Having, as we think, clearly shown, by way of introduction, that the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, and the first five verses of the fourteenth chapter are one connected chain of past, present and future events, beginning with the Papacy, and reaching into the future, to the complete redemption of the 144,000, when they shall stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, we will now notice another chain of events, symbolized by a series of angels proclaiming messages. This chain begins with the sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter, where the former chain ends.
In this chapter six angels are introduced, five of them having sayings or cries. The messages of the first three angels are directed to those living on the earth. And as literal angels are not sent to preach the gospel to the inhabitants of this world, we must conclude that these angels and their messages are symbols, representing three distinct messages of Bible truth to be proclaimed by God’s called and chosen servants. That John in vision saw literal angels in heaven, and heard their voices, is evident; but the fulfillment of the prophecy must certainly be on earth, where the messages were needed to bring out, and to perfect the church of Christ, preparatory to his second coming. The fact that the position of the Son of man upon the great white cloud, with his most kingly crown and sharp sickle, ready to reap the harvest of the earth, is the next link in this prophetic chain, is strong evidence that these three proclamations relate to the Second Advent, and that they immediately precede it.
These three angels are the same in character, though their messages differ, and each symbolize a distinct proclamation to be given by God’s servants in this mortal state, prior to the Second Advent.
These angels follow each other. It is expressly stated in reference to the second angel, "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Also, of the third it is said, "And the third angel followed them." The first angel delivers the burden of his message and then gives place to the second who follows. The second gives his important message, and gives place to the third, who finishes his work and retires from the field before the "Son of man" is seen on the great white cloud with his sickle, ready to reap the harvest of the earth.
All classes of Advent believers have been ready to admit that the first of these three angels symbolized the proclamation of the second coming of Christ and the judgment, that has been given, especially in this country, and has called out a people who profess to be looking for Christ. As this view, which has been so universally adopted, is the only consistant view that can be taken of this subject, we feel in duty bound to adhere to it. But when this view of the first angel is taken, we are naturally led to look for two other distinct messages to be given to the people of God, in fulfillment of the sayings of the second and third angels. Those who admit that the message of the first angel has been given, to be consistent, should not teach that it lasts to the coming of the Lord; for in so doing they give no place for the two that follow. To say that the second and third messages are to be given after Christ comes, is too gross an absurdity to be advanced by any one. Then, if the first message is to last unto the coming of Christ, two important links of this prophetic chain are taken out and laid aside.
To say that these three messages are to be given at the same time, is as absurd as to teach that the seven angels of Revelation all sound at once. "Order is heaven’s first law." But what perfect confusion would be caused in the church of Christ, if the messages of these three angels, so unlike each other, should be proclaimed with loud voices at the same period of time!
We do not say that the "everlasting gospel" has ceased to have effect upon all, for some are now embracing the doctrine of the speedy coming of the Lord, who have not been identified with the Advent people in the past movements. But that the burden of the message of the first angel is in the past, let the facts in the case testify. We have only to compare the present state of the Advent cause with the past, say from 1840 to 1844, to see that the special flight and proclamation of the first angel is in the past. Neither do we say that the message of the second angel, setting forth the fallen state of the various sects, with the call to leave them, cannot now be obeyed by those honest children of the Lord who find themselves bound by sectarian creeds. But when we compare the wonderful movement under the second angel in 1844, when the entire Advent body, with very few exceptions, came away from the several churches, with what has been done since that time in this respect, we shall not fail to see that the burden of the second angel is in the past, and that its place was prior to our great disappointment in 1844. The following from the "Voice of Truth Extra," in Dec. 1844, relative to the first two angels of Rev. xiv, expresses the faith of the Advent body at that time, with very few exceptions.
"We are doubtless near that auspicious hour when the harvest of the earth will be reaped, as described in Rev. xiv, 14-16. The history of God's people in this mortal state, as given in that chapter, before being glorified, is nearly complete. The everlasting gospel, as described in verses 6 and 7, has been preached unto every nation, kindred, tongue and people; saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. No case can be more clearly demonstrated with facts than that this message has been borne to every nation and tongue under heaven, within a few past years, in the preaching of the coming of Christ in '43 or near at hand. Through the medium of lectures and publications, the sound has gone into all the earth, and the word unto the ends of the world.
