those meates which by the Law were declared uncleane and forbidden to be eaten for which see Levit. 11. or if a man had drunke in an uncleane vessell or had tasted of any water wine or liquor whereinto some uncleane thing had fallen for see Levit. 16.32,33 And divers washings and carnall ordinances Or if a man had neglected to wash himselfe or his clothes after he was casually uncleane either by touching some uncleane thing or by an issue or by the Leprosie And carnall ordinances and such other Ceremonies ordained of God after an arbitrary and positive way pertaining not to the conscience but to the body and the flesh as the touching of a dead carkasse or of any other uncleane thing For although some morall sinnes committed against the morall Laws as wee call them were expiated by Sacrifices yet none such as were committed presumptuously or with a high hand and in contempt of Gods Law and thereupon truly polluted the conscience but onely such as we have already noted wherein some excusable ignorance or infirmity had place being lapses and falls very familiar to man and not unworthy of Gods pardon Besides these sins were expiated by those Sacrifices onely thus farre that after a full restitution in case of injury no other punishment of those sins was thereby taken away but that which pertained to the flesh or body in this life for to take away eternall punishment those Sacrifices were not able Imposed on them It is true that meates and drinks and diverse washings were imposed upon Gods Legall people for a time onely yet the word imposed hath not reference to them here for the Greek text will not beare that construction but it referres to gifts and sacrifices in the former verse for they were imposed to expiate the sins touching meates and drinkes and diverse washings Hence we see plainly for what sinnes principally under the Law those Legall sacrifices were ordained and what sinnes were thereby expiated We see also what force those sacrifices had in expiating those sins that they could not reach unto the consciences to wash away the true and foule spots that had stained it neither could they free them whom they expiated from all feare of divine punishment for they chiefly washed away the staines of the flesh whereby men were accounted uncleane and thereupon forbidden civill conversation and publique commerce so that these impediments from conversation and commerce were expiated by those Sacrifices than men might passe about their worldly affaires Vntill the time of reformation The gifts and sacrifices imposed on the people to expiate their corporall or carnall staines were not perpetuall ordinances but temporary onely for a time and the terme of that time expired at the time of Reformation Which is a generall correction or amendment of all things whatfoever pertaining either to the service of God or to the happinesse of Gods people whereby things should be brought to an excellent state and condition The time of this Reformation or correction is also called the fulnesse of time and that time was fully come at the comming of Christ who as the woman of Samaria said of him at his comming would tell us all things she meant all things concerning the true worship and service of God For at the time of his comming the carnall service of God was turned into spirituall and such a sacrifice ordained that by the benefit thereof men might be throughly expiated in their consciences so that freed before God from the guilt of all their sinnes whatsoever and delivered from the feare not onely of temporall but of eternall punishment they might exult and rejoyce in the hope of immortall life and then being inflamed with such high graces and favours from God and with a care never to lose the fruits of them might burne in love of God and godlinesse and forcibly be carried to every good work 11. But Christ being become an high Priest of good things to come Hitherto we have had the proposition of the comparison betweene the old Covenant and the new in respect of the Tabernacle and divine service Now followes the reddition of it wherein the high Priest is opposed to the high Priest the Tabernacle to the Tabernacle the service to the service the Sacrifice to the Sacrifice the Offering to the Offering and the Expiation to the Expiation And all this he comptiseth in two verses this and the next which afterwards in the rest of the Chapter he amplifies and illustrates Christ was ordained an high Priest long before and that by oath as we have heard before but he did not actually execute the office of it while the Tabernacle or Temple was yet standing and in force but when the vaile of the Temple was tent that the Tabernacle was disanulled and the time of Reformation was come then Christ entered upon his office became an high Priest to execute it for ever after the order of Melchisedec And Christ is a high Priest of good things to come in opposition or difference to the old high Priest By good things to come may be understood either those that were to come in respect of the Law or those to come in respect of this world In respect of the Law a perfect expiation of sinnes was to come and in respect of this world eternall life is to come which is the super-perfection or complement of perfect expiation Now Christ is our high Priest for these good things because we attaine them by his sacrifice and offering for he it is who provides and takes order for them as the Legall Priest did to procure unto the people the good things present for this life By a greater and more perfect Tabernacle If these words depend upon the verbe entered in the next verse how can Christ be said to enter into the holy place by a Tabernacle that is greater and more perfect for then he must enter into a Tabernacle by a Tabernacle Therefore either the particle by in this place is put for in and so referred to the preceding words