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384. ON THE MEANING OF SACRIFICES.

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In that great covenant, which God made with the Hebrews, (Exod. 24: 3-8.) it is added, that Moses sprinkled with the blood of the victims the altar, the book of the covenant, and the whole people, saying, " This is the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah makes with you, that you may observe all His commands." This signified to the Hebrews, that, if they did not keep his commands, they would be accounted worthy to have their blood scattered in the same manner.

$384. ON THE MEANING OF Sacrifices.

From what has been said, it is sufficiently clear, what significancy or meaning we ought to attach to sacrifices. For, if it were the case, that the Hebrews, subsequently to the time of Abraham, were accustomed to indicate in an emblematic manner the punishment due to the violators of a covenant by the sacrifices of said covenant, there can be no doubt, that they likewise attached a symbolical or emblematic meaning to sacrifices on other occasions. For instance, such a symbolic meaning was conveyed by the whole burnt offerings or holocausts, which were understood both by Noah and Abraham, from what God himself had communicated to them, (Gen. 8: 20. 15: 9-18.) to be a confirmation, on the part of God, of his promises. In regard to holocausts, it may be remarked, that an additional significancy was attached to them by Moses, who introduced the ceremony of imposition of hands, which was a symbolical indication, that punishment was due to the person, who offered the sacrifice, in case he failed in the fulfilment of his promi

ses.

The circumstance, that holocausts were symbols in confirmation of divine promises, was the reason, that they were burnt whole, and that they were held in such particular estimation, in as much as promises were at the foundation of the whole Jewish polity. The reason also, that sacrifices of this kind might be offered by Gentiles, who had so far left their old systems, as to acknowledge the true God, was the fact, that, in offering such sacrifices, they were understood to make correspondent promises, of which the sacrifices were a confirmation. They possessed likewise an expiatory significancy, because they indicated that God would be firm

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384. ON THE MEANING OF SACRIFICES.

in the fulfilment of his part of the covenant, whatever might be the delinquencies of men.

The victims for sins and trespasses, which were new kinds of expiations, introduced by Moses, signified the punishment, which was due to the persons, who had thus erred, and showed, at the same time, that God would not fail of what he had said in reference to them.

Finally, those sacrifices, which are denominated peace-offerings, and eucharistical offerings, had a symbolic meaning, as well as others; being indications of the punishment, which threatened the Hebrews, if they should neglect to walk in that religious way, which they had promised. In other words, the meaning of them was as much as if they had said; "It shall not be so with us, as with these sacrifices, for we will adhere to our promises." Hence, being confirmed anew on these occasions, in their resolutions, they felt themselves at liberty to indulge in conviviality.

The sacrifices, therefore, in which animals were slain, were all symbolical or had a meaning.

The divine promises were confirmed by them, and the Hebrews, on the other hand, imparted, in this way, new sacredness to the engagements, which they had made, to continue true to their religion : and were thus excited to new desires after piety of feeling and rectitude of conduct.

If very many of the Hebrews were disposed to go further than this, and to attribute an inherent efficacy to the sacrifices in themselves considered, and to trust in the multitude of victims with whatever mind they might be offered, this is nothing against the truth of our statement, especially as this errour is very frequently condemned, and in very decided terms, Ps. 50: 8-13. 40: 5, 6. Is. 1: 11-15. comp. 1 Sam. 15: 22. Hos. 6: 6. Mic. 6: 6, 8. Mal. 2: 1-9.

That these symbolic substitutions, however, of victims in place of transgressors, prefigured a true substitution in the person of Jesus Christ, seems to have been known but to very few of the prophets, Is. LIII. Still this obscurity in respect to the prospective import of sacrifices is no more proof against the actual existence of such an import, than a kindred obscurity, in another case is against the existence of prophecies, some of which the prophets themselves confess they did not understand. But, although

385. OF BLOODLESS SACRIFICES.

the people did not originally understand this particular meaning of the sacrifices, they were prepared to perceive it at last.

Hence the death of violence, which Jesus suffered, is every where termed in the New Testament a SACRIFICE; for expressions of this kind are not mere allusions, such as occur in Rom. 12: 1. 15: 16. Philip. 2: 17. 2 Tim. 4: 6. Heb. 13: 15, 16; but they indicate a real sacrifice in the person of Christ, which the sacrifices of the Old Testament prefigured, as is expressly stated in Heb. 9:3

-28. 10: 10-14, 18. comp. Matt. 26: 28. Mark 14: 24. Luke 22: 20. 1 Cor. 11:24, 25. Heb. 12: 24. 1 Pet. 1: 2. comp. Exod. 24: 8. John 1: 29, 36. 19: 36, 37. 1 Cor. 5: 7. 1 Pet. 2: 24. comp. Is. 53: 5--12. 2 Cor. 5: 21. Eph. 5: 2. Rom. 3: 23–25. 7: 25. 1 John 2: 2. 4: 10.

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385. OF BLOODLESS SACRIFICES.

