ceed; If we suffer, we shall also reign with him, 2 Tim. ii. 12. Nor are these things to be applied only to the external afflictions of the body; but also to the internal distresses of the vexed soul, grieving for sin in a godly manner, fearing the wrath of God; without which the sweet consolations of the Lord Jesus, which he applies only to the mourners in Zion, Is. Ixi. 3. are usually neither tasted nor felt.

LIV. Nor is it in vain, that leaven is so often and so expressly forbid those who are invited to eat of the lamb. For in scripture leaven is the symbol of corruption, and especially of hypocrisy, Luke xii. 1. Paul has writ very properly to this purpose, 1 Cor. v. 7, 8. Christ our passover is 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. Leaven might also be applied to pride, because the leavened lump directly rises or puffs up; or to hatred and animosity, which embitter the soul. Now, whoever has communion with Christ, ought doubtless to be purged from all these vices; because he in whose mouth was found no guile, 1 Pet. ii. 22. cannot endure hypocrites; nor he who became obedient even unto the death of the cross, Phil. ii. 8. the proud; nor he who is our peace, Eph. ii. 14. the contentious; and therefore he offered himself, in order to reconcile us both to God, and to one another.

LV. But strangers, the defiled, the uncircumcised, were excluded from the paschal lamb: because righteousness hath no fellowship with unrighteousness, nor light any communion with darkness, nor Christ any concord with Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. Nevertheless whoever he be, that, from a sense of his own uncleanness, humbly has recourse to the grace of God in Christ, ought not therefore to despond: for the for the good Jehovah

pardoneth every one, that prepareth his heart to seek God, Jehovah the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary, 2 Chron. xxx. 18, 19.

LVI. Again, the Israelites in Egypt were commanded to eat the lamb, girded, shod, and leaning on their staves. To which rites we may see frequent allusions in scripture. Christ, Luke xii. 35. Paul, Eph. vi. 14. and Pet. i. 3. command us to have our loins girded about: to signify, that the souls of believers are to be girded about with truth and soberness; to be ready for the heavenly journey, for the work of the Lord, for the conflict with spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places; to all which undertakings, flowing and trailing gar+ ments are an impediment. Paul, Eph. vi. 15. speaks of feet shod with the preparation, or promptitude, of the gospel of peace. For the gospel is to be preached with cheerfulness, and confessed and walked in without stumbling. God himself is the believer's staff, on whom he leans, and to whom he commends his soul. Faith also is instead of a staff, because by it we are said to stand, Rom. xi. 20. 1 Cor. xvi. 13. are to take particular notice, that this is the attire of travellers, which is the condition of all who are partakers of Christ. For in this life they are strangers, and in their way to a better country, Psal. xxxix. 13. 1 Pet.

ii. 11.

But we

LVII. The Israelites were also commanded to eat it in haste, because there was danger in delay from the Egyptians, who were soon to press them to be gone. And this is also applicable to us; because many ene. mies have a design upon us, the journey is long, the time short, and we feeble and easily apt to flag. Wherefore, as Lot was to go out of Sodom, and the Israelites out of Egypt, so we are commanded to make

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haste, to stretch every nerve, in order to escape the jaws of the devil, imitating those violent, who take the kingdom of heaven by force, Matth. xi. 12. and remembering Lot's wife, who perished by her delay, Luke xvii. 32.

LVIII. Lastly, we are to observe, that the lamb was to be eaten in one house, out of which it was not lawful to go, for fear of meeting the angel of death. This house is the church, out of which there is no salvation, no communion with Christ. Let the false Nicodemists take notice of this, who imagine they can skulk in safety among Egyptians, and think it sufficient, if they believe in their heart, though with their mouth they confess not the Lord Jesus, separating what the apostle has joined together, Rom. x. 9. And therefore, if they be wise, let them, not forsake the assembling themselves together with us, Heb. x. 25. And having once entered this house, let them never leave it, lest they be condemned for apostates; concerning whom Paul speaks, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. and chap. x. 38, 39. and Peter, 2 ep. ii. 20, 21.

CHAP. X.

Of the Extraordinary Sacraments in the Wilderness.

BESIDES the ordinary and universal sacraments of

circumcision and the passover, some extraordinary symbols of divine grace were granted to the Israelites in the wilderness, which, in the New-Testament, are applied to Christ, and his benefits, and said to have the same signification with our sacraments. And they are in order these: I. The passage in the cloud through the

ven.

Red Sea. II. The manna which was rained from heaIII. The water issuing out of the rock. IV. The brazen serpent erected by Moses for the cure of the Israelites.

II. The sacred history, Exod. xiv. very particularly relates, how Pharaoh, with mad rage, at the head of a vast army, pursued the Israelites, who were just departed from Egypt, and, as he imagined, were entangled on every hand, through a mistake of the way, in unpassable deserts: how, in the first place, a miraculous cloud, interposing between them and the Egyptians, protected the Israelites, who were trembling with fear, and calling out to heaven for help: next how the channel of the weedy or Red Sea was made passable, as on dry land, by the waters giving way on each hand, being divided by the rod of Moses, and by a strong cast wind: how, in fine, the Egyptian monarch did not delay to pursue them close as they retreated, entered the sea as it opened a way for them, and was destroyed with all his army, the waters immediately returning upon them. For the better understanding of all this, we shall briefly explain these five heads. I. Why that sea, which Moses, Exod. xiii. 18. and xiv. 4. called IAM SUPH, or the weedy sea, is by Paul, Hẹb. xi. 29. and generally by writers, called HE ERUTHRA THALASSA, the Red Sea? II. Whether that drying up of the waters was natural, or altogether miraculous? III. Whether the Israelites passed over the whole breadth of that sea, and landed on the Arabian shore over-against Egypt, or only marched as far through it, as was enough to overwhelm the Egyptians, and returned again on foot, by taking a semicircular compass, to the same shore? IV. In what sense the apostle might say, the Israelites were baptized unto Moses in the

cloud and in the sea? V. What may be the mystical signification of these things?

III. The reason is obvious why this is called the weedy sea; namely, because of the plenty of sea-weeds, with which it abounds, heaps of which being raised like mountains near the shore, and laid close together by the continual heat of the sun, afford the convenience of houses to the inhabitants there, who from their eating of fish are called Ichthyophagi. And Agatharcides says, that some of them live under the ribs of fish, covered over with sea-weed. Bochart in Phaleg, lib. iv. c. 22. may be consulted on the subject.

IV. Why it is called the Red or Erythrean sea, was formerly not so well known. The ancients generally referred it to the colour of the water; which some think was derived from the reflection of the solar rays; others from the circumjacent mountains being made red by the scorching heat, from which waters impetuously descended into the sea, and tinged it of a like colour; others, in fine, from the red sand that lay on its shore, or channel: not to mention any thing now about the fable of Perseus, who, after having killed the sea-monster, to which the daughter of Cepheus had been exposed, is said there to have washed away the blood, with which he was all over stained. But the undoubted experience of mariners shews the falsehood of all this. Ludovicus Vartomanus, who sailed over the whole of it almost from its extremity to the mouth of the streights, says, "It is a thing sufficiently confessed by all, that the said sea is not red, but like other seas," Navig. lib. i. c. 21. The same thing Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, an eye-witness, testifies, who says the waters are clear, transparent, and blue, and the sand of the usual colour, nay, whiter than ours, Itiner. p. i. c. 30. Diodorus Siculus writes, that "in colour it is altogether