in
their synagogues.

There is still another passage, and I believe the only one, to which
reference has been made, (except where he opened the eyes of a man that
was born blind,) for proof that he broke the Sabbath. It is recorded in
John v: 5-17. Here Jesus found a man that had been sick thirty-eight
years, by the pool of Bethesda, 'he saith unto him rise, take up thy bed
and walk,--therefore did they persecute Jesus and sought to slay him
because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.' 16v. 'But Jesus
answered them, my Father worketh hitherto and I work.' If they did not
work every hour and moment of time, it would be impossible for man to
exist: Here undoubtedly he had reference to these and other acts of
necessity and mercy; but the great sin for which professors in this
enlightened age charge the Saviour with in this transaction, is, in
directing the man to take up his bed, contrary to law. It is clear the
people were forbidden to carry burthens on the Sabbath day, as in Jer.
xvii: 21, 22, but by reading the 24th v. in connection with Neh. xiii:
15-22, we learn that this prohibition related to what was lawful for
them to do on the other six days of the week, viz. merchandise and
trading. See proof, Neh. x: 31; also unlawful, as in Amos viii: 5. We
need not nor we cannot misunderstand the fourth commandment taken in
connection with the other nine; they were simple and pure written by the
finger of God; but in the days of our Saviour it had become heavily
laden with Jewish traditions, hence when Jesus appeals to them whether
it is [43]lawful to do good and to heal on the Sabbath days, their
mouths are closed because they cannot contradict him from the law nor
the prophets. The Saviour no where interferes with them in their most
rigid observance of the day; but when they find fault with him for
performing his miracles of mercy on that day, he tells them they have
broken the law; and in another place, "If a man on the Sabbath day
receive circumcision without breaking the law of Moses, are ye angry at
me because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?" He
then says, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment." vii: 23, 24. Did he break the Sabbath? Now the law requires
that the beasts shall rest; but what is the practice of many of those
who are the most strict in keeping Sunday for the Sabbath. Sick, or
well, ministers or laymen, do they not ride back and forth to meeting