of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD, feven days; on the first day fhall be a fabbath, and on the eighth day, fhall be a fabbath. And ye shall take unto you, on the first day, the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook: and ye fhall rejoyce before the LORD your God, feven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD, feven days in the year: It shall be a ftatute for ever in your generations; ye shall celebrate it in the Seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths feven days: That your generations may know that I made the children of Ifrael to dwell in Booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. This Injunction is repeated in another Numb. Place, with particular Directions, what xxix.12, kind of Burnt-Offerings were to be of fer'd, every one of the Days. in these Words; Thou shalt feaft of Tabernacles feven days, And again, Deut.xvi. observe the 13. after that thou haft gather'd in thy corn and thy Wine. This Festival, we find, was kept with great Pomp and Solemnity, after their Re- Neh. viii. turn from the Captivity. L 3 14, &c. This Deut. xxxiv. 22. This was one of those three great Feftivals of the Year, upon which all their Males were to appear before the LORD at Jerufalem. The Precept for it is, as follows. *Three times thou shalt keep a feaft unto me in the year; Thou shalt keep the feaft of unleavened bread, (Paffover) in the month Abib (March) for in it thou cameft out from Egypt. And the feast of barveft, (Pentecofte) the first-fruits of thy labours which thou hast fown in the field: And the feaft of Ingathering (Tabernacles) which is in the end of the year (the old natural Year) when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. called in another Place, The Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Which must mean the old Style, when, as we obferv'd before, August was reckon'd the last Month in the Year. And this last is *Exod. xxiii. 14, &c. Deut. xvi. 16. It was the fecond of thefe (Pentecofte) which St. Luke calls ACUTEPOT PATON, the fecond Sabbath after the Firft; when the Difciples pluck'd the Ears of Corn. Or, as fome will have it, the fecond weekly Sabbath, which happen'd after the first Great one, the Paffover. Luke vi. I. SECT. SECT. XIV. 10, &c. The SABBATICAL YEAR. Among the divine Appointments beforemention'd, we may place the Sabbatical Year; every feventh Year was to be a Year of Reft to the Ground. Six years Exod. thou shalt fow thy land, and fhalt gather xxiii. in the fruits ther of; but the Seventh year, thou shalt let it reft and lie ftill; that the poor of thy people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field fhall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive-yard. Again; When ye come into the land which Lev. xxv. I give you, then shall the land keep a fab- 2. bath unto the LORD. Six Six years thou shalt fow thy field, and fix years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But, in the feventh year, shall be a fabbath of reft unto the land, a fabbath for the LORD; thou shalt neither fow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord, of thy harvest, thou Shalt not reap; neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: For it is a year of reft unto the land. And the labbath of Levit. I. the land fhall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy fervant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired fervant, and for thy ftranger that fojourneth with thee. And for thy cattle, and for the beafts that are in thy land, fhall all the increase thereof be meat. And, a little further; If ye shall fay what shall we eat the Seventh year? behold, we shall not fow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my bleffing upon you in the fixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit, until the ninth year; until her fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old ftore. In another Place, we are told how this Year is to be further obferved: At the Deut. xv. end of every feven years, thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the releafe; every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour, fhall release it; be shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother, because it is called the LORD's releafe, &c. And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be fold unto thee, and ferve thee fix years; then, in the Seventh year, thou shalt let him go free from from thee; and thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy stock, and out of thy ftore, and out of thy wine-prefs. And thou shalt remember that thou was't a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. SECT. XV. The Year of JUBILEE. There was, befides, another fabbatical Year, call'd the Year of Jubilee, which was every Seventh of the fabbatical Years beforemention'd, and revolv'd once in fifty Years; the Inftitution of which is as follows: Thou shalt number feven fabbaths of years unto thee, feven times feven years; and the space of the feven fabbaths of years fhall be unto thee forty and nine Years. Then shalt thou caufe the trumpet of the Jubilee to found, on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet found throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof: It shall be a Jubilee unto you, and ye shall returnevery man unto |