had enjoined; and the consequence was that their first born escaped the plague which spread destruction and misery over all the land of Egypt. The blood of the lamb without blemish was the token of preservation to the inhabitants of Goshen. The destroying angel seeing the blood, passed over their dwellings, not being suffered to enter in to smite the first born of the people of the Lord.

THE CONNEXION OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER WITH THE COUNSEL OF GOD IN CHRIST.

But what had the institution of the passover to do with the counsel of God in Christ? Much every way. It was evidently intended to prefigure Christ and the benefits that would accrue to mankind from the shedding of his blood. He was the true Paschal Lamb, the Lamb without blemish; the Lamb slain for the sins and sake and in the stead of a fallen world; the Lamb whose blood, if it be sprinkled on our souls, will save us from the wrath of God; for he, seeing upon us the seal of the sacrifice of his Son, will, as it were, pass over us that we may be preserved in the day of his visitation.

There can be no doubt that the institution of the passover, although ostensibly a com

memoration of a signal deliverance from temporal evil, was a part of that grand scheme of grace, which was being gradually developed, and would most certainly be perfected in due time. And that this institution was connected with the sacrifice of Christ we have the words of

the Apostle to shew, who says, "For even Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."*

REFLECTIONS.

Thus we see, as we advance, how the counsel of God in Christ is unfolded in those preparatory arrangements which preceded the flood, and those which were made afterwards previously to the delivery of the Mosaic law. From the first it presents itself to us as a scheme of deliverance or redemption by atonement-as such it preserves its character through ages and generations-and as such it was clearly manifested in due time. The bruise which the seed of the woman, the deliverer of mankind, was to receive-the institution of sacri

* 1 Corinthians, v. 7, 8.

fice in expiation of sin and in propitiation of Divine mercy-the offering up of that which could not commit sin, in room of that which was by nature sinful-and the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal lamb for the preservation of the people from the effect of Divine wrath-were so many notices that an offended God was to be appeased, and offending man to be reconciled to him, through the vicarious sufferings and precious blood of one who was in after times to come into the world.

Christ Jesus received the predicted bruise. In the hour of the power of darkness he died upon the cross; but the moment he yielded up the ghost the victory was gained, and mankind were delivered from wrath, ransomed from bondage, and reconciled to God. "He was

wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."* He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; meek, patient, unrepining. He bore the wood on his shoulder to his own sacrifice, content to endure every indignity, to be reviled as a blasphemer, to be crucified as a malefactor, that the creatures of his love might through

* Isaiah, liii. 5.

his humiliation be brought unto God. His blood streamed down the cross, innocent, precious, purifying blood; blood shed in expiation of guilt, the guilt of the whole world; blood so acceptable in the sight of God that, if souls be sprinkled with it, the Divine wrath will pass over them in the night of desolation, and they will be spared to be filled with the joy that cometh in the morning of the resurrection.

"While, then"-to use the words of a great divine*" it is to the Jews a scandal and to the Gentile Greeks a folly, that God should put his own beloved Son into so sad and despicable a condition; that salvation from death and misery should be procured by so miserable a death; that eternal joy, happiness, and glory should issue from such springs of extreme sorrow and shame; that a person in outward semblance so contemptible, exposed to so infamous and slavish usage, should be the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind, the King and Judge of all the world," it should be to us "who discern by a clearer light, and are endued with a purer sense derived from the Divine Spirit," a subject of faith, gratitude, and praise.

While we think upon the bitter and my

* Dr. J. Barrow.

sterious sufferings of our blessed Saviour, the seed of the woman bruised on the tree for our trespasses and deliverance; the vicarious victim dying in unutterable torture that we might live in inconceivable bliss; the spotless lamb sacrificed for our preservation from the wrath of God; the reflection should excite in us an abhorrence of our sins and a resolution to forsake them-for those sins are as the railing tongues of the Jews blaspheming the Son of God; they are as the voices of the outrageous multitude crying out, Away with him, crucify him, crucify him; they are as the thorns, the nails, and the spear tearing and torturing the Lord of life.

Numerous and signal have been the visitations of the Almighty upon nations that have provoked him to anger by their multiplied iniquities; and none ever felt the severity of his judgments more than the hardened inhabitants of Egypt. The visitation of that memorable night, when the angel of the Lord destroyed all the first born in the land, was one of the most afflicting upon record. "There was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead."*

*Exodus, xii. 30.