The prin

supply met the wants of the people just for this time, so as
to hinder their labouring at all, either in the Sabbatical year
or the Jubilee; how, in other words, the land kept its Sab-
bath from the opening of the seventh or forty ninth, to the
middle of the eighth year, when the Jubilee ended.* How
comforting this to our hearts! All this, it is true, belonged
to Israel of old; but the blessing linked with this beautiful
ordinance does not therefore the less belong to the people
of God in this dispensation, seeing that we are kept and
sustained by the hand of Him who provided for them, and
which, we may rest fully assured, will supply the need of
his church while she is travelling on through the wilderness.
But here we have something far brighter and happier still
than the wilderness, namely, the sabbath. And it has struck
me that perhaps these three years which we find thus sup-
plied in this extraordinary way, may have somewhat of a
dispensational aspect. What I mean by this observation is
this—The sixth year, the last year of labour, may perhaps have
been designed to set forth the present age of man's history
previous to the setting up of the kingdom, while the Seventh
year foreshadowed the age of the kingdom itself; and lastly, the
eighth year (like the eighth day of the great feast of Tabernacles
or ingathering) may have been a type of "THE END," when
Christ will give up the kingdom, and God will be all in all.

And now to return from this little digression, to speak of ciple of re- what I have touched on before, namely, REDEMPTION-God's

demption

shown in the object and purpose in all his dealings with man.

Jubilee.

The children

of Israel were forbidden to sell their lands for a longer space
than forty-nine years; within that time they might buy and
sell as they chose and if an estate had been sold, the owner
thereof might redeem it; or, if he were too poor, his nearest of

* Figure 2 of the above-named DIAGRAM shows the whole order of time, both
civil and sacred, in connexion with the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee; and how
the latter, though in itself a sacred year, it is true, followed the order and in the
train of the civil years.

As to Civil and Ecclesiastical order of time, we may gather the following moral from thence "When Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year unto you." (Exodus xii. 2.) Thus the whole order of time in connexion with Israel was changed, seeing that that which had originally been the seventh month, was now changed unto the first; and in this we may discern a parable, because the seventh month, like the Sabbath, showed forth the

=

SACRED ORDER OF MONTHS.

kin was allowed to purchase it for him. But in the fiftieth year, namely, the Jubilee, the Lord himself acted the part of the kinsman to such, and without their paying money or price, their lands came back to them free. A beautiful type, as I have said, of redemption through Christ, of the acceptable year of the Lord foretold by Isaiah the prophet, as we read, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the rest of creation; the rest of man, yet unfallen; while the fourth month, like the first day of the week, expressed resurrection. Now, the former of these having vanished, when man departed from God, and there being no true hope of blessing, save through the latter-through death and resurrection, the Lord, in this figure, shows the one displaced by the other. The first Sabbath of Eden, profaned and lost as it was, by the sin of the creature, making way for that rest, which he who suffered and rose from the dead on the first day of the week, has secured to his people." See note by the Author, in his CHART on the Feasts of the Lord.

The following Table is given with a view to illustrate the change made in the order of time on the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and at the same time to show the distinction between civil and ecclesiastical months.

1-Ethanim, or Tizri

2-Bul or Marchesvan

3-Chisleu

4-Tebeth

5-Thebet

6-Adar

7-Abib or Nisan "the beginning of months." (Exod. xii. 2; xii.

8-Zif or Yar (1 Kings vi. 1.)

9-Sivan (Esther viii. 9.)

-10-Thammuz

-11-Ab

[ 4. Neh. ii. 1 Esther iii. 7)

1-Ethanim or Tizri (1 Kings viii. 2.)

2-Bul or Marchesvan (1 Kings vi. 38.)
3-Chisleu (Zech. vii. 1.)

4-Tebeth (Esther ii. 16.)

5-Sebat (Zech. i. 7.)

6-Adar (Ezra vi. 15. Esther iii. 7.)
7-Abib or Nisan

8-Zif or Yar
9-Sivan
10-Thammuz
12-Ab
13-Elul.

opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Isa. lxi. i. 2. From all this we gather that the redemption of Israel is that to which the year of Jubilee points. But while this is the case, I feel well assured The union that not Israel only but the CHURCH OF GOD, in like manner, of heaven (more faintly foreshown I allow) holds its place in the scene; of time and and most suitably so, because this being the most full type in eternity ex- Scripture of the times of refreshing, we might be prepared to the Jubilee. find it foreshadowing the whole of God's purpose; namely, that

