II.
By the Rev. PATRICK FAIREAIRN.
(Continued from page 20.)
IT seems very strange, to a plain and simple reader of the Bible, that the Sabbath should ever have been regarded as an institution peculiar to the Jews, seeing the command enjoining it on them expressly refers the first period of its appointment to the creation of the world. So far from dating its origin from the promulgation of the law on Mount Sinai, and coming forth as a new and singular enactment on the people of Israel, it claims, as delivered to them, an antiquity not inferior to that of the world itself, and derives the occasion and purpose of its appointment from an act, which had an equal respect to the whole race of man as to the particular family of the Jews. “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.” . . . . It shall be our object, in what follows, to vindicate the argument from the few cavils and objections by which it has been assailed.
1. A very convenient method has sometimes been taken by divines, not very scrupulous in their manner of handling the Word of God, to get rid of this argument for the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath, which is drawn from the statement in Genesis, and repeated in the Fourth Commandment, of God’s having, at the close of creation, rested on the seventh day, and on that account sanctified and blessed it.
One says:—”That, to impress the greater reverence for the day, Moses seemed to make it coeval with the creation.” Another:—”That it only seems to import that the Sabbath was then instituted;” but that it is simply to be understood as stating “the reason of that particular day being chosen—not that it was then actually appointed and set apart.” It can be of little use to hold any dispute with persons who feel at liberty to deal thus with the plain words of Scripture, on any matter which depends on clear scriptural authority; for the most explicit statements and commands may in this way be resolved into only seeming declarations. The words in Gen. ii. 3, “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” record as plainly a historical fact, occurring at that precise time, as any other statement contained in the first and second chapters of that book; they tell us as clearly and distinctly how God distinguished the seventh day, as His being said to have created man on the sixth tells us how He distinguished that day. We cannot conceive how any one, who has a devout regard to the Word of God, should entertain the least doubt of this, and therefore we need not dwell on it; but may be excused for quoting a portion of Calvin’s Annotations on the passage, considering how his venerable name has been abused, by having imputed to it sentiments on this subject which he would have utterly repudiated. “That blessing of the seventh day,” says he, on Gen. ii. 3, “is nothing else than the solemn consecration of it; by virtue of which, God claims for Himself on that day the labours and occupations of men. It is, indeed, the proper study of their whole life, to be exercised in considering the infinite goodness, justice, power, and wisdom, of God, as displayed on the vast theatre of heaven and earth; but, lest men should apply less diligently to this than they ought, every seventh day was peculiarly set apart. God, therefore, first rested; then He blessed that rest, that it might be sacred among men through all coming ages; He consecrated each seventh day to rest, that His own example might furnish the perpetual rule. Not that God simply enjoined men to take their leisure every seventh day, as if He delighted in idleness; but that, being released from all business, they might with more freedom employ their minds on the Creator of the world—His own example stimulating them to the duty, and engaging them to its performance.”
2. But if the Sabbath was really imposed on man at the creation of the world, might we not expect that some notice would have been taken of it during the ages that followed?
Yet no direct mention is made of it till the history of the Israelites comes into view; the breach of it is not recorded among the sins of the ante-diluvians, nor are the pious patriarchs commended for observing it; a total silence, in short, is maintained concerning it, from the birth of creation to the mission of Moses. Could this have been the case, it is sometimes asked, if the observance of a weekly Sabbath had been given as one of the standing ordinances of the Church? This query may be answered by being applied to another institution of God, and another period of sacred history. It cannot be doubted, that circumcision was not only enjoined as an ordinance by God, but was also observed by the people from the conquest of Canaan to the captivity of Babylon; and yet, during the whole of that time (a period of more than eight hundred years, and the history of which is given at far greater length than that of the earlier ages of the world), no mention whatever is made of the rite of circumcision. In their seasons of backsliding, the people are not reprov’d for neglecting it; nor, at other times, are they commended for practising it. How many false conclusions, on almost every point of doctrine and duty, should we not arrive at, did we make the silence of one part of the Scripture make void its express testimony in another? Neither is it, after all, perfectly correct to say, that there is nothing in the patriarchal history to indicate the existence of a weekly Sabbath; for no other reasonable account can be given of the division of time into weeks of seven days, with the peculiar sacredness attached to the number seven, than by supposing it to have sprung from the original institution of a Sabbath, constantly following upon six days’ labour. That the patriarchs counted time by weeks, appears from the history both of Noah and Jacob (Gen. viii. 10-12, xxix. 27); and that they held the number seven in peculiar sacredness, is manifest from their being said to sacrifice, on occasions of great solemnity, by sevens. Job was expressly commanded to do this; and without any express command, Balaam did it. “The key to this,” says Horsley, “is the institution of the Sabbath. The observance of the seventh day was the sacrament of the ancient Church—of that Church which was more ancient than the Jewish—of that priesthood which was more dignified than Aaron’s—of that Church of Adam before the flood—of the Church of Noah after it. For the same reason that the seventh day was sanctified, the victims bled by sevens; and to sacrifice seven rams or seven bullocks at a time, was to declare, that the offering was made to that God who created the world in six days, and to whose service the seventh day was therefore consecrated.”
