ESSAYS 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 ' ORIGIN, PERPETUITY, CHANGE, 
 
 AND 
 
 PROPER OBSERVANCE, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SABBATH. 
 
 BY HEMAN HUMPHREY,. D. D. 
 
 President of Amherst College, Mass. 
 
 Published under the direction of a Committee of Gentlemen 
 at New- York. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY JAMES CONNER, NEW-TORK. 
 
 NEW- YORK: 
 
 JONATHAN LEAVITT, No. 182 BROADWAY. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 CROCKER AND BREWSTER, 
 
 47 Washington-street. 
 
 1829. 
 
{Southern District of New- York, ss. 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-eighth day of Au- 
 gust, A. D. 1829, in the fifty-fourth year of the independence of the 
 United States of America, Jonathan Leavitt, of the said District, hath 
 depo!?ited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he 
 claims as proprietor, in the words foUowinf, to wit : — 
 
 " Essays upon the Origm, Perpetuity, Change, and Proper Obser- 
 vance of the Sabbath. By He man Humphrey, President of AmherSt 
 College, Mass. Published under the direction of a Committee of Gen- 
 tlemen at New-York." 
 
 In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, 
 " an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies 
 of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such 
 copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an act, 
 entitled, "an act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act tor the 
 encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, 
 and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the 
 times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the 
 arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." 
 
 FRED. J. BETTS, 
 Clerk of the Southern District of New- York, 
 
ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
 BY THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 The substance of tMs little volume was published a few 
 years since in a periodical magazine ; and subsequently in 
 a separate form for more general distribution. The work 
 has just been revised and enlarged by the author, at the 
 request of a committee of gentlemen m New- York, and is 
 now presented to the pubUc, with the earnest prayer that 
 it may lead all into whose hands it shall fall, to remember 
 the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 
 
 KNOWLES TAYLOR, 
 JAMES SMITH, 
 ELIJAH PIERSON, 
 LEWIS TAPPAN, 
 ABIJAH SMITH, 
 MARCUS WILBUR, 
 
^PERTV OF 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Introduction . • . 5 
 
 Q,uESTiON I. Is the Sabbatli of divine or of human 
 origin, and when was it instituted 7 ... 7 
 
 QiTESTiON II. Was the Sabbath intended for all man- 
 kind, or only for a part 7 18 
 
 Question III. Which day of the week was original- 
 ly appointed to be kept, and for what reason 1 . 36 
 
 Q,UESTi0N IV. Has the day beep changed since the 
 Sabbath was instituted, and, if so, when, and for 
 what reason 1 38 
 
 Question V. How is the Sabbath to be kept, or 
 sanctified ? 50 
 
 Conclusion, '• . . 93 
 
REG. NOV 1880 
 
 IXTRODUCTIOJjr.^ I C & li 
 
 f 
 
 Very few will pretend to deny the utility and 
 importance of the Christian Sabbath. Its imme- 
 diate advantages are seen to be numerous and 
 great, for it offers timely and needful rest to all 
 the laboring classes of society. It promotes clean- 
 liness, and ministers, in a very high degree, to 
 health and intellectual improvement. It kindly 
 remembers the working animals, and releases 
 them, one day in seven, from their toils. It divides 
 time into portions highly convenient for the trans- 
 action of worldly business ; and thus helps to re- 
 gulate the various intercourse of a great commu- 
 nity. It restores the man of a thousand cares and 
 perplexities, to the bosom of his family, and af- 
 fords time for reading, for reflection, and for the 
 religious instruction of children. It brings more 
 gain to individuals and to the public, than could 
 possibly be derived from unremitting application 
 to secular employments. 
 
 By its weekly return, it rebukes our worldli- 
 ness ; and by bringing the rich and the poor so 
 often together to worship God, and receive in- 
 struction from his word, it tends exceedingly to 
 remove prejudices, soften asperities, and elicit 
 kindly feelings ; to check the growth of pride, 
 avarice, and sensuality ; and on the other hand, 
 to encourage truth, temperance, " brotherly kind 
 ness, and charity." In addition to its mighty in 
 
 1* 
 
6 
 
 fluence upon oiiT eternal interests, the civil and po- 
 litical benefits of the Sabbath are, indeed, too 
 many and too great to be estimated. It is a far 
 surer guarantee for the perpetuity of our free insti- 
 tutions, than all the physical resources of the 
 country. It is, in s^iort, the true palladium which 
 protects the temple of liberty, as well as the ark of 
 the covenant. 
 
 All this is admitted, (with what consistency we 
 do not stop to inquire,) even by the great body of 
 those who are hostile to every proposed measure 
 for rescuing the institution from desecration, and 
 restoring to it the hallowed influence which it has 
 lost. With their full consent, you may speak of 
 its benefits in the most unqualified terms, provided, 
 always, that you do nothing to guard it from vio- 
 lation, or to protect yourself and family from dis- 
 turbance in your most solemn devotions. The 
 observance of the Sabbath is well, as far as it may 
 happen to suit their inclinations and convenience, 
 but no further. Thus what is acknowledged to 
 be for the general good, is often sacrificed to pri- 
 vate cupidity and accommodation. 
 
 With the sincere Christian, the case is widely 
 different. Aside from the authority of God, a so- 
 ber conviction of the public utility of any institu- 
 tion must of course powerfully influence his prac- 
 tice. Nor indeed, can we see how any real patriot 
 can trample upon an institution which he recog- 
 nizes as a blessing to his country. Still there is a 
 wide and manifest difference between common rules 
 of expediency and the dictates of the Holy Spirit ; 
 and our ultimate appeal in behalf of the SaW)ath, 
 
must be " to the law and the testimony." If the 
 Scriptures do not require us to keep it holy, who 
 shall presume to bind our consciences ? But if, on 
 the other hand, this is a divine precept of universal 
 obligation, then tlie point is settled. It is as binding 
 upon us as any other law of Heaven, and we vio- 
 late it at our peril. 
 
 Is the sabbath, then, of divine or of human ori- 
 gin, and when was it instituted ? Was it in- 
 tended for all mankind, or only for a part? 
 Which day of the week was originally appoint- 
 ed, and for what reason ? Has the day since 
 been changed, and if so, vjhen, and for w>hat 
 reason! And how is the Sabbath to be kept, or 
 sanctified 7 These are questions which every per- 
 son has a right to ask, nay, which every one is 
 bound to ask, that his " faith may not stand in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 
 
 QUESTION I. 
 
 Is the sabbath of divine, or of human origin^ 
 and when was it instituted ? 
 
 That the sabbath is " from Heaven, and not of 
 men," must be conceded by all, who read and be- 
 lieve the Bible. It was one of the earliest and 
 richest gifts of God to man. The record of the 
 institution is in the second chapter of the inspired 
 volume, and in these words : On the seventh day, 
 God ended his work which he had made ; and 
 he rested on the seventh day from all his work^ 
 which he had made. And God blessed the 
 
8 
 
 seventh day, and sanctified it : because that in 
 it he had rested from all his work, which God 
 had created and made. This is the first and 
 the only account of the original institution of the 
 Sabbatli, which the pen of inspiration has re- 
 corded. Wherever it is subsequently mentioned, 
 it is spoken of, not as a new enactment, but as a 
 primary and standing law of the divine adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 But when did God institute the Holy Sabbath 7 
 Those who are in the habit of reading and under- 
 standing the Scriptures according to the common 
 rules of interpretation, will doubtless marvel that 
 such a question should ever be asked. " For can 
 any thing," they v/ill demand, "be more explicit, 
 than the passage just quoted ? Surely there is no- 
 thing ambiguous, either in the words themselves, 
 or in their connexion with the preceding narrative. 
 The plain account is, that when God had finished 
 the great work of creation, he rested from it on the 
 very next, or seventh day ; and that then he blessed 
 the seventh day, and sanctified it." Yes, we reply, 
 this, according to common understanding, is just 
 what the sacred penman asserts ; nor do we believe 
 that one man in a million, would think of putting 
 any other construction upon the passage. Indeed, 
 no one, so far as we know, ever denied this to be 
 the most natural meaning. 
 
 But then, it has been strangely argued, that this 
 cannot be the true meaning ; and that the Sabbath 
 would not have been given to our first parents m 
 paradise, because, as the objectors allege, " neither 
 the observance, nor even the existence of the insti- 
 
tution, is afterward once mentioned, or so much as 
 hinted at by Moses, till the manna fell in the wil- 
 derness ; including a period of about 2500 years. 
 Many pious men, it is added, certainly lived within 
 that period, who would have kept the Sabbath, 
 had any such divine institution existed ; and the 
 fact would have been somewhere noticed by the 
 sacred historian." 
 
 Now, however plausible or ingenious this rea- 
 soning may appear, at the first glance, it will not 
 bear examination. For what though we are no- 
 where told, in so many words, that the patriarchs 
 observed a weekly Sabbath ? It is rendered highly 
 probable that they did, independently of consider- 
 ations hereafter to be mentioned, from the division 
 of time into weeks, which is not obscurely hinted 
 at in the history of that period. Thus, when the 
 waters of the deluge had begun to subside, Noah 
 sent out a dove which soon returned. At the end 
 of seven days, he sent her out again ; and at the 
 end of seven days more, he sent her out a third 
 time. Now why this steady preference for the 
 number seven 1 Why did not the patriarch wait 
 six days, or eight days, or any other number ? 
 Can it be supposed that his fixing upon seven, and 
 steadily adhering to it, was purely accidental? 
 How much more natural to conclude, that in obe- 
 dience to the authority of God, as expressed in the 
 passage already quoted, from the second chapter 
 of Genesis, he observed every seventh day as a 
 Sabbath. 
 
 A similar division of time, is incidentally men- 
 tioned in the twenty-ninth chapter of Genesis. 
 
10 
 
 " Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also. 
 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled his week.'''' Now 
 the word week' is every where used, except in the 
 prophecy of Daniel, just as we use it. It never 
 means either more, or less, than seven days, and 
 one of the seven was in all other cases the Sabbath. 
 It cannot be admitted, therefore, that the sacred 
 records of 2500 years contain no allusion to this 
 subject. But what if they had been entirely si- 
 lent ? It would not only be extremely illogical, 
 to infer that the Sabbath was unknown and unre- 
 garded, considering how very brief the history of 
 that period is ; but the argument which is attempt- 
 ed to be drawn from the alleged silence of the sa- 
 cred writer, labors under this additional misfor- 
 tune, that if it proves any thing, it proves too 
 much. It equally proves, that the Sabbath was 
 entirely unknown and unobserved, from the time 
 of Joshua, till the reign of David ; as no mention 
 is made of it in the history of that long period. If 
 mere silence is proof in one case, it is equally so 
 in the other. But the truth is, that it proves no- 
 thing in either case. It will be admitted, that, be- 
 yond all question, the pious judges of Israel " re- 
 membered the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," 
 though the observance is not once mentioned; 
 and so, beyond all doubt, the patriarchs kept it 
 before them, though the fact is not expressly stated 
 by Moses. 
 
 Equally fatal to this favorite argument of Dr. 
 Paley, is the silence of the inspired volume, re- 
 specting the rite of circumcision, from the death 
 oi Moses, or a little after, till the days of Jeremiah j 
 
11 
 
 for it is not so much as once named, or alluded 
 to, during a period of more than 800 years. Will 
 it be said, can it possibly be believed, that Samuel 
 and David, and all the pious kings and people — 
 that the whole Jewish nation, utterly neglected 
 that essential seal of the covenant, for eight ceri" 
 turies ? The supposition cannot be admitted for 
 a moment. And how then can any fair reasoner 
 argue, from the alleged silence of a portion of the 
 sacred history, still more concise, that Enoch, and 
 Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, kept 
 no Sabbath, because the fact is not expressly stated. 
 Other examples, having the same bearing on the 
 question before us, might be adduced ; but it can- 
 not be necessary. It is a case in which two are as 
 good as two hundred. 
 
 Having thus, as we believe, fairly put to rest the 
 objection against the early date of the Sabbath, 
 drawn from the alleged silence of the historian, we 
 proceed to show, that it certainly bears date from 
 the creation of the world itself. 
 
 First, from the order of the sacred narration. 
 Having celebrated the handy-work of the Creator, 
 in a regular and connected narrative, from the first 
 day, up to the sixth and last ; Moses proceeds in the 
 same manner, without giving the least intimation 
 of any change of time or meaning, to inform us, 
 that on the seventh day God rested from all his 
 work, and that he blessed and sanctified the day. 
 When did he rest ? On the seventh day, that is, 
 the seventh day of the world. And if God's rest- 
 ing was a reason why men should rest at all, then 
 
12 
 
 it was a reason why the holy observance of the 
 Sabbath should commence at that time. 
 
 Again; the consecration of the Sabbath, evi- 
 dently took place on the very day when God rest- 
 ed from all his work, and not 2500 years, nor one 
 year, nor one week, afterward. If the Sabbath was 
 instituted to commemorate the stupendous work 
 of creation, (and who can doubt it,) what can be 
 more improbable, (may we not say absurd,) than 
 the supposition, that this commemorative ordi- 
 nance was never heard of, was not even appointed, 
 till the world was two thousand and five hundred 
 years old ? 
 
 How is it in all other parallel cases ? The mi- 
 raculous deliverance of Israel from Eg-ypt, was 
 commemorated in the annual feast of the passover, 
 from the very night of that great deliverance. In 
 like manner, the independence of these United 
 States, has been annually celebrated, //'o?/^ the date 
 of the solemn declaration itself. And so it is with 
 respect to all those events, which are thought wor- 
 thy of being statedly commemorated. The cele- 
 bration always commences at, or near the time 
 of the event. How strange, how incredible the 
 supposition then, that the solemn consecration of 
 a day to commemorate the creation of the world 
 should form a solitary exception. 
 
 On this ground, we might safely rest the ques- 
 tion, till some better reason than we have ever yet 
 seen, can be offered, to invalidate the position 
 which we have taken. But as so much depends 
 upon this point, we shall offer a few additional ret 
 marks, to expose the weakness of the opposite side 
 
13 
 
 of the question. If the Sabbath was not instituted 
 in paradise, nor until after the departure of Israel 
 from Egypt, what occasion had Moses to mention it 
 at all, in connexion with his account of the creation, 
 which took place between two and three thousand 
 years before ? Why did he not wait, till, as Dr. 
 Paley supposes, the Sabbath was actually institu- 
 ted in the wilderness ; and there give it its proper 
 place in the narrative ? Why place events side by 
 side in the history, which, according to the suppo- 
 sition we are controverting, had no connexion in 
 fact, but were separated by the mighty chasm of 
 twenty-five centuries ! Surely, the Spirit of God 
 never could have directed Moses to an arrange- 
 ment in this solitary instance, so contrary to the 
 regular order of the narration, and so much better 
 calculated to mislead, than to instruct the reader. 
 And yet the ingenuity of Paley could devise no 
 better way to dispose of the passage which we 
 have quoted from the second chapter of Genesis. 
 It must, he thought, have been inserted there, not 
 because the Sabbath was then instituted, but by 
 way of a twenty-five hundred years' anticipa- 
 tion ! 
 
 But let us see where this strange interpretation 
 will lead us. Is the creation of the world itself 
 recorded in the first chapter of Getiesis by way of 
 anticipation 7 It must be so, if Dr. Paley's reason- 
 ing, in regard to the Sabbath, is correct. For the 
 same inspired writer, who tells us that God said, 
 " Let there be light, and there was light," on the 
 first day, and (hat Adam was created on the sixth 
 day, is equally explicit in declaring, that on the 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 seventh day, God rested from all his work, and 
 blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. There 
 being no difference, therefore, in the phraseology, 
 we must suppose that the order of time is express- 
 ed in the latter case, as definitely as in either of 
 the former. That is, if we understand the sacred 
 historian to speak in the second chapter of Gene- 
 sis, not of what actually took place at the time, 
 but of what was to be done after the lapse of twen- 
 ty five hundred years, then, to be consistent, we 
 must suppose that, in the first chapter, he speaks 
 of man, not as being then created, but to be crea- 
 ted at some future and far distant period. And 
 so we shall have the heavens and the earth created, 
 not at the time specified in the inspired narrative, 
 but tM^o or three thousand years afterward j that 
 is, after they were created ; and all this just by 
 way of anticipation ! 
 
 That the Sabbath was not first given to the Is- 
 raelites in the wilderness, as a new institution, we 
 argue — 
 
 Secondly ; from the very passage in the six- 
 teenth chapter of Exodus, on which the main re- 
 liance has been placed, to prove that no Sabbath 
 was known to mankind till that time : " And it 
 came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered 
 twice as much bread, {i. e. twice as much manna, 
 as on any preceding day,) two omers for one man; 
 and all the rulers of the congregation came and 
 told Moses. And he said unto them, this is that 
 which the Lord hath said, ' To-morrow is the 
 rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord ; bake 
 that which ye will bake,^ ^c." 
 
15 
 
 The first question suggested by this passage is, 
 Why did the people gather twice as much food on 
 the sixth day, as they had gathered on the fourth, 
 or the fifth ? It does not appear from the history 
 that a syllable had been said to them on the sub- 
 ject. And that they actually made this double 
 provision, on the sixth day, of their own accord, 
 we infer from two considerations. First — "The 
 rulers went and told Moses," as if something un- 
 expected had happened, which required his par- 
 ticular direction. Secondly — Moses answered 
 them, just as if he had never alluded to the subject 
 before : This is that ivhich the Lord hath said, 
 <^c. The probability arising from these circum- 
 stances is very strong, therefore, that the people 
 had some previous knowledge of the Sabbath, un- 
 less we can suppose they foresaw that God, after 
 giving mankind all their time for 2500 years, was 
 now about to appropriate one seventh part to him- 
 self, and so resolved to anticipate him in the new 
 arrangement ! 
 
 Further ; our supposition, that the Jewish law- 
 giver here speaks of the Sabbath, as an institution 
 already known, though, perhaps, greatly neglect- 
 ed, and almost forgotten, is, we think, very much 
 strengthened, by the phraseology of the passage 
 just quoted. " This is that which the Lord hath 
 said, to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath." 
 It is not thus, that legislators are wont to speak 
 in the first promulgation of their laws ; but it is 
 precisely as men speak every day, concerning ex- 
 isting institutions. We say, familiarly, that " to- 
 morrow is the Sabbath," because it is an old insti- 
 
16 
 
 tution ; but if there never had been a Sabbath, and 
 the supreme magistrate was about to appoint one 
 by special statute, he would not say to-morrow ?>, 
 but to-morrow shall he the Sabbath. The weekly 
 rest, then, was appointed, and sanctified before the 
 days of Moses. Have we any prior account of it ? 
 We have. Where is it ? In the second chapter 
 of Genesis, and no where else. The Sabbath, then, 
 was instituted in paradise, and was only revived, 
 when the bread of heaven fell round about the 
 camp in the wilderness. 
 
 Thirdly ; we are irresistibly led to the same 
 conclusion, by the testimony of a long list of an- 
 cient writers, a very small part of which, only, 
 can be brought within our narrow limits. We of- 
 fer the following, just to acquaint our readers with 
 the nature and variety of this testimony. 
 
 Homer and Hesiod both " speak of the seventh 
 day as holy." 
 
 Porphyry says, "the Phcenicians consecrated 
 'One day in seven as holy." 
 
