100 THE LÓRb'5-DAY. 4. When the apostles by divine appointment had abolished all the Jewish sabbaths, and all those ceremonies and peculiar austerities which belonged to the observation of the seventh day in the Jewish state ; Gal. iv. 9-11. and Col. ii. 16, 17. yet " they still practised the observation of one day in seven, even the first day of the week, for christian worship ; and they taught it to the churches" It was on the first day when the disciples met together with the doors shut for fear of the Jews, that the Saviour arose and appeared to them more than once ; John xx.. 19-23. and 26-30. It was on this day that pentecost fell out on that year, when. the Spirit was pdured down upon the disci- ples, as learned men assure us by their calculations, and then were three thousand converted at Peter's sermon ; Acts ii. 1 -4, 41. It was on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread at Troas, and Paul preached to them ; Acts xx. 7. It is c,, this clay that St. Paul gives orders for a col- lection for the saints, or at least that every one should then lay by him in 'store for this purpose, in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. This game order hé gave also to the churchesof Galatia. Thus the collec- tion for the poor, which was made in the Jewish synagogues on thesabbath, seems to be transferred to the first day of the week amongChristians: Let it be further added, that the religious appointment and observation of the first day of the week was so universal and so well known, that it acquired a honourable title in early times, andwas called the Lord's-day ; Rev. i. 10. even as the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine was called the Lord's -supper, both having a reference to the appointment and honour of our blessed Saviour ; 1 Cor. xi. 20-23. This practice also was . continued by all those who professed the christian religion in the primitive times. And they were known and distinguished from the heathens as well as from the Jews by this particular character of observing the Lord's-day. 1f we take all these things toge- ther, they giveus a great deal of reason to infer, that our bles- sed Saviour himself appointed the celebration of this day, and gave the apostles notice of it among the rest of those things which he taught them in the forty days after his re surrection, when he appeared to them, conversed with them, and instructed them in things that pertained to the kingdom of God, or the institution or support of his visible church ; Acts i. 3. 5. as Consider thereasonableness and the necessity of such an appointment in order tokeep up religion in the world, as well as to give rest to the animal bodies of men and beasts. This is another proof of the morality or perpetuity of it. The seasons of worship which men would have chosen, and even of natural,
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