N13259:590
Sermons, on the following subjects
Sermons, on the following subjects; The manner in which salvation is to be sought. The unreasonableness of indetermination in religion. Unbelievers contemn the glory of Christ. The folly of looking back in fleeing out of Sodom. The warnings of Scripture in the best manner adapted to the awakening and conversion of sinners. Hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer. The future punishment of the wicked unavoidable and intolerable. The eternity of hell-torments. The peace which Christ gives his true followers. The perpetuity & change of the Sabbath. / By the late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New-Jersey.
Hartford: printed by Hudson and Goodwin, 1780
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
THAT this is the doctrine which the Holy Ghost intended to teach us, by this and from other passages of the new testament, I hope will appear plainly by the sequel. This is a doctrine that we have been generally brought up in by the instructions and examples of our ancestors; and it is and has been the general profession of the christian world, that this day ought to be religiously observed and distinguished from other days of the week. However some deny it. Some refuse to take any notice of the day, or any way to difference it from other days. Others own that it is a laudable custom of the christian church, into which she fell by agreement, and by appointment of her ordinary rulers, to set apart this day for public worship. But they deny any other original to such an observation of the day, than prudential human appointment.—Others religiously observe the Jewish sabbath, suppose that the institution of that is of perpetual obligation, and that we ⟨p. 225⟩want foundation for determining that that is abrogated, and another day of the week is appointed in the room of the seventh.
ALL these classes of men say, that there is no clear, revelation that it is the mind and will of GOD, that the first day of the week should be observed as a day to be set apart for religious exercises, in the room of the ancient sabbath; which there ought to be, in order to the observation of it by the christian church, as a divine institution. They say, that we ought not to go upon the tradition of past ages, or upon uncertain and far fetched inferences from some passages of the history of the new testament, or upon some obscure and uncertain hints in the apostles writings; but that we ought to expect a plain institution; which they say, we may conclude GOD would have give us, if he had designed that the whole christian church, in all ages, should observe another day of the week for an holy sabbath, than that which was appointed of old, by plain and positive institution.
ALL these classes of men say, that there is no clear, revelation that it is the mind and will of GOD, that the first day of the week should be observed as a day to be set apart for religious exercises, in the room of the antient sabbath; which there ought to be, in order to the observation of it by the christian church, as a divine institution. They say, that we ought not to go upon the tradition of past ages, or upon uncertain and far fetched inferences from some passages of the history of the new testament, or upon some obscure and uncertain hints in the apostles writings; but that we ought to expect a plain institution; which they say, we may conclude GOD would have give us, if he had designed that the whole christian church, in all ages, should observe another day of the week for an holy sabbath, than that which was appointed of old, by plain and positive institution.