MR. brown' S FIRST REPLY. 17 



Sabbath-obserTance encouraged, if not expressly enjoined. 



in express terms many other acknowledged duties, as for in- 

 stance family prayer, or the public worship of God. But it 

 is not true that they did not encourage its observance, either 

 by example or other intimation of its binding force. For their 

 uniform example, as we have seen, was a constant encourage- 

 ment of its observance up to the day of our Lord's death ] 

 and if, after his resurrection, we find them (as we do) meet- 

 ing for Christian worship on ^Hhe first day of the week/' and 

 observing that as "the Lord's day/' it only proves, not that 

 the Sabbath (that is, the day of religions rest) is abolished, 

 but that it is now transferred, by the authority of "the Lord 

 of the Sabbath,'' to another day of the seven, in honor of a 

 work far more glorious than the creation {hai. Ixv. 17, 18), 

 which was declared on that day to be finished by his resurrec- 

 tion from the dead. This change also was foretold in the 

 118th Psalm. When " the stone which the builders rejected 

 was made the head of the corner," the Church was taught to 

 say, " This is the day which the Lord hath made ; we will re- 

 joice, and be glad in it." 



And, although it is true that we nowhere find them in terms 

 " reproving the Sabbath-breaker," yet we do find them con- 

 demning "the ungodly and profane," with evident allusion 

 to the profanation of the Sabbath, as well as of the Divine 

 name. (See 1 Tim. i. 8 — 10.) No man can read that passage 

 carefully without perceiving that Paul, in his classification of 

 sinners, has his eye upon the order of the Decalogue. And in 

 the existing state of society and of hioidedge that was enough. 

 (See Matt. v. 17—19.) 



FiFTH. — "On the contrary, the Sabbath law was wholly 

 and unequivocally abrogated for the Gentile world by the first 

 great council of the Catholic Church, held at Jerusalem, under 

 the immediate direction of ' the apostles and elders :' which 

 council decreed that 'the keepingof the Law' was an unneces- 

 sary thino-, and a burden not to be laid upon those who were 

 not Jews.— (^c^s xv. 24, 28, 29.)" 



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