that the lawfulness, or unlawfulness, of keeping certain festivals and national holy-days, and not their obligations to sanctify the Christian Sabbath, was the subject in, debate among the Christians at Rome. "The strong," and more perfect among them, had completely disentangled themselves from all prejudices in favour of these days: the day on which their Lord rose from the dead was alone sacred in their estimation, and binding on their conscience; all else were common, and their observance optional. But "the weak," whilst they, with the whole church, kept this day sacred, were, on various accounts, unable to divest themselves of a reverence for certain other days. They dreaded lest they should fall under malignant influences, or forfeit some desired benefit, if they did not somehow honour them. That these were the days to which the Apostle alludes, is evident from his placing them on a level with the meats and drinks" of Gentile, or, at best, of Jewish, worship; as well as from the liberty he allows to both parties, in respect of both subjects. On these unimportant points the church was divided; and he sought a union, on the principle of mutual forbearance. His judgment, on the one hand, was, that as "the weak" kept the day to the Lord, and not to the idol, nor with a Judaizing intent, it ought not to be reckoned sin by their stronger and better-informed brethren, though they thus turned an ancient festival to spiritual profit: and, on the other haud, he taught, that those who kept none of these days, but spent them in the common avocations of life, thinking it dangerous to trifle with the figments of superstition, were wholly blameless; seeing the keeping of such days formed no part of the discipline of the church, or of the obedience they owed to Christ, their only Lord and Master. Such was the decision of the Apostle; and, admitting the matters in debate to have been nonessential, it was oracular. But had the keeping of the Sabbath been the question litigated, such a decision would have implied a flagrant com promise of principle; and, therefore, we may confidently assert, no such latitude would have been allowed the dissentient parties. No! the day on which the Sabbath was held had been changed, but the law which enjoined the festival itself was still in force, and could not be set aside, either by the freaks of superstition, or the innovations of presumption. Prompt, undeviating obedience was alike the duty of the weak and the strong, the Pastors and the people. Neither Peter nor Paul had, or ever pretended to have, the dispensing power since claimed and exercised by the head of mystical Babylon. No! they felt, and meekly confessed, that they, as well as the meanest member in the church, were "under the law to Christ." Therefore, "what the Apostle hath written concerning Jewish holy-days, in this passage, cannot be extended to the Sabbath instituted at the creation, nor to the Christian Sabbath." * The text on which the greatest stress has been laid, by those who desire to weaken the moral obligation of our Sabbath, is Col. ii. 16: "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." The rites and festivals referred to in this passage are obviously Jewish; for none of the pagan ceremonies were shadows of Christian privileges; and there is nothing, either in the text or context, which can in fairness be construed into an argument against the Christian Sabbath; for it is impossible that it should have been a shadow of itself. To understand the passage aright, it must be recollected, that the Colossians, as Christians, regarded the whole Jewish ceremonial as abrogated; and that they kept the first day of the week, as their Sabbath, in harmony with all the sister churches. The Jews resident among them were incensed at this: they maintained, that the ceremonial law was still in force, that Christianity * Dr. Macknight. was a corruption of the religion of their fathers; that unless the Christians were circumcised, they could not be saved; that the seventh was the true Sabbath-day; and that to change the day, was to nullify the ordinance. To induce, and, if possible, to force, the Christians to adopt these opinions, and to mingle Mosaic ceremonies with their simple and evangelical worship, the Jewish Doctors threatened, flattered, dogmatized, and endeavoured to usurp dominion over them, as if they had been lords of their consciences, arbiters of their fate, and their superiors in everything. This arrogance the Apostle justly resented and strongly condemned. To finish the controversy respecting legal observances, and put these proud boasters to silence, he describes the whole of that knowledge which was opposed to the knowledge of Christ, as vain and deceitful philosophy, which had no authority but uncertain tradition, and which, in its character, harmonized with the mercenary maxims and spirit of the world. He represents Christ not only as superior to all human teachers, but as being "the Head of all principality and power; as baving "in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" and "the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily." He declares that the Colossians were "complete in Him;" and, consequently, needed neither to have recourse to angels, nor to the law of Moses, nor to the Greek philosophers, for precepts to guide them, ordinances to edify them, or merit to justify them. After asserting, that they possessed that inward "circumcision" which the circumcision in the flesh typified,-even a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, he states, that the Lord Jesus has blotted out "the hand-writing of" ceremonial "ordinances" which was against them, barring them out of the covenant; and that he had nailed it to his