misery, which we must to all eternity have endured ; and of that winch our blessed Lord sustained, both in his body and in his soul, when he died under the load of our iniquities.
The partial washing of the sacrifice might probably denote the perfect purity of Christ ; or perhaps it might intimate the concurrence of the Holy Spirit, through whose divine agency he was fitted for a sacrifice, and by whose almighty aid he was enabled to offer himself up to God: for it was " through the eternal Spirit that he offered himself without spot to God."]
III. The benefits resulting from it —
[" It was accepted for the offerer, to make an atonement for him." As there were two kinds of guilt, ceremonial and moral, so there were two kinds of absolution, one actual in the sight of God, the other merely external and shadowy. We ob- serve then in relation to these sacrifices, that they cleansed from ceremonial defilement really, and from real defilement ceremo- nially. There were certain things, not evil in themselves, but made so by the special appointment of God, (such as the touching of a grave or a dead body ;) and the persons who had done them were to be accounted unclean, till they were purified in the way prescribed : and their observance of the prescribed forms did really purge them from the defilement they had contracted, so that no guilt would be imputed to them, nor any punishment in- flicted, either in time or eternity. On the other hand, there were things really evil, (as theft or perjury,) which subjected the offender to punishment by the laws of man: now the guilt of these crimes was not purged away by the appointed sacrifices, any further than the exempting of the person from the punish- ment denounced by law : his conscience still remained burthened with guilt ; and he must, notwithstanding all his sacrifices, answer for his crimes at the tribunal of God. This is the distinction made for us by God himself, who says, that "the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, did really sanctify to the purifying of the flesh :" but they " never could make a man perfect as pertaining to the conscience :" in that sense, " it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sins."
It may be asked then, What benefit was there to counter- balance the cost and trouble of the sacrifices ? I answer, that an exemption from temporal judgments, whether inflicted by God or man, was a great benefit : but to be encouraged to come to God as a merciful and gracious God, and to have Christ so clearly and constantly exhibited before their eyes, was an unspeakable benefit, which would have been cheaply purchased by the cattle on a thousand hills.]
In this ordinance we may find, 1. Much for our instruction —