be blafphemy to imagine: neither that he then ceased from all action, but only from that of the creation of the world. He still continually creates fouls, performs wonderful myste

and aftronomers. The ingenious Mr. Ferguson, well known to the learned world, by his aftronomical lectures, &c. vindicated these tables, the common caufe of his profeffion, convicted Mr. Kennedy of many notorious mistakes, and falfe hypothefes, and overthrew the ftructure which he had raised upon fuch a foundation. It is however, to be wished the controverfy had been carried on with lefs acrimony on both fides. See Ferguson's Remarks on Kennedy's Aftronomical Chronology," in the Critical Review for June, 1763. And his fevere letter to Mr. Kennedy in defence of the aftronomical tables of the anomalies of the mocn, ibid. for November the fame year, &c. This author, notwithftanding the feverity with which he cenfures the rest of Mr. Kennedy's book, highly approves his new remarks concerning the patriarchal Sabbath, adding that he has demonftrated this to have been the first, not the last day of the week, and confequently the fame with our Sunday, not the Sabbath of the Jews. However the common opinion ftill has its advocates, that the patriarchal Sabbath coincided with the Jewish. For in Genefis the patriarchal Sabbath feems fixed on the last day of the week, immediately after the fixth day's work. Again, the Jewish Sabbath is certainly mentioned before the decalogue was given on Mount Sinai; and after it we find the Sabbath of the creation till in force, as appears from the expofition of Mr. Kennedy's fyftem: nor is the leaft account given of the change of the day of the weekly feftival. Neither is it easily to be conceived, that Mofes fhould ufe the word Sabbath in the fame book for different days without the leaft open intimation of any fuch change, which in future ages would foon be forgot. The change of the commencement of the ecclefiaftical year from the month Tifri, or the autumnal equinox, to the vernal in the month Nifan, (for some think that the Jews continued always to date their civil year from autumn) is recorded by Mofes. Much more ought such a change of the Sabbath, a feftival twice commended in the decalogue, and according to Mr. Kennedy in a different sense in the two publications of that law in Exodus and Deuteronomy. The proofs drawn by this author from aftronomy or chronological calculations cannot amount to demonftration unless it could be first clearly fettled in what manner the Jews at that time regulated their years with respect to embolimean or intercalary days to bring them to an equation. Alfo, how they fettled their lunar months, whether by fome cycle or artificial method, or by the obfervation of the first appearance of every new moon, and in what manner, or with what degree of nicety and exactnefs. The proofs therefore that the patriarchal or original Sabbath was the fame day, not with the Jewish Sabbath, but with that of the Christian law, seem too precarious to weaken the tradition in favour of the general opinion of ancient and modern Jews and chriftians. The ingenious and learned Mr. Chaife, in his comments on Exodus, xvi. v. 5. and 26. p. 6. 7. 152. 153. 161. fhews clearly that Mede founded this argument upon a mistake. On the fifteenth day of the fecond month after the paffage of the Red-fea, one month after it the murmur was raised for food. The Thalmudifts fay this fifteenth day was the Sabbath. (See Maimonides. More. Nev. part iii. c. 20.) If this was true, the Jews who travelled on that day, did not yet know

the

ries in the order of grace, and acts in and with all creatures or fecond causes; for "in him we live and move, and have "our being (5).”

He maintains and preferves all things by a continuation of the fame action by which he created them (6), which if he ceafed to do, they would all that moment fall into their original nothing. He alfo is eternally employed in the immanent, i, e. in-dwelling or interior operations of his Divine intellect and will, by knowledge, love, and the enjoyment of himself and his own infinite perfection. We must therefore neceffarily reftrain this expreffion of the Holy Scripture, to a ceffation from the production of any new fpecies of creatures. By this work he, as it were, went out of himfelf and of his eternal rest, to render himself visible in the creation of outward works. When he ceafed from this, he re-entered, as it were, into himself and his eternal rest in the contemplation of his own perfections, in which he is invisible to us. In remembrance and in honour of this glorious reft, which he eternally enjoys in himself in the adorable poffeffion of his infinite happiness, he confecrated the seventh day of the week to his worship, and appointed that it should

