THE SON OF MAN IS LORD ALSO OF THE SABBATH,' exalted as that appointment confessedly is, most ancient in time, first in dignity, most universal as to extent, most durable and permanent in point of continuance-he is Lord even of the Sabbath, to claim it as his own, to transfer the day of its celebration, to fix on it his own name, to sweep away human traditions, and re-establish it in all its original simplicity and compassionate aspect upon man. Yes, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath;"--"the heir of all things," "the first-born from the dead," the "head over all things to his church," "the prince of life," the "only begotten of the Father," the "Lord of all." He is not like Moses "a servant," but has power "in his own house," as a "Son," to dispose of the affairs of that house as he may please.*

With this high claim, accords another which he made on the very same occasion-the defence of his disciples when accused wrongfully of having violated the Sabbath. "BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, IN THIS PLACE IS ONE GREATER THAN THE TEMPLE,† glorious as it is, surrounded with tokens of the divine majesty, the seat of religious ordinances, and the place of the immediate manifestations of the Deity. "There is one greater than the temple, "--which is a figure merely of my human nature, and derives all its dignity from the indwelling Deity. "There is one greater than the temple,"--and therefore one authorized to regulate the service of the temple, and fix the day of religious assemblies in his church.

Once more, when accused of the Jews, most probably before the Sanhedrim, on the very same subject--a supposed violation of the Sabbath--how sublime is his reply! "MY FATHER WORKETH HITHERTO, AND I WORK. 294 What a claim is implied in these words! The interruption, indeed, given by the Jews, upon his uttering this language of Deity, leaves us in some uncertainty as to the precise import of the argument; but if it be considered as only an assumption of divine operations generally, it is still conclusive as to his power over the Sabbath and the Jewish corruptions of the law of it. But if we refer it, with Dr. Lightfoot, to his working like his Father, who ever acts by his providence, even upon the Sabbath, though he rested + Matt, xii. 6. + John v. 17.

* Heb. iii. 5, 6.

from the works of creation on that day, and blessed and sanctified it; the argument of our Lord is more direct to his immediate purpose. It then imports, 'As my Father, though he hath ceased from the act of creation, worketh still in all succeeding time, the Sabbath not excepted, in sustaining man, rescuing him from danger, recovering him from sickness, sending him rain from heaven and fruitful showers, causing his sun to rise upon him; so I, the Son of God, work also in carrying on my providential actings continually, and even on the Sabbath; fulfilling my divine mission, healing diseases when occasions present themselves, proving the truth of my doctrine by enabling an impotent man to bear away his couch before my assembled adversaries, vindicating the Sabbath from unauthorized impositions, claiming it as my proper institution, and fixing the day of its observance after my own pleasure.'

Here, then, are laid grounds for the alteration of the day. What more appropriate than the LORD'S DAY, to mark the authority of "the Lord of the Sabbath?" "If one greater than the temple be here," what more becoming than that the worship of the New Testament temple should follow his resurrection? If as "the Father worketh hitherto, so he works," what more natural than that he should display his power in making the Sabbath his own, working on it his deeds of mercy and grace, and fixing it in his own kingdom as a trophy of his resurrection?

Yes; these indications virtually prove the point in hand. We may now venture to profess and say, "The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord our Redeemer;" "The Lord Jesus hath blessed the first day and hallowed it:" even as the ancient church professed and said, "The Lord hath blessed the seventh day and hallowed it"-"The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God." In a word, the last declaration which our Savior made in commissioning his apostles after his resurrection, includes an unlimited power over his church, and therefore the authority of changing the day of celebrating its weekly rest: "ALL POWER is given me in heaven and earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations-teaching them to observe all things, WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU,"* 2

*Matt. xxviii, 18-20.

We proceed, then, to consider

II. THE MANNER in which the change of the Sabbath from the last to the first day of the week, WAS GRADUALLY INTRODUCED BY THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF OUR LORD AND HIS APOSTLES.

