rence from the narrative. It is mentioned exactly in the way an historian would who had occasion to speak of a well-known institution. For instance, when the people were astonished at the double supply of manna on the sixth day, Moses observes, "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord," which, as far as we know, was never said previously to this transaction, but at the close of the creation. This surely is the language of a man referring to a matter with which the people were already acquainted, and recalling it to their remembrance. In the 5th verse, God promises on the sixth day twice as much as they gather daily. For this no reason is given which seems to imply that it was already known to the children of Israel. Such a promise without some cause being assigned for so extraordinary a circumstance would have been strange indeed; and if the reason had been that the seventh day was now for the first time to be appointed a festival, in which no work was to be done, would not the author have stated this circumstance? Again, it is said, "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none" and, " for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days." Here the sabbath is spoken of as an ordinance with which the people

were familiar. A double quantity of manna was given on the sixth day, because the following day, as they well knew, was the sabbath, in which God rested from his work, and which was to be kept as a day of rest, and holy to the Lord. It is likewise mentioned incidentally, as it were, in the recital of the miraculous supply of manna, without any notice of its being enjoined upon that occasion for the first time, which would be a very surprising circumstance had it been the original establishment of the sabbath. In short, the entire phraseology in the account of this remarkable transaction accords with the supposition, and with it alone, that the sabbath had been long established, and was well known to the Israelites.

The learned Mede has a very ingenious argument to prove that the Jews did not keep the seventh day holy till the raining of manna. It appears, says he, from the 16th of Exodus, that they marched a wearisome march on the 15th day of the second month; the next morning it rained manna, which was the 16th day, and so six days together; on the seventh, which was the 22d day, it rained none, and that day they were commanded to keep for their sabbath. Now, if the 22d day of the month were the sabbath, the 15th should have been one; but it was not, since they marched on that day a great distance; consequently the seventh day could not have been previously ob

served as a sabbath. This may have been the case, but the argument is not sufficient to prove it, and the fallacy lies in taking it for granted, that it rained manna the next morning after they came to this station in the wilderness of Sin. They arrived there on the 15th day, but the history does not state that they murmured on the same day, or that manna was given on the 16th. It is only said that the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron while they were in the wilderness of Sin, without specifying the time; and there is nothing which fixes the sabbath on the 22d day of the same month; so that it is quite gratuitous to suppose the 15th the day on which they performed a wearisome march, should have been a sabbath; and hence the conclusion, that the Israelites did not keep the seventh day holy before the miraculous supply of manna, is unsound. But even allowing that they did not keep it during their journeying till this period, the proper inference would be, not that the sabbath was then appointed, but either that the day was then changed, or that the Jews then began again to keep it, the observance of it having been neglected during their bondage in Egypt.

Some of the Rabbins contend for a prior origi

Mede, Discourse xv. in Works, p. 56. Archbishop Bramhall uses the same argument, Works, p. 912.

nal of the sabbath in the station of Marah. Shortly after passing the Red Sea, the children of Israel went out into the wilderness of Shur, "and when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter" After relating how the waters were miraculously made sweet, the sacred historian adds, that the Lord "there made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them"." Of these, say the Talmudical writers, the ordinance of the sabbath was one; and the learned Selden has adduced abundance of authorities for this opinion"; but commonly as it was received by the Jewish doctors, it is so clearly destitute of even a plausible foundation in Scripture, that a bare statement is a sufficient refutation.

That no neglect of the sabbath is “ imputed either to the inhabitants of the old world, or to any part of the family of Noah," is very true; but, so far from their being any proof of such negligence; there is, on the contrary, as we have seen, much reason for believing that it was duly observed by the pious Sethites of the old world, and, after the deluge, by the virtuous line of Shem. True, likewise, it is, that there is not

Exod. xv. 23:

"Verse 25.

▾ De Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. iii. cap. ix. It is refuted by Owen, Exercit. on the Sabbath, ii. § 3, 4.

any permission recorded to dispense with the institution during the captivity of the Jews in Egypt, or on any other public emergency." But where is the evidence that such a permission would be consistent with the divine wisdom? And if not, none such would either be given or recorded. At any rate, it is difficult to see how the silence of Scripture concerning such a circumstance can furnish an argument in vindication of the opinion, that the sabbath was first appointed in the wilderness. To allege it for this purpose, is just as inconclusive as it would be to argue, that the sabbath was instituted subsequent to the return of the Jews from Babylonia, because neither the observance of it, nor any permission to dispense with it during the captivity is recorded in Scripture.

The passage in the second chapter of Genesis is next adduced by Dr. Paley, and he pronounces it not inconsistent with his opinion; " for as the seventh day was erected into a sabbath, on account of God's resting upon that day from the work of creation, it was natural enough in the historian, when he had related the history of the creation, and of God's ceasing from it on the seventh day, to add, and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that on it he had rested from all his work which God created and made;' although the blessing and sanctification, i. e. the re