[The whole account is given us in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. A lamb was to be killed by every family of the Hebrews. Its blood was to be poured forth into a bason, and to be sprinkled with hyssop upon the lintel and the side-posts of their doors ; (not upon the threshold ; for that sacred blood was not to be trampled on by any :) and the flesh of the lamb was to be eaten, (not raw, or sodden, but roast with fire,) with bitter herbs, and with certain forms, which it is not to our present purpose to specify. The blood so sprinkled was to serve to them as a pledge of their security, and to the angel as a token that he was to pass over that house which was so protected. And in remembrance of this deliverance, the ordi- nance so instituted was ever after to be called the Passover.]
These means Moses used in faith — [He gave the necessary directions to the Jewish people, who instantly carried them into effect. In this both Moses and the people shewed the power of faith. Moses doubted not but that in the space of a few hours God would inflict the threatened vengeance on all the first-born of Egypt : nor did he doubt but that the simple means proposed would prove effectual for the preservation of the Hebrews. He did not attempt to station any centinel at the door of one single family for the purpose of calling the attention of the angel to the blood that had been sprinkled; but with perfect confidence addressed himself to the observance of the ordinance that had been appointed, having no thought that any other precaution was necessary, nor any fear that the destroying angel would through ignorance or inadvertence exceed the commission he had received.]
And these means proved effectual —
[At midnight the judgment was executed throughout all the land of Egypt, so that there was not a single house where- in the first-born was not dead, even from the first-born of Pharaoh himself to the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon. But of the first-born belonging to Israel, not one was hurt ; " the destroyer had not touched so much as one of them."]
Without dwelling unnecessarily upon this peculiar act, by which faith displayed itself in Moses, I shall proceed to notice,
II. The corresponding act by which it is to shew itself in us —
The whole human race, as transgressors of the law, are obnoxious to the wrath of an avenging God.
2328.] MOSEs' FAITH IN THE PASSOVER. 419
But God has appointed means of safety to all who will make use of them in faith. He has sent his own Son to die a sacrifice for sin ; and has appointed Him to be the only means of our preservation.
We are to seek deliverance through him, precisely as the Hebrews did through the paschal lamb —
[This is told us by St. Paul, who says, " Christ our Pass- over is sacrificed for us ^," thus identifying the Lord Jesus with the paschal lamb as the type, of which He is the great antitype.
Now the first thing we have to do, is to sprinkle our souls with his blood. There is no other pi'otection than this for any human being. We may bring all the good works which ever were wrought by any mortal man, and they will not avert the stroke of divine justice. No means will suffice, but those which God himself has appointed. Whether we see any suitableness in the means or not, they are to be used, and used in faith. Nothing is to be substituted as more conducive to the end; nothing to be added, to increase the efficacy of this simple ordinance. The Lamb of God is slain : his blood is poured forth : we are by faith to sprinkle it on our souls, assured that, when we have put ourselves under that safe- guard, " there can be no condemnation to us ^ ; " but that, " Christ will be to us as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land*=." If we attempt to substitute any thing for this, or to add any thing to it, we destroy its efficacy altogether, and render it of no avail '^.