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
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
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
that have been occupied therein Here he brings the reason why in a manner he denied that the heart is established with meats or that such establishing is not so good a thing namely because they that have exercised therein have found no profit thereby To be occupied in meats or as the Greek hath it to walke in meats seeing here as we have shewed meats signifie the meats of the sacrifices or of the holy things is nothing else but to partake of those carnall sacrifices and to accustome the eating of things offered and consecrated and placing therein a part of Gods worship and serice By those who are said to be occupied in those meats are meant the Jewes before they were illuminated in the doctrine of Christ Which have not profited them The Jews found no true profit by eating those meats For as Christ saith of Manna John 6.49 Your fathers did eat Manna in the wildernesse and are dead So may it well be said of the meats of the sacrifices and things consecrated to God Your fathers did eat the meats of sacrifices and are dead But he that recreates and fills his soule with that grace of God which is revealed and exhibited to men in the Gospell hee shall live for ever Therefore the words not profited doe not simply exclude all profit and advantage wholly for the meats of the sacrifices did profit something in respect of that time to repaire the strength of the body for a short time but they had not a true profit belonging to the Spirit but only a carnall profit that was transitory and fugitive not durable and eternall In which sense also Christ saith of his flesh eaten in a carnall way as his Disciples understood it Joh. 6 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing that is it furthereth nothing unto life to produce in men a spirituall and eternall life It is the Spirit that vivifies men which as from the spirituall eating of the flesh of Christ slaine for the life of the world and from the spirituall drinking of his bloud so from that sweet taste of that divine grace which was confirmed by the death and bloud of Christ doth distill into our soules and so revives and quickens us From these words of the Author it is manifest that to Christian Religion it is nothing pertinent or profiting to eat any true meat properly and consequently not the flesh and bloud of Christ For if the body of Christ were properly eaten and therein consisted a part of Religion would not the Author have opposed the meat of Christs flesh and bloud to the meats of those sacrifices would he have said we have an altar whereof it is not lawfull for them to eat no not for the Priests if it be lawfull for the Priests to eat the body and drinke the bloud of Christ offered every day upon the altar and unlawfull not to eat and drinke it Would he have left us only the sacrifice of praise and good workes for the sacrifices and offerings of all animals and other creatures which might be turned into meats 10. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle Hitherto the Author hath shewed that there is very little or no cause why Christians should desire those sacrifices of the Law and the meats of those offerings or should place some part of Gods worship or service in them or should take it grievously that for the profession of Christian Religion they are drawne from commerce and communion with the Jewes and their state Now he shews further that it is not lawfull for Christians to eat the meats of sacrifices as was anciently done under the Law He therefore saith We have an altar Any man may easily perceive that these words are figurative and improper taken from the ordinances in the discipline of Moses which for the most part cannot be applied to the discipline of Christ but by way of abusion and impropriety whereof we had no few examples formerly especially in the comparison of Christ with the Leviticall Priests For for comparisons sake we many times use such words of a thing which without respect to the comparison wee would never use The same impropriety falls out againe here In the Christian Religion to speake properly there is no Altar no Tabernacle to serve no Sacrifices which can be eaten neither if we respect the eating of sacrifices or the abstinence from them is there any such difference betweene Christians as if some were Priests and Ministers of the Tabernacle and others were not Therefore in such sayings we must not weigh every word singly by it selfe as what is signified by the Altar what by the Tabernacle and whereto it answers but we must enquire for the sense of the whole sentence Wherefore these words import nothing else but that Christians have no other sacrifices but such whereof they have no power to eat By those which serve the Tabernacle which under the Law were only Priests and Levites are signified all Christians in generall Christians therefore are said to be in that condition as if under the Law there had been such an Altar whereof and of the sacrifices laid upon it and offered unto God it was not lawfull for any man to eat no not for the Priests themselves and other Ministers of the house of God much lesse for the rest of the people For if there had been such an Altar under the Law then it is apparent unto all men that the eating of sacrifices and things offered unto God should have had no place under the Law But thus it is under the Gospell and therefore the eating of sacrifices must be to Christians unlawfull 11. For the bodies of those beasts whose bloud is brought into the Sanctuarie by the high Priest for sinne are burnt without the campe Here the Author proves by his assertion in the former verse why in Christianitie the matter is so ordered that under the Gospel there is such an Altar whereof the Sacrifices are not permitted to be eaten of any man Yet he proposeth his argument so concisely and briefly that he seemes rather to point at it then explicate it And it manifestly appeares that the Authour takes it as graunted for a ground That Christians have no other Sacrifice but what is resembled by the entrance of the high Priest into the Sanctuary or by those beasts onely whose bloud was brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest and their bodies were burnt without the campe For unlesse the Author took this for graunted he could not from this that in those sacrifices it was not lawful to eat the flesh of the offering simply conclude that it is not lawfull for us Christians to eat sacrifices or that we have an altar whereof we may not lawfully eat And this he might well take for granted because by that Sacrifice whereby our high Priest entred into his Sanctuary under the new Covenant all things were perfomed whether we
