PROPHECY OF HAGGAI.

"And the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts." Hag. ii. 7-9.

This ובאו חמדת כל הגוים,THE present Hebrew text is as follows

is a difficult place if understood of a person: but chemdath, desire, cannot well agree with N bau, they shall come. It is true that some learned men suppose that chemdoth, desirable things, may have been the original reading; but this is supported by no MS., nor is found in the singular number in any. It is generally understood of the desirable or valuable things which the different nations should bring into the temple; and it is certain that many rich presents were brought to this temple. All are puzzled with it. But the principal difficulty lies in the verb u-bau, they shall come. If we found u-baah chemdath, in the singular, then it would read as in our text, And the desire of all nations shall come but no such reading appears in any MS.; nor is it fairly acknowledged except by the Vulgate, which reads, Et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus, "And that which is desired;" or, "the desired Person shall come to all nations." In ver. 7, God says He will shake or stir up all nations, that these nations shall bring their desirable things; that the house shall be filled with God's glory; that the silver and gold which these nations are represented as bringing by way of gifts are the Lord's; and that the glory of this latter house shall exceed the former. Bp. Chandler labours to vindicate the present translation; but he makes rash assertions, and is abandoned by the Hebrew text. That N ba, to come, is often used in the sense of bring, and that chemdath, desire, may be considered as the plural for , or the point holem, instead of the vau, and 'thus mean desirable things, will not be denied by those who are acquainted with the genius and construction of the Hebrew language. Bp. Chandler thinks that & he came, cannot be used of things, but of persons only. Here he is widely mistaken, for it is used of days perpetually; and of the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 9.; and of mounts coming against Jerusalem, Jer. xxxii. 24.; and of trees coming to adorn the temple, Isa. lx. 13.; and of silver and gold coming into the temple, Josh. vi. 19.; and Jer. vi. 20., Why doth incense come to me? See Abp. Secker's Notes. I cannot see how the words can apply to Jesus Christ, even if the construction were less embarrassed than it is; because I cannot see how he could be called THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. The whole seems to be a metaphorical description of the church of Christ; and of his filling if with all the excellencies of the Gentile world, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in.

But it is said that the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former. Now this cannot be said because Jesus Christ made his personal appearance in that temple, or rather in that built by Herod : for though we allow that Jesus Christ is equal with God, we do not grant that he is greater. Now the first temple was the dwelling place of God: here he manifested his glory between the cherubim, and it was his constant residence for more than four hundred years. But the glory of this latter house was greater, because that, under it, the grand scheme of human salvation was exhibited, and the redemption price paid down for a lost world. As all, probably applies to the Christian church, the real house of God, its glory was most certainly greater than any glory which was ever possessed by that of the Jews.1

Biblical Envestigations.

INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH.

To the Editor of the Scripture Magazine.

SIR-In reviewing the works of Messrs. Holden, Burnside, and Higgins, on the Sabbatic institution, in your numbers for March and April, you have, with some considerable degree of confidence, ventured to oppose the opinions hitherto generally entertained on the subject, by Christians of all denominations. As I have no doubt that your object on all occasions is to elicit and embrace the truth, you will not, I venture to think, feel displeased at the following attempt to meet your arguments; and if you think it worthy a place in your excellent periodical, you will not withhold it from your readers. I shall not detain you with any preliminary matters, but at once pass on to submit the real state of the question, which may be summed up as follows.

Moses, in the first chapters of the book of Genesis, has given a brief account of the creation. In this account he distinguishes the work of each day, and informs us that God, having completed the work in six days, rested on the seventh day, "and God blessed the seventh day,

1 Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary, in loc.

and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made,” ch. ii. 3. Now this is a very plain, straightforward relation, which any one of ordinary capacity would understand, —a statement of facts in the order in which they occurred: God worked six days he rested on the seventh-he sanctified the seventh day, because on that day he rested. A common reader of these chapters at the present moment would conclude, that if God sanctified the day because he had completed his work, he so sanctified it from the time at which that work was completed ;-" but common readers very frequently form erroneous conclusions:" granted; and, apropos, here comes a critic who will "set the matter full before ye", in a very learned explanation-let us hear him: "Moses was the mere recorder of transactions which took place long before his time; he might, for aught we know, have had some documents or traditions from which to form his history; but it is probable he received the far greater part of his information directly from the Deity. This Moses was not merely an historian, but a chief magistrate and a lawgiver; he had to make laws for, and to govern a stiff-necked and perverse generation; and knowing well the people he had to rule, he endeavoured to give his laws all possible sanction;-God had sanctified the Sabbath at the time he wrote the history, and therefore it was perfectly innocent and proper for him to place the account of such sanctification immediately after the narrative of the six days' work to which it referred; thus giving a higher sanction to the law."

