To those who religiously observe the Sabbath, there are many particular promises made. “If thou turn thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the Holy of (or to) the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, not finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Here God secures to such persons the good of the land of Canaan, which he has promised as an heritage to Jacob and his seed. Plenty, honor, and security in the enjoyment of temporal blessings, are annexed to a religious performance of the duty; he will bless the honest labors of those who faithfully serve him, on the six days of the week, which he has appointed for secular employments. The more sincere and devout any person is in keeping the Sabbath, the more will his business prosper on other days. Promises of this nature have been accomplished in all ages, to those who have sanctified the Sabbath; and no doubt they will continue to be so in every subsequent period of time.
Attending to worldly business on the Sabbath, is a profanation of it, and strictly prohibited. God says, “Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.” Again: “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.” The Sabbath was awfully profaned in the days of Nehemiah. He says, “In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and leading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah and Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath-day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem begun to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath-day. So the merchants, and sellers of all sorts of ware, lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.” This is a noble instance of well-directed zeal, and successful effort, in that great and good governor. His example ought to be followed by persons in authority, filling high official situations. The prophet Jeremiah speaks to the same purpose, “Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem: neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath-day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers.”
Works of necessity and mercy are here to be excepted: these may be done consistently with the sanctification of the Sabbath, though they are servile and laborious. But great care must be taken, not to plead necessity where there really is none. By such works are meant things of importance, which could not be done the day before, nor postponed till after the Sabbath. A necessity which is occasioned by negligence, or want of thought, or is only necessary to some worldly advantage, will not be a sufficient excuse in this case. In seasons when people have more than ordinary business in their hands, and therefore are apt to plead necessity for encroachments on the Sabbath; yet, even then, God has particularly commanded them to rest. “Six days shalt thou work; but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing-time and harvest thou shalt rest.”
The religious observance of the Sabbath is adapted to promote the spiritual advantage of God’s people. Its exercises tend to wean them from this present world, and raise them above the attractions of sense. By this holy rest there is a pause made in their earthly pursuits, and they are called more solemnly to reflect on the invisible and important realities of a better world, in order to excite their devout affections. Had they no such intervals, their hearts would soon be overcharged with the labors and cares of this life, and they would be too regardless of a better state. God has made it even unlawful for them to follow any secular employments on this day, on purpose to preserve them from the undue influence of the objects of sense, and that they might with more intenseness pursue spiritual and eternal things. It is certain, as one judiciously observes, that much of the power of godliness consists in persons living above the present world, in being dead to it, in viewing it with a holy indifference, and in setting their affections on things above. But this would be very difficult, or next to impossible, if they were to be constantly employed in worldly affairs; and therefore he who best knows the composition and constitution of man, has wisely and graciously appointed one day in seven, as a rest from terrestrial pursuits, and as a season wherein he should set himself more intensely to prepare for the heavenly world. When thus withdrawn from earthly concerns, persons can more impartially examine, weigh, and consider how unsuitable a portion they are for an immaterial soul, immortal in its duration. They have leisure to meditate with greater freedom on the Author of their being, on his end or design in placing them on the earth, and on the results of their conduct awaiting them in a future state. They, therefore, who are duly informed of the worth of the soul, and suitably impressed with the awfulness of that world to which they are hastening; who desire the felicity of heaven, and dread the misery of hell; will rejoice at the return of the Sabbath, wherein they are called diligently to prepare for the one, and most cautiously to avoid the other. While thus abstracted from all sublunary things, and engaged in the exercise of devotion, they gain a more intimate communion with God. “Every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar.” When persons are employed on this sacred day, in meditating on the infinite perfections of God displayed in his works; when the desires of their souls are after him, and they are engaged in offering up prayers and praises to the glorious Author of their being and blessings; then he manifests himself to them in a manner he does not to other men, sheds abroad his love in their hearts, accepts their persons and services, and fills them with joy and peace. This communion is most effectually promoted, when they are disengaged from earthly things, and wholly employed in the duties of religion: according to that very encouraging promise, “In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.”