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
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
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Here he shewes the great alliance betweene Christ and Christians and what good cause there is why not onely Christ but also the faithfull are stiled by the name of the sonnes of God seeing Christ and they have the same parentage and come as it were from one stocke And he seems to deliver it as a generall rule that the sanctifier and sanctified are all of one i. draw their originall from one person as procreated from one and the same Father To sanctifie is to expiate or purge away sinne and to be sanctified is to have their sinnes expiated or purged away for as sinne doth pollute and prophane us so Expiation doth sanctifie and hallow us And in this sence the word sanctified is often taken in Scripture especially by this Author Now Christ is he that doth sanctifie for hee doth expiate or purge away our sinnes and the faithfull are they that are sanctified for by Christ their sinnes are expiated or purged away And therefore Christ and the faithfull are all of one linage and parentage for hee and they draw their originall from one person even from God who is the common Father to them both and consequently Christ and the faithfull make up betweene themselves but as it were one nation or one people under God and consequently againe he and they are brethren one to another An example hereof was under the Law among the Hebrews to whom this Author writes and to whom therefore this rule of union and fraternitie by meanes of sanctification was the better known For among them the high Priest was he that did sanctifie the people by expiating and purging away their sinnes making atonement to God for them and the people were they who were sanctified by being expiated and purged from their sinnes And both Priest and people were of the same nation sprung from Jacob who was one common Father to them whereupon they used to call one another brethren In like manner the case stands between Christ who is the high Priest to sanctifie and the faithfull who are Gods people to be sanctified as we have already declared it For which cause hee is not ashamed to call them brethren Indeed this cause is very pregnant to make this consequent to follow upon it For seeing that Christ and the faithfull are all of one God as of one common Father therefore they are the brethren of Christ and Christ is not ashamed to call them so for all children proceeding from one common Father are brethren and should not be ashamed to call one another so Indeed the condition of the faithfull is in this life so contemptible and shamefull that Christ might think it a shame to him to have such brethren In which sence this Author saith afterward chap. 11. 16. That God was not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob For how vile are those Patriarks compared to God the Soveraigne Lord of all things especially then being rotted to dust for so many ages before So all Christians how vile and wretched are they how poore contemned and despised insomuch that Christ now so great a King of so great Majestie and glory might justly disdaine to call such creatures his brethren but Christ is not ashamed either to acknowledge them his brethren or to call them by the name of brethren 12. Saying I will declare thy Name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee By three Testimonies out of Scripture hee proves that Christ is not ashamed to call the faithfull brethren The first Testimony is taken from Psal 22.22 The literall sence is David was King over the people of Israel yet hee calls them his brethren and when God had saved him from death he professeth to praise God in their company in the midst of the Congregation or assemby The mysticall sence is Christ is a King over the faithfull yet hee calls the faithfull his brethren and when God had raised and saved him from death he appeared to his disciples where they were congregated and in the middest of their assembly he really declared the power of God in raising him from the dead and with out all doubt did celebrate the Name of God with words of praise and thanksgiving For hence it is we read John 20.17 That Christ after his Resurrection willed Mary to goe unto his brethren and say of him I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God In which words he gives the reason why he calls them his brethren namely because he and they had one common God and Father 13 And againe I will put my trust in him The second Testimony to prove the former point is taken as I conceive out of Psal 91.2 because that Psalme is so frequently applyed to Christ though this testimony be extant in severall other places The literall sence David makes God his God and confidence to put his trust in him and persevering will put his trust in him The literall sence Christ in like manner made God his God and confidence to trust in him and persevered to trust in him For before his Resurrection when he hanged on the Crosse he said My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me Which words argue no despaire but a confident and persevering trust in God that though God did seeme to forsake him yet he should be his God and hee would trust in him Yea the Priests and Scribes mocked at his confidence and trust in God Matth. 27.43 And after his Resurrection he calls God his God in the place precited Joh. 20.17 But now the Quere will be what this makes to the purpose of proving the faithfull to be the brethren of Christ The answer is It proves it directly though not immediatly For seeing Christ and the faithfull have God for their God and for their confidence to put their trust in him therefore he and the faithfull are of one i. are confidents and dependents upon one and the same God and Father and by means of that they must needs be brethren as was before concluded upon verse 11. So this testimony proves their unitie in God and their unity in God proves their fraternity betweene themselves For when the first truth is the reason of the second it is also the reason of all other truths whereof the second is the reason And again Behold I and the children which God hath given me The third Testimony to prove the former point taken from Esai 8.18 The literall sence God had given the Prophet children and he and they were brethren in this that they were to be for signes and wonders and were so appointed to be from God The mysticall sence Christ is the Sonne of God and the faithfull are the children of God Gods post-nati after Christ and therefore are the brethren of Christ And God hath given them unto Christ by bringing them to beleeve in Christ and
