as if this testimonie were made of him before he was translated but must be only referred to the matter of the testimony which is this that before his translation he pleased God and after his translation the Scripture testified that hee pleased God before it And Enochs pleasing of God may be understood two wayes either that hee pleased God in endeavour by studying and labouring to please him or that hee pleased him in effect by an actuall service of God which latter is consequent to the former And the testimony of this is given in Scripture where it is said that Enoch walked with God Gen. 5.22.24 For hee that walketh with God certainely he endeavours to please God and either in effect doth actually please God or at least God is pleased with his endeavour So likewise of Noah it is said That he was a just man and perfect in his generations and that he walked with God Gen. 6.9 For this walking with God which in the following verse the Authour expresseth by comming to God and by seeking of God doth signifie a conversation of man with God whereby in a manner hee doth alwayes reverence God as being alwayes in his presence and as I may say never departing out of his sight but having ever his minde and thoughts fixed upon him and is so addicted to Gods Lawes and Commands that in all his actions through the whole course of his life hee hath God for his leader and companion whom he follows and accompanies Hee that is such a man must needs endeavour to please God and cannot chuse but actually please him For the Greeke translation which as hath beene often noted the Authour followes doth render the Hebrew words of Enochs walking with God by Greeke words which properly signifie his pleasing of God 6. But without faith it is impossible to please God Now we come to the defence of that argument which formerly we mentioned for here the Authour expresly confirmes and proves it by the following words For he that commeth to God must beleeve that hee is and that hee is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Hee proves I say what before he had affirmed by this explication of faith or rather by two specifications of it whereof the first is to beleeve the existence of God that God is and the second to beleeve the righteousnesse or equitie of God that hee is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him For is it not wholly necessary that he who commeth to God i. He who doth worship and serve him he who perpetually addicts himselfe to observe his Lawes and Commands hee who heartily endeavoureth to please him and actually doth please him should beleeve both these points and be strongly perswaded of them For if he beleeve not the existence of God that God is how should hee worship and serve him if he beleeve his existence and yet doubt of his goodnesse and righteousnesse whether hee will be a Benefactor to his worshippers and servitors how shall they subject themselves to his worship and service Now to beleeve that God is is to beleeve that there is really existent such a person in being who hath the supreme power or command over all things who depends on no other person but all other persons and things depend on him For by the single appellation of God this is commonly signified both here and elsewhere And he that beleeveth such a Dietie must thereupon withall necessarily beleeve that it is both eternall and singular for if it were not eternall and singular it could not be supreme To seeke God or enquire after God is nothing else but to sue for his grace and favour as we are admonished by the Prophet Esay chap 55.6 Seeke yee the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is neere let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and hee will have mercy upon him Here hee shewes us the way how to seeke God Namely by calling upon him and the way to that at least to do it effectually is to forsake our unrighteousnes and sinfulnes and turn to the Lord observing his laws and commands Hence it appeares what is the nature of that faith which commends us to God for the Author teacheth it unto us in this Chapter and how farre such faith differs from their faith who place faith in the apprehension and application of the merits of Christ It further appeares that faith in Christ is not contained in all faith in God in respect of all times for in this description and illustration of that faith which the Author shews to have been in these ancient elders there is no mention of faith in Christ Yet from the nature of faith in God it is easie to collect wherein the faith in Christ consisteth namely that we beleeve that Christ is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him or rather to expresse it in the words of this Author It is to beleeve that Christ is become the author of eternall salvation to all them that obey him chap. 5.9 For from this faith ariseth a true confidence in Christ which naturally draws with it innocencie and holinesse of life and by these we come to please God and Christ and then being justified by his grace wee attaine the inheritance of eternall life And this also may be noted as it will further appear by many of the following examples That Faith if we take it properly and strictly doth differ from obedience from comming to God and seeking him because faith must necessarily bee in a man before he can actually come to God and seek him yet indeed the word faith is oftentimes so ampliated and enlarged as to comprehend in it all the effects and fruits of it even all the workes of godlinesse and righteousnesse And in this argumentation of the Author for we are also to take notice of it there is not more in the conclusion then was in the premises For from the premises as the Author explicates them it seems nothing else would follow but that Enoch was not translated without faith and not that hee was translated by or through or for his faith which is more and is also concluded by the Author But seeing without faith we cannot please God for faith is the true cause of our pleasing him and seeing Enoch was therefore translated because he did please God hence most rationally it must be concluded that Enochs faith was the cause of his translation and consequently he was translated by for through or because and by reason of his faith For whatsoever is the cause of any effect is also the cause of all things that follow that effect Now from this argumentation of the Author concluding Enochs faith to be the cause of his translation it manifestly appeares That good workes and an ardent endeavour of them whereby Enoch became to please God are not only the cause of eternall
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
