Things Pertaining to Their Ceremonial Law. The Sixth Sermon
IN my last sermon I spake of the holy persons, I mean, the ministers of God’s religion, the Levitical priests; and the place and time assigned to God’s service. There remaineth now for us to consider the holy thing which those holy persons did exercise in the holy time and place; I mean, the very worship and holy rites so ordained, taught, and prescribed by God himself, that all men might easily understand
[8 vocationem et, Lat., omitted; our calling and.] [+ veterem nimirum, ad terram viventium, Lat.; that is, the ancient]
[country, to the land of the living:—that is—faithful,’ is the translator’s]
[addition. ]]
how to do service, and what honour to give unto the Lord. In this treatise we have first to consider the Jewish sacraments, and then their sacrifices.
The ancient church of the saints had two especial sacraments; circumcision, and the paschal lamb. Of both which I will speak severally, and agreeably to the word of God, according to the grace which the Lord shall vouchsafe to give unto me.
ΝΟῪ circumcision was the holy action, whereby the flesh of the foreskin was cut away for a sign of the covenant that God made with men. Or, to describe it more largely, circumcision was a mark in the privy members of men, betokening the eternal covenant of God; and was ordained by God himself, to testify his good-will toward them that were circumecised, to warn them of regeneration and cleanness, and to make a difference betwixt the confederates of God and other people or nations.
The author, therefore, of circumcision is God himself: the beginning of it is of great antiquity. For the Lord himself C1810] In the gospel saith: “Circumeision began not at Moses, but at the patriarchs.” Moses verily did renew, or repair, the law or custom of circumcision; but Abraham, the renowned friend of God, was the first that was circumcised, in the ninetieth year! of his age, and in the very same day that God, making a covenant with him, did first ordain the use of circumcision. For he added circumcision as a seal to the league which he made with Abraham and with his seed for ever. The place is extant in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis. It was first ordained in the 2046 year after the creation of the.world, 390 years after the deluge, when Sem, the son of Noah, was 487 years old. So that Moses is found to have been born 320 years after the first institution of circumcision: whereby it appeareth, that circumcision was in use among the patriarchs 400 years before the law was given to the Israelites by the hand of Moses?
[! Nonagesimum nonum, Lat.; ninety years old and nine. Gen. xvii. 24.]
[2 According to Abp. Usher, these dates are as follows: Circumcision was instituted A.M. 2107, after the deluge 450 years, when Shem was 549 years old, before Moses’ birth 326 years, and before the giving of the law 406 years. But see Vol. 1. page 42, note; and The Old Faith, in works of Coverdale, Parker Soc. ed. p. 36.]
Now for because circumcision is added as a sign or seal to the league that was made betwixt God and Abraham, I must briefly, and by a short digression, touch the manner or order of that covenant. God, in making of leagues, as he doth in all things else, applieth himself to our capacities, and imitateth the order which men use in making confederacies. Men do by leagues, as by most sure and stedfast bonds, bind themselves to the society and fellowship of one body or people; in which society, to the end they may be the safer, and live more quietly from the wrongs and injuries of all other nations, they do mutually hazard both lives and livings, the one in defence of the other’s liberty. In these leagues they do precisely express what they be that make the confederacy, upon what conditions, and how far the covenant shall extend. And therefore, when God’s mind was to declare the favour and good-will that he bare to mankind, and to make us men partakers wholly of himself and his goodness, by pouring himself out upon us, to our great good and profit, it pleased him to make a league or covenant with mankind. Now he did not first begin the league with Abraham, but did renew to him the covenant that he had made a great while before. For he did first of all make it with Adam, the first father of us all, immediately upon his transgression, when he received him, silly wretch? into his favour again, and promised his only-begotten Son, in whom.he would be reconciled to the world, and through whom he would wholly bestow himself upon us, by making us partakers of all his good and heavenly blessings, and by binding us unto himself in faith and due obedience. This ancient league, made first with Adam, he did afterward renew to Noah, and after that again with the blessed patriarch Abraham. And again, after the space of four hundred years, it was renewed under Moses at the mount Sinai, where the conditions of the league were at large written in the two tables, and many ceremonies added thereunto. But most excellently of all, most clearly and evidently, did our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ himself shew forth that league; who, wiping away all the ceremonies, types, figures, and shadows, brought in instead of them the very i truth, and did most absolutely fulfil and finish the old league,
[8 jam profugum, Lat.; now become an outcast. tandem, Lat.; at length.)
bringing all the principles of our salvation and true godliness into a brief summary, which, for the renewing and fulfilling of all things, and for the abrogation of the old ceremonies, he called the new league, or new testament. In that testament Christ alone is preached, the perfectness and fulness of all things; in it there is nothing more desired than faith and charity; and in it is granted holy and wonderful liberty unto the godly: of which I will speak at another time. But now I return to the league which was renewed with Abraham.
We are expressly taught in Genesis, who they were that was made the league; that is, the living, eternal, and omnipotent God, who is the chief maker, preserver, and governor of all things; and Abraham with all his seed, that is, with all the faithful, of what nation or country soever they be. For so doth the Apostle expound the seed of Abraham, especially in
29. his epistle to the Galatians, where he saith, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye the seed of Abraham, and heirs by promise.”
The time, how long this league should endure, is eternal, and without end or term of time. For although, in the renewings or declarations of the league, many things were added which afterward did vanish away, especially when Christ was come in the flesh; yet notwithstanding, in the substantial and chiefest points, ye can find nothing altered or changed. For God is always the God of his people: he doth always demand and require of them faithful obedience; as may most evidently be perceived in the new Testament.
For there are two points, or especial conditions, contained ἴῃ this league: the first whereof declareth what God doth promise, and what he will do for his confederates; I mean, what we may look for at his hands: the second comprehendeth the duty of man, which he doth owe to God, his confederate and sovereign prince. Therefore God for his part saith, “I will be thy God, and Saddai?, that is, thy fulness and sufficiency; I will, I say, be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee.” God of himself is wholly sufficient to most absolute perfectness and blessedness; neither needeth he the help of any other, since whatsoever is in any place wheresoever, it is both of him, and hath abiding by him; God alone sufficeth man, and he alone is the giver of all that men desire, or doth belong to perfect felicity. And therefore
[1 See Vol. 1. p. 215, note 6.]]
Saturnus (peradventure by occasion of the word Saddai) took his name among the heathen, and signifieth to suffice, or satisfy. For he alone is able to satisfy or suffice all, who is “himself very fulness and sufficiency itself. But now God sheweth, by two arguments, that he will be the sufficiency, or all in all, to the seed of Abraham. For first he saith: “To thy seed will I give the land of Canaan.” In which promise he comprehendeth all earthly and bodily benefits; to wit, great wealth, felicity, tranquillity, abundance of all things, health, glory, notable victories, and whatsoever else pertaineth to the preservation and temporal happiness of mankind. Now how he did perform this promise to the seed of Abraham, the holy scripture doth declare; by that means teaching, that the very true God was the God of Abraham’s seed, as he had promised to their father Abraham. Secondarily, he promiseth that Seed wherein all the nations of the earth were to be blessed; to wit, Christ the Saviour, whom he had promised to Adam many years before. To bless is to enrich with all spiritual benediction: wherein he comprehendeth all the spiritual gifts of God; the forgiveness of sins, the reviving of life, and glory everlasting. To bless also is to take away a curse; so that this promise of God’s to Abraham is all one with that which he made to Adam, saying; “The seed of the woman shall tread down the serpent’s head.” For the head of the old dragon is nothing else but the power and kingdom of Satan. His power is the curse, sin, and death, Therefore, when his head is crushed or trodden down, the curse is taken away; and instead of the curse succeedeth a blessing. By this, I say, he doth declare that he will be the God of Abraham and of his seed.
The second condition of the league betwixt God and man prescribeth to man what he must do, and how he must behave himself toward God, his confederate and sovereign prince. “Walk before me,” saith God to man, “and be upright.” Now they walk before God, which do direct all their life, words, and works, according to the will of God. His will is that we should be upright. That uprightness is gotten by faith, hope, and charity; in which three are contained all the offices of saints, which are the friends and confederates of the Lord. Therefore this latter condition of the league doth teach the confederates what to do, and how to behave them-
selves before the Lord; to wit, to take him for their God, to stick to him alone, who is their only all in all, to call upon him alone, to worship him alone, and, through the Messiah, to look for sanctification and life everlasting. These were the conditions of the covenant; to which the number of ceremonies were not added in Abraham’s time, which afterward were given to the Israelites under the leading of their captain Moses.
To this confederacy the Lord did add circumcision as a sign or seal, to confirm it withal. Sealsare put to writings for an effectual force and confirmation’s sake. The tables, or writings, do contain and give evidence of all the points of the whole league. Circumcision, therefore, is added to the league instead of the writing!, and also of the seal; and for that cause circumcision is called the league itself?: even as the writings or letters of covenants among us are commonly called the very covenant? when as in deed they are nothing else but the evidences of the league, which contain in writing all the order of the confederacy, and confirm it with a seal. It is very usual that the signs do take the names of the things which they do signify; so that it is no marvel though circumcision be called the league, when as in deed the league is not the cutting of the skin, but the communion of fellowship which we have with God. In the seventeenth of Genesis thus saith the Lord touching this sign of outward circumcision: “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep betwixt me and you, and thy seed after thee; every male shall be circumcised among you. Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant betwixt me and you,” &c. Lo here circumcision, in these words of the Lord’s, is first named the covenant; and afterwards, for expositions sake, it is called the sign of the covenant. In the same sense doth St Stephen call it a testament, in the seventh chapter of the Acts, when he meant that it was the sign or seal of the testament.
