So far is it from being true, then, that the first day has been
universally called the Sabbath among Christians, that even now, by the
best authorities upon such subjects, it is not called Sabbath at all.
The Records of England up to the present time invariably call the
_seventh_ day the Sabbath. In the Journals of the House of Lords,
whatever is entered as having been done on the seventh day, or
Saturday, is under the date, _Die Sabbati_, upon the Sabbath day. The
same is true of the House of Commons. The Rules and Records of the
King's Bench, and the Latin Records in the Court of Exchequer and in
Chancery, do likewise call the seventh day the Sabbath. These things
may be known by any who will take the trouble to examine; and they
show how groundless and erroneous is the supposition to which we are
replying. Indeed, in many languages the seventh day is called by a
name which indicates its sabbatic character. In Low Dutch it is called
_rust-dagh_, the day of rest. In English, French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, it has its right name, _the
Sabbath_, the day of rest.
Now let us look at some of the _consequences_ of calling the first day
by the name of the Sabbath. It has given occasion for Papists to
charge Protestants with neglecting the Scriptures to follow their
traditions. The Papists claim, that the change of the Sabbath is the
work of their own church, and that the Scriptures nowhere warrant the
keeping of the first day, much less the calling it by the name of the
Sabbath. Who will deny this latter position? Again, it has led some
earnest and pious men to charge the teachers of religion with
"befooling and misleading the people." Proof of this may be found to
any extent in books writted on the subject in the seventeenth century.
The charge is there distinctly and frequently made, of designedly
using deceptive arguments.
We will not undertake to say, that those who are accustomed to speak
in a manner so likely to deceive, design to do that. But we will say,
that such would be the natural effect of their language. It would
leave upon the minds of many an impression, that they were not only
bound to pay peculiar respect to the first day of the week, but that
the fourth commandment required of them such respect. For a religious
teacher knowingly to make this impression, is to be guilty of directly
fostering error. Nay, more; if he should call the first day the
Sabbath, and refer to the fourth commandment as inculcating the duty
of observing that day; or should, without direct reference to that
law, express himself in such a way as to leave his hearers to suppose
that it required the observance of the first day, he would be wanting
in faithfulness to the truth, and exposed to the denunciation of those
who add to or take from it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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