that so express a narrative was merely inserted in the chapter in which it is found, by a figure of speech, whilst the Sabbath was never in fact heard of till two thousand five thousand years afterwards; is one of those unaccountable perversions for which the corruption of man's fallen nature can alone account. The notion of an anticipated history seems first to have been broached by some Jewish doctors, in their zeal to magnify the Mosaical ritual.'. Their followers in modern times, have only repeated the Jewish quibbles.

2

It will be proper, however, to proceed in order. Let us show,-I. The direct reasons for believing the Sabbath to have been instituted at the time when the sacred narrative declares. II. That these are not weakened by the silence of scripture during the patriarchal ages. III. And are fully confirmed by the manner in which the Sabbath was revived in the wilderness.

I. The DIRECT REASONS are these. The history of the creation is chronological, unbroken, complete. The transactions of the seventh day immediately follow those of the sixth, precisely as those of the sixth follow the fifth. Each day's work comes in order. This is the plain reason for believing the Sabbath was instituted in paradise. As on the first day the chaotic mass and the light were called into being; and on the second the firmament was created; and on the third dry land was made to appear; and on the fourth the sun and moon were ordained to shine; and on the fifth the fishes and winged fowl filled their several elements; and on the sixth the terrestrial animals, and man, the lord of the lower creation, were made: so on the seventh God "ended his work"-" rested from all his work”—and "blessed and sanctified the seventh day, because on it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." These were the transactions of the seventh day, which come as directly in succession after the preceding, as those of any

1 Dr. John Owen, Exercitations on the Sabbath.

2 Archbishop Bramhall was the chief supporter of this notion in the century before last, and Dr. Paley in later times,

of the other days. It is a monstrous presumption, then, to transfer an event thus recorded in a regular series of transactions, to a period two thousand five hundred years after, merely because we think subsequent notices of its observation ought to occur in the history of the patriarchs. We might as well break asunder the links of the history, at any other period, as at this. We might as well suppose that the heavens and the earth were not created, on the days which the sacred history records. We might as well imagine that the sun and moon did not begin to shine as soon as they were made. If the Sabbath was not granted to man at the time which is assigned to it, all is thrown into uncertainty. The whole foundation of faith is overturned by such a process.

If in a plain historical narrative, and especially of a series of successive actions, we are not to believe that the events really occurred as they were affirmed to have occurred, the Bible is no longer a clear and safe guide, but an enigma and a riddle. The plain literal commonsense interpretation of the history of the Scripture is indispensable to faith.

But in the present case we have yet further reasons. The distribution of the work of creation into its parts would be deprived of its object and end, if the institution of the Sabbath is expunged. For why this distribution, but to mark to man the proportion of time allotted him for his usual labour, and the proportion to be assigned to religious exercises ? As the narrative stands in the Scripture, all is consistent. The six days' creation, the seventh day's rest, have their relative place. They teach man a great moral and religious lesson. Take away the first Sabbath, and all is left incomplete and detruncated the object in which it terminates is wanting.

Again, where is the example in Scripture of any instituted commemoration not beginning from the time of its appointment? Did the passover wait two thousand years before it was celebrated, after the deliverance which it was designed to commemorate? Did circumcision under the Old Testament, or baptism and the Lord's Supper under the New, remain in abeyance

for centuries before they were acted upon? And shall the commemoration of the glories of creation be thought to be suspended for more than two thousand years after the occasion on which it was appointed had taken place? And especially as the reason for the celebration existed from the beginning, related to the whole race of mankind as well as to the Jews, and became more and more cogent in the following ages, as sin marred the Almighty's work, and idolatry prevailed in the world.

