fourteenth of Nisan (Abib), with the same ceremonies, except that, in place of the door-posts, the altar was sprinkled with the blood of the paschal lamb. The festival continued eight days, during which all leaven was carefully removed from every house; the first day and the last possessed a sabbatical character. (2.) The Feast of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the former, also called the Feast of Weeks, and of First Fruits; it was a harvestfestival, since the harvest was completed which had commenced with the Passover. It lasted one day, which possessed a sabbatical character. The sheaf of the first-fruits had been presented at the Passover; at this festival, the first-fruits of bread made of the new grain were presented. In connection with this agricultural feature, the festival presented one which was historical, inasmuch as the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai was also commemorated on this day. (3.) The Feast of Tabernacles; it commenced on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Tisri, continued eight days, and was the most joyful of all the festivals. It referred, on the one hand, to the journeying in the wilderness, and hence, the people forsook their houses, and dwelt in tents made of the branches of trees, and it was, on the other hand, a thanksgiving festival, in reference to the autumnal harvest (the feast of ingathering (Exod. 23:16)-fruit, oil and wine).

OBS. As the months of the Hebrews were lunar months, the fourteenth and fifteenth days, on which the festivals of the Passover and of Tabernacles were observed, always occurred at the time of full moon. There was a symbolical meaning in this circumstance, for the full of the moon, as a measure of time (Ps. 104: 19; Gen. 1: 14), designated the fulness of the time. (Gal. 4: 4). And, as the full moon gives a festive appearance to the heavens, so the period which commemorates the gracious ways of God diffuses a cheerful light over the whole of life on earth. This symbolical aspect does not belong to the feast of Pentecost, in consequence of natural causes.

3. The great Day of Atonement was also annually observed (Lev. ch. 16, and ch. 23; Num. eh. 29); it occurred on the tenth day of the month Tisri, and, as a day of humiliation and fasting, universally observed, it was the most important day of the year; an atonement was made for the sins of all the people, in a peculiarly expressive and solemn manner.

OBS. In accordance with the importance of the occasion, the high-priest alone officiated on the great day of Atonement. After he had brought a sin-offering for himself and his house, he cast lots upon two goats, one lot for a sin-offering for the Lord, and the other lot "for Azazel;" [Lev. 16: 8, Eng. vers. marg.] The blood of the first goat was carried by him into the holiest of all, on this day (on which alone he was permitted to enter) and sprinkled on the mercyseat. The sins for which atonement was thus made, were put upon the head of the second goat, which was sent away alive into the wilderness to Azazel (the evil demon, represented as dwelling in the .wilderness), in order that the latter might ascertain all that had been done, and know that he no longer retained power over Israel. This whole transaction expressed the thought that the atonement made on this day was so complete, and so plain and undeniable, that even Satan the Accuser (Job, ch. 1 and 2; Zech. ch. 3; Rev. 12: 10, 11) was compelled to acknowledge it. In the sacrifice of this day, consequently, the sacrifice of Christ is shadowed and typified more clearly than in any other, even as we read in Heb. 9: 12: "By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

$ 50. Purifications.

According to the declarations of the Law, several circumstances connected with the physical life of man were of such a nature as to defile, and, consequently, to exclude him from the communion of the sanctuary. Among these death, with the corruption which followed it, occupied the first place. Death entered into the world by sin; death and corruption are, consequently, the fruits which sin brings forth in the bodily nature of man, and they depict, in alarming colours, the results of sin in his spiritual nature

the dissolution of all bonds of union and alliance, the decomposition of all that had existed in coherence. - In addition to death, every condition of the living body which presented features resembling that of the dead body, also rendered unclean. The Leprosy, in particular, belonged to this class; the spots which denoted the disease, corresponded to the spots which are seen in a corpse, and the disease itself, in its progress, destroys the vigor of life, and is, ultimately, the decomposition of the living body. Further, according to the view of the Law, not only abnormal,

but also the normal functions of the sexual sphere of life, rendered unclean, and excluded from communion with Jehovah, the Holy One. This view depended principally on the polarity which exists between generation and corruption, between the birth and death of man; the movements of his sinful, expiring life occur between these two poles, and his generation and birth only originate a life which is, from the beginning, subject to sin, to death and to corruption (Ps. 51: 5). — Even as sins which were committed in ignorance and without premeditation, required an atonement (§ 48. OBS. 2), since they were, nevertheless, manifestations and witnesses of the sinfulness that is in man, so, too, these conditions of man, which partook of the nature of death, or resembled it, required an atonement, although they were, partly, involuntary and undesired, and, partly, resulted from the present order of nature. The law, however, distinguished between slight and grave cases of uncleanness; the former, in which. the uncleanness was not communicated by the touch of the person, and which continued until the evening, terminated after the individual had simply washed; uncleanness of the latter kind was communicated by contact to others, and could not be removed without the atonement made by a sacrifice.

