seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy GOD: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that 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; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it."

It will be seen how accurate the command, and how certain the establishment of this law of rest in both the male and the female, and all other dependencies, which would lead to a violation of that law.

The establishment of a regulatory law of matter seems not to have been regarded by the Prophet as a separate and distinct creation, but the conferring upon matter a means of operating its "created" principle; and thus when he speaks of GOD finishing his work on the seventh day, he places no higher stress upon the establishment of the principles of rest than he does upon any other law.

The law of rest, however, is of limited application for a moral end, while all the other laws established in the six days were for a temporal end, and were universal. It may be on this account that the seventh day is coupled with the moral account of the creation of Adam and Eve, and not with the general Creation of the Universe.

The expression "the heavens and the earth," as used here, seems to be different from that used in the first verse of the first chapter-"GOD created the heaven and the earth"-surely conveys a more limited and different idea from the comprehensive one of "the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them."

In the original it is "the heaven and the earth and all their host." The meaning is the same, whether the term "heavens" or "heaven" is used-" and all their host" indicating a plurality and complicity of finished existences of heavenly bodies.

What meaning can we assign to "all the host of them," when the "heavens" are spoken of, except we understand the "host of heavenly bodies"? And if we admit that God did make them at all, is not this a just, true, and consistent narrative of the manner in which they were made in connection with "the earth"?

If we assume any other supposition than the one of an immediate and six diurnal days' creation, the entire of the Mosaic account has no adhesiveness of parts. The laws of GOD are violated in every line; and man would call upon Him to perfect by miracle, and special care and interference, progressively, all those works which were made immediate as in the account. The moment we add even one hour to our present diurnal day, the law of complete night and morning, day and evening, and present existences, must all be changed to new states; and who can point to that time in the age of this world which can demonstrate or show plausibly such a change in God's organic laws?

As has been previously seen, masses could not have formed into existing or similar forms, had all the present laws of Nature been operative, before their being thus formed, nor could present homogeneous masses have been aggregated for the same reason. The moment we give aggregated masses an existence consequent upon the establishment of laws pre-existing their primitive formation, we should make effective a law with

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out the presence of the object on which it is to be oper ative. This is contrary to sound philosophy, and the ordinary mode of establishing God's natural laws.

For example, the existence of matter is as much a law as that of gravity; and it must be evident to any mind that neither law could have an effect unless the matter was first made to exist, for the purpose of being operated upon by gravity. Therefore, if natural law is supposable to have entered at all into the first construction of the earth and heavenly bodies, we must allow the combinations of matter to have taken place in such a way as not to violate these laws, if these substances did not form by their aid.

It is the making effective of the law at the first formation of matter that makes the primitive creations and formations easy of comprehension; for the establishment of the laws of regulation of matter was as much of Godly origin as the matter upon which they were made effective-the time of its establishment being of great importance in arriving at the mode of first combinations as proof of creations.

Thence we conclude that, if all the laws of matter were not established at its introduction into the combinations where these laws could become operative for utility, at what time could they have been made effective? It is but too evident that matter could not have long existed in present combinations without these laws, for then you charge upon DEITY a waste of temporal existences, besides a violation of His own course toward matter; and instead of making Him the unvarying and unchanging GOD, you at once require innovation on regularity, and that, too, when no object is to be gained

except simply to set aside His revelation of the Crea tion through His Prophet Moses.

We must therefore conclude that all laws of matter were instituted on the first completion of the aggregated masses upon which they were to act, and only when required, and that no new law of matter has since been established by the never-varying God.

The further such inquiries extend, based upon reasoning and a sound philosophy, the nearer and nearer we approach to the truth as recorded, till finally facts support every word, and faith is demonstrated by exact science.

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CHAPTER LV.

SEVENTH DAY.

Rest of GOD. Its Signification. -Not Literal. Establishment of the Law of Rest for Man.- Consequently of Laboring Beast.-Rest an Original Law.Introduction of Laws ended his Work. - Adam and Eve.- GOD blessed the Seventh Day, and sanctified It.—End of the General Creation.

WHEN the "rest of God" is spoken of, as in the usual signification of the term, it has no appreciable meaning. If, however, it is used in the signification of discontinuance, then it may apply as it does in the text. GOD has no rest, for the term indicates feebleness and a necessity for it. It must, then, be supposed, that the Prophet meant cessation, or discontinuance from further adding to creation, since he declares, in a previous pas"That the heavens and the earth were finished, sage, and all the host of them."

Nor can the term "rest," or "rested," mean that he ceased from his ordinary occupation of every succeeding day, after" the heavens and the earth were finished," for his supporting and sustaining power was the same on the seventh day of the record, as it has been on any day since that time. The general sense then intended to be conveyed is, that GOD having completed his creations and formations, was about to establish a day of