The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign, from the Beginning to the Entering into the Gates of the Holy City, According to the Commandment.
by Joseph Bates.
PREFACE.
TO THE LITTLE FLOCK.
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." "Six days work may be done, but the _seventh_ is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d: in it thou shalt not do any work." This commandment I conceive to be as binding now as it ever was, and will be to the entering into the "gates of the city." Rev.
xxii: 14.
I understand that the _seventh_ day Sabbath is not the _least_ one, among the ALL things that are to be restored before the second advent of Jesus Christ, seeing that the Imperial and Papal power of Rome, since the days of the Apostles, have changed the seventh day Sabbath to the first day of the week!
Twenty days before G.o.d re-enacted and wrote the commandments with his finger on tables of stone, he required his people to keep the Sabbath.
Exo. xvi: 27, 30. Here he calls the Sabbath "_my commandments and my laws_." Now the SAVIOR has given his comments on the commandments. See Matt. xxii: 35, 40. "On these two (precepts) hang ALL the law and the prophets." Then it would be impossible for the Sabbath to be left out. A question was asked, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Says Jesus, "If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments"--xix. Here he quotes five from the tables of stone. If he did not mean all the rest, then he deceived the lawyer in the two first precepts, love to G.o.d and love to man. See also Matt. v: 17, 19, 21, 27, 33. PAUL comments thus.
"The law is holy, and the commandments holy, just and good."
"Circ.u.mcision and uncirc.u.mcision is nothing but the keeping the commandments of G.o.d." "All the law is fulfilled in one word: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." JOHN says, "the old commandment is the WORD from the beginning."--2, 7. Gen. ii: 3. "He carries us from thence into the gates of the city." Rev. xxii: 14. Here he has particular reference to the Sabbath. JAMES calls it the _perfect_, royal law of liberty, which we are to be doers of, and be judged by. Take out the fourth commandment and the law is imperfect, and we shall fail in one point.
The uncompromising advocate for present truth, which feeds and nourishes the little flock in whatever country or place, is the restorer of all things; one man like John the Baptist, cannot discharge this duty to every kindred, nation, tongue and people, and still remain in one place.
The truth is what we want.
_Fairhaven_, August 1846. JOSEPH BATES.
[3]THE SABBATH.
FIRST QUESTION IS, WHEN WAS THE SABBATH INSt.i.tUTED?
Those who are in the habit of reading the Scriptures just as they find them, and of understanding them according to the established rules of interpretation, will never be at a loss to understand so plain a pa.s.sage as the following: "And G.o.d blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which G.o.d created and made." Gen. ii: 3. Moses, when referring to it, says to the children of Israel, "This is that which the Lord hath _said_, to-morrow is the REST of _the_ holy Sabbath unto the Lord." Exod. xvi: 23.
Then we understand that G.o.d established the seventh day Sabbath in Paradise, on the very day when he rested from all his work, and not one week, nor one year, nor two thousand five hundred and fourteen years afterwards, as some would have it. Is it not plain that the Sabbath was inst.i.tuted to commemorate the stupendous work of creation, and designed by G.o.d to be celebrated by his worshipers as a weekly Sabbath, in the same manner as the Israelites were commanded to celebrate the Pa.s.sover, from the very night of their deliverance till the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; or as we, as a nation, annually celebrate our national independence; or as type answers to antetype, so we believe this must run down, to the "keeping of the Sabbath to the people of G.o.d" in the immortal state.
It is argued by some, that because no mention is made of the Sabbath from its inst.i.tution in Paradise till the falling of the manna in the wilderness, mentioned in Exo. xvi: 15, that it was therefore _here_ inst.i.tuted for the Jews, but [4]we think there is bible argument sufficient to sustain the reply of Jesus to the Pharisees, "that the Sabbath was made for MAN and not man for the Sabbath." If it was made for any one exclusively it must have been for Adam, the father of us all, two thousand years before Abraham (who is claimed as the father of the Jews) was born. John says, the old commandment was from the beginning--1: ii: 7.
