As if the apostle had said, "The first tabernacle was but. figure, or typical representation of good things to come, serving only for the present nonage of the church: for the gifts and sacrifices then offered could not, of themselves, perfectly justify, sanctify, or save any man, nor could they pacify the conscience of the sinner."

Where note, That conscience cannot be satisfied until God's wrath be pacified. Now, the ceremonial rites could not pacify God's wrath, because they could not satisfy God's justice: nothing but the blood of Christ could do that, which those sacrifices were only typical representations and prefigurations of.

Observe farther, The apostle's reasons why those legal rites could not make them perfect; namely, because the nature of them was such, that they reached only to the outward man, consisting only, for the most part, in meats, drinks, and divers washings, that concerned the flesh and body of man, which did not, of themselves, commend any man to God and were imposed upon them as. yoke, until the times of reformation; that is, the time of the Messiah, the times of the New Testament dispensaton.

Note here, The great imperfection of the Jewish dispensation, it was weak and imperfect, and consequently not to be continued.

Note farther, That nothing can give peace to conscience but what gives satisfaction to God's justice. Whoever seeks it in any other way, than by virtue of Christ's atonement, will never attain it in this world, or in that which is to come: No offerings could make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience.

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Old Testament