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THE
SEVENTH DAY SABBATH
A
PERPETUAL SIGN
FROM THE BEGINNING, TO THE ENTERING INTO THE
GATES OF THE HOLY CITY
ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT.
BY JOSEPH BATES.
"Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old
commandment which ye had from the _beginning_. The old
commandment is the WORD which ye have heard from the
_beginning_." _John_ ii: 7.
"In the _beginning_ God created the heaven and the earth."
_Gen._ i: 1. "And God blessed the seventh day, and rested from
all his work." ii: 3.
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have
right to the tree of life and enter in," &c. _Rev._ xxii: 14.
[SECOND EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED]
NEW BEDFORD:
PRESS OF BENJAMIN LINDSEY
1847
[ii]PREFACE
TO THE LITTLE FLOCK.
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "Six days work may be done,
but the SEVENTH is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not
do any work." This commandment I conceive to be as binding now as it
ever was, and will be to the entering into the "gates of the city." Rev.
xxii: 14.
I understand that the SEVENTH day Sabbath is not the LEAST one, among
the ALL things that are to be restored before the second advent of Jesus
Christ, seeing that the Imperial and Papal power of Rome, since the days
of the Apostles, have changed the seventh day Sabbath to the first day
of the week!
Twenty days before God re-enacted and wrote the commandments with his
finger on tables of stone, he required his people to keep the Sabbath.
Exo. xvi: 27, 30. Here he calls the Sabbath "MY COMMANDMENTS AND MY
LAWS." Now the SAVIOR has given his comments on the commandments. See
Matt. xxii: 35, 40.--"On these two (precepts) hang ALL the law and the
prophets." Then it would be impossible for the Sabbath to be left out. A
question was asked, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Says Jesus,
"If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments"--xix. Here he
quotes five from the tables of stone. It is still clearer in Luke x. 25,
28. "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" Here he gives the
Savior's exposition in xxii. Matt. as above. Jesus says, "Thou hast
answered right, this do and live." See also Matt. v: 17, 19, 21, 27, 33.
PAUL comments thus. "The law is holy, and the commandments holy, just
and good." "Circumcission and uncircumcission is nothing but the keeping
the commandments of God." "All the law is fulfilled in one word: thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." JOHN says, "the old commandment is
the WORD from the beginning."--2, 7.--Gen. ii: 3. "He carries us from
thence into the gates of the city." Rev. xxii: 14. Here he has
particular reference to the Sabbath. JAMES calls it the PERFECT, royal
law of liberty, which we are to be doers of, and be judged by. Take out
the fourth commandment and the law is imperfect, and we shall fail in
one point.
The uncompromising advocate for present truth, which feeds and nourishes
the little flock in whatever country or place, is the restorer of all
things; one man like John the Baptist, cannot discharge this duty to
every kindred, nation, tongue and people, and still remain in one place.
The truth is what we want.
FAIRHAVEN, AUGUST, 1846.
JOSEPH BATES.
[iii]PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
TO THE LITTLE FLOCK.
My reasons for issuing a second edition of this book are, First, the
increasing demand for them, from different quarters. Second, it affords
me an opportunity of spreading additional light from the Word on this
important subject of present truth. Much more is said about it than any
doctrine in the bible, beginning in Genesis, and continuing down to the
closing up of the last message which God ever gave to man, proving
clearly that the doing of these commandments saves the soul; showing it
more clearly than a strict adherence to the Constitution of these United
States proves the man a sound patriot. Therefore in this sense they are
strictly the constitution of the bible, the everlasting covenant between
God and man, and can never be changed or altered while man is stamped
with the image of God. Why then has the church lost sight of them? or
rather the Covenant in them of the 7th day Sabbath? See history 43d
page, and Dan. vii. 25. Well then how does it come to be understood at
this point of time? Answer.--The angel Gabriel told Daniel that
knowledge should increase in the time of the end. This of course
included the scriptures, particularly since the proclamation of the
everlasting Gospel in Rev. xiv: 6, 13. It is well known how this
knowledge has increased since 1840. These ten Commandments being the
foundation of the scriptures. (See Matt. xxii.) God, in a peculiar
manner, to instruct his honest, confiding children, shows them
spiritually under the sounding of the seventh Angel, the ark of his
testament after the temple of God was opened in heaven. xi: 19. These
are the ten commandments. Here then I understand is where the spirit
made an indelible impression to search the scriptures for the TESTIMONY
of God. It was done, and published to the world by many, that the
professed church had been walking in open violation of the fourth
commandment since the days of the Apostles.--Every one that has read the
history of this TESTIMONY of God in the ark, must see the mighty power
that accompanied it through Israel and Philistine, one of the greatest
wonders that ever existed [iv]in this world, a pattern only of what was
seen in the opening of the Temple in heaven. In the xiv: 12, John sees
them obeying its dictates. In the xv ch. he describes the division as in
the xiv ch. they were rejoicing over the victory of the beast, (got out
of the churches,) standing on or by the sure word of prophecy, (some say
immortality.) The 4th v. says, "for all nations SHALL come (in the
future) and worship before thee." "After that I looked and behold the
Temple of the Tabernacle of the TESTIMONY in heaven was open," 5th v.
