a compleat relief in this condition two things are necessary 1 A discharge of Conscience from a sense of the guilt of sin or the condemning power of it whereby it deprives us of peace with God and of boldness in access unto him 2 The cleansing of the Conscience and consequently our whole persons from the inherent defilement of sin The first of these was typified by the blood of Bulls and Goats offered on the Altar to make Atonement The latter was represented by the sprinkling of the unclean with the Ashes of the Heiser unto their purification Both these the Apostle here expresly ascribes unto the Blood of Christ and we may briefly enquire into three things concerning it 1 On what ground it doth produce this blessed effect 2 The way of its operation and efficacy unto this end 3 The Reason whence the Apostle affirms that it shall much more do this than the legal Ordinances could sanctifying unto the purifying of the flesh 1. The grounds of its efficacy unto this purpose are three 1. That it was Blood offered unto God God had ordained that Blood should be offered on the Altar to make Atonement for sin or to purge Conscience from dead works That this could not be really effected by the Blood of Bulls and Goats is evident in the nature of the things themselves and demonstrated in the event Howbeit this must be done by Blood or all the institution of legal Sacrifices were nothing but means to deceive the minds of men and ruine their souls To say that at one time or other real Atonement is not to be made for Sin by Blood and Conscience thereby to be purged and purified is to make God a Lyar in all the Institutions of the Law But this must be done by the Blood of Christ or not at all 2 It was the Blood of Christ. Of Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 18. whereby God purchased his Church with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. The dignity of his Person gave efficacy unto his Office and Offering No other person in the discharge of the same Offices that were committed unto him could have saved the Church and therefore all those by whom his Divine Person is denied do also evacuate his Offices By what they ascribe unto them it is impossible the Church should be either sanctified or saved They resolve all into a meer Act of Sovereign Power in God which make the Cross of Christ of none effect 3 He offered this Blood or himself by the eternal Spirit Though Christ in his Divine Person was the Eternal Son of God yet was it the humane nature only that was offered in Sacrifice Howbeit it was offered by and with the concurrent actings of the Divine Nature or Eternal Spirit as we have declared These things make the Blood of Christ as offered meet and fit for the accomplishment of this great effect 2. The second Enquiry is concernig the way whereby the Blood of Christ doth thus purge our Conscience from dead works Two things as we have seen are contained therein 1 The expiation or taking away the guilt of sin that Conscience should not be deterred thereby from an access unto God 2 The cleansing of our souls from vicious defiling habits inclinations and acts or all inherent uncleanness Wherefore under two considerations doth the Blood of Christ produce this double effect First As it was offered so it made Atonement for Sin by giving satisfaction unto the Justice and Law of God This all the expiatory Sacrifices of the Law did prefigure this the Prophets foretold and this the Gospel witnesseth unto To deny it is to deny any real efficacy in the Blood of Christ unto this end and so expresly to contradict the Apostle Sin is not purged from the Conscience unless the guilt of it be so removed as that we may have peace with God and boldness in access unto him This is given us by the Blood of Christ as offered Secondly As it is sprinkled it worketh the second part of this effect And this sprinkling of the Blood of Christ is the communication of its sanctifying vertue unto our souls see Eph. 5. 26 27. Tit. 2. 14. so doth the Blood of Christ the Son of God cleanse us from all our sins 1 John 1. 7. Zech. 13. 2. 3. The Reason why the Apostle affirms that this is much more to be expected from the Blood of Christ than the Purification of the Flesh was from legal Ordinances hath been before spoken unto The Socinians plead on this place that this effect of the death of Christ doth as unto us depend on our own duty If they intended no more but that there is duty required on our part unto an actual participation of it namely Faith whereby we receive the Atonement we should have no difference with them But they are otherwise minded This purging of the conscience from dead works they would have to consist in two things 1 Our own relinquishment of sin 2 The freeing us from the punishment due to sin by an act of power in Christ in Heaven The first they say hath therein respect unto the blood of Christ in that thereby his doctrine was confirmed in obedience whereunto we forsake sin and purge our minds from it The latter also relates thereunto in that the sufferings of Christ were antecedent unto his Exaltation and Power in Heaven Wherefore this effect of the blood of Christ is what we do our selves in obedience unto his doctrine and what he doth thereon by his power and therefore may well be said to depend on our duty But all this while there is nothing ascribed unto the blood of Christ as it was offered in Sacrifice unto God or shed in the offering of himself which alone the Apostle speaks unto in this place Others chuse thus to oppose it This purging of our consciences from dead works is not an immediate effect of the death of Christ but it is a benefit contained therein which upon our faith and obedience we are made partakers of But 1 This is not in my judgment to interpret the Apostles words with due reverence he affirms expresly that the blood of Christ doth purge our conscience from dead works that is it doth make such an Atonement for sin and Expiation of it as that conscience shall be no more pressed with it nor condemn the sinner for it 2 The blood of Christ is the immediate cause of every effect assigned unto it where there is no concurrent nor intermediate cause of the same kind with it in the production of that effect 3 It is granted that the actual communication of this effect of the death of Christ unto our Souls is wrought according unto the method which God in his sovereign wisdom and pleasure hath designed And herein 1 the Lord Christ by his blood made actual and absolute Atonement for the sins of all the Elect. 2 This Atonement is proposed unto us in the Gospel Rom. 3. 25. 3 It
The Redemption or Expiation of Sins is confined unto those under the Old Testament whence it should seem that there is none made for those under the New Ans. The Emphasis of the Expression Sins under the Old Testament respect either the Time when the sins intended were committed or the Testament against which they were committed And the Preposition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã will admit of either sense Take it in the first way and the Argument follows à fortiori as unto the Sins committed under the New Testament though there be no Expiation of Sins against it which properly are only final Unbelief and Impenitency For the Expiation intended is made by the Mediator of the New Testament And if he expiated the Sins that were under the first Testament that is of those who lived and dyed whil'st that Covenant was in force much more doth he do so for them who live under the Administration of that Testament whereof he is the Mediator For Sins are taken away by vertue of that Testament whereunto they do belong And it is with peculiar respect unto them that the blood of Christ is called the blood of the New Testament for the Redemption of Sins But yet more probably the meaning may be the Sins that were and are committed against that first Covenant or the Law and Rule of it For whereas that Covenant did in its Administration comprise the Moral Law which was the substance and foundation of it all Sins whatever have their form and nature with respect thereunto So Sins under the first Covenant are all Sins whatever For there is no Sin committed under the Gospel but it is a Sin against that Law which requires us to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and all our strength Either way the Sins of them who are called under the New Testament are included 2. It is enquired whether it is the Nature of the Sins intended that is respected or the Persons guilty of them also under that Testament The Syriac Translation avoids this difficulty by rendring the words of the Abstract the Redemption of Transgressions in the Concrete a Redeemer unto them who had transgressed That it is a certain sort of Sins that is intended Socinus was the first that invented And his invention is the foundation of the Exposition not only of Schlictingius but of Grotius also on this place Such Sins they say they are as for which no Expiation was to be made by the Sacrifices of the Law Sins of a greater Nature than could be expiated by them For they only made Expiation of some smaller Sins as Sins of Ignorance or the like But there is no respect unto the Persons of them who lived under that Testament whom they will not grant to be redeemed by the blood of Christ. Wherefore according unto them the difference between the Expiation of Sin by the Sacrifices of the Law and that by the Sacrifice of Christ doth not consist in their nature that the one did it only typically and in an external representation by the purifying of the flesh the other really and effectually but in this that the one expiated lesser Sins only the other greater also But there is nothing sound or consonant unto the Truth in this Interpretation of the words For 1 It proceeds on a false Supposition that there were Sins of the people not only presumptuous Sins and which had impenitency in them for which no Atonement was made nor Expiation of them allowed which is expresly contrary unto Lev. 16. 16 21. And whereas some offences were capital amongst them for which no Atonement was allowed to free the Sinner from death yet that belonged unto the Political Rule of the people and hindred not but that typically all sorts of Sins were to be expiated 2 It is contrary unto the express design of the Apostle For he had proved before by all sorts of Arguments that the Sacrifices of the Law could not expiate any Sin could not purge the Conscience from dead works that they made nothing perfect And this he speaks not of this or that Sin but of every Sin wherein the Conscience of a Sinner is concerned Chap. 10. 2. Hence two things follow First That they did not in and of themselves really expiate any one Sin small or great It was impossible saith the Apostle that they should do so Heb. 10. 4. only they sanctified to the purifying of the flesh which overthrows the foundation of this Exposition Secondly That they did typifie and represent the Expiation of all sorts of Sins whatever and made application of it unto their Souls For if it was so that there was no Atonement for their Sins that their Consciences were not purged from dead works nor themselves consummate but only had some outward purification of the flesh it cannot be but they must all eternally perish But that this was not their condition the Apostle proves from hence because they were called of God unto an eternal Inheritance as he had proved at large concerning Abraham Chap. 6. Hence he infers the necessity of the mediation and death of Christ as without the vertue whereof all the called under the first Covenant must perish eternally there being no other way to come to the Inheritance 3. Whereas the Apostle mentions only the Sins under the first Covenant as unto the time passed before the Exhibition of Christ in the flesh or the death of the Mediator of the New Testament what is to be thought of them who lived during that season who belonged not unto the Covenant but were strangers from it such as are described Eph. 4. 12. I answer The Apostle takes no notice of them and that because taking them generally Christ dyed not for them Yea that he did not so is sufficiently proved from this place Those who live and dye strangers from God's Covenant have no interest in the Mediation of Christ. Wherein the Redemption of these Transgressions did consist shall be declared in its proper place And we may observe 1. Such is the malignant Nature of Sin of all Transgression of the Law that unless it be removed unless it be taken out of the way no Person can enjoy the Promise of the Eternal Inheritance 2. It was the Work of God alone to contrive and it was the Effect of infinite Wisdom and Grace to provide a way for the removal of Sin that it might not be an everlasting Obstacle against the Communication of an Eternal Inheritance unto them that are called Fifthly We have declared the design of God here represented unto us who are the Persons towards whom it was to be accomplished and what lay in the way as an hindrance of it That which remains in the words is the way that God took and the means that he used for the removal of that hindrance and the effectual accomplishment of his design This in general was first the making of a New Testament He had fully proved before that this could not
yet what use and advantage was it of with respect unto them that he should dye an accursed death under the Curse of the Law and a sense of God's displeasure Hereof the Socinians and those that follow them can yield no reason at all It would become these men so highly pretending unto reason to give an account upon their own Principles of the death of the onely begotten Son of God in the highest course and most intense Acts of Obedience that may be compliant with the wisdom holiness and goodness of God considering the kind of death that he dyed But what they cannot do the Apostle doth in the next words Eighthly The death of the Mediator of the New Testament was for the Redemption of Transgressions and for this End it was necessary Sin lay in the way of the enjoyment of the Inheritance which Grace had prepared It did so in the Righteousness and Faithfulness of God Unless it were removed the Inheritance could not be received The way whereby this was to be done was by Redemption The Redemption of Transgressions is the deliverance of the Transgressors from all the Evils they were subject unto on their account by the payment of a satisfactory price The words used to express it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã will admit of no other signification Here it must answer the purging of Conscience by the blood of Christ. And he calls his life a Ransom or Price of Redemption And this utterly destroys the foundation of the Socinian Redemption and Expiation for Sin For they make it only a freedom from Punishment by an Act of Power Take off the covering of the words which they use in a sense foreign to the Scripture and their proper signification and their sense is expresly contradictory unto the sense and words of the Apostle He declares Christ to have been the High-Priest and Mediator of the New Testament in the same Acts and Duties They teach that he ceased to be a Mediator when he began to be a Priest He affirms that the Blood of Christ doth expiate Sins They that he doth it by an Act of Power in Heaven where there is no use of his Blood He says that his death was necessary unto and was the means or cause of the Redemption of Transgressions that is to be a price of Redemption or just Compensation for them They contend that no such thing is required thereunto And whereas the Scriptures do plainly assign the Expiation of Sin Redemption Reconciliation and Peace with God Sanctification and Salvation unto the Death and Blood-shedding of Christ They deny them all and every one to be in any sense Effects of it only they say it was an antecedent sign of the Truth of his Doctrine in his Resurrection and an antecedent condition of his Exaltation and Power which is to reject the whole Mystery of the Gospel Besides the particular Observations which we have made on the several passages of this Verse something may yet in general be observed from it As 1. A New Testament providing an Eternal Inheritance in Sovereign Grace the Constitution of a Mediator such a Mediator for that Testament in infinite Wisdom and Love the Death of that Testator for the Redemption of Transgressions to fulfil the Law and satisfie the Iustice of God with the communication of that Inheritance by Promise to be received by Faith in all them that are called are the substance of the Mystery of the Gospel And all these are with wonderful wisdom comprised by the Apostle in these words 2. That the Efficacy of the Mediation and Death of Christ extended it self unto all the called under the Old Testament is an evident Demonstration of his Divine Nature his Pre-existence unto all these things and the Eternal Covenant between the Father and him about them 3. The first Covenant did only forbid and Condemn Transgressions Redemption from them is by the New Testament alone 4. The Glory and Efficacy of the New Covenant and the Assurance of the Communication of an Eternal Inheritance by vertue of it depend hereon that it was made a Testament by the death of the Mediator which is farther proved in the following Verses VER XVI XVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the death of him is declared shewed argued or proved Mors intercedat necesse est Necesse est mortem intercedere Ar. Necesse est mortem ferri which is not proper in the Latine Tongue however there is an emphasis in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more than is expressed by intercedo ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of him that made it of the Testator ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in him that is dead in mortuis among them that are dead ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vulg confirmatum est and so the Syriac ratum est more proper ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There is no use profit or benefit in it Ar. nunquam valet quandoquidem nunquam valet nondum valet it is not yet of force For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be brought in the death of the Testator For a Testament is firm or ratified after men are dead otherwise it is of no force whil'st the Testator liveth There is not much more to be considered in these verses but only how the Observation contained in them doth promote and confirm the Argument which the Apostle insists upon Now this is to prove the necessity and use of the death of Christ from the Nature Ends and Use of the Covenant whereof he was the Mediator For it being a Testament it was to be confirmed with the death of the Testator This is proved in these Verses from the Notion of a Testament and the only use of it amongst men For the Apostle in this Epistle doth argue several times from such usages amongst men as proceeding from the Principles of Reason and Equity were generally prevalent among them So he doth in his discourse concerning the assurance given by the Oath of God Chap. 6. And here he doth the same from what was commonly agreed upon and suitable unto the reason of things about the nature and use of a Testament The things here mentioned were known to all approved by all and were the principal means of the preservation of Peace and Property in Humane Societies For although Testaments as unto their especial Regulation owe their original unto the Roman Civil Law yet as unto the substance of them they were in use amongst all Mankind from the foundation of the world For a Testament is the just determination of a Man's Will concerning what he will have done with his Goods after his decease Or it is the Will of him that is dead Take this power from men and you root up the whole foundation of all industry and diligence in the world For what man will labour to increase his substance if when
openly professed their Repentance and Relinquishment of was ever esteemed dangerous and by some absolutely pernicious whereon great Contests in the Church did ensue For the Controversie was not whether men falling into any sin yea any open or known sin after Baptism might repent which none was ever so foolishly proud as to deny But the Question was about mens open falling again into those sins suppose Idolatry which they had made a publick Profession of their Repentance from before their Baptism And it came at last to this not whether such men might savingly Repent obtain Pardon of their sins and be saved but whether the Church had Power to admit them a second time to a publick Profession of their Repentance of these sins and so take them again into full Communion For some pleaded that the Profession of Repentance for these sins and the Renunciation of them being indispensably necessary antecedently unto Baptism in them that were adult the obligation not to live in them at all being on them who were Baptised in their Infancy Baptism alone was the only Pledge the Church could give of the Remission of such sins and therefore where men fell again into those sins seeing Baptism was not to be repeated they were to be left unto the mercy of God the Church could receive them no more But whereas the numbers were very great of those who in time of Persecution fell back into Idolatry who yet afterwards returned and professed their Repentance the major part who always are for the many agreed that they were to be received and reflected with no small severity on those that were otherwise minded But whereas both parties in this difference run into Extreams the Event was pernicious on both sides the one in the Issue losing the Truth and Peace the other the Purity of the Church The sins of unregenerate persons whereof Repentance was to be expressed before Baptism are called dead works in respect of their Nature and their End For as to their Nature they proceed from a principle under the Power of Spiritual death they are the works of Persons dead in Trespasses and Sins All the moral actings of such Persons with respect unto a supernatural End are dead works being not enlivened by a vital Principle of spiritual Life And it is necessary that a Person be spiritually living before his works will be so Our walking in Holy Obedience is called the Life of God Ephes. 4. 18. That is the Life which God requires which by his especial Grace he worketh in us whose Acts have him for their Object and their End Where this Life is not persons are dead and so are their works even all that they do with respect unto the Living God And they are called so 2dly with respect unto their End they are mortua because mortifera dead because deadly they procure death and end in death Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Jam. 1. 15. They proceed from death Spiritual and end in death Eternal On the same account are they called unfruitful works of Darkness Ephes. 5. 11. They proceed from a principle of Spiritual Darkness and end in Darkness Everlasting We may therefore know what was taught them concerning these dead works namely their Nature and their Merit And this includes the whole Doctrine of the Law with Conviction of sin thereby They were taught that they were sinners by Nature dead in sins and thence Children of wrath Ephes. 2. 1 2 3. That in that Estate the Law of God condemned both them and their works denouncing Death and Eternal destruction against them And in this sense with respect unto the Law of God these dead works do comprise their whole course in this world as they did their best as well as their worst But yet there is no doubt an especial respect unto those great outward Enormities which they lived in during their Judaisme even after the manner of the Gentiles For such the Apostle Peter writing unto these Hebrews describes their Conversation to have been 1 Pet. 3. 3. as we shewed before And from thence he describes what a blessed Deliverance they had by the Gospel 1 Pet 1. 18 20 21. And when he declares the Apostacy of some to their former courses he shews it to be like the returning of a Dog to his Vomit after they had escaped them that live in Error and the Pollutions that are in the world through Lust. 2 Pet. 2. 18 19 20 21 22. These were the works which Converts were taught to abandon and a Profession of Repentance for them was required of all before their Initiation into Christian Religion or they were received into the Church For it was not then as now that any one might be admitted into the Society of the Faithful and yet continue to live in open sins unrepented of Secondly That which is required and which they were taught with respect unto these Dead works is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Repentance Repentance from dead works is the first thing required of them who take upon them the Profession of the Gospel and consequently the first Principle of the Doctrine of Christ as it is here placed by the Apostle Without this whatever is attempted or attained therein is only a Dishonour to Christ and a Disappointment unto men This is the method of Preaching confirmed by the Example and Command of Christ himself Repent and believe the Gospel Math. 4. 17. Mark 1. 15. And almost all the Sermons that we find not only of John the Baptist in a way of preparation for the declaration of the Gospel as Math. 3. 2. but of the Apostles also in pressing the actual Reception of it on the Jews and Gentiles laid this as their first Principle namely the Necessity of Repentance Acts 2. 38. Chap. 3. 19. Acts 14. 15. Thence in the Preaching of the Gospel it is said that God Commandeth all men to repent Acts 17. 30. And when the Gentiles had received the Gospel the Church at Hierusalem glorified God saying Then hath Grd also to the Gentiles granted Repentance unto Life Acts 11. 18. Again this is expressed as the first issue of Grace and Mercy from God towards men by Jesus Christ which is therefore first to be proposed unto them God exalted him and made him a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance unto Israel Acts 5. 31. And because it is the first it is put Synecdochically for the whole work of Gods Grace by Christ. God having raised up his Son Jesus hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. It is therefore evident that this was the first Doctrinal principle as to their own Duty which was pressed on and fixed in the minds of men on their first Instruction in the Gospel And in the Testimonies produced both the Causes of it and its general Nature are expressed For 1 Its supream original Cause is the good Will Grace and Bounty of God He grants and
not the Design of God always to keep the Church in a state of Non-age and under School-Masiers he had appointed to set it at Liberty in the fulness of time to take his Children nearer unto him to give them greater Evidences of his Love greater Assurances of the Eternal Inheritance and the use of more Liberty and Boldness in his Presence But what this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Gospel is wherein it doth consist what is included in it what freedom of Spirit what liberty of Speech what Right of Access and Boldness of Approach unto God Built upon the removal of the Law the communication of the Spirit the way made into the Holyest by the Blood of Christ with other concernments of it Constitutive of Gospel-perfection I have already in part declared in Our Exposition on Chap. 3. ver 5. and must if God please yet more largely insist upon it on Chap. 10th so that I shall not here further speak unto it 5. A clear fore-sight into a Blessed estate of Immortality and Glory with unquestionable Evidences and Pledges giving Assurance of it belongs also to this Consummation Death was Originally threatned as the final End and Issue of sin And the Evidence hereof was received under the Levitical Priesthood in the Curse of the Law There was indeed a Remedy provided against its Eternal Prevalency in the first Promise For whereas Death comprised all the Evil that was come or was to come on Man for Sin In the day thou eatest thereof thou soal die The Promise contained the means of deliverance from it or it was no Promise tendred no Relief unto Man in the state whereinto he was fallen But the People under the Law could see but little into the manner and way of its Accomplishment nor had they received any Pledge of it in any one that was dead and lived again so as to die no more Wherefore their Apprehensions of this deliverance were dark and attended with much fear which rendred them obnoxious unto Bondage See the Exposition on Chap. 2. 14. where we have declared the dreadful Apprehensions of the Jews concerning Death received by Tradition from their Fathers They could not look through the dark shades of Death into Light Immortality and Glory See the two-fold Spirit of the Old and New Testament with respect unto the Apprehensions of Death expressed the one Job 10. 21 22. the other 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4. But there is nothing more needful unto the perfect state of the Church Suppose it endowed with all possible Priviledges in this World yet if it have not a clear view and prospect with a Blessed assurance of Immortality and Glory after Death its condition will be dark and uncomfortable And as this could not be done without bringing in of another Priesthood so by that of Christs it is accomplished For 1. He himself died as our High Priest He entred into the devouring Jaws of Death and that as it was threatned in the Curse And now is the Trial to be made If he who thus ventured on Death as threatned in the Curse and that for us be swallowed up by it or detained by its Power and Pains there is a certain end of all our Hopes Whatever we may arrive unto in this World Death will convey us over into eternal Ruine But if he brake through its Power have the pains of it removed from him do swallow it up into Victory and rise Triumphantly into Immortality and Glory then is our entrance into them also even by and after Death secured And in the Resurrection of Christ the Church had the first unquestionable Evidence that Death might be Conquered that it and the Curse might be separated that there might be a free passage through it into Life and Immortality These things Originally and in the first Covenant were inconsistent nor was the Reconciliation of them evident under the Levitical Priesthood But hereby was the Veil rent from top to bottom and the most Holy place not made with hands laid open unto Believers See Isa. 25. 7 8. 2. As by his Death Resurrection and entrance into Glory He gave a Pledge Example and Evidence unto the Church of that in his own Person which he had designed for it so the Grounds of it were laid in the Expiatory Sacrifice which he Offered whereby he took away the Curse from Death There was such a close Conjunction between Death and the Curse such a Combination between Sin the Law and Death that the breaking of that Conjunction and the dissolving of that Combination was the greatest Effect of Divine Wisdom and Grace which our Apostle so Triumpheth in 1 Cor. 15. 54 55 56 57. This could no otherwise be brought about but by his being made a Curse in Death or bearing the Curse which was in Death in our stead Gal. 3. 13. 3. He hath clearly declared unto the utmost of our Capacities in this World that future state of Blessedness and Glory which he will lead all his Disciples into All the concernments hereof under the Levitical Priesthood were represented only under the obscure Types and Shadows of Earthly things But he hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. He destroyed and abolished him who had the Power of Death in taking away the Curse from it Chap. 2. 14. And he abolished Death it self in the removal of those dark shades which it cast on Immortality and Eternal Life and hath opened an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of God and Glory He hath unveiled the uncreated Beauties of the King of Glory and opened the Everlasting Doors to give an insight into those Mansions of Rest Peace and Blessedness which are prepared for Believers in the Everlasting Enjoyment of God And these things constitute no small part of that consummate state of the Church which God designed and which the Levitical Priesthood could no way effect 6 There is also an especial Joy belonging unto this state For this Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Neither was this attainable by the Levitical Priesthood Indeed many of the Saints of the Old Testament did greatly Rejoyce in the Lord and had the Joy of his Salvation abiding with them See Psal. 51. 12. Isa. 25. 9. Hab. 3. 17 18. But they had it not by virtue of the Levitical Priesthood Isaiah tells us that the ground of it was the swallowing up of Death in Victory ver 8. which was no otherwise to be done but by the Death and Resurrection of Christ. It was by an Influence of Efficacy from the Priesthood that was to be introduced that they had their Joy Whence Abraham saw the Day of Christ and Rejoyced to see it The Prospect of the Day of Christ was the sole Foundation of all their Spiritual Joy that was purely so But as unto their own present state they were allowed and called to Rejoyce in the abundance of Temporal things
Wisdom and Holiness that having designed the bringing of many sons unto Glory he should make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings So the Condecency here intended may respect 1. The Wisdom Grace and Goodness of God It became him to give us such an High Priest as we stood in need of namely one that was able in the Discharge of that Office to save all to the uttermost that come unto God by him For to design our salvation by an High Priest and not to provide such an one as was every way able to effect it became not the Wisdom and Grace of God 2. Respect may be had herein unto our state and condition Such this was as none but such an High Priest could relieve us in or save us from For we stand in need of such an one as our Apostle declares as 1. could make Attonement for our sins or perfectly expiate them 2. Purge our Consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God or sanctifie us throughout by his Blood 3. Procure Acceptance with God for us or purchase eternal Redemption 4. Administer supplies of the spirit of Grace unto us to enable us to live unto God in all Duties of Faith Worship and Obedience 5. Give us assistance and consolation in our Trials Temptations and Sufferings with pity and compassion 6. Preserve us by Power from all ruining Sins and Dangers 7. Be in a continual Readiness to receive us in all our Addresses to him 8. To bestow upon us the Reward of Eternal Life Unless we have an High Priest that can do all these things for us we cannot be saved to the uttermost Such an High Priest we stood in need of and such an one it became the wisdom and Grace of God to give unto us And God in infinite wisdom Love and Grace gave us such an High Priest as in the Qualifications of his Person the Glory of his Condition and the Discharge of his Office was every way suited to deliver us from the state of Apostacy sin and misery and to bring us unto himself through a Perfect salvation This the ensuing particulars will fully manifest The Qualifications of this High Priest are expressed first indefinitely in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A Difference from other High Priests is included herein He must not be one of an Ordinary sort but one so singularly qualified unto his work so exalted after his work and so discharging his work unto such Ends. In all these things we stood in need of such an High Priest as was quite of another sort order and kind than any the Church had enjoyed under the Law as the Apostle expresly concludes ver 28. His Personal inherent Qualifications are first expressed and we shall consider first some things in general that are common unto them all and then declare the especial intendment of every one of them in particular Such an High Priest became us as is Holy Harmless Undefiled Separate from sinners And 1. There is some Allusion in all these things unto what was Typically represented in the Institution of the Office of the Priesthood under the Law For the High Priest was to be a Person without blemish not maimed in any part of his body He was not to marry any one that was defiled nor to defile himself among the People On his forehead in his ministrations he ware a Plate of Gold with that Inscription Holiness to the Lord. And no doubt but Personal Holiness was required of him in an especial manner for want whereof God cast out the Posterity of Eli from the Priesthood But all those things were only outward Representations of what was really required unto such an High Priest as the Church stood in need of For they were mostly external giving a Denomination unto the Subject but working no real change in it And where they were internal they were encompassed with such a mixture of sins weaknesses infirmities and the Intercision of Death as that they had no Glory in comparison of what was required All these things the Apostle observes reducing them unto two Heads namely that they were obnoxious unto Sin and Death and therefore as they died so they offered sacrifices for their own sins But the Church was taught by them from the Beginning that it stood in need of an High Priest whose real Qualifications should answer all these Types and Representations of them 2. It is possible that our Apostle in this Description of our High Priest designed to obviate the prejudicate opinion of some of the Hebrews concerning their Messiah For generally they looked on him as one that was to be a great earthly Prince and warriour that should conquer many Nations and subdue all their enemies with the sword shedding the blood of men in Abundance In opposition unto this vain and pernicious Imagination our Saviour testifies unto them that he came not to kill but to save and keep alive And our Apostle here gives such a Description of him in these holy gracious Qualifications as might attest his Person and work to be quite of another nature than what they desired and expected And their frustration herein was the principal occasion of their unbelief See Mal. 3. 1 2 3. 3. I am sorry that it hath fallen from the Pen of an able Expositor of our own on this place that the Time when the Lord Christ was thus made an High Priest for ever and that by an Oath was after he had offered one sacrifice not many for the People not for himself once not often of everlasting vertue and not effectual for some petty Expiations for a time and after he was risen ascended and set at the right hand of God If by being made an High Priest only a Solemn Declaration of being made so is intended these things may passe well enough For we allow that in the Scripture then a thing is oft-times said to be when it is first manifested or declared So was the Lord Christ determined to be the son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead But if it be intended as the words will scarce admit of any other Interpretation that then the Lord Christ was first made an High Priest after all this was performed the whole real Priesthood of Christ and his proper Sacrifice is overthrown For it is said he was not made an High Priest until after that he had offered his one sacrifice And if it were so then he was not a Priest when he so offered himself But this implies a contradiction for there can be no sacrifice where there is no Priest And therefore the Socinians who make the consecration of the Lord Christ unto his Sacerdotal Office to be by his entrance into Heaven do utterly deny his Death to have been a Sacrifice but only a Preparation for it as they fancy the killing of the beast to have been of old And the Truth is either the Lord Christ was a Priest before and in the
was a Covenant did consist 2. There was a Promise and Conveyance of an Inheritance unto them namely of the Land of Canaan with all the Priviledges of it God declared that the land was his and that he gave it unto them for an Inheritance And this Promise or Grant was made unto them without any consideration of their previous Obedience out of meer love and Grace The principal design of the Book of Deuteronomy is to inlay this Principle in the foundation of their obedience Now the free Grant and Donation of an Inheritance of the Goods of him that makes the Grant is properly a Testament A free disposition it was of the Goods of the Testator 3. There was in the confirmation of this Grant the intervention of Death The Grant of the Inheritance of the Land that God made was confirmed by death and the Blood of the Beasts offered in sacrifice whereof we must treat on v. 18 19 20. And although Covenants were confirmed by Sacrifices as this was so far as it was a Covenant namely with the Blood of them yet as in those Sacrifices death was comprised it was to confirm the Testamentary Grant of the Inheritance For death is necessary unto the Confirmation of a Testament which then could only be in Type and Representation the Testator himself was not to die for the establishment of a Typical Inheritance Wherefore the Apostle having discoursed before concerning the Covenant as it prescribed and required Obedience with Promises and Penalties annexed unto it He now treats of it as unto the Donation and Communication of Good things by it with the Confirmation of the Grant of them by death in which sense it was a Testament and not a Covenant properly so called And the arguing of the Apostle from this word is not only just and reasonable but without it we could never have rightly understood the Typical Representation that was made of the Death Blood and Sacrifice of Christ in the Confirmation of the New Testament as we shall see immediately This difficulty being removed we may proceed in the Exposition of the words That which first occurs is the Note of Connexion in the Conjunction And. But it doth not here as sometimes infer a Reason of what was spoken before but is emphatically expletive and denotes a progress in the present Argument As much as Also Moreover 2. There is the Ground of the ensuing Assertion or the manner of its Introduction For this cause Some say that it looks backward and intimates a Reason of what was spoken before or why it was necessary that our Consciences should be purged from dead works by the Blood of Christ namely because he was the Mediator of the new Covenant others say it looks forward and gives a reason why he was to be the Mediator of the new Testament namely that by the means of Death for the Transgressions c. It is evident that there is a reason rendred in these words of the necessity of the death and Sacrifice of Christ by which alone our Consciences may be purged from dead works And this reason is intended in these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For this cause And this necessity of the death of Christ the Apostle proves both from the nature of his office namely that he was to be the Mediator of the new Covenant which being a Testament required the death of the Testator and from what was to be effected thereby namely the Redemption of Transgressions and the purchase of an eternal Inheritance Wherefore these are the things which he hath respect unto in these words For this cause But withal the Apostle in this verse enlargeth his discourse as designing to comprehend in it the whole dispensation of the will and Grace of God unto the Church in Christ with the Ground and Reason of it This reason he layeth down in this verse giving an account of the effects of it in those that follow Hereunto respect is had in this expression For the exposition of the words themselves that is the declaration of the mind of the Holy Ghost and nature of the things contained in them we must leave the order of the words and take that of the things themselves And the things ensuing are declared in them 1 That God designed an eternal Inheritance unto some persons 2 The way and manner of conveying a Right and Title thereunto was by promise 3 That the Persons unto whom this Inheritance is designed are those that are called 4 That there was an obstacle unto the enjoyment of this Inheritance which was Transgression against the first Covenant 5 That this obstacle might be removed and the Inheritance enjoyed God made a New Covenant because none of the Rites Ordinances or Sacrifices of the first Covenant could remove that Obstacle or expiate those Sins 6 The Ground of the Efficacy of the New Covenant unt o this End was That it had a Mediator an High Priest such as had been already described 7 The way and means whereby the Mediator of the New Covenant did expiate Sins under the Old was by death nor could it otherwise be done seeing this New Covenant being a Testament also required the death of the Testator 8 This Death of the Mediator of the new Testament did take away sins by the Redemption of them For the Redemption of Transgressions All which must be opened for the due Exposition of these words 1. God designed unto some an Eternal Inheritance And both the Reason of this grant with the nature of it must be enquired into 1 As unto the Reason of it God in our first Creation gave unto man whom he made his Son and Heir as unto things here below a great Inheritance of meer Grace and Bounty This Inheritance consisted in the use of all the Creatures here below in a just Title unto them and dominion over them Neither did it consist absolutely in these things but as they were a Pledge of the present favour of God and of mans future blessedness upon his Obedience This whole Inheritance man forfeited by sin God also took the forfeiture and ejected him out of the possession of it and utterly despoiled him of his Title unto it Nevertheless he designed unto some another Inheritance even that should not be lost that should be eternal It is altogether vain and foolish to seek for any other Cause or Reason of the preparation of this Inheritance and the designation of it unto any person but only his own Grace Bounty his sovereign Will and Pleasure What merit of it what means of attaining it could be found in them who were considered under no other Qualifications but such as had wofully rejected that Inheritance which before they were instated in And therefore is it called an Inheritance to mind us that the way whereby we come unto it is gratuitous Adoption and not purchase or merit 2 As unto the Nature of it it is declared in the Adjunct mentioned it is eternal
