50. Q. What other reason is there of the Lord’s day’s beginning in the morning?
A. Christ then rose. Mar. 16. 2, 9.
Of Christ’s rising in the morning no question can be made, all the Evangelists agree in the narration thereof. Now the Lord’s day being a memorial of Christ’s Resurrection, if it should begin in the evening, the memorial would be before the thing it self: which is absurd to imagine. As all God’s works were finished before the first Sabbath, so all Christ’s sufferings before the Lord’s day. His lying dead in the grave was a part of his suffering: therefore by his Resurrection was all ended. With his Resurrection therefore must the Lord’s day begin.
To make the evening before the Lord’s day a time of preparation thereunto, is a point of piety and prudence: but to make it a part of the Lord’s day is erroneous, and in many respects very inconvenient.
William Gouge, The Sabbath’s sanctification (London, 1641), pp 25-6.
originally posted at Reformed Covenanter as part 3 of a series on when the Sabbath begins (part 1, part 2).
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