CONGREGATIONAL PREACHING IN LAPEER, MICH.
By Joseph Bates
Elder Allen, a Congregational minister, who was about to be established over the Congregational society in Lapeer, Mich., appointed a meeting to be holden in the Court-house on First-day, Nov. 21st, to show that Sabbath-keepers were Jewish, &c. After prayer, he began by referring back to a former discourse in the same house, and stated that the seventh day was not mentioned in the fourth commandment. He then read the following scripture for his starting point: "And he said, Go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate." Isa. vi, 9-11. Said Eld. A., This was for the Jews, and all who act like them, and keep the seventh day for the Sabbath. He then referred us to his former discourse, and said the change of the Sabbath might be evinced from the Scriptures, and referred to the practice of the apostles in the New Testament, and continued thus: If by the sixth point the Lord's day was proved, then we have proved that day to be the Christian Sabbath. After referring to Rev. i, 10, he said, Now examine the wonderful events given to John. No other day of the week than the first can be called the Lord's day. His resurrection is emphatically the Lord's day, because on that day the Lord rested. For further proof we were referred to Heb. iv, 10. Further, as the supper is called the Lord's supper, so the first day of the week is called the Lord's day. Would the disciples dare to observe that day as the true Sabbath if they had not been particularly instructed by the Lord Jesus? He was with them forty days after his resurrection. I should like to know if he did not have the most abundant opportunity to teach them respecting this first day, &c. Note 1.—As Eld. A. failed to back up his strong points from the Scriptures, as the reader will readily see, we have been led to query something like the following: 1. Wonder if Eld. A. ever read the fourth commandment of God? 2. Wonder who it could be that told the Eld. that those who now keep the Sabbath acted like the Jews? 3. Wonder who it was that told the Eld. that the resurrection day was emphatically the Lord's day, because the Lord rested on that day? If he did really believe what he stated, why did he afterwards read from Luke xxiv, to prove that the same Lord was traveling to Emmaus seven and a half miles on that day, and therefore could not be resting? 4. Wonder who told him that because the supper was called the Lord's supper, so the first day of the week is the Lord's day? 5. Wonder who told him about the disciples not daring to observe that day as the true Sabbath if they had not been particularly instructed by the Lord Jesus Christ. 6. Wonder why the Eld. did not tell his audience (if he knew) what the Lord Jesus did say to his disciples about observing the first day of the week for the true Sabbath, during the forty days he was with them after his resurrection? Eld. A. then cited us to Rev. xxii, 19. "And if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, &c., and said the Bible must be left as John leaves it, he began with the Lord's day. Rev. i, 10. The church has no power to change the Sabbath, but Christ has done it, he has made this day! Augustine, one of the most reliable fathers, says that Christ transferred the Sabbath to the Lord's day. Ignatius, the most experienced father, says, Let every one who loves the Lord Jesus keep holy the first day of the week." Note 2.—As the scripture testimony from Ex. xx, 10; Isa. lviii, 13; Mark ii, 28, clearly proves the Lord's day to be the seventh day of the week it is evident that Eld. A., and not the Sabbatarian, falls under the awful denunciation of Rev. xxii, 19, for daring to alter the Bible from where John left it. Where did Eld. A. learn that Jesus our Lord made the first day of the week? If he had proved that day to have been the first day of the creation, then we are shown that day was a working day. If somebody told him that the Saviour made another first day at his resurrection, he certainly was under obligation to tell his audience who it was. Again, if it can be proved that the two reliable and experienced fathers did utter the foregoing language, and they read it in the Bible, we could read the same there. As we find no such statements therein taught, their testimony is of no more consequence to us than the ten thousand living fathers who are continually endeavoring to prove the same thing. Said Eld. A., "Redemption, by mathematical and all other calculations, is greater than the creation of the world." Here the Eld. broke out in quite an ecstasy of joy, crying out, O redemption! redemption! In creation God gave us ourselves; in redemption God gave us himself, who is Jesus Christ himself; therefore the seventh day is inferior to the Lord's day. Christ has made all the days in one point of view, but he has blessed this first day, the holy Sabbath. Note 3.