to them the mercy jvhich he had in reserve for them ; and, lastly. He confirmed their expectation of that mercy in his appointed time.
What could a sinner think, when he understood that the very altar of God itself, yea, and the most holy place, the immediate residence of the Deity, needed to be purified with blood, because they were defiled by their use in the service of man? Must he not feel that his depravity was extreme, when his very best services were so polluted, that not only must they be purified with blood, but the very altar, on which his offerings were laid, and the sanctuary itself also, into which the blood of them was carried, must be purged with blood also? Truly these ordinances were a daily source of the deepest humiliation to every soul amongst them.
But knowing, as of necessity they must, that these ordi- nances were only " shadows of good things to come^," they would look forward to a better sacrifice, which should in due time be offered. They would see that remission of sins can be obtained through blood alone, through the blood of an innocent victim shed in their place and stead, and through the sprinkling of that blood upon their souls.
And by the daily repetition of the same ordinances, they must be constantly reminded of God's gracious purposes to- wards them ; and be assured that he would, in due time, accomplish all that he had promised.
Thus were the typical purifications necessary in their place.]
But it was not in the patterns only of heavenly things that there existed a need of purification, but " in the heavenly things themselves." I must there- fore proceed to shew,
II. What necessity there is for purification in the things typified —
Under the new covenant, no less than under the old, must every thing be purified with blood —
[Our persons are altogether polluted and defiled : our bodies are a mass of corruption, our souls a sink of iniquity. There is no abomination that sin has brought into the world, but the soul is the very womb in which it is generated, or rather the fountain from whence it flows, as its proper and perennial source. How can such a creature find acceptance with a holy God, if there be not found some blood capable of purifying him from guilt, and some water capable of cleansing him from his inherent defilements ?
g Heb. X. 1.