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SERMON XXXIX.

CHRIST OUR PASSOVER:

A SERMON PREACHED ON EASTER-DAY, AT HIGHAM, 1648.

1 CORINTHIANS v. 7.

For Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast.

THE feast: that is, the Passover of the Jews, then expiring: or the Christians' Easter, then succeeding. Indeed, I know not whether both be not alluded to: for this Epistle is conceived to have been written by the Apostle some twenty-four years after our Saviour's Passion; ere which time, it is more than probable, that the feast of Christ's Resurrection was solemnly celebrated by the Christian Church. This I am sure of, that no record in all history mentions the time when it began to be kept; and, therefore, it is most likely, according to Augustin's received rule, to be deduced from the observation of the Apostles. There were ancient and eager quarrels, betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches, about the day whereon it should be kept; but whether it should be kept or no, there was never yet any question, since Christianity looked forth into the world. And, as that Pasche, so this Easter, is justly the Feast, for the eminency of it above the rest: for, if we do with joy and thankfulness, according to the angel's message, solemnize the day wherein the Son of God, our Blessed Redeemer, being born, entered the life of human nature; how much more should we celebrate that day, wherein, having conquered all the powers of death and hell, he was, as it were, born again to the life of a glorious immortality!

But, to leave the time, and come to the Text. This for, that leads it in, is both a relative and an illative: referring to what he had said in the foregoing words; and inferring a necessary consequence of the one clause upon the other: Purge out the old leaven; for Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us.

The whole text is allegorical; alluding to the charge and duty of God's ancient people, the Jews, in the observation of their passover: who, upon no less pain than cutting off from the congregation of Israel, must admit of no leavened bread to be eaten or found in their houses, during the whole seven days of this cele

brity; as you may see Exod. xii. 17, 18, &c. As, therefore, the ceremonial passover would admit of no material leaven; so the spiritual passover may not abide any leaven of wickedness: Purge therefore out the old leaven; for Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us.

The first work, then, that we have to do, is, to cast back our eyes to THE GROUND OF THIS INSTITUTION; and to enquire, why no leaven might consist with the Jewish passover. And we shall find, that there was not the same reason of the first observation of this ceremony, and of the following. The first was Necessity: Devotion was the ground of the rest.

Necessity first: for, in that sudden departure which they were put upon, there could be no leisure to leaven their dough; as you may see, Exod. xii. 39.

Devotion, afterward; in a grateful recognition, both of their own servile condition, and of the gracious providence of God.

In the Former, they were called to look back upon their old Egyp tian servitude, by their unleavened bread: for this was, the bread of affliction, as we turn it; or, the bread of the poor, as the word signifies; which they must now eat, to put them in mind of their hard and poor condition in Egypt, under their evil taskmasters, all their lives after; as Deut. xvi. 3. To the same purpose it was, that they must eat the lamb; not with sour herbs, as it had wont to be turned; for a sharp kind of sourness in sauces is esteemed pleasing and tasteful: but with bitter herbs; yea, as the word is in the original, by, cum amaritudinibus, with bit

ternesses.

In the Latter, they were minded of a double providence of the Almighty one, that God was pleased to fetch them out of Egypt in a happy suddenness, even when they had no leisure to make up their batch; the other, that he sustained them with this unleavened dough, till he sent them manna in the wilderness. The one was the bread of the poor; the other, the bread of angels. As therefore he would have a pot of manna kept in the ark, for a monument of that miraculous food, wherewith he fed them in the desert; so he thought good to ordain this observation of unleavened bread, for a perpetual memorial of their provision preceding it.

And this was not only a charge, but a sanction; under the severe penalty, whether of excommunication, or death, or both: both for the authority of the commander, and for the weight of the institution: whereby God meant, both to rub up their memory of a temporal benefit past; and to quicken their faith in a greater spiritual favour of their future redemption from sin and death, by the blood of that True Paschal-Lamb, which should be sacrificed for

them.

This is the Ground of this Institution.

