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 [4]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 accidental? 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:--"fulfill 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 [5]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 [6]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 call 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 again 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, [7]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 xxiii:
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 afterward? 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 reenacted 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 [8]"Sabbath," and refers us right back
to the creation for 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 to 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 [9]yes. Well, then, I ask you to shew how he
could have 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 [10]the things which Jesus "took
out of the way, nailing it to 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; 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 was 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
[11]Sabbath 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 [12]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_
'till 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, 23, 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, call 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 [13]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 gives 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. 39v. And Moses _declared_ unto the children of Israel the
FEASTS of the Lord." 44v. 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 all 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. And in the 28th and 29th chapters of Numbers the sacrifices
[14]and offerings for each of these days are made so plain, beginning
with the Sabbath, 9v, that we have only to read the following to
understand. 26. xxix: 1. First day, seventh month, (new moon;) 7v, 10th
day Sabbath; 12v; 15th day Sabbath, and 35v, 23d day Sabbath. 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," (31v.) 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. (33v.) 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, the other temporary, to be
abolished when peace was proclaimed between this country and Mexico. The
time _comes_, the temporary laws are abolished; but strange to hear, a
large portion of the people are now insisting upon it that because peace
is proclaimed that both [15]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 are 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 shews
_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." lxii: 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 them. If we do not keep the day God has
sanctified, then [16]we break not the least, but one of the greatest of
his commandments. 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