words of the Psalme wherein God calls this rest his rest For the Rest proper to God himselfe wherewith he himselfe rested is by a far better title called the Rest of God then that whereof God was only the donor such as was the Rest of the Israelites in the land of Canaan Not that this rest proper to God is numerically the very same with that future rest which God hath promised us but because generically it is a Rest of the same kinde For as Gods Rest was a perpetuall Rest in resting from his workes for ever so shall our Rest bee perpetuall in resting for ever from all our labours and troubles wherein we shall have an eternall festivall 4. For he spake in a certaine place of the seventh day Here hee shews the reason why he understands that rest of God to be his Rest from his workes which hee had finished from the beginning of the world namely because the Scripture or the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scripture speaketh in that manner of the seventh day as Gen. 2 2. and Exod 20.11 And God did rest the seventh day from all his works In these words wee have shewed us the Rest of God neither in the whole Scripture to which only we must look here is mentioned or named any other rest of God whereof the people should come to bee partakers 5. And in this place againe If they shall enter into my rest q d. Wherefore seeing here againe in these words of the Psalme there is mention made of Gods rest whereof Gods people shall partake therefore with good reason in a genuine and mysticall sense doe we understand it of that only rest of God specified in the Scripture But that this rest also belongs unto the people the very festivall and rest of the Sabbath commanded to Gods people is a clear argument wherein there is not only a commemoration of Gods rest past but also a Representation of the Rest of Gods people to come Whereof we shall speake further at the ninth verse following 6. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein After he had shewed that by the words of the Psalme in a mysticall sense we must understand the proper rest of God or that wherein God himselfe rested now he proceeds on to shew that that rest of God mentioned in the words of the Psalme doth appertaine unto us and that a passage therto is opened unto us And first he layes certain grounds for this doctrine and then removes the obstacles that may seem against it The first ground is That some must enter into the rest 2. That they to whom it was first proposed and promised entered not into it For from these two grounds it will follow That some other after that time must enter it But because it might be objected That though those Israelites who came our of Egypt entered not that rest yet their children entred it by the conduct of Josuah their Captaine And therefore it cannot bee concluded that Christians are they that shall enter it This Objection or rather Exception hee dissolves by shewing that in those words of the Psalme whereof he yet treats for some severall ages after the Israelites were possessed of the land of Canaan there is another time appointed wherein an entrance into Gods Rest was to be opened whence it followes that by the conduct of Joshuah Gods people have not yet attained the true rest Whereupon the Author at length concludes That as yet there remaines a Sabbatisme or rest for the people of God This being done he repeats the exhortation begun at the beginning of this Chapter and so returnes to the point from whence he had digressed This is the summe of all that is said unto the end of the 11 verse Now let us consider the severall words in order That some must enter therein Seeing it is the will and good pleasure of God that a passage should be open to that rest and that some should enter into it for this the Author supposeth as a thing well knowne and no way doubtfull For that those first people that fell in the wildernesse were by their owne fault excluded from it this nothing derogates from Gods promise whereby he assured this rest by oath upon the posterity of Abraham to be fulfilled in other persons better and more worthy then those first that failed of it But under the cover of carnall promises and an earthly rest there lay hidden spirituall promises of an heavenly rest pertaining to the spirituall seed of Abraham And the entrance of the Israelites into that earthly rest obtained by the conduct of Josuah what is it else but a type and shadow of Christians future entrance into a heavenly rest by the conduct of Jesus Christ And they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbeliefe First preached in the originall they that had the first good message for the entring of it This is the other point that he confirmes and by occasion whereof the Holy Ghost leaves us the following admonition To day if ye will heare his voice harden not your hearts For because those first of our fathers to whom God had sent the message by Moses for the entring of that rest deserved by their diffidence and disobedience to be excluded from it therefore the Holy Ghost hath in these words appointed to their posterity another day or time wherein they may and must ente into Gods rest and withall exhorts them to it lest following the like disobedience to their forefathers they incur a like issue of their impiety 7. Againe he limiteth a certaine day This is very good cause why another day should be limited for enterance into Gods rest if some must enter it at all and they who were first invited entered it not For if either none were to enter it or some had already entered it then there were no necessity why another day or time should be limited or appointed for entering it But in these words of the Psalm that the holy Ghost in a mysticall sence shewes there is such a day limited which pertains to the times of the Messias these following arguments declare 1. Because by these words the people are admonished to shunne the example of their forefathers that came out of Egypt that they may not be like them in their sin But their forefathers sin was chiefly this that they would not rest in Gods promises for their enterance into his rest Therefore if wee must truly be either like or unlike to them wee also must have Gods promise for our entrance into Gods rest and therefore this day here is limited unto us for our entrance into it 2. Because in this Psalme is proposed to the people the judgement or punishment of God whereinto their fathers fell that they being terrified thereby and fearing the like would not imitake their fathers But that punishment was a rejection from entrance into Gods rest which penaltie no man can incurre but he that hath
