240 ABROGATION OF TIIE SABBATII. 



A Sabbatarian Pharisee " at Damascus." Unwarranted assumptions. 



I am reminded that there was one of Tarsus, who, " after 

 the most straitest sect of his religion, lived a Pharisee," and 

 kept the Sabbath : but dazzled by a sudden splendor, — the illu- 

 minating baptism of a clearer and a freer faith, — when the short 

 season of his "blindness" passed, steadfastly repudiated his 

 venerated law for its '^weakness and unprofitableness;'' and 

 ^' putting away the childish things" of " meats, and drinks, 

 and HOLY DAYS," thenceforward " after the way which they 

 called ^ heresy' — worshipped the God of his fathers." Unlike 

 Saul, " the enemy of Christ," I have not been ^' exceedingly 

 zealous of the traditions of my fathers :" like Paul, the adher- 

 ent of ^'a sect everywhere spoken against," I unshrinkingly 

 withstand the anti-evangelical imposition "after the command- 

 ments and doctrines of men'' — of a crucified and blotted ordi- 

 nance; however prevalent or determined the subjection, with 

 whatever "show of wisdom in will-worship/' it may be upheld. 



But what are the premises neeessary to render this luciferous 

 text available to my friend's cause? The fe west possible are 

 three. 1. That "the Lord's day" here intended Sunday. 2. 

 That it was so called because it was "dedicated to the Lord li/ 

 his authoriti/." And 3. That being so dedicated, it must, in 

 consequence, be a " Sabbath/' Any one of these three postu- 

 lates failing, his text is absolutely useless; the connecting link 

 between it and the neeessary conclusion being wanting. Now 

 so far from these three things being indisputable facts, I assert 

 that 710 one of them has been established ! Nay, I hesitate not 

 to say, that no one of them can be established ! J. N. B. has 

 prudently not attempted to establish one of them : unless an 

 extravagant indulgence will consider assertion an "attempt."* 

 " If no one (the ^ Friends' excepted) pretends to doubt that 

 the ' Lord's Table,' ^ the Lord's cup,' and ' the Lord's Supper' 

 (1 Cor. xi.) prove the existence of an Ordinance of universal 

 and perpetual ohligation under the Christian Dispensation, how 



* See Note C, at the end of this Reply. 