To this explanation it will be sufficient in this place to reply, that in all probability Moses had the whole account by tradition; but, whichever way he received it, he was secured from mistake. If it be admitted that he was correctly informed, his integrity in imparting that information must also be admitted. It is to no purpose that we furnish reasons for his misrepresentation; he had been taught not to bear false witness; nor do evil that good might come. To suppose that he had any motive save to declare the truth, is to destroy his claim to inspiration, and reduce him, not to the rank of an historian merely, but to that of an impostor. What purpose, it may be asked, could deception answer? The law had been given from Sinai before this account of the creation was circulated among the Jews-probably before it was written. Could any thing be more terrible than that exhibition-more likely to awe the mind, than the thunder and lightning and tempest; or could Moses hope that the people who would break laws given with so much grandeur and solemnity, could be induced to keep any one particular command, because he gave it the appearance of antiquity? Indeed, it would be no difficult task to prove, that such a course would weaken rather than strengthen the law: but of this more by and by. Until, therefore, a good reason can be given why an infallible historian, acting immediately under Divine authority and direction, should assert that God set apart the Sabbath as an holy day 2500 years before he really did so,—until such reason can be given for leading common people into error by innuendo, the antiquity of the law may be fairly argued

from the relation contained in the second chapter of Genesis; and it is really too much to ask its advocates to prove, that it was not only given, but observed.

It is next asserted that the observance of the Sabbath day is no part of the moral law,-that it is not included in the obligations of natural religion; on the other hand it is affirmed, with equal confidence, that such observance is part and parcel of the moral law,-is included in the obligations of natural religion. Both assertions may be true or false; for if there be any terms to which it is lawful to affix ideas at pleasure, and with which we may perplex our neighbours without remorse of conscience, the terms " law of nature," "natural religion," are of that character. Here, if anywhere, we may fairly exclaim—

"Who shall decide when doctors disagree,

And soundest casuists doubt like you and me."

The prince of Abyssinia is represented by Dr. Johnson as visiting an assembly of learned men, and listening with profound attention while one of them expatiated on the happiness of a life led according to nature. "Let me know," said the prince, when the sage had finished his oration," what it is to live acccording to nature."- 'It is," said he, "to act always with due regard to the fitness arising from the relations and qualities of causes and effects; to concur with the great and unchangeable scheme of universal felicity; to co-operate with the general disposition and tendency of the present system of things." The Doctor, who probably had himself often listened to the natural religionists of his day, thus concludes the chapter: "The prince soon found that this was one of the sages whom he should understand less as he heard him longer; he therefore bowed and was silent, and the philosopher, supposing him satisfied and the rest vanquished, rose up, and departed with the air of a man who had co-operated with the present system."

In like manner we may suppose a modest inquirer after truth addressing such an assembly: "Be so kind, Gentlemen, as to inform me, what is the law of nature; but pray don't all speak at once."-" That man should pursue his own true and substantial happiness," says one; "Selfpreservation," says another; "Sociality," says a third; a fourth exclaims," It is the belief that we are the image of God;" a fifth will have it to be the will of God; a sixth, right reason; a seventh, that we are to love God, ourselves, and our neighbours; and so on. Now, taking most of these definitions of the first principle, or law of nature, the observance of the Sabbath seems a branch of it, for it promotes the true and substantial happiness of man, by affording him an opportunity for the worship of God, for reflection on the grandeur and beauty of his works, and for rational enjoyment; it tends to self-preservation, by appointing a set time for rest and cleanliness; it encourages sociality, by the assembling together of all ranks for a common purpose-the rich and poor meet together--the Lord is the Maker of them all; it is agreeable to the dictates of right reason, in conformity with the will of

God, and encreases our love to God, ourselves, and our neighbours; but it will be objected-" Why one day in seven-granting the propriety of some cessation of labour, the necessity of some public instruction ;why not every new moon instead of every Sabbath?" Here it will be proper, first, to give the opinion of others, and then the writer will venture to state his own. "Laws that are partly positive may be resolved into the law of nature, or the moral law, as revived, improved, and enforced by revelation. Several particulars of this law derive a greater degree of evidence from this new mode of promulgation, and also a stronger enforcement. The law concerning the Sabbath is in a peculiar sense a law of this kind, the matter of it being of a mixed nature. That some part of our time should be consecrated to the worship of our Creator, the light of nature dictates; but that it should be a seventh part rather than the first or the third, is not natural, but positive." Now here it is conceded, that laws partly positive may be resolved into the law of nature, and that the Sabbath is one of those laws. But it will be said, this is skimming the surface of the argument: the writer acknowledges it; and as his object is to discover the truth, he will endeavour to go deep enough to be understood, even at the hazard of getting out of his depth, and of at last bringing up an oyster instead of a pearl.

Natural religion, then, may mean that which men discover by the sole exercise of their natural faculties and powers, without any other or higher assistance; which has been described as a perfect scheme of religion and morality, fairly drawn on the mind and heart of every man in such a manner that it is not possible for any man to mistake it; the most illiterate of the human race having naturally and necessarily a clear and intimate perception of the whole of religion and of their duty. There are two parties who have seemed anxious to magnify the importance of this religion: Deists, who wish to supersede the necessity of revelation; and some Christians, who have thought to serve the purposes of Christianity by shewing its harmony with this supposed law of nature. But it is in vain to ask, What is discoverable by the light of nature?-What has it ever discovered? is the proper question. Does not all history prove, that wherever mankind have been left to themselves, they have been so far from making discoveries, that they have lost the discoveries of others,-gone backwards to a state of ignorance and mistaken religion in its most important principles and obligations. So meanly does the writer think of natural religion in this sense, that he does not feel it necessary to waste a moment in ascertaining whether the Sabbath be part of it or not.

Others by "natural religion understand, not merely that which is naturally and necessarily known to all men, but that which reason, duly exercised and improved, is able by its own natural force to discover, without the assistance of any extraordinary revelation."

1 Dr. Rees' Cyclopædia: art. Law Positive.