There is pretty strong inference that the antideluvians measured time by weeks from the account given by Noah, when the waters of the deluge began to subside. He "sent out a dove which soon returned." At the end of _seven_ days he sent her out again; and at the end of _seven_ days more, he sent her out a third time. Now why this preference for the number _seven_? why not five or ten days, or any other number? Can it be supposed that his fixing on upon _seven_ was accidental? How much more natural to conclude that it was in obedience to the authority of G.o.d, as expressed in the 2d chap. of Gen. A similar division of time is incidentally mentioned in Gen. xxix:--"fulfill her _week_ and we will give thee this also; and Jacob did so and fulfilled her _week_." Now the word _week_ is every where used in Scripture as we use it; it never means more nor less than _seven_ days (except as symbols of years) and one of them was in all other cases the Sabbath. But now suppose there had been an entire silence on the subject of the Sabbath for this twenty-five hundred years, would that be sufficient evidence that there was none. If so, we have the same evidence that there was no Sabbath from the reign of Joshua till the reign of David, four hundred and six years, as no mention is made of it in the history of that period. But who can be persuaded that Samuel and the pious Judges of Israel did not regard the Sabbath. What does G.o.d say of Abraham? that he "obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my _commandments_, my _statutes_ and my _laws_." (See what he calls them in Exo. xvi: 27, 30.) This, of course, includes the whole. Then Abraham reverenced G.o.d"s Sabbath. Once more, there is no mention of the circ.u.mcision from the days of Joshua till the days of Jeremiah, a period of more than eight hundred years. Will it be believed that Samuel and David, and all those pious worthies with the whole Jewish nation, neglected that essential seal of the covenant for eight hundred years? It cannot be admitted for a moment. How [5]then can any one suppose from the alleged silence of the sacred history that Adam, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, kept no Sabbath, because the fact was not stated? If we turn to Jer. ix: 25, 26, we find that they had not neglected this right of circ.u.mcision, only they had not circ.u.mcised their hearts; so that the proof is clear, that silence respecting the keeping any positive command of G.o.d, is no evidence that it is not in full force.
Again, if the Sabbath was not inst.i.tuted in Paradise, why did Moses mention it in connection with the creation of the world? Why not reserve this fact for two or three thousand years in his history, until the manna fell in the wilderness, (see Exo. xvi: 23) and then state that the seventh day Sabbath commenced, as _some_ will have it? I answer, for the very best of reasons, that it did not commence there. Let us examine the text. "And it came to pa.s.s, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread as on any preceding day, and _all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses_. And he said unto them this is that which the Lord hath said, _to-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath_, bake that which ye will bake, &c. &c." If this had been the establishing of the holy Sabbath and Moses had said to-morrow _shall be_ the Sabbath, then would it have been clear; but no, he speaks as familiarly about it as we do when we say that to-morrow is the Sabbath, showing conclusively that it was known before, or how could the people have known that they must gather two day"s manna on Friday the sixth day, unless they had had some previous knowledge of the Sabbath? for Moses had already taught them not to "leave any of it until the morning"--v. 19. The 20th verse shows that the Sabbath had not yet come since their receiving the manna, because it spoiled and "bred worms by the next morning;" whereas, on the Sabbath morning it was found sweet and eatible--24th v. This was the thirtieth day after leaving Egypt (1st v.) and twenty days before it was given on Sinai. The weekly Sabbath then was appointed before this or before the days of Moses. Where was it then? Answer, in the second chapter of Genesis and no where else; and the same week on which the manna fell, the weekly Sabbath was revived among or with G.o.d"s chosen people. Grotius tells us "that the memory of the creation"s being performed in seven days, was preserved not only among the Greeks and Italians, but among the Celts and Indians." Other [6]writers say a.s.syrians, Egyptians, Arabians, Britons and Germans, all of whom divide their time into weeks. Philo says "the Sabbath is not peculiar to any one people or country, but is common to all the world." Josephus states "that there is no city either of Greeks or barbarians or any _other nation_, where the religion of the Sabbath is not known." But as they, like the great ma.s.s of G.o.d"s professed people in christendom, paid little or no heed to what G.o.d had said about the particular day, (except the Jews, and a few others) they (as we are informed in history) adopted peculiar days to suit themselves, viz: the christian nations chose to obey the Pope of Rome, who changed the _seventh_ day Sabbath to the first day, and call it the holy Sabbath; the Persians selected Monday; the Grecians Tuesday; the a.s.syrians Wednesday; the Egyptians Thursday; the Turks Friday, and the Jews the seventh day, Sat.u.r.day, as G.o.d had commanded. Three standing miracles a week, for about forty years annually, ought to perpetuate the Sabbath. 1st, double the quant.i.ty of manna on the sixth day; 2d, none on the seventh; 3d, did not spoil on the seventh day. If it does not matter which day you keep holy to the Lord, then all these nations are right. Now reflect one moment on this, and then open your bible and read the commandment of the G.o.d of all these nations! "REMEMBER! (what you have been taught before) _the Sabbath day to keep it holy_;" (which day is it Lord?) "_the_ SEVENTH _is the Sabbath of the Lord thy G.o.d: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger, that is within thy gates_."
