Sunday: its origin, history, and present obligation, considered in 8 lectures. Bampton lect. for 1860

which he has ventured to treat.

Christ, he believes, will

effectually defend His own Day, and preserve it, as hitherto, for His Church. But the present is a time of trial for it, partly from the over-statements and over-strictness of those who look at it solely on its Divine side, partly from the under-statements or laxity of those who look at it solely on its human side. And then there is another difficulty. The Clergy are much divided as to the main points treated of in the Lectures. They are at issue as to the origin of the Lord's Day. The books generally current present them with most incorrect and varying accounts of its history. And it is scarcely too much to say, that cases of conscience brought before them as to what may or may not be done upon it, receive answers perplexingly contradictory. This diversity of opinion among the Clergy tells most unhappily upon the Laity. Even statesmen know not what to do with the Lord's Day-as various abortive attempts at legislation upon it during the last ten or twelve years abundantly testify.

The present Lectures claim but to be a contribution to a fuller and deeper consideration of the subject than it has recently obtained. They have not been thrown together hastily, or without much thought and prayer. And the number of the books which have been consulted, and of the opinions which have been weighed, will at any rate show that the writer's task has been one of no small labour. He has indeed had the subject before him for years, and has been in the habit of noting down whatever he found bearing upon it in the course of his reading. His view was formed, and his

materials were accumulated, for the most part, before his name was proposed to the electors. If he has rendered scanty justice to his great theme, it has not been for lack of industry, or from precipitancy. He has done what he could in a work which every one desired to see attempted, but which every one shrunk from attempting.

The obligations of the writer to those who have preceded him, he has acknowledged by copious references. But he desires here to render especial thanks to Mr. Dyce, R.A. for the perusal of an unpublished paper upon "The Ecclesiastical Sabbatarianism of the Church of Rome, anterior to the Reformation." This afforded him a valuable clew to one of the most difficult portions of the subject. It is stated in the body of the Sixth Lecture, that Hengstenberg on the Lord's Day (Martin's translation, pp. 69–75), has been consulted for the Continental history of the controversies in the seventeenth century. It may be added here, that in some cases the very words of his learned and judicious summary of the events of that period have been adopted. In the Third Lecture two or three passages are taken from Mr. E. V. Neale's "Feasts and Fasts," an erudite and laborious work, of which some use has been made.

Having now completed his task to the best of his ability, the writer commends it to the judgment of his fellowChurchmen, humbly hoping that, however deficient in itself,

may lead some to inquire into and value the Lord's Day, and to glorify Him who is the Lord of it.

POSTSCRIPT.

So short a time has elapsed since the original publication of these Lectures that the writer does not consider it necessary to make a new Preface. The Second Edition is a reprint of the First, with the correction of a few verbal errors. And scarcely any alteration of importance has been admitted into the Notes, with the exception that certain passages in Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, and Augustine, in note 513, have been more fully examined and explained. New matter of this kind has been marked thus []. But the notes themselves have now, what some persons will consider an advantage, references in the text itself. And a copious Index to the whole work has been drawn up by the Rev. Charles Crowden, B.A. of Lincoln College, Oxford, which will undoubtedly be an improvement to this Edition.

As to the reception which the Book has met with, the writer is grateful for the generally liberal tone exhibited by his Reviewers. Some have, of course, disagreed with him fundamentally; others merely in matters of detail. But from nearly all he has received the same courteous and candid treatment of his views, which he endeavoured to maintain

throughout his Lectures in speaking of opinions with which his subject brought him in contact.

Under these circumstances, and as moreover, he has not seen sufficient reason for changing or even modifying the views which he has ventured to set forth, he does not at present say more. One great object of his work, the reconsideration by many thoughtful and earnest persons of the grounds of the observance of Sunday, has been gained.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE Ι.

(Delivered March 11, 1860.)

GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE SABBATH AND LORD'S DAY QUESTION.

MARK XVI. 1, 2, 5, 6.

AND WHEN THE SABBATH WAS PAST, MARY MAGDALENE, AND MARY THE MOTHER

OF JAMES, AND SALOME, HAD BOUGHT SWEET SPICES, THAT THEY MIGHT COME

AND ANOINT HIM. AND VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING THE FIRST DAY OF THE

WEEK, THEY CAME UNTO THE SEPULCHRE AT THE RISING OF THE SUN. AND

ENTERING INTO THE SEPULCHRE, THEY SAW A YOUNG MAN SITTING ON THE

RIGHT SIDE, CLOTHED IN A LONG WHITE GARMENT, AND THEY WERE AFFRIGHTED.

AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, BE NOT AFFRIGHTED: YE SEEK JESUS OF NAZARETH