he dyes he may not dispose of it unto those which by Nature Affinity or other obligations he hath most respect unto Wherefore the foundation of the Apostles arguing from this usage amongst men is firm and stable Of the like nature is his observation that a Testament is of no force whil'st the Testator liveth the nature of the thing it self expounded by constant practice will admit no doubt of it For by what way soever a man disposeth of his Goods so as that it shall take effect whil'st he is alive as by Sale or Gift it is not a Testament nor hath any thing of the nature of a Testament in it For that is only the Will of a man concerning his Goods when he is dead These things being unquestionable we are only to consider whence the Apostle takes his Argument to prove the necessity of the death of Christ as he was the Mediator of the New Testament Now this is not meerly from the signification of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which yet is of consideration also as hath been declared but whereas he treats principally of the two Covenants it is the Affinity that is between a Solemn Covenant and a Testament that he hath respect unto For he speaks not of the death of Christ meerly as it was death which is all that is required unto a Testament properly so called without any consideration of what nature it is but he speaks of it also as it was a Sacrifice by the effusion of his blood which belongs unto a Covenant and is no way required unto a Testament Whereas therefore the word may signifie either a Covenant or a Testament precisely so called the Apostle hath respect unto both the significations of it And having in these Verses mentioned his death as the death of a Testator which is proper unto a Testament in the 14th Verse and those that follow he insists on his blood as a Sacrifice which is proper unto a Covenant But these things must be more fully explained whereby the difficulty which appears in the whole Context will be removed Unto the confirmation or ratification of a Testament that it may be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sure stable and of force there must be death the death of the Testator But there is no need that this should be by blood the blood of the Testator or any other Unto the consideration of a Covenant blood was required the blood of the Sacrifice and death only consequentially as that which would ensue thereon but there was no need that it should be the blood or death of him that made the Covenant Wherefore the Apostle declaring the necessity of the death of Christ both as to the nature of it that it was really death and as to the manner of it that it was by the effusion of his blood and that from the consideration of the two Covenants the Old and the New Testament and what was required unto them he evinceth it by that which was essential unto them both in a Covenant as such and in a Testament precisely so called That which is most eminent and essential unto a Testament is that it is confirmed and made irrevocable by the death of the Testator And that which is the excellency of a Solemn Covenant whereby it is made firm and stable is that it was confirmed with the blood of Sacrifices as he proves in the instance of the Covenant made at Sinai v. 18 19 20 21 22. Wherefore whatever is excellent in either of these was to be found in the Mediator of the New Testament Take it as a Testament which upon the Bequeathment made therein of the Goods of the Testator unto the Heirs of Promise of Grace and Glory it hath the nature of and he dyed as the Testator whereby the Grant of the Inheritance was made irrevocable unto them Hereunto no more is required but his death without the consideration of the nature of it in the way of a Sacrifice Take it as a Covenant as upon the consideration of the Promises contained in it and the Prescription of Obedience it hath the nature of a Covenant though not of a Covenant strictly so called and so it was to be confirmed with the blood of the Sacrifice of himself which is the Eminency of the Solemn Confirmation of this Covenant And as his death had an Eminency above the death required unto a Testament in that it was by blood and in the Sacrifice of himself which it is no way necessary that the death of a Testator should be yet it fully answered the death of a Testator in that he truly dyed so had it an Eminency above all the ways of the confirmation of the Old Covenant or any other Solemn Covenant whatever in that whereas such a Covenant was to be confirmed with the blood of Sacrifices yet was it not required that it should be the blood of him that made the Covenant as here it was The consideration hereof solves all the appearing difficulties in the nature and manner of the Apostles Argument The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whereunto respect is here had is as we have shewed of a large signification and various use And frequently it is taken for a free grant and disposition of things by promise which hath the nature of a Testament And in the Old Covenant there was a free grant and donation of the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan unto the people which belongs unto the nature of a Testament also Moreover both of them a Covenant and a Testament do agree in the general nature of their confirmation the one by blood the other by death Hereon the Apostle in the use of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth diversly argue both unto the nature necessity and use of the death of the Mediator of the New Testament He was to dye in the confirmation of it as it was a Testament he being the Testator of it and he was to offer himself as a Sacrifice in his blood for the establishment of it as it had the nature of a Covenant Wherefore the Apostle doth not argue as some imagine meerly from the signification of the word whereby as they say that in the original is not exactly rendred And those who have from hence troubled themselves and others about the Authority of this Epistle have nothing to thank for it but their own ignorance of the design of the Apostle and the nature of his Argument And it were well if we all were more sensible of our own ignorance and more apt to acknowledge it when we meet with difficulties in the Scripture than for the most part we are Alas how short are our Lines when we come to fathom the depths of it How inextricable difficulties do appear sometimes in passages of it which when God is pleased to teach us are all pleasant and easie These things being premised to clear the scope and nature of the Apostles Argument we proceed unto a brief Exposition of
been unto the People like that given to Ezekiel that was written within and without and there was written therein Lamentations and Mourning and Woe Chap. 2. 10. Nothing but Curse and Death could they expect from it But the Sprinkling of it with blood as it lay upon the Altar was a Testimony and Assurance that Attonement should be made by blood for the sins against it which was the Life of the things 2 The Book in it self was Pure and Holy and so are all Gods Institutions but unto us every thing is unclean that is not sprinkled with the blood of Christ. So afterwards the Tabernacle and all the Vessels of it were purified every year with blood because of the Uncleannesses of the People in their Transgressions Levit. 16. Wherefore on both these accounts it was necessary that the Book it self should be sprinkled The blood thus sprinkled was mingled with water The natural Reason of it was as we observed to keep it fluid and aspersible But there was a Mystery in it also That the blood of Christ was typified by this blood of the Sacrifices used in the Dedication of the Old Covenant it is the Apostle's Design to declare And it is probable that this mixture of it with water might represent that Blood and Water which came out of his side when it was pierced For the Mystery thereof was very great Hence that Apostle which saw it and bare Record of it in particular Joh. 19. 34 35. affirms likewise that he came by water and blood and not by blood only 1 Epist. chap. 5. ver 6. He came not only to make Attonement for us with his blood that we might be justifyed but to sprinkle us with the efficacy of his blood in the communication of the Spirit of Sanctification compared unto water For the Sprinkler it self composed of Scarlet wool and Hyssop I doubt not but that the Humane Nature of Christ whereby and through which all Grace is communicated unto us for of his fulness we receive and Grace for Grace was signified by it But the Analogie and Similitude between them are not so evident as they are with respect unto some other Types The Hyssop was an humble Plant the meanest of them yet of a sweet savour 1. Kings 4. 33. So was the Lord Christ amongst men in the days of his flesh in comparison of the tall Cedars of the Earth Hence was his complaint that he was as a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the People Psal. 22. 6. And the Scarlet wool might represent him as red in the blood of his Sacrifice But I will not press these things of whose Interpretation we have not a certain Rule Secondly The principal Truth asserted is confirmed by what Moses said as well as what he did VER XX. Saying This is the Blood of the Testament which God hath enjoyned unto you The Difference between the words of Moses and the Repetition of them by the Apostle is not material as unto the sense of them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold in Moses is rendred by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This both demonstrative Notes of the same thing For in pronouncing of the words Moses shewed the Blood unto the People And so Behold the Blood is all one as if he had said this is the Blood The making of the Covenant in the words of Moses is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hath cut divided solemnly made This the Apostle renders by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hath enjoyned or commanded you And this he doth partly to signify the Foundation of the People's Acceptance of that Covenant which was the Authority of God enjoyning them or requiring them so to do partly to intimate the nature of the Covenant it self which consisted in Precepts and Injunctions principally and not absolutely in Promises as the New Covenant doth The last words of Moses Concerning all these words the Apostle omits For he includes the sense of them in that word which the Lord commanded you For he hath respect therein both unto the words themselves written in the Book which were Precepts and Injunctions as also the command of God for the Acceptance of the Covenant That which Moses said is This is the blood of the Testament Hence the Apostle proves that Death and the shedding of blood therein was necessary unto the consecration and establishment of the first Testament For so Moses expresly affirms in the Dedication of it This is the blood of the Covenant without which it could not have been a firm Covenant between God and the People Not I confess from the nature of a Covenant in general for a Covenant may be solemnly established without Death or Blood but from the especial end of that Covenant which in the confirmation of it was to prefigure the confirmation of that new Covenant which could not be established but with the blood of a Sacrifice And this adds both force and evidence unto the Apostles Argument For he proves the Necessity of the Death and Blood-shedding or Sacrifice of Christ in the confirmation of the New Covenant from hence that the Old Covenant which in the Dedication of it was prefigurative hereof was not confirmed without Blood Wherefore whereas God had solemnly promised to make a new Covenant with the Church and that different from or not according unto the Old which he had proved in the foregoing Chapter it follows unavoidably that it was to be confirmed with the Blood of the Mediator for by the blood of Beasts it could not be which is that Truth wherein he did instruct them And nothing was more cogent to take off the scandal of the Cross and of the sufferings of Christ. For the Enuntiation it self This is the blood of the Covenant it is figurative and Sacramental The Covenant had no blood of its own but the blood of the Sacrifices is called the blood of the Covenant because the Covenant was dedicated and established by it Neither was the Covenant really established by it For it was the Truth of God on the one hand and the stability of the People in their professed Obedience on the other that the establishment of the Covenant depended on But this blood was a confirmatory sign of it a Token between God and the People of their mutual engagements in that Covenant So the Paschal Lamb was called Gods Pass-over because it was a sign and token of Gods passing over the houses of the Israelites when he destroyed the Aegyptians Exod. 12. 11 21. With reference it was unto those Sacramental Expressions which the Church under the Old Testament was accustomed unto that our Lord Jesus Christ in the Institution of the Sacrament of the Supper called the Bread and the Wine whose use he appointed therein by the names of his Body and Blood and any other Interpretation of the words wholly overthrows the Nature of that holy Ordinance Wherefore this Blood was a confirmatory Sign of the Covenant And it was
consequents of it Hereof he gives an illustration by comparing it unto what is of absolute and unavoidable necessity so as that it cannot otherwise be namely the death of all the individuals of mankind by the decretory sentence of God As they must dye every one and every one but once so Christ was to dye to suffer to offer himself and that but once The instances of those who died not after the manner of other men as Enoch and Elias or those who having died once were raised from the dead and died again as Lazarus give no difficulty herein They are instances of exemption from the common Rule by meer acts of Divine Sovereignty But the Apostle argues from the general Rule and Constitutions and thereon alone the force of his comparisons doth depend and they are not weakned by such exemptions As this is the certain unalterable law of Humane condition that every man must dye once and but once as unto this mortal life so Christ was once and but once offered But there is more in the words and design of the Apostle than a bare Similitude and illustration of what he treats of though Expositors own it not He doth not only illustrate his former Assertion by a fit comparison but gives the Reason of the one offering of Christ from what it was necessary for and designed unto For that he introduceth a Reason of his former Assertion the Causal connexion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth demonstrate Especially as it is joyned with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is in quantum inasmuch as in which sense he constantly useth that expression chap. 3. 3. chap. 7. 20. chap. 8. 6. And in as much as it was so with mankind it was necessary that Christ should suffer once for the expiation of Sin and the Salvation of Sinners How was it with mankind in this matter On the account of sin they were all subject unto the Law and the curse thereof Hereof there were two parts 1 Temporal Death to be undergone penally on the sentence of God 2 Eternal judgment wherein they were to perish for evermore In these things consist the effects of sin and the curse of the Law And they were due unto all men unavoidably to be inficted on them by the judgment and sentence of God It is appointed decreed determined of God that men sinful men shall once die and after that come to judgment for their Sins This is the sense the sentence the substance of the Law Under this Sentence they must all perish eternally if not Divinely relieved But inasmuch as it was thus with them the one offering of Christ once offered is prepared for their Relief and deliverance And the relief is in the infinite Wisdom of God eminently proportionate unto the evil the remedy unto the disease For 1. As man was to dye once legally and penally for sin by the sentence of the Law and no more So Christ died suffered and offered once and no more to bear Sin to expiate it and thereby to take away death so far as it was penal 2. As after death men must appear again the second time unto judgement to undergo condemnation thereon so after his once offering to take away Sin and Death Christ shall appear the second time to free us from judgement and to bestow on us eternal Salvation In this interpretation of the words I do not exclude the use of the comparison nor the design of the Apostle to illustrate the one offering of Christ once offered by the certainty of the death of men once onely for these things do illustrate one another as so compared But withal I judge there is more in them than a meer comparison between things no way related one to another but onely have some mutual resemblance in that they fall out but once Yea there seems not to be much light nor any thing of Argument in a comparison so arbitrarily framed But consider these things in their mutual Relation and opposition one unto the other which are the same with that of the Law and the Gospel and there is much of light and argument in the comparing of them together For whereas the end of the Death Suffering and Offering of Christ was to take away and remove the punishment due unto Sin which consisted in this that men should once die and but once and afterwards come to judgment and condemnation according to the sentence of the Law And it was convenient unto Divine Wisdom that Christ for that end should Dye Suffer Offer once only and afterwards bring them for whom he died unto Salvation And this is the proper sense of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in quantum which Interpreters know not what to make of in this place but endeavour variously to change and alter Some pretend that some Copies read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and one ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which they suppose came from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But the onely Reason why the word is not liked is because the sense is not understood Take the mind of the Apostle aright and his expression is proper unto his purpose Wherefore there is in these verses an entire opposition and comparison between the Law and the Gospel the Curse due to Sin and the Redemption that is by Christ Jesus And we may observe That God hath eminently suited our Relief the means and causes of our spiritual Deliverance unto our Misery the means and causes of it as that his own Wisdom and Grace may be exalted and our faith established That which is here summarily represented by our Apostle in this Elegant Antithesis he declares at large Rom. 5. from ver 12. to the end of the Chapter But we proceed with the interpretation of the words In the first part of the Antithesis and comparison ver 27. there are three things asserted 1 The Death of men 2 The judgment that ensues and 3. The cause of them both The last is first to be explained It is Appointed Determined Enacted statutum est It is so by him who hath a Sovereign Power and Authority in and over these things and hath the force of an unalterable Law which none can transgress God himself hath thus appointed it none else can determine and dispose of these things And the word equally respects both parts of the Assertion Death and Judgment They are both equally from the constitution of God which is the cause of them both The Socinians do so divide these things that one of them namely Death they would have to be natural and the other or judgment from the constitution of God which is not to interpret but to contradict the words Yea death is that which in the first place and directly is affirmed to be the effect of this Divine Constitution being spoken of as it is Penal by the curse of the Law for sin and judgment falls under the same constitution as consequential thereunto But if death as they plead be meerly and only natural they
cannot refer it unto the same Divine Constitution with the future judgment which is natural in no sense at all Death was so far natural from the beginning as that the frame and constitution of our nature were in themselves liable and subject thereunto But that it should actually have invaded our nature unto its dissolution without the intervention of its meritorious Cause in Sin is contrary unto the Original state of our Relation unto God the nature of the Covenant whereby we were obliged unto Obedience the Reward promised therein with the threatning of Death in case of disobedience Wherefore the Law Statute or Constitution here related unto is no other but that of Gen. 2. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye with that addition dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Chap. 3. 19. God enacted it as an everlasting Law concerning Adam and all his Posterity that they should dye and that once as they were once taken out of the Dust. But in the words of God before mentioned there are two things 1. A penal Law enacted Gen. 3. 17. 2. A judicial sentence denounced Chap. 2. 19. not onely Death but future judgment also was appointed thereby Thus it is appointed to men that is to all men or men indefinitely without exception it is their lot and portion It is appointed unto men not meerly as men but as sinners as sinful men For it is of sin and the effects of it with their removal by Christ that the Apostle discourseth It is appointed unto them to dye that is penally for sin as Death was threatned in that Penal statute mentioned in the curse of the Law And death under that consideration alone is taken away by the death of Christ. The sentence of dying naturally is continued towards all but the moral nature of dying with the consequents of it are removed from some by Christ The Law is not absolutely reversed but what was formally penal in it is taken away Observe 1. Death in the first constitution of it was penal And the entrance of it as a penalty keeps the fear of it in all living Yea it was by the Law Eternally Penal Nothing was to come after death but Hell And 2. It is still penal Eternally penal unto all unbelievers But there are false notions of it amongst men as there are of all other things Some are afraid of it when the penalty is separated from it Some on the other hand look on it as a Relief and so either seek it or desire it unto whom it will prove only an entrance unto judgment It is the interest of all living to enquire diligently what death will be unto them 3. The death of all is equally determined and certain in Gods constitution It hath various wayes of approach unto all individuals Hence is it generally looked on as an accident befalling this or that man But the Law concerning it is general and equal The Second part of the Assertion is that after this is the judgment This by the same Divine unalterable constitution is appointed unto all God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousness Death makes an not end of men as some think others hope and many would desire it should Ipsa mors nihil post mortem nihil But there is something yet remaining which death is subservient unto Hence it is said to be after this As surely as men dye it is sure that somewhat else follows after death This is the force of the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but but after it Now this after doth not denote the immediate succession of one thing unto another if one go before and the other certainly follow after what ever length of time be interposed between them the Assertion is true and proper Many have been long dead probably the most that shall dye and yet judgment is not come after But it shall come in its appointed season and so as that nothing shall interpose between death and judgment to make any alteration in the state or condition of the persons concerned in them The souls of them that are dead are yet alive but are utterly incapable of any change in their condition between death and judgment As death leaves men so shall judgment find them The second part of this penal constitution is judgment after death judgment It is not a particular judgment on every individual person immediately on his death although such a judgment there be For in and by death there is a declaration made concerning the eternal condition of the deceased But judgment here is opposed unto the second appearance of Christ unto the Salvation of believers which is the great or general judgment of all at the last day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã used with respect unto this day or taken absolutely do signifie a condemnatory sentence only ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the resurrection of or unto judgment is opposed unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the resurrection of or unto life Joh. 5. 29. See ver 22 23 24. So is it here used Judgment that is condemnation for sin follows after death in the righteous constitution of God by the sentence of the Law And as Christ by his death doth not take away death absolutely but only as it was penal so on his Second appearance he doth not take away judgment absolutely but only as it is a condemnatory sentence with respect unto Believers For as we must all dye so we must all appear before his judgment seat Rom. 14. 10. But as he hath promised that those that believe in him shall not see death for they are passed from death unto life they shall not undergo it as it is penal so also he hath that they shall not come ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the word here used into judgment Joh. 5. 24. They shall be freed from the condemnatory sentence of the Law For the nature and manner of this judgment see the Exposition on Chap. 6. 5. This then is the sense of the words Whereas therefore or in as much as this is the constitution of God that man sinful man shall once dye and afterwards be judged or condemned for sin Which would have been the event with all had not a Relief been provided which in opposition hereunto is declared in the next verse And no man that dyes in sin shall ever escape judgment VER XXVIII This verse gives us the Relief provided in the wisdom and Grace of God for and from this condition And there is in the words 1. The Redditive note of comparison and opposition So 2. The subject spoken of the offering of Christ. 3. The End of it to bear the sin of many 4 The consequent of it which must be spoken to distinctly 1. The Redditive note is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So in like manner in answer unto that state of things and for the Remedy against it in a blessed condecency unto Divine
gives it to whom he pleaseth of his own good Pleasure Acts 11. 18. 2 It is immediately collated on the Souls of men by Jesus Christ as a fruit of his Death and an effect of that All Power in Heaven and Earth which was bestowed on Him by the Father He gives Repentance to Israel Acts 3. 31. The Soveraign disposal of it is from the Will of the Father and the actual Collation of it is an Effect of the Grace of the Son And 3 the Nature of it is expressed in the Conversion of the Gentiles It is unto Life Acts 11. 18. The Repentance required of men in the first Preaching of the Gospel and the Necessity whereof was pressed on them was unto Life that is such as had saving Conversion unto God accompanying of it This kind of Repentance is required unto our Initiation in the Gospel state Not an empty Profession of any kind of Repentance but real Conversion unto God is required of such persons But moreover we must consider this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Repentance in its own Nature at least in general that we may the better understand this first Principle of Catechetical Doctrine In this sense it respects 1 The Mind and Judgement 2 The Will and Affections And 3 The Life or Conversation of men 1. It respects the Mind and Judgement according to the Notation of the word which signifies a Change of Mind or an after Consideration and Judgement Men whilst they live in dead works under the Power of Sin do never make a right Judgement concerning either their Nature their Guilt or their End Hence are they so often called to remember and consider things aright to deal about them with the Reason of men and for want thereof are said to be Foolish Bruitish Sottish and to have no Understanding The Mind is practically deceived about them There are Degrees in this Deceit but all sinners are actually more or less deceived No men whilst the Natural Principle of Conscience remains in them can cast off all the Convictions of sin Rom. 2. 14 15. That it is the Judgement of God that those who commit such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. But yet some there are who so far despise these Convictions as to give up themselves unto all sin with Delight and Greediness See Ephes. 4. 17 18 19. Practically they call Good Evil and Evil Good and do judge either that there is not that Evil in sin which is pretended or however that it is better to enjoy the Pleasures of it for a Season than to relinguish or forego it on other Considerations Others there are who have some farther sense of those Dead works In particular they judge them Evil but they are so intangled in them as that they see not the Greatness of that Evil nor do make such a Judgement concerning it as whereon a Reliquishment of them should necessarily ensue Unto these two heads in various Degrees may all Impenitent sinners be reduced They are such as despising their Convictions go on in an unbridled course of Licentiousness as not judging the Voyce Language and Mind of them worth enquiring into Others do in some measure attend unto them but yet practically they refuse them and embrace motives unto Sin turning the Scale on that side as Occasion Opportunities and Temptations do occur Wherefore the first thing in this Repentance is a through Change of the Mind and Judgement concerning these Dead works The Mind by the Light and Conviction of saving Truth determines clearly and steadily concerning the true Nature of Sin and its demerit that it is an Evil thing and bitter to have forsaken God thereby Casting on tall Prejudices laying aside all Pleas Excuses and Palliations it finally concludes Sin that is all and every Sin every thing that hath the Nature of Sin to be universally evil Evil in its Self Evil to the Sinner Evil in its present Effects and future Consequents Evil in every kind shamefully Evil incomparably Evil yea the only Evil or all that is Evil in the world And this Judgement it makes with respect unto the Nature and Law of God to its own Primitive and present depraved Condition unto present Duty and future Judgement This is the first thing required unto Repentance and where this is not there is nothing of it 2. It respects the Will and Affections It is our Turning unto God our turning from him being in the bent and inclination of our Wills and Affections unto Sin The Change of the Will or the taking away of the Will of sinning is the principal part of Repentance It is with respect unto our Wills that we are said to be dead in Sin and alienated from the Life of God And by this Change of the Will do we become dead unto Sin Rom. 6. 2. That is whatever remainder of Lust or Corruption there may be in us yet the Will of sinning is taken away And for the Affections it works that Change in the Soul as that quite contrary Affections shall be substituted and set at work with respect unto the same Object There are Pleasures in Sin and also it hath its wages With respect unto these those that live in dead works both delight in Sin and have complacency in the Accomplishment of it These are the Affections which the Soul exerciseth about Sin committed or to be committed Instead of them Repentance by which they are utterly banished sets at work Sorrow Grief Abhorrency Self detestation Revenge and the like Afflictive Passions of mind Nothing stirs but they affect the Soul with respect unto Sin 3. It respects the course of Life or Conversation It is a Repentance from dead works that is in the Relinquishment of them Without this no profession of Repentance is of any worth or use To profess a Repentance of Sin and to live in Sin is to mock God deride his Law and deceive our own Souls This is that Change which alone doth or can evidence the other internal Changes of the Mind Will and Affections to be real and sincere Prov. 28. 13. Whatever without this is pretended is false and Hypocritical like the Repentance of Judah not with the whole heart but feignedly Jerem. 3. 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There was a lye in it for their works answered not their words Neither is there any mention of Repentance in the Scripture wherein this Change in an actual Relinquishment of dead works is not expresly required And hereunto three things are necessary 1 A full Purpose of Heart for the Relinquishment of every Sin This is cleaving unto the Lord with Purpose of Heart Acts 11. 23. Psal. 14. 3. To manifest the stability and stedfastness which is required herein David confirmed it with an Oath Psal. 119. 106. Every thing that will either live or thrive must have a Root on which it grows and whence it springs Other things may occasionally bud and put forth but they wither immediately And such is a Relinquishment of
others will one way or other be brought down beneath them all 3. Let such be greatly Fruitful or this appearance of much Grace will issue in much darkness Secondly God dealeth thus with Men as to Spiritual Gifts Among those who are called the Spirit divideth unto every one even as he will Unto one he giveth five Talents unto another two and to a third but one And this diversity depending meerly on Gods Soveraignty is visible in all Churches And as this tends in it self unto their Beauty and Edification so there may be an abuse of it unto their disadvantage For besides those disorders which the Apostle declares to have ensued particularly in the Church of Corinth upon the undue Use and Exercise of Spiritual Gifts there are sundry Evils which may befall particular Persons by reason of them if their Original and End be not duly attended unto For 1. Those who have received these Spiritual Gifts in any Eminent manner may be apt to be lifted up with good Conceits of themselves and even to despise their Brethren who come behind them therein This Evil was openly prevalent in the Church of Corinth 2. Among those who have received them in some Equality or would be thought so to have done Emulations and perhaps Strifes thereon are apt to ensue One cannot well bear that the Gift of another should find more Acceptance or be better Esteemed than his own And another may be apt to extend himself beyond his due line and measure because of them And 3. Those who have received them in the lowest degree may be apt to despond and refuse to Trade with what they have because their Stock is Inferiour unto their Neighbours But what is all this to us May not God do what he will with his own If God will have some of the Sons of Abraham to pay Tithes and some to receive them is there any Ground of Complaint Unto him that hath the most Eminent Gifts God hath given of his own and not of ours he hath taken nothing from us to endue him withal but supplyed him out of his own stores Whoever therefore is unduly Exalted with them or Envies because of them he despiseth the Prerogative of God and contends with him that is Mighty 3. God distinguisheth Persons with Respect unto Office He makes and so accounts whom he will Faithful and puts them into Ministry This of Old Korah repined against And there are not a few who free themselves from Envy at the Ministry by endeavouring to bring it down into contempt But the Office is Honourable and so are they by whom it is discharged in a due manner and it is the Prerogative of God to call whom he pleaseth thereunto And there is no greater Usurpation thereon than the Constitution of Ministers by the Laws Rules and Authority of Men. For any to set up such in Office as he hath not Gifted for it nor called unto it is to sit in the Temple of God and to shew themselves to be God We may also hence observe That No Priviledge can exempt Persons from Subjection unto any of Gods Institutions Though they were of the Loyns of Abraham Yet VER 6 7 8 9 10. IN the five following Verses the Apostle pursues and Concludes that part of his Argument from the Consideration of Melchisedec which concerned the Greatness and Glory of him who was Represented by him and his Preeminence above the Levitical Priests For if Melchisedec who was but a Type of him was in his own Person in so many Instances more Excellent than they how much more must he be esteemed to be above them who was Represented by him For he whom another is appointed to represent must be more Glorious than he by whom he is represented This part of his Argument the Apostle concludes in these Verses and thence proceeds unto another great Inference and Deduction from what he had taught concerning this Melchisedec And this was that which strook unto the heart of that Controversie which he had in hand namely that the Levitical Priesthood must necessarily cease upon the Introduction of that better Priesthood which was fore-signified by that of Melchisedec And these things whatsoever sence we now have of them were those on which the Salvation or Damnation of these Hebrews did absolutely depend For unless they were prevailed on to forgoe that Priesthood which was now abolished and to betake themselves alone unto that more Excellent which was then Introduced they must unavoidably perish as accordingly on this very account it fell out with the Generality of that People their Posterity persisting in the same Unbelief unto this day And that which God made the Crisis of the Life and Death of that Church and People ought to be diligently weighed and considered by us It may be some find not themselves much concerned in this Laborious acurate Dispute of the Apostle wherein so much occurrs about Pedigrees Priests and Tithes which they think belongs not unto them But let them remember that in that great Day of taking down the whole Fabrick of Mosaical Worship and the Abolition of the Covenant of Sinai the Life and Death of that Ancient Church the Posterity of Abraham the Friend of God to whom unto this Season an inclosure was made of all Spiritual Priviledges Rom. 9. 4. depended upon their receiving or rejecting of the Truth here contended for And God in like manner doth often-times single out especial Truths for the Trial of the Faith and Obedience of the Church in especial Seasons And when he doth so there is ever after an especial Veneration due unto them But to return Upon the Supposition that the Levitical Priests did receive Tithes as well as Melchisedec wherein they were equal and that they received Tithes of their Brethren the Posterity of Abraham which was their especial Prerogative and Dignity he yet proveth by four Arguments that the Greatness he had assigned unto Melchisedec and his Preeminence above them was no more than was due unto him And the first of these is taken from the Consideration of his Person of whom he received Tithes ver 6. The Second from the Action of Benediction which accompanied his receiving of Tithes ver 7. The Third from the Condition and state of his own Person compared with all those who received Tithes according to the Law ver 8. And the Fourth from that which determines the whole Question namely that Levi himself and so consequently all the whole Race of Priests that sprang from his Loyns did thus pay Tithes unto him VER 6 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Aethiopick Translation omits those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He takes up the Name Abraham in the fore-going Verse who came forth out of the Loyns of Abraham and adds unto them what follows in this who received the Promise possibly deceived by a maimed transcript of the Original ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He who is not written in their Genealogies
Religion But the Truth is if ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã here signifies a certain and determinate place that opposed in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there must be Salem where Melchisedec dwelt which was not only afterwards Tithable as within the Bounds of Canaan but most probably was Hierusalem it self as we have declared This Conjecture therefore is too Curious nor do we need to tye up our selves unto the precise signification of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã although that also be sometimes used with respect unto time as well as place VVherefore these words here and there do express the several different states under Consideration Here is in the case of the Levitical Priesthood and There respects the case of Melchisedec as stated Gen. 14. Secondly The Foundation of the Comparison that wherein both agreed is in this that they received Tithes It is expressed of the one sort only namely the Levitical Priests they received Tithes but it is understood of the other also whereon the word is repeated and inserted in our Translation but there he receiveth them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They do receive Tithes in the Present Tense But it may be said there was none that then did so or at least de jure could do so seeing the Law of Tithing was abolished Wherefore an Enallage may be allowed here of the present time for that which was past they do that is they did so whilst the Law was in force But neither is this Necessary For as I have before Observed the Apostle admits or takes it for granted that the Mosaical System of Worship was yet continued and argueth on that concession unto the Necessity of its approaching abolition And yet we need not here the Use of this Supposition For the words determine neither time nor place but the state of Religion under the Law According unto the Law are Tithes to be paid unto and received by such Persons This therefore is agreed That both the Levitical Priests and Melchisedec received Tithes The Opposition and Difference lyes in the Qualification and Properties of them by whom they are received For 1. Those on the one side that is of the Levitical Priesthood were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Homines qui moriuntur or homines morientes Men that dye dying men that is Men subject unto Death Mortal men who lived and dyed in the Discharge of their Office according unto the Common Laws of Mortality And the Observation of Schlictingius on these words is as far as I can understand Useless unto his own Design much more to the Apostles Notandum vero quod non mortalibus hominibus sed morientibus tantum Melchisedecum Author opponat nec immortalem eum esse sed vivere dicit vita autem non mortalitati sed morti proprie opponitur Something is aimed at in way of Security unto another Opinion namely that all men were Created in a state of Mortality without respect unto Sin But nothing is gotten by this Subtility For by Dying men the Apostle intends not Men that were actually dying as it were at the point of Death For in that Condition the Priests could neither execute their Office nor receive Tithes of the People Only he describes such Persons as in the whole course of their Ministry were liable unto Death from the Common Condition of Mortality and in their several Seasons dyed accordingly Wherefore dying men or men Subject to Death and Mortal men are in this case the same And although Life as to the Principle of it be opposed unto Death yet as unto a continual Duration the thing here intended by the Apostle it is opposed unto Mortality or an obnoxiousness unto Death For a Representation is designed of him who was made a Priest not after the Law of a Carnal Commandment but after the Power of an endless Life Wherefore saith the Apostle those who received Tithes after the Law were all of them Mortal men that had both Beginning of Days and End of Life So the Death of Aaron the first of them and in him of all his Successors is Recorded in the Scripture In Opposition unto this state of the Levitical Priests it is affirmed that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Case of Melchisedec ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it is Witnessed that he Liveth How he Liveth and how it is Witnessed unto that he Liveth we must Enquire For it is apparently of Melchisedec of whom in the first place as the Type these things are spoken and yet we know that really and in his own Person he was Dead long before But there are several things on the Account whereof it is said that it is witnessed that he Liveth For 1. Whatever the Scripture is silent in as to Melchisedec which it usually relates of others in the like state our Apostle takes for a Contrary Testimony unto him For he lays down this general Principle That what the Scripture conceals of Melchisedec it doth it to Instruct us in the Mystery of his Person and Ministry as Types of Christ and his Hence the Silence of the Scripture in what it useth to express must in this case be Interpreted as a Testimony unto the contrary So it witnessed of him that he was without Father without Mother without Descent in that it mentioneth none of them And whereas he had neither Beginning of Days nor End of Life Recorded in the Scripture it is thereby witnessed that not absolutely but as to his Typical consideration he Liveth For there are no bounds nor periods fixed unto his Priesthood nor did it expire by the bringing in that of Levi as that did by the Introduction of Christ's 2. He did actually continue his Office unto the end of that Dispensation of God and his Worship wherein he was employed and this witnesseth the perpetuity of his Life in opposition unto the Levitical Priests For these two States are compared by the Apostle that of Melchisedec and that of Levi. There was a time limited unto this Priesthood in the House of Aaron and during that time one Priest died and another Succeeded in several Generations until they were greatly multiplyed as the Apostle observeth ver 23. But during the whole Dispensation of things with respect unto Melchisedec he continued in his own Person to execute his Office from first to last without being Subject unto Death wherein it is witnessed that he Liveth 3. He is said to Live that is always to do so because his Office continueth for ever and yet no meer Mortal Man Succeeded him therein 4. In this whole Matter he is considered not Absolutely and Personally but Typically and as a Representation of somewhat else And what is Represented in the Type but is really subjectively and properly found only in the Antitype may be affirmed of the Type as such So it is in all Sacramental Institutions as the Paschal Lamb was called expressely Gods Passover Exod. 12. 11. when it was only a Pledge and Token thereof as under the New
