The Typology of Scripture

By Patrick Fairbairn
Published by Smith & English, 1854

BOOK THIRD.

CHAPTER III.

SECTION NINTH.

P. 399-427

THE STATED SOLEMNITIES AND FEASTS -- THE WEEKLY SABBATH -- THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER -- OF PENTECOST -- OF TRUMPETS (NEW MOONS) --THE DAY OF ATONEMENT -- THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES -- THE SABBATICAL YEAR, AND YEAR OF JUBILEE.

The name of Feasts, which in modern times is generally applied to the sacred seasons and religious meetings of the people of Israel, is far from conveying a correct idea of their nature and design. The most general designation applied to them in Scripture itself is moadeem (***), which properly signifies assemblies. And the reason why they were so called is given both at the beginning, and again at the close of the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, which professedly treats of the sacred festivals; they were so called, because they were the occasions on which assemblies were to be held for religious purposes: "The moadeem of Jehovah, on which ye shall call holy convocations, these are the moadeem" (v. 2, 4, 37). In this most general view, therefore, they should rather be called the stated solemnities of the Israelites, or their seasons for social and public worship, than feasts. It is under that aspect, principally, that they are considered in the chapter of Leviticus referred to; and hence, the weekly Sabbath there takes precedence of all, because it was the primeval day of sacred rest, of spiritual enjoyment, and divine blessing, "a Sabbath of sabbatism, a convocation of holiness." This being the primary and leading character of the stated solemnities of the Mosaic religion, the notion is as groundless as it is derogatory to the character of the Mosaic institutions, which has been so zealously espoused and propagated by many divines on the continent, viz. that the Jewish festivals were chiefly of a political and economic character, and that people met together upon them, not for such grave and ungenial work as hearing sermons and taking part in strictly religious exercises, but rather for good cheer, neighbourly intercourse, and purposes of commerce. [1] It was, no doubt, one of the designs of the greater solemnities, which required the attendance of the people at the sacred tent, that the oneness of the nation might be maintained and cemented together, by statedly congregating in one place, and with one soul taking part in the same religious services. "But that oneness was primarily and chiefly a religious, and not merely a political one; the people were not simply to meet as among themselves, but with Jehovah, and to present themselves before him as one body; the meeting was in its own nature a binding of themselves in fellowship with Jehovah; so that it was not politics and commerce that had here to do, but the soul of the Mosaic dispensation, the foundation of the religious and political existence of Israel, the covenant with Jehovah. To keep the people's consciousness alive to this, to revive, strengthen, and perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapted as meetings of the kind referred to." [2]

That there might be time and opportunity for these holy convocations or religious assemblies, there was of necessity connected with all of them, a cessation of ordinary labour, a season of sacred rest. Besides the seventh day Sabbath, there were of such seasons connected with the stated solemnities, two days at the feast of the Passover (the first and the last,) one at Pentecost, one at the feast of Trumpets, the day of annual atonement, and two at the feast of Tabernacles (the first and last). As these days plainly took their character from the weekly Sabbath, the rest belonging to them is undoubtedly to be regarded as of the same nature, and carrying the same import with it. Now the rest of the Sabbath, as formerly observed, was throughout sacred rest, given to be enjoyed, and commanded to be observed by the people, because "Jehovah was He that sanctified them." It must, therefore, have been designed to be not of a negative kind merely, but also positive; not a simple withdrawal from ordinary employment, but this only that employment of another and higher kind might proceed. The resting in such a case must be no carnal repose or idleness, far less any letting out of the desires on sensual and worldly enjoyments, but a return of the heart to Him, who is the one great centre of its being, and its only proper resting-place. Hence, all true blessedness has from the first presented itself as an entering into the rest of God. But the cares, the labours, and the comforts of life, however in themselves lawful, or even necessary, all tend to carry the soul out of itself, and away from God. When occupied with these, it has to do with things which are of an inferior nature, and in themselves uncertain and changeable-things which are utterly incapable of bringing it to a state of heavenly repose and satisfaction, but are rather calculated to retain it in a state of unrest, because withdrawing its regard from the one absolute and supreme Good, and scattering its desires on things comparatively vain and worthless. The holy rest, therefore, enjoyed in God's Sabbath, and other seasons consecrated to a sacred use, was not so much a relief from toil, as a return to God himself, to blessed communion and intercourse with Him, as the only centre of created being, and the source of all excellence and bliss.

But for this high end the holy convocations or assemblies were an important and essential means; through these, as one main channel, would the soul seek to attain to its proper rest. Such religious meetings and employments, so far from standing in any sort of antagonism to the true repose of the Sabbath, were most strictly connected with it, and necessary to it. Mainly by such meetings and employments, promoting the soul's fellowship with God, and interest in His blessing, the external rest was converted into a holy Sabbath. Nor is it anything against this view, that both the weekly Sabbath and the holy-days are spoken of as days of refreshment and delight (Numb. x. 10; Isa. Iviii. 13, 14). For, though they would certainly be quite otherwise, if spent as we suppose, to those whose hearts were alienated from the life of God, yet to the true members of the covenant, who knew how to regard God as their Father and their portion, the religious exercises of the day would not only consist with, but most materially contribute to their real satisfaction and spiritual comfort. Like David, they would account these among their highest privileges and happiest moments; and would deplore nothing more than their exclusion, by any untoward event in providence, from the fellowship of those who kept holy-day before the Lord. Accordingly, at the first great celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in the days of Ezra, we are expressly told, "there was very great gladness;" while yet we learn that, from the first day to the last, they read out of the book of the law of God (Neh, viii. 17, 18). It is true, we find no prescription in the law, as to the way in which these holy assemblies, either on the weekly Sabbath or at the annual feasts, were to be conducted. But neither do we find any express legislation regarding such meetings in New Testament times, while yet nothing can be more certain than that they were intended to be held, and negligence in attending them is even marked as a piece of disorderly behaviour (Heb. x. 25). Under both dispensations alike it was left to the Church herself, through her constituted authorities, to make suitable arrangements for the due celebration in public of divine worship, as also to her members generally for the proper employment of the remaining portions of sacred time, so as to secure the general design of their appointment. That the days of holy rest were actually so kept by the pious members of the covenant, is manifest from various incidental allusions occurring in Old Testament Scripture; such as the familiar references made to "the congregations," "the calling of assemblies," "the solemn meetings," and the custom in later times of going even considerable distances to wait on the ministrations of the prophets on Sabbath days and new moons (2 Kings iv. 23; Isa. i. 13; Ps. Ixxxi. 3). And if we read of no places, like the synagogues of a later age, being appropriated to such meetings, it must be remembered how long it was, even in the Christian Church, before buildings were erected and set apart for worshipping assemblies, how long upper chambers, schools, and other private apartments were used for such purposes. Besides, if we think of the immense numbers of priests and Levites scattered through the land, which might easily have afforded one to every twenty or thirty of the population, capable of attending any meeting for worship, and the character of the religion itself, which admitted of comparatively little of direct instruction, we shall readily perceive that the sacred assemblies, held at a distance from the tabernacle, must have been of a more conversational character, and consisted more of outward and social exercises of devotion, than can be fitly introduced now into the worship of Christian congregations. But that it was the design of the Lawgiver they should be held, we conceive he has put beyond all reasonable doubt, by marking every weekly and extraordinary Sabbath as a day for holy convocations; while the avowed reason and design of appointing such days clearly inferred the obligation of spending the time generally in such employments and exercises, whether public or private, as were fitted to promote the soul's establishment and growth in holiness. [3]

