the feast of unleavened bread, as a remembrance of the deliverance of his church from Egypt, was sanctified by the Son of God in the use of the ordinance of his supper, to be a remembrance and a memorial of his death, and of our eternal redemption thereby, out of the hands and bondage of sin, the world, satan, death, and hell. For which we have far greater cause to extol Jesus, and make his praise glorious, than the Israelites had for their temporal deliverance, though that was indeed typical of the glorious redemption of the whole church by the most precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

The learned man from whom I quoted an account of the manner of the administration of the jewish passover, observes, "That there are seven famous passovers recorded in scripture: the first, is this before us, instituted and commanded by the Lord, and kept by the Israelites in Egypt, immediately before their going out from it. The, second was kept the following year by them, in the wilderness of Sinai. See Numb. ix. The third, was kept by Joshua and the people of Israel on their entrance into the land of Canaan. The fourth, was in the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah. The fifth, in the reign of Josiah. The sixth, on the return of the jews from Babylon. Ezra vi. The seventh, that which

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our Lord so earnestly desired, and which he ate with his disciples, just before his sufferings and death."

To all said respecting the paschal lamb's being typical of Christ, I would add, that Joshua, and the Israelites under his command, passed through Jordan on the fourteenth day of Nisan, or Abib, the very day the paschal lamb was to be separated from the fold, and set apart for sacred use; and our Lord Jesus Christ entered most triumphantly into the city of Jerusalem on the fourteenth day of Nisan, four days before his passion; and having, at the ensuing solemnity, observed this institution, and kept the feast of the passover with his disciples, he suffered at that festival, as the very paschal Lamb of God. The time, manner, and all the circumstances related by the evangelists, concerning his passion, fully prove him to be the true antitypical paschal lamb: and Paul affirms it, when he says, " Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us." 1 Cor. v. 7. I

am,

Thirdly, To shew what took place in Egypt, whilst the Israelites were attending to the observance of this institution, that it deserves remembrance; because the Lord's arm was so illustriously displayed on the behalf of his people, and against their enemies.

Moses, who was faithful in God's house, the church, gave an exact account of the command

he received from the Lord concerning this ordinance of the passover, to the people. They most readily complied with the Lord's will, and observed it. Their lintels and doors were sprinkled with the blood, which was the token of safety, on the sight of which the Lord would pass over their houses, and not suffer any death or destruction to come near them. Each family had their paschal lamb. They saw in it Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose blood was their propitiation, peace, and protection. In the roasted lamb Messiah's sorrows and sufferings, pains and griefs, were represented. Here was the means of their deliverance before their eyes; they could, therefore, sing the Lord's song, were in no danger or fear, quite ready to march out of the land, waiting in faith for their deliverance, which accordingly was most gloriously and tremendously effected by Jehovah; whilst they were thus employed, "It came to pass at midnight, the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, that sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.” A most righteous retaliation of the edict which had been issued concerning the death of all the male children of Israel at their

birth; so that it might at this time be truly said, "The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth." No words can express, or thoughts conceive, the terrors which must invade the minds, and the sorrows which were experienced in Egypt at this most awful event, which was more severe than all the former plagues. They had been great, but there was a gradation in them, which we may well here remark, as they were expressive of the mercy and justice of God. The four first of which were more loathsome than fatal; the waters turned into blood, the frogs, the lice, the mixed swarm, these judg ments were more offensive than fatal; next after them came the murrain upon the cattle; then the boils and blains, which reached man and beast, yet still life was preserved; then followed the hail and locusts, which extended, in a measure, even to life itself, by destroying the fruits of the ground; upon this followed the darkness, which must add consternation to their minds, and it seems by a passage in the 78th Psalm, 49th verse, as though they were also visited with frightful words; the words are, "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them." Yet the death of the first-born, which reached every family, must be the most severe, and it touched them to the very quick. This made way for them to let the Israelites go forth out of

the land; and on the twenty-first day of this month, the incorrigible tyrant, Pharaoh, and all his host, were overwhelmed in the sea; when as also at this time, the Israelites might well sing, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty! just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints!" It is not improbable when this stroke was given by the destroying angel, a noise might be heard, as an evidence to the Israelites, that the Lord had executed his judgment on the Egyptians. The Lord's arm was made bare and most gloriously displayed on the behalf of his church, and against the enemies of it, so that it well deserved to be had by them in everlasting remembrance; and that it might, the Lord commanded the yearly observance of the passover, which, as it was to be observed on the very night the Lord thus wrought for them, Moses might well say, as he does in the words of our text, "It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt; this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations." It was to be much and carefully observed as the night of their redemption; a spiritual review of which would fit them to keep the ordinance of the Lord's passover with gratitude and joy and the sorrows, agony, bloody sweat, strong crying, and tears of Jesus, and with which he poured out his soul in the garden, and on the cross in the day