were Good in themselves and Good unto the People so as if they did them they should live therein But after the People had broken the Covenant in making of a Golden Calf God gave them that whole System of Ordinances Institutions and Laws which ensued These they say in that place of Ezekiel God calls Ordinances that were not Good and Judgements whereby they should not live as being imposed on the People in the way of Punishment And with respect unto these they say it is that the Apostle affirms the Commandment was weak and unprofitable But as the Application of this Exposition unto this passage in the Apostle's Discourse is not consistent with the Design of it as will afterwards appear So indeed the Exposition it self is not defensible For it is plain that by the Laws and Statutes mentioned ver 11. not any part of them but the whole System of Ordinances and Commandments which God gave by Moses is intended And the two words in the Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã do express the whole Law Ceremonial and Judicial And it was not from this or that part but from the whole Law that the People as far as they were Carnal looked for Righteousness and Salvation Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. And as these Laws and Statutes mentioned ver 11. contained the whole Law given by Moses so those intended ver 25. whereof it is said that they were not Good nor could they live in the keeping of them cannot be the Laws and Statutes of God considered in themselves For it is inconsistent with the Holiness Goodness and Wisdom of God to give Laws which in themselves and their own Nature should not be Good but Evil. Nor on Supposition that he had given them Statutes that were not Good and Judgments wherein they should not live could he plead as he doth that his ways were equal and that their ways were unequal For in these Laws he evidently promised that those who did them should live therein Where is the Equality Equity and Righteousness if it were otherwise Wherefore if the Statutes of God be intended in the place it must be with respect unto the People their Unbelief and Obstinacy that it is said of them that they were not Good being made useless unto them by Reason of Sin In that sense the Apostle says that the Commandment which was Ordained unto life he found to be unto Death Rom. 7. 10. But I rather Judge that having charged the People with neglect and contempt of the Laws and Judgments of God which were Good Gods giving them up Judicially unto ways of Idolatry and false Worship which they made as Laws and Judgments unto themselves and willingly walked after the Commandment as Hos. 5. 11. is here so expressed But there is no Ground for such a Distinction between the Laws and Judgments of God in themselves that some of them should be Good and some of them should be not Good that in some of them Men might live but not in others Secondly I Answer That the whole Law may be considered two ways 1. Absolutely in it self 2. With Respect 1. Unto the End for which it was given 2. Unto the Persons unto whom it was given In it self no Reflection can be made upon it because it was an effect of the Wisdom Holiness and Truth of God But in the Respects mentioned it manifests its own weakness and unprofitableness For they were Sinners unto whom it was given and both defiled and guilty antecedently unto the giving of this Law being so by Nature and thereon Children of Wrath Two things they stood in need of in this Condition 1. Sanctification by an Inherent Purity and Holiness with a Compleat Righteousness from thence This the Moral Law was at first the Rule and Measure of and would have always effected it by its Observance It could never indeed take away any defilement of Sin from the Soul but it could have prevented any such defilement But now with respect unto the Persons unto whom it was given it became weak and unprofitable unto any such end It became so saith the Apostle by Reason of the Flesh Rom. 8. 3. For although in it self it was a perfect Rule of Righteousness Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. 21. yet it could not be a cause or means of Righteousness unto them who were disenabled by the entrance of Sin to comply with it and fulfill it Wherefore the Moral Law which was in it self Efficacious and Useful was now become unto Sinners as unto the Ends of Holiness and Righteousness weak and unprofitable For by the deeds of the Law shall no Flesh be Justified 2. Sinners do stand in need of the Expiation of Sin For being actually guilty already it is to no purpose to think of a Righteousness for the future unless their present Guilt be first expiated Hereof there is not the least Intimation in the Moral Law It hath nothing in it nor accompanying of it that respects the Guilt of Sin but the Curse only This therefore was to be expected from the Ceremonial Law and the various ways of Attonement therein provided or no way at all But this of themselves they could not effect They did indeed represent and prefigure what would so do but of themselves they were insufficient unto any such end For it is not possible as our Apostle speakes that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away Sin chap. 10. 5. And this Law may be considered three ways 1 In Opposition unto Christ without respect unto its Typical Signification under which Notion it was now adhered unto by the unbelieving Hebrews This being no state of it by divine Appointment it became thereby not only of no use unto them but the occasion of their Ruin 2 In Competition and Conjunction with Christ and so it was adhered unto by many of these Hebrews who believed the Gospel And this also was a state not designed for it seeing it was appointed only unto the Time of Reformation and therefore was not only useless but noxious and hurtful 3 In Subordination unto Christ to Typifie and Represent what was to be obtained in him alone so during its own Season it was of use unto that End but yet could never effect the things which it did represent And in this state doth the Apostle pronounce it weak and unprofitable namely on a Supposition that Attonement and Expiation of Sin was actually to be made which it could not reach unto But it may be yet farther enquired Why God did give this Law unto the People which although it were Good in it self yet because of the condition of the People it could not attain the End which was intended The Apostle gives so full an answer unto this enquiry as that we need not farther to insist upon it For he giveth two Reasons why God gave this Law First he saith it was added because of Transgression till the seed should come to whom the Promise was
made Gal. 3. 19. It had a manifold necessary respect unto Transgression As 1 to discover the nature of Sin that the Consciences of men might be made sensible thereof 2 To Coerce and Restrain it by its Prohibition and Threatnings that it might not run out into such an excess as to deluge the whole Church 3 To represent the way and means though obscurely whereby Sin might be expiated And these things were of so great use that the very being of the Church depended on them Secondly There was another Reason for it which he declares in the same place ver 23 24 It was to shut up men under a sense of the Guilt of Sin and so with some severity drive them out of themselves and from all expectation of a Righteousness by their own works that so they might be brought unto Christ first in the Promise and then as he was actually exhibited This brief Account of the weakness and unprofitableness of the Law whereon it was disanulled and taken away may at present suffice The Consideration of some other things in particular will afterwards occur unto us Only in our passage we may a little examine or reflect on the senses that some others have given unto these words Schlictingius in his Comment on the next verse gives this Account of the state of the Law Lex expiationem concedebat leviorum delictorum idque ratione poenae alicujus arbitrariae tantum gravioribus autem peccatis quibus mortis poenam fixerat nullam reliquer at veniam maledictionis fulmen vibrans in omnes qui graviùs peccássent But these things are neither accommodate unto the Purpose of the Apostle nor true in themselves For 1 The Law denounced the Curse equally unto every Transgression be it small or great Cursed is he who continueth not in all things 2 It expiated absolutely no Sin small nor great by its own power and efficacy neither did it properly take away any punishment temporal or eternal That some sins were punished with Death and some were not belonged unto the Politie of the Government erected among that People But 3 As unto the Expiation of Sin the Law had an equal respect unto all the Sins of Believers great and small it Typically represented the Expiation of them all in the Sacrifice of Christ and so confirmed their Faith as to the Forgiveness of Sin but farther it could not proceed And Grotius on the place Non perduxit homines ad justitiam illam veram internam sed intra ritus facta externa constitit Promissa terrestria non operantur mortis contemptum sed eum operatur melior spes vitae aeternae caelestis Which is thus enlarged by another The Mosaical Law got no man freedom from Sin was able to give no man strength to fulfill the Will of God and could not purchase Pardon for any that had broken it This therefore was to be done now afterwards by the Gospel which gives more sublime and plain Promises of pardon of Sin which the Law could not Promise of an Eternal and Heavenly Life to all true penitent Believers which gracious tenders now made by Christ give us a freedom of access unto God and Confidence to come and expect such mercy from him Ans. 1 What is here spoken if it intend the Law in it self and its carnal Ordinances without any respect unto the Lord Christ and his Mediation may in some sense be true For in it self it could neither Justifie nor Sanctifie the Worshippers nor spiritually or eternally expiate Sin But 2 Under the Law and by it there was a Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace which was accompanied with Promises of eternal life For it did not only repeat and re-inforce the Promise inseparably annexed unto the Law of Creation do this and live but it had also other Promises of Spiritual and eternal things annexed unto it as it contained a legal Dispensation of the first Promise or the Covenant of Grace But 3 The Opposition here made by the Apostle is not between the precepts of the Law and the precepts of the Gospel the Promises of the Law and the Promises of the Gospel outward Righteousness and inward Obedience but between the efficacy of the Law unto Righteousness and Salvation by the Priesthood and Sacrifices ordained therein on the one hand and the Priesthood of Christ with his Sacrifice which was promised before and now manifested in the Gospel on the other And herein he doth not only shew the Preference and Dignity of the latter above the former but also that the former of it self could do nothing unto these Ends but whereas they had represented the Accomplishment of them for a Season and so directed the Faith of the Church unto what was future that now being come and exhibited it was of no more use nor Advantage nor meet to be retained Thus then was the Law disanulled and it was so actually by the means before mentioned But that the Church might not be surprized there were many warnings given of it before it came to pass As 1 A Mark was put upon it from the very Beginning that it had not a Perpetuity in its Nature nor inseparably annexed unto it For it had no small presignification in it that immediately upon the giving of it as a Covenant with that People they brake the Covenant in making the Golden Calf in Horeb and thereon Moses brake the Tables of Stone wherein the Law was written Had God intended that this Law should have been perpetual he would not have suffered its first constitution to have been accompanied with an express Embleme of its disanulling 2 Moses expresly foretells that after the giving of the Law God would provoke them to jealously by a foolish People Deut. 32. 21. Rom. 10. 19. that is by the calling of the Gentiles whereon the Wall of Partition that was between them even the Law of Commandements contained in Ordinances was of necessity to be taken out of the way 3 The Prophets frequently declared that it was of it self utterly insufficient for the expiation of Sin or the Sanctification of Sinners and thereon preferred moral Obedience above all its Institutions whence it necessarily follows that seeing God did intend a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or state of Perfection for his Church that this Law was at last to be disanulled 4 All the Promises concerning the coming of Christ as the end of the Law did declare its station in the Church not to be perpetual especially that insisted on by our Apostle of his being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedec 5 The Promises and Predictions are express that a New Covcnant should be established with the Church unto the removal of the Old whereof we must treat in the next Chapter By all these ways was the Church of the Hebrews fòrewarned that the Time would come when the whole Mosaical Law as to its Legal or Covenant Efficacy should be disannulled unto the unspeakable Advantage of the Church
and the Assertion may have a double signification 1 That this Oath was constituent of his Office Therein his Call and Consecration did consist 2. That his Call Constitution or Consecration was confirmed and ratified with an Oath And the latter sense is intended For so doth the Antithesis require Those legal Priests had a Divine Constitution and Call but they had no Confirmation by the Addition of an Oath God used not an Oath in or about any thing that belonged unto them Wherefore this Man was also to have another Call unto and Constitution of his Office but he was to be confirmed therein by an Oath Wherein this call of Christ unto his Office did consist what were the Acts of the Divine Will thereabout and what was the manifestation of them I have declared at large in the Exercitations about the Priesthood of Christ. Two things are to be considered in this Oath 1. The form And 2. the matter of it 1. The Form of it is in those words the Lord sware and will not repent And the Matter of it is that he in his own Person should be a Priest for ever The Person swearing is God the Father who speaks unto the Son in the Psalm 110. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord and the Oath of God is nothing but the solemn Eternal Unchangeable Decree and Purpose of his Will under an especial way of Declaration So the same Act and Counsel of Gods Will is called his Decree Ps. 2. 7. Wherefore when God will so far unveil a Decree and Purpose as to testifie it to be absolute and unchangeable he doth it in the way of an Oath as hath been declared Chap. 6. ver 13 14. Or to the same purpose God affirms that he hath sworn in the case If then it be demanded When God thus sware unto Christ I answer we must consider the Decree it self unto this purpose and the peculiar Revelation or Declaration of it in which two this Oath doth consist And as to the first it belongs entirely unto those eternal foederal Transactions between the Father and the Son which were the original of the Priesthood of Christ which I have at large explained in our Exercitations And as for the latter it was when he gave out that Revelation of his mind in the Force and Efficacy of an Oath in the Psalm by David It is therefore not only a mistake but an Error of danger in some Expositors who suppose that this Oath was made unto Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven For this Apprehension being pursued will fall in with the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Socinians in this whole Cause namely that the Kingly and Priestly Offices of Christ are not really distinct Moreover it supposeth the principal discharge of the Priesthood of Christ in his sacrifice to have been antecedent unto this Oath which utterly enervates the Apostles Argument in these words For if he were made a Priest and discharged his Office without an Oath as he must be and do on this supposition that the Oath of God was made unto him after his Ascension or that his death and Oblation therein belonged not unto his Priestly Office he had no preheminence herein unto the Aaronical Priests He might so have a subsequent Priviledge of the Confirmation of his Office but he had none in his Call thereunto Wherefore this Oath of God though not in it self solely the constituent cause of the Priesthood of Christ yet it was and it was necessarily to be antecedent unto his Actual entrance upon or discharge of any solemn Duty of his Office That additional expression and he will not repent declares the nature of the Oath of God and of the Purpose confirmed thereby When God makes an Alteration in any Law Rule Order or Constitution he is or may be said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to repent This God by this word declares shall never be no Alteration or Change no Removal or Substitution shall ever be made in this matter 2. The matter of this Oath is that Christ is and should be a Priest for ever He was not only made a Priest with an Oath which they were not but a Priest for ever This adds unto the unchangeableness of his Office that he himself in his own Person was to bear exercise and discharge it without substitute or successor And this for ever answers unto the for ever under the Law each of them being commensurate unto the Dispensation of that Covenant which they do respect For absolute Eternity belongs not unto these things The Ever of the Old Testament was the Duration of the Dispensation of the Old Covenant And this for ever respects the New Covenant which is to continue unto the consummation of all things no change therein being any way intimated or promised or consistent with the Wisdome and Faithfulness of God all which were otherwise under the Law But at the end of the world together with the Dispensation of the New Covenant an end will be put unto all the Mediatory Offices of Christ and all their Exercise And there are four things which the Apostle declareth and evinceth in this observation 1. That our High Priest was peculiarly designed unto and initiated into his Office by the Oath of God which none other ever was before him 2. That the Person of the High Priest is hereby so absolutely determined as that the Church may continually draw nigh unto God in the full Assurance of Faith 3. That this Priesthood is liable to no Alteration Succession or Substitution 4. That from hence ariseth the principal Advantage of the New Testament above the Old as is declared in the next verse and we may observe 1. That although God granted great Priviledges unto the Church under the Old Testament yet still in every instance he withheld that which was the principal and should have given perfection unto what he did grant He made them Priests but without an Oath In all things there was a reserve for Christ that he in all might have the Preeminence 2. God by his Oath declares the Determination if his Soveraign pleasure unto the Object of it What he proposeth and prescribeth unto us he declares no more of his mind and his will about but that he requireth and approveth of our Obedience unto it but still reserves the liberty unto himself of making those Alterations in it and about it that seem good unto him Nothing therefore in the whole legal Administration being confirmed by the Oath of God it was always ready for a removal at the appointed season 3. Christ his being made a Priest by the Oath of God for ever is a solid Foundation of Peace and Consolation to the Church For 4. All the Transactions between the Father and the Son concerning his Offices undertakings and the work of our Redemption have respect unto the Faith of the Church and are declared for our Consolation Such were his solemn Call to his sacerdotal Office
this you may call Gods making or establishing of it with us if you please though making of the Covenant in the Scripture is applyed only unto its Execution or actual Application unto Persons But this Declaration of the Grace of God and the Provision in the Covenant of the Mediator for the making of it effectual unto his Glory is most usually called the Covenant of Grace And this is twofold 1. In the way of a singular and absolute Promise as it was first declared unto and thereby established with Adam and afterwards with Abraham This is the Declaration of the Purpose of God or the free Determination of his VVill as to his dealing with sinners on the supposition of the fall and the forfeiture of their first Covenant state Hereof the Grace and VVill of God was the only Cause Heb. 8. 8. And the Death of Christ could not be the means of its procurement for he himself and all that he was to do for us was the substance of that Promise wherein this Declaration of Gods Grace and Purpose was made or of this Covenant of Grace which was introduced and established in the room of that which was broken and disanulled as unto the ends and benefits of a Covenant The substance of the first Promise wherein the whole Covenant of Grace was virtually comprized directly respected and expressed the giving of him for the Recovery of mankind from sin and misery by his Death Gen. 3. 15. VVherefore if he and all the benefits of his Mediation his Death and all the effects of it be contained in the Promise of the Covenant that is in the Covenant it self then was not his Death the procuring Cause of that Covenant nor do we owe it thereunto 2. In the additional prescription of the way and means whereby it is the will of God that we shall enter into a Covenant state with him or be interested in the benefits of it This being virtually comprized in the absolute Promise is expressed in other places by the way of the Conditions required on our part This is not the Covenant but the Constitution of the Terms on our part whereon we are made partakers of it Nor is the Constitution of these Terms an effect of the Death of Christ or procured thereby It is a meer effect of the Soveraign Wisdom and Grace of God The things themselves as bestowed on us communicated unto us wrought in us by Grace are all of them effects of the Death of Christ but the Constitution of them to be the Terms and Conditions of the Covenant is an Act of meer Soveraign Wisdom and Grace God so loved the VVorld as to send his only Begotten Son to dye not that Faith and Repentance might be the means of Salvation but that all his Elect might believe and all that believe might not perish but have Life Everlasting But yet it is granted that the Constitution of these Terms of the Covenant doth respect the federal Transactions between the Father and the Son wherein they were ordered to the Praise of the Glory of Gods Grace and so although their Constitution was not the Procurement of his Death yet without respect unto it it had not been VVherefore the sole cause of making the New Covenant in any sense was the same with that of giving Christ himself to be our Mediator namely the Purpose Counsel Goodnesse Grace and Love of God as it is every where expressed in the Scripture It may be therefore enquired what respect the Covenant of Grace hath unto the Death of Christ or what Influence it hath thereunto I Answer it hath a threefold respect thereunto 1. In that it was confirmed ratified and made irrevocable thereby This our Apostle insists upon at large Chap. 9. ver 15 16 17 18 19 20. And he compares his Blood in his Death and sacrifice of himself unto the sacrifices and their Blood whereby the old Covenant was confirmed purified dedicated or established ver 18 19. Now these sacrifices did not procure that Covenant or prevail with God to enter into it but only ratified and confirmed it and this was done in the New Covenant by the Blood of Christ in the way that shall be afterwards declared 2. He thereby underwent and performed all that which in the Righteousnesse and VVisdome of God required that the Effects Fruits Benefits and Grace intended designed and prepared in the New Covenant might be effectually accomplished and communicated unto sinners Hence although he procured not the Covenant for us by his Death yet he was in his Person Mediation Life and Death the only Cause and Means whereby the whole Grace of the Covenant is made effectual unto us For 3. All the Benefits of it were procured by him that is all the Grace Mercy Priviledges and Glory that God had prepared in the Counsel of his VVill and proposed in the Covenant or promises of it are purchased merited and procured by his Death and effectually communicated or applyed unto all the Covenanters by vertue thereof with other of his Mediatory Acts. And this is much more an eminent procuring of the New Covenant than what is pretended about the procurement of its Terms and Conditions For if he should have procured no more but this if we owe this only unto his Mediation that God would thereon and did grant and establish this Rule Law and Promise that Whosoever believed should be saved it was possible that no one should be saved thereby yea if he did no more considering our state and condition it was impossible that any one should so be These things being premised we shall now briefly declare how or wherein he was the Surety of the Covenant as he is here called A Surety Sponsor Vas Praes Fidejussor for us the Lord Christ was by his voluntary undertaking out of his rich Grace and Love to do answer and perform all that is required on our Parts that we may enjoy the Benefits of the Covenant the Grace and Glory prepared proposed and promised in it in the way and manner determined on by Divine wisdom And this may be reduced unto two Heads 1. He undertook as the Surety of the Covenant to answer for all the sins of those who are to be and are made Partakers of the Benefits of it That is to undergo the punishment due unto their sins to make Attonement for them by offering himself a propitiatory Sacrifice for their Expiation redeeming them by the price of his Blood from their state of misery and bondage under the Law and the Curse of it Isa. 53 4 5 6 10. Matth. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 20. Rom. 3. 25 26. Heb. 10. 5 6 7 8. Rom. 8. 2 3. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20 21. Gal. 3. 13. And this was absolutely necessary that the Grace and Glory prepared in the Covenant might be communicated unto us VVithout this undertaking of his and performance of it the Righteousness and Faithfulness of God would not permit that sinners such as
had Apostatized from him despised his Authority and rebelled against him falling thereby under the sentence and curse of the Law should again be received into his favour and be made partakers of Grace and Glory This therefore the Lord Christ took upon himself as the Surety of the Covenant 2. That those who were to be taken into this Covenant should receive Grace enabling them to comply with the Terms of it fulfil its conditions and yield the obedience which God required therein For by the Ordination of God he was to procure and did merit and procure for them the Holy Spirit and all the needful supplies of Grace to make them New Creatures and enable them to yield obedience unto God from a New Principle of spiritual life and that faithful unto the end So was he the Surety of this better Covenant Obs. The stability of the New Covenant depends on the Suretiship of Christ and is secured unto Believers thereby The Introduction of a Surety in any case is to give Stability and Security For it is never done but on a supposition of some weakness or defect on one Account or other If in any Contract Bargain or Agreement a man be esteemed every way responsible both for Ability and Fidelity there is no need of a Surety nor is it required But yet whereas there is a defect or weakness amongst all men mentioned by our Apostle in the next verses namely that they are all mortal and subject unto death in which case neither Ability nor Fidelity will avail any thing men in all cases of Importance need Sureties These give the utmost confirmation that affairs among men are capable of So doth the Suretiship of Christ on our behalf in this Covenant For the evidencing whereof we may consider 1. The first Covenant as made with Adam had no Surety As unto that which in the New Covenant the Suretiship of Christ doth principally respect it had no need of any For there was no sin Transgression or Rebellion against God to be satisfied for so that it was absolutely incapable of a Surety unto that end But as to the second part of it or his undertaking for us that through supplies of strength from him we shall abide faithful in the Covenant according to the Terms and Tenure of it this had no inconsistency with that first state As the Lord Christ upon his undertaking the work of Mediation became an immediate Head unto the Angels that sinned not whereby they received their establishment and security from any future defection so might he have been such an Head unto and such an undertaker for man in Innocency No created nature was or could have been unchangeable in its condition and state meerly on its root of Creation As some of the Angels fell at first forsaking their habitation falling from the principle of obedience which had no other Root but in themselves so the Rest of them all of them might afterwards have in like manner Apostatized and fallen from their own innate stability had they not been gathered up into the new head of the Creation the Son of God as Mediator receiving a New Relation from thence and establishment thereby So it might have been with man in Innocency But God in his infinite Soveraign wisdom saw it not meet that so it should be Man shall be left to the Exercise of that Ability of living unto God which he had received in his Creation and which was sufficient for that end A Surety God gave him not And therefore although he had all the Advantage which a sinless nature filled with holy Principles Dispositions and Inclinations free from all vitious habits rebellious affections inordinate imaginations could afford unto him yet he broke the Covenant and forfeited all the benefits thereof Whatever there was besides in that Covenant of Grace Power Ability and the highest obligations unto Duty yet all was lost for want of a Surety And this abundantly testifies unto the Preheminence of Christ in all things For whereas Adam with all the innumerable Advantages he had that is all helps necessary in himself and no Opposition or Difficulty from himself to conflict withal yet utterly brake the Covenant wherein he was Created and Placed Believers who have little strength in themselves and a powerful inbred opposition unto their stability are yet secured in their station by the Interposition of the Lord Christ as their Surety 2. When God made a Covenant with the People in the wilderness to manifest that there could be no stability in it without respect unto a Surety that it could not continue no not for a day he caused it to be dedicated or confirmed with the blood of Sacrifices This the Apostle declares and withal its Typicalness with respect unto the new Covenant and the confirmation of it with the blood of Christ Chap 9. 18 19 20 21. And afterwards as we have declared the high Priest in the Sacrifices that he offered was the Typical Mediator and Surety of that Covenant And the end of this Appointment of God was to manifest that it was from the Blood of the true Sacrifice namely that of Jesus Christ that the new Covenant was to receive its stability And we need a Surety unto this purpose 1. Because in the state and condition of sin we are not capable of immediate dealing or Covenanting with God There can be no Covenanting between God and sinners unless there be some one to stand forth in our name to receive the Terms of God and to undertake for us So when God began to treat immediately from Heaven with the people of old they all jointly professed that such was the Greatness and Glory of God such the Terror of his Majesty that it was impossible for them so to treat with him and if he spake unto them any more they should all dye and be consumed VVherefore with one consent they desired that there might be one appointed between God and them to transact all things and to undertake for them as to their Obedience which God well approved in them Deut. 5. 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. Adam indeed in the state of innocency could treat immediately with God as unto that Covenant wherein he was placed For notwithstanding his infinite distance from God yet God had made him for converse with himself and did not despise the work of his own hands But immediately upon the entrance of sin he was sensible of the losse of that Priviledge whereon he both fled and hid himself from the Presence of God And hence those who of Old thought they had seen God concluded that they should dye as being sensible of their incapacity to treat immediately with him So when the Prophet cryed out that he was undone or cut off because of the immediate Presence of God his Eyes having seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6. 5. He was not relieved from his Apprehensions untill his mouth was touched with a coal from the Altar a
Evidence of Imperfection And by the Appointment of this Order God signified an Imperfection and Mutability in that Church state Succession indeed was a Relief against death but it was but a Relief and so supposed a want and weakness Under the Gospel it is not so as we shall see afterwards Observe that God will not fail to provide Instruments for his work that he hath to accomplish If many Priests be needful many the Church shall have 3 The Reason of this Multiplication of Priests was because they were not suffered to continue by reason of Death They were mortal men subject unto death and they died Death suffered them not to continue in the Execution of their Office It forbad them so to do in the name of the great Sovereign Lord of Life and Death And hereof an Instance was given in Aaron the first of them God to shew the nature of this Priesthood unto the people and to manifest that the everlasting Priest was not yet come commanded Aaron to dye in the sight of all the Congregation Num. 20. 25 26 27 28. So did they all afterwards as other men dye in their several Generations They were all by death forbidden to continue Death laid an injunction on them one after another from proceeding any farther in the Administration of their Office It is not surely without some especial design that the Apostle thus expresseth their dying They were by death prohibited to continue Wherefore he shews hereby 1. The way whereby an end was put unto the personal Administration and that was by death 2. That there was an Imperfection in the Administration of that Office which was so frequently interrupted 3. That they were seized upon by death whether they would or no when it may be they would have earnestly desired to continue and the people also would have rejoyced in it Death came on them neither desired nor expected with his Prohibition 4. That when death came and seized on them it kept them under its power so that they could never more attend unto their Office But it was otherwise with the Priest of the better Covenant as we shall see immediately Observe 1. There is such a necessity of the continual Administration of the Sacerdotal Office in behalf of the Church that the interruption of it by the death of the Priests was an Argument of the weakness of that Priesthood The High Priest is the Sponsor and Mediator of the Covenant Those of old were so Typically and by way of Representation VVherefore all Covenant Transactions between God and the Church must be through him He is to offer up all Sacrifices and therein represent all our prayers And it is evident from thence what a Ruin it would be unto the Church to be without an High Priest one moment Who would venture a suprizal unto his own soul in such a condition Could any man enjoy a moments peace if he supposed that in his extremity the High Priest might dye This now is provided against as we shall see in the next verse VER 24. But this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood IN opposition unto what was observed in the Levitical Priests the contrary is here affirmed of the Lord Christ. And the Design of the Apostle is still the same namely to evince by all sorts of Instances his Preeminence as a Priest above them as such also 1. The Person spoken of is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Exceptive Conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but answereth unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before used and introduceth the other member of the Antithesis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hic ille iste He of whom we speak namely Jesus the Surety of the New Testament We render it this man not improperly he was the Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus Nor doth the calling of him this man exclude his Divine nature for he was truly a man though God and man in one Person And the things here ascribed unto him were wrought in and by the humane nature though he that wrought them were God also But He or this man who was represented by Melchisedec of whom we speak 2. It is affirmed of this Person that he hath an unchangeable Priesthood the Ground and Reason whereof is assigned namely because he continueth ever which must be first considered The sole Reason here insisted on by the Apostle why the Levitical Priests were many is because they were forbidden by death to continue It is sufficient therefore on the contrary to prove the perpetuity of the Priesthood of Christ that he abideth for ever For he doth not absolutely hereby prove the perpetuity of the Priesthood but his perpetual uninterrupted Administration of it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This was the Faith of the Jews concerning the Messiah and his office We have heard say they out of the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Joh. 12. 34. That Christ abideth for ever whereon they could not understand what he told them about his being lifted up by Death And so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifieth to abide to continue in any state or condition Joh. 21. 22 23. And this was that which principally he was Typed in by Melchisedec concerning whom there is no Record as to the Beginning of Days or End of Life but as unto the Scripture Description of him he is said to abide a Priest for ever It may be said in opposition hereunto that the Lord Christ dyed also and that no less truely and really than did Aaron or any Priest of his Order Wherefore it will not hence follow that he had any more an uninterrupted Priesthood than they had Some say the Apostle here considers the Priesthood of Christ only after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven after which he dyes no more death hath no more power over him And if we will believe the Socinians then he first began to be a Priest This Figment I have fully confuted elsewhere And there is no ground in the Context on which we may conjecture that the Apostle intends the Administration of his Priesthood in Heaven only although he intend that also For he speaks of his Priesthood as typed by that of Melchisedec which as we have proved before respected the whole of his Office I say therefore that although Christ dyed yet he was not forbid by death to abide in his Office as they were He died as a Priest they died from being Priests He died as a Priest because he was also to be a Sacrifice But he abode and continued not only vested with his Office but in the execution of it in the state of death Through the indissolubleness of his Person his soul and body still subsisting in the Person of the Son of God he was a capable subject of his Office And his being in the state of the dead belonged unto the Administration of his Office no less than his Death it self So that from the first
moment of his being a Priest he abode so alwaies without interruption or intermission This is the meaning of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He in his own Person abideth Nor doth the Apostle say that he did not dye but only that he abideth alwaies 3. It followeth from hence that he hath an unchangeable Priesthood A Priesthood subject to no change or alteration that cannot pass away But ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is sacerdotium successivum per successionem ab uno alteri traditum Such a Priesthood as which when one hath attained it abideth not with him but he delivereth over unto another as Aaron did his unto Eleazar his Son or it falls unto another by some Right or Law of Succession A Priesthood that goes from hand to hand ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is a Priesthood that doth not passe from one unto another And this the Apostle seems directly to intend as is evident from the Antithesis The Priests after the Order of Aaron were many and that by reason of death Wherefore it was necessary that their Priesthood should pass from one to another by Succession So that when one received it he that went before him ceased to be a Priest And so it was either the Predecessors were taken off by death or on any other just occasion as it was in the case of Abiathar who was put from the Priests Office by Solomon 1 King 2. 27. How beit our Apostle mentions their going off by death only because that was the ordinary way and which was provided for in the Law With the Lord Christ it was otherwise He received his Priesthood from none Although he had sundry Types yet he had no Predecessor And he hath none to succeed him nor can have any added or joyned unto him in his Office The whole office of the Priesthood of the Covenant and the entire administration of it are confined unto his Person There are no more that follow him than went before him The Expositors of the Roman Church are greatly perplexed in the reconciling of this Passage of the Apostle unto the present Priesthood of their Church And they may well be so seeing they are undoubtedly irreconcileable Some of them say that Peter succeeded unto Christ in his Priesthood as Eleazar did unto Aaron So Ribera some of them deny that he hath any Successor properly so called Successorem non habet nec it a quisquam Catholicus loquitur si bene circumspectè loqui velit saith Estius But it is openly evident that some of them are not so circumspect as Estius would have them but do plainly affirm that Peter was Christs Successor A Lapide indeed affirms that Peter did not succeed unto Christ as Eleazar did unto Aaron because Eleazar had the Priesthood in the same degree and dignity with Aaron and so had not Peter with Christ. But yet that he had the same Priesthood with him a Priesthood of the same kind he doth not deny That which they generally fix upon is that their Priests have not another Priesthood or offer another Sacrifice but are Partakers of his Priesthood and minister under him and so are not his Successors but his Vicars which I think is the worst composure of this difficulty they could have thought upon For 1. This is directly contrary unto the words and design of the Apostle For the Reason he assigns why the Priesthood of Christ doth not passe from him unto any other is because he abides himself for ever to discharge the Office of it Now this excludes all subordination and conjunction all Vicars as well as Successors unless we shall suppose that although he doth thus abide yet is he one way or other disabled to discharge his Office 2. The Successors of Aaron had no more another Priesthood but what he had than it is pretended that the Roman Priests have no other Priesthood but what Christ had Nor did they offer any other Sacrifice than what he offered as these Priests pretend to offer the same Sacrifice that Christ did So that still the case is the same between Aaron and his Successors and Christ and his Substitutes 3. They say that Christ may have Substitutes in his Office though he abide a Priest still and although the office still continue the same unchangeable So God in the Government of the world makes use of Judges and Magistrates yet is himself the Supreme Rector of all But this Pretence is vain also For they do not substitute their Priests unto him in that which he continueth to do himself but in that which he doth not which he did indeed and as a Priest ought to do but now ceaseth to do for ever in his own Person For the principal Act of the Sacerdotal Office of Christ consisted in his Oblation or his offering himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God This he did once and ceaseth for ever from doing so any more But these Priests are assigned to offer him in Sacrifice every day as partakers of the same Priesthood with him which is indeed not to be his Substitutes but his Successors and to take his Office out of his hand as if he were dead and could henceforth discharge it no more For they do not appoint Priests to intercede in his room because they grant he continueth himself so to do but to offer Sacrifice in his stead because he doth so no more Wherefore if that be an Act of Priesthood and of their Priesthood as is pretended it is unavoidable that his Priesthood is passed from him unto them Now this is a blasphemous Imagination and directly contrary both unto the words of the Apostle and the whole Design of his Argument Nay it would lay the advantage on the other side For the Priests of the Order of Aaron had that Priviledge that none could take their Office upon them nor officiate in it whilst they were alive But although Christ abideth for ever yet according unto the sense of these men and their practice thereon he stands in need of others to officiate for him and that in the principal part of his Duty and Office For Offer himself in Sacrifice unto God he neither now doth nor can seeing henceforth he dieth no more This is the work of the Mass-Priests alone who must therefore be honoured as Christs Successors or be abhorred as his Murderers for the Sacrifice of him must be by blood and death The Argument of the Apostle as it is exclusive of this Imagination so it is cogent unto his purpose For so he proceedeth That Priesthood which changeth not but is alwaies vested in the same Person and in him alone is more excellent than that which was subject to change continually from one hand unto another For that Transmission of it from one unto another was an effect of weakness and Imperfection And the Jews grant that the frequency of their change under the second Temple was a Token of Gods displeasure But thus it was with the Priesthood of