of this verse considering the Tabernacle as an adjunct to Christs Priesthood wherein he doth minister as if the Author had said Christ is become a high Priest both of better things and of or in a better Tabernacle greater and more perfect then that wherein the legall Priest ministred Or else we must say that the Author because he mentioned a double Tabernacle terrestriall with two partitions or roomes in it therefore also he considers a double Sanctuary celestiall in a manner answerable to the two holy places of the old Tabernacle the first and the second The one of those celestiall Sacraries is larger and more common wherein the Angels abide the other is more inward and most sacred wherein is the throne of the divine Majesty For although happily the one be not so seperate from the other as the two holy places were in the Tabernacle and Temple disjoyned by a vaile and a wall yet it sufficeth if
at the same time seeing hee to his former words of confirming the Testament by bloud doth simply subjoyne that Moses did also sprinkle the Tabernacle and the ministerial vessels with bloud which may as well be taken of another time as of the same Although Moses saith not openly that the Tabernacle and ministeriall vessels after they were all finished were sprinkled with bloud but only anointed with the holy oyle Yet because we read that the Altar was not onely anointed with oyle but also sprinkled and consecrated with bloud therefore hence we may gather that in the consecration of the Tabernacle it selfe and of the ministeriall vessells sprinkling of blood was joyned with their anointing For Josephus delivers this in plain words in his Antiquitie lib. 3. cap. 9. Where describing the Ceremonie and forme of that Consecration hee saith Then hee sprinkled the garments of Aaron and his sonnes with the bloud of the Sacrifices-purifying them with running water and with the ointment c. He sprinkled also the Tabernacle and his vessels with the ointment and with the bloud of bullocks and rams slaine every other day after their kind From this verse therefore it may appeare that anciently there were many things among the Jewes especially concerning external rites of manifest truth which notwithstanding are not written in the bookes of Moses and therefore wee need not marvell that this Author doth affirme some things which we finde not delivered in the books of Moses as we have noted already in this chapter verse 4. and verse 19. 22. And almost all things by the law are purged with bloud He amplifies his former instances drawing them from particulars almost to an universall to conclude his assertion by way of Induction Not only the Tabernacle and Ministeriall vessels which were the principall utensils about the worship of God but almost all things else were purged with bloud He saith almost all things because some things were purged without bloud for some were purged or cleansed onely by the washing of water as hee that carried out the Scape-goat must cleanse himselfe by washing his clothes and bathing his flesh in water Levit. 16.26 And the Priest who became uncleane by the touch of a person or thing unclean must cleanse himself by washing his flesh with water Levit. 22.6 And some other things were first purged by melting in the fire and afterward repurged over with the water of separation as silver and gold and all other mettals that could abide to passe through the fire Numb 31.22,23 According to the Law i. According as the Law prescribed things should be purged And without shedding of blood is no remission How ever other things were purged yet this is certaine that under the Law sinnes were not remitted without shedding of bloud Whence wee may rationally gather that the shedding of bloud must also intervene for the purging of our consciences or to expiate those sinnes that pollute our consciences That which the Author here affirmes is most certaine universally and suffers no exception unlesse in case of extreme poverty when the persons to bee purged were so poore that for the purging of their sinne they were not able to bring for their offering a paire of Turtles or a paire of yong Pigeons whereof see Levit. 5.12 Otherwise the rule holds vniversally not onely for a sinne of the whole people but also for the sin of any single person whatsoever bloud must be shed and a sacrifice must be offered See Levit. chap. 4. chap. 5. and chap. 6. 23. It was therefore necessary that the paterns of things 〈◊〉 the heavens should be purified with these Hitherto the Author hath taught that bloud was required for the purging both of the Tabernacle and of sins Now some man might say Although blood were required for this purifying yet it was not necessary that the blood of Christ should be shed for it but the bloud of beasts might have served the turne as it did under the Law To this tacite objection the Author answeres in these words and sheweth that heavenly things were to be purged with farre better Sacrifices then the Sacrifices of beasts For the purging of earthly holy things the sacrifices of beasts did suffice but for the purging of heavenly holy things which of all other are most excellent there needed a most excellent Sacrifice And none could be more excellent then Christ And besides for the purging of any Sanctuarie there must needs be a Sacrifice or at least some thing of the Sacrifice must be brought into it But neither beasts themselves nor their bloud or bodies neither must nor can be brought into that heavenly Sanctuary But Christ himselfe and his body made immortall was brought in thither Therefore for heavenly holy things the bloud of Christ must be shed and not the bloud of beasts Againe the holy things under the Law were not onely purged when they were first made and dedicated but also were yearly to be purged by the annuall Sacrifice For they were accounted pollutted by the yearely sinnes and uncleannesses of the people Whereof see Levit. 