j ^ fd 1 i .# Q- (0 ^ Ic ^ Q. ^ JO -^^ Ic : 5:r 1-5 CL v M- *^ ^ o jG 1 JS' 5 ■p ^ g c CO i 1 ^ o bj) rQ J ^ ^ <: ^ t^ g :3 CO 1 ^ E CO !>- 0) CO CO : 14. Is it possible that ever that beloved people should receive the Messiah, while they see Christians disobedient to God's royal commands? It is high time wholly to depart from Popish pol- lutions, and to fulfill part of that prophecy recorded 44 THE SABBATH INSTITUTED in Zach. 8 : 23, in taking hold on the skirts of the Jews, as to observe all their moral laws with de- light. Let not the unscriptural odium of a Jewish Sabbath startle us, any more than a Jewish Saviour; but let us put on Ruth's resolution in meeting the Jews, saying, Thy Scriptures shall be my Script- ures, thy promises shall be my portion, thy salva- tion shall be my expectation, thy seventh day shall be my Sabbath, thy Messiah shall be my Saviour, and thy God my God. Thus shall we take up the stumbling-blocks hindering the return of them who can neither brook Papal abominations in the breach of God's second commandment, nor Protestant weekly profanation of the Sabbath. Disobedience to the fourth commandment is most dreadful in such as continue Sabbath-breakers for earthly ad- vantage, after some light of God's Sabbath hath broken in upon their souls, so that they have no- thing to say against it, and yet, through the world's snares, and love of relations, dare continue to act against it, wallowing week after week in Sabbath- pollution, till the just judgments of God at last leave them, through custom of sin, to a seared con- science. " He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel; he hath not dealt so with any nation, and as for his judgments they have not known them." This Scripture Mr. Ward urged in opposition to the seventh-day Sab- bath, that it did not concern other nations. But the weakness thereof may easily be discerned if expressions of like import in Scripture be compar- ed and considered. « God saith to Israel, in Amos '3:2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth ; therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities." Doth it therefore follow, that God did not know, nor yet would punish, any other na- tion or people but Israel for their iniquities ? This FOR MANKIND AT LARGE. 45 interpretation supposeth the most holy and wise God to give a dispensation to the heathen world, which were the greater part of his offspring, to live in the omission and commission of those things w^hich were not lawful for his Israel to do ; which not only impeacheth the perfection of his nature, but direct- ly opposeth the clear Scripture, which is to set forth the superabounding goodness of God unto his people. For it supposes him to have tied them to obedience to his laws, from which he exempted other nations, and so laid them under at least a greater liableness of transgression, and consequent- ly of punishment from his divine hand of justice. But the clear intent of the word is, that as God eminently, with favor, knew his people, so would he eminently punish them for their iniquities. May we not as safely conclude that none but the Jews had any saving benefit by the coming of Christ, be- cause he said, in Matt. 15: 24, "He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of IsraeH" But thus to interpret these Scriptures would be a man- ifest abuse of them. So it is no less absurd to infer from the text premised, that the laws God gave to Israel did not concern the other nations. Are no other nations or people bound to believe on our Lord Jesus Christ but the people of Israel] So in the place under consideration, the Lord had not so eminently shown and made known his statutes to any other nation. Christ was in the first jplace, or hy way of eminence, sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For it was evident that the people of Israel, to whom Christ was sent, were the only church of God in the world, and consequently that it was the duty of all men to join themselves to this church of God, and conform to the laws there- of, as will appear on many considerations. First, because the church of God is said to be the liffht 46 THE SABRATH INSTITUTED of the world, which denotes that the rest of the world should be ruled and guided thereby. Second, the church is declared to be the pillar and ground of the truth ; and if so, ought not all men to build upon that foundation '? Third, nothing is more plain, from Isa. 56 : 3 — 6, than that God was earnestly desirous that the heathen would join themselves to the church of Israel, and keep their laws, and par- ticularly that of the seventh-day Sabbath, which doth strongly show that it was his sovereign will and pleasure that they should. Nothing is more rational than to conclude, that whatsoever our great Creator intimates in the least to be his will and pleasure for any of his creatures to do, it must needs be their most bounden duty cheerfully and diligently to do. Can any suppose that to please God is not the duty of all men 1 It is as apparent as light at noon-day, that the seventh-day Sabbath, and all the laws of Israel, concerned mankind univer- sally. Fourth, the Scripture declares that the same law which obliged the Jews did likewise oblige the Gentiles, or, which is the same, there was but one law for the home-born and for the stranger. Ex. 12: 19,49; Lev. 17 : 8—15; Num.9: 14; Josh. 8: 33—35; Num.15: 14—16, 29; Lev. 24: 22. " Ye shall have one manner of law as well for the stranger as for one of your own country;" therefore the seventh-day Sabbath is the duty of the stranger as well as any other command of God. That the Jews' law concerned the Gentiles is manifest, in that there was to be but one law for the stranger as for the home-born. As Israel were to afflict their souls on the tenth day of the seventh month, so was the stranger commanded to do. Lev. 16 : 29. As they were to perform their offerings, so was the stranger to do. Num. 15: 16, 29. As death was appointed for punishment of blasphemers FOR MANKIND AT LARGE. 47 in Israel, so it was for the stranger, and inflicted on the son of the Egyptian. Therefore one law com- manded the stranger and the home-born. Lev 24: 16, 22. And if one law was for the stranger and the home-born in Israel, so it was for the stranger elsewhere. It is plain that the laws of the Jews concerned the rest of the world, because the rest of the world were equally concerned in the benefit of Christ's death ; and Christ came to redeem such only as were under the law, and so under the curse. Gal. 3 : 13. And if the law, either ceremonial or moral, or both, was a school-master to lead to Christ, can we think God would deny the Gentiles the benefit of such a teacher, who denied them not the bene- fit of his Son's blood 1 Surely those who do so are not as good logicians as the Apostle Paul, who argues thus, " He that spared not his own son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." Rom. 8 : 32. Surely that God who is no respecter of per- sons, but loved the stranger as the home-born, (Deut. 10: 12, 18,) would never deny them any necessary advantage to complete their salvation. If the Gentiles were unconcerned in the Jews' laws, by what rule should they know their duty to God 1 Is it therefore less the duty of the Gentiles to keep the seventh day for the Sabbath, because it was written to the Jews ] Then the whole of the Old Testament, by the same rule, may be rejected by the Gentiles as not belonging to them ; and the four evangelists of the New in like manner; the epistle to the Hebrews, and that of James, those to Timothy, who was a circumcised person, and sev- eral of the rest, may be called in question on the same ground; yea, and even those which were directed to the Romans and Corinthians, and the 48 THE SABRATH INSTITUTED urging or application of duty thence ; for in all those churches it may be said there were Jews; and then what duties belonged peculiarly to the Christian Jews, and what to the Gentiles, might be a great question. Or was it because they were not given in writing to the Gentiles as they were to the Jews] If so, neither were the laws in Lev. 18: 20, given thus to the Gentiles. Does it therefore follow that they might innocetnly break those laws, and commit incest, sodomy, and the greatest abom- inations in the world] The laws against incestuous marriages, and other things mentioned in Lev. 18, concerned the Gen- tiles as well as the Jews; for the Gentiles are said to defile themselves in all these things, and it is sin that defiles men. Therefore the Gentiles sinned in transgressing those laws in the said chapter, and consequently those laws were their duty. And in the same chapter it is commanded not to approach unto a woman during her separation, which was seven days by the law. Can any one think that such separation was the concernment of the Gen- tiles, and that the far greater part of the laws were not] This then is plain, that the laws in Lev. 18 were the concernment of the Gentiles, and by the same reason the laws in chapters 16 and 17 were in like manner the concernment of the Gentiles ; for it is certain that the Gentiles did defile themselves in the matter of offerings, which it was as well their duty to offer as it was the duty of the Jews. This is yet the more confirmed, if the 20th chapter be considered, wherein charge is given against defiling God's sanctuary, and commands to keep all God's statutes. "Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and ye shall not walk in the manner of the nations which I cast out before you ; for they committed all these things, therefore I abhorred FOR MANKIND AT LARGE. 49 them, saith the Lord." Therefore the Gentile na- tions sinned in not reverencing God's sanctuary, and in not keeping all his statutes ; and for it they were abhorred. All God's statutes were therefore imposed upon the Gentile nations, and were not of the Jews' concernment only. Because this law, as hath been noted, was obliga- tory on Adam in his innocent state, which was whilst he stood as the whole world's representative, consequently all men in him, or that should pro- ceed from his loins, were under the same obliga- tion with him ; for as the law of the Sabbath being the duty of all men, both before and after the fall, doth declare the pei'petuity, so it doth the univer- sality of it. Sacrifice and offering were Noah's duty, and so equal in concernment to Jews and Gentiles. And after the church state of the Jews was erected, we find the good Gentiles generally proselyting to the Jews, and in that capacity sacrificing, and receiving encouragement from God in so doing. But we never find the least encouragement by God, or ac- ceptance from him, to perform sacrifice in any other manner than in union with the Jews. It follows then, unless we derogate unto uncertain conject- ures, nay, repugnant conclusions, to the declared way of God in accepting the Gentiles' sacrifices, that it was their duty to become one with the Jews; and in order thereto, to be circumcised and keep all the laws of Israel, (Jer. 9 : 25 compared with Gal. 5: 3,) and their duty to keep the seventh day for the Sabbath, as it is all men's duty now to celebrate the Lord's Supper; but they should first by faith and baptism be admitted into the visible church of Christ. For without doing so, there is no ground in Scripture, in ordinary cases, to suppose that they could othe^^^dse obtain favorable access. There- 50 THE SABBATH INSTITUTED fore it appears, inasmuch as sacrifice was the duty of the Gentiles, and as there is no record to war- rant the performance of it but in union with the Jews, after their church state was erected, that the whole of the Jews' laws were the Gentiles' duty. The ceremonial law was a representative of our Lord Jesus Christ, of his undertakings, and of what was to be accomplished by his coming, as Heb. 9: 10 declares; and he was equally the Saviour both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, and his un- dertaking concerned the one as well as the other. Since, therefore, those laws were, as hath been said, such a representation of him, the Gentiles were equally concerned in point of duty therein; and inasmuch as they were of an instructive nature to lead to Christ, the Gentiles had equal necessity of the instruction, and therefore they were of their concernment. Solomon prayed, (1 Kings 8 : 43,) " That all the people of the earth might know and fear God as did his people Israel." Solomon was, without ques- tion, guided by the Spirit of God in his prayer; and Israel was to fear God in the way of his statutes and all his ordinances. Therefore since Solomon thus prays, it was the will of God that all nations should observe the laws of Israel, and consequent- ly that of the seventh-day Sabbath. For apart of his petition is concerning the Gentile strangers, that God would do according to all he called upon him for, and for this reason, that all people of the earth might know God and fear him as did his peo- ple Israel. Now by knowing and fearing God as Israel did, must be intended, to know the will and ways of God, and to walk therein as Israel did; to know and fear God in truth as Israel did. " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; a good understanding have all they that do his command- FOR MANKIND AT LARGE. 51 ments." To this agree those many passages of Scripture, which declare that it was the most ac- ceptable will of God, that all nations of the earth should serve and worship him according to the law of his people Israel. The law of the seventh-day Sabbath is universal- ly obligatory on all mankind, because comprehend- ed and contained in that law of God which is the ten commandments — a code which binds all men, as might be demonstrated by many considerations, but this one shall suffice, viz., because it is a branch of that law of which the Apostle is treating in Rom. 3 : 19, concerning which he testifieth that it stops every mouth, and brings the whole world guilty before God ; which it could never do, had not the whole world been under its obligation. So that if this law stops every offender's mouth, then that particular of it which requires the observation of the seventh-day Sabbath must, needs do so. Among those called Presbyterians, I judge no testimony so considerable against Mr. Ward as that of the Assembly of Divines, in their book entitled, A Confession of Faith; and forasmuch as those call- ed Independents, in their book entitled, A Declara- tion of the Faith and Order owned and ^practiced in the Congregational Churches, have given forth the same things almost word for word, I shall but tran- scribe it, (in that I would hasten,) and it may serve for a discovery of the judgments of both parties. It runs thus : — ** That God gave to Adam a law as a covenant of works, by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, ex- act, and pei-petual obedience, and endowed him with power and ability to keep this law so written in the heart, which continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness, and such as was delivered by God on Momit Sinai in ten commandments ; and that the law commonly called moral, doth forever bind all, as well justified 52 THE SABBATH INSTITUTED persons as others, to the obedience thereof, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in regard of the authority of Grod the Creator who gave it; neither doth Chiist in the Gospel any way dissolve, but much strengthen the obligation; that al- though true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned, yet it is of great use to them, as well as to others, in that as a i-ule of life it informs thera of the will of God, their duty ; it directs and binds them to walk acccordingly, discovering also the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and Hves; so that examining themselves thereby they may come to a further conviction of, and humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clear sight of the need they have of Chi-ist and the perfection of his obedience. It is likewdse of use to regenerate, and to restrain their corruptions in that forbidden sin, and the tlu-eatenings of it do serve to show whatever their sins deserve, and what afflictions in this life they may expect for thern, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law. The promises of it in like maimer show them God's ap- probation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof, although not due unto them by the law as a covenant of works, so that a man's doing one and detemng from the other is no evidence of his being under the law and not imder grace. That the forementioned uses are not contraiy to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweedy comply vvdth it, the spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely and cheei-ftiUy wmch the wiU of God requireth to be done. As it is the law of nature that in general a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God, so in his Word, by a positive, mo- ral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed the seventh day for the Sabbath to be kept holy to himself." There are quoted in the Assembly's Confession of Faith these Scriptures, Isa. 56 : 2 — 7 ; Matt. 5 : 17, 18, and Ex. 20: 8—11, "Remember the Sab- bath day to keep it holy; the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." If these Script- ures prove any thing, they must needs prove the continuance of the seventh day, seeing that in all the Scriptures there is no mention made of the first day of the week being the Sabbath. Now it is no less than an apparent injury offered to the holy Scriptures to apply that name to one day which God himself hath applied to another; FOR MANKIND AT LARGE. 53 and an high affront to keep and plead for the first day to be the Sabbath by a commandment whereby God enjoins the keeping of the seventh day. Christ saith the Scripture cannot be broken. But if these may be reckoned good and sound consequences, I know no absurdity so great, no heresy so damnable, no superstitions so ridiculous, but they may be cloak- ed with the authority of the Scripture, although they are the mere conceits and inventions of men. Yet it is marvelous to see with what great confidence some men do assert the Scripture to be their rule, while they do build up so considerable a part of their doctrine without the least Scripture foundation. Thus have I given an account of the conclusions of both the forenamed parties, it being the mind of their general councils; and though they are for a first-day Sabbath, yet how little reason they have for it, may be easily seen from their writings by the impartial reader. 1. They say, that the law which God gave Adam bound him and all his posterity to perpetual obe- dience, and that this law was the same with that given at Mount Sinai; to which I say, that one of these commandments was to have the Sabbath day remembered, that it might be kept holy, and the seventh day is the Sabbath which God commanded. 2. They say, that the law doth bind justified persons as well as others to the obedience thereof, and that Christ in the Gospel hath not any way dis- solved, but much strengthened, this obligation. And then I say, that if it be so, as it is indeed, un- doubtedly the seventh day is the Sabbath, and not the first ; for it being once the Sabbath, if that day be now abrogated as to its being the Sabbath day, then must it needs cross their conclusion, and also the truth of God. 5* 54 THE SABBATH 3. They say, that this commandment is perpetual, binding all men in all ages. But God in this com- mandment requires the keeping holy of the seventh day; this is the very matter of the commandment. Hence, as it was originally given forth by the great Lawgiver, so it remains down to the present age; and the keeping of the first day instead of the sev- enth enjoined in this perpetual commandment, as it is expressly contrary to the precept, so it will be found no better than Jeroboam's keeping a feast in the eighth month for the feast of the Lord which should be kept in the seventh month. O ! remem- ber the brand fixed on Jeroboam, namely, that he sinned^ and caicsed Israel to sin. 1 Kings 12 : 33. CHAPTER in. The rigorous and burdensome character of the Sabbath considered. Mr. Ward says that the seventh-day Sabbath was a rigorous Sabbath; they were to be stoned to death who broke it. I answer — The law of stoning is added after- wards. This law is not written on tables of stone, nor found among the ten commandments. Ex. 20. This is more plain fi'om Num. 15 : 34. They put the Sabbath-breaker in ward, for it was not declar- ed what should be done unto him ; so you may see that the law of stoning was no part of the ten com- mandments. But what a strange thing is this, Mr. Ward, that you should count it a dangerous opinion to hold that the Sabbath is in force, because of the penalty ! Suppose it be so, the same may be said RIGOROUS AND BURDENSOME. 