Of them all he affirms, poopEpovraι, they are offered,' not that they were so for the apostle erects a scheme of the first tabernacle, and all its services, at its first institution, and presents it unto the consideration of the Hebrews, as if it were then first erected. He doth indeed sometimes speak of the priests and sacrifices as then in being, with respect unto that continuance of the temple and its worship which it had in the patience of God, as we have shown on ch. viii. 4. But here, treating only of the tabernacle and its worship, as that which was granted in the confirmation, and for the administration of the old covenant then entered into, as the tabernacle, priesthood, and sacrifice of Christ were given in the confirmation of the new; he represents that as present which was past long before. The tabernacle served aptly for the use whereunto it was designed. It was meet for the offering of gifts and sacrifices; and so alone is the tabernacle of Christ for its proper end also.

5. On these concessions, the apostle declares the imperfection of this whole order of things, and its impotency as unto the great end that might be expected from it; for these gifts and sacrifices could not make perfect him that did the service as pertaining unto the conscience. This was the end aimed at, this was represented in them and by them. And if they could not really effect it, they were weak and imperfect, and so not always to be continued. The end represented in and by them, was to make atonement for sin, that the anger of God being pacified, they might have peace with him. The covenant was then newly established between God and the church, before any laws were given about these offerings and sacrifices, Exod. xxiv. God knew that there would be among the people, and even among the priests themselves, many sins and transgressions against the rules and laws of that covenant. This of itself it could not dispense withal. For its sanction was the curse against every one that continued not in all things written in the book of it; wherefore if this curse, on all just and righteous occasions, should rigidly have been put in execution, the covenant would only have proved the means and cause of the utter destruction and excision of the whole people. For there is 'no man that liveth and sinneth not.' And on many occasions, sin abounded in that state of the church, wherein light and grace were but sparingly dispensed, in comparison of the times of the new covenant. Wherefore God, in his mercy and patience, provided, that by sacred gifts and offerings atonement should be made for sin, so as that the curse of the covenant should not be put in immediate execution against the sinner, Lev. xvii. 11, But there were two things to be considered in those sins, for which God had appointed that atonement should be made. The first was, the external temporal punishment which was due unto them, according unto the place which the law or covenant had in the polity or commonwealth of Israel. The other, that eternal punishment which was due unto every sin by the law, as the rule of all moral obedience; for the wages of sin is death.' In the first of these, the person of the sinner in all his outward circumstances, his life, his goods, his liberty, and the like, were concerned. In the latter, his conscience, or the inward man alone was concerned. And as unto the first of them, the gifts and sacrifices mentioned being rightly offered,

were able in themselves, ex opere operato, to free the sinner from all temporal political inconvenience or detriment, so as that his life and inheritance should be continued in the land of Canaan, or his state preserved entire in the commonwealth of Israel. This the apostle here tacitly acknowledgeth, namely, that the gifts and sacrifices were able to free the sinner from temporal punishment, and give him outward peace in his possessions. But as unto the latter, wherein conscience was concerned, he denies that they had any such efficacy.

They were not able, μη δυνάμεναι. It agrees in gender with θυσίαι only, and not with Swpa, which being of the neuter gender, usually regulates the construction in such conjunctions. But as most think, it equally respects both the antecedent substantives. And instances may be given where a participle, respecting more antecedent substantives than one, may agree in gender with either of them; as 'leges et plebiscita coactæ.' But I rather think that the apostle confines the impotency he mentions to sacrifices only, that is, vota, slain and bloody sacrifices.' For these things which were dupa, 'gifts' and no more, were not designed to make atonement for sin; that was to be done by blood and no otherwise, so the words should be read, 'offered gifts and sacrifices that could not perfect."

These sacrifices were impotent and ineffectual to this end, reλeiwσai. What the reλwotę is, which the apostle so frequently mentions in this Epistle, I have before declared, and so what it is TEAεtwoa. It is indeed 'to perfect, to consummate, to sanctify, to dedicate, to consecrate.' But whereas these sacrifices did all these things outwardly, and as to the flesh, as the apostle grants, ver. 7, he doth not here absolutely deny it to them, but in a certain respect only.

