Reformed Covenanter blog posts on the Sabbath

The post for this Sabbath is George Swinnock on natural and biblical grounds for Sabbath observance.

P.S. Has anyone come across a portrait of George Swinnock?
Daniel,

Thank you for being persistent in putting up these pieces. Often I arise and read what you posted as a tool to help focus my mind on the Lord’s Day before secret worship. Please keep it up and know that at least one ruffian is blessed by it.:detective:

P.S. I also usually send it out in a group text with some other men who I walk through life with.
 
The post for this Lord's Day is Henry Smith on the labourer’s Sabbath-rest.

In my experience, I have found some atheists and even Marxists receptive to the practical benefits of Sabbath observance when explained in these terms. Sadly, Bourgeoise Evangelicals do not seem to understand that by frequenting businesses on the Lord's Day, they are participating in the oppression of the proletariat, who are being denied their right to a weekly day of rest.
 
The post for this Lord's Day is Henry Smith on the labourer’s Sabbath-rest.

In my experience, I have found some atheists and even Marxists receptive to the practical benefits of Sabbath observance when explained in these terms. Sadly, Bourgeoise Evangelicals do not seem to understand that by frequenting businesses on the Lord's Day, they are participating in the oppression of the proletariat, who are being denied their right to a weekly day of rest.

I remember a blog article about a pastor who was convicted on this matter. He went out to a restaurant after the morning service. He said to the waitress, "I'm so sorry you need to be working today," To which she replied, "Then who would serve your food?" It all fell in perspective for the pastor at that moment, and he no longer went out to eat after service.
 
While the post for today is aimed primarily at divinity students, it does have some challenging practical applications to Christians in general:

While we would most earnestly inculcate upon you the most conscientious diligence and the most unremitting perseverance in the prosecution of your studies, on the ground of the extent of the field you have to traverse, we would at the same time recommend to you to devote to your professional studies only six days of the week, and to devote the Lord’s day to exercises bearing upon objects common to you with ordinary private Christians, and connected with your own personal growth in righteousness and holiness. ...

For the rest of the extract, see William Cunningham on divinity students and the Lord’s Day.
 
The observation "no sabbath no religion" is a common one in Sabbath literature. I wonder if it originates with Bayly (1612), though I think I've read his work is derivative of another, maybe Dodd and Cleaver? But give the sheer number of editions of Bayly it would have maybe been the seed for many similar statements?
 
The observation "no sabbath no religion" is a common one in Sabbath literature. I wonder if it originates with Bayly (1612), though I think I've read his work is derivative of another, maybe Dodd and Cleaver? But give the sheer number of editions of Bayly it would have maybe been the seed for many similar statements?

I am not entirely sure who first coined the sentiment, though Lewis Bayly and the others that you mention seem like leading candidates. Of course, even if Bayly did not coin the phrase, he may have been the one most instrumental in popularizing it.
 
While I know that Richard Baxter is not a safe-guide on some issues, today's post for the Lord's Day from him is really good and asks #FourthCommandmentDeniers some very hard questions. Some who deny our duty to observe the Christian Sabbath say pious things like "every day is the Lord's Day", but, as Baxter notes, "Satan’s way of drawing men from Christ’s laws, is sometimes by pretending to do more and better."

For the full quotation, see Richard Baxter: Is every day a Sabbath?
 
I have been promoting a lot of Robert Leighton's material of late, so it makes sense that the post for this Lord's Day comes from him:

... But the main reason of this Remember, is, the main thing or aim in this Precept, as both the badge, and the preserver and increaser of all piety and religion. And therefore is it, that it is so often pressed in the books of the Law, and in the sermons of the Prophets to the people of God, and so often called a sign of God’s covenant with them, and their mark of distinction from all other people. ...

For more, see Robert Leighton on remembering the Sabbath.
 
And if there be yet one day in seven holier than others,—if the Sabbath, and that alone, is a time sacred to God, that ordinance of holiness had neither its birth nor its kindred with the ceremonial holy days of an outward economy. It had a higher origin and a loftier character; it was the resting time of God, when He finished His mighty work of creation, long before the Jewish dispensation was appointed; and, holier still, it was the resting time of Christ when He rose from His work of toil and blood, and entered into His rest when that dispensation was abrogated. ...

For more, see James Bannerman on the Christian Sabbath as the only New Testament holy day.
 
The post for this Lord's Day comes from a great English systematic theologian, who, as far as I am aware, was not a minister:

... To sanctify it] or keep it holy, that is, to employ the day in holy duties of God’s immediate worship, to sanctify it, to set it a part to holy uses and purposes. So two things are required, 1. The remembrance of the time, which is a serious preconsideration to prepare for it. 2. A careful celebration, consisting in resting and sanctifying it, for a bare rest is not enough, but such a rest as tendeth to and endeth in the sanctifying of it. ...

For more, see Edward Leigh on sanctifying the Sabbath.
 
The post for this Lord's Day comes from a great English systematic theologian, who, as far as I am aware, was not a minister:

... To sanctify it] or keep it holy, that is, to employ the day in holy duties of God’s immediate worship, to sanctify it, to set it a part to holy uses and purposes. So two things are required, 1. The remembrance of the time, which is a serious preconsideration to prepare for it. 2. A careful celebration, consisting in resting and sanctifying it, for a bare rest is not enough, but such a rest as tendeth to and endeth in the sanctifying of it. ...

For more, see Edward Leigh on sanctifying the Sabbath.
Another good one. Thank you so much for sharing these every week. Very edifying.
 
The post for this Lord's Day comes from a debutant to my blog; Nathan L. Rice reminds us of the importance of the Sabbath to the fight between light and darkness:

... One of the most important of these points is the question respecting the divine authority of the Sabbath, both as a religious and civil institution. The estimate put upon the question by both the friends and the enemies of religion and morals, is indicated by the persevering earnestness with which the controversy has been carried on. ...

For more, see Nathan L. Rice on the importance of the Sabbath to the battle between truth and error.
 
Back
Top