The weekly Sabbath, beside "being set apart as consecrated time, to be occupied as much as possible in holy convocations, spiritual exercises, and domestic instruction, was distinguished by the offering up of two Iambs for a burnt-offering, instead of one, with a proportionally increased meat-offering. This farther marked it out as a day which the Lord set apart for himself, and appropriated for honourable and spiritual employment. A still farther note of distinction was the weekly renewal of the shew-bread on the Sabbath. And as the shew-bread symbolized good works, the perpetual renewal of it on that day pointed to the connection between well-spent Sabbaths and the proper cultivation of righteousness throughout the week. It was by observing that day as one of holy consecration to the Lord, that the church was to become periodically refreshed and invigorated for the active service of God. And in that respect the ordinance teaches an important lesson still; and shews how little we may expect lives of piety and worth apart from the due observance of the Lord's day.--But we proceed now to what are more properly understood by the name of feasts, and which, as we have seen, were all called moadeem, from having one day, if not more, of holy convocations connected with them.

THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER.

This, in point of order, was the first of all the feasts. It could be held only in the place where the altar and house of God were stationed, and all the males--with such females, of course, as could conveniently accompany them--were ordered to repair thither at the appointed time for its celebration. This time was the month Abib (literally the ear-month, when the corn was in the ear), the first month in the Jewish calendar, and usually commencing somewhere between the beginning and middle of our April. The actual commencement, as in all the other Jewish months, was determined by the moon. On the tenth day of that month, each head of a household was required to separate a kid, or a lamb, commonly the latter, without blemish, and on the fourteenth to kill it toward the evening (literally between the evenings, i. e. late in the afternoon, at the very close of the fourteenth day, but as it would be some time before it could be prepared for being eaten, and as the Jewish day terminated with sunset, while the lamb was sacrificed on the fourteenth, the feast on the sacrifice did not take place till the fifteenth.) [4] The blood was given to the priests to sprinkle upon the altar, which determined it to be a sacrifice; and, indeed, the Lord emphatically calls it in two places my sacrifice (Ex. xxiii. 18, xxxiv. 25, see Ainsworth, Rivet, in loc., and Hengstenberg, Authen, ii. p. 372). It was that sacrifice, in consideration of which the Lord saved Israel as a people, and gave them a national existence. The body of the lamb was immediately roasted entire, none of its bones being allowed to be broken, nor its flesh to be boiled; if any portion should remain uneaten, to prevent it from seeing corruption, or being put to a common use, it was to be consumed with fire.

At the original institution the Israelites were commanded to eat the passover with their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand; but this appears to have been enjoined only in consideration of the circumstances in which they were then placed, as ready to take their departure from Egypt, and, like the sprinkling of the blood on the door-posts, seems afterwards to have been discontinued. The only permanent accompaniments of the feast appear to have been the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs, with which the lamb was to be eaten. So strict was the prohibition regarding leaven, that they were ordered to make the most careful search for it in their several dwellings before the slaying of the paschal lamb; so that it might not be killed upon leaven (as the expression literally is, in the passage last referred to), that there might be nothing of this about them at the time of the sacrifice. And the prohibition extended throughout the whole of the seven clays, during which the feast lasted; whence it was so frequently called the feast of unleavened bread. Finally, in addition to the daily offerings for the congregation, there was presented on each of the seven days a goat for a sin-offering, and two bullocks., one ram, and seven lambs for a burnt-offering, with meat and drink-offerings.

The feast was, in the first instance, of a commemorative character, being intended to keep in everlasting remembrance the execution of judgment upon Egypt by the slaying of the first-born, and the consequent liberation of Israel from the house of bondage. But why so especially commemorate that event? Because it formed the birth, in a manner, of their existence as a people. It was the stretching out of Jehovah's arm to save them from destruction, and vindicate them to himself as a peculiar treasure above all the nations of the earth. The Lord then did what he afterwards declared by the prophet he had done, "I have formed thee, O Jacob, I have redeemed thee, O Israel, thou art mine." Above all others, then, this event deserved to be embalmed in the hearts of the people, and held in everlasting remembrance.

But while thus instituted to commemorate the past, the ordinance of the Passover at the same time pointed to the future. It did this partly in common with all other judgments upon the adversary, and deliverances to God's people. For what Bacon said of history in general--"All history is prophecy"'--holds with special application to these portions of it. They are the manifestations of God's character in his relation to his covenant-people; and that character being unchangeably the same, he cannot but be inclined substantially to repeat for them in the future what he has done in the past. Hence we find the inspired writers, in the Psalms and elsewhere, when feeling their need of God's interposition in their behalf, constantly throwing themselves back upon what he had formerly done in avenging the enemies of his church, and delivering her from trouble; assured that He who had so acted once, had in that given them a sure warrant to look for a like procedure again. But another and still higher element of prophetical import mixed with the singular work of God, which gave rise to the institution of the passover. For the earthly relations then existing, and the operations of God in connection with them, were framed on purpose to represent and foreshadow corresponding, but immensely superior ones, connected with the work and kingdom of Christ. And as all adverse power, though rising here to its most desperate and malignant working, was destined to be put down by Christ, that the salvation of his church might be finally and for ever accomplished, so the redemption from the land of Egypt, with its ever recurring memorial, necessarily contained the germ and promise of this; the lamb perpetually offered to commemorate the past, pointed the expecting eye of faith to the Lamb of God, one day to be slain for the yet unatoned sins of the world; and only when it could be said "Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us," did the purpose of God, which lay enclosed as an embryo in the paschal institution, become fully developed.

