SERMON FOR EASTER-DAY MORNING.

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.

In these words the Apostle, we see, clearly alludes to that important solemnity of the Jewish religion,-the Passover,-of which we have just heard an account in the first Lesson for this morning's service. But first, let us inquire why it was that the Apostle addressed these words to the Corinthians.

And here, then, we must understand that Corinth, the city in which those to whom the Apostle was writing were dwelling, was at that period one of the most flourishing, powerful, and populous cities of Greece; and as a natural consequence of this, its inhabitants were most luxurious, licentious, and profligate: they were also at the same time great admirers of the refined philosophy, and boasted wisdom, for which the orators of Greece were then famous.

This city, St. Paul, some time before, had himself visited; he had remained there about a year and a half: and on his departure he had left amongst the people of the city the blessing of a Christian Church. It appears, however, that after the members of that Church had lost the advantage of the Apostle's presence and superintendence, their old affection for the vain philosophy of their former teachers had in some measure returned; and, by giving them a distaste for the plain and simple preaching of the ministers of the gospel, had produced amongst them the most bitter contentions, and the most unhappy divisions: whilst from the influence of their former habits of profligacy not being properly subdued, and probably from a too free intercourse with their heathen fellow-citizens, a most disgraceful laxity of morals had been introduced into the community.

In

On hearing of these distressing circumstances, St. Paul addressed to the Corinthian Church the Epistle from whence my text is taken. the course of that valuable writing, he solemnly charged them with their crimes, severely condemned their contentious spirit and uncharitable divisions, and with all the authority of an Apostle of Christ, called upon them to put away from amongst them the evil of their doings.

66

To lead them to enter at once on this great work of reformation, was clearly his object, when, in the words before us, he reminded them that Christ, as our Passover, had been sacrificed for them ;" and urged them therefore to keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

We shall however feel the force of these words more fully, if we call to mind some of the chief parts of the great Jewish solemnity to which he thus refers, as it is described by Moses in the twelth chapter of Exodus.

That Festival was, we know, established by the Almighty himself amongst his people Israel, in remembrance of his having delivered their first-born from death, and themselves from slavery, in the land of Egypt. On the night in which the Angel of the Lord was to come down to destroy the first-born of the Egyptians, and to pass over the houses of the people of the Lord, the Israelites were commanded, each family of them which consisted of a sufficient number, to slay a lamb without blemish, and to sprinkle some of its blood upon the door-posts of their houses, that it might be a token to the destroying Angel to pass over their dwellings. Moreover, after having so done, they were then, with their whole family, to eat of the lamb which they had slain. But, especially, on pain of their being cut off from amongst the people of the Lord, they were to partake of the lamb only with bread which was unleavened; that is, bread composed of dough without any thing mixed with it to make it rise or ferment. (Exod. xii.) Such was the ordinance of the Passover, as the people of Israel were commanded to observe it the night of their deliverance out of Egypt. But it was also enjoined by the Almighty, that it should be afterwards celebrated by them as a continual remembrance of that deliverance for ever. The divine commandment was to this effect: "Ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and thy sons for ever. "And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean you by this service? that ye shall say: It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses." (Exod. xii. 24-27.) And again : "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord : for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt, all the days of thy life." (Deut. xvi. 1-3. See also Levit. xxiii. 5, 6.) And according to these injunctions we find, from the history of the Jewish people, that they continued, generation after generation, thus to celebrate the Passover. Moreover, it should be remarked, that our blessed Lord himself appears regularly to have kept this holy ordinance during his sojourn upon earth; going up, as we read, to Jerusalem for the purpose, according to the custom of the Feast. It is evident, then, what St. Paul alluded to when he wrote the words of my text to the Corinthians: and we can scarcely fail to discern why he styles the Lord Jesus Christ our Passover," which had been "sacrificed for us.' For be it remembered, that it was at this very period-at the season of the Passover, that He-the Lamb of God— was slain upon the Cross. In those portions of the gospels which record the later scenes of his life on earth, we find it related, that when the Feast of the Passover drew near, he went up to Jerusalem with his disciples for the last time; and when all things were prepared, as he had directed, then we behold him in one of the most interesting periods of his history, eating the Passover in their company; and afterwards instituting that most blessed ordinance of his religion-the Lord's Supper as a remembrance of his death and passion which he was just

