THE TRUTH FOUND. A Short Argument for the Sabbath.
By J. B. White
[Concluded from Page 125.] III. THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD: OR THE OPINIONS OF LEARNED MEN. The opinions and practice of learned men are often presented as an argument in favor of any thing popular, and especially Sunday-keeping. But they should certainly never be urged upon a point where the testimony of the Bible is so direct and explicit as it is upon the subject of the Sabbath; nor indeed upon any point, as the Word is directly opposed to any human dependence. God has chosen the weak to confound the mighty, and the foolish to confound the wise. That which is hid from the wise is revealed unto babes. The Lord says: "Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men." Testimony similar to the following may be given to almost any length. The most casual reader will be struck with the confusion and contradictions. Were the subject really intricate, we should look for much light to be elicited by so great efforts of so much learning; but where so much confusion exists, while the truth itself is clear and plain, it is to me proof that the effort is to evade rather than to learn the truth. WM. TINDAL.—We be the lords of the Sabbath, and may change it into Monday, or any other day, as we see need; or we may make every tenth day holy day, only if we see cause why; we may make two every week if it were expedient, or one not enough to teach the people. Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday, other than to put a difference between us and the Jews, and lest we should become servants to the day after their superstition. JOHN BROWN.—In honor of his own resurrection Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. The first day was observed by Christians as their Sabbath for almost 1600 years, without having their practice so much as questioned, nor have any arguments against its observance been since adduced which are worthy of notice.—Bible Dictionary. BISHOP CRANMER.—The Jews were commanded in the Old Testament to keep the Sabbath day, and they observed it every seventh day, called the Sabbath, or Saturday; but we Christian men are not bound to such commandments in Moses' law, and therefore we now keep no more the Sabbath or Saturday, as the Jews did, but we observe the Sunday, and some other days as the magistrates do judge convenient.—Catechism. W. NEVINS, D. D.—It is very true, that the Sabbath is done away in the practice of many, but I know of no precept doing it away. The subject may have done it away, but the Lawgiver has not. Now I very much question the right of the subject to do away a law. I can show any one, who wishes to see it, the enactment of the law of the Sabbath. I can tell him when it was enacted, under what circumstances, and in what language. But can any point to the repeal of the law? When was it repealed? Where is the account of it? CALVIN.—There is no doubt that on the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial part of the commandment was abolished. THOS. SCOTT, D. D.—It cannot be that Christ would so often have discussed this subject, and shown what is lawful on the Sabbath, without allowing exceptions, if he had not intended that the institution substantially should continue in full force under the christian dispensation.—On Matt. xii, 7, 8. DR. PALEY.—The assembling of the first day of the week for the purpose of public worship and religious instruction, is a law of Christ of Divine appointment; the resting on the day from our employments longer than we are detained from them by attendance upon these assemblies, is to Christians an ordinance of human institution.
... What remains, therefore, of Sunday, besides the part of it employed at Church, must be considered as a mere rest from the ordinary occupations of civil life; and he who would defend the institution as is required by law to be observed in Christian countries, unless he can produce a command for a Christian Sabbath, must point out the uses of it in that view.—Moral and Political Philosophy. [Would it be any more difficult to "produce a command for a Christian Sabbath, than to produce the "law of divine appointment" of which Mr. Paley speaks.] COMPREHENSIVE COMMENTARY.—The Sabbath began in the finishing of the work of creation; so will the everlasting Sabbath in the finishing of the work of providence and redemption; and we observe the weekly Sabbath in expectation of that, as well as in remembrance of the former; in both conforming ourselves to him we worship. He has himself blessed the Sabbath-day and sanctified it. He has honored it by setting it apart for himself; it is the holy of the Lord and honorable, and he has put blessings into it which he has encouraged us to expect from him, in the religious observance of that day; it is the day the Lord hath made; let us not do what we can to unmake it. He has blessed, honored, and sanctified it; let not us profane it and dishonor it, and level that with common time which God's blessing has thus dignified and distinguished.—On Ex. xx, 8-10.142 But busy as they were in this preparation, they rested on the Sabbath day, and did none of this servile work thereon; not according to the custom of their nation, but according to the commandment of their God, which, though the day be changed, is still in full force.—On Luke xxii, 56. PROT. EPIS. CHURCH.—The day is now changed from the seventh to the first day, in commemoration of our Lord's resurrection; but as we meet with no scriptural direction for the change, we may conclude it was done by the authority of the church, under the guidance of the apostles:—Explanation of Catechism. DR. DWIGHT.