i # Q. •# nj" » Ic '^ 3 ■a JO CO -P <^^ Ic U (0 •5 ^ S <-»— Eh jQ ^ ^ o A (0 ^ ^ ^ 5 m 4J CO in to 2 o 00 Xi 0) « ^ < th XI x: l^ g ^ CO +J in CO ^ ^ £ < • G ^ B «3 • C >«. O ^ ? CO CO -P ^^ PM ,J ' O U 0) w M-* s tH -H -H 4-> O >> tH ^ O CJ ^ 0) O CO ^* -D > e CO ^< % m < Eh g^ 0) 2 1^ CL I 1 T lU C T S ON THE SABBATH THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD- NEW YORK : PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY. No. 9 Spruce Street. 1853. / TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 . — Rea*n)iisfor ir.lroducingtlic Sa'ubath. of tlio Fourth Command- ment to the coiisideralioTi oC tho V'lui.stuia rublic. 'l-i pp. 2. — The Sabbath: its Moral Nature and Scriptural Observance. 48 pp. 3. — The Sabbath : Authority for tlic Change of the Day. 24 pp. 4. — The Sabbath and Lord's Day: A I iistory of their Observ- ance in the Ciiri;?tiau Ciuueh. is po. 5. — A Christian Caveat. 4 [ip. G. — Tuenty J\ea^on.-= for keepiii^r h-'sly, in eaeii -.veek, the Sev- i-nth Day instead of tlie i n>t Day. -i \)r.. T. — Thirty-:-ix Plain Qne^rions, pir->eitin_^ r'ae main points in the Sabbarh Con;ri)voisy : A Dial('^nu' l)et\veiMi a Minister of the Gospel and a Sabbarariau ; Counteifeit Coin. S pp. 8. — The Sabbath Coiitrove! sy : The True Issue. 4 pp. U. — The Fom-^.h Commandn.eiit : False Exposition. 4 pp. 10. — T!ie True Sabbath Embraced and Observed. 16 pp. 11. — Religious Liberty EridangereJ by Legislative Enactments. Id pp. 12. — Misuse of the term "Sabbath." 8 pp. lo. — The Bible Sabbath. 24 jip. 1-1. — Delaying Obedience. 4 pp. l.j. — An Appeal for the Restoration of the Bible Sabbath, in an Address to the Baptists, from the Seventh-day Baptist Gen- eral Conference. 3;> pp. 1 ti. — The Royal Law contended for. By Edward Stennett. 60 pp. 17. — Vindication of the True Sabbath. By J. W. Morton, late Missionary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. 60 pp. [No. 1.] EEASOIS INTRODUCING THE SABBATH OF THE FOURTH COM- MANDMENT TO THE CONSIDERATION OF THE CHRISTIAN PUBLIC. NEW YORK : PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY, No. 9 Spruce-Street REASONS FOR INTRODUCING THE SABBATH OF THE FOURTH COMMAND- MENT TO THE CON.'^IDERATION OF THE ' CHRISTIAN PUHLIC. To search for the knowledge of our duty, as sub- jects of the Divine Government, is of the highest im- portance to Christians and to all men. " None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself," but " whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." It be- hooves us, therefore, to inquire, diligently and prayer- fully, what God would have us to do, and how we may best glorify Him and save our generation ? We should " seek wisdom as silver, and search for it as for hid treasure ;" and we should labor after the knowl- edge, not only of so7ne duties, but of every duty. *' Obey my voice," is the reiterated mandate of Je- hovah. To give full proof of our friendship for Christ, we must " do whatsoever he hath commanded us." Hence the importance of " seai'ching the Scriptures," and of carefully pondering the testimonies of God. All should pursue this course, and feel this responsi- bility ; for " every one of uis shall give account of himself unto God." Hence the propriety and neces- 4 REASONS FOR sity, in many cases, of individuals dissenting from the views and decisions of colleciive bodies, and of ?)iinori' ties dissenting from majorities, and protesting against what they discover to be erroneous, unequal, and op- pressive, in their resolves and measures — accompany- ing the same with a particular statement of their rea- sons. Such a course expresses a detemiination " not to be partakers of other men's sins," and is often the means of leadinsr to investieration and reform. This duty is acKnowledged, and this privilege is claimed, by the observers of the seventh day, in rela- tion to the subject of the Sabbath. Compared with the many who assume the Christian name, we are a minority — a mere remnant — and our reasons and mo- tives for dissent from the great mass of believers, have been by most but partially, if at all, examined and weighed. Believing, as we do, that we have a Hill and explicit Divine waiTant for our practice, we re- gard it as our duty to make renewed efforts to sustain the claims of the original Sabbath of God's appoint- ment, enlighten the public mind, disann our neighbors an4 fellow Christians of their prejudices, and promote a more thorough and impartial attention to this item of religious practice. The object of this Tract is not to enter fully upon the proois of our doctrine and prac- tice, but to invite attention to the subject, and impress the reader with the importance of correct views and of being sustained in Sabbath principles and efforts by an explicit warrant from God himself, in order the more effectually to secure the sanctification of tliis precious institution. Accordingly, we proceed to state some of our Reasons for inti'oducing the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment to the consideration of the Christian Public. SABBATH DISCUSSION. 5 I. The g-encral concession that the weekly Sahbath IS a needful, wise, and valuable institution. Being a weekly rest from secular business and labor, it con- ti'ibutes to the health and vigor both oi' man and beast, encourages habits of cleanliness and decency, gives opportunity to cultivate the social virtues, makes man acquainted with man, and inspires a mutual regard for the interests of society ; and, what is much more, it furnishes a proper and necessary season for mental improvement, public worship and instruction, private meditation and self-examination, the ti-aining up of children in the knowledge of God and of Heaven, and the deepening of our impressions of the value of time, and of the importance of preparing for eternity. These and similar considerations sensibly arrest the attention of sober and enlightened Christians, and secure a con- scientious regard to the institution. This fact evinces the importance of being able to bring a divine sanc- tion for a day so evidently desirable, and so generally esteemed — of being assured that it rests upon no doubt- ful authority, that it is not a 7Tiere human provision or a matter of expediency and accommodation, but that in observing it we are conforming to the clearly-mani- fested will of God. It is evident, that this considera- tion will give a value to the institution which can be supplied by no other, and secure a love and respect for it, and a delight in it, which nothing else can so effectually produce. Hence the question is presented, with a high and impressive claim to a ti'ue and defi- nite answer. Is any other than the seventh day of the week sustained by the important and indisputable sanc- tion of (Urine (luthorit.y ? If this, and this only, be tho Sabbath of God's aj)pointment, for general and per- manent use, then, by the substitution of another day, the institution is shorn of its chief excellence and force — yea, it is virtually annulled. It no longer exists as 6 REASONS FOR God ordained it, for the express reason that he gave %>r it. This is a point which it becomes Christians -^^lously to look at. . It is not the province of Rulers, Bishops, or jancils, to legislate for the Church, and to bind the consciences of men in this or any other matter. Man's appointment of another day than the one con- tained in the Divine Enactment, does not make it the Sabbath of the Lord. It is only a human laic, rest- ing on human authority. Therefore, all attempts to enforce the observance of such an institution as being of divine authority, are calculated to mislead and en- snare souls. It is " teaching for docti'ine the com- mandments of men." Our faith in this matter " should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The question is not, What day have men judged most proper ? and. What reasons for the insti- tution have they deemed the most appropriate % and, Wliat day have civil rulers sanctioned by their decrees and penalties? — but it is. What day has God sanctified and blessed as a day of rest % It is manifest that no man should stop his inquiries until he is able to pro- duce a clear divine w^arrant for his practice. III. The fact that there is a lamentable division among professors of religion in regard to the true de- sign of the weekly Sabbath, and the proper day to be observed, evinces the great importance of investiga- tion, and of arriving at a correct knowledge of the Divine Will. This division is not likely to cease till a more general and thorough knowledge of the subject is obtained, and a deeper interest therein is felt. Can it reasonably be supposed that the whole church will become united in the observance of the first day of die week, if it is not the Sabbath of the Bible % Will hiAlilJATII DISCUSSION. 7 it ever be the case, lluit Clod will Imve no witnesses for his own nnrcpealed and nnadnltcrated institution ? — none that shall call the Sabbath of his own appoint- ment " a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him therein V No — this will never be ! Admitting that the Sabbath of the fourth com- mandment is still binding, there is no dou1")t that there will ever be a remnant, at least, who will conscien- tiously observe it. For his great name's sake, God will not suifer this prominent jiart of his law to be uni- versally corrupted and profaned. And hence, if a preference continues to be given, as it is now, to a day which He has not designated and made holy, there will, of necessity, be a protracted division in the ranks of Zion, and the cause of the Redeemer will, on this account, continue to suffer. The faithful witnesses will unquestionably continue to prophecy, though clothed in sackcloth, and to bear testimony against the innovation. And no earthly power can prevent them. Resolves, and proscriptions, and gibbets, will not wholly suppress their testimony in favor of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Therefore, the occasion of the present division must be put away by a general return to the uncorrupted appointment of God, or the same cause for regret and mourning which now exists will continue to afflict the church. Let those who regard the unity and peace of Zion, seri- ously lay to heart this consequence. IV. It must be admitted, that in so important a mat- ter as a weekly Sabbath, our great moral Legislator has sufficiently declared his will to enable honest and impartial inquirers to arrive at a true result. If it would be reasonable to expect explicit information of his Avill concerning any point, it would certainlv be reasonable to expect it concerning this, seeincr the 8 REASONS FOR claims of this law would come in direct contact with the cupidity of men, and sensibly influence the arrange- ments of business and pleasure — yea, deeply nflect the general interests of society. Were the data furnished, from which contemplative and we]l-di.e reconciled with a due regard for his supreme authority. It is " changing the ordinance, and breaking the everlasting covenant." VIII. It is e%ddent that the substitution of the ^r*^ day of the week for the seventh, as a weekly Sabbath, which has been adopted by the major part of the pro- fessors of Christianity, has presented, and continues to present, a formidable obstacle to the conversion of the Jews, and the introduction of the millennium. It is well known, that the Jews as a body are exceedingly tenacious of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment j that, with few exceptions, they have persevered from ancient times in its obsei-vance ; and that they consid- SABBATH DISCUSSION. 11 er it a prominent article in the religion of their fore- fathers. This practice has been unbroken in the nation fiom the time of the giving of the law upon Mount Sinai till the present day. There have been, indeed, many instances of Sabbath-breaking among them, and at present there is reason to believe that the motives which govern them in its observance are sadly defi- cient. But the practice itself is tenaciously adhered to, as required by the unrepealed law of the God of Israel. And, if our views are correct, they have the right of the case, and the majority of Christians have corrupted the law. This, therefore, is a formidable obstacle to their embracing Christianity. To become Jirst-day Christians (and such compose a vast majority of professors) they must relinquish or change one of the precepts of the Decalogue, and dissent from a custom held sacred by their ancestors, and deep- ly venerated by themselves ; and that, too, with- out seeing any divine warrant produced for such a departure. This unauthorized practice of keepino- the first instead of the seventh day of the week, can- not fail to prove a powerful objection in their view to embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is true that they are tenacious also of other practices enjoined in the Old Testament, which Christians justly regard as obsolete. But as to these, we can show authority for their abrogation. We can appeal to the New Testa- ment records, and show that the Mosaic ritual, " the law of commandments contained in ordinances," which constituted the enmity or separation between Jews and Gentiles, was abolished by the death of Christ — that " he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." But the same course cannot be success- fully pursued with respect to the seventh-day Sabbath. The Decalogue in which this is found was not included in the abrogated ritual. It is altogether a distinct 12 REASONS FOR thing, wherefore the Jews cannot he met in the same way with regard to the weekly Sabhath as they can with regard to the typical observances which had their accomplishment in Christ. Hence the stumbling-block remains. And yet those who observe the first day are generally praying for and expecting the conversion of the Jews, and, in connection therewith, the millennial glory of the church. What an inconsistency is this ! While they are praying for their national conversion and return to the land of their forefathers, and are be- gnming to use some other means for that end, they, by their palpable violation of the law of the fourth commandment, place a most formidable obstacle in their way, and pursue a course calculated to augment their prejudices, confirm their unbelief, and retard the approach of millennial glory. To bring Jews and Gentiles together in the observance of the Sabbath, the one party or the other must materially change their practice. And which is it most reasonable to expect will ultimately be compelled to make the change — the Jeivs, who have the authority of God's example and express precept to sustain them, or the Gentiles, who can claim no such authority for a first-day Sabbath 1 Surely, we need not be at a loss for an answer. It is confidently believed, that this subject has no inconsid- erable bearing upon the condition and prospects of the Jews. If a few conversions are now effected among them, what might be expected if Christians would re- move the stumbling-blocks which their own errors have placed in their way ? Would we enter an ef- fectual plea in behalf of this wonderfiil and lon,n^-neg- h^cted people, we know not how we could do it better than to plead for the observance of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Let those whose " heart's de- sire and prayer to God for Israel is," like Paul's, " that they might be saved," give this subject a thorough and SABBATH DISCUSSION. 13 impartial consideration, and retura to the path of strict obedience. IX. It is not to be expected, that an effectual check can be put to the sin of Sabbath-breaking, till the duty of keeping the Sabbath is so taught, understood, and practiced, that the sanction of express divine authority- can be brought to bear upon it. Though a weekly rest be profitable, both as it respects " the life that now is, and that which is to come," there is much in the carnal views and inclinations of men to oppose it, to resist its restrictions, and to thwart its purposes. Hence powerful considerations and inducements are necessary to supi^ress its desecration, and insure its proper ob- servance. Not only the unbelieving world, but Christ- ians, in their present imperfect state, need to have this institution thoroughly guarded to prevent its abuse. If it be considered as resting upon dovhtful authority ; if it be viewed as sustained merely by inference, and the premises from which the inference is drawn be at best questionable, and do not necessarily authorize it ; if the principal argument for it be founded on a sup- posed apostolic example of meeting for public worship on the first day of the week, which is sustained only by two passages, while those very passages fail to mark it as a Sabbath, or to give the least intimation of its hav- ing been introduced as a substitute for the former Sab- bath, and even fail to imply, necessarily, that meetings of this description were stated and general in the churches in the apostolic age ; and if it be found, frf)m subsequent ecclesiastical history, that the first day, called Sunday and Lord's day, was not regarded by Christ- ians in the first centuries after the apostles as a Sab- bath, nor as substituted therefore, but only as r festival in commemoration of the resun^ection — a festival ob- served in connection with the Sabbath, but not accom- 14 REASONS FOR panied with a reMivs; from vwrldly labor, till the time of Constantine the Great ; yea, if but a part of those who are considered experimental Christians, look upon it now as properly a Sahhath, or day of holy rest, while others regard it merely as a day for public wor- ship, and even surh as call it a Snbhnth conceive, in many instances, that the strict observance formerly required is somewhat modijied ; we can easily per- ceive, that it wants that explicit sanction — that high and over -powering authority — which will be likely to awe the public into obedience — which is necessary, indeed, to give Christians themselves a proper sense of its sanctity, and of the evil of its desecration — to induce them " not to do their own ways, nor to find their own pleasure, nor to speak their o"wti words," in it. In vain do its friends procure for it the resolutions of churches and synods, the essays of the learned, and the decrees of the State ; if it fails of being expressly supported by the supreme authority of God, to whom all must render a final and strict account, it will lack the main motive to obedience — it will be unat- tended with that power which, above all others, acts upon the conscience, and makes men feel their ob- ligation. And as such authority does not pertain to a first-day Sabbath, but is limited to the seventh day, it is manifest that no thorough check to Sabbath des- ecration can be imposed, till men change their views and practice, and place the institution on its original and proper basis. X. The power of custom, though sustained by ecclesiastical and civil enactments, and with corre- sponding forfeitures and penalties, ought not to pre- vent investigation and discourage refonn in this im- portant matter. When the claims of the original Sab- bath are plainly presented, many seem to be convinced SABBATH DISCUSSION. 15 of their justness ; but, at the same time, think that a general return to the observance of the seventh day is impracticable. They alledge that the custom of keep- ing the first day has been so long and so generally maintained — that it is so intimately wrought into the habits, calculations, and business of life — that it has received such explicit sanction from the civil powers, obedience thereto being required by the authority of the State, and the disobedient being subj ?cted to civil pains and penalties — and that it is so often, ably, and pointedly vindicated by the first ministers, professors, and commentators in the popular churches, that it is in vain to expect a change, and that the cause of Sab- bath-keeping is rather retarded than promoted by eftbrts to change the present custom. And it is highly probable that some, in view of these difficulties, for- bear to give the subject a close investigation. But if the same views and modes of reasoning had been adopted in other cases, what would have become of the various reformations which are now estab- lished, and even triumphant? What would have become of the whole subject of Protestan'ism 1 There is nothing more impracticable in a Sabbath reform than in any other reform. In other cases, difficulties which at first seemed insurmountable, have given way to laborious, prayerful, and united effi^rts. And there is the same reason to believe that they will give way in this, if a proper zeal is once awakened, and the friends of the Sabbath are resolved to examine the sub- ject, build on the foundation of truth, and persevere in their labors, with union and vigor, relying upon the protecting power and blessing of Israel's God. It is manifest that no earthly consideration should impede our investigation of this matter, that no array of op- position and discouragement should daunt us, and that no motives to sit still or pass along with the cuiTent 16 REASONS FOR of public opiiiiori, if thai be not founded in truth, should be suffered to iiifluence us, and detain us in the wilderness of error. The cause of obedience is the cause of God, and we should steadfastly labor to pro- mote it, and trust in him for ultimate victory. XL As a consequence of the foregoing principlob; and facts, we are constrained to regard those who ob- serve the first day of the week, to the neglect of the seventh day, as having sadly deviated from the path of obedience, and we feel ourselves bound to admonish ihem, and labor re.s])ecl fully and kindly to reclaim them. We cannot think it immaterial what day of the week is observed as a day of rest, when God has specified the seventh, and no other, as a weekly Sab- bath- We cannot think it a small matter to substitute the first day in the room of the seventh, although it be done in honor of the resurrection of our Lord, and because that event appears to demand equal and even gi-eater commemoration than the work of creation, so long as there is no divine warrant therefor. This ap- pears to us to be making the wisdom of man the foundation of duty, and not the wisdom of God. We discover tico evils here; first, changing the day with- out order or permission from God ; and, secondly, changing the reason fi)r the institution, when the Lord hath not spoken. And is not this a departure from the rule of duty ? And has not the Lord a contro- versy with Zion for this ? If God had seen fit to sub- stitute the first day for the seventh day, on account of the resurrection, (supposing it to have occurred on the first day, which, however, is not certain,) and to assign another reason than the original one for keeping the Sabbath, he would doubtless have given order to that effect. His not having done so, makes it manifest that he did not see fit to do this, and tliat he considered the SABBATH DISCUSSION. 17 former Sahbath as well adapted to celebrate the work of redemption as it was the work of creation — ada])ted perfectly to snbserve all the purposes of a weekly Sabbath. And we find this to be the case by experience. Here, therefore, we rest satisfied with the divine arrangement, and feel deeply the importance of universal conformity thereto. Consequently, our regard for the honor of God, and for the sabbatic insti- tution, induces us to bring this subject in the present form belbre the Christian public. We do not think that we are justly chargeable with opposing or retard- ing the practice of Sabbath-keeping, because we pro- test against keeping the first day of the week as a divine institution, and faithfully present the claims of the original Sabbath. What better course can we take to secure a proper observance of the Sabbath, than to labor to restore it as God originally made it 1 It is not just to charge us with Judaizing — with virtual- ly denying that Chiist has come in the flesh and intro- duced the New Testament dispensation. We might as well be charged with this for maintaining that men should not "have any other God before the Lord," or that they should "not kill," nor "steal." These precepts are in close connection with that re- quiring the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, and stand or fall with it. The truth of the case is, that the law containing the weekly Sabbath is the law both of the Old Testament and of the New. There is no Christian Sabbath distinct from the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. If this be a correct view — and we see not how it can be gainsayed — we in this respect perform our duty as subjects of God's moral governmeiit only when we exhort men to " remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," and when we labor to imj^ress them with the annexed fact, that " the sev- enth day is the Sabbath." 18 REASONS FOR These are some of our Reasons for introducing the subject of the Sabbath, as originally given, to your consideration. And we seriously ask you, whether they are not sufficient — whether they are not adequate for earnestly and pcrseveringly inviting investigation and reformation. If there be any blame attached to us in the matter, it is for not having labored more diligently and efficiently in this cause. Are we not clearly bound, by way of promoting inquiry and reform, to bear a more pointed testimony against the evil in question, and to vindicate the claims of the seventh -day Sabbath with more zeal and firm- ness than ever before ? Are we not peculiarly obli- gated to labor to remove, if possible, the veil which is upon the minds of the gi'eat majority of professors of Christianity, correct the false notions received by tra- dition from ' the Fathers,' and effectually dispel the de- lusion so extensively prevailing. We do not claim the right of dictating to the consciences of others. " To their own Master they stand or fall." The only ground which we would assume is that which was occupied by the Apostle Paul when he said, " It is written, I have believed, and therefore have I spoken ; we also believe, and therefore speak." And also by the Saviour, " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Fa- ther which is in Heaven." And again, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets." Surely, " the Lord hath spoken, and who can but prophesy ?" How can we bear to see one of his commandments made void by human tradition ? — to see the flock of Jesus divided concerning this question, where union is so necessary and desirable 1 — to witness the unavoid- able interruptions occasioned by the different parties, and the triumph of the adversaries of religion 1 — to SABBATH DISCUSSION. 19 observe those for whom Christ died grossly misled hy mistMk(ni tenchers, ])r()V()kiiig- the Most High by ueg- lecting to keep a day which he has made sacred, and tcaiisterriiig the sacredness of his own appointment to an ordinance of men, or, what is still worse, regard- ing the original institution as annulled, and placing in its stead a day merely of memorial of the resurrection and of worship, divested of the main characteristics of the Sabbath, and resting upon no solid basis — its foundation, at best, being mere prohability and conjec- ture ? Must it not, of necessity, be very painful to us, to see those who pre our neighbors, and by profession our fellow Christians, in a case so clear and im- portant, and involving such high and permanent interests, contented with such evidence as they would blush to introduce in relation to almost any other point 1 How can we bear to see Protestanffi, whose avowed maxim is, that " scriptural authority alone is sufficient to determine matters of faith and duty," dispensing with their own rule, in not requiring ex- pressly a " thus saith the Lord " for their practice, and relying upon far-fetched and inconclusive reason- ings, and mere probabilities — yea, in some histances, by their own concession, going out of the Bible to ecclesiastical history, to find a warrant for observing the first day of the week, which warrant itself, even if proof from that source were allowable, is by no means adequate 1 Do we talk of reforming the church, while the guilt of disobedience in this matter rests upon the great ma- jority of her members'? — while ministers, doctors, and profes-iors of divinity, break one of the command- ments of the Decalogue, and teach men so, and the multitude are willingly obedient to their instructions ] It is preposterous ! A thorough reformation cannot 20 REASONS FOR be effected under such circumstances, or while things remain thus. It is time that it were more deeply hiid to heart, that one of the leading objects of Christ's mission was to " save his people from their sins " — that " he gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works " — and that " he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not irx him ?" In view of such passages, although it be admitted that occasional mistakes and sins, being repented of, do not absolutely divest men of the Christian character and hopes, it will appear, that obedience to the will of God is an in- dispensable requisite and all-absorbing consideration ; and that, if any man be in Christ, lie is verily " a new creature " — that he will be " zealous of good works." One in pncient times, who was eminent for his re- ligious knowledge, observed, " Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy command- ments." And this respect, or obedience, which constitutes the moral purity and glory of Christ- ians, and is the test of tlieir discipleship, must be reg- ulated and governed by the precepts of that very law which contains the seventh-day Sabbath. There are, indeed, some precepts peculiar to the gospel, such as " repentance towards God, and fuith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," " Baptism," and " the Lord's Supper." Nevertheless, " the commandments of God," so often and so particularly alluded to as the rule of Christian duty, are eminently the precepts of the Decalogue — the " fen words " or " testimonies " which God spake with his own mouth, and wrote with his own finger, and no one of which has ever been erased from the sacred code, or undergone the least alteration ; for " the law of the Lord is 'perfect, converting the .^oal." The keeping of the weekly Sabbath, therefore, as God SADDATH DISCUSSION. 81 appointed it, and has continued it, enters vitally into the matter of holy obedience — the true test of Christianity. If the prescriptions of the fourth commandment are not faithfully adhered to, our obedience is imperfect. We are the proper subjects of reprehension, and may reasonably expect corresponding tokens of Divine dis- pleasure. Sabbath-keeping is pecuHarly adapted to serve as a test of loyalty to God, on account of its fi'e- quent occuirence, the weekly remission which it re- quires of secular business, the peremptory call which it makes on us to leave all our own works and ways for the special service of God, and the opportunity which it affords, amidst the common hun-y and bustle of this world, to pause and examine our state and prospects for eternity. It is well calculated for this, because it so clearly and so often teaches us that the will of God should govera all our actions. All these and similar considerations, therefore, should combine to fix our attention to the very day of God's appoint- ment, so that we may sensibly feel that we are gov- erned by a divine warrant, and have the sublime pleas- ure of knowing that we are conforming to the will of God. Taking this course, we not only preserve a good conscience, but tread in the footsteps of God's redeemed flock. We imitate those who, in the times of the Old Testament, "took pleasure in his holy day." We follow the example of the Redeemer him- self, who was a strict observer of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. His vindication of the disci- ples in the case of " plucking the ears of corn " to sat- isfy their hunger, which some have thought was a de- viation from the strictness originally required, was in perfect accordance with the ti'ue intent and meaning of the law, else his obedience would have been im- perfect, and thereby the entire prospects of the Christ- ian would have been blasted. Under the circumstan- 22 REASONS FOR ces, it was a work of absolute necessity, and therefore not prohibit ed. As our Lord Jesus Christ was un- questionably a strict observer of the seventh-day Sab- bath, it is a commanding motive for a continued ob- servance of it by his followers, there being no substitute appointed. The Apostles, also, and primitive Christians, were conscientious observers of this institution as originally delivered. The Sabbath so often mentioned in the apostolic records is unquestionably the seventh-day Sabbath. Who will dare deny this 1 And fi'om ec- clesiastical history it appears that the whole Christian church, with very few exceptions at most, kept the seventh-day Sabbath, in obedience to the law contain- ed in the Decalogue, down to the time of Constantine, in the fourth century, and even afterward. So true it is, that we imitate the church in her primitive and purest times, in keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Under such circumstances, therefore, is it strange that we should strenuously advocate the practice ? — that we should adhere to it amidst reproaches, privations, and suffering? — and that we should feel the most ardent desire for the reformation of our brethren who differ from us 1 The cause is sufficient to demand this deep feeling, this unwearied effort, these prayers and tears, with a vast increase of holy sensibility, tenderness of conscience, and active labor, to promote this branch of obedience. We there- fore earnestly, and with all due respect, commend the subject to your notice. Do not pass it by as a matter of little or no consequence. It surely involves much that should be dear to the friends of Jesus, and the advocates of pure morality — to such as would see the church appear " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." We entreat you, therefore, for the glory of God, the honor of his SAiuiAiii lu.srr.ssiox. 23 law and government, tlie unity and perfection of the church, yoir own spiritual attainments and acceptance with God, the conversion and salvation of sinners, the triumph of truth over infidelity, the redemption of the long-neglected house of Israel, the hastening of mil- lennial prosperity, and the recompenses of eternity, to give this subject a most serious consideration, to ex- amine and weigh our proofs and arguments, and, if you find yourselves in error, as we confidently j^elieve you will, to reform. With the high consideration in view, that " wisdom's ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are peace," and that to pursue them " is for your life," we invite and seek your recovery to sound views and practice in this matter. We " long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ," regarding him as " the Lord of the Sabbath," not to repeal or change the sacred institution, but to protect it, and enforce obedi- ence thereto. Firmly believing that *' we are not with- out law to God, but under the law to Christ," we cannot by any means discharge our own convictions at this eventful period, this remarkable age of attempted re- form, without using all the persuasion in our power to promote an investigation of this matter. We behold vnth sincere gratification the efforts which have been made, and are being made, in regard to other subjects of special importance to the church and the world. We would cordially cooperate with their respective advocates in securing, as far as practi- cable, a strict obedience to other moral precepts, and in emancipating the human mind from sin and error. But we cannot forget that God has given a Jburth, as well as Id. first, a sixth, a seventh, and a tenth command- ment, and that it rests upon equal authority with those, and with either of the precepts of the Decalogue ; and hence we plead in its behalf. We do this as moral 24 REASONS FOR SABBATH DISCUSSION. and accountable beings, as Protestants, as Christians, as reformers, and as cotemporaries of our brethren in the nineteenth century, a period so distinguished for its moral and political enterprises, and for its proximity to the time when it shall be said, ** The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." We approach you in the belief that open rebuke is better than secret love " — that " faith- ful are jhe wounds of a friend " — and that we " should admonish one another daily, and so much the more as we see the day approaching." We feel bound to exert ourselves in this cause, in the belief that " our labor will not be in vain in the Lord," that the church is " coming up out of the wilderness," and that we live in the dawn of a brighter day, in a period of the world when the scriptures and the providences of Grod concur in affording the highest encouragement to the faithful advocates of truth and duty. And we do not hesitate to express our expectation, that by the bless- ing of God upon the well-directed and persevering labors of his people, and the continued and augment- ing spirit of inquiry, there will soon be achieved a glorious reformation in rtispect to the subject of this Tract. God will " overturn, and overturn, and over- turn, till He shall come, whose right it is," and " the sanctuary shall be cleansed." Finally — we enter our testimony in what we deem an important case, in the hope, through grace, of meet- ing all " the faithful in Christ Jesus in the everlasting rest," of which the rest of the seventh day is a lively and touching type and foretaste. Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Spruce Street, New York. T0B sabbath: ITS MORAL NATURE AND OBSERVAJ.tuB Section I. \ THE SABBATH NOT CEREMONIAL- It is disputed whether the weekly Sabbath ^ an essential part of what is generally called the iUoral Law, which the Holy Ghost declares to be " spiritual — holy, and just, and good ;" or whether it is to be classed among the ceremonial institutions, which were " a shadow of things to come." If the latter position can be established, it can be of no use whatever to perpetuate the Institution under the New Dispensa- tion. It can neither be promotive of the spirituality and growth of the body of Christ, nor even conserva tive of the morals of the community. To suppose that the church cannot enjoy al) necessary prosperity^ and attain its millennial glory by the use of New Co- venant ordinances alone, but must borrow a little help from" the abrogated rites of the Old Economy, is most anti-evangelical. Gal. iii. 3. The church needs no- thing for the nourishment of its piety, except such means as have the entire sanction of the " better co venant." Moses, is dead, and the Lord has buried him. He cannot lead us into the promised inherit- ance. We have only to follow our Joshua, even Jesus, " the Son who is consecrated forevermore." Nor can " the weak and beggarly elements" be of service to promote the morals of the community. Where do we find the most elevated and pure moraii- 2 THE SABBATH ty, Chat which is refined from all selfishness ? We find it only in real Christians. The source, and life, and power of it is the Atonement of their Great High- Priest, and the grace wnich is hy Him. Their obe- dience to all moral precepts is the obedience of faith ^ even faith in his sacrifice. In proportion as their faith is strong, and their dependence on Him entire, to the exclusion of all reliance upon their own merit, so is their moral conduct irreproachable. It is not by any r^ort to the " weak and unprofitable command- ment," that their morality acquires such excellence. As for that inferior kind of morality, which obtains among unbelievers, however profitable it may be to human society, it is but the mimic representation of that which is practiced by the godly. For its very existence it is dependent on Christianity, from whose influence if it recede, it becomes withered and per- ishes. Transplanted to a heathen soil, it cannot live. As, therefore, the general morals of the community are traceable to the gospel as their first cause, and are kept in credit only by its nurturing influence, it would be at war with sound reason to suppose, that they could be promoted by such things as are destructive of the purity of the gospel itself They will be much safer, if left wholly to the nurturing influence of that system, which is declared to be ' complete and fault- less, — the power and the wisdom of God.' Where fore, if the weekly Sabbath was a ceremonial Institu tion, we have no use for it, either as it respects the church, or the world. It is an injyry ratht«r than a benefit. But if, on the other hand, the S'abbath is a parhould rest on that day, it was a good reason from the beiginning. It was good as soon as there were men to do it. So that what was then their reasonable service, could not have been deferred for twenty-five hundred years. Nay, it may be safely affirmed, that the reason for NOT CEREMONIAL. keeping the SaLbath possessed more cogency at tne beginning than it did afterwards. For in after ages sin had marred and defaced the Ahiiighty's work. Nevertheless, if when sin had marred it, there was still good reason for keeping the memorial of it, much more was there good reason for doing so, when it was in all its original glory. In what respect does or did this reason concern the Jews more than any otner part of mankind ? Do not Gentiles stand on the same level with them in respect of their being a part of God's creation ? Have they not as much interest in creation as the Jews ? " Is He the God of the Jews only } Is He not of the Gentiles also ?" The reasons for such institutions as were enjoined on the Jews particularly, were derived from considera- tions in which they as a people had a special and pe- culiar interest. Now the Sabbath, it is true, is in one place enforced upon them by a consideration of this kind, viz. their redemption from bondage in Egypt, Deut. V. 15. But while this laid the Jews under a special and peculiar obligation to regard the institu- tion, it does not forbid the idea that they were also under obligations of a general nature, which concern all mankind alike. So too, the Christian church is under a special obligation too keep this sacred day, because of its interest in the blood of redemption. But to infer from this, that the common obligation un- der which all others are held is canceled, and that none are bound to keep it except the blood-bought church of God, would be in the last degree illogical, as well as unscriptural. Let it be observed, that the language of the sacred historian : " God blessed the seventh day and sancti- fied it" — is no more qualified, than that w^hich speaks of his resting. With reference to this, his language 16 explicit, — ^^ He rested on the seventh day from aU 6 THE SABBATH his work which he had made." In face of such a de- claration, nothing but folly would say, that God did not actually rest on the seventh day of creation, but waited until the Jews were called out of Egypt. God certainly did rest on the seventh day of crea- tion. If the ordinary construction of language is to be employed in reference to this, it must be employed in reference to his blessing and sanctifying it also. Wherefore, as God rested on the seventh day of crea- tion, he blessed and sanctified that day, even that very day on which he rested. " God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in ity [the very day which he so blessed and sanctified,] he had rested from all his work which God created, and made." Gen. -ii. 3. The act of blessing and sanctifying the day can import nothing else than constituting it a Sabbath. For to sanctify, undoubtedly, is to set apart for a holy use. It refers to some line of conduct to be observ- ed by men towards that day. The expression, "God blessed it," must mean that he rendered it a day pe- culiarly happy and beneficial for man. For when- ever God blesses an object, whether it be a person or an inanimate thing — a rational creature or the brute creation — he connects with his blessing certain favors which would otherwise not be bestowed, and renders the object serviceable for the promotion of certain purposes which would not result without his olessing. A few examples will render this perfectly clear. Thus, when he blessed the first human pair, and the brute creation, he bestowed on them the pow- er to be " fruitful and multiply." When the ground receiveth blessing from God, it bringeth forth herbs, meet for them by whom it is dressed. When it is cursed, it bears thorns and briars, Heb. vi. 7, S. Gen. xxvii. 27. Lev. xxv 21. Mai. iii. 10. When God NOT CEREMONIAL. 7 blessed Abraham, he bestowed on him a numerous posterity, with Canaan for an inheritance, and counted his faith for righteousness. In blessi-ng Samson, Judg- es xiii. 24, he endowed him with an heroic spirit, singuhir valor, miraculous strength of body, and all other gifts and graces necessary to his calling. When he blesses the church, he bestows spiritual blessings in Christ, Eph. i. 3. Numerous other examples might be adduced : but these are sufficient to show, that in connection with the Divine blessing, special favors are always bestowed. We therefore argue, that when it is said, " God blessed the seventh day," it can mean nothing less than that he connected with it favors and benefits above what are connected WMth any other day, and that he bestows them abundantly upon those who keep it, and delight in it, Isa. Iviii. 13. He renders the day serviceable for the promotion of the spiritual and temporal welfare of man. For it can by no means be supposed, that God proposed to render homage to himself, or to bless himself It must be man, for whom the Sabbath was made, Mark ii. 27, that stands in need of the blessing, and who is bound to make a holy use of the day. The foregoing remarks are judged sufficient to de- stroy the notion of the Sabbath being a ceremonial institution. But w^e will not yet dismiss the subject. ]/ it was a ceremony, why was its importance magnifiei' above all the other ceremonies ? Why that pre-emi- nence and sanctity, which it had above all other types ? It rears its head high above all the ritual institutions, and holds this superiority throughout the whole Mosaic Economy. iSot only is it counted worthy of being graven by the finger of God upon the stone tablets, thus having the same honor as all the other precepts of the Decalogue, which are con- fessedly moral ; but even where it appears in combi- 8 THE SABBATH nation with the ceremonial usages, its great impor tance as a moral institute directed to the highest ends, is clearly exhibited. " For first, after the record of the promulgation of the Decalogue, three chapters of judicial statutes fol- low ; but in the midst of these, the people are re- minded of the essential importance of the Sabbath, in a manner quite distinct and peculiar. It is associated with the primary duty of wor.^hiping the one true God, as of equal obligation, and indeed as necessary to it. ' Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest, * * in all things that I have said unto thee, be circumspect, and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth,' Exod. xxiii. 12, 13. This is sufficiently remarkable. "Again, after six chapters more concerning the tabernacle and its various sacrifices, the whole com- munication of the forty days' abode on the mount is concluded with a re-inculcation of the Sabbath-rest, in a manner the most solemn and affecting. 'And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, verily my Sab- bath ye shall keep ; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know THAT I AM THE LoHD THAT DOTH SANCTIFY YOU. Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy unto you ; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death ; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done ; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord ; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath-day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual cove- nant. It is a sign between me and the children of NO CEREMONIAL 9 Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and M'as refreshed.' Exod. xxxi. 12 — 17. Can anything give dignity to the sacred day, as founded in the essential relation of man to his Maker and Redeemer, if this sublime language does not ? Every idea of sanclifi- cation, every sense of importance from a sign of a covenant between God and man, every sanction de- rived from the awful punishn ent of death, unite to impress upon us the duty ; whilst the proportion no- ted between the working days and the day of rest, and the reason drawn from the order of creation, ex- tend the obligation to every human being."* This great prominence which the Sabbath had amidst all the ceremonial laws, was equivalent to an intimation that the ritual service must never take the precedence of moral duties ; that in the multitude of their offerings and shadowy service, the worshipers must still remember that true holiness does not con- sist in them, but in something higher ; and that all their conformity to the rilual service must proceed upon moral footing, otherwise it is abomination ir* the sight of God. But come with me, reader, a little farther, and see how the scriptures magnify the Sabbath at the very time they comparatively underrate the importance of ceremonial observances. Compare carefully Isa. i. 11 — 14, with chapters Ivi. 1 — 8, and Iviii. I'S, 14, of the same prophecy. See how in the one case the ritual service is degraded, and in the other the Sabbath is exalted, and the holy keeping of it made the con- dHion on which depends the acceptance of theii burnt-offerings and sacrifices. Consider the language of Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 192 — 7. Read the passage * Wilson. 10 THE SABliATH with care, and see how all the prosperity of the nation, all the favor of God, is suspended on this one branch of moral obedience; wilb which com- pare his language concerning ceremonial observ- ances. " For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices : But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people ; and walk ye in all the ways that ] have commanded you, that it maybe well unto you,'' Jer. vii. 22, 23. A comparison of these passages shows that Sabbath-breaking stood upon the same level with the breach of all moral precepts, and cha- racterized them as a disobedient and rebellious peo- ple ; while the neglect of ceremonial observances is classed in a different category. Ezekiel follows in the same strain, chap. xx. 12, 13, 16. In the book of Psalms too, we have the Sabbath and its holy du- ties and pleasures extolled, Ps. xcii, while ceremo- nies are depreciated, Ps. 1. 8, 14, li. 16, 17. And what was the great reformation which the prophets after the captivity sought to accomplish ? Was not Sabbath-breaking the crying sin upon which they dwelt ? Look at the holy zeal of Nehemiah. His faithful and searching rebukes proceed not upon their omission of ceremonial duties, but upon their neglect of the great and paramount duty of keeping the Sab- bath, Neh. xiii. 15, 21, 22. In view of these scrip- ture references, does the Sabbath look like a ceremo- ny — a shadow — a mere element of the world, weak and beggarly ! Again, if the Sabbath was a part of the ceremonial law, why was Christ at such pains to regulate the manner of observing it.? Matt. xii. 1, 13. Why so careful to modify the false usages that obtained .' NOT CEREMONIAL. 11 Why did he lay down distinctions between what is lawful to be done, and what is unlawful ? Was this his manner when any thing ceremonial was the sub- ject of dispute ? Do we not find him, in such cases, waiving the subject at issue, in order to inculcate mat- ters of lasting importance ? How was it in his inter- view with the Samaritan woman ? John iv. Her question in regard to the proper place of worship was merely of a ceremonial nature, yet it had been hotly disputed between her nation and the Jews. Does Jesus become an umpire in the case ? No. The cere- monial institutions were about to vanish away ; He himself came to end them. Therefore he occupies himself, not in settling the litigated questions that grew out of them, but in preaching great and ever- lasting truths. In regard to the Moral Law, how- ever, he is at especial pains to vindicate it from all Pharisaic austerities, to remove all false glosses, and to assert its everlasting equity and glory. Witness his admirable exposition of it in his sermon on the mount. Witness too, his exposure of the hypocrit- ical tradition concerning the fifth commandment. Matt. XV. 1 — 9. With this, his vindication of the Sabbath, his care to purge it from traditional corrup- tions, is perfectly parallel. But what sane mind ever thought that he proclaimed the fifth commandment to be of a ceremonial nature ? Yet, strange to say, the precisely similar course which he took in regard to the Sabbath, has, by some, been made an argument that he abolished it as nothing but a Jewish ceremony. * But drowning men catch at straws.' In spite of the overwhelming proof that the Sabbath had its origin before ceremonial observances could, with any reason, have been introduced, it is contended that it must have been merely a Mosaic institution, because no mention is made of its observance from the creation 12 THE SABBATH down to the time of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. It is asked, ' whether men during all that time, though otherwise so wicked, sanctified the Sab- bath so universally and perfectly, that not one among them ever needed an excitement to duty, or a reproof for the neglect of it.' But to this question, however triumphantly proposed, we are as ready to answer. No, as the objector himself. Thf^.t the great mass of men, during all this time, were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly, is admitted. But because they were not particularly reproved for Sabbath-breakings no more proves that it was not a sin cognizable by the moral law, than ^he fact of God's winking at the times of the Gentiles' ignorance and idolatry, Acts xvii. 30, proves that their conduct was not cogniza ble as a sin against his law. If God passed over the* Sabbath-breaking of those who lived in the first ages of the world without particularly taking notice of it, the same may be said of his carriage towards the Gentile world, in reference to all their wickedness foi four thousand years. Besides, is not the drunkeness of Noah passed over without reproof ? Is not Lot's incest w-ith his daughters ? — and Jacob's cheating Esau of the patrimony.'' — and the plurality of the patriarchs' wives .'' Were these things not contrary to the Di vine Law, because they were " winked at .