in which His honour dwelleth (Ps. xxvi. 8)1, and the Sacraments and Ordinances ordained in His Church 2. In this wider sense, therefore, this Commandment forbids severally all irreverence, levity, and thoughtlessness in regard to holy things, and enjoins the positive duty of honouring God's holy Name, of approaching Him with humility and awe, and treating His Word with reverence, docility, and faith1.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

FOURTH COMMANDMENT. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.

DUTY TOWARDS GOD.

My duty towards God is... to serve Him truly all the days of my life.

I. Institution of the Sabbath. The Sabbathday, or Day of Rest, as the word Remember seems to

13.

1 Comp. also Isai. lvi. 7; 1 Kings vi. 12, 13; Mtt. xxi.

2 Comp. 1 Cor. xi. 17-34.

3 "God hath put His Name into all places appointed for solemn worship. In all places where I record My Name I will come unto thee and bless thee (Exod. xx. 24); God's Name

imply, was not improbably known to the Israelites before the giving of the Law. For a hallowing of the Sabbath by God is mentioned at the Creation (Gen. ii. 2, 3), and a trace of its observance may be found in the regulations respecting the collection of the manna in the wilderness before the Chosen people reached Sinai (Exod. xvi. 23, 30). The observance of it, however, was then definitely enjoined, (i) as a commemoration of the Creation (Exod. xx. 11); (ii) as an ordinance of humanity towards those employed in labour; (iii) as a national memorial of the deliverance from Egypt (Deut. v. 15); and (iv) as the sign of a perpetual covenant between God and the children of Israel for ever (Ex. xxxi. 16, 17; Ezek. xx. 12).

2. Its observance amongst the Jews. In accordance with the Divine command the Sabbath was observed by the Jews not as a fast, but as a day of rest from worldly occupations, and was shared by the whole people, their servants, the stranger within their gates, and even the animals (Ex. xx. 10; Deut. v. 14). All bodily labour was strictly prohibited, and wilful desecration of the Day was punished with stoning (Exod. xxxi. 14; Num. xv. 35).

3. The Lord's Day. Of this Commandment, then, the Moral part is that a certain time be set apart for the worship of the Most High, and this obligation is perpetual and eternal1. The Day observed by the Jews was the seventh day of the week, or our Saturday. But

is not a thing distinct from Himself-not an idea; the expression therefore cannot be understood to any other purpose, but that in such places He gives special blessings and graces, or that in those places He appoints His Name, that is Himself, especially to be invocated." Jeremy Taylor.

4 See Isai. lxvi. 1, 2; Col. iii. 16.

1 Nicholson On the Catechism, p. 116. Practical Catechism, pp. 184, 185.

Hammond's

in very early times the first of every seven days became the Christian day of rest, for on it our Lord rose from the dead, and the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit was vouchsafed1. On this Day the first disciples were wont to meet together (Jn. xx. 19, 26) to break the Bread, and join in holy worship (Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2), and in remembrance of the Saviour's resurrection to call it the Lord's Day2 (Rev. i. 10).

4. Its Obligation. This, then, is the Christian Day of Rest, which we should Remember to keep holy by laying aside the ordinary occupations of the week, save such as are works of necessity or of charity3, and as far as possible all worldly cares and pleasures (Isai. lviii. 13, 14); by joining in Church worship'; by devout meditation on God's word, and the performance of acts of charity and mercy. Such an observance of the Lord's Day is the best preparation for doing diligently and with all our might the proper work of the week, and by the due consecration of one day for truly serving God all the days of our life".

5. Recapitulation. Thus in these four Commandments is comprehended and set forth our Duty towards God. The first teaches us how we are to acknowledge Him and Him alone for our God; the second how, ab

1 See Article Lord's Day in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.

2 Η ἡμέρα τοῦ Κυρίου, ἡ κυριακή, Dies Dominica, and sometimes simply Dominica. See Guericke's Antiquities, p. 124.

3 Mtt. xii. 1-5, 12; Luke vi. 1-5. "As early as the end of the 2nd century all work and labour on the Sunday was regarded as a sinful tempting of God. In A.D. 321 the Emperor Constantine ordered a cessation on the day of all judicial and other public business, and subsequently forbade all such military exercises as would interfere with the public worship of the Christian soldiers." Guericke's Antiquities, pp. 126, 127. 6 See the Catechism.

4 Lk. iv. 16; Heb. x. 25.

horring the adoration of all idols and images, we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth; the third how with the mouth we are to honour His holy Name and His word; the fourth how we are to consecrate His Day and so all days to His service1.

1. Our Neighbour. From the Commandments which teach us our Duty towards God, we pass on to those which teach us our Duty towards our neighbour2, i. e.,

1 Nicholson, p. 91; Hammond's Catechism, p. 184.

2 "Our Neighbour is every one, with whom we have at any time any concern, or on whose welfare our actions have any influence. For whosoever is thus within our reach, is in the most important sense near to us, however distant in other respects." Secker's Lectures, II. p. 1. "Our neighbour is that part of the universe, that part of mankind, that part of our country, which comes under our immediate notice,

all men with whom we have to deal. This Duty is thus generally described, My duty towards my neighbour is to love him as myself, and to do to all men as I would they should do unto me.. Here our own selves are set for the rule towards our neighbour, and as no man hateth his own flesh, but nourisheth it and cherisheth it (Eph. v. 29), so1 with that "truth of love" are we to love our neighbour, and do to all men, according to our Lord's golden rule, as we would they should do unto us (Mtt. vii. 12).

2. Parental Authority. The word "neighbour," then, including all men with whom we have to deal, comprehends superiors as well as equals, and as parental authority is the origin and type of all authority, the Fifth Commandment is placed at the head of the second Table, and treats of the honour due to Father and Mother.

3. Enforced in the Mosaic Law. The duty of showing honour to parents, as the authors of our being, which natural reason teaches, was strongly enforced in the Mosaic Law. Reverence for parents is the first duty after that appertaining to God Himself, and is the first and the only commandment to which a promise of long life and continuance in the Promised Land is definitely attached (Ex. xx. 12; Eph. vi. 2). The Mosaic Law, in

acquaintance, and influence, and with which we have to do." Bp. Butler Upon the Love of our Neighbour.

1 The adverb sicut, 'as,' is not a note of parity, but similitude, and shows not the quantity, but the quality of our love. For no man is bound to love another equally, or so much as himself, but with that truth of love that he loves himself; the love then of man to man ought to be true, and not false; real, and not feigned nor adulterate. A man would be loath that other men should dissemble with him, neither may he then dissemble with them; let love be without dissimulation (Rom. xii. 9). Nicholson On the Catechism, p. 124.