This twofold bearing runs also through the subordinate and accompanying arrangements. The lamb had to be prepared for food to those in whose behalf its blood was accepted, that the sacrifice, by which they were ransomed from destruction, might become to them the food of a new and better life. [4] And for this purpose the lamb must be preserved entire, and roasted, so that it might not be served up to them in a mutilated form, nor have part of its substance wasted by being boiled in water. Itself whole and undivided, it was to be partaken of at one and the same time by entire households, and by an entire community, that all might realize their divine calling to the same life, and the oneness, as well as completeness of the means, by which it was procured and sustained. So also, in the higher things of Christ's work and kingdom, while he gave himself unto death for sinners, and suffered the doom he voluntarily took upon him amid the furious assaults of men and devils, yet a special providence secured that his body, after it had received the stroke of death, should be dealt with as a sacred thing, and be preserved free from mutilation or violence-- the sign and token of its preciousness in the sight of the Father, and of the completeness of the redemption it had been given to provide. But this Saviour, even in death whole and undivided, must also be received as such by his people. No more in their experience, than in his own person, can he be divided. He is in the fulness of his perfected redemption, the one bread of life; and by partaking of tills in a simple and confiding faith, thus, but no otherwise, do sinners become in him one bread and one body-possessors of his life, and fellow-heirs of his glory (1 Cor. x. 17; John vi. 43-57).

The bitter herbs, with which the lamb was to be eaten, may possibly have borne some respect to the affliction and bondage, which the Israelites had endured in Egypt. So most of the Jewish, and many also of the Christian commentators, appear to have understood them. But we should rather regard them as pointing, at least chiefly, to that intermingling of sorrow and grief, amid which the soul enters into the fellowship of the life out of death. The life itself, when fairly rooted and grounded in the soul, is one of serene peace and elevated joy; but as it can only be entered on by the working upon the conscience of a sense of sin, and the crucifixion of nature's feelings and desires, there must be bitter experiences in the way that leads to its possession. The Israelites were made conscious of this in that lower and outward territory on which God dealt with them in Egypt, when at the very time that they were brought to the participation of the grace and life of God, the judgment of Heaven was all around thundering in their ears, and they were obliged to flee in haste and for ever from a land in which they had found many natural delights. And in the higher territory of Christ's everlasting kingdom, the same thing in principle is experienced by all, who through the godly sorrow that worketh repentance unto salvation, take up their cross and follow Jesus.

The putting away of the leaven, that there might be the use only of unleavened bread, may also be regarded as carrying some respect to the circumstances of the people at the first institution of the feast. And on this account it seems to be called "the bread of affliction" (Deut. xvi. 3), because of the trembling haste and much tribulation, amid which their departure was taken from Egypt. But there can be no doubt that it mainly pointed, as already shewn in connection with the meat-offering, to holiness in heart and conduct, which became the ransomed people of the Lord--the uncorrupt sincerity and truth, that should appear in all their behaviour. Hence, while the bitter herbs were only to be eaten at the first with the lamb itself, the unleavened bread was to be used through the whole seven days of the feast--through one complete revolution of time, the primary sabbatical circle, as a sign that the religious and moral purity, which it imaged, was to be their abiding and settled character. Even as now, the very end for which Christ died is, that he might redeem to himself a people, who must be zealous of good works, sincere and without offence, filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are to the glory and the praise of God.

The only remaining part of the solemnity was the presentation to the Lord of a sheaf of barley, which took place on the second day of the feast, and was done by waving it before the Lord, accompanied by a burnt-offering, with its meat-offering (Lev. xxiii. 12), in acknowledgment of sin, and dedication of the people's persons and lives to God. It was not accidental, but of set purpose, that the time for the annual celebration of this feast, which commemorated God's act in vindicating for himself the first fruits of Israel as a people, should have been also the season, when they could annually gather the first fruits of the land's increase. The natural thus fitly corresponded with the spiritual. The religious presentation of the first ripe grain of the season, was like presenting the whole crop to God, acknowledging it to be his property, and receiving it as under the signature of his hand. It thereby acquired throughout a sacred character, for if the first fruits be holy, the lump is also holy. The service bore respect to the consecration of the first-born at the original institution of the passover, and was therefore most appropriately connected with this ordinance. Those first-born, as previously noticed, represented the whole people of Israel, and in their personal deliverance and future consecration, all Israel were saved and sanctified to the Lord. So now, when they had reached the inheritance, for which all was done, there was the yearly presentation of the first of their increase to the Lord, in token of all being derived and held of him; and as the eating of the Passover was like a perpetual renewal of their birth to the Lord, so the waving of the first sheaf was a sort of perpetual consecration of their substance to his glory. Whence, also, being thus connected with the very existence of the people in their redeemed condition, and with the first of their annual increase, the month on which the Passover was celebrated, was fitly made to stand at the commencement of the Jewish calendar. So in the history of the New Testament church, every thing may be said to date from the work of Christ in the flesh; and in the history of the believer, from his new birth in Christ unto God. Till then he was dead, but henceforth he begins to live in truth. And living in Christ--the whole harvest of a redeemed church springing out of his root, all must be like him, holiness to the Lord. In soul and body, in their condition here and their destiny hereafter, they must be conformed to his image, so that he maybe the firstborn among many brethren.

THE FEAST OF WEEKS, PENTECOST

This feast was appointed to be held at the distance of seven weeks complete, a week of weeks, from the second day of the Passover, when the first ripe barley sheaf was presented, therefore, on the fiftieth day after the former. The males were then again to repair to the house of God. And from the Greek word for fifty being Pentecoste, the feast itself in the New Testament, and in later times generally, came to be designated Pentecost. But its Bible name is rather that of Weeks, being determined by the complete cycle of weeks, that followed the waving of the barley sheaf at the time of the Passover, and forming the close of that period, which stretched from the one solemnity to the other; whence it was frequently called by the ancient Jews Atzeret (Josephus, iii. 10, 6, Asartha), i. e. the closing or shutting up.