(that is after their songs of rejoicing.) The Temple which contained the
Tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, or ten commandments was open. Now
this Temple without doubt is the new Jerusalem. Who cannot see that this
Temple has been opened for some purpose, but not to be entered by man
until the seven last plagues are fulfilled. Here is a space of time in
which the commandments will be fully kept. I do not say that this view
of the Ark in Rev. is positive, but I think the inference is strong. I
cannot see what else it refers to.
On pages 15, 16, I have added about 24 lines in further explanation of
Coll. ii: 14, 17. On 16th page, I have also added about as much more to
illustrate and distinguish the Sabbath feasts of the Jewish nation. On
the nineteenth page I have given about forty lines on the 2d Cor. iii,
which I think must settle these points fully.
The last fourteen pages are principally devoted to the covenants and
what they are intended for. The two covenants made with man in this
state of mortality, is first by God delivered to Moses. The second or
new, by Jesus Christ and his disciples. Paul in speaking of them to the
Gal. iv: 24, says these are THE TWO COVENANTS. All the others belong to
the Saints after the second advent.
If any of the brethren feel it a duty to help pay for the paper and
printing of this edition the way is open, otherwise it will be done by a
few individuals here, as was the first edition. This work is sent forth
gratuitously, with a fervent prayer that these present precious truths
may be set home on the soul preparatory to the coming judgment.
Since issuing the first edition in August last, we have publicly called
on all the advent lecturers and believers to show us if we were wrong on
the Lord's Sabbath. Once more we now challenge the Christian world to
show us if they can from the Bible, where we have taken a wrong view of
the seventh day Sabbath.
Fairhaven, Jan. 1847.
J. B.
[5]THE SABBATH
FIRST QUESTION IS, WHEN WAS THE SABBATH INSTITUTED?
Those who are in the habit of reading the Scriptures just as they find
them, and of understanding them according to the established rules of
interpretation, will never be at a loss to understand so plain a passage
as the following: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it;
because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and
made." Gen. ii: 3. Moses, when referring to it, says to the children of
Israel. "This is that which the Lord hath _said_, to-morrow is the REST
of _the_ holy Sabbath unto the Lord." Exod. xvi: 23.
Then we understand that God established the seventh day Sabbath in
Paradise, on the very day when he rested from all his work, and not one
week, nor one year, nor two thousand five hundred and fourteen years
afterwards, as some would have it. Is it not plain that the Sabbath was
instituted to commemorate the stupendous work of creation, and designed
by God to be celebrated by his worshipers as a weekly Sabbath, in the
same manner as the Israelites were commanded to celebrate the Passover,
from the very night of their deliverance till the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead; or as we, as a nation, annually celebrate our national
independence: or as type answers to antetype, so we believe this must
run down, to the "keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God" in the
immortal state.
It is argued by some, that because no mention is made of the Sabbath
from its institution in Paradise till the falling of the manna in the
wilderness, mentioned in Exo. xvi: 15, that it was therefore _here_
instituted for the Jews, but [6]we think there is bible argument
sufficient to sustain the reply of Jesus to the Pharisees, "that the
Sabbath was made for MAN and not man for the Sabbath." If it was made
for any one exclusively it must have been for Adam the father of us all,
two thousand years before Abraham who is claimed as the father of the
Jews was born. John says, the old commandment was from the beginning--1;
ii: 7.
There is pretty strong inference that the antideluvians measured time by
weeks from the account given by Noah, when the waters of the deluge
began to subside. He "sent out a dove which soon returned." At the end
of _seven_ days he sent her out again; and at the end of _seven_ days
more, he sent her out a third time. Now why this preference for the
number _seven_? why not five or ten days, or any other number? Can it be
supposed that his fixing on upon _seven_ was accidential? How much more
natural to conclude that it was in obedience to the authority of God, as
expressed in the 2d chap. of Gen. A similar division of time is
incidentally mentioned in Gen. xxix; "fulfil her _week_ and we will give
thee this also; and Jacob did so and fulfilled her _week_." Now the word
_week_ is every where used in Scripture as we use it; it never means
more nor less than _seven_ days (except as symbols of years) and one of
them was in all other cases the Sabbath. But now suppose there had been
an entire silence on the subject of the Sabbath for this twenty-five
hundred years, would that be sufficient evidence that there was none. If
so, we have the same evidence that there was no Sabbath from the reign
of Joshua till the reign of David, four hundred and six years, as no
mention is made of it in the history of that period. But who can be
persuaded that Samuel and the pious Judges of Israel did not regard the
Sabbath. What does God say of Abraham? that he "obeyed my voice, and
kept my charge, my _commandments_, my _statutes_ and my _laws_." (See
what he calls them in Exo. xvi: 27, 30.) This, of course, includes the
whole. Then Abraham reverenced God's Sabbath. Once more, there is no
mention of the circumcision from the days of Joshua till the days of
Jeremiah, a period of more than eight hundred years. Will it be believed
that Samuel and David, and all those pious worthies with the whole
Jewish nation, neglected that essential seal of the covenant for eight
hundred years? It cannot be admitted for a moment. How [7]then can any
one suppose from the alleged silence of the sacred history that Adam,
Enoch, Noah and Abraham, kept no Sabbath because the fact was not
stated? If we turn to Jer. ix: 25, 26, we find that they had not
neglected this right of circumcision, only they had not circumcised
their hearts; so that the proof is clear, that silence respecting the
keeping any positive command of God, is no evidence that it is not in
full force.
