THE JEWISH SACRIFICES TYPICAL OF CHRISt's.
Heb. ix. 13, 14. If the blood of bulls atid of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the 2mrifying of the flesh : hoio much more shall the blood of Christ, loho through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ?
THE peculiar benefits of Christianity are usually displayed by contrasting our state with that of the heathen world : but they will be seen nearly to the same advantage, if we compare our privileges with those that were enjoyed under the Jewish dispensa- tion. The Jews indeed had much that distinguished them above other nations : but we possess in sub- stance what they enjoyed only in the shadow. One great object in the Epistle to the Hebrews is, to set this matter in a just point of view. This has been done with great perspicuity and strength of argument in the preceding context : and the author having shewn that we have a true, and eternal redemption obtained for us, while that accomphshed by the Jewish ordinances was only typical and temporal, states afresh, in few words, the grounds of his conclu- sion, and appeals to every intelligent reader for the justness of it.
In discoursing on his words we shall shew,
I. The excellence of the type —
The Jewish ordinances were altogether typical of Christ's sacrifice —
[The ordinances mentioned in the text, though similar, as means of purifying from pollution, were very different from each other as to the kind of pollution which they were in- tended to remove. The blood of bullocks and goats was offered annually on the great day of expiation, to atone for the moral guilt both of the priests and peopled The ashes of the heifer, which, together with cedar, hyssop, and scarlet, had
^ Lev. xvi. 6, 15.
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been burnt without the camp, were to be mixed with running water, and sprinkled upon a person who had contracted any ceremonial uncleanness (as from the touch of a grave, a corpse, a human bone, or any thing that had been touched by an un- clean person). On the third day, and on the seventh, they were to be sprinkled on him ; and then he was to be esteemed clean''. These were typical of Christ's sacrifice, by which the greatest sins may be forgiven ; and without which, not even the smallest pollution imaginable can ever be purged away.]
As types, these certainly were deserving of much regard —
[While they shadowed forth, and prepared men for, the Messiah that should come, they conveyed many real benefits to those who conformed to the rules which they prescribed. The penitents who bewailed their moral defilements, had their hopes of mercy and forgiveness revived and strengthened: and they who, on account of some ceremonial uncleanness, were separated for seven long days from the house of God, and from all intercourse with their dearest friends, were restored, as it were to the bosom of the Church, and to communion with their God. Doubtless these rites were burthensome ; but every one who valued the favour of God, and the blessings of social converse, would thankfully use the means which Gcd had prescribed for the renewed enjoyment of them.]
Nevertheless the things, which were glorious in themselves, lost all their glory when contrasted with,
II. The superior excellence of the antitype —
As, by a type, we mean a shadowy representation of something future and substantial; so, by an antitype^ we mean that thing which corresponds to the type, and had before been represented by it. The antitype then, or the thing that has been before represented, is, the sacrifice of Christ : and this infinitely excels all the ordinances by which it had been shadowed forth. The superior excellence of this appears par- ticularly, in that,