up in the Psalme But in the mysticall sence the particle all must be left wholly to his absolute universality and full amplitude for all things both in heaven and earth namely all creatures whatsoever are put in subjection under Christ because from the universality of Christs dominion God onely is excepted who did put all things besides in subjection under Christ 1 Cor. 15.27 For in that he put all be left nothing not put under him In these and the words immediately following the Author discovers and teacheth us that this place of the Psalme must be understood of some other man then an earthly man For the words being absolutely uttered are a cleere argument that the holy Ghost would have them taken in some other sence altogether universally in which latitude S. Paul also takes them 1 Cor. 15.27 In so much that in them the world to come is also comprehended And taking the words universally who sees not that during this mortall life they cannot be verified and fulfilled of a mortall man And therefore the Author immediatly addes But now we see not yet all things put under him Now while man lives this present and mortall life not yet not from the beginning of the world to this present time we see not all things universally made subject to any mortall man when notwithstanding man was made lesse or lower then the Angels but for a little time as wee shewed before And therefore the fulfilling of these words that all things universally even the world to come should be subject to man cannot be meant of any mortall man but of some man translated to immortality Yet who that immortall man should be the Author hath not hitherto declared But in the following verse he shews that it is Jesus Christ translated to immortality Whence it appeares that if we respect the mysticall sence of the words in this Psalme they must be taken principally and properly of Christ but of Christians onely respectively and as it were proportionably For no one of the faithfull shall solely and singly possesse all things but all joyntly as coheires shall possesse all things yet not all the faithfull joyntly shall possesse all things universally though ye sever them from Christ their head for they shall not have dominion over the Angels but Christ onely shall possesse all things universally for he only shall rule over the Angels that hath dominion over the faithfull And yet againe there is one person excepted from the dominion of Christ and that is God the Father who hath given to Christ his universall dominion 9. But we see Iesus who was made a little lower then the Angels Here he declares who that man was in whom the words of the Psalme were to be fulfilled namely that Jesus Christ was the man to whom all things universally and therefore the world to come was to be subject and therewithall makes way to handle the Priesthood of Christ And hence now it appeares that in this there is no absurdity or repugnancy to truth that he who in respect of his mortall nature was a little lower for a little time then the Angels should be exalted to become much higher then they for ever after Yea seeing the Scripture testifies that the man who was lesse then the Angels must become Lord of all who sees not that the exaltation of the man Christ far above all the orders of Angels doth excellently agree with Scripture And hereby the Author removes the absurdity that seemes in this That Christ a man should become far greater then the Angels and be said to be their Lord. For the suffering of death The Reason or cause why Christ for a little time was made a little lower then the Angels was this that he might suffer death And this was not the formall cause of his lownesse for he was not made lower then Angels in this respect by his suffering death an evill which they suffer not though it be true that he was also lower therein But the formall cause of his lownesse was his mortall nature in respect whereof he was made for a little while a little lower then the Angels And the finall cause of his lownesse in that mortall nature was actuall death for he was made in a mortall nature to this end that he might suffer death under it for unlesse his nature had beene dyable he could not have dyed Christ was made a mortall man whereby for a little while he was a little lower then the Angels but why to what end was he not at first made immortall but mortall It was to this end that he might be passive to suffer death for had he beene at first made immortall he could not have dyed We see him crowned with glory and honour Christ hath now an universall dominion over all not onely over this visible and present world and all the creatures here but also over the invisible and future world and all the creatures there which is a crowne or highest degree of glory and honour to him whereto he was exalted after his suffering of death And though it be most true that his suffering of death was the cause or occasion of his exaltation to glory for Paul expresly so affirmes it Phil. 2.8,9 Yet in this place the Author here intends not to speake of Christs death as the cause of his glory as appeares by the words here following For in what sence can it be said that Christ because he suffered death he was crowned with glory and honour that he should taste death for every man as if after his crowning with glory he suffered or were to suffer death But here his intent is to shew Christs death for the order of it that for time it was antecedent to his glory and his glory for time was consequent after his death We see him crowned We see him so by faith with the eyes of our soule and not by sence or the eyes of our body for we beleeve it from the pregnant testimonies of the holy Ghost in the Scriptures That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man To taste death is to dye for a little time as for a day or two as Christ did for when we take but a little of a thing then we are said to taste of it The final cause why Christ in nature was for a little while a little lower then the Angels was this That he might suffer death And the super-finall cause why he suffered death was this That his death might be propitious and salutiferous to men For the glory of God and the salvation of men required it that the Prince of salvation should taste of death to bring men to salvation yea God had so decreed Now that he might bring men to salvation by this meanes i. By suffering of death he must by nature be a mortall man and not an Angel because by nature Angels are immortall and naturally cannot dye And the efficient cause of both these subordinate finals
of Christs dying and his dying for mens salvation was the grace of God the free love and favour of God did bestow this transcendent benefit upon men that Christ should taste death for them For the Author had no sooner made open mention of Christs death but presently he addes the great and weighty causes of it both finall and efficient lest any man should sleight it and think it not a matter of such moment that therefore the Lord of the faithfull should be lesse then the Angels for that end 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things These words are a circumlocution or a designation of God from his two great attributes of being the last end and the first cause of all things and are introduced as a ground whereby to answer this tacit objection Had it not beene farre more convenient and decent That Christ the Lord and King over Gods people though he were not an Angell but a man by nature mortall should not taste of death and other sufferings but alwaies remaine in his happinesse and glory as it became the worth of so great a King To this the Author answers That it wonderfully became God to proceed this way and not to doe otherwise then he did because this way did especially suite to his end and was a most convenient meanes to attaine the end by God intended For God himselfe is the last end of all things for whom all things are and he is also the first efficient of all things from and by whom all things are and therefore it became God who begins all things by himselfe and finisheth them for himselfe to apply such meanes as are most conducent to his end for it becomes the wisest agent to worke most wisely The particle by whom notes not God as an instrumentall or meane cause as if some higher agent did worke by him but supposeth him the principall and prime agent which is alwayes so when it is used of God as an efficient or agent of some thing For that particle referred to God carries with it this force in sence that the thing mentioned was not onely primely invented and decreed by God but by him also brought to issue by effectuall meanes proceeding from himselfe and not borrowed elsewhere This working of God as being sole Author and sole meanes is distinguished by Paul by these two phrases Of him and through him are all things Rom. 11.36 But by this Author both are comprised in this one by whom are all things And the universall particle all things must be restrained to his proper respective subject formerly mentioned namely all things concerning the salvation of the faithfull In bringing many sons unto glory Here is expressed the intention or end whereat God aymed which was to bring many sons unto glory The faithfull are the sons of God in a double spirituall respect 1. Of their spirituall birth because they are regenerate begotten and borne of God by the action of his holy Spirit upon them 2. Of their spirituall right because they are adopted or instituted to be the universall heires of all his estate by having the same right with Christ whereby they become and are called his brethren For in a rurall sence he that hath a right to anothers estate becomes his son And the estate whereto God brings them is glory whereby is meant all that future happinesse and heavenly inheritance which eminently for the honour of it is called glory and which was mystically understood Psal 8.5 and wherewith a little before Christ is said to be crowned And the sons brought to glory are many not as many is a parcell opposed to all but as it is a multitude opposed to few for God hath ordained to bring to glory not a few sons but a great many even many multitudes God is not as man who can have but a few sons and cannot bring each of them to all his estate but God hath many multitudes of sons and yet will bring each of them to glory even to all his whole estate And therefore no marvaile if for so many sons sake God would not spare their Captaine whom he might have spared partly though not wholly had their number beene but few To make the Captaine of their salvation perfect through sufferings Here is expressed the meane whereby God wrought his end in bringing a multitude of sons to glory namely by giving them a Captaine and perfecting him through sufferings For seeing God hath so many sons or rather so many multitudes therefore they being so great an army required a Captaine Now Christ is the Captaine or in moderne language the Generall over the army of the faithfull in two respects 1. By leading them in their journey going before them in all their troubles and afflictions 2. By governing them as their head and Lord to command over them for in an Army the Generall doth both lead and governe it And he is the Captaine of salvation to the faithfull because he leads and governes them in their journey to salvation that is to the eternall glory wherewith himselfe is crowned as before which to them is salvation because thereby they are safe not only from destruction but from all affliction and all other evils And because Christ is their captain by whom God brings them to salvation by whom God saves them from death therefore Christ is called and is their Saviour And Christ their captaine passed thorow sufferings whereby is meant death especially a violent death comprising also all the miseries and evils that do precede and accompany it through all which sufferings Christ passed which therefore are called and are his passion And by these sufferings Christ was made perfect His mortality was finished and ended and he being translated to immortality was crowned with eternall glory and honour as before which was his ultimate consummation and finall perfection wherein nothing was wanting to him that might accrue to his supreme happinesse Now seeing therefore that this journey to salvation leads for the most part through divers calamities and afflictions through death and a violent death did it not become the wisedome of God that the leader or captaine in this journey should passe through divers sufferings and death yea a violent death before he could penetrate and arrive at the mark of eternall salvation that by his example hee might teach us that this so rough and craggie way which seemes to precipate men into eternall destruction should lead to the highest tower of eternall salvation by finishing our mortality and perfecting us into immortalitie And did it not become the wisdome of God that he into whose hand God had put the salvation of all his sons and whom he would ordaine for their high Priest should in all things be made like unto his brethren and taste of the same cup of sufferings with them that being himselfe acquainted with sufferings he might learne to succour them in theirs 11 For both he
of it onely Therefore those grievous sinnes whereof men stood guiltie and for which they were subject to eternall death must first be expiated before they can enter and receive the eternall inheritance For those sinnes did hinder men from entring it which being purged away now nothing hinders but they may take possession of it But who shall do this shall all promiscuously no certainly but they which are called i. They to whom this eternal inheritance is offered by the Gospel of Christ and who accept this great grace of God by a lively faith For both of these use to be included in the word called But he simply saith they which are called might receive this eternall inheritance because all which are called may receive it if they will and be not wanting to themselves for in God and Christ there is no let 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator Here he gives the cause why he said that by meanes of death this effect of remission of sinnes and receiving the eternall inheritance doth follow because saith he where a Testament is there of necessity the death of the Testator must intervene which reason hee confirmes by a Super-reason in the verse following But here some man may object that the Author doth but sophisticate with words and not draw a reall argument from the thing it selfe Seeing Christ was not the Author of any testament properly but onely the Mediatour of the Covenant although the Greeke writers use the word Testament to signifie a Covenant But the ambiguity of the word must not confound the natures and properties of the things so that what is true of one thing which the ambiguous word signifies should forthwith bee transfered to the other signified by the same word We answer That the speech is here of such a thing as is common to both the significations of the word the proper and improper or rather the generall and the speciall i. that is Covenant and Testament for we said before that every Testament is a Covenant an especiall and best kind of Covenant For Covenant is a generall name whereby those things are called that are more properly named leagues and testaments both which are Covenants And indeed almost throughout the old testament the originall word which our English translation renders Covenant doth properly signifie a League and were better so rendered for because God is a publike person and so is mankinde also therefore all Gods Covenants with man are properly Leagues Hence the Latine translations both vulgar and others constantly render them Faedera So for a testament if we consider the nature of it accuratly then any solemne act of any person testified by his death is properly a testament and he who testifies anothers act though he be no Author but onely the assertor of it is properly the testator of it For hence the Civilians have borrowed their termes of Testament and Testator which commonly concurre in the same person yet not necessarily but accidentally for whatsoever witnesse will testifie upon his death the verity and certainty of another mans last Will and Testament such a witnesse is truely a testator to that Testament And he that mediats to certifie a mans Testament and mediats so farre as to testifie it with his death hee is both the mediator and the testator of that Testament so that a mediator and a testator in respect of the same Testament are not functions incompatible but consentaneous that may easily concurre in the same person Yea hee that in this sence is the testator of a Testament is necessarily thereupon the mediator of it So that Gods two solemne Covenants or rather his Leagues the old and the new are truely and properly called Testaments because they are both testified by bloud and death to certifie confirme and establish them for the old Testament was testified by the bloud and death of calves and goates which was therefore called the bloud of the Testament as it is declared in the verses following But because the new Testament was testified certified confirmed and established by the death and bloud of Christ therefore Christ though hee were not the Author of it yet is most truely and properly the testator of it And because Christ did mediate for this Testament to certifie and publish it to the world that the old and former testament was abrogated and revoaked and that this new one was the last Will and Testament of his Father therefore also be was most truely and properly the Mediatour of it And hee was so constant and earnest a Mediator to certifie the truth of this new Testament that thereupon hee became the testator of it also to testifie and confirme it with his death and blood Nay because Christ was the Testator of it therefore hee must necessarily also be the Mediator of it for no man will testifie that truth or that cause with his bloud for which he no way mediats seeing he â—hat no way mediats for a thing will 〈◊〉 testifie it with his blood Wherefore in the words of these 16. and 17 verses though the Author for a while supposeth and takes it for graunted that not onely death but the death of the Testator which here is Christ must needs intervene to confirme the new Testament yet a little after at the 23. verse and so forward hee clearly demonstrats it For there he teacheth that the matter must not nor could not be effected by the bloud of beasts because he was both the Mediator and the high Priest of the Covenant or League who when he was to appeare before God in his heavenly Sanctuary and there to performe his offering certainly he was not to slay some beast to bring the bloud of it into that Sanctuary but must shed his own bloud to make himselfe his owne offering in heauen thereby to confirme and establish the new League or Covenant which as he might do so he must doe it for the great dignity and sublimity of the particulars therein contained So that in this respect the new Covenant comes neerer to the nature of a Testament then of a League which was the proper nature of the old Covenant For what effect could there be in the bloud of a beast to confirme and make faith unto us of heavenly promises Such a Confirmation had very ill beseemed this divine and heavenly Covenant especially seeing it might be confirmed by other bloud more sutable to it and by bloud that notwithstanding was to be shed for another cause which cause hath already been shewed at the 14. verse Whence wee may perceive that in these words in this 16. verse as they are also extended to Covenants or Leagues and to the Authors and Mediators of them somthing must be understood to make the truth of them fully to appeare which yet is not expressed because it makes nothing to the point in hand For these words of the Author here must be taken as it he had
