For the Panop, ist, ON THE SABBATH. NO. II. The Institution of the Sabbath. THAT the Sabbath was originally appointed by divine authority, is not, I believe, questioned by any, who profess to regard the Scriptures as a revelation from heaven. It cannot, therefore, be necessary to spend a moment in proving so clear a point. Happy would it be, if the same just coin cidence of opinion existed respecting every material question, connected with this important subject. That this however is very far from being the case, will be sufficiently obvious, in the progress of these numbers. It being granted by all parties, that the Sabbath was originally a divine institution, the first question that presents itself, in the plan which I propose to pursue, is;-At what time, and on what occasion, was the Sabbath instituted? This question, as it appears to me, is unequivocally answered, in the second chapter of Genesis, at the beginning. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made, and he VOL. X. rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made. Here is nothing ambiguous, either in the words themselves, or in their connexion with the preceding narrative. The plain and obvious account is, that as soon as God had finished the great work of creation, he not only rested from it himself, but appointed the very next, or seventh, day to be observed by our first parents, as a day of holy rest, in commemoration of the grand event. Whatever reasons any persons may think they see for ascribing a much later date to this sacred institution, they will not surely say, that any of these reasons were first suggested to their minds by the perusal of the passage before us. Even they must concede as much as this, that the passage seems, at first view, to favor the construction which I have given it. But it has been contended, that this cannot be the true construction, because neither the observance, nor the existence, of a Sabbath, is once mentioned by the sacred historian, from the second chapter of Genesis, to the sixteenth of Exodus, including a period of about 31 2500 years. Many very pious men, it is added, certainly lived within that long period, who would have solemnly observed the sacred weekly rest, if it had been appointed, which observance must have been somewhere recorded by Moses. This argument has some degree of plausibility, I admit, but nothing more. It is true, we are no where expressly told, that holy men before the flood, or that the post-diluvian patriarchs observed a weekly Sabbath. That they did, however, seems highly probable, independently of other considerations, from the division of time into weeks, which obviously took place, long before the giving of the law to Israel. Such a division is pretty clearly hinted at, more than once, in the eighth chapter of Genesis. After sending out the dove the first time, Noah waited seven days, and then sent her forth a second time, and, at the end of just seven days more, he sent her forth a third time. This regard to the number seven might, I grant, possibly have been accidental; or Noah might have had reasons for it, of which we know nothing; but when we view the subject, in connexion with the passage above quoted from the second chapter, it seems altogether more probable, that every seventh day was kept by the patriarch and his family as a Sabbath; and this accounts for the division of time, by him and his posterity, into weeks. The same division is again incidentally mentioned, by the sacred writer, in the twenty-ninth chapter Genesis. Fulfil her week, said Laban to Jacob, and we will give thee this also, (i. e. Rachel,) for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. That the week here referred to consisted of seven days, must, I think, be obvious to every one, who will take the trouble of comparing this pas sage with others, in both Testaments, where the same word occurs. And this furnishes presumptive proof, of no inconsiderable weight, that one day of the seven, in each week, was known and kept as a Sabbath. But supposing that no allusion whatever to this sacred institution were to be found in the history of the patriarchs, it would not only be extremely illogical to infer, that they had no knowledge of it, since, in a history so very concise, millions of events must necessarily be passed over in silence; but the argument has this additional misfortune, that if it proves any thing it proves too much. It equally proves, that the Sabbath was entirely unknown and unobserved, from the days of Joshua to the reign of David, no mention being made of it, in the history of that period. If mere silence be taken for proof, in the former case, it must in the latter also. If, on the other hand, the highest degree of probability forbids the infer ence, that the pious Judges of Israel paid no attention to God's holy day, not withstanding their observance of it is not mention. ed, on what principle can it be inferred, that the Sabbath was not appointed till 2500 years after the creation, and that it is mentioned by Mcses, in the sec ond chapter of Genesis, not as having commenced in paradise, but in the wilderness? Equally fatal to this favorite argument of Dr. Paley and others on the same side of the question, is the silence of the inspired volume, respecting the observance of the rite of circumcision, from a little after the death of Moses to the days of Jeremiah; that important seal of the covenant not being so much as once mentioned, or even alluded to, in the history of that period, including more than 800 years. Will it be maintained, can it be believed, that all the pious kings, together with the whole Jewish nation, for eight centuries paid no regard to a known command of God, requir ing every male to be circumcised? To be consistent with themselves, all those must adopt this incredible supposition, who infer that mankind were left with out a Sabbath, for more than twenty-five centuries, merely because the observance of the Sabbath is not particularly mentioned, in the sacred history of that period. Upon the whole, then, it is cheerfully submitted to the candid reader, whether the objection, which I have been considering, must not be given up; first, because the institution seems to be frequently alluded to in the inspired records of patriarchal times; and, secondly, because, it it were not thus alluded to, the silence of those records could not possibly prove any thing a gainst the existence of the institution. To proceed: That the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise, and not in the wilderness, argue, First, from the words of the inspired penman, already recited. Having told us what was done on the first and each succeeding day of the creation to the sixth and last, he proceeds in the same tense, and without giving the least intimation that what follows is spoken by way of anticipation, to record the important fact, that on the seventh day God rested from all his work, blessing and sanctifying the day, on account of his having thus rested. Now, if the divine example, in resting on the