sake and therefore cannot but bee affected with like sense of trouble at the troubles and pains of the innocent that suffer for his sake and therefore when they pray and cry unto him hee will be ready in obedience to God to give them audience to heare and helpe them Though he were a Son He illustrates the matter ex adversis So great a conjunction of Christ with God such a fatherly love of God toward him as being his only Sonne might seeme to be against this way of exercising him upon the stage of afflictions yet it was not against it God might have taught his Sonne the lessons of obedience in some other schoole then that of afflictions yet it pleased God to choose this way and not spare him from the common condition of his brethren Hence it is manifest how greatly God loved mankinde who would handle his owne Son so hardly to this end that having triall of suffering in his owne person miseris succurrere discat he might thereby learne to succour those in misery Hence it appeares also that Gods fatherly love to the faithfull is no way impaired when he exerciseth their faith and patience to make trials of them in sufferings For whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth chap. 12.6 9. And being made perfect In the last place he comes to the first property of an high Priest and applies it also to Christ namely that Christ procures the salvation of men and negotiates with God to be propitious to them and forgive them the punishments of their sinnes Which property in respect of Christ he expresseth in these words that he is become the Author of eternall salvation Made perfect This state of Christ in being made perfect or consummate is opposed to his state in the dayes of his flesh For then when Christ was infirme and himselfe wanted anothers help he could not perfectly and finally help others in all things But after that he was consummated or perfected i. after he had attained to immortality or a nature incorruptible and was invested with supreme power in heaven and earth so that nothing further was wanting to him or after hee was throughly consecrated of God and fully installed into his Priesthood as some think the word perfected to mean then he became the author of eternall salvation For then he was a most perfect cause of salvation In the dayes of his flesh he was indeed the cause of eternall salvation for then he was the great Legate or Apostle of God to preach it but being perfected he becomes the most perfect cause of it for now hee is our high Priest and heavenly King to give that which before he preached He is therefore the most perfect cause of eternall salvation because he gives it in a most perfect manner for he wants nothing neither for faculty or power nor for desire and will to perfect our eternall salvation For by his power he takes from us all punishment of our sins he gives us everlasting life he receives our spirits into his hands he speedily succours us in our afflictions lest our faith should fail and we thereby fall into punishments due to our sinnes The Author made choice of generall words to describe the power and efficacie of Christs Priesthood in the procuring of our salvation that he might expresse it with tearms more proper to it For Christ is not the cause of salvation in the very same manner with the legall high Priest who gave not salvation or pardon to the people himselfe of himselfe as Christ doth but only procured God to give it by propitiating him with offerings And there is a great difference betweene Christ and the legall high Priest in the salvation procured for hee procured only a temporary and transitory salvation but Christ gives an eternall salvation Furthermore this place affoords us an example of a rule in Scripture that some things are said to be simply done when they are more perfectly done We have an instance hereof in that passage of John 2.11 where the Disciples of Christ who did already believe in Christ are notwithstanding said to believe in Christ upon sight of the miracle of water turned into wine because then they believed in him much more stedfastly and perfectly then they did before or because then their faith received a great increase So Christ himselfe John 15.8 saith to his Disciples that if they did beare much fruit so they should bee his Disciples because by this meanes they should become his Disciples in a more perfect manner This we therefore notifie lest to any it should seeme strange that the Scripture notes divers times wherein Christ became the Sonne of God namely because he became so in a more perfect manner and higher degree although from the beginning of his conception he was truly the Son of God though not so perfectly as afterwards Vnto all them that obey him Here the persons are specified to whom Christ is the author of salvation namely to the obedient and to them universally to all that obey him For Christ is an high Priest properly to such and is ordained of God to expiate their sinnes Whence it appeares that all who will have their sins expiated by Christ and obtaine eternall salvation by him must obey him Christ indeed is the cause of salvation even to them who as yet obey him not in that he first makes them obedient and consequently saves them but to such he is but the remote cause but he is the immediate cause of it to them that actually obey him for therein his Priestly office is actually exercised Not unlike to this is that saying of Peter Act. 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to bee a Prince and a Saviour what else is this then to be the author or cause of salvation and by what means Christ doth worke and cause salvation Peter expresseth in the words following to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes This latter way of saving as being the perfecter is contained in this place 10. Called of God an high Priest Christ becomes the author or cause of eternall salvation by this meanes in being ordained an high Priest of God for when God calls him an high Priest thereby hee makes him so After the order of Melchisedeck Christ is such a high Priest unto us that withall he is also our heavenly Lord and King having supreme power to pardon all our sinnes and to free us from the punishment of them But of this point we shall speake more largely chap 7. 11. Of whom we have many things to say Hee passeth to another point wherein he reproves the slownesse and dulnesse of them to whom he writes to this end that he may excite and prepare them to receive those mysteries which he had in his minde to open concerning the Priesthood of Christ Of whom i. of Christ our high Priest either in reference to his Priesthood absolutely or respectively as it is
may sway him so to grant something that if he grant it not wee may well say he deals unequally and hardly In this latter way God may seem to be said unrighteous if he should be so unmindfull of vertues both past and present if he should presently reject men though otherwise worthy of reprobation if God should deale with them according to his Law and no way expect their repentance but wholly exclude them from all addresse to his clemency mercy especially if it appear not that there are some prevalent causes which restraine God from shewing mercy as in case he be to shew herein some example of his judgment For God must not presently be said unrighteous if he deal somewhat severely with one or two but then when he usually doth it or doth it with whole Churches Wherefore the Author brings not here any demonstrative or convictive reason or such as that God might not lawfully do otherwise without the aspersion of unrighteousnes or iniquity properly so term'd but only a reason very probable drawn for the most part from the clemencie and mercy of God which is voluntary in him To forget your work and labor of love To speak properly forgetfulnes is not incident unto God but figuratively he is then said to forget when he hath no regard of a thing or doth that which men forgetfull doe Their work as it seems was the conflict they had in suffering afflictions from their first entrance into the faith of Christ as the Author speaks of them afterward chap. 10 32. Unto which work or conflict he subjoyns the labour of love for in the place last cited after that conflict which they endured the Author mentions their offices of charity which they exercised toward the