150 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The literal application, enforced by Milton: Baxter: Barrow: Buntan. 



him it is invisible. Paley and Whately saw it tliere : but 

 to him, alas ! " it is not there V 



Says Milton : "" Whoever deniea that under the words of 

 the Apostle, ' in respect of an holy daj, or of the new-moon, 

 or of the Sahhath days/ the Sabbath of the fourth command- 

 ment is comprehended, may as well deny that it is spoken of 

 in 2 Cliron. ii. 4; or viii. 13; or xxxi. 3 ; from which pas- 

 sages the words of Paul seem to be taken/^ ( Chr ist. Doctrine^ 

 Bookii. chap. 7.) 



Says Baxter unhesitatingly, this passage '^meant the 

 weekly Jewish Sabbath/' {LonVs Day^ chap. v.) And he 

 justly reproves those who would presume to except it from the 

 apostle's rejection. **This is to limit it without any proof 

 from the word of God. When Grod speaks of 'Sabbaths' in 

 general without exception, what is man that he should put ex- 

 ceptions without any proof of authority from God ? By such 

 boldness we may pervert all his laws. Yea, when it was the 

 weekly Sabbath which was then principally known by the 

 name of the Sabbath, it is yet greater boldness, without proof 

 to exclude the principal part from whence the rest did receive 

 the name !" ((9?i the LorcVs Dai/, chap. vii.) " What violence 

 men's own wits must use in denying the "evidence of so plain 

 «a text ! Their reason that he saith not ' Sabbath,' but ' Sab- 

 baths,' is against themselves ; the plural number being most 

 comprehensive, and other Sabbaths receiving their name from 

 this.'^ {Ibid. Ajjpendix, ch. i.) 



Says Barrow : '^ St. Paul himself is express in discharging 

 Christians from the observation thereof, and in conjoining it 

 with other ceremonial observances, whose nature was merely 

 symbolical, and whose design was to continue no longer than 

 till the real substance of that which they represented came 

 into full force and practice. — Col. ii. 16, 17.'' (^Works^ vol. 

 i. Exjjosition of DecaJogue.^ 



Says BuNYAN, Paul " distinctly singleth out this Seventh 

 day as that which was a noble shadow, a most exact shadow." 



