number For temptation is a thing generall and common to all who suffer persecutions for righteousnesse sake And withall temptation doth imply the constancie of them who are tempted But if we must needs read it they were tempted then we must understand it of some particular kinde and forme of temptation wherewith persons in distresse might easily bee overcome and drawne from their constancie as for example when a man is follicited to some fained act or to some ambiguous words by promising him safety and some good rewards besides to condescend to this that though he will not truly recede from his former way yet that he seem to recede from it For after this manner we read Eleazer was temped Now for a man to overcome such a temptation by lending no care nor minde unto it but rather dye a cruell death then to staine the reputation of his confession and constancie with the least shew of dissembling is a great and a brave conquest They wandred about in sheeps skins and goats skins For they had no means to procure other garment or covering for their body and therefore he presently addes being destitute afflicted tormented This is the reason why they wandred about and why in sheeps skins and goats skins because they were destitute of all worldly provision and in all places where they came were afflicted and tormented and therefore they wandred from place to place in that despicable and poore manner All which miseries happened unto them in the times of the Maccabes under the persecution of the cruell Antiochus 38. Of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in deserts and in mountaines and in dens and caves of the earth The Author interposeth the former words of this verse to shew the indignity of the usage and foulnesse of the injury which the wicked inflicted upon the true servitors of God As if he had said these good men were constrained to wander like wilde beasts and to hide themselves like wilde beasts in desarts and mountaines in holes and caves of the earth but among men in Townes and Cities they could have no abode though for their piety and faith toward God they were of such worth and respect that the inhabitants of the whole world were unworthy of them Of this carriage Christians especially ought to take notice when they see worthy persons to be vexed banished afflicted and slaughtered of the unworthy good men of evill and the innocent of the wicked For as the Author would intimate unto us it may be that the world herein did in a manner punish her selfe in that shee persecuted and banished such holy persons and drave them away from her of whose conversation and company she was altogether unworthy 39. And these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise The word all seems in the intention of the Author to be chiefly referred to those persons last mentioned who for the love of Gods Law suffered such great calamities For the former persons mentioned before them obtained some promises of God as rewards of their faith but these latter that were persecuted and slain for the testimony of Gods Law had none And yet all their faith who were mentioned in the former place was not such a faith as to be of it self a saving faith or such an one which could procure them eternall life which the Author here understands by the name of the promise unlesse something else were added particularly that faith which concerns only wars or had some certaine thing proposed for the matter of it as the recovery of their health or the raising of their dead children to life and which was perpetuall in them working in them that had it true righteousnesse and piety for there is no cogent reason constraining us to affirme that it was such a faith See what the Author hath affirmed ver 33 34 35. A good report part through faith They obtained the praise and commendation of their faith in the Scriptures See ver 2. through faith Partly because their faith was the cause why they performed such worthy acts as deserved great praise and commendation Partly because such a notable faith in God was of it selfe the cause and matter of that good report and commendation Received not the promise The article the doth shew that some excellent promise is here designed out namely that which is peculiar and proper unto Christians which hath none greater and more excellent then it selfe the promise I meane of that truly blessed and eternall life which though it were not openly promised to them but only to us yet it shall be given to them as well as to us But the word promise is taken here materially for the thing promised 40. God having provided some better thing for us Hee addes here the cause why they have not yet received the promise For the Hebrews might thinke that God in this respect had not dealt so well with them that they had not yet received the reward of their faith workes and sufferings The Author therefore meets with such surmifes and shews it was done for this reason because God had provided some better thing for us A question But here it may be demanded wherein our condition is the better in that they might not receive that promise nor bee perfected without us For if they had received eternall happinesse before would the summe of our happinesse have been any thing the lesse Or is our happinesse any thing the greater because they are made to stay for it The Answer to this may be twofold and according to the twofold Answer there will arise a twofold sense of these words Answer 1. The first Answer is That God would herein provide for our dignity and make our happinesse the more illustrious For although if we regard the thing it self nothing would either be taken from our happines if they had obtained eternall life without us or before us or will now accrue unto it that they have it not without us but together with us yet respectively and comparatively we should have been far inferiour unto them if they without staying for us had been long since invested in heavenly joyes But now seeing they are constrained to stay for us and may not enjoy that promise before us hence appears that the dignity of Christians is very great and that their happinesse is made much more conspicuous seeing there are none who can seeme to obscure it by preventing it with a fuller or more early happinesse And certainly very convenient it was that God should so provide for it that they who had obeyed him only according to the ordinances of Moses should not prevent in happinesse those who compose their lives and manners according to the perfect Law and discipline of Christ and that they who never had any open promise of eternall life should enjoy that life before them who had an open and cleare Covenant for it But rather seeing by Gods goodnesse they were to
the Rulers of the Church watch for our soules that no mans soule should perish or that no man should faile of that true and eternall salvation of soules Whence it appeares what great reason wee have to obey our Rulers whose charge and care belongs wholly to our soules and whose commands and admonitions we can despise with no lesse danger then the losse of our soules As they that must give account Now on the other side he shewes a reason of the duty of our Rulers whom God hath appointed over us why they must use all diligent care to watch for our soules namely because they must give an account of their office and actions to God and Christ who hath committed his poore sheep to their care and charge so that if any perish through their default or negligence they must answer for it under a grievous penaltie For to this purpose tend those words of God in Ezekiel So thou O sonne of man I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel therefore thou shalt heare the word at my mouth and warne them from me When I say unto the wicked O wicked man thou shalt surely die If thou dost not speake to warne the wicked from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquitie but his bloud will I require at thine hand Neverthelesse if thou warne the wicked of his way to turne from it if he doe not turne from his way he shall die in his iniquitie but thou hast delivered thy soule Ezek. 33.7,8,9 Therefore this so weightie and so dangerous an Office which our Rulers bear doth altogether require on their part that they bee carefull to watch for our soules and it well deserves on our part that we should obey and subject our selves unto them and not take it in ill part if to provide not onely for our salvation but their owne they refuse to humour and flatter our fancies That they may doe it with joy and not with griefe Hee yet presseth our obedience with a further reason namely that our Rulers may reape some spirituall fruit of their Office and performe it with joy and not with griefe For certainely this their Office so dangerous to themselves and so commodious to us doth deserve this respect at our hands that in the function of their Office wee should so carry our selves as to be a comfort and joy unto them and not a griefe And we are a joy unto them when we shew our selves obsequious and pliant to their doctrines precepts and warnings but we are a griefe to them when we are refractory and obstinate And not with griefe In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly and adequatly signifies sighing which is the outward effect and signe of inward griefe and sorrow For to this effect are the words of Saint Paul 2. Cor. 2.3 And I wrote this same unto you lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoyce And again in the same Epistle chap. 12.21 I feare lest when I come again my God will humble me among you that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented For that is unprofitable for you This is spoken by way of mollifying or diminishing the matter For to grieve our rulers by our disobedience is not only unprofitable to us but very hurtfull Seeing God wil take sore vengeance upon us for this double offence that we should deserve so ill at Rulers hands who watch so piously carefully for the salvation of our souls as to repay their diligence care with grief sorrow 18. Pray for us A particular precept or request unto the Hebrews But he speaks onely of himselfe in the plurall number as it appeares in the verse following wherein expressing what they should pray for he mentions a thing concerning himselfe onely For wee trust wee have a good conscience Hee subjoynes the ground or cause of his request namely because hee was not a person altogether unworthy to obtain this good Office from them But hee speakes very modestly and prudently of himselfe that he might decline all envie For first hee saith not simply we have a good conscience but we trust wee have a good conscience so wee beleeve and so wee perswade our selves which could not but bee improperly spoken seeing to speake properly a good conscience consisteth in the perswasion of it selfe Therefore a good conscience is in this place taken for the cause of a good conscience that is for a life unblameable or voide of all offence as if he had said I trust and am perswaded that I so live and so carry my selfe that my conscience may well be at rest with my actions Secondly hee speakes in the plurall number and by way of communication doth mingle himselfe in a manner with the multitude seeming also to testifie no more of himselfe then of them In all things willing to live honestly Hee shewes the reason of his confidence why he trusteth that he hath a good conscience namely because hee is willing to live honestly in all things Hee saith not that actually hee doth live honestly in all things but affectively hee is willing to live so which is much more modest But his willingnesse herein must not be taken for the sole purpose and intention of his minde but of his study endeavour and labour or of a will continually actuall and effectuall For so Saint Paul testifies of himselfe Acts 24.16 And herein doe I exercise my self to have alwayes a good conscience void of offence toward God and toward men And this is to live well and honestly in all things namely in all our actions and dealings when thou carriest thy selfe so uprightly that thou deservest no just reproofe or blame neither in the sight of God nor of men Before God in being cleare from all spot from which a Christian life ought to be free and before men in appearing such a one that thou givest no just occasion to any either to thinke or suspect evill of thee and dost shun all such things as though they be not determined by any Law of God yet are dishonest in mens opinion 19. But I beseech you the rather to doe this Namely to pray for me And the adverbe the rather may be referred to the next verbe before it I beseech you as if he had said I beseech you so much the rather to pray for me that I may be restored unto you the sooner or it may bee referred to the verbe after it to doe this as if he had said I beseech you that you would the rather pray for me But for what That I may bee restored unto you the sooner He shews the end and fruit of their prayers to what effect they should the rather and the more earnestly pray for him namely thereby to obtaine from God that he might be restored unto them the sooner that is that his returne unto them might be speedier then it was like to
