from work was enjoined, not only upon Jews other. It is on this account that the question by birth, or religious profession, but upon all concerning the date of the institution was first who resided within the limits of the Jewish to be considered. The former opinion precludes state; that the same was to be permitted to all debate about the extent of the obligation: their slaves and their cattle; that this rest the latter admits, and, primâ facie induces a was not to be violated, under pain of death: belief, that the Sabbath ought to be considered "Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath- as part of the peculiar law of the Jewish policy, day, he shall surely be put to death." Exod. Which belief receives great confirmation xxxi. 15. Beside which, the seventh day was from the following arguments: to be solemnised by double sacrifices in the The Sabbath is described as a sign between temple:-"And on the Sabbath-day two lambs God and the people of Israel :-" Wherefore of the first year without spot, and two tenth- the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with to observe the Sabbath throughout their ge oil, and the drink offering thereof; this is the nerations for a perpetual covenant; it is a sign burnt-offering of every Sabbath, beside the between me and the children of Israel for ever.” continual burnt-offering and his drink offer- Exodus xxxi. 16, 17. Again: "And I gave ing." Numb. xxviii. 9, 10. Also holy convocations, which mean, we presume, assemblies for the purpose of public worship or religious instruction, were directed to be holden on the Sabbath-day: "the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, an holy convocation." Levit. xxiii. 3.

then my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them; moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezek. xx. 12. Now it does not seem easy to understand how the Sabbath could be a sign between God and the people of Israel, unless the observance of it was peculiar to that people, and designed to be so.

And accordingly we read, that the Sabbath was in fact observed amongst the Jews by a scrupulous abstinence from every thing which, by any possible construction, could be deemed The distinction of the Sabbath is, in its nalabour; as from dressing meat, from travelling ture, as much a positive ceremonial institution,as beyond a Sabbath-day's journey, or about a that of many other seasons which were appointsingle mile. In the Maccabean wars, they ed by the Levitical law to be kept holy, and to suffered a thousand of their number to be slain, be observed by a strict rest; as the first and rather than do any thing in their own defence seventh days of unleavened bread; the feast on the Sabbath-day. In the final siege of Je-of Pentecost; the feast of tabernacles: and in rusalem, after they had so far overcome their the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, the Sabscruples as to defend their persons when at-bath and these are recited together. tacked, they refused any operation on the Sab- If the command by which the Sabbath was bath-day, by which they might have inter-instituted be binding upon Christians, it must rupted the enemy in filling up the trench. Af-) be binding as to the day, the duties, and the ter the establishment of synagogues, (of the ori-penalty; in none of which it is received. gin of which we have no account,) it was the The observance of the Sabbath was not one custom to assemble in them on the Sabbath-of the articles enjoined by the Apostles, in day, for the purpose of hearing the law re- the fifteenth chapter of Acts, upon them— hearsed and explained, and for the exercise, it" which, from among the Gentiles, were turnis probable, of public devotion: "For Moses ed unto God."

of old time hath in every city them that preach St. Paul evidently appears to have considerhim, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-ed the Sabbath as part of the Jewish ritual, day." The seventh day is Saturday; and, a- and not obligatory upon Christians as such : greeably to the Jewish way of computing the "Let no man therefore judge you in meat day, the Sabbath held from six o'clock on the Friday evening, to six o'clock on Saturday evening. These observations being premised, we approach the main question, Whether the command by which the Jewish Sabbath was instituted, extend to us?

or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Col. ii. 16, 17.