Moreover, the manner of circumcision is declared: “Ye
[[! tabularum, Lat.] [2 See Gen. xvii. 9, 13. My covenant, that is, the sign of my cove-]
[nant, or testament, as is explained in verse 11. Ainsworth on Gen.]
[xvii. 10.] [3 der bund, ipsum inquam feedus, Lat.]]
shall,” saith God, “circumcise the flesh of your foreskin.” The cutting or taking away of this flesh was called circum cision. But now, whose office it was to cut that skin away, we find not expressed. It appeareth that the most honourable in every house or family, I mean, the first-begotten, or ancient of every household, did circumcise, before the law; which office was turned to the priests, when once the law was given’. It is a singular example, and no more to be found like unto it, that Zipporah, the wife of Moses, did circumcise her son. Exodus, chap. iv.
Now also the time of circumcision is set down, to wit, the eighth day, when the new-born child began to be of a little more strength. And we gather out of the fifth chapter of the book of Josue, that they did circumcise them not with knives of iron, but of stone: for in that chapter the Lord doth in express words command to circumcise the sons of Israel with knives of stone. But it is manifest by the rites of the sacraments, that God doth alter nothing in the ceremonies of the sacraments: and therefore we conjecture and gather, that Abraham used none other but knives of stone, especially since we read that Zippora, Moses his wife, did circumcise her son with a stone,
The rest of the Jewish trifles, which they sow abroad touching the ceremonies of circumcision, I do of purpose here let pass: for they are utterly unworthy to be heard, and have no mystery contained in them. But the knife of stone is of force in the exposition of the mystery of circumcision: for circumcision had a mystery and a most certain meaning hidden within it.
For, first, circumcision did signify that the whole nature of man is unclean and corrupt; and therefore that all men have need of cutting and regeneration. And for that cause that cutting - was made in the member wherewith man is begotten”. For we are all begotten and born the sons of wrath in original sin. Neither doth any man deliver us from that damnation, but he alone that is without sin, to wit, the blessed Seed, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was conceived by
[A sentence of the original and of the translation is here omitted. ] [5 See above, p. 143.] [6 verse 2, sharp knives, Auth. Ver.; marg. knives of flints.] [ Cf. Augustin. Expos. in Evang. Joan. Tract. xxx.)]
the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary; who with the shedding of his blood (which was prefigured in the blood shed in circumcision) doth cleanse us from sin, and make us heirs of everlasting life. And now this circumcision maketh sorely against them that deny original sin; and putteth them to their shifts, that attribute justification and salvation to our own strength and virtue. For if we were clean, if we by our own power could get salvation, what needed our fathers to be cut in that sort? The things that are cut off are either unpure, or else superfluous. But God made nothing unpure or superfluous. Now he made the flesh of the foreskin. If the flesh of the foreskin had been evil, God had not made man with the flesh of the foreskin. The skin, therefore, is not evil of itself, nor yet superfluous: but the cutting of the foreskin doth rather serve to teach us to understand, that by our birth and nature we are corrupt, and that we cannot be cleansed of that corruption but by the knife of stone. And for that cause, verily, was circumcision given in that member, and in none other. I will anon add another cause out of Lactantius, why it was given in none other part of all the body.
Moreover, circumcision did signify and testify that God Almighty, of his mere grace and goodness, is joined with an indissoluble bond of covenant unto us men, whom his will is first to sanctify, then to justify’, and lastly to enrich with all heavenly treasures through Christ, our Lord and reconciler. For that was the meaning of the stony knife; because Christ, the blessed Seed, is the rock of stone out of which do flow most pure and cleansing waters; and he. by his Spirit doth cut from us whatsoever things do hinder the mutual league and amity betwixt God and us: he also doth give and increase in us both hope and charity in faith, so that we may be knit and joined to God in life everlasting, which is the blessed and happy life indeed. Deut. xxx. Now here it is expedient to hear the testimonies of the law and the apostles. In the thirtieth of Deuteronomy Moses saith: “The Lord thy God shall circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God.” Now the outward and visible cutting was a sign of this inward circumcision. And Paul also, speaking of
quos velit sanctificatos justificare, Lat
Abraham, saith: “And he received the sign of circumcision, as the seal of the righteousness of faith which he had being yet uncircumcised; that he should be the father of all them that believe, though they were not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed to them also,” &c. Lo here, Abraham’s circumcision was a sign that God by his grace had justified Abraham; which justification he received by faith before his circumcision: which is an argument, that they which believe, though they be not circumcised, are nevertheless justified with faithful Abraham; and again, that the Jews, which are circumcised, are? justified of God by faith. And for that cause was circumcision given in the very body of man, that he might bear in his body the league of Godand be thereby admonished that he is justified by grace through faith.
Whereby we gather also, that the grace of God, and the justification of the godly, is not tied to the sign: for if it had, then had not Abraham been justified before his circumcision, but even in his circumcision. Furthermore, if it had been so, then the Lord, whose will is to have mankind saved, would not have given commandment to have them circumcised upon the eighth day: for many children died before the eighth day, and never came to circumcision; and yet they were not damned. To which we may add that Sara, Rebecca, Rahel, Jochabeth, and Mary, Moses’ sister, with innumerable more matrons and holy virgins, could not be circumcised; and yet they were saved by the grace of God through faith in the Messiah that was to come. The grace of God, therefore, was not tied to the sacrament of circumcision: but yet it was not despised and neglected of the holy saints of the old church, but used to the end for which it was ordained, that is, to be a testimony and a seal of free justification in Christ, who circumciseth us spiritually without hands by the working of the Holy Ghost.
Furthermore, God by the outward and visible sign did gather into one church them which were circumcised; in which number those which he had chosen before he did join to himself with the bond of his Spirit. For St Paul, for the
[2 sciant se, Lat.; may know that they are. ] [ venturo, Lat.; who was to come.] [ ex quibus electos, Lat.)]
of bE as 176 THE THIRD DECADE. [sERM. very same cause, did call the people of one religion the circumcision, as is evident by the fifteenth chapter to the Romans, and the third to the Philippians. Therefore by circumcision God did separate his people from the unbelieving nations. Whereupon it came, that to be called uncircumcised was as great reproach among them, as to be called dog is now-a-days among us: for an uncircumcised person was reputed for an xvii. unclean and profane man, and for such an one as had no.. part in God nor his covenants.
Finally, circumcision did put the circumcised in mind of mind their duty all their life long; to wit, that every man should think that he had taken upon him to profess God, and to bear in his body the sacrament of the Lord. For that is the cause why the Israelites were named, or had their names given κα them, in their circumcision: for it is evident in Luke, that John Baptist and Jesus our Saviour had their names given them at their circumcision; even as also the first circumcised at his circumcision was called Abraham, whose name before was said to be Abram.
It did admonish the circumcised of his duty, forsomuch as he had given his name unto the Lord, his confederate, to be enrolled in the register of God among the names of them that give themselves unto the Lord: wherefore he ought, by covenant and duty, to frame his life, not after his own lust and pleasure!, but according to the will of God, to whom he did betake himself. For the condition of the covenant was, that the circumcised should not defile themselves with idolatry and strange religions; that they should not pollute with unclean living the bodies and minds that were hallowed to the Lord; but that they, persevering in true faith, should ensue godliness, shew the works of repentance, and be obedient to God in all things. For thus saith Moses in the tenth of Deuteronomy: “Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and harden not your necks any longer.” To which words the prophet Jeremy ~~ alludeth in his fourth chapter, saying: “Be ye circumcised to the Lord, and cut away the foreskin of your heart.” And the
51. martyr St Stephen, rebuking the unbelieving Jews, saith: “Ye stiff-necked, and of uncircumcised heart and ears, ye always resist the Holy Ghost.” Very rightly, therefore, doth the holy apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, the second chapter, [1 aut aliorum voluntate, Lat., omitted; or the will of others. ]
declare that there are two sorts of circumcision: the one of the letter, in the flesh, the outward circumcision, that is made with hands; the other in the heart, of the Spirit, the inward circumcision, which is made by the means of the Holy Ghost. The circumcision of the heart God doth well like of in those that be his; but that in the flesh he doth utterly mislike of, if, as the flesh is, the heart be not circumcised. The liking and misliking of these two circumcisions is in that which went before so plainly already declared, that I need not to stick any longer upon it.
