MR. brown' S THIRD REPLY. 163 



Saturday enjoined only on the Jevjs, An undue apsumption. 



waive my right to discuss it here, and give him all the advan- 

 tage of his hypothesis, that the Sabbath was first instituted by 

 Moses. On this supposition, then, I will meet him, and try 

 the issne without fear. 



"That Saturday 2s *the Sabbath enjoined in the Becahgue^ '' 

 says my friend, *'is as certain as human knowledge can be, 

 even concerning the Bible itself." (p. 21.) In this I entirely 

 differ from him. Had he said " that Saturday is the Sabbath 

 enjoined on the Jeies, is as certain as human knowledge can 

 be/' I would have at once agreedwith him. But the two pro- 

 positions are essentially distinct, and I, at least, can never 

 confound them, without shutting the eyes of my understand- 

 ing. How is it that my friend is blind to this distinction ? 

 His own reasoning against it is like that of some sceptics 

 against the reality of " first truths," or self-evident principles, 

 on which all reasoning must proceed, — everywhere assuming 

 the very point in terms denied. He first asks, " How shall 

 we ever ascertain what is the seventh day of the Decalogue?" 

 {p. 88.) And then answers, "Clearly not by itself. All 

 legal interpretation must ultimately be based on some assump- 

 tion without the statute." Suppose I admit this, what 

 follows-? " J. N. B. admits 'that, for the Jews, it was fixed 

 to the last day of our weeh. But then it was not fixed hy the 

 DecalogueJ " This, answers my friend W. B. T., '^ would 

 be a simple impossibility." Be it so. But how, then, is it 

 fixed? "By adopting," says my friend, "the universal 

 designation of a well recognized distinction. The term * Sun- 

 day' is not more precisive in our law than is the term ' ha- 

 shihingV [translated 'the seventh day'] in that of the He- 

 brews. It is applicable to no ' seventh day' but Saturday." 

 This last remark is the purest assumption. As it is by no 

 means self-evident, I must demand ample proof before I can 

 admit its truth. Is the proof found in the " universal designa- 

 tion of a well recognized distinction ?" If so, then the infer- 

 ence irresistibly follows that the seventh day Sabbath was 



