thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light;" chap. v. 14. Accordingly they make the nominative case to eye, he saith, to be Otoç, God, as speaking by the voice or sound of the trumpet. To this, it may be objected, not only that there is no intimation in Scripture, that the trumpets were blown for the purposes Maimonides imagines, but likewise that the apostle would hardly have referred to a Jewish ceremony, as if the meaning of it were well known, when he was writing to the Gentiles, who probably were unacquainted with the ceremony itself, and much more with its design and intention. Others, therefore, suppose the nominative case to λɛyɛ is ypapn, the Scripture, or God speaking in the Scripture, and that there is a reference to the following passage of Isaiah: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," chap.lx. 1; quoted by the apostle, though not verbatim, yet according to the sense; while others apprehend the allusion is not so much to any particular passage as to the general and principal design of the sacred oracles, which evidently is to awaken, convert, and save sinners.

It is an ingenious conjecture of Heumannus,* that this passage is taken out of one of those hymns, or spiritual songs, which were in common use in the Christian church in those times, and which are mentioned by the apostle in a subsequent passage, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs;" Eph. v. 19. This author observes, that it consists of three metrical lines,

Εγειραι ὁ καθεύδων,

Και αναστα εκ των νεκρών,

Και επιφαύσει σοι ὁ Χριστος.

As for διο λεγει, he makes it to be the same with διο λεγεται, "wherefore it is said," as in Rom. xv. 10. But, on supposition that these lines were taken out of some hymns or spiritual songs, known to have been composed by inspiration, I should rather think the nominative case to λεγει may be Θεος, or πνευμα άγιον. Το return to the subject we are upon :

It may be farther objected to Maimonides and some other Jews, who conceive the design of blowing the trumpets was * Poeciles, tom. ii. lib. ii. p. 390, as cited by Wolfius, Curæ Philologica in loc.

to awaken men to repentance, that nyn pozickron terungnah, which we render, "a memorial of blowing the trumpets,' Levit. xxiii. 24, properly signifies a memorial of triumph, or shouting for joy; for, as Dr. Patrick observes,* the word Пyn terungnah is never used in Scripture but for a sound or shout of rejoicing, as the Chaldee N jabbaba, by which Onkelos renders it, always signifies.†

Other Jews, therefore, make the blowing of the trumpet to be a memorial of Isaac's deliverance by means of the ram, which was substituted to be sacrificed in his stead. Accordingly they say, the trumpets blown on this day must be made of rams' horns; and such are those which the modern Jews blow in their synagogues.‡

They sound the horn thirty times, sometimes slow and sometimes quick. If the trumpeter sounds it clear and well, they reckon it a presage of a happy year; if otherwise, they express their concern by the sadness of their countenances, esteeming it an unfavourable omen. When he hath done, the people repeat these words loudly and distinctly,§ "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance;" Psalm lxxxix. 15. And when they return from the synagogue, their salutation to one another is, "Mayest thou be written in a good year;" the reply, "And thou also."||

Some of the Christian fathers, particularly Basil¶ and Theodoret,** make the sounding of the trumpets on this day to be a memorial of the giving of the law at mount Sinai, which was attended with the sound of a trumpet; Exod. xix. 16. But the opinion more generally embraced, both by Jews and Christians, is, that it was a memorial of the creation of the world, at which the "sons of God shouted for joy," Job xxxviii. 7; and which is supposed, not altogether without reason, to have been at this season of the year. The month Tisri, therefore, was not only anciently, but is still, reckoned

* Patrick on Numb. xxix. 1.

+ See Chaldee Paraphrase on Numb. xxix. 1.

↑ Abarbanel in Levit. xxiii. 24.

§ Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. cap. xxiv. p. 502. || Buxtorf, p. 497, 498.

** Theodoret. Questiones in Levit. quæst. xxxii.

¶ Basil in Psalm lxxxi.

by the Jews the first month of the year; and the feast of tabernacles, which was kept in this month, was said to be п tekuphath hashanah, Exod. xxxiv. 22, which we render" at the end," but in the margin more truly, "at the revolution of the year;" importing, that at this season the year had revolved, and was beginning anew. So that the feast of trumpets was indeed the new year's day, on which the people were solemnly called to rejoice in a grateful remembrance of all God's benefits to them through the last year, which might be intended by blowing the trumpets; as well as to implore his blessing upon them for the ensuing year, which was partly the intention of the sacrifices on this day offered.

