Part 23

Here it is proper to remark, that there is nothing in the fourth Commandment to militate against observing as holy time, the first day of the week. It directs us to keep as holy time, every seventh day. _Six days shall thou labour, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God._ The seventh part of time is here consecrated to God. _The seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,_ a day to be kept holy to God, different from all other days. Every day indeed we ought to remember him who is the source of all good. But the seventh after six working days is, in a particular manner, to be kept holy unto God. _Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy._ We never could know from the fourth commandment, where to begin the Sabbath, or where to end the six working days; or when to begin to work or to rest. All that this commandment does, is to appoint for holy uses, the seventh part of time, or one day in seven. And so far, it is moral and not positive. There is a fitness, in the reason of things, that some part of our time, or days should be especially devoted to God, and religious worship; how great a part, or when to begin, or end our day of sacred rest, is left for God to decide by his own appointment; and accordingly is _positive._ It will then be asked, how the Jews could know, what day to keep as the Sabbath day, or when to begin, or to end their six days of labour? There was another precept pointing out the precise day. Exo. xvi. 23, 25, 26. _And he said this is that which the Lord hath said, to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord._ This is the first place that we have any mention of the Sabbath, from its institution at the close of creation, which is _express,_ though there are some intimations of it, as before observed. The people, three days after they left the banks of the red Sea, where God so gloriously wrought for them, murmured at Marah, because of their thirst. They then came to ELIM, and thence to SIN, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And here they murmured again, for the want of bread; concluding that they were all to perish with hunger. God, again, by a standing miracle supplied them with food--he rained bread from heaven.--On the sixth day, there were to gather twice as much as on other days, as a supply for the seventh--which was the Sabbath.--Here the day was fixed, _when_ to begin their Sabbath.--When, they had reached Sinai; the moral law was given to them in awful solemnity:--and one part of it, contained the due observation of a seventh part of time. It is then, as fully proved as any thing can be, that the christian Sabbath is, according to the fourth commandment, as much the seventh day, as the Jewish Sabbath. It is observed every seventh day, the seventh from our first working day, as well as theirs. When, therefore, we keep the first day of the week, as holy time, we do, in no sense, go counter to the fourth commandment. To object against the first day Sabbath, as a departure from this commandment, bespeaks great ignorance.--And Christ, when he instituted the first-day Sabbath, did not abolish, weaken, or destroy the fourth commandment.--I have dwelt the longer upon the original institution of the Sabbath, in Paradise, because if we can prove that God hath actually set apart a seventh portion of time, from the beginning, it will happily open the way, to establish, beyond all contradiction, that under the New-Testament-dispensation, we have a Sabbath: and if we have, it must be the _first_ day of the week, as will be evinced from other arguments.