Who is the stranger? (Gentiles.) Now the reason for it will carry us back again to Paradise. "_For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the_ SEVENTH; _wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it_."
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the _Sabbath_ throughout their generations for a _perpetual covenant_; it is a SIGN between me and the children of Israel _forever_." (Why is it Lord?) "_For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the_ SEVENTH _day he rested and was refreshed_." Exo. xx and x.x.xi. Which day now will you choose? O, says the reader, the seventh if I knew which of the days it was. If you don"t know, why are you so sure that the _first_ day is right? O, [7]because the history of the world has settled that, and this is the most we can know. Very well then, does not the _seventh_ come the day before the eighth? If we have not got the days of the week right now, it is not likely that we ever shall. G.o.d does not require of us any more than what we know; by that we shall be judged. Luke xxiii: 55, 56.
Once more: think you that the spirit of G.o.d ever directed Moses when he was giving the history of the creation of the world, to write that he (G.o.d) "blessed the _seventh_ day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work," unless he meant it to be dated from that very day? Why, this is as clear to the unbia.s.sed mind as it is that G.o.d created man the sixth day. Would it not be the height of absurdity to attempt to prove that G.o.d only intended Adam should be created at some future period, or that the creation of the heavens and earth was not in the beginning, but some twenty-five hundred years afterward? All this would be as cogent reasoning as it would be to argue that G.o.d did not intend this day of _rest_ should commence until about twenty-five hundred years afterwards. (The word Sabbath signifies rest.)
It follows then irresistibly, that the weekly Sabbath was not made for the Jews only, (but as Jesus says, for "man") for the Jews had no existence until more than two thousand years after it was established.
President Humphrey in his essays on the Sabbath says, "That he (G.o.d) inst.i.tuted it when he rested from all his work, on the _seventh_ day of the first week, and gave it primarily to our first parents, and through them to all their posterity; that the observance of it was enjoined upon the children of Israel soon after they left Egypt, not in the form of a new enactment, but as an ancient inst.i.tution which was far from being forgotten, though it had doubtless been greatly neglected under the cruel domination of their heathen masters; that it was reenacted with great pomp and solemnity, and written in stone by the finger of G.o.d at Sinai; that the sacred inst.i.tution then took the form of a statute, with explicit prohibitions and requirements, and has never been repealed or altered since; that it can never expire of itself, because it has no limitation."
In Deut. vii: 6-8, G.o.d gives his reasons for selecting the Jews to keep his covenant in preference to any other nation; only seventy at first--x: 22. G.o.d calls it his [8]"Sabbath," and refers us right back to the creation for proof. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the _seventh_,"
&c. Here then we stand fixed by the immutable law of G.o.d, and the word of Jesus, that "the Sabbath was made for man!" Paul says, "there is no respect of persons with G.o.d." Rom. ii: 11. Isaiah shows us plainly that the Jew is not the only one to be blessed for keeping the Sabbath. He says "Blessed is the _man_ (are not the Gentiles men) that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it." "Also the sons of the stranger, (who are these if they are not Gentiles?) every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, (does he mean me? yes, every Gentile in the universe, or else he respects persons) even them will I bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house shall be called an house of prayer for _all_ people." Isa. lvi: 2, 6, 7. If this promise is not to the Gentile as well as the Jew, then "_the_ house of prayer for all people" is no promise to the Gentile.