55 of the rest of the commandments. For instance, the first commandment is, *' Thou shalt have no other God but me;" he that worshiped a strange god was to be put to death. Now shall we not own this commandment because the breaker of it was so punished? Again, the fifth commandment is, " Honor thy father and thy mother;" but he that curseth his father or his mother was to be put to death. Now shall we not honor father and mother, and shall we break this commandment, because this punishment belongs to the breakers of it] Again, "He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Now is there any danger in the owning of this commandment, " Thou shalt do no murder," because the punishment is in force] Adultery also was to be punished. Deut. 22: 21. Now will you say that these commandments belong not to us? So that this objection is of no weight or use at all, except it be to affright people, lest they should look into the truth. This stoning is an additional law, as I said be- fore ; it was added afterwards because of trans- gression, "Knowing this, (saith the Apostle, in 1 Tim. 1 : 9,) that the law is not made for a right- eous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, and for unholy and pro- fane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man-slayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men- stealers, for lyers, and for perjured persons." Deut. 17; 2, 5; 21: 18, 21; 22: 21, 22. Mr. Ward says that the seventh-day Sabbath was a burdensome Sabbath. What is the matter, sir, that you complain of the Lord's holy Sabbath ] O ! say you, it is to be kept from even to even, (Lev. 23 : 32,) and that is too long a time for the Sabbath. ;56 THE SABUATII Men do not complain of whole days for tlie world and their pleasures; they rise early and go to bed late, and eat the bread of carefulness. They do not say all the v/eek, when the morning comes, Would God it were evening; but rather, in the evening they say. Would it were morning again, to go after the world afresh. Yea, we find some even in sinful ways and pleasures so unwearied, that when one day is past they will pitch upon the next day with enlarged resolutions. "Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Isa. 56 : 12. Some think that the Sabbath ceases when the public exercises end. But if so, then some Sab- baths are very short. Shall we think that men can begin and end a Sabbath when they list? The church of God in ages past have determined an en- tire day to be due to the Lord of the Sabbath, and the consecration of that whole day to the Lord's service. Austin declares his judgment touching the time of the Sabbath from that text. Lev. 23 : 32, *' From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sab- bath." It is evident from that place of the Apostle, James 2: 10, that whosoever carelessly casts by any one of God's precepts, transgresses the whole law of God ; and whosoever willfully neglects any part of God's Sabbath, is guilty of breaking this holy day. Men should not suit the day to their duties, but their duties to the day; while the day esdures, their duty remains. But you say, that so to keep the whole day is tiring, a hard service, who can do it] I answer, that God, because of our infirmities, does afford what may refresh, the better to bear up our bodies; he allows us moderate sleep in the night, and temperate food in the day. True, it was in Turtullian''s time a dis- RIGOROUS AND BURDENSOME. 57 pute, whether it be not a duty on the Lord's day to fast, but Christ's apology for his disciples in pluck- ing the ears of corn and eating them on the Sab- bath day, may easily quiet this question. Mark 2 : 26. And blessed be the Lord for this exhibition of his love. But see what some of God's servants have de- sired; for instance, David, that good servant of God, who said, in Ps. 27: 4, "One thing have I de- sired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." As if he should wish it were always Sabbath day with him. In Ps. 84 : 4, 10, he says, " Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ; for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Were men of David's mind, one day in the week for the service of God would not be too long. There have been persons who have spent many nights and days in the service of God. See a con- siderable instance in Luke 2 : 37 — a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayer night and day. What will such do as are tired out with the time of the Sabbath, should they go to heaven] There it is ever Sabbath, always serving of God. Ber- nard urges the observation of the Sabbath, and holding out in holy exercises thereon, upon this ac- count, that by present rest men may learn to live in rest eternal, and by persevering service men may be prompt to perpetuate the Lord's everlasting praise. But how would men endure heaven, and a never-ending Sabbath there, who love not to keep a Sabbath here on earth ] 58 THE SABBATH It is objected, I cannot so attend to duties on the Sabbath day, for I have other works of necessity to do. To which I answer, that there are works of ne- cessity which may be done upon the Lord's sev- enth-day Sabbath ; as to prepare food to refresh our bodies, to resist the invasion of enemies, to quench the rage of fire, to preserve the life of cattle, and the like. Ex.12: 16; Luke 13: 15; 14: 5. Those who say they must necessarily do such things on the Sabbath, ought carefully to see that it be not a feigned necessity, or a made necessity. To pretend a thing necessary, when indeed there is no necessity for such a thing to be done, is to commit a double sin — to do what is not good, and say what is not true. Men must beware that they bring not a necessity upon themselves to do such things upon the Sabbath as they might prevent through a prudent foresight; this is to make a sin with a necessity. *' Thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure." Men have many necessities which are of their own causing, and not of God's ap- pointing. There are things necessary in their season, which yet are not necessary upon the Sabbath. It is ne- cessary for a man to follow his lawful calling, and to be diligent in his worldly business. When we read, says Bernard, that Adam in the pleasant place of Paradise was appointed to work, shall we think that the sons of Adam in this troublesome wilder- ness world are placed here to play? No, it is ne- cessary for the sons of men to be industrious in their lawful affairs. Moses, putting his hand into his bosom, it became leprous, but pulling it out it was made whole. God hath given men hands for a threefold work, says one — to lift them up in prayer to God, to stretch them out in charity to the poor. RIGOROUS Ax\D BURDENSOME. 59 and to put them down by labor in a lawful calling. So that for a man to labor at his lawful calling, in its proper season, is necessary. But to labor upon the Lord's Sabbath is dangerous; the gain of this day may be as the coal brought to the nest, setting the young and all on fire. Reproof is given to Martha, by our Saviour, for her being about ordina- ry affairs, assuring her that one thing was needful. Luke 10: 41. Needful it was for Martha to be about her household business; yea, but not when Christ was present, and such an opportunity served for her soul's advantage, which her sister Mary minded. So although it is needful for Christians to look after their lawful business in the world, yet not upon the Lord's Sabbath, the season for the soul's advantage. Yea, upon the Sabbath is not the service of God much more needful ? As the Apostle said, in Acts 4, " Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye," so say I, whether it be on the seventh-day Sabbath more needful to serve God or yourselves, judge ye. Whether it be more needful to take care for your temporal or your eternal being, judge ye. Among necessaries, that which is most neces- sary is to be first minded. Again, it is objected, that we see none so exact; our neighbors are not so nice, but that they take their liberties to work on the Lord's Sabbath, and why may not we ] I answer — Ist. We should live by precept, and not by the example of men. It is the law of God, and not the lives of men, that must be our rule. As he that will be for God must cross the most of men, so he that would go to heaven must leave the greatest part of the world behind him. 2d. If patterns are to be followed, be ye fol- 60 THE SABBATH lowers of God as dear children. Eph. 3 : 1. In six days God made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day for the Sabbath, and hallow it. Like- wise let us look upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as his custom was. We ought to learn of Christ, though not to walk on the water, yet to regard the seventh day as the Sabbath. 3d. If ye will take your model herein after the manner of men, it is best to look back to preced- ing saints. God's church and people, considered as past and present, may be compared to that cloud (Ex. 14 : 20) which was partly bright and partly dark. The bright part was before, to give light to the Israelites; and the dark part behind, to blind the Egyptians. The saints and people of God afore- time were as the bright side of the cloud, shining clear in Christianity, strict in all the ways of God, most exact in Sabbath service. Such as now pro- fess themselves to be the saints of God, are as the following dark side of the cloud, more dim and dull in holy duties, more loose upon the Lord's day, having less of the life and lustre of religion. O let us but think what was the care of Christians in former ages to improve Sabbaths and all the service of God. Such follow, with Christ and the holy apostles. 4th. If herein you will take such as are present for your pattern, blessed be the Lord, some are left that hold up religion to the life, and with great care look to the Lord's seventh-day Sabbath, and the duties thereof. But there are divers of whom we may complain, as Clirysostom did of some in his time. Whereby, saith he, shall I know you to be a Christian 1 Do you not delight in any place more than in the courts of the Lord's house, and take RIGOROUS AND BURDENSOME. 61 pleasure in any time more than in the hours of the Lord's day? Yet some few are found faithful to the Lord and his day, and such we should duly observe. 5th. When an age is loose in religion, it will be the more to any man's credit and comfort to be exact and strict, and particularly to be a precise Sabbath- keeper, in a Sabbath-breaking age. It is a man's hon- or to remain sound in his principles, and punctual in the practical observation of the Sabbath, when opposite evils are high and huge; like strange birds, that build their nests in places high and diffi- cult, while the multitude in to\\Tis and parishes are like toads and frogs in fens and puddles, croaking against the Lord's holy Sabbath. Therefore, as many of us have others within our gates, and under our ofovernment, we ouo^ht, as much as in us lies, upon the Lord's Sabbath, to endeavor to draw them to holy duties. This may appear plain through a double proof, the precept of God about them, and the iwopcrty of God in them. God gives his precept for them herein, as we find in the fourth commandment : The seventh day is the Sahhath, in it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy dMughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maidser- vant, nor thy stranger. If it be our duty to keep them from work for the ease of their bodies, then it is also to bring them to holy ordinances for the good of their souls. And the bodily rest we are to allow them lies upon this account, they are to rest from the common works of their vocation, in order to the exercise of religion in private and public upon the Lord's day. God keeps his property in them. He is the great householder, and our families are his. As Laban said to Jacob, (Gen. 31 : 43,) " These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my 6 62 THE SABBATH cattle, and all that thou seest is mine;" thus may God say to all generations, Thy sons are my sons, and thy servants are my servants, and all that thou hast is mine. Now, as by virtue of our interest in them, and authority over them, they work for us the six days, so by virtue of God's interest in them, and sovereignty over them, they are bound to serve God on the seventh day. They have a Fa- ther and Master in heaven, whose commands on this day they ought to obey, which we should fur- ther, and not hinder. As the Lord said by Moses to Pharaoh, "Let my people go that they may serve me," so he may say to us. Let my children go, and my servants go, that they may worship me upon my holy Sabbath. Pharaoh was froward against this; but think what befell him, and let us fear lest we should be in this case towards all under our charge. But rather let us be like the master of the colt, who, as soon as he heard that the Lord had sent for him, straightway loosed him and let him go. CHAPTER IV. The Sabbath not Ceremonial. Mr. Ward is disposed to wipe the fourth com- mandment out of the decalogue, and would fain make it ceremonial. But his arguments brought for this purpose are of no validity. It was a sign, saith he, between God and the Israelites. Ex. 31 : 13; Ezek. 20: 12. I answer — God, i7i giving his law, saith no such thing. That was subsequently added as a motive NOT CERKMOXIAL. 63 to keep it. We slioulcl make a clifFerence between the law itself, and what was added for instruction, as the state of the people then required. The Lord doth not say in the Scripture, you shall not here- after, namely, after the death of Christ, keep the seventh day for the Sabbath any more, because I have made it a sign. No ; but thus much is collect- ed by Mr. Ward, because God made the Sabbath a sign. Now I can but wonder how mortal man dareth, by bare force of his blind and feeble reason, thus to contradict the Lord. God saith, in his ten commandments, which he wrote above all Scripture by his own finger, ".Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy ; the seventh day is the Sabbath ; in it thou shalt not do any work." Quite contrary to God's word, men now-a-days blush not to avow that the Sabbath day is abolished, and therefore is not to be remembered any more, nor are we to refrain from servile work in it ; yea, they contradict their Sav- iour, who said of the law of the ten command- ments, that one jot or tittle of it shall not pass till all be fulfilled. Matt. 5: 18. Now whether it be safer to leave the weight of your souls upon God's and Christ's express words, or upon man's force of reason, by way of collection and blind consequences, judge ye. ^ And how is it that any dare, from this text in Ex. 31: 13, so to infer the contraction of one of God's commandments, as to say that the Sabbath day is abolished because their observance of it was a sign, unless he doth therewith lay down his text of Scripture to prove it withal, where it is ex- pressly said that the seventh day is or might bo abolished because it was a sign] — the which I never yet saw done by any, nor do I think I ever shall see. In the mean time, whether it is better to obey God's express words, or men's corrupt reasoning and 64 THE SABBATH inferences against his words, judge ye. Among men, a law enacted by the highest court of Parlia- ment cannot be reversed or abolished by the law- yer's art of pleading, but only by a repeal by another Parliament. Methinks we should not have less reverence for the laws enacted by God, nor suffer any alterations in them by the artful reason- itigs of men, unless we have plain command from the great and high God. But be it so, that the Sabbath is a sign; yet I deny that it is abolished, for all signs are not abolished. The rainbow is a sign to men, that God will never destroy the world any more by water. This sign is not abolished, for to this day we may see it in the clouds. Not every sign is a ceremony. The sun and moon are for signs ; so are Christ and his church a sign; and the ten commandments are signs. Deut. 6: 8; Isa. 8 : 18; Matt. 24:30. And if Sab- bath-keeping be a sign of people's being sanctified by the Lord, then Sabbath-breaking is a contrary sign. The Sabbath is a sign that God made the world in six days, and rested the seventh ; and there- fore we are to keep the Sabbath as a perpetual cove- nant. The end why he made it a sign to Israel doth alike appertain to us; to wit, that they might know him to be the Lord that sanctified them. Ex. 31 : 13; 20: 12. Are not we to learn and know as much in keeping our rest-day in holy duties 1 Yea, blessed are they that do learn this lesson to know the Lord, that he doth sanctify them in the use of his ordinances upon the seventh day. As the Sab- bath was to be kept as a sign of sanctification, so it was to be kept because in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and rested the seventh day; and certainly this moral reason is as binding in these our days as ever. If then rest be a sign, and is abolished, and that rest spoken of in the fourth com- NOT CEREMONIAL. 65 mandment, then is that holiness there enjoined also abolished. For if men may work at servile labor, with their families, in fields and in the markets, where is any place left for holy assemblies, and for prayers with and in the congregation, and the like? So then this absurdity they fall into by their infer- ences, that they make the very duties of the Sab- bath — rest and holiness — to be ceremonial, which elsewhere they hold to be moral. But from all which is before written, it is very apparent that this fourth commandment is in no way ceremonial, but is a perpetual law to the world's end. We have as much need of time now to worship God in as ever; and we might as well take God's time as man's time, and so end the controversy, and bring our- selves under the inexpressibly precious promise annexed to it, "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing evil." Isa. 56 : 2. It was a 7nemorial, saith Mr. Ward, of their de- liverance out of Egyptian bondage. Deut. 5 : 15. I answer, that this reason was added by Moses, to move the people to pity their servants and cattle. Must Moses' charitable use made of the Sabbath, and his argument to persuade them to mercy, from God's mercy to them, alter the precept and disan- nul iti The words in the beginning of the verse may be conceived in a parenthesis, and brought in only as a memorial of that great deliverance, (as God remembered it in the preface to all the com- mandments, to move them to observe the whole,) and the word therefore is to be annexed to the end of the fourteenth verse, as indeed it ought in sense to be. This being so, the words prove not the Sab- bath to be instituted for a memorial of their deliver- 6* 66 TilE SABBATH ance from Egypt, tliough tliey had good cause to remember their deliverance, when keeping the fourth commandment, as well as when observing the first, and all the others; for, as I said, it is in the preface to the whole law, as never to be for- gotten by them, but to be remembered as a strong motive to stir them up to obedience. Almighty God chargeth us to remember the Sabbath day; but disobedient Christians do willfully forget it. God saith the seventh day is his Sabbath; but Mr. Ward saith the first day is God's Sabbath. Whether we shall believe God or him, judge ye. God com- mands the last day of the week ; but Mr. Ward says he commands the first day of the week. Mr. Ward says Christ altered and changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day ; but this is a notorious slander raised against Christ, for search the Scrip- tures and you will no where find that Christ spoke one word against the Sabbath, or about altering or changing it. I can prove that the Sabbath is not changed, nor altered, but is a perpetual command to the world's end. If the Sabbath day be altered and changed, then it is not now in force ; and then the fourth command- ment is abolished, and stands in our Bibles for a cypher. For nothing is required in the fourth com- mandment but to sanctify the seventh day by rest from labor, and by the worship of God. If the seventh day be put down as God's holy day; if it be changed, and we may not keep it, nor worship God in it; — then the fourth commandment, in our day, commands just nothing, and it is but a cypher. CHAPTER V, The glaring impiety apparent in those who alter the language of God's Law. Mr. Ward says, that the law of the fourth com- mandment binds us to a time of worship, though not to that time of the seventh day. To which I answer, that there are but seven days in all; six of them are appointed working days, and the seventh day for the worship of God ; and there is no time commanded in the fourth command- ment. but the seventh day. Take the seventh day away, and where will you find your time of wor- ship l Nay, where will you find any such thing as the fourth commandment, if you take away the observ- ation of the seventh day'? Leave the observation of the seventh-day Sabbath out of the command- mandment, and take your pen, and write me out tii« fourth commandment if you can. Here it is: — Reme7}ibcr the to keep it holy ; six days shalt thoti labor, and do all thy ivork, but in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy iiian-servant, nor thy maidservant, thine ox, nor thine ass, nor the stranger that is within thy gates ; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the icherefore the Lord blessed Behold now what a monstrous absurdity you make of the fourth commandment, while you think to prove yourself wise by your nice distinctions in making God's fourth commandment nothing at all but a mere heap of confusion, and making