may differ as to the particular time". The sabbath, then, may be observed in all lands, not even excepting those which extend, in melancholy solitude, beneath the polar skies. Though the sun at one part of the year may be for months below the horizon, and at another part for months above it, a portion of time equivalent to a day in the temperate zones, may be sanctified even there with the exercises of religion. But if it were impossible, it would form only a trifling exception to the general applicability of the rule. Few are the inhabitants who obtain a scanty provision in these ungenial climates; a waste and barren soil bound by the rigours of an arctic winter, denies subsistence for a numerous population; and, if the observation of the sabbath be impracticable, the mercy of heaven will doubtless pardon the involuntary neglect among the hordes which must ever be thinly scattered over those bleak and frozen regions.

The alleged impossibility of the universal observance of the sabbath, therefore, forms no valid objection; but it is further urged, that the Hebrew doctors, whose authority is in this, if any subject, entitled to respect, believe it to be an ordinance peculiar to the Jews; a point which Sel

This subject is discussed at length in chapter iv. sect. 2. of this work.

den has laboured to establish with his usual profundity of erudition'. This learned writer, it is true, has accumulated a variety of testimonies in support of this statement; but the Rabbins, buoyed up with the notion that their nation was the favourite of heaven, and proud of the many privileges granted to it, very naturally supposed the sabbath to be, like the rest of the Levitical law, limited to the chosen race; for which reason their sentiments on this subject may well be suspected of being tinctured with prejudice and par tiality. Yet some of them, as Aben Ezra, Maimonides, Abarbinel, Manasseh ben Israel, allow that the sabbath was instituted at the beginning of the world; and what may be deemed of still higher importance, Philo and Josephus speak of the sabbath as an universal institution. The former calls it " a feast, not of one city or country, but of the whole world';" he pronounces it " the world's birth-day," (тov коoμov Yevεotov. ibid.) and "the festival of all people." (Tavồnμov scil soprnv, ibid.) He also remarks," who is there that does

1 Selden, De Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. iii. cap. x. et seq. Seé Spencer, De Leg. Hebræor. lib, i. cap. iv.

* Proof of this may be found in Selden, ibid.; and Dr. Owen, Exercit. on the Sab. Exerc. ii. § 5.; and Meyer, De Festis Hebræor. P. ii. cap. ix. § 24. et seq.

• Εορτη οὐ μιας πολεως, ή χωρας ἐστιν, άλλα του παντος De Mundi Opificio p. 15. E. Ed. Colon. 1613.

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not reverence that sacred seventh day which brings rest and relaxation to him and his domestics, to the bond as well as to the free, and moreover to the brute beasts themselves "?" Josephus, in relating the works of the six days' creation, mentions the sabbath as if it were then instituted; and he elsewhere speaks of it as an universal ordinance, the observation of which had spread to every nation, Greek and Barbarian". It is not to be denied, however, that both these learned Jews sometimes speak of it as an ordinance pecu→ liarly Jewish, so that it is difficult to ascertain to which side their sentiments really incline. But whatever may be thought of their testimony, the

- Τις γαρ την ἱεραν ἐκείνην ἑβδομην οὐκ ἐκτετιμηκεν, ἀνεσιν ποιων και ῥαστωνην αύτω τε και τοις πλησιασουσιν, οὐκ ἐλευθεροις μονον, άλλα και δουλοις, μαλλον δε και υποζυγίοις διδους. De Vita Mosis, lib. ii. p. 508. E. Compare also De Decalogo, p. 585. B. C.; De Lege Allegor. p. 33.B. C. D.; De Vita Mosis, lib. iii. p. 529. B. et seq.

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Antiq. lib. i. cap. i. §1.; Contra Apion. lib. ii. §. 40.

See Philo, De Decalogo, p. 585. B.; De Vita Mosis. lib. iii. p. 529. C. and p. 530. A. B.; De Abrahamo, p. 277. c.; De Migrat. Abrahami, p. 315. A.; De Profugis, p. 371. C.; Josephus, Antiq. lib. xvi. cap. ii. § 4. lib. xii. cap. 6. § 2.; Jewish War, lib. ii. cap. xvi. § 4. lib. iv. cap. ii. § 3.; Life, § 32.; Against Apion, lib. i. § 22. More passages might be cited, but a comparison of those here referred to, will be sufficient to shew, that there is an ambiguity, if not an inconsistency, in their declarations concerning the sabbath. See the acute observations of the Abbe Sallier in Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, vol. iv. p. 50. et seq.

Hebrew doctors are far from being unanimous in maintaining the original institution of the sabbath in the wilderness, which opinion, therefore, cannot justly claim the authority of the Hebrew church, nor if it could, would that authority be allowed by Christians to be decisive.

Again, it has been argued in opposition to the primeval sanctity of the sabbath, that God gave but one command to Adam in paradise, namely, not to eat the forbidden fruit; whereas, if he were obliged to keep the seventh day holy, he must have had two commands laid upon him, which is contrary to the fact. Now the sacred history, it is acknowledged, states that there was only one command given to Adam, the breach of which was to be visited with the penalty of death; but other obligations must have been imposed upon the Protoplast besides that of abstaining from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was strictly obligated to offer the sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving to God, and to perform the other duties which are demanded from the creature to the Creator. Adam, therefore, must have had other obligations laid upon him, though there was only one positive command given as the test of his obedience. Besides, the objection supposes that the injunction to sanctify the seventh day

P Jurieu, Histoire des Dogmes, P. i. cap. xv. p. 108.

was not pronounced at the creation, which is a mere begging of the question; for if it were then given, there must have been more than one command expressly laid upon Adam in paradise; and, since this may as well be supposed as the contrary, the argument must of course rest upon precarious ground.

The same author further urges, that a certain day destined to repose, to contemplation, and to prayer, is unsuitable to a state of innocence; inasmuch as Adam, in the garden of Eden, before the earth was subjected to a curse, could have had no toil requiring alternate rest; and it could not be necessary to separate a particular day for meditation, since his whole life would have been employed in the service of God: whence it is concluded, that the sabbath was not instituted in paradise". Now this conclusion is readily allowed to be legitimately deduced from the premises, but where is the evidence to shew that the consecration of the seventh day was not, in some way

Jurieu, ibid. He thus concludes, "Il est donc clair, que ce commandement n' est bon qu'à l'homme corrumpu et miserable, qui est obligé d'employer la plus grande partie de sa vie au soin du corps, et qui ne sauroit, à cause de la petitesse de son cœur, parmi ses autres occupations, s'attacher à la contemplation avec toute l'assiduité necessaire." But this is quite gratuitous. Compare Altingius, De Tempore Instituti Sabbathi, lib. i. cap. iv. and v.

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