Dr. Vaughan is of opinion, that “if we found even a _human_ institution, which testified throughout Christendom, by a speaking sign, by an act at once self-denying and beneficent, our faith in realities unseen and future; even _this_ would bind us to its observance.” And yet when we find in the word of God, a plain command to keep holy the Sabbath-day, we are told that we are not legally bound to observe it, and that a wish to have a law to that effect, bespeaks “a low and slavish spirit.” If, however, the express will of God does not lead men to keep the Sabbath, we cannot conceive of any other motive, by which (on Christian principles) they will be induced to observe it. In man’s present condition, liberty without law soon degenerates into licentiousness; and no law but that of God, can so restrain and regulate men, as to preserve real religious freedom. Repeal the laws by which life and property are protected, and try to persuade men to be good and virtuous, from a love of virtue, or from a sense of gratitude for the kindness and beneficence of their rulers; and we should soon see the necessity and benefit of our laws. And so it will be found, that the religious observance of the Sabbath, will soon give place to a general neglect of God’s house, and to practical atheism, if once the people are persuaded, that there is no divine command to keep holy the Sabbath-day. But while the authority of the Old Testament is thus repudiated, the Rev. Doctor “_thinks_” _he_ “_sees_” (what other people may be blind to, and about which he himself is _not quite certain_—so poor a guide is man’s intellect in the absence of a plain command from God,) “indications from the very earliest days, of which the Scriptures contain the record, of man’s need of a periodical rest, and of God’s purpose to secure it to him.” He believes “that it is essential to the well-being of his bodily and mental structure.” He believes that it “is yet more essential to the well-being of his immortal spirit, to his education for that state in which earthly life issues.” He believes that this was “foreseen by man’s Creator, and provided for by the disposer of man’s heart.” And yet he does not believe that God has adopted the only means of securing this all-important blessing permanently to his creatures. Once, indeed, for a few hundred years he made it imperative upon a small portion of the human race, to keep an appointment so essential to man’s present and eternal welfare. But when by the mission of his Son, and the publication of the gospel, he manifested his marvellous love to the whole human race, then, by an unaccountable and inexplicable mode of procedure, he set aside this appointment, and left him to the dictates of his own will, or to the selfishness or caprice of those under whose authority he might happen to be! All was thenceforth to be left to man’s mental perception and moral sense! {7} Is this view consistent with God’s goodness? Is it