it speak contradictions to itself. For from Moses to the 68 IMPIETY OF ALTEUIXG death of Clirist it commanded the observation of the seventh day, as yourself acknowledge : and yet now it contradicts itself, if it be as you say, and commands not the observation of the seventh day, but some other day — as if the commands of God were yea and nay, like your arguments against the Sabbath. However, you are for a time of worship, though you are against the Sabbath, which is God's time. Any time but God's time will serve your turn it seems. This blessed day is one of those precious things w^hich God hath committed to man's trust to keep. Now to be untrusty and treacherous herein, is a most abominable sin. Constantine was wont to say, " Such men I am sure will never be faithful to me, who are unfaithful to their God." No marvel that men betray so many trusts in the world, when they deal so falsely with God in his holy Sabbath. To be ungrateful to God is bad; to be forgetful of God is worse ; but to be perfidious with God worst of alL Again, though God hath given man the Sabbath for his use, yet he still continues therein his own interest, and lets it go upon no other account than to have it religiously kept. Therefore they who take it from God upon other terms, and turn it to other ends, shall be thrust among thieves in the great day of the Lord's account. Pcrha2:)s a man may say, with Samuel, "Whom have I defrauded 1 whose ox or ass have I taken 1" Some, though they have not thieved from their neighbor, yet have stolen from God the time of his holy day. Who is not afraid to be found such a felon] As the blessed body of Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this blessed day of God is now crucified between those called Christians and the Turks. The Christ- ians keep the first day, and the Turks keep the sixth day. As Herod and Pilate both agreed for Christ's THE LANGUAGE OF GOd's LAW. 69 death, so these both join against the Lord's sev- enth-day Sabbath ; and good Lord help them who labor to rescue it ] * Austin well observes, that robbers are worse than thieves. Thieves take goods secretly by fraud, when the owners are not aware; but robbers take openly, by force, the owners looking on. Thus men take away the Sabbath day under God's all- seeing eye. That which God holds, they profanely pluck away. Among highway robbers such shall be ranked, not repenting. "Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me; but ye say, wherein have we robbed theel" Even in the day and time of * It is woi-thy of notice, that the followers of Mohammed observe the sixth day of the week as their day of public wor- ship, and are about as much perplexed to know why that day was selected, as Chiistians are to assign a reason for keeping Sun- day. Sale, in liis edition of the Koran, says, "Several reasons are given why the sixth day of the week was pitched upon for this purpose; but Mohammed seemed to have preferred that day chiefly because it was the day on which the people used to be assembled long before his time, though such assembhes were had, perhaps, ratlier on a civil thaii a rehgious account. How- ever it be, the Mohammedan writers bestow very^ extraordinary encomiums on this day, callmg it the pi-ince of days, and the most excellent day on wliich the sun rises, pretenduig also that it wall be the day on which the last judgment will be solemnized ; and they esteem it a peculiar honor to Islam, that God has been pleased to appoint this day to be the feast-day of the Moslems, and gi-anted them the advantage of liaving first observed it." In a note upon the Day of Assembly, he says, "i, e. Friday, which, being more peculiarly set apart by Mohammed for the public worship of God, is therefore yawm al joma, i. e. day of the assembly in congrega- tion, whereas it was before called al aruba. The first time this day was particularly observed, as some say, was on [by] tlie prophet at Medina, into which city he is said to have made his first eutiy on a Friday; but others tell us tliat Caul-ebu-hown, one of Mohammed's ancestors, gave the day its present name, because on that day the people used to assemble before him. One reason given for the observation of Friday, preferably to any other day of the week, is because on that day God finished the creation." 70 ALTERING GOD's LAW. the Sabbath. Yea, and this magnifies the sin of such men. They that thieve and rob men, may possibly plead necessity, having nothing of their own where- on to live; but the Lord hath allowed men six days of their own for any needful and lawful work. Hence to rob Him of his Sabbath is a great sin; it is sacrilege, which is worse than all the rest. Austin does admirably aggravate this sin, and he makes it so much the greater, because it is a sin which can- not be committed but against God alone. And in what way can it be worse committed against God, than by polluting the holy time of his Sabbath 1 To abuse sanctified time, is such sacrilege as the Lord most abominates. " Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege." Why is it not worse sacrilege to take this blessed day from God's holy worship, than to take the silver cup from the com- munion table, or the great Bible from the reading desk'? Be not deceived; here are heaps upon heaps, many sins piled upon this sin ; yea, more might be mentioned, as disobedience, rebellion, unbelief, pride, self-conceit, a base and low esteem of the ways and worship of God, all of which make this sin hateful. This sin against the Sabbath day, considered in the duties thereof, does reach so far against God, that it is found to be a sin against all the attributes of God. He that takes not care to keep the Sabbath of God, slights the wisdom of God, dis- obeys the 2vin of God, despises the mercy of God, provokes the justice of God, contemns the imwer of God, abuses the 7?«^/6'«cc of God, defiles the holiness of God, defaces the heauty of God, yea, as it were, undermines the whole being of God. CHAPTER VI. The pretence of a diviiie institution for keeping the first day considered. Mr. Ward pretends to a divine institution for his first-day Sabbath. But where to find it, he knows not; for there is no command nor example for it in the holy Scriptures. In this he hath done more than all the popes and cardinal bishops ever did; for they never pretend to a divine institution for their first-day Sabbath, but only say it was changed by the authority of their church. But I never read in all the Scriptures, that ever God gave man the power to change his law. • I shall, with the supplies of the spirit of holiness, according to the word of truth, discover the deceit- ful color he has given to some Scriptures, and then show the reader the reprehensibility of those colors, which, how fair soever to outward appear- ance for a while, yet are a false guise, a paint that will melt away before the fire of God's word. The fallacies are soon detected and confuted before a discerning, judicious, unprejudiced, and impartial reader. If I should work upon the seventh day contrary to the precept in the law, what Scriptures would bear me out in so doing, when I appear before the righteous Judge who has in so many words forbid this ] And if I do not observe the first day as the weekly Sabbath day, but do work on that day, hav- mg God's command and example for it, what Scrip- tures have you, Mr. Ward, by which you can reprove mel There is no institution, command, promise, or threatening to be found for the first day as the 72 PRETENTIONS TO A DIVINE INSTITUTION OF weekly Sabbath in the place of the seventh. So that there is no foundation to build your faith upon. Therefore the cause of the first day, as the w^eekly Sabbath, not having the Scripture for the proving of it, cannot stand in the judgment. Notwithstanding the misinterjireted Scripture which youalledge in its defence, it requires much arguing to defend it. It is much like the artifice of the present age to darken and obscure some particular places of Scripture, either by corrupt translations, or by false interpret- ations, upon which they ground their wrong infer- ences and conjectural consequences, and then persuade the people how deep these things do lie, and how much they need and should lean upon the wisdom and advice of their church guides, who much study human histories for them, to enable them to lead them through the mist and darkness into" which these blind guides have in like manner themselves been led. Whereas the Scriptures about the weekly Sabbath are full of light, and of satisfying evidence, to those who are made thoroughly willing to do the acceptable will of God. What conviction can there be brought to the under- standing concerning any change of the weekly Sab- bath day from the seventh to the first day of the week, from passages where no such thing as a change is either expressed or implied, and where the reader cannot find the first day spoken of, or hinted at, to any such purpose 1 Mr. Ward brings Ps. 118: 24, for the institution of his first-day Sabbath, saying, " This is the day the Lord hath made, let us be glad and rejoice in it." But here no particular day of the week is mentioned; so that for him to say it means the first day of the week, hath no other proof than his own assertion. David, rejected of Saul and of the people, at the time appointed obtained the kingdom, i SUNDAY EXAMINED. 73 for which he bidJeth them that fear the Lord to be thankful, and rejoice under his person. In all this was Christ lively set forth, who should be rejected of his people. God, by making David king, showed his mercy toward his afflicted church. David doth not only thank God, but doth exhort all the people to do the same. We are hereby taught, that the more troubles oppress us, the more ought we to be instant in prayer. Though Saul and the chief powers refused David to be king, yet God hath pre- ferred him above them all; wherein God hath shown chiefly his mercy, by appointing David king, and delivering his church. The people pray and rejoice for the prosperity of David's kingdom, who was a figure of Christ. Again, by day in this Psalm is not necessarily understood a short ordinary day of twelve or twenty-four hours, but rather a long space of time, as all the time after David came to the crown. And so it may be applied to typify the whole time of Christ upon the earth, ruling as King in the kingdom of his church. Thus Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day. John 8 : 5Q. Thus it is called the day of salvation. 2 Cor. 6: 2. If then by day here be meant the day of grace, or the time of Christ's abode on the earth, there is no footing for a Sabbath day of twelve or twenty-four hours long. But the day mentioned in Ps. 118 : 24, I rather take to be the time of preaching and promulgating the Gospel of Christ; and the resurrection of Christ, did plainly declare him to be the true Messiah, and Saviour of all that believe in him. But to grant upon this place any thing of an institution of a new weekly Sabbath, or of repealing the seventh day, I take to be a mere conjecture, which hath no found- ation but in the fancy, because David never kept the first but the seventh day. 7 74 DIVINE INSTITUTION OF SUNDAY. But the text saith, We will rejoice and be glad in it; referring to David himself, as w^ell as others, when he had overcome his enemies, and was made king. In what doth this bind us to keep the day, even if it should be meant of the first day of the week 1 May not one day in a year observed suffice to fulfill it, seeing there is not such a word as we will rejoice and be glad in it weekly] Indeed these arguments seem to be poor grounds for the Sabbath changers. Therefore, whoever you are that keep the first day for a Sabbath, or Lord's day as you call it, upon these grounds, I am afraid you must do as many are forced to do at this day; the light shining so clear, to the discovering of their supposed Scripture grounds, and seeing them fail, they are forced to run to traditions of the fathers, and so bring themselves under the rebuke of Jesus Christ, Why do ye make void the commands of Grod through your traditions? — whom he calls hypocrites, drawing nigh to God with their lips, while their hearts are far from him. Matt. 15: 8, 14; Mark 7: 7, 8. Let such consider these Scrip- tures; Neh. 13: 15—18; Ezek. 20: 18; 1 Peter 1 : IS. Their fathers broke the Sabbath, and it was a vain conversation which they received by tradition from their fathers. Others think the day mentioned in Ps. 118: 24, to be the incarnation day; either of which conceits, if I could but find some where written in the Scrip- tures, I hope I should believe. But finding none of these written, to me they do but seem to prove the shifts and windings some are driven to use to patch up some such fancies. If Mr. Ward were in Turkey, he could prove as good a divine institu- tion for the sixth day, which the Turks keep, by this Psalm, as he can do for the first, for there is no particular day named. OHAPTER VII. Mr. ^Vai-cl, failing to prove liis position by the Word of God, receives help from other sources, or from Profane History. Though Mr. Ward cannot prove a divine in- stitution for the first-day Sabbath in the holy Scrip- tures, yet, to do him a kindness, I can show him three or four authorities showing its human institu- tion, which he may like as well. The first is the Emperor Constantine, who was born in the parish of All Saints, in Colchester Castle, in Essex, Eng., as historians tell us. He enacted that the first day of the week should be kept instead of the Sabbath; and almost all Christendom do observe the same by the law of the land since his reign, but not for the three hundred and twenty years before. Thus man took upon him to be more spiritual than his Maker. It was accomplished in this manner. About that time some began to be infected with Origoi's allegorical divinity, taking liberty to pro- fane the seventli day under pretence of keeping a mystical Sabbath, by ceasing from sin, while they lived in the manifest sin of slio^hting the Sabbath ; so that the mystery of iniquity got established or strengthened by this mystical notion, thus preparing the way for the rising of the presumptuous little horn to change times and laws, (Dan. 7,) till at last he prevailed with the Emperor to establish the first day of the week, by a decree, for the great holy day, and to appoint a set form of Latin prayers to be used upon it. Eusehias, in his fourth book, chaps. 17, 18, of the Life of Constantine, says of him, that he appointed the Lord's day, as they were pleased 76 THE TESTIMONY to call it, that it should be consecrated to prayers. And a little farther on he saith, By his example (meaning Constantine,) they learned to observe the first day. Let the Christian reader observe this passage, they learned to observe it of him ; and if they learned it of him, then they kept it not be- fore. And a little after, in the same chapter, Eusehius saith, Constantine commanded that throughout all the Roman Empire they should for- bear to labor or do any work upon the first day. And in chap. 23d of the same book he writes thus : '* The Emperor sent an edict to all governors of his provinces, that they should forthwith — [note, forth- with, a sign that it was not observed before] — ob- serve the first day; that they should honor the days consecrated to the memory of martyrs, and solemnly observe the feasts of the church." Let it be noted here also, how that with the first day's observation, came in the observation of feasts of the church, and their holy days so called, con- secrated to the memory of martyrs. And farther he saith, that all was performed according to the Emperor's command. This is to be specially noted, that all was performed — the first day's observation as well as the rest — all according to the Emperor's command. Euselius doth not say it was performed according to the command of God, but according to the command of the Emperor! Here is the command of man, and not of God! Here is the bottom of the first day observation in the Christian church ! We are yet to consider further in this matter, that though he did endeavor to bring it in, it was not brought in after the manner that it is now kept; for he allowed working, huntings, markets, and fairs, upon the day, if occasion required; as did also the kings of England, who, near one thousand OF PROFANE HISTORY. 77 years after, gave forth decrees for its observation. There are many authors who say this. 1st. I quote Henry Bullinger, who, in his Treatise to King Edward the Sixth, ia pages 143, 144, speaks of Constantine's decree thus, "Let all judges in the courts of law, and citizens of occupations, rest upon the Sunday, and keep it holy, with reverence and devotion; but they that inhabit the country may freely and at liberty attend on their tillage." And he proposes a reason thus, "For oftentimes it falleth out, that they cannot upon another day so commodi- ously sow their seed, or plant their vines ; and by letting pass the opportunity of a little time, they may hap to lose the profit given them of God for their provision." And in page 140, he saith, "We do not find in any part of the a^^ostles' writings any mention made that the Sunday was commanded us to be kept holy." Thus far Bullinger ingenuously acknowledged, a thing very worthy of commend- ation. 2d. And so speaks J«?7m TFcZZe^m*, in his Abridg- ment of Christian Divinity, page 307, concerning Constantine, that he permitted husbandmen to fol- low their work. 3d, Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, vol. 1, page 134, saith of Constantine, that he commanded the Sunday to be kept. Hence it plainly appears, that they worked and labored on the first day down to Constantine's time, which shows that it was not kept by Christ, nor his apostles, as Mr. Ward would make us believe. If it had been a command of God, no man would have dared to have given men liberty to work ; but in that they brought it in themselves, they might direct in the manner of its observation. Hence it appears, that they kept their markets and fairs on the first day, till by his command they were hindered. 7* 78 THE TESTIMONY 4tli. Richard Baker ^ in his Chronicles of the Kings of England, page 17, concerning King Canutus, saith that he forbad all public fairs, markets, hunt- ing, and all secular actions, unless some urgent ne- cessity required. And in his Index, or Table, he saith, that this was the first keeping of Sunday, i. e. first in England, meaning the first bringing up of it to some maturity. There were commands of the same nature before, as of King Inas, who reigned about the year 712; which is the first I can meet with that gave commandment in England touching its observation. And this is recorded in Fox's Acts and Monuments, page 1016. Also he makes men- tion of Gunthrum, the Danish King, to the same purpose ; and of Edgar, who began his reign about the year 959, that among other ecclesiastical laws, he ordained that the Sabbath should be kept from Saturday noon until Monday morning. And so it has come to pass, from his ordaining the Sabbath to be kept from Saturday noon, that children go to school buthalf a dayon Saturday. He ordained and decreed concerning the liberty and freedom of the church, for tithes also, and first fruits of corn, and paying of Peter's pence. And King Canutus, when he* began to reign in England, in the year of our Lord 1016, also commanded the celebration of the Sab- bath from Saturday noon till Monday morning, as Edgar had done before, forbidding markets, labor, hunting, and holding or sitting of courts during the said space of time. See Foz's Acts and Monu- ments, page 1017. So, though there had been sev- eral commands concerning the first day's observa- tion before Canutus' time, yet it came not to any ripeness till his command came forth, which was not seven hundred and twenty years ago; and upon this account it was, as I conceive, that Sir Richard Baker said it was the first of its being kept holy. OF PROFANE HISTORY. 79 And thus also, Speed, in his Chronicles, speaks oi King Canutus, that he forbad labor, except necessi- ty required. 