28 TEE SABBATH. 



In 1G4G the " Confession," after " endless j an- 

 glings/' being agreed upon, it was presented to Parlia- 

 ment, which, in 1648, accepted and published its doc- 

 trinal portion, thus securing uniformity of doctrine as 

 far as it could be secured by legislation. There was no 

 lack of definiteness in the Assembly's statements. They 

 spoke as confidently of the divine enactments as if each 

 member had been personally privy to the counsels of 

 the Most High. When Luther in the Castle of Mar- 

 burg had had enough of the arguments of Zuinglius on 

 the " real presence," he is said to have ended the con- 

 troversy by taking up a bit of chalk and writing firmly 

 and finally upon the table " Hoc est corpus meum." 

 Equally downright and definite were the divines at 

 Westminster. They were modest in offering their 

 conclusions to Parliament as " humble advice," but 

 there was no flicker of doubt either in their theology 

 or their cosmology. " From the beginning of the 

 world," they say, " to the Resurrection of Christ the last 

 day of the week was kept holy as a Sabbath; " while 

 from the Resurrection it "was changed into the first 

 day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord's 

 Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as 

 the Christian Sabbath." The notions of the divines, 

 regarding the " beginning and the end " of the world, 

 were primitive, but decided. An ancient philosopher 

 was once mobbed for venturing the extravagant opinion 

 that the sun, which appeared to be a circle less than a 

 yard in diameter, might really be as large as the whole 

 country of Greece. Imagine a man with the knowledge 

 of a modern geologist lifting up his voice among these 

 Westminster divines ! " It pleased God," they con- 

 tinue, " at the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, 



ous Sabbath-breaking was either followed by death or " grievously 

 punished at the judgment of the court." 



