ticular day of the week for mankind in general, whether the day be the seventh or the first. Our first parents certainly knew on what day of the week they were created, whether they came into being in the dark or in the light part of it. They knew that those parts composed the whole day, and probably knew not at first any other divisions, or any subdivisions of it. They doubtless knew the first sabbath, and that it was sanctified or set apart for them to devote to God, not because they, but because God had worked the six preceding days. They knew also when the seventh day came again which was to be their second sabbath, and which they were to keep, not because they had worked the six preceding days, but because, whether they had done so or not, it was the weekly return of the first sabbath. Thus they themselves could neither be ignorant, nor forget, without incurring guilt, either the day that was to be sanctified, or its commencement, which was the commencement of darkness the day before, according to the civil account: neither were they at liberty to transfer the sabbath to a different day, by the expedient of keeping two sabbaths together, and working six days afterwards; and yet if they could not, where is the propriety of saying, as Mr. W. does, that the seventh part of time only was instituted?

The observations just made relative to the day

kept by our first parents, and the time when it began, apply to their posterity while they lived on or near the same spot with them. Nor would emigration to the east or west make any difference with regard to their keeping the day, which was the seventh, except they lost their reckoning; and it would be their own gross fault if they did. As to the time of beginning their sabbath, it would be their duty to begin it when darkness began to usher it in at the place where they were, whatever might be the state of some other people at that moment with respect to light and darkness. Supposing even any of the nations to have lost their reckoning of days, there is every reason to believe, as already shown, that the ancient Patriarchs and the Jews did not lose their's, and that their's is the source of, or at least was the same with, that which is prevalent among the modern Jews and among Christians. The time when a nation chooses to begin its civil day, whether midnight, noon, or any other, need not, and ought not, to affect the Scriptural sabbath day, nor the time of its commencement.

Mr. Wright thinks, with some others, that the three first days of the first week differed from the four following days, and perhaps from each other, in length, because it was the fourth day before the sun was made. I know not what purpose is to be answered by the hypothesis, except it be to

show that the successive seventh days had shorter or longer intervals of time between them than existed between the beginning of the first day and the first sabbath, and that therefore there could be no institution at the close of the creation that confined the sabbath to a particular day of the week. But the ground of this conjecture fails. It was as easy for the Great Creator to make each of the three first days, consisting of darkness and light, of the same length as that of any day that followed, without the sun, as with the sun; and as the three first as well as the four last are called days, there is no doubt that he did.

Once more:-Mr. Wright, as well as Dr. Wallis, speaks of the uncertainty respecting the time of day when the sun made his appearance for the first time; that is, I suppose they mean, it is uncertain whether it was noon at the time in Paradise, the sun being on the meridian of that place, or whether it was there at what is now called sun-rising or sun-setting, or at any time between. Be it which it might, there is no reason why it should affect the time of the commencement, continuance, or termination of the light and darkness which existed during the three preceding days, any more than it would, had the sun been only behind a cloud during the whole of the enlightened part of those days. All the difference would

be this, that what existed before without any division, or distinction of names, perhaps without any to be named, except those of darkness and light, would henceforth consist of night, midnight, morning twilight, sun-rise, forenoon, noon, afternoon, and evening twilight, though it is uncertain which of these the meridian of Paradise had when the sun appeared in the sky for the -first time.*

* Had there been any people to the east or west of Paradise at the time the sun was made,' the darkness which had hitherto marked the beginning of a new day, and of a sabbath, would have happened at the same time that it would have taken place if there had been no sun, however differently they might have named the hour if the different civil accounts of days now existing had been then established. The times, indeed, in which darkness would take place in these opposite directions, could not of course correspond with the moment of time at which it would take place in Paradise, on account of the difference of meridians. But it would be the business of each to regard the time of its happening in the country where he lived, unmindful whether it took place sooner or later, and how long, (supposing him to know,) in another, with which he would have nothing to do till he removed to that country, any more than the man has, who has obligations to fulfil on a particular day of the month towards one who lives in a remote part, east or west. This is all the difference that could happen to the descendants of the [first human pair, without their own fault, in removing from Paradise; and it furnishes no excuse for changing the original order of the day, or the original time for commencing the

sabbath, whatever civil account of a day's commencement may have been instituted in a particular country. I do not, therefore, agree with Mr. Wright in the Note on p. 10 of the Work already referred to, if he means that the ancients and moderns under different meridians might keep the sabbath on what day of the week they pleased, and begin it when they pleased.

If the reader should think that either here or elsewhere I have entered into discussions too minute or profound, I request him to recollect, that I am not the appellant, but the respondent.

CHAPTER X.

Differences of Opinion concerning the supposed Lawfulness of Man to transfer the Scriptural Weekly Sabbath to another Day.

STRANGE as the idea may seem, at first view, that God would under any circumstances permit his laws to be dispensed with by his creatures, there are many who act as if they thought he would do this, and some, I believe, that really think he will, whether they venture to say so or not. All those who refuse to search the Scriptures on the subject, though they are totally unacquainted with the argument, or who, though they are secretly and sometimes avowedly convinced that God has appointed a certain day to