2dly. When God set apart the people of Israel to be a peculiar people unto himself, he directed them to devote, one day in seven, to him as holy time. In giving them the moral law, as an epitome of all their duty, he took care to insert the law of the Sabbath. _Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy._ The due observation of the Sabbath is placed among the great and essential points of morality. God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. The people were told it was the Sabbath of the Lord their God. It was his day. He had a special interest in it; a peculiar property. It was a day, in which he was to be honoured, the work of Creation commemorated, and their deliverance from a cruel servitude duly noticed. It is prefaced thus, _I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt and house of bondage._ It was a day to be observed by them to distinguish them from other nations, as worshippers of the true God, and to preserve them from Idolatry. The most rigid rules were prescribed for sanctifying it. The most severe penalties were annexed to the breach of it. A Sabbath-breaker was among the most vile and abominable characters. The whole day was to be devoted to God and Religion. When they kept the day as holy, they were prospered. Calamities and judgments were inflicted upon them, when as a nation, they neglected God's holy Sabbath. All the prophets who were raised up, one after another, called them to observe the Sabbath, warned them against any contempt of it, and placed the sanctification of the Sabbath upon a footing of equality with the moral Virtues. As the priests were the guardians of the ceremonies and rites of their religion, so the prophets were the restorers, and guardians of moral duty. Their placing the due observation of the Sabbath so high, as a moral duty, is a full proof how they viewed it, and how God viewed it. A violation or profanation of the day was to be punished with awful severity. We find that God's giving them the Sabbath, is enumerated among his great and signal mercies to them; the wonders of his Goodness, Nehemiah ix. 14. _And madeth known unto them thy holy Sabbath._ If a mere ceremonial rite, would it be called _God's holy Sabbath?_ God's giving it unto them, or instituting it, is spoken of, as an instance of his distinguishing kindness. The prophet Ezekiel represents it under the notion of a _sign_ between God and his people. Ezek. xx. 12, 13. _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. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them: and my sabbath they greatly polluted._ Here the Sabbath is spoken of, as God's Sabbath, and a sign between him and his people: as a mean of their religious and moral improvement; of their sanctification. The sin of profaning or neglecting it, is represented as most heinous; and as calling down upon the people the heavy displeasure of the Almighty. Sabbath-breakers were a class of transgressors peculiarly odious to him. See, in what terms of profound respect, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the Sabbath: and how high, in the scale of duty, he placed the due sanctification of it. _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, honourable, and shall honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:--Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it._ Do the prophets ever speak of mere ceremonial laws or observances in this manner? I appeal to every person, who knows any thing at all about the scriptures. Be pleased only to remark a moment. The people are called upon not to trample under foot the Sabbath--not to find their own pleasure upon it--not to speak their own words, that is, converse about worldly subjects as on other days, not to do their own ways. It is spoken of as God's day by way of eminence, the holy of the Lord and honourable.--Again; the man who keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, is pronounced _blessed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it: that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it._ Isaiah speaking of Gospel-days says that public worship is to be weekly attended upon--and on the Sabbath, as the appointed day. _And it shall come to pass from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come before me, saith the Lord._ This is a prophesy of Gospel-days. That it is so, every one will be satisfied, who reads it in its connexion. And no words can more _expressly_ declare that there shall be _stated_ public worship under the Gospel-dispensation; and that it is to be observed _weekly_--and upon the _Sabbath,_ as the _appointed_ day.--The people of God, then, under the Jewish dispensation were to keep the Sabbath, as a day of sacred rest, holy unto the Lord. When they neglected it they were frowned upon--when they strictly observed it, they were smiled upon--it was kept during the whole of that dispensation, till the introduction of christianity.--It was kept from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Christ. The great original reason for setting it apart for holy purposes, in the beginning, was to remember the Creator and his works: to have a _set_ time to worship and serve him, who is the author of all our mercies--and to cultivate a holy temper of heart, and prepare for a holy happiness after death. The superadded reasons for the people of Israel to keep a sabbath, a weekly day of sacred rest, were their deliverance from a cruel bondage, by the miraculous interpositions of Providence, and the distinguishing kindnesses bestowed upon them--as a people separated to God from the rest of the world. _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._ These are the particular reasons why the Jews were to keep the Sabbath day.--The particular reasons why the Jewish Sabbath was to be kept, have long ago ceased, even when that dispensation, under which the Jews lived, was abolished. Therefore the Jewish Sabbath is done away. But there are particular reasons why Christians, under the Gospel-dispensation, should keep a weekly Sabbath; as well as why the Jews, under their dispensation, should keep a weekly Sabbath.

3dly. There is the same propriety that Christians, under the Gospel, should keep a day of sacred rest, weekly, to remember the work of redemption, as the Jews should, to remember their deliverance from oppression and servitude in Egypt; and much greater, as the former is infinitely more important than the latter, and as the one was only a type of the other. The great reason of the original appointment of a seventh portion of time to be consecrated to religious use, was to commemorate the work of Creation. That there was a Sabbath appointed, in the beginning, none can deny, who are capable of understanding the plainest words, and are not resolved to pervert them; and has also been satisfactorily evinced, I trust, in another part of this discourse. To this primitive institution of the Sabbath before the FALL of man, the best expositors suppose our Lord refers, when he says, _The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath._--We cannot forbear to remark, here, that, in these words, our Saviour does not intimate, in the most distant manner, the abolition of a seventh portion of time to be devoted to pious ends. He expressly says the Sabbath was made for man, for his comfort and benefit--that he might have a rest. If it ever were really for the good of man, that there should be a weekly Sabbath, it is always for his good--as necessary at one time as another: and under one dispensation as another. Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer, does not hint to us that the surpassing excellence of his religion would render a weekly Sabbath needless--or that all days were to be Sabbaths:--or that his people would be so holy, as to be above keeping any time as holy.