^" Or, to come to cases still more in point, we observe that the silence of scripture respecting the observance of the Sabbath during the ante-Mosaic age, is no more than what occurs in regard to the period between Moses and the time of David, near four hundred years. Yet who ever doubted that it was observed during all this time ? So also the rite of circumcision is not so much as alluded to from a little after the death of Moses^ till the days of Jeremiah, a period of eight hundred years or more. Nor is the ordinance of the red NOT CEREMONIAL. 13 heifer once mentioned from the Pentateuch till the close of the Old Testament. But who doubts the constant observance of these ceremonies ? The ob jection, therefore, which is raised from the silence of Scripture, has no force whatever. But whoever considers the very concise manner in which events are narrated in scripture, and that the history of two thousand years is all compressed within the compass of fifty short chapters, occupying about as many pages, will cease to wonder that no notice is taken of the observance of the Sabbath by the pious patriarchs. This very conciseness is a sufficient solu- tion to a candid mind, without resorting to the suppo- sition that there was no observance of the institution Moreover, any one that peruses with attention the accounts of pious characters contained in the word of God, will see that no express mention is made of their acts of religion, unless something remarkable attaches to them.* Abraham's faith is mentioned, because it was remarkable. So of Abel, of iVoah, and of Enoch. But in regard to their observance of the Sabbath in particular, it is not probable that any thing remarkable or extraordinary was connected with it, rendering it of sufficient importance to the world at large to be recorded. The position that we have taken is, that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise, when man was innocent; that it was binding before Judaism had any existence. We have seen that the silence of scripture as to any reproof given to the transgressor of it, does not shake this position ; that its silence as to any com- mendation bestowed upon the pious for keeping it, does not shake it ; and that its entire silence is no more than what obtains with regard to the Sabbath * Burnside. 14 THE SABBATH from Moses to David, or with regard to circumcision from Joshua to Jeremiah, or with regard to the red heifer from Moses to the end of the Old Testament Is there any thing yet remaining to weaken the force of our arguments ? In the opin-ion of our opponents there is one thing more. It is argued, from Ex. xvi., that the Sabbath was first made known to the Israehtes in the wilder- ness, by the falling of the manna. But we can dis- cover nothing in the whole history of the matter, as given by Moses, which intimates that the Sabbath was then made known for the first. On the contrary, the abruptness of the reference implies very s'rongiy the previous knowledge of it. This idea receives strong confirmation from the fact, that when the peo- ple were reminded of the institution, nothing was said to them concerning the reason of its being their duty to keep it ; which would hardly have been the case, had the subject been then presented to them for the first ti.me. For it is w^orthy of note, that God con- descends to give the reason of this command ; a thing which he does not for moral precepts in general. He gives the reason, because man cannot discover it for himself, it being purely a matter of revelation that God made the world in six days, and rested on the seventh. Whereas, other moral precepts are more readily dis( overaoie from the light of nature. Now, if God condescends in any place, and at any time, to give the reason for a command, we might expect it would be at the time of its first promulgation. In Gen. ii., where w^e suppose the law to be first given, the reason accompanies it ; but in the passage now under consideration it does not. Again, it is nowhere in the context intimated that the object of giving the- manna was to make know^n the Sabbath On the. contrary, the declared object of ARGUMENT FROM THE DECALOGUE. 15 supplying their wants in this miraculous manner, was to make the Israelites know that it was the Lord Jehovah who brought them out of Egypt, v. 6, and not Moses and Aaron, as they intimated, v. 3, to make them know that the Lord was their God, \. 12, and to prove them, whether they would manifest their j^ratitude for his merciful interposition in their favor, by walking in his law, or no, v. 4. This was the ex- press and primary object. To make known the Sab- bath is not even hinted as having been the subordi- nate, much less the ^n72c?/>«/ object. Section II. ARGUMENT FROM THE DECALOGUE. We commenced this essay with the design of show- ing that the Sabbath is a necessary part of the immu- table law of God — that law w4iich is " holy, and just, and good ;" which is " spiritual ;" to which nothing is opposed but that which is carnal. Hitherto, we have rested none of our proofs upon the fact, that it was incorporated in the Decalogue ; that it is one of the TEN WORDS " which God spake in the Mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice ; and he added no more." Deut. v. 22. For to assume that the Decalogue, as such, is the moral law, and that the Sabbath, because it makes a part of it, is therefore everlastingly bind- ing, may not be satisfactory to some of our readers. That the Decalogue, as such, held a peculiar aspect towards the Jews, different from that which it holds towards any others, is freely admitted. It made a part of their civil code ; it was incorporated Vvilh their political laws, and, therefore, temporal penalties were annexed, which were inflicted by the civil ma 16 THE SABBATH. gistrate. Offences against the most of its precepts were punishable by death, Sabbath-breaking not ex- cepted. Hence some contend that these precepts ought not to be called, by way of eminence, " the Moral Law ;" that the fact of their having been graven upon slone, and given under circumstances of greater pomp and glory than the other precepts of the Old Testament, constitutes no solid argument for their being so called. The greater glory of their promul- gation from the Mount of God, is supposed to be sufficiently accounted for, by considering them as the Constitution^ or Grand Platform^ upon which was based the whole of that system which was peculiar to the Jews. The Decalogue, therefore, is supposed to bear about the same relation to the other precepts spoken by Moses, as constitution bears to statute laio. This view is thought to be favored by those passages which call the stone tables " the tables of the Cove- nant." Heb. ix. 4. Hence, as they say, the Cove nant being abrogated, the tables of the Covenant are set aside also ; on the same principle that when a political government is dissolved the constitution is of no farther use. Upon this seemingly plausible argument we offer the following remarks : 1. Admitting that the Decalogue is the grand con- stitution of the Jewish polity, and that it has an ex- cellence over the other precepts spoken by Moses, precisely like that of constitution over statute law ; still we think it cojld not, in the nature of things, be any thing less than a code of morals. There was a necessity of the strongest kind, that it should embody all the essential elements of the moral law. For, as obedience to statute law must proceed from constitu- tional principles, so the obedience of the Israehtes to the whole system of Moses must proceed upon moral ARGUMENT FROM THE DECALOGUK 17 footing. Any other obedience than this — any obedi- ence which is of an inferior kind, God does not re- quire, and cannot, consistently with his holy nature. Ps'o matter what is the nature of the precepts He gives, obedience to them must be upon moral principle. A love for the great principles of righteousness must Ve- gulate it all ; for this only is the pledge that they will rigidly, and without deviation, conform to any system that He enjoins upon them. Therefore, the Moral Law, or rather the essential elements of it, go before all the other laws He gave to the children of Israel. If they w^ill keep this law, which they promised to do, Exod. xix. 8, it is a pledge that they will keep all the rest. 2. Though the covenant character of the Decalogue is abolished, by reason of the Sinaitic Covenant being entirely abrogated, the moral character of it remains untouched, and just the same as it was before a cove- nant was based upon it. Hence, though we are under no covenant obligation to its precepts, w^e are under a moral obligation to them. The Jews were under a covenant obligation to the Decalogue, brought upon them by the transaction at Sinai. But Jews and Gentiles were alike under moral obligation to its pre- cepts, antecedently to the covenant made at Sinai. Let men learn to distinguish between covenant obli- gation and moral obligation, and they will have no difficulty on th's point.* 3. If the covenant character of the Decalogue is abolished, and all covenant obligation destroyed along with it, of course those temporal penalties which * " The Decalogue, as to the form of it, and as delivered through the hand and ministry of Moses, only concerned that people (Israel), and was calculated for their use ; though, as to the matter of it, and so far as it is of a moral nature, and agrees with the law and light of nature, it is equally binding on the Gentiles."— X»r. Gill. 18 THE SABBATH. were annexed to its precepts are also abolished. But the moral penalty, the death of the soul, remains to be inilicted upon every impenitent transgressor Hence the Sabbath-breaker, as well as the idolator, the profane swearer, and the adulterer, though not obnoxious to death, as the despiser of Moses' law, is yet obnoxious to the curse of God, and must inherit it by being punished with everlasting destruction from His presence, and from the glory of His power. What is it then ? Not only do the ten command- ments possess a moral character, independent of their inscription upon the stone tablets, as the grand con- stitutional platform of the Jewish Theocracy ; but they possess this moral character because they com- pose this constitution. For the constitution, as we have already proved, could not, in the nature of things, be any thing else than a summary of moral precepts. Therefore, as the Sabbath is one of these precepts, it is a part of the moral law, and remains of everlasting force and obligation. In our defense of the ten commandments, we do not '* contradistinguish them from the rest by calling the former exclusively ^Ae moral law, and all the other divine instructions of the Jews, through Moses, the ceremonial law." We not only admit, but strongly insist, that moral duties are inculcated elsewhere be- sides in the Decalogue. " When the Jews are told, Exod. xxii. 22, Ve shall not afflict any widow or fa- therless child, we need no scholastic definitions to enable us to recognize this as a part of the moral code."* But we do suppose that the Decalogue comprises the elementary principles of the moral law. We suppose, that whatever moral duty is inculcated elsewhere, it is deducible from one or other of the ten * Bap. Advocate of Jan. 16, 1841 ARGUMENT FROM THE DECALOGUE. 19 commandments. We can hardly imagine a single condition in \vhich it is possible for man to be placed in this life, or a relation that he sustains, which is not cognizable by this code. Our doctrine receives strength from the prominence given to the Decalogue in the New Testament. No small degree of honor is put upon it by the Savior, in his Sermon on the Mount, an in^portant part of that celebrated discourse being occupied with expositions of its precepts, and applications of them to the con- duct of men, as the subjects of God's moral govern- ment. Again, when the young man came to Christ, and asked, " What good thing shall 1 do that I may inherit eternal life," he was told to keep the com- mandments. That by these M^ere meant the precepts of the Decalogue, is evident from the Savior's imme- diately beginning to quote those precepts. Matt. xix. 16 — 19. The fact that they were enjoined with re- ference to eternal life, proves conclusively that their bearing was not merely upon the conduct of men as citizens of the Jewish commonwealth, but upon their conduct as moral and accountable creatures.* Again, when the Apostle inculcates those duties which are the mark of love to our neighbor, he quotes the pre- cepts of the second table of the Decalogue. Rom. xiii. 9. It is evident, also, that Paul refers particu- larly to the Decalogue as the law which convinced him of sin. Rom. vii. 7. For he cites the tenth precept of it, as showing him that strong desire after Aings forbidden is sin. This is the commandment iV^hich, being powerfully applied to his heart, made ^in to revive, and he died: ver. 9. Hence he in- ♦ Christ inculcates only the precepts of the second table of the law, not because they are of more importance than those of the nrst. but because they are less easily counterfeited. Such duties are oy far too weighty to be permanently sustained by the hollow- heartedness of the hypocrite. 20 THE SABBATH. eludes the Decalogue, when he speaks of that law which is "spiritual, and holy, and just, and good :" vs. 12, 14; lo which the carnal mind, refusing sub- jection, is therefore enmity against God. Rom. viii 7. One more example. Paul writing, not to Jews, but to converts from among: the Gentiles, recognizes the usual arrangement of the Decalogue, and its va- lidity as a rule of duty under the Gospel, when he says, concerning filial obedience, that it is the first commandment which has a promise annexed to it. Eph. vi. 1,2. In the following verse he states what the promise is, presenting it as a motive to obedience. This proves that no commandment had been changed or dispossessed of its place. In asserting the importance of the Decalogue, the reader will observe that we do not particularly insist upon the manner and circumstances of its promulga tion. We dwell not upon the fact of its having been written with God's own finger upon stone, while Mosaic institutions were engrossed by Moses himself upon parchment. We dwell not upon the thunJer- ings, lightnings, thick clouds, the loud blast of the trumpet, and the voice of Jehovah from the midst of the fire ; all which conspire to throw around the ten commandments a glory not belonging to the ceremo nial precepts. These things Ave pass, aware that men will evade the argument from them, by the sup. position that they prove nothing more than that kind of superiority which the constitution of a state has over statute law. We can hardly refrain, however, from observing, as we pass, that as the ark was the throne of God, Exod. xxv. 22, Num. vii. S9, xvii. 4, Ps. xcix. 1 — it is difficult to conceive how righteous- ness and judgment were the habitation of his throne, Ps xcvii. 2, if the " ten words" which were there deposit*»d were not designed to be an expression of ARGUMKNT FROM THE DKCALOGUE- 2l His perfections, and the eternal rule of right to His creatures. 13jt we think we have placed the morality of the Dc'calo-rue upon grounds that cannot be successfully disputed. Having thus secured it, we advert to the foreo^oing circumstances, not as direct proof of the truth of our argument, but as so much collateral evi- dence. There is one circumstance, however, which ought not to be passed over lightly. The tables of stone were deposited in the ark, and covered over by the mercy seat. On the great day of atonement, when the High Prii^st entered into the Most Holy, he sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice upon this mercy seat, and upon the floor before it, thus making an atonement for the sins of the people. But did ibis blood in reality atone for the sins of the people against that law which was concealed under the mercy seat ? No. Not only was it no atonement for moral oliences, Heb. X. 4, but it was not even an atonement for their political violation of this code. For such violation, in regard to most of its precepts, was a capital crime, and could not be expiated under that covenant. The whole process, therefore, was typical or prefigurative of the grand atonement made for the sins of the world by Jesus Christ, the High- Priest of our pro- fession. Heb. iii. 1. The argument derived from it in favor of the Decalogue is, that what tlie law by its offerings could not do, God, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Rom. viii. 3. For Christ enters into the Most Holy, even unto Heaven itself, with his own blood, an.'i tnakes a real atonement for sins. In other words, the legal sacrinces could not reach to sins against the Decalosjue, but Christ's sacrifice did, and therefore the superiority of the gospel over the law is fully established. But the whole argumem for the 22 THE SABBATH. superiority of the Christian sacrifice becomes null and void, on the supposition that the atonement had re- ference to any other law than the Decalogue. Wow if the Decalogue, as a whole, has a claim to be called a summary of the moral law, the Sabbath derives in this M'ay no small degree of authority. For it is a very important part of the Ten Words, standing right in the very heart of them, and bound up along with them ; so that, whatever dignity and excellence the rest have, this has also. We are, therefore, driven to the conclusion, that when the Savior says, " One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law," the Sabbath is alluded to as much as any other pre- cept. That when the Apostle teaches, the law is not made void through faith, Rom. iii. 31, he means, among other things, that the Sabbath is not made void by the gospel, but rather established. That when he says " the law is spiritual," Rom. vii. 14, he means that the Sabbath law, as well as all other pre- cepts, is spiritual ; and that none reject it but those who are " carnal, sold under sin." But we shall hear it objected, that the fourth commandment is not transferred to the New Testa- ment, and re-enacted there, while all the other com- mandments are. This, however, is taking a wrong view of the case, altogether. The truth is, that no moral precept is re-enacted in the New Testament. What necessity is there for re-enacting laws which never expired : The very notion of re-enacting im- plies their previous expiration. Wherefore, if those precepts of the moral law which we find in the New Testament are there for no other reason than because they are re-enacted, it follows that they must have expired with the Old Covenant. If they expir*ed with it, they were peculiar to it, and must have had their origin in it. If they were peculiar to it, and ARGUMEMT FROM THE DECALOGUE. 23 originated in it, then all obligation to obey them was merely covenant obligation, while moral or natural obligation is supposed to have had no existence. But this conclusion is an absurdity, and if carried out still farther, leads to multiplied absurdities. Whatever laws are enacted in the New Testament, are altogether new and peculiar to that covenant of which Jesus is the mediator. They emanated from him in his character of Head of the Church. Baptism is one of them. It is, how^ever, a new institution, peculiar to the ^ew Covenant, and v^as not brought over from the old. The Lord's Supper is another, yet it is a new Covenant ordinance entirely, and therefore, like baptism, is to be observed only by be- lievers. But as for the re-enacting of laws, it is a thing altogether unknown in the New Covenant, and inconsistent with its nature. The notion of the necessity of re-enacting the Sab- bath in the New Testament, arises altogether from supposing that it is a covenant institution or church ordinance. But if it is a church ordinance, it can be binding upon none but believers ; on the same prin- ciple that the ordinances of the Mosaic church were binding upon none but Jews. Is any one prepared to take this ground ? We think not. Those who acknowledge the necessity of any Sabbath whatever, consider the observance of it a duty devolving upon men irrespective of their connection with the church, binding them in the isolated and individual capacity, even though church privileges were altogether out of the question. Were an individual abiding in some lone cavein of the Rocky Mountains, or roaming the uninhabited and trackless wastes of the earth, far, far from scenes of busy life, the law of God still binds him " to remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." The truth is, the Sabbath is not properly an ordi- 24 THE SABBATH nance of either of the covenants. It originated in neither of them, but was in existence lono; before any covenant was revealed to man. Hence, after the Old Covenant was abrogated, it -remained just what it was before. So that if, in the history of the New Covenant, or what is commonly called the New Testament, there was not one word of allusion to the Sabbath in particular, it would not afiect the argu ment in the least.* * Most writers on this subject, though they admit the rriorahty of the SaDbrith, and the claims it has upon ail men indiscrinii- nat'ly, appear to rea>on in a manner entirely dilfereni, when they come to contend for a change from the seventh to the first day of the week. Their arguments, which before were predi caied upon the nature and fitness of thing.-, and the requirements of (Tod, as the natural Lawgiver of mnnkind, av3 suddenly changed and based upon the new dispensation of Jesus Christ. Now this is an inconsiii^tency ; but it is one to which thev are ne ces-sarily driven, in order to give plausibility to the cluims of their new Sabbath. The fact that Christ introduced a new dis- pensation, does not argue a change of the Sabbath, or an insti- tution of a new one, unless it chu be proved that the old Sab- bath was a church ordinance. If it was, then, as there is a new church state, of course we must look for new church ordi- nancps. How, then, will it be proved, that the old Sabbath was a church ordinance 1 Will it be said that the observance of it was indispensable to membership in the Jcwuh church 1 Very true. Bui the same may be said of the laws concerning murder, and theft, and adultery. Yet these were not, properly speaking, church ordinances. Concernmg these things men were bound, though no church had ever existed. The sin of murder lay at Cain's door, long before any church was formed. The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence, before the .Tews were organized into a church; and the sin of dishonor- ing his father blackened the character of Ham, long before the fifth commandment was published from Sinai. So, too, the Sabbiith was set apart by God sanctifying it and blessing it, more thun two thousand yea"^ before it entered into the statute law of Israel. It cannot, therefore, be a cliurch ordinance. Will it be said, that the Sabbath, though not altogether a church ordinance, is neverlhele.=s so in part 1 If this can be esta- blished, then certainly so much of it as partook of this charac- ter must neces.'^arily have been abolished by the death of Christ and that p irt only remains which had no such character. But 1 ask, what part of the Sabbath l A few, of exalted piety, who rejoice in the sacred testimonies more than in all rich- es, and who feel that " a day in the courts of the Lord is better than a thousand," Psalm Ixxxiv. 10, would perhaps be there. But the mass — the throng — the great multitude — would be elsewhere. They would be immersed in the service of the world, their souls perishing for lack of knowledge. It would be impossible, utterly impossible to bring the word of God to bear upon their minds. How then could they be saved .'' For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Rom. x. 17. And if men are not brought to believe the gospel, what bcL'omes of the church .? Its visibility is gone — the gates of hell have prevailed against it. But God has swo; n that the church shall stand ; nay, that all nations shall flow unto it, Isa. ii. 2. Wherefore, He who said " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matt. xvi. 18, is also Lord of the Sabbath for the benefit of the church. As Lord of the Sabbath, he will forever perpetuate an institution so necessary to the interests of his kingdom. This object— the promotion of Zion's welfare — could not be aocomplished, unless the day were strictly a Sabbath ; that is, a day of rest from all sorts of work. It is not sufficient that the day be merely an honorable day — a notable season, or a day for holding religious meetings. If men are not obliged to intermit their worldly business, and that too by the expr^^ss autho- rity of God, they Avdl give themselves Dut little trou- ble to repair to a place of worship. Or even should ITS IMPORTANCE. 33 they go, their minds would be so filled with the world, that the instructions from the desk would be as seed cast upon the way side. Even with regard to the Christian himself, how could the life of God be main- tained in his soul, by an attention to religious duties just barely for the short space allotted to the public assembly? It would be impossible. His soul would be eaten up by the world. Public opportunities must be followed up by secret prayer, and close meditation in the sacred word. For this, one entire day in seven is little enough. The experience of all devoted Chris- tians — let their theory about the vSabbath be what it may — has taugbt them, that nothing less will suffice to keep their souls in prosperity and health. It appears, then, that we need just such a Sabbath as the fourth commandment enjoins ; one, the law of which is, " in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates." If the great object of evan- gelizing men, and bringing them to the knowledge and worship of Jehovah cannot be accomplished with any thing less than one entire day in seven, sanctified for the purpose, then unquestionably we need a Sabbath. It is therefore fair to presume, that the Sabbath of the Decalogue was given with special reference to man's necessities, and was not a mere shadow to be annull- ed for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. The Sabbath is necessary to promote the growth and strength of the moral principle. A man may render obedience to all the other precepts of the moral Isiw ; we may suppose them to be written on his heart ; we may even suppose them to be so perf^^ctly wrought into the temper and texture of his soul, that there is no deviation whatever. By his obedience he gives 34 THE SABBATH. evidence of being in possession of the great principle of tidiness. But this principle lives not by its own inherent vitality ; it must be nourished and fed con- tinually, or i't withers and dies. However holy, how- ever perfect the creature may be, he possesses no self- replenishing, self-renovating principle, — he must con- stantly resort to the great uncreated source for new supplies. The contrary supposition makes him inde- pendent of his Maker. Now the Sabbath is the sea- son set apart and sanctified by God Almighty for this very purpose. It is the means of grace for keeping alive the great moral principle — the season when the creature goes right up to the Great Fountain, and drinks of its invigorating streams, whereby he comes forth rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. Hence we find that even when man was innocent ; when he was in possession of the .moral principle to perfection, still he was not left without a Sabbath season for the replenishing of his spiritual powers. If he needed a Sabbath then, much more does he need it now. For though he has be'en created anew" in Christ Jesus, — the principle of holiness being thus re-implanted — yet has he a harder task to live holy to the Lord, inas- much as there is " a law in his members warring against the law of his mind," " the flesh lusting against the spirit." Therefore he needs all the aid the Sabbath can bring to his soul. He needs "the restoring, the awakening day — the day of recovery and reformation — the day that brings him back to re- collection, to seriousness to penitence, to prayer." And when the last traces of sin shall have become ob- hterated,and man put in possession of all that perfec- tion w^hich pertains to the glorified state; still that perfection, we believe, will not be sustained by its own vitality, but will be preserved by means hav- ITS IMPORTANCE. M ^ng a similarity to those employed on earth. For it is an everlasting Sabbath there, Heb. vi. 9. Yes, " there's a nobler rest above, To which our lab'ring souls aspire. With ardent pangs ot strong desire." But that the great importance of the Sabbatic In- stitution may be more distinctly felt, let it be blotted out from existence. Not only let the day which God himself" sanctified and blessed," be disregarded ; but let there be no day whatever devoted as a season of rest and religious improvement. Let every thing which has the least semblance of the Sabbatic rest be annihilated. What now is the state of morals .'' What kind of order prevails in society ? Why, men are not ashamed when they commit abomination, neither can they blush. They can glory in their shame, and hell seems to be let loose. What is true of communities, is also true of individuals. Such as have disregarded all seasons and opportunities for in- struction in those principles which serve as restraints upon the heart, have proceeded from bad to worse ; have become perfect pests of society, the ringleaders of all wickedness, at the head of every miscreant gang, foaming out their own shame, and ending their career in a prison or on the gallows. Witness the porr criminal, as he stands on the dividing line be- tween time and eternity, and his long-slumbering conscience wakes up, and begins to speak out its thunders. What does he say in that dread moment, when he feels that the eye of God is directly upon him ? What ! — Why, that in the beginning of his career, all the powers of his nature called him to a day of rest, and warned him not to trample upon sea- sons devoted to moral and religious improvement ; — that he disregarded these monitions, until at length the voice of conscience was hushed in silence, and tir THE SABBATH. the work of death was easy. Therefore, sa,ys he, I am a ruined man. Reader, when you contem- plate such facts, can you say that a Sabbath is not necessary ? Do you not see that the obliteration of it is the brand upon the forehead of morality ? Need we, in this little essay, pause to consider the bearing of the Sabbath upon the temporal welfare of man ? It is a matter so obvious, that we are almost ashamed to muke it the subject of a separate para- graph. It is a fact well attested by experience, that the human fiame sinks under uninterrupted toil. The utmost productive labor of man is in the proportion of six days exertion to one of repose. So that the Sabbath, instead of being an interruption to our neces- sary business, is really a help to it. The utmost pro- longation of human life also, is in the like alternation of toil and rest. While the poor beast of burden, if doomed to continued service, drags out a miserable existence, and at length sinks under the premature exhaustion of his powers. What lustre, then, does the Sabbath cast upon the benevolence of its Author. What mercy, what God-breathed humanity appear in this holy Institution. Let those who dwell in the habitations of cruelty, be its enemies. Section V. MANNER OF OBSERVING THE SABBA^JH. Notwithstanding God has given the Sabbath for the spiritual and temporal benefit of man, it is mani- fest that we may sutler a woful loss of all the good it proposes, if we neglect to make a pi'oper improve- ment of it. Like all the other means of grace, it may prove a savor of death unto death to those who abuse ITS OBStKVAiNCE. 37 it. It therefore 'becomes a momentous inquiry, Ho'w shall this holy day be observed ? This great institution is to be regarded as a weekly testimony of our allegiance to Him who created us. It thus becomes the mark of distinction between the worshipers of Jehovah and heathens. This being the case, it becomes a matter of thrilling importance that the testim.ony of our allegiance be sincere, cha- racterized by nothing of hypocrisy or formality. If, in all our acts of worship, we must be careful to wor- ship " in spirit and in truth," surely it is of the high- est importance to do so on this solemn occasion, when the Great King comes down to test our loyalty Let it be remembered, too, that in this business there can properly be no uninterested spectators. It is not foi a few to go through with the solemn act of dedicating themselves, while the rest make it a mere holiday, in Avhich they look on, as boys witness the manou- veriniTs of soldiers on parade day. But all the sons pnd daughters of Adam — for all are alike the work- manship of the Divine Being — are equally bound to direct their eyes and their hearts to Him who made them, and to say, " Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be for gotten." On this day we should by no means omit to cele- brate the praise of creation. To be a memorial of this great work of the Almighty, the Sabbath was originally instituted. Shall we then lose sight of the original design of the institution, or even throw it into the shade as a matter of secondary importance ^ Is not the soundness of that system of theology to be suspected, which would teach us to do so } Some, it is true, teach us that the work of Redemption being much more stupendous than that of creation, is there- fore to be made the chief object of our praise. But 38 THE SABBATH. however plausible this sentiment may seem, it is a sufficient ansM^er to say it is not contained in the Scrip- tures. How much more vast the work of Redemp- tion is than that of creation, we pretend not to say, as we are not able to measure the extent of either. To say which work makes the most powerful impression upon our minds, and fills us with more sublime ideas, is more easy. But that is no criterian by which to judge of their relative magnitude. Let it even be conceded that Redemption exceeds in glory the work of creation, still, whence do we derive those powers by which we estimate its glory ? Whence did we obtain those faculties by which we contemplate the great scheme of Redemption, and know that it is glorious ? Is it not to the wisdom and goodness of God as displayed in creation, that we are indebted for all these ? And what are the objects upon which Redemption is accomplished .? Are they not created objects ? And what is the effect which redemption has upon them ? Is it not that of putting an end to the disorders which sin has introduced, and bringing them to their original glory ? Is not the final result of redemption to be that of bringing nian back to that state of holiness and rectitude which the work of cre- ation originally bestowed upon him .'' How then can the praise of Redemption be celebrated, without cele- brating the praise of creation also ? The one cer- tainly leads directly to the other. So that if Redemp- tion accomplish its proper fruits upon us, it will lead us to be still more devout in observing the proper memorial of the Creator's works. But let it not be thought, because the work of crea- tion holds so prominent a place in our Sabbath medi- tations, that redemption is therefore cast into the shade. It is rather the contrary. For as those pow- ers by which we contemplate the work of creation, ITS OBSERVANCE. 39 and become acquainted with its grandeur and with i^s author, are impaired by sin, so it is impossible for us to enter into the subject profitably, except by the aid which Redemption affords. If we attempt to bring our mental powers to act upon the works of creation, and to " look through nature up to Nature's God," we shall find them slow and lifeless to perform their duty, until first purified and invigorated by the influ- ence of the great Atonement. Much, therefore, as it is our duty to celebrate the praise of creation, we can- not do so to the glory of God, without recognizing at the same time the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, as the means by which we do it. From which it ap- pears, that the praises of creation and of redemption go hand in hand in this matter. There is no clashing, — no contrariety, — nor even such an elevation of one Tabove the other in respect to glory, that they cannot be celebrated together, and upon the very day which most fitly serves as the memorial of the former ; which memorial cannot be transferred to another day with- out manifest incongruity. It is manifest from the slightest consideration of the nature and design of the Sabbatic institution, that Redemption cannot be excluded from our meditations on this holy day, but must hold a very prominent place. For one great design of the Sabbath is, to promote our conformity to holiness. But man par- takes of no holiness except through the gospel. The mediation of Christ is the only channel through which it is communicated to him, and this always in con- nection M^ith the most vigorous action of his mind on the subject. Another very important thing among the duties of the Sabbath, is the cultivation of a right spirit with reference to it. We should ^'■count it a delight^'''' Isa. Iviii. 13 Can that man be called a Christian, who 40 THE SABBATH. counts it an irksome season ? Is he spiritually mind- ed to whom it is an unwelcome interruption of his worldly business, who in the avarieiousness of his heart says " when will the Sabbath be gone that we may set forth wheat ?" Amos. viii. 5. Surely not. His temper is any thing but in accordance with the sacredness of the Sabbath season. His thoughts, his feelings are a direct violation of that law which says, "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." To a real Christian, however, the Sabbath is the most de- lightful season he enjoys on earth. It is something like a heaven below ; for the things of God and Christ come then into direct contact with his holy soul. He is as eager for the approach of this holy season, as a child is for his holiday. Instead of it being too long for him, it is too short ; and with joy does he look forward to a Sabbath which shall never end, that which remaineth for the people of God, Heb. iv. 9. Such a spirit ought ever to be cultivated. In no other way can the Sabbath become a means of grace to the soul. What will mere abstinence from labor do ? It will only contribute to the renovation of the corporeal system ; which, it is true, is one design of the insti- tution. But this is a small part. Shall we take care of the body, and not of the soul ! Yet the soul suf- fers unto death, if there be no care to cherish a right spirit with reference to the day which is ''the holy of the Lord." Our very thoughts must be put under restraint, and the greatest care taken that nothing of a worldly nature intrude into the mind. This leads us to observe, that our conversation should have no reference to worldly things, but should be upon such subjects as are spiiitual and tend to the furtherance of the soul in the divine life. " Not speaking thine own words," Isa. Iviii. 13. But, alas ! we shail enter the dwellings of some, and when ITS OBSERVANCE. 41 the Sabbath approaches, we shall not know it by any dilFrrence th:it we can discover in their conversation. It is slill upon subjects that have not the remotest con- ixi-ction with the glory of God. Follow them to the place of public worship, and up to the very thresh- holil of the door, their speech still savors of this world. Follow them through the whole of the day — the state of their crops, the currency of the coun- try, the political aspect of things, banks, bonds, mort- gages ; these are the themes upon which they expa- tiate. These render them animated, and even elo- quent. '' Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Reader, thinkest thou that such persons can say in truth, " how I love thy law." That law says. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Thinkest thou that the love of God reigns in their hearts ? This is the love of God, that w^e keep his commandments. John. v. 3. AH visiting for pleasure is inconsistent with aright observance of the Sabbath. Express and plain is the word of God — " Not finding thine own pleasure." Isa. Ixviii. 13. Visiting the sick for the purpose of alleviating their sufferings, and rendering what help we can, either as it regards their bodies or their souls, is not only allowable, but is a Sabbath duty. But even this is liable to abuse. Multitudes take the Sab- bath to visit the sick, merely because they are not willing to take time on any other day ; and it is to be feared that if there were no Sabbath, the sick would be sadly neglected by them. Others go merely be- cause the rigid improvement of the day at home is irksome to them. They w^atch the occasion, and convert it as much as possible into a visit for their own pleasure, while they quiet their consciences by the reflection that they have been visiting the sick. Reader ! be careful how you seek to evade the re- 42 THE SABBATH. straints of Heaven's law. Every attempt on your part to convert the season of holy rest into a day of pleasure, evinces a heart that counts the command- ments of God grievous. Is this a renewed heart ? Impossible. Remember, too, that while you visit others for your own pleasure, you drive them to a violation of the Sabbath, as well as yourself. You take them from their closet, their reading, their meditations. All traveling, for business or for pleasure, is also forbidden by the Sabbath law. Such traveling as may be necessary in order to promote the due sancti- fication of the day, is of course not included. Har- nessing our horses and riding to our accustomed places of worship, may be necessary to promote the sancti- fication of the Sabbath, and L, therefore, no breach of of it. It stands on the same level with the labor per- formed by the priests of the Old Economy in the tem- ple, for which they were " blameless." Matt. xii. 5. Yet traveling one half the distance for pleasure, is a profanation of the day, inasmuch as the word of God says, " not finding thine own pleasure." For the same reason, and because there are six days in which men ought to work, journeying for business on the Sabbath, is a violation of it. Take the following case : Brother A. is out on a journey The Sabbath comes, and instead of putting up and resting until the sacred season i3 past, he keeps right forward just as he had done every other day of the week. True, he professes to regret the necessity of traveling on this day, but pleads in excuse that he cannot afford to stop at a public house during the time. He is too poor ; or, he says, the tavern is a noisy, bustling place, and unfavorable to his religious enjoyment, and, therefore, he concludes it will be no greater violation of the Sabbath to proceed quietly on his journey than it would be to spend it in such a situation. But, bro- ITS OBSERVANCE. 43 ther, let me talk with you about this. Ho »v much would it cost you to slop at the public house ? A dollar, or two dollars ; or it rnay. be, if your family is with you, five doRars. Well, will you barter away the sanctity of the Sabbath for five dollars ! Poor as you are, will you make sale of the ordinance of God for money ? For this is what you do in reality. Turn it and turn it whichever, way you will, it comes at last to this. Pause, then, and consider whether, under such circumstances, and actuated by such principles, you can class yourself with those who " esteem the law of God better to them than thousands of gold and silver." Ps. cxix. 72. The true Christian would rather impoverish himself to the last farthing than violate one of God's precepts. " But the tavern was noisy and bustling." How came you to put up at such a tavern ? Those who remember the Sabbath, and are anxious to spend it to the glory of God, will carefully look out and make their inquiries before- hand, and in n ost cases will not have much difficulty in lodging themselves at a quiet place. But if through circumstances beyond their own control, they are lodged in a place of different character, their duty is to submit to it, and do the best they can. Your en- joyment may not be so great ; but what of that ? Your spiritual prosperity does not always depend on your enjoyment ; nor does God's glory depend upon it. God's glory depends upon your obedience to his law, and so does your prosperity. It is a mistaken notion that Christians are never in the way of duty but when they are in the way of enjoyment. Besides, dare you prescribe terms to the Almighty, and say you will obey him, provided he will grant you such enjoy- ments and privileges as you want, otherwise you will not ? How daring the impiety ! What if God lodged you at such a wicked place on purpose that you 44 THE SABBATH. might, by your conduct and your words, be a leproof to the ungodly sinners that frequented there. Will you be ashamed of your duty, and snrink from the trial ? '^ He that is ashamed of rn(- and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed." Luke ix, 26. Remember, my brother, God's law says, •' Re- member the Sabbath to keep it holy." The excep- tions which you make, God has not made. After what has been offered, it seems almost need- less to add, that Sabba'h-keeping includes abstinence from labor. The Divine law enjoins us " to keep it holy." The plain m-aning of which is, that it is a day peculiarly sacred to the Lord. For the word Ao/y, when applied to things inanimate, or to ponions of time, denotes them to be set apart exclusively for religious purposes. If, then, the day in question, ac- cording to the divine mandate, is to be kept holy, it is manifestly a sin to devote it, or any part of it, to sec- ular pursuits. Wherefore the law is express — '■'■ in it thou shalt not do any work." All that work which on other days is perfectly lawful, is on the hoi} ISab- bath to be laid aside, except such as may be abso- lutely necessary for the prevention of distress, or the relief of objects of mercy. But alas! what kind of commentary upon this law is the conduct of many who call themselves by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us see. — Neighbor B. has a large grass farm, and milks daily from thirty to fifty cows. The product of his dairy is cheese, of which he makes one or perhaps two each day during the proper sea- son. The Sabbath comes, and the cows must be milked. Well, that is right and necessary for the prevention of distress. But then the milk must be subjected to the same operation as on other days, and the accustomed cheese must be made, because other- wise it would be lost. Lost ! — well, suppose it should ITS OTBSERVANCE. 45 be, how much is it worth ? Why, five dollais, more or less. And so he barters away the sanctity of the Sabbath (or five dollars I Well, Judas sold his master for thirty pieces of silver, and how much better is your conduct than his ? Or what better is your con- duct than mine would be in .the following case ? I have a valuable horse, which I will sell for one hun- dred dollars. A traveler passes my door on Sabbath day, and offers me my price. Now the times are hard, and by closing the bargain it will be a profit to me of twenty or twenty-five dollars. By refusing to do so, I lose the chance of selling him, and he remains on my hands. Rather than lose so good an opportu- nity, I strike the bargain, Sabbath though it be. Thus have I sold the sanctity of the Sabbath for twenty dollars ! Neighbor B., who makes his cheese on the Sabbath, is horror-struck, and comes over to admon- ish me. But, " Physician heal thyself.''^ We might multiply cases to illustrate our argument, but it is needless. Every instance of departure from God's law, we believe, will be found to have origina- ted in selfishness. But that manner of keeping the day which looks at our own interest, rather than the honor of God, can in no way be called " keeping it holy." For if it is holy, it is consecrated to the Lord, not to ourselves. But in all the foregoing instances, it is manifest, the individual looks first to himself. Such selfishness is idolatry, and is the very spirit that governs the carnal mind. But God, in the just retri- butions of his providence, sometimes defeats the very end proposed to be obtained by it. For instance, the cheese, which is the product of Sabbath labor, spoils on the dairyman's hands ; or if that does not take place, he fails of getting his pay for it. The farmer who was in haste to gather in his hay or his grain on the Sabbath for fear of a shower, has no sooner se- 46 THE SAEEATH. cured it than the storm begins, and a single flash of lightning consumes the whole. Or, it may be, when winter comes, he takes it to market, trusts it out, and finally gets nothinoj for it. The man who could not afford the expense of stopping at the hotel over Sab- bath while on his journey, gets home, and finds per- haps that on the very day he was profaning God's holy institution, some person's cattle broke into his grain-field and destroyed enough to pay for his lodg- ing at the hotel half a dozen times. What then did he gain by it ? That such retributions overtake those who violate the law of God, is not merely imaginary. On the contrary, it is believed, that were men more close observers of the dealings of Providence, they would be sensible that such things take place often. But, alas ! " God speaketh once, yea, twice, and man perceiveth it not." It seems almost superfluous to say any thing about public worship, as an important part of Sabbath exer- cises. If it were necessary to their spiritual prosper- ity that Jews should meet together in " holy convo- cation," Lev. xxii. 3, and be instructed in the testi- monies concerning a Messiah to come, it cannot be less important that Christians should now assemble and celebrate the fulfilment of those testimonies, and " the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ." Our Lord has ordained public worship to be a means of promoting the growth of his people in holiness ; and if the Sabbath is a means to the same end, they ought both to go together, unless our situation render it impossible. If on the holy Sabbath we cannot say, ** How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts," when can we .'' If on this holy day we cannot say, ** I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness," when "will it ever be the language of our hearts ? ITS OBSERVANCE. 