CL T^ 1 5 -a J5 1 en c ^ *^ IE xH O ' t 00 -H 1 ■ • ♦•^ . ^ +J >-»- *S) ^ o ZJ t:^ . $; ^ -P S S c in -H 4J ^ O ^ Eh ^ % CO c 1 - a ^ P4 C/) "^ (j^ 4J ** S ^. Q (0 ^ o§ .1 •^ *rj ^ W rH W O ^ -H O ^ c C Ok 0) & 0) CQ Q Eh ^ qI I 1 • 1 , 1 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION: TRACED AND DEFENDED 'ghtf^x^ n)i ^|op5. REV. FREDERIC DENISON,A.M Pastor of the Central Baptist Church, Norwich, Conn. " The Sabbath was made for man."— Mark ii. 27. PHTLABELPniA.: AMEBICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 18 5 5. I ftEC. APRlbdi \ PREFACE. Mr position in social and public life lias pressed upon my attention the various ques- tions that have arisen, and the different prac- tices that have obtained, in respect to the Institution here treated. I have endeavored to examine, as far as possible, ivith impartiality and in the light of Christian Philosophy, whatever has been written by competent men on this interesting and important subject. As I have found no work which discusses this Institution as a whole, in all its changes and adaptations, reaching from Eden to the end of time, meeting all the leading opposing positions that have been taken against it ; and as, in Divine Providence, I have been called to the responsibilities of a public teacher in these matters, I have felt necessitated, in duty to the people of my charge, and in faithfulness to the Lord of the Sabbath, to pursue the investigations and to prepare the train of thought here presented. My only indebtedness, deserving of mention, PREFACE. has been to Rev. A. A. Phelps, in a work of much merit on several points, though aimed to meet a special issue, entitled " An Argument for the Perpetuity of the Sabbath." I have no desire to appear as a polemic. I have chosen to assail no man and no party. My aim has been positive instead of negative. I have looked for truth, not men. I have merely contended against positions ; and I have done this only in the defence of principles. I can love and respect those from whom I am compelled in opinion to differ. And however kindly and fraternal our feelings, only a full, frank, faithful discussion of the truth can ever bring us from our necessarily different social and educational stand-points to see, think, and practice alike. To such a discussion, with respect to such an end, this little volume, pre- pared perhaps too hastily, amidst the pressure of pastoral duties, is prayerfully, hopefully given. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. 1. Reasons for writing. — 2. General divisions of the subject. — 3. Best mode of considering a subject. — 4. Different stand-point from which the Sabbath Institution is viewed. — 5. Different views held. — 6 An important feature of the Divine Government. — 7. This feature illustra- ted by analogy— Father training his child.— 8. Key of explanation serviceable in tracing and defending the Sabbath Institution....pp. 9-18 PAUT FIRST. €\^z pistorg of llj£ Institution. CHAPTER I. Origin of the Institution and its History during the antedilu- vian AND PATRIARCHAL AGES. 1. Its history divided into four periods.— 2. First period. — 3. Origin of the Institution. — 4. Signification of word "sabbath." — 5. Man needed the Institution. — 6. Its time was merely the platform on which it stood. 7. Immaterial whether we understand " days" or " periods.'' — Remarks of Hugh Miller. — 8. The Institution in Eden. — 9. Its observance du- ring the antediluvian and patriarchal ages — Frequency of its mention. 10. Necessary to social public worship — Instances of such worship. 11. Division of time into weeks — " Heptade of days"—" Weeks." — 12. Sep- tenary division of time originated by the Institution pp. 19-30 CHAPTER II. Restoration of the Institution to the Isr.aelites on their emancipation from egypt. 1. The question of its restoration. — 2. Duration, nature and results of the bondage — Facts stated.— 3. Evidence from the plagues. — 4. Res- toration of the Institution a prime end to be secured by the deliver- b CONTENTS. ance — Proofs. — 5. Hebrews coerced into idolatry. — 6. Signification of words " feast" and " sign." — 7. The deliverance best explained by the restoration of the Institution — Explanation ofDeut. v. 12-15 — Expo- sition of Ex. xTi.— Distribution of the manna. — 8. Eeasons in the Decalogue. — 9. Two reasons why the Institution could not be a memo- rial of the deliverance — The ordinances that memorialized the deliver* ance pp. 31-45 CHAPTER in. Incorporation of the Institution into the politico-religious CODE OF THE JeWS. 1. IMosaic economy made up of two kinds of enactments. — 2. The Sabbath Institution incorporated as a posiiii'e requirement — Positii e laws in regard to its observance. — 3. The Jewish economy was politico- religious — Certain distinctions then unknown. — 4. Certain distinctions to be borne in mind. — 5. The Sabbath Institution originally moral in its essence — Mixed economy suited to the Hebrews. — 6. Substance of the Decalogue originally moral — made positive however to the world for a time. — 7. General feature of the Divine Government recalled. — 8. De- sign of the Hebrew polity. — 9. Position of the Sabbath Institution — What if it terminated with the Hebrew economy pp. 46-64 CHAPTER IV. History and Rank of the Institution under the Christian dispensation. 1. When the Christian dispensation commenced. — 2. Recognition and observance of the Institution in its Jewish form by Christ and his dis- ciples — Observed in its Jewish form till after Christ's resurrection — Change of time to be treated in Part Second.— 3. Institution observed by all Christians down to the present time— Ebionites — " The Lord's Day" — " Sunday." — 4. Moral rank of the Institution under the new dispensation — Remark of Andrew Fuller. — 5. All the items of the Decalogue raised to a purely moral rank under the gospel. — 6. Church and State united — Church and State divorced — Stereotyped patterns — Extempore patterns — Basis of general principles — Col. ii. 16, 17. — 7. Jewish Sabbath could not pass over to the new dispensation. — 8. Change of time no injury to the Institution — May be a great benefit — The Institution should have respect to the work of Redemption. — 9. Old dispensation must not ovei-lap the new — Institution stands higher and stronger than ever pp. 54-66 CONTENTS. PART SECOND. ^)^t txmz Hppropriatib to l^c |nsiUntion. CHAPTER I. Time appropriated to the Institution under the first or educa- tional DISPENSATION. 1. Divisions of Subject. — 2. Necessary distinction between the Insti- tution and the time it may occupy. — 3. Holiness not literally predicated of time. — 4. Mcde of observing the Institution has been changed three times. — 5. Institution adapted to the Divine manifesta- tions. — 6. The day observed in Paradise and in the early ages — Reasons — Divine example — great purposes. — 7. Ancient time of beginning and ending days — Svich reckoning nonsuited to the race. — 8. Day kept by the Jews. — 9. Was the ancient reckoning lost — Not necessary to have been preserved — Jewish feature of the Decalogue. — 10. Some par- ticulars of the three modes of observing the Institution — Distinc- tions , ..pp. 67-75 CHAPTER II. Time appropriated to the Institution under the final or redemp- tive dispensation. 1. Practice of Christians. — (a). 2. Fact of the change of day — Christ's practice after his resurrection — " In eight days" — " Forty days." — 3. Practice of Apostles and first churches. — 4. Meauingof phi'ase "The Lords' Day"— Apostle John— Ignatius— 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2— Irenfeus— Ter- tullian— Martyrs— Justin Martyr— Theodoret— Prof. Stuart— Theophi- lus — Dionysius — Barnabas — Ambrose — Augustine — Athanasius — Eusebius— Neander. (&). 5. Change made by the Authority of Christ —The Apostles his Legates.— 6. " The Law and the Testimony — 7. Manner in which the New Testament instructs us.— 8. Three reasons for the change of the day— Testimony of Neander.— 9. How the Insti- tution now stands pp. 76-89 CONTENTS. PART THIRD. ^^t Paimcr of ^bserfeittg ilje Institution. CHAPTER I. Different modes of observing the Institution under the eaelt dispensations. 1. Divisions of subject. — 2. The Institution made for man — Associa- ted with the Divine Manifestations — Changes necessary. — 3. Manner in which tlie Institution was observed in Eden. — 4. Manner of its observance after the Fall — In patriarchal ages. — 5. Mode of its obser- vance among the Hebrews pp. 90-94 CHAPTER II. Manner of observing the Institution under the Christian dis- pensation. 1. Practical part of our subject — Institution moral and binding on all the race. — 2. A Divine requisition. — 3. Our need of the Institution. — 4. Its glorious significancy as contemplated from the Christian stand- point. — 5. We need it as individuals. — 6. Need it as families. — 7. Need it as communities. — 8. Testimony of observing men. — 9. Its great religious ends. — A check to worldliness — Abstinence from secular engagements — Example of John Adams. — 10. Designed for religious and spiritual purposes. — 11. Reading and study of the Sci'iptures. — 12. Social public worship. — 13. Prayer and praise. — 14. Works of mercy and benevolence — 15. Preparation in thoughts and habits for the services of the everlasting Sabbath pp. "94-108 THE SABBATH mSTITUTIOK INTRODUCTION. 1. The Divine Institution ordained by the Creator in Eden, and pronounced by the Saviour of the world to have been made for ''' man," i. e. the race — is one of great interest. We are prompted to treat of it thoroughly at this time, by several practical considerations — (1) There exists a lamentable diversity of opinion and practice in regard to this Institution ; some holding to the observance of the seventh day of the week as Sabbath time, or the Sabbath ; some regarding the first day of the week as the proper time appropriated to the Institution; some .holding that the Institution has been utterly abrogated ; and some, as might naturally be supposed from such confusion around them, resting in no definite views whatever. (2) Everywhere, in our land and in the Vv'orld, this Institution is too little understood and observed. (3) Even among Christians it is too slightly studied and defended, as is evinced by the little that is said and written 10 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. upon it of a thorough, philosophical character, (4) Above all, the intrinsic value of the Institu- tion to every man, to every family, to the whole world, involving, as it does, the religious instruc- tion and culture, the happiness, peace and pros- perity of every person and every community, demands that it should be explained, adopted and defended. Indeed, every lover of truth, every friend of man and every servant of God, must feel solicitous that this Divine Institution should be rightly apprehended and devoutly observed. 2. That our thoughts may be sufficiently com- prehensive, while at the same time they shall be so explicit as to meet every important point of inquiry, we shall present the subject of THE SABBATH INSTITUTION under three general heads or divisions : — I. The History of the Institution. II. The Time Appropriated to the Institution, III. The Manner of Observing the Institution. But before coming directly to the discussion of our subject, it may not be improper, owing to the common hasty mode of approaching and deciding upon the matter, to offer a iQ\Y prefatory, caution- ary thoughts. 3. In order to secure clear and just views of any object, it is important that we view it from a pro- per and commanding point of observation ; or^ INTRODUCTION. 11 what is still better, and as is possible in most cases, we should first deliberately survey the object from a distance on every side of it, and then gradually approach it in our observations on every accessible side. Thus, when we finally stand upon the object itself, we shall far better realize its magnitude, character and relations, than if we had only partially observed it on one of its sides, or had hurriedly rushed upon its broad summit as our only stand-point. And thus we propose to examine the Sabbath Institution. 4. It is a note-worthy fact that the Sabbath In- stitution has been viewed from different and iso- lated positions ; and this fact sufficiently explains the different and often too exclusive estimates and. conclusions that have obtained in reference to it. Some of these positions have been necessarily dif- ferent, while others have been purely optional, and, not a few, the determinations of uninformed minds. Our first parents necessarily occupied one posi- tion, the paradisaical, in primitive and unclouded hght. The antediluvians and patriarchs occupied another position, less spiritual and elevated, on account of man's fall. The Jewish Church stood in yet another position, to which they were mira- culously raised and on which they stood by dis- tinctive positive interposition and command. The Christian Church and the Christian world occupy 12 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. another position still, far higher and more com- manding than the previous ones, enjoying all their advantages in connection with new light shining without clouds through a moral and spiritual rather than a positive disposition of the religious world. 5. Still, even in the Christian world, we find much diversity of specific position from which the Institution is surveyed and estimated ; for with the advantages of the same general position and light, men differ in their perceptive powers and educa- tional biases. Some regard the Sabbath as an Institution, as an appointment of God for the religious improve- ment of the race — making a clear distinction be- tween the appointment or Institution, and the time devoted to its observance. Others regard the Sabbath as a particular day — as identical with a given day or measurement of time, and so they seem at least to contend for time-keeping rather than for an Institution proper. The latter keep the seventh day of the week, reckoning from the Jewish Sabbath, and after the manner of the Jews in beginning and ending their days with the ap- pearance of the stars ; while the former appropri- ate to the Institution the first day of the week, reckoning from the resurrection of Christ, and after the usual manner of mankind in the matter of beginning and ending the days. There are, indeed, two other classes deserving INTRODUCTION. 13 mention. Some think that the Sabbath originated and ended by positive divine command with the Jewish nationahty; and hence they suppose that the duty of its observance is now a purely pru- dential consideration, something altogether optional. Others contend that it has been authoritatively abolished, and that now there is no such Institu- tion, that all days and seasons are alike and to be observed in like manner ; hence they have no Sabbath at all. Now, this diversity of views has certainly arisen from the different stand-points from which the In- stitution has been surveyed. Some view it from a positive, others from a moral stand-point ; the positive presents its Jewish, the moral presents its Christian aspects. Some look upon its obser- vance as a legally instituted duty, found only in statute form ; others regard its observance as a morally preceptive obligation, every where found in implied principles, as well as in inspired prac- tice. Though both these classes agree in respect to its divinely revealed authority, and its obligative- ness upon the whole human family, since it '•'^ was made for man," and for man in paradise even, yet the one class hold it in its Jewish aspects, with the old provincial time-table, while the other class hold it in its distinguishing Christian adaptations and aspects with a time-table suited to all zones and nations. The ^rs^ regard it as simply commemo- o* 1,4 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. rative of the seventh day of creation, and perhaps typical of heaven, though this last idea seem not connected with the iirst ; the second regard it as monumental of the week and the work of creation, also commemorative of man's redemption evidenced in Christ's resurrection, and so typical of the rest of heaven purchased by the conquest of death. The second of these positions is the one which we occupy, since it both comports with the genius and history of the Institution, and necessarily grows out of the letter and spirit of the Christian dispensation, as we shall hereafter take pains to show. 6. It may be proper here to observe, that there is one marked feature of the Divine Government which we do well to study, and always bear in mind when we are considering God's appoint- ments ; and which throvv's important light upon our study of the history of the Sabbath Institution, and the different changes that have been appointed in reference to it. We allude to the well known distinction, and yet the intended ultimate connec- tion between what, in the Divine Government, is positive and what is moral. Some thing's are positive, and some things are moral. And the same thing may at one time be positive in form, while at a subsequent time it may be purely moral. The order of the Divine Government is from posi tive to moral. INTRODUCTION. 