"his hand."* And we have seen that, when a similar desolation hath taken place in certain countries in our own time, these lands have " enjoyed their sabbaths;" their mournful and silent sabbaths!

May the land of Britain never enjoy such a sabbath! Let every man amongst us, who believes in the Christian revelation, shew by his observance of the sacred day of God, that he is seriously desirous of averting these judgments.

II. We proceed now to consider the grand sabbatical year, called the JUBILEE. We shall first shew its characters of mercy; and then point out its analogy to the gospel of Christ.

The Jubilee had two chief characters of mercy-the restoration of property; and

* 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17.

1

first,

the deliverance of the captives : the restoration of the poor man's inheritance, which he had sold in the day of adversity; and 2dly, the release of the man, who had sold himself to his creditor for debt. The ordinance, respecting the former case, was this; " If

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thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, then, that " which is sold, shall remain in the hand of " him that hath bought it, until the year of "Jubilee; and, in the Jubilee, it shall go "out, and he shall return unto his posses"sion. The land shall not be sold for ever, "for the land is MINE; for YE are "strangers and sojourners."* The ordinance, respecting the deliverance of the captives, is in the following words: "If thy "brother, that dwelleth by thee, be waxen

poor, and be sold unto thee, he shall serve

*Lev. xxv. 23.

"thee unto the year of Jubilee; and then

shall he depart from thee, both he and "his children with him, and shall return "unto his family; and unto the possession "of his fathers shall he return :--for they

are MY servants, which I brought forth "out of the land of Egypt: they shall not "be sold as bondmen."*

The year of Jubilee must have been a grand æra of revolving time in Israel. How many thousands must there have been, in the revolution and vicissitude of fifty years, who would be looking forward, with ardent expectation, to the morning of the Jubilee ! And what joy and exultation must have filled the land, when the trumpet began to sound! For, no sooner did they hear "the joyful sound," than the captive stood up in his dungeon, and his

* Lev. xxv. 42.

fetters fell from his feet; and the bondman left the house of his bondage, and set out on his return to his own home, with his wife and children, accompanied by his friends, with instruments of music, and crowned with garlands of flowers,* to possess once more his native inheritance, and to enjoy the sweets of plenty, liberty, and peace. We cannot wonder, then, that the day of Jubilee should be compared to the day of the gospel; that blessed day, when Christ came to redeem the soul from bondage, and to restore us to “ the inheri tance of the purchased possession."+

The analogy of the Jubilee to the gospel is very striking, in many particulars.

1. As to time. The trumpets of the Jubilee were to sound on the day of ATONE

* Maimonides, de Anno Jubilæo.

+ Eph. i. 14.

MENT; namely, on that great day of sacrifice in Israel, which prefigured the atonement of Christ. As soon as the victim of expiation was offered, and reconciliation was made for the sins of the people, the command was given for the priests to blow. They stood ready, with their trumpets in their hands, having their faces turned towards the east, and the west, and the north, and the south; and, when the signal was given, their sound went forth into all the land. And it is remarkable, that the year, in which the TRUE SACRIFICE was offered up on Calvary, is generally understood to have been the year of Jubilee. It is a concession of the Jews themselves,→ "that the divine glory shall be freedom and redemption in a year of Jubilee."*

2. As to the manner. The Jubilee was to be proclaimed with sound of trum→

* Zohar on Lev. xxv.