(1.) 7223, “ He blessed it.” God’s blessing, as the Jews say, and they say well therein, is naw n5p\n,—“ an addition of good.” It re- lates to some thing that hath a real present existence, to which it makes an addition of some further good than it was before partaker of. Hereof, as we said, the day in this place was the direct and immediate object : “God blessed it.” Some peculiar good was added unto it. Let this be inquired into, what it was and wherein it did consist, and the meaning of the words will be evident. It must be
298 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. IT.
somewhat whereby it was preferred unto or exalted above other days. When any thing of that nature is assigned, besides a relation given unto it to the worship of God, it shall be considered. That this was it, is plain from the nature of the thing itself, and from the actual separation and use of it to that purpose which did ensue.
(2.) The other word, 12") ,“ And sanctified it,” is further instructive in the intention of God, and is also exegetical of the former. Sup- pose still, as the text will not allow us to do otherwise, that the day is the object of this sanctification, and it is not possible to assign any other sense of the words but that God set apart, by his institu- tion, that day to be the day of his worship, to be spent in a sacred rest unto himself. And this is declared to be the intendment of the word in the decalogue, where it is used again to the same purpose; for none ever doubted that the meaning of YIP", “And he sanc- tified it,” therein, is any other but that by his institution and com- mand he set it apart for a day of holy rest. And this signification of that word is not only most common, but solely to be admitted in the Old Testament, if cogent reason be not given to the contrary; as where it denotes a dedication and separation to civil uses, and not to sacred, as it sometimes doth, still retaining its general nature of separation. And therefore I will not deny but that these two words may signify the same thing, the one being merely exegetical of the other. He blessed it by sanctifying of it; as Num. vii. 1, OnN wap onvio’, “And he anointed them and sanctified them;” that is, he sanctified them by anointing them, or by their unction set them apart unto a holy use: which is the instance of Abarbanel on this place. This, then, is that which is affirmed by Moses: On the seventh day, after he had finished his work, God rested, or ceased from working, and thereon blessed and sanctified the seventh day, or set it apart unto holy uses, for their observance by whom he was to be worshipped in this world, and whom he had newly made for that purpose. God then sanctified this day: not that he kept i holy himself, which in no sense the divine nature is capable of; nor that he purified it, and made it inherently holy, which the nature of the day is incapable of; nor that he celebrated that which in itself was holy, as we sanctify his name, which is the act of an inferior towards a superior; but that he set t apart to sacred use authori- tatively, requiring us to sanctify it in that use obedientially, And if you allow not this original sanctification of the seventh day, the first instance of its solemn, joint, national observation is introduced with a strange abruptness. It is said, Exod. xvi, where this in- stance is given, that “on the sixth day the people gathered twice as much bread” as on any other day, namely, “two omers for one man ;” which the rulers taking notice of acquainted Moses with it, verse 22.
SECT. 9.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 299
And Moses, in answer to the rulers of the congregation, who had made the information, gives the reason of it: “ To-morrow,” saith he, “is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lorn,” verse 23. Many of the Jews can give some colour to this manner of expression; for they assign, as we have showed, the revelation and institution of the Sab- bath unto the station in Marah, Exod. xv., which was almost a month before. So they think that no more is here intended but a direction for the solemn observance of that day which was before instituted, with particular respect unto the gathering of manna; which the people being commanded in general before to gather every day ac- cording to their eating, and not to keep any of it until the next day, the rulers might well doubt whether they ought not to have gathered it on the Sabbath also, not being able to reconcile a seeming con- tradiction between those two commands, of gathering manna every day, and of resting on the seventh. But those by whom the fancy about the station in Marah is rejected, as it is rejected by most Chris- tians, and who will not admit of its original institution from the beginning, can scarce give a tolerable account of this manner of ex- pression. Without the least intimation of institution and command, it is only said, “To-morrow is the Sabbath holy to the Lorp;” that is, ‘for you to keep holy.’ But on the supposition contended for, the discourse in that place, with the reason of it, is plain and evi- dent; for there being a previous institution of the seventh day’s rest, the observation whereof was partly gone into disuse, and the day itself being then to receive a new, peculiar application to the church- state of that people, the reason both of the people’s act, and the rulers’ doubt, and Moses’ resolution, is plain and obvious.