ays, "We readily admit, that if what is
called the decalogue or ten commandments be binding on us, _we ought_ to
observe the seventh day, for that was appointed by the Lord as the
Sabbath day." Let us see if Jesus and his apostles do not make it
binding. _First then, the distinction of the two codes by Jesus._

The Pharisees ask the Saviour why his disciples transgress the tradition
of the elders? His answer is, "Why do ye transgress the commandment of
God?" and he immediately cites them to the fifth commandment, Matt. xv:
4. Again, "the law and the prophets were until John; since that time the
kingdom of God is preached," &c.--Luke xvi: 16. Jesus was three years
after this introducing the gospel of the kingdom, unwaveringly holding
his meetings on the Sabbath days, (which our opponents say were now
about to be abolished; others say changed,) and never uttering a
syllable to show to the contrary, but this was and always would be the
holy day for worship. Mark says when the Sabbath (the Seventh day, for
there was no other,) was come, he began to teach in the Synagogue, vi:
[22]2. Luke says, "as his _custom_ was, he went into the Synagogue and
taught on the Sabbath day." iv: 16, 31. Will it be said of him as it is
of Paul on like occasions, some thirty years afterwards that he
uniformly held his meetings on the Sabbath because he had no where else
to preach, or that this day was the only one in the week in which the
people would come out to hear him? Every bible reader knows better;
witness the five thousand and the seven thousand, and the multitude that
thronged him in the streets, in the cities and towns where they listened
to him; besides, he was now establishing a new dispensation, while
theirs was passing away. Then he did not follow any of their customs or
rites or ceremonies which he had come to abolish.

I have already quoted Matt. 5: 17, 18, where Jesus said he had come to
fulfil the law, and immediately begins by showing them that they are not
to violate one of the least of the commandments, and cites them to
some--see v: 19, 21, 27, 33. Again, he is tauntingly asked "which is the
great commandment in the law: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. This is the _first_ and great commandment. And the second is like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets." xxii: 36,