Almighty Creator should designate the day which should be employed in his service. And behold the amazing condescension of God! With some view to this very thing, He was pleased to perform the work of creation in six days, and to rest on the seventh; thus setting an example to his creature man; for He not only rested on the seventh day, but sanctified it; that is, set it apart to a holy use-to be employed, not in bodily labour or converse with the world, but in the contemplation of the works and attributes of God, and in holding delightful communion with his Maker. God could have commanded the world into existence, with all its various furniture, and with all its species of living creatures, in a single moment; but for man's sake, He created the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, the light, and the air, and vegetables, and animals, in six successive days, and then ceased to work; not that the Almighty could be weary or need rest; but for the purpose of teaching man that whilst he might lawfully spend six days in worldly employments, he must rest on the seventh day. This day, from the beginning, was a holy day. As the worship of God is the highest duty of man, the first express indication of the divine will in relation to man was, that the seventh part of his time should be sacred to the service of his Creator.

The sabbath thus instituted, as the very first provision for man's religious services, was the seventh from the commencement of the work of creation; but as man was made on the sixth day, the sabbath was his first day, after he saw the light, and breathed the air of heaven. This deserves particular notice; for it may have a connexion with the change of the day of rest after the resurrection of Christ. The supposition is-and it is

not given for a clearly revealed truth-that the first day of the week, according to human computation, was the day of rest from Adam to Moses; but that then, for some special reason, the day was changed to the seventh. Afterwards, when the Mosaic economy was terminated, at the resurrection of Christ, the original day, appointed at first to be the sabbath, was restored as a matter of course. Let every one exercise his own judgment on this point: it is no article of faith; but merely a probable conjecture.

It is wonderful to find learned commentators trying to prove that no day was sanctified at the beginning; but that Moses mentions it in his history of the creation, by way of prolepsis, or anticipation. But this is an unnatural and forced construction, and invented without any cogent reason; for what absurd consequence follows the obvious meaning of the text? No: the absurdity, as far as there is one, cleaves to this hypothesis: for when the fourth commandment was proclaimed from Sinai, and written by the finger of God on one of the stone tables, the reason given for sanctifying the sabbath day is, that "in six days God made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the sabbath day, and hallowed it." If the contemplation of the work of creation was the object of setting apart this day, is it not far more reasonable to suppose that it would be observed from the very commencement of the world, than that this should commence two thousand years afterwards? The omission of any distinct mention of the sabbath during the period between Adam and Moses, furnishes no argument against the plain interpretation of Gen. ii. 2, 3; for many other things were omitted in the concise history which we have;

and institutions which are regularly observed, do not require to be mentioned. Or, if we should suppose that, in the wickedness of antediluvian times, this original appointment was neglected, and not revived until Moses, this will account for its omission in the sacred history.

If, then, the sabbath was given to man while in Paradise, it is surely in force ever since; at least, where divine revelation has been enjoyed. It is also a well-ascertained fact, that in very ancient times, the seventh day was, among the heathen, reckoned sacred. The division of the week into seven days among all ancient nations, can only be accounted for by supposing an original institution of this kind. That the days of the week were named, among the heathen, from the sun, moon, and planets, does by no means furnish a satisfactory account of the division of time into weeks of seven days. The number of persons who knew any thing of the planets was small; and they never could have had influence, from the circumstance that there were seven celestial bodies, to have introduced the division of time into weeks of seven days. The true state of the fact no doubt was, that this division was received by tradition, as a thing of this kind can be handed down through numerous ages, without the aid of written records. And when the nations turned to idolatry, their principal deities were the sun, moon, and planets; to each of which they assigned a residence, and worshipped them on stated days of the week: in consequence of which, they gave the names of their gods to those days on which they were respectively worshipped.

When the sabbath is first mentioned by Moses, after

the exodus, there is no appearance of its being a new institution; but it is referred to as a day accustomed to be observed; or, at least, as one on which it was not lawful to perform the common labours of the week. The mention of it occurs in the account of the descent of the manna. It is said, "On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as on other days. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord hath said, to-morrow is the rest of the sabbath; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over, lay up for you, to be kept until the morrow. And Moses said, Eat that to-day, for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord. And so the people rested on the seventh day."-Exod. xvi. 23. Evidently, this was no part of the ceremonial law, which was not yet given; and no new institution was ever established in this incidental manner. It seems clear, that the reference is to a day of rest, of which the people had some knowledge.

The decisive argument for the perpetual obligation of the sabbath is the fourth commandment. The ten commandments, as being of a moral nature, and therefore always binding, were promulgated in a very different manner from the other institutions of Moses. They were first uttered in a voice of thunder, from the midst of the fire on Sinai, and were then inscribed by the finger of God on two tables of hewn stone. Now, it is admitted, that all the other precepts of the Decalogue are moral; and would it not be an unaccountable thing that a ceremonial, temporary commandment should be inserted in the midst of these moral precepts? This is the law which Christ says he came not to destroy, but to fulfil. None of these commandments have been abrogated; and therefore the fourth, as well as the others,

remains in full force. And it is remarkable that the prophets, in denouncing the sins of the people, always mention the violation of the sabbath in the same catalogue with the transgression of moral precepts.

It may seem to cursory readers of the New Testament, that our Lord abrogated the sabbath, and in his own conduct disregarded it. But this is far from being a correct view of the fact. The Pharisees insisted on such a rigid observation of the day of rest, as to prohibit works of real necessity and mercy. This superstitious and over-scrupulous opinion, our Saviour denounced, and showed, that healing the sick, and satisfying the cravings of hunger, were things lawful to be done on the sabbath. And what renders it certain that this is a correct view of the matter is, that our Lord justifies his conduct by the practice of the saints in ancient times, when the sabbath was in full force by the acknowledgment of all, and by the provisions of the Levitical law itself, which required the priests to perform double labour on the sabbath. And he, moreover, showed, that the accusation against him, for a violation of the sabbath, was hypocritical; because, the very persons who made it, would pull an ox or sheep out of a pit into which it had fallen, on the sabbath day; and also, because they thought it no violation of the sacredness of the sabbath, to lead an ox or ass to watering, though they objected to the disciples satisfying their hunger on that day.

Our Lord was as much opposed to the perversion of the commandment as to disobedience. He had no respect for the superstitious and unduly rigorous opinions and practices of the self-righteous Pharisees. He taught and exemplified it in his own conduct-that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the