"refuse to keep my commandments 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 "place on the seventh day. on the seventh day."1

man go out of his So the people rested

order had previously

It does not appear that any been given to the people in this matter: but, finding a more abundant supply of manna on the sixth day, and, as it is highly probable, having been accustomed on the sixth day to make some preparation for the seventh, when they had it in their power, they of their own accord gathered a double quantity. Had any public directions or orders been given to this effect, the rulers especially must have known it, as they would have been employed in making them known to the rest of the people. In this case, then, how could it be that they should come to inform Moses, as if something unexpected, and, as they feared, wrong, had taken place? Again, Is the answer of Moses at all like the actual institu'tion' of a most important ordinance, which had never before been known or thought of? Is it not evidently the pointing out to them of a previous institution, which many of them had lost sight of, or deemed not obligatory on the present occasion? Indeed, the whole is most evidently a reference to things already known, but lost sight of, or forgotten; and not the enacting of an original law, the institution of an original ordi

'Exod. xvi. 22-30.

nance.

A law was indeed given, but that law was, that none should go out on the seventh day "to gather manna," and not the law of the sabbath itself. This law and commandment some broke, and were rebuked for it: but the obligation of resting on the sabbath day is throughout taken for granted. If similar language were found in any act of parliament, would it not be supposed to relate to some previously existing law? Would it be regarded as an actual, and most important, and entirely new act of the legislature? But, if the language of Moses refers to any existing law, in some measure known to Israel, what law, except that in the second chapter of Genesis, can be intended?

It is highly probable that Moses wrote the book of Genesis while he remained with Jethro as a shepherd; and that some of the leading contents of it were before this time made known to the people.

In entire coincidence with this view of the whole transaction, the observance of the sabbath is enjoined in the decalogue, in a form entirely different from that of the other commandments; and evidently referring to an observance before known, but which the people were prone to forget. "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,

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thy man-servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.' This seems to refer to something more full and

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express on the subject than the regulations in the sixteenth chapter, which have been considered; and this idea is confirmed by the words, "the "seventh day is the sabbath," not shall be. So to Israel the seventh day is called "the sabbath (or rest) of the Lord thy God," with evident allusion to the narration contained in the second of Genesis: "On the seventh day God ended his "work which he had made, and he rested "on the seventh day from all his work which "he had made. 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." Thus the commandment also is enforced by similar language: "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 seventh

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day, and hallowed it." The words rendered keep holy, hallowed, and sanctified, are, in the original, the same modification of the same verb; which renders the resemblance of the two passages more exact than it appears in the translation.

This commandment forms a part of the moral law, which is allowed to be of universal and permanent obligation on mankind, as far as made known to them; and is enforced by a consideration which applics equally to the whole human race. On what grounds then can it reasonably be supposed to have lost its authority under the Christian dispensation? Our Saviour, indeed, as "Lord also of the sabbath day," might not only explain and enforce this commandment, but also change the day of the seven which should

be kept holy; for whether the seventh or the first day of the week is merely a circumstance of the institution, and not at all essential to its substantial requirement of sanctifying one seventh part of our time, in the manner prescribed: while the very term, "Lord of the sabbath day," implies that the institution which should be made would be of equal obligation. In the decalogue there is nothing ceremonial enjoined concerning the sacred day of rest; but since it was also intended, in some respects, to form a part both of the ritual and of the judicial law-the magistrates' rule in administering justice, with a special regard to the nation of Israel-we find that in other places more particular rules are given, and even the penalty of death is annexed to the violation of its external requisitions.1 Several also of the solemn days appointed to be strictly observed, during the sacred festivals, were called sabbaths, and were allowedly a part of the ritual law, and lost their obligation when that law, which was but a "shadow of good things to come," had received its accomplishment.2 To these the apostle evidently refers, when he says, "Let no man "judge you in meat, and in drink, or in respect "of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the "sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ;"3 and not exclusively, or principally, of the day of sacred rest, which had nothing typical in its original in

1 Exod. xxxi. 13-17. xxxv. 2, 3. Num. xv. 32-36. ' Lev. xvi. 31; xxiii. 24, 32, 38; xxv. 4; Neh. x. 33; Isa. i. 13.

Col. ii. 16, 17.

stitution, except as a shadow of the blessed holy rest of heaven. The very position that the rest of heaven is the keeping of a sabbath, (caffalioμòs), powerfully conveys the idea that the holy rest of the sabbath was intended to be a most spiritual and heavenly part of a man's religion on earth; an anticipation of heaven, and a preparation for that perfect worship, and complacency and rest in God which will take place there: indeed, the apostle's whole argument implies this. But how will this idea consist with the sabbath having been only a ritual appointment to Israel; a part of the temporary dispensation of Moses; losing its authoritative energy when that ceased; and thenceforth no more than a matter of expediency?

Indeed, where the word is used in the plural, sabbaths or sabbath days, it generally refers to those other instituted seasons of rest, as well as to the weekly sabbaths. The fourth commandment, as it stands in the twentieth of Exodus, is the language of JEHOVAH himself, as a lawgiver; but as it occurs again in the fifth of Deuteronomy, it is introduced by Moses in the character, as it were, of a preacher, and as a part of his authoritative and most earnest instructions given to a new generation of Israel, a very short time before his death. "Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord

thy God hath commanded thee." Having thus referred to the original commandment, of which they were already in possession, he omitted the reason given for the original institution of the sabbath as a memorial of the creation, which be

Heb. iv. 9. Gr.