7. was like someone: as [one] whom (5): She seemed like
someone who had been saved
(6) according to prescribed ritual (Purification
in the Old Law). But
the word as also implies a
condition contrary to fact: 'as if she had been saved.' Like
St. Paul (and many other Christians), Milton believed that following
the rituals of the Old Law had nothing to do with being saved. The
relative pronoun whom
(5) is the direct object of the verb did
save (6); the grammatical subject of the verb is Purification. The participial
phrase, washt from . . . taint
(5), modifies whom and is
parenthetical.