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Epistle to the Hebrews, ver. 1-11. Origen makes the sabbath an emblem of that rest we shall enjoy when we have done our work, so as to have left nothing undone which was our incumbent duty.* In the same manner the Jewish doctors speak of the sabbath. It was a common proverb among them, “Non datum est sabbatum, nisi ut esset typus futuri seculi." Remarkable to the same purpose are the words of Abarbanel: "Sabbata dixit in plurali numero, quandoquidem præceptum de sabbato non solum designat fundamentalem illum articulum de creatione mundi, verum etiam, mundum spiritualem, in quo erit vera quies, et vera possessio. Illic vera cessatio erit, ab omnibus operibus et rebus corporeis. Habemus ergo duo sabbata, unum corporale, in memoriam creationis, alterum spirituale, in memoriam immortalitatis animæ et oblectationis post mortem." The Jews, therefore, by no means count the sabbath a burden, but a great blessing they have it in high veneration, and affect to call it their spouse. Leo of Modena tells us, that so far are the modern Jews from being inclined to shorten the sabbath, that they make it last as long as possible, prolonging their hymns and prayers, not only out of devotion to God, but charity to the souls of the damned, it being a received opinion among them, that they suffer no torments on the sabbath.||

Origen. contra Celsum, lib. vi. p. 317, edit. Spencer. Cantab. 1677. † Vid. Buxtorf. Florileg. Hebr. p. 299.

↑ On Exod. xxxi. 13.

§ Selden. de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. iii. cap. x. Oper. vol. i. p. 326, 327; Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. cap. xv. p. 299, 300, edit. Basil. 1661.

On the subject of the sabbath, consult Selden, de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. iii. cap. viii. et seq.; Capelli Disputatio de Sabbatho, apud Comment. et Not. Critic. in Vet. Test. p. 263, et seq. Amstel. 1689; Spencer, de Leg. Hebr. lib. i. cap. v. sect. vii. et seq.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE PASSOVER AND FEAST OF UNLEAVENED

BREAD.

THE Jewish festivals were either weekly, as the sabbath; monthly, as the new moons; or annual, as the passover, the pentecost, the feast of ingathering or of tabernacles, and the feast of trumpets; to which we may add the annual fast, or day of expiation. Besides these, there were others that returned once in a certain number of years; as the sabbatical year, and the jubilee.

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Of the anniversary feasts, the three former were the most considerable, the passover, the pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles. At each of these all the males were to appear before the Lord at the national altar: Exod. xxiii. 14. 17; xxxiv. 22, 23; Deut. xvi. 16. The design of this was, partly, to unite the Jews among themselves, and to promote mutual love and friendship throughout the nation, by means of the whole body of them meeting together so often to which the Psalmist seems to refer, when he saith, "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord;" Psalm cxxii. 3, 4. And it was, partly, that as one church they might make one congregation, and join in solemn worship together; for I apprehend the Scripture idea of one particular church is only one worshipping assembly. And it was farther, by so large an appearance and concourse of people, to grace these sacred festivals, and add greater solemnity to the worship; and, partly, likewise, for the better support of the service and ministers of the sanctuary; for none were to appear before the Lord empty, each person was to bring some gift or present with him, according to his ability, and as God had blessed him; Deut. xvi. 16, 17. Farther, as the Jewish sanctuary and service contained in them a shadow of good things to

come, and were typical of the gospel church, this prescribed concourse from all parts of the country to the sanctuary might be intended to typify the gathering of the people to Christ, and into his church, from all parts of the world, under the Christian dispensation. Hence the apostle, in allusion to these general assemblies of the Israelites on the three grand feasts, saith, "We are come to the general assembly and church of the first-born;" Heb. xii. 23.

The law required only the males to appear before the Lord on these solemn occasions. But, though the women were exempted from a necessity of attending, yet they were not excluded if they pleased to do it, and could with convenience; as appears from the case of Hannah, who used to go with her husband yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh, 1 Sam. i. 3. 7; and from the case of the Virgin Mary, who went with her husband Joseph every year at the feast of the passover to Jerusalem; Luke ii. 41. Mr. Mede assigns three reasons for the women's being exempted from the duty of attending the feasts:

1st. The weakness and infirmity of the sex, they not being able, without much trouble and danger, to undertake so long a journey from the remote parts of the country.

2dly. The hazard of their chastity in so vast a concourse of people.