I am aware of only two objections which can be opposed to the force of these arguments; one If the Divine command was actually deliver- is, that the reason assigned in the fourth comed at the creation, it was addressed, no doubt, mandment for hallowing the seventh day, nameto the whole human species alike, and conti- ly, "because God rested on the seventh day nues, unless repealed by some subsequent reve- from the work of the creation," is a reason lation, binding upon all who come to the know-which pertains to all mankind: the other, that ledge of it. If the command was published the command which enjoins the observance for the first time in the wilderness, then it was of the Sabbath is inserted in the Decalogue, immediately directed to the Jewish people a- of which all the other precepts and prohibi. lone; and something further, either in the sub- tions are of moral and universal obligation. ject or circumstances of the command, will be necessary to show, that it was designed for any

Upon the first objection it may be remark. ed, that although in Exodus the commandment

is founded upon God's rest from the creation, distinction between positive and natural du. in Deuteronomy the commandment is repeat-ties, like other distinctions of modern ethics, ed with a reference to a different event:- was unknown to the simplicity of ancient lan"Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy guage; and that there are various passages in work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Scripture, in which duties of a political, or cethe Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any remonial, or positive nature, and confessedly work; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, of partial obligation, are enumerated, and withnor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, out any mark of discrimination, along with nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy others which are natural and universal. Of cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy this the following is an incontestable example. gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-" But if a man be just, and do that which is servant may rest as well as thou: and remem lawful and right; and hath not eaten upon ber that thou wast a servant in the land of the mountains, nor hath lifted up his eyes to Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought the idols of the house of Israel; neither hath thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord near to a menstruous woman; and hath not thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor day." It is farther observable, that God's rest his pledge; hath spoiled none by violence: from the creation is proposed as the reason of hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath the institution, even where the institution it-covered the naked with a garment; he that self is spoken of as peculiar to the Jews: hath not given upon usury, neither hath taken "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep any increase; that hath withdrawn his hand the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath through- from iniquity; hath executed true judgment out their generations, for a perpetual covenant: between man and man; hath walked in my it is a sign between me and the children of statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he Lord God." Ezekiel xviii. 5-9. The same rested and was refreshed." The truth is, these thing may be observed of the apostolic decree different reasons were assigned, to account for recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts: different circumstances in the command. If a " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and Jew inquired, why the seventh day was sancti- to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen than fied rather than the sixth or eighth, his law these necessary things, that ye abstain from told him, because God rested on the seventh meats offered to idols, and from blood, and day from the creation. If he asked, why was from things strangled, and from fornication: the same rest indulged to slaves? his law bade from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do him remember, that he also was a slave in the well." land of Egypt, and "that the Lord his God brought him out thence." In this view, the two reasons are perfectly compatible with each other, and with a third end of the institution, its being a sign between God and the people of Israel; but in this view they determine nothing concerning the extent of the obligation. If the reason by its proper energy had constituted a natural obligation, or if it had been mentioned with a view to the extent of the obligation, we should submit to the conclusion that all were comprehended by the command who are concerned in the reason, But the sabbatic rest being a duty which results from the ordination and authority of a positive law, the reason can be alleged no farther than as it explains the design of the legis lator: and if it appear to be recited with an intentional application to one part of the law, it explains his design upon no other; if it be mentioned merely to account for the choice of the day, it does not explain his design as to the extent of the obligation.

II. If the law by which the Sabbath was in.. stituted, was a law only to the Jews, it becomes an important question with the Chris tian inquirer, whether the Founder of his religion delivered any new command upon the subject; or, if that should not appear to be the case, whether any day was appropriated to the service of religion by the authority or example of his apostles.

The practice of holding religious assemblies upon the first day of the week, was so early and universal in the Christian Church, that it carries with it considerable proof of having originated from some precept of Christ, or of his apostles, though none such be now extant. It was upon the first day of the week that the disciples were assembled, when Christ appeared to them for the first time after his resurrection; "then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst of them." John xx. 19. This, for any With respect to the second objection, that thing that appears in the account, might, as to inasmuch as the other nine commandments are the day, have been accidental; but in the 26th confessedly of moral and universal obligation, verse of the same chapter we read that "after it may reasonably be presumed that this is of eight days," that is, on the first day of the week the same; we answer, that this argument will following," again the disciples were within ;" have less weight when it is considered that the which second meeting upon the same day of

tian testimony is depreciated and traduced; and by which nevertheless, he may find his persuasion afterwards unsettled and perplexed?