16.15 How the earthly holy things were paternes of those things which are in heaven and for what cause we have already shewed chap. 8. ver 5. The things in the heavens are put for the holy heavenly things from which the heaven it self that invisible heaven which is the most holy Sanctuary must not be excluded But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices then these The heavenly things are the heavenly holy things as the verse following shewes But it may be demanded how those heavenly holy things can be said to be purged seeing they never were polluted Wee answer That this is said of the heavenly Sanctuary onely by way of Comparison as a thing very usuall And the nature of Comparisons is to breed many abusions For if we respect the scope of the Author it is enough for us to understand that the Sacrifice to be offered in the heavenly Sanctuary must be much more excellent then those which of old were wont to be offered in the earthly Sanctuarie For this both the nature of the heavenly Sanctuary wholly requires and also the effect of the oblation sutable to heaven But if any man yet demand a more neere resemblance it may be said That heavenly Sanctuary was indeed purged by the Sacrifice and offering of Christ First in as much as it was so consecrated thereby that an accesse is made open for us unto it and as I may say it is dedicated for our use hereafter As the old Tabernacle and many things else were not open and free for mens use before they were consecrated and they for their uncleannesse as it was accounted but this for our uncleannesse which must bee purged away before a right and an use of that heavenly Sanctuary can be granted us So that in this sence by a contrary way of speech and yet not unusuall the Author said that heaven must be purged for our
yearly can never make the commers thereunto perfect for therefore it is that those offerings are iterated yeare by yeare This reason he doth by the way confirm by another reason because the law hath only a shadow of future blessings and not the very image of them Therefore the causal particle for hath not reference to what was said immediatly before but must in this place be referred to his principall doctrine though more remote which was That the legall high Priest offered year by year but Christ once only A shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things Those good things to come may be understood more largely or strictly First largely to comprehend both eternall happinesse it selfe promised or bequeathed us in the new Testament also all the helps and meanes for the acquiring of it affoorded us under the same Testament and pourtrayed in the legall shadowes such as are Christ himselfe our high Priest his Bloud his Offering his Sanctuarie and such like for these were future and to come in respect of the Law Or they may be taken strictly onely for the happinesse promised us Neither of these sences are disagreeing to the text yet the latter is more probable by reason of those words in the former chapter verse 11. wherein Christ is said to be a high Priest of good things to come and so the Priest and his Priesthood are manifestly distinguished and if ye marke it well so is his Sanctuarie and his Sacrifice But seeing there is no open mention of these good things to come but only in that text and this which we have now in hand that in both the same thing is handled it is most agreeable to reason that the good things to come in this place should be taken strictly for the happinesse onely promised us in the new testament which comprehends our perpetual deliverance from all punishments of all our sins our eternal inheritance of eternall life For by the admitting of this sense wee shall the more easily interpret the words following concerning the very image of the things For this condition seemes plainely taken from the Law and attributed to the Gospel Of those things which are not so much the parts of our happinesse as the means and adjuncts of it the Gospel doth not exhibit unto us the image but the substances themselves but of those promises it proposeth to us in this life rather the image then the substance although our deliverance from the punishments of our sinnes doe in some measure begin in this life But it exhibits unto us the very image of them in as much as it describes and promiseth them most openly to us so that are may seem in a manner to see them before our eyes But the Law had only a shadow of those good things from whence we could but conjecture very darkly and imperfectly what and what manner of things they were To that shadow contained in the Law were proportionably answering both the sacrifices by meanes whereof those good things were attained and also the high Priest the Sanctuary and such like But now seeing a clear and perfect image of those celestiall goods is proposed unto us and promised us in plaine and open tearmes therefore there are required other sacrifices which have an apparent and manifest vertue and efficacie to procure those goods unto us which can beget in our soules a most assured hope of them and can draw us to a course of life sutable to them Can never by those sacrifices which they offered yeare by yeare continually The words yeare by yeare doe not seem to cohere with offered for then there is a great and hard transposition of the words but agree rather with those sacrifices for so the sense is facile and usuall as if hee had said the same sacrifices recurring yeare by yeare whereby he would intimate that under the Law the same sacrifices were offered yet not every day and moneth but every yeare and every yeare sacrifices were offered yet not diverse but the same the same kinde yeare by yeare The space of time whereby those sacrifices were distant one from another was a yeare and when the yeare