 Philo says, that " the Sabbath is not a festival 
 peculiar to any one people, or country, but is com- 
 mon to all the world ; and that it may be named 
 the general and public feast, or the feast of the 
 nativity of the world." 
 
 Josephus affirms, " that there is no city, either 
 of Greeks, or barbarians, or any other nation, 
 where the religion of the Sabbath is not known." 
 
 Lampidius tells us, that Alexander Severus, 
 the Roman emperor, usually went, on the seventh 
 day, into the capitol, there to offer sacriUces to the 
 gods. 
 
17 
 
 The learned Grotius tells us, " that the memo- 
 ry of the creation's being performed in seven 
 days, was preserved, not only among the Greeks 
 and Italians, but among the Celts and Indians, all 
 of whom divided their time into weeks." The 
 same is affirmed by other writers, of the Assyri- 
 ans, Egyptians, Arabians, Romans, Gauls, Britons, 
 and Germans. 
 
 And how, we would ask every candid reader — 
 how is this remarkable agreement of nations so 
 remote from each other, and between many of 
 whom little or no intercourse ever existed, to be 
 accounted for ? Will it be said, that they were all 
 originally indebted to the Jews for it ? By whom, 
 then, was the Sabbath borrowed from that hated 
 and despised people 1 Would the Egyptians per- 
 mit themselves to be instructed by a nation whose 
 civil and religious institutions they abhorred? 
 Would their mortal enemies, the Assyrians? 
 Would the fierce and independent tribes of Ara- 
 bia ? Would those proud and mighty masters of 
 the world, the Greeks and the Romans ? Nothing 
 can be more improbable. How, then, is the pro- 
 blem to be solved ? By a recurrence to the origi- 
 nal institution of the Sabbath in paradise. God 
 having given it to our first parents, it became 
 known, of course, to all the antediluvian patriarchs. 
 From Noah, the last of them, it was handed down 
 by tradition, through all the branches of his fami- 
 ly ; and thus, in process of time, the knowledge of 
 it, though greatly obscured and mixed with fable, 
 found its way into almost every part of the world, 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 just as traditional accounts of the" deluge were 
 spread among all nations. 
 
 Our first question, then, is answered ; the Sab- 
 bath is from God ; and the date of the institution 
 is coeval with that of the world. 
 
 QUESTION II. 
 
 Was the Sabbath intended for all mankind, or 
 only for a part? 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 That the Sabbath was not given to the Jews 
 only, follows irresistibly from what has been al- 
 ready proved. Tliey had no existence when it 
 was instituted. Even Abraham, the " father of 
 them all," was not born till 2000 years afterward. 
 That it should be made peculiarly prominent, in 
 the history of that nation, was natural, and even 
 necessary, from the circumstance, that to them 
 " pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the 
 covenants, and the giving the law, and the service 
 of God, and the promises." If any other people 
 had been chosen, instead of the Israelites, the 
 Sabbath would unquestionably have been made 
 equally prominent in their ecclesiastical polity. But 
 it could not be intended for one nation, more than 
 another, because it was given to Adam, the great 
 progenitor of the human family ; and through him, 
 to all his posterity. 
 
 If the Sabbath was needful for one branch of the 
 human family, as a day of rest and religious im- 
 provement, it was needful for all. If the obser- 
 
19 
 
 vance of it was eminently calculated to promote 
 the temporal and spiritual good of the Jewish na- 
 tion, it is not less calculated to promote the good 
 of all other nations. And if it was enjoined and 
 sanctified, as a holy commemorative ordinance, 
 from the foundation of the world, it must, in the 
 very nature^ of the case, be obligatory upon all 
 mankind. 
 
 Two great institutions originated from infinite 
 authority in paradise ; — viz. marriage, and the 
 weekly Sabbath. Was the ordinance of marriage 
 temporary, or perpetual ? Was it intended for one 
 nation only, or for all nations ? And from what 
 date, we beg leave digressively to inquire, did the 
 law become obligatory ; from the date of the sta- 
 tute itself, or from some recognition of it, two or 
 three thousand years later? Surely that man's 
 logic would be regarded with great suspicion, 
 who should maintain, that the institution of mar- 
 riage was meant to be obligatory upon a single 
 nation only ; and that not from the date of the in- 
 stitution, but in some far distant futurity ! And 
 with what greater consistency, we ask, can it be 
 maintained, that the Sabbath, the other great primi- 
 mitive institution so often mentioned, was made 
 obligatory only upon a mere fraction of the hu- 
 man family ? 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 It is a settled principle, in all governments, that 
 there are but two ways in which any law can cease 
 to be binding upon the people. It may expire by 
 
20 
 
 its own limitations, or it may be repealed by the 
 same authority which enacted it ; 5nd in the lat- 
 ter case, the repealing act must be as explicit as 
 the law itself. Now, we have it in proof, that the 
 Sabbath was instituted by the infinite Lawgiver in 
 paradise. In priority of time, it stands at the head 
 of all his enactments. It is the very first statute, 
 in that code of laws, Avhich he has promulgated in 
 the Bible. Of course, it has an authority entirely 
 independent of the Jewish ritual,- and is no more a 
 part of that system, which has " waxed old and 
 vanished away," than the sixth commandment is. 
 
 The law of the Sabbath can never expire by its 
 own limitations ; and for the plainest of all reasonSj 
 that it has no limitations. And God blessed the 
 seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it, 
 he had rested from all his work, which God cre- 
 ated and made. Now if this solemn act made 
 the Sabbath binding upon mankind at all, it made 
 the obligation universal and perpetual, as no limi- 
 tation, or exemption, is hinted at. If the divine 
 consecration of one seventh part of time, made it 
 the duty of our first parents to keep it holy, it 
 clearly imposes the same duty upon their posteri- 
 ty ; no intimation, as we have already observed, 
 being given, that the sacred rest was intended for 
 a part of mankind only, or was to be observed only 
 for a limited period. The law, then, still remains 
 in force, and must remain to the end of time, un- 
 less God himself has seen fit, or shall hereafter see 
 fit, to repeal it, there being no other authority in 
 the universe that can strike out a letter of it. 
 
 Has God abrogated the law ? If he has, the 
 
21 
 
 place can easily be found by our opponents ; and 
 let them point it out to us ; for we confess, that we 
 have never yet been able to find it. What if they 
 can show us, that the ceremonial law lias been ex- 
 pressly annulled ? It is nothing to the purpose ; 
 for the weekly Sabbath existed independently of 
 that law. The chapter and verse must be point- 
 ed out, in which the original sabbatical law is 
 expressly repealed. Nothing else will satisfy a 
 candid inquirer. 
 
 If the repealing act is any where recorded in the 
 Bible, it is either in Rom. xiv. 5, 6 ; or in Col. ii. 
 16, 17. No one, we believe, pretends to place 
 much stress upon any other passage. Let these 
 then be carefully examined, not as independent 
 texts, but in connexion with the obvious design 
 and scope of the apostle's reasoning. The text 
 in Romans is this : One man esteemeth one day 
 above another ; another esteemeth every day 
 alike. Let every man he fully persuaded in his 
 own mind. He that regardeth the day, regard- 
 eth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not 
 the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. 
 Does the apostle here mean to say, that under the 
 new, or Christian dispensation, it is a matter of in- 
 difference which day of the week is kept as a Sab- 
 bath, or whether any Sabbath at all is kept? Sure- 
 ly those who thus construe his meaning, " do 
 greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures." 
 
 Every attentive reader of the New Testament, 
 must have observed, that for some years after the 
 resurrection of Christ, the Jewish and Christian 
 dispensations were, in practice, blended together ; 
 
the former being gradually abolished, and the lat- 
 ter as gradually brought in to take its place. 
 Hence arose many of those unhappy disputes, 
 which disturbed the harmony of the primitive 
 churches. Many of the Jewish converts, not only 
 adhered strenuously themselves to their ancient 
 ritual, but insisted upon the conformity of Gentile 
 converts ;— while these last as strenuously main- 
 tained, that since the ceremonial law was abolished, 
 no further regard to its prescription of meats, days, 
 &c. was either necessary, or even allowable. To 
 settle these disputes, and inspire the parties with 
 mutual charity and forbearance, the apostle took 
 up the question in form, and disposed of it in the 
 following wise and catholic manner. " Him that 
 is weak in the faith receive ye ; but not to doubt- 
 ful disputation. For one believeth that he may eat 
 all things. Another, that is weak, eateth herbs. 
 Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth 
 not ; and let not him that eateth not, judge him 
 that eateth ; for God hath received him. Who art 
 thou that judgest another man's servant ? To his 
 own master he standeth or falleth ; yea, he shall 
 be hoiden up, for God is able to make him stand. 
 One man esteemeth one day above another; ano- 
 ther esteemeth every day alike. Let every man 
 be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that re- 
 gardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord. And 
 he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth 
 not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, 
 for he giveth God thanks ; and he that eateth not, 
 to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks." 
 Now, it is plain, from every word of this quota- 
 
23 
 
 tion, that the inspired umpire refers ''Expressly to 
 the existing controversy, respecting the ceremonial 
 law ; and not at all to the question, whether the 
 original Sabbath was abolished, or not. Indeed, it 
 seems extremely doubtful, whether the passage con- 
 tains the slightest reference to the weekly Sabbath. 
 The religious observance of many other days, was 
 strictly enjoined in the Levitical code. All that 
 can fairly be gathered, therefore, from this quota- 
 tion, is, that Christians in the early part of the 
 apostolic age, might, or might not, keep those feast 
 days;— that is, might act according to the dictates 
 of their own consciences. If one man thought 
 that he was bound to observe any particular day, 
 let him observe it ; but without censuring his bro- 
 ther who might be of a different opinion. Let 
 every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, 
 and act accordingly. The law of the Sabbath then 
 is not repealed here. 
 
 Is it repealed in Col. ii. 16, 17, to which we have 
 also referred ? Let no man, therefore, judge you in 
 meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, 
 or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, 
 which are a shadow of things to come ; but the 
 body is of Christ. '' Here then," some have tri- 
 umphantly alleged, " is the repealing act ; and the 
 Sabbath, as a divine institution, is no more !" Wo 
 to the world if it be so. But to this construction, 
 which strikes at the foundation of all Christian 
 institutions, three distinct answers are ready. 
 
 In the first place, it takes for granted the very 
 thing to be proved ; — viz. that the apostle is here 
 speaking of the weekly Sabbath ; when it is all 
 
24 
 
 but certain, \^'e think, that he has no allusion to 
 it. The plural form Sabbath days^ which is here 
 adopted, rarely if ever occurs in Scripture, when 
 the original institution is intended. But there 
 were other Sabbaths which the Jews were required 
 to keep : as for example, the first day of the 
 seventh month, and also the tenth day of the same, 
 throughout their generations. See Lev. xxxiii. 
 "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak 
 unto the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh 
 month, on the first day of the month, shall ye have 
 a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an 
 holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work 
 therein. Also on the tenth day of this seventh 
 month, there shall be an atonement. It shall be 
 unto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict 
 your souls." That these ceremonial Sabbaths, 
 and not the holy rest of paradise, are referred to, 
 in the passage above quoted, is made nearly, if not 
 quite certain, by the fact, that all the other speci- 
 fications, such as meat, drink, the new moon, &c. 
 are ceremonial. At any rate, the contrary can 
 never be proved. To assert, therefore, that the 
 repealing act is found here, is, we repeat, a mere 
 begging of the question. This is our first answer. 
 Secondly, allowing for argument's sake, that the 
 apostle had the Jewish seventh day Sabbath in his 
 eye, and meant to release the Christian church 
 from keeping that particular day, what does it 
 amount to ? To an abrogation of the Sabbath itself, 
 or merely to a change of the day, which, however, 
 in the twilight of the Gospel dispensation, was 
 not authoritatively enjoined? The latter, (if the 
 
25 
 
 apostle alludes to the original institution at all,) 
 we take to be the true meaning. A conscientious 
 Jew who still adhered to the seventh day of the 
 week, would be accepted, as well as the convert- 
 ed Gentile, who kept the first day. This is our 
 second answer. 
 
 The third, may be given chiefly in the words 
 of an able foreign writer. " It is evident from 
 the context," he observes, " that the apostle was 
 bpeaking of the ordinances of the ceremonial law 
 for the neglect of which, no Christian was to be 
 condemned. Blotting out the hand writing of 
 ordinances that was against us, which was con- 
 trary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing 
 it to his cross. Let no man therefore judge you 
 in meat, or drink, d^c. — or of the Sabbath days. 
 In this passage, the apostle is clearly speaking of 
 burdensome ordinances; of something that was 
 against them, and contrary to the spirit of the 
 Gospel. But can any pious person conceive, that 
 the spending one day in seven in spiritual services, 
 could be ranked by the holy apostle, among the 
 things which were against Christianity, and con- 
 trary to it ? Was that institution which the 
 people of God had been commanded to call 'a 
 delight, the holy of the Lord and honorable,' now 
 to be esteemed of so carnal a nature, as to be rank- 
 ed amongst the things which Christ took out of 
 the way, nailing it to his cross ? Were those holy 
 persons who had been accustomed to adopt the 
 language of the Psalmist, ' I was glad when they 
 said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord,' 
 now taught to esteem a day spent in such services^ 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 as a part of that yoke, which neither the apostle 
 nor their fathers were able to bear ? We must 
 destroy all just ideas of the eflfects which the 
 preaching of the Gospel was intended to produce, 
 before we can adopt such an interpretation of the 
 apostle's words." 
 
 Where then is the repealing act ? for surely it 
 is not contained in either of the passages which 
 we have examined. Let those who deny the per- 
 petuity of the Sabbath, tell us where. But they 
 cannot find the abrogation which they so anxious- 
 ly seek. Here we might take our final stand in 
 defence of the sacred institution ; for God conse- 
 crated the Sabbath by his own authority and ex- 
 ample, as soon as he had built the world, and 
 breathed into man the breath of life. The law has 
 no limitations, and, therefore, can never expire. 
 It has never been repealed ; and, as the sacred 
 canon is full and complete, we are certain it never 
 will be. It is, therefore, binding upon every one 
 of us at this moment ; and will be upon all future 
 generations. No human authority may expunge 
 a single word from the statutes of Jehovah. It 
 were infinitely less daring, for the meanest subject 
 of the mightiest earthly potentate, to declare the 
 fundamental laws of the empire null and void, 
 than for man, who is a Avorm, to set aside the in- 
 stitutions of his Maker. 
 
 » 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 We derive an independent, and as it appears to 
 us, irrefragable argument in support of the Sab- 
 
27 
 
 bath, from the fourth commandment. "Remem- 
 ber the Sabbath-day to keep it holy; six days 
 shalt thou labour, and do all thy work ; but tlie 
 seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; 
 in it, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy 
 son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy 
 maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor 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 seventh day : wherefore the Lord 
 blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." 
 
 The first thing which strikes the mind in read- 
 ing over this statute, is, that it is extremely expli- 
 cit and particular. It recognises the previous 
 existence of the Sabbath in the word revicmber ; 
 and strictly enjoins the observance of it upon 
 somebody. The single question is, upon whom ? 
 If upon the Jews only, as a part of their ceremo- 
 nial law, then it has no claim upon us. But if the 
 command was not intended to be thus confined in 
 its application, it must doubtless be understood in 
 the most general sense ; and is, of course, binding 
 wherever it is promulgated. 
 
 The next question is, to what code of laws does 
 this command belong, and what peculiar circum- 
 stances attended its promulgation ? Turning to the 
 twentieth chapter of Exodus, and onward, we 
 find, that two distinct codes were Avritten out and 
 given to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. The 
 first was written by God himself, on tables of 
 stone; and the other was received at his mouth, 
 and recorded by Moses. One is called the moral 
 law; and the other, the ceremonial^ or Levitical 
 
28 
 
 law. The latter, it is agreed on all hands, has 
 " vanished away." But the fourth commandment, 
 just quoted, is one of the ten, which were written 
 on stone by the finger of God. The other nine 
 are indisputably of universal and perpetual obli- 
 gation. They are as strongly binding upon us, as 
 they were upon the men who beheld the fires, and 
 heard the thunderings, and felt the quakings of 
 Sinai. And how is it with the fourth which en- 
 joins the sanctification of the Sabbath? "If it is 
 not equally obligatory upon all men, why was it 
 engraved by the same divine hand, and on the 
 same enduring tables?" There was no apparent 
 necessity for it. It might just as easily have been 
 incorporated into the other system, which was de- 
 signed to be temporary : and who can doubt, that 
 it would have been, if the Lawgiver had intended 
 that it should ever " wax old and vanish away ?" 
 Surely it was never his design to mislead us by 
 presenting the law of the Sabbath to us, in most 
 intimate connexion with all the moral precepts 
 of the decalogue. Suppose that a wise and be- 
 nevolent human legislator were to promulgate two 
 separate codes of laws, the one temporary, and 
 the other perpetual; would he, without any ex- 
 planation, take one important statute, which be- 
 longed to the former, and incorporate it into the 
 latter? And can it be believed, for a moment, 
 that God ever intended so to bewilder his account- 
 able creatures ? Here, then, is the moral law. It 
 contains ten commandments. They were all writ- 
 ten twice, by the infinite Legislator hiipself, on 
 tables of stone. The keeping of the Sabbath is 
 
29 
 
 expressly enjoined by the fourth. There is no 
 intimation, that this was ever to become obsolete, 
 any more than the fifth, or the seventh. In short, 
 it stands just where God, in his infinite wisdom, 
 saw fit to place it; and whom has he authorized to 
 strike it out ? Let the man who would do it, show 
 his authority. It must be very express, for the 
 law is so. But no such authority, we are confi- 
 dent, can be produced. God never meant that his 
 law should be mutilated and weakened, to release 
 his rebellious subjects from their allegiance. There 
 is, we conceive, no less temerity, upon the face of 
 the deed, in blotting out the fourth commandment, 
 or, which amounts to the same thing, in denying 
 its present obligation, than there would be in 
 striking out any other section of God's law. 
 
 But then it is said, that while the other nine 
 commandments are strictly moral, that is, are 
 founded upon the immutable relations of mankind 
 to God, and to each other, the fourth is a positive 
 rather than a moral precept, and of course, stands 
 on different ground. This is Dr. Paley's evasion. 
 
 Let us examine it for a moment. Positive pre- 
 cepts are of two kinds ; such as impose obligations 
 upon moral beings in reference to something 
 which is in itself indifferent'; or's-llch as itequire 
 certain duties which were antecedently unknown, 
 and would have remained so, biit for* the precept 
 which enjoins them. . " These last are no less of 
 a moral nature, than if the duties and the relations 
 from which they spring, had always been perfect- 
 ly known." ■ ' '^ 
 
 But take the strongest case possible. Suppose 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 that, antecedently to the command of God, no 
 reason whatever had existed for keeping a Sab- 
 bath, any more than for abstaining from the for- 
 bidden tree, would not the positive annunciation 
 of Jehovah have been as imperative in one case 
 as the other? And under such a positive enactment, 
 as long as it remained in force, would it not have 
 been the duty of all, to whom the command was 
 addressed, to obey? Could any man have excused 
 himself by saying, this is not a moral, but only a 
 positive institution ? Here, then, is a divine pre- 
 cept : Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy : 
 and in regard to this point we adopt the same rea- 
 soning as in the last section. Before the authority 
 of any law of Heaven can cease, it must either be 
 repealed by God himself, or expire by its own li- 
 mitations. The fourth commandment, whether it 
 be moral or positive, has not expired, has not been 
 repealed, and of course is still binding upon every 
 conscience. 
 