Now we ask, if G.o.d has ever abrogated the law of the Sabbath? If he has it can easily be found. We undertake to say without fear of contradiction, he has not made any such record in the bible; but to the contrary, he calls it a perpetual covenant, a "sign between me and the children of Israel forever," for the reason that he rested on the seventh day. Exo. x.x.xi: 16, 17. Says one, has not the ceremonial law been annulled and nailed to the cross? Yes, but what of that? Why then the Sabbath must be abolished, for Paul says so! Where? Why in Cols. 2d chapter, and xiv. Romans. How can you think that G.o.d ever inspired Paul to say that the _seventh_ day Sabbath was made void or nailed to the cross at the crucifixion, when he never intended any such change; if he did, he certainly would have deceived the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in the promise which he made them about two thousand four hundred and forty-six years ago! Turn now to Jer. xvii: 25, and tell me if he did not promise the inhabitants of Jerusalem that their city should remain forever if they would hallow the Sabbath day. Now suppose the inhabitants of Jerusalem had entered into this agreement, and entailed it upon their posterity (because you see it could not have been fulfilled unless it had continued from generation to generation,) to keep the Sabbath holy, would not G.o.d have been bound to let Jerusalem remain forever? You say [9]yes. Well, then, I ask you to shew how he could have kept that promise inviolate if he intended in less than six hundred and fifty years to change this seventh day Sabbath, and call the first day of the week the Sabbath, or abolish it altogether? I say, therefore, if there has been any change one way or the other in the Sabbath, since that promise, it would be impossible to understand any other promise in the Bible; how much more reasonable to believe G.o.d than man. If men will allow themselves to believe the monstrous absurdity that FOREVER, as in this promise, ended at the resurrection, then they can easily believe that the Sabbath was changed from the _seventh_ to the first day of the week. Or if they choose the other extreme, abolished until the people of G.o.d should awake to be clothed on with immortality. Heb. iv: 9.
Now does it not appear plain that the Sabbath is from G.o.d, and that it is coeval and co-extensive (as is the inst.i.tution of marriage) with the world. That it is without limitation; that there is not one thus saith the Lord that it ever was or ever will be abolished, in time or eternity.--See Exod. x.x.xi: 16, 17; and Isa. lxvi: 22, 24; Heb. iv: 4, 9.
But let us return and look at the subject as we have commenced in the light of Paul"s argument to the Romans and Collossians, for here is where all writers on this subject, for the change or the overthrow of the _seventh_ day Sabbath attempt to draw their strong arguments. The second question then, is this:
HAS THE SABBATH BEEN ABOLISHED SINCE THE SEVENTH DAY OF CREATION? IF SO, WHEN, AND WHERE IS THE PROOF?
The text already referred to, is in Rom. xiv: 5, 6.--"One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord, he doth not regard it." Does the apostle here mean to say, that under the new or Christian dispensation it is a matter of indifference which day of the week is kept as a Sabbath, or whether any Sabbath at all is kept? Was that inst.i.tution which the people of G.o.d had been commanded to call a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, now to be esteemed of so carnal a nature as to be ranked among [10]the things which Jesus "took out of the way, nailing it to his cross." If this be true, then has Jesus, in the same manner, abolished the eight last verses in the fifty-eighth of Isaiah, and the 2d, 6th and 7th verses of the 56th chapter have no reference to the Gentile since the crucifixion. O Lord help us rightly to understand and divide thy word. But is it not evident from the four first verses in the same chapter of Romans, that Paul is speaking of feast days; giving them again in substance the decrees which had been given by the Apostles in their first conference, in A. D. 51, held at Jerusalem. See Acts xv: 19. James proposes their letter to the Gentiles should be "that they abstain from pollution of Idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood;" to which the conference all agreed. Now please read their unanimous _decrees_ (xvi: 4,) from twenty-three to thirty verses. "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." "That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, from which if ye keep yourselves ye shall do well." Reading along to the 13th of the next chapter, we find Paul establishing the Churches with these decrees; (see 4, 5,) and at Philippi he holds his meeting, (not in the Jews Synagogue) but at the river"s side, on the _Sabbath_ day. A little from this it is said that Paul is in Thesalonica preaching on the Sabbath days. Luke says this was his _manner_! What was it? Why, to preach on the Sabbath days, (not 1st days.) Observe here was three Sabbaths in succession.
