"defiled his neighbour's wife; neither hath come "near to a menftruous woman; and hath not op

66

preffed any, but hath reftored to the debtor "his pledge; hath spoiled none by violence; "hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath "covered the naked with a garment; he that “hath not given upon ufury, neither hath taken any increafe; that hath withdrawn his hand from "iniquity; hath executed true judgment between દ man and man; hath walked in my ftatutes; "and hath kept my judgments to deal truly; he "is juft, he fhall furely live, faith the Lord God." Ezek. xviii.5-9. The fame thing may be observed of the apoftolic decree recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts." It feemed good to the "Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no

greater burden than thefe neceffary things; "that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and "from blood, and from things ftrangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep your"felves, ye fhall do well.'

II. If the law by which the fabbath was instituted, was a law only to the Jews, it becomes an important queftion with the Chriftian inquirer, whether the founder of his religion delivered any new command upon the subject; or, if that fhould not appear to be the cafe, whether any

day

day was appropriated to the service of religion, by the authority or example of his apoftles?

The practice of holding religious affemblies upon the first day of the week, was fo early and univerfal in the Chriftian church, that it carries with it confiderable proof of having originated from fome precept of Chrift, or of his apoftles, though none fuch be now extant. It was upon the first day of the week that the disciples were affembled, when Chrift appeared to them for the first time after his refurrection; "then the fame "day at evening, being the first day of the week, "when the doors were fhut, where the disci"ples were affembled, for fear of the Jews, "came Jefus and ftood in the midst of them." John xx. 19. This, for any thing that appears in the account, might, as to the day, have been accidental: but in the 26th verfe of the fame chapter we read, "that after eight days," that is on the first day of the week following," again "the difciples were within," which fecond meeting upon the same day of the week looks like an appointment and design to meet on that particular day. In the twentieth chapter of the Acts of the apoftles we find the fame custom in a Chriftian church at a great distance from Jerufalem:-" And we came unto them to Troas in "five

G 4

"five days, where we abode feven days; and

you

upon the first day of the week, when the difciples "came together to break bread, Paul preached unto "them." Acts xx. 6, 7. The manner in which the hiftorian mentions the difciples coming together to break bread on the first day of the week, fhews, I think, that the practice by this time was familiar and established. St. Paul to the Corinthians writes thus: " Concerning the col"lection for the faints, as I have given order to "the churches of Galatia, even fo do ye; upon "the first day of the week let every one of "lay by him in ftore as God hath profpered “ him, that there be no gatherings when I come." 1 Cor. xvi. I, 2. Which direction affords a probable proof, that the first day of the week was already, amongst the Chriftians both of Corinth and Galatia, diftinguished from the rest, by some religious application or other. At the time that St. John wrote the book of his revelation, the first day of the week had obtained the name of the Lord's day: I was in the fpirit, fays he, on the Lord's day. Rev. i. 10. Which name, and St. John's use of it, fufficiently denote the appropriation of this day to the fervice of religion, and that this appropriation was perfectly known to the churches of Afia. I make no doubt but

that

that by the Lord's day was meant the first day of the week; for we find no footsteps of any diftinction of days, which could entitle any other to that appellation. The fubfequent hiftory of Christianity correfponds with the accounts delivered on this fubject in fcripture.

It will be remembered, that we are contending by these proofs, for no other duty upon the first day of the week, than that of holding and frequenting religious affemblies. A ceffation upon that day from labour, beyond the time of attendance upon public worship, is not intimated in any paffage of the New Testament, nor did Chrift or his Apoftles deliver, that we know of, any command to their difciples for a difcontinuance upon that day of the common offices of their profeffions. A referve which none will fee reason to wonder at, or to blame as a defect in the inftitution, who confider that in the primitive condition of Chriftianity, the observation of a new fabbath would have been useless, or inconvenient, or impracticable. During Chrift's perfonal miniftry his religion was preached to the Jews alone. They already had a fabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that œconomy, they were obliged to keep, and did keep. It was not therefore probable that Chrift would enjoin another

another day of reft in conjunction with this. When the new religion came forth into the Gentile world, converts to it were, for the most part, made from thofe claffes of fociety who have not their time and labour at their own disposal; and it was scarcely to be expected, that unbelieving mafters and magiftrates, and they who directed the employment of others, would permit their flaves and labourers to reft from their

work every feventh day; or that civil government, indeed, would have fubmitted to the lofs of a feventh part of the public induftry, and that too in addition to the numerous feftivals which the national religions indulged to the people: at leaft this would have been an incumbrance, which might have greatly retarded the reception of Christianity in the world. In reality, the inftitution of a weekly fabbath is fo connected with the functions of civil life, and requires fo much of the concurrence of civil laws in its regulation and fupport, that it cannot, perhaps, properly be made the ordinance of any religion, till that religion be received as the religion of the ftate.

The opinion that Chrift and his Apostles meant to retain the duties of the Jewish fabbath, shifting only the day from the feventh to the firft,

feems