MODE OF MAKING COVENANTS.

            Both from sacred and profane history, it appears that the most ancient and common mode of making covenants, was by devoting an animal as a sacrifice; cutting it into pieces, and the covenanters passing through the midst of them, and afterward feasting together. The following passages are particularly worthy attention:

“And Jehovah said to Abram, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds he divided not”—Genesis 15: 9-10.

“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice”—Psalm 50: 5.

“I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth”—Jeremiah 34: 18-20.

            The covenant between Abimelech and Isaac was accompanied by a feast:

“And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee; and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord. And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up in the morning, and sware one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed in peace”—Genesis 26: 28-31.

            The making of covenants, with such rites and ceremonies, was not without its signification. The cutting the animals asunder, denoted that, in the same manner, the perjured and covenant-breakers should be cut asunder by the vengeance of God. This is evident from the above passage of Jeremiah 34: 18, and from the ancient form of these execrations, recorded in Livy, book 1. “The Roman people do not among the first break these conditions; but if they should, avowedly, and through treachery, break them, do thou, O Jupiter! on that day, thus strike the Roman people, as I do now this hog; and be the stroke the heavier, as thy power is the greater.” Hence the Hebrew expression to make a covenant, as you well know, is very expressive. Boreth Berith, signifies, to cut the purifier, or purifying sacrifice. That the origin of this ceremony is of divine institution, there can be no doubt. And like all other sacrifices, it had for its object, or antitype, the sacrifice of the Messiah, whose blood and body were one day to be violently separated, to confirm the covenant of grace.

FREY.

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