And here I think it not amiss, before I make an end of circumcision, to rehearse unto you, dearly beloved, the words of the ancient writer Lactantius, Lib. Instit. 1v. chap. 17, where he speaketh of circumcision in this manner: The meaning of circumcision was, that we should make bare our breasts; to wit, that we should live with a simple and plain dealing heart; because that part of the body, which is circumcised, is partly like to a heart, and an object of shame: and the cause why God commanded to make it bare was, that by that sign he might admonish us not to have a covered heart, that is, that we should not cover within the secrets of our conscience any crime whereof we ought to be ashamed. And this is the circumcision of the heart, whereof the prophets speak, which God hath translated from the mortal flesh to the immortal soul. For the Lord being wholly set and fully minded; according to his eternal goodness, to have a care for our life and safeguard, did set repentance before our eyes for us to follow, as a way to bring us thereunto: so that, if we make bare our hearts, that is, if by confession of our sins we satisfy the Lord, we should obtain pardon, which is denied to the proud and those that conceal their faults by God, who beholdeth not the face as man doth, but searcheth the secrets of the breast.” Thus much hitherto hath that ancient writer
[2 substituted for another term; et pudenda, Lat.] {3 Hujus secunde circumeisionis figura erat, (illa carnis circumcisio)]
[significans, nudandum esse pectus, id est, aperto et simplici corde]
[oportere nos vivere; quoniam pars illa corporis, que circumciditur,]
[habet quandam similitudinem cordis, et est pudenda. Ob hanc causam]
[Deus nudari eam jussit; ut hoc argumento nos admoneret, ne invo-]
[lutum pectus haberemus, id est, ne quod pudendum facinus intra con-]
[scientiee secreta velemus, Hee est cordis circumcisio, de qua pro-]
[phete loquuntur; quam Deus a carne mortali ad animam transtulit, [BULLINGER, 1] 32]
- 178 THE THIRD DECADE. [sERrM. of the church, Lactantius Firmianus, declared unto us touching the mystery of circumcision. of Now all this, which hitherto I have said touching the meaning and mystery of circumcision, was set forth, as in a picture, to be seen of all men’s eyes, so often as circumcision was solemnized in the church. There was the league, as it were, renewed, which God did make with men. There was the grace of God, his sanctification, and our corruption, declared: therein did Christ, the rock of stone, appear, who with his Spirit doth cut and wash away all spots of the church. Moreover, the worshippers of God did learn by that sign, and so by all the holy ceremony, that they, being in one celestial? body, ought to do their endeavour by pureness of living to win the favour of God, their confederate; because by the visible circumcision there was, after a sort, an open confession made of the true religion, of free consent to the true religion, and of a binding by promise unto the same. He therefore that did despise or unadvisedly neglect that holy ceremony was sharply punished, as may be gathered by the seventeenth of Genesis, and the fourth chapter of Exodus. And so much hitherto concerning circumcision.
There followeth now the second sacrament of the ancient “church, I mean, the paschal? lamb. It is an Hebrew word, not signifying a passion, as it should seem if it were derived according to the Greek etymology?; but it signifieth a skipping, a leaping, or a passing over: for the Hebrew signifieth xi. to leap or pass over? The cause of this word Moses sheweth in the law, where he saith: “The Lord shall go over to strike the Egyptians; and when he shall see the blood upon the upper post, and the two side posts of the door, the Lord will
[que sola mansura est. Volens enim vite ac saluti nostree pro @terna]
[sua pietate consulere, peenitentiam nobis in illa circumcisione proposuit,]
[ut si cor nudaverimus, id est, si peccata nostra confessi satis Deo fece-]
[rimus, veniam consequamur; quae contumacibus et admissa sua celan-]
[tibus denegatur ab eo, qui non faciem, sicut homo, sed intima et]
[arcana pectoris intuetur.—Lactant. Instit. Lib. 1v. cap. 17. Lugd.]
[Bat. 1660, p. 406.] [1 ecclesiastico, Lat.; ecclesiastical, ed. 1577.] [2 Pascha, Lat.] [3 Bam (i.e. vocem πάσχα) quidam patrum a voce πάσχειν pati]
[derivarunt. Schleusner. Lex. in voc. ] [4 ΠῸΞ Passed, stood, over for defence. Lee’s Hebr. Lex. in voc.]]
pass over that door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come within your houses.” This sacrament is known also and called by other names. For it is called a sign, a remembrance, a solemnity, an holy assembly? the feast of the Lord, a worship, an observation, an oblation, and a sacrifice. But whereas that ceremony is called a passing over, that is not done without a trope. For the passing over was the very benefit, wherein the angel of the Lord did pass over the Jews, leave their houses untouched, and save their lives; but for because the paschal lamb was a memorial and a renewing of that benefit, therefore it took the name of the benefit: even as I admonished you before, that it is usual in sacraments for the signs to be called by the names of the things that they signify, because of the likeness and mutual proportion that is betwixt them.
Let us see now what the passover was, and what kind of ceremony did belong unto it, The passover was an holy action, ordained by God, in the killing and eating of a lamb; partly to the end that the church might keep in memory the benefit which God did for them in the land of Egypt, “to be a testimony of God’s good will toward the faithful, to be a type of Christ, and partly? also to gather all the partakers thereof into the fellowship of one body, and to put them in mind to be thankful and innocent.
This sacrament was first ordained by God himself, and not by man. For Moses delivered to the children of Israel whatsoever he received at the Lord’s hand: as it is to be seen at large in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. And he instituted that ceremony even at that very time when he brought the Israelites from out of Egypt. Now since this ceremony came first from God, it followeth consequently, that all the passovers which followed, even until that passover which the Lord did hold with his disciples a little before his death, were holy and divine actions, To flesh and worldly wisdom many points, I may say, all the parts, of this sacrament do seem to be merely absurd and altogether needless; but faith, which looketh up to God, the author of this sacrament, hath a great respect unto, and reverenceth greatly, all the mysteries contained
[6 πανήγυρις, in Lat.] [6 p. 176.] [7 deinde, Lat.; next.] [8 typum quoque, Lat.; to be also a type.] [9 Ri Lat.] 12—2]
therein!. For even as God is the chief and most absolute wisdom, so are all? his ordinances most absolute and passing
profitable
Here now is noted the time when this sacrament was first delivered to the church of Israel; to wit, in the four hundreth and thirtieth year (counting from the promise made to Abraham, or from the time that he departed from his country first), which was the 2447th year from the beginning of the world, 791 years after the general flood3. The time is also appointed when the passover should be holden, to wit, every year, in the month Nisan, which taketh part of our March and he Equi- part of April. Moreover, the very day is named, that is, the when tne fourteenth of the month, beginning their account at spring might is both time’s equinoctial. For on the tenth day they chose the lamb ᾿ς gndcometh that should be eaten, and on the fourteenth day they killed it. Jeanie t’s There is also set down the hour of the day when it should andhot be slaughtered: that was, about eventide#, to wit, betwixt three he Jews and five of the clock in the afternoon, according to the course zeskon from of our dials; and, as the Jews were wont to reckon the hours as we begin of the day, it was to be killed betwixt nine and eleven o’clock. fromseven And in that killing of the lamb at eventide did this meaning Eth ana lie hid, that Christ should be slain in the latter days of the τ our world; yea, the very hour and moment, wherein Christ should wane die, was therein foretold: for he gave up the ghost about them, and the ninth hour. Whereupon St Peter saith, that the prophets cevento did search at what moment, or minute of time, the Spirit of he ninth hour ofthe Ser ak was in them, did signify that Christ should come pe [1 omnia, Lat.; all things in it.]
[2 omnia et singula, Lat; all and every one οὗ [3 According to Abp. Usher the Passover was instituted, as Bullinger also says, 430 years after Abraham’s call, Gen. xii., but A.M. 2513, and 857 years after the deluge. But see Bullinger’s Treatise, The Old Faith, in Coverdale’s Fruitful Lessons, &c. p. 36.] [6 inter vesperas, Lat.; between the two evenings. Marg. Auth. Ver. Exod. xii. 6.] [51 Pet. i. 11. Bullinger has adopted the translation, not of the Vulgate, but of Erasmus:—scrutantes ad quem aut cujusmodi temporis articulum significaret qui in illis erat Spiritus Christi: where also Erasmus notes; Nec est tempus, quod Greeci vocant χρόνον, sed καιρὸν, quod articulum vertimus: est enim certius quiddam quam tempus, Calvin similarly understands the apostle’s phrase: prophetas scrutatos]
Furthermore, there was a certain appointed place assigned..: to this sacrament’. In Egypt, verily, they did eat it by companies here and there in several houses. But when they were once come into the land of promise, it was not lawful to hold passover in any place but at the tabernacle of appointment; and after that, at the the temple in Hierusalem. Being divided therefore into several houses at Hierusalem, they did eat it by companies, as is to be seen in the twenty-second chapter of St Luke’s gospel. And that was a type, that Christ, which was to be offered but once upon the mount of Calvary, should be effectual for ever to cleanse the sins of all his people.
There was also appointed, who they should be that should hold the passover; to wit, the whole circumcised congregation of Israel, being assembled by houses and families in so great companies as were sufficient to eat a lamb”. For as Christ is the Saviour of us all, so all sinners (for we all are sinners) are the cause why Christ our Lord was offered upon the altar of the cross.
