EXTRACTS

FROM

"HORÆ SABBATICA" OR, AN ATTEMPT TO CORRECT CERTAIN SUPERSTITIOUS AND VULGAR ERRORS RESPECTING THE SABBATH.

By GODFREY HIGGINS.

FROM the following verse in the second chapter of Genesis-"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that on it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made," many persons have maintained, that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation; and therefore that it is binding on all mankind, and not confined to the Jews. This would seem a fair inference, if the contrary were not expressly declared; and therefore the book of Genesis must be considered to have been written by Moses, writing the account two thousand five hundred years after the event, proleptically.

In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus the Sabbath is first instituted; as it is said in the fourth verse, in order that the Lord might know whether the Israelites would walk in in his way or not. And in the fifth verse, it it said, that twice as much manna was sent on the sixth day as on other days. In the twenty-second and twenty-third verses, the rulers come to Moses for an explanation of the reason of the double quantity coming on

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the sixth day; and then Moses explains to them that the seventh day is to be a Sabbath, or day of rest.

22 “And it came to they gathered twice as one man and all the came and told Moses.

pass, that on the sixth day much bread, two omers for rulers of the congregation

23 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.

24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

25 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.

26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.

27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

28 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

29 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.

30 So the people rested on the seventh day."

In several places of the quotation above, a mistranslation has taken place; the definite or emphatic article has been used, instead of

1 Viz. in ver. 5; but the remainder of this verse is not God's words, as our translators put it; which that following, as Moses bade, shows, and the want of these words in what the Lord said. -Purver.

the indefinite one. verse, it is said, the rest of the holy Sabbath, instead of a rest of a holy Sabbath. Again in the twenty-sixth verse, it ought to have been said, on the seventh day which is a Sabbath, in it, &c. not the Sabbath, &c.

Thus in the twenty-third

In the twenty-ninth verse the emphatic or definite article is correctly used, the Sabbath, according to the Hebrew text-the Sabbath being there spoken of as instituted.

If this related merely to the common affairs of life, no one would doubt that the coming of the rulers of the congregation to Moses, showed clearly that they were ignorant of the Sabbath- that they had never heard of such a thing before; for if they had known that it was unlawful to provide food, or gather sticks to light a fire to cook it, or to do any other act of work or labour, how could they have had any doubt what the double quantity was sent for on the day before the Sabbath? And the answer given by Moses in the next verse- "This is that which the Lord hath said "-implies that the information given to them was new. If the practice of keeping the Sabbath had prevailed with the Israelites when in Egypt in their bondage, (a thing very unlikely,) or if it had been known to them that it was their duty to keep it when in their power, the book would simply have told us, that they gathered twice as much on the sixth day, because the next was the Sabbath;-there would have been no coming

together of the elders, or of speech-making by Moses.

In the decalogue, which is ordained in the 20th chapter of Exodus, the Sabbath is first given in all its plenitude; but it is with the remainder of the decalogue expressly limited to the children of Israel: God begins with saying, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

The limitation of the Sabbath to the children of Israel, aud the making it a sign of the covenant betwixt God and them, expressly negatives the construction put upon the expression in Genesis, that by it the Sabbath was instituted. It is making God act most absurdly, to make him first institute the Sabbath for the whole world, and then give it as a sign limited to the Israelites, when, from its being previously established, it could most clearly be no such thing.

To be a sign, was the reason of a Sabbath being instituted—not the resting of God from his work; though the selection of the seventh, instead of the third, or fourth, or other day of the week, was made to remind the Israelites of that event. As we have seen in Exodus, that it was given as a sign of the covenant, so it was understood by Ezekiel, who says: 1

10"Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.

1 Ezekiel xx.

11 And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.

12 Moreover also, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."

The prophet Nehemiah also, expressly declares that the Sabbath was first made known to them, or instituted, from their exod from Egypt. He says:1

13 "Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments:

14 And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts," &c.

How could it be said that he made known to them the Sabbath there, if it were known to them before? The language of scripture must not be so wrested from its plain obvious signification, to gratify prejudice, or serve particular theories.

The Sabbath was given as a sign of a covenant betwixt God and the Jews, which covenant was expressly abolished by the coming of Jesus Christ; then it necessarily follows, that the sign of the covenant should no longer be observed. If a Sabbath be kept because it was ordained by God previously to the time of Jesus, it must be kept as he ordained it; and how he ordained it, we can only know from the books and the practice of the Jews. They were to do no work on that day, not even to light a fire; no victuals

1 Nehemiah ix.