he saith that Christ was not the sole but the first preacher of it and after him others who were taught it by him and sent forth by him to preach it universally over all parts of the world who therefore were called the Apostles or Emissaries of Christ And was confirmed unto us by them that heard him In the confirmation of the Gospel the preaching of it is included or thereby supposed The Law was confirmed or made stedfast not onely by judgements and punishments annexed against the transgressors of it but also the publishing of the Law was confirmed and certified with wonderfull sights and sounds as the lightnings and thunders and trembling of the Mount and the voice of a Trumpet exceeding shrill that sounded long waxing louder and louder so that all the people in the Camp trembled Exod. 19.16 Now lest any man should think that the Gospel either in this regard was inferiour to the Law or was but a vaine novelty that wanted solid arguments and proofes both for the verity of it and the publishing of it therefore the Gospel also was confirmed and certified with most divine testimonies that were without all exception and such as were never seene nor heard of in the world before Vnto us To this Author and others By them that heard him that heard Christ publish and preach the Gospel The Gospel was first confirmed firmed by Christ by vertue of his miracles and sufferings and afterward his publishing of the Gospel his miracles and sufferings were confirmed by them that heard his preaching saw both his miracles and sufferings even by them that were constant auditors of his doctrines and spectators of his miracles such as were especially the Apostles and disciples of Christ Hence it may not improbably be gathered That Paul was not the Author of this Epistle For hee never exempts himselfe from the number of the Apostles nor reckons himselfe as a hearer of the Apostles as the Author of this Epistle here doth Paul alwaies preserved his Apostolick authority and maintained it entire against all that maligned it and he was especially so to doe when hee had to deale with the Hebrewes or Jewes who depraved and slighted his authority Neither was any Apostle the Author of it but some Apostolick person who had learnt the Gospel from some Apostle 4. God also bearing them witnesse The Apostles after Christ did second Christ in preaching and confirming the Gospel yet they confirmed it not by their owne power but by divine power for the confirmation of it was from God because God did beare witnes of their doctrine and gave his suffrage to their sayings Who therefore would not yeeld his faith and belief to so great a confirmation and to so great a testimony of so great a witnes Neither could these things be denied by these Hebrewes to whom this Epistle is written seeing they themselves had seene and heard the preaching of the Gospel confirmed before them Both with signes and wonders and divers miracles Here hee shewes by what meanes God did confirme the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles namely by meanes of two sorts by the workes of miracles and by the gifts of the holy Ghost Signes were testimonies in generall that the Apostles were sent of God and spake the truth Wonders were signes also yet but one sort of signes namely the sublimest and most powerfull kinde that bred astonishment in the people such as raising the dead and the falling downe of Ananias dead And these signes and miracles were not all of one sort but various and diverse as casting out of devils raising the dead others falling downe dead giving sight to the blinde and blindnes to others as to Elymas the sorcerer by healing diseases not only by their word but by the shadow of Peter and by the handkerchief of Paul Concerning this confirmation of the Gospel St. Austine speaks very wittily Wee know saith hee that almost all the world was drawne unto Christ by the force of miracles They that deny this by eluding miracles they themselves make a greater miracle For when so few Apostles so unlearned men preached things so incredible to humane reason that all the world anciently seasoned with other Religions should beleeve them without any miracles this is a more incredible miracle then any of those miracles which they are said to have done And gifts of the holy Ghost for gifts the originall hath distributions The second meanes of confirming the Gospel preached by the Apostles was by the distributions or gifts of the holy Ghost This the Author names in particular because it is a most divine work most peculiar to the Gospel That at the preaching of the Apostles or at the laying on of their hands the holy Ghost was given to those that beleeved at their preaching He calls them distributions or gifts diversly imparted because the gifts in themselves were diverse and also were diversly imparted to diverse persons Not one and the same gift to all but one to one and another to another one to diverse and diverse to diverse in diverse manners to one in a lesse measure to another in a greater according to the measure both for quantity and quality that it pleased Christ to conferre these graces See 1. Cor. 12.11 and Ephes 4.5 For this variety and diversity in distributing the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost did greatly redound to the benefit and necessity of the Church who is one great Corporation or body mysticall composed of various and diverse members that some standing in need of others help might more mutually conspire in love and unitie among themselves According to his owne will The power to diversifie and varie the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost was not at the will and pleasure of the Apostles but was a prerogative reserved to God and the distribution was varied according to his own will 5. For unto the Angels He returnes to his former point of preferring Christ above the Angels for which he brings a new Argument and withall tacitely shewes the cause why Christ being one somewhat inferiour to the angels in respect of his mortall nature was at last advanced to be far greater and higher then they The reason hereof was because the future world to come was to be subject to Christ and not to the angels For to this purpose the words cited out of the eighth Psalme that the world to come must be subject to a man are by the Author applyed to Christ as the like is done by Paul 1. Cor. 15.27 and Ephes 1.22 And this testimony of Christ being made better then the angels seemes to be reserved for the last place because by this meanes he might both dissolve the doubt why Christ being first lower then the angels was at last made much higher then they and also might prepare himselfe an entrance to explicate the cause of that Imminution of Christ whereat he principally aimed and so gradually proceed to handle the Priesthood of Christ
necessarily follow that Beliefe was the condition of their entring But as this oath proceeded from the wrath of God touching the non-entry of this generation so it was tempered and mingled with mercy for the next generation who were the children of this For concerning those children this generation had provoked God in saying they should be a prey and dye in the wildernesse But God makes it a part of his oath to the contrary that their children should not bee a prey in the wildernesse but they shall enter the land and possesse it Numb 14.30,31 Into my rest The land of Canaan is called a Rest because the Israelites were to reside and rest after their hard servitude for many yeares in Egypt after their tedious pilgrimage and travell through the vast wildernesse where they wandred for the space of forty yeares and after their severall battells with their enemies which they were to conquer and extirpate from that land Although there be another mysticall use of the word in the Chapter following And God calls it his Rest because the people got it neither by their power not by their desert but by Gods meere benefit and donation to them in performance of the promise he had sworn to their forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. For God by his mighty arme and power brought them out of Egypt carried them through the wildernesse and cast out their enemies before them that they might possesse the land not for any righteousnesse in them but for the wickednesse of the Cananites thereby to performe his word sworne to their fathers Deut. 9 4.5.6 12. Take heed brethren Here he begins another Exhortation to diss wade them from Apostacy from the Christian Religion from the which they were declining and departing For the desertion of God must needs be a greater sinne then the tentation of him Take heed i. Bethinke your selves well and have a great care because the matter is very dangerous for when dangers are at hand we use to be heedfull and carefull Lest there be Lest there be now at this time or if it be not yet lest it creep upon you in time to come for Apostacie is as a serpent that will insinuate into your mindes at any time for it is easily introduced by diffidence and obstinacie In any of you Hee meanes not this distributively for any one single person among them but collectively of them all that all might have a care of all and each one of another An evill heart of unbeliefe An evill heart is an intractable or hard heart that is contumacious and refractory against God and his word And then the heart is especially evill and hard when it is incredulous and unbeleeving q.d. a heart so evill that it will not believe In departing from the living God Here he limits the unbeliefe whereof he spake before designing particularly what unbelief he meant For there is a double unbeliefe one of them who never yet did believe in God another of them who cease to believe and turne Apostates to their former beliefe in departing from it and consequently from God Now he departs from God who departs from Christ and his Religion as in the former Covenant he that departed from the Law departed from God himselfe For as he that believes in Christ doth not finally believe in Christ but in God by Christ as Christ himselfe declareth it John 12.44 So on the contrary he that departeth from Christ departs not only finally from Christ but from God who sent him and ordained him to bee our Lord and Saviour And God is called the living God in opposition to the Idols and false gods of the Gentiles who were as destitute of all life and sense as were their images and statues wherein they were worshipped This Epithet is added here to God thereby to strike so much the greater terrour into them that they might never think of departing from so great a God Therefore he saith afterward chapter 10. ver 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God For hee must needs have an infinite power who is the true and living God Yet positively God is called the living God because he not onely lives truely and perpetually but also lives from himselfe and is the fountain of life to others from whom all living things have their life 13. But exhort one another daily Here he shewes the ordinary way and meanes whereby they may remedy this evill heart of unbeliefe namely if they mutually admonish and exhort one another yet that must not be done seldome at distant times but daily that their mutuall exhortations may be fervent and frequent While it is called to day As long as that day lasteth whereof mention is made in the Psalme before cited To day if ye will hear his voyce Whereupon we noted above that in the literall sence it signified that festivall and solemne day wherein the people resorted to the Temple to performe the worship and service of God where also the Law of God used to be read unto them To this festivall day in the mysticall sence doth answer our Christian festivall or time of Grace wherein we are invited to lay hold of eternall salvation whereto by the Gospel the passage is opened unto us While this day or time of the Gospel doth last we must exhort one another from unbeliefe in departing from God Lest any of you be hardned A man is then hardned when hee hath a will not to beleeve the promises of God or not to obey his precepts Through the deceitfulnesse of sinne He shewes the cause of this hardnesse to be sinne and the manner how sinne hardneth by deceaving us For therefore we are refractory to the voyce or word of God because we are deceived bysinne for we are entrapped by the baits and snares of sin by preferring the whispers of sin before the voyce of God for so the Serpent beguiled Eve and so doth sin deceive us still Yea even from the word of God and from his Commandment whence wee should take occasion to obey him thence will sinne take occasion to deceive us Rom. 7.11 14. For we are made partakers of Christ Hee seemes here to answere a tacite objection For these Hebrewes might thinke that these admonitions concerned not them that they need to take heed of unbeliefe and consequently of Gods wrath seeing they did already beleeve in Christ and so were estated in Christian happinesse To this hee answeres by granting that they were already made partakers of Christ that is of that happinesse which Christ bestowes upon the faith full yet upon that condition that they persevere in the faith of Christ to their lives end For this partaking of Christ or Christian happinesse as it referres to this life consisteth in a full right or title to happinesse but this right or title is presently lost when we recede or depart from the faith of Christ If we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end
happinesse then we persevere in the faith 2. Because thereby we provoke and grieve God 3. Because thereby we are barred from entring into eternall rest v. 19 CHAPTER IV. 1. LEt us therefore feare Because we have already seene that our Ancestors by reason of their unbeliefe were not admitted into the rest of God and that their example is proposed unto us as a caution to make us the more wary therefore let us feare that we runne not upon the same rock Lest a promise being left us So our last Translation reads it as if God had also left a promise unto us hereto induced as it seemes by the following words of the Author where he inferres and concludes That there remaineth a rest to the people of God ver 9. But we cannot approve of this reading neither doth the Author use altogether the same word in both places wherefore we conceive this the true reading Lest the promise being relinquished i. lest we neglect relinquish leave or forsake the promise For a promise is then relinquished and left when it is no longer credited and beleeved as our forefathers did whose example as we have seene was formerly proposed unto us They for a time did embrace and accept of Gods promise for upon that ground and hope they went out of Egypt but afterward in the wildernesse they did relinquish and leave the promise by their unbelieving it Of entring into his rest He expresseth the matter of the promise which we must not leave God hath promised us an entrance into his eternall rest we must not desert and leave it by unbelieving it Any of you should seeme to come short of it This is the effect and fruit of our deserting or leaving the promise that thereby we shall come short of the rest promised To come short signifies either to remaine behinde or to returne back for in this latter sence the word is used afterward chap. 12.25 Both these sences have an elegant agreement with the point For as the Israelites after they no longer beleeved Gods promise for the giving of them possession in the land of Canaan would goe no further forward in following of Moses but would rather chuse themselves new Captaines for their returne back into Egypt So they who will no longer give faith to the promises of Christ will follow his standerd no further but endeavour a returne into the Egypt of the world from whence by faith they had once departed Yet he saith not simply lest any of you come short but lest any should seeme to come short This latter of seeming is farre lesse then the other For we must be so farre from this sinne of stopping or returning from the Gospel that we must give no man any just occasion to thinke it of us For such an opinion of another carries somewhat of truth with it and if a man do not yet plainly revolt yet at least some inclination or likelihoods of it are wont to be in him And this opinion a man may raise in others of himselfe if by little and little he remit and abate of his practise and fervency in godlinesse not serving Christ with such alacrity as is fit 2. For unto us it was preached as well as to them It was preached i. the promise of entring into Gods rest the message of which promise was sent unto us also Herein the Author meets with an objection For some man might say The promise of entring into Gods rest was it not made to our forefathers of old and long since performed unto them in giving them possession in the land of Canaan What doth this promise pertaine to us The Author answers That this promise doth pertaine to us and the joyfull message of entring into Gods rest was no lesse sent to us then of old to our forefathers But what kinde of rest is promised to us he expresseth afterward But the word preached did not profit them In the originall it is the word of hearing by an Hebraisme for the word heard And by the words is figuratively ment the promise of entring into Gods rest for every promise of God is his word Here he tacitly shews the cause why he admonished them to believe the promise of God by Christ because otherwise it would profit us no more then anciently it did the Israelites whom it so farre profited as to bring them out of Egypt but it profited them not to bring them into Canaan which was the land promised Not being mixed with faith in them that heard it The reason why the hearing of the word of promise did not profit them was because it was not mixed with faith in them it was not throughly engrafted into their mâ—…es nor turned into a sap or blood to doe them good For this worke is done by faith by a firme assent yeelded to the word and promise of God to assure the promise that the thing promised might take effect 3. For we which have believed doe enter interrest Hee addes a sub-reason of his former assertion Because they only among us who believe enter into rest and therefore they who beleeve not do not enter into rest neither can enter For the particle only or some other such exclusive must be here understood because faith is the condition of entring Gods rest which restraines the entrance only to the faithfull As he said As I have sworne in my wrath if they shall enter into my â—est By this oath of God Psal 95. ult as we noted in the former Chapter it plainly appeares that they which beleeve not shall not enter into Gods rest for want of saith is the cause why men are strucken with the thunder of Gods wrath and debarred from the promised entrance into his rest As the promise of entrance proceeds from Gods mercy and is confirmed by his oath to the beleever so on the contrary the menance of non-entrance proceeds from Gods wrath and is consi med by his oath to the unbeleever Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world Here the Author teacheth what kinde of rest it is that from those words of the Psalme must bee understood in a mysticall sence And this hee doth therefore that thereby wee may understand the truth of those things which he had asserted in the first and second verses of this Chapter concerning a rest of God promised to us and a passage thereto made open to us Which the Hebrews could neither understand nor would admit to be true while their minds ran upon an earthly rest in Canaan first promised and afterward performed to their forefathers unlesse it bee explicated what the rest is that is promised to us and so their mindes be drawne from an earthly to an heavenly rest First therefore the Author expresseth somewhat of that rest and saith it is a Rest from workes from workes that were finished and finished long since even from the foundation of the world Which Rest is proper to God himselfe as it is intimated in the
sake and therefore cannot but bee affected with like sense of trouble at the troubles and pains of the innocent that suffer for his sake and therefore when they pray and cry unto him hee will be ready in obedience to God to give them audience to heare and helpe them Though he were a Son He illustrates the matter ex adversis So great a conjunction of Christ with God such a fatherly love of God toward him as being his only Sonne might seeme to be against this way of exercising him upon the stage of afflictions yet it was not against it God might have taught his Sonne the lessons of obedience in some other schoole then that of afflictions yet it pleased God to choose this way and not spare him from the common condition of his brethren Hence it is manifest how greatly God loved mankinde who would handle his owne Son so hardly to this end that having triall of suffering in his owne person miseris succurrere discat he might thereby learne to succour those in misery Hence it appeares also that Gods fatherly love to the faithfull is no way impaired when he exerciseth their faith and patience to make trials of them in sufferings For whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth chap. 12.6 9. And being made perfect In the last place he comes to the first property of an high Priest and applies it also to Christ namely that Christ procures the salvation of men and negotiates with God to be propitious to them and forgive them the punishments of their sinnes Which property in respect of Christ he expresseth in these words that he is become the Author of eternall salvation Made perfect This state of Christ in being made perfect or consummate is opposed to his state in the dayes of his flesh For then when Christ was infirme and himselfe wanted anothers help he could not perfectly and finally help others in all things But after that he was consummated or perfected i. after he had attained to immortality or a nature incorruptible and was invested with supreme power in heaven and earth so that nothing further was wanting to him or after hee was throughly consecrated of God and fully installed into his Priesthood as some think the word perfected to mean then he became the author of eternall salvation For then he was a most perfect cause of salvation In the dayes of his flesh he was indeed the cause of eternall salvation for then he was the great Legate or Apostle of God to preach it but being perfected he becomes the most perfect cause of it for now hee is our high Priest and heavenly King to give that which before he preached He is therefore the most perfect cause of eternall salvation because he gives it in a most perfect manner for he wants nothing neither for faculty or power nor for desire and will to perfect our eternall salvation For by his power he takes from us all punishment of our sins he gives us everlasting life he receives our spirits into his hands he speedily succours us in our afflictions lest our faith should fail and we thereby fall into punishments due to our sinnes The Author made choice of generall words to describe the power and efficacie of Christs Priesthood in the procuring of our salvation that he might expresse it with tearms more proper to it For Christ is not the cause of salvation in the very same manner with the legall high Priest who gave not salvation or pardon to the people himselfe of himselfe as Christ doth but only procured God to give it by propitiating him with offerings And there is a great difference betweene Christ and the legall high Priest in the salvation procured for hee procured only a temporary and transitory salvation but Christ gives an eternall salvation Furthermore this place affoords us an example of a rule in Scripture that some things are said to be simply done when they are more perfectly done We have an instance hereof in that passage of John 2.11 where the Disciples of Christ who did already believe in Christ are notwithstanding said to believe in Christ upon sight of the miracle of water turned into wine because then they believed in him much more stedfastly and perfectly then they did before or because then their faith received a great increase So Christ himselfe John 15.8 saith to his Disciples that if they did beare much fruit so they should bee his Disciples because by this meanes they should become his Disciples in a more perfect manner This we therefore notifie lest to any it should seeme strange that the Scripture notes divers times wherein Christ became the Sonne of God namely because he became so in a more perfect manner and higher degree although from the beginning of his conception he was truly the Son of God though not so perfectly as afterwards Vnto all them that obey him Here the persons are specified to whom Christ is the author of salvation namely to the obedient and to them universally to all that obey him For Christ is an high Priest properly to such and is ordained of God to expiate their sinnes Whence it appeares that all who will have their sins expiated by Christ and obtaine eternall salvation by him must obey him Christ indeed is the cause of salvation even to them who as yet obey him not in that he first makes them obedient and consequently saves them but to such he is but the remote cause but he is the immediate cause of it to them that actually obey him for therein his Priestly office is actually exercised Not unlike to this is that saying of Peter Act. 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to bee a Prince and a Saviour what else is this then to be the author or cause of salvation and by what means Christ doth worke and cause salvation Peter expresseth in the words following to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes This latter way of saving as being the perfecter is contained in this place 10. Called of God an high Priest Christ becomes the author or cause of eternall salvation by this meanes in being ordained an high Priest of God for when God calls him an high Priest thereby hee makes him so After the order of Melchisedeck Christ is such a high Priest unto us that withall he is also our heavenly Lord and King having supreme power to pardon all our sinnes and to free us from the punishment of them But of this point we shall speake more largely chap 7. 11. Of whom we have many things to say Hee passeth to another point wherein he reproves the slownesse and dulnesse of them to whom he writes to this end that he may excite and prepare them to receive those mysteries which he had in his minde to open concerning the Priesthood of Christ Of whom i. of Christ our high Priest either in reference to his Priesthood absolutely or respectively as it is
may sway him so to grant something that if he grant it not wee may well say he deals unequally and hardly In this latter way God may seem to be said unrighteous if he should be so unmindfull of vertues both past and present if he should presently reject men though otherwise worthy of reprobation if God should deale with them according to his Law and no way expect their repentance but wholly exclude them from all addresse to his clemency mercy especially if it appear not that there are some prevalent causes which restraine God from shewing mercy as in case he be to shew herein some example of his judgment For God must not presently be said unrighteous if he deal somewhat severely with one or two but then when he usually doth it or doth it with whole Churches Wherefore the Author brings not here any demonstrative or convictive reason or such as that God might not lawfully do otherwise without the aspersion of unrighteousnes or iniquity properly so term'd but only a reason very probable drawn for the most part from the clemencie and mercy of God which is voluntary in him To forget your work and labor of love To speak properly forgetfulnes is not incident unto God but figuratively he is then said to forget when he hath no regard of a thing or doth that which men forgetfull doe Their work as it seems was the conflict they had in suffering afflictions from their first entrance into the faith of Christ as the Author speaks of them afterward chap. 10 32. Unto which work or conflict he subjoyns the labour of love for in the place last cited after that conflict which they endured the Author mentions their offices of charity which they exercised toward the Saints And it is not likely that in this place where especially their good works were to be mentioned the Author would passe over their noblest act which consisted in suffering for Christs cause For Paul hath joyned these two together the work of faith and labor of love 1 Th. 1 3. where by the work of faith he seems to understand their many sufferings for the truths sake For such a work grows immediatly from faith as labour and bounty toward the Saints springs only from love and is therefore called the labor of love And that patience which proceeds from hope is called the patience of hope because it argues constancie in suffering afflictions under hope of reward and is there added to the work of faith and labour of love Their labour of love was another act of theirs no lesse acceptable to God and no lesse remarkable in it selfe Labour of love is that labour which proceeds from love or that labour whereto love puts us and love makes any labour light and easie for nothing is more powerfull nothing more imperious then love And this labour is seen in helping him whom we love with all our strength power endeavor Which ye have shewed toward his name Their love toward God made them so deare to God that it would not suffer him to reject them and wholly exclude them from salvation And this love was shewed toward the name of God because they shewed it to no other end but with respect to Gods name How this was thus effected hee presently declares In that ye have ministred to the Saints and doe minister We shew love when we minister and we shew love toward the name of God when we minister to the Saints meerly therefore because they are Saints and consecrate unto God For he that ministreth to the Saints and shews love to the Saints therefore because they are Saints and beare the name of God he shews love toward the name of God as he that ministreth to a Disciple of Christ because he is his Disciple he ministreth to Christ himselfe As much as ye have done it saith Christ unto one of the least of these my brethren yee have done it unto me Mat. 25.40 This Ministery consisted herein that in the afflictions of the Saints the Hebrews were wanting to them in no good office but helped them in all things to their power as he expresseth it afterward chap. 10.33 that they became their companions in their afflictions And this is done when we esteem the affliction of an other to be in a manner our owne when we have a singular care of him and performe those offices unto him that wee would have performed to our selves if we were in his case And doe minister This vertue of ministering to the Saints was not yet quite ceased in them albeit it may be somewhat abated 11. And we desire Here he passeth to the other part of the chapter wherein he exhorts them to a diligent and constant course of godlinesse and admonisheth them never to faint in their faith and hope And he seemes here to take away a tacit objection that might settle in their mindes From his last former words they might be too much advanced in hope to believe that now all must needs goe well with them seeing God without being unrighteous could not forget the things they had done and suffered and did yet doe and suffer for Gods cause Lest they should fall to imagine this the Author shews them what he would have them yet doe and what he yet findes wanting in them if they meant to retaine and assured hope of salvation Hee proceeds very prudently with them when a little before hee seemed to have terrified them too much and to debarre them from all hope of salvation he againe erected them and shewed that he did not so conceive this but that he was perswaded better things of them And now againe lest they should be too confident of themselves and bee pussed up in minde and flatter themselves with an infallible hope of salvation he shews them their wants that being thus reduced to a temper that they might neither despair of salvation nor presume of it That every one of you do shew the same diligence He calls not only upon the whole Church in generall but upon each person singly to continue the same diligence and endeavor that they had done from their first reception of the Gospel To the full assurance of hope To be assured of a thing is to have a knowledge of it that it is thus or thus And a full assurance is a full and certain knowledge or as we vulgarly speak it is a certainty And a full assurance of hope is a certainty of those things that are the object or matter of our hope And the hope here ment is the Christian hope whose object is eternal salvation wherof our Christian hope is an expectation And this hope is advanced augmented by our constancy in faith and good works wherby it is daily more and more assured and the assurance of it daily made more full They had a hope of salvation grounded upon the promises of God and quickned by the worke they had done and yet did for Gods cause but a