came about the sacrifice was of the same kinde Which they offered The persons who did make the offering were the high Priests to whom the Law enjoyned it But here the words are put in a passive sense to signifie the sacrifices which were offered For ordinary it is that an active forme of speech doth carry a passive sense So Luke 12.20 The words are active This night shall they require thy soule But the sense is passive this night thy soule shall be required Continually In this there is more signified then in the words yeare by yeare for it intimates that the course of yeares wherein yeare by yeare the same sacrifices were iterated was not interrupted nor intermitted but constantly continued and the continuance of this custome was not short for the space of some few yeares successively but a long continuance for many ages Can never make the commers thereunto perfect Although the same sacrifices were yeare by yeare iterated without intermission for a long continuance yet the Law by means of those sacrifices could never perfect the Commers thereto The Commers were all such amongst Gods people as came to worship God and serve him by means of those sacrifices and therefore in the verse following the same persons in the same respect are called the worshippers For in the peoples accesse or comming to the Tabernacle is also included that divine worship and service which there they performed Seeing their Accesse and Comming thither was but for worship and service and seeing again that worship and service might bee done no where else but by comming there for the Law forbad the people to offer sacrifice in any other place but the Sanctuary To perfect signifies to expiate or purge from sinne and to expiate so fully and finally that the party once expiate shall want nothing else shall need no other oblation of any other sacrifice nor no iteration of the same and consequently shall feele no further conscience of his sins 2. For then would they not have ceased to be offered This sentence should not be rendred negatively then they would not have ceased for this negation is quite contrary to the sense and reasoning of the Author But affirmatively thus for then would they have ceased to be offered For because the same sacrifices were yeare by yeare offered continually therefore from thence he proves that they could not perfect the worshippers or commers to the sacrifices and this their imperfection he further confirmes ab absurdo for if the same sacrifices could have perfected the commers thereto they would have ceased from being iterated and offered againe yeare by yeare continually For what need the same sacrifices be iterated yeare by yeare if they could perfect the commers to them by expiating their sinnes fully and finally for if the
neither now is nor hereafter shall be vacant or unoccupied in this action neither is this subjection attributed to God otherwise then as God doth it by Christ or gives power and strength unto Christ whereby he may and doth effect it therefore in the word expecting wee must acknowlegde a trope and the signification of it must be admitted onely thus far as it argues that Christ by the gift and benefit of God doth reigne subdue his enemies to him so that in this respect not Christ but God is said to subdue his enemies and Christ expecteth onely till it be done Besides in regard of the time wherein at last all the enemies of Christ shall be subdued unto him Christ may be said thus farre to depend upon his Father as it is in his Fathers owne power to order the times and seasons of things or Christ himselfe doth testifie 14 For by one offering He brings another reason why Christ offered onely but once because by one offering he perfected or finished all things As on the contrary the legall high Priests offered often because they could never perfect all things by all their oblations Hee perfected for ever them that are sanctified Perfected is throughly and wholy expiated see Chap. 7. ver 11. For ever is in respect of all future times and ages to come not as it was under the Law only for the time past and that time but for the space of one yeare They that are sanctified are they that are expiated purged or cleansed from sin in their conscience and the word must not bee restrained to the present time only but extended and dilated to all differences of time to those that ever have been sanctified or now are or ever shall be For Christ may be said to perfect or expiate men for ever in a double sense First as every man that is expiated is not expiated for some certain time but for ever and secondly as his offering is of efficacy and force to expiate all men of all times and ages to the end of the world so that it shall never need bee iterated either for the same men or for any others 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witnesse to us After that he had proved by severall reasons that the offering of Christ must bee made only once now he further proves the same by a testimony of the Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost witnesseth the same thing For this truth is so evident and so materiall that it hath not only the reasons formerly alleadged to confirme it but hath also a testimony of Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost doth testifie it The Holy Ghost is said to witnesse a thing when the Scripture saith it because as Peter teacheth us that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 After that he had said before After the Holy Ghost had said before which saying follows in the next verse 16. This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Lawes into their hearts and in their minds will I write thm Of these words of the Holy Ghost we have treated before Chap. 8.10 17. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Between the former verse and this something must be understood that is silenced namely then he said as the Author himself speaks at the ninth verse before For at the fifthteenth verse upon which this dependeth the Author had written for after that he said before namely the Holy Ghost therefore here must be understood then he said namely the Holy Ghost againe said the words of this Text And their sinnes and iniquities c. 18. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sinne From these words of the Holy Ghost wherein the remission of sinnes and iniquities is promised to Gods people now the Author inferres that the offering of Christ must bee but one only Namely because the Holy Ghost doth testifie that God under the New Testament and so by Christ and his offering will remit unto his people all sinnes and iniquities even the most grievous for ever Now where there is such a remission of sinnes proceeding from Gods Will and Covenant and that universally in respect of time for ever and also universally in respect of persons to all men there can be given no other sacrifice for sinnes and therefore one sacrifice only for sinnes is sufficient But that no further sacrifice is allowed for sins where such a remission of them is granted by Covenant it appears from hence because otherwise remission should be granted and ordained also by Covenant to them that persist in their sinnes which were a thing very unfit and unworthy of Gods grace For if men repent and change their minde and wayes into better courses partly they abstaine from sinne with all care and partly by virtue of the new Covenant and so by the one single offering of Christ they have ready prepared for them a remission of all those sinnes which either went before their true repentance or to follow it that they neither lose it nor make it void Anciently under the Law when remission was granted only of ignorances and infirmities it was no marvell if upon the stay or returne of the same sinnes for which offering had been made the offerings were often iterated and instead of them another offering were introduced far better and perfecter which is that of Christ but now seeing the most grievous sinnes are expiated by the offering of Christ under the New Testament what place can be yet left for any other offering For either a man engaged by so great a benefit doth afterward lead an holy life or not If he live holily there needs no other offering for to expiate his sin seeing hee commits it not if he live not holily there must be none 19. Having therefore brethren boldnesse Here the Author doth in a manner summe up those things which hitherto he had spoken of the Priesthood and sacrifice of Christ and from thence infertes his following admonition By boldnesse here hee understands an assured hope and confidence flowing from the faculty and liberty granted us of entring into heaven the most holy Sanctuary So that by the word boldnesse is signified unto us both our faculty or liberty of entring into heaven and also our confidence or assurance of minde issuing from our knowledge of our faculty or liberty to enter which liberty is opposed to that restraint under the Law whereby it was lawfull for no man to enter into the holy place under paine of death except the high Priest once a yeare And for feare that any one should attempt it all were forbidden it To enter into the holiest Heaven is that Sanctuary whereinto on Gods part we have liberty that we may enter and on our owne part we have confidence that we shall enter And of all Sanctuaries the heavenly is absolutely the holiest
narrowly and therein also the same things are expressed sometime more amply and sometime more briefly Whereof we must take notice for the better understanding and reconciling of severall places So the word Faith is sometime taken so narrowly that salvation and justification is ascribed to it alone and sometime again more largely to comprise other vertues in it sometime more sometime fewer according as the sense of the word is extended or restrained I will put my lawes into their minde and write them in their hearts Here he begins to describe the new Covenant q.d. In the old Covenant I wrote some of my Lawes in tables of stone and Moses wrote other some in a booke and they were put in the Arke to be kept there But my new Covenant shall not be according to that way but by it I will write my Laws in their hearts and put them in their mindes to be kept there They shall not be arbitrary and positive Lawes flowing from my sole will and pleasure whereof their hearts can conceive no reason and whereof their memories may easily faile such as were most Lawes in my former Covenant but they shall be only naturall Lawes grounded only upon naturall honesty and upon the dictates of right reason that their mindes may easily conceive them and their memories retaine them And their owne consciences shall acknowledge them to be convenient just right and good And besides they shall not have a bare understanding of my Lawes to know them but an hearty affection to doe them Now because Gods Covenant is described in these words therefore hence it appeares that this writing of Gods Laws in mens minds and hearts dependes and proceeds from the nature of the Covenant And therefore these words must bee taken within their force and efficacie and not necessarily extended to the very effect of the writing which is alway left in the free power of man For this is intimated unto us by the following words of God at the 12. verse wherein God opens unto us the cause manner or meanes of this which containeth wonderfull grace and mercy of God offered to his people for by this means he saith it would come to passe that they would serve him and keep his Laws with so great fervency But this way Gods Laws are written upon none but willing hearts The sense therefore is I will make such a Covenant that shall have sufficient force and power to containe my