"The fall of Babylon, as described in verse 8, has been proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the land. The spiritual death, and the deep corruption of the churches which constitute Babylon, together with her own often repeated lamentations, and acknowledgments, and the fact that God’s people have actually come out of her, prove beyond all contradiction that this message has been given and had its effect. This work is done. This angel has flown. Babylon, the nominal church, is fallen. God’s people have come out of her. She is now the 'synagogue of Satan.' Rev. iii, 9. 'The habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and cage of every unclean and hateful bird.' Rev. xviii, 2."
Those who are giving the warning message of the third angel have followed down the simple chain of prophecy contained in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. While the first message was being given, our eyes were holden that we did not see the second, and so in relation to the third, while the second was being given. Now we see the third message as clearly as we saw the former ones. In fact, we are able to define our position with much more clearness than ever before, for this reason, we can now see the several links of the prophetic chain contained in this chapter.
To avoid the natural and reasonable conclusion that the third message is to be given, and that we are now entering the time of the angel's loud voice, efforts are being made to show that the Advent people have been entirely mistaken in their application of the first and second angels of this prophetic chain.
Henry Jones, in an article in the "Advent Harbinger," labored to show that the three angels of Rev. xiv, 6-12, would be heard after Christ was seen coming in the clouds of heaven. We are of the opinion that he will have to enjoy this view alone, or nearly so, for certainly but few, if any, can be found who will adopt a view so absurd. Really, we should think it would be too late to dispatch three angels, with each a different message, "to preach unto them that dwell on the earth," after Christ is seen coming in the clouds of heaven.
On the other hand, C. Stowe, in an article published in the "Advent Herald," labors hard to remove the bounds, and carry the messages of the three angels back to the 12th, 14th and 16th centuries, to the days of Waldo, Wickliffe and Luther. But as the history produced does not at all fit the prophecy, we think the view nearly as absurd as that which places the three messages after Christ is seen coming.
We will here give extracts from a "Tract on Prophecy," published by J. V. Himes, entitled, "Our Specific Work."
"The proclamation of an everlasting gospel—'The hour of his judgment is come,'—(Rev. xiv, 6, 7.)—is the leading advent proclamation."
'The facts, summed up, are these. John, looking into the distant future—gazing upon the theatre of the final conflict, sees a messenger—a minister of an everlasting gospel, by through mid-heaven, with a special, elevated, joyous, public proclamation, requiring haste and extraordinary energy in the delivery. The proclamation contains a fact, and a command founded upon that fact. 1. The fact—'The hour of his judgment is come.' 2. The command—'Fear God,' &c. These are the elements of this special commission. The work of this symbol agent is thus clearly defined—no terms more specific."
"Does this messenger symbolize a class of teachers? Such has been the general understanding of expositors. Mr. Wesley and Dr. Benson so interpret the passage. On this point there is a great unanimity. It is plain from the fact that it is said to preach. That class of people is modern. Mr. Wesley and Dr. Benson make this messenger symbolize the Protestant reformers in the days of Luther. With their views agree a mass of expositors. This commission, however, cannot be Luther’s."
"That body must exist everywhere, and, in its character and in the nature of its work, it must agree with the symbol messenger. They must agree as face to face in a mirror. Can such a body be found? The proclamation above stated has been heard. The world can bear testimony to this. The cry, 'The hour of his judgment is come,' sounded through all Christendom. The multitudes heard, and scoffed, or trembled. By what body of believers was this proclamation made? Not by those who taught that that judgment was a thousand years in the future! No church which holds to the doctrine of a spiritual reign can be that body, as the elements of their proclamation plainly contradict those elements above stated. Such a body now existing can be found alone among those who constitute the Advent believers in Europe and America."
THE THREE ANGELS OF REV. XIV.
By John Nevins Andrews
“Take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”
An article with the above caption appeared in the “Advent Herald” a few weeks since, which it may be proper to notice. The writer attempts to show that these messages have been misapplied, and that the stumbling-block must be removed by showing that they have no application to the present time. “If the Advent preaching fulfills the first angel’s message,” says Sister Stowe, “then there remain the messages of two angels following in succession, to be fulfilled in two distinct proclamations, before the coming of Christ.” The sad effect of the view that the third angel addresses himself to us, it is said “need not be named.” As this message is the real stumbling-block which the writer wishes to remove, we think it would have been in the highest degree proper, that its evil effects should have been specified. Facts are wanted, not insinuations. This message has had the effect to cause those who would obey God, to embrace all his commandments, and to stand in the patience of the saints, without casting away their confidence, or drawing back to perdition. Rev. xiv, 12; Heb. x, 35, 36.