There are, however, two other names applied to it in the Pentateuch. In Ex. xxiii. 16, it is called "the Feast of Harvest," because it was kept at the close of the whole harvest, wheat as well as barley--the intervening weeks between it and the Passover, forming the season of harvest. And in the same passage, as again in Numb, xxviii. 26, it is also called, "the Feast of the First-fruits," because it was the occasion on which the Israelites were to present to God the first-fruits of their crop, as now actually realized and laid up for use. This was done by the high-priest waving two loaves in the name of the whole congregation. But, besides this, as they were enjoined to give "the first of all the fruit of the earth to the Lord," to whom it all properly belonged, it was ordered that at this feast they should bring these first-fruits along with them. The precise amount to be rendered of such was not fixed, but was left, as a free-will offering, to the piety of the individual. The offering itself, however, was a matter of strict obligation; whence the precept of the wise man: "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of thine increase." The form of confession and thanksgiving recorded in Deut. xxvi. was commonly used on such occasions.

In later times the feast is understood to have been held for an entire week like the Passover; and is often described as having been originally appointed to be continued for the same period. But no time is specified in Scripture for its continuance, and as a holy solemnity it appears to have been limited to one day, when the same number and kind of offerings were presented, as on each day of the Paschal Feast (Numb, xxviii. 26-30). But as the people were specially required at this feast to extend their liberality to their poorer brethren, and invite not only their servants, but also the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the Levite, to share with them in the goodness which the Lord had conferred upon them (Deut. xvi. 10), it is obvious that a succession of days must have been required for its due celebration.

This feast has been very commonly viewed as, at least, partly intended to commemorate the giving of the law, which certainly took place within a very little of fifty days after the slaying of the Passover--although the time cannot be determined to a day. But not a hint occurs of this in Scripture, nor is any trace to be found of it either in Philo or in Josephus. It was maintained by Maimonides and one class of Rabbinical writers, but denied by Abarbanel and another class; and it seems somewhat strange, that the opinion should so readily have found its way into so many Christian authors. The points of ascertained and real moment in connection with the feast are (1.) Its reference to the second day of the Passover, when the first barley sheaf was presented--the former being the commencement, the latter the completion of the harvest period. Hence all being now finished, and the year's provision ready to be used, the special offering here was, not of ripe corn, but of loaves, baked as usual with leaven--representing the whole staff of bread. In this case the fermenting property of leaven was not taken into account. But the loaves were not placed upon the altar, to which the prohibition about leaven strictly referred; they were simply waved before the Lord, and given to the priests. (2.) Then, secondly, there was the reference it bore to the week of weeks--the complete revolution of time, shut in on each hand by a stated solemnity, and thus marked off as a time peculiarly connected with God, a select season of divine working. Why should this season in particular have been so distinguished? Simply because it was the reaping time of the year. Canaan was in a peculiar sense God's land; the people were guests and sojourners with him upon it; he was bound by the relation in which he stood to them (so long as they continued faithful in their allegiance to him) to provide for their wants, and satisfy them with good things. The harvest was the season more especially for his doing this; it was his peculiar time of working in their behalf, when he crowned the year with his goodness, and laid up, as it were, in his storehouses what was required to furnish them with supplies, till the return of another season. Hence it was fitting that he should be acknowledged both at the beginning and ending of the period--that as the first of the ripening ears of corn, so the first of the baked loaves of bread should be presented to him--and that as guests well cared for, and plentifully furnished with the comforts of life, they should at the close come before the Lord to praise him for his mercies, and give substantial expression to their gratitude, by presenting to his representatives a portion of their increase, and causing the poor and needy to sing for joy.

There are, doubtless, important lessons of instruction here for every age of the Church, in respect even to the sphere of the natural life. But looking to the higher things of grace and salvation, which alone form the antitype to the other, there is here also a time of laying up the provision that is needed for our immortal natures, and a time for the actual participation and enjoyment of it. The provision is for the redeemed, who alone have the new life that is capable of using it; and, therefore, the rite that commemorated the typical redemption, had to take precedence of any thing belonging to the coming harvest, even of the presentation of its first ripening sheaf. But the work of redemption being finished, and the feast of fat things so long in preparation being ready, then the freest welcome is given to come and be satisfied with the loving-kindness of the Lord. And after Christ had suffered and been glorified, what day could be so fitly chosen for the descent of the Holy Spirit as the day of Pentecost? That Spirit was expressly promised and given for the purpose of taking of the things of Christ, and shewing them to Christ's people; in other words, to turn the riches of his purchased redemption from being a treasure laid up among the precious things of God, into a treasure received and possessed by his people, so that they might be able to rejoice, and call others to rejoice with them, in the goodness of his house. Now the work of God is finished, henceforth the fruitful experience of it among his people proceeds; and the first fruits of the Spirit having assuredly been given, he can never withdraw his hand till the whole inheritance of blessing is enjoyed.

THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS AND THE NEW MOONS,

We couple these together, for, to a certain extent, they were of the same description. Strictly speaking, the New Moons were not feasts, and have no place among the moadeem in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. They were not days of sacred rest, nor of holy convocations. But being the commencement of a new portion of time, they were so far distinguished from other days, that the same special offerings were presented on them which were presented on the moadeem (Numb. xxviii. 11-15). And they were further distinguished by the blowing of trumpets over the burnt-offerings (Numb. x. 10; Ps. Ixxxi. 3). This latter service brought them into a close connection with the Feast of Trumpets, which was a day of rest and holy convocation, and had its peculiar and distinctive characteristic from the blowing of the trumpets, on which account we may suppose the blowing would then be continued longer, and probably also made to give forth a louder sound than on other days. The feast so characterised took place on the first day of the seventh month, which fell somewhere about our October; and though the people were not required to appear at the tent of meeting, yet, in token of the importance of the day, an additional series of offerings was presented, beside those appointed for the new moons in general.

There can be no doubt that the sacred use of the trumpet had its reason in the loud and stirring noise it emits. Hence, it is described as a cry in Lev. xxv. 9 (the English word sound there is too feeble), which was to be heard throughout the whole land,

