Sabbath (21)
When the Lord's Day is at an end, we should long for the Sabbath in heaven, which will never have an end.
Thomas Vincent
Shorter Catechism Explained2.3K
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, Vol. 1, Ed. A. Cleveland Coxe (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 186.
There are none that walk so close with God all the six days, as those that keep closest to God on the seventh day.
It is good to rest on the Sabbath-day from the works of our calling; but if we rest from labour and do no more, the ox and the ass keep the Sabbath as well as we; for they rest from labour. We must dedicate the day to God; we must not only 'keep a Sabbath,' but 'sanctify' a Sabbath.Ten Commandments, 100
Sabbath rest is not the post-eschaton Sabbath celebrated in heaven, nor the rest that believers experience in death, but a present rest enjoyed by those who believe (4:3), anticipating a greater future "rest" (4:11). Human Sabbath keeping is a metaphor for cessation from works (4:10) in commemoration of God's rest at creation (4:4=Gen. 2:2) and of salvation provided by Christ. The physical Sabbath rest that God's people enjoy reflects the inner spiritual rest, which is a deposit of the final eschatological rest proleptically experienced "today" (4:7)For the Glory of God (280)
the Sabbath is hallowed so long as on that day we do things similar to those God did on that day and which he commands men to do.Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 21
the Sabbath-day is lost, polluted, and desecrated when our eyes are distracted from the Sabbath (Ezek 22:26) and we do things on that day which we are forbidden, and we omit what we ought to do (Matt 12:2[,11,12]).Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 21
The wording for this commandment is unique. For one is not given a simple command, "Hallow the Sabbath" (as in the others), but the following warning precedes it: "Remember the Sabbath-day, that you keep it holy." This shows that the matter is of a sort that can fade easily into oblivion (because it is not engraved into our nature); therefore, we must cultivate it constantly in our memories, and we should not make light of it but guard it very carefully.Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 21
One day in seven should be especially devoted to corporate worship and other spiritual exercises that restore the soul's rest in God and zeal for His name. It should provide physical refreshment and fit one for a week of devoted service to Christ.https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/a-baptist-catechism
the fourth commandment is a moral law which still applies to believers today. Its careful observance is no more legalism than is obedience to the other nine.The Christian Sabbath, 5
his grandfather's generation referred to Sunday as the 'holy Sabbath,' his father's to the 'Sabbath,' and his to 'Sunday.' Today we think of it as the back half of the 'weekend.' This may be the commandment most visibly ignored and overtly violated by professed Bible-believing Christians today.The Christian Sabbath, 5
New Quotes
As it is the law of nature, that in general a proportion of time, by God's appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so by his Word, in a positive moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all ages, he has particularly appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy unto him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's Day: and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished.London Baptist Confession 1689
Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for "he that does not work, let him not eat." For say the [holy] oracles, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread." But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the dayshttps://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-magnesians-longer.html
Every church, according to the example of Christ's disciples and primitive churches, on every first day of the week (being the Lord's day), should assemble together to pray, prophesy [preach sermons based on Scripture], praise God, break bread, and perform all other parts of spiritual communion for the worship of God, their own mutual edification, the preservation of true religion, and piety in the church.
alas! in many places, there is no day in the week, wherein the devil has been more served in revellings, drunkenness, and all manner of ungodliness, then on that Day. We have been so far from esteeming it a delight, that no day has been a greater burden to us, accounting the work of that day most irksome, and the time most tedious.A Glimpse of God\'s Glory
we have brought God as low in his Day, as in any of the former: though it be a Day of commemoration of one of the greatest mercies; a Day of special communion with God in his Ordinances; a sign between God and his people; a type of our eternal rest in heaven; a Day of God's own institution; yet how in many places of this kingdom has it been profaned? We have been so far from calling it Honourable, that we have made it Ordinary; a Day of sports, pasttimes and recreations; we have done our own works, and spoke our own words;A Glimpse of God\'s Glory
Some argue for the normativeness of the "Ten Commands" as a guide for Christian behavior, but then remove the Sabbath ordinance as an exception, claiming this to be part of the ceremonial law that ended in Christ. However, this approach is indefensible. (1) The seventh-day Sabbath ordinance is embedded in the Decalogue as a fundamental principle of covenant relationship, along with the prohibition of any other gods, of murder, and so on. One may not treat it differently from the rest. (2) According to the Exodus version of the Decalogue, the six-plus-one weekly rhythm is fundamental to the cosmic order. Exodus 20:11 grounds the human practice in the pattern of divine creative work. (3) In its origin the Sabbath is separated from Israel's ceremonial laws. In fact, Israelites were observing it as a matter of course before they got to Sinai (Ex. 16). (4) The Sabbath command is not primarily a cultic ordinance. In intent and character it was both humanitarian (a gift offering people rest and refreshment from life-sustaining labor) and theological—offering Israelites an opportunity to declare their fundamentally theological perspective on life (God is Creator of all), their confidence in him to provide for the seventh day, their acceptance of covenant relationship, their gratitude for salvation from slavery, and their compassion for the poor. (5) Nowhere does the New Testament declare the seventh-day Sabbath passé in Christ.
Sabbath-sanctification consists in two things: (1) Solemn preparation for it... (2) The sacred observation of it.Ten Commandments, 100-101
Works of necessity and charity however may be done on this day. In these cases God will have mercy and not sacrifice.Ten Commandments, 100
It is sacrilege to rob for civil work the time which God has set apart for his worship. He that devotes any time of the Sabbath to worldly business, is a worse thief than he who robs on the highway; for the one does but rob man, but the other robs God.Ten Commandments, 99
The grand reason for changing the Jewish Sabbath to the Lord's-day is that it puts us in mind of the 'Mystery of our redemption by Christ.' The reason why God instituted the old Sabbath was to be a memorial of the creation; but he has now brought the first day of the week in its room in memory of a more glorious work than creation, which is redemption.Ten Commandments, 96
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