Again, if the Sabbath was not instituted in Paradise, why did Moses
mention it in connection with the creation of the world? Why not reserve
this fact for two or three thousand years in his history, until the
manna fell in the wilderness, (see Exo. xvi: 23) and then state that the
seventh day Sabbath commenced, as _some_ will have it? I answer, for the
very best of reasons, that it did not commence there. Let us examine the
text. "And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as
much bread as on any preceding day, 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_,
bake that which ye will bake, &c. &c." If this had been the establishing
of the holy Sabbath and Moses had said to-morrow _shall be_ the Sabbath,
then would it have been clear; but no, he speaks as familiarly about it
as we do when we say that to-morrow is the Sabbath, showing conclusively
that it was known before, or how could the people have known that they
must gather two day's manna on Friday the sixth day, unless they had had
some previous knowledge of the Sabbath? for Moses had already taught
them not to "leave any of it until the morning"--v. 19. The 20th verse
shows that the Sabbath had not yet come since their receiving the manna,
because it spoiled and "bred worms by the next morning;" whereas, on the
Sabbath morning it was found sweet and eatible--24th v. This was the
thirtieth day after leaving Egypt (1st v.) and twenty days before it was
given on Sinai. The weekly Sabbath then was appointed before this or
before the days of Moses. Where was it then? Answer in the second
chapter of Genesis and no where else; and the same week on which the
manna fell, the weekly Sabbath was revived among or with God's chosen
people. Grotius tells us "that the memory of the creation's being
performed in seven days, was preserved not only among the Greeks and
Italians, but among the Celts and Indians." Other [8]writers say
Assyrians, Egyptians, Arabians, Britons and Germans, all of whom divide
their time into weeks. Philo says "the Sabbath is not peculiar to any
one people or country, but is common to all the world." Josephus states
"that there is no city either of Greeks or barbarians or any _other
nation_, where the religion of the Sabbath is not known." But as they,
like the great mass of God's professed people in christendom, paid
little or no heed to what God had said about the particular day, (except
the Jews, and a few others) they (as we are informed in history) adopted
peculiar days to suit themselves, viz: the christian nations chose to
obey the Pope of Rome, who changed the _seventh_ day Sabbath to the
first day, and called it the holy Sabbath; the Persians selected Monday;
the Grecians Tuesday; the Assyrians Wednesday; the Egyptians Thursday;
the Turks Friday, and the Jews the seventh day, Saturday, as God had
commanded. Three standing miracles a week, for about forty years
annually, ought to perpetuate the Sabbath. 1st, double the quantity of
manna on the sixth day; 2d, none on the seventh; 3d, did not spoil on
the seventh day. If it does not matter which day you keep holy to the
Lord, then all these nations are right. Now reflect one moment on this,
and then open your bible and read the commandment of the God of all
these nations! "REMEMBER! (what you have been taught before) _the
Sabbath day to keep it holy_;" (which day is it Lord?) "_the_ SEVENTH
_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_."
Who is the stranger? (Gentiles.) Now the reason for it will carry us
back to paradise. "_For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is; and rested on the_ SEVENTH; _wherefore the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it_." "Wherefore the children
of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the _Sabbath_ throughout
their generations for a _perpetual covenant_; it is a SIGN between me
and the children of Israel _forever_." (Why is it Lord?) "_For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the_ SEVENTH _day he rested
and was refreshed_." Exo. xx and xxxi.--Which day now will you choose?
O, says the reader, the seventh if I knew which of the days it was. If
you don't know, why are you so sure that the _first_ day is right? O,
[9]because the history of the world has settled that and this is the
most we can know. Very well then, does not the _seventh_ come the day
before the eighth? If we have not got the days of the week right now, it
is not likely that we ever shall. God does not require of us any more
than what we know; by that we shall be judged. Luke xxii: 55, 56.
Once more; think you that the spirit of God ever directed Moses when he
was giving the history of the creation of the world, to write that he
(God) "blessed the _seventh_ day and sanctified it, because that in it
he had rested from all his work." unless he meant it to be dated from
that very day? Why, this is as clear to the unbiassed mind as it is that
God created man the sixth day. Would it not be the height of absurdity
to attempt to prove that God only intended Adam should be created at
some future period, or that the creation of the heavens and earth was
not in the beginning, but some twenty five hundred years afterwards? All
this would be as cogent reasoning as it would be to argue that God did
not intend this day of _rest_ should commence until about twenty-five
hundred years afterwards. (The word Sabbath signifies rest.)
It follows then irresistibly, that the weekly Sabbath was not made for
the Jews only, (but as Jesus says, for 'man') for the Jews had no
existence until more than two thousand years after it was established.
