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Sse hott is 5 Ia eS he a ey fet 34 ee ie a iy < # 4 r 4 ¥ Sirigeis eHeatit piss) ribtbatas tiatae ee aA nas a, % i sate xp eratay sake bee ee eae tay ee aaa peorzojsue pue pe yeotTputa | uzeqqes Teanjdtz9s ent4 ouL ‘qzeqoy ‘uo TTTWeH POST EPH’ SZl ARs! ‘eg ‘eiydjape|iyd 40 mousy janwes “sa; Aq pajueseld ‘ep oN ‘NOLGHONTAd «2 wt: MGoporyD ay} ys N Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library ' httos://archive.org/details/truescripturalsa00hami > ee gaa THE TRUE SCRIPTURAL SABBATH VINDICATED AND ENFORCED; _ AND THE ANTI-SCRIPTURAL CHARACTER OF WHAT IS CALLED “THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH,” EXPOSED: BEING A REVIEW OF PROFESSOR MILLER’S LATE PAMPHLET, ON THE “ PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SABBATH,” Pa ft ef BY e ROBERT HAMILTON, M.D., F.R.S.E. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, EDINBURGH, ONE OF THE MEDICAL OFFICERS OF THE EDINBURGH EYE INFIRMARY, &C., &e. ‘Oh! / that my Tega were ee ‘and my eyes a forintain of tears, that I might “4 { weep day and might forthe slain of the dal spter of my people / 4) Ly yy G YORK Y a Ree ge eo io vires 2 “his "VVVY “BDINBURGH: SUTHERLAND & KNOX, GEORGE STREET; LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co. EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY Moutp & Top, 3 WATERLOO PLACE. ~ £ oe Mabel 7 ae + | . Pe? NO ri, Ga = (YRPER TY it | HUFL) 7 OF SS fj SS Y PRINCETON H REC FR iaaT S\THHOLOGIECKL, ‘ SB yy wy » 2 rss! de > NOTE TO PROFESSOR MILLER. My Dear Sir.—It is only after much and protracted hesitancy that I have ventured to address you upon the subject of your late Lectures on the Sabbath question. . Where possible, I would not strive: and I have many other interesting avocations which interfere with my doing justice to this one, which I regard as most solemn and momentous. Besides, it is not often that contro- versy is attended with much profit. At the same time, God’s people are exhorted to contend earnestly for the faith which was at one time delivered to the holy ones : and this object, under present circumstances, I solemnly believe to be that which I have alone in view. Long, as you know, I was a devoted and zealous advocate for the system of Evangelicism; a system which has now so many and devoted partisans. Ultimately, in the kind providence of God, I was led to know that that Evangelicism had no claims to respect greater than were those possessed by the religion of the Pharisees in the time of Christ’s sojourn here below. Its characteristics are as marked in the nineteenth century as they were in the first. It is beautiful outwardly, it has a zeal for God, and it compasses sea and land, through the agency iV NOTE TO PROFESSOR MILLER. of zealous and devoted Missionaries, male and female ; and I verily believe, makes those misled by them, as said by One of old who could not err, ‘more the chil- dren of Hell than themselves!” What a fearful picture +s this! How it excited, and sometimes enraged those to whom it was first addressed : and its influence is not, we believe, less now. Then, too, the topic of THE QaBBATH was a most leading one, as it now is. Let me then entreat you, my Dear Sir, and any who may favour these somewhat hurried pages with a perusal, to try to banish early inculcated prejudices, and long cherished principles ; withal forgetting not, That strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it, and that wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be that go in thereat : Nor that other equally striking and solemnizing interrogatory—When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth ? As it was in the days of Noah, so’ shall it be when the Son of Man cometh. As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be when the Son of Man cometh ; they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even so shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. My people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no water. PA Ty aed: A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF L.—Tue Beriever’s Saspatism. II.—Huis Curistian Lire. AND, I1].—Tuer Lorp’s Day Frstivat. 1. As the dawn of morn to the benighted and forlorn traveller, so to the earnest inquirer is the Truth, in the midst of conflicting opinion and misleading misconception. This conviction induces me at once to commence with an humble and earnest attempt to present to you, Dear Sir, and to the reader, a plain didactic account of the all-im- portant subject now before us; and that in a threefold view ; Ist, The Believer’s Sabbatism, essentially enjoyed by every one who has fled from the wrath to come, and has found a hiding place from the storm and tempest, in the sacrifice once offered upon Calvary’s cross. 2nd, The Christian's Life; the renewed life of the Christian: he being made a partaker of the divine nature; and, now, ever endeavouring to live for Him who died for him, and rose again, the witness of his conduct, and ere long his judge. And, 3rd, The Lord’s Day Festival, appointed by Christ, in connection with the Lord’s day, the exponent and proof that its happy participant was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. These three particulars understood and appreciated, viz. The Believer’s Sabba- tism,—The Lord's life, or day, in Christ, and The Lord’s- day Festival,—it will be at once perceived, with God’s blessing, that the divine injunctions given in the New Testament, are thoroughly recognised, respected, and ac- A 2 ALLUSION TO MAN’S CREATION AND FALL. complished ; whilst all the rubbish of false doctrine, con- fusion and error respecting the Sabbath-day, and the af- filiated topics, will then readily be dispelled, as the grim night-mare before returning consciousness, repose, and peace. Though the exposition may appear somewhat no- vel, it is far from being so; and I trust it may be appre- ciated and adopted, not only as essentially true, but as comprehending for every one, “the one thing needful.” And with all its weighty importance, the subject is so clear and resplendent that it requires God’s blessing alone to be admired and adopted as soon as it is apprehended and believed. 