Saints And it is not likely that in this place where especially their good works were to be mentioned the Author would passe over their noblest act which consisted in suffering for Christs cause For Paul hath joyned these two together the work of faith and labor of love 1 Th. 1 3. where by the work of faith he seems to understand their many sufferings for the truths sake For such a work grows immediatly from faith as labour and bounty toward the Saints springs only from love and is therefore called the labor of love And that patience which proceeds from hope is called the patience of hope because it argues constancie in suffering afflictions under hope of reward and is there added to the work of faith and labour of love Their labour of love was another act of theirs no lesse acceptable to God and no lesse remarkable in it selfe Labour of love is that labour which proceeds from love or that labour whereto love puts us and love makes any labour light and easie for nothing is more powerfull nothing more imperious then love And this labour is seen in helping him whom we love with all our strength power endeavor Which ye have shewed toward his name Their love toward God made them so deare to God that it would not suffer him to reject them and wholly exclude them from salvation And this love was shewed toward the name of God because they shewed it to no other end but with respect to Gods name How this was thus effected hee presently declares In that ye have ministred to the Saints and doe minister We shew love when we minister and we shew love toward the name of God when we minister to the Saints meerly therefore because they are Saints and consecrate unto God For he that ministreth to the Saints and shews love to the Saints therefore because they are Saints and beare the name of God he shews love toward the name of God as he that ministreth to a Disciple of Christ because he is his Disciple he ministreth to Christ himselfe As much as ye have done it saith Christ unto one of the least of these my brethren yee have done it unto me Mat. 25.40 This Ministery consisted herein that in the afflictions of the Saints the Hebrews were wanting to them in no good office but helped them in all things to their power as he expresseth it afterward chap. 10.33 that they became their companions in their afflictions And this is done when we esteem the affliction of an other to be in a manner our owne when we have a singular care of him and performe those offices unto him that wee would have performed to our selves if we were in his case And doe minister This vertue of ministering to the Saints was not yet quite ceased in them albeit it may be somewhat abated 11. And we desire Here he passeth to the other part of the chapter wherein he exhorts them to a diligent and constant course of godlinesse and admonisheth them never to faint in their faith and hope And he seemes here to take away a tacit objection that might settle in their mindes From his last former words they might be too much advanced in hope to believe that now all must needs goe well with them seeing God without being unrighteous could not forget the things they had done and suffered and did yet doe and suffer for Gods cause Lest they should fall to imagine this the Author shews them what he would have them yet doe and what he yet findes wanting in them if they meant to retaine and assured hope of salvation Hee proceeds very prudently with them when a little before hee seemed to have terrified them too much and to debarre them from all hope of salvation he againe erected them and shewed that he did not so conceive this but that he was perswaded better things of them And now againe lest they should be too confident of themselves and bee pussed up in minde and flatter themselves with an infallible hope of salvation he shews them their wants that being thus reduced to a temper that they might neither despair of salvation nor presume of it That every one of you do shew the same diligence He calls not only upon the whole Church in generall but upon each person singly to continue the same diligence and endeavor that they had done from their first reception of the Gospel To the full assurance of hope To be assured of a thing is to have a knowledge of it that it is thus or thus And a full assurance is a full and certain knowledge or as we vulgarly speak it is a certainty And a full assurance of hope is a certainty of those things that are the object or matter of our hope And the hope here ment is the Christian hope whose object is eternal salvation wherof our Christian hope is an expectation And this hope is advanced augmented by our constancy in faith and good works wherby it is daily more and more assured and the assurance of it daily made more full They had a hope of salvation grounded upon the promises of God and quickned by the worke they had done and yet did for Gods cause but a
full assurance of hope they had not for they had not yet fulfilled the measure of Christian duties whereof how much was wanting so much they wanted of full assurance because so much their hope was the lesse Vnto the end These words may be referred to their diligence that they should continue that to the end Or they may be referred to their assurance of hope that it might last to the end For a man may gaine a full assurance of eternall life and yet lose it again 12. That yee be not slothfull Slothfulnesse is then when a man becomes more remisse in the wayes and workes of godlinesse Wherefore his desire is that they would constantly hold on to the end the same course of godlinesse which they held at the beginning For a remissenes and slownesse ariseth from the remissenes and faintnesse of our faith And this is the same fault in them which he reproved before in the 4. chap. ver 1. and chap. 5.11 But followers of them who through faith and patience To their slothfulnesse he opposeth faith and patience because faith and patience are as a remedy to cure their slothfulnesse in the course of godlinesse Faith is a trusting to Gods promises and patience in this place signifies perseverance and constancie in faith or a constant and lasting expectation of his promises although they seem to be deferred This patience requires not only that no delay of time should weaken our faith but also that no evills or adversities should discourage it for if by faith we meane to attaine Gods promises we must looke for many sufferings to intervene in the mean while For in this sense the Apostle useth the word patience Jam. 5.7,8 who those men be of whom they should be followers in faith and patience he shews in the following verse namely that they are the Patriarkes whereof he names Abraham as the principall Inherit the promises This is the fruit of our faith and patience to inherit the promises of our faith And this he adds the more to excite them to a constancy in faith and patience to the end because thereby they shall reap the excellent fruit thereof by inheriting the promises He faith inherit in the present tense because the present tense is commonly put indefinitly for any time that the mindes of the readers might be drawne as it were to a thing present 13. For when God made promise to Abraham In these words hee gives not a reason why they should be followers of such as inherit the promises but he onely gives a reason why he makes mention of such For some man might demand whether there were any such to be followed and who they were In these words therefore for an example thereof