If, therefore, the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, be the stumbling-block which the writer wishes to remove, we think it high time that she should stop and inquire, whether she is not laying down a stumbling-block, over which some may stumble into perdition, instead of removing an obstruction, which might turn the honest-hearted out of the way. We see souls “for whom Christ died,” stumbling over the traditions of the elders, and trampling under foot the commandments of God. Would to God that Sister Stowe would aid us in removing the real stumbling-block, instead of strengthening the hands of those who are breaking the commandments of God, and teaching men so.
That they are a stumbling-block to those who reject them, we do not deny. Even Jesus was a stumbling-block to many in his day. “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor. i, 23, 24. “As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Rom. ix, 33. We are pained that the present truth should be an occasion of stumbling to any. But how the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, together with the solemn warning against the worship of the beast and his image, can be an occasion of stumbling to any but the disobedient, we cannot tell. That all whose names are not written in the book of life, shall yet worship the beast, is clear from Rev. xiii, 8. That the two-horned beast is preparing to act its part in the final work of deception and opposition in “the time of trouble, such as never was,” is evident to all who are watching “the signs of the times.” And that one of the commandments of God, at least, is being openly trampled under foot by his professed people, is also a fact. With these things before us how can we cease to utter the solemn voice of warning, “If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink the wine of the wrath of God. Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God.” That such a message is imperatively demanded everything around us testifies.
The writer affirms that there is no proof that the proclamation, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come,” has any reference to the Advent message. To this we answer: 1. It certainly is not the apostolic message. Paul reasoned before Felix of “righteousness, temperance, and21JUDGMENT TO COME.” Acts xxiv, 25. To the Athenians he declared that God “now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world.” Acts xvii, 30, 31. Then to the Thessalonians he writes, that this day of the Lord is not at hand. 2 Thess. ii. It is clear therefore that the apostles did not give this proclamation. 2. We answer further, the Advent preaching is the only message since the days of the apostles that accords with this prophecy. It has demonstrated from the great chains of prophecy, from the prophetic periods, and from the “signs of the times,” that we are in the immediate neighborhood of the judgment of the great day. There can be, therefore, but one question further to be asked, viz: The Advent proclamation, is it from heaven or of men? We ask what message can be brought out from any scenes in the past, for which such, or indeed any evidence can be offered? The objection that we could not preach the Advent as an immediate event if two other messages were to follow, is fully answered by the simple fact that our “eyes were holden” that we should not see beyond the work then present.
But an objection to the view that the second angel’s message is addressed to the present generation, is raised on the ground that the great city, Babylon, cannot be understood to include the daughters of Babylon. To this we answer that the daughters of a city are included in the city. The daughters of Jerusalem form a part of Jerusalem. Luke xxiii, 28; Lam. iii, 51. The daughters of Rabbah are a part of Rabbah. Jer. xlix, 3. The daughters of Babylon form a part of Babylon. Psalm cxxxvii; Isa. xlvii, 1; Jer. l, 52. The daughters of Mystic Babylon form a part of that great Babylon that will be thrown down, as a millstone is cast into the mighty deep. There is perfect propriety, therefore, in understanding that great Babylon embraces all corrupt Christianity, and that when she had rejected the solemn announcement, “The hour of his judgment is come,” God left her forever by his Spirit, and called on his people to come out of her. Her destruction immediately follows. See Rev. xviii.
It is urged that the first beast must be in the height of his power when the message of the third angel is delivered. The fallacy of this may be seen by comparing Rev. xiv, 9—12, with chapter xiii, 11—18. The comparison shows clearly that the third angel’s message pertains to the work of the two-horned beast. This beast acts its part after the first beast has lost its power, and received its deadly wound. It is asserted, indeed, that the beast received his deadly wound before his reign of 1260 years, instead of receiving it at its close. No evidence that a deadly wound was then given to it is presented. But that the Papal beast did receive a deadly wound at the close of its period of triumph, when the Papal government was subverted, and the Pope carried a prisoner into France, is a fact too well known to be easily set aside.
