INTRODUCTION. 



V. 



On the contrary, the Sabbath law was wholly and unequi- 

 voeally 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 coun- 

 cil decreed that "the keeping of the Law" was an unnecessary 

 thing, and a burden not to be laid npon those who were not 

 Jews. (Acts XV. 24, 28, 29.) 



VI. 



Hence the subsequent Epistles, with one voice, regard the 

 sanctification of the Sabbath as a provisional type, fulfilled 

 and superseded by the gospel dispensation ; the '' rest which 

 remaineth to the people of Grod'' being not that of "the 

 seventh day,'' (nor that which " Joshua had given" in Canaan,) 

 but that into which they "who have believed do enter," when 

 they "have ceased from their own ivorJcs." (^Heb. iv. 3, 4, 8, 

 9, 10.) "For by the works of the Law, shall no flesh be 

 justified." (Gal ii. 16; Rom. iii. 28; ix. 32, &c.) 



They uniformly speak of the Christian being "delivered 

 from the Law," the Decalogue included {Rom. vii. 6, 7); 

 which Decalogue, though " written and en graven in stones," 

 was thus entirely "done away." (2 Corinth. iii. 7.) 



In the most explicit and impervertible terms, they affirm 

 that "the Sabbath-days" were the mere "shadowof things 

 to come" (Coloss. ii. 16); an obsolete "ordinance" which had 

 been "blotted out" by the new covenant; and they strongly 

 condemn their "observance" {Gal. iv. 10), as among the 

 "beggarly elements" of Jewish bondage. 



Thus they decide obedience to the Fourth Commandment, 

 and the "estimation" of its Sabbath, to be a "weakness in the 

 faith" (Rom. xiv. 1, 5), even while placing it on the broad 

 ground of the liberty of private judgment, and the right of 

 each to act in conformity with his own persuasions. 



W. B. T. 