BOOK VI.

ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE,

CHAPTER I.

But the enemies of Christianity have pur. sued her with poisoned arrows. Obscenity itself is made the vehicle of infidelity. The awful doctrines, if we be not permitted to call them the sacred truths, of our religion, together with all the adjuncts and appendages of its worship and external profession, have been sometimes impudently profaned by an unnatural conjunction with impure and lascivious images. The fondness for ridicule is almost universal and ridicule to many minds, is never so irresistible, as when seasoned with obscenity, and employed upon religion. But in pro- OF THE ORIGIN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. portion as these noxious principles take hold of the imagination, they infatuate the judg- GOVERNMENT, at first, was either patriment for trains of ludicrous and unchaste as-archal or military: that of a parent over his sociations adhering to every sentiment and men - family, or of a commander over his fellow. tion of religion, render the mind indisposed to receive either conviction from its evidence, or impressions from its authority. And this effect being exerted upon the sensitive part of our frame, is altogether independent of argu-earth mature and independent, it would be ment, proof, or reason; is as formidable to a true religion, as to a false one; to a well grounded faith, as to a chimerical mythology, or fabulous tradition. Neither, let it be ob. served, is the crime or danger less, because impure ideas are exhibited under a veil, in covert and chastised language.

warriors.

I. Paternal authority, and the order of domestic life, supplied the foundation of civil government. Did mankind spring out of the

found perhaps impossible to introduce subjec tion and subordination among them: but the condition of human infancy prepares men for society, by combining individuals into small communities, and by placing them from the. beginning, under direction and control. A family contains the rudiments of an empire. The authority of one over many, and the disposition to govern and to be governed, are in this way incidental to the very nature, and coeval no doubt with the existence, of the human species.

Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Every mind which wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most important of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, as violating no less the laws of reasoning, than the rights of Moreover, the constitution of families not decency. There is but one description of men, only assists the formation of civil government, to whose principles it ought to be tolerable; by the dispositions which it generates, but also I mean that class of reasoners who can see furnishes the first steps of the process by which little in Christianity, even supposing it to be empires have been actually reared. A parent true. To such adversaries we address this re- would retain a considerable part of his authoflection. Had Jesus Christ delivered no other rity after his children were grown up, and had declaration than the following-"The hour formed families of their own. The obedience is coming, in the which all that are in the of which they remembered not the beginning, grave shall hear his voice, and shall come would be considered as natural; and would forth: they that have done good, unto the re-scarcely, during the parent's life, be entirely surrection of life; and they that have done or abruptly withdrawn. Here then we see the evil, unto the resurrection of damnation :"he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his mission was introduced and attested: a message in which the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to their inquiries. It is idle to say, that a future state had been discovered already :it had been discovered as the Copernican system was, it was one guess among many. He alone discovers, who proves; and no man can prove this point, but the teacher who testifies by miracles that his doctrine comes from God.

second stage in the progress of dominion. The first was, that of a parent over his young children; this, that of an ancestor presiding over his adult descendants.

Although the original progenitor was the centre of union to his posterity, yet it is not probable that the association would be immediately or altogether dissolved by his death. Connected by habits of intercourse and affection, and by some common rights, necessities, and interests, they would consider themselves as allied to each other in a nearer degree than to the rest of the species. Almost all would be sensible of an inclination to continue in the

The causes which have introduced hereditary dominion into so general a reception in the world, are principally the following :—the influence of association, which communicates to the son a portion of the same respect which was wont to be paid to the virtues or station of the father; the mutual jealousy of other competitors; the greater envy with which all behold the exaltation of an equal, than the continuance of an acknowledged superiority; a reigning prince leaving behind him many adherents, who can preserve their own importance only by supporting the succession of his children: add to these reasons, that elections to the supreme power having, upon trial, produced destructive contentions, many states would take a refuge from a return of the same calamities in a rule of succession; and no rule presents itself so obvious, certain, and intelligible, as consanguinity of birth.

