Chap. IV.]

OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY.

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them belonged to that system of positive precepts, which weredesigned to draw a line between them and the rest of mankind,nor to that system of types and shadows, which anticipated thecoming of the Messiah.

Moreover, into the chamber which contained the ark made topreserve the two tables of stone, no one but the high priest waspermitted to enter, and he only once a year, for the purpose ofsprinkling blood upon the mercy-seat. On the supposition, thatthe ten commandments were only an ordinary part of the Mo-saic law, it is not easy to understand the significancy of this rite,since sacrifices were offered morning and evening for the sins ofthe Jewish people. But when we consider the ten command-ments as constituting the moral law of Jehovah, binding upon allthe descendants of Adam during all time, and broken by themall, we at once perceive, in the blood sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, an emphatic type of that blood, which was afterwards shedfor the sins of the whole world. When, therefore, we considerthat the commandments, after having been proclaimed by thevoice of God himself, under circumstances of unparalleled aweand grandeur, were twice engraven by his finger upon tables ofstone, —that these tables were, by divine command, placed in acostly ark, and that deposited in a magnificent chamber con-structed for the express purpose of receiving it, — that thesetables were perpetually overshadowed by a miraculous emblemof the divine presence, — that the commandments are suitedequally to all ages, nations, and conditions, and are preeminentlyconducive to the universal welfare of mankind ; — the conclusioncannot well be resisted, that they are all, (of which the commandrespecting the Sabbath is one,) of perpetual obligation, and that“ the Sabbath was thus made for man ” universally.* Let ussee, if they are not, in like manner, recognised as of perpetualobligation in the New Testament.

In his sermon on the Mount, our Saviour used this decisivelanguage ;—• “ Think not that I am come to destroy the law orthe prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For,verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one

Mark ii. 27.