It is asked how it could be said “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,” in immediate connection with the Advent? We answer that there is to be a “time of trouble such as never was.” Dan. xii. The third angel’s message is a warning with reference to that scene. Rev. xiv, 9—12; xiii, 11—18. Habakkuk “trembled in himself that he might rest in the day of trouble.” Hab. iii, 16. Job prays “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret till thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me.” Job xiv, 13. Jeremiah exclaims, “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Jer. xxx, 7. We understand that the language of blessing is uttered in view of this awful scene. The dead were never in danger of purgatory, hence there is no propriety in “suggesting” that henceforth they need not be in fear of it!
None have claimed that the two-horned beast has yet exercised all the arbitrary power of the first beast. It is in view of what he will do that the third angel utters his voice of warning. That the predicted “wonders” of this beast are being rapidly developed we most firmly believe. The Protestant church has rejected greater light than the Catholic church was ever favored with. It remains, therefore, that greater darkness and deception come upon it. Luke xi, 34, 35; 2 Thess. ii, 9—12. The Jewish church rejected the truths of the first Advent, though based on overwhelming evidence, and as a natural consequence the “hour and power of darkness” came upon them, [Luke xxiii, 53,] and they seized the Son of God and put him to a shameful death. The Protestant church has rejected the truths of the second Advent though based on greater evidence than that which was presented to the Jewish church. The hour of temptation is coming on all those who have not kept the word of Christ’s patience. We may then expect the same bitter work of persecution. One thing is certain “the image” is something distinct from the beast. The beast and the image cannot both be applied to Papacy.
The first beast is applied to the Roman civil power. The two-horned beast is applied to the Roman hierarchy, or priesthood. To this we answer that the thirteenth chapter of Revelation gives us an account of the dragon’s act of giving power and authority to the beast. This power he was to retain forty and two months, and exercise it in oppressing and wearing out the saints of God. If this does not refer to the reign of that blasphemous power, Papacy, we know of no place where his reign is described. The Roman priesthood never yet sought (as this theory declares,) to make the world worship the civil power, but instead of that it has always sought to subject the civil power to the priesthood. The idea that an ecclesiastical body is ever termed a beast in the prophecies, will be found, if examined, to be without any foundation. Dan. vii, 17, 23.
Sister S. next proceeds to make an application of the first message. This we are told was fulfilled in the twelfth century, in the days of Peter Waldo. On what foundation this application rests we now proceed to inquire. The first angel announces that the hour of God’s judgment is come. Could it be said that the hour of God’s judgment had come in the twelfth century? No! Certainly not. The writer does not tell us how it could be. Was it nigh at hand? To answer this we will refer to the prophecies which mark the time of the judgment. The seventh chapter of Daniel, which gives the 1260 years reign of the little horn, shows that at least six centuries from the days of Waldo must elapse, before the Ancient of days should sit in judgment. The Lord Jesus told his disciples that when they should see certain signs, they might know that his coming (to judge the quick and dead) was nigh at hand. These signs were not witnessed in the twelfth century, for our Lord locates them near the close of the days of tribulation, where they actually began to occur, viz. in 1780. Matt. xxiv, 29, 30; Mark xiii, 24. Until then Jesus did not authorize the disciples to believe that the judgment was at hand. They certainly could not find evidence from the word of God, that the hour of God’s judgment had come in the twelfth century, or that it was nigh at hand, for the evidence was of a contrary character. But there is another astonishing feature of absurdity in this view. The very prophecies which determine our relative distance from the judgment, were closed up and sealed until the time of the end. That is, until about 1798. Dan. xii. Nothing can be more absurd than the view that this proclamation, “The hour of his judgment is come,” was made before the signs which were to precede it had been seen, or the prophecies which contain the evidences on the point, had been opened. To assert that this proclamation was made, before the church understood those prophecies on which it is based, or rather to suppose that it was made at a time when the prophecies contained a large amount of evidence to the contrary, is to assume that a message without any scriptural foundation, and absolutely contradicting the Bible, could be a fulfillment of this prophecy! No such proclamation, however, was made by Peter Waldo, and we ought to be slow to wrest things to make them answer a desired purpose. Nor can it be said that the hour of God’s judgment on Babylon had then come, for the writer shows that it did not reach the height of its power till near a century and a half later. The eighteenth chapter of Revelation shows that the hour of Babylon’s judgment, follows the second angel’s message, and that it is even yet future. See verses 8—10, 15—17.
