respect of the prohibition and commination of the Law is guilt and rendring of the Sinner obnoxiâ—us unto vindicative Justice of the Law-giver and Judge This guilt can no waye he taken away but either by suffering or pardon or both as here it 's put away by Christ's suffering and God's pardon for Christ suffers for Sin God pardons it so Christ's sake and in consideration of his suffering and offering The effect of Sin is to render the party sinning obnoxious and liable to punishment and God's vindicative Justice and by this virtue of the commination of the Law God to make way for pardon by a transâ—endent extraordinary power makes Christ man's Surety and Christ voluntarily submits himself out of love to his Brethren to God's will so far as to suffer Death for man's Sin and offers himself as being â—lain to the Supream Judge Upon his submission he becomes one person with sinful man as a Surety with the principal and so is liable to that punishment which sinful man should have suffered as a Surety becomes liable to pay the debt of the principal From all this it 's evident that Sin is an efficient moral cause of Christ's suffering and Christ's suffering is a punishment in proper sense though both these be denied without any reason by the Socinian By this Legal substitution of Christ and the offering of himself Sin is made remissible and the way is made open to pardon and upon the penitency and faith of the Sinner actual pardon follows That Sin is pardonable and pardoned is the end and effect of Christ's Suffering To put away Sin is first to make Sin pardonable and the consequents of Sin removable For this is the work and immediate effect of Christ's Sacrifice of himself and the same not often but once offered in the end of the World In all this we may observe the difference between Christ and the Levitical High-Priest Christ suffers and offers himself and enters Heaven with his own Blood but the Levitical High-Priest offers often and enters with the blood of Bulls and Goats The virtue of the High-Priest's offering was but for a little time but the virtue of Christ's extends to all time In these respects Christ's Sacrifice is far more excellent and more purifying § 25. This discourse of Christ's once offering and once suffering is continued and enlarged for the Apostle informs us that the reason why Christ suffered but once in the end of the World was the Decree of God which had determined of Christ as he had done of other men and this decree was regulated by Divine Wisdom which alwayes dictates that which shall be best and fittest This Decree is two-fold 1. Concerning other men 2. Concerning Christ. And because there is some agreement between the lot of Christ and other Men in respect of Death and that which followeth Death therefore the singularity of Christ's Death is set forth comparatively And of the comparison we have 1. The Proposition Verse 27. And as it was appointed unto Men once to dye but after that the Judgment IN which words we have 1. Something 's ordained 2. The ordination The things ordained are two 1. That men once dy 2. Come to Judgment The words absolutely considered may be reduced to two Propositions 1. That it 's appointed unto men once to dye 2. But after Death follows Judgment The first tells us 1. That men dye and this we certainly know 2. That they dye but once 3. That this is appointed yet though men must dye and it 's so certain and so evident and easily known yet men little consider it but their hearts are strangely taken up with the things of this life and they admire the vanities of this World and promise unto themselves long life and certain enjoyment of these earthly things They do not remember that they are mortal and that there is no assurance that they shall live one hour before Death arrest them and seise upon their estates and all earthly comforts in that day their thoughts perish and their pride and glory are laid in the dust Oh inconsiderate Wretches are ye able to conquer Death turn Mortality into Eternity and Earth into Heaven Be wise and never forget that you must dye 2. Men dye but once there is no return into this World again neither any recovery of what man once dead hath lost As no man can keep alive his Soul so no man can raise his Body and re-unite the Soul unto it This is a work proper to God who made us and far above the power of any Creature When it 's said That men must dye it 's to be understood of the generality of mankind that all must dye because all are obnoxious to Death and Mortal even Enoch and Elias and all those who shall be found alive when Christ shall come to Judge the World And though the two Prophets did not and they who remain till Christ's coming shall not dye as others do yet the former suffered and the latter shall suffer a change equivalent to Death though in both there seems to be some exception from the general rule So to dye but once is the general rule and the ordinary fate yet Lazarus and others may dye twice because God reserved an arbitrary power to himself to raise some unto a mortal life so that they became obnoxious to a double Death and he did exercise this power to manifest his Glory in some particular persons Yet this was an extraordinary case and this reservation did not take away the general and ordinary rule according to which the Apostle is to be understood 3. This is appointed for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is understood and translated and it 's capable of that signification by a Trope The party who appointed decreed and ordained both that all men shall dye and dye once and but once is not expressed but it 's easily understood For the Supream Lord of Life and Death who hath an Universal Power over all Men is God and none else and therefore this must be a Decree of God as Supream Lord and a Sentence of him as Judge and the same irrevocable yet dispensable in some particular and extraordinary Cases as should seem good unto him Death is a punishment and therefore men being obnoxious unto it must be guilty of some Crime and condemned thereunto for some Offence against some Law threatening Death And that was the positive Law which God gave to Adam saying But of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17. This Law was transgressed and the Sentence followed in these words Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. Whereas the Socinian saith That Death is natural and not from any Decree of God his Opinion is not reconcileable with that of the Apostle As by one man Sin entred into the World and by Sin Death
the mercies obtained by Faith the second to the sufferings which are to be reduced to the Catalogue of Sufferings which follow In the first we may observe 1. What the mercy received was 2. Who received it 3. By what they received it 1. The mercy received was great and such as could not have been given but by God and also by his extraordinary power For it presupposeth the parties raised to be dead which is the last and greatest of all evils in this Life and puts an end to all our earthly Hopes and Comforts which it wholly taketh away And though men may strengthen the Weak heal the Sick relieve the oppressed and deliver out of many Troubles and Dangers yet Death they cannot prevent when the fatal hour approacheth nor restore life after it 's once lost Death is an invincible Enemy and neither can Man or Angel rescue any out of Death's power yet the parties dead which were Children were raised life restored to them and Soul and Body separated were re-united yet to be separated again for the life restored was not immortal 2. The parties who received this extraordinary Mercy were both Women and Mothers as the parties dead were their Children The one was the Widow of Zarepta 1 King 17. 19. and he that raised her son was Elijah The other was the Shunamite whose son being dead was restored to life by Elisha 2 King 4. 21. There was a third person raised from the dead when he was cast into the Grave of the Prophet We do not read of any other dead persons restored to life in the Old Testament by these or any other Prophets 3. By Faith they are said to have received their dead It 's not written that they raised them but that they received them being raised The Prophets did raise them restore them and deliver them to their Mothers Yet neither could these Prophets by their own power do any such thing for it was an effect of the almighty power of God who made them his Instruments and by them upon their instant prayers did this great Work yet their prayers without Faith could not have been so effectual The Women also did much desire this mercy and did believe that God by the Prophets could restore their Children which were raised by the Faith of Prophets and received alive by the Faith of the Mothers The second Effect here mentioned is Patience in such as suffered cruel Torments in their Bodies Here begins the Catalogue of the suffering of the Saints which did evidence their Faith without which we can neither do good nor suffer evil so as God requireth This example is not found in Canonical Scripture therefore the Apostle knew it either by Tradition or some historical Writing yet so that he some wayes knew infallibly the truth of the matter Some think the Apostle understood Eliazar mentioned 2 Mach. 6. 18 19 20 c. and the Woman and her seven Sons so cruelly tortured as we read in 2 Maccab. 7. Chapter following who are related to have suffered constantly in hope of the Resurrection In the words we may observe 1. Their Suffering 2. Their non-Acceptance of Deliverance 3. Their Faith 1. Their Suffering they were Tortured The Sufferings of God's People may be truly said to be either Trials or Chastifements or Punishments or some or all of these and if we consider the Evils which both good and bad are subject unto in this Life we must distinguish between the matter and the manner For the matter of Sufferings passively considered may be the same in all but the manner as also the Causes are very different For the Sufferings of God's Saints are so qualified by Faith that in them many divine vertues are manifested and they tend though not to the meriting yet to the attaining of eternal Glory For if we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. And our leight Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. These Persons here intended are said to be Tympanized which is to be tormented several wayes as by beating and fustigation by racking and extension by tearing and excoriation for the word it self doth not determine the manner of Torment Therefore it 's well turned by this general word Tortured that is they were put to bodily pain The Torturers were Anâ—â—ochus and his cursed Agents the Sufferers and Subjects of these Tortures were the Jews which refused to obey the Commands of that cruel Tyrant contrary to the Laws of God 2. The Non-Acceptance of Deliverance doth imply that they might upon certain Conditions have been freed from these cruel Pains and so have prevented Death and that they rather chose to suffer more and dy than accept of the Conditions If we consult the History we shall understand 1. That they were commanded to do some things contrary to the Laws of God 2. That though they were in the Power of a cursed cruel Prince and perswaded both by Promise and threatning to obey yet they refused 3. That upon the Refusal they were tortured 4. In some Intermission of the torture they were advised again to yield for their Persecutors thought the bitterness of the pain might prevail much with them 5. Yet it did not for they remained constant and were ready to suffer the worst and to dy rather than disobey their God This was the Cause of their Suffering and made it glorious For they suffered not as Malefactors for their Crimes but for Righteousness sake and did manifest that they loved God and Righteousness more than their lives 3. They did thus suffer thus refuse Deliverance to obtain a better Resurrection this was the End of both and did manifest both their Faith and Hope 1. Their Faith in that they did believe there was a Resurrection unto eternal Life and that God not only could but also would raise them up again restore an immortal glorious blessed Life for a miserable short and mortal Breath and abundantly recompence their cruel Pains suffered in Obedience to him with eternal Pleasures They were assured that God was a Rewarder of those who diligently seek him by doing Good and suffering Evil for his sake 2. Their Hope grounded upon this Faith was their constant expectation of this Resurrection according to God's Promise For he had promised it to all such as really love him and their Suffering was a great Evidence of their Title and did assure them of Possession in due time Here two things are to be noted 1. That Resurrection to Immortality is general and common to all both good and bad for all must rise again to Judgment Yet some shall rise to Condemnation and the Suffering of eternal Shame and Punishment and others unto everlasting Life and Glory This latter Resurrection is here meant which is said to be better because by it they should receive a better Life than could be enjoyed on Earth 2. That it 's better for
to allude to the institution and education of Children who are sometimes more severely corrected not only by Words but by the Rod. The cause of Rebuke and Chastisement is some fault or offence the end is correction and reformation in respect of the former they are Punishments in respect of the latter Corrections in themselves they are Afflictions and sometimes they are Tryals God's Children have their failings ignorances negligences and sometimes are guilty of more hainous Sins In respect of these God as a Judge doth punish as a wise Master tryes them as a loving Father corrects them and by these doth prevent Sin for time to come stirs up to heavenly Duties makes them more penitent for Sin past more careful of themselves and prepares them for their possession of their eternal Inheritance Though they may truly be said to be Punishments because grievous for the time yet they are more properly Chastisements and Corrections because the principal thing intended is their future good As they come from their Persecutors they are Wrongs as from God they are Effects not only of his Justice but chiesly of his Mercy 2. To despise is to think them fortuitous and to bear them with a stupid or sensless mind and not consider and understand they come from God that the end is repentance and amendment that the cause is sin or if we understand these things not to repent and reform but continue and harden our hearts in sin For this is not to regard God's chastising hand so as to make right use of our Sufferings To faint under these is to be weaty of our Profession and to incline to Apostacy because our Sufferings for it are so grievous and of so long continuance And in this negative Dehortation is implied an affirmative Exhortation and the Duty exhorted unto is to make the right use of our Afflictions by reformation of our selves and a patient and constant Suffering unto the end For God's desâ—â—n in these is to prevent Apostacy that we may not be condemned with the World § 7. The Motive and Reason inclining us to performance followeth Ver. 6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth overy Son whom he receiveth AS for the translation of these words there is some difference between the Hebrew Copies which we now have and the Septuagint which the Apostle followeth For the Hebrew readeth That God correcteth even as a Father the Son in whom he delighteth but the Sâ—ptuagint otherwise That he chastenth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Some think that the Hebrew Copy which the Seventy translated differed from that which we now have Yet notwithstanding the sense of both for the matter and substance is the same For to chastise a Son whom he loveth and in whom he receiveth is to correct and scourge as a Father the Son in whom he delighteth The words must be considered 1. In themselves absolutely 2. As a reason of that which went before 1. In themselves the matter and subject of them is the castigation and correction of Children And here correction and chastigation of every Child whom God receiveth is the Effect and his love is the Cause and from this Cause and love of God is inferred the Effect the Chastisement of every Child The Propositions are two 1. God loveth and receiveth some as Children 2. He chastiseth every one whom he so loveth and receiveth 1. This Love here intended is a Love wherewith God loves us as Children which is the greatest and most tender love of all others and presupposeth another love antecedent whereby he Regenerates Adopts and makes us his Children this latter is a Love of benevolence and good will issuing from his own Goodness and that most freely The Object of it is Man as sinful ungodly an Enemy in whom there is nothing amiable and sit to move God to love us The former is a Love of complacency after he hath made us amiable and a sit Object of Love This Reception may either be an admission of us into the number of Sons which is adoption or his acceptation of us and delight in us once adoped and this seems here to be intended This paternal love and acceptation is the cause 2. The Effect is Chastisement For to correct chasten and scourge a Son here are the same And here it 's to be noted 1. That the Subject of this Castigation is Every Son 2. That it 's an Effect of Fatherly Love 1. It 's proper to a Son for though he may punish and afflict others yet he doth not chastise them And as it 's proper unto Sons so it agrees to every Son not any one of them is excepted for as all are castigable so all are castigated in one kind or another in a greater or lesser measure 2. That this Castigation is from Love because it tends conduceth and is in some sort necessary to our spiritual and eternal good God knows both our condition and disposition that both are such that they require Chastisement and Correction without which we are in danger of many Sins and of Apostacy to be prevented Yet the principal Cause of prevention is the sanctifying Spirit which alwayes makes use of the Word and many times of the Rod of Correction which will not be laid aside wholly whilst God's Children are in the Flesh But in Heaven where there is no danger there is no Use of it any more because them we shall be sanctified fully and for ever This is the meaning of the words considered absolutely but if we refer them to what went before we shall find them to contain a Motive and a Reason to perswade us to perform the Duty exhorted unto And the force of it is very great for if our Sufferings be from God as a Father and out of Love to us as his Children tending to our good and no Child of his is exempted from them then we should not despise them not faint under them but God himself saith they are such This Reason is more distinctly and particularly unfolded and urged in the words following § 8. Thus you have heard 1. How these words are brought in 2. What the Matter of them is Now 3. Follows the Apostle's Discourse upon them Ver. 7. If you endure Chastening God dealeth with you as with Sons for what Son is there whom the Father chasteneth not Ver. 8. But if ye be without Chastisement whereof all are Partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons THis Discourse is grounded upon these words of the former Text He chastiseth every Son and informs us that God by his Chastisements doth evidence his Fatherly Affection towards us and that he accounts us his Children and not Bastards The Reasons which he finds in the former words of Scripture are reducible to three The first is taken from his Fatherly Affection manifested in Chastisements The second from God as a Father different from all earthly Fathers even in chastening us The third is taken from the Issue and
Hebrews THE parts of this Letter written and sent to the Hebrew Christians are The Substance and Body of the same The Conclusion The End whereat the Apostle aims is The confirmation of them in the belief and profession of the Gospel The Means he useth for the attainment of this end is Clearly to demonstrate the excellency of Christ as a Prophet and a Priest far above all former Prophets and Priests and thereupon to perswade them to rely upon Him who alone can effectually and eternally save them and make them fully blessed The Method observed by him is to deliver 1. The Doctrine of his Prophetical Office and to apply the same and this is done in the first four Chapters 2. The Doctrine of his Sacerdotal Office and to apply it this is begun Chap. 5. and continued to the 18 verse of the last Chapter CHAP. 1. VVHerein the Apostle taking for granted that the Doctrine of the Old Testament was revealed from God by Prophets and by Angels and the Doctrine of the Gospel by Christ he begins his Discourse concerning Christ as a Prophet and proves him 1. More excellent then all the Pen-men of the Old Testament For 1. He was the Son of God 2. He was the Heir of all things 3. God by him did make the Worlds 4. He was the Brightness of his Father's Glory and Character of his Person 5. He upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power 6. He expiated and purged Sin by his Blood 7. He is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on High In all these seven particulars he far excells the former Prophets ver 1. 2 3. 2. More excellent then the Angels because he hath inherited a far more excellent Name Power and Dignity ver 4. He hath obtained by inheritance a more excellent Name Because 1. He is his The Son and God his Father ver 5. 2. God commanded all the Angels to Worship him ver 6. 3. They being created are but Messengers and Servants but Christ the Son sits in a glorious Throne and is possessed of a Kingdom which is everlasting and when the Earth and the Heavens created by him shall wax old and be changed it shall abide unchangeable for ever ver 8 9 10 11 12. 4. He is set at the right hand of God and by the Word and Patent of God is made Supreme and Universal King and Prince a Place never granted to any of the Angels who all of them are but Ministring Spirits under Him for the Heirs of Salvation This Jesus Christ so excellent was a Prophet for God spake by him as more excellent and in a more excellent manner then by them so that his Doctrine is more full more powerful and more perfect then the Doctrine of Prophets and Angels CHAP. II. VVHerein 1. The former Doctrine of the excellency of Christ and the Gospel is applied by way of exhortation 2. The excellency of Christ above the Angels though he was lower then them for a time is further proved In the Exhortation we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reason or Motive to enforce performance 1. The Duty is diligently to attend unto the Doctrine of the Gospel and to take heed of falling from the belief and profession of the same ver 1. 2. The Reason is taken from the most grievous punishment which they cannot escape if they continue not in their Profession This Reason is delivered by way of comparison in quantity For if they who disobeyed the Law then much more they who disobey the Gospel shall be severely punished and shall not escape The Consequence is good and clear from the excellency of the Gospel above the Law For 1. The Law was delivered by Angels the Gospel by Christ. 2. The Law is a Doctrine of Death and Damnation the Gospel of Salvation 3. The Gospel preached by the Apostles commissioned by Christ was attested from Heaven and confirmed by Signs Wonders Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost but the Law was not And from the excellency of the Gospel in respect of the Authour the Matter and Confirmation the Sin is aggravated and the Punishment made more grievous ver 2 3 4. The Exhortation finished the Apostle doth not only enforce the former Reason but proceeds farther to demonstrate the excellency of Christ above the Angels The Argument is That God hath not subjected the World to come to Angels but to Christ who for a little time was lower then the Angels for so it is to be understood ver 5. This Argument is taken out of Psal. 8. 4 5. Where we may observe 1. The words of the Psalm cited ver 6 7. 2. The Apostle's Discourse upon them wherein he observes 1. That all things were put in subjection to him by the Patent and Edict of his heavenly Father yet not actually subdued and brought into subjection ver 8. 2. The Humiliation of Christ which went before his Exaltation For He was made lower then the Angels for a little time Of this Humiliation he delivers the Causes Efficient Final The efficient Cause was 1. The Grace and free Mercy of God which did decree it for the benefit of sinful man ver 9. 2. The Wisdom of God which contrived it as the fittest way in bringing many Sons to Glory to consecrate their Captain by Sufferings ver 10. The final Cause may best be understood if we consider what this Humiliation whereby he was lower then the Angels is It was 1. To be made a Mortal man 2. In this mortal humane Nature to suffer Death 1. The reason why he must be made Man and mortal was Because he that sanctisieth and they that are sanctified must be one and because the sanctified which were to be made Sons did partake of Flesh and Blood therefore he took part with them that in this respect they might be his Brethren And that they were so he proves ver 11 12 13. 2. The End and final Cause why he was made man and mortal was 1. That he might dye for his Brethren and by his Death destroy the Devil and deliver his People ver 14 15. And for this reason he took not the Nature of Angels to deliver them but the Seed of Abraham ver 16. 2. Another end was That he Suffering and being Tempted in their Nature might be a merciful and faithful High Priest and make atonement for the Sins of the People and succour them who were tempted ver 17 18. CHAP. III. VVHerein Christ is proved to be more excellent and a greater Prophet then Moses For the Jews did think it very unreasonable in any part to recede from that Doctrine which they had received from God by Prophets Angels Moses and to hearken unto Christ except he could be proved to be a Greater Prophet sent from God and his Doctrine more excellent and perfect And this was the cause of the Apostle's Undertaking This part of his Discourse is brought in by way of Exhortation Where 1. The Duty exhorted