They could not do it, Kara ovvednou, as to the conscience of the sinner before God.' What he intends hereby, he doth more fully declare, Heb. x. 2. There is a conscience condemning for sin. This could not be taken away by these sacrifices. They were not able to do it; for if they could have done so, the sinner would have had complete peace with God, and would not have had need to have offered these sacrifices any more. But they were multiplied and often repeated, because of their inability to this end. Wherefore τελειωσαι κατα συνειδη ov, is to give to men peace of conscience, through a sense of perfect atonement made for sin in the sight of God, with an interest in his love and favour thereon. To be perfect or consummated, as pertaining to conscience in the sight of God, is to have a conscience condemning for sin taken away. This those sacrifices of the law could not effect. will be said then, to what end did they serve? Were they of no use but only to free men from the penalties of the law or covenant, as it was a rule of the polity or commonwealth of Israel, and the tenure of their possessions in Canaan? Yes, they were moreover part of the apacon, or mystical instruction, which God granted the church in those days, directing them to the one sacrifice and offering of Christ, typically representing it, and through faith applying the virtue and efficacy of it to their consciences every day.

It

6. The person is described towards whom this effect of purifying the conscience is denied. They could not thus perfect rov λaTOEVOVτa, him

that did the service,' saith our translation, I think not so properly. He that did the service was the priest only. But respect is had to every one that brought his gift or offering to the altar. Επιτελειν τας λα'sacredly to accomplish the services,' was the work of the priest alone, ver. 6. But ὁ λατρευων is the same with ὁ προσερχομενος, Heb. ó o x. 1, that is, every one who brought his sacrifice to be offered,' that atonement might be made for him. And λarpevwv, comprehends the whole of divine worship in all individuals. Top Oey λarpevσes, Matt. iv. 10. But he also may be said to do the service, on whose account and in whose stead it was performed.

But the defect charged doth not in the first place reflect on the persons, as though it was by their default. They worshipped God according to his own institutions, but it was in the sacrifices themselves. And if they could not make the worshippers, those who did the service, perfect, they could make none so, for it was they alone who had the benefit of them.

The note of Grotius on this place is 'Isti cultus non possunt sectatorum suorum animos purgare à vitiis quemadmodum evangelium ;* most remote from the mind of the Holy Ghost. For he speaks not of purging our minds from vices, but of purifying conscience by atonement made for the guilt of sin; and opposeth not those sacrifices to the doctrine of the gospel, but to the sacrifice of Christ. And we may hence observe,

Obs. I. There is a state of perfect peace with God to be attained under imperfect obedience. For it is charged as a weakness in the legal administrations, that they could not give such a peace where any sin remained. It is, therefore, to be found in the sacrifice of Christ, as is proved at large in the next chapter. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.'

Obs. II. Nothing can give perfect peace of conscience with God but what can make atonement for sin. And whoever attempt it in any other way but by virtue of that atonement, will never attain it in this world nor hereafter.

; VER. 10.-Only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them till the time of reformation.

It is acknowledged, that there is no small difficulty in the connexion of these words, or in their relation to what doth immediately precede; and therefore expositors have multiplied conjectures about it, in whose examination we are not concerned. I shall, therefore, no farther consider any of them, but as they relate to what I judge to be their true coherence. Two things are plain and evident to this purpose.

First. That the design of the apostle in the words themselves is to manifest and declare the weakness of the services of the tabernacle, and their insufficiency for attaining the end proposed in them. This end, in general, was the perfecting of the church-state in religious worship; and, in particular, to make the worshippers perfect as to their consciences before God. And he gives such a description of them, as of itself will sufficiently evince their weakness and insufficiency. For what is it pos

VOL. IV.

F

sible, that things of that kind and nature which are here described, can contribute to these ends?

Secondly. That the things instanced in do comprise a great part of the Levitical institutions, and his assertion concerning them may, by a parity of reason, be extended to them all. For to render his description of them comprehensive, the apostle, 1. expresseth them in a particular enumeration of the heads whereunto they might be reduced, 'meats and drinks and divers washings.' And then, 2. to show that he intends all things of an alike nature with them, he adds the general nature of them all, they were 'carnal ordinances.'

