460 STATE AND ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH [EXERC. XIX.
it was M31, “a sacrifice,” Exod. xii. 27; and 47, “a feast,” verse 14;— a sacrifice, from the slaying and offering of the lamb, which was done afterwards for the people by the Levites; and a feast, from the joy and remission of labour wherewith the annexed solemnities were to be observed. The matter of it was 1’, “seeh,” verse 3; that is, a young lamb or kid, a male without blemish, for either might be used in this service, verse 5. The manner of the service was—(1.) In the preparation, the lamb or kid was to be taken into custody on the tenth day of the month, and kept therein four days, verse 6; which, as the Jews say, was partly that they might discern perfectly whether it had any blemish or no, partly that they might by the sight of the lamb be minded of their duty and the mercy of their deliver- ance. Indeed, it was that it might prefigure the imprisonment of the Lamb of God, Isa. liii. 7, 8, who took away the sins of the world. This [part of the] preparation, the Jews say, was temporary, and ob- served only at the first institution of the ordinance in Egypt; and that partly lest, in their haste, they should not otherwise have been able to prepare their lambs. So also was the sprinkling of the blood on the posts of the doors of their dwelling-houses with hyssop, Exod. xl. 7; which could not be afterwards observed, when, by God’s institu- tion, the whole congregation were to celebrate it in one place. And it had respect unto their present deliverance from the destroying angel, verses 12, 13. In like manner was their eating it, with their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands, verse 11, that they might be in a readiness for their immediate departure ; which was not afterwards observed by our Lord Jesus Christ nor any of the church, for these signs ceased with the present occasions of them. (2.) This lamb was to be provided for each household, verses 3, 4; which was the third distribution of that people, the first being into tribes, and the second into families, from the twelve patriarchs and their immediate sons, Josh. vii. 16-18. But because there was an allowance to make their company proportionable unto their provi- sion of a lamb, joining or separating households, Exod. xii. 4, they ate it afterwards in societies or fraternities, as our Saviour had twelve with him at the eating of it; and the Jews require ten at least in society unto this celebration. Whence the Targum expressly on this place, Exod. xii. 4, “If the men of the house be fewer than the number of ten;” for this was a sacred number with them. They circumcise not, marry not, divorce not, unless ten be present. Thence is their saying in Pirke Aboth, ‘‘ Where ten sit and learn the law, the divine presence resteth on them,” as Ps. lxxxii. 1. (3.) The lamb being pro- vided was to be killed; and it was directed that the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel should kill it, Exod. xii. 6,—that is, every — one for himself and family. But after the giving of the law and the — erection of a priesthood in the church, this work, as it was a sacri-
SECT. 17, 18.] BEFORE THE GIVING OF THE LAW. 461
fice, was left unto the priests, 2 Chron. xxxv. 1-6. (4.) The place where it was to be killed was at first in their several houses, or wherever the assembly of the people was; but this afterwards was forbidden, and the sacrifice of the passover confined expressly to the place where the tabernacle and temple were to be, and not elsewhere, Deut. xvi. 5—7. (5.) The preparation of the whole lamb for eating was by roasting it, Exod. xii. 8,9; and that was done with bread unleavened, and bitterness, or bitter herbs, verse 8. And it was all to be eaten that night. What remained until the morning was to be burned in the fire, as a thing dedicated and not to be polluted. The Jews have many traditions about the manner of eating and drinking at this supper, of the cups they drank and blessed, of the cakes they brake, of their washings, and the like: which as they have all of them been discussed by others at large, so I shall not labour about them, as being satisfied that they are most, if not all of them, inventions of the rabbins since the destruction of the second temple; and many of them taken up from what they observed to be in use among Christians, or were led into by such as from the profession of Chris- tianity apostatized unto them,—which were no small multitude.
17. Unto this observation of the passover was adjoined the feast of unleayened bread, which was to begin the next day after the eat- ing of the lamb,—that is, on the fifteenth day of the first month ; for whereas the paschal lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread on the fourteenth, it was a peculiar ceremony of that ordinance, and belonged not unto the ensuing feast, verses 15, 16. And in this feast there are considerable,—(1.) The total exclusion of all leaven out of their houses: (2.) The time of its continuance, which was seven days: (3.) The double extraordinary Sabbath wherewith it was begun and ended; for on the first day and last day of the seven there was to be a solemn and holy convocation unto the Lord, to be observed in a cessation from all labour and in holy duties. And here also it were lost labour to reckon up the cautions, rules, and instructions, - which the Jewish doctors give, about the nature, kinds, and sorts of leaven, of the search that was to be made for it, and the like; most of them being vain imaginations of superstitious minds, ignorant of the truth of God.