that cannot be But he hath relation to the essence as acting upon it self and producing an Image of himself for Christ is the Word and Image of the Father and his Person This is the same with that we read in another place That he is the Image of the invisible God Coloss. 1. 15. The word invisible seems to be added for to distinguish Christ from these visible Images of visible things For God is not visible to mortal and bodily Eyes neither is his Image visible in that manner For though Christ had a body yet he neither in that body nor in his humane Soul but as the Word was he the express Image of his Father Crellius his glosse upon these words is grosse and nothing to purpose For he tells us 1. That Christ is the lustre â—ay and beam of God's Majesty this is very obscure and in proper sense affirmed of Christ as the Word is false 2. That he was thus a ray and beam only as sent and manifested in the humane Nature unto us This is agreeable to his erroneous Doctrine denying the Deity and Incarnation of the Word contrary to expresse Scripture 3. That Man resembles God in some attributes but Christ is the Image of his Person as Lord and Soveraign This is both obscure illiterate and impertinent For to resemble God in Power and Dominion and to bear his person as his Substitute is political to resemble him in Wisdom Knowledg Holiness is physical and to be his Image as he had said before that Man is These he jumbles and confounds together and contradicts himself Again to be his Image and bear his person in respect of Power and Dominion is the same with that of being Heir of all things And will any man imagine that the Apostle in so few words so full of different matter would tautologize And where do we find political representation for Power and Lordship signified in Scripture by such terms But that he was guilty of a willful Errour he would never have sought to elude the genuine sense by such a â—rosse sophistication § 8. And upholding all things by the Word of his Power As before he made the Worlds and with the Father created all things so here he is affirmed to support and order all things so that he is Creatour and Preserver We may here observe two things 1. The Word by his Power 2. The upholding of all things by this Word of Power his Word of Power is his powerful Word Christ is the Word in respect of the Father the eternal Word of the Father and there is a word of the Word in respect of some thing to be done and effected This word of the Word for effecting something ad extra out of God is here meant This is the Word of Creation whereby God sald ' Let there be Light and there was Light And it is the Word of Providence as in this place we must understand is This word is sometimes an expression sometimes a decree sometimes a command sometimes a deed Here it 's a decree and command expressed whereupon the deed follows and something willed decreed and expressed is effected This is a Word of Power that is very powerful of almighty Power so that what is spoken is done and what the Word signifieth is effected This Word Power is added to signify the efficiency and wonderful efficacy of the Word which is such that we cannot well distinguish betwixt the Word and the executive Power Therefore it 's said God spake and it was done he commanded and is stâ—â—d 〈◊〉 Psal. 33. 9. And the same Nown Verbal both in Hebrew and Greek which signifies a Word signifies a deed And Christ's Word is his deed this Word being a Word of Power is the cause the effect here is the upholding of all things The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify to preserve and as Erasmus à Lapide Heinsius observe to govern And so it may expresse the two acts of Providence Conservation and Government and both universal for it upholds and orders all things This is the same which we find in another Scripture That by him all things subsist Coloss. 1. 17. In which place we may observe that as all things both visible and invisible were created by him so all things consist and be upholden by him This agrees to the Word not incarnate though being incarnate it doth not cease to exercise the same causal power because the Word made Flesh remains the Word and hath its universall causality as before the incarnation The Socinian lest he should grant the Deity and eternal existence of Christ understands this of Christ doing his Miracle by his Word and restrains all things to a few things done by Christ a Man And this is directly contrary to the Apostle affirming all things to consist by Christ even all things created and that from the beginning § 9. When he had by himself purged our Sins This was an act of Christ 1. As the word Incarnate 2. As a Priest 3. As a Priest offering himself a Sacrifice for our sins 4. This Sacrifice as not only offered but accepted of God had this power This purging of our Sin is not only actual pardon or sanctification but something antecedent and an immediate effect of Christ's Death as of a Sacrifice offered and accepted in behalf of sinfull man In the words we have an effect the purging of sin and the cause Christ by himself In the effect the object is our sins the act the purging of them By sins our sins are meant the consequents of sin in particular the guilt of sin yet joyned with the stain These are the sins of Men not of Angels our Sins The act of purging is the making of the consequents of sin especially the guilâ— removable upon certain terms determined by God our supream Judge and Law-giver This was done by satisfaction of divine justice and by merit For upon Christ's Sacrifice offered and the punishment due to us for our sins willingly suffered by him God was so well pleased as that he was willing to pardon that sin which was punished and by himself in his ownSon Sin therefore here by a Metonymie is said to be purged when this Sacrifice by which believed and pleaded sin is actually pardoned was offered and accepted because as offered and accepted it did make sin immediately pardonable and had a causal vertue to procure the actual pardon This causal vertue and vigour is said to be Purging But of this more hereafter especially in Chap. 9. The cause of this expiation is Christ by himself for he alone was the Priest he alone the Sacrifice He and he alone offered he and he alone was the thing offered he was the sole cause and efficient of this purging Neither Men or Angels did co-operate in this Work as co-efficients with him Crellius expounds these words yet so that his expression is neither exact nor clear nor altogether true For 1. By expiation and purging he
Prophets not by the glorious Son of God This is the first Proposition concerning the Law given § 5. The second proposition is that this Law was transgressed and disobeyed The sin which was the cause of the punishment is expressed by two words Transgression and Disobedience By these words we must not understand any kind of sin as of ignorance or infirmity or a sin upon surprizal or in petty matters for the best of the Saints and Prophets under the Law sinned in this manner But by them is understood some more hainous sins as Idolatry Blasphemy and such like or rebellion or apostacy or an habitual and continued course of Sin joyned with contempt of the Law For these were capital and capitally punished The third Proposition concerning the Punishment you heard before The fourth is concerning the Efficacy of the Law It was stedfast A Law should be armed with power and coactive force otherwise it cannot be executed and without Execution which is said to be the life of the Law it 's but words and can neither be a sufficient ground of hope in the Promises or fear in the Comminations When the Punishments threatned are inflicted it strikes a greater Terrour In this respect the Law proved firm and stedfast when the Offenders were punished according to their Transgressions and by suffering the penalties they knew that the word spoken by Angels was not vain but valid and effectual There is a three-fold stedfastness or firmness of a Law the first is in respect of the unalterable Will of the Law-giver the second in respect of the Execution the third in respect of the Party to whom it s given who firmly and certainly believes it The first is supposed the second is meant and is a great cause of the third The Emphasis is in the first words If the word spoken by Angels that is the word spoken by Angels and not by the Son proved firm and valid and was made and manifested to be such by the punishment of the Transgressors and especially in this that every transgression with an high hand contumacy and contempt was punished and not say such Offence escaped unpunished § 6. After the Sin and Punishment of Offenders in the times of the Law and Old Testament follow the Sin and Punishment of Offenders in the times of the New Testament The Sin is the neglect of the Gospel The punishment is implyed in the words How shall we escape In the first we may consider 1. The Word or Law 2. The Transgression of it In the Law we may observe 1. The Title or Name 2. The Publication 3. The Confirmation The Title is this so great Salvation by which is meant the Gospel which is called Salvation So great Salvation As in the Law so in the Gospel which is the Law of God Redeemer by Christ exhibited we have 1. Precepts and Prohibitions determining mens Duty 2. Promises and Threats declaring Punishments and Rewards according to mens Disobedience or Obedience and as in respect of the former the Gospel is the Rule of Man's Duty so in respect of the latter it 's a Rule of God's Judgment This Gospel is called Salvation because it promiseth Salvation and being followed brings loto Salvation and is said to be the Power of God unto Salvation and therefore is called the Word of Salvation and the Gospel of Salvation So that it 's called Salvation by a 〈◊〉 1. Of the Subject for the Adjunct because the matter and subject of it is Salvation 2. Of the Effect for the Cause because it â—ath a causal vertue and power to save As it's Salvation so it 's great Salvation because it doth promise and conduce to the attaining of eternal deliverance from eternal punishments and the greatest Enemies and of eternal bliss and full happiness the Word spoken by Angels did no such thing This is the Name or Title 2. The Publication or Promulgation is two fold 1. Began by Christ 2. Continued by them who heard him The Gospel is a Law and the Law of God Redeemer in Christ yet it could bind no man except it were published And it was first published by Christ. The Law and the Doctrine of the Old Testament was spoken and published by Angels and Prophets but this by Christ the Son and Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord by Redemption whereby he acquired a Right unto us and Power over us for because he suffered death for our sins God raised him up and made him Lord and Christ and being at his right hand he hath Power to command men and Angels and is the head of the Church which acknowledgeth his power and submits unto it He began to speak and declare the Gospel both before and after his Resutrection and they who heard him were especially the Apostles by whom afterward â—â—dued with the holy Ghost he declared it first to the Jew and these Hebrews then to the Gentiles It was so spoken as it was known by him and them so fully and clearly as was never done by Prophets and Angels before This is the Publication 3. The Confirmation follows where we must observe 1. To whom 2. By whom 3. By what it was confirmed 1. To whom It was confirmed saith the Author to Us that is to himself and these Hebrews so it 's commonly understood That it was confirmed to the Hebrews there can be no doubt and also to Paul who was an Hebrew to whom the Gospel was preached as to the rest of the Jews and also confirmed to him though he did not at the first believe it Yet it will not follow from hence that Paul received his immediate and infallible Knowledge of the Gospel from the Apostles For this he received immediately by Revelation from Christ as the rest of the Apostles did though they heard Christ as many more did who yet were no Apostles In this respect none can ground an Argument upon these words to prove that Paul was not the Author of this Epistle as divers do Again the word Us is often taken largely and indefinitely not strictly and precisely so as formally to include the person speaking And in this sense because it was confirmed to the Hebrews whereof he was one he might say It was confirmed to Us especially seeing it 's he that writes unto them 2. By whom was it confirmed It was confirmed by those which heard him Now many besides the Apostles did hear Him and also confirm the Doctrine of the Gospel Yet the Apostles did it in a more eminent manner and may be principally though not solely here intended Yet Paul did not hear Christ as the other Apostles did for though Christ spake to him from Heaven yet he did not speak to him as he did to others whil'st he conversed on Earth 3. By what was this Doctrine confirmed It was confirmed by two things 1. By Miracles 2. By the Gifts of the Holy Ghost Miracles are called Signs Wonders Powerful Works They are called 1. Signs 2. Wonders 3. Powerful
them everlasting life Hee 's that Joshua who leads us and gives us possession of our spiritual and celestial Canaan 2. This Captain Prince and Authour was made perfect of God by Suffering or God made him perfect by Sufferings To be perfected in this place is to be consecrated and made a compleat Priest or at least to be put in an immediate capacity to act as a Priest Aaron and the Levitical Priests had their Consecration and it was not without Blood and the death of Sacrifices and the form was instituted and prescribed by God who alone could give them this Glory Power and Office That Christ was a Priest is expresse Scripture as we shall understand in this Epistle hereafter Yet such he could not be without Consecration neither could he be consecrated without Blood and suffering of Death and offering a bloody Sacrifice And the difference of the Consecration of other Priests and him was this that though both were consecrated by Blood yet they were consecrated by the blood of Beaâ—â—s sacrificed He by his own Blood when he sacrificed and offered himself without spot unto God The reason of this was Because he must be a Meditatour between God and sinful Man to reconcile them but no reconcilion without Blood and no Blood but his own Blood immaculate would be accepted For though God was merciful and willing to be reconciled yet his justice would admit of no reconciliation but upon satisfaction to be made by this Blood God did manifest his Justice and hatred of sin by punishing it in Christ before he would pardon it in Man It was God that did Consecrate him for no Man or Angel could conferr this Office upon him or make him an universal and eternal Priest to officiate and minister in Heaven only God could do this And he as supream Lord and Law-giveâ— could appoint and accept him to be Redeemer prescribe the manner of Consecration and as supream Judge accept of his Consecration once finished and invest him with this sacerdotal Power In these respects God is said to Consecrate him By him thus consecrated many Sons are brought to Glory There are many Sons brought to Glory he that brings them to Glory is God he doth this by Christ consecrated and made their Captain To bring to Glory is in the end to give possession of Glory and that everlasting and most excellent Estate prepared for the Sons of God These are many and are made his Sons by Regeneration and Adoption The one doth make them capable of the other gives them right to Glory which they shall fully enjoy when their heavenly Birth and gracious Adoption are perfected They derive their title from their Captain as consecrated by Suffering and received by Faith For as they are the Sons and Heirs of God so are they joynt-Heirs with Christ and in his right And if he never had been consecrated by Sufferings they never had been either Sons or Heirs or Glorified For he by his Sufferings merited all and laid the foundation of their eternal Happiness And for this Suffering he made him Captain and Head of all his Sons and gave him power to give eternal Life to as many as he had given him It 's God who brings these Sons to Glory by their Head and Captain He loved Man he gave his Son to Death he raised him up again made him King and Priest and gave him power to convert us and by him he adopts us and by him he gives us Glory The sum of all is this The glorification of sinful Man from first to last is from God it 's he and he alone that brings him to Glory yet though the persons glorified be many yet they are all Sons and none but Sons shall enjoy the Inheritance neither are they Sons by Nature or of themselves He makes them such by Christ and Christ was consecrated by Sufferings and made their Captain It became him for whom and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons to Glory thus to do God is here described from his efficiency where-by he is the cause of all things the universal Agent who produceth preserveth ordereth all things to their end especially his Sons unto Glory For though his works be many then some are more excellent then others and one of the chiefest is the Salvation of man Some do think that by these words for whom and by whom are meant that God is the final and efficient cause of all yet in strict sense God cannot in himself be said to be the end of any thing yet the manifestation of his glorious Perfection may be said to be intended by him in all his Works To consecrate the Captain of all his Sons by Sufferings did become him that is it seemed best to his divine Wisdom to use this means as most fit to manifest his justice and mercy in the Redemption and Salvation of man What Ways and means as conducing to this end he knew or his divine Wisdom did dictate unto him is hidden from us but this here mentioned he resolved upon as the best and most agreeable to his excellent perfection For God doth nothing but that which becomes him so glorious in himself and so excellent an Agent Men may do many things unbeseeming and no ways befitting them to do nay Angels have done many things which did not become so noble Spirits to do but God doth nothing but what God may do And this is the reason why Christ must taste of Death for every man Because it seemed good to God by that way and means to save sinful man And this is the relative consideration and connexion implyed in the causal conjunction For. They give a reason why Christ was lower then the Angels and suffered Death And why It became God so to do Ver. 11. For both he that Sanctifieth c. § 14. The Apostle in these and the following words doth manifest how it became God to cast Christ below the Angels and consecrate him by Sufferings and he doth so manifest it as that it may appear to be agreeable to Reason which is a spark or ray of divine Light To understand this the better you must remember 1. That Christ was lower then the Angels in suffering Death 2. That as God or Angel he could not suffer Death 3. If he could have suffered Death as a Spirit yet that Death was not so fit to redeem Man or expiate his sin and sanctify him 4. That seeing he must both dy and dy for man he must be Man and mortal Man to sanctify man These things premised the Apostle proves that it became God to make Christ a mortal Man and the reason is because he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctifyed ought and must be of one and this is the coherence In the words themselves we have the unity and indentity of the Sanctifier and sanctified By the Sanctifier or the person sanctifying is meant Christ and by the sanctified sinful men by being of one that
power cannot be destroyed except Christ dy Christ cannot dy except he be lower then the Angels and made mortal Man This connexion and subordination of these things did become God and was agreeable to his heavenly wisdom whereas the Socinian saith That for Christ to take part with Men and be Flesh and Blood as they are doth not prove that the Incarnation is true if we consider it barely in it self as a participation of humane nature and mortality Yet if we consider the subject of this participation and the person taking part with man to be the Son of God by whom he made the Worlds the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the expresse Image of his Person and look upon him as that word which was in the beginning and was with God and was God then if this Son this Word be made Flesh as here the Apostle doth affirm and else-where then the Incarnation is plain and clear enough it cannot be denyed § 17. This farther end is expressed in these words Ver. 15. And deliver them who through the fear of Death were all their life-time subject to bondage This Text represents unto us two things 1. The sad condition of such as are under the power of Satan 2. A deliverance or freedom from it The sad condition is an estate of perpetual slavery and fear of Death For to be subject to bondage is to be a slave and to be thus subject all the time of his Life is to be a perpetual slave for time of Life And this is a grievous slavery and bondage not only because it 's perpetual but because of the great danger For by fear of Death may by a Metonymy be meant the danger of Death For the proper cause of fear is danger once apprehended for it 's true that men may be in danger and yet without fear because the danger is not seen apprehended known And the bondage of perpetual fear is woful if not intolerable This Death which is so dangerous and ever threatens to terrify and torment us is not only bodily but spiritual not only temporal but eternal and the greatest Evil of all others and if we be Satan's slaves and in his power he is a most cruel Tyrant and Enemy and seeks our extream and everlasting misery and we can expect nothing better from him who delights in our destruction Oh that man did but see his condition and were sensible of it For then he could take no rest Day or Night and he would seek and cast about for deliverance We see how sad it is by the terrours and torments of Judas and Cain and by the fears griefs troubles wounds sigh◠groans of such as were once sensible of their sins and apprehensive of the wrath of God Though this be a sad condition yet there is deliverance from this continual danger this perpetual fear which is the greatest slavery of all other The beginning of comfort is to know that there is a possibility of Freedom and that the Danger is avoidable or removable The first degree of this deliverance is in Christ's Death whereby divine justice was satisfied and freedome merited 2. That the power of the Devil was destroyed for whilst it continued this fear could not be removed 3. This freedome and liberty is more compleat when upon Faith in Christ's Death Sin is pardoned and the cause of this fear is taken away For the justified have peace with God are freed from condemnation and the Law of Sin and Death and they who feared eternal Punishments rejoyce in the hope of Glory Then this slavery is changed into a blessed liberty fear into hope and the sorrow of Death into the joy of Life § 18. It follows Ver. 16. For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham In these words it 's conceived a reason is given why Man and not Angels are delivered from the slavery of death and danger of eternal punishments and the reason is this because the Word was made Flesh and Man not a Spirit or an Angel And they more clearly explain these words Seeing the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood he took part with them By Death to deliver them For if he 1. Took part with them 2. To deliver them 3. Deliver them by Death then he took not part with Angels but with the seed of Abraham as a fit means which it became God to use The Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not always causal to inferr a reason of some thing from the cause or some other argument For it is sometimes expletive sometimes hath another signification and so it may be here But to let that pass let 's consider the Text in it self which logically considered is a discretive axiom denying the same thing of one subject and affirming it of a another Christ took upon him something But 1. That was not the Angels or nature of Angels 2. He took upon him or to him the seed of Abraham So that in the words we have two simple axiomes or propositions The first is negative For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels The second is affirmative He took on him the seed of Abraham The negation in the former proposition is strong for it 's not barely said He took not but he no where or not at all For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify nusquam aut nequaquam no where or in no wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies verily To understand the whole Text is difficult because of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some turn apprehend it he took hold on and think the expression is taken from such as pursue and follow hard after one that flyes from them to take hold on him and bring him back So Man runs from God and God became Man to follow after Man and take hold on him to save him Thus Chrysostome and from him Bishop Andrews Heinsius à Lapide with others Crellius and the Socinians turn the word another way and understand the place thus Christ succoured not the Angels but succoured the seed of Abraham This and also the former may be true but not pettinent The reason why Crellius likes the latter sense is because he likes not the Doctrine of the Incarnation he cannot digest it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated and that rightly by Vatablus Beza the Turgurines and Tremelius out of the Syriack assumpsit he assumed and by our English took on him doth answer to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned by the Septuagint several times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used And not to take the Angels that is nature of Angels is not to be made an Angel or Officer the individual substance of an Angel to redeem the Angels that sinned To assume or take the Seed of Abraham is 1. To be a man as Abraham and his Seed were men and partakers of Flesh and Blood
