VERSE 4. *Adlwaroy yap alua ratpuv xual rpdyuv apuspen amaprins.
There is no difficulty in the words, and very little difference in the translations of them. ‘The Vulgar renders &@aipsiv by the passive: “Impossibile est enim sanguine taurorum et hircorum auferri peccata,’—“It is impossible that sins should be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats.” The Syriac renders é@ar- peiv by 772, which is to “ purge” or “cleanse,” unto the same purpose.
Ver, 4.—For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
This is the last determinate resolution of the apostle concerning the insufficiency of the law and its sacrifices for the expiation of sin, and the perfecting of them who come unto God, as unto their con- sciences, And there is in the argument used unto this end an infer- ence from what was spoken before, and a new enforcement from the nature or subject-matter of these sacrifices.
Something must be observed concerning this assertion in general, and an objection that it is liable unto. For by “the blood of bulls
rh
440 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. X.
and goats,” he intends all the sacrifices of the law. Now if it be impossible that they should take away sin, for what end then were they appointed? especially considering that, m the institution of them, God told the church that he had given the blood to make atonement on the altar, Lev. xvii. 11. It may therefore be said,— as the apostle doth in another place with respect unto the law itself, ‘Tf it could not by the works of it justify us before God, to what end then served the law ?/—To what end served these sacrifices, if they could not take away sin ?
The answer which the apostle gives with respect unto the law in general may be applied unto the sacrifices of it, with a small addi- tion from a respect unto their special nature. For as unto the law, he answers two things: 1. That it was “added because of transgres- sions,” Gal. ii. 19. 2. That it was “a schoolmaster to guide and direct us unto Christ,’ because of the severities wherewith it was accompanied, like those of a schoolmaster; not in the spirit of a tender father. And thus it was as unto the end of these sacrifices.
1. They were added unto the promise because of transgressions. For God in them and by them did continually represent unto sin- ners the curse and sentence of the law; namely, that the soul that sinneth must die, or that death was the wages of sin. For although there was allowed in them a commutation, that the sinner himself should not die, but the beast that was sacrificed in his stead,— which belonged unto their second end, of leading unto Christ,—yet they all testified unto that sacred truth, that it is “the judgment of God that they who commit sin are worthy of death.” And this was, as the whole law, an ordinance of God to deter men from sin, and so put bounds unto transgressions. For when God passed by sin with a kind of connivance, winking at the ignorance of men in their iniquities, not giving them continual warnings of their guilt and the consequent thereof in death, the world was filled and covered with a deluge of impieties.) Men saw not judgment speedily exe- cuted, nor any tokens or indications that so it would be; therefore was their heart wholly set in them to do evil. But God dealt not thus with the church. He let no sin pass without a representation of his displeasure against it, though mixed with mercy, in a direc- tion unto the relief against it in the blood of the sacrifice. And therefore, he did not only appoint these sacrifices on all the especial occasions of such sins and uncleannesses as the consciences of particu- lar sinners were pressed with a sense of, but also once a-year there was gathered up a remembrance of all the sins, iniquities, and trans- gressions of the whole congregation, Lev. xvi.
2. They were added as the teaching of a schoolmaster to lead unto Christ. By them was the church taught and directed to look continually unto and after that sacrifice which alone could really purge and take away all iniquity. For God appointed no sacrifices
VER. 4.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. , 441
until after the promise of sending the Seed of the woman to break
_ the head of the serpent. In his so doing was his own heel to be
bruised, in the suffering of his human nature, which he offered in sacrifice unto God; which these sacrifices did represent.
Wherefore the church knowing that these sacrifices did call sin to remembrance, representing the displeasure of God against it, which was their first end; and that although there was an intimation of grace and mercy in them, by the commutation and substitution which they allowed, yet that they could not of themselves take away sin; it made them the more earnestly, and with longing desires, look after him and his sacrifice who should perfectly take away sin and make
_ peace with God; wherein the principal exercise of grace under the
old testament did consist.
3. As unto their especial nature, they were added as the great instruction in the way and manner whereby sin was to be taken away. For although this arose originally from God’s mere grace and mercy, yet was it not to be executed and accomplished by sovereign grace and power alone. Such a taking away of sin would have. been inconsistent with his truth, hoiiness, and righteous government of mankind, as I have elsewhere at large demonstrated.* It must be done by the interposition of a ransom and atonement; by the substitution of one who was no sinner in the room of sinners, to make satisfaction unto the law and justice of God for sin. Hereby they became the principal direction of the faith of the saints under the old testament, and the means whereby they acted it on the original promise of their recovery from apostasy.