Moreover, there is great diligence used in describing the manner of killing and eating the lamb. First, they chose to themselves this lamb from among other lambs and kids: the fifth day after they cut the throat thereof, and saved? the blood in a platter, which with a bush of hyssop, made like a holy-water stick’, they sprinkled upon the two sides and upper posts of the door. The lamb itself they did eat publicly, not boiled with water, but roasted with fire; and that whole also, I mean, both head and feet, and purtenance too; and with it they did eat lettuce or sour herbs, and unleavened bread. And while they were at it, they stood about it with their loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands. They did eat it in haste: they neither brake nor cast a bone
[esse quo temporis articulo advenerit Christi regnum. Comment. in]
[loc. cit.] [6 huic sacro, Lat.] [7 Exod. xii. 43—49.—parpia περὶ ἑκάστην γίνεται θυσίαν, (τοῦ]
[Πάσχα) οὐκ ἔλασσον ἀνδρῶν δέκα----πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ σὺν εἴκοσιν ἀθροίζονται.]
[Joseph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. νι. cap. 9. 3.] [8 multa fide et diligentia, Lat.; great faithfulness and diligence. ] [9 excipiebant, Lat.; received.] [10 aspergillo hysopi, Lat.]]
of it unto the dogs, but burnt the bones with fire. From evening until morning no man did set one foot out of doors. ος All these ceremonies had their ends whereunto they tended, contained great mysteries, and bare a very evident signification of things past, things present, and things to come. They did also join the whole congregation, or Jewish church, into one body and profession of one religion; and did also warn all those that did eat of the lamb to be thankful to God, and zealous in religion: as I will by parts touch, and teach you as briefly as I can.
For, first of all, the Lord’s will was to keep in memory, and as it were for ever to prolong the remembrance of that oreat benefit, which he did once for his people of Israel!, in preserving marvellously his chosen flock, when he slew in one night all the first-born of the Egyptians, and the next day after led his elect from out of Egypt, where they had a long time sustained great misery in bondage. This benefit he would not have only to be preached by word of mouth (for it is certainly sure, that in that feast were made most effectual sermons touching God’s benefits and grace shewed to their fathers); but would have them also laid before their eyes by an holy action and ceremony, as it were by a looking-glass and lively picture, even as though their deed were newly in doing again before their faces. For the visible action did, after a sort, make a sermon to their eyes and other senses. Wherefore Moses, when he did interpret the ceremony and holy xi action, did say: “When your children shall say unto you, What meaneth this worship of yours? ye shall say unto them, This sacrifice is the passing over of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he slew the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.”
But this ceremony was the signification of a thing already past: and therefore it should have little availed that age of man which followed, to celebrate a benefit which did nothing at all belong unto them, unless the Lord had applied it to every age and season. God therefore would have this to be a testimony to the posterity of his favour, goodness, and perpetual assistance?; to put them in mind, that he was not only the God of their fathers and ancestors, but that he would be
[[ in Agypto, Lat.; in Egypt.] [2 liberationis perpetuse, Lat. ]]
the God of all the posterity of the Israelites; that he would bear with and spare them for the blood of Christ; and finally, that he both would and could defend them from all evil, and bestow upon them all good and fatherly blessings. For in the 136th Psalm we read: “O praise the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy endureth for ever: which struck the first-born of the Egyptians; for his mercy endureth for ever: with a strong hand and a stretched out arm; for his. mercy endureth for ever.” Besides the remembrance, therefore, of the benefit which God did for their fathers, the posterity did by the use of that ceremony stir up their faith, to believe that God would have mercy on and do good for them according to his natural goodness, even as he did to their fathers before them. And by that means this ceremony was no small exercise of faith in the children of Israel.
Furthermore, those ceremonies did contain the mysteries, that were to come, of Christ, the Saviour of us all. For in them was prefigured what Christ should be, what he should do for the world, by what means the faithful should be partakers with him, and how they should behave themselves before him. For among many other beasts there was none thought to be more fit for this sacrament than a lamb; not so much for the signification of simplicity and patience that was in Christ, like to the quietness of a lamb, as for because a lamb was the daily sacrifice that was offered to the Lord% For Paul saith: “Christ our paschal Lamb is offered up.” And a lamb by the law was every morning and evening offered up in sacrifice. For Christ is the Lamb that was killed since the beginning of the world; of whom John Baptist testified, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world” And for because we all did go astray like sheep, every one after his own way, the Son of God came down unto us, and became a sheep, of our very substance and nature. But yet he was sound and without spot, without sin and wickedness; conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary. He was a male, [8 verses 1, 10, 12. The eleventh verse is also quoted in the Latin. ] [4 quam quod victima est, Lat. ]
[6 John i. 29. peccatum mundi, Lat.]
[6 hic noster, Lat.]
ἐὰν 184 THE THIRD DECADE, [ser and of a year old; that is to say, strong, and all one, the same to-day that he was yesterday, and the same for ever, to wit, the Saviour of all the world!. The ceremonial lamb was chosen and taken from among other lambs and goats: for Christ descended lineally of righteous men and sinners; as is to be seen in the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. Likewise, for the shedding of the lamb’s blood God did bear with the whole church of the Israelites: for the blood of Christ (whereof? the lamb’s blood was a type) was to be shed, that by it? all the faithful might be cleansed, and that by the shedding of that the anger of God the Father might be ap- peased, and he reconciled again unto the church. The blood was sprinkled upon the upper and two side-posts of the house with a bunch of hyssop. Hyssop, verily, is a base herb and of small account; and the preaching of the Gospel seemeth to be foolish, vile, and of no value: and yet by the preaching of the gospel the blood of Christ unto the remission of sins must be sprinkled on us which are the house of God. Now we receive the Lamb to life, when we do eat, that is, when we believe that Christ did suffer for us: for Christ is eaten by faith, as it is at large declared in the sixth chapter of St John. The lamb is dressed with fire, and not with water: it is not eaten raw, but roasted. For Christ was not man alone, but very God also, the true burnt-offering. He is able fully to absolve us, so that there needs no addition of ours: all our additions are mere water, and altogether cold. Moreover, the whole Lamb was to be eaten; the head, the feet, and purtenance: for unless we believe that Christ is very God and very man, and that he is our wisdom and righteousness, we do not eat him wholly. They eat not the head, which deny that Christ is God: they eat not the feet, which do deny that Christ is man: they eat not the purtenance, which do not acknowledge the gifts that are in Christ, which he doth communicate unto the faithful, to wit, righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, redemption, and life. The bones of the Lamb were neither broken nor thrown to the dogs, but burnt with fire: for in Christ there [1 universi orbis, Lat.] [3 whereof—a type, not in Lat.]
[ ejus sanguine, Lat.; by his blood.]
[4 toti ecclesiz, Lat.) [ὃ aspergi sive preedicari, Lat.]
[6 ipse fuse exponit, Lat.; he himself at large declares. ]
was not one bone broken; as the apostle John beareth witness in the nineteenth chapter of his gospel. Herein also lieth hid another” mystery. For although the Son of God did suffer in his humanity, yet in his divinity he remained still without any passion. Now the things in Christ, which we cannot attain unto by reason of the excellency of his Godhead, we do? earnestly wish for and greatly desire. Moreover, Christ is the meat of the reasonable and faithful soul, and is not to be cast to dogs and unbelieving miscreants’. The Lamb was to be eaten in haste, without delay: for Christ must be eaten by faith, out of hand, without foading ΟΥ̓, and that too with a sharp desire and eager appetite. With the lamb they were commanded to eat sour herbs and unleavened bread: for the faithful must repent them of their life!? ill-spent, and wholly betake themselves to a purer trade of living. For here followeth! the manner how they ought to behave themselves toward their Redeemer. They stood to eat the lamb, having their! loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands. Such was the habit of wayfaring men, or pilgrims. We therefore must so behave ourselves in this present world, as doth become pilgrims and strangers, which do contemn this world, and look for another country. In their journey, therefore, let them give themselves to temperate modesty; let their feet be shod with the preaching of the gospel of peace; let them wholly lean upon the staff of God’s aid and succour; and let them depart with as much haste as may be from the bondage and corruption of this naughty world’.
This very same ceremony was, as it were, a confession of the true religion, and as a cognisance, whereby the people of God were known from other people and nations. Therefore all the Israelites were gathered together into one church and society: wherein, by celebrating of the passover, they
[7 presterea, Lat.] [8 in eo quod pati potuit, Lat. omitted; in that which could suffer. ] [9 merito, Lat. omitted; we do justly.] [10 impiis, Lat.] [11 See p. 38, note 3.] [12 preterit, Lat.; past.] [18 copiosius, Lat. omitted; more at length.] [14 renibus vel, Lat.; their reins or.] [15 Eph. vi. 15.—the preaching of, not in the original. ] [16 hujus seculi, Lat. ]]
did profess that they were the redeemed, the libertines!, and the people of the living God. For thereunto belongeth the commandment which charged them that no stranger should eat of the lamb, but that the circumcised alone should be partakers of it; that it should not be divided into many parts; that it should be eaten nowhere but in one place alone, and that too by companies of all the Israelites?; and lastly, that no man should once set a foot out of doors until the next morning. By which thing it is given us to understand, that neither Christ, nor our salvation, is to be found without the church, in the sects or schisms of wicked heretics. Christ, the Lamb of God, doth gather all the faithful into one church, wherein he keepeth them, and lastly doth save them.
