FREE-WILL BAPTIST

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Mar 20, 1855

FREE-WILL BAPTIST.

"The Sabbath—This is a seventh part of time, which from the creation of the world, God has set apart for a day of sacred rest and holy service. It was included in the ten commandments written on tables of stone, and given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Nature itself teaches the necessity of its observance. Its obligation is taught both in the Old and New Testaments, and is to continue with that of the other commandments till the end of time. As the law of the Sabbath was first given to the whole world, it requires all men, on this day, to refrain from servile labor, and devote themselves entirely to the service of the God that made them.

"Note—From the creation of the world, the seventh day of the week was observed as the Sabbath. But, since the resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week has been kept instead of the seventh. It is inferred from the following, that this change was made by Christ or his apostles," &c.—Treatise on Free Will-Baptist Faith, pp. 76, 77.

Mark—"It is inferred" or the inference is that Christ or the apostles changed the day they do not know which for the want of proof.

DECLARATIONS OF FAITH OF THE BAPTIST STATE CONVENTION OF MICHIGAN, SEPT. 14, 1842.

"Art. xiii. Of the Christian Sabbath. That the first day of the week is the Lord's Day, Christian Sabbath, and is to be kept sacred to religious purposes, by abstaining from all secular labor and recreations; by the devout observance of all the means of grace, both private and public; and by preparation for that Rest which remaineth for the people of God."

Then is quoted Acts xx, 7, where Paul broke bread on the first day. Gen. ii, 3. The seventh day God blessed. Col. ii, 16, 17. Sabbath days a shadow and nailed to the cross or abolished. Mark ii, 27. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath-day. John xx, 19, where Christ appeared to his disciples on the even of the first day. 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2, where Paul told them to lay by in store on the first day. Ex. xx, 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Ps. cxviii. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made. Isa. lviii, 13, 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, &c. Ps. cxviii. 15. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. Heb. x, 24, 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, &c. Acts xi, 26, where the disciples were first called Christians. Acts xiii, 44. And the next Sabbath-day, came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Heb. iv, 3-11. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Mark—If a Christian Sunday is not established by this jargon of contradictory quotations, we know not how it can be proved by the Baptists; for they have made all kinds of quotations to change, abolish, establish, to build up, and tare down, for the first-day, for the seventh-day, and for no day. Perhaps this was one of their best efforts at this convention upon this troublesome question that their Seventh-day Baptist brethren had worried them with so long.