MR. TAYLOR' S SECOND REPLY. 157 



The New Testament entirely Anti-sahbatarian. 



this passage to neglect its observance, and ^' esteem every day 

 alike,'' he has powers of " accommodation'^ utterly beyond 

 what I give him credit for, and utterly beyond my own con- 

 ceptions. (^Gal. i. 8.) 



Such, then, is the scriptural presentation of the great "Sab- 

 bath Question/' Every allusion to the Sabbath (direct or indi- 

 rect) contained in the New Testament, dearly establishes Anti- 

 sabbatarianism. Not one allusion (direct or indirect) supports 

 the Sabbatarian ! On the one side of the diseussion, we have 

 constant dependence on '^ chapter and verse" — enforced by 

 literal interpretation, and the consenting judgment of the 

 most learned expositors : on the other side, we have extenua- 

 tion and assertion ; a vague appeal to irrelevant authorities. 



Yet weak and unsubstantial as the Sabbatarian doctrine is 

 thus shown to be, when tested by the decisive standard of 

 " the law and the testimony," there is, perhaps, no single tenet 

 of modern sectarianism which has been asserted with a more 

 dogmatic assurance, or enforced with a more intolerant aus- 

 terity. No terms of adulation are too extravagant in aggran- 

 dizement of the popular idol {Acts xix. 35) ; no epithets of 

 opprobrium too severe in reprehension of the presumptuous 

 iconoclast, or of the ungodly and profane " Sahhatli-hreaker.'* 

 (^Acts xix. 26—28.) 



It is remarkable, too, that the very class of Christians who 

 most affect to receive the Bible as their " sole rule of faith and 

 practice,'' are they who most strikingly disregard its unmis- 

 takable teachings on this subject.* They blindly, but zeal- 

 ously, walk ^' according to the tradition of the elders -," main- 

 taining, with bigoted declamation, the obligation of the fourth 

 commandment, in the very face of its incontestable abrogation : 



* "All things necessary for man's salvation, faith, and life, are 

 either expressly set down in Scripture, or, by necessary consequence, 

 may be deduced from Scripture ; unto which nothing at any time is to 

 be added — by traditions of men." [Presbyterian Confession of Faith.) 



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