have to add confession of sin, deprecation of merited wrath, resistance to the flesh, and a laborious search after truth! Thus, whether we consider the time when the Sabbath was instituted, the primary reasons for its sanctification, the relations we sustain to its great Author, the blessings we have received at his hand, or our general circumstances of peril, and of pressing necessity; we are as clearly and as fully bound to keep it holy, as were Adam and Eve. Yes! the Sabbath was made for man, in his fallen and unfallen condition, in his regenerate and unregenerate state, in all the ages of his existence, in all the variety of his circumstances, and in all the lands where his lot may be cast; and nothing but ignorance, involuntary ignorance, can excuse us, if we neglect to keep it holy. Instead, therefore, of cavilling with the ordinance, or endeavouring to evade its obligation, let us revere it for its antiquity, love it for its benignity, and sanctify it in obedience to the authority, and in imitation of the example, of its great Author. Our obligation to keep the Sabbath holy may be proved,

2. From the moral law, which expressly enjoins its observance.

But,

It might have been anticipated, that Paley, and the writers at whose head he stands, after having attempted to invalidate the primitive institution of the Sabbath, would have strenuously maintained its perpetual and universal obligation, on the ground, that its sanctification is commanded in the moral law. instead of this, they have laboured to prove, that, though found in the Decalogue, it is really a part of the Jewish ceremonial; and is binding on us only by human and conventional considerations. But, " My counsel shall stand, saith the Lord'; and I will do all my pleasure." A part of his "counsel" and "pleasure," most certainly, is, that we should "remember the Sabbath. 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, nor 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."

The Ten Commandments were clearly distinguished from all ritual enactments and ceremonies whatsoever, by the following circumstances: First, The ceremonial law was given by the ordinary methods of inspiration ; whereas God spake all the words of the moral law with his own lips, in the audience of all the people, accompanied by such signs of majesty, that even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake; " and the people entreated that the words might not be spoken to them again, lest they should die. Secondly, The ceremonial law was written by Moses on parchment, or some such perishable material; but God wrote the moral law, with his own finger, on tables of stone. Thirdly, The ceremonial law was placed by the side of the ark, and might, at any time, have been removed; but the tables of stone, which contained the moral law, were laid up within the ark, in token of its superior excellence, and of God's supreme concern for its preservation. Fourthly, To show its everlasting connexion and harmony with the economy of grace, it was sprinkled with blood, covered with the mercy-seat, overshadowed with cherubims, and enshrined with the shechinah, or "glory of the Lord." By these extraordinary circumstances, a broad line of demarcation was established between it and the Jewish ritual: and the Sabbath law, standing, as it does, in the centre of the Decalogue, serves as a seal to the first table, and as a guard to the second; an arrangement which seems to imply that, in the divine estimation, its perpetuation and due observance are essential to the preservation of the whole law, and to the performance of the duties of both tables.

Dr. Paley endeavours to overthrow the argument, in favour of

had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet:' which, being a plain reference to the tenth command of the Decalogue, is the law' of which he speaks. This, then, is the law which is established by the Gospel; and this can mean nothing else but the establishment and confirmation of its authority, as the rule of all inward and outward holiness. Whoever, therefore, denies the obligation of the Sabbath on Christians, denies the obligation of the whole Decalogue; and there is no real medium between the acknowledgment of the divine authority of this sacred institution, as a universal law, and that gross corruption of Christianity, generally designated Antinomianism." * We plead the moral obligation of the Sabbath,

3. From the example of the church and people of God in all ages.

That our first parents kept the Sabbath in paradise, is certain; for such was the will of God concerning them; and we know that, for one day at least, they must have perfectly served his pleasure. That they sanctified it, after their fall, and expulsion from paradise, may be confidently inferred, from their penitence, from the Scripture intimations we have of their restoration to the favour of God, as well as from what is said, in Gen. iv. 3, as to the time when Cain and Abel presented their offerings to the Lord. In the text we read, "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain,"

&c.;

but in the margin it reads, "At the end of days Cain," &c.,-a mode of expression used in other parts of the Old Testament, to denote the expiration of a measured term. As, therefore, one of the earliest, simplest, and most sacred divisions of time was that into weeks, it may be presumed, that these brethren presented their offerings on the day that the Lord had hallowed. This opinion is strengthened, if we suppose, with Dr. Kennicott, that it was then their father invested them

* Watson's Theo. Dict. Article, Sabbath.

with the right of sacrificing; and that this was the first instance in which they offered on God's altar, in their own name, and in behalf of their respective households. Such a service must have been felt to be peculiarly solemn; and, in the ab. sence of all other sacred days, the day which the Lord had blessed, and sanctified by his example, was doubtless chosen for its perform

ance.

