MR. brown' S SECOND REPLY. 59 



Human authority futUe. '• The seventh day" of the Decalngne. — moral. 



of which it ever formed an integral part, from the day that 

 it was uttered by the voice of Grod from the blazing summit 

 of Sinai, and was engraven by his finger in the two tables of 

 stone ; distinctions equally sublime and significant, which were 

 never accorded to any of the merely local and temporary laws 

 of Judaism, either civil or ceremonial. 



The La w of the Sabbath, then, beyond all controversy, is 

 " one of these commandments/' And even if ^' one of the 

 lea%t of them/' it is expressly comprehended in the warning 

 of our Lord. And if a thousand Christian divines of the 

 highest distinction, with Luther and Calvin at their head, 

 were to '^ break it and to teach men so/^ from some mistaken 

 view of Christian liberty under the gospel, how would that 

 alter the case ? Will they sit on the throne of final judgment, 

 and pronounce our sentence ? They are but men; great men 

 indeed, but fallible ; and to their own Master, in this matter, 

 they stand or fall. I, too, could quote great divines on my 

 side. But I will not. Let Christ speak for himself. 



Buf the particular day, ^the seventh day,' is also, '^ says 

 my friend, '''' an integral portion of the Decalogue. Is that 

 also acknowledged to be of a moral nature?" (p. 23.) This 

 I have so fully answered already under the preceding Propo- 

 sition, that I should not advert to it again, except to correct 

 my friend, who quotes me as allowing " that a jyart of the 

 Decalogue is not of a moral nature. '^ I have made no such 

 exception. The seventh day of the Decalogue I hold to be a 

 part of the moral law of the Sabbath, but not the mere cir- 

 cumstance of its order or 7)iode of designation. Half the dis- 

 pute at least, on this subject, springs from confounding two 

 things perfectly distinct in their nature, viz : the seventh day 

 of the Decalogue, and the seventh day of the Jevnsh week. 

 The connection was fixed by statute only for that people. 

 This therefore may be changed by competent authority; I 

 mean by the authority of "the Lord of the Sabbath day," 

 without touching " one jot or tittle" of the Decalogue. And 



