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
put away Sin by the Sacrifice of Himself THE Subject of these words is the Sacrifice of Christ whereby he entred Heaven it self and of this it 's affirmed That it was but once offered and that by the one Offering of this one Sacrifice the heavenly things were purified by taking away Sin for ever This single Offering of this single Sacrifice is set forth by way of Dissimilitude and Opposition to the Levitical Sacrifices and that 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Negatively Ver. 25. wherein we have two Propositions the one concerning the Levitical the other concerning Christ's Sacrifice The first concerning the former is That the Levitical High-Priest entreth into the Holy place every Year with the Blood of others This is meant of the great Anniversary Sacrifice of Expiation which in the beginning of this Chapter the Author singled out as the greatest and highest piece of Service that was performed under the Law with this design to prove the Sacrifice of Christ to be far more excellent in many things especially in the vertue and effects thereof In this we have 1. The entrance of the Priest into the holy place 2. This entrance made with the blood of others 3. This entrance yearly or every year 1. The holy place was that within the second Veil the holiest of all for into that the High-Priest alone might enter and that but once every year 2. Yet he might not enter without blood and this blood was the blood not of the High-Priest himself but of others that is the blood of Bulls and Goats 3. The principal thing in the Proposition to be noted is the frequency of his entrance and offering for he entred and offered every year God thereby signifying that it was not of eternal virtue The second Proposition is That Christ did not offer himself often He must offer and offer himself and by his own Blood enter Heaven yet he must not do this often his offering must be single and individual both in respect of the Sacrifice and the oblation thereof He must not once entred come out again and offer a new and another Sacrifice or the same again So that the thing that is denyed of this Sacrifice is frequency of offering § 25. In the latter part of the Text ver 26. we may observe 1. The reason why this Sacrifice must not be reiterated 2. The affirmative part of the principal point Yet the whole verse may be said to give a reason of the former Negative proposition and the same is two-fold The first is ab absurdo The second ab inntili â—â—â—-necessario For Christ's offering must not be reiterated 1. Because it was inconvenient and absurd 2. Because it was no wayes profitable or necessary I will sum up the whole in two Propositions The first If Christ should offer himself often then must he often have suffered since â—â—â—â— the foundation of the World The second But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin oâ—â—â—â—â— by the Sacrifice of himself The first Proposition implyes 1. That where there is offering there must be suffering for in sacrificing living Creatures the thing sacrificed must be slâ—in as well as offered For mactation and oblation are essential to such as Sacrifice 2. That seeing there was Sin since the beginning of the World and Sacrifice for Sin appointed by God there must be suffering and offering from the beginning of the World or at least some Sacrifice offered which once presented to God should be of eternal Virtue 3. Because the offering of Christ requires necessarily his suffering therefore if Christ's own offering of himself once could not expiate Sin for ever then he must suffer often The absurdity and inconvenience of Christ's frequent offering of himself was this that if he must often offer he must often suffer and this was thought unreasonable to divine wisdom to put his Son so often to such a cruel Death For by Suffering is meant suffering of Death in that manner as Christ Suffered Yet it seemed good unto God to appoint the Levitical High-Priest often to offer and often with blood to enter into the holy place to signify the imperfection of the Legal Expiation that the People might expect a far more excellent sacrifice In the second Proposition concerning Christ's once offering we may observe 1. Christ's appearing 2. The time of his appearance 3. The end 1. Christ's appearance is 1. His Incarnation 2. The manifestation of him incarnate 3. The presenting of himself as a Priest having Sacrificed himself unto his heavenly Father without which his Incarnation and Manifestation had been to no purpose He appeared from the foundation of the World in the Word of the promise and in Types and Figures yet this was but obscure At length he appeared really and far more clearly when the Word was made Flesh dwelt and lived amongst men dyed and as a Priest offered himself unto God the Supream Judge for the Sin of Man 2. The time of his appearance was the end of the World which is opposed to the foundation of the World Yet as this end is not the last so the foundation is not the first day of the World