SERMON VII.

Preached at Christ Church, Oct. 14, 1827.

HEB. ix. 13, 14.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

IN the expression, "the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean," allusion is made to that rite of the Mosaic law, which required that the ashes of a red heifer should be carefully collected and mixed with water, and that those who had contracted any legal defilement, such as that from touching a dead body, should be sprinkled with this water, as a legal purification,

before they could be admitted to the service of the temple. This water is called "the water of impurity," meaning, according to the force of a Hebrew construction, "the water which removeth impurity," or, "the water of purification," not, as it is rendered by our translators, "the water of separation." The act of such sprinkling is called patioμos in the New Testament, where it occurs twice, a word unquestionably borrowed from the Septuagint; and the verb expressive of it part is used in a few other passages besides the text. Thus St. Peter in the commencement of his first Epistle calls those to whom he addresses himself, "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ;" and St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews says to the converted Jews of Judea, "But ye are come to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprink

a See Numbers xix. 9, 20, 21.

ling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel."

It is, however, evident from the two passages adduced, that the sprinkling of the blood of Christ is only a metaphorical expression, taken from the Mosaic rite just mentioned, inasmuch as his blood was not actually sprinkled; but from the signification of that rite, as it is explained by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he contrasts the blood sprinkled of the Mosaic rite with that of Christ shed, there can be no doubt what is the real meaning of the expression. He says,

for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament (or covenant) which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with

that by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ is meant his sacrifice on the cross, by which he sealed a testament, purified mankind from sin, and obtained for them remission and reconciliation with God. Thus it is intimated in the text, that "the blood of Christ purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God;" and in another place, we are commanded to have "our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." Likewise in the Psalms d. David says, "Purge me [or rather, thou shalt purge me, i. e. sprinkle me] with hyssop, and I shall be clean," rendered in the LXX, φαντίεις με ύσσωπῳ και καθαρισθησομαι, where the word purge, or sprinkle, because purging was effected

b Heb. ix. 19-22. Observe, that some things are mentioned here that are supposed to have been taken from the practice of the Jews, not mentioned in the Old Testament. Wetst. ad loc. See Slade, p. 241.

• Heb. x. 22.

d Psalm li. 7.

through sprinkling, corresponds to the Hebrew word signifying the taking away of sin, from which is derived that which in a former discourse I shewed to be the appropriate word for sin-offering, non, in the Pentateuch and historical books. I would therefore conclude, that the sprinkling of the blood of Christ may safely be considered, when divested of its metaphorical signification, as meaning in the New Testament his sacrificial blood shed on the cross for the atonement of sin.

We are taught by the text, that the sacrifices of the law sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, but that the sacrifice of Christ purges the conscience to serve the living God. Hence we learn the similarity of the two in respect of purification, but likewise their great dissimilarity in regard to the effect produced. The sacrifices of the law are said to sanctify, ayalew, an expression which, in the language of the Old Testament, is frequently applied to persons who were devoted or consecrated to God by a particular ceremony accompanied by sacrifices