hee produceth Abraham the father of the faithfull who was most patient and constant in his faith and reaped the greatest fruit of his faith And first he shewes that Abraham had the promise of God upon which his faith relyed then at the 15. verse hee mentions the constancy of his faith and also the fruit of it Upon the mention of Gods promise made to Abraham hee mentions also the oath of God whereby God would confirme his promise to him This he therefore doth because the same promise belongs to us also in a mysticall better fence as a little after we shall shew therefore we should apply the greater stronger faith unto it and therein be followers of Abraham and other Patriarks that followed him And we must note the manner of speech which the Author here useth he saith not that God promised Abraham before he sware but when he made promise or in promising he sware that the truth may appeare of what we noted before that indefinite Participles joyned with a Verbe of the preter tense must not alwayes be understood of the time past but often of the present So afterward chap. 9.12 Christ is said to have entered into the holy place by his owne blood having obtained eternal redemption for us Not that Christ obtained that redemption before he entered but that hee obtained it at his entrance whereof we shal speak further there But by the way the Author shews the cause why God did sweare by himself when he saith Because he could sweare by no greater hee sware by himselfe Therefore he sware not by another because then he by whom he was to swear must be greater then himselfe as such a one that must be invocated as an avenger of his violating of his oath and whom by this meanes the swearer must revere and adore But God hath none whom he should feare as an avenger none whom he should adore as a Deity to him and consequently hath none greater then himself where fore if God will sweare upon any occasion as the occasion is exprest verse 16. he must needs sweare by himselfe And when the Author saith of God that he did sweare he respects the words whereby God made promise to Abraham saying By my selfe have I sworn Gen. 22.16 But the solemne form whereby God useth to swear is As I live q. d. Let me not be accounted for the living God for all other formes are referred and reduced to this As when hee is said to sweare by his soule by his life by his holinesse by his arme that is his strength and power and by his right hand that is his faith 14 Saying He rehearseth the summe of Gods promise made to Abraham Surely In the originall it is a men or e men which is an Adverb of sweating commonly put after a Verbe whereby wee doe assevere that a thing is true or shall be done For as an oath is a Confirmation of some thing asserted or promised so every Confirmation is an assurance to him who receives it and therefore the word Surely is properly an Adverb of swearing Yet in many passages of Scripture the word Surely is but an Adverb of Asseveration which is a lesse and lower Confirmation then an oath Blessing I will blesse thee and multiplying I will multiply thee This promise in some places of Scripture is indeed delivered in other words but these make up the generall sum of it And the gemination or doubling of the words according to the idiome of the Hebrewes doth intend and magnifie the thing I will greatly blesse and greatly multiply This promise is described Gen. 22.16 But wee are to note that this promise pertaines not onely to Abraham but also to his seed Or if wee respect the literall or carnall sence of this promise Abraham is promised to be greatly blessed in his seed for the blessing consisted in this as God himselfe declares that God would multiply Abrahams seed as the starres of heaven or as the sand upon the sea-shore that his seed should possesse the gates of their enemies and all nations should be blessed in him i. He should have a posterity most numerous and most happy All which particulars pertain to Abraham no otherwise then by his seed But if wee
Priest was neglected in Christ and therefore abrogated Therefore now lest any man should marvell at this hee shewes the reason why the Law was justly abrogated For the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse thereof This is the cause why the Law was abrogate because it was weake and unprofitable For all Lawes use to be abrogated and disanulled when by experience they are found to be ineffectuall weake and unprofitable for wise men have found out no other causes why Lawes should bee disanulled and repealed Now the infirmitie of a Law appears in this that it cannot performe the matter for which it was ordained which infirmitie or wickednesse of the Law he either explicates or amplifies by the word unprofitable for the weakenes of a Law makes it uselesse 19. For the Law made nothing perfect Here hee proves that the Law is weake and unprofitable whereof he gives this reason because it made nothing perfect i. it contained no perfect expiation for sinne as wee heard before verse 11. and shall heare it againe Chapter 10. verse 1.14 Now perfect expiation consisteth in a totall taking away all guilt of all sinnes and of all punishments not onely temporall but eternall Such an expiation the Law conferred upon no man For if as wee saw at the 11. verse the Priesthood could not do this how could the Law doe it seeing the Law could doe nothing this way but by vertue of the Priesthood The Law did condemne men but not justifie them it granted expiation to some small sinnes and that only in regard of temporall punishment but for heynous offences upon which it ordained the punishment of death it left no pardon but laid a curse upon all that offended highly In this perfect expiation is contained antecedently as I may say an obduction from sinne For perfect expiation comes to us upon that condition as we shall see by the opposition following Made nothing perfect Nothing here is put for no man the neuter gender for the masculine and so likewise at the seventh verse If therefore the Law could bring perfect expiation and justification to no man it is justly said to be weake and unprofitable namely in regard it could not produce the true and perfect good of men But the bringing in of a better hope did q.d. The Law perfected no man but the superinduction of a better hope doth perfect men for here is an illustration from the contrary By a better hope hee understands the hope of eternall life joyned with a plenary remission of all sinnes granted from God to all penitent persons without which remission the promise of eternall life made to mankinde had beene ineffectuall and unprofitable seeing we have all sinned and thereby made our selves unworthy of eternall life Therefore the Author describing afterward the new Covenant in the words of the Prophet and shewing that it is established upon better promises mentions only the remission of sinnes granted in the new Covenant And by the new Covenant or Gospel and the Priesthood of Christ adjoyned to it this better hope is superinduced upon the Law For the new Covenant brings a better hope because it is established upon better promises but not without the Priesthood of Christ which doth not only confirme and establish the promises of the Covenant but doth also perfect and performe them For the perfect remission of our sinnes depends upon Christs Priesthood and therefore the Priesthood of Christ spoken of in this place must here be joyned with the new Covenant as also the old Priesthood and sacrifices