 But the Sabbath is not a mere positive institu- 
 tion. That it is in the most important sense mo- 
 ral, is evident, as the late President Dwight well 
 observes, from the following considerations. 
 
 " It was intended to give the laborious classes 
 of mankind an opportunity of resting from* toil." 
 
 "It was intended to be a commemoration of the 
 wisdom, power, and goodness of God, in the crea- 
 tion of the universe." 
 
 " It was intended to furnish an opportunity of 
 increasing holiness in man, while in a state of 
 innocence." 
 
 " It was intended to furnish an opportunity to 
 
31 
 
 fallen man, of acquiring holiness, and of obtaining 
 salvation." 
 
 " In every one of these respects, the Sabbath is 
 equally useful, important, and necessary to every 
 child of Adam. It was no more necessary to a 
 Jew to rest after the labor of six days was ended, 
 than to any other person. It was no more neces- 
 sary to a Jew^ to commemorate the perfections of 
 God, displayed in the works of creation ; it was 
 no more necessary to a Jew to obtain holiness, or 
 to increase in it; it was no more necessary to a Jew 
 to seek or to obtain salvation. Whatever makes 
 either of these things interesting to a Jew in any 
 degree, makes them in the same degree interest^ 
 ing to any other man. The nature of the com- 
 mand, therefore, teaches as plainly, as the nature 
 of the command can teach, that it is of universal 
 application to mankind. It has, then, this great 
 criterion of a moral precept, viz. universality of 
 application?'''^ 
 
 Again ; that the fourth commandment is still in 
 force, and will be to the end of the world, is mani- 
 fest from the following declarations of Christ him- 
 self, in his sermon on the mount : Think not 
 that I am. come to destroy the law or the prophets : 
 I am not come to destroy^ but to fulfil. For I 
 say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one 
 jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass front the 
 law, till all be fulfilled. That our Saviour speaks 
 here, not of the ceremonial, but of the moral law, 
 we gather with certainty, from his proceeding in 
 
 ♦ See Dwight'a Tljieology, Vol. 4. Ser. 106. 
 
35i 
 
 this very connexion, to expound the sixth, seventh, 
 and eightli commandments.^ Now, if he had in- 
 tended to ahrogate one of the longest sections of 
 tlie law, would he have disclaimed all intention of 
 touching a word, or letter of it ? It cannot be. But 
 if he left it just as he found it, and if we have his 
 divine pledge that no part of the law shall fail, 
 then is the Sabbath a perpetual institution. 
 
 Further, we infer the perpetuity of the fourth 
 commandment from Rom. iii. 31. Do we then 
 make void the law through faith 7 God forbid ; 
 yea, we establish the laiL\ What law ? Not the 
 Jewish ritual, for it had already " waxed old and 
 vanished away." It was the moral law, then, 
 which the apostles by their doctrines established. 
 And what is it to establish any law 1 Is it not to 
 preserve every section of it inviolate ? But it 
 could never have been said that the moral law 
 was established through faith, if an essential part 
 of it had been annulled by the bringing in of the 
 gospel dispensation. 
 
 Finally, the very position of the fourth com- 
 mandment, or the place which it occupies in the 
 decalogue, strongly confirms the foregoing con- 
 clusions. The first three commandments pre- 
 scribe the duties which we owe to God : the last 
 six, the duties which we owe to our fellow men • 
 and one relating to the Sabbath stands between 
 them, as the connecting link— as the main pillar 
 and support of the whole system. Without this 
 divine bond of union, neither piety to God, nor 
 love to man, could be preserved in the world. 
 
 Or, as an old writer rather quaintly, but forei- 
 
33 
 
 bly remarks, " The fourth commandment is put 
 into the bosom of the decalogue, that it might not 
 be lost ; it is the golden clasp which joins the two 
 tables together; it is the sinew in the body of 
 laws, which were written with God's own finger ; 
 it is the intermediate precept, which participates 
 of the sanctity of both tables; and the due ob- 
 servance of which, is the fulfilling of the whole 
 law." Such a " clasp" who shall venture to break ? 
 Such a " sinew" who can attempt to sever with 
 impunity ? 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 It is, to our minds, a delightful and conclusive 
 argument iijL favor of the Sabbath, that it was given 
 to man in his primitive holiness, and is to be per- 
 petually kept in heaven. 
 
 1. It was given to man before his apostacy. 
 We should have been apt to think, perhaps, that 
 while our first parents retained their primitive in- 
 nocence, it would answer no valuable purpose to 
 enjoin upon them the religious observance of any 
 particular day, inasmuch as they were disposed to 
 spend every day in the service of their Creator. 
 The Sabbath they could not need as a season of 
 rest, for their labor, if labor it might be called, was 
 most easy and invigorating. It was only to dress 
 the garden and keep it. No more toil, as the 
 prince of epic poets expresses it. 
 
 Than sufficed 
 To recommend cool zephyrs, and made ease 
 More easy ; wholesome thirst and appetite 
 More grateful. 
 
34 
 
 God, however, was pleased to enjoin, even upon 
 them, a weekly interriiission of their delightful 
 care of plants and flowers, that nothing might di- 
 vert their minds from the far more animating du- 
 ties of praise and adoration. And had they kept 
 their first estate, and remained in paradise forever, 
 the same reasons which made it proper for them 
 to observe the Sabbath at all, would have made 
 the duty and the privilege perpetual. Or had they 
 lived a thousand years in perfect holiness, and then 
 been translated to heaven, they would hjave gone 
 from the enjoyment of earthly Sabbaths to an 
 eternal rest. For, 
 
 2. Heaven is a place of rest. It is that holy 
 Sabbatism, which "remaineth to the people of 
 God f and of which the weekly Sabbath is evi- 
 dently a type. In Heaven, there will be no toil, 
 no bodily wants to supply, no fatigue demanding 
 repose, no wasting or flagging of the immortal 
 energies of the blessed. And yet, they will rest 
 for ever. They will keep an endless Sabbath. 
 They will spend a blissful and ever-brightening 
 eternity, in celebrating the perfections of God — the 
 works and glories of the Lamb. 
 
 And can it be, that he who gave the Sabbath to 
 our first parents, as soon as he had created them, 
 and will give an eternal Sabbatism to all his peo- 
 ple in Heaven, has left so wide a chasm between 
 the earthly paradise and the celestial ? Was the 
 rest which God ordained below, a type of that 
 above? It is the nature of every type, to continue 
 until it is superseded by the anti-type. Thus it 
 was with all the typical institutions of the Jewish 
 
35 
 
 ritual. They continued till Christ, tlie great anti- 
 type, came, and then they disappeared. And thus 
 the earthly Sabbath must continue, till it shall be 
 superseded by the lieavei":h\ 
 
 For the same reason, that it was the duty and 
 the privilege of tlie first human pair to keep the 
 Sabbath before the apostacy, would it have been 
 the duty and privilege of all their posterity, had 
 sin never entered the M^orld. But how much more 
 do their depraved children, in every land and every 
 age, need stated seasons of rest from the laborious 
 employments to which they are doomed ? How 
 much more do they, who have lost the image of 
 God, and are prone, continually, to forget their 
 obligations and dependance, need the leisure and 
 the solemn stillness of the Sabbath, to recall them 
 from their wanderings, and assist them in their 
 preparations for Heaven ? Had man, in his primxi- 
 tive state, been totally depraved, and since been 
 made perfectly holy, as Adam was 5 had the Sab- 
 bath, moreover, been given him in his original 
 sinful state, it might have been plausibly argued, 
 that since the happy renovation, such an institu- 
 tion could no longer be necessary. But what can 
 be more absurd, than to adopt the reverse of this 
 argument, and saj^, that the sacred rest which God 
 gave to man in his innocency, has ceased to be 
 needful, or obligatory, since the apostacy ! And 
 yet this is the absurd conclusion, to which all the 
 arguments against the perpetuity of the Sabbath 
 unavoidably come. 
 
 We might, as we draw towards the close of 
 this part of the discussion, avail ourselves of 
 
36 
 
 several arguments, drawn from the application 
 
 of ancient prophecies to gospel times. And 
 
 we might dwell upon the direction of Christ to his 
 disciples, " Pray ye, that your flight be not in the 
 winter, neither on the Sabbath day p"* for the 
 event to which he alluded, was not to happen till 
 forty years afterwards ; and if there was then to 
 be a Sabbath, it could not have been abolished 
 with the ceremonial law. But it really seems to 
 us, that more than enough has been said already. 
 For, 1. if God instituted the Sabbath in paradise, 
 and has not since abrogated it, then must it be per- 
 petual. 2. If it is a constituent part of the moral 
 law, then must it be perpetual. 3. If not one jot 
 or one tittle can ever pass from the law, then must 
 the Sabbath be perpetual. 4. If the law is estab- 
 lished through faith, then must the Sabbath be per- 
 petual. And, 5. if the earthly Sabbath is typical 
 of the heavenly, then must it be perpetual. 
 
 QUESTION III. 
 
 What day of the week was originally appoint- 
 ed to be kept, and for what reason. 
 
 As this is not a controverted question, it will 
 detain us but a moment. The first point is settled 
 in these express words : " And on the seventh 
 day God ended his work which he had made; 
 and he rested on the seventh day from all his 
 work which he had made. And God blessed the 
 seventh day, and sanctified it." The same day is 
 gpecified in the confirmation, or re-enactment of 
 
87 
 
 the Sabbath at Mount Sinai. " Six days shalt thou 
 labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh is 
 the Sabbath of the Lord thy Cxod." Indeed, where- 
 ever the weekly Sabbath is mentioned in the Old 
 Testament, the Seventh day of the week is intend- 
 ed. Jesus Christ, himscif, kept the same day du- 
 ring* his public ministry; and the Jews, in every 
 part of the world, where they have been scattered, 
 still adhere to it as the Sabbath. 
 
 The reason for the original sanctification of the 
 seventh day, is also distinctly specified. " And 
 God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, be- 
 cause that in it he had rested from all his work," 
 So, in the fourth commandment — " For in six days 
 the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all 
 that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; where- 
 fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hal- 
 lowed it." Here we see, that the seventh dny 
 was set apart, rather than the sixth, the first, or 
 any other, because that God himself rested on that 
 day, or ceased from the work of creation. It was 
 to keep in remembrance that stupendous work, 
 and to excite mankind to celebrate the glorious 
 attributes of wisdom, power, and benevolence, 
 which were displayed in its progress and comple- 
 tion, that this particular appointment was made. 
 And what other day could havebeen so appropriate? 
 Surely, if any solemn commemoration at all was 
 demanded, or was proper, it was suitable it should 
 begin on the very day when the " morning stars 
 sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
 joy ;" and that the same day of the week should 
 be devoted to holy rest, meaitation, and praise, till 
 
38 
 
 some greater work than that of creation should 
 be accompUshedj and demand a similar comme- 
 moration. 
 
 QUESTION IV. 
 
 Has the day been changed^ since the /Sabbath 
 was instituted ; and, if so, when, and for what 
 reasoni 
 
 On this question we offer the following prelimi- 
 nary remarks : 
 
 First. Whatever may be the true answer, it will 
 not, in the least, affect the validity of the arguments, 
 which have been already adduced. They stand 
 on entirely independent ground ; so that if we 
 should fail of proving that the day has been 
 changed, it would not touch the other great ques- 
 tion, in regard to the perpetuity of the Sabbath, 
 which has been argued upon its own merits. If 
 we have proved that the institution was from the 
 beginning, and is to last till the end of time, nothing 
 which can be said here, will invalidate the proof ; 
 and if we have failed there, nothing here will 
 help it. 
 
 Secondly. Those who question the change of 
 the Sabbath, from other motives than a conscien- 
 tious persuasion that they are still bound to keep 
 the seventh day, would do well to consider what 
 they have to gain by proving, that the day has 
 not been changed. It cannot be uncharitable 
 10 suppose, that with some of them, this is a 
 mere evasive expedient, to get rid of the Sab- 
 
39 
 
 bath altogether. But the day has either been 
 changed, or it has not. If it has been changed, 
 they are bound to conform to that change. If it 
 has not, then they are bound to keep the original, 
 or seventh day. So that whether it has been 
 changed, or not, they are equally bound to keep 
 one seventh part of time as holy, which is the 
 very conclusion they wish to avoid. But let them 
 be consistent, and either keep the seventh day, or 
 come out at once, and deny that any day is obli- 
 gatory. 
 
 Thirdly. The fourth commandment is so ex- 
 pressed, as to admit of a change in the day, with- 
 out at all affecting the sacred institution itself; 
 and this phraseology, we doubt not, was adopted 
 by the divine Law-giver, with special reference to 
 such a change. " Remember the Sabbath day, to 
 keep it holy. The seventh day is the Sabbath. 
 In six days the Lord made heaven and earth ; — 
 wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and 
 hallowed it." The seventh day is the Sabbath. 
 It was so at that time, and for many ages after. 
 But it is not said, that it always shall be. 
 
 Besides; According to the first clause of the 
 commandment, it is the Sabbath day which we are 
 to remember ; and so at the close, it was the Sab- 
 bath which was hallowed and blessed, and not 
 the seventh day. The Sabbath, then, the holy 
 rest itself, is one thing ; the day on which we are 
 to rest, is quite another. As the day might be 
 changed, without any prejudice to that in which 
 the Sabbath essentially consists, we are left at full 
 liberty to inquire, yea, it is our duty to inquire, 
 
40 
 
 whether the day has actually been changed by 
 competent authority. 
 
 Fourthly. Though it would require an express 
 statute to abrogate an institution so prominent as 
 the holy Sabbath, somethmg short of this may be 
 sufficient, to indicate a change from one day to 
 another. Thus, if it can be shown, that similar 
 reasons now exist for keeping the first day of the 
 week, to those which originally existed for keep- 
 ing the seventh ; if it can be made to appear, that 
 such a change was foreseen, and distinctly alluded 
 to, by the ancient Jewish prophets ; if it can be 
 shown, that Christ himself, after his resurrection, 
 gave the sanction of his own example to the 
 change ; if it can be shown, that the apostles kept 
 the first day of the week, and could not have been 
 mistaken as to the propriety of the change ; that 
 the churches which they planted, were accustomed 
 to assemble on the first day of the week for public 
 worship ; that God early consecrated it in a pecu- 
 liar manner, by the effusions of his Spirit ; that the 
 change was recognized as authoritative by the 
 most ancient Christian fathers; and that the first 
 day of the week has been remarkably distinguish- 
 ed by the bestowment of spiritual blessings, down 
 to our own times; if these things can be proved, 
 from Scripture, from the earliest ecclesiastical re- 
 cords, and from undeniable facts, it is pre'sumed, 
 the propriety of Christian usage throughout the 
 world, in accordance with such views, and such 
 proofs, will not be disputed. 
 
 But can such evidence be adduced ; or, in other 
 words, has the first day been substituted for the 
 
41 
 
 seventh, by divine authority ; and, if so, when and 
 for what reason? This is the question now to be 
 tried. That the day has been changed ; that the 
 change took place at the resurrection of Christ, to 
 commemorate that event, and the completion of 
 the work of redemption, we argue, 
 
 In the first place : From the analogy which ex- 
 ists between that stupendous w^ork and the origi- 
 nal creation. That the redemption of fallen man 
 was a greater work than making the world, must, 
 we think, appear evident to any one who will con- 
 sider that both were accomplished by Jesus Christ; 
 John i. 3. " The world v/as made by him, and 
 without him was not any thing made that was 
 made." Col. i. 16. " By him were all things cre- 
 ated, that are in heaven and that are in earth, vi- 
 sible and invisible." Heb. i. 8, 10. " But unto the 
 Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
 ever. And tlwDU, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid 
 the foundations of the earth ; and the heavens are 
 the work of thy hands." How stupendous, how 
 glorious were these works ! And yet the work of 
 redem.ption excels them all in glory. The heavens 
 and the earth were made by the word of his pow- 
 er ; the souls of men were redeemed by the shed- 
 ding of his blood. When worlds were brought 
 into being, " He spake and it was done ;" but when 
 man was to be " saved from going down to the 
 pit," and " created in righteousness and true ho- 
 liness," His soul was in an agony ; the nails were in 
 his hands and his feet ; his expiring cry went up 
 from the cross ; and universal nature shuddered at 
 the spectacle. 
 
42 
 
 Now, if the seventh day vvas originally set apart 
 and sanctified, "because that in it God rested 
 from all his ^vork," does not the redemption of a 
 great mnltitiide which no man can number, which 
 Was finished on the first day, demand a similar 
 commemoration ? If it was suitable that creative 
 power and wisdom should be celebrated with 
 thanksgiving every seventh day, from the creation 
 to the resurrection of Christ, can it be less so that 
 redeeming love and mercy should be celebrated in 
 a simOar manner, every first day of the week, from 
 the resurrection till the end of the world '? Surely, 
 if in every view, the work of redemption has the 
 pre-eminence, it ought to be kept in grateful and 
 everlasting remembrance, by a holy appropriation 
 of the day on which it was consummated. 
 
 Secondly ; The ancient Jewish prophets evi- 
 dently saw the day of Christ's final triumph, and 
 were glad. Is. xi. 10. " And in that day there 
 shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an 
 ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek ; 
 and his rest shall be glorious." May there not be 
 an allusion here to the Gospel Sabbath, as well as 
 to the rest and prosperity of the church in the lat- 
 ter day? — "His rest shall be glorious;" that is, 
 the day on which Christ rested from all his work, 
 as God did from his. Isa» Ixvi. 22, 23. " For as the 
 new heavens and the new earth which I will make 
 shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall 
 your seed and your name remain. And it shall 
 come to pass, that from cme new moon to another, 
 and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh 
 come to worship before me, saith the Lord." This 
 
4S 
 
 prophecy, beyond all question, refers to the pros* 
 peroiis state of the church, under the millennial 
 reign of Messiah, the most glorious period of that 
 new dispensation, which seems to be shadowed 
 forth, under the emblem of new heavens and a 
 new earth. The church is then to have her mi- 
 nisters, solemnities, sabbaths, and holy ordinances, 
 as she had under the Levitical priesthood ; and as 
 every service will then refer directly to Christ, 
 may we not infer that the church will keep her 
 sabbaths on that day which commemiorates his 
 resurrection from th'e dead. But however this 
 may be, one thing is clear; — the Sabbath will then 
 be observed by the people of God ; and of course 
 it was not abolished with the ceremonial law, but 
 belongs to the new dispensation, as certainly as it 
 did to the old.* 
 A more explicit prediction than any other, per- 
 
 ♦ Note by the Committee : — ^President Humphrey has 
 well intimated, that the new creation or work of redemp- 
 tion was a greater and more g-lorious work than the first 
 creation. This appears to be fully confirmed by the figu- 
 rative representation of the new heavens and new earth 
 that was created, as predicted by Isaiah Ixv. 17 and 18. 
 '' For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and 
 the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. 
 But be ye g-lad and rejoice for ever in that I create ; for 
 behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing-, and her people a 
 joy." It is more than intimated, that the celebration of 
 the first creation, the first heavens and the first earth, shall 
 cease, and be no longer commemorated, because the new 
 creation so far exceeds in glory, that it shall become a 
 theme of celebration and everlasting- joy : "This is the day 
 the Lord has niade ; we will be g-lad and rejoice in it." 
 
