was originally appointed by God himself without restriction to any one nation; That it was subsequently confirmed and embodied in the Moral Law; and, That its observance is also an apostolic practice, which has existed in the church of Christ from the days of our blessed Lord himself.

That a weekly Sabbath was originally appointed by the Creator for the whole world, we might suppose was sufficiently proved by the second chapter of Genesis, and by the Fourth Commandment. But we are told by Dr. Paley and others, that the passage in Genesis was written by anticipation. But is there any proof of this being the case? And is it not remarkable that the reason assigned in that passage for sanctifying the seventh day, was not of a temporary or local, but of an universal kind; " God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it he had rested from all his work, which God had created and made." Now, this reason was quite as applicable before the institution of the Jewish polity as after: it was a reason common to every nation and every age. But it is asked, Why, if the appointment took place thus early, do we hear nothing further of it in the Book of Genesis? We might answer generally, That in the short notices which we there find of the primitive world, we can discover scarcely a vestige of many other things which we might have

conceived would have been expressly mentioned. The omission of any topic from such brief notices, is therefore no convincing argument on either side. We may say of this, as of the alleged absence of sanction to a national establishment in the New Testament, or of the absence of a positive command to baptize children, or to admit women to the Lord's Supper, that much is necessarily implied which is not immediately expressed.

Besides, among idolaters-and such the world at large became soon after the Fall-this institution was not likely to be duly kept up, notwithstanding its Divine original; so that even if it were demonstrated that no allusion is made to the Sabbath in a brief history which relates chiefly to persons thus circumstanced; and if the absence of such mention were, further allowed to amount to a proof, that the institution was entirely unknown among them (which, however, it does not, as many things must have been known which are not related), still it would not follow that such an appointment had never taken place. But in point of fact, is it true that no vestiges of such an institution are to be found in the Book of Genesis? If we refer to chap. vii. 4, and chap. viii, 6-12, there seem to be strong intimations that time, was reckoned by periods of seven days; and it

would not be an improbable assumption that the inhabitants of the Ark kept the Sabbath-day with holy solemnity, and that it was on that day that Noah dispatched the dove in search of land. Besides which, in Gen. xxix. 27, 29, the word "weeks" occurs twice; the very same word used in various parts of Scripture to designate the division of time by the periodical return of the Sabbath.

The passage urged by Archdeacon Paley (Exod. xvi. 22-30.) as containing the first actual institution of the Sabbath, has been by some other writers considered, and not perhaps without reason, as rather proving the reverse. It is certain there is no express promulgation of a new command on that occasion; but, on the contrary, the obligation of keeping the Sabbath seems throughout to be taken for a thing known and granted; apparently in express allusion to the primeval law recorded in the second chapter of Genesis. The Fourth Commandment, in like manner, would appear to refer to a previous appointment. The injunction to Remember the Sabbath-day" seems to be rather a recognition of a neglected duty than a statute enjoining a new one; and the phrase "the seventh day is (not shall be) the Sabbath," tends to confirm the same view of the question.

But even were these arguments unfounded, the duty would still be binding as a part of the Moral Law. It is very unlikely that one merely ritual or ceremonial command should have been admitted in the Decalogue among the moral and universal precepts. And besides, the reason there assigned for the observance is not of a ri tual kind, but one which, as was before remark, ed, applies to all ages and nations. The real fact seems to be, that to the Jews the observance of the Sabbath was both a ritual and a moral duty. The ritual obligation is expressly given Deut. v. 12—15, and applies exclusively to the Jewish Nation; but the moral proceeds on wider ground, and is only a reprint of the primeval injunction. The duty itself was general; but the mode of observance and even the exact day, might be special; and hence it has been contended by some, that though the Jews kept one day in seven holy on account of the original command, the day itself was transferred from that of the creation, to that of their emancipation from Egypt; those days, it is urged, not coinciding; and that thus the memory of both events was perpetuated under one institution *. It is very certain, that the

* This argument has been employed to shew the lawfulness of the change from the last to the first day of the week, by the Christian church. It is not, however, neces

observance of the Sabbath is frequently spoken of as a moral, rather than a ceremonial command in the Old Testament (see, for example, Isaiah lvi. 1-7; lviii. 13, 14); and our Lord himself gave full and repeated directions for its observance, in a way that by no means would seem to intimate that he viewed it as only a part of the Jewish ritual, which was so soon to cease in its obligatory nature on his own followers.

The arguments for the observation of the Christian Sabbath, derived from the New Testament, and especially from apostolic example, are too well known to need recital. Certainly our Lord's rising on the first day of the week, and the disciples assembling on that day, with a variety of incidents and expressions in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, and St. John's designation of the day in the Revelations, as emphatically "The Lord's-day," are proofs that "that day was a high day" even in the earliest periods of the Christian Church.

But, among those who violate the strictness of the Christian Sabbath, a far larger number are induced to do so from the temptations of pleasure, from an exclusive attachment to secular pursuits, or from mere recklessness and

sary to the present question; and the reader must judge for himself how far it appears valid.