must be joyned with the Law Therefore the superinduction or bringing in of a better hope that is the new Covenant containing the Priesthood of Christ which gives us an assured hope of eternall life and of perfect forgivenesse of all our sins doth most perfectly expiate men and purge them from all guilt of all sinne By the which we draw nigh unto God Here he gives a reason why this hope is better and doth perfect us because it makes us to approah and come neare unto God by suing for his favour by serving him with all our heart and obeying him in all things commanded us For he that hath this hope in God purifieth himselfe even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 And because we approach unto God therefore reciprocally God also approacheth and draweth nigh unto us i. doth embrace us with a strict bond of love that so being purged from all sinne hee may deliver us from eternall death and invest us ' with eternall life Hence saith St. James Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you Jam. 4.8 The Law therefore because it wanted this hope could not make us draw nigh unto God and because it could not doe that therefore it could not make us partake of a perfect expiation For our approach unto God is the way to perfect expiation seeing while we approach unto God we cast off sinne and live godly and while God approacheth unto us we are thereby perfectly expiated and justified As therefore this bringing in of a better hope makes us approach unto God so far it justifies us Which the Law could not doe but for the rigor of it whereby it excludes penitents from a full remission of sins and also for default of any open promise of eternall life which ministers unto men great power and courage for obedience unto God 20. And in as much as not without an oath he was made Priest After the Author had shewed that by the Priesthood of Christ the Law was abrogated and added the cause of that abrogation and taught that in the room thereof there succeeded a far more excellent Covenant that maketh us approach unto God Now by a new argument hee shews how much Christ our Priest is greater then the legall Priests and how far the new Covenant excels the old And he draws his argument from hence that Christ was made a Priest with an oath but the old legall Priests without an oath from whence it plainly appeares that Christ is better then they For an oath declares the truth and the strength of a thing Now the things that God will have to be firme strong and unchangeable must needs bee better then those things which have not that firmity and strength such as are the things whereto no oath is added but God will have them to depend upon his will and pleasure that he may either remove or retaine them as it shall seem good unto him And besides looke how much better the Priest is so much is the Covenant better For the Priesthood takes all the dignity and excellency of it from the Covenant of God and by the Priesthood the effect of the Covenant is performed And therefore from hence that Christ was made a Priest by oath by so much hee was made a surety of a better testament as the Author rightly collects it ver 22. that is by how much Christ who was ordained with Gods oath is better then the Priest who was ordained
the Sacrifice takes efficacy and force to purge sin from the subsequent oblation of Christ in offering himselfe in heaven but also as it is the bloud of the Covenant it received great force from the subsequent resurrection and glory of Christ For the death of Christ is as it were animated and quickned by his Resurrection and glory and then are the mightie effects of it when he that suffered death to confirm the new covenant is thereupon acknowledged to be the Sonne of God and the Christ which certainly could not have been without his Resurrection and the subsequent glory of it For then wee plainely perceive the boundlesse love of God in delivering Christ to death for us and the boundlesse love of Christ in dying for us from both which wee may easily draw an undoubted hope of our salvation And then also wee see from his most shamefull death a passage open to immortall life and lastly then we esteem the Covenant most sacred that was confirmed by a death so precious But if Christ had not risen from the dead who therefore died that he might appear to be the Christ and the King over Gods people his death had thereby lost all the force of it yea it would have been of force to nullifie the faith of all his promises But he had promised us eternal life in the Name of his Father and that he himself would give it us by raising us from the dead yea hee openly said of himselfe that he would rise the third day thereby to confirm his doctine wherefore unles the event had been answerable his doctrine had been stripped of all authority But let us returne to the offering of Christ which the Author opposeth to the offering of the old high Priest for severall respects 1. In that Christ offered through the Spirit and the eternall Spirit but the high Priest under the Law did enter the Holy place and offer through his infirmitie a weake man compassed with the flesh But Christ was filled with the eternall Spirit i. with the power of God which clarified him from all mortalitie and made him eternall subject to no destruction Now this Spirit seemes to be called eternall not onely because it eternally resides in Christ but because it makes him to become eternall Of which Spirit if Christ had been destitute he could not have offered himselfe in that heavenly Sanctuary to have remained there for ever Therefore in these words about which Interpreters have diverse disputes as men must needs do when the genuine sence of any place is either not perceived or not allowed is expressed the cause how Christ being before not onely of a mortall nature and compassed with flesh but also slaine as a sacrifice could afterward enter the heavenly Sanctuary the palace of immortality and there as a Priest offer himselfe to God This he saith was effected by the benefit of the eternall Spirit who throughly consecrated Christ and devested him from all naturall and terrene infirmities That which hee had spoken before chap. 7. ver 16. that Christ was made a Priest after the power of an endlesse life now hee saith againe in other words that Christ offered through the eternall Spirit for if wee looke into the thing it selfe what is the power of an endlesse life other then this eternall Spirit In a like manner Paul treating of Christ as he is ordained and declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead i. as God after his resurrection made him the celestiall and eternall King of his people with supreme power mentions the Spirit of holinesse or sanctification Rom. 1.4 and he saith that Christ was declared the Sonne of God according to the Spirit of holinesse as he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh For seeing he opposeth this Spirit to the flesh of Christ i. to whatsoever was humane in his nature what can he else understand but the power of Gods Spirit powred upon Christ which abolishing from him all his mortall condition did throughly consecrate him unto God made him a person most divine and most like unto God in nature and power and rendered him fully capable of a celestiall and eternall kingdome Hither also must that of Peter be referred where he saith as it is in the Greek that Christ was mortified in the flesh but vivified by the Spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 where