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ers refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." That this passage is prophetical of Christ is acknowledged by the generality of divines, for it is expressly referred to him in the New Testament", but that "the day which the Lord hath made," relates to the Christian observance of the sabbath is a position not so easily defined. By various commentators it is variously explained *; but it is most commonly understood of the day on which Christ rose from the dead. Bp. Horsley seems to take it for the day of the resurrection, for he explains this and the cxviith psalm of the angelic host attending round the throne of God in heaven, with Messiah the conqueror in his train, the redeemed. In this, as in several instances of his posthumous notes in the psalms, he is probably more fanciful than just; but whatever may be intended by the expression, it must be allowed to be somewhat ambiguous, and it would there

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Ps. cxviii. 19-24.

Matt. xxi. 42. Mark xii. 10. Luke xx. 17. Acts iv. 11. Ephes. ii. 20. 1 Peter ii. 4.

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Michaclis, Nota Uberiores in Hagiographos, in loc.; Poli Synop. in loc. Dwight strenuously urges it in favour of the perpetuity of the sabbath, but his reasoning is glaringly weak: no unusual thing with that writer.

fore be injudicious to found an argument on it in reference to the present question.

Discarding testimony of so dubious a character, we may rely upon the before-cited passages from Isaiah, the first of which clearly, and the other two most probably, predict the continuance of the sabbath under the gospel dispensation. They are not, however, to be received as isolated passages, having no mutual bearing and relationship: they reflect light and strength upon each other and any one of them being proved to foretel that the sabbath was to continue under the dispensation of grace, confirms, in no trifling degree, the same interpretation of the others. Considered in their combined evidence and force, no rational doubt can remain that, agreeably to the predictions of the evangelical prophet, the sabbath was an institution designed to last to the termination of this sublunary scene.

To the inquiry which has formed the subject of this section, whether the sabbath was to survive, or to be abrogated with Judaism, a satisfactory answer may now be returned, For let the conclusions which have been already established be recapitulated, and candidly considered. has been proved in the former part of this work; that the sanctity of the seventh day, was originally declared by the Almighty upon finishing the work of creation, and that the command

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was addressed to the whole human race. In the present chapter it has been shewn, that, notwith. standing its being adopted into the Hebrew ritual with some peculiar rites and observances, which have been briefly described, it did not thereby become a mere Jewish festival; that, while these rites and observances were necessarily abrogated along with the polity of which they constituted a part, all that is essential to the sabbatical institution survived; that its sanctity, being anterior to, and independent of the law, did not cease with Judaism; that several circumstances in regard to the sabbath, even under the Mosaic economy, designated it for a perpetual ordinance; and that there are express intimations in the Old Testament that the sabbath was to be revived under the new covenant which the Lord God would establish in the latter days. So far, then, from being annulled by the dissolution of the Levitical law, it received additional sanction from its adoption into that law.

Thus in tracing the history of the sabbath, through the period of the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, the sanctification of it at the creation has not been abrogated by any declaration in the inspired records of the Old Testament; and as a divine command must continue in force for ever, unless repealed by the same authority by which it was promulged, the sabbatical law

remains still incumbent upon all mankind unless it be repealed in the Christian Scriptures, to the authority of which we bow with submissive reverence. Our next inquiry, therefore, is, whether any, and what alteration has been made in it by our blessed Lord, and his Apostles.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION UNDER THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.

SECT. I.

The sabbatical institution, so far from being abrogated, is enjoined in the New Testament.

By the preceding investigation the way is prepared for the most important inquiry into the nature and obligation of the sabbath under the gospel dispensation. Whatever law concerning it may have been promulged to the patriarchs or Israelites, if annulled by the authority of our Saviour, it is no longer binding upon Christians. The question then of highest interest is, whether it be repealed in the sacred records of Christianity, for upon its decision our duties in regard to the ordinance under consideration must depend.

Those who deny the religious obligation of the sabbath, confidently affirm that it is abolished by apostolical authority; in proof of which appeal

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