all in: One, answering to our March; the Other to September.

Of the natural Year's beginning with the latter, we have Proofs from these two Ordinances; by which the feaft of in-gathering is appointed to be kept, at the End of the Year: The feast of in-gathering, Exod. which is in the end of the year, when thou haft gather'd in thy labours out of the field. Again, thou shalt obferve the feast of ingathering at the year's end *.

xxiii. 15.

xii. 2.

Concerning the Beginning of the facred or legal Year, we find the following Direction, at the Institution of the Passover in Egypt; This month shall be unto you the Exod. beginning of months, it shall be the firft month of the year to you. And accordingly this Month is most commonly call'd the Month of Abib, from the Earing of the Corn, and the Blooming of the first Fruits about that Seafon: which is another Rea

* Exod. xxxiv. 22. The Chaldee Paraphraft upon 2 Kings 8. 2. fays, The Month Ethanim, now the feventh Month, but formerly the firft. And Jolephus, in his Antiquities, tells us that Noah's Flood began in the fecond Month of the Year, which the Macedonians call Dios, the Hebrews Mareshuan, and the Romans October.

fon

fon, why all agree that it is the fame Month as March with us.

SECT. III.

By MONTHS.

They always began their Months with the New Moon: and before the Babylonish Captivity, diftinguith'd them by no other Names than thofe of, first, fecond, third, and so on, to the twelfth. Upon their Return, they brought the Names of the Babylonian Months with them; which were thefe; Nifan, March; Zif or Ijar, April; Sivan, May; Tamuz, June; Ab, July; Elul, Auguft; Ethanim or Tisri, September; Bul or Marefhuan, October; Chifleu, November; Tebeth, December; Sebat, January; Adar, February.

One half of these Months confifted of thirty days, the other, of twenty nine, alternately; which made the Number of three hundred and fifty four: and for the other eleven Days and odd Hours, which were over and above, they had an Intercalation, every other Year, by adding another Month, which they call'd Veadar,

that

every

that is, another Adar; which confifted fecond Year, of twenty two, and every fourth Year, of twenty three Days: and by this means they made their Years, one with another, pretty nearly answer the Equinoctial Year, confifting of three hundred fixty five Days, five Hours, and forty nine Minutes.

That they had no Way of distinguishing their Months, before the Captivity, but by their numerical Order; appears from the following paffages; In the first month Gen. viii. 13.vii.11. (our September) the waters are said to be dried up from off the earth: Whereas we are told, just before, that the fountains of the deep were broken up, on the Seventeenth day of the fecond month: by which we find the Deluge continued between ten and eleven Months. In the third month the Chil- Exod. ̧xix, 1. dren of Ifrael came into the wilderness of Sinai, being our May; for then they began to reckon from the Emigration. When Jerufalem was befieged by the Host of the King of Babylon, above a Year and a half, we are told that, on the ninth day of the 2 Kings fourth month, the famine prevail'd in the city; by which means it was taken. In

the

XXV. I.

Numb. the first day of the fifth month Aaron died. xxxiii. 38. Among the Appointments of David's

Houshold, we read of a particular Cap1 Chron. tain, for every Month, by Number; the xxvii. 9. fixth Captain for the fixth Month, &c. The Levit. fifteenth day of the Seventh Month, was xx 34: the Feast of Tabernacles. In the eighth Month, the word of the LORD came to

xxiii.

Zech.i.1.

Jer.

Zechariah. In the ninth Month of the xxxvi. 9. fifth Year of Jehoiakim King of Judah, they proclaim'd a Faft. In the tenth Month, the tops of the Mountains were feen, as the Flood began to abate. In the Deut. i.3. fortieth Year, in the eleventh Month, Mofes deliver'd the whole Law, in a Recapitulation. In the twelfth Month, the King of Babylon brought forth the King of Judah out of Prison.

Jer.lii. 31.

Efth.

To fhew that they likewise us'd the Names of the Babylonian Months,after the Captivity, in the Book of Efther, we read Efth.iii.7. of, the First month,that is the month Nisan ; and of the third month (that is the month Efth. ii. Sivan;) and of, the tenth month (which is 16. the month Tebeth;) and of the twelfth 1 Kings month, that is the month Adar. In the month Zif which is the fecond month, Solomon be

viii. 9.

Efth.iii.7.

vi. I.

gan

gan

1 Kings

viii. 2.

*to build the boufe of the LORD; which was finish'd in the month Bul, which is the Kings vi. 38. eighth month: And dedicated, in the Year following, in the month Ethanim, which is the feventh month. In the Prophet Zechariah we meet with the ninth month, called Zech. Chifleu; and the eleventh month, Sebat. ib. i. 7. And the Wall of Jerufalem was finish'd Neh. vi. in the Month Elul, or Auguft.

Thus we see why their Months are fometimes call'd by Name, and at other times, mention'd only by Number. These Months being Lunar, beginning always with the full Moon, cannot exactly correspond with thofe of ours; and therefore, there must be fometimes Two of the one, to answer One of the other, according as it happens.

SE C T. IV.

By WEEKS.

Their Months were divided into Weeks, each confifting of feven Days: every se

*The Authors of the Books of Kings and of the Chronicles, whoever they were, are allow'd to have written them, after the Captivity.

vii. I.

15.