2. That whereas he became man in latter times he must needs be of some Nation and People with reference to the Head and first Father of that Nation and for Nation he was according to his humane Nature a Jew the first Father of which Nation was Abraham The reason hereof is this because God had made a special promise to Abraham That in his Seed all Nations should be blessed By which word Seed is meant Christ and Christ as descended from him according to the Flesh He is also called the Son of David because God promised That he should be born of his Family in Bethlehem the native place of David This sense 1. Is most agreeable to the Context antecedent where it 's said That Christ must be lower then the Angels must taste of Death must be consecrated by Suffering must be one with the sanctisied must be partaker of Flesh and Blood and deliver sinful man from the Devil But if he had assumed the nature of Angels none of these could be affirmed of him 2. The former two senses cannot be good because then he should have only apprenended and succoured the Seed of Abraham according to the Letter of this Text. Therefore seeing he took upon him the Seed of Abraham as he did the Seed of David therefore to take on him or assume the Seed of Abraham is to be of the Seed of Abraham as he was of David 2 Tim. 2 8. and to be made of the Seed of Abraham as he was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh Rom. 1. 3. And it is the same with that of the Divine Evangelist The Word was made Flesh Joh. 1. 14. Crellius here trifles egregiously for he excepts against this sense 1. Because to apprehend or take hold of a thing is not to assume the nature of it 2. The word Angels which is plural should have been singular But 1. Who will grant him that which neither others do nor he can prove that the word must be turned apprehended in this place whereas it hath other senses both in the Septuagint and in the New Testament and is turned oftner and by more Translatours assume as was shewed before 2. If Christ had assumed the individual substance of an Angel he had assumed the Nature of Angels He did but assume one individual Flesh and Blood yet he is said to take part with the Children which were many He again objects that if it be said that he took the nature not of Angels but Men then these words cannot contain and render a reason That Christ was made lower then the Angels because it is the same But 1. How will he prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is causal if it should be denied 2. Who told him that it referrs only to those words of the 7th verse as a reason of them whereas it 's plain if the conjunction be causal it referrs to that which went immediately before 3. To be lower then the Angels and assume the nature of Man are not precisely the same For now he is Man and yet above the Angels These words thus explained and cleared inform us 1. Of some special love of God shewed unto Man and to Angels and of some benefit issuing from that love and given unto Man and denied to the Angels He so loved Man that he gave his only begotton Son to be the propitiation for his sin and not for the Angels Christ and the eternal Word must be Man and dy for him but he must not be an Angel to dy for Apostate Angels or redeem them The cause of this was the free will of God who might have neglected both the one as well as the other for both were sinful and deserved Death Yet there might be a reason why he passed by the Angels and not Man even because Angels were not tempred yet sinned but Man was deceived and so was a subject more capable of mercy though he deserved no mercy Yet if Man will be obstinate in his sin and refuse to acknowledg this love and receive Christ God will turn his love into hatred and send him a cursed wretch into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and he shall lose eternally the benefit of Christ's Redemption which is remission and eternal life 2. They let us know the condescension and deep humiliation of the Son of God who vouchsafed not only to be Man but took upon him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto Death the Death of the Crosse. And this Incarnation is a deep mystery and this humiliation a matter of greatest wonder 3. They acquaint us with the excellent dignity and high advancement of the humane Nature in that it was assumed and inseparably united unto that eternal Word which is God The Angels in many things are above us and more excellent then we are yet in this we are above the Angels and nearer unto God and our nature in Christ is Lord of Angels 4. We learn from them that the Seed of Abraham and the People of the Jews have a priority and priviledg above all People For Christ took upon him their Flesh and Blood and they were his Brethren of whom according to the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Rom. 9. 5. This is the reason why he said when he lived on Earth That he was sent to the lost Sheep of Israel and why he chose out of them the Apostles preached the Gospel unto them first for the tender of eternal life was first made to them and why he began and finished the work of Redemption amongst them 5. From them we understand something of the nature of the Incarnation For herein we have 1. One person the eternal Word and the Son of God 2. Two Natures Divine and Humane 3. The union of these two by assumption for the Word assumed the nature of Man and this Nature was thereby united to the Word in the unity of person 4. The distinction of these two Natures for the Word is God and not Man this humane Nature remains Man and is not God and the difference is very great and perpetual And thus God-Man is Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer and happy are they who know him and believe in him Ver. 17 18. Wherefore in all things it behâ—â—ved him to be made like unto his Brethren c. § 19. In these words we have another reason why Christ must be lower then the Angels Man and like his Brethren One end was that he might suffer and dy and this he could not do except he be partaker of Flesh and Blood and therefore he took upon him the Nature of Men and not of Angels The end why he must dy was 1. That he might destroy the Devil who had the power of Death and so deliver them that were in continual danger 2. That he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest and so make reconciliation for the sins of his People and be
habitation is here meant For only they who persevere unto the end shall be his House in this manner Though it may be said That we are his House now and shall be his House for ever in a more glorious manner if we persevere unto the end This is the meaning of the words The force of the argument from them thus understood is evident and very great For if this blessed and glorious estate of being Christ's House will certainly follow upon the final perseverance in sincere Christianity how much will it move and work upon such as believe and certainly hope that upon this duty performed so incomparable a Reward will follow And how careful will they be in case of all means which conduce to this perseverance For the greater good believed to follow upon any performance the greater and more powerful the motive is This is the second Reason § 11. The third follows and that is from the penalty that will follow upon non-perseverance and Apostacy This reason is annexed to a dehortation from hardening of the heart and apostacy which is unbelief yet this dehortation presupposeth the principal exhortation to Faith and continuance therein to the end and therefore because it is a reason of the dehortation from the contrary sin it must needs be a reason of the exhortation to the duty opposed to that sin It 's taken out of Psal. 95. from ver 8. unto the end And though it seem to be directed unto the People of those wherein the Psalm was composed yet it directly points at the Gospel and the dayes of the same In that part of the Psalm we may observe 1. The dehortation 2. The reason why they should take heed of the sin dehorted from The reason is from an example of the like Sin punished in their fore-fathers The Sin in one word was Unbelief expressed and declared by the effects thereof which were tempting of God and so offending him because they erred in their hearts and did not know or take notice of his wayes The punishment was exclusion out of Canaa◠their rest intended by God Which punishment was 1. Absolutely denounced by way of a final and peremptory sentence passed with an Oath 2. Executed by overthrowing their Carkasses in the Wildernesse The sum of all this was to let them know That if they sinned as their Fathers did they should certainly suffer the like punishment The conclusion inferred hence is That they must have a special care to persevere in the Faith and take heed of Apostacy This may suffice to be observed upon the words of the Psalmist § 12. The next thing is the Application of these words of the Psalmist unto the present Hebrews to whom he writes Wherein he 1. Presseth the Duty upon them according to the words of the Psalm 2. That his counsel might be more forcible and the Duty more diligently and carefully performed he useth two reasons The first from the benefit which will follow 2. From the punishment they must suffer if they fall away 1. The duty is the same which was formerly urged and that is perseverance and constancy in their Christian Profession which is opposed to unbelief and apostacy which is a departing from the living God which in the Psalmist is the hardning of the heart For that passage of the Psalmist presupposeth a Day and Time of God's speaking to mortal man and exhorteth man in that Day to hear and obey constantly till the Day of God's Voice be ended and dehorteth from hardness of heart Disobedience and Apostacy In this place the Apostle making the same application to the Children and Posterity which David did to their Fathers living in his time declareth the Duty 1. Negatively or rather apotreptic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of dehortation 2. Affirmatively by way of exhortation to that which will be a means of continuance and perseverance The dehortation is Ver. 12. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of Unbelief in departing from the living God Where we must consider 1. The evil dehorted from 2. The dehortation it self The evil is an evil of Sin not of punishment where we have the root of it in the primary subject an evil heart of Unbelief the fruit and effect departing from the living God The heart is the primary and proper subject and also the cause of sin yet the heart as the heart is not the cause of actual sin but as an evil heart and here an evil heart of Unbelief Unbelief may in this place signify perfidiousnesse when the heart inclines to deny and forsake that Truth which was formerly professed and to violate that promise of Obedience made to God at the first entrance into Christianity and so actual unbelief is a breach of Covenant This unbelieving heart is an evil that is a disobedient impious perverted heart This is the basest temper and most malignant quality of the Soul whereby it 's most contrary to the most just and holy Law of God and the conditions of the Covenant of Grace That it is so is evident from the act or effect thereof which is to depart from the living God This departing from God is actual and formal apostacy which is so directly contrary to Perseverance This is signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Orginal which is to renounce something formerly received and acknowledged It 's like to a rebellion revolt and renouncing of a lawful Soveraign formerly acknowledged by allegiance and fidelity promised These Hebrews had received the Gospel acknowledged Christ their Saviour made a Covenant with the living God to whom they submitted themselves as their Soveraign Lord Redeemer by Christ. In their Baptism they had solemnly professed their Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and promised obedience To deny this profession or this Faith professed to break this promise to forsake their Christianity turn Jews or Heathens especially after that by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost that were so strongly convinced of the Truth must needs be an hainous sin issuing from an evil and malignant heart indeed There is an hardning of the heart against the light and motives of the Gospel when Christ is first tendered and not yet received There is an hardning of the heart against the Truth once received this latter not the former is Apostacy and the Sin here meant both hainous both forbidden by God both tending to eternal Death yet this more then the other And here it 's to be noted that positive unbelief blindness and hardness of heart are often taken for the same The Duty therefore is to take heed lest there be such an heart in any of them Where it 's implyed 1. That every one was in danger 2. That this sin began in the heart 3. Therefore all and every one must be very wary careful diligent to avoid the same and all the causes thereof For if they were not well-grounded in the principles of Christianity they
from Christ and deny the Faith he had professed Hardness of heart may be considered as a Judgment of God or as a Sin of Man here it 's to be considered as a Sin And such it may be either in respect of the first Call and so is or implies at least a refusal of Christianity and so it 's either a rejection of that Christianity which was once received and professed or at least makes way for it and thus it 's to be understood in this place For no man can fall off from the Christian Faith once received but his heart must needs be hardned and stand unmoved against all former convictions This considered either in the former or latter sense may be conceived 1. As a Not yielding unto the Reasons and Motives unto belief and profession proposed in the Gospel 2. As an obstinate resisting of these Motives and Reasons joyned with some power of the Spirit And both these may be caused either from the delusion of the understanding apprehending and 〈◊〉 to contrary Motives and Reasons which are not really such but seem to be such which may be called sinful 〈◊〉 as the words of the Text may be understood oâ— from the pure malignancy of the Will or from both Now to prevent all these mutual exhortation is an excellent mean ordained by God to that end And the neglect of this Duty is a great Cause or at least a great Advantage of sin and leaves the way open for Apostacy to come in For frequent proposals and representations of the true Reasons why we should believe and a continual â—itring up to holy Duties are effectual causes of the confirmation of our profession and so of our perseverance § 14. We must mutually exhort one another whilst it 's said to Day for to prevent Apostacy and we must prevent Apostacy because without final perseverance we cannot be partakers of Christ. For Ver. 14. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end This seems to be the same with that in ver 6. yet the expression is some what different For to hold fast our confidence and rejoycing of hope firm unto the end is the same with holding the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end And to be Christ's House the same with being partakers of Christ. So that I need not say much of this Text only some things may be observed As 1. That Hypostasis turned confidence may in this place signifie our Christian Faith 2. That the beginning of it is the first receiving of it or the principles of Christianity 3. That as it may signify a firm standing so it 's applyed to the Soul as firmly standing and continuing in the belief and profession of the Faith without wavering or doubting and is opposed to falling For though the principles and fundamental Truths are firm and stable for ever in themselves yet they are not so firm in the hearts of many who professe them Therefore it 's our duty to seek a firm existence of them in our hearts and a firm fixing of our hearts upon them never to be removed 4. That to be partakers of Christ is to partake of and attain the great Reward of eternal Glory merited by Christ For the word Christ is here taken Metonymically for the benefits of Christ. 5. That though this may seem to be the same reason with the former yet here it seems to be brought as a reason from the penalty that will follow upon our Apostacy which is an unspeakable loss of eternal Glory the greatest benefit Christ hath purchased for us For if we shall be partakers of Christ only upon this condition of perseverance to the end then if we harden our hearts and fall off we must needs lose eternal Glory and that great Benefit which Christ merited § 15. Thus far the Apostle hath made use of those words of the Psalmist To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts Now he proceeds to the words following As in the Day of Provocation and enlargeth upon them in this manner Ver. 15. While it is said to Day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation For some when they had heard provoked c. Where 1. He takes in the former words with this of Provocation 2. Though the Psalmist do not mention whether all their Fathers provoked and tempted God or no yet he observes that only some not all did provoke The connexion of these words with the former seems to be this That as their Fathers by hardning their hearts provoked God to wrath so if they hardned their hearts they will provoke God likewise and he will be offended with them The argument in form is this e must Wnot do any thing that will provoke God to anger but if we harden our hearts we shall provoke him to anger Therefore we must take heed of hardning our hearts and of Apostacy The proposition in these here presupposed is That hardning the heart will provoke The propositions here delivered in the Hypothesis are 1. That some of their Fathers did provoke 2. That all did not provoke That which all these imply and inferr is this as applyed to them That they must not harden their hearts lest they provoke Lest this discourse should not be so pertinent and effectual let us first enquire what this provodation is The Hebrew word is translated by the Septuagint to signify contention contradiction and exacerbation and so they turn it only in this place And the Apostle follows their Translation and useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is a word 1. Compound 2. Derivative and is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies bitter as Meâ—â—s or Drinks are biâ—â—er to the taste The signification therefore in this place is Mephorical and informs us That as some Meats and Drinks being bitter are very offensive to the taste so hardness of heart and apoâ—â—acy are very offensive unto God The words used in the Psalm may be either Proper and so translated as in Meribah and Massa or Anellâ—tive as here the Apostle understands them This provocation may be considered either at a Sin or a consequent of Sin here it seems to be a consequent of sin yet necessarily presupposing the Sin Sin every sin being contrary to God 's Law provokes him to anger and gives him just cause to execute his vindictive Justice upon the Sinuer Yet some sins are more provoking then others especially such as are committed by People in Covenant with God who act contrary to their solemn Vows and Engagements as Israel in the Wilderness did And this hardning of the heart so as to fall away is the most provoking of all For it not only deserves punishment and by vertue of the Law makes the Sinner liable to it but provoks God to pass a definitive sentence and to proceed to execution This particular consequent of sin is that which here
this he in some sort pledged his Beeing and Deity to confirm his Sentence 2. This Oath he sware in his Wrath he sware to Abraham in his great mercy to confirm unto him the immutability of his Counsel which was to bless him and this he did upon the acceptation of his sincere Obedience But this was in wrath not of rash passion which God is in no ways subject unto but in his severe vindictive Justice moved by their abhominable disobedience and rebellion after so many mercies deliverances wonders and convictions 3. The end of this Oath was to make the Sentence immutable His Word and bare Sentence was sufficient but to manifest his high displeasure and to cut off from that People all hope of entrance he added this Oath which in some sort stands good against all such Apostate Wretches who can have no hope of God's eternal Rest which they have eternally forfeited This is the Question To whom did God thus swear and who were those Israelies who by this Oath were absolutely debarred of all entrance into that Land The Answer follows though proposed as the former Interrogatively in these words But to them that believed not This is evident and very clear and by it is signified 1. The Parties who were excluded 2. The Sin for which they were excluded and it was Unbelief They believed not God's Word and Promise were not moved by all his Mercies and Miracles and former Judgments And thereupon became guilty of the breach of Covenant refused obstinately to perform the conditions of it in the obedience of God's Command They hardned their hearts and departed from the living God and became perfidious and rebellious Apostates From these words he concludes the Chapter in this manner Ver. 19. So we see they could not enter in because of Unbelief For this was the scope whereat he aymed to make clear what the cause of their not entring into Cauaan was that special notice might be taken of the Sin that they might take heed of the like Sin that so they might avoid the like Punishment Where by the way we may take notice that God's Judgments are just and He never condemns any but for Sin and as the Sin is more or less hainous so he proportions the Punishment The sum and substance of this example of the Fathers proposed in the Psalm is this That if they should be guilty of hardning their hearts and unbelief as their Fathers were they should be punished with the like punishment under the Gospel And if their Fathers were so fearfully punished for their disobedience to the Law of Moses how much more grievously should they be punished if they disobeyed the Gospel and forsook Jesus Christ their Saviour The whole Chapter as you heard is an exhortation to perseverance in the Christian Profession and that upon several Reasons As 1. The exocllency of Christ so far above Moses 2. The incomparable benefit that would follow thereupon 3. The dreadful punishment they must suffer if they did fall away To make this last the more effectual He 1. Alledges the words of the Psalm 2. Applies them to these Hebrews that by the example of their Fathers they might take heed of Apostacy and Unbelief Yet this Application is but begun here and finished in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. Ver. I. FOR the better understanding of this part of the Epistle we must considor 1. The Coherence with the former 2. The Scope 3. The Method and parts 1. For the Coherence it agrees 1. With the former three Chapters in the subiect the prophetical Office of Christ and in urging the duty of attention belief prosession and obedience unto his Doctrine into the end 2. It agrees with the last part of the 〈◊〉 in a special manner For having made evident that the cause why their Fathers 〈◊〉 not into God's Rest was Unbelief therefore they must take â—eed of that Sin last they â—â—ffer the like searful punishment For he that will avoid the effect must take heed of that cause upon which that effect will certainly follow He further urgeth that exhortation of the Psalmist To day if 〈◊〉 will hear his Voyce so as to be edmitted into God's Rest we must not harden our hearts provoke grieve God as their Fathers in the Wilderness did 2. The scope of the Apostle presupposing a Rest promised in the Gospel is to perswade them and thâ— them up to use with all diligence those means whereby we may attain it and enter In a word it 's the same with that of the second and third Chapters to confirm them in the profession and practice of Christ's Doctrine so as to perse 〈◊〉 unto the end and so attain that eternal Rest and Happiness to which it directeth 3. The parts are two 1. A Dehortation ver 1. 2. An Exhortation ver 11. In the Dehortation we have 1. The thing dehorted from 2. The Reasons 3. The determination of the rest In the exhortation we may observe 1. The duty exhorted unto 2. The Reasons These are the parts and this is the method the particulars whereof you shall understand hereafter To enter upon the first part which is a Dehortation In every Dehortation we must observe there is some evil or sin to be avoided and the duty is to take heed of it The sin is to come short which we cannot do but by falling off from our profession which is Apostacy And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies deficere to fall off and is called a failing of the Grace of God or a falling from the Grace of God Chap. 12. 15. The Sin therefore is Unbelief which was observed in the former Chapter to be the cause why the Israelites could not enter into God's Rest. It 's true that many understand it of the punishment of not entring into Rest which is an inevitable consequent and moral effect of falling away The duty is to fear this and to be very careful to avoid the Sin that they may avoid the Punishment This duty lies upon all and every one For it 's said lest any of you and not only so but lest any of you seem which the Syriach interprets lest any of you be found Some indeed will have the meaning to be that they must be so careful to continue in the Faith that they must not so much as seem to fall off or make any appearance of Apostacy Yet there is no necessity so to understand it for the principal thing is to take heed of the Sin which if committed will appear and be judged and punished This is the duty brought in upon the words of the former Chapter by this illative Therefore as though he should say Seeing ye have so dreadful an example of God's wrath executed upon your Fathers for their Unbelief Take heed of their Sin lest ye suffer the like Punishment § 2. The reason follows from the example of their Fathers applyed to them The sum of it is this That as many of their Fathers
