16 OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



Christ an obserrer of the law. 



according to the flesh; for he was "made of a woman, made 

 under the law/' sajs the Apostle ; and if he did thus yiolate 

 it, he was guilty of sin, and not of a sin only, but of a 

 crime which, by the civil code of Moses, was punishable with 

 death ! Can any man in his sober senses believe such a pro- 

 position ? Nor will it avail to say, with W. B. T., that Jesus 

 justified this violation by an assertion of his right and intent 

 to abolish it. Even if this were true (which I do not admit), 

 that does not relieve the case ; for certainly it was then in force 

 (as this writer'B language implies), and every Jew, including 

 Jesus himself, was then bound by it. The truth is, our Lord 

 vindicates himself on very different grounds from the charge 

 of breaking the Sabbath. He reasons with his calumniators 

 on grounds admitted by themselves ; that his works were works 

 of necessity, mercy, and piety, as much and more so than their 

 own constant practice of offering sacrifice, &c., on the Sabbath, 

 and, therefore, such as were lawful to he done on the Sabbath. 

 And when he rises to the tone of Majesty, and claims to be 

 himself "Lord of the Sabbath,'^ he is careful to put his claim 

 on the broad ground that "the Sabbath was made for man,'' 

 that is, not for the benefit of that peculiar nation, but for the 

 good of the whole human race. This Third Proposition, then, 

 is not merely false, but calumnious, and can only be excused 

 on the ground of radical mistake. 



FouRTH. — "While the Sabbath was thus openly and con- 

 stantly broken by Jesus and his apostles, they never, on the 

 other hand, enjoined, or even encouraged its observance in any 

 manner whatever, either by example, by precept, or by the 

 slightest intimation ; nor can a single passage be found among 

 all the New Testament writers, condemning a neglect of this 

 law, or reproving the 'Sabbath-breaker.''' 



This Proposition has more show of truth than any of the 

 preceding, and so far as it is true shall be respected, though 

 it opens by reaffirming a falsehood already disproved. It is 

 true that they (Jesus and his Apostles) never in express terms 

 enjoin the observance of the Sabbath. Neither do they enjoin 



