warmer, and forwarder than ours. And fifty Days being allow'd with that for the getting in all their Corn; that is, the remaining fifteen in Nifan (March;) and twenty nine in Ijar or Zif (April,) the fixth of Sivan (May) would be the Day of Pentecofte. When they were to hold the folemn Festival of Thanksgiving, for their Participation of the Harveft; together with a grateful Commemoration of their being deliver'd from Egyptian Servitude, and enjoying their Property, by reaping the Fruits of their Labours.

xvi.9,&c.

Therefore this Feaft was alfo call'd the Feast of Weeks. Seven weeks thou shalt Deut. number unto thee: begin to number the feven weeks, from fuch time as thou beginneft to put the fickle to the corn. And thou fhalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God, with a tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand, &c. in the place which the LORD thy God hath chofen to place his name there. And thou shalt remember that thou was't a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt obferve and do thefe ftatutes.

Learned Interpreters have obferv'd that the very Day of Pentecofte, was the fame

Day

Exod.

xix. II.

Day on which God deliver'd the Law from Mount Sinai; as it was that, on which the Holy Ghoft condefcended to diEtate the Gospel to the Apostles; and, in them to the whole World. When the day of Pentecofte was fully come, they were all filled with the Holy Ghoft.

Worthy therefore is this Day to be obferv'd by us Chriftians with a joyful Solemnity. Those of the primitive Times had fuch a Respect for it, that the general Baptifm of their new Converts (unlefs in any urgent Cafe) was deferr'd to that Season, and then celebrated: when great Numbers of the Candidates, as they might properly be call'd, prefented themfelves at the Baptistery, cloath'd in white Robes; whence it got the Name of WhitSunday, which it still retains.

+ Acts ii. 1, &c. where evтnxos» is put emphatically for the Feftival; being an Adjective, and requiring the Subftantive ἡμέρα to be underfood. ἡμέρᾳ πενθηκοςῆς, therefore, means exprefly the Festival it felf, the laft Day of the Fifty, which is the reason why it was called Pentecofte.

SECT.

SECT. XI.

The Feast of TRUMPETS.

xxiii. 24.

The next Feaft was the Feast of Trumpets, to be kept upon the first Day of the Month Ethanim or Tifri (September.) Concerning which, the Law directs thus. In the feventb month, in the first day of the Levit. month, shall ye have a fabbath, a memorial of blowing trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no fervile work therein; but ye fhall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. Which, as it was a Memorial, and confequently a Commemoration of fome extraordinary paft Transaction, might probably be that of the Deliverance of Ifaac from being facrific'd, by the divine Interpofition of a ram, caught by his horns in a thicket; it being likely that these Trumpets were made of the Horns of that Creature; as we find thofe were which the feven Priests were order'd to found in their Joh. vi. Proceffion before the Ark of the Covenant, 4. feven Times round the Walls of Jericho. But this is only Conjecture.

Whatever the Reason of this Inftitution was; it seems, not to have been an Appointment

L

Gen.

xxii. 13.

pointment then newly made, but a Confirmation of fome old Festival; the Occafion of which might be fo well known among them, that it was not neceffary to mention it. This Festival is alluded to by the Pfalmift, where he fays, † Blow up the trumpet in the new-moon, in the time appointed, on our folemn feaft-day. For this was a ftatute for Ifrael, and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Jofeph for a teftimony, &c.

SECT. XI.

The Day of ATONEMENT. The next great Holy Day, is the Day of Atonement; being a general Faft, upon account of all their Sins and Tranfgreffions committed the reft of the Year; and particularly to deprecate the divine Juftice; which might otherwise punish them with divers Diseases; that Season of the Year being, in moft Countreys, very * fickly.

+ Pfalm lxxxi. 3, &c. Hammond upon the Place, applies all this to the ordinary Obfervation of the monthly New-Moon; which was little more than a common Week-Day. Whereas it is call'd a folemn Feaft-day, a notable extraordinary Day of Festival, render'd by the Septuagint, vony sure costs, as the Feaft of Trumpets was.

The

xxiii.

The Injunction for obferving it, runs thus. Also, on the tenth day of this seventh Month, (September) there fhall be a day of atonement; it shall be an holy convocation un- Levit. to you; and ye shall afflict your fouls, and offer 27, &c. an offering made by fire unto the LORD. It shall be unto you a fabbath of reft, and ye shall afflict your fouls (by fafting and abstaining from the Enjoyment of the good things of this Life) in the ninth day of the month, at Even: from Even unto Even fhall ye celebrate your fabbath. It was injoyn'd before in these ib. xvi. Words. And this fhall be a ftatute for 29. ever unto you; That, in the feventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your fouls, and do no work at all; For, on that day, fhall the Priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may clean from all your fins before the LORD. For this was the Day on which the HighPriest enter'd yearly into the most Holy Place, with a Cenfer of Incense; and afterwards turn'd the Scape-Goat loose of which we shall speak fomewhat more in its Place.

be

* Et gravis Autumnus Libitinæ quæftus acerbæ. Hor. SECT.

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