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OBJECTIONS OF ANTI-SABBATARIANS.

things past, namely, the works of Creation, from which, on the seventh day of the world, the Almighty rested.

562. (3.) To prove that the Sabbath is an institution appointed for the Jews merely, we are referred to such passages as this (Ezek. xx. 12): "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."

563. Respecting this passage it may be observed, that his giving them the Sabbath no more implies that it was a new and a merely national institution, than his giving them the other precepts supposes that they were not previously binding upon all men,-nothing more being meant in both cases than that they were published anew to them with peculiar circumstances of solemnity.

The Sabbath may be said to be a sign, because the celebration of it would henceforth serve, with their other religious rites, to distinguish them from the other nations of the world, and it was enforced by a new reason, taken from their recent redemption. "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." If, indeed, the reason here assigned, and the immediate con-> nection in which it stands, be compared with the reason offered in the parallel passage in Exod. xx., it will be apparent, that it is not assigned for the observance of a Sabbath as a divine institution, but for the extending of the privileges of the Sabbath to servants. In other words, the passage in Exodus quotes the reason for the observance of the entire precept: the passage in Deuteronomy quotes the reason for the observance of a particular part of the precept,-that which declares that servants shall enjoy the benefit of rest from labor on every seventh day. The benevolent conduct of Jehovah in redeeming the nation from the labors of a hard servitude, is employed as an argument for releasing (according to the law) their own servants from the labors customary on the six days of the week.

There is nothing, therefore, in this language, that reduces the fourth precept to the condition of a mere Jewish, ceremonial, temporary enactment. It must be

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CHANGE OF THE SABBATICAL DAY.

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regarded as universal and permanent in the obligation of its observance.

V. Change of the Sabbath from the Seventh to the First Day of the Week.

564. Upon this article we differ, with regret, from a respectable denomination of Christians, who devote the seventh day of the week to public worship. The concession must be made, that, in arguing for the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, from the seventh to the first day, we are able to produce no positive precept; but we consider the example of the apostles, and of the primitive Church under their direction, as of equal authority with a positive.precept; because they were infallibly guided by the Spirit in all things relative to doctrine and worship.

565. There are certain facts related in the New Testament, which seem to us to show that the apostles and early Christians celebrated the first day of the week as the Sabbath.

(1.) Immediately after the resurrection of Christ, the disciples began to assemble on the first day of the week; and, by meeting repeatedly with them on that day, he gave countenance to the practice.

(2.) It was continued after his ascension, and after the descent of the Holy Ghost to lead them into all truth. Thus, at Troas, "when the disciples came together on the first day, to break bread, Paul preached to them;" Acts xx. 7 and the time of meeting is manifestly spoken of as the usual one.

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(3.) On that day the Corinthians were commanded to "lay by them in store, as the Lord had prospered them," 1 Cor. xvi. 2; and it is reasonable to think that the first day was specified as the proper time to make collections for the poor, because it was consecrated to religious duties.

(4.) It is undoubtedly the same day to which the beloved disciple refers when he says, Rev. i. 10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day;" the day which Jesus Christ peculiarly claimed as his own; or the first day of the week, which is consecrated to his honor. Ecclesiastical history shows that this day was intended.

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CHANGE OF THE SABBATICAL DAY.

(5.) If the finishing of the works of Creation was a reason why the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, there is a reason at least equally strong for the consecration of the first day, on which our Savior rose from the dead.

Then, the work of redemption was finished; and, on account of its greatness and glory, and the unspeakable benefits which it has procured to mankind, it is worthy to be held in perpetual remembrance. The first day of the week is dedicated to the memory of the Resurrection, by which God publicly testified that his incarnate Son "had finished transgression, and made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness." And as there will be no new work of the Almighty on earth, of superior or equal importance, the day will not be again altered, but kept sacred to the end of the world.

(6.) Christ's example, as Lord of the Sabbath, is proof that it was no part of his design to abolish the Sabbath, but to restore it to its original and true intent, and to change the day of its observance, so as to make it commemorative of his work of redemption. Previous to his death, Christ was in the regular and habitual observance of the seventh, as Sabbath day. Afterward, when, by his death and resurrection, the old dispensation was fully at an end, and the new one fully introduced, we never find him in the synagogue, or meeting with his disciples for religious purposes on that day. But he did meet with them for such purposes on the first day of the week, and in other ways he specially honored that day. He rose from the dead on that day.