BLOODLESS SACRIFICES consisted, some of wine, and some of fine wheat flour. To this general remark, there was this exception, that the sacrifice of this sort on the second day of the passover was a sheaf of barley, and that the trespass-offering of a suspected wife was of barley meal. The flour was offered sometimes with, and sometimes without preparation. It was salted, sometimes oil was poured upon it; sometimes it was kneaded with oil and afterwards besmeared with it, and by some persons was offered with frankincense.

Honey and leaven were not used, Lev. 2: 10, 12. excepting, however, in the two leavened cakes on the feast of Pentecost, and the cakes of the eucharistical and peace offerings, and, indeed, these were not to be placed upon the altar, Lev. 7: 13. 23: 17. 2: 11. The sacrifices, of which we have been speaking, accompanied the bloody sacrifices, and were in addition to them. To this remark, there are the following exceptions.

I. The twelve loaves of shewbread in the sanctuary, which were changed every sabbath, which were esteemed peculiarly holy, and were to be eaten by the priests, either in the tabernacle or the temple, Lev. 24: 5--9. 1 Sam. 21: 3-6. comp. Mark 2: 26.

II. The sheaf of barley, offered on the second day of the passover, Lev. 23: 10.

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386. ON THE PURIFICATION OF THE UNCLEAN.

III. The loaf, which, on the day of Pentecost, was offered, as the first fruits, Lev. 23: 17-20.

IV. The sin-offering, consisting of flour merely, brought by a poor man, who was unable to bring turtledoves or young pigeons, Lev. 5: 1—4, 11–13. In all other cases, the cakes and the flour were considered, as a part of the sacrifice, in addition to the victims, which were slain. To the bullock were assigned three tenths of an ephah of the finest wheat flour, and a half an hin of oil; to the ram two tenths of an ephah of flour, and a third of an hin of oil; to a sheep or lamb a tenth part of an ephah of flour, and a fourth part of an hin of oil, Num. 15: 3–12. 28: 7--29.

A libation of wine was added, the same in quantity with the oil, Num. 15: 3-12. 28: 7--29; but it was not poured out, as the Rabbins assert on the horns of the altar, but round about it. See Josephus, Antiquities, III. 9, 4.

$386. ON THE Purification of the UNCLEAN.

UNCLEANNESSES, with the exception of those, which were expressly interdicted, and those, by means of which the high priest and Nazarites were contaminated, from whom all such defilements were to be removed, were not accounted SINS; but the neglect of purification, when uncleanness had happened, was an errour, (technically a TRESPASS or a SIN,) which resulted in exclusion from intercourse with the rest of the people.

The most of the instances of uncleanness ceased of themselves after the expiration of a certain period of time, provided that the unclean person, at the expiration of said time, washed his body and his clothes. But in other instances, unclean persons were unable to free themselves from the stain of their defilement, until they had first gone through certain ceremonies of purification, prescribed in the ritual.

For instance, a person who had been rendered unclean by the touch of a dead body, of a sepulchre, or the bones of a dead person, was sprinkled on the third and seventh day, by a clean person with hyssop, dipped in water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer. When this was done, he washed his body and clothes, and on the seventh day was clean.

387. PURIFICATION OF LEPROUS PERSONS.

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Tents, houses, and furniture, contaminated by the dead, were to be purified in the same way, Num. 19: 11—21.

Of the Red Heifer.

The ashes of the heifer here mentioned were prepared in a singular manner. The animal, which was to be one of a red or rather yellowish colour, inclining to a brown, free from all defect, and which had never submitted to the yoke, was led to the priest. She was then conducted out of the city or the encampment, as the case might be, by some other person, and slain. The priest, who had accompanied, dipped his finger in the blood, and sprinkled it seven times towards the Sanctuary.

Presently the heifer was burnt whole in the same place, the priest, in the meanwhile, heaping upon the altar piles of wood, and throwing into it, at the same time, hyssop and scarlet thread. The persons who performed the various offices of leading out, slaying and burning the heifer, and of carrying away the ashes, also the priest, who officiated, were unclean, till the evening, Num. 19: 6, 8, 10, 21. There seems to have been no improper superstition, connected with this rite.

$387. PURIFICATION OF LEPROus Persons.

The man, who had been healed of leprosy, underwent an examination from a priest, beyond the limits of the encampment, while the Israelites were in the wilderness, but subsequently, without the boundaries of the city, Lev. 14: 1-7. Matt. 8: 4. Mark 1: 44. If found perfectly restored, he obtained another man to bring two living birds, (doves or young pigeons,) cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. One of the birds was slain and the blood received into an earthern vessel, partly filled with water.

Into this, the priest dipped the other bird alive, the cedar wood, the scarlet, and hyssop; sprinkled the once leprous man seven times; and let the living bird go free, as a symbol of his liberation from the leprosy, Lev. 14: 1--7. (This ceremony was observed likewise in the purification of a leprous house, Lev. 14: 48-53.) The subject of these ceremonies, having then washed his body and his clothes, and shaved himself, was accounted clean, but was not permitted to enter the encampment or the city, until

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