Last of all, this ceremony did put God’s people in mind of their duty, of thankfulness especially? of the study of their po(liness and harmless innocence. They therefore did give thanks to God for these and all other his benefits; they praised his name; and did utterly abstain from all leavened bread. For ye shall find nothing so severely forbidden in this ceremony as the eating of leavened bread. Whosoever eateth leavened bread,” saith the Lord, his soul shall perish from among the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or an Israelite born.” The same saying is afterward oftentimes repeated, and throughly beaten into their brains. Now the apostle Paul, whose cunning and learning was much in the law of Moses, expounding what was meant by the leavened bread, doth say: Therefore let us keep the feast, not in the old leaven, nor in the leaven of malice and unrighteousness’, but in unleavened bread, that is, in sincerity and truth” Thus much hitherto touching the eating of the paschal lamb.
To these sacraments were also added sacrifices of sundry ΒΟΡΒ and many kinds: which were not first invented and taught by Moses, but were taken up and used immediately after the world was created. For Cain and Abel offered burnt sacrifices to God the maker of the world: the one, of [1 libertos, Lat.; freed men.] [2 ab universo Israele, Lat. ] [3 gratitudinis preesertim et, Lat.; especially of thankfulness, and, &c.]
[4 versutie, Lat.)
[6 1 Cor. v. 8, Erasmus’ rendering. ]
the fruits of the earth; and the other, of the cattle that was in his flock. Likewise Seth, Noah, Sem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with all the other patriarchs, are known to have sacrificed unto the Lord. Now since the heathenish sacrifices of the Gentiles, as the very heathen writers themselves did testify, were partly like unto, and in many points all one with, the Jewish sacrifices; it is not unlikely but that the grand patriarchs” of the Gentiles did teach every one his own nation the manner of sacrificing, which they had learned of their forefathers, Sem, Cham, Japhet, and of the holy patriarch Noah himself. But it is undoubtedly certain, that the holy fathers did bring in nothing of their own invention, nor add any thing to the sacrifices more than they had received and learned of God, who is the author of all goodness; although Moses did more precisely distinguish and certainly order the sorts, the kinds, and differences betwixt sacrifice and sacrifice: and yet whatsoever he did, that did he at the Lord’s appointment. God instructed Moses in all that he did. For the book of Leviticus, wherein are specially described all the kinds of sacrifices, doth immediately after the very beginning testify, that Moses was called by God, and that he learned of the Lord all the ceremonies of the sacrifices which he commanded the Israelites to keep. And in the seventh chapter of the book of Numbers we read: “And when Moses came into the tabernacle of appointment, he heard the voice of God speaking unto him out of the mercy-seat.”
Now, as I was about to say, there were divers sacrifices sundrily differing in many points among themselves, and yet having many things common and general one with another. It was general to all sacrifices, not to be offered in any other but one appointed place alone. It was general to all sacrifices, that they ought of duty to be offered by faith, according as they were taught by the word of God. It was general to all sacrifices, to be made according to the Lord’s commandment, with holy fire,and not with strange fire, or fire profanely kindled. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were slain for nothing else but for because they used profane or strange fire in sacrificing to the Lord. For when the Israelites, or Levites, did first of all sacrifice, as the Lord had commanded them, in the tabernacle of
[6 creduntur, Lat.] [7 genearchas, Lat.]]
ν 188 THE THIRD DECADE. [sERM. appointment, then did God, by sending fire from heaven, give a token that he did like of that manner of sacrifice. Whereupon in the sixth of Leviticus the priests are charged to maintain or keep the holy fire always burning, first in the tabernacle, and then in the temple: which thing it is manifest that the heathen did imitate, in commanding the vestal virgins af, Rome always to keep the holy fire burning. By this perpetual fire is meant the perpetual working of the Holy Ghost in the church of Christ; which must be kept quick and stirred up in the hearts of the faithful with fervent prayers, with the sincere doctrine of the Lord, and with the right use of the holy sacraments. It was also general to all sacrifices, that in them neither wild nor unclean beasts were offered to the Lord. Moreover, this general rule of sacrifices is given by Moses in the twenty-second chapter of Leviticus, saying: ‘ Let no deformity be in the thing that thou shalt offer: if it be blind, or lame, or maimed; if it have pushes, or scabs, or tetter?, ye shall not offer it unto the Lord, neither shall ye put ought of it upon his-altar.” Verily, if any man had brought a deformed oblation unto the Lord, he shewed himself plainly to be a contemner, and utterly unthankful toward his maker. And therefore the Lord in Malachi crieth out, and saith: “When ye bring the blind for sacrifice, do ye not sin? and when ye bring the lame and sick, do ye not sin? Offer it now, I pray thee, to thy prince or captain; will he be content with it? or will he accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts. And so I say, My name is in contempt and of no estimation among you.” The just and true God, therefore, doth at all times require truth, liberality, sincerity, and integrity in them that worship him; and on the other side, he abhoreth and utterly detesteth uncleanliness, lying, and hypocrisy.
There are certain other things also, which be generally common to all sorts of sacrifices: but I will not at this time make particular rehearsal of every several jot or minute. But what peculiarities every sundry sacrifice hath, it will evidently appear in the exposition of their sundry sorts: which I will now speak of in order as they lie.
[[! push, a pimple, an eruption. Johnson’s Dict.] [2 tetter, a scab; a scurf; a ringworm. Ibid.]]
First of all, 1 will expound to you that kind of sacrifice which in the scripture is called Holocaustum. That sacrifice was wholly consumed with fire, so that nothing but the skin or hide of the beast was left for the priest. The word is derived of the Greek: for it is called holocaustum, as one should say ὅλον καυστὸν, that is, wholly burnt or consumed with fire, This sacrifice was of three kinds: I mean, it was made after three sorts, to wit, with greater, with little, and with less, living creatures; namely, with an ox, a bullock, or a calf; or, if any man’s ability were not sufficient to stretch to that expense, then did he offer a lamb, or a kid: and yet again, if he could not offer that by reason of his poverty, it was lawful for him to sacrifice birds, not geese, or cocks, or other unclean fowls, but turtles, and doves, and such kind of clean birds,
Now the manner of making this burnt sacrifice was in this order. The beast, that was to be offered, was placed at the one side of the altar; upon which the priest did presently lay his hands, and cut the throat of it. The blood was saved, to be sprinkled round about the altar; the skin was flayed from the slaughtered beast, and that alone was all the fees that fell to the portion or share of the priest: the legs were chopped off, and washed together with the purtenance. Immediately after, a fire was made upon the altar, whereupon was laid the whole sacrifice, to wit, the head, the body, the legs, and the purtenance, and were altogether burnt upon the altar before the Lord. But if so be it happened that a turtle or a dove were offered for a sacrifice, then did the priest with his finger wreath about and break the neck thereof, and the blood was let drop about the sides of the altar. The feathers also were cast at the one side of the altar into a place where ashes lay; the wings were jointed; and last of all, the whole body was burnt upon the altar. This was the manner of the sacrifice, or oblation, which they did commonly call a burnt-offering: the signification whereof was most cheerful and pleasant to them which were persuaded, that by burnt-offering was prefigured the very Son of God, to be incarnate of the unspotted virgin, and to be [mw]
[64 The corresponding Hebrew name is 553. Deut. xxxiii. 10.
[Ps. li. 19.]]
sacrificed once for the cleasning of all the sins of the whole world. For they in the glass of that sacrifice did behold the cross and passion of the Lord, which took our sins upon himself!, and, being slain, did shed his blood for the remission of sins, offering himself wholly to God the Father in the fire of charity and heavenly zeal. The very same Christ is the turtle or pigeon.
Moreover, beside these ceremonies in the burnt sacrifice, it was required that no burnt sacrifice of beasts should at any time be made without that kind of offering which they called minha? That oblation was an handful of corn, or of meal, or else of crusty bread sodden in a caldron, or a bowed? piece of bread (which we call a cracknel) baked in an oven or in a frying-pan, which was burnt with oil and frankincense upon the altar of burnt sacrifices. And Christ, verily, is the bread
14. Of life, who by the eternal Spirit, as saith the apostle, did offer himself to God the Father for us, to be the meat and preservation of our life.
In the number of burnt sacrifices are reckoned the daily sacrifices that were offered every morning and every evening, and the sacrifices of the anointing or consecrating of priests. Of the daily sacrifice a large exposition is made in the twenty-ninth of Exodus and the sixth chapter of Leviticus. It was called the daily offering, because every morning and evening two lambs were offered, to wit, one in the morning, and another at the evening. In these lambs was Christ most manifestly prefigured; who is that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; whose virtue is always effectual and of power to take away the sins of the faithful. For the Lamb was killed from the beginning of the world; he was once slain upon the cross: but yet his merit and effectual power endureth still, and doth absolve all them that are delivered from their sins,
[ Omitted: “for to this pertaineth the laying on of hands, which was a sign of communion.” Hue enim pertinet maxime manuum impositio, quse communionis erat symbolum.” P.]