The fact that the first message could not be given until the prophecies on which it is based were unsealed and understood, is conclusive proof that the second and third angels could not have given their messages centuries before that event. The entire family of Babylon now exists. The people of God at the time of the first angel’s message, were to a greater or less extent united with that great city. As the glorious truth of the speedy coming of Jesus Christ was utterly rejected by her, nothing more could be done to heal, and to save her. The people of God were then called by the second angel to flee out of her. This has left her the hold of foul spirits, and the cage of unclean and hateful birds.
As we are approaching the time of final conflict with the beast and his image, we are constrained to lift the voice of warning and sound the alarm to others. The Lord helping us we shall still strive to vindicate the commandments of God, which the beast has vainly attempted to destroy.
It is little short of downright folly, to apply these messages to the period when the church was in the wilderness, and the witnesses were clothed in sackcloth. Rev. xii, 6, 14; xi, 3. The plain reading of the messages, and their associated events, shows that they are intimately connected with the opening scenes of the day of God. When the Jews wished to evade the words of the prophets they set them far ahead. “The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of times that are far off.” Ezekiel xii, 27. In order to rid ourselves of those cutting truths by which the Lord would separate us from the world, we throw them away back in the past. Though we may thus deceive ourselves, we may rest assured that God is not mocked. We entreat our friends, and all who have an “ear to hear,” that they no longer break the commandments of God, that they may cherish the institutions of the beast. To us is addressed the voice of warning, and of instruction. “If any man worship the beast and his image, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” J. N. A.
Verse 17th. "And sent his servants at SUPPER TIME to say to them that were bidden, come, for all things are now ready." Explanation given by "Wes. Mid. Cry." "A call to supper implies a little previous notice, that guests may cease from the labors of the day, and prepare themselves.—This text has had its fulfillment in the proclamation of the coming of the Lord in or about 1843."
Verse 18th. "And they ALL with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused." "Or in other words" the Lord cannot come yet, for there are large portions of the earth yet uninhabited. "A piece of ground" in the way.
Verse 19th. "And another said I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them, I pray thee have me excused." "I have so much business on hand that I have not time to examine the subject."
Verse 20th. "And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore CANNOT COME." "It is well to be ready, but as for me, it is my business to attend to my family," &c.22
SECOND MESSAGE.
Verse 21st. "Go out QUICKLY into the STREETS and LANES of the CITY, and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind." And QUICKLY was the "Midnight Cry" sounded through the land, and even "the poor" in the "streets and lanes of the cities" heard the proclamation! But the "Marriage Supper" is yet future: and ANOTHER MESSAGE IS TO BE GIVEN.
THIRD MESSAGE.
Verse 23d. "Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that MY HOUSE may be filled." Compare with Matt. xxii, 9, 10. "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the "marriage." So those servants went into the highways and gathered all, as many as they found; and the wedding was furnished with guests." This shows that there is yet another message to be delivered by God's SERVANTS, (though not to the world in general,) which will gather the few scattered ones, and fill the House of God.—["Advent Herald" of Jan. 29, 1845.]
H. HEATH.
TWENTY REASONS
For keeping holy in each week, the Seventh day instead of the First day.
1. Because the Seventh Day was blessed and sanctified for a Sabbath, by God, immediately after the creation of the world, as a perpetual memorial of that wonderful work, and of his own resting from it; and because there is now as much need for man to remember God's creative work, and to enjoy a weekly rest, as ever there was.
2. Because there is evidence that the Seventh Day was observed from Adam to Moses. Gen. xxvi, 3—6; xxix, 27, 28.
3. Because the Seventh Day is a necessary part of the fourth commandment, given at Mount Sinai, graven on stone by the finger of God, and incorporated with the other nine precepts of the Decalogue, which are admitted to be moral in their nature, and perpetually binding. "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." "The Seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the Seventh Day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it."
4. Because the Old Testament abounds with declarations of God's blessing upon those who keep holy the Seventh Day, and of his vengeance upon those who profane it.