Now let us, if you please, enquire a little into the ground of this allusion to the leaven; THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICATION OF THIS IMPLIED COMPARISON here mentioned. And we shall easily find, that leaven hath

First a Diffusive Faculty: so it is taken, both in the good part, and the evil. In good: so the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened; Matth. xiii. 33: lo, these same cára Teía, were more than a bushel of our measure; and one morsel of leaven seasons it all. In evil: so here, immediately before my Text, in an ordinary Jewish proverb, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Secondly, it hath in itself a Displeasing Sourness. In which regard it is an ill construction, attributed both to false doctrine, and to evil manners. To false doctrine: Take heed, saith our Saviour, of the leaven of the Pharisees; Matth. xvi. 6. To ill manners: so, in the next words, ye have the leaven f malice and wickedness.

I. So then here, the very INFERENCE offers us these Two necessary Heads of our Discourse: 1. That SIN, or THE SINNER, for it may be taken of either or both, IS SPIRITUAL LEAVEN 2. That THIS LEAVEN must be purged out, because Christ is our passover, and sacrificed for us.

1. For the FIRST: sin hath the true qualities of leaven; both in respect of the Offensive Sourness, and of the Diffusion.

(1.) In the Former nothing can be so distasteful unto God, as sin. Indeed, nothing can displease, but it; as nothing is so sweet and pleasing to him, as the obedience of his faithful ones. If any edible thing could be more offensive to the palate, sin would be likened to it. As, indeed, it is still resembled by whatsoever may be most abhorring to all the senses. To the sight so it is compared to filth; Isaiah iv. 4. Psalm xiv. 3. to beastly excrements; 2 Peter ii. 22. to spots and blemishes; 2 Peter ii. 13. to menstruous and polluted blood; Ezek. xvi. 6. To the smell: so to a corrupted ointment; to the stench of a dead carcase: what should I instance in the rest? How should it be other than highly offensive to the Majesty of God, when it is professedly opposite to divine Justice; since all sin is the transgression of the royal law? Even the conscience, which is God's taster, finds it abominably loathsome how much more that God, who is greater than the conscience! who so abhors it, that, as we are wont to do to the potsherd which hath held poisonous liquor, he throws away and breaks the very vessel, wherein it was: as he, that finds a hair or a coal in the daintiest bit, spits it out all. Did God find sin in his angels? He tumbles them down out of heaven. Doth he find sin in our first parents? He hurls them out of paradise. Yea, did he find our sins laid upon the Blessed Son of his Love; of his nature? He spares him not a whit; but lays load upon him, till he roars out in the anguish of his soul. Lo, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisements of our peace were upon him, and by his stripes we are healed; Isaiah liii. 5. And to whom should we rather conform ourselves, than to the Most Holy God? What diet should we affect, but his, who is the rule of all perfection? How then should we utterly abhor every evil way! How should we hate our sins with a perfect ha

tred! And surely, the more ill savour and loathliness we can find in our bosom sins, the nearer we come to the purity of that Holy One of Israel, our Blessed Redeemer, whose style it is, Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; Psalm xlv. 7. Oh, then, be we perfect, as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purge your hearts, ye double minded. What shall we say then to the disposition of those men, that can find no savour in any thing but their sins? No morsel goes down sweetly, merrily, with them but this. Woe is me! how do they cheer themselves, with the hope of enjoying their sinful plea sures! How do they recreate themselves, with the memory of their fore-passed filthiness! how do they glory in that licentious liberty, which they indulge unto themselves! how do they, event when they are grown old and past beastly action, tickle themselves with the wanton remembrances of their younger bestialities! Yea, so hath the delight in sin most woefully besotted them, that they respect not friends, estate, children, health, body, soul; in comparison of the bewitching contentment they find in their sins. Oh poor miserable souls! Oh, the wretchedest of all creatures; not men, but beasts! Let me not seem either unmannerly or unchari table, to speak from the mouth of God's Spirit: you know the word Canis ad vomitum; The Dog to his vomit; The swine to its mire. And, if they will needs be dogs, how can they look for any other, but dogs' entertainment? Foris Canes; without shall be dogs: Rev. xxii. 15. But for us, Dear Christians, let me take up that obtestation of the Psalmist, Oh, all ye, that love the Lord, hate the thing which is sin; Psalm xcvii. 10. Let us hate even the gar ment spotted with the flesh; yea, let us hate ourselves, that we can hate our sins no more. And if, at any time, through the frailty of our wretched nature, and the violence of temptation, we be drawn into a sinful action; yet, let us take heed of being leavened with wickedness: Purge out the old leaven; for Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us.