That It is good to secure this first Ground of Evangelical Faith that the Lord Christ as vested with his Offices and in the exercise of them is able to save us Salvation is that which all sinners who have fallen under any Convictions do seek after And it is from God they look for it he alone they know can save them and unless he do so they cannot be saved And that he can do so they seem for a while to make no Question although they greatly doubt whether he will or no. Here under these general apprehensions of the Power of God they cannot long abide but must proceed to enquire into the Way whereby he will save them if every they be saved And this the whole Scripture testifieth to be no otherwise but by Jesus Christ. For there is no salvation in any other neither is there any other Name under Heaven given among men whereby they must be saved Act. 4. 12. When their thoughts are thus limited unto Christ alone their next enquiry is how shall this man save us And hereon are they directed unto his Offices especially his Priesthood whereby he undertakes to deliver them from the Guilt of their sins and to bring them into favour with God Is it not therefore highly incumbent on them to satisfie themselves herein that Christ is able to save them in the exercise of this Office For if he be not there is no salvation to be obtained And when men are come thus far as that they will not Question in general but that the Lord Christ in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office is able to save sinners in general yet unbelief will keep them off from acquiescing in this Power of his as so limited for their own salvation As Naaman had thoughts in general that Elisha could cure men of their Leprosie yet he would not believe that he could cure them in the way and by the means he prescribed He thought he would have taken another course with him more suited unto his apprehensions as a means for his Recovery Hereon he turns away in a Rage which if he had not by good advice been recalled from he had lived and died under the Plague of his Leprosie 2 King 5. 10 11 12 13 14. When Persons are reduced to look for salvation only by Christ and do apprehend in general that he can save sinners yet oft-times when they come to inquire into the way and manner of it by the Exercise of his Priestly Office they cannot close with it Away they turn again into themselves from which if they are not recovered they must dye in their sins Unless therefore we do well and distinctly fix this Foundation of Faith that Christ as a Priest is able to save us or is able to do so in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office we shall never make one firm step in our Progress To this end we must consider That the Lord Christas Mediator and in the Discharge of his Office is the wisedom of God and the Power of God So saith our Apostle Christ crucified is to them that believe the Power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. His death is both an effect of divine Power and Wisdom and thereby do they exert their efficacy unto the utmost for the attaining of the end designed in it Wherefore we are to look unto this Priesthood of Christ as that which divine wisdom hath appointed as the only way and means whereby we may be saved And if there be any defect therein if Christ in the discharge of it be not able to save us notwithstanding the Difficulties which unto us seem insuperable it must be charged on divine wisdom as that which was wanting in the contrivance of a due means unto its end And so it is done by the world For the Apostle testifieth that this wisdom of God is looked on and esteemed by men as meer foolishness The way proposed in it to save sinners by the Cross of Christ is accounted as folly by all unbelievers whatever else they pretend as the Reason of their unbelief But this Faith is to fix upon namely that although we yet see not how it may be done nor have the experience of it in our own souls yet this being the way which infinite wisdom hath fixed on there is no defect in it but Christ by it is able to save us For the very first notion which we have of wisdom as Divine and Infinite is that we are to acquiesce in its Contrivances and Determinations though we cannot comprehend the Reasons or wayes of them Besides the Lord Christ is herein also the Power of God God in him and by him put forth his omnipotent Power for the accomplishing of the effect and end aimed at Wherefore although we are not to look for our salvation from the Power of God absolutely considered yet are we to look for it from the same omnipotency as acting it self in and by Jesus Christ. This is the way whereby infinite wisdom hath chosen to act omnipotent Power And into them is Faith herein to be resolved 3. He is able to save also ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The word may have a double sense for it may respect the Perfection of the work or its Duration and so it is variously rendred to the utmost that is compleatly or evermore that is alwaies or for ever So the Syriack Translation carries it Take the word in the first sense and the meaning is that he will not effect or work out this or that part of our salvation do one thing or another that belongs unto it and leave what remains unto our selves or others but he is our Rock and his work is perfect Whatever belongs unto our entire compleat Salvation he is able to effect it The general notion of the most that are called Christians lies directly against this Truth In the latter sense two things may be intended 1. That after an entrance is made into this work and men begin to be made partakers of deliverance thereby there may great oppositions be made against it in Temptations Trials Sins and Death before it be brought unto Perfection But our Lord Christ as our Faithful High Priest fainteth not in his work but is able to carry us through all these difficulties and will do so until it be finished for ever in heaven 2. That this Salvation is durable perpetual eternal Isa. 45. 17. Salvare in aeternum to procure salutem aeternam But favores sunt ampliandi and there is nothing hinders but that we may take the words in such a comprehensive sense asto include the meaning of both these Interpretations He is able to save compleately as to all Parts fully as to all causes and for ever in Duration And we may observe Whatever hindrances and difficulties lye in the way of the salvation of Believers whatever oppositions do rise against it the Lord Christ is able by vertue of his Sacerdotal Office and in the
of Believers Heb. 10. 2. 3. The actual Intercession of Christ in Heaven as the second Act of his sacerdotal Office is a fundamental Article of our Faith and a principal Foundation of the Churches consolation So is it asserted to be 1 John 2. 1 2. And it is expressed by our Apostle as that whereby the Death of Christ is made effectual unto us Rom. 8. 3 4. For it comprizeth the whole care and all the Actings of Christ as our High Priest with God in the behalf of the Church This therefore is the immediate spring of all Gracious communications unto us For hereby doth he act his own Care Love and Compassion and from thence do we receive all Mercy all Supplies of Grace and Consolation needful unto our Duties Temptations and Trials Hereon depends all our encouragement to make our Application unto God to come with boldness of Faith unto the Throne of Grace Chap. 4. 15 16. Chap. 10. 21 22. Wherefore whatever Apprehensions we may attain of the manner of it the thing it self is the center of our Faith Hope and Consolation 4. It is no way unworthy or unbecoming the humane nature of Christ in its glorious Exaltation to pray unto God It was in and by the humane Nature that the Lord Christ exercised and executed all the Duties of his Offices whilst he was on Earth And he continueth to discharge what remains of them in the same Nature still And however that Nature be glorified it is the same essentially that it was when he was in this world To ascribe another kind of Nature unto him under pretence of a more divine Glory is to deny his Being and to substitute a fancy of our own in his Room So then the Humane Nature of Christ however exalted and glorifyed is humane Nature still subsisting in dependance on God and subjection unto him Hence God gives him new Revelations now in his glorified condition Revel 1. 1. With respect hereunto he acted of old as the Angel of the Covenant with expresse Prayers for the Church Zech. 1. 12 13. So the Command given him to intercede by the way of Petition Request or Prayer Psal. 2. 8. Ask of me respects his state of Exaltation at the Right hand of God when he was declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead v. 7 8. And the Incense which he offereth with the Prayers of the Saints Rev. 8. 3 4. is no other but his own Intercession whereby their Prayers are made acceptable unto God 5. This Praying of Christ at present is no other but such as may become him who sits down at the Right hand of the Majesty on High There must therefore needs be a great difference as to the outward manner between his present Intercession in Heaven and his Praying whilst he was on the Earth especially at some seasons For being encompassed here with Temptations and Difficulties he cast himself at the foot of God with strong cryes tears and supplications Chap. 5. 7. This would not become his present glorious state nor is he liable or exposed unto any of the causes or occasions of that kind of treating with God And yet at an another time whilst he was in this world he gave us the best estimate and Representation of his present Intercession that we are able to comprehend And this was in his Prayer recorded John 17th For therein his confidence in God his Union in and with him the Declaration of his Will and Desires are all expressed in such a manner as to give us the best understanding of his present Intercession For a created nature can rise no higher to expresse an Interest in God with an Oneness of mind and Will than is therein declared And as the Prayers with cryes and tears when he offered himself unto God were peculiarly Typed by the Fire on the Altar so was this solemn Prayer represented by that cloud of Incense wherewith the High Priest covered the Ark and the Mercy-seat at his entrance into the most holy place In the vertue of this holy cloud of incense did he enter the Holy places not made with hands Or we may apprehend its Relation unto the Types in this Order His Prayer John 17th was the preparation of the sweet Spices whereof the Incense was made and compounded Exod. 30. 34. His Sufferings that ensued thereon were as the breaking and bruising of those Spices wherein all his Graces had their most fervent exercise as Spices yield their strongest savour under their bruising At his entrance into the Holy place this Incense was fired with Coals from the Altar that is the efficacy of his Oblation wherein he had offered himself unto God through the Eternal Spirit rendred his Prayer as Incense covering the Ark and Mercy-seat that is procuring the fruits of the Attonment made before God 6. It must be granted that there is no need of the use of Words in the immediate Presence of God God needs not our words whilst we are here on Earth as it were absent from him For he is present with us and all things are open and naked before him But we need the use of them for many reasons which I have elsewhere declared But in the glorious presence of God when we shall behold him as the Lord Christ doth in the most eminent manner Face to Face it cannot be understood what need or use we can have of words to express our selves unto God in Prayers or Praises And the souls of men in their separate state and condition can have no use of Voice or VVords yet are they said to cry and pray with a loud voice because they do so virtually and effectually Rev. 6. 9 10. However I will not determine what outward Transactions are necessary unto the glory of God in this matter before the Angels and Saints that are about his Throne For there is yet a Church state in Heaven wherein we have Communion Chap. 12. 22 23 24. What solemn outward and as it were visible Transactions of worship are required thereunto we know not And it may be the Representation of Gods Throne and his worship Revel 4 5. wherein the Lamb in the midst of the Throne hath the principal part may not belong only unto what is done in the Church here below And somewhat yet there is which shall cease and not be any more after the Day of Judgment 1 Cor. 15. 26 28. 7. It must be granted that the vertue efficacy and Prevalency of the Intercession of the Lord Christ depends upon and flows from his Oblation and Sacrifice This we are plainly taught from the Types of it of Old For the Incense and carrying of Blood into the Holy place after the Expiatory Sacrifice the great Type of his Oblation of himself did both of them receive their efficacy and had respect unto the Sacrifice offered without Besides it is expresly said that the Lord Christ by the one Offering of himself obtained for us eternal
respect unto the life and manners of Christ yet it was no way unto the purpose of the Apostle to mention them unto the end designed But 1 If that be the sense of the words which he contends for not one of them is true with respect unto the life and manners of Christ in this world for they all belong unto his blessed estate in the other 2 We shall see on the next verse how far he will allow them to be true of the life and manners of Christ in any sense seeing in some sense he affirms him to have offered sacrifice for his own sins And this he doth with an expresse contradiction unto his own main Hypothesis For by sins he understands weakness and infirmities and whereas he will not allow Christ to have offered himself before his entrance into the Holy place and makes it necessary that he should be antecedently freed from all weaknesses and Infirmities it is the highest contradiction to affirm that he offered for them seeing he could not offer himself until he was delivered from them 2. We have only his bare word for it that the Asscription of those things unto our High Priest as inherent Qualifications was not unto the purpose of the Apostle And his Assertion is built on a false supposition namely that the Lord Christ was not an High Priest on the Earth nor did offer himself unto God in his Death which overthrows the Foundation of the Gospel 6. The Vanity and Falshood of this novel Exposition will yet farther and fully be evinced in an enquiry into the proper signification of these words as here used by the Apostle every one whereof is wrested to give countenance unto it 1. He is or was to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Sanctus Holy that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For Acts 2. 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is rendred ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã thy Holy one from Psal. 16. 10. And the Lord Christ is there said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã antecedently unto his Resurrection which must be with respect unto his internal Holiness Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see Corrupton And in the New Testament the word is every where used for him that is internally holy 1 Tim. 2. 8. Tit. 1. 8. The Syriack renders it in this place by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã pure which is an inherent Qualification as it doth 1 Tim. 2. 8. and Tit. 1. 8. by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Pious Holy ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith Hesychius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Pure Righteous Godly Peaceable Chast. So ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is used only for Holily 1 Thes. 2. 10. and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is internal Holiness Luk. 1. 75. Ephes. 4. 24. No where is it used for a merciful disposition much less for venerable and sacred upon the Account of an immortal nature or any other Priviledge as it is pretended Neither is the word used in any other Good Author to signifie any one but him that is Holy and Righteous or free from all sin and wickedness It is therefore the holy purity of the nature of Christ that is intended in this expression His Life and Actions are expressed in the ensuing Epithets His nature was pure and holy absolutly free from any spot or taint of our original Defilement Hence as he was conceived in the Womb and as he came from the Womb he was that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã holy thing of God Luke 1. 35. All others since the fall have a polluted nature and are originally unholy But his conception being miraculous by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost and his nature not derived unto him by natural Generation the only means of the Propagation of original Defilement and in the first instant of its being filled with all habitual seeds of Grace He was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Holy And such an High Priest became us as was so Had he had a nature touched with sin he had not been meet either to be a Priest or Sacrifice This Holiness of nature was needful unto him who was to answer for the unholiness of our nature and to take it away Unholy Sinners do stand in need of an Holy Priest and an Holy Sacrifice What we have not in our selves we must have in him or we shall not be accepted with the Holy God who is of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity 2. He was to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is saith Schlictingius omnis mali expers nullis amplius miseriis obnoxius incapable of suffering any hurt saith another to the same Purpose The word is but once more used in the New Testament and that in a sense remote enough from one not exposed to misery or incapable of suffering Rom. 16. 18. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Men Simple and Harmless who for the most part are exposed to most Evils and Troubles in the World 2. It is never used in any good Author in such a sense nor can any instance be produced unto that purpose But it constantly signifies one Innocent Harmless free from malice who doth no evil Nor did any one before these Interpreters dream of a passive Interpretation of this Word It is he who doth no evil not he who can suffer no evil ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is malus or qui dolo malo utitur an Evil malitious Person ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is vitiositas in the Judgement of Cicero Virtutis saith he contraria est vitiositas sic enim malo quam malitiam appellare quam Graeci ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã appellant nam Malitia certi cujusdam vitii nomen est vitiosit as omnium We render it sometimes naughtiness Jam. 1. 22. sometimes malice or malitiousness 1 Pet. 1. 16. All manner of evil with deceitful guile Wherefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is he that is free from all evil fraud or sin the same absolutely with that of the Apostle Peter 1 Epist. 2. 22. Who did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Holy is his Epithet with respect unto his Nature ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Harmless respects his Life The first includes all positive Holiness the other an Abnegation of all unholiness As he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he had not ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sin present as we have with us Rom. 7. 18 21. or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sin easily besetting Heb. 12. 1. As he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he was free from every effect of such a Principle And we had need of such an High Priest Had he not been innocent and every way blameless himself he would have had other work to do than always to take care of our Salvation as the Apostle observes in the next verse He must first have offered for his own sins as the High Priest did of old before he had offered for us or ours And this added unto the merit of his Obedience For whereas he was absolutely Innocent Harmlesse and free
the plural number and that was but one yet because of the Repetition of it it being offered year by year continually as he speaks Chap. 10. 1. it may be signifyed hereby And those sacrifices were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And in answer unto them our Lord Jesus Christ offered himself a sacrifice for sin And this is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for sin only without the mention of sacrifice Rom. 8. 3 For because ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies both the sin and the sacrifice for it as the Verb ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies in one conjugation to sin and in another to expiate sin the sacrifices it self is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For sin 6. The order of these sacrifices is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã first and then First for his own sins and then for those of the People Either the whole Discharge of the office of the High Priests may be intended in this order or that which was peculiar unto the Feast of Expiation For he was in general to take care in the first place about offering for his own sins according to the Law Levit. 4 For if that were not done in due order if their own legal Guilt were not expiated in its proper season according to the Law they were no way meet to offer for the sins of the Congregation yea they exposed themselves unto the penalty of Excision And this order was necessary seeing the Law appointed men to be Priests who had infirmities of their own as is expressed in the next verse Or the order intended may respect in an especial manner the form and process prescribed in the solemn Anniversary sacrifice at the least of Expiation Levit. 16. First he was to offer a Sin-offering for himself and his house and then for the People both on the same day 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for his own sins And this upon a double Account First because he was really a sinner as the rest of the People were If he do sin according to the sin of the People Levit. 4. 3. Secondly That upon the expiation of his own sins in the first place he might be the more meet to represent him who had no sin And therefore he was not to offer for himself in the offering that he made for the People but stood therein as a sinless Person as our High Priest was really to be 2. For the sins of the People ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is for the whole congregation of Israel according to the Law Levit. 16. 21. This was the Duty the order and method of the High Priests of old in their offerings and sacred services This their weaknesses Infirmities and Sins as also the Sacrifices which they offered did require All that could be learned from it was that some more excellent Priest and Sacrifice was to be introduced For no Perfection no Consummation in divine Favour no settled Peace of Conscience could in this way be obtained all things openly declared that so they could not be And hence have we an Evidence of what is affirmed Joh. 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. And the Priviledge or Advancement of the Church in its Deliverance from those various multiplyed obscure means of Instruction into the glorious light of the way and causes of our Adoption Justification and Salvation is inexpressibly great and full of Grace No longer are we now obliged unto a rigid observance of those things which did not effect what they did represent An encrease in thankfulness fruitfulness and holiness cannot but be expected from us These are the things that are here denied of our High Priest He had no need to offer Sacrifice in this way order and method The offering of Sacrifice is not denied that is Sacrifice for the sins of the People yea it is positively asserted in the next words but that he offered dayly many sacrifices or any for himself or had need so to do this is denied by the Apostle That alone which he did is asserted in the remaining words of the verse For this he did once when he offered himself And two things are in the words 1 What he did in general 2 In particular how he did it For the first it is said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This he did ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã refers only unto one clause of the Antecedent namely offering for the sins of the People This he did once when he offered himself for himself he did not offer But contrary unto the sense of the whole Church of God contrary to the Analogie of Faith and with no small Danger in the expression Socinus first affirmed that the Lord Christ offered also for himself or his own sins And he is followed herein by those of his own Sect as Schlinctingius on this Place and so he is also by Grotius and Hammond which is the Chanel whereby many of his Notions and Conceptions are derived unto us It is true that both he and they do acknowledge that the Lord Christ had no sins of his own properly so called that is Transgressions of the Law but his Infirmities say some of them whereby he was exposed unto Death his sufferings say others are called his sins But nothing can be more abhorrent from Truth and Piety than this Assertion For 1. If this be so then the Apostle expresly in terms affirms that Christ offered for his own sins and that distinctly from the sins of the People And from this Blasphemy we are left to relieve our selves by an Interpretation that the Scripture no where gives countenance unto namely that by sins infirmities or miseries are intended It is true that Infirmity ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth sometimes signify sin or obnoxiousness unto sin but sin doth no where signify natural infirmities but moral evils always It is true Christ was made sin but where it is said so it is also added that it was for us and to take off all Apprehensions of any thing in him that might be so called that he knew no sin He was made sin for us when he offered for the sins of the People And other distinct offering for himself he offered none And therefore in sundry places where mention is made of his offering himself it is still observed that he did no sin but was as a Lamb without spot and without blemish Let therefore men put what Interpretation they please on their own words for they are not the words of the Apostle that Christ offered himself for his own sins the language is and must be offensive unto every Holy Heart and hath an open appearance of express contradiction unto many other Testimonies of the Scripture 2 The sole Reason pretended to give countenance unto this absurd Assertion is that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This must answer to the whole preceding proposition which is its Antecedent Now therein is mention of the
Priests offering first for their own sins then for the sins of the People and this it is said Christ did that is he offered first for his own sins and then for the People But to answer the whole Antecedent in both parts of it it is indispensably necessary that he must as they did offer two distinct offerings one namely the First for himself and the other or then for the People For so did they so were they obliged to do by the Law and other offerings for themselves and the People in any other order or method there never was nor could be But this is expresly contradictory unto what is here affirmed of the Lord Christ and his offering namely that he offered himself once only and if but once he could not offer first for himself then for the People Nor at all for himself and them in the same offering which the High Priests themselves could not do 3. This Insinuation not only enervates but is contradictory unto the principal Design of the Apostle in the verse foregoing and in that which follows For ver 26. He on purpose describes our High Priest by such Properties and Qualifications as might evidence him to have no need to offer for his own sins as those other Priests had For from this consideration that he was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners the Apostle makes this Inference that he needed not to offer for himself as those High Priests did But according unto this interpretation no such thing ensues thereon but notwithstanding all those Qualifications he had need to offer for his own sins And ver 28. the Difference he puts between him and them is this that they were men Subject to infirmities but he is the Son consecrated for ever which apparently exempts him from any necessity of offering for himself For as is apparent from the Antithesis he was not subject unto any of those infirmities which made it necessary unto them to offer for themselves Wherefore the whole design of the Apostle in these verses is utterly perverted and overthrown by this Interpretation 4. When those priests offered for their own sins their sins were of the same nature with the sins of the People If the Priest that is anointed shall sin after the manner of the People Levit. 4. 3. If therefore this be to be repeated ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã this he did when he offered for his own sins and of the People sins being only expressed in the first place and understood in the later sins properly so called must be intended which is the height of Blasphemy 5. If the Lord Christ offered for himself or his own Infirmities then those Infirmities were such as were Obstructions and hinderances unto his offering for others for that is the only Reason why he should offer for their removal or taking away But this is so far otherwise as that indeed he was obnoxious unto no Infirmity but what was necessary that he might be a meet High Priest and Sacrifice for us For so was every thing that is inseparable from humane nature which is utterly destructive of this Figment 6. This Imagination will admit of no tolerable sense in its Exposition or Application For how can we conceive that the Lord Christ offered for his own infirmities that is his sorrows sufferings and obnoxiousness unto death It must be by his sufferings and death for in and by them he offered himself unto God But this is absurd and foolish By his suffering he offered for his sufferings What he offered for he took away as he did the sins of the People But his own sorrows and sufferings he took not away but underwent them all 7. It is contradictory unto the principal Maxim of the Socinians with respect unto the Priesthood of Christ. For they maintain that his one perfect offering or Expiatory Sacrifice was in Heaven only and not on the earth But he could not at his Appearance in the Holy place offer for his own infirmities and miseries for they were all past and finished himself being exalted in Immortality and Glory These things are sufficient to repress the vanity of this Figment But because there is no small danger in the proposal that hath been made of it I shall briefly examine what Reasons its Authors and Promoters do produce to give countenance unto it Thus proceeds and argues Crellius or Schlictingius on the place Peccata preprie dicta id est divinar am legnm transgressiones cum in Christo locum non habeant ullum 1 Necesse est ut in voce peccatorum sit improprietas significenturque Christi infirmitates perpessiones 2 Qua de re jam egimus cap. 5. ver 2. 3. 3 Sic vidimus istarum infirmitatum perpessionum contraria Sanctitatis innocentiae nomine paulo ante versu superiore describi qui duo versiculi mutuo se illustrant seipsum offerens 4 Docet quando Christus pro se obtulerit preces nimirum supplicationes ut cap. 5. ver 7. vidimus tunc nempe cum in eo esset ut seipsum deo offerret cum sese ad oblationem sui ipsius accingeret hoc est cum tanquam victima mactaretur 5 Oblatio enim Christi sic hoc loco extendenda est ut mortem ipsius tanquam necessarium antecedens quoddam veluti initium complectatur 6 Cum vero hic versiculus ex superiori commate pendeat inferatur vel hinc apparet non agi isthic de moribus sed de natura deque felici statu ac conditione nostri Pontificis Nec enim ideo Christus opus non habet amplius pro se offerre quod Sanctus sit inculpatus ratione morum seu actionum suarum cum semper talis fuerit sed quod in perpetunm ab omnibus malis afflictionibus sit liberatus I have transcribed his words at large because what is offered by others unto the same Purpose is all included in them But the whole of it will be easily removed For 1. The Impropriety of speech pretended that sins should be put for Infirmities is that which the use of the Scripture will give no countenance unto It is only feigned by these men at their pleasure Let them if they can produce any one place where by sins not moral evils but natural infirmities are intended But by feigning Improprieties of speech at our pleasure we may wrest and pervert the Scripture even also as we please 2. Of the Infirmities of the Humane Nature of Christ which were necessary that he might be a Sacrifice and usefull unto his being a Priest we have also treated in the place quoted chap. 5. 2 3. Whereunto the Reader is referred 3. Not the contrary unto these Infirmities but the contrary unto sin Original and Actual is intended by Holiness and Innocency in the verse foregoing as hath been proved in the Exposition of that verse whereunto the Reader is referred 4. The Lord Christ offered up prayers and supplications
unto God when he offered himself not to expiate his own infirmities by his offering but that he might be carried through and supported in his Oblation which he offered for the sins of the People and had success therein See the exposition on chap. 5. 7. 5. He is more kind than ordinary in extending the Oblation of Christ unto his death also But he recalls his grant affirming that he did only prepare himself for his offering thereby And this also casts his whole Exposition into much confusion Christ offered himself once saith the Apostle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã once and at one time This I suppose is agreed Then he offered for himself and his own sins or not at all For he offered but once and at one time Where then did he thus offer himself and when In Heaven upon his Ascension say the Socinians with one accord Where then and when did he offer for himself On the earth Then he offered himself twice No by no means he offered not himself on the Earth how then did he offer for himself on the earth He did not indeed offer himself on the Earth but he prepared himself for his offering on the Earth and therein he offered for himself that is he did and he did not offer himself upon the earth For they cannot evade by saying that he did it when he offered up prayers on the Earth For the Apostle says expresly in this place that what he did he did it when he offered himself And it must be by such an offering as answered the offering of the high Priest for himself which was bloody 6. The close of his Discourse whereby he would prove the Truth of his Exposition of the verse foregoing from his Interpretation of this is absurd as that which would give countenance unto an evident falsehood from what is more evidently so Grotius adds little unto what Schlictingius offers in this case Only he tells us that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is taken for those griefs which are commonly the punishment of sin Rom. 6. 10. But it is a mistake ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in that place signifies nothing but the Guilt of Sin which Christ died to expiate and take away He died once for sin that is he suffered once for sin He says moreover that profluvium mulierum is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Levit. 12. 8. 15. 13. as also is the leprosie chap. 14. 13. But herein also he is mistaken both the one and the other subject unto those defiling Distempers were appointed to offer a sin-offering for those sins which those Defilements were tokens of and the sin of Nature which they proceed from Again he says that Christ in his offering was freed from those infirmities and miseries per mortem acceleratam But his death was not hasted one moment until all was finished nor did he offer for the hastening of his Death And his ensuing words are most ambiguous Christ offered pro doloribus istis qui solent peccatorum poenae esse quos Christus occasione etiam peccatorum humani generis toleravit If the sorrows intended were not true punishments of sin they could not be offered for And what sorrows Christ underwent so far as they were penal he offered for them when he offered for the sins of the People and not otherwise But those which are called his own sins must be every way distinct from the sins of the People and have no Relation unto them as the sins of the High Priests of old had not Wherefore if by the occasion of the sins of men he intend that his Sufferings and Griefs were for the sins of men then he offered for them when he offered for the sins of the People when he bare our sins and sorrows and had no need to offer distinctly for them as his own And if it were a sorrow that was not for sin it cannot be called Sin Christs sufferings on the occasion of the sins of mankind is well understood by those who are any way skilled in the Socinian Mysteries Hammond says the same He both saith he offered for himself that is made expiation as it were not to deliver himself from sin for he was never guilty of any but from the infirmities assumed by him but especially from death it self and so is now never likely to dye and to determine his Melchisedecian Priesthood Ans. 1 To make expiation as it were from the infirmities assumed by him or to be delivered from them is hard to be understood 2 Much more is it how by death wherein he offered himself he should make expiation to be delivered from death it self 3 And it is as hard to say that Christ offered for himself once by death that he might dye no more seeing it is appointed unto all men only once to dye I have digressed thus far to crush this novel Invention which as it is untrue and alien from the sense of the Apostle so it hath in the expression of it an ungrateful sound of Impiety But I expect not so much Sobriety as that considering the means of its conveyance unto the minds of men at present it should not be vented again until what hath been here pleaded in its confutation be answered At present I shall proceed with the Exposition of the remainder of the words How and what Christ offered for the sins of the People is declared in the words remaining 1. For the way or manner of it He did it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Once only This is directly opposed unto the frequency of the legal Sacrifices repeated daily as there was occasion Those High Priests offered ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã daily on all occasions He ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Once only And I cannot but observe by the way that this Assertion of the Apostle is no less absolutely exclusive of the Missatical Sacrifices of the Priests of the Roman Church than it is of the Levitical Sacrifices of the High Priest of the Church of the Jews Their Expositors on this place do generally affirm in plea for their Church that they offer it not to make expiation of sins but only to represent and make application of the one Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. But in their Mass it self they speak otherwise and expresly offer it to God a Sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead Neither yet do we enquire unto what End they do what they do and this is all they say that they offer the same sacrifice that Christ did that is himself And this they do a thousand times more frequently than the Expiatory Sacrifices were among the Jews Neither were their Sacrifices offered properly by Gods Appointment to make Attonement for Sin by their own vertue and Efficacy but only to be a Representation and Application of the Sacrifice of Christ to come Whatever ends they therefore fancy unto themselves by pretending to offer the same sacrifice that Christ did they contradict the words of the Apostle and wholly
