18. The method then is satisfactory as far as the complete course of the moon is concerned, inasmuch as three more days remain to complete the month. Easter then does not pass on into another month, since it will be kept within the same month, that is, the first. But that it is not fit that we should be tied to the letter, not only does the customary method of keeping Easter of itself instruct us, but the Apostle too teaches us, when he says, _Christ our Passover is sacrificed_. The passage also which has been cited teaches us that we are not to follow the letter, for thus it runs: _And thou shalt sacrifice the Passover to the Lord thy God on the fourteenth day of the first month_[137]. He uses the word ‘day’ in the place of ‘moon;’ and so the most skilful according to the law calculate the month by the moon’s course, and since the moon’s course, that is the first day, may begin with more than one of the nones, you perceive that the nones of May do still admit of being reckoned in the first month of the new fruits. Therefore even according to the judgement of the law this is the first ♦month. To conclude, the Greeks call the moon μήνη, owing to which they call the months in Greek μῆνες, and the ordinary usage of foreign nation employs moon in the sense of day. Sidenote: Exod. xii. 5–8. Sidenote: Exod. xii. 11–14. 19. But even the Lessons of the Old Testament shew that different days are to be observed for the Passion and Resurrection: for there it runs, _Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats; and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts, and on the upper door post of the house wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire_, and further on, _And ye shall eat it with anxiety[138]: it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and in all the land of Egypt[139] will I execute vengeance: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token in the houses where ye are; and I will see the blood and I will protect you and the plague of extermination shall not be on you. And I will smite the land of Egypt, And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever._ Sidenote: 1 S. John ii. 18. Sidenote: Exod. xii. 29. Sidenote: Ib. 31. Sidenote: Ib. 33.