OBS. The leprosy was followed by the deprivation not only of all religious but also of all civil privileges. After it was healed, the symbolical act of cleansing the individual, in which two birds were employed, set forth that he had recovered his health, that is, that he was restored from death to life. Certain sacrifices were offered, and he was then fully received once more into the theocratical communion (Lev. ch. 14).- He who touched a corpse, or the bones of the dead, a grave, or any place in which a corpse was deposited or its furniture, became unclean during a period of seven days, after which he was cleansed. This process was performed by sprinkling him with the water of separation, which was prepared and preserved for this special purpose. Whenever the necessity arose, a red heifer (the color of which was an emblem of the fulness of life and of vital power) was brought forth without the camp, and slain as a sin-offering for the whole people, who were subject to death, which is the wages of sin; it was burnt together with cedar-wood (incorruptibleness), with wool (life), dyed in scarlet, and with hyssop (purification, Ps. 51: 7); the ashes were mixed with running water (lye),

and then employed in sprinkling and cleansing him who had touched a dead body. (Numb. ch. 19.) *

§ 51. Laws respecting Food.

As the whole life of the Israelites was subject to the authority of the law, and controlled by the salvation which was to be revealed (Gal. 3:24; Col. 2:16, 17), all that they ate or drank was placed under the same influence. The reason of the distinction made between clean and unclean beasts, in reference to food, is stated in Lev. 20 : 24–26 (with which compare Acts 10:1016): because Jehovah separated Israel from other people, in order that they should be holy unto him, and adopted a peculiar mode of separation, even in that mode, and for that reason, Israel is commanded to make a difference between clean and unclean beasts and fowls. Thus the people are reminded, even by their daily meals, not only of the divine mercy in choosing them before all other people, but also of their peculiar calling and destination, and their duty to avoid the practices of the Pagans, whom the Lord had cast out before them; the choice of clean animals was an image and reflection, in the irrational world, of that transaction in the rational world by which Israel was chosen and appointed to be a holy nation. This aspect of the subject, however, presupposes another, namely, that, in company with the human race, nature itself lay under the curse of destruction (§ 12. 3), but that both were also comprehended in the hope of redemption (§ 13. OBS.). The eating of blood, and, consequently, of all animals whose blood had not been entirely poured forth when they were legitimately slain, was again prohibited (§ 18); death was declared to be the penalty when the act was committed. The reason of the prohibition lies in the sacred character of blood as the means of making atonement. (Lev. 17: 11.)

OBS. According to Lev. ch. 11, and Deut. ch. 14, all those beasts were unclean which do not both chew the cud and divide the hoof

* See the [author's] treatise: Ueber die symbolische Dignitat des in Num. 19-verordneten Ritus, in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1846, pp. 629705.

those fishes were unclean which have not both fins and scales (amphibious creatures were, consequently, also unclean) - those birds were unclean, which are known as birds of prey, as well as insects (with the exception of certain species of locusts), and flying mamalia.- The precise reason for which some were declared to be clean and others unclean, may have varied in different animals (while, as a general principle, it originated in that view according to which nature no longer retains its primitive purity and integrity); thus, some animals are more impressive emblems of human corruption than others; some are naturally regarded by man with loathing and dislike; the flesh of some is incapable of being eaten, or is unwholesome, &c. The laws respecting food make a discrimination among living creatures, but impose no restriction on the choice of vegetable food. For, as animals belong to a higher grade of life, and approach nearer than plants to the human race, the conceptions of a blessing and a curse, of life and death, of salvation and ruin, are more clearly and precisely connected with them—indeed, the idea of that which is odious and injurious, or the opposite, in a moral and religious point of view, can be expressed plainly and impressively in them alone. But when the Pagan world, which is represented by the unclean animals, was received into the kingdom of God, and the distinction between Jews and Gentiles was removed, the religious obligation to observe the laws respecting food naturally ceased to exist. (See Acts 10:15; Col. 2: 16, 17; and § 168. 2.)

§ 52. A. Vows.

Vows, in general (Lev. ch. 27: Numb. ch. 30), originate in any want which is felt, and which is brought into connection with religion. The theocratic legislation required the immediate and complete performance of vows that had once been pronounced, but guarded, in the most express terms, against any attempt to overrate them as works (Deut. 23: 22). All articles which were regarded as the property of an individual, and even the person of the vower himself, could become the property of Jehovah by a vow, but might, nevertheless, be redeemed, with the exception of animals which were suitable for sacrifice. In the single case of "the devoted thing" (åválɛμa, Lev. 27: 21, 28), the right of redemption was not allowed.

OBS.-The most important of the vows which regarded the vower's own person, was the vow of the Nazareate (Nazariteship). The Naza