said where a Testament is there must needs bee the death of the Testator or at least as in leagues which in a manner resemble Testaments the death of some creature whereby the League is confirmed by him that makes it for till death intervene a Testament or League is of no force and strength which exception or rather which correction of his generall saying why it was not added here the cause hath been already shewed We may also answer the former objection thus That his reasoning here is comparative by way of similitude not explicitely but contractedly as is ofen used And the words are to be taken as if he had said as when a Testament is made the death of the Testator must needs accede because it must be animated by the death of the Testator for while the Testator lives the Testament lives not or is not in force So also when the new League or Testament was ordained his death must accede that made it and was in stead of the Testator that the Testament might be firme and of force For though Christ made not the new Testament as the Author or principall agent of it yet because hee was the Mediator and instrument of his Father to speed it in his Fathers name therefore he may be said to have made it for wee commonly attribute the same action both to the agent who is the prime cause of it and to the Instrument who is the means of it From hence it manifestly appears what force the bloud of Christ hath in procuring us remission of sinnes namely these two forces first that by it the New Testament was established or confirmed and secondly that thereupon he offered himselfe to God for us in heaven So that his bloud was confirmatory to settle the eternall inheritance upon us and expiatory to procure an eternall redemption of our sinnes whereof the former is handled in this verse the latter in those precedent Why Christ is called here the Testator we have before sufficiently reasoned namely because he was the maine witnesse to certifie the truth of the Testament by his death and because he was the maine party by whose death the Testament which till then lay dead became alive and valid to be of force and effect Yet here wee shall adde one reason more because it will serve wondrously to annimate our faith and love toward Christ and that is because the inheritance conveyed unto us by this New Testament is properly the inheritance of Christ for hee is the unigenit or only begotten Sonne of God and was ordained to be Lord and heire of all his Fathers estate and hath admitted us that will accept of it to be co-heires and fellow-partners with him in it and dyed as the Testator to settle the possession of it upon us Or to speake in the words of Paul He hath received us to the glory of God Rom. 15.7 And the words of Christ to his Disciples tend to this sense I appoâ—nt unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto mee Luke 22.29 17. For a testament is of force after men are dead This is the reason why the death of the testator must accede to the testament hee hath made because all the while the testator lives his testament is dead and of no force to give any possession to the heire of the inheritance and estate thereby to be conveyed but when the testator is dead then the testament takes life and becomes of force for then the heire hath an actuall right and power to enter upon the inheritance And therefore he addes Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth These are the same words in effect with the former and are but a consequence from them by that rule of reasoning which we call conversion by contraposition For if a testament be of force when the testator is dead then it must needs follow that while the testator is not dead the testament is of no force Which kinde of reasoning is frequent in Scripture yet among many passages we shall instance but in this one and in this the rather because the texts of it are much obscured by Interpreters who labour to reconcile them as if they seemed opposite whereas no two texts can be more according for they are wholly equipollent and each consequent to the other Christ saith He that is not with me is against me Mat. 12.30 and he saith againe He that is not against us is for us or which is all one He that is not against me is with me Luke 9.50 This latter saying in Luke is so farre from being opposite or contrary to the former in Matthew that it is a most immediate and necessary consequence from it For if this saying be true as it is because the truth hath said it He that is not with Christ is against him Then this also from thence must needs follow for a truth He that is not against Christ is with him Because this latter saying is the conversion of the former by contraposition 18. Whereupon neither the first was dedicated without bloud What he had said before in generall of testaments now he declares in particular and proves by an example in the first or Old Testament and makes way for himselfe to apply the same unto Christ and to the New Testament established by him For because under the Old Testament it selfe was confirmed by bloud and because almost all things were cleansed by bloud at least sinnes could not be cleansed without shedding of bloud Therefore from hence he gathers by way of similitude that death and shedding of bloud must needs intervene under the New Testament that thereby both the Testament it selfe might be confirmed and our sinnes purged Was dedâ—cated The Greeke word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Interpreters note is properly said when some solemne act is done whereby a new thing being perfected and finished begins to come in use So the Consecration of Solomons new Temple was called the Dedication of it and the Consecration of the new Altar erected by Judas Maccabeus was called the Dedication of it 1 Maccab. 4.56 And the annuall celebration of that dedication is called the feast of the dedication John 10.22 yet this word applied to leagues signifies nothing else but to confirme them And leagues are then confirmed when they are so ratified as thereby they have force and strength to become obligatory and binding to all parties therein interessed For the confirmation of a league is some solemne act done by the confederates or in their name whereby they mutually so binde their faith that it shall not bee lawfull for either party to rescinde or revoke the league And although there bee many formes of confirmation for leagues yet anciently the usuall forme was by bloud and that of the Old Testament was performed by the bloud of beasts Wherefore with good reason the Author saith that it was not dedicate or confirmed without bloud i. it began not to come
what doth this concerne us and the expiation of our sins that instead of the Legall sacrifices Christ saith he will do or hath done the will of God Therefore the Author shews that this will of God and the execution of it doth consist in the sacrifice and offering of Christ made for us whence also this will of God is tacitly compared with the Legall sacrifices and withall is preferred before them as farre more excellent and acceptable to God Therefore he saith that we are sanctified by it even we who as he presently addeth are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ In which words he withall teacheth what that will of God is namely that it is the offering of the body of Christ once for all or at least that it is altogether concurrent with this offering For how else should we be said to be sanctified or expiated by this will of God seeing we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ For this will of God seems to be opposed thus far to the legall sacrifices that by it we are truly sanctified For while our sanctification is attributed to the will of God as it stands opposed to the legall sacrifices it is tacitely taken from them As if the Author had said By which wil of God we are sanctified not by the old legal sacrifices The will of God is here put not for the action of his will but for the object or matter of his wil for the thing he would have done which he approves and wherein he hath pleasure for it is opposed to the legall sacrifices which he would not have done which he approves not and wherein he hath no pleasure And therefore it signifies the sacrifice and offering of Christ as the object or matter which is now his will as the words following teach us Sanctified is explated purged and cleansed from our sins for which see chap. 9.13 Through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all The offering not of legall sacrifices often made and yearely iterated and therefore ineffectuall and imperfect but of the body of Christ once made is that offering which greatly pleaseth God and is wholly conformable to his will and truely sanctifieth us 11. And every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices Hitherto hee hath compared the offering of Christ with the legall sacrifices chiefly in respect of the iteration that the legall sacrifices were offered often that is yeare by yeare for the whole people but that of Christ but once only Now he begins to cōpare the high Priests together namely the old with the new the legall Priests with Christ that they offered and ministred yeare by yeare but Christ once onely For where there are many sacrifices successively iterated yeare by yeare there the high Priest also must necessarily minister and offer yeare by yeare but where there is but one sacrifice or offering to be made there the high Priest ministers and offers but once onely For hitherto the author hath intended onely this to shew that Christ entring into his heavenly Sanctuary not to offer often according to the manner of the legall high Priests but to make one only offering as appeares in the former chapter verse 25. For to this point as to his main scope all his arguments are directed The high Priest being en tered into the holy place did not sit there but was wont to stand there before the Mercy-seat as before the Throne of God And hee stood there daily which must not be so understood that he did so every day in the yeare but upon a set and certaine day of the yeare which had it circuit and came about yeare by yeare namely at the solemne anniversary fast for the universall expiation of the whole people for he daily offered upon that day whensoever it had recourse For in this sense he used the same word before chap. 7.27 where he openly spake of that solemne annuall sacrifice upon the day of Expiation whereto he hath reference in this place also as particularly appeares from the third verse of this chapter where he mentions the Commemoration of sins every yeare which were constantly confessed by the whole people at that sacrifice Which can never take away sins The cause is here shewed why the legall high Priest must offer those sacrifices often namely because they could never take away sinnes i. They could never so effectually free men from their sinnes that they who were once expiated thereby should have no further conscience of sinnes And what this is hath been already explicated in this chapter verse 2. 12. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sat downe at the right hand of God Here he opposeth Christ to the legall high Priest in three particulars First in that Christ offered for sins but once onely for he so offered that he never iterated his offering more Secondly in that after his offering hee sat downe at the right hand of God Thirdly that he continued his seat there for ever even unto the end of the world And these two latter particulars are a reason of the former for because Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and sits there for ever to the worlds end therefore he shall never offer sacrifice more For how can it beseeme or rather how can it befall so great a Majestie to offer againe another Sacrifice that is to die againe and then againe to enter into heaven For seeing Christ sitteth at Gods right hand for ever therefore the Majestie of Christ must continue for ever also and then how can Christ ever offer again For then a thing lasteth for ever when it hath a continuall duration through all times and ages without any intermission 13. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstoole Here he shewes the issue or effect that will follow upon Christs sitting at the right hand of God For thereupon it will follow that at the last all his enemies shall be put under his feet and made his footstoole So farre shall Christ be from offering againe to bee violated and put to death againe by his enemies that he expects their subjection to him to be made his footstoole And when all the enemies of Christ among whom death is the last and chiefest shall be made his footstool i. shall be wholy mastered yea abolished what cause can there be why hee should iterate his offering That this subjection will follow the Author gathers it from this saying of God unto Christ Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole Psalme 110.1 Therefore Christ sitting at the right hand of God doth expect this And he saith that Christ expecteth this fitting his words to the words of the Psalme wherein God himselfe doth vindicate this subjection of Christs enemies unto him by putting them under his feet But because wee know that Christ himselfe neither heretofore hath beene
I Have perused this Comment or Exposition upon the Epistle to the Hebrewes and finding it to be learned and judicious plaine and very profitable I allow it to be Printed and published IOHN DOVVNAME THE EXPIATION OF A SINNER IN A COMMENTARY Vpon the Epistle to the HEBREVVES LONDON Printed by THO. HARPER and are to be sold by CHARLES GREENE at his Shop in Ivie Lane 1646. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THe History of Christ for his life doctrine and miracles for his death resurrection and ascension is copiously described by the foure Evangelists But the Mystery of Christ for the reasons causes and effects of his sufferings and actions especially since his ascension into heaven and session on the Throne of God is exactly revealed in the Epistle to the Hebrewes which seems in manner of an Appendex unto the Evangelists For that Epistle is frequently interserted with severall deep mysteries containing as it were the history of Christ in heaven How there in the behalf of the faithfull he executes the sacred office of his everlasting Priesthood whereby he is able to save them for ever who come unto God by him because he ever liveth to make intercession for them How he commiserates and succours them in all their afflictions and trialls for having himselfe been afflicted and tried he thereby learned the compassion of a mercifull high Priest How he expiates and propitiates them from all their former sinnes and from all their after-lapses whereinto they fall through ignorance or infirmity for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified How he justifies and here difies them to that eternall blessednesse whereof he is the heire and the donor to admit them as co-heires with him for he is become the author of eternall salvation unto all them that obey him How hee consecrates and dedicates their persons and all their sacrifices or holy services of prayers praises and thanksgivings which through him become acceptable to his Father for he is a Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which God hath pitched and not men And therein is further accurately discoursed what admirable benefits and prerogatives are from Christ redundant to the faithfull for whom he hath obtained a Ministery so much more excellent by how much he is the Mediator of a better covenant established upon better promises What necessary duties of holinesse the faithfull on their part over and besides their faith to believe are bound to performe for the application and efficacie of those benefits to render them effectuall to their salvation which without holinesse can never be attained for as without faith it is impossible to please God so without holinesse no man shall see God What vertue and power those benefits have upon the conscience to withdraw her from dead workes and to engage her in all endeavours of holines to serve the living God by way of thankfulnesse to God for his grace in Christ for otherwise the soul is ingratefull and ungracious What solid comforts and assurances under all the distresses of this life arise unto the soule from her endeavours of holinesse without which no soule is capable of solid and assured comfort for a sensuall and sinfull soul may be sometime flattered and deceived but effectually comforted and assured she can never be untill in some measure she bee purged from her sinfulnes and qualified by deeds or desires of holinesse In the prosecution of these and the like points the divine Author of that Epistle proceeds after a grave and solid manner yet soaring sometime into expressions and reasonings so sublime that he seems to penetrate the highest heavens and there to behold our Saviours actions For the points he prosecutes are high mysteries of things so distant and remote from sense that as himself acknowledgeth c. 5. v. 11. many of them are hard to be uttered and therfore certainly hard to be understood Yet for the easier apprehension of them he alwaies CHAPTER I. GOD The supreme and universall father stiled in the old Covenant the God of Israel but in the new the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ At sundry times in the severall ages of the world as in the time of the servitude in Egypt in the time of the Judges of the Kings and of the Captivity and a while afterward till about the finishing of the second Temple And in divers maners At one time after one maner at another after another as to Moses God spake in a singular and familiar maner otherwise then to any other Prophet for he spake with Moses mouth to mouth Num. 12.6 And he knew Moses face to face Deut. 34.10 But to other Prophets God spake after another maner eyther by Angels as his delegates or by a voice sounding in their eares or by a vision before their eyes while they were awake or by a dream while they were asleep Spake Declared his will and pleasure for precepts promises or judgements whether by voice vision or dreame In times past Anciently during the time of the Tabernable and the first Temple for after the finishing of the second Temple God spake very rarely any way Vnto the Fathers Not to the Patriarchs but to the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the time of the Prophets and were ancestors to those Hebrewes to whom this Epistle is written By the Prophets As by Moses and Samuel by Elias and Elisha and by the rest of the Prophets whose workes are extant in the sacred Canon of Scripture 2. In these last dayes The time of the Gospel is called the last dayes partly as opposed to the words before in times past partly because the time of the Law and the Prophets was before it but chiefly because the Church under the Gospel shall not receive from God any more Innovation or alteration for the time of the Gospel shall last till time shall be no more till eternity and therefore is commonly called in Scripture the last dayes See Act. 2.17 By his son Jesus Christ who here is opposed to the Prophets by whom God spake in time past Not that the Prophets were no way the sons of God but because in comparison of Christ they were not so accounted For Christ by whom God spake the Gospel was more eminently the son of God then any of the Prophets 4 wayes 1. By his conception because he was conceived of a Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost 2. By his function because he was sanctified by God and sent into the world to publish and confirme the new Covenant for which function he must needs resemble God as a son the father in divine wisdome holinesse and power This reason Christ gives why he called himself the son of God John 10.36 3. By his Institution because God appointed him his universall heire as an only son is to his father 4. By his Resurrection because thereby he was immortalised or enfranchised from death and mortality and consequently deified as the son of
