MR. taylor's second replt. 105 



The reason of the law afsigned ; not its date. 



Of the many similar internal evidences of this, but one shall 

 be cited : "By my name, Jehovah [mn'] was I not known 

 to tliem," (the patriarchs ;) Exod. vi. 3 : — the root of which 

 (rrnx — ehyehj I am) is given in Exod. iii. 14, in direct an- 

 swer to the question, ^^icJiat is his namef' Is any one fanci- 

 ful enough to infer, because the word mn"' occurs in Gen. xv. 

 7, and 2, that the '^ name" was known to Abram? — or because 

 the same word occurs in Gen. iv. 26, that the " name" was 

 first used by Adam' s grandson? — or because the "name" is 

 found in Gen. ii. 4, 5, 7, that the Hebrew word Hin' is even 

 older than man ? " Spirit'' away the letter of Exodus vi. 3, 

 if you can ! 



No w, just as the historian used familiar though recent 

 ^Sames" in describing long antecedent events, so evidently 

 the passage in Gen. ii. 3, is simply a parenthesis penned after 

 the Sabbath law. It does not say (as J. N. B. seems to im- 

 ply) that Grod '^sanctified" the seventh day at that time, but 

 merely he sanctified it /or that reason — "because that in it 

 he had rested."* Its sole object appears to have been to fix 

 the Jewish attention on the sanction of the particular time 

 selected as a Sabbath ;f a sanction that for us has no signifi- 



written the book of Genesis much later than the promulgation of the 

 Law, inserted this sentence from the fourth commandment, into what 

 appeared a suitable place for it ; where an opportunity was afforded 

 for reminding the Israelites, by a natura! and easy transition, of the 

 reason assigned by God, many ages after the event itself, for his com- 

 mand with regard to the observance of the Sabbath by the covenanted 

 people." Milton. [Christ. Doctrine, B. i. ch. 10.) 



* " The Sabbatic rest," says Dr. Paley, " being a duty which results 

 from the ordination and authority of a positive law, the reason can be 

 alleged no further than as it explains the design of the legislator ; and 

 if it appear to be recited with an intentional application to one part of 

 the law, it explains his design upon no other; if it be mentioned 

 merely to account for the choice of the day, it does not explain his de- 

 sign as to the extent of the obligation." [Mor. Phil. B. v. ch. 7.) 



•}- *' The Lord's resting on the seventh day from his works of crea- 