people in their duties For to have Gods Laws written in our mindes and hearts is nothing else but to be so knowing so mindfull and so affected with them that we never decline from them but alwayes observe them with all our endeavour And I will be to them a God This follows from the former as the former clause opposite to this and I regarded them not followed from the people 's not continuing in his Covenant which in like manner is opposed to the writing of Gods Laws in mens hearts For God to be a God unto us is to be our sovereigne Protector to defend us from all evill and to be our sovereigne Benefactor to accumulate us with all his blessings And they shall be to me a people Either this is really the same with the former and an amplification of it consisting of a mutuall relation such as we had before in these words I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son chap. 1.5 Or else it is as much as if the Author had said And they shall deale by me as my people ought to doe both of us shall performe our parts respectively I by protecting and benefiting them they by worshipping and serving me 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord They shall not need to admonish and exhort one another first to know my lawes and decrees and after upon knowledge thereof to observe them but all of them shall bee carried with such alacrity of minde to know and obey mee that none shall need any remembrancer to put him in minde of it Neighbour and brother are taken here for the same for in the Law these three names are coincident neighbour brother and friend See Lev. 19.18 For all shall know me from the least to the greatest Here againe God speaks of the efficacie of this Covenant and not of the effect it selfe for it shall be able to produce an universall knowledge of God though in some single persons it produce it not actually All of al sorts from the least age to the greatest yong old from the least state to the greatest poor and rich and from the least degree to the greatest low and high 12. For I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sinnes and their iniquities will I remember no more Here God opens unto us the cause of his ardent affection towards us and withall unfolds the nature of this Covenant namely that therein he will be mercifull to all the sinnes of his people to their unrighteousnesses their transgressions and iniquities and will never remember them more This so great a benefit must needs oblige all mens mindes and in a manner constraine them to consecrate themselves wholly unto God and constantly to persist in the daily observation of his Lawes Which effect seeing every remission of sinne cannot produce therefore we must here understand such a one as hath the power to doe it namely a plenary and perfect remission whereby such as are truly and seriously penitent and afterward live holily are released from the guilt or bond of all their former sinnes not only in respect of temporall punishment and death but also of eternall death and withall eternall life is ordained for them For this remission of sinnes adding the condition of repentance hath this vertue and power in it to withdraw men from sinne and for the future to devote themselves to God The words unrighteousnesse sins and iniquities doe in like manner teach us that this remission is plenary and perfect extended to all manner of sinnes even the most heynous Hence we see that this plenary remission of sinnes is a promise proper to the new Covenant For in these words is evidently proved what he said before concerning the new Covenant that it was established upon better promises then the old This is the mysticall sense of those words of the Prophet the literall sense was that God would deliver the people of the Jewes from the captivity of Babylon and would so blot out their former wickednesse and foule sinnes that hee would acquit them from all further temporall punishments for them for which so great benefit the people must needs bee marveilously bound to God and induced to serve him constantly for ever after But this sense is far too slender to answer fully and solidly unto words of so high a nature For at that time to speake properly God neither made any new Covenant different from the former neither was
even of the most heynous in them who having tasted the force of that sacrifice do afterward live holily I say all kind of penalties not only of temporall death but of eternall which by force of the law all incurred that had truly and morally sinned For temporall life opposed to temporal death proceeded from the observation of the Law otherwise then eternall life did opposed to eternall death For to attain or preserve temporall life it sufficed to keep the Law taken in an open and literall sease as they call it and to expiate certain offences by certain rites and sacrifices But the latter could no man attaine by force of the Law unlesse a man had kept the precepts of it taken in a mysticall sense i. most fully and perfectly as the Gospell proposeth them For seeing eternall life was not contained in the promises of the Law but in a mysticall sense it was great equity that he who would attaine it by the benefit of the Law should likewise keep the precepts of the Law in a mysticall sense Neither only so but it must be kept exactly and without any sinne so that there should need no sacrifices or expiations For no sacrifices were of such force as to take away the guilt of eternall death and so estate a man in a right to eternall life neither did the Law open any other way to arrive at a plenary justification joyned with the reward of eternall life then by the merit of workes To serve the living God Here is the effect of this Expiation wrought in us by the bloud and offering of Christ For when our conscience doth clearly acknowledge that in respect of God it is freed from all guilt of