Obs. I. In all things wherein we have to do with God, whereby we approach unto him, it is the blood of Christ, and the application- — of it unto our consciences, that gives us a gracious acceptance with him.—Without this all is unclean and defiled.
Obs. II. Even holy things and institutions, that are in themselves clean and unpolluted, are relatively defiled, by the unholiness of them that use them; defiled unto them.—So was the tabernacle, — because of the Briblean noe of the people among whom it was. F or unto the unclean all things are unclean.
VER. 18-22. ] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 365
From this whole discourse the apostle makes an inference which he afterwards applies at large unto his present purpose.
Ver, 22.—“ And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
There are two parts of this verse, or there is‘a double assertion in it: 1. That “almost all things are by the law purged with blood.” 2, That “ without shedding of blood is no remission.’
1. In the first of these there is considerable the assertion itself, and the limitation of it.
(1.)-The assertion itself is, that “by the law all things were purged with blood;” xard& riv vémov,— according unto the law;” the rules, the commands, the institutions of it; in that way of worship, faith, and obedience, which the people were obliged unto by the law. According unto the law, there was a necessity of the blood of sacrifices, for the purging of sin and making of atonement. This he infers and concludes from what he had said before, concerning the dedication of the covenant and the purification of the tabernacle with all the vessels of its ministry. And from hence he designs to prove the necessity of the death of Christ, and the efficacy of his blood for the purging of sin, whereof those legal things were types and representations. Of these legal purifications, or purgings by blood, we have treated already.
(2.) The imitation of this assertion is in the word ody, “ almost.” Some few purifications there were under the law that were not by blood: Such, as some judge, was that by ’ the ashes of a heifer mingled with water; whereof we have treated on verse 13. But I am not certain that this may be esteemed a purification without blood. For the heifer whose ashes were used in it was first slain, and its blood poured out; afterwards the: blood as well as the flesh was burnt and reduced unto ashes. Wherefore that way of purification cannot be said to be without blood. And it was a type of the purifying efficacy of the blood of Christ, who offered himself a whole burnt-offering unto God, through the fire of the eternal Spirit. But there were two sorts of purifications under the law.wherein blood was: neither formally nor virtually applied or used. The one was by fire, in things that would endure it, Num. xxxi. 23 (and the apostle speaks of things as well as persons, as the word rdéyra declares); the other was by water, whereof there were many instances. See Exod. xix. 10; Lev. xvi. 26, 28, xxii. 6, 7. All other puri- , , fications were 2% aiuari, “in blood ;” & for dia; df masta aiwaros, hy the offering and sprinkling of blood.
From the consideration of the purifications mentioned, the apostle adds the limitation of “almost.” For the conceit of some of the
Dyedsy.
Si Tlayvra,
366 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IX.
ancients, that oyedév is as much as feré, and is to be joined with “purged,” “were almost purged,”—that is, they were so only in- effectually,—is most improper; for it is contrary to the natural construction of the words and the direct intention of the apostle. Only we may observe, that the purifications which were by fire and water were of such things as had no immediate influence into the worship of God, or in such cases as wherein the worship of God was not immediately concerned; nor of such things wherewith con- science was defiled. They were only of external pollutions, by things in their own nature indifferent, and had nothing of sin in them. And the sacred institutions which were not concerning the immediate worship of God, nor things which in themselves did defile the consciences of men, were as hedges and fences about those which really did so. They served to warn men not to come near those things which had a real defilement in themselves. See Matt. xv. 16-20,
Thus “almost all things,”’—that is, absolutely all which had any inward, real moral defilement,—“ were purged with blood,” and directed unto the purging efficacy of the blood of Christ. And we may observe, that,—
Obs. I. There was a great variety of legal purifications. For as all of them together could not absolutely purge sin, but only direct unto what would do so, so none of them by themselves could fully represent that one sacrifice by blood whereby all sin was to be purged ; therefore were they multiplied.
Obs. II. This variety argues that in ourselves we are ready to be polluted on all occasions. Sin cleaveth unto all that we do, and is ready to defile us even in our best duties. '