DR. PETER HEYLIN, JOHN CALVIN, ARCHDEACON PALEY, "Worship was not made for time, but time for worship: nor is there LONDON; WHITTAKER, TREACHER, AND ARNOT: AND THOMAS HODGSON, LIVERPOOL. 1832. PREFACE. THE imposition upon the public mind of the idea that any particular day is more holy than another, tacitly gives a release from that circumspection of conduct which is alike required on every day; and however advantageous the consequences may appear, yet, the variety of sentiment and the superstitious views which exist on the subject upon which the following extracts treat, show the importance of guarding against an erroneous opinion, whether it be on the side of undue liberty, or pharisaical rigour. Whilst some persons are very strict in enforcing the observance of the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath, and consider it to be so by divine appointment, because that God rested on the seventh day after having finished the work of creation; and that we are bound by the fourth commandment of the Jewish decalogue to keep one day in seven as a Sabbath;-others, "who entertain a high view of the spirituality of the gospel," are maintaining that it is no such thing, but merely a wise and necessary regulation, of human appointment, or a law of the land, the transgressors of which are liable to the penalty of it;—that no command was given at the creation;-and "that the institution" of the Jewish Sabbath, "like every other shadow, is of no authority under the Christian dispensation." With the view of placing this very important and controverted subject in its true light, and of exposing the fallacy of those sentiments, which, assuming a very plausible appearance from the misapplication of certain passages of scripture, are so calculated to deceive, and have of late been so extensively circulated, the following extracts have been collected. To the unbiassed reader, it is presumed that they will exhibit sufficient evidence of the incongruity of the arguments of the modern Sabbatarians, whilst they point to something higher than the Mosaic law for the Christian's guide. It is an universally acknowledged duty, that we should "manifest our allegiance to the King on of kings, by publicly assembling in order to worship Him;" and there appears no reason why the day which is appointed for the general performance of this duty should be changed: but must we infer from hence, (seeing there is no injunction either from Christ or his apostles to keep it as such,) that it is THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH? Must we suppose that worship, except "this hallowed day," (as it is called) cannot be effectively performed; or, that such meetings on other days "are seldom found to serve the purpose of congregational worship and communion in their full extent ?" Then with great propriety it might be said, that we had returned to the "weak and beggarly elements"—that we were acknowledging Judaism, and renouncing Christianity. "When the Mosaic law was brought to a close,—(a law, of which we have no scripture warrant for supposing that any part was intended to continue in force under the gospeldispensation, or to be extended to the Gentiles,) when this law, I say, was brought to a close, no other set of precise rules was substituted in its * J. J. Gurney on the Sabbath. |