Besides, it is altogether pertinent to argue, as is always done by the friends of the Christian Sabbath, that there is such a day to be kept holy, weekly, to the end of the world, from the _greatness_ of the work of Redemption. If it were fit to keep a Sabbath, weekly to remember the work of Creation, it is more fit to keep one in memory of the work of Redemption. Christ, as God, made all things. By the word of his Almighty power he spoke the heavens and the earth into being.--And he appointed a Sabbath to commemorate those works, which are great and marvellous.--But his work of redemption is still more marvellous. Its dimensions cannot be measured. We can only exclaim in devout admiration, O the height, the depth, the length, and breadth of it. All heavens admire and adore. Men may well stand in pleasing astonishment. It is so great and wonderful as to be called a new Creation. And the perfect felicity procured for man by it, is called new heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. When Christ, as Creator, rested from the work of the first Creation, he instituted the Sabbath to commemorate it. When he, as Redeemer, rested from his work of redemption, he instituted _a day of rest_ to be kept by all his followers, in memory of it. This is the very argument of the Apostle, Heb. iv. 10. _For he that entered into his rest, he hath also rested from his own work: as God did from his._ Christ rested from his work, when he arose from the dead, which was on the _first day_ of the week. His humiliation was then finished, and his exaltation begun. _The rest_ which remains for Christ's followers is a sabbatism or keeping a Sabbath; a Gospel-Sabbath is then the emblem of the heavenly Sabbath.--God's people of old were to keep a Sabbath in memory of the work of Creation: And Christians are to keep a Sabbath in memory of the work of Redemption. Christ, then, has a Sabbath in his dispensation. For he is the Lord of the Sabbath. But how could he be the Lord of the Sabbath, if there were none. If, then, God's antient people of the Jews, were by an express command to keep the Sabbath as a memorial of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage; and if that deliverance were a type of our deliverance from sin, by the work of redemption, it will follow that Christians should keep a Sabbath, weekly, as a memorial of that work.--This is a common argument in favour of the reality of a Sabbath, under the Gospel-dispensation, to be kept to the end of the world; but is as forcible as common. The enemies of the Christian Sabbath may cavil at it, but can never, by all their art and sophistry, overthrow it.--With it, I close the present discourse. Only requesting the hearer, to weigh all that hath been offered, or that shall be, in the next discourse, in the balance of cool deliberate reflection and examination. If the New-Testament hath no Sabbath to be sanctified by the people of God, too long have we already, been attached to a human invention. We must bid it vanish.

DISCOURSE XVI.

The first day of the week proved to be holy time, and set apart by Christ to be a weekly Sabbath to the end of the world.

ACTS xx. 7.

_And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight._

I do not know that I can introduce this discourse, more pertinently, than in the words of a pious writer.--"Let any man," saith he, "show me in the law of the Sabbath, either weakness or unprofitableness, and I yield and bid it vanish. But it hath and will have, as much strength and force as any law can have, from the author, the consent, multitude, custom and express approbation of all ages. Profit it hath too; and that very great; as hath been experienced by serious and well-disposed minds in every age of the world. It is of importance therefore not only to the well being of a Christian, but even to the very being and keeping up of religion in the world."--If I wished to know the state of religion among a people, or in the heart of a good man, one of my first questions would be, what attention or regard is paid to the Sabbath. The profane denier or neglector of the Sabbath cannot have any real love to Religion. If he imagine himself to be among the number of the friends of God and the Saviour, he must misjudge concerning himself, and be in a great delusion. A profanation and denial of the Lord's day bespeak an unrenewed heart.--It is hoped the audience will renew their attention, while the subject before us is resumed.--I proceed to state and dwell upon the arguments, from scripture, to prove that the first day of the week is holy time, and set apart by Christ to be a weekly Sabbath, unto the end of the world.

We have already, in the former discourse, illustrated three arguments to establish this important point.

1stly. The Sabbath was instituted when God had finished the work of Creation, and was observed in the world from Adam to Moses:

2dly. The people of Israel were to observe and keep it holy unto the Lord:

3dly. If they were to keep the Sabbath as a memorial unto God, of their deliverance from servitude in Egypt, then Christians are to keep a Sabbath as a memorial of the work of redemption, of which deliverance from Egyptian bondage was only a type.--We proceed, now, to argue the institution of the Christian Sabbath from what--