Lightfoot, Temple Service,

c. ix.

Sabbaths.

parts of worship most fit to accompany sacrifices and offerings, for they were themselves figurative expressions of prayer and praise. The modern service of each day's worship at the temple, may be seen more at large, as exactly drawn up by Dr. Lightfoot; but as directed by the ritual itself, it may be sufficient to observe concerning it, that it consisted of a burnt-offering of a lamb, with its meat-offering and drinkoffering every morning and every evening, in the dressing the lamps, and offering incense on the golden altar in the holy place, in praising God, and in blessing the people in the name of God. How plain and easy, how grave and solemn, and even how rational and instructive is this daily worship of the Hebrew church, as directed by the Mosaical ritual! Thus God was honoured and worshipped, and the people blessed every day: they acknowledged the lovingkindness of Jehovah in the morning, and his faithfulness in the evening; and they hoped their safety and happiness every day of their lives, in the protection and blessing of Jehovah, who dwelt among them as their God.

Besides the daily worship of God every morning and every evening, the ritual gives directions concerning the feasts of the Lord. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy xxiii. 2. convocations, Even these are my feasts.

Levit.

These were certain seasons or portions of time appointed to be observed to the honour of God, and in his service, in which they were to do no sort of servile work, to rest from the common business of life, and to mind with more attention the several duties of religion.

One of these feasts of the Lord, or holy convocations, was a weekly Sabbath. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. This holy rest was not only to be observed at the tabernacle, and before the Presence, but in all their dwellings throughout the whole land which God had given them to dwell in, according as he had promised their fathers.

The history of Moses mentioning the sanctification of the seventh day at the creation, and assigning a reason for the sanctification of it, from a circumstance in his history of the creation, seems to intimate, that the sanctification of a weekly Sabbath was coeval with the creation, and of more ancient original than the deliverance of the children of Israel out of the house of bondage, or the Mosaical law, given on Mount Sinai: and this meaning of the words in the history of Moses seems rather confirmed by reciting both these reasons in his law. Thus, Remember the

3,

xx. 8 to

12.

Sabbath day to keep it holy; six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger which is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; whereExodus, fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. You see how carefully this reason for sanctifying the Sabbath is preserved, though another reason is also added to it, which is that given by Moses in the repetition of the law: And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Some learned men have thought there were some additions in the Mosaical law, to the ritual rest of the Sabbath, and that the day of the week on which it was observed was very likely altered: the rest required by the ritual was so strict, that it commands, Ye shall kindle Exodus, no fire throughout your generations upon the XXXV. 3. Sabbath day. The penalty of transgressing this ritual was so very great, that it is appointed, Whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death.

Deut. v.

15.

2.

Our learned Mr. Mede makes this the reason," why the Hebrews use the six days "of the week in which they laboured, rather "than any other six days, and chose that "seventh day, namely Saturday, to hallow "and rest in, rather than any other, that they might profess themselves servants " of Jehovah their God by a relation and respect peculiar to themselves, to wit, "that they were the servants of that God "who redeemed Israel out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage; "and upon the morning-watch of that very day which they kept for their sab"bath, he overwhelmed Pharaoh and all "his host in the Red Sea, and saved Israel "that day out of the hands of the Egyp"tians." He further adds, " Certain I am "the Jews kept not that day for a sabbath, "till the raining of manna;" for which he gives this reason, They marched a weari- the Obsome march, and therefore could not rest servation on that day the week before, which would Sabbath have been regularly their sabbath, if they and had begun a new reckoning of days from the coming down of the manna. must know, the same learned author observes, "that the sabbath includes two "respects of time; first, the quotum, one

Mede on

of the

Lord's

Day, p.m

We 239.

day of seven, or the seventh day after "six days' labour; secondly, the designa"tion, or pitching that seventh day upon "that day we call Saturday: in both, the

N

Ib. 237, 238.

66

"sabbatical observation was a sign and profession that Jehovah, and no other, "was the God of Israel; the first, according to his attribute as Creator; the se"cond, of deliverer of Israel out of Egypt." Hence the double reason, the one for the quotum, one day in seven, the other for the designation of the day, or which day of the seven should be appointed the sabbath. This is very agreeable to the Ezekiel, reason given in the Prophet, Hallow my xx. 20. sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God. How the Hebrews were to employ their sabbath, or use this day of rest as holy to God, we are acquainted by an eminent Hebrew author:

He, to wit, Moses, in his law, appointed "one holy day after seven, in which they 66 were to rest from all work and business "of the common affairs of life, that they "might give themselves up wholly to the study of philosophy, for the improve"ment of their virtue, and instruction of "their conscience*,

66

The ritual appointed the sabbath a time of worship as well as a day of rest; it had therefore a peculiar service, over and above the morning and evening sacri

* Δε εξ ήμερων κελευσας αξειν ἵεραν έβδομην από των άλλων ανεχονίας έργων και ζήτησιν βια και πορίσμον ενα μονω σχολαζονίας φιλοσοφειν εις βελτιωσιν ηθών και τον τα συνειδό τος ελέγχον Philo de Mundi Opificio, p. 22.