all sinne even the most grievous and nothing can hinder us but our selves from enjoying the reall effect of our being acquitted from all sinne it comes to passe here by that we must needs have strong motives to carry us on to the worship and service of God and to receive the faith of Christ to the end wee may effectually enjoy so great a blessing and having once enjoyed it never lose it but afterward abstaine from all sinne with all our possible endeavour knowing well that so great a blessing is attained and preserved with true piety Hence it appeares that this purging of our conscience gotten by the bloud of Christ must be so understood in this place that for the reall effect of it it depends upon our duty on our part i. then it begins to have it effect in us when our faith and obedience begins toward God and Christ and is continued by the continuance of our faith and obedience and by constancie and perseverance in faith and godlinesse to the end is at length consummated and doth rest in a full and immutable right to eternall life the effect whereof will most certainly follow in due time For unlesse this effect and complement of our expiation depend reciprocally upon our duty and our duty and will to serve God flowed immediatly from it what one man among a thousand would serve God upon the expiation of his finnes if he knew that without this he could be expiated effectually and released from the guilt of all his sinnes and enjoy a full right to eternall life because therefore this offering of Christ doth withdraw us from sinne and makes us afterward serve the living God hence it comes to passe that Christ doth expiate us by one only offering or that our expiation flowing from the offering and sacrifice of Christ is eternall and lasteth forever For what need the offering be iterated if men once expiated sinne no more For although sometime by error or infirmity the true worshippers of God may offend yet because the offering of Christ doth not so properly intend to expiate such light offences as sinnes that are more heynous as appears by the proper nature of the new Covenant as it stands distinguished from the old therefore the oblation of Christ must not be iterated for our light infirmities and lapses Therefore for the removing of the guilt of such light offences the perpetuall residence of Christ our high Priest in his heavenly Sanctuary and his intercession to his Father for us is abundantly sufficient so that for them he need not shed his bloud againe and after the shedding of it enter into his Sanctuary The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwayes signifie all kind of obedience and service done unto God but chiefly that divine service done to God publikly most properly as hath before been shewed those holy reverences which we perform in the worship of God Yet the Author useth it here by a Metonymie for all divine service that is joyned with the worship of God for worship and service are mutuall adjuncts connexed each to other For so great a benefit of God as the expiation of all our sins should easily move us to perform divine services unto God by praises and thanksgivings and wholly to devote out selves to worship to good a God for then we take courage to approach unto God to worship and serve him and to hope that the honour we do him will not be unacceptable unto him when we feel our conscience clean quiet as purged from all sin Or else the word here is taken by way of Metaphor whereby all good works pleasing unto God and done for his sake are accounted for sacrifices and offerings acceptable to God and that wholy endeavours them may fitly be said to serve God God is here called the living God according to the ordinary phrase of Scripture which notwithstanding in this place wants not an emphasis Not only because hereby the true God is distinguished from all the feigned gods of the Gentiles which because they were nothing but woodden or stony Idols and therefore woodden and stony gods were called vaine and livelesse gods and are opposed to the living God But also to shew the cause why we should worship and serve God and withall the happinesse of those that devote themselves unto him For seeing hee is the living God hee is also the true God who can reward his worshippers and servitors with great benefits and recompence them with fearfull judgments who neglect him To this end Paul writing to the Thessalonians saith Yee are turned from Idols to God to serve the living and true God 1 Thess 1.9 And the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to serve And God is eminently called the living God not only because he truly lives but also because he is the fountaine of life to all other things which do live In which sense sometimes hee alone is said to live or to have life and immortality in himself 15. And for this cause Here the Author confirmes his former assertion by a new argument in that Christ is the Mediatour of the new Testament or that Christ made the New Testament and sealed it with his bloud For this is the nature of
