202 ABROGATION Or THE SABBATH. 



A useless distinction. " The seventh day," required by the Laiv. 



day to keep it lioly/ What the Sabbath day is, i. e., how 

 often it occurs, and wliat is its order of succession, is intimated 

 in wbat follows. The ^ seventh day' is not, strictly speaking, 

 in the law itsd/] but in the explanation of the law." {p. 165.) 

 Were it not for my friend's previous declaration, "Truth, 

 and not mere tilt, is my object in this Discussion'' (p. 162), I 

 should have thought this quibbling. Will J. N. B. in candor 

 say that his latter form: ^'Remember the seventh day to keep 

 it holy," would be one jot more explicit, unequivocal, or 

 authoritative, — one jot more removed bey ond the reach of 

 subterfuge, than the existing form : '^ Remember the Sab- 

 bath day . . . but the seventh day is the Sabbath V If he 

 will not say so, his distinction is disingenuous, and the " day'' 

 is admitted to have all the obligation the laiv can give it ] if 

 he will say so (as consistency with his comment requires), I 

 can only wonder at the consorted weakness and boldness of 

 expedient to which ^'wrong theories lead intelligent men/' 

 With far more plausibility may it be said that what Pro- 

 testants call the ^' second" commandment is not properly a 

 "law itself," but only an ^'explanation of tlie laio;" for in 

 point of fact, it is indeed obviously included in the " first" 

 commandment. Is it, therefore, in any respect subordinate ? 

 The notion is most untenable. The extended specifications of 

 a statute are as really an integral part "of the law itself" 

 as its first general provision. They demand the same implieit 

 obedience, or require the same decisive repeal. J. N. B. 

 appears to be fuUy aware of this, for even while contending 

 that the seventh day " is not the text, but the commentary on 

 the text, by the Divine Lawgiver," he admits that it is of 

 "equal authoritij with it." The distinction is therefore wholly 

 irrelevant to the point under discussion — the requirement of the 

 fourth commandment. "The law itself ' expressly enacts that 

 " day the seventh is the Sabbath" {Exod. xx. 10) ; and the 

 iiitent of the lawgiver is unmistakable and undisputed. The 

 subsequent administration of the law, no less than the ante- 