66

about to accomplish. It is however very remarkable, that all this took place the evening before the usual and appointed day for the celebration of the Passover. On this occasion our blessed Lord, with his disciples, ate this his last Passover before the rest of the Jewish people; and no doubt for this plain reason, because it was the divine will that the great Christian Sacrifice,-of which all the Jewish sacrifices and offerings were only types, as they are called; that is, images or representations, of the great Christian Sacrifice, which was to do away all those Jewish sacrifices for ever,-might be offered on the cross precisely at the very time of the day when the great Jewish sacrifice of the Passover was appointed and accustomed to be kept. Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world;-Christ, the Lamb without spot, and without blemish, was offered up a sacrifice for sin upon the cross, just at the very hour of the day, the ninth, when the whole Jewish people began to slay the paschal lamb, that they might sacrifice the Passover, and keep the feast of unleavened bread.* This of itself must be amply sufficient to mark the extreme propriety of the Apostle's allusion in my text. But this point will appear in a yet still stronger light, if we bear in mind another consideration. There are very convincing reasons to be drawn from other parts of the Epistle, as some of the ablest commentators on the passage have observed, for believing that it was written near the time of the Jews' Passover.†

And in this view how greatly is the force of the Apostle's exhortation increased! For in this view it is almost impossible not to conclude that when he alluded to the Passover, and coupled his mention of that rite with a reference to the sacrifice of Christ's death, he pointed to that season of the year as one in which Christians might with peculiar propriety be called on to celebrate the remembrance of their Lord's sacrifice and death on the cross. In this view also, when he speaks of their keeping "the feast," it is almost impossible not to feel that he referred to that most blessed feast which our Lord had ordained in remembrance of his death and passion, the Lord's supper, which we know the early Christians were accustomed to keep and observe with the greatest reverence, especially on every returning Lord's day and when, moreover, he exhorted them to join in that feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with

Our blessed Lord was placed on the cross at the third hour of the day, (Mark xv. 15.) which is, according to our division of the twenty-four hours, at nine in the morning. "From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." (Matt. xxvii. 45.) And about the ninth hour, our three in the afternoon, Jesus "bowed his head and gave up the ghost." (John xix. 30.) Josephus, the well-known Jewish historian, tells us that the paschal lamb was killed by his countrymen between the ninth and eleventh hours of the day, that is, from three o'clock in the afternoon till even. See Beausobre, and Horne's Introduction, Vol. III.

Paley, in his Horæ Paulinæ, chap. iii. No. 12. in which he quotes Dr. Benson. See also Horne's Introduction, Vol. III. part iii. chap. iv. and Macknight, in loc.

"At the first commencement of Christianity (says Bishop Jer. Taylor), the whole assembly of faithful people communicated every day; and this lasted in Rome and Spain until the time of St. Jerome; then, by reason of a declining piety and the intervening of secular interests, it came to once a week; and yet that was not every where strictly observed a while after it came to once a month; then to once a year; then it fell from that, too, till all the Christians in the West were commanded to communicate every Easter."-Vol. III. p. 313.

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, we can then have no doubt that he was exhorting them by their faith in their crucified Redeemer; that as the Israelites of old put away from them all leaven out of their houses before the feast of the Passover, so should they, before the return of that season so memorable to them as Christians, put away from themselves all that spirit of malice, contention, and division—all that unholiness of practice which had spread like leaven through their community; and so all be prepared to unite together in one body, with their minds purified by a genuine love of the truth, and their hearts sanctified by a sincere spirit of penitence, holiness, and brotherly love; and join in partaking of the bread broken, and the wine poured out, in remembrance of his death and resurrection whose body was torn upon the cross, and his blood poured forth for the sake of sinful man and his salvation.*

With these remarkable considerations placed before us, can we fail to perceive the force and beauty of the Apostle's address to his Corinthian brethren? Surely it is impossible. Neither, on the other hand, should we close our observations without marking the extreme propriety with which our Church has given to the words of my text so conspicuous a place in the service of this day.