The ancient state of society in most coun

society in which they had been brought up; came hereditary, or in what manner sovereign and experiencing, as they soon would do, many power, which is never acquired without great inconveniences from the absence of that au-, merit or management, learns to descend in a thority which their common ancestor exercised, succession which has no dependance upon any especially in deciding their disputes, and di- qualities either of understanding or activity. recting their operations in matters in which it was necessary to act in conjunction, they might be induced to supply his place by a formal choice of a successor; or rather might willingly, and almost imperceptibly, transfer their obedience to some one of the family, who by his age or services, or by the part he possessed in the direction of their affairs during the lifetime of the parent, had already taught them to respect his advice, or to attend to his commands; or lastly, the prospect of these inconveniences might prompt the first ancestor to appoint a successor; and his posterity, from the same motive, united with an habitual deference to the ancestor's authority, might receive the appointment with submission. Here then we have a tribe or clan incorporated under one chief. Such communities might be increased by considerable numbers, and fulfil the purposes of civil union without any other or more regular convention, constitution, or form of government, than what we have de-tries, and the modern condition of some unscribed. Every branch which was slipped off from the primitive stock, and removed to a distance from it, would in like manner take root, and grow into a separate clan. Two or three of these clans were frequently, we may suppose, united into one. Marriage, conquest, mutual defence, common distress, or more accidental coalitions, might produce this effect. II. A second source of personal authority, and which might easily extend, or sometimes perhaps supersede, the patriarchal, is that which results from military arrangement. In wars, either of aggression or defence, manifest families, whom society in war, or the approach necessity would prompt those who fought on of some common danger, had united. Suppose the same side to array themselves under one a country to have been first peopled by shipleader. And although their leader was ad- wreck on its coasts, or by emigrants or exiles vanced to this eminence for the purpose only, from a neighbouring country; the new settlers, and during the operations, of a single expedi- having no enemy to provide against, and occution, yet his authority would not always ter-pied with the care of their personal subsistminate with the reasons for which it was con-ence, would think little of digesting a system ferred. A warrior who had led forth his tribe of laws, of contriving a form of government, against their enemies with repeated success, or indeed of any political union whatever; but would procure to himself, even in the delibera- each settler would remain at the head of his tions of peace, a powerful and permanent influence. If this advantage were added to the authority of the patriarchal chief, or favoured by any previous distinction of ancestry, it would be no difficult undertaking for the person who possessed it to obtain the almost absolute direction of the affairs of the community; especially if he was careful to associate to himself proper auxiliaries, and content to practise the obvious art of gratifying or removing those who opposed his pretensions.

civilized parts of the world, exhibit that appearance which this account of the origin of civil government would lead us to expect. The earliest histories of Palestine, Greece, Italy, Gaul, Britain, inform us, that these countries were occupied by many small independent nations, not much perhaps unlike those which are found at present amongst the savage inhabitants of North America, and upon the coast of Africa. These nations I consider as the amplifications of so many single families; or as derived from the junction of two or three

own family, and each family would include all of every age and generation who were descended from him. So many of these families as were holden together after the death of the original ancestor, by the reasons and in the method above recited, would wax, as the individuals were multiplied, into tribes, clans, hordes, or nations, similar to those into which the ancient inhabitants of many countries are known to have been divided, and which are still found wherever the state of society and But although we may be able to comprehend manners is immature and uncultivated. how by his personal abilities or fortune one! Nor need we be surprised at the early existman may obtain the rule over many, yet it ence in the world of some vast empires, or at seems more difficult to explain how empire be- ' the rapidity with which they advanced to their

greatness, from comparatively small and obscure originals. Whilst the inhabitants of so many countries were broken into numerous communities, unconnected, and oftentimes contending with each other; before experience had taught these little states to see their own danger in their neighbour's ruin; or had instructed them in the necessity of resisting the aggrandisement of an aspiring power, by alliances, and timely preparations; in this condition of civil policy, a particular tribe, which by any means had gotten the start of the rest in strength or discipline, and happened to fall under the conduct of an ambitious chief, by directing their first attempts to the part where success was most secure, and by assuming, as they went along, those whom they conquered into a share of their future enterprises, might soon gather a force which would infallibly overbear any opposition that the scattered power and unprovided state of such enemies could make to the progress of their victories.