as the flesh of Christ is made the cause of his mortality and consequently of his death so is the Spirit namely of God in Christ made the spring and fountaine of his vivification or life 2. He opposeth the offering of Christ to that of the old high Priest in that Christ offered himselfe but the Legall Priest offered not himselfe but the bloud of slaine beasts but what force could that bloud have being offered and sprinkled before the Mercy-seate for the purifying of the flesh if we respect the nature of the thing But Christ himselfe being offered for us in the heavenly Tabernacle was he not a most acceptable sacrifice to God Is there any sin of those that are truly faithfull in Christ which by the offering of so holy a Sacrifice and by the authority and care of so great an high Priest with his heavenly Father could not be expiated 3. In that hee offered himselfe without spot or blemish For the old sacrifice must bee very pure and free from any spot wherefore seeing our high Priest himselfe was the sacrifice hee must needs bee void of all spot or blemish But the old high Priest when he entered the most holy place and offered was not without spot or blemish for even then he was to procure the expiation no lesse of his owne sins then of the peoples But Christ when he entered the heavenly Sanctuary and offered himselfe to God was then free from all spot not onely in respect of his most innocent life which he passed without the least spot of sinne but also which as wee said in the seventh Chapter the Author chiefly respecteth in respect of his immortall nature which he obtained free from all spot of infirmity when he was quickned with that eternall Spirit whereby he entered the heavenly Sanctuary But what is meant by this offering of Christ wee have declared before For these things are not properly spoken of Christ but onely comparatively and allusively to the ancient high Priest So that by this offering of Christ is signified his singular and onely care for the expiation of our sins and for our salvation Yet it is a care worthy and sutable to so great an high Priest who is not destitute of power in himselfe to conferre salvation upon us but is forced to obtaine it from another as the old high Priest was but is one that enjoyeth all command both in heaven and earth one that exerciseth all Judgement delivered over unto him from his Father and one that by his owne proper power doth release us from all guilt of our sins
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
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
number For temptation is a thing generall and common to all who suffer persecutions for righteousnesse sake And withall temptation doth imply the constancie of them who are tempted But if we must needs read it they were tempted then we must understand it of some particular kinde and forme of temptation wherewith persons in distresse might easily bee overcome and drawne from their constancie as for example when a man is follicited to some fained act or to some ambiguous words by promising him safety and some good rewards besides to condescend to this that though he will not truly recede from his former way yet that he seem to recede from it For after this manner we read Eleazer was temped Now for a man to overcome such a temptation by lending no care nor minde unto it but rather dye a cruell death then to staine the reputation of his confession and constancie with the least shew of dissembling is a great and a brave conquest They wandred about in sheeps skins and goats skins For they had no means to procure other garment or covering for their body and therefore he presently addes being destitute afflicted tormented This is the reason why they wandred about and why in sheeps skins and goats skins because they were destitute of all worldly provision and in all places where they came were afflicted and tormented and therefore they wandred from place to place in that despicable and poore manner All which miseries happened unto them in the times of the Maccabes under the persecution of the cruell Antiochus 38. Of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in deserts and in mountaines and in dens and caves of the earth The Author interposeth the former words of this verse to shew the indignity of the usage and foulnesse of the injury which the wicked inflicted upon the true servitors of God As if he had said these good men were constrained to wander like wilde beasts and to hide themselves like wilde beasts in desarts and mountaines in holes and caves of the earth but among men in Townes and Cities they could have no abode though for their piety and faith toward God they were of such worth and respect that the inhabitants of the whole world were unworthy of them Of this carriage Christians especially ought to take notice when they see worthy persons to be vexed banished afflicted and slaughtered of the unworthy good men of evill and the innocent of the wicked For as the Author would intimate unto us it may be that the world herein did in a manner punish her selfe in that shee persecuted and banished such holy persons and drave them away from her of whose conversation and company she was altogether unworthy 39. And these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise The word all seems in the intention of the Author to be chiefly referred to those persons last mentioned who for the love of Gods Law suffered such great calamities For the former persons mentioned before them obtained some promises of God as rewards of their faith but these latter that were persecuted and slain for the testimony of Gods Law had none And yet all their faith who were mentioned in the former place was not such a faith as to be of it self a saving faith or such an one which could procure them eternall life which the Author here understands by the name of the promise unlesse something else were added particularly that faith which concerns only wars or had some certaine thing proposed for the matter of it as the recovery of their health or the raising of their dead children to life and which was perpetuall in them working in them that had it true righteousnesse and piety for there is no cogent reason constraining us to affirme that it was such a faith See what the Author hath affirmed ver 33 34 35. A good report part through faith They obtained the praise and commendation of their faith in the Scriptures See ver 2. through faith Partly because their faith was the cause why they performed such worthy acts as deserved great praise and commendation Partly because such a notable faith in God was of it selfe the cause and matter of that good report and commendation Received not the promise The article the doth shew that some excellent promise is here designed out namely that which is peculiar and proper unto Christians which hath none greater and more excellent then it selfe the promise I meane of that truly blessed and eternall life which though it were not openly promised to them but only to us yet it shall be given to them as well as to us But the word promise is taken here materially for the thing promised 40. God having provided some better thing for us Hee addes here the cause why they have not yet received the promise For the Hebrews might thinke that God in this respect had not dealt so well with them that they had not yet received the reward of their faith workes and sufferings The Author therefore meets with such surmifes and shews it was done for this reason