CRITICAL REMARKS ON COLOSSIANS II. 16, 17.

(IN REPLY TO PHILONOMOS.)

(Concluded from page 158.)

"LET no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ."— Authorized Version.

By the preceding analysis it is presumed to have been shown that in this passage the apostle Paul assured the Colossians, and through them all other Gentile Christians, that they were under no obligation to observe the seventh-day Sabbath. So plain and explicit a statement appears the more remarkable when it is considered that, until the end of their national dispensation, Jewish Christians continued to observe their own Sabbath, as a sacred duty; and that, on account of this and other unavoidable differences between them, Jewish and Gentile churches, although agreeing in all essential points, and regarding each other with fraternal affection, were during the whole of that period divided into distinct societies, and assembled for religious worship at different times and places; a circumstance much overlooked, but sufficiently proved by the separate letters respectively addressed to them by the apostles.

The force of this conclusion cannot be invalidated by alleging that the Sabbath-day was instituted long before the Mosaic law, even from the foundation of the world; for, not to insist on the impossibility of one and the same day being observed by all the inhabitants of a globe, the Sabbath described in the scriptural account of the creation is still the seventh-day Sabbath, here declared to be no longer in force, and which, in fact, has been almost universally disregarded by Christians. But, granting that it had been actually enjoined on all mankind at the beginning, a supposition which it would be difficult to prove, remoteness of origin does not necessarily imply perpetuity of continuance. A familiar example to the contrary is furnished by sacrifice; which, although divinely appointed immediately after the fall, was subsequently abolished, in common with all other ritual observances, at the end of the Mosaic dispensation, for the satisfactory reason mentioned by the apostle Paul, namely, that the shadow gives place to the substance, and the type to the antitype ;— "which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance [is] of Christ."-Neither can an opposite conclusion be deduced from the intrinsic nature of the seventh-day Sabbath, and the position which it occupies in the Decalogue; since, although religion itself is a matter of unchangeable obligation, the allotment of particular times and seasons for its more special exercise,

if commanded at all, must evidently be not a moral but a positive precept, liable, like all others of the same class, to be altered or repealed at the pleasure of the legislator; and, supposing the Christian Sabbath to be of Divine appointment, its very substitution for the original one would be a palpable proof and confirmation of the principle here asserted.

It is, moreover, no inconsiderable error to confound, as is too often done, the Decalogue with the moral law. The latter is universal and eternal, and exists spontaneously wherever its subjects are found. The former presents a limited and arbitrary character, and was comparatively of late origin. The Christian covenant was introduced at the fall; and when, after its restoration from the deluge, the human race fell a second time into depravity and idolatry, it pleased God to renew that covenant with Abraham; through whom, had they been welldisposed, all mankind might, like himself, have shared its blessings. The Decalogue was the basis of a distinct and national covenant, made more than four hundred years afterwards, through Moses, with the people of Israel, and exhibits throughout a special relation to their peculiar circumstances; particularly, their recent deliverance from Egyptian slavery, and approaching settlement in the land of Canaan. Thus, it commences with the declaration of their Divine protector, -"I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."-The command to honour parents is supported by a promise of temporal prosperity in Palestine;— "that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee;"—and the law of the Sabbath is enforced by similar and appropriate considerations Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day ;"—and, in a final admonition on the same subject, the peculiarities of the Jewish, or seventh-day Sabbath, are stated with equal perspicuity-" The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh he rested, and was refreshed."-Exodus xx. 1, 2; xxxi. 16, 17; Deut. v. 15, 16; Nehem. ix, 13, 14; Ezek. xx. 10-12, &c.

"What then"-asks the apostle Paul-[was] "the law?"-and promptly replies:-" It was instituted on account of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator :"*—and, accord

* This version of Galat. iii. 19, is founded on the improved text of Griesbach and Scholz.—“ Τί, οὖν, ὁ νόμος; Τῶν παραβάσεων χάριν ἐτέθη, ἄχρις οὗ ἔλθῃ τὸ σπέρμα ᾧ ἐπήγγελται, διαταγεὶς δὲ ἀγγέλων ἐν χειρὶ μεσίτου.

ingly, after the lapse of many ages, the Mosaic covenant was superseded by the Gospel, since which, Christians have no concern with the former dispensation, or its basis, any further than they coincide with the new covenant, or beyond the general interest which must always attach to a Divine institution, even after its termination. But a limited and provisional code, which has a beginning and an end, and contains a positive and mutable precept, is not to be confounded with the universal moral law, which is the necessary and eternal obligation of all rational and accountable beings to respect the relations which they bear to all other beings, including the Creator. This fundamental law is suggested by the works of nature and Providence, as well as by revelation; and, having been originally inscribed by God himself on the human heart, has never been entirely obliterated." For, when the Gentiles"-says their great apostle-"who have not a law, do by nature the things contained in the law, they, [although] without a law, are a law to themselves, and show the work of the law written in their hearts;❞—so that, as he alleges in another place, their defection from God was inexcusable; and hence sin-"which is not imputed when there is no law,"-together with its natural consequence,-— "death, reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression;"—that is, had not sinned by the violation of any positive precept. A much more complete expression of the moral law than the Decalogue, is that quoted by Christ from another part of the Mosaic writings ::-"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, . . . and thy neighbour as thyself;"-when he emphatically remarked,-"On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."-On the contrary, in his sermon on the mountain he amended several of the Decalogue precepts, and inculcated higher principles of action :-"Ye have heard that it was said to the ancients, "Thou shalt not murder ;' . . . but I say to you, Love your enemies," &c :-and Paul, in like manner, substitutes for the Mosaic prohibitions, the Christian law of love:"He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law;" for this,-"Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not murder; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet :'-" and, if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'-Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."-Of the new covenant, conformity to the moral law, under whatever mode or form of expression, is not the basis, but the consummation. The Christian is reconciled to God, not by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ. Regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he imitates as a beloved child the character of his heavenly Father, and labours to attain that holiness without which no one shall see the Lord; but of that holiness, his

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friendship with God is, not the effect, but the cause; not the end, but the means. Matt. v. 21, 22, 27, 28, 43, 44, &c.; xxii. 34-40; Mark xii. 28-31; Romans i. 18-21; ii. 14, 15; v. 12-14; xiii. 8-10.