(2.) Now, as sin is leaven in respect of the souring quality of it, so also in respect of the Diffusive. It began with one angel, and infected legions. It began with one woman: it infected all the generation of mankind. Let it take hold of one faculty; it infecteth the whole soul and body. Let it seize upon one person in a family; it corrupts the whole house. From thence it spreads over the neighbourhood; and taints whole towns, cities, regions: as it is with certain contagious diseases, that have not been bounded with mountains or seas. It is very pregnant, which St. Paul speaks of Hymeneus and Philetus, whose word, saith he, will eat as doth a canker, or a gangrene; 2 Tim. ii. 17. Ye see how a gangrene, even from the least toe, soon strikes the heart: and the canker, from a scarce sensible beginning, consumes the gums, eats through the cheek, eats down the nose; and will admit of no limits, but deformity and death. Thus it is with sin; whether intellectual or moral. Arianism began in a family; spread over the world. And Antinomianism began in one minister of this diocese, and how

much it is spread, I would rather lament, than speak. I doubt not but many of you who hear me this day have had lamentable proofs of this truth: let there be but a drunkard or a swearer in a family, how soon hath this scabbed sheep tainted the whole flock. Grace, and godliness, is not so easily propagated: sin hath the advantage of the proclivity of our wicked nature; it hath the wind and tide both with it; goodness hath both against it: health doth not use to be taken from others; but sickness doth,

Since our wickedness is of so spreading a nature,

First, How careful should we be to prevent and resist the very first beginnings of sin! It is a thousand times more easy, to keep the flood-gates shut; than to drain the lower grounds, when they are once overflown.

Secondly, How shy and weary should we be, of joining societies with the infectious; whether in opinion, or in manners! A man, that is a heretic, reject; saith St. Paul, Titus iii. 10. If any man, that is called a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a railer, or an idolater, or a drunkard, with such a one eat not; 1 Cor. v. 11. Withdraw yourselves from the tents of these men, &c. Into their secret, &c,

Thirdly, How much doth it concern all public persons, whether ecclesiastical or civil, to improve their authority to the utmost, for the timely preventing of the spreading of vice; and for the severe censure and expurgation of those, whom the Psalmist, as the ori ginal word signifies, calls leavened persons; Psalm Ixxi. 4! The palpable neglect whereof hath been a shameful eye-sore to the conscientious beholders; a foul blemish to the Gospel; and a just scandal upon the Church. And, though another man's sin cannot infect me, unless I do partake with him in it; yet a true Lot will vex his righteous soul, with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites: and even others' sins may help to draw down judgments upon the community, wherein they live. Good reason, that all care should be taken for purging out the old leaven; that so, the old leaven being purged out, the whole lump may be holy.

So much of the first point, that Sin is Leaven,

2. The second follows, that THIS LEAVEN MUST BE PURGED OUT, if we would have any interest in Christ, our passover, which is sacrificed for us:

The Inference, you see, doth necessarily imply so much. In vain should any Jew talk of keeping a passover to God, if he would eat the lamb with leavened bread. In vain should any Christian talk of applying Christ to his soul, while his heart willingly retains the leaven of any known sin.

Certainly, this is a common and a dangerous cozenage, whereby millions of souls cheat themselves into hell. They fondly think they may hold fair quarter with Christ, and yet give secret entertainment to their sins. Demas thinks he may embrace the present world; and yet need not leave his hold of Christ. Ananias and Sapphira will closely harbour a hypocritical sacrilege; and yet will be as good professors as the best. A Simon Magus will be a

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