them during the whole time of their Priesthood The first were their Sins hence they were obliged continually to offer sacrifice for their own sins and that to the very last day of their Lives The summe and issue of their natural weaknesse was death it self This seized on every one of them so as to put an Everlasting end unto their sacerdotal Administrations But wherefore did the Law make such Priests men meer men that had infirmity subject to sin and death so as to put an end unto their Office The Reason is because it could neither find any better nor make them any better whom it found in that condition The Law must be content with such as were to be had and in it self it had no power to make them better In opposition hereunto it is said the Word of the Oath made the Son ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã consecrated for ever What was the consecration of the Lord Christ unto his Office and wherein it did consist I have before at large declared That which the Apostle intends here in an especial manner is his absolute freedom from the infirmities which those other Priests were obnoxious unto namely such Infirmities in the first place as with respect whereunto sacrifice was to be offered unto God that is their own sins And the Apostle here opposing the Consecration of Christ unto their having Infirmities sheweth sufficiently that he intended not to insinuate that he offered for any infirmities of his own seeing he is wholly different from them and opposed unto them who had such infirmities And if he had offered for his own infirmities the Apostle could not have objected it as the weaknesse of the Law that it made Priests which had infirmity for in that sense the Word of the Oath should have done so also But whereas his Exaltation into Heaven for the discharge of the remaining Duties of his Priesthood in his Intercession for the Church belonged unto the perfection of his Consecration he was therein also freed from all those natural Infirmities which were necessary unto him that he might be a sacrifice The ensuing Observations offer themselves unto us 1. There never was nor never can be any more than two sorts of Priests in the Church the one made by the Law the other by the Oath of God Wherefore 2. As the bringing in of the Priesthood of Christ after the Law and the Priesthood constituted thereby did abrogate and disanul it so the bringing in of another Priesthood after his will abrogate and disanul that also And therefore 3. Plurality of Priests under the Gospel overthrows the whole Argument of the Apostle in this place and if we have yet Priests that have infirmities they are made by the Law and not by the Gospel 4. The summe of the Difference between the Law and the Gospel is issued in the Difference between the Priests of the one and the other state which is inconceivable 5. The great Foundation of our Faith and the hinge whereon all our consolation depends is this that our High Priest is the Son of God 6. The Everlasting continuance of the Lord Christ in his Office is secured by the Oath of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã AN EXPOSITION OF THE Eighth Chapter OF THE EPISTLE OF THE HEBREWS CHAP. VIII There are Two General Parts of this Chapter I. A Father Explication of the Excellency of the Priesthood of Christ or of Christ himself as vested with that Office that is both in his Personal Glory and in the usefulness of his Office unto the Church above those of the Order of Aaron II. A further confirmation hereof wherein is introduced the consideration of the two Covenants the Old and the New For unto the former was the whole Administration of the Levitical Priests confined Of the latter Christ as our High Priest was the Mediator and Surety And therefore the Apostle fully proves the excellency of this New Covenant above the Old which redounds unto the Glory of its Mediator The First part is contained in the first five verses the latter extends from thence to the end of the Chapter In the first Part two things are designed 1. A Recapitulation of some things before delivered 2. The Addition of some farther Arguments in the confirmation of the same Truth so long before insisted on Both of them he comprizeth in three instances of the excellency of Christ in his Priesthood or in the Discharge of his Office 1. In his Exaltation and the Place of his present Residence ver 1. 2. In the Sanctuary whereof he is a Minister and the Tabernacle wherein at present he doth administer ver 2. 3. In the Sacrifice he had to offer or which he offered before his entrance into that Sanctuary ver 3. which he illustrates by two especial considerations ver 4 5. VER 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã caput vul Capitulum Summa Beza Caeterum eorum quae diximus haec summa est Moreover this is the Sum of what we speak Summatim autem dicendo to speak briefly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of all these things the Head Chief or Principal of all these things vul Super ea quae dicuntur Rhem. the Sum concerning these things which be said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. We have an High Priest he who sitteth omitting this word or including it in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is ille ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vul magnitudinis which the Rhemists render by Majesty and retain Sedis for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Beza Majestatis illius or Throni virtutis magnificandi VER 1. Now of the things that are spoken this is the sum We have such an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the majesty in the Heavens This first Verse contains two things 1 A Preface unto that Part of the ensuing Discourse which immediately concerns the Priesthood of Christ unto the end of ver 5. 2 A Declaration of the first Preheminence of our High Priest which the Apostle would have us in an especial manner to consider The Preface is in these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which may be considered either as unto its Design in general or as unto the Sense of the words I. The Design of the Apostle in this Interlocution which is not unusual with him is to stir up the Hebrews unto a diligent consideration of what he insisted on and to leave an impression of it on their minds And this he doth for two Reasons 1. Least the Length and Difficulty of his preceding Discourse should have any way discomposed their minds or wearied them in their Attention so as that they could not well retain the substance of what he pleaded In such cases it was always usual with them who pleaded important Causes before the wisest Judges to recapitulate what had been spoken at length before and to shew what hath been evinced by the Arguments they
unto Grace and Glory we may see the pattern and example of our own For if it was not upon the consideration or foresight of the obedience of the Humane Nature of Christ that he was predestinated and chosen unto the grace of the Hypostatical Union with the Ministry and Glory which depended thereon but of the meer Sovereign Grace of God how much less could a foresight of any thing in us be the cause why God should chuse us in him before the foundation of the world unto grace and glory 4. The Quality of this Ministry thus obtained as unto a comparative excellency is also expressed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more excellent The word is used only in this Epistle in this sense Chap. 1. 4. and in this place The original word denotes only a difference from other things but in the comparative degree as here used it signifies a Difference with a Preference or a comparative excellency The Ministry of the Levitical Priests was good and useful in its time and season This of our Lord Jesus Christ so differed from it as to be better than it and more excellent ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And 5. There is added hereunto the Degree of this Preheminence so far as it is intended in this place and the present Argument in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by how much So much more excellent by how much The excellency of his Ministry above that of the Levitical Priests bears proportion with the excellency of the Covenant whereof he was the Mediator above the Old Covenant wherein they administred whereof afterwards So have we explained the Apostles Assertion concerning the excellency of the Ministry of Christ. And herewith he closeth his Discourse which he had so long engaged in about the Preheminence of Christ in his Office above the High Priests of old And indeed this being the very hinge whereon his whole Controversie with the Jews did depend he could not give it too much evidence nor too full a confirmation And as unto what concerns our selves at present we are taught thereby That Ob. It is our Duty and our Safety to acquiesce universally and obsolutely in the Ministry of Jesus Christ. That which he was so designed unto in the infinite wisdom and grace of God that which he was so furnished for the discharge of by the communication of the Spirit unto him in all fulness that which all other Priesthoods were removed to make way for must needs be sufficient and effectual for all the ends unto which it is designed It may be said this is that which all men do all that are called Christians do fully acquiesce in the Ministry of Jesus Christ. But if it be so why do we hear the bleating of another sort of Cattel What mean those other Priests and reiterated Sacrifices which make up the Worship of the Church of Rome If they rest in the Ministry of Christ why do they appoint one of their own to do the same things that he hath done namely to offer Sacrifice unto God The Proof of this Assertion lies in the latter part of these words By how much he was the Mediator of a better Covenant established on better Promises The words are so disposed that some think the Apostle intends not to prove the excellency of the Covenant from the excellency of his Ministry therein But the other sense is more suited unto the scope of the place and the nature of the Argument which the Apostle presseth the Hebrews withal For on supposition that there was indeed another and that a better Covenant to be introduced and established than that which the Levitical Priests served in which they could not deny it plainly follows that he on whose Ministry the dispensation of that Covenant did depend must of necessity be more excellent in that Ministry than they who appertained unto that Covenant which was to be abolished However it may be granted that these things do mutually testifie unto and illustrate one another Such as the Priest is such is the Covenant such as the Covenant is in dignity such is the Priest also In the words there are three things observable 1. What is in general ascribed unto Christ declaring the nature of his Ministry He was a Mediator 2. The Determination of his Mediatory Office unto the New Covenant Of a better Covenant 3. The Proof or Demonstration of the nature of his Covenant as unto its excellency It was established on better Promises 1. His Office is that of a Mediator ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one that interposed between God and man for the doing of all those things whereby a Covenant might be established between them and made effectual Schlictingius on the place gives this description of a Mediator Mediatorem faederis esse nihil aliud est quam Dei esse interpretem internuntium in faedere cum hominibus pangendo per quem scilicet Deus voluntatem suam hominibus declaret illi vicissim divinae voluntatis notitid instructi ad Deum accedant cumque eo reconciliati pacem in posterum colant And Grotius speaks much unto the same purpose But this Description of a Mediator is wholly applicable unto Moses and suited unto his Office in giving of the Law see Exod. 20. 19. Deut. 15. 27 28. What is said by them doth indeed immediately belong unto the Mediatory Office of Christ but it is not confined thereunto yea it is exclusive of the principal parts of his Mediation And whereas there is nothing in it but what belongs unto the Prophetical Office of Christ which the Apostle here doth not principally intend it is most improperly applied as a Description of such a Mediator as he doth intend And therefore when he comes afterwards to declare in particular what belonged unto such a Mediator of the Covenant as he designed he expresly placeth it in his Death for the redemption of transgressions Chap. 9. 15. affirming that for that cause he was a Mediator But hereof there is nothing at all in the Description they give us of this Office But this the Apostle doth in his elsewhere 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. There is one God and one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all The principal part of his Mediation consisted in the giving himself a ransom or a price of redemption for the whole Church Wherefore this Description of a Mediator of the New Testament is feigned only to exclude his satisfaction or his offering himself unto God in his death and blood-shedding with the atonement made thereby The Lord Christ then in his Ministry is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Mediator of the Covenant in the same sense as he is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Surety whereof see the Exposition on Chap. 7. 22. He is in the New Covenant the Mediator the Surety the Priest the Sacrifice all in his own Person The ignorance and want of a due consideration hereof
of Duty and Obedience we are told in the Scripture and find it by experience that of our selves we can do nothing Wherefore unless the Precept of the Covenant be founded in a Promise of giving grace and spiritual strength unto us whereby we may be enabled to perform those duties the Covenant can be of no benefit or advantage unto us And the want of this one consideration that every Covenant is founded in Promises and that the Promises give life unto the Precepts of it hath perverted the minds of many to suppose an ability in our selves of yielding Obedience unto those Precepts without Grace antecedently received to enable us thereunto which overthrows the nature of the New Covenant 2 As was observed we are all actually guilty of sin before this Covenant was made with us Wherefore unless there be a Promise given of the pardon of sin it is to no purpose to propose any new Covenant terms unto us For the wages of sin is death and we having sinned must die whatever we do afterwards unless our sins be pardoned This therefore must be proposed unto us as the foundation of the Covenant or it will be of none effect And herein lies the great difference between the Promises of the Covenant of Works and those of the Covenant of Grace The first were only concerning things future eternal Life and Blessedness upon the accomplishment of perfect Obedience Promises of present Mercy and Pardon it stood in need of none it was not capable of Nor had it any Promises of giving more Grace or supplies of it but man was wholly left unto what he had at first received Hence the Covenant was broken But in the Covenant of Grace all things are founded in Promises of present Mercy and continual supplies of Grace as well as of future Blessedness Hence it becomes to be ordered in all things and sure And this is the first thing that was to be declared namely that every Divine Covenant is established on Promises 2. These Promises are said to be better Promises The other Covenant had its Promises peculiar unto it with respect whereunto this is said to be established on better Promises It was indeed principally represented under a System of Precepts and those almost innumerable But it had its Promises also into the nature whereof we shall immediately enquire With respect therefore unto them is the New Covenant whereof the Lord Christ was the Mediator said to be established on better Promises That it should be founded in Promises was necessary from its general nature as a Covenant and more necessary from its especial nature as a Covenant of Grace That these Promises are said to be better Promises respects those of the Old Covenant But this is so said as to include all other degrees of comparison They are not only better than they but they are positively good in themselves and absolutely the best that God ever gave or will give unto the Church And what they are we must consider in our Progress And sundry things may be observed from these words 1. There is infinite Grace in every Divine Covenant inasmuch as it is established on Promises Infinite condescension it is in God that he will enter into Covenant with dust and ashes with poor Worms of the earth And herein lies the Spring of all Grace from whence all the streams of it do flow And the first expression of it is in laying the foundation of it in some undeserved Promises And this was that which became the Goodness and Greatness of his Nature the means whereby we are wrought to adhere unto him in Faith Hope Trust and Obedience until we come unto the enjoyment of him For that is the use of Promises to keep us in adherence unto God as the first Original and Spring of all Goodness and the ultimate satisfactory reward of our Souls 2 Cor. 7. 1. 2. The Promises of the Covenant of Grace are better than those of any other Covenant as for many other Reasons so especially because the grace of them prevents any condition or qualification on our part I do not say the Covenant of Grace is absolute without conditions if by conditions we intend the duties of Obedience which God requireth of us in and by vertue of that Covenant But this I say the principal Promises thereof are not in the first place remunerative of our Obedience in the Covenant but efficaciously assumptive of us into Covenant and establishing or confirming in the Covenant The Covenant of Works had its Promises but they were all remunerative respecting an antecedent Obedience in us so were all those which were peculiar unto the Covenant of Sinai They were indeed also of Grace in that the Reward did infinitely exceed the merit of our Obedience But yet they all supposed it and the Subject of them was formally Reward only In the Covenant of Grace it is not so For sundry of the Promises thereof are the means of our being taken into Covenant of our entring into Covenant with God The first Covenant absolutely was established on Promises in that when men were actually taken into it they were encouraged unto Obedience by the Promises of a future Reward But these Promises namely of the pardon of sin and writing of the Law in our hearts which the Apostle expresly insisteth upon as the peculiar Promises of this Covenant do take place and are effectual antecedently unto our Covenant Obedience For although Faith be required in order of nature antecedently unto our actual receiving of the pardon of sin yet is that Faith itself wrought in us by the Grace of the Promise and so its precedency unto pardon respects only the Order that God hath appointed in the communication of the benefits of the Covenant and intends not that the pardon of sin is the reward of our Faith This entrance hath the Apostle made into his Discourse of the two Covenants which he continues unto the end of the Chapter But the whole is not without its difficulties Many things in particular will occur unto us in our progress which may be considered in their proper places In the mean time there are some things in general which may be here discoursed by whose determination much light will be communicated unto what doth ensue First therefore the Apostle doth evidently in this place dispute concerning two Covenants or two Testaments comparing the one with the other and declaring the disannulling of the one by the introduction and establishment of the other What are these two Covenants in general we have declared namely that made with the Church of Israel at Mount Sinai and that made with us in the Gospel not as absolutely the Covenant of Grace but as actually established in the death of Christ with all the worship that belongs unto it Here then ariseth a difference of no small importance namely whether these are indeed two distinct Covenants as to the essence and substance of them or only different ways of the
cause God saw it necessary and it pleased him to put a grievous and heavy yoke upon them to subdue the pride of their spirits and to cause them to breathe after deliverance This the Apostle Peter calls a yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 20. that is with peace ease and rest which therefore the Lord Christ invited them to seek for in himself alone Matth. 11. 29 30. And this yoke that God put on them consisted in these three things 1. In a multitude of Precepts hard to be understood and difficult to be observed The present Jews reckon up 613 of them about the sense of most of which they dispute endlesly among themselves But the truth is since the days of the Pharisees they have increased their own yoke and made obedience unto their Law in any tolerable manner altogether unpracticable It were easie to manifest for instance that no man under Heaven ever did or ever can keep the Sabbath according to the Rules they give about it in their Talmuds And they generally scarce observe one of them themselves But in the Law as given by God himself it is certain that there were a multitude of arbitrary Precepts and those in themselves not accompanied with any spiritual Advantages as our Apostle shews Chap. 9. 5. only they were obliged to perform them by a meer soveraign Act of Power and Authority 2. In the severity wherewith the observance of all those Precepts were enjoined them And this was the threatning of death For he that despised Moses 's Law died without mercy and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward Hence was their complaint of old Behold we die we perish we all perish whosoever cometh near unto the Tabernacle of the Lord shall dye shall we be consumed with dying Numb 17. 12 13. And the Curse solemnly denounced against every one that confirmed not all things written in the Law was continually before them 3. In a Spirit of Bondage unto Fear This was administred in the giving and dispensation of the Law even as a Spirit of Liberty and Power is administred in and by the Gospel And as this respected their present Obedience and manner of its performance so in particular it regarded Death not yet conquered by Christ. Hence our Apostle affirms that through fear of Death they were all their life-time subject unto Bondage This state God brought them into partly to subdue the pride of their hearts trusting in their own righteousness and partly to cause them to look out earnestly after the promised Deliverer 4. Into this estate and condition God brought them by a Solemn Covenant confirmed by mutual consent between him and them The Tenure Force and Solemn Ratification of this Covenant is expressed Exod. 24. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Unto the terms and conditions of this Covenant was the whole Church obliged indispensibly on pain of Extermination until all was accomplished Mal. 4. 4 5 6. Unto this Covenant belonged the Decalogue with all Precepts of Moral Obedience thence educed So also did the Laws of Political Rule established among them and the whole Systeme of Religious Worship given unto them All these Laws were brought within the verge of this Covenant and were the matter of it And it had especial Promises and Threatnings annexed unto it as such whereof none did exceed the Bounds of the Land of Canaan For even many of the Laws of it were such as obliged no where else Such was the Law of the Sabbatical year and all their Sacrifices There was Sin and Obedience in them or about them in the Land of Canaan none elsewhere Hence 5. This Covenant thus made with these Ends and Promises did never save nor condemn any man eternally All that lived under the Administration of it did attain eternal life or perished for ever but not by vertue of this Covenant as formally such It did indeed revive the commanding Power and Sanction of the first Covenant of Works and therein as the Apostle speaks was the Ministry of condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 9. For by the deeds of the Law can no flesh be justified And on the other hand it directed also unto the Promise which was the instrument of life and salvation unto all that did believe But as unto what it had of its own it was confined unto things temporal Believers were saved under it but not by vertue of it Sinners perished eternally under it but by the Curse of the original Law of Works And 6. Hereon occasionally fell out the ruine of that People their Table became a snare unto them and that which should have been for their welfare became a trap according to the Prediction of our Saviour Psal. 69. 22. It was this Covenant that raised and ruined them it raised them to Glory and Honour when given of God it ruined them when abused by themselves contrary to express declarations of his mind and will For although the generality of them were wicked and rebellious always breaking the Terms of the Covenant which God made with them so far as it was possible they should whil'st God determined to reign over them unto the appointed season and repined under the burden of it yet they would have this Covenant to be the only Rule and Means of righteousness life and salvation as the Apostle declares Rom. 9. 31 32 33. Chap. 10. 3. For as we have often said there were two things in it both which they abused unto other ends than what God designed them 1 There was the Renovation of the Rule of the Covenant of Works for righteousness and life And this they would have to be given unto them for those ends and so sought for righteousness by the works of the Law 2 There was ordained in it a Typical Representation of the way and means whereby the Promise was to be made effectual namely in the Mediation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ which was the end of all their Ordinances of Worship And the outward Law thereof with the observance of its Institution they looked on as their only relief when they came short of exact and perfect righteousness Against both these pernicious Errors the Apostle disputes expresly in his Epistle unto the Romans and the Galatians to save them if it were possible from that ruine they were casting themselves into Hereon the Elect obtained but the rest were hard ned For hereby they made an absolute renunciation of the Promise wherein alone God had enwrapped the way of life and salvation This is the nature and substance of that Covenant which God made with that People a particular temporary Covenant it was and not a meer dispensation of the Covenant of Grace That which remains for the declaration of the mind of the Holy Ghost in this whole matter is to declare the differences that are between those two Covenants whence the one is said to be better than the other and to be built upon better Promises Those of
The Renovation of the terms and sanction of the Covenant of Works contributed much thereunto For the People saw not how the Commands of that Covenant could be observed nor how its Curse could be avoided They saw it not I say by any thing in the Covenant of Sinai which therefore gendred unto bondage All the prospect they had of deliverance was from the Promise 2. It arose from the manner of the delivery of the Law and Gods entring thereon into Covenant with them This was ordered on purpose to fill them with dread and fear And it could not but do so when ever they called it to remembrance 3. From the severity of the Penalties annexed unto the Transgression of the Law And God had taken upon himself that where punishment was not exacted according to the Law he himself would cut them off This kept them always anxious and sollicitous not knowing when they were safe or secure 4. From the Nature of the whole Ministry of the Law which was the ministration of death and condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 16. which declared the desert of every sin to be death and denounced death unto every Sinner administring by its self no relief unto the minds and consciences of men So was it the letter that killed them that were under its power 5. From the Darkness of their own minds in the means ways and causes of deliverance from all these things It is true they had a promise before of Life and Salvation which was not abolished by this Covenant even the Promise made unto Abraham But this belonged not unto this Covenant And the way of its accomplishment by the Incarnation and Mediation of the Son of God was much hidden from them yea from the Prophets themselves who yet foretold them This left them under much bondage For the principal cause and means of the liberty of Believers under the Gospel ariseth from the clear light they have into the mystery of the love and grace of God in Christ. This faith and knowledge of his Incarnation Humiliation Sufferings and Sacrifice whereby he made Attonement for Sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness is that which gives them liberty and boldness in their Obedience 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. whilest they of old were in the dark as unto these things they must needs be kept under much bondage 6. It was increased by the yoke of a multitude of Laws Rites and Ceremonies imposed on them which made the whole of their Worship a burden unto them and unsupportable Acts 15. 9. In and by all these ways and means there was a Spirit of Bondage and Fear administred unto them And this God did thus he dealt with them to the end that they might not rest in that state but continually look out after deliverance On the other hand the New Covenant gives liberty and boldness the liberty and boldness of Children unto all Believers It is the Son in it that makes us free or gives us universally all that liberty which is any way needful for us or useful unto us For where the Spirit of God is there is liberty namely to serve God not in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit And it is declared that this was the great end of bringing in the New Covenant in the accomplishment of the Promise made unto Abraham namely that we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies might serve God without fear all the days of our lives Luke 1. 72 73 74 75. And we may briefly consider wherein this Deliverance and Liberty by the New Covenant doth consist which it doth in the things ensuing 1. In our freedom from the commanding power of the Law as to sinless perfect Obedience in order unto Righteousness and Justification before God Its commands we are still subject unto but not in order unto life and salvation For unto those ends it is fulfilled in and by the Mediator of the New Covenant who is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. 2. In our freedom from the condemning power of the Law and the Sanction of it in the Curse This being undergone and answered by him who was made a curse for us we are freed from it Rom. 7. 6. Gal. 3 13 14. And therein also are we delivered from the fear of death Heb. 2. 15. as it was paenal and an entrance into judgment or condemnation John 5. 24. 3. In our freedom from conscience for sin Heb. 10. 2. That is Conscience disquieting perplexing and condemning our persons the hearts of all that believe being sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ. 4. In our freedom from the whole System of Mosaical Worship in all the Rites and Ceremonies and Ordinances of it which what a burden it was the Apostles do declare Acts 15. and our Apostle at large in his Epistle to the Galatians 5. From all the Laws of men in things appertaining unto the Worship of God 1 Cor. 7. 23. And by all these and the like instances of spiritual liberty doth the Gospel free Believers from that Spirit of bondage unto fear which was administred under the Old Covenant It remains only that we point at the Heads of those Ways whereby this Liberty is communicated unto us under the New Covenant And it is done 1. Principally by the grant and communication of the Spirit of the Son as a Spirit of Adoption giving the freedom boldness and liberty of children John 1. 12. Rom. 8. 15 16 17. Gal. 4. 6 7. From hence the Apostle lays it down as a certain Rule that where the Spirit of God is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Let men pretend what they will let them boast of the freedom of their outward condition in this world and of the inward liberty or freedom of their wills there is indeed no true liberty where the Spirit of God is not The ways whereby he giveth freedom power a sound mind spiritual boldness courage and contempt of the Cross holy confidence before God a readiness for obedience and enlargedness of heart in duties with all other things wherein true liberty doth consist or which any way belongs unto it I must not here divert to declare The world judges that there is no bondage but where the Spirit of God is For that gives that conscientious fear of Sin that awe of God in all our Thoughts Actions and Ways that careful and circumspect walking that temperance in things lawful that abstinence from all appearance of evil wherein they judge the greatest bondage on the earth to consist But those who have received him do know that the whole world doth lie in evil and that all those unto whom spiritual liberty is a bondage are the Servants and Slaves of Satan 2. It is obtained by the evidence of our justification before God and the causes of it This men were greatly in the dark unto under the first Covenant although all stable peace with
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 4 The property of it it is a New Covenant 1. He who gives this Testimony is included in tht word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he saith For finding fault with them he saith He who complains of the People for breaking the Old Covenant promiseth to make the New So in the next Verse it is expressed Saith the Lord. The Ministry of the Prophet was made use of in the declaration of these words and things but they are properly his words from whom they are by immediate inspiration 1. He saith that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the Lord is the formal object of our faith and obedience Hereinto are they to be refered herein do they acquiesce and in nothing else will they so do All other foundations of Faith as thus saith the Pope or thus saith the Church or thus said our Ancestors are all but delusions Thus saith the Lord gives rest and peace 2. There is the Note of Introduction calling unto attendance ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold It is always found eminent either in itself or in some of its circumstances that is thus performed For the word calls for a more than ordinary diligence in the consideration of an attention unto what is proposed And it was needful to signalize this Promise for the People unto whom it was given were very difficultly drawn from their adherence unto the Old Covenant which was inconsistent with that now promised And there seems to be somewhat more intimated in this word besides a call unto especial attention And that is that the thing spoken of is plainly proposed unto them concerned so as that they may look upon it and behold it clearly and speedily And so is this New Covenant here proposed so evidently and plainly both in the entire nature and properties of it that unless men wilfully turn away their eyes they cannot but see it 2. Where God placeth a Note of Observation and Attention we should carefully fix our Faith and Consideration God sets not any of his marks in vain And if upon the first view of any place or thing so signalized the evidence of it doth not appear unto us we have a sufficient call unto farther diligence in our enquiry And if we are not wanting unto our Duty we shall discover some especial impression of Divine Excellency or another upon every such thing or place 3. The things and concernments of the New Covenant are all of them Objects of the best of our consideration As such are they here proposed and what is spoken of the declaration of the nature of this Covenant in the next Verse is sufficient to confirm this Observation 3. The time is prefixed for the accomplishment of this Promise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The days come Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world and he hath determined the times of their accomplishment As to the particular precise times or seasons of them whilest they are future he hath reserved them unto himself unless where he hath seen good to make some especial Revelation of them So he did of the times of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt of the Babylonish Captivity and of the coming of the Messiah after the return of the People Dan. 9. But from the giving of the first Promise wherein the foundation of the Church was laid the accomplishment of it is frequently referred unto the latter days See our Exposition on Chap. 1. ver 1. Hence under the Old Testament the days of the Messiah were called the world to come as we have shewed Chap. 2. 5. And it was a Periphrasis of him that he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mat. 11. 3. He that was to come And the Faith of the Church was principally exercised in the expectation of his coming And this time is here intended And the expression in the Original is in the Present Tense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The days coming not the days that come but the days come And two things are denoted thereby 1. The near approach of the days intended The time was now hastening apace and the Church was to be awaken'd unto the expectation of it And this accompanied with their earnest desires and prayers for it which were the most acceptable part of the Worship of God under the Old Testament 2. A certainty of the thing itself was hereby fixed in their minds Long expectation they had of it and now stood in need of new security especially considering the tryal they were falling into in the Babylonish Captivity For this seemed to threaten a defeat of the Promise in the casting away of the whole Nation The manner of the expression is suited to confirm the Faith of them that were real Believers among them against such fears Yet we must observe that from the giving of this Promise unto the accomplishment of it was near 600 years And yet about 90 years after the Prophet Malachi speaking of the same season affirms That the Lord whom they sought should suddenly come unto his Temple Mal. 3. 1. Ob. There is a time limited and fixed for the accomplishment of all the Promises of God and all the Purposes of his Grace towards the Church See Hab. 2. 3 4. And the Consideration hereof is very necessary unto Believers in all Ages 1. To keep up their hearts from desponding when difficulties against their accomplishment do arise and seem to render it impossible Want hereof hath turn'd aside many from God and caused them to cast their lot and portion into the world 2 To preserve them from putting themselves on any irregular ways for their accomplishment 3 To teach them to search diligently into the wisdom of God who hath disposed times and seasons as unto his own glory so unto the tryal and real benefit of the Church 4. The Subject matter of the Promise given is a Covenant ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The LXX render it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Testament And that is more proper in this place than a Covenant For if we take Covenant in a strict and proper sense it hath indeed no place between God and man For a Covenant strictly taken ought to proceed on equal terms and a proportionate consideration of things on both sides But the Covenant of God is founded on Grace and consists essentially in a free undeserved Promise And therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Covenant is never spoken of between God and man but on the part of God it consists in a free Promise or a Testament And a Testament which is the proper signification of the word here used by the Apostle is suited unto this place and nothing else For 1 Such a Covenant is intended as is ratified and confirmed by the death of him that makes it And this is properly a Testament For this Covenant was confirmed by the death of Christ and that both as it was the death
of his power But that our wills are left absolutely herein unto their own liberty and power without being inclined and determined by that grace of God is that Pelagianism which hath long attempted the Church but which shall never absolutely prevail 5. The putting the Laws of God in our minds and the writing of them in our hearts that we may know him and fear him always is promised in the same way and manner as is the forgiveness of sin ver 11. And it is hard to affix such a sense unto that Promise as that God will use such and such means that our sins may be pardoned which yet may all of them fail 6. As this Exposition is no way suited unto the words of the Text nor of the Context or scope of the place so indeed it overthrows the nature of the New Covenant and the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which comes thereby For 1. If the effect itself or the thing mentioned are not promised but only the use of means left unto the liberty of mens wills whether they will comply with them or no then the very Being of the Covenant whether it shall ever have any existence or no depends absolutely on the wills of men and so may not be For it is not the Proposal of the terms of the Covenant and the means whereby we may enter into it that is called the making of this Covenant with us but our real participation of the grace and mercy promised in it This alone gives a real existence unto the Covenant itself without which it is not a Covenant Nor without it is it properly made with any 2. The Lord Christ would be made hereby the Mediator of an uncertain Covenant For if it depend absolutely on the wills of men whether they will accept of the terms of it and comply with it or no it is uncertain what will be the event and whether ever any one will do so or no. For the will being not determined by Grace what its actings will be is altogether uncertain 3. The Covenant can hereon in no sense be a Testament which our Apostle afterwards proves that it is and that irrevocably ratified by the death of the Testator For there can on this supposition be no certain Heir unto whom Christ did bequeath his Goods and the inheritance of Mercy Grace and Glory This would make this Testament inferior unto that of a wise man who determines in particular unto whom his Goods shall come 4. It takes away that difference between this and the former Covenant which it is the main scope of the Apostle to prove at least leave the difference to consist only in the gradual efficacy of outward means which is most remote from his purpose For there were by the Old Covenant means supplied to induce the People unto constant Obedience and those in their kind powerful This is pleaded by Moses in the whole Book almost of Deuteronomy For the scope of all his exhortation unto Obedience is to shew that God had so instructed them in the knowledge of his Will by giving of the Law and had accompanied his teachings with so many signal mercies such effects of his mighty power goodness and grace that the Covenant accompanied with such Promises and Threatnings that therein life and death temporal and eternal were set before them all which made their Obedience so reasonable and necessary that nothing but Profligacy in wickedness could turn them from it To this purpose are discourses multiplied in that Book And yet notwithstanding all this it is added That God had not circumcised their hearts to fear him and obey him always as it is here promised The communication of grace effectual producing infallibly the good things proposed and promised in the minds and hearts of men belonged not unto that Covenant If therefore there be no more in the making of the New Covenant but only the adding of more forcible outward means and motives more suitable unto our Reasons and meet to work on our Affections it differs only in some unassignable degrees from the former But this is directly contrary unto the promise in the Prophet That it shall not be according unto it or of the same kind no more than Christ the High-Priest of it should be a Priest after the Order of Aaron 5. It would on this Supposition follow That God might fulfill his promise of putting his Laws in the minds of men and writing them in their hearts and yet none have the Law put into their minds nor written in their hearts which things are not reconcileable by any distinction unto the ordinary reason of Mankind Wherefore we must grant That it is the effect the event in the communication of the things promised that is ascribed unto this Covenant and not only the use and application of means unto their production And this will yet further appear in the particular Exposition of the several parts of it But yet before we enter thereon two Objections must be removed which may in general be laid against our interpretation 1. This Covenant is promised as that which is future to be brought in at a certain time after those days as hath been declared But it is certain that the things here mentioned the grace and mercy expressed were really communicated unto many both before and after the giving of the Law long ere this Covenant was made For all who truly believed and feared God had these things effected in them by grace wherefore their effectual communication cannot be esteemed a property of this Covenant which was to be made afterwards Ans. This Objection was sufficiently prevented in what we have already discoursed concerning the efficacy of the grace of this Covenant before itself was solemnly consummated For all things of this nature that belong unto it do arise and spring from the mediation of Christ or his interposition on the behalf of sinners wherefore this took place from the giving of the first Promise the administration of the grace of this Covenant did therein and then take its date Howbeit the Lord Christ had not yet done that whereby it was solemnly to be confirmed and that whereon all the vertue of it did depend Wherefore this Covenant is promised now to be made not in opposition unto what grace and mercy was derived from it both before and under the Law nor as unto the first administration of grace from the Mediator of it but in opposition unto the Covenant of Sinai and with respect unto its outward solemn confirmation 2. If the things themselves are promised in the Covenant then all those with whom this Covenant is made must be really and effectually made partakers of them But this is not so they are not all actually sanctified pardoned and saved which are the things here promised Ans. The making of this Covenant may be considered two ways 1 As unto the preparation and proposition of its terms and conditions 2 As unto the internal stipulation between God