Indeed, it was not only among the families whose lives are recorded in sacred history, that this division of time and peculiar regard to the number seven obtained. In the ancient world, both seem to have been nearly universal. The most enlightened and the most barbarous nations of antiquity equally observed the weekly computation of time; agreeing in the thing itself, though often differing in the way they took to designate the particular days; the Greeks and Romans, for example, calling them by the names of the planets; while the Germanic tribes applied to them the names of their heroes. And for so general an agreement in what seems so arbitrary a custom, we may adopt the language of an old Greek writer, who, after saying that “it was consented to amongst all men that there are only seven days, which, by a revolution into themselves, make up the whole time,” he adds, “whereof we can assign no other reason but that only which is given by Moses.” It is well-known, also, that both Hesiod and Homer, two of the oldest writers among the Greeks, not only speak of the number seven as sacred, but expressly mention the seventh day as such. And it would appear, from the heathen writer, Lucian, as well as the Jewish writers, Philo and Josephus, that that day was very often appropriated, even in their time, among the Gentiles, as a day of rest and recreation. Quotations in support of these statements may be found in Owen’s Treatise, prefixed to his Commentary on the Hebrews; and we think no one who carefully weighs these things will fail to admit, that there is good evidence in the history of the world, profane as well as sacred, of God’s having taught the first race of men to set apart every seventh day, in imitation of His own example, as a day of sacred and refreshing rest.
3. If that were the case, however, we are farther asked, how it could then be said, that God gave the Sabbath to the Jews, as a peculiar mark of His favour to them?
If it was a primeval institution, and a common privilege, how could it be held forth as their distinguishing badge and characteristic? For God says, in Ezek. xx. 12, “Moreover also, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” And again, Nehemiah, in his prayer (chap. ix.), among other tokens of God’s goodness to the Israelites, particularly mentions this—”And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and commandedst them precepts.” There can be no manner of doubt, that the Israelites had lost the practical knowledge and observance, if not the entire remembrance, of the Sabbath, during their bondage and oppression in Egypt. Their taskmasters there would be little inclined to allow them such a frequent respite from worldly toil; and it was a signal proof of God’s mercy and favour towards them, that He had brought them into a condition which permitted every individual amongst them to take the free and uninterrupted enjoyment of their weekly Sabbath. That this is what is meant by the Scriptures quoted above is evident, by comparing them with the first intimation of the Sabbath to the Israelites, after leaving the land of Egypt, and which took place weeks before the giving of the law from Mount Sinai. When the rulers of the congregation told Moses, that on the sixth day the people had gathered twice as much manna as on the other days, he replied, “This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; on that day ye shall not find it in the field; for the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.” This clearly intimates, that the Sabbath was an existing institution, not then for the first time introduced, but only revived, and serving as a sufficient ground for the extraordinary supply of food, which, as a thing that might be looked for, was freely given on the sixth day. If the Sabbath had really been a new institution, the command undoubtedly would first have been given, and the course of Providence only afterwards have been framed accordingly. The order of the transaction is such as manifestly shows, that the people should have known why God appointed the double supply of manna; that for some reason, however (doubtless, from the uninterrupted oppression of Egypt), they had lost remembrance of the fact which should have explained to them the reason of God’s procedure; and that God now graciously communicated this to them anew, and the privilege connected with it.
In conclusion there seems no reason to view with the slightest suspicion or doubt the plain historical testimony, that God did sanctify, or set apart and bless from the very beginning of the world, every seventh day, to be observed as a holy Sabbath to Himself. Other testimonies, sacred and profane, so far as they bear upon the subject, evidently countenance and confirm it. Indeed, the contrary opinion would probably never have gained credit with men who have any name for soundness of judgment, had not some of the Jewish doctors maintained, that the Sabbath was first given to their fathers at the waters of Marah. Their maintaining this, was just a piece of that intolerable vanity which made them ready to assert or deny any thing, if their doing so might tend to exalt their own nation. But their most judicious and learned interpreters, such as Maimonides, Aben Ezra, Cibarbinall, are of opinion that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise, was observed by the patriarchs, and was binding upon all ages and nations; and were it not that too much space should be required, we would have confirmed this view by the positive testimony in its favour contained in Heb. iv. 3-5; which cannot have its full and proper meaning attached to it without implying, that, as there have been a succession of rests into which men have been invited to enter, as God’s chosen people, so the first of these was that which began immediately after the finishing of creation—the sabbatical repose, which God, by His example, as well as by express appointment, sanctified and blessed for the good of man. The weekly Sabbath, therefore, is the first institute of God, and bears on its very origin the stamp of a universal and permanent appointment; good for man, even when surrounded by the glories of the Paradise that is lost—and much more so now, when called to struggle, and prepare for the higher glories of the paradise that is to be won.