21.6 Section VII

    Section VII.—As it is of the law of nature that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which in Scripture is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.

Exposition Our Confession next treats of the time consecrated to the worship of God.

It is a dictate of the law of nature, that a due proportion of our time should be employed in the immediate worship of God. The right of determining what exact proportion of time, and what particular day of the week should be set apart for this purpose, belongs to God. He has, accordingly, interposed his authority, and appointed that a seventh part of our time should be appropriated to his service. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, he enjoined that the seventh day of the week should be employed in his worship, for the special purpose of commemorating his rest from the work of creation. The particular day, however, might be altered by the authority, and according to the pleasure, of the Lawgiver. And from the resurrection of Christ, in order to commemorate the work of redemption in combination with the work of creation, the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week; which is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath. From these remarks it will be obvious that the Sabbath is partly a moral and partly a positive institution. So far as it requires that a certain portion of our time should be devoted to the worship of God, it is moral, being founded in the relation subsisting between God and man. So far as it appropriates the seventh part of our time, and determines the particular day to be set apart for the service of God, it is of positive institution, being founded in the will and appointment of God. But it ought to be observed, that a positive institution, when once enacted and revealed by God, may be of perpetual obligation, and, in this sense, may be called moral. Hence it is usual to speak of "the morality of the Sabbath," and to distinguish betwixt what is moral natural and what is moral positive in the fourth precept of the decalogue. As it requires that some stated portion of our time should be consecrated to the worship of God, it is moral natural; and as it enacts that a seventh portion of our time, rather than any other proportion, shall be set apart for this purpose, it is moral positive. We call it a positive institution, because the observing of one day in seven as a Sabbath flows from the sovereign appointment of God; and we call it moral positive, because the divine appointment is of universal and perpetual obligation; and the Sabbath is thus distinguished from ceremonial institutions, which were peculiar to the Jews, and were abrogated at the death of Christ. The morality of the Sabbath, therefore, consists in its binding obligation upon all men, in all ages. That the appointment of one day in seven for a Sabbath is of universal and perpetual obligation, appears from the following considerations: -

1. From the original institution of the Sabbath. Of this we have an account, Gen. ii. 1-3. At this time none of the human race were in being but our first parents; and since the Sabbath was instituted for them, it must be obligatory on all their posterity to the end of the world. There is, unquestionably, as much reason and as much need for all the sons of Adam, in all ages and nations, in their feeble and sinful state, to have a day appointed for their own rest, and for the worship of God, as there was for Adam in Paradise, and in a state of innocence. The Sabbath, as then appointed, could not be a ceremonial institution; for while man retained his integrity, there was no need of any types to shadow forth Christ. This reasoning can only be overturned by denying that the Sabbath was instituted in the beginning, and proving that it was first given to the Israelites in the wilderness. This, accordingly, has been attempted by various writers, but the proof entirely fails. There is no reason to think that, in Genesis, Moses records the institution of the Sabbath by anticipation. The manner of the narrative would naturally lead any reader to suppose that he is relating what took place when the work of creation was finished. Although there is no record of the observation of the Sabbath for a period of 2500 years, or until after Israel came out of Egypt, yet it cannot be inferred from this that the Sabbath was not instituted from the beginning, or that it was not observed in antediluvian and patriarchal times; for neither is there any record of its observation during a period of about 500 years, containing the histories of Joshua, of the Judges, particularly Samuel, and of Saul; nor is there a single instance of circumcision on record from the time that Israel entered into Canaan until the circumcision of John the Baptist. In Exod. xvi. 23, the Sabbath is evidently mentioned, not as a near institution, but as one already known. And when the law was promulgated to Israel, at Mount Sinai, the Sabbath was spoken of as an institution with which they were formerly acquainted, but which had been too much neglected or forgotten. Probably in Egypt the observance of it had been in a great measure suspended; and therefore they were called to "remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." It may be observed, too, that the division of time into weeks of seven days, which subsisted in the age of the patriarchs, cannot be satisfactorily accounted for, but by the previous institution of the Sabbath.