President Humphrey in his essays on the Sabbath says, "That he (God)
instituted it when he rested from all his work, on the _seventh_ day of
the first week, and gave it primarily to our first parents, and through
them to all their posterity; that the observance of it was enjoined upon
the children of Israel soon after they left Egypt, not in the form of a
new enactment, but as an ancient institution which was far from being
forgotten, though it had doubtless been greatly neglected under the
cruel domination of their heathen masters; that it was re-enacted with
great pomp and solemnity, and written in stone by the finger of God at
Sinai; that the sacred institution then took the form of a statute, with
explicit prohibitions and requirements, and has never been repealed or
altered since; that it can never expire of itself, because it has no
limitation."
In Deut. vii: 6-8, God gives his reasons for selecting the Jews to keep
his covenant in preference to any other nation; only seventy at
first--x: 22. God calls it his "Sabbath," and refers us right back to
the creation for [10]proof. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth and sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the _seventh_,"
&c. Here then we stand fixed by the immutable law of God, and the word
of Jesus, that "the Sabbath was made for man!" Paul says, "there is no
respect of persons with God." Rom. ii: 11. Isaiah shows us plainly that
the Jew is not the only one to be blessed for keeping the Sabbath. He
says "Blessed is the _man_ (are not the Gentiles men?) that keepeth the
Sabbath from polluting it." "Also the sons of the stranger, (who are
these if they are not Gentiles?) every one that keepeth the Sabbath from
polluting it, (does he mean me? yes, every gentile in the universe, or
else he respects persons) even them will I bring to my holy mountain and
make them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house shall be called an
house of prayer for _all_ people." Isa. lvi: 2, 6, 7. If this promise is
not to the Gentile as well as the Jew, then "_the_ house of prayer for
all people" is no promise to the Gentile.
Now we ask, if God has ever abrogated the law of the Sabbath? If he has
it can easily be found. We undertake to say without fear of
contradiction, he has not made any such record in the bible; but on the
contrary, he calls it a perpetual covenant, a "sign between me and the
children of Israel forever," for the reason that he rested on the
seventh day, Exo. xxxi: 16, 17. Says one, has not the ceremonial law
been annulled and nailed to the cross? Yes, but what of that? Why then
the Sabbath must be abolished, for Paul says so! Where? Why in Cols. 2d
chapter, and xiv. Romans. How can you think that God ever inspired Paul
to say that the _seventh_ day Sabbath was made void or nailed to the
cross at the crucifixion, when he never intended any such change; if he
did, he certainly would have deceived the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in
the promise which he made them about two thousand four hundred and
forty-six years ago! Turn now to Jer. xvii: 25, and tell me if he did
not promise the inhabitants of Jerusalem that their city should remain
forever if they would hallow the sabbath day. Now suppose the
inhabitants of Jerusalem had entered into this agreement, and entailed
it upon their posterity (because you see it could not have been
fulfilled unless it had continued from generation to generation,) to
keep the Sabbath holy, would not God have been bound to let Jerusalem
remain forever? You say yes. Well, then, I ask you to show how he could
have [11]kept that promise inviolate if he intended in less than six
hundred and fifty years to change this seventh day Sabbath, and call the
first day of the week the Sabbath, or abolish it altogether? I say,
therefore, if there has been any change one way or the other in the
Sabbath, since that promise, it would be impossible to understand any
other promise in the Bible; how much more reasonable to believe God than
man. If men will allow themselves to believe the monstrous absurdity
that FOREVER, as in this promise, ended at the resurrection, then they
can easily believe that the Sabbath was changed from the _seventh_ to
the first day of the week. Or if they choose the other extreme,
abolished until the people of God should awake to be clothed on with
immortality. Heb. iv: 9.
Now does it not appear plain that the Sabbath is from God, and that it
is coeval and co-extensive (as is the institution of marriage) with the
world. That it is without limitation; that there is not one thus saith
the Lord that it ever was or ever will be abolished, in time or
eternity.--See Exod. xxxi: 16, 17; and Isa. lxvi: 22, 24; Heb iv: 4, 9.
But let us return and look at the subject as we have commenced in the
light of Paul's argument to the Romans and Collossians, for here is
where all writers on this subject, for the change or the overthrow of
the _seventh_ day Sabbath attempt to draw their strong arguments. The
second question then, is this:
HAS THE SABBATH BEEN ABOLISHED SINCE THE SEVENTH DAY OF CREATION? IF SO,
WHEN, AND WHERE IS THE PROOF?
