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yet other seven days," and "sent forth the dove out of ark for the third time, which returned not again to him any Surely here are vestiges by no means doubtful, not only that days were reckoned by portions of seven, but that the use of that method of calculation was familiar in

more."*

the line of the patriarchs. Nothing can be more certain than that the return of seven days brought something peculiar with it; and we judge it probable, from the institution of the Sabbath, that that peculiarity was the day of sacred rest.

Accordingly after the flood, the tradition of that division of time spread over all the eastern world-Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians, Arabians, Persians, unite with the Israelites in retaining vestiges of it. In the earliest remains of the heathen writers, Hesiod, Homer, Callimachus --the sanctity of the seventh day is referred to as a matter of notoriety. Philo, the Jew, declares that there was no nation under heaven where the opinion had not reached. The days of festival solemnities among the heathen had in all probability this source. Indeed, as the obscure notices of the original state of man, of the fall, of sacrifices, of the deluge, were scattered amongst the remotest nations, so also, faint traces of a weekly religious rest are discernible. The very number seven, in Hebrew, and the kindred languages, is expressed by a word which primarily signifies fulness, completion, sufficiency; and was probably applied to a week because that was the space occupied in fully completing the work of creation.

But we come to the history of Abraham. Here it is deserving notice, as we pass, that the rite of circumcision was to be performed after the lapse of seven days from the birth; but the commendation of Abraham's example, "That he commanded his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment," implies that there was a way prescribed by the Almighty, and certain observances in which consisted justice and judgment, amongst which the Sabbath was probably the chief. But in the more full declaration afterwards made concerning him to Isaac;" "That Abraham obeyed his voice, and kept his charge, his commandments, his statutes,

* Gen. vii. 4, 10; viii. 10, 12.

and his laws;" the terms employed are so various, as to be by no means naturally interpreted of the ordinances of circumcision and sacrifice only, but to include, as much as if it were named, the charge and law of the Sabbath.

We come to Jacob; and few, I think, can doubt, that when he had uttered the devout exclamation, "This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven;" and then vowed, that the "stone should be God's house" -he alluded to what was customary with the pious patriarchs, the worship of God in a stated place, and on a stated time-the Sabbath; without which, a house of God would be a term of little meaning; but with which it would indeed be the pledge and anticipation of heaven. Even Laban seems to have had the notion of a weekly division of time; "Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also." But I will not dwell on more particulars. The numerous, the almost perpetual notices of places, of altars, of sacrifices, of the worship of God, of solemn titles given to particular spots, all confirm the supposition, which is the only reasonable one, that the sabbatical institution was not unknown to the patriarchs. We may notice the case of holy Job, as confirming this, who, remote as was the place of his abode, more than once reminds us of "a day, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord."

So utterly gratuitous is the assumption that the observation of a day of religious worship was unknown to the patriarchs. Probably the very notoriety of the institution might be one cause why the sacred historian judged it unnecessary to dwell on particular recurrences of its observance. At all events, the very silence of Scripture afterwards, can never be fairly alleged against the previous institution of the Sabbath in paradise, when even the admission that the patriarchs had actually lost the traces, or neglected the celebration of it, would have had no such consequence.

Doubtless, as time rolled on, and particularly during centuries of bondage in Egypt, the memory of this primæval ordinance became faint, and the observation of it by the en

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slaved people almost impracticable. But it does not appear to have been even then wholly forgotten. For we observe, that,

IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SABBATH WAS

REVIVED AND RE-ESTABLISHED BEFORE THE COMMENCE

MENT OF THE MOSAICAL ECONOMY, proves that it was a previous institution, which had never been entirely lost; and therefore confirms all we stated of its origin in paradise and its continuance during the patriarchal ages. An interval of two thousand five hundred years had elapsed since the fall, eight or nine hundred years had passed since the flood, and more than four hundred since the call of Abraham. Two centuries of captivity in Egypt had also reduced the religious knowledge of the people of Israel to the lowest ebb. If, therefore, the authority of the Sabbath survived this last state of bondage, we may fairly conclude that it had not perished in any of the preceding periods. Mark the history. The manna is announced; a double portion is promised on a certain day. But in what terms? "It shall come to pass that on the next day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." "Here is no express mention of the Sabbath, nor any reason assigned why they should find a double portion on the sixth day. But the reason was known-the reference was intelligible. The language is not that of one delivering a new precept, but restoring an old and well-known, though neglected one. Accordingly, Moses, in explaining the fact, speaks of the sabbath as not effaced from the memory of the people. "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord your God." What had the Lord said?-nothing directly about the Sabbath; but the allusion to the division of time into six working days was enough-the Sabbath was known to follow them. If similar terms were employed in any modern act of parliament, every one would understand that it referred to some previously existing statute or custom, of which the knowledge was not altogether lost.