full assurance of hope they had not for they had not yet fulfilled the measure of Christian duties whereof how much was wanting so much they wanted of full assurance because so much their hope was the lesse Vnto the end These words may be referred to their diligence that they should continue that to the end Or they may be referred to their assurance of hope that it might last to the end For a man may gaine a full assurance of eternall life and yet lose it again 12. That yee be not slothfull Slothfulnesse is then when a man becomes more remisse in the wayes and workes of godlinesse Wherefore his desire is that they would constantly hold on to the end the same course of godlinesse which they held at the beginning For a remissenes and slownesse ariseth from the remissenes and faintnesse of our faith And this is the same fault in them which he reproved before in the 4. chap. ver 1. and chap. 5.11 But followers of them who through faith and patience To their slothfulnesse he opposeth faith and patience because faith and patience are as a remedy to cure their slothfulnesse in the course of godlinesse Faith is a trusting to Gods promises and patience in this place signifies perseverance and constancie in faith or a constant and lasting expectation of his promises although they seem to be deferred This patience requires not only that no delay of time should weaken our faith but also that no evills or adversities should discourage it for if by faith we meane to attaine Gods promises we must looke for many sufferings to intervene in the mean while For in this sense the Apostle useth the word patience Jam. 5.7,8 who those men be of whom they should be followers in faith and patience he shews in the following verse namely that they are the Patriarkes whereof he names Abraham as the principall Inherit the promises This is the fruit of our faith and patience to inherit the promises of our faith And this he adds the more to excite them to a constancy in faith and patience to the end because thereby they shall reap the excellent fruit thereof by inheriting the promises He faith inherit in the present tense because the present tense is commonly put indefinitly for any time that the mindes of the readers might be drawne as it were to a thing present 13. For when God made promise to Abraham In these words hee gives not a reason why they should be followers of such as inherit the promises but he onely gives a reason why he makes mention of such For some man might demand whether there were any such to be followed and who they were In these words therefore for an example thereof hee produceth Abraham the father of the faithfull who was most patient and constant in his faith and reaped the greatest fruit of his faith And first he shewes that Abraham had the promise of God upon which his faith relyed then at the 15. verse hee mentions the constancy of his faith and also the fruit of it Upon the mention of Gods promise made to Abraham hee mentions also the oath of God whereby God would confirme his promise to him This he therefore doth because the same promise belongs to us also in a mysticall better fence as a little after we shall shew therefore we should apply the greater stronger faith unto it and therein be followers of Abraham and other Patriarks that followed him And we must note the manner of speech which the Author here useth he saith not that God promised Abraham before he sware but when he made promise or in promising he sware that the truth may appeare of what we noted before that indefinite Participles joyned with a Verbe of the preter tense must not alwayes be understood of the time past but often of the present So afterward chap. 9.12 Christ is said to have entered into the holy place by his owne blood having obtained eternal redemption for us Not that Christ obtained that redemption before he entered but that hee obtained it at his entrance whereof we shal speak further there But by the way the Author shews the cause why God did sweare by himself when he saith Because he could sweare by no greater hee sware by himselfe Therefore he sware not by another because then he by whom he was to swear must be greater then himselfe as such a one that must be invocated as an avenger of his violating of his oath and whom by this meanes the swearer must revere and adore But God hath none whom he should feare as an avenger none whom he should adore as a Deity to him and consequently hath none greater then himself where fore if God will sweare upon any occasion as the occasion is exprest verse 16. he must needs sweare by himselfe And when the Author saith of God that he did sweare he respects the words whereby God made promise to Abraham saying By my selfe have I sworn Gen. 22.16 But the solemne form whereby God useth to swear is As I live q. d. Let me not be accounted for the living God for all other formes are referred and reduced to this As when hee is said to sweare by his soule by his life by his holinesse by his arme that is his strength and power and by his right hand that is his faith 14 Saying He rehearseth the summe of Gods promise made to Abraham Surely In the originall it is a men or e men which is an Adverb of sweating commonly put after a Verbe whereby wee doe assevere that a thing is true or shall be done For as an oath is a Confirmation of some thing asserted or promised so every Confirmation is an assurance to him who receives it and therefore the word Surely is properly an Adverb of swearing Yet in many passages of Scripture the word Surely is but an Adverb of Asseveration which is a lesse and lower Confirmation then an oath Blessing I will blesse thee and multiplying I will multiply thee This promise in some places of Scripture is indeed delivered in other words but these make up the generall sum of it And the gemination or doubling of the words according to the idiome of the Hebrewes doth intend and magnifie the thing I will greatly blesse and greatly multiply This promise is described Gen. 22.16 But wee are to note that this promise pertaines not onely to Abraham but also to his seed Or if wee respect the literall or carnall sence of this promise Abraham is promised to be greatly blessed in his seed for the blessing consisted in this as God himselfe declares that God would multiply Abrahams seed as the starres of heaven or as the sand upon the sea-shore that his seed should possesse the gates of their enemies and all nations should be blessed in him i. He should have a posterity most numerous and most happy All which particulars pertain to Abraham no otherwise then by his seed But if wee
a great dignity and prerogative in the Levites in that all the rest of the tribes though descendants with them from the same Abraham yet were bound to pay them tithes And so the dignity of Melchisedec far exceeded theirs Who receive the office of the Priesthood He saith not that the sons of Levi receive the office of Priesthood but they of them who receive it For all the Levites had not right to the Priesthood but only some of them namely the posterity of Aaron as ye may see at large Num. 3. Num. 18. The rest of the Levites were joyned to the Priests to minister unto them in the holy things to keep the Temple and the holy vessels to beâ—r the Aâ—k when need required which notwithstanding they might neither touch nor look upon till it were wrapped up to slay the ordinary sacrifices brought by single persons and to performe such other services Have a commandement to take tithes of the people This right and priviledge was granted them from God to claim tithes of the people For to speak properly the commandement to take tithes was not laid upon the Priests but the people were bound by Gods commandement to give tithes and thereupon the Priests had a right to require and exact them According to the Law The manner how tithes should be paid the matter from what things the persons to whom and the times when are all determined by Gods Law For first the people must give tithes to the Levites Numb 18 21. Then the Levites must give tithes of their tithes to the Priests Numb 18.28 And herein the dignity of the Priests appeares farre the greatest because not onely the rest of the Tribes but also the Levites themselves who were of the same Tribe gave tithes unto the Priests That is their brethren though they came out of the loynes of Abraham Certainly a great dignity Which would not have beene so great if some other men had beene bound to pay them tithes but that their owne brethren who came as well as they from the loynes of the same Abraham should be bound to it by the Law of God this was a great argument of the dignity and eminency that rested in the Priests 6. But hee whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham He shews how much in this respect Melchisedec is greater then the Leviticall Priests whom first he described in such words as most elegantly agree to Christ his antitype that he might tacitely shew that it nothing hindered Christ from the dignity of his high Priesthood that he came not from the Tribe of Levi. For it is as much as if he had said The Leviticall Priests have this right and dignity that they take tithes of their brethren though they descend from the same Abraham But how much greater is it that he who as he comes not from the same stock so neither doth he count his kindred from them tooke tithes of Abraham himselfe For it is much more and more worthy to have Abraham himselfe tributary to him then those who come from the loynes of Abraham Wherefore the Leviticall Priests have no cause to boast as if to their line alone this right and priviledge were granted of taking tithes from the people seeing he who neither belongs to their line nor accounts himselfe of it did as the Author speakes decimate Abraham himselfe And blessed him that had the promises We have said before that the Author preferres Melchisedec before the Leviticall Priests for three reasons whereof the first is bipartite whose former part the Author hath hitherto produced and referring the latter part to the end of the proofe he comes here to the second full reason taken from the act of Melchisedec in blessing Abraham Yet that the great dignity of Melchisedec might the more evidently appeare in this act of blessing he doth not name Abraham but describes him under this notion him that had the promises q.d. Melchisedec blessed him whom God was to blesse and had bound himselfe by promise to blesse him and make him a blessing For God had already said unto him I will make of thee a great Nation and I will blesse thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing And I will blesse them that blesse thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed Gen. 12.2,3 To blesse this man that had such promises of blessing and those so great that there were none greater knowne upon earth and to blesse him also not by way of charity or good will by praying for all happinesse upon him but in a singular way according to his office as he was the Minister and Priest of God to whose prayer and wish God would in a manner obliege himselfe which certainly is an evidence of high preeminence and dignity And from thence he meanes to conclude that Melchisedec was greater then Abraham 7. And without all contradiction the lesse is blessed of the greater He had before expressed the Assumption that Melchisedec blessed Abraham and now hee addes the Proposition leaving every man to frame the conclusion that Melchisedec is greater then Abraham And if hee be so much greater then Abraham much more is he greater then the Leviticall priests Without all controversie These words shew that his assertion is so evident and manifest that no man can well deny it and that with good cause For every kinde of apprecation or blessing is not here to be understood for even the least and meanest person may blesse and pray for the best and greatest and many times doth so but as we have often noted a singular and sacerdotall blessing For he that gives another a blessing as the Priest and especiall Minister of God to whom God hath committed the right and office of it in such manner that God will second the blessing of the Priest with his and in a manner be obliged to performe it certainly that person that thus gives the blessing is greater and worthier then he that receives it He is greater and worthier if not in estate and civill power as if hee blesse a King when hee himselfe is none which notwithstanding had not place in Melchisedec yet certainely in regard of sacred function For hee is nearer in degree to God then the other as a mean person between God that blesseth and the partie blessed to whom he gives a kinde of right to obtaine from God the things hee prayeth for Therefore wee read Numb 6.27 That God after he had commanded that Aaron and his sonnes should blesse the people of Israel and had prescribed also the forme of the blessing doth professe that he will second the blessing and confirme it upon the people They shall faith God put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them Hence the sonne of Syrach when hee supplicated God for the people and endeavoured to move him by his prayers he forgets not this blessing of