The seventh day was observed by heathen nations, as well as the Jews. Josephus ventured to affirm, “There is no city, whether Grecian or Barbarian, there is no nation, which does not rest on the seventh day.” Philo Judæus stated many years before, that the seventh day was a festival, not to one city or one country, but to all; and he, therefore, calls it the universal festival. The heathen writers speak of the Sabbath as a high day among them. Clemens Alexandrinus gives quotations from Linus, Homer, Hesiod, and Callimachus, who speak of the seventh day as a day on which the work of the creation was finished, and call it the holy day, and the birth day of the world. Lucian informs us, in his Pseudologista, that children at school were exempted from study on the seventh day. This day Suetonius calls a sabbath. If any should say, that the Heathen, from the acquaintance they had with the Jews and the writings of Moses, knew that the seventh day was to be kept holy: I would answer; that is not probable, for some of the Heathen writers who speak of the seventh-day Sabbath, lived near the time of Moses. Beside, the Greeks were at that time wholly ignorant of his writings: the Jews thought it a profanation to communicate any part of them to the Heathen. Nor were the writings of Moses translated into the Greek language till several hundred years after Homer: the translation was made in the days of Ptolemy the second, king of Egypt, about three hundred years before the Christian era. And it is not of the Jews Saturday-sabbath that the Heathen writers speak, but of another day in the week. It was not the seventh day of the week to which the ancient heathens confined their rest, but a seventh day, one day in seven. Their Sabbath or high festival was that day of the week on which they worshipped the sun, their chief god. It remains then, that the notice of the seventh day among the Heathen came to them originally from the Patriarchs, whose descendants, in their several dispersions, carried along with them some impressions of the true religion, which partially continued with them afterward, though awfully corrupted with idolatry. To cure mankind of this idolatry, and secure the worship of him who made the sun, and the whole universe, Moses, by Divine direction, appointed the last day of the week to be the Jewish sabbath. We may also state, that the reason which God has assigned for sanctifying the seventh day to be the Jewish sabbath, namely, his creating the world in six days, and resting the seventh, not only concerns the Jews, but also the Heathens, who are equally bound to remember and adore their Creator. Hence the Strangers, or Gentiles, who sojourned among the Jews, and were not obliged to keep the ceremonial law, were bound to keep holy the Sabbath.
Thus we perceive, that this command is of a moral nature, and, therefore, of universal and perpetual obligation. The Sabbath was instituted from the beginning of the world, while all things were perfectly good, and our first parents were innocent and adorned with the beauty of holiness: even then the Creator appointed that the seventh day should be employed in his more immediate service. Some have thought, that there is no express command for the observance of the Sabbath, till after the children of Israel had come out of Egypt; and, therefore, that all the obligations to observe it must be derived from the law of Moses. But this command was given before sin had infected human nature, consequently previous to the ceremonial law, which, in all its parts, was contrived on account of sin, and intended to point to a Saviour: for in a state of innocence, there could be no propriety in the adoption of such shadows and ceremonies. Nay, as Archbishop Usher observes, the appointment of the Sabbath was not only before any part of the ceremonial law, but before any promise or prediction of Christ, to whom all the ceremonies of the law had respect. Therefore we may conclude, that a command which was to be observed though man had never sinned, and which stood in full force from the creation of the world, cannot be made a part of the ceremonial law, which was not given till after the expiration of 2,500 years. This is a duty incumbent on all mankind, as is evident from the reason and end of its first institution; all men being alike God’s creatures, and as such equally concerned to worship him and commemorate his works. The Sabbath is as obligatory on all succeeding generations of men, as it was formerly on the Jews, or before the Mosaic economy, on the Patriarchs and their contemporaries. Every creature of God on earth, endued with reason, is obliged to separate this day from his common time, and to keep it holy to the Lord.
When the Jewish ceremonial law was abrogated by Christ, the fourth command continued in force, and was observed. Speaking of the moral law, our Saviour says, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Now if not one י yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, or tittle, or point, κεραια, either meaning those points, as a learned author remarks, which serve for vowels in this language, if they then existed; or the apices, or points of certain letters, such as ר resh, or ד daleth, ה he, or ח cheth, as the change of any of these into the other would make a most essential alteration in the sense; I say, if not one of these was to pass from the law, surely not the command which is the longest of all the ten, is the only one to which a memento is prefixed, and has more reasons to enforce it than any of the other nine! Yea, so far from abolishing this command, our Saviour explains it, in the case of his disciples plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath; which is a manifest proof that he intended it to be continued for the use of the Christian Church. He also enjoined his disciples to pray, when Jerusalem should be destroyed, which did not occur till forty years after his death, and the consequent abolishing of all the Jewish rites and ceremonies, that their flight might not be on the Sabbath-day.
From the beginning of the world to the Christian dispensation, the seventh day of the week was the Sabbath: ever since the resurrection of Christ from the dead, the first day of the week is the Christian Sabbath. Our Saviour, who is “Lord of the Sabbath,” changed it from the seventh to the first day of the week; which does not in the least derogate from the honor and glory of God. If one Sabbath had been abolished and not another instituted in the room of it, then he would lose the honor of public worship, which he has appointed to be performed on that day. However, if there be a greater work than that of creation to be remembered and celebrated, to appoint a day for that special purpose, tends much more to advance the glory of God, than if it should be wholly neglected. And if “all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father,” then it is expedient that a day should be set apart for this worship, namely, the day on which Christ rested from the work of redemption, or, as the apostle expresses it, “ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” In altering the Sabbath, from the seventh to the first day of the week, our Saviour displayed his sovereign authority; herein he enjoined what time he would have consecrated for his worship under the Gospel dispensation, as well as what worship he would have performed on that day. In observing the Christian sabbath, we express our faith in a public manner, that Christ is come in the flesh, and has completed the work of our redemption; and, consequently, that there is a way prepared for our justification, access to God, and hope of finding pardon, acceptance, sanctification, and eternal life. And as all the ordinances of Gospel-worship have a peculiar relation to Christ, it is proper that the time in which they are performed should likewise have respect to him; and, therefore, the first day of the week is set apart in commemoration of his finishing the work of our redemption.