47 But "we cannot enlarge. Our essay has already exceeded the limits we had designed. We submit the subject to your consideration, as being one of in- calculable importance. Reader, what course will you take ? God Almighty has separated one day in par- ticular from all others, and pronounced it holy. Will you then say that all days are alike ? Or will you assume to yourself the prerogative of setting apart whatever portion of time you choose, in open disre- gard of that particular portion which God " sanctified and blessed," saying, " it is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ?" Will you suffer your convenience or your selfishness to come into conflict with the claims of your Maker ? Who is it that said, ^' If any man will come after me, let him dexy himself?" Pause then, before you suffer yourself to be lulled into in- difference on this matter. A vain sophistry insinu- ates that it is a subject of minor importance — a non- essential. But be not deceived. God has magnified its importance throughout his holy oracles. It is God the Lord that speaks, will you obey or will you turn agaia to folly ? THE SIXTH-DAY NIGHT. <* Sweet to the soul the parting ray, Which ushers placid evening in, When with the still expiring day, The Sabbath's peaceful hours begin ; How grateful to the anxious breast, The sacred hours of holy rest I I love the blush of vernal bloom, When morning gilds night's sullen tear ; And dear to me the mournful gloom Of Autumn — Sabbath of the year ; But purer pleasures, joys sublime, Await the dawn of holy time. Hushed is the tumult of the day. And worldly cares, and business cease, While soft the vesper breezes play To hymn the glad return of peace ; O season blest ! O moments given. To turn the vagrant thoughts to Heaven. What though involved in lurid sight, The loveliest forms in nature fade. Yet mid the gloom shall heavenly light With joy the contrite heart pervade ; O thou, great source of light divine, With beams etherial gladden mine. Oft as this hallowed hour shall come, O raise my thoughts from earthly things, And bear them to my heavenly home, On living faith's immortal wings — Till the last gleam of life decay In one eternal Sabbath Day !" No. 3. THE SABBATH: AUTHORITY FOR THE CHAI^GE OF THE DAY. It being clear from the Scriptures, that the seventh day was instituted by divine authority for a M^eekly Sabbath, and religiously regarded throughout the times of the Old Testament, those who now relinquish its observance, and keep the first day of tlie week, take the ground that the Sabbath was either abrogated and a new institution introduced in its room, or that the time of its observance was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, in commemora- tion of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be consistent with themselves, therefore, they are bound to evince one or the other of these positions The burden of proof evidently lies on their part For unless it can be shown, that the fourth command ment, which requires the sanctification of the seventh day, has been abolished, or amended by the substitu- tion of the first for the seventh day of the week, it is clear that the original appointment remains obligatory and is now binding on the entire human family. And to substantiate either of these points, the proof must be clear and decisive. It will not do to rest upon doubtful deductions. We have an unquestionable right to demand that divine warrant, in either case, which pertained to the institution as originally delivered. We will therefore first examine the proofs adduced in favor of the abrogation of the former weekly Sab- bath and the introduction of a new institution. To sustain this position, the broad ground is takeu by some, that the Decalogue itself, in which the law of the Sabbath is contained, was abrogated ; and that, 8 THE SABBATH ! under the new dispensation, no part of it is binding but what is newly enjoined or expressly recognized, either by Christ or his Apostles. The perpetual obligation of the Decalogue implies, of course, the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath as enjoined in the fourth commandment. But if that was abrogated, the Sabbath which it enjoined was also abrogated ; and, consequently, it ceases to be binding, unless renewed under the new economy. What, then, is the proof here relied upon ? One of the principal passages in which this proof is supposed to be contained is 2 Corinthians 3 : 7, 8, 13. " But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that, the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious } . . . . And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished." It is argued from this passage, that the clauses " which glory was to be done away," and " to the end of that which is abolished," refer to the whole law, moral as well as ritual^ because men- tion is made of " that which was written and engraven in stones," which is an evident allusion to the Deca- logue. But, on careful examination, it will be found that " that which was to be done away," was not the Decalogue itself, but " the ministration of it," which was then appointed — the same being emblematically illustrated by the glory of Moses' countenance, which was merely temporary. This clause refers expressly to the glory of his countenance, and not to the glory of the law itself. So also the clause " that which is abolished," does not refer to the Decalogue, but to the ministration of Moses, Including the ap- pended rites and usages, the priesthood and its sacri- AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 3 fices, which were useful merely for the time being. It cannot be supposed that the Decalogue was abol- ished, without expressly contradicting Christ's testi- mony, Matt. 5 : 17 — 19, as well as many other representations of the Scriptures. The abolishment spoken of, therefore, evidently respected no other than what the Apostle calls in another place " the law of commandments contained in ordinances," inclusive of the entire ministration of Moses. There is unques- tionably a reference in this chapter to the Decalogue, but not as abolished. It was merely the ministration of it, or the then instituted manner of teaching, illus- trating, and enforcing it, which was abolished, to be succeeded by a new ministration of the same law by the Spirit. For it is written, " I will put my law" — (the very law of the ten commandments) — " in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Again, " We are not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." What law but the Decalogue is here referred to f Evidently none. For surely we are not under the Mosaic ritual. Again, " Do we make void the law through faith ? . . Yea, we es- tablish the law." The same, no doubt, which was contained in the Decalogue. Hence, the Apostle James says, '^ If ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye shall do well." Here the title " the royal law " is given by way of eminence to the Decalogue ; and its permanent obligation is manifestly recognized ; for the precept alluded to is a summary of the last six com- mandments of this code, and the allusion is so made as to imply the continued obligation of the first four, which are summed up in supreme love to God. Again, the Apostle John testifies, "Hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his command- ments." And again, " Blessed are they that do hi» commandments, that they may have right to the tree 4 THE SABBATH ! of life, and may enter in through the gates into thei city." In both these passages reference is evidently had to the precepts of the Decalogue, as the essential and permanent rule of obedience for Christians. The doing away or abolishment, therefore, spoken of in the above passage, cannot refer to the Decalogue or the moral law itself^ but to the Mosaic dispensation or ritual. Another of the proofs alledged for the abrogation ol the Decalogue, and consequently of the Sabbath, is Colossians 2 : 14 — 17. " Blotting out the hand- writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross ; and, having spoiled principalities and powers, he m-ade a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come ; but the body is of Christ." By " the hand-writing of ordinances," is most evi- dently meant the ceremonial law — not the Decalogue, or the moral law. This is never characterized as "the hand-writing of ordinances." Therefore, the " blotting out," " taking away," and " nailing to the cross," spoken of, have no reference to this law, but to the Mosaic ritual. This is particularly distinguish- ed from the Decalogue, and fitly described as " the law of commandments contained in ordinances." It was this, and this only, which was " blotted out " and "nailed to the cross." As, therefore, the reference made by the Apostle is expressly to this law, it fol- lows, by a fair inference, that " the sabbath days " alluded to, or, strictly rendered, "sabbaths," are those which were contained in this law, or among these " ordinances," and do not include the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. There were, besides the weekly Sabbath, various other sabbaths appointed. AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 5 which belonged to that ritual, and not to the Deca- logue. Accordingly, these were expressly included in " the hand-writing of ordinances," and like the rest were " a shadow of things to come," and ceased to be obligatory at the death of Christ. There is evidently no authority in this passage for including any sabbaths but what properly belonged to the Mosaic ritual. This view of the matter is corroborated by a more Hteral rendering of the 17th verse, viz : "Let no one therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in a part or division of a festival, or of a new moon, or of sab- baths." The sabbaths alluded to are obviously those which are found in the same place with meats and drinks, festivals and new moons, and which were of the same general character. The weekly Sabbath, therefore, is not affected at all by their abrogation, but remains in full force, as does every other precept of the Decalogue. We find the same distinction as to the law which was abolished, in Ephesians 2 : 14, 15. " For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace." Here the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles, called " the enmity," is expressly defined, as before, to be " the law of commandments contaiiied in ordinances." This, and this only, therefore, was abolished, leaving the Decalogue, or the moral law, in its original character and obligation. This is the language of the whole Bible. There is no proof in any of these passages, that the law of the ten com- mandments was abolished, or that the Sabbath enjoin- ed therein was done away. Nor is there such proof in Romans 14 : 5, 6. " One man esteemeth one day above another ; another 6 THE SABBATH : esteemelh every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it to the Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks : and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, und giveth God thanks." This passage is fre- quently adduced as proof that the obligation to keep the ancient Sabbath has ceased, and that under the Gospel dispensation there is no divinely authorized distinction in the days of the week ; that there is no one constituted holy in distinction from the rest ; and consequently that every one is left at his own liberty to keep a Sabbath or not. It will be easily perceived, that if this argument has any weight in reference to the seventh day as the Sabbath, it operates equally against the obligation to keep the first day, either as a substitute for the seventh, or as a memorial of the resurrection, seeing it places all distinctions whatever as to days on the same ground with the confessedly obsolete rites of the Mosaic ritual. According to this view of the passage, we have under the Gospel dis- pensation no Sabbath at all — not so much as an au- thorized memorial of the resurrection. He who claims the least authority for the observance of the first day of the week for any purpose, takes a course which completely overthrows the argument based upon this passage. But, in reality, this text has no- thing more to do with the subject before us, than either of those which have been examined. It re- spects merely the distinctions which formerly existed in regard to the six working days of the week — some of them being appointed in the Mosaic ritual as sab- baths, others as days of atonement and purification, and others as festivals. Some of the early Christians thought these distinctions still binding, as also the dis- tinctions in regard to meats and drinks ; others thought AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 7 they were not. Hence the exhortation which is sub joined to mutual forbearance. That the distinctions referred to as to days, were those noted in the Mosaic ritual, and did not include the one contained in the fourth commandment, is manifest from the whole scope of the chapter. There is particular reference made to one's freely eating all things, while another would eat only herbs ; and accordingly the following rule, to be respectively observed, is laid down : " Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not ; and let not him that, eateth not, judge him that eateth ; for God hath received him." This quotation clearly evinces that the Apostle was treating of ritual dis- tinctions, and not of that distinction of days which was constituted by the ancient law of the Sabbath. Again, the abrogation of the Decalogue is supposed j to be taught in Romans 7 : 4, 5, 6. " Wherefore, I my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by \ the body of Christ, that ye should be married to an- l other, even to him who is raised from the dead, that | we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we \ were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held ; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the old- ness of the letter." But if the term law here in- cludes the moral as well as the ceremonial law, it is manifest that believers are not said to be delivered from it, considered in any other light than as a cove- nant of works. Certainly they are not delivered from it as a rule of obedience. To suppose this, is incon- sistent with Christ's sermon on the mount, before alluded to, and many other decisive proofs of the per- petual obligation of the Decalogue. It is probable the Apostle had special reference to the deliverance of believers from the curse of the moral law. Tliis 8 THE SABBATH I is reasanably inferred from the clause, " that being dead where'ln we were held." If any thing more pertaining to this iaw be intended, it must be its ori- ginal character when given to Adam as a covenant of works or of life. For surely we are not and cannot be delivered from it as a rule of obedience, so long as God is what he is, and we are what we are. Seeing that as long as the relation constituted by his charac- ter as Supreme Ruler, and by ours as moral subjects, exists, we shall be bound to love him supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves, which is the fulfilling of this law. And to suppose that this law, as a rule of obedience, was actually annulled, and that those pre- cepts only are now to be considered obligatory, which are enacted or published anew under the Gospel, is to suppose that God, at a certain time, actually re- scinded the rule requiring supreme love to him, and to our neighbor as ourselves, which is palpably incon- sistent, and contrary both to the current of Scripture and the nature of things. It would be maintaining that to be changed which is manifestly unchangeable. It would imply that, for the time being, the obligation recognized by the law did not exist ; that the tie by which God and moral beings are united, was sundered, not by rebellion on the part of his subjects, but by his own act of abrogation. Can this be admitted ? But if it were admissible, and if no part of this law is binding on Christians but what is newly enacted or particularly recognized under the Gospel dispensation, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment could not in this way be set aside ; because its con- tinued obligation is plainly taught in the New Testa- ment. It is altogether a mistake, that we have no express recognition of this precept under the Christian dispensation. It is plainly recognized by the Savioi ' in Matthew 5 : 17 — 19, where he says, that he " came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill ; " that '•' one AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 9 | jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass fronri the law^ till all be fulfilled ; " and that " whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall do and teach them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." If ] any commandment of this law is binding, the fourth is binding of course, even if it should be called the least. It is also recognized in the following declara- tion of Christ, Mark 2 : 27—" The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." The word man is here obviously used for the entire race — not for a part — not for the Jews in distinction from the Gentiles — not for those who lived under the Old Testament dispensation, or till the time of Christ's death ; but for man in his protracted existence during all future periods of time, i. e. for mankind in general. This is the plain import of the declaration. And if we render the original with the article, it is still more evident that the entire race is included. '" The Sab- bath was made for the man^"^"* i. e. for Adam, the ori- ginal parent of man, including, of course, his pos- terity. But, according to either rendering, the entire human race is manifestly included in the term. The Sabbath, then, was as truly made for the Gentiles as for the Jews ; and for those who should live after the crucifixion, as for those who lived before ; which is an explicit recognition of its perpetual obligation. The same recognition also appears from its continu- ed observance under the ministry of the Apostles, and \ there being not the least hint or stir in reference to | its abrogation, or to the substitution of another day in ' its room. The weekly Sabbath is frequently men- tioned in the Apostolic records, as a part of practical duty, and it was unquestionably the seventh day. Thus we have the continued obligation of the Sabbath sanctioned by Apostolic example. , If, therefore, a V 10 THE SABBATH : new edition, or an express recognition of the Sabbath of the fourili commandment be consideied necessary, to bind the consciences of men under the new dis- pensation, the longo ng considerations will show that we have such an ( dition or recognition, as truly as we have of the other precepts of the Decalogue. So that nothing is gained in regard to setting aside the seventh day of the week, by attempting to show the abrogation of the Decalogue. If those precepts of that law which require that we should have no other gods before the Lord — that we should not kill, nor commit adultery, nor steal — are newly enjoined or expressly recognized under the present dispensation, and, consequently, universally binding, the same is true of the fourth commandment, which requires the keeping of the seventh day. Again, an attempt is made to prove the abrogation of the original Sabbath, by showing that the entire Decalogue was peculiar to the Jewish nation, consti- tuting a national covenant, which, at the coming of Christ, was annulled, and a new covenant introduced. But admitting that it was delivered immediately to them, in the I'onn of a national covenant, this does not in the least imply that it was not equally binding, as a rule of obedience, upon other portions of the hu- man family. We might as well argue that the New Testament belonged merely to the primitive Chris- tians, because it was delivered directly to them, and constituted the rule of their conduct and the basis of their hopes. Yea, we might as well suppose that no nation except the Jews were bound not to have any other gods before the Lord, not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear false wit- ness, as to suppose that the Decalogue was purely of a national character, and binding merely on that peo- ple durinp; their continuance as a national church. A.nd, as the Decalogue was not merely national as o AUTHORITY FOR THJ-: CHANGE IJ tuhokj so there was nothing national in the fourth commandment. It belonged, equally with the other nine, to the entire family of man, inasmuch as the essential reasons of all and of either of the command- ments, were of universal obligation. Again, that the original Sabbath was peculiar to the Jews, and consequently abrogated by the intro- duction of the new dispensation, is argued from its being specially urged upon them by the consideraton of their deliverance from Egypt. But this argument is of no force, because the same reason is urged in the preface to the entire Decalogue. For the same purpose, also, an argument is founded upon the fact that the fourth commandment was en- forced with a deadly penalty. But this argument also fails ; because a similar penalty was annexed to the breach of the other precepts of this law. The truth of the case is, that these penalties belonged not to the Decalogue itself as first promulgated, any more than they belong to it now under the milder dispensa- tion of the Gospel. They were added in the Mosaic ritual, and constituted a part of the political arrange- ments for the time being. Their abrogation, there- fore, aftects not the original law. Though there be no civil power now given to the church to enforce obedience to this precept by temporal punishments, as formerly, the sacredness and obligation of the institu- tion are not thereby at all affected. The sin of disc- bedience will be visited in God's own time. Again, some have inferred the abrogation of the ' former Sabbath, or at least its change, from our Lord's vindication of the act of the disciples, in plucking the ears of corn, and rubbing them in their hands, as they passed through the corn-fields on the Sabbath day, and from his saying, that " the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day," Mark 2 : 23—28. But there is evidently nothing in this narrative, or in this 12 THE SABBATH ! declaration, to justify such an inference. It must be admitted on all hands, that the fourth commandment was obligatory, as originally given, till the death of Christ, if no further ; and therefore Christ, who " was made under the law," was bound to obey it in its original strictness. Admitting that he possessed the right, in a given instance, to intermit its obligation, it is not consistent to maintain that he did it ; because he came to render perfect and universal obedience. Hence he affirmed, that one jot or one tittle should in no wise pass from the law " till all be fulfilled." His whole life was a perfect comment on the require- ments of the law. Had he failed in the least particu- lar, he would have been inadequate to the great pur- poses of our salvation. It is obvious, therefore, that the transaction alluded to was not, under the circum- stances, a breach of the fourth commandment, but in perfect accordance with its prescriptions — the labor implied by the act of the disciples being a matter of urgent necessity. "It is lawful," said he, "to do well on the Sabbath day." Neither does the decla- ration, that " the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day," imply that he abrogated or chanp-ed it, but rather that he was bound and engaged to protect it as a divine institution, and to enforce an enlightened and strict obedience to its requirements. The foregoing being the principal proofs adduced for the abrogation of the Decalogue, and the orio-inal Sabbath, it is evident that this view of the subject cannot be sustained. It is not sanctioned by any plain scriptural evidence. It is, therefore, palpably absurd to rest so important a matter upon so slender a basis. It is laying violent hands on a code of moral and im- mutable precepts, given by God, and promulgated under peculiar and terrible signs of purity and majes- ty, to vmdicate a practice which was introduced long after the commencement of the Christian era. ATTTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. l'^ Another portion of the observers of the first oay, seeing the absurdity of holding to the abrogation of the Decalogue, and, consequently, of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, readily admit its perpetual obligation, but alledge that the Sabbath is changed, under the new dispensation, from the seventh to th« first day of the week — thus transferring the authority for keeping the seventh day to the first. It is not pretended that we have an explicit warrant from God, pointing out and authorizing the change in question, but that we have what is tantamount to such a war- rant. We will examine the principal arguments for this supposed change. In the first place, this change is inferred from the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week, which is supposed to be an event of such magnitude as to constitute an equal and even greater reason for observing the first day of the week as the weekly Sabbath under the new dispensation, than that which existed for observing the seventh under the old. But what does this argument amount to .'' It is not perfectly clear that the resurrection occurred on the first day of the week. Very plausible reasons may De assigned for the opinion, that it occurred on the evening of the seventh day, although it was not pub- licly declared till the morning of the first. But ad- mitting that it occurred on the morning of the first day, h^w does this prove that it was substituted for the seventh day as the Sabbath .'' Is the inference absolutely necessary ? Is there any designation of the first day for a sabbatic purpose ? If another than the seventh day was in any wise admissible, as ac- cording better with the Christian dispensation and the work of redemption, why should we fix upon the day of Christ's resurrection, rather than the day of his birth, or of his- crucifixion, or of his ascension ? Will it be alledged, as a reason for the preference, that h« 14 THE SABBATH : finished the work of redemption on the day of his resurrection ? This reason might be offered with equal if not superior propriety, for commemorating the day of his crucifixion ; because, when he bowed his head and gave up the ghost, he said, " It is finis hed,^^ which is more than is said in reference to the day of his resurrection. If a day were to be selected as a weekly Sabbath, which was " validly the day of re- demption," it seems most proper to select the day of his death, which was the end of his temptation and conflict with the powers of darkness, and the severest test of his obedience ; or the day of his final ascen- sion, when he emphatically entered into his rest, and was crowned King in Zion. If, therefore, a day were to be selected, under the new economy, for the appro- priate commemoration of the work of redemption, as the seventh day was for the commemoration of the work of creation, it is by no means clear that it should be the day of the resurrection. It might with equal, perhaps greater propriety, be some other day of the week. And hence, the different preferences of Chris- tians might clash, and by that means counteract in a great measure the design of a Sabbath. But, in truth, the argument from the resurrection in favor of the first day of the week, rests upon the wisdom of man and not upon the appointment of God. It seems to men befitting the ends of a weekly Sabbath, under the Christian dispensation, to observe the first rather than the seventh day, and hence a change is inferred, without any express authority from God to that ef- fect ; as though it were lawfui to change a divine institution when it appears to us that greater reasons exist for a change, than for its unamended continu- ance — a principle which would justify all the innova- tions and extravagancies of Popery. But no such power is given unto men. However many and im- portant the reasons which exist in human view for AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 16 the change in the Sabbath contended for, it is invading God's prerogative to make a change without his ex- press warrant. So long, therefore, as there is no divine enactment which goes to authorize this change, but the permanent and unvaried nature of the entire Decalogue expressly forbids it, as does the continued practice of the primitive church, it is grossly erroneous and presumptuous to make it. This argument for the supposed change is surely without any validity. In the next place, it is alledged that Christ's ap- pearance to the disciples, after his resurrection, on the first day of the week, marks this as the Christian Sabbath. This argument is adopted both by those who hold to the abrogation of the former institution, and those who contend for its change. But, in reality, it is as devoid of solid weight as the one pre- viously examined. It is easy to account for his ap- pearing in the course of the day of his resurrection, or of the first declaration of it, because the earliest information of this great event was of the utmost importance to the afflicted and desponding disciples. It was important, also, as a testimony to the truth of the Savior's prediction that he would rise on the third day. There is nothing in his several appear- ances during that day, which seems intended for any other purpose than giving the necessary proof of his resurrection, and the light and consolation whicn the circumstances of the disciples required. There is nothing in either of them which favors the idea of a new Sabbath. But the circumstance of his appearing to the two disciples who were on a journey to Em- maus, and traveling a while with them, which was a distance much too long for a Sabbath day's journey, expressly forbids it, as it shows that it was regarded as a day foi labor. And as to his appearance the fol- lowing evening, there is nothing in that circumstance which savors of a newly appointed Sabbath. Th« 16 THE SABBATH J disciples ^vere not assembled together to keep a Sab- bath, but '' for fear of the Jews " Besides, accord- ing to the Jewish method of reckoning time, this evening actually belonged to the second day of the week. So that all which is said concerning his ap- pearances on this day and evening, is perfectly devoid of proof of a change of the Sabbath. As to the next appearance recorded, there is no evidence that it occurred on the first day of the week The record states, that " After eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you." Surely the phrase, "and after eight days," cannot be fairly con- strued to mean a week. Who can tell but that he appeared on the ninth day after his first appearance ? But even if it could be so interpreted as to mean pre- cisely a week, and hence to show that his second ap- pearance took place on the first day, as before, it would be no proof of the point in question, because the subject of the Sabbath was not introduced in any form. The next instance of his appearing is very far from corroborating the opinion that he sanctioned the first day as the New Testament Sabbath by appearing on it ; for the disciples, or some of them, were fishing at the sea of Tiberias, and consequently were not observing the first day as a Sabbath. Indeed, this appearance must have taken place as late as the second day of the week, if not later : for they had been engaged in fishing, as the record will show, the day before he appeared to them. And they could not have been so engaged o« the seventh day, because it would have been contrary to the universal and un- broken practice of their nation. Hence it could not have been on the first day of the week that Christ appeared to them. It must have been on the second AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 17 or some later day of the week. The argument, there- fore, from the several appearances of Christ, amounts to nothing. The next, and the principal argument for the change of the Sabbath, is the supposed Apostolic practice of meeting on the first day of the week for public worship and the breaking of bread. It is often confidently affirmed, that the keeping of the first day instead of the seventh is sanctioned by Apostolic usage. The proof of this position rests mainly on two passages. Let us examine them. The first is Acts 20 : 7. " And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to de- part on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight." But is there any thing in this transaction, or the attendant circumstances, which clearly and un- deniabl}^ proves an Apostolic example in favor of a new Sabbath, or of keeping the first day of the week, in any manner, as a substitute for the former institu- tion ? Surely there is not. The passage does not so much as prove that the practice of meeting for wor- ship on the first day of the week was then common and general. But if it did, it would not determine the change contended for. There is nothing said in the narrative, which characterizes it as a Sabbath. Assembling for public worship is proper on any day of the week ; and so is the breaking of bread. The Supper was first administered on one of the six work- ing days ; and there is nothing in the Scriptures which restricts its subsequent administration to a particular day — not even to the authorized Sabbath. Besides, in this case, the breaking of bread was deferred till after midnight. Of course, according to the Jewish reckoning of time, it was attended actually on the second day ; and this must have been the case, also, according to the prevailing custom ara€)ng observers 18 THE SABBATH ! of the first day, of commencing the day at midnight. It seems, therefore, that the Apostle and his brerhren were not very precise in regard to its being done on the first day. Let the most be made of this passage, and it lacks a divine designation of the first day as the Christian Sabbath ; and hence it is entirely want- ing as to the requisite evidence of a change in the sabbatic law. Surely, if there had been such a change, and this, with one more instance of meeting on the first day of the week, were to contain the evi- dence for all after generations, we should have been informed of the fact. Something would have been said to determine that the first day of the week was regarded as a Sabbath, and that it had taken the place of the seventh. But there is nothing of this. The record is perfectly silent in regard to either point. Besides, it is evident that the original Sabbath con- tinued to be observed, as already noticed, throughout the entire period of New Testament history. This is so plain a fact, that no one who gives the subject a candid examination will deny it. This shows the opinion of a new Sabbath — observed, as it must have been, in connection with the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and without a word being said on the subject, or the least objection, stir, query, or excite- ment whatever being raised — to be perfectly prepos- terous. Such is the result of this reasoning from a supposed Apostolic example, giving the passage its w'idest possible scope, as implying a common practice of meeting for public worship on the first day of the week. But in reality there is nothing in this text which proves or implies that such a practice was common at that period. For aught appears, it might have been an occasional meeting, appointed merely in consequence of Paul's being about to depart on the morrow. Therefore, to adopt a practice so important &8 the one in question, upon such vague, uncertain, AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 19 and inadequate testimony — especially when, in order thereto, we must dispose of a plain and positive com- mand of God respecting the observance of the seventh day, and of a usage as old as the completion of the creation — is unreasonable in the extreme. Another passage quoted in proof of an Apostolic ■jxample of keeping the first day of the week, and, consequeiuly, in support of the opinion that the Sab- bath is changed, is 1 Corinthians 16 : 2. " Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when 1 ccrne.'' This passage, like the others, does not imply that the first day was then commonly and generally regarded as a day for public worship. Indeed, it does not necessarily imply a public meeting of any kind. The direction for " every one to iay by him in store," for the benefit of the poor saints al Jerusalem, " on the first day of the week," necessarily amounts to no more than an appointment of this day to make up their bounty at home^ so that it might In* sure to be ready when the Apostle should come — a very judicious arrangement, as the time of his coming for it was uncertain, and he would not know how to w^ait. But if it be understood to imply any thing more, it is simply that they should bring their donations together publicly on the first day of the w^eek, so as to be prepared in the fullest sense for the Aposile's visit. Therefore, according to this view of the case, it proves no more than an occasional meetini^ on this day for the purpose of a public con- tribution for an important object of benevolence. But even if it could be so construed as clearly to imply that it was then a common and general practice to meet for public worship and instruction on this day, it wouii not thereby be pointed out to us as the Christi.ni Sabbath, and a substitute for the seventh day, seeing that it contains no information to that ei- 20 THE SABBATH : feet, and that no divine warrant appears on any pari of the New Testament records for the supposed change. Meetings for public worship, taking up of collections, and even breaking of bread, do not con stitute a Sabbath, though they are proper exercises for such a day. To sabbatize is to rest from our own secular labors, and keep a season holy to God. These proofs for a change of the Sabbath, therefore, which are unquestionably the best that can be produced, are utterly deficient, and the argument therefrom, a? generally presented, is deceptive, and unworthy of confidence. Another of the proofs adduced for the supposed change of the Sabbath, is the following prediction. Psalm 118: 22—24. " The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner This is the Lord's doing ; it is marvelous in oui eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it." But this, like all the previous quotations, wants solidity. The main points in the argument are assumed. First, it is as- sumed, that Christ's becoming the head of the corner refers to the day of his resurrection ; whereas there is no conclusive evidence that it refers to this rather than to the day of his birth, or of his entrance on his public ministry, or of his final ascension into heaven. Next, it is assumed that the day spoken of is a natural day of twenty-four hours ; whereas this word is often used to designate an indefinite period of time — par- ticularly the Gospel era (John S : 56) — and may very probably be so used here. Again, it is assumed, that the day mentioned is the first day of the week ; whereas there is nothing which designates this rather than some other in the course of his mediatorial work, allowing a natural day to be referred to And even if the resurrection day be intended, it is not certain that this occurred on the first day of the week. It is AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 21 further assumed, that the emphasis which is laid on the day alluded to as " the day which the Lord hath made," and in which the church would " rejoice and be glad," determines it to be the New Testament Sabbath in distinction from the Sabbath of the fourth commandment ; whereas there is nothing in these cir cumstances which necessarily intimates any such change, while there are various important considera tions by which this opinion is absolutely precluded. The entire argument, therefore, fails. Another argument for the change of the Sabbath is based upon the supposition that the day of Pente cost occurred on the first day of the week, which was a remarkable season of the outpouring of the Spirit, and of Christ's triumph as the risen and exalted Sa- vior. But this will appear, on a very little examina- tion, to be wholly inconclusive. In the first place, it is far from being conclusively proved that this event occurred on the first day of the week. It is much more likely to have occurred either on the ///^ or the seventh. Indeed, it is quite manifest from the best calculations that can be made, from the time of eating the passover supper, the first paschal sabbath, the crucifixion and the resurrection, that it occurred on one or the other of these days. Secondly, if the feast of Pentecost had actually occurred on the first day of the week, this would furnish no proof of its being the New Testament Sabbath, in the absence of a divine warrant to that effect. There is one other argument for the change in ques- tion, founded on the supposed application of the title " the Lord's day," to the first day of the week. The only passage referred to for the purpose of sustaining it, is Revelations 1 : 10. ^' I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." But that the day here called the Lord's day, is the first day of the week, is merely assumed, and hence is not to be considered as proved. It is 22 THE SABBATH : »ot, in fact, probable that this is the day referred to. (t is much more likely that the expression here used "•efers to the day of Christ's reign ; and that St. John meant to declare that in spirit he had a view of the scenes of that period. This use of the term day is sanctioned by the Savior's declaration, " Abraham rejoiced to see my day," (John 8 : 56,) as well as by the Psalmist's, who, when speaking of the glories of Christ's kingdom, says, *' This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it," (Psalm 118: 23.) The nature of the visions afterwards described also corroborates this view of the passage, and warrants the opinion that the ex- pression " Lord's day," (or, as some translate it, lordly day,) here used, does not refer to a natural day, but to a longer period of time. If, however, these words be understood to refer to a natural day, it is more likely to be the seventh day, which God had blessed and sanctified for his special service, than the first day. The seventh day is called by Him " my holy day,^^ and " the holy of the Lord'''' — phrases very similar to the one in this passage. This v/as also the Sabbath which was made for man, and of which Christ says he is Lord. And since it was observed up to the close of the New Testament history, it would be perfectly natural for John to speak of it as " the Lord's day." Further, there is no evidence that the first day of the week was denominated the Lord's day, at so early a period. Only one writer mentions the expression till towards the close of the second century ; and the reputed author of this pas- sage, when speaking, in his Gospel, (which was writ- ten some years later than the Apocalypse,) of the resurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week, never intimates that the day should be called by any other name. The learned Morer, though an advo- cate for the first day, in mentioning the diff*ereyl days AUTHORITY FOR THE CHANGE. 23 to which this phrase may be applied, acknowledges the entire uncertainty as to what day is intended, and says, " It is very likely that the more solemn and public use of the words was not observed until about the time of Sylvester II., when, by Constantine's command, it became an injunction." It is evident, therefore, that this passage cannot justly be used as proof that the Sabbath had been transferred to the first day of the week. We have now examined the proofs commonly ad- duced for the abrogation or chan2;e of the original o o o Sabbath, and have found them utterly insufficient and deceptive. Hence the claims of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, without alteration, are fully sustained. The advocates for the first day are aware that if an abrogation or change of the original Sab- bath law cannot be made out, the seventh day is still the true Sabbath. Dr. Dwight, for instance, makes the following admission : " If we cannot find in the Scriptures plain and ample proof of the abrogation of the original day, or the substitution of a new one, the seventh day undoubtedly remains in full force and obligation, and is now to be celebrated by all the race of Adam." Here, then, the laboring oar is confess- edly put into the hands of the advocates of the first day ; and with what success they have used it, the foregoing examination will show. We ask, is it not a total failure ? Has such '^ plain and ample proof" been produced from the Scriptures for the supposed abrogation or change .'' Indeed, it is evident that neither one nor the other of these things is practica- ble. An abrogation is not practicable ; for the Deca- logue, in which the law of the Sabbath is contained, is unchangeable. " Not one jot or one tittle shall in any wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled ; " which imolies its continued obligation, as long as 24 THE 5ABBATH ' moral beings exist. And the change contended for is not practicable ; because the substitution of anothei day for the seventh would annul the institution. It contains no warrant to keep the first day of the week as a Sabbath, but the seventh only. Its au- thority is limited to the seventh day, and cannot be transferred. The reason given for its institution, like- wise, is hmited to this day. It is obvious that it will not apply to another. The Sabbath law, therefore, contains no warrant whatever for the observance of the first day of the week. II the day is changed, the institution is annulled ; and another institution, in some respects similar, but not in all, is introduced, in the total absence of divine authority, and hence rests altogether upon that which is human. This consider- ation, of itself, shows the absurdity of holding to the change of the original day, while the validity of the entire Decalogue is admitted. I' rom what has been here presented, it is evident that the Scriptures do not authorize the abrogation or change of the original Sabbath, but enforce its ob- servance by precept and example. The opposite view is supported wholly by tradition and human authority, as an impartial examination of the history of the change will show. Have we not a right to expect, then, that when the great body of professing Christians shall become enlightened on this subject, and have sufficient grace and fortitude to act up to their convictions, the result will be, a general return to the faithful keeping of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment ? Published by llip American Sabbat- Tract Socic^w, No. 9 Spruce Street, ^ ^ [Nn.4.] SiBBiTH AND LORD'S DAY; HISTORY OF THEIR OBSERVANCE THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. NEW YORK : PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY, No. 9 Spruce-Street 1852. HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. In the preceding numbers of this series of Tracts, we have given an account of the institution of the Sabbath, and the reasons for believing it to be moral and per- petually binding, together with an examination of the authority for a change of the day. As the result of this examination, we have been driven to the conclusion, that the Sabbath was given to man in Paradise ; that the fourth commandment was but a reenforcement of it ; that the Scriptures do not authorize a change of the day of the Sabbath ; and that, therefore, the sev- enth day of the ireek ought noio to he observed by all men. But there are many persons who admit the early institution of the Sabbath, and the absence of any authority from the Scriptures for a change, yet sup- pose that the example of the early Christians, and the sayings of " the Fathers," wan-ant them in observing the first day of the week, to the neglect of the seventh. For the benefit of such, we now come to consider the history of the Sabbath since the establishment of the Christian Church. By consenting to do this, it is not meant to admit, that if a regard for the first day of the week can be traced to near the time of the Apostles, 4 HISTORY OP it is necessarily of apostolic authority ; for it is affirm- ed by St. Paul, that even in his time " the mystery of iniquity had begun to work." We believe that " the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to sal- vation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man ;" and we cannot admit, therefore, that the early existence of the practice is sufficient to give it divine authority, unless sanctioned by the inspired writings. In order to establish the claims of the first day of the week to be the Sabbath, two things are indispensable : 1. To prove from the Scriptures that the seventh day (which all acknowledge to have been originally the Sabbath) has been abrogated. 2. To show from the same source that the first day has been appointed in the place of the seventh. It is not sufficient to prove that a religious regard was early paid to the first day. There is an important distinction between the Sabhath and a religious festival; the former requiring abstinence fi-om all ordinary labor, and devotion of a whole day to the public and private duties of religion ; the latter requiring only the commemoration of some important event, and allowing the time not occupied in the public celebration of it to be devoted to labor or amusement. That this distinction was understood to exist between the regard for the seventh day and that for the first day, seems evident fi'om the fact that in the early history of the chuf-ch no Christians are charged with abandoning the Sabbath, while we are assured that after the meet- ings on the first day of the week they went about their ordinary labor. This apparently innocent regard for the day on which Christ first appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, it is believed, has given rise to the whole apostacy from the Sabbath. The follow- ing pages are designed to show the steps by which it was brought about. THE SABBATH. 5 Tho Sabbath in the Apostolic Church* Before entering upon the history of the Sabbath, as it is derived from uninspired records, it is proper to inquire how it was regarded by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. That Jesus Christ embraced the observance of the Sabbath among other duties enjoined in the Decalogue, is evident from Matt. 5 : 17 : — " Think not ihat I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill ; for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." He here declared the precepts of this law, without distinction, to be permanent and unchangeable. Had he commanded his disciples to keep the Sabbath, by enacting a new precept, it would have been equivalent to saying that he considered it in the light of a cere- monial and expiring institution, which, in truth, it was not. He therefore most wisely enforced all those pre- cepts as inseparable, unchangeable, and unrepealable. And he plainly said, in the connection refeiTed to, that no person is worthy of a place in his church, who will break any one of these commandments, or teach others to do so. In all his subsequent allusions to this sub- ject, he speaks of the Sabbath as an ancient and well- established ordinance, founded in the nature and fitness of things, made for and adapted to the uses of man- kind. (Mark 2 : 27.) His example was in strict con- formity with his teachings on this subject. His " cus- torn " was to go to places of public worship, and to preach the Gospel on the Sabbath. His disciples, be- mg educated in the observance of the Sabbath, could have entertained no doubts as to its pei*j3etuity, nor have reasons to suppose that Christianity relaxed their obligation to observe it. It is very certain, that during HISTORY OP llie whole time that our Lord was with his disciples before his death, he p^ave no intimation to them that the duty of keeping the Sabbath was to be in any wise affected by his death ; and we find that after this event, the disciples " rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment." (Luke 23 : 56.) Further, our Saviour himself, when speaking of the destruction of Jerusa- lem, an event not to take place until forty years after his death, tells his disciples to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day. It is difficult to conceive why this day should be spoken of at so late a period, unless it was to continue. The same views respecting the sacredness of the Sabbath seem to have been entertained by the Apos- tles, after the resuiTection of Christ, that they held be- fore his death ; and they appear to have occupied that day as they had formerly done, in attending places of public worship, and preaching the Gospel. See Acts 13 : 14, 42, 44, where it is said, " They came to An- tioch, in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day." After Paul had preached Christ as the true Messiah, " and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." " And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city to- gether to hear the word of God." Or, see Acts 16 : 13, where, " on the Sabbath we went out of the city, by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made." Or Acts 15 : 21 — " For Moses, of old time, hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every Sabbaih day." This last passage is given by St. James as a reason why they should write to the Gentile converts only that " they abstain from things offered to idols," &c. From this it is apparent that the custom was common, both to hold meetings on the Sabbath day, and for the Gentile Christians to at- THE SABIIATH. 7 tend tliose meetings. If it was not common, the read- ing of Moses would not benefit them. If it was com- mon, then they kept the Sabbath. St. Paul, in 1 Thess. 2 : 14, says to the Thessaloni ans, " For ye, brethren, became followers (imitators) of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus." And as these Gentile Christians were follow- ers of the churches in Judea, so they were ensamples, or patterns, to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. (Ch. 1 : 7.) As to the character of the churches in Judea touching the Sabbath, we need only to consult Acts 21 : 20. It is there asserted, that there were many thousands of the Jews who believed, and that they were all zealous of the law. And the context shows that they were zealous of even the ceremonies of the Jewish ritual. Hence we infer, that there was uniformity with the Jewish and Gen- tile Christians, in the observance of the Sabbath, and that the whole apostolic church religiously kept it. Notwithstanding the Sabbath continued to be ob- served until the sacred canon was closed, it has been quite common, since the Reformation, to refer to cer- tain passages of Scripture as indicating that the first day had been, or was to be, substituted for the seventh. It is said that Christ's meeting with his disciples on the evening of his resuiTection day indicates that it was to be religiously regarded thereafter. Those who make such use of this circumstance seem to overlook, what it is very important to remember, that two of the disciples traveled from Jerusalem to Emmaus and back on that day, a distance of fifteen miles, and a part of this in company with the Saviour. This fact alone shows that it could not have been regarded as a Sab- bath. Nor is there any thing in the circumstances of the meeting to indicate it. The disciples were not JIISTORY OF all present, and those who were present had assembled for other reasons, without any expectation of seeing the Master. The meeting '^ after eight days ''^ affords no help. Who can say positively that this expression means a week ? Or, granting that it does mean a week, what does the passage make for the religious character of the first day ? Jesus met his disciples on one occasion when fishing, and was seen of them forty days. Now, if his meeting with them proves the day of that meet- ing to be a Sabbath, a fishing day would be such, and the whole forty. In regard to those two places, (Acts 20 : 7, and 1 Cor. 16 : 2,) where the expression '■'■ first day of the week " occurs, they make nothing for the sanctification of the day, since there is no hint of any such thing. The meetings there spoken of were for special purpos- es, and nothing was done at either which might not with perfect propriety have been done on any day. It is not quite certain that the passage, " They came to- gether to break bread," refers to the Lord's Supper- Indeed, both St. Chrysostom among the ancients, and Calvin among the moderns, deny that it was to cele- brate the Supper, and refer it to a friendly meal. The text. Rev. 1:10, where St. John was " in the spirit on the Lord's day,''' is likewise not a good proof text. That reference is there had to the first day of the week, is by no means certain. There are some who refer it to a much longer period — to the gospel era ; while others, among whom is Bede, refer it to the day of judgment. The fact that none of those who early mention the Lord's day refer to this passage, is much against it. In these circumstances, it would not be safe to draw conclusions in regard to practice therefrom. Indeed, none of the earliest writers found the observance of the Lord's day upon the Scriptures, THE SABIJATII. 