The text already referred to, is in Rom. xiv: 5, 6.--"One man esteemeth
one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man
be persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it
unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth
not regard it." Does the apostle here mean to say, that under the new or
Christian dispensation it is a matter of indifference which day of the
week is kept as a Sabbath, or whether any sabbath at all is kept? Was
that institution which the people of God had been commanded to call a
delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, now to be esteemed of so
carnal a nature as to be ranked among the things which Jesus "took out
of the way, nailing it to [12]his cross." If this be true, then has
Jesus, in the same manner, abolished the eight last verses in the
fifty-eighth of Isaiah, and the 2d, 6th and 7th verses of the 56th
chapter have no reference to the Gentile since the crucifixion. O Lord
help us rightly to understand and divide thy word. But is it not evident
from the four first verses in the same chapter of Romans, that Paul is
speaking of feast days; Hear him explain. "Destroy not him with thy
_meat_ for whom Christ died. For the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink." 15, 17 v, also 20, 23. Giving them again in substance the
decrees which had been given by the Apostles in their first conference,
in A. D. 51; held at Jerusalem. See Acts xv: 19. James proposes their
letter to the Gentiles should be "that they abstain from pollution of
Idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood;"
to which the conference all agreed. Now please read their unanimous
_decrees_ (xvi: 4,) from twenty-three to thirty verses. "For it seemed
good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than
these necessary things." "That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols,
and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from
which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well." Reading along to the 13th
of the next chapter, we find Paul establishing the Churches with these
decrees; (see 4, 5,) and at Philippi he holds his meeting, (not in the
Jews Synagogue) but at the river's side, on the _Sabbath_ day. A little
from this it is said that Paul is in Thesalonica preaching on the
Sabbath days. Luke says this was his _manner_. What was it? Why, to
preach on the Sabbath days (not 1st days.) Observe here were three
Sabbaths in succession. xvii: 2. A little while from this Paul locates
himself in Corinth, and there preaches to the Jews and Greeks (or
Gentiles) a year and six months _every Sabbath_. Now this must have
been seventy-eight in succession. xviii: 4, 11. Does this look like
abolishing the Sabbath day? Has anything been said about the 1st day
yet? No, we shall speak of that by and by.
Before this he was in Antioch. "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 together to hear the word of God." xiii: 42, 44. Here is proof that
the Gentiles kept the Sabbath. Now I wish to place the other strong text
which is so strangely adhered to for abolishing or changing this
Sab[13]bath along side of this, that we may understand his meaning.
"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."
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a
holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days." Coll. ii: 14, 16.
Now here is one of the strong arguments adhered to by all those who say
the seventh day Sabbath was abolished at the crucifixion of our Lord:
while on the other hand by the great mass of the Christian world, (so
called,) the seventh day Sabbath ceased here, and in less than
forty-eight hours the change was made to the first day of the week. Now
remember Paul's manner, (before stated) itinerating from city to city
and nation to nation, always preaching to Jews and Gentiles on the
seventh day Sabbath, (for there is no other day called the Lord's
Sabbath in the Bible.) Now if the Apostle did mean to include the
Sabbath of the Lord God with the Jewish feasts and Sabbaths in the text,
then the course he took to do so, was the strangest imaginable. His
_manner_ always was, as recorded, with the exception of one night, to
preach on the very day that he was laboring to abolish. If you will look
at the date in your bibles, you will learn this same apostle had been
laboring in this way as a special messenger to the Gentiles, between
twenty and thirty years since (as you say) the Sabbath was changed or
abolished, and yet never uttered one word with respect to any other day
in the week to be set apart as a holy day or Sabbath. I understand all
the arguments about his laboring in the Jewish Synagogue on their
Sabbath, because they were open for worship on that day, &c., but he did
not always preach in their Synagogues. He says that he preached the
Kingdom of God, and labored in his own hired house for two years. He
also established a daily meeting for disputation in the school of
Tyranus.--Acts xix: 9. Again he says, I have "kept _back_ NOTHING that
was PROFITABLE _unto you_. (Now if the Sabbath had been changed or
abolished, would it not have been _profitable_ to have told them so?)
and have taught you publicly, and from house to house." "For I have not
shunned to declare unto you ALL the council of God."--Acts xx; 20, 27.
Then it is clear that he taught them by example that the Sabbath of the
Lord God was not abolished. Luke says it was the _custom_ (or manner) of
Christ [14]to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. iv: 16, 31.
Mark says, "And when the Sabbath day was come he began to teach in their
synagogue." Mark vi: 2.--Now if Jesus was about to abolish or change
this Sabbath, (which belonged to the first code, the moral law, and not
the ceremonial, the second code, which was to be nailed to his cross, or
rather, as said the angel Gabriel to Daniel, ix: 27, "he (Christ) in the
midst of the week shall cause the _sacrifice_ and _oblation_ to cease,"
meaning that the Jewish sacrifices and offerings would cease at his
death.) Jesus did not attend to any of the ceremonies of the Jews except
the passover and the feasts of tabernacles. Why did he say, "Think not I
am come to destroy the _law_ or the prophets? I am not come to destroy
but fulfill. One jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the _law_
until all be fulfilled." "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments" &c. Did he mean the ten commandments? Yes; for he
immediately points out the third, not to take God's name in vain; sixth
and seventh, not to kill nor to commit adultery, and styles them the
_least_. Then, the others, which include the fourth, of course were
greater than these. Matt. v; 17-19, 21, 27, 33, and were not to be
broken nor pass away. Then the Sabbath stands unchanged.
Almost every writer which I have read on the subject of abolishing or
changing the seventh day Sabbath, calls it the Jewish Sabbath, hence
their difficulty. How can it be the Jewish Sabbath when it was
established two thousand years before there was a Jew on the face of the
earth, and certainly twenty-five hundred before it was embodied in the
decalogue, or re-enacted and written in stone by the finger of God at
Sinai. God called this HIS _Sabbath_, and Jesus says it was made for
man, (not particularly for the Jews.)