Priest was neglected in Christ and therefore abrogated Therefore now lest any man should marvell at this hee shewes the reason why the Law was justly abrogated For the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse thereof This is the cause why the Law was abrogate because it was weake and unprofitable For all Lawes use to be abrogated and disanulled when by experience they are found to be ineffectuall weake and unprofitable for wise men have found out no other causes why Lawes should bee disanulled and repealed Now the infirmitie of a Law appears in this that it cannot performe the matter for which it was ordained which infirmitie or wickednesse of the Law he either explicates or amplifies by the word unprofitable for the weakenes of a Law makes it uselesse 19. For the Law made nothing perfect Here hee proves that the Law is weake and unprofitable whereof he gives this reason because it made nothing perfect i. it contained no perfect expiation for sinne as wee heard before verse 11. and shall heare it againe Chapter 10. verse 1.14 Now perfect expiation consisteth in a totall taking away all guilt of all sinnes and of all punishments not onely temporall but eternall Such an expiation the Law conferred upon no man For if as wee saw at the 11. verse the Priesthood could not do this how could the Law doe it seeing the Law could doe nothing this way but by vertue of the Priesthood The Law did condemne men but not justifie them it granted expiation to some small sinnes and that only in regard of temporall punishment but for heynous offences upon which it ordained the punishment of death it left no pardon but laid a curse upon all that offended highly In this perfect expiation is contained antecedently as I may say an obduction from sinne For perfect expiation comes to us upon that condition as we shall see by the opposition following Made nothing perfect Nothing here is put for no man the neuter gender for the masculine and so likewise at the seventh verse If therefore the Law could bring perfect expiation and justification to no man it is justly said to be weake and unprofitable namely in regard it could not produce the true and perfect good of men But the bringing in of a better hope did q.d. The Law perfected no man but the superinduction of a better hope doth perfect men for here is an illustration from the contrary By a better hope hee understands the hope of eternall life joyned with a plenary remission of all sinnes granted from God to all penitent persons without which remission the promise of eternall life made to mankinde had beene ineffectuall and unprofitable seeing we have all sinned and thereby made our selves unworthy of eternall life Therefore the Author describing afterward the new Covenant in the words of the Prophet and shewing that it is established upon better promises mentions only the remission of sinnes granted in the new Covenant And by the new Covenant or Gospel and the Priesthood of Christ adjoyned to it this better hope is superinduced upon the Law For the new Covenant brings a better hope because it is established upon better promises but not without the Priesthood of Christ which doth not only confirme and establish the promises of the Covenant but doth also perfect and performe them For the perfect remission of our sinnes depends upon Christs Priesthood and therefore the Priesthood of Christ spoken of in this place must here be joyned with the new Covenant as also the old Priesthood and sacrifices must be joyned with the Law Therefore the superinduction or bringing in of a better hope that is the new Covenant containing the Priesthood of Christ which gives us an assured hope of eternall life and of perfect forgivenesse of all our sins doth most perfectly expiate men and purge them from all guilt of all sinne By the which we draw nigh unto God Here he gives a reason why this hope is better and doth perfect us because it makes us to approah and come neare unto God by suing for his favour by serving him with all our heart and obeying him in all things commanded us For he that hath this hope in God purifieth himselfe even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 And because we approach unto God therefore reciprocally God also approacheth and draweth nigh unto us i. doth embrace us with a strict bond of love that so being purged from all sinne hee may deliver us from eternall death and invest us ' with eternall life Hence saith St. James Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you Jam. 4.8 The Law therefore because it wanted this hope could not make us draw nigh unto God and because it could not doe that therefore it could not make us partake of a perfect expiation For our approach unto God is the way to perfect expiation seeing while we approach unto God we cast off sinne and live godly and while God approacheth unto us we are thereby perfectly expiated and justified As therefore this bringing in of a better hope makes us approach unto God so far it justifies us Which the Law could not doe but for the rigor of it whereby it excludes penitents from a full remission of sins and also for default of any open promise of eternall life which ministers unto men great power and courage for obedience unto God 20. And in as much as not without an oath he was made Priest After the Author had shewed that by the Priesthood of Christ the Law was abrogated and added the cause of that abrogation and taught that in the room thereof there succeeded a far more excellent Covenant that maketh us approach unto God Now by a new argument hee shews how much Christ our Priest is greater then the legall Priests and how far the new Covenant excels the old And he draws his argument from hence that Christ was made a Priest with an oath but the old legall Priests without an oath from whence it plainly appeares that Christ is better then they For an oath declares the truth and the strength of a thing Now the things that God will have to be firme strong and unchangeable must needs bee better then those things which have not that firmity and strength such as are the things whereto no oath is added but God will have them to depend upon his will and pleasure that he may either remove or retaine them as it shall seem good unto him And besides looke how much better the Priest is so much is the Covenant better For the Priesthood takes all the dignity and excellency of it from the Covenant of God and by the Priesthood the effect of the Covenant is performed And therefore from hence that Christ was made a Priest by oath by so much hee was made a surety of a better testament as the Author rightly collects it ver 22. that is by how much Christ who was ordained with Gods oath is better then the Priest who was ordained
narrowly and therein also the same things are expressed sometime more amply and sometime more briefly Whereof we must take notice for the better understanding and reconciling of severall places So the word Faith is sometime taken so narrowly that salvation and justification is ascribed to it alone and sometime again more largely to comprise other vertues in it sometime more sometime fewer according as the sense of the word is extended or restrained I will put my lawes into their minde and write them in their hearts Here he begins to describe the new Covenant q.d. In the old Covenant I wrote some of my Lawes in tables of stone and Moses wrote other some in a booke and they were put in the Arke to be kept there But my new Covenant shall not be according to that way but by it I will write my Laws in their hearts and put them in their mindes to be kept there They shall not be arbitrary and positive Lawes flowing from my sole will and pleasure whereof their hearts can conceive no reason and whereof their memories may easily faile such as were most Lawes in my former Covenant but they shall be only naturall Lawes grounded only upon naturall honesty and upon the dictates of right reason that their mindes may easily conceive them and their memories retaine them And their owne consciences shall acknowledge them to be convenient just right and good And besides they shall not have a bare understanding of my Lawes to know them but an hearty affection to doe them Now because Gods Covenant is described in these words therefore hence it appeares that this writing of Gods Laws in mens minds and hearts dependes and proceeds from the nature of the Covenant And therefore these words must bee taken within their force and efficacie and not necessarily extended to the very effect of the writing which is alway left in the free power of man For this is intimated unto us by the following words of God at the 12. verse wherein God opens unto us the cause manner or meanes of this which containeth wonderfull grace and mercy of God offered to his people for by this means he saith it would come to passe that they would serve him and keep his Laws with so great fervency But this way Gods Laws are written upon none but willing hearts The sense therefore is I will make such a Covenant that shall have sufficient force and power to containe my people in their duties For to have Gods Laws written in our mindes and hearts is nothing else but to be so knowing so mindfull and so affected with them that we never decline from them but alwayes observe them with all our endeavour And I will be to them a God This follows from the former as the former clause opposite to this and I regarded them not followed from the people 's not continuing in his Covenant which in like manner is opposed to the writing of Gods Laws in mens hearts For God to be a God unto us is to be our sovereigne Protector to defend us from all evill and to be our sovereigne Benefactor to accumulate us with all his blessings And they shall be to me a people Either this is really the same with the former and an amplification of it consisting of a mutuall relation such as we had before in these words I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son chap. 1.5 Or else it is as much as if the Author had said And they shall deale by me as my people ought to doe both of us shall performe our parts respectively I by protecting and benefiting them they by worshipping and serving me 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord They shall not need to admonish and exhort one another first to know my lawes and decrees and after upon knowledge thereof to observe them but all of them shall bee carried with such alacrity of minde to know and obey mee that none shall need any remembrancer to put him in minde of it Neighbour and brother are taken here for the same for in the Law these three names are coincident neighbour brother and friend See Lev. 19.18 For all shall know me from the least to the greatest Here againe God speaks of the efficacie of this Covenant and not of the effect it selfe for it shall be able to produce an universall knowledge of God though in some single persons it produce it not actually All of al sorts from the least age to the greatest yong old from the least state to the greatest poor and rich and from the least degree to the greatest low and high 12. For I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sinnes and their iniquities will I remember no more Here God opens unto us the cause of his ardent affection towards us and withall unfolds the nature of this Covenant namely that therein he will be mercifull to all the sinnes of his people to their unrighteousnesses their transgressions and iniquities and will never remember them more This so great a benefit must needs oblige all mens mindes and in a manner constraine them to consecrate themselves wholly unto God and constantly to persist in the daily observation of his Lawes Which effect seeing every remission of sinne cannot produce therefore we must here understand such a one as hath the power to doe it namely a plenary and perfect remission whereby such as are truly and seriously penitent and afterward live holily are released from the guilt or bond of all their former sinnes not only in respect of temporall punishment and death but also of eternall death and withall eternall life is ordained for them For this remission of sinnes adding the condition of repentance hath this vertue and power in it to withdraw men from sinne and for the future to devote themselves to God The words unrighteousnesse sins and iniquities doe in like manner teach us that this remission is plenary and perfect extended to all manner of sinnes even the most heynous Hence we see that this plenary remission of sinnes is a promise proper to the new Covenant For in these words is evidently proved what he said before concerning the new Covenant that it was established upon better promises then the old This is the mysticall sense of those words of the Prophet the literall sense was that God would deliver the people of the Jewes from the captivity of Babylon and would so blot out their former wickednesse and foule sinnes that hee would acquit them from all further temporall punishments for them for which so great benefit the people must needs bee marveilously bound to God and induced to serve him constantly for ever after But this sense is far too slender to answer fully and solidly unto words of so high a nature For at that time to speake properly God neither made any new Covenant different from the former neither was