15 7. But perhaps I can best present this feature by an analogy from a supposed case, that will easily be understood, Take the case of a father wishing to train up his son to self-control, extensive knowledge, and wide responsibilities, — to such views, feelings, principles and habits as shall qualify him for the widest usefulness, the noblest enjoyments, the most active responsibilities and the loftiest self- achieved destiny ; how does the parent proceed in this work ? He would direct his efforts to two inter-related things: (1) the inculcation of knowledge; and (2), the formation of a strong moral character ; that is, the conjoined intellectual and moral education of the child. And throughout this whole process of training, the requirem.ents of the father and the obedience of the son must be based upon the dis- tinction, and yet the final connection between v/hat is positive and what is moral — between ''v/hat is right because it is appointed and what is appointed because it is right. At first, with the child every- thing would be positive, though with the design of becoming finally moral. The principles of what is moral, though they admit of that variety in form and manner which necessarily follows the varying and modifying of relations and conditions, are yet of perpetual obligation ; while the things that are positive may be binding at one time and utterly 16 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. abolished at another. The moral obligation re- quires the child to obey the parent in all things ; the positive command requires the child to obey the parent in a particular instance and in a parti- cular way, which, indeed, may never again recur. In the process of training, the positive precedes the moral, and makes way for it. In the intellectual training of the child the father would begin with elementary truths and proceed gradually to those that were higher, always plac- ing the simple before the complex, the easy before the abstruse, making each advance the stepping- stone to a further elevation. He would follow the ordained law of human nature, that of develop- ment and progress, and while touching and stimu- lating, yet not violating the principle of self-action in the child, would constantly seek to strengthen and enlarge that principle, having respect all along to the child's attainable majority, manhood and maturity. In forming the moral character of the child in conjunction with hisintellectual training, the father would pursue nearly the same course, only making it more rigid and extensive. Beginning witli the elementary rules of moral conduct, he would gra- dually proceed to such as were higher — at each step adapting his rules, given in a positive form, to the child's age, state and relations. He would also employ such illustrations and analogies, such INTRODUCTION. 17 facts and experiments, as would fix the precepts in the mind, impress the heart and conscience, and thus further the great design of moral education. Net unlikel}^ he might from lime to time institute certain experiments with his son to facilitate this education. He would likewise enforce all the lessons of duty with simple and explicit authority. And be it specially remarked, at first all the re- quirements would be positive, and their authority would be maintained, not upon the grounds of reason, for these the child could not as yet appre- ciate, but upon the ground of simple command and purposely instituted rewards and punishments. After this general manner as best suited to the child's state, he would inculcate the ideas of right and wrong, and impress, mould and direct all the moral faculties. With positive, absolute and in- violate rules, h^ would gradually train up his son, revealing to him the reason of things and their moral bearings with their ultimate results, as he should become capable of understanding and adopt- ing them. And be it remembered, the rules that were at first positive in form would gradually become moral. Every wise father would follow this course of tuition and training, beginning with what was ele- mentary in a positive form, though moral in essence, and enforcing the moral by the positive until the child should perceive and feel the moral as such, 18 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. and so appreciate and obey the parental government on the highest p-rounds, recognisincr the moral as being much more obligatory if possible than what was simply and only positive. The law of the whole course would be that of development and proo;ress, from lower to higher, from particular to genera], from positive to moral, enlarging the capa- city, consciousness, and self-activity of the child with respect to the greatest power, freedom, useful- ness and efficiency. Now may not this suppositive case afford by way of analogy an illustration of the method which God has actually appointed and pursued in instruct- ing, training disciplining generic man — the human family. He has created the race subject to a law of progress in knowledge and in grace. In his dispensations to mankind he has followed this law, by giving to the world in the first ages certain positive commands which in due time became purely moral, as Ave shall hereafter have occasion to prove, And our suppositive case affords an easy, natural, necessary key to the history of the Sabbath Insti- tution, an institution made for man — the race. > The general laws presented in the above analogy will serve to explain the changes — changes in the mode of observing, and the change of time appropriated to the Institution of which we shall be called to speak in the treatment of our subject. PAKT FIKST THE HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THE INSTITUTIOX, AND ITS HISTOEY DURING THE ANTEDILUVIAN AND PATKIARCHAL AGES. 1. The history of the Sabbath Institution may be most profitably studied by dividing it into four periods or parts; (1) The origin of the Institution and its history during the antediluvian and patri- archal ages ; ( 2 ^ The restoration of the Institu- tion to the Israelites on their emancipation from Egypt; (3) The incorporation of the Institution into the politico religious code of the Jews ; ( 4 ) The history and rank of the Institution under the Christian dispensation. 2. Following this natural historic order we are in the first place to consider, The origin of the Institution, and its history during the antediluvian and patriarchal ages. 3. The record of the origin of the Institution is found in Gen. ii. 2. 3 : ^^ 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 20 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. he had made ! And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Thus reads the original date of the Institution. Nor does it matter at all as to the origin of the In- stitution or the proportional measure of time appro- priated to it whether the word '^day" in this record is to be understood as a ^' literal day" or a "period." 4. The word "sabbath" signifies cessation ; rest ; it is derived from the Hebrew verb, to cease; to rest. God rested and so established by his own example and authority the sabbath or rest— a season for reli- gious review, study and contemplation. He blessed and sanctified the appointment for man as a season of rest for worship. He appointed the Institution to be a source of blessings, and required, after his example, that it should be sanctified or set apart for sacred and holy purposes. 5. Thus the Institution being made for man was coeval with his creation : and man's first day was a day of religious study, of praise and hol}^ duties. As this was before man's apostacy, we learn that even in a state of sinlessness man needed t'his In- stitution. Since he was a free moral agent, a proba- tioner, a subject of the divine government exposed to temptation, a candidate for immortality, he needed an appointment oft-recurring in which he should separate himself from common worldly em- ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 21 ployments, devoutly remembering the Creator and Ruler, reverently contemplating his works and ren- dering to him for all his bounteous goodness the tribute of thankful praise. So man was to keep the Lord always before bis face. 6. The time appointed to the Institution was of course wholly subsidiary to the objects of the Insti- tution : it was merely the platform on which the Institution stood, and not the Institution itself; which platform might in following ages be enlarged and elevated by new efforts and associations of the divine mind and divine procedure, as has actually been the case, without at all impairing the Institu- tion itself. Indeed the Institution might have ex- isted in all its force and integrity altogether apart from the particular division of time on which it was placed, had God so chosen — say on a division of sixes, eighths or fives in regard to days. Neither the day nor the division of days was the Institution, but merely the platform on which God in his wisdom chose to set the Institution. Nor was the bodily rest which was positively eftjoined the Institution : the rest was only preparatory and subsidiary to the spiritual intent and religious purposes of the ap- pointment. 7. Nor is it material in our argument whether the word ^' days" in Genesis, should be understood as '^literal days''' as many strenuously contend, or '*periods^^ of indefinite length, as others are con- 3 22 TOE SABBATH INSTITUTION. fident that they can show. If we are to understand them as <•'■ literal days''' there of course can be no difficuli}'-. Nor are we able to see any serious diffi» culty if we understand them as '^ periods.''' To use the language of one of the most accomplished and enlightened writers of the present age; — "It has been urged that this scheme of periods is irreconcilable with that divine season for the Insti- tution of the Sabbath which he who appointed the day of old, has in his goodness vouchsafed to man. I have failed to see any force in the objection, God, the Creator, who wrought during six periods, rested during the seventh period; and as we have no evidence v/hatsoever that he re-commenced his work of creation — as on the contrary, m.an seems to be the last formed of creatures — God ma}^ be resting still. The presumption is strong that his sabbath is an extended period, not a natural day, and that the w^ork of redemption is his sabbath-day's work. And so I cannot see that it in the least in- terferes with the integrity of the reason rendered, to fead it as follows : — work during six periods, and rest on the seventh : for in six periods the Lord created the heavens and the earth, and' on the seventh period He rested. The divine periods may have been very great, the human periods very small ; just as a vast continent or the huge earth itself is very great, and a map or geographical globe very sm.all ; but if, in the map or globe, the ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 23 proportions be faithfully maintained, and the scale, though a minute, be true in all its parts and appli- cations, we pronounce the map or globe, notwith- standing the smallness of its size, a faithful copy. Were man's sabbath to be kept as enjoined, and in the divine proportions, it would scarcely interfere with the logic of the reason annexed to the fourth commandment, though in this matter, as in all others in which man can be an imitator of God, the imitation should be a miniature one." — The Two Records. By Hugh Miller. 8. Our first parents in Eden, though they re- ceived both the Institution and its time in the form of positive command, as every new Institution must be received, doubtless immediately appre- hended it as a moral requisition as an appointment most fitting and happy. They instantly recognised its miOral character as giving explanation and weight to its positive aspect : for, as yet, while they had not been blinded and stupified by sin, they could readily apprehend the connection and point of dis- tinction between what was moral and what was positive — which fallen man is so slow to perceive, and hence needs that rigid and protracted training under positive requisitions to which, during his history, God has subjected him. 9. Of the observance of the Institution during the antediluvian and patriarchal periods we need to speak somewhat particularly, since some have 24 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. presumed to doubt whether during these periods it was really known. We do well to recollect that the history of these periods, of about two thousand five hundred years, is condensed into a single book and a few chapters of another; by far the greater part of which so brief record is devoted to the history of Abraham and his descendants. So we must not expect that any one thing or any one Institution, be it marriage, sacrifices, circumcision, public worship or the Sabbath Institution would be consecutively or prominently treated. And it may be noticed that this Institution is mentioned only five times in all those parts of the Scriptures, both prophetic and historic, which pertain to the period beginning v/ith the time of Moses and reaching to the return from the Babylonian cap- tivity — a period of one thousand years. And in the histories of Joshua, of the Judges, of Samuel, and of Saul — a period of about five hundred ^^ears — this Institution is not mentioned once. It might therefore be asked, had the Jews no Sabbath ? We know they had. Because therefore so little is said in the book of Genesis upon the subject of this Institution, is it at all reasonable to suppose, as some have done, that the Institution was then unknown? As well might we suppose that Noah preached no particular doctrine, because we have no record of his sermons. Or as well might we conjecture that the Jews had no Sabbath from Joshua to David — ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 25 five hundred years — because no record is made of it ; or that they were without circumcision from Joshua to Jeremiah — eight hundred years — because no mention is made of that. But it is not true, as some have presumed to assert, that there is no mention of this Institution during the periods in question. In the first place, there stands the fuli explicit historical fact of the origin and object of the Institution in Gen. ii. 2, 3, upon which we have already spoken. And tije Scriptures of after times, where they speak of the Institution, refer for its origin and authority to the above-mentioned record. And as the Insti- tution was ordained for man — the race — as much as was any rehgious duty, since it belonged to an estabhshed relation of man to God, it pertained as much to the antediluvian and patriarchal age as to any other. And it was doubtless observed in those early ages by all that feared God, vWth great punctiliousness, since with it, as a part of its manner of observance, was connected the duty of offering sacrifices — sometimes termed *< feasts of the Lord" — the original appointment of w-hich is nowhere specified in the history referred to. These sacrifices, with other duties, such as pubhc prayer and praise, constituted the regular Sabbath services, for the performance of which duties none will doubt there were express divine appointments, though they are not mentioned. 3* 26 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. 10. Indeed, it cannot be doubted, that in those early times men were accustomed to meet regularly at stated times for social public religious worship, for which end they certainly needed the Sabbath Institution. The first distinct record of social religious worship, though it could not have been the first that occurred, is found in Gen. iv. 3, 4 ; "in process of time," or literally "^ at the end of days,^^ Cain and Abel brought their respective offerings before the Lord. Here a certain measure of days is distinctly mentioned. What was that measure of days ? It appears that some measure w^as established. And what could that be but the Sabbath ? No other has been previously men- tioned. The next instance of social public wor- ship is in Gen. iv. 26 : " Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." This undoubtedly refers to the general or more prevalent establish- ment of that public worship which hitherto might have been confined to families. And throughout the book of Genesis we find that wherever the patriarchs pitched their tents, with a view of remaining for any length of time, they invariably erected altars for social public wor- ship. This worship belonged to the Sabbath Insti- tution. When Noah came out of the ark, Gen. viii. 20, he "builded an altar unto the Lord." When Abraham entered Canaan, Gen. xii. 7, " there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 27 appeared unto him ;" and v. 8, when he ^^ pitched his tent," "on the east of Bethel," ^Uhere he builded an akar unto the Lord." On his return from Egypt, Gen. xiii. 3, 4, ^^with his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him," he came "to Bethel, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there he called on the name of the Lord." When he separated from Lot, V. 18, " he removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord." And subsequently he observed public religious wor- ship, (Gen. xxi. 33,) " in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God." Now, why were these altars, sacrifices and prayers ? Where is the specific record of their appointment ? Was such a record necess- sary ? And how often were they attended to ? Were they not a part of Sabbath services ? When Isaac "dwelt in Gerar," (Gen.xxvi.) 25, '^ he builded an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord." When Jacob " pitched his tent before Shalem, (Gen. xxxiii. 18, 20,) "he erected there an altar, and called it God, the God of Israel." And Jacob and all his family were commanded, (Gen. xxxv. 1-7,) '^ Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God ;" for they had polluted themselves by idolatry ; and they did as they were commanded ; 28 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. and Jacob " built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel." When Jacob took up his journey with his family to go down into Egypt to see Joseph, he *^came to Beersheba, (Gen. xlvi. 1,) that long established place of worship, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac." Now, the above instances found in the brief record, are quite sufficient to establish the fact of regular social public worship among the patriarchs and their large famihes or tribes ; for their fami- lies, including servants, laborers and attendants, owned and hired, constituted no small communi- ties, or tribes, and it was specially for the benefit of these households or communities that these altars were erected and the public worship con- ducted. These all required the Sabbath Institution. 