—It could be altered only by divine appointment. The same authority which instituted the Sabbath, appointed also the day on which it was to be holden; and no other authority is competent to change either in any degree. If, then, we cannot find in the Scriptures plain and ample proof of the abrogation of the original day, or the substitution of a new one, the day undoubtedly remains in full force and obligation; and is now religiously to be observed by all the race of Adam. MELANCTHON.—The Lord's day, from the apostle's age, hath been a solemn day; notwithstanding, we find not the same commanded by any apostolic law; but it is collected from thence that the observance thereof was free, because Epiphanius and St. Augustine testify that on the fourth and sixth days of the week, church assemblies were held, as well as upon the Lord's day. We teach that traditions are not to be condemned which have a religious end, namely, traditions concerning holy days, the Lord's day, the feast of the nativity, easter, &c. ADAM CLARKE, D. D.—The change of the Jewish into the Christian Sabbath, called the Lord's day, [Rev. i, 10,] shows that Christ is not only the Lord, but also the truth and completion of it. For it seems to have been by an especial providence that this change has been made and acknowledged all over the christian world.—On Matt. xii, 8. DR. CHALLONER.—The scripture does not in particular mention this change of the Sabbath. John speaks of the Lord's day; [Rev. i, 10;] but he does not tell us what day of the week this was, much less does he tell us that this day was to take the place of the Sabbath ordained in the commandment. Luke also speaks of the disciples' meeting together to break bread on the first day of the week. Acts xx, 7. And Paul [1 Cor. xvi, 2] orders that on the first day of the week the Christians should lay by in store what they designed to bestow in charity on the faithful in Judea, but neither the one nor the other tells us that this first day of the week was to be henceforth the day of rest and the Christian Sabbath; so that truly the best authority we have for this, is the testimony and ordinance of the church, and, therefore, those who pretend to be so religious of the Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same church authority, show that they act by humor and not by reason and religion, since Sunday and holy-days all stand upon the same foundation, viz.: The ordinance of the church.—Christian Cath. Instructed. PRES. HUMPHREY.—What if they can show that the ceremonial law has been expressly annulled? It is nothing to the purpose; for the Sabbath existed independently of that law; the chapter and verse must be distinctly pointed out in which the original sabbatical law was expressly repealed. . . . No human authority may expunge a single word from the statutes of Jehovah. It were infinitely less daring for the meanest subject of the mightiest earthly potentate to declare the fundamental laws of the empire null and void, than for man, who is a worm, to set aside the institutions of his Maker. [Yet Pres. H., dared to expunge the "seventh day" from the law of Jehovah, and insert the "first-day" in its stead; thus setting aside the institution of the Rest-day of God.] EUSEBIUS.—All things whatsoever that it was the duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it had a precedence, and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. MOSHEIM.—All Christians were unanimous in setting apart the first day of the week, on which the triumphant Saviour arose from the dead, for the solemn celebration of public worship. This pious custom which was derived from the example of the church of Jerusalem, was founded upon the express appointment of the apostles, who consecrated that day to the same sacred purpose. DR. TUBERVILLE.—It (Sunday) is a day dedicated by the apostles to the honor of the Most Holy Trinity, and in memory that Christ our Lord arose from the dead upon Sunday, sent down the Holy Ghost on a Sunday, &c., and therefore is called the Lord's day. It is also called Sunday from the old Roman denomination of Dies Solis, the day of the sun, to which it was sacred.—Douay Catechism. DAVID BOGUE, D. D.—The fourth commandment does not determine the particular day. That was determined under the law by another precept. AM. S. S. UNION.—The commandment which stands fourth in the order of the Decalogue is founded on the fact that the seventh day was blessed and hallowed by God himself, and that he requires his creatures to keep it holy to him. The commandment is of universal and perpetual obligation.—Bible Dictionary. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF REL. KNOWLEDGE.—It cannot reasonably be disputed that the command is truly obeyed by the separation of every seventh day from common to sacred purposes, at whatever given time the cycle may commence. The first Sabbath kept in the wilderness was calculated from the first day in which the manna fell, and with no apparent reference to the creation of the world. By apostolic authority it is now fixed to be held on the first day of the week. BISHOP HOPKINS.—"On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Now, that there cannot in these words be understood any prolepsis, or anticipation, declaring that so done then which was done many ages after, appears plainly, because God is said to sanctify the Sabbath then when he rested; but he rested precisely on the seventh day after the creation; therefore that very seventh day did God sanctify, and so made it the beginning of all ensuing Sabbaths. DR. DWIGHT.—The blessing, also, and the sanctification were annexed to the Sabbath day and not to the seventh. H. GREW.