testimony of the history before us. We there read, that the Israelites were positively forbidden to stir out of their doors till the morning. I contend, then, that no movement whatsoever towards the collection of the Israelites was made till day-light; and moreover, that there is reason to doubt whether Pharaoh's orders could have been transmitted to all the proper officers, to permit this collection, till some time after day-light. Then, when these orders were transmitted, we must consider the time required (whatsoever degree of preparation we may suppose to have been previously made), to assemble a mixed and unorganised multitude, consisting of men, women and children, and computed to amount to 1,500,000 souls; carrying with them whatever articles of clothes and furniture were portable, and taking also their flocks and herds, " even much cattle." It is not probable, it is scarcely possible, (however disposed the Egyptians might have been to assist and hasten their departure), that they could have been assembled and prepared for their march, for many hours.

other

But if we could admit that they might have set out in the morning, it is utterly impossible they could have commenced their march early in the morning. What then becomes of those passages which we shall presently have occasion to consider, and in which, it is said, they came out of Egypt "by night." Moreover, in such a climate as that of Egypt, it must at all times be an important object to travellers to avoid as much as possible the heat of the day. But in how great a degree must this have been important to the Israelites, journeying as they were, with their wives, their children, their flocks and their herds, and carrying their kneading troughs (and probably as many articles as they could bear) on their shoulders. Yet, if they did set out in the morning, I contend they must of necessity have set out so late, that the whole journey must have been performed in the very hottest part of the day, which the above view of their situation renders extremely improbable. But if we suppose them commencing their march "between the two evenings,' perhaps after three o'clock, or between the ninth and eleventh hour, then the sun had declined considerably, and the heat was beginning to abate. The last and heaviest part of the journey, when they would suffer most from fatigue, would be accomplished after sunset; a circumstance highly important, if not essential, to a body so composed and encumbered as they were.

The inference to be drawn from all this is, that (supposing no express scriptural authority for the morning or the evening commencement of the march) it is probable that the Israelites

5. The concomitants, such as the eating it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, and in the posture of travellers, &c. were types of the conduct, of the dispositions, and of the circumstances of those who should be delivered.

The two first of these are the objects to which our present remarks must be directed.

I

The principal object of commemoration in the Jewish Passover may be easily and abundantly proved to have been the deliverance from bondage, according to a promise made to Abraham. This deliverance was the type of another deliverance, also promised to faithful Abraham and to their forefathers.

"While the punctual and specific performance of one promise was a pledge of the faithful fulfilment of the other, it also typically represented the nature and the time of the deliverance, which was the subject of the latter promise. It foreshowed, that as they had been delivered from the house of bondage in Egypt, so, when the fulness of time should come, the true children of faithful Abraham would also be delivered from the bondage of the law, and of sin, and death. Here then is the type and the antitype. In the month Ahib or Nisan, on the fifteenth day of the month, " between the two evenings," at the time of day, but not on the day that the paschal lamb was slain, the children of Israel marched out of Egypt, received the punctual fulfilment of the former promise, and were delivered from the "house of bondage." In the same month, on the same day of the month, probably on the same day of the WEEK, and about the same hour of the day, the latter promise was fulfilled; our deliverance from worse than Egyptian bondage was completed; and Jesus on the cross exclaimed, "It is finished;" bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. But St. Paul teaches us that it was by faith that the patriarchs embraced "the promises, not having received them," but having "seen them afar off." By faith! But what was the object of their faith? The PROMISED SEED-the Seed that was to bruise the Serpent's head. "The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Abraham," said our Saviour himself, "rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad." The object then of his

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A collection of several opinions and proofs on this subject may be seen in the Appendix to my Sermon on the Passover, published at Rivington's.

faith was Christ our Passover. This, he was sensible, was the procuring cause of all God's promised blessings to his posterity. The lamb itself was no more the procuring cause of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage, than of the deliverance of mankind from the bondage of sin and death. It would be of no value or efficacy whatsoever, but as it typified, and was a sacramental memorial, representing the sacrifice of the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world." In both cases the same propitiatory sacrifice was the procuring cause of God's merciful dispensations, in both the same "fore-ordained scheme of redemption was kept in view. The day before the accomplishment, then, of the former promise, a type was ordained to represent the procuring cause of both deliverances. This type was to be annually continued till the Deliverer prefigured by it should appear; in short, it was to "show the Lord's death till he came. And as this type of the Deliverer was ordained on the evening before the former deliverance, so the last anniversary of the type was observed the evening before the latter deliverance was accomplished. Immediately after this its final anniversary, it was solemnly and authoritatively abrogated by the appointment of another rite, which is to "show the Lord's death till his coming again." The sacrifice then of the paschal lamb typified neither the deliverance of the world, nor the day of the deliverance. If it had any reference to the time of the deliverance, it marked only the hour of it."