1. A great part of their Levitical religious observances may be reduced to these heads of 'meats and drinks, and various washings.' Laws and institutions were multiplied about these things; what they might eat, and what they might not; what was clean, and what was unclean to that end; what they might drink, and what vessels defiled all liquors; what were to be their eatings and drinkings, and when on their peace-offering and at their solemn feasts: their great variety of washings, of the priests, of the people, of their garments and their flesh, stated and occasional, do take up a great part of the entire system of their ordinances. And as laws were multiplied concerning these things, so many of them were enforced with very severe penalties. Hence they were difficultly to be learned, and always impossible to be observed. The Mishna and Talmud, that is, the whole religion of the present Jews, consists almost wholly in scrupulous inquiries, and endless determinations, or rather conjectures about these things and their cir

cumstances.

2. All the laws concerning these things were carnal, 'carnal ordinances;' such as for the matter, manner of performance, and end of them were carnal. This being their nature, it evidently follows, that they were instituted only for a time, and were so far from being able themselves to perfect the state of the church, as that they were not consistent with that perfect state of spiritual things which God would introduce, and had promised so to do.

The scope and design of the apostle being thus fixed, the coherence and interpretation of the words will not be so difficult as at first view they may appear.

Movov ET Вowμast,' Only in meats and drinks,' &c. Our translators, observing the sense elliptical, have supplied it with which stood;' which stood only in meats and drinks;' and that supplement may give a double sense. 1. It may respect the substance of the thing spoken of: 'which' relates to gifts and sacrifices. And so the sense intended is, that they consisted in meats and drinks and divers washings. And this was the natural substance of them. They consisted in such things as might be eaten and drunk, being duly prepared, as flesh, flour, salt, oil, and wine. Hence were they called meat and drink-offerings. And they had washings also that belonged to them, as the washings of the inwards, Exod. xxix. 17, and of the burnt-offerings peculiarly, Lev. i. 9, 13, of the hands and feet of the priests, Exod. xxx. 18, 19, and of the leper, Lev. xiv. 9. Howbeit it cannot be said, that the gifts and sacrifices, as they were such, did consist in these things, though in them,

things of this nature were offered to God. Wherefore the supplement of which stood' cannot be admitted in that sense. 2. It may respect the consummation of these gifts and sacrifices, or the celebration of the whole service that belonged to them, and all their necessary circumstances or consequents; which stood in these things,' that is, which were accompanied with them, and not perfected without them.

The argument in the words is to prove the insufficiency of tne gifts and sacrifices of the law to the end mentioned, of perfecting conscience before God. And this is evidenced by the consideration of their necessary adjuncts, or what belonged to them and were inseparable from them. It is not said that these gifts and sacrifices were only meats and drinks, and so things of no value. For neither doth the apostle treat the old institutions with such contempt, nor would the truth of his assertion have been evident to the Hebrews. But he argues unto a discovery of their use and end, from the things that did always accompany them and were inseparable from them. For those by whom they were offered were obliged by the same divine institution at the same time, to sundry meats and drinks and divers washings, which proves both the gifts and sacrifices to have been of the same kind, and to have had respect to carnal things as they had. For if those gifts and sacrifices had an immediate effect on the consciences of men to their purification before God, by any virtue inherent in them, whence is it that the observances which by the same law accompanied them, were only about meats and drinks, and divers washings? And this sense is not to be refused.

But whereas there is an ellipsis in the connexion of the words, it may be otherwise supplied. For having mentioned the gifts and sacrifices of the law, the apostle makes an addition to them, of the remaining institutions and ceremonies of it, whose very nature and use declared their insufficiency to the end inquired after. And other laws, only concerning meats and drinks, and divers washings; which in general, he calls carnal rites. Hereby the argument in hand is carried on and completed.

There are four things in the words. 1. An account of the legal institutions, under several heads. 2. Their nature in general, with that of others of the same kind; they were carnal ordinances or fleshly rites. 3. The way of the relation of the people to them; they were imposed on them. 4. The time for which they were imposed, or the measure of their duration, which was till the time of reformation.

First. For the nature of them, they consisted πTI Воwμаσι кαι oμσ, ' in meats and drinks.' Take the words in their full extent, and they may be comprehensive of four sorts of institutions. 1. Of all those which concerned meats, or things to be eaten or not eaten, as being elean or unclean, an account whereof is given Lev. xi. throughout. With reference thereunto doth the apostle reflect on the Levitical institutions, in those words, Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with their using,' Col. ii. 21, 22, are all carnal things. 2. The portion of the priests out of the sacrifices, especially what they were to eat in the holy place, as the portion of the sin-offering, Exod. xxix. 31-33; Lev. x. 12, 13, 17, and what they were to eat of the