therefore end and foundation must be taken with a Latitude Christ appeared to Suffer a thousand six hundred years ago and upward and yet the World is not ended therefore End signifies the last times of the World which may be many years yet to come as many years of these last â—inâ—es as parts thereof are past already And so the foundation of the World may be the beginning thereof and this beginning may be so far extended as to comprehend many hundred and 〈◊〉 thousands of years This end of the World is called the fulness of the time Gal. 44. because as some tell us the time appointed by God was fully come all things which were decreed to be before his coming were fully accomplished And though we understand not the reasons yet the end of the World was the fiâ—â—ell of all others for this appearance and though the last times seem to have the greatest benefit of his Exhibition yet the first times were not without it for the virtue of this Sacrifice extended to all times 3. The end of this appearance was to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Where we have two ends the one subordinate to the other The first was the Sacrificing of himself The second by this Sacrifice to put away Sin Christ was the Priest and the thing Sacrificed was himself and the blood by which he entred Heaven was his own blood and he himself was slain and suffered and he himself did offer himself slain The end and so the effect of this Sacrifice once offered was the putting away of sin This putting away was not the abrogation of the Law transgressed but a taking away the moral effects and consequents of Sin committed against that Law and principally of guilt For one certain and perpetual effect of Sin in
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
them such for Nature such for Office First For their Nature they are Spirits and a flame of sire for Office Angels and Ministers 1. They are Spirits that is spiritual and intellectual Creatures For whereas many think because Ruack in Hebrew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signify sometimes the Winds and that here the Angels are compared to the Winds for swiftness it 's poor For the word signifies the Soul of Man the Affections and Operations and the Mind it signifies also Angels both good and bad as they are spiritual and intellectual Substances 2. They are a flame of fire or flaming fire that is Seraphims bright glorious and excellent Creatures They are called Cherubims and Seraphims which are Spirits near unto the Throne of God ever in his presence like Princes tending upon his Majesty ready ever to do him Service and glorify him 1. God makes them and gives them an excellent Being and qualifies them and makes them fit to be his Servants 2. He makes them Servants and Officers to do him high and glorious Service 1. They must be Angels to know and declare his Will to those to whom he sends them 2. They must be Ministers to do and execute his Will He made them both their excellent Nature and their Office and both from him Here it might be noted that the Angels are not any kind of Servants but such as are in eminent place as Officers be yet Officers are but Servants and not Lords The Sum of all is that Angels though excellent Creatures are but Servants and Ministers and this the Apostle intended out of these words to prove § 16. Ver. 8 9. But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God c. Where we must consider 1. The Connexion 2. The Translation 3. The principal sense 4. The Scope of the Apostle 1. The Connexion is not copulative but discretive and implies an opposition and an eminency For Christ is here opposed to the Angels as Servants and Subjects are to Soveraigns as invested with a super-eminent Dignity and Power therefore the particle ω is well translated but. 2. The Translation is 1. Of the words of Allegation 2. Of the words alledged First Of the words of Allegation which may be translated either as they are here read To the Son he saith or as the former of the Son he saith or as for the Son he saith He that is God or the Psalmist or the Scripture or the Spirit by the Psalmist in the Scripture saith thus of the Son Secondly Of the words alledged the Translation is somewhat doubtful for they may be turned Thy Throne O God as they are commonly translated or Thy Throne is God as Genebrard ieforms us some Rabbins understand it or thy Throne of God and every one of these may be true 3. The genuine sense is this that the Power of Christ is from God a royal and divine Power for his Kingdom was not of this World but an heavenly Kingdom of universal and eternal continuance and of a perfect constitution and administration For because that he loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity so far as to be righteous and holy not only in life but death and by his death to expiate the sin of Man and to sanctify all that believe in him for ever therefore God even his God anointed him that is exalted him above all Kings and Prophets even above the Angels By Oyl of gladness is meant Oyl that maketh glad