authors. We will therefore briefly run over these seven particulars. I. The appellation of the paflover. II. Its time. III. Its place. IV. Its minifters. V. Its guests. VI. Its rites. VII. Its mystery.

II. The name pafcha is Chaldee, as Philo juftly obfervs. In Hebrew it is called no, pefach, by the ancients phafe and phafec. The root лs, fignifies to passover. Jofephus renders it insgßáo: Philo daßargia. Juft as there were alfo facrifices called for paffage at Lacedemon, that is, for the happy progrefs of an expedition. But is thus called pafcha, because God, while he flew the first born of the Egyptians, paffed over the doors of the Ifraelites, on seeing the posts thereof sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, Exod. xii. 13. Thus Ifa. xxxi. 5. God delivers Jerufalem, by paffing over it, while he takes due vengeance on other people. But the term pafcha is of various acceptations, denoting: 1ft, The paffing over of the angel, who while he fmote the first-born of the Egyptians, paffed over the houses of the Ifraelites. 2dly, The lamb, which was flain in memory of this deliverance, Exod. xii. 21. "kill the paffover;" Luke xxii. 7. "then came the day of unleavened bread, when the paffover must be killed." 3dly, The facrifices then usually offered to God along with the lamb, Deut xvi. 2. "Thou

halt facrifice the paffover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd." 4thly, The festival days on which these things were folemnized, Luke xxii. 1. " now the feaft of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the paffover." Seeing Chrift our Lord fuffered at that time, hence fome of the ancients, who were not acquainted with Hebrew literature, derived the name pafcha from the Greek Tacxw, I fuffer.

III. The time is exprefsly fpecified, Lev. xxiii. 5. " in the fourteenth day of the first month, at even" (between the two evenings)" "is the Lord's paffover" Where obferve. (1.) The month. (2.) The day. (3.) The hour or time of the day. The month Abib is mentioned Exod. xiii. 4. elfewhere called Nisan, Neh. ii. 1. Eft. iii. 7. Abib fignifies 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 anfwers partly to our March, partly to our April, and ftanding corn neceffary for the fupport of life, are, according to Philo, beginning to ripen; and at that time the Ifraelites began to put the fickle to the standing corn, Deut. xvi. 9. and on the second day of the pafchal folemnity, they offered to God a handful of the first fruits. But why the fame month is in Chaldee called Nifan, is not so evident. A great man conjectures, it ought to be written Niffan,

as

as is done by Jofephus; or the dagefch ftruck out of the latter to be made by a long vowel; as ro, Nifin is often put for ro, Nifin that is ftandards. And thus the appellation Nisan is very properly taken from the warlike enfigns or ftandards, 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 Ergaruos and Agos, as by the Romans Martius Mars. But this month is called the first; namely, of the facred or ecclefiaftical 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 Tifri. 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 thee beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.'

IV. The day of this first month, fet a part for the paffover, 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 fun began to defcend, the other a little before the setting of the fun. Not only the Hebrews diftinguished their evenings in this manner, as may be seen in Buxtorf's' lexicon under the word ; but also fome of the Greeks, according to the testimony of Euftathius, ad lib. 17. Odyfs. " According to the ancients the evening is twofold: for, the late evening, according to them, is the latter part of the evening towards fun fet: the other the early evening, the first of the evening, following juft upon noon. See alfo Hefychius under the word Ain. Within the compafs therefore of that time, in which the fun begins to decline, and in which he fets, the paffover was to be flain and roafted, that it might be eaten on the beginning of the fifteenth day, which was at fun fet. Jofephus fays, that the Pafchal lambs were killed, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, that is, from three in the afternoon till five, Bell. Jud. lib. 7. c. 17.

Δείλη,

V. As to the place; the paffover was celebrated the first time in Egypt, Exod. xii. 21. then in the wildernefs of Sinai, Numb. ix. 5. And in Egypt, indeed, every one flew it in his own house, as there was no altar, no place fet apart for God there. But after the Exodus, none were allowed to kill the paffover any where, but in the place which God had chofen as is expressly enjoined, Deut. xvi. 5, 6. But that place was not Jerufalem only, after Solomon built the temple there, but also the very court of the temple where they ufually killed the other facrifices.

facrifices. For God placed his name, and caufed it to dwell not so much in the whole city, as in the temple. The Jews all agree in this: " they kill the paffover as they do other facrifices only in the court of the temple," fays Maimonides, lib. de Pasch. c. i. Sect. 3. And a very learned English author has fhewn, that this is confeffedly the opinion of the Karaites or fcripturarian doctors of the Jews.

VI. And the reafon is obvious: for every one knows, it was not allowed to kill the facrifices but in the court of the temple. But that the passover was a real facrifice, is evident from the following arguments. 1ft, Because the fcripture in exprefs words calls its na, facrifice, Exod. xii. 27. " it is the facrifice of Jehovah's paffover." Though this word, in other places, denotes any feast whatever, made up of flain animals, as Prov. xvii. 1. yet that it is here to be taken in its most common and facred fenfe, we gather from this; because the pafchal facrifice, was a type of that moft real facrifice of Christ, concerning which, Paul fays, 1 Cor. v. 7. "Chrift our paffover 00s is facrificed for us." Jofephus and Philo likewife every where call the pafchal lambs θυσίαι or θύματα, that is, according to the interpretation of Ruffinus, hoftia, facrifices. 2dly, Because the perfons, celebrating the paffover, are faid to "offer the offering to Jehovah," Numb. ix. 7. 13. 3dly, Because the blood of the pafchal lamb, as of a true facrifice, was offered to the Lord. Which may be gathered from the words of Mofes, Exod. xxiii. 18. " thou fhalt not offer the blood of my facrifice with leavened bread, neither fhall the fat of my facrifice remain until the morning" of my facrifice, that is, of my paffover, as even Onkelos has it the blood of my facrifice, and Jonathan, the blood of the libation of my paffover. Add a parallel paffage, Exod. xxxiv. 25. "thou shalt not offer the blood of my facrifice with leaven, neither fhall the facrifice of the feast of pallover, be left unto the morning." 4thly, Because the blood of the pafchal lamb was fprinkled as well as the blood of the other facrifices. In 2 Chron. xxx. 16. speaking of the paffover, it is faid, that the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received from the hands of the Levites: alfo chap. xxxv. 11. "and they killed the paffover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands." And none is ignorant, that this belongs to a facrifice. Maimonides observes well on this occafion, that the sprinkling is of great importance, as being the foundation of the offering. And Peter alluding to this, fays, that we are elected, “unto fprinkling of the blood of Jefus Chrift," 1 Pet. i. 2. As therefore we have a more clear reprefentation of the facrifice of Chrift in the paffover, befides fo many arguments, it is plain,