[2 ΓΙ, a gift to God in sacrifice,—generally unbloody, and congisting of various fruits, flour, oil, &c. opp. τῷ 112}. Lee’s Heb. Lex. in voe.]
(3 bowed: bent.] ”
[6 that Lamb, ed. 1577; agnus 1116, Lat.]
Now the sacrifices of consecrating, I mean, of the priests, of the tabernacle, and of all the vessels or instruments belonging to the holy ministery, are in many points all one with the burnt-offerings, and in some things differing from them: as is fully to be seen in the twenty-ninth of Exodus and the eighth of Leviticus. And Christ our Lord did first begin the priesthood by his passion, and after that hallowed all the faithful to be priests unto himself.
The second kind of sacrifices was the oblation, which they called minha; a gift, reward, or sacrifice of a wheaten cake; and by another name was called a meat-offering. This sacrifice was of the fruits of the earth, and was not offered always after one sort: for there are reckoned three kinds of this sacrifice. For there was offered either parched wheat, sticking in the ears; or wheat out of the ears, or else clean meal, unbaked; or, at leastwise, meal made up into bread; which bread again was made three sundry ways, and in three sundry fashions. For either it was baked in an oven, or furnace; or else sod in a pot, or a caldron; or else fried in a fryingpan, like unto cakes. To these there was added, as sauce to the sacrifice, salt, oil, and frankincense. Honey and leaven were by a general rule utterly barred from all sorts of sacrifices. For cakes made with honey were never allowed of, nor admitted in their offerings: yet in the feast of thanksgiving they did eat leavened bread. Therefore, when any man did offer wheat, it was first anointed by the priest with oil, then seasoned with salt, and last of all had frankincense put upon it: after that the priest took one handful from out of all (but in the sacrifice for the priest all was burnt), and burnt it upon the altar; the rest he did reserve, as a share to himself, And in all meat-offerings frankincense was always used, except in the sacrifice for sin and in the sacrifice of jealousy; as is to be seen in the fifth of Leviticus and the fifth of the book of Numbers. The rest that belongeth to the full rites and ceremonies of the meat-offerings whosoever is desirous to know, he shall find them in the second chapter of Leviticus. For I mean not here particularly to repeat every jot and tittle of their accustomed ceremonies.
Now even as Christ was before prefigured in beasts and birds, so also is he represented in this bread or cakes. For
[6 cibarium, Lat
he is the bread of life, and hath sundry fashions of infirmity and glory. In Christ thou shalt not find any leaven, that is, sin, uncharitableness, hypocrisy, or pride. There is in Christ no sweetness, nor honey-like taste, of worldly or wicked pleasures. But salt thou mayest find in him, a well seasoned temperature altogether heavenly, and most absolute wisdom. Because of Christ, and for his sake, all things of ours are acceptable unto God; for Christ his sake our prayers are heard of God the Father: upon Christ, therefore, there is a sweet-smelling frankincense in the nose of God the Fatherl. And in these ceremonies are also shadowed the manner and matter of our sacrifices; to wit, that they should be without hypocrisy, bitterness, hatred, envy, and fleshly pleasure, and should be seasoned with godly and continual prayers.
With the meat-offerings we may place the drink-offerings also?, For in those sacrifices wine was poured out unto the Lord, as is evident in the twenty-ninth of Exodus, the twenty-third of Leviticus, and the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Numbers. Now Christ is our wine, our drink, and joy unto eternal life. He poureth himself into the minds of the godly, that he may fill them with joy, and live in them and they in him. And therefore did he consecrate in wine the memory of his blood that was shed for us to the remission of our sins.
With these meat-offerings may be joined the sacrifices of the first-fruits, of the first-begotten, and of the tenths: touching all which there is much to be read in divers places of the law; as in the thirteenth and twenty-third of Exodus, in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy, and the eighteenth of the book of Numbers. Now Christ is the first-begotten and the first-fruits of all the faithful, for whose worthiness and merit we are all spared, and by whom we, being sanctified, are made the sons and? heirs of God. To him, as to our Maker and Redeemer, we owe, as tenths, our very souls, and whatsoever else is dear unto (and good in) us. Moreover, it is a point of thankfulness frankly to bestow upon God part of our earthly riches, which we have at his hands, to the main-
[1 The Latin is only, Est ergo thus super Christo. 03.) [3 adeoque Lat.; and so also
tenance of his true worship, and the relief of all that be in poverty.
The third kind of sacrifice is that which is offered for sin, and is therefore called Hattah?, a cleansing, or Aschams, a sacrifice for sin. We in one word may call it a cleansing sacrifice’. For it was offered for sin committed unwittingly or by ignorance; (which by the degrees of the sinners were divided into four sorts; as, if the chief priest did sin, if the whole church did sin, if the prince did sin, or if some man of the meaner sort did sin:) or else they did offer it for sin committed willingly, or of a set purpose, being yet a mean or excusable? sin; or else for a great and heinous crime, which ignorance could by no means excuse. The ceremony used in this sacrifice is very ample and large, so that I mean not presently once to touch it It is most exquisitely set down in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Leviticus. Neither is it to be doubted but that Christ was laid before their eyes, as well in that sacrifice, as in all their other oblations. For Christ is the end of the law, (and the mark whereto the ceremonial laws did tend!?.) And Esay in the fifty-third chapter of his prophecy saith: Whereas he never did unrighteousness, nor any deceitfulness was found in his mouth; yet hath it pleased the Lord to smite him with infirmity; that when he had made his soul an offering for 51η}}, (for here is put Dw Ascham,) “he might see seed, and might prolong his days, and that the advice of the Lord might prosper in his hand.” To this belongeth that whole disputation of the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, wherein he sheweth that Christ is the true sacrifice for sin, that cleanseth all the church and the sins thereof’?. In this ceremony were shadowed? the disposition of sins’, the passions of Christ, and the power and strength of death’s.
[4 nan.) [6 piaculare, Lat.]
[6 ΣΝ] [7 sacrificium expiatorium, Lat.]
[8 mediocri is Bullinger’s one word here.
[9 adeo ut in presenti per compendium commemorare non placeat, ᾿ This sentence between brackets is an addition of the translator’s.] Lat.
[11 hostiam delicti, vel victimam pro culpa, Lat. ] [12 et peccata omnia, Lat.] [18 partim, Lat. omitted; partly. ] [14 ingenia, Lat.] [15 passionis Christi et mortis virtus, Lat. ]]
[[BULLINGER, II.] 13]
Now these many and sundry sacrifices, appointed for sins, “were kept uncertainly!, because they were wont to be offered of them that sinned at that very time when they did commit the sin: but the certain, the yearly, and universal sacrifice was that which is at large described in the sixteenth of Leviticus, and may be referred in this place to the number of cleansing sacrifices. For in the feast of atonement, upon the tenth day of the seventh month every year, was solemnized the sacrifice of cleansing, or atonement, for all the sins universally of all the people. The manner of this general sacrifice I will not over-busily at this time describe, since it is as clearly as the light set down in that place of Leviticus which even now I cited; and since I, in expounding the mystery thereof, do mean to shew, and make plain, so many shadows in it as are needful to be marked. For I will say somewhat touching the meaning and mystery thereof.
In that most pleasant glass was figured the whole passion, and effect of the passion, of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour; which by that sacrifice was every year laid before 1 the eyes and renewed to the minds of all the faithful church of God. For this manner of representing our redemption and salvation did please God, by sacraments, rather than by pictures, colours, or by stage-plays; which are at this day greatly set by, although scarce godly, by no small number of trifling and fantastical heads.
Now mark, that the high priest only did all that was to be done in this solemn sacrifice; save only that two ministers were joined unto him, the one to lead away the scape-goat, and the other to carry out of the host the bullock and hegoat that was to be offered. Yea, charge is very precisely given, that no man should join himself to the high priest, when he entereth into the tabernacle, and maketh an atonement for the sins of the people. ‘ Let no man,” saith the Lord, “be in the tabernacle of appointment, when he goeth in to make sacrifice in the sanctuary, until he do come out again.” For no man must be joined to Christ in finishing the work of our salvation and redemption. For he alone is
[1 conceptiva erant, Lat.] [2 Viz the Miracle Plays, or Mysteries—the Easter representations]
[of our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, &c. Brand’s Pop. Antiq.]
[Vol. 1.]]
the Saviour; he alone hath trode the press, and he alone was crucified for us. The patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all other creatures, are utterly excluded from having any thanks for our redemption and salvation. Christ alone remaineth the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. To attribute our salvation to creatures, to our own works and our own merits, is to admit creatures with the high priest into the tabernacle, and to incur the indignation, that is, the terrible curse, of the almighty, true, and everliving God. For by the Jewish high priest is prefigured to us Christ our Saviour, who, as the apostle Paul saith, hath a priesthood, which by succession cannot go from him to any other3.
