&c.

SECT. XIII.

The Feast of TABERNACLE S.

After this comes, the Feast of Tabernacles; the laft of the Three Great Festivals of the Year. This was appointed in Commemoration of God's Mercies to them, all the while they dwelt in the Wilderness, in Tents or Tabernacles. Of which Levit. the Law fpeaks thus; The fifteenth day of xxiii. 34, this seventh month shall be the feast of Tabernacles for feven days unto the LORD. On the first day, shall be an holy convocation, ye shall do no fervile work therein. Seven days ye fhall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day fhall be an holy convocation unto you, ye Shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, it is a folemn affembly, and ye shall do no fervile work therein.

At the fame Time was likewife to be kept the Feast of the In-gathering; or a Thanksgiving for their having gather'd in the Fruits of the Earth, of all Kinds. Alfo, on the fifteenth day of the Seventh month, when have gather'd in the fruit

ye

of

of the land, ye fhall keep a feast unto the LORD, Seven days; on the first day shall be a fabbath, and on the eighth day, shall 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

feast of Tabernacles feven days,

And again, Deut.xvi. obferve the 13. after that

thou hast 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 thofe 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 feaft of barveft, (Pentecofte) the firft-fruits of thy labours which thou haft fown in the field: And the feast 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. And this last is called in another Place, thering at the year's end. Which must mean the old Style, when, as we observ'd before, August was reckon'd the last Month in the Year.

The Feast of Inga

*Exod. xxiii. 14, &c. Deut. xvi. 16. It was the fecond of thefe (Pentecofte) which_St. Luke_calls Δευτερόπρωτον, 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.

SECT. XIV.

The SABBATICAL YEAR.

10, &c.

Among the divine Appointments beforemention'd, we may place the Sabbatical Year; every seventh 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 feventh 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 shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive-yard.

2.

Again; When ye come into the land which Lev.xxv. I give you, then shall the land keep a fabbath unto the LORD. 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 fhalt not reap; neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: For it is a year of reft unto the land. And the sabbath of

Levit.
XXV. 20.

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 blessing upon you in the fixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall fow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit, until the ninth year; until her fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old flore.

In another Place, we are told how this Year is to be further obferved: At the Deut. xv. end of every seven years, thou shalt make a releafe. And this is the manner of the releafe; every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour, shall release it; be fhall 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