blood of the Sacrifice and offering it by fire on the Altar he plainly declared the imputation of the guilt of their sins unto the Sacrifice its bearing of them and the expiation of their guilt thereby By carrying of the blood into the Holy Place he testified his acceptance of the Atonement made and his reconciliation unto the People And hereon the full remission and pardon of all their sins no more to be had in remembrance was manifested in the sending away of the scape Goat into the wilderness Hence the Jews have a saying that on the day of expiation all Israel was made as innocent as in the daies of creation How all this was accomplished in and by the Sacrifice of Christ must be afterwards declared 4. As to the nature of this service the Apostle tells us that is was not without blood He so expresseth it to shew the impossibility of entring into the Holy Place any otherwise And from hence he takes his ensuing argument of the necessity of the Death and blood-shedding of the Mediator or High Priest of the new Testament Not without blood as he might not do it otherwise so he did it by blood And this was the manner of the service After the High Priest had filled the Holy Place with a cloud of Incense he returned to the Altar of Burnt-offerings without the Tabernacle where the Sacrifice had been newly slain And whilst the blood of the beast was fresh and as it were living Heb. 10. he took of it in his hand and entring again into the Holy Place he sprinkled it seven times with his finger towards the Mercy-seat Lev. 16. 11 12 13 14. And there is as was said an Emphasis in the expression not without blood to manifest how impossible it was that there should be an entrance into the gracious presence of God without the blood of the sacrifice of Christ. The only Propitiation of sins is made by the blood of Christ and it is by saith alone that we are made Partakers thereof Rom. 3. 25 26. 5. This blood is farther described by the use of it which he offereth Where or when he offered it is not expressed In the Holy Place there was no use of this blood but only the sprinkling of it But the sprinkling of blood was always consequential unto the offering or oblation properly so called For the oblation consisted principally in the atonement made by the blood at the Altar of burnt-offerings It was given and appointed for that end to make atonement with it at that Altar as is expresly affirmed Lev. 17. 11. After this it was sprinkled for purification Wherefore by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Apostle here renders the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã used in the Institution Lev. 16. 15. which is only to bring and not to offer properly Or he hath respect unto the offering of it that was made at the Altar without the Sanctuary The blood which was there offered he brought a part of it with him into the most Holy Place to sprinkle it according unto the Institution 6. The Apostle declares for whom this blood was offered and this was for himself and the People first for himself and then for the People For he hath respect unto the distinct Sacrifices that were to be offered on that day The first was of a Bullock and a Ram which was for himself And this argued as the Apostle observes the great imperfection of that Church-state They could have no Priests to offer Sacrifices for the sins of the People but he must first offer for himself and that the blood of other creatures But the true High Priest was to offer his own blood and that not for himself at all but for others only He offered for himself that is for his own sins Lev. 16. 6. Wherefore the Vul. Lat. reads the words pro suâ et Populi ignorantiâ very corruptly changing the number of the substantive but very truly applying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Priest as well as unto the People Others would supply the words by adding ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and so repeat ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But the Apostle expresseth the words of the Institution ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which for himself leaving the application unto the series of the context and the nature of the service For himself that is his own sins 2. The blood was offered also for the People that is the People of Israel the People of God the Church the whole congregation And as the High Priest herein bore the Person of Christ so did this People of all the elect of God who were represented in them and by them It was that People and not the whole world that the High Priest offered for And it is the elect People alone for whom our great High Priest did offer and doth intercede 7. That which he offered for it was their errors or their sins The Socinians some of them not for want of understanding but out of hatred unto the true sacrifice of Christ contend from hence that the Anniversary Sacrifice on the great day of expiation the principal representation of it was only for sins of ignorance of imbecillity and weakness But it is a fond Imagination at least the argument from these words for it is so For besides that the scripture calls all sins by the name of errors Psal. 19. 12. Psal. 25. 7. and the worst the most provoking of all sins is expressed by erring in heart Psal. 95. 10. and the LXX frequently render to sin by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2 Chron. 16. 9. 1 Sam. 16. 22. Hos. 4. 16. c. Besides I say this application of the word elswhere unto all sorts of sins in the enumeration of those errors of the People which the High Priest offered for they are said to be all their iniquities and all their transgressions in all their sins Lev. 16. 21. Wherefore to offer for the errors of the People it is to offer for all their sins of what nature soever they were And they are thus called because indeed there is no such Predominancy of malice in any sin in this world as wherein there is not a mixture of error either notional or practical of the mind or of the heart which is the cause or a great occasion of it See 1 Tim. 1. 13. Matth. 12. 31 32. Here indeed lies the original of all sin The mind being filled with Darkness and Ignorance alienates the whole soul from the life of God And as it hath superadded prejudices which it receives from corrupt affections yet neither directs nor judgeth aright as unto particular acts and duties under all present circumstances And what notions of good and evil it cannot but retain it gives up in particular instances unto the occasions of sin Wherefore 1 spiritual illumination of the mind is indispensably necessary unto our walking with God 2 Those who would be preserved from sin
that he did not do it by the blood of Goats and Calves and this is introduced with the disjunctive negative ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã neither which refers unto what was before denied of him as unto his entrance into the Tabernacle made with hands He did not do so neither did he make his entrance by the blood of Calves and Goats A difference from and opposition unto the entrance of the High Priest annually into the Holy Place is intended It must therefore be considered how he so entred This entrance is at large described Lev. 16. And 1 It was by the blood of a Bullock and a Goat which the Apostle here renders in the plural number Calves and Goats because of the annual repetition of the same Sacrifice 2 The order of the Institution was that first the Bullock or Calf was offered then the Goat the one for the Priest the other for the People This order belonging not at all unto the purpose of the Apostle he expresseth it otherwise Goats and Calves ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is a Goat a word that expresseth Totum genus Caprinum that whole kind of Creature be it young or old So the Goats of his offering were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Kids ver 5. that is young He-Goats for the precise time of their age is not determined So the Bullock the Priest offered for himself was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã juvencus ex genere bovino which is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for it expresseth genus vitulinum all young Cattel Concerning these it is intimated in this negative as unto Christ that the High Priest entred into the Holy Place ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by their blood which we must enquire into Two things belonged unto the office of the High Priest with respect unto this blood For 1 He was to offer the blood both of the Bullock and the Goat at the Altar for a sin-offering Lev. 16. 6 11. For it was the blood wherewith alone Atonement was to be made for sin and that at the Altar Lev. 17. 11. so far is it from truth that expiation for sin was made only in the Holy Place and that it is so by Christ without blood as the Socinians imagine 2 He was to carry some of the blood of the Sacrifice into the Sanctuary to sprinkle it there to make Atonement for the Holy Place in the sense before declared And the enquiry is which of these the Apostle hath respect unto Some say it is the latter and that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã here is put for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by for with He entred with the blood of Goats and Calves namely that which he carried with him into the Holy Place So plead the Socinians and those that follow them with design to overthrow the Sacrifice which Christ offered in his Death and bloodsheding confining the whole expiation of sin in their sense of it unto what is done in Heaven But I have before disproved this surmise And the Apostle is so far from using the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã improperly for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so to frame a comparison between things wherein indeed there was no similitude as they dream that he useth it on purpose to exclude the sense which ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with would intimate For he doth not declare with what the High Priest entred into the Holy Place for he entred with Incense as well as with blood but what it was by vertue whereof he so entred as to be accepted with God So it is expresly directed Lev. 16. 2 3. Speak unto Aaron that he come not at all times into the Holy Place with a young Bullock for a sin-offering and a Ram for a burnt-offering shall he come Aaron was not to bring the Bullock into the Holy Place but he had Right to enter into it by the Sacrifice of it at the Altar Thus therefore the High Priest entred into the Holy Place by the blood of Goats and Calves namely by vertue of the Sacrifice of their blood which he had offered without at the Altar And so all things do exactly correspond between the Type and the Antitype For 2. It is affirmed positively of him that he entred by his own blood and that in opposition unto the other way ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but by his own blood It is a vain speculation contrary to the Analogie of faith and destructive of the true nature of the oblation of Christ and inconsistent with the dignity of his Person that he should carry with him into Heaven a part of that material blood which was shed for us on the earth This some have invented to maintain a comparison in that wherein is none intended The design of the Apostle is only to declare by vertue of what he entred as a Priest into the Holy Place And this was by vertue of his own blood when it was shed when he offered himself unto God This was that which laid the foundation of and gave him right unto the administration of his Priestly office in Heaven And hereby were all those good things procured which he effectually communicates unto us in and by that Administration This Exposition is the Center of all Gospel-Mysteries the object of the Admiration of Angels and Men unto all eternity What heart can conceive what tongue can express the Wisdom Grace and Love that is contained therein This alone is the stable foundation of faith in our access unto God Two things present themselves unto us 1. The unspeakable Love of Christ in offering himself and his own blood for us See Gal. 2. 20. Rev. 1. 5. 1 Ioh. 3. 16. Ephes. 5. 26 27. There being no other way whereby our sins might be purged and expiated chap. 10. 5 6 7. out of his infinite Love and Grace he condescended unto this way whereby God might be glorified and his Church sanctified and saved It were well if we did always consider aright what Love what Thankfulness what Obedience are due unto him on the account hereof 2. The Excellency and Efficacy of his Sacrifice is hereby demonstrated that through him our faith and hope may be in God He who offered this Sacrifice was the onely begotten of the Father the Eternal Son of God That which he offered was his own Blood God purchased his Church with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. How unquestionable how perfect must the Atonement be that was thus made how glorious the Redemption that was procured thereby This is that which the Apostle mentions in the close of this Verse as the effect of his Blood-shedding Having obtained eternal Redemption The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is variously rendered as we have seen The Vulgar Latin reads Redemptione aeterna inventa And those that follow it do say that things rare and so sought after are said to be found And Chrysost. inclines unto that Notion of the word But ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
is used in all good Authors for not only to find but to obtain by our endeavors so do we render it and so we ought to do Rom. 4. 1. Heb. 4. 16. He obtained effectually Eternal Redemption by the price of his Blood And it is mentioned in a Tense denoting the time past to signifie that he had thus obtained Eternal Redemption before he entred into the Holy Place How he obtained it we shall see in the consideration of the nature of the thing it self that was obtained Three things must be inquired into with what brevity we can for the Explication of these words 1 What is Redemption 2 Why is this Redemption called Eternal 3 How Christ obtained it 1. All Redemption respects a state of Bondage and Captivity with all the Events that do attend it The Object of it or those to be redeemed are only persons in that estate There is mention ver 15. of the Redemption of Transgressions but it is by a Metonymy of the Cause for the Effect It is Transgressions which cast men into that state from whence they are to be redeemed But both in the Scripture and in the common Notion of the word Redemption is the deliverance of persons from a state of Bondage And this may be done two ways 1 By Power 2 By payment of a Price That which is in the former way is only improperly and metaphorically so called For it is in its own nature a bare deliverance and is termed Redemption only with respect to the state of Captivity from whence it is a deliverance It is a vindication into liberty by any means So the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt though wrought meerly by Acts of Power is called their Redemption And Moses from his Ministry in that work is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Redeemer Acts 7. 35. But this Redemption is only metaphorically so called with respect unto the state of Bondage wherein the people were That which is properly so is by a Price paid as a valuable consideration ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is a Ransom a price of Redemption Thence are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Redemption and a Redeemer So the Redemption that is by Christ is every-where said to be a Price a Ransom See Mat. 20. 28. Mark 10. 45. 1 Cor. 6. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. It is the deliverance of persons out of a state of Captivity and Bondage by the payment of a valuable price or Ransom And the Socinians offer violence not only to the Scripture but to common sense it self when they contend that the Redemption which is constantly affirmed to be by a Price is metaphorical and that only proper which is by Power The Price or Ransom in this Redemption is two ways expressed 1 By that which gave it its worth and value that it might be a sufficient Ransom for all 2 By its especial nature The first is the Person of Christ himself He gave himself for us Gal. 2. 20. He gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. He offered himself to God ver 14. Eph. 5. 2. This was that which made the Ransom of an infinite value meet to redeem the whole Church God purchased the Church with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. The especial nature of it is that it was by Blood by his own Blood See Eph. 1. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. And this Blood of Christ was a Ransom or Price of Redemption partly from the unvaluableness of that Obedience which he yielded unto God in the shedding of it and partly because this Ransom was also to be an Atonement as it was offered unto God in Sacrifice For it is by Blood and no otherwise that Atonement is made Lev. 17. 11. Wherefore he is set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 24 25. That the Lord Jesus Christ did give himself a Ransom for Sin that he did it in the shedding of his Blood for us wherein he made his Soul an offering for Sin that herein and hereby he made Atonement and expiated our Sins and that all these things belonged unto our Redemption is the substance of the Gospel That this Redemption is nothing but the Expiation of Sin and that Expiation of Sin nothing but an Act of Power and Authority in Christ now in Heaven as the Socinians dream is to reject the whole Gospel Though the nature of this Redemption be usually spoken unto yet we must not here wholly put it by And the nature of it will appear in the consideration of the state from whence we are redeemed with the causes of it 1 The Meritorious Cause of it was Sin or our Original Apostasie from God Hereby we lost our primitive liberty with all the rights and priviledges thereunto belonging 2 The Supreme Efficient Cause is God himself As the Ruler and Iudge of all he cast all Apostates into a state of Captivity and Bondage For Liberty is nothing but peace with him But he did it with this difference Sinning Angels he designed to leave irrecoverably under this condition For Mankind he would find a Ransom 3 The Instrumental Cause of it was the Curse of the Law This falling on men brings them into a state of Bondage For it separates as to all relation of love and peace between God and them and gives life unto all the actings of sin and death wherein the misery of that state consists To be separate from God to be under the power of sin and death is to be in Bondage 4 The External Cause by the application of all other causes unto the Souls and Consciences of men is Satan His was the power of darkness his the power of death over men in that state and condition that is to make application of the terror of it unto their Souls as threatned in the Curse Heb. 2. 14 15. Hence he appears as the Head of this state of Bondage and men are in Captivity unto him He is not so in himself but as the external application of the causes of Bondage is committed unto him From hence it is evident that four things are required unto that Redemption which is a deliverance by Price or Ransom from this state For 1 it must be by such a Ransom as whereby the Guilt of Sin is expiated which was the Meritorious Cause of our Captivity Hence it is called the Redemption of Transgressions ver 14. that is of persons from that state and condition whereinto they were cast by sin or transgression 2 Such as wherewith in respect of God Atonement must be made and satisfaction unto his Justice as the Supreme Ruler and Judge of all 3 Such as whereby the Curse of the Law might be removed which could not be without undergoing of it 4 Such as whereby the Power of Satan might be destroyed How all this was done by the Blood of Christ I have at large declared elsewhere 2. This Redemption is said to be Eternal And it is so on
nor was there any constraint on Christ but he offered himself willingly through the eternal Spirit 2 She was to be had forth without the Camp ver 3. which the Apostle alludes unto Chap. 13. 11. representing Christ going out of the City unto his Suffering and Oblation 3 One did slay her before the face of the Priest and not the Priest himself So the hands of others Iews and Gentiles were used in the slaying of our Sacrifice 4 The Blood of the Heifer being slain was sprinkled by the Priest seven times directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation ver 4. So is the whole Church purified by the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ. 5 The whole Heifer was to be burned in the sight of the Priest ver 5. So was whole Christ Soul and Body offered up to God in the fire of love kindled in him by the eternal Spirit 6 Cedar wood Hysop and Scarlet were to be cast into the midst of the burning of the Heifer ver 6. which were all used by God's Institution in the purification of the unclean or the sanctification and dedication of any thing unto sacred use to teach us that all spiritual vertue unto these ends really and eternally was contained in the one offering of Christ. 7 Both the Priest who sprinkled the Blood the men that slew the Heifer and he that burned her and he that gathered her ashes were all unclean until they were washed ver 7 8 9 10. So when Christ was made a Sin-offering all the legal Uncleannesses that is the Guilt of the Church were on him and he took them away But it is the use of this Ordinance which is principally intended The Ashes of this Heifer being burned was preserved that being mixed with pure water it might be sprinkled on persons who on any occasion were legally unclean Whoever was so was excluded from all the Solemn Worship of the Church Wherefore without this Ordinance the worship of God and the holy state of the Church could not have been continued For the means causes and ways of legal defilements among them were very many and some of them unavoidable In particular every Tent and House and all persons in them were defiled if any one died among them which could not but continually fall out in their Families Hereon they were excluded from the Tabernacle and Congregation and all Duties of the Solemn Worship of God until they were purified Had not therefore these Ashes which were to be mingled with living water been always preserved and in a readiness the whole worship of God must quickly have ceased amongst them It is so in the Church of Christ. The Spiritual Defilements which befal Believers are many and some of them unavoidable unto them whil'st they are in this world yea their Duties the best of them have defilements adhering unto them Were it not but that the Blood of Christ in its purifying vertue is in a continual readiness unto Faith that God therein had opened a Fountain for Sin and Uncleanness the Worship of the Church would not be acceptable unto him In a constant application thereunto doth the exercise of Faith much consist The nature and use of this Ordinance is farther described by its object the unclean ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is those that were made common All those who had a liberty of approach unto God in his Solemn Worship were so far sanctified that is separated and dedicated And such as were deprived of this priviledge were made common and so unclean The Unclean especially intended in the Institution were those who were defiled by the dead Every one that by any means touched a dead body whether dying naturally or slain whether in the house or field or did bear it or assist in the bearing of it or were in the Tent or House where it was were all defiled no such person was to come into the Congregation or near the Tabernacle But it is certain that many Offices about the dead are works of Humanity and Mercy which morally defile not Wherefore there was a peculiar reason of the constitution of this defilement and this severe Interdiction of them that were so defiled from Divine Worship And this was to represent unto the People the Curse of the Law whereof Death was the great visible effect The present Iews have this Notion that defilement by the dead arose from the poyson that is dropt into them that dye by the Angel of death whereof see our Exposition on Chap. 2. 14. The meaning of it is that Death came in by Sin from the poysonous temptation of the old Serpent and befel men by the Curse which took hold of them thereon But they have lost the understanding of their own Tradition This belonged unto the bondage under which it was the Will of God to keep that People that they should dread Death as an effect of the Curse of the Law and the fruit of Sin which is taken away in Christ Heb. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 47. And these works which were unto them so full of defilement are now unto us accepted Duties of Piety and Mercy These and many others were excluded from an interest in the Solemn Worship of God upon ceremonial defilements And some vehemently contend that none were so excluded for moral defilements and it may be it is true for the matter is dubious But that it should thence follow that none under the Gospel should be so excluded for moral and spiritual Evils is a fond imagination Yea the Argument is firm that if God did so severely shut out from a participation in his Solemn Worship all those who were legally or ceremonially defiled much more is it his Will that those who live in spiritual or moral defilements should not approach unto him by the holy Ordinances of the Gospel The manner of the application of this purifying water was by sprinkling Being sprinkled or rather transitively sprinkling the unclean Not only the Act but the Efficacy of it is intended The manner of it is declared Numb 19. 17 18. The Ashes was kept by it self Where use was to be made of it it was to be mingled with clean living water water from the Spring The vertue was from the Ashes as it was the Ashes of the Heifer slain and burnt as a Sin-offering The water was used as the means of its application Being so mingled any clean person might dip a Bunch of Hysop see Psal. 51. 7. into it and sprinkle any thing or person that was defiled For it was not confined unto the Office of the Priest but was left unto every private person as is the continual application of the Blood of Christ. And this Rite of sprinkling was that alone in all Sacrifices whereby their continued efficacy unto Sanctification and Purification was expressed Thence is the Blood of Christ called the blood of sprinkling because of its efficacy unto our Sanctification as applied by Faith unto our Souls and Consciences The effect of
dignity and efficacy of all that he did did depend That which the Effect intended is ascribed unto is the Blood of Christ. And two things are to be enquired hereon 1 What is meant by the Blood of Christ. 2 How this Effect was wrought by it 1. It is not only that Material Blood which he shed absolutely considered that is here and elsewhere called the Blood of Christ when the work of our Redemption is ascribed unto it that is intended But there is a double consideration of it with respect unto its Efficacy unto this End 1 That it was the pledge and the sign of all the internal Obedience and Sufferings of the Soul of Christ of his Person He became obedient unto death the death of the Cross whereon his blood was shed This was the great instance of his Obedience and of his Sufferings whereby he made Reconciliation and Atonement for Sin Hence the Effects of all his Sufferings and of all Obedience in his Sufferings are ascribed unto his Blood 2 Respect is had unto the Sacrifice and Offering of Blood under the Law The reason why God gave the People the Blood to make Atonement on the Altar was because the life of the flesh was in it Lev. 17. 11 14. So was the life of Christ in his Blood by the shedding whereof he laid it down And by his death it is as he was the Son of God that we are redeemed Herein he made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10. Wherefore this Expression of the Blood of Christ in order unto our Redemption or the Expiation of Sin is comprehensive of all that he did and suffered for those Ends inasmuch as the shedding of it was the way and means whereby he offered it or himself in and by it unto God 2. The second Enquiry is How the Effect here mentioned was wrought by the Blood of Christ. And this we cannot determine without a general consideration of the Effect it self and this is the purging of our Conscience from dead works ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã shall purge That is say some shall purifie and sanctifie by internal inherent sanctification But neither the sense of the word nor the Context nor the Exposition given by the Apostle of this very expression Chap. 10. 1 2. will admit of this restrained sense I grant it is included herein but there is somewhat else principally intended namely the Expiation of Sin with our Justification and Peace with God thereon 1 For the proper sense of the word here used see our Exposition on Chap. 1. 3. Expiation Lustration carrying away punishment by making Atonement are expressed by it in all good Authors 2 The Context requires this sense in the first place For First The Argument here used is immediately applied to prove that Christ hath obtained for us eternal Redemption But Redemption consists not in internal Sanctification only although that be a necessary consequent of it But it is the pardon of Sin through the Aronement made or a price paid In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Eph. 1. 7. Secondly In the Comparison insisted on there is distinct mention made of the Blood of Bulls and Goats as well as of the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkled But the first and principal use of Blood in Sacrifice was to make Atonement for sin Lev. 17. 11. Thirdly The End of this Purging is to give boldness in the service of God and peace with him therein that we may serve the living God But this is done by the expiation and pardon of Sin with justification thereon Fourthly It is Conscience that is said to be purged Now Conscience is the proper seat of the guilt of Sin it is that which chargeth it on the Soul and which hinders all approach unto God in his service with liberty and boldness unless it be removed which Fifthly Gives us the best consideration of the Apostle's Exposition of this expression Chap. 10. 1 2. For he there declares that to have the Conscience purged is to have its condemning power for sin taken away and cease There is therefore under the same name a twofold Effect here ascribed unto the Blood of Christ the one in answer and opposition unto the Effect of the Blood of Bulls and Goats being offered the other in answer unto the Effect of the Ashes of an Heifer being sprinkled The first consisting in making Atonement for our sins the other in the sanctification of our persons And there are two ways whereby these things are procured by the Blood of Christ. 1 By its offering whereby Sin is expiated 2 By its sprinkling whereby our persons are sanctified The first ariseth from the satisfaction he made unto the justice of God by undergoing in his death the punishment due to us being made therein a Curse for us that the blessing might come upon us therein as his death was a Sacrifice as he offered himself unto God in the shedding of his Blood he made Atonement The other from the vertue of his Sacrifice applied unto us by the Holy Spirit which is the sprinkling of it so doth the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanse us from all our Sins The Socinian Expositor on this place endeavors by a long perplexed discourse to evade the force of this testimony wherein the expiation of Sin is directly assigned unto the Blood of Christ. His pretence is to shew how many ways it may be so but his design is to prove that really it can be so by none at all For the Assertion as it lies in terms is destructive of their Heresie Wherefore he proceeds on these Suppositions 1 That the Expiation of Sin is our deliverance from the punishment due unto Sin by the power of Christ in Heaven But this is diametrically as opposite unto the true Nature of it so unto its Representation in the Sacrifices of old whereunto it is compared by the Apostle and from whence he argueth Neither is this a tolerable Exposition of the words The Blood of Christ in answer unto what was represented by the Blood of the Sacrifices of the Law doth purge our Consciences from dead works that is Christ by his power in Heaven doth free us from the punishment due to Sin 2 That Christ was not a Priest until after his Ascension into Heaven That this Supposition destroys the whole Nature of that Office hath been sufficiently before declared 3 That his offering himself unto God was the presenting of himself in Heaven before God as having done the Will of God on the earth But as this hath nothing in it of the nature of a Sacrifice so what is asserted by it can according to these men be no way said to be done by his Blood seeing they affirm that when Christ doth this he hath neither flesh nor blood 4 That the Resurrection of Christ gave all Efficacy unto his Death But the truth is it was his Death and what he effected therein
Divine Nature But I shall leave the Reader to chuse whether sense he judgeth suitable unto the scope of the place either of them being so unto the Analogy of Faith The Socinians understanding that both these Interpretations are equally destructive to their Opinions the one concerning the Person of Christ the other about the Nature of the Holy Ghost have invented a sense of these words never before heard of among Christians For they say that by the Eternal Spirit a certain Divine Power is intended whereby the Lord Christ was freed from Mortality and made Eternal that is no more obnoxious unto death By virtue of this Power they say he offered himself unto God when he entred into Heaven than which nothing can be spoken more fond or impious or contrary unto the design of the Apostle For 1 Such a Power as they pretend is no where called the Spirit much less the Eternal Spirit and to feign significations of words without any countenance from their use elsewhere is to wrest them at our pleasure 2 The Apostle is so far from requiring a Divine Power rendering him immortal antecedently unto the offering of himself as that he declares that he offered himself by the Eternal Spirit in his death when he shed his blood whereby our consciences are purged from dead works 3 This Divine Power rendering Christ immortal is not peculiar unto him but shall be communicated unto all that are raised unto glory at the last day And there is no colour of an opposition herein unto what was done by the High Priests of old 4 It proceeds on their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in this matter which is that the Lord Christ offered not himself unto God before he was made immortal which is utterly to exclude his death and blood from any concernment therein which is as contrary unto the truth and scope of the place as darkness is to light 5 Wherever there is mention made elsewhere in the Scripture of the Holy Spirit or the Eternal Spirit or the Spirit absolutely with reference unto any actings of the Person of Christ or on it either the Holy Spirit or his own Divine Nature is intended See Isa. 61. 1 2. Rom. 1. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 18. Wherefore Grotius forsakes this Notion and otherwise explains the words Spiritus Christi qui non tantum fuit vivus ut in vita terrena sed in aeternum corpus sibi adjunctum vivificans If there be any sense in these words it is the rational Soul of Christ that is intended And it is most true that the Lord Christ offered himself in and by the actings of it For there are no other in the Humane Nature as to any duties of obedience unto God But that this here should be called the Eternal Spirit is a vain conjecture For the spirits of all men are equally eternal and do not only live here below but quicken their Bodies after the Resurrection for ever This therefore cannot be the ground of the especial efficacy of the blood of Christ. This is the second thing wherein the Apostle opposeth the Offering of Christ unto the offerings of the Priests under the Law 1 They offered Bulls and Goats He offered Himself 2 They offered by a material Altar and Fire He by the Eternal Spirit That Christ should thus offer Himself unto God and that by the Eternal Spirit is the center of the mystery of the Gospel An attempt to corrupt to pervert this glorious Truth are designs against the Glory of God and Faith of the Church The depth of this mystery we cannot dive into the height we cannot comprehend We cannot search out the greatness of it of the wisdom the love the grace that is in it And those who chuse rather to reject it than to live by Faith in an humble admiration of it do it at the peril of their souls Unto the Reason of some men it may be Folly unto Faith it is full of Glory In the consideration of the Divine Actings of the Eternal Spirit of Christ in the offering of himself of the holy exercise of all grace in the humane nature that was offered of the nature dignity and efficacy of this Sacrifice Faith finds life food and refreshment Herein doth it contemplate the wisdom the righteousness the holiness and grace of God herein doth it view the wonderful condescension and love of Christ and from the whole is strengthned and encouraged Thirdly It is added that he thus offered himself without spot This Adjunct is descriptive not of the Priest but of the Sacrifice it is not a qualification of his Person but of the Offering Schlictingius would have it that this word denotes not what Christ was in himself but what he was freed from For now in Heaven where he offered himself he is freed from all infirmities and from any spot of mortality which the High Priest was not when he entered into the Holy Place such irrational fancies do false Opinions force men to take up withal But 1 There was no spot in the mortality of Christ that he should be said to be freed from it when he was made immortal A spot signifies not so much a desect as a fault And there was no fault in Christ from which he was freed 2 The Allusion and respect herein unto the legal institutions is evident and manifest The Lamb that was to be slain and offered was antecedently thereunto to be without blemish it was to be neither lame nor blind nor have any other defect With express respect hereunto the Apostle Peter affirms that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18. And Christ is not only called the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world John 1. 29. that is by his being slain and offered but is represented in the worship of the Church as a Lamb slain Rev. 5. 6. It is therefore to offer violence unto the Scripture and common understanding to seek for this qualification any where but in the humane nature of Christ antecedently unto his death and blood-shedding Wherefore this expression without spot respects in the first place the purity of his Nature and the holiness of his Life For although this principally belonged unto the necessary qualifications of his Person yet were they required unto him as he was to be the Sacrifice He was the Holy One of God holy barmless undefiled separate from sinners he did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth he was without spot This is the moral sense and signification of the word But there is a legal sense of it also It is that which is meet and fit to be a Sacrifice For it respects all that was signified by the legal institution concerning the integrity and perfection of the Creatures Lambs or Kids that were to be sacrificed Hence were all those Laws fulfilled and accomplished There was nothing in him nothing wanting unto him that
the infallible connexion of these things the blood of Christ and the purging of the Conscience that is in all that betake themselves thereunto It shall do it that is effectually and infallibly 2. Respect is had herein unto the generality of the Hebrews whether already professing the Gospel or now invited unto it And he proposeth this unto them as the advantage they should be made partakers of by the relinquishment of Mosaical Ceremonies and betaking themselves unto the Faith of the Gospel For whereas before by the best of legal Ordinances they attained no more but an outward sanctification as unto the flesh they should now have their Conscience infallibly purged from dead works Hence it is said your Conscience Some Copies read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã our But there is no difference in the sense I shall retain the common reading as that which refers unto the Hebrews who had been always exercised unto thoughts of Purification and Sanctification by one means or another For the Explication of the words we must enquire 1 What is meant by dead works 2 What is their relation unto Conscience 3 How Conscience is purged of them by the blood of Christ. 1. By dead works sins as unto their guilt and defilement are intended as all acknowledge And several Reasons are given why they are so called As 1 Because they proceed from a principle of spiritual death or are the works of them who have no vital principle of holiness in them Eph. 2. 1 5. Col. 2. 13. 2 Because they are useless and fruitless as all dead things are 3 They deserve death and tend thereunto Hence they are like rotten bones in the Grave accompanied with worms and corruption And these things are true Howbeit I judge there is a peculiar reason why the Apostle calls them dead works in this place For there is an allusion herein unto dead bodies and legal defilement by them For he hath respect unto Purification by the Ashes of the Heifer And this respected principally uncleanness by the dead as is fully declared in the institution of that Ordinance As men were purified by the sprinkling of the Ashes of an Heifer mingled with living water from defilements contracted by the dead without which they were separated from God and the Church so unless men are really purged from their moral defilements by the blood of Christ they must perish for ever Now this defilement from the dead as we have shewed arose from hence that Death was the effect of the Curse of the Law wherefore the guilt of sin with respect unto the Curse of the Law is here intended in the first place and consequently its pollution This gives us the state of all men who are not interessed in the Sacrifice of Christ and the purging vertue thereof As they are dead in themselves dead in trespasses and sins so all their works are dead works Other works they have none They are as a Sepulchre filled with bones and corruption Every thing they do is unclean in it self and unclean unto them Unto them that are defiled nothing is pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled Tit. 1. 15. Their works come from spiritual death and tend unto eternal death and are dead in themselves Let them deck and trim their carkases whil'st they please let them âend their faces with paintings and multiply their ornaments with all excess of bravery within they are full of dead bones of rotten defiled polluting works That world which appears with so much outward beauty lustre and glory is all polluted and defiled under the eye of the most Holy 2. These dead works are further described by their relation unto our persons as unto what is peculiarly affected with them where they have as it were their seat and residence And this is the Conscience He doth not say purge your souls or your minds or your persons but your conscience And this he doth 1 In general in opposition unto the purification by the Law It was there the dead body that did defile it was the body that was defiled it was the body that was purified those Ordinances sanctified to the purifying of the flesh But the defilements here intended are spiritual internal relating unto Conscience and therefore such is the purification also 2 He mentions the respect of these dead works unto Conscience in particular because it is Conscience which is concerned in peace with God and confidence of approach unto him Sin variously affects all the faculties of the soul and there is in it a peculiar defilement of Conscience Tit. 1. 15. But that wherein Conscience in the first place is concerned and wherein it is alone concerned is a sense of guilt This brings along with it fear and dread whence the sinner dares not approach into the presence of God It was Conscience which reduced Adam into the condition of hiding himself from God his eyes being opened by a sense of the guilt of sin So he that was unclean by the touching of a dead body was excluded from all approach unto God in his worship Hereunto the Apostle alludes in the following words That we may serve the living God For the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã properly denotes that service which consists in the observation and performance of solemn worship As he who was unclean by a dead body might not approach unto the worship of God until he was purified So a guilty sinner whose Conscience is affected with a sense of the guilt of sin dares not to draw nigh unto or appear in the presence of God It is by the working of Conscience that sin deprives the soul of peace with God of boldness or confidence before him of all right to draw nigh unto him Until this relation of sin unto the Conscience be taken away until there be no more conscience of sin as the Apostle speaks Chap. 10. 2. that is Conscience absolutely judging and condemning the person of the sinner in the sight of God there is no right no liberty of access unto God in his service nor any acceptance to be obtained with him Wherefore the purging of Conscience from dead works doth first respect the guilt of sin and the vertue of the blood of Christ in the removal of it But 2dly there is also an inherent defilement of Conscience by sin as of all other faculties of the soul. Hereby it is rendred unmeet for the discharge of its office in any particular duties With respect hereunto Conscience is here used Synecdochically for the whole soul and all the faculties of it yea our whole spirit souls and bodies which are all to be cleansed and sanctified 1 Thes. 5. 23. To purge our Conscience is to purge us in our whole persons This being the state of our Conscience this being the respect of dead works and their defilement to it and us we may consider the relief that is necessary in this case and what that is which is here proposed 1. Unto
