MR. TAYLOR' S SECOND REPLY. 107 



No hint of a Sabbath, till after the Exodus. 



The word " Sabbath" does not once occur in Genesis. The 

 earliest intimation of a Sabbath day we can diseover in the 

 Bible is in Exodus xvi. 5. It is in this chapter (verse 23) we 

 find the first recorded Sabbath law. " In vain shall we search 

 for even a hint that during the twenty-five huudred years pre- 

 vious, man ever did keep, or ever was required to keep a 

 Sabbath.''* 



But, says J. N. B.,in reply to "this bold but unfortunate 

 assertion/' (p. 50J " the division of time into ' weeks/ or 

 ^iseven days' is repeatedly mentioned" in Genesis. He has 



■5^ SaysBuNYAN: "As to the imposing of a seventh-day Sabbath 

 upon man, from Adam to Moses, of that we find nothing in holy writ; 

 either from precept or example." {Treat. on Sabbath, q. ii.) 



"There is no mention of a Sabbath," says Gill, " before the de- 

 scent of the manna in the wilderness of Sin.'' (Bod. of Divin. vol. 

 3, B. iii. ch. 8.) 



In Paley's opinion, " The transaction in the wilderness was the 

 first actual institution of the Sabbath. For, if the Sabbath had been 

 instituted at the time of the creation, it appears unaccountable that 

 no mention of it — no occasion of even the obscurest allusion to it, 

 Bhould occur." {Mor. Phil. B. v. ch. 7.) 



As "Whately excellently argues : "The whole question, indeed, 

 respecting the patriarchal laws and observances, is one which does not 

 directly concern Christians. For we may be sure that any law by 

 which certain persons are to be bound will be made known to those 

 persons (except through some error or negligence, such as one may 

 often find indeed in human legislation, but which it would be absurd 

 and impious to attribute to the Deity), not as a matter of probable 

 conjecture, but with certainty and precision. The very purpose of a 

 law is to lay down accurately, and determine what might have been 

 before dubious or indifferent, so as to leave no room for hesitation as 

 to our conduct in that particular. To speak, therefore, of a probable 

 law (in reference to those for whom that law is designed) seems no 

 other than a contradiction in terms. It is to speak of an indetermi- 

 nate determination ; of an undecisive decision ; of the removal of 

 doubt by something that is itself åouhitxA." —[Essays, ^'c, No. v. 

 note A. On the Sabbath.) 



