calleth us to repentance; He restores the worship of His House; and by opening to us the Scriptures, wherein His good, and acceptable, and perfect will may be seen, shows us also, how each family of His people should worship Him in their respective dwellingsnot according to our own ideas, or the imaginations of our own hearts, but intelligently and in faith, i.e. according to His revealed will; for both the being and worship of GOD are subjects of Divine revelation.

Gen.iv.3-5.

GOD must be known, in order to be rightly worshipped. The true and acceptable worship of GOD is that by which His people have been distinguished in all ages. "By faith, Abel offered unto GoD a Heb. xi. 4. more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, GoD testifying of his gifts, and by it, he being dead yet speaketh.' When Abraham, the father of the faithful, was called out from an idolatrous people, "he builded an altar Gen. xii. 7. unto the LORD, who appeared unto him, and called upon the name of the LORD." And when the time came to fulfil the promises made to him, by bringing his seed out of captivity, that which distinguished them from the unbelieving, and preserved them from the judgments of Egypt, was the worship offered unto God in their families.

Gen. xxx.

vii.

10.

The history of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt, commences with the going down of Jacob and his sons into that country, on account of the famine which prevailed in Canaan. The patriActs vii. 9, archs, moved with envy, had previously sold Joseph into Egypt, but GOD in His providence overruled that wicked act for good; for He gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house, and Egypt became a place of refuge unto the people of GOD for many generations, so that they increased and mulEx. i. 8-22. tiplied greatly. But in process of time, there arose

26.

another king in Egypt who knew not Joseph, and his jealousy being stirred by reason of their power and increasing greatness, he mightily oppressed the children of Israel, and cast out their young children, Ex ii. 23 to the end they might not live; and the Israelites sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and GOD remembered His covenant with Abraham, and with Ex.iii.-10. Isaac, and with Jacob. And GoD appeared unto Moses, whom He had raised up to deliver them, and spake unto him out of the midst of a bush, burning with fire; and He commanded him to go unto Ex.iv.22,23. Pharaoh, and to say unto him-"Thus saith the

LORD, Israel is My son, even My first-born; and I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold I will slay thy son, even thy first-born." But Pharaoh hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD; and the divers plagues which God brought upon the land in consequence, the mighty signs and wonders, the fearful judgments and merciful deliverances, neither subdued nor convinced him. "And Pharaoh said, Ex. v. 2. Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." Accordingly, GoD's threatened judgment was executed. All the first-born of the Egyptians were slain by the sword of the avenging angel, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, to the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; there was not a house in which there was not one dead. The slaying of the first-born showed that judgment rested on the whole nationthe condemnation to which they were all subjected, though all were not cut off, but only the first-born.

Ex. xii. 29

30.

28.

It was on this occasion that the Passover was ordained, the institution of which was to be the Ex. xii. 1--commencement of a new era to the house of Israel; "the beginning of months, the first month of the year to them." Each family or household, was to

take a lamb,-"a lamb for an house."

It was to be a lamb without blemish, of the first year, taken from among the sheep or the goats. It was to be set apart on the tenth day of the month Abib, and kept until the fourteenth day of the same month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel were to kill it in the evening, and to partake of the lamb thus provided for their families, in their respective dwellings. The antitype of this was seen in the sacrifice and death of CHRIST. S. John looking upon JESUS as He walked, said unto two of his S. John i. 36. disciples, "BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD!" And S. Paul tells us, that through the Eternal Spirit, He offered Himself without spot unto GoD, and the sprinkling of His blood on our hearts by faith, cleanseth the conscience from dead works to serve S. John xi. the living GOD. When the period of His sufferings drew near, the high Priest in his official capacity prophesied that JESUS should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

Heb. ix. 14.

49-52.

And when the time came that He should be received up, JESUS, who ever waited upon His FATHER that He might do His will, stedfastly set His face S. Luke ix. to go to Jerusalem. Six days before the Passover

51.

1.

12, 15.

S. John 12

S. John xii.

24.

He came to Bethany, and the day following He ș. John xii. entered the Holy City, that He might be present to S. John xii. keep the Passover with His disciples before He suffered. When they told Him that certain Greeks, who came up to worship at the feast, desired to see Him; He answered them saying, "The hour is come, S. that the Son of Man must be glorified." And by a striking similitude, He set before them, that grace of eternal life which should come upon them through His death and resurrection. Verily, verily, I say .. unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The seed sown in the earth bringeth forth of its kind; but it must first die -that which is sown doth not rise unless it diethe eternal life of which we partake is through our union with the risen CHRIST. And as many as are baptized into Him are baptized into His death, that like as CHRIST was raised up from the dead by the glory of the FATHER, SO we also should walk in newness of life. It is not the life of the first Adam, but the life of CHRIST the second Adam which we are to manifest. Therefore our LORD said unto His disciples, "He that loveth his life shall lose it, and S. John xii. he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man will serve Me, let

25, 26.