The references to it in Scripture generally suggest the same idea (Zeph. i. 16 } Isa. Iviii. 1; Hos. viii. 1., &c.). On this account the sound of the trumpet is very commonly employed in Scripture as an image of the voice or word of God. The voice of God, and the voice of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, were heard together (Ex. xix. 5, 18, 19), first the trumpet-sound as the symbol, then the reality. Bo also St John heard the voice of the Lord as that of a trumpet (Rev. i. 10; iv. 1), and the sound of the trumpet is once and again spoken of as the harbinger of the Son of Man, when coming in power and great glory, to utter the almighty word which shall quicken the dead to life, and make all things new (Matth. xxiv. 31; 1 Cor. xv. 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16). The sound of the trumpet, then, was a symbol of the majestic, omnipotent voice or word of God; but of course only in those things in which it was employed in respect to what God had to say to men. It might be used also as from man to God, or by the people, as from one to another. In this case, it would be a call to a greater than the usual degree of alacrity and excitement in regard to the work and service of God. And such probably was the more peculiar design of the blowing of trumpets at the festivals generally, and especially at the festival of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month. That month was distinguished above all the other months of the year, for the sacred services to be performed in it--it was emphatically the sacred month. Being the seventh month--bearing on its name the symbol of the covenant, and of covenant holiness--it was hallowed in its course by solemnities, which peculiarly displayed both God's goodness to his people and their delight in God. For, not only was its first day consecrated to sacred rest and spiritual employment, but the tenth was the great day of yearly atonement, when the high- priest was permitted to sprinkle the mercy-seat with the blood of sacrifice, and the liveliest exhibition was given which the materials of the earthly sanctuary could afford of the salvation of Christ. And then on the fifteenth of the same month commenced the Feast of Tabernacles, which was intended to present a striking image of the glory that should follow, as the former of the humiliation and sufferings by which the salvation was accomplished. In perfect accordance with all this, not only is the feast named the Feast of Trumpets, but "a memorial of blowing of trumpets," a bringing to remembrance, or putting God, as it were, in mind of the great things by which (symbolically) he was to distinguish the month that was thus introduced; precisely as when they went to war against an enemy that oppressed them, they were to blow the trumpet, and, it is added, "ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies." (Numb. x. 9). [5]

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.

This day formed the most distinguishing solemnity of the seventh month, and indeed of the whole Mosaic ritual. But we have already treated of it in Section Fifth, and refer to what is said here.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

This had all the marks of a great and solemn feast. The males were to repair for its celebration to the place where God might put his name; it was to be begun and ended by a day of holy convocation, and the last the eighth, an additional day, so that the whole reached a day beyond the feast of unleavened bread. It is sometimes called "the Feast of Ingathering in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Ex. xxiii. 16; Deut. xvi. 13); for it took place immediately before the winter months, and after the labours, not only of the harvest, but also of the vintage and the fruit season generally were passed. The year might, therefore, with an agricultural population like the Israelites, be then considered as tending towards its close; and the comparative leisure of the winter months being before them, they would have ample time for the celebration of the feast. But we remark in passing, that this feast, which began on the fifteenth of the seventh month, being spoken of as falling about the close of the year, is a clear enough proof how little in the mind of the lawgiver, the Feast of Trumpets at the beginning of it had to do with a New Year.

The more distinctive appellation, however, of this feast was that of Tabernacles, or, as it should rather be, of booths (***), because during the continuance of the feast the people were to dwell in booths. A booth is not precisely the same as a tent or tabernacle, though the names are frequently interchanged. It properly means a slight, temporary dwelling, easily run up, and as easily taken down again, a house or shed for a day or two; such as Jacob made for his cattle in the place, which on that account was called Succoth (booth, Gen. xxxiii. 17), and Jonah for himself, which was so slim and insufficient, that he was glad of the foliage of a gourd to cover him. Tents might also be called booths, because of a very imperfect description as dwelling-places, light and moveable, speedily pitched and easily transported, the proper domiciles of a yet unsettled and wandering population. In this respect they form a contrast to solid, fixed, and comfortable houses; as with the Rechabites, whose father commanded them not to build houses, but to dwell in tents; and with the Israelites at large before, as compared with their condition after, they entered the promised land. Hence, may be remarked, the propriety and force of the Apostle's language in the beautiful passage, 2 Cor. v. 1, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens"--our present bodily frame-work, a frail, slender, temporary dwelling; what awaits us hereafter, a house in the proper sense, a permanent, settled, eternal habitation.

That the feast was of a commemorative character, admits of no question; for it is expressly given as the reason for the people then dwelling in booths, "that their generations might know, that the Lord made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Lev. xxiii. 43). In this respect it was designed, in the first instance, to serve what may always be regarded as the immediate end of all commemorative religious institutions, that, namely, of keeping properly alive the remembrance of the historical fact they refer to. In all cases of this nature, it is of course understood, that the fact itself be one of a primary and fundamental character, containing the germ of spiritual ideas vitally important for every age of the church. Such certainly was the character of the period of Israelitish history, when the people were made to dwell in tents or booths after they had left the land of Egypt. It was, in a manner, the connecting link between their house of bondage, on the one hand, and their inheritance of blessing, on the other. Then especially did the Lord come near and reveal himself to them, pitching his own tabernacle in the midst of theirs, communicating to them his law and testimony, and setting up the entire polity which was to continue unimpaired through succeeding ages. Hence, the annual celebration of the feast of tabernacles was like a perpetual renewing of their religious youth; it was keeping in fresh recollection the time of their espousals; and re-enforcing upon their minds the views and feelings proper to that early and formative period of their history.--On this account, we have no doubt it was, that the Feast of Tabernacles was the time chosen, every seventh year, for reading the whole law to the people (Deut. xxxi. 10-13), and not as Bahr thinks, because it was the greatest feast, and the one most largely frequented. The law was given them in the wilderness on their way to the land of Canaan, as the law by which all their doings were to be regulated, when they were settled in the land, and on the faithful observance of which their continued possession of it depended. So that nothing could be more appropriate, when commemorating the period, and reviving the thoughts and feelings of their religious youth, than to have the law read in their hearing. But this shews, at the same time, that the feast of Pentecost could not have been intended to commemorate the giving of the law; as in that case, unquestionably, the time of its celebration would rather have been chosen for the purpose.