11. And throughout the periods of which we are speaking, as well as afterwards, their religious services and arrangements bore the impress of sevens, and hence are to be considered in this relpect also as so many mementoes of time, being regularly reckoned by weeks, and therefore proofs of the Sabbath Institution. When Noah was abbut to go into the ark, God commanded, (Gen. vii. 2:) <^ Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens." We learn that mourning was observed for "seven days," as in the case of Jacob, and also of Job's friends. And in later times we find almcst ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 29 every thing had the impress of sevens, so that seven has always been regarded as a sacred number. But we have also direct evidence that their time was reckoned by a division into weeks. When God threatened the flood, the language is, I'Gen. vii. 4 :) " for yet seven days," or literally, '■'after days yet seven,"" '^and I will cause it to rain." When all was ready for the dread catas- trophe, (Gen. vii. 10 :) '' it came to pass after seven days," or literally, " after a heptade of days,''^ ^^that the waters of the flood were upon the earth." When Noah sent out the dove, and she returned, (Gen. viii. 10:) "he staid yet other seven daj'-s," or literally, ''he waited yet a heptade of days," and sent her out again. And when she returned the second time, "he staid yet another seven days," or literally, "a heptade of days,^' "and sent her out again." When Jacob negotiated for his wife, the stipulation was in these words, (Gen. xxix. 27, 28:) ^'fulfil her week;'' "and Jacob did so, and fulfilled her tveck.^' True, here the word " week" is used in a figurative sense, meaning a week of years or seven years ; but the figurative sense must have arisen from a literal sense that existed. When Jacob died, and Joseph, with his brethren, went up to the burial. Gen. 1. 1 : "he made a mourning for his father seven days." 12. And now, how came this division of time so general, regular, and famihar ? It certainly was 30 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. not suggested by anything in nature ; it was not a division naturally marked out as are days, months — "new moons of days/' CGen. xxix. 14 ; Num. xi. 20, 21 ;) — and years. How came this division, therefore ? What first originated it ? What kept it in use ? To these questions no credible answer can be given, except this, that it originated with the Sabbath Institution, and was perpetuated by it. With this answer all is exphcable ; without it all is mysterious. But we have said quite enough in vindication of the Institution during these early ages, though more might be added. We have spoken at such length because some in their opposition to this Institution have endeavored to deny that it was known in the first ages — thus laboring to rank it as a merely Jewish institute : though such an attempt is a palpable denial of Christ's declaration that " the Sabbath is made for man" — for the religious benefit and improvement of the whole race. Thus far w^e have traced the history of the Insti- tution from its original appointment in the garden of Eden down through the antediluvian and patriarchal ages, till the descendants of Jacob are found in Egypt, from which they are to be called out as a peculiar people for the further manifesta- tion of Gud to the world. ITS ORIGIN AND IIISTORY 31 CHAPTER II. RESTORATION OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE ISRAELITES ON THEIR EMANCIPATION FROM EGYPT. . In accordance with our proposed order of inves» ligation, which is the natural historic order, we now come to consider : The restoration of the Institution to the Israel- ites on their emancipation from Egypt. 1. We speak of its restoration to the Jews, because, we think it clear, from the history given us, that the Institution had been lost, or forcibly torn away from them, during their bondage ; and because some writers ignorant of this fact, have thought that the mention of it in Ex. xvi., and the manner in which it is aftervv'ards alluded to in con- nection with the deliverance, offered evidence that it was now for the first time established, and hence that it was a peculiarly Jewish Institution in its whole history and design. Now we contend that all the facts and allusions in the case are naturally and clearly explicable only on the ground that the Institution had been forcibly destroyed by the Egyptian pov/er, and was now by divine interpo- sition restored to the emancipated Israelites. 2. The duration of the bondage cannot be deter- mined. From the time of its first announcement 32 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. to Abram to its expiration was about four hundred and thirty years ; but its actual beginning- was after the death of Joseph. The nature of this Londage was very severe, not only in respect to physical toil and privations, but especially in its religious enmities, oppressions and cruelties tend- ing to the deepest mental and moral imbecility, degradation and corruption ; and this was what more particularly elicited the divine judgments on the Egyptians, and the divine interventions for the seed of Abraham. As the bondage, beginning immediately after the days of Joseph, gradually increased, and the enslaved were scattered from Goshen over Egypt, and sorely tasked in building the costly Egyptian defences and treasure cities, they were deprived of the privilege of observing the Sabbath Institution, and so of maintaining their ancient customary divinely appointed sacrifices and services. Indeed, it will appear certain, as w^e study the record, that they were finally, if not immediatel}^, strictly forbidden to observe the Insti- tution, and offer their sacrifices, which, as we have seen, were inseparably connected with the Institution. And it may be observed, thatHo any people who have no written language, all their religious culture and privileges must stand or fall wnth this Institution. Now the animals which the Israelites offered in sacrifice, such as the bull, the heifer, the ram, the lamb, and the he-goat, were ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 33 a ponion of the gods of the Egyptians. The Egyptians, therefore, would peremptorily for- bid this sacrifice as a sacrilegious custom, among their slaves ; they would not suffer their slaves to slay and burn their gods ; and they would of course prohibit the observance of the Institution with which these sacrifices stood connected, and of which, indeed, they formed a conspicuous part. In this way the Jews lost the observance of the Sabbath Institution, which, among them afterwards, as undoubtedly among their fathers, was termed '' the feast of the Lord ;" that is, the day of sacri- fice. And in losing the observance of the Institu- tion, they necessarily lost all their religious rites ; and not improbably during their long and deep oppression they lost even the custom of reckoning their time by weeks, and adopted the custom from the Egyptians of reckoning their time by "moons," which reckoning we find them in their after history so frequently employing. This view is certainly sustained by the divine record. God saw the deep oppression of the children of Abraham, his chosen people, and sovereignly interposed for their deliverance. His command to Pharaoh, through Moses and Aaron, was, (Ex. V. 1 :) " Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness :" as much as to say, Let them go that they may offer to me my appointed sacrifices in the wilderness, since here 4 84 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. in Egypt they are forbidden to do this. And Pharaoh said, '^V/ho is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither, will I let Israel go." Pharaoh's answer evinces the fact that the name and wor- ship of Jehovah was now unknown in the land, so long had that worship been prohibited. Even the Israelites themselves had lost the name of Jeho- vah : for v/hen God commissioned Moses to go unto them, (Ex. iii. 13:) "Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you : and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" So now the great question first to be settled before both the Egyptians and the Israehtes was, '^ TPlio is the Lord ?'^ Who is the Ruler of the world and of mankind t for this knowledge was now lost. Who shall be obeyed, the God of Jacob, or the gods of Egypt? 3. This important controversy was decided by the plagues, and this is the only manner in which the visitation of the plagues can be explained. Each plague v/as aimed against certain >of the Egyptian gods, until they all were shown to be no gods, and their priests impostors and deceivers. To the Egyptians the river Nile was sacred, and it abounded with river-gods ; and blood was an object of great abhorrence. The first plague ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 35 turned the sacred river into blood. So all these gods were confounded. Frogs, also, were sacred among the Egyptians; and they abominated uncleanness. The second plague filled the land with frogs, which died, and "they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank." Lice were objects of the greatest detestation, and were regarded as specially profaning their priests and temples. By the third plague, ^^all the dust of the land became lice," and so the greatest contempt was poured on every priest and every altar. Their favorite gods were the bull, the heifer, the ram, the he-goat. By the fifth plague, which was "a very grievous murrain," "all the cattle of Egypt died," "but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one." The Egyptians also adored the sun, moon and stars — the fountains of light. By the ninth plague, which brought ^'^ darkness over all the land for three days," these, their supposed divinities, were covered with "darkness that might be felt." So it was in substance with all the plagues. Says God : " Yea, against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord." The plagues were preparatory to the deliverance, by revealing the Name and Power and Prerogatives of the only Living and True God, the 1 AM. 36 THE SABBATH INSTITUTIO. . And these miracles were necessary for the con- viction and instruction of both the oppressor and the oppressed. Pharaoh and the Egyptians never knew God. The Israehtes had now forgotten him, so that Aaron had to work " signs in the sight of the people," and Moses complained ^^the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me." 4. That the restoration of the Sabbath Institu- tion was one of the prime ends to be secured by the deliverance, will very readily appear. The first requisition made of Pharaoh was in these words : ^''Let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." Upon Pharaoh's refusal, the demand was repeated in these words : ^^Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God." So \h.e feast was a ceremony of sacrifices, the same doubtless as was anciently practiced b}^ their fathers and the early patriarchs. But the king said unto them, " Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens ;" and Pharaoh said, ^"^ Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens ;" or literally, '^* ye cause them to sabbatize," or " keep sabbath from their burdens." And as each of the plagues was wrought, each successive request was, '^Let my people go, that they may serve me ;" thus virtually asserting that ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 37 they could not serve God in Egypt, that the Insti- tution, Avith which stood connected all their social public religious duties — "the feast of the Lord" — and upon which depended even the maintenance of private and family worship, since they had no books or written language, could not be observed when they were among the Egyptians. So Moses and Aaron said, " with our /lochs and herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord ;" « thou must give us sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God." It was not possible for them to resume and prac- tice the observance of the Divine Institution in Egypt Pharaoh, under the pressure of the plagues, finally consented to compromise the matter. He <' called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.^^ This was allowing that hitherto they had not been allowed thus to sacrifice among the Egyptians. And Moses' answer confirms the fact, and assigns the reason for it : " It is not meet so to do ; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord : lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and ivill they not stone usP''' or, as the Chaldee version of Exodus reads, ^"The beasts which the Egyptians worship, shall we offer in sacrifice ?" i. e. our sacrifices will be an abomination — will be sacri- legious to the Egyptians. Thus it is clear that 4* 38 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION, the Israelites had not the privileges and rights of worship in the land of their bondage ; and all these rights and privileges stood in the Divine Institution of which we are treating. 5. We also learn from certain quite unmistake- able allusions in their after history that many of them — probably most of them — while in Egypt actually practised the idolatries of Egypt into which at first they were probably coerced. On their reaching the promised land Joshua exhorted them thus, (Josh. xxiv. 14:) ^-Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood a7id in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord." And God said by the mouth of Ezekiel xx. 6 — 8 : ^^Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me, and would not barken unto me ; they did not every man cast away the abomi- nations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypty So we learn that during their bondage they for the most part became even habitual idolaters. And their loss of the Divine Institution with its attendant duties and its strong conservative power, and this gradually contracted habit of idolatry, explains — and nothing else will explain — their ready fall, or lapse into idolatry at Sinai, where they made and worshipped the golden calf. ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 39 But it is evident that their adoption of the Egyptian idolatry could not at first have been the result of their free choice; for, (Gen. xlvi. 34:) ^^ every shepherd was an abomination unto the Egyptians," and they were shepherds ; and again, (Gen. xliii. 32 :) " the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for they were an abomi- nation unto the Egyptians." The idolatry of the Israelites therefore must have been the result of compulsion. And this coercion and w^ickedness of their oppressors, which was doubtless universal and long continued with all the train of blinding results, explains why God visited the land with such severe and summary punishments, and also why he wrought such signs and wonders among the Hebrews. 6. That the term "feast," used in the requisition for their deliverance, has reference to the Sabbath Institution, will appear evident from what we find in Lev. xxiii, 2, 3: "^^ These are mj feasts: six days shall work be done : but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest:^^ then follow additional ap- pointments. And this u-as the feast kept by their fathers the patriarchs. This Divine Institution which marking the division of time into weeks, commemorating the week of creation, commemo- rating the powder, wisdom, goodness, authority, example and law of God, was a great Institu- tion for the world, was pre-eminently a "sign," 40 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. a symbol, a conspicuous . and sublime monu- ment of the God of the whole earth and the Ruler of mankind. It was therefore a standing reproof and condemnation of all idolatry, while at the same time it was eminently adapted and de- signed for man's intellectual elevation and spiritual culture. No wonder then that the Egyptians, and all idolaters of olden times and moderm times as w^ell, were anxious to destroy it. And the Hebrews were called out of Egypt, where this Institution had been violently and utterly demolished, that they, as a chosen people, might again erect this Divine Monument with all its included services and bless- ings, together with some new and peculiarly in- structive appointments, in behalf of themselves and of the whole world in all coming time. More- over, it was intended to set the Institution in new and stronger light, associating with it new demon- strations of the Divine Attributes, Character and Procedure, to prevent its being again lost, as its worth to man had now been proved by a painful experience. 7. Instead therefore of the deliverance being the primary reason for this Divine Institution, as some have hastily concluded, the Institution with all that was involved in it became the special reason for the deliverance — a reason, like all the reasons underlying the Hebrew economy, reach- ing not to the Hebrews alone, but to all mankind ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 41 in all following ages as well. The Divine Inter- position in Egypt \vas in behalf of the whole world. The confusion breathed upon the Egyp- tion gods and upon Egyptian cruelty and wicked- ness, was a lesson for the entire race in all their subsequent history : hence the inspired pen has recorded it. But the Israelites felt the lesson more immediately for themselves. Accordingly we find Moses saying, Deut. v. 12 — 15: "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates : that thy man servant and thy maid servant may rest (Sab- batize) as well as thou." God was anxious that the Institution should not again be lost, either by forgetfulness or by its violation on the part of any among- the Hebrews. And then follows in the next verse a particular reason drawn from their own painful history, why they should allow their men servants and maid servants to sabbatize as well as themselves ; " And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm." 42 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. Thus he would seem to say I am a jealous God for my Institution : it was made for man, and is of such worth to him, and so connected with my glory on earth, that I will sorely punish all who prohibit its observance, as I did the Egyptians. Certainly God does not here give, as some writers have conjectured the primary reason for the Insti- tution, for this he had given before in other places, as in Gen. ii. 2, 3; and Ex. xx. 11: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : loherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath dai/.