through a corn-field, on the Sabbath-day ; and they, being hungry, phicked some ears of corn, and rubbed them in their hands, and ate the corn. This the law of Moses expressly authorized them to do*^ ; and therefore the act could not be condemned. But the law prohibited all kinds of labour on the Sabbath-day ; and the Pharisees, with hypocritical malignity, inter- preted this act as a kind of reaping and threshing-out the corn ; and cast reflections on our Lord for sanc- tioning such a violation of the Sabbath. Our Lord therefore vindicated his Disciples: first, on the ground of its being a matter of necessity , in which case it super- seded the observance of a ceremonial institution. In proof of this, he adduced the instance of David, who, having no food to satisfy himself and his followers on one particular emergency, took the loaves of shew- bread, which were to be eaten by none but the priests alone, and satisfied the calls of nature with that^ This was generally acknowledged as a justifiable act in David, because of the urgency of the occasion ; and on the same ground the conduct of his Disciples was justifiable, as was his also in permitting it. Our Lord next vindicated it on the ground of precedent: for, notwithstanding all the injunctions respecting rest on the Sabbath-day, the priests in the temple engaged in labour, to a very great extent, on every Sabbath, being occupied in slaying and offering the appointed sacrifices. They, notwithstanding they thus " pro- faned the Sabbath, were blameless," because the ser- vice of the temple required it. In like manner, the Disciples, being engaged in his work, were blameless : for " He was greater than the temple ;" and, conse- quently, was entitled to suspend the observance of the Sabbath, so far as his service required it; for " He vs^as Lord even of the Sabbath-day^."
In discoursing on this subject, I will, I. Confirm our Lord's assertion —
Our blessed Lord did not so fully declare his Mes- siahship to the Pharisees as he did to some of a more
^ Deut. xxiii. 2. ^ Lev. xxiv. T) — 9. with 1 Sam. xxi. 6.
f ver. 1—8.