SPRINKLE, SPRINKLING
The Scripture sense of those acts being very interesting, renders it necessary that we should have a proper idea thereof; and therefore I have thought it not improper to detain the Reader with a short observation. The first account we meet with in the Bible concerning sprinkling as a religious ordinance, is at the institution of the Passover, when Moses, at the command of the Lord, enjoined the children of Israel to take of the blood of the lamb appointed to be slain, and strike the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, where they eat the Passover. And hence, in allusion to this, we find the Holy Ghost, by his servant the apostle, telling the church in after-ages that they were come to the blood of sprinkling. (Compare Exodus 12:7 with Hebrews 12:24) So that we cannot err in making application from the type to the thing signified; and as the Holy Ghost in so many words calls Christ our Passover, (1 Corinthians 5:7) hence the blood of sprinkling must mean the application of the whole benefits of Christ's sacrifice and death to the souls of his redeemed. And hence, when the Holy Ghost is recording the faith of Moses, in his view, of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Spirit expresseth the whole of Moses's dependance upon Christ by this one act of the ordinance appointed"Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them." (Hebrews 11:28) We find the same blessed allusion to Christ and his blood in other acts of the Jewish law. (See Leviticus 7:14; Numbers 19:18, etc.) And the apostle Peter expresseth the whole of the fulness of Christ's salvation, and the two grand branches of it, the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. That is, his active and his passive obedience. (1 Peter 1:2)
It may not be amiss to add that such was the custom in the eastern world in the article of sprinkling, that great part of their salutations and welcomes were manifested by this ceremony. One of our own countrymen in his travels saith that he was sprinkled with the water of orange flour, as a grateful refreshment. And a French author relates the same thing as a custom of the eastern manners, in courtesy and affection. I do not take upon me to determine the matter, but I would ask, is it not probable the custom was taken from Scripture? and is it not probable also that the meaning of it had an allusion to the precious doctrine of the application and sprinkling of the blood of Christ? It is worthy of farther remark, as an additional reason to this probability, that one of the prophets when speaking of Christ, said that he should sprinkle many nations. (Isaiah 52:15) And another prophet was commissioned to teach the church that their recovery from sin and from all uncleanness should be accomplished by the Lord's sprinkling the people with the clean water of his covenant, even the blood of Christ. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you." (Ezekiel 36:25)