"Ye are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in the last times for you. 1 Peter i. 19.

The blood of the slain lamb was not to be spilt on the ground, but gathered in a basin as a precious thing; no doubt to signify the value of that which the scripture calls the precious blood of Christ, 1 Peter i. 19. but which the unbeliever rejects, and would make to be shed in vain -"eating and drinking their own damnation, not discerning the Lord's body." The typical figure was probably in the mind of the Apostle when he says, "They have trodden under foot the blood of the covenant." Heb. x. 29. It was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop on the lintels and door-posts of the houses, in memory of the night when the destroying angel turned his sword from every habitation on which the blood was found; typically for the sake of the slain lamb and the blood of sprinkling, really for the sake of Him who is the substance of the shadow; a beautiful figure of the atonement, in its application to the soul by faith. The angel of destruction has gone, and goes continually, and at the last day will go finally,

through every land-through the living and the dead-he makes but one distinction-acknowledges but one mark. Is the blood of the paschal lamb upon the door, or is it not? Has the blood of Christ been sprinkled through faith upon the conscience, or has it been neglected and trodden under foot?

The eating of the paschal lamb signified our spiritually feeding upon Christ by faith, and sacramentally in the Lord's Supper. As Christ is therein to be received, "not unworthily," so in the passover, all was to be done in a prescribed order. They were to eat it standing, with their staves in their hands, their shoes on their feet, and their loins girt, a posture of action, as those that go a journey. Though this circumstance might be peculiar to the first passover, it is strikingly figurative of the position of a believer in the Egypt of this world, from whose judgments he is to be exempted, and whose bondage he is to escape. It calls immediately to mind the language of the gospel, "Gird up the loins of your minds," 1 Peter i. 13. Be ready to act, to follow-" To follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." "This is not our rest: however we be fed and protected by the Lord our passover, and strength

ened and refreshed by the sacramental emblems of his body and blood, we take them as the traveller takes his fare-prepared for departing "Here we have no abiding city, but we seek one to come." Heb. xiii. 14.

The passover was eaten with sour and bitter herbs. Christ is fed upon with many a bitter thought of sin, and many a painful remembrance of His sufferings on our behalf. Repentance and godly sorrow are ever mingled with the sweet exercise of faith and love, and are indispensable to the due receiving of the Christian communion. Perhaps it was thus intimated also that we have a cross to bear before we reach our crown, and cannot reign except we suffer with him. They ate it with leaven-seven days afterward they might eat no leaven. The New Testament gives us the interpretation of this, "Purge out the old leaven, and let us keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 1 Cor. v. 7. "Let us keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness." 1 Cor. v. 8. Falseness in principle and wickedness in the life, are the leaven with which our passover must not be eaten; the infecting, souring, corrupting admixture, which will make the spirit

ual food unavailable, and the sacramental bread a condemnation. For seven days: the scripture emblem of a completed period-to us the completion of all time. We must eat no more

leaven, after partaking of the body and blood of Christ, Resolve to lead a new life.' Walking henceforth in his most holy ways.

Serving the Lord in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.'

The whole of the lamb was to be eaten. We must take Christ and the salvation of Christ entire. 'We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness.' We are not at liberty to receive a part and reject a part; to feed upon Christ for pardon, and upon ourselves for righteousness; to trust his death and our own merits jointly; nor yet to accept the security of his redeeming blood, and refuse the sancti

fying influences of his Spirit. We are not at liberty to receive the doctrines of Christ and neglect his precepts; neither to receive his precepts and reject his doctrines.

The whole family were to eat it, or if too small, more than one family together, indicating that this festival, like the Lord's Supper, was an act of social worship and church com

munion; the whole church of Christ being one family, and one body in him. Our church has recognized this character of the sacrament, as being a social, not a private act of devotion, by requiring that it shall not be administered. unless a sufficient number of persons are assembled; 'that is, except four, or three at the least, communicate with the priest;'—it is to be a public celebration among the living, not a mysterious ceremony performed in the lonely chambers of the dying.

Lastly, the passover, as before remarked, was allowed to no uncircumcised person. The mark of church-membership, like every thing else in the Jewish ordinances, was an external one: for it does not appear that any test was required of the state of mind of the recipient. This is in perfect accordance with the whole typical institution. The adoption of Israel, according to the flesh, was a figure of the adoption of grace; not a figure of the world at large, or the external church, in which are the godly and ungodly mixed, but of the invisible church of Christ, the elect of God, chosen of him and precious. Individually, an Israelite of of the circumcision, might or might not be of the family of Abraham, according to the faith;