—If Eld. A. had informed us how man's redemption could be calculated by the science of mathematics, to make redemption greater than the creation of the world, we should doubtless have been mathematically enlightened; instead of which he gave as proof Luke i, 5; Isa. lix, 16. It is possible I have not given the first quotation correctly. How in redemption God gave us himself, and he was Jesus Christ himself, was not so clear to our mind; but before we had time to think how that could be so, the conclusion came; viz., therefore the seventh day is inferior to the Lord's day. Christ blessed the first day, the holy Sabbath. How soon such vain arguments are extinguished beside plain scripture testimony like the following: "The whole creation groaneth . . . waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. viii, 22, 23. Not yet "redeemed from the earth." Rev. xiv, 3. Redemption then has not yet come, therefore the Sabbath memorial cannot be changed for a memorial of redemption which is still future. Neither are we commanded to rest on the sixth day of the week in which the Saviour shed his blood to redeem all such as overcome; and then call the first day of the week, the resurrection day, greater than the creation of the world. The Bible no where commands man to rest from his labors on the greatest day, but on the seventh day of the week which is the only Lord's day of the seven. Eld. A. further stated "that he (Christ) never was a king until he led captivity captive, when he arose from the grave. A day the Holy Ghost blessed. O, what a sublime and glorious instance of concurrence! The Holy Ghost is the person that takes us by the hand and leads us to the Saviour." Note 4.—Eld. A. seemed to be in a great ecstasy of joy to think he had proved that Christ was a king when he arose from the grave. If he had carefully examined the Saviour's testimony in Luke xix, 12-15; 2 Tim. iv, 1, he would have learned that Christ at his second coming yet in the future, will be known for the first time as a King coming in his kingdom. A right understanding and preparation for that glorious time would be far more valuable and interesting to him than ten thousand such sublime and glorious instances of concurrence. Said Eld. A., "We will now examine one or two arguments of our opponents." Matt. v, 17. Who dare say that the Saviour did not mean the Mosaic law? Again, [Gal. v, 1-3.] Mosaic institution and nothing else. Circumcision and the Seventh-day Sabbath go together. Get a little of the Jewish institution into your heads and the whole lump is leavened. If Christ nailed circumcision to the cross, why did he not nail the Sabbath to the cross? He nailed to the cross every thing that Moses gave! Circumcision was a spiritual institution, so was the Sabbath. Note 5.—We dare to say, Eld. A., and so may any person of common understanding, who will read your quotation from Matt. v, 17, in connection with verses 18, 21, 27, that the Mosaic law is not even referred to. The point in question is with reference to the moral law, and that only, for Jesus says, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law." You call it Mosaic, and then say that he (Jesus) nailed to the cross every thing that Moses gave. Do you not see that your argument is in direct opposition to the testimony of Jesus? Heaven and earth are not yet passed away; hence the law in Matt. v, 17 was not nailed to the cross. Further, the angel Gabriel says, "He (Christ) shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease." Dan. ix, 21. This certainly is but a small part of what Moses gave. Second argument. Gal. v, 1-3, you say is a Mosaic institution and nothing else. By referring to chap. iv, 8, 9, it may be clearly understood that the Apostle had no reference to Mosaic institutions, but idolatrous worship, from which the Galatians had been converted, and turned back again to bondage. Neither is circumcision Mosaic, but Abrahamic. Rom. iv, 11, 12. Neither is circumcision a spiritual institution. See Gen. xvii, 10-14. Neither have circumcision and the Seventh-day Sabbath gone together. You stated that the Sabbath was instituted at creation. Circumcision was not instituted or spoken of for more than nineteen hundred years afterwards. Further, circumcision was abolished at the cross, but the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was not. Luke xxiii, 56; Matt. xxiv, 20; Rev. i, 10. Sabbath-keepers in Lapeer, whom you style your opponents and enemies, do not teach, neither have they been taught, to observe the ceremonial law of Moses, nor circumcision, as you have insinuated. Eld. A. read Acts i, and also Luke xxiii, 54-56, and said that the apostles were never fully led into the truth until the day of Pentecost. Their stupidity was great; hence the apostles could not keep the new Sabbath until they were instructed. But supernatural light was given them from heaven, by the Holy Ghost fifty days from the resurrection. Because we keep the Christian Sabbath we are branded with Popery, Romanism, Babylon, &c. The enemies of Christ come to us and say, Do you believe in the Bible? Yes. Then you have the belief of the Papal power; and thus we are branded with the offspring of Papacy.