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3. In the release of all Hebrew flaves, unless they voluntarily renounced their proffered liberty, and chofe to abide by their old masters; in which cafe they were to be brought before the judges, and to have their ears bored in their prefence, in token that they freely embraced a perpetual fervitude, or, at least, till the year of jubilee c.

4. In the remiffion of all debts from one Ifraelite to another but this did not extend to strangers, who were excluded that benefitd.

5. It was to begin and end on the month Tifri, or September, that there might be fufficient time for gathering all the fruits of the earth of that year, and for fowing it against the next year, that fo the land might not lie fallow two years together (L). Some other laws

• Exod. xxi. 2, & feq. & alib. • Levit. xxv. .9.

(L) This year is by Mofes called by feveral names, as my, Shanah hafhbigbith, the feventh year na PT, Sabbath baaretz, the Sabbath, or reft of the earth; now, hemitab ladonai, the release of the LORD, and the like. The time of year in which it was to begin, is no-where fixed by Mofes; but is eafily gathered from that of the jubilee, which was to begin on the 10th of the 7th month (43), and from the reafon given under that article, as well as from the generality of Jewish authors. How foon this fabbatic year was obferved after their entrance into Canaan, is varioufly reckoned both by Jews and Chriftians.

Deut. xv. 1, & feq.

The reader may, if he pleases, confult the authors quoted in the margin (44). But, if any opinion appears to us more probable than another, it is that of the learned archbishop Uber, who fixes it on the feventh year after the manna ceased, at which time they began to fow and till the ground (45). Cunaus fpeaks ftill more par ticularly to the fame effect; his words run thus (46): There is no neceffity for beginning the epoch of the feven years at the divifion of the land of Canaan but rather at the death of Mafes, which was the forty-first after the exod; and then the firft fabbatic year will be on the 7th after the paffage of Jordan; fo that, after having

(44) Gemar Kiddush.

(43) Lev. xv. 9. Sedar Holam. Maimon. de Shemitab & Fobel, paff.

Gemar. Hier:f, in loc.
Abarban. in Joh. xiv

12, alib. R. Dav. Gantz. in Zemacb, & al. Scaliger, annot. in chranic Eufeb. alib. Goodw. Mof. & Aar. l. iii. c. 9. Munft, calend. Meyer de

temp. face 17. Cun. Calm & al.

Pada Bafnag, rep. Heb. tom, ži, ça 8.

(45) Sub A. M. 2554

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145)

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laws we find relating to this year, fuch as that those fervants who were releafed in it, fhould not go away empty; but that a compenfation fhould be made to them for their fervice.f; that they fhould not withdraw any needful affiftance from their poor brethren, by reafon of the nearness of the feventh years; with fome others relating to the opening of their fields, orchards, and vineyards, to all comers, and the like (M). Among these was that remarkable one of reading the law before all the people, on the day of Pentecoft. For as they were to abftain from all works of hufbandry, there is no doubt but there was a greater concourse to hear it than could have been at any other intermediate year...

THE reafons and excellence of thefe laws, as well as those that relate to the jubilee, are obvious to every one, being extremely proper to breed up a faithless and ftubborn nation, in a conftant dependence upon, and fubjection to the divine providence; and to inspire them with fentiments of mercy and beneficence towards their poor brethren, fervants, flaves, and ftrangers, by reminding them of their Egyptian flavery; which is affigned as one of the reafons of

f Dent, xv. 13, &f eq.

been taken up fix years in the conqueft and dividing of the land, the feventh proved, in all refpects, a year of reft, fecing they refted from their conquefts, and peaceably enjoyed the fruit of them, and of the conquered land.

(M)-It may be, perhaps, afked, what they lived upon during that year, if they muft relinquifh the product of all their lands to the poor? But it must be remembred, that they were allowed to take as much out of it as was fufficient for them felves and their families (47). However, as fome of them made a fcruple to touch even

(47) Levit. xxv. 6. eap, vi.

g Ibid. ver. 7, & feq.

any of thefe, we may reasonably fuppofe, that they made what provifion they could againft that time, of fuch things as could be eafily preferved, fuch as corn, wine, oil, olives, raifins, figs, dates, pulfe, and the like; and as to herbs, roots, fruits, and all kind of no, or things offpontaneous growth, they might gather them in their own or any other ground: tho' even this, fome of their rigid fcribes pronounce unlawful, not fo much because the law exprefly forbids it, as for fear of tranfgreffing by too great a liberty (48).

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(48) Vide Ben Maim, ubi fupra, tract. Mylaw,

this inftitution; to which we may add another, namely, the great advantage which the land received by being left fallow every seventh year. However, the generality of the Jews, and a great number of Chriftians both antient and modern, have looked upon the main defign of these institutions to be typical of the millennium, or thousand years reft; for, as the Pentateuch confecrates the feventh day, the feventh year, and the feven times feventh year, to reft, they conclude, that the world will laft fix thoufand years in the ftate we fee it in; or, as R. Elias, in the Talmud, expreffes it, two thousand years without the law, two thousand under the law, and two thoufand under the MESSIAH; after which comes the grand fabbath of one thousand years but this is too nice a point for us, and which we willingly refer to the divines; only we beg leave to obferve, from a modeft hint of the learned Mr. Medek, that as long as we perfift in denying the fecond appearance of CHRIST upon earth, in as glorious a manner as his first was obfcure, we fhall hardly be able to convince the Jews, that he is the true promifed MESSIAH because we can give no tolerable reafon why the prophe cies concerning his humiliation and fufferings fhould be underftood in a literal, and thofe of his exaltation and glorious reign in a spiritual fenfe. Whereas were the doctrine of the millennium, which is far from being anti-evangelical in any but a Jewish and carnal fenfe, generally received, it would effectually answer one of their strongest objections, without cafting the leaft reflection on the Chriftian religion, whilft the Jews were left at their liberty to take it in as grofs, and we in as spiritual and refined a sense as we faw fit...