drink it and receive it into our bodies yet if we neither eat the one when it 's set before us nor drink the other when put into our hands we may perish for hunger and thirst So it is spiritually with our Souls in respect of the Word preached and heard only our with outward ears and not received and receiued in our hearts by a true and lively Faith So that the cause why the Word of God being so great a Blessing and so excellent a means of Salvation doth us no good is from our selves or in our selves who either refuse it at the first or reject it after we have professed it and promised to live according to it And this refusal and rejection as they are hainous sins not onely against God's just Laws but his merciful tender of eternal life so they will prove in the end the cause of our eternal misery which shall be greater and more intolerable than those to whom the Word of God was never preached 4. Therefore it concerns us all to fear this Sin of Apostacy as we fear loss of heavenly Rest God's eternal displeasure Hell Death and eternal Punishments The Apostle by this word fear implies there is danger of falling away and if we consider there is danger and the same very great For if we look upon our weakness and the remainders of corruption the deceipt and hypocrisy of our own hearts the imperfection of our Understanding in heavenly things the inconstancy of our Wills our little experience in the wayes of God and the violence and power of temptation from the Devil and the World we may easily see that it 's a wonder if not a matter of amazement that we stand one day one hour yet when we look up towards Heaven remember our Saviour Christ reigning and victorious the power of the blessed Spirit the helps God hath given us the Promises of assistance there is great cause of hope yet this hope doth not exclude but require our diligent Care continual Watching and instant Prayers without which we cannot by which we may hope to stand Oh how should we carefully and constantly attend unto God's Word lay it up in our hearts make it the Rule of our whole life so as to obey his Commands rely upon his Promises and fear his threats and every day call to mind the Profession we have made and the Promises whereby we have engaged our selves unto our God And seeing so few do fear it 's no wonder so many fall and come short of this blessed Rest. Most men presume upon the Promise and neglect the Duty The Israellres had a Promise yet did not enter because they did not believe § 3. There follows another distinct Reason from the former and that is the great benefit that follows upon the performance of the Duty Ver. 3. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said As I have sworn in my Wrath c. THere is some difficulty to know the coherence of these words with the former as also of those that follow with these and amongst themselves Some say they come in upon the words immediately antecedent and give a reason why the Word not mixed with Faith did not profit nor bring the hearers into God's Rest For onely we that believe do enter that is There is no entrance but by Faith but by Faith there is Others think they propose a reason why we should fear Apostacy and be careful to persevere and that from the happy consequent and the glorious reward which follows upon perseverance in belief and that is entrance and admittance into God's Rest yet they may referr to those words of the former Chapter For some when they had heard did provoke howbeit not all that came out of Aegypt by Moses For Caleb and Joshua heard and believed and persevered for it 's said of Caleb and it 's the Testimony of God That he had another Spirit with him and followed the Lord fully Numb 14. 24. This he applyes to himself and the Hebrews to this purpose That though some did not enter because of Unbelief yet some did believe and did not provoke and so entred so likewise shall we believing do As the former might cause fear so this latter might cause hope and prove a strong motive why we should fear to fall and be very careful to persevere So that if we will sum up that which went before it 's this in brief To day if we will hear God's voice we must not harden our hearts 1. Because if we do harden them we shall be shut out of God's Rest as our rebellious and Apostate Fathers were 2. If we do not harden our hearts but believe we shall enter into God's Rest as Caleb and Joshua did It follows As he said I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest c. These words serve to inform us of three things 1. That the Word not believed could not profit because by Unbelief they provoked God to wrath and in his Wrath he sware they should not enter into his Rest so likewise we should fear to be guilty of Unbelief because if we prove such God in his Wrath by the like Oath will exclude us 2. That as God by this Oath did exclude none but Unbelievers and brought the Believers into Canaan so he will exclude none out of the Rest promised in the Gospel but Unbelievers and will without all fail bring us believing into our spirituall Canaan 3. That as the Oath so the Exhortation used by the Prophet David implied that as there was a Rest in the dayes of Joshua so there is another Rest besides that of the promised Land Therefore because it might be doubted what Rest either David meant or the Gospel doth promise the Apostle proceeds to prove that there is yet a Rest prepared for God's People under the Gospel and determines what Rest that is This is done by distinction for he informs us of a three-fold Rest 1. Of the Sabbath 2. Of the Land of Canaan 3. Of the eternal Rest in Heaven That it was the intention of the Apostle to manifest that there was a Rest for the People of God under the Gospel and yet that Rest was neither the first of the Sabbath nor the second of the Land of Canaan is evident by that which follows especially Ver 19 10. That it was expedient if not necessary for him to do thus is as clear because he had alledged the words of the Psalm To day if ye will hear his Voice and also said in Ver. 1. That a Promise was left us of entring into his Rest. The first is the Rest of the Sabbath in these words Although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World And Ver. 4. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day in this wise And God did rest the seventh day from all his Works THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is turned here although yet it may signify and
a great High-Priest above all others as Universal and Supream Pontiffe of Heaven and Earth in comparison of whom all other Priests even the highest are but shadows This is the excellency of his Office His Relation to us is this that we have him that is He is our great High-Priest in whom we who professe our Faith in him have a special Interest so that He as a Priest doth officiate for us and his excellent Office was instituted of God for our eternal good no Unbelievers can be said to have him in this manner Of this great High-Priest it 's affirmed that He is passed into the Heavens This entrance into Heaven was shadowed by the High-Priests entrance into the inmost sacrary of the Tabernacle or Temple which was called the Holy of Holiest The reason why this which is here first affirmed of him is mentioned may well be this because by this he hath not only obtained and taken possessiâ—â— of this eternal Rest wherein we must seek to enter but by this means hath procured an entrance for us For where he is there we shall be and the Head and Members must be and abide together Therefore if we labour and strive we cannot doubt of entrance seeing he hath made a passage open for us This of it self is a great encouragement that our High-Priest is passed into the heavenly Rest not only for himself but also in our behalf even to assure us that if we follow him trust in him and labour to enter that we shall not come short yet this is not all the encouragement is yet greater For it followeth Ver. 15. For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without Sin I Will not here mention the principal Exhortation expressed in the former verse but reserve it to the last For it is usual upon several Reasons delivered to repeat the exhortation In the words we may observe two things 1. Christ's merciful disposition towards us 2. The Reason of it His mercy is set down negatively in that he is not sensless of our Infirmities but is one that will be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities To be inwardly affected and moved with the miseries of others doth argue an excellent temper of spirit and is a proper act of that we call mercy and compassion and it issues from goodness and love Christ as God is infinitely merciful and mercy it self and in his Word doth signify how readily and abundantly he is inclined unto it and he would have man to know it And as Man none so merciful as He and that God might manifest what store of his mercy he had for sinful Man He became Man nay miserable and mortal Man and because experimental knowledg and sense is the most effectual therefore as Man he was willing to Suffer and be Tempted And this is the Reason why he is so sensible of our sad condition because he was tempted in all points like unto us This is that wonderful way which God by his profound Wisdom contrived to make his mercy greater and in some sort more then Infinite He would have a kind of knowledg of man's infirmities which as God and infinite he could never have That which makes us an object of compassion is our infirmity that which makes him so sensible of our condition is That he was tempted in all points like us yet alwayes without Sin Infirmity is sometimes weaknesse and so the word signifies sometime Sickness and Diseases which cause weaknesse The one is opposed to strength and the other to eucrasy and health and both are twofold either of Body or Soul and here is meant the weakness and distemper of the Soul and may be Sin or Punishment which makes our Case very miserable For sin taken either for native or acquired corruption and imperfection doth fearfully weaken the Soul because it doth not only incline to actual sin but makes us unable to resist temptation so that we are easily overcome by Satan a potent subtle malicious enemy who will not only violently but continually assault us This is the reason why our sins are so many and we so often and so halnously guilty and have continually great need of mercy and pardon which cannot be obtained without the effectual intercession of this righteous Advocate and merciful High-Priest And how merciful must he needs be that was tempted himself For he was tempted in all points like unto us but without Sin Where two things are observed 1. That his temptations were in all points like ours 2. That yet he was without Sin Temptation may be taken for Sufferings or for an inducement to Sin as directly tending to sin and having a power or causality moving us thereunto As for Christ's Sufferings they were exactly like unto Ours To that end he took a Body and Soul and continued for a while in a state of Humiliation whereby he was obnoxious unto them and did actually fall under them and felt them As for temptation to sin it 's inward outward inwardly he was not tempted outwardly he was Of us it 's truly said that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed But in him there was no such corruption lust or inward concupiscence yet he was outwardly vehemently assaulted by Men and Devils as much as ever any Man was and was tempted to the same kind of sins to which we being tempted to do commit This appears from the History of the temptation and passion yet though we being tempted do often sin yet he being often and violently tempted never sinned never yielded to the temptation but alwayes resisted and alwayes overcame This is a great comfort to us that he never sinned for because of this his Intercession for us is the more effectual with God and the more acceptable unto him For a guilty person pleading for guilty persons could not have made reconciliation for their sins As it is a comfort so it 's a rare example for us to follow that when we are tempted we should use all means to avoid Sin as he did § 8. But let it be granted Christ is so merciful an High-Priest and though entred into Heaven so sensible of our miseries what benefit do we receive by him This the Apostle resolves in the words following Ver. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need IN which words we may observe 1. That as we may so we ought to come boldly unto the Throne of Grace 2. That coming thus we may speed and attain that which we desire That which in the first Proposition is presupposed is that God sits in the Throne of Grace There is a Throne of Justice and a Throne of Grace If He look upon Man according to the Law of works he must needs sit upon the Throne of Justice as a severe Lord
begotten thee This day as you heard before in the first Chapter is the day of Resurrection and for God to say that day Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee is to make him both a Priest and a King For to have the Birth-right and be the first begotten was to be King and Priest And if God who had all Power in his hands declare him to be his Son and first begotten this is to invest him with the Regal and Sacerdotal Power And though he was designed for this place long before yet till here he was consecrated by his own Blood he did not receive this Honour and it was a reward of Humiliation For you must know that God his Father by the Resurrection did not only restore his life which he had laid down upon the Cross and made him immortal but invested him with his Glory and Power And whereas this Psalm was composed long before the Resurrection and Incarnation of the Son of God yet the thing was not done nor the words spoken to Christ till his Resurrection for the meaning is not that then God did speak these words but after the Incarnation and Resurrection he would by them declare him Priest and King But he finds not only his Patent and Commission for his Priestood but the confirmation of it to him for ever in another place For thus he writes Ver. 6. As he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec THe words here cited we find Psal. 110. 4. Where we may observe 1. That David was the Authour of that Psalm as appears Matth. 22. 43. 2. That the subject of the Psalm is Christ or the Messias and it 's to be understood of speaking of him 3. That it is prophetical and a prediction of things which were then to come and a long time after 4. These things are spoken of the Messias by the Prophet as moved inspired enlightned to see speak write such things as should come to passe and be accomplished in their time 5. The Apostle in this Discourse takes it for granted and as confessed by these Hebrews that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah in whom all these things were fulfilled 6. The things affirmed or predicated of the Messias were spoken done sworn not only after the Resurrection but the Ascension of our Saviour and upon his coming before the Antient of Days For when God set him at his right hand he established his glorious Kingdom and he began instantly to Reign and then it was that he confirmed his everlasting Priest-hood upon him by Oath and that he began to officiate and minister in the heavenly Temple And those words spoken by God were sufficient not only to make him a compleat Priest but to confirm him 7. Both these places prove not only that Christ was a Priest but that he was made an eternal Priest of a far higher Order than that of Aaron and all this by God himself immediately And as he was made a Priest by God so his Priest-hood was the most excellent Priest-hood and most beneficial to sinful Man that ever was or shall be § 7. These two places prove Christ 1. To be a Priest and therefore all things essential to that Office must agree to him according to the Description of a Priest in the beginning of the Chapter 2. They manifest he was a Priest not by Usurpation but by Commission from Heaven 3. The former Scripture informs us that he was constituted a compleat Priest upon his Resurrection the latter that he was confirmed in his unchangeable and everlasting Priest-hood upon his Ascension into Heaven and Session at the right hand of God The words following presuppose his designation and signify the manner of his Consecration which was such as that it did fitly qualify him to be a merciful and eternally-saving High-Priest who offered for himself not as sinful but bearing the punishment of man's Sin and for others too Therefore it follows Ver. 7. Who in the dayes of his Flesh when he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from Death and was heard in that he feared IN which words with those that follow ver 8 9. we may observe 1. The Consecration of the Son of God 2. The acquisition of a mighty saving Power upon the Consecration once ended In the Consecration by his deep Humiliation we have 1. His effectual Prayers 2. His learning Obedience Concerning his Prayers we are informed of 1. The time when they were offered 2. The manner how they were made 3. The party to whom they were presented 4. The efficacy and success of them He offered up Prayers and Supplications that is he prayed in humble and suppliant manner with bended knees and a bowed and deeply humbled Soul Both the words signify one and the same thing though expressed by two words the one whereof is often the other seldom or rather but once used in Scripture Both are Petitions and especially such as we call Deprecations which are used for the averting of some evil These Petitions were presented unto God for Prayer in strict sense is a representation of our Petitions unto God to move him for to grant our desires It 's a kind of Service or Sacrifice and therefore said to be offered unto God and doth imply an acknowledgment of his supream Dominion Though the word used in the Original sometimes signify a branch of Olive which Suppliants used to carry in their hands yet both the Verb from whence it comes doth signify humbly to request and it doth expresse a Supplication or humble Petition The Prayers here mentioned were the Prayers of Christ the Son of God And 1. They were made for the time in the days of his Flesh The days of his Flesh are the time of his humiliation frailty and mortality before his Death and Resurrection especially the time of his Agony and Suffering upon the Crosse. For in the one he vehemently prayed and deprecated the Cup of his Passion in the other he makes a most sad Complaint of his Desertion and many cruel Sufferings and petitions for help and deliverance and binds himself upon the same by solemn Vows unto his heavenly Father as we may read Psal. 22. And though he made use of the whole Psalm which exactly agrees to him and none else yet the Evangelists relate only the first words My God my God why hast thou for saken me The prayers made at these two times in his deepest and last humiliation are here principally intended by the Apostle 2. The manner how these Prayers were made is expressed in these words with strong cryes and tears which imply 1. His sad and woful condition the anguish sorrow and horrour of his mind and the bitternesse of his Passion 2. Signify the fervency and importunity of his prayers And if Man were once sensible of his sins for which his Saviour Suffered he would be fervent
in his prayers and most earnestly deprecare the Wrath of God as his Saviour did The sense of sin will break the stoniest heart and quicken our Prayers cause cryes and tears But we neither consider the grievousnesse of our sins nor the bitternesse of our Saviour's Passion therefore our Prayers are cold and weak and mercy stands afar off and pardon comes not near us 3. These Prayers were made and directed to God as One that was able to save him from Death All Petitions made to any Person either unable or unwilling to do that which is desired are in vain might and mercy power and goodness are necessarily required in him to whom Prayers which shall in the issue prove effectual are to be offered And because none but God is absolutely Powerfull and Good Almighty and Almerciful therefore to him alone as Supream Lord all Prayers are to be made as to the prime Authour and principal efficient of all Blessings and Mercies To addresse our selves in this manner to any other is flat Idolatry and a breach of the first and great Command None can deliver from Death but only He. Therefore Christ offered his Prayers and Supplications to Him as able to save from Death and this ability to save in greatest dangers was the ground of his confidence God was able to save from Death either by prevention and not suffering him to dy or if he suffered Death by raising him up again and restoring life once taken away and lost The latter he did the former he denied to do yet by Death in this place may be meant some other thing then loss of this mortal and temporal Life for in Scripture it signifies all kind of evils Man or Angel is subject unto and in this place something which he feared prayed against and was freed from by God his heavenly Father supporting him so that he did not sink under the heavy burden laid upon him He endured all with patience and willingness of mind and was not overcome or overwhelmed He suffered something far more terrible then all bodily pains and that Death which is only a separation of Soul and Body and this was violent temptation for he was tempted more violently then ever any was yet he never yielded the least but continued firm faithful obedient unto his heavenly Father in the midst of his greatest conflicts That which upheld him was the power of his Father and that which obtained the victory was his support obtained by his fervent Prayers For 4. His Prayers and Supplications were effectual he was heard in that he feared To be heard in the Hebrew is by a Metonymy sometimes to have our prayers granted and the thing requested done And to be heard when we pray for deliverance is to be delivered saved holpen This might be made manifest out of many places of the Old Testament translated by the Septuagint Two of them Heinsius observes as 2 Chron. 18. 31. where it 's written That Jehoshaphat cryed out and the Lord helped him so the Hebrew heard him so the Septuagint And Psal. 56. 16. As for me I will call upon God and the Lord will save me so the Hebrew hath heard me so the Greek So that for Christ to be heard was for Christ to be delivered But what was he delivered from certainly not from Death so as not to suffer it for he dyed but from something he seared For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifyeth fear Metonymically in this place signifies the thing feared which was the object and cause of his fear This word is once used by the Septuagint for so they translate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 22. 24. But what did Christ fear Death No not bodily Death but such a Death as he suffered wherein he was so fearfully tempted For if God had deserted him wholly as he did in part and not have supported him he as man might have been overcome have sunk under the burden in distrust or dispair or impatience This he feared more then ten thousand Deaths of his Body and so to do was his holiness and though he knew his Father would support him yet he must offer vehement Prayers and be put hard unto it before he did obtain it Thus though he knew he must dy yet he defired vehemently that the Cup of his Passion if it were possible might passe and be omitted God began to hear him when he sent an Angel from Heaven to comfort him but then he heard fully when he had supported him to the end of his Passion so that he commended his Soul unspotted and victorious into his Fathers hand and made haste unto that Paradise into which no unclean thing shall ever enter When all was done and suffered the Devil found nothing in him could not charge him with the least Sin This was the efficacy of his Prayers which he offered for himself as different from all others that ever were made in his extremity whereby he learned to pity others in their temptations and necessities For an High-Priest must offer for himself as well as for others because he is compassed with infirmities So Christ though he had no Sin yet had infirmities and was tempted and had need to pray for himself as well as for his People and Ver. 8. Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered VVHere we may observe two things and two propositions Two things 1. His eminent Dignity he was a Son 2. His obedience Two propositions 1. He was a Son 2. Though a Son yet he learned obedience by the things â—he Suffered 1. He was a Son the Son of God and in a more excellent manner then any either Man or Angel was or could be He was as the Word the Son of God so as that he was God and as Flesh and Man he was assumed by the Word and conceived by the holy Spirit in the Virgin 's Womb yet so that there were not two Sons but one the Word made Flesh and as such a Son he was nearer God then any other Heir of all things Lord of Men and Angels and the only-begotten Son of God Yet 2. Though a Son yet learned he obedience For though as a Son he was very high yet he humbled himself very low and took upon him the form of a Servant and in that form became obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross which was the Death of a Servant as he was sold for thirty pence the ordinary price of a Servant and Slave His obedience presupposed his subjection as Flesh unto his heavenly Father as his Supream Lord and a Command not only to Do but to Suffer even the Death of the Crosse and this was the highest greatest and hardest command to dye such a Death for the Sin of Man This command above all others he learned to obey He learned this hard Lesson not only to know it but chiefly to do it not meerly by speculation but real
