The judgement of the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland 1. Of…

But touching the old Pentecost it is very considerable, that it is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the month, as all the rest of the feasts are: which is a very great presumption, that it was a moveable feast, and so ^cvaried, that it might always fall upon the day immediately following ⟨p. 81⟩the ordinary Sabbath. And if God so order the matter, that in the celebration of the feast of weeks the seventh should purposely be passed over, and that solemnity should be kept upon the first: what other thing may we imagine could be presignified thereby, but that under the State of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day? That on that day the famous Pentecost in the 2. of the Acts was observed, is in a manner generally acknowledged by all: wherein the truth of all those that went before being accomplished, we may observe the type and the verity, concurring together in a wonderful manner. At the time of the Passover Christ our Passover was slain for us: the whole Sabbath following ²he rested in the grave. The next day after that Sabbath, the [Greek or Hebrew], or sheaf of the first fruits of ³the first (or barley) Harvest was offered unto God; and Christ rose from the dead, and became the first ⟨p. 82⟩fruits of them that slept; many bodies ⁴of the Saints that slept, arising likewise after him. From thence was the count taken of the seven Sabbaths; and upon the more after the seventh Sabbath (which was our Lords day) was celebrated the feast of weeks, the day of the first fruits of the second (or wheat) Harvest: ⁵upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the first fruits of the spirit, begat three thousand Souls with the word of truth, and presented them as the first fruits of the Christian Church ⁶