OF С НА Р. VII. THE SCRIPTURE ACCOUNT OF SABBATICAL 1 tions: HE fubject fo far as it makes any part of I. Whether the command, by which the Jewish fabbath was inftituted, extend to Chriftians? II. Whether any new command was delivered by Chrift; or any other day fubftituted in the place of the Jewish fabbath by the authority or example of his Apostles? In treating of the first question, it will be neceffary to collect the accounts, which are preferved of the inftitution in the Jewish hiftory; for the feeing these accounts together, and in one point of view, will be the best preparation for the difcuffing or judging of any arguments on one fide or the other. In the fecond chapter of Genefis, the hiftorian having concluded his account of the fix days creation, proceeds thus: " And on the feventh day “God ended his work which he had made; and "he refted on the feventh day from all his work "which he had made and God bleed the feventh day, and fandlified it, becaufe that in it he had I refted from all his work which God created and "made." After this we hear no more of the fabbath, or of the feventh day, as in any manner dif tinguished tinguished from the other fix, until the history brings us down to the fojourning of the Jews in the wildernefs, when the following remarkable paffage occurs. Upon the complaint of the people for want of food, God was pleafed to provide for their relief by a miraculous fupply of manna, which was found every morning upon the ground about the camp; "and they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating; and when the fun waxed hot, it melted: and it came to pafs, that on the "fixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Mofes; and he faid "unto them, this is that which the Lord hath faid, "to-morrow is the rest of the holy fabbath unto the "Lord; bake that which ye will bake to day, and .. .. feeth that ye will feeth, and that which remain"eth over lay up for you, to be kept until the "morning; and they laid it up till the morning, "as Mojes bade, and it did not ftink (as it had done before, when fome of them left it till the morning), “neither was there any worm therein. "And Mofes faid, Eat that to day for to day is a fabbath unto the Lord: to day ye fhall not find it "in the field. Six days ye fhall gather it, but on "the feventh day, which is the fabbath, in it there "fhall be none. And it came to pass, that there "went out fome of the people on the feventh day "for to gather, and they found none. And the "Lord faid unto Mofes, how long refufe ye to keep ર my commandments and my laws? See, for that "the Lord hath given you the fabbath, therefore he giveth you on the fixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place; let no "man go out of his place on the feventh day fo "the people refted on the feventh day." Exodus xvi. Not long after this, the fabbath, as is well known, was established with great folemnity in the fourth commandment. Now, years, Now, in my opinion, the tranfaction in the wilderness, above recited, was the firft actual inftitution of the fabbath. For, if the fabbath had been inftituted at the time of the creation, as the words in Genefis may feem at firft fight to import, and if it had been obferved all along, from that time to the departure of the Jews out of Egypt, a period of about two thousand five hundred it appears unaccountable, that no mention of it, no occafion of even the obfcureft allufion to it, fhould occur either in the general hiftory of the world before the call of Abraham, which contains, we admit, only a few memoirs of its early ages, and those extremely abridged; or, which is more to be wondered at, in that of the lives of the three firft Jewish patriarchs, which, in many parts of the account, is fufficiently circumftantial and domeftic. Nor is there, in the paffage above quoted from the fixteenth chapter of Exodus, any intimation that the fabbath, then appointed to be obferved, was only the revival of an ancient inftitution, which had been neglected, forgotten, or fufpended; nor is any fuch neglect imputed either to the inhabitants of the old world, or to any part of the family of Noah; nor, laftly, is any permiffion recorded to difpenfe with the inftitution during the captivity of the Jews in Egypt or on any other public emer gency. The paffage in the fecond chapter of Genefis, which creates the whole controverfy upon the subject, is not inconfiftent with this opinion: for as the feventh day was erected into a fabbath, on account of God's refting upon that day from the work of the creation, it was natural enough in the hiftorian, when he had related the hiftory of the creation, and of God's ceafing from it on the feventh day, to add, " and God bleffed the feventh day, and fanctified it, becaufe that on it he had refted "from all his work which God created and made ;' although although the bleffing and fanctification, i. e. the religious diftinction and appropriation of that day, was not actually made till many ages afterwards. The words do not affert, that God then "bleffed" and fanctified" the feventh day, but that he bleffed and fanctified it for that reafon; and if any afk, why the fabbath, or fanctification of the feventh day, was then mentioned, if it was not then appointed, the answer is at hand; the order of connection, and not of time, introduced the mention of the fabbath, in the hiftory of the fubje&t which it was ordained to commemorate. This interpretation is ftrongly fupported by a paffage in the prophet Ezekiel, where the fabbath is plainly spoken of as given, and what elfe can that mean, but as first inftituted, in the wilderness? "Wherefore I caufed them to go forth out of the "land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilder " nefs; and I gave them my ftatutes, and fhewed "them my judgments, which if a man do, he "fhall even live in them moreover alfo I gave "them my fabbaths, to be a fign between me and "them, that they might know that I am the Lord "that fanctify them." Ezek. xx. 10, II, 12. Nehemiah alfo recounts the promulgation of the fabbatic law amongst the tranfactions in the wildernefs; which supplies another confiderable argument in aid of our opinion: "Moreover thou leddeft "them in the day by a cloudy pillar, and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in "the way wherein they fhould go. Thou cameft down alfo upon Mount Sinai, and fpakeft with "them from heaven, and gaveft them right judgments and true laws, good ftatutes and com"mandments, and madeft known unto them thy holy fabbath,, and commandedft them precepts, ftatutes "and laws by the hand of Mofes thy fervant, and gaveft them bread from heaven for their hunger, 66 "and "and broughteft forth water for them out of "the rock." Nehem. ix. 12. If it be inquired, what duties were appointed for the Jewish fabbath, and under what penalties and in what manner it was observed amongst the ancient Jews; we find that, by the fourth commandment, a ftrict ceffation from work was enjoined, not only upon Jews by birth, or religious profeffion, but upon all who refided within the limits of the Jewish ftate; that the fame was to be permitted to their flaves and their cattle; that this reft was not to be violated under pain of death: "Whofoever doeth any work in the fabbath day, he fhall furely be put to death." Ex. xxxi. 14. Befide which, the feventh day was to be folemnized by double facrifices in the temple. "And on the fabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled "with oil, and the drink offering thereof; this is the burnt offering of every fabbath, befide the "continual burnt offering and his drink offering." Numb. xxviii. 9, 10. Alfo holy convocations, which mean, we prefume, affemblies for the purpose of public worthip or religious inftruction, were directed to be held on the fabbath day; "the feventh day is "a fabbath of reft, an holy convocation." Lev. xxiii. 3. And accordingly we read, that the fabbath was in fact obferved amongst the Jews, by a fcrupulous *From the mention of the fabbath in fo close a connection with the defcent of God upon mount Sinai, and the delivery of the law from thence, one would be inclined to believe, that Nehemiah referred folely to the fourth commandment. But the fourth commandment certainly did not firft make known the fabbath. And it is apparent, that Nehemiah obferved not the order of events, for he fpeaks of what paffed upon mount Sinai, before he mentions the miraculous fupplies of bread and water, though the Jews did not arrive at mount Sinai till fome time after both thefe miracles were wrought. abfti |