not by men, nor through man, but directly by Jesus from heaven, was the principal agent in the conversion of the Gentiles. The twelve are arranged in pairs, probably because they were afterwards sent out two and two. The arrangement is not exactly the same in the three Gospels; for Matthew modestly puts his own name after that of his associate Thomas, and retains his opprobrious designation Publican, which the other two Evangelists omit. Peter, who is at the head of all, took the lead after the Resurrection, and opened the kingdom of heaven both to Jew and Gentile; but it is clear that he was not appointed the Vicar of Christ, as Governor of the Church, since Christ Himself has expressly declared their equality, saying, that He is their Master, and all ye are brethren. (Matt. xxiii. 8.) Peter, James, and John, however, were most in His

confidence. All were Galileans, and it is observable that several were relations, and others personal friends; thus we have the brethren Andrew and Peter, the two sons of Zebedee, and the three sons of Cleopas. The four former were partners as fishermen; and these, with one if not two more, that is, Philip, and it may be Nathaniel, were natives of the same town, Bethsaida. Four, or, if we may depend upon the tradition that makes Bartholomew the same as Nathaniel, five, were originally disciples of the Baptist, and therefore prepared to follow Jesus, whom their master declared to be the Lamb of God. The testimony borne to Nathaniel by Jesus, shows that he was worthy of this distinction; and what we know of his history renders it probable; for the other disciples of John who believed on Christ were made apostles. He was one of the party fishing, to whom Jesus appeared after the Resurrection; he is not spoken of to supply the place of the traitor; and in all the lists, Bartholomew is paired with Philip, the friend of Nathaniel; and as his name only signifies whose son he was, it may well account for his having another peculiarly his own. Andrew was converted before Peter, whom he brought to Jesus; but the latter is perhaps named first, because the elder; and this may also be the reason of James being placed before John. Thomas appears to have been a fisherman, and his name in his own language, or as translated Didymus, marks him as a twin. James and Jude, both writers of Epistles, were the sons of Cleopas, or Alphæus, and first cousins of our Lord; and relationship to Him might be the reason why the Apostles appointed the former to preside over the Church of Jerusalem. James is called the Less, as younger, perhaps, than his namesake, the son of Zebedee, like whom he suffered martyrdom. Jude or Thaddeus is surnamed Lebbæus by Matthew, to distinguish him from the future traitor, who bears the title of Iscariot, it is thought, from his birth-place. He was entrusted by our