5th, Socrates, in his Ecclesiastical History, in the oth book, chap. 21, shows that the Sabbath, as it relates to the seventh day, was kept for several hundred years after Christ; and though in his time, Sunday observation was with some a little crept in, yet he reckons it but a tradition. His words are these, *' Touching the communion there are sundry observations and customs, for though in a manner almost all the churches throughout the whole world do celebrate and receive the holy mysteries every Sabbath day after other, yet the people inhabiting Alexandria and Rome do not use it. The Egyptians adjoining to Alexandria, together with the inhab- itants of Thebes, of a tradition, do celebrate the communion on Sunday." Whence we may observe, 1st. That up to this time, which was four hundred years and more after Christ, the Sabbath was ob- served almost throughout the whole world ; and that it was the seventh-day Sabbath, will appear if we consider that it is distinctly distinguished from the first day. 2d. He himself reckons the first day's observation but a tradition. In his 6th book, chap. 8, he speaks thus, " When the festival meet- ing throughout every week was come, I mean the Saturday and the Sunday, upon which the Christians are wont to meet solemnly in the church." And upon this passage we find, by what was before noted, that they esteemed and called the seventh day the Sabbath, and the first day practice a tradition. From all that has been said, we may observe, that first day observation was brought in with much ado, and that in those decrees of men enforcing its ob- servation there was allowed liberty to labor on the first day. So that it doth appear plainly from these 80 THE TESTIMONY quotations, that it was not intended to be kept, when first brought in, as now it is observed, but that it is a tradition established and made sacred only by a long standing custom. We may remark, that this kind of observation did not at first produce a slighting, or at least such a slighting, of the Sabbath, as hath since through long custom followed. For almost the whole world kept to the Lord's Sabbath, and celebrated the holy mysteries upon it, after these beginnings of the first day's observation, as I have already noted out of Socrates. For the 8th chapter of his 6th book extends down to four hundred and forty years after Christ; and Constantine reigned about the year three hundred and twenty. So that at first it was not even a slighting of the Lord's holy seventh-day Sabbath ; for that Sabbath was kept in the church, with the first day, for several hundred years. As we find by whom, and in what manner, the first day observation came in, so we may see ichy it was brought in, which was from some high hatred against the Jews, whom they were very apt to re- gard as worthy of all contempt on the charge of crucifying Christ. Whether it be right to change a moral and perpetual command of God, binding all men in all ages, for such a purpose, let the pro- fessed Christian judge. I find that this hatred be- gan to be very high even in Constantino's time, as may be observed in Eusehius^ History of the Life of Constantine, where it is said of him, that he made a law that no Christian should serve a Jew; esteeming it a wicked thing that they who had slain the prophets, and cruelly put to death our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, should hold and keep in subjection those who were redeemed with the blood of our Lord and Saviour. And if any one lived already in that servile condition that he should be OF PROFANE HISTORY. SI released, and the Jew fined. From this kind of hatred did the change of the Sabbath come; and as was the tree, so is the fruit. But how contrary this was to the apostles' frame and temper, may be observed by comparing these things with Rom. 9. I am not about to clear the Jews; but the Gentiles, havinq^ a deep hand in the thing, are to be charged as well as they. Matt. 20: 19; Acts 4: 27. Again, as the change of the Sabbath to the first day of the week was chiefly done to raise a wall of partition betwixt the Gentiles and Jews, as hath been shown, so we hope that the pulling down of that wall will be a preparative to the accomplishing ofthose glorious prophesies, which hold forth the unity which shall exist between Jew and Gentile, as our Saviour hath foretold in John 10: 16; as aslo the Apostle Paul, in Rom. 11 : 7, 2o, 26 ; which surely ought to be the earnest desire of all the peo- ple of God, and especially of such as are in a waiting posture to see the fulfilling thereof; and most of all, by such as profess themselves to be the rulers and pastors of such a people, as Mr. Ward and the clergy of the nation account themselves to be. The Jews make it an ai'gument that Christ is not the Messiah, because Christians, who profess to be his followers, are Sabbath-breakers, concluding from thence, that Christ himself was a Sabbath- breaker. And if so, they ask, what benefit can we expect by the death of an evil-doer? Thus you may see what evil consequences follow the non-ob- servance of the Lord's holy Sabbath. Bitiius says, (Councils, book 3, last jDart, p. 1448,) that a council was celebrated in Scotland about the first bringing in of the dominical day, which some now call the Lord's day, or Sunday, but he calls it the dominical day. This council, he says, was hehl A. D. 1203, in the time of Pope Innocent the Third. 82 THE TESTIMONY OF PROFANE HISTORY. See Roger Hoveden, whom Binius quotes, page 1202, and Matthew Paris' old impression, pp. 192, 193, and Lucius' Ecclesiastical History, a work which he gathered out of the oldest and best writers, printed at Basil in 1624. Lucius, (Century 13, p. 264,) says of the domini- cal day, that in a certain council in Scotland, it was enacted that it should be kept, beginning from the twelfth hour on Saturday noon till Monday. BoBthius, (lib. 13, de Scottis, p. 357,) says that in Scotland, A. D. 1203, William, King of Scotland, called a council of the principal of his kingdom. There it was decreed that Saturday, from the twelfth hour at noon, should be holy, and that they should do no profane work, and this they should observe till Monday. Roger Hoveden says this council was about the observation of the first day. There came also a legate from the pope, with a sword and a purple hat, to grant indulgences and privileges to the young king; when it was decreed, that the seventh day, from the twelfth hour at noon, should be holy — that the people should do nothing profane, but apply themselves to things sacred — and this they should do even until the second day morning at sun rising. Bcetliius, lib. 13, de Scotis, 788. So, as I take it, here are these witnesses to the truth of this story — Roger Hoveden, Matthew Paris, Lucius, and Bcethitis, great authorities as to the truth of the matter of fact. The first-day Sabbath, then, stands without any Scripture foundation, but upon the same ground as Easter, Whitsuntide, or Christmas. It is no great wonder, that Mr. Ward should quarrel so with the Scripture Sabbath, seeing he is for one that is without Scripture, though he fathers it there, for some reasons which he best knows. But the Scriptures being altogether silent DEVICES TO ESTABLISH SUxXDAY OBSERVATION. 83 about a first-day Sabbath, he flies to history, and tells us that Eusehius says the first day was called the queen of days. And what of all this % The same history makes it manifest that the seventh day was reckoned the king of days, or the chief of days for holy worship ; and in a manner almost all the congregations in the world did keep the seventh day for the Sabbath, as hath been shown. And Athana^us, Bishop of Alexandria, saith that they assembled on Saturday, not that they were infected with Judaism, but only to worship Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. CHAPTER VIII. The arts used by the Papists to establish the obsei-vance of the first day of the week in England and Scotland. Now, Mr. Ward, seeing that neither the holy Scriptures, nor the histories which you mentioned, will afford you any relief or any thing like a com- mandment for observing the first day of the week for a Sabbath, to do you a kindness, and to help you at this dead lift, and also to show you what spirit hath been at work to make a Sabbath for you, I will produce another human institution, and com- mandment for its observance. It is from Dr. Hey- lyn's History of the Sabbath, part 2, pp. 221, 222 Eustachius, Abbot of Flay, in Normandy, an as- sociate of 'Fulco, a French priest and notable hypo- crite, who had lighted on a new Sabbatarian fancy, was sent to publish it here in England; but finding 84 DEVICES TO ESTABLISH ■opposition to his doctrine, he went back again the next year, being 1202. He, however, soon returned better fortified, preaching from town to town, and from place to place, that no man should presume to market on the Lord's day, as they had done hereto- fore. Now, for the easier bringing of the people to obey their dictates, they had to show a warrant sent from God himself, as they gave it out, the title and history whereof is as follows : — . "An holy mandate touching the Lord's day, which came down from heaven, unto Jerusalem, found on St. Simeon's altar, in Golgotha, where Christ was cmcified for the sins of all the world; which, lying there for tliree days and as many nights, struck with such terror all that saw it, that falling on the ground they besought God's mercy. At last the Patriarch and Akarius the Archbishop, ventured to take mto their hands the dreadful letter, whifih was written thus: — 'I the Lord, who commanded you that ye should observe the dominical holy day, and ye have not kept it, and ye have not re- pented of your sins; I have caused repentance to be preached unto you, and ye have not believed. I sent pagans against you, who shed your blood, yet ye repented not. And because ye kept not the day holy, for a few days ye had famine; but I soon gave you plenty, and afterward ye did worse. I will again, that none from the ninth hour of the Sabbath — [so the Abbot of Flay still called the seventh day the Sabbath, and put part of the Sab- bath into the first day,] — until the rising of the sun on Monday, do any work, unless it is good; which, if any do, let him amend by repentance. And if ye be not obedient to this command, I say unto you, and I swear unto you by my seat and throne, and cherubim, who keep my holy seat, that I will not command you any thmg by another epistle, but I will open the heavens, and for rain I wdll rain upon you stones, and logs of wood, and hot water by night, that none may be able to escape. But that I may de- stroy all wicked men, this I say unto you, that ye shall die the death because of the dominical holy day, and other festivals of my saints, — [so the saints' days are hooked in also,] — which ye have not kept ; I will send unto you beasts having the heads of lions, the hair of women, the tails of camels, and they shall be BO hunger star\"ed, that they shall devour your flesh, and ye shall desire to flee to the sepulchres of the dead, and hide you for fear of the beasts. And I will take away the light of the sim from your eyes; and I will send upon you darkness, that, without see- SUNDAY OBSERVATION. 85 iug, ye may kill one another. And I will take away my iace from you, and I will not show you mercy ; for I will bum your bodies and hearts, and of all those who keep not the dominical holy day. Hear my voice, lest ye perish in the land, because of the dominical holy day. Turn from evil, and be penitent for your sins; which if ye do not, ye shall perish as Sodom and Gomorrali. Now know ye, that ye are safe by the prayers of my most holy mother Mary, and of my holy angels and saints, who daily pray for you. I gave you corn and wine abundantly, and then ye did not obey me ; for widows and orphans daily cry imto you, to whom you do no mercy. Pagans have mercy, but ye have not. The trees, wliich bear ffuit, I ^vill make to dry up for your sins ; the rivers and fountains shall not yield water. I swear to you by my right hand, that unless ye keep the dominical day, and the festivals of my saints, I will send pagans to kill you.' " There is more of this wretched stuff, to make the people believe that they should keep the first day for the Sabbath. Then the lord Eustachius, Abbot of Flay, came to York, in England; and being honorably received by Galfred, Archbishop of York, the clergy, and the people of that city, he preached of the transgressing of the dominical day, and the other festivals or holy days. He gave the people repentance and absolution, upon condition that they hereafter should show due reverence to the domin- ical day and other festivals of the saints, not doing in them any servile labor; and should not exercise or keep markets of vendibles on the dominical day, but should devoutly employ themselves in good works and prayers. So it seems that the people here in England had little reverence for the Sunday before this, or other holy days. These things the lord Eustachius, Abbot of Flay, constituted to be observed from the ninth hour, i. e. our three o'clock in the afternoon, of the sev- enth-day Sabbath, until the rising of the sun on Monday. And the people, upon his preaching, vowed to God that they hereafter would neither buy nor sell any thing upon the dominical day, un- 8 86 DEVICES TO ESTABLISH less perhaps food and drink to such as passed by. They vowed also, that of all things which they sold of the value of five shillings, they would give a fourth part to buy a lamp or candle for the church, and for the burial of the poor; and for the collect- ing of this, the aforesaid Abbot ordained to be made an hollow piece of wood in all parish churches, under the custody of two or three faithful men, where the people should cast in the beforemention- ed money. He ordained also that an alms-dish, or platter, should be daily had at the table of the rich, in which they should send part of their meat to the use of those who were indigent and poor, who had not prepared for themselves; which was a very charitable appointment. The same abbot ordained that none should buy or sell any thing in churches, or in the church porch, or church yard. The foregoing refers to England. But the king, princes, and people of England, were then against the observing of Sunday, and would not agree to change the Sabbath or keep Sunday by this com- mand. This was, I think, in the time of King John, against whom the Popish clergy had a great pique and quarrel, as not favoring their prelacy and monks, by one of whom he was poisoned. Scotland did not receive the change until A. D. 1203. We have here the authority, (and for matter of fact undeniable, for aught that I know or can find,) of a council held in Scotland for initiating, oi for the first brins^ing in there the observation of the dominical day, i. e. the first day of the week or Sunday. The kingdom of Scotland was Christian very early, and generally received the Christian religion about A. D. 435, and have this honor, that they were one of the last in this part of the world which admitted the first day to be kept for the Sabbath ; and that was not till one SUNDAY OBSERVATION. 87 thousand two hundred and three years after Christ. To Binius, BcBthius, Hovcden, and Matthew Paris, and to the records of that kingdom of Scotland, where so great a transaction cannot probably be lost, further inquiries are referred. This matter of fact strikes out one thousand two hundred and three years in the kingdoms of Scot- land and England, from the seventeen hundred and twenty-one years, so confidently affirmed by Mr. Ward concerning the first-day Sabbath. And take one thousand two hundred and three out of seven- teen hundred and twenty-one, and there remain five hundred and eighteen years — which is a prescrip- tion much too modern and weak to alter and lay aside the ancient established law of God's seventh- day Sabbath. I may safely leave any one to make his own inferences in so plain a case. Although this precedent of Eustachius be somewhat modern, yet, being seconded by a council, and that transmit- ted and published to the world in one of the volumes of the general and provincial councils, out of which it is translated; and this passing at the initiating, or first bringing in of the celebration of the first day of the week, or Sunday, into the king- dom of Scotland, which is famous for having the Gospel early preached there, and in this as famous, viz, for not receiving this innovation of the first day so soon as some other parts of the world, and Eng- land being then much of the same mind, as before said — it is nevertheless one precedent which may serve to abate what is printed about the first day, as if all the world since the time of Christ and the apostles had observed it, and as if the Sabbath ever since had been universally laid aside. The law to alter the seventh day to the first, as you may see before in the collections out of the Centuries, was by the Bishops of Rome, who. 88 DEVICES TO ESTABLISH thouo-li they pretend to dispense laws to the church, yet they ought not to alter the law of God in any point or by any authority, but what is equal to that which enacted it. No Pope or any man on earth ought to pretend to an authority equal to the au- thority of God. So if there be no divine precept for any other than the seventh day, then it is cer- tain that no decrees of popes, or councils, or any tradition, can be of any force to alter the law which God hath declared to be his law; that disputes against it are intolerable; and that it is. impeaching the wisdom of God to make an alteration in his precepts. That no man ought to alter God's laws, I think has been agreed by all the great Protestant writers. The reason is evident; the laws of God are above them all. " The wise in heart will receive the com- mandments, but a prating fool shall fall." Prov. 10 ; 8. It may be that Mr. Ward secretly wishes, that this fourth commandment for keeping holy the sev- enth day were not so plain, or that he could some- where hnd it altered in the Scriptures; because so plain a commandment, not repealed or altered there, and so confirmed by Christ and his apostles, faces his conscience, answers all objections, and throws down all the batteries raised against it. He would fain find some plausible objection to shelter himself in a continual violation of it; but still the law rises up, and overthrows all his opposition. Indeed, it seems to me marvelous, that the observ- ation of the weekly seventh-day Sabbath should be so long laid aside here in a land of light, notwith- standing so direct and plain a command, and that the first day should so far obtain, for which they have so little to say. Some at first by subtilty have put all their wits and strength to defend it, and have blown up their opinions to a wonderful height, SUNDAY OBSERVATION. 89 which God by his word can easily take down again. For the present, some have altered, and in part abrogated this old command, and set up a contrary one in its stead, and so do become in this not God's subjects, but his law-givers, as if they could make a more holy and righteous law than the law of God. Have they not so far forsaken God's law, and walk- ed after the imagination of their own hearts'? Jer. 9: 14. How unreasonable is this, to impose a law upon God, and force him, at the same time, to re- voke his own? And how their endeavor to impose this law for the first day on the universal church, can be excused from being a high usurpation of the divine authority, and from accusing God as if he had not sufficiently done his work, I know not. Whatsoever some men urge for obedience to their inventions, I cannot imagine that they think any shall be condemned or blamed by the Lord at last for not doing what he hath not required in his Word; or that they would have us live by the rules of tra- dition, when they know and acknowledge that we must be judged by another rule, viz. by the Word. That the Word of God which we have is the rule by which all worship, doctrines, conversation, dis- cipline, and all mankind, are to be tried in this world, and shall be judged at last, I take to be the great Christian principle; which, as far as I can recollect, is generally allowed by all Protestants that I have known or read of in the world. But some men, under the color of tradition, usurp the divine authority against the commands of God. Some write and plead for what is forbidden in the second command. Others break in upon all the commands ; for all of which, men may easily plead tradition, as in all ages they may discover some greater or less transgressions of all the commands , 8* 90 DEVICES TO ESTABLISH SUNDAY OBSERVATION. which, to such arguers, are historical evidences for justifying such practices. But follow no man farther than he follows Christ. There is no principle more evident, and universally confessed by all the reformed Christians, than thai whatever Grod commands us, in his worship or other- wise, that we are to do, be the thing great or small. When men can bind God's promises of assistance to their inventions, whether they be days or any thing else, in his worship or otlrer duties of men, then, and not before, they may appoint a new day of rest. And since there is no law, nor any word, to be found in the Scriptures, which do most cer- tainly contain the whole and perfect duty of man, which requires the keeping holy of the first day of the week for the Sabbath ; and since there is not one word of promise made to the observers of it, nor any promise of acceptance from the Lord for any per- son in that observation ; and since there is not one word of threatening or displeasure there against those who do not observe it ; how can it be proved by Mr. AVard, or any other man, to be of God. The Bible does not tell us one word that repeals or alters the fourth commandment in any jot or tittle; nor of any power there given to any that are, or ever should be, in the world, to make any alteration therein. And, therefore, unless you can show of persons thus authorized by God himself, it would seem, as long as heaven and earth abide, to be thus unalterable, and that the seventh day is the true weekly Christian Sabbath, and ought to be ob- served. As for tradition, (so far as I can gather from my small stock of books,) about the seventh-day Sab- bath, when the observation thereof ended, and about the first day, when the observation thereof began among Christians — I have given some small THE USE OP HEATHENISH NAMES CONSIDERED. 