9 Which tabernacle with its services, whereby the worshipper was not brought into the immediate presence of the Deity, was a parabolical instruction concerning the time which is present, during which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot, by banishing the fear of punishment, make him perfect with respect to conscience, who worshippeth God

10 With nothing but meats and drinks, and divers immersions und ordinances respecting the purifying of the body, imposed only until the time of the reformation of the worship of God by Christ, who was to abolish the Levitical services, and to introduce a worship in spirit and in truth which may be performed in every place.

2. During which. That this is the proper translation of xaðiv, is evident from the gender of the pronoun, which doth not permit it to stand for

but for xaipov, time.-The Alex. MS. and the Vulgate, read here, air, in which tabernacle. And that reading our translators have followed. 3. Which cannot, with respect to conscience, make him perfect. As Peirce remarks, "Ceremonial impurities (and some civil punishments) were done away by these gifts and sacrifices, but moral evils, which burdened the "conscience, upon which a sense of guilt was left, could not be removed "thereby." This doctrine Paul preached, Acts xiii. 39. By him all who believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Ver. 10.-1. Only with meats, and drinks, that is, worshipped only with sacrifices, which consisted of the flesh of such clean animals as might be eaten, and with the fruits of the earth: and both accompanied with drinkofferings. Agreeably to this account of the gifts and sacrifices with which God was worshipped in the tabernacles, they are called the meat of God's house. In translating 1 Spaμaci with meats, I have followed Peirce.—E, bath this signification, Luke i. 29. Matth. iv. 4. Col. iii. 9.

2. Ordinances concerning the flesh. Dinalopati capuos, literally righteousnesses of the flesh: things which make the flesh, not the spirit, righteous. 3. Imposed. As μ, cannot agree with diapart, which is in the dative case, we must with Peirce, supply aτwa nv, which ordinances were laid on the Jews as a burden. Hence Peter said to the Judaizers, Acts. xv. 10.

11 But Christ being come, an High-priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect

tabernacle, not made with

hands, that is to say, not of this building;

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered

in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

11 Χριςος δε παραγενομενος, αρχιερευς των μελλοντων αγαθων, δια της μείζονος και τελειοτέρας σκηνης, ου χειροποιητού, τουτ' εςιν, ου ταυτης

της κτίσεως,

12 Ουδε δι' αἵματος τραγων και μοσχων, δια δε του ιδιου αἵματος εισηλθεν εφαπαξ εις τα άγια, αιωνίαν λυτρωσιν ευράμενος.

Now therefore why tempt ye God ewi‡uvai, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples. These ordinances respecting the purifying of the flesh, were imposed and continued until the time of Reformation, to shew that all the gifts and sacrifices, which were offered on earth, could not introduce the sinner, as a pardoned person, into the presence of the Deity.

Ver. 11.-1. But Christ, napageousvos, being come. The particle d, at the beginning of this verse, being used in its adversative sense, sheweth, that the apostle here states a comparison between the Levitical high-priests and Christ.

2. An High-priest of the good things which are to be, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle. In this translation, I have followed the order of the words in the original; because, in that order, they afford a sense suitable to the apostle's design; which was to shew, that Christ's ministrations as an High-priest, are greatly superior to those of the sons of Aaron, both in respect of the tabernacle in which he officiates, and in respect of the efficacy of his ministrations. He officiates in the greater and more excellent tabernacle not made with hands, called Heb. viii. 2. the true holy place which the Lord pitched and not man. And, the good things of which Christ is the Highpriest or Mediator, are all the blessings included in eternal redemption. See ver. 12. note 3. These blessings are here said to be, through the greater and more excellent tabernacle; that is, as I understand it, through the services of the greater and more excellent tabernacle, which Christ as an High-priest performed; namely, his dying on earth, and his presenting his crucified body before the throne of God in heaven, as a sacrifice for sin.-But Beza, Peirce, and others, reading the first clause of the verse by itself, thus, But Christ being come an High-priest of good things to come, join what immediately follows with the beginning of ver. 14. in this manner; through a greater and more perfect tabernacle,—bath entered into the holy place; understanding by the greater and more perfect tabernacle, our Lord's human nature. In support of this notion, Beza saith, that his human nature may as properly be

11 But Christ being come an High-priest of the good things which are to be through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,

12 Hath entered once into the holy places, (d) not indeed by the blood of goats (Levit. xvi. 15.) and of calves, (Levit. xvi. 3.) but by his own blood, having obtained FOR US an eternal redemption. (See Ephes. i. 7.)