xvii: 2. A little while from this Paul locates himself in Corinth, and there preaches to the Jews and Greeks (or Gentiles) a year and six months _every Sabbath_. Now this must have been seventy-eight in succession. xviii: 4, 11. Does this look like abolishing the Sabbath day? Has anything been said about the 1st day yet? No, we shall speak of that by and by.
Before this he was in Antioch. "And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue the GENTILES besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of G.o.d." xiii: 42, 44. Here is proof that the Gentiles kept the Sabbath. Now I wish to place the other strong text which is so strangely adhered to for abolishing or changing this [11]Sabbath along side of this, that we may understand his meaning.
"Blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days." Coll. ii: 14, 16.
Now here is one of the strong arguments adhered to by all those who say the seventh day Sabbath was abolished at the crucifixion of our Lord; while on the other hand by the great ma.s.s of the Christian world, (so called,) the seventh day Sabbath ceased here, and in less than forty-eight hours the change was made to the first day of the week. Now remember Paul"s manner, (before stated) itinerating from city to city and nation to nation, always preaching to Jews and Gentiles on the seventh day Sabbath, (for there is no other day called the Lord"s Sabbath in the Bible.) Now if the Apostle did mean to include the Sabbath of the Lord G.o.d with the Jewish feasts and Sabbaths in the text, then the course he took to do so, was the strangest imaginable. His _manner_ always was, as recorded, with the exception of one night, to preach on the very day that he was laboring to abolish. If you will look at the date in your bibles, you will learn this same apostle had been laboring in this way as a special messenger to the Gentiles, between twenty and thirty years since (as you say) the Sabbath was changed or abolished, and yet never uttered one word with respect to any other day in the week to be set apart as a holy day or Sabbath. I understand all the arguments about his laboring in the Jewish Synagogue on their Sabbath, because they were open for worship on that day, &c., but he did not always preach in their Synagogues. He says that he preached the Kingdom of G.o.d, and labored in his own hired house for two years. He also established a daily meeting for disputation in the school of Tyra.n.u.s. Acts xix: 9. Again he says, I have "kept _back_ NOTHING that was PROFITABLE _unto you_. (Now if the Sabbath had been changed or abolished, would it not have been _profitable_ to have told them so?) and have taught you publicly, and from house to house." "For I have not shunned to declare unto you ALL the council of G.o.d."--Acts xx: 20, 27.
Then it is clear that he taught them by example that the Sabbath of the Lord G.o.d was not abolished. Luke says it was the _custom_ (or manner) of Christ [12]to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. iv: 16, 31.
Mark says, "And when the Sabbath day was come he began to teach in their synagogue." Mark vi: 2.--Now if Jesus was about to abolish or change this Sabbath, (which belonged to the first code, the moral law, and not the ceremonial, the second code, which was to be nailed to his cross, or rather, as said the angel Gabriel to Daniel, ix: 27, "he (Christ) in the midst of the week shall cause the _sacrifice_ and _oblation_ to cease,"
meaning that the Jewish sacrifices and offerings would cease at his death.) Jesus did not attend to any of the ceremonies of the Jews except the pa.s.sover and the feasts of tabernacles. Why did he say, "Think not I am come to destroy the _law_ or the prophets? I am not come to destroy but fulfill. One jot or one t.i.tle shall in no wise pa.s.s from the _law_ "till all be fulfilled." "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments" &c. Did he mean the ten commandments? Yes; for he immediately points out the third, not to take G.o.d"s name in vain; sixth and seventh, not to kill nor to commit adultery, and styles them the _least_. Then the others, which include the fourth, of course were greater than these. Matt. v: 17, 19, 21, 27, 23, and were not to be broken nor pa.s.s away. Then the Sabbath stands unchanged.