"Well," says one, "what is the meaning of the texts which you have
quoted, where it speaks of Sabbaths?"--Answer: These are the Jewish
Sabbaths! which belong to them as a nation, and are connected with their
feasts. God by Hosea makes this distinction, and says, "I will also
cause all _her_ mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and _her_
Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." These then belong to the text
quoted, and not God's Sabbath. Do you ask for the proof? See xxiii
Levit. 4. "_These are the_ FEASTS _of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim
in their [15]seasons_, EVERY THING UPON HIS DAY"--37th v. (May we not
deviate a little? If you do it will be at your peril.) Fifteenth and
sixteenth verses give them a fifty day's Sabbath; twenty-fourth verse
says: "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying in the seventh month in
the first day of the month, shall ye have a _Sabbath_, a memorial of
blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation."
"Also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day of
atonement. It shall be unto you a _Sabbath_ of rest." 27, 32.
"Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when ye shall have
gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord
seven days. On the first shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall
be a Sabbath. 39th v. And Moses _declared_ unto the children of Israel
the FEASTS of the Lord." 44th v. Now here we have FOUR kinds of _Jewish_
Sabbaths, also _called_ "FEASTS _of the Lord_," to be kept annually. The
first fifty days or seven weeks Sabbath ends the third month, seventh.
In three months and twenty-four days more commences the second Sabbath,
seventh month, first; the next, the tenth; the last the fifteenth of the
month. Between the first two Sabbaths there is an interval of one
hundred and twelve days; the next two, ten days, and the next, five
days. Now it can be seen at a glance, that neither of these Sabbaths
could be on the seventh day any oftener than other annual feast could
come on that day. These then are what Hosea calls HER Sabbaths. Paul
calls them HOLY DAYS, _new moons, and sabbaths_; and this is what they
are stated to be. The first day of the seventh month is a _new moon_
SABBATH, the tenth is a Sabbath of rest and Holy convocation, a day of
atonement, and the fifteenth a feast of Sabbaths. Do you ask for any
more evidence that these are the Jewish Sabbaths, and that God's Sabbath
is separate from them? Read then what God directed Moses to write in the
third verse: "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 your dwellings." Now Moses has here declared
from the mouth of the Lord, that these are ALL the feast of the Lord,
(there is no more nor less) and every thing is to be upon _his day_, and
he has clearly and definitely separated his Sabbath from the other four.
But let us look at the text again. Coll. ii; 14-16. See 17 v.
[16]"which are a _shadow_ of things to come." What did the apostle say
were _shadows_? Why, meat, drink, holy day, new moon, sabbath days. 16th
v. Heb. ix: 10. What does he mean by shadow? See Heb. x: 1, 2. Just what
I have stated on page 14. Now here we have one _clear_, positive point.
If the seventh day Sabbath is included in the 17th verse, then it must
be a _shadow_; if it is not a _shadow_, then Paul has no reference to
it, and it stands forever! Moses says the ten commandments were written
by the finger of God on tables of stone; whatever God has done with his
own hand is stamped with immortality, and is as enduring as the sun,
moon and stars. Psl. viii: 3. But if the 4th commandment, the Sabbath of
the Lord is a _shadow_ then all the other nine commandments _must_ be.
Let us look at what are called by our Lord the least commandments, the
6th and 7th. "Thou shalt not kill."--"Thou shalt not commit adultry."
Math. v: 19, 21, 27. Are these _shadows_? Is there an individual with
common sense in the world that dare risk his reputation in such kind of
logic? Then it is as clear as a sun beam that all the others are
tangible substances, and will continue in full force while immortality
endures; especially the 4th commandment, the Sabbath. See Isa. 66: 23,
Heb. iv: 9, Rev. 22: 14. And in the 28th and 29th chapters of Numbers
the sacrifices and offerings for each of these days are made so plain,
beginning with the Sabbath, 9th v. that we have only to read the
following to understand. 26. xxix: 1. First day, seventh month, (new
moon;) 7th v., 10th day Sabbath; 12th v., 15th day Sabbath, and 35th v.,
23d day Sabbath. I will endeavor to present it in a clearer point of
view:
Feast by fire connected with the Lord's and the Jewish
Sabbaths.
The Daily or continual [always] 2 lambs morning and evening.
3 quarts of flour for a meat offering, 2-1/2 pints of oil, 5
pints of wine--xxviii: 3-7.
THE SABBATH DAY. 2 lambs, and six quarts of flour with oil.
Here follow the Jewish feasts with their Sabbaths:
1st.--7th week Sabbath, 2 bullocks, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1 goat, 24
quarts of flour--xxviii: 16, 17.
2d.--7th month Sabbath, 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1 kid, 36
quarts of flour--xxix: 1-5.
3d.--10th of 7th month Sabbath, 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 2
kids, 36 quarts of flour--7-11.
4th.--15th of 7th month Sabbath, 13 bullocks, 2 rams, 14
lambs, 2 kids, 4-1/2 bushels of flour--12-16.
5th.--8th day Sabbath, 1 bullock, 1 ram, 7 lambs, 1 goat, 36
quarts of flour--35-39.