and earth,

pressed by

which concerned the glorified Church, as well as that with regard
to the redeemed nation of Israel, together with the rest of the
world. But before I speak further of this, in order to explain
what I mean, I must again refer to the Chapter before us
(Levit. xxv.), and show how the year of Jubilee was produced,
and in what relation it stood with regard to the Levitical order
of time, because in this there is something altogether peculiar.
Seven times seven, or forty-nine years, we there see, was the
interval between every Jubilee, which as we find was termed,
THE FIFTIETH YEAR.* But how was it so? Did it follow the
forty-ninth year? No, it did not.
No, it did not. But beginning on the tenth
day of the seventh month of this forty-ninth, or seventh Sabbatical
year, it continued till the same month of the following, which
(keeping still to the Mosaic order of time) was in reality the
fiftieth year. Thus it came in as a link, so to speak, between
these two years, taking in the last half of the one, and the first
half of the other-thus embracing, in other words, the seventh
year and the first, that is, the forty-ninth, or seventh Sabbatical
year, and the first year of a new week. Now in all this, as I
before said, the twofold state of the true year of Jubilee opens
upon us; here we discern in a figure the union of heaven and
earth, of Israel and the Church in the kingdom, as I shall now
endeavour to show. The Millennium, foreshown by the Sabbath,
will be the seventh of the world, during which the Jews, with
the nations outside, even the worshipping Gentiles, will dwell in
their different lands under the peaceful sceptre of Christ, the
true Son of David; while the Church in the heavens, having
passed into eternity, and therefore no longer in time, like those
upon earth, will share universal dominion with Christ, her

* The reader is here referred to the foregoing DIAGRAM, which shows that the Year of Jubilee was truly the FIFTIETH year, according to original civil order of

time.

glorified Head. Thus the joy will be twofold-then time and eternity thus will unite. Then the bride, the Lamb's wife, and the elect upon earth, will join in adoring the Lamb, in singing the song of redemption. And now as to the type of the foregoing state, which, I believe, is to be found in the Jubilee, it is as follows: The Sabbath, (whether the seventh year, or the seventh day of the week,) was the pledge of Israel's rest; while on the first day of the week, or the eighth day, as it is otherwise styled, the Church, at the resurrection of Christ, was called into being. Here then, (in principle agreeing with this,) THE SEVENTH YEAR, AND THE FIRST,—the one, as I have said, being expressive of TIME, the other of that which passes beyond it, namely, ETERNITY-mingle together, so as to form the Jubilee, and to foreshadow the day when the children of the resurrection, like the angels of old, as seen in vision by the patriarch Jacob passing upwards and downwards, to and fro, on the mystical ladder, will ascend and descend in their ministration of blessing to the dwellers on earth. Such is the blessed condition of things, which, to apply the words of the poet, we might term "the bridal of the earth and sky," which the above-named conjunction between the seventh year and the first, seems designed to set forth.

The decreasing value of land

to the Jubi

Then there is another point. From the 14th to the 17th verse of this chapter, we find that the value of land varied according as the Jubilee was distant or near. All dealings of in reference this kind in Israel had especial reference to the great year of lee. redemption, and were regulated thereby. For instance, a high price comparatively was put on an estate sold to another immediately after the jubilee, because it was worth more to him then than if he had bought it at a subsequent period, inasmuch as he was entitled to hold and enjoy it for forty-nine years, namely, till the following jubilee, but not longer, because then it returned to its real proprietor. Whereas the same estate forty years after the jubilee, compared with the above, was worth little, because in this case, after nine years, the true owner could claim it again. Hence, as an unavoidable consequence, not only every year did land thus disposed of, diminish in value, but it did so in the thoughts of its temporal owner. Less and less, as the time glided on, and the jubilee drew nigh, could he view his possessions as really his; while, on the other hand, the true

S

Question as

to when the

heir, in proportion as year after year rolled away, and he realised the fact that he was about to enter again upon that which he had originally received from the hand of the Lord, would view his vineyards and fields with secret delight. Here then the hope, the bright and blessed hope of the saint, on the one hand, is in figure set forth; and, on the other, his deadness in spirit to the world,-in this way, just in proportion as we apprehend the coming of Christ to be distant or near, shall we value the world. Let us realise the day to be distant, and we shall half forget what we are in God's sight; the things of time and sense will rise in our estimation, and we shall in measure look for rest upon earth. Whereas let us believe that at any moment we may hear the sound of the trumpet, and rise to meet the Lord in the air, then we shall surely sit loose to it all, and set a low price on every thing around us.

And here, though in a subject like this, which so blessedly Sabbatical speaks of nothing but grace on the part of the Lord, it is painful year began, to leave it, in order to differ from others, I feel it is needful to do so, in order to notice what I believe to be an error which has passed current for years with regard to this subject. The common notion I find with regard to the Sabbatical year, is that it followed the civil, and not the sacred or ecclesiastical order at all, beginning with the seventh month, Tizri, in the autumn of the SIXTH YEAR, after the harvest and fruits of that year had been gathered in, there being, according to this, no sowing at all at the usual time, namely, in the ninth month of this sixth year, seeing that this would have interfered with the rest of the Sabbath.

Now if this be the case, then the Lord's command to the Jews, "Six years thou shalt sow," could not be obeyed; that is, not at this time, when the Sabbatical year occurred in connection with the year of Jubilee, at the close of every forty-ninth year. On this occasion, following the above rule, there would be only five, instead of six years of sowing, between two Sabbatical years; a result altogether at variance with the express command of the Lord on this point. This conclusion I have reached through a certain process of reasoning, which I wish to make clear. Here, therefore, as a help to a better understanding thereof, I refer my reader to the annexed DIAGRAMS, expressing the two opposite views of this question. As to Figure 1, this shows the Sabbatical year, according, as I believe, to the word;