P. A law is provident, which shows everyone very well what is useful, and makes clear to everyone that by which he can become the best.

K. So. Adorning the holy and chosen race with such vestments, God also sanctifies it in other ways, as if in a canopy, but nevertheless in Christ; For it is written, "This is what thou shalt do unto them, that thou mayest ordain them to be priests unto me: Thou shalt take one bullock of the oxen, and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, and unleavened bread mingled with oil, and cakes of unleavened bread anointed with oil: of fine flour thou shalt make them, and put them in one basket, and offer them in a basket, and the bullock and the two rams together. And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tabernacle of meeting, and wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments, and clothe Aaron in the tunic, and in the outer garment, in the ephod and in the breastplate, and thou shalt gird him according to the ephod; and thou shalt put a kidar on his head, and fasten the diadem of the holy thing upon the kidar; And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. And thou shalt also bring his sons, and clothe them in tunics; And you shall gird them with a girdle, Aaron and his sons, and put bands on them, and the priesthood shall belong to them according to the statute for ever. and fill the hands of Aaron and his sons" (Exodus 29:1-9). So he commanded that a bull and two rams, unleavened bread and loaves in a basket (koshes) should be sacrificed; but He also purifies them in another way, doing this, as I think, an image of true sanctification: for having washed Aaron with water, He cloths him in holy clothing. And we, only having been washed by holy baptism and having been wiped from every kind of impurity, are enriched by grace from above and from heaven, receiving the garment of gladness, according to what is said: "Put on our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14). The foregoing discussion has shown us that Christ was prefigured in many ways in Aaron's adornment. Now he anoints the head of Aaron with holy oil, as David also sings in one place: "He anointed my head with oil" (Psalm 22:5); where oil signifies joy in hope, proclaimed by the voice of the saints, or joyful visitation from above: for we who believe have mercy and are blessed by the Lord, fattening the mind with the alms of the Spirit; the image of the mind is the head. In the same way, the priests were sanctified, washed with water and anointed with oil, being clothed in the sacred garment, having perfect hands, so that they might appear capable of the pure and blameless performance of sacrifices. In the same way, we are presanctified and adorned with grace from above and anointed to spiritual perfection, so that with boldness and, so to speak, with pure and all-holy hands, we offer to God gifts, obviously spiritual. And this, I think, means what is sung by Blessed David about everyone who ascends the mountain of the Lord: "The hands are innocent, and the heart is pure" (Psalm 23:4).

P. I think so.

K. And the manner in which the sacrifices for the priests were to be made, He determined by the law, saying: "And thou shalt bring the calf before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the calf, and slaughter the calf before the face of the Lord at the entrance of the tabernacle of meeting; Take the blood of the bull, and put it with thy finger on the horns of the altar, and pour out all the blood at the base of the altar. And thou shalt take all the fat that covers the intestines, and the omentum of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn it on the altar. And the flesh of the bull, and the skin thereof, and the uncleanness thereof, thou shalt burn in a fire outside the camp: this is a sin offering. And thou shalt take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the ram's head; And thou shalt kill a ram, and take its blood, and sprinkle it on the altar round about; Thou shalt cut the ram into pieces, and wash its intestines and its legs, and put them on the parts thereof, and on its head. And thou shalt burn all the ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a sweet aroma, a sacrifice to the Lord. Take another ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the ram's head; And thou shalt kill the ram, and take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, and on the tip of his sons' right ear, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot. and sprinkle the blood on the altar on all sides; And thou shalt take the blood that is on the altar, and the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him, and he and his garments, and his sons, and their garments with him, shall be consecrated. And thou shalt take of the ram the fat, and the tail, and the fat covering the intestines, and the omentum of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, the right shoulder, and one round loaf of bread, and one cake of oil and one unleavened bread out of the basket that is before the Lord, and thou shalt put it all in Aaron's hands, and in the hands of his sons, and thou shalt offer it shaking it before the LORD. And thou shalt take it out of their hands, and burn it on the altar of burnt offering, as an aroma before the Lord: it is an offering to the Lord. And thou shalt take the breast of the ram which is for Aaron, and offer it, shaking it before the Lord, and it shall be thy portion. And you shall sanctify the breast of the offering, which was shaken, and the shoulder of the offering, which was offered, from the ram of the offering, which is for Aaron and for his sons, and it shall be to Aaron and his sons for an everlasting portion from the children of Israel, for it is an offering. the offering shall be from the children of Israel at the peace offerings, their offering to the Lord" (Exodus 29:10-28). And after a few words, then: "Take the ram of the offering, and boil its flesh in the holy place; And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of this ram out of the basket at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting, for by this the cleansing is made for the conferral of the priesthood upon them, and for their consecration. a stranger should not eat [this], for it is holy; if there remains of the meat of the delivery and of the bread until morning, then burn the remnant in the fire: it is not to eat it, for it is holy" (29:31-34).