~ Now Aaron did take a bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering, of his own; and of the people he took two he-goats. Therefore Christ our Lord, the true and only priest of his church, did offer for us the thing that he took of us, to wit, the substance of our flesh. There is added also, that Aaron, (by which name we understand every one that was the high priest among the people of God), when he went about to sacrifice, did clothe himself with the usual and common garments of the other priests (I mean, such as the other priests were wont to wear), saving only that they were holy and without spot. For, although Christ the Son of God did take our nature upon him, and did become like unto us, being clad, as it were, in the usual garment of us men; yet, notwithstanding, his fleshly garment (I mean, his body that was like to ours) was altogether free from corruption, and clean without all spots of sin.
Aaron did first of all kill a steer for himself and his family: whereby he declared that he was not the very and true high priest, but the type of him that was the true priest. For Paul saith: “Our high priest had no need, as those high priests had, first to offer sacrifices for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did that once, when he offered up himself.” Afterwards Aaron drew lots at the door of the tabernacle, to try betwixt the two goats, which should be slain for the sacrifice, and which should be sent away as
[8 Heb. viii. 24, “hath an unchangeable priesthood;” ἀπαράβατον]
[ἔχει τὴν ἱερωσύνην, one that cannot pass on to a successor. See Schleus-]
[ner. P.] [6 his fleshly—to ours, not in Lat.; he is altogether, &c.] 13—=2]
the scape-goat into the desert. The two goats do signify Christ our Lord, very God and very man, in two natures unseparated. He is slain, and dieth in his humanity; but is not slain nor dieth in his divinity. Yet he, being one and the same Christ, unseparated, is the Saviour of the world, and doth work the redemption of us mortal men. So in the two goats was a mystery hidden. And for because, as Solomon saith, the lots are guided by the Lord’s will, it was not without the especial will of the Father that the Son was sacrificed, and killed on the cross.
Moreover, the high priest did take the blood, first of the bullock, then of the slain goat, and a censer in his hand, and went within the veil, where with the incense he did make a cloud of smoke before the mercy-seat, and with his finger did sprinkle the blood seven times toward the mercy-seat. All which the apostle Paul expounding in the ninth to the Hebrews saith, that “Christ entered not into the tabernacle made with hands, but into the very heavens; not with the blood of a bullock, or a goat, but with his own blood, and found for us a perpetual ii. 2.] cleansing and remission of our sins.” For “he is our propitiation; not for our sins only, but also for the sins of all the world.” And hereunto did the apostles allude, as often as they called Christ our propitiation; as St Paul in the third to the Romans, and St John in the second and fourth chapter of his first epistle. Now the seven times sprinkling of the blood betokened the full perfection, or perfect fulness, of the cleansing. We have need also to be sprinkled with the finger, not of man, but of Christ? Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, whose finger is the Holy Ghost, by whom our cleansing doth come upon us. To the sprinkling of the blood is also added sweet-smelling incense?: for, as the apostle testifieth, Christ, our high priest, did offer prayers for us with tears, and was heard in that which he feared. Whereupon, by the cloud of smoke, that is, by the great quantity of smoke, was noted the great efficacy of earnest prayers.
When that was done, the high priest went again into the
[1 secundum id quod mori potuit, Lat. ] [3 summi nostri Pontificis, Lat.; our High-priest.] [ incensum aromaticum contusum, Lat.; of beaten, pounded,]
[aromatics. [ Heb. v. 7, pro reverentia, Lat.; for his piety. Auth. Ver. marg.]]
sanctum, and set the blood upon the golden altar of incense. For in the work of our redemption both innocent blood and earnest prayer for us must be joined together. Out of the sanctum again he came to the altar of burnt-offerings, which stood in the court (which was called atrium), and there he gave the other goat to a convenient man to be carried away into the wilderness: but in the delivering of the goat he used a precise manner and singular ceremony. For the high priest laid both his hands upon the goat, and over his head did confess the sins of the people, who also did themselves confess their sins, following the priest, clause by clause, in all the confession which he rehearsed: and then, so soon as all the sins were laid upon the head of the goat, he was sent away, that by that means he might carry the sins of all the people into the desert. From this ceremony did the Gentiles undoubtedly borrow their kind of cleansings or purgings of the people, called in Greek καθάρματαϊ, and in Latin piamina. For their manner was, in extreme perils, that one should give himself for all the rest,whom they took, and did either kill and burn upon the altar, or cast into the water; praying therewithal, that all their evil luck might go with him, and that the gods being pacified with the death of him might again be favourable to all the rest. But the wretches erred as far as heaven is wide: for Christ the Son of God was made sin for us, that is, he was made a sacrifice for sin, yea, he became a curse for us, that we by him might receive a blessing. For to this had the prophet Esay an eye, when he said: “We all went astray like sheep; every one turned after his own way: but the Lord hath thrown down upon him? all our sins.” Again: “He was wounded for our offences, and smitten for our wickedness.” And again: “The pains of our punishment were laid upon him, and he bare our griefs!.”
[5 See Lightfoot’s Temple Service, chap. 15. Works, Vol. 1. p. 963.]
[Lond. 1684. See above, p. 169, note 8. ] [6 totius ecclesize, Lat. ] [7 kabappara—homines ignobiles et scelerati, qui publice alebantur]
[3 et grassante peste aliove malo graviore immolabantur ad expiandum]
[urbem aut civitatem Deorumque iram avertendam. Schleusner, in voc.]]
[$y [8 unius, Lat.]]
[i [9 effecit in illum incurrere, Lat. ] [10 Tsai. liii. 6, 8, 5. For the payne of oure punyshmét shal be]
[layde upd him. Coverdale, 1535. But this last quotation in the Latin]
Now the goat did carry the sins into the desert, not that the sins should not be, but that they should not be any more imputed unto them. For in the church verily there is sin in the saints, but it is not imputed unto them. Sin is imputed to all them that are without the church, in the desolate wilderness. The convenient man, that should carry away the scape-goat, can be none other than Christ himself, who in the days of his flesh did observe the convenient time and fit occasion, repeating oftentimes that his hour was not yet come; but at the last, when time convenient was come for him to die, he said that then his hour was come. And by dying he carried away conveniently the scape-goat, I mean!, the sin of all the world.
When this also was thus accomplished, the high priest did again wash himself; and, putting off the common garments of the inferior priests, did again put on his high priest’s attire. Now this often and manifold washing in the holy ceremony is a shadow, or type, of the most absolute remission of sins; even as also the changing of a garment is a sign or figure of glorification; as is at the full to be seen in the third chapter of Zachary’s prophecy. And Christ, being glorified, did enter into heaven, there to appear in the sight of God, the only and effectual sacrifice for us mortal men. Therefore did Aaron sacrifice a ram for a burnt-offering: for Christ is the sacrifice which endureth always, and purgeth all the faithful.
Moreover, Aaron sent the bullock and the other goat unto the holy place without the host, that there they might be burned. Which thing Paul expoundeth thus, and saith: “The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest for sin, was burnt without the tents: therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his blood, did suffer without the gate.” Heb. xiii.
And although in this which I have hitherto alleged I have by fits? declared the end and fruit of this ceremony, yet will I not think it much here again particularly to repeat the same again; since I see that the Holy Ghost in the scripture doth, as it were, take pains very busily to beat the same into our heads.
[is of verse 4: Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et dolores nostros ipse]
[portavit. ] [1 adeoque, Lat.] [2 sparsim, Lat.]]
The end of all this stir and solemnity 158, that all the sins, I say, all the sins of God’s universal church, are by the one and only sacrifice, once only offered, most perfectly blotted out? and absolutely purged. Let us, therefore, hear the very words of the Holy Ghost, which speaketh in the scripture most plainly and evidently, saying: First, “And the high priest shall confess over the goat all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their trespasses and all their sins,” “And the goat shall bear upon him all their misdeeds into the desert.” Thirdly, “The same day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.” Fourthly, “And let this be an everlasting ordinance unto you, to cleanse the children of Israel from all their sins once every year.” But who is so very a sot or dull head as to think, that all the sins. of the people are washed away with the blood of beasts? “If,” saith the apostle, “they had once fully cleansed sins, then would they have ceased to offer any more.” By this ceremony, therefore, the mystery of Christ to come was beaten into all men’s brains, and once every year laid forth to the eyes of all men to behold. For of this ceremony did Zachary borrow his prophecy of Christ, in his third chapter, where he saith: Behold, I bring forth the Branch, my servant. For, lo, the stone that I lay before Josua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will cut the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will take away the sin of this land in one day.” The Lord doth promise the Messiah, which was prefigured by the priests, and especially by ὅ the high priest Josua. Christ is the stone, upon which the eyes of all men are stedfastly fixed, as upon their only Saviour. He is digged in, and cut, in his passion; and by suffering and dying once he purgeth the sins of all the earth.
Of this ceremony, and of this place of scripture, did Paul, the holy apostle of Christ, borrow his whole discourse almost in his epistle to the Hebrews, touching the sacrifice of Christ once offered for all the sins of the whole world: in which discourse he doth very often repeat out of the law the word “once,” and that with a certain emphatical vehemency.
[38 omnium, Lat.; stir and solemnity, not in Lat.] medio sublata, Lat.] [5 of, 1587.)