That the Sabbath was sanctified by the Patriarchs and their families, may be inferred from the general fidelity with which they served God, and maintained his worship in the world; from the import of those eulogies which God bestowed upon them; (Gen. v. 22—24; vi. 8, 9; vii. 1; xviii. 19; xxvi. 5; 2 Peter ii. 7, 8;) and from the repeated references, in their memoirs, to the division of time into weeks, and the almost worshipful respect which they, and the nations of antiquity, paid to the number seven. The history of the flood demonstrates, that Noah, by God's direction, regulated all his official acts, in connexion with this dreadful catastrophe, by a strict reference to the seventh day. And we ask, What possible reason can be assigned for the studied respect which was thus paid to it, if its sabbatic character be denied? And by what other means could it have been distinguished from the other days of the week, through the lapse of two thousand five hundred years, except by its regular consecration to the worship of God? On this supposition, the problem is satisfactorily explained; but on every other it is utterly inexplicable.

We concede, that the Scriptures do not make express mention of the Sabbath, from the time of its first institution, up to the days of Moses. But if this silence be admitted as evidence that it was forgotten and disregarded, during the whole of this period, we must farther admit, that it was forgotten and disregarded throughout the reign of the Judges, including the administrations of holy Samuel, and of regal Saul; for in all this period (about

six hundred years) it is not once named. Dr. Dwight has proved, that there are only five passages in the Scriptures, in which the Sabbath is mentioned, as distinguished from other holy days, from the time of Moses to the return of the Jews from Babylon, being a period of one thousand years; and he concludes his argument in these words: "Now, let me ask, can any person wonder, that, in an account so summary, as the history of the Patriarchs, there should be no mention of the Sabbath; when it is considered, that, in the space of a thou sand years, during which period the Jews existed both as a nation and a church, with Kings to rule them, and Prophets to teach them, and historians and poets to record and immortalize their wars and religious services, it is mentioned only five times?"

That the Sabbath was sanctified by the Israelites, before the law was given from Sinai, is evident from Exod. xvi. 22-28; where we learn, that on the sixth day after the manna had begun to fall, the people, of their own accord, and in apparent contradiction of the words of Moses, "gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man," as they had done on the five preceding mornings. Their rulers, doubtful whether they had done right, came to Moses for direction, and he said, "This is that which the Lord hath said, 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." From this history it is manifest, First, That the Sabbath was sanctified by the Israelites at least two months before the law was delivered from Sinai; and that the people prepared for its sanctification

before they received any instructions to that effect from their rulers. Secondly, That Moses vindicated the preparatory arrangements which the people had made, though they were contrary to the literal import of one of his own general instructions; and he did this, not by announcing the law of the Sabbath in form, with the reasons for its sanctification in detail, as if newly revealed; but simply by recognising the fact, that the morrow was a holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Thirdly, That God, instead of punishing them for introducing novelties into his worship, testified his approbation of their conduct by giving them, in continuance, a double portion of manna on the sixth day,by preserving their Sabbath portion sweet, and free from worms,-and by denouncing the attempt to gather it on the Sabbath, as a refusal, on their part, to keep his commandments and laws. Thus, it is plainly proved, that the Sabbath was known and observed before the moral law was promulgated, or the ceremonial existed in its Mosaic form: and this of itself is fatal to the whole of Dr. Paley's argument, as he himself admits. If the divine command was actually delivered at the creation, it was addressed, no doubt, to the whole human species alike; and continues, unless repealed by some subsequent revelation, binding upon all who come to the knowledge of it." And he afterwards adds: "The former opinion" (namely, that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation) "precludes all debate about the extent of the obliga tion." *

That the Jews kept the Sabbath, with more or less strictness, according to the degree of their fidelity, in the service of God, after their settlement in Canaan, is not questioned by any. In the days of their degeneracy, it was indeed extensively violated; but its violation brought down the judgments of God, and the stern rebukes of their Prophets. Their daily sacrifices were doubled on this day, and all

* Moral Philosophy, vol. ii., pp. 77, 78