Even in this point of view, there was a much closer connection between the wilderness-life, the booth-dwelling portion of Israel's history, than if it had formed the mere passage from Egypt to Canaan. But the same will appear still more, if we look to the bearing it had upon the personal preparation of Israel for the coming inheritance. It was not simply the time of God's manifesting his shepherd care and watchfulness toward them, guiding them through great and terrific dangers, and giving them such astonishing proofs of his goodness in the midst of these, as were sufficient to assure them in all time coming of his faithfulness and love. It was this, doubtless; but, at the same time, much more than this. While the whole period was strewed with such tokens of goodness from the hand of God, by which he sought to draw and allure the people to himself; it was also the period emphatically of temptation and trial, by which, the Lord sought to winnow and sift their hearts into a state of meetness for the inheritance. Hence the words of Moses, Deut. viii. 2-5: "Thou shalt remember all the way by which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or not. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord," &c. This alternating process of want and supply, of great and appalling danger, ever ready to be met by sudden and extraordinary relief, was the grand testing process in their history, by which the latent evil in their bosoms was brought fully to light, that it might be condemned and purged away, and by which they were formed to that humble reliance on God's arm, and single-hearted devotedness to his fear, which alone could prepare them for taking possession of, and permanently occupying the promised land. It proved in the issue too severe for by far the greater portion of the original congregation; or, in other words, the evil in their natures was too deeply rooted to be effectually purged out, even by such well-adjusted and skilfully applied means of purification; so that they could not be allowed to enter the promised land. But for those who did enter, and their posterity to latest generations, it was of the greatest moment to have kept perpetually alive upon their minds the peculiar dealing of God during that transition-period of their history, in order to their clearly and distinctly realizing the connection between their continued enjoyment of the land, and the refined and elevated state, the lively faith, the binding love, the firm and devoted purpose, to which the training in the wilderness conducted. They must in this respect be perpetually connecting the present with the past, with the close of every season renewing their religious youth; as it was only by their entering into the spirit of that period, and making its moral results their own, that they had any warrant to look forward to another season of joy and plenty. For this high purpose, therefore, the feast was more especially instituted. And while the fulness of supply and comfort, amid which it was held, as contrasted with their formerly poor and unsettled condition, called them to rejoice, the solemn respect it bore to the desert-life, taught them to rejoice with trembling; reminded them that their delights were all connected with a state of nearness to God, and fitness for his service and glory; and warned them, that if they forsook the arm of God, or looked to mere fleshly ease and carnal gratifications, they would inevitably forfeit all title to the goodly inheritance they possessed. Hence, also, when this actually came to be the case, when the design of this feast had utterly failed of its accomplishment, when Israel "knew not that it was the Lord who gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold," he resolved to send her again through the rough and sifting process of her youth: "Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof; I will also cause all her mirth to cease, and I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees; and I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and will speak comfortably unto her; and I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope," &c. (Hos. ii. 8-15; comp. Ez. xx.) Not that the literal scenes were to be enacted over again; but that a like process of humiliation, trial, and improvement had to be undergone--the severe training first, and then the holy, earnest spirit of the past revived, that they might be fitted for being partakers of the goodness of the Lord.

This view of the nature and design of the feast, which we take to be the only scriptural one, sufficiently discovers the fallacy of those representations, which would make the celebration of this feast to have been an occasion merely for carnal merriment, dancing, feasting, and revelry. When the people themselves became carnal, it would, no doubt, partake too much of that character; but such was by no means the manner in which God designed it to be kept. They were, indeed, to rejoice over all the goodness and mercy which the Lord had given them to experience; but their joy was still to be the joy of saints, and nothing was to be done or tasted, which might have the effect of weakening the graces of a divine life, or disturbing their fellowship with God. It is, no doubt, in connection with the joy that was to characterize the feast, and as symbolical of it, that branches of palms and other trees were to be taken (whether in their hands, or on their booths, is not said, Lev, xxiii, 40), Having taken these, they were to "rejoice before the Lord"--the joy having respect more immediately to the gathered produce of the year, and more remotely to the abundance of Canaan, as contrasted with the barrenness of the desert. The palm tree was particularly named merely from having the richest foliage, and thus presenting the best symbol of joy. The history of our Lord shews how naturally the people associated the palm leaf with joy (John xii. 12).

In regard to the mode of celebrating the feast, beside the dwelling in booths, there was a great peculiarity in the offerings to be presented. The sin-offering was the same as on the other feast- days, a single goat; but for the burnt-offering the rams and lambs were double the usual number, two and fourteen instead of one and seven; while in place of the two young bullocks of other days, there were to be in all during the seven days of the feast seventy, and these so divided, that on the last day there were to be seven, eight on the day preceding, and so on, up to thirteen, the number offered on the first day of the feast. The eighth day did not properly belong to the feast, but was rather a solemn winding up of the whole feast-season; the offerings for it, therefore, were much of the usual description. But for those peculiarities in the offerings properly connected with this feast--the double number of one kind, and the constant and regular decrease in another, till they reached the number of seven, we are still without any very satisfactory reason. The greater number may possibly be accounted for by the occasion of the feast, as intended to mark the grateful sense of the people for the Lord's goodness after having reached not only Canaan, but the close of another year of its plentiful increase in all natural delights. We make no account of its being called in a passage often quoted from Plutarch (Sympos. L4, 5), "the greatest of the Jewish feasts, as also by Philo, Josephus, and most of the Rabbins; for there is no ground in Scripture for making it in itself greater than the Passover, and in vital importance both of them fell below the day of atonement. The other point is more obscure. That some stress was intended to be laid on the whole number 70, ten times seven, the two most sacred and complete numbers, is probable. But the gradual diminution till seven is reached, we confess lies beyond our discernment. The views of the Rabbins are mere conjectures, most of them frivolous and nonsensical. To see in it, with Bahr, a reference to the waning moon, is quite unsatisfactory; nor is it less so to understand it, with the greater part of the older typologists, of the gradual ceasing of animal sacrifice, for there should then have been none on the last day, or at most one, whereas there were still seven--the very symbol of the covenant. We might rather regard it as intending to point to this covenant, as designed to impress upon the people the conviction, that however their blessings might increase, and however many their grateful oblations might be, yet they must still settle and rest in the covenant, as that with which all their privileges and hopes were bound up. But we can scarcely venture to present this as a satisfactory explanation. We only mention farther regarding the observance of the feast, that several things were added in later times, and, in particular, the practice of drawing water from the fountain of Siloam, and pouring it on the sacrifice, together with wine, amid shouts of joy, and every manifestation of exuberant delight. This was done, however, only during the seven days of the feast, not on the eighth or last, as is commonly represented. (See Winer's Real-wort, on the feast, also Bib. Cyclopedia). And if our Lord, in John vii. 37, when he said, on the last, the great day of the feast, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink"--if he made any reference to the libations connected with the feast, it must have been to the cessation on that day, rather than to the performance of the wonted ceremonies. He took advantage of the want, and intimated, that in him the reality was to be found of what on the other days had been exhibited, but which had now ceased.