To make this, however, a little more clear, let us call to mind the purpose for which we are more immediately met together on this occasion. On every Lord's day we are indeed invited, not only to rest from our daily works and to keep one day in seven holy unto the Lord our God, but, according to the example of the inspired Apostles and primitive Christians, to celebrate the resurrection of our blessed Saviour from the dead and most assuredly it is very meet and right to do so; for, let us consider the immense importance to us of that great event. The resurrection of Christ is no less than the sealing and confirming of our redemption and deliverance through the death of Christ. Deprived of this, we should be without the best evidence which we have, that the offering of himself for us was accepted of our offended God: without this, we are assured in Scripture, that the blessed effects of that costly sacrifice would have been entirely lost. Had Christ remained in the grave for ever, we should have been as much ruined as if he had never died; all faith, and consequently all hope, founded in his precious bloodshedding, would have been utterly vain. "If Christ be not risen," says the Apostle to these same Corinthians (1 Cor. xv. 14, 17, 18), “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins: then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." But, thanks be to God! we need have no doubt upon this vitally important point; for it is certain that "Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. xv. 20). Now we know, therefore, that the sacrifice of Christ's death has been accepted by the Almighty; now we may believe that he hath " put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. ix. 26.); now we may rest assured that our faith, if it be a right and saving faith, will not be in vain: well may

*For a knowledge of the scrupulous exactness with which the modern Jews observe this part of the Passover, see Allen's Modern Judaism. See also Horne's Introduction, on the Passover, Vol. III.

we then most thankfully remember the resurrection as well as the death of our Redeemer! and as it was on the first day of the week-the day which therefore received from the early Christians the name of the Lord's day (Rev. i. 10.)—that our Lord rose from the dead, we are bound to call that glorious event to our remembrance, particularly on the return of each Lord's day. But if there should be one day in the year, as I am well persuaded there should, in which we should be invited to commemorate the resurrection with more than ordinary reverence, it is on this day on which we are now assembled, Easter-day.*

For, remember, that as it was at this season of the year, at the moveable feast of the Passover, that Christ the Lamb of God was slain, so it was, as on this very Lord's day, that he proved, by his rising from the grave, that our Passover was really and effectually sacrificed for us, that our sins were blotted out in the blood of the Lamb, and the souls of the faithful delivered from guilt, misery, and ruin eternal.

Nor can we, I think, after all that has been said, withhold our admiration from the Church of England for having fixed on this day as that, above all others, on which her children should partake in the holy feast of the Lord's supper; enjoining that every parishioner should communicate, at the least three times in the year, of which Easter-day shall be one.

Let me, then, as her minister, entreat you, my brethren, who are here assembled for the purpose of celebrating one of the greatest and most joyful festivals of the Christian Church, to follow her directions, at least on this day. And in what language can I better address you than in those words of Scripture which she has herself put into my mouth? Brethren, as we believe that "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."

In pressing these words on your minds, and recommending the precept they contain to your practice, I consider it unnecessary, at this time, to insist at any length on the duty or the privilege of keeping this feast. If you have ever read, or heard read to you, only one of those passages of the gospels, which set before you the beautiful scene of our Lord's history when establishing that holy rite, just before he was called

* So called, it is supposed, from an old Saxon word, oster, to rise.

The Christian churches of Asia, we learn from history, kept their Easter-day upon the same day on which the Jews celebrated their Passover, upon whatever day in the week it might fall: whereas other churches, and those in the west especially, partly to distinguish themselves from the Jews, and partly in honour of the Lord's day, kept their Easter on the Lord's day following the day of the Jewish Passover. This matter led to great disputes in the church, until at last it was decided, at the Great General Council of Nice (A. D. 325.), "that every where the great feast of Easter should be observed upon one and the same day; and that not on the day of the Jewish Passover, but, as had been generally observed, upon the Sunday afterwards." Wheatly on Common Prayer, p. 37. The writer of this Sermon was once asked by one of his parishioners, how it happened that Easter was moveable, whilst Christmas-day was always fixed. No doubt, from not observing the connexion of the former with the Jewish Passover, many better educated persons know as little of the reason for this as that good old man.

See the sentences, commonly called rubricks (because they were originally printed in red letters), at the end of the Communion Service in the Prayer Book.