DISCOURSE THE EIGHTH.

On the times appointed in the Levitical Calendar to be solemnized as sacred-Of the Feast of Pentecost.

HAVING considered the twofold reference, primary and secondary, of the paschal solemnity, I shall now proceed to treat of the feast of Pentecost, (which stands next in the Levitical calendar,) as regarded in the same light. The word Pentecost is of Greek original, and signifies "the "fiftieth;" a name given to this feast, because it was celebrated on the fiftieth day from what is called "the morrow after the sabbath," in the solemnity of the paschal week a; viz. the sixteenth of Abib, or Nisan. But besides this name, it is sometimes called the feast of weeks, though for a similar reason; viz. because it was celebrated seven weeks, or a week of weeks, after the same date. Sometimes too it is denominated the feast of harvest; because the corn harvest, which commenced in Judæa about the time of the passover, usually terminated at some period of the interval between this feast and that of Pentecost. It is known also as the day of the firstfruits; because

a Lev. xxiii. 15, 16; Deut. xvi. 9. 22; Deut. xvi. 10.

c Exod. xxiii. 16.

b Exod. xxxiv.

upon this day the Jews were commanded to offer unto the Lord a new meat offering, i. e. an offering of loaves made from the corn which had been recently gathered; by the presentation of which, as the firstfruits, the whole remainder of the harvest was conceived to be blessed or sanctified d.

But the particular point of view in which I propose now to consider it, is that of a festival intended to commemorate the giving of the Law from mount Sinai. For as the day, ever after fixed for the observance of the solemnity, coincided in point of time with the anniversary of that event, the learned, both among the Jews and among Christians, have always regarded the institution of Pentecost as principally and primarily designed to remind the Jews of this circumstance of their history. We read then that, when the children of Israel were arrived in the wilderness of Sinai, and were encamped before the mountain, Jehovah, having called Moses to him into the mountain, instructed him to convey this message to his countrymen: "Thus shalt thou say to "the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Is"rael; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and

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brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye "will obey my voice indeed, and keep my cove"nant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto

d Lev. xxiii. 16; Numb. xxviii. 26.

"me above all people: for all the earth is mine. "And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, "and an holy nation e."

Such was the proposal, which Moses, the messenger of God, was commissioned to make to the congregation of Israel in His name. It would seem to be of the nature of a preliminary overture, of which this was the import-supposing the God of their fathers were now to enter into a solemn and formal covenant with them, were they willing or not, in return for favour and protection on His part, to render obedience to His will and commandments on their part? The answer of the congregation to this solemn proposal is also recorded: "And all the people answered together f;" every individual member is represented to have declared with one voice, "All that the Lord hath spoken," or (as the Hebrew word here made use of admits of being rendered,) "all that the Lord shall speak we "will do;" i. e. they declared themselves willing to abide by the terms of that covenant, be they what they might, which Moses should be commissioned to propose to them. And it is added, that Moses returned these words of the people to the Lord.

After this preliminary precedure, an interval of two days elapsed, during which time the people were commanded to purify themselves against the third day, when the Lord himself would come f Exod. xix. 8.

e Exod. xix. 3-6.

down in sight of all the people, upon mount Sinai, and the terms of the covenant would be formally announced. Accordingly it is related, that in the morning of the third day (in the third month after the departure from Egypt) there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet, exceeding loud; so that all the people, that was in the camp, trembled and that, while the mountain exhibited this awful appearance, while the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and while the whole mount quaked greatly, and the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

Here let us pause for a moment, and dwell upon the particulars already mentioned. It is impossible for the human imagination to conceive a scene more awful, or more sublime than this: the dreary solitude of the wilderness, where the children of Israel were encamped, which must have extended its barren sands around them like an ocean the number of those who were then assembled, consisting of an entire nation, as we know it did-mount Horeb presenting the extraordinary spectacle already described, and the voice of God himself heard in the midst of those thunderings and lightnings, and clouds and thick darkness, and preceded, before it issued its awful

mandates, by that trumpet-signal, (no earthly sound, but one which the mouth of the archangel blew,)-the deep and solemn silence too which must have then reigned around, while communications of this momentous nature were being made all these were circumstances of terror, calculated deeply to affect the bosoms of the beholders. Accordingly such in point of fact is their recorded effect. Moses himself, according to the testimony of the writer to the Hebrews, gave expression to his fears, by saying, " I exceedingly "fear and quake:" while the people, overcome by their sense of awe, removed and stood afar off, and delivered that message to him, "Speak thou "with us, and we will hear: but let not God "speak to us, lest we die 8."

That part of the covenant of Horeb, then, which in this peculiarly solemn manner was dictated by Jehovah himself, was, as all are aware, the Decalogue, or two tables of commandments; the former containing man's duty towards his God, and the second that which directly concerns his obligations to his neighbour; though, strictly speaking, he is bound alike to obey both from respect to that great Being, who is equally the Author of each. Moreover we are told, that God himself wrote them upon these two tables, and delivered them to the people. The reason why those com

g Heb. xii. 21; Exod. xx. 19.