(5) Acts, xvii. 28. (6) Wisdom, xi. 26.

the law of the Sabbath. But it is very uncertain that this was the seventh day of the week, counting from the creation. Mede mistakes the fenfe of the fifth verfe, as if it means the fixth day from the first falling of manna: whereas it expreffes the fixth day of the week, or the eve of the Sabbath. Manna began to fall on the 16th day of Ifar, the second month after the paffage: but this may have been a Monday, a Tuesday, a Wednesday, a Thurfday, or a Friday. If manna first fell on a Monday, the firft Sabbath after it was the 21ft; if on Friday, as Ufher fuppofes, this Sabbath was on the 17th; therefore the 15th could not be a Sabbath. See M. Hallet, "A free and impartial Study of the Holy Scripture recommended," T. 3. p. 99, &c. Mr. Chaife obferves on V. 22. and 25. ib. and T. 1. on Gen. ii. 3. that God inftituted the Sabbath to be fanctified from the creation by exercises of religion, by public exercises of religion, but without a ftrict precept of ceafing entirely from all work or travelling, which does not appear to have been observed by Abraham in his journies, nor by the Hebrews in their flavery in Egypt. This very fevere reft was first commanded, Exod. xvi. 23. and a new motive added in Thanksgiving for and in Memory of their Deliverance from Pharoah. If the inftitution of the Sabbath had been entirely new, no one would have understood the words of Mofes in commanding this reft, &c. Exod. xvi. 23. And the juftification is clearly expreffed at the creation, Gen. ii. 3. as is demonftrated by Chaife's Com. T. 1. p. 19, 20. who hence obferved that it was originally fanctified by all nations, as is proved by Jofephus, 1. ii. contra Apion. Eufebius, Prap. Evang. 1. iii. c. 12. Whence Philo calls it "The Feftival of all Nations," and in another place, "The Birth-day of the World."

be

be to man a day of reft, to be spent in facrifices and the Divine praise and worship. On it free from exterior business and labour which diffipate the mind, we are commanded to employ our thoughts on God, to meditate on his law, and on the mysteries of his love and mercy, to thank him for his benefits, and to contemplate that eternal reft to which we are called, and to which all our thoughts and defires ought to be directed (7). Thus the obligation of fanctifying the feventh day was a precept of the primeval patriarchal law, given at the creation of the world (b), afterwards confirmed in a particular manner to the Jews in the Mofaic difpenfation (8). The Hebrew word fabbath signifieth rest,

(7) Heb. iv. 4. 10. (8) Exod. xvi. 23. 30, and xxiii. 12. Deut. v. 15.