The Israelites in their outward history were a grand type of the real children of God; and, therefore, in this feast, which brought the beginnings and the endings of their history together, we naturally look for a condensed representation of a spiritual life, whether in individuals or in the church at large. We see its antitype first of all, and without its imperfections, in the man Christ Jesus--who also was led up, after an obscure and troubled youth, into a literal wilderness, to be tempted forty days, a day for a year, that the people might the more readily identify him with the true Israel and when Satan could find nothing in him, so that he was proved to be fitted for accomplishing the work of God, and casting out the wicked one from his usurped dominion, he came forth to enter on the great conflict of man's and the world's redemption. In this great work, too, the beginning and the end meet together, and are united by a bond of closest intimacy. The sufferings necessarily go before and lay the foundation for the glory. Jesus must personally triumph over sin and death before he can receive the kingdom from the Father, or be prepared to wield the sceptre of its government, and enjoy with his people the riches of its fulness. And, therefore, even now when he has entered on his glory, to shew the bond of connection between the one and the other, he still presents himself as "the Lamb that was slain," and receives the adorations of his people, as having by his obedience unto death redeemed them from sin, and made them kings and priests unto God.

With a still closer resemblance to the type, because with a greater similarity of condition in the persons respectively concerned, is the spiritual import of the feast to be realized in the case of all genuine believers. And on this account the prophet Zechariah, when speaking of what is to take place after the final overthrow of the church's enemies, represents all her members as going up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (xiv. 16). She shall then rejoice in the fulness of her purchased and redeemed inheritance, and have her experiences of heavenly enjoyment heightened and enhanced by the remembrance of the past tribulation and conflict. Now she is passing through the wilderness; it is her period of trial and probation; she must be sifted and prepared for her final destiny by constant alternations of fear and hope, of danger and deliverance, of difficulties and conquests. By these she must be reminded of her own weakness and insufficiency, her proneness to be overcome of evil, and the dependence necessary to be maintained on the word and promises of God; the dross must be gradually purged out, and the carcase of the old man at last thrown off and left to perish in the desert, that with the new man, all purified and refined into a glorious image of God, she may take possession of the heavenly Canaan. Then shall she ever hold with her Divine Head a feast of tabernacles; living and reigning in his kingdom, satisfied with his fulness, even as with marrow and with fatness; and so far from grudging at the trials and difficulties of the way, rather rejoicing the more on account of them, because seeing in them a course of discipline absolutely needed for the enjoyment of Heaven's fulness of life and blessing, and feeling assured that if there had been no wilderness to pass through on earth, there should have been for her no inheritance with God in glory. The glorious company in Rev. vii., clothed in white robes, and with palms in their hands, representatives of a redeemed and triumphant church, are the final antitypes of the Israelites keeping the Feast of Tabernacles,

THE SABBATICAL YEAR.

The appointment of a Sabbatical year does not strictly belong to the stated festivals, nor is it included among these in the 23d chapter of Leviticus, but it was very closely related to them, and in some respects had the same purposes to serve. It is hence called by the name moed, festival, in Deut. xxxi. 10. The principal law on the subject is given in Lev. xxv, 1-7. There it is enjoined, that after the children of Israel came into possession of the land of Canaan, they were to allow it every seventh year an entire season of rest. The land was to be untilled--a promise being also given of such plenty on the sixth year as would render the people independent of a harvest on the seventh. They might enjoy a year's respite from their toils, and yet be no losers in their worldly condition. But, as there would still be a certain return yielded from the fruit-trees and the ground, so whatever grew spontaneously was to be used, partly indeed by tthe owner, but by him in common with the poor and the stranger that might sojourn among them. And along with this freedom to the humbler classes of the community, there was also ordained, by a subsequent law (Deut. xv.), a release from all personal bondage and a cancelling of debts. The name given to this year, "a Sabbath of rest," and "a Sabbath to the Lord," alone denotes its close connection with the weekly Sabbath; and this was farther confirmed by the promise of a larger increase than usual on the sixth year, corresponding to the double portion of manna that fell on the sixth day in the wilderness. On account of this connection and resemblance, Calvin has assigned it (in his Commentary) as one of the reasons of the appointment, that "God wished the observance of the Sabbath to be inscribed upon all the creatures, so that wherever the Jews turned their eyes, they might have it forced on their notice."

The sacredness of the rest during this year was more especially indicated by the prescription, that the whole law should be read that year at the feast of tabernacles. Such a prescription could not simply mean, that the time at the feast was to be so spent; for that might have been done, so far as the necessary time was concerned, any year. It must rather have been designed to teach the Israelites, that the year, as a whole, should be much devoted to the meditation of the law, and engaging in exercises of devotion. If they entered, as they should have done, into the divine appointment, the release from ordinary work would be gladly taken as an opportunity to direct the mind more to divine things, to be more frequent in conversing with each other upon the history of God's dealings in the past and future, and giving a fuller attendance upon the stated solemnities of worship. How much, too, would the periodical return of such a season be fitted to impress upon all ranks and classes of the people the solemn fact, that the land, with every plant and creature in it, was the Lord's! Nor, could it be less fitted to impress upon the richer members of the community the image of Godrs beneficence and tender consideration of the poor and needy. Such an institution was utterly opposed to the niggardly and selfish spirit which would mind only its own things, and would grind the face of the poor with hard exactions or oppressive toil, in order to gratify some worldly desires. No one could imbibe the spirit of the institution without being as distinguished for his humanity and justice toward his fellow-men, as for his piety toward God.

It may possibly be thought, that the encouragement given to idleness by such a long cessation from the ordinary labours of the field, would be apt to counterbalance the advantages arising from the institution. The cessation, however, could only be comparative, not absolute; and each day would still present certain calls for labour in the management of household affairs, the superintendence or care of the cattle, the husbanding of the provisions laid up from preceding years, and the execution, perhaps, of improvements and repairs. The ordinance was abused, if it was turned to an occasion for begetting habits of idleness. But the solemn pause which it created in the common occupations and business of life--the arrest it laid on men's selfish and worldly dispositions--and the call it addressed to them to cultivate the graces of a pious, charitable, and beneficent life,--these things conveyed to the Israelites, and they convey still to the church of God (though the outward ordinance has ceased) salutary lessons, which in some form or another must ever be listened to, if the interest of God is to prosper in the world.

THE YEAR OF JUBILEE.