And thus the restoration of the Sabbath before the Mosaical law, seems designed to link the patriarchal with the

* Exodus xvi.

Jewish day of rest; it proves that the first had not been altogether obliterated, and it shows that the second was founded on a law of primæval and universal obligation; whilst the threefold miracle of the manna on each Sabbath, clearly points out the importance attached by Almighty God to the institution.

On what particular day of the seven this renewed rest was first celebrated we cannot determine. The stress of the commandment lies on the proportion of time in the order of creation. The exact computation of weeks from the first institution, had in all probability been lost; and the new calculation, we may conjecture, dated from the day of the deliverance from Egypt, as the commencement of the year undoubtedly did. Thus the redemption of Israel may have fixed the particular day for reckoning the series of Sabbaths then; as a greater redemption did at the introduction of a more glorious era.

But we pause. Our inquiries have hitherto been successful. All is consistent. The grandeur of creation gave an impulse and projection to the law of the Sabbath, which human corruption was unable to efface, even before Moses arose to recal men to the purity of religion, and the hope of future redemption. In the line of the patriarchs faint traces of it are discernible. The intervening re-enactment, before the ceremonial economy unites the patriarchal and Jewish day of rest; and confirms us, by its reference, in the faith of the positive fact of a previous institution, to which that reference points.

I. Let us then, first, in applying this part of our subject, observe, THE EXTREME VIOLENCE WHICH IS DONE TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, when any important fact in the Scriptures, such as the institution of the Sabbath in paradise, is attempted to be explained away by the fancy of man. The authors of such novelties think little of the consequences of what they are about. The thought is suggested to them by another. It is strange, it is hardy.This commends it. They are ingenious men-they can write-they can defend the monstrous supposition. The great body of the church disregard and despise the perversion; but the young are injured. In an inquisitive age, half-knowledge prevails. The human heart is too much disinclined to spiritual religion, not to catch at any plea

for neglecting the day of divine worship. Thus the evil spreads. The original author was not deeply penetrated with that reverence for revelation as the communication of the will of God, which forbids rash innovation--was not, perhaps, conscious that the foundation of all faith is overturned, if the plain, strait-forward interpretation of historical passages is exchanged for conjecture, hypothesis, inventions of an anticipated narrative. But what can be so mischievous? Such daring criticism, like a magic wand, can make every truth and every fact of the Bible change their places and import. Indeed, this same kind of ingenuity denies the fact of the fall of man, calls in question the existence of evil spirits, doubts the temptation of our Lord, and goes on to question the truth of the Mosaic or Christian miracles. Thus all faith soon disappears; for it is but another step in the same process to deny the corruption of our nature by the fall, the divinity and atonement of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the truth of our regeneration by that blessed spirit, and of spiritual religion altogeth

er.

Thus the peculiar revelation of the Bible is gone, and yet we call ourselves Christians.

We must resist this fatal poison. To say that the narrative of the institution of the Sabbath in Paradise is put out of its place, is a violence to faith. This is enough. When the idea is first started, the mind of the Christian trembles -he supposes he cannot demonstrate that the assertion is groundless. But he can demonstrate it. To CHANGE A

SERIES OF EVENTS IN A SCRIPTURAL NARRATIVE IS A VIOLENCE TO THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ALL BELIEF IN

REVELATION. This is a moral demonstration against any mere hypothesis.

And more especially should we act with this decision in respect to so fundamental a fact as the entire scheme and glory of creation, the whole design and proportion of divine wisdom in the order of the six days' work, the primary distribution of time into its proportions for the use of man;-that first prodigious act on which the subsequent parts of revelation hang for their consistency and force. And this disposed of by a mere assumption-the fact transposed from the period of creation, to a distance of two or three thousand years, without an intimation in the narrative itself, against

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