After such preparatory indications of the transfer of the day of rest, and such arrangements, from the very beginning, to admit of it, much will not be necessary to show the divine authority of it, when actually introduced. For the change being in itself subordinate, and in no way touching the substance of the command, nay, being agreeable to the very wording of that command, we want nothing but sufficient intimations of the will of God, to warrant our compliance with the practice of the universal church from the days of the apostles. When an objector says, he requires an express injunction, in precise and formal terms, for the observation of the Lord's day, he speaks without consideration. If he requires an express injunction in precise and formal terms for the religious dedication of one day in seven to God, we have it in the institution in Paradise, and in the words of the fourth commandment. But if he requires such an express and formal injunction for a subordinate change in the day of the week when that Sabbath should be kept, we reply, that the case does not require it. If God had so made our faculties, that we were not capable of receiving intimations of his will, even in matters not affecting the substance of a commandment, in any other way than by a new and express injunction, there would be some reason to require one. But God hath given us such understandings, that we are capable of ascertaining his will in such cases, in another manner. If God deals with us, then, agreeably to our nature and in a way suitable to our capacities, it is enough: and he may expect our notice and observance, and does expect our notice and observance, in the same manner as if he had made known his will in express terms.* In a case, then, like the present, we want no direct precept. The perpetual moral obligation of giving one day to God, after every six days' labor, is confessed. The institution has been preserved on this footing through every dispensation. It is honored and left in all its force by Christ and his apostles. There is

* J. Edwards.

no room then for a new precept, as for a duty unkno On a point not in itself essential to the command, the tacit example of our Lord,-the time of the fulfilment of the chief promise of the New Testament,-the doctrine and conduct of the inspired apostles,-the events in providence which swept away the Jewish polity and Sabbath,-the universal practice of the Christian church in the primitive and all following ages,--and the uninterrupted blessing of God resting from their time to the present on the transferred day; these constitute sufficient intimations of the will of God. We deduce the divine authority of the change of the weekly rest from the Jewish to the Lord's day, as certainly from such intimations, as we deduce the divine authority of the essential duty of a weekly rest itself, from the transactions in Paradise and the formal and express injunctions of the moral law.

ΤΟ

I. Our Savior, then, after his passion, BEGAN INTRODUCE the actual change tacitly and gently, by his own divine conduct. The first day of the week is the day of his resurrection. In the eternal councils of the Almighty was this, and no other, day fixed. The whole, arrangement of the institution of the passover had from the first a respect to his great fulfilment of this typical sacrifice. Accordingly it is repeatedly and emphatically noted by the evangelists as the precise day of his conquest over the grave. He foretold it himself. The Jews were aware of the expected fact, and prepared, as they could, against it. His appearances after his resurrection, marked the day which was to become the Lord's. Having risen on that blessed morn, he manifested himself four times before its close, to his disciples; and thus celebrated, or rather constituted the first Christian Sabbath, on its new day of being observed, by his own presence. All the evangelists seem to delight in marking that it was on the first day of the week, and no other, that these transactions took place. St. Matthew tells us that at the "very dawn of the first day," the two Marys had the early tidings of the resurrection of their Lord. St. Mark informs us, that "very early in the morning," that glorious event occurred. St. Luke relates the same with the same notification of its being on the first day of the week. St. John bears testimony, that "on the first day of the week cometh Mary,

when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre," and there wit"nesseth the first manifestation of her risen Redeemer.* The second appearance, to the three women, was vouchsafed the same day. The journey to Emmaus, and the being "known in the breaking of bread," was the third visit. And the fourth closed the first Christian Sabbath. It was made to the assembled disciples, who were already : convened on that day, ready to begin, as it were, that joyful season the moment their Lord should appear, to open its solemnities. Accordingly, "the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord" Their joy in the resurrection of their Master now began the Lord's day; to mark out and separate which more distinctly, the intervening week is allowed to pass without any repetition of his visits. But lo, after six days' work, the day of rest returns, and the second Lord's day is honored likewise with the presence of Christ; the evangelist especially noting the time of this manifestation, which is not done as to any other, by any of the evangelists. "And after eight days again," (the Jews including the portion of the days from which, and to which, they reckon) "his disciples were within, and Thomas with them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst." "This second meeting on the same day of the week," says Paley, "has all the appearance of an appointment, a design to meet on that particular day.”

Nothing is said as to the time on which the following manifestations were made; nor do we want them. They would have introduced the new day, not so gently and gradually, as we shall see it was our Savior's intention to introduce it. It now, as it were, insinuates itself by the very circumstances in which the apostles were placed. The Lord of the Sabbath was lying in the grave on the precise day of the Jewish rest. It would have been impossible for the mourning disciples to have celebrated the praises of the great Creator, of the Redeemer from Egyptian bondage, of