cross, as a covenant that had been cancelled. Having established these premises, he adds, "Let no man therefore judge you," &c.: as if he had said, "You live under VOL. XXI. Third Series. the highest and purest dispensation of grace; for the rites and festivals of the former dispensation were only shadows of the blessings you enjoy in virtue of your union with the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus has annulled these shadowy ordinances, by his cross, and has sanctified all the bounties of Providence for your use; so that no creature of God is now to be refused, but received with thanksgiving. As, therefore, He who is Lord of all has made you free, 'let no man judge you,' or bring you into bondage, in respect of meat, or drink, or an holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath-days, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body'-the church, whose more spiritual ordinances and higher privileges they prefigured-' is of Christ.' Some commentators, we are aware, understand by " Sabbathdays," in this text, Jewish feasts; but as "holy-days, new moons, and Sabbath-days" are separately specified, we cannot doubt that the seventh-day Sabbath is intended; and that the Apostle included it for the express purpose of informing the church, that it was only a shadow of our more glorious Sabbath, as ours is of the heavenly; and that, as far as the day on which it was held, and the Jewish restrictions with which it was encumbered, were concerned, it was abrogated, with the other Jewish festivals, and the ceremonial restrictions in meats and drinks. It may, therefore, be affirmed, that these passages, instead of militating against the moral obligation of the Christian Sabbath, strongly corroborate it. That the Apostle and first Christians kept the first day of the week, as a day for public worship, is certain; and, therefore, the cautions he addressed to the churches, against the observation of all other holy-days, can be understood in no other light, than as guards thrown around the Lord's day, and as implied injunctions that they should keep it as a sacred day. The Sabbath is essentially a weekly ordinance, and both its typical and commemorative designs forbade that MARCH, 1842. it should be duplicated. The Jewish church was cut off, and it expired, when the nation rejected the Lord's Anointed, and refused to come to the marriage supper; and, since that time, their worship, no less than the curses they imprecate on the head of Christ, bespeak their unbelief, and indicate their excommunicate state. They are still an interesting people; but they are no longer a church; and, therefore, their Sabbath cannot be the Sabbath of the Lord. The church is now essentially Christian; and God could no more have sanctioned two Sabbaths in his one church, than he could have created two suns in the solar system; because his wisdom is as incapable of producing confusion, by means of redundancy, as it is of sacrificing order, by overlooking essential defect. Contradictions cannot proceed from Him; and, therefore, in his saving economy, the type gives place to the antitype, the shadow to the substance, the wonders of creation to the brighter glories of redemption; and the Christian church, with its first-day Sabbath, takes the place of the Jewish church, and its seventh-day Sabbath. To assume, that the change of the Sabbath was made without divine authority, is, in effect, to affirm, First, That though the Lord Jesus, "through the Holy Ghost, gave commandments unto the Apostles whom he had chosen, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to his kingdom;" he, nevertheless, failed to make them acquainted with his will, and to give them a correct impression respecting his design. Secondly, That though, in addition to his personal instructions, he gave them the Holy Ghost, to guide them into all truth, and to bring all things to their remembrance, whatsoever he had said unto them; they, nevertheless, forgot what he had said, departed from the truth, and led the churches into errors which implied a violation of the law, and a flagrant corruption of the worship of God. Thirdly, That though the churches generally adopted this sacrilegious innovation, the Lord Jesus (who punished the Corinthians with divers diseases, and sundry kinds of death, for profaning his supper) not only did not punish or reprove them, but he met in the midst of them, answered their prayers, wrought miracles by their hands, and converted myriads of idolaters to his faith and worship, through their instrumentality. These absurd and impious conclusions are clearly involved in the assumption, that the Sabbath was changed without the concurrence and sanction of our Lord; but as darkness cannot proceed from the sun, so neither can folly flow from the Fountain of wisdom, nor impiety from Him who is glorious in holiness. True Christians, in all ages, have testified, that the Lord's day has been to them, above other days, what the year of jubilee was to the Jews among other years. And we, in unison with them, attest, that our brightest views of truth, our richest baptisms of grace, and our most transporting foretastes of heaven, are identified, in our recollection, with its sacred hours and ordinances. Nearly all the sound conversions which have taken place in the world, have been begun, or consummated, on this day. There is no ordinance in the church, which God more uniformly guards by the sanctions of his providence, and honours with the blessings of his grace, than this. Those who keep it holy are blessed in their basket, and in their store; their souls prosper, and are in health; and their children are, for the most part, found walking in the truth: whereas those who secularize