festival day to the Lord. For on them we ought to rejoice and not to mourn."
This writer asserts that it is a sin to fast or mourn on Sunday, but never
intimates that it is a sin to labor on that day when not engaged in worship. We
shall next learn that the decalogue is in agreement with the law of nature, and
that it is of perpetual obligation:-
In book vi, section 4, paragraph 19, it is said: "He gave a plain law to assist
the law of nature, such an one as is pure, saving, and holy, in which his own
name was inscribed, perfect, which is never to fail, being complete in ten
commands, unspotted, converting souls."
In paragraph 20 it is said: "Now the law is the decalogue, which the Lord
promulgated to them with an audible voice."
In paragraph 22 he says: "You therefore are blessed who are delivered from
the curse. For Christ, the Son of God, by his coming has confirmed and
completed the law, but has taken away the additional precepts, although not all of
them, yet at least the more grievous ones; having confirmed the former, and
abolished the latter." And he further testifies as follows: "And besides, before his
coming he refused the sacrifices of the people, while they frequently offered
them, when they sinned against him, and thought he was to be appeased by
sacrifices, but not by repentance."
For this reason the writer truthfully testifies that God refused to accept their
burnt-offerings and sacrifices, their new moons and their Sabbaths.
In book vi., section 23, he says: "He who commanded to honor our parents,
was himself subject to them. He who had commanded to keep the Sabbath, by
resting thereon for the sake of meditating on the laws, has now commanded us
to consider of the law of creation, and of providence every day, and to return
thanks to God."
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This savors somewhat of the doctrine that all days are alike. Yet this cannot
be the meaning; for in book vii., section 2, paragraph 23, he enjoins the
observance of the Sabbath, and also of the Lord's day festival, but specifies one
Sabbath in the year in which men should fast. Thus he says:-
"But keep the Sabbath, and the Lord's-day festival; because the former is the
memorial of the creation, and the latter, of the resurrection. But there is one only
Sabbath to be observed by you in the whole year, which is that of our Lord's
burial, on which men ought to keep a fast, but not a festival. For inasmuch as the
Creator was then under the earth, the sorrow for him is more forcible than the joy
for the creation; for the Creator is more honorable by nature and dignity than his
own creatures."
In book vii., section 2, paragraph 30, he says: "On the day of the resurrection
of the Lord, that is, the Lord's day, assemble yourselves together, without fail,
giving thanks to God," etc.
In paragraph 36, the writer brings in the Sabbath again: "O Lord Almighty,
thou hast created the world by Christ, and hast appointed the Sabbath in memory
thereof, because that on that day thou hast made us rest from our works, for the
meditation upon thy laws."
In the same paragraph, in speaking of the resurrection of Christ, the writer
says:-
"On which account we solemnly assemble to celebrate the feast of the
resurrection on the Lord's day," etc. In the same paragraph he speaks again of
the Sabbath: "Thou didst give them the law or decalogue, which was pronounced
by thy voice and written with thy hand. Thou didst enjoin the observation of the
Sabbath, not affording them an occasion of idleness, but an opportunity of piety,
for their knowledge of thy power, and the prohibition of evils; having limited them
as within an holy circuit for the sake of doctrine, for the rejoicing upon the
seventh period."
http://alfaempresa.com.br/tunel.php
In this paragraph he also states his views of
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the Sabbath, and of the day which he calls the Lord's day, giving the precedence
to the latter:- the precedence to the latter:-
"On this account he permitted men every Sabbath to rest, that so no one
might be willing to send one word out of his mouth in anger on the day