9 Observance of the Sabbath frniii the time of rhe Apostles to Coiistantiiie. Thus far we have been guided* by the inspired Scrip- tures, and we think they prove beyond dispute, that the Christians of the apostohc age had received no new doctrine concerning the Sabbath, but continued without any change to devote the seventh day of the week to the duties of religion. But we now enter a period in which the history of the Sabbath must be derived from other sources. It may be difficult to trace exactly every step which has been taken, as the histories of the early ages are very defective on many subjects. They have come to us, to a considerable extent, through the church of Rome ; and since she claims to have changed the day of the Sabbath, it is not to be expected that testimony against herself would be very faithfully preserved. In pursuing our sketch, we shall follow the best lights we have to guide us. After the period described in the Acts of the Apos- tles, Christianity soon became widely spread in the Roman empire, which, at that time, extended over most of the civilized world. But as it receded from the time of the Apostles, and the number of its pro- fessors increased, the church became gradually less spiritual, and more disposed to deck the simple reli- gion of Jesus with mysteries and superstitious formal- ities ; and the bishops or pastors became ambitious of their authority over the churches. Those churches, even in Gentile cities, appear to have been composed, at first, principally of converted Jews, who not only observed the weekly Sabbath, but also the feast of the Passover, adapted particularly to Christian worship ; respecting which, there was much contention. In the mean time, converts were gi^eatly multiplied from among the GentiJee and were united with those from the Jews, who, ■ "thout reason, considered them- to HISTORY OF selves entitled to some distinction as the original found- ers of the gospel church, and as being better informed in the writings of Moses and the proj^hets, having been in the habit of reading them every Sabbath in the synagogues. About three years after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, according to the common account, Judea was invaded by the Roman armies, and Jerusalem was be- sieged and destroyed, as our Lord had predicted. By this awful calamity, it is supposed that most of the churches in Judea were scattered ; for they fled their country at the approach of their enemies, as they were taught by Jesus Christ to do. (Matt. 24 : 16.) This war resulted not only in the breaking up of the nation, and the desti'uction of a great portion of the people, but also in bringing a general odium upon the Jews wherever they were found ; so that even the Christ- ians of Judea suffered what our Saviour taught them to expect, (Matt, 24 : 9,) " And ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." These circumstances, added to the enmity which formerly existed between the Gentiles and the Jews, produced a prejudice which had its influence in the church in bringing into disre- pute, and in fixing a stigma upon, whatever was re- garded as Judaism. " The doctrines of our Saviour and the church, flourishing from day to day, continued to receive constant accessions," says Eusebius, " but the calamities of the Jews also continued to grow with one accumulation of evil upon another." The insur- rectionary disposition of the conquered Jews in the reign of Trajan, in the early part of the secon--'rji century re- 34 HISTORY OP marks, " they and the Romanists crucified the Sab* bath, as the Jews and the Romans did the Lord of the Sabbath, between two thieves, the sixth and the first day of the week." We have thus traced the history of the Sabbath in the Roman church down to the thirteenth century ; and we see that through the whole of this period, the sev- enth day every where retaiiied the honor of being called the Sabbath, and that no other day had ever borne that title ; that not until the remarkable let- ter found on St. Simeon's tomb, had it been asserted by any one, that the observance of the Jirst day, Lord's day, or Sunday, was enjoined by the authority of Je- sus or his apostles, nor was any example of theirs plead in its favor. Even then it was not pretended that the Scriptures required its observance. There are some traces of the Sabbath among those Christians who separated from the Catholic commun- ion, or were never embraced in it. The Greek church separated from them about the middle of the eleventh century, and had a larger extent of empire than the papists. According to Brerewood's Enquiries, p. 128, this church solemnized Saturday festivals, and forbade as unlawful to fast on any Saturday except in Lent, retaining the custom followed before their separation. The same author states that the Syrian Christians, who composed a numerous body in the East, celebrated divine worship solemnly on both the Sabbath and first day, continuing the custom of the Roman church at the time they separated from that community. Sandy* s Travels, p. 173, speak of a Christian empire in Ethi- opia that celebrate both Saturday and Sunday, " that they have divers errors and many ancient truths." The Abyssinian Christians, another numerous body, are represented as being similar in some respects to the THE SAKHATIJ. 35 Papists ; and Purchase speaks of tlicm as " subject to Peter and Paul, and especially to Christ," and as ob- serving^ the Saturday Sabbath. They are also men- tioned by Brereivood. Moshcim mentions a sect of Christians in the twelfth century, in Lombardy, called Pasaginians, charged with circumcising their follow- ers, and keeping the Jewish Sabbath. Mr. Btmcdict considers the account of their practicing the bloody rite a slander charged on them on account of their keeping the Jewish Sabbath. Binius says that in 1555 there were Christians in Rome who kept the Sabbath, and were therefore called Sahbatarii, and they are represented as differing in other respects from the Ro- manists. Many of the Armenian Christians are be- lieved to observe the ancient Sabbath. Dr. Buchanan, in his Researches, when speaking of those of them who are settled in the East Indies, says, " Their doc- trines are, as far as the author knows, the doctrines of the Bible. Besides this, they maintain the solemn ob- servation of Christian worship throughout our empire on the seventh day." Probably there has not existed a class of Christians since the times of the Apostles, who could more justly claim to be Ajiostolic than the Waldenses, formerly a numerous people living in the valleys of Piedmont ; whither they retired, says Bumside, on the promulga- tion of Constantino's laws for the observance of the first day, in the fourth century ; and where they re- mained, according to Scaliger and Brerewood, in the time of Elizabeth of England, in the latter part of the sixteenth century. They adhered firmly to the apos- tolic faith, and suffered severe persecutions from the Catholics. Robinson, in his History of Baptism, says, " They were called Sabbati and Sabbatati, so named fi'om the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord's day." They were also 36 HISTORY OF called Insahhatati, because they rejected all the festi* vals, or Sabbaths, m the low Latin sense of the word. The account the Papists gave of their sentiments in 1250, was briefly this : That they declared themselves to be the apostolic successors, and to have apostolic authority ; that they held the church of Rome to be the * whore of Babylon ;' that none of the ordinances of the church which have been introduced since Christ's ascension ought to be observed ; that baptism is of no advantage to infants, because they cannot actually be- lieve. They reject the sacrament of confirmation, but instead of that their teachers lay their hands upon their disciples. Jones, in his Church History, says that be- cause they would not observe saints^ days, they were falsely supposed to neglect the Sabbath also. Another of their enemies, an Inquisitor of Rome, charged them with despising all the feasts of Christ and his saints. Another, a Commissioner of Charles XII. of France, reported to him, " that he found among them none of the ceremonies, images, or signs of the Romish church, much less the crimes with which they were charged ; on the contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism according to the primitive church, and instructed their children in the articles of the Christian faith and commandments of God." The Sabbath since the Reformation. With the commencement of the Reformation, a new spirit of religious inquiry was awakened. Nearly every item of Christian practice was brought under review, and not dismissed until either approved or rejected. Among the subjects for discussion we find the Sabbath early introduced and thoroughly ex- amined. There were three leading views then main • tained by different classes of Reformers, which deserve particular notice. THE SABBATH, 37 1. One class of Reformers there was, who, dwelling alone on the sufficiency of faith, and the fieeness of the Gospel, trembled at the thought of imposing rules upon men, and seemed to fear the term laiv. These declared, that the law of the Sabbath was abolished ; that Sunday was no Sabbath, only a festival of the church, which had been appointed and might be alter- ed at her pleasure. That we may not be thought in en'or here, as well as to give a full understanding of the opinions of that time, we will present the asser- tions of some of these men. Bishop Cranmer's Catechism, A. D. 1548, says : " The Jews were commanded in the Old Testament to keep the Sabbath-day, and they observed it every seventh day, called the Sabbath, or Saturday ; but we Christian men are not bound to such commandments in Moses' law, and therefore we now keep no more the Sabbath, or Saturday, as the Jews did, but we ob- serve the Sunday, and some other days, as the magis- trates do jud^e convenient'^ William Tlndal says, in his answer to More, chap. 25 : " We be lords over the Sabbath, and may change it into Monday, or any other day, as we see need ; or may make every tenth day holy-day, only if we see cause why ; we may make two every week, if it were expedient, and one not enough to teach the people. Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday, other than to fut a difference between us and the Jew^, and lest we should become servants to the day after their superstition." BuUinger, on Rev. 1 : 10, says : " Christian churches entertained the Lord's day, not upon any command- ment from God, but according to their free choice." Melancthon says : " The Lord's day, from the Apos- tles' age, hath been a solemn day ; notwithstanding, we find not the same commanded by any apostolic 3 38 irSTOUV OP law ; but it is cf)llcctod from hence that the observ- ance thereof was free, because Epiphanius and St. Auo^ustine testify tliat on the fourth and the sixth days of the week church assemblies wei-e held, as well as upon the Lord's day." The Augustan Confession, drawn up by Melancthon, and apjiroved by Luther, says : " We teach that tra- ditions are not to be condemned which have a religious end, .... namely, traditions concerning holy-days, the Lord's day, the feast of the nativity, easter, &c." These passages distinctly do away with the Sabbath, and place the observance of the Lord's day on the ground of human authority. In the books of some early au- thors who adopted these views, may be found frequent references to a difficulty which drove them to deny the perpetuity of the Sabbath. Bishop White, in 1635, says : " If the fourth coiiimandment, concerning the keeping of the seventh day, is moral and perpetual, then it is not such in respect to the first and eighth day ; for this precept requireth the observance of that one day only which it specifieth in that commandment." In speaking of the Lord's day, he says : " Every day of the week and of the year is the Lord's ; and the Sunday is no more the Lord's by the law of the fourth commandment, than the Friday, for the Lord's day of that fourth commandment is the Saturday." From each of these quotations, it appears to have been felt lo be inconsistent to admit the perpetuity of the Sabbath, without keeping the seventh day. But to come back to this ancient day, and keep it in com- pany with Jews, seemed too great a change. Hence the abrogation of the institution was asserted, as the easiest way of escnping fi-om the dilemma. John Milton, speaking of this difficulty, says : " If we under the Gospel are to regulate the time of our public wor- ship by the prescriptions of the Decalogue, it will THE SABBATH. 39 surely be far safer to observe the seventh day, accord- ing to the express command of God, than, on the au- thority of mere human conjecture, to adopt the fir sty Another mfluence which led to the rejection of the Salibath by these men, was the view of it which was held by the Romish Church. When the leaders of the Reformation separated from that church, it was claim- ed that all her festival days, including Sundays, were holier than other days, not only in relation to the use made of them, but to a natural and inherent holiness wherewith they thought them to oe mvested. In ad- dition to this, many and hurtful restraints had been im- posed upon the consciences of God's people, until these were days o? punishment, rather than of holy pleas- ure and profit. Seeing these days pervert(;jd from their real design, and made the means of strengthening papal power, it is not surprising that they were dis- carded together. Anxious to escape one error, they fell into another equally dangerous. 2. But another class of Reformers, (probably some- what fearful of the consequences of those lax notions to which we have just referred,) considering that the Sabbath was given in Paradise, rehearsed at Sinai, and placed among the precepts of the Decalogue, declared that it must be moral in its nature, and perpetually binding. But having admitted its perpetuity, and hav- ing rested its claims upon the fourth commandment, the way of explaining and enforcing the change of the day presented an obstacle to the spread of this view. How this was treated, let their own words answer. Dr. Bound, in 1595, says, " The fourth commandment is simply and perpetually moral, and not ceremonial in whole or in part." Richard By field, 1630, says, " The fourth commandment is part f)f the law of na- ture, and thus part of the image of God, and is no more capable of a ceremony to be in it than God is." 40 HISTORY OP Afterwards he says, " The institution of the Lord's day is clearly in the work of Christ's resurrection, as the institution of the seventh day was in the work of finishing the creation." " The resurrection applieth and determineth the Sabbath of the fourth command- ment to the Lord's day." Such was the course of reasoning adopted by this class of persons. Having established the morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath by means of Scripture, and brought the sanctions of the Word of God to sustain them, they apply all this to the support of an institution, the existence and time of keeping which is inferred from Christ's resurrec- tion. It is easy to see what must have been the con- sequence. 3. There was another class among the disputants about tHfe Sabbath, who endeavored, by strict ad- herence to the Scriptures, to escape the difficulties and inconsistencies into which others had been le-d. They contended for the early institution of the Sab- bath, for its morality and peii^etuity as inferred from its being placed in the Decalogue, and for the seventh day of the week as an essential and necessary part of the commandment. Theophilus Brabourne, in 1628, says : "1. The fourth commandment of the Deca- logue is a divine precept, simply and entirely moral, containing nothing legally ceremonial, in whole or in part, and therefore the weekly observation thereof ought to be perpetual, and to continue in full force and virtue to the world's end. 2. The Saturday, or sev- enth day of the week, ought to be an everlasting holy- day in the Christian church, and the religious obsei'- vation of this day obligeth Christians under the Gos- pel, as it did the Jews before the coming of Christ. 3. The Sunday, or Lord's day, is an ordinary work- ing day ; and it is superstition and will-worship to make the same the Sabbath of the fourth command- THE SAr.KATH. 41 merit." These opinions were vindicated by Bra- bourne in two volumes which appeared, one in 1628, and the other in 1632. They have never been answered to the satisfaction of many candid mind. It is true, an answer has been attempted. But this answer, laborino;' as it did mainly to prove tliat such doctrine " is repugnant to the public sentence of the Church of England, and to the sentence of divines who lived at the beginning of the Reformation," could not satisfy one who believed the Scriptures to be a sufficie7it rule of faith and practice. To these volumes might be added others, which appeared soon after, and to the results of which, living witnesses have testified from that day to this. It was while the discussion just referred to was yet in progress, that King James, in 1618, published his Book of Sports for Sunday, in which is set forth, that *' by the preciseness of some magistrates and ministers in several places in this kingdom, in hindering people from their recreations on the Sunday, the papists in this realm being thereby persuaded that no honest mirth or recreation was tolerable in our religion," wherefore, it pleased his majesty to set out his declara- tion, " that for his good people's lawful recreation, his pleasure was, that after the end of divine service, they should not be disturbed, letted, or discouraged, from any lawful recreation, such as dancing, either men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreations ; noi' from having of May-games, Whitsun-ales, or Morrice- dances, and setting up of May-poles, or other sports therewith used; so as the same be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or let of divine service." This book was designed to counteract what was then called the Puritan notion, and maybe regarded as ex- pressing the opinion of the English Church at that 42 HISTORY OF time in regard to the sacredness of the day. It waa re-published in 1636, by Charles, with how much real effect upon the practices of his subjects it is not easy to determine. It is evident that a reilction in favor of the sabbatic institution had already commenced ; and the earnest- ness of Puritanism on this subject, joined to the influ- ence of Sabbatarianism, affected almost the whole body of the English Church. To Puritanism and Sabba- tarianism belong the credit of having preserved to that country a regard for the day of rest, which raises it indefinitely above many other Protestant coun- tries. Had Scriptural ground been taken, who can estimate the results which ^vould have followed 1 In G-ermany, according to Ross' " Picture of all Religions," observers of the seventh-day as the Sab- bath were common in the sixteenth century, their numbers being such as to lead to organization, and at- ti'act attention. A number of these formed a church, and emigrated to America in the early settlement of the country. There were Sabbath-keepers in Tran- sylvania, about the same time, among whom was Fran- cis Davidis, first chaplain to the Court of Sigismund, the prince of that kingdom, and afterwards superin- tendent of all the Transylvanian churches. In France, also, there were Christians of this class, among whom was M. de la Roque, who wrote in defense of the Sabbath, against Bossuet, the Catholic Bishop of Meaux. But it is difficult to determine to what extent this day was observed in those countries. In England we fintl Sabbath-keepers very early. Dr. Chambers says, ** They arose in England in the sixteenth century ;" fi'om which we understand that they then became a distinct denomination in that king- dom. They increased considerably in the seventeenth THE SAnnATH. 43 century ; and we find that towards the close of that century tliere were eleven flourishing churches in different parts of that country. Among those who held this view were some men of distinction. The- ophilus Brabourne was called before the Court of High Connnission, in 1G32, for having written and published books vindicating the claims of the seventh day. One Traske was about the same time examined in the St arr Chamber, where a long discussion on the subject seems to have been held. Nearly thirty years after this, John James, preacher to a Sabbath-keeping con- gregation in the east of London, was executed in a bai'barous manner, upon a variety of charges, among which was his keeping of the Sabbath. Twenty years later still, Francis Bampfield died in Newgate, a mar- tyr to non-conformity — especially as one who could not conform in the matter of the Sabbath. It is need less to mention more names, or to speak particularly of Edward, Joseph, Dr. Joseph, and Dr. Samuel Sten nett, John Maulden, Robert Cornthwaite, and others, who have written and suffered in proof of their attach ment to this truth. But the Sabbath met with great opposition in England being assailed, both fi-om the pulpit and the press, by those who were attached to the established church. Many men of learning and talent engaged in the dis- cussion, on both sides of the question. It is evident that the opposers of reform felt the difficulty of defending themselves against the strength of talent and scripture brought to bear in favor of the seventh day. The civil powers attempted to check the progress of all Dissenters by means of the famous Conventicle Act. By that law, passed in 1664, it was provided, that if any person, above sixteen years of age, was present at any meeting of worship different from the Church of Eng- land, where there were five persons more than the 44 HISTORY OP household, for the first offense he should be imprisoned three months, or pay five pounds ; for the second, the penalty was doubled ; and for the third he should be banished to America, or pay one hundred pounds ster- ling. This act was renewed in 1669, and, in addi- tion to the former penalties, made the person preaching liable to pay a fine of twenty pounds ; and the same penalty was imposed upon any person suffering a meet- ing to be held in his house. Justices of the Peace were empowered to enter such houses, and seize such persons ; and they were fined one hundred pounds if they neglected doing so. These acts were exceedingly harrassing to those who observed the Sabbath. Many of their distinguished ministers were taken from their flocks and confined in prison, some of whom sunk un- der their sufferings. These persecutions not only prevented those who kept the Sabbath fi-om assem- bling, but deterred some who embraced their opinions from uniting with them, and discouraged others from investigating the subject. At present the Sabbath is not as extensively observed in England as formerly. But the extent of Sabbath-keeping cannot be deter- mined by the number and magnitude of the churches, either there or in other countries. For many persons live in the observance of the seventh day and remain members of churches which assemble on the first day ; and a still greater number acknowledge its coiTectness, who conform to the more popular custom of keeping the first day. At what time the Sabbath became the subject of attention in America, we cannot definitely say. The intolerance of the first settlers of New England was unfavorable to the Sabbath. The poor Christian who may have been banished to this country for its observ- ance could find no refuge among the Pilgrim Fathers. The laws of Rhode Island were more tolerant than THE SABBATH. i5 those of somo other States, and observers of the Sab- bath first made their appearance at Newport in 1671. The cause of the Sabbath has gradually gained ground in this country from that period ; but it has found much to oppose its progress, even in Rhode Island. It was in opposition to the general practice of Christ- ians, on which account an odium was put upon it, and those who have kept the Sabbath have been reproach- ed with Judaizing, and classed with Jews. Besides this, they have ever been subjected to great inconven- ience in their occupations, especially in cities and towns. At no time does there appear to have been in this country any general excitement on the subject. The observers of Sunday have avoided as far as possible its discussion ; so that those who have observed the Sabbath have had but little encouragement, as they have supposed, to try to extend their sentiments. But the propagation of their opinions has not depended exclusively on their efforts. The common English version of the Bible has been found in many instances a sufficient means of converting men to the truth. Churches observing the Sabbath have been formed in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and in most of the Western States, embracing, as is sup- posed, a population of forty or fifty thousand. Conclusion. From the foregoing historical sketch, it appears that through the apostolic age, and for a long time after, the Sabbath was religiously observed by tlie church of Christ ; and that not until the latter part of the second century was the first day introduced to reli- gious notice as a festival of the resuirection ; and tlien, 46 HISTORY OP probably, as an annual celebration at the close of the Passover only. It also appears, that it was a work of some hundreds of years to establish the weekly cele- bration of this day, oven in the Romish church ; and that this was not done without the aid of ecclesiastical and civil laws and penalties — the same instrumentali- ties used to bi'ing the Sabbath into disrepute in the popular branches of the church. Thus it appears that the Romish clergy, and the princes under their con- trol, have been the principal actors in bringing about the change from the Sabbath to the first day of the week. For a long time before the Reformation the popular branches of the Christian church were literally with- out a Sabbath. Until after that period, it is not known that a single passage of Scripture was ever cited as authority for the celebration of the first day, even as a festival ; the notion that the apostles observed it as a memorial of the resurrection, being of comparatively modern origin. When, however, the Reformers threw off the yoke of the Romish church, and protested against her corruptions, some of them could no longer be satisfied to let the observance of the first day rest upon her authority. They saw that they must either give it up as a human invention, or find some Scrip- ture to support it. Hence the numerous theories which have been invented to justify its observance — theories which necessarily conflict with each other, as well as with Scripture, and are altogether unsatisfac- tory to inquiring minds. The history of this matter shows us, that neither the adoption of the first day, nor the abandonment of the seventh, took place until the corruptions of the Catholic church in other res})ccts had become so nu- merous and flagrant, as to drive fi'om her communion THE SAHHATH. 47 many of her most conscientious and apostolic mem- bers, who still retained the observance of the Sabbath. The case of those sects in diflcrent ages of the church who have kept the Sabbath in connection with the first day, and practiced other thing8 peculiar to the Romish church, furnishes additional evidence that the observ- ance of the first day was adopted while the Sabbath was retained, and consequently that the first day was not adopted as a substitute for tl.e Sabbath, which it ultimately displaced. The permitting of labor on the first day in the earlier ages of the church, and the canons of Councils and Synods and the edicts of Princes to bring about a general conformity in this respect, together with the slow progress made, even in Catholic countries, evince in the strongest manner that it was viewed in no other light, even by its warm- est advocates, than that of a human institution, and one that could be enforced by human authority only.' As such it wa§ looked upon by enlightened and con- scientious Christians in every age, who would not make void a commandment of God through a tradi- tion of men. In the light of these facts, we are led to the conclu- sion of Dr. Neander, set forth in his Church History, that " the festival of Sunday was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intention of the Apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and fi'om the early apostolic church, to ti-ansfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday." As a ^^ human ordinance,^'' the observance of Sunday has long been and is now considered by many. While they consider it in this light, it is not to be expected that they will render it that sacred regard which the Sabbath claims, and must have in order to our safety and its usefuhiess. 48 HISTORY OF THE SABBATH. What, then, shall be done ? Shall we allow an in- stitution of so much importance to rest upon mere human authority 1 To such a proposition every friend of the institution ought to say, No. To set it adrift, or to attempt to enforce it upon such authority, would be to withdraw from it the high sanction which it once had, and expose it to certain contempt and neglect. There is but one course dictated by wisdom and pru- dence. If we would save the Sabbath from threat- ened destruction, we must come back to the law as it was originally given, place the institution under the care of the Lawgiver, and enforce its claims by his authority. We must join the commandment, " Re- member the Sabbath day to keep it holy," with the explanation of it, " The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," and united they shall stand. Let this be done, and we need not fear. The Lord of the Sabbath is pledged for its safety ; and he will cause those who " call the Sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, honorable," to rejoice in Him, and ride upon the high places of the earth. No. 5. A CHRISTIAN CAVEAT OLD AND NEW SABBATARIANS. BY EDWARD FISHER, ESQ. The following article is taken from the fifth edition of a work with the abort title, printed in London, 1653. The book was written in defence of the ' orthodoxal doctrine of the Church of England," respecting festivals, against the " Sabbatarian novelties," as they were called, of the Puritans. While it demolishes the cbiiins set up on behalf of Sunday or Lord's Day, it fully estab- lishes the claims of the Sabbath or Seventh Day. And it is worthy of note here, that it is not possible to refute any of the erroneous views in regard to the Sabbath and Lord's Day, without taking positions which necessarily lead to the observation of the Seventh Day. How much easier it would be to fasten the claims of the Sabbatic institution upon the consciences of men, if we were aatisfied to take the fourth commandment as it reads, and enforce it by " TVtu* taith the Lord." •' The third opinion is, of the new Sabbatarians, who dream of a middle way betwixt a Jew and a Christian ; and this they usually lay down in two propositions. The first is, That the Lord's Day, or first day of the week, namely Sunday, may he called the Sabbath: the next is. That the ohserraiion of the Lord^s Day is a moral didy, enjoined by God himself and declared both by the doctrine and fractice of Christ and his apostles. The first appearance of this kind of teachers was in the year of our Lord 1595, near the end of the reign of dueen Elizabeth : and because they are neither able to produce direct Scripture, nor solid reason for what they say, they labor to support their conceits by fallacies, falsities and wrestings of God's holy word, as upon scanning their proofs will be manifest to the meaneit capacity. 2 "For their first proposition, they alledge two reasf/ns why .he Lord's Day may be called the Sabbath. One ie becauaa the Sabbath signifies a rest; and therefore the Lord's Day being a rest, may be called the Sabbatli. But to this we answer, it is false that the Sabbath signifies arej' ; for when by custom of speech a common name is restrained to a par ticular place, thing, or person, it then becomes a proper name, and so losing its community, does signify that only particular, unto which by custom of speech it is applied ; as for instance, the temple is a common name, signifying the Church ; yet in London, where by custom of speech this name. The Temple, is restrained to an Inns of Court, it is false and absurd to say you were at the Temple, and mean the Church of St. Giles. In like manner the Sabbath is a common name, signifying the rest; yet in the Christian Church, where by custom of speech, according to God's holy phrase throughout the Old and New Testament, thif name, the Sabbath, is restrained to the Jewish weekly festi- val, it is false and absurd to speak of if/ie Sabbath, and mean the Lorcfs Day. Their other reason why the Lord's Day may be called the Sabbath, is, because the Lord's Day suc- ceeded in the room of the Sabbath, But if this argument oe good, then may baptism be called circumcision, the Lord's Supper the Passover, and King James Glueen Elizabeth. '* As for the second proposition, wherein they assert the morality and divine institutiori of the Lords Day, we shall here notice only three of their reasons. The first is, because Adam, according to God's command, kept the Sabbath in the state of innocency But what is the sanctification of the Sabbath spoken of by Moses in the second chapter of Genesis, to our observing the Lord's Day? That was ap- pointed to be kept on the seventh and last day of the week-, this is kept on the first dcy of the week : that was the day in which God rested from his work of creation ; this is the day in which God began to create the heavens and the earth : that was our Saturday; this is our Sunday. Their second proof |8r the morality of the Lord's Day, is from the fourth commandment, where they seek to corrupt the very text, and would persuade us that for the seventh day, we must read a seventh day ; as if God did not there set apart a certain day of the week, but left it to man to keep which of the seven he pleased. Unto which we answer, that this conceit is not only against the letter of all our translations, but evei re- pugnant to the sense of tlie commandment; for the words nre exprcBS thrtt God blessed and hallowed the Saobath day; that Sabbath day was the sevenlh day ; thai seventh day was the day in which God rested from his sLv days' work of creation. Nay, grant it were true (as these men would have) that this special precept does exactly oblige us, and that no particular day of the seven v/as by God appoint- ed to be kept holy, then niay wc set apart Monday, or Tues- day, or any other day to God's service, as well as Sunday; and so, by tlieir own ai'gument, llie Lord's Day is nc more moral than any other day of the wee'k. Their third prool'is from the title or name, Lord?s Day, which (say they) cannot be for any other reason, but because it is of the Lord's insti- tution. We answer, this is false ; for the Lord's Day was not so called because it was institided by the Lord^ but be cause it was dedicated to the Lord; as we commonly say, Saint Mary's Church, or Saint Peter's Church ; which no man did ever imagine were built or founded by Saint Mary or Saint Peter." Near the close o*'his book, after having examined each of the positions here referred to, he comes directly to his design, and says : — " In vain, therefore, it is, and most absurd, for you our opponents to charge us with befooling and misleading the people. Your own practice, your own doctrines, shall bear witness betwixt us. " You who say one while, that God did not appoint the seventh day, the day on which he rested, to be kept holy, but a seventh day, and so one day in seven be observed, no matter which of them ; another while, that by this command- ment God enjoins us to keep holy the frst day of the week on which he began his work of creation— Do you not befool and mislead the people 7 " You who (forgetting your own doctrine of the fourth commandment) do teach, that the keeping holy the first day of the week, or Lord's Day, was appointed and practised by Christ and his apostles, yet cannot produce so much as one example for it, much less a precept — Do you not befool and mislead the people 7 " You who infer, because St. Paul, and the disciples at Troas, spent the whole night of the first day of the week in praying, preaching, and heavenly conference, in regard he was to leave them^and depart on the morrow; therefore. St. Paul and the disciples at Troas met that night to keep holy the day past ; therefore the disciples at Troas met every frst day of the week,to keep that day hoiy; therefore the Church at Philippe the Church in Ciiicia, and all Christian Churches, did then keep holy the first day of the week ; therefore all the apostles did constantly keep holy that day ; therefore Christ and his apostles apvoinled the first day oj the week to be for ever celebrated, instead of the Sabbath — Is not this pitiful logic ? Do you not befool and mislead the people ? " You who tell stories of an old Sabbath and a new Sab- bath, a Jewish Sabbath and a Christian Sabbath, a Sabbath of the seventh day and a Sabbath of the fist day of the week ; that so you may slily fix the name Sabbath on the Lord^s Bay, and then persuade the simple and ignorant that all those texts of Scripture wherein mention is made of the Sabbath day, are intended of the Lord^s Day ; when indeed to call the-Lord's Day the Sabbath, is as senseless as to call Sunday Saturday, or the^rs^ day the last day of the week, when throughout the Old and New Testament we have not the least mtimation of any other weekly '^abbath, save the old, Jewish, seventh day Sabbath ; when you yourselves confess that the name Lo- s Day, is more proper and par- ticular, and less , .^vious to exception, than the name Sab- bath 5 and at the name Sabbath is in dignity inferior to bo ..X Lord's Day and Sunday — Do you not befool and mis- lead the people ? You that condemn the yearly observance of Christ's birth-day as heathenish, yet acknowledge this feast to be a constitution of the ancient primitive Church — Do you not befool and mislead the people 7 " Take ye heed ; these are not small matters ; consider well with yourselves what it is to stand guilty before God of belying Christ and his apostles, and wilfully wresting the Holy Scriptures. Be advised ; take time whilotime is to repent of those notorious slanders wherewith you have as- f)ersed the ancient approved ways of God's worship; and et the sincerity of. your repentance appear by the speedy abandoning of your unchristian practices and principles; lest the heavy judgment of seducers, to wax worse and worse, fall upon you, and God in the end deliver you up to such strong delusions, that you should believe your otcn liesP Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Spruce Street, N. Y. No. 6. TWENTY REASONS FOR KEEPING HOLY IN EACH WEEK, THE SEVENTH DAY INSTEAD OF THE FIRST DAY. 1. Because the Seventh Day was blessed and sanc- tified for a Sabbath, by God, immediately after the crea- tion of the world, as a perpetual memorial of that won- derful work, and of His own resting from it; and be- cause there is now as much need for man to remember God's creative work, and to enjoy a weekly rest, as ever there was. 2. Because there is evidence that the Seventh Day was observed from Adam to Moses, by Noah, Jacob, Joseph, and Job. (See Gen. vii. 4, 10; viii. 10, 12; xxix. 27, 28; 1. 10; Job. ii. 3.) 3. Because the Seventh Day is a necessary part of the fourth commandment, given at Mount Sinai, graven on stone by the finger of God, and incorporated with the other nine precepts of the Decalogue, which are admitted to be moral in their nature, and perpetually binding. " Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." " The Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." " For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the Seventh Day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sab- bath Day and hallowed it." 4. Because the Old Testament abounds with decla- rations of God's blessing upon those who keep holy the Seventh Day, and of his vengeance upon those who profane it. 5. Because our Lord Jesus Christ enforced the claims of the law to the fullest extent, saying in regard lo the code to which the Seventh Day belonged, " TiP heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no 2 wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled ;" and be- cause He always kept holy the Seventh Day, in this doubtless " leaving us an example that we should follow in tfls steps " 6. Because the holy women who had attended Jesus Christ at his death and burial, are expressly said to have " rested the Sabbath Day according to the command- ment,'" (Luke xxiii. 56;) and because, though the narra- tive proceeds immediately to record the appearance of Jesus Christ, on the morning of the first day of the week, neither there nor elsewhere is one word said about a change of the Sabbath, or about the sabbatic observ- ance of the First Day of the Week. 7. Because the Apostles of our Lord constantly kept the Seventh Day, of which there is abundant evi- dence in the Acts of the Apostles , and it is declared Oj Paul, that, " as his manner icas," he went into tiie syna- gogue frequently on the Sabbath Day. (Compare Luke iv. 16 with Acts xvii. 2; see also Acts xiii. J 4, 42, 44, and xvi. 13.) 8. Because Jesus Christ, foretelling the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, warned his disciples to pray that their •flight might not happen " on the Sabbath Day ;" and as that event was to take place almost forty years after the resurrection of our Lord, it appears that the same Sab- bath was to be then observed by his disciples. 9. Because there is no other day of the vreek called by the name of** Sabbath," in all the Holy Scrip- tures, but the Seventh Day alone ; and because, when ** the First Day of the Week " is mentioned in the New Testament, it is always clearly distinguished from *' the Sabbath." 10 Because not one of those passages which speak of the ''First Day of the Week," records an event or tYansaction peculiar to the Sabbath. Jl. Because when God had so carefully committed his Law to writing, had repeated his precepts through- out the prophetic books, and had left so many testimo- iiies and examples of the Seventh Day Sabbath on His sacred records, it is most unreasonable to suppose that He would have repealed or changed one single article thereof, without recording it among the words of our Lord Jesus or His Apostles, in the writings of the New Testament. 12. Because the observance of the Moral Law, 'without any exception from it,) is constantly enjoined, in the writings of the Apostles; and one of them says that " Whc>soever shall keep the whole law, and yet of- fend m one point, he is guilty of all," quoting at the same time the sixth and seventh commandments. (See Rom. xiii. 9 ; Gal. v. 14 ; Eph. vi. 2, 3 ; and James ii. 8-11.) 13. Because the religious observance of the Seventh Day of the Week as the Sahbath, was constantly prac- tised by the primitive Christians, for three or four hun- dred years at least; and because, though it gradually fell into disuse, the neglect of the Sabbath was caused only by those corruptions of Christianity, which at length grew up into the grossest idolatry; so that the second commandment was in fact, and the fourth was in efieci, abolished by an ignorant, superstitious, and tyrannical priesthood. 14. Because it was only through the superstitious observance of the anniversaries of saints and martyrs, and a multitude of other fasts and feasts, with which the simplicity of revealed religion was encumbered and overwhelmed, that the sabbatic observance of the Sev- enth Day went out of use ; and not (in fact) by any real or pretended command of Christ or His apostles, nor at first by the express authority of any Pope or Council : for it was kept as a strict fast, for ages after it lost every other token of a holy dav. 15. Because the leaders of the Reformation nevei claimed for the First Day the name of the Sabbath, and never enforced the observance of that dav by any other authority than that of the Church. 16. Because it is obviously absurd — [and it is an objection often made hy irreligious people) — that the ob' servance of the First Day of the Week as the Sabbath , should be grounded on a divine precept which com- mands the observance, not of the First, but of the Seventh Day. 17. Because, if the fundamental principle of Pro- testantism be right and true, that " the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants," then the Seventh Day must be the true and only Sabbath of Protestants ; for, unless that day of the w^eek be kept, they have no scriptural Sabbath at all. 18. Because the pertinacious observance of the First Day of the Week, in the stead of the Seventh, has actually given occasion of great scandal to the Protest- ant faith ; it has caused the Papists to declare that Pro- testants admit the authority of human tradition in mat- ters of religion ; and it has led to intolerance and per- secution. 19. Because the observance of the First Day, and neglect of the Seventh, having been adopted partly in contempt of the Jews, has always laid a burden upon them, and presented an obstacle to their receiving Christianity, which ought to be removed. 20. Because the observance of the Seventh Day obeys God, honors the Protestant Principle, rebukes Papacy, removes stumbling-blocks, and secures for us the presence and blessing of " the Lord of the Sabbath." Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Sonjce Street. N. Y. No. 7. PLAIN QUESTIONS. Reader ! be pleased to give a plain an- swer to each of these plain questions, with- out equivocation or mental reservation. 1. Did God, after he had finished the work of crea- tion, "bless and sanctify" the seventh day of the week; or simply the seventh part of time, without reference to any particular day of the seven ? 2. Did He not sanctify the very day in which he rested from his work ? Was not that the last day of the seven .'' Did He sanctify any other ? 3. WHY did He " bless and sanctify" the seventh day ? Was it not because he rested on that day ? Will this reason apply to any other day of the seven ? . Did he not work on EVERY other day ? (See Gen. 2 : 2, 3.) 4. Is not God's example of resting on the seventh day enjoined upon us for imitation ? (Ex. 20 : 8 — 1 1.) Do we imitate him, when we rest upon some other day than the one in which He rested ? 5. Is it the special appointment of God which rendei\ a day holy, or is it our own act ? Is the day holy becaust we count it so, or because God has made it so ? 6. When God enjoins us to count the Sabbath, " the holy of the Lord," (Isa. 58 : 13,) is it not equivalent to telling us that He himself has previously constituted it a holy day by blessing and sanctifying it ? Is it any thing more than requiring us to reckon the day to possess that dignity which He has already conferred upon it 1 7. If God's blessing does not rest upon one particular- ly specified day, to the exclusion of all others, and we are [Sabbath Tract Society.] neveitkeless requiievl to keep a day holy, are we not r»- rt\iuirt\l to do what «.< impcssible f Vov how can w« count a day to be holy, which Ood hi>s not prerijusly made s<.> r * (Compile Unest. 5.) S It" God's blesjsiniT did not rest upon one jvnticularly fpecilied day, could lie chaUengv to lunisohany pvopiiety m one day more tlum in another • "1 et in the SabbalJi dav he claims a special propriety ; '• My holt/ ' jiod «;vor hai'i of thfi fim riay of the week, in t/ tiioij ftlialt not do any work '^ Ihxa Clirist over baid bo ? Have tiio apostlcw 'I 15, 1h tlicro ariy Kcriptural proof that Chrifel, or hi« apogties, or iho Chriiitian c}jurcho8 in th«j days of the apos- ticB, refraincA from Labor on the first day of the watk't jfj. As t}j',re is no transgression where there is no law, {U')m. 4 ; 15 : John '4 : 4,) wj-iat sin is committed by workifj;^ on the first day of the week? 17. 1 >'i(;:s /loi tlie Sabbatic Institution RESULT from tlie bJes.sing ajid .sanctifying of a particular day ? Is not this /Aft vnrij Iking in w kick it consists? How then is the institution .Heparahie from the d;iy thus " bles.sed and •anctified" 'il How can it be separatofl from that upon wledgment I No. 7. I that there is no law requiring the weekly commemora* tion of the work of redemption 'I 21. Does the Scripture ever apply the name, Sahhatli^ to the first day of the week? Even in the New Testa- ment, where the term is used, is not the reference always o the seventh day ? 22. If Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles ful thirty years after the death of Christ, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, still calls the seventh day of the week the Sabbath, can it be wrong in us to do so 1 (See Acts 13 14,42,44; 15: 1,3; 17: 1,2; 18:4.) If this be the inspired application of the term so many years after all ihe ceremonial institutions were nailed to the cross, is it not our duty to make the same use of the term now ? 23. Is it not a manifest perversion of the scriptural use of terms, to take away the sacred name from the sev- enth day of the week, and give it to the first day? 24. When the first day of the week is so o-enerally called the Sabbath, are not the common people thereby led to suppose that the Bible calls it so ? Are they not thus grossly deceived ? 25. If the name Sabbath were no longer applied to this day, and it should simply be called first day of the week, as in the Bible, is it not probable that it would soon lose its sacredness in the eyes of the people ? 26. Is it possible, then, that God has not given the day a name sufficiently sacred to secure for it a religious regard, nor even guarded it with a law sufficient to pre- vent its desecration ? 27. What then ? HAS GOD LEFT HIS WORK FOR MAN TO MEND ! IS IT NOT SAFE TO LEAVE THE DAY AS GOD HAS LEFT IT! " Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being hia counsellor hath taught him ?" (Isa. 11: 13.) [ No. 7. ] 28. Are you very sure that by the Lord's day. (Kev : 10,) is meant the first day of the week? Have you any Scripture proof of it? Have you any other proof of It than the testimony of those who are called the early Fa- thers ? . 29. If the testimony of the early Fathers is to be relied on, that the Lord's day means the first day of the week, ought not their testimony to be just as much relied on, as to the manner in which the primitive Christians observed the day ? 20. If it were even certain that by the Lord's day the writer of the book of Revelations meant to designate the first day of the week, would it thence follow that it is a day sacred by divint appointment, any n;Ore than that the " Sabbath day^s journey^'' (Acts 1 : 12,) was a distance limited and prescribed by divine authority? If Luke ''.ould select the latter expression from the vocabulary of Auman tradition^ without intending to sanction it as being of divine origin, could not John do the same with regard to the former expression ? 31. Do the Fathers, or any one of them, inform us that the Lord's day was observed by abstinence from la- \}r ? — that it was observed as the Sabbath ? Mark the question. It is not, was the day observed^ simply ; but, was it observed as the Sabbath ? 32. Is there not an important distinction between the Sabbath and a religious festival ? Does not the vrord Sabbath mean rest ? Can any day, therefore, be called a Sabbath day, which is not a day of rest from ordinary labor? 33. J)oes a xeMgioviS festival require any thing mor^ han the commemoration of some important event, allo«- [No. 7.1 6 ing the time not occupied in the public celebration of it to be spent in labor or amusement ? Is not this precisely the manner in which the first day of the week was obserV' ed, according to the testimony of the ancient Fathers? 34. Though the observance of the first day of the week as a religious festival be in itself innocent, (Rom. 14 : 5,) so long as it is not made a pretext for dispensing with an ex- press law of God, (Matt. 15 : 6,) yet do you find it any where in the word of God commanded as a duly ? 35. Do you believe that a Sabbath, in the true and proper sense of the term ; namely, a day of rest from all ordinary labor, is necessary and indispensable to the well- being of manlcind ? If so, do you honestly suppose that God would set it aside, and have its place supplied by nothing more than a religious festival? 36. Is it not wicked to uphold a course which makes the commandment of God of none effect? (Matt. 15. 1—9; Mark 7: 1—13. Reader ! carefuiiy puutkr the foicgoii;g questions, together with the Scripture refer ences. Answer them as you w ould if you stood at the gates of deatli. Do not trifle with the Holy Spirit of God, by forcibly wresting his word from its obvious meaning. Let conscience be unfettered ; and act, as fully realizing that " THOU, GOD, SEEST ME." Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Spruce Street, N. Y. DIALOGUE, Betweon a Minkter of the Gospel and a Sabbatarian Sfhbb(t*arian. Did Jehovah ever sanctify one day above another ? Minister. He did. ^. And what day was that? M. The seventh. ^. When? M. When he finished his creative work. S. Where? M. In Eden. (S. On whom was it obligatory? M. On our first parents, and all their posterity. S. Did he ever unsanctify that day? M. No. iS. Did he ever sanctify the first, or any other day t\tttn the seventh, as a day of rest? M. Not that I know of. ^ Then do not those Avho neglect the seventh day, take away something from the word of God ? And do not those who keep the first day add to that word ? Read the threatnings of the Lord against such : — " If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the nijgv^eG xha. ave \7n1tPn in this book : ^.iid if hav -nai .«:hall take away from the words of the book of tnis pro- phecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." COUNTERFEIT COIN. Being the substance of a recent Conversation between an eminent Counsellor at Law and a Sabbatarian. The La\Aryer contended that although the first day of Jie week had no divine authority for its sanctity or ob- servance as a Sabbath, yet if it be kept as scrupulously and conscientiously as the seventh day demanded, it covM not but be as acceptable to God In answer to such sophistry, the Sabbatarian submitted the following legal case to him : — " I am told that I can purchase, in the State of Connec- ticut, one hundred copper cents, bearing- the impress and superscription of the United States Mint, and equal in every respect in value to the mint coin, for sixty-jive cenis, payable in gold or silver. But I admit them to be coun- /erfeit. I admit, also, that I circulate this spurious coin. Now, will you undertake, for a fee of $10,000, to defend my cause against a prosecution for passing such false coin, and exonerate me from conviction in the United States' Courts." The honest lawyer's answer unhesitatingly was, " 1 cannot argue your cause in the very teeth of so unques- tionable a law as appears to exist on the Statute Books."* The Sabbatarian replied : — " Then, as you admit your first day Sabbath a counterfeit^ allow me to answer you as the celebrated Mr. Whiston did Chancellor King of England upon a similar question : * If God Almighty should be as consistent, as just, and as jealous of his laws in the Court of Heaven, as my Lord Chancellor is in his. where are ive then i" " The Inference. — If, then, I cannot obtain an advocate on earth, (for no one of repute would undertake it,) to plead my cause with the offer of a fee of $10,000, for the violation of a law of man's making, what ground have I to expect that the only advocate to be obtained in the Court of Heaven, i. e. the Lord Jesus Christ, will defend my cause against a breach of that law which his father ever mad e punishable with death, temporal and eternal f — and who himself, when on earth, in his comment on that law, averred that not one jot or tittle could in any wise pass from it? (Matt. 5 : 18, 19.) • If any person shall falsely make or counterfeit any copper coin of the United States, or pass or publish the same, he shall be sub «cted to a fine of $1000, and suffer imprisonment to hard labor for t term not exceeding three years. — Go'donV Digesjl, p. 922. Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Spruce Street, N. Y. No. 8. SABBATH CONTllOVKRSY, THE TRUE ISSUE. One of the greatest difficulties which we who observe the seventh day have ever found in the Sabbath contro- versy, is to make our opponents understand what is the real question at issue. So long have their thoughts, feelings and habits, been moulded under one particular view of the subject, that it seems almost a miracle if one is found who can disregard all foreign matter, and look at the precise point in debate long enough to come to any certain and intelligent conclusion about it. But it is evident, that if an opponent is suffered to raise false issues, or to be continually striking oflf into the discussion of some point which does not affect the final question, we may prolong the controversy ad wjinitum. Let us then endeavor to state distinctly what is, and what is not, the issue between us and the observers of the first day of the week. I. The issue is not whether the first day of the week was observed at a very early period by Christians. We admit that it was. We admit that its observance may be traced up to very near the borders of the apos- tolic age. What more can a generous, conscientious opponent, who scorns any other aid than what the truth will give him, ask? He knows in his own soul that this is the very utmost that can be produced from any of his histories. Let him ransack his old musty volumes all the way backward, till he fancies he can almost talk to the ** beloved disciple" face to face, and what more can he find ? Verily, nothing. But when you have got this admission from us, then we have another question to ask. How — don't dodge the question — HOW was the day observed by the early Christians ? We admit the observance of it ; but that is not the issue. The issue respects the manner of observing it. You, if you are consistent, will say that THE TKUli ISSIJK. the early Christians observed it not only by public woi«» ship, but by abstaining from labor. We, on the other hand, deny that they abstained from labor. We admit tliat they held public worship ; but — we repeat it — we deny that they abstained from labor. We deny that they regarded it as a Sabbath, " resting according to the connnandnient." Now with the issue thus fairly stated, we put the laboring oar into your hands, and challenge you to prove your position. Bring proof, if you can, that the early Christians regarded the first day of the week as any thing else than a religions festival ; between which and a Sabbath there is a very important difference, tiie latter requiring abstinence from labor, the former merely requiring public worship in honor of the event commemorated, and allowing the remainder of the day to be spent in labor or amusement. 2. When it is once settled, that in a very early period of the church the first day was observed as a festival ; when our opponents have fairly jaded themselves to a '* weariness of the flesh," in their " much study" of the old fathers, to find proof of it ; — though we never called it in question ; — then the issue is, whether this festival was ordained by Christ ? — whether the New Testament furnishes inspired exainple of such festival 1 Our oppo- nents affirm ; we deny. We maintain that in every passage of the New Testament, where the first day of the week is mentioned, the context furnishes a sufficient reason why it is mentioned, without the least necessity of supposing it to have been a festival season. No exception can be made to this, unless in regard to 1 Cor. IG : 2. The reason why the Apostle in this place specifies the first, rather than any other day of the week, does not so clearly appear from the context ; but the peculiar phraseology employed, " let each one of you lay by him," [himself,] is against the idea of any public meeting; and if no public meet- ing, of course no festival season. As every allusion to the first day of the week is sufficiently explained by THE TllUK ISSUE. O Other circumstances noticed in the context, the inferen- tial })roof of its festival character is thereby destroyed. As for clear, positive proof of it, such as express precept or command, no person of modesty pretends it. Still less is there any proof of its Sabbatic character. 3. Another point wherein we are necessarily at issue with great numbers of Christians, is whether the iristi- tution of the Sabbath is separable from the particular day to be observed. They affirm : we deny. We main- tain that God's blessing and sanctifying a particular day is the very thing in which the institution consists. To render this plaiix matter yet more plain, we invite close attention to the wording of the fourth commandment; premising, however, that the word Sabbath is not trans- lated from a Hebrew word, but is the Hebrew word it- self anglicized, just as baptism is an anglicized Greek word. The proper translation of the word is Rest. Now let the word Rest be substituted for Sabbath, and how clear it becomes — ** Remember the Rest day to keep it holy'' [Surely some particular day is denoted ; for it is the Rest day, not A Rest day.] Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Rest of the Lord thy God. [Is it any where historically recorded as a fact ^hat God rested on THE seventh day ? It is. Gen. 2: 2. ' On the seventh day God rested from all his work which he had made.' Who does not see that that day on which God rested, was the last of the seven which constituted the first week of time ?] In it — [in what ? why, in the seventh day, the last day of the week ; for the pronoun it can have no other antecedent] — thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is ivithin thy gates. [Why must no work be done on that particular day, the seventh or last day of the week ? The reason follows.] For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and RESTED on the seventh day, fas 4 THE TRUE ISSUE the record in Gen. "2 : 2 proves. See also Heb. 4 : 4.] Wlierefore the Lord blessed the Rest day and sanctified itr The conclusioii is irresistible, that the Rest day spo- ken of is the particular day on which God rested from his work, which, as before shown, was the last day of trie week. That very day, and no other, God blessed and sanctified. The only reason assigned ivhy he sanctified it, is " because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2 : 3. The Rest day, then, which we are required to observe, is *' the Rest of the Lord thy God :" which does not mean the rest which the Lord thy God has appointed, though it is true that he has appointed it ; nor does it mean a rest which becomes the Lord's by reason of our appro- priating it to him ; but " the rest of the Lord thy God" means the rest which the Lord thy God observed. Now from all this we think it must be evident, that whoever observes any other Rest day than the seventh day of the week, does not observe the Rest — Sabbath— "of the Lord thy God." He may. It is true, appro- priate it to the Lord his God, and in that sense call it theLord's ; he may ignorantly suppose that Christ in th© Gospel has appointed it, and in that sense also cat! it the Lord's ; but it can by no means be called " the Rest of the Lord thy God " in the sense of that expres- sion in the fourth commandment. Hence, irresistible IS our conviction, that he does not obey the command- ment. O brother Christian, why will you persist in maintaining that your Sunday keeping is an act of obedience to the law of the Sabbath 1 Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Spruce-street, New- York. No. 9 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. FALSE EXPOSITION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. The Fourth Commandment has been variously ex- pounded by its professed friends. Among these expo- sitions, none has been more injurious than that which represents it as requiring the observance, not of the Sabbath, and the seventh day, but of a Sabbath, and a seventh day — not of a certain and well-known time, but of an uncertain and varying time. Yet this is the expo- sition of it which is given both by commentators and writers on the subject of the Sabbath. It will be found, however, that this view is generally presented in order to prepare the way to introduce the first day of the week, under the specious name of Lord's Day, into the place of the Sabbath. Thus some are made to think, that the name Sabbath may as well be applied to the first day of the week as to the seventh. But to such an exposition there are several serious objections : — 1. It is a perversion of the original text itself In every place where the weekly Sabbath and the seventh day are spoken of, the Hebrew article is uniformly used. This article is often used like our demonstrative this — but more comm3nly like our definite article the — never as our indefinite article a ox an ) and Gesenius, m answer to the question whether it may be used inclc- firiiteli/, says, " The definite article cannot be rightly s lid to stand indefinitely." To this opinion agree ail our translators, both ancient and modern, who hav*3 rendered the terms, both in the fourth commandment and all other places of the Scripture, by the Sabbath and the seventh day. 2. It makes the Fourth Commandment to be inde- finite and absurd. If that commandment only requires 2 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. the observance of a Sabbath or rest, and that en a seventh day, then one man might keep the seventh day, another the third day, and another the fifth day, yet all obey the commandment. What confusion would thus result from carrying out this exposition to its legitimate results ! But God's commandment is not yea and nay after this manner. It says, " the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." That man will not be held guiltless who misinterprets and misrepresents it, for however pious a purpose he may do so. 3. It is contrary to the teachings of the very men who give this exposition ; for they affirm, that the fourth commandment required the keeping of the seventh day until Christ came. Now, if the Jews before Christ, were bound to keep a certain and definite day, and that the seventh day, then the commandment required a certain and definite day, and that the seventh day. From these considerations it is evident, that those who represent the fourth commandment as requiring the ob- servance of only a Sabbath, and that upon some one day of the seven indefinitely, are gnilty of a false exposition oi the commandment, and of handling the word of God de- ceitfully. They make a plain passage of Scripture to signify one thing for some thousands of years, and then ever afterwards to signify another thing. Thus do they make void the commandment of God, that they nray keep their own traditions. Now let us turn to a consideration of some of the consequences of this kind of exposition. Among these we will mention only three. I It overturns all certainty in explaining the Scrip- tures. If a man., in translating from a Latin or Greek author, should pervert his author's meaning in this man- ner, by using words in a different sense from that in which they were intended, he would be cast out and despised. But yet when a preacher represents the term the Sabbath as meaning simply a rest, that so he may call the first day of the week a rest, and therefore the FALSE EXPOSITION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. ii Sabbath, he deals worse with the Scriptures than the translator just mentioned does with his profane author Instead, however, of being cast out and despised, his speculations are allowed to go for truth. Thus unbe- lievers are encouraged in their infidelity; and occasion IS given for them to say, that the Bible is interpreted by its friends to mean just what they please to have it. It is dangerous for men to use their wits thus to blind the eyes of their fellows. 2. It abolishes the Lord's Sabbath, and makes the Fourth Commandment to be a mere cipher. First, it abolishes the Lord's Sabbath, because it teaches that the observance of the seventh day, on which God rested and which he introduced into the commandment as one with the Sabbath, is not at all binding, but the day may be spent in any kind of labor. Is not this to abolish the Lord's Sabbath ? Second, it makes the fourth com- mandment a cipher, because it takes away the time, which is the seventh day, and the event commemorated, which is God's resting from his creative work. Now read the commandment, as these expounders would have it, bereft of the time and the event commemorated. It then commands only a rest, without any precept or example as to its length or frequency. One person, therefore, may rest one hour in each day ; another one day in a month ; and a third one month in a year ; and each may call this keeping the Sabbath. Does not this make the fourth commandment a mere cipher ? 3. It abuses God's Word, and misleads his people. It abuses his word by representing that the Word teaches what it does not teach, and that it fails to teach what it attempts to teach. It misleads his people, on one side, by pressing the fourth commandment to sus- tain the first day of the week, which it says nothing about, thus laying a yoke upon the people, requiring them to observe a day, in regard to which they will finally be asked. Who hath required this at your hands 1 On the other side, it misleads the people, bv encoura- 4 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT, ETC. ging thera to neglect a day which God hath sanctlfted, and commanded them to keep holy. Such ave some of the consequences of this false ex- position of the fourth commandment. They affect both the sabbatic institution itself, and those whose duty »l is to remember it. It is true that the persons who coun- tenance such expositions are called very zealous and godly men ; but this, instead of bettering the case, makes it worse. If they were enemies to the commandment, suoh things might be expected, and would be compara tively unimportant ; but that the wound should be in- flicted by its friends, aggravates the evil. There is oc- casion to tremble for some religious teachers, who profess great interest in the Sabbath, but who yet refuse to hear the truth in regard to it. Some such there are, who, if the truth be presented to them, instead of in- quiring if these things are so, imitate the Jews of old who, when they were cut to the heart, gnashed on their reprover with their teeth ; and when they could en- dure it no longer, '^' stoppped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord." Such would do well to inquire if they are not in this thing teaching error for truth, and their own traditions for the commandments of God. Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society. No. 9 Spruce-street, New- York. THE [\«;. Mj.j TRUE SABBATH EMBRACED AND OBSERVED By Eld. SAMUEL DAVISON, Macv years a regular 15aptist Minister; now Pastor of the Seventh day Baptist Church in Shiloh, New Jersey. NEW-YORK: FIJBLISHED BY THE AMER. SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. Having often been solicited to give an account of my conversion from the observance of w^hat is commonly called the Lord's Day, or Sunday, to the observance of the ancient Sabbath of Jehovah, the seventh day of the week, I submit this brief narra- tive to public notice, not so much for the justifica- tion of my present practice, as in the hope that it may be the means of leading many otlier ChristiaD people candidly to examine this subject, which, as it appears to me, is very essential to the restoration of primitive Christianity. The narrative derives its importance, not from the person of the naiTator, but from the practical exhibition which it furnishes of the working of divine truth upon the mind. THE TRUE SABBATH EMBRACED AND OBSERVED. EARLY PREPOSSESSIONS. My parents, and nearly all of my family connec- tions, being members of Baptist churches, or at- tached to that denomination — and I having been a member of the same for above tweiiiy-five years, and more than half that time an accredited minis- ter among them — all my preferences and prepos- sessions w^ere with their peculiarities as churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there was one char- acteristic doctrine of the Baptists which I esteemed above another, it was this : " We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by the inspiration of God, and are a perfect rule of faith and practice." I could say wdth the Psalmist, "My heart standeth in awe of thy word; for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." — MATURED ATTACHMENTS. I believed firmly, that if there was a Christian people upon the earth who had kept the primitive faith from the days of the apostles, and had never symbolized with the errors of the church of Rome in her idolatrous and adulterous course, that people was the Baptist denomination. If there was any thing in my religious privileges in which I gloried, it was in thinking that I had never been deceived by the working of that mystery of iniquity. I was sensible that the Baptists had errors among them; but I regarded them as the errors of fallible hu- man nature, and not as departures from the consti- tutional doctrine and law of the Holy Scriptures — 4 THE TRUE SABBATH some of them superinduced by an unwatchful and familiar intercourse with our more erroneous Pedo- baptist brethren, and hence mediately, though not directly, the effect of that great apostacy which was predicted as to come and deceive all nations. Hold- ing these sentiments, I was ardently and conscien- tiously attached to that denomination, as the most scriptural people on earth. I did not doubt but that I should remain united with them in time, in death, and in eternal life. REGARD FOR SCRIPTURAL CHRISTIANITY. Notwithstanding my prepossessions and attach- ments, it has been my prevailing desire, from the time of my conversion, to be a Scriptural Christian; and since I became a teacher of others, I have felt a growing sense of obligation to know and teach the whole counsel of God aright. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples, saying, "Call no man master," "Call no man father," have for years been so deeply impressed upon my heart, that I have scrupulously refused to call myself a Fuller- ite, a Calviuist, an Armenian, or after any human name. Although I have my preferences in reading and approving the sentiments of great and good men, the Bible alone is my creed book. FORMER SABBATH SENTIMENTS. My former Sabbath sentiments were formed ar. cording to the Puritan model. While a child, I learned Sutcliff's and Watts' Catechisms, in both of which it is taught, that the ten commandments are a rule of life to good men; and traditionally I was taught, that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week in honor EMBRACED Ai\D OBSERVED. 6 3f the resurrection of Christ; and I fully believed this was coufirmed by the various references to the first day contained in the New Testament. DISTURBED ABOUT THE SABBATH. I was first disturbed about the Sabbath seven years ago, when a brother sent me a tract upon the subject, called the Investigator. I read it with con- siderable interest, and was much perplexed in at- tempting to satisfy myself with my own views, as I went along in the perusal of it. I wished then, that there had been something more explicit upon the subject of the change of the day than what I could find in the New Testament. Not question- ing, however, but that it was divinely changed, I quieted, rather than satisfied, my mind with what I supposed to be abundant apostolic example; and I remarked, that if our Pedobaptist brethren could produce from the Scriptures as clear examples of infant baptism, as we could of keeping the first day of the week for a Sabbath, I would admit its valid- ity. Although I would not dare to say so now, then it sufficed to quiet my mind. I had no farther solicitude upon the subject, until about midsummer of 1843. At that time, as sev- eral professors of religion of my acquaintance did not regard the day as I thought the Lord's Day ought to be regarded, I conculded to preach a ser- mon upon the subject, and commenced preparing one. I had then recently purchased Neander's History of the Christian Religion and Church dui- in^the First Three Centuries. I read this book with much satisfaction, as the work of an able and candid historian, who takes a philosophical view of the events and circumstances of society which operated to give character to those early ages of S THE TRLK SaHBATII church history. In the section on Christian Woi ship and Festivals, I was surprised to find the fol- lowing statement, viz: "Opposition to Judaism in- troduced the particular festival of Sunday very early indeed into the place of the Sabbath The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was al- ways only a human ordinance ; and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect — far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin." I was the more surprised at this statement, as 1 found Neander was not a Sabbath-keeper. He takes the high-church ground, acknowledging the right of the so-called apostolic or catholic church to alter or ordain the rites of Christian worship; which is. indeed, the foundation principle of all Papal, Puseyite, and Pedobaptist observances. I saw clearly enough, that if Neander w^as right, I had no better foundation for Sunday-keeping than hierarchists have for their Easter, Ascension, and Christmas Festivals, which I had always rej)udiated; or than Pedobaptists have for sprinkling infants. I therefore determined to give the subject A thorough examination. I commenced with human authors, and read Fuller, Buck, Doddridge, Paley, Wilson, Huui- phrey, Nevins, Kingsbury, Phelps, Whateley, ihd others; and I was astonished to find every one of them admitting, that there is no express command, precept, or passage of Scripture, to authorize the change of t'le Sabbath from the seventh to the first EMBRACED AND OBSERVED. 7 day of the week. They all attempt to support the practice by inferences and analogical reasonings from particular events. Not having veneration laro-e enou"-h to bow to their great names and acute reasonings, I was landed upon a lonely shore, with- out pilot or compass, with no guide but the truth- ful chart of Revelation. As I had often vowed in my heart to the Lord, that I would be a Bible Christian so far as I could discover the meaning of the divine Word, or know the revealed will of God ; and had more than once told my Pedo- baptist friends, when accused of sectarianism, that I would leave all for the truth's sake, if I could discover that I was wi'ong; I was greatly perplex- ed, for I fonnd a great fact — The Sabbath was changed. The greater part of the world, the most estimable of Christians, do keep their weekly Sab- bath on the first day! Can they all be wrong] I conversed with some, and found them more incon- sistent in their reasons than the authors I read. For a time, to sanction the change of the Sabbath, I took what may properly be called prelatical ground. It may be stated as follows, viz : " The thing exists; and in the New Testament we find some things which appear to us so like it, that we conclude this and they are identical; though we cannot find the particulars of the change. And besides, we find some occurrences mentioned in the New Testament i,vhich seemingly happened in ac- cordance with it and which afford reasons for it, and so we think they should be considered satis- factory evidences of the change existing at the time." But my confidence in this fact was over- turned by discovering another great fact, viz : Th^t the first day was not honored as a Sabbath during the first two centuries of the Christian era ; and that when it did come to be so f)bserved, it was not 8 THE TRUE SABBATH on the considerations that are now alledged, but on what appeared to me a wicked reason — mere spite to the Jews. I therefore commenced anew, A THOROUGH EXAMINATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT But the more attentively I read it, with this object in view, viz. to find out the mind of Christ upon the sulyject of the Sabbath, the more plainly I saw that it was against me. I found that Christ and his apostles enjoined the observance of the law of the ten commandments as holy, just, and good — that law which says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." I found, also, that Christ had said, (Mark 2 : 27, 28,) " The Sabbath was made for man ; therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day" — plainly incorporat- ing it into the laws of his kingdom. Luke also says, many years after the resurrection, writing the ac- count in his Gospel of that event, *' The women rested the Sabbath day according to the command- ment" — thus recognizing it, as it appeared to me, to be a commandment still in force. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. The Resurrection of Christ being regarded as the great event which required the change in ques- tion, I carefully considered that matter. But I no where found it spoken of by the New Testament writers, as it is by divines of modern times. The only instance I could find of its celebration by the apostles, was in the ordinance of baptism, in these words, " If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the like- ness of his resurrection." (Rom. 6: 5.) And again, " What shall they do which are baptized for th« EMHRACED AND OBSERVED. [resurrection of the] dead, if the dead rise not at all!" (1 Cor. 15: 29.) I concluded that there could not be two apostolic ways of celebrating it; and hence that I must look for some other reason to justify the change in question. THE TIME OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. I had always supposed that our Saviour rose oii the morning of the first day of the week, 'and had no doubt about finding it plainly recorded that he did. But when I searched for it in the evangelists, I found the accounts very different from what I had supposed. Matthew 28: 1, reads, "In the end of the Sabbath." Mark 16: 1 — ''When the Sabbath was passed." Matthew — "As it began to dawn towards the first day of the week." Mark — "Very early in the morning, the first day of the week." Luke 24: 1 — "Very early in the morning." John 20: 1 — "Early, when it was yet dark, .... they came to the sepulchre, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus." As this did not tell the exact time of his resurrection, I set myself to see if I could find it by any other passages. On examina- tion, it appeared plain to me, that as he was buried at sun-down, according to that law in Deut. 21 : 23, to fulfill his own prediction, " So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," his resurrection must have ttken place at the same hour of the day, or rather eve- ning — which would destroy its identity with the first day as now reckoned, and carry back his crucifixion to the fourth day of the week. All we know of the time of the crucifixion, I found to be, that it was on the fourteenth day of the first month, the preparation day of the Passover 10 THE TRUE SABBATH The fifteenth day was the Passover Sabbath, a high day with the Jews. (See John 19: 14, 31.) If Jesus was thus crucified on the fourth day of the week, I found that it made a striking cor- respondence between the event and the prediction in Daniel 9 : 7. The reason why the Holy Spirit was poured oul on the day of Pentecost, I found to be, because it was the first annual national assembly after the crucifixion — the Saviour being put to death at the Passover, and Pentecost being fifty days after. This event, therefore, had nothing to do with the Sabbath. Christ's appearances. The appearances of Christ to his disciples on the first day of the week, are considered as good rea- sons for sanctifying that day. It is supposed that he so designed them. But these did not appear to ^e as I expected, when I came to examine them carefully. I knew them as related by the evangel- ists, but I had them traditionally arranged and as- sociated to suit the arguments for keeping the first day; and when I came to read them with an honest inquiry after the truth, they apj)eared very differ- ent from what I had supposed. I found that there were five appearances of Christ to his disciples on the first day following his resurrection; and neither of them occurred when the disciples were assem- bled for worship ; neither were they accompanied by any such direction. His first appearance was to the four women, as they returned from the sepulchre, where they had been with spices to embalm the body of Jesus. They were directed by an angel, and by Jesus himself, to go and tell his disciples th?t Cb-r^s^f ^.'^a EMURACED AND OBSERVED. 11 risen, and would meet tliem on a mountain in Gali- lee as he had promised them before his crucifixion. There was nothing in this like Sabbath-keeping ! The women having gone into the city, informed Peter and John, who went immediately to the sepulchre ; and having looked in and satisfied them- selves that the report of the women was true, Peter and John returned to the city. But Mary taiTied still at the sepulchre, weeping, when Tesui> appear- ed to her alone. (John 20 : 16.) ^ Next he appeared to Peter. (Luke 24: 34, 1 Cor. 15: 5.) Afterward he appeared to Cleopas and an- other disciple as they journied to Emmaus. (Luke 24: 13—35.) At night, when they had retired for their evening repast, Jesus aj^peared in the midst of them, and partook with them of a piece of broiled fish and an Fioney comb. (Luke 24 : 42.) These were all on the first day of the week, and they appeared to me conclusive evidence, that the disciples had not yet received any intimations of a change of Sabbath time, there being no evidence of it in their conduct or discourse. Eight days after this, Jesus appeared again to his disciples, Thomas being with them. (John 20 : 26.) After these things, he shewed himself again to seven of his disciples as they were fishing at the sea of Tiberius. (John 21 : 1 — 14.) At another time, probably on the mountain in Galilee, he was seen of five hundred brethren at once. (1 Cor. 15: 6.) After this, he was seen of James. (1 Cor. 15: 7.) Then of the disciples when he was taken up into heaven. (Luke 24: 50,51.) Last of all, he was seen by Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus. (1 Cor. 15: 8.) 12 THE TRUE SABBATH There are eleven instances mentioned of his meeting his disciples, and not one of them contains a single reference to the Sabbath in any way what- ever, which fully convinced me that the pretence of the Sabbath being changed at the resurrection of Christ was wholly groundless. How any one, without very strong prepossessions and blindness, could think these things make a Sabbath, I could not see. Only five of these instances are said to be on the first day, and these were all private inter- views! *Saul of Tarsus might as well conclude that he ought to build a meeting-house where Jesus met him, as for the disciples to make a Sabbath of the first day because Jesus appeared to them on that day. After examining these things, it looked to me as though the Papists were quite as justifiable for changing the second commandment to make an image of Christ and his cross, as Protestants are for altering the fourth commandment to honor the resurrection. The Papists honor the crucifixion, and the Protestants the resurrection. APOSTOLIC EXAMPLES. I looked for apostolic examples. But alas, they all failed me. They did not afford me the evi- dences I had supposed they would. I f^und but one account of a Christian assembly on the first day of the week, which was at Troas ; and that was an evening meeting, and a parting meeting which Paul held with his friends; and while he was holding that meeting, seven of his companions in travel went and removed the ship in which they were to sail from Troas to Assos, whither he fol- lowed them on foot to go aboard. I thought. Could they be keeping Sabbath in so doin":? (See Acts 20: l—H.) KMHRAOED AND OBSERVED. 13 " The Lord's Day,'" I found mentioned but once in the New Testament, (Rev. 1: 10,) and there it does not tell what day of the week it was on, so that I judged it certainly must favor that day for which there is both Bible command and ex- ample, rather than that day for which there is no- thing but custom and tradition. Thus it appeared to me, that all apostolic example av;: not only against the observance of the first day, lut clearly in favor of the seventh; for I found that at Antioch in Pisidia, the Apostle observed the Sabbath with both Jews and Gentiles. (Acts 13: 14, 42, 44.) The same at Philippi. (Acts 16: 13.) And at Thessalonica. (Acts 17 : 2, 3.) Also at Corinth, where the Apostle continued a year and six months, he observed every Sabbath day. (Acts 18: 4, 11.) The law of God, with all its awful sanctions, flaming from Mount Sinai, appeared to me to threaten my destruction if I dared to reject any part of its holy claims, for when I read what Jesus said, (Luke 16: 17,) "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail," I could not entertain a doubt but that it was obligatory upon his disciples. THE DECISION. These things greatly distressed me, and in the end separated me from Sunday-keeping forever. At this time I was not acquainted with a single seventh-day Christian. But a bookseller sent me some copies of the "Address of the Seventh-day Baptists to the Baptists of the United States," which was peculiarly opportune to my state of mind. It showed me the inconsistency of Sunday- keeping with all the foundation principles of the 14 THE TRUE SABUATII faith I had received, and the order I had observed; and served to bring me to a decision. Yet I did not dare to submit my mind at once to the force of truth, until I had repeatedly investigated every Scripture passage and event on w^hich I had former- ly relied for a justification of my faith. I endeav- ored to do this as independently of extrinsic con- siderations as I could; and each time brought me to the same conclusion. I could find no Scripture authority for a first-day Sabbath. Yet the conflict w^as not over, I suffered for some time that deep mental anguish w^hich attends a conscientious mind, where enlightened judgment conflicts with all the inclinations, expectations, and kindliest associations of life. If ever an anxious mariner sailed trem- blingly between Sylla and Charybdis, surely his condition was like mine at this time. To advocate the Sunday observance without Bible authority, I could not for conscience's sake. To embrace the no-Sabbath doctrine, I dared not; this was too dark and downward a leap from the highway of holiness for me to hazard; and the former was too disloyal and dishonest a course for me to pursue in the name of the King of saints. For a time I indulged a forlorn hope, that I might find some way of re- conciling the matter so as to appear consistent without leaving the denomination. But accustom- ed to speak the honest sentiments of my heart, I found the subject naturally influencing my prayers and my preaching, and in other ways embarrassing me, so that it became a burden I knew not how to bear. I commenced keeping the Sabbath alone in my study. It seemed now as if Gcd had shut me up to my own vows ; I u-as compelled to renounce all for his truth, or prove apostate to the principles of godliness! Dark indeed appeared my prospects. I had a wife and eight children to support, and no EMrmACED AND OIISERVED. 15 human resource to look to but my salary. 1 felt, too, for the reputation, sentiments, and preposses- sions of my wife and children, some of whom had already made a profession of religion, and for many other young converts recently gathered into the church of which I was pastor. But just at that time, I was called to baptize a young woman who had to leave father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and all she had on earth, for her faith in Christ. This greatly assisted me to determine to do so too. The decision gave great relief to my mind. I could now with more confidence appeal to our Father in heaven for support and direction. I could with great comfort appropriate many pre- cious promises of God's Word to my owti case, and find them a precious cordial to my soul. Never have I found more enjoyment in divine things than since I thus renounced all for Christ. I found as the Psalmist expresses it, that "great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." "O taste and see that the Lord is good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in ^im." — CONCLUSION. The result has been happy in my own family. All in my house who have come to years of dis- cretion have since united in walking according to the commandments. Although it was not easy at first to throw off" early prepossessions, we have found no embarrassments from them since the de- cision was made. Many things which we feared have proved imaginary, and all necessary good has been added unto us; and the truth of God has more abounded toward us. Thus will it be with all them that obey God. "All his commandments 16 THE TRUE SABBATH EMBRACED AND OBSERVED. are sure." "No good thing will lie withhold from him that walketh uprightly." Its influence upon my religious feelings, and views of divine truth in general, has been to clear up some things that were previously obscure, and give a beautiful harmony to the requirements of the law and the doctrines of the Gospel. My hope is, when Babyl j)n shall fall, to be found among them who keep the com- mandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Rev. 14. 12.) TAKING UP THE CROSS, BY JOSEPH STENNETT. Jesus, I my cross have talcen, All to leave aud foUow^ thee; Naked, poor, despised, Ibrsalcen, Thou from hence ray all shalt be. Let the world neglect and leave me; They have left my Saviour too; Human hopes have oft deceived me; Thou art faithful, thou art true. Perish, earthly fame and treasure; Come disaster, scorn, and pain; In thy service, pain is pleasure; With thy favor, death is gaiu. Oh ! 'tis not in gi-ief to hann me. While thy bleeding love I see; Oh! 'tis not in joy to charm me. When that love is hid from me. Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, No. 9 Spmce Street. N. Y. No. 11. RellgiouH Liberty P^iidan;;c'rL>therwise lawful and peaceable occupation on the ame day. EQUAL RIGHTS AND RELHilOUS FREEDOM. 13 In some quarters, during the last year, our mo- tives and designs were grossly misrepresented by prejudiced persons, in our legislatures and else- where. We were represented as "wishing the le- gislature to change the Sabbath from the first to the seventh day of the week ;" and were accused of "covertly wishing to compel our fellow-citizens to keep our Sabbath day." No insinuation could be more grossly deceptive — no accusation more flagi- tiously unjust to us as a people. We declare un- equivocally, that we do not desire any such thing. We believe that keeping the Sabbath day is purely a religious duty. All we ask is, that our State Le- gislatures leave the matter where the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the General Government have placed it. They have no more right to determine this religious duty, than they have to determine the rites of Christian worship. We believe our fellow-citizens ought to be protect- ed in the peaceable observation of their day of reli- gious rest, as in the observance of every other reli- gious institution, except where such observance is made a sanctuary for crime. We ask the same protection for ourselves on the seventh day of the week, and nothing more. If the Constitution may be infringed upon to put down the observers of the seventh day, no one can say how long it will be before other minor denom- inations may be put down too. Already attempts are making to exact a confession of faith, unknown to the Constitution, as a qualification for a legal oath. If the religious sanctification of the first day of the week may be enforced by statutory require- ments, so may the forms and hours of worship. He who says, that there is no danger of the latter being enforced, while statutory regulations violate two of the most sacred provisions of the National 14 AN APPEAL TO THE FRIENDS OF Constitution, knows but little of the history of man- kind, or pays but little attention to the tendencies of human nature. A single standing violation of the Constitution is an example and an authority for others to follow. One religious observance estab- lished by law, is the admission of the main princi- ple of national hierarchy, and will come in time to be referred to as authority for similar infractions of the Constitution. The laws for the observance of the first day are in fact a union of Church and State. It is not pretended that they are designed to subserve directly a political or civil object. It is altogether a religious object which they subserve. It becomes every friend of equal rights, as he loves the Constitution of his country, to oppose these in- fractions of its just principles, until equal liberty is secured to all citizens by statutoiy provisions, as by tlie fundamental laws of the nation. Our opponents often remind us of their pretence, that we are under no more restrictions than other citizens; we may do as we please about keeping the seventh day. To this we reply, that the tyrants of the Roman people deprived the Republic of its liberties by professing themselves the guardians of their interests. "By declaring themselves the protectors of the people, Marius and Cassar had subverted the Constitution of their country." Au- gustus established a despotism by artfully affecting to be governed himself by the same laws which he procured to be enacted to take away the rights of the people. These are the same principles upon which religious coercionists conjure us to be quiet under the loss of our constitutional rights. The progress of these things towards despotism is as dangerous in the American Republic as in that of Rome, and may be as rapid. Their success would be as deadly to human happiness, and all the best EQUAL RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. If interests of mankind, in the nineteenth century, as they were in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Human nature now affords no better guaranty for the safety of our national rights, than it did to the Romans at the summit of their great- ness. Liberty can be preserved only at the ex- pense of perpetual vigilance, and by the popular support of individual rights. If ever the doctrine which has been urged before one of our legislative bodies, " The greatest good of the greatest num- ber," should become a popular political axiom, to justify the course of the many in taking away the rights of the few, the halls of legislation will be- come scaffolds for the execution of liberty, and that odious principle will be the shroud in which it will be buried. Despots may establish a round of religious observances, and exact an unwilling and insincere conformity to their arbitrary prescriptions; but they can never convince the understanding nor win the heart of one who knows the voice of truth. They can only make him a slave, while the effects of their arbitrary prescri23tions on the popular mind will be to wither up all interest in the religious tendencies of an observance sustained only by the enactments of heartless politicians. All that makes religion -fital and effective for its own holy objects, expires when the sword is drawn to enforce it. Liberty, humanity, religion, and our National Con- stitution, then, require that the laws enforcing the observance of the first day of the week should be repealed. As American Citizens, as independent Freemen, and as responsible Stewards of the glorious herit- age bequeathed to us by the Fathers 3f the Revolu- tion, we shall, with the aid of the Majesty of Heaven, maintain unimpaired the high privileges secured to us by the Charter of our Liberties, 10 A\ .\i-)':Ai, 1 (,^ r!!i: I'liir.xos of equal rights. We ask for no exclusive immunities. We dis claim all right of human government to exercise over, or fetter in the least, the religious rights of any being. Might is not right, neither does the ac- cident of being a majority give any, claim to tram- ple on the rights of the minority. It is a usurpa- tion of authority to oppress the minority, or set at naught their indefeasible rights. In civil affairs w^e respect the authorities that be, but in religious ser- vice, resent being forced to keep the command ments of men. We recognize the laws of the land in all secular matters, a.nd the laws of God, ana of God alone, in religious faith and practice. These are the inalienable rights of all the members of a Republic. These are rights reserved by the peo- ple to themselves, in the formation of our Govern- ment, which no power can legitimately wrest from us, and with the help of God none shall. No 12. MISUSE OF THE TERM "SABBATH It is quite common, in these days, to hear the term Sahhath used to designate the first day of the week or Sunday. But such a use of the term is not only unscriptural, but calculated to mislead the people. Throughout the Bible, there is but one sacred day of weekly occurrence called the Sab- bath, and that is the seventh or last day of the week. When, therefore, men talk about a Christ ian Sabbath and a Jetvish Sabbath — a Jlrst-day Sabbath, and a seventh-day Sabbath — that so they may slily fix the term Sabbath upon the first day, and then persuade people that all those texts ot Scripture which speak of the Sabbath day are meant of the first day, they pursue a course which is unauthorized, and deserve to be sharply rebuked There are circumstances, however, which many persons seem to regard as justifying the common practice of calling the first day by the name Sab- bath. Let us examine some of them. 1. It is said that the term Sabbath signifies rest; therefore the first day, being commonly observed as a day of rest, may properly be called the Sab- bath. In reply to this, it may be said, that when, by custom and common consent, any term is used to express a particular place or thing, it then be- comes a proper name for that thing, and signifies only that thing to which it is applied. For instance^ SS MISUSE OP THE TERM SABBATH. a tabernacle means a place of worship. Yet, in New York, where this name is used to express a particular and well-known place of worship, it would be absurd and false to say you were at the Tabernacle, and mean the Ciiurch of the Messiah. So with the term Sabbath ; although the word strictly means rest, yet after the Scriptures through- out the Old and New Testaments have used this term to express a particular rest, which occurred on the seventh day, it would be foolish and deceptive to speak of the Sabbath and mean the first day of the week. It may be farther said, that if this argu- ment be good for calling the first day the Sabbath, and if the fact of its being a re^^-day makes it the Sabbath, then may the Mohammedans properly call the sixth day the Sabbath, and the fact that they rest upon that day makes it the Sabbath. Yes, and those Mexican Indians, whom Cortes found keeping the fourth day, may properly call that day the Sabbath, and directly it is made such. Even those people in Guinea, whom Purchase describes as having a re^^day, but which, says he, " they ob- serve not upon our Sunday, nor upon the Jews' Sabbath day, but hold it upon Tuesday, the second working day of the week," may properly call that day the Sabbath, and straightway it becomes such. Are the observers of the first day ready to rest upon such ground for calling that day the Sabbath, or to continue to call it Sabbath when there is no bel- ter ground 1 We hope not. And we feel bound, as those who respect the Bible, and dare not charge the Author of that Book with folly in calling the sev- enth day only the Sabbath, to protest against such abuse of the language of Scripture. 2. The second reason frequently urged, is, that he first day come ft in the room of the seventh day, MISUSE OF THE TERM SABBATH. 3 and nicay tlierefore properly be called the Sabbath. Aside from the fact that the Scriptures say not a word about a substitution of the one day for the other, it may be said in reply, that if the argument be good, then the Lord's Supper may be called the Passover, and King Solomon may be called King David. 3. A third reason alledged for calling the first day the Sabbath, is, because it has long been the practice of Christians to call it so. In answering this assertion, it may be worth while to inquire what has been the practice of Christians in this matter. Few will deny, that wherever, in the New Testament, the word Sabbath refers to a weekly religious day, it is the seventh day. When the j^r*^ day of the week is spoken of, it is under its appro« priate title. For nearly the whole of the first cen- tury, then, we have the testimony of Scripture that the name Sahhath belonged exclusively to the sev- enth day. During the succeeding four hundred years, there were large numbers, both in the East- ern church, about Constantinople, and in the West- ern church, about Rome, who kept the Sabbath. And when ecclesiastical councils, in the fourth and fifth centu^ues, began to enact laws against them, they condemned Sabbath-keeping altogether. From this it is apparent, that the idea of calling the first day the Sabbath had not then entered their minds. What day was meant when the term Sab- bath was used for five hundred years later still, the learned Dr. Peter Heylyn has told us in the follow- ing words : — " Wherever, for a thousand years and upwards, we meet with Sahbatum, in any writer, of what name soever, it must be understood of no day but Saturday.^* Indeed, if we search all the books which have been written on this and kindred sub- 4 MISUSE OF THE TERM SABBATH. jects up to the time of the Reformation, we shall not find that the first day was to any considerable extent regarded as the Sabbath or called by that name. Dr. Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dub- lin, in a late work on the subject of the Sabbath, says, "in fact, the notion against which I am con- tending, [viz. that the fourth commandment binds Christians to hallow the first day of the week, and that it may properly be called the Sabbath,] seems, as far as I can recollect, to have originated with the Puritans, not much more than 200 years ago, and to have been for a considerable time confined to them, though it was subsequently adopted by some members of our church." So far is it from being true, then, that the first day has been universally called the Sabbath among Christians, that even now, by the best authorities upon such subjects, it is not called Sabbath at all. The Records of England up to the present time invariably call the seventh day the Sabbath. In the Journals of the House of Lords, whatever is en- tered as having been done on the seventh day, or Saturday, is under the date. Die Sahhati, upon the Sabbath day. The same is true of the House of Commons. The Rules and Records of the King's Bench, and the Latin Records in tl|e Court of Ex- chequer and in Chancery, do likewise call the sev- enth day the Sabbath. These things may be known by any who will take the trouble to examine ; and they show how groundless and erroneous is the supposition to which we are replying. Indeed, in many languages the seventh day is called by a name which indicates its sabbatic character. In Low Dutch it is called rust-dagh, the day of rest. In English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, it has its right name, ihe Sabbath, the day of rest. MISUSE OF THE TERM SABBATH. O Now let us look at some of the consequences of calling the first day by the name of the Sabbath. It has given occasion for Papists to charge Pro- testants with neglecting the Scriptures to follow their traditions. The Papists claim, that the change of the Sabbath is the work of their own church, and that the Scriptures nowhere warrant the keep- ing of the first day, much less the calling it by the name of the Sabbath. Who will deny this latter position ? Again, it has led some earnest and pious men to charge the teachers of religion with " be- fooling and misleading the people." Proof of this may be found to any extent in books writted on the subject in the seventeenth century. The charge is there distinctly and frequently made, of designedly using deceptive arguments. We will not undertake to say, that those who are accustomed to speak in a manner so likely to deceive, design to do that. But we will say, that such would be the natural effect of their language. It would leave upon the minds of many an impres- sion, that they were not only bound to pay peculiar respect to the first day of the week, but that the fourth commandment required of them such respect. For a religious teacher knowingly to make this im- pression, is to be guilty of directly fostering error. Nay, more ; if he should call the first day the Sabbath, and refer to the fourth commandment as inculcating the duty of observing that day; oi should, without direct reference to that law, ex- press himself in such a way as to leave his hearers to suppose that it required the observance of the first day, he would be wanting in faithfulness to the truth, and exposed to the denunciation of those who add to or take from it. No doubt many will think, that at a time when the prevailing tendency is to disregard all sacred 6 MISUSE OP THE TERM SABBATH. seasons, it were better not to say these things, but to leave men under an impression that the law of God requires the observance of the first day of the week, and sanctions calling that day the Sabbath. But this prevailing disregard of the day of rest, is an important reason for urging an examination of the foundation upon which the Sabbath rests. Common prudence, to say nothing of Christian sin- cerity, would require us, in such circumstances, to place the duty upon its true ground. If it will not stand there, it will stand nowhere. It is a danger- ous experiment to encourage or connive at miscon- ceptions in a point like this. And even if we felt assured that it would be right, we are fully con- vinced that it would be inexpedient. It is exceed- ingly dangerous to acknowledge an unsound prin- ciple, although it may promise to conduct us to de- sirable results, or, at the worst, to produce no bad effects. It ought to be remembered, that it was in apparently trivial and harmless points, that those false principles were allowed, which have infused their poison into the Romish and other apostate churches — a poison which, commencing with the extremities, has worked its way rapidly towards the vitals, and diffused its effects through the whole system. It is not, then, a matter of small moment. The most important and disastrous consequences may result from baptizing a day of human inven- tion with a name which the Scriptures apply ex- clusively to one appointed of God. [No. 13.] THE BIBLE SABBATH, By WILLIAM M. FAHNESTOCK, M.D, "WE OUGHT TO OBEY GOD KATHER THAN MEN.'" NEW-YORK : PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY, No. 9 Spruce-Street. THE BIBLE SABBATH. Most professors of religion, who found their faith on the Word of G-od, attach much importance to a weekly day of sacred rest, however much they may differ in regard to the day to be sanctified as the Sabbath, or the manner in which its sacred hours are to be im- proved. It is not the design of the writer of this small tract, to enter upon the discussion of the multi- farious points of disputation, which have been raised by most writers, in treating this question, but simply to exhibit the scriptural account of the day to be hon- ored unto the Lord, with some cursory remarks on the prominent topics of the controversy, which can be, and which ought to be, determined by direct re- ference *' to the law and the testimony.'' Without, therefore, any pretensions to an extended confutation of men's hypotheses and men's subterfuges on this subject, he desires merely to present a concise epit- ome of what saith the Scriptures in reference to the day which legitimately challenges our profound ven- eration and implicit obedience ; and will restrict his comments ; on the bearings of the sacred text, to as few words as is practicable in a matter of such grave importance ; that, in embracing and defending so sa- cred an institution, and in responding to the scriptural interrogation, " Who hath required this at your hand 1 " the reader may, confidently and without fear of contradiction, answer, " The Lord thy God — the 4 THE BIBLE SABBATH. Almighty Jehovah ! " and lay his finger on the clear, unequivocal, ungarbled, " Thus saith the Lord,^' for his practice. The Scriptures tell us, that God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made ; and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Gen. 2 : 2,3. This is the first notice of the Sabbath in the Bible ; and it is the first religious institution es- tablished by the Almighty for the benefit of all after generations. The rest of the testimonies of the Lord to the sacredness of his holy day, are like unto it, wherever they occur in the Inspired Volume. During the sojourn of the children of Israel in the wilderness, the Lord, to supply their necessities, sent manna daily, save on the seventh day ; thus recog- nizing strictly his holy Sabbath, by affording them a double 2'>ortion on the sixth day, and requiring them to secure it at that time for the seventh day. " And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eat- ing ; an omer for every man according to the number of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in your teats. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some lesp. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gather- ed httle had no lack ; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said. Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank ; and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eat- ing ; when the sun w^axed hot it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the- rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them. This is that which the Lord hath said. To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe ; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not THE BIBLE SABBATH. 5 Stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day ; for to-day is the Sabbath unto the Lord ; to- day ye shall not find it in tho field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the scvcHtk day, wliich is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to j)ass, that there went out some people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my connnaiuhnents and my laws ? See, for the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread o^ two days; abide ye every man in his place on \he seventh day^ Exod. 16 : 15 — 30. This was before the giving of the law, and is irre- fragible evidence of respect unto the vSabbath before the law was 'promvl gated. Wlien the Decalogue, written on stone by the finger of God, was committed to the Israelites, the obligation to honor the Sabbath — the seventh day — was emphatically renewed, and most explicitly defined and enjoined. " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates ; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hal- 'Owed it." Exod. 20: 8— 11. The same is reiterated by the same virriter in an- other place. " Six days shall work be done ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation ; ye shall do no work therein; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." Lev. 23: 3. " The reader will observe, that this commandment does not ordain a new and peculiar institution, but re- minds the Israelites of one which had been establish- ed long prior to their existence as a nation, to be had in remembrance and to be rigidly observed. " Remem- 6 THE BIBLE SABBATH* ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy." The readei will also observe, that it does not simply appoint a Sabbath, or a seventh part of time to be consecrated as holy time, but that the precise time, the particu- lar day, is specifically certified by Jehovah him- self — that it is the day, and not the institution, which the Lord blessed and hallowed ; that it was not the sabbatic law, but the day of rest, which was enjoined. The law was predicated on the sanctified day, not the day accommodated to the institution; and that there might be no mistake on the subject, the law de- fines the day as it found it, and assigns clearly and most unequivocally the reason for its observance. It aims simply at hallowing the day, the precise, par- ticular day ; which is still more emphatically express- ed in the original, nncn Qi"', "the day of the rest^* because in it, the day, God rested from all his work, and subsequently enjoined like rest, on the same day, and for the same purpose, upon all his people. This Bible truth ought to be sufficient to overset all the sophistry of equivocators, in their attempts to blind the inquirer, by astutely insinuating the idea, that the sabbatic law only demands the consecration of a sev- enth 2>ortion of time, which position, they, in turn, as stoutly repudiate, when any one sees proper to choose any other seventh part of time than the day which they propound for them. To proceed; Nehemiah says : — " In those days saw I in .ludah some treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves and lading asses ; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into .Jerusalem on the Sabbath day ; and I testi- fied against them on the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the no- bles of .ludah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath day ? Did not your fathers THE IHBI.E SABllATH. 7 thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by prolan- iug the Sabbath. And it came to jjhss, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark betbre tiie Sabbath, 1 com- manded that the gates should be shut, and charged that tiiey slioidd not he opened till alter the Sabbath ; and some ot my servants set I ut the gat's, that there should no burden be brouglit in on the Sabbatli day. . So the mercliants and sellers of all kinds of ware lodged without Jerusalem -rebuking Law of God, is the only means you think of in such a case. Nothing else suits your purpose, be your theory what it may. But hear their reply. " Is the law of the commandment upon us to-day ? That it was YESTERDAY, we allow ; for it says, * the seventh day^ That the law of the commandment lies against us every day, you will not pretend ; but only one day m seven. If that one day was yesterday, you are yourselves as guilty as we ; and we, therefore, feel comparatively comfortable. To be sure, some sense of the necessity of keeping the Sabbath holy, does at times rest ujDon our minds ; and our consciences, for the moment, reproach us ; but when we see you, and all the Christian world, living in the neglect of it, we feel quite easy again, and think our sin to be but a light one." Such may not be their precise language, ADDRESSED TO THE JJAPTISTS. 33 but it is llie exact expression of tlioir hearts' feelings. Thus even the Law fails in your liands, because you attempt to make it speak what it will not speak. [f you ask us, " Do you meet with success in at- tempting to reach the consciences of guilty, unbeliev- ing men ?" we reply, that we have no ditHcu^y, ex- cept so fir as you, and the whole body of observers of the first day, stand in the way. We bring them to admit, openly and honestly, the claims of God's law, and a sense of guilt momentarily rests upon them. But immediately they turn to contemplate your prac- tice, and their hearts become hardened. We do, therefore, affectionately, but earnestly, invite you to consider, how tremendous is your influente toward perpetuating Sabbath profanation in the l;nid. Your numbers, your learning, your talents, your wealth, your general respectability, all combine to operate with overwhelming effect in this matter. Our observations, if correct, go to show what a source of danger the Sunday heresy is to the Moral Law. The Sabbath is a most important precept of this law ; " the golden clasp '^ as an old writer quaintly observes, " which joins the two tables together ; the sinew in the body of laws, which were written with God's own finger ; the intermediate precept, which participates of the sanctity of both tables, and the due observance of which is the fulfilling of the whole law." This important precept is either set aside en- tirely, or its edge and keenness so muffled by a transfer to another day, that the united efforts of the church can do little or nothing toward impressing it on the conscience. Here, then, is a relaxation of the standard of morality ; and while the standard is re- laxed with regard to this one precept, in vain do we look for the Law, as a whole, to appear glorious in the eyes of men. 34 APPEAL FOR THE SABBATH: This remark will be strengthened, if we consider to what inconsistencies the advocates of Sunday are driven. Some, in their zeal to defend it, even go so far as to deny the Moral Law to be a rule of conduct to Christians. Others, though they admit the Law to be a rule of conduct, cannot relieve themselves of at least seemivg to undervalue it. When the Sabbath discussion is out of sight, they speak out clearly, and without equivocation, giving the fullest proof that they regard the Law as the unchangeable standard of obe- dience. But at other times they reason from the New Dispensation in a manner so vague and indefi- nite, that one is puzzled to tell whether they regard the Gospel as enforcing strict obedience to the Law or not. Now he that is established in the clear truth, is hampered with no such difficulties. There is, with him, not only the naked and abstract admission, that the Moral Law is unchangeably binding, but there appears such a beautiful and perfect conformity be- tween this admission and the principles he inculcates, that the most common minds are struck with it, and every doubt is scattered. While you are fettered by such difficulties, is there no danger that the Law will lose its sacredness in the eyes of the people 1 Surely there is. There is dan- ger, also, that your system of theology will be cor- rupted in other particulars. Error goes not alone. Could an opinion exist in the mind, circumscribed and isolated, without affecting any of our other prin- ciples, it would be comparatively harmless. But it is not more a truth, that a man who utters one false- hood is obliged to tell twenty more to hide it, than that he who supports one error is obliged to forge numberless others to give consistency to his creed. It is also a truth, which reflection and daily observation will confirm, that nearly if not quite all the heresies ADDRESSED TO THE BAPTISTS. 35 which ever infested the church of God, are traceable to some loose notions concerning the Moral Law. Nothing, therefore, can be more necessary, than that our creed give the greatest possible prominence to the Law as a standard of holiness ; and that our customs be in perfect conformity with our creed. Brethren, can we hope that the subject on which we have addressed you will receive your prayerful attention 1 Almost your entire denomination has slum- bered over it ; but may we not hope, that you will now awake? May we not hope, that it will be dis- cussed in your private circles, and in your public as- semblies ; in your Bible classes, and in your Sunday schools ; that it will be studied by your ministers, and by the people in general ; and that every one will, in the deep desire of his soul, pray, " Lord., open thou mine eyes, that I may discern wondrous things out of thy Law." But if, on the other hand, we see a disposition to pass it by with cold neglect — an unwillingness to look the question in the face — an attempt, on the part of your teachers and leaders, to hush it up as a matter of no importance — a studied effort to lead the people away fi'om it, when they are disposed to examine — or teach- ing them that it is the spirit, rather than the letter of the law that God requires — we shall be constrained to apply the language of Him who spake as never man spake — " Every one that doeth evil hateth the LIGHT, neither COMETH TO THE LIGHT, LEST HIS deeds should be reproved." John 3 : 20. TfiR ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR-. OR, Some brief Grounds serving to prove that the Ten Commandments are yet in full force, and shall so remain till Heaven and Earth pass away : ALSO, The Seventh Day Sabbath, proved from the beginning, from the Law, from the Prophets, from Christ, and his Apostles, to be a duty yet incumbent upon Saints and Sinners. By a Lover of Peace with Truth, Edward Stennet. They that forsake the Law praise the wicked, but such as keep the Law contend with them. Prov. 28 : 4. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, Fear God and keep hi5 commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecc. 12 : 13. The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath ; therefore the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Mark 2 : 27, 28. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy command ments. Ps. 119 : 6. London, Printed in the Year 1658. NEW-YORK: REPUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY. PREFACE BY THE TRACT SOCIETY. The friends of the Sabbath will doubtless receive this little volume as a valuable relic of the past — as a word from one of the tried and faithful friends of the truth, one who not only loved the day of God's weekly rest, but greatly delight- ed in the promise of a future and glorious sabbatism with the people ot God. Edward Stennet, the author, was the first of the series of Sabbatarian ministers of that name, who for four generations continued to be among the furemost of the Dissenters in England, and whose praise is still in all the churches. He was an able and devoted minisiter, but dissent- ing from the Established Church, he was deprived of the means of support; and, his family being large, he applied himself to the study of medicine, by the practice of which he was enal)led to give his sons a liberal education. He suf- fered much of the persecution which the Dissenters were ex- posed to at that time, and more especially for his faithful ad- herence to the cause of the Sabbath. For this truth, he ex- perienced tribulation, not only from those in power, by whom he was a long time kept in prison, but also much distress from unfriendly dissenting brethren, who strove to destroy his in- fluence, and ruin his cause. He wrote several treatises upon the subject of the Sabbath besides this, but they are very rare, and perhaps cannot all be found in a perfect state of preserv- ation. It would be well, no doubt, to revive all of them, and, if prai ticable, republish them in the same form as this, that they miirht be bound together, and placed, as they deserve to be, in every Sabbath-keeper's library. They all breathe the genuine spirit of Christianity, and in their day were greatly conducive to the prosperity of the Sabbath-keeping chuz-chei Nkw-York, July, 1848 THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR BOWB BBIKF GROUNDS, SEEVING TO PHOVE THAT THE TEN COMMANDMBITra ABE YET IN FULL FOHCE, AND SHALL SO REMAIN TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY. 1. The matter of the ten commandments was writ- ten in the heart of Adam before his fall, as doth appear in Gen. 1 ; 27, God created man in his own image^ in the image of God created he him ; also in Eccl. 7 . 29, God hath made man upright, hut they have sought out many inventions. And the Apostle plainly asserts, that the gentiles, which had not the law, (in the letter of it>) did by nature the things contained in the law, which showeth the work of the law written in their hearts. Rom. 2 : 14, 15. Now if the gentiles had the word of the law written in their hearts in their sinful state, doubtless they had it in more perfection in their state of innocence, as considered in Adam; for the letter of the law was added because of trans- gression. Gal. 2 : 19. Now if there was transgres- sion before the letter of the law was added, that implies that there was a law before then ; in that the letter of the law is said to be added, it implies that the matter of it was in being before, but much worn by sin ; and that is one reason why the Lord was pleased to add the letter. Let it be considered, how it can stand with Scrip- cure or right reason, that Jesus Christ should abro- gate this law. Did Christ blot out this law from the hearts of all men by his death % Then all men have not the law of nature to guide them ; for we cannot be so gi'oss as to imagine that the law is put into their hearts upon a new account, for that were to brinff all men under the new covenant. 8 THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR. 2. God spake all these commandments unto the people, and they heard his voice, (Deut. 5 : 22 — 24,) with great majesty and glory, and he added no more ; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and delivered them unto Moses — all of which holds forth their perpetuity ; they are spoken by God, they are written by him in tables of stone ; so was never any ceremony. Job desired that his words might be graven with a pen of iron and lead in a rock of stone forever. Job 19 : 24. 3. Afterward the first tables were broken, which I suppose did signify the Israelites' breaking of the first covenant; for Moses broke them on account of their having made a golden calf, and so had broken the covenant. Whereupon Moses was then com- manded to hew two tables like the first, and God wrote the same words again upon them, (Deut. 10 : 1 — 4,) and they only of all the laws were put into the ark, and when the ark is set in its proper place between the cherubim there is nothing hi it but the two tables. 1 Kings 8 : 9. Now the ark was a type of Christ, and the putting of the law into it did signify the putting of it into the heart of Christ, (Psalm 40 : 6 — 8, TAy law is in my heart,) and from thence they are transcribed into the hearts of the seed of Christ. See Jer. 31 : 33, where God promises to put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. Now what law is this that must be put into the heart, when the law of sacrifice is abolished 1 Compare Heb. 10 : 6 — 9, with the fore-mentioned Psalm. That this is the law that is here spoken of is manifest if we consider how proper and suitable it is for the heart of a believer. Paul calls it the law of his mind in Rom. 7 : 23, and in verse 22 he professeth he delights in the law of God after the inward man; and God saith he will put the law in his heart and write it THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR. 9 there ; ()()tli wliicli phrases hold it forth to be the same law that was wiitten by God and put into the ark. IMan's heart is the tables, and God himself is the writer; the matter written is the law. Hear what Wisdom saith to this : My son, keep my words^ and lay up my commandments within thee ; keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye ; hind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thy heart. Prov. 7 : 1 — 3. Now what laws are these but the table laws ? And Wisdom's son is to have them written upon the fleshy tables of his heart. 4. When God promiseth to exalt his first-bom higher than the kings of the earth, and that his cov- enant should stand fast with him, and that his seed should endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven, (Psalms 89 : 28, 29,) yet he saith. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judg- ments ; if they hreak my statutets, and keep not my commandments ; then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Neverthe- less, my loving kindness will I not utterly take away^ nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. Verses 30 — 32. Mark it, this covenant was with Chiist, (though with David in the type,) in behalf of all the seed ; and the chastisements must be the portion of the seed if they break the law of God, though his covenant stand fast. Now as this covenant reaches all the -seed, so doth the law and the punishments for the breach of it ; and if so, then what law is it that reaches all the seed, if not -the law of the ten com- mandments, with those laws which are comprehended in them. 5. These commandments are eminently distin- guished and marked out from all the ceremonial laws, both to show their etainency and perpetuity ; they are said to be the work of God, in Exod. 32 : 10 THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR. 16 ; and the Psalmist saith, The works of Ms handa are verity and judgment. And these works are called, all Ms commandments, in Psalm 111 : 7, and they are ten. Deut. 4 : 13. And therefore I con- ceive Wisdom's son is to bind them upon his fingers, to show the number of them, there being for each finger one, and that both hands might be active in them. And Zacharias and Elisabeth were said to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. Luke 1 : 6. They are distinguished from the ceremonial ordinances, and called all the com- mandments, to set forth their number, as before said, and their eminencey ; and therefore they are so fre- quently called in the Scripture, the commandments of God, distinct from the other laws, which were shadowy in the time of the law of shadows, (as these places of Scripture, besides many others, do show, viz., Deut. 5 . 31,6: 11,7: 11,8: 11,11: 1, 30 : 16, 1 Kings 2 : 3, 8 : 58, 2 Chron. 19 : 10, Neh. 1 : 7, and 10 : 29, &c.,) and distinct from the testi- mony of Jesus in clear gospel times. In Rev. 12 : 17, note that the dragon's war is with the rem- nant of the woman's seed which kept the com- mandments of God and the testimony of Jesus, And again, here are they that keep the command- ments of God and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14: 12. And when the man would know what he should do to be saved, Christ told him that he knew the com- mandments. A cloud of witnesses would come in, if need were, for the confirmation of them. But farther observe what the Scripture saith to their du- ration. The Paslmist saith. All his commandments are sure, they stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Psalm 111 : 7, 8. Note it; all his cammandments, which are the works of his hands, as afgresaid, stEind fast for ever and ever ; that is, not only in the time of the minis- THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR. 11 tration of the letter, which was in a sense for ever, but for ever and ever, that is, under both ministra- tions, that of the letter and that of the spirit, in Old Testament times and in the New. Search and see if you can find any word that doth speak of any thing that is said to abide or stand fast for ever and ever, which comes short of the time aforesaid. And when God hides his face from the house of Jacob, then is the time that the testimony is bound up and the law is sealed among the disciples, (Isa. 8: 16, 17,) clearly relating to the time that the Jews re- jected the gospel, and the disciples are commanded to make use of the law as well as the testimony to try the doctrines of others by. Isa. 8 : 20. Ah which shows the perpetuity of this law of God, which will farther appear if we consider Deut. 7 : 9. Our Lord saith in Matt. 5 : 17, 18, Think not that 1 am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I came not to destroy, hut to fulfill. But the question will be, what law this is % To me it appears to be the law of the ten commandments ; for these reasons : 1st. Because this comes in as the motive to pro- voke his disciples to let their light shine in the world, that men might see their good works and glorify their Father which is in heaven. Matt 5 : 16. Therefore it must be such a law as the doing of it holds forth good works to public view. 2d. It is such a law as Christ professes he came not to destroy ; but the ceremonial law he destroyed in this very sense, so that none are to be in the prac- tice of it ; he blotted out the hand-writing of or- dinances that was against us, and contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. 3d. Destroying of the law is here put in direct opposition to fulfilling of it; to destroy is to take out of the way or to blot out as before ; but to ful- fill the law is to do that which is contained in the ,12 THE ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR. law; therefore saith Christ to John, when he went to be baptized, It becometh us to fulfill all righteous' ness, (that is, to perform it.) Matt. 3:15. And the Apostle saith, that love is the fulfilling of the law. What law i Why this, Thoushaltnot commit adultery ^ Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, &lc. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor ; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. 13 : S — 10. So that, to fulfill the law of the ten commandments, is not to blot them out or make them void ; that were to de- stroy them, which Christ came not to do, but, on the contrary, to do the things contained in them, which he did exactly in his life, and so was offered up a Lamb without spot. 4th. This is such a law as must stand in force, every jot and tittle of it, till heaven and earth pass away. Matt. 5 : 19. But heaven and earth are not yet passed away ; therefore this law stands firm. But because it is said in the text, Till all be fulfilled, hence some affirm that all was fulfilled at the death of Christ, and this fulfilling of it holds forth the ab- rogating of it. But did heaven and earth pass away then % or did Christ, by his taking upon him all that guilt which was due to us, and by his perfect fulfill- ing of it in his walk, take us from our obedience] God forbid. Because Christ fulfilled the righteous- ness of the law, must we not fulfill it ] The Apostle saith that for this end Christ died. For what the law could not do, in that it was loeak through thefiesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned, sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfill ed in us, who walk not after the -flesh but after the sjnrit. Rom. 8 : 3, 4. But what is the fulfillintr uf the ri<):hteousness of the law, but to do the rio^hteous thinQ;-s contained in the law I And in this sense evei-y true believer doth fulfill the law, though his completeness be in Christ j for love is the fulfilling ot TllK ROYAL LAW CONTENDED FOR. 13 ihe law, (Rom. 13: 10,) so that the commanding power of the law is such a just measure, that e^ery one that loves acts his part towards the fulfilling of it. 5th, It farther appears to be the ten command- ments, by the use Christ makes of what he had be- fore asserted : Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments , and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 5; 19. That is, forasmuch as that law must stand till heaven and earth pass away, and I came not to destroy it, therefore beware of breaking it, for who- soever you are that break any part of it, and shaU teach men so, you shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. To prevent farther mistake, he repeateth the law in many particulars, and gives the sense, showing how far their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees. By all of which it plainly appears, that this law, which Christ came not to destroy, is the law of the ten commandments, or the laws that were c.\V !S lilK SAltHATH. 43 Ohj. How is it that the Apostle saith, in Rom. 14 : 5, 6, that one man csfcemeth one day above an- other, another esteemeth every day alike, and yet he does not reprove either of them 1 Ans. I make no doubt V)ut if the controversy here alluded to had been about the Sabbath, whethei it were to be observed or not, it would have been plainly expressed, and not passed over so slightly But the Apostle is speaking of indifferent things^ which men were not to be judged for their doing or not doing, and not of commandments. Because it is said that some esteem every day alike, there- fore some conclude that this takes away the Sab- bath day ; but we must compare Scripture with Scripture, adopt such a sense as may bring them into harmony, and sometimes explain general terms by restrictive Scriptures. For instance, Christ says to his disciples. Go 2^rc(ich the gospel to every creature; we must understand it to mean to every creature that is in a condition to hear the gos- pel. The Apostle saith, that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused. But some are poison, and are to be refused. So is every day alike, that is, every working day, which God hath made alike ; but the seventh day he hath sanctified and made a Sabbath of rest, and so not like the others. This interpretation is according to that Scripture in Exod. 16 : 4, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day ; and in verse 12, They gathered every morning every man according to his eating, yet on the Sabbath day there was none to gather. And in our common speech it is so ; we call the six days every day. Men say, we work every day, or we travel so far every day, when they mean only the six days that they count working 44 THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH, (lays. So the Apostle, speaking to them that kept the Sabbath, speaks in the same language, and we iiave no ground to think otherwise ; for there is no Scripture that we find before this that hath any seeming dislike against the observation of the Sab- bath, but the contrary. Ohj. Ye observe days, and years, and times, and months; I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Gal. 4 : 10, 11. Ans. This cannot be understood that the Apostle here strikes at t^ie mere observation of days, a thing of such dangerous consequence, for he would not have them judged that observed one day above another. In Rom. 14: 5, 6, and in this place, he himself judges these as persons that had so far de- generated, that he was afraid he had bestowed upon them labor in vain ; but it is manifest that these Galatians were gone back to circumcision, and so were debtors to the whole law, seeking justification thereby. Gal. 5 : 2 — 4. So they observed days and years, according to the law that was a shadow of good things to come, solemnizing the days, and months, and years, wdth those things that were ap- pointed for them, as burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, the waving of the sheaf, the Passover, and Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the like, as may be seen at large in Lev. 23: 8 — 11; for they could not be said to observe times, and months and years, ac- cordino: to the law, except they did such service. And this gave the Apostle just ground to fear that he had bestowed on them labor in vain. But to im- agine that to observe the Sabbath according to the commandment, or to observe a day voluntarily to the Lord, is so dangerous, is contrary both to Scrip- ture and reason. THE si:vi:ntii day is the sabbath. 45 Ohj. We who believe are entered into rest, of which the Sabbath was but a type, as appeals by the words of the Apostle in Heb. 4 : 3. Arts. If eternal rest by faith be the antitype of the Sabbath, the Sabbath ceased to be in force to every man so soon as he believed ; which is ridic- ulous to think, and contrary to the current of Scrip- ture. But the Apostle saith, We who believe do enter into rest ; for he that is entered into his rest is ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the example of unbelief Heb. 4 : 10, 11. Mind this chapter well, and I am persuaded you will see that the drift of the Apostle, in mentioning the seventh day here, is but to amplify and set forth that perfect rest which they that believe do and shall enjoy, of which the land of Canaan was but a type; and to show that God's rest was before the land of Canaan, and that there yet remains a rest to the people of God. As God did rest the seventh day from all his works, so they that enter into rest do cease from their own works, as God did from his. And this is not as soon as men believe, for the Apostle provokes himself and others which were believers to labor to enter into it. And therefore, if you will have the Sabbath a type from this Scrip- ture, though it is nowhere so called, it must be a type of eternal rest, which saints do enter into when they cease from their own works, as God did from his. And that will not be till they lay down this tabernicle, which will not affect the thing asserted. And indeed I cannot deny but the Sabbath is an earnest of that rest, and saints that are spiritual in the observation of it find it so, and of great use to put them in mind of that glorious rest, as the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper put us in mind of the 46 THE SKVENTII DAY IS THE SABBATH. Bufferings of Christ ; so this being a day of rest and delight, being striped of all worldly incumbrances^ and devoted to the Lord, to pray unto him, and to praise his holy name, to meditate upon heaven and heavenly glory. Ohj. But many say, If the Sabbath be in force, then the penalty must needs be so, and then those that do not keep it must be stoned ; therefore this opinion is dangerous, and will lead saints to destroy one another. . Arts. This is a very showy objection, but indeed it is a very weak one. I do not find that any more than one was stoned, and it was for presumptuous breaking of the Sabbath. But suppose that penalty be in force ; every saint is not a magistrate to put it in execution. If a saint should kill a man, saints as they are saints are not to execute him ; all that they can do is to endeavor his repentance, but it be- longs to the true magistrate to inflict the punish- ment. The penal laws of God take hold of pre- sumptuous sinners, not for sins of ignorance, and therefore it is not to be thought that any punish- ment will be inflicted upon any for a breach of the Sabbath till it be universally acknowledged. So then, if God hath annexed the penalty of death to the breaking of it, doubtless it will be just. But we find in Nehemiah's time, that although they had made a market-day of the Sabbath, treading of wine-presses, lading of asses, and selling of all manner of provisions upon it, yet he doth but con- tend with them. He contends with the Jews of Je- rusalem, the nobles of Judah, and the men of Tyre,, but inflicts no punishment on either. Neh. 13 : 15 — 17, 21. But what a strange thing is this, that men should count it a dangerous opinion, to hold that the Sabbath is in force, because of the penalty ! Sup- THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. 4? pose it be so ; the same may be said of the rest of the commandments. For instance, the first com- mandment is, Thou shall have no other gods before me ; he that worshiped a strange god was to be put to death. Now, shall w^e not own this command- ment, because the breakers of it were so punished ? Again, He that sheddeth mail's blood, by man shall his blood bejhcd. Now, is there any danger in the owning of this commandment. Thou shult do no murder, because the punishment is in force '? Again, the fifth commandment is. Honor thy father and thy mother, but he that cursed father or mother was to be put to death. Now, shall we not honor father and mother, and so shall we break this commandment, because this punishment belongs to the breakers of it ? So this objection is of no weight or use at all, except it be as a bear-skin put upon the truth to frighten children away, lest they should look into it. Obj. But we do not find any of the apostles urge this commandment in any of their epistles, namely, that the Sabbath day should be observed. Ans. Neither do we find the apostles urging the first, second, or third commandment in particular, as laid down in the table, but they are frequently urged in the general, as in Rom. 7 : 12, 13 : S — 10, and generals comprehend particulars. James saith, Wliosoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, is guilty of all ; and he proves it thus, Because he that said. Do not commit adultery, said also. Do not hill ; now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou hill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. The same argument may be drawn from the thing in hand. He that saith. Do not commit adultery, saith also. Keep the Sabbath; now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou break the Sabbath, thou art become a tran^p-ressor of the law. James 2 : 10, 11. 48 THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. And Paul salth, Circumcision is nothing, and uncir* cumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the command- ments of God. 1 Cor. 7 : 19. John saith, in his first epistle, chapter 5 : 2, 3, By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments ; for this is the love of God, that we keep his com7nandments, and his command- ments are not grievous. And if the apostles had not spoken a word to this commandment, in general or in particular, it is no ground for us to lay it by, ex- cept the observation of it w^ere forbidden, because it is so plainly commanded by God, explained by Christ, observed by his disciples, both before and after his death, as was said before, and will farther appear by and by. Ohj. But we do not find that any of the churches kept the Sabbath. Ans. Thatisnoproofthattheydid notkeepit. But it is clear that the church of Jerusalem kept it, though it is not plainly expressed, for they were so zealous for the very customs, that Paul is counseled to puri- fy himself, lest they should be offended at him. Acts 21 : 21, 24. Now, if they were for the observ- ation of those things that were but shadows, there is no doubt but they were very strict for the observ- ation of the Sabbath. And there was such oifence taken against Paul for preaching against circumci- sion and the customs, that we need not question, if the Sabbath had been preac^ied against, but we should have heard a great noise of it in the Scriptures, and seen strong convincing reasons why it was abolished. And it is as clear that the apostles kept the Sabbath after the resurrection of Christ as before. Paul went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down, and after the reading of the law preached the and told, them of the ignorance of those that THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. 49 dwelt at Jerusalem of the voice of the prophets which were read every Sabbath day. And the Gen- tiles besought him that these words might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Acts 13 : 14, 15, 42, 44. So that it is clear, that the Sabbath was Paul's resting-day and preaching- day, both to the Jews and Gentiles, that being the day that the Gentiles used to hear; and though they had a desire to hear the same words again, yet it must be next Sabbath; and Paul fulfills their desire, and preaches to them the next Sabbath, and almost the whole city came to hear. Can we think, if there had been no Sabbath, that Paul would have counte- nanced them so in their ignorance ? Or, if the first day had been a day that was observed, would he not have told them so, that they might have heard the word before the next Sabbath. And when Paul came to Philippi, a Gentile city, mind what is said in Acts 16 : 12, 13, We ivere i?i that city abid- ing certain days, and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women that resorted thither. The seventh day hath its title still, as is said by the Spirit in Acts ; speaking of certain days, this is singled out and called the Sab- bath day, w^th an account how they spent it, and the blessing they received upon it ; they resorted to the place of prayer, and there they preached, and the Lord opened Lydia's heart to attend to the words of Paul. And in Actn 17 : 2, it is said, That Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. And when Paul came to Corinth, which was a Gen- tile city, and found Aquila, a Jew, and his wife Pris- cilla, and because they were of the same craft, he abode Avith them, and wrought, for by occupation 5 50 THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. they were tent-makers, lie reasoned in the synagogue every Sahhath day, and persuaded the Jews and Greeks. Acts 18 : 2 — 4. So that it is manifest, that the Greeks kept the Sabbath as well as the Jews^ and that though Paul wrought at his trade and made tents, yet he rested every Sabbath day ; and as we have an account how he spent his time, namely, in working at his trade, so we have an account how he spent his time on the Sabbath. Now, if it be such a strong argument for the observation of the first day, because Paul preached upon it once; what is this for the obsei'vation of the sev- enth day, that Paul did not only preach constantly upon it, but wherever the Spirit speaks of it he calls it the Sabbath day, without the least hint that he did so out of condescension to the weakness of others % And let it be shown by the Scriptures that the apostles did countenance and own any shadow that was done away, as they owned and countenanc- ed the keeping of the Sabbath, and Ave may follow the apostles as they followed the Lord in this mat- ter, though we have no express word that the churches kept it. And, indeed, I think I may say in this case, as the Apostle said in another, that it would have been superfluous for the apostles to have told any people in their time that such and such a church kept the Sabbath ; it being a truth not so much as questioned, that we hear of, but Jews and Gentiles both observed it. But now I cease an- swering objections, as I have spoken to those that are the most material of them that I have heard, and I shall proceed to another ground. 8. Consider the bondage and slavery that both man and beast would be in if this doctrine were received for truth. Would it not now, however have the tendency to bring the world more to athe THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. 51 ism ? Some men would not allow themselves nor their servants time to rest, or heai the word of God, if they were persuaded that thei'e was no Sabbath ; yea, and tlie g-rcater part of saints are left to the mercy of merciless men, most of them being child- ren, and wives, and servants ; and they cannot chal- lenge a day in seven, or a day in seventy, as their right to rest upon, and to worship the Lord in, from any commandment of God, if this doctrine be true, that the Sabbath is abolished. And were this but to bring a yoke of bondage upon us, that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, we should not so much as take notice at this time how it goes in probability, for the way of numbering is by sevens. 13ut some will say, It is good to observe one day in seven, though it be not a constant day. This will be confessed, for one to observe one day, and an- other to observe another day, while others are for a seventh day to be constantly observed. But why not the seventh day which God hath commanded, for the seventh day is the Sabbath ? It plainly ap- pears, that there is something of the table-law yet upon the table of the hearts of most men, though worn by much transgression ; for men generally plead to have one day in seven to rest in, and yet because of custom they contend against this holy, just law of God, that was made in mercy for man. I am persuaded in my very heart, and that not without good ground, that if the seventh day had been ob- served as the first day is, no man that owns the Scriptures would have questioned whether it ought to be observed or not, or at least no opposition would have been made against it ; and when all is said, custom and worldly interest are the two great things that stand in opposition to it. 9. And lastly, consider those great and precious promises made to them that keep the Sabbath ac- coiding to the inside and spirituality of it; not tha! 52 THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. we are so to spiritualize it as to make void the let- ter, but according to the letter, as Christ doth. For instance, he saith, Ye have heard that it hath been said of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery ; hut 1 say unto you, Whosoever looketh on awoman andlusteth after her, hath committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, if it be adultery to lust, doubtless it is to act, and this is forbidden in the commandment, for the commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery ; but Christ unfolds this commandment, and gives such a sense of it as the scribes and phari- sees understood not. Again, the sixth command- ment is. Thou shalt do no murder ; and John saith, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. John 3 : 15. Now, all murder was forbidden in the com- mandment, yet this was not understood to be mur- der; but John obeyed the spirituality of the com- mandment. And the same may be said of the fourth commandment, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy ; all servile work is forbidden in it, and that the pharisees understood ; but they did not under- stand that works of mercy, as curing the sick, and healing the diseased, might be done upon it. Neither did they understand that inward and spiritual rest that was held out in the commandment, as appears by the words of the Lord in Isa. 58 : 13, 14, If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. So that the saints are not only to cease from out- ward work in their callings, but also from works that are inward and spiritually wicked, that so the Sabbath may be a delight unto them, the holy of the Lord, honorable. And mark the promise that is to such Sabbath-keepers, in the fourteenth verse, Then shalt thou delight thyself i?i the Lord, and I THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. 53 will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earthy and, will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy fa- ther; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. First, they shall delight themselves in the Lord, and that will make the Sabbath a delight. Second, they shall ride upon the high places of the eauh •, the high places of the earth holding forth, as I conceive, the great opposition, whether of great and nighty men, or great walled cities, according to that in Deut. 1 : 28, which hath an allusion to Israel s subdu- ing the land of Canaan. Deut. 32 : 13. Thou shalt ride upon them, that is, subdue and conquer thera. Psalm 45: 4, QQ: 12. They shall tread upon their high places. Deut. 33 : 39. They shall he as ashes under the soles of their feet. Mai. 4 : 3. Now, when did the Lord's people do such work as this since this prophesy ? or, is it yet to be fulfilled ? Again, consider what the Lord saith in Isa. 56 : 6, 7, Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to he his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my cove- nant, even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer ; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall he accepted upon mine altar, for mine house shall he called an house of prayer to all people. By the sons of the stranger, 1 understand is here meant Gentiles, who were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and afar off, but are now made nigh by the blood of Christ, and so they join themselves to the Lord, and serve him, and love the name of the Lord ; these are such as keep the Sabbath, and take hold of God's covenant, and it is such a Sabbath as may be polluted, and therefore not Christ's, as some would have it. Now, the promises that are made to these strangers, do look at clear gospel times. They shall be brought into God's holy mountain. 54 THE SKVENTII DAY IS THE SABBATH. and there be made joyful, when it is so mountain- ous that it is the house of prayer for all people, or for all nations, as Christ saith in Matt. 11 : 17. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that taketh hold on it, that keejjcth the Sahhath from IwlliLting it, and kecj^eth his hand from doing any evil. Thtis saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sahhath, and choose the tlmigs that please me, and take hold on my covenant, even unto them will I give a name and a place hetter than of so7is and daughters ; I will give them aM everlasting name, that shall not he cut off. Isa. ^^ : 2, 4, 5. The eunuchs are such as care for the things that please the Lord, wlien the married careth for the things that please his wife. Cor. 7 : 32, 33. And when two parts shall be cut off and die, the eunuchs that keep the Sabbath shall have an everlasting name, which shall not be cut off. Now, let us not think it incredible that the Sab- bath should be yet in force, because it hath been so long laid aside ; it hath been so with other truths, and so with this, before now. It seemed to be so out of knowledge with Israel in the wilderness, that when the people had gathered twice as much manna on the sixth day, they did not understand the mean- ing of it ; but the nobles came and told Moses, and he told them what the Lord had said, that to-mor- row should be the rest of the holy Sabbath. And also, after their comino; out of Babylon, when they had built the house of God, and set it in order, plac- ing the priests and Levites, and had chosen faithful men to distribute the maintenance to their brethren. Nell. 13 : 10, 13. In a word, their reformation was much about the light of ours, and it is confessed by the enlightened that it was a type of this reforma- tion that the Lord hath begun amongst us in these isles, namely, in bringing his people out of Babylon, and building up of Zion ; and, indeed, as their sins and ours are alike in many things, so in this, namely TUB SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. 