table to the state of the New Testament, are to be explained spiritually. 2. That though the uncircumcision of flesh and heart are distinct, yet they are both mystical. Surely uncircumcision mystically signifies any depraved disposition of man. Hence we read of uncircumcised lips, Exod. vi. 12. and cars, Jer. vi. 10. Acts vii. 51. Nay, any impurity, even of those fruits which God had forbid to be eaten, is called uncircumcision,* Lev. xix. 23. The uncircumcision therefore of the heart, in the mystical language of Ezekiel, signifies the impurity of the heart and inward affections; the uncircumcision of the flesh, the impurity of the outward actions, performed by the body, according to the distinction of Paul, 2 Cor. vii. 1. Both kinds of impurity are to be laid aside by him, who would be reckoned to belong to the communion of the people of God. Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? and who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, Psal. xxiv. 3, 4. But we are especially to take notice, that the discourse here is not concerning the Israelites, but concerning the strangers, who were to be admitted into the sanctuary. They certainly shall have their proper place in this new temple, Is. lvi. 6, 7. and not have reason to complain, Jehovah hath utterly sepa rated me from his people, ver. 3. But to impose upon them, in the latter days, the necessity of circumcision, from which they were free all the intermediate time, is, as has been shewn, diametrically opposite to the doctrine of the apostles.

*The words are, And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years, it shall be as uncircumcised unto you, it shall not be eaten of. The meaning in general is, it shall be unclean, and not to be eaten of, but cast away, and counted abominable, as the foreskins were,

THE

CHAP. IX.

Of the Passover.

HE whole doctrine of the passover has been learnedly and copiously, above what can well be expressed, unfolded by the very laborious Samuel Bochart, Hierozoic, lib. ii. c. 50. But because that most excellent and invaluable book is rarely to be found in the hands of the youth under our tuition, we have thought proper, in this chapter, to exhibit what he hath handled at large, in a compendious way: yet in such a manner, as to follow at times our own judgment, and now and then intersperse what observations we have made from other authors. We will therefore briefly run over these seven particulars. I. The appellation of the passover. II. Its time. III. Its place. IV. Its ministers. V. Its guests. VI. Its rites. VII. Its mystery.

II. The name Pascha is Chaldee, as Philo justly observes. In Hebrew it is called Pesach, by the ancients. Phase and Phasee. The root PASACH signifies to pass over. Josephus renders it HUPERBASIA: Philo, DIABATERIA. Just as there were also sacrifices called for passage at Lacedæmon, that is, for the happy progress of an expedition. But it is thus called, Pascha, be-· cause God, while he slew the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the doors of the Israelites, on seeing the posts thereof sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, Exod. xii. 13. Thus Is. xxxi. 5. God delivers Jerusalem, by passing over it, while he takes due vengeance on other people. But the term Pascha is of various acceptations, denoting, 1. The passing over of the angel, who, while he smote the first-born of the Egyptians,

passed over the houses of the Israelites. 2. The lamb, which was slain in memory of this deliverance, Exod. xii. 21. Kill the passover, Luke xxii. 7. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed. 3. The sacrifices then usually offered to God along with the lamb, Deut. xvi. 2. Thou shalt sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd. 4. The festival days, on which these things were solemnized, Luke xxii. 1. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the passover. Seeing Christ

our Lord suffered at that time, hence some of the ancients, who were not acquainted with Hebrew literature, derived the name Pascha from the Greek PASHO, I suffer.

III. The time is expressly specified, Lev. xxiii. 5. In the fourteenth day of the first month, at even (between the two evenings) is the Lord's passover. Where observe, 1. The month. 2. The day. 3. The hour or time of the day. The month, Abib, is mentioned Exod. xiii. 4. elsewhere called Nisan, Neh. ii. 1. Esth. iii. 7. Abib signifies in Hebrew an ear of corn, as yet fresh or green. Hence was the name of the month; because in those warmer countries, and especially in Judea, in that month, which answers partly to our March, partly to our April, the standing corn necessary for the support of life, is, according to Philo, beginning to ripen; and at that time the Israelites began to put the sickle to the standing corn, Deut. xvi. 9. and on the second day of the paschal solemnity, they offered to God a handful of the first-fruits. But why the same month is in Chaldee called Nisan, is not so evident. A great man conjectures, it ought to be written. Nissan, as is done by Josephus; or the dagesch struck out of the letter SAMECH, to be made up by a long vowel; as Nessin is often put for Nisin, that is, stand

ards. And thus the appellation Nisan is very properly taken from the warlike ensigns or standards, with which, in that month, they first took the field. And this very time the Jews understand to be intended, 2 Sam. xi. 1. And it came to pass, that after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle. For a like reason, the two former spring-months were called by the Bithynians STRATEIOS and AREIOS, as by the Romans MARTIUS, from Mars. But this month is called the first, namely, of the sacred or ecclesiastical year, from the exodus out of Egypt; being otherwise the seventh of the civil year, whose beginning was about autumn, and whose first month was called Tisri. And there was the express command of God for this, Exod. xii. 2. This month, namely Abib, compare Exod. xiii. 4. shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.

IV. The day of this first month set apart for the passover, was the fourteenth. The hours, or time of the day, was between the two evenings; the one of which was a little past noon, when the sun began to descend, the other a little before the setting of the sun. Not only the Hebrews distinguished their evenings in this manner, as may be seen in Buxtorf's lexicon under the word NGALAL; but also some of the Greeks, according to the testimony of Eustathius, ad lib. xvii. Odyss. According to the ancients the evening is twofold ; for the late evening, according to them, is the latter part of the evening towards sun-set, the other the early evening, the first of the evening, following just upon noon." See also Hesychius under the word DEILE. Within the compass therefore of that time, in which the sun begins to decline, and in which he sets, the passover was to be slam and roasted, that it might be eaten on the beginning of the fifteenth day, which was

at sun-set. Josephus says, that the paschal lambs were killed, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, that is, from three in the afternoon till five, Bell. Jud. lib. vii. c. 17.

V. As to the place; the passover was celebrated the first time in Egypt, Exod. xii. 21. then in the wilderness of Sinai, Numb. ix. 5. And in Egypt, indeed, every one slew it in his own house, as there was no altar, no place set apart for God there. But after the exodus none were allowed to kill the passover any where, but in the place which God had chosen; as is expressly enjoined, Deut. xvi. 5, 6. But that place was not Jerusalem only, after Solomon built the temple there, but also the very court of the temple, where they usually killed the other sacrifices. For God placed his name, and caused it to dwell not so much in the whole city, as in the temple. The Jews all agree in this: They kill the passover as they do other sacrifices, only in the court of the temple, says Maimonides, lib. de Pasch. c. 1. sect. 3. And a very learned English author has shewn, that this is confessedly the opinion of the Karaites, or scripturarian doctors of the Jews.

VI. And the reason is obvious: for every one knows, it was not allowed to kill the sacrifices but in the court of the temple. But that the passover was a real sacrifice, is evident from the following arguments. 1. Because the scripture in express words calls its sacrifice, Exod. xii. 27. It is the sacrifice of Jehovah's passover. Though this word in other places, denotes any feast whatever, made up of slain animals, as Prov. xvii. 1. yet that it is here to be taken in its most common and sacred sense, we gather from this; because the paschal sacrifice was a type of that most real sacrifice of Christ, concerning which Paul says, 1 Cor. v. 7. Christ our VOL. III. V