[17]"And Moses told the children of Israel according to all that the
Lord commanded Moses." Here is the 8th day Sabbath, which makes 5 Jewish
Sabbaths, every one of them differing from the other and the Lord's
Sabbath, no more connected with them than in the xxiii of Levit. just
named. Here then is an unanswerable argument for a separation of the
Jewish from the Lord's Sabbath, and shows conclusively what Paul calls
"shadows" in ii Col: 17, and Hosea "her Sabbaths." And in the days of
Nehemiah when Ezra had read the law to the people, viii (more than one
thousand years after they were promulgated,) they bound themselves under
an oath "to walk in God's law which was given _by the hand of Moses_,
the servant of God." "And to observe and _do all the commandments_ of
the Lord, our Lord." x: 29. And that there might be no misunderstanding
about the kind of Sabbaths, they say, "If the people bring ware or any
victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on
the Sabbath or on the holy day," (31 v.) but they would "charge
themselves yearly with a third part of a shekel" (to pay for) "the burnt
_offerings_ of the _Sabbaths_, of the _new moons_, for the _set
feasts_," &c. (33 v.) for the house of God, including what has already
been set forth in Leviticus and Numbers. Now as their feast days
commenced and ended with a Sabbath, so when their feasts ceased to be
binding on them these Sabbaths must also, and all were "nailed to the
cross." Now I ask if there is one particle of proof that the Sabbath of
the Lord is included in these sabbaths and feast days?--Who then dare
join them together or contradict the Most High God, and call HIS the
_Jewish_ Sabbath? _Theirs_ was nailed to the cross when Jesus died,
while the Lord's is an _everlasting_ sign a _perpetual covenant_. The
Jews, as a nation, broke their covenant. Jesus and his disciples were
one week (the last of the seventy) that is seven years, confirming the
new covenant for another people, the Gentiles. Now I ask if this
changing the subjects from Jew to Gentile made void the commandments and
law of God, or in other words, abolished the fourth commandment? If so,
the other nine are not binding. It cannot be that God ever intended to
mislead his subjects. Let us illustrate this. Suppose that the Congress
of these United States in their present emergency, should promulgate two
separate codes of laws, one to be perpetual, and the other temporary, to
be abolished when peace was proclaimed between this country and Mexico.
The time _comes_, the temporary laws are [18]abolished: but strange to
hear, a large portion of the people are now insisting upon it that
because peace is proclaimed that both these codes of laws are forever
abolished; while another class are _strenuously_ insisting that it is
only the _fourth_ law in the perpetual code that's now abolished, with
the temporary and all the rest is still binding. Opposed to all these is
a third class, headed by the ministers and scribes of the nation, who
are writing and preaching from Maine to Florida, insisting upon it
without fear of contradiction, that when peace was proclaimed this
fourth law in the perpetual code was to change its date to another day,
gradually, (while some of them say immediately) and thenceforward become
perpetual, and the other code abolished; and yet not one of these is
able to show from the proceedings of Congress that the least alteration
had ever been made in the perpetual code. Thus, to me, the case stands
clear that neither of the laws or ten commandments in the first code,
ever has or ever can be annulled or changed while mortality is stamped
on man, for the very reason that God's moral law has no limitation.
Jesus then brought in a new covenant, which continued the Sabbath by
writing his law upon their hearts. Paul says, "written not with ink, but
with the spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy
tables of the heart." 2 Cor. iii: 3. And when writing to the Romans he
shows _how_ the Gentiles are a law unto themselves. He says, they "shew
the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences always
bearing them witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else
excusing one another," (when will this be Paul) "in the day when God
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."