55 » in breaking the fourth commandment; for Nehe- miah saitb, in chap. 13: 15, that in those days he saw in Jiidah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and lading asses, and bringing in sheaves, as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of bur- dens, which they brought into Jerusalem upon the Sabbath day ; and he testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. Notwithstanding all the reformation, yet this was seen in Judah. They had laid by the observation of the Sabbath, and had made it a common working, market day, as may be seen at large in that chapter. It was not in vain, therefore, that the Lord said, Kemcmhcr thcSah- hath, he foreseeing how it would be slighted and forgotten, not only by those that were brought out of literal Babylon, but also by those that should be brought out of spiritual Babylon in the latter days ; and when the day of the Lord burns as an oven, it will be remembered to some purpose. Mai. 4 : 4. In the mean time, the Lord is stirring up some of his poor babes and sucklings. Such he is pleasjed usu- ally to discover truth unto at the first breaking out of it, and they are to contend for it, though in much weakness. But a word to the beginning and ending of the Sabbath. There arc various apprehensions about it, which, for brevity's sake, I shall omit. The Scripture is plain, that from evening to evening is the set time, or from the going down of the sun to the going down of the sun. This is clear from the beginning, according to Gen. 1 : 5, The evening and the mor7iing was the first day. The evening and morning make a complete natural day, and the eve- ning goeth before the morning, because the dark- ness was before the light. Ohj. But some will say, It is not said the evening and the morning was the seventh day. 56 THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. * Ans. If the evening and the morning be the sixth day, the evening and the morning must needs be the seventh day, unless w^e should think that the seventh day hath no night belonging to it. Some think that the reason why no mention is made of the evening of the seventh day, is, because the Sabbath is a day pf joy and delight, or an earnest of the new Jerusalem state, wherein shall be no night. Rev. 21 : 25. Night doth frequently, in the Scrip- ture, hold forth a state of affliction, but the Sabbath is a holy, sanctified time; on it the Creator rested and was refreshed, and commanded the observation of it that his creatures might be refreshed. Nehemiah's practice is sufficient proof for the be- ginning of the Sabbath at evening, (chap. 13 : 19,) who, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark, commanded them to be shut till after the Sab- bath. And if you would know when the evening begins, the evangelist Mark doth infoiTn you in chapter 1 : 32, At even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased. When the sun doth set, then begins the evening, then begins the holy rest or seventh-day Sabbath. So the disciples of Christ began the Sabbath ; and so the Lord's ancient people celebrate the Sabbath unto tliis day. But what confusion are they in who say the Sab- bath was changed from the seventh day to the first day, and yet observe neither, but part of the first day and part of the second day ; for they begin their Sabbath at midnight, when a good part of the first day is spent, and they end at midnight, when a good part of the second day is spent ; and yet they will have this to be a Sabbath, yea, and a first day Sabbath, and will highly charge a man to be an of- fender if he work one hour upon the first day, though themselves work five ; and thus we see how anti-Christ hath chansred times as well as laws ; a THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH. 57 first-day Sabbath instead of a seventh-day Sabbath j instead of from even to even, from midnight to mid- night, when most are fast asleep, being insensible of the beginning of their Sabbath, or the ending of it. But, blessed be the Lord, that he hath revealed this his ancient, useful, and honorable truth, to wit, the holy seventh-day Sabbath, notwithstanding all the inventions of anti-Christ to bury it in oblivion, and that he is pleased to separate a remnant, that are resolved to search and try their ways, and to turn unto him, to follow him in the ways of his pre- cepts, (notwithstanding the dragon's wrath,) who will not take things upon trust, nor go upon the legs of men, but will try all things, and hold fast that which is good, for they are virgins, and they will follow the Lamb, though their company be small and their charge great. They will not be afraid of the Sabbath because it was given to the Jews, any more than they are afraid of the adoption, and the glory, and the promises, and the other nine lively oracles, which were all given to the Jews. Rom. 9 : 4. And this I may modestly say, to the praise of the Lord of the Sabbath, and without boasting, that if the saints did know how the Lord delights to meet with his people in this way of obedience in celebrating the Sabbath, they would soon call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and honor him by ceasing from their own works, as God did from his, and doing those works which are suitable for the blessed season. But I shall say no more at present, save only this, that whoever they are that would follow the Lord in this appointment of his, they must labor much in the strength of his Spirit to get this world under them, for it stands in direct opposition to earthly men, and earthly prin- ciples ; therefore pray with the Psalmist, Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. IN TWO PARTS; PART FIRST, Narrative of Recent Events; PART 3KCOND, Divine Appointment of the Seventh Day. By J. W. MORTON, MISSIONARY OF TJIE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHUCCB. NEW- YORK : PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, AT THE SABBATH RECORDER OFFICE, No. 9 Spruce Street. PART I. NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS CHAPTER I. On the 13th of December, 1847, I landed with my family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the first Foreign Missionary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States. I began my labors soon af- terwards, and continued them, without serious in- terruption, till the 21st of April, 1849, when a train of circumstances, to which I am about to advert, made it necessary that I should return home. In the latter part of December, 1848, I was un- expectedly called upon to defend the practice of keeping holy the first day of the week, in place of the seventh. I had been taught from my infancy, that the moral law, " summarily comprehended in the teA commandments," is the only rule of moral conduct; and I had supposed, that it required me and everybody else to keep the " Christian Sab- bath" on the first day of the week. On examina- tion, however, I was forced to the conclusion, that the fourth commandment enjoins nothing else than the sanctification of the seventh day. Of course, then, I must either renounce this precept, as a part of the rule of my life, or endeavor to keep holy the seventh day of the week. The former I might not dare to do ; the latter I knew I might attempt, with- out offending God, or insulting the majesty of his law. The question then came up. Is there any scrip- 4 VINDICATION OP THE TRUE SABBATH. ture authority for keeping holy the first day 1 Does God require it 1 I knew very well, that if God does ?wt require it, I could not, as a Reformed Presbyterian, bind my conscience to it. I took up the Bible, resolved on a prayerful and thorough search. I wished to assure myself of the divine au- thority of the first day, even after I was satisfied that the claims of the seventh are indisputable. But how was it possible to gain this object 1 Every text to which I was referred for proof seemed to lack the very thing that I most wanted, a certain testimojiy to the institution of a Christian Sahbath. I reasoned thus: — The fact that Christ appeared once or twice to his disciples on the first day of the week, and the fact that the disciples met once on that day to break bread, and the fact that Paul com- manded the Corinthians and Galatians to ' lay by them in store ' on that day, as God had prospered them — these facts, with a few others, anight shed light on the institution, if one single text could be found, to prove its existence. But if this can not be found, they do not touch the question at issue. And how I did long for that one text ! How I chided with the Apostles for not having made knowa more clearly what I had determined to be the will of Gnd! Never did Rachel mourn for her children, as I mourned for that one text : but, like her, 1 could not be comforted, because it was not! I was thus driven to the conclusion, that, should I make conscience of keeping holy the first day of the week, I would offer to God a service that he did not require, and could not accept at ray hands. But what was I to do % This was the great prac- tical question. Could I, with my then present views, continue to preach the gospel, as I had done before, in that '* land of darkness, and of tlie shadow of death ? " Could I teach the children in the school, NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS. 5 as I had taught them before, that God had changed the Sabbath to the first day of the week 1 Could 1 proclaim to the benighted heathen, that they might habitually break the fourth commandment with im- punity ? Could I, as a Protestant missionary, be- come the partizan of him who thought " to change times and laws," * by assuring his blinded devotees, that his changes had been made by divine authori- ty 1 Or, on the other hand, could I carry out my convictions of truth and duty, declaring the whole counsel of God, as I then understood it, and retain, at the same time, my connection with my brethren at home 1 Would they grant me this privilege, and, if they would, could I accept it ] A little reflection served to convince me, that all these questions must be answered in the negative. It was no small matter, to resolve upon breaking those bonds of ecclesiastical fellowship that had so sweetly bound me to the Reformed Presbyterian Church. A struggle, painful indeed, but not pro- tracted, ensued. I resolved at once to keep the Sabbath in my family, though I feared it would not be honest to make Q.ny public exhibition of my views, while I continued to minister by the authority of the Synod. I know not what I should have done, had not my change of sentiments brought with it the needed consolations. Whatever were the " vexing thoughts" with which my heart was oppressed, dur- ing the first six days of the week, I found invaria- bly, in the quiet retreat of my little family, on the seventh, that " peace of God that passeth all under- standing." Yes, Haiti, when the recollection of thy brilliant skies, thy evergreen mountains, and thy * T believe, that the prophecy in Dan. 7 : 25, refers mainly to the change of Sabbath-time, and Sabbath-law. What time, of divine appointment, it may be asked, was ever changed, ex cept the time of the Sabbath ? 6 VINDICATION OF THE IRUE SABBATH. sweet clear rivers, shall have ceased to awaken joy in my bosom, the memory of thy Sabbaths shall be " my songs in the house of my pilgrimage ! " CHAPTER II. Convinced as I was, that something must be done immediately to bring the subject of my change to the attention of the rulers of our church, before the next meeting of Synod, I prepared the following Circular Letter, which I transmitted to more than seventy ministers and elders, in different parts of the United States. CIRCULAR. Port-au-Prince, Ha'iti, Jan. 17, 1849. Mt Dear Brother, — The mutual relation existing between us, as members of the same Synod, the glory of our common Lord, the interests of our Mission, and a sacred regard for personal character, all require, that the following statement be transmitted to you and my other co-presbyters, with as little delay as possible. If I am not actuated herein by a de- sire to promote God's glory and the salvation of men, may the Lord rebuke and forgive me, and " let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness! " May the Head of the Church grant to you, and to all the other members of Synod, a disposi- tion to hear, with patience and candor, a narration of my re- cent experience, in which perhaps you may find things both " new and old." My sentiments in relation to the " Sabbath of the Lord our God," have undergone an important change; to which I now wish to call your attention. Our Confession of Faith, Cate- chisms, and Testimony, all teach that the first day of the week is. and has been ever since the resurrection of Christ, the Christian Sabbath. This doctrine alone, of all those contain- ed in our Standards, though I did believe it till lately, I can no longer receive. As to the manner of sanctifying the Sab- NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS. 7 bath, I believe all that you and I have always contended for; but. for the present, I am constrained to believe, that the seventh day of the week is the only weekly Sabbath that God has ever appointed. My attention was first called to this subject by Rev. W. M. Jones, Missionary of the Baptist Church, who has recently abandoned his earlier views and practice in regard to the Sab- bath, lie not only argued the question with me at length, but gave me some publications of the American Sabbath Tract Society, which, as they seemed to breathe a spirit of ardent piety and zeal for God's law, I read with attention. Both in my discussion with him, and in the reading of those tracts, I struggled with all my might to convince myself, from the Scriptures, of the divine appointment of the first-day, or Christian Sabbath. But though I did not then doubt it, I was astonished to find how hard it is to prove it. I sear-'hed all the books I could find, bearing on this ques- tion, and discovered, what I had never noticed before, that the early French and Genevan Reformers, with Calvin at their head, had taught the abrogation of the fourth commandment, as a ceremonial institution ; and that they contended for a Sabbath, or stated day of worship, under the gospel, only as a wise and necessary human arrangement. I found that even Turretin, at a later period, had taught that the fourth com- mandment is partly ceremonial, and that it was necessary to change the Sabbath from the seventh day. in order to put a difference between Jews and Christians. I found also, in my books, quotations, containing similar sentiments, from the cel- ebrated Augsburg Confession. The only authors I could find who had attempted to prove, from the Scriptures, that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, by divine authority, were, Turretin, and the framers of our Standards. These authors appeared to depend mainly for proof upon three texts of Scripture : — Acts 20 : 7 ; 1 Cor. 16: 1, 2; and Rev. 1: 10. When I came to examine these texts, I was surprised and mortified, to find that they contain neither the word " Sabbath," nor any other synony- mous with it. True, I had always thought that the " Lord's day," Rev. 1: 10, was the first day of the week; but my op- ponents contended that the terms refer more properly to the seventh, which God styles " my holy day," Is. 58 : 13 ; and when I remembered •' his challenging a special propriety in the seventh," I could not well deny it. Moreover, [ could not find a single passage asserting that the first is holier than any other day of the week, or that Christians were, in the Apostles' days, in the habit of holding religious meetings regif VINDICATION OF THE IKUE SABBATH. larly on tlial day. Neither could I discover that Christ or his Apostles had ever s[)()k(Mi, directly or indirectly, of keeping a day holy in honor of his resurrection ; nor that that event, which is always held u() as the occasion of the ch;)nge of the Sabhath, is even once jueiitioned in connection with the first day, unless where it is recorded as a historical fact. On the other hand, I observed that Christ and his Apostles were oc- customed to enter into ihe synagogue on the seventh day, or Sabbath, for public worship. Luke 4 : 16 ; Acts 17 : 2, and elsewhere. 'J'hus, my dear brother, I saw at this critical moment all Scripture evidence forsaking me, while every inch of ground on which I could set my foot was trembling. It seemed as if the thunders of Sinai were uttering anew their awful threat enings, while the " still small voice" of " Him that dwelt in the bush" was whispt'rin^ in my ears, ^' The seventh di\y is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20 : 10. "I am Je- hovah, I change not." Mai. 3:6. " Verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5 : 18. Still I hesitated. For a moment I thought of '• going down to Egypt for help." The Fathers, thought I, have fixed theinterpretation of these texts in favor of the observance of the first day. But immediately I heard a voice within me, saying, " Would you then observe a holy-day, whose appointment cannot be prov- ed from the Bible, without th(> aid of human tradition ? Could you admit the 'testimimy of the Fathers,' to set aside one of the plainest injunctions of the moral law, that law that was writ- ten upon tables of stone, ' by the finger of God,' and styled, by way of preeminence, ' tke Testimony ? ' " No ! I replied, with an involuntary shudder; and another flood of Scriptures came rushing in, like '• deep waters," to the very soul. " The law of the Lord is perfect." I's. 19: 7. "Forever. O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Ps. 119: 89. " Thy right- eousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth." Ps. 119: 142. "All his commandments are sure; they stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. 11 J : 7, 8. " Think not that I am come to destroy the lavy or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." Matt. ,5: 17. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.' Rom. :i : 3 1. O my brother, " the word of God is quick ard powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword." You have now my reasons for embracing a doctrine which is confessedly at variance with our Standards. What I en- treat of you is, chat you will once more examine this subject NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS. 9 for yourself, and see whether* those Standards are consistent, on this po'nt, either with the Scriptures, or with themselves. You perhaps think that I have forsaken the " footsteps of the Hock," and tliat testimony which has been sealed with the blood of martyrs. But tell me candidly, was there ever a martyr who died in defense of the first-day Sabbath ? Or, could you, my brother, collect from the Scriptures evidence of its divine appointment, clear enough to solace your soul in the midst of the flames? From my inmost soul I pity that Covenanter who may be called to testify, at the stake, to the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. Remember, too. that I am now in the path that was trodden by the saints for more than four thousand years; and it is for you to sliow that that patli was ever stopped up, unless by the presumption and inexcusable neglect of man. Truly, I am " compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses." I would follow the example of Jehov'ah himself, who " blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." and by whom " the Sab- bath was made for man ;" the example of Adam, Enoch, and Noah ; of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs; of INIoses, Aaron, and those millions of Pilgrim Covenautei'S who united in its observance in the wildei'uess ; the example of Samuel, David, and a host of other prophets ; of .Tesus Christ, our Divine Mediator, and ' Lord of the Sabbath;" and of the Apostles of our Lord, together with the churches es- tablished, and watered by them ; — in one word, the example of all the saints, from Adam to the last Apostle ; all of whom kept and honored the seventh day as " the Sabbath of the Lord their God," and, having finished their coarse with joy, are entered into that heavenly rest, of which that Sabbath was, and still is, an emblem. I intend, if the Lord will, to be present at the next meet- ing of our Synod, and meet my brethren face to foce. I ex- pect, of course, nothing less than to be excluded from the privileges of the church ; but I rejoice that I have learned to respect the discipline of the Lord's house. I desire, therefore, with a willing heart to approach the altar, and, if the Head of the Church require it, to be " otFeredupon the sacrifice and service of your faith," that God may be glorified in my salva- tion, and not in my destruction. God forbid, that either pre- judice, willful ignorance, passion, or personal resentment, should fan the flames of that altar ! In conclusion, rest assured of my continued and unabated attachment to the cause of the Reformation, in general, and to the interests of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, in par- ticular ; and allow me to repeat what I have already intimat- 10 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. ed, that with every other doctrine contaiued in our Standards lam, so far as I understand my profession, entirely satisfied ; nor have i abandoned tluR one, but from a firm conviction that it is not taught in God's Word. I know well, that trials sore and many await me. God doth know, that my heart de- lighteth not in contention ; but, my brother, have we not all '•entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to ob- serve and do all the commandments of the Lord our God? " Neh. 10: 29. Your Brother in Gospel bonds, J. W. Morton, Missionary of the Ref. Presb. Church CHAPTER III. On the 21st of April, 1849, I set sail, with my family, from Port-au-Prince, bidding farewell to Haiti and her children, whom perhaps we shall never see again in this vale of tears. We arrived at Boston, all in good health, on the first Sabbath in May. On the evening of Tuesday, May 22, the Synod was convened in Philadelphia ; and the next morn- ing I appeared and took my seat with the other membei^. After noon, the same day. Rev. David Scott stated to Synod, that I had made known a change of views in relation to the Sabbath, and moved that a committee of three be appointed to confer with me, and report what farther action should be taken in the case. While this motion was pending, I stated, in sub- stance, that, as I was alone in a Synod of more than sixty members, without a single man to plead my cause, I thought I had a riarht to demand that the NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS. 11 proceedings should be instituted in strict accord- ance with the letter of the law. I was here inter- rupted by the Moderator, who, having informed me that I had no right to dictate to the Court the method of proceeding with its own business, peremp- torily ordered me to take my seat. I obeyed, of course, though I could not see what dictation there was in demnnding a legal trial, according to the printed rules of Synod. The motion was carried, and the committee appointed. Next morning, May 24, I had a conference of half an hour with this committee, and at noon an- other, that lasted about the same time. Their prin- cipal object seemed to be, to ascertain whether I was ready to recant, and submit to censure for my past errors. I assured them, that while I had not the slightest wish to withdraw from the communion of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, I adhered to every word in my Circular, and rpust continue to do so, till convinced of error by the infallible scrip- tures. The committee quoted several texts, and advised me to read several authors, after which our conference was closed. After noon they presented their report, recom- mending that the following Libel be pi-eferred against me by Synod : — LIBEL PREFERRED AGAINST J. W. MORTON. Whereas, denying that the first day of the week is the day on which the Christian Sabbath should be kept, is a heinous sin and scandal, contrary to the Word of God, and the Profes- sion of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, founded thereon — {Acti 20: 7, " And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread," &c. ; Shorter Cate- chism, " From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath, and the first day of the week ever since 12 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. to continue to the end of the workl. which is tin* Christian Sabbath." Yet true it is, that you, Rev. .T. W. Mor'on. are guilty of the scandal above stated, in so far as you, the said .) . VV Moitoii, at Poi-t-au Prince, Haiti, 17th of .January. 1849, did pnbli.-h a Circidiij-, in which you oppugned and denied that tlie first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath, which being fonnil rele- vant, and proved against you, you ought to be proceeded against by the censures of the Lord's House. A true copy. By order of the Synod. [Signed] Joh.v Wallacii;, Ass't Clerk. Atter some discussion, tlie above Libel was de- cided to be relevant, and the Clerk was directed to serve a copy on me, with citation to apjjear for trial the next day, after noon. I went to my lodgings that evening with a heavy- heart. I was convinced, from the spirit of deter- mined opposition that had been manife.sted by many of the brethren, when the Libel was under consid- eration, that the majority had already determined that I should not be permitted to " speak for my- self" True, I knew very well that the Apostle Paul had once enjoyed this liberty, through the cool civility of a Roman Governor, and afterwards, through that of a Roman King ; but I knew just as well, that Felix and Aggrippa were heathens, while my'brethren are Christians ; and that the dignity of a court, composed of " worms of the dust," has been much better understood, since the famous " Diet of Worms," than ever before. Still, I could not forbear asking myself. Why is there now such bitter opposition to an Listitution that was once the delight of both God and man? Why do men hate with such perfect hatred what Jehovah made, and blessed, and sanctified, before NARRATIVE OP RECENT EVENTS. 13 sin had entered into the world ? Why should this daughter of Innocence be spurned from every door, and loaded with the damning- reproach of Judaism, while her twin sister, Marriage, sucks the breasts, and is dandled upon the knees of Orthodoxy 1 Why should I be ranked with thieves and murderers, for believing that " the seventh day is the Sabbath ot the Lord my GodV Bitter were the tears that flowed ; and more bitter still was the reflection, that " when I wept, that was to my reproach." I was hedged in round about, and what could I do ? I could only exclaim, with the " sweet Singer of Israel," " Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord Grod of Hosts, be ashamed for my sake ; let not those that seek thee be confounded for mysake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach ; shame hath covered my face. I am be- come a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up ; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." Never shall I forget the sensation experienced while the last sentence was passing through my mind : '-And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon mey I know not how often, during that night, I repeated these words, and comjjared them with the exhortation of the Apostle : "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his I'eproach." These were the comforts, that, " in the multitude of my thoughts' within me," then delight- ed my soul. I was about to go forth *' without the camp ;" and it was indeed refreshing, in that hour of trial, to believe, that I was bearing a portion of the same burden that had on(;e bowed down the * Man of Sorrows." 2 14 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. CHAPTER IV. My trial came on after noon, May 25th. The following extract from the published Minutes of Synod is, I believe, a correct, and sufficiently full, account of the final issue ; only it makes no mention of the fact that I protested against the proceedings, and appealed to the head of the Church, for reasons to be given in afterwards. Why this fact was not recorded, I have not been able to ascertain. EXTRACT FRaM MINUTES OF SYNOD. Order of tine day, viz., the case of Mr. Morton, called for. The libel was then read by the Clerk ; when Mr. Morton hav- ing, in reply to the Moderator, answei-ed that he was prepared for trial, the substance of the libel was again stated in his hearing. Mr. Morton was then called upon, according to the rule provided for in such cases, either to confess the charge or put himself upon his trial. Mr. Morton in return acknowl- edged that he had denied that the day commonly called the Christian Sabbath is so by Divine appointment, and then pro- ceeded to plead the in-elevancy of the charge by endeavoring^ to prove the perpetuity of the law for the observance of the eevenlh day. While so doing, he was arrested by the Mode- rator, who informed him that the charge contained in the libel was such that Mr. Morton could only prove its irrelevancy to censure by proving that the appropriation of the first day of the week, known as the Christian Sabbath, to secular employ- ments, or teaching so to do, is not relevant to censure, which attempt the Moderator would consider disorderly, and would not allow. From this decision J. M. Willson appealed, when the Mod- erator's decision was unanimously sustained. Upon this Mr. Morton declined the authority of the court. Resolved, That Mr. Morton's appointment as missionary to Haiti be revoked. Resolved, That inasmuch as Mr. Morton has now publicly declined the authority of this court, he be suspended from the NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS. 16 exercise of the Christian ministry, and from the privileges of the Reformed Presbyterian Cliurch. The Moderator then publicly pronounced the sentence of suspension on Mr. Morton, agreeably to the above resolution Not long afterwards I presented to the Modera- tor the following Reasons of Protest and Appeal, with a request that he would allow them to be laid before the court, which he utterly refused to do. REASONS OF PROTEST AND APPEAL. I do respectfully protest against the action of Synod in my case, on the 24th of the present month, and appeal therefrom to the Lord Jesus Christ, the King and Head of the Church, for the following reasons : — 1st. Because I was not allowed to prove the irrelevancy of the charge made against me, by an appeal to the Bible, '* the only rule of faith and manners. " 2nd. Because I believe that the statements, on the subject of the Sabbath, set forth in our subordinate standards, are in- consistent with one another, and in part contrary to the Word of God : yet it was by these unscriptural portions, that I was tried and condemned. Brethren, I entertain no hard feelings towards you. My daily prayer to God is, that you may be saved, and led into all truth. I did hope that you would hear and consider the claims of the Lord 's holy Sabbath, when presented in a mild and affectionate manner. But either I have failed to present the question with sufficient tenderness, or you have determin- ed to avoid all discussion in regard to it. It grieves me to the soul to bid you farewell. Both God and man will bear witness, in the day of final reckoning, that you have trampled down, by the resistless force of an over- whelming majority, one who was endeavoring with both hands to hold up the standard of the great Covenant God of our fathers. But though for the present cast down, I am not dismayed. The Sabbath of the Lord God is a richer treasure than the richest you can either give or take away. " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy ; when I fall, I shall arise ; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment 16 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABUATH. for me ; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteoiisiiess." Bretlireii. I shall meet you before the judgment seat of Christ, on that day when he shall come " with ten thousand of liis saiuts." '"Behold, he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. " J. W. Morton Philadklphia, May 2.9th, 1B49. REFLECTIONS. I did believe, and believe yet, that, had I been sustained by twenty ministers and as many congre- gations, I should have had leave to defend myself to my heart's content. But it was very evident to the Synod, that I stood alone. They knew that I could do them no harm, by fomenting discord ; and — may 1 not- add? — they knew that I was not the man to be found employed in such a work. The only loss they could sustain, in catting me oft", with all my adherents, was that of two adults and as many little children. Indeed, many of the members seemed to regret the tronhlc far more than the neces- sity of executing the law ; and one aged father has remarked to me since, that till then he never wit- nessed a trial, before a church court, in which there was not one atom of mercy. Now, is there not a reason for all this % Unques- tionably there is. The loose and unpresbyterial doctrine, that a majority has a right to determine what is, and what is not truth, and that the greatei the majority in f^xvor of any dogma, the more firmly its truth is established, has leavened, sadly and ex- tensively, even the Reformed Presbyterian Church. This is the reason why one who represents a lean minority cannot be heard, even in defense of eccle siastical life. The majority have said, that the first day is the Sabbath, and who dare call in question NARRATIVE OF RECENT EVENTS. 1? the assertion 1 A man may be denounced as a cov- cnaiit-hrcaker; yet, because he belongs to a small minority, lie may not attempt to jjrove his innocence of tlie Clime. Thus tlie right of tlie minority to vindicate themselves from the Scrijjtures, in defense of which many of the old Covenanters bled, is prac- tically denied by their descendants. " O Lord, hov/ long ! " Brethren, are you really so wedded to this ma- joritij jyr'niciplc ? Know, then, that God is a major- ity ; and that those that are with 7ne are more than those that are with you. God's testimony is worth mere than that of all men. What though millions have affirmed, that the seventh day is not the Sab- bath ? He hath left us this imperishable testimony : " The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." And this is the testimony of the greatest majority that ever gave utterance to truth. But God hath not left himself without other witnesses. Where are those myriads of angels who were pre- sent when " the Sabbath was made for man ? " Where are those " morning stars " who " sang to- gether," and those " sons of God " who " shouted for joy," when our Father "laid the foundations of the earth It " They are not now present with us, 't is true, to bear their testimony ; but they will be present, when you and I shall appear before the iudg-ment seat of Christ, to hear the decision of this JO . ■ . controversy. And do you think that you will then dare, on the authority of what is said in Acts 20 : 7, to lift up your hands, and swear " by Him that liveth forever and ever," that the Sabbath has been "changed into the. first day of the week" — and that, too, in presence of those who saw the founda- tions of the ancient Sabbath, like those of the earth itself, laid and balanced upon God's eternal decree, and inwrought with the very stones of " the ever- 18 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. lasting hills V No ! No ! ! The Sabbath was one of those pillars of the ancient earth, which Christ, the Mediator, seized with the hand of his omnipo- tence, and bare u}^, when " the earth and all its in- habitants " were sinking into nothing. I repeat it — and who dare gainsay it 1 — the Lord of Hosts is an overwhelming majority ! But this is not all. There is, indeed, no greater witness than these ; but there is other witness. Look into your own hearts, ye children of God, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and you will find record- ed there : " The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work." " For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Here there is not the least hint of any exception. The same moral law that was writ- ten " with the finger of God," on tables of stone, is now written "by the Spirit of the living God," on the fleshly tables of your hearts. Yes, brethren, turn your eyes inward, and you will read, " The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." If you say. We have sought this law, but find it not — O brethren, you have not *' sought it carefully with tears." It is hidden among the rubbish, and you will never find it, till that be removed. But I speak what I do know, when I assure you, that it is recorded there ; and in the day of the Lord Jesus, if not sooner, you will find it there, to your unspeakable joy and satis- faction. O Lord, " open thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law." PART IL DIVINE APPOINTMENT OF THE SEVENTH DA^ INTRODUC TION. The following pages, containing a brief discussion of a small but intensely interesting portion of the Sabbath controversy, are designed especially for the perusal of those Christians, styled orthodox, who do not keep holy the seventh day of the week. Dear brethren, this is a subject of fearful impor- tance. If tlie views herein advocated are correct, you are guilty both of breaking and of teaching men to break one of God 's holy commandments ; if they are incorrect, I am no less* guilty. Need 1 say any thing more to convince you that you ought to give this subject a candid and prayerful examination] " Ye are the light of the world ;" take heed, breth- ren, that your light be not darkness ! You know — you cannot but know — that there is much, very much, said in the Bible about the Sabbath, and that men are very often commanded to keep it holy. You must know, also, that God has said in the fourth com- mandment, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work ; " and that, for more than four thousand years, no oth- er day of the week ever claimed to be holy. More- over, you cannot but know, if you have read the Bi- ble carefully, that the first day of the week, which you call " the Christian Sabbath," is very seldom mentioned ; that there are only six passages in which 20 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. the name occurs, and that four of these may be view- ed as one, being the records of the same events, by different Evangelists ; and how can you have failed to notice the fact, that in not one of these six passages are we, or any of our fellow-creatures, commanded to keep the first day holy ] Yet you are convinced that the first day of the week is the very Sahhath-day, while among all those Scripture commands, before referred to, you find nothing to sustain the claims of the seventh, O brethren, you " put darkness for light, and light for darkness." Let us bow before the mercy-seat of Him who is the Author of life and light, and, renewing our per- sonal covenant with him, plead his precious promise ; " If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disci- ples indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." I shall endeavor, in the following pages, to estab- lish the truth of the following proposition : — That the seventh day of the week is the only week- ly ISahbath of God's apiwintmcnt. 1 intend to present and enforce four reasons for believing this proposition : — First — Because the original Sabbath law requires the sanctification of no other day. Second — Because Adam and all his posterity have solemnly covenanted to keep holy the seventh day. Third — Because Christ and his Apostles honored this day; and did not intimate that it would ever cease to be tlie Sabbath, but the contrary. Fourth — Because God has never blessed and sanc- tified any day of the week but the seventh. As the discussion is limited bv design to a nar- FIRST REASON. 21 row range, you will please to bear in mind, that the following points are assumed as true : — First — The Sabbath was instituted before the fall of man. Second — Adam represented all his posterity in the covenant of works. Third — The Sabbath law is perpetual, " binding all men in all ages." Fourth — The seventh day v/as the only weekly Sabbath for at least four thousand years. Lord, sanctify us by thy truth. May the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom thou sendest in the name of thy Son our Lord, abide in us and preside in this controversy. May he teach us all things, and bring all things to our remembrance. May all bit- terness, and wrath, and malice, and evil-speaking, be far fi-om us ; and may we love one another with pure hearts fervently — for Christ's sake. Amen. CHAPTER 1. PROPOSITION. That the seventh day of the week is the only weekly sabbath of God's appointment. First Reason. My first reason for believing this proposition is. That the original Sabbath law, referred to in Gene- sis 2 : 2, 3, and embodied in Exodus 20 : 8 — 11, re- quires the sanctification of no other day. Genesis 2 : 2, 3. — '• And on the seventh day {on day the seventh) God ended his work which he had made ; and he rested on the seventh day {on day the seventh) from all his 22 VINDICATION or THE TRUE SAHBATH. work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh dat {the day the seventh,) and sanctified it : because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Exodus 20: 8, 11. — " Remember the Sabbath-DAY, {the day of the rest, or Sxbbath,) to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; but the seventh day {day the seventh) is the Sabbath {rest) of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cat- tle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates : for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day {on day the seventh ;) wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-DAY {the day of the rest, or Sab- bath,) and hallowed it." The only object, direct or indirect, of this com- mandment, is " the day." What are we command- ed to remember ? " The day." What are we re- quired to keep holy ? " The day." What did the Lord bless and hallow ] " The day." In what are we forbidden to work 1 In " the day." Now let us inquire — 1. What day] Not the day of Adam's fall ; nor the day Noah went into the ark ; nor the day of the overthrow of Sodom ; nor the day of the Exodus ; nor the day of the Provocation; nor the day of the removal of the ark ; nor the day of Christ's birth ; nor the day of his crucifixion ; nor the day of his resurrection ; nor the day of his ascension ; nor the day of judgment. It may be, and certainly is, pro- per, that we should remember all these ; but we are not told to do so in this commandment. Neither is it some one day of the week, but no one in par- ticular ; for how could we remember " the day," that is no day in particular ? — how could we keep holy " the day" that has not been specified 1 — and how could we say that God had blessed and hallowed " the day," that was no one day more than another 1 What day, then ? Grod says, Remember the Sab- bath-day, or the day of the Sabbath ; K eep holy the FIRST REASON. 23 daydftheSahhath;T\ie Lord blessed and hallowed Mc day of the Sabbath. He also says, The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work. This day, therefore, is ** the seventh day," or " the day of the Sabbath." 2. What Sabbath 1 Not " a Sabbath," or any Sabbath that man may invent, or that God may hereafter keep ; for that would be " some Sabbath," but no one in particular. Not some institution yet undetermined, that God may j-equiro man to ob- serve weekly ; for the command is not, " Remem- ber the Sabbath institution," but, "Remember the day of the Sabbath ;" not, ** Keep holy the Sabbath institution," but, " Keep holy the day of the Sab- bath." The Lord did not bless and hallow " the Sabbath institution," but " the day of the Sabbath." We are not forbidden to do work in " the Sabbath institution," but in " the seventh day^ In fact, the phrase *' the Sabbath," in this commandment, means neither more nor less than " the rest." It is not here the name of any institution at all, though it is often thus used in other parts of the Bible. Hence, this Sabbath is " the Sabbath or rest of the Lord thy God." 3. Which day of the week is "the day of the Sab- bath ?" No other than that day on which the Lord rested ; for the command refers to God's Sabbath. On which day of the week did he I'est ] " And he rested on the seventh day." Genesis 2 : 2. There- fore, *' the day of the Sabbath" is the same day of the week on which God rested from the work of creation ; and as he rested on the seventh day of the first week, and on no other, the seventh and no other day of every other week must be the only " day of the Sabbath." Let it be particularly observed, that God does not say, Remember the Sabbath, or, Remember the Sab 24 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. batic institution, though this is necessarily implied in the command ; but, Remember '* the day of the Sabbatli" — the day on which I have ordained that the Sabbatic institution be observed. As if he had said, There is little danger, comparatively, that you will forget the fact of my having kept Sabbath ; noi is it likely that you will altogether neglect to ob- serve some day of rest from your arduous toils, for you will be driven to this by the ever returning de- mands of your exhausted bodies ; but you are, and always will be, in especial danger of forgetting the proper day of the week for honoring me in my own institution. Satan, who takes infinite delight in all kinds of " will-worship," while he hates with a per- fect hatred every act of strict obedience to my law, will do all he can to persuade you that some other day will do just as well, or even better. Remem- ber, therefore, the day of my Sabbath, and keep the same day holy in every week ; for — mark the rea- son — I have myself rested on the seventh day, and on that account I have blessed and sanctified that and no other day of the week, that you may observe it, and keep it holy, not because it is in itself better than any other day, but because I have blessed and sanctified it. But you say that the phrase, " the Sabbath-day," or " the day of the Sabbath," does not mean any particular day, but " one day in seven," or some one of the days of the week. You alledge that " the day of the Sabbath," like " the Pope of Rome," " the Emperor of Russia," or " the King of .Denmark," is a generic term, alike applicable to all the mem bers of the same class. The phrase, " the Emperoi of Russia," you say, refers alike to Peter, to Alex ander, and to Nicholas, though only one of them could be Emperor at any given time ; so " the day of the Sabbath" refers alike to the seventh and lo FIRST REASON. 25 the first clay of the week, though there never was but one Sabbath at any one time. This is a very ingenious and plausible method of evading the force of the Divine testimony ; but, as the reasoning by which it is sustained appears to be entirely sophis- tical, I cannot but look upon the whole thing as a fab- rication. I believe that any man, possessing the re- quisite qualifications, mai/ become " Emperor oi Russia," but deny that any day but one can be the day of God's Sabbath, inasmuch as God had never kept, at that time, but one Sabbath, and that occu- pied only one day. There is only one day of Ame- rican Independence ; only one day of the Resur- rection of Christ ; only one day of the birth of any one man ; and only one day of Judgment. And why ] Because American Independence was de- clared on but one day ; Christ rose on but one day; the same man cannot be born on two different days; and God hath appointed only one day in which he will judge the world. Now, on the same principle, there can be but one " day of the Sabbath" of the Lord our God. If I should say that the day of Christ's Resurrection is not any particular day of the week, but only " one day in seven," you would not hesitate to call me a fool, while my ignorance would excite your deepest sympathy ; but when you say that " the day of the Sabbath" does not mean that particular day on which the Lord's Sab- bath occurred, but only " one day in seven," you ex- pect me to receive your assertion as the infallible teaching of superior wisdom. I cannot, however, so receive it, for the following reasons : — 1. If God had meant " one day in seven," he would have said so. His first and great design, in writing his law on tables of stone, was to be under- stood by his creatures ; but, for more than two thou- sand vears after he gave the law, no human being 3 26 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. ever suspected that " the day of the Sabbath" meant anything else than the seventh day of the week, be- cause it was commonly known that that day alone was in reality " the day of the Sabbath." Indeed, this " one-day-in-seven" doctrine is known to have been invented within a few hundred years, with the pious design of accounting for a change of Sabbath, without the necessity of repealing a portion of the moral law. It is matter of great surprise, that those pious theologians, who first substituted " one day in seven" for " the day of the Sabbath," did not shud- der at the thought of presuming to mend the lan- guage of the Holy Ghost. *' The words of the Lord are pure words ; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Ps. 12 : 6. Brethren, are you prepared to enter into judgment, and an- swer for the liberties you have taken with God's word ] In substituting the vague and indefinite ex- pression, " one day in seven," for the definite and unequivocal terms, *' the Sabbath-day," and " the seventh day," you have as truly taken " away from the words of the prophecy of this book," as if you had blotted the fourth commandment from the De- calogue ; while your leading object has been, to make way for the introduction of a new command that, for aught the Scriptures teach, it never entered into the heart of the Almighty to put into his law. " A faithful witness will not lie," and when the world asks. Which day of the seven hath God ap- pointed to be the weekly Sabbath 1 God expects that you, as faithful witnesses, will not only " not lie," but that you will not equivocate, or give with the gospel trumpet " an uncertain sound." He does not expect that you will quote a text from the Acts of the Apostles, that says not one word about Sab- bath-keeping, to prove that the fourth command- ment enjoins the keeping holy of " one day in se- ven," but of *' no day in particular." FIRST REASON. 27 2. God never blessed " one day in seven," with- out blessing a particular day. He either blessed some definite object, or nothing. You may say, in- deed, without falsehood, that God blessed " one day in seven ;" but if you mean that this act of blessing did not terminate on any particular day, you ought to know, that you are asserting what is naturally im- possible. As well might you say of a band of rob- bers, that they had killed " one man in seven," while in reality they had killed no man in particular. No, brethren, yourselves know very well, that God had not blessed and sanctified any day but the seventh of the seven, prior to the giving of the written law. You know, that if God blessed any day of the week at all, it was a definite day, distinct from all the other days of the week. But this commandment says, that " the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day." There- fore the Sabbath-day must be aparticular dayof the week. Therefore " the Sabbath-day" is not " one day in seven," or an indefinite seventh part of time. Therefore it is not " one day in seven" that we are required to remember, and keep holy, and in which we are forbidden to do any work; but "the se- venth day" of the week, which was then, is now, and will be till the end of time, " the day of the Sabbath" of the Lord our God. 3. No day of the week but the seventh was ever called "the day of the Sabbath," either by God or man, till long since the death of the last inspired writer. Search both Testaments through and through, and you will find no other day called " the Sabbath," or even *' a Sabbath," except the cere- monial Sabbaths, with which, of course, we have no- thing to do in this controversy. And long after the close of the canon of inspiration, the seventh day, and no other, was still called " the Sabbath." If you can prove that any one man, among the millions 28 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. of Adam's children, from the beginning of the world till the rise of Anti-Christ, ever called the first day of the week ''■ the Sahhath'' you will shed a light upon this controversy, for which a host of able wri- ters have searched in vain. But, farther; the first day of the week was not observed by any of the children of men, as a Sab- hath, for three hundred years after the birth of Christ. Do you ask proof? I refer you to Theo- dore de Beza, who plainly says so. If you are not satisfied with the witness, will you have the good- ness to prove the affirmative of the proposition 1 I infer, therefore, that " the day of the Sabbath," or *' the Sabbath-day," is the proper name of the seventh day of the week, as much so as " the day of Saturn ;" and that to attach this proper name«*2^ to some other day of the week, and to affirm that God meant that other day, as much as he did the seventh, when he wrote the law on tables of stone, is as unreasonable as it is impious. If you say, that when God speaks of "the Sabbath-day," he means "one day in seven, but no day in particular," you are as far from the truth as if you said that, when he speaks of Moses, he does not mean any particular man, but " some one of the Israelites." Moses was one of the Israelites, just as the Sabbath-day is one day in seven. But when God says Moses, he means Moses the son of Araram ; and when he says " the Sabbath-day," he means the seventh day of the week. You may give different names to the same object, without interfering with its identity ; but to apply the same name to two different objects, and then to affirm that these two objects are identi- cally the same, so that what is predicated of the one must be true of the other, is as though a navigator should discover an island in the Southern Ocean, and call it " England," and then affirm that the late SECOND REASON. 