This institution stood in the closest relation to the Sabbatical year, and may be regarded as the higher form of the same. It was appointed that when seven weeks of years had run their course, this great Sabbath-year, the year of jubilee, should come; when, not only as in the ordinary Sabbatical year, the land should be allowed to rest, the fruit-trees to grow unpruned, and debts to be cancelled, but also every personal bond should be broken, every alienated possession restored to its proper owner, and a general restitution should take place. The sabbatical idea, as involving a participation in the perfect order and peaceful rest of God, rose here, so far as social arrangements were concerned, to its proper consummation; it could ascend no higher in the present imperfect state of things, nor accomplish any more. Its object was one of deliverance---deliverance from trouble, grievance, and oppression---a restitution to order and repose, so that the face of nature and the aspect of society might reflect somewhat of the equable, brotherly, well-ordered condition of the heavenly world. As such it fitly began, not at the usual commencement of the year, but on the day after the yearly atonement in the seventh month-- when the sins of the people in all their transgressions were (symbolically) atoned for and forgiven by God---when all, in a manner, being set right between them and God, it became them to see that every thing was also set right between one person and another. It implied, however, that Canaan was not the region of bliss, in which the desire of the righteous was to find its proper satisfaction, but only an imperfect type and shadow of what should actually be so. It implied, that every thing there was constantly tending, through human infirmity and corruption, to change and deteriorate what God had settled; so that times of restoration must perpetually come round to check the downward tendency of things, to rectify the disorders which were ever springing into existence, and especially to maintain and exhibit the principle, that every one entitled to dwell with God was also entitled to share in his inheritance of blessing (v. 23).

Happy had it been for Israel if he had heartily fallen in with these restorative Sabbatical institutions. But they struck too powerfully against the current of human depravity, and drew too largely upon the faith of the people, to be properly observed. Considered in respect to the people generally, there is but too much reason to believe, that the breach of the law here was greatly more common than the observance; since the seventy years' desolation of the Babylonish exile is represented as a paying of the long arrears due to the land for the want of its Sabbatical repose--"until the land had fulfilled her Sabbaths" (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21). The promise, however, contained in this year of jubilee for the church and people of God, cannot ultimately fail. A presage and earnest of its complete fulfilment was given in the work of Christ, when at the very outset he declared that he was anointed to preach good tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them, that are bound--to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. But it is from his finished work of reconciliation on the cross, from the great day of atonement, that the commencement of the proclamation properly dates, respecting the world's coming jubilee. Sin still causes innumerable troubles and sorrows. Even in the best governed states, the true order of absolute righteousness and peace is to be found only in scattered fragments, or occasional examples. Darkness and corruption are everywhere contending for the mastery. But the truth shall certainly prevail. The prince of this world shall be finally cast out; and amid the manifested power and glory of God all evil shall be quelled, and sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away. Then shall the joyful anthem be sung, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness, and his people with his truth."

Notes

1. See, for example, Herder, Ebr. Poesie, i. p. 116, Michaelis, Comm. on Laws of Moses, art. 194, who with great redundancy tells us how jovially such seasons were spent, how the time was sported away in social enjoyment, feasting, dancing, marketing, &c., and who can think of no better excuse for modern sermonizing on Sundays, than that the Bible is an old book, and needs some explanation. Also de Wette, Archseologie, § 217.

2. Bahr, Symbolik, ii. p. 543.

3. We hold it, therefore, to be an entire error in Bahr to speak of the "weekly Sabbath as simply a day of rest," distinguished from other days merely by the cessation from bodily labour, and the doubling of the daily burnt-offering at the tabernacle (ii. p. 566, 578). How such a day could promote, and be one of the most important means of promoting the real sanctification of the people, the learned author has not told us. He leaves the practical bearing of this part of his views, as of most others, a fearful blank; and with all his contendings for a high religious sense, gives no doubtful indications that he would be satisfied with a very low religious practice. It is striking in this connection that, while he strongly repudiates the low and more broadly marked neological views of George, regarding the Feasts and the Books of Moses, this latter author maintains practically a much higher standard upon the proper observance of the sacred times.--See especially p. 161 and 202 of his work, Die alten Jud. Feste. The right view, as we judge, is defended at considerable length by Meyer, De Temp. Sac. et Festis diebtis Heb. P. II. c. 9, where also strong arguments are produced against Vitringa, for holding that even synagogues existed before the captivity; at least, that places for religious meetings were common. More recently, the correct view on this branch of the subject is also set forth and at considerable length vindicated by Hengstenberg, in his treatise) Ueber den Tag des Herrn, p. 20, sq. He holds, from what is written in the Law itself, that the Sabbath was never meant to be restricted to bodily rest; and that persons might be guilty of Sabbath-breaking who preserved the outward rest most scrupulously.--Profesesor Stuart of Andover, in a work otherwise full of useful matter, on the Old Testament Canon, seems even to make a merit of depreciating the Mosaic institutions as to their fitness for instructing the people and training them to religious habits, p. 66, ss. He says it lies on the face of the whole Jewish history that, before the Babylonish exile, "they had not only no synagogues, but no public, social, devotional worship;" that priests and Levites had no charge to instruct the people; and that "there is not a word in all the Pentateuch of command to the Hebrews to keep the Sabbath by attendance on public worship." What, then, can possibly be meant by its being called a day "for holy convocations?" For what were holy convocations to meet, but for worship? And if God had never given such holy assemblies, how could he again in his anger threaten to take them away? See Hos. ii. 13, and Hengs. Christol. there. Certainly, if Moses delivered so many laws connected with the worship and service of God, and suspended the very existence of the people on their fidelity in keeping them, while yet he provided no teachers, no stated times of worship, no adequate means of instruction whatever, even though he had forty long years to think of it, he must have had no great measure of human sagacity, to say nothing of divine wisdom. With Professor Stuart's views, we should tremble for our own belief in the divine mission of the Jewish Lawgiver.

4. Bib. Cyclopaedia, art. Passover, errs in saying that the feast of unleavened bread did not commence till next morning. It began with the eating of the lamb on the preceding evening when the fifteenth day of the month began.

5. It was in this personal eating of the flesh by each household, rather than the killing of the victim, that the people exercised a priestly dignity at the annual celebration of the Passover. At the original celebration, a separate priesthood had not yet been appointed, and so each head of a household did the whole. But afterwards, the priests alone could sprinkle the blood, though the households still ate the flesh of the sacrifice. We mention this in qualification of the opinion of Philo, formerly quoted, which erroneously makes the mere killing a priestly act.

6. Most commonly by the Jews, and generally also by Christian writers, the Feast of Trumpets is called that of the New Year, viz. of the civil year, as distinguished from the sacred. But Bahr justly remarks, there is nothing in Old Testament Scripture of this twofold year, nor does any record of it exist till after the Babylonish captivity. It is, therefore, quite arbitrary to regard this feast as pointing at all in such a direction.