The third class adduce those texts which assert the dissolution of the old
covenant; and those which teach the abolition of the ceremonial law with all its
distinction of days, as new moons, feast days, and annual sabbaths; and also
those texts which declare that men cannot be justified by that law which
condemns sin; and from all these contend that the law and the Sabbath are both
abolished.
But the first class answer to the second that the texts which they bring
forward do not meet the case, inasmuch as they say nothing respecting the
change of the Sabbath; and that it is not honest to use the fourth commandment
to enforce the observance of a day not therein commanded. And the third class
assent to this answer as truthful and just.
To the position of the third class, the first make this answer: That the old
covenant was made between God and his people concerning
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his law; ii1 that it ceased because the people failed in its conditions, the keeping
of the commandments; that the new covenant does not abrogate the law of God,
but secures obedience to it by putting it into the heart of every Christian; that
there are two systems of law, one being made up of typical and ceremonial
precepts, and the other consisting of moral principles only; that those texts which
speak of the abrogation of the handwriting of ordinances and of the distinction in
meats, drinks, and days, pertain alone to this shadowy system, and never to the
moral law which contains the Sabbath of the Lord; and that it is not the fault of
the law, but of sinners, that they are condemned by it; and that justification being
attained only by the sacrifice of Christ as a sin-offering, is in itself a most powerful
attestation to the perpetuity, immutability, and perfection, of that law which
reveals sin. And to this answer the second class heartily assent.
But the second class have something further to say. The Bible, indeed, fails to
assert the change of the Sabbath, but these persons have something else to
offer, in their estimation, equally as good as the Scriptures. The early fathers of
the church, who conversed with the apostles, or who conversed with some who
had conversed with them, and those who followed for several generations, are by
this class presented as authority, and their testimony is used to establish the socalled
Christian Sabbath on a firm basis. And this is what they assert respecting
the fathers:
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That they distinctly teach the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first
day of the week, and that the first day is by divine authority the Christian
Sabbath.
But the third class squarely deny this statement, and affirm that the fathers
held the Sabbath as an institution made for the Jews when they came out of
Egypt, and that Christ abolished it at his death. They also assert that the fathers
held the first day, not as a Sabbath in which men must not labor lest they break a
divine precept, but as an ecclesiastical institution, which they called the Lord's
day, and which was the proper day for religious assemblies because custom and
tradition thus concurred. And so the third class answer the second by an explicit
denial of its alleged facts. They also aim a blow at the first by the assertion, that
the early fathers taught the no-Sabbath doctrine, which must therefore be
acknowledged as the real doctrine of the New Testament.
And now the first class respond to these conflicting statements of the second
and the third. And here is its response:-
1. That our duty respecting the Sabbath, and respecting every other thing,
can be learned only from the Scriptures.
2. That the first three hundred years after the apostles, nearly accomplished
the complete development of the great apostasy, which had commenced even in
Paul's time; and this age of apostatizing cannot be good authority for making
changes in the law of God.
3. That only a small proportion of the ministers and teachers of this period
have transmitted any writings to our time; and these are generally
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fragments of the original works, and they have come down to us mainly through
the hands of the Romanists, who have never scrupled to destroy, or to corrupt,
that which witnesses against themselves, whenever it has been in their power to
do it.
4. But, inasmuch as these two classes, viz., those who maintain the first-day
Sabbath, and those who deny the existence of any Sabbath, both appeal to
these fathers for testimony with which to sustain themselves, and to put down the
first class, viz., those who hallow the ancient Sabbath, it becomes necessary that
the exact truth respecting the writings of that age, which now exist, should be
shown. There is but one method of doing this which will effectually end the
controversy. This is to give every one of their testimonies concerning the Sabbath
and first-day in their own words. In doing this the following facts will appear:-
1. That in some important particulars there is a marked disagreement on this
subject among them. For while some teach that the Sabbath originated at
creation and should be hallowed even now, others assert that it began with the
fall of the manna, and ended with the death of Christ. And while one class
represent Christ as a violator of the Sabbath, another class represent him as
sacredly hallowing it, and a third class declare that he certainly did violate it, and
that he certainly never did, but always observed it! Some of them also affirm that
the Sabbath was abolished, and in other places positively affirm that it is
perpetuated and made more sacred than it formerly was. Moreover some assert
that the ten commandments are absolutely abolished,
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whilst others declare that they are perpetuated, and are the tests of Christian
character in this dispensation. Some call the day of Christ's resurrection the first
day of the week; others call it the day of the sun, and the eighth day; and a larger
number call it the Lord's day, but there are no examples of this application till the
close of the second century. Some enjoin the observance of both the Sabbath
and the first day, while others treat the seventh day as despicable.
2. But in several things of great importance there is perfect unity of sentiment.
They always distinguish between the Sabbath and the first day of the week. The
change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first is never mentioned in a
http://alfaempresa.com.br/tunel.php
single instance. They never term the first day the Christian Sabbath, nor do they
