DR. JENNINGS' principal reason for denying that the Sabbath of the Hebrews was identical with the Paradisaical Sabbath has been considered, and the fact that Dr. Aker sets it wholly aside has been shown from his own language. But if Dr. A. and Mr. F. had imitated the modest statement of Dr. J. relative to Sunday as the true seventh day, it would much better accord with the doubtful deductions which, in so positive a manner, they offer to us. But Dr. J. only makes it "a very probable conjecture" that Sunday was the true seventh day. Thus, he frankly acknowledges his theory to be based on probabilities, to say the most that can be said, and that it does not rest upon certainties.
One remarkable fact pertaining to Dr. Jennings' theory should here be noticed: He holds that Sunday is the Sabbath which was observed in Paradise, and that it was binding, as such, till superseded at the fall of the manna by Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. He also holds that the Saturday next preceding the one marked by the cessation of the manna, Israel marched from Elim to Sin; which assertion he uses as a clear proof that it was not then the Sabbath. He further holds that the manna began to fall the next day after that march.
So, according to Dr. Jennings, the manna began to fall upon the morning of Sunday, the true Sabbath of the Lord, as observed from creation down to that time; which original Sabbath was not superseded by the Jewish Sabbath, or Saturday, till six days after this, at the first cessation of the manna.
And Dr. Jennings' theory requires him to believe that the people went out and gathered manna for the first time on Sunday morning, though it was the Sabbath which God hallowed in Eden, and which had been observed down to that point; and though the act of gathering manna upon that day is one that directly violated the Sabbath, as this chapter plainly teaches (Ex. 16:4-30), yet the people did this without an expression of surprise that God should send them bread to be gathered upon his holy Sabbath!
And observe this remarkable fact, that whereas they had just spent six days in labor, ending, according to Dr. J., with this march on Saturday, from Elim to Sin, now they begin a second six days' labor on the morning of Sunday, which was the Lord's Sabbath day, which continues till the day on which the manna was withheld. In other words, twelve days elapsed between the ancient Sabbath of the Lord and the newly-ordained Sabbath of the Jews! And during this period, but six days before the Jewish Sabbath, or Saturday, had superseded Sunday, the Sabbath of the Lord, the people spontaneously, and with the divine141sanction, violate the true Sabbath by gathering their first manna on that day.
So that, whereas Dr. Akers changes the Sabbath by having one week consist of only six days; and whereas Mr. F. changes the Sabbath by having one week that has two Sabbaths in it; Dr. Jennings changes the Sabbath by having one week constituted of thirteen days! And he has the manna begin to fall on God's seventh day, which is the seventh day of this thirteen-day week! And as if it were not enough to teach that God's Sabbath was by divine authority removed, to give place to the Sabbath of the Jews, he teaches that it was violated six days before the Jewish Sabbath came into existence; and all this was effected by the wonderful miracle of the manna!
Dr. Jennings' alleged change of the Sabbath rests upon the supposed employment of Saturday as a day for marching one week before the first Sabbath marked by the cessation of the manna. But to carry out his theory, he has the manna begin to fall on Sunday which he calls the true seventh day, and the original Sabbath, and has the people gather it that day, though the new Sabbath was not instituted for five days after that time! God sent the manna to prove the people whether they would walk in his law or not. Ex. 16:4. And according to Dr. Jennings, the very first day of the manna was the original Sabbath! And so, in the providence of God, they were called to do that which his law forbade!
Leaving Dr. J., let us now consider the position of Mr. Fuller.
Mr. F. holds that Sunday was Adam's first day of the week, and Saturday was his seventh. He also holds that Adam kept Sunday for the Sabbath. This order continued till the exodus of Israel from Egypt, when, by divine direction, the children of Israel changed, not the order of the week, but only the day of the Sabbath, adopting Saturday, the seventh day of the week, in the place of Sunday, the first day of the week. He proves this assertion by referring the reader to the work of Dr. Akers, who claims to have made an exact count of the days from creation to the exodus. But it is remarkable that Dr. A., in this exact count of the days, reckons the first six days of the creation week, which Mr. F. asserts ought not to be reckoned. Also, that he sets out with Monday as the first day of the week, and Sunday as the seventh; and when the exodus takes place, he has one week with only six days in it, in order that he may have the sixth day, or Saturday thenceforward reckoned as the seventh day, and Sunday, the seventh day of the week, to be, ever after, the first day of the week. Dr. A.'s week, thus changed, corresponds exactly to the week which Mr. F. asserts was used by Adam. Mr. Fuller's book, the "Two Sabbaths," rests, almost wholly, upon the exact computation of days from creation, which is given in Dr. Akers' Chronology. But if Dr. A.'s calculation is good for anything, it establishes his own reckoning of the week, and disproves and sets aside Mr. F.'s order of the week, on which his theory rests. Now it is particularly dishonest in Mr. F. to make the use which he does of Dr. A.'s calculation. Mr. F.'s argument rests upon the truthfulness of Dr. A.'s reckoning of the week from creation. And Dr. A.'s reckoning is wholly directed to show that Sunday is the seventh day of the week, as reckoned by Adam, which Mr. F. denies, asserting it to be the first day of that week. Dr. A. professes to be able to count the time from Adam to the exodus so exactly that he can positively prove that Sunday was the seventh day of that entire series of weeks. But when he comes to the exodus, in order to show that the Sabbath observed by Israel was not the ancient Sabbath of the Lord, he changes the reckoning of the week, and thus makes a week that begins with God's seventh day and ends with his sixth! and which thus exactly corresponds to Mr. F.'s week. And thereupon Mr. F. seizes this result, thus obtained, and gives his readers to understand that Akers' Chronology proves that this kind of week had been observed without change from the beginning; whereas, Dr. A avows just the reverse! And Mr. F. rests his theory of a change from Sunday, the first day, to Saturday, the seventh, at the exodus, on this misstatement of Akers' calculation! How reliable that calculation is, we shall soon consider.