from us and his returne unto us may be opposed to his offering which was performed by his bloudy death and after it by his entrance into heaven for thereby Christ was taken from the eyes of men and ceased to be seene but by his returne he will againe shew himselfe to bee seene and then the words without sinne are opposed to those to beare or take away the sinnes of many and the words the second time shall be opposed to the particle once and yet the second time may in this place be all one with afterward that it may answer the words of the former verse after this the judgement so in the Epistle of Jude ver 5. the words once and afterward are opposed Secondly the words without sinne may be so taken as thereby to shew that when Christ shall appeare the second time there shall bee no more guilt of sinne in the people of God as there was when first he appeared which therefore he must take away by his sacrifice For undoubtedly the Author here alludes to the returne of the Legall high Priest out of the holy place who went into the holy place to take away the guilt of sinnes and returned from thence without sinne for he had taken away the guilt of sinne by his offering So Christ entered into heaven that there offering himselfe to God and appearing in his presence he might purge his people from the guilt of their sinnes but having abolished the guilt of sins he shall returne out from heaven and appeare unto his people to give them the effect of that guilt taken away not in words onely as the Legall high Priest gave the people his benediction and prayed for them but in very deed for he shall vindicate them from death and estate them in eternall life Vnto them that looke for him unto salvation The words unto salvation may agree either with he shall appeare or with the words to them that looke for him And the Author seemes to have placed them so on purpose that they might be referred to both For both Christ shall appeare to give his people salvation and the people of Christ shall looke for his comming out of heaven to receive salvation from him For as Christ is here tacitly compared with the Legall high Priest entered into the boly place so his people are resembled to the people of Israel expecting without the Tabernacle For of old the people looked for the Legall Priest after their manner to salvation namely that by him they might obtaine remission of their sinnes which were then expiated and might heare his benediction to them in the Name of God So the people of Christ being without the heavenly Tabernacle upon earth do looke for Christ their high Priest unto salvation that he comming forth out of his heavenly Sanctuary they may by him obtaine eternall salvation The Author in these words doth elegantly describe a Christian for this expectation doth comprehend faith in Christ for unlesse men beleeve in Christ they will never expect his returne from heaven as their heavenly high Priest And this expectation doth either beget holinesse of life or is begotten of it for these affoord each other their helpe The expectation of salvation upon condition of obedience doth beget piety and piety brought forth doth reciprocally bring forth a daughter like to her mother that is a most certaine and ardent expectation of salvation Hither belong the words of Paul to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 1.9,10 where he describes all Christian people and their whole duty saying Ye have turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God and to waite for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Iesus who delivered us from the wrath to come After a like manner he designes all beleevers in Christ by the name of them that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 The Contents of this ninth Chapter are 1. Doctrine The tabernacle under the first Covenant was imperfect v. 1. Reason 1. Because it was a worldly manifacture for beth in the first and second place of it there were only bandiworks 1 2 3. 2. Because the most holy place of it was alwayes shut to all except to the high Priest and alwayes to him except once a year v. 6. 7. 3. Because under it the way to the holiest of all in heaven was not yet manifest v. 8. 4. Because it was but a figure and resemblance of the heavenly Sanctuary v. 9. 2. Doctrine The services or sacrifices under the old Testament were imperfect v. 9. Reason 1. Because they could not expiat the consciences of them that brought the sacrifices v. 9. 2. Because they were only carnal ordinances concerning fleshly things as meats drinks and washings v. 10. 3. Because they were temporary imposed for a while untill the time of Reformation v. 10. 3. Doctrine The Sanctuary wherein Christ is a Priest is more excellent then the old Legall Sanctuary v. 11. Reason 1. Because it is no worldly building wrought by the hands of men v. 11. 4. Doctrine The expiatory Sacrifice of Christ is more excellent then the old legal expiations v. 12. Reason 1. Because the bloud shed for his sacrifice was his owne bloud and not the bloud of buls and calves v. 12. 2. Because his death and bloudshed doth purge the conscience whereas the bloudshed under the old legall sacrifice did but parge the flesh v. 13. 14. 3. Because his death and bloudshed doth expiate those transgressions which were inexpiable under the law v. 15. 5. Doctrine Confirmations made by death are the surest v. 15. Reason 1. Because the New testament was confirmed by the death of Christ ver 15. 2. Because all mens testaments are confirmed by the death of the testator ver 16. 17. 3. Because the old legall testament was confirmed by the bloud and death of goats and calves v. 18 19. 20. 4. Because all Consecrations under the law were confirmed by bloud and death v. 21. 5. Because all Expiations and Remissions under the law were confirmed by bloud and death v. 22. 6. Doctrine The sacrifice made by Christ was singular one onely once offered ver 12. Reason 1. Because he entered into his holy Sanctuary by his bloud and the bloud of any living creature can be shed but once v. 16. 2. Because by his sacrifice he obtained an eternall expiation and things eternall cannot be iterated ibid. 3. Because then he must have suffered often and have begun his sufferings since the beginning of the world v. 26. 4. Because he died before his offering it and men are subject to death but once v. 27. CHAPTER X. 1. FOr the Law having a shadow He had said before that the Legall high Priest entered yearly into the holy place not with his owne bloud but with the bloud of others contrary to what Christ did who offered himselfe once onely Now here he gives the reason thereof because the Law by a continuall offering of the same sacrifices