livered the Israelites from their Egyptian bondage, a reason which appertains to them, and to them alone. Bishop Horsley has an observation which may be worth notice here, whilst we are considering the reasons assigned by the Creator for hallowing the seventh day it regards the distinction of tenses used in the fourth Commandment. "It is added (says that

able prelate) that he therefore blessed and hallowed it; not blesses and hallows it now for the first time, because he delivers you, the children of Israel from a foreign yoke." This observation would have been entitled to great weight if the institution of the Sabbath had been made known for the first time at the giving of the Law: but as Moses declared its existence at the cessation of the manna in the wilderness, the words of the commandment may possibly refer to that event, unless we suppose (as my own opinion inclines me to suppose), that this very declaration of Moses had a view retrospectively to the primæval institution, not prospectively to the law, which was not then given.a

a

There certainly appears in this case to be a very remarkable distinction of tenses, leading to the conclusion above stated; "See, for the Lord hath given you the sabbath: therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days." Neither does it appear at all necessary that the people should have been thus introduced, and, as it were, accustomed to the

Sabbatical

Many other arguments might be adduced against the proleptical view of the text which has given rise to this discussion. As brevity however is an object much to be desired, I hasten to what I consider as conclusive upon the subject, I mean the interpretation given to the passage in the New Testament. The Apostle, having observed at the conclusion of the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews, that God sware in his wrath that certain of the Jews should not enter into his rest, viz. "those that believed not," takes occasion in the following chapter to excite in his Christian converts a religious fear, lest any of them by their unbelief should fail of obtaining the promise of his rest: and to remove all uncertainty respecting the nature of this promised rest, he draws a careful

Sabbatical rite, about to be imposed upon them by a lawgiver who imposed upon them many others equally burthensome without any previous preparation. Moreover the expression used by Moses (Exod. xvi. 23.) "To-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord," seems to imply in them some knowledge of a prior decree, without which it would have been very unintelligible. The words also of God himself, addressed to Moses, (ver. 28.) "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws," seem to represent those who went out to gather manna on the seventh day, as transgressors in some measure of a known ordinance. In fact the restoration of the ordinance appears to have been made the first point of attention after the Exodus, as the ordinance itself was the first given after the Creation.

B 2

distinction between the three kinds of rest which may properly be said to be of God. 1. The rest of the seventh day. 2. That general tranquillity obtained by the Israelites under Joshua in the land of Canaan. 3. That spiritual rest, or Sabbatism, which remains to the people of God in a future state. He then argues that the words of David, (Ps. xcv. 11.) "unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest," cannot be understood of the rest given to them by Joshua, nor of the seventh day's rest, into which men have entered ever since the foundation of the world; a rest intended for all, imperative upon all, and therefore not that rest to which the promise belongs. In his very explicit declaration upon this point, the Apostle observes, "for we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter (i. e. that they shall not enter) into my rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." Heb. iv. 3, 4. Here we see no reference made to the peculiar Sabbath of the Jews, but all to the original decree of God, to the foundation of the world, and to God's rest from the works of Creation. The conclusion which might have

been perhaps expected at the end of the 4th verse, "therefore God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it," is omitted in the writer's concise ellipical style, as well known to his readers, who were Jewish converts. If this commentary upon the passage in Genesis be not deemed satisfactory in destroying all notion of a prolepsis, I have nothing more to offer, since after it every thing must be of inferior weight and authority. I proceed therefore to my second proposition.

SECT. II.

Ir to keep holy the seventh day, be a law which is obligatory upon all mankind, how, it is asked, could that law ever have been a peculiar sign between God and the Israelites? Verily (says the Almighty by Moses) my Sabbaths shall ye keep for it is a Sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Exod. xxx. 13. And again, "The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, and observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. v. 16. But what particular distinction could that give to the Israelites which was common to the whole world? The answer to this is that it was not the mere keeping holy

a seventh day, as in times past, which distinguished the people of Israel, but the peculiar manner in which they kept it holy; for every species of labour on that day was prohibited under the penalty of death. Bear in mind then the true meaning and definition of the Sabbath, and you will find it in the strictest sense of the word a sign.

Moreover in the very institution of this Sabbath we may remark how clearly the Lawgiver refers to two distinct ordinances. In the first notice of a Sabbath, no reference whatever is made to any peculiar rites, but simply to the Lord's rest; and again at its solemn insertion into the Decalogue, as I have before observed, the people are reminded of the antiquity of that primitive ordinance which gave birth to the new institution. But at the rehearsal of the Law", their deliverance from Egyptian bondage is given as a reason for that strict Sabbatical rest, which was thenceforth to continue, a sign and covenant between God and themselves, until that great Deliverer should arise, who would free them from the burthen of ceremonial rites. As we cannot suppose any contradiction to exist in these two statements of the inspired Lawgiver, so neither will there be any ambiguity, if we keep in view

a Deut. v. 15.