44 
 
 haps, touching the change of the Sabbath, is con- 
 tained in the cxviii Ps. " The stone which the 
 builders refused, is become the headstone of the 
 corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is mar- 
 vellous in our eyes. This is the day which the 
 Lord hath made ; we will rejoice and be glad 
 in it" This passage is quoted and applied to 
 Christ, no less than six times, in the New Testa- 
 ment. That it refers to his resurrection and 
 exaltation no one can doubt. On what day then 
 did he rise from the dead ? On the first day of the 
 week. Does the psalmist refer to the very day of 
 his triumph, or to some other day? To that glori- 
 ous day most certainly. And what does he say 
 of it ? " This is the day which the Lord hath 
 made ; we ^vill rejoice and be glad in it." Here, 
 then, is a prediction that the day on which the 
 Redeemer rose from the dead, should be conse- 
 crated — should be a day of joy and gladness in 
 the church ; a day of holy commemoration, as it 
 hath been ever since, and we doubt not will be till 
 the second coming of Christ. And this is the 
 Christian Sabbath. 
 
 Thirdly ; Christ has left us his own example, 
 in favour of the change for which we contend. 
 Not a syllable is said, subsequently to his resur- 
 rection, about his keeping the Jewish ' Sabbath. 
 But he appeared to his disciples repeatedly, on the 
 very day that he rose, and he met them again the 
 njext first day of the week, when they were assem- 
 bled for worship, and said, "' Peace be unto youJ'^ 
 Now, why was this fact recorded, if it was not 
 that Christ intended to bequeath to the Church 
 
45 
 
 his own example for her imitation ? Surely, if as 
 Lord of the Sabbath day, he had meant to per- 
 petuate the seventh, instead of the first, he would 
 not have neglected tlie former, and put a special 
 honor upon the latter. 
 
 Fourthly ; The apostles, themselves, kept the 
 first day of the week, and the churches which 
 they planted were accustomed to assemble on 
 that day for public worship. Thus, in one of his 
 apostolic vjsits, Paul " came to Troas, where he 
 abode seven days. And, upon the first day of the 
 weeJi', when tlie disciples came together to break 
 bread, he preached unto tliem, ready to depart on 
 the morrow." To the church of Corinth, he gives 
 this charge: "As I have given order to the 
 churches of Galatia, so do ye. Upon the first 
 day of the week, let every one of you lay by him 
 in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be 
 iio gathering when I come." This plainly shows, 
 that the churches met regularly on the first day 
 of the week, and that in this they had the entire 
 sanction of their spiritual guides and teachers. 
 But who were these teachers ? Men whom Christ 
 had chosen for the express purpose of establishing 
 the Gospel Church on a right foundation ; and 
 who, in this most important matter, acted under 
 the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit. The 
 promise of the Saviour, before he left them, 
 was, " I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
 you another Comforter, that he may abide with 
 you for ever. And the Comforter, which is the 
 Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my 
 name, he shall teach you all things, and shall 
 
46 
 
 bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever 
 I have said unto you." 
 
 Now can any one believe, that these holy and 
 inspired men acted without authority; yea, that 
 they acted against the express authority of God, 
 in reference to the Sabbath ? But they observed 
 the first day of the week, and this became the es- 
 tablished usage of all the primitive churches. 
 The inference is irresistible. They acted by di- 
 vine authority; and their example is a full and 
 satisfactory warrant for keeping the first day of 
 the week, instead of the seventh. 
 
 Fifthly; God early consecrated the Christian 
 Sabbath, by a most remarkable outpouring of his 
 Spirit. We allude to the day of Pentecost, which 
 was the fiftieth day after the resurrection ; and, of 
 course, the Jirst day of the week, when the disci- 
 ples " were all, with one accOrd, in one place ;" 
 and the Holy Ghost descended upon them ; and, 
 the same day, three thousand were " added to 
 the Lord." What a glorious consecration of the 
 day, which was thenceforward to be devoted to 
 religious instruction and worship ! How honor- 
 able to the divine Saviour, who, on that day, seven 
 weeks before, rose from the dead, and finished 
 the work of redemption ! How rich in promise 
 to the churches and their ministers, who should 
 afterward, on the same day of the week, be, with 
 one accord, in one place, and devoutly engaged in 
 appropriate religious exercises ! 
 
 Sixthly ; We derive a strong argument in favor 
 of the change of the Sabbath, from a comparison 
 of the three following passages of Scripture :— 
 
47 
 
 Mat. xii. 8. '' For the son of man is Lord even of 
 the Sabbath day.'''' 1 Cor. xi. 20. " When we come 
 together, therefore, into one place, this is not to 
 eat the Lord^s supper." Rev. i. 10. " I was in the 
 Spirit on the hordes day." Now if Christ was 
 Lord of the Sabbath ; if the Sabbath was his day ; 
 and if the Lord's day was the first day of the 
 week ; then is the first day of the week the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. Again j if the sacramental supper 
 is called the Lord's supper, because he instituted 
 it, or because it was appointed to commemorate 
 his sufferings and death, then, doubtless, the first 
 day of the week is called the Lord's day, because 
 he instituted it, or because it was appointed to 
 commemorate his resurrection. 
 
 Seventhly ; That the Lord's day, the day of his 
 resurrection, was early regarded as holy time, 
 might be proved by innumerable quotations from 
 the writings of the apostolic fathers, and others 
 who succeeded them in the early ages of the 
 Christian church. 
 
 Thus, Ignatius, who survived the apostle John 
 but eight or ten years, says, " Let every one that 
 loves Christ, keep holy the Lord's day ; the queen 
 of days ; the resurrection day ; the highest of all 
 days." 
 
 Justin Martyr. — " On the day commonly called 
 Sunday, (by the brethren,) all meet together in 
 the city and country for divine worship." 
 
 " No sooner," says Dr. Cave, " was Constan- 
 tine come over to the church, but his principal 
 care was about the Lord's day ; he commanded it 
 to be solemnly observed, and that by all persons 
 
48 
 
 whatsoever ; he made it a day of rest, that men 
 might have nothing to do but to worship God, and 
 be better instructed in the Christian faith." 
 
 Theophihis, Bishop of Antioch. — " Both cus- 
 tom and reason challenge from us, that we should 
 honor the Lord's day, seeing on that day it was, 
 that our Lord Jesus Christ completed his resur- 
 rection from the dead." 
 
 Let one more quotation suffice. The Synod 'of 
 Laodicea adopted this canon: "that Christians 
 should not Judaize^ and rest from all labor on the 
 Sabbath, (i. e. the seventh day,) but follow their 
 ordinary work: and should not entertain such 
 thoughts of it, but that still they should prefer the 
 Lord's day, and on that day, rest as Christians." 
 
 Lastly ; God has most signally annexed his 
 blessing to the observance of the first day of the 
 week as the Christian Sabbath. This argument 
 is so forcibly presented by Dr. Dwight, that we 
 shall make no apology for copying the substance 
 of it into our pages. 
 
 " If this day be not divinely instituted, then God 
 has suffered his church to disuse and annihilate 
 his own institution, (the seventh day Sabbath,) 
 and substituted one of mere human device in its 
 stead. Nor is this all ; he has annexed the blessing 
 which he originally united to the Sabbath insti- 
 tuted by himself, to that which was the means of 
 destroying it, and which was established by hu- 
 man authority merely. Can any man believe, 
 that he would thus forsake his own institution, an 
 institution on which have depended in all lands, 
 and ages, the observation, influence, and existence 
 
49 
 
 of his holy law ? Can any man believe, that he 
 who so dreadfully punished Nadab and Abihu, for 
 forsaking his own institution in a case of far in- 
 ferior magnitude, and setting up one of their own 
 in. its stead, would not only not punish^ hut 
 abundantly and unceasingly bless the Christian 
 church, while perpetrating and persisting in ini- 
 quity of exactly the same nature, and far greater 
 degree ? Let it be remembered, that this great in- 
 novation, if it be an innovation, was begun by the 
 apostles, the chosen and inspired followers of 
 Chri!||, and the erectors of his kingdom in the 
 world. If they sinned, they sinned wilfully, and 
 in defiance of their inspirations. With them^ 
 however, the blessing began to be annexed to the 
 first day of the week, in a most wonderful and 
 glorious manner. From them, it has been unin- 
 terruptedly continued to the present time. To this 
 day, under God, mankind are indebted for all the 
 religion which has since been in the world. 
 
 " If then the Christian Sabbath is not a divine 
 institution, God has made a device of man a more 
 powerful support to his spiritual kingdom, than 
 most, perhaps than all others. His blessing has 
 been too evident, to admit of a doubt — too great 
 and too wonderful to be passed over in silence. 
 On this day, the perfections of God, manifested in 
 creation and redemption, have more than on all 
 others, been solemnly, gratefully, and joyfully re- 
 membered and celebrated. On this day, millions 
 of the human race have been born unto God. 
 From the word and ordinances of God, from the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit, from the presence of 
 
50 
 
 Christ in his churcli, Christians have derived, on 
 this day, more than all others, the most delightful 
 views of the divine character, clear apprehensions 
 of their own duty, lively devotion to the service 
 of God, strength to overcome temptations, and 
 glorious anticipations of immortality. Take this 
 day from tlie calendar of the Christian, and all 
 that remains will be cloudy and cheerless. Reli- 
 gion will instantly decay. Ignorance, error, and 
 / vice, will immediately triumph ; the sense of duty 
 vanish ; morals fade away ; the acknowledgment 
 and even the remembrance of God be far removed 
 from mankind ; the glad tidings of salvation cease 
 to sound ; and the communication between earth 
 and heaven be cut off for ever."* 
 
 QUESTION V. 
 
 How is the Sabbath to be kept, or sanctified ? 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 If God has required us to keep the Sabbath, he 
 has doubtless given us such directions in regard 
 to the manner of keeping it, that a sincere desire 
 to know and do our duty, will make the path en- 
 tirely plain before us. The proper place to look 
 for these directions, is in the statute itself; and 
 here they are very explicitly given. What duties 
 then does it enjoin? Whiit thoughts, words, jind 
 japtions does it forbid ? " Remember the Sabb^tli 
 
 * System of Theology, Ser. 106, 
 
51 
 
 day to keep it holy." This is the first section. 
 Now, to remember the Sabbath day, is to antici- 
 pate its approach — to think of it often, especially 
 towards the close of the week, and so to order our 
 secular affairs, that they may not intrench upon 
 the beginning of holy time. How many, alas, for" 
 get the Sabbath, and permit themselves to be over- 
 taken by it, on the road, in the field, in the shop^ 
 and in the counting-house. How many reme7?i- 
 her it, not to keep it holy, but to profane it — " by 
 doing their own work, thinking their own thoughts, 
 and finding their own pleasures !" 
 
 When we inquire how the Sabbath is to be kept 
 or sanctified, every thing depends upon the import 
 of the word holy. In turning over the sacred pages, 
 it will be found, that a great many things are de- 
 nominated holy, on account of their being conse- 
 crated to the service of God, or set apart exclu- 
 sively for religious purposes. Thus, to give a few 
 examples: the oil with which the tabernacle and 
 its furniture were anointed in the wilderness, was 
 Tioly oil. Ex. xxx. 25. The crown worn by the 
 high-priest when he officiated, was a holy crown. 
 Ex. xxix. 6. One tenth part of the annual pro* 
 duce of Canaan was holy. Lev. xxvii. 30. The 
 ark was a holy depository. 2 Chron. xxxv. 3. 
 The temple at Jerusalem was .a holy building, and 
 so were the vessels belonging to it holy. 1 Chron. 
 xxii. 19. and xxxix. 3. Now it is obvious, that the 
 holiness of the things above mentioned, consisted 
 in their being sanctified, or set apart from com- 
 mon uses, and employed exclusively in the service 
 of God. Thus we elsewhere read, I will sanctify 
 
52 
 
 the temple and the altar. All the firstling males 
 thou shalt sanctify. I have chosen and sanctified 
 this house in the temple. All the vessels have we 
 prepared and sanctified. The tabernacle, then, 
 was holy., because it v/as dedicated solely to the 
 worship of the one living and true God. The 
 tithes were ZioZy, because they were to be appro- 
 priated to the support of religion, and for no other 
 use. The temple was holy^ because it was dedi- 
 cated exclusively to the honor and worship of Je- 
 hovah. The vessels of the temple Avere holy., be- 
 cause they were devoted to religious uses, and 
 might on no account be put to any other use. The 
 first fruits were holy., for the same reason ; and 
 accordingly the people were expressly forbidden 
 to sell them. 
 
 Now it is evidently in the same sense, and for 
 the same reason, that tlie Sabbath is called holy. 
 It is because God himself sanctified it, or set it 
 apart, for a day of holy rest and religious worship. 
 As, therefore, it would have been a profanation of 
 the vessels of the temple to have put them to any 
 common use, so it is a profanation of the Sabbath, 
 to spend any part of it in those worldly employ- 
 ments and recreations, which are lawful on other 
 days. If we would keep the Sabbath holy, then, 
 we must set it apart as a day of holy rest — must 
 spend it in the public and private exercises of God's 
 worship ; not contenting ourselves with the forms 
 of religion ; not wasting any part of the sacred day 
 in sloth ; but employing the whole of it in those 
 duties which, through a divine blessing, prepare 
 the soul for heaven. It seems scarcely necessary 
 
53 
 
 to add, that the appropriate duties of holy lime are 
 religious meditation^ 'prayer^ self-examination^ 
 reading the Scriptures any other religious 
 books, attending public worship, pioiis conver- 
 sation, and the religious instruction of chil- 
 dren. On each of these interesting topics we 
 should be glad to enlarge, but our limits will not 
 permit. It follows as a necessary consequence, 
 from the preceding observations, that no part of 
 the Sabbath may be devoted to common secular 
 employments or recreations. For if the whole 
 day must be spent in religious duties, what por- 
 tion of it is, or can be, left for the indulgence of 
 worldly thoughts, or for any of the ordinary la- 
 bors and relaxations of human life ? This single 
 inference, which it appears to us, can neither be 
 fairly evaded nor resisted, overthrows, at once, most 
 of the pretences by which thousands strive to jus- 
 tify themselves, in habitual encroachments upon 
 those sacred hours which God emphatically calls 
 his own. 
 
 Since, however, the strict observance of the 
 Lord's day is of vital importance to religion, and 
 since so many are employed, either directly or in- 
 directly, in abolishing the sacred institution, it 
 seems necessary to subjoin a few additional re- 
 marks. The prohibitions of the Sabbatical law 
 are thus stated in a concise and admirable com- 
 pend, which is familiar to many of our readers. 
 " The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omis- 
 sion or careless performance of the duties re- 
 quired, and the profaning the day by idleness, or 
 doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unneces- 
 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 sary thoughts, words, or works, about worldly em- 
 ployments or recreations." The prohibition of 
 " unnecessary thoughts, words, or works," &c. is 
 the clause which now claims our particular atten- 
 tion. The correctness of this exposition, must 
 undoubtedly be tested by an appeal to the law 
 itself, and to such explanations of this law as may 
 be found elsewhere in the Scriptures. 
 
 The prohibitory clause of the law, as every 
 child ought to know, is in these words. But the 
 seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; 
 in it thou shalt not do any ivork, thou, nor thy 
 son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy 
 maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger 
 that is within thy gates. God has said in the 
 preceding clause, six days shalt thou labor, and 
 do all thy work. Men are here required to do, 
 not the greatest part, but all their work in six 
 days. There is no proviso to accommodate the 
 idle, the busy, or the feeble. Every one must ad- 
 mit, that the form of expression amounts to a po- 
 sitive prohibition ; for who that must do all his 
 work in six days, can be allowed to labor on the 
 seventh ? But God saw fit to make the prohibition 
 doubly strong, by adding. In it thou shalt not do 
 ANY work. Surely no man after reading this could 
 think of attending to secular affairs on tjie Sab- 
 bath, till he had made up his mind to set the au- 
 thority of the Most High at defiance. But a de- 
 praved heart, always fertile in evasions, might 
 have suggested, that children, servants, and cattle, 
 are not included, had not the labor of sons and 
 
55 
 
 daughters, of servants, and cattle, and strangers, 
 been strictly forbidden. 
 
 In the first place, then, neither heads of families, 
 nor others who act for themselves, may do any 
 work upon the Lord's day. We may, and ought, 
 to be diligent in our respective callings. Idleness 
 is a great sin ; but we may not take God's 
 time for doing our work. He has given us six 
 days out of seven, Avhich, when rightly used, are 
 quite sufficient for our secular employments. We 
 may not encroach upon the Sabbath. It is holy 
 time. If we have been idle or dilatory, we must 
 bear the loss. If we have undertaken more than 
 we can do in one week, we must defer a part to 
 the next. If we have been sick, or providentially 
 called away from business, we must never attempt 
 to redeem the time, by breaking God's lavi'', but 
 trust in his bounty for the supply of our wants. 
 
 Secondly ; We may neither require, not permit 
 our children or servants to labor on the Lord's 
 day. We may not require it. If they have been 
 faithful six days, it is cruelty to deprive them of 
 rest and religious privileges on the seventh. And 
 whether they have been faithful or not, we have 
 no right to command them to violate the Sabbath. 
 In saying, they shall not do any work, God 
 has precluded the exercise of that authority, 
 which he permits and requires us to exercise on 
 other days. The parent or master, who commands 
 what God forbids, does it at his peril. As we 
 may not require, so neither may we permit our 
 children and domestics to work on the Sabbath. 
 God has made us, in this particular, answerable 
 
56 
 
 for their conduct. Let us not forget the woes 
 which were denounced and executed upon the 
 house of Eh, because his sons " made themselves 
 vile, and he restrained them not." As parents, 
 guardians, or masters, we are placed in God's 
 stead ; and are as much bound to restrain oui 
 children from what the divine la.\Y forbids, as to 
 enforce their obedience to what it requires. 
 
 We cannot dismiss this topic, without remind 
 ing unfaithful parents, if this page should evei 
 meet the eyes of such, what a fearful account they 
 will have to render at the last day. Let those 
 especially, who profane the Sabbath themselves — 
 who go with their sons into the field of labour, or 
 who send them out alone — remember, that God 
 will vindicate the honor of his sacred institutions, 
 by pouring indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
 anguish, upon such daring transgressors. 
 
 Again ; the law of the Sabbath goes further. 
 It is merciful to beasts, as well as men. It stands 
 a strong and sacred barrier, for the protection of 
 those animals, which God has, under important 
 limitations, subjected to our authority. We have 
 an undoubted right to employ our horses and 
 cattle in moderate labour, on week days; but 
 when the Sabbath comes, this right is suspended. 
 The command is positive, that they shall not do 
 any work. We may neither subject them to 
 labor in our own business, nor let them out to 
 ^others. The latter mode of employing them, is 
 even worse than the former; because in nine 
 instances out of ten, men will drive a hired horse 
 harder than they would one of their own. How 
 
57 
 
 then will those impious contemners of God's law, 
 who keep horses and carriages, and let them more 
 on the Lord's day than any other, answer for their 
 conduct? What a tremendous responsibility are the 
 proprietors of stages incurring, throughout the 
 United States ; and what an amazing aggregate of 
 guilt is contracted by thousands of others, who 
 compel their teams to labor on the Sabbath ! 
 
