MR. brown' S SECOND REPLY. 65 



Doing good, lawful. Bishop "\Varburton's argument fallacious. 



with them; and yet to carry it home with him, is construed by 

 my friend W. B. T. as ^' in the very face of the express inter- 

 dict" (in Jer. xvii. 21) against bearing hurdens on the Sab- 

 bath day ! I suppose on the same principle he must consider 

 our Lord's healing on that day a ^^ studied violation of the Sab- 

 bath." Happily we have a hetter authority to assure us, every- 

 where and always, that " it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath 

 day.- 



In truth, the only argument of any weight under this Pro- 

 position (and tliat belongs under the 2^reced ing, and does not 

 sustain this) is drawn from the words of our Lord which I had 

 quoted in proof that the Sabbath is of a moral nature, and of 

 universal force, viz., ^'The Sabbath was made for man, and 

 not man for the Sabbath/' My friend asks, '' Could he have 

 said this of any law but a positive and ceremonial one ? As- 

 suredly not !" (/?. 27.) I answer, Why not? The argument 

 which he quotes from Bishop Warburton, and adopts as 

 decisive of the question, I think is only one of the Bishop's 

 specious fallacies. — Tryit on a kindred case — just substituting 

 the Law of Marriage for the Law of the Sabbath. Axiom, 

 ^' Man was not made for Marriage, but Marriage was made for 

 man.'' Now look at the argument of the Bishop. " Were 

 the observance of the Law of Marriage (in the seventh com- 

 mandment) a natural duty, it is certain man teas made for 

 that law ; the end of his creation being for the observance of 

 the moral law. On the contrary, all positive institutions were 

 made for man.'' And now for my friend's inference. "This 

 furnishes a proof that the [seventh] ccTtnmandment is positive, 

 ceremonial, and Jewish !" Who does not perceive the fallacy 

 of this? 



The truth is, there is a distinction in moral laws, which 

 this argument overlooks altogether. Our Saviour teaches 

 {Matt. v. 19) that some of the precepts of the law of God, 

 though of binding force to the end of time, are yet of less im- 

 portance than others. Some moral laws ai'e fou^ded in moral 



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