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
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
that have once beene Christians and have ceased to be so Vnto repentance So as they performe the acts of repentance by changing their minde into a better frame and by condemning their former resolution to resume that Religion again which once they have wickedly rejected and then to compose their life according to the rules of it Seeing they crucifie to themselves the Sonne of God afresh In these words hee shewes the matter wherein this falling away consists or rather the foul wickednesse cleaving to it and therefore what good cause there is why God wil not have such persons renewed to repentance To crucifie the Son of God is a damnable wickednesse how much more is it so to crucifie him afresh after he is now become glorious immortall and Lord of all things To themselves They doe not crucifie him afresh really and properly for that cannot be but to themselves In respect of themselves they doe it for their falling away from the Christian Religion is all one as if they crucified Christ for by their falling away they judge and condemne him againe to have been a seducer a teacher of false doctrines and so to have been deservedly crucified And put him to an open shame They cast a publike ignominy and reproach upon him as is done to those who undergo a publike and infamous punishment This very wickednesse the Author expresseth in other words signifying the same thing chap. 10.29 where he saith They tread under foot the Sonne and account the bloud of the Covenant an unholy thing 7. For the earth He illustrates and withall confirmes his former assertion by an argument partly of similitude and partly of contrariety For while he shews what is done to good men that are fruitfull of good workes he shews withall what befalls men forgetfull of Gods benefits conferred upon them and ungratefull to him This simily hee proposeth in a concise and contracted forme of speech confounding and mingling the members of it as is frequently done both in Sacred and prophane Writers For hereupon he seems to say of the earth that because it is fruitfull therefore it receives blessing from God which cannot be said properly but only by way of compatison For God doth not blesse the earth with fruits as a reward of her fruitfulnesse for the blessing of God upon the earth is the inriching her with fruits as appears by the words of Isaac to Jacob Gen. 27.27 See the smell of my sonne is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed But because a fruitfull soile is tilled the more diligently hence it is that it more plentifully abounds in fruits And as we have noted the Author spake in this manner because in the reddition this simily it is properly true For when a man becomes like a fruitfull soile and abounds in the fruits of good workes then he receives ablessing from God in reward of his godlinesse Which drinketh in the raine that often commeth upon it The raine that often moisteneth the earth is like the gifts of God showred downe upon men whereof he treated ver 4.5 which are therefore fitly resembled to the raine often falling on the earth because they are manifold and plenteous sufficient to moisten the soul of man and make it spiritually fertill to produce divers fruits of good workes The raine may also resemble the frequent and daily preaching of Gods word which when it is preached is like a showre streaming downe from heaven to water and fructifie the soule of man But the former resemblance is more full and more fit to the point And bringeth forth hearbs meet for them for whom it is dressed The various fruits of vertue and workes acceptable to God done according to his Laws doe resemble those hearbs which the earth brings forth meet for them that dresse it or rather meet for them at whose charge and for whose sake it is dressed namely for the Lord of the soile to whom the fruits and revenues of it doe belong and accrue who in the reddition of the simily is God Hence the Apostle saith We are Gods labourers ye are Gods tillage yee are Gods building 1 Cor. 3.9 Is dressed The earth besides the falling of raine upon it must have a diligent tilling or dressing For the raine alone is not sufficient to make the earth fruitfull in hearbs meet for the Owner of it unlesse it be also dressed by plowing or digging weeding and dunging Hence the vine-dresser pleaded for the barren fig-tree Lord let it alone this yeere also till I shall dig about it and dung it Luke 13.8 So also God doth not onely water our soules with his gifts as with frequent and seasonable showres but also affords us a diligent and various dressing by the labour of his Ministers to instruct exhort reprove and comfort us Receaveth blessing from God Why the Authour speakes thus of the earth and what that blessing is in reference to the earth we have shewed already in the enterance of this verse But in reference to men fruitfull in good workes this blessing of God signifies both a multiplying of his spirituall gifts in this life for to him that hath shall bee given saith Christ and every branch that beareth fruit God prunes it that it may bring forth more fruit John 15.2 and also chiefly the gift of eternall happinesse in the life to come For then God blesseth a man when he makes things to goe well with him but better things can never go with us then when he makes us eternally blessed and happy 8 But that which beareth thornes and briars That earth which is watered with frequent rain and diligently dressed doth not withstanding beare thornes and briars Whence it appeares that here the Author hath reference to men who have received the knowledge of divine truth as the assertion it selfe requires for proofe whereof he alledgeth these words and to such men who for no small time have been endowed with divers gifts and diligently dressed of God These thornes and briars are all sorts of evill workes which have no use but for evil for hence the Apostle calls them unfruitfull workes Ephes 5.11 Among which Apostasie or defection from Christ leads the first ranke And from this simily it is manifest that the judgement or punishment which expects apostates doth also wait for them who have affinity with apostates whom we mentioned before who after knowledge of the truth and after so many gifts and benefits bestowed by God upon them are yet indulgent to their sinnes and without all endeavour of a better life conformable to Gods lawes Is rejected In the originall is reprobated For no man is willing to labour in vain and to weary himselfe with fruitlesse workes When a piece of land hath been dressed and dunged with all labour and care and yet in stead of fruits bringeth forth nothing but thorns and briars and other weeds that yeeld no profit to the husbandman the manner is for men to meddle no more with
