And the apostle here distributes all the 5°22)P, all the “ sacred
i offerings,” into dépa and Svoja¢,—that is, unbloody and Pr xa) 3 bloody sacrifices; as he did before, chap. v. 1, where the distinction hath been explained.
Of them all he affirms, Wpoogépovras,— They are offered ;” not that they were so: for the apostle erects a scheme of the first tabernacle and all its services at its first institution, and presents it unto the consideration of the Hebrews as if it were then first erected. He doth, indeed, sometimes speak of the priests and sacrifices as then in being, with respect unto that continuance of the temple and its worship which it had in the patience of God, as we have showed on chap. viii. 4; but here, treating only of the taber- nacle and its worship, as that which was granted in the confirmation and for the administration of the old covenant, then entered into,— as the tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrifice of Christ were given in the confirmation of the new,—he represents that as present which was _ past long before. The tabernacle served aptly for the use where- unto it was designed,—it was meet for the offering of gifts and sacri- fices; and so alone is the tabernacle of Christ for its proper end also.
5. On these concessions, the apostle declares the imperfection of
Kal’ oy.
TlpooPépovras.
‘VER. 9, 10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 249
this whole order of things, and its impotency as unto the great end that might be expected from it; for these “ gifts and sacrifices could not make perfect him that did the service, as pertaining unto the conscience.” This was the end aimed at, this was represented in them and by them. And if they could not really effect it, they were weak and imperfect, and so not always to be continued. The end represented in and by them, was to make atonement for sin, that the anger of God being pacified, they might have peace with him. The covenant was then newly established between God and the church, before any laws were given about these offerings and saerifices, Exod. xxiv. God knew that there would be among the people, and even the priests themselves, many sins and transgressions against the rules and laws of that covenant. ‘This of itself it could not dispense withal; for its sanction was the curse against every one that continued not in all things written in the book of it: where- fore if this curse on all just and righteous occasions should rigidly have been put in execution, the covenant would only have proved the means and cause of the utter destruction and excision of the whole people; for “there is no man that liveth and sinneth not.” And on many occasions sin abounded in that state of the church, wherein light and grace were but sparingly dispensed, in comparison . of the times of the new covenant. Wherefore God, in his mercy and patience, provided that by sacred gifts and offerings atonement should be made for sin, so as that the curse of the covenant should not be put in immediate execution against the sinner, Lev. xvii. 11.
__ But there were two things to be considered in those sins which God
had appointed that atonement should be made for. The first was, the external, temporal punishment which was due unto them, ac- cording unto the place which the law or covenant had in the polity or commonwealth of Israel. The other, that eternal punishment which was due unto every sin by the law, as the rule of all moral obedience; for “the wages of sin is death.” Jn the first of these, the person of the sinner, in all his outward circumstances, his life, his goods, his liberty, and the like, was concerned. In the latter, his conscience, or the inward man alone was so. And as unto the first of them, the gifts and sacrifices mentioned, being rightly offered, were able in themselves, “ ex opere operato,” to free the sinner from all temporal, political inconvenience or detriment, so as that his life and inheritance should be continued in the land of Canaan, or his state preserved entire in the commonwealth of Israel. This the apostle here tacitly acknowledgeth, namely, that the gifts and sacri- fices were able to free the sinner from temporal punishment, and give him outward peace in his possessions. But as unto the latter, wherein conscience was concerned, he denies that they had any such efficacy.
250 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IX.
They were not able,—w7 duvdusvosr. It agrees in gender with Suofas only, and not with dépa, which being of the neuter gender, usually regulates the construction in such conjunctions: but most think it equally respects both the antecedent substantives; and instances may be given where a par- ticiple respecting more antecedent substantives than one may agree in gender with either of them, as, “Leges et plebiscita coacte.” But I rather think that the apostle confines the impotency he men- tions unto “sacrifices” only; that is, Sue/as, “slain and bloody saeri- fices.” For those things which were dépa, “ gifts,” and no more, were not designed to make atonement for sin; that was to be done by blood, and no otherwise: so the words should be read, “ offered gifts and sacrifices that could not perfect.”