it, or who turn it into a day of pastime, put their gains into a bag with holes; they seek rest, but they find none; their spiritual interests languish, if they are not entirely neglected; and their children, with few exceptions, forsake the worship and ways of the living God. The judicial records of our country evidence, that, in a multitude of instances, the desecration of the Lord's day has been the first step to apostasy, to bankruptcy, to banishment, and to ignominious death. Jews, Socinians, and such of the Quakers and Baptists as account it common, are left, by the great Head of the church, "Like Gideon's fleece, Unwater'd still and dry;" while on those communities and congregations who sanctify it, as the "holy of the Lord, and honourable," the dews of sovereign grace are pre "Fall plenteous from the sky." Unless, therefore, we pared to maintain, that the Spirit of prophecy lied, that our Lord erred, that his Apostles and the primitive Christians misunderstood his instructions, and misinterpreted his example; that the redemption of our race was a less glorious event than the creation of our world; that the Son is not entitled to equal honour with the Father; that the demonstration of his Headship in the church, was a point of no im. portance ;-and unless we can sup pose, further, that the eternal God PETER M'OWAN. AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, "WHAT IS PUSEYISM?" Ir is to say, "anathema to the tion, reverence, love, and gratitude." principle of Protestantism; (Pal-(Tracts for the Times.") mer's "Letter to Golightly;") to "depart, more and more, from the principles of the English Reformation;" ("British Critic" for July, 1841;) to "sigh to think that we should be separate from Rome; ("Tracts for the Times; ") to "desire the restoration of unity with the Church of Rome;" (Palmer's "Letter;") to regard "Rome as our mother, through whom we were born to Christ." ("Tracts for the Times.") It is to denounce the Church of England as being "in bondage, as working in chains, and as teaching with the stammering lips of ambiguons formularies; " ("Tracts for the Times;") it is to eulogize the Church of Rome as giving "free scope to the feelings of awe, mystery, tenderness, reverence, and devotedness;" (Newman's "Letter to Jelf;") and as having high "gifts, and strong claims on our admira It is to declare, that " It is to assert, that "Scripture is things pertaining to God," are members of the church of Christ. (Linwood's "Sermons.") It is to teach, that "baptism, and not faith, is the primary instrument of justification;" (Newman on Justification;) and that "the prevailing notion of bringing forward the doctrine of the atonement, explicitly and prominently, on all occasions, is evidently quite opposed to the teaching of Scripture." ("Tracts for the Times.") It is to assert, that in the Lord's supper Christ is " present, under the form of bread and wine; (Linwood's "Sermons ;") that He is "then personally and bodily with us;" ("Tracts for the Times;") and that the Clergy are "intrusted with the awful and mysterious gift of making the bread and wine Christ's body and blood." ("Tracts for the Times.") prayers for the dead; ("Tracts for the Times;") to make a "distinction between venial and mortal sins;" ("Tracts for the Times; ") and to assert, that a person may believe there is a purgatory; that relics may be venerated; that saints may be invoked; that there are seven sacraments; that the mass is an offering for the quick and dead, for the remission of sins; and that he may yet, with a good conscience, subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. ("Tracts for the Times," No. 90.) It is to put the visible church in the place of Christ, by teaching, that "she alone is that true hiding-place into which the servants of God may flee for refuge, and be safe;” (Linwood's "Sermons; ") it is to put the sacraments in the place of God, by declaring that they are THE SOURCES of divine grace." ("Tracts It is to maintain the lawfulness of for the Times.")-Record. POPERY IN NEW-ZEALAND. (To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.) I was at a native village a few days since, and saw a large picture, presented by a Romanist to a native Chief, which represented a tree, describing the origin of the Romish Church. One part of the picture contained the names of the supporters, Popes, Fathers, &c., from the commencement. Another part described the excision of branches which had become Protestant; shown as falling into the bottomless pit, where thousands appeared tormented by infernal beings, &c. Above the tree was purgatory, with its inhabitants; and, above that, heaven, the residence of the blessed, where the Virgin Mary sat most conspicuously, surrounded by Popes and Bishops in their pontificals. There were also statements of various orders belonging to the Church, Kings who had reigned under the Popes, &c., in French and Latin. This picture was presented by the Roman Catholic Bishop to Taonui, one of the leading Chiefs of Hokianga, who has since attached himself to the Methodists, and has been baptized in the Protestant faith. The agents of the Pope in this land are Frenchmen. Twelve Priests arrived the other day, who were taken by the Bishop to some of the islands in the Pacific. Every effort is made to bring the aborigines of this country, and of the islands in general, into the pale of their Church. The enlightened part of the people, however, I hope, are not in immediate danger of being deluded by representations such as I have described; and as the Scriptures are extensively circulated, the errors of that wretched system are exposed, and the NewZealanders are becoming acquainted with them. WILLIAM WOON. Wesleyan Mission-Station, |