^^ The primary reason for this Divine Insti- tution, is the Divine Work of Creation and the Divine Rest that followed. True, a secondary reason to the Hebrews may now be found in the wonderful and miraculous interventions of Jehovah in their rescue from consuming oppression. Hence the allusion to their bondage when enforcing the full observance of the Institution, was to remind them of their renewed and peculiar obhgation to God, and to warn them against treating their ser- vants as their masters and oppressors in Egypt had treated them. From the above considerations the question of the restoration of the Institution to the Hebrews on their emancipation seerns sufficiently estab- lished. And these considerations fully prepare us to understand the record respecting the giving ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 43 of the manna in Ex. xvi : where the Institution is so particularly mentioned, and about which Paley and other writers of less note have said so much and made such palpable mistakes. The first mention is found in v. 22: "And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two ounces for one man." Here distinct allusion is made to the division of time by weeks, as something already known, which had before been taught them by Moses. Again, verses 24, 26 : " And they laid it up till the morning. And Moses said, Eat that to-day ; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord : to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it : but on the seventh day which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." And in verses 28, 29 : God reproves some of them for going out on the seventh day to look for the manna. Thus the previous existence of the Institution is evinced, and especially by the language of the reproof: How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? The Institution had been previously known as a com- mandment and a law. Again the Lord said, " See, for that the Lord hath given you, (restored to you, for so the word is often used,^ therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days :" that is, since the Sabbath Institution is of previous obligation, and as I have commanded it, I will see to it that the apportionment of manna 44 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. shall not interfere with it ; I will give you your daily bread in such a manner that you may keep my Institution inviolate. 8. In accordance with the above remarks and harmonizing with the whole history, we find the Divine Institution as one of the items in the Decalogue: '^ Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"— remember it — keep it in mind — never again lose it — remember it as the ancient always existing Institution, reminding you and all man- kind that I am the Creator and Ruler of the world. Hence the Decalogue contains the historic fact on Avhich the Institution was based ; ^< For, in six daj^s 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." Again, Ex. xxxi. 13 : "Verily ray Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it — the Institution — is a sign between me and you throughout your generations : that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." You are my pecu- liar people, and this my peculiar Institution is for your sanctification. I have {appointed you to hold up my name and all the memorials of ni}'" power, wisdom, goodness and grace to the world. 10. That this Divine Institution Vv'as not simply a memento of the deliverance of the Hebrews, will further appear from two considerations : — First, that it has no fitness in itself to m.cmorialize ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 45 such an event. Every symbol, sign, type and memorial should have something in its position or structure calculated to recall or shadow forth the thing indicated or memorialized. But the Jews were not emancipated after seven or seven hundred years, or by seven plagues, or by any work or mark of Divine procedure that would make a septenary division of time a memorial of it. Nor was there anything in the deliverance that was symbolized by the essence, the body, spirit and intent of the Sabbath Institution. Second, the passover and the sanctijication of the first horn were ordinances now expressly instituted to memo- rialize the deliverance. Read Ex. xii. 1 — 27; and xiii. 1 — 16. These two ordinances possessed all the fitness in their form and manner of observance that is required in symbols or memorials. The passover specially was the ordained anniversary festival of the deliverance. But we have said enough about the restoration of the Institution to the emancipated Hebrews, much more than would have been necessary, had not certain writers asserted that it was first ap- pointed for the Israehtes, and was wholly Jewish in its requirements, design and history. 46 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. CHAPTER III. INCORPORATIOX OF THE INSTITUTION INTO THE POLITICO- EELIGIOUS CODE OF THE JEWS. We come now in the third stage of the history of the Institution to consider its incorporation into the politico-rehgioiis code of the Hebrews. 1. It ought to be borne in mind that the Jewish dispensation, commonly called the Mosaic economy, was made up of two kinds of enactments or Jaws. The one kind consisted of such as before existed, had always existed from the origin of the race corresponding v/ith the unchangeable relations of man ; the other class consisted of such as were now given for the first time, such as had special application to the Hebrews as a nation, as a chosen people for a chosen end, though some of the enact- ments had at the same time a very special pro- spective reference to the enlightenment and salva- tion of the world under a more perfect dispensation hereafter to be brought in. Both these kinds of enactments were united for the Jews making a new peculiar code — a Theocracy — a religious and civil economy of direct Divine appointment. The first class of laws, which were a summary of the common law of mankind, were written by the finger of God in tables of stone. Not so was ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 47 it with the other class : these had no such imper- ishable significancy, though they were of explicit import to the Jews. Even the passover, the sanc- tification of the first born, the appointment, offices and duties of the priesthood, the law of circum- cision, and the law of sacrifices, important as they all were, nevertheless were not honored by the finger of God in stone, but were committed to a book by the hand of Moses, as they belonged only to the Mosaic perishable economy. But the Sab- bath Institution was one of the laws honored in the tables of stone ; hence it stood among the fun- damental, imperishable laws ordained for the race, though for a time like all the items of the Decalogue, having peculiar Jewish aspects and appendages. 2. But we are now to notice the particular manner in which the Sabbath Institution was inwoven with the Mosaic economy. It was incor- porated into that economy or dispensation as a positive law or institute, as an item in their civil government. And so indeed were all the items of the Decalogue. In keeping this Divine Institu- tion, the Hebrews were naturally left without specific command at first to employ their usual, ancient time-table, the common reckoning of the whole world in those days, beginning and ending the days with the appearing of the stars ; but in respect to the maintenance of the Institution and the particulars as to the mode of its observance, 48 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. these things were very particularly, positively enjoined, and ever)^ violation was to be visited by speedy, capital punishment. Ex. xxxi. 14, 15 : "Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore : for it is holy unto you : every one that chjileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any ivork therein that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he . shall surely be jmt to death.'" Ex. xxxv. 2, 3 : " Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day." Num. xv. 32 — 36 : " And while the children of ilsrael were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they that found him brought him unto Moses and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward. And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall be. surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones, and lie died ; as the. Lord commanded Moses.^^ Jer. xvii. 2T: "But_ if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sab-, bath day, and not to bear burden, even entering, in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day : then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 49 shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." Thus strictly, positively, civilly was this Insti- tution enjoined, and every violation of it capitally punished. And, were this the place, we might show that violations of the other items of the deca- logue were punished in a like manner. 3. These considerations seem conclusively to show us, what is of very great consequence to us, that the Jewish economy was civil as well as reli- gious, was political as well as ecclesiastical — was in fact politico-religious. Hence in deducing, from that economy, what belongs to universal man, we must try to distinguish between what was civil and what was religious — what was instituted and what was moral — what was Jewish and what was world-wide in its obligations: though, let it be remembered that the Israehtes, at this time, were quite incapable of making this distinction, on account of their extreme ignorance and mental imbecility induced by their severe and protracted bondage. Hence God did not then require them to make such distinction. To them, and to the whole world as well, at that time, moral science and political economy were all one ; they were unable to distinguish between a religious system and a civil code. And this great fact we must bear in mind, else we shall be brought into con- fusion, and find ourselves incapable of understand- 5* 50 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. ing the steps of the Divine procedure, in finally taking down the old Hebreu' economy and setting up the new spiritual Christian dispensation. We are capable of making, and are required to make, that distinction which the Israelites could not make. 4. It should be kept in mind therefore that there were two kinds of enactments given to the Jews; the one kind peculiarly moral, the other kind peculiarly ceremonial ; yet both these were parts of their politico-religious code. There is a clear distinction to be made by us between those enactments that were not found in the Decalogue, such as the passover, the sanctification of the first born, circumcision, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the judicial institutes and the like which were written in '^a book," and '^^the commandments" which were ^"^ graven in tables of stone," which in essence, not in their political aspects, had always existed, and were purposed to be the cornmon law of the race while the world should stand. The first requisitions were strictly and early Jewish, adapted to an early age and educational stage of a fallen world, the necessary diagrams in an intro- ductory, preparatory economy. The last require- ments were founded in the relations existing between man and man, and between man and his Maker. And the whole united body of these institutes — ''the tables of stone" and "the book" — the posi- tive and the moral, the substantial and the typical. ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 51 as then, and in that particular theocratic manner, enjoined, were for the Hebrews alone under their tutorial economy. And that economy was ordained to fill the office of ''B. schoolmaster," not for them alone, though confined in its binding force to them, but for the world as well, to train and educate for manifestations and duties, for events and achieve- ments far in the future connected with the evan- gelization of the race under the gospel dispensation. 5. Previously to the existence of the Jewish nation, the Sabbath Institution held the rank of a moral requisition standing on positive appointments as to its time and its manner of observance. This must have been specially the case with the Insti- tution when first given in Eden. But now to the Jews it was different. To them a mixed economy was suitable and necessary. There was a plain and urgent necessity in the fallen condition of the race, and among the Jews in particular, that their religious duties should, for a time at least, be held up and enforced by religio-pohtical authority, through the command and guardianship of God himself; else all would have been utterly lost. Hence God established the theocracy among the Hebrews. 6. The items of the Decalogue in their essence always existed from the origin of the race. As they were not originated by the Hebrew economy, they could not pass away with it. They existed 52 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. as ^^the commandments" of God before; thoufrh they were now made part and parcel of a positive civil code. If men had never sinned, all these would always have remained moral ; but when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God in wisdom and mercy to make them for a time positive, and to hold them up on a political frame-work or scaffold for a time, until they should again be discovered and appreciated as moral, when the frame-work and scaffolding might be taken down. 7. We should not forget that feature of the Divine Government which we illustrated in our introductory remarks by the supposed case of a father educating his child ; from which we learned how a moral duty is first made known and enforced as positive, and how by experience and study — by the resuks of a gradual development, what for a time was positive may be raised to take the posi- tion and rank of moral. Thus usually at first a new duty must be explicitly revealed and posi- tively enforced ; and if it is not readily recognized as moral, it should be held up by special provisions and its violations visited with special penalties ; finally, when knowledge and experience have shown its moral character, it may and ought to drop its positive aspects and return to its position and rank as a moral requisition. 8. The Hebrew pohty was ordained to answer ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 53 different though inter-related purposes. Certainly one of these purposes was the preservation, eleva- tion and elucidation of '' the commandments." It was a scheme for magnifying the Divine Law. What was civil and primitive in respect to these '< commandments," was only for a season to pre- serve them from ever again being forgotten or neglected, till in the issue they should rise to their original authoritative place as substantially God's will for the race — for all men without respect to nation, language or political differences. 9. The Sabbath Institution therefore in its sub- stance was by no means a Jewish Institution. It took on it for the time Jewish peculiarities that were to pass away, but it existed in all its integrity from the creation of man. It was made for man universal. It was designed for all nations and ages, however some of its connectives might change. Ev^en its changes should leave it in a stronger, higher, more excellent position. What was civil or political in relation to it among the Hebrews, was only necessary for its protection and preserva- tion when a blinded enraged world was determined on its destruction, all of. which was to terminate with the civil liabilities and theocratic history of the Hebrews. Only what was moral and purely religious, only that, and all that which was adapted to the race, was to remain and be of perpetual obligation. 54 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. We have nothing therefore now to do with a Jewish Institution. To us belongs the Institution as made for man. Though several changes have transpired in reference to it, it still remains and stands in clearer light than ever, under the new, changeless Christian dispensation with world-wide adaptations. CHAPTER lY. HISTORY AND RANK OP THE INSTITUTION UNDER THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. In the final stage of the history of the Divine Institution, we are to consider its recognition, his- tory and rank under the Christian dispensation. 1. The Christian dispensation as a whole, began from the resurrection of Christ. The work of pre- paration for it was finished with his death, though it was some days after that the first church made its first public appearance, and won its first victo- ries. True, some of the peculiar doctrines and practices pertaining to this dispensation were pub- lished and practised by John the Baptist, and most authoritatively urged in the ministry of Christ himself; but the church as an independent organi- zation with its appropriate offices, officers and ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 55 observances, did not begin its regular action till after Christ had risen from the dead. This, I believe, is conceded by all. 2. We must expect therefore the Jewish Sab- bath to be continued till after Christ's resurrection, and that Christ and his disciples, being Jevv's, will be found, until that event, observing the Institution in its Jewish form. And such was the fact, ^ In respect to Christ's recognition and observance of the Institution, it will be necessary to offer a few words, since some have conjectured that he abro- gated it. Christ expressly declared : '^'•'The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." He had the authority therefore of effecting such changes in the Institution, changes in the mode and time of its observance, as he should see fit. But what did he do? He was always careful to honor the Institution. Luke iv. 16 : " He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and, as his custom was, he went unto the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read." Here we have his custom — his habit. Nor did he ever intimate that it was his design then or after his resurrection to abrogate the Institution. He had indeed frequent difficulties Avith the Scribes and Pharisees in re- spect to the manner of its observance ; they accused him of being a Sabbath breaker, but the accusation was false : he only attacked the perver- sions of the Institutions, the false glosses and 56 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. rabbinical traditions that had obtained : he never warred against the Institution itself. He kept the Institution strictly as a Jew, and he required his disciples during his life to do the same. He observed the Jewish form of the Institution while the Jewish economy remained. His procedure mentioned in Luke vi. 1, was in accordance with the law of Moses, as we learn from Deut. xxiii. 