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15. That Christ is called a sheep and a lamb who was to be slain, and
concerning the sacrament (mystery) of the passion.
In Isaiah: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb
before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His
judgment was taken away: who shall relate His nativity? Because His life shall
be taken away from the earth. By the transgressions of my people He was led to
death; and I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich themselves for
His death; because He did no wickedness, nor deceits with His mouth. Wherefore
He shall gain many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong; because His soul
was delivered up to death, and He was counted among transgressors. And He bare
the sins of many, and was delivered for their offences."
Also in Jeremiah: "Lord, give me knowledge, and I shall know it: then I
saw their meditations. I was led like a lamb without malice to the slaughter;
against me they devised a device, saying, Come, let us cast the tree into His
bread, and let us erase His life from the earth, and His name shall no
more be a remembrance."
Also in Exodus God said to Moses: "Let them take to themselves each man a
sheep, through the houses of the tribes, a sheep without blemish, perfect,
male, of a year old it shall be to you. Ye shall take it from the lambs and
from the goats, and all the congregation of the synagogue of the children of
Israel shall kill it in the evening; and they shall take of its blood, and
shall place it upon the two posts,
and upon the threshold in the houses, in the very houses in which they shall
eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on the same night, roasted with fire; and
they shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs.
Ye shall not eat of them raw nor dressed in water, but roasted with fire; the
head with the feet and the inward parts. Ye shall leave nothing of them to the
morning; and ye shall not break a bone of it. But what of it shall be left to the
morning shall be burnt with fire. But thus ye shall eat it; your loins girt,
and your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands; and ye shall eat
it in haste: for it is the Lord's passover."
Also in the Apocalypse: "And I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the
four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as if
slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent forth throughout all the earth. And He came and took the book from the
right. hand of God, who sate on the throne. And when He had taken the book, the
four living creatures and the four and twenty elders cast themselves before the
Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden cups
full of odours of supplications, which are the prayers of the saints; and they
sang a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to take the book, and to open
its seals: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us with Thy blood from every
tribe, anti and people, and nation; and Thou hast made us a kingdom unto our
God, and hast made us priests, and they shall reign upon the earth."
Also in the Gospel: "On the next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and
saith, Behold the Lamb of God, and behold Him that taketh away the sins of the
world!"
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