2. The binding obligation of the Sabbath may be argued from the place which the fourth commandment occupies in the decalogue. It is inserted in the very middle of the moral precepts which God delivered to mankind as a perpetual rule of their lives. It is one of those commands that were spoken by the voice of God himself, that were twice written on tables of stone by the finger of God, and that were laid up in the ark of the covenant. None of these things can be said of any ceremonial institution.

3. All the reasons annexed to this commandment, as promulgated from Mount Sinai, are moral in their nature. These reasons had no special reference to the Jews, but equally respect all men, in all nations and in all ages. And hence we find that strangers, as well as the Jews, were obliged to observe the Sabbath; but they were not bound to observe ceremonial institutions.—Exod. xx. 10,11.

4. That the observation of the Sabbath was to continue after the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath, is implied in the words of Jesus Christ (Matt. xxiv. 20): "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day." Christ is there speaking, not of the Jewish, but of the Christian Sabbath; for he refers to a flight which should happen at the destruction of Jerusalem; and this did not take place until forty years after the Jewish Sabbath was abolished. But though the Sabbath was then to be changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, yet the words of Christ certainly intimate that the Sabbath was still to be continued.

5. The perpetuity of the Sabbath is clearly taught in Isa. lvi.6-8. Whoever examines the passage, will find that the prophet is speaking of New Testament times. Under the gospel dispensation, therefore, the Sabbath was still to continue a divine institution; it was still to be a duty to keep it from polluting it; and the keeping of it was to be blessed, according to the declarations of the unerring Spirit of prophecy. The morality of the Sabbath is not affected by the change of the day. The substance of the institution consists in the separation of a seventh portion of our time to the immediate worship of God; and the particular day is a thing perfectly circumstantial. It is not said, "Remember the seventh day;" but "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." Neither is it said, "God blessed the seventh day;" but "God blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." But as the seventh day of the week was, by divine appointment, originally appropriated to the worship of God, the day could only be altered by "the Lord of the Sabbath." It is admitted that we have no express precept for the alteration of the day, but we have convincing evidence that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week at the resurrection of Christ.

1. That the first day of the week should be the Christian Sabbath, was foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures (Ps. cxviii. 24): "This is the day which the Lord hath made;" not which he has created - for so he has made all other days—but which he has consecrated to himself, or made into a holy day. And the day referred to is the day of Christ’s resurrection, when "the stone which the builders refused was become the head stone of the corner." - Compare Acts iv. 10,11; see also Ezek. xliii. 27, where the eighth day is mentioned as the day on which spiritual sacrifices were to be offered up to the Lord; and the Christian Sabbath may be called the eighth day, because the first day of the week now is the eighth day in order from the creation.

2. After his resurrection, Christ repeatedly met with his disciples on the first day of the week - See John xx. 19, 26. Though Christ appeared to several of the disciples on other days, yet it is only expressly recorded that on the first day of the week he met with them when assembled together. From this we may conclude that the disciples had already begun to assemble on the first day of the week, and that Christ approved of the practice. Many are of opinion that he continued to meet with them upon that day of the week till his ascension, "speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."—Acts. i. 3.

3. The apostles and primitive Christians statedly met on that day for the celebration of divine ordinances. We read (Acts xx. 7), that "upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them;" where their meeting together on that day is not spoken of as a thing extraordinary, or merely occasional, but as a stated ordinary practice. From 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2, it appears that the primitive Christians, on the first day of the week, contributed for the relief of their needy brethren, and this by an express apostolic injunction. Thus the collection for the poor, which was made in the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath, seems to have been transferred, by apostolic authority, to the first day of the week among Christians.

4. In early times the Christian Sabbath was well known by the distinguishing title of "the Lord’s day" (Rev. i. 10), the day which Jesus Christ peculiarly claimed as his own, and which was consecrated to his honour.

5. The first day of the week has been uniformly observed as the Christian Sabbath, from the apostolic age down to the present time; and God has remarkably honoured that day by conferring precious blessings on his people, when employed in the religious observance of it.

There is an adequate reason for the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. As the seventh day was kept holy from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, in commemoration of the work of creation, so it is reasonable that, since the resurrection of Christ, the first day of the week should be sanctified, in commemoration of the greater and more glorious work of redemption. And as there will be no new work of the Almighty of superior or equal importance, it is fit that this day should continue to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.