something moral also; and therefore, as to the moral part of it, it must, of necessity, be of perpetual obli- gation. To remove all doubt on this important subject, consider,
1 . The time of its institution —
[Some heave thought that the mention which is made of the Sabbath in the words before us, was merely by anticipa- tion ; and that the appointment never took place till the days of Moses. But if this were the case, how came Moses to specify the circumstance of God's resting on the seventh day as the reason of that appointment d ? It would have been a good reason for our first parents and their immediate descendants to hallow the seventh day; but it could be no reason at all to those who lived almost five-and-twenty hun- dred years after the event ; more especially when so obvious and cogent a reason as their deliverance out of Egypt was assigned at the very same timee. But if the command given to the Jews was a repetition of the injunction given to Adam, then there is an obvious propriety in assigning the reason that was obligatory upon all, as well as that which formed an additional obligation on the Jewish nation in particular.
Besides, there are traces of a Sabbath from the beginning of the world. For, if no Sabbath had ever been given, whence came the practice of measuring time by weeks ? Yet that custom obtained both in the patriarchal f and antedi- luvian ages g : and therefore, since it accords so exactly with what was afterwards instituted by divine authority, we may well infer its original appointment by God himself. And if its obligation existed so many ages before the ceremonial law was given, then must it continue to exist after that law is abolished.]
2. The manner of its re-establishment — [Notwithstanding the long continuance of the Jews in
Egypt, the remembrance of the Sabbath was not effaced : for Moses, before the giving of the law, speaks of the Sabbath as an institution known and received among them11. And, without any express direction, they gathered on the sixth day a double portion of manna to serve them on the Sabbath; which they would not have done, if they had not thought the observance of the Sabbath to be of the first importance l.
11 Exod. xx. 11. e Deut. v. 15. f Gen. xxix. 27, 28.
B Gen. viii. 10, 12. h Exod. xvi. 23.
I Exod. xvi. 22. That they did this without any direction from Moses, is evident from the complaint which the Rulers made on the occasion ; for which complaint there could have been no ground, if any direction had hecn given.