THE PERPETUITY AND CHANGE OF THE SABBATH.
1 COR. xvi. 1, 2.
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
IT is the mind and will of God, that the first day of the week should be especially set apart among Christians for religious exercises and duties.
On this doctrine I have already discoursed, under two propositions, showing, first, That it is the will of God. that one day of the week be, in all ages, set apart for religious duties; and secondly, That under the gospel, this flay ought to be the first day of the week. I now proceed to the
APPLICATION.
This shall be in a use of exhortation.
1. Let us be thankful for the institution of the Christian sabbath. It is a thing wherein God hath shown his mercy to us, and his care for our souls. He shows, that he, by his infinite wisdom, is contriving for our good, as Christ teaches us, that the sabbath was made for man; Mark ii. 27. “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” It was made for the profit and for the comfort of our souls.
The sabbath is a day of rest: God hath appointed that we should, every seventh day, rest from all our worldly labours. Instead of that, he might have appointed the hardest labours for us to go through, some severe hardships for us to endure. It is a day of outward, but especially of spiritual, rest. It is a day appointed of God, that his people thereon may find rest unto their souls; that the souls of believers may rest and be refreshed in their Saviour. It is a day of rejoicing: God made it to be a joyful day to the church; Ps. cxviii. 24. ” This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” They that aright receive and improve the sabbath, call it a delight and honourable: it is a pleasant and a joyful day to them; it is an image of the future heavenly rest of the church. Heb. iv. 9, 10, 11. “There remaineth therefore a rest” (or sabbatism, as it is in the original) “to the people of God. For he that hath entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.”
The Christian sabbath is one of the most precious enjoyments of the visible church. Christ showed his love to his church in instituting it; and it becomes the christian church to be thankful to her Lord for it. The very name of this day, the Lord’s day, or Jesus’s day, should endear it to Christians, as it intimates the special relation it has to Christ, and also the design of it, which is the commemoration of our dear Saviour, and his love to his church in redeeming it.
2. Be exhorted to keep this day holy. God hath given such evidences that this is his mind, that he will surely require it of you, if you do not strictly and conscientiously observe it. And if you do thus observe it, you may have this comfort in the reflection upon your conduct, that you have not been superstitious in it, but have done as God hath revealed it to be his mind and will in his word, that you should do; and that in so doing you are in the way of God’s acceptance and reward.
Here let me lay before you the following motives to excite you to this duty.
(1.) By a strict observation of the sabbath, the name of God is honoured, and that in such a way as is very acceptable to him. Isa. lviii. 13. “If thou call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and shalt honour him.” God is honoured by it, as it is a visible manifestation of respect to God’s holy law, and a reverencing of that which has a peculiar relation to God himself, and that more in some respects than the observance of many other commands. And man may be just, and generous, and yet not so plainly show respect to the revealed mind and will of God, for many of the heathen have been so. But if a person, with evident strictness and care, observe the sabbath, it is a visible manifestation of a conscientious regard to God’s declaration of his mind, and so is a visible honour done to his authority.
By a strict observance of the sabbath, the face of religion is kept up in the world. If it were not for the sabbath, there would be but little public and visible appearance of serving, worshipping, and reverencing the supreme and invisible Being. The sabbath seems to have been appointed very much for this end, viz. to uphold the visibility of religion in public, or among professing societies of men; and by how much greater the strictness is with which the sabbath is observed, and with how much more solemnity the duties of it are observed among a people; by so much the greater is the manifestation among them of respect to the Divine Being.