men to whom that institution was made known. The promise in Isaiah is not confined to persons who might be desirous of living among the Jews, but extends to all strangers in any part of the world, who, not being proselytes to the Jewish religion, might be induced to forsake idolatry, and to observe the sabbath "."

"If thou turn

In another place Isaiah says, away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy-day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." This passage has primarily so evident a reference to the Jewish sabbath, that I have not scrupled so to apply it in the preceding section. But when it is considered that the Evangelical prophet is continually extending his view to the future kingdom of grace, that in these latter parts of his predictions he refers more particularly to the blessings of the gospel dispensation, and that he had a

Dodson, Translation of Isaiah, note in loc. See also Dwight, Theology, Serm. 105.

• Isa. lviii. 13, 14.

little before, in the sixty-fifth chapter, referred to the Christian sabbath, it is highly probable that he here treats of the Jewish, with allusion to the Christian festival. "Perhaps, says Bp. Jebb, in no other passage are its duties, its enjoyments, and its rewards, so happily described, as in the text. The prophet writes, no less for Christians, than for Jews. He looks beyond a cold formality of ritual obedience, to the enlarged and free spirit of rational devotion. With him the sabbath breathes, as it ever ought to breathe, the cheerful animation of a festival P."

The

Again, Isaiah says; " As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." chapter from which this is extracted, together with the preceding one, manifestly relate, as Bishop Lowth observes, to the calling of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian dispensation, the reprobation of the apostate Jews, and their destruction by the Romans. The application to the times of the gospel is so extremely

P Bp. Jebb, Sermons on Isa. lviii. 13, 14. p. 140. 4 Isa. lxvi. 22, 23.

evident, that those who are apt to be somewhat sceptical in the interpretation of prophecy have not denied it, as Grotius, Le Clerc, and Dathe. In the prophetical description of the new economy it is declared, that all flesh should worship the Lord, "from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another;" that is, as many understand it, believers should offer up their public devotions, not only every month, but on every sabbath day. It must be allowed however, that the expressions may only be intended to signify generally, that public worship should be offered to the Deity, under the new economy, at the seasons appointed for it, without determining what those seasons should be ".

The same doubt attaches to a passage in Ezekiel wherein mention is made of the sabbath, "Likewise the people of the Lord shall worship

"Omnis generis gentisque homines venient oraturi in subdiali Gentium: idque non tantum fiet singulis mensibus, sed quaque hebdomade." Grotius in loc. Another eminent commentator says on the other hand. "Sensus simplex; conditorum perfectorumque Cœlorum novorum ac Terræ novæ consequens fore, ut tandem omnes per orbem homines, vera religione agnita, ingente zelo statis temporibus Deum publice colant ac venerabundi celebrent atque adorent, et quidem ritu spirituali." Vitringa in loc. A little after he says "Si sub nomine sabbati hic non tantum hebdomadalia, verum etiam omnia sabbata intelligantur; quod in medio relinquo; sufficit mihi, hebdomadalia non excludi."

at the door of this gate before the Lord, in the sabbaths, and in the new moons. And the burntofferings that the prince shall offer unto the Lord in the sabbath day, shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish "." This description occurs in Ezekiel's grand but mysterious vision of a new temple and city, under which is represented the establishment of the universal church of Christ, and the prophet gives a particular direction concerning the service of the sabbath day in the new spiritual state. But whether it is meant that the sabbath should be continued under the new religion and polity, or merely that sacred offices should be performed at stated times, it is not easy to decide. While the general duty of public worship in the future economy is evidently set forth, we cannot but hesitate in inferring the particular manner of its performance from a description so highly parabolical, and abounding with such obscure imagery.

The perpetuity of the sabbath has been argued from the language of the psalmist; "Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord; this gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee; for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The stone which the build

. Ezek. xlvi. 3, 4.

ers refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." That this passage is prophetical of Christ is acknowledged by the generality of divines, for it is expressly referred to him in the New Testament", but that "the day which the Lord hath made,” relates to the Christian observance of the sabbath is a position not so easily defined. By various commentators it is variously explained; but it is most commonly understood of the day on which Christ rose from the dead. Bp. Horsley seems to take it for the day of the resurrection, for he explains this and the cxviith psalm of the angelic host attending round the throne of God in heaven, with Messiah the conqueror in his train, the redeemed. In this, as in several instances of his posthumous notes in the psalms, he is probably more fanciful than just; but whatever may be intended by the expression, it must be allowed to be somewhat ambiguous, and it would there

Ps. cxviii. 19-24.

" Matt. xxi. 42. Mark xii. 10. Luke xx. 17. Acts iv. 11. Ephes. ii. 20. 1 Peter ii. 4.

Michaclis, Nota Uberiores in Hagiographos, in loc.; Poli Synop. in loc. Dwight strenuously urges it in favour of the perpetuity of the sabbath, but his reasoning is glaringly weak: no unusual thing with that writer.