P. How profound is the content of these commands of the law!

K. Yes, very profoundly: you said it right. However, it is not completely dark if the Holy Spirit illuminates us with Divine light. Let us explain again, as far as possible, each separately. Our Lord Jesus Christ sanctifies us in innumerable ways and makes us sacred and acceptable (to God): "For through Him both have access" (Ephesians 2:18) And we are desired by God and the Father. His death is very useful and necessary for salvation for us, who have been subjected to corruption and sin, as well as His life, and moreover His accomplishment through His Body and Blood: for in Christ, and not in the law, is perfection (cf. Heb. 10:1 and 14).

P. You said it well.

K. See, then, as in the types, that by which we are successfully saved and sanctified, and made holy and holy in Christ. A calf of oxen was brought for sacrifice and is slaughtered before the very doors of the holy tabernacle with the laying on of hands on it; and his blood was poured out at the altar with the anointing of his horns, and his intestines were burned instead of the most fragrant incense. The rest of the body is burned, carried out outside the camp. And the calf is Christ, as being both out of the yoke and under the yoke; for, being God by nature, He was under the law according to mankind; For the little calf, unaccustomed to the yoke, is not by nature capable of being under the yoke?

P. That's right.

K. Thus Christ was prudently called a calf, so that in one and the same thing we might understand both the extraordinary slavery of the Divinity of the Word, and the manifestation of humanity in nature, which was under the yoke. And He is slain, as it were, for the holy tabernacle, and for those who laid their hands on Him (these were the Levites and the priests): for He died for the Church, and for those who were consecrated to Him through faith. And that the death of Immanuel is sacred, and as it were in the form of a sacrifice pleasing to God and the Father, you can understand from the shedding of the blood at the holy altar and the anointing of it, from the burning of the entrails, which can serve both as an image of the virtues within and in the mind, which have spiritual incense, and not in any one form, since the entrails are many: fat, kidney and omentum (membrane) of the liver. The remaining parts of the body are then burned outside the camp, for Christ "suffered" outside the gates: so writes Paul (Heb. 13:12; cf. 11). The destruction of the body by fire subtly indicates that His suffering and death will not serve Him to disgrace, but will end in bright and visible glory; for by the form of fire is understood the Divinity: so also He descended on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18). Intending to destroy the power of death, Christ prudently underwent death in order to be glorified before us as God. In this way, death passes into divine glory, having at its end a radiant resurrection; and humiliation in suffering, conquered by the highest glorification, turns into nothing. This, I think, is, in the hidden sense, the destruction of a dead calf by fire. By adding that sin exists, God pointed out that Christ's suffering served to cleanse sin: the matter is clear.

P. Yes, sir.

K. Then the first ram is taken and slaughtered in the same way as the calf: the blood is poured out again at the altar, and it is lifted up cut into pieces, after washing the entrails with water, together with the head and feet, because "there is a sacrifice." And through this Christ is again depicted to us, Who in the perfect ram is perfect, having a holy life: this, I think, is indicated by the outpouring of blood at the altar, for blood is a way of life; and in the stench of fragrance He is lifted up to God and the Father, both for all together and for each one. The example is also that the ram is lifted up on the altar, both in its entirety and in its limbs. In the same way, we are members of Christ individually and all represented by one body. Because He is holy and holy, and has no filth of uncleanness, this is very clearly indicated by the washing of the intestines. Both the head and the feet are lifted up together, manifesting the fragrance in the sanctification of the life of the Saviour from beginning to end; for in every animal the head is the beginning, and the cessation is the end of the whole body, as it were, the legs. But perhaps it is better to think of the head in the image of the mind, and the legs in the image of walking, which is realized in activity. In Christ, all both thoughts and deeds are fragrant and attain the highest degree of purity, for He "did not commit sin" (1 Pet. 2:22). For this reason He calls the sanctification of the ram a burnt offering and a sacrifice, since He is not only partly holy or holy. And it is not for Him, but rather for us both to be infirm at times, and to be subjected to sinful falls; for no one is "clean" from sins (Job 14:4) and "we all sin much," according to what is written (James 3:2).

P. But how can we think that Christ's very life was for us?

K. This you will know, and very easily, when you understand that in Adam we became partakers of his transgression, and were almost punished for his transgressions, because the curse passed on all, and wrath in some way devoured his generation. Thus, the Only-begotten descended to incarnation "and dwelt in us" (John 1:14) and submitted Himself to God and the Father, since "being obedient even unto death" (Phil. 2:8), destroying the guilt of Adam's disobedience, and brought to God and the Father the fragrance of obedience for all together and for each one: and by Him we are saved. A witness to this is Paul, who wrote: "Wherefore, as by the transgression of one man is condemnation unto all men, so by the righteousness of one man is justification unto life. For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:18-19) And so, do you understand that we are saved, when Christ died for us as if in the form of a calf, and that it is fragrant to God and the Father through His submission and life in sanctification? For the blood of the calf was poured out at the holy altar.