as they passed through the corn-fields, and ate it. This was an act which God himself had particularly specified as lawful"; and therefore the Pharisees could not condemn it : but the law forbade men to do any servile work upon the Sabbath-day ; and therefore the Pharisees, being determined to find fault, construed the plucking and rubbing a few ears of corn as a reaping and threshing of the corn ; and inquired with indignation, Why they presumed to do so on the Sabbath-day0? But our blessed Lord vindicated their conduct : he shewed that works of necessity or mercy might be performed, as well on the Sabbath as on any other day. He reminded them of David's con- duct in eating the holy bread, which was forbidden to be eaten by any but the priests and their families: he had never been censured for it either by God or man, because he was impelled to it by unavoidable necessity. He reminded them also of the priests in the temple, who performed very laborious work in killing, flaying, and consuming the sacrifices, yet in- curred no guilt thereby, because they were serving God : and from these precedents he shewed them, that the Disciples were not worthy of blame, since what they had done was in attending upon Him, and from a necessity imposed by the imperious calls of hunger. The sanctity of the Sabbath he acknow- ledged ; but informed them at the same time, that, where the observance of it militated against the wel- fare of man, its authority was superseded ; for that " the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
From this declaration of our Lord, we shall take occasion to shew,
I. The end for which the Sabbath was instituted —
The appointment of the Sabbath did not take place, till the whole work of creation was complete : there- fore man, who was created on the sixth day, could not be made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath, as far as man was concerned, must be made for him. But,
h Deut. xxiii. 25. c Matt xii< 2 ^ Luke ^ 2