remuineth to the people of God, in which they shall rest completely from all the troubles of this life. For the believer who is entered into God's rest, hath himself also rested from his own works of trial and suffering, Rev. xiv. 13. like as God rested from his works of creation. 11. Since there remaineth such a happy rest to the people of God, Let us carefully strive to enter into that rest, by obeying Jesus, lest any of us should fall, after the example of the Israelites, through unbelief."

Though this passage, so admirably paraphrased by Macknight, affords, as is obvious to remark, no direct proof of the Christian sabbath, yet some circumstances go indirectly to establish its lasting obligation. For in the first place, it supplies a striking confirmation of the original appointment of the sabbath immediately upon the conclusion of the creative labour of Omnipotence. The apostle not only quotes the Mosaic account of the institution of the seventh day's rest," for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works';" but his argument rests upon the assumption that it was instituted "from the foundation of the world," as is evident from the paraphrase of the third verse. If the law of the sabbath was first given in the wilderness, the reasoning is entirely inconclusive, since it is to this

i Verse 4.

effect, that the promised rest into which God sware the unbelieving Israelites should not enter could not be that of the seventh day, because they had entered into that rest before the oath was sworn. It must, therefore, have been appointed at the creation, which proves its perpetuity, for the command must, in that case, have been addressed to all mankind, and consequently universally binding.

In the second place, the seventh day's rest, as it should seem from this passage, was designed to be typical of the eternal rest in heaven. In the ninth verse the apostle says, "There remaineth therefore a rest (oaßßariouòs) to the people of God," by which expression, as is generally agreed, is denoted a rest of holy bliss, such as God enjoyed when he finished his work of creation; and therefore, by using it, he intimates that the sabbath is an emblem or figure of the heavenly rest which remaineth to the people of God. This is further evident from the next verse," For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his," where the parallel shews that the sabbatical rest is a re

8

« * Σαββατισμός est haud dubie idem, quod antea sæpius κατάπαυσις dicitur. Sed maluit Auctor hic caßßarioμ uti, quod legentis animum ad ea revocaret, quæ supra de Deo, septimo die quiescente, dixisset, simulque doceret, esse in sabbato typum, sive adumbrationem cœlestis vitæ, quæ et ipsa perpetuum sabbatum est habitura." Abresch, Nota in loc. See also Pierce, in loc.

presentation of eternal rest. And the same thing is implied in other parts of the apostolical writings; for St. Paul reckons the sabbaths among those things which were "a shadow of things to come," and in this very epistle he represents the Jewish ritual as a pattern, a figure, or shadow of heavenly things'.

If the sabbath be in reality a type of the heavenly rest, this circumstance will go a great way in corroborating its moral and perpetual obligation. A type being ordained by the Almighty to adumbrate something future, must necessarily continue in force till the thing represented shall have actually come to pass. Its emblematical nature will never expire but with the accomplishment of the thing signified; for a type being of divine appointment, cannot be supposed to be annulled before the thing typified takes place. If the seventh day's rest were originally designed to be typical, it cannot rationally be believed that it would be abolished till that which it prefigures shall have arrived. The same wise purposes which were answered by its first ordination as a type must remain until that ordination be accomplished. Now the sabbath, the apostle intimates, is a figure of future happiness of heaven, and, as it can never lose its emblematical character, in

Col. ii. 17. Heb. viii. 5. et passim. Sec ante, cap. iii. sect. i. § 3. p. 139.

which character also it will be ever equally useful, its moral obligation must continue till time be swallowed up in eternity.

Such is the decisive evidence of the sacred re cords of Christianity for the appropriation of a weekly day to religious exercises.

SECTION II.

Of the Day of the Christian Sabbath.

THOUGH We are bound to rest in the conclusion, so irresistibly established in the foregoing section, that our blessed Lord and his apostles have authorized the observance of a weekly festival; yet, as to the particular day, it may be supposed that we have rather retrograded than advanced in our inquiries. Whichever day of our week was blessed and sanctified at the creation, it is perfectly clear that saturday was the appointed sabbath under the Levitical economy, and it is equally so that sunday was dedicated to holy offices by the first disciples of our Lord. If the obligation of the sabbath be immutable, it is contended that it must extend to the identical day, and that a change in this particular annuls its religious sanction; which change having actually taken place must consequently exempt Christians from the penalties of its non-observance. This is an ob