when he says that the Sabbaths were given to the Israelites in the wilderness, he cannot be fairly accounted to assert that the Sabbaths had never been given till then. The fact indeed probably was, that they had been neglected and half forgotten during the long bondage in Egypt, (slavery being unfavourable to morals,) and that the observance of them was re-asserted and renewed at the time of the promulgation of the Law in the Desert. In this sense, therefore, the Prophet might well declare, that on that occasion God gave the Israelites his Sabbaths. It is true, that in addition to the motive for the observance of the Sabbath, (hinted in the 2nd chapter of Genesis, and more fully expressed in the 20th of Exodus,) which is of universal obligation, other motives were urged upon the Israelites specially applica

ble to them-as that "the day should be a sign between God and them"*—as that it should be a remembrance of their having been made to rest from the yoke of the Egyptians. Yet such supplementary sanctions to the performace of a duty (however well adapted to secure the obedience of the Israelites) are quite consistent with a previous command addressed to all, and upon a principle binding on all.

I have now attempted to show, but very briefly, lest otherwise the scope of my argument should be lost sight of, that there were among the Patriarchs places set apart for worship-persons to officiate—a decent ceremonial-an appointed season for holy things I will now suggest in very few words (still gathering my information from such hints as the Book of Genesis supplies * Exodus, xxxi. 17. + Deuteronomy, v. 15.

from time to time,) something of the duties and doctrines which were taught in that ancient Church: and here, I think, it will appear, that the Law and the Prophets of the next Dispensation had their prototypes in that of the Patriarchs-that the Second Temple was greater indeed in glory than the First, but was nevertheless built up out of the First, the one body "not unclothed," but the other rather "clothed upon."

5. In this primitive Church, then, the distinction of clean and unclean is already known, and known as much in detail as under the Levitical Law, every animal being arranged by Noah in one class or the

*

other. The blood, which is the life of

the animal, is already withheld as food.

Murder is already denounced as demand

*Genesis, vii. 2.

† Ibid. ix. 4.

ing death for its punishment.* Adultery is already forbidden, as we learn from the cases of Pharaoh and Abimelech. Oaths are already binding. Fornication is already condemned, as in the case of Shechem, who is said "to have wrought folly in Israel, which thing ought not to be done." Purifications are already enjoined those who approach a holy place, for Jacob bids his people "be clean and change their garments" before they present themselves at Bethel. The brother is already commanded to marry the brother's widow, and to raise up seed unto his brother.¶ The daughter of the Priest (if Judah as the head of his own family may be considered in that character,) is already to be

Genesis, ix. 6. Ibid. xxvi. 28. || Ibid. xxxv. 2.

Ꭰ

+ Ibid. xii. 18; xxvi. 10. § Ibid. xxxiv. 7.

Ibid. xxxviii. 8.

brought forth and burned, if she played the harlot. These laws, afterwards incorporated in the Levitical, are here brought together and reviewed at a glance; but as they occur in the Book of Genesis, be it remembered, they drop out incidentally, one by one, as the course of the narrative happens to turn them up. They are therefore to be reckoned fragments of a more full and complete code, which was the groundwork in all probability of the Levitical code itself, for it is difficult to suppose that where there were these, there were not others like to them. But this is not all the Patriarchs had their sacrifices, that great and leading rite of the Church of Aaron. Their sacrifices, how far regulated in their details by the injunctions of God himself, we cannot determine; yet it

* Genesis, xxxviii. 24.