a great dignity and prerogative in the Levites in that all the rest of the tribes though descendants with them from the same Abraham yet were bound to pay them tithes And so the dignity of Melchisedec far exceeded theirs Who receive the office of the Priesthood He saith not that the sons of Levi receive the office of Priesthood but they of them who receive it For all the Levites had not right to the Priesthood but only some of them namely the posterity of Aaron as ye may see at large Num. 3. Num. 18. The rest of the Levites were joyned to the Priests to minister unto them in the holy things to keep the Temple and the holy vessels to beâ—r the Aâ—k when need required which notwithstanding they might neither touch nor look upon till it were wrapped up to slay the ordinary sacrifices brought by single persons and to performe such other services Have a commandement to take tithes of the people This right and priviledge was granted them from God to claim tithes of the people For to speak properly the commandement to take tithes was not laid upon the Priests but the people were bound by Gods commandement to give tithes and thereupon the Priests had a right to require and exact them According to the Law The manner how tithes should be paid the matter from what things the persons to whom and the times when are all determined by Gods Law For first the people must give tithes to the Levites Numb 18 21. Then the Levites must give tithes of their tithes to the Priests Numb 18.28 And herein the dignity of the Priests appeares farre the greatest because not onely the rest of the Tribes but also the Levites themselves who were of the same Tribe gave tithes unto the Priests That is their brethren though they came out of the loynes of Abraham Certainly a great dignity Which would not have beene so great if some other men had beene bound to pay them tithes but that their owne brethren who came as well as they from the loynes of the same Abraham should be bound to it by the Law of God this was a great argument of the dignity and eminency that rested in the Priests 6. But hee whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham He shews how much in this respect Melchisedec is greater then the Leviticall Priests whom first he described in such words as most elegantly agree to Christ his antitype that he might tacitely shew that it nothing hindered Christ from the dignity of his high Priesthood that he came not from the Tribe of Levi. For it is as much as if he had said The Leviticall Priests have this right and dignity that they take tithes of their brethren though they descend from the same Abraham But how much greater is it that he who as he comes not from the same stock so neither doth he count his kindred from them tooke tithes of Abraham himselfe For it is much more and more worthy to have Abraham himselfe tributary to him then those who come from the loynes of Abraham Wherefore the Leviticall Priests have no cause to boast as if to their line alone this right and priviledge were granted of taking tithes from the people seeing he who neither belongs to their line nor accounts himselfe of it did as the Author speakes decimate Abraham himselfe And blessed him that had the promises We have said before that the Author preferres Melchisedec before the Leviticall Priests for three reasons whereof the first is bipartite whose former part the Author hath hitherto produced and referring the latter part to the end of the proofe he comes here to the second full reason taken from the act of Melchisedec in blessing Abraham Yet that the great dignity of Melchisedec might the more evidently appeare in this act of blessing he doth not name Abraham but describes him under this notion him that had the promises q.d. Melchisedec blessed him whom God was to blesse and had bound himselfe by promise to blesse him and make him a blessing For God had already said unto him I will make of thee a great Nation and I will blesse thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing And I will blesse them that blesse thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed Gen. 12.2,3 To blesse this man that had such promises of blessing and those so great that there were none greater knowne upon earth and to blesse him also not by way of charity or good will by praying for all happinesse upon him but in a singular way according to his office as he was the Minister and Priest of God to whose prayer and wish God would in a manner obliege himselfe which certainly is an evidence of high preeminence and dignity And from thence he meanes to conclude that Melchisedec was greater then Abraham 7. And without all contradiction the lesse is blessed of the greater He had before expressed the Assumption that Melchisedec blessed Abraham and now hee addes the Proposition leaving every man to frame the conclusion that Melchisedec is greater then Abraham And if hee be so much greater then Abraham much more is he greater then the Leviticall priests Without all controversie These words shew that his assertion is so evident and manifest that no man can well deny it and that with good cause For every kinde of apprecation or blessing is not here to be understood for even the least and meanest person may blesse and pray for the best and greatest and many times doth so but as we have often noted a singular and sacerdotall blessing For he that gives another a blessing as the Priest and especiall Minister of God to whom God hath committed the right and office of it in such manner that God will second the blessing of the Priest with his and in a manner be obliged to performe it certainly that person that thus gives the blessing is greater and worthier then he that receives it He is greater and worthier if not in estate and civill power as if hee blesse a King when hee himselfe is none which notwithstanding had not place in Melchisedec yet certainely in regard of sacred function For hee is nearer in degree to God then the other as a mean person between God that blesseth and the partie blessed to whom he gives a kinde of right to obtaine from God the things hee prayeth for Therefore wee read Numb 6.27 That God after he had commanded that Aaron and his sonnes should blesse the people of Israel and had prescribed also the forme of the blessing doth professe that he will second the blessing and confirme it upon the people They shall faith God put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them Hence the sonne of Syrach when hee supplicated God for the people and endeavoured to move him by his prayers he forgets not this blessing of