That the Sabbath was actually changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, appears from the example of the apostles, who, after the resurrection of Christ, celebrated that day as a Sabbath. It was on the first day of the week that the Holy Ghost was poured down in a most miraculous manner on the apostles, to qualify them for the ministry, and render them fit instruments for propagating Christianity in the world. While St. Paul was at Troas, we read, that “upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,” i.e. to receive the Holy Sacrament, “Paul preached unto them.” This was not a private, but a public meeting of the Church; nor was it a day occasionally appointed by the apostle, but the stated time of their meeting; and it was usual for the Christians on their Sabbath to receive the Lord’s Supper. The apostle had continued at Troas seven days; why did they not meet together, and he preach to them, on the seventh day of the week? because it was no longer the Sabbath, but changed to the first day. It was on the first day of the week that the primitive Christians made collections for the poor.—“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” Every man at the conclusion of the week, was to cast up his weekly earnings, and see how much God had prospered him; and then to bring a right proportion, on the first day of the week, as is most likely, to the church or assembly, that it might be put in the common treasury. Thus it appears, as a learned commentator remarks, that the first day of the week, which is the Christian sabbath, was the day on which their principal religious meetings were held in Corinth, and the churches of Galatia; and, consequently, in all other places where Christianity had prevailed. The apostle John speaks of the Lord’s day, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day.” He calls it the Lord’s day, because on it Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and had appointed it to be the Christian sabbath: thus one Gospel ordinance is called the Lord’s Supper, from its having been instituted by Christ.—If any should inquire when it was that Christ gave instruction to his apostles concerning the change of the Sabbath; we may reply, that it was in that interval of time, during which he “showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God;” of which we may reckon the change of the Sabbath to have been one. But if this should not be deemed sufficiently satisfactory, we have the highest reason to conclude, that information was given to the apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ had promised to send them, and that should guide them into all truth. And surely there could not have been a more proper day fixed on for the Christian sabbath; and which the Christian church has ever since continued to observe, and of which God himself has signified his approbation. And as the reason of the change now stands, we can neither observe the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath, without disowning the redemption which Christ has accomplished for us; nor can we refuse to comply with this alteration, and keep holy the Lord’s day, without a manifest contempt not only of our Creator, but of our gracious and merciful Redeemer, who, on this day of the week, rose from the dead, and thereby confirmed our redemption from sin, Satan, spiritual thraldom, and everlasting misery.
As the redemption of the Jews out of Egypt was typical of our redemption by Christ, and the Jews on their Sabbath were to keep their deliverance in remembrance; so surely Christians are under the greatest obligations on the first day of the week to remember their redemption by Christ. On this day our blessed Saviour rose from the dead, and his resurrection is a demonstrative evidence that the Supreme Judge is fully satisfied, and become the God of peace. There is no dispensing with the honor of the moral law, no receding from the sacred rights of justice. The obedience and death of Christ, as our surety, were such as the law and justice required; and by which the honor of God is secured, and of which he has most expressly declared his acceptance. When Christ had laid down his life, in as ignominious death, which was all that the law and justice could insist on, God himself unloosed the fetters of the grave, threw open the prison door, and in his resurrection from the dead, gave an evident and solemn testimony of his approval. This was the accomplishment of the words of the prophet, “He was taken from prison, and from judgment;” released and discharged, in full evidence that he had made satisfaction, and that God had accepted the payment at his hands. The apostle remarks on this important point, “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” Not possible, as it is not just or righteous that a prisoner, who has satisfied every demand that the law has on him, should be kept longer in prison. The resurrection of Christ, therefore, was an open and authentic acknowledgment, that God, considered as the moral Governor and Supreme Judge of mankind, acquiesced in his death, as a proper, full, and perfect satisfaction to Divine justice for sin. Hence he is represented, in raising Christ from the dead, as acting under the peculiar character of the God of peace. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” What a delightful view does this present of the resurrection of Christ—a risen Saviour, and a reconciled God! How safely may men trust in the one, and with what humble confidence may they apply to the other, for pardon, holiness, and heaven. With what holy joy should they on the Lord’s day call to remembrance his resurrection, and meditate on the greatness of his love in shedding his blood for “the remission of sins,” and to secure for them everlasting happiness.