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government of a succession of subtle , cruel and cowardly tyrants , but they were to be ready to escape from their rapacious grasp at a moment ' s warning ; God was about to inflict his crowning judgment on the land of
Ham ; at night the cry of death was heard in the houses of the Egyptians , and that " self-same day * ( viz . the _ morning after the passover ) , the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies , " or according to their muster .
The side-post and upper door-post of tne houses where the passover was eaten were to be smeared with the blood of the paschal lamh , thus claiming the protection of the Abrahamic covenant ; and thus were the habitations of the children of Jacob
distinguished from those of the Egyptians ; the blood ivas to be the mean of their preservation . No part of the lamb was to be left till morning , if it could be eaten by those for whom it was prepared , and if any were left , because it was a thing devoted to
sacred uses , it was to be burnt 5 none but the circumcised were to partake of it , that is , none but the Israelites nnd their families . Now had they neglected thte mean of their preservation , they would have proved their
want of confidence in their great Deliverer , and had they in future ages omitted this comnieihorative festival , they Would have shewn deep ingratitude and sad forgetfuln&ss 6 f the conditions of that coven ant which a
faithftil God had made -faith their fathers . If this national Mosaic festival had been intended to represent any future and greater deliverance , surely sornething explanatory would have been
found , either in the writings of Moses , or in those of the prophets , and above all , if it referred to the Messiah , to his death and to his blood which was abed , " not for the Jews only , but also for the Gentiles . "
We can find , therefore , no reference to future events iu the feast of the Jaadsover or in the circumstances that accompanied it . We may , indeed , go out of the record , we may conjecture , We may misapply Old -Testament institutes to New-Testament facts ; or wettiay , like some authors of the scriptures , with perfect fairness
accorri-• * ___ * The evening and the momiftg * vreie tko firstday . " < jU * . i . fr .
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ittodate-them together ; but we < & , find no proofs that either MosejL Aaron , or any of the Levites , or ito prophets , or the people , in any age before Christ , had the most remote ideas of the facts recorded in the New Testament communicated to them bv the annual paschal supper ; nor did our Lord convey la hint of this kind , when he and his disciples celebrated it and when he partook of it himself . S ymbols and types must always be significant if they are to be understood
Our Lord partook not of the symbol * by which Christians are "to shew forth his death till he come . ' * The whole reason for this annual , festive memorial is assigned in the next chapter , Exod . xiii . 8 > u Thou shalt
shew thy son in that day , saying , this is done because of that vrhich the Lord did unto me when I came out of the land of Egypt , &e ., that the Lord ' s law may be in thy mouth , &c . " It is more than probable that if any thing of greater importance had been intended , it would have been
mentioned . In fact , the passover was a covenant-festival , a renewal of that agreement which God made with Abraham , rind the blood upon the lintels , &c . -was the sign of it . It wai a most solemn act , claiming the premise * and supplicating the protection of Jehovah the God of Israel . See
Genesis xv * 7 , to the end of the chapter . In Exodus , xxiv . 4 , and the veirses following- to the eighth inclusive , you have another instance of a covenant-ceremony , accompanied by holocausts and burnt-offerings . Here Israel as -a nation , engaged with God to keep his laws , and God with them to afford them
protection and favour . Blood is hu sprinkled on the altars and on the people , and Moses having read the law to the congregation , they answered , " All that the Lord hath said Will we do and be obedient ; " the " answered 4 heir legislator , " Be hold , the blood of the covenant which the
Lord hath made with you concerning all these words . " I need not say tljat here is no typical reference to ° rt Messiah . That I may avoid prolixity
suffice it to say , that the Hebre ^ had , according to the Mosaic maj *^ tiotia , strictly speaking , but tlire « * kinds of sacrifice , the holocaust Whole burrtt-offeritte , the P ** T * ** tog or the iacrifice ^ tbtnkfJP - '
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154 Tlie Doctrine ofC&tomon Sense ioxth regardto Sacrtfitts . Letter It
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 154, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/26/
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