which here signifies not only the gifts but the power of the holy Spirit and to be anointed with this Oyl is not onely to receive gifts and ability but power and authority spiritual and divine and the same super-eminent above all power communicated to any other And this transcendent power was given him for his great and glorious Service in the work of Redemption by his Death and Sufferings 4. The Scope of the Apostle is to prove that Christ is more excellent than the Angels and the reason is strong they are but Messengers Ministers Servants God never made any of them an universal and eternal King but such he hath made Christ. The Apostle implies that the 45. Psalm speaks of Christ. § 17. Ver. 10 11 12. And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth c. How these words agree with the Scope of the Apostle so as to prove Christ to be more excellent than the Angels is difficult to understand They are taken out Psal. 102. The whole Psalm is a Prayer directed to God Redeemer by Christ the matter of the Petition is to hasten the coming of Christ and his glorious Kingdom the repair of the Church and the enlargement of it to all Nations that the People may be gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord that is the Lord Christ and that his Saints being mortal may be changed and inherit eternal life by that Lord Christ who shall destroy all Enemies consume the World with fire and eternally glorify the Saints The Propositions or divine Axioms contained in these words are 1. That Christ being Jehovah made the World 2. That Heaven and Earth created by him are mutable and shall be changed by him 3. That he is immutable and his Kingdom everlasting 4. That his Subjects and Servants though mortal shall enjoy eternal peace and happiness by him In all these things Christ is far above the Angels especially in this that he being Creator of the World shall be an everlasting King of an everlasting and unchangeable Kingdom Yet this is so to be understood that it doth not agree to Christ as the Word alone because as the Word alone he is not Redeemer nor to Christ as Flesh or Man alone for as such he could not create the World but it agrees unto him as the Word made Flesh and exalted at the right hand of God This may be considered either as a distinct proof from the former or a confirmation of the same in respect of his eternal Throne and Kingdom The Socinian upon this place 1. Denies Christ to be the Creator of the World and so to be God 2. Affirms that the intention of the Apostle is to prove Christ more excellent than the Angels onely by one thing in the words and that is by his secondary power to change Heaven and Earth which power God never gave unto the Angels And his design in all this was to cloud this place which so plainly affirms the Deity and immutable Being of Christ. 1. That Christ is the Creator of the World hath been clear from Joh. 1. 2 3. from the second Verse of this Chapter from Coloss. 1. 16. For Christ is not meerly Man as they affirm but the Word by which all things were made which in fulness of time was made flesh 2. That he that made the World is the same that shall change it and shall abide the same for ever For to create the World to change it to remain for ever are all affirmed of
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
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
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
power to purge the Conscience To proceed unto particulars the parts of the Comparison are two 1. The Proposition 2. The Reddition The first Ver. 13 the second Ver. 14. In the first we have the Cause the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer then the Effect sanctifying to the purifying of the Flesh. Of the Blood of Bulls and Goats which is the same with the Blood of Goats and Calvs Ver. 12. you have heard before for that was the Expiatory Blood wherewith the Priest entring the most Holy place did sprinkle the Mercy-Seat and the Effect of this was the Expiation of the Sins of the Priest and the People whereby they were freed from such penalties as the Law imposed upon persons for some Legal and Ceremonial Offences The second purifying was by the Ashes of a red Heifer mixed with running Water and sprinkled upon Persons or things polluted by touching or being near the dead Of this you may read at large Numb 19. The Effect of both was sanctifying by cleansing from some Legal pollution and Guilt but neither of these could free any person from the Obligation to eternal penalties nor spiritually purify and make holy the Spirit and Soul of Man Some think that the Blood did signify the Death and bloody Sacrifice of Christ the Water the sanctifying Spirit Yet both are here compared with the Blood of Christ as Shadows of it This is the Proposition § 13. The Reddition followeth Ver. 14. Where we have two absolute Propositions and part of the Comparison 1. That Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit without Spot unto God 2. That the Blood of Christ who thus offered himself doth purge the