mandment, appertaining to the law of nature, ought to be retained of Christians. Now the law of nature enjoins only a due and convenient proportion of time to be kept holy. And supposing that proportion to be one day of rest, after six of labour, in memory of the creation: we comply with it equally; whether we pitch on the first, or the last, day of the week for that rest. But there is one great advantage in choosing the former, on which the Author of our salvation rested from the labours of his state of humiliation, after accomplishing the great work he had undertaken : that thus we very fitly join the thankful memorial of the new creation (for so is our redemption called in Scripture *), with that of the old. Nor doth our observation of the day stand, by any means, on this propriety alone: but on such other plain and strong authorities, as I shall now proceed to set before you. Every single Evangelist begins his account of our Saviour's resurrection with observing, that it was on the first day of the week. Now it had been perfectly needless for any one of them to have done this, and very unlikely that all of them should, had the day been intended for no particular use. But evidently it was: and for what use, appears immediately. For on that very same day we find the Apostles assembled, and Jesus in the midst of them, instructing them with his own mouth t. The first day of the very next week we find them assembled again, and our Lord again with them. Six weeks after, at Pentecost, is recorded in the Acts, a third instance of all the Apostles at least, being with one accord, on that day, in one place, where they were filled with the Holy 2 Cor. v. 17. Eph. ii. 10. iv. 24. ↑ John xx. 26. + John xx. 19. Ghost *. Farther yet, the same book informs us, that on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, to receive the holy sacrament, Paul preached to them †. And that great Apostle himself directs the Corinthians, that, on the first day of the week, every one should lay by, according to his ability, something for the poort: which example of piety succeeding ages imitated, by charitable contributions in their weekly assemblies. Now if any person can possibly imagine, that this day was so frequently specified in this manner by mere accident, let him only reflect, that throughout the whole history of the first Christians in the New Testament, no other day is ever specified, as any way peculiarly regarded by them. But farther still, St. John, in the Revelation, calls it the Lord's day. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day §. For that he means by that phrase what we do now, is clear from hence, that St. Ignatius, exhorting to the due observation of this day, within a few years after him, used it in that sense ||; as did the whole body of subsequent fathers, councils, laws, and histories and no one, so far as appears, ever used it in any other. This day then hath the same mark in St. John, that the blessed sacrament hath in St. Paul, of being appropriated to the honour of our Saviour. The former is called the Lord's day, just as the latter is the Lord's Supper. And accordingly the Epistle of St. Barnabas, written perhaps before the Revelation, saith, We observe with gladness the eighth day, on which Jesus rose from the dead: confessedly meaning by the eighth, the next after the seventh, in our common language the first. Nor is there a single * Acts ii. 1. 4. § Rev. i. 10. VOL. IV. + Acts xx. 7. P instance, from the earliest times downwards for one thousand five hundred years, of any church or sect of believers whatever, that did not profess keeping it holy to Him. For what St. Paul saith, that one man esteemed one day above another, and another esteemed every day alike*, plainly relates to the keeping of the Jewish festivals, which was greatly controverted at that time, not of this Christian festival, about which there was no controversy at all. Now such universal consent, without exception, amongst persons who differed so widely about multitudes of other matters, could not but proceed from some original injunction, either of our Lord or his Apostles. No authority besides theirs was early or extensive enough to be a ground of the practice: and we cannot well think it was taken up without any authority, for this reason besides others, that if it had, some ancient council would undoubtedly have placed it on a surer foundation. But no council ever pretended to establish the observance of this day: which, far from lowering its obligation, heightens it very much; by showing, that the rulers of the church all along knew it to have been established from the beginning by a superior power †. And therefore they contented themselves to enforce the regard due to it, and determine particular doubts concerning it, from time to time. The New Testament indeed doth not say, that our Saviour appointed it. But St. Luke saith in the Acts, that after his resurrection he conversed with the Apostles forty days, speaking to them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God: that is, *Rom. xiv. 5. + Quod universa tenet ecclesia, nec conciliis institutum, sed semper retentum est, non nisi auctoritate apostolica traditum rectissime creditur. Aug. de Bapt. contra Donatistas, 1. 4. c. 23. Acts i. 3. the Gospel dispensation. And St. Clement, the Roman, whom St. Paul to the Philippians calls his fellow-labourer, whose name is in the book of life*, saith further, We ought to do all things in order, which the Lord hath commanded: to perform our offices and services according to the appointed seasons. And he hath commanded them to be done, not at random and disorderly, but at determinate seasons and times †. Now what seasons can he so probably mean, as the returns of that day, which bears our Lord's name: and which later fathers expressly affirm was kept by his command‡? But without any such evidence; as in the case of the patriarchs before Moses, and of the Jews for many ages after him, though we read nothing in Scripture of the observance of the sabbath, yet we presume it from the institution: so here, in the case of the first Christians, though we read nothing in Scripture of the institution of the Lord's day, we may presume it from the observance: just as we do in the common law of our own country; in which multitudes of things are proved to be obligatory, not by producing the original appointment of them, for it is not extant; but by showing such immemorial usage, as must have proceeded from an appointment formerly made by the sovereign power. Or supposing that it was not our Saviour in person, but the Apostles, who instituted the Lord's day (as indeed those Christian writers, which have spoken of it in the lowest terms, have acknowledged, that it began to be observed not only with their approbation, Phil. iv. 3. + Clem. Rom. Ep. i. § 40. Euseb. de Laud. Const. p. 733. Ed. Reading. Epiphan. Hom. de Resur. vol. 2. p. 277. saith, Christ blessed and sanctified the day of his resurrection, referring to God's blessing the sabbath. Aust. de Civ. Dei, l. 22. c. 30. Ep. 119. c. 13. Athan. de Sabbato. but by their authority *): this will come very nearly to the same thing. For the Apostles were such, as could say, It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us t. Nor could they design it for a temporary institution, since the reasons of it are so evidently perpetual. But even suppose it had only been taken up with the joint consent of the Christian church: yet St. Paul would have thought it a sufficient answer to all, who should have pleaded for treating it with disrespect, that if any man be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God‡. Suppose it had been enjoined only by the governors of the church, yet the direction of Scripture is, Obey them, that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls §. Suppose our temporal governors had required us to reverence it, as they have most strictly; here again, the direction of Scripture is, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake: for they are God's ministers |. And as we confess ourselves bound by their command to keep occasional fasts and thanksgivings, on account of our worldly concerns, why not a stated thanksgiving for blessings infinitely superior? But even were the observation of the day to stand solely on the footing of its own reasonableness and propriety, yet this is the proportion of time, which the wisdom of God fixed on for his servants under the Old Testament: and since we owe him much more than they did, why should we pay him less, of any token of pious gratitude? If the sabbath was a sign between God and them I; so is the Lord's day a very expressive one between Christ and us: and why should not we declare, by this mark among * Heylin, p. 32. + Acts § Heb. xiii. 17. XV. 28. 1 Cor. xi. 16. 1 Exod. xxxi. 13. 17. |