jection by which many persons of great piety have been startled, who cannot divest themselves of a latent doubt, whether the alteration of the time in the apostolical observance of it does not subtantially abrogate the original appointment; and it cannot be denied that it seems at the first glance, to throw a degree of shade and obscurity over the investigation. The difficulty, however, is more apparent than real; but since our researches hitherto have not supplied an answer to the very natural inquiry, which day in the septenary cycle is to be kept holy? it is imperative to search the Scriptures whether they furnish a satisfactory solution.

Respecting this subject there are two principal questions, first, whether the sacred Scriptures determine the particular day in the hebdomadal revolution, and secondly, whether they require the whole day, the period of the diurnal revolution, or only a part of it, for the celebration of the Christian sabbath. If to these questions a satisfactory answer can be returned, nothing more can fairly be demanded in reference to time; and the task is much facilitated by our former conclusions.

No change, it is readily granted, can be made in the sabbatical appointment, except by the same divine authority by which it was at first instituted, it is therefore to be inquired, whether the exact day was originally specified by that in

fallible authority. Now, in reviewing what has already been established from the Old Testament concerning the obligation of the sabbath as affecting Christians, it must strike every inquirer that the particular day is left entirely undetermined. While the seventh day is expressly enjoined, there is nothing which specifies the day from whence the septenary cycle is to be calculated". In the original institution it is stated in general terms that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, which must undoubtedly imply the sanctity of every seventh day; but not that it is to be subsequently reckoned from the first demiurgic day. Had this been included in the command of the Almighty, something, it is probable would have been added declaratory of the intention; whereas expressions the most undefined are employed; not a syllable is uttered concerning the order and number of the days; and it cannot reasonably be disputed that the command is truly obeyed by the separation of every seventh day, from common to sacred purposes, at whatever given time the

m Ex communi Theologorum ore, hoc quidem humano generi præceptum ac imperatum esse, ut in memoriam creati intra exaëmeron hujus universi, semper post sex profestos dies, septimus festus agatur; at unde computationis hujus initium faciendum sit, id nullis legibus ita circumscriptum esse, ut non arbitrii libertati aliquid hactenus liceat." Wagenseil, Tela Ignea Satana, Confut. Lipmanni. p. 565.

cycle may commence.

The difference in the

mode of expression here from that which the sacred historian has used in the first chapter is very remarkable. At the conclusion of each division of the work of creation he says, "the evening and the morning were the first day," and so on; but at the termination of the whole he merely calls it the seventh day; a diversity of phrase, which, as it would be inconsistent with every idea of inspiration to suppose it undesigned, must have been intended to denote a day, leaving it to each people as to what manner it is to be reckoned. The term obviously imports the period of the earth's rotation round its axis, while it is left undetermined, whether it shall be counted from evening or morning, from noon or midnight.

At the establishment of the Mosaic polity: saturday was reserved for a holy rest unto the Lord, and unquestionably by divine suggestion, but, as this might be only a ceremonial ordinance intended to be annulled together with the entire Hebrew ritual, it is to be inquired whether it be authorized by the fourth commandment, the only Jewish law relating to this subject which is binding upon Christians. The terms of the law are "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.-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." With respect to time it is here mentioned in the same indefinite manner as at its primæval institution, nothing more being expressly required than to observe a day of sacred rest after every six days of labour. The seventh day is to be kept holy, but not a word is said as to what epoch the commencement of the series is to be referred, nor could the Hebrews have determined from the Decalogue what day of the week was to be kept as their sabbath". The precept is not, remember the seventh day of the week to keep it holy, but "remember the sabbath day to keep it holy;" and in the following explication of these expressions it is not said that the seventh day of the week is the sabbath, but without restriction "the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God;" not the seventh according to any particular method of computing the septenary cycle, but, in reference to the six before-mentioned, every seventh day in rotation after six of labour. If every seventh day, therefore, be consecrated to religious exercises, whe

"Notare oportet nihil aliud in Decalogo præcipi, nisi ut unum diem è septem à labore feriemur: quis vero sit septimus ille dies, non designari: num septimus ab inchoata mundi creatione, an vero aliunde sumpto numerandi principio." Curcullæus, De Esu Sanguinis, cap. vi. in Ap. p. 956.

ther it be the first or the last, or any other day of the week, the law of the Decalogue is literally and substantially observed.

The reason alleged for hallowing the sabbath day, both in the primary command in Genesis, and in the Sinaitic law, does not limit it to any specific day of the week. The seventh day was blessed and sanctified BECAUSE God then rested, having made the whole in six days; but it is not said that this is the only portion of the septenary rotation to which he would afterwards bestow his blessing, nor that this portion was invariably to be kept; the statute merely is, that, BECAUSE God rested on the seventh day, he sanctified EVERY seventh day; and this event is equally commemorated by the observance of A SEVENTH DAY, calculated from any given epoch. The sabbath was made for man, and every purpose of its institution is answered, if, after every six days' labour, the seventh be kept as a day of rest, holy unto the Lord. And further, God blessed and hallowed the seventh day, not because it was the seventh day of the week, but because it was a day of rest; whichever part, therefore, of the hebdomadal cycle is made a day of rest, it is the day which he blesses and sanctifies ".

• See Wright, Treatise on the Lord's Day, cap. i. Curcellæus, De Usu Sang. cap. vi. Since this work was transcribed for the press, I have discovered that the view here taken of the day of