11 But Christ being come, who is made an High-priest or Mediator of the blessings which are to be bestowed through the services of the greater and more excellent tabernacle not made, like the Mosaic tabernacle, with the hands of men, that is to say, a tabernacle not in this lower world,

12 Hath entered once for all into the holy places where God resides, (See Heb. ix. 5. note.) not indeed by the blood of goats and of calves, but by his own blood, or death as a sacrifice for sin; having thereby obtained for us, not redemption for a year, as the high-priest did by entering the holy places on earth, but everlasting redemption; so did not need to offer himself a second time.

called, a tabernacle, as his flesh is called a vail, Heb. x. 24. But not to dispute about the propriety of the figure, it appears an absurdity to say, that Christ entered into the holy place, through his own human nature as through a tabernacle. He entered into heaven clothed in his human nature, and not through it as through a place: for, on that supposition, he did not carry his human nature with him into heaven.

Ver. 12.-1. And of calves. Peirce observes, that the Hebrew word, Levit. xvi. 3. here translated, calves, properly signifies, bullocks of the second year; and that being so young, they might be called calves, which is the LXX. translation. Besides, we have calves of a year old, mentioned Micah vi. 6. and the apostle in the following verse, calls this blood, the blood of bulls. See chap. ix. 19. note 1.

2. But by his own blood. The essence of the sacrifice consisted in its death. But because its death was effected by the shedding of the animal's blood, and was shewed by sprinkling it in the holy places, the high-priest was said to enter into the inward tabernacle by the efficacy of the blood, that is, of the death of the victim, manifested by its blood which he carried with him. In like manner Christ is said to have entered, as an High-priest, into the holy places in heaven by his own blood; that is, by the merit of his own sufferings taken complexly. For he shed his blood when he suffered in the garden, when he was scourged, and when he was crowned with thorns, as well as when the nails were driven into his hands and feet on the cross, and the spear was thrust into his side.

3. Having obtained for us an eternal redemption; namely, from the grave, and from future punishment, followed by admission into heaven there to live

13 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;

14 How much more

shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from deua works, to serve the living

God?

15 And for this cause

he is the Mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgres

sions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

13 Ει γαρ το αἷμα ταυρων και τραγων, και σποδος δαμαλεως ραντιζουσα τους κεκοινω μενους, ἁγιάζει προς την της σαρκος καθαροτητα·

14 Ποσῳ μαλλον το αἷμα του Χριςου, ὃς δια πνευματος αιώνιου ἑαυτον προσηνεγκεν αμωμον τῷ Θεῷ, καθαριεί την συνειδησιν ὑμων απονεκρων εργων, εις το λατρεύειν Θεῷ ζωντι ;

15 Και δια τουτο διαθηκης καινης μεσιτης εςιν, όπως θα νατου γενομενον, εις απολυτρωσιν των επι τη πρωτη δια Sηκῃ παραβάσεων, την επαγγελιαν λαβωσιν οἱ κεκλημενοι της αιωνιου κληρονομιας.

eternally with God in unspeakable felicity. These are the good things said ver. 11. to be through the service of Christ in the greater and more perfect ta

bernacle.

Ver. 13.1. Sanctify to the cleansing of the flesh. The things mentioned, sanctified the bodies of the polluted, not by any natural efficacy (for they rather defiled them) but by the appointment of God, who, considering them as acts of obedience, was pleased on their account to remit the civil punishment, which, as their political ruler, he had a right to inflict on the polluted. But the shedding of the blood of Christ, both by the appointment of God and by its own efficacy, availeth to the procuring an eternal pardon for penitent sinners. See Ess. vii. Sect. 1. Art. 3. and Whitby's note on Heb. x. 14. The sentiment expressed in this and the following verse deserves attention, not only for its strength in the proof, but because it is a beautiful illustration of the apostle's doctrine, Heb. viii. 5. that the Levitical services were all shadows of heavenly things. For, the sanctification effected by the legal rites being the sanctification of nothing but the body, it was in a religious light of little use, unless it was a representation and pledge of some real expiation. Now what real expiation of sin is there in the whole

universe, if the sacrifice of Christ is excluded? We must therefore acknowledge that the Levitical rites which sanctified the flesh, derived their whole virtue from their being, as the apostle affirms, figurative represen tations of the real atonement which Christ was to make in heaven, for sanctifying the soul of the sinner,