91 account, hoping the world may hereafter have a more exact account thereof, if need be, from some one or other who has better abilities, a better library, and more youthful strength and leisure, whom I pray God to raise up in my stead. CHAPTER IX. Tire use of heathenish names considered. Mr. Ward, in his exposition, considers the names of our days, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; being now the known names of the days, he thinks we need no more scruple to use these names than to talk of Pope Pious Clement. To this I reply, from one of his texts in Ex. 23: 13, "Make no mention of the names of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth;" which refers to the idol names of the days of the week, and proves the antiquity of Sunday from the heathen's worshiping the sun as their god — the sun being king, and the moon being queen. Now I confess that causeless scruples are a weakness, but a true conscientious tenderness of mind not to offend God in any thing wherein his will is made known to us in his Word, is, as I think, one of the most excellent things in man. And if Mr. Ward, under this notion of scruples, thinks to reflect upon conscientious obedience to the Word of God, or any part thereof, (which I hope he does not,) he will be much to blame. God having so ex- pressly forbidden the mention of the names of idols, 92 THE USE OF HEATHENISH as these were from which the days of the week were called ; he having also repeatedly given us in his Word the proper names, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh day, which seventh day is called the Sabbath throughout the Scriptures ; I make no scruple to call the days of the week by the same names as the Lord called them ; and if Mr. Ward will retain the old idol names without any scruple, notwithstanding his own acknowledg- ment whence they came, and notwithstanding the plain word of Cxod against them, I cannot help it. And it seems to me that the most subtile of those who are fond of holding fast the idol names of days, do fear the consequence of laying them aside, as if it might by degrees restore both the true names and the Sabbath. On this subject Dr. Owen says: — "Among Christians, this name, viz. Sunday, was not in com- mon use, but by some was rejected, as were also the rest of the names of the days used among the pagans. So speaks Augustine, wishing that Christians did not call the days as pagans do. Jerome would not have the days of the week called after the idols and planets, but first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, seventh day or Sabbath day; and he rejects the use of the ordinary names of the heathen. Philastitius makes the usages of them among Christians almost heretical. The popish Rhemists, on Revelations 1: 10, condemn the name of Sunday as heathenish; anl Polidore Virgil, before them, saith, ' It is both a shame, and matter of great lamentation, that before now the days have not been called by Cliristian names, that the heathenish gods might not have had among us such a standing monument.' Indeed, among sundry of the ancients, there occur many severe expressions against the use of the common planetary names; and at the first reluxqulshment of heathenism, it had no doubt been well, if these names of Baal had been taken away out of the mouths of men, especially considering that the retaining of them hath been of no use nor advantage. I must add, that the severe afflictions, and contemptuous reproaches, poured out against them who abstain from using them, [the heathenish names,] argue a want of chanty; since certainly there is an appearance of warranty in them who use not heathenish names, sufficient to secure them from contempt and reproach. For it is given as the v\rill of Grod. Ex. 23 : 13 — "Make no men- NAMES CONSIDERED. 93 tion of the names of other gods, neither let them be heard out of thy mouth.' And it cannot be denied, that the names of the days of the week were names of the gods among the heathen. The prohibition is renewed in Josh. 23 : 7 — ' Make no mention of the names of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither sei-ve them, nor bow yourselves mito them;' which is yet extend- ed, in Deut. 12: 3, to a command to destroy and blot out the names of the gods of tho people, wliich by this means are re- tained. Accordingly the children of Reuben, buildiag cities, formerly called Nebo and Baalmeon, changed their names, be- cause they were the names of the heathen idols. Num. 32: 38. And David mentions it as a part of his integrity, that he would not take up the names of idol gods in liis lips. JPs. 16 : 4." There are many other names of days and seasons, used both in common speech and writing, to be re- jected by all good Christians, they being set up for these three wicked ends, chiefly — 1st. To uphold the detestable idol of the Mass, as Lia.m-?nas day, Michael-mas, Christ- /?ias, and Candle-w«.?. 2d. To give God's time either to real saints, who abhor- red such things, as Jmnes-tide, J^aviholomew-tide ; or to superstitious saints, who never had a being but in wicked men's brains, as Valentine 's-f^^y, George's day. 3d. To encourage people in hor- rid superstitious observations of times; as Shrove- tide, Lent, Easter, Whitsuntide ; which they call holy days, and honor them more than the Lord's seventh-day Sabbath, the only holy day of God's appointing; whereby the Lord's time is justled out to bring in times devised by wicked men, who here- in are like Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who sinned and caused Israel to sin. 1 Kings 12 : 32. There- fore Christians should not take these abominable names in their mouths, lest they learn the ways and walk after the customs of the heathen and papists; which, being vain and abominable, are positively for- bidden in these and many other Scriptures, as in Ex. 23; 13, "In all things that I have said unto you be circumspect, and make no mention of the 94 THE USE OF HEATHENISH \AMES CONSIDERED. names of other gods, neither let them be heard out of thy mouth." In Deut. 12 : 3, God expressly commands his people to destroy the names of idols out of their land. In Josh. 23: 7, this command is repeated, "that they should not so much as make mention of the names of heathen gods." In Neh. 13: 24,25, "The chief rulers vehemently contended with such as spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and not altogether in the language of the people of God." In Ps. 16 : 4, David, a man after God's own heart, declares, "that he would not take up the names of other gods into his lips." In Hosea 2 : 16, 17, God promised to take away the names of Baalim from the mouths of his people, and that they should no more be re- membered by their names. In Zeph. 3 : 9, " Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." In Zach. 13: 1, 2, God prom- iseth, when his people are washed from sin by Christ the fountain of grace, that he will cut off the names of idols out of their land, so that they shall be no more remembered. In 1 Cor. 15 : 33, " Be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners." In Eph. 4 : 29, " Let no corrupt com- munication proceed out of your mouth." In Col. 4: Q, "Let your speech be always with grace, sea- soned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." In Titus 2: 8, "Use sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he who is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." In 1 Peter 4: 11, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;" that is, Scripture language. And, indeed, there is the highest reason for calling the days of the week, and the months, by Scripture names only; for all times being the Lord's, and the Lord having TIME OF COMMENCING THE SABBATH. 95 put names upon his own times, we should call his times by no other names than those which he hath given them in his holy Word. Hear what Christ speaks in Matt. 12 : 36, 37, '* But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judg- ment; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." There- fore keep yourselves from idols. CHAPTER X. Time of commencing the Sabbath. Mr. Ward would make the day to begin at mid- night, and to end at midnight, according to the Ro- man account, and not according to the Scriptures. Though I am not willing to contend about terms, what is the natural, and what the artificial day, yet I may not admit the days of the week to be any other than what God at first fixed in the Scriptures ; that is, the evening and the morning. It is true that the day, as distinguished from the night, begins in the morning and ends in the evening; and the night, or darkness, as distinguished from day, be- gins in the evening and ends in the morning. But the whole day consisteth of evening and morning, that is, night and day; and we find in Gen. 1: 3, that when light was created, "God divided the light from the darkness ; and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night; and the evening and the morning were the first day." So the light 96 TIME OF COMMENCING was the day, and the darkness the night, as distin- guished from one another. But one day, or the first day of the week, consisted of evening and morning, that is, of darkness and light, which was the first day; and so the evening and the morning were the second day; and the evening and the morning were the third day; and the evening and the morning were the fourth day; and the evening and the morning were the fifth day; and the eve- ning and the morning were the sixth day; and the seventh day God rested, or sabbatized. In Gen. 2 : 2, 3, the seventh day is thrice mentioned, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, or made it holy ; which making it holy, I think, re- solves the main question which day of the week should be kept for the Sabbath, consisting of eve- ning and morning, that is, of darkness and light; and so beginning in the evening, and ending the evening after, is the plain appointed and fixed time for the Sabbath; and this reckoning of days is ac- cording to Scripture, as Mr. Ward acknowledges. As to the time when the Sabbath doth begin, I conceive that it is not to be at midnight, according to the reckoning of this kingdom and the Papists ; nor at noon, as the Gipsies count; nor in the morn- ing, as others reckon; but upon the evening before, and so continue to the evening after, as the Lord reckons the day to begin and end. Gen. 1 : 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; and Gen. 2: 1 — 3. I can no where find that first distribution of day altered by God. But while they are confounded in their language, like Babel's builders, laboring with much diflficulty to find seme beginning of man's Sabbath, behold the lively oracle of God's unchangeable seventh- day Sabbath, opening all prison doors, breaking all bars, untying all knots, making it manifest that night was the beginning of time, before any light THE SABBATH. 97 appeared. This darkness, with the ensuing light, completed the first day, the second day, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days, wherein the Almighty finished the whole fabric of heaven and earth. And no sooner did the sixth day's sun cease, than Elohim ceased to show his power in creation ; and withdrawing himself, he immediately sanctified the seventh day for the Sabbath, delighting himself in the pure and spotless work of his hands ; for as yet sin had not spoiled the creature. But while Jeho- vah celebrated his Sabbath with man, for whom it was made, " lo the morninor stars sans: too^ether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38 : 7. So that here the Lord's Sabbath, without the least loss of time, begins exactly when the sixth day's sun is set, and the world's creation ends. There- fore such as desire to be holy, as God is holy, must not only observe the seventh-day Sabbath, but begin this holy rest as God commands; that is, when the sixth day's circuit of the sun shows us that it is time to cease from earthly labors, as Jehovah in his royal law hath proposed himself for our example. This was the course of believers, I suppose it will scarcely be questioned, in Moses' time; since even the ceremonial Sabbaths, because honored as Sab- baths, were to be observed from even unto even. So after the Jews were carried to Babylon for slighting the Sabbath, did honest Nehemiah set himself to en- force the exact observance of this day, by causing Jerusalem's gates to be shut before the Sabbath, even whilst the declining sixth day's sun, by de- scending on the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, cast some obscurity upon the city gates : — a good example for earthly minds, who will not leave their servile labor till the last minute, but perhaps allow themselves liberty to do some household business after the Sabbath's beginning. We lie under equal 9 98 TIME OF COMMENCING THE SABliATH. engagements at least with ancient Israel, which should oblige us to such evening sacrifice, as ap- pears to have been their custom by that Psalm de- signed for the Sabbath — "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to praise thy name, Most High ; to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night." Ps. 92: 1, 2. This sacrifice very well becomes Christ- ians; and so the disciples of Christ began the Sab- bath, and so the Lord's ancient people celebrate the Sabbath, So that it is abundantly manifest, that from even to even it is to be kept. Thus the Jews constantly observe it; and thus all faithful Christ- ians ought to sanctify it, who by Scripture authori- ty are set free from all that confusion and conten- tion, which, as a scourge from God, perplexeth the observers of their supposed first-day Sabbath ; foi they know not when to begin, nor when to make an end. Thus you may see what confusion they are in, who say the Sabbath is changed from the sev- enth day to the first, and yet observe neither, but part of the first day and part of the second. For some say their Sabbath begins at midnight; and some say it begins in the morning, when a part of the first day is spent; and they end at midnight, or in the morning, when part of the second day is spent. Yet they will have this to be the Sabbath. CHAPTER XI. Remarks upon the argument for the observance of the first day from the resuiTection of Christ and his appearances to his disciples. If God, by a positive moral and perpetual com- mandment, dotli bind all men in all ages to such a particular seventh day as himself hath appointed, then either Mr. Ward must prove that God hath made his moral law changeable by appointing some other day, or else the seventh-day Sabbath must be restored to its primitive glory. His first ground for the change of the Sabbath to the first day of the week, is raised from Christ's resurrection and ap- pearing to his disciples. But the very great differ- ence between the Father's example at the world's creation, and the Son's action at the resurrection, will discover soon the vanity of this argument. For at the world's creation God did sanctify the seventh day for his Sabbath, and rested on it, giving us an example for the ground of our obedience; but upon the resurrection there is not the least syllable of a change, institution, sanctification, or celebration of the first day. Yea, so far was Christ from resting upon the day of his resurrection, that he traveled many miles upon this supposed new Sabbath, not to any religious meeting, but from Jerusalem, the place where most of his disciples were, purposely joining himself with the two disciples that were journeying on foot seven miles and a half into the country. Mark 16: 12; Luke 24 : 13,15. Christians, in the name of the Lord, awake, and pollute your souls no longer with a weekly profana- tion of the Sabbath upon such a false supposition 100 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, as a change at Christ's resuiTection ! You see that your Creator sanctified his seventh-day Sabbath, and rested upon it. But for the first day, you have not one word of a command to keep it as a Sab- bath ; and for an examj^le, you have that of Christ to work on it, for he traveled, with tvv'o of his dis- ciples, upon their private occasion, on the first day of the week, not giving them the least admonition about the observation of the first day for the Sab- bath ; which undoubtedly he would have done as freely as in other things, had he intended the first day for a new Sabbath. Now I beseech you consider, whether this be likely, that Christ, who was faithful in all his house, would intend the first day for a Sabbath, and yet never leave one word of command, nor any exam- ple for it but that of journeying fifteen miles. Ob- serve, also, that upon the first day he was at a vil- lage called Emmaus, seven miles and a half from Jerusalem, when it was towards evening, and the day far spent. Luke 24: 13, 29, 30. After which, he supped with the two disciples, which took up some time. Then they returned that seven miles and a half to Jerusalem on foot. So that if the day was far spent before they entered the village, it must doubtless be quite spent before they could provide and eat their suppers, and return seven miles and a half again. Luke 24 : 32. And so, before Christ appeared to the eleven, the first day must needs be past; for although they said he ap- peared the first day at even, yet they must have known that the first day was then fully ended, as it is plain that the Sabbath was ended at evening when the sun did set. Besides, this journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and back again, was a trav- eling journey, being three-score furlongs. Luke 24: 13. And being more than a Sabbath-day's AND HIS APPEARANCES. 101 journey, (for a Sabbath-day's journey is about two miles and a half,) I do not see how any body can make that journey consistent with the keeping of the first day for a Sabbath. For this there is no institution, or command, but rather the contrary, since their traveling upon that first day of the week, without any reproof from Christ, seems directly against a first-day Sabbath. And as to what is said about Christ's appearing upon several first days of the week to his disciples as they were assembled, I believe, upon diligent search, that this will also be found but a vain flourish ; and indeed, that he never appeared to any as- sembly upon any one first day according to the Scripture account, which most certainly begins the day with the evening. As for Christ's second ap- pearing to the disciples, it is expressly said, that it was after eight days, and therefore could not have been on the next first day of the week. John 20 : 26. And for his third appearing to his disciples, surely Mr. Ward will not say, that it was on the first day, seeing they were at their trade of fishing. John 21: 1. Mr. Ward conceives that the cause of the first assembling of the disciples on the fii'st day of the week, was to celebrate the new Sabbath in honor of Christ's resurrection; whereas they were so far from believing that Christ was risen, that the women's tidings thereof seemed to them as idle tales. Yea, the first day was finished before they believed; so that they could not in faith do any such thing. Mark 16: 14; Luke 24: 12. But here it is evident how sadly they are put to it, who must say something for their first-day Sabbath, and yet can say nothing better. Mr. Ward says, Christ appeared to his disciples on the Lord's day, or first day of the week, being 9* 102 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, the day on which he rose from the dead, and the first Lord's day was a Sabbath. Answer — 1st. If it was a Sabbath, yet it was not so by the fourth commandment; for that requires the seventh day. Ex.20: 10. But Christ appeared on the first day of the week. The text saith, that the disciples were assembled together for fear of the Jews, not that it was to keep the first day for a Sabbath. But with you every assembly must be a Sabbath. The Scripture saith, Christ appeared at night, the doors being shut. Our question is not of the night, but of the day or day-time. 2d. If every day wherein Christ appeared to his disciples must be a Sabbath day, then a fishing day must be a Sabbath day; for Christ appeared to them when they were fishing at the sea of Tiberias. John 21:4. 3d. Then also, in Christ's time, they had forty Sabbaths together; for he was seen of some of them for forty days. Acts 1 : 3. His appearances, there- fore, prove not any thing as to a change of the Sab- bath; so this first day of the week, in Christ's time, was no Sabbath. How then can you think that the churches afterward kept the first day for the Sab- bath] Were they more holy than Christ] If they were, it was but a superstitious holiness. Mr. Ward says, it is as plain as that two times two makes four, that Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. To this I answer, that as plain as it is, by all the wit and learning Mr. Ward has, he cannot prove it. Mary came when it was yet dark. John 20: 1. That it was before day, is as clear as the sun. Then said the angels, "Why seek ye the living among the dead] He is not here, but is risen." Luke 24 : 5, 6. As if they had said, Long ago. Had Mary AND HIS APPEARANCES. 