MR. TAYLOR' S FIRST REPLY. 25 



The Sabbath a " shadow." An occasion of reciprocal Fiirprise. 



from all the previous considerations, would itself be conclusive. 

 No one will pretend that a shadow or type can be other thau 

 ritual. It will not do to " venture to affirm'^ that this does 

 ^' not refer to the Sabbath of the Decalogue.'^ The assumption 

 is '^ without a shadow of proof. I meet it with an unequivocal 

 denial.'' The language of the text is comprehensive and un- 

 qualified. The weekly Sabbaths are certainly at least as much 

 included in the phrase ^' Sabbath-days" as any other '^ ceremo- 

 nial fasts and festivals of the Jews.'' — " This is clear from the 

 context/^ and confirmed by the uniform tenor of the other 

 Epistles. He who asserts a limitation of its application must 

 clearly prove it. In no single instance, is the word so limited 

 in the whole New Testament. Now, is it credible that the 

 Apostle should discard '^ Sabbath-days/^ without any excep- 

 tion, and yet use the word in an unfamiliar sense, and intend 

 his readers still to be bound by " an holy day ?" ^* The idea 

 is preposterous.'' "We are therefore justified in the confident 

 announcement that the Sabbath icas a ^' strictly Jewish and 

 ceremonial institution.^^ 



III. The Third Proposition, that Jesus studiously and re- 

 peatedly violated the Sabbath, J. N. B., by a circuitous inti- 

 mation, chargés ^'with malice prepense :'^ but when he boldly 

 avows that, " if he did thus violate it, he was guilty of sin [!], 

 and not of a sin only, but of a erme, which by the civil code of 

 Moses was punishable with death !'^ and that, as the law " was 

 ihen in force, every Jew, including Jesus himself, was then bound 

 by it \" I must confess an astonishment at least equal to his 

 own ; and so we stand, " well met'^ in mutual amaze ! I am 

 compelled to say with him, that from a Jew " it would have 

 less surprised me than it does from a professed Christian." I 

 hope, however, to be able to relieve him from his surprise, 

 much more completely than I can expect to be relieved myself. 



If Jesus has been " charged with a ^ repeated violation' of 

 the law of God,'^ there is one circumstance, at least, that ap- 

 8 



