instead of the multitudes of gods that are now worshipped, " there shall be but one Lord, and his name one3."
By the Mosaic law there were appointed three great feasts, for the observance of which all the males in Israel were to go up to Jerusalem: these were the feast of the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles; and they were all partly commemorative, and partly predictive. The Passover referred to the deliverance of the Hebrew first-born through the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb, when the Egyptian first-born were slain: the Pentecost reminded them of the giving of the law from Mount Sinai: and the feast of Tabernacles brought to their remembrance their dwelling in tents for forty years in the wilderness. The event predicted by the Passover was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of the whole world b; and that predicted by the Pentecost was the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit upon the fiftieth day after the deliverance by Christ's death should have been effected, and the writing of God's law by him upon our hearts0. But now comes the difficulty : What was the event predicted by the feast of Tabernacles? Commentators have mentioned two ; namely, the incarnation of our blessed Lord, and the state in which all his people should live in this dreary wilderness. For the former of these, there appears some foundation in Scripture : for our blessed Lord's advent was, in all probability, at that season of the year, the autumn ; and not, as we generally imagine, in the winter: and the expression whereby his incarnation is designated by St. John seems to have a special reference to this feast: " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) amongst usd." And this being so wonderful an event, and withal so accordant with the other two, it may well be supposed that the expectation of it should be kept up by a particular feast instituted for that express pur- pose. But then there arises a great difficulty: Why should this be so particularly, and so exclusively, celebrated in the latter day? Why should such heavy judgments be denounced against those who should omit to celebrate this, whilst yet no notice at all is taken of the other two ? This necessitates one to look for some other event, which is of sufficient importance to justify the appointment of a feast, and which demands that peculiar honour which is here exclusively reserved for it. As for the state in which all are to live under the Christian dis- pensation, there is nothing at all mysterious in that, nothing that calls for such a typical prefiguration, and nothing that is peculiarly appropriate to the latter-day. We therefore dismiss that altogether from our thoughts, as far as the prediction is concerned.
a ver. 9. b 1 Cor. v. 7. c Acts ii. I — 4. d iaKririaaev.