MR, TAYLOR' S SECOND REPLY. 153 



Presumptive evidence from the Hehrnvs. A future lite — irrelcTaut. 



The fourth chapter of Hehreics has been referred to, as an- 

 tecedently alFording '' a strong presumption" in favor of the 

 figurative intent and transitory nature of the Sabbath. J. N. 

 B., while accepting and approving my general construction, 

 denies its main assumption, that the apostle here refers solely 

 to an eartlily rest reserved for believers, as shown by the whole 

 tenor of the dissertation. "On the contrary," says he, "it is 

 with perpetual reference to a future life.'' (jo. 78.) He ap- 

 pears to have formed " an inadequate conception of the con- 

 text.'' 



It has been noticed that the great theme of this treatise is 

 " the Levitical symbolism of the gospel. '^ The natural inquiry 

 of even the candid Jewish mind was, " How, if the Mosaic in- 

 stitutes were of Divine original — the enactment of an immu- 

 table God — could they ever be supplanted V^ And it was to 

 meet this constantly recurring perplexity that this elaborate 

 exposition was written for the Hebrew Christians. The topics 

 of its remark would naturally be those which most required 

 elucidation as to their spiritual import. The doctrine of a 

 future life and a heavenly Canaan was as confidently received 

 among the Essenes and the Pharisees as among the disciples 

 of Jesus, and therefore å iiriorl would not be likely to be 

 specially illustrated here. It was the eartldy ritual that 

 formed the text; almost necessarily, it was the eartldy ^^vn- 

 bolism that furnished the comment. Hence the apostle very 

 properly declines considering "the resurrection of the dead'^ 

 and the fuHire award, as foreign to his purpose. {<:liap. vi.) 

 Accordingly we find (just as we should expect to find) the oc- 



good reason to think that they chiefly respect the Sabbath we treat oa, 

 for which probably these men had the greatest respect and zeal." — 

 i^Expos. of Decalogue.) 



ludeed, as Gill has wcll rcraarkcd, there is nothing but the weekly 

 Sabbath, to which the term " days" can here be Tvith propriety re- 

 ferred. (^Comment. in loco.) The best expositors are unanimous in 

 this application. 