common use For this sanctifying as the word following shewes consisteth onely in purifying of the flesh All the sanctifying that proceeded from the offerings of the bloud of calves and goates or from the sprinkling of the ashes of an heifer was but a carnall purifying to cleanse the flesh The Ceremoniall uncleannesses wherewith men by chance were defiled were expiated by these offerings and sprinklings and the partie predefiled became purified so that now it was lawfull for him to converse with other men to come to the Temple to be present at divine servivices and to partake of the Sacrifice from all which his former uncleannesse debarred him So that this Puritie or cleannesse of the flesh was both the end and effect of the offering of bloud and sprinkling of ashes 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ Some man may think that the Author should not have drawne his argument à mirori but rather à pari seeing there seemes an equalitie of reason on both sides that as well the legall sacrifice as that of Christ had a like force to produce their effects the blood of beasts to purifie the flesh and the blood of Christ to purifie the conscience But we must note that the blood of beasts and the offering of it is not altogether of like nature to purifie the flesh as the blood of Christ offered to God by the spirit is to the cleansing of the conscience For if we looke upon the nature of the thing what force hath the blood of beasts offered in the Sanctuary that thereby it should cleanse the flesh or be reputed to cleanse it Was not this effect of purifying the flesh tyed to the shedding and offering of that blood onely by the decree of God and that it might bee accounted to have this effect must they not have a knowledge of Gods decree by some other meanes But for the blood of Christ after the shedding of it there followed the offering of Christ himselfe in the heavenly Tabernacle or the shedding of Christs blood joyned with the offering of Christ himselfe as the Author considers the blood of Christ here seeing Christ therefore shed it that hee might offer himselfe in the Sanctuary of heaven both as a Priest and as a Sacrifice The blood of Christ I say if we respect the nature of the thing hath a potent force to purge our consciences or is the true and effectuall cause of their being purged For in the offering of Christ as wee have already said somwhat and more shall afterward is contained his singular and onely care of our salvation in heaven from whence the purifying of our consciences and the plenary remission of our sinnes doth flow and proceed as from the proper cause of it Furthermore that the blood of Christ may be knowne to have so great force looking on the nature of Christs death and the circumstances of it every man may easily be admonished of it For Christ by his blood did strongly maintain the truth of his doctrine having shed his blood he entred into heaven the habitacle of immortall life that what he had promised by his words hee might testifie to all men by his example having shed his blood and entered into his heavenly Sanctuary hee offered himselfe an immaculate sacrifice to God for us having shed his blood he obtained all power both in heaven and earth all judgement and arbitrement of our salvation Neither to obtaine this was the bloodshed of Christ a bare condition that of it owne nature and proper efficacy conferred nothing to it but seeing it conteineth so hard a worke of vertue and obedience a worke so acceptable to God and so advancing to his glory even of it own nature it had force and power to procure this power unto Christ and to produce in us the cleansing of our conscience Hee that ponders all this in his minde can he doubt but that by the blood of Christ he is expiated from all staine of sinne if he embrace the faith of Christ with all his heart and afterward as farre as the hope of eternall life can encourage him keep himselfe undefiled and pure from all staine of sinne Thus the nature and force of Christs death being considered the Authour with very good reason doth draw and conclude this his argument not from a parity of reason but from a disparity or from the lesse to the greater The blood of Christ There seemes an Emphasis in these words of the Author to make it yet more fully appeare how great force his blood hath in cleansing our consciences As if he had said The blood not of an ordinary man which yet is better then that of beasts but of Christ who is the unigenit son of God feated in heaven at the right hand of God and reigning over all creatures Shall not this blood have much more force to purge the conscience then the blood of beasts had to purifie the flesh Now that we may a little prevent the words of the Author the cleansing of our conscience is attributed to the blood of Christ both as it is the blood of the Covenant whereby the new Covenant is established and as it is the blood of the sacrifice which is offered for us in that heavenly Sanctuary both which the Authour hath conjoyned saving that he explicates the first last and the last first because it belongs to his Priesthood as the former is referred to his Mediatorship which two functions of Christ were fitly conjoyned in the mention of his blood for they are both coupled in the death of Christ for his Mediatorship ended in his death and his Priesthood began there But how the blood of Christ purgeth our consciences as it is the bloud of the Covenant wee shall see hereafter Yet now we shall adde thus much that the new Covenant was established by the bloud of Christ not onely as appointed so by God in manner as the bloud of calves and goates was of old appointed for the establishing of the old covenant but even the very nature and condition of his bloud was of great efficacy thereto For who can doubt of the truth of that covenant for confirmation whereof the bloud of Christ was shed who made this covenant in the name of God and afterward became our heavenly King Who through the eternall Spirit offered himselfe without spot to God Here the Author clearly expresseth by what meanes the bloud of Christ as it was the bloud of the sacrifice had so much power force as to purge our consciences namely because Christ having shed his bloud did through the eternall Spirit offer himself without spot to God in the heavenly Sanctuary Hence it is manifest that the bloud of Christ had so far power to expiate our sins as the shedding of it was seconded by Christ his offering of himselfe in heaven which could not follow unlesse Christ had first shed his bloud For the bloud of Christ not onely as it is the bloud of
even of the most heynous in them who having tasted the force of that sacrifice do afterward live holily I say all kind of penalties not only of temporall death but of eternall which by force of the law all incurred that had truly and morally sinned For temporall life opposed to temporal death proceeded from the observation of the Law otherwise then eternall life did opposed to eternall death For to attain or preserve temporall life it sufficed to keep the Law taken in an open and literall sease as they call it and to expiate certain offences by certain rites and sacrifices But the latter could no man attaine by force of the Law unlesse a man had kept the precepts of it taken in a mysticall sense i. most fully and perfectly as the Gospell proposeth them For seeing eternall life was not contained in the promises of the Law but in a mysticall sense it was great equity that he who would attaine it by the benefit of the Law should likewise keep the precepts of the Law in a mysticall sense Neither only so but it must be kept exactly and without any sinne so that there should need no sacrifices or expiations For no sacrifices were of such force as to take away the guilt of eternall death and so estate a man in a right to eternall life neither did the Law open any other way to arrive at a plenary justification joyned with the reward of eternall life then by the merit of workes To serve the living God Here is the effect of this Expiation wrought in us by the bloud and offering of Christ For when our conscience doth clearly acknowledge that in respect of God it is freed from all guilt of all sinne even the most grievous and nothing can hinder us but our selves from enjoying the reall effect of our being acquitted from all sinne it comes to passe here by that we must needs have strong motives to carry us on to the worship and service of God and to receive the faith of Christ to the end wee may effectually enjoy so great a blessing and having once enjoyed it never lose it but afterward abstaine from all sinne with all our possible endeavour knowing well that so great a blessing is attained and preserved with true piety Hence it appeares that this purging of our conscience gotten by the bloud of Christ must be so understood in this place that for the reall effect of it it depends upon our duty on our part i. then it begins to have it effect in us when our faith and obedience begins toward God and Christ and is continued by the continuance of our faith and obedience and by constancie and perseverance in faith and godlinesse to the end is at length consummated and doth rest in a full and immutable right to eternall life the effect whereof will most certainly follow in due time For unlesse this effect and complement of our expiation depend reciprocally upon our duty and our duty and will to serve God flowed immediatly from it what one man among a thousand would serve God upon the expiation of his finnes if he knew that without this he could be expiated effectually and released from the guilt of all his sinnes and enjoy a full right to eternall life because therefore this offering of Christ doth withdraw us from sinne and makes us afterward serve the living God hence it comes to passe that Christ doth expiate us by one only offering or that our expiation flowing from the offering and sacrifice of Christ is eternall and lasteth forever For what need the offering be iterated if men once expiated sinne no more For although sometime by error or infirmity the true worshippers of God may offend yet because the offering of Christ doth not so properly intend to expiate such light offences as sinnes that are more heynous as appears by the proper nature of the new Covenant as it stands distinguished from the old therefore the oblation of Christ must not be iterated for our light infirmities and lapses Therefore for the removing of the guilt of such light offences the perpetuall residence of Christ our high Priest in his heavenly Sanctuary and his intercession to his Father for us is abundantly sufficient so that for them he need not shed his bloud againe and after the shedding of it enter into his Sanctuary The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwayes signifie all kind of obedience and service done unto God but chiefly that divine service done to God publikly most properly as hath before been shewed those holy reverences which we perform in the worship of God Yet the Author useth it here by a Metonymie for all divine service that is joyned with the worship of God for worship and service are mutuall adjuncts connexed each to other For so great a benefit of God as the expiation of all our sins should easily move us to perform divine services unto God by praises and thanksgivings and wholly to devote out selves to worship to good a God for then we take courage to approach unto God to worship and serve him and to hope that the honour we do him will not be unacceptable unto him when we feel our conscience clean quiet as purged from all sin Or else the word here is taken by way of Metaphor whereby all good works pleasing unto God and done for his sake are accounted for sacrifices and offerings acceptable to God and that wholy endeavours them may fitly be said to serve God God is here called the living God according to the ordinary phrase of Scripture which notwithstanding in this place wants not an emphasis Not only because hereby the true God is distinguished from all the feigned gods of the Gentiles which because they were nothing but woodden or stony Idols and therefore woodden and stony gods were called vaine and livelesse gods and are opposed to the living God But also to shew the cause why we should worship and serve God and withall the happinesse of those that devote themselves unto him For seeing hee is the living God hee is also the true God who can reward his worshippers and servitors with great benefits and recompence them with fearfull judgments who neglect him To this end Paul writing to the Thessalonians saith Yee are turned from Idols to God to serve the living and true God 1 Thess 1.9 And the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to serve And God is eminently called the living God not only because he truly lives but also because he is the fountaine of life to all other things which do live In which sense sometimes hee alone is said to live or to have life and immortality in himself 15. And for this cause Here the Author confirmes his former assertion by a new argument in that Christ is the Mediatour of the new Testament or that Christ made the New Testament and sealed it with his bloud For this is the nature of
heaven and earth And againe the Lord shall judge his people Againe is in the same place which was cited before And in the word Lord lies the Emphasis and force of the argument For if the Lord himself who is the most high God shall judge his people who sees not but that the judgement must needs be most heavy and fearfull To judge here signifies to condemne and punish In Deuteronomie as we said is signified by these words that the Lord would avenge his people upon their enemies from the oppressions and wrongs done to his people But the Author following the more frequent use and sense of those words in other passages of the Scriptures hath applyed them to the punishment of Gods people falling from their faith and obedience For it is no lesse true that the Lord will punish his owne people if they bee refractory and rebellious against him then that he would judge and avenge their cause and vindicate them from injuries if they were wrongfully oppressed And the words his people doe also argue the fearfulnesse of the judgement For it is great reason that the people of God if they shall presume to be rebellious and obstinate against God should suffer a heavier punishment then other men And they are here called the people of God who are disobedient and obstinate because they have received the knowledge of God and of his truth and in that respect stand obliged to God in a peculiar manner Besides the appellations or names of things do often remaine when the true ground or cause of the name is altered and gone 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God This is as it were the major Proposition of the Authors Argument whereby he would make it appeare that the punishment of the persons forementioned will be very grievous and fearfull For he reasoneth thus To fall into the hands of the living God is a fearfull thing but these men fall into the hands of the living God seeing as we have heard already God himselfe will doe judgement and execution upon them And therefore their punishment must needs be fearfull But hee puts the conclusion in the first place then the assumption and now he addes the major proposition which is of a knowne verity For what man is he that will not acknowledge how fearfull a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God because the living God can punish far more fearfully then mortall men can doe Why God is called living wee have shewed before Chap. 9.14 But we must note that the Author speaks here of that punishment whereby God puts men to everlasting destruction and doth it in his wrath and not of that chastisement which God sometime inflicts for the good of his people For it is farre better to be chastised and corrected from God himselfe and from his owne hand then to be left to the pleasure of wicked men as David testifies 2 Sam. 24.14 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes Hee brings here a new argument whereby he perswades the Hebrewes to constancie and perseverance in the Christian Religion and he drawes it from their former constancie and vertue which they shewed at the beginning when first they received the Christian Faith In which after ye were illuminated Christ is severall times called the light and the true light because he brought into the world by the publishing of the Gospel that knowledge of God which doth truly illuminate and enlighten us not only in respect of that naturall ignorance that growes up with men concerning God but in respect of that revealed knowledge which under the first Covenant was but darke and shady for the Gospell doth reveale unto us those mysteries which did