The Seventh Day Sabbath | Page 8

misunderstanding about the kind of
Sabbaths, they say, "If the people bring ware or any victuals on the

Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath or
on the holy day," (31v.) but they would "charge themselves yearly with
a third part of a shekel" (to pay for) "the burnt offerings of the Sabbaths,
of the new moons, for the set feasts," &c. (33v.) for the house of God,
including what has already been set forth in Leviticus and Numbers.
Now as their feast days commenced and ended with a Sabbath, so when
their feasts ceased to be binding on them these Sabbaths must also, and
all were "nailed to the cross." Now I ask if there is one particle of proof
that the Sabbath of the Lord is included in these Sabbaths and feast
days? Who then dare join them together or contradict the Most High
God, and call HIS the Jewish Sabbath. Theirs was nailed to the cross
when Jesus died, while the Lord's is an everlasting sign a perpetual
covenant. The Jews, as a nation, broke their covenant. Jesus and his
disciples were one week (the last of the seventy) that is seven years,
confirming the new covenant for another people, the Gentiles. Now I
ask if this changing the subjects from Jew to Gentile made void the
commandments and law of God, or in other words, abolished the fourth
commandment; if so, the other nine are not binding. It cannot be that
God ever intended to mislead his subjects. Let us illustrate this.
Suppose that the Congress of these United States in their present
emergency, should promulgate two separate codes of laws, one to be
perpetual, the other temporary, to be abolished when peace was
proclaimed between this country and Mexico. The time comes, the
temporary laws are abolished; but strange to hear, a large portion of the
people are now insisting upon it that because peace is proclaimed that
both [15]these codes of laws are forever abolished; while another class
are strenuously insisting that it is only the fourth law in the perpetual
code that's now abolished, with the temporary and all the rest is still
binding. Opposed to all these is a third class, headed by the ministers
and scribes of the nation, who are writing and preaching from Maine to
Florida, insisting upon it without fear of contradiction, that when peace
was proclaimed this fourth law in the perpetual code was to change its
date to another day; gradually, (while some of them say immediately)
and thenceforward become perpetual, and the other code abolished; and
yet not one of these are able to show from the proceedings of Congress
that the least alteration had ever been made in the perpetual code. Thus,
to me, the case stands clear that neither of the laws or ten

commandments in the first code, ever has or ever can be annulled or
changed while mortality is stamped on man, for the very reason that
God's moral law has no limitation. Jesus then brought in a new
covenant, which continued the Sabbath by writing his law upon their
hearts. Paul says "written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living
God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." 2 Cor. iii:
3. And when writing to the Romans he shews how the Gentiles are a
law unto themselves. He says, they "shew the work of the law written
in their hearts, their consciences always bearing them witness, and their
thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another," (when
will this be Paul) "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." ii: 15, 16. How plain that this
is all the change. The Jews by nature had the law given them on tables
of stone, while the Gentiles had the law of commandments written on
their hearts. Paul tells the Ephesians that it was "the law of
commandments contained in ordinances," (ii: 15) not on tables that
were nailed to the cross. If the ten commandments, first written by the
finger of God on stone, and then at the second covenant on fleshy
tables of the heart, are shadows, can any one tell where we shall find
the substance? We are answered, in Christ. Well, hear Isaiah. He says,
"that he (Christ) will magnify the law and make it honorable." lxii: 21.
Again, I ask, where was the necessity and of what use were the ten
commandments written on our hearts, if it was not to render perfect
obedience to them. If we do not keep the day God has sanctified, then
[16]we break not the least, but one of the greatest of his
commandments.