103 come at midnight, she had heard the same, for all you know. None of the evangelists tell us when Christ rose. There had been a great earthquake ; for the angel of the Lord descended and rolled hack the stone, and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men, (Mat. 28 : 2, 4,) but were now revived and gone ; for, saith Mary, " They have taken away the Lord out of the sepul- chre, and we know not where they hfive laid him." .John 20 : 2. These things had a time to be acted over; but how long it had transpired before Mary first came, which was still before day, is not ex- pressed. J esus must needs rise in the evening to complete the time prefixed for his laying dead, which time was what Christ had solemnly declared, viz: "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt. 12 : 40. It is then as reasonable to believe, that seeing Christ died before the day was ended in the time of his crucifixion, he did rise before the third day was quite ended in the time of his resur- rection. But to introduce the day of Christ's death, I must begin with its lively type, viz. the Lord's Pass- over. This, from its first institution, wijs on the fourteenth day of the first month Abib, or Nisan, according to the sacred account. From the time of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt, the paschal lamb was to be taken upon the tenth day, and kept till the fourteenth day — probably that the sight of it might occasion preparation of heart — and it was killed in the evening, (Ex. 12: 6,) for the Passover was not lawful, if it were killed before noon ; and the reason of this is, because the law doth express- ly appoint that they should kill it in the evening, and because the daily evening sacrifice was to be 104 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, killed before they began to kill the Passover; the reason of this also is readily to be given, namely, because an extraordinary service must not antici- pate one ordinary and constant. After they had burnt the incense of the evening sacrifice, and after they had dressed the lamps, then they began to kill the Passover, and so continued until the end of the day. The time they divided thus: — They slew the daily sacrifice at the eighth hour and a half, and then offered it at the ninth hour and a half; but on the eve of the Passover, they slew it after the sev- enth hour and a half, and offered it at the eighth hour and a half, whether the day were a common day or a Sabbath day. The division of the day by hours was not used when the Passover was com- manded ; the word liour, except in Daniel, is not in the Old Testament ; but they divided the day into three parts, called morning, noon, and even. From six to ten was morning, from ten to two v.'as noon, from two to six at night v/as even. The beginning and end of this last part were the two evenings be- tween which the lamb was killed, and it was eaten at midnight. Our Lord Jesus, who was to fulfill the law, kept this Passover. According to the law, he commanded his disciples to prepare it upon the fourteent^j day, and he ate it with them at midnight on the fifteenth day. Matt. 26 : 11. At this eve- ning, when the fourteen days ended, and the fifteenth day began, then began the first of the seven days of unleavened bread. Lev. 23 : 6 ; Num. 28: 17; Mark 14: 12. Question. Why then is the fourteenth day called the first day of unleavened bread? Answer. Partly, because it was prefixed and joined to them ; and partly because the Passover was killed on the fourteenth day, which was eaten AND HIS APPEARANCES. 105 with unleavened bread at the beginning of the first day of unleavened bread ; and so sometimes all the eight days are called days of unleavened bread. Matt. 26: 17; Luke 22: 7. But the days of un- leavened bread, properly so called, were but seven, and were exactly bounded. Observe that the first day of the seven was xhQ feast of the Passover; and the foiirteentlt, day of the first month is the Passover^ and in the fifteenth day of this month is xkyQ feast. Ex.12: 18; Num.28: 16,17. On this first day of the feast, when these great matters were to be in hand, namely, their appearing in the court, and offering these their sacrifices of solemnity and rejoicing, at the last Passover of our Saviour, they showed themselves otherwise em- ployed ; for on this day they crucified Christ. Mark this well, the first and last of these seven days were holy convocations. "Seven days shall ye eat un leavened bread, in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation, no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat." Ex. 12: 15, 16. These were cere- monial Sabbaths, and commonly called Sabbaths ; but it is the first day of the seven which falls under our consideration, viz, the fifteenth day of the month, which you may see called a Sabbath in Lev. 23: 2, 15. This is the Sabbath on which the Jews killed Christ, and which you suppose to be the seventh-day Sabbath. But you are much mistaken. The fifteenth day of the month, on which Jesus died, was the Passover Sabbath day; but they de- ferred it to the day following, and called the fif- teenth day preparation day. Question. Why did they so % Answer. As when a fixed fair falls on the first 106 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, day of the week, the people keep it on the second day of the week. Goodman's " Translation of Feasts," lib. 3, p. 138, says :— "If the Passover Sab- bath fixed on the fifteenth day of the month fell on some certain days of the week, the Jews had a custom to translate it to the next day, by their rule Badii, of which one Eleazer is said to be the au- thor, who lived 3-50 years before Christ's birth." Mark this well. That this Sabbath was thus trans- lated, a man cannot in truth deny. The reason of this politic translation was, that two Sabbath days might not immediately follow each other; because, say they, it was unlawful during those two days to dress meat, or bury the dead ; and it v/as likewise inconvenient to keep meat dressed, or the dead un-. buried two days. And this I affirm, that as to the day, it was no Sabbath at all, ceremonial, nor moral, but one of their own invention. Objection. No Sabbath ! but the Scripture calls it a Sabbath. Answer. So does the Scripture call the devil Samuel four times in a few words, and does not once tell us it was the devil. In calling the devil Samuel, God tells us what Saul and the witch called him, and leaves it with us to judge, whether a wicked, silly witch, had power to bring Samuel to life. So in calling that a Sabbath, God tells us what the Jews called it, and leaves it with us to judge, whether Jesus Christ, or the Jews, were likeliest to break God's law. Hence sometimes it hath no Sabbath title ; as, for example, John, speak- ing of the day of Christ's death, saith, " It was the preparation of the Passover." John 19: 14. Ills nothing but Passover. Matthew, speaking of this high Sabbath, calls it " the next day that followed the day of preparation." Matt. 27 : 62. Strange 1 AND HIS APPEARANCES. 107 — a Sabbath, and a high, day, and no name, except ''the next day!" Thus God is pleased to drop words to see what notice men will take of them. Objection. How — no Sabbath ? Why then is it called a high day 1 Ansiver. The right day was a high day, for on it Israel went out of Egypt with an high hand. Ex. 14 : 8. And it was for a monument of their miracu- lous deliverance ; as, for example, " This day shall be unto you for a memorial." Ex. 12: 14. "Re- member this day in which ye came out of Egypt. And thou shalt shew thy sons ; and it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memo- rial between thine eyes." Ex. 13 : 3, 8, 9. There were many solemn or memorable occurrences why they should remember this day with wonder, viz : that Pharaoh, who stood so many storms, should rise up in the night, and call for Moses and Aaron, and say, " Go serve the Lord as ye have said, also take your flocks and your herds as ye have said, and be gone, and bless me also," (Ex. 12 : 30 — 32 ;) that six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, should be pulled out of prison from two hundred years' tyranny, and all in one night — a night indeed to be much observed to the Lord. Upon this account, that Sabbath was an high day. Good Josiah, and some other princely persons, sac- rificed at one Passover, of oxen, bullocks, and small cattle, thirty-one thousand and four hundred. On this day all the males were to appear in the temple, and to bring with them a burnt-offering for their appearance, and a double peace-offering, one for the solemnity, and another for the joy of the time of harvest; and they conclude it due from these words, "None of you shall appear before the Lord empty." Ex.23: 15, 16. The most proper time for the 108 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, offering of these, they accounted to be the first day of the festival, and they strove to conclude their festivities upon it, that they might return home the sooner to their harvests ; and if these sacrifices were offered in any of the festivals, it served their turn. This was an high day, and whether they kept the right day or the wrong, it was all one in their esteem. They pretended to give reasons for its translation, as Mr. Ward does for his first-day Sabbath. Observe well, that this temporal deliverence on the fifteenth day of the month, was a type of eternal deliverance by Christ's death on the same day of the year. This then should have been a high day on Christ's account. But him the carnal Jews laid low. They killed Christ on the Passover Sabbath day, and kept the Passover on the wrong day. It ' , related, that when Christ was brought into Pilate's Judgment Hall, which was after he had eaten the Passover with his disciples, as all the evangelists declare, the Jews durst not go into the Hall, iest they should be defiled, and thus be prevented from eating the Passover. John IS : 28, If you say that the Jews kept the right day, you must say that Jesus kept the wrong day. If you say that the Jews did not translate the Passover to the day after the right day, you must say that Jesus did anticipate it the day before the right day ; that is to say, Christ died on the fourteenth day, and killed the Passover on the thirteenth day, contrary to the law. In so saying, you make Jesus a transgressor; for the law particularly required that "the man that is clean, and is not on a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from his people; because he brought not the offeiing of the Lord in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin." Num.9: 13. Thus, by justifying AND HIS APPEARANCES. 109 the Jews, you condemn Christ. In order to pre- vent encroachments upon the appointed time, it was furthermore directed by the law, that "if any man shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be on a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord. The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it." Num. 9: 10, 11. But had Christ failed of fulfilling the whole law, God's purpose of man's salvation had failed. On the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, the Passover was killed according to all the rites of it. Num. 9: 3. On the fifteenth day Christ was killed. Th^ sixteenth, being wave-day, was the first day Jesuj lay dead ; therefore he rose not that day, and so Pentecost could not, as you argue, fall on the first day of the week. So your Pentecost opinion is utterly overthrown with that, for Christ's death was not on the sixth day. The fifteenth day of the first month Nisan, when Christ was crucified and died, fell that year on the fourth day of the week, i. e. Wednesday, at the end of which day our blessed Jesus was buried, from which time to the end of the seventh-day Sabbath was three days and three nights, the term of time that our Lord foretold he should lie in the grave. Matt. 12: 40. So that there were two days between the day of Jesus' death and the seventh-day Sabbath, and one day between that high Sabbath and the seventh-day Sabbath. Had the Jews kept the right day, there had been two days between their high Sabbath and the seventh-day Sabbath, which you say were both in a day. The reason of this translation was be- cause it fell on the fourth day of the week ; for if this Sabbath, fixed on the fifteenth day, fell on Mon day, Wednesday, or Friday, the Jews' custom was to translate it to the next day. That year it fell on Wednesday; they therefore kept it on Thursday, the 10 110 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, sixteenth, or wave-day. So you may see that your wave-day and Pentecost were on Thursday. To prove the truth of the foregoing position, I will give one Scripture more, in Dan. 9: 26, "And after three-score and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off, but not for himself." These are extra- ordinary weeks. " And he shall confirm the cove- nant with many for one week," (verse 27,) or rather for many by being cut off, according to the cove- nant, (Zech. 9 : 11,) and shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. The sacrifice was the yearly Passover. Ex. 12: 27. The oblation was the daily sacrifice. Num.28: 3, 4; Dan. 9: 21. These two were the yearly type and the daily type of Christ's death ; when he, the substantial sacrifice, was of- fered for us, then he caused these shadows to cease. But when? In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. Dan. 9 : 27. This one week was an ordinary week of seven days, the midst of which is the fourth day, or middle day, having three days before it and three days after it, and all of these three last . Jesus lay dead. So you may see that the week-day of Christ's death was foretold before his birth by the Scriptures of truth, though you may be ignorant of it — in which God drops words in the dark, to see if men will seek after him. Thus I have given you the testi- mony of God's holy word, in the Old and New Tes- taments, to prove my opinion by. Question. If Christ lay so long dead, why did the Jews go to Pilate for an order to secure the sepul- chre on a high Sabbath day, and not stay till the next day *? Answer. As necessity hath no law, so necessity hath no holy days; what cannot be done before, nor deferred till after, may be done on the Sabbath AND HIS APPEARANCES. Ill day. It could not be done before, for their heads were so full of concern to get Christ crucified, that there wanted room for that consideration; and they had been up the night before and that day too. But having slept upon it, and settled their wicked wits, Now sirs, say they, we remember that that deceiver said, after three days I will rise again ; and it cannot be omitted till to-morrow, for he may be stolen away to-night by his deceitful disciples. Matt. 27 : 63, 64. Question. If there was a day for work between the two Sabbaths, why did not the zealous women bring their spices on that day, but stay till after the Sabbath day? Ansiocr. Because they could not get in. The Jews made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. It was made fast for three days, to prove Christ an impostor. Matt. 27 : ^^. Question. When do you suppose Jesus Christ rose from the dead? Ansiocr. I do more than suppose, for I am fully satisfied, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead in the even when the Sabbath ended. He did not rise in the morning. There is not a text in the Bible that tells you so. The two Marys came to see the sepul- chre as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, and Christ was risen from the dead. Matt. 28: 1 — 6. It is therefore a settled question, that if the day begins, as some say, in the morning, Jesus did not rise on the first day of the week. Ohjection. Mary's coming to the sepulchre in the morning, seems to signify that Jesus was to rise in the morning. Answer. It was not the least sign of his rising in the morning, nor came they with any expectation of his resurrection, but to anoint him, as if he had 112 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, been to lay in the grave as other dead men. When Jesus foretold his rising from the dead, his disciples questioned what that rising from the dead should mean. Mark 9: 10. When he told them that he should be mocked, spitted on, scourged, put to death, and rise the third day, they understood none of these things. Luke 18: 34. And when they saw that he was risen, they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again from the dead. John 20 : 9. This phrase, "the third day," is most miserably mistaken, if thus taken, viz. Friday one, Saturday two, Sunday three; as if the day of Christ's death and the day of his resurrection were two of the three days. Neither is the one nor the other any part of that number; but the third day must be un- derstood by more definite texts, viz : " The son of man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matt. 12 : 40. " The son of man must be killed, and after three days rise again." Mark 8: 31. Christ's enemies could re- member his words, though his friends forgot them. * We remember, say they, that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive. After three days I will rise asrain.' Matt. 27 : 63. The an2:el said to the wo- men. He is risen, as he said, (Matt. 28: 5, 6,) that is, when the days and nights were ended which he foretold for his lying dead in the grave. Jonas the prophet showed the mystery of Christ's death and his resurrection, being three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, which afterwards cast him up uncorrupted. Even so the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth uncorrupted, and rose again. Matt. 12: 40. Objection. It hath been the opinion for many gene- rations, that Christ was crucified and died on the sixth day. AND HIS APPEARANCES. 113 Ansiver. If so, it is time that it was corrected. If I had no better foundation for my opinion, I should be ashamed to own it. So too with the Pentecost. Let us look at these fifty days in the letter of the law. " And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-oftering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete, even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days." Lev. 23 : 15, 16. This morrow, or wave-day, is the first of the fifty days; seven week# are equal to forty-nine days ; the morrow after com- pletes the Jlfty days, as the Greek word Pentecost signifies. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, (Acts 2: 1,) that is, when the seventh Sabbath was past, the seven weeks were complete, and Pentecost was fully come. Observe that the fiftieth day begins another week on the same day of the week on which the first day of the fifty be- gan the first week of the seven; so the first day and the fiftieth day fell both on the same day of the week. This a child might tell ; but I remind you of it, that you may see that your two great days for confirmation of your opinion stand and fall together. And now I tell you that these two days did not fall on the first day of the week. Pentecost fell not on the first day. The Passover was killed on the fourteenth day, and the Passover Sabbath was on the fifteenth day, on which Christ died, and the sheaf was waved on the sixteenth day. This is plain enough. This wave-day, on which you say Christ rose form the dead, was the first day he lay in the grave. So, by your account, Jesus rose from the dead the next day after his death — buried at even and rose in the morning. But suppose Jesus had risen on this wave-sheaf day, yet what type of Christ's resurrection was the sheaf? There was an 10* 114 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, he-lamb without blemish offered on that day too, which was as much a type of Christ's death on that day, as the sheaf could be of his resurrection. By this rule Christ both died and rose in a day. Into what a wilderness will the wit of men lead us ! Observe that this wave-day, on which you say Jesus rose, was the first day he lay in the grave. If you had said the lamb was a type of Christ's death be- fore that day, and the wave-sheaf a type of his resurrection after that day, there had been some Ijlshadow of reason in your assertion. So you may see that your Pentecost proof is perished, and your arguments are false. Thus I have given you a true account of the day of Christ's death, of the time of his burial, of the time he lay dead, and of the time of his resurrec-' tion. But you neither tell us when Christ died, nor how long he lay dead, nor when he rose; for you have nothing in the Bible to prove your opinion by. First, the day of Christ's death is not said to be on the sixth day; second, the Sabbath ensuing is not said to be the seventh-day Sabbath ; third, the first day is not said to be the morrow after the Passover Sabbath, but when it is spoken of it is thus phrased, *in the end of the Sabbath,' or ' when the Sabbath was past,' or ' the first day of the week.' Matt. 28: 1; Mark 16: 1; John 20 : 1. I marvel now that people are groping in mists at noon-day, looking for the time of Jesus' resurrec- tion in the morning, when that was not at all to be expected. For there was no need for the time of his resurrection to be expressed, when the time of his burial at evening, and the time of his continuance in the grave, three days and three nights, are ex- pressed. Matt. 12 : 40. Shame upon this ground- less plea for the beginning of the Sabbath at midnight or in the morning. I pray you consider AND HIS APPEARANCES. 