Almost every writer which I have read on the subject of abolishing or changing the seventh day Sabbath, call it the Jewish Sabbath, hence their difficulty. How can it be the Jewish Sabbath when it was established two thousand years before there was a Jew on the face of the earth, and certainly twenty-five hundred before it was embodied in the decalogue, or re-enacted and written in stone by the finger of G.o.d at Sinai. G.o.d called this HIS _Sabbath_, and Jesus says it was made for man, (not particularly for the Jews.)
"Well," says one, "what is the meaning of the texts which you have quoted, where it speaks of Sabbaths?"--Answer: These are the Jewish Sabbaths! which belong to them as a nation and are connected with their feasts. G.o.d by Hosea makes this distinction, and says, "I will also cause all _her_ mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons and _her_ Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." These then belong to the text quoted, and not G.o.d"s Sabbath. Do you ask for the proof? See xxiii Levit. 4. "_These are the_ FEASTS _of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim in their [13]seasons_, EVERY THING UPON HIS DAY"--37th v. (May we not deviate a little? If you do it will be at your peril.) Fifteenth and sixteenth verses gives them a fifty day"s Sabbath; twenty-fourth verse says: "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying in the seventh month in the first day of the month, shall ye have a _Sabbath_, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation."
"Also on the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be unto you a _Sabbath_ of rest." 27, 32.
"Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when ye shall have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days. On the first shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. 39v. And Moses _declared_ unto the children of Israel the FEASTS of the Lord." 44v. Now here we have FOUR kinds of _Jewish_ Sabbaths, also _called_ "FEASTS _of the Lord_," to be kept annually. The first fifty days or seven weeks Sabbath ends the third month, seventh.
In three months and twenty-four days more commences the second Sabbath, seventh month, first; the next, the tenth; the last the fifteenth of the month. Between the first two Sabbaths there is an interval of one hundred and twelve days; the next two, ten days, and the next, five days. Now it can be seen at a glance, that neither of these Sabbaths could be on the seventh day any oftener than other annual feast could come on that day. These then are what Hosea calls HER Sabbaths. Paul calls them HOLY DAYS, _new moons, and Sabbaths_; and this is what they are stated to be. The first day of the seventh month is a _new moon_ SABBATH, the tenth is a Sabbath of rest and Holy convocation, a day of atonement, and the fifteenth a feast of Sabbaths. Do you ask for any more evidence that these are the Jewish Sabbaths, and that G.o.d"s Sabbath is separate from them? Read then what G.o.d directed Moses to write in the third verse: "Six days shall work be done, but the _seventh_ day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation, ye shall do no work therein, it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings." Now Moses has here declared from the mouth of the Lord, that these are ALL the feast of the Lord, (there is no more nor less) and every thing is to be upon _his day_, and he has clearly and definitely separated his Sabbath from the other four. And in the 28th and 29th chapters of Numbers the sacrifices [14]and offerings for each of these days are made so plain, beginning with the Sabbath, 9v, that we have only to read the following to understand. 26. xxix: 1. First day, seventh month, (new moon;) 7v, 10th day Sabbath; 12v; 15th day Sabbath, and 35v, 23d day Sabbath. And in the days of Nehemiah when Ezra had read the law to the people, viii (more than one thousand years after they were promulgated,) they bound themselves under an oath "to walk in G.o.d"s law which was given _by the hand of Moses_, the servant of G.o.d." "And to observe and _do all the commandments_ of the Lord, our Lord." x: 29. And that there might be no misunderstanding about the kind of Sabbaths, they say, "If the people bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or on the holy day," (31v.) but they would "charge themselves yearly with a third part of a shekel" (to pay for) "the burnt _offerings_ of the _Sabbaths_, of the _new moons_, for the _set feasts_," &c. (33v.) for the house of G.o.d, including what has already been set forth in Leviticus and Numbers. Now as their feast days commenced and ended with a Sabbath, so when their feasts ceased to be binding on them these Sabbaths must also, and all were "nailed to the cross." Now I ask if there is one