PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

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tllents, which, if a man do, he shall even live in
them; moreover olio I gave the"~l my ~abbathJ to he a
sign between me and them, that tney mIght know that
I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezek. xx. 12 ..
Now it does not seem easy to understand how the
sabbath could be a sign between God and the people
of Israel, uniess the observance of it ",9as peculiar to
that people, and de~igned to be ~o. .
rfhe dist:nction of the sabbath is, in its Iiature, as
much a positive cerenlonial institution, as that of
mat~y other seasons whi\:h \vere appointed by the Ievitical
law to be kept holy, and to be observed by a
strict re5t; as tIle first and seventh days of unleavened
bread; tIle f-ea~t of· pentecost; tile feast of taber~
nacles; and -in the t\venty .. third chapter of Exodus
the sabbath al1J these are recited together.
If the command by which the sabbath ,was inst!rut.
ed be binding upon the Christians~ it must be binding
as to the day, the duties, and the penalty; in none
of which it is received.
The observance of the sab"bath \\~as not one of thf.!
articles enjoined by the Apostles, in the fifteentJl
chapter of Acts, upon them, "\Vhi~h, from among
the Gentiles, \vere turned unto Godo"
St. Paul evidently appears to have considered' the
sabbath as part of the Jewish ritual, and not obJigat.).
ry upon Christians as such: "Let no Ulan therefore
judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an
holy day, or of the new moon, or of the .rahbath dO'IS,
~hich ar~ a ,~hadow .~f thing: to come, but the bO'dy
lS of C"hrlst. Col. if.. 16, I I.
I am aware of only two objections which can be
opposed to the force of these arguments: one is,
that the reason assigned in the fourth command ..
ment for haJIowing the seventh day, viz. "because
God rested on the seventh day fronl the work of the.
creation," b a reason which pertains to all mankind;
the other, that the command, which enjoins the ob.
servance of the sabbath, is inserted in the decalogue,
of which all the other precepts and prohibitions are
1')f mora) and universal obligati.on.