tial, the days and nights are equal, and we then have spring or autumn. When it advances towards our pole, and comes to our tropic, we then have summer; and when it returns back, and repassing the equinoctial, otherwise called the line, comes to the other tropic, we then have winter. Of these four points, the two which touch the tropics are called solstices, and those which cut the equinoctial, are called equinoxes.

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The ancient astronomers thought that the sun took up three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours: which six hours they joined together every fourth year, and making a day of them, inserted it in the month of February. And the first day of the month, was then by the Romans called the calends; and they reckoning backwards, into the days of the preceding month, called them, the first, second, third, &c. of the calends. And this additional day being made the sixth of the calends of March, and they reckoning or these years two sixth days of these calends, this was the reason why the years, in which these additional days were inserted, were called bissextile. So that every four years the month of February, which ordinarily consisted of twenty-eight days, had a day added to it, and was made to consist of twenty-nine. But the astronomers of latter ages, having made more exact observations, have found that the year was not so long by eleven minutes: a difference, which, how inconsiderable soever it may appear, did yet intro

duce a confusion in the seasons of the year, in a succession of several ages. So that the vernal equinox, which, at the time of the council of Nice, fell on the twentieth or twenty-first day of March, was found to fall, in the sixteenth century, on the tenth or eleventh. For, the reason why the equinox at any time advances or goes back a day, is the difference between the bissextile and the common year. And in order therefore to put a stop to this disorder, which in time would have thrown back the month of April, in which nature awakes, and begins to dress herself in her vernal ornaments, into the midst of winter, the calendar was reformed about the end of the 15th century, and by retrenching ten days, the equinoxes were brought back to the same points they were at, at the council of Nice. And they have likewise retrenched one bissextile every hundred years (which nevertheless continues to be ordinarily placed every fourth year as before) because that, in the space of four centuries, the eleven minutes every year (as above mentioned) are so far from making four complete days, that they make but little more than three; and by this means the points of the equinoxes are so fixed for the future, that they can never vary again. The reader will, I hope, pardon this digression which I make, because it may be doubtless of some assistance to those, who have not thoroughly studied these matters.

This was done in the year 1512, during the pontificate of Gregory XI. therefore called the Gregorian or new stile.

Let us now see by what means the Jews regulated their year so exactly, that its first month always came in the spring. There were two reasons that engaged them to be extremely exact in this matter: the one of which was, that the law obliged them to offer up to GoD a sheaf of ripe barley, or at least of such as was pretty nearly ripe, in this first month; and the other was, that the passover, which fell on the fourteenth day of this month, could not be celebrated without offering up a vast number of lambs, which it would have been impossible to have had in winter. And it was therefore necessary that this first month, in which the feast of the passover was celebrated, should not be entirely passed before the vernal equinox, and that it should always fall in the same season of the year.

In the mean time, twelve lunar months make but three hundred and fifty-four days, eight hours, forty-nine minutes, and some seconds. And consequently this year must be shorter than the solar one by eleven days, some hours, and some minutes. But it has been already said, that the Jews regulated their months by the phases of the moon, and not by any astronomical calculations. And when therefore their twelfth month was ended, and they found that their spring was not yet come, the next new moon was not made to belong to the first month, but to a thirteenth which they inserted, and therefore called, the intercalary month. And this they did so exactly, that the full of the

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moon of the month Nisan never came before the Equinox, that is, before day when the sun, entering the first degree of Aries, makes the days and nights equal.

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But that I may give all the necessary light that is wanting in this affair, I shall observe, that the Jews have four sorts of years, or rather, that each year has four beginnings. That of the civil year was in Tisri; that of the sacred year, in the month Nisan; that of the tithe of the cattle, in the month Elul, that is to say, according to the Rabbins, that they began from this month to take an account of all the cattle which were born, that they might offer the tithe of them to God; and lastly, that of trees, which was on the first or fifteenth of the month Shebat. For the same Rabbins likewise say, that the law having commanded that the fruit of a tree newly planted should not be eaten of, till after three years, because the tree was till that time, thought unclean; it is from the last mentioned month that they began to reckon this sort of year.

What I have said concerning these four distinctions, relates only to the common year of the Jews, which, as has been said, consisted of twelve or thirteen lunar months. But besides this year, they had a second, (as has also been already observed) which consisted of seven years, and was called sabbatical. On this year the Jews were not permitted to cultivate the earth. They neither plowed, or ¡ Lev. xiv. 23.

Lev. xxvii. 32.

sowed, nor pruned their vines; and if the earth brought forth any thing of its own accord, these spontaneous fruits did not belong to the master of the ground, but were common to all, and every man might gather them. So that the Jews were obliged during the six years, and more especially in the last of them, wherein they cultivated the earth, to lay up provisions enough to last from the end of the sixth year to the ninth, in which was their first harvest after the sabbatical year.*

And as seven common years made the sabbatical year, so did seven sabbatical years make a third sort of year among them, which was called the year of Jubilee.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Jewish Sacrifices :-their different kinds, and their different ceremonies:- and of their Offerings, Gifts, First-fruits, and Tenths.

SACRIFICING is the offering up to GoD a living animal, whose blood is shed in adoration of his majesty, and in order to make an atonement to his justice, for sin. All the different religions in the world agree in this point, and have had the same ideas of sacrifice. Which uniformity of opinion is very surprising; from whence could it be, that all people should thus * Lev, xxv. 1–7.