APPENDIX. SINCE the foregoing Lecture was written, I have received, through the post, a Sermon on the Lord's-day, preached by the Rev. Dr. Hook. The perusal of it has not weakened in the least degree my conviction that we have distinct authority in God's word, and especially in the Fourth Commandment, for the entire sanctification of the first day of the week; neither has it increased, in any measure, my respect for human authority, or the teaching of tradition, in this matterrather the reverse. I allude to it only because I find in it a very distinct recognition of the correctness of many of the positions I have pleaded for in my lecture. Dr. Hook's words are these, page 18:-"Before the delivery of the Mosaic law, we find traces of the observance of one day in seven to be a day of worship and of rest. When the manna fell in the wilderness, as described in Exodus xvi., a Sabbath was known to the Israelites; and, as we gather from the context, it was most probably not observed on the precise day afterwards appointed. The manna fell on the second month of their coming out of Egypt, while the Law was not given till the third month. When we add to this the fact, that the Patriarchs measured their time by weeks, and that when Noah. was in the ark, he sent forth the dove three times at intervals of seven days, we must come to the conclusion that the mention of a Sabbath in the second chapter of the Book of Genesis, must have reference not primarily to the Levitical Sabbath, but to the Patriarchal." (169) |