rested from all hie work whioh God hnd be sought for in the primitirnobscrvnncoofa rreated and made. Litemlly, created to mah, seventh day rest in accordance with Divine t',1c exact import of which bes been variouslX appointment. Precisely as we reeson that explained. The "Jv ijp(aro o6,0( ,ro,ij,ra, ' the early nnd widespread provalenco of sncri• of the LXX. is obviously incorrect. Calvin, fice can only be explained by nn authoritativo Ainsworth, Bnsh, et alii take the second verb revelation to tho first parents of tho human mnJ>hatice, as in tensiiyi ng the action of the family of such a mode of worship, so do we first, end conveying the idea of a l)erfoct conclude that n seventh day sabbath must rreation. Rnlisch, A1ford, and others explnin 111\Ve been prescribed to man in Eden. The the second as epe:r:cgetic of the first, as in question then al'ises, Is this sabbath also re- the simifar phrases, "spoke, saying, literally, ferred to in the Mosaic 1-ecord of the seventh spoke to speak" (Exod. n. 10), and "la- day I The popular belief is that the institu- 1,oured to do " (Eccles. ii. 11 ). Onkelos, the tion of the weekly Sabbath alone is tho sub- Yulg,,te (quod Dezu; ci·eavit ut faceret), ject spoken of iu the opening verses of the Cakin, Tayler Lems, &c. understand the present chapter; and the language of Exod. infiuiti,e in e tdic sense, es expressive of xx. 11 may at first sight appenr to wa1Tant the purpose for which the heavens and the this conclusion. A more careful consideration earth were at first created, viz., that by the of the phraseology employed by Moses, how- six days' work they might be fashioned into ever, shows that in the mind of the Hebrew a cosmos. It has been observed tliat the law~ver there existed a distinction between usual concluding formula is not appended to Gods seventh dny and man's sabbatb, end the record of the seventh day, and the reason that, instead of identifying the two, he meant has perhaps been declared hy Augustine: to teach that the first was the reason of tho "Dies nut.em septimns sine vespera est, nee second; as thus-" In six days God made habet occasum, quia senctificasti eum ad .•.. and rested on the seventh day ; where- J>ern1Ansionem sempit.ernam" ('Confess.,' fore God blessed the (weekly) sabbatb day, xiii. 36). But now wl1at was this seventh and hallowed it." Here it is commonly as- day which received Elobim's benediction! sumed tba t the words are exactly parallel to On the principle of interpretation applied those in eh. ii. 3, and that the sa bbath in to ihe creative days, this must be regarded Exodus corresponds to the seventh day of ns a period of indefinite duration, corre- Genesis. But this is open to debate. The spomling to the lmman era of both Scrip- seventh day which God blessed in Eden wns ture and geology. But other Scriptures the first day of human life, and not the (E.J::od. xx. 8 ; xx:iii 12 ; Dent. v. 12, &c.} seventh day; and it is certain that God di.d ~hO\~ that the Hebreu-s were enjoined by God not rest from his labours on man's seventh to observe a se.cnth day rest in imitation of day, but on man's first. We feel inclined himself. There are also indications that then to bold with Luther that in Gen. ii. 3 sabbatic observance was not unknown to the Moses says nothing about man's day, and patria.rchs (eh. xxix:. 27, 28), to the ante- that the seventh day which received the diluvians (eh. viii 6-12), and to Cain end Divine benediction was God's. own great Abel (eh. iv. 3). Profane history likewise ieonian period of sa!Jbatic rest. At the vouches for the veracity of the stat.ement of same time, for the reasons above specified, J osephns, that " there is not any city of the believing that a weekly sabbatb was pre- Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any scribed to man from the beginning, we have nation u-hatsoever, whither ourcustom ofrest- no difficulty in assenting to the words of ing on the seventh day bath not come" ('Con- Tayler Lewis:"' And God blessed the seventh tra Apionem,' ii 40). The ancient Persians, day.' Which seventh day, the greater or Indians, and Germans esteemed the number the less, the Divine or the human, the ieonian seven as sacred. By the Greeks and Phenicians or the astronomical 1 Both, is the cosy an- a sacred character was ascribed to the seventh swer; both, es commencing nt the same time, day. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, so far as the one connects with astrono- and other nations of antiquity were ac- mical time ; both, as the greater including the quaiut.ed with the bebdomadal division of less ; both, as being (tbo one as represented, time. Travellers J1ave detected traces of it the other as typically representing) the same nmong the Afric.'lll nnd American aborigines. in essence and idea.'' It does not appear To account for its exu.ience among nations so necessary to refute the idea that the weekly widely apart, both chronologically and geo- sabbatb had no exist.ence till the giving of /traphically, recourse has been had to some the law, end that it ie only here proleptically violent hypotheses ; as, e. g., to the number referred to by Moses. of the primary planets known to the ancients In addition to tho above-mentioned his- (Humboldt), the division of a lunar month torical t.estimonies to the antiquity of the into fo•J..r nearly equal periods of seven days Sabbath, the Fifth Tablet in the Chaldean (lielei; Baden PO\HSll, &c.), Jei.·ish example Creation Series, aft.er referring to the fourth (J C111ephus). Its true grncsis, however, must day's work, proceeds:- OH, II, 1-:J,] 'l'IIE noorr OF GENJ<.:srn. 37
"On the seventh dny henprointcd a. holy dny, thus <tpparently affirming that, in the opinion And to conso from nil business he com- of the early Babylonians, the institution of mo.ndetl. the sabbath was coeval with the crea.tion. Then iirose the sun in the horizon of heaven ( Vid. 'Records of the Past' vol. ix. p. in (glory)," 117,)
HOMILETICS. Ver. 3. Tlte two sabbatlis: the Divine and the human. I. THE SABBATH oir Gon. A period of-1. Cessation from toil, or discontinuance of those world-mBking opera- tions which had occupied the six preceding days (Heh. iv. 4). Never since the close of the· creative week has God interfered to fundamentally rearrange the material structure of the globe. The Deluge produced no alteration on the constitution of nature. Nor is there evidence that any new species have been added to its living creatures. 2. Holy delight. On the seventh day Elohim rested and was'' refreshed" (Exod. xxxi. 17); which refreshment consisted partly in the satisfaction he expe- rienced in beholding the cosmos-a satisfaction prefigured and anticipated by the solemn pauses intervening at the end of each creative day, accompanied by the 11 good," 11 lo I very good," of Divine approbation; and partly in the pleasure with