from thee; and thou shalt not let him go away empty: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy store, and out of thy wine-prefs. And thou shalt remember that thou was't a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day. SECT. XV.

The Year of JUBILEE. There was, befides, another fabbatical Year, call'd the Year of Jubilee, which was every feventh of the fabbatical Years beforemention'd, and revolv'd once in fifty Years; the Inftitution of which is as follows: Thou shalt number feven fabbaths of years unto thee, feven times fseven years; and the space of the seven fabbaths of years Shall be unto thee forty and nine Years. Then halt thou caufe the trumpet of the Jubilee to found, on the tenth day of the feventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet found throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof: It shall be a Jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man

unto

unto his Poffeffion, and ye shall return every man unto his family, &c.

No Poffeffion could be entirely alienated from any Family; it could be fold for no longer than the remaining Years till the next Jubilee, when it was to revert, in courfe, to the original Proprietor: which was done to prevent transferring the Property of any Inheritance from one Tribe to another. And according to this Intention, we find a Decree made by Mofes upon the Cafe of the Daughters and Coheireffes of Zelophehad of the Tribe of Manaffeh. The chief FaNumb. thers of the Tribe came before Mofes and the Princes of the Children of Ifrael, and faid, My Lord was commanded by the LORD, to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters. And if they be married to any of the fons of the other tribes, then fhall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and fhall be put to the inheritance of the tribe whereinto they are receiv'd; fo fhall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance. And when the Jubilee of the children of Ifrael shall be, then fhall their inheritance be put into

xxxvi.

the

1

the inheritance of the tribe whereinto they are received; fo fhall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.

To which Mofes replied; This is the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad; Let them marry to whom they think beft; only, to the family of the tribe of their father Shall they marry. And every daughter that poffeffeth an inheritance fhall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father ; that the children of Ifrael may enjoy, every man, the inheritance of his fathers. call'd the

This Sabbatical Year was Jubilee, because the Trumpets made use of upon that Occafion were Ram's Horns, which, in the Hebrew, are call'd Jubelim.

SECT. XVI.

The Feast of the DEDICATION. There were other Festivals, but not of divine Institution, appointed occafionally in after Times. Such was the feast of the dedication of Solomon's Temple; which 2 Chron. was celebrated with great Magnificence, vii. 8, 9. as we obferv'd before, in the seventh Month. Ezra. vi.

iv.36.&c.

There was another, of the fecond Temple, in the twelfth Month, Adar (February) likewise very pompous. And a third, not of the Temple, but of the Altar, by Judas Maccabeus, after it had been profan'd Mac. by Antiochus ; of which we have an Account in the Apocrypha. And, at the close of it, is recorded that Judas and his brethren, with the whole congregation of Ifrael, ordained that the days of the dedication of the altar fhould be kept in their feason, from year to year, by the space of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the ninth month Cafleu or Chifleu, (November) with mirth and gladness.

John. x.

22.

And of this Dedication it is that St. John fpeaks in his Gospel. It was, at Jerufalem, the feast of the dedication; and it was winter; which could not be faid of of the other Dedications: nor do we find any Direction for the annual Obfervation of any other

any

*

* There was a Dedication alfo of the Temple, as it was repair'd and beautified by Herod; which was folemniz'd upon his Birth-Day; as it is recorded by Jofephus, Antiq. Book XV.

SECT.

Besides those of the Dedications, they had other occafional Anniversaries cuftomary among them. One was the yearly Lamentation of the Daughters of Ifrael for the Daughter of Jephthah, one of their Judges. Jephthah, having vow'd a Vow, That, if the LORD would deliver the Children of Ammon into his Hands, against whom he was going out to Battle, at his Return, he would offer up for a BurntOffering whatsoever should come forth of the doors of his boufe to meet him; and his Daughter, his only Child, unfortunately prefenting her felf before him, at his Return to his House; it is faid, He did with Judg. xi. her according to his vow which he had vowed. And it was a custom in Ifrael, that the daughters of Ifrael went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite,four days in a year.

They likewife kept a Day in Commemoration of the Heavenly Fire, which

had