Conscience from dead Works to serve the Living God 3. The Comparative part is that it hath much more Power or doth much more purge the Conscience The first Proposition is Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot unto God Where we may consider 1. The Priest 2. The thing offered 3. The manner how 4. The thing by which 5. The Person to whom the Offering was made 1. The Priest was Christ the Word made Flesh and the Son of God designed a Priest by God 2. The thing offered by this Priest was Himself that is his own Life his own Body and some add his own Soul This was spoken in opposition to such things as the Levitical High-Priests offered as Buls and Goats for none of them offered either other men or themselvs 3. The manner how this was offered is this that it was offered without Spot The thing offered and the Offering and the manner of offering were all pure 4. That by or through which he made this Offering was the eternal Spirit By Spirit some understand the Soul which is said to be eternal because it 's immortal And certainly in respect of his Body he may rather be said to be the thing offered and in respect of his Soul the Priest offering For this offering is said to be the doing of God's Will and an Act of Obedience unto death the death of the Cross and this is a proper Act of his immortal Soul and Spirit Yet this Soul and Body too were united to the Word which as God was an eternal Spirit in which respect some understand by eternal Spirit the Word and Divine Nature of Christ And both Soul and Body were in the highest degree sanctified and supported especially in suffering death by the Holy Ghost which some think is here meant It 's certain he did offer himself by his immortal Spirit sanctified and supported by the Holy Spirit and united to the Word which with the Father and the Holy Ghost are one God and eternal spiritual Substance 5. The party to whom he offered himself was God as supream Lord of Life and Death Law-giver and Judg of Man-kind For he alone had power to appoint him to be Priest to be Offering and to offer and also to accept this Offering in behalf of sinful Man and thereupon to justify him believing and reward him with eternal Life All these are expressed and joyned together to set forth the Excellency and the immanent and internal Vertue of Christ's Blood For How excellent and of what rare vertue and causality must that Blood Death Sacrifice be which was the Blood of Christ who was by God's own immediate Commission and Designment made the highest and the greatest Priest and offered Himself the best Sacrifice that ever was and that through the eternal Spirit purely spiritual and most holy and impolluted and that unto God the supream Lord and Judg and in that manner that the very Act of offering from first to last was most exactly conformable to his Will It had all the perfections of a Sacrifice and in the highest degree The Levitical High-Priest was a Priest but far inferiour to Christ he offered Goats and Calvs but not himself and if he had offered himself yet the thing offered had been nothing to this he offered indeed to God yet he had not that near Relation unto Agreement with and Interest in God as this Priest had He offered by or through his own Spirit which was very imperfect and the imperfections of his very Act of Offering were very many and great Therefore it was no wonder that it should not have the like rare efficiency with this The second Proposition in this Verse is That Christ's Blood doth purge the Conscience c. This is the outward Efficacy and Working of this Blood upon a certain Subject rightly disposed In the words we may observe 1. The Conscience which is the Subject 2. The pollution of the Conscience 3. The purging and cleansing of it 4. The â—ind and Consequent of this cleansing 1. The Conscience is the Spirit and immortal Soul of Man which is Intimum Hominis the in most and most excellent part yet this is not here considered meerly as a spiritual immortal intellective and free Substance created and preserved by God but as subject unto his Power bound by his Laws conscious to it 's own Disobedience and sensible of it For the Blood of Christ doth actually purge no other Soul nor any Soul but thus qualified neither without this Qualification is the Soul immediately capable of this Purgation 2. The Pollution of the Soul is from dead Works where by dead Works it 's generally granted are meant Sins and that not only of Commission but Omission All the Works of Man should be living Works and issue from a Soul endued with a spiritual and supernatural Life have a spiritual and supernatural Form which is Conformity to Divine Law and should tend unto a supernatural and spiritual end When they either issue from a Soul destitute of this heavenly Life or want this Conformity they are dead Works base and such as becomes not so excellent a Creature The ordinary Reasons given by Authors why Sins are called dead Works are because they are the Works of men dead in sin want the Life and
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