Exod. xii. 2

Antiq.

began their new year also; and it continued to be the beginning of their civil year, though another month was appointed for the beginning of their sacred year; for thus God commanded in the land of Egypt: This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you. This is a sufficient intimation, that before this command the year had another beginning, but was changed from autumn to the spring. Their sacred year, or computation of time for their holy convocations, was reckoned from the month in which they kept their Reland's first passover, and in which they left Hebr. p. Egypt, and were delivered out of the land of their bondage: in this new way of reckoning, that which before was their first is now their seventh month, and the new moon of this now seventh month is made the feast of trumpets. On this day, besides the blowing of trumpets, there were particular offerings directed, over and above the sacrifices provided for every day, and for their new moons: And shall offer, says the ritual, a burnt-offering for a sweet savour unto the Lord, one young bullock, one ram and seven lambs of the first year, without blemish; and their meat-offering shall be of flour mingled with oil; three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram, and one tenth deal for one lamb throughout the seven lambs; and one

508,

ye

3, 4, 5.

kid of the goats for a sin-offering, to make Numb. an atonement for you. The ritual then has xxix. 2, a particular regard to the return of the new year, according to the ancient reckoning, supposed to be the reckoning among the patriarchs, and from the creation: it might, not unlikely, have some notice taken of it before as a festival; it is, therefore, in another place, called a memorial of blowing of trumpets.

It is not easy to tell, says Bishop Patrick on the place, of what this blowing of trumpets was a memorial; yet he observes, that all nations made great rejoicings at the beginning of the year, and that those solemnities were often attended with sounding of trumpets. God was pleased to order rejoicing among his own people, but in honour of himself, on the beginning of the new year, to keep them from the idolatrous worship of the sun, as the lord or king of heaven, and to keep in their own minds a just sense that it was their God, Jehovah, who alone gave them good years, whose mercies were renewed from month to month, and from day to day. Bishop Patrick, however, carries this memorial of blowing of trumpets yet farther; and considers it as a memorial of the creation of the world, which was an autumn, on which account the ancient beginning of the year was at that time, and still continues among the eastern nations. This may

Leviti

cus, xxiii.

24.

5.

Seventh

sabbath

of the

land.

Levit.

well be understood of an acknowledgment of the goodness of God in the year past, and an address to Jehovah, not to the sun, to bless the year to come. Perhaps there is need of no other observation than this, that it was a memorial of the sole power of Jehovah over all seasons of the year, over all the courses of the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven, that, how prone soever the world might be to honour the sun as the king, and the moon as the queen of heaven, and to ascribe prosperous days and years to their influence and favour, the Hebrew nation should often call to remembrance, that the sun and moon were themselves the creatures of Jehovah; that he alone appointed, he alone directed their courses, and they had all their influences from him; that he ought to be acknowledged the proper author of all blessings the world receives from their influ

ence.

By another direction of the ritual, God year, or appointed a sabbath for the Holy Land, as well as a sabbath for the people: And the Lord spake unto Moses in the Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, xxv. 1 to and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years shalt thou prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. And in the seventh year

8.

shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow 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 the vine undressed; for it is a year of rest to the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. This direction, which appoints a sabbath to the land, requires that they should not sow their land, nor prune their vineyards, but omit the usual works of husbandry for that year, as they were to do no servile work on their weekly sabbaths, and they were to leave what grew of itself without -husbandry, in common for their cattle as well as their servants and strangers. This has been thought an hardship, and many will likely be disposed to think so still, for an whole nation every seventh year to be deprived of the produce of their estates: it was very hard, some say, to lose so con-siderable a property, and might endanger besides the safety of the whole nation, and bring a famine upon the land. The wise -lawgiver was sensible of this objection, and therefore provided beforehand a full answer to it, whenever it should be made:

And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth XXV. 20, year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

Levit.

21.

D

The faithful performance of this promise was a constant and a sufficient answer to all such objections; but, were there not also some proper reasons observable for the appointment, that the land should keep a sabbath unto the Lord? Some have observed, it was a wise design thus to fix on their memory the account Moses gave in his history of the creation of all things in six days, and the rest of the seventh, and to put them in mind that Jehovah their God was supreme Lord of the whole world, as he was the Creator of all; and that his blessing was what they were to trust to for the fruitfulness and increase of the land, which they held of God, as his gift; which, therefore, he might grant to them, with what limitations, and on what conditions he thought fit, yet assuring themselves of his blessing, if they were steadfast in their covenant with him as their God. The ritual itself seems to suggest this reason: Wherefore ye shall do my xxv. 18, statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill and dwell there

Levit.

19.