THE PERPETUITY OF A SEVENTH-DAY ORDINANCE ACCORDANT WITH SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY AND THE BY RICHARD BALL, Author of "Holy Scripture the Test of Truth," "The Millenarian Inquirer," "The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath."-Mark ii. 28. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: JUDD AND GLASS, NEW BRIDGE STREET, AND EDINBURGH: JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER; OLIPHANT AND SON; GLASGOW: DAVID BRYCE; GEORGE GALLIE; J. R. M'NAIR. 1857. 101. d. 18. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN publishing a second edition of this little work, its title has been exchanged for one more simple, and at the same time more expressive. The one object in view has been to prove from Scripture the perpetuity of a seventh-day ordinance, originating in the divine appointment in Eden, incorporated into the Mosaic polity, and continued under the gospel dispensation as the combined commemoration of God's glory in creation, and as the weekly memorial of Christ's resurrection, on the first day of the week, as the Head of the New Creation of God; and therefore most fitly thenceforth designated The Lord's Day. It is a cause for thankfulness that this little effort has been the means, under the divine blessing, of settling the minds of many who before stood in doubt as to the Scripture authority for the perpetuity of the septimal ordinance. PREFACE. "Non est interpretatio, sed divinatio quæ recedit a litera: cum rece ditura litera, judex transit in legislatorem."-Bacon. "What saith the Scripture?" "As knowledges are now delivered, there is a kind of contrast of error between the deliverer and the receiver: for he that delivereth knowledge desireth to deliver it in such form as may be best believed, and not as may be best examined; and he that receiveth knowledge, desireth rather present satisfaction than expectant inquiry: and so rather not to doubt than not to err; glory making the author not to lay open his weakness, and sloth making the author not to know his strength."-Lord Bacon's Adv. of Lvarning, p. 53. We live in an age when the mind of man is putting forth unwonted energy, when nothing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, escapes its inquiring scrutiny. Accumulated facts have exploded time-honoured theories. The object kept steadily in view in the pursuit of science and philosophy is not what it once was, to establish some new hypothesis, but to develop proveable truth for application to practical uses: and as nothing material has escaped this keen scrutiny, so the abstract and spiritual have been equally subjected to the same searching processes. The oracles of God have, in like manner, passed through ordeals to an extent before unattempted and unimagined. The crumbling memorials of antiquity-the dim, mysterious records of the earliest ages-the frame-work, and the very bowels of the inorganic earth, have been explored and ransacked by friendly and unfriendly hands; the acutest philologists the world ever saw have taxed their powers to the uttermost in the investigation of the sacred text; and all, willingly or unwillingly, have conspired to confirm the faith of the intelligent Christian, and to confute the cavils of the keenest sceptic; so that the more we come to know of |