ADVERTISEMENT.

IN presenting to the public the following remarks on the history, authority, and use, of the Sabbath, I feel that some apology is due from me in consequence of the late publication, on the same subject, of some excellent discourses by my worthy friend, Daniel Wilson, of Islington. Such an apology is the more necessary, because our views on the subject very much correspond, and we have treated it on nearly the same plan.

The fact is, however, that my own opinions respecting the Sabbath had been long previously formed; and I had arranged the order of the present little work, before I had the opportunity of perusing his useful volume. While, therefore, I sincerely thank him for some valuable information, which was not before equally familiar to me, I consider it right to persevere in presenting to my fellow Christians, of every name, this humble effort for their good.

Persons who are desirous of promoting the religious welfare of the community, occupy in the present day a variety of stations, and their

influence extends itself in very different directions. How important then that each should perform his own part faithfully, and thus that all should be labouring in the common cause of righteousness and truth!

Among the early Christians, the first day of the week was almost universally called the Lord's day-an appellation for which we have apostolic authority, in the book of Revelation. Since, however, this title includes the sacred name, the familiar use of it appears to be undesirable ; and I have therefore more usually adopted the term Sabbath day. In applying to the Christian's day of rest and worship, the name of SABBATH, I consider that I am fully justified, both by the simple meaning of the word, and by the express language of the fourth commandment.

Should the evidences, which I am about to adduce, be the means of convincing any doubtful mind of the divine authority of this institution, or of quickening the diligence of any of my readers in the observance of its duties, I shall regard it as a fresh call for gratitude to that Being, without whose blessing no labour of Christian love can ever prosper.

THE moral, and therefore permanent, nature of that divine institution which devotes every seventh day to a holy rest, may be fairly deduced from the earliest record relating to the subject. The history of the glorious works which occupied, in succession, the six days of creation, is completed by the following description of the FIRST SABBATH.

*

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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 sancti

* The name Sabbath, (as I presume most of my readers are aware), properly signifies rest. The Hebrew substantive a, is obviously from a root formed of the same consonants, and signifying to cease from labour. See Heb. Lexicon.

·fied it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made;" Gen. 2: 1-3.

There are two points in this passage, which mark the moral and spiritual character of the Sabbath. The first is, that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. He bestowed upon it a blessing above that of other days; and therefore, in all generations, those who rightly observed it were to be blessed in the use of it. He also sanctified it; by which we are to understand, that he set it apart, or consecrated it, to religious purposes.

The Jewish Talmudists pretend, that this consecration of the seventh day was simply prospective; and that the mention of it, in this passage, is nothing more than an allusion to a law, which was long afterwards to be enacted for the benefit of the Israelites alone.

The

currency of such an opinion among these doctors, is easily explained; for the Jews have ever been jealous of admitting the Gentiles to a participation in their religious polity. Had they allowed that the Sabbath was instituted in the first age of the world, they could not have denied that it was a provision of divine wisdom and mercy for the use of all mankind: but by fixing its earliest origin at the time of the Exodus, they restricted this ordinance to themselves. Accordingly, the observance of the Sabbath was forbidden to the proselytes of the gate; as those Gentiles were called, who believed in the truth of the Iraelitish theology, but did not (as it were) make themselves

Jews by adopting all the Mosaic ceremonies. The Talmudists decided that no Gentiles were authorized to observe that holy day, except the proselytes of justice, i. e. persons who conformed, in every other respect, to the ritual of Judaism.*

Now although the opinion of the Talmudists, respecting this passage, has been adopted by some learned men who were much accustomed to the perusal of their works, (for instance, John Selden and Dr. Gill), it appears to rest on a very weak foundation. Every

plain reader of Scripture, I think, must understand from these verses, that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day immediately after the creation; and, if he then blessed and sanctified it, common sense forbids our supposing that no effect was to be produced by his doing so, except on one small division of mankind, after the lapse of two thousand five hundred years. We may surely rather conclude from our premises, that the Creator at once set the day apart for holy uses, and graciously bestowed the blessing of the sabbatical institution on the whole human race.

There is, however, a second reason suggested by this passage of Scripture, for our regarding the Sabbath as a moral and spiritual institution, namely, that it was founded on a divine pattern on the example of God himself. God sanctified the seventh day, or set it apart for holy uses, BECAUSE in it he had rested from

* See Selden de Jure Nat. et Gent. juxta Disciplinam Ebræorum, Lib. 3, cap. 9, 10.