of heavenly comfort The Sin therefore which was the cause of this dulness and incapacity was their great neglect of the improvement of their knowledg in the Word of God And this their neglect was great For 1. They had had time and teaching enough and other means to increase their knowledg so far as to be able to teach and instruct others and yet they had wofully mispent this time and lost much knowledg which they might have attained both for their own advantage and the good of others 2. They had so wofully mispent this time that they were ignorant of the very principles of the Oracles of God and had need to be instructed in them by others had need of milk not strong meat 3. By this means they had made themselves uncapable of further instruction in the higher and more execellent points of the Gospel concerning the Priest-hood of Christ. This was the greater Sin because they not only might but also ought to have improved their time so as to be men of Age able to digest strong meat and understand and learn higher Doctrine In this Text we may observe 1. That they are principles of the Oracles of God 2. That when these are once taught and learned men ought to improve their knowledg so far as to be able to teach others that are ignorant of these principles and to be capable of higher points of Doctrine 3. That many are so negligent and careless in this particular that they forget their principles are Babes and have need of Milk still and be taught their principles again The first Proposition implies 1. That there are principles of the Oracles of God 2. These are like Milk 3. Men should be first taught these By Oracles of God we must understand the Word of God revealed in the Scripture for to direct us to Salvation For God being willing to save Man gave him a Rule to direct him to eternal happiness Man knew not the way neither could he direct himself neither could any other Man or Angel teach him Therefore God was willing by the illumination and inspiration of his blessed Spirit to make known his mind unto certain men who being infallibly directed must teach others both by word and writing and their Doctrine must be the Rule of all other Teachers and is sufficient as a Doctrine to save any Man that shall learn to know and practise it This Doctrine may well and truly be called the Word of God because by it whether inspired or spoken by word of mouth or written he doth express his mind and signifies unto Man what he must know and do to be for ever saved Yet here we must observe that by these Oracles of God is here principally meant the Doctrine of the New Testament and the Gospel Yet here it 's to be noted 1. That all Scripture is the Word of God and is immediately from God in respect of the first Revelation 2. That as it came first from God it is of unchangeable Truth and the dictates of divine Wisdom are therein contained 3. That it 's sufficient without any other addition in that kind to that end God intended it Of these Oracles there are Principles In these Oracles we are taught many things and of them there be several parts which are unequal and different one from another one part and the chiefest is that of the Principles These are 1. Such as are first in order and first to be taught and learned 2. They are the chief and fundamental Truths of the Gospel and such as upon which the rest depend or to which the rest are appertinent and which are most conducing to Salvation These being prime Truths are reduced to a few Heads in a certain method intimated in several places of the New Testament and contracted in the antient Creed's grounded upon our Saviours words Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as I have shewed in my Theopolitica These are like the A. B. C. or letters of the Alphabet upon which all words and sentences so far depend in Grammar that except they be first learned it will be impossible to spell or read They are like the Elements in Nature of which all mixt bodies are compounded and made They are like the foundation of an House without which it can neither be built or stand And not to teach these first to those who are willing to learn is a vain undertaking and a preposterous course and a very unprofitable way and we find it to be so in the learning of all other Arts and Sciences 2. These principles are like Milk Milk is the fittest nourishment for new-born Babes and Infants and of most easie digestion so these are plain and easie and such as Children ignorant and unlearned People if wisely directed may understand and they give great light to all other Doctrines and it was the great Wisdom and Mercy of God to make them such And 3. They which do not first learn these cannot profit much some confused knowledg they may acquite but distinct clear and orderly understanding without these first learned cannot be expected For the very matter and method of those give great light to all other divine Doctrines of the Scripture 2. After the first Proposition That they are principles of the Oracles of God first to be taught and learned follows the second which is That when these principles are learned men may and ought to improve their knowledg so far as to be able to teach others and be capable of higher Doctrines This is implyed in these words when for the time yo ought to have been Teachers By Teachers are not meant Ministers and publick Teachers who are Officers and have taken upon them the charge of others Souls but such as privately are fit and able to instruct their Families and their ignorant Neighbours Neither may they presume to teach higher Points of Doctrine but the principles and such as they well understand If these would do their Duty they might help the Ministers much and edisy one another and so knowledg in necessaries might abound If any of these be of excellent parts and much improved they may be called to the Ministry Yet many are so ignorant that they are not able to teach their Children and their Servants and so are not fit as for matter of Religion to be Masters of Families 3. The last Proposition is That many of these Hâ—brews and so others were so negligent that when they might and ought to have been Teachers of others they have need to be taught again the very principles of Christianity This is a great Sin and cannot be excused and many are guilty of it for two Reasons 1. Because they do not improve their former knowledg 2. Because they forget and so lose the knowledg of the very principles which they had formerly gained and so become Babes uncapable of higher Doctrine which is for men of better improvement By this
the Holy Ghost given to that end 2. The two latter also may be the same and that is the affection and disposition of the heart answerable to the illumination and an effect thereof The first is a divine and supernatural knowledg of saving-Truth The second is some sanctification and consolation of the will and heart of Man 4. The qualification and condition of these persons were not meerly natural and moral but supernatural For they could not be acquired by any exercise of the natural and moral power of the Soul without a Divine active Power given them whereby they might act upon supernatural objects according to a supernatural Rule And as their operations were supernatural because they had a supernatural Efficient a supernatural Object a supernatural Rule and did tend to a supernatural End so the Consequents were supernatural and divine 5. To fall from the supernatural disposition and estate was a very grievous Sin and a great contempt of God's mercy Christ's merit and the Power of the Holy Ghost For 1. These things tended directly to their eternal Salvation 2. They issued from the mercy of God the merit of Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit 3. That Grace which they had received and which was in them was real true serious and divine and if they had gone forward they might have attained to an estate of confirmation 4. It was a Crime so much the more hainous because they had received the Truth of the Gospel professed it and engaged by their Baptism in the Covenant and were fully convinced not only by Powers or Miracles without but by the Gifts of the Spirit and divine effects within 6. Yet here is no mention of any firm inherency or deep radication of divine Virtues in their Souls but rather the contrary is implyed For it 's said They did but taste of the heavenly Gift and taste of the good Word of God and taste of the Powers of the World to come To taste is indeed a real participation yet but of a little and in low degree But there can be no state of confirmation till Grace by a firm and deep radication proceed to an universal dominion of Sin and Corruption Yet this radication is not a sufficient cause in or by itself of confirmation which depends upon the Will of God who hath bound himself by promise to preserve Man attaining to a certain degree by his power through Faith unto Salvation which shall be revealed in the last Day For though this estate of one that only tasteth be good and comfortable and hopeful yet it may leave some lust or corruption unmortified which though it doth not appear for the time to the party thus far renewed yet in the day of Tryal it will break out and discover the hidden malignancy of the heart nor fully regenerate For they that have escaped the pollution of the World through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may again be entangled therein and overcome 2 Pet. 2. 20. 7. Yet this falling away from this measure of Grace and hopeful Condition is not to be attributed to divine desertion For God will not with-draw or with-hold any necessary support till Man by his negligence or pride and presumption give him cause For he loves any degree of Grace and is very tender over the weak and will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax he will gather the Lambs with his Arm and carry them in his Bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young § 5. Hitherto you have heard what it is to fall away and who they are that may fall away and that they all are Christians yet so that some may make a further progress in Christianity they are not all of one measure The 2. Proposition which for the order of matter might be the third is That it 's impossible for Apostates to be renewed To be renewed in this place is to be initiated and made Christians of no Christians For initiation is the entrance and admission into Christianity as the Apostle intends it To understand this better you must know that Apostacy doth un-Christian a man makes void his Baptism and takes away all Christian Priviledges by razising the very foundation As Apostacy presupposeth the Apostate a Christian first so this renewing presupposeth Christianity formerly received to be lost and forfeited For an Apostate is like a Rebel or a perfidious Revolter who loseth sussabdih and ceaseth to be a Subject contrary to his Allegiance Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again is inserted it 's rather to be joyned with the antecedent Verb fall away and signifies that as he was no Christian at the first and afterwards became a Christian so by Apostacy he is made to be no Christian again he returns unto his former estate of non-Christianity And the former estate was a kind of negation this latter a privation of Christianity This renovation if it could be made must be by repentance and way of return For the first initiation is by profession of Faith confession of Sin and promise of Reformation this therefore much more yet this Renovation is affirmed to be impossible That proposition or axâ—om which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible is opposed to that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessary and alwayes true for it is alwayes false and can never be true the dis unction and separation of the terms iâ— perpetual Therefore to say That an Apostate may be renewed by Repentance is eternally false because the thing represented by the subject and predicated are eternally separated yet this impossibility is not to be considered in respect of God's absolute and almighty power for he can renew an Apostate by Repentance but it 's in respect of his Will which hath decreed it to be impossible His Power can do it but his Will hath limited his power so that though he could do it yet he will never do it never suffer it to be done This is that which the School-men mean when they distinguish of God's Power and say It 's absoluta aâ—t ordinata Whereas some call this a Proposition modal there is no Proposition but is such and essentially includes the manner how the terms argue one another and here impossible is the predicate and to be renewed by Repentance is the Subject It was much controverted amongst some of the Antients whether such as fell away in time of persecution might be admitted to penance and reconciled to the Church some denyed some affirmed And as their opinion so their practise was some were more rigid some more remisse some moderate The reason of the difference was because they did not agree in the definition of an Apostate and so could not unanimously judge of the parties offending and their offences whereof some were so hainous that though they did not reach Apostacy yet many thought it not safe to admit them to communion because the example might be of bad
it receiveth Blessing from God For it is God that maketh the Earth fruitfull and flourishing and without his Blessing the best Land though never so well husbanded is barren and of this we have frequent experience The Reddition of this is 1. That the thing signified in general is sinful Man and especially his heart Yet there is a great difference of men's heart for though no man can make his heart spiritually good yet every man may make his heart bad and worse then other mens and may by neglect and other wayes much obscure the light of Nature and dull the edge of conscience and so render himself indisposed for better things If this were not so there would be no inequality but all men would be equally sinful which daily experience contradicts A good heart is like good Ground therefore may be an heart not so bad or morally good according to the light of Nature and the power of Conscience which we find in Heathens and somewhat improved higher by Christian Education For the heart to bring forth fruit meet for the Dresser is to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit answerable to God's Spiritual Husbandry and the Showres of his heavenly Doctrine and the workings of his Spirit It 's to walk worthy of our Calling wherewith we are called This is that good and honest heart which bringeth forth fruit unto perfection The Blessing received is the continuance of the means of Salvation the increasing of heavenly Graces and Comforts and in the end eternal Life which is the greatest Blessing of all The end of this part of the Comparison is not only to perswade and encourage to Duty because of the great Blessing and Reward which will follow but also to let others who incline to Apostacy know how they deprive themselves of God's heavenly Blessings and these glorious Rewards § 8. The second protasis or proposition is concerning bad Ground which 1. Appears to be bad by bearing Thorns and Bryers 2. Is used as bad Ground 1. By being rejected 2. Nigh unto Cursing 3. In the end burned This Ground is a bad heart which is manifested by the fruits which are words and deeds tending to the dishonour of God and the hurt of Man And this Sin is so much the greater because of the means of Grace and workings of the Spirit over and above the light of Nature which God hath graciously afforded them The punishment of this barrenness in all virtue and fruitfulness in Sin followeth and there are three degrees thereof The first is rejecting when God takes away his Ministers his Word or if they continue withdraw the powerful working of the Spirit whereupon man is justly deserted of God as unworthy of any farther spiritual Dressing and useless for that end God in his great Mercy intended him The second he is nigh unto Cursing and the sentence of Excommunication whereby he is delivered up to Satan and a reprobate mind Hence blindness hardness of heart and the spirit of slumber This was the case of the unbelieving Jew and is the greatest Curse that can fall upon man in this life The third their end is Burning For rejection and this Curse will end in eternal punishments compared to torment with unquenchable fire This comparison is not only an illustration for the more clear representation of the condition of Apostates but also a very serious admonition to take heed of that grievous Sin and of all things that tend thereunto because the end will be so woful and the punishment so grievous For if men deal thus with their Ground which is devoid of reason sense and understanding how much more cause hath God to punish and that so severely men who are endued with understanding and enjoy so many helps and means of Conversion and Salvation § 9. The second reason of the Apostates resolution is given Ver. 9. But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak THe brief meaning of the words is 1. That though we did sharply reprove you and by our discourse of Apostacy might seem to imply that you were either Apostates or very near unto it yet I desire to be understood in another manner For I have more charity for you better conceirs of you and hopes of your continuance in Christianity so that you need not be initiated again by laying the foundation and I have good Grounds of this my hope 2. This is the reason why I will not lay the foundation again but go on to perfection and further inform you of higher points of Doctrine and in particular of the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood In this reason we may observe 1. His hope and good perswasion of them 2. The ground of this his hope In these words we have a Rhetorical Anticipation whereby he endeavours to prevent the thoughts which might arise in their hearts upon his former speeches and expressions For they might think that he did by them tacitely condemn them as Apostates or in the way to Apostacy And if he did so he must needs wrong them and discourage them for he did tacitely imply though not positively and expresly affirm that they were of a bad disposition and in a very sad condition and this Opinion of them was against charity and truth To remove such suspicious and jealousies out of their minds he in these words assures them of his Charity and that his words were not inconsistent with his good conceipt of them The first that is his Charity he signifies by the term of Compellation Beloved for he loved them with a dear and tender Love as Christians continuing in Christianity This he could not have done if he had judged them Apostates and Enemies to Christ. By this we are taught that it is our Duty not onely to love our Christian Brethren but upon occasion to express it and further to give the reason and ground of our love as the Apostle here doth For the reason and ground of this love was his perswasion of their continuance in Christianity For he was perswaded better things of them c. In which words 1. He confesseth he spake such things as might seem to charge them with Apostacy and condemn them as cursed 2. He yet denies that those words do imply any such thing and that he was so far from any such thoughts of them that he was perswaded of the contrary He did indeed reprove them for their Ignorance and Negligence whereof some of them were highly guilty and also signify the deplorable and desperate case of Apostates and there was danger lest some might in time be guilty of that Sin yet all this was not to accuse them but warn them that this danger might be prevented To reprove and admonish are Acts of Charity and such as the most loving Father in the World may and sometimes must use if he truly love his Children We may represent the ugly and filthy face of Sin and the horrid pains of
Supream Judge by him prove most effectual In that place it 's observable that he offers only the prayers of Saints and in another place he makes Intercession only for the Apostles and such as by their word should believe in him Joh. 17. 9 20. Saints and Believers are they who come to God by him And this is our Duty 1. To come to God and him alone for remission and eternal Salvation for they are found in him and in him alone and no where else 2. We must come to him by Christ as our only Propitiatour and Intercessour who alone can and will effectually plead our cause and make it good And as this is our Duty so upon the performance of it this will be the comfort of all penitent Sinners who groan under the heavy burden of their Sins and sigh and long and pray for Salvation 1. That Christ will certainly plead for them and by his Intercession obtain their everlasting Salvation And why should poor believing Sinners quake and tremble at the Bar of God seeing Christ doth plead their Cause which is more then if all Saints and Angels and the blessed Virgin the Mother of our Saviour should pray for him And why should be fear the Tryal or upon the Tryal Damnation or eternal Death For who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifirth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us Rom. 8. 33 34. It was expedient as he said to his Disciples That Christ should go away and that to his Father's House that as a Priest and Advocate he might be ever ready in that Court of Heaven to plead our Cause His presence and his perpetual Intercession there is far more beneficial to us then his bodily presence here on Earth it 's not only beneficial but necessary For when we have sinned what should we do if we had not him our righteous Advocate and Propitiatour with his Father we were redeemed indeed by his Death but we are saved and justified by his Life because he ever liveth to make Intercession for us and will fully and for ever save us For because he is a perpetual and effectual Intercessour therefore he is so able fully and for ever to save even all that come to God by him and this is a clear proof of his excellency above the Levitical Priest § 27. Now the Apostle seems to have finished his Discourse upon that excellent Text I have sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec Psal. 110. 4. and to conclude in these words following Ver. 26 27. For such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled seperate from Sinners and made higher then the Heavens Who needeth not c. VVHich words may be handled 1. Absolutely in themselves 2. Considered in their connexion and reference to the former But I will begin with the coherence and connexion which is difficult to be known as appeareth by the different â—pinion of Expositors upon the place For some think it 's a Conclusion and as it is the last part and close of the Chapter it may be so called for in this sense the word is sometimes taken yet this is no proposition inferred from former premises Others conceive that the Apostle proceeds by other Arguments to prove the superexcellency of Christ and this is true for so he doth Others imagine that these words give a reason why there must be such a Priest as lives for ever to make Intercession for us for such a Priest became us and none other would serve our turn Others judge a reason to be given here why the Intercession of Christ was so powerful and that is from his excellent qualification and his pure unspotted Sacrifice And it 's very certain that his Intercession had not been so effectual without this qualification of the person and the excellency of his Sacrifice Though all these things may be true yet something is to be observed and upon serious condesiration we shall find that the Apostle hath not done with his Text in the Psalmist but hath something more to say upon it and that he doth in these words It was well observed by the Rhemists that the Apostle scanneth every word of Psalm 110. 4. And there was one word more to be further examined For we have heard 1. Of Melchizedec 2. Of another Priest after his Order to arise after the Levitical Priest 3. That he is a Priest for ever 4. That he is made by Oath a Priest immortal and living for ever Yet in all this here is no mention of the person who he is that is thus made not what his qualification was nor of the time when he was thus made and why he was so confirmed But in these words he satisfices us in all these particulars as is implyed and presupposed in that very Psalm 1. The party was David's Lord For the Lord said unto my Lord ver 1. Who was above David not only because of his union with the Word but because he was advanced to far higher dignity and invested with far greater power and was the Son of God who lives for ever 2. His qualification was excellent For he was holy harmless undesiled and separate from Sinners 3. The time when he was thus made High-Priest for ever and that by Oath was after that he had offered one Sacrifice not many for the People not for himself once not often of everlasting virtue not effectual for some petty expiation for a time and after he was risen ascended and set at the right hand of God 4. The reason why he was thus made such a Priest was not only his excellent qualification and his immortality upon his Resurrection but because he had offered up himself without spot unto God That this is the intention of the Apostle will appear by the last words of the Chapter But to enter upon the words Ver. 26. For such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undesiled separate from Sinners and made higher then the Heavens IT may be truly said with Junius That in these words with those in the verse following Christ is circumscribed or described 1. From his Person 2. From his Ministry For his Person he had all the perfections of a Priest for his Service he was entred the holy place of Heaven to plead his excellent Sacrifice for all his Saints For his Perfections He was holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners These are perfections which were required in the Levitical High-Priest so far as humane frailty was capable But they agreed to Christ exactly and in a far higher degree then they did agree unto any even the best of them And though the words may signify several qualities different at lest in respect yet they make but one perfect qualification of this Priest who was holy as Man
