Num. xix. 2, 3, 4, &c.RED-HEIFER. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying: “Command the Children of Israel to bring to you a Red-Heifer, perfect and without Blemish, which has never born the Yoke. You shall put it into the Hands of Eleazar the Highpriest, who, taking it without the Camp, shall kill it before all the People. He shall dip his Finger in the Blood of this Heifer, and shall make Aspersions seven Times towards the Entry of the Tabernacle, and shall burn it in the Presence of all the People, putting into the Flames not only the Flesh and the Hide, but also the Blood and the Excrements of the Victim. Also the Priest shall cast into the Fire that consumes the Heifer, a Bundle of Cedar-wood, some Hyssop, and double-dy’d Scarlet. Then he shall wash his Garments and his Body, and returning into the Camp, shall be unclean till the Evening.
“He also that burns the Heifer, shall wash his Body and his Cloaths, and shall remain unclean until Evening. A Man that is clean shall gather up the Ashes of the Heifer, and shall carry them out of the Camp into a clean Place, that the Israelites may take of them, and preserve them carefully, and make use of them to make a Water of Aspersion or Separation, because this Heifer was burnt for Sin. He that shall carry out the Ashes shall wash his Body and his Cloaths, and shall continue unclean till Evening. “This Ordinance shall be holy, and inviolably observed, not only by the Israelites, but also by the Strangers that live among you.
“He that shall have touched the Body of a dead Man, and for this Reason shall have contracted an Uncleanness that continues seven Days, shall be sprinkled with this Water the third and the seventh Day, and shall then be purified. If he receives no Aspersion on the third Day, but only on the Sixth, he cannot be purified on the Seventh, but on the Tenth or Eleventh. Whoever shall touch the dead Body of a Man, and shall not be sprinkled with Water, in which is mingled some of the Ashes of the Red-Heifer, shall pollute the Tabernacle of the Lord, if he presumes to present himself there in this Condition, and shall be cut off from the midst of his People. He shall be unclean, because he was not purified with the Water of Expiation, and his Uncleanness shall continue upon him.”
This is what was ordain’d by Moses in this Matter, and these are the Reflexions that Commentators have made upon it. Spencer thinks, that this Ceremony has Relation to Spencer. de Leg. Rit. l. 2. c. 15.an Opposition to the Egyptian Superstitions. The Egyptians never sacrificed Cows or Heifers, and the Hebrews themselves seldom sacrificed any other but Male Animals. The first had Red Hairs in abhorrence, and all Animals of that Colour. The Hebrews made no Distinction in the Colour of their Victims, but only upon this Occasion. St Jerom, and several others think, that they sacrificed the Hieron. Epist. 27.Red-Heifer every Year, and distributed the Ashes into all the Cities and Towns of Israel. Some Rabbins maintain, that there was but one burnt from the Times of Moses to Esdras; and that from Esdras to the Destruction of the Temple by the Romans, there were but six burnt, or nine at most. The same St. Jerom teaches us, that this Ceremony was always performed upon the Mount of Olives, over-against the Temple, after the placing the Ark at Jerusalem; and the Jews inform us, that it was always the Highpriest that offered this Sacrifice, from the first Building of the Temple.
Heb. ix. 13.The Red-Heifer offered without the Camp, was a Type of Jesus Christ, whose Blood purifies our Consciences from all Sin. 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; how much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without Spot to God, purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the Living God? See the Commentators upon Numbers, Chap. xix.