Evidence of our Opponents—Baptist Testimony.
Extract from a Sermon Preached May 12th, 1872, by Rev. Justin D. Fulton, D. D., at Tremont Temple Church, Boston, Mass., published in the Examiner and Chronicle, June 6, 1872. TEXT. “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” Isa. 14: 24. It becomes our duty to reassert our faith in the word of Scripture. When God created man in his own image, he created him to fulfill a purpose, which was to show forth his Maker’s glory by obedience to laws that would secure his continuance in life and happiness, if obeyed. Law and design necessarily precede the creating act. Law is defined to be a rule of conduct, enforced by an authority superior to that of the moral being to whom it is given. The laws of God are embodied in his word. The counsel of God is here set forth to all generations. To ignore it, or throw contempt upon it, is to repeat the sin, not only of our first parents, but to act the part of Satan, the tempter. * * * * Is not this being done? One declares, “I do not think we have received our Lord’s day on the ground of absolute command.” To assert that, gives up the Bible, and at one fell blow strikes out the corner-stone from the jurisprudence of the world. Blackstone, Kent, and Story, and other distinguished law-writers, declare the commands given to the world, amid the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, is the foundation of law. “To rob the decalogue of one of its brightest and most precious gems—to abase the fourth commandment from its lofty height as one of the great and immutable laws of God—and to treat the divine statute, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it,’ as a mere ceremonial or ritual appointment, the observance of which has passed into desuetude with the types and shadows of the Mosaic dispensation—this has long been the desire of the ‘wise and prudent,’ in their own eyes, whose religious sensibilities, not being sufficiently spiritual to discern the true excellency of the design of the Sabbath and its sanctifying influence, wherever faithfully understood and used, have thus encouraged them to lower and dishonor God’s holy day, and by aiding the worldly and the dissolute with their false and specious arguments, have thereby given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. “Destroy the binding force of the command to observe the Sabbath ordinance, and you set aside every other part of the decalogue. We are forbidden to murder—to lie—to steal—or to commit any other crime against God or man, no more than we are forbidden to desecrate the Sabbath and the injunction ‘Try it’ in regard to any command of God, is but repeating and re-echoing the injunction by which the adversary of souls induced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and by which he tempts the untried to enter paths which lead down to hell. “* * * * * Turn for a moment to the question of the observance of the Sabbath. By referring to the word of God, we find that it was God’s earliest gift to man. It was made for him. The mandate for its observance was addressed to the whole human species alike, and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it. It marks the divisions of time for all generations and for all climes. The foot-prints of this Sabbath ordinance are seen in the ages before Abram was called, or Moses wrote, and are seen in lands where the authority of God is unrecognized.” Here is high Baptist authority that the Sabbath of the decalogue is sacred and immutable, and that all propositions to class Sabbath observance with the ceremonial law are the promptings of Satan. Why do Baptists refuse to commune with those who, refusing or neglecting to be baptized,91substitute sprinkling or pouring? Because, 1. It is not what God commanded when he gave the ordinance to man. 2. It was not so Christ obeyed the ordinance, and it is our bounden duty to follow his example. 3. The apostles did not so preach or practice. 4. There is no authority in the N. T. making any change from just what God commanded—Jesus taught and obeyed. These positions are uncontrovertible, because in strict accord with the word of God. Will our Baptist friends inform us why the very same reasons should not apply to the Sabbath as to baptism. “The Lord hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Isa. 14: 24.