particle of proof that the Sabbath of the Lord is included in these Sabbaths and feast days? Who then dare join them together or contradict the Most High G.o.d, and call HIS the _Jewish_ Sabbath. _Theirs_ was nailed to the cross when Jesus died, while the Lord"s is an _everlasting_ sign a _perpetual covenant_. The Jews, as a nation, broke their covenant. Jesus and his disciples were one week (the last of the seventy) that is seven years, confirming the new covenant for another people, the Gentiles. Now I ask if this changing the subjects from Jew to Gentile made void the commandments and law of G.o.d, or in other words, abolished the fourth commandment; if so, the other nine are not binding. It cannot be that G.o.d ever intended to mislead his subjects. Let us ill.u.s.trate this. Suppose that the Congress of these United States in their present emergency, should promulgate two separate codes of laws, one to be perpetual, the other temporary, to be abolished when peace was proclaimed between this country and Mexico. The time _comes_, the temporary laws are abolished; but strange to hear, a large portion of the people are now insisting upon it that because peace is proclaimed that both [15]these codes of laws are forever abolished; while another cla.s.s are _strenuously_ insisting that it is only the _fourth_ law in the perpetual code that"s now abolished, with the temporary and all the rest is still binding. Opposed to all these is a third cla.s.s, headed by the ministers and scribes of the nation, who are writing and preaching from Maine to Florida, insisting upon it without fear of contradiction, that when peace was proclaimed this fourth law in the perpetual code was to change its date to another day; gradually, (while some of them say immediately) and thenceforward become perpetual, and the other code abolished; and yet not one of these are able to show from the proceedings of Congress that the least alteration had ever been made in the perpetual code. Thus, to me, the case stands clear that neither of the laws or ten commandments in the first code, ever has or ever can be annulled or changed while mortality is stamped on man, for the very reason that G.o.d"s moral law has no limitation. Jesus then brought in a new covenant, which continued the Sabbath by writing his law upon their hearts. Paul says "written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living G.o.d; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." 2 Cor. iii: 3. And when writing to the Romans he shews _how_ the Gentiles are a law unto themselves. He says, they "shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences always bearing them witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another," (when will this be Paul) "in the day when G.o.d shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."
ii: 15, 16. How plain that this is all the change. The Jews by nature had the law given them on tables of stone, while the Gentiles had the law of commandments written on their hearts. Paul tells the Ephesians that it was "the law of commandments contained in ordinances," (ii: 15) not on tables that were nailed to the cross. If the ten commandments, first written by the finger of G.o.d on stone, and then at the second covenant on fleshy tables of the heart, are shadows, can any one tell where we shall find the substance? We are answered, in Christ. Well, hear Isaiah. He says, "that he (Christ) will magnify the law and make it honorable." lxii: 21. Again, I ask, where was the necessity and of what use were the ten commandments written on our hearts, if it was not to render perfect obedience to them. If we do not keep the day G.o.d has sanctified, then [16]we break not the least, but one of the greatest of his commandments. Still, there are many other texts relating to the law, presented by the opposite view, to show that the law respecting the Sabbath is abolished. Let us look at some of them. But it will be necessary in the first place, to make a clear distinction between what is commonly called the
MORAL AND CEREMONIAL LAW.
Bro. S. S. Snow, in writing on this subject about one year ago, in the Jubilee Standard, asks "by what authority this distinction is made." He says "neither our Lord or his apostles made any such distinction. When speaking of the law they never used the terms moral or ceremonial, but always spake of it as a _whole_, calling it _the_ law," and further says, "we must have a thus saith the Lord to satisfy us." So I say! I have no doubt but thousands have stopped here; indeed, it has been to me the most difficult point to settle in this whole question. Now let us come to it fairly, and we shall see that the old and new testament writers have ever kept up the distinction, although it may in some parts seem to be one code of laws.