—We believe that sprinkling and pouring are the modes of baptism, and also allow our brethren of the Baptist the right to immerse.—All Protestant churches, you say, are Papal, because they believe in some of the doctrines of the Catholic church. Then because we believe there is a God, we are charged with Papacy.—In these latter days we are told that God can destroy the soul in hell! This is utter annihilation; in opposition to all spiritual teaching. The Jews nor the Romans never taught the annihilation of the soul. No Protestants have ever taught us gross and unscriptural errors.—Judaizing teaching is connected with the Jewish Sabbath, which does away the resurrection. Judaism uncurbed will chase us from the work of God. It leads to the destruction of the doctrine of the trinity, and of redemption. They do not know how to treat redemption.—Because these opponents are not under the same restriction that the Jews were as a people, the utter tendency of their teaching is utter delusion and fanaticism.—Praying for the sick [James v] was a Popish custom; it is iniquitous. All this teaching leads to the rejection of the resurrection and immortality of the soul.—Antiquity is the only plea of those who keep the Jewish Sabbath; it is all the aid they can get hold of.—Mark vii, 6-9, marks their character. "He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups; and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."—We have the truth, say they, and all others are wrong; comparing us thus with these Jews. The conduct of these teachers calling us fools, deceivers, corrupters, &c. Which of the two resembles Popery? the Millerites, or the Congregationalists and Presbyterians?—Popery teaches purgatory, so Millerism has discovered a new state of dormancy in the cold clay which the immortal spirit has left. [Here the Eld. undertook to show how Sabbath-keepers differed from all other denominations, even the Catholics, and then vented himself in a burst of awful indignation, denouncing the Millerites for daring to oppose the clear Bible view of the unceasing and endless torment of all sinners in hell fire.] Millerites present still more awful doctrines for the sins of the wicked. Which of the two resembles Popery? the Millerites or the Congregationalists?—They teach the ordinances of baptism by immersion, the Lord's supper and washing of feet. After reading John xiii, 1-17, he proceeded to show that nothing could be clearer than the ordinance of the Lord's supper; but the washing of feet was not to be regarded by the followers of Christ. The following scripture was quoted to show the character of such as observed the ordinance of feet washing: "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised: only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." Gal. vi, 12. In the foregoing, dear reader, you have the leading and prominent points of the long-looked-for argumentative preaching of Eld. Allen, to prove the Judaizing character of such professed Christians as dare to keep all the Commandments of God, and Faith, or testimony, of Jesus, in Lapeer. If you read it carefully you will see that the burden of his discourse in the morning was to prove the first day of the week to be the holy Sabbath, since the resurrection of the Saviour; and those who keep the seventh day for the Sabbath were classed with the unbelieving Jews, never to be healed until "the land be utterly desolate." Read again his quotation and application from Isa. vi, 9-11, in connection with his labored argument, and see how much it weighs, and you can judge of its worth. In giving a second description of the Sabbath-keepers in Lapeer, in his discourse in the afternoon, he virtually overthrew and destroyed the character he gave them in the morning. See his quotation and application from Mark vii, 6-9. "Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition," &c. First, to be denounced for keeping all the commandments of God, and then re-denounced for rejecting the commandment of God, looks like blowing both hot and cold. For obeying the testimony of Jesus in washing one another's feet they were classed with the circumcision. At the close of the meeting we announced to the audience that these two discourses would be reviewed in the evening at the new meeting-house. Said Eld. A., I object unless the notes have been taken by a stenographer.