—The particular day enters into the very essence of the original Sabbath. Any change of the day annihilates it. Another day is another institution. "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which he had created and made." Gen. ii, 3.—Review of Phelps. [Eld. Grew's views of the Sabbath are similar to Dr. Paley's.] PROF. STUART.—The early Christians, one and all of them, held the first day of the week to be sacred. THOS. DICK, LL. D.—This is a command which never was abrogated, and which never can be abrogated in relation to any intelligent beings, as long as the Creator exists, and so long as the universe remains, as a memorial of his power and intelligence. . . . The celebration of the work of creation is not the only, nor the principal exercise to which we are called on the Christian Sabbath. Had man continued in primeval innocence, this would probably have constituted his chief employment. But he is now called to celebrate, in conjunction with this exercise, a most glorious deliverance from sin and misery effected by the Redeemer of mankind. And, for this reason the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. THOS. SCOTT, D. D.—It is evident that Christians were accustomed to assemble for religious worship on the first day of the week, but the change from the seventh to the first appears to have been gradually and silently introduced, by example rather than precept. DR. BARNES.—And upon the first day of the week. Showing thus that this day was then observed by Christians as holy time.—On Acts xx, 7. AM. S. S. UNION.—Sunday was a name given by the heathen to the first day of the week, because it was the day on which they worshiped the sun.—Bible Dictionary. PRES. BOARD OF PUBLICATION.—It is perfectly plain from the several passages we have collected, that the apostle enjoined and observed the first day of the week as sacred to religious assemblies for Christians; and as plain that he reproved as sinful the observance of Jewish times. The term "days," therefore, in the epistle to the Galatians, and "holy day," and "sabbath days" in that to the Colossians, cannot be understood in any other light than as embracing, if they did not exclusively signify the Jewish seventh day Sabbath, which, as the servant of God he disowned and forbade.—Tract, No. 118. DR. EDWARDS.—So in the second chapter of Colossians. . . . The sabbaths spoken of are not "the Sabbath" associated with Thou shalt not commit murder, or adultery, or theft; but the sabbaths associated with meats and drinks, and new moons, which were, indeed, shadows of things to come. But to take what he said of those sabbaths, which were associated by God with ceremonial laws, and which the apostle himself in this very discourse, associates with them, and apply it, as some have done, to "THE SABBATH," which God associated with moral laws, is wrong.—Sab. Man. pp. 135-6. DR. HENRY.—Dwight, in answer to Paley, states that the passage refers to the ordinary holy days of the Jews, or at most to the seventh day only, and not at all to the Christian Sabbath, especially as the latter is not in the Scriptures, and was not by the primitive church, called the Sabbath, but the first day of the week, and the Lord's day.—On Col. ii, 14. This is a mere sample of the confusion existing in the theological world on this important subject; as before stated, testimony to almost any length may be cited, similar to the foregoing, but I consider these amply sufficient to show where and why the confusion exists. What principle of just reasoning has not been violated by these learned men? They have left the Word of truth and trusted in themselves—expressed their own minds instead of searching out the mind of the Spirit; and have drawn largely on their own fancies, instead of drawing conclusions from the facts revealed in the Word of God. Their learning I do not question—of their honesty I shall say nothing. But I shall leave it for their friends and advocates to decide whether Dr. Clarke was more learned than Dr. Paley; and whether Dr. Bogue was more reliable than Bishop Hopkins; and whether Dr. Edwards was competent to impeach the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and whether (or not) Dr. Dwight ever read the second chapter of Genesis, and twentieth chapter of Exodus! The testimony of Mosheim is much relied upon, but there are two difficulties in the way of my receiving it. First, no trace of "the express appointment of the apostles," of which he speaks, is found in the New Testament; and second, his whole statement is contradicted by Neander, who is in no respect behind Mosheim, either as to learning, or historical accuracy. In this case, all the probabilities growing out of the New Testament, are in favor of Neander's statement, which is as follows: "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intention of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect; far from them and the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps at the end of the second century, a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin." Against learning, or learned men as such, I have nothing to say. But if education served men no better purpose on other points, than it has most of the writers here quoted on the Sabbath question, it would truly be a vain and useless thing. Reader, remember that God's Word is truth. It reveals the "words of knowledge," which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ. The words of man are vanity—his wisdom is folly. His position, his acquirements may qualify him to instruct his fellows; but "TAKE HEED that no man deceive you." PROV. XIX, 27.—Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.