ling. But Esaias prophesied, Hi. 15, So shall He (Christ, the great Minister of Jehovah) sprinkle many nations ; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him, etc. ; where we once for all see who He is that sprinkles, and who they are that are sprinkled ; in what way that sprinkling may be the consequence of His Sufferings ; and that the obedience of faith follows from it, as Peter joins together obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
6. The Levitical sprinklings did not purify physically, but morally. For, 1. It wras not exclusively (precisely) the hand, or any other part of the body, which had accidentally contracted uncleanness, or even the whole body, that was sprinkled, but the sprinkling was performed in a general way, namely, where- ever the blood or water of sprinkling might fall. 2. The sprink ling was analogous to the blood of the passover, Ex. xii. 7, 13, which was not sprinkled on their bodies, but on their gates ; and yet it was profitable to the Israelites. 3. After a man was sprinkled, it was his duty then, and not till then, to wash his body and his clothes. Consequently the sprinkling had a moral, and the washing a physical effect.
7. The washing is analogous to this washing in the New Tes tament which is attributed to pure water, (and) to the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; Heb. x. 23 ; also to the blood of Jesus Christ : He has washed us from our sins in His own blood, Rev i. 5 : They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, Rev. vii. 14.
8. But sprinkling has a moral power. Dorscheus says : " That sprinkling is not effected in ANY OTHER WAY THAN through the communication of the meritorious power, or rather of the atonement and redemption, of Jesus Christ, which have been acquired or effected by Him." — Part i., Theol. Zachar., p. 53.
9. That passage, John vi., concerning the eating of Christ's flesh and the drinking of His blood, is very emphatic ; we must not however stretch the meaning of the words too far. For Jesus there (as He sometimes did against harsh gainsayers) used a metaphorical mode of expression quite extraordinary, which He did not use to His disciples either before or after. The wrord truly must be explained from John xv. 1, / am