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 of 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. 4; also called the Sabbatical Year.

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 parti

tion 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 of the week as a Sabbath. We answer, that there is abundant evidence, from the example of early Christians, and from the authority of the Fathers, that the first day is to be observed instead of the seventh.

In support of the above allegation, CONSTANTINE is quoted, as saying, "Let all the judges and townspeople, and those who follow the occupation of trades, rest on the venerable day of the Sun; but let all those who follow agriculture, carefully attend to their business; because it often happens that no day is so favorable to sowing corn and planting vines, lest thereby the precious fruits of the earth be slipped." Very conclusive, indeed, that the Sabbath was not observed when this edict was passed!! For objectors will have it, that the Jewish was done away at the death of Christ, by special direction; and they intend to prove, by this quotation, that there was, at that time, no Christian Sabbath so that the conclusion must be, that none at all was then observed, than which nothing can be more false.

If this quotation is correct, it will be seen that Constantine thought it necessary for certain classes of his subjects to keep a Sabbath, though others in certain seasons might labor. To infer from this edict, that "no one" thought it sinful to work on the Sabbath, or Lord's day, is like a man's concluding, after reading reports in favor of Sunday mails, that no man in this nation was against them. One would be proved as "conclusively" as the other.

When Constantine was converted, about A. D. 325, it should be remembered that the Jewish Sabbath was not wholly done away. It is believed by some that the Christian church was returning to the observance of it, as a Sabbath, to the neglect of the first day, and that Constantine, while he commanded the observance of the first, may have done the same also with respect to the observance of the seventh day. It is well known, that while the converts to Christianity, after the resurrection

of Christ, generally observed the first day only as a Sabbath, many of the Jewish, and perhaps some of the Gentile converts, observed also the seventh. This doubtless led to the various edicts, and the teachings of the Apostles, in relation to this subject. Many of the Jewish converts were tenacious, that their rites and ceremonies should be engrafted upon the Christian system. The Apostles and others opposed it. We are told that some of the spurious authors of the fourth century required the observance of both days. But during the first three centuries, there was much unanimity in the minds of the ancient Fathers and their immediate successors, relative to the day to be observed; which, as will be shown, was the Lord's day. Facts prove that the change from the seventh to the first day, was gradual.

The APOSTLES allowed the Jewish converts to continue to keep the seventh day when first converted, if they chose to do so, training them to observe only the Lord's day, by little and little. But, suppose Constantine, in this edict, did give his views fully on the sacredness of this institution, that is no proof that they were correct, for he was then but a child in Christian knowledge.

But " EUSEBIUS, in his life of Constantine, assures us, that when the emperor embraced Christianity, he appointed that the Lord's day should be consecrated to prayer; and commanded through all the Roman empire, that they should forbear to labor or do any work on the Lord's day." If Christians at this time were inclining to the Jewish Sabbath, or to keep both, we can readily understand the propriety, as well as the necessity, of these edicts. Eusebius was elected Bishop of Cæsarea, about the year 313. He wrote an ecclesiastical history from the days of Christ down to 324, and must have known the general practice.

DR. CAVE says, "No sooner was Constantine come over to the Church, but his principal care was about the Lord's day; he commanded it to be solemnly observed, and that by all persons whatsoever; he made it a day of rest, that men might have nothing to do but to worship God, and be better instructed in the Christian faith."

But whether the objector's quotation is or is not correct, there