Now, to appoint other priests, to institute another time, and fo ordain another manner of sacrifice, is utterly to kick… αὐ, and tread under foot, this heavenly and most evident truth. But this doctrine of the only sacrifice of Christ is the true, ancient, sound, unreproveable, and everlasting doctrine: by which all they are saved that are saved, and by which all they have been saved, that have been saved since the beginning of the world. The enemies or adversaries of this doctrine Paul, the apostle of Christ and the Gentiles, (whose skill in the law was inferior to no man’s,) doth call fools, mad, unconstant, light-headed, carried with every puff of
I: wind, wicked, apostates, which have revolted from Christ, liars, ΙΝ, false prophets, false apostles, deceivers, schismatics, dogs, enchanters, witches, detestable, and cursed. Therefore, if an angel from heaven teach us any otherwise, let him be to us accursed.
Yet by the way this must not be concealed, that in that yearly sacrifice it was required and looked for at men’s hands, first, that they should confess their sins; then, that they should be sorry in their minds, in good earnest and indeed, for their sins committed; and lastly, that they should keep sabbath,—I do not mean an idle resting from honest business, but a quietness in the faith of Christ and a ceasing from ill deeds. Whosoever doth so prepare himself in the feast of atonement, that is, in the time of the preaching of the grace of God through Christ, he is without doubt throughly cleansed by that only sacrifice of Christ Jesus: of which I have hitherto not without good cause spoken so largely as you perceive that I have. For this one place doth give a wonderful light both to the understanding of many places in the scriptures, and also of the mystery of our redemption, and of Christ our Redeemer, so plainly, that no other place doth so clearly expound, set forth, and lay them open before our eyes to be seen and looked on: it doth also teach us to understand the words of Christ our Lord in the gospel of St John, where he saith, There is one which
accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye hope: for had ye believed Moses, ye would then have believed me; for he wrote of me,”
Now with the sacrifice of atonement and the other cleansing sacrifices we do advisedly number the sacrifice of the red
vix alius, Lat.; scarce any other.)
cow; I mean, of the cleansing, or of the cleansing or holy water, that was ordained against all sorts of defilings and uncleannesses. For there were sundry kinds of uncleannesses; of which there is a large discourse to be seen in Moses his law: and by them is laid before us the type of our corrupt nature and continual sins. There is fully described, in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, first the very ceremony and sacred rite; then 15 declared the manner how to make the holy cleansing water against all defilings; lastly is added the use and effect of that holy water.
There was brought to Eleazar-the priest a red cow without spot, which never felt the yoke, and that was out of hand carried out and slain without the host. Part of the blood was saved by the priest, and with his finger he sprinkled it seven times towards the tabernacle of appointment: but the whole cow he burnt with fire, so that no part of it was left; and into the fire he cast cedar-wood, hyssop, and a scarlet lace. This being once done, the priest did wash himself in water, and in his stead came another that was clean? who, gathering the ashes, did lay them up in a clean place. Therefore, so often as need required, they did put off those ashes into an earthen vessel, into which they poured running water?; and in that sort was the holy cleansing water always prepared, which they did sprinkle with a sprinkler made of hyssop upon all such as were defiled. This was the manner and ceremony of the cleansing, the use and end whereof doth immediately follow.
The apostle Paul doth testify, that the circumstances of this ceremony did lay before us a most evident type of Jesus Christ: for in the ninth chapter to the Hebrews he saith: “If the ashes of a young cow, sprinkled, doth sanctify them that are partakers of it to the purifying of the flesh, how much more the blood of Christ!” Therefore both the priest and the cow did bear the type of Christ. The female kind in the cow doth note the infirmity of man’s nature; the red colour doth admonish us of the Lord his blood, by which we are washed from our uncleanness. There was no spot to be found in Christ; for he was the Holy of holies, and altogether free from and without all sin. He was not brought to death by the yoke of necessity; for he offered himself unto it of
[2 vir mundus, Lat.] [3 aqua viva, Lat.]
202 THE THIRD DECADE. [sERrM. his own free will: yea, he offered himself willingly to go to his death, and that too without the host or walls of the city, in the mount of Calvary: which thing the apostle Paul doth touch in the thirteenth to the Hebrews. Christ, both God and man, was wholly offered in body and soul: whose blood is wholesome! for us, if by the Holy Ghost it be sprinkled in our hearts. The faithful also must die with Christ; they must be humbled, and burn in love to God-ward as red as scarlet?: and that was the meaning of the cedarwood, the hyssop, and the scarlet lace, which were cast into the fire.
Moreover, the ashes which came of the sacrifice were gathered up and preserved to purify and cleanse withal. Those ashes were nothing else but the type or figure of the effect of Christ his death or sacrifice; I mean, the very cleansing and remission of our sins. For therefore did blood and water gush abundantly out of the pierced side of Christ? that we might learn that out of the death of Christ doth flow our cleansing and our life: for in blood life doth consist, and water purgeth and is a sign of cleansing. The ashes were gathered by a man that was clean, who nevertheless was made, and did remain, unclean until the evening. Finally, the water was sprinkled with a sprinkler made of hyssop upon the defiled, to the end that thereby he might be sanctified or purged. The water was kept in an holy place: for margarites?, and that which is holy, ought not to be cast to dogs and filthy swine. The Lord also doth require preachers to teach the effect of Christ his passion, and in the contemptible and lowly? preaching of the gospel to lay before the world our redemption and sanctification in the death and blood of Christ: he doth require, I say, such holy teachers as are themselves faithful and cleansed in the blood of Christ. And yet those teachers, with the whole church beside, do even till
[1 salutaris, Lat.] [2 ardere amore divino et extolli, Lat. As red as scarlet,’ is the]
[translator’s addition. ] [ morientis et jam extincti Christi, Lat.; of Christ, when dying,]
[and now already dead.] [ margarite, Lat.; pearls, Matth. vii. 6.] [5 coram mundo, Lat.; as the world esteems it. The translator]
[missed the meaning of these words, when he rendered them, “to lay]
[before the world.” Bullinger had in his mind 1 Cor. i. 20—29.]]
the evening, I mean, the ending of their lives, pray still, “Forgive us our trespasses.” For the Lord himself said; “He that is washed is clean, and hath no need but to wash his feet only.” To this do appertain the often washings used in this ceremony, which signify that by the grace of God all sins.are purged; that the saints have always an holy care to watch against the assaults of sin; and that those sins are cleansed none other ways but by the water of Christ his grace. Lastly, it is most often and earnestly repeated in the law, that they all remain unclean, how many soever, being once defiled, are not again cleansed with the holy water of separation. For the Lord said to Peter, “Unless I wash thee, thou shalt have no part with me.”
My meaning is not to run through every particular point of this ceremony, but to touch the especial matters only. Therefore now I proceed to that which remaineth.
To these cleansing sacrifices may also be added the sacrifices whereby the bodily defilings, which were figures of the defilings of sin, were purified and cleansed: of which sort were the defilings of the seed, the eating and touching of unclean creatures, the leprosy, and of the woman in child-bed: all which Moses doth largely handle from the twelfth of Leviticus unto the fifteenth of the same. And in all this there is nothing else prefigured to the church of God but our natural corruption and original wickedness, with the free cleansing of the same by the grace of God in the blood of Christ our Saviour. With these we may also number the sacrifice of jealousy; which is thoroughly treated of in the fifth chapter of Numbers: although the manner and order thereof seemeth rather to belong unto the judicial laws of God.
The fourth kind of sacrifices was the sacrifice of thanksgiving, which they called schelamim, or scholomim?, the sacrifice of health, or the peace-offering: for it was offered to give thanks withal, to wit, either for the recovery of health, or for felicity and prosperity; I mean, when they had received some good turn at the hands of God, or else by his aid had escaped the brunt of some mishap or evil fortune. In this sacrifice they used a beast either of the herd or of the - sacrificium eucharistiee, gratiarum actionis, vel gratulatorium, Lat.
fold: it was not lawful to offer birds; for it was done either with a bullock or an heifer, with a male or a female lamb, or with an he or she-goat. It was slain before the atrium: the hide or skin thereof was the priest’s fee. The blood was sprinkled about the altar. The kidneys, the caul of the liver, the rump of the lamb, and all the fat, was burnt upon the altar of burnt-offerings. The right shoulder was heaved, the breast was waved toward the ends of the world. (For and thruma and thnupha?, that is, the heaving and waving, were not kinds of sacrifices, but ceremonies only, which the priests did use in making their sacrifices and oblations. By the heaving was signified, that Christ should be heaved or lifted up, and that he, being once lifted up, should draw all men unto him. The waving of the breast toward every part of the world was a token, that the preaching of Christ should be spread in every corner of the world.) The breast and the shoulder were both the priest’s portion, together with the jawbone and the paunch or belly. The rest of the flesh returned to him that made the oblation, and was eaten by him in an holy banquet. The remnant of ceremonies belonging to this sacrifice are to be found in the third chapter of Leviticus. For if it were thoda?, a confession, a praise, or a protestation, then was added to the sacrifice a cake of pure wheat flour and salt steeped in oil, or sodden cracknels, or bread baken in pans: part whereof was heaved, and fell to the priest’s share; the rest returned to the offerer, even as also leavened bread was allowed to be eaten in the banquet.
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