are after the order of Aaron For Melchisedec was both a King and a Priest the Levites were onely Priests he had no Priestly pedigree these must have so he had neither predecessor nor successor these succeed one another he is an eternall Priest these dye lastly he is greater and worthier then Abraham himselfe and therefore much more so then the Leviticall Priests After the order of Melchisedec The order of Melchisedec is a little otherwise taken then the order of Aaron for by that is signified a likenesse onely with the Priest Melchisedec as the Author speakes afterward ver 15. but in this is contained not onely a likenesse with Aaron but also a naturall succession into his place and Priesthood 12. For the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law He brings a reason which notwithstanding was before tacitely shewed in the parenthesis which we explicated why a Priest must be ordained according to Aaron and no other rise according to the order of Melchisedec if by the Aaronicall Priesthood mens sins could have beene expiated perfectly The reason is because the Priesthood could not be abrogated or changed unlesse the Law whereby it was established were abrogated and changed also Wherefore either to preserve the authority of the Law it selfe if not for the dignity of the Leviticall Priesthood a Priest must have beene ordained after the order of Aaron if perfection came by that Priesthood But because this was not done therefore it is manifest that perfection could not be given by that Priesthood and consequently for the imperfection of it there was good cause it should expire He saith the Priesthood was changed not onely for that it was translated to another Tribe diverse from that of Levi wherein a Priest was ordained after the order of Melchisedec but also in that the Priesthood it selfe was altered and changed into another kinde different from the former Although to the end the Author might use this word in this latter sense for altered therefore from the former sense of changing the Tribe he might take occasion consequently to use it of the Law thereby to signifie the abrogation of the Law For hence afterward at the eighteenth verse when he speakes of the Law alone instead of the word changed he puts disanulling or abrogating And the abrogation of the Law though in this place it properly be referred to that part of the Law whereby the Aaronicall Priesthood was established yet we must know that upon the abrogation of that Sacerdotall Law all the force and authority of the Law of Moses was disanulled also especially concerning externall rites and ceremonies For together with the Priesthood not some one Law fell alone but many Lawes and divers rites fell with it neither is there any cause to thinke but that upon the expiring of so many Lawes all the rest of the same kinde and nature died also And besides upon the abrogation of one Commandement of Moses Law is not that bond of the Law dissolved which layes a curse upon him that continues not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law but upon the dissolution of this bond the whole frame of the Law must needs fall asunder For from that bond it appeares that it was the minde of the Law-maker that all the precepts or commandements of that Law should either stand together or by the fall of one the authority of the whole Law should faile 13. For he of whom these things are spoken Here the Author proves that the Priesthood being changed or another Priest after the order of Melchisedec being ordained the Law thereupon must needs bee changed or abrogated The reason is because the person designed by these words Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec descended not from Levi but from another Tribe out of which no person descending might lawfully approach to the Altar to offer sacrifice as a Priest But the Law which ordained the Priesthood of Aaron did expresly provide that no man not of the Tribe of Levi and no man of that Tribe not of the family of Aaron should exercise the Priesthood Whence it is manifest that a Priest after the order of Melchisedec could not be ordained unlesse the Law were violated Pertaining to another Tribe of which no man gave attendance at the Altar Attendance at the Altar is the performance of the Ceremonies by officiating at the Sacrifices and ordering those things that appertained to the Altar to such other services And attendance here must not be taken for the act of doing it but for the right to do it for it is wel knowne that some Kings did dare de facto to approach unto the Altar burn Incense there but by usurpation and without any right to do it 14. For it is evident our Lord sprang out of Iudah of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning Priesthood Here he confirmes his former reason that Christ our Lord of whom these words were spoken that he was a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec pertained to a Tribe of which no man gave attendance at the Altar or performed the office of Priesthood The reason is because it is evident that he sprang out of Judah of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the Priesthood and therefore by the Law had no right to the Priesthood for this followes upon the former And the Author takes it for granted that he of whom the words of the Psalme are spoken is our Lord Christ the annointed of God That Christ sprang out of the Tribe of Judah he saith it is evident i. generally knowne to all men for no man was ignorant that Christ came from the line of David And he had good reason to take this for granted because these words of the Psalme Thou art a Priest for ever are spoken of him whom David in the beginning of that Psalme calleth his Lord speaking of him in the spirit but he that is the Lord of David must needs be our Lord also who seeing he is mentioned of the Lord Jehovah or the most high and onely God as a distinct person to whom the words were spoken from him that spake them Sit thou at my right hand and Thou art a Priest for ever certainely he can be no other then Christ our Lord the anointed of God For that this was acknowledged of the Masters and Doctors among the Jewes it is manifest from hence that Christ disputing with the Pharisees supposeth it as a thing no way doubtfull but confessed of all when he demanded of them How David could call Christ his Lord seeing as they had answered him he was his son For unlesse they had all acknowledged it the answer had beene easie to say that Christ was neither that Lord nor so called of David The Author also supposeth it for granted that our Lord Christ sprang from the Tribe of Judah because he wrote to them who were already perswaded that