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One is ashamed to urge more arguments in such a case. But I must call your attention to the quotation of this history of the institution of the Sabbath, in the fourth commandment, where the fact is referred to as well known, and is made the reason of the whole statute. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy""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'-where it is to be noted, that the words are not, "the Lord blesses and hallows;" or, "will bless and hallow;" but, "wherefore the Lord BLESSED the Sabbath day, and HALLOWED it," that is, at the time that he rested" from his work of creation. whole narrative is repeated, as if to remove all reasonable doubt. Add to this the language of the apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, where he takes for granted that the original rest of the Sabbath began when "the works were finished from the creation of the world." Thus we have the strongest moral certainty that the narrative of the institution of the Sabbath in paradise is and must be literally interpreted.

1

1 Heb. iv. iii.

The

2 The opinion of the Reformers on this subject is uniform. Luther says, "If Adam had continued in innocency, yet he would have had a sacred seventh day." Calvin, " God therefore first rested and then blessed this rest, that it might be sacred in all ages amongst men; he dedicated every seventh day to rest, that his own example might be a perpetual rule.-When we are told that Christ abolishes the Sabbath, a distinction must be made between the figures of the old law and that which re

But it is further objected, that, allowing this account to be in its natural place, it contains no enactment of a Sabbath—it states merely that God blessed and hallowed the seventh day, but for what purposes it does not

affirm.'

But we ask in reply, what is the meaning of the word sanctify, when applied to a portion of our time-for whose use did the Almighty bless and hallow the seventh day-what is the meaning of God's saying that he "rested and was refreshed after the six days' work"-what instruction do we derive from the division of creation into six portions, followed by a seventh of repose? Were not all these done for the sake of man, the reasonable, intelligent creature of the great artificer? Did the Almighty rest for his own sake, or bless and hallow the seventh day, that he within himself might observe it? Unreasonable, if not impious, are such suppositions. God's working six days and resting the seventh, were clearly designed to be of general and universal use in determining the proportion of time to be severally devoted to human and divine dutiesby them the conduct of mankind was to be regulatedby them God intended to teach man that he should, after his Maker's example, work six days, and then rest and hallow the next following-that he should sanctify every seventh day-that the space between rest and rest, between one hallowed time and another, among his creatures here upon earth, should be six days.' And indeed there is no other sense in which the word " sanctified" is used in the Old Testament, when employed with respect to inanimate things, or to persons fulfilling an office or function. Thus the priests, the taberna

lates to the perpetual regulation of our lives.-What refers to the command given to man from the beginning to consecrate the day to the worship of God, continues in force to the end of the world." Beza says, that "the day of the Sabbath continued from the creation of the world to the resurrection of our Lord, when it was at length changed by the apostles into the Lord's day." I need not go on.

1 J. Edwards.

cle, the furniture, the days of fasting and penitence, &c. were declared to be sanctified, when they were separated from common employments, and set apart for the especial service of God. This is the uniform import of the term. When it is said, therefore, that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, it means that he set it apart and consecrated it for religious rest, and annexed the promise of his special blessing to the discharge of its duties. It can mean nothing else; common sense requires it.

And this meaning is rendered certain by the exposition of our text in the fourth commandment, where the minute injunctions with regard to the Sabbath expressly repose upon the words before us, which it cites and explains. The fourth commandment is nothing more than the terms of the first institution enlarged.

The objections to the received faith of the church on the institution of the Sabbath in paradise, you see, are weak and nugatory. They have not even a shadow of proof. Not one person in a million of those who read the sacred narrative, would ever dream that it was an anticipated history, or that it did not imply a most decisive command to keep holy the day of rest.

Here, then, we fix our foot. Now let us pause, and draw from these facts, some of THE JUST INFERENCES which arise from them as to the glory and dignity of the Sabbath.

We learn from them, first, its ESSENTIAL NECESSITY to man as man. Though Adam was in a state of innocence, his all-wise Creator saw it necessary to call him off from even the moderate and gentle labour of dressing and keeping the garden, to the immediate contemplations and exercises of religion. Adam loved God "with all his heart and soul and mind and strength"he required no season of repose to withdraw his mind from the eagerness of worldly pursuits, in the sense in which we require it, nor to recreate his body from excessive toil and yet the Sabbath was necessary for him. Judge from this of its essential moral character. Judge from this how indispensable it is to fallen man,