(2.) Respect is had herein unto the generality of the Hebrews, whether already professing the gospel or now invited unto it. And he proposeth this unto them as the advantage they should be made partakers of, by the relinquishment of Mosaical ceremonies, and be- taking themselves unto the faith of the gospel. For whereas before, by the best of legal ordinances, they attained no more but an out- ward sanctification, as unto the flesh, they should now have their conscience infallibly purged from dead works. Hence it is said, “your conscience.” Some copies read judy, “ our.” ge But there is no difference in the sense. I shall retain “*" the common reading, as that which refers unto the Hebrews, who had been always exercised unto thoughts of purification and sancti- fication, by one means or another.
For the explication of the words we must inquire, 1. What is meant by “dead works.” 2. What is their relation unto “ conscience.” 3. How conscience is “purged” of them by the blood of Christ.
First, By “dead works,” sins as unto their guilt = | and defilement are intended, as all acknowledge. And ia cata several reasons are given why they are so called; as— —
1. Because they proceed from a principle of spiritual death, or are the works of them who have no vital principle of holiness in them, Eph. ii. 1, 5; Col. 11. 13.
2. Because they are useless and fruitless, as all dead things are.
3. They deserve death, and tend thereunto. Hence they are like rotten bones in the grave, accompanied with worms and cor- ruption.
And these things are true. Howbeit I judge there is a peculiar reason why the apostle calls them “dead works” in this place. For there is an allusion herein unto dead bodies, and legal defilement by them. For he hath respect unto purification by the ashes of the heifer; and this respected principally uncleanness by the dead, as is
fully declared in the institution of that ordinance. As men were purified; by the sprinkling of the ashes of an heifer mingled with living water, from defilements contracted by the dead, without which they were separated from God and the church; so unless men are
312 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP, IX.
really purged from their moral defilements by the blood of Christ, they must perish forever. Now this defilement from the dead, as we have showed, arose from hence, that death was the effect of the curse of the law; wherefore the guilt of sin with respect unto the curse of the law is here intended in the first place, and consequently its pollution.
This gives us the state of all men who are not interested in the sacrifice of Christ, and the purging virtue thereof. As they are dead in themselves, “ dead in trespasses and sins,” so all their works are “dead works.” Other works they have none. They are as a sepul- chre filled with bones and corruption. Every thing they do is un- clean in itself, and unclean unto them. “ Unto them that are defiled nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled,” Tit. 1,15. Their works come from spiritual death, and tend unto eternal death, and are dead in themselves. Let them deck and trim their carcasses whilst they please, let them rend their faces with painting, and multiply their ornaments with all excess of bravery; within they are full of dead bones,—of rotten, defiled, polluting works. That world which appears with so much outward beauty, lustre, and glory, is all polluted and defiled under the eye of the Most Holy.
Secondly, These dead works are further described by their rela- tion unto our persons, as unto what is peculiarly affected with them, where they have, as it were, their seat and residence: and this is the conscience. He doth not say, “Purge your souls, or your minds, or your persons,” but “ your conscience.” And this he doth,—
1. In general, in opposition unto the purification by the law. There it was the dead body that did defile; it was the body that was defiled; it was the body that was purified; those ordinances “ sanc- tified to the purifying of the flesh.’ But the defilements here intended are spiritual, internal, relating unto conscience; and therefore such is the purification also.
2. He mentions the respect of these dead works unto conscience in particular, because it is conscience which is concerned in peace with God and confidence of approach unto him. Sin variously affects all the faculties of the soul, and there is in it a peculiar defilement of conscience, Tit. i. 15. But that wherein conscience in the first place is concerned, and wherein it is alone concerned, is a sense of guilt. This brings along with it fear and dread; whence the sinner dares not approach into the presence of God. It was conscience which reduced Adam unto the condition of hiding him- self from God, his eyes being opened by a sense of the guilt of sin. So he that was unclean by the touching of a dead body was ex- cluded from all approach unto God in his worship. Hereunto the apostle alludes in the following words, “That we may serve the
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VER. 18, 14.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 313
living God ;” for the word rurpebw properly denotes that service which consists in the observation and performance of solemn wor- ship. As he who was unclean by a dead body might not approach unto the worship of God until he was purified; so a guilty sinner, whose conscience is affected with a sense of the guilt of sin, dares not to draw nigh unto or appear in the presence of God. It is by the working of conscience that sin deprives the soul of peace with God, of boldness or confidence before him, of all right to draw nigh unto him. Until this relation of sin unto the conscience be taken away, until there be “no more conscience of sin,” as the apostle speaks, Heb. x. 2,—that is, conscience absolutely judging and con- demning the person of the sinner in the sight of God,—there is no right, no liberty of access unto God in his service, nor any accept- ance to be obtained with him. Wherefore the purging of conscience from dead works, doth first respect the guilt of sin, and the virtue of the blood of Christ in the removal of it. But, secondly, there is also an inherent defilement of conscience by sin, as of all other fa- culties of the soul. Hereby it is rendered unmeet for the discharge of its. office in any particular duties. With respect hereunto con- science is here used synecdochically for the whole soul, and all the faculties of it, yea, our whole spirit, souls, and bodies, which are all to be cleansed and sanctified, 1 Thess. v. 23. To purge our con- science, is to purge us in our whole persons.