The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction
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• The Divine Feudal Law Represented
• §1.
• §2.
• §3
• §4
• §5
• §6
• §7
• §8
• §9
• §10
• §11
• §12
• §13
• §14.
• §15
• §16
• §17
• §18
• §19
• §20
• §21
• §22
• §23
• §24.
• §25
• §26
• §27
• §28
• §29
• §30
• §31
• §32
• §33
• §34
• §35
• §36
• §37
• §38
• §39.
• §40
• §41
• §42
• §43
• §44
• §45
• §46
• §47
• §48
• §49
• §50
• §51
• §52
• §53
• §54
• §55
• §56
• §57
• §58
• §59
• §60
• §61
• §62
• §63
• §64
• §65
• §66
• §67
• §68
• §69
• §70
• §71
• §72
• §73
• §74
• §75
• §76
• §77
• §78
• §79
• §80
• §81
• §82
• §83
• §84
• §85
• §86
• §87
• §88
• §89
• §90
• §91
• §92
• §93
• §94

§33

The Sacrament of that Covenant.For a Symbol of this Covenant, and that the Memory of it might be continued, God appointed the Paschal Lamb about the Time when the Israelites were to be brought out of Subjection to another People, and to become free, and a distinct People and Commonwealth by themselves. So was that Lamb a Federal Sacrifice, which the particular Masters or Heads of Families did offer in Confirmation of that Covenant, by which God claim’d the Supream Government over that People, and so made them peculiarly his, and brought them into a full Liberty, having deliver’d them from Subjection to another People; they again on their part binding themselves to acknowledge the Dominion and Government of God. About which Affair there is this in particular to be observ’d; that immediately upon God’s asserting his Claim to that People, he made a Difference between them and the Egyptians, to whose Dominion they had been hitherto subject, so that the Plagues which afflicted the Egyptians touched not them. And when the Angel slew all the First-born throughout Egypt, he pass’d by the Doors of the Israelites which were mark’d with the Federal Blood. It pleased God also, that from the Month in which the People gain’d their Liberty, they should take the beginning of their Year for a Memorial of their Liberty then gain’d. And that Sacrifice God was pleased to order should be eaten by those who offer’d it, and entirely consum’d as treating therein his new People or Subjects with a Feast, and this for a Remembrance of the Thing was to be repeated every Year. And besides, there was a mystical Reason in this Thing, by vertue of which that Lamb did represent another Lamb of God which has taken away the Sins of the World; by the Merit of whose Sacrifice of himself, we being deliver’d from the Dominion of the Devil, are brought into the happy Liberty of the Sons of God. The Paschal Lamb had also this in common with all other Sacraments, that it could confer Spiritual Grace, and seal it to these who rightly made use of it. And there was so grievous a Punishment appointed for the Neglect of the Paschal Lamb, because it contain’d a Denial of God’s Dominion over the People of Israel; and because he who should despise that Sacrament was reckon’d therein to refuse to be a Subject of God. In which thing also, according to the Apprehension of those Times, all the whole Federal Religion was renounced, when as there was not so strict an Obligation in the other private Sacrifices. Further, because Laws are the principal Bond of a Commonwealth there was also a Federal Sacrifice celebrated; but which was not to be repeated when those Laws were afterwards publish’d in the Wilderness, and the People bound themselves to observe them, Exod. 24. Also because that Commonwealth was erected by God for the sake of Religion, the Tabernacle was, not without Reason, set up on the first Day of the first Month, Exod. 40:2. So also the Temple built by Solomon, as the Seat of their Religion, was consecrated by a magnificent Sacrifice, 1 Kin. 8:62, &c.