thou art my son He confirms his former reason by a testimony from Scripture Psal 2.7 Why Christ hath a more excellent Name then Angels Because God gave Christ the Name or title of Sonne which is a title of honour above that of Angels whose name or title signifies them to be the Messengers or Legats of God The Angels in generall are some time in Scripture called the Sons of God as Iob 1.6 But God on his part never calls them so in generall much lesse doth he single out any one peculiar Angel apart from the rest to entitle him by the name or Son But God entitles Christ by that Name Thou art my Sonne thou and no other person properly For the Pronoune thou is here put exclusively to sequester all other persons beside from the participation of that name as a proper and personall title Indeed as the Angels in generall so all Christians are in common called the Sonnes of God but Christ onely is so called peculiarly personally and singularly This day have I begotten thee He confirms why Christ is singularly entituled and named the Sonne of God because God after a singular manner hath begotten him i. Raised him from the dead for in Davids Psalmes from whence this testimonie is taken extream dangers resemble death and made him most resemblant and like to God himselfe by giving him Immortality and universall Royalty to bee King over his people For this generating or begetting of Christ hath respect to his Resurrection and Ascension for so Saint Paul expresly refers it Acts 13.33 Not that Christ was not begotten or not called the Sonne of God before his Resurrection but because by his Resurrection he was most assimilated and made semblant unto God by being made an immortall and universall King whereby he had the highest degree under God therefore God is said to have then begotten him and then to call him his Sonne For God is called God by reason of his supream power and dominion whereof they also are called Gods and the sons of God that have power and dominion and the greater their power is or the nearer it resembles Gods power so much the rather and more neerly are they his sonnes And he is most of all his Sonne whose power and dominion is made either the same with Gods or equall to it Christ was the Sonne of God before his Resurrection for during his prophetick function he was a great Potentate and wrought powerfull miracles but after his Resurrection upon his Regall office he became most neerly and highly the Sonne of God because then God made him an immortall and universall Potentate for then all Power was given him in heaven and earth Mat. 28.18 This day It is an Hebraisme frequently added to speeches wherein some remarkable matter is either done or given or promised or commanded as in this place to the end that day might be kept in memory or as it were remaine for a day of Commemoration that the action of that day might be kept in perpetual remembrance See Gen. 4.14 Jer. 1.10 and many places in Deuteronomie And againe I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Sonne Hee confirmes that Christ is the Son of God from another testimony of Scripture 2. Sam. 7.14 which was literally spoken of by Solomon as the former testimony of David but both mystically of Christ Intimating the deare love and affection of God toward him whereupon it must needs follow that Christ must be exalted to a most excellent state and condition above all other persons And as these words were spoken of Solomon futurely before hee was borne and indeed the Sonne of God so also of Christ 6. And again when he bringeth in Another testimonie of Scripture to prove Christ better then the Angels because all the Angels are commanded to worship him which must needs follow upon the state and condition of his filiation For all servants must worship or reverence their masters sonne and heire especially then when his father had made over his inheritance or estate unto him This testimonie is taken out of 97. Psalme whereof the inscription in the Septuagint is A Psalme of David when the land was restored unto him namely when his kingdome was restored after his expulsion from it by Absolon but mystically meant of Christ And therefore againe may well be referred to his bringing in For after Christ was expelled the world by his death and buriall God brought him into the world againe by his Resurrection in raising him from the grave The first begotten Christ is the first begotten Sonne of God because God begot him before all his other sonnes who are called the brethren of Christ for God first begot Christ in that manner wherein God is said to beget sons for those he begets whom he assimilates and makes like unto himselfe and so Christ was the first that was assimilated or made like unto God in holinesse in such holinesse as he requires in the new Covenant Secondly Christ is the first begotten of God by his Resurrection because by the power of God hee was raised and brought in againe from death to an immortall life for which cause hee is called the first begotten from the dead and the first fruits of them that slept 1. Cor. 15.20 Lastly he is the first begotten in all things whatsoever whereby the faithfull of Christ become the sons of God for Christ hath preceded them all that as St. Paul speakes he in alâ— things might have the preeminence Col. 1.18 Into the world First to be upon the earth a while after his Resurrection from the grave but chiefly when he brought him into heaven which is the superiour and future world and seated him at his right hand for then Christ became the Lord and head over men and angels and till then the angels worshipped him not For in this sence the Apostle here takes the world as himselfe shewes in the next cap. ver 5. where he saith thaâ— the world to come is the world whereof he spake And let all the angels of God worship him The words are Imperative laying a Command upon all the angels of God none excepted to worship Christ and therefore it followes that Christ is made much better then the angels In the Hebrew of the Psalme it is Worship him all ye Gods where the word Gods is opposed to Idols which were the Heathen Gods whose woâ—shippers are there commanded to be ashamed and againe to those Idols Christ is opposed who not onely is not an Idol but so true a God that all other Gods who are not idols must worship him But because by Gods there we can understand none but the Angels therefore the Septuagint translâ—tes it the Angels of God whom this divine Author followes Worship him Vse divine reverence before him and unto him by standing up bowing downe and falling downe before him in â—he very same manner that is done or due to God himself Because Christ sustaines the
committing them to the care of Christ See John 6.39.40 and John 17.6,7 And by giving him power to give them eternall life Joh 17.2 For hee did predestinate them to be conformed to the image of Christ that Christ might be the first-borne among many brethren Rom. 8.29 And Christ and the faithfull are brethren in being signes and wonders For Christ was for a signe which should be spoken against Luke 2.34 And the Apostles were made a spectacle to the world unto angels and to men 1. Cor. 49. yet the faithfull are not the sonnes of God before they be given to Christ and beleeve in him for by faith they are made the sonnes of God But as soone as a man is given to Christ then hee becomes the son of God and unlesse he be so given he cannot be the son of God See John 6.44,45 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud After the Author had taught us the neere alliance of brotherhood betweene Christ and the faithfull he now shews what is the state and condition of the faithfull that from thence he might conclude that Christ also their Captaine and high Priest must needs have the like condition with them And so returnes to what he had said at the ninth verse before That Christ was made a little lower then the Angels expressing here the impulsive cause of that lownesse By flesh and bloud Here is understood an infirme fraile and ruinous nature and condition subject to divers evils even to death and corruption Of this nature and condition the faithfull who are Gods children are all partakers He also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same Therefore Christ also the Captaine and high Priest of the faithfull to whom he was so neerely allyed as to be their brother did himselfe also in the very same manner partake of the very same nature and condition of flesh and bloud to be as infirme fraile and ruinous as they subject to as many miseries as they even to death and corruption For he suffered death actually and was by nature subject to corruption yet he suffered not corruption actually for God by his power and by his grace rescued him from it and would not suffer his holy One to see corruption Acts 2.27 The summe of the Reasoning is Seeing Christ must be the Captaine and high Priest of mortall and fraile men therefore he must not be Angel but lower then the Angels even a mortall and fraile man like his brethren subject to divers sufferings even to death it selfe But the Incarnation of Christ cannot be concluded from these last words for then by the same reason the Incarnation of the faithfull or the rest of Gods children must needs be concluded from the former seeing Christ is said to partake of flesh and bloud likewise or in like manner with them But seeing the faithfull the rest of Gods children are not incarnate no more is Christ their Captaine and high Priest otherwise betweene Christ and the rest of Gods children there must be a great difference and unlikenesse in that wherein they are here concluded to be most semblant and alike namely in their partaking of flesh and bloud And granting the Incarnation here then from the death of Christ and his Resurrection following it the faithfull cannot take an example of their resurrection or immortality after death by death to be acquired and therefore by the death of Christ cannot be delivered from the feare of death as the Author inferres it in the verse next following That through death he might destroy the Devill The finall cause to what end Christ did partake of a mortall condition and of death it selfe whereby he was lower then the Angels is here expressed to be double whereof notwithstanding one end is dependent and consequent from the other The first is That by his death he might destroy the devill Christ by his death destroyes not the devill for his person for the devill by his person is an angell and therefore by nature indestructible incorruptible and immortall But Christ by his death destroyes the devill for his power he abolisheth and abrogates the kingdome and power that Satan hath in the world particularly his power of death and therefore he describes Satan by this circumlocution him that had the power of death The power of Satan consists in this that he detaines men mancipated to his command and enslaved at his beck most obsequious to commit any sinne from the yoake of which slavery they have of themselves no meanes to pull their necke This power is by an Hebraisme called the power of death i. a mortiferous or deadly power because Satan by sin brings men to death and that death is eternall to them Christ therefore suffered death that he might overthrow the tyranny of Satan breaking all his forces that he might take from this power of holding men in deadly bondage and deliver them from it For hence it is that we are said to be delivered from the power of Satan See Acts 26.18 and Col. 1.13 And it is by the death of Christ that Satan is said to be devested and spoiled of all his dominion and power See John 12.31,33 and Col. 2.15 Now the reason why Christ destroyes the deadly power of Satan by his death is Because Christ by his death hath obtained the supreame power over all things whereby he is enabled to master all his enemies whereof Satan is the head first breaking their forces and last utterly destroying them This way of destroying Satans deadly power if we respect the nature of the action though Christ might have done it without his death yet it was so ordered by the decree and counsell of God that it should not be effected but by the meanes of his death and that for the second end of his death which is expressed in the next verse following namely to deliver them who through feare of death c. 15. And deliver them who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage The second or subordinate end of Christs death is to vindicate men from a fearefull bondage This servitude or bondage is the feare of death and of eternall death or as it may bee feared to last eternally for as it is the manner of slaves to feare so feare it selfe is a fearefull slavery hence S. Paul termes it the spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 And they are subject to this slavery of feare not who stand in actuall fear but who are liable to fear or by right ought to fear Hence it plainly appeares that all they who fear death have no share in this deliverance or libertie by Christ but remaine in a grievous slavery And all they are forced to fear death and the eternitie of it who have not a sure hope of their Resurrection And how grievous this slavery or bondage of it is appeares from the duration of it in that it continues upon men all the time of their life No minute
or posterity of Abraham whether they be carnall by birth onely or spirituall by faith onely or both by birth and faith And he rather said the seed of Abraham in two respects 1. Because we often reade in Scripture that Christ is promised to no other men properly but to the posterity of Abraham or at least to his seed chiefly and in the first place 2. Because this word would be most pleasing to the Hebrews to whom he writes who were themselves the seed or posterity of Abraham But by this ambiguous appellation which might signifie the seed of Abraham whether carnall or spirituall he so ingratiates the Hebrews that withall he might tacitely invite them to continue Christians because Christians onely of what Nation soever they be are the spirituall seed of Abraham Gal. 3.29 For Christ was destinate to take hold of to help succour and save onely that spirituall seed as being their onely mercifull and faithfull high Priest And by the words here we must understand rather the spirituall seed of Abraham then the carnall but they that are his seed both wayes both carnally and spiritually as these Hebrewes were may challenge Christ in a manner by a double right to be their ayder and helper The summe of all is As in the former clause of this verse the Author proved the negative That Christ was not made an Angel because he was not to take hold of them to help and succour them So in this clause he proves the affirmative why he was made lower then the Angels why he tooke part of flesh and bloud Because by his death he was to take hold of the seed of Abraham to help and succour the faithfull in delivering them from the feare and bondage of death So the words shew not what Christ was by his birth but what he did by his death Hence now it plainly appeares how incongruously these words are wrested to Christs taking on him humane nature For this sence is contrary to the context and altogether crosse to right reasoning for by it the same truth is made a reason whereby to conclude it selfe At the fourteenth verse before this is laid downe for a truth That Christ tooke part of our flesh and bloud i. he did partake of humane nature of which truth how can a reason be given by this that hee tooke on him our humane nature seeing these two truths are identicall though not in words yet altogether in sence But if we understand these words of helping and succouring the faithfull then there runs a veine of evident reasoning Christ was made lower then the Angels and tooke part of flesh and bloud to what end that he might suffer death Why so To destroy the Devils power of death Why that Because he was to deliver men from the feare and bondage of death Why did he that Because he was to take hold of men to helpe and succour them who are the seed of Abraham 17. Wherefore in all things Hitherto he hath shewed that Christ must be a mortall man to suffer death now from the last cause of his helping or succouring men he teacheth that he must not onely be mortall but subject to divers afflictions and not onely subject but actually to suffer them and that not some few but even all wherewith the rest of the faithfull are afflicted It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren How and why the faithfull are the brethren of Christ hath before beene shewed and proved Yet in this place againe the word brethren carries a powerfull force of reasoning It behooveth a brother to helpe and succour his brother and Christ therefore takes hold of the faithfull to help and succour them because they are his brethren especially the seed of Abraham who are his brethren both by God and man And it behooveth also a brother to be like a brother and the more alike they are the more lovely they are to all and the more loving one to another And therefore it behooved Christ to be made like unto his brethren not onely in some one thing as in their nature to be made a little lower then the Angels as his brethren were or to take part of flesh and bloud as they did but also to be like them in all things even in their whole condition to be subject to afflictions and temptations as they are and actually to suffer all sorts of them as they doe yet he was not like them in sin for that is excepted Heb. 4.15 and a universall saying must alwayes abate when a particular exception is expresly made against it That he might be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest Christ must be made like unto his brethren in nature that he might be their high Priest for the Priest and the people must be of one Nation he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified must be all of one and he was made like them in condition for suffering afflictions and therefore he must bee unto them a mercifull and faithfull high Priest 1. He must be mercifull to be touched with a sence of his brethrens miseries and sorrowes and to thinke them so his owne or so neere him that he may be moved readily to succour or help them as himselfe For mercy is a sorrow for anothers misery moving us to succour him 2. He must be faithfull to administer and performe all things with all care and diligence in their behalfe that concernes their sanctifying or succouring to expiate their sins and help them from misery And this faithfulnesse takes some roote and growth from mercifulnesse for mercy doth beget and nourish faithfulnesse Now that Christ might be truly mercifull and faithfull to his brethren in all things therefore he must bee made like them in all things even in all their afflictions and sorrowes In things pertaining to God The office of the high Priest in generall was this to administer in things pertaining to God as to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin as the Author explicates it afterward chap. 5.1 And it was peculiar and proper to the high Priest to expiate or make atonement for the sins of the whole people together and not of single persons by themselves for that was common to other Priests This popular Expiation was performed by Christ our high Priest when after the shedding of his bloud on earth he entred into heaven as into the Sanctuary or holiest of all there to appeare in the presence of God to make Intercession for us that is that resting in heaven with God he might administer and performe all things that concernes our deliverance from the punishments of our sins To make reconciliation for the sins of the people The end of the office of the high Priest was to make reconciliation for the sins of the people i. To propitiate or expiate their sinnes The word in the originall signifies to cover hence the cover of the Arke was called the propitiatory because it covered the Tables of the Law that lay in
