And notwithstanding there is at prefent a certain Calculation, yet we that live out of Jerufalem, retain ftill the former Practice. Our Year confifting of 12. Lunar Months, is found to be 11. Days, fome few Hours and Minutes fhorter than the Solar Year, therefore to accommodate it to the Course of the Sun, it is neceffary in fome Years to infert one Month, and make the whole Year to contain thirteen Months, whereby might be avoided that Confufion which fo great a dif-, ference would otherwise have neceffarily produced: For fo the Paffover, and confe-.. quently other Feafts could not have been celebrated at the Time appointed, and com-. manded; whereas the Paffover (which is the Measure of all the Reft) is always to be kept in the Month of Abib, in the Vernal Equinox: and hence we may fee the Neceffity of infer ting a Month. Whilft the Temple flourished, this Intercalation of the Year lay altogether in the Breast of the Sanhedrin or Great Senate, and they inferted a Month when they thought it neceffary; the Grounds and Reafons upon which they proceeded in this Affair, were chiefly three. First, If the Tekupha or Vernal Equinox did fall out after the fixteenth Day of the Month Niffan, and the Paffover being to be celebrated on the fourteenth, that Year was to be intercalated; for the Paffsover was not to kept before that Equinox. Secondly, If the Corn was not ripe, for that the Sheaf could not be offered the next Day after the Paffover, that was a fufficient Reafon for the Intercala tion. Thirdly, if the Lambs were too tender, or too fcarce to be offered in Sacrifice, that likewife was a fufficient Reason for the Intercalation. But after all that, the Senate were the only Judges of the fufficiency of . thefe or any other Reafon; this Intercalation was to be made in Jerufalem and no where elfe. Whereupon Hillel Hannafy, an eminent Doctor, President of the Sanhedrin, who liv'd about 1350 Years ago, forefeeing the Disperfion of our Nation, and finding the Power of the Sanhedrin was a decaying, did by Virtue of their Authority prefcribe fome Rules of Practice, and a certain Calculation, which we all ever fince follow: And according to which, this our Kalendar is compofed. Our Rule of Intercalation being this, that in every Cycle of the Moon, which confifts of nineteen Years, there be feven Intercalary Years, vize 3. 6. 8. 11. 14. 17. 19. From this Ecclefiaftical Year, we reckon our Feasts and Fafts, which are either exprefly commanded by Moles in the Law, or fuch as have been inftituted by the whole Church in the Time of our Captivity, upon fome extraordinary Occafions, and have been generally received and duly observed ever lince. There are others which have been inftituted, but not generally received; and therefore are not now obferved. Of all which we shall endeavour a particular Account, as they occur in their respective Months. The Computation of Time from the Creation of the World now in ufe with us, is not very ancient, but agreed upon about 700 Years ago; the Computation formerly being taken from fome great Event, or notable Revolutions, as particularly from the Departure of the Ifraelites out of Egypt: From fuch or fuch Kings Reign: From the Time of Alexander the Great, &c. And although in the Computation of Time from the Creation of the World, we do not pretend to any perfect Exactness, many of our Doctors being of Opinion that 'tis rather to be carried higher; yet we are contented to follow it, because it is now generally received. According to this Supputation, this our Kalendar is compofed and calculated for this Year of the World 5454. Whereof some Months are already past, it having Commenced from September the 21ft, and being made up by almost four Months of the enfuing Year, 5455: With this Supputation falls in the 22d of the 195th Cycle of the Sun. The first Year of the 288 Cycle of the Moon, the First of the Sabbatical Years; it is a common Year confisting of 12 Months, and contains 354 Days, and 51 Sabbath Days. The first Feaft or Day of Obfervation which falls under our Cognifance in the Sabbath or Day of Reft, being the feventh Day which God Almighty Bleffed and Sanctified, because that on it he refted from his Work of Creation; from whence the Observation of it is deriv'd to us by a regular Circulation, as we shall endeavour to make out. That the Patriarchs did so observe it is highly probable, because the Scripture is pofitive that Akraham kept the Divine Com mand mandments, amongft which 'tis not likely the Obfervation of the Sabbath was neglected by him; nor can any Proof to the contrary be produced. But we fhall not infift peremptorily on this, because we shall not lay any Stress upon it. The Grounds of our Certainty in this Matter we derive from the Time of the Manna in the Wilderness of Sinai. For the Scripture affures us that the Manna did not fall on the seventh Day, and the Reafon is becaufe that was the Sabbath; and it is here very remarkable that the Text exprefly fays, behold God hath given you the Sabbath Day, and therefore he did not then firft inftitute it. But now we know of no other Sabbath which God had given them but that only on which he rested from all his Works, and that which he Blessed and Sanctified; and therefore he obliged them to the precife Observation of that Sabbath; and confequently however careless or forgetfull the whole Nation might be thought to have been, yet God Almighty undoubtedly knew the precife Day, and here reminded them of their Obligation to SanЄtifie it: And this is agreeable to the Judgement of Philo Judeus and other Fathers in this Particular. And it is further remark. able to this Purpose, that in the fourth Commandment we are commanded to remember the Sabbath Day, which therefore must have been enjoin'd before, and confequently could be no other than the Seventh in a regular Circulation from the Sabbath of the Creation; for we know of no other. Lastly 'tis yet further remarkable, that whereas in the N 2 9th 9th Chap. and 13th Verf. of Nehemiah 'tis faid, thou (O God) gaveft them right Fudgements, &c. 'tis added in the 14th Verf. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath, and at the 15th Verfe, And gaveft them Bread from Heaven: Hence we may observe that the Almighty plainly declared (by the fending of the Manna) which was the Sabbath, whereon he refted from all his Works, and which he commanded to be thenceforward obferved by all those to whom he vouchsafed to give the Manna; and therefore hereby we certainly know the precife Sabbath, and accordingly celebrate it, which God Almighty bleffed and fanctified. Now to say that any seventh Day after fix Days of ufual Labour will answer the Defign of the Institution of the Sabbath, is not ouly improbable, and fo fit to be rejected by us, but overthrows the very Ground of the fourth Commandment; which is, that therefore we are to keep holy the Sabbath Day, (not the feventh Day) because that on it God rested from all his Work. And to fay he rested from his Works any feventh Day feems a very harsh Interpretation; and therefore must we understand it precisely of the Sabbath immediately enfuing the Work of the Creation; and confequently that is the precife Day we are oblig❜d to celebrate, call'd the Sabbath by Way of Emi nence, and as fuch diftinguifh'd from all other whither feventh Day or Days of Rest. Hence Jonathan in his Chaldee Paraphrase afcribes a peculiar Excellency to this Sabbath, faying, God Bleffed and Sanctified it before all other |