MR. TAYLOR^S THIRD REPLY. 203 



No commutation permitted. The Sabbath law, specific. 



cedent suspension of the manna, places it beyond question that 

 " day the seventh" indicated Saturday, and no otlier day ; and 

 so rigidly was this provision insisted on that even in the case 

 of its most trivial infraction, no commutation of " day'^ was 

 allowable, no, not to save the offender's life. {Numh. xv. 32 — 

 36.) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy !'' It 

 was the ^^ day'^ that was likely to be forgotten, not "the Sab- 

 bath.'^ 



In my friend's former Reply (p. 47), it was contended that 

 if a miracle had originally determined the application of the 

 law in regard to the day, a subsequent miracle might change 

 its application. To which I objected {p. 89) that this would 

 be to allow one miraculous interpretation to be set aside by 

 another one. In rejoinder to this, J. N. B. says : " He knows, 

 quite as well as I do, that if the law be of a general descrip- 

 tion, it is equally applicable to two or more specific cases. ^' 

 {p. 165.) 



"Your if,'' says Shakspeare, "is the only peacemaker : 

 much virtue in if." The fourth commandment is not " gene- 

 ral'' in description : it is as specific as language can make it. 

 It designates a particular day by its proper name, and hy the 

 only name it had! "Day Ha-Shihingi is the Sabbath!" 

 Frequently as the Sabbath law is repeated, in no single in- 

 stance does it describe a seventh portion of time, or even a 

 " seventh day" as its object : " day the seventh" is its inexo- 

 rable demand. (See Exod. xvi. 26, 29, xx. 10, xxiii. 12, xxxi. 

 15, xxxiv. 21, XXXV. 2 ; Levit. xxiii. 8 ; Bent. v. 14.) And 

 if a miracle has confirmed the letter of the precept, by mark- 

 ing Saturday the last day of the week as that " day the se- 

 venth" of the law — that day of the series corresponding to the 

 one on which God rested from all his work — no other miracle 

 is competent to prove a different day to be tliat "day the 

 seventh." A miracle may repeal a law ; it cannot be allowed 

 to contradict another miracle ! 



Willing to give my friend the benefit of the utmost latitude 