the Arke and was a figure of Gods mercy whereby he was propitious to forgive or cover the sins against the Law For sins are no other way propitiated or expiated then as it were by covering or hiding that they may no more appeare against us in the sight of God Hence Gods people are said to be reconciled unto God that is to be sanctified and purged from their sins for when the Tabernacle was sanctified and purged from the sins of the people it was called reconciling Levit. 16.20 And hence God is said to be propitiated or pacified or appeased not as if hereby he were alwayes turned from anger which was in him before but many times that he should not desist from being propitious but continue pacified or appeased towards us and that he should passe by just causes of anger which otherwise he might have For thus God was anciently pacified by the Sacrifices ordained by his Law for it is no way likely that God was really angry with his people for those sins for which he granted an expiation under the Law then when the people procured the timely expiation of their sinnes according to the prescript of Gods Law then certainely God was not actually angry for then God must be angry at set times of the yeare yearely at every solemnity of the Expiation By those sacrifices therefore God was not pacified by being drawne from anger but thereby order was taken that God might still continue pacified and not turne away his grace and favour from his people by reason of their sinnes Hence it appeares that from these words of Reconciling and Pacifying we must not conclude that Gods wrath against us was appeased by Christ but when we heare these words referred unto sinnes we must thereby understand nothing else but their expiation or purgation made by Christ as this Author termed it before chap. 1. v. 3. But how Christ now residing in heaven and exercising the office of his Priesthood doth purge away our sins shall be declared hereafter namely no other way then by the power God hath granted him to forgive them that we should not be punished and perish eternally for them The faithfull are the people of God who are reconciled and whose sins are expiated And this as was noted before was proper to the office of the high Priest who used not to make reconciliation for single persons but for the people on the day of Expiation 18. For in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted He saith not simply that Christ hath suffered but he addes being tempted The sufferings of Christ were not punishments but temptations or trials of his excellent fidelity and piety For there was no sinne in Christ for which he should be punished seeing punishments are onely for sinne And therefore chap. 4. v. 15. speaking of Christs being tempted or tried he expresly addeth that he was without sinne i. his triall was not a punishment as no way merited by sin He is able to succour them that are tempted Afflictions to the faithfull are temptations of their faith and righteousnesse whether they will persevere in their obedience to God or be beaten off by worldly calamities as the offering of Isaac was a temptation to Abraham and our whole spirituall warfare against Satan the world and the flesh is a daily temptation or triall of us In these their trials Christ doth succour them by his assistance of them from perishing under the miseries that presse them And this he doth when he affords them strength and courage to sustaine the afflictions lest by force thereof they fall from the faith and forsake it Or when he so moderates the afflictions that they be not too great for paine or too long for time by lightning of them if they be too or shortening them if they be too long or lastly when he receives their spirits at their death to restore them againe in due time with supreame glory And when Christ succours the faithfull in this manner he doth even thereby expiate their sinnes For thereby he endeavours and provides with all care lest that sinking under their afflictions or being destitute at their death they should by this meanes suffer punishment for their sinnes And therefore the word able to help must be ampliated and extended to be both able willing and carefull for otherwise he should not be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest if having power to succour he had neither will nor care to performe it Hence appeare three verities 1. That Christ our high Priest expiateth our sinnes by succouring us in our temptations 2. That the principall function of his Priestly office is performed now in heaven and was not performed at this death wherein there was only a preparation toward it 3. That neither the Priestly function of Christ nor his Expiation of sins thereby procured consist in this that Christ should suffer punishment for our sins seeing that can have no place in heaven The sum or Contents of this second Chapter are 5. 1. Wee Christians have more cause to persevere in the Gospel then the Iews had to persist in the law verse 1. Reason 1. Because if wee neglect it our punishment will be more certaine then theirs 2. Because it was first taught by Christ and confirmed by his Apostles by miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost 2. Christ was made lower then the Angels verse 7. Reason 1. Because he was to suffer death not thereby to succour them but men 3. Christ and the faithfull are brethren verse 11. Reason 1. Because they come of one Father who is God Testimonies 3. out of Scripture 4. Christ suffed death verse 14. Reason 1. Because he was to destroy the devill that had the power of death 2. Because he was to deliver the faithfull from the feare and bondage of death for he was to succour not Angels but them 5. Christ was afflicted and tempted like the faithful in all things ver 17. Reason 1. Because he was to be their high Priest to expiate their sinnes 2. Because he was to succour them when they are afflicted and tempted CHAPTER III. 1. WHerefore It referres to all that hath been spoken hitherto concerning the dignity of Christ who seeing hee is so excellent a person as yee have heard therefore ye have great reason to consider him well Holy brethren Separated from the prophane vulgar and worldly by your knowledge in divine mysteries and allied to me not by a vulgar and carnall fraternitie but by a spirituall affinitie in Christ Partakers of the heavenly calling Who together with me and all other Christians have one common spirituall calling whereto we are called And this calling is called heavenly not only because it was notified from heaven and comes from thence but also because it is directive to heaven to teach us the way thither and conductive to heaven to carry us safely thither So that heaven is the double terme of our spirituall calling for heaven is the start of it from
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
held to make the fact excusable and not the former But indeed there is also an ignorance of Law that deserves some excuse namely when the number of Laws are become so great that they can neither be comprehended in minde nor retained in memory and especially when the Laws are not grounded upon naturall honesty or the dictates of right reason but upon the sole will and pleasure of the Legifer For in such Laws the minde and memory doth easily faile especially seeing all mens capacities are not equall Now both these considerations tooke place in the Laws of Moses for their number was so great that it exceeded six hundred and the ground of them such that most of them depended not upon naturall honesty and right reason but upon the sole will and positive pleasure of God Therefore all sins committed through ignorance of Law if any way they were excusable were expiated under the Law by prescript of Law and without doubt are here by the Author called Ignorances And on them that are out of the way On the Errant The word Errant is either the same with the ignorant or if it differ the difference is this that the ignorant are such as mistake in the Law and the Errant such as mistake in the fact or the circumstances of it and the sin thence proceeding is called an Errour Or rather by Errour is noted not so much the errour of the minde as the errour in the action So that by errours are meant not onely those trespasses that proceed from some errour of the minde but also those which flow from humane frailty though there precede no errour in the minde and are committed in matters that in their owne nature are but of light importance And there is no doubt but the Author by these two words of Ignorances and Errours would comprehend all lighter trespasses not committed out of meere malice of minde or as the Scripture termes it by a high hand but were done either out of excusable ignorance or of humane frailty in things of lesse moment for which onely the benefit of expiation was granted under the Law This affection and compassion toward them that sin of ignorance or frailty and not of malice and contempt though it be no lesse in Christ our high Priest then anciently it was in the Legall high Priest yet in the reddition of this comparison wherein he speakes of Christ this compassion is concluded to be in Christ neither is the comparison brought for that purpose but onely it is to shew the compassion and pitty that Christ beares toward the afflicted and distressed And this appeares plainly from that which is here subjoyned touching the efficient cause of this compassion for it followeth For that he himselfe is compassed with infirmity He shews the cause and fountaine of this compassion which in the Legall high Priest was his infirmity in sin but in Christ it was his infirmity in sufferings i. the Legall high Priest was infirme because himselfe also might fall through ignorances and errours but Christ was infirme because he was subject to afflictions and trials no lesse then another man That infirmity in the Legall high Priest bred in them compassion and gentlenesse towards the ignorant and errant this in Christ our high Priest bred in him a compassion toward the afflicted and distressed Besides the Legall high Priest was encompassed with infirmities alwayes but Christ onely for some time and there was good cause for both For the Legall high Priest because he was yearely to renew his offering for the sinnes of the people but Christ because by one oblation he expiated for ever all the sins of the faithfull therefore he was compassed with infirmity but once onely and that before his owne oblation For that a man should be prone to pitty he need not be perpetually in misery for it is sufficient that once he made triall of misery but to the end he may help those that are in misery and having delivered them from their misery might actually make them happy for ever it is necessary that he himselfe be pressed with no further misery but that he be blessed to the end he may be able alwayes to help others And this ability is not a simple faculty to help or have compassion but a will and readinesse to doe it as was before explicated chap. 2. ver 4. 3. And by reason hereof The fourth property of a high Priest is taken from his owne infirmity for by reason thereof he must offer no lesse for his owne sinnes then for the sins of the people By reason hereof i. By reason of his infirmity for the high Priest through his infirmity might fall into ignorances and errours and therefore it is likely yea almost necessary that he did often fall into then Hee ought as for the people so also for himselfe to offer for sins His infirmity in falling into sinnes of ignorance and errour was a cause to make him offer for his owne sinnes not onely at particular times when he stood guilty in his conscience of some particular sin but yearely also at the solemne time though then his conscience were touched with no particular sin yet then he must offer for those sins whereof his conscience never tooke notice In like manner the infirmity of Christ i. not onely his passible nature from whence sufferings flow not necessarily but his state and condition of suffering whereinto he was put by Gods decree was a cause that he also should offer for himselfe while he was in his afflictions and miseries And these afflictions in Christ are in this comparison answerable to the finnes of the ancient high Priest and therefore by a little abusion of the word are tacitly comprehended with them under the sole name of sinnes That the Legall high Priest was to offer no lesse for his owne sinnes then for the peoples yea first for his owne sinnes before the peoples it plainly appeares Levit. 16.6,11,17 c. His offering for his owne sinnes was a young Bullock and for the peoples a Hee-Goate And therefore it is said afterward that he was to enter the Sanctuary by the bloud of Goates and Calves chap. 9.12 But how Christ offered for himselfe is explicated in this chap. ver 7. 4. And no man taketh this honour unto himselfe The fifth property of the high Priest that no man must arrogate the office to himselfe and usurpe upon the rights of it of his owne authority This office here is called an honour because of the dignity of it for offices are of diverse kindes some are meerely servile others profitable onely a third sort are honourable that draws dignities and precedency with it Now the office of the Priesthood is of this last sort and therefore is called an honour But he that is called of God He onely hath a right to administer in the honourable office of Priesthood that is designed and called by God to take it upon him This he illustrates by the
example of Aarons calling As was Aaron Aaron did not of his owne accord intrude himselfe into the office of high Priesthood but being thereto enjoyned and commanded by God he accepted of it by way of obedience to him that enjoyned it For God first did choose Aaron and after him his eldest son and by proper Laws determined the rights of succession in this office which were alwayes observed while the state was administred by the Laws of God Hitherto he hath specified severall properties of the high Priest all which may be reduced to three heads The first is that he offer for sinnes and negotiate the cause of men with God to which this may be referred that he must be a man 2. That he must be mercifull and propense toward sinners whereto this belongs that he himselfe be compassed with infirmity and thereupon offer for his owne sinnes as well as for the peoples 3. That he must be called to this office of God himselfe Now in an order retrograde or reverse beginning with the last he demonstrates that all these agree with Christ Whence it followes that Christ hath a truly Priestly dignity which he received from God and is touched with singular compassion toward the afflicted and will afford his owne people not onely opportune helpe but eternall happinesse 5. So also Christ glorified not himselfe to be made an high Priest Hee begins now with the last property of the high Priest and shewes that it agrees with Christ because Christ did not arrogate to himselfe the honour of this office This he doth to no other end then thereby to shew that the Priesthood of Christ was true and lawfull and that Christ had not been a true Priest if he had assumed this office of himselfe and not been called of God to receive it If I saith Christ glorifie my selfe my glory is nothing it is my Father that glorifies mee By the like reason willing to assert the truth of his doctrine hee denies that he spake of himselfe but refers his doctrine to his Father and professeth that he received it from his Father thereby intimating that his doctrine had not been true had hee spoken it of himselfe That which the Author saith here of Christ is so much the more remarkable because the Priesthood which Christ sustaineth is of that nature that no man can possibly take it upon him no man can possibly have but he upon whom God collates it But some man under the Law might arrogate the legall Priesthood and some did arrogate it when their state was corrupt But this high Priesthood of Christ to minister eternally in the Sanctuary of heaven to have absolute power and authority to take away from us all punishments of our sinnes to succour and helpe us in our miseries to deliver us from death and translate us to eternall life for these are the functions of his high Priesthood no mortall man can challenge this Priesthood or usurpe it or execute the functions of it unlesse God himselfe qualifie and raise him to such high faculties Therefore also the Author speaking of Christ and his high Priesthood used the word glorified that Christ glorified not himselfe because the Priesthood of Christ is a most glorious office containing most glorious functions all tending to eternall glory Hence it is manifest that Christ is not supreme God for if he were so from whom else could he receive this glory but from himselfe But this the Author plainly denyes shewing that otherwise hee could not bee a true and lawfull high Priest and therefore he was not the supreme God And we will passe by this point also