before lye hid for since the vaile of the old Sanctuary was rent we now have liberty to looke into the heavenly Sanctuary where by faith wee see and know many mysteries especially touching the expiation of our sinnes and salvation of our soules Of which truth when we receive the knowledge we are said to be illuminated And this illumination is the first act of our entrance into Covenant with God for thereby it is that we are made acquainted with the sacred contents of the Covenant So that Illuminated here is all one with receiving the knowledge of the truth before ver 26. Yee endured a great fight of afflictions To endure afflictions for Christ and not decline them but patiently and stoutly to goe through the triall of them is a great conflict or fight 33. Partly while ye were made a gazing stocke both by reproaches and afflections Reproaches and afflictions are put for all sorts of persecutions whereof these two are the chiefe kindes for reproaches are those persecutions whereby a mans reputation credit or good name is vexed and afflictions are those whereby men suffer in their bodies and goods as by sines imprisonments and punishments And reproaches and afflictions are the means whereby Gods people are made a gazing stocke or a spectacle for men to looke at Yet it is not necessary wee should take this word properly as if the Hebrews had been condemned by publicke decree of the Magistrate and in the sight of all men brought upon a Scaffold there to suffer punishment or to be branded with reproaches which notwithstanding did many times befall the Christians But it may be taken metaphorically for those reproaches and afflictions in generall which were publickly known to all or were in a manner in all mens mouths as for example when a Christian was openly reviled or beaten or dragged through the streets or had his house by publicke authority and open force plundered and rifled And partly when ye became companions of them that were so used This is done when we take care and make provision for them who are reproached and afflicted when wee harbour them helpe and cherish them make their case our owne and professe our selves their brethren and companions Men are used to reproaches and afflictions when they many times and often suffer them and by reason of them are agitated vexed and tossed too and fro from place to place for so much is here signified by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 34. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and tooke joyfully the spoyling of your goods Here he declares both those particulars which in the verse going before he had expressed and attributed to them saving that he puts the latter in the first place and the former in the latter For the compassion they had belong to their accompanying of those who were reproached and afflicted because true compassion as in this place is meant signifies not a bare griefe of minde proceeding from anothers misery but therewithall includes the effects and deeds of a minde truly compassionate And the spoiling of their goods is referred to the reproches and afflictions which they suffered Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring
he that shall consult the Sacred history and shall diligently both reade and relect it shall finde nothing either written or any way intimated concerning that matter But this divine Author relating examples from the holy Scriptures upon their authority and infallibility seemes not to say or affirme any particular concerning those holy Elders but what is grounded upon the holy Scriptures Yet that Abraham Isaac and Jacob had a hope not onely of some life and happinesse after death but also of a City which hath foundations that is of heaven it selfe and that heavenly happinesse which shall never determine or have end and upon that hope did undergoe all the travels and troubles of a continuall pilgrimage to leade alwayes an uncertaine and flitting life this the holy Scriptures have no where discovered Yea rather what hopes Abraham sometime had in this respect it may hence appeare in that while he was yet destitute of children when God spake to him and said Feare not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Abraham answered Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childlesse and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus and behold one borne in my house is mine heire Gen. 15.1,2 Doth it not hence appeare that the summe of all Abrahams desires came to this that hee might leave behinde him a sonne and heire of his owne body seeing he abounded already in all other goods and riches For if at that time he had with any firme hope conceived of heaven it selfe and the everlasting happinesse thereof when God promised him an exceeding great reward would he have answered Lord God what wilt thou give me For in these words he signified that God had already abundantly rewarded him and given him goods in a full measure and to promise him more was to no purpose seeing he had no childe of his owne to whom hee might leave his estate Whence it appeares that Abraham extended not that exceeding great reward which God promised him beyond the goods and happinesse of this life Wherefore it is more likely that in these words of Abrahams expectance the Author intended not to give a reason why Abraham indured with such constancie the toyles of a continuall pilgrimage and of a life alwayes unsetled but rather of the event as we said why God gave Abraham no possession in that land to inherit as his owne proper right granted him no City to dwell in nor seat where to settle himselfe but would have him dwell in tents with his sonne and grand-childe Namely because as afterward at the sixteenth verse the Author saith God had prepared for him a City infinitly greater and better then all the land of promise with all the Cities in it And the promises of God made to Abraham and his seed doe in the mysticall sense containe this spirituall happinesse and heavenly inheritance And in the same sense the seed of Abraham doth signifie the seed of all the faithfull who follow the faith of Abraham For both these senses are taught us by the Apostle Rom. 4.11,12,13 and Gal. 3.7 and Gal. 4 22. Therefore Abraham expected or looked for a City which hath foundations rather by reason of the event and purpose of God then from any intent and purpose of his owne whereby he might seem to fore know it For in this sense we many times attribute expectation to a thing so this Author Chap. 10. ver 27. saith that to them who sinne willingly there remaines a certaine fearfull expectation or looking for of judgement whereas if we referre this to their intent and purpose of minde sinners most times expect and looke for nothing lesse then the punishment of their sinnes Abraham then is therefore said to looke for this City because this City was by Gods decree reserved and appointed for him and because his faith was so constant in God neither broken nor shaken with any travels or troubles and his whole course of life was such as theirs is who relying upon Gods promise do really expect this heavenly City as a reward of their labours Whereof the first is spoken by way of Metonymie putting the effect for the cause and this latter is said by way of Metaphor This City the Author opposeth to Tabernacles and Tents and the matter is not great to live a while in a Tent that afterward we may live for ever in a City And it is a City that hath foundations By which attribute Heaven is opposed not only to Tabernacles or Tents which have no foundations but to all Cities which though they have foundations yet in comparison of Heaven they have none because they have none such And hereby is signified unto us the firmnesse and strength of our heavenly City which no force no tract of time no change of things can possibly shake or move which shall not be ruined by the ruine of that heaven and earth which to us is visible whereof see the Author afterward Chap. 12. ver 26 27 28. Whose builder and maker is God Certainly that City must needs be most stable ample most beautifull and plentifull of all happinesse which had such a builder and such a maker as God to found and raise it He opposeth God to men who are the founders and builders of all earthly Cities And therefore this City must needs be so divine and heavenly so firme and strong that no hand of man can prevaile against it Cities built by men by men may be destroyed and many times are so but the City whereof God is the builder and maker is secure and safe from all hazard 11. By faith also Sara her selfe received strength to receive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age It may here be doubted whether the Author doth speak here of the faith of Sarah or of Abraham as he first began and afterward goes on The former of these seems to be gathered first from the words of the Author when hee saith Sarah her selfe For it seems as much as if he had said Not only Abraham but also Sarah her selfe by faith received strength So that he joynes Sarah with Abraham in respect of her faith Secondly because the words She judged him faithfull which follow in the next clause of this verse seem to be referred to the next antecedent which is Sarah But the latter opinion seems perswasible First because the Author first began and afterward proceeds to speake of the faith of Abraham Secondly because the sacred History mentions not the faith of Sarah when Isaac was promised but rather the Scripture seems to mention something contrary to her faith for shee laughed within her selfe saying After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also and the Angell questioned Abraham upon it to know the cause of it saying Wherefore did Sarah laugh Is any thing too hard for the Lord Gen. 18.12,13 Whence also Paul discoursing upon the same point mentions only the strength of Abrahams
land of Canaan but are there wholly intercepted and stopped from all entrance into the land promised Jericho therefore must needs first be taken and because it cannot be conquered by force of armes therefore it shall be taken by force of faith after compassing about the walles of it seven dayes God who is so powerfull that hee could create the world in six dayes could have destroyed Jericho in lesse then seven yet God who is so mercifull that hee gave the great City of Ninivie fourtie dayes would give little Jericho seven dayes for God who sent Jonas to them of Ninivie had provided Rahab for them of Jericho as a Prophet and a Preacher of repentance unto them For she who for her selfe had such faith to beleeve in God would gladly have preached the like faith to the Citie that God who is the God in heaven above and in earth beneath had given that land to his owne people as shee her selfe had before acknowledged to the spies of Israel Josh 2.9 11. But because they of Jericho were so wicked that shee durst not preach this faith among them and so obstinate that if shee had preached it yet they would not beleeve it therefore by the faith of Gods people after seven dayes compassing the walles of Jericho shall fall downe Now the cause of this faith in the people of God was their evidence or sight of things unseen and the subsistence they had of a thing hoped for for God had promised them by the mouth of Joshua that upon this fact of compassing the Citie seven dayes once a day and the seventh day seven times the wall of it should fall downe flat Josh 6.4,5 The truth of this promise being yet unseen they saw and hoped for and thereby grew their faith to beleeve it 31. By faith the harlot Rahab There are that thinke that Rahab was not an harlot but an Inkeeper or Taverner which because they are wont sometimes to be harlots or to receive harlots that frequent their houses therefore among the Hebrews the name of harlot is applied to hostesses But this signification of the Hebrew word Hazzonah they prove not by examples Neither is it for nothing that the Scripture whensoever she mentions the example of Rahab to whom God shewed so much favour and mercy forgets not to give her this attribute of harlot For it seemes to doe this thereby to shew the great force of a true and lively faith because by vertue thereof many attaine to justification and impunity who otherwise by their life little deserve it Now if the Hebrew word Hazzonah signified onely a publike hostesse when it is uttered of Rahab and not an harlot properly so called this singular commendation of Rahabs faith were utterly lost-which notwithstanding James and this Author endeavour to expresse Perished not with them that beleeved not The inhabitants of Jericho are called unbeleevers because they would not beleeve that the God of heaven had granted to the Israelites the possession both of their city and of the whole land of Canaan or because beleeving this grant of God yet they would not obey it by giving way to it for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as well unobedient as unbeleeving And they were disobedient because they would not admit but opposed the people of God whom they knew were approaching and had heard what strange works God had done for them and consequently would not submit to Gods way For if herein they had joyned with Rahab to have beleeved as she did they might with her have escaped the destruction of their City and their owne ruine For that Law of God which had appointed so many Nations to the slaughter was by collating it with another Law to be understood to take place with the exception of those that should freely submit to things commanded them and should renounce the worship of their Idols and false gods All which appeares by the example of Rahab and of Solomon who tooke the remnant of the Canaanites to his dominion under tribute 1 King 9.20,21 When she had received the spies with peace She abstained from all injury towards those spies her selfe and from all treachery in discovering them to others and defended them from the violence of those that made inquisition after them For these were the expressions of that peace wherewith she received them And this her faith was not idle and empty but testified with a notable action of triall For she did not onely receive those spies with the danger of her life but she hid them and afterward dismissed them with many difficulties Which fact of hers how availeable it was to her justification both the thing it selfe declares and S. James openly testifies Jam. 2.25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by workes when shee had received the messengers and had sent them out another way 32. And what shall I more say As if he had said Why should I stay longer in relating of single examples of those whose faith is testified in Scripture For the time would faile me to tell of Gedeon Barac Samson and of Jephte of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets Hee placeth David though latter in time before Samuel though elder not onely for the greater dignity of David but also because Samuel came neerer in quality to the Prophets with whom he closeth And David came neerer to those Heroes forenamed as Gedeon Barac and Samson for he was a middle person betweene the Heroes and the Prophets and was indeed both 33. Who through faith subdued kingdomes This is principally referred to David who subdued some kingdomes But this was done by faith because when God promised him victory over his enemies he beleeved it and upon his beliefe thereof did make warre upon them whereof we may reade severall Psalmes of David composed by him to that purpose and among others Psal 2.18.20 and 21. Wrought righteousnesse Such were also the same David Samuel and the Prophets Here in like manner it appeares that faith taken strictly and properly differs from the working of righteousnesse as the cause from the effect because righteousnesse is the effect of an effectuall faith Obtained promises These seeme rather to signifie that by faith they obtained new and extraordinary promises such as that promise made to David that the Kingdome should be setled upon his posterity for ever and that Christ should be borne from his line then that they obtained the effect of Gods solemne promises For if that effect be taken for immortall life it is false as it is taught afterward ver 39. But if we take it of the blessings of this life they scarce seem any other then victories and triumphs over their enemies But these are particularly related in the verse following unlesse we say that those promises which they obtained are specified and reckoned up in the verses following and so after he had said that by faith they wrought righteousnesse he rightly addes they also obtained the promises