24, 25. He went no farther than to counterwork 'Uhe commandments and doctrines of men." Instead of contending against the Institution, he simply threw off its traditional corruptions. In like manner his disciples observed the Insti- tution. The devout women that followed him to the cross '^ returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." And we might add, that what Christ did for this Institution, he also did for all "the command- ments ;" that is, he labored by word and practice to remove their perversions, and to point out their true scope and intent. He was the Defender of the Decalogue. But after Christ's resurrection, we have no evi- dence that he longer observed the Institution with its Jewish adaptations, either as to the manner of its observance or the time appropriated to it ; he did, however, observe the Institution itself, in its substance. The theocratic polity now terminated, ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. and many changes were the necessary results. With the new dispensation, which, as to the moral world, was as the creating n-econstructing) of new heavens and a new earth, the Divine Institution as ordained for man remained. The day appropriated to its observance was changed, The Institution henceforth had for its reckoning point the day of Christ's resurrection. But of the fact and manner of this change, as also of the authority hy which it was done, we shall speak in Fart Second; and of the changes in the manner of its observance, we shall speak in Fart Third. Hitherto, then, we have followed the Divine Institution from the garden of Eden through the ancient dispensations and ages, to the setting up of the Christian economy, the whole being a period of about four thousand years. And now we hear the Lord of the Institution, the Founder of the new dispensation, saying, ^'' The Sabbath was made for man" — for the education and sanctifica- tion of the race. Hence, we are full}^ prepared to find the Institution now standing out with even new excellencies and glories, corresponding with the new, more excellent moral dispensation, which is to spread among all nations and endure to the end of the world, illuminated with the glory of God shining in the face of the Lord of the Sab- bath. Now, we shall not be surprised to find that 6 58 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. the Institution stands on a higher, stronger plat- form than it ever before occupied. 3. Accordingly, in the New Testament, contain- ing the record of the planting of the first churches, and in all reliable ecclesiastical histories, we find that the churches of Christ, have carefully, con- stantly observed this Institution. They never conceived that it had been abrogated ; such a sup- position originated in later times. The number in any century since the apostoHc period who have supposed that the Institution was abrogated with the Hebrew economy, has been very small ; and their views in other respects have not been calcu- lated to give weight to their notions of the Sabbath. Nor have there ever been many at any time who have contended for bringing over the old Jewish Sabbath to the new dispensation. Such notions were unheard of in the days of the apostles except among the Ebionites, a class of Judaizing Chris- tians — if Christians at all— whom Dr. Priestley claims as Unitarians, because they denied the Divinity of Christ. These held to many of the Jewish ceremonies and especially to the Jewish Sabbath. But Theodoret tells us that some even of these ^' also sanctified the Lord's day in like manner as Christians." With the exception of these Ebionites, the early churches were unani- mous in appropriating to the Institution the first day of the week. Until the fourth century, how- ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 59 ever, ihey always called the day the Lord's day in commemoration of the event from which the Institution to them took its new higher associations, and also to distinguish the Christian Sabbath from the old Jewish Sabbath and from the Sabbath of the Ebionites. And after the example of the Apostles, most Christians have continued to this day to call the day appropriated to the Institution, "the Lord's Day." In later times, beginning when the Roman Em pire became Christianized, the day, not the Insti tution, has often been called by another name The nations of Europe had a particular name for every day in the week ; which names nearly all modern nations have finally adopted for conve- nience, and now use, which are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Satur- day. The name Sunday, therefore, is Jnot a Christian but a secular name, and is not used to designate the Divine Institution, but simply the day on which the Institution is observed. There- fore, the word Sabbath should never be understood as synonymous with the word Sunday. Sabbath is the name of the Institution. Sunday is the mere name of the day. As we would say that Saturday was the Sabbath day of the Jews, so we say that Sunday is the Sabbath day of Christians ; making always a distinction between the name of the day and the name of the Institution. 60 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. 4. We are now prepared to consider the rank and position of the Institution under the new dis- pensation. And we remark emphatically that its rank is moral instead of positive. As we have previously shown, this grand distinction is to be made between the two dispensations as wholes ; the old, or Jewish, was positive ; the new, or Chris- tian, is moral. Under the old, the commandments of God were institutes, were semi-political, en- joined in a particular way and enforced by civil authority ; under the new, they are moral precepts, purely religious, not pohtico-religious. Says Andrew Fuller: — "The Jewish Church was an army of soldiers, who had to go through a variety of forms in learning their discipline ; the Christian Church is an army going forth to battle. The members of the former were taught punctili- ous obedience, and led with great formality through a great variety of religious evolutions ; but those of the latter — though they must keep their ranks and act in obedience to command whenever it is given — are not required to be so attentive to the mechanical, as to the mental, not so much to the minute observance of forms, as to the spirit and design of them. The order of the one w^ould almost seem, to have been appointed for order's sake ; but in that of the other, the utility of every- thing is apparent. The obedience of the former ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 61 was that of little children ; the latter that of sons arrived at mature age." 5. In confirmation of these views, and lest any one should seem to have ground for objectmg to the purely moral rank of the Divine Institution which we are considering, we would add that all the items of the decalogue have been emancipated — if I may say so — or taken out from their Jewish tutelage, and raised under the new dispensation to an untrammeled moral rank ; that is, from positive, semi-political, to free, spiritual. A violation of the second commandment among the Jews was punishable with the curse of death ; Deut. xxvii. 15. Nothing of this kind is required under the new dispensation. A violator of the third command was to be stoned to death ; Lev. xxiv. 16. Directly the opposite of this is now required ; the violator is to be spared that he may repent. An infringement of the fourth command was capitally punished ; Ex. xxxi. 14, 15. Such is not the case under the Christian economy. The breaking of the fifth item of the decalogue was visited by the sentence of death ; Deut. xxvii. 16. Such sentence is now prohibited. He that violated the sixth item forfeited his life ; Gen. ix, 6. Such power is not now to be exer- cised by the Christian Church. In like manner death was the penalty of viola- 62 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. tions of the seventh and eighth commandments ; Ex. xxxi. 12, 14 ; Lev. xx. 10. This is far from being consonant either with the letter or the spirit of the new dispensation. The decalogue, in short, was positive in its force among the Hebrews ; every infringement of it was a capital offence. But now to the churches of Christ it is purely moral ; the punishments for violations are not vested in the churches any farther than by the act of excommunication ; but are referred to the civil power, or reserved to the day of judgment. 6. In early times, among the Hebrews, and among all nations as well, things ecclesiastical and things political were combined, the civil and reli- gious were intermarried ; Church and State were truly, inseparably united, forming a yoke suited to the people and the times — a system necessar}?- to that stage of knowledge and religious progress. But now, Church and State are divorced. Chris- tians are not united and bound by any political ties or obligations in the shape of an appointed sys- tem. Even the churches are independent of each other; each standing on the gospel platform for itself, accountable only to Christ. The whole structure of the Christian system bears the moral impress. Nothing positive in shape is found in the New Testament even about the organization of Churches ; no stereotyped pattern is held up. ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 63 Nor IS there anything precise about officers as to their number or their duties ; nothing instituted in the shape of an enactment about forms or formulas of worship ; nothing specified about the place of worship, or the frequency with which we shall worship ; no specific seasons for administering baptism, or for observing the Institution of the Lord's Supper ; no express precepts about the manner of observing the Sabbath Institution ; no- thing positively instituted about family worship ; nothing positively specified about Christian schools, Sabbath Schools, charitable societies and institu- tions, writing and printing religious books or organizing missionary societies for sending the Gospel to the benighted. But certainly all these things must be attended to by Christians. Many of them must be definitely acted upon by churches. They all belong to the spirit, genius and intent of the new dispensation, though no pattern for them has been shown in the mount. All these are to be wrought out by the spirit and general principles of the gospel in ex- tempore patterns suited to the time, circumstances and demands of the case in hand. These things like all the items of the Decalogue rest wholly on moral grounds. Stereotyped patterns for their execution would be unwieldy — not at all adapted to the mature character and diffusive energies of the new dispensation. But from these facts no one i 64 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. justified in supposing that these duties are not as obligatory and even more so, than it positively en- joined. The Saviour in his teachings and conduct often found occasion to defend ^-the commandments," and he always presented them in their spiritual and moral bearings ; he never spoke of them as about to be abrogated. In evidence of this we have only to study his memorable sermon on the mount. And the Apostles in all their labors, preaching planting and giving orders to the churches, pro- ceeded not on the ground that the items of the deca- logue had been abrogated, but only such appoint- ments as were positive and Jewish. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Coiossians ii. 16, 17; "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or the sabbath days ; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body (substance) is of Christ." Of the Sabbath days here mentioned, Scott very justly remarks ; " The Sabbath under the Mosaic dispensation, was a ceremonial and a judicial as well as a moral requirement ; the morality of it had no necessary connection with the seventh day in preference to all others, save as that was ap- pointed during that dispensation ; but the appro- priation of a part of our time for the worship and service of God is of moral and essentially immutable obhgation." ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 65 7. "We can easily see therefore, in the light of these reflections, how it was that the Jewish Sabbath could not pass over or be transferred to the new dispensation. The two dispensations were so different as not to allow of this. The Institution belongs to all dispensations, since it ^^was made for man" — man in all ages ; it passes over to the new, but it passes over as moral not as positive. 8. Even the day appropriated to the Institution under the theocracy might be, and was, changed for certain sufficient reasons, without at all impair- ing the Institution in its authority or efficiency ; without even impairing its memorial character, for its memorial significancy consists not so much, if at all, in its chronological starting, as in the division of time into weeks, thus memorializing properly the whole work and period of creation as well as the divine example of rest. And it certainly was wise in transferring the In- stitution to the higher ground of the new dispensa- tion, to change the day, if by so doing nothing whatever was lost, but much was to be gained, namely, the connecting with its ancient memorial significancy the memory of a greater day and the completion of a greater work, which was as the creating of new heavens and a new earth ; for certainly in magnitude and interest the Avork of re- demption as a manifestation of the Deity to man far surpasses the work of creation. 66 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. It was highly proper that the Institution under the new dispensation should in some way be asso- ciated with the work of redemption so as to magnify the name and grace of God our Saviour. 9. From the different characters and purposes of the two economies it seemed absolutely neces- sary, that, in setting up the new and perfect one with its world-w^ide evangelizing adaptations, no part of the old provincial disciplinary economy should overlap the new ; lest many should stumble in dis- tinguishing between them and so fail of that full liberty wherewith Christ makes us free — should mingle works and faith in the ground-work of their salvation. The new v/ine must needs be put into new bottles. So now the Sabbath institution not only remains, but as a moral requisition holding lively association with the scheme of redemption, having dropped its theocratic and Jewish supports, it stands on much higher, stronger and more engaging grounds than it ever before occupied. PART SECOND. THE TIME APPROPRIATED TO THE INSTITUTION. CHAPTER I. •TIME APPROPRIATED TO THE INSTITUTON UNDER THE FIRST OR EDUCATIONAL DtSPENSATlON. 1. Under the second grand division of the subject which we are discussingj— a division made to avoid unnecessary confusion — we are to consider the time appropriated to the Sabbath Institution. And in the first chapter of this division we shall speak of the time appropriated under the early dispensations. But before coming directly to this, let us suggest a few preliminary considerations. 2. It is very necessary that v/e distinguish between the Institution itself, and the time or day v/hich the Institution may occupy. The Institu- tion itself is one thing, the day devoted to it, or occupied by it is another thing. The Sabbath time is not the Sabbath Institution. The Institution is for divine worship ; the day is for the Institution. The ground on which an edifice stands is not the edifice itself, The time devoted to any duty or 68 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. service is not that duty or service; the thing con- taining is not the thing contained. The time necessary for any service may be changed, and yet no service lost. That is a very low and wrong estimate of the Sabbath Institution which regards it as time-keeping. Had God so chosen he might have required the appropriation of every third, or sixth, or tenth day, while the Institution in its spirit and design would have remained the same. 3. Some have thought that the time appropri- ated to the Institution is in itself holy, because God so spoke of the time to the Hebrews. But holi- ness proper can be predicated only of the characters and actions of moral beings, and not of time any more than of wood and stone. Of these last it is predicated only in a figurative sense, meaning that they are set apart for religious uses. The hohness of the Sabbath is to be found in its duties and pur- poses, not in its time considered as time : though to the Jews who could not make this distinction, the time was positively set apart, and called holy in correspondence with the whole frame-work of the theocrac3^ But now things stand differently. Everything now stands upon its own proper and moral basis. And while the Institution remains of perpetual obligatioUj the time or particular day once appropriated to it, may for urgent reasons be changed. The edifice may be raised up and strengthened without being demolished. THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 69 4. And the mode of conducting or observing the Institution has been changed no less than three times. It was conducted after one manner in Eden when man was holy ; after another manner when man had fallen and been expelled from Eden : after a third manner among the Hebrews, to whom it was given in a politico-religious form ; after a fourth manner by Christians who are liberated from the burthen of sacrifices, feasts and ceremonies. And the time as well as the mode may be changed without involving the destruction of the Institution. But whatever changes may occur in its connectives or concomitants, the Institution itself is irrepealable, since it was made for man — the race. It is grounded in certain relations between man and his God. Its manner of observance and its time must be subser- vient to these relations. 