From the twentieth chapter of Exodus, where the law of the Sabbath was re-enacted, and onward, we find two distinct codes of laws. The first was written on two tables of stone with the _finger_ of G.o.d; the _second_ was taken down from his mouth and recorded by the hand of Moses in a book. Paul calls the latter carnal commandments and ordinances, (rites or _ceremonies_) which come under two heads, religious and political, and are Moses"s. The first code is G.o.d"s. For proof see Exo.
xvi: 28, 30. "How long refuse ye to keep _my_ commandments and _my_ laws: see for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath; and so the people rested on the Sabbath day." Also in the book of Leviticus, where the law of ceremonies is given to the levites or priests, Moses closes with these words: "_These_ are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai;" in Heb. vii: 16, 18, called carnal commandments.
Again, "the Lord said unto Moses, come up to me into the Mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written." Exo. xxiv: 12. Further he calls them the ten [17]commandments--x.x.xiv: 28. And Moses puts them "into the ark"--xl: 20. _Now for the second code of laws._ See Deut. x.x.xi: 9, 10; and xxiv: 26. "And when Moses had finished writing the law, he commanded them to put _this book_ of the LAW (of ceremonies) in the side of the ark of the covenant, to be read at the end of every seven years." This is not the song of deliverance by Moses in the forty-fourth verse of the thirty-second chapter. For, eight hundred and sixty-seven years after this, in the reign of Josiah, king of Israel, the high priest found this book in "the Temple," (2 Chron. x.x.xiv: 14, 15) which moved all Israel.
One hundred and seventy-nine years further onward, Ezra was from morning till noon reading out of this book. Neh. viii: 3; Heb. ix: 19. Paul"s comments.
Bro. Snow says in regard to the commandments, "The principles of moral conduct embraced in the law, was binding before the law was given, (meaning that one of course at Mt. Sinai) and is binding _now_; it is immutable and eternal! It is comprehended in one word, LOVE." If he meant, as we believe he did, to comprehend what Jesus did in the xix.
and xxii. chap. Matt. 37-40, and Paul, and James, and John after him, then we ask how it is possible for him to reject from that code of laws, the only one, _the seventh day rest_, that was promulgated at the _beginning_, while at the same time the other nine, that were not written until about three thousand years afterwards, were eternally binding; without doubt, the whole ten commandments are co-eval and co-extensive with sin. Again, he says, "We readily admit, that if what is called the decalogue or ten commandments be binding on us, _we ought_ to observe the seventh day, for that was appointed by the Lord as the Sabbath day." Let us see if Jesus and his apostles do not make it binding. _First then, the distinction of the two codes by Jesus._
The Pharisees ask the Saviour why his disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? His answer is, "Why do ye transgress the commandment of G.o.d?" and he immediately cites them to the fifth commandment, Matt. xv: 25. Again, "The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of G.o.d is preached," &c. Luke xvi: 16. Jesus was three years after this introducing the gospel of the kingdom, unwaveringly holding his meetings on the Sabbath days, (which our opponents say were now about to be _abolished_; others say changed,) and never uttering a syllable to show to the contrary, but that this was [18]and always would be the holy day for worship. Mark says when the Sabbath (the Seventh day, for there was no other,) was come, he began to teach in the Synagogue, vi: 2. Luke says, "as his _custom_ was, he went into the Synagogue and taught on the Sabbath day." iv: 16, 31. Will it be said of him as it is of Paul on like occasions, some thirty years afterwards, that he uniformly held his meetings on the Sabbath because he had no where else to preach, or that this day was the only one in the week in which the people would come out to hear him? Every bible reader knows better; witness the five thousand and the seven thousand, and the mult.i.tudes that thronged him in the streets, in the citys and towns where they listened to him; besides, he was now establishing a new dispensation, while theirs was pa.s.sing away. Then he did not follow any of their customs or rites or ceremonies which he had come to abolish.
I have already quoted Matt. v: 17, 18, where Jesus said he had come to fulfil the law, and immediately begins by showing them that they are not to violate one of the least of the commandments, and cites them to some--see vi: 19, 21, 27, 33. Again, he is tauntingly asked "which is the great commandment in the law: Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the _first_ and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." xxii: 36, 40. Here Jesus has divided the ten commandments into two parts, or as it is written on two tables of stone. The first four on the first table treat of those duties which we owe to G.o.d--the other six refers to those which we owe to man, requiring perfect obedience.