The modern Jews have a notion, which they derive from the Mishna,* that on this day God judges all men, who pass before him as a flock before the shepherd. Therefore, as Basnage saith, their zealots spend some a whole month beforehand, others four days, and especially the eve of this feast, in confessing their sins, beating their breasts, and some in lashing their bare backs by way of penance, in order to procure a favourable judgment on this decisive day. He adds, if Christians should be told that they have derived their vigils, their whipcord discipline, and the merit annexed to them, from the Jews, though they would not be pleased, it is nevertheless probable.†

As for the long account which Godwin gives us of the translation of feasts, it is mere rabbinical trifling, without the least foundation in the sacred oracles, and, of consequence, utterly unworthy our attention.‡

* Mishn. tit. Rosh Hashanah, cap. i. sect. ii. tom. i. p. 311.

+ See Basnage's History of the Jews, book v. chap. xiii. On the feast of trumpets, see Meyer. de Tempor. et Festis Diebus Hebræor.

↑ Vid. Bochart. Hieroz. part i. lib. ii. cap. i. Oper. tom. ii. p. 561, 562, Lugd. Bat. 1712.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE DAY OF EXPIATION.

GODWIN styles this day the feast of expiation, whereas it was altogether a fast, a day of deep humiliation, and of "afflicting their souls."* Nevertheless he is so inconsistent with himself, that he understands the fast mentioned in the account of St Paul's voyage to Rome, Acts xxvii. 9, to be meant of the day of expiation. It is true there is no express injunction in the law of Moses, nor anywhere in the Old Testament, to fast on this solemnity. But that it was understood to be a fast by the Jews appears from Josephus+ and Philo,‡ who both style this day νηστεια, "the fast." The rabbies commonly distinguish it by the name of tsoma rabba, the great fast.§ Tertullian likewise, speaking of the two goats that were offered on this day, saith, jejunio offerebantur they were offered on the fast.

As for the fast mentioned in the account of St. Paul's voyage, and concerning which it is said, that "sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now past," Acts xxvii. 9; Castalio, not being able to conceive what a Jewish fast could have to do with sailing, supposes there is an error in the Greek copy, and that instead of νηστειαν it should be νηνεμιαν, which signifies calm weather; and according to him the meaning is, that sailing was now dangerous, because the fine weather, or calm season, was now over. However, all the manuscripts and ancient versions remonstrate against this emendation; and, indeed, there is no need of it, to support even

* See an account of the institution of this annual solemnity, Lev. xvi., and chap. xxiii. 27-32.

↑ Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii. cap. x. sect. iii. p. 172.

↑ Philo de Vitâ Mosis, lib. ii. Oper. p. 508, F, edit. Colon. Allobr. 1613. § Midrasch Ruth. xlvi. 4, et Echa Rabbati, lxxx. 1, quoted by Reland, Antiq. part iv. cap. vi. sect. i. p. 492.

Tertullian adversus Judæos, cap. xiv. Oper. p. 201, C, edit. Rigalt.

Castalio's own sense of the passage; for this Jewish fast being kept on the tenth day of the month Tisri, a little after the autumnal equinox, it is in fact the same thing to say the fast was already past, or the calm season of the year was over.

Before the invention and use of the compass, sailing was rarely practised in the winter months; and it was reckoned very dangerous to put to sea after the autumnal equinox. Hesiod observes, that at the going down of the Pleiades navigation is dangerous; and the going down of the Pleiades, he saith, was in autumn, when after harvest they begin to plough.+ Again, speaking of safe and prosperous sailing, for which he allots fifty days after the summer solstice, he admonishes to make haste, and get home before the time of new wine, and the autumnal storms, which make the sea difficult and dangerous. Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius Tyaneus,§ saith, that at the latter end of autumn the sea was more unsettled. And Philo speaks of the beginning of autumn as the last season that was fit for navigation.|| These testimonies sufficiently demonstrate, that when the sacred historian declares, that "sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already past," he speaks according to the common sense and apprehension of those times; and he likewise ascertains the season of the year, when this fast was kept, to be about or soon after the autumnal equinox; which, answering to the time of the day of expiation among the Jews, renders it highly probable, that this was the particular fast to which the writer of the Acts refers. As to the objection of Erasmus Schmidius,¶ that it is improbable these Alexandrian mariners should denominate the seasons of the year from Jewish fasts or festivals, he should have observed, that the passage under consideration is not the words of the Alexandrian mariners, but of Luke the historian, who was a Jew by nation, and no doubt, therefore, denominated the seasons from some Jewish fast, according to the custom of his country.

Hesiod, Opera et Dies, lib. ii. 1. 236—240. + Hesiod, lib. ii. 1. 2.

Hesiod, lib. ii. l. 281-295.

§ Philostrat. in Vitâ Apollonii, lib. iv. cap. iv. p. 168, A, edit. Paris, 1608. || Philo, Legat. ad Caium, Oper. p. 770, B, edit. Colon. Allobr. 1613. Erasmus Schmidius in loc.