tonement once in a Year: So Deut. xv. 20, to cat their Firftlings, &c. before Jehovah, Year by Year: So Neh. x. 32, cach was to pay a Third of a Shekel yearly, to facred Ufes. Deut. xxiv. 5, A new-marry'd Man was free from Services for a Year: So the Years of Sabbath, of Jubilee, &c. were inftituted. In Allufion, Ifai. Ixi. 2, To proclaim the acceptable Year of Jehovah. Ib. lxiii. 4, And the Tear of my redeemed is come: So general Claims, The Eyes of Jehovah thy Aleim are always upon it, from the Beginning of the Year, unto the End thereof. Pfal. lxv. 11, Thou crowneft the Tear with thy Goodness, ana thy Paths drop Fatnefs: So under many other like Words. The 'n Effenes, a Sect of the Chaldee Jews, feem to have taken their Name from this. בית החרף M Ention'd above, Amos iii. 15; the Word is us'd for that Part of the Year we call Winter, when the Earth is tripp'd here of all its Ornaments, prepa red by Rain, Snow, Froft, Cultivation, Seed, &c, for the next Crop: And so here the Giver of Winter. This was in the firft Commiffion of the Spirit, and the Fluxes of Light, Gen. i. 2, And the Spirit of the Aleim was the Inftrument of Impulse. Ver. 14, And let them be for Signs and for Seafons, and for Days, and for Tears. Renew'd Gen. viii. 22, While the Earth remaineth, Seed-Time and Harveft, and Cold and Heat, and Summer and Winter, and Day and Night, fhall not ceafe. General Claims, Pfal. Ixxiv. 17, Thou didst fet all the Borders of the Earth, the Summer and the Winter, thou didft make them. Punishments, Threatnings, &c. Ifai. xviii. 6, And the Fowls fhall fummer upon them, and all the Beafts of the Earth shall winter upon them, One was named from this, Neh. vii. 25. בית הקיץ M Ention'd alfo Amos iii. 15: The Word is us'd for that Part of the Year we call Summer, when the Earth brings forth, and ripens the Fruits: And fo here the Giver of Summer. The laft and this are join'd, Gen. i. 14; Ib. viii. 22. Pfal. Ixxiv. 17. Ifa. xviii. 6: So Ifa. xvi. 9, For the Shouting for thy SummerFruits, and for thy Harvest, is fall'n, Jer. Jer. viii. 20, The Harvest is past; the Summer is ended, and we are not faved. Ib. xlviii. 32, The Spoiler is fallen upon thy Summer-Fruits, and upon thy Vintage. One was nam'd by this, 1 Chron. iv. 8. to this Class refers that Expoftulation of St. Paul, Gal. iv. particularly, ver. 8, Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did Service unto them which, by Nature, are no Gods: But now, after ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements, whereunto ye defire again to be in Bondage? Te obferve Days and Months, and Times and Tears, &c. בית נמרח Ention'd Numb. xxxii. 36. from ME It exprefies the A : מרה or מיר gent or Power which changes, Whether this was of its felf, or of other Things; whether 'tis general, or it refers to fome Particular, is not eafy now to determine. If it be alfo paffive, that which changes, or is changed by its felf; the Parts of this Agent, which changes other Things, is alternately chang'd its felf: That which is Light, becomes Spirit; that which is Spirit becomes Fire; and that which is Fire, becomes Light. The Pofition of the Planets and the Earth, with respect to each other; to the known fix'd Stars, &c. The Face of the Moon, with refpect to the Sun and the Earth, are continually changing: So changes Day and Night, Seasons of the Year, of the Weather, ftormy, calm, wet, dry, cold, hot, &c. which changes the Appearances in the Firmament, or Circumference in Degrees of Light or Darkness; in the Colours of the Heavens in the Clouds, or the Colours of them. This is reclaim'd in other Words, Mal. iii. 6, I am Jehovah I change not; therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not confum'd. Pf. cii. 25, And the Names are the Work of thy Hands; they shall perish, but thou shalt endure: Tea, all of them fall wax old, like a Garment: As a Vesture shalt thou change them, and they "fhall be changed: But thou art the fame, and thy Tears hall have no End. 1Epift. of James i. 17, With whom is no Variableness, neither Shadow of Turning. And they are charg'd with having changeable Aleim, Jud. v. 8, They chofe new Ałęim, then was War in the Gates. If confider'd as acting upon other Things, it changes the Compofition and Appearance ! of of Adamah, vegetable Mould, into Sap, vegetable Juices, and thence into the fe veral Parts of the Stems, Branches, Fruits, &c. of Vegetables; and fome Parts of them into the Fluids and Bodies of Animals; and the Parts of many Species of each of them into the Bodies of Men ; and changes all thefe Forms, and that of Man, for confiding in them, into their original Duft, The ftupid Notions of Tranfmigration, Metamorphofis, and fuch Stuff, were not in thefe Times dreamt of. Indeed, mistaking what the Antients meant by this Deity, might lead the later Hea then into thofe Notions, The natural Changes are reclaim'd by this Word, Job, Xxxvi. 22, Who can change like him. PL. xlvi. 3, We will not fear when the Earth is changed. & al. where, between God and Man, this Word is tranflated Rebellion. The Changes in the Names themselves, or in their Appearances, diminish not their Services to Man; but all are for his Benefit Yet as the Heathens had no Revelation, nor other Pretence of knowing Things to come; or whether their Deities were pleas'd or difpleas'd with their Actions or Undertakings; but by those who pretended to obferve the Changes in the Heavens, of which they had Abundance, call'd by feveral |