given of them engaging in making confession to
the Lord God of their fathers. And whether or not the keeping of the
feast, for the accustomed seven days, and other seven days besides,
symbolized the act of swearing to the Lord, with a cordiality which the
repetition denoted, sacrifices were offered, both on the occasion of the
making of the Covenant and on that of the people's latter acquiescence
in it, and on the former when sacrifices were presented for Israel, the
sin-offering--testifying to the oaths that were then sworn, was offered
by sevens.

It is explicitly said, that a Covenant with God was made by sacrifice.
It is not obscurely intimated in Scripture that the people of Israel,
who fell into idolatry by offering sacrifice on high places, made a
Covenant with idols instead of God himself. The practice must have been
a corruption of the worship of God. The vow was made frequently not
merely to offer sacrifice, but by the offering of oblation. "Gather my
saints together unto me; those that have made a Covenant with me by
sacrifice."[152]

And Covenants were ratified by the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifice.
A full account is given of the practice in the record of the Covenant
transaction at Sinai. Moses "sent young men of the children of Israel,
which offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen
unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons;
and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of
the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All
that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the
blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the
covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these
words."[153] The blood sprinkled on the altar testified to the Lord's
acceptance of the sacrifice and of the people who presented it, and to
the Father's acquiescence in and approval of the great propitiation that
should be made for sin. The sprinkling of the blood upon the people
signified the application of the blood of Christ for pardon,
pacification, and cleansing, to the consciences of a ransomed community.
The Lord Jesus being that sacrifice that was slain for the confirmation
of the everlasting Covenant, his blood is represented as the blood of
the Covenant. And the blood of sacrifice that was sprinkled was a type
of his. To that sacrifice, the ancient covenanter, presentin