that the supreme God can no way bee a Priest But he that said unto him Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee The Author saith not barely that Christ was made a high Priest by God but presently produceth Gods edicts wherein he ordained Christ to be a high Priest from whence it manifestly appears that Christ did not arrogate the Priesthood to himselfe but was ordained into it by God himselfe The first of these edicts is taken out of Psalme 2. The other Psal 110. That these words were spoken of God himselfe no man can bee ignorant but in these very words Christ is ordained high Priest whence it manifestly follows that hee tooke not this dignity from himselfe but received it of God Concerning the former of these testimonies we have spoken sufficiently chap. 1.5 We shall here note only three things 1. That the God who or dained Christ to be high Priest was the Father of Christ For the Father only hath power to call Christ by the name of his Sonne as in these words he did Whence it appeares that Christ in this place how great soever he be yea as he is the Sonne of God is opposed to God and it and of him it is denyed that he tooke the Priesthood to himselfe 2. That the Priestly office of Christ is not really distinguished from his Kingly because these words of the Psalme Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee which as we saw in the first chap. treat of Christs Kingly dignity in regard whereof he is chiefly the Sonne of God are by the Author in this place applyed to his Priesthood Wee may further adde here That Christ performed not his Priestly office at least not perfectly at the time when hee suffered the death of the Crosse neither was his death a perfect oblation expiatory for these words of the Psalme are cleerly interpreted by St. Paul of his resurrection and glory Act. 13. and here above chap. 1. But Christ in his death was most deeply humbled and debased Whereas in these words of the Psalme he is declared the Sonne of God and withall became far more excellent then the Angels as appeares before chap. 1.4,5 But in respect of his death most especially he was much lesse then the Angels As Christ suffered death hee exercised not his Kingly office but only did that whereby he might attaine it but when hee administers his Priestly office he withall executes the parts of his Kingly function Wherefore hee did not execute it actually in his death but was thereby prepared to execute it 3. In those words of the Psalme Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee there is no intimation of any generation or begetting of Christ from the essence of his Father before all worlds but of such a generation whereby Christ was ordained a high Priest of God and therefore of such a one as was done in time for Christ was not made our high Priest from all eternity but from a certaine time namely upon his Resurrection 6. As he saith also in another place The other testimony of Scripture shewing the decree of God taken Psal 110. Hee saith i. God saith Thou art a Priest for ever In this testimony there is expresse treating of Christs Priesthood Whence it appeares that it was also treated of in the former testimony seeing both
the testimonies are alleadged for the same thing Some men that they may elude the true sense of the former testimony which the Holy Ghost shewes to be in the words Thou art my Sonne To day have I begotten thee say that those words are not alleadged as a testimony of Gods collating the Priesthood upon Christ but as a description of him who conferred this office upon him There men doe a manifest injury to the truth and to the words of the Author For how should these following words agree with the former as he saith also in another place doth hee not by these latter words manifestly declare that now another place or Psalm is cited by him wherein the same point is proved for which the former testimony was produced For ever The Priestood of Christ shall last for ever in the person of Christ without ever having any successour in his office for his office shall last as long as there needs any expiation for sinnes even to the end of the world and so long he shall continue in that office After the order of Melchisedeck The duration or terme of Christs Priesthood shall runne out like the duration of Melchisedecks Priesthood or as the Author expresseth himselfe afterward chap. 7.15 after the similitude of Melchisedeck But of these words we shall speake further chap. 7. where the Author explicates this likenesse more fully But here he tacitly meets with a doubt which some man might imagine touching the Priesthood of Christ in that Christ descended not from the family of Aaron or tribe of Levi to which tribe the Priesthood was limited by the Law of God For the type of Melchisedeck doth not only require an eternall Priesthood but also requires that no respect of tribe or family should be had therein as we shall shew hereafter 7. Who in the dayes of his flesh From the third property required in a high Priest and concluded to agree with Christ he ascends now to the second property and saith that Christ also was compassed with infirmity and by reason thereof offered for himselfe This he shews in this 7. verse and then at the 8. verse he inferres that from this infirmity Christ learned to be mercifull toward the distressed and afflicted In the dayes of his flesh By flesh hee understands the infirmity of Christ for flesh is the subject of infirmity and in a manner the cause of it And the dayes of his flesh are the dayes wherein he suffered for in that time chiefly his infirmity most appeared For then it most appeared that Christ was flesh When he had offered prayers and supplications Now he shews that Christ offered also for himselfe Of which his oblation his infirmity and afflictions were the cause the sence whereof how deepely it struck into his soule and how greatly it exercised him appeares from the things which he offered For he shews distinctly both what he offered and to whom as also the adjunct of his offering and the issue of it The matter of his offering was Prayers This is a generall word to signifie all petitions or rather all kinde of speech unto God And supplications which are the prayers or petitions of supplicants whose manner is to fall upon their knees casting themselves at the feet or touching the knees of them to whom they make their prayer The originall word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as some Interpreters note doth properly signifie an olive-branch wrapped about with wooll which supplicants held in their hands Hence we may easily imagine in what anguish of soule Christ was and what pangs of paine he felt when he was driven to such earnest prayers and devout supplications But what prayers and supplications the Author means will appeare from the words following wherein the person to whom he prayed is described in such manner that thence wee may easily understand what he prayed although the adjunct of his prayer doth partly also declare it Vnto him that was able to save him from death In these words he shews not only the person to whom Christ offered but also the cause why he offered him prayers and what the thing was for which he so earnestly prayed And this is the cause why he would describe God after this manner rather then simply name him for therefore he so devoutly supplicated to God because God onely is hee that can save from death which Christ by his prayers chiefly requested He indeed requested some other things besides for in the garden hee petitioned that the cup might passe from him i. he there was an humble supplicant prostrate upon his knees and afterward on his face praying againe and againe with great ardour of minde that hee might be delivered from the great anguish and heavinesse which hee felt in his soule And hanging upon the crosse he poured forth this lamentation unto God My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Wherein hee prayed that God would put an ease and an end to his extreme paines But the summe and breviate or at least the head of all those prayers was this for his delivery from death For hee that is delivered from death in that sence that Christ here desired hee hath found an end of all paines both of soule and body and hath obtained supreme happinesse This delivery Christ prayed for in commending his Spirit to God when he was ready to expire For to commend the spirit to God or to pray that God would receive it into his hands what is it else but to pray that he would preserve it and afterward restore it and consequently to recal him from death to life whose spirit it is That the Author had respect to these prayers of Christ it may appeare by their adjunct which he also mentions in saying That his prayers were offered up With strong crying and teares The holy History of the Evangelists doe testifie that Christ hanging upon the Crosse complained in the words of the Psalme with a great cry that God had forsaken him and afterward being ready to expire he commended his Spirit to God But the Sacred History mentions not any teares of Christ shed at that time yet notwithstanding it appeares that it was so and was knowne to the Authour to bee so Now this cry and teares doe further shew how deepely the sence of paine was impressed into him when it forced him to expresse such cryes and teares Hence it appeares further that Christ thus exercised with so great a sence of paines himselfe cannot but be moved at the miseries and paines of his people cannot but willingly hear the dolefull cryes and complaines and affoord his opportune succour and help in their afflictions and distresses From these words of the Authour it appeares how Christ offered for himselfe namely that hee offered not himselfe but his prayers for himselfe and then he offered them not when he became immortall in his heavenly Tabernacle but in the dayes of his flesh or infirmity For when he became immortall he could not
then offer for this end that he might be saved from death which as wee have cleared from the words of the Authour was indeed the end of his offering Besides being in heaven he offered himselfe immaculate and therefore had no need to offer for himselfe there Wherefore Christ offered one way for himselfe and another way for us for for himselfe hee offered prayers on earth for us he offered himselfe in heaven for himselfe when yet he was mortall or in the dayes of his flesh for us when he was made an immortall and eternall Spirit And was heard The effect and issue of these prayers offered was this that he was delivered and saved not from death for hee suffered it and dyed but out of death from whence he was raised For whom God heareth praying in that manner him he delivers and frees though not from his misery before he suffer it yet out of it after hee hath suffered So speakes David as a type of Christ Psal 22.21 Thou hast heard mee from the hornes of the Vnicornes i. as learned men have noted thou hast heard to save me from extreame dangers So that the word heard is taken here Metonymically to include the effect of his hearing hee was heard and saved In that he feared Hee was saved from or out of the thing hee feared namely out of death The originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some take for a passionate feare the object whereof here in Christ was death and so by a Metonymie feare is here put for death the act for the object or thing to be feared For of all terrours death is most terrible and fearfull and this feare was the cause of his prayers and supplications at least of the cryes and teares wherewith they were offered And then this example of Christ may teach us partly with what fervency of soule we must implore the help of God in the times of our distresses partly what things especially we must pray for partly wherein that opportune help chiefly consists whereof the Author spake in the end of the former chapter namely in this that Christ saveth us out of death into eternall life Others take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a reverentiall or religious feare for this sence is set in the margent of our last translation that he was heard for his pietie And then the object of his pietie reverence or fear was God to whom he prayed And so this feare of God was the proper motive to this offering of Christ and to all the circumstances of his offering His offering it selfe proceeded from his pietie or feare of God for every offering is an act of pietie His prayers and supplications proceeded from it for prayer also is an act of pietie his cryes and teares proceeded from it for they also are concurrents of pietie and fervent devotion His exaudition in being heard of God proceeded from it for Gods hearing of our prayers is the fruit of our pietie and devotion seeing God heareth not impious and sinfull persons but such as are pious to reverence and worship him and doe his will those hee heareth John 9.31 The prayers of Christ were supplications i. as before is noted petitions exhibited upon the knees with great worship and reverence given to God His prayers in the garden were such supplications performed with great worship and reverence bowing toward God for first hee fell upon his knees and afterward hee went more humbly and fell upon his face And his prayers on the crosse were supplications also as the Author termeth them and therefore performed with reverent bowing also such as was possible for Christ to use in that case being stretched and nailed upon the crosse where because he could not bow his knees therefore as the Sacred story relates it hee bowed his head when hee cryed and commended his spirit unto God Which bowing of his head was not a simple act of a dying man as some Interpreters slightly passe it over but an act of worship and reverence of a pious man that was making his offering unto God by prayers and supplications adding cryes and teares and all religious meanes for exaudition that God might heare him Wherefore it carries a very congruous sence to say that Christ was heard for his pietie i. for the feare and reverence he used toward God in his prayers and supplications for fear is the inward motion of the soule from which the outward worship and reverend bowings of the body do proceed And these outward reverences of bowing the head bowing the body and bowing the knees are acts of worship unto God which have beene used by Gods people in all ages of the world For bowing the head See Gen. 24.26.48 and Exod. 4.31 and Exod. 12.27 and Exod. 34.8 and 1. Chro. 29.20 and 2. Chro. 20.18 and 2. Chro. 29.30 and Nehem. 8.6 Hence it appeares also from this example of Christ that our prayers and supplications unto God should proceed from inward piety and fear of God and should be offered unto him with outward worship and reverence accompanyed with cryes and teares in times of extreme distresses if we mean to have exaudition that God should graciously heare us 8. Who though he were a son Christ by the evils which he suffered became such a one as to have compassion on those who labour to obey God through difficulties and sufferings Hee learned obedience He learned what it is to obey God what a difficult and harsh duty it is how bitter and unpleasing to flesh and blood For in this place hee takes obedience for that part of obedience which is seene in difficult and hard cases such as are these to be afflicted and suffer death for the justice and truth of God Yet I conceive the word obedience is here to be understood more literally and derivatively from audience for a giving of audience Christ who upon his prayers and supplications made to God with cryes and teares to save him from death had audience of God and was heard therein did therby learne to give audience and hearing to his people when in their distresses they offer up prayers and supplications with cryes and teares to him thereby to have compassion on them and deliver them from their distresses For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here fitly renderd obedience doth carry an elegant symploce of sence both of audience to heare another what he would have done and of obedience to doe the thing which he hath heard And that very act of compassion in Christ in hearing the distressed though it be his audience to them yet it is his obedience to God who ordained a high Priest for that function By the things that hee suffered In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of or from the things that he suffered so it is rendred Mat. 24.32 Learne a parable of the figtree Christ by or from his owne evills and sufferings learned what bitternesse and trouble there lyes in suffering persecutions for righteousnesse
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