5. Because our Lord Jesus Christ enforced the claims of the law to the fullest extent, saying in regard to the code to which the Seventh Day belonged, "'Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled;" and because He always kept holy the Seventh Day, in this doubtless "leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps."
6. Because the holy women who had attended Jesus Christ at his death and burial, are expressly said to have "rested the SABBATH DAY according to the commandment," (Luke xxiii, 56;) and because, though the narrative proceeds immediately to record the appearance of Jesus Christ, on the morning of the first day of the week, neither there nor elsewhere is one word said about a change of the Sabbath, or about the sabbatical observance of the First Day of the week.
7. Because the Apostles of our Lord constantly kept the Seventh Day, of which there is abundant evidence in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is declared of Paul, that, "as his manner was," he went into the synagogue frequently on the Sabbath Day. (Compare Luke iv, 16 with Acts xvii, 2; see also Acts xiii, 14, 42, 44, and xvi, 13.)
8. Because Jesus Christ, foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, warned his disciples to pray that their flight might not happen "on the Sabbath Day;" and as that event was to take place almost forty years after the resurrection of our Lord, it appears that the same Sabbath was to be then observed by his disciples.
9. Because there is no other day of the week called by the name of "Sabbath," in all the Holy Scriptures, but the Seventh Day alone; and because, when "the First Day of the Week" is mentioned in the New Testament, it is always clearly distinguished from "the Sabbath."
10. Because not one of those passages which speak of the "First Day of the Week," records an event or transaction peculiar to the Sabbath.
11. Because when God had so carefully committed his Law to writing, had repeated his precepts throughout the prophetic books, and had left so many testimonies and examples of the Seventh Day Sabbath on His sacred records, it is most unreasonable to suppose that He would have repealed or changed one single article thereof, without recording it among the words of our Lord Jesus or His Apostles, in the writings of the New Testament.
12. Because the observance of the Moral Law, (without any exception from it,) is constantly enjoined in the writings of the Apostles; and one of them says that "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all," quoting at the same time the sixth and seventh commandments. (See Rom. xiii, 9; Gal. v, 14; Eph. vi, 2, 3, and James, ii, 8—11.)
13. Because the religious observance of the Seventh Day of the Week as the Sabbath, was constantly practised by the primitive Christians, for three or four hundred years at least; and because, though it gradually fell into disuse, the neglect of the Sabbath was caused only by those corruptions of Christianity, which at length grew up into the grossest idolatry, so that the second commandment was in fact, and the fourth was in effect, abolished by an ignorant, superstitious, and tyrannical priesthood.
14. Because it was only through the superstitious observance of the anniversaries of saints and martyrs, and a multitude of other fasts and feasts, with which the simplicity of revealed religion was encumbered and overwhelmed, that the sabbatical observance of the Seventh Day went out of use; and not (in fact) by any real or pretended command of Christ or His apostles, nor at first by the express authority of any Pope or Council: for it was kept as a strict fast, for ages after it lost every other token of a holy day.
15. Because the leaders of the Reformation never claimed for the First Day the name of the Sabbath, and never enforced the observance of that day by any other authority than that of the Church.
16. Because it is obviously absurd—(and it is an objection often made by irreligious people)—that the observance of the First Day of the Week as the Sabbath, should be grounded on a divine precept which commands the observance, not of the First, but of the Seventh Day.
17. Because, if the fundamental principle of Protestantism be right and true, that "the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants," then the Seventh Day must be the true and only Sabbath of Protestants; for, unless that day of the week be kept, they have no scriptural Sabbath at all.
18. Because the pertinacious observance of the First Day of the Week, in the stead of the Seventh, has actually given occasion of great scandal to the Protestant faith; it has caused the Papists to declare that Protestants admit the authority of human tradition in matters of religion; and it has led to intolerance and persecution.
19. Because the observance of the First Day, and neglect of the Seventh, having been adopted partly in contempt of the Jews, has always laid a burden upon them, and presented an obstacle to their receiving Christianity, which ought to be removed.
20. Because the observance of the Seventh Day obeys God, honors the Protestant principle, rebukes Papacy, removes stumbling-blocks, and secures for us the presence and blessing of "the Lord of the Sabbath."