MR. TAYLOR' S SECOND REPLY. 109 



The Sabbath associated with the week by arbltrary enactment. 



triarchs {Gen. xxix. 27, 28; Joh ii. 13), and the Egyptians 

 ( Gen. 1. 10), as well as the idolatrous Philistines (see Judges 

 xiv. 12) ; but so far from sustaining a " Sabbath/' this 

 verj evidence sufficientlj proves thafc no day of the " seven'' 

 was more holy than another. A Sabbath no more follows from 

 an established quarter-montli, than it does from an established 

 quarter-year. It is dependent for its existence on positive 

 enactment; and may be connected with any period, at the op- 

 tion of the lawgiver. {Levit. xxiii.) ^^ Positive precepts/' 

 says Jeremy Taylor, " are those which depend upon the mere 

 will of the Uiwgiver." {Duct. Duh. B. ii. ch. iii. 18.) 



In the first announcement of an intended Sabbath-day for 

 the Israelites (Exod. xvi. 5), the preparatory direction is 

 earefully given that "on the sijcth day [of an established week 



are associated together. (See 2 Kings iv. 23 ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 31 ; 2 

 Chron. ii. 4, viii. 13, xxxi. 8 ; Keh. x. 33 ; Isai. i. 13, Ixvi. 23; Ezek. 

 xlv. 17, xlvi. 1, 3; Ilosea ii. 11 ; Amos viii. 5; Col. ii. 16.) 



In an essay on the subject of " Septenary Institutions" (published 

 in the Westminster Revieiv, Oet. 1850), characterized by considerable 

 historical and philological research, the writer, after showing that the 

 hebdomadal period had clearly an astronomical, and not (as is gene- 

 rally supposed) a theologic derivation, refers its original institution to 

 India, as "on the whole, better established than any other hypothesis;" 

 and gives it as the result of the most diligent investigation, that no 

 trace whatever of the "wceÆ" is to be found among the Greeks, the 

 Romans, the Chinese, &c., or any of the northern races of Europe 

 and Asia. " Throughout the whole of North and South America, 

 there are no traces of any analogous septenary observances among 



the aboriginal inhabitants Passing from America to 



the numerous groups of islands in the Pacific, comprised in the term 

 Polynesia, we still search in vain among their aboriginal inhabitants 

 for septenary institutions. Everywhere has been found a calendar of 

 months, commencing with the first visible ' new-moon,' but nowhere the 

 Ilindoo and modem European week of sev en days.''' In short, " when 

 we pass the Himalayan range, or in proportion as we recede in any 

 direction from India and Egypt, and the countries lying between them, 

 u-e lose all traces of Sahhaths /" ( West. Hev. No. cyI. Art. 8.) 



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