miniftry of the apoftles, went on periodically according to the above fettled order. 1 Corinthians 16. 12. According to the firft of fabbaths, lay by you, fays the apoftle. Having difcourfed largely of the refurrection of Chrift and ours, and the. matter of our victory and triumph therein, he exhorts them to abound in the work of the Lord, and proceeds to give directions relating to one special branch of that work, that is, to make a store, or treasure for the faints. This treasure was to be gathered by a weekly collection, made upon the fabbath-day, wherein each is directed to contribute in proportion to his fuccefs in business in the preceding week.

It is but natural to infer, that there would be a difficulty in fettling the day on which it was to be done. The jews, of whom there were many in every church, would be certain to have a veneration for their own national fabbath, which they knew to be of a divine original; and would be prejudiced against the first day of the week, because it was the pagan fabbath, on which they worshipped the fun. This doubtlefs had created difficulties on other occafions, and would do the

fame on this. Therefore the apoftle, with his apoftolic authority interpofes, and authoritatively appoints the day, on which it was to be done. Says he, let it be done upon the fabbath which comes on by a calculation according to the first of fabbaths. Let your week be numbered, not according to the jewish fabbath, but let your working days be measured and reckoned according to the first of fabbaths. Work, and endeavor to get for fix days, and then keep a fabbath on the seventh; but let it not be on the jewish feventh, but let it be the first of fabbaths; the day of the refurrection, of which I have been largely difcourfing, and expofing the abfurdity of the errors that prevail among you concerning it. I told you above, that we were upon the refurrection-day of Chrift, delivered from the guilt of fin, the condemnation of the law, the fling of death, and the power of the grave; and, received the most affured pledge and proof of our immortality. Therefore to perpetuate the memory of the refurrection, and confequently the redemption, and to strengthen you against errors concerning it, let the day on which it was finished be your fabbath. For as the week and fabbath were formerly calculated, to be a ftanding witness

againft

against idolatry, and errors relating to the creation of the world, fo now muft the week and fabbath be a ftanding witness for the redemption of the fame world, which was finished on the first day of the week. Work then all the week for fix days, then reft, and hold a fabbath on the first day, and make this collection on that day, when you are gathered together for the purposes of divine worship. For this is what I do ordain in all other churches.

The apostle therefore in this place, finks the credit, destroys the authority of the day of the jewish fabbath, and turns it over into a working day, and fets up the first day of the week in the room of it as the only fabbath.

And he had many reafons for fo doing; one was, that the jewish fabbath, yea, all their

fabbaths, are, in a certain mystical sense, reckoned to have come over into the chriftian fabbath along with the dawn of the refurrection morning. So it is expreffed in Matthew 28. 1. The evening, or end of fabbaths, dawning into the first morning of fabbaths. Here it appears that the evening

preceding the refurrection, was the evening, or end of fome preceding fabbath, and that that morning, was the first, or beginning of fome fucceeding ones. It is impoffible to doubt whether the foregoing were the jewish, nor can we be at a lofs to know that by the fucceeding, we are to understand the chriftian; because, there were no others to be fet in oppofition to each other.

us,

It is here then further afferted, that the end, or evening of the foregoing fabbaths, dawned itfelf into the morning, or first of the fucceeding. This is not spoken according to the real ftate of things, but according to what appears to which is the moft eligible way. According to this common mode of speaking, it is here reckoned that the end, or twilight of the foregoing jewish fabbath, winged itself away from the western, to the eastern horizon, and came over into the MIA of the new fabbaths, and along with it, all the fabbaths with which it was connected.

The evening of the fabbath which preceded the refurrection, was the OPSE, or, as the word

fignifies,

fignifies, the utmoft edge and extremity, not of that fabbath only, but of fabbaths, in a general and indefinite fense: all former fabbaths, fabbatical years, jubilees, and primitive holy days, came over, with all their attendant authority, and landed in the east that morning, and were involved and comprehended, in one folemn day, fet up in the front of the week, to be the unalterable fabbath of christianity. The lighting up of that morning then, was the dawn of the new world, the reduction of all the primitive fabbaths of the world, and their paffing over out of their first fituation, into the ΜΙΑ of the new creation.

Confequently the ancient fabbaths are not loft, but removed out of their first places, and as it were reduced, contracted, and comprehended, within the limits of one high and great day, which alone must be called, and honored as a fabbath.

Here then we may fee, not only the reality, but the authority, pre-eminence, and fublimity of the chriftian fabbath. Chrift had upon that morning all things in the universe brought down under