seventh day could possibly be known, without the purpose being also known that this day was to be a day of sacred rest, and religious observance to men. The mere cessation from the work of creation could, of course, occupy no time whatever; and the representation of Deity, as resting for a seventh revolution of time, equal to each of the six preceding revolutions, could be nothing more than an impressive mode of intimating to his creatures his intention and his will, respecting their conduct in reference to that day. And if so, the Sabbath must have been known and observed from the beginning.

5. The same thing is apparent, fifthly, from the very terms in which the first mention is made of the Sabbath, by the historian of the Exodus,-the terms which, according to Dr. Paley, record its first institution. Look to the passage-Exod. xvi. 16-30. The historian is speaking of the Manna; and having described its appearance, and the inquisitive surprise of the people on seeing it, he thus proceeds: This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack: they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they heark ened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning,

every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: 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 morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord keep my com

said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to mandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days: abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day."

Having read the passage, I would put the question to any man of ordinary understanding and candid simplicity, whether he can imagine this to be the manner in which a religious observance, entirely new, quite unknown before, would have been first legally instituted? Whether is it likest the formality of legislation, or the tion of an institution previously known? Nay, more. In the twenty-second verse, it is said—" And it came to pass

incidental men

that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came, and told Moses." This circumstance merits special notice. What did the rulers report to Moses? One of two things. Either they told the fact of this double gathering on the sixth day, as a thing which they themselves had not anticipated, and which they feared might be a violation of the order respecting the quantity to be collected daily; or they reported it as an act of obedience, on the part of the people, to a previous intimation,-telling Moses that they had done as had been commanded. On the former supposition, it will follow, that the people had pursued this course on the sixth day of their own accord, anticipating the sabbatical rest of the seventh. On the latter supposition, Moses had made known, to the rulers and to the people, the intimation which had been made by Jehovah to himself. What, then, were the terms of that intimation? It is contained in the fifth verse of the chapter:-" and it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." On either of the two suppositions, the inference is clear. If Moses had not yet communicated this divine intimation to the people, and the people gathered their double portion on the sixth day of their own accord, it follows that the rest. of the seventh day was known and familiar to them. If, on the contrary, the communication had been made to them by Moses, and they acted in conformity to it, still the terms in which the intimation is made by Jehovah to Moses himself, imply, with equal clearness, that the seventh day rest was known and familiar to him. For God makes

the intimation, that a double quantity of the Manna should fall, and gives the order that a double quantity should be gathered and prepared, without assigning for these things any reason whatever; which, on the supposition of no sabbatical observance of the seventh day having previously existed, and no distinction between that day and other days,—is utterly unaccountable: whereas, on the contrary supposition, that of its previous celebration, all is natural, and precisely as we should have expected it to be. When the fact of the people's gathering double on the sixth day was reported by the rulers to Moses, he gave his approving sanction (as on either of the preceding suppositions he must of course have done) to this part of their conduct; and he added the command, that, having done right in gathering double, they should further respect the "rest of the holy Sabbath," by making ready on the sixth day what might be required for the consumption of the seventh. When he says "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe;" it is evident, that the thing commanded is not contained in the words, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord;" but that these words are the affirmation of a known fact, and that this known fact is assigned as the reason of the thing commanded" bake that ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe." For my own part, I can fancy nothing more unreasonable, than to interpret this passage as the original institution of the seventh-day rest,-the law of the Sabbath. If I had said to any one of you yesterday,- "I intend to-morrow to set out on a journey from home,"-you would, with pro

priety, have said to me in reply," To-morrow is the Sabbath" and your language would have proceeded on the assumption that the fact was known and familiar to my mind as well as to yours; but that, from some cause or other at the moment, I had forgotten the time at which I was speaking. So when Moses says, "To-morrow is the Sabbath," he proceeds upon the assumption of a pre-existing and familiar fact, as much as you would do in the answer I have supposed you to make to my proposal,-a fact familiar to himself, and familiar to the people.

It is alleged, I am aware, that there is no intimation in the narrative of this being "the revival of an old forgotten institution." Gr Granted. But what is the legitimate inference? Is the conclusion an unreasonable one, that it was not a forgotten Institution? An Institution may continue for a length of time to be only partially observed, or even not observed at all, when its regular observance is prevented by the necessity of the case, and yet not be forgotten. On the supposition, therefore, that the peculiar condition of the children of Israel, during the servitude of Egypt, had interfered with the regular celebration of the sabbatical rest,* it does not follow that it was gone from their remembrance. Conceiving the language of the passage, in the Book of Exodus, to be altogether unlike what

*This, however, although circumstances may be considered as giving it much probability, is not, in all its extent at least, a certainty. "The antiquity of the Sabbath," says Bishop Horsley, "was a thing so well understood among the Jews themselves, that some of their Rabbins had the vanity to pretend that an exact adherence to the observation of this day, under the severities of the Egyptian servitude, was the merit by which their ancestors procured a miraculous deliverance."