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

292 Scripture AlCOunt tf
fust, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God." Ezeio
•
~,:Yiii. 5-9. The ~ame thing may be observed of
the apostolic decree recorded in the fifteenth chapter
{Ii- the Acts.-'{ It seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than
these necessary things; that ye abstaiJl from meats
offered to idols, and from blood, and from thing!;
strangleJ, 2nd frolll .firniCt1Iion: front \vhicb, if ye
keep you:-selves~ )Fe si~all do \veII."
II. If the la\v by \\·hi~h the sabbath was instituted,
was a 1aw onl)" to the Jews, it becomes an important
questinn \\'ith the Christian enquirer, whether
the F'ounder of Ilis religion delivered any new commZld
UpOIl tIle subject; or, jf that should not appear
to be tIle case, whether any day was appropri­
~t~d to the service of religion, by the authority or
exampli! of his apostle3 ?
The practice of holding religious assemblies upon
the first day of the week, was so early and universal
in the christian church, that it carries with it con ..
siderable proof of having originated from some precept
of Christ, or of his Apostles, though none such
be now extant. It was upon the fiT/ot day of the
week -that the disciples were assembled, when Christ
appeared to them for the first time after his resurreCtion;
"then the sanie day at evening, being tbe first
day if the week, when the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews,
Came Jesus and stood in the midst of tllem. JJ JolIn,
xx. 19. This, for any thing that appears in the account,
might, as to the day, have been accidental:
bl1t in the 26th verse of the same chapter we read,
"th;lt after eight days," that is, on the fir.'"! day of
th'.:! ~:eek fO/,'liwing "again the disciples were within,"
which second meeting upon the same day of the
week looks like an appointment and design to meet
on that particular day. In the twentieth chapter of
the Acts of the Apostles, \ve find the same costonl
in a Chri~tian church at a great distance from Jerusalem:
(, And \ve came unto them to 1'roas in five
dl\v~, ~:hcre we aLJde seven daYS'j and upon the first