PURITY; the Words Pure and Purity, are taken in Scripture in two different Senses: 1. For External Purity; and, 2. For Internal. External Purity is either in respect of such Persons as are capable of partaking of holy Things, and of performing among Men the Duties of civil Life; or in respect of Animals which are declared pure by the Law, and of which they were allow’d to eat; or lastly, in respect of such Things, which having none of the Impurities express’d in the Law, are fit for all the Uses for which they are intended: As for Example; Cloaths, Houses, Utensils, were capable of Impurities, which hinder’d their being made use of. No sooner were they purged from these Impurities, but they became clean, and might be used without any Scruple.
To recover this State of Purity when lost, and to wipe out any contracted Impurity, there were several Sorts of Purifications appointed by the Law. We have already spoken of these under the Article IMPURITIES. Things that were impure of their own Nature, as Carcases and Animals that died of themselves; and such as were so by the Appointment of God, as Animals declared impure by the Law, could never become clean. But Men or Women overtaken by any transient Inconveniencies, which render’d them unclean for a Time, might recover their usual Purity, when these Inconveniencies or Accidents were pass’d or expiated. ‘Twas the same in respect of Cloaths, Houses, and Goods; they were purified by Water, Fire, or by some Lustrations. As to such Persons as had contracted any Impurities, sometimes it was necessary that they should offer certain Sacrifices of Expiation. But the most general Method of Purification was the Bath, or the washing of the whole Body. When a Man had been defiled by touching a dead Body, or by assisting at a Funeral, he was wash’d with the Water of Lustration, in which was mixed some of the Ashes of the Red Heifer, which had been sacrificed on the Day of the solemn Expiation. See the Article of IMPURITIES.
Internal Purity consisted in Innocence of Life, in the Purity of the Mind and Heart, in Justice, and in the exact Observation of the Law of the Lord; and the only Way of recovering this Purity when impaired, was the Conversion of the Heart, the Detestation of Sin, and inward Sorrow and Compunction for it. These Dispositions, accompany’d by the Sacrifices required by the Law, in such Cases wherein Men had fallen into any Faults of Negligence, Inadvertency, or Ignorance, or even of Perverseness and Malice, might obtain Pardon for ‘em, not by virtue of the external Sacrifice, but by means of the Faith, Contrition, and Charity of him that offer’d it.
Moses is not very explicit upon the Means of recovering this internal Purity, nor is he so minute and accurate upon this, as upon external Purity; and that because as a Law-giver, his first and principal View was to restrain the Hands of Men, and to regulate the external State of his Commonwealth. Not but that Moses, and the other sacred Authors of the Old Testament, say enough to those that have a mind to understand, to prove how little they rely’d upon these outward Purifications and Sacrifices, in respect of the inward Affections of the Heart, of Contrition, Faith in God, and Charity. St. Paul in his Epistles, and particularly in that to the Hebrews, has admirably display’d this Truth to us, telling us, that the Sacrifices and Ordinances of the old Law were of no Virtue in themselves, to heal the inward Distempers of the Soul, and to repair the Outrages done to God by our Sins.
In the new Law, Christians are freed from the Yoke of Ceremonies and legal Impurities, and esteem as real Defilements, none but those of the Soul. Their chief Care is (or ought to be) employ’d, in preserving an inward Purity and Innocence of Mind, and to recover these by Repentance, whenever they shall have the Frailty to part with them. See the Article REPENTANCE.