ii: 15, 16. How plain that this is all the change. The Jews by nature
had the law given them on tables of stone, while the Gentiles had the
law of commandments written on their hearts. Paul tells the Ephesians
that it was "the law of commandments contained in ordinances," (ii: 15)
not on tables that were nailed to the cross. If the ten commandments,
first written by the finger of God on stone, and then at the second
covenant on fleshy tables of the heart, are shadows can any one tell
where we shall find the substance? We are answered, in Christ. Well,
hear Isaiah. He says, "that he (Christ) will magnify the law and make it
honorable." xlii: 21. Again, I ask, where was the necessity and of what
use were the ten commandments written on our hearts, if it was not to
render perfect obedience to [19]them. If we do not keep the day God has
sanctified, then we break not the least, but one of the greatest of his
commandments. Before we leave this part of our subject let us examine 2
Cor. iii: 7, 9, 11, 15. I have been told that these verses clearly prove
the abolition of the 10 commandments. It is admitted by all our
opponents, that the change which they so much insist upon, respecting
the commandments, took place at the crucifixion of our Lord. It is clear
from ii Col: 14 that the hand-writing of ordinances (the law of Moses)
was then taken out of our way, and all that was contrary to us, but the
10 commandments were never contrary to us, especially the 4th, the
Sabbath, for "it was made for man." The 2d or Gospel Covenant Paul tells
the Hebs. is written upon our hearts. viii: 10. This is the same ten
commandments; then instead of being taken away or abolished they are
still nearer to us. See also 3d v of 2d Cor: iii. If Paul was laboring
here to show the abolition of the ten commandments in A. D. 60, (look at
the top of your bible for the date) pray tell me if you can what he
meant by writing to the Romans the very same year and telling them that
"the _law was holy, and the commandments holy, just and good_." That he
meant no other than the _Law_ and _Commandments_ in the decalogue, see
xiii: 8, 9. About four years after this he is exhorting the Ephesians to
the keeping the 5th commandment. He says it is the "first commandment
with promise." vi: 2. The same year that he writes the Romans he dates
his 1st Epistle to the Cor. in ch. vii: 19, and says circumcision is
nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, (what _is_, Paul?) but the
_keeping the commandments of God_. Now all this was certainly more than
twenty-five years after the crucifixion. Is not the proof then positive
and forever established that Paul's preaching is right to the point in
establishing the commandments of God instead of abolishing them? If I
have not made it plain here, I would just say once more, that the
Apostle's argument where he refers to the abolition of the law in Rom.,
Cor., Gall., see v: 14, Eph. and Heb. he always means the carnal
commandments and laws of Moses, and not the commandments of God, as he
has shown. See Acts xxi: 20, 21. Here is circumcision, and the customs,
the _law_ of Moses, and not one breath about the Sabbath. But if you
will trace back to the xviii: 4, 11, you will see that instead of
abolishing THE Sabbath, Paul had just come from Corinth, where he had
been preaching for 78 Sabbaths in succession. O Lord help thy people
[20]to see THESE truths and keep thy law! Still, there are many other
texts relating to the law, presented by the opposite view, to show that
the law respecting the Sabbath is abolished. Let us look at some of
them. But it will be necessary in the first place, to make a clear
distinction between what is commonly called the
MORAL AND CEREMONIAL LAW.
Bro. S. S. Snow, in writing on this subject about one year ago, in the
Jubilee Standard, asks "by what authority this distinction is made." He
says, "neither our Lord or his apostles made any such distinction. When
speaking of the law they never used the terms moral or ceremonial, but
always spake of it as a _whole_, calling it _the_ law," and further
says, "we must have a 'thus saith the Lord' to satisfy us." So I say. I
have no doubt but thousands have stopped here; indeed, it has been to me
the most difficult point to settle in this whole question. Now let us
come to it fairly, and we shall see that the old and new testament
writers have ever kept up the distinction, although it may in some parts
seem to be one code of laws.
From the twentieth chapter of Exodus, where the law of the Sabbath was
re-enacted, and onward, we find two distinct codes of laws. The first
was written on two tables of stone with the _finger_ of God; the
_second_ was taken down from his mouth and recorded by the hand of Moses
in a book. Paul calls the latter carnal commandments and ordinances,
(rites or _ceremonies_) which come under two heads, religious and
political, and are Moses's. The first code is God's. For proof see Exo.
xvi: 28, 30. "How long refuse ye to keep _my_ commandments and _my_
laws: see for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath--and so the
people rested on the Sabbath day." Also in the book of Leviticus where
the law of ceremonies is given to the levites or priests, Moses closes
with these words "_These_ are the commandments which the Lord commanded
Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai"; in Heb. vii: 16, 18,
called carnal commandments.
Again, "the Lord said unto Moses, come up to me into the Mount, and be
there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments
which I have written." Exo. xxiv: 12. Further he calls them the ten
commandments--xxxiv: 28. And Moses puts them, "into the ark"--xl: 20.
_Now for the second code of laws._ See Deut. xxxl: 9, 10; and xxiv: 26.
"And when Moses had [21]finished writing the law, he commanded them to
put _this book_ of the LAW (of ceremonies) in the side of the ark of the
covenant to be read at the end of every seven years."--This is not the
song of deliverance by Moses in the forty-four verses of the
thirty-second chapter. For, eight hundred and sixty-seven years after
this, in the reign of Josiah, king of Israel, the high priest found this
book in "the temple," (2 Chron. xxxiv: 14, 15) which moved all Israel.
One hundred and seventy-nine years further onward, Ezra was from morning
till noon reading out of this book. Neh. viii: 3; Heb. ix: 19. Paul's
comments.
Bro. Snow says in regard to the commandments, "The principles of moral
conduct embraced in the law, were binding before the law was given,
(meaning that one of course at Mount Sinai) and are binding _now_; it is
immutable and eternal! They are comprehended in one word, LOVE." If he
meant, as we believe he did, to comprehend what Jesus did in the xix.
and xxii. chap. Matt. 37-40, and Paul, and James, and John after him,
then we ask how it is possible for him to reject from that code of laws,
the only one, _the seventh day rest_, that was promulgated at the
_beginning_, while at the same time the other nine, that were not
written until about three thousand years afterwards, were eternally
binding; without doubt, the whole ten commandments are coeval and
coextensive with sin.--Again he says, "We readily admit, that if what is
called the decalogue or ten commandments be binding on us, _we ought_ to
observe the seventh day, for that was appointed by the Lord as the
Sabbath day." Let us see if Jesus and his apostles do not make it
binding. _First then, the distinction of the two codes by Jesus._