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mation or proceed to action . We do not object to designating the first day of the week the Christian Sabbath , provided every body is made to know what the expression means . They should know that it is not the language of Scripture ; that no Sabbath was instituted by Jesus Christ ; that the Jewish Sabbatical law was never binding upon Gentile converts ; that no
transfer was ever made , by divine authority , of the enactments and sanctions of that law from the seventh day of the week to the first ; that the first day of the week is called in Scripture the Lord ' s-day , because on it the Lord Jesus rose from the dead ; that the primitive observance of it was simply a voluntary meeting of believers , most probably only in the evening , after the toils of the day , from which they had no legal means and no divine command to exonerate themselves , were over ; that cessation from labour through
the day is on every account , temporal and spiritual , a most desirable object ; that moral utility is the basis of our obligation to make the Lord ' s-day a day of holy rest ; and that in this modified sense we may with propriety and beauty call the day our Sabbath , the Christian Sabbath . All this is evident on inspection of the New Testament ; and it is surely not too much to require of Christians that they should know a little about what they say , and whereof they affirm , when they attempt to interfere with the laws of their country and the manners of their countrymen .
So far as we can judge from his Letter , Dr . Blomfield would not dissent very vehemently from this statement , although he seems sometimes to be disposed to mystify his readers , and sometimes to be mystified himself . His Lordshi p is not a very clear theologian . An Appendix on the distinction between the appellations " Lord ' s-day and " Sabbath , " is a notable specimen of confusion , from which he who can disentangle a meaning , well deserves to have it as a worthy prize for his pains . But his Lordship may
improve if the duties of his high station will but allow him a little time to study the subject ; and then , we hope , he would fall in with the suggestion we have to offer , and which is , that churches and preachers should cease to trick the people into transgression , as they now do , by the misapplication of the fourth commandment of the Jewish Law . Christianity is not at all honoured by the decalogue being elevated as the summary of its morality . Our Lord has given us his own summary , comprehending every thing in the
love of God and of our neighbour , and by that we should abide . The decalogue is perfect as to the specific purpose for which it was announced , but it is imperfect as an exhibition of Christian duty ; and in particular the repetition of the fourth commandment , in the sense which people are led to affix to it , is a misrepresentation and an imposition . The place of that
commandment is in the annals of Jewish history , and not in the code of Christian obligations . There will always be people who perceive this legerdemain , and are disgusted by it . It is high time for pious frauds to become obsolete . We have known very little children make the discovery that the seventh day was not the first day , and that there was mystery or cajolery somewhere in this business . Let the cessation of labour , decorous conduct ,
and attention to the means of religious improvement on the Lord ' s-day , be enforced in a plain , true , and straight-forward way . That will deserve success ; which is something towards obtaining it . The common Sabbatarian declamations are very like " traps to catch consciences . " They hold forth a standard , conformity with which , in the existing state of society , is impracticable . They create guilt . The conscience is hardened with imaginary , but unavoidable offences , and so it acquires an unholy strength to bear the sense of voluntary and real trans-
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Sunday in London . 393
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VOL . IV . 2 F
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 393, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/33/
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