From this it follows that, to fulfil the types, our Saviour could not have been ordained to suffer on the day on which the paschal lamb was slain. If he had suffered on that day, the fulfilment would have been less minutely accurate than it really was. The completion of our deliverance was to be expected on some anniversary of the deliverance of the Jews. And we are informed that such an expectation did prevail. To the particulars of this deliverance ours ought to correspond: and it may be shown that they do correspond most circumstantially: they agree in the month, the day, and the hour.

I

II. For the other source of the persuasion which we have been considering, is the mistake into which commentators have fallen, in fixing the time of day at which the Israelites left Egypt. For all commentators have agreed in laying down the

'There was a tradition among the Jews, that they should be redeemed on the very day of their coming out of Egypt, viz. on the 15th of Nisan. Whitby's Annotations, Matt. xxvi. 2.

marched from Rameses "between the two evenings," or after three o'clock in the afternoon of the fifteenth of Nisan; the very "season" at which, on the day before, they were ordered to sacrifice the paschal lamb; and that they reached Succoth some time after sunset, in the course of the night.

II. It is now to be shown, what countenance this deduction receives from accounts of, and allusions to, the transaction, to be found in scripture.

1. Negatively. There is no passage in scripture, in which the morning is said to be the time of their departure. Under this head, too, may be classed the arguments derivable from the embarrassment under which commentators of acknowleged eminence are evidently placed, when (under the supposition of the morning being the time of the departure) they attempt to reconcile the apparently opposite declarations of scripture, that they were brought out "by day and by night." This embarrassment will be pointed out in notes, as we consider the several texts descriptive of the time of the going out of Egypt.

2. The first passage, tending to prove that they went out of Egypt in the afternoon, is written in the 41st and 42nd verses of Exod. xii.

Even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt.

So they marched out that day. But further we read, it is a night to be observed. What night? why, the night of that day, the 15th. The night in which they were brought out of the land of Egypt." This was not the night of the fourteenth, for in that night they were not to stir out of their doors till the morning. But it was the night of the fifteenth, the night of their arrival at Succoth, the halting place of their FIRST MARCH out of the land of their captivity.

The solution is easy and natural, if we suppose the Israelites to have set out "between the two evenings," and to have arrived at Succoth at night. Then we can comprehend with ease, and reconcile without violence to the simple and obvious sense of the historian's words, the two circumstances of their marching out of Egypt" in the body and strength of the day," and yet observing the night unto the Lord for bringing them out, &c. 3. Another passage is Numbers xxxiii. 3. is Numbers xxxiii. 3. “On the morrow after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with an high hand IN THE SIGHT of the Egyptians." They went out with an" high hand; they would hardly (however urgent the Egyp

tians might have been) have broken the command of their God, and bave quitted their houses before morning. And accordingly, they went out in the sight of the Egyptians. They assembled themselves and their flocks and herds in broad day-light; and as soon as all was ready, (which I have endeavoured to show scarcely could be the case till the afternoon,) they set out.

4. Compare this passage with Deut. xvi. 1. where it is expressly declared, "the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night."

In this comparison the following points may be noticed. In Numb. xxxiii. it is said, they departed from Rameses on the fifteenth, on the morrow after the Passover, and in the sight of all the Egyptians. This agrees in all respects with the statement (Exod. xii. 22.), that not a man was to stir out of his doors till the morning. Therefore, hitherto, there was no going forth by night. They "departed," they set out, some time in broad day-light on the fifteenth. Their being brought forth out of Egypt could not refer to the time antecedent to their departure. Their departure was not at night. Consequently the phrase, "by night," is fairly referable to some part of their march, subsequent to their departure. And what part of it more properly, than their ARRIVAL AT SUCCOTH, the close of their march, the first stage of their journey out of Egypt?

5. But the passage which appears to speak most decidedly upon the point, and indeed, to mark distinctly and positively the time of their quitting Egypt, is Deut. xvi. 6. "At the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to put his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Passover, at even, at the going down of the sun, AT THE SEASON THAT THOU CAMEST FORTH OUT OF EGYPT."

This passage amounts to a clear determination of the time of their setting out,-namely, "even," or between the two evenings; the time at which the sun was on the decline. The "season' evidently means the precise time of day, as may be proved from the words connected with it; for the two first expressions denote time of day, and they are all obviously meant to specify the same time, viz. the time for slaying the paschal lamb. Thus, the time of day for slaying the paschal lamb, the evening, the time of the going down of the sun, and the time of their coming forth out of Egypt, were the same. Consequently, we have an express authority of Scripture that the Israelites left Egypt, not on the day, but at the hour, when the Passover was slain. this has been shown to be the hour which best agrees with all the circumstances of the transaction, and which affords a simple

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