Lastly, our theory affords a presumption, that the earliest governments were monarchies, because the government of families, and of armies, from which, according to our account, civil government derived its institution, and probably its form, is universally monarchical

CHAPTER II.

still returns; How are these armies themselves kept in subjection, or made to obey the commands, and carry on the designs, of the prince or state which employs them?

Now, although we should look in vain for any single reason which will account for the general submission of mankind to civil government; yet it may not be difficult to assign for every class and character in the community, considerations powerful enough to dissuade each from any attempts to resist established authority. Every man has his motive, though not the same. In this, as in other instances, the conduct is similar, but the principles which produce it, extremely various.

There are three distinctions of character, into which the subjects of a state may be divided into those who obey from prejudice; those who obey from reason; and those who obey from self-interest.

I. They who obey from prejudice, are de. termined by an opinion of right in their governors; which opinion is founded upon prescription. In monarchies and aristocracies which are hereditary, the prescription operates in favour of particular families; in republics and elective offices, in favour of particular forms of government, or constitution. Nor is it to be wondered at, that mankind should reverence authority founded in prescription, when they observe that it is prescription which confers the title to almost every thing else. The whole course, and all the habits of civil

HOW SUBJECTION TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT life, favour this prejudice. Upon what other

IS MAINTAINED.

foundation stands any man's right to his estate? The right of primogeniture, the succession of COULD we view our own species from a dis-kindred, the descent of property, the inherittance, or regard mankind with the same sortance of honours, the demand of tithes, tolls, of observation with which we read the natu- rents, or services, from the estates of others, ral history, or remark the manners, of any the right of way, the powers of office and maother animal, there is nothing in the human gistracy, the privileges of nobility, the immucharacter which would more surprise us, than nities of the clergy, upon what are they all the almost universal subjugation of strength founded, in the apprehension at least of the to weakness;-than to see many millions of multitude, but upon prescription? To what robust men, in the complete use and exercise else, when the claims are contested, is the apof their personal faculties, and without any peal made? It is natural to transfer the same defect of courage, waiting upon the will of a principle to the affairs of government, and to child, a woman, a driveller, or a lunatic. And regard those exertions of power which have although, when we suppose a vast empire in been long exercised and acquiesced in, as so absolute subjection to one person, and that many rights in the sovereign; and to consider one depressed beneath the level of his species obedience to his commands, within certain acby infirmities, or vice, we suppose perhaps an customed limits, as enjoined by that rule of extreme case: yet in all cases, even the most conscience, which requires us to render to popular forms of civil government, the physical every man his due. strength resides in the governed. In what manner opinion thus prevails over strength, or how power, which naturally belongs to superior force, is maintained in opposition to it; in other words, by what motives the many are induced to submit to the few, becomes an inquiry which lies at the root of almost every political speculation. It removes, indeed, but does not resolve, the difficulty, to say that civil governments are now-a-days almost universally upholden by standing armies; for, the question

In hereditary monarchies, the prescriptive title is corroborated, and its influence considerably augmented by an accession of religious sentiments, and by that sacredness which men are wont to ascribe to the persons of princes. Princes themselves have not failed to take advantage of this disposition, by claiming a superior dignity, as it were, of nature, or a pe culiar delegation from the Supreme Being -For this purpose were introduced the titles of Sacred Maiesty, of God's Anointed, Represen

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