Israelites for a variety of reasons, mostly peculiar to themselves, and which are recorded in different parts of the Mosaic law. First, as a memorial of God's having completed the work of creation on the seventh day. Exod. xx. 11. xxxi. 15-17. "wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. . . . for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Here, although the reason given for the celebration of the Sabbath applies equally to all other nations, the Israelites alone are enjoined to observe it; as is also the case with the command to abstain from creeping things, Levit. xi. 44. " ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth ;" with the law against disfiguring the body, and other similar commands, Deut. xiv. 1, &c. "ye are the children of God;" for the reasons on which these precepts are founded apply equally to believers in general, and to all ages, although the precepts themselves are no longer obligatory. This has been remarked by our countryman Ames.' 'Non est catholicæ

1 Dr William Ames, a Puritan divine in the time of James and Charles the First, and Professor of Divinity in the University of Franeker, a town of the Netherlands, in Friesland. It was partly from the work quoted above, and partly from The Abridgement of Christian Divinitie by Wollebius, that Milton, according to Phillips, compiled for the use of his pupils a system of divinity, which they wrote on Sundays at his dictation. An English translation of Ames's treatise was published by order of the House of Commons in 1642, under the title of The Marrow of Sacred Divinity, drawne out of the Holy Scriptures and the Interpreters thereof, and brought into method. It is divided into two books, of which the first, entitled On Faith in God, contains forty-one chapters, and the second, On Observance toward God, twenty-two. It is quite evident that Milton has frequently availed himself of this volume, both in the distribution of his subject and arrangement of the chapters, which frequently coincide with that of Ames, and in the citation of particular passages and applications of Scripture; though their opinions differ materially on several important points. The translation is very badly executed, as the version of the passage quoted in the text will show. "That rule therefore of interpreting the Scriptures which is wont to be delivered by some, is not universally true that all those duties [are] morall and immutable, which have morall and immutable reasons joyned to them except it be thus understood, that those duties doe follow upon those reasons, no special command coming betweene." Milton quotes in his Tetrachordon the definition of marriage given by Ames, and passes a just censure on it. See Prose Works, III. 343. The Treatise of Wollebius is also divided into

veritatis illa regula interpretandi scripturas quæ tradi solet a quibusdam, officia illa omnia esse moralia et immutabilia quæ rationes morales et immutabiles habent sibi annexas; nisi sic intelligatur ut illa officia sequantur ex illis rationibus, nullo singulari Dei præcepto intercedente.' Ames Medull. Theol. lib. ii. c. 13. This, however, cannot be said either of the precepts above-mentioned, or of the Sabbath.

Secondly, because God was pleased by this distinguishing mark to separate the Israelites from other nations. Exod. xxxi. 13, &c. "it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am Jehovah that doth sanctify you; ye shall keep the sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you." Ezek. xx. 12. "to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctify them." See also v. 20.

Thirdly, that the slaves and cattle might enjoy a respite from labour. Exod. xxiii. 12. "that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed." Deut. v. 12, 14. "keep the sabbath-day

that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou." This reason applies only where servants are in a state of slavery, and subject to severe labour; the condition of hired servants, who are now generally employed, being much easier than that of purchased slaves in old time.

Fourthly, in remembrance of their liberation from Egypt. Deut. v. 15. "remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath-day."

Fifthly, as a shadow or type of things to come. Col. ii. 16, 17. "in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or two parts, On the Knowledge and on the Worship of God, the first comprised in thirty-six, and the second in fourteen chapters. The plan of the latter division is very similar to the corresponding portion of Milton's work; and not only the arguments, but even whole sentences are sometimes almost identically the same. Besides Ames and Wollebius, the following, among the writers who published general systems of divinity between the Reformation and the time of Milton, appear certainly to have been known to him: Calvin (Institutio Christianæ Religionis, first published in 1536, and an enlarged edition in the following year); Episcopius (Institutio, &c. contained in the first volume of his Opera Theologica, Amstel. 1650); Beza (Confessio Christianæ Fidei, 1560); Polanas (Syntagma Theologiæ Christianæ, Han. 1609). An abridgement of Theology will also be found in the first volume of Placeus's Works.

of the sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come : but the body is of Christ." Of what things to come the sabbaths are a shadow, we are taught Heb. iv. 9, 10. namely, of that sabbatical rest or eternal peace in heaven, of which all believers are commanded to strive to be partakers through faith and obedience, following the example of Christ.

Works of charity and mercy were not forbidden on the Sabbath, upon the authority of Christ himself. Mark ii. 27. "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” iii. 4. “is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?" Luke xiii. 15, 16. "doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox-? .... ought not this woman to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day ?” xiv. 5. “which of you shall have an ox or an ass fallen into a pit," &c. John vii. 23. “are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath-day?” Even for a man to take up his bed, v. 11. although consonant to the spirit of the law, was contrary to its letter, Jer. xvii. 21, 22.