3dly. The care of their young children, and other household affairs, which must have been wholly abandoned if they, as well as the men, had been absent from their houses so long at the same time.*

To these reasons probably another and more considerable may be added, namely, the legal uncleannesses to which they would be liable in so long a journey.

Though the law required all the males to appear before the Lord, in the place he should choose, at these three feasts; no doubt it was to be understood with some restriction, it not being likely that young children or decrepit old men could give their attendance.+ Mr. Mede‡ conceives the law is to

* Mede's Diatrib. discourse xlvii. on Deut. xvi. 16, Works, p. 261. These, among others, are expressly excepted, Mishn. tit. Chagigah, i. sect. i. tom. ii. p. 413, edit. Surenhus.; see also the Gemara in loc. Mede, ubi supra.

cap.

be understood of all males within the age of service from twenty to fifty years old; for at fifty all were emeriti, even the priests and Levites serve not after that age: but as to the age at which persons entered on service, that was different; the priests might not serve before thirty, nor the Levites before twenty-five; but the laity were capable of employment at twenty, as appears from a passage in Numbers, where God commands Moses "to take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upwards, all that were able to go forth to war;" Numb. i. 3. But if, according to the rabbies, children came under the obligation of the law when they were twelve years old, this perhaps was the age of their attendance at these festivals: which opinion is somewhat countenanced by the history of Jesus going with his parents to Jerusalem at the passover when he was twelve years old; Luke ii. 42. But I take the more probable opinion to be, that all the males meant all that were capable of taking the journey and of attending the feast, which some were able to do sooner and some later in life; and therefore by the law no age was fixed, but it was left to be determined by every one's prudence and religious zeal; only none might absent themselves without sufficient reason.

There are yet two difficulties, which have been started concerning this law. One is, how Jerusalem could contain such multitudes as flocked from all parts of Judea to these solemnities. The other is, how the Israelites could leave their towns and villages destitute of men, without the greatest danger of being invaded and plundered by their neighbouring enemies.

As to the former question, it may as well be asked, how it is possible for Bath and Tunbridge to contain such multitudes as flock to them in their seasons. For, as at those places there are great numbers of lodging-houses, much larger than are requisite for the accommodation of the families that constantly inhabit them; so it was doubtless at Jerusalem, to which there were every year three stated seasons of concourse from all parts of the country. It is probable, that most families let lodgings at those times. The man at whose house our Saviour eat his last passover with his disciples, had a guest-chamber," or a room which he spared on these occaLightfoot, Hor. Hebraic. in loc. ↑ Vid. Mishn. ubi supra.

sions; Luke xxii. 11. Or if this be not sufficient to remove the difficulty, it is an easy supposition, that many might be entertained in tents erected on these occasions; as the Mohammedan pilgrims are at Mecca, to which many thousands resort at a certain time of the year.

As to the other difficulty, concerning the danger of leaving their towns and villages without any men to guard them, we need not have recourse to the conjecture advanced by some, that this obligation on all the males was only during their abode in the wilderness, when their nearness to the tabernacle easily admitted of their attendance. If that had been the case, Jeroboam need not have set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, to deliver the ten tribes from going up to Jerusalem to worship; 1 Kings xii. 27, 28. Beside, there are sufficient instances in the Jewish history to show, that this practice was continued till after our Saviour's time. Thus we are informed in the Acts, that there were multitudes of Jews, out of every nation under heaven, come to Jerusalem at the feast of pentecost; chap. ii. 5. KarouKovvτes, which our version renders" dwelling" at Jerusalem, should in this place be rendered" abiding," that is, during the time of the festival. Karoknot is used by St. Mark for a place of transient abode, and not a fixed and settled habitation; chap. v. 3.

Nor need we suppose with others, that they only sent a certain proportion of men, as one in ten or twelve, to Jerusalem, to be as it were the representatives, and offer the gifts of the rest, while they kept the feasts in their own towns. Nor need we, again, suppose with others, that since there was a divine permission granted to those who were unable to celebrate the passover in the first month, to do it in the second, Numb. ix. 10, 11, the same indulgence might probably extend to the other festivals; and so one half of the males might stay at home and guard the country and their houses, while the other half went to the sanctuary; and those who thus remained behind might celebrate the festival in the next month.

We need, I say, none of these suppositions and conjectures, since God himself had expressly undertaken to guard their habitations and substance, by his special providence, while the men were absent to celebrate the sacred festivals: "Nei

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