 Again ; the prohibitory clause of the law now 
 under consideration, includes strangers, as well 
 as our own families. Tlie phrase, within thy 
 gates, evidently means, iDithin the limits of thy 
 control, or rightful avthority. Thus, when a 
 stranger entered the house of an Israelite, he was, 
 during his stay, v/ithin the owner's gates, and 
 subject to the rules of his family. Thus, also, 
 every stranger who might happen to be found, 
 on the Sabbath, any where within the territo- 
 rial limits of Israel, was within their gates, and 
 therefore might not do any work. In like man- 
 ner, all strangers passing through the places 
 where we dwell, or coming to reside amongst us, 
 are within our gates, as well as those whom we 
 receive into our houses. 
 
 In this view, the law of the Sabbath imposes 
 certain duties, both on magistrates and heads of 
 families. First, on magistrates. We are not 
 ignorant, that faithful public officers are often 
 censured for presuming to interfere with men, 
 who, it is said, are going peaceably about their 
 own business. But this censure, let it be remem- 
 bered, falls upon the Divine Lawgiver himself. 
 He has said, that the stranger, as well as the citi- 
 
zen, shall not do any ivork. The stranger, there^ 
 fore, not only may^ but, according to the divine 
 law, mus^t be required to rest. 
 
 Secondly ; as heads of families, we are in no 
 small degree made answerable for the conduct of 
 all who may spend the Sabbath within our gates. 
 The same authority, which enjoins upon us the 
 oversight and control of our children and domes- 
 tics, make us, for the time being, keepers of all 
 other persons who may choose to abide under 
 our roofs. No relaxation, in favor of the friend, 
 the boarder, or the passing stranger, is admissible. 
 Should any be so lost to decorum, as well as to the 
 fear of God, as to insist on doing their own work, 
 and finding their own pleasures on the Sabbath, 
 they must be dismissed. Not even the nearest 
 relation may be permitted to remain with us, and 
 violate the sacred rest. We must obey God, how- 
 ever much it may displease men. We must vin- 
 dicate the honor of our Master, at least in our 
 own houses. If we love father or mother more 
 than Christ, we cannot be his disciples. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Such is the plain letter of the law. And do 
 the sacred writers elsewhere give it a more liberal 
 construction than the face of the statute itself 
 seems to authorize ? If not, then wo be to him, 
 who shall attempt to explain it away, or to weaken 
 its hold upon the consciences of men. If the 
 Lawgiver has himself seen fit to specify excep- 
 tions and limitations, either in the Old Testament 
 
69 
 
 or the New, then the law must be construed ac- 
 cordingly. Whatever the Scriptures authorize, 
 upon a full and fair investigation and comparison, 
 Ave may do ; but we may not frame exceptions for 
 ourselves. If we might make o?ie, to suit our 
 convenience, by the same rule, or rather without 
 any rule at all, we might make one hundred — we 
 might explain the law of the Sabbath entirely 
 away. 
 
 To the law and the testimony^ then, let us ap- 
 peal J solemnly remembering, that we may not go 
 beyond the word of the Lord, to do less or more. 
 
 Beginning with the Old Testament we should 
 be glad could our limits permit, to quote every 
 passage which has any bearing upon the question j 
 but if we can present the tenor and spirit of the 
 law, in two or three prominent passages, we trust 
 every candid mind will be satisfied. Turning to 
 the sixteenth of Exodus, we find that the Israelites, 
 of their own accord, gathered twice as much 
 mani)a on the sixth day, as they had on any pre- 
 ceding day. Moses approved of this step, and 
 directed the people to lay by a part of the double 
 allowance for the Sabbath, when none should 
 be found in the field. Some, however, went out as 
 at other times. And the Lord said unto Moses, 
 How long refuse ye to keep my commandments, 
 and my laws 7 See, for that the Lord hath 
 given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you 
 on the sixth day the bread of two days ; abide 
 ye every man in his place, let no man go out of 
 his place on the seventh day. We find no license 
 bgre, for any kind of labor. The Israelites might 
 
60 
 
 not so much as go out, to gather their daily portion 
 of food. It must be brought in the preceding day. 
 
 We need only refer, as we proceed, to Ex. xxxi. 
 12—18. and also to xxxiv. 25. as neither of these 
 passages at all abates the strictness of the sacred 
 institution, as explained in the decalogue. The 
 same remark will apply to Nehemiah xiii. 15 — 23. 
 The reader is requested to examine these referen- 
 ces at his leisure. Exactly in the spirit of the 
 fourth commandment, is the following promise to 
 Israel by the mouth of Isaiah. "If thou turn 
 away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy 
 pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a 
 delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable ; and 
 shalt honor him, not doing thine own M^ays, nor 
 finding thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine 
 own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in the 
 Lord : and I Avill cause thee to ride upon the high 
 places of the earth ; and feed thee with the heri- 
 tage of Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the Lord 
 hath spoken it." Surely there is nothing here, to 
 justify a more liberal construction of the law than 
 that which we have given above, and this we take 
 to be the language of Moses and the Prophets 
 throughout. 
 
 Let us then turn to the New Testament. In 
 what light did the great Lord of the Sabbath re- 
 gard the sacred institution? This will appear, from 
 the following incidents in the history of his life. 
 Going into a synagogue, as his custom was, on the 
 Sabbath day, he found there a woman, who had 
 been grievously afflicted with disease for the space 
 of eighteen years, and he healed her. Wherefore 
 
61 
 
 the ruler of the synagogue thus indignantly rebuk- 
 ed the people : — There are six days in which men 
 ought to work : in thetn, therefore, come and he 
 healed^ and not on the Sabbath day. Our Lord 
 knowing that this rebuke was intended for him, 
 answered, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of 
 you on the Sabbath day, loose his ox or his ass 
 from the stall, and lead him away to icatering ; 
 and ought not this woman, being a daughter of 
 Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these 
 eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the 
 Sabbath day? — And all his adversaries were 
 ashamed. 
 
 On another occasion, we read that Jesus went 
 on the Sabbath day through the corn, and his 
 disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck 
 the ears of corn and to eat. Some of the Pha- 
 risees happening to be present, charged them with 
 breaking the Sabbath ; but our Lord fully justifies 
 his disciples, on the ground of present neces- 
 sity. Probably their little store of provisions was 
 exhausted, and they had no other means of allay- 
 ing the cravings of hunger. Under these circum- 
 stances, they might lawfully do, what would have 
 been unlawful, had they not been in distress. 
 " If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have 
 MERCY, and not sacrifice ye would not have 
 condemned the guiltless?'^ The same day, our 
 Lord found in the synagogue, a man whose hand 
 was withered. The Jews, in their usual captious 
 style, asked him. Is it lawful to heal on the Sab- 
 bath day % And he said unto them, what man 
 shall there be among you^ that shall have one 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 sheepj and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath 
 day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? 
 How much, then, is a man better than a sheep 7 
 Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sab- 
 bath days. 
 
 These quotations, it is believed, contain all the 
 expositions, which our Lord thought proper to 
 give of the fourth commandment ; and let it be 
 noted and remembered, that they are works of 
 mercy only, which he justifies on the Sabbath. It 
 was to relieve the ox, or the sheep, from present 
 suffering, that he might be pulled out of a pit, or 
 led away to watering. It was to deliver men and 
 women from present distress, that Christ healed 
 them on the Sabbath. It was because the disci- 
 ples were then hungry, that he excused them, for 
 plucking and rubbing a few ears of grain, as they 
 passed through a field, on their way (it would 
 seem) to public worship. Neither the precepts, 
 nor the example of Christ, can be pleaded, to 
 sanction works of any other character, than such 
 as have been mentioned. 
 
 The preceding observations will, if we mistake 
 not, help the reader to understand and limit the 
 word necessity, as it is used in a very brief, but 
 able commentary on the ten commandments. 
 " The Sabbath is to be sanctified, by an holy 
 resting all that day, from such worldly employ- 
 ments and recreations as are lawful on other 
 days, and spending the whole time in public and 
 private exercises of God's worship, except so 
 much as is to be taken up in works of necessity 
 and mercy?^ We are persuaded that the wor4 
 
63 
 
 necessity here has in a thousand instances been so 
 defined, as to cover real, not to say palpable vio- 
 lations of the fourth commandment. For how 
 easily do men persuade themselves that whatever^ 
 their interest seems to require, is a work of ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 Thus, one man gathers his wheat on the Sab- 
 bath, as a work of necessity ; another carts his 
 hay ; a third posts his books ; a fourth pursues his 
 journey j a fifth spends the day in writing letters 
 of business ; a sixth loads and sends out his ship. 
 Now, the Westminster Assembly of divines cer- 
 tainly cannot be held answerable for all the mis- 
 constructions which may possibly be put upon 
 their language. It would be most unreasonable 
 to demand of them, to guard effectually against all 
 such abuses. The imperfections of human lan- 
 guage will always afford ample scope for colour- 
 ing and perversion. But the word necessity is 
 nowhere used by the sacred penman to designate 
 any thing that is lawful to be done on the Sabbath, 
 and as it is liable to the greatest abuses, we have 
 sometimes wished that it had never been sanction- 
 ed by such venerable authority. 
 
 Since, however, it has been adopted by most 
 theological writers, it becomes extremely impor- 
 tant to ascertain in what scriptural sense any work 
 can be necessary "on the Lord's day. Feeding 
 and watering cattle may, doubtless, in one sense, 
 be called necessary ; because food and water are 
 essential to the comfort of beasts, as well as men. 
 In a strong and universal sense, food is absolutely 
 necessary to sustain human life ; no one can long 
 
64 
 
 subsist without it. In a more limited sense, it is 
 necessary every day ; because we cannot, in ordi- 
 nary circumstances, be comfortable a single day 
 without it. In this latter sense, it was doubtless 
 necessary for the disciples to pluck the ears of 
 corn. They were hungry, and food of some kind 
 was necessary, to abate the cravings of nature. 
 But in appealing to our Lord's indulgence here, 
 we should take care never to plead necessity, 
 where the cases are dissimilar. We may not 
 give a wider or more liberal construction to the 
 fourth commandment, than Christ has given. 
 Such explanations as were necessary, he gave, but 
 in all other respects, left the law as he found it. 
 
 We believe the scriptures do not authorize any 
 works, as works of necessity, on the Sabbath, 
 which are not, at the same time, works of charity 
 or mercy. Nor are all works of charity and 
 mercy allowable. Those, and only those, may 
 engage our attention on the Lord's da}'', which 
 we had no opportimity of doing before, and which 
 cannot, consistently with mercy and benevolence, 
 be postponed till the end of the Sabbath. Necessa- 
 ry works of mercy, would therefore, as it appears 
 to us, be more definite, less liable to abuse, and in 
 fact more correct, than works of necessity and 
 mercy. This would leave us, as the Scriptures 
 do, at full liberty to partake temperately of the 
 bounties of providence ; to feed the hungry ; to 
 take care of the sick, and to attend to the suffer- 
 ings and wants of domestic animals; while, on the 
 other hand, it would take away the plea of neces- 
 sity, from those who now gravely bring it forward, 
 
(55 
 
 to justify thoughts and conversation, and labors 
 and journies and recreations, which are prompted 
 by avarice instead of benevolence ; by the lust of 
 the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
 life, instead of mercy. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 When the discussion of any important subject 
 results in the firm establishment of a general prin- 
 ciple, it is an extremely convenient method of 
 evading its application, to remark coolly, that every 
 general rule has its exceptions. By a free and 
 dexterous use of this trite expedient, men contrive 
 to justify themselves in various practices, which 
 are contrary, alike to the letter and spirit of the 
 divine law. On no subject, perhapsj is this per- 
 verse ingenuity more frequently employed, than 
 upon the prohibitions of the fourth commandment. 
 The prevailing belief is, that the Sabbath is an 
 ordinance of God, and that as a general rule, 
 Avorldly employments and recreations on that day 
 are sinful. But then, three persons out of four 
 have their exceptions always ready, and before 
 one half of these exceptions are enumerated, the 
 rule itself is virtually destroyed. It seems import- 
 ant, therefore, to examine some of the excuses 
 which thousands urge for doing their own work, 
 and finding their own pleasures, upon the Lord's 
 day. It is said. 
 
 In the first place, that manual labor in the field, 
 is sometimes warranted by the most urgent ne- 
 cessity, and therefore cannot be a violation of the 
 
 6* 
 
66 
 
 divine law. This is a favorite position with many, 
 whose conduct is in the main correct : and they 
 seem to think it impregnable. Let us try this 
 question of necessity, however, by putting an ex- 
 treme case. " I am very poor, my family is large 
 and entirely dependent on my earnhigs for sub- 
 sistence. This year, for the first time, I have a 
 small field of wheat, which is ready for the sickle. 
 But by reason of continued rains, it begins to 
 sprout in tlie ear. The first fair day is the Sab- 
 bath. Should I wait till Monday, it will probably 
 rain again and wholly ruin the crop ; in which 
 case, my children will be Avithout bread. — Now 
 what is duty ? Shall I let the golden opportunity 
 pass unimproved, or shall I go into the field and 
 secure what a bountiful God has given me ?" 
 
 In examining this case of supposed necessity, 
 the reader will perceive at a single glance, that it 
 does not come within the rule which we have en- 
 deavoured to establish. It will not compare with 
 the case of pulling an animal out of the pit ; of 
 leading him away to watering ; of healing the 
 sick ; or of the disciples plucking the ears of corn. 
 If this poor man goes into his wheat field to labor 
 upon the Lord's day, it is not to satisfy present 
 hunger ; it is not to alleviate distress which he 
 or his family feels at the time, but to provide 
 against future want. This ought, in our appre- 
 hension, to settle the question; for what right has 
 either a poor or a rich man to do a thing, for 
 which he can find no warrant of precept or exam- 
 ple in the Scriptures ? God foresaw from the be- 
 ginning all the circumstances of such extreme 
 
67 
 
 cases as tliat which we have supposed, and would 
 no doubt have provided for thf m in the law, had 
 he meant to make them exceptions to the general 
 prohibition, " thou shall not do any work." 
 
 Now the question is, has he made any such 
 proviso ? Has he said, in harvest time thou mayest 
 work? No, but directly the reverse. See Exod. 
 xxxiv. 21. Six days thou shalt work, but on the 
 seventh day thou shalt rest; in earing time and 
 in harvest thou shalt rest. — Why this emphatical 
 and peremptory specification 1 The reason is ob- 
 vious. It was to guard against that very con- 
 struction of the law, which is pleaded for in the 
 case now under consideration. God knew that 
 the Israelites would be strongly tempted to labor 
 on the Sabbath, just as men now are, in the time 
 of ingathering. • He therefore expressly required 
 them to rest as at other times, without making one 
 proviso for unfavorable seasons, or the least ex- 
 ception in favor of the poor. 
 
 Were the Israelites, then, to construe the com- 
 mand literally in this respect, and are we autho- 
 rized to give it a different construction'? Certainly 
 not. W^e cannot urge a single argument in favor 
 of laboring on the Sabbath, which they might not 
 have urged with equal plausibility. The law 
 which forbade tliein, has never been repealed. It 
 is therefore as obligatory upon ifs as it was on 
 them. This view of the subject appears to be de- 
 cisive. The poor man in the case supposed, must 
 not labor in his wheat field on the Lord's day. 
 
 But it may be useful to examine the case a little 
 more minutely. The objector begins by alleging 
 
68 
 
 his poverty as an excuse. This implies that if he 
 were rich, he would think himself bound to rest, 
 and to run the venture of losing the crop. Is 
 there then one moral law for the rich, and another 
 for the poor ? Let him turn over every page — let 
 him read every verse of his Bible, and see if he 
 can find any thing like it. In what book or chap- 
 ter can he find, " Thus saith the Lord, though the 
 rich may not work on the Sabbath, the poor in 
 certain circumstances may ?" We know it may 
 be said, the poor man who works, has a better ex- 
 cuse for so doing than his rich neighbor. But 
 what does this prove ? Certainly not that he is 
 blameless, though he may be less criminal. 
 
 If the objector can find nothing in Scripture to 
 support his plea, but is obliged after all to rest it 
 upon his poverty, let him consider where this will 
 lead him. If he may violate one command of 
 God, because he is poor, why not another? If 
 the fourth, why not the eighth ? If he may labor 
 when God says. Thou shall do no work, and 
 plead poverty as an excuse ; why not take the 
 property of another, when God says, Thou shall 
 not steal, and justify himself by the same excuse 1 
 Indeed, where will he stop? If he makes exceptions 
 to one command of the decalogue without autho- 
 rity, why not to all the rest, whenever it may suit 
 hJs convenience ! And if he may, why may not 
 every other poor man in the world? And then 
 what becomes of God's law ? 
 
 Further : ' f the poor man who has a small field of 
 wheat, m:.^ labor on the Sabbath to secure it, what 
 Bkall we say of the thousands who have no crop 
 
69 
 
 at all? Surely if it be necessary for him to lay 
 up his grain for future use, it is quite as necessary 
 for them to earn something for future support. 
 If he may work because he has a crop, much 
 more may they because they have none. If it 
 be right for him to earn ten dollars, by gathering 
 his wheat, it cannot be wrong for his poorer neigh- 
 bor to earn one dollar, by laboring in the same 
 field for hire. If then the plea of poverty, which 
 we are considering, be valid j if a man may work 
 on the Lord's day because he has but a little 
 grain and his family will want it ; then every 
 poor man in the country may work on the Sab- 
 bath, to earn something for his destitute family, 
 especially in time of harvest. Nay, more ; all the 
 poor who live by their daily earnings, and find 
 that they cannot obtain a satisfactory support in 
 six days, may plead necessity, for laboring every 
 Lord's day in the year ; — unless, indeed, that com- 
 fortable kind of poverty, which leaves a man 
 something to reap, is more urgent (we might say 
 more lawless) than absolute want. Admit the 
 validity of the plea which we have been consider- 
 ing, and abide by the consequences, and there is 
 an end of the Sabbath. 
 
 But the man who gathers his wheat in the case 
 supposed, rests his defence partly on other 
 grounds. He tells us that it begins to sprout in 
 the ear or in the swath already. The first fair 
 day is the Sabbath. It may rain again on Monday 
 and wholly ruhi the crop, in which case his chil- 
 dren will have to go without bread. A bountiful 
 God, he says, has blessed him with this crop, and 
 
70 
 
 he asks ratlier triumphantly, "What Is to be done 1 
 t intended to gather it before, but the weather 
 would not permit. Shall I lose all rather than 
 work a little, for once, upon the Lord's day ? 
 Surely God never intended, that the law should 
 be so strictly construed." 
 