imperfection of that Priesthood and Law he proves the abrogation of both If perfection were by the Leviticall Priesthood By perfection here he understands nothing else but a true and perfect expiation of sinne whereby the guilt not of some sinnes only but of all even of the most grievous offences and crimes is taken away whereby all punishments of sinne not only temporall concerning this life but the eternall punishment of death it selfe is remitted and forgiven whereby a right to eternall life is granted unto men and lastly whereby not only all guilt of all sinnes but all sinnes themselves are taken away from men For in these things consisteth the true perfection of men before God If therefore this perfection could have been brought to men by the Leviticall Priesthood certainly there had been no need nor use of a new Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec for every Priesthood is ordained for the expiation of sinnes But if a perfect expiation of sinnes could have been effected by the Priesthood after the order of Aaron what need a new Priest bee super induced after the order of Melchisedec to performe those actions which might have been done by the former Wherefore seeing God would ordaine a new Priest and also now hath ordained him hence it appears that by the Leviticall Priesthood no man could obtaine perfection or perfect expiation and certainly no man did obtaine it For by that Priesthood some sinnes only were expiated namely as we shewed before ignorances and infirmities but great offences as crimes and villanies were punished with death Neither had that expiation any force to take away eternall death but only to release some temporall punishments proper to this life Neither in those sacrifices was there any power to withdraw men from sinne it selfe all which particulars the Author prosecutes in the passages following Yet the Author useth not the word perfection in one sense only for there are divers perfections of a thing and therefore we must still gather from the matter handled what perfection hee meanes Here because hee speaks of perfection flowing from the Priesthood therefore no other can be understood but that which is seen in a perfect expiation of sinne namely that a man bee wholly spotlesse and blamelesse subject neither to paine nor losse by any sentence of condemnation in the sight of God In which sense he useth the same word chap. 10. 14. For under it the people received the Law For what purpose the Author inserted these words into his former argument we shall see afterward and for the present shall speake of their explication Under it i. under the Priesthood as if the people had received the Law under the Priesthood and so most Interpreters affirme But this sense is contrary to the words in the originall which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doe not signifie under it but upon it and contrary to the truth of the thing for the Law was not given under the Priesthood as if the Priesthood had been extant before the Law given but rather contrarily a great and principall part of the Law was already given before the Priesthood was ordained so that it might be more truly said the Priesthood was given under or after the Law then the Law under or after the Priesthood And lastly this sense is contrary to the mind of the Author and makes nothing to the purpose For what makes it to the purpose in hand that the Law was given in the time of the Priesthood For would it thence follow either that perfection must be by that Priesthood or if perfection were by it that there were no need of another Priesthood or lastly if the Priesthood were abrogated that then the Law were abrogate Wherefore as the Greeke words sound it is said in this place that the people received the Law not under the Priesthood but upon the Priesthood And to receive the Law upon the Priesthood is nothing else but of the Priesthood concerning or touching it Which sense some Interpreters doe acknowledge as Junius and Tremellius and Piscator For the Greeke particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers the Hebrew Hal which often notes the object or matter of a thing Now therefore these words may seem to cohere with the minde of the Author three wayes 1. If we say that in them he shews the cause why he named the Leviticall priesthood and no other q.d. therefore I name the Leviticall priesthood because the people received the Law of it 2. That in them he shews cause why it might seem that perfection came by that Priesthood namely because the people received the Law of it 3. That those words containe a confirmation or peculiar reason why if perfection came not by the Leviticall priesthood there must not be another Priest ordained diverse from the Leviticall For though this would bee sufficient of it self to exclude another Priest yet it follows so much the more if not only perfection be by the Leviticall Priesthood but also that Priesthood was established by the Law and of this reason wee most approve Therefore it is as much as if the Author had said If perfection be by the Leviticall Priesthood especially seeing concerning it Laws were given to the people what need is there for the ordination of another Priest for many times in Scripture a reason of a sentence is inserted before the sentence bee fully uttered in all the parts of it Whereof among other places we have an example 1 Pet. 4.1.2 in these words For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin which must be read as in a parenthesis For they containe the cause why Christians must suffer in the flesh with Christ i. crucifie the flesh because he that hath suffered in the flesh i. whose body is put to death he hath ceased from sinne And the reason is generall agreeing to all the dead Therefore the words which follow from the beginning of the second verse That he no longer should live c must not be joyned with the words next preceding Ceased from sinne but they being included in a parenthesis as a generall reason they must be referred to the former words arm your selves as to their finall cause The mind of the Author in this place will be more plain if we transfer these words to the end of the verse thus Therefore if perfection be by the Leviticall Priesthood what further need was there that another Priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order of Aaron especially seeing of that Priesthood the Law was given to the people For thence it presently followes that together with this Priesthood the Law must be abrogated when a Priest ordained according to the order of Melchisedec which should not be abrogated unlesse there were some default in it That another Priest should rise From his former grounds he inferres that a Priest after the order of Melchisedec must be another and a different Priest from those Priests that
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
offered no otherwise for himself then for the people for so we reade it before in this Epistle chap. 5.3 Now the cause of this his offering for himselfe and the people in that anniversary and yearely Sacrifice was onely for the errours of both And by Errours we must here as wee did before understand such sinnes as proceed either from the ignorance or forgetfulnesse of some divine Law for in such a multitude of Laws and so various respecting not onely matter of naturall honesty and true morality but of positive Ceremony something might easily escape from mens knowledge or memory or from the ignorance of some fact and the circumstances of it or from humane frailty or infirmity which might make the fact as excusable as ignorance doth especially that ignorance which is of the Law And therefore those universall words in Levit. 16. ver 16. where in this yearely sacrifice of Expiation the Priest is commanded to expiate all the sins of the people and to purge the Sanctuary from them must be restrained onely to these sins of Errors 8. The holy Ghost this signifying That the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing In these and the following verses the Author declares both the imperfection of the old Covenant and the infelicitie of those times wherein the Tabernacle and that carnall service of God lasted For first he shewes that during those times the way into heaven was not yet manifested and opened and then he shewes the infirmitie of those sacrifices for the expiating of sinne the latter of these hee doth afterward but the first is delivered in this verse For here hee teacheth what was the meaning of this That no man might enter into the second Tabernacle or most Holy place except the high Priest nor he neither but onely once a yeer To this he saith That the holy Ghost by whose instinct all this was ordered would thereby declare unto us that the way was not yet open into the holiest of all namely into the true and heavenly Sanctuary as long as that earthly Tabernacle was yet standing and continued in that state of holinesse which God for a time had assigned unto it But the abrogation of that Tabernacle or as I may terme it the profanation of it when the vaile of it was so rent and opened that any man might lawfully enter it this did declare that the entrance of the heavenly Sanctuary was now open to all The opening of the way and the libertie of entring that Tabernacle being granted unto all which was then done when God would have that Tabernacle to be holy no longer doth designe unto us a libertie and fredome granted unto all of entrance into the heavenly Sanctuarie which is truely and indeed the most Holy place of all For hence it was that as soone as Christ had given up the Ghost and was dead whereby our passage into heaven was made open the vail of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottome that it might no longer keep any man from entring into the holy place That none are yet actually entred into the Sanctuary of heaven beside Christ our high Priest the cause is not that the faithfull have not a right and a libertie to enter but because they must first put off the ragges of their mortall nature which being done then in their due time namely at the comming of Christ they shall enter by multitudes into that heavenly Sanctuary the palace of Immortalitie and then take possession of that inheritance whereto now they have but a title 9. Which was but a figure for the time then present Hee teacheth here the maine use of the Tabernacle and of the divine service annexed unto it that all was but for a figure or a shew a mysterie or a maske of somthing to be further understood by it which as before wee have expressed was the true heavenly Sanctuary and the true worship and service of God to be performed there by Saints and Angels And it was but a temporary figure to last only for a time during the time present as it is opposed to the time to come or as the Author determines it in the next verse until the time of Reformation Wherein were offered both gifts and sacrifices He intimates here that the divine service by gifts and sacrifices was also figurative as well as the Tabernacle and thereupon he declares the time which was assigned for this figurative Tabernacle how long it should continue and when it should determine Namely that the figurative Tabernacle must last as long as the figurative service for whose sake it was ordained as long as gifts and sacrifices were to be offered Whereby he yet further intimates that with great reason it stood that the Tabernacle or Temple in the roome of it stood not now in force for seeing the figurative services of offering gifts and sacrifices were but temporary ordained only till the time of Reformation therefore those figurative services being abolished the figurative Tabernacle also which was but subservient to those services must needs be abolished Which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience By him that did the service is not meant the Priest onely who made the offering but also any other person who brought his offering for a gift or sacrifice thereby to worship and serve God who thereupon might justly be called the worshipper and servitor of God The services therefore by offerings of gifts and sacrifices could not make the servitors perfect To make perfect here is fully to expiate sinne as wee heard before chap. 7. ver 11.19 And to perfect as pertaining to the conscience is nothing else as appeareth by the opposition of those sins which in the verse following are said to be expiated by the Legall sacrifices but to purge away or expiate those sins which polluted and burdened the conscience it self and not those onely which defiled the flesh and made the party outwardly uncleane nothing else but to abolish all guilt even of the most heinous sins and so to abolish it that thou shalt not feare not temporall punishments onely but not eternall also and besides that thou maiest hope for eternall life and be assured that thy sins past though they have beene very grievous shall not exclude thee from salvation upon condition thou change the course of thy life and carry thy selfe holily for the time to come and as much as such a tried hope of salvation can draw thee and so great a favour of God can excite thee and thy trust in his helpe can support thee to endeavour by all meanes to keepe thy selfe unblameable and free from all sin 10. Which stood onely in meates and drinks He shews what sins the Legall sacrifices did expiate and for what purposes they were ordained namely for the sins of Legall impurity or carnall uncleannesse as if a man had eaten or tasted any of
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
the New Testament as we shewed in the former Chapter to containe the remission of all our sinnes even the most heinous and consequently to be of force to purge our conscience And because it is a Testament therefore it was first to be confirmed by death which here neither can nor must be any other then the death of Christ Whence it is manifest that the death or bloud of Christ as it confirmes the New Testament doth purge our conscience from dead workes The particle and shews that a new argument is alledged and the words for this cause note the finall cause for which Christ died He is the Mediatour of the New Testament Wee now use the word Testament and not Covenant because the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Testament and not a Covenant though sacred Writers use it to signifie also a Covenant And the ambiguity of the word did well serve the Author to draw his argument from that which must needs be done in a Testament And to speake a little yet more accurately Testament and Covenant differ but alternly as genus and species For every Testament is a Covenant though not è contra for though the heire doe not covenant with the Testator at the making of the Testament because that may be done altogether without his knowledge which is necessarily required in him that covenanteth Yet he covenants at the validity of the Testament for when the Covenant takes effect by his acceptance of the condition specified in the Testament and by his entrance upon the Inheritance then though before he were free he covenants ex Lege to performe the will of the Testatour So that every Testament at least when it is consummate and valid is a kinde of Covenant and it is the best kinde of Covenant 1. Because it is most solemnely testified by sealing and witnessing from whence it is called a Testament 2. Because it is most preciously confirmed even by death and the death of him that makes it who establisheth his owne deed by his owne death 3. Because it containes an extraordinary benefit in conveying the Testators inheritance and whole estate to the heire And lastly because it proceeds with the greatest freedome in leaving the heire to his liberity whether he will accept of the Inheritance or not Now this New Testament is the last will of God which must stand for ever because it is already confirmed and therefore cannot be revoked But how Christ is the Mediatour of it hath beene partly shewed before chap. 8.6 and is partly to be shewed afterward yet his Mediatorship consisteth chiefly in these two acts first in declaring or publishing it and then in confirming or establishing it by his death as a Testament ought to be That by meane of death for the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance Here is a file of finall causes linked one to another whereof the last end is the obtaining of an eternall inheritance the intermean is the redemption for the transgressions which were under the first Testament the prime Mean to these two former subordinate ends whereby they are successively atrained is death which in a Testament must necessarily intervene Hence we may see that the redemption of transgressions doth properly depend and flow from the New Testament and the death of Christ doth give force and strength to this Testament The word Redemption is put for Expiation as was shewed ver 12. For Expiation is one kinde or sort of Redemption both because the effect of expiation is a delivery and because also the meanes or it whereby it is wrought is an expence for it commonly costeth bloud Hence some Translators in this place render it Expiation But because the word Redemption carries the sense of Expiation therefore it both followes the construction of it and is simply called the redemption of transgressions either for their expiation as wee have said In which sense the Scripture speakes elswhere For Prov 16.6 where the vulgar Latine reads it By truth iniquity is redeemed there our English translation hath it By truth iniquity is purged i. expiated Or for redemption from transgressions For Cicero himselfe in a sense not unlike saith Liberationem culpa for à culpâ And he useth the word Transgressions whereby grievous sinnes are commonly signified to shew us what sinnes chiefly are remitted in the New Testament namely heynous and grievous sinnes for which in the Old Testament there was no expiation allowed but the punishment of death imposed Wherefore he addeth Which were under the first Testament He means which remained in force or could not be expiated or for which no remission was allowed under the Law But hee seems withall to intimate that those grievous sinnes had their being and were wont to bee committed under the Old Testament whereas the New Testament together with their guilt doth wholly take away their being in them who cordially beleeve the promises of it For that this is the force and effect of the New Testament and of the bloud of Christ we have already shewed partly in the eight Chapter and partly here And he mentions not the expiation of transgressions only or grievous sins therfore as if under the New Testament also all lighter sins were not expiated but it is as much as if he had said Yea even of those transgressions under c. For somtimes the Scripture speaketh simply not to exclude other things but to teach us that those other things wherof there might be greater doubt are included which being thoght included much more is it to be thought so of the rest So Psal 25.8 David saith of God That he is good and upright therefore wil he teach sinners in the way i. Yea even sinners and not righteous men only though he will teach them also and much rather for so he presently addes in the verse following The meeke will he guide in judgement and teach his way So Paul Rom. 4.5 saith That God justifieth the ungodly not that he justifieth him onely but that hee is so gracious as to justifie him also Or else the Authour mentions only transgressions or grievous sins to shew that they chiefly are expiated under the new Testament and that this is the proper fruit of the new Testament and of the oblation of Christ But if the guilt of grievous sins be taken away under the new Testament much more must it be true of lighter sinnes Besides grievous sins do much more grieve the conscience then lighter for to lighter sinnes there was some expiation granted in the law whereby men might imagine that God of his infinite goodnes would also release the penalty of eternall death but to the other no expiation was allowed Might receive the promise To receive the promise of eternall inheritance doth in this place signifie to enter the reall possession of the eternall inheritance which was before promised and not to receive the promise
