surrection'. In which sense, Christ promised the penitent thief, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise; which no question the thief understood according to the common notion among the Jews; that is, not only to be remembered by Christ when he came into his kingdom, as he prayed to be, and to be happy with him for ever, both in soul and body after the resurrection; but in the mean time, to be in that happy state in respect to the soul, which the Jews commonly prayed for, when their friends were dying, Let his soul be in paradise, or with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hence the primitive Christians had the same opinion of paradise; and it is to be observed, that our Lord did not promise the penitent thief, that he should that day be with him. in his kingdom; for Christ was to ascend thither after his resurrection, and make way for all his servants to enter, in the same method in which he went before; but the crown of righteousness, the perfect consummation and bliss, is to be expected, when Christ shall invite at the great day, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom". Again, when the Jews would signify any thing unusual or difficult, they would sayo, "An elephant goes through a needle's eye;" which our Lord alludes to Matthew xix. 24.

Sixthly, Among the Jews, the man was wont to be espoused, or betrothed to his wife, some consi→ derable time before he married her; during which time he might visit, but not lie with her. This explains Matt. i. 18. Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together.

Seventhly, The Jews, in celebrating the great feast

1 Lightf. in Luc. xxiii. 48.

n Grot. in Luc. xxiii. 43. Bishop Taylor, Great Exemplar. part iii. ad Lightf. in Matt. xix. 24. in Matt. i. 18. Leo Modena, part iv. c. 3,

§. 16. num. 1.

m Luke xxiii. 43.

P. Lightf. Hor. 4 See Deut. xx. 7.

S

of the passover, were wont to use some particular sacramental phrases; which both clear our Saviour's intention in instituting the Lord's supper, and explain to us the sense of some expressions relating to it; for instance, as the lamb is termed in Scripture the Lord's passover, though it was only the memorial of it, so they were wont to call the lamb then eaten, The body of the lamb; and to say of the unleavened bread, This is the bread of affliction which our fathers did eat in Egypt; that is, a commemoration, or representation of it. Thus Christ says of the bread blessed and broken, and of the cup, This is my body, This is my blood; that is, to commemorate and represent his body broken and wounded, and blood shed; that by duly receiving it, we may both make a thankful memorial and representation of his death and sufferings, and also be made partakers of the benefits thereof. Again, as the Jewish passover was a feast upon the sacrifice of a lamb, for a thankful remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt, so is the Lord's supper a feast, upon the memorial of the sacrifice of Christ's body broken, and blood shed, for a thankful remembrance of Christ our passover's being sacrificed for us, in order to our deliverance from sin, death, and hell. Hence it is, that as the eucharist, or Lord's supper, is a commemorative sacrifice, so the Jewish term altar is applied to the Lord's table". Further, when the unleavened bread was set on the table, the master of the house blessed God, for having created the fruits of the earth: so Christ took bread, and blessed it, or gave thanks for it to God'. And as the master of the house blessed God for the fruit of the vine, when they drank of the wine, (thence termed

r Exod. xii. 11. u Heb. xiii. 10. Matt. xxvi. 26.

s Ham. in Matt. xxvi. 26. t Exod. xii. * Buxtorf. Synag. c. xviii. Lightf. Hor. in Luke xxii. 17.

by them the cup of blessing,) so is the cup which we drink, called by the Apostle, the cup of blessing. And, lastly, as the Jews sung an hymn of praise to God, at their passover supper, for his stupendous wonders, so Christ, with his apostles, sung an hymn at the conclusion of his supper.

e

There is a seeming difference in the relation given by the Evangelists of the passover, which Christ and the Jews eat that year in which he suffered. St. Matthew says, that Christ did eat the passover the evening before his death; and yet St. John tells us, that early the next morning, the Jews went not into the judgment-hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover. Of this there are two accounts given; the one, that by the passover in John is meant, not the paschal lamb, but the sheep and oxen eaten all the seven days of unleavened bread, which was called strictly the chagigah, but in a general sense the passover, as making one part of the solemnitys. The other account is, that Christ, the evening before his death, kept the passover in such manner, as the circumstances of his approaching death would allow; that is, by eating only the unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, (a part of the passover feast,) as it was usual for them to keep the passover at home, who could not go to Jerusalem". The former account is by many esteemed the most probable; because, when the disciples are said by St. Matthew to make provision to keep, and to eat the passover, it should seem that Christ, who on all occasions exactly observed the law, did keep and eat it as it ought to be kept and eaten, and at the usual

Lightf. Hor. in Joh. xviii. 28. and Dr. Whitby's Appendix to

the Gospel of St. Mark.

Dr. Wells on Matt. xxvi. 20.

h See Ham. in Mark xiv. 12. and

Chap. xxvi. 17, &c.

time, as one of the ancients observes; which St. Mark confirms, when he says, that when his disciples asked him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the passover, it was the first day of unleavened bread, at evening, when they (the Jews, according to custom) killed the passover ; and the guest chamber furnished at that time, and the hour being come", import the same; and that this was on Thursday evening, St. Paul assures, when he affirms, that Christ instituted the Lord's supper the same night in which he was betrayed", which is allowed to be at the same time when he eat the passover. What St. John says of the day when Christ suffered, it was the preparation of the passover, is understood to import only the passover Friday, or the Friday in the paschal festival, that is, the day before the paschal sabbath P.

Eighthly, The Jews, in reckoning their hours, divided the whole time from the sun-rising to the setting into twelve equal parts, beginning their account from sun-rising. So that when the sun was in the equinox, and the days and nights of equal length, then their hours of day and night were equal too; and their first hour of the day was our sixth to the seventh in the morning, their second hour was our eighth, and so on; their sixth hour was our twelfth at noon, and their twelfth hour was our sixth at night; but when the days were longer or shorter, then their hours proportionably took up more or less time; still they divided the day, or time the sun was up, how long or short soever, into twelve equal parts: hence, Are there not twelve hours in the day? so that the eleventh hour was the last hour

S

1 Cor. xi. 23.

! Chap. xiv. 12.
• John xix. 14.

in loc.

xi. 9.

Matt. xx. 9, 12.

m Luke

P As

xxii. 11, 14. Mark xv. 42, the gun is the reoraCaтov. See Dr. Whitby 4 Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. cap. 13. ad initium.

r John

t

of the day, save one. In such manner they reckoned the night, or time between sun-setting and the next rising; so that the third hour of the night might be our nine at night, their sixth hour of the night at midnight, and so on.

They had also three other noted times in the day of going to the temple to prayer", viz. the third, the sixth, and ninth hours; the first and last were the times of offering the daily burnt-offering, viz. at our nine in the morning, and three in the afternoon. Each of these stated times contained the space of three hours; and that whole space was called by the name of the hour on which it began: as from the third hour of the day to the sixth, was the third hour of prayer, because it began at the third hour, or our nine in the morning; so from the sixth hour of the day to the ninth was the sixth hour of prayer; and from the ninth hour to their twelfth was the ninth hour of prayer; as in the following table.

The upper line is our account, the lower is the Jewish.

There was also among the Jews another reckoning of their time, proper to be taken notice of, which is, that the natural day, consisting of one night and day", began with them at evening; so the evening and the morning were the first day, the evening being set before the morning, because

a

* Exod.

t Acts xxiii. 23. " Grot. in Matt. xxvii. 45. Ham. in Joh. xix. 6. and Luke ii. 8. Dr. Whitby in Acts iii. 1. xxix. 39. y Nux negov, Grot. and Ham. in Matt. xii. 40. 2 Cor. xi. 25.

a Gen. i.

z As