must have been used respecting a new and utterly unknown institution, I look upon it as containing satisfactory evidence of the contrary, that however partially and irregu larly observed, it had not been forgotten.

The incident recorded in that passage, I need not remind you, preceded the giving of the law from Sinai. ✨ I have now, then, to notice, in further corroboration of the previous existence of the Sabbathús ás

6. In the sixth place; the terms of that law itself. You will find them, Exod. xx. 8—11. *“ Remember the subbath-day, to keep it holy. 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, thy man servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it."It will not be disputed, that the language, "Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy," is language which assumes, or presupposes its existence, I grant, that if by any one who hears me the original institution of the Sabbath can be considered as contained in the sixteenth chapter of the same Book, on which we have been commenting, then this style may be consistently enough explained. But if the words in that passage «To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto thé Lord," cannot, on any natural principle, be interpreted as the first enactment of the law of the Sabbath, then the terms of the fourth commandment must refer to a more ancient time of institution: and there is no other to which

it can refer but the time of creation-the time in our text. That it has this reference, and can have no other, is rendered most strikingly manifest by the terms of the reason assigned in this commandment for its observance:

"for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day and hallowed it." It has commonly been said, that "blessed" and "hallowed," being verbs in the past tense, must refer to past time and previous institution; and that if this had been the first institution, the verbs would have been in the present tense" wherefore the Lord blesseth the seventh day, and halloweth it." Dr. Paley would reply—" It is not pretended that the fourth commandment contains the first institution of the Sabbath; its institution took place before, at the time of the manna." And, although we might think the reference unreasonable to so recent a date, we could not deny that it was past time, and would therefore warrant the use of verbs in the past tense.But the conclusion that the reference is to a more remote period is, in my mind, irresistible, on another ground.― In the reason of observance-" wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it," there is, most evidently, a reference to the terms of some previous record of the institution of the Sabbath. Now, when was the seventh Where are such terms em

day blessed and hallowed? ployed? In the narrative of the manna, when the institution is supposed to have taken place, we have nothing of the kind. Where, then, in the preceding history, are these words of institution (for so they may with the strictest propriety be called) to be found? The answer is, they

are in our text. We have them here; and we have them nowhere else. If the terms in the fourth commandment do not refer to those of our text, we know of nothing else to which they can refer. And if they do, then our text must necessarily be understood as a historical statement of what took place at the time, not as a mere anticipation of what was long after to take place in the wilderness. The two things are quite incompatible. If, when quoted in the fourth commandment, they refer to what was past; they cannot, when used in the text, be anticipative of what was to come. The quotation in the fourth commandment may justly be considered as containing an affirmation, that when these words the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it," were used in the history, the Sabbath was instituted. But the words are used only here; and here then, on divine authority, we have the institution and true date of the Sabbath. I know not whether I have made my ideas clearly understood, but to my own mind. this view of the matter is irresistibly conclusive. 910191911

Thus it appears that while, on the one hand, the language of our text in the Book of Genesis cannot, without unnatural straining, be interpreted of an institution to take place inv far-remote futurity; neither, on the other, can the language in the Book of Exodus be interpreted, without similar straining, of a new and previously unknown institution. done 918 9194 N ''ཏཐཱ ཝཱ i bus bezald vah There are, however, some alleged difficulties in the way, which are deserving of particular notice...

It is objected to the supposition of the Sabbath having existed from the beginning, that little or no notice of it is to be found in the inspired account of the antediluvian and

patriarchal ages.-It would be uncandid to deny that this is a singular fact, and an apparently strong objection. The following remarks will mitigate its force, and show it to be at least inconclusive.

1. In the Mosaic history, weeks are spoken of as amongst the ordinary well-known divisions of time. Now, if the observations formerly made be well founded, in proof, from this division of time, of the original knowledge of the Sabbath, and of the reason of its institution, there is surely more than a probability that it continued to be known among the worshippers of the true God.

Of the division of time into periods of seven days, one of the most interesting exemplifications occurs in the history of Noah. When this second father of our race sent forth the raven from the Ark, why tarried he seven days before he sent forth the dove?-and when this messenger returned, why other seven days, before he sent her forth the second time? and other seven again, when she came back with the symbol of peace, ere he gave her her third and final dismission?-Why seven, rather than six, or eight, or ten?-Why, but because the interval was a week? And the supposition is as pleasing as it is probable, that these winged scouts were sent out on the Sabbath, the day of holy rest, on which, from the little company in the Ark, the only living remnant of a desolated world, the worship of praise and prayer ascended to the God of judgment and of mercy; when they bowed to his awful vengeance, and cast themselves on his gracious and mighty protection.*

*

In the account given by the historian, of the respective characters

2. The following circumstances are also to be weighed:That the history is distinguished by succinctness and brevity:-that, on the supposition of the Sabbath having

and offerings of Cain and Abel, an expression is used, which, by some critics, if not with certainty, yet with considerable probability, has been explained of the weekly sabbatical worship. The account is contained in Gen. iv. 3-5. "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering. But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." The original phrase, translated "in process of time," is rendered on the margin more literally, "in the end of days." Our translation implies the lapse of some considerable portion of time in the life of man, at the close of which both the brothers brought their respective oblations. Yet this cannot well mean, in the present case, the period of their growth from infancy to maturity, or manhood; both because it is unnatural to suppose this happening, as to both, the older and the younger, at one time, and because, in the preceding verses, they are spoken of according to their distinctive secular occupations, and consequently as already in youth or manhood. Yet it is obvious, that the two brothers "brought" their offerings at one time to one place; and that the testimony of divine approbation was given to that of Abel in Cain's presence, and, in all probability, in presence of others also; and, indeed, that if the worship of God was to be duly kept up at all, a fixed and statedly returning time for it was indispensable. There appears, therefore, considerable force in the conclusion, that by the phrase "in the end of days," the seventh day, or the last day of what may be called the creation week, is meant by the historian ;-and the likelihood of this is increased, by the appropriateness which the expression derives from its coming, in the narrative, so immediately after the account of the memorable succession of days employed in creation, and of the consecration of the seventh, the day of cessation and rest.—It is likely too, that the "day" mentioned in Job i. 6, when "the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord," was the Sabbath.—But I do not wish to rest much on such passages, of which the meaning is doubtful.