seventh day, was of any significancy to men; if it was designed for their imitation; then it became their duty to rest onc seventh part of the time, and to observe every seventh day as a Sabbath. And if God's resting was a reason why they should rest, then his resting on the first seventh day, was a reason why that day should be their first Sabbath. Again; God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. That is, he separated it from common secular employments and consecrated it for a day of religious worship. This solemn consecration most evidently took place, on the very day when God rested from all his work, and not twenty-five hundred years afterwards, as some have labored to prove. If the Sabbath was instituted to commemorate the stupendous work of creation, what can be more absurd than the supposition, that this commemoration was deferred, till the world was more than two thousand five hundred years old! The miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt, was com memorated in the annual feast of the passover, from the time that the Lord brought them out. The independence of these Uni ted States has been annually celebrated, ever since they were declared independent. In like manner, are all those eras and events celebrated among mankind, which are thought worthy of being kept in remembrance by stated festivals, or other demonstrations of rejoicing. The commemoration in each case, commences at, or near, the time of the event, which it is designed to perpetuate. How extremely improbable, that the appointment of a day, to commem. orate the creation of the world, should form a solitary exception! But if it does not form an exception, then the Sabbath was or dained and sanctified from the beginning, which was the thing to be proved. I flatter myself, that on this ground I might safely rest the argument. But a few brief remarks, on the supposed anticipa tion of the passage in the second chapter of Genesis, may serve still further to expose the weakness of the opposite side of the question. If the Sabbath was not instituted, till after Israel's emancipation from Egyptian bondage, what occasion had Moses to say any thing about it, when writing the history of what took place between two and three thousand years before? Could the placing of events, (which were, on the scheme here opposed, so remote from each other,) side by side in the history, serve any other purpose, than to mislead and perplex the reader? It will not, surely, be pretended, that the mention of God's blessing and sanctifying the seventh day could not have been de ferred and inserted in its proper place. With what color of prob ability can it be maintained, then, that in directing Moses what to write, the Spirit of God. dictated an arrangement, in this instance, so contrary to the reg. ular order of the sacred narrative, and so much better calculated to mislead, than to guide the biblical student into all truth? I shall only add, that on the same grounds, on which it is contended, that the Sabbath is first spoken of by anticipation, it might be argued, that the creation of the world is spoken of in the same manner. If the inspired writer teaches us, for example, that the sun and the moon were created on the fourth day; he is equally explicit in declaring to us, that on the seventh day God rested from all his work, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified. it. There being, therefore, no difference in the phraseology, we must suppose, that if the latter event is spoken of by way of anticipation, so is the former. In other words, if we suppose Moses to speak in the second chapter of Genesis, not of what actually took place on the seventh day of the world, but of what was done after the lapse of thousands of years, then we must suppose him in the first chapter, to speak of the sun and moon, not as being created on the fourth day, but at some future and distant period. The same must be supposed of what is said to have been done, on each of the six days, employed by God in the work of creation; and so we shall be constrained, out of regard to consistency, to consider the sacred historian as representing the heavens and the earth as brought into existence by way of anticipation! That the Sabbath was not give en to Israel in the wilderness, as a new institution, and, of course, that it was instituted in paradise, I argue, Secondly, from the address of Moses to his brethren on the subject, in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, connected with what immediately precedes that address. The Lord had given the people manna for bread; a quantity of which, sufficient for one day's consumption, they were directed to gather every morn ing. This they did, till the sixth day. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seeth that ye will seeth, and that which remaineth over lay up for you, to be kept until the morning. The first thing worthy of remark in this passage is, that without any order, or direction, so far as appears, the people gathered twice as much manna on the sixth day, as on either of the preceding. How shall we account for this, but by suppos ing, that the Sabbath had been previously instituted, and that they had some idea, at least, of the nature and design of the institution. Why, on any other supposition, should they gather the food of two days in one; and why if they did, should they wait till the sixth day before they made this double provision for themselves and their families. But if they had any knowledge of the Sabbath, at that time, it is certain, that it was not then first ordained; and, of course, that when Moses told them, in the next verse, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord, he spoke of it, as an institution already existing, and not as then for the first time made known to mankind. This supposition is not a little strengthened, by the language, in which the Jewish lawgiver addressed the congregation on the subject. This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is, (not to-morrow shall be,) the rest of the holy Sabbath, c. This is not the manner, in which a lawgiver would speak, in appointing any new festival, or other commemorative observance; but it is precisely as men naturally speak of existing institutions. In strict propriety we say, that to-morrow is the Sabbath, although the day is yet future, because it is an old institution; but if there never had been a Sabbath and to-morrow were to be consecrated on the first day of holy weekly rest the lawgiver would not say it is, but it shall be, the Sabbath. Thirdly, Christ tells us that the Sabbath was made for man. The obvious meaning of this is, that it was appointed for the use and benefit of the whole human family; and, if so, it must have been from the beginning. The Sabbath was made for man; for man in every age and under every dispensation. Concerning the proof which this text furnishes, of the perpetuity of the Sabbath, I shall have occasion to spea's more particularly, in my next number. I would only infer from it here, that if the Sab |