because God had provided some better thing for us A question But here it may be demanded wherein our condition is the better in that they might not receive that promise nor bee perfected without us For if they had received eternall happinesse before would the summe of our happinesse have been any thing the lesse Or is our happinesse any thing the greater because they are made to stay for it The Answer to this may be twofold and according to the twofold Answer there will arise a twofold sense of these words Answer 1. The first Answer is That God would herein provide for our dignity and make our happinesse the more illustrious For although if we regard the thing it self nothing would either be taken from our happines if they had obtained eternall life without us or before us or will now accrue unto it that they have it not without us but together with us yet respectively and comparatively we should have been far inferiour unto them if they without staying for us had been long since invested in heavenly joyes But now seeing they are constrained to stay for us and may not enjoy that promise before us hence appears that the dignity of Christians is very great and that their happinesse is made much more conspicuous seeing there are none who can seeme to obscure it by preventing it with a fuller or more early happinesse And certainly very convenient it was that God should so provide for it that they who had obeyed him only according to the ordinances of Moses should not prevent in happinesse those who compose their lives and manners according to the perfect Law and discipline of Christ and that they who never had any open promise of eternall life should enjoy that life before them who had an open and cleare Covenant for it But rather seeing by Gods goodnesse they were to
bee made equall to Christians in the reward of that happines should in this be made inferiour to Christians in staying for them to receive Gods promises and that as secondary guests who were not openly invited to the banquet they should have their accesse by and with them who were truely and first invited and not enjoy those heavenly banquets so long a time before these And therefore the words some better thing may be taken two wayes either as our state compared with their state may be said to be better or as our present state compared with our future state may be said better if they had received Gods promise long before us But because that in it selfe doth neither increase our future happines nor in like manner doth decrease their future happines therefore the Author seemes to say some better thing to shew that he understands some such better thing which onely in some sense and in some respect is better For the word some thing is often used in such formes of speech to diminish the signification and detract somwhat from the proprietie of the word whereto it is adjoyned Answer 2. The other answere which happily is more sutable to the fense and words of the Author is this The Author therefore speakes thus to intimate that the end of the world is at hand when the reward of eternall life shall be given to the godly that beleeve in God wherefore if those ancient worshippers of God had long since enjoyed it wee that were not then in being might have failed of it Therefore lest wee should be excluded of it God did deferre both the end of the world and the reward of his worshippers and by this meanes provided somthing better for us then otherwise should have been if they who went before us without staying for us while we were yet unborn had alone by themselves attained eternall happinesse For the reasons why wee rest not in the former sense are 1. Because by admitting that sense it doth not sufficiently appeare how God hath truely and really made our condition better by this that they who went before us were not long since rewarded with eternall life but are made to stay for our salvation whether our state be compared with their state or with our owne future state For certainely by this meanes our state is not made better then theirs but onely each of our states is made equall Also how is our present state made hereby better then our future if God had otherwise determined it For what was it that God had appointed unto us was it not the reward of eternall life to be bestowed upon us at the end of the world in the consummation of this present age but this remaines whole and intire unto us neither is it really decreased if we suppose them long since saved neither is it increased if we suppose them not saved They lose much by it in that they yet enjoy not Gods promise of eternall life but what doe we really gaine by it you will say their condition would have beene better and ours worse which because now it is not worse but equall to theirs therefore it may be said to be better now then otherwise it would have beene But all this is rather subtiltie of words then solidity of matter If this had been the intent of the Authors minde could he not nay must hee not have spoken much more clearly thus that God therefore hath not yet given them the reward of eternall life lest they should bee farre superiour unto us and so much the rather because it doth not forthwith follow that our state is therefore truely better because it is not worse then theirs For this would indeed be true if nothing were abated them but seeing all that portion of happinesse whereby they were ancienter then we is abated them certainly by this meanes our happinesse is nothing more but theirs only somthing lesse And the former sense requires that the particle without in the words of the Author should signifie all one with before that is not to exclude us from perfecting simply but onely from the same time of perfecting But if this were the minde of the Author he might as easily have said before as without yea he should have rather said it seeing the usuall force of the latter particle is simply to seperate and exclude that whereto it is adjoyned who sees not if wee respect the proper and native signification of the Authors words that it is all one as if he had said they should not be perfected excluding us or we not being perfected And howsoever the particle something doth sometime diminish the signification yet the matter it selfe in this place seemes to require that it signifie no small or respective good but some singular advantage greatly necessary to our condition which is the usuall force of that particle For such a thing it must needs be that was the cause why such holy men so deare unto God and dead so many ages past should not to this day enjoy the promise of God and receave the reward of their labours and sufferings And in this argument wherein we debate the causes why God should for so many ages deferre the effect of his promise what either may or can or must be brought of greater moment then that by this meanes God in the meane time hath exceedingly provided for us who should otherwise have been excluded from that eternall happines if the time appointed for the perfecting of the godly had been long since expired Piscator a good Interpreter had seen this sense and rightly explicated it if hee had not referred the word promise to the first comming of Christ upon earth contrary to the minde and scope of the Author but had related it to the reward of eternall life as hee ought to have done Neither hath any man cause to object that persons yet unborne are non-entities and non-entities as wee say have neither affections nor conditions and therefore nothing can be done to them either better or worse nothing ordained or provided for their good or evill or if all should bee continually borne then wee must fall upon an infinite proceeding and so no time would bee fixed for the godly wherein to attaine their reward We therefore answer that non-entities are of two sorts either such as actually onely have not being although afterward they shall or may have it or such as necessarily neither have being nor ever shall or can have it Of these latter nothing can be truly said or affirmed but of the former non-entities many things may and commonly are said and their state may sundry wayes be better or worse for hence both Philosophers and Lawyers call them possibilities So Christ said of his betrayer It had beene good for that man if he had never beene borne Mat. 26.24 For when Judas was a non-entity or yet unborne yet even then he was a possibility and might be borne but his non-entity had beene