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
in that being it had amongst them it must never cease to be nor faile to be lesse for hee tacitly attributes this vertue unto them and supposing it amongst them already requires the continuance of it For he had spoken before of their worke and labour of love that they had ministred unto the Saints and did minister And therefore he seems not simply to exhort them to the duty of love as if it were not yet amongst them but to the continuance of it as supposing it amongst them already 2. Be not forgetfull to entertaine strangers The second good office is that of hospitality Hospitality is but love and charity carryed upon another object when our love is not restrained to our acquaintance only whom wee know but enlarged towards strangers in generall whom we know not whether they be our brethren or not And it consisteth in receiving strangers into our houses and entertaining them will all good offices of humanity and courtesie especially according to our abilities and their necessities And as hospitality must be exercised toward all strangers so especially and in the first place toward Christians who are our brethren and chiefly to those of them that are exiles and become strangers for the cause of Christ and his Religion And to this hospitality may be referred our humanity toward the poor by inviting them to our houses and cheering them in a kinde and comfortable manner And of hospitality we must not be forgetfull i. We must not neglect it For those things that we forget we also neglect or as we have said before wee take no care for them the contrary whereof we shall see in the verse following For thereby some have entertained Angels unawares He commends hospitality and moves us to the exercise of it in regard that thereby some have entertained Angels unawares He hath reference to the history of Abraham and Lot whereof both were wondrous hospitable and carefull to receive and entertaine strangers into their houses and both unawares happened upon Angels sent from God carrying themselves in the shape of men which they received into their houses So that by the hospitality of some namely of Abraham and Lot it came to passe that they received and entertained Angels not knowing them to bee Angels then when they received them For if they had evidently knowne them to bee Angels it had been no marvell that they invited them into their houses or tents for this they might well have done though otherwise they had not been hospitable For who is so inhospitable but if he thinke he may procure Angels to accept of his entertainment will delay to invite them when he findes them at his doore though indeed this were no hospitality at all for he that invites Angels must needs know that Angels can be in no necessity to stand in need of entertainment which hospitality alway supposeth in the stranger that she receiveth The three men seen of Abraham From these words of the Author it is manifest how vainly they are mistaken who thinke that the three men who were seen and invited of Abraham Gen. 18.2 were the persons of the holy Trinity and because hee saw three and worshipped but one calling him My Lord therefore they gather that Abraham believed that those three persons were one God These men perceive not upon what a fallacious conjecture they relye in matters of so high moment For this divine Author doth openly declare and testifie that they were Angels and not three persons of the Deity which if they had been he might surely have commended hospitality with a far higher encomium of praise and have said that by reason of that vertue not Angels but the persons of the Deity received entertainment And we desire leave to demand of these men what they thinke whether Abraham when hee saw those three persons and worshipped one of them inviting him into his tent did then certainly know that he entertained the persons of the sacred Trinity or not know it If they affirme the first that hee did know it then we further demand of them why Abraham used them as men why he dressed meat and caused it to be set before them and exhibited other offices of courtesie to them which are usually done unto men was he so ignorant of things that he knew not that God wanted no such entertainment And why doth this Author say that he entertained men unawares For what can this signifie else but that he believed them to be men Did hee who did not so much as imagine them to be Angels believe them to be persons of the Deity But if for the second point these men confesse as the truth is and as this Author clearly teacheth that Abraham supposed that he saw and invited no other persons but men with what reason doe they gather that because he saw three and worshipped one therefore he believed that they were one God distinct in three persons Did he therefore believe it because he did not so much as imagine it But you will say why then did he worship one seeing he saw three without all doubt he therefore did it because one of them carried himselfe so as seeming greater worthier then the rest and was eminent amongst them And surely one of them only is called Jehovah and is cleerly distinguished from both the other In the 18. Chapter of Genesis compare the 17. verse and so forth and the last verse with the first verse of the Chapter following where the two other Angels went to Lot in Sodome For this may be a sufficient argument that from this one point of worshipping one the unity of a common essence among them cannot bee collected seeing Lot worshipped also the other two bowing himselfe with his face toward the ground and called them joyntly My Lords Gen. 19.1,2 But if that one at Abrahams tent carried himselfe for a divine person why is he alone both worshipped of Abraham and called Jehovah in the Scripture Were not the other persons worthy of the same honour and of the same name But if that one went for the divine and commune essence where shall be the third Person of the Deity Did therefore Abraham worship the divine Essence and neglect the divine Persons or did one carry himselfe for the Essence and for a Person also And why not the rest also if the divine Essence were equally commune to them all Eusebius in his first booke contends that this one Person was the Sonne of God because that after Abraham knew him he is called Lord and God For hee will not have him to be the most high God because to him it is not incident to undergoe such a change as to assume a strange shape and converse with men under it Neither may we think to insert this by the way that those fathers who lived before and about the times of the Nicene Councel and the whole Church in generall held this opinion of God to believe that the Sonne is that
