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
8. 17 18 verses where we have in the Septuagint the very words here used and alledged of the Apostle In that part of the Chapter we have a clear prophecy of Christ fulfilled in the time of his abode on Earth and before his ascent into Heaven There is a plain prediction of Christ's Incarnation and living amongst men and of his Disciples who did believe on him as also of the unbelief of the greatest part of the Jews of their rejection of Christ and of God's rejection of them and the destruction of Jerusalem And Christ is brought in saying And I will wait upon â—â— for the Lord that hideth or turneth his Face from the House of Jacob and I will trust in him as in the Septuagint Behold I and the Children which God hath given me These words are to be understood of him as one with his Disciples and man as they were men And in that Chapter we find some passages directly agreeing with the words of Simons which he spake after that he being in the Temple had received Christ being then Incarnate and an infant into his arms So that to understand the Apostle and the Prophet too we must not so must stand upon the words in themselves severed from the rest but joyntly with the context of the Chapter speaking of Immanuel that is Christ Incarnate § 16. In ver 11 he had said That both he that sanctifieth and they that are saâ—ctified are of one and in these words he assumes but the sanctified are parâ—akers of Flesh and Blood and so concludes that he must have Flesh and Blood and therefore saith He likewise took part with them And those which he called The sanctified by him ver 11. Here he names Children according to the words of the Prophet and these were Disciples and such as believed in him And it 's to be observed 1. That to be of one is to be Flesh and Blood and so man 2. That there is a two-fold union of Christ with Mâ—nsâ— The first by his Incarnation And the second by his actual Sanctification In the first respect he is one with all mankind as they are men and the Head of the whole body of them In the second respect he is one in a special manner with his Elect. By him â—â— man and dying for man all men receive this benefit to to be savable which Angels sinning do not By him as man dying and believed upon all such as do believe are actually sanctified and in the end saved And He and the Sanctified which are the Church are one in a special manner yet because to take part with the Children and be man was not sufficient except he dyed for them that by his Death he might be beneficial unto them therefore it 's added That he took part with them that he might destroy him that had the power of Death which is the Devil Where we may observe two things 1. That the Devil hath the power of Death 2. That Christ by Death destroyed him The first is implyed The second is expressed The word Devil is to be understood collectively for the Devils but in a special manner for the Prince of Devils who is said to be a Lyar and a Murderer Joh. 8. 44. because by his lyes he deceived our first Parents inducing them to Sin whereby they were made liable to Death For by his Temptations and false Suggestions he insinuateth into man and infuseth his poyson into their Soul Man yielding unto his Temptations falls into his hands and comes under his Power so that he hath dominion over him reigns in him blinds him perverts him inclines him effectually to sin and by sin stings him to Death And because he hath so great power to draw man into sin he may be said to have the Power of Death because by this means he makes man more and more obnoxious to Death which so unavoidably by the Law follows upon Sin yet he may be said to have the power of Death as a Jaylour Hangman or Executioner may be said to have such a power and God in his just Judgment may deliver disobedient man into his hand and by him execute his punishments as some understand the place and by divine permission he may have great strength to torment and destroy man Otherwise he can have no right unto Man to judg condemn him punish as being his Lord and Judg For that belongs only unto God who if man yield unto Satan may deliver him into his hand and he may detain him as his Captive The Scripture speaks much of the power of Satan over man till God deliver him out of his hand and this power can be no power of Life but of Death and Destruction This is the first thing implyed the second is That Christ by his Death destroyed him He destroyed him he destroyed him by his Death To destroy him is not to take away his immortal Life and Being but to take away his power or strength For the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the power of an Enemy over a Captive is not a legal and regular power and authority This strength and force and also right unto man as his Captive Christ took away by his Death For by his Death he satisfied God's Justice and merited a power and right to him as having by a lutron or price payed to the supream Lord and Owner bought him So that upon this price and ransome paid and accepted man became his and the Devil had only the possession of him though Christ had the right unto him and the propriety in him Therefore Christ in his prayer doth acknowledg that his Father had given power over all Flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as he had given him Again by this Death Christ made Death removable because by it he made man's sin remissible Bacon Thorpe tells us that the Devil by putting Christ being innocent to Death lost all his power over man because he had no Commission from God to put any person innocent and free from all sin unto Death yet for this he brings no clear Scripture though this be certain that God gave all men to Christ because he dyed for them This Death aimed at a further end then the destruction of the Devil as having the power of Death Christ indeed came to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8. and though the Devil at the first as a strong man keeps peaceable possession yet Christ is that stronger man who takes away his power disarms him takes possession and all this is done to deliver man out of his hands For 1. Christ must be lower then the Angels and mortal Man that he may dy 2. He must dy that he may destroy the power of the Devil 3. He must destroy the power of the Devil that man may be delivered from the danger of Death Man cannot be delivered except the power of the Devil be destroyed this
