MR. brown' S THIRD REPLY. 165 



A ^-eneraZ designation. Ihe Sahhath — primary: the seventh day — secondary. 



My friend W. B. T. greatly mistakes, if he thinks me in 

 any dilemma, by supposing 'Hhat because a miracle has deter- 

 mined what the particular thing referred to by the law really is, 

 a new miracle may establish a different intent in the very same 

 law/' (p. 89.) He knows, quite as well as I do, thatif the law 

 be of a general description, it is equally applicable to two or 

 more specific cases. He may well say, therefore, as he does, 

 " Show us, however, the miracle (fixing another ^ seventh day'), 

 and it sufl&ceth us." In spite of this sharp irony, that mira- 

 cle may in due time appear. 



On my words, " the whole authority of the Sabba th enjoined 

 in the Decalogue may, for sufficient reasons, by ' the Lord of 

 the Sabbath,' be transferred to the Jirsi day of our week," he 

 remarks: *'This seems to be a new phase in theology. Surely 

 this Jirst day cannot still be Uhe Sabbath enjoined in the De- 

 calogue,' for that is expressly limited to the seventh day of 

 the week." (p. 89.) But here he falls into the old mistake, 

 by confounding things that differ. The Decalogue says : " Re- 

 member the Sahhath day to keep it holy ;" not " Remember 

 the seventh day to keep it holy.'' What the Sabbath day 

 in, i. e. ho w often it occurs, and what is its order of succession, 

 is intimated in what follows. The " seventh day" is not, strictly 

 speaking, in the law itself, but in the explanation of the law. 

 It is not the text, but the commentary on the text, by the 

 Divine Lawgiver; and although of equal authority with it, 

 merely settles the general principle, that the Sabbath day is 

 of weeldy recurrence, as the memorial of the six days' work of 

 creation — nothing more. He who would make more of it 

 must do so solely by the force of an association of ideas, 

 peculiar and proper to a Jew under that dispensation, butper- 

 verted and irrational in any other. The time may come, 

 when my friend W. B. T. will see this as clearly as I do now ; 

 and will wonder at the absurdity of talking about a '' contra- 

 diction" in the idea of such a transfer of the authority of the 

 Sabbath Law from one uuj of the week to another. 