we

we are by all means to affert, that the paffover was a true facrifice. And if fo, it could not be properly killed any where, but in the court of the temple.

VII. The straitness of time and place is in vain objected; as if it was not poffible, within the compafs of the two evenings, to prefent and offer at one altar, fo many thoufand lambs. Concerning the prodigious number of thefe, fee an extraordinary history or fable in Lightfoot on John xii. 12. For, that the court of the temple was very extenfive appears from the twenty

two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep, which Solomon offered there at the dedication of the temple, 1 Kings viii. 63. and the facrifices without number offered by the reft of the people, 2 Chron. v. 6. moreover, there were very many and expeditious priests at leifure, for four hours, if circumftances fo required, to be employed in offering these lambs. And thofe very perfons, who tell us, there was such a prodi gious number of paschal lambs, at the fame time tell us, that the number could not be afcertained, but by the calculation made by the priests, who offered in the court.

VIII. The minifters here were (1.) The common people. (2.) The Levites. (3.) The priests. It belonged to the common people not only to bring the pafchal facrifices to the priests, but alfo, if they pleafed, to kill them. Which Philo, after the manner of orators, exaggerates, when he writes, lib. de decalogo: "that at the feaft of the paffover every one indifcriminately facrificed, the law granting, on one extraordinary day once a year, the office of priest to the whole people, to offer facrifices for themfelves." God himself feems to have granted that privilege to all the people, Exod. xii. 6. " and the whole affembly of the congregation of Ifrael fhall kill it." Nor was this peculiar to the paffover, as Philo speaks, but allowed to the common people in the cafe of any other facrifice, namely, to kill the facrifices, even the most holy, whether for themfelves, for private perfons, or for the whole congregation; as Maimonides has more accurately obferved than Philo, de Ingrefs. Sacred. in Sanct. c. 9. §. 14. and the thing is clear from fcripture. See concerning the burnt-offering, Lev. i. 3, 4, 5. concerning the peace-offering, Lev. iii. 2. and concerning the fin-offering, Lev. iv. 24.

IX. But when private perfons did not choose to kill the paffover, or were not allowed on account of uncleannefs, the Levites were fubftituted for this work, in their room, becaufe they were more fkilful and expeditious. We have an example, 2 Chron. xxx. 17. "for, there were many in the congregation that were not fanctified; therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the paffovers, for every one that was not clean,

to

to fanctify them unto the Lord." Similar to this is the paffage, Ezra vi. 20.

X. The business of the priests was to sprinkle at the altar the blood received from the common people or the Levites, as we have already fhewn from 2 Chron. xxx. 16. and xxxv. 11. They also alone burnt the fat on the altar, as the Jews constantly affert. Instead of all others let us only hear Maimonides, de pafcha, c. 1. §. 14. Who, after he had defcribed a long circle of priests around the altar, with basons of gold and silver, adds, when any of them had killed the paffover, the blood was received in a bafon by the next prieft, who was to deliver it to a fecond, and so on, till it came to the priest next the altar, who poured it out at once at the bottom of the altar, and returned the bafon empty, which he had received full. After the blood was poured out, as he fays elsewhere, v. 6. they ftrip the pas chal lamb of his skin, and opening his belly take out the fat on the inwards and burn it leisurely as in every facrifice. Which they might do during the whole night, till the morning dawn, Which is a further confirmation, that the paffover was a true facrifice.

XI. As to the guests; they were, in the first place, all true born Ifraelites, if they were not excluded by legal uncleannefs. For, Exod. xii. 6, 47. all the congregation of Ifrael is commanded to folemnize the paffover. And then the profelytes, who were circumcifed and became Jews, Et. viii. 17. whether they were bond-men born in the house, or bought with money, or mercenary, or inmates of the land of Canaan, fubject to no bondage; or in fine, those, whom they called profelytes of righteoufnefs, who upon being circumcifed alfo, had a right to eat the paffover, Exod. xii. 48. " And when a stranger fhall fojourn with thee, and will keep the paffover to Jehovah, let all his males be circumcifed, and then let him come near and keep it; and he fhall be as one that is born in the land: for, no uncircumcifed perfon fhall eat thereof.

XII. It is a queftion, whether women were likewife excluded by the fame law, that the uncircumcifed were; efpecially as the law commanded the males only to repair to the three feftivals, Exod. xxiii. 17. and xxxiv. 23. Deut. xvi. 16. It would feem, they were not. ift, Because women cannot be numbered among the uncircumcifed, nor accounted as fuch, for circumci Lion did not belong to them, but they were reckoned along with their circumcifed parents, or husbands. 2dly, Because all the congregation of Ifrael, as we have just fhewn, is commanded to celebrate the paffover. But the women make a part of this Congregation, Deut. xxix. 11. 3dly, That the women together VOL. II.

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