For unnecessary private Conventicles with the neglect of the publick Assemblies are usually the Seminaries of Errours and Schisms and very prejudicial to the publick good of the Church So that the Duty exhorted unto is to frequent constantly these Assemblies and make right use of them to edify confirm and encourage one another to perseverance in the Christian Faith and to Love and good Works I might here take occasion to enlarge and reckon up all the particular Duties to be performed in these religious Meetings and shew how subservient they are every one severally and all joyntly to that end whereat the Apostle chiefly aims but I proceed to the Reason § 24. For it might be said What Reason Suasive Motive may be given why we should be so careful to perform this Duty Yes there is a great and powerful Reason and that is Because the day approacheth Where 1. We must understand the words of the Reason considered in it self 2. The force of the Reason in respect of the performance of the Duty In the words of the Reason we have 1. A Day 2. The Approach of that Day 3. The nearer Approach 1. A Day is a part and the principal part of time as opposed to the Night and in this place it signifies some special and more than ordinary time as the day of death of the destruction of Jerusalem of the End of the World The day of death every Man must look for Nothing more certain than death though nothing more uncertain than the Hour of death Every man must dy and then be brought unto his last Account and as that shall be made so shall be the condition of every Man for ever for where the Tree falleth there it lyeth and as Death leavs us Judgment finds us There was a day of Jerusalem's destruction and of the ruine of that Nation appointed and made known by Christ and his Apostles and these Hebrews could not be altogether ignorant of it There is another greater day of the final and universal Judgment and this was part of their Creed All these and every one of these are special and great dayes And one or two or all these three may here be meant Some think the day of Jerusalem's râ—ine was most of all intended by the Apostle though that cannot be evidently evinced to be pointed at so as to exclude the other two 2. This day did approach and was near for first the day of every Man's death could not be far off the day of Jerusalem's destruction was near and so near as many then living might survive not only the Peace and Happiness of that Nation but the very Being and Existence of that City and of the Temple they might see the ruine and destruction of both and for ought they knew the end of the World 3. This day drew nearer and nearer For 1. We no sooner begin to live but we begin to dy for we are born mortal and ready we are to return to that dust from whence we were taken and raised at the first and the more of our Life is past the less is yet to come and every Day Hour Minute of our Life we approach nearer unto death and death unto us 2. As for Jerusalem's destruction there were many Signs of that approaching fore-told and then known to be past It was fatal and unavoidable even then when Christ wept over it lamenting her Sin and Punishment which he certainly did fore-know and when this Letter was written to these Hebrews that day of her Calamity was far nearer 3. For the day of Judgment the particular Year Month Day was hid yet the times of the Gospel were the last times and upon us the ends of the World are come And that which is alwayes unknown may alwayes be looked for seeing it will certainly come and that suddenly And though that day in those times was far off yet it 's nearer now and though now it may be many years before the Son of God shall come from Heaven and the time to Man may seem long yet a thousand years with God is but as one day Besides that day of final Judgment if we consider that the unchangeable condition of every Man begins immediately upon his death then the great day of Judgment may in some sense be said to be as near as death to every particular Person This is the meaning of the words considered in themselvs and now the force of them as containing a Reason remains to be considered For this end we must take notice of the thing here urged and it 's 1. The performance of a Duty 2. The performance of it the rather and the more for the more the day approacheth the more we should prepare for it Not to forsake the assembling of our selvs together and to exhort one another and to be careful very careful diligent and frequent in this Work of Association and Exhortation is a Duty commanded by God and pressed upon us by the Apostle to neglect this Duty is our Sin and Disobedience to do it constantly is our performance And this is that which is intended by this Reason The force thereof is great For seeing 1. The day of our great Account God's final Sentence to be passed upon us and the Execution thereof is so near it concerns us much not only to know our Duty but to bestir our selves and to perform it constantly with all our Power Our progress towards Heaven should be like a natural Motion which is slow or not so swift at the beginning and is swifter and swifter towards the end Upon this performance depends our final and eternal estate For if we neglect fail and fall away then we are undone for ever if we perform and be prepared we are eternally happy Seeing therefore that day is a day of eternal Rewards or Punishments and approacheth so near What should not we do to provide for our everlasting safety Yet men think little of these things If we under stand the Text of the day of Jerusalem's Calamities and desolation which was near at hand and was a day of death to many thousands yea to hundreds of thousands and a lively resemblance of the final Judgment this also might effectually work upon them and move them to performance and perseverance For then they should see and clearly behold the woful End of that unbelieving Nation and most of all of all Apostates from Christianity Then their seducing Brethren and their persecuting Enemies should be destroyed the Temple burnt and demolished all their Judaism and Legal Service wherein they trusted for ever abolished and those which out of fear complyed with them or of Christians turned Jews should suffer in the highest degree Therefore there was no Reason in the World they should forsake or deny Christ and turn from him to Moses from the Gospel to the Law for the day was approaching when they should see God's Judgment executed upon the unbelieving seducing persecuting Jew and the eternal Confusion of