(b) From Gen. ii. 3. the Sabbath feems to have been inftituted in the beginning of the world. This is pofitively affirmed by the ancient Jews (Philo de opificio mundi, and 1. de Vit. Mofis. Jofephus 1. 2. contra Appion. Tert. 1. adv. Jud. and 1. adv. Marcion. S. Aug. ep. ad Cafulan. S. Theoph. Antioch. ad Autolycum. Lactant. 1. 7. c. 14. S. Chryf. Hom. 10. in Gen. i. Nyffen. Serm. de Refur. &c.) Some Fathers indeed and certain modern critics think the precept of the Sabbath was only paffed by God into a law by the Jews when they came into the defert of Sin, in the second month after their coming out of Egypt, on the fifteenth of the month Abib or Nifan, in our March, in the year of the world 2513, before the vulgar era, 1491. (Exod. xvi. 5. and 25.) But at that time when manna was gathered, the command of the Rest of the Sabbath is pre-fuppofed, not then firft enjoined. And that it was obferved from the creation by all the Patriarchs is proved by Cornelius a Lapide, Tornellio, &c. Alfo amongst the Proteftant criticks by Ufher, in his Discourse" on the Sabbath." Gale in his Court of the Gentiles, p. 150. Amefius 1. de Origine Sabbati, & de die Dominico, against Gomar. Archbishop Sharp, in his Sermons, T. iv. p. 211. Zanchius in Quartum Decalogi Præceptum. Our Antiquarian the Rev. Mr. William Stukely, in his Abury, a Temple of the Druids, defcribed ch. 12. p. 68. John Chrift. Heberftreit, Diff. de Sabbato ante legem Mofaicam exiftente, Lipfia, 1748. John Aug. Ernefti, Vindiciæ Arbitrii Divini in Religione conflituenda, part ii. p. 44. The proofs of this affertion are fet in their full light by Cherubin, a S. Jofepho, Appar. Biblici, T. ii. p. 226. That the planetary names of the feven days of the week, are ancient among the Greeks and Egyptians, is manifeft from an old oracle of Apollo of Delphos, quoted by Eufebius, (de Præpar. 1. 5.) from Clemens of Alexandria, (1. 7. Strom. &c.) Amongst the Romans the planetary names of the feven days of the week are certainly older than Chriftianity, though their original is uncertain. The Roman calendar called Julius Cæfar's, certainly is not his, but the work of fome Chriftian, as Petavius (Dot. Temp. 1. 6.) and Scaliger (De Emend. Temp. 1. 4.) fhew from feveral modern barbarous terms there ufed. The ancient Romans chiefly computed time by the calends,ides and nones of the months. Cicero ufes the word week in a letter to his freed-man Tiro. (l. 16. ep. 9.) Ne in quartam Hebdomadam incideres, but he there fpeaks of a critical term in a diftemper, (See Melmoth's Tranflation and Note, 1. 6.

ep.

and must not be confounded with the word Sabaoth or rather Zabaoth, hofts or armies; from which God is called, The Lord of Sabaoth, the God of Armies, i. e. of all the legions of heavenly fpirits, and of all nations of men. This feftival of the Sabbath is, first, an emblem of the interior

ep. 24. T. ii. p. 84.) Among the Greeks and Orientals, the diftribution of time by feven days is more frequently mentioned. Porphyry, in his book concerning the Jews, quoted by Eufebius, (Præpar. Evang. 1. 1. c. 9.) tells us, that the Phenicians, confecrated one day in feven as holy, in honour of their principal deity Saturn. We learn from the ancient Scholiaft on Pindar, (Proleg. ad Pytheia) that at Delphos an hymn, called Poean, was fung to Apollo every feventh day. The Athenians did the like every seventh day of the moon: whence Hefiod fays, The feventh facred day. Edun legó ag. Homer and other heathen writers, often mention a veneration for the third and feventh days. Mr. Stukely finds proofs that the ancient Druids in Britain looked upon the feventh day as holy, doubtless, as he thinks, from the Patriarchal cuftom and law, (loc. cit.) yet fome will have no great ftrefs laid on what we find in Homer, Hefiod, and other poets on this head, and think the Sabbath received indeed the Divine bleffing at the end of the creation of the world, and was then destined to be declared Holy in the Jewish law: but that the particular precept of fanctifying it was only given in the Mofaic law, Exod. xxiii. 12. Because it is called a fign by which the Jews were diftinguished from other nations. Ezech. xx. 20. But this, may be understood of the manner and ceremonies of the Jewish obferv. ance, and of the degenerate time of idolatry, in which among feveral barbarous Pagan nations, this with other precepts may have been almost forgot. The very words of the law given to the Jews, feem to infinuate that it was the confirmation of an ancient precept; "Remember" thou keep Holy. Exod. xx. 8. See also Deut. v. 12. Thefe remarks feem

