We read, indeed, nothing more of the Sabbath, till the coming up of the Israelites out of Egypt; but it will not follow that no Sabbath was observed by good people. We have but one instance of sacrifice being offered before the flood:* yet, we can hardly suppose, bad as the world was, that the worship of God was neglected by every individual, during that whole period.

That the memory of the creation should be preserved, was absolutely necessary, if it was necessary to preserve the knowledge and worship of the Creator: And, to do this, nothing seems so proper as some public monument or memorial of that event. A local monument or memorial would not have answered the purpose; for when the world came to be peopled, the greater part of men would have been out of the reach of its influence. But, to set apart every seventh day for this express reason, because on the seventh day God ceased from the works of creation; and to require all men, on that day, to cease from their worldly labour and business; and to employ themselves in celebrating the worship of the Creator, in contemplating his works, and imploring his protection, seems, of all others, the most effectual means to preserve the knowledge of the Creator, and the memory of the creation in the world. It is a monument that would go with the human race into all countries, and would equally affect the whole world. To suppose that this was not done, but that God only gave intimation of his design to establish such an institution at some future period, is to suppose that God did not take the most proper care to perpetuate the memory of the creation, and the knowledge and worship of himself, the Creator, in the world; but left points of such vast importance to the bare chance of oral tradition.

The creation of the world was an event of as much importance to mankind, as the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt was to them, and deserved, at least, an equal commemoration. We ought, therefore, to understand Moses as declaring a plain matter of fact, when he Genesis iv, 3. &c.

.

says, 'On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and rested from all his work which he had made-that God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.'

From the text it appears that the Sabbath is an institution which concerns all mankind. All men are the creatures of God, and therefore obliged to acknowledge and worship the Creator. Of course, christians are included in the obligation, as much as any other people for the appointment being universal, none can be exempt from it the reason of it will hold to the end of the world; so long, therefore, the obligation to regard the appointment will continue. The only question that can arise, with regard to christians, is concerning the day. Are they obliged to observe the seventh day from the creation? I answer, They know not which it is, nor can they know it. The spirit of the command seems to be, that a seventh part of our time be appropriated to God our Creator, who made all things in six days, and on the seventh ceased from his work of creation; and, therefore, set apart the seventh day to holy purposes; that is, after six days spent in worldly business, we are to cease from it on the seventh, and appropriate that day to the purposes of religion---to the worship of our Creator. More than this cannot well be supposed to be implied in the seventh day : for it does not appear that the seventh day, as a part of time, would be the same in all parts of the world, because the beginning of every day, and of course, of the seventh, must be eighteen hours later in some parts of the world, than in Eden or Palestine, or wherever we suppose the Sabbath to have begun; that is, the Sabbath would of necessity begin eighteen hours later in some places than it did in Eden. As, therefore, the original institution of the Sabbath respects all mankind, and the Sabbath cannot begin in all parts of the world at the same point of time, it must follow that the original intention was, that, after six days spent in worldly business, the seventh should be a day of rest, and devoted to the wor

ship of the Creator, in token that HE, who made the world, was their God.

It will not follow from hence, that all men jointly, or any part of them, have a right to determine which day of the seven shall be the Sabbath. The appointment being by divine authority, the precise day, as well as the portion of time, must depend on the same authority; that is, as God appointed one day in seven to be, set apart for holy purposes, so that day must be observed which he appointed, and no other.

At the first institution there could be no difficulty about the day. God having employed six days in the creation, ceased to produce any more creatures; the seventh day he blessed and sanctified. That seventh day was the first Sabbath, and every subsequent seventh day would be a Sabbath-day, until God should please to change it for some other.

That the day was changed by the express direction of God, upon the exit of the Israelites out of Egypt, though it may not admit of demonstrative proof, is highly probable. In the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, we have the history of the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and of the pursuit and destruction of the Egyptians. There it is said, Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians."* Some of the best expositors suppose that this day, on which God saved Israel by the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, was afterwards appointed for their Sabbath.† The opinion is grounded on the following circumstances :

In Deuteronomy, where the decalogue is repeated, on occasion of the Israelites entering into covenant with God, in the land of Moab, the creation is not mentioned as the reason why they should keep their Sabbath; but their servitude in Egypt, and their deliverance from it: Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence,

Verse 30.

Particularly the celebrated Mr. Joseph Mede, in his Seimon on Ezekiel xx 20; and bishop Patrick, in his Commentary.

through a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm: there fore, the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day; that is, to keep that day for their Sabbath, on which they were fully delivered from the bondage of Egypt; the day on which the Lord saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians; otherwise, there seems no congruity in making their servitude in Egypt, and their deliverance from it, a reason for their keeping the Sabbath.

It is, indeed, possible that the seventh day, in order from the creation, may have been the day on which the Israelites experienced that great deliverance at the Red Sea; and so both reasons for keeping the Sabbath, the creation, and their deliverance from Egypt, may have coincided; but, there are some circumstances which make this improbable.

In the sixteenth of Exodus, we have an account of the miracle of the manna, with which God supplied the Israelites, during their sojourning in the wilderness. On the fifteenth day of the second month after they came out of Egypt, they marched from Elim to Sin † Having expended the dough or meal which they brought with them, their hunger and fatigue made them impatient. They repined at having left the plenty of Egypt, and murmured against Moses and Aaron, accusing them with a design to famish and kill them in the wilderness. God promised Moses' to rain bread from heaven for them ;' and directed that they should gather a certain quantity every day... as much as would serve them for that day, and no more--that he might prove them, whether they would trust in his power for their daily bread; but that on the sixth day they should gather and prepare a double quantity---enough to last them two days; because, as it afterward appears, the next day was to be their Sabbath, on which no manna would fall. As the manna was not to fall till the next morning, that evening God sent them quails for a present

*Deut. v. 15.

They came out of Egypt the fifteenth of the first month; the fifteenth of the second month was, therefore, one complete month after they left Egypt.

supply of food; afterwards, they were to depend on the manna only, for we read not that the quails were continued. The next morning,* the manna appeared, and the people gathered a certain quantity, and continued to do so for five days. On the sixth day+ they gathered a double quantity. The overseers of the people, supposing it would putrify, as it had done when some inconsiderate persons had attempted to keep it to the second day, came and told Moses, who replied, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord, ye shall not find it in the field.'

Now, if the twenty-second was a Sabbath, in ordinary course, the fifteenth would have been a Sabbath also; but on the fifteenth they had marched from Elim to Sin; the fifteenth, therefore, was no Sabbath; and therefore the Sabbath day was at this time changed; and why it should be changed, no good reason can be assigned, but the one before alledged from Deuteronomy, namely, that it was done in commemoration of their deliverance from Egypt, which was completed by their passage through the Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptians.

Besides, had the twenty-second day of the month been a Sabbath in course, no good reason can be assigned why 'the rulers of the congregation' should come and tell Moses that the people, on the twenty-first, were gathering a double quantity; for God had told Mosess that on the sixth day (supposing that to mean the sixth day of the week, as the week then was) they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily'...a circumstance of which we cannot suppose Moses neglected to inform them, as it was necessary to regulate their conduct, so as to make it comport with the will and command of God.

This transaction was previous to the giving of the law, and proves that the Israelites did observe a Sabbath before the law was given; but that they had kept it in the time of their slavery in Egypt, while they were un

*The morning of the sixteenth day of the month. ty-first. # Vscs 23, 24, 25, 26. VOL. I. X

§ Verse 5.

Viz on the twen