115 seriously with yourself, what account you can give at the great day of judgment, if you will not hear God's voice so audible, nor see his word so visible, but will ground your sabbatical opinions on man's tradition, which hath no support in God's Word. "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Eph. 5 : 17. None of the apostles say that Christ rose on the first day of the week. But if he had risen on the first day, is that a sufhcient reason to change the day which God himself prescribed unto us, blessed and commanded ] By the same argument with which you plead for the day of Christ's resurrec- tion, I may plead for the day of his birth, and for the day of his death, and for the day of his ascen- sion, since neither of these are inferior to the day of his resurrection. For example, the Psalmist speaks of a day which the Lord Jehovah hath made, and saith, " I will rejoice and b*e glad in it." But what day is this? Why, the day of Christ's birth. Luke 2: 10, 11, 13, 14. "And the angel of the Lord said unto the shepherds, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." The birth of Christ was the best cordial that ever the Lord's prophets proposed to the church in her most disconsolate condition in foregoing ages. That Christ is given to the world, is the sum of all good news, and affordeth such joy as surpa.sseth the three great worldly joys — the joy of marriage, the joy of harvest, and the joy of victory. This day, therefore, is the day that the 116 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, Lord Jehovah has made a day of rejoicing to the church of Christ, and we will be glad and rejoice in it; for can it be imagined that the Spirit, by the Prophet, should signalize this day for nothing; say- ing. This is the day which the Lord hath made, to no purpose 1 Yes, we may say for the day of his Son's birth, * It is a day that the Lord hath made, and that we might rejoice and be glad in it.' Again, God the Father leaves such another stamp of divine honor upon this day, as he never before did leave upon any day, where he saith, " Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee ;" still, I say, having respect to the day of Christ's birth, for that and no other is the day here intended. This day, saith God, is tke day; and now shall not Christ- ians, when they read that God saith t7iis day, and that too with reference to a work done on it by himself, and so full of delight to him, and so full of life and heaven to them, also set a mark upon it, saying. This was the day of God's pleasure, for that his Son w^as born into the world] And shall it not be the day of my delight in him? This is the day in which the Son was both begotten and born into the world. Heb. 1 : 5, 6. Shall kings and princes and great men set a mark upon the day of their birth and coronation, and expect that both subjects and servants should do them honor on that day] And shall the day in which Christ was both begotten and born into the world, be a day con- temned by Christians, and his name not be re- garded on that day] I say again, shall God, as with his finger, point at this day, and that in the face of the world, saying by the angel, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord ]"' and shall not Christians fear and awake from their employments to worship the Lord on this dav] If God remembers it, well AND HIS APPEARANCES. 117 may we, and with all gladness of heart. When he bringeth his first begotten into the world, he saith. And let all the angels of God worship him. Then the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. This day he was de- clared to be the Son of God with power. This day our dear Redeemer was born into the world. Nor is it altogether to be slighted, that when he bringeth his first-begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him ; to wit, at the very time and day when Christ was born into the world. Whatever our expositors may say of this text, to me it seems to be meant of his birth-day, when God broug^ht his first-be crotten into the world, for he said, And let all the angels worship him. The bringing of his first-begotten into the world, was when he was born into the world. Now, saith the text, when God brought him thus into the world, he requireth worship to be done unto him. When 1 On that very day that Christ was born into the world ; and that by all the angels of God ; and if by- all, then ministers are not excluded ; and if not ministers, then not churches, for what is said to the angel is said to the church itself. So then, if the question be asked. When must they worship him] the answer is, when God brought him into the world; that is, the day he was born into the world should be the day for worshiping him. Here you may see, Mr. Ward, both by Scripture and reason, that there is more to be said for keep- ing that day for the Sabbath on which Christ was born, than you have for keeping the first day of the week for the Sabbath. Again, Mr. Ward argues that the work of re- demption is greater than the work of creation; therefore they keep the first day in commemoration 118 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, of it, as they of old did the seventh day in com- memoration of the work of creation. Answer — 1st. As touching the greatness of either the work of creation or the work of redemption, though both are very great, it is not a suificient argu- ment to keep a Sabbath upon. It is the command of God that is to be the rule of this as of all other duties, for it is the command of God that we ought to be obedient to. Therefore it is often expressed, If ye keep my commandments; if ye do and observe, saith the Lord, what I have commanded you. And therefore do the prophets use this expression so often. Thus saith the Lord, which you cannot do for your first-day Sabbath, without telling a lie. 2d. The day of Christ's dcat/i was the day or time wherein the height of his love to mankind was eminently shown, in bearing our sins and misery in his own body on the tree. So that if any day ought to be regarded above others, on account of what Christ hath done for us, surely that wherein the highest strains of his love to mankind were manifest, must be the day. If the work of redemp- tion may be properly said to be finished on any par- ticular day, surely we may conclude that Christ is the fittest judge and determiner in this matter, and he tells us, in John 19 : 30, just upon his giving up the ghost, "It is finished," that is, the toil, labor, bur- den and misery of it. Wherefore the Apostle Paul, who best knew wherein or on what account to glory, eminently gloried in the passion, not in the resurrection, of his Saviour. G al. 6 : 14. And he seems, as it were, to promote and appoint a fes- tival in commemoration thereof. Christ our Pass- over is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, (or holy day, as in the margin.) 1 Cor. 5: 8. From all which it is evident, both by Scripture and AND HIS APPEARANCES. 119 reason, that if any day of the week or year hath gained observation on the account of Christ's un- dertaking for mankind, it is the day of our Saviour's death and passion, and not the day of his resurrec- tion. I write not this because I suppose that any sanction of tiiis day will advance it above others — for nothing less than a divine institution will bear any weight with me — but to show the absurdity and un- reasonableness of those who, acting only by hu- man dictates, pretend to give that honor to Christ which he never required, nor will ever accept at their hands. Mr. "Ward conceives that Christ's risinsr out of the grave and coming to his disciples on the first day of the week, is much to the purpose, if not sufficient to prove his supposed Sabbath. Ansiocr. But you should look farther, sir, than Christ's rising out of the grave; for that was not his highest exaltation. His highest exaltation was when he ascended to the right hand of God, and all power was given to him in heaven and on earth. Matt. 28: 18; Acts 2: 33. Then was he highly exalted, and had a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Phil. 2: 9. Hence Peter saith to the Jews, when he treateth of Christ before them, and particularly of Christ's exaltation, " This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders; the same is made the head of the corner." He was set at naught by them during the whole course of his ministry unto his death, and was made the head of the corner by God on that day when, ascending on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Eph. 4: 8. Then if Christ's being made the head of the corner may give authority for that day of the week on which it occurred to be kept for the Sab- 120 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, batli, it will more properly become the day of his ascension. After he was risen, Christ said to Mary, " Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." John 20 : 17. And we find by Acts 1 : 3, that he was seen of his disciples forty days, be- fore we read of his ascension day. And our nation doth observe Christ's ascension forty days after Easter, though but once in the year. Yet that seems best to agree with his being made the head of the corner, when God had not only raised him from the dead, but also set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet. Eph. 1 : 21, 22. Now indeed is Christ, who was rejected, made the head of the corner; and if we understand the text to require a Sabbath every week on the day that Christ was exalted, then we must keep it, not on the first day of the week, but on the fifth day of the week, for that is the day yearly observed for ascension day, called Holy Thursday. And why may not one as well advocate the day that Christ was born on for the Sabbath weekly, in memory of his birth; and the day he died on, in memory of his passion ; and the day he ascended up to heaven on, in memory of his exaltation? There is more said, by the Scriptures, for any of these three days to be kept for the Sabbath every week, than there is said for the first day. All which conceits, and many other such like as do pretend to be for the honor of Christ, are ground- less. When any person whatsoever, with pretended good intentions, assumes an authority of his own head to add to the Word of God, or in any way to alter it in a tittle, therewith comes in the whole AND HIS APPEARAiVCES* 121 Ilomisli calendar of saints' days, and all their mass and mockery, which have as specious pretences as there are for the first-day Sabbath. If the churches corrupted, or even the purest churches, be once ad- mitted to have power to invent, or to alter a divine institution from one day of the week to another, I know of no bolts or locks strong enough for such a door, to keep it from letting in upon the churches of Christ whatsoever pleaseth those in power in any part of the world, whether it concerns Grod's immediate solemn worship, or matters of doctrine or conversation. For if such gaps be left open, by the like reason there may be laid as great burdens upon the Christian churches as were upon the Jews of old, or as are now upon the Romanists — such as are utterly inconsistent with all instituted worship, and all true Christian liberty, wherein Christ by his word hath made his churches free, in which liberty we are to stand fast. Gal. 5: 1. This liberty consists in a freedom, not only from the ceremonial law of old, contained in ordinances, which are laid aside by Christ, which liberty is purchased by him, but also in a liberty not to be entangled with a new yoke of men's devices and inventions. God hath left laws enough for the well governing of his church; to which laws, if we yield entire subjection, we have certainly no need fur- ther to trouble ourselves. And whilst no man has yet from Scripture shown us any institution for the first day, not alteration of the seventh, after one thousand seven hundred and twenty-one years, I do not now expect it of any man. Such places have been already searched for by many writers, and being not yet found, I think we may conclude that they never will be found. Therefore I won- der that anybody should pretend to a divine insti- tution, sanctioned by God in the Scriptures, for the 11 122 EXAMINATIOx\ OP ACTS 20 ; 7. first day of the week to be the Sabbath, when there is no such thing to be found, except in the West- minster Catechism. That this sacred rest of the seventh-day Sabbath is not changed, as Mr. Ward supposes, by Divine au- thority, from the seventh and last day of the week to the first day; or, that the Scripture doth not any where require the observation of any other day for the weekly Sabbath, but the seventh day only, is sufficiently evident from what hath been said al- ready. For if the seventh-day Sabbath be of univer- sal and perpetual concernment to all mankind, the first-day Sabbath must be a mere vanity, unless some one can show that God hath appointed two Sabbaths every week to be observed — a thing which as yet never any pretended to do. CHAPTER XII. Examination of Acts 20: 7 — "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread. Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the moiTow, and con- tinued his speech imlil midnight." Mr. Ward has, in his exposition of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, forsaken the Sabbath that God cammanded, and the authority of the prophets, as has been plainly shown before, and has been look- ing for a new Sabbath from Acts 20 : 7 — " And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to bread bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight." EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20: 7. 123 Answer. There is no help for you in this text ; for how unlikely it is that Paul, who made such haste to be at Pentecost, would keep a new Sab- bath, at the sacrifice of the old one of the Lord. If he had set up a new Sabbath, and abolished the old, there had been no room for him at the feast of Pentecost. And if the Jews that believed were so disturbed, because they were informed that he tauffht ao^ainst circumcision and the customs, what would they have done if he had broken the Sab- bath, taught others to do the same, and had set up another Sabbath in the room of it'? For any man to imagine this, is to do violence to his own reason. Neither is there any thing in the text or context that doth in the least intimate any such thing as a new day of worship. A hard piece of work it would have been for the Apostle Paul to have got a new Sabbath established in the world, seeing the old Sabbath was kept by Jews and Gentiles in every city, and the light and practice of it was in all nations. If there is such a blustering and wrangling among professors now, because some are endeavoring to restore again the observance of the Sabbath which God commanded, what a stir would there then have been, if the Apostle had gone about to change the Sabbath ! It would have been the surest way to have made confusion, and put a stop to the publication of the Gospel. We should however follow Paul only as he fol- lowed Christ, It was undeniably Christ's custom to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. So was it Paul's manner to observe the same day. " Christ, as his custom was, went into the synagogue on the Sab- bath day." Luke 4: 16. And "Paul, as his man- ner was," did the same thing. Acts 17 : 2. Christ preached, and Paul preached. Where then is the difference between Christ's observation of the sev- 124 EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20 : 7. entli-day Sabbath and Paul's observation of the sev- enth-day Sabbath? It is made a great argument lor the observation of the first day for the Sabbath, because Paul preached once on that day. Yet it may be made as good an argument for the observa- tion of the fifth day of the week for the Sabbath, because he had meetings on that day. But it is as clearly declared in Acts 18: 4, that Paul preached every Sabbath, only the translators have not ex- pressed it so clearly. In Acts 20: 7, they tell us that Paul preached on the Jirst day; but in Acts 18: 4, they say Paul reasoned every Sabhath day; and yet the Greek vv'ord is the same in both places. Neither was this Paul's practice only, but the constant custom of all the disciples that accompa- nied him. We find them, in i^cts 13: 14 — 16, solemnly observing the seventh day for the Sab- bath. So also in Acts 16: 13; 17: 2; 18: 4, 19. Thus we may follow Paul and his companions from place to place, and constantly find them observing the seventh day for the Sabbath; and though he solemnly professed that he had not shunned to de- clare the whole counsel of God, yet this great slighter of ceremonies never gives the least hint of a change of the Sabbath, which undoubtedly he would have done, had it been in any way altered. Nay, he strictly requires all believers to follow his example, as he followed Christ; and certainly in the observation of the Sabbath he followed Christ. But Mr. Ward conceives that Paul only took the opportunity to preach to the people, because they were accustomed to assemble on the Sabbath. Answer. He may as well lay this crime to Christ, that he did but take such opportunities, and not in conscience toward the Sabbath. It is proved that Christ's custom herein is the very same with Paul's. EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20: 7. 125 Such as say that Paul only observed the Sabbath among the Jews, and not among the Gentiles, may be better informed if they will read Acts 13: 4, where it is plainly declared, that when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles be- sought Paul that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Here the Apostle had the fairest opportunity that possibly could be desired, in the absence of the Jews, to instruct the Gentiles in a first-day Sabbath, if ever such a change had been intended; for why should public preaching be deferred till the next seventh-day Sabbath, es- pecially to the Gentiles, if the first day had been a Sabbath ? However, it is manifest that the next Sabbath day Paul did preach, and it was either in answer to the request made, or else the Gentiles desired him to preach to them on some working day, and yet the Apostle Paul deferred it to the known Sabbath day — which would much more abundantly testify to his special respect for the sev- enth-day Sabbath. This was sixty years after Christ, as historians tell us, and yet we have no ac- count of a first-day Sabbath. So that, beyond all contradiction, the Apostle Paul, and the Christians with him, did constantly observe the seventh day for the Sabbath, as Christ himself did; and as we should be followers of Paul as he was of Christ, so we must either press after our pattern, or re- solve to rest in disobedience to so great a command- ment. Methinks ins^enuous saints should ever read Christ's confirmation of the seventh-day Sabbath in the Apostle's practice, for undoubtedly Paul's constant custom was such as his commission re- quired. It was not only in respect to the Lord's Supper that Paul delivered to the church by pre- cept, or precedent, that which he received of the Lord, but he was equally as constant in observing 11* 126 EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20 : 7. the Lord's Sabbath, as the Lord's Suj^per, and in requiring the same church, in the same chapter, to follow him as he followed Christ. You should not invent arguments contrary to the Scriptures, to prove the Apostle's constant observa- tion of the first day for the Sabbath, in order to jus- tify your own profaneness; but remember that you will have to answer for it at the great day of judg- ment, when it will be set fairly before you, that as it was Christ's custom to observe the Sabbath, even so it was Paul's custom, with the other apostles, to keep the seventh day for the Sabbath, and that you should follow them as they followed Christ in this duty, which rests ujjoii so plain a command, unre- pealed or altered. Ask your conscience if you can judge this a sufficient answer for your weekly pol- lution of the seventh-day Sabbath, that you had thought Paul had only practiced it to please the Jews, when it so plainly appears that he did it pur- posely for a pattern to the Gentiles. And that you may be utterly silent, and left forever without ex- cuse, take notice, that one of the Apostle's fairest patterns for Sabbath-keeping was set before these Gentile Corinthians, whom he so strictly enjoins to follow him as he followed Christ. For in this famous city it was, that this blessed man abode and preached in the synagogue every Sabbath day for a year and six months, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. Acts 18: 3, 4. I think any man may reasonably suppose, that Paul, who kept every Sabbath before, had kept the Sabbath at Antioch, (Acts 20 : 7 ;) and when the seventh day was over, Paul and the disciples met in the evening of the first day, being about ready to depart in the morn- ing. His readiness to depart on the morrow, seems to imply that he went away on the first day morn- ing. For it seems to me to be the evening after EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20 : 7. 