MR. brown' S FIRST REPLY. 15 



The Sabba th established at the creation. A calumnious accusation. 



for this, regular times must be observed by common consent. 

 But common consent cannot be expected without divine au- 

 thority. For a weekly Sabbath, rather than one oftener or 

 more seldom, is not of itself obvious, and every tenth day, or 

 every fifth, or any other proportion, might have its advocates ; 

 just as in the case of Marriage there are found men to advocate 

 Polygamy, or Divorce at pleasure. Hence it pleased Grod to de- 

 termine the Law, both of Marriage and of the Sabbath, at the 

 beginning of the world. {Gen. i. and ii.) And yet this writer 

 tells us that the Sabbath is '' strictly a Jewish institution !'' An 

 institution "made for man/' established at the beginning of the 

 world, and founded on reasons of universal and perpetual force, 

 a strictly Jewish institution! An institution "strictly Jew- 

 ish," though instituted by God two thousand years at least 

 before a Jew was born ! The idea is preposterous. The pas- 

 sages of Scripture referred to teach no such palpable contradic- 

 tion. That God gave this institution to the Jews, as He gave 

 the rest of the Decalogue, and that its strict observance by 

 them as a nation would be "a sign" of His covenant with 

 them, proves nothing of the kind. This Second Proposition, 

 then, if the Scriptures are to decide, is palpably false. 



Third. — "As confirmatory of this, Jesus studiously and 

 repeatedly violated the Sabbath (compare 3Iatt. xii. 1, 2, 

 with Exod. xvi. 28, 29, and JVumb. xv. 32, 86; also John 

 v. 8, 9, 10, with Jerem. xvii. 22); and justified this violation 

 by the direct assertion of his right, and (by necessary implica- 

 tion) of his intent to abolish it. ' The Sabbath was made for 

 man, and not man for the Sabbath ; therefore, the Son of Man 

 is Lord even of the Sabbath V— {Mark ii. 27, 28.)" 



If this Proposition had been drawn up by a Jew, ^'with ma- 

 lice prepense^' against our Lord, it would have less surprised me 

 than it does from a professed Christian. This is the first time I 

 remember to have ever seen ^^Himwho knewno sin" charged 

 with a "studied and repeated violation" of the Law of God. 

 For, whether the Sabbath be of universal obligation or not, it 

 was certainly binding on the Jews, of whom our Lord was one 