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Laws relating to the jubilee.

HIS folemnity is the laft, and most confiderable, that Jubilee GOD injoined to the Ifraelites. It was to be cele year. brated every fiftieth year, and had this advantage over that of the feventh, that it releafed all flaves that had refufed their liberty; annihilated all debts; and reftored to every man all his lands, houfes, wife, children, and poffeffions, however alienated; and every Hebrew fervant or flave to his own tribe and family, liberty and property, how, and upon what account foever he had been deprived of them

h Ibid. ver. 15.

i Tract. Sanhedr. §. Helec. Vide HOSPIN GOODW. MEY. MUNST. & al. k Clav. Apocalypt. ad fin. 1 Levit. xxv. 8; & feq.

ver. 28, 41, & alib.

m'Ibid.

during thofe 50 years: for this reason it is that we think, after many commentators, that it was called Jubilee, or Yobel, because it reftored every thing to its priftine ftate (O). However, it must be obferved, that this privilege extended no further than to the original Ifraelites, or to those who had been incorporated into their religion and commonwealth by circumcifion; thefe, indeed, might claim the benefit of it, though they had been fold for flaves for any crimes, even by the fentence of the grand fanhedrin "; but, as for the Gentiles, they were wholly excluded from it °.

SOME think that the Ifraelites were wont to reckon by jubilees, as the Greeks did by olympiads, the Romans by luftra, and the Chriftians by indictions P; and probably they did fo, because they were always to have regard to that year in all bargains of lands, houfes, and the like, which generally fold for more or lefs, according to their nearness to, or diftance from it 9. As for the poffeffions of the priests and Levites, they had certain privileges and immunities, which shall be spoken of in a more proper place r.

DURING the whole twelve months all kind of agriculture was exprefly forbid, the poor had the benefit of the Harveft and vintage, and of all the product of that year; and all other things of that nature went on after the fame manner, as they did in the fabbatic year. The beginning of it was, by GoD's own appointment, fixed to the feventh month Tifris, which is about the time of the autumnal equinox; but in what year, after they entered into

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(55) Rabbin. fer. omn. Vide Kimcb. in rad. fub voc., Goodw. Mey. Mun. &c. Bochart. bieroz. Beckius annot. in Maimen. fhemitab veyobel, note 5. Goodwin, Hotting. &c. (56) Pfalm Ixxvi, ver, penult. vide & Job x. 19. Fax. 30, 32, Ferem, xxxi. 9, & alib,

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the land of Canaan, they celebrated the firft jubilee, and whether from the beginning of every forty-ninth, or fiftieth year, is not eafy to determine. As to the former, the Jews begin to reckon the firft of the fifty years from the fourteenth after Joshua's paffing the Jordan. How their computation ran, according to the learned Maimon, Philo, and Jofephus, the reader may fee in the margin (e),

Ubi fup. c. 10. ex verf. BECKм.

(Q) "From their entrance "into Canaan to their being "carried out of it, are feven"teen jubilees; and the year "in which they went into "captivity, and the temple "was destroyed, was the fe"venth, or fabbatic year, and "the thirty-fixth of the 18th "jubilee, which they prove thus: the first temple ftood 110 years, after which there was an end of that epocha; "the land then did lay wafte "seventy years, and then the "fecond temple was built, which flood likewife 129 years. In the seventh year "after its restoration, Ezra "went up to Jerusalem; and "from this time began a fe"cond epocha. On the thir"teenth after the rebuilding "of the temple, they cele"brated the fecond fabbatic

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"batic ones." Thus far Maimon; but here it must be ob ferved, that he has followed the reckoning of Jofephus, Philo, and of all the Jews, who not only place the first fabbatic year, and confequently the ju bilee, seven years later than Uber and Cunaus, namely, from the fourteenth year after their entrance into Canaan, but allow fifty complete years to every jubilee; whereas that primate, and with him a great number of learned Chriftians (1), think that it was celebrated every forty-ninth year, as we shall see presently. How ever, as he has here rectified the Jewish chronology in fome other refpects, fo he reckons but the fame number of jubilees that Maimon doth before the deftruction of the temple; as the reader may fee in the table at the end of his annals under the word Jubilee.

The firft of them he fixes on the 3318th year of the Ju lian period, which is the 2609th of the world, or 1396 years before Chrift, and the feventeenth or laft before the captivity in 4102 of the Julian period, 3393 of the world,

(1) Huge Cardinal. Gerard, Mercat. In chronol. Fof. Scaliger, Petav. Calvis, Lansberg, Capel, Cunœur, Spanheim, Jun. Le Clerc, & al, mult.

and

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