this thing for an ordinance, to thee, and to thy sons forever. And the end of making it a perpetual ordinance, is expressed at the 26th and 27th verses. And it shall

come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean you by this service? That ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children af Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.

In compliance with these commands, their method of holding the passover (as the Jewish writers relate it) was thus: after the master of the house had taken the bitter herbs, and eat of them himself, and distributed to the rest, he related the history of the miseries of their forefathers in Egypt; which being ended, he took unleavened cakes, and having blessed them, eat and distributed them, saying, This is the bread of affliction which our forefathers did eat in Egypt. Then he also distributed the Lamb, which was followed by a cup of Wine, first blessed, and then distributed; in like manner as their other festival entertainments were usually ended. And the whole service was concluded with a hymn of praise and

thanksgiving, namely the cxiiith and the

cxivth Psalms.

In this short account of the Jewish passover, we see a solemn ordinance instituted by GoD, in commemoration of the greatest deliverance that he ever vouchsafed to that people; with a command to them and their posterity to continue the observance of it, as long as they should continue a nation. And we see the blood of the lamb, as a sign and token of GOD'S having taken them into his protection; that they being thus eminently delivered, and preserved the memory of that deliverance to all generations, might ever continue to be his people, as he had shewn himself to be their GOD. Likewise, we see God establishing the token of a peculiar covenant with the seed of Jacob, (from whom the Messiah, the great blessing promised to Abraham, was to come) over and above the covenant of circumcision, which was common to the whole seed of Abraham. For it was this deliv. erance, and the memorial of it, which shewed them that they were the people mentioned by GoD, when he made the covenant with Abraham whose seed were to be afflicted in a strange land, and after

that to be delivered, and put in possession of the land of Canaan. And this deliverance was as it were the beginning of that covenant, into which GOD entered with them in a more solemn manner at Mount Sinai; where after the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, Ex. xxiv. 5. Moses the mediator of that covenant be tween God and the people, took the book of the covenant, which began with a memorial of this great deliverance, I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and contained in it all that was required on God's part. Having read it in the audience of the people, and receiv ed a solemn declaration and promise of obedience on their part,(All that the Lord hath said, will we do, and be obedient) he then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. And if we look back to the elder times before Moses, we shall find it a very early practice, not only to worship GoD by sacrifices, but also to make and ratify covenants by blood.

The forego ing account of the passover, applied to the institution of the Lord's sup

per.

In the foregoing account of the institution of the passover, and of the covenant which GOD entered into with the Israelites, we see plainly, that all this was a type and figure of our saviour CHRIST, and of the far greater deliverance from the slavery of sin and Satan, which he wrought for mankind by his own blood; taking their guilt upon himself, and receiving them into his protection, and affording them constant supplies of spirit. ual strength, and at last conducting them to their heavenly rest; of all which, the passover, and the receiving Manna from Heaven, and water out of the rock, and GOD's conducting them to Canaan their earthly rest, were only types and figures, and are so declared to be in the NewTestament; particularly, in allusion to the passover, CHRIST is called John i. The Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. And we are said, I Pet. i. 19. to be redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as a Lamb without blemish and without spot. And CHRIST is styled Rev. v. 19. the Lamb that was slain, and that redeemed us to God by his blood. Which redemption

29.

was not only wrote for us by CHRIST, at the time of the Jewish passover, but the memorial of it, which he then

Mark xiv. 23.

Luke xxiii. 19. 1 Cor. xi. 23.

Mat. xxvi. 26. instituted, was the very bread and wine which were ordinarily used and blessed in the celebration of the passover: only, they were consecrated by him to be memorials of a far greater deliverance and bles sing, the bread, and the distribution of it, to represent his body broken; and the wine, as distinct from it to represent his blood shed; for the deliverance of man. kind from the dominion of Satán. As for the Lamb, himself was now to be slain in the stead of it; and as for the Hymn which our Saviour and his disciples sung on that occasion, it was probably the very same Hymn of blessing and Thanksgiving,that the Jews usually sung after their passover. In allusion whereunto, and to the cup of blessing, which among the Jews did immediately precede the concluding Hymn, St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 16. calls the cup in the communion, the cup of blessing; and blessing in the language of Holy Scripture, being the same with praising and giving of thanks, the whole office of the communion was