were yet time enough for Christ to iterate his offerings and by a just proportion equall the number of the legall offerings although hee began not to suffer and offer himselfe from the foundation of the world For because hee suffered and offered himselfe in the end of the world hence it appeares that there is not time enough yet to come to serve for the multitude of his sufferings and offerings But the time wherein Christ came is therefore called the end of the world because it is the last age of the world and as it were the old age of it and because the other comming of Christ which is joyned with the consummation and end of the world is alwayes supposed to be at hand which could in no wise be if the offering of Christ were to be iterated answerably to the just number and proportion of the old Legall offerings But the holy Ghost would have us perpetually wait for the expectation of Christs comming For that his comming and together with it the end of the world is yet deferred and that so many ages have passed since his first comming into the world seating upon his heavenly throne this in a manner is accidentall by reason of the long suffering of God who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 To put away sin by the sacrifice of himselfe He shews the finall cause of the comming and appearance of Christ which is for the putting away of sin which is done when all the force and power of sin is destroyed Which destruction of sin is effected two wayes the one is when sin hath no power to condemne men the other when it hath no power to subdue men by enthralling them under the yoke of it That both these effects might be produced Christ hath appeared both that he might deliver men from the punishment of sinne and also from the dominion of it even freeing them from sin it selfe Now the meanes whereby Christ hath put away sinne in destroying the power of it is by the sacrifice of himselfe For this act may be joyned as well with the word suffered as with appeared as other Interpreters also have observed How the sacrifice of Christ purgeth away our sins For Christ by the sacrifice of himselfe hath cashired and put away sinne by taking from it all it power to condemne and to reigne which though we have declared before yet are we willing to repeat it againe because the matter is of such moment that if it may be we might drive and fasten it throughly into mens mindes For as concerning the guilt and punishments of sinnes can there bee any sinnes so that we doe our duty which a sacrifice so acceptable to God offered in the Sanctuary of heaven and by so great an high Priest cannot expiate Can there be any danger that he will deale negligently in our cause who offered up himselfe as a sacrifice for our sinnes and who having himselfe suffered all those miseries and pressures that can possibly befall us hath assumed a minde so prone to pity us Hath not yet the wished effect been answerable to so holy a sacrifice and to so carefull a provision of our high Priest Is not the power of our salvation in the power of our high Priest and in his hand to release whom he will of sinne and to bestow eternall life and whatsoever good thing besides upon whom he will Doth he not negotiate the matter with his most deare Father who himselfe burnes with a desire of our salvation who himselfe hath made a sacred Covenant for the remission of our sinnes who himselfe ordained the holy Sacrifice for our sinnes who himselfe would have it offered unto him and caused it to be offered who himselfe ordained our high Priest with an oath and committed unto him the whole care of our salvation Now concerning the dominion of sinne for the excussion of the yoke of it can it possibly be that when we perceive so great and so certaine causes and proofes of our eternall salvation and of plenary remission of our sinnes that we should not with all our souls embrace the faith of Christ and devote our selves wholly to him when by this means through the grace and mercy of our God wee are effectually purged and justified from the guilt of all our sins shall we not contend with our whole force to abandon sin for ever after wholy addict our selves to holines shall we not labour to the utmost to preserve this great grace of God entire and whole to our last gaspe that at length we may enjoy the full fruit of it in our deliverance from death and inheritance of eternall life And shall it not mightily incourage us to shake off the yoke of sin in that our heavenly high Priest will perpetually support us with his Spirit supply us with power enough to live holily if we will live so and will strive to do it This therefore is the manner after which Christ by the Sacrifice of himself hath put away sin that neither it might hurt us nor reign in us The Sacrifice of Christ is Christ himself sacrificed being first slain then raised to immortall life that he might enter his heavenly Tabernacle and therein offer himself and appear for us for ever The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred a Sacrifice though it come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to slay yet it useth not to be taken in Scripture abstractedly for the slaughter but concretly for the creature slaughtered or rather for that part of it which is offered to God But if any man keeping the same sense will joyn these words by the sacrifice of himself with the verb appeared then the particle by must be taken for with and in that sense as we have noted before that John saith Christ came by water and bloud i. with water and bloud not that at his first comming into the world hee shed his bloud but because he therefore came that he might shed his bloud though not forthwith So Christ may be said to appeare with the sacrifice of himselfe not that as soon as he appeared he was made a sacrifice but that he so appeared that in his due time he might be made a sacrifice But we best approve of that sense which joynes these words by the sacrifice of himselfe with the words immediatly preceding to put away sinne For the finall end of the appearance or comming of Christ was to put away sin and the meanes whereby he abolished it was by the sacrifice of himselfe Seeing therefore Christ came in the end of the world that he might abolish sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe therefore hence it appears that he must not often iterate his sacrifice after the manner of the legall high Priest for otherwise he must have begunne this action more early and not have deferred it to the last age of the world 27. And as it
name of hope seems to comprehend all the heads of our Christian profession 1. Pet. 3.15 Without wavering We must hold this hope so fast that wee neither decline from it our selves nor suffer our selves to be beaten from it by any engins of temptation or affliction For he is faithfull that promised Hee inserts the cause why we should hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering namely because this hope is grounded both upon a promise and a promise of him that is faithfull to performe it namely of God himselfe God is therefore termed faithfull because he keeps his faith i. He alwayes performes whatsoever hee hath undertaken for his part and never disappoints his people of his help and favour Therefore we are never to doubt of Gods faith so we keepe our owne and performe our parts with all care and diligence 24. And let us consider one another This may be understood that we should looke unto both one anothers state and condition of life and also one anothers behaviour and action And for what end wee should doe this hee presently shewes in adding To provoke unto love To provoke is to intend or increase the force of a thing and love is then provoked when it is quickened and increased And it gathers increase from our mutuall consideration and inspection either in our selves or others In our selves it is increased when wee are either stirred up by the notable examples of other men or moved by their state and condition to embrace them with more ardent affection and good will if their estate be prosperous that wee doe not onely envie them but use our endeavour to defend and advance their happinesse to our power but if they are in distresse that we succour and benefit them in what we are able In others love is increased when we look into their lives and manners for this end that where they grow negligent in their duties or suffer their love to decay there by our admonitions and exhortations we excite to good workes and to repaire the decayes of their love Therefore this provoking to love may be taken either passively when the increase of love is made upon our selves or actively when we increase it upon others And to good workes Then we are provoked to good workes when we follow them with an ardent affection or as Paul would have us when wee are zealous of good workes Hee adjoynes good workes to love to teach us that our love should not be barren but fruitfull of workes although workes may be taken more largely and extended to all workes of holinesse as well concerning God as our selves 25. Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together Namely for this especiall end to retaine and preserve the communion of Saints and the unity of the Spirit Which is then done when Christians meet together to performe the worship of God to heare his word to powre forth unanimous prayers unto him to exercise that censure of manners which Christ and his Apostles have prescribed to celebrate the memory of Christs death by sacred breaking of bread according to his own institution to make a common supply for the poore and distressed as occasion requires and with all their forces and advices to promote the affaires of the Church As the manner of some is It is apparent that in those times there were some who though they had not forsaken the Christian religion yet had forsaken the assemblies of the faithfull that they might the better lie hid and thereby more easily avoide dangers and persecutions And it is apparent also hence that they sinne grievously who withdraw themselves from the company of the faithfull and from the assemblies of the Saints But exhorting one another To the neglect of assembling hee opposeth this mutuall exhorting or admonishing Whence it is manifest that Christian assemblies were ordained among other ends for this also to exhort and admonish one another which may be done most opportunely when men are assembled into some one place And so much the more as yee see the day approaching The words so much the more must also be communicated to the day of approaching as well as referred to the exhorting By how much the more ye see the day approaching by so much the more let us exhort one another By the day as the article the doth intimate must be understood some certaine day and that well knowne i. the day of judgement and punishment for the disobedient Which judgement seeing it is twofold we must needs understand a twofold day or time of it For we may take it both for the time of Gods taking vengeance upon the Jewes in the finall destruction of Jerusalem and also for the last day of the whole world at the finall destruction of the world The approach of that former day they might easily perceive both from the signes foretold by Christ and also from the predictions of those Prophets who lived in those times in the Church of God The approach of this latter day every man sees though not in respect of the whole world and of the present age yet every man sees it in respect of himselfe For as death is alwayes approaching unto every one of us and the terme of every mans life draws nearer so also thereby every mans last day doth approach and draw nearer not only because after death there shall bee no change in respect of our salvation and damnation but also because that whole time intercurrent between the last moment of our life and the last judgement is none in respect of the dead For when we are dead and thereby void of all sense of time the last moment of our life departing and the first moment of our life returning for returne it shall at the last judgement will seem one and the same to us at our rising againe to life They who lye in a deep sleep are not sensible of the time that passeth though the time be very long and death is a deeper sleep then any sleep of those that sleep alive And this is the cause why the holy Scriptures doe sometime speake so as if we should wholy live till the comming of Christ or were presently after our death translated to the Lord and so to the joyes of heaven For they have no regard of the time intercurrent between the last end of our life and the comming of Christ and the future happinesse of the godly see 2 Cor. 5.8 and Ephes 4.30 and Phil. 1.6,26 and 1 Tim. 6 14. and Jam. 5.7,8 and some others 26. For if we sinne wilfully Hee brings a cause or a motive why they should diligently exhort one another because otherwise it might easily fall out that after knowledge of the truth received they might sin wilfully in which case how miserable and unhappy their condition would be he presently declares To sin in this place may be taken in two senses either largely or strictly Largely as it is extended to divers sins which are committed against the
Christ was to sanctifie the people by his owne bloud therefore hee must suffer without the gate and bee slaughtered by an infamous death to fit him for the subsequent offering of himselfe afterward to God in the heavenly Sanctuarie Let us go forth therefore unto him without the campe After the Author had shewed that the Hebrewes considering they have embraced the Christian Religion must not eate or banquet with the meates of sacrifices as if some part of divine worship or service were therein contained now from the infamous death which Christ suffered without the gate he inferres that they must not regard it at all if for Christs sake they be driven from the rest of the Jews not onely from their temples sacrifices and holy banquets but even from their City from their commerce and civill society yea although they be publikely reproached as impious and cursed persons and cut off from the body of the Jews common-wealth or at last lose their lives by the same or the like punishment under which Christ their head and Captaine suffered And this he therefore inferres because the hatred of the Jews against the Christians contained not it selfe with prohibiting them from their Ceremonies sacrifices and temple but proceeded so farre as to drive them from their common-wealth and Civill commerce with publique infamy and reproach onely because they professed the Religion and name of Christ Let us goe therefore Seeing our Lord Jesus Christ our high Priest and heavenly King was led out without the gate and so separated from the rest of the corporation of men and there put to an infamous death therefore Let us goe forth unto him without the camp Let us willingly and freely with an open and ready heart undergoe together with him banishment reproaches infamy death and all manner of evils Christ now lives without the camp without the City without the gate shall we not willingly goe forth to be rather with him alone then among the wicked multitude of the Jews For we are happier without the camp with Christ then in the camp without Christ seeing where Christ is there is true happinesse Why the Author names the campe we shewed the cause before ver 12. Bearing his reproach To beare the reproach of Christ is to refuse no suffering for Christs sake that Christ himselfe did beare For in the word reproach are included all evils that can be inflicted upon a man because evils are alwayes inflicted with infamy and reproach And the reproach of Christ is any reproach like to his reproach and for the like cause that he bare his namely for the testimony of that truth which he published that we may subconfirme by our death what he preconfirmed by his For it is not the suffering but the cause that makes the martyr 14. For here have we no continuing City He annexeth a new reason why we should goe forth without our camps that is beare it patiently to be ejected and exiled out of our Country or City because here upon earth we have no continuing city i. none that is durable which cannot be taken from us nor we from it All the cities which we inhabit upon earth we inhabit onely for a time Why therefore should we refuse for Christs sake to lose that city which otherwise we must wholly lose in a very short space Or else the Author teacheth us that we Christians as we are Christians enjoy no City upon earth by any firme and proper possession but in this respect we are alwayes subject to expulsions banishments and such like miseries The Author therefore might with good reason use this admonition to teach Christians what is their state and condition upon earth especially the Hebrewes who might imagine because they proceeded from the stock of Abraham therefore they had full right to enjoy the freedome of the city Jerusalem no lesse then others of their Nation and thereupon must needs take it grievously to be excluded from their inheritance Therefore he shews that Christians have another inheritance and enjoy a right to another city farre more excellent But wee seeke one to come This is that permanent and continuing city from the possession whereof wee shall never be disturbed in any age for to this city wee have a right by Christ who is the head and king of it that there wee may live safely under him and reigne under him But as long as wee live here on earth we are like pilgrims and strangers who are travelling toward their countrey He calls this city to come because to us it is to come but to God and Christ and the Angels it is already present The word we seeke although it signifie the effect it selfe yet it must not here be taken so much for the effect as for the efficacy of Christian Religion and our duty therein For then wee seeke when we follow the power and guidance of Christian Religion Because it is the condition and duty of Christians to seeke a City to come that is to endeavour with all care and diligence that they may attaine it 15. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise Here he proceeds to a new precept or duty yet such a one as issues from his former words and depends on them as the illative particle therefore shewes Yet it followes not from the words immediately preceding but both from his principall assertion and from what was included in the argument thereof The principall assertion is That the doctrine of Jesus Christ is immutable as it was in the beginning so shall it remaine for all ages In the argument or proofe of this doctrine Christ in a comparison with the high Priest is said to sanctifie the people with his bloud Now from this that the doctrine of Christ is alwayes so uniforme as to be one and the same subject to no alteration and that Christ is our high Priest who hath sanctified his whole people with his bloud it is rationally inferred that we must by him offer sacrifices to God For anciently the whole people joyntly and single persons from among the people offered sacrifices to God by the Priest the whole people by the high Priest onely but private persons by Priests of an inferiour order all which together with the high Priest as others were to offer sacrifices by them are correspondent to Christ alone for in this respect Christ alone is as much as all they together For although in the Christian Religion besides Christ our high Priest there are other Priests namely all Christians yet compared to Christ they must be accounted for the common people And to offer sacrifices by Christ is to offer such sacrifices as are consecrated and prepared as it were by Christ himselfe and by him are made acceptable unto God and this is done when we offer them as the worshippers and servitors of Christ by faith in God in and through Christ by the prescript and command of Christ for what is offered in this manner is offered
