serve, that Moses was ordered to speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month shall ye have a Sabbath. It may be here queried, whether this Sabbath was to fall seven days after the last Sabbath, and be one of the weekly Sabbaths of the year; or whether it was to be a common day of the week in itself, but ordered to be kept as a Sabbath by a special appointment. An answer to this query is easy to be collected from considering the appointments of this season. The tenth day of this seventh month was to be a day of atonement to afflict their souls, and they were specially ordered to do no work on that same day. There could have been no need of that particular order, if this tenth day had been a Sabbath; for upon account of its being a Sabbath day, no manner of work must have been done therein; this tenth day therefore did not fall upon a weekly Sabbath. But we may observe, that it would have been a weekly Sabbath, if some special appointment had not here

Levit. xxiii. 24.

Exod. xx. 10.

taken place to prevent it; for as the twentysixth day of the sixth month was a Sabbath, the days going on in their common order; the third day of the seventh month would have been a Sabbath, and consequently the tenth. But the tenth day thus appearing not to have been a Sabbath, it must be allowed that the third also was not a Sabbath day and consequently, that there must have been some particular appointment, to cause the Sabbaths not to go on in the course in which they would otherwise have proceeded. Now the injunction of the first day of the seventh month's being a Sabbath appears very plainly to have been the appointment; and would always cause the tenth day not to fall on a Sabbath, but on a week-day, pertinently to the injunction of having no work done therein; so that I think, there can remain nothing further to be considered, than at what distance this Sabbath day, on the first day of the seventh month, was to be kept from after the last preceding Sabbath. And I think we may conclude that seven days must have been the interval; for I think this was the law of the

d

Sabbath without variation. Between Sabbath and Sabbath, six days they were to labour and do all their work; but the seventh day was to be the Sabbath; and if this be allowed me, it will be plain that the Israelites must have here added two days to the end of the sixth month to make the sixth day of the week the last day of it; for the twenty sixth day of this month was, as I have observed, a Sabbath; consequently, if this month, like other months, had contained only thirty days, the last day of it would have been the fourth day of the week, and the first day of the seventh month could not have been a Sabbath, in the manner which Moses appointed. Here therefore the Israelites kept two week-days more than this month would otherwise have afforded; and began the seventh month with the Sabbath, according to the injunction. But to go on: the first day of the seventh month being thus a Sabbath; it will follow, that in this month the eighth day would be a Sabbath, the fifteenth a Sabbath, the twenty-second

a Exod. xx. 9, 10.

Vid. quæ sup.

i

a Sabbath, and the twenty-ninth a Sabbath. The tenth day of this month was the day of atonement; the fifteenth day began the feast of tabernacles, a feast to be kept for the gathering in the fruits of the land." This feast was thus to begin with a Sabbath, and after seven days' celebration, it was ended on the eighth day, namely, on the twenty-second day of this month with another Sabbath. The twenty-ninth, day of the seventh month being a Sabbath, the Sabbaths in the eighth month will fall thus: the sixth day will be a Sabbath, the thirteenth a Sabbath, the twentieth a Sabbath, and the twenty-seventh a Sabbath. In the ninth month, the fourth day will be a Sabbath, the eleventh a Sabbath, the eighteenth a Sabbath, and the twenty-fifth a Sabbath. In the tenth month, the second day will be a Sabbath, the ninth a Sabbath, the sixteenth a Sabbath, the twenty-third Sabbath, and the thirtieth a Sabbath. the eleventh month, the seventh day will be

In

a Sabbath, the fourteenth a Sabbath, the twenty-first a Sabbath, and the twentyeighth a Sabbath. In the twelfth month, the fifth day will be a Sabbath, the twelfth a Sabbath, the nineteenth a Sabbath, and the twenty-sixth a Sabbath, and the thirtieth day of this month would be the fourth day of the week. But here it must be remembered, that the first day of the ensuing year, the first of the month Abib, must fall upon a Sabbath;' so that here, as at the end of the sixth month, two days must be added to make the week and the year end together: that the first day of Abib may be regularly a Sabbath, after a due interval of six days between the last foregoing Sabbath and the day of it. In this manner Moses' appointments appear to carry the Israelites through the year in fifty-two complete weeks, amounting to three hundred and sixty-four days, and this would be a great approximation to the true and real solar year, in comparison of what all other

1 Vid. quæ sup.