127 the seventh day, at which time of day was the be- ginning of every day of the week, and that Paul preached, probably from his being ready to depart on the morrow, that is, on Sunday morning, till midnight, and till break of day. Then, instead of a precedent for the first day, as Mr. Ward would make it, putting all those places in the Acts to- gether, it seems to be a precedent for keeping the seventh. And the breaking of bread, and Paul's preaching to the disciples that evening till mid- night, seem to have been after the Sabbath had been kept and ended; and his traveling the next morning, seems to have been the morning of the first day after the Sabbath was over, which makes it appear that he did not keep the first day for the Sabbath, but traveled upon it. So, supposing as before, that breaking of bread imports the Lord's Supper, which the disciples came together for upon the first day of the week, as you say, that might very well succeed their Sabbath-keeping; and upon the evening of the first day, upon which Paul was to leave them, the converts would come together to receive the Lord's Supper. But admitting this to be as claimed by you, you have it recorded but once that Paul with the dis- ciples came together upon the first day of the week to break bread; and if we should admit, too, that that breaking of bread was giving and receiving the Lord's Supper, still it was but one instance, which was never yet understood to be sufficient to make a new law, or repeal an old one; and it would be very dangerous to affirm that once receiving the Lord's Supper by the apostles and those disciples who were at Troas, and that upon a special occa- sion, should have the force of law to all the world, in all ages, to alter and repeal one of God's ten commandments. 128 EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20 I 7. I farther answer, that it is likely that Paul, abid- ing seven days at Troas, (Acts 20 : 6,) kept the Sab- bath there, as his manner was, and in tlie evening, when the first day began, (as every other day of the week did begin in the evening,) the disciples came together to break bread. That it was the custom of the early churches to do so, I have the opinion of a whole Synod. See Lucius' Eccle- siastical History, pp. 313 — 315; Basil, 1624. This breaking of bread might have been to receive the Lord's Supper together, or it might have been only for a common meal or supper, for neither is positively or particularly expressed. It may be that it was but a common meal, because in Acts 27 : 35, the same words are used for Paul's breaking bread in the ship with the soldiers and seamen, who were heathen, and his fellow- prisoners. The history there shows that it was a common meal, and I take it that it is so understood by expositors. Indeed, in this very chapter, when Paul had broken bread and eaten, he departed ; which may be the same breaking of bread men- tioned in verse 7. The same word for breaking bread is used in Matt. 14: 19, where Christ fed a multitude with five loaves and two fishes, which was before the institution of the Lord's Supper. The same word is used also in Matt. 15 : 36. Also at another miraculous feeding of a multitude, in Mark 8 : 6, 19, which could not be the Supper, being be- fore the institution thereof. So that, comparing Acts 20 : 7 with 20 : 11 and 27 : 35, and Matt. 15 : 36, and Mark 8: 6, 19, it seems that it might have been a common meal. But suppose it were the Lord's Supper, it is likely that Paul, having kept the Sab- bath with them, as his manner was, and intending to go the next morning, they would meet together at evening for the Lord's Supper; and after supper EXAMINATION OF ACTS 20: 7. 129 that Paul preached to them, and talked long, till break of day, and then departed — which would be the first day morning. But the coming together of the disciples might have been as friends commonly do when a minister, or any other special acquaintance, intends to take a journey in the morning, to sup with them over night. I see no substantial reason to the contrary, for the sermon at Troas was only occasional. The dis- ciples hearing of Paul's departure from them, and that they should see his face no more, could do no less than give him a visit over night, and sup with him ; and he could do no less than give them a fare- well sermon. So that this sermon, being occasional, cannot bind us but on the like occasions, if even so much. This sermon was extraordinary, that meet- ing being on occasifon of Paul's departure from them, never to see their faces more. Acts 20: 38. Now if you will follow an' extraordinary thing, and jDreach from candle-lighting until midnight — if you take Paul's pi-eaching until midnight as an ex- ample, binding you to do the like — then you, sir, and other ministers, must preach every first day from candle-lighting until midnight, for so did Paul. But if you will say that to preach till mid- night is extraordinary, then I say so was this meet- ing, for we read not that Paul did preach at Troas above this one single time either before or after. But our question is of the Sabbath day^ not of the night time. Now, instead of a text which speaks of the day, Mr. Ward alledges this text which speaks of the night. They therefore who alledge this text for the day, are benighted, and are wo- fally in the darkness of the night. Supposing, however, that the text had spoken of the day, yet it will not prove the first day to be the Sabbath, or that it is to be constantly and weekly kept. This 130 EXAMINATIOxN OF ACTS 20: 7. sermon of Paul cannot raise the day any higher than a common lecture day; for on our lecture days we have a sermon also, yet they are working days. But admitting all that you claim, can you prove that Paul preached this sermon in obedience to the fourth commandment^ That calls for the seventh day; but this is the first day. The seventh day is at the end of the week; but this is at the beginning of the week. You are as far aside as the end of a thing is from the beginning of it. True it is, that you would fain steal away the fourth commandment from the seventh day, to clothe your naked first day, because you have no command for it. And who would have thought that Mr. Ward, who seemed so hard to please, that the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and the whole body of the Scripture that pleads for the*seventh-day Sabbath, w^ould not satisfy him, should now take up fully sat- isfied with nothing 1 — that he should refuse the au- thority of God's Word for the seventh-day Sabbath, and then feed on his own presumptuous conceit about a new day of worship 1 — concluding that this example hath the force of a command in itl So if this man were at Rome, whither would this principle carry him, but to all the ceremonies of their church] But such as follow examples with- out a command, do make themselves examples for others to be warned by. Besides, if we should take the observance of the first day from the example of this supposed meeting only, we should entangle ourselves with the ceremonies and the law of Moses. For by the same rule men might plead, with much more consistency, for circumcision, the feast of Pen- tecost, unleavened bread, and many more ceremo- nies, from the example of Paul and others in prim- itive times. CHAPTER XIII. The collection "on the fii-st day" considered. "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first cky of the vi^eek let eveiy one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto .Temsdem." 1 Cor. 16: 1—3. '* And in these days came prophets from Jenisalem unto Antioch; and there stood up one of them, named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit, that there should l^e great dearth throughout all the w^orld, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, deter- mined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Bm-nabas and Saul." Acts 11: 27—30. What a likeness there is between these two places! I can see very little difference; and that little yields nothing at all for Mr. Ward's purpose. Any man who will read it carefully may easily see, that there is not one word of any weekly Sabbath, or rest, or of any preaching, or any such thing; not one such word, either at Corinth or Galatia, but quite the contrary, that is, an order that they should every one of them lay by in store for the poor saints at Jerusalem, before the famine should come, which was to be two or three years after. In 2 Cor. 9 : 2, Paul said, *' Achaia was ready a year ago;" and others also were forward or ready a year before. 2 Cor. 8 : 10. But there is not one word in this order of the Apostle to keep holy the first day — nothing of that day as a Sabbath — no pray- ing, or preaching, or any worship, or resting — but only an order for every one of the Christians 132 THE COI,Lr,CTIO\ ON to lay by himself in store, (as some translators read it,) as God had prospered him, which seems to mean when they were at home. But this includes the casting up of their accounts on that day, and counting their money, and reckoning how much their stock is increased, and what can be reasonably spared from their necessary expenses — that there might be no gathering when Paul came. And this, I think any one who reads the text without preju- dice, may easily see and know. So that for any one to say that he thinks it plain from this that the first day was observed weekly at Corinth and Gala- tia, without any better authority for it, seems to be acting from a strongly biased mind, and very blamable, as well as imposing on his hearers. Now if the first day of the week had been the Sabbath, surely the Apostle, knowing the proneness of our nature to mind earthly things, would not have put upon them the consideration of their out- ward estates, but would have bid them set their affections on things above, and not on things on the earth. Col. 3: 2. Several things here deserve consideration : — 1st. Where read you, in the Scriptures, that col- lection for the poor was an ordinance appointed or commanded to be done on the Sabbath day? May it not be done on any day of the week 1 How then gather you from it that the day whereon it was done was a Sabbath day] 2d. The direction which Paul gives for this col- lection, shows evidently that he intends it for no Sabbath day's work ; for there is not the least hint of any assembly, though custom hath so far pre- vailed with most whom I have met with, that they frequently urge the text thus, "Upon the first day of the week, when ye come together" — though there are no such words as coming together in THE FIRST DAY CONSIDERED. 133 the text, but simply, "Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him." 3d. The Apostle doth not enjoin them to hold a church meeting, nor to lay it before the deacons, as doubtless he would have done had there been a church meeting on that day. " But let every one of you lay by him in store;" that is, at his own house, in the poor's box, which every tender-hearted Christian should have, with some stock ahvays by him for charitable uses. Tim. 6 : 17, 18 ; Titus 3 : 14. 4th. The Apostle exhorts every man to take ac- count of his own estate, that he may give hereafter, which doth notably overthrow the conceit of a first- day Sabbath ; for he orders every man ' to lay some- thing by him in store, as God hath prospered him;' that is, according as his yearly revenue increaseth, or his weekly trade proveth more or less gainful. I deny, therefore, that there was any collection, meeting or sermon on that day. Indeed, if there was no collection made, then there could have been no meeting or sermon, for these two are supposed to be by reason that there was a collection made for the poor. But there was no collection made, for Paul did only speak of a collection, and de- signed but to prepare them for a collection to be afterwards made. Now it is one thing for a man to lay up money by himself, and another to give money as in a collection. So you may see that here was no collection made on this first day of the week, but the collection was to be made after- ward, at what time Paul should send the brethren to gather it. 2 Cor. 9 : 1,3, 5. But suppose there once was a collection on this first day, yet it was not a constant weekly collec- tion; for Paul saith, there should be no gathering when he came among them, as it is in the text. Hence this collection, and meeting, and sermon 12 134 THE COLLECTION ON built thereon, could be no weekly thing, and there- fore no weekly Sabbath. As this collection must cease when Paul came to this church at Corinth, how could it be weekly] If there was a collection for the poor, yet it was not an ordinary, but an extraordinary thing; for it was not their own poor in the church of Corinth, but the poor of a foreign church — the poor at Jeru- salem — as it was once in England when we had a collection for the poor distressed Palatines, that lay at Black Heath, in Queen Anne's reign ; but this was only once, it was not a weekly thing, as our collections are for the poor. Extraordinary things bind not us to ordinary practice. Supposing, but not granting, that there was a collection, a meeting, and a sermon, yet these will not raise this first day higher than a common lec- ture day. This shows how sadly they are put to it, who will say something for their first-day Sabbath, and yet can say no better. For although they make some show of Scripture, yet it only amounts to a bare endeavor to draw support for an unwarrant- able Sabbath from any text that doth but mention the first day of the week. Question, Why would Paul have this done on the first day of the week? Answer. It hath been clearly shown, that Paul's constant practice was to preach on the seventh-day Sabbath ; also that it was the example which he set before this church of Corinth ; and they being the fruit of his Sabbath labors, were enjoined to follow him as he followed Christ. So that, if we can be- lieve they walked in Paul's practice in keeping the true Sabbath, we may easily judge that Paul's epistle was read in the churches at their solemn assembly on the Sabbath day, when we doubt not THE FIRST DAY CONSIDERED. 135 the teachers would stir up the people to liberality, according to the Apostle's order ; and the more so, seeing he closed his epistle with it, that it might sit close and warm upon their hearts. And forasmuch as they were not likely to be so well stored at the meeting upon the Sabbath, he would have it to be their first work on the next day, while the sweet sense of the epistle, and the heavenly relish of gos- pel sermons and other ordinances which they had en- joyed the day before, were yet fresh and pleasant upon their spirits, and before they had launched into their weekly employm.cnts, which is apt to put too great a damper upon our best purposes. Paul would therefore especially make choice of the first day of thf; week, and have them make it their first business, next to the consideration of how God had prospered them in worldly goods, to present unto God in secret, by themselves, the first fruits of their increase, for the refreshing of the poor saints, and as an earnest of their duties toward God, unto whom they owed all. Thus with very good reason might the Apostle make choice of the first day of the week for this duty. But to assert that the first day was the Sabbath, because Paul ordered every man to lay by him something for the poor saints — there being not the least mention of a church meet- ing on that day — is altogether irrational, and utterly unscriptural. CHAPTER XIV. The argument for the change fi'om Christ's being Lord of the Sabbath, considered. Mr. Ward concludes, from Mark 2 : 28, because Christ is called Lord of the Sabbath, that there- fore he mig-ht change it. But the question still re- mains. Did Christ change it] If he did, let it be shown ; if not, let it not be affirmed. Again, I humbly conceive that a man may be lord of what he may not change. God hath made man lord of his wife. Gen. 3: 16; 1 Cor. 14: 34; 1 Peter 3 : 5, 6. But may the man change his \vife, or do with her what he pleases. Nay, methinks we may rather argue, from Christ's being Lord of the Sab- bath, his engagement to keep and take care of it, and to maintain it, as he doth his people, and as the husband doth his wife. Eph. 5 : 22 — 29. And so he seems to do, when he is so careful that his dis- ciples, who were to be put to flight, should not fly either in the winter, because that is tedious to their bodies, or on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24: 20. And no less was the care of this tender shepherd for the souls of his saints, whom he bears in his bosom, than for their bodies. Therefore he adds this to their forty years' prayers, that they might not, foi? 'the preservation of their bodies, be put to flight on the Sabbath day, to the dishonor of God, and the troubling of their spirits, in profaning the Sabbath which was designed for the good of their souls. It cannot well be imagined, that Christ would be so careful about securing the Sabbath at such time as all the ceremonies would be abolished by CHRIST THE LORD OF THE SABBATH. 137 the apostolical proclamation, (Col. 2: 16, 17,) had it been ceremonial. And yet it is imagined by Mr. Ward, that the disciples were only to avoid fleeing on the Sabbath by way of preventing the Jews' persecution ! Just as if Vespasian's armies, and Titus' engines, should strike no more terror to the Jews, than that they, instead of securing them- selves, should trifle away their time in persecuting the Christians for makins;- their flio;-ht on the Sab- bath day! As our Redeemer thus generally and particularly owned this Sabbath by his word, so he gloriously crowned it above all other days by his mighty works, even such miracles as never man wrought. Matt. 11: 20. If then those cities were most hon- ored and esteemed where his mighty works were done, upon the same account is that day to be most highly esteemed which Christ crowned with his greatest wonders. God forbid that gospel saints should side with envious Saducees, in reproaching our Saviour for putting forth his glory on that blessed day; but rather, with heightened affec- tions, let the Sabbath be religiously observed, v/hereon such divine virtue was shown. Neither doth our Saviour cease to honor the Sabbath; but having owned it by his words, and crowned it with his works, his constant care, both in life and in death, was to leave a lively precedent for his peo- ple to walk by. To say that Christ Jesus did change the Sabbath, or make it void, and not be able to prove it, is to bear false witness against Christ himself, who was faithful in all his house, even as Moses is said to have been faithful in his house. Heb. 3 : 2, 5, 6. Now we know that Moses hath most expressly set down, from time to time, the solemn season in which his house should assemble and worship God. But 12* 138 CHRIST THE LORD OF THE SABBATH. of the Sabbath being changed, Christ never spoke one word to his house; nay, on the contrary, he declai-es, that as long as heaven and earth lasted, his disciples must not break one jot or tittle of these lively oracles which Israel received from Sinai to give unto us. Acts 7 : 3S, Yea, in particular, Christ owned the seventh-day Sabbath as his, and left it under his hand, and sealed it by his miracles, and with tender fatherly care required his house to pray that they might not be forced to flee upon it forty years after his death. As for the day which Sabbath-changers accept and advocate for their Sabbath, Christ never gave them one syllable of a precept for it; and for a pre- cedent, it hath plainly appeared, that he journeyed freely fifteen miles upon it; so that, if the Sabbath be changed, Christ is far enough from Moses' faith- fulness in all his house. But farther, how dreadful is it to father that change of the Sabbath upon the precious Son of God, which is the detestable design and work of the little horn, the changer of times and laws spoken of in Dan. 7: 25. What! charge that upon Christ which is the proper designation of Antichrist? Is not this the whore of Babylon's mark, that she should change the saints' times'? Suitable is that word in this case, " Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me thy law graciously." Ps. 119: 29. In saying that Jesus Christ changed the Sabbath, you make him a trans- gressor. And so, since there is no other way in the world to prove your opinion, rather than fail, you will make Jesus, the Saviour, an actual sinner; and then he could be no Saviour — at which attempt, what heart will not tremble ] CHAPTER XV. » Argument from the day of Pentecost, spoken of in Acts 2 : 1, 2 — "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a nishing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." On this text Mr. Ward glories not a little ; for he says, ' Upon the first day of the week the Holy Ghost descended, and Peter preached a sermon, and there were three thousand souls converted, and they were baptized, and continued steadfast in the apostles' doctrine, and followship, and break- ing of bread, and in prayer; wherefore we call this