474 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR. LXIL
but Moses despiseth the greatest enjoyments for communion with God and his people in an afflicted estate.
2. His faith is commended for his courage and resolution, when he carried the people of God out of Egypt after the tenth plague, whether Pharaoh would or no ; he feared not the wrath of the king, nor the force of Egypt, that made a hot pursuit after him, for he looked up to him that was invisible ; that is, assured himself of a divine protection against all those discouragements. Certainly sound believers we can never be till we overcome the terrors of the world as well as the delights of sense.
3. The third instance and fruit of his faith is his piety and religion in observing the rite of the passover according to the command of God ; that you have in the text — ' Through faith he kept the pass- over,' &c.
In the words take notice —
1. Of his principle — By fcdtli.
2. The act of obedience — He kept the passover, and the sprinkling of the blood.
3. The end and benefit to be obtained thereby — Lest he that de- stroyed the first-horn shoidd touch them.
This verse is but an abridgment of the 12th of Exodus ; you cannot have a better comment upon it than that cha]iter ; yet a ])articular explication of the terms will not be amiss. Take we notice then —
1. Of his principle — 'By faith;' that is, either his belief of the promise of the delivering of the first-born of Israel from the destroying angel, tliat when the destroyer came to kill tlie first-born of Egypt, the first-born of Israel should be safe ; or else his faith in the Messiah.
2. His obedience, seen in a double act, keeping the passover and sprinkling the blood.
[1.] Kee]iing the passover; ireivoi'T]Ke to Trao-T^a— he made the passover. The word may relate either — (1.) To the primary insti- tution of this ordinance, and so the old English translation reads it, ' By faith Moses ordained the passover,' for made is often put for ordained : Mark iii. 14, * Christ ordained twelve, eTroirjae ScoBeKa ; ' it is the same word, he made twelve ; and Acts ii. 36, ' Avrov 6 Qeo^ eTToirjae, God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ ; ' that is, ordained him to be so and so. By faith Moses ordained it ; that is, as a prime instrument Moses delivered it as an ordinance of God to the people. (2.) It may relate to the observation and celebration of the passover ; thus we read it, and I think better, in our new translation, ' By faith Moses kept the pass- over.' So Mat. xxvi. 18, ' I will make the passover at thy house with my disciples ; ' Trotijao), we translate it keeio the passover, which I bring to show that it is a phrase usual in this matter. Moses' act is mentioned because the people kept it by his injunction and degree. It is just such an expression as is used of the next succeeding magis- trate to Moses : Joshua v. 2, ' Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time ; ' certainly not with his own hands, but he enjoined it and commanded it that it should be
VeR. 28.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 475
SO done : and so ' he kept the passover ; ' that is, he observed it in his own person, and caused all the people to observe it, being faithful in' declaring God's ordinance to them.
[2.] The second act of his obedience is, his sprinkling the blood. In the first passover this was enjoined, that when the paschal lamb was killed, the blood should be s]H-inkled upon the lintels and posts of the door, Exod. xii. 11-13, as a sign to the destroyer, and an assurance to the household, that he which slew the first-born in every house of the Egyptians, should pass over the houses of the Israelites, and destroy none of them. This right was only used the first time of celebrating the passover, because it was a sign of that particular deliverance, that then only was given ; afterward there was not the like occasion, and it had not only that present signification, but also it pre- signified, that Christ our paschal lamb is sacrificed for us, 1 Cor. V. 7. This blood must be sprinkled, not upon the threshold (for so apostates are said to tread under foot the blood of the Son of God), but upon the lintels of the door. His blood must be si^rinkled upon the door of our hearts, whose blood applied by the Spirit, and sprinkled by faitli upon our hearts, assures us of our deliverance from the destroying wrath of God, and the punishments of hell, and encouragetli us to pass on safely towards our heavenly Canaan, the place of our eternal rest. When this blood is sprinkled upon our hearts, not lightly set by, but highly prized and esteemed by us, it is a mark of preserva- tion,— we are freed from the destroying wrath of God that shall light upon the wicked, and all that tribulation and anguish that shall be their portion for ever ; and being sprinkled thereby from an evil conscience, we may cheerfully go on to serve the living God.