 Now let all that is here advanced, be candidly 
 considered. Suppose it should rain on the fol- 
 lowing Monday, and continue to rain till the 
 crop is totally lost. "What would that prove ? 
 That the proprietor ought to have secured it on 
 the Sabbath ? Nothing like it. To the law and the 
 testimony we appeal, and we are sure no justifica- 
 tion of labor can be found there. But his family 
 will suffer, it is said, by his neglect. How does 
 he know that ? The Scriptures assure us, that in 
 keeping" Gocfs commandments there is great 
 feward. I have, says the Psalmist, / have been 
 young and now am old ; yet have I not seen the 
 righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging 
 bread. If God takes away what he seemed about 
 to give, or which is the same thing, if he brings a 
 field of grain to maturity, and affords no oppor- 
 tunity to gather it without violating his law, he 
 has wise and good reasons for disappointing the 
 expectations of the proprietor. And who does not 
 know, that he can, if he pleases, more than make 
 up the loss in some other way ? Can we be hap- 
 py—can we obtain any good thing, without the 
 blessing of God ? And is the blessing to be se- 
 cured by breaking his commandments : by work- 
 ing when he says we shall not ? How easily, 
 when we seem to suffer loss by our obedience, can 
 
71 
 
 he open sources of gain which we never thought 
 of? With what perfect ease on the other hand, 
 can he blast our hopes, and mar our comforts, 
 when we attempt to benefit ourselves by an in- 
 fraction of his holy law? But "God has given me 
 a crop, and this is a plain indication that I should 
 gather it ; — on week days if I can ; on the Sab- 
 bath if I must. He surely cannot, after bringing 
 it to perfection, intend that it shall be lost." 
 We answer, how do you know that ? Suppose he 
 should put it out of your power to gather it ? 
 This certainly would be no uncommon event. 
 Hundreds of acres are destroyed every year 
 by winds and hail. Great quantities are swept 
 off by sudden inundations. And not a little 
 is consumed in the barn by lightning. It is not 
 true, therefore, that God always intends to ha^ e 
 the precious grain secured and enjoyed, when he 
 has caused it to grow and ripen to the harvest. 
 How, then, can you know w^hat may be his will 
 in regard to yours ? If he preserves it from the 
 destructive power of the elements, and enables 
 you to secure it, without violating his law, then it 
 becomes your duty to secure it. If not, your duty 
 is to acquiesce cheerfully in the loss. 
 
 The reader will observe, that we have thus far 
 ■proceeded on the supposition, that work must be 
 done upon the Sabbath, or the field of wheat will 
 certainly be lost : and we do most strenuously in- 
 sist, that even this supposition furnishes no suffi- 
 cient excuse for encroaching upon the sacred rest. 
 But our main argument may be placed on iDiich 
 stronger ground. How does the proprietor know, 
 
n 
 
 that by leaving his grain one day longer in the 
 field, he should lose it ? We have it from the best 
 
 authority, that in one part of the town of B , 
 
 a considerable number of farmers, a few years 
 ago, took up and carted in their grain upon the 
 Sabbath. The next year, just before harvest, 
 their crops were destroyed by a hail storm, the 
 ravages of which were mostly confined to that 
 neighborhood ! But we do not remember a soli- 
 tary instance, nor after much inquiry have we 
 been able to find one, in which a field of grain has 
 been lost, by its not being attended to on the Sab- 
 bath. In some instances, it may have been in- 
 jured, so as not to make quite so good bread ; but 
 who that thinks and acts rationally, would not 
 prefer poor bread, with the divine blessing, to the 
 most costly dainties, with the curses denounced 
 against Sabbath breakers resting on his head ? 
 
 Still, however, the plea is urged, that it has 
 rained all the week, and may rain again on Mon- 
 day, and then my crop will be nearly ruined. 
 We answer, it may not rain on Monday, and then 
 your crop will be much better fitted for the barn 
 or the stack, than it can be on the Sabbath. Very 
 rarely, indeed, is even a slight loss incurred, by 
 abstaining from labor ; — not so often, it is presum- 
 ed, as by performing it. On this point, we will 
 state two facts, one of which came under our own 
 observation, and the other is fresh in the memory 
 of many. The facts are similar. In both cases, 
 there had been a long rain in the midst of harvest. 
 In both, the first fair day was the Lord's day. In 
 both, much grain lay in the swath. In both 
 
78 
 
 some people went into their fields ; while others 
 repaired to the house of God. The Sabbath 
 passed away ; Monday came, and it did not rain. 
 Those who had trusted Providence, and spent the 
 preceding day in the service of God, went out, 
 invigorated by rest, and returned with joy ^ bring- 
 ing their sheaves with them : while those who 
 would not trust their Maker, but spent his holy 
 day in doing their own work, soon found, to their 
 cost, that they had hurried their grain in before it 
 wgjS dry, and that so far from saving any thing, 
 they incurred much additional labor and expense ! 
 These facts need no comment. They speak for 
 themselves, and the lesson which they teach, can- 
 not, one would think, be easily misunderstood. 
 
 Thus have we gone through with the plea which 
 we proposed to examine ; and, unless we greatly 
 mistake, the result of the investigation is, that 
 even in the extreme case supposed — manual labor 
 in the field on the Lord's day, is both unprofitable 
 and sinful. We will not consume time in prov-. 
 ing, what must be so obvious, that if the plea 
 wholly fails in an extreme case, it must, of 
 course, fail in all other cases, where the alleged 
 necessity is less urgent. It cannot be necessary 
 to prove, that if the poor man may not gather his 
 little harvest on the Sabbath, the rich man may 
 not gather his great harvest — nor that if grain 
 may not be secured on that holy day, hay may 
 not — nor, finally, that if manual labor, on the 
 Lord's day, is sinful in time of harvest, it is sinful 
 Jit all times. 
 
 It will not be denied, that a subject of such 
 
 7 
 
high and solemn moment as this, demands the se- 
 rious consideration of every person in the com- 
 munity. If the reasoning and conclusions on 
 which we have relied in the preceding pages, be 
 correct, then it is certain, that a tremendous load 
 of guilt, incurred by profaning the Sabbath, lies 
 on our country. For it is a mournful fact, that 
 multitudes have, of late years, done their own 
 work, in what they have been pleased to call 
 cases of necessity, on the Lord's day. It is high 
 time to break off from this sin, by righteousness ; 
 to repent, and do so no more. Let all those who 
 have quieted their consciences, by such pleas and 
 excuses as have been stated and examined in this 
 section, give the whole subject a thorough inves- 
 tigation, and beware that they do not rest on 
 ground which will utterly fail them in the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 Let professors of religion especially, walk in 
 the straight and safe path of revealed truth. How 
 deeply have some such wounded the feelings of 
 their brethren ; what a reproach have they brought 
 upon their profession in the eyes of the world, 
 and how highly have they provoked the great 
 Lord of the Sabbath, by laboring on that holy day, 
 in wilful violation of his command ! 
 
 If it were a very doubtful question, it would be 
 their plain duty to abstain, in all cases; for they 
 are required to avoid even the appearance of evil. 
 How much more imperious, then, is the duty, 
 when the practice is plainly contrary to one of the 
 express commands of Heaven. 
 
 But here, certain extreme cases are supposed, 
 
75 
 
 sometimes honestly, and sometimes captiously, 
 which deserve a moment's consideration: — such 
 as the following : " If my house takes fire on the 
 Sabbath, shall I not extinguish it ? If a sudden 
 inundation threatens to sweep away my hay, or 
 grain, shall 1 not try to secure it ? or to under- 
 mine my dwelling, shall I not endeavor to pre- 
 vent it ? AVhen a ship is wrecked in a storm, on 
 the Sabbath, shall nothing be done to save the 
 cargo? Or, shall no breast- work be thrown up 
 to repel the attacks of an enemy ? And if it is 
 lawful to do these things on the Sabbath, where 
 shall we stop and draw a line, beyond which it 
 would be criminal to go ? If we may labor to save 
 our property from the ravages of fire and floods, 
 why not, also, to save it from the destructive 
 effects of long-continued dampness, or drenching 
 rains, in time of hay-making and harvest ?" 
 
 To all such questions, we give this answer, ^n 
 asking them, you are either sincere, or your object 
 is to justify your own secular appropriations of 
 holy time. If you are sincere ; if these extreme 
 cases embarrass you ; if you honestly wish to 
 know what you may, and what you may not 
 do on the Sabbath, a little reflection must be suf- 
 ficient to convince you, that there is a wide dif- 
 ference between secular labor — such as going 
 out to reap your harvest, or make your hay ; and 
 those sudden efforts which are sometimes demand- 
 ed, by the breaking out of fire, or water j but 
 which you, perhaps, may never be called to make 
 once in your lives. Besides, in common parlance, 
 the former is doing work, and the latter is not. 
 
76 
 
 To stop where such a manifest difference exists, is 
 easy ; but if you once pass these bounds, you will 
 find it extremely difficult to stop any where ; so 
 great will often be the apparent urgency of every 
 kind of manual labor. This is our answer, to all 
 those who wish to know their duty, and to be 
 governed by the spirit of the divine law. 
 
 But if your object in putting such extreme cases 
 is, to prepare the way for the sweeping inference, 
 that whenever any thing which is exposed to loss 
 or injury, can be saved by laboring on the Sab- 
 bath, it is right to work, we have little hope of 
 convincing you, that the inference is unauthorized. 
 For, in the first place ; human judgment is so 
 much under the control of inclination, that men 
 generally believe what they ardently wish to have 
 true. And, in the second place ; when they are 
 anxious to free themselves from the restraints of 
 any divine statute, God often gives them up to 
 judicial blindness, that " they may eat the fruit of 
 their own way, and be filled with their own de- 
 vices." "If any man will do his will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine ;" but if not, how can he ex- 
 pect to know ? 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 The prohibitory clause of the fourth command- 
 ment, undoubtedly forbids ^ratJcZz"/?^ on the Lord's 
 day, either for the sake of gain or pleasure. We 
 have no more right to find our pleasures on the 
 public road, than in a private house, or on a pub- 
 lic green. If we seek them any where, the holy 
 
77 
 
 day is profaned. And, if it be a violation of God's 
 law to labor in the field for money, or for bread, 
 surely traveling for similar objects, cannot be jus- 
 tified. Secular business does not change its nature, 
 from any mere change of circumstances. To 
 condemn the farmer, who ploughs and sows on 
 the Lord's day, and, at the same time, to excuse 
 the merchant, who continues his secular business, 
 would be manifestly absurd. " God is no respecter 
 of persons." 
 
 But there are certain popular arguments and 
 excuses, which ought to be weighed in the ba- 
 lances of the sanctuary, v/hile we are upon this 
 part of the subject. The merchant, for example, 
 after eulogising the Sabbath as an eminently use- 
 ful and important institution, reasons in this man- 
 ner : — " My ship has just arrived in a distant port, 
 and I must be there to receive and dispose of the 
 cargo, as soon as possible. Or, the times are cri- 
 tical, and if I do not make the most of every day, 
 I shall be ruined. Or, the markets are so extreme- 
 ly fluctuating, and so much depends upon seizing 
 the favorable moment for buying and selling, that 
 the Sabbath cannot always be punctiliously ob- 
 served, without incurring heavy losses. Or, I have 
 heard that a debtor is in failing circumstances, 
 and he must be brought to a settlement with the 
 least possible delay." 
 
 But what, we ask, do these similar excuses 
 amount to ? Just this, and no more : — a strict re- 
 gard to the law of God may, in some extraordi- 
 nary cases, be prejudicial to a man's "wealth 
 and outward estate." Be it so, and what then ? 
 
78 
 
 Is it right, can it be safe, to trample on a divine 
 institution for the sake of gain ? Why should men 
 plunge so deeply into business, that they must 
 either encroach upon holy time, or lose their pro- 
 perty? To create such a necessity for traveling 
 on the Lord's day, and then frame that necessity 
 into an excuse, is ingenious enough, to be sure ; 
 but then it is robbing God. It can be regarded in 
 no better light, than as a daring expedient to bring 
 down his immutable law to the low and fluctu- 
 ating standard of human convenience or avarice. 
 And is the law to be thus bartered away for a little 
 temporary gain, which, when secured, " drowns 
 many thousands in destruction and perdition ?" 
 
 If a man in great and prosperous business, may 
 plead the urgency of it as an excuse for traveling, 
 why may not every other man in business plead 
 for the same indulgence? If one man, who is now 
 worth half a million, or only fifty thousand dol- 
 lars, may pursue his journey on the Sabbath, to 
 add some thousands more to his fortune, why 
 may not the small dealer do the same to add fifties, 
 or tens ? And how much more should a very poor 
 man be excused, when he has a prospect of gain- 
 ing a pittance by the journey. 
 
 " Yes, I admit the force of your reasoning," 
 says one, — " this traveling for lucre 6n the Sab- 
 bath, will never do. But mine is a different case. 
 I am returning from a long journey, and on Sa- 
 turday night, I find myself twenty miles from 
 home. Surely there can be no harm in riding that 
 distance in the morning, especially as I am nearly 
 out of money." But is your desire to reach home, 
 
79 
 
 a sufficient reason for breaking the Sabbath ? Who 
 would not rather wait a day longer, than by has- 
 tening home, incur the displeasure of the Almighty ! 
 As for the excuse, I have not money enough to en- 
 able me to lie by on the Sabbath, be assured it 
 will cost you more, in the long run, to travel than 
 to rest. If you cannot afford to keep God's Sab- 
 baths on the road, much less can you afford to 
 trample them down in your journey. If the ob- 
 ject of your going abroad, was to visit friends in 
 health, and you had not the means of defraying 
 the expense, without encroaching upon holy time, 
 better, far, were it never to see them more in this 
 world, than to incifr the guilt of Sabbath-breaking. 
 
 But we must h£isten to dispose of another ex- 
 cuse. " I venerate the Sabbath," says one, " and 
 mean to keep it ; but I submit the following case 
 of conscience. Putting up at a public house on 
 Saturday evening, I find myself next morning sur- 
 rounded by tiplers, swearers, and gamblers. To 
 read, or pray, or meditate, in such a place, is im- 
 possible. I can certainly keep the Sabbath better 
 on the road than here ; and shall I go or stay ?" 
 
 Ans. 1. How came you to stop at such a ta- 
 vern ? Surety had you been anxious to keep the 
 Sabbath holy, you might have found a better. 
 And is it strange that you should be punished for 
 your negligence ? Those who remember the Sab- 
 bath day, and make inquiries with reference to it, 
 will rarely meet with any such difficulty. 
 
 Ans. 2. If there is a place of worship near, go by 
 all means, whether it is on your way, or directly 
 out of it. 
 
80 
 
 Ans. 3. If not, stay where you are. Perhaps 
 God may have sent you there for the very pur- 
 pose of rebuking the despisers of his law, at least 
 by your example ; and will you shrink from it on 
 account of its being a severe trial ? 
 
 Another excuse. " I am removing with my 
 family — we have a journey of several hundred 
 miles before us, and are under the necessity of 
 studying as much economy and expedition as we 
 can. Is it not clear that under such circumstan- 
 ces we ought to journey on the Sabbath ?" No, — 
 the case is not quite so clear as you seem to ima- 
 gine. Why do you remove at all? Is it not to 
 better your condition ? Da you expect to improve 
 it without the blessing of God ; and can you look 
 for his blessing while you are violating one of his 
 express commands ? Look at the following fact : 
 Not many years ago, two neighbors in New-Eng- 
 land, sat out together with their families for the 
 western country. The Sabbath came, and with it 
 the question, whether they should rest, or proceed 
 on their journey. Here they disagreed ; and one 
 of the party went on, in defiance of God's com- 
 mand. Before night, a child fell from his wagon 
 under the wheel, and was so dreadfully wounded, 
 that the whole family was detained upon expense 
 for a number of weeks ; while the other family, 
 having kept the Sabbath, proceeded expeditiously 
 and safely to the place of destination. 
 
 Those who expect to gain time by traveling 
 on the Lord's day, forget that cattle and horses 
 were never made to work seven days in a week. 
 The rest which God has ordained, is so necessary 
 
81 
 
 to renovate their strength, that taking a very few 
 weeks together, they will do more in six days than 
 in seven. This might be substantiated, did our 
 limits permit, by a reference to many experiments, 
 which have actually been made, in various parts of 
 the country. Take the following as an example : 
 Two neighbors sold their farms, and started with 
 their families for Ohio. One of them traveled the 
 first Sabbath, and the other rested. Before the end 
 of the following week, the Sabbath-keeping family 
 overtook and passed by the other. The next Sab- 
 bath they rested again, and in the course of the 
 day were left behind at the inn. In this manner, 
 the two families proceeded, the one keeping the 
 Sabbath strictly, and the other paying no regard 
 to it. But the former completed their journey as 
 soon as the latter, and with their team in a much 
 better condition. Such, we doubt not, would be 
 the result of ninety-nine similar trials out of a 
 hundred. God has said, that our cattle shall do 
 no work on the Sabbath, and if we compel them 
 to work, his wrath abideth on us, and we must suf- 
 fer loss. 
 
 But suppose the saving by traveling with your 
 family on the Lord's day, were to exceed your 
 most sanguine calculations : Would that make it 
 right ? Would it secure the blessing of Heaven 
 in the end ? Better, infinitely better would it be, 
 for any man always to remain in a cottage, and in 
 the fear of God, draw a scanty subsistence from a 
 few acres, than to break one of the least of his 
 commandments, to gain splendor and affluence in a 
 large house, and upon a lordly domain. 
 
Some people contrive very economically to quiet 
 their consciences, by attending public worship 
 along on the road. The calculation is, to rise early ; 
 ride as far as they can before the morning service ; 
 hear a good sermon, w^hile their horses are re- 
 freshed with a good mess of provender ; call at 
 another church in the afternoon ; then prosecute 
 their journey till night, and reckoning up their 
 good fifty miles, retire to rest, blessing themselves 
 that they have kept the Sabbath at once so de- 
 voutly and so profitably. 
 
 Others, again, contrive to make every thing 
 quiet within, by taking along with them as a con- 
 venient passport, some real, or pretended invalid ; 
 and others still, compromise matters with con- 
 science, by resting in the day time, and traveling 
 till a very late hour on both the preceding, and fol- 
 lowing evenings. " O shame, where is thy blush !" 
 " Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider 
 it ? and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know 
 it ? and shall not he render to every man accord- 
 ing to his works V 
 
 We cannot dismiss this topic, without just al- 
 luding to a few of the subterfuges, to which even 
 professors of religion, (we blush to say it,) resort 
 in some parts of our country, in steam-boats, packet 
 boats, and stages. One plea is, that '• these con- 
 veyances will proceed on the Sabbath, whether 
 we go or not ; and it is better to proceed quietly 
 on our M'^ay, than to remain at a public house, 
 where our devotions must be liable to continual 
 interruptions." 
 
 Another excuse is, " we often meet with the 
 
83 
 
 best of company, whose conversation is extremely 
 serious and edifying." Another is, " the boats are 
 well furnished with religious books of all kinds, 
 and we can spend the day as quietly and as profit- 
 ably as we could at our own homes. And then, 
 what harm is there, if while we pray and read and 
 sleep, we gain a hundred miles in our reckoning ?" 
 
 Another plea is, (though we feel constrained 
 to put it down as slander,) that "clergymen are 
 often found in these Sabbath day conveyances ; 
 and that they preach most excellent sermons," 
 and so forth, and so forth ! Now all these genteel 
 and fashionable methods of keeping the Sabbath, 
 are palpable violations of it. 
 