Of this dispensation the seventh-day Sabbath forms no part. By Jewish Christians in the apostolical times it was doubtless observed, as before noticed, until, by the final destruction of Jerusalem and the temple they were released from their national covenant.* Its subsequent observance by unconverted Jews, like all their other compliances with an obsolete institution, is gratuitous and unavailing. During his ministry on earth, Christ repeatedly declared that he was—“lord even of the Sabbath-day ;"-evidently meaning that he had authority to repeal it. With the exception of the passage now under discussion, and which is to the same effect, the preceptive parts of the New Testament, however copious and minute on other points, are totally silent on this. As partial expositions of the moral law, the other commandments of the Decalogue are sometimes quoted, and usually amplified, but the fourth is never even mentioned. The very name of the Sabbath never occurs except in this passage, which intimated to the Jewish Christian that it was a shadow of good things to come, and to the Gentile that he was exempt from its authority. The only other text which refers to it is in the epistle to the Hebrews, iv. 1-11; where, by the same apostle, it is significantly termed, "the seventh day;" and, like the land of Canaan, is shown to be merely a type of that heavenly rest, or eternal felicity, which the Gospel insures :-" for the law was given by Moses, but the grace and the truth came by Jesus Christ."-John i. 17.

That, whilst the ancient Sabbath is thus by Divine authority abrogated, no other Sabbath has by the same authority been substituted in its place, was the conviction, not only of Calvin, as noticed by Philonomos, but also of Luther, and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation, as well as of a large number of learned and pious men, both before and since their time; and such is the decision of the New Testament itself, the only legitimate code of Christianity. Two or three passages in this volume seem to intimate, that during the apostolical age, Gentile churches were accustomed to assemble for social worship on the first day of the week; which, in reference, no doubt, to the resurrection of

* Besides several other intimations in the New Testament, this fact is implied by Christ's directions to his Hebrew disciples, in reference to their escape from the awful judgments about to fall on the guilty nation :-"Pray that your flight may not be in the winter, neither on a Sabbath-day."-Matt. xxiv. 20. The latter clause, peculiar to Matthew's gospel, concurs with other internal evidences to prove that this gospel was addressed chiefly, and in the first instance, to converted Jews. See also, Acts xiii. 14, 42, 44; xv. 21; xvi. 13; xvii. 2; xviii. 4.

Christ on that day, obtained at an early period the appellation of "the Lord's-day." Thus, in Acts xx. 7, it is stated that, "on the first day of the week," Paul preached to a company of disciples at Troas, who had come together to break bread, that is, to celebrate the Lord's supper; and, in Revelations i. 9, 10, John relates that, on a certain occasion, during his captivity in the Isle of Patmos, he was in the Spirit on "the Lord's-day." The testimony of the apostolical fathers, as far as they are entitled to credit, is of similar import. Thus Barnabas, chap. xiii. 9, 10, after quoting from Isaiah i. 13, the passage,— "Your new moons, and your Sabbaths, I cannot bear them;"— observes,-"Consider what he means by it. The Sabbaths, says he, which ye now keep, are not acceptable unto me; but those which I have made, when resting from all things I shall begin the eighth day, that is, the beginning of the other world. 10. For which cause we observe the eighth day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead; and, having manifested himself to his disciples, ascended into heaven." In his Epistle to the Magnesians, iii. 1—6, Ignatius likewise affirms, but in manifest opposition to the fact, that the ancient prophets substituted the first day of the week for the seventh, and thereupon remarks,-3. "Wherefore, if they who were brought up in these ancient laws came nevertheless to the newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbaths, but keeping the Lord's-day, in which also our life is sprung up by him, and through his death, which yet some deny.... 5. How shall we be able to live different from him, whose disciples the very prophets themselves being, did, by the Spirit, expect him as their master?"-Worthless as these statements may be considered, as comments on Scripture, they are interesting and useful, as evidences of fact; since, having been written not long after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the abolition of Judaism, the former addressed to Jewish, and the latter to Gentile Christians, they concur in showing that, subsequently to that event, although probably not before, both classes agreed in meeting for public worship on the first day of the week, properly termed the Lord's-day.† This practice is still more distinctly described by Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century, as thus quoted by Dr. Bennett, in his excellent Lectures on the Theology of the Early Christian Church.-"On the day of the sun we all make a common assembly, since it is the first day in which God

* On this, the only distinct occasion of the kind mentioned in the New Testament, the apostle and his Christian friends appear to have no otherwise observed the day, than by meeting together in the evening, for social worship and edification, in an upper chamber.

+ Hone's Apocryphal New Testament, 8vo. London. 1821. pp. 138, 151.

The Italian is one of the few languages which assigns to the first and last days of the week their appropriate names, calling the former-Domenica-the Lord's-day; and the latter-Sabbato-the (Jewish) Sabbath.