2. The leading traits of the history of our race are tamiliar, in these highly favoured countries, to the vast majority, as household words. The Almighty at the first created man in his own image and likeness, and, as his vicegerent, gave him dominion over the works of His hand. He moreover planted a garden in Eden, and there he put the man and his helpmate, with this solemn charge and injunction: ‘ Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.” With this solitary requisition man — did not comply. He violated God’s law ; he ate the for- bidden fruit ; he fell from his estate of innocence and bliss, and, with all his posterity, became obnoxious to a fearful curse, both in this world and in that eternal one which is to come. Then was that old serpent, the devil, con- demned; and our first parents were subjected to the dread sentence,—‘ Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground : for out of it was thou taken: dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’”’ Immediately Adam and Eve were sent forth from Eden; cherubim, and a flaming sword, precluding all access to the tree of life! Sad, indeed, was their experience; and their posterity, in tl generation, have shared their fearful and melancholy oom. MAN AT THE FLOOD. 3 3. The history of the human family, from Eve’s first- born, Cain, to the present day, and the cognizance and increasing consciousness of every one’s experience, are such as to vindicate the Divine sentence, and solemnize the most thoughtless of our race. The slightest glance at man’s history most visibly demonstrates this. The first- born of mankind brought an offering to Jehovah, as did Abel. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and his offer- ing, but unto Cain’s He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth. And he talked with Abel his brother; and when they were in the field he slew him. And Jehovah said unto Cain, “‘ Thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be.” And Cain said to Jehovah: “* My punishment is greater than I can bear; every one that findeth me shall slay me.’”’ How fearful was the lot of Cain! how appalling and dreadful his state of unrest, of UN-sappatism! For a moment think of it. It was symbolical of what is by nature our own. 4. Years rolled on; and the current of time wafts us to the flood. And what see we here? According to the most approved Bible reckoning, after 2348 years from Eden’s bliss, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and took them wives of all which they chose. “And Jehovah said, My spirit shall not always strive with man. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And it repented Jehovah that He had made man. (God looked upon the earth, and it was cor- rupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way. And God said to Noah: I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee wil! I establish my covenant: thou shalt come into the ark ; thou, thy sons, thy wife, and thy sons’ wives. And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded. And after seven days, the waters of the flood were upon the earth; and continued forty days. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, fowl, cattle, beast, creeping thing, and every man: all in whose nos- trils was the breath of life.” Here is another instance of 4 MAN AT THE PRESENT DAY. Un-sappatism. How appalling the destruction ofthe flood! What a warning of an impending judgement? ‘As it was in the days of Noah, sc shall it be when the Son of man cometh !” 5. Descend we now to the era of the advent of the man Christ Jesus, and inquire what was the religious state of our race at this most auspicious time ?—The Almighty Sa- viour of the world, came to his own, but his own received Him not. The light shined in darkness, and the dark- ness comprehended it not. God verily so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieved in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. He sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. And, were all so saved? Let the Hebrew prophet declare: ‘© Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed? He shall grow up as a tender sucker, asa root out of adry ground; he hath no form nor comeli- ness ; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him.” Pilate declared to the chief priests, and the rulers, and the people, “ I find no fault in Him.” And they cried, “ Away with this man, crucify him, crucify him!’ And what were Ais feel- ings towards his murderers? “ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” 6. And once more, take a similar glance at the present day. Numerous are the self -congratulations, and we doubt not sincere thanksgivings, offered up from almost every section into which nominal christendom 1s now most fearfully divided. How sincerely do many pious and de- voted Romanists thank God that they are not as others ; but are built on the true foundation of that Rock against which even the gates of hades shall never prevail! At least equally grateful are the orisons of those Protestants who from the heart thank God that they have escaped as . INDIVIDUAL TENDENCY TO SELF-VINDICATION. 