be done by that Covenant against which the Sins were committed neither by the Priests nor Sacrifices nor any other Duties of it Therefore had he promised the Abolition of it because of its weakness and insufficiency unto this end as also the introduction of a new to supply its defects as we have seen at large in the Exposition of the foregoing Chapter For it became the Wisdom Goodness and Grace of God upon the removal of the other for its insufficiency to establish another that should be every way effectual unto his purpose namely the Communication of an Eternal Inheritance unto them that are called But then the Enquiry will be How this Covenant or Testament shall effect this end what is in it what belongs unto it that should be so effectual and by what means it might attain this end All these are declared in the words And Sixthly In general all this arose from hence that it had a Mediator and that the Lord Christ the Son of God was this Mediator The dignity of his Person and thereon both the Excellency and Efficacy of his Priestly Office whereunto alone respect is had in his being called here a Mediator he had abundantly before demonstrated Although the word in general be of a larger signification as we have declared on Chap. 8. 6. yet here it is restrained unto his Priestly Office and his acting therein For whereas he had treated of that alone in the foregoing Chapter here declaring the Grounds and Reasons of the necessity of it he says for this cause is he the Mediator And proceeding to shew in what sense he considers him as a Mediator doth it by his being a Testator and dying which belongs to his Priestly Office alone And the sole end which in this place he assigns unto his Mediatory Office is his death That by means of death Whereas therefore there were Sins committed under the first Covenant and against it and would have been so for ever had it continued which it was no way able so to take away as that the called might receive the Inheritance the Lord Christ undertook to be the Mediator of that Covenant which was provided as a Remedy against these Evils For herein he undertook to answer for and expiate all those Sins Whereas therefore Expiation of Sin is to be made by an Act towards God with whom alone Atonement is to be made so as that they may be pardoned the Mediation of Christ here intended is that whereby suffering death in our stead in the behalf of all that are called he made Atonement for Sin But moreover God had a further design herein He would not only free them that are called from that death which they deserved by their Sins against the first Covenant but give them also a Right and Title unto an Eternal Inheritance that is of Grace and Glory Wherefore the Procurement hereof also depends on the Mediation of Christ. For by his Obedience unto God in the discharge thereof he purchased for them this Inheritance and bequeathed it unto them as the Mediator of the New Testament The Provision of this Mediator of the New Testament is the greatest Effect of the infinite Wisdom Love and Grace of God This is the Center of his Eternal Counsels In the womb of this one Mercy all others are contained Herein will he be glorified unto Eternity 1 The first Covenant of Works was broken and disannulled because it had no Mediator 2 The Covenant at Sinai had no such Mediator as could expiate Sin Hence 3 Both of them became means of Death and Condemnation 4 God saw that in the making the New Covenant it was necessary to put all things into the hand of a Mediator that it also might not be frustrated 5 This Mediator was not in the first place to preserve us in the state of the New Covenant but to deliver us from the guilt of the breach of the former and the Curse thereon To make provision for this End was the Effect of Infinite Wisdom Seventhly The especial way and means whereby this Effect was wrought by this Mediator was by death Morte obita facta interveniente intercedente by means of death say we Death was the means that whereby the Mediator procured the Effect mentioned That which in the foregoing Verse is ascribed unto the Blood of Christ which he offered as a Priest is here ascribed unto his death as a Mediator For both these really are the same only in the one the thing it self is expressed it was death in the other the manner of it it was by blood in the one what he did and suffered with respect unto the Curse of the first Covenant it was death in the other the ground of his making Expiation for Sin by his death or how it came so to do namely not meerly as it was death or penal but as it was a voluntary Sacrifice or Oblation It was therefore necessary unto the End mentioned that the Mediator of the New Testament should dye not as the High Priests of old dyed a natural death for themselves but as the Sacrifice dyed that was slain and offered for others He was to dye that death which was threatned unto Transgressions against the first Covenant that is death under the Curse of the Law There must therefore be some great Cause and End why this Mediator being the onely begotten of the Father should thus dye This was say the Socinians that he might confirm the Doctrine that he taught He dyed as a Martyr not as a Sacrifice But 1 There was no need that he should dye unto that End For his Doctrine was sufficiently confirmed by the Scriptures of the Old Testament the Evidence of the Presence of God in him and the Miracles which he wrought 2 Notwithstanding their pretence they do not assign the Confirmation of his Doctrine unto his Death but unto his Resurrection from the dead Neither indeed do they allow any gracious Effect unto his death either towards God or men but only make it something necessarily antecedent unto what he did of that kind Nor do they allow that he acted any thing at all towards God on our behalf Whereas the Scripture constantly assigns our Redemption Sanctification and Salvation to the death and blood of Christ. These Persons 1 deny that of it self it hath any influence into them wherefore 2 they say that Christ by his death confirmed the New Covenant but hereby they intend nothing but what they do also in the former or the Confirmation of his Doctrine with an addition of somewhat worse For they would have him to confirm the Promises of God as by him declared and no more as though he were God's Surety to us and not a Surety for us unto God Neither do they assign this unto his Death but unto his Resurrection from the dead But suppose all this and that the death of Christ were in some sense useful and profitable unto these Ends which is all they plead
the words VER XVI For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator THere are two things in the words 1 A Supposition of a Testament 2 What is required thereunto In the first there is 1 The Note of Inference 2 The Supposition it self The first is the Particle For. This doth not infer a Reason to ensue of what he had before affirmed which is the common use of that Illative but only the Introduction of an Illustration of it from what is the usage of Mankind in such cases on supposition that this Covenant is also a Testament For then there must be the death of the Testator as it is in all Testaments amongst men The Supposition it self is in those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Verb Substantive is wanting where a Testament is so it is by us supplied it may be not necessarily For the Expression of where a Testament is may suppose that the death of the Testator is required unto the making of a Testament which as the Apostle sheweth in the next Verse it is not but only unto its Execution In the case of a Testament namely that it may be executed is the meaning of the words where that is wherever Amongst all sorts of men living according unto the light of Nature and the conduct of Reason the making of Testaments is in use For without it neither can private Industry be encouraged nor publick Peace maintained Wherefore as was before observed the Apostle argueth from the common usage of mankind resolved into the Principles of Reason and Equity 2. What is required unto the Validity of a Testament and that is the death of the Testator And the way of the Introduction of this death unto the validity of a Testament is by being brought in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that it enter namely after the ratifying of the Testament to make it of force or to give it operation The Testament is made by a living man but whil'st he lives it is dead or of no use That it may operate and be effectual death must be brought into the account This death must be the death of the Testator ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is he who disposeth of things who hath right so to do and actually doth it This in a Testament is the Testator And ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã have in the Greek the same respect unto one another as Testamentum and Testator in the Latine Wherefore if the New Covenant hath the nature of a Testament it must have a Testator and that Testator must dye before it can be of force and efficacy which is what was to be proved This is further confirmed VER XVII For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilest the Testator liveth IT is not of the making and constitution of a Testament but of the force and execution of it that he speaks And in these words he gives a Reason of the necessity of the death of the Testator thereunto And this is because the validity and efficacy of the Testament depends solely thereon And this reason he introduceth by the Conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For. A Testament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is of force say we that is firm stable not to be disannull'd For if it be but a mans Testament yet if it be confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereunto Gal. 3. 15. It is ratified made unalterable so as that it must be executed according unto the mind of the Testator And it is so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã among them that are dead after men are dead that is those who make the Testament For it is opposed unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whil'st the Testator liveth For Testaments are the Wills of dead men Living men have no Heirs And this sense is declared in those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quandoquidem quoniam seeing that otherwise say we without this accession unto the making of a Testament As yet it prevaileth not it is not of force for the actual distribution of the Inheritance or the Goods of the Testator Two things must yet farther be declared 1 What are the Grounds or general Reasons of this Assertion 2 Where lies the force of the Argument from it 1. The force of a Testament depends on the death of the Testator or the death of the Testator is required to make it effectual for these two Reasons 1 Because a Testament is no Act or Deed of a man whereby he presently and in the making of it conveys gives or grants any part of his possession unto another or others so as that it should immediately thereon cease to be his own and become the propriety of those others all such Instruments of Contract Bargain Sale or Deeds of Gift are of another nature they are not Testaments A Testament is only the signification of the Will of a man as unto what he will have done with his Goods after his death Wherefore unto the force and execution of it his death is necessary 2 A Testament that is only so is alterable at the pleasure of him that makes it whil'st he is alive Wherefore it can be of no force whil'st he is so for that he may change it or disannul it when he pleaseth The foundation therefore of the Apostles Argument from this usage amongst men is firm and stable 2. Whereas the Apostle argueth from the Proportion and Similitude that is between this New Testament or Covenant and the Testaments of men we may consider what are the things wherein that Similitude doth consist and shew also wherein there is a dissimilitude whereunto his Reasonings are not to be extended For so it is in all comparisons the Comparates are not alike in all things especially where things spiritual and temporal are compared together So was it also in all the Types of old Every person or every thing that was a Type of Christ were not so in all things in all that they were And therefore it requires both wisdom and diligence to distinguish in what they were so and in what they were not that no false Inferences or Conclusions be made from them So is it in all Comparisons and therefore in the present instance we must consider wherein the things compared do agree and wherein they differ 1. They agree principally in the death of the Testator This alone makes a Testament among men effectual and irrevocable So is it in this New Testament It was confirmed and ratified by the death of the Testator Jesus Christ and otherwise could not have been of force This is the fundamental agreement between them which therefore alone the Apostle expresly insisteth on although there are other things which necessarily accompany it as essential unto every Testament as 2. In every Testament amongst men there are Goods disposed and bequeathed unto Heirs or Legatees which were the Property of the
Testator Where a man hath nothing to give or bequeath he can make no Testament For that is nothing but his Will concerning the disposal of his own Goods after his decease So is it in this New Testament All the Goods of Grace and Glory were the Property the Inheritance of Christ firmly instated in him alone For he was appointed Heir of all things But in his death as a Testator he made a Bequeathment of them all unto the Elect appointing them to be Heirs of God Coheirs with himself And this also is required unto the nature and essence of a Testament 3. In a Testament there is always an absolute Grant made of the Goods bequeathed without condition or limitation So is it here also the Goods and Inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven are bequeathed absolutely unto all the Elect so as that no intervenience can defeat them of it And what there is in the Gospel which is the Instrument of this Testament that prescribes Conditions unto them that exacts terms of Obedience from them it belongs unto it as it is a Covenant and not as a Testament Yet 4. It is in the Will and Power of the Testator in and by his Testament to assign and determine both the time season and way whereby those to whom he hath bequeathed his Goods shall be admitted unto the actual possession of them So is it in this case also The Lord Christ the great Testator hath determined the way whereby the Elect shall come to be actually possest of their Legacies namely by Faith that is in him Acts 26. 18. So also he hath reserved the time and season of their Conversion in this world and entrance into future glory in his own hand and power And these things belong unto the Illustration of the Comparison insisted on although it be only one thing that the Apostle argues from it touching the necessity of the death of the Testator But notwithstanding these instances of agreement between the New Covenant and the Testaments of men whereby it appears to have in it in sundry respects the nature of a Testament yet in many things there is also a disagreement between them evidencing that it is also a Covenant and abideth so notwithstanding what it hath of the nature of a Testament from the death of the Testator As 1. A Testator amongst men ceaseth to have any right in or use of the Goods bequeathed by him when once his Testament is of force And this is by reason of death which destroys all title and use of them But our Testator devests himself neither of Right nor Possession nor of the use of any of his Goods And this follows on a twofold difference the one in the Persons the other in the Goods or things bequeathed 1 In the Persons For a Testator amongst men dyeth absolutely he liveth not again in this world but lieth down and riseth not until the Heavens be no more Hereon all Right unto and all use of the Goods of this life ceaseth for ever Our Testator dyed actually and really to confirm his Testament but 1 He dyed not in his whole Person 2 In that Nature wherein he dyed he lived again and is alive for evermore Hence all his Goods are still in his own power 2 In the things themselves For the Goods bequeathed in the Testaments of men are of that nature as that the Propriety of them cannot be vested in many so as that every one should have a right unto and the enjoyment of all but in one onely But the spiritual good things of the New Testament are such as that in all the riches and fulness of them they may be in the possession of the Testator and of those also unto whom they are bequeathed Christ parts with no Grace from himself he diminisheth not his own Riches nor exhausts any thing from his own Fulness by his communication of it unto others Hence also 2. In the Wills of men if there be a Bequeathment of Goods made unto many no one can enjoy the whole Inheritance but every one is to have his own share and Portion only But in and by the New Testament every one is made Heir to the whole Inheritance All have the same and every one hath the whole For God himself thence becomes their Portion who is All unto All and All unto every one 3. In Humane Testaments the Goods bequeathed are such only as either descended unto the Testators from their Progenitors or were acquired during their lives by their own industry By their death they obtained no new Right or Title unto any thing only what they had before is now disposed of according unto their Wills But our Testator according unto an antecedent Contract between God the Father and him purchased the whole Inheritance by his own blood obtaining for us eternal Redemption 4. They differ principally in this That a Testament amongst men is no more but meerly so it is not moreover a Solemn Covenant that needs a confirmation suited thereunto The bare signification of the Will of the Testator witnessed unto is sufficient unto its constitution and confirmation But in this Mystery the Testament is not meerly so but a Covenant also Hence it was not sufficient unto its force and establishment that the Testator should dye only but it was also required that he should offer himself in Sacrifice by the shedding of his blood unto its confirmation These things I have observed because as we shall see the Apostle in the progress of his discourse doth not confine himself unto this Notion of a Testament but treats of it principally as it had the Nature of a Covenant And we may here observe 1. It is a great and gracious Condescension in the Holy Spirit to give Encouragement and Confirmation unto our Faith by a Representation of the Truth and reality of spiritual things in those which are temporal and agreeing with them in their general nature whereby they are presented unto the common understandings of Men. This way of proceeding the Apostle calls a speaking ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Gal. 3. 15. After the manner of men Of the same kind were all the Parables used by our Saviour For it is all one whether these Representations be taken from things real or from those which according unto the same Rule of Reason and Right are framed on purpose for that end 2. There is an irrevocable Grant of the whole Inheritance of Grace and Glory made unto the Elect in the New Covenant Without this it could not in any sense have the Nature of a Testament nor that Name given unto it For a Testament is such a free Grant and nothing else And our best Plea for them for an interest in them for a participation of them before God is from the free Grant and Donation of them in the Testament of Jesus Christ. 3. As the Grant of these things is free and absolute so the Enjoyment of them is secured from all interveniences by the
Language which the People understood and commonly spake And a Rule was herein prescribed unto the Church in all Ages if so be the Example of the Wisdom and Care of God towards his Church may be a Rule unto us 3. God never required the Observance of any Rites or Duties of Worship without a previous warranty from his Word The People took not on them they were not obliged unto Obedience with respect unto any positive Institutions until Moses had read unto them every precept out of the Book 4. The writing of this Book was an eminent Priviledge now first granted unto the Church leading unto a more perfect and stable condition then formerly it had enjoyed Hitherto it had lived on Oral Instructions from Traditions and by new immediate Revelations the evident Defects whereof were now removed and a standard of Divine Truth and Instruction set up and fixed among them 3dly There is the Rule whereby Moses proceeded herein or the Warranty he had for what he did According to the Law He read every Precept according to the Law It cannot be the Law in general that the Apostle intends for the greatest part of that Doctrine which is so called was not yet given or written nor doth it in any place contain any Precept unto this purpose Wherefore it is a particular Law Rule or Command that is intended According unto the Ordinance or Appointment of God Such was the Command that God gave unto Moses for the framing of the Tabernacle See thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed thee in the Mount Particularly it seems to be the Agreement between God and the People that Moses should be the Internuntius the Interpreter between them According unto this Rule Order or divine Constitution Moses read all the words from God out of the Book unto the People Or it may be the Law may here be taken for the whole Design of God in giving of the Law so as that according unto the Law is no more but according unto the Soveraign Wisdom and Pleasure of God in giving of the Law with all things that belong unto its Order and Use. And it is Good for us to look for Gods especial warranty for what we undertake to do in his service The second thing in the words is what Moses did immediately and Directly towards the Dedication or Consecration of this Covenant And there are three things to this purpose mentioned 1 What he made use of 2 How he used it 3 With respect unto what and whom 1. The first is expressed in these words He took the Blood of Calves and Goats with water and Scarlet-wool and Hyssop He took the Blood of the Beasts that were offered for Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings ver 5 6. Unto this End in their slaying he took all their Blood in Basons and made an equal Division of it The one half he sprinkled on the Altar and the other half he sprinkled on the People That which was sprinkled on the Altar was Gods Part and the other was put on the People Both the Mutual stipulation of God and the Congregation in this Covenant and the Equality of it or the Equity of its Terms were denoted hereby And herein lies the principal force of the Apostles Argument in these words Blood was used in the Dedication of the first Covenant This was the Blood of the Beasts offered in Sacrifice unto God Wherefore both Death and Death by blood-sheding was required unto the Confirmation of a Covenant So also therefore must the new Covenant be confirmed but with Blood and a Sacrifice far more precious than they were This Distribution of Blood that half of it was on the Altar and half of it on the People the one to make Attonement the other to purifie or Sanctifie was to teach the two-fold Efficacy of the Blood of Christ in making Attonement for Sin unto our Justification and the purifying of our Natures in Sanctification 2. With this Blood he took the things mentioned with respect unto its Use which was Sprinkling The manner of it was in part declared before The Blood being put into Basons and having water mixed with it to keep it fluid and aspersible He took a bunch or bundle of Hyssop bound up with Scarlet wool and dipping it into the Basons sprinkled the Blood until it was all spent in that Service This Rite or way of Sprinkling was chosen of God as an expressive token or sign of the effectual Communication of the Benefits of the Covenant unto them that were sprinkled Hence the Communication of the Benefits of the Death of Christ unto Sanctification is called the Sprinkling of his Blood 1 Pet. 1. 2. And our Apostle comprizeth all the effects of it unto that end under the name of the blood of Sprinkling chap. 12. 24. And I fear that those who have used the expression with some contempt when applyed by themselves unto the sign of the Communication of the Benefits of the Death of Christ in Baptisme have not observed that Reverence of Holy things that is required of us For this Symbol of Sprinkling was that which God himself chose and appointed as a meet and apt token of the Communication of Covenant-Mercy that is of his Grace in Christ Jesus unto our Souls And The Blood of the Covenant will not benefit or advantage us without an especial and particular Application of it unto our own Souls and Consciences If it be not as well Sprinkled upon us as it was offered unto God it will not avail us The Blood of Christ was not divided as was that of these Sacrifices the one half being on the Altar the other on the People but the Efficacy of the whole produced both these effects yet so as that the one will not profit us without the other We shall have no Benefit of the Attonement made at the Altar unless we have its efficacy on our own Souls unto their Purification And this we cannot have unless it be sprinkled on us unless particular Application be made of it unto us by the Holy Ghost in and by an especial Act of Faith in our selves 3. The Object of this Act of Sprinkling was the Book it self and all the People The same Blood was on the Book wherein the Covenant was recorded and the People that entred into it But whereas this Sprinkling was for purifying and purging it may be enquired Unto what end the Book it self was sprinkled which was holy and undefiled I Answer There were two things necessary unto the Dedication of the Covenant with all that belonged unto it 1 Attonement 2 Purification and in both these respects it was necessary that the Book it self should be sprinkled 1 As we observed before it was sprinkled as it lay upon the Altar where Attonement was made And this was plainly to signifie that Attonement was to be made by blood for sins committed against that book or the Law contained in it Without this that book would have
double Assertion in it 1 That almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood 2 That without shedding of Blood is no Remission In the first of these there is considerable the Assertion it self and the Limitation of it 1. The Assertion it self is that by the Law all things were purged with Blood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according unto the Law the Rule the Commands the Institution of it In that way of worship Faith and Obedience which the People were obliged unto by the Law According unto the Law there was a Necessity of the Blood of Sacrifices for the purging of Sin and making of Attonement This he inferres and concludes from what he had said before concerning the Dedication of the Covenant and the Purification of the Tabernacle with all the Vessels of its Ministry And from hence he designs to prove the Necessity of the Death of Christ and the Efficacy of his Blood for the purging of Sin whereof those legal things were Types and Representations Of these legal Purifications or purgings by Blood we have treated already 2. The Limitation of this Assertion is in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã almost Some few Purifications there were under the Law that were not by Blood Such as some judge was that by the Ashes of an Heifer mingled with water whereof we have treated on ver 13. But I am not certain that this may be esteemed a Purification without Blood For the Heifer whose Ashes were used in it was first slain and its blood poured out Afterwards the blood as well as the flesh was burnt and reduced unto Ashes Wherefore that way of Purification cannot be said to be without blood And it was a Type of the Purifying efficacy of the blood of Christ who offered himself an whole Burnt-offering unto God through the fire of the Eternal Spirit But there were two sorts of Purifications under the Law wherein blood was neither formally nor virtually applyed or used The one was by Fire in things that would endure it Numb 31. 23. And the Apostle speaks of things as well as Persons as the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã declares The other was by water whereof there were many Instances See Exod. 19. 10. Levit. 16. 26 28. chap. 22. 6 7. All other Representations were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in Blood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the Offering and Sprinkling of Blood From the consideration of the Purifications mentioned the Apostle adds the Limitation of Almost For the conceit of some of the Antients that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is as much as ferè and is to be joyned with purged were almost purged that is they were so only ineffectually is most improper For it is contrary to the natural construction of the words and the direct intention of the Apostle Only we may observe that the Purifications which were by fire and water were of such things as had no immediate Influence into the Worship of God or in such cases as wherein the Worship of God was not immediately concerned nor of such things wherewith Conscience was defiled They were only of external Pollutions by things in their own nature Indifferent and had nothing of Sin in them And the Sacred Institutions which were not concerning the immediate Worship of God nor things which in themselves did defile the Consciences of Men were as hedges and fences about those which really did so They served to warn Men not to come near those things which had a real defilement in themselves See Matth. 15. 16 17 18 19 20. Thus almost all things that is absolutely all which had any inward real Moral defilement were purged with Blood and directed unto the purging efficacy of the Blood of Christ. And we may observe that 1. There was a great variety of legal Purifications For as all of them together could not absolutely purge Sin but only direct unto what would do so so none of them by themselves could fully represent that one Sacrifice by blood whereby all sin was to be purged therefore were they multiplyed 2. This variety argues that in our selves we are ready to be Polluted on all occasions Sin cleaveth unto all that we do and is ready to defile us even in our best Duties 3. This variety of Institutions was a great part of the Bondage-state of the Church under the Old Testament a Yoke that they were not able to bear For it was almost an insuperable Difficulty to attain an Assurance that they had observed them all in a due manner the Penalties of their Neglect being very severe Besides the outward Observation of them was both burdensome and chargeable It is the Glory of the Gospel that we are directed to make our Address by Faith on all occasions unto that one Sacrifice by the Blood of Christ which cleanseth us from all our sins Howbeit many that are called Christians being ignorant of the Mystery thereof do again betake themselves unto other ways for the Purification of Sin which are multiplied in the Church of Rome 4. The great Mystery wherein God instructed the Church from the Foundation of the World especially by and under legal Institutions was that all purging of Sin was to be by blood This was that which by all Sacrifices from the Beginning and all Legal Institutions he declared unto Mankind Blood is the only means of Purging and Attonement This is the Language of the whole Law All was to manifest that the washing and purging of the Church from Sin was to be looked for from the blood of Christ alone The second Assertion of the Apostle is that without shedding of blood there is no Remission Some would have these words to contain an Application of what is spoken before unto the blood of Christ. But it is manifest that the Apostle yet continues in his Account of things under the Law and enters on the Application of them not before the next verse Wherefore these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã according to the Law or by vertue of its Institutions are here to be repeated By the Law without shedding of blood that is in Sacrifice there was no Remission Yet though that Season be particularly intended the Axiom is universally true and applicable unto the New Covenant Even under it without shedding of blood is no Remission The Curse of the Law was that he that sinned should die But whereas there is no man that liveth and sinneth not God had provided that there should be a Testification of the Remission of Sins and that the Curse of the Law should not be immediately executed on all that sinned This he did by allowing the People to make Attonement for their sins by blood that is the blood of Sacrifices Levit. 17. 11. For hereby God signified his Will and Pleasure in two things 1 That by this blood there should be a Political Remission granted unto sinners that they should not die under the sentence of the Law as
afterwards 7 This Imagination is destructive of the principal design and Argument of the Apostle For he proves the Imperfection of the Sacrifices of the Law and their insufficiency to consummate the Church from their annual Repetition affirming that if they could have perfected the Worshippers they would have ceased to have been offered Yet was that Sacrifice which he respects repeated only once a year But on this Supposition the Sacrifice of Christ must be offered always and never cease to be actually offered which reflects a greater Imperfection on it then was on those which were repeated only once a year But the Apostle expresly affirms that the Sacrifice which could effect its End must cease to be offered Chap. 10. 2. Whereas therefore by One offering he hath for ever perfected them that are Sanctified he doth not continue to offer himself though he doth so to appear in the Presence of God to make Application of the Vertue of that One offering unto the Church The Expositors of the Roman Church do raise an Objection on this place for no other End but that they may return an Answer unto it perniciously opposite unto and destructive of the Truth here taught by the Apostle though some of them do acknowledge that it is capable of another answer But this is that which they principally insist upon as needful unto their present Cause They say therefore that if Christ cease to offer himself then it seems that his Sacerdotal Office ceaseth also For it belongs unto that office to offer Sacrifices continually But there is no force in this Objection For it belongs to no Priest to offer any other or any more Sacrifices but what were sufficient and effectual unto the End of them and their office And such was the One Sacrifice of Christ. Besides though it be not actually repeated yet it is vertually applyed always and this belongs unto the present discharge of his Sacerdotal Office So doth also his Appearance in Heaven for us with his Intercession where he still continues in the actual exercise of his Priesthood so far as is needful or possible But they have an Answer of their own unto their own Objection They say therefore that Christ continueth to offer himself every day in the Sacrifice of the Mass by the hands of the Priests of their Church And this Sacrifice of him though it be unbloody yet is a true real Sacrifice of Christ the same with that which he offered on the Cross. It is better never to raise Objections then thus to answer them For this is not to expound the words but to dispute against the Doctrine of the Apostle As I shall briefly evince 1. That the Lord Christ hath by the One offering of himself for ever perfected them that are Sanctified is a Fundamental Article of Faith Where this is denied or overthrown either directly or by just Consequence the Church is overthrown also But this is expresly denied in the Doctrine of the frequent Repetition of his Sacrifice or of the offering of himself And there is no Instance wherein the Romanists do more expresly oppose the Fundamental Articles of Religion 2. The Repetition of Sacrifices arose solely from their Imperfection as the Apostle declares Chap. 10. 2. And if it undeniably proved an Imperfection in the Sacrifices of the Law that they were repeated once every year in one place only how great must the Imperfection of the Sacrifice of Christ be esteemed if it be not effectual to take away Sin and perfect them that are Sanctified unless it be repeated every day and that it may be in a thousand Places 3. To say that Christ offereth himself often is expresly and in Terms contradictory to the Assertion of the Apostle Whatever therefore they may apprehend of the offering of him by their Priests yet most certain it is that he doth not every day offer himself But as the Faith of the Church is concerned in no offering of Christ but that which he offered himself of himself by the eternal Spirit once for all so the pretence to offer him often by the Priests is highly Sacrilegious 4. The infinite actings of the Divine Nature in Supporting and Influencing of the Humane the inexpressible Operation of the Holy Ghost in him unto such a peculiar acting of all Grace especially of Zeal unto the Glory of God and compassion for the Souls of men as are inimitable unto the whole Creation were required unto the offering of himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling Savour unto God And how can a poor sinful Mortal man such as are the best of their Priests pretend to offer the same Sacrifice unto God 5. An unbloody Sacrifice is 1 A Contradiction in it self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is the only Sacrifice which the Apostle treats of is victimae mactatio as well as victimae mactatae oblatio It is a Sacrifice by death and that by blood-shedding other ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there never was any 2 If it might be supposed yet is it a thing altogether useless For without shedding of Blood there is no Remission The Rule I acknowledge is firstly expressed with respect unto legal Sacrifices and Oblations Yet is it used by the Apostle by an Argument drawn from the Nature and End of those Institutions to prove the necessity of blood-shedding in the Sacrifice of Christ himself for the Remission of Sin An unbloody Sacrifice for the Remission of Sin overthrows both the Law and the Gospel 3 It is directly contrary unto the Argument of the Apostle in the next verse wherein he proves that Christ could not offer himself often For he doth it by affirming that if he did so then must he often suffer that is by the Effusion of his Blood which was absolutely necessary in and unto his Sacrifice Wherefore an unbloody Sacrifice which is without Suffering whatever it be is not the Sacrifice of Christ. For if he be often offered he must often suffer as the Apostle affirms Nor is it unto any Purpose to say that this unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass receiveth its Vertue and Efficacy from the One Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross as it is pleaded by the defenders of it For the Question is not what value it hath nor whence it hath it but whether it be the Sacrifice of Christ himself or no. To sum up the substance of this whole Controversie The Sacrifice or Offering of Christ was 1 By Himself alone through the eternal Spirit 2 Was of his whole Humane Nature as to the matter of it He made his Soul an offering for Sin 3 Was by Death and Bloodshedding whereon its entire Efficacy as unto Attonement Reconciliation and the Sanctification of the Church do depend 4 Was once only offered and could be so no more from the Glory of his Person and the Nature of the Sacrifice it self 5 Was offered with such glorious internal actings of Grace as no Mortal creature can comprehend 6 Was accompanied with his bearing the
offer himself often not absolutely as though the Reiteration of any kind of Oblation were impossible but from the Nature of his especial Offering or Sacrifice which was with and by suffering that is his death and blood-shedding And this wholly explodes the Socinian Imagination of the Nature of the Offering of Christ. For if his Offering might be separated from his Suffering and were nothing but the Presentation of himself in the Presence of God in Heaven it might have been reiterated without any Inconvenience nor would there have been any force in the Arguing of the Apostle For if his Oblation be only that Presentation of himself if God had ordered that it should have been done only at certain seasons as once every year nothing inconvenient would have ensued But the Argument of the Apostle against the Repetition of the Sacrifice of Christ from the necessity of his suffering therein is full of Light and Evidence For 1. It was inconsistent with the Wisdom Goodness Grace and Love of God that Christ should often suffer in that way which was necessary unto the offering of himself namely by his Death and Bloodshedding It was not consistent with the Wisdom of God to provide that as the ultimate and only effectual Means of the Expiation of Sin which was insufficient for it For so it would have been if the Repetition of it had been necessary Nor was it so with his unspeakable love unto his Son namely that he should frequently suffer an ignominious and cursed death It is the Eternal Object of the Admiration of Men and Angels that he should do it once Had it been done often who could have understood the Love of the Father unto the Son and not rather have conceived that he regarded him not in comparison of the Church Whereas indeed his Love to him is greater than that unto all others and the Cause of it And moreover it would have been highly dishonourable unto the Son of God giving an Appearance that his Blood was of no more Value or Excellency then the blood of Beasts the Sacrifice whereof was often repeated 2. It was impossible from the Dignity of his Person Such a Repetition of Suffering was not consistent with the Glory of his Person especially as it was necessary to be demonstrated unto the Salvation of the Church That he once emptied himself and made himself of no Reputation that he might be obedient unto the Death the Death of the Cross proved a stumbling block unto the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles The Faith of the Church was secured by the Evident Demonstration of his Divine Glory which immediately ensued thereon But as the frequent Repetition hereof would have been utterly inconsistent with the Dignity of his Divine Person so the most raised Faith could never have attained a prospect of his Glory 3. It was altogether needless and would have been useless For as the Apostle Demonstrates by One offering of himself and that once offered he took away sin and for ever perfected them that are Sanctified Wherefore the Argument of the Apostle is firm on this Supposition that if he were often to offer himself then was he often to suffer also But that he should so do was as inconsistent with the Wisdom of God and the Dignity of his own Person as altogether needless as unto the End of his Offering And As the sufferings of Christ were necessary unto the Expiation of Sin so he suffered neither more nor oftener then was necessary 2dly The Argument is also built on another Supposition namely that there was a necessity of the Expiation of the Sin of all that were to be saved from the Foundation of the World For otherwise it might be objected that there was no need at all that Christ should either offer or suffer before he did so and that now it may be yet necessary that he should often offer himself seeing that all Sins before were either punished absolutely or their sins were expiated and themselves saved some other way And those by whom this supposition is rejected as it is by the Socinians can give no colour of Force unto the Argument of the Apostle although they invent many Allusions whereby they endeavour to give countenance unto it But whereas he discourseth of the only way and means of the Expiation of Sin to prove that it was done at once by the One offering of Christ which needed no Repetition He supposeth 1 That sin entred into the World from the Foundation of it or immediately upon its Foundation namely in the Sin and Apostacy of our first Parents 2 That notwithstanding this Entrance of it that many who were sinners as the Patriarchs from the Beginning and the whole Israel of God under the Old Testament had their sins expiated pardoned and were eternally saved 3 That None of the Sacrifices which they offered themselves none of the Religious Services which they performed either before or under the Law could expiate sin or procure the pardon thereof or consummate them in Conscience before God 4 That all this therefore was effected by Vertue of the Sacrifice or one offering of Christ. Hence it follows unavoidably that if the Vertue of this One offering did not extend unto the taking away of all their sins that then he must often have suffered and offered from the Foundation of the World or they must all have perished at least all but only those of that Generation wherein he might have once suffered But this he did not he did not thus often offer himself and therefore there was no need that he should so do though it were necessary that the High Priest under the Law should repeat his every year For if the Vertue of his one offering did extend it self unto the expiation of the sins of the Church from the Foundation of the World before it was offered much more might and would it extend it self without any Repetition unto the Expiation of the Sins of the whole Church unto the end of the World now it is actually offered This is the true Force and Reason of the Argument in these words which is cogent and conclusive And we may hence observe That The assured Salvation of the Church of Old from the Foundation of the World by Vertue of the one offering of Christ is a strong Confirmation of the Faith of the Church at present to look for and expect everlasting Salvation thereby To this End we may consider First That their Faith had all the Difficulties to conflict withal that our Faith is to be exercised with and yet it carried them through them all and was Victorious This Argument for the strengthening of our Faith the Apostle insists upon in the whole eleventh Chapter throughout In particular 1 They had all the Trials Afflictions and Temptations that we have Some of them unto such a Degree as the Community of Believers met not withal Yet was not their Faith by any of them prevailed against And why should we despond under