[See Phelps on the Sabbath, pp. 118-123.]

VI. How and when the Sabbath is to be Observed.

To prayer; for the day that God has blest
Comes tranquilly on with its welcome rest.
It speaks of Creation's early bloom;
It speaks of the Prince who burst the tomb.
Then summon the spirit's exalted powers,
And devote to Heaven the hallowed hours.

WARE.

566. The Fourth Commandment taught the Jews, and all other men, to abstain from ordinary worldly labor on that day but several additional precepts were enjoined that were binding peculiarly upon the Jews as a nation. They were not to go out of their houses, or to take

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journeys, except to a place of worship; and the distance to which, according to the Rabbis, they might lawfully go, was two thousand cubits, or about two thirds of an English mile, which is called, in the New Testament, a Sabbath day's journey. They were not to kindle a fire in their dwellings, that is, probably, for the purpose of preparing food. They once deemed it unlawful to defend themselves on the Sabbath; but experience made them change their opinion, although they continued to think it a sin to attack their enemies on that day.

567. A sober and candid comparison of the general character and spirit of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, would lead us to conclude that it is not our duty to be so strict as the Jews were required to be: yet the danger is, that we shall be less strict than the great objects of the Sabbath and the great interests of a future life demand.

So far as we can learn, from the conduct or the instructions of our Savior and his apostles, no work connected with worldly callings is allowable on the Sabbath, that may be deferred to another day; and no works but those of necessary benevolence-those necessary for the relief of suffering men and of suffering animals-those which we had no opportunity of doing before the Sabbath, and cannot, consistent with mercy or benevolence, postpone till the Sabbath is over.

568. The great purposes of the Sabbath seem to be twofold: that it should be a season for rendering due honor to God, as the Creator, Moral Governor, and Redeemer of the world; and that the best temporal and spirit ual interests of mankind might be promoted on that day.

The first of these may be inferred from the fact that it was instituted immediately on completing the earth for the residence of man, and was appointed as a memorial of God's creative operations under the New Testament dispensation, it became also a memorial of the acts by which was completed the glorious work of man's redemption; thus evidently being designed to lead men to a consideration and praise of the attributes of Jehovah as displayed in the works of Creation, of Providence, and Redemption.

The second of these designs, is inferred from the declaration of Christ, as Lord of the Sabbath, that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sab

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HOW THE SABBATH IS VIOLATED.

bath," and the connection in which this was uttered, shows that the Sabbath was not to be observed with such strictness as to preclude those acts of labor which the good of men and lower animals imperiously required. Yet this language seems to imply that labor for other ordinary purposes remained equally under prohibition as it was by the law of Moses.

569. All buying and selling, settling accounts, and paying off wages, posting books, or writing letters of business, amusement, or friendship, visiting post-offices, and taking out letters and papers, all reading of other than religious books, or papers, or pamphlets, all unnecessary conversation or thoughts about worldly affairs, all kinds of worldly business, such as gathering harvests, cutting wood, loading or unloading of merchandise from vessels or other vehicles, all making up, assorting, distributing, or carrying of mails, all trifling visits, unnecessary journeys, all excursions and amusements-even though lawful on other days-all acts, in short, which are inconsistent with those duties of public and private worship, and spiritual improvement and usefulness, which are involved in keeping the day sacred to the Lord, violate his law.

570. This one sin of SABBATH-BREAKING HAS BEEN THE MOTHER OF THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF CRIMES.

Half the criminals whose lives pay the forfeit of their offenses, whether in Great Britain, or in this country, half the criminals who end their days on the gallows, begin their career of wickedness with breaking the Sabbath. By keeping away from church, they deprive themselves of all instruction; they gradually lose all knowledge and fear of God; they do not learn to pray for his help, and so they are left without help; temptation comes upon temptation; they fall from one wickedness to another; until at length, even in this world, justice overtakes them, and gives them over to a shameful death.

Parliamentary Testimony in favor of the Sabbath.

571. In 1838, when the claims of the Sabbath were investigated by the British parliament, a committee of that body received the following testimony from the Rev. David Ruel, who had been chaplain of prisons in London for twenty-eight years, and had under his spiritual care not less, probably, than one hundred thousand prisoners,

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