flesh, the blood, the dung, were all burned together ;) and some cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet wool were burned with it. Then the ashes of the heifer were gathered up by another person, and deposited in a clean place without the camp.
Every minute particular of this ordinance we shall not at- tempt to explain : but its leading features are clear. We see here the Lord Jesus Christ, taken from, and separated for, the whole mass of mankind. We see him who was " without ble- mish and ivithout spot," and who was under no previous obliga- tion to suffer for us, coming voluntarily into the world for that express purpose. We see him suffering the most inconceivable agonies both in body and soul even unto death, without the gates of Jerusalem. We see him sprinkling his own blood before the mercy-seat of the Most High God, in order to effect a perfect reconciliation between God and us. And that one atonement which was offered by him for the sins of the whole world, we see to be of perpetual efficacy in the Church, and ever ready at hand to be applied for the purification of those who desire deliverance from sin and death.]
2. The application of it to that use —
[A portion of the ashes being put into a vessel, running water was poured upon them : and then a bunch of hyssop was dipped in the water, and the unclean person, together with every thing which had been denied through him, was sprinkled with it. This was done on the third day, and on the seventh day ; and then the unclean person was considered as purified from his defilement.
Here we behold the Holy Spirit co-operating with the Lord Jesus Christ in effecting the redemption of a ruined world. The Holy Spirit qualified the man Jesus for his work, and up- held him in it, and wrought miracles by him in confirmation of his mission, and raised him up from the dead, and bore witness to him in a visible manner on the day of Pentecost ; and from that day to this has been imparting to the souls of men the benefits of the Redeemer's sacrifice. By working faith in our hearts, he enables us to apply to ourselves the promises of God, and thereby to obtain an interest in all that Christ has done and suffered for us. And by such repeated applications of the promises to ourselves, he conveys to us all the blessings of grace and glory.
That this is the import of the type we can have no doubt, since God himself has so explained ita.]
This may suffice for a general explanation of the
a Heb. ix. 13, 14. We see particularly in this passage, what was the import of the living water with which the ashes were mixed : it intimated, that " Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit."