particulars. Thus we say the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Prayer. No man complains of the obscurity of thèse phrases-we know distinctly at first, what idea is meant to be conveyed by them."

But it is asked, has not an Apostle classed Sabbath days with the abolished ceremonies of the Jews? He has, and this, instead of operating against our argument, confirms what we have been advancing. The sacred writers invariably use the term Sabbath, in the New Testament, when writing of the Jewish rest. And this establishes the fact that they have abolished the seventh day Sabbath. But the command given before the ceremonies, to keep the day of rest, stands unrepealed. Facts clearly show, that the Apostle ceased to regard the seventh day as a Sabbath binding on Christians, but regarded the Lord's day, the first day of the week, as the Sabbath for all future ages and for all people. They ceased to keep the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day; for the day, after the death of Christ, was changed, and they kept the Christian, or first day Sabbath.

It is thought that the 118th Psalm contains a prediction that the Jewish Sabbath should be changed to the day Christ rose from the dead. The passage is as follows:-"The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." No less than six times is this passage quoted and applied to Christ in the New Testament. It may refer to the day of his resurrection, which should be kept as a Sabbath by his followers.

The APOSTLES kept and authorized to be kept the Lord's day; and always met with the disciples on that day for religious worship, breaking of bread and collecting the charities of the church, which, it is believed, has been abundantly proved. Sure we are that the contrary can never be shown by authentic documents, now accessible. That this was their custom no one can doubt who believes their word and the testimony of the ancient fathers.

Compare Matt. xii. 8.-"For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." 1 Cor. xi. 20. “When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper." And Rev. i. 10. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." "Now

if Christ was Lord of the Sabbath, if the Sabbath was his day, and if the Lord's day was the first day of the week, then is the first day of the week the Christian Sabbath." Why if, the Sabbath was done away in Christ, did he attempt to defend it? It was never done away by his coming.

"The Sabbath has been kept as holy time by the people of God in all ages. It has been to them, not a burden but a delight, 业 he holy of the Lord and honorable. That the Apostles and

primitive churches statedly assembled for public worship on the Lord's day, is certain. And that they abstained from labor and spent the whole day in religious duties, may be confidently inferred, as well from their eminent piety, as from the sanctions of the divine law, which they cannot be supposed to have disregarded. For we have already proved that Jesus Christ left the law as he found it, after freeing it from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees. The disciples would of course take it from him. And as the people of God had always done before them, they would remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”

"This is the only fair and legitimate inference-it cannot be set aside by any thing short of direct proof to the contrary. The Bible furnishes no such proof; not a word, nor a hint, that Christians of the Apostolic age did their own work, or found their own pleasure on the Lord's day."

CEREMONIAL SABBATHS AND FESTIVALS.

Of the ceremonial Sabbaths, only seven will be mentioned. Gurney says, "The principles of the Sabbath were extended to every seventh year, and to all the Jewish festivals."

The Original Institution, the WEEKLY SABBATH, is sometimes called a feast, Exod. xiii. 6.

The NEW MOONS were MONTHLY feasts, Num. xxviii. 11.

The PASSOVER was a yearly feast, Exod. xxxiv. 25, and commemorated the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt; sometimes called the feast of Unleavened Bread. It is also called a Sabbath, continued seven days, and was one of the great yearly festivals.

PENTECOST, Lev. xxiii. 11, 17, was also one of the great yearly festivals, and is called a Sabbath. It continued but one day, and

commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai; called also feast of weeks and day of first fruits.

FEAST OF TABERNACLES, Lev. xxiii. 34. This also was another of the great yearly festivals, (all of which have now been named,) and continued eight days; the first and last of which were called Sabbaths. During this feast the children of Israel dwelt in booths.

FEAST OF TRUMPETS, Lev. xxiii. 24, was also called Sabbath, and occurred once in seven months; called a memorial of blowing trumpets; a holy convocation.

ATONEMENT, Lev. xxiii. 27, was called a Sabbath of rest unto Israel. It was to commence on the eve of the ninth; being, as time was then reckoned, the tenth day of the seventh month. Sometimes it is called the day of propitiation. On this day all Israel were to afflict their souls. But all the other festivals, whether public or private, were days of rejoicing; not of sinful amusement and mirth, but designed to be of holy joy and thanksgiving. On this day the Jubilee, or 50th year festival, commenced.