 Nor must we omit to class the habit of going to 
 sea on the Lord's day, among these crying trans- 
 gressions. How often are the principal wharves, 
 in our seaports, crowded on Sabbath mornings, by 
 persons of all ranks and occupations. What hurry 
 is there — what confusion — what disturbance to all 
 that live in the neighborhood. Might we not add, 
 what cursing and swearing often ! What a running 
 of porters — what a bustling of owners, freighters, 
 supercargoes, passengers, and sailors ! What scenes 
 of confusion, prolonged sometimes till noon, 
 sometimes till evening ; taking in stores, bringing 
 and receiving letters, stowing away baggage, 
 weighing anchors, bending sails, and the like! 
 This hasty sketch is no fiction. Nothing is exag- 
 gerated. In truth, the half is not told. Such are 
 the circumstances, under which thousands part 
 with their friends to see them no more. Such are 
 the preparations, with which tens of thousands 
 
84 
 
 take their departure, to brave the dangers of the 
 seas! Can it be thought strange if they make 
 losing voyages, or if they never return ? 
 
 And here we are forcibly reminded of a custom 
 which prevails to a considerable extent on our 
 sea-board, and which has often exceedingly pained 
 and grieved us. We allude to the impious mocke- 
 ry of forcing one of the most solemn acts of reli- 
 gious worship into alliance with known and deli- 
 berate transgression. Thus, a father, or brother, or 
 son, (and possibly at the same time a member of 
 the church,) when in defiance of the fourth com- 
 mandment, he sets out on sabbath morning for the 
 ship that is just weighing anchor, leaves behind 
 him a hasty note, requesting public prayers to 
 be offered up for his safety, when he is in the 
 very act of sin. Was there ever a greater sole- 
 cism ? How dare any man, born in a christian 
 land, ask for the prayers of God's people, that he 
 may be succeeded in an enterprise thus com- 
 menced in open violation of the divine law ? How 
 can a minister of the gospel command utterance 
 to read such a note ? And how can a christian as- 
 sembly unite in such a prayer ? the half articula- 
 ted farewell, the crowded wharf, the boatswain's 
 call, the proud ship slowly moving from her moor- 
 ings; and just at hand, the great congregation, 
 commending all on board, in this act of breaking 
 the sabbath, to the care of Him who rules the 
 winds and the waves ! What a group ! What a 
 spectacle ! 
 
 The sacred rest is also violated, to a most alarm- 
 ing extent, by parties of pleasure sailing about the 
 
85 
 
 innumerable bays, harbours, and inlets of our ex- 
 tensive sea-board ; and upon the rivers, lakes, and 
 ponds, which every where intersect our country. — 
 O what a palpable transgression of the fourth com- 
 mandment ! How can it be viewed in any other 
 light? Is manual labor forbidden ? Is traveling 
 for gain, or for pleasure ? And can any body sup- 
 pose, that the infinite Lawgiver intended to make 
 an exception in favour of those who do their own 
 work, or find their own pleasure upon the water ? 
 Undoubtedly, when a vessel is at sea, continuing 
 her course on the Sabbath is no violation of the 
 holy rest. But this is a widely diiferent case from 
 any that we have mentioned; and, therefore, can 
 afford no shadow of justification, either for leav- 
 ing port on the Sabbath, or for being out to sea 
 when it can be avoided. 
 
 Now, could all, or could a tenth part, of these 
 violations, with their attendant evils, and certain 
 consequences, be presented to any serious mind, 
 at one view : we are sure they would appear like 
 great mountains of guilt, sufficient to sink a nation 
 in ruin. 
 
 We^re well aware that A, B, and C, all have their 
 several excuses : but there is no excuse for viola- 
 ting the Sabbath. The scripture cannot be bro- 
 ken — The holy law of God must and will stand. 
 And wo be to all such as deliberately, or habitually 
 violate it, in any of the ways that have been men- 
 tioned. 
 
 8 
 
86 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Wherever the Sabbath is kept holy, it will bring 
 along with it the richest temporal and spiritual 
 blessings. Here we appeal to the promises of God, 
 and to undeniable facts. 
 
 The promises are such as these : — " For thus 
 saith the Lord, unto the eunuchs that keep my 
 Sabbath, and choose the things that please me, and 
 take hold of my covenant ; even unto them will I 
 give in mine house and within my walls, a place 
 and a name better than sons and daughters ; I will 
 give them an everlasting name that shall not be 
 cut off. Also, the sons of the strangers that join 
 themselves unto the Lord to serve him — every one 
 that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and 
 taketh hold of my covenant, even them will I bring 
 to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my 
 house of prayer : their burnt offerings and their 
 sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar." Isa. 
 Ivi. 4—7. " If thou turn away thy foot from the 
 Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy 
 day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of 
 the Lord, honorable ; and shalt honor him, not do- 
 ing thine own ways, nor finding thine own plea- 
 sure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt 
 thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause 
 thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and 
 feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father : 
 for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 
 Iviii. 13, 14. " And it shall come to pass, if ye dili- 
 gently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring 
 in no burden through the gates of this city on the 
 
87 
 
 Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no 
 work tlierein ; then shall there enter into the gates 
 of this city, kings and princes sitting upon the 
 throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, 
 they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem ; and this city shall re- 
 main forever," Jer. xvii. 24, 25. 
 
 These surely are great and precious promises. 
 All the pious Jev\^s found them so in their own 
 happy and prosperous experience, and it is too late 
 to say, that they were meant for the Jews only. 
 For in esatblishing the perpetuity of the Sabbath, 
 we have in effect proved that the promises and 
 denunciations connected wuth keeping or profaning 
 it, are addressed to all mankind. To all who keep 
 the Sabbath holy in every age and nation the pro- 
 mises come, laden with the richest blessings of 
 heaven. 
 
 " I have long found by experience," says Lord 
 Chief Justice Hale to his children, " that the due 
 observance of this day, and the duties of it, have 
 been of singular comfort and advantage to me ; 
 and I doubt not that you, my children, will find it 
 so to you. God Almighty is the lord of our time, 
 and lends it to us ; and as it is but just that we 
 should consecrate this part of our time to him ; so 
 1 have found by a strict and diligent observation, 
 that a due observance of this day hath ever had 
 joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time; 
 and the week that hath so begun, hath been bless- 
 ed and prosperous to me ; and on the contrary 
 side, when I have been negligent of the duties of 
 his day, the rest of the week hath been unsuc- 
 
88 
 
 cessful and unhappy to my secular employments ; 
 so that I could easily make an estimate of my 
 own secular employments the week following, by 
 the manner of my spending the Sabbath day : 
 and this I do not say slightly, or inconsiderately ; 
 but upon a long and sound observation and expe- 
 rience." 
 
 Few Christians, probably, have been so obser- 
 vant in this particular as Sir Mathew Hale ; but 
 not a few can, we are persuaded, give substan- 
 tially the same testimony from the less full and 
 accurate records of their own personal experience. 
 Keeping the Sabbath holy, is an essential branch 
 of that " godliness, which is profitable unto all 
 things, having promise of the life that now is, as 
 well as of that which is to come." All men in a 
 Christian land might know, if they would, that in 
 keeping the fourth commandment, as well as every 
 other, there is great reward. It is a reproach to 
 thousands of professing Christians, that while the 
 world has its monthly prognostications, its lucky 
 and unlucky days, borrowed from the heathen, or 
 designated by mere caprice, they lay so little stress 
 upon a day, the devout observance of which has 
 such a mighty influence upon the happiness of in- 
 dividuals, and the well-being of society. 
 
 The Sabbath was made for man — was made for 
 his comfort — was made to promote his happiness 
 here, and to prepare him for an eternal rest in 
 heaven. Our being required to keep the Sabbath 
 holy, casts a divine lustre upon the benevolence 
 of its Author :— for it is exactly adapted to our na- 
 ture and circumstances. So far is it from interrupt- 
 
89 
 
 ing the lawful and necessary business of human 
 life, that it gives new energy to our bodies and 
 minds, and new sweetness to all our secular labors. 
 It is a fact well attested, and fully established by 
 experience, that in the long run, men can do more 
 work in six days of the week, than they can in 
 seven. The same, as we have already remarked, 
 is true of cattle and horses; so that the mere 
 worldling finds it for his interest to rest on the 
 Lord's day. 
 
 A fact occurs to us here, which is directly in 
 point. Not many years ago, a contractor went on 
 to the west, with his hired men and teams, to make 
 a turnpike road. At first, he paid no regard to 
 the Sabbath ; but continued his work as on other 
 days. He soon found, however, that the ordi- 
 nances of nature, no less than the moral law, were 
 against him. , His laborers became sickly ; his 
 teams grew poor and feeble, and being fully con- 
 vinced, that more was lost than gained by working 
 on the Lord's day, he desisted. So true is it, that 
 the Sabbaih day laborer, like the glutton and the 
 drunkard, undermines his health, and prematurely 
 hastens the infirmities of age, and his exit from 
 this world. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The Sabbath has been kept as holy time, by the 
 people of God, in all ages. It has been to them, 
 not a burden, but "a delight, the holy of the 
 Lord, and honorable." That such eminent saints 
 as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and Nehemi- 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 ah, were strict and constant in their observance 
 of it, cannot be doubted. That the apostles 
 and primitive churches statedly assembled for 
 public worship, on the Lord's day, is certain. And 
 that they abstained from labor, and spent the 
 whole day in religious duties, may be confidently 
 inferred, aivWell from their eminent piety, as from 
 the sanctions of the Divine Law, which they can- 
 not be supposed to have disregarded. For we 
 have already proved, that Jesus Christ left the 
 law as he found it, after freeing it from the false 
 glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees. The disci- 
 ples would, of course, take it from him. And as 
 the people of God had ahvays done before them, 
 they would remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy. This is the only fair and legitimate infer- 
 ence, and it cannot be set aside by any thing short 
 of direct proof to the contrary. The Bible fur- 
 nishes no such proof : — not a word, nor a hint, that^ 
 Christians of the apostolic age, did their own work, 
 or found their own pleasures, on the Lord's day. 
 That the Sabbath has been regarded and kept as 
 holy time, in the sense already explained, and in 
 almost every subsequent age, might be proved by 
 innumerable quotations from the works of the 
 Christian fathers, the decrees of councils, and 
 the statutes of ancient kings, as well as from the 
 writings and practice of the most eminent reform- 
 ers and brightest luminaries of the Church within 
 the last three hundred years. But we can only 
 afford room for a few brief extracts. 
 Ignatius^ a disciple of the apostle John, says, 
 
91 
 
 *' Let every one that loves Christ, keep holy the 
 Lord's day." 
 
 Chrysostom gives this reason, why Paul ap- 
 pointed the first day of the week for collections in 
 the churches of Corinth—" Because they did ab- 
 stain from all works, and the soul was more cheer- 
 ful for the rest of the day." 
 
 Ireniiis. — " Each of us spends the Sabbath in a 
 spiritual manner, meditating on the law of God 
 with delight, and contemplating his workmanship 
 with admiration." 
 
 Eusebius, in his life of Constantine, assures us, 
 that when that emperor embraced Christianity, he 
 appointed that the Lord's day should be consecra- 
 ted to prayer, and commanded, that through all 
 the Roman empire, they should forbear to labor 
 or do any work on the Lord's day. 
 
 The following edict of the Emperor Leo, A. D. 
 469, is very explicit and remarkable. " It is our 
 will and pleasure, that the holy day, dedicated to 
 the most high God, should not be spent in sensual 
 recreations, or otherwise profaned by suits of law." 
 With respect to farmers, it is added, " As to the 
 pretence, that by this rest, an opportunity may be 
 lost — this is a poor reason, considering that the 
 fruits of the earth do not depend so much on the 
 diligence and pains of men, as on the efficacy of 
 the sun, and the blessing of God. We command, 
 therefore, all, whether husbandmen or others, to 
 forbear work on this day of the resurrection. For 
 if other people, (meaning the Jews,) keep the sha- 
 dow of this day in a solemn rest from all secular 
 labor, on the Sabbath, how much rather ought we 
 
92 
 
 to observe the substance, a day so ennobled by 
 our gracious Lord, who saved us from destruc- 
 tion." In France and Burgundy, as early as the 
 sixth century, laws were made to the same effect. 
 Charles the Great of France, son of Pepin, con- 
 voked the clergy, to make canons for the keeping 
 of the Sabbath, and also published his own royal 
 edict, of which the following is an extract. " We 
 ordain, (as is required in tlielaw of God,) that 
 no man do any servile work on the Lord's day, i. e. 
 that they employ not themselves in the works of 
 husbandry, in dressing their vines, ploughing their 
 ground, making hay, felling trees, digging in the 
 mines, or building houses ; that they do not go a 
 hunting in the fields, or plead in courts of justice : 
 but that they all come to church, and magnify the 
 Lord their God, for those good things, which are 
 this day to be bestowed upon them !" 
 
 Of Theodosius, king of the Bavarians, it is 
 recorded, " that he would not permit his subjects 
 to yoke their oxen, or make hay, or carry it in on 
 the Lord's day." 
 
 The canons and constitutions of the churches, 
 enjoining the sanctification of the Sabbath with 
 equal strictness, are too numerous and too long to 
 be transcribed. But we cannot doubt, that the 
 practice of those who really feared God in those 
 early ages of the Christian dispensation, corres- 
 ponded, in a good degree, with the letter and spir- 
 it of the laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, to 
 which we have just refered. The principles and 
 habits of the early settlers of our country, in re- 
 gard to the Sabbathj are too well known to require 
 
93 
 
 any thing more than a passing remark. Suffice 
 it to say, that they were men who " feared God 
 and kept his commandments ;" and that they re- 
 garded a devout observance of the Lord's day, as 
 essential to the preservation of all their civil and 
 religious institutions. 
 
 We bless God, that in our own times, there is 
 something more than a " remnant" left, to reve- 
 rence and defend the sacred institution ; that, not- 
 withstanding the reiterated assaults of open ene- 
 mies, and the more dangerous mining of false 
 friends, multitudes still cleave to it, as the sheet 
 anchor of our political ark, and the safety of our 
 civil rights, no less than the guardian angel of the 
 Church. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Here, then, upon the broad basis of Divine 
 Constitution, we take our stand ; and appeal to 
 those who have followed us thus far, whether we 
 have not satisfactorily proved, 
 
 First. That the Sabbath emanated directly 
 from the will and authority of God himself. 
 
 Secondly. That He instituted it, when he rest- 
 ed from all his work, on the seventh day of the 
 first week, and gave it primarily to our first pa- 
 rents, and, through them, to all their posterity : 
 
 Thirdly. That the observance of it was en- 
 joined upon the children of Israel, soon after they 
 left Egypt, not in the form of a new enactment^ 
 but as an ancient institution, Avhich was far from 
 being forgotten, though it had doubtless been 
 greatly neglected under the cruel domination o 
 their heathen masters : 
 
94 
 
 Fourthly. That it was re-enacted with great 
 pomp and solemnity, and written in stone, by the 
 finger of God, at Sinai : 
 
 Fifthly. That the sacred institution then took 
 the regular form of a statute, with explicit prolii- 
 bitions and requirements, which have never been 
 repealed. 
 
 Sixthly. That the law of the Sabbath can never 
 expire of itself, because it contains no limitations. 
 
 Seventhly. That at the resurrection of Christ 
 the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the 
 first day of the week : 
 
 Eighthly. That we are bound to keep and 
 sanctify the Lord's day, according to the letter 
 and spirit of the fourth commandment : 
 
 Ninthly. That this has been the current and 
 practical exposition of the sabbatical law, where- 
 ever the divine authority of the Scripture has been 
 recognized, from the apostolic age down to the 
 present time. 
 
 And now, " what shall we more say ?" In ar- 
 gumg this cause, we have appealed " to the law 
 and the testimony ;" the highest authority in the 
 universe : and, if we have not entirely mistaken 
 the divine record, the great question is settled. 
 The claims of the Sabbath are imperative upon 
 every conscience. Reader, will you admit, or 
 will you reject these claims ? Remember, that if 
 you reject them, you do it at your peril ; for it is 
 not an institution of man, but of your Creator and 
 Judge, that you trample under foot. 
 
 We love and honor the men who have so unan- 
 swerably proved, that the Sabbath, regarded mere- 
 ly in the light of a civil institution, is literally 
 above all price; and that it cannot be overthrown, 
 without, at the same time, shaking down the three 
 great pillars of the republic — education., morality., 
 and religion. Surely, if the argument could be 
 pressed no further, that must be a reckless and 
 
95 
 
 fool-hardy assailant, who should attempt to bring 
 down this glorious edifice in ruins upon himseli^ 
 his children, and his country. 
 
 But the ground which we take, it is needless to 
 say, is far higher and holier than this. While we 
 recognise all the political and other temporal bless- 
 ings which flow from a right observance of the 
 Sabbath, we trace them back to the garden of 
 Eden, and up to the awful top of Sinai. We ap- 
 peal to the tables of stone, and to the lively oracles 
 of God. Whatever defects there may be in the 
 wisest human institutions ; whatever plausible ob- 
 jections may be alleged against their most useful 
 provisions; or, however the force of obligation 
 may be evaded, when man utters his authority ; 
 the divine law is perfect, and ultimate evasion is 
 impossible. 
 
 And it is this consideration, chiefly, which 
 makes us tremble for the " Ark of the Lord," and 
 for the liberties of our country. Every violation 
 of the Sabbath is virtual rebellion against Him 
 who ordained and sanctified it. In no case, not 
 even that of ignorance, in a Christian land, will 
 He hold the Sabbath-breaker guiltless ; and, with 
 the light which multitudes have, every violation of 
 the law is a " running upon the thick bosses of 
 his buckler." In his Avord and in his providence, 
 God speaks on this subject with an explicitness 
 and emphasis which ought to make the ears of the 
 whole nation tingle ! " Then I contended with the 
 nobles of Judah, and said unto them, what evil 
 thing is this which ye do, and profane the Sabbath 
 day? Did not your fathers thus; and did not 
 God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city?" 
 " Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profa- 
 ning the Sabbath."— Neh. xiii. " If ye will not 
 hearken unto me, to hallow the Sabbath, and not 
 bear a burden entering in at the gates of Jerusa- 
 lem on the Sabbath day ; then will I kindle a fire 
 
96 
 
 in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the pa- 
 laces of Jerusp.lem, and it shall not be quenched" — 
 Jer. xvii. " And I will scatter you among the 
 heathen, and draw out the sword after you, and 
 your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 
 Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as 
 it lieth desolate, and ye shall be in your enemies' 
 land ; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her 
 Sabbaths" — Lev. xxxvi. 
 
 It must certainly be admitted that these quota- 
 tions express, as clearly and forcibly as language 
 can express, the high and holy displeasure of 
 God against Sabbath-breaking. This crying na- 
 tional sin, (with the single exception of idolatry,) 
 contributed more than any other to bring wrath 
 upon Israel, and to sweep them into captivity. 
 Now the only question is, whether God regards 
 Sabbath-breaking with equal displeasure in other 
 nations. And why should he not? He is the 
 same holy Being that he was three thousand years 
 ago. The nature of sin is the same. The moral 
 law, including the fourth commandment, is the 
 same. Human obligation is the same. Nations 
 are regarded and treated as moral persons now, 
 just as the Jews were under their judges and 
 kings ; and national sins have the same tendency 
 to sear the public conscience, and underihine the 
 foundations of social order. ^Vhy then should not 
 these sins be punished with divine retributions, 
 equally terrible? We have not room, here, to 
 enter into a discussion of this subject, though we 
 can hardly think of one more important. It must, 
 it will, be fully discussed by some of those able 
 men, in this great Christian community, who fear 
 God and love their country. 
 
