it on the seventh day, to add, " and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that on it he had rested from all his work which God created and made;" although the blessing and sanctification, i, e. the religious distinction and appropriation of that day, were not actually made till many ages afterwards. The words do not assert, that God then blessed" and "sanctified" the seventh day, but that he blessed and sanctified it for that reason; and if any ask why the sabbath, or sanctification of the seventh day, was then mentioned, if it was not then appointed, the answer is at hand; the order of connexion, and not of time, introduced the mention of the sabbath, in the history of the subject which it was ordained to commemorate.

This interpretation is strongly supported by a passage in the prophet Ezekiel, where the sabbath is plainly spoken of as given, and what else can that mean, but as first instituted, in the wilderness?" WhereforeI caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt,. and brought them into the wilderness; and I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them: moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezek. xx. 10, 11, 12.

Nehemiah also recounts the promulgation of the sabbatic law amongst the transactions in the wilderness; which supplies another considerable argument in aid of our opinion: "Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire to give them light in the way wherein they should go. Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant, and gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest. forth water for them out of the rock."* Neh. ix. 12.

From the mention of the fabbath in so close a connexion with the desce of God upon Mount Sinai,and the delivery of the law from thence, one word"

If it be inquired, what duties were appointed for the Jewish sabbath, and under what penalties and in what manner it was observed amongst the ancient Jews; we find that, by the fourth commandment, a strict cessation from work was enjoined, not only upon Jews by birth, or religious profession, but upon all who resided within the limits of the Jewish state; that the same was to be permitted to their slaves and to their cattle that this rest was not to be vio

lated under pain of death: "Whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." Ex. xxxi. 15. Beside which the seventh day was to be solemnized by double sacrifices in the temple. "And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof; this is the burnt offering of every sabbath beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering." Numb. xxviii. 9, 10. Also holy convocations, which mean, we presume, assemblies for the purpose of public worship, or religious instruc tion, were directed to be held on the sabbath day; "the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, an holy convocation." Lev. xxiii. 3.

And accordingly we read, that the sabbath was in fact observed among the Jews, by a scrupulous abstinence from every thing which by any possible construction, could be deemed labour; as from dressing meat, from travelling beyond a sabbath day's journey, or about a single mile. In the Maccabean wars, they suffered a thousand of their number to be slain, rather than do any thing in their own defence on the sabbath day. In the final siege of Jerusalem, after they had so far overcome their scruples, as to defend their persons when attacked, they refused any operation on the sabbath day, by which they might have

be inclined to believe, that Nehemiah referred solely to the fourth commandment. But the fourth commandment certainly did not first make known the sabbath. And it is apparent that Nehemiah observed not the order of events, for he speaks of what passed upon Mount Sinai, before he mentions the miraculous supplies of bread and water, though the Jews did not arrive at Mount Sinai, till some time after both these miracles were wrought.

N N

interrupted the enemy in filling up the trench. Af ter the establishment of synagogues (of the origin of which we have no account) it was the custom to assemble in them upon the sabbath day, for the purpose of hearing the law rehearsed and explained, and for the exercise, it is probable, of public devotion. "For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day." The seventh day is Saturday; and agreeable to the Jewish way of computing the day, the sabbath held from six o'clock on the Friday evening, to six o'clock on Saturday evening.- These observations being premised, we approach the main question, Whether the command, by which the Jewish sabbath was instituted, extend to us?

If the divine command was actually delivered at the creation, it was addressed, no doubt, to the whole human species alike, and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it. If the command was published for the first time in the wilderness, then it was immediately directed to the Jewish people alone; and something farther, either in the subject, or circumstances of the command, will be necessary to show, that it was designed for any other. It is on this account, that the question concerning the date of the institution was first to be considered. The former opinion precludes all debate about the extent of the obligation: the latter admits, and, prima facie, induces a belief, that the sabbath ought to be considered as part of the peculiar law of the Jewish policy.

Which belief receives great confirmation from the following arguments :

The sabbath is described as a sign between God and the people of Israel: "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant; it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever." Exod. xxxi. 16, 17. Again, "And gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judg

I

ments, which, if a man do, he shall even live in them; moreover also I gave them my sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezek. xx. 12. Now it does not seem easy to understand how the sabbath could be a sign between God and the people of Israel, unless the observance of it was peculiar to that people, and designed to be so.

The distinction of the sabbath is, in its nature, as much a positive ceremonial institution, as that of many other seasons which were appointed by the levitical law to be kept holy, and to be observed by a strict rest; as the first and seventh days of unleavened bread; the feast of pentecost; the feast of tabernacles; and in the twenty-third chapter of Exodus the sabbath and these are recited together.

If the command by which the sabbath was instituted be binding upon Christians, it must be binding as to the day, the duties, and the penalty; in none of which it is received.

The observance of the sabbath was not one of the articles enjoined by the Apostles, in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, upon them, "which, from among the Gentiles, were turned unto God."

St. Paul evidently appears to have considered the sabbath as part of the Jewish ritual, and not obligatory upon Christians as such: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Col. ii. 16, 17.

I am aware of only two objections which can be opposed to the force of these arguments: one is, that the reason assigned in the fourth commandment for hallowing the seventh day, viz. "because God rested on the seventh day from the work of the creation," is a reason which pertains to all mankind; the other, that the command, which enjoins the observance of the sabbath, is inserted in the decalogue, of which all the other precepts and prohibitions are of moral and universal obligation.

*

Upon the first objection it may be remarked, that although in Exodus the commandment is founded upon God's rest from the creation, in Deuteronomy the commandment is repeated with a reference to a different event: "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou; and remember that thou wast a servant · in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm; therefore, the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day." It is farther observable, that God's rest from the creation is proposed, as the reason of the institution, even where the institution itself is spoken of as pecular to the Jews;" Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." The truth is, these different reasons were assigned to sccount for different circumstances in the command. If a Jew inquired, why the sev enth day was sanctified rather than the sixth or eighth, his law told him, because God rested on the seventh day from the creation. If he asked, why was the same rest indulged to slaves, his law bid him remember, that he also was a slave in the land of Egypt ; and, "that the Lord his God brought him out thence." In this view, the two reasons are perfectly compatible with each other, and with a third end of the institution, its being a sign between God and the people of Israel; but in this view they determine nothing concerning the extent of the obligation. If the reason by its proper en. rgy Lad con