salvation but in some respect a cause of it more immediate and nearer then faith For for what cause was Enoch translated Was it not because he pleased God But how came he to effect this I suppose by his righteousnesse or as the Scripture expresseth it by his walking with God But what was the cause that made him to walke with God and really endeavour with all his heart to please him Certainly his faith caused this and further yet What was the cause of his faith Certainly one or both those principles whereof we treated in the first verse of this Chapter Enoch had some evidence or sight of something unseen and he had some substance of something hoped And what were they Certainly the same two points whereof the Author spake in the fifth verse for he had a sight of God who is unseen that he is and secondly he had a subsistance of hope that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him This is the chaine and these the severall linkes whereof Enochs translation depends For his evidence or sight was the cause of his hope his hope the cause of his faith his faith of his walking with God his walking with God of his pleasing God and his pleasing God was the cause of his translation Now if we goe backe by way of Resolution through the severall linkes of this chaine we shall easily perceive that without the first linke none of the rest can subsist and so consequently no one that followeth can be without the former and therefore the Author with good reason faith that without faith it is impossible to please God and by the like reason it will as necessarily follow that without good workes or walking with God it is impossible to please him also as also without an evidence or without a sight of God who is unseen it is impossible to have faith True it is that faith is the cause of our pleasing God and also of that eternall salvation which we have from God for what can be more pleasing to the supreme Lord of all things then to see a man of whom God was never seen to relye strongly and without any doubt of minde upon his fidelity bounty goodnesse righteousnesse power and wisdome But faith hath yet another vertue no lesse then the former whereby it procures our salvation as it were at a great distance namely in working in us good workes or walking with God and causing us to come to God and seeke him by suing to him for his favour and grace in all our desires and all our deeds 7. By faith Noah being warned of God The third example is the faith of Noah in that he beleeved the oracle of God warning him of things whereof in the course of nature there was not the least appearance Of this mans faith he teacheth us both what good is wrought in him and what good it brought unto him The word faith here must not be referred to the words immediately following as if he had been warned of God of things not yet seen by his faith but including those words with a comma his faith appeals and coheres to the words moved with feare and to the words following he prepared an Arke c. This oracle or warning of God given him is extant Gen. 6.13 unto the end of the Chapter Of things not seen as yet That is of the future floud that was to come upon the world which then as yet was not only not seene but there appeared no likelihood or possibility of it but what was drawne from Gods warning Moved with fear prepared an Arke These were the effects of Noahs faith first in that hee feared or was moved with feare that God would bring upon the world the punishment he had threatned then from the faith of the punishment and the feare of it he was further induced to frame the Arke as God appointed him that by means thereof he might escape the punishment by drowning the world and so save himselfe and his family from destruction and therefore the Author addes To the saving of his house When the floud came Noah and his family to the number of eight persons entered into the Arke whereby they were saved and all the rest of the world was drowned all men and beasts that were not in the Ark perished by the floud see Gen. 7. This faith of Noah is a good example to us for our imitation that we may learn to apply our selves to a firme faith and beliefe of Gods oracles and predictions whether they be promises concerning the future blessednesse of the godly or whether they bee menaces concerning the future punishment of the wicked and the miserable destruction of the whole world And further that we timely provide our selves of an Arke that is of meanes whereby we may escape the judgements of God and bee saved for ever Now the Arke whereby we may escape from the finall destruction of the whole world and enter into the Tabernacle of immortality is the Answer of a good conscience toward God as Peter teacheth us 1 Epist 3.21 By which he condemned the world It is somewhat doubtfull whether the relative which should be referred whether to Noahs faith or to the Arke for the sense seemes most inclining to the former but the words runne rather for the latter partly because the word Arke stands neerer it and partly because of the words following which say And became heire of the righteousnesse which is by faith Now if the word by which be referred to faith the sense will be this That Noah by his faith became heir of the righteousnesse which is by faith but this seems not proper For can any man thinke that Noah by his faith could have obtained any other righteousnesse then that which comes by faith Neither doth the matter it selfe any way crosse this sense For although Noah condemned the world by his faith yet he also condemned it by the Arke in as much as the Arke was a manifest proofe of his faith For unlesse hee had beleeved the comming of the floud hee would never have prepared the Arke to have lost his labour therein and make himselfe ridiculous to all the world But he is said to condemne the world because by his faith in beleeving the floud and by his fact in making the Arke he convinced the world of obstinacie and thereby tooke away all excuse of sin from them who would give no credence to God by a metaphor taken from accusers who are said to condemne a guilty person in that they convict him of his crime and by that means are the cause that hee is condemned for properly to condemne is the act of the Judge In this sense also Christ saith That the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgement with this generation and condemne it And the Queene of the South shall rise up in the judgement and condemne it Matth. 12.41,42 For by the fact of the Ninevites who reponted at the preaching of