5 a bird from the snare of the fowler, exclaiming, The snare is broken, and we have escaped. And what can be said of this hydra-headed Protestantism, now dissemimated throughout the four quarters of the globe, and divided into sections which cannot readily be numbered. The Church of England, disseminated throughout how many regions and colonies, boasting herself as the bulwark of the Refor- mation; her sons characterizing the Church of Scotland as Samaria: whilst the Church of Scotland, now rent in twain, exhibiting Tur Resmuary, and what is called THE Free Cuurcn, is establishing rival soi-disant churches in every parish, and earnestly contending, the one party for the downfall of the other. And, to give but one more illustration,—for as our readers must know—the topic is nearly inexhaustible—we have what is called Evangelicism, divided into innumerable sections. In illustration, we state a fact as it respects the Scottish metropolis, that an individual every way qualified to make the enquiry, has lately ascertained that in the capital city, there were from Romanism downwards, between Forty and Firry different sections, soi-disant communities, maintaining inconsistent views, and who would not, and could not amalgamate the one with the other; fifteen sections of the number agreeing that infant sprinkling was not christian baptism, but a most sinful mockery thereof. . How dread- ful a state is this for the Body, the Church of ‘Christ, as sympathetically prayed for— That they may be all ons, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee:” and whose present condition would be symbolized by our bodily frame being divided and subdivided into as many distinct and separate portions ; and then palmed upon the world as a complete and perfect exhibition of the vital human frame divine. These brief sketches, severally and collectively, are striking specimens of the prevailing, and almost uni- versal UN-Sappatism ! 7. But notwithstanding the general, not to say univer- sal assent which must be conceded by every one at all familiar with the subject, to these solemn and incontro- vertible details, there is almost universally, through the 6 MAN CREATED IN INNOCENCE. agency of the great deceiver, as we believe, an exemption made in every existing generation, by every professing religious community, from Romanism to Evangelicism, in favour of itself: and a satisfaction which is not unfre- quently cherished, if it be not definitely expressed, in such words as we have referred to: ‘‘ God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are !’’—And how is this self-justifica- tion to be met? We reply, by the words of Divine revela- tion: And we rejoice assuredly to know, that there is genu- ine wheat, as well as deceptive darnel! But again, we en- quire, What saith the Scripture? ‘‘ When the Son of Man cometh shall He find the faith on the earth?” ‘ For as in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man cometh. They did eat, they drank, &c., until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and de- stroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from hea- ven, and destroyed them all. EvEn so sHaLL IT BE when the Son of Man is revealed.” And the day of one’s death is to every one the equivalent of that stupendous day. 8. And here, according to our decided conviction, is the true standing point from\which to bring under notice the real character and bearing of The Sabbath—TuE CurisTIAN SABBATISM. Think for a moment of the new-formed world—how surpassingly beauteous and fair, with the garden of Eden, and the tree of life, of which man might have partaken, and lived for ever !—with Adam made in the image of God, and Eve, his helpmate: their task so interesting and delightful,—to dress the garden, and keep it, hearing the voice of Jehovah walking in the garden in the cool of the day! What a destiny, so to speak, designed for our race ; and which might have continued in its inno- cence and bliss throughout eternity! This would truly have been a heaven upon earth, a state of felicity whose FELL, AND BECAME OBNOXIOUS TO DEATH. 7 enjoyment would have been without limit, as without alloy. 9. We may here remark that Scripture has made no re- velation of the period of time during which man remained in innocence: and hence it would be vain to speculate ‘thereupon. 10. Not so, however, as it respects our knowledge of man’s fall. On this point there is no want of informa- tion,—concerning its cause—its effects, and its enduring consequences. Change, so far as we know, could scarcely have been more awful, more complete, from man—Adam and Eve—in Eden’s innocence, walking in the fear and favour of Jehovah, to man tempted, fallen, condemned,— banished from the blissful bowers, and cherubim placed, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life! 11. Man, created for perpetual bliss, having been be- guiled by the arch- -enemy of God and men, and having now ruined himself, became exposed to the dreadful pen- alty, ‘In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.’ eed ier ot 3 ee i us Tite 4, aye 2 nt det rat eae “te Am vot Cia a Ha tg eat yh ‘t Sens . tyr ars! wie Naeietteey sts, ‘ site's tseatate sue et feat tae = + Ht 4s v0 ayeae fe) bese “4 cts eg Se Pe aivathiey ait ole iste