If, then, there is no evidence in the Scriptures, that the first day of the week is the "resurrection day," (which, even if satisfactorily established, would not invalidate our position, nor entitle it to supersede the holy Sabbath); and, more particularly, if there is no evidence in the Inspired Volume, that the term "Lord's day" is intended to designate the first day of the week; we are reduced, by every principle of reasoning, to regard the seventh day—the Heaven-heralded Sabbath—as the only "Lord's day," the only "rest-day," sanctified and hallowed by the Almighty as holy time.
All days, in one sense, are Lord's days; but there has never been but one Heaven-appointed weekly Sabbath, and that, most unequivocally, is the seventh day. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"—"the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:8. If that sacred injunction has been abrogated, we should expect—(for it would be unreasonable to recognize its repeal or transfer, without as explicit and as authoritative a mandate from the Court of Heaven)—at least a re-enactment somewhat thus: "From the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, ye shall no longer sabbatize, but shall give heed to the assembling of yourselves on the first day of the week; in it ye shall do no work; and, to avoid the appearance of symbolizing with my ancient people, the Jews, call it no longer the Sabbath, but designate it by the term Lord's day!" Is there any intimation of such an abrogation, or such a transfer of the sacredness of the Sabbath to Sunday, in the inspired volume? Not the semblance of it. Even if the early disciples, without any intimation from the Lord of the Sabbath, but of their own accord, chose to set apart a special day as a festival day, as they were wont to do for martyrs and saints, it can not, certainly, supersede the institution of Jehovah; neither can they confer upon it the sacredness belonging, by the decree of the Most High, to his rest-day. Indeed, this is so evident, that the erudite and frank Neander expressly says, "Opposition to Judaism introduced the particular festival of Sunday, very early, indeed, into the place of the Sabbath ... Sunday was distinguished as a day of joy, by the circumstance that men did not fast upon it, and that they prayed standing up, and not kneeling, as Christ had raised up fallen man to heaven again through his resurrection. 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 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."[13]
Such, then, is the scriptural account of the Sabbath, and such the frank admission of one of the most distinguished ecclesiastical historians, who could have no motive in perverting or misrepresenting the facts in the case, but who has always shown himself above all mean subterfuges for any purpose whatever. His testimony might be fortified by many names of high authority among writers of eminence, who do not contend for sabbatizing on the seventh day, yet whose candor and honesty constrain them to make the like admission.
Thus it will be seen, that the observers of the seventh-day Sabbath can look up with full confidence of having a "thus saith the Lord" for their practice; while the observers of the first day of the week must confess, with confusion of face, that they are but following "the commandments of men," and can only plead "the nakedness of the Fathers," as Whitby terms their inconsistencies. Will the Lord admit such a "vain oblation?" Will he suffer such a perversion of his holy institution to go unreproved? Where, reader, can you find in the Bible any authority for appropriating the title of the holy rest-day, the Sabbath, to the first day of the week? If you can not, is it not "robbing God" thus to falsify his Word? Is it not base felony every time any worm of the dust thus perversely uses the term which He, the Sovereign of the Universe, has attached to his holy day—thereby wantonly "changing times and laws"—overturning the decrees of the Lord God? Is it not wresting the Word to your own destruction? If the Lord charge man with robbery in withholding perishable tithes and offerings, and curse him for that delinquency, how much greater, think ye, must be the condemnation of those who set at naught his prerogative to institute and ordain the service of the sanctuary? He alone has the right to impose religious ordinances; and it is but the reasonable service of his creatures to obey, implicitly, his righteous mandates—the sacred injunction, to hallow and sanctify his holy Sabbath. "Will a man rob God?" asks the Almighty, through his prophet; "yet ye have robbed me, saith the Holy One. Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." Mal. 2:8, 9. Where, then, will you find your excuse for this perversion of the Word of God, when that Word shall come to judge you? for it is the Word, the written Word, (given to be a lamp unto your feet and a light to your path,) which shall judge you at the last day. Of old it was said, "From the days of your fathers ye are gone astray from mine ordinances, and have not kept them." Mal. 3:7. The apostle of the Gentiles speaks of those in his day who corrupted the Word. 2 Cor. 2:17. In another place it is asked, When wilt thou cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Acts 13:10. To which interrogation all are obnoxious who seek out inventions of their own, or follow "the commandments of men," which subvert the testimony of the Lord.
Canst thou, reader, contend with the Almighty? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, when he shall lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, and shall sweep away the refuge of lies. Isaiah 28:17. The true principle, reader, and the only safe principle, is, to "let God be true, though it make every man a liar." Rom. 3:4. "Ye are my friends," says Christ, "if ye do whatsover I command you." John 14:15. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4. "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men." Matt. 15:9. "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." Deut. 13:32. "Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left." Josh. 1:7. "Add not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. 30:6. "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book." Rev. 22:18, 19. Ponder well this subject, reader, and render unto God the things that are God's, that it may be well with thee, and thou be admitted into the rest reserved for those who "delayed not to keep the commandments"—for those who keep his covenant and walk in the way of the Lord.
[11] The Sabbath was no type of Christ—a shadow, of which Christ was to be the body. It was instituted before the transgression; consequently, the term Sabbath-days, here, has no relevancy if applied to the weekly Sabbath; but it evidently alludes to the festival days among the Jews, usually called Sabbaths, as all the Israelites had at those periods to refrain from labor—"such as the festivals of the Passover, Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, &c., &c., which are alluded to in Leviticus, 19:3-30. Keep my Sabbaths."—Calmet.
[12] Within does not imply that they were assembled at any public place for worship, or to celebrate a holy day. Within may simply mean, that they were together in the place of their common lodgment—where they abode together.
[13] The History of the Christian Religion and Church during the First Three Centuries. By Dr. Augustus Neander. Translated by Henry John Rose, B. D. New York, 1848, p. 186.