5. The Institution as a whole, and all its parts, will be found adapted to the different divine manifesta- tions. So it had one adaptation in Eden; another after the fall ; another after the emancipation from Egypt; and it now has still another since the re- demptive manifestation in Christ. After the close of our world's history the Institution will embrace the .uninterrupted duration and services of the heavenly and eternal state. 6. The Institution was first set up on the seventh day — or seventh period, if any choose so to read it — of creation. Whether we understand day or 7 70 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. period in the record, the proportions and the au- thority remain the same. 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, because that in it he had rested from aJl his work which he had created and made. God ended his ivork and then sabbatized or rested. Now the resting or sabbatizing was one thing — the chief thing — the hody and essence of the Insti- tution; the time on lohich he sabbatized was another thing. The time was not the rest; so the time did not constitute the Sabbath. The Institu- lution was set up by divine command, standing on the divine manifestation of effort and rest. It was established for man's rehgious improvement ; the time was for the sake of the rehgious improvement, giving opportunity for it, as a platform is only for the sake of that which is placed upon it. In the beginning God selected the best and highest platform on which the Institution could be placed. He ^^ blessed the seventh day and sanctified it," not because it was the Institution, but because " in it he had rested^'' — on it he had establisK'sd >the In- stitution. Thus God himself in th? original appointment in Eden makes the distinction between the Institution and the time which it occupies. He sanctified the day — set apart the time for the pur- poses and duties of the Institution. THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 71 The great purpose of the Institution was for the worship of God ; that man might remember, ac- knowledge, admire, love and honor God. And the Institution has ever stood as the standard of the Divine empire on earth — holding high up to all eyes the signals and emblems of the Divine autho- rity, goodness and grace. At first this standard stood on the work of creation. The division of time into weeks was monumental of the Divine effort of creation, and so it was auxilliary to the contemplations, study and services belonging to the Sabbath Institution. Our first parents naturally felt that they ought to worship God ; but they did not know what measure of time should thus be specially uninter- ruptedly devoted. The time, therefore, was a matter of special positive appointment, while the Institution in its substance was moral. Hence the identity of the Institution and the time given to its observance, or the Sabbath Institution and the Sabbath day, for which some strenuously contend, cannot be maintained without mixing and confound- ing things that should be kept distinct. 7. During the early ages, the day that was kept commenced with the first shining of the stars and ended of course when the stars again appeared. To those who lived in a particular zone, embrac- ing a few provinces, as was the case with the ancients, this mode of reckoning was the most 72 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. I natural, simple and convenient. When time was measured by rude dials, and the inter-relations of different zones and remote nations had not neces- sitated another mode, it was best to measure the days by the appearance of the heavenly lumina- ries. But such a mode manifestly could not be employed during the whole history of the world. There are some zones in which it would be utterly impracticable, where men experience six months day and six months night. The spherical form of the earth, its diurnal re- volutions, the great changes in the length of days in different latitudes, the distant emigration of tribes and nations, and the voyaging of multitudes, must, in the changes of time which they produce, utterly destroy the identity of Sabbath time, and so certify and establish the distinction which we have mentioned, between the Institution and the time appropriated to it. Every day occupies twenty-four hours with its beginnings and endings on the same latitude so that identity of time in different longitude is utterly impossible. And we might also feel assured that the day is not identical with the Institution when we' reflect that the Institution with all its privileges and duties, cannot be affected by a change of the day. Such a change would not sacrifice any amount of time, nor any truth, nor any fact, nor any oppor- tunity, nor any motive, nor any ability, nor any THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 73 memorial significancy ; for the week not the seventh day is monumental of creation. We shall speak of the change of the day in its proper place. And the word Sahbath was employed by the Hebrews to designate other religious appointments as well as to designate the Divine Institution of which we are speaking. The word was applied to a particular year marked with certain duties, called the Sabbatical year ; Lev. xxv. 2, 4. It was also applied to the Jewish festivals indifferently or as a whole ; Lev. xix. 3_30. In the New Testa- ment, the word is used to denote the eternal rest and services of heaven ; Heb. iv. 9, 10, 11. 8. The Jews through all their history continued to observe, as of course they still do, the seventh day of the week as Sabbath time, though it is npt certain, from the chasms in their national records and the breaks in their chronological tables occa- sioned by the periods of their captivity, that that day was always, if ever, the identical seventh day reckoned from the first seventh day in Eden. 9. Whether 'the Institution had been so long lost to the Israelites in Egypt and consequently the day devoted to the Institution and even the division of time into weeks, may to some seem improbable ; but from all the facts adduced when we were considering that part of the history of the Institution, we are decidedly of the opinion that all these were so lost. We think that the ancient 7* 74 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. mode of reckoning, and hence the exact reckoning point, perished in company with the whole body of their religious privileges, ordinances and duties. The evidence of this appeared in Part First. Nor was it necessary that the exact ancient reckoning point should be preserved in order to the full integrity of the Sabbath Institution which was restored to them. For, from whatever point the reckoning should start upon the restoration of the Institution, provided they kept every seventh day as they ought, they certainly kept the Insti- tution, and in that measure of time that memorial- ized the work of creation. But whether the exact ancient chronological reckoning was lost or not, it must have been greatly confused and rendered uncertain, so that they could not be sure that it had been incorruptibly preserved ; and hence if that time and the Institution had been identical, they must have been sorely puzzled and quite con- founded upon the question of unbroken succession. We must remember that to the Jews was given the Sabbath Institution in a theocratic or politico- religious form. Indeed, to them, as we have pre- viously shown, the whole Decalogue was positive, as well as moral. To this, the exact v/ords of the Decalogue as found in Ex. xx. 2-17, and in Deut. V. 6-21, fully testify ; in both copies, reasons, pro- mises, and threatenings are found in connection with the second, third, fourth and fifth commands. THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 75 which were peculiarly applicable lo the Hebrews as a nation ; the obligations were positive and national. 10. It may be necessary here to observe more fully than we have yet done, that, during the period over which we have passed, three different modes of keeping the Institution obtained. By our first parents in Eden it was kept with one order of duties, in which there were no sacrifices, as these would then have had no significancy. By man after the fall it was kept with another class of duties, in which sacrifices and confessions had a necessary place, as in the case of Cain and Abel, or in the instances mentioned of the Patriarchs. By the Hebrews, as a nation, after their dehver- ance, it was kept with yet another order of servi- ces, in which not only the ancient sacrifices were retained but some new ones were added ; also the reading of the law and certain pecuhar tabernacle services. And under the Christian dispensation we shall find that it must be observed with still other and quite peculiar services, praying, prais- ing, preaching, laboring for the conversion of the perishing. We see, therefore, that distinctions exist between the Sabbath Institution, and its time and its man- ner of observance ; these may be modified and changed, while the Institution remains unabrogated and irrepealabl^. 76 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. CHAPTER 11. TIME APPEOPEIATED TO THE INSTITUTION UNDER THE FINAL OR REDEMPTIVE DISPENSATION. We are now prepared to inquire after the time devoted to the Institution under the Christian dis- pensation. 1. While pursuing Part First, we learned that the Christian world generally have firmly main- tained the Institution and have appropriated to it the first day of the week, or as the day was usually called for several centuries, as it is still by many, "The Lord's Day" That is, Christians as a body have never believed that the Institution was abrogated with the Hebrew economy, and from the resurrection of Christ they have kept the first day of the week as Sabbath time. Those holding different views have always been comparatively few ; and most of them have not stood firmly on the Christian platform. We will first speak of the fact of the change of the day, and second, of the authority and reasons for the change. (a.) 2. After Christ's death and resurrection, which closed the old positive economy, and opened the new moral dispensation, we never find him in the synagogue or even meeting with his disciples THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 77 to observe the Jewish Sabbath. Bat he did meet his disciples on the first day of the week. On this day he achieved the conquest of death and the victory over the grave. On this same day he met his disciples four times ; Matt, xxviii. 9 ; Luke xxiv. 18-34 ; John xx. 19-23. And since among the Jews, when one event happened a week after another, they called the period " an eight days," including, as was their- custom, both the days on which the events oc- curred, we find that Christ met his disciples for worship on the next first day of the week ; John XX. 26. And if it be true, as many think, not without reason, that the period called by the Jews '^ forty days" is a period of six weeks expressed in round convenient numbers, it follows that Christ's ascen- sion was on the first day of the week ; Acts i. 3. And certain it is that the first day of the week was marked by the glorious outpouring of the Divine Spirit, and the first great revival of Pentecost. 3. The apostles, disciples and first churches are found in the habit of holding their stated ap- pointments for public social worship on this same day. " Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them;" Acts xx. 7. This, too, was the day appropriated to Christian charity ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 3. 78 TEE SABBATH INSTITUTION. 4. The apostle John mentions this day as '^the Lord's day :" '^1 was in the Spirit on the Lord's day ;" Rev. i. 10. That this phrase realJy sig- nifies the first day of the week now appropriated to the Sabbatical Institution, is evident not only from the natural sense of the words, but also from contemporary and other writers. John uses the phrase as if it was well understood ; and so it was. Ignatius, who was educated under John, and was intimately acquainted with Peter and Paul, and who was pastor of the church in Antioch for forty years — from about the year 70 A. D. — this Igna- tius calls the first day of the week " the Lord's day, the queen and prince of all days," and says, ^^ Let every friend of Christ celebrate the Lord's day." Clement, the learned teacher of Alexan- dria in the second century, says, '' A Christian, according to the command of the Gospel, observes the Lord's day, thereby glorifying the resurrec- tion of Christ ;" and " the Lord's day is the eighth day." Chrysostom says, "it was called the Lord's day because the Lord arose from the dead on this day." And that the first day of the week was the uni- versal and established day of social pubhc worship among the churches planted by the Apostles, we may be certified from what we find in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2; "Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have jriven order to the churches of THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 79 Galatia, even 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 no gather- ings when I come." The weekly contributions were to obviate the time and trouble of extra gatherings ; and these were attended to on the first day of the week by all the churches in Greece and in Asia. Such was the established order under the apostles. Ireneeus, a disciple of Polycarp who was then associated with the apostle John, says, " On the Lord's day every one of us Christians keeps Sab- bath, meditating on the law and rejoicing in the works of God." Tertullian, one of the most learned of the early Christians, also says, "We have nothing to do with the Sabbath (seventh day\ : the Lord's day is the Christian's solemnity." Some have had the presumption to assert that the change of day was effected by the emperor Constantino, who reigned in the fourth century. Tertullian was born more than a century before Constantino ; and the other writers just quoted flourished in imme- diate connection with the Apostles, some being educated by them. The Roman persecutors in the examination of their Christian victims used to ask them; ^' Hast thou kept the Lord's day ? " — for this distinguished them as Christians — to which they rephed ; " I am a Christian ; I cannot omit it." 80 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. Justin Martyr, born in the year eighty-nine or ninety, — before the death of the apostle John — and who preached in Egypt, Asia and Italy, gives in his Apology a minute account of the Christian day of worship, and says; "On the day called — by you Romans — Sunday, there is a meeting in one place of all the Christians who live either in the towns or in the country." Of the word " Sunday'' it will be recollected that we spoke and gave a full account in Part First. Of course the Jews everywhere still continued to keep the seventh day of the week, except a party of partial dissenters called Ebionites, of whom Theodoret says, ^^They keep the Sabbath according to the Jewish law, and sanctify the Lord's day in like manner as we do." Says Prof. Stuart ; " This gives a good historical view of the state of things in the early ages of the church. The zea- lots for the law wished the Jewish sabbath to be observed as w^ell as the Lord's day ; for about the latter there never appears to have been any ques- tion among any class of Christians so far as I have been able to discover. The early Christians one and all of them, held the first day of the week to be sacred." Theophilus of Antioch, about the year one hun- dred and sixty-two, says : " Both custom and reason challenge from us that we should honor the Lord's day, seeing on that it was that our Lord Jesus com- THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 81 pleted his resurrection from the dead." Dionysius of Corinth, in writing to the Romans in the year one hundred and seventy, says : "We celebrate the Lord's day," and mentions what was done " while they were keeping the Lord's day holy." Barnabas, who, if not a companion of the apostles, lived in the apostolic age, says : " We keep the eighth day as a joyful holy day, on which day also Jesus arose from the dead." Ambrose says ; " The Lord's day is sacred, or consecrated by the resurrection of Christ." Augustine says; ^'The Lord's day was by the resurrection declared to Christians ; and from that very time it began to be celebrated as the Christian festival." Athanasius says ; " The Lord transferred the Sabbath to the Lord's day." And Eusebius,born about the year two hundred and seventy, the ancient historian of the church, whom Mosheim styles '^a man of vast reading and erudition," is very explicit, and asserts that "the resurrection day, or Lord's day was observed throughout the whole world:" and again; "the Word — Christ — by the new covenant translated and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the morn- ing light, and gave us the symbol of true rest, namely, the saving Lord's day ; the first (day) of the hght in which the Saviour of the world, after all his labors among men, obtained the victory over death, and passed the portals of heaven having 8 S2 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. achieved a work superior to the six days' crea- tion." Other authorities might be given, if it v\^ere ne- cessary and they would not too much swell the bulk of one volume. We cannot however refrain from quoting one paragraph from Neander, than whom there never has lived a historian more dis- tinguished for his talents, accomplishments, re- searches, insight, and impartiahty. In speaking of the apostle John and his ministry as the closing point of the apostolic age, he says; '^<^The consti- tution of the churches of Lesser Asia ^ Asia Minor,) as it appeared soon after the age of John in the time of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was altogether different from that which originated in the Pauhne age, in which these churches were founded, and we are obliged to presuppose some intervening in- fluences by which this alteration was produced. Originally these churches formed, as we have seen above, a full opposition against the Jewish Christian (Ebionitish) form of culture. They had no day excepting Sunday devoted to religious celebration ; no kind of yearly feasts : but afterwards we find among them a paschal feast transferred from the Jews, and receiving a Christian meaning, though imitating the Jewish reckoning as to the time of its celebration, to which probably a feast of Pentecost was annexed." These authorities will suffice. 