and seeing the punishment was Death Death must first be suffered This was thus appointed and done to signify his purest holiness his hatred and detestation of sin his love of Justice and his respect unto the Law which bound to obedience or upon disobedience to punishment By this he signified and all men must know it that it 's a dangerous thing to transgress his Laws and this must hear and fear But then 2. Why by his own blood The reason in general is the will of God which did determine upon this blood and the wisdom of God which knew that it was the fittest of all other But more particularly the blood of Goats and Calves was no wayes convenient For it is not possible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins Hebr. 10. 4. Nor the blood of man of the best man though far above the blood of Bullocks and Goates was fit for all men are guilty and their blood is stained Neither was the life of Angels fit for though it might be precious yet God did not think it sufficiently satisfactory and meritorious for sinful man And suppose an High-Priest should offer his own blood yet that would not serve Therefore it must be Christ's blood his own blood which was pure and without spot and most precious not only because it was the blood of God that eternal Word made Flesh which was God but because it was shed with greatest pain and most willingly out of love to sinful man whose Flesh and Blood he had assumed and in obedience to his heavenly Father who had made him the great High-Priest appointed him to be the Head Surety and Hostage of sinful man and commanded him to lay down his life and do this great Service And without the blood of this Sacrifice he could not have entred into the holy place and obtained eternal Redemption This is the fourth thing observed in the Text and the Subject of the fourth Proposition concerning one immediate effect of his blood For he entring by his own blood once obtained eternal Redemption Where we must enquire 1. What Redemption is 2. Why this Redemption is said to be eternal 3. How it was obtained by the blood of Christ entring into Heaven or by Christ entring Heaven once with his own blood 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Copher in Hebrew which signifies a price or gift offered to a Judge or an Enemy to deliver one from Death or some other evil or punishment and it 's called a Ransome in this respect Christ is said to give himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lytron a Ransome 1 Tim. 2. 6. and Matth. 20. 28. In that place it 's such a price as is given to a Judge who hath power of Life and Death for to save the life of one capitally guilty and by Law bound to suffer Death The effect of this price is 1. To propitiate the Judge 2. Upon this propitiation made to save the lise of the party guilty In this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the effect of this price and is turned Redemption Expiation Remission Propitiation It 's true that the word may signify many other things and any kind of deliverance from evil But in this place it 's evident that it signifies the deliverance of guilty persons from Death upon a price given and accepted The party to whom this price was given is God as Supream Judge before whose Tribunal man stands guilty and liable to Death The effect of it is propitiation which includes satisfaction of divine Justice and merit of his favour and love Upon this propitiation sin becomes remissible and pardonable therefore Redemption and Propitiation are sometimes by a Metonymy taken for Remission according to that of the Apostle In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Ephes. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. In both which places the latter word seems to explain the former Yet Redemption is not Remission properly and actually but efficienter as the effect is said to be in the cause before it exist because of the virtue and power which abiding in the cause is sufficient to produce the effect and Christ must make sin by this Redemption remissible before it can be actually remitted 2. This Redemption and Propitiation is said to be eternal not because Christ is always redeeming and propitiating for that work was performed speedily and in a short time But it 's such because the virtue of it is of perpetual continuance in respect of all Sinners capable of all sins according to the Laws of God-Redeemer remissible and of the remission it self which frees the Sinner from all his sins from the eternal guilt and all penalties for ever Upon this Redemption is grounded that comfortable promise of the New Covenant formerly mentioned Chap. 8. 12. where God binds himself to remember our iniquities no more that is to give eternal pardon This adjunct of perpetuity is added to difference this Redemption and Expiation from that of the Law which must be made atleast every year It did but extend backward to sins of one year and the force of it presently expires 3. This was found and obtained by Christ as by his own blood entring once into the holy place None could make this propitiation but Christ neither could he do it except he enter the holy place Neither by that except he enter with blood his own blood But if he enter with that blood but once then the work is done for ever Why this Expiation and Propitiation should be made by blood and Christ's blood you have heard already But why with his blood must he enter the holy place and how being entered by and with this blood propitiation should be made for us as Translators by adding these words understand and supply the place though more difficult yet is to be cleared 1. Some tell us that because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Aorist tense consignifying time past eternal Redemption and Propitiation was found and obtained first and then afterward he entred the holy place And it 's true that when Christ had suffered Death the principal work was done and the foundation of eternal Remission was laid Yet if Death and shedding of his blood obtained eternal Redemption before he entred Heaven at lest in his Soul separated from his Body then the Type and Anti-type did not agree For the legal Redemption and Expiation was not made instantly upon the slaying of the Coates and Bullocks but before the work could be finished and sin expiated the High-Priest must take the Blood and Incense and enter the Holy of Holies and first burn the Incense and then sprinkle the blood upon and before the Mercy-seat without both which done neither his own sins nor the sins of the People could be expiated In all bloody and propitiatory Sacrifices were required Mactatio
man yet willing upon certain terms to be merciful unto him And one condition which performed he will accept is that Christ as Surety for man should suffer Death for man to satisfie divine Justice In this respect is he said to give himself a Ransome or Price How far different this is from the offering here described is easy to understand The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used about sixteen times in this Epistle but never taken in his sense which is so absurd and unworthy that no rational man as rational much less a Christian and a Schollar can any wayes approve but reject with scorn The rest of his discourse upon this Text is like his description of Christ's offering and by it he seeks to cast a mist upon the divine Doctrine of the Apostle lest he should confound himself and suffer his Reader to see the truth Dr. Gouge upon this Text affirms Christ to be a Priest in both natures which cannot be true for though he that is Priest be God yet as God he is not he cannot be a Priest For a Priest is an Officer and all Officers as Officers are made such by Commission from the Supream Power from whom they derive their Office whom they represent and are Servants under them to serve them There are two prime and proper acts of Christ as a Priest to Sacrifice and offer himself to God as Supream Lord and to make Intercession to him To attribute either of these to God as God and affirm them of him in proper sense is plainly blasphemous and inexcusable it turns the Lord into the Servant and God into Man § 14. Hitherto the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice and Service hath been manifested by two glorious and excellent effects the one immediate which is Expiation the other mediate which is purging the Conscience from Dead Works The former made Sin pardonable and the Consequents thereof removable the latter actually takes away Sin and the Consequents thereof in him who believeth Besides these two there is a third effect shewing it to be yet more excellent and that is confirmation of the New Covenant for thus he writes Ver. 15. And for this cause is he the Mediatour of the New Covenant that by means of Death for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Test ament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance THe subject of this Verse is the confirmation of the New Covenant by the Death and Sacrifice of Christ which is affirmed here and illustrated from ver 16. to the 23. afterwards And here the Coherence is 1. To be examined 2. The Text in it self to be considered The coherence with the former is in these words And for this cause The Copulative and may be as in other places expletive or it may be used to signify that the Death and bloody Sacrifice of Christ as it was ordained for another end besides the two former of Propitiation and purging the Conscience so it hath another and a third effect which is The confirmation of the New Covenant For this is to observed that he speaks and still continues his discourse of the Death and Blood of Christ. The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this cause which are turned by some therefore may referr either to that which goes before or that which follows If to that which goes before then they inform us that because Christ by his Blood entring the holy place of Heaven obtained eternal Remission and by it offering himself through the eternal Spirit without spot doth purge the Conscience to serve the living God therefore and for this cause and in respect of these two effects is he the Mediatour of the New Covenant If they relate to that which follows they are to be understood in this manner That because by the Death of Christ the Called receive the promise of eternal Inheritance therefore he is the Mediatour of the New Covenant This is the Coherence The absolute consideration of the Text followeth wherein we have two principal express Axioms or Propositions 1. Christ is the Mediatour of the New Covenant 2. By means of Death for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Covenant the Called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance 3. Christ is a Mediatour of the New Covenant that by means of Death for Redemption c. the Called may receive the promise c. In the first we have 1. A New Covenant 2. A Mediatour of this New Covenant 3. Christ the Mediatour 1. The New Covenant is that of the Gospel whereof you have heard in the former Chapter where it was opposed unto and compared with the Old Covenant made with the Fathers in the Wilderness Exod. 19. as established upon better promises And that word which was there turned Covenant is turned Testament not that there is any necessity but a conceived congruity For because here is mention of an Inheritance which is usually conveyed by the Will and Testament of man which Will is then firm and unalterable when the Testatour dieth therefore it was conceived by some that in this place that which formerly was called a Covenant should be called here a Testament yet notwithstanding it agrees with a Testament and may by a Metaphor be so termed yet it is more properly a Covenant 2. We have a Mediatour of this Covenant and what a Mediatour is you have heard before as also the distinctions of Mediators Some tell us that a Mediatour is aut â—untius aut sequester pacis aut arbiter aut sponsor yet we need not insist upon these terms for the Mediatour of this Covenant is a Priest and a Minister of it as the High-Priest was of the former Covenant 3. This Mediatour is Christ who may be said to be Nuntius à Dâ—o Intercessor pro hâ—mine Arbiter inter utrumque Sponsor pro utroque and he is a Messenger declaring the Covenant as a Prophet an Arbitratour between God and Man as a King a Surety and Intercessour as a Priest Yet though all this said may be in some respect true yet it 's neither accurate nor pertinent in this place Christ as a Priest and as a Priest officiating and offering himself a Sacrifice to propitiate God and purge the conscience of sinful Man is the Mediatour of this Covenant For as such and in this respect he mediates between God and Man to propitiate God and to make man fit for the receiving of the eternal Reward promised and both these he doth by his Blood and Death without which offered and applyed the promise would be void and never take effect It 's true that Christ doth procure the Covenant declares it confirms it and makes it effectual and in all these respects he may be said to be a Mediatour Yet here he is made such principally and most properly as confirming and making it effectual Moses and not Aaron was the Mediatour in the making and confirming the Old Covenant For he dealt between God and the
and Sin reigned from Adam to Moses Rom. 5. 12 14. And the wages of Sin is Death Rom. 6. 23. Besides it 's said That in Adam all dye that is in Adam sinning for he was that one man by whom Sin entred into the World 1 Cor. 15. 22. So that God appointed Man to dye and to dye but once The second Proposition is That after Death followeth Judgment This is the second thing For Death is first Judgment the second and the word after signifies the order of time For Death goes before and Judgment follows after The party Judged is Man the Judge is God whose Judgment is particular or general particular of every particular individual person general or universal of all For there is the Judgment of the great Day when all shall appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and this Judgment is appointed of God and appointed to follow after Death after which follows the final and eternal estate of man which shall be unalterable and by Judgment may be meant not only the Sentence of the Judge but the estate of the parties judged which followeth thereupon whether it be an estate of misery or of felicity We live here that we may prepare for this Judgment and we ought so to live as that we may be happy for ever hereafter and prevent the suffering of eternal punishments Yet men do not believe that God will Judge us and that Judgment will follow and that unavoidably after Death or if they do not believe this yet they do not seriously consider it This is the reason why they live secure in their Sins and extream danger and this is the cause of their eternal ruine It 's not material to enquire whether the act of the Judge or the estate of the parties judged or whether particular or universal Judgment be here meant or no. It 's certain that this is a Judgment which followeth after Death and the final and universal Doom seems to be here intended when both Soul and Body the whole man and all men that dye shall be judged This is the proposition § 26. The Reddition followeth in these words Ver. 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto Salvation THis Text informs us of the appearance of Christ for that 's the subject of it This appearance is two-fold the first and the second and both these differ much not only for the manner but the end The first was in Humility and the end was to suffer and by suffering to expiate Sin The second shall be in Glory and the end of it to give eternal Salvation to such as look for him The first was to suffer and save the second to judge and reward his faithful and obedient Servants The propositions therefore are two 1. Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many 2. Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation The first is the same with that in ver 26. But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself The words differ the matter is the same For as there so here two things are observable 1. The Sacrifice the single Sacrifice of Christ. 2. The end of it The single Sacrifice for Christ was once offered the end for he was once offered to bear the Sins of many First he offered himself this was an act of him as a Priest and as he was the best Priest that ever lived so he himself was the best Sacrifice that ever was offered The end was also excellent for he bare the sins of many that is the punishment due for the sins of many and he bare this punishment to satisfy divine Justice and procure God's favour to sinful man We deserved the punishment and he suffers it he is punished that we may be spared It was tender compassion in him to offer himself for us and it was exceeding love in God to send and give him for to suffer and so be the propitiation for our Sins He bare the sins of all to make them pardonable and the sins of many even of all sincere Believers that they may be actually pardoned for ever possibility of pardon is the benefit of all actual pardon of many yet not of all For Christ had no absolute intention to procure the Salvation of all but of such as believe in him yet the reason why all are not pardoned is not from Christ's Death which made the Sins of all pardonable but from some other cause And this is the condemnation of all those to whom the Gospel is preached That Light comes unto them and they love Darkness rather then Light God hath given his only begotten Son and his Son hath offered himself and made the way to Heaven passible and remission of Sins and eternal Life are offered unto u upon fair and reasonable terms and conditions and though to corrupt Flesh and Blood they be difficult yet they are made easy by the power of the Spirit yet we love our Sins more then our Saviour and continue in them to our eternal condemnation § 27. The second Proposition is concerning his second appearance For he shall appear the second time where as before we have the manner and the end The manner is Glorious for he shall appear without Sin yet he never had any Sin and in his first appearance he was without Sin For Sin of his own he had not yet he bare Sins the Sins of others the Sins of many Yet these Sins were not his by Commission but by Imputation so far as to be liable to Death For God laid on him the Iniquities of us all So that without Sin is without suffering for the Sins of others He shall not come the second time to dye for our Sins as he did the first this is the genuine sense When he came to Sacrifice for Sin he came in great Humility and took upon him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross this low condition was suitable to the work he then undertook But now he comes as King and Lord to judge the World and therefore he comes in Glory The end of his coming is to reward and the reward is Salvation and the parties to be rewarded are such as look for him By Salvation is meant eternal Life and full Happiness which he purchased by his precious Blood and it 's so called because man in danger of eternal Death shall then be fully saved and delivered from all Sin and all the sad and woful Consequents of Sin and that for ever for then Death man's last Enemy shall be destroyed Yet this immunity from all evil cannot consist without the enjoyment of those glorious and eternal Blessings which God hath promised this is the great reward which Believers do expect and because they know they shall not
fully enjoy it till his second appearance therefore they look and wait for his coming from Heaven that then their joy may be full Some think the Apostle doth here allude to the manner and order of the Levitical Service which was this The High-Priest enters the Sanctuary to pray and expiate Sin and the People stay without and wait for his coming out to bless them So Christ enters Heaven that glorious and eternal Sanctuary there appears before God and stayes a while and all his Saints do wait and look for his return and coming out from thence that they may by him be eternally Blessed These Lookers for him are they who shall be rewarded For though Christ came the first time to dye for all so far as to make their Sins remissible yet he comes the second time to conferr the ultimate benefit of his Redemption only upon them that look for him To look for Christ from Heaven doth presuppose the parties regenerate and renewed from Heaven justified and in the estate of justification and as having a title unto eternal Glory with a certain belief that Christ will come from Heaven and appear in Glory and that then they shall be glorified with him And this looking for Christ is their hope with a longing desire expressed sometimes by groans and yet a patient waiting God's leisure out of an assurance that he that shall come will come and will not tarry All this is signified by that of the Apostle And not only they but our selves also who have the first Fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodie Rom. 8. 13. Where we have 1. The persons waiting or the expectants 2. The thing waited for 3. The act and manner of waiting 1. The persons waiting are such as have the first Fruits of the Spirit which is a certain measure of Sanctification and consolation for these are the beginnings of Heaven where our holiness and comfort shall be perfect and full and these being but a little which bear the like proportion with eternal Glory as the first Fruits do with the Harvest do assure us as an Earnest of the full possession 2. Adoption is said to be the Redemption of our Bodies that is the Resurrection when our Adoption shall be compleat for then our minority being past and the time appointed by our heavenly Father come we shall be put into full possession of the Inheritance and glorious eternal estate which God hath prepared for those that love him and this is that which is called Salvation in this place 3. The act of waiting is an act of hope which resting upon the promise is assured and fully perswaded of the fruition of Glory in God's time and looks often towards it as our own The manner of this waiting is with vehement desires and longings and gâ—oans and yet with patience For because this blessed estate is so full of happiness and yet to come and only present in the first Fruits therefore we earnestly desire and long for Christ's comming saying Come Lord Jesu come quickly And because for the present we are pressed with the remainders of sin and corruption within us and with temptations and persecutions without and the distance between Heaven and Us is great therefore we groan and sigh and say Oh when will that time come when I shall be rid and fully freed from Sin and sorrow for ever I see the place of mine eternal Rest afar off when shall I come near and enter and enjoy my God for ever Yet because we have God's Word to assure us of possession we therefore are patient and content our selves in God's Will For if it be his will and pleasure that we must stay a while longer and suffer more we desire his will may be done and we submit unto it and there is great reason we should so do For we are unworthy of the least mercy and he might require a thousand years tryal and suffering and to give us so great and glorious reward and that within so short a time after our first regeneration is an act of greatest love and bounty § 28. Thus far the words have been absolutely handled now it 's time to consider them comparatively The notes of Similitude for it 's a comparison in quality are As and So For as man dies so Christ dies As man dies once So Christ dies once and no more And as man is appointed by God to dye but once so Christ was appointed by God to dye but once And as man after Death comes to Judgment so Christ after he died once will not dye again but come to Judgment Yet as in all things that are like there is some dissimilitude and difference so there is in Man and Christ. Man dies for his own Sin Christ for the Sins of others Man's Death doth not satisfy for Sin Christ's Death satisfies divine Justicé and his Sacrifice doth expiate the Sins of many for ever Upon man's Death follows Judgment and he himself is judged but after once suffering and offering Christ appears and comes to Judge and not to be judged to reward such as believe in him but not to be rewarded And here it 's to be noted 1. That as Christ died to make man savable so he appears before God actually to save and comes to Judgment to make man fully happy As by his Death he merited Remission and Glorification inestimable Benefits so he appears before God for us now and in the end will come to Judgment that he may communicate these Benefits and make men actually partakers of them 2. That remission of Sins and the enjoyment of Salvation and full happiness do depend upon Christ's Sacrifice once offered as the effect depends upon the cause To sum up the Chapter we must observe 1. That the Subject of it is the Sacrifice of Christ. 2. That in it the scope of the Authour is to prove the excellency of the same above all Levitical Services 3. That his method is this 1. He describes the Tabernacle and the parts thereof and the Services performed therein and singles out the greatest Service performed by the greatest Priest in the most holy place which was the yearly Sacrifice of Expiation 2. He proves the Sacrifice of Christ to be far more excellent then this in many respects but chiefly in respect of the effects thereof The first effect is eternal Expiation ver 12. The second purification of the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God in which respect it did excell all Legal purifications ver 14. The third is the confirmation of the New Covenant by virtue of this Expiation and Purification ver 15. The fourth lest they should think it strange that the Death and Blood-shed of their Messias should be any wayes conducing or necessary to these effects of Confirmation Expiation and Purification he lets them know First That for confirmation of the New Covenant it was very