Since then the Sabbath was originally an ordinance of the Mosaic law, imposed on the Israelites alone, and that for the express purpose of distinguishing them from other nations, it follows that, if (as was shewn in the former book) those who live under the gospel are emancipated from the ordinances of the law in general, least of all can they be considered as bound by that of the Sabbath, the distinction being abolished which was the special cause of its institution. It was for asserting this in precept, and enforcing it by example, that Christ incurred the heavy censure of the Pharisees, John ix. 16. “this man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath-day.” Gal. iv. 9, 10. "how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." Col. ii. 16, 17. "let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days. If it be contended, that it is only the septennial, and not the seventh day sabbath which is said by St. Paul to be

2 See Book I. Chap. xxvii. and the note in p. 387. To what is there said may be added the following passage from A brief History of Muscovia, chap. i. Milton is speaking of the Russian church. They hold the ten commandments not to concern them, saying that God gave them under the law, which Christ by his death on the cross hath abrogated.

abrogated, I reply, first, that no exception is here made; and, secondly, that it may as well be contended that baptism is not meant, Heb. vi. 2. on account of the plural noun baptisms. Besides, it is certain that the words sabbath and sabbaths are used indiscriminately of the seventh day; Exod. xxxi. 13, 14. Isai. lvi. 2, 4, 6. Whoever therefore denies that under the words of the apostle, "in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days," the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is comprehended, may as well deny that it is spoken of 2 Chron. ii. 4. or viii. 13. or xxxi. 3. from which passages the words of St. Paul seem to be taken.

66

The law of the Sabbath being thus repealed, that no particular day of worship has been appointed in its place, is evident from the same apostle, Rom. xiv. 5. one man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike : let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." For since, as was observed above, no particular place is designated under the gospel for the public worship of God, there seems no reason why time, the other circumstance of worship, should be more defined. If Paul had not intended to intimate the abolition of all sabbaths whatever, and of all sanctification of one day above another, he would not have added in the following verse, "he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.' 993 For how does he not regard the day to the Lord, if there be any commandment still in force by which a particular day, whether the Sabbath or any other, is to be observed ?

It remains to be seen on what they ground their opinion, who maintain that the Lord's day is to be observed as set apart for public worship by divine institution, in the nature of a new sabbath. It is urged, first, that God rested on the seventh day. This is true; and with reason, inasmuch as he had finished a great work, the creation of heaven and earth; if then we are bound to imitate him in his rest, without any command to that effect, (and none has yet been produced,) we are equally bound to imitate his work, according to the fable of Prometheus of old; for rest implies previous labour. 3 What but a vain shadow else is the abolition of those ordinances, that hand-writing nailed to the cross? What great purchase is this Christian liberty which Paul so often boasts of? His doctrine is, that he who eats or eats not, regards a day or regards it not, may do either to the Lord.' Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. Prose Works, II. 97.

4It would be helpful to us if we might borrow such authority as the

They rejoin, that God hallowed that day. Doubtless he hallowed it, as touching himself, for "on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed," Exod. xxxi. 17. but not as touching us, unless he had added an express commandment to that effect; for it is by the precepts, not by the example, even of God himself that we are bound. They affirm again, that the Sabbath was observed previously to the Mosaic law. This is asserted with more confidence than probability; even if it were so, however, (a point as to which we are altogether ignorant) it is equally certain that sacrificial rites, and distinctions between things clean and unclean, and other similar observances, were in force during the same period, which nevertheless are not classed among moral duties.

They urge, however, that the celebration of the Sabbath was subsequently ordained by the fourth commandment. This is true, as regards the seventh day; but how does this apply to the first day? If, on the plea of a divine command, they impose upon us the observance of a particular day, how do they presume, without the authority of a divine command, to substitute another day in its place? or in other words to pronounce, that not merely the seventh day, which was appointed for the observation of the Israelites alone, but any one of the seven may, even on the authority of the fourth commandment itself, be kept holy; and that this is to be accounted an article of moral duty among all nations.

In the first place, I do not see how this assertion can be established, for it is impossible to extort such a sense from the words of the commandment; seeing that the reason for which the command itself was originally given, namely, as a memorial of God's having rested from the creation of the world, cannot be transferred from the seventh day to the first; nor can any new motive be substituted in its place, whether the resurrection of our Lord or any other, without rhetoricians by patent may give us, with a kind of Promethean skill to shape and fashion this outward man into the similitude of a body.' Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty. Prose Works, II. 491. Malui abs te decerpta transcribere, quæ tu Aristoteli, ut ignem Jovi Prometheus, ad eversionem monarcharum, et perniciem ipsius tuam, surripuisti.' Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio. Prose Works, Symmons' ed. V. 115.

5They ought to know, or to remember, that not examples, but express commands oblige our obedience to God or man.' The likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, &c. III. 9.