5. The change of day was made by the author- THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 83 ity of Christ, who as ^'Lord of the Sabbath" was empowered to effect such changes as he pleased. Indeed he was the Creator of the world, and so the Author of the Institution. It must be borne in mind that Christ did not set up the first churches or even set up the new dis- pensation as a whole, in person — this he left for and commissioned his disciples to do. Not till after his resurrection was a single Gentile evangehzed. The first spread of his kingdom from the Jewish enclosure into the Gentile world is recorded in Acts X. After his resurrection he committed to the Apostles "the things pertaining to the king- dom." He said, "as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you," and breathing on them, added, '^Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained:" thus he gave to the Apostles, in the highest sense, the power of the " keys," the power of loosing and binding, that is, of commanding and forbidding, of ordering and es- tablishing the new dispensation, of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles when the time should come, / for Christ never preached to a Gentile and never baptized) of planting churches and ordering their form and services, which work they accomplished agreeable to promise. We are certain that Christ thus empowered them to <^^set things in order," and that they did in accordance with the Commission, 84 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. though all that Christ said to them and all that they performed is not recorded for our perusal. 6. In regard to the change of the day for the In- stitution we have all that we could expect or wish from the nature of the Christian dispensation, and certainly all that we need. We have substantially «^the law and the testimony." We have the law and authority in Christ, and bestowed expressly by him on his Apostles or Legates. We have the testimony, in Christ's example after his resurrec- tion, in the examples and words of the apostles, and in the order established by the apostles in the first churches. Does any thinking man want more than this ? Can he expect any more from the nature of the dispensation, and from the time and manner in which it was set up ? 7. Some have objected that no part of the New Testament is devoted to the full account and reasons of this change ; as if the New Testament was and ought to be a full-drawn-system of didactic theology and statute book of Church construction, containing explicit repeals and enactments, with time and place ; instead of being, as it is, simply the life of Christ and an epitome or rather a specimen' of the labors of his Apostles with a few of their letters to the first churches. Many things of special note and consequence are not discussed in it ; only the principles are given ; this is the case in reference to many of the great moral questions of the present THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 85 day, equal rights, temperance, slavery and many others. It contains no minute statutes in regard to the time, place and formula of Baptism or of the Lord's Supper, or of Ordinations, or of the organi- zation, duties, offices and management of churches. The New Testament deals in general principles and not in statute laws. In this it is distinguished from the Law given by Moses. And in regard to the Sabbath Institution we find more in it than we find about many other very important things : for we find, as we have shown, the change of the time and of the manner of observance, and we find both <^the law and the testimony" for the changes. 8. The reasons for the changes both of time and manner of observance are at least three ; First; To commemorate the resurrection of Christ, the full achievement of man's redemption and the begin- ning of a new dispensation or kingdom, which was indeed and in a glorious sense to the whole world like the creating of '^ new heavens and a new earth." This day witnessed the greatest of God's manifestations to the world, and so was styled the Lord's Day. And henceforth the Institution or- dained for the social public devotions and worship of mankind stood upon this day, and was observed not in a ritual, but in a spiritual manner, corres- ponding with the new, free, evangehcal dispensa- tion. Second; To prevent an overlapping of the old and new dispensations, to prevent putting a piece 8* 86 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. of new cloth upon an old garment, or the new wine into old bottles, to prevent the commingling of things positive and things moral, or the union of what was politico-religious with what was spiritual; of which there was so much danger as was evinced in the case of the Ebionites. Says Neander : "In the first Christian communities which were formed among the Jews, various discordant notions of re- ligion were mingled ; there were many errors arising from the prevailing Jewish mode of think- ing, some of which by degrees were corrected, in the case of those who surrendered themselves to the expansive and purifying influence of the Chris- tian spirit ; but in those over whom that spirit could not exert such power, these errors formed the germ of the later Jewish-Christian ( Ebionitish ) doctrine which set itself in direct hostility to the pure gospel." Farther he says ; " Among the Gentiles the free spiritual worship of God developed itself in di- rect opposition to Judaism and the attempt to mingle Judaism and Christianity. According to the doc- trine of the apostle Paul, the Mosaic law in its whole extent had lost its value as such to Chris- tians ; nothing could be a rule binding on Chris- tians on account of its being contained in the Mosaic law; but whatever was binding as a law for the Christian life must as such derive its authority from another quarter. Hence a transference of the Old THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 87 Testament command of the sanctity of the Sabbath to the New Testament was not admissible." Again he says; <^' Christians did not choose the Sabbath which the Jewish Christians celebrated, in order to avoid the risk of mingling Judaism and Christianity, and because another event was more closely associated with Christian sentiments. The sufferings and resurrection of Christ appeared as the centre point of Christian knowledge and prac- tice ; since his resurrection was viewed as the foundation of all Christian joy and hope, it was natural that the day which was connected with the remembrance of this event should be especially de- voted to Christian communion, planting and train- ing." Thus, in the natural gradual setting up of the new dispensation and the formation of Christian churches out of the free nature and elements of the new, evangelical Christian hfe, the Divine Institution of rest and worship was quietly but authoritatively under the commission and labors of the Apostles transferred from its Hebrew platform of time and manner of observance to the new plat- form of time and manner of celebration which cor- responded with the last and most glorious divine manifestation. In dropping the old positive, ritual, politico-religious dispensation, it was necesssary too, among other things, to drop both the time and mode of keeping the Jewish Sabbath — and to drop 88 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. the mode they must drop the time — while, how- ever, the Institution in its essence and design was to be preserved, and with new and higher associ- ations be perpetuated to the whole race, And the best possible way to drop from an old appointment what had been once necessary as a frame-work for its support, and what was positive, local and semi-political — and which would therefore be tena- ciously held to their final injury by many of narrow conceptions from ignorance or phariseeism — while there should be retained all that was moral, uni- versal and substantial, would be to quietly but authoritatively transfer it from the old frame-work to a higher and more commanding position of as- sociation and to effect the change when the great event and work should occur to give to the ap- pointment a new and higher ground or platform. And precisely such was the course pursued by Christ and his Apostles in regard to this Institu- tion ; a course which evinced the greatest wisdom and the greatest mercy. Third. The Sabbath Institution, which was or- dained to embrace man's social, public, religious themes of study, songs of praise, sacrifices of hand and of heart, and his thanksgivings and prayers, must necessarily embrace every new feature of God's manifestations. First, in Eden, it em- braced the work of creation ; second, after the fall, it had added to it the promise of mercy; third, it THE TIME APPROPRIATED. 89 had associated with it to the Hebrews the work of their emancipation and its restoration to them ; and now, fourth and finally, it must take on the memory of redemption by " our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again for our justi- fication ;" hence the day now employed for its celebration is called the Lord's Day, and is filled with the thoughts and themes of the Gospel in addition to all that it previously embraced. 9. Now, the Divine Institution stands thus :— the measure of time by weeks commemorates the week and work of creation ; the Sabbatizing one day in seven imitates the Divine example, though identity of time reckoned from Eden is impossible to all men, and, in ftict, is altogether unnecessary as it is impracticable. The observance of the Lord's day commemorates redemption, and the opening of the new kingdom or dispensation de- signed for all in all time. So, the Institution now occupies a clear, high, commanding operative Christian position and rank. It is vastly more expressive and better adapted to our condition, in- struction and salvation than the Jewish Sabbath ever was or ever could have been. The Jewish had a theocratic type and stand-point. The Christian has a spiritual type and a world-wide platform. PART THIRD. THE MANNER OF OBSERVING THE INSTITUTION. CHAPTER I. DIFFEEEXT MODES OF OBSERVING THE INSTITUTION UNDER THE EAKLY DISPENSATION. 1. In the third and final grand division of our subject we are to consider the manner of observ- ing the Divine Institution. In the first chapter we are to speak of its observance under the early dis- pensations. 2. We must remember that the manner of ob- serving the Institution constitutes its essence to us, its practical value to the world. The Lord of the Sabbath has expressly said, that the Institution was made for man — for his use and improvement, for progress in holy knowledge and the culture of the heart. It is for all men, the race, under all circumstances, in all ages. It is adapted to man's condition and necessities as a creature of God, a probationer, a candidate for eternity. And it stands associated with all the great manifestations of God to the race. Hence certain chano^es, of which we MODES OF OBSERVANCE. 91 have spoken, have been effected in accomodation to the different manifestations of God to the world, and suited to man's changed relations to God and his new circumstances — changes that have added weight, worth, brightness, and glory to the original appointment. The manner of observing the In- stitution has been changed three times. 3. The original Institution was given to our first parents in their innocency in Eden. In our pri- mitive holiness and righteousness, our heavenly Father saw it necessary for us to devote a portion of our feelings, thoughts and meditations in public devotions and praise. Hence, by example and command he instituted the Sabbath. And the first day of man's existence was devoted to this Institution. No sooner had our first parents felt the full consciousness of being, and made the first intelligent survey of this wonderful world, their new abode, than they were called by the Divine voice, and by inward impulse as well, to the joy- ous duty of adoration and praise to the great Crea- tor. From their own wonderful being, physical, mental, spiritual, from the beauties of Eden, and from all the visible glories of the external world, as these all shone fresh from the Creator's hand, they found abundant causes and incentives for devout contemplation and holy praise. How beautiful and sublime that first Sabbath ! They needed no written law. They saw God in 92 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. bis works, for their eyes were not yet blinded. They offered no slain sacrifices, for as yet there was no sin to require the shedding of blood. — Theirs was the pure Paradisiacal worship of self- acting, unstained hearts. The image of God within them recognized the attributes of God in all around them, so that knowledge shone from every object, and hence the incense of grateful praise rose spontaneously from their pure, ardent bosoms. They felt that the Sabbath Institution was good for them. By it they were made wiser, happier and better. Would that they had so heeded this blessed, restraining Institution that they had never sinned. 4. But, in our fall, God, in great mercy, pre- served to us this Institution. Indeed, we needed it now more than in our state of innocency. Man needed it now as a positive Institution ; whereas, before the fall it was held as a moral one — positive at first only in the matter of its time. And now the Institution was to be observed in a different manner, or to be filled with a new class of duties. Now, they had need to ofl^er confes- sions and supplications. Now, their thanksgivings must be mingled with penitent tears. They also found it necessary, doubtless by specific Divine command, though we have no explicit record of the appointment, to erect altars and offer bleeding victims upon them, through faith, in which as types MODES OF OBSERVANCE. 93 of a promised Sacrificer and Redeemer, they re- ceived forgiveness and found mercy. This cer- tainly seems evident from the case of Abel and Cain. And this manner of observing the Institution continued in substance through both the antedilu- vian and patriarchal ages, till from the growing perverseness of men's hearts and especially from the civil oppressions, religious prohibitions and persecutions practised by the Egyptians over the people of God chosen for the world's sake but now enslaved, this Institution was lost — lost to the Isra- elites and lost to all the world. 5. Hence, by Divine special intervention, it was restored to the emancipated Israelites, and enjoined with such peculiar, positive, theocratic sanctions and commands as should preserve it from ever again being destroyed or falling into desue- tude. And the manner of its observance was now again changed, made more full, particular and stringent. To the old prescribed sacrifices were added certain new ones ; and in addition to family, social and public worship, there were enjoined certain duties, sacrifices and offerings that were national and peculiar to the theocracy. There were tabernacle services conducted by the priest- hood, and the reading of the law, now for the first time given to the world in a written form. And this mode of observing the Institution con- 9 94 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. tinned through the positive appointed Hebrew economy until the new, moral Christian dispensa- tion, when the theocratic order gave place to the spiritual, when shadows and disciplinary rules gave place to the substance. CHAPTER II. MANNER OF OBSERVING THE INSTITUTION UNDER THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. 1. We come now, in the last place, to the more practical and personal view of this precious Divine Institution, the manner of its observance under the present Christian dispensation. The dispensation of the law has now given place to the dispensation of the Spirit, whose rule and administration con- sists in writing the law in our hearts and causing us to worship God our Saviour in spirit and on purely moral grounds. The Sabbath Institution now again assumes its paradisiacal rank as a purely moral requisition, and is binding on> every member of the human family by virtue of the rela- tions which we sustain to God as our Creator, Re- deemer and Sanctifier. Its duties now, instead of being ritual and theocratic as formerly, when the world was under a schoolmaster, are eminently CHRISTIAN MANNER OF OBSERVANCE. 95 spiritual, dictated by the Gospel and grace of the great Teacher. 