bee made equall to Christians in the reward of that happines should in this be made inferiour to Christians in staying for them to receive Gods promises and that as secondary guests who were not openly invited to the banquet they should have their accesse by and with them who were truely and first invited and not enjoy those heavenly banquets so long a time before these And therefore the words some better thing may be taken two wayes either as our state compared with their state may be said to be better or as our present state compared with our future state may be said better if they had received Gods promise long before us But because that in it selfe doth neither increase our future happines nor in like manner doth decrease their future happines therefore the Author seemes to say some better thing to shew that he understands some such better thing which onely in some sense and in some respect is better For the word some thing is often used in such formes of speech to diminish the signification and detract somwhat from the proprietie of the word whereto it is adjoyned Answer 2. The other answere which happily is more sutable to the fense and words of the Author is this The Author therefore speakes thus to intimate that the end of the world is at hand when the reward of eternall life shall be given to the godly that beleeve in God wherefore if those ancient worshippers of God had long since enjoyed it wee that were not then in being might have failed of it Therefore lest wee should be excluded of it God did deferre both the end of the world and the reward of his worshippers and by this meanes provided somthing better for us then otherwise should have been if they who went before us without staying for us while we were yet unborn had alone by themselves attained eternall happinesse For the reasons why wee rest not in the former sense are 1. Because by admitting that sense it doth not sufficiently appeare how God hath truely and really made our condition better by this that they who went before us were not long since rewarded with eternall life but are made to stay for our salvation whether our state be compared with their state or with our owne future state For certainely by this meanes our state is not made better then theirs but onely each of our states is made equall Also how is our present state made hereby better then our future if God had otherwise determined it For what was it that God had appointed unto us was it not the reward of eternall life to be bestowed upon us at the end of the world in the consummation of this present age but this remaines whole and intire unto us neither is it really decreased if we suppose them long since saved neither is it increased if we suppose them not saved They lose much by it in that they yet enjoy not Gods promise of eternall life but what doe we really gaine by it you will say their condition would have beene better and ours worse which because now it is not worse but equall to theirs therefore it may be said to be better now then otherwise it would have beene But all this is rather subtiltie of words then solidity of matter If this had been the intent of the Authors minde could he not nay must hee not have spoken much more clearly thus that God therefore hath not yet given them the reward of eternall life lest they should bee farre superiour unto us and so much the rather because it doth not forthwith follow that our state is therefore truely better because it is not worse then theirs For this would indeed be true if nothing were abated them but seeing all that portion of happinesse whereby they were ancienter then we is abated them certainly by this meanes our happinesse is nothing more but theirs only somthing lesse And the former sense requires that the particle without in the words of the Author should signifie all one with before that is not to exclude us from perfecting simply but onely from the same time of perfecting But if this were the minde of the Author he might as easily have said before as without yea he should have rather said it seeing the usuall force of the latter particle is simply to seperate and exclude that whereto it is adjoyned who sees not if wee respect the proper and native signification of the Authors words that it is all one as if he had said they should not be perfected excluding us or we not being perfected And howsoever the particle something doth sometime diminish the signification yet the matter it selfe in this place seemes to require that it signifie no small or respective good but some singular advantage greatly necessary to our condition which is the usuall force of that particle For such a thing it must needs be that was the cause why such holy men so deare unto God and dead so many ages past should not to this day enjoy the promise of God and receave the reward of their labours and sufferings And in this argument wherein we debate the causes why God should for so many ages deferre the effect of his promise what either may or can or must be brought of greater moment then that by this meanes God in the meane time hath exceedingly provided for us who should otherwise have been excluded from that eternall happines if the time appointed for the perfecting of the godly had been long since expired Piscator a good Interpreter had seen this sense and rightly explicated it if hee had not referred the word promise to the first comming of Christ upon earth contrary to the minde and scope of the Author but had related it to the reward of eternall life as hee ought to have done Neither hath any man cause to object that persons yet unborne are non-entities and non-entities as wee say have neither affections nor conditions and therefore nothing can be done to them either better or worse nothing ordained or provided for their good or evill or if all should bee continually borne then wee must fall upon an infinite proceeding and so no time would bee fixed for the godly wherein to attaine their reward We therefore answer that non-entities are of two sorts either such as actually onely have not being although afterward they shall or may have it or such as necessarily neither have being nor ever shall or can have it Of these latter nothing can be truly said or affirmed but of the former non-entities many things may and commonly are said and their state may sundry wayes be better or worse for hence both Philosophers and Lawyers call them possibilities So Christ said of his betrayer It had beene good for that man if he had never beene borne Mat. 26.24 For when Judas was a non-entity or yet unborne yet even then he was a possibility and might be borne but his non-entity had beene
one most high God who is the Father For they were far of another minde who yet if in these times they should appeare would now of an universall Councel be no lesse condemned then they then condemned others On the other side Eusebius seeing that the name of Lord and God was given to that person he imagined that he could not possibly be any other but the Son of God consubstantiall to his Father as he thought and therefore partaker of his Fathers divine Name So multiple and various is errour that when she hath once strayed from the path of truth wanders incessantly and findes no end of erring and beleeves none that would direct her for there is no blindnesse so incurable as that of the minde because it perswades the soule that she wants no sight but sees most cleerely But Eusebius might have sufficiently knowne and beene informed if by no meanes else yet from this one place of this Author that this person and the rest entertained by Abraham were indeed Angels But you will say why then is that person called Jehovah which is the proper Name of God himselfe The reason is because he carried himselfe for God himselfe at Gods will and command For such an one as we heard before was that Angel who first appeared to Moses in the bush and afterward at Mount Sinai in such high Majesty both which as it appeares plainely from Scripture were Angels â—…ough they carried themselves as God and Jehovah and therefore it can be no marvaile that the Name of God was given 〈…〉 absurdity is it for the Angels to carry themselves as God and use the Name of God when God wills and commands it Yea how can it possibly be otherwise Are they not minisstring spiâ—…â—…to God to be delegated by him in what quality he pleases to 〈…〉 or cannot God will and command them to minister in this quaâ—…y to procure their greater authority with those men to whom they are sent and that men may be the more certaine that in or by those Angels they deale with God himselfe 3. Remember them that are in bonds To remember in this place is to have a care for of whom we have a care them we are wont often to remember And the sence of this remembring here is all one with the negation of the contrary in the former verse where he required them that they should not be forgetfull because not to forget is to remember Them that are in bonds namely for Christs and the Gospels sake for though many were in bonds for other causes as for crimes and offences yet the multitude of those that were in bonds for Christ made farre the greater number For afflictions and perse quations are so incident to the truth of the Gospel that she produceth an army of bondmen wherein the fore-runner of Christ was also the fore-runner for John Baptist suffered both bonds and death but wee must looke upon Christ as the Generall of this Army who led the way by the Crosse as this Author requires us chap. 12.2 Of the like bloudy cup Stephen dranke and James Peter also lyes sleeping in prison betweene two souldiers bound with two chaines Acts 12 6. Paul and Silas are thrust into the inner prison at Philippi and have their feet made fast in the stocks Acts 16.24 Yea Paul was for many yeares so familiarly acquainted with chaines and bonds that he makes it his attribute to be the prisoner of Jesus Christ for so he stiles himselfe in severall of his Epistles And this Author doth acknowledge himselfe to be in bonds and that therein these Hebrewes had compassion on him chap. 10.34 Yet in this place his intention is not that they should remember him alone but he speakes in the plurall number for their charity in generall to all that are in bonds As being bound with them He shews how carefully we should remember those that are in bonds namely by thinking our selves to be in the same state and condition with them and therefore having assumed their persons upon us whatsoever we would have done by our brethren and companions to us in the like case the same we should carefully doe unto them in their distresse Commiseration And from these words it appeares that the third duty or good office whereto the Author doth exhort them is commiseration or compassion which though he name not in expresse termes yet his words do tacitly imply it For commiseration is but love and charity varied yet upon another object when our love is not restrained onely to our brethren or to strangers which as was shewed in the former verse is hospitality but when the bowels of our love are enlarged to all persons in misery in what relation soever they stand unto us especially when we assume unto our selves and seele in our foules the like passions that be in them of suffering and being bound with them for then our charity becomes true compassion or commiseration And them which suffer adversitie In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a generall word that may be extended to all kinds of afflictions or if it be restrained it commonly signifies those that are sicke or suffer bodily paines And the adversity of sicknesse or paine is a sore misery that doth justly require our commiseration As being your selves also in the body Here he shews a reason or motive why we should commiserate those that are sick and pained in body namely because was our selves are compassed with a body of infirmity subject unto sicknesses and paines For seeing wee are men we must therefore consider that no humane infirmity is exempted from us and thereupon seame to commiserate other persons in their sicknesse as if the like misery were already or shortly may be upon our owne bodies 4. Mariage is honourable in all and the bed undesiled The fourth duty or vertue whereto he exhorts them is Chastity by avoyding the vice of lust and uncleannesse The speech of the Author is here illipticall or defective for in the Greek there is no verbe is Yet we must needs understand some verbe either indicative is as here our and most vulgar Translations have it Mariage is honourable and the bed undefiled is honourable Or rather wee should understand a verbe imperative let Let mariage be honourable and let the bed be undefiled because all the former verses in this Chapter are delivered in the imperative Mood as Let brotherly love continue ver 1. Be not forgetfull to entertaine ver 2. Remember them that are in bonds ver 3. Secondly because the verses following also runne in the same imperative Mood as Let your conversation be without covetousnesse ver 5. Remember them which have the rule over you ver 7. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines ver 9. c. Thirdly because the fith verse next following this is without any verbe in the Greek and yet the Translators doe unanimously supply it with a verbe not indicative