FEAST OF PURIM, Esther ix. 17, 32.

FEAST OF SABBATHS, or Every Seventh Year, Lev. xxv. also called the Sabbatical Year.

4;

FEAST OF JUBILEE, Lev. XXV. 8, 9, was on the 50th year, called Sabbath; which was to begin on the tenth day of the seventh month, or day of atonement. It was ushered in by the sound of the trumpet throughout all the land.

Here are some of the Ceremonial Sabbaths, of which the Apostle speaks in Col. ii. 16, as the handwriting of ordinances, and shadows of things to come; ordinances respecting meats, drinks, holy day, new moons, and Sabbath days so called. The Christian rest is not referred to in these passages. Those ceremonial days were not to be observed until Israel should be settled in Canaan. The weekly Sabbath they were then bound to observe. They were called solemn feasts, set feasts; all of which were typical, and to be done away when Christ should finish the work of redemption. Then, Jew and Gentile, when this partition wall should be broken down, must look to the moral law and the gospel of Jesus Christ as their guide, and keep only the Sabbath given to man in Eden. They were no longer to offer

up sacrifices for sin, but accept of the sacrifice Christ offered, once for all.

SABBATH and NEW MOONS were not the same thing. Neither do Sabbaths, mentioned in this connection, often, if ever, mean the original institution-the fourth commandment.

Compare the above with Col. ii. 16, 17.

If the Sabbath days in Colossians mean the institution spoken of in the fourth commandment, then it would seem that all the other days called Sabbaths, might still be required to be observed. But this cannot be, because the Apostles and disciples had long kept the Rest, which God had ordained at the beginning, on the Lord's day. If the Apostle intended to include the Jewish Sabbath, as well as these ceremonial feast-days, or if he referred to the Jewish exclusively, which was then really done away, still he could not allude to the original institution, which was at that time transferred to the Lord's day, or first day of the week.

HOLY DAY. It will be evident from the following passages, that when holy days are spoken of, they do not necessarily mean the Sabbaths, or Sabbath; but that there were days to which this appellation was properly applied, and which distinguished them from all those days. "Holy day," standing independently, as it does in Col. ii. 16, and Neh. viii. 9-11, does not, it is believed, ever mean the weekly rest. The words holy and holy day are frequently used in connection with the weekly Sabbath, as well as ceremonial Sabbaths and other festivals; but in all these

instances it is easy to determine, whether the writer is speaking of the original institution, or of some of the ceremonial days. See Neh. viii. 9—11. This is the first day of the seventh month, as may be seen in the second verse of this chapter. (See Doolittle's extract on Feasts, already quoted.) Neh. x. 31: "On the Sabbath, or on the holy day." Ps. xlii. 4: “Multitude that kept holy day," perhaps applied to all days of convocation. Isa. lviii. 13: "Holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight."

In this last passage Isaiah evidently refers to the original institution. The Jews could not misunderstand the sacred writers when speaking of their days of rest, nor need we. The weekly rest is always so referred to as to distinguish it from the ceremonial rests. The command to observe the former was written by a different hand, kept in a different place, and considered, in many respects, far more sacred than the latter. And those who lived immediately after Christ did not misunderstand allusions to these different institutions. They all understood Sabbath, when used alone, to refer to the seventh day, or Jewish rest, and never the first day; but when used in connection with new moons, &c., to refer to their ceremonial days. When the Christian rest was mentioned, it was always during a few of the first centuries called the Lord's day. Nor was it till after the disputes between the Jewish and Gentile converts had mainly subsided, and civil rulers had required the observance of the Lord's day, and forbidden the keeping of the seventh, that the term Sabbath was applied to the first day of the week. During all this time, the word Sunday may have been used by many, to designate some of the heathen holy days. In modern times it is often used by some as synonymous with Sabbath, or Lord's day.

OBJECTION V." THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT THE DAY WAS CHANGED, or that the early Christians observed the first day." When the objector is pressed with the evidence, that the Sabbath was designed for all men in all time, he sometimes meets us with another objection. The fourth commandment, on which so much stress is laid, says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." Now you do not keep that day, but the first, and you have no authority for the change. The attempt is even made to show that the Apostles and early Christians did not keep the first day