Assumption to sone former Proposition 2. There was in these yearly Scrifices a Remembrance of Sin for when this great Sacrifice was to be offered God dâ— command That Aaron the High-Priest should lay both his hands upon the Head of the Scape-Goat and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all thir Transgressions in all their Sins Levit. 16. 21. Where we learn what Remembrance of Sin is it 's the Confession of Sins Now Confession presupposeth Remembrance and is â—n outward Expression and Declaration of the sins remembred To confess sins is to aknowledg the Confessors guilty notwithstanding Sacrifices had been offered and Expiaâ—on made and from hence it follows that those Sacrifices had no vertue to take away sin Some vertue they had and some Legal Expiation was made yet the Offering was â— sooner made but the expiating vertue vanished and their new sins must have a new Câ—nfession and a new Sacrifice which had been needless if the former Sacrifices had been sufficient And whereas it may be said that although many Sacrifices severally could 〈◊〉 yet all joyntly might purge the Worshippers The Answer is they could not â—o not any nor all had Power to purge the Conscience that must be purged by some bette Sacrifice whereof they were but Types and Shadows This is the third Argument § 5. The fourth we find Ver. 4. For it is not pssible that he Blood of Bulls and Goats should take awâ—y Sins THE force of the Reasons in this That seeing the Effect is to take away sin it must have a Cause sufficent to produce it but the Blood of Bulls and Goats which was the princiâ—l thing in the Legal Annual Sacrifices was no such Cause it had no such vertue the Effet was so far above it that there was no possibility that such a Cause should reach it For â—ery Cause doth work according to it's Power as it is greater or less but if there 〈◊〉 power at all in respect of any particular Effect in respect of that it can do nothingâ— all The Blood of Buls and Goats might be a sign of that Blood that could take away sin but take it away or any wayes actively concur to the taking away thereof it could â—o In the words we have 1. An Effect 2. The Impotency of Legal Sacrifices in respect of this Effect 1. The Effect is taking away of sin Where by Sins we must understand sins as past yet remaining in their Guilt For though the sins be past and not in being yet the Effect abides for the party that hath sinned is liable to Punishment and must suffer it if it be not prevented Therefore to take away Sin is to make it remissible and that by some Sacrifice and Satisfaction This is to make the Guilt removable which yet is not actually removed but by the Sentence of the Judg passed upon the Sinner rightly disposed and qualified by Faith in a right Sacrifice And here you must observe that the Guilt is an Obligation not only to some temporal but also to spiritual Punishment because sin is from the Soul an immortal substance and against a Law of God which binds the Conscience and immortal Soul and promiseth Rewards and threatneth Punishments not only temporal but spiritual and eternal And the taking away sins in this place is a freeing of the party from this Obligation 2. Such an Effect so great and glorious and so beneficial to sinful Man must have some excellent and powerful Cause such the Blood of Buls and Goats cannot be Where we must know that the things sacrificed on the great day of Expiation were Buls or Bullocks and Goats and with the Blood of these shed and taken and sprinkled in the Holy place within the second Veil the Legal Expiation was made As the Beasts so the Blood was morally neither bad nor good but indifferent And though offering and sprinkling of this Blood was a rational Act in the High-Priest yet it could give no moral spiritual or supernatural Power to the Blood Neither could the Priest have had any warrant to have made this use of this Blood if God hadnot commanded him and that to signify some better and far more excellent Blood Therefore if we look upon the Blood and consider what it was we cannot rationally inagine any Power in it either placare or piacere either to satisfy divine Justice or to merit any Acceptation for that end from the supream Judg Therefore well might the Apstle say That it was not possible for the Blood of Buls and Goats to take away Sins and thence conclude that the Legal Sacrifices could not perfect or purge the Worshippers § 6. Hitherto the Apostle hath proved the insuiclency and impotency of the chiefest Legal Sacrifices for to take away sins and this heâ—ath done by Artificial Arguments taken from the Nature of the Sacrifices themselvs ad the Reiteration of them and now he goes further to manifest that they could not perect any and that by an inartificial Argument and a Testimony The Testimony is â—ivine and of infallible Authority and such in the Judgment of these Hebrews so that thâ— could not deny it The End of it is to prove that they could not purge or perfect th Worshippers because God never intended to do any such thing by them He argueso this purpose That if God intended to expiate Sin and perfect sinful Man by anothe and a more excellent Sacrifice even the Sacrifice of Christ and by that alone then they ould not expiate and take away Sin and so purge the Worshippers But he intended to â— this great Work by another more excellent which was the Sacrifice of Christ and thaalone Therefore they could not do that great Work of Expiation This was so strong a Proof that it did evince that though the Legal Sacrifices might have had some expiatig Power yet they could never expiate Sin because that Effect was and that by God's ntention reserved for another and a better Cause And this may be said to be a fifth argument â—istinct from all the former Seeing this is an inartificial Argument we must consider the Nature of the Testimony it self and the matter or thing testified The Testmony as yo heard before is divine for it 's taken out of the Old Testament and out of that part whih is called The Book of Psalms and out of one of those Psalms which by the Title is said o be David's The Pen-men of the whole were Prophets and inspired from Heaven ad amongst the rest David of whom it 's said The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his Vord was in my Tongue 2 Sam. 23. 2. And not only he but all the men of God spake assey were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. As they spake so they wrote thefore their Writings are called The Scriptures by way of Eminency and The Holy Scripres and the words written therein are all the words of God who spake in them
Will and great Command of God which can never be found in the Moral Law That Christ should suffer and offer himself to expiate the Sin of Man This Law is said to be in his heart and he delighted to do it For if he had not done it willingly it never had been accepted or effectual These words are left out in the Apostles allegation not only because he would have them understood but also because the Text of the Psalmist without them was sufficient for his purpose Though it 's very true that in the New Testament several times a few words of the Text cited out of the Old are expressed and the Reader referred to the Book where they are written at large 2. He came to do his Will that is to dye for the Sin of Man and to do this Will and offer himself a Sacrifice for the Expiation of our Sins was the end of his coming For as that was the great Command of his Father so it was the great Work he had to do Not long before his Death he said Now my Soul is troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Joh. 12. 27. And in his Agony he prayes That the bitter Cup of his Passion if it were possible might passe from him yet concludes Thy will not mine be done Where it 's implyed That it was his Father's Will he should suffer and offer himself and he was resolved to do it and to deny his own Will and submit unto his heavenly Father And again The Cup which my Father hath giveâ— me shall I not drink it Joh. 18. 11. He could have prayed to his Father and have obtained twelve Legions of Angels a Power sufficient to have rescued him from all his Enemies yet would not do it For saith he How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Matth. 26. 54. Where we must observe 1. That the Father had by the Prophets of Old signified That it was his Will that Christ should suffer 2. That he câ—me into the World to fulfil this Will and to present himself before his Father when the time came and said Lo I come 3. This was written in the Volume of God's Book This Book is the Book of the Old Testament and it 's called a Volume because it was not bound up as now Books are but rouled up into a Scroul or Volume as the Hebrew word doth signify and as some say The Jews do fold up the Book they read in their Synagogues Therefore is it said That when the Book of the Prophet Esay was delivered to Christ he unfolded it and when he had read a part of it he folded it up again as the word in the Original signifieth Luke 4. 17 20. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is turned by Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Hierom Pagnine Pratensis Tremelius and Junius Volumen by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Vulgar Caput and so in this place Tremelius and Beza translate it Schindler thinks the Septuagint took Megittah for Gilgoleth which signifies the Scul or the Head But this is not likely We need not much trouble our selves about the Word For as Genebrard observes the meaning is That it was written of him in the whole body of the Scriptures and the sum of them for the sum of Moses and the Prophets is Christ. And it 's certain That Christ was the principal Subject of all their Writings which Christ read and perfectly knew his Fathers Will revealed in them that men might believe in him and expect Salvation from him This Will so perfectly known to Christ was in his heart which he delighted to do and was resolved upon it Thus must we deny our own natural Desires to suffer loss of life and cruel pains to do the Will of God if we will be Christ's Disciples and receive benefit by him § 8. Thus far the words of the Psalmist the Apostle's Application followeth which will be the more perspicuous if we consider the Subject of his discourse and the scope whereat he aims His Subject is the sanctification and perfection of such aâ— Worship God by Sacrifices and Offerings and his scope is this to prove that the Legal Sacrifices and Offerings could not expiate Sin and perfect the Worshippers because that effect was reserved for an higher Cause and for a more excellent Sacrifice Thus much premised the Apostle having recited the words of the Psalm observes three things in them 1. The rejection of the Legal Offerings and that in these two words Thou wouldst not and thou hadst no pleasure therein 2. The acceptation of the Sacrifice of Christ the Offering whereof was the doing God's Will 3. The reason why he rejected and took away the former was that he might establish the latter And seeing these were the words of God spoken by the Prophet David and that in time of the Law and that they plainly signify the Will of God in the matter of Sacrifices therefore the argument was strong and evincing and did clearly prove that the Legal Offerings could not take away sin but Christ's could § 9. That Christ's Offering could do this he affirms saying Ver. 10. By which Will we are sanctified by the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all HEre the Apostle returns again unto the Sacrifice of Christ and proves it far more excellent then those of the Law and that especially in two things 1. In that it could sanctify which they could not 2. It did sanctify being but one and once offered whereas they were many and often offered This excellency virtue and efficacy is set forth two wayes 1. Absolutely ver 10. 2. Comparatively ver 11 12 13 14. In these words where we have the virtue of this Sacrifice asserted absolutely we have two things 1. An Effect our Sanctification 2. The Cause the Will of God through the once offering of the Body of Christ. Where 1. We must not understand by Sanctification only a communication of inherent Righteousness in renuing the Image of God in us but also Justification and a freedom from all Sin and all the consequents thereof so that we shall never Sin or be guilty of Sin any more This is a rare and noble Effect and such as upon the same we shall be fully and for ever blessed 2. The Cause of this is God's Will through Christ's Body once offered And here by Will is meant the Will and Command of God signifyed to Christ that he should offer his Body once with his promise to accept it Yet this Will may be considered 1. As a Law or Command given and signified to Christ. 2. As performed by Christ in which latter sense it is here taken principally For it 's not this Will or Command but this Will done that doth sanctify If God had given this Command and Christ had never
obeyed it how could it have sanctified us But Christ came to do this Will and did it And he did it by offering of his Body once for all Where we may take notice of 1. The Body of Christ. 2. The Offering of it 3. The Offering of it once 1. The Body of Christ was the thing to be slain and sacrificed For he had said before A Body hast thou prepared me and here we understand why God did prepare him a Body and that is that it might be Sacrificed So that the matter of this Sacrifice was a Body yet not any Body but the Body of Christ which was the Body of the Son of God and so of God in a singular manner 2. This Body of Jesus Christ must be offered this was the form of the Sacrifice And here we might enquire and search out a reason why it 's said That the Body of Christ was offered And to discover this we must know That the God-head could not be offered For who can offer himself or any other thing to himself Neither could the Soul of Christ be offered because it was immortal For when it 's said That God made his Soul an offering for Sin Esay 53. 10. yet there by Soul is meant the Life of Christ. For the thing to be sacrificed must be slain the Blood shed and it must be offered to God But Christ's Soul though obedient unto Death was not slain had no Blood to be shed could not be sacrified to God Yet his Body might be slain the Blood thereof shed and both tendered unto God In this respect it 's said by Christ himself The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I give for the Life of the World And when he instituted the Eucharist in memory of this great Sacrifice he mentions his Body broken and given and his Blood shed This Body must be offered and resigned up to God and willingly yielded unto Death out of obedience to God's Command and love to sinful Man with an intention to propitiate God offended and to expiate the Sin of Man For otherwise if it had been crucified and separated from the Body and not out of this obedience and love and for this end it could never have sanctified us For it must be offered yet though offered if not accepted of God as a Ransome for Man's Sin it could not have had this effect For as it was God's free love to give his only begotten Son so it was his free love to accept this Offering in the behalf of sinful Man the rare and excellent effects thereof depended upon his Will It 's true that this Offering in it self was very acceptable yet that thereupon so incomparable a benefit should redound unto Man was from his Will and good Pleasure For though in it self it was far above all Offerings of the Law and the dignity of the person was great yet to sanctify Man and free him from eternal penalty did depend upon God's acceptation 3. This Body was but offered once for that once was sufficient and so much accepted of God that a second Offering of the same Body or any other thing was needless And that cause which by one efficiency can reach the effect must not act again for a new production of it Neither did it seem good to the infinite Wisdom of God to require any offering of this Sacrifice but this one § 10. Thus far the excellency of this Offering considered absolutely in it self hath been declared the comparative excellency is set forth in the words following to ver 15. Where we have 1. The Proposition concering the Legal Offering ver 11. 2. The Reddition ver 12 13 14. The Proposition we find Ver. 11. And every Priest standeth daily Ministring and Offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away Sins IN which Text we may take notice of 1. The Minstration of the Legal Priests 2. The inefficacy or weakness of their Ministration The Priests are of the Order of Aaron and are here implied to be many in opposition to Christ which was but one for it 's said Every Priest These Priests were ordained of God to minister before him and especially the High-Priests which are here principally intended whose principal Work it was by the yearly Sacrifice offered on the tenth day of the seventh Month to expiate the Sins of Israel 1. In the Ministration of those Priests which was principally to offer we may consider 1. The Sacrifices offered 2. The frequency of their Offering 3. Their continual attendance at the Altar for that purpose 1. That which they offered was Sacrifice yet the Sacrifices were many individually yet the same in kind for the same kind of Sacrifice was offered several times And hence 2. The frequency of offering and the manifold Re-iteration of the Act for they offered the same Sacrifices often and many several times 3. Lest this Work and Service should at any time be neglected every Priest stands daily ready to offer such Sacrifices as God had instituted and commanded to be offered at set and determinate times The Sum is that 1. Many Priests 2. Offered many Sacrifices individual of the same kind 3. Offered the same Sacrifice oftentimes 2. Though these many were many times offered by many Priests and often by the same individual Priest yet they could never take away Sin This was their impotency and ineffectual Causality in respect of Expiation spiritual and eternal Where it 's to be noted 1. That to perfect to sanctify to take away Sin is the same 2. That there is a Legal carnal Expiation and a spiritual and eternal and this latter is here to be understood as denyed of the Legal Sacrifices which could not expiate Sin in this manner 3. Whereas it sometimes falls out that that which one Cause cannot many may effect and that Cause which may be deficient at one time may be efficacious at another yet here it is said that not all these nor any of these could take away Sin at any time They could never take it away 4. Whereas Sin may be expiated and made remissible for ever in respect of the Sacrifice yet not actually taken away or remitted by reason of the indisposition of the Subject and impenitency of the Sinner in this place you must know that these Sacrifices were deficient not only in respect of the indisposition of the Subject but also in respect of the active expiating power of the Cause For they never made any Sin spiritually remissible or the spiritual and eternal Punishment removable For otherwise that Blood of Christ which obtained eternal Remission hath no Effect of Justification upon impenitent Unbelievers for before Sin can be actually taken away from any Person there must be 1. A propitiatory Sacrifice and such as God will accept as a full satisfaction for Sin 2. The party sinful must repent believe pray 3. Christ the great High-Priest since his Ascension must make Intercession and plead 4. God the Supream Judg must
so far as was necessary for their deliverance and became liable to the penalty which was due to Man for his Sin That which moved God to send and give his Son was his meer mercy and free love to miserable Sinners That which moved God to punish him once substituted was his vindicative Justice looking upon our Sins It is not proper to say That our Sins were a cause either intrinsecally or extrinsecally impelling God to put Christ to Death and to lay upon him the iniquities of us all Though Sin is the formal object of punitive justice and doth deserve punishment yet God as Supream Lord and Judge and above his own Law had power to pardon Sin or punish it and punish it either in the party offending or in Christman's voluntary Hostage and in what measure he pleased and to accept this punishment willingly suffered for what ends and in what degree he pleased For to inflict the penalty upon the party delinquent or upon another or in this or that degree or for this or that end which shall be agreeable to Justice and pleasing to Mercy is accidental and not essential to it And because this Death of Christ was suffered for Sin and so intended by the Supream Judge it was not only an affliction but properly a punishment That which moved Christ to offer himself was his love unto his heavenly Father a resolution to obey his Command and a desire to be beneficial to mankind and the offering was an act of Charity Obedience and properly a Sacrifice which did so please God that he in consideration of the same was willing to grant unto Man many glorious and incomparable Blessings And to substitute Christ to Command him to offer himself to make him Sin for us to accept his Sacrifice for 〈◊〉 and in consideration of the same to promise Remission of Sins and eternal life to sinful man believing was not meerly or properly a dispensation but an abrogation of the Law of Works In this offering God did manifest his Wisdom his Power his Holiness and hatred of Sin his love of Righteousness his vindicative Justice his supream Dominion and his infinite Mercy In it Christ was a patern and lively mirrour of Humility Patience Fortitude Faith Hope Charity Self-denial and Obedience unto Death the Death of the Cross. The effects of this one offering are here said to be Sanctification and Consecration yet it was not an absolute and immediate cause of these Therefore we must observe That the effects of this cause may be said to be immediate or mediate though this is no formal distinction of a cause as a Cause The immediate effects which are antecedent to application are of three sorts 1. Such as respect God to whom the Sacrifice was offered or Christ who offered it or Man for whom it was offered Such as respect God respect him either as Lord or Law-giver or Judge As Lord by this Sacrifice redeeming man he acquired a new power over Man as he was Law-giver the Law of Works was made relâ—xible or repealable as he was Judge his vindicative power in respect of the sin of man was suspended or inhibited upon a satisfaction or compensation made so that his mercy might freely issue out to save man without any breach or violation of Justice or derogation from the Authority of his Law All these may be reduced to propitiation and reconciliation In respect of Christ the person offering by this he acquired power over all Flesh and all that happiness and glory which his Father promised to conferr upon him upon the performance of this Service In respect of man for whom Christ offered he by this became savable upon a new Covenant and new terms for the performance of which Covenant and attaining of which Salvation all means and power necessary were merited These effects followed immediately in respect of the offering the mediate effects are such as followed upon this offering applyed yet are the immediate effects of it as applyed For upon the same received by Faith followed Justification Reconciliation Adoption Resurrection and eternal Salvation and all these are reduced by the Apostle to Sanctification and Consecration So that the Salvation of Man from first to last is wholly from this offering yet this offering was not the first Spring and Fountain of our Happiness for that was the love of God giving Christ to offer himself It 's a vain and loose assertion of the Socinian to sâ—y or argue That because God loved Man so as to give Christ for him therefore there was no need of any Propitiation or Reconciliation or Aversion of his Wrath by Blood For he might easily distinguish between a general indefinite and a particular love and between a love of good will and of friendship The love of God is best known by the acts and effects thereof For we find three degrees and effects of his love to sinful man The first is the giving of Christ to offer himself for him and thus he loved him when he was an Enemy and ungodly for we may love Enemies though not as Friends The second is the giving the means of Conversion that he may believe and when God loves him thus and first calls him he finds him still an Enemy The third degree and effect of his love is to justify and glorify him and when God loves him thus he finds him converted and looks upon him as a Friend From these degrees of love the Apostle argues That if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Rom. 5. 10. And though Christ hath offered himself for Sinners and this was an act of exceeding love yet he that believeth not on the Son offering himself hath no life in him but the Wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. 36. And no man can have peace with God by Jesus Christ before he be justified by Faith in Christ. For being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 16. Where to have peace with God and be the determinate object of God's special love doth presuppose and necessarily prerequire both Faith and Justification § 14. The Apostle having proved formerly out of Psalm 40. the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice and the virtue of it in the next words adds another proof out of Jeremy 31. 33 34. The same Text of the Prophet was alledged Chap. 8. and there handled and therefore here I need not enlarge but contract my Explication But let us hear the words of the Allegation Ver. 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us For after he had said before Ver. 16. This is the Covenant that I will make with them After those dayes saith the Lord I will put mâ— Laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them Ver. 17. And their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Ver. 18. Now where Remission of these