 In the mean time, let such as deny the doctrine 
 of national accountabihty, for cherished and even 
 authoritative violations of the fourth command- 
 ment, " mock on." God will vindicate the honor 
 
97 
 
 of his own law, however it may be assailed, 
 whether by ingenious sophistry or open defiance. 
 One of the first acts of avowed atheism in revolu- 
 tionary France, was to abolish the Christian Sab- 
 bath; and the Lord came out against her with 
 " fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to 
 render his anger with fury, and his rebukes with 
 flames of fire." Well appointed fleets and armies 
 have often been discomfited in their offensive ope- 
 rations on the Sabbath. Three remarkable in- 
 stances occur to us at this moment, in the history 
 of the last war. The first was the attack of the 
 British and their total defeat on Lake Erie. The 
 second was the battle on Lake Champlain and at 
 Plattsburgh. The third was the last assault upon 
 the American lines, before New-Orleans. All these 
 sanguinary battles were fought, unless we are 
 greatly mistaken, on the Lord's day ; in each the 
 assailant met with a signal overthrow. Let politi- 
 cians and historians ascribe all this to valor, or 
 chance, or whatever else they please, we shall still 
 regard such events as no equivocal testimony of 
 the anger of God against the despisers of his 
 Sabbaths. 
 
 If from the sins and punishments of nations and 
 armies on the Lord's day, we pass to those of in- 
 dividuals, Ave are brought to the same conclusion. 
 Who does not know, that in almost every confes- 
 sion from the gallows. Sabbath-breaking is men- 
 tioned as one of the principal sins which gradually 
 led on to robbery, rape, and murder ? Were a 
 Howard to go through all our prisons, and take 
 the honest confession of every wretched inmate, 
 who can doubt, that nine tenths of the whole num- 
 ber would put down their disregard to the Sabbath 
 among the causes of their ruin ? And what an af- 
 fecting view is here of the anger of God, against 
 the crying sin of which we are speaking. It is as 
 if all the dread machinery of capital punishments 
 
98 
 
 — the bolts, and cells, and chains of every prison- 
 house in the land, were to speak out as witnesses 
 of God's indignation. 
 
 We say little here of the multitudes who are 
 suddenly hurried into eternity, in the very act of 
 profaning the Sabbath — of the dying shrieks which 
 come up from the bosom of the closing waters ; 
 and the habiliments of mourning which tell of 
 husbands, brothers, sisters, and children, who 
 went out for pleasure when the bell called them 
 to the sanctuary, and never returned ! Let those 
 who see no sign, and hear no voice of high and 
 dreadful displeasure in all this, account for it as 
 they may. The record of facts speaks for itself, 
 and the record will stand, that thousands thus 
 perish suddenly in all the glee and temerity of 
 transgression. 
 
 God also often frowns upon the despisers of his 
 law, and manifests his holy displeasure by the 
 manner in which he takes from them their Sab- 
 bath-day earnings. 
 
 So recent is one instance, that the fire has scarce- 
 ly gone out which was set by a man in the town 
 
 of to a small piece of cleared land, which 
 
 consumed his barn, together with a valuable horse 
 and other property, and from which his house 
 was with difficulty saved. " This very miprofi ta- 
 ble piece of business to a poor man," says the ac- 
 count, " should operate as a caution to all who 
 are inclined to use holy time for worldly purposes, 
 as well as to those who deny the doctrine of re- 
 tributive justice." 
 
 Another instance which now occurs to our re- 
 collection, is still more striking. A few years ago, 
 a person owning a piece of land which was so 
 situated that he could labor upon it without ex- 
 posing himself to public view, determined to 
 spend his Sabbaths in bringing it under cultiva- 
 tion. Accordingly, he cleared and burnt it over on 
 
99 
 
 the Sabbath. He ploughed and sowed it on the 
 Sabbath. The produce was a fine crop of wheat, 
 which he harvested on the Sabbath ; and deposited 
 on the Sabbath in a large and valuable saw-mill, 
 which stood upon the premises. And the very- 
 next Sabbath, the whole was consumed by a flash of 
 lightning ! " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." 
 
 That there is nothing miraculous in any of the 
 cases which have been mentioned, does not mili- 
 tate in the least against the position we have taken, 
 unless it be proved that God cannot punish com- 
 munities and individuals in any other way. But 
 who will attempt to prove this ? Surely no one, 
 so long as he is in his right mind. " God is Go- 
 vernor among the nations ;" and he can never be 
 at a loss how to employ natural agents and moral 
 causes, either to chastise, or utterly to destroy the 
 despisers of his law. 
 
 Who, then, in this great controversy, is on the 
 Lord's side ? Who is in favor of the Christian 
 Sabbath, and who against it? There is no such 
 thing as neutrality, when the claims of the divine 
 law are brought to bear upon the conscience. Do 
 you then reverence the Lord's day, in the spiritu- 
 ality of your affections, and honor it by your exam- 
 ple, and strive to shield it from profanation by your 
 influence 1 
 
 Professors of religion, members of the church, 
 to whatever denomination you belong — the Lord 
 of the Sabbath expects much from you. You have 
 publicly sworn allegiance to him, and he requires 
 you to redeem your solemn pledge, by rallying 
 round the sacred institution. Especially does he 
 require the most unequivocal proofs of loyalty, in 
 your personal obedience to the law of the Sabbath. 
 If you break the law, how can it be expected that 
 others will respect it ? If you engage in any se- 
 cular business whatever, if you are seen in stages, 
 and steam-boats, and canal packets, or traveling 
 
100 
 
 for business or pleasure in your own private con- 
 veyances on the Lord's day, you not only sin 
 against your own souls, but lend the whole weight 
 of your example, to embolden others in transgres- 
 sion. Dare you advance in a course like this ? 
 What ! see you not the angel of the Lord, stand- 
 ing in the way with a drawn sword in his hand to 
 oppose you ? Neutral ground you cannot take ; 
 for if you are not openly for the Sabbath, you 
 are virtually against it. 
 
 Come up then, at once, to the help of the Lord, 
 grasping the " weapons of your christian warfare 
 which are not carnal, but mighty through God, to 
 the pulling down of strong holds." Much, very 
 much, dear brethren, might you do with sucli 
 weapons, and in so holy a cause, if you could 
 muster no more than ten, to a thousand of your 
 enemies. But you are very far from being this 
 small and feeble minority. Including all Chris- 
 tian denominations in the United States, you 
 number at least nine hundred thousand, who 
 have sworn allegiance to the King of heaven ; 
 and, if you are despised — if your suppliant voice 
 is not heard in the high places of power — if your 
 civil rights, and your rights of conscience, are de- 
 liberately disregarded, it must be, in a great 
 measure, your own fault. It must be, 'because 
 you have not done what you could in the circles 
 of your Christian influence — because sectarian 
 jealousies have been diligently fomented by your 
 common enemies, to prevent you from uniting in 
 those measures, to rescue the Sabbath from profa- 
 nation, which your privileges as freemen, and your 
 duty as Christians, so imperiously urge you to 
 adopt. 
 
 " The children of this world are wiser in their 
 generation than the children of light." Their 
 motto is. Divide and Conquer. Hence, as they 
 perceive that your more frequent intercourse and 
 
101 
 
 growing Catholicism are " breaking down the mid- 
 dle wall of partition," and bringing you " to see 
 eye to eye," on a great and vitally important sub- 
 ject, you are, if possible, to be repelled and scat- 
 tered by the magical spell of the words. Priest- 
 crafty Religious Establishuient, Rights of Con- 
 science, Church and State, &c. &c. You will, if 
 possible, be made to believe, that, as members of 
 different communions, as Baptists, Methodists, 
 Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, 
 you cannot trust one another ; that your dearest 
 Christian rights are in danger ; that somebody is 
 somewhere conspiring to wrest from you that '• li- 
 berty wherewith Christ has made you free." But 
 will you thus wrong and distrust your brethren, 
 by giving heed to calumny and fables ? Is there 
 a shadow of evidence that any such conspiracy 
 exists ? If so, let it be adduced ; and let the men 
 who would " lord it over God's heritage," under 
 the mask of zeal for the Sabbath, or under any 
 other mask, be held up to universal reprobation. 
 But, dear brethren, you know that the charge is 
 false. You know that the General Union, which 
 you have recently formed, aims at no spiritual 
 (domination ; but simply, (what it professes and 
 avows,) to promote a better sanctification of the 
 Lord's day. And, surely, you will not permit a 
 few ghostly watch-words to create the most un- 
 founded jealousies between your respective de- 
 nominations, and thus drive you from your noble, 
 your godlike purpose. 
 
 Opposition you will certainly meet with ; and 
 much, no doubt, to try your faith and your princi- 
 ples ; but because you may be opposed and vilifi- 
 ed, and, for a time, borne down by numbers, and 
 clamor, and authority, will you abandon the 
 great cause of the Sabbath in which you have 
 embarked ; or despairingly ask, What can we do 
 against such "fearful odds?" What can nine 
 
102 
 
 hundred thousand professing Christians dOj 
 assisted, as you will be, by many ten thousands of 
 others, who reverence the institutions of their fa- 
 thers, and love their country ! What can you not 
 do, by prayer, and example, and union, and per- 
 severance ? 
 
 Brethren, God has given you a moral influence 
 in this nation, sufficient, if wisely employed, to ar- 
 rest the swelling tide of irreligion, worldliness, and 
 pleasure, which now threatens to sweep away the 
 Sabbath, with all the mighty interests of time and 
 eternity, which are bound up in its destiny. And, 
 if you have the moral power to assuage this deluge 
 of sin, and restore to the land her weekly rest, 
 need we say, that you are answerable to God and 
 to posterity for the exercise of that power ? Do 
 not flatter yourselves, that " pure and undefiled 
 religion" can be preserved a single month after 
 the Sabbath is gone : for the house of God will be 
 immediately shut up, or thrown down ; your mi- 
 nisters will be driven from the altar ; the hallowed 
 fires will be extinguished on all the heights of 
 Zion ; the Church will be clothed in sackcloth ; 
 her tears will be all the day and all the night " upon 
 her cheeks ;" and the strings of her " harps upon 
 the willows," will be swept only " by the mournful 
 breezes of the surrounding desolation." 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel— u^on you there rests 
 an amazing responsibility. You are set for the 
 defence of every holy institution. The Sabbath 
 pre-eminently belongs to you, as the rest of the 
 week does to men of other occupations. You can 
 do nothing without it. You cannot even gain a 
 liearing from the multitudes who are thronging 
 the broad way to destruction. On the Sabbath, 
 you stand upon high vantage-ground, to wield 
 " the sword of the Spirit," and to subdue the ene- 
 mies of Christ. Be valiant, then, in defence of 
 the day which God has given you for the exercise 
 
103 
 
 of your most sacred functions. To you, especial- 
 ly, it belongs to hold up the fourth commandment, 
 and, in the most solemn manner, to urge its divine 
 and perpetual obhgations. Present these obliga^ 
 tions, then, in all their strictness, and in their full 
 extent. Listen to no compromise. Heed no 
 railing. Shrink from no discussion. Turn your 
 backs upon no enemy. Take counsel of no time- 
 serving policy. However much you may insist 
 on the importance of the Sabbath, as a mere politi- 
 cal institution, let your grand and ultimate appeal 
 be to the scriptures. One, " thus saith the Lord^'' 
 is worth a thousand arguments drawn from any 
 other source. " It is the Word of God, that is 
 quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged 
 sword." The edge of every other weapon may 
 be turned by a flinty heart ; but this, though it 
 may be long parried, will pierce at last, " even to 
 the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of 
 the joints and the marrow." Much you may do, 
 also, in this sacred cause, by holy example. And 
 remember, that a thousand eyes are upon you. 
 The slightest infringement of the Lord's day, by 
 any of you, will be noticed. " Abstain, therefore, 
 in this matter, as Avell as every other, from all ap- 
 pearance of evil." As the man who preaches 
 temperance, must drink nothing himself, so he that 
 exhorts others to " remember the Sabbath day to 
 keep it holy," must, on no account, forget, or seem 
 to forget, his own exhortations. 
 
 Guardians and Instructers of our Youth^ in 
 the higher Literary Institutions — you can scarce- 
 ly conceive with what interest all the friends of 
 the Sabbath look to you. Under your hands are 
 rising up not only the public teachers of science, 
 morality, and religion, but the future law-givers 
 of the nation. The young men whose characters 
 you are moulding, will soon occupy posts of power 
 and responsibility, from the Atlantic to the sources 
 
104 
 
 of the Missouri. See to it, therefore, that you 
 give their minds a riglit moral direction. Enforce 
 upon them, both by precept and example, the high 
 and sacred obligations of the Christian Sabbath. 
 YoM cannot, indeed, make them all " esteem it a 
 delight," for this requires holy affections ; but you 
 can enforce the duty of keeping it, by all the au- 
 thority/ of Scripture— by all its obvious weekly 
 blessings, and by all the dearest interests of a 
 great and growing empire. By the blessing of 
 Ood upon your efforts, very many may be induced 
 7iot only to sanctify the Lord's day themselves, but 
 to exert a powerful influence, to shield it from 
 profanation, and to restore it to its ancient and 
 honorable standing in the decalogue. 
 
 Friends and Teacliers of our beloved Chil- 
 dren^ in those sacred Seminaries of the Churchy 
 vmich are vinlii ■plying all over the land — forget 
 not to remind 3'our confiding pupils of the sa- 
 cred ness of tlie day on which you meet them. 
 Enrich their minds with all those passages of 
 Scripture, which enjoin the sanctification of the 
 Sabbath. Teach them the nature and design of 
 the Institution, and make it a leading object to 
 imprint its high and holy claims indelibly upon 
 their hearts and consciences. They will bless 
 you for it, as long as they live : the Church will 
 pour her grateful benedictions upon your heads, 
 and future generations will rise up and call you 
 blessed. 
 
 Parents of young and rising families — con- 
 sider, we beseech you, what an amazing influence 
 your example and precepts will have upon your 
 children, and, through them, upon the cause of 
 religion, and the general prosperity of the nation. 
 Do you wish to see your sons and daughters vir- 
 tuous and happy ? — teach them to " keep God's 
 Sabbaths, and to reverence his sanctuary." Would 
 you employ the most effectual means to establish 
 
105 
 
 your authority over them, and to secure their fu- 
 ture reverence for your gray hairs ? — teach them to 
 " remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy." 
 Would you train them up for distinguished useful- 
 ness in any station whatever ? — teach them dili- 
 gentl}'- the same divine lesson. And would you en- 
 sure their final salvation, you cannot lay too much 
 stress upon the sanctification of the Sabbath. In 
 short, this is the first thing, the second thing, and 
 the third thing, in a well-conducted Christian 
 education. 
 
 But if these and similar motives cannot reach 
 you ; if you care not what becomes of your own 
 flesh ; if you are willing to trust the keeping of 
 their morals and their happiness to the wayward 
 propensities of unsanctified nature ; if you covet 
 from them disobedience, neglect, and abuse in 
 this world ; their withering testimony at the bar 
 of God ; and their bitter execrations to all eternity ; 
 then let them profane the Lord's day as much as 
 they please ; let them sport, and fish, and hunt, 
 and launch the sail-boat, and lounge in the tavern, 
 while others are in the church and the Sabbath 
 school. And, lest they should, after all, become 
 dissatisfied with the " broad way," encourage them 
 by your own example. Wander about your farms, 
 and see that all is right with your flocks, and herds, 
 and fences ; or go into your shops and counting- 
 rooms ; or travel with the mail, under the sanc- 
 tion of government, and the curse of Heaven ; 
 or meet your companions in the grog-shop, or on 
 the sunny side of the distillery. Attend every 
 anti-Sabbath meeting, and vote for the resolutions, 
 and sign the remonstrance. Denounce all the 
 Sabbath-keeping boats, and stages, and all the 
 petitions to congress, as invasions of the rights of 
 conscience, and dangerous to the liberties of the 
 country. Such a course will be likely to do the 
 work for your families soon, and do it effectually. 
 
106 
 
 It will bring 3^011, by a short route, to the brink of 
 that gulf into which you may plunge in vain to 
 rescue your sons and daughters from destruction. 
 
 Honored and respected rulers of the land, our 
 final appeal is to you. — The Scriptures teach us 
 to regard you as ministers of God for good to this 
 great people ; and how can you so effectually se- 
 cure their enduring prosperity, ashy exerting your 
 influence to make them virtuous ? And what in- 
 stitution was ever so pre-eminently calculated to 
 effect this object, as the Christian Sabbath? As 
 a school of morals, it stands far, very far, above 
 every other. 
 
 By recalling men so frequently from the pur- 
 suits of wealth and power, and worldly glory, it 
 represses their feverish ardour, and gives them 
 time to contrast the perishing objects of their 
 toils, with " durable riches and righteousness." 
 By assembling persons of all classes upon the 
 same level once every week, the Sabbath warms 
 and softens the heart, allays, the fierce and wrath- 
 ful passions, and quickens into life and energy that 
 heavenly charity " which is the bond of perfect- 
 ness." The Sabbath, including prayer, reading the 
 Scriptures, public worship, and family instruction, 
 does more than every thing else to form a truly 
 virtuous community. 
 
 But for the moral power of Sabbatical institu- 
 tions, whose property or reputation would be safe 
 for a single day ? Who could be found to execute 
 the laws against debasing immoralities ? Or what 
 could hinder their increasing, and destroying all 
 that is pure and lovely, and of good report? Much 
 as the Lord's day is profaned in this country, even 
 now it does ten-fold more than all our prisons and 
 other legal terrors, to perpetuate and multiply our 
 social, civil, and religious blessings. Take away 
 this barrier, and you open at once all the flood- 
 gates of vice and irreligion. You may still try to 
 
107 
 
 sustain our free and admired civil institutions, but 
 your efforts will be vain. " The overflowing 
 scourge will pass through ;" and neither you nor 
 your children can hope to escape. 
 
 " Give up the Sabbath — blot out that orb of day 
 — suspend its blessed attractions — and the reign of 
 chaos and old night would return. The waves of 
 our unquiet sea, high as our mountains, would roll 
 and dash, from west to east, and east to west, from 
 south to north, and north to south, shipwrecking 
 the hopes of patriots and the world. 
 
 " Who, then, is the patriot that would thrust out 
 our ship from her peaceful moorings, in a starless 
 night, upon such an ocean of storms, without rud- 
 der, or anchor, or compass, or chart ? The ele- 
 ments around us may remain, and our giant rivers 
 and mountains. Our miserable descendants, also, 
 may multiply, and vegetate, and rot in moral dark- 
 ness and putrefaction. But the American charac- 
 ter, and our glorious institutions, will go down into 
 the same grave that entombs the Sabbath ; and our 
 epitaph will stand forth a warning to the world-" 
 
 TH£ END. 
 
Date Due 
 
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 IN U. S. A. 
 
 
 
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 Princeton Thpological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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