V. 1.— For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For the law...— The law is here described as a shadow, and not an image. Here the law, as in many other places, denotes the whole of the Mosaic dispensation. It had been previously characterized as standing only in meats: " Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Chap. 9:10. Under these carnal ordinances, spiritual and heavenly things were concealed. The carnal ordinances constituted the vail on Moses' face, which concealed the glory of his countenance. There is an important distinction between a shadow and an image. A shadow is a mere outline, having only two proportions, length and breadth; an image has three— length, breadth, and thickness, and gives an exact representation of the object. Should it be asked whether it would not have been better had the law been an image of the new and spiritual dispensation, the reply is easy, By no means. Had this been the case, the people to whom it was given must have been gathered from all nations; and this would have defeated one important end of the separation of Israel, that the faithfulness of God in fulfilling his promise to Abraham, that he should be the progenitor of Christ, might be manifest. Again, as believers under the Gospel have but one priest, there could only have been one under the law. There would also have been but one sacrifice, one baptism. Once more the law must have been written on the hearts of all the people of the old, because this is the privilege of all the children of the new covenant. In short, every purpose of the giving of the law would have been made void; and, long before the expiration of the two thousand years which elapsed between the call of Abraham and the coming of Christ, the promise of the appearing of the Savior would have been forgotten. But the wisdom of God, by the separation of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, redeeming them from bondage, feeding them in the wilderness, and putting them in possession of a land flowing with milk and honey, appointing a priesthood in the family of Aaron, and, in connexion with this, establishing the daily and yearly sacrifices, purifications, and festivals, kept up during the space of fifteen hundred years a memorial of the new and more glorious dispensation under which God’ s people should be made free by the truth, should go up through the wilderness, should pass through the valley of the shadow of death, and inherit the better country. Can never.— The sacrifices which were constantly offered could never make the worshippers [Those who are described as the comers thereto, verse 1, are spoken of as worshippers, verse 2. perfect by removing their guilt and obtaining their acceptance with God.