carried
from one place to another: nor can man be cleansed from sin by means
of something unclean. It was therefore unfitting for the purpose of
expiating the sins of the people that the priest should confess the
sins of the children of Israel on one of the buck-goats, that it
might carry them away into the wilderness: while they were rendered
unclean by the other, which they used for the purpose of
purification, by burning it together with the calf outside the camp;
so that they had to wash their clothes and their bodies with water
(Lev. 16).

Obj. 7: Further, what is already cleansed should not be cleansed
again. It was therefore unfitting to apply a second purification to a
man cleansed from leprosy, or to a house; as laid down in Lev. 14.

Obj. 8: Further, spiritual uncleanness cannot be cleansed by material
water or by shaving the hair. Therefore it seems unreasonable that
the Lord ordered (Ex. 30:18, seqq.) the making of a brazen laver with
its foot, that the priests might wash their hands and feet before
entering the temple; and that He commanded (Num. 8:7) the Levites to
be sprinkled with the water of purification, and to shave all the
hairs of their flesh.

Objection 9: Further, that which is greater cannot be cleansed by
that which is less. Therefore it was unfitting that, in the Law, the
higher and lower priests, as stated in Lev. 8 [*Cf. Ex. 29], and the
Levites, according to Num. 8, should be consecrated with any bodily
anointing, bodily sacrifices, and bodily oblations.

Objection 10: Further, as stated in 1 Kings 16:7, "Man seeth those
things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart." But those
things that appear outwardly in man are the dispositions of his body
and his clothes. Therefore it was unfitting for certain special
garments to be appointed to the higher and lower priests, as related
in Ex. 28 [*Cf. Lev. 8:7, seqq.]. It seems, moreover, unreasonable
that anyone should be debarred from the priesthood on account of
defects in the body, as stated in Lev. 21:17, seqq.: "Whosoever of
thy seed throughout their families, hath a blemish, he shall not
offer bread to his God . . . if he be blind, if he be lame," etc. It
seems, therefore, that the sacraments of the Old Law were
unreasonable.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Lev. 20:8): "I am the Lord that
sanctify you." But nothing unreasonable is done by God, for it is
written (Ps. 103:24): "Thou hast made all things in wisdom."
Therefore t