the Rulers of the Church watch for our soules that no mans soule should perish or that no man should faile of that true and eternall salvation of soules Whence it appeares what great reason wee have to obey our Rulers whose charge and care belongs wholly to our soules and whose commands and admonitions we can despise with no lesse danger then the losse of our soules As they that must give account Now on the other side he shewes a reason of the duty of our Rulers whom God hath appointed over us why they must use all diligent care to watch for our soules namely because they must give an account of their office and actions to God and Christ who hath committed his poore sheep to their care and charge so that if any perish through their default or negligence they must answer for it under a grievous penaltie For to this purpose tend those words of God in Ezekiel So thou O sonne of man I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel therefore thou shalt heare the word at my mouth and warne them from me When I say unto the wicked O wicked man thou shalt surely die If thou dost not speake to warne the wicked from his way that wicked man shall die in his iniquitie but his bloud will I require at thine hand Neverthelesse if thou warne the wicked of his way to turne from it if he doe not turne from his way he shall die in his iniquitie but thou hast delivered thy soule Ezek. 33.7,8,9 Therefore this so weightie and so dangerous an Office which our Rulers bear doth altogether require on their part that they bee carefull to watch for our soules and it well deserves on our part that we should obey and subject our selves unto them and not take it in ill part if to provide not onely for our salvation but their owne they refuse to humour and flatter our fancies That they may doe it with joy and not with griefe Hee yet presseth our obedience with a further reason namely that our Rulers may reape some spirituall fruit of their Office and performe it with joy and not with griefe For certainely this their Office so dangerous to themselves and so commodious to us doth deserve this respect at our hands that in the function of their Office wee should so carry our selves as to be a comfort and joy unto them and not a griefe And we are a joy unto them when we shew our selves obsequious and pliant to their doctrines precepts and warnings but we are a griefe to them when we are refractory and obstinate And not with griefe In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly and adequatly signifies sighing which is the outward effect and signe of inward griefe and sorrow For to this effect are the words of Saint Paul 2. Cor. 2.3 And I wrote this same unto you lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoyce And again in the same Epistle chap. 12.21 I feare lest when I come again my God will humble me among you that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented For that is unprofitable for you This is spoken by way of mollifying or diminishing the matter For to grieve our rulers by our disobedience is not only unprofitable to us but very hurtfull Seeing God wil take sore vengeance upon us for this double offence that we should deserve so ill at Rulers hands who watch so piously carefully for the salvation of our souls as to repay their diligence care with grief sorrow 18. Pray for us A particular precept or request unto the Hebrews But he speaks onely of himselfe in the plurall number as it appeares in the verse following wherein expressing what they should pray for he mentions a thing concerning himselfe onely For wee trust wee have a good conscience Hee subjoynes the ground or cause of his request namely because hee was not a person altogether unworthy to obtain this good Office from them But hee speakes very modestly and prudently of himselfe that he might decline all envie For first hee saith not simply we have a good conscience but we trust wee have a good conscience so wee beleeve and so wee perswade our selves which could not but bee improperly spoken seeing to speake properly a good conscience consisteth in the perswasion of it selfe Therefore a good conscience is in this place taken for the cause of a good conscience that is for a life unblameable or voide of all offence as if he had said I trust and am perswaded that I so live and so carry my selfe that my conscience may well be at rest with my actions Secondly hee speakes in the plurall number and by way of communication doth mingle himselfe in a manner with the multitude seeming also to testifie no more of himselfe then of them In all things willing to live honestly Hee shewes the reason of his confidence why he trusteth that he hath a good conscience namely because hee is willing to live honestly in all things Hee saith not that actually hee doth live honestly in all things but affectively hee is willing to live so which is much more modest But his willingnesse herein must not be taken for the sole purpose and intention of his minde but of his study endeavour and labour or of a will continually actuall and effectuall For so Saint Paul testifies of himselfe Acts 24.16 And herein doe I exercise my self to have alwayes a good conscience void of offence toward God and toward men And this is to live well and honestly in all things namely in all our actions and dealings when thou carriest thy selfe so uprightly that thou deservest no just reproofe or blame neither in the sight of God nor of men Before God in being cleare from all spot from which a Christian life ought to be free and before men in appearing such a one that thou givest no just occasion to any either to thinke or suspect evill of thee and dost shun all such things as though they be not determined by any Law of God yet are dishonest in mens opinion 19. But I beseech you the rather to doe this Namely to pray for me And the adverbe the rather may be referred to the next verbe before it I beseech you as if he had said I beseech you so much the rather to pray for me that I may be restored unto you the sooner or it may bee referred to the verbe after it to doe this as if he had said I beseech you that you would the rather pray for me But for what That I may bee restored unto you the sooner He shews the end and fruit of their prayers to what effect they should the rather and the more earnestly pray for him namely thereby to obtaine from God that he might be restored unto them the sooner that is that his returne unto them might be speedier then it was like to