perfectly understood, and no one questioning that God had from the beginning appointed a Sabbath, it would be superfluous to re-enact its observance. It might become important to call attention to it, and to write it, to enjoin upon the people to remember it, and keep it holy. And while on this theory the language of Scripture is perfectly natural, on any other it is incapable of any satisfactory explanation. It was doubtless given at the beginning, and Sinai only witnessed its republication.

But let us examine a little more minutely the precepts of the decalogue. The three first prohibit certain things in relation to God, the Lawgiver. The fourth is addressed to man: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Here the institution is first particularized as already existing: it is "the Sabbath day." Then follow specific enactments to secure its observance: "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:" so as to be prepared for the seventh. The remaining six refer to duties which men everywhere, and in all ages, were bound to perform toward each other; duties the obligation of which did not originate then, nor did those enjoined toward God. That obligation existed always. It grew out of the very nature and relations of man: not of the Jews, but of all men, in all ages. With what propriety, then, could the Sabbath be supposed, alone, to be of recent origin, or limited obligation, while all the other precepts are universal? Besides, as if to guard against the possibility of such a hypothesis, the Sabbath is spoken of explicitly—as if, however ignorant men might be of every other duty, they already knew that this institution existed, there was no necessity for enjoining a day of rest, but only of enforcing the remembrance of one which they already knew to have been ordained.

From these considerations, it is obvious that the Sabbath is not peculiar to any dispensation, patriarchal, Jewish, or Christian. It is older than either, and belongs to the race. It was "made for man." It derives none of its authority from either, as such; they rather have been dependent upon its influence for their entire efficiency and support. It has had, therefore, the approbation of good men, not only in the times of Moses, but before and since: and the pious upon earth will continue, with religious

veneration, to cherish it, till they shall enter upon that eternal Sabbath, of which it is both the type and the preparative.

It is certainly no virtue in man that he is so constituted as to need the rest of every seventh day. Nor is it any sin in him that he is so constituted that he cannot, without detriment, feed on poison. These are arrangements which he did not originate, and for whose existence he has no responsibility. But finding such a constitution of things already established, he is bound to fall in with it, as expressing the will of God. Indeed, a kind of necessity is thus created for a compliance with the divine law. True virtue, however, consists not so much in yielding to those arrangements, because we suffer for it if we do not, as in a cheerful aequiescence in them, because they are the will of God, thus made known to us. It is, indeed, a most benevolent act of our Creator thus to have constituted us, so that the very necessities of our nature and condition fall in with our duty, and thus become our helps and monitors in the way to Heaven. And disobedience, under such an arrangement, becomes doubly sinful. Thus, to neglect the Sabbath, is not only a sin against God, but against our own souls, and against our own bodies. He who refuses suitable food, or partakes of some slow and certain poison, is not more palpably a transgressor against his own physical nature, than he is who denies to his body that weekly rest which God has made essential to its vigor, and commanded him to observe. And as for his moral nature, he sins not against that more fatally who shuts his eyes upon the word of God, and turns away from all its ordinances, than he does who forgets the Sabbath.

This institution, then, is sanctioned by a two-fold enactment -the one as written on tables of stone, the other on the very nature of man: and both by the finger of Jehovah. Every intelligent being is an open volume to himself, where he may read the precept, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" and whether willing or unwilling, is an agent for its promulgation to others. Human nature hath a voice, and a tongue which trumpets it, as loudly and clearly as did Sinai's thunders. Then, for God to create such a necessity for the Sabbath, is the same

thing as for him to enact it. Indeed, is it not more forcible than any other mode of enactment can be?

In the absence, then, of all other proof, it would seem that any farther argument would be superfluous. Lest, however, some may not yet be satisfied, we shall proceed to consider the subject still farther, that, if possible, all may be induced to remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.

March, 1839.

14*

CHAPTER V.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

THE following opinions, facts, and arguments, were published in a series of twelve numbers, in a weekly periodical, in 1836, and were elicited by objections then made and industriously circulated by the enemies of the Sabbath. They are inserted here, not as a labored, systematic examination of the whole subject under consideration, which for ages has been before the public, and, especially during the last half century, has been presented in a most masterly, acceptable, and triumphant manner; but as containing answers, selected from accredited sources, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, to particular popular objections, accompanied with brief remarks.

Numerous quotations have been made from the ancient fathers, for three reasons, viz:-To show that they did not consider the institution abolished-that there was a change of the day from the seventh to the first—and that all who wish to know their opinions on these points may learn them without the trouble of consulting a dozen or twenty authors.

OBJECTION I.-"THERE IS NO AUTHORITY FOR THE SABBATH.”

As this is merely the assertion of disbelievers in divine reve-lation, without even an attempt to produce evidence in support of it, little time will be spent in answering it. For, as before remarked, this effort has not been made mainly for the sake of such individuals, but for those who believe in the truth of the Bible. The evidence of the supreme authority of the Scriptures is already before the public, and is more conclusive and abundant than that of any other work of antiquity. In that book, the sacred historian informs us, that on the sixth day God ended his work, and rested on and blessed the seventh day; or, as it is

believed, set it apart as a Sabbath. He made it for man-FOR THE RACE. The day on which this rest was to be observed, was fixed after the heavens and earth, and all their host were finished: and but for this day, our weeks might have consisted of six instead of seven days. Certainly it was not needed by God, in order to finish the work of creation.

Moses, in the commencement of this history, takes it for granted that there is a God. And, ever after this history of the institution of the Sabbath, he, and the rest of the sacred writers, take it for granted that there is a Sabbath. They speak of it as a thing universally known and understood, except in its detail, just as he spoke of the existence of a God- -a thing too well understood to need proof. And, since the Bible is with us an accredited book, it is sufficient for the present purpose to add only the commandment therein contained as evidence that God has required of some people, at least, the observance of a Sabbath. It is in these words, viz:

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, 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, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. 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."

In this there is no effort to prove that there is a Sabbath. The fact is stated, and man was commanded to keep it.

One of the reasons given for the observance of this institution is, that "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." Moses, then, evidently understood the seventh day spoken of (Gen. ii. 2, 3,) to be a Sabbath; and if Moses, then also the people of Israel.

CHRIST required his disciples to keep his commandments, and follow his example. He observed the Sabbath, and after his resurrection, frequently appeared to them on the first day of the week, leading them in the worship of God, and instructing them,