fufficiently to answer the arguments produced by thofe criticks who deny the precept of obferving the particular day of the Sabbath Holy to have been prior to the Jewish law; who nevertheless allow the Patriarchs to have been bound by the law of Nature to keep Holy one indeterminate day in the week. See Gomar, Inveftigatio originis Sabbati & Defenfio Inveftigationis fuæ contra Rivetum. Selden, de Jure Nature et Gentium, 1. 3. c. 10. Spencer de Legibus Ritual. Hebræor. 1. 1. c. 4. Pererius in Genefim, 1. 1. p. 179. Calmet, Comment. on Gen. ii. and Dict. Bibl, T. ii. Sabbath. Ifaac Cafaubon in Suetonii Tiber, c. xxxii. John Wallis Tr. de Sabbato. T. iii. op. p. 342. 381.423. and some modern Jews and critics quoted in Poli Synops. Critic. in Gen. ii. 3. See alfo Heylin's "Hiftory of the Sabbath," part 1. ch. 1. and Archbishop Bramhall's works, p. 911. Later Jews improved so much upon the falle delicacy of their forefathers in Chrift's time, who fcrupled not to take an ox out of a pit into which he was fallen, on a Sabbath, Mat. xii. that they would only allow food to be given the beaft in the water till the festival was over, when they took him out. Nay, a Jew who was fallen into a ditch on the Sabbath, is faid by Sixtus Senenfis, who had been himself a Jew before his converfion) and others, to have refused to fuffer a Chriftian who offered his help, to lift him out of the mire, faying, Sabbata noftra colo; de ftercore furgere nolo. When he implored the fame Chriftian's affiftance on the Sunday, the latter to turn his fuperftitious fcrupulofity

against

rest and infinite felicity which God enjoys within himself; and fecondly, of that glorious reft and everlasting blifs which we shall enter into after the conflicts and labours of this mortal life. Thirdly, it is a ceffation from worldly employs and labour, in order to confecrate the powers of our fouls to the holy exercises of that happy ftate, heavenly contemplation, love, and praife. It was fo ftrictly obferved by the Jews, that they were forbid on it to dress meat (11), to travel farther than about a mile (12), to buy or fell any thing (13), &c. but not to repulfe an enemy in felf-defence (14), or to perform in the temple the neceffary actions for offering facrifices (15), or in neceffity to take an ox out of the water (16). Later Jews have in many places carried their scrupulofity in obferving the Sabbath to a more ridiculous fuperftition than even that of their pharifaical ancestors when Christ preached among them; their rafhness in cenfuring his difciples for plucking a few ears of corn on a Sabbath to fatisfy their hunger, and in condemning him, and afcribing to the devil the divine miracles he wrought, because he restored the fick to health on that feftival, he meekly reproved; fhewing their delicacy to have been tinctured with fuperftition, and refined pride, and their conduct inconfiftent. In the Jewish dispensation the Reft commanded on the Sabbath was much more fevere, and of greater extent than in the Chriftian law, and still more fevere than the law of nature neceffarily requires, fuch a difcipline being fuitable to a dispensation which confifted more in outward rites than the new,

(11) Exod. xvi. 23. 29.
(13) 2 Efdr. xiii. 15.
(15) Matt. xii. 5.

(12) Calmet on Act, 1. 12,
(14) 1 Macc. xi. 41.

(16) Matt. xii. 11.

against himself anfwered, he should keep the Chriftian Sabbath in the fame place. Sabbata noftra quidem, Solomon, celebrabis ibidem. Some Rabbins have warmly contended that a taylor would be guilty of breaking the Sabbath, who fhould carry a needle ftuck on his fleeve on that day, with many other fuch trifles. See Lamy, Apparatus Biblicus; Ceremonies de toutes les Relig. Amfterdam, 1723. T. i. Buxtorf. Synagoga Judaica. c. 15. Codex Thalmudicus de Sabbato Latine Verfus, a Seb. Schmidio. T. ii. Mofes Maimonides, Tr. Schabbat. in Jad Chafaca, 1. 3. c. 1. Drufins, de tribus Sectis Judæorum, p. 94. and 109. Will. Wotton, Obferv. in Tra&t. Talmud. de Sabbato, Hebr. and Angl. London, 1718. Danzius, Diff. de Curatione Chrifti Sabbatica, and Vitus Henn. Hafenmuller, Diff. de Operibus Sabbatum depellentibus ex mente Hebræorum, Jenæ 1708. Kirchmeier, Difput. de Sabbatis Judæor. Wittem. 1731. Adam Chrift. Matthew, De Sabbatis Judaicis, Norimbergæ, 1701. Leo of Modena, Hiftoria Rituum Hebræorum prefentis temporis, &c.

and