89 work of Mr. Macaulay, entitled *' The Histor}'- of England," is a veritable and authentic history of his newly-discovered empire. Which would you won- der at most, the stupidity or the effrontery of that navigator l I cannot close this chapter without reminding you that, in attempting to refute the above reasoning, the main thing you will have to show is, that " the Sabbath-day," or "the day of the Sabbath," is an indefinite or general expression, applicable alike to at least two different days of the week, and that it is used indefinitely in this commandment. If it has been proved, that " the day of the Sabbath" refers, and can refer, only to the seventh day of the week, then it is true, and will remain forever true, that the original Sabbath law requires the saiictification of no other day. This is the truth which I under- took to exhibit in this chapter, and is my first rea- son for believing the proposition under consider- ation. CHAPTER II. Second Reason. My second reason for believing this proposition is. That Adam and all his posterity have solemnly covenanted to keep holy the seventh day. Genesis 2 : 15 — 17 — " And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Romans 5 : 12 19 — " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered 30 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." " For as by one man's dis- obedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous." Galatians 3: 10 — '' For as many as are of" the works of the law, are under the curse : for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." On these passages it may be remarked — 1. " God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which he bound him, and all his posterity, to personal, exact, entire, and perpetual obedience." 2. " This law, after his fall, continued to be a per- fect rule of righteousness ; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in ten commandments, and written in two tables." Therefore, the fourth commandment and the Sabbath law of the covenant of works are one and the same law ; and all believers in Christ are now bound by this law, as a rule of life, to remember and keep holy the same Sahhath- day that Adam and all his posterity covenanted to remember and keep holy. 3. You admit that Adam, and all Ms posterity, pledged themselves to keep holy the seventh day of every week, and no other. Therefore, we are all born under a solemn obligation, our own obligation in Adam, to keep holy that same seventh day of every week as long as we remain on earth : " Neither doth Christ in the gospel any ivay dissolve hut much strengthen this obligation.'''' 4. It is now too late to alter the covenant of works, by substituting some other day of the week for the seventh, for the following reasons : — •First — Because the whole transaction was finish- ed, in the person of our representative, nearly six thousand years ago. The covenant was made, the obligation assumed, the deed of trnnsgression con- SECOND REASON. 31 summated, the curse pronounced, and the bitter death experienced, in kind, though not in degree^ and all this before the first revelation of the mercy of (rod in Christ. We are, therefore, all of us, the very moment we are born, accursed of God, for not having kept holy the seventh day of the w^eek, ac- cording to our covenant. And all w^ho are not re- deemed therefrom by Christ, remain forever under this curse. From w^hich it is plain, that to substi- tute some other day for the seventh, since the fall of man, iS as impossible as it would be to substitute some other tree for the " tree of knowledge." To all who admit that God made a covenant of works with all mankind in Adam, these truths ought to be self-evident. Brethren, u'e acknowledge that we are all guilty before God of having eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, while we disclaim any guilt whatever in regard to the fruit of every other tree ; so are we guilty of violating the rest of the seventh day of the week, while we are not by nature guilty of polluting any other day. Second — Because such substitution would destroy an integral part of the moral law. The law written on the heart of man said nothing about keeping holy any other day than the seventh ; for all admit that, had Adam not fallen, there never would have been any other holy day. If, then, this law does not now require the sanctification of the seventh day, the fourth commandment must have been annihilated ; and if another day is noic the Sabbath, a new command- ment, requiringybr a new reason the sanctification of a different day, must have been substituted in its place. But this new law can be no part of the moral law, because it was not written on man's heart, nor did any human being know of its existence till thou- sands of God's people had been taken home to glory. God gave to Adam free permission tc labor and do J2 VINDICATION OF THK TRUE SABBATH. work on every clay but the seventh, and he, as a free moral agent, accepted the proffered boon. There- fore, to labor on any one of the first six days of the week is, under the covenant of works, as innocent in itself as, to pray to the Creator of the Universe. It is as much a natural and inalienable right, as " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Now, if there is a law that requires the keeping holy of some other day, it must have its origin in the new-covenant grace of God ; and if that other day, and not the seventh, is now the Sabbath, men are now no more under a natural obligation to keep a Sabbath than to be baptized, or to celebrate the Lord's Supper. The obligation to keep it must, on your principle, grow out of their new-covenant relation to Grod in Christ. Let us now look for a moment at the consequences flowing from the doctrine, that some other day — the first, for example — has been substituted for the se- venth. " Try the spirits." " By their fruits ye shall know them." 1. If this doctiine be true, the doctrine that Adam represented all hisj^osterifj/, must be false ; for, if Adam covenanted, as you admit he did, to keep holy the seventh day of every week, and we fire not bound to do so, he certainly did not represent us, neither in that nor in any other part of the covenant ; for, if we did not promise in Adam to keep holy the Sabbath-day, we did not promise to keep any thing else. 2. If this doctrine be true, there is now no such thing as original sin. This follows as a matter of course ; for, if Adam did not represent us, we are not born sinners. The fact might be proved in an- other way, but this is enough. 3. If this doctrine be true, and the law of the new Sabbath bind " all men," as you say it does, it must SECOND REASON. 33 bind the Jicathen, who are a part of" all men." But if there is a new Sabbath instituted, it can only be made known through the written word of God, of which the heathen can know nothing. This new Sab- bath has never been made known to them, nor to any of their ancestors. Nevertheless, you say that they are bound to observe it, according to the written word, and that they shall be punished to all eter- nity for breaking it ; which is contrary to the teach ing of the Apostle, (Rom. 2 : 12,) that the heathen shall be judged and condemned, not by the written word, but by the law of nature, which you know can reveal no Sabbath but that of the seventh day ; for Adam, who understood the law of nature better than any other mere man, never thought of keeping holy any other day. And, moreover, the heathen have, on your principle, only nine commandments to obey or disobey ; for they are under the law of nature, which says, " Keep holy the seventh day :" but you say that God does not now require this : therefore they are released from the obligation. And, what is stranger still, the heathen have no means of knowing that to keep the seventh day is a work of supererogation. These are a few of the con- sequences of your doctrine of a change of Sabbath. What must be the character of that tree which yields such fruits ! Let us now attend for a moment to your objec- tions. Do you say, Those who believe in Christ are re- deemed, not only from the curse of the Sabbath law, but also from the obligation to obey it in future ] If so, who can tell but we are redeemed from every other moral obligation ] Or, do you alledge, that Christ makes a new con- tract with the sinner, saying, If you keep holy the first day, I will release you from the obligation to .^4 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. sanctify the seventh ? " Do we then make void the law through faith ? God forbid ; yea, we establish the law." Rom. 3:31. But perhaps you say, To change the Sabbath from one day to another is not to make void the law ;" it is only to vary its appli- cation. I reply. It is to make void, to annul, to annihilate, one tenth part of that law that G-od wrote on Adam's heart ; for, as has been shown already, that law required him to keep no day holy but the seventh. Or, do you plead that, as God has substituted the Lord Jesus Christ for the sinner, without violating the moral law, so he may have substituted some other day for the seventh 1 I reply. The cases are not parallel ; for — 1. The substitution of Christ does not render a change of any part of the law necessary ; but the other does. Christ *' came not to destroy" the law, but to fulfill it ; and in fulfilling it, he honored the seventh day : but the substitution of some other day for the seventh, had it taken place before Christ came, would have released him, as well as us, from the obligation to obey a part of the law of the cove- nant of works. 2. A change of Sabbath is not, like the substitu- tion of Christ, necessary to the salvation of sinners ; for God had saved thousands before this change is alledged to have taken place. 3. The substitution of Christ changes the moral condition of the church only ; but the change of Sabbath would affect the moral relations of all men ; for the Sabbath was made, not for the church, but " for man." 4. The evangelical doctrine of the substitution ary sacrifice of Christ, of itself, proves the impossi- bility of a change of Sabbath. All evangelical Christians hold, that believers are delivered, through SECOND REASON. 3A Christ, from the curse of the law — the law of the covenant of works — but not from the obligation to obey it. If, therefore, that law required Adam and his 'posterity to keep holy the seventh day of the week, Christ has never redeemed them from the ob- ligation to render ** exact obedience,''^ in this particu- lar, as in every other. Do you plead, as a last resort, that, as the com- mand not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge has passed away, so it may be with the law of the seventh-day Sabbath ? I reply, The cases are nat parallel ; for that command never was a part of the moral law. It was never written, either on man's heart, or on tables of stone ; but this was. Besides, the tree of knowledge has been destroyed from the face of the earth, so that to eat of its fruit is now impossible ; but the seventh day will continue to return " while the earth remaineth." Brethren, you bewilder yourselves and others, by adopting, as a moral axiom, the false principle, that whatever is in its nature positive, is,Jor that reason, changeable. There is no principle more deadly than this. Do you not know, that all our hopes, as Christians, for time and for eternity, are suspended on the immutability of that positive arrangement be- tween the Father and the Son, which we call the covenant of grace % Are not the decrees of God all positive, yet, at the same time, immutable ? So, also, the Sabbath law, though in its nature positive, has been made unchangeable, by a solemn covenant arrangement, " in which it was impossible for God to lie." If God had not made the law, requiring the sanctification of the seventh day, an essential part of the covenant of works, your doctrine of a change of Sabbath would not be so preposterous. As it is, how can serious, thinking men, help viewing it as a mon- strous and impious absurdity ! 3*f VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH CHAPTER III. Third Reason. My third reason for believing this proposition is. That Christ and his Apostles honored this day ; and did not intimate that it would ever cease to be the Sabbath, but the contrary. 1. Christ honored this day. I4uk'^4: 16 — "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been bi'ought up : and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4: 30, 31; (See also Mark 1: 21) — " But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath- days." Luke 13 : 10 — " And he was teaching in one of the syna- gogues on the Sabbath." Mark 3: 1,2 — "And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him whether he would heal him on the Sab- bath-day." Mark 6: 2 — " And when the Sabbath-day was come, he be- gan to teach in the synagogue." 2. The Apostles honored this day. Read care- fully the following passages and their contexts. Acts 13: 14 — " But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and sat down." Acts 13: 44 — " And the next Sabbath-day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God." (That is, to hear Paul and Barnabas preach.) Acts 14: 1 — " And it came to pass in Iconium, that they Paul and Barnabas) went both together into the synagogue THIRD REASON. 37 of the Jews, and eo spake, that a great multitade, both of the Jews, and also of the Greeks, believed." Acts 16: 23 — "And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made ; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither." Acts 17 : 2 — " And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 18 : 4 — "And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagoguge every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Brethren, if you produce one solitary apostolic example of unnecessary labor performed on the seventh day, I will at once give up the argument in its favor. 3. Neither Christ nor his Apostles intimated that the seventh day would cease to be the Sabbath. This being a negative assertion, I am not bound to prove it, of course. If you assert that they did, I demand the proof of it. 4. Christ has very plainly intimated the contrary. Matthew 24 : 20 — " But pray ye that your flight be not in winter, neithe»' on the Sabbath-day." The ^'ilignt'' here spoken of was to take pi?.ce about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem ; and the Saviour admonishes his disciples to pray that it might not happen on the Sabbath-day. Now, if he knew that the Sabbath-day would be changed into the "Lord's day," fotty years before the event he had just alluded to, why did he speak of it as a thing that would be then in existence ] Many are the efforts that have been made to evade the force of the argument from this text ; but they are all un- availing. Matthew 5: 17, 19 — " Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass,. 4 38 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of thesa least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." It is almost universally admitted, that the Saviour, in these verses, refers principally to the ten ccm- mandments, w^hich were then, as now, called, by way of preeminence, *' the law." That he may have re- ferred also to the ceremonial code, which he came to fulfill, we do not deny. But this has nothing to do wdth our present purpose. That the fourth commandment enjoins the sanc- tification of the seventh day of the week, no man in his senses denies. But you alledge that that part of it has been taken away, so that it does not now bind us. Now, in making this assertion, you either affirm what is positively denied in the above quotation, or you make this commandment at least partly cere- monial, and ^peculiar to the Jews. This will appear evident from the following considerations : — First — The command to keep holy the seventh day of the week, is far more than " one jot or one tittle" of this law. It could be no less, but it is much more. Indeed, it is very certain, that Adam considered it a very important part of the law ; and 8o did Christ, when he uttered these words, for he kept the Sabbath as devoutly as Adam ever did. Second — Heaven and earth have not yet passed away ; but you say that this seventh-day law has ; therefore, much more than " one jot or one tittle" has passed from the law — which is contraiy to Christ's assertion. Third — If you say that Christ has fulfilled this law, and so taken it away, you make it a ceremony, like the Passover. You know that Christ never ful- THIRD REASON. 39 filled, so as to take away, any law but those that he ** nailed to his cross," and that he never nailed to his cross any law that bindeth ** all men in all ages." If, then, the law requiring the sanctification of the seventh day of the week has been nailed to the cross of Christ, it must have been a ceremony peculiar to the Jews, and to which the Gentiles were never bound. Was Adam a Jew P Was Enoch a Jew ? Were Noah and his sons Jews ] But these all kept the seventh day, and no other* Brethren, it has been proved, in the first chapter of this treatise, that the fourth commandment re- quires simply the observance of the seventh day of the week. I will not repeat what is there said. I now ask you, as candid inquirers after truth, to place this commandment and our Saviour's declarations, quoted above, side by side, and see i^ your conduct is not at war with both. You neglect the only day that God's law requires you to remember, while Christ assures you, in the most solemn manner, that " one jot or one tittle" shall in no wise pass from the law, " till heaven and earth pass," or till time shall be no more. * Some of my Reformed Presbyterian brethren appear to be as far from believing " the whole doctrine of the Westminster Confession of Faith" as myself, only they are a little more guarded in the choice of words. That Confession says, (ch, 21, sec. 7,) " — so, in his word, by a positive, moral, and per- petual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath par- ticularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him." But Rev. Andrew Stephenson, in a letter to me, speaking of the seventh-day Sabbath, styles it, "This re- lict of Judaism ;'' and Rev. James Milligan, in a recent letter, asks me, " Why has not the Lord's day as good a right to take the place of the seventh day, as the Lord's Supper has to take the place of the Passover ?" Query — Are Reformed Pres- byterians, who hold such sentiments, any better qualified to judge their brethren for Sabbath-breaking, than I would be to jud^e them for a like offense ? 40 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. There is a little commandment in that law that says, " The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt not do any work." Christ says, that whosoever doeth and teacheth this com- mandment " shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But this hath been my only crime. God knows, and you know, that the only thing T have done to offend you is, that I endeavor to refrain from doing work on the seventh day, and to " teach men so." Yet for this I am declared to be the " least in the kingdom of heaven," and no longer worthy of a seat at the table of Him who said, that ** one jot or one tittle" should in no wise pass from the law. Blessed be God ! it is a light thing to be judged of man's judgment. But I confess that sometimes my blood runs cold, when I think of this solemn declaration of the same " Lord of the Sabbath," (John 12 : 48,) " He that rejecteth me, and receiv- eth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." " Never man spake like this man." O, brethren, are you ready for that awful judgment day 1 Nothing but God's word will avail you there. If you are determined to go on, appropriating the seventh day to secular purposes, and " teaching men so," I cannot help it ; but I call heaven and earth to witness, that, in regard to every reader of these pages, my skirts are henceforth clear. On your own souls will rest the responsibility of rejecting these solemn words of Christ. And you who are ministers — how will you answer for the wanderings of those lambs of Christ's fold, whom you are lead- ing into strange pastures 1 FOURTH REASON. 41 CHAPTER IV. Fourth Reason. My fourth reason for believing this proposition is, That God has never blessed and sanctified any day of the week but the seventh. In sustaining this reason, as I occupy negative ground, I shall simply defend it against your usual scripture arguments in defense of your favorite doc- trine, that God blessed and sanctified the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ. In arguing this doctrine, you do not pretend to offer positive, but only inferential proof. You quote certain texts, and say. Hence we infer that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. Now, as there are many possible, and even plausible, inferences, that are not necessarily true, I intend to be governed, in the examination of your scripture proofs, by the following rule of interpretation : — " The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture." Brethren, I intend, with God's help, to show that, according to the above rule, which you admit to be correct, all your inferences in favor of a first- day Sabbath are unnecessary, and some of them wholly inadmissible. YOUR FIRST PROOF. Hebrews 4 : 9, 10 — " There remaineth, therefore, a rest (sabbatism) to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his." 42 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH Your premises consist of four assertions : — First, That the rest, or sabbatism, thatremaineth, is some- thing different from the ancient Sabbath. Second, That the person who " hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his," is the Lord Jesus Christ. These two assertions I most cheerfully admit. Third, That Christ entered into his rest on the day of his resurrection. Fourth, That the sab- batism of God's people is enjoyed in this life. These last two assertions I utterly deny. Your inference is. That the first day of every v(^eek, that being the day of the week on which Christ rose, is the sabbatism of God's people. Of course, if I prove that the last two assertions are false, your inference will be shown to be inadmis- sible. I assert, then, — 1. That Christ did not " enter into his rest" on the day of his resurrection ; for the following rea- sons : — First, Because the Scriptures do not say so. Second, Because this earth is not the place of his rest. He was, to the last day he spent here, " a pilgrim and a stranger in the earth," and had not therein " where to lay his head." But his resurrec- tion took place on earth, and he continued on earth for " forty days" afterwards. Third, Because the scriptures plainly teach, that the Mediator did " en- ter into his rest," when he " sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Heb. 1 : 3. "Arise, Lord, into thy rest ; thou and the ark of thy strength." Ps. 132 : 2. This was the prayer of David and the congregation of Israel, when they re- moved the ark from the house of Obed-Edom to the place " that David had pitched for it." When Solo- mon and the Elders of Israel brought up the ark from the city of David, and placed it in the holy of holies, in the temple " made with hands," they pray FOURTH REASON. 43 ed in like manner, " Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting-place, thou, and the ark of thy strength." 2 Chron. 6 : 41. Now the ark was a type of Christ, while "heaven itself" is the true " holy of holies," *' whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever af- ter the order of Melchizedek." Heb. 6 : 20. If, then, the ark entered into its rest, when it was placed in the holy of holies, Jesus Christ, the anti- typical ark, entered into his rest when he sat down on the right hand of God, in the anti-typical holy of holies. Fourth, Because the Apostle's great design, in this epistle, was to convince the church, and espe- cially the Hebrews, that Christ, having " by himself purged our sins," as they all admitted he had done, " sat do\vn on the right hand of the Majesty on high," (ch. 1 ; 3,) as our ever-living Intercessor. Yes, the ** one idea," that runs through the whole Epistle, is to illustrate and magnify the doctrine of the glorious intercession of Christ the Mediator, who, *' after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right h&nd of God." Do you ask proof I Take, then, the apostle's own as- sertion, (ch. 8 : 1,) *' Now, of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum : We have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens ; a minister of the sanc- tuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." All that is said in the third and fourth chapters, about the rest of Christ and the eabbatism of the people of God, is included in this summary ; so that it is to Christ's eternal rest in the heavens that the verses under consideration refer. Indeed, we have evidence of this fact, satisfactory enough, in the immediate context, (ch. 3 : 4,) *' Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the hea- venly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest 44 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. of our profession, Christ Jesus" — compared with ch. 4 : 14 — *' Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." Fifth, Be- cause there is not, in this epistle, one solitary refer- ence to the resurrection of Christ, except in the con- cluding benediction ; but it abounds in references to his ascension and intercession. 2. If I have reasoned correctly above, your as- sertion, that the sabbatism of God's people is en- joyed in this life, scarcely needs refutation. As Christ entered into his rest, when he received the crown of glory from the Father ; so believers shall enter into his rest, when they " shall be glorified with him." Moreover, as Christ did not enter into his rest on the first day of the week, your inference, that that day is the Sabbath, is not on\y unnecessary , but wholly inadmissible. Bear in mind also, brethren, that, if Christ did not enter into his rest on the first day of the week, then your great philosophical argument for the first-day Sabbath, founded uJ)on the fact, that the work of redemption is greater than that of creation, vanishes at once into smoke, or, at least, becomes useless for your purpose. YOUR SECOND PROOF. Psalm 118 : 22, 24 — " The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner." "This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." Acts 4 : 10, 11 — " Be it known unto you all. and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Cliiist of Nazareth, w^hom ye crucitied, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is be- come the head of the corner." You premise, that " the day which the Lord hath made" is the day of the resurrection of Christ. FOURTH REASON. 45 Whence you infer, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. 1. If what you premise were true, tlie inference does not follow. The prophet does not say, We will rejoice and be glad in the same day of every week ; but, We will rejoice and be glad in it, that is, in that day, whatever it may be. Now Christ did not rise on the first day of every week, but on one single day ; and we may very well rejoice and be glad in that one day, without keeping any Sab- bath in connection with it. Abraham rejoiced and was glad in the day of Christ ; but he kept no Sab- bath in honor of it. So, doubtless, you rejoice and are glad in the day of his crucifixion, though you do not celebrate it on any particular day of the week. But— 2, You are evidently mistaken in referring this language of the Psalmist to the resurrection of Christ — for the following reasons : — First — Because " the day which the Lord hath made" is the same in which Christ went in by the gates of righteousness. Verses 19 and 20. "Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter." Now, though Christ did come up from " the gates of death" on the day of his resurrection, he did not formally " enter" by *' the gates of righteousness," till that day when he ascended from Mount Olivet, which was not the first day of the week. His almighty power and eternal Sonship were declared most glo- riously on the day of his resurrection ; but it was on the day of his ascension that his mediatorial righteousness was formally approved by the Father ; while it was visibly manifested, in the presence of the universe, that the door of heaven had been opened to all true believers. Then shouted the seraphim, 46 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. and all the host of heaven, while the door-posts oi the New Jerusalem trembled at the voice, " Arise, O Jehovah, into thy rest, thou, and the ark of thy strength. Let thy priests be clothed with righteous- ness ; and let thy saints shout for joy !" Therefore, this is not the day of Christ's resurrection, but that of his ascension. Second — Because " the day which the Lord hath made" is the same in which " the stone which the builders refused" became " the head-stone of the corner," (verse 22.) Christ did not become " the head of the corner," till he " sat down on the right hand of God." You assert that he did, and refer to Acts 4 : 10, 11, quoted above, as proof. From what the apostle there sets forth, you draw the inference, that, as he was set at nought by the builders, when he was crucified, so he became the head of the cor- ner, when God raised him from the dead. The apostle does not say, however, that this took place on the same day that he rose from the dead ; and all that we must necessarily infer from what he does say, is, that he became the head of the corner since his resurrection, which is cheerfully admitted. But whether it was on the same day, or two, or ten, or forty days after, the apostle saith not. Still your in- ference would be entirely natural and proper, if it were not contrary to the analogy of faith, and to the teachings of the same spirit in other parts of the Scriptures. I suppose it will be admitted, that when Christ became the head of the corner, he became " the he-ad over all things to the church," and that then " all things were put under his feet." Now the apostle clearly teaches, that these things took place when he sat down on the right hand of God, as ap- pears from the following texts : — Ephesians 1 : 20 — 22—" Which he wrought in Christ, when FOURTH REASON. 47 he raised him from the dead, (or, having raised him from the dead,) and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and ipower, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come : and hath put all things un- der his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church." Hebrews 2 : 8, 9 — " But now we see not yet all things put under him (man;) but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor." Observe, that the Apostle's great object in this epistle is, to show that Christ is in heaven, forever in- terceding for the church . Now, is it not manifest from these texts, that Christ became the head of the corner when he ascended to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God] Nor is there any thing in Acts 4 : 10, 11, that contradicts this idea. Brethren, the glorious building of grace has its foundation, not on earth, wher^ we are pilgrims and strangers, but in heaven, where Jesus, the corner- stone, " elect and precious," sitteth at the right hand of God, and is constantly occupied in gathering from afar the *' lively stones" of the glorious edifice. Blessed forever be his holy name ! TOUR THIRD PROOF. John 20: 19, 26~" Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the diseiples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." " A.nd after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them; then came Jesus; the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said. Peace be unto you."--See also Luke 24: 26. You premise, that the disciples, on the two days referred to above, one of which certainly was, and the other may have been, the first day of the week, had met together for public or social worship, when 48 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. Christ appeared to them. Whence you infer, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. Now, what you premise seems to be a mere as- sumption, for which there is not a shadow of proof, either in the text or context. No one of the Evan- gehsts says that they met for worship ; nor did they worship, so far as we know, when met together. In regard to the first of those occasions, we are told, that they " were assembled for fear of the Jews ;" and, as to the second, we are simply informed, that they " were within," which means, probably, that they were at home ; for Luke tells us, that, on the day of the ascension, the eleven " abode" in an upper room. Acts 1 : 13. Again, your inference is not necessary ; for the matter may be explained thus : On the day of the resurrection, the eleven, having procured a common lodging-room, "assembled for fear of the Jews;" and Christ appeared to them before the close of the same day, in order that they, who were to be wit- nesses of his resurrection, might have ocular demon- stration of the fact, that he rose " according to the scriptures." On the other occasion, " after eight days," he met them, prooably, ** as they sat atirieal," (Mark 16 : 14,) because Thomas, who had not seen him since his resurrection, was then with them. These reasons are surely sufficient to account for his appearing on those occasions. But why demand reasons at all ] Had he not a right to meet his dis- ciples on any day of the week that he chose, with- out telling us why] Can you tell us why he ap- peared to the brethren when they were fishing \ Christ has done many things for which the only rea- son we can give is, that it seemed good to him. YOUR FOURTH PROOF. Acts 2 : 1 — " And when the day of Pentecost was fully come* they were aU with one accord in one place." FOURTH REASON. 49 Your premises are — 1. That the Feast of Pente- cost fell that year on the first day of the week. 2. That the disciples were, Jhr that reason, with one ac- cord in one place." Whence you infer, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. I reply — Whether the Feast of Pentecost fell that year on the first day of the week, or. not, the disciples did not meet to keep the Sabbath, but to celebrate Pen- tecost. They would have been, in like manner " with one accord in one place," if it had been the fourth day of the week, because it was the day of Pentecost. Therefore, your inference is not only unnecessary y but wholly inadmissible. YOUR FIFTH PROOF. Acts 20: 7 — "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to breuk bread, Paul preached un- to them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." You premise, that the disciples came together, in this instance, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and to hear the word. Whence you infer, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. Whv?t yi?a premise 13 very imcertain ; for-- 1. There is no evidence that they met to hearths word. The object of the meeting was " to break bread ;" and the preaching of Paul seems to have been incidental, and not by appointment. 2. It is not certain that " to break bread" meant to partake of the Lord's Supper. The Greek word, translated, to break, is used very often in the New Testament in reference to ordinary meals. An in- stance occurs in Luke 24 : 35 — " And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of breads But if what you assert were true, your inference is not necessary ; for — 1. It is entirely proper, for aught we know to the '50 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATII. contrary, to celebrate the Lord's Supper and hear preaching on any day of the week. 2. Perhaps this meeting was held at that particu- lar time, because the Apostle and his company were " ready to depart on the morrow." It was proba- bly a farewell meeting, as many learned men think, and the text itself seems to hint. 3. There is not one word said in the text about Sabbath-keeping ; nor is there the least intimation, either in the text or context, that the disciples were accustomed to meet on the first day of the week for any purpose whatever. But you say, Paul waited there seven days, and we have no account of his preaching till the last night of his stay, which was the first of the week. We reply. This is no evidence that he did not preach during the other six days. Luke tells us, in this same chapter, verses 2 and 3, that " he came into Greece, and there abode three months ;" and he does not say that he preached once during that time. But a small part, indeed, of the doings of the Apostles is recorded. It is a remarkable fact, that this text, which is the only one in the New Testament that speaks of pub- lic religious exercises on the first day of the week, is, at the same time, the only one in the Bible that directly proves, that this day is not the Sabbath. 1 have already proposed to give up the argument in favor of the seventh day, if you produce one apos- tolic exam[)le of unnecessary labor performed there- in. Will you give up your argument for the first day on the same condition ? I believe this verse furnishes such an example. The text proves nothing for you, if Paul's sermon and the breaking of bread were not on the first day. The sermon was preached between evening and FOURTH REASON. 51 midnight, and the bread was broken between raid- night and break of day, and then Paul set out on his journey. According to .the Roman method of computing time, the breaking of bread, at least, was in the morning of the same day in which Paul tra- veled from Troas to Assos, and thence to Mitylene ; and, according to the Jewish method, the sermon, the breaking of bread, and the journey from Troas to Mitylene, were all within the compass of the same " first day of the week." That Luke should follow the unnatural Roman method, is so unlikely as hard- ly to be supposable. Now, if Paul traveled unne- cessarily from Troas to Mitylene, as it seems he did, on the first day of the week, surely that day was not then the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. This text, there^ove, proves positively that the first day is not the Sahhath, on which account it is of no little value in this controversy. YOUR SIXTH PROOF. 1 Corinthians 16 : 2--"Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." Your premises are — 1. That the Apostle here com- mands the Corinthians to make public collections on the first day of the week. 2. That, therefore, public assemblies were accustomed to be held on that day. Whence you infer, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. I deny both your premises. The apostle simply orders, that each one of the Corinthian brethren should lay up at home some portion of his weekly gains on the first day of the week. The whole question turns upon the meaning of the expression, "by him;" and I marvel greatly how you can imagine that it means *' in the collection box of the congregation." Greenfield, in his Lexicon, trans- 52 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. lates the Greek term, *' by one's self, i. e. at home.** Two Latin versions, the Vulgate and that of Cas- tellio, render it, " ajmd se," with one's self, at home. Three French translations, those of Martin, Oster- wald, and De Sacy, " chez soi," at his own house, at home. The German of Luther, " heisich selbst,'" by nimself, at home. The Dutch, " by hemselven,'' same as the German. The Italian of Diodati " ap- presso di se," in his own presence, at home. The Spanish of Felipe Scio, " en su casa," in his own house. The Portuguese of Ferreira, " para isso,'- with himself The Swedish, " ncsr sig sielf near himself. I know not how much this list of authori- ties might be swelled, for I have not examined one translation that differs from those quoted above. Now, if your premises are false, your inference is not only unnecessary, but wholly inadmissible. TOUR SEVENTH PROOF Revelations 1 : 10—" I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." You premise, that the " Lord's day" is the first day of the week. Whence you infer, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath. You here assume the principal point in dispute, namely, that God has appointed the first day of every week to be kept in commemoration of the le- suiTection of Christ. Is every Friday the " Lord's day,' ' because he was crucified on Friday % You answer, No. Is every Thursday the " Lord's day,*' because he ascended on Thursday j You answer, No. So, when you ask. Is every first day of the week the " Lord's day," because he rose- on the first day % I answer, No. And is it too much that I should ask you to prove your assumption % I have never yet met with an attempt to prove it. But, were this even proved, your inference would not be necessary. The first day might be the " Lord's FOURTH RKASOV. 53 day," and yet not the Sabbath. Wou-ld t?he bare mention of this day by the Apostle John, even if it were certain that he referred to the first day of the week, repeal or alter the fourth commandment ? Certainly not. But you ask, What day did he mean 1 I reply. Most probably he meant the seventh, since we know from several scriptures that this is in fact the Lord's day. See Nehemiah 9 : 14, and. Isaiah 58 : 13. But you ask again. Why did he not say " the Sabbath," if he. meant it ? I reply by asking you, Why did he not say " the first day," if he meant it? Brethren, who can say, that, from any or all of the texts commented upon above, the inference is necessary, that the first day of the week is, and that the seventh is not, holy 1 But this is precisely what you infer from them. On the sole authority of these passages, together with that one in which Christ says, that he is " Lord of the Sabbath," you have no hesitation in afiirming that the first day of the week is the very Sabbath day spoken of in the fourth com- mandment, and that the seventh day of the week is not now more holy than any other ; or, in other words, that the- blessing which G od put upon it in the beginning, (Gen. 2 : 21,) has been taken from it, and given to another day. AVhat ! because " there remaineth a sabbatism to the people of God,' therefore the seventh day intist have ceased to be the Sabbath ! Because " we will be glad and re- joice " in "the day which the Lord hath made," therefore the seventh day inust have ceased to be holy ! Because Christ showed himself to his dis- ciples once or twice on the first day of the week, therefore the seventh day cannot be the Sabbath ! Because the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Ghost happened on the first day of the week, as is clearly demonstrated by arithmetical calculation, therefore ^4 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. the seventh day cannot claim to be the Sabbath ! Because the disciples met once " to break bread " on the first day of the week, therefore God must have unsanctified the seventh day ! Because the Corinth- ian and Galatian Christians v\^ere commanded to " lay by them in store " on the first day of the week, for the relief of the poor saints, therefore the sev- enth day can he nothing more than a working day ! Because John was " in the spirit on the Lord's day," therefore the seventh day cannot be " the Lord's day," as it used to be ! Because Jesus Christ is " Lord of the Sabbath," and has the light to change it, or even to annihilate it, (1) therefore the seventh day must have ceased to be a day of rest ! O breth- ren, you dare not say, that any of these inferences flow from the Scriptures as necessary consequences. But if they are not necessary — if there is any way of avoiding them, without doing violence either to the text or context — how can you ask me to believe that the first day is^ and that the seventh is not^ holy I CONCLUSION. " The Sabbath was made for man." I am a man ; therefore, the Sabbath was made for me. God has blessed and sanctified the seventh day of the week, and commanded me to keep it holy^br that reason ; therefore, as long as the seventh day continues to be divinely blessed and sanctified, I am bound to keep it holy. But it is nowhere said in the Bible that God has removed the blessing from this day, or that he has unsanctified it. You say so, indeed ; but you are neither the authors nor the finishers of my CONCLUSION, 55 faith ; nor will your unsupported assertion, a thou- sand times repeated, amount to a divine revelation. If you assert that it is the will of God that I should cease to regard the seventh day as holy, I ask, Where is this revealed 1 What Prophet or Apos- tle has said so, directly/ or indirectly ? It ie not enough for you to answer, that the first day has been blessed and sanctified, as a memorial of the work of redemption. That assertion, if it were true, would not prove that the seventh day is not holy. No, brethren, your own conscience must tell you, that there is not one syllable in the Bible on which to ground the doctrine that God has unsanctijied the seventh day of the week. But one of your ministers has told me, that God did not bless and sanctify any particular day of the week, but only the Sabbath Institution. To this I have only to say, ** Let God be true, and every man a Har." The Holy Ghost says, (Gen. 2 : 2,) " And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it ;" and again, (Exod. 20 ; 11,) *' Wherefore the Lord bless- ed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Now, if you assert, with these scriptures staring you in the face, that God never blessed and sanctified any particu- lar day, but only the Sabbath Institution, do you not make God a liar, in order to excuse your own rebellion 1 O brethren, I perceive that these texts are an eye-sore to you, and that in your hearts you wish they were out of the Bible. If you loved them you would not flatly contradict them. I ap- peal to your own consciousness, is it not your great effort, when you take up the fourth commandment, to convince yourselves and others, that God's Spirit does not mean what he says, in as plain language as any Sabbatarian could employ; that is, that 'the sev- enth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.' And, when you take up these passages in the New Tes- 56 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. lament, which have been considered above, do you noL labor to convince yourselves, that the same Spirit does mean what he does not say ; that is, that the first day is the Sabbath ? You do not believe that what God says a dozen times, or more, can be true ; but you are sure, mat what he does not say even once is infallibly true ; and that nothing but stupidity or scepticism would pre- sume to doubt it. When you are told that the sev- enth day is the Sabbath, and the testimony of God's Spirit, plainly uttered in one dozen passages, to- gether with the uniform practice of the church as long as we can trace the inspired history of the Sab- bath, is offered in proof of the assertion, you shut your eyes, and declare that you can see nothing, and that all this proves nothing. But when you tell me, that the first day is, and that the seventh is not, the Sabbath, and quote, as proof, Acts 20 : 7, and a few other passages, not one of which says one word about the Sabbath, or the seventh day, or a day of rest, or holy time, or exercises which are proper only on the Sabbath, you affirm, that you have prov- ed your position beyond all doubt, and that the only reason why I cannot see the evidence is because the vail of Judaism is over my eyes. The moral law says, " The seventh day is the Sabbath :" but you say, " No, the seventh day is not the Sabbath ; you do not understand the law; you mistake its meaning." Neither that law, nor any other in the Bible, says, " The first day is the Sabbath." Not- withstanding, you dare to lift up your hands, and swear by the living God, that the first day is the Sabbath. But this is not all. Oh ! that it were ! The Holy Ghost has said, not only in the record that God made on, Adam's heart, and in the cove- nant of works, but also in the written law given at Mount Sinai, and in several other passages of Scrip- COXCLLijION. 57 ture, " The seventh clay is the Sabbath of the Lord thy Grod." But you have repeatedly sworn by the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Jehovah, that this assertion is not true — that the seventh day is not the Sabbath of the Lord our God — that it is a common working day. Because I can no longer join you in this heaven-daring oath, you have de- clared me unworthy of the confidence of a Christian people, and forbidden me to perform any longer the functions of a missionary of the cross. You have told the church, that, having violated my ordination vows, I have forfeited my ministry, and that my seat at the Lord's table is vacant. You have thus flung upon the heedless winds the mad-dog cry of ** sus- pended minister," " covenant-breaker," and " dis- turber of the church's peace." But think not, brethren, beloved in the Lord, that the treatment which I have received at your hands shall deter me from proclaiming what I believe to be God's truth, as God may give me utterance. That you wish to do what is right, I do not doubt. That you believe you do God Service in thrusting me from your Christian embraces, is evidenf-enough. That many of you love me yet, and pray for me, I can but hope. But that you all sin in not search- ing the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so, I do firmly believe. And now, brethren, I cannot close this treatise without uttering a word of warning to every one of you, which will, I fear, be very generally disregard- ed by you. Yet " wo is me" if I utter it not ! Do not, I beseech you, be angry at any thing I have written, or refuse to hear my parting words because I am a " suspended minister." You have loaded me with reproach, not because I have committed any crime, but because I have plead for the integri- 58 VINDICATION OF THE TRUE SABBATH. ty and immutability of the moral law. I am neither a thief, nor a murderer, nor a robber of churches, but I do most firmly believe, that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord my God, and that you, and all others who do not keep it holy, are guilty before God of a gross violation of the moral law. And can I, under those circumstances, regard your reproaches as a legitimate expression of the Divine displeasure 1 No. That I am really unworthy of the gospel ministry, I confess. That I am not suffi- cient for these things, I know. But, after having been regularly called to this responsible work, I will not be driven from it, for such a cause. Know then, ye rulers in the house of God, that I am still a minister of Jesus Christ, sent forth to proclaim the terrors of God's law to the rebellious and impenitent, and to promise the grace of the gospel to the peni- tent and believing. Know also, ye professors of the Christian religion who neglect the sanctifica- tion of the seventh day, and especially ye ministers of Jesus who " teach men so," that you make dark what God has madp plain ; that you pluck out of the hand of God's schoolmaster one of those rods where- with he would lash the carnal heart; that you hide one of God's candles under a bushel, and compass yourselves about with sparks, and. a fire of your own kindling ; that you provoke the Holy Spirit, in rejecting his testimony, and teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. Yes, brethren, though my words fall upon your ears as an idle tale that you believe not, I declare to you, in the name of Him whom your doctrine dishonors and your phi- losophy insults — in the name of that suspended Minister, to whom all the ends of the earth shall look for salvation — that, if you repent not, the Holy Ghost will bear witness against you, in the awful day of retribution, that you have refused his words, CONCLUSION. 59 and that you have " put darkness for light, and light for darkness ! " Think not that I am your enomy, because I thus speak. Think not that I have no confidence in your piety, because I rebuke you sharply. Think not that I am proud, boastful, and self-confident, because I dare to approach you^ who are vastly my superiors in knowledge, and remind you of your duty. I would giadly have avoided this public exhibition of my sentiments. Had it been possible to withhold my testimony, you would never have seen these pages. But "necessity is laid upon me.'* And think not, I beseech you, that I am against the church of our Redeemer, or would hinder her pros- perity, because I oppose a human institution which Christians very generally observe. " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Je- rusalem above my chief joy."