VOL. XIX. 19
290 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. II.
memorial is not peculiarly annexed unto them on their own dis- tinct account, but equally upon that of the other commandments whereunto they do refer. (3.) There is yet an especial reason for the peculiar appropriation of these two precepts by that memorial unto this people; for they had now given unto them an especial typical concern in them, which did not at all belong unto the rest of man- kind, who were otherwise equally concerned in the decalogue with themselves. For in the fourth commandment, whereas no more was before required but that one day in seven should be observed as a sacred rest, they were now precisely confined to the seventh day in order from the finishing of the creation, or the establishing of the law and covenant of works, or a day answering thereunto; for the determi- nation of the day in the hebdomadal revolution was added in the law decalogical to the law of nature. And this was with respect unto and in the confirmation of that ordinance which gave them the seventh-day Sabbath in a peculiar manner,—that is, the seventh day after six days’ raining of manna, Exod. xvi. And in the other, the pro- mise annexed unto it of prolonging their days had peculiar respect unto the land of Canaan. There is neither of these but is a far more probable reason of the annexing these words, “As the LorD thy God commanded thee,” unto those two commandments, than that fixed on by the Talmudical masters. Herein only I agree with them that both those commands were given alike in Marah; and one of them I suppose none will deny to be a principal dictate of the law of nature. For the words mentioned, D5¥21 Ph, “a statute and an ordinance,” the meaning of them is plainly expounded, Exod. xv. 26. God then declared this unto them as his unchangeable ordinance and institu- tion, that he would bless them on their obedience, and punish them upon their unbelief and rebellion; wherein they had experience of his faithfulness to their cost. The reader may-see this fiction further disproved in Tostatus on the place, though I confess some of his reasons are inconstringent and frivolous.
Moreover, this station at Marah was reached on or about the twenty- fourth day of Nisan, or April; and the first solemn observation of the Sabbath in the wilderness was upon the twenty-second of Iyar, the month following, as may easily be evinced from Moses’ journal. There were therefore twenty-seven days between this fictitious in- stitution of the Sabbath and the first solemn observation of it, which was at their station in Alush, as is generally supposed, cer- tainly in the wilderness of Sin, after they had left Marah and Elim, and the coast of the Red sea, whereunto they returned from Elim, Exod. xvi. 1; Num. xxxiii. 8-14. For they first began their journey out of Exypt on the fifteenth day of Nisan, or the fe month, Exod. x. 37, Num. xxxiii. 3; and they passed through the sea into the
w
SECT. 5.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 291
wilderness about the nineteenth day of the month, as is evident from their journeyings, Num. xxxiii. 5-8. On the twenty-fourth of that month they pitched in Marah; and it was the fifteenth day of Iyar, or the second month, before they entered the wilderness of Sin, where is the first mention of their solemn observation of the Sab- bath, upon the occasion of the gathering of manna. Between these
_ two seasons three Sabbaths must needs intervene, and those imme-
diately upon its first institution, if this fancy may be admitted. And yet the rulers of the congregation looked upon the people’s prepara- tion for its observation as an unusual thing, Exod. xvi. 22, which could not have fallen out had it received so fresh an institution. Besides, these masters themselves, and Rashi in particular, who in his comment on the place promotes this fancy, grants that Abraham observed the Sabbath. But the law and ordinance hereof, they say, he received on peculiar favour and by especial revelation. But be it so; it was the great commendation of Abraham, and that given him by God himself, that he would “command his children and his household after him” to “keep the way of the Lorp,” Gen. xviii. 19. Whatever ordinance, therefore, he received from God of any thing to be observed in his worship, it was a part of his fidelity to communi- cate the knowledge of it unto his posterity, and to teach them its observance. They must, therefore, of necessity, on those men’s prin- ciples, be instructed in the doctrine and observation of the Sabbath before this pretended institution of it. Should we, then, allow that the generality of the Jewish masters and Talmudical rabbis do assert that the law of the Sabbath was first given in Marah, yet the
~ whole of what they assert being a. mere curious, groundless conjec-
ture, it may and ought to be rejected. Not what these men say, but what they prove, is to be admitted. And he who, with much diligence, hath collected testimonies out of them unto this purpose, hath only proved what they thought, but not what is the truth. And upon this fond imagination is built their general opinion, that the Sabbath was given only unto Israel, is the “spouse of the syna-_ gogue,” and that it belongs not to the rest of mankind. Such dreams they may be permitted to please themselves withal; but that these things should be pleaded by Christians against the true original and use of the Sabbath is somewhat strange. If any think their assertions in this matter to be of any weight, they ought to admit what they add thereunto, namely, that all the Gentiles shall once a week keep a Sabbath in hell.