2. It is to be regarded as a Divine requirement. It is an Institution ordained of God. God esta- blished it for his own glory and our good. It is no more optional with us whether we will observe it or not, because of its moral basis and structure, than it is optional with us whether we will blas- pheme, or steal, or murder. Its neglect and viola- tion on our part is an injury inflicted upon ourselves, upon our fellows and upon God, because of the severance of relations that God has appointed. And because founded in such relations, the Institu- tion is as binding upon sinners as it is upon saints; it was made for man ; it is a part of God's moral law for the race. 3. We need this Institution. All men need it. It is a wise and merciful appointment for us, inse- parably connected with our present and everlast- ing good. Holy beings, unfallen spirits, have need to devote their powers and a portion of their time exclusively to the study of God's manifesta- tions and the declaration of his praise. Such need existed in our first parents in their innocence, and so established for them the Institution. And we as fallen men, yet probationers through rich abundant grace, have no less need of this precious Institution. Indeed we need it more than do sinless beings. We have more occasion and 96 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. more need of help for studying God's works, provi- dences and revealed will. And the Christian Sab- bath is not only a memorial of the divine power, wisdom and goodness as evinced by creation, but is also, from the Christian platform of time and the Christian mode of observance a rich expressive memorial of God's redeemincr p-race. 4. How beautiful, how beneficent, how sublime, this Institution ! Its division of time into weeks memorializes the stupendous magnificent work of Creation. The manner of its observance points to the various divine manifestations. Its authority and duties stand supported by the Divine Examples of Rest and Redemption. Its present platform of time memorializes the divine conquest of death in the Resurrection of the Son of God — the great event and crowning deed of the divine manifestations to man on which rests the proof and power of the glorious gospel. Hence in this blessed Institution we have asso- ciated three great glories, Creation, Providence, Redemption — power, goodness, grace. Here are married in sublime holy nuptials the works of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.. The Institution was founded by the Father, was beauti- fied by the Son and is now baptized, honored and glorified by the perpetual presence of the Holy Spirit. The Institution is most noble in its parts and in CHRISTIAN MANNER OP OBSERVANCE. Vi its design. It is full of the most expressive and engaging, grand and sublime, high and holy asso- ciations and memories, It is calculated to attract, instruct, ennoble and inspire every sound mind, every friend of man, whether man or angel, and every sincere devout worshipper of God. When we come up to this Institution as we ought, we lay our earthly toils and cares aside, we turn our minds and hearts to the great Source of life and of all good, we feel secretly invited and won by great, beautiful inspiring truths, by bright, glo- rious associations, and by the holiest and tenderest of memories. We arise on wings of devotion by the strength of faith. We fly in holy thought and meditation to Eden, and from Eden to Calvary, and from Calvary to the Canaan of eternal rest. We hold unutterable communion with God our Creator, with God our Saviour, with God our Sanctifier, anticipating and running up towards the glories and the light of the new Jerusalem. Who but a sensual, grovelling, earth-bound, sin- loving spirit can neglect and despise this wise, holy Institution ? It is what we absolutely need for our instruction, improvement, conviction, salvation and sanctification. And for these great ends it is di- vinely given. 5. We need the Institution as individuals. We are sinners, and must be saved by grace. We are ignorant, and need instruction. We are enslaved 9* 98 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. and blinded by the God of this world. We are required to exercise repentance and faith. We are called to confession, supplication and obedience. We are surrounded by temptations and allurements. We are constantly exposed to the wiles and sneers of the Adversary. Under all these circumstances we need the Sabbath Institution, and every one of us needs it. No man can afford to be without it. Who ever knew an habitual Sabbath-breaker to be a happy, pure-minded, honorable, holy, useful man? 6. We need this Institution as families. The family, as it is the first of societies, so it is ever the scource and centre of all the influences and all the comforts that mark society as a whole. With pure, intelligent, virtuous families a land will be pros- pered and blessed as was Judea of old. And for the order, peace, purity and religious welfare of every family the Sabbath Institution is indispen- sable. Where this is neglected, error and sin, and usually gross and loathsome wickedness are sure sooner or later to break out and blast all that is precious and lovely in the circle of domestic life. On the other hand God loves to fulfill his promises in bestowing his smiles and benedictions on those houses and households where his institutions are cordially regarded. It is found historically true that in proportion as the Sabbath Institution is honored by families in that proportion, knowledge, CHRISTIAN MANNER OF OBSERVANCE. 99 virtue, piety, and peace are sure to abound. Every house should have its Sabbath altar from which there should go up sweet incense of prayer and praise to him who sitteth in the heavens and ruleth over all the families of the earth. 7. Of the benefits of this Institution to commu- nities, to states, and to nations in all their interests, personal and common, physical and moral, intellec- tual and commercial, too much cannot be said. No people can long thrive where this Institution is despised. It is God's standard and ensign, the ark of his covenant for the defence of the people. A Sabbathless land is always a land of darkness and of evil deeds. 8. A distinguished, experienced merchant, long accustomed to close observation, and who had gained an uncommon knowledge of men, remarked: '« When I see one of my apprentices or clerks riding out on the Sabbath, on Monday I dismiss him. Such an one cannot be trusted." The business affairs of life are really safe only in the hands of men who fear God and honor his Sabbath ordi- nance. Of one hundred men admitted to the Massachu- setts State Prison in one year, eighty-nine had lived in habitual violation of the Sabbath and neglect of public worship. Of twelve hundred and thirty-two convicts who had been committed to the Auburn State Prison 1(K) THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. previously to the year eighteen hundred and thirty- eight, four hundred and forty-seven had been watermen — either boatmen or sailors — men who to a great extent had been kept at work on the Lord's day, and thus deprived of the rest and privileges of the Sabbath. Of these twelve hundred and thirty-two convicts only twenty-six had conscien- tiously kept this divine Institution. A gentleman who has had charge of more than one hundred thousand prisoners, and has taken special pains to ascertain the causes of their crimes, says, " that he does not recollect a single case of capital offence where the party had not been a Sabbath-breaker. And in many cases they assured him that Sabbath-breaking was the first step in their downward course." Further, he says with reference to prisoners of all classes ; ^^ nineteen out of twenty have neglected the Sabbath and other or- dinances of religion." Says a most respectable merchant of New York, ^ption. In another part of the country, an old man re- marked, " I can recollect more than fifty years ; but I cannot recollect a case of a man, in this town, who was accustomed to work on the Sabbath, who did not fail, or lose his property, before he died." CHRISTIAN MANNER OF OBSERVANCE. 101 An old gentleman in Boston remarked : ^' Men do not gain anything by working on the Sabbath. I can recollect men, who, when I was a boy, used to load their vessels down on Long Wharf, and keep their men at work from morning to night on the Sabbath-day. But they have come to nothing. Their children have come to nothing. Depend upon it, men do not gain anything, in the end, by working on the Sabbath." John Richard Farre, M. D., an able and expe- rienced physician of London, when questioned by a special committee of the British House of Com- mons upon the subject of laboring six days or seven, gave the following very important testi- mony : "^ I have practised as a physician between thirty and forty years, and during the early part of my life, as the physician of a public medical institution. I had charge of the poor in one of the most populous districts of London. I have had occasion to observe the effects of the observ- ance and non-observance of the seventh day of rest during this time. I have been in the habit during a great many 5^ears of considering the uses of the Sabbath, and of observing its abuses. The abuses are chiefly manifested in labor and dissipa- tion. Its use, medically speaking, is that of a day of rest. " As a day of rest, I view it as a day of com- pensation for the inadequate restorative power of 102 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. the body under continued labor and excitement A physician always has respect to the preserva- tion of the restorative power ; because, if this be lost, his healing office is at an end. A physician is anxious to preserve the balance of circulation, as necessary to the restorative power of the body. The ordinary exertions of man run down the cir- culation every day of his life : and the first general law of nature, by which God prevents man from destroying himself, is the alternation of day and night, that repose may succeed action. But, although the night apparently equalizes the circu- lation, yet it does not sufficiently restore its bal- ance for the attainment of a long life. Hence, one day in seven, by the bounty of providence, is thrown in as a day of compensation, to perfect by its repose the animal system. '' I consider, therefore, that in the bountiful provision of providence for the preservation of human life, the Sabbatical appointment is not, as it has sometimes been theologically viewed, simply a precept partaking of the nature of a political in- stitution, but that it is to be numbered amongst the natural duties, if the prciservation of life be ad- mitted to be a duty, and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act." Such is a fair presentation of the merely natural and medical view of this Divine Institution. "At a refjular mcetinor of the New Haven CHRISTIAN MANNER OF OBSERVANCE. 103 Medical Association, composed of twenty-five physicians, among whom were the Professors of the Medical College, the following questions were considered : — 1. Is the position taken by Dr. Farre in his testimony before the committee of the British House of Commons, in your view, correct ? 2. Will men who labor but six days in a week be more healthy and Hve longer, other things being equal, than those Avho labor seven ? 3. Will they do more work, and do it in a better manner ? The vote on the above was unanimously in the affirmative ; signed by Eli Ives, Chairman, and Pliny A. Jewett, Clerk." 9. But the great controlling purpose of the Institution is not physical welfare or pecuniary advantage. Its primary, all-pervading and ulti- mate object is our moral and religious culture. It is pre-eminently a religious Institution. It exerts a powerful check upon our natural worldliness. We think too much of this world. We try to make it our home and to lay up our treasure here. We are prone to forget God and eternal things. The Sabbath is a divine and merciful check and preventative against this natural and depraved inclination. We are wisely required to abstain from all our ordinary, secular, worldly pursuits. We are to 104 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. seek after higher, nobler, more valuable and endu- ring things. Ceasing from the weary, uncertain, unsatisfying chase of unsubstantial things, we are to give ourselves to the contemplation and pursuit of enduring riches and unfading honors at God's right hand. We are to do no secular work our- selves, nor require such work of our families or servants or laborers. No man should sin through his agents. We should not even let our beasts labor on the Sabbath ; for the rest is necessary both for themselves and for the religious quiet and influence of their owners and the whole commu- nity. On the Sabbath, no work should be done by man or beast, which is not clearly a work of necessity or mercy. The Sabbath is for God's service. On this day, let all the world be still, and let God be acknowledged and adored and obeyed. Every man should obey God and have respect to the rest and religious improvement of every other man ; and hence should be careful to do nothing which even though innocent for himself, would, under the circumstances, eventuate prejudicially to his fellows. Let every man act as discreetly and conscientiously as did the elder John Adams, w^ho, while President of the United States, was once travelling to Boston to visit his sick family, but on account of a severe snow-storm could only reach Andover, about twenty miles from Boston, CHRISTIAN MANNER OF OBSERVANCE. 105 on Saturday night. On the next morning, when speaking upon the subject, though the clergyman told him he thought there would be nothing wrong in his traveling to see his sick family, he replied that the justifiable occasion in this case would not prevent the bad influence of his example on those who might see him traveling on the Sabbath with- out knowing the cause. He therefore decided to wait till Monday. But alas ! how many make the Sabbath a season for pleasure, amusement and dissipation. Some ride on business ; some for pleasure ; some take this occasion for visiting, or walking out to view their premises and property, and discussing with their neighbors the affairs of this world and their schemes of labor. To very many, the Divine In- stitution has but little or no religious significancy ; they neglect, abuse and squander the holy appoint- ment. 10. The Sabbath should be strictly devoted to religious duties. The performance of any other except those of manifest mercy or necessity, is a profanation of the sacred Institution. Not but that we are to serve God continually with our bodies and spirits which are his ; to be ^' not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ;" yet the Sabbath is pre-eminently chosen for religious duties and holy ends, when every possible worldly labor and every worldly thought must give place 10 106 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. to the interests of the soul and the declarative glory of God. Of the appropriate duties I need mention only a few of the principal, for every pious devoted soul will naturally seek and readily find the duties that are necessary, becoming and profitable. 11. We should read and sedulously study the Scriptures, the inspired oracles, which are as a lamp to our feet, and a hght to our path. In them alone we learn of Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. By the inspired Word we are made wise unto salvation. They that love God will love his word, and love to occupy a portion of their time, especially their Sabbath time, in prayer- fully perusing the sacred pages. 12. We should also regularly attend social, public worship. We are social beings and are socially influenced. Parents and children, masters and servants, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, have certain necessities on account of their social nature, if not from other grounds, that can be met ordinarily only by social public worship. So we encourage, instruct, stimulate and edify one ano- ther. So we both impart and receive good. So we secure and improve the given grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. " Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is." <^ Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." "The Sabbath was made for man" — the race. CHRISTIAN MANNER OF OBSERVANCE. 107 13. We are to give a part of the Sabbath to prayer and to praise, The Institution testifies of God's wisdom, goodness and grace. It is calcu- lated to elicit thanksgiving and joy. Praise and prayer should be sent up to heaven from every heart, from every fireside, from every sanctuary. '^ Serve the Lord with gladness ; come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God ; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves ; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise ; be thankful unto hin:i, and bless his name. For the Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting ; and his truth endureth to all generations." 14. As we have opportunity we may attend to works of mercy, for " it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath-day." We may and ought to instruct the ignorant, assist the poor, and administer to the sufTering. We may preach and teach, pray and labor to fit not only our own families but all around us, and, indeed all the world so far as we are able, by heart and voice and hand and purse for the proper duties of this mortal life, and for the cease- less services and bliss of heaven. 15. Considering how admirably, mercifully, the Sabbath Institution is adapted to man, to secure our earthly peace and happiness, to promote every desirable pursuit, to multiply every personal, do- 108 THE SABBATH INSTITUTION. mestic, social and common good, and to awaken and incite us to seek for glory, honor and immor- tality, let us ever remember and devoutly observe it. Let us specially cherish it as a type of Heaven, the saints' everlasting rest, and so appro- priate it as to be fitted in our thoughts and habits for the glorious services and unspeakable joys of that indescribable state of felicity. Let us always honor the Divine Institution. Let us also faith- fully inculcate its observance by word and deed upon our children and upon our children's chil- dren, that God may be known upon earth, and his saving health among all people. 1 1012 01003 2250