done and yet they remain Christians This is not strictly Apostacy In this number were many of those who antiently were called Lapsi and upon repenance were re-admitted to Christian Communion Therefore the Apostacy here 1. Is not barely to Sin for who lives and sins not Nor 2. To Sin willingly for so every one that Sins especially such as act against their knowledg may be said to do But 3. It 's to sin willingly after the reception of the knowledg of the Truth so as to renounce the Truth whereof they were fully convinced and to reject Christianity which they had received and professed That this was the sin here meant will fully appear hereafter § 26. This is the Sin The Punishment follows and it is unavoidable The reason hereof is first because it 's unpardonable This is signified by these words There remains no more Sacrifices for Sins This implies 1. That the punishment of Sins unpardonable is inavoidable and this is a clear and certain truth if we consider the Rules of God's Judgment and his Practice For whom he never pardons those he alwayes punisheth 2. That no sin is pardonable without a Sacrifice he meaneth the Sacrifice of Christ one immediate effect whereof once was to make Sin pardonable The reason why God required 1. Sacrifice 2. This Sacrifice was 1. To manifest his hatred of Sin and his Justice 2. To let men know that no Sacrifice was so fit for this purpose as that of Christ. These things implyed he affirms there remains no more Sacrifice for Sins In this he denies not this Sacrifice of Christ or the virtue of it to remain for both remain But his meaning is that neither this Sacrifice nor any other can make the Sins of these Apostates pardonable For Sin is pardonable by this Offering upon condition of Repentance and Faith and then actually to be pardoned when we actually do repent and believe sincerely But here we must take notice that the sins of many persons are pardonable and may be pardoned because though for the present they do not yet for the future they may in due time repent but the Sins of these Apostates upon their Apostacy become unpardonable so as that they neither shall not can be pardoned The reason of this is an eternal decree of divine Justice whereby he hath determined that the Sacrifice of Christ shall never benefit any such as fall away after they have received the knowledg of the Truth and if this Sacrifice shall never be accepted for them not any other ever shall have any force to expiate their Sin § 27. Therefore to such there can be no hope of mercy Ver. 27. But a fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries IN the former words it 's implyed That the Apostate is liable to an unavoidable punishment of loss because he hath deprived himself of all hope of pardon or benefit to be received by the Sacrifice of Christ and here that he is obnoxious to a positive eternal penalty as unavoidable as the former In the words we may easily observe 1. The penalty to be inflicted 2. The parties who must suffer it 3. The certain expectation of it 1. The penalty may seem to be described 1. From the Cause the severe Justice of God 2. The Effect which is devouring or consuming The severe Justice of God is signified 1. More properly by the word Judgment 2. Improperly or Metaphorically by fiery Indignation 1. The word Judgment may inform us that this Justice is not legislative but judicial and as judicial not remunerative but vindictive which presupposeth Crime and Guilt in the party to be Judged The Judge is God the party to be judged the Apostare and the word Judgment may signify strictly the Sentence more largely or the Sentence and the Execution or the Punishment to be inferred This Judgment is the decree of Condemnation which determines the penalty and to signify how dreadful it is it 's said 2. Metaphorically to be fiery Indignation The words may be translated the hear or boiling or burning of fire that is fiery hear The Phrase is taken out of the Old Testament as Ezek 38. 19. Zeph. 1. 18 3 8. In which places the Septuagint use both these words of the Text For 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 1. Wrath. 2. Indignation which is an high degree of Wrath and sometimes Jealously which is an implacable anger and the word fire is added to denote the force and vehemency of it And both words together signify Wrath very intensive and of an high degree yet God is not subject to passion as Man is but by these terms the Spirit informs us of God's high displeasure against and his great hatred and detestation of Apostacy and the severity of his Justice whereby he is resolved most fearfully to punish that Sin which is not barely a disobedience of some particular Law but a plain revolt So that God's severe Justice is the Cause the Effect is this that it will devour or consume which is no partial but a total destruction not that God will take away the beeing but the well-beeing of the Offender and will not only totally bereave him of all Comfort but torment him with extremity of Pain 2. The parties that most suffer are Adversaries Adversaries are Apostates who are not meerly disobedient Subjects but Revolters They violate the fundamentall Law of subjection and raze the foundation of Obedience for subjection unto God-Redeemer by Christ is the first and highest Duty God requires of sinful Man and it 's the ground of all Obedience and this Sin of Apostacy is opposed to this Subjection Yet it differs from that Rebellion which upon God's Call refuseth to submit and acknowledg Christ our Soveraign For this presupposeth that men have received Christ promised their Allegiance and by their Baptism have engaged themselves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet contrary to this engagment renounce the Supremacy of this universal Lord and so of engaged Subjects become Enemies for such all Rebells and Revolters are and shall be so judged by God Many besides these shall be condemned and fearfully punished but these are the Adversaries intended in this place 3. There remains a certain fearful looking for of this Judgment c. The meaning is they cannot look for any other final retribution This implies 1. That though they never fear it not think of it yet they are obnoxious to it 2. That this will certainly be their Doom and as they are obnoxious by Law and the certain and eternal rules of Judgment for neither Sentence nor Execution will fail they shall certainly suffer that which they have deserved 3. If they ever seriously reflect upon themselves and remember what they have done as Conscience will now and then lash them and mind them of their Crime they must needs expect it and their fear will be very great For as
the supream Judg. Angels or Men may have the use of it but the Propriety is in God And that you may understand it more fully you must know that this Power of punishing is an universal a supream an original Power as it belongs to God and none else It extends to all Persons to all Causes and to these in all respects For he hath Jurisdiction over Angels and the Consciences and immortal Souls of men and can irrogate spiritual and eternal Punishments 2. As Vengeance so Retribution belongs unto the Lord and it may be considered not only as it is a Power or Right to recompense but the Act and Exercise of vindicative Justice and may include both the Sentence and the Execution which is nothing else but a returning evil for evil the evil of Punishment for the evil of Sin The Apostle in this follows the Septuagint which turn it I will recompence which seems to imply that as he is 1. Just to punish Sin 2. Hath a power of Retribution So. 3. He will recompense and exercise this Power and that certainly 3. He will judg his People This may be understood two wayes 1. That God will judg the Cause of his oppressed and persecuted People by punishing and destroying their Enemies and this the Context in Denteronomy seems to imply 2. That he will judg his People and punish severely all Apostates among them So that by People may be meant all men punishable either according to the Law of Nature or of Moses or according to the Gospel Amongst those which are punishable such as â—â—e in Covenant with God and by Covenant are his Heople if they revolt are the greatest Offenders and amongst the Revolters such as fall away from the Truth of the Gospel once received are the most hainous Delinquents of all To judg these is to condemn them and to inflict the Punishment to which they are condemned and when it 's said He will judg them it signifies he will certainly do it and they shall not escape Men may threaten and never condemn they may condemn and never execute but God will certainly do both 4. The Lord saith so Man might have said it and it might have been otherwise out of Ignorance he might have been deceived or out of pravity he might lye and deceive others or if any earthly Judg who knew his own mind and power should have said so yet he might change his mind or want power and so Recompence might fail But it 's God who is Supream Judg who cannot be deceived cannot deceive cannot change his mind who hath almighty Power that saith so and his Word is his Deed. If therefore he say I will recompense I will judg Recompence and Judgment will certainly follow they cannot fail 5. They knew it was God who said so that God who could certainly do as he had said If any other had said it or God himself had said it and they had been ignorant of it their fear had been less though the danger had been as great as if they had known it Seeing therefore it is the Lord who said it and they knew that it was said and that by him their fear should be answerable to the danger and so much the greater as their Knowledge was more clear and certain They knew this and that by Scripture which they believed to be the Word of God Ignorance of this Truth makes men secure and presumptuous and so doth Unbelief This seems to prove the Punishment to be unavoidable § 31. Yet though it be certain and unavoidable yet if it be lesse it 's lesse feared But Ver. 31. It 's a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the Living God THis again doth signify how grievous the Punishment of Apostates must needs be for they fall into the hands of the Living God And this is deduced from the former Text c for there it 's said God will recompence God will judg and take Vengeance And if it be the Punishment that the Living God will execute then it must needs be most fearful and unavoidable To understand the force of the Text we must observe in it 1. The Living God 2. The hands of the Living God 3. The falling into his hands 4. The fearfull Condition of such as fall into his hands 1. The Living God is here opposed not only to dumb and dead Idols but to mortal men and the word Living is added to signify not only the eternal Duration of his Existence but his active and lively Power and Strength which is said to be almighty and is of himself 2. The Hands and Arm of God in Scripture doth usually signify this Power and Strength of God which is exercised sometimes in Mercy sometimes in severe Justice For it is this Almighty Strength of God which doth deliver and save his People and punish and execute Vengeance on their Enemies And here it 's taken for his punishing and revenging hand whereby he executes his Wrath upon Apostates and manifests his greatest Indignation against them 3. To fall into his Hands is by Apostacy to make our selvs obnoxious to the severâ—ty of his revenging Justice in that manner as no wayes to escape either the Sentence or the Execution For this Sin is the most provoking of all others renders the Sinner uncapable of any Mercy makes him liable to the greatest Punishment Man can suffer and he shall be no wayes able to avoid it but must in the end certainly feel it We are all in God's hands and in his power at all times but the Apostate casts himself into the hands of his severest Justice never to be delivered ever to be tormented 4. It 's a fearfull thing Where we must note that to fall into the hands of the Living God is the Subject or Antecedent and a fearfull thing is the Predicate and Consequent of the Proposition and argues the Antecedent as an Adjunct inseperable doth it's Subject yet in this place to be fearful is to be apt to cause fear The Object of all fear is some evil approaching and the greater the evil is the more approaching and approaching as inevitable the greater Cause of fear there is The Evil is Punishment the greatest Punishment Man can suffer and it 's very near for he is already fallen into the hands of the Living God and he can no wayes escape It 's a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of a severe and potent Judg or of a cruel Enemy much more into the hands of this supream and eternal Judg who can not only kill the Body but cast both Soul and Body into Hell and eternally and extreamly torment both The Sum and Substance of this Argument is that seeing the Punishment of Apostates will be most grievous and unavoidable therefore it concerns them much to consider seriously of it and take heed of falling away from their Profession § 32. The Apostle proceeds to another argument Ver. 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes in
High-Priest ascended into Heaven 2. This Blood of Sprinkling speaketh better things thau the Blood of Abel This Blood is the Blood of Christ and the End and so the principal Effect is to cleanse away Sin yet this it cannot do except it be first shed and then sprinkled Once shed it hath a cleansing Power and Vertue yet actually cleanseth and purifieth no man till it be sprinkled upon him The Blood of sprinkling is Blood to be sprinkled and it is to be sprinkled upon the unclean to make clean and therefore the Blood of Sprinkling is by a Metonymy cleansing and purifying Blood Yet there was a sprinkling of Blood in the Sanction and Confirmation of the Old Covenant and so Blood of Sprinkling here may be the Blood of Confirmation for as you heard Chap. 9. 16 17. a Testament is of force after men are dead so upon and by the death of Christ the new Covenant was made firm valid and in full force and power for that end God intended it If Christ had not dyed God might have abrogated or altered his Covenant but upon his death he was bound to stand to it for ever and the Title to the heavenly Inhâ—râ—tance is good to all such as observe the terms and conditions yet in this Expression it is very probable the Apostle alludes to the Legal Purifications by Water Ashes Blood which being sprinkled upon such as were Legally unclean or upon the Lepers did purify them The like Effect Christ's Blood hath upon all such as are capable of it therefore do we read that the Blood of Christ doth cleanse us from all Sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. and to cleanse is to forgive to be cleansed is to be pardoned as is implyed in that Text If we confess our Sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Ver. 9. This Blood is sprinkled upon such as confess repent believe pray receive the Sacraments The means of sprinkling is the Word Sacraments and principally the Spirit or whatsoever worketh or increaseth and strengthneth Faith and then it 's sprinkled when it 's so applyed as that the Person receiveth the benefit of Christ's Passion one Effect and the principal is Remission of Sin and Sanctification whereby we are freed from Sin and the woful Consequents thereof for this Blood speaketh better things than that of Abel Abel's Blood was shed so was Christ's Abel's Blood shed speaketh so Christ's Blood shed speaketh Abel's Blood speaketh to God so Christ's speaketh to him likewise they both speak loud and cry so that God hears Abel's Blood was precious Christ's far more precious and the Cry of both is heard in Heaven Thus far they agree yet differ much for the one cryes for Mercy the other for Judgment the one cryes against Man that did shed it the other for Man though his Sins did cause it to be shed The meaning is that Cain's Murther of his Brother Abel did so much offend God that it moved him to revenge it Christ's death as caused by the cursed cruel impenitent Jews did so far provoke God that he fearfully punished them and their Children according to their own words Let his Blood be upon us and our Children yet as suffered for the Sin of Man and offered unto God it was so pleasing so precious and so highly accepted that for and in condsieration of it God was effectually moved both to reward him and pardon all penitent and believing Sinners and that for evermore This Blood spake when it was shed and speaks effectually when pleaded before the eternal Judg. 3. They were come to this Mediator to this Blood They were not come to the Mount of Fire Smoak Darkness Terrour Death where there was no Mediator to make their peace with God no blood to cry for Metcy and cleanse them from their Sin and free them from eternal Death But they were come into that Society where Christ was their Mediator and Priest where they were freed from the Law of Sin and Death and under the Covenant of Free Mercy Grace and Life where the Blood of Christ sprinkled upon their Souls did cry aloud to Heaven for Mercy and did cleanse them from all Sin for ever And now since they were received into an heavenly Society where Angels and the best of men both living and dead were their fellow-Subjects God Redeemer sitting in the Throne of Grace their Soveraign Christ the Son of God their Priest who shed his Blood to wash away their Sins and though they had many Offences yet upon their Repentance would make Reconciliation for them and though they had many failings yet he was a righteous Advocate with their Father and would plead their Cause with his own Blood procure their pardon according to the Covenant of Grace so that they should be justified and live for ever there was no Reason in the World to return to Sinai and the Law again and forsake the best and happiest Kingdom that ever was a Kingdom of eternal Righteousness and Peace If they did Heaven might be astonished and Earth amazed at their Folly In this with that which follows the Apostle seems to sum up briefly in a few words all the former Arguments taken from the excellency of the Prophetical Office of the Covenant of the Priest-hood of Christ and he doth this in that manner that he clearly takes away all colour of excuse from such as should incline to Apostacy § 23. Therefore he further argues thus Ver. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven THE words are a Dehortation wherein we have 1. The Sin dehorted from 2. The Reason why we should take heed of it 1. The Sin is to refuse him that speaketh 2. The Reason is taken from the greater Punishment to be suffered if they do refuse 1. To refuse him that speaketh implyes 1. That Christ doth speak and God by him To speak is not only to reveal the Doctrine of the Gospel which is the thing spoken but also to command Repentance and Faith in Christ with a Promise of Righteousness and eternal Life and a Commination of eternal Death unavoidable To refuse him that thus speaketh is either to reject this Doctrine and not receive it or if they have once received it to renounce it so that this Refusal includes both Unbelief and also Apostacy from the Christian Profession But they who had made Profession of this Doctrine must not refuse to continue in it nor renounce it to the dishonour and Contempt of God who out of greatest Mercy had tendred Salvation upon fairest terms 2. The Reason is taken from the hainousness of the Sin and the grievousness of the Punishment both which are set forth by a Comparison in Quantity And this Comparison presupposeth many things as 1. That God did speak in former times
which follows as will appear anon Two things here I will only observe 1. That to be called is openly and solemnly with power to be declared For this inauguration and confirmation was made with great solemnity and that in the presence of all the Host and Angels of Heaven Whether God commanded any Archangel with sound of heavenly Trumpet to proclaim him and ouer these words before the Throne of Glory and the place of his special presence in the Heaven of Heavens we know not It 's certain by these words he was made an eternal Priest and thereupon all the Angels of Heaven did acknowledg him The second thing to be observed is that he was not only made a Priest but also a King for without either of these he could not be so powerful a Saviour yet he was not so made by these but other words § 10. Now follow a Digression For after that the Apostle had proved him to be a Priest and so made of God and a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec and not after that of Aaron order did require he should enlarge upon the words of the Psalmist yet because this Doctrine was mysterious and profound and they not so capable of it he takes occasion by the way to reprove their dulness stir up their attention and prepare them for this Doctrine concerning Christ's Priest-hood which he intended more fully to declare unto them This reproof is brought in artificially by a kind of Transition and in this manner Ver. 11. Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing â—â— are dull of hearing IN these words and those which follow We have 1. The excellency and copiousness of the matter 2. The Hebrews incapacity 3. The reason of their incapacity The subject whereof he intended to speak was the Priest-hood of Christ and seeing he was a Priest after the Order of Melchisodec he must needs speak something of him The copiousness and aburdince of matter is signified by those words Of whom we have many things to say the excellency in those and hard to be uttered their incapacity they were dull of hearing The cause of this For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again c. which implies their negligence Of whom Some think this Relative whom referrs to Melchisedec others to Christ as Priest But it referrs to both to Christ principally to Melchisedec in order unto Christ For many things were to be known of Melchisedec that it might be made evident how he did typify Christ and how Christ was a Priest according to that Order and not the Order of Aaron This is the subject of which he intended to speak Of this subject he had many things to say This implies 1. That he knew many things concerning this Priest and Priest-hood and the same certainly and infallibly true as revealed unto him by the divine Spirit 2. That these things he could utter and express and that clearly and perspicuously enough and he was willing yea desirous to make them known if he could have found Schollars capable of this excellent Doctrine But such they were not for many excellent things might be taught if men would be careful to learn and improve their time and parts Yet these many things were hard to be uttered This implies that they were excellent and above the capacity of Babes and Children They were not hard or obscure to him for he knew them and fully understood them neither were they such things as he learned when he was rapt up into the third Heaven unutterable in themselves but they were hard to be uttered so as they might understand them For They were dull of hearing This was their incapacity The meaning is not that they were deaf either in whole or part or that such amongst them as were learned could not read them if written or understand the language but by hearing is meant understanding There are outward ears and outward hearing of the body inward ears and inward hearing of the Soul the former they had the latter they had not so as to be capable of such things as he had to say of this Priest and Priest-hood This was no obscurity in the matter but an indisposition in the Soul to receive this Doctrine Dulness was this indisposition which in general is a defect of active Power in particular in this place of the intellective faculty as not able to perceive discern apprehend and judge of this higher Doctrine It 's opposed to that we call acâ—â—â—n the sharpness quickness and piercing power of the wit and intellect yet here this dulness is restrained to a certain object for in other things they might be apprehensive and judicious enough By reason of this defect it is that much excellent and divine Doctrine is lost or at least useless to the greatest part of the People who are no whit moved with Doctrine though excellent if above their capacity For this cause the meanest Teachers are most popular though it 's true that all wise men must have respect unto the capacity of their Hearers and condescend unto them yet men should not be alwayes Babes and Dunces in God's School But what might be the cause of this dulness The Apostle informs us Ver. 12. That when for the time ye ought to have been Teachers you have need that one teach you again the principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat § 11. THis incapacity and defect of the Understanding may be either from natural imperfection as in Ideots and Naturals or such as are not much better or from want of teaching instruction and disciplination or from God's just Judgment and the delusions of Satan or from the negligence of such as are taught and do not attentively hear heed consider or from the sublimity and excellency of the matter taught or from ignorance of the language or terms or manner of expression used by such as take upon them to be Teachers or from the want of Understanding in principles upon which the knowledg of other things doth depend Dulness and so ignorance from some of these causes is blamless and will not be charged upon man in his last tryal For ignorance invincible is not counted a Sin but ignorance and dulness from neglect of the means God hath given Man to improve his knowledg for his own good is inexcusable If the things to be known be necessary and concern his everlasting Salvation or conduce to the same it 's far more hainous Such was the dulness and ignorance of these Hebrews and it 's implyed in this that they had had time and all other necessary means to improve their knowledg to that of Teachers and yet they were so ignorant that they had need to be taught again the very principles of Christianity This was a Sin and the same very grievous and a great impediment to their Salvation and increase