[18] We cannot see the distinction contended for by some, between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord’s day; namely, that the former was “rest,” while the latter is “public worship.” To us they appear identical. The Jewish Sabbath was not merely “rest,” but holy or sanctified rest. “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Moses calls it “the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord;” and God frequently declares that it was appointed as a “sign” between himself and his people, and commands them to keep it holy. Now, how could the Jewish Sabbath answer the description thus given of it, if mere rest, or cessation from bodily labour, was all that was required in its observance? We know that the Sunday, as kept by those who only lay aside their usual worldly employments, is neither “blessed,” nor “sanctified,” nor “holy,” nor a “sign” between them and God. On the contrary, it is made the occasion of the most awful immoralities, and is productive of the greatest misery. Instead of a blessing, it is converted into a curse. Besides, did not the instructions of the heads of families, and the teaching and ministrations of the Levites, in the earlier part of the Jewish history, and the services at the synagogue in after times, afford means of instruction very similar to those in the Christian church? By divine appointment the Levites were to teach the people (Lev. x. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 10), and the people were to teach their children (Deut. vi. 7); and we cannot conceive how this could have been done, or the Sabbath have been kept holy, according to the commandment, without some stated instruction and worship on the day of rest, from the first settlement of the Israelites in Canaan. A whole nation keeping holy every seventh day, without the aids and restraints of public worship, appears to us an impossibility. Indeed, why is the Sabbath expressly called “a holy convocation” [מקרא קדש] (Levit. xxiii. 3), if no assemblies of the people for worship took place on that day? But after all, what do the advocates of the strictest observance of the Sabbath require, more than was required of the Jews by God himself? (Isa. lviii. 13.) We therefore consider the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, the same in spirit, in character, and in their general religious requirements.
[20a] Isaiah, lvi. 6, 7.
[20b] The fourth commandment is in its nature partly moral and partly positive. Reason teaches the duty of devoting a portion of our time to the worship of God. Revelation determines the amount by a positive enactment. Now, it is very remarkable, that while all the other sabbatical institutions (which are peculiar to the Jews) are omitted in the moral law and inserted in the ceremonial law, that of the seventh day alone stands in the decalogue. Is not this a tacit indication of its moral character?
[22] See Appendix.
[23a] How often has the fondest love of parents become destructive to their offspring, for want of proper regulation in its expression. So, love to God and man, if mere feeling, without proper intellectual guidance, might produce results the reverse of its intention. It would be the propelling power without the regulator.
[23b] “It is a gross mistake to consider the Sabbath as a mere festival of the Jewish church, deriving its whole sanctity from the Levitical law. The contrary appears, as well from the evidence of the fact which sacred history affords, as from the reason of the thing which the same history declares. The religious observation of the seventh day hath a place in the decalogue among the very first duties of natural religion. The reason assigned for the injunction is general, and hath no relation or regard to the particular circumstances of the Israelites. The creation of the world was an event equally interesting to the whole human race; and the acknowledgment of God as our Creator, is a duty in all ages and in all countries, equally incumbent upon every individual of mankind.” From Bishop Horsley’s Second Sermon on the Sabbath.
Professor Blunt has elaborately demonstrated, that the Sabbath was observed in the Patriarchal age. See Scriptural Coincidences, pp. 18–24. The hebdomadal division of time by the Pagan nations of the West, and by the Hindus and other people in the East, seems to indicate a traditional recognition of the Sabbath, though the observance of the day, as a day of rest, passed away with the worship of Him, in whose honour it was originally instituted.
[27] Matt. xxii. 37–40.
[28a] Rom. xiii. 8–10.
[28b] James ii. 10, 11.