My former Sabbath sentiments were formed according to the Puritan model. While a child, I learned Sutcliff's and Watts' Catechisms, in both of which it is taught, that the ten commandments are a rule of life to good men; and traditionally I was taught, that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection of Christ; and I fully believed this was confirmed by the various references to the first day contained in the New Testament.
DISTURBED ABOUT THE SABBATH.
I was first disturbed about the Sabbath seven years ago, when a brother sent me a tract upon the subject, called the Investigator. I read it with considerable interest, and was much perplexed in attempting to satisfy myself with my own views, as I went along in the perusal of it. I wished then, that there had been something more explicit upon the subject of the change of the day than what I could find in the New Testament. Not questioning, however, but that it was divinely changed, I quieted, rather than satisfied, my mind with what I supposed to be abundant apostolic example; and I remarked, that if our Pedobaptist brethren could produce from the Scriptures as clear examples of infant baptism, as we could of keeping the first day of the week for a Sabbath, I would admit its validity. Although I would not dare to say so now, then it sufficed to quiet my mind.
I had no farther solicitude upon the subject, until about midsummer of 1843. At that time, as several professors of religion of my acquaintance did not regard the day as I thought the Lord's Day ought to be regarded, I concluded to preach a sermon upon the subject, and commenced preparing one. I had then recently purchased Neander's History of the Christian Religion and Church during the First Three Centuries. I read this book with much satisfaction, as the work of an able and candid historian, who takes a philosophical view of the events and circumstances of society which operated to give character to those early ages of church history. In the section on Christian Worship and Festivals, I was surprised to find the following statement, viz: "Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday very early indeed into the place of the Sabbath.... The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect—far from them, and from 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." I was the more surprised at this statement, as I found Neander was not a Sabbath-keeper. He takes the high-church ground, acknowledging the right of the so-called apostolic or catholic church to alter or ordain the rites of Christian worship; which is indeed, the foundation principle of all Papal, Puseyite, and Pedobaptist observances. I saw clearly enough, that if Neander was right, I had no better foundation for Sunday-keeping than hierarchists have for their Easter, Ascension, and Christmas Festivals, which I had always repudiated; or than Pedobaptists have for sprinkling infants. I therefore determined to give the subject
A THOROUGH EXAMINATION.
I commenced with human authors, and read Fuller, Buck, Doddridge, Paley, Wilson, Humphrey, Nevins, Kingsbury, Phelps, Whateley, and others; and I was astonished to find every one of them admitting, that there is no express command, precept, or passage of Scripture, to authorize the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. They all attempt to support the practice by inferences and analogical reasonings from particular events. Not having veneration large enough to bow to their great names and acute reasonings, I was landed upon a lonely shore, without pilot or compass, with no guide but the truthful chart of Revelation. As I had often vowed in my heart to the Lord, that I would be a Bible Christian so far as I could discover the meaning of the divine Word, or know the revealed will of God; and had more than once told my Pedobaptist friends, when accused of sectarianism, that I would leave all for the truth's sake, if I could discover that I was wrong; I was greatly perplexed, for I found a great fact—The Sabbath was changed. The greater part of the world, the most estimable of Christians, do keep their weekly Sabbath on the first day! Can they all be wrong? I conversed with some, and found them more inconsistent in their reasons than the authors I read. For a time, to sanction the change of the Sabbath, I took what may properly be called prelatical ground. It may be stated as follows, viz: "The thing exists; and in the New Testament we find some things which appear to us so like it, that, we conclude this and they are identical; though we cannot find the particulars of the change. And besides, we find some occurrences mentioned in the New Testament which seemingly happened in accordance with it and which afford reasons for it, and so we think, they should be considered satisfactory evidences of the change existing at the time." But my confidence in this fact was overturned by discovering another great fact, viz: That the first day was not honored as a Sabbath during the first two centuries of the Christian era; and that when it did come to be so observed, it was not on the considerations that are now alledged, but on what appeared to me a wicked reason—mere spite to the Jews. I therefore commenced anew,
A THOROUGH EXAMINATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
But the more attentively I read it, with this object in view, viz. to find out the mind of Christ upon the subject of the Sabbath, the more plainly I saw that it was against me. I found that Christ and his apostles enjoined the observance of the law of the ten commandments as holy, just, and good—that law which says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, ... the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." I found, also, that Christ had said, (Mark 2:27, 28,) "The Sabbath was made for man; therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath day"—plainly incorporating it into the laws of his kingdom. Luke also says, many years after the resurrection, writing the account in his Gospel of that event, "The women rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment"—thus recognizing it, as it appeared to me, to be a commandment still in force.
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
The Resurrection of Christ being regarded as the great event which required the change in question, I carefully considered that matter. But I no where found it spoken of by the New Testament writers, as it is by divines of modern times. The only instance I could find of its celebration by the apostles, was in the ordinance of baptism, in these words, "If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." (Rom. 6:5.) And again, "What shall they do which are baptized for the [resurrection of the] dead, if the dead rise not at all?" (1 Cor. 15:29.) I concluded that there could not be two apostolic ways of celebrating it; and hence that I must look for some other reason to justify the change in question.