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tuted, where the Sabbatic circumstances of " seven days," from all manner of work," and "holy convocations,” are all mentioned as matters with which it is taken for granted that they were well acquainted.

The doctrine of a paradisiacal and patriarchal Sabbath does not depend on the circumstances now reviewed, but however imperfectly they may have been stated, we venture to call for this verdict from our readers, that but for the antecedent institution and continued observance of a sacred seventh day, those circumstances could not have existed.

CHAPTER III.

THE SABBATH PROMULGATED FROM SINAI AS ONE OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE MORAL LAW.

"Remember the Sabbath-Day to keep it holy."

WHEN we pass from the Patriarchal to the Jewish dispensation of religion, we discover increasing evidence that the Sabbath was designed to be a law and blessing to mankind. That under an economy so different in many respects from that which preceded it, and providing so many additional seasons for worship, the aboriginal holy day was not superseded, but retained with superadded tokens of respect, was a circumstance which gave promise of its continuing to hold a place among the laws and ordinances of heaven while the world itself should last.

THIRD PROPOSITION. THE SABBATH, AS INSTITUTED AT THE CREATION, HAD A PLACE ASSIGNED TO IT IN THE MORAL LAW GIVEN FROM SINAI.

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When the Almighty gave forth the Law of the Decalogue with his own voice from Sinai, one of the utterances was, "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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."

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It is no just objection to the general and permanent character

1 Ex. xx. 9-11.

of legislation that it has been connected with local and temporary circumstances. It has been the Divine method to make known matters of universal concern in connexion with particular places and occurrences, and to present them, not in cold abstractions, but as naturally springing up amidst the business and occasions of human life. Thus the appointment of deacons grew out of the circumstances of the Apostles and the increasing accessions to the Church. The Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ in the presence only of his disciples, and a renewed revelation of its divine authority arose from the abuses which certain individuals had introduced, and was given only to one church. A great part, indeed, of the instruction which we find in Scripture respecting the everlasting and catholic truth as it is in Jesus, was addressed to churches and individuals of the first age of Christianity. It was the same in times still more remote. The very earliest notice of a Saviour was not directly addressed to the world, which it was intended to encourage and bless, but to the great enemy of the Saviour and of man. And other animating promises which have cheered the people of God in all subsequent time were made to individuals.

Nor must it be supposed that the selection of a particular people to be the objects of Divine favour, and the depositaries of the Divine oracles, is a circumstance with which we have nothing to do further than as a matter of curiosity or of historical interest. This is neither an uncommon nor a trifling error. How many regard the people of Israel as if they were the inhabitants of another planet, and their system of religion as if it had almost nothing in common with the Christian. How many look upon the Old Testament as an obsolete part of Divine revelation, which it is unnecessary to read for "instruction of life and manners"—whose Psalms are not to be sung-whose principles apply not to uswhose worthies are no models-whose spirit is unchristian. Nothing could be more remote from the truth. Judaism, indeed, was religion in its infancy, but it was a religion wise, just, and good. It was a local and stationary, not like Christianity a moving circulating light, but this character served important purposes. By Judaism religion was preserved in the world, and a testimony steadily borne to the existence of the one living

and true God. Its privileges were open to all Gentiles who abandoned idolatry, and acceded to the profession of the true faith. Considered even as to their transitory peculiarities, the Jews were appointed to serve great ends with respect both to the surrounding world and to future ages. But, more than this, the Jews were men who in common with others stood in need of a Saviour, and of a law to guide them as rational and immortal beings. To them, accordingly, a Saviour was made known by typical representations and the preaching of the prophets-to them a moral law was given.

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From the remarks now made we should be led to expect, and prepared to account for, the embedding as it were of laws, susceptible of the most extensive and enduring application, in a phraseology and in allusions of a local and temporary character. And yet the actual specialties in the Decalogue are so few and so clearly consonant to the universality of its import and bearings as to show how careful the Lawgiver was to render it inexcusable for any one to reject its right and claim to be the law of the world. There is the preface, "I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage." Strictly speaking, the preface or preamble does not enter into the law. the present case, it is the Gospel rather than a part of the Law. How obvious the principle implied, which is, that the mercy of the Lawgiver, especially as exhibited in the work of Redemption, is the mighty inducement to do His will, for when we consider the faithful among Israel as constituting with Christians one Church, "the seed of Abraham," and "heirs according to the promise," and that the redemption from Egypt was a type of the great Redemption, as well as a step to its accomplishment, it does not require what is called an "accommodation" to apply this preface far beyond the typical deliverance, and to regard it as pointing to the infinitely more influential motives to obedience arising from a spiritual and everlasting salvation. There is also this promise to filial obedience, "That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The apostle Paul does not hesitate to apply the fifth commandment, and its promise too, to the children of Christian parents, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honour thy father

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and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” And, once more, the second commandment has annexed to it a threatening and a promise, which may be conceived by some to be applicable only to the Jews: "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." But both the curse and the blessing were attached to the law of God long before it was given at Sinai, and have extended far beyond the boundaries of Judea, as well as endured long after the Mosaic economy had ceased. Was there anything Judaical in the blessing pronounced upon Shem and Japheth, or in the curse uttered against Ham ? Did not both the curse and the blessing begin to take effect before the time of Moses ? Have they not continued to operate in all nations? And are not their effects perceptible in the circumstances of the descendants of Noah even at this hour?

That the Decalogue was not even as a code prescribed to the Jews only, or abrogated along with the other laws of Moses, but epitomizes the duty of human beings in all places and times, appears from the distinction conferred in Scripture on its precepts above the other commandments delivered to the Jewish people— from the catholic nature of the precepts themselves, and from their declared obligation on mankind.

1. The Scriptures have in various and unequivocal forms done special honour to the law of the ten commandments.

Its promulgation was heralded by solemn preparations. "Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain." He is instructed to inform Israel of the Divine condescension and kindness about to be shown to them in the covenant to be established between God and them, and the necessity of holy obedience on their part, that they might be a peculiar treasure unto Him above all people. He intimates these things to the people, and "returns their words unto the Lord." For two days they must sanctify themselves, that they might be ready on the third day, on which Jehovah was to come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Death was to be the penalty of going up into the mount, or touching the border of