Impure

IMPURE, legal Impurity. There were several sorts of Impurity contracted under the law of Numb. xix. 11,14. Levit. xi. 24. Lev. xi. 24, 43.Moses. Some were voluntary, as the touching of a dead body, or of any animal that died of itself, or of any creeping things, or unclean creature; or the touching things holy by one who was not clean, or was not a Priest; or the touching one who had a leprosy, one who had a gonorrhea, or was polluted by a dead carcase; a woman who had newly lain in, or was in the condition which her sex is every month liable to, or was incommoded with an extraordinary issue of blood. Sometimes these Impurities were involuntary; as when any one, without thinking of it, was in the chamber of a person that lay dead, or through inadvertence touched bones, or a sepulchre, or any of those polluted things, which we have been speaking of, or when either by night or day they suffered any involuntary pollution, or fell into such diseases as pollute, as the leprosy, gonorrhea, or lastly the use of marriage, Deut. xxii. 10. Lev. xv. 16. Lev. xiii. 14. Lev. xii. 2,3,4,5. Lev. xvi. 19. Lev. xv. 2, 4. Lev. xv. 25. Numb. v. 2. xix. 11, 12, 20. Lev. xv. 16, 18.whether lawful or unlawful, rendred those of both sexes unclean, who practised it.

The beds, clothes, moveables, and pots, which had touched any thing unclean, contracted likewise a sort of pollution, and often communicated it to others. We have spoken of unclean creatures under the article Animals. These legal pollutions were generally purified by bathing, and lasted no longer than the evening. The person polluted, plunged over head and ears into the water, and either had his clothes on when he did so, or washed himself and his clothes separately. Other pollutions continued seven days; as that, for example, which was contracted by touching a dead body. That of women in their monthly courses lasted till this was over with them. Other instances of uncleanness there were, which lasted forty or fifty days, as that of women who have lately been delivered. They were unclean forty days after the birth of a boy, and fifty after the birth of a girl. Others, again, lasted till the person was cured; as that of Lepers, and persons incommoded with a gonorrhea. Lastly there were certain diseases which shut people out from the commerce of the world; such as the Leprosy: while others excluded only from the use of things holy; such as the involuntary touching of an unclean creature, See Lev. xxii. 4.the use of Marriage, &c. Others did not exclude people from the commerce of life, but only separated the person from his relations in his own house, so that he could come no nearer them than to such a particular distance; as women who had newly lain in, or were under the infirmities common to their sex, whosoever touched them became impure for the whole day until the evening.

Many of these pollutions were purified, as we have said, by bathing. Others were expiated by sacrifices; others by a certain water, or lye, made with the ashes of a red heifer, which was sacrificed upon the great Numb. xix. 10, 11, 12, &c.day of Expiation. When the Leper was cured of his leprosy, he went to the Temple, and there offered a sacrifice of two birds, one whereof was killed, the other Lev. xiv. 1, 2, 3, &c.set at liberty. He who had been polluted by touching a dead body, or by being present at funerals, was to be purified with the water of expiation, whereof we have been speaking; and this upon pain of death. That man who should come near a woman while her usual infirmities were upon her, was condemned to death; and Lev. xx. 18.the woman also, if the matter were brought to a hearing before the Judge. The woman who had been delivered of a boy or a girl came to the Tabernacle after the prescribed time, and there offered a turtle and a lamb for her expiation; or if she were poor, two turtles, or two young pigeons.

The Impurities of this kind, which the Law of Moses hath expressed¹ with so much accuracy and care, were only figures of other more important Impurities, which were likewise carefully described by it; such as the sins and iniquities committed against God, or faults committed against our neighbour. The Saints and Prophets of the Old Testament have very well discovered this difference; and our Saviour in the Gospel has strongly inculcated, that they are not outward and corporeal pollutions, which render us unacceptable to God, but such inward pollutions as infect the soul, and are violations of Justice, Truth, and Charity.

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