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2. There is an irrevocable grant of the whole inheritance of grace and glory made to the elect in the new covenant; without this it could not in any sense have the nature of a testament, not be deserving of that name; for a testament is such a free grant, and nothing else; and our best plea for a participation of them, before God, is from the free grant and donation of them, in the testament of Jesus Christ.

3. As the grant of these things is free and absolute, so the enjoyment of them is secured from all interveniences by the death of the testator.

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VERSES 18--22.

Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without

blood. 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 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 blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

§1. The main drift of the apostle's argument. §2. The passage contains nothing inconsistent with the Mosaic account. $3-11 (1) The words explained in connexion with the original narrative. $12-14. Exposition continued. $15-19. (II.) Observations.

§1. We have before observed, that the apostle inWE tended not to argue absolutely and precisely from the name of a "testament" properly so called, and the use of it among men. For he makes use of these things no farther than as to what such a testament hath incommon with a solemn covenant; which is, that they are both confirmed and ratified by death. Wherefore it was necessary that the new testament, as it was a testament, should be confirmed by death, and as it had the nature

of a covenant, it was to be so by such a death as was accompanied with blood-shedding. The former was proved before from the general nature and notion of a testament; the latter is here proved at large from the manner in which the first covenant was confirmed or dedicated.

But the apostle, in this discourse, doth not intend merely to prove that the first covenant was "dedicated with blood;" but moreover, in general, what was the use of blood in sacrifices on all occasions under the law; whereby he demonstrates the use and efficacy of the blood of Christ, as to all the ends of the new covenant.

§2. There is nothing in all that is here affirmed by the apostle, but is perfectly consistent with the Mosaic history; for the apostle doth not take his account of these things from any one place in Moses, but collects what is delivered in the law, in several places, to vari ous ends; designing, as before hinted, not only to prove the dedication of the covenant by blood, but to shew also the whole use of blood under the law, as to purification and remission of sin. Wherefore he gathers into one head sundry things wherein the sprinkling of blood was of use under the law, as they are occasionally expressed in sundry places; and this one observation removes all the difficulties of the context; which may arise from this one supposition, that the apostle gives here an account only of what was done at the dedication of the first covenant; so in particular by the addition of those particles (na de, ver. 21,) which we will render, moreover, he plainly intimates that what he affirms of the tabernacle and the vessels of its ministry, was that which was done afterwards, at another time, and not when the covenant was confirmed.

§3. He affirms that Moses took the blood (μooxor nas тpaywv) of calves and goats; the former (5) denotes all cattle of the herd, great and small; and there is no necessity, from the words, that we should render the Hebrew, Exod. xxiv, 5, 6, by oxen, nor the Greek by calves; we might have rendered both words by "bullocks." There is no mention at all of "goats” in the story of Moses; but we may observe, that there were two sorts of offerings made on this occasion, burnt offerings and peace offerings, Exod. xxiv, 5: "They offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings;" wherefore the blood of goats might be used in the peace offering, though it be not mentioned by Moses. Again, the apostle observes, that one end of the sacrifice, at the dedication of the first covenant, was purging and making atonement, ver. 22, 23; for in all solemn sacrifices blood was sprinkled on the holy things, to purify them and make atonement for them, Deut. xvi, 14, 19, 20. Now this was not to be done but by the blood of an expiatory sacrifice; therefore the burnt offerings mentioned by Moses were expiatory sacrifices, to purge and make atonement; and this sacrifice was principally of "goats," Deut. xvi, 7; wherefore the text of Moses cannot be well understood without the exposition of the apostle: and we may add, that although the blood of the peace offering was sprinkled on the altar, Deut. iii, 13, yet was it not sprinkled on the people, as this blood was; wherefore there was the use of the blood of "goats" also as a sin offering in this great sacrifice.

§4. It is affirmed in the text, "that he took the blood, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled it;" but there is mention of none of these things in the story of Moses, but only that he "sprinkled the blood:" but the answer is plain; blood under

the law was sprinkled either in smaller or greater quantities: hence there were two ways of sprinkling; the one with the finger, when, it may be, some few drops of it were to be sprinkled; the other by mixing running water with the blood, and then sprinkling it with scarlet wool and hyssop, Lev. xiv, 50–52. When Moses sprinkled the altar, book, and people, he did it by one of these two ways; for other there was none. The first way could not do it (with the finger) because it was to be done in a great quantity, Exod. xxiv, 6-8: it was therefore infallibly done this latter way.

$5. It is added by the apostle, that he "sprinkled the "book," which is not expressed in the story; but his design is to express at large the whole solemnity of the confirmation of the first covenant, especially not to omit any thing that blood was applied to. Moses, coming down from the mount, told the people, by word of mouth, all things which God had spoken to him, or the sum and substance of the covenant which he would make with them, ver. 5, "And Moses come and told the people "all the words of the Lord;" upon the oral rehearsal of these words and judgments, the people gave their consent to the terms of the covenant. They answered with one voice, "all the words which the Lord hath said we will do," ver 3: then Moses . made a record, or wrote all the words of the Lord in a book, ver. 4. This being done, the altar and pillars were prepared, ver. 4, and it is evident that the book which he had written was laid on the altar, though be not expressed. When this was done, he “sprinkled the blood on the altar," ver. 6, after which, when the book had been sprinkled with blood as it lay on the altar, it is said he "took the book," that is, off from the altar, and "read in the audience of the people, ver.

7. The book being now sprinkled with blood, as the instrument and record of the covenant between God and the people, the very same words which were before spoken to the people are now recited or read out of the book; and this could be done for no other reason, but that the book itself being now sprinkled with the blood of the covenant, it was dedicated to be the sacred record of it.

§6. In the text of Moses it is said that he "sprinkled the people," in explanation of which the apostle affirms that he sprinkled all the people; for they were all taken into covenant with God; men, women, and children. But it must be granted, that for the blood to be actually sprinkled on all individuals in such a numberless multitude, is next to impossible; wherefore it was done in their representatives, the heads of their tribes, the chief of the house of their fathers, and the elders who drew nigh to Moses; and these were sprinkled with blood, in the name and place of all the people, who were that day taken into covenant.

(Και την σκηνην δε Moreover the tabernacle plainly intimates a progress to another time and occasion; wherefore the words of ver. 21, concerning the sprinkling of the tabernacle and its vessels relate to what follows, ver. 22: "and almost all things are by the law purged with blood;" and not to those that precede about the dedication of the first covenant: for the argument he hath in hand is not confined to the use of blood only in that dedication, but respects the whole use of the blood of sacrifices under the law, which in these words he proceeds to, and closeth in the next verse. He argues not from the first dedication of the tabernacle and its vessels, but what was done constantly and solemnly every year; and this he doth to prove his general assertion in the next verse, that under the

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