can want his care for feeding ruling and defending and lastly seeing he so feeds his sheep that he recovers them from the jaws of death and hell and settles them in possession of the Kingdome of Heaven Through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant These words must not be referred to the words brought again but must be construed with the word shepheard And a shepheard by or through bloud is such a shepheard as had shed his bloud for so we read 1 John 5.6 That Christ came by water and bloud not by water only but by water and bloud that is he was not only pure and clear from all spot or stain of sinne which purity is signified by the word water but also that he suffered a bloudy death by shedding of his bloud The Author had intimated before that this great Shepheard was dead in saying that God brought him againe from the dead but now he further shewes not onely the manner of his death that it was violent cruell and bloudy but also the cause of his death to what end he dyed which end tendeth to our infinite benefit namely to confirme and seale the everlasting covenant For the bloud of the Covenant is that bloud which is shed to dedicate establish and confirme the Covenant that it may never be revokeable But the Author understands the new Covenant which was confirmed by the bloud of Christ Whence wee may easily collect how certaine and sure we may be of the promises contained in that Covenant if we performe the conditions of it which are most just and equall When he calls this Covenant everlasting he tacitly opposeth it to the old covenant by Moses which was not to continue to the end of the world therfore was not properly everlasting And by the eternity of this Covenant that it is everlasting is withall intimated the perfection of it for if it were not perfect it could not be everlasting as the former old covenant was not everlasting because it was not perfect but weake and unprofitable and therefore it was disanulled and abolished as the Author said before chap. 7.18 For there is verily a disanulling of the commandement going before for the weakenesse and unprofitablenesse thereof And what is said of one commandement or precept may well be referred to the whole covenant Besides the eternity of this covenant is mentioned of purpose to advance our comfort and strengthen our hope for whereas it is called everlasting that shews that it shall not onely produce his full effect but also shall last to the end of the world Our Lord Iesus In these words the Author points out the person whom we must understand to be that great Shepheard namely no other then our Lord Jesus that is our Lord who is Jesus so that our Lord holds the place of the subject and the name Jesus is added to declare who is meant by our Lord. By which appellation the Author teacheth us what a great Shepheard Jesus is seeing he is our Lord constituted so by God his Father who brought him againe from the dead That onely Lord by whom are all things and we by him whom wee must worship with God the Father Yet in all this pathetick and stately description of our Lord Jesus the Author signifies nothing more unto us then what was formerly contained in his appellation of high Priest so frequently attributed unto him in this Epistle From all which what great hope and comfort wee may gather to our soules need not here bee repeated 21. Make you perfect in every good worke Now he expresseth the wish it selfe which is wholly concerning their owne duty For to attaine eternall happinesse nothing else is required on our part but to performe our duty according as it is enjoyned us To make them perfect in every good worke is so to enable them that no good worke office or Christian vertue be wanting in them and that they be wanting in no good worke to performe it perfunctorily unwillingly or disaffectedly especially in point of temptation and matter of persecution wherein because it is for the triall of their faith Patience must have her perfect worke as S. James requires it Jam. 1.4 To doe his will The particle to here doth not signifie the finall cause because to be perfect in every good worke and to doe the will of God are really the same thing and therefore these can neither be the end nor the meanes one of another But this particle is here explicative to the former words and is all one with so as for he that is perfect in every good worke or Christian vertue he truly and properly doth the will of God Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight He expresseth the way or meanes whereby God is to make them perfect in every good worke namely by working in them that which is well-pleasing in his sight That which pleaseth God is every good worke And God worketh a good worke in us when he exciteth and moveth us to it and preventeth us with his grace while we thinke not of it when hee ministreth unto us sufficient strength and helpe thereto suggesteth occasions unto us and lastly when he cherisheth and perfecteth it in us And not that he worketh in us without our worke that is while we are unwitting unwilling or idle but while we are willing endeavouring and acting For otherwise there were neither need nor reason that the Author should exhort us with so many monitions incitements and precepts unto godlinesse whereto he with good reason also added his wish to teach us that we must joyne Gods helpe with our endeavours and our endeavours with his helpe Through Iesus Christ It is doubtfull whether these words must hee joyned with the word working or with the words well-pleasing to shew us what is well-pleasing in the sight of God namely that which is done through Iesus Christ and by him commanded to be done So Peter 1 Epist 2.5 when he had said that wee must offer spirituall sacrifices acceptable unto God added also by Jesus Christ shewing us thereby what those sacrifices are namely no other then what are commanded in the Religion of Jesus Christ For those words in Peter seeme rather to bee referred to acceptable then to offered although the latter may be admitted To whom be glory for ever and ever The pronoune to whom is placed so indifferently by the Author that it may be referred both unto God in the former verse and to Jesus Christ mentioned immediately before And the Author seemes to have ordered it so of purpose and to reserve the mention of Christ for the last place that with this one doxology he might celebrate and magnifie both persons both God and Christ For he that is a true Christian cannot be ignorant that glory for ever and ever must be ascribed no lesse unto Christ then unto God himselfe Whereof reade what is written Revel 5.12,13 Whence also Peter concludes his 2. Epistle with the like
perpetuall residence there in procuring our salvation and the expiation of our sinnes is said to make intercession for us But as hee hath all power given him by his Father as he himselfe saves us and expiates our sinnes as he bestowes all happinesse upon us so he cannot be said to make intercession for us although these actions differ rationally rather then really seeing in them hee conveyes that to us which hee receives of his Father for us and therefore cannot properly be said to intercede or sue for that which hee hath full power to give of himselfe for God hath freely given him that full power 26. For such an high Priest became us Hee brings a reason why Christ was made a Priest to live for ever to make intercession for us because such a Priest did become us or was convenient for us Whence it appears that the following attributes given unto Christ do not notifie the innocent life of Christ which was indeed spotlesse and blamelesse but his happy and blessed state whereby it comes to passe that he ever lives and ever hath a care of us For although those attributes are most true of Christ if wee understand them of his life and innocencie yet being so understood in this place they make nothing to the present purpose of the Authour Who is holy In respect of his immortall nature which doth make him a Saint by sanctifying and hallowing him Harmelesse Not actively to do no harme but passively to have no harme by freeing him from all evill and miserie Vndefiled His state is purely happy and blessed not stained or blotted with any adversity or evil Seperate from sinners both in place and condition not conversing any more with them as once he did upon earth And made higher then the heavens He is now exalted above the two lower regions of heaven and seated in the highest region at the right hand of God All these are said of Christ in some manner by way of resemblance to the legall Priest Although in these againe there be a great disparity betweene Christ and him as we shall shew presently Yet if we respect the dignity of Priesthood the legall Priest was a venerable and holy person hee was harmelesse and inviolable and as his providence and care could lead him he was undefiled and hee was separate from sinners not conversing with them but residing in the Sanctuary which resembled heaven But all these could not be perfect in the legall Priest by reason of his infirmities or if they had been most perfect yet they had been but a shadow of those most divine qualities which were shewed before in Christ Now that such a Priest became us the thing it self declares for unlesse he were such a one hee could not be perpetually vigilant intent over our salvation to save all that should come to God by him For the contraries to these qualities would either trouble the functions of his office or wholly hinder them for even the legall Priest if at any time he were defiled might not performe the holy services to offer for others or sacrifice for their sin till first he had made some entrance in sacrificing for his owne 27. Who needed not daily as those high Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his owne sinnes and then for the peoples He shews another difference between Christ and the legall Priests depending on the former diffrences and consequent from them For the legall Priests must offer sacrifices yearly first for their owne sinnes and then for the peoples but Christ did this only once Daily i. upon the determine and set day for the yearly sacrifice which was the day of expiation For that the Author means that yearly sacrifice it appears from his saying that those Priests must offer first for their owne sinnes and then for the peoples But we read not that either hee did or was to doe this at any other time then at that yearly sacrifice of expiation For at other times he must either offer for himselfe alone if he stood guilty of some sin or if he were partaker of sinne with the people he must expiate it with one only sacrifice for himselfe and them together and not sacrifice first for himselfe and after for them See afterward chap. 10. v. 11. where daily is likewise taken for the appointed and set day For this hee did once He speaks of Christ our Priest What did Christ once certainly nothing else but what the old high Priest did yearly upon the set day But it is manifest from the former passages and from the context of the reasons that he speaks not here principally of the offering for the peoples sinnes on that day but especially for the offering for the sinnes of the Priest himselfe Sinnes are properly transgressions of Gods Lawes which seeing they had no place in Christ for hee knew no sinne therefore there must needs be an impropriety in the word sinnes here for by them must be meant the infirmities and sufferings of Christ whereof we spake before chap. 5.2,3 For we have already seen that the contraries to these infirmities and sufferings were in the next verse before described by the names of holinesse and harmlessenesse for these two verses do mutually illustrate each other When he offered up himselfe He shewes when Christ offered for himself namely prayers and supplications as we heard before chap. 5.7 And then he offered for himselfe when he offered himselfe for God when hee prepared himselfe for the offering of himselfe i. when he was slaine as a sacrifice For the offering of Christ in this place must be so farre extended as to comprise his death as a necessary antecedent or a kind of beginning and entrance to it Therefore Christ because hee now lives happy and blessed for ever and nothing can interrupt or hinder his happinesse therefore I say he is now secure of himselfe and need no more offer for himselfe but is only carefull for us and our salvation Yet because the time was once when he was forced to offer for him selfe therefore being well acquainted with sufferings he will so much the more readily succour the distressed But seeing this verse depends upon the former and is inferred from thence it appears therefore that the former verse speaks not of the manners of Christ our Priest but of his blessed state and condition For Christ needs not therefore not offer any more for himselfe because he was holy and harmlesse in respect of his manners and actions here upon earth seeing he was alwaies so but because by his Resurrection to Immortality he was freed from all harmes and evills for ever As therefore the sinnes of our Priest signified his sufferings and paines so the contraries to these his holinesse and harmlessenesse in the former verse declare him exempt and free from all such evills 28. For the Law made men high Priests which have infirmity Hee addes the cause of this difference between Christ and the legal Priests
because the Law made men high Priests which have infirmity i. such as can never depose their infirmity which alwayes held them in this condition that after expiation for their sinnes and errors they againe fell into the like sinnes and errors which required againe another expiation But the word of the oath which was since the Law The word containing the oath whereof he spake before vers 20. That oath whereby Christ was ordained Priest was since the Law and therefore the Priesthood of Christ is no way depending or established by the Law For here the word of the oath made since the Law is opposed to the Law Maketh the sonne who is consecrated for evermore Maketh the sonne Priest The sonne is here put eminently for the Sonne of God and opposed to common men who have infirmities as those men had whom the Law made Priests so in many places of Scripture Christ is opposed to the rest of men See Gal. 1.1 and Ephes 2.7 Consecrated for evermore Christ is expiated for evermore not in respect of the time past as of old under the Law under which the Priests by reason of their infirmities were forced to renue their expiation every year But Christ by his one single expiation upon the crosse was freed from all further sufferings and paines for evermore so that hee hath no further need to expiate or offer for them any more for ever And hence againe it appears that Christ was not fully perfectly our high Priest before he was consecrated expiated and perfected for evermore That is before he became immortall The Contents of this seventh Chapter are 1. Melchisedec was a Priest v. 1. Reason 1. Because he blessed men sacerdotally for so he blessed Abraham v. 1. 2. Because he received tithes for Abraham gave him a tenth v. 2. 2. Melchisedec was a singular Priest v. 3. Reason 1. Because there were no more Priests of his order for he was without father or mother without predecessour or successour v. 2. 2. Because he was a perpetuall Priest for he had neither beginning of dayes nor end of life but remained a Priest continually v. eod 3. Melchisedec was greater then Abraham v. 1. Reason 1. Because he blessed Abraham sacerdotally v. eod 2. Because he received tithes from Abraham v. 2. 3. Because he was in a manner an eternall person that had no parentage neither beginning of dayes nor end of life 4. Melchisedec was greater then the Leviticall Priests v. 5. Reason 1. Because he blessed them in Abraham who had the promises of them that they should be his seed v. 6. 2. Because he tithed them in tithing Abraham for they were then in the loynes of Abraham v. 5. 9. 10. 3. Because he was a singular and an eternall Priest but they were many and mortall for they dyed and succeeded one another v. 8. 5. Christ is not a Priest after the order of Aaron v. 11. Reason 1. Because Christ sprang not from the tribe of Levi as Aaron did but from Juda another tribe v. 13. 14. 2. Because Christ was not ordained by vertue of any carnall law that respected his birth and parentage as Aaron and his successours were v. 16. 3. Because Christ was made with an oath to make his Priesthood immutable and irrevocable but they without an oath v. 20. 21. 4. Because Christ was a singular and eternall Priest whose Priesthood is unchangeable but they were many and mortall and their Priesthood transitory changing upon death from one person to another v. 23 24. 5. Because Christ is in a divine and blessed state for he is inviolable unharmable undefileable seperate from sinners and seated in heaven They had not the substance of this state but only some shadow of it v. 26. 6. Because Christ needed but one offering for himselfe whereby to expiate and put off his infirmities for ever they needed yearly a new expiation for their infirmities v. 27 28. 6. Christ is a Priest after the order of Melchisedec chap. 6. v. ult Reason 1. Because Christ is a Royall Priest both a King and a Priest as Melchisedec was v. 1. 2. Because Christ is a singular Priest having no other Priest after his order but himselfe for he was without predecessour and successour as Melchisedec was v. 3. 3. Because Christ is an eternall Priest who liveth for ever as Melchisedec is said to have done 7. The Leviticall Priesthood is expired v. 11. Reason 1. Because Christ another Priest is raised up who is not after Aarons order v. eod 2. Because the Priesthood is translated from the tribe of Levi upon whom the Law had setled it v. 13 14. 3. Because that Priesthood was ruled by a carnall law with respect to the birth life and death of the Priest v. 16. 4. Because it made no perfect expiation for sinnes for thereto it was weake and unprofitable v. 18 19. 8. The Leviticall Law is expired v. 12. Reason 1. Because that Priesthood is abrogate and changed v. eod 2. Because the commandements and precepts of it were carnall touching the line the birth and death of Priests touching washings of the flesh of men and sacrificing the flesh of beasts v. 16. 3. Because it made no perfect expiation for sin but to that effect was weake and unprofitable CHAPTER VIII 1. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the summe Wee have such an high Priest Hee had before spoken many things concerning Christ our high Priest both for his quality what manner of person hee is and for his dignity how farre hee exceedeth the legall Priests Now being partly to adde something further and partly to repeat something formerly spoken he calles this repetition the summe of what hee had spoken Now the summe may signifie either the breviat of what hee had spoken or else the maine head and principall point which last sense is most agreeable to this place q.d. Of all those things which have been or may bee spoken concerning Christ our high Priest the main head or principall point is this That we have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand c. Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens Of these words we treated chap. 1.3 And by them is signified unto us so great a dignity and Majesty in Christ our high Priest that there was scarce extant any shadow of it in the ancient legall Priests seeing none of them did ever sit at the right hand of that throne which was placed in the oracle of the Sanctuary namely of the Mercy-seat or covering of the Arke which was all over shadowed by the wings of the Cherubines and called the Throne of God whereupon God was said to sit between the Cherubines But all those legall high Priests when they entred into the oracle or most holy place of the Sanctuary were forced to stand before the Arke and so before the Mercy-seat upon it But Christ is so great an high Priest that he sits on