had its Consummation Wherefore both the Entrance and the End of this season are called by the same name the Beginning of it here and the End of it Mat. 28. 20. For the whole is but one entire Season And the Preposition ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in this construction with a Dative Case signifies the Entrance of any thing as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is at the approach of Death Wherefore whatever hath been or may be in the Duration of the world afterwards the Appearance of Christ to offer himself was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the end of the world that is at the entrance of the last season of Gods dispensation of Grace unto the Church Thus it was saith the Apostle in matter of Fact then did Christ offer himself and then only With respect unto this season so stated three things are affirmed of Christ in the following words 1. What he did He appeared 2. Unto what end to take away sin 3. By what means by the Sacrifice of himself But there is some Difficulty in the Distinction of these words and so variety in their Interpretation which must be removed For those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the Sacrifice of himself may be referred either unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the putting away of sin that goes before or unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was manifest that follows after In the first way the sense is He was manifest to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself In the latter he appeared by the Sacrifice of himself to put away sin which confines his Appearance unto his Sacrifice which sense is expressed by the Vulgar Translation per hostiam suam apparuit he appeared by his own Host say the Rhemists But the former Reading of the words is evidently unto the mind of the Apostle For his Appearance was what he did in general with respect unto the end mentioned and the way whereby he did it 1. There is what he did He appeared He was manifested some say that this Appearance of Christ is the same with his Appearance in the Presence of God for us mentioned in the foregoing verse But it is as another word that is used so another thing that is intended That Appearance was after his Sacrifice this is in order unto it That is in Heaven this was on Earth That is still continued this is that which was already accomplished at the Time limited by the Apostle Wherefore this Appearance this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or manifestation of Christ in the end of the world is the same with his being manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16 or his coming into the world or taking on him the seed of Abraham to this End that he might suffer and offer himself unto God For what is affirmed is opposed unto what is spoken immediately before namely of his suffering often since the Foundation of the world This he did not do but appeared was manifest that is in the flesh in the Ends of the world to suffer and to expiate sin Nor is the Word ever used to express the Appearance of Christ before God in Heaven His ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is his coming into the world by his Incarnation unto the Discharge of his Office His Appearance before God in Heaven is his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And his Illustrious Appearance at the last day is his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã though that word be used also to express his Glorious manifestation by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10 See 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 Joh. 3. 8. Tit. 2. 14. This therefore is the meaning of the word Christ did not come into the world he was not manifested in the flesh often since the Foundation of the world that he might often suffer and offer but he did so he so appeared was so manifest in the End of the world 2. The End of this Appearance of Christ was to put away sin And we must enquire both what is meant by sin and what by the putting of it away Wherefore by sin the Apostle intends the whole of its Nature and Effects in its Root and Fruits in its Guilt Power and Punishment Sin Absolutely and Universally Sin as it was an Apostacy from God as it was the Cause of all Distance between God and us as it was the work of the Devil Sin in all that it was and all that it could effect or all the Consequents of it Sin in its whole Empire and Dominion as it entred by the fall of Adam invaded our Nature in its Power oppressed our Persons with its Guilt filled the whole world with its fruits gave existence and Right unto Death and hell with power to Satan to rule in and over mankind so as it rendred us obnoxious unto the Curse of God and Eternal punishment In the whole Extent of sin he appeared to put it away that is with respect unto the Church that is sanctified by his Blood and dedicated unto God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which we render putting away is Abrogatio Dissolutio Destructio An Abrogation Disanulling Destroying Disarming It is the Name of taking away the Force Power and Obligation of a Law The Power of Sin as unto all its Effects and Consequents whether sinfull or Penal is called its Law the Law of Sin Rom. 8. 2. And of this Law as of others there are two Parts or Powers 1. It s Obligation unto punishment after the nature of all Penal Laws Hence it is called the Law of Death that whereon sinners are bound over unto Eternal Death This force it borrows from its Relation unto the Law of God and the curse thereof 2. It s impelling Ruling Power subjectively in the mindes of men leading them Captive into all enmity and disobedience unto God Rom. 7. 23. Christ appeared to abrogate this Law of sin to deprive it of its whole power 1. That it should not condemn us any more nor bind us over to punishment This he did by making Attonement for it by the Expiation of it undergoing in his own suffering the penalty due unto it which of necessity he was to suffer as often as he offered himself Herein consisted the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or abrogation of its Law principally 2. By the destruction of its subjective Power purging our Consciences from dead works in the way that hath been declared This was the principal end of the Appearance of Christ in the world 1 Joh. 3. 8. 3. The way whereby he did this was by the Sacrifice of himself ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That Sacrifice wherein he both suffered and offered himself unto God For that both are included the opposition made unto his often suffering doth evince This therefore is the design and meaning of these words to evidence that Christ did not offer himself unto God often more then once as the High-Priest offered every year before his entrance into the Holy place the Apostle declares the End and Effect of his
offering or Sacrifice which render the Repetition of it needless It was one once offered in the end of the world nor need be offered any more because of the Total abolition and destruction of sin at once made thereby What else concerns the things themselves spoken of will be comprized under the ensuing observations 1. It is the Prerogative of God and the effect of his wisdom to determine the times and seasons of the dispensation of Himself and his Grace unto the Church Hereon it depends alone that Christ appeared in the end of the world not sooner nor later as to the parts of that season Many things do evidence a condecency unto Divine wisdom in the determination of that season As 1. He testified his displeasure against Sin in suffering the generality of mankind to lye so long under the fatal effects of their Apostacy without relief or Remedy Act. 14. 16. Chap. 17. 30. Rom. 1. 21 24 26. 2. He did it To exercise the faith of the Church called by vertue of the promise in the expectation of its accomplishment And by the various wayes whereby God cherished their faith and hope was he glorified in all Ages Luk 1. 70. Mat. 13. 16. Luk. 10. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Hag. 2. 7. 3. To prepare the Church for the Reception of him partly by the glorious representation made of him in the Tabernacle and Temple with their worship partly by the Burden of Legal Institutions laid on them until his coming Gal. 3. 24. 4. To give the world a full and sufficient trial of what might be attained towards happiness and Blessedness by the excellency of all things here below Men had time to try what was in Wisdom Learning Moral Vertue Power Rule Dominion Riches Arts and whatever else is valuable unto Rational Natures They were all exalted unto their height in their possession and exercise before the Appearance of Christ and all manifested their own insufficiency to give the least real Relief unto Mankind from under the fruits of their Apostacy from God See 1 Cor. 1. 5. To give time unto Satan to fix and establish his Kingdom in the world that the destruction of him and it might be the more conspicuous and glorious These and sundry other things of a like nature do evince that there was a condecency unto Divine wisdom in the Determination of the season of the Appearance of Christ in the flesh Howbeit it is ultimately to be resolved into his Soveraign will and pleasure 2. God had a Design of Infinite Wisdom and Grace in his sending of Christ and his appearance in the world thereon which could not be frustrate He appeared to put away sin The footsteps of Divine wisdome and Grace herein I have enquired into in a peculiar Treatise and shall not here insist on the same Argument 3. Sin had erected a Dominion a Tyranny over all men as by a Law Unless this Law be abrogated and abolished we can have neither Deliverance nor Liberty Men generally think that they serve themselves of sin in the accomplishment of their lusts and gratification of the flesh But they are indeed servants of it and slaves unto it It hath gotten a power to command their obedience unto it and a power to bind them over to eternal death for the disobedience unto God therein As unto what belongs unto this Law and power See my Discourse of Indwelling Sin 4. No power of man of any meer Creature was able to evacuate disannul or abolish this Law of sin For 5. The Destruction and dissolution of this Law and power of sin was the great end of the coming of Christ for the discharge of his Priestly Office in the Sacrifice of himself No other way could it be effected And 6. It is the Glory of Christ it is the safety of the Church that by his one offering by the Sacrifice of himself once for all he hath abolished sin as unto the Law and condemning power of it VER XXVII XXVIII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sicut quem admodum ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Statutum constitutum est ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Sons of men of Adam all his Posterity ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that at one time a certain appointed time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. post hoc autem Postea verò and afterward Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and after their death the death of them So also Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one time at one time ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. ad exhaurienda peccata Rhem. to exhaust the sins of many without any sense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã may signifie to lift or bear up not at all to draw out of any deep place though there may be something in that allusion Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in himself he slew or sacrificed the sins of many in himself that is by the Sacrifice of himself he took them away Bez. ut in seipso attolleret multorum peccata that he might lift or bear up the sins of many in himself he took them upon himself as a Burden which he bare upon the Cross as opposed to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã afterwards not burdened with sin Others ad attollendum peccata multorum in semet ipsum to take up unto himself that is upon himself the sins of many The Syriack reads the last âause He shall appear the second time unto the Salvation of them that expect or look for him All others he shall appear unto or be seen by them that look for him unto Salvation unto which difference we shall speak afterwards VER XXVII XXVIII And in like manner as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this afterwards the judgment So also Christ was once offered to bear in himself the sin of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation These verses put a close unto the Heavenly Discourse of the Apostle concerning the Causes Nature Ends and Efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ wherewith the new Covenant was dedicated and confirmed And in the words there is a treble Confirmation of that Singularity and Efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ which he had pleaded before 1. In an Elegant instructive Similitude And as it is appointed ver 27. 2. In a declaration of the use and end of the Offering of Christ he was once offered to bear the Sins of many 3. In the consequent of it his second Appearance unto the Salvation of Believers ver 28. In the comparison we must first consider the force of it in general and explain the words That as we have observed which the Apostle designeth to confirm and illustrate is what he had pleaded in the foregoing verses concerning the Singularity and efficacy of the offering of Christ whereon also he takes occasion to declare the blessed
wisdom goodness and Grace The Subject spoken of is the offering of Christ. But it is here mentioned passively he was offered Most frequently it is expressed by his offering of himself the sacrifice he offered of himself For as the vertue of his offering depends principally on the dignity of his Person so his humane Soul his Mind Will and Affections with the fulness of the Graces of the Spirit resident and acting in them did concur unto the efficacy of his Offering and were necessary to render it an Act of Obedience a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God Ephes. 5. 2. Yea hereon principally depended his own Glory which arose not meerly from his suffering but from his obedience therein Phil. 2. 7 8. Wherefore he is most frequently said to offer himself 1. Because of the virtue communicated unto his offering by the Dignity of his Person 2. Because he was the only Priest that did offer 3. Because his Obedience therein was so acceptable unto God 4. Because this expresseth his love unto the Church he loved it and gave himself for it But as himself offered so his offering was himself His whole entire humane nature was that which was offered Hence it is thus passively expressed Christ was offered that is he was not only the Priest who offered but the Sacrifice that was offered Both were necessary that Christ should offer and that Christ should be offered And the Reason why it is here so expressed is because his offering is spoken of as it was by death and suffering For having affirmed that if he must often offer he must often suffer and compared his offering unto the once dying of men penally it is plain that the offering intended is in and by suffering Christ was offered is the same with Christ suffered Christ dyed And this expression is utterly irreconcileable unto the Socinian notion of the Oblation of Christ. For they would have it to consist in the presentation of himself in Heaven eternally free from and above all sufferings which cannot be the sense of this expression Christ was offered The circumstance of his being thus offered is that it was once only This joyned as it is here with a word in the preter tense can signify nothing but an action or passion then past and determin'd It is not any present continued action such as is the presentation of himself in heaven that can be signified hereby 3. The end of Christs being thus once offered and which his one offering did perfectly effect was to bear the sins of many There is an Antithesis between ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of many and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã unto men in the verse foregoing Men expressed indefinitely in that necessary proposition intends all men universally Nor as we have shewed is there any exception against the Rule by a few instances of Exemption by the interposition of Divine Soveraignty But the relief which is granted by Christ though it be unto men indefinitely yet it extends not to all universally but to many of them only That it doth not so extend unto all eventually is confessed And this expression is declarative of the intention of God or of Christ himself in his offering See Ephes. 5. 25 26. He was thus offered for those many to bear their sins as we render the words It is variously translated as we have seen before and various senses are sought after by Expositors Grotius wholly follows the Socinians in their endeavours to pervert the sense of this word It is not from any difficulty in the word but from mens hatred unto the Truth that they put themselves on such endeavours And this whole attempt lies in finding out one or two places where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies to take away For the various signification of a word used absolutely in any other place is sufficient for these men to confute its necessary signification in any context But the matter is plain in it self Christ did bear sin or take it away as he was offered as he was a Sacrifice for it This is here expresly affirmed He was offered to bear the sins of many This he did as the Sacrifices did of old as unto their Typical use and efficacy A supposition hereof is the sole foundation of the whole Discourse of the Apostle But they bare sin or took away sin not to contend about the meer signification of the word no otherwise but by the imputation of the sin unto the Beast that was Sacrificed whereon it was slain that attonement might be made with its blood This I have before sufficiently proved So Christ bare the sins of many and so the signification of this word is determined and limited by the Apostle Peter by whom alone it is used on the same occasion 1 Epist. 2. 24. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who himself bare our sins in his own body on the Tree That place compared with this doth utterly evert the Socinian fiction of the Oblation of Christ in Heaven He was offered ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to bear the sins of many When did he do it How did he do it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He bare our sin in his own body on the tree Wherefore then he offered himself for them And this he did in his suffering Moreover where-ever in the Old Testament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is translated by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the LXX as Numb 14. 33. Isai. 53. 12. or by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with reference unto Sin it constantly signifies to bear the punishment of it Yea it doth so when with respect unto the Event it is rendred by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it is Levit. 10. 17. And the proper signification of the word is to be taken from the declaration of the thing signified by it He shall bear their iniquities Isa. 53. 11. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã bear it as a burden upon him He was offered once so as that he suffered therein As he suffered he bare our iniquities and as he was offered he made attonement for them And this is not opposed unto the appearance of men before God at the last day but unto their death which they were once to undergo Wherefore The ground of the Expiation of Sin by the offering of Christ is this that therein he bare the Guilt and Punishment due unto it Upon this offering of Christ the Apostle supposeth what he had before declared namely that he entred into heaven to appear in the presence of God for us And hereon he declares what is the end of all this dispensation of Gods Grace Unto them that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto Salvation And he shews 1 What de facto Christ shall yet do He shall appear 2 To whom he shall so appear Unto them that look for him 3 In what manner Without sin 4 Unto what end Unto Salvation 5 In what order the second time The last thing mentioned is
that Death was the Wages of Sin For although there was allowed in them a Commutation that the Sinner himself should not dye but the Beast that was Sacrificed in his stead which belonged unto their Second end of leading unto Christ yet they all testified unto that Sacred Truth that it is the Judgment of God that they who commit Sin are worthy of Death And this was as the whole Law an Ordinance of God to deterr Men from Sin and so put bounds unto Transgressions For when God passed by Sin with a kind of Connivance winking at the Ignorance of Men in their iniquities not giving them continual warnings of their Guilt and the consequents thereof in Death the World was filled and covered with a Deluge of Impieties Men saw not Judgment speedily executed nor any Tokens or Indications that so it would be therefore was their Heart wholly set in them to do Evil. But God dealt not thus with the Church He let no Sin pass without a Representation of his displeasure against it though mixed with Mercy in a direction unto the Relief against it in the Blood of the Sacrifice And therefore he did not only appoint these Sacrifices on all the especial occasions of such Sins and Uncleanness as the Consciences of particular Sinners were pressed with a sense of but also once a year there was gathered up a Remembrance of all the Sins Iniquities and Transgressions of the whole Congregation Levit. 16. 2. They were added as the Teaching of a School-master to lead unto Christ. By them was the Church taught and directed to look continually unto and after that Sacrifice which alone could really purge and take away all Iniquity For God appointed no Sacrifices until after the Promise of sending the Seed of the Woman to break the Head of the Serpent In his so doing was his own Heel to be bruised in the suffering of his Humane Nature which he offered in Sacrifice unto God which these Sacrifices did represent Wherefore the Church knowing that these Sacrifices did call Sin to remembrance representing the displeasure of God against Sin which was their First end and that although there was an Intimation of Grace and Mercy in them by the commutation and substitution which they allowed yet that they could not of themselves take away Sin it made them the more earnestly and with longing desires look after him and his Sacrifice who should perfectly take away Sin and make peace with God wherein the principal exercise of Grace under the Old Testament did consist 3. As unto their especial nature they were added as the great instruction in the way and manner whereby Sin was to be taken away For although this arose originally from Gods meer Grace and Mercy yet was it not to be executed and accomplished by Soveraign Grace and Power alone Such a taking away of Sin would have been inconsistent with his Truth Holiness and Righteous Government of Mankind as I have elsewhere at large demonstrated It must be done by the Interposition of a Ransome and Attonement by the substitution of one who was no Sinner in the room of Sinners to make satisfaction unto the Law and Justice of God for Sin Hereby they became the principal direction of the Faith of the Saints under the Old Testament and the means whereby they acted it on the original promise of their Recovery from Apostasie These things do evidently express the Wisdom of God in their Institution although of themselves they could not take away Sin And those by whom these ends of them are denyed as they are by the Jews and Socinians can give no account of any end of them which should answer the Wisdom Grace and Holiness of God This Objection being removed I shall proceed unto the Exposition of the words in particular And there are Four things in them as a Negative Proposition 1. The Illative Conjunction declaring its respects unto what went before 2. The subject matter spoken of The Blood of Bulls and Goats 3. What is denyed concerning it it could not take away Sin 4. The Modification of this Negative Proposition it was impossible they should do so 1. The Illative Conjunction For declares what is spoken to be introduced in the Proof and Confirmation of what was before affirmed And it is the closing Argument against the Imperfection and Impotency of the Old Covenant the Law Priesthood and Sacrifices of it which the Apostle maketh use of And indeed it is comprehensive of all that he had before insisted on yea it is the Foundation of all his other Reasonings unto this purpose For if in the Nature of the thing it self it was impossible that the Sacrifices consisting of the Blood of Rulls and Goats should take away Sin then however whensoever and by whomsoever they were offered this effect could not be produced by them Wherefore in these words the Apostle puts a Close unto his Argument and reassumes it no more in this Epistle but only Once or Twice makes mention of it in the way of an Illustration to set forth the excellency of the Sacrifice of Christ as v. 11. of this Chapter and Chap. 13. 10 11 12. 2. The subject spoken of is the Blood of Bulls and Goats The reason why the Apostle expresseth them by Bulls and Goats which were Calves and Kids of the Goats hath been declared on Chap. 9. ver 11 12. And some things must be observed conceruing this Description of the Old Sacrifices 1. That he makes mention of the Blood of the Sacrifices only whereas in many of them the whole Bodies were offered and the Fat of them all was burned on the Altar And thus he doth for the ensuing Reasons 1. Because it was the Blood alone whereby Attonement was made for Sin and Sinners The Fat was burned with Incense only to shew that it was accepted as a sweet savour with God 2. Because he had respect principally unto the Anniversary Sacrifice unto the Consummation whereof and Attonement thereby the carrying the Blood into the Holy Place did belong 3. Because Life Natural is in an especial manner in the Blood which signified that Attonement was to be made by Death and that by the effusion of Blood as it was in the Sacrifice of Christ. See Levit. 17. 11 12. And in the shedding of it there was an Indication of the Desert of Sin in the Offerer 2. He recalls them by this Expression of their Sacrifices the Blood of Bulls and Goats unto a due consideration of what effect might be produced by them They were Accompanied with great Solemnity and Pomp of Ceremony in their Celebration Hence arose a great Esteem and Veneration of them in the Minds of the People But when all was done that which was Offered was but the Blood of Bulls and Goats And there is a Tacit Opposition unto the matter of that Sacrifice whereby Sin was really to be Expiated which was the precious Blood of Christ as Chap. 9. 13 14. 3. That which
is denyed of these Sacrifices is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the taking away of sins The thing intended is variously expressed by the Apostle as by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 2. 17. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 1. 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 9. 14. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 9. 26. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 28. To make Reconciliation to purge sin to purge the Conscience to abolish sin to bear it And that which he intendeth in all these expressions which he denies of the Law and its Sacrifices and ascribes unto that of Christ is the whole entire effect thereof so far as it immediately respected God and the Law For all these Expressions respect the Guilt of Sin and its removal or the pardon of it with righteousness before God acceptance and peace with him To take away sin is to make Attonement for it to Expiate it before God by a satisfaction given or price paid with the procurement of the Pardon of it according unto the Terms of the New Covenant The Interpretation of these words by the Socinians is contrary unto the signification of the words themselves and the whole design of the Context Impossibile est saith Schlictingius ut sanguis taurorum hircorum peccata tollat hoc est efficiat ut homines in postcrum à peccatis abstinerent sic nullam amplius habeant peccatorum conscientiam sive ullas corum poenas metuant quam cnim quaeso vim ad haec praestandum sanguis animalium habere potest Itaque hoc dicit taurorum hircorum sanguinem eam vim nequaquam habere ut habeat impossibile esse ut homines à peccatis avocet ne in posterum peccent efficiat And Grotius after him speaks to the same purpose ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quod suprà ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã est extinguere peccata quod sanguis Christi facit cum quia fidem in nobis parit tum quia Christo jus dat nobis auxilia necessaria impetrandi pecudum sanguis nihil efficit tale 1. Nothing can be more Alien from the Design of the Apostle and Scope of the Context They are both of them to prove that the Sacrifices of the Law could not Expiate Sins could not make Attonement for them could not make Reconciliation with God could not produce the effect which the Sacrifice of Christ alone was appointed and ordained unto They were only Signs and Figures of it They could not effect that which the Hebrews looked for from them and by them And that which they expected by them was that by them they should make Attonement with God for their sins Wherefore the Apostle denies that it was possible they should effect what they looked for from them and nothing else It was not that they should be Arguments to turn them from Sin unto newness of life so as that they should sin no more By what way and on what consideration they were means to deter Men from Sin I have newly declared But they can produce no one place in the whole Law to give countenance unto such an Apprehension that this was their end so that the Apostle had no need to declare their Insufficiency with respect thereunto Especially the great Anniversary Sacrifice on the day of Expiation was appointed so expresly to make Attonement for Sin to procure its Pardon to take away its Guilt in the sight of God and from the Conscience of the Sinner that he should not be punished according unto the Sentence of the Law as that it cannot be denyed This is that which the Apostle declares that of themselves they could not effect or perform but only Typically and by way of Representation 2. He declares directly and positively what he intends by this taking away of Sin and the ceasing of Legal Sacrifices thereon ver 17 18. Their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more now where Remission of these is there is no more Offering for Sin The cessation of Offerings for Sin follows directly on the Remission of Sin which is the effect of Expiation and Attonement and not upon the turning away of Men from Sin for the future It is therefore our Justification and not our Sanctification that the Apostle discourseth of 3. The words themselves will not bear this sense For the Object of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that which it is exercised about is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is an Act upon Sin it self and not immediately upon the Sinner Nor can it signifie any thing but to take away the Guilt of Sin that it should not bind over the Sinner unto punishment whereon Conscience for sin is taken away But to return 4. The manner of the Negation is that it was impossible that it should be otherwise And it was so 1. From Divine Institution Whatever the Jews apprehended they were never designed of God unto that end and therefore had no Virtue or Efficacy for it Communicated unto them And all the Virtue of Ordinances of Worship depends on their Designation unto their end The Blood of Bulls and Goats as offered in Sacrifice and carried into the most Holy Place was designed of God to represent the way of taking away sin but not by it self to effect it and it was therefore impossible that so it should do 2. It was impossible from the Nature of the things themselves in as much as there was not a Condecency unto the Holy perfections of the Divine Nature that Sin should be Expiated and the Church perfected by the Blood of Bulls and Goats For 1. There would not have been so unto his Infinite Wisdom For God having declared his severity against Sin with the necessity of its punishment unto the Glory of his Righteousness and Soveraign Rule over his Creatures what Condecency could there have been herein unto infinite Wisdom What Consistency between the severity of that Declaration and the taking away of Sin by such an Inferiour Beggarly means as that of the Blood of Bulls and Goats A great appearance was made of infinite displeasure against sin in the giving of the Fiery Law in the Curse of it in the threatnings of Eternal Death should all have ended in an outward shew there would have been no manner of proportion to be discerned between the Demerit of Sin and the means of its Expiation So that 2. It had no Condecency unto Divine Justice For 1. As I have elsewhere proved at large Sin could not be taken away without a Price a Ransome a Compensation and satisfaction made unto Justice for the Injuries it received by Sin In satisfaction unto Justice by way of Compensation for Injuries or Crimes there must be a proportion between the Injury and the Reparation of it that Justice may be as much Exalted and Glorified in the one as it was depressed and debased in the other But there could be no such thing between the Demerit of Sin and the Affront put on the Righteousness of God on the one
God the Father did order things towards Jesus Christ that he should have a Nature wherein he might be free and able to yield Obedience unto the Will of God with an intimation of the quality of it in having Ears to hear which belong only unto a Body This Sense the Apostle expresseth in more plain terms now after the accomplishment of what before was only declared in Prophesie and thereby the Veil which was upon Divine Revelations under the Old Testament is taken away There is therefore nothing remaining but that we give an Exposition of these words of the Apostle as they contain the sense of the Holy Ghost in the Psalm And two things we must enquire into 1. What is meant by this body 2. How God prepared it 1. A Body is here a Synecdochical expression of the Humane nature of Christ. So is the flesh taken where he is said to be made flesh and the Flesh and Blood whereof he was partaker For the general end of his having this Body was that he might therein and thereby yield Obedience or do the Will of God And the especial end of it was that he might have what to offer in Sacrifice unto God But neither of these can be confined unto his Body alone For it is the Soul the other essential part of Humane Nature that is the principle of Obedience Nor was the Body of Christ alone Offered in Sacrifice unto God He made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10. which was Typified by the Life that was in the Blood of the Sacrifice Wherefore it is said that he offered himself unto God Chap. 9. 14. Ephes. 5. 2. That is his whole entire Humane Nature Soul and Body in their Substance in all their Faculties and Powers But the Apostle both here and ver 10. mentions only the Body it self for the reasons ensuing 1. To manifest that this Offering of Christ was to be by Death as was that of the Sacrifices of Old and this the Body alone was subject unto 2. Because as the Covenant was to be confirmed by this Offering it was to be by Blood which is contained in the Body alone and the separation of it from the Body carries the Life along with it 3. To testifie that his Sacrifice was visible and substantial not an outward appearance of things as some have fancied but such as truly answered the real Bloody Sacrifices of the Law 4. To shew the Alliance and Cognation between him that Sanctifieth by his Offering and them that are Sanctified thereby Or that because the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood he also took part of the same that he might tast of Death for them For these and the like reasons doth the Apostle mention the Humane Nature of Christ under the name of a Body only as also to comply with the Figurative Expression of it in the Psalm And they do what lies in them to overthrow the principal Foundation of the Faith of the Church who would wrest these words unto a new Aetherial Body given him after his Ascension as do the Socinians 2. Concerning this Body it is affirmed that God prepared it for him Thou hast prepared for me that is God hath done it even God the Father For unto him are those words spoken I come to do thy will O God a Body hast thou prepared me The coming of Christ the Son of God into the World his coming in the Flesh by the assuming of our Nature was the effect of the mutual Counsel of the Father and the Son The Father proposeth to him what was his Will what was his design what he would have done This proposal is here repeated as unto what was Negative in it which includes the Opposite Positive Sacrifice and Burnt Offerings thou wouldst not have but that which he would was the Obedience of the Son unto his Will This Proposal the Son closeth withal Lo saith he I come But all things being Originally in the Hand of the Father the Provision of things necessary unto the fulfilling of the Will of God is left unto him Among those the principal was that the Son should have a Body prepared for him that so he might have somewhat of his own to offer Wherefore the preparation of it is in a peculiar manner assigned unto the Father a Body hast thou prepared me And we may observe that 1. The Supream contrivance of the Salvation of the Church is in a peculiar manner ascribed unto the person of the Father His Will his Grace his Wisdom his good Pleasure the purpose that he purposed in himself his Love his sending of his Son are every where proposed as the eternal springs of all Acts of Power Grace and Goodness tending unto the Salvation of the Church And therefore doth the Lord Christ on all occasions declare that he came to do his Will to seek his Glory to make known his Name that the praise of his Grace might be exalted And we through Christ do believe in God even the Father when we assign unto him the Glory of all the Holy Properties of his Nature as acting Originally in the contrivance and for the effecting of our Salvation 2. The Furniture of the Lord Christ though he were the Son and in his Divine person the Lord of all unto the discharge of his work of Mediation was the peculiar Act of the Father He prepared him a Body he anointed him with the Spirit it pleased him that all fulness should dwell in him From him he received all Grace Power Consolation Although the Humane Nature was the Nature of the Son of God not of the Father a Body prepared for him not for the Father yet was it the Father who prepared that Nature who filled it with Grace who strengthened acted and supported it in its whole course of Obedience 3. Whatever God designes appoints and calls any unto he will provide for them all that is needful unto the Duties of Obedience whereunto they are so appointed and called As he prepared a Body for Christ so he will provide Gifts Abilities and Faculties suitable unto their work for those whom he calleth unto it Others must provide as well as they can for themselves But we must yet enquire more particularly into the nature of this preparation of the Body of Christ here ascribed unto the Father And it may be considered two ways 1. In the Designation and Contrivance of it So preparation is sometimes used for Predestination or the Resolution for the effecting any thing that is future in its proper season Isa. 30. 33. Matt. 20. 23. Rom. 9. 23. 1 Cor. 2. 9. In this sense of the word God had prepared a Body for Christ he had in the Eternal Counsel of his Will determined that he should have it in the appointed time So he was Forc-ordained before the Foundation of the World but was manifest in these last times for us 1 Pet. 1. 20. 2. In the actual effecting ordering and creating of it
that it might be fitted and suited unto the work that it was ordained unto In the former sense the Body it self is alone the Object of this preparation A Body hast thou prepared me that is designed for me This latter sense comprizeth the use of the Body also it is fitted for its work This latter sense it is that is proper unto this place Only it is spoken of by the Psalmist in a Prophetical Style wherein things certainly future are expressed as already performed For the word signifies such a preparation as whereby it is made actually fit and meet for the end it is designed unto And therefore it is variously rendred to fit to adapt to perfect to adorn to make meet with respect unto some especial end Thou hast adapted a Body unto my work fitted and suited an Humane Nature unto that I have to perform in it and by it A Body it must be yet not every body nay not any Body brought forth by Carnal Generation according to the course of Nature could effect or was fit for the work designed unto it But God prepared provided such a Body for Christ as was fitted and adapted unto all that he had to do in it And this especial manner of its preparation was an act of Infinite Wisdom and Grace Some Instances thereof may be mentioned As 1. He prepared him such a Body such an Humane Nature as might be of the same Nature with ours for whom he was to accomplish his work therein For it was necessary that it should be Cognate and Allied unto ours that he might be meet to act on our behalf and to suffer in our stead He did not form him a Body out of the Dust of the Earth as he did that of Adam whereby he could not have been of the same Race of Mankind with us nor meerly out of nothing as he created the Angels whom he was not to save See Chap. 2. ver 14 15 16. and the Exposition thereon He took our Flesh and Blood proceeding from the Loyns of Abraham 2. He so prepared it as that it should be no way subject unto that depravation and pollution that came on our whole Nature by Sin This could not have been done had his Body been prepared by Carnal Generation the way and means of conveying the taint of Original Sin which befel our Nature unto all individual persons For this would have rendered him every way unmeet for his whole work of Mediation See Luke 1. 35. Heb. 7. 26. 3. He prepared him a Body consisting of Flesh and Blood which might be Offered as a real substantial Sacrifice and wherein he might Suffer for Sin in his Offering to make Attonement for it Nor could the Sacrifices of Old which were Real Bloody and Substantial prefigure that which should be only Metaphorical and in appearance The whole evidence of the Wisdom of God in the Institution of the Sacrifices of the Law depends on this that Christ was to have a Body consisting of Flesh and Blood wherein he might answer all that was prefigured by them 4. It was such a Body as was Animated with a Living Rational Soul Had it been only a Body it Might have Suffered as did the Beasts under the Law from which no Act of Obedience was required only they were to suffer what was done unto them But in the Sacrifice of the Body of Christ that which was principally respected and whereon the whole Efficacy of it did depend was his Obedience unto God For he was not to be Offered by others but he was to Offer himself in Obedience unto the Will of God Chap. 9. 14. Ephes. 5. 2. And the principles of all Obedience lye alone in the Powers and Faculties of the Rational Soul 5. This Body and Soul were obnoxious unto all the Sorrows and Sufferings which our Nature is liable unto and we had deserved as they were poenal tending unto Death Hence was he meet to Suffer in our stead the same things which we should have done Had they been exempted by special priviledge from what our Nature is liable unto the whole work of our Redemption by his Blood had been frustrate 6. This Body or Humane Nature thus prepared for Christ was exposed unto all sorts of Temptations from outward Causes But yet it was so Sanctified by the perfection of Grace and fortified by the fulness of the Spirit dwelling therein as that it was not possible it should be touched with the least Taint or Guilt of Sin And this also was absolutely necessary unto the work whereunto it was designed 1 Pet. 2. 22. Heb. 7. 26. 7. This Body was liable unto Death which being the Sentence and Sanction of the Law with respect unto the First and all following Sins all and every one of them was to be undergone actually by him who was to be our Deliverer Heb. 2. 14 15. Had it not died Death would have borne Rule over all unto Eternity But in the death thereof it was swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. 8. As it was subject unto Death and died actually so it was meet to be raised again from Death And herein consisted the great pledge and evidence that our dead Bodies may be and shall be raised again unto a Blessed Immortality So it became the Foundation of all our Faith as unto things Eternal 1 Cor. 15. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. 9. This Body and Soul being capable of a real separation and being actually separated by Death though not for any long continuance yet no less truly and really than them who have been dead a Thousand years a Demonstration was given therein of an active Subsistence of the Soul in a State of Separation from the Body As it was with the Soul of Christ when he was dead so is it with our Souls in the same State He was alive with God and unto God when his Body was in the Grave and so shall our Souls be 10. This Body was visibly taken up into Heaven and there resides which considering the ends thereof is the great encouragement of Faith and the Life of our Hope These are but some of the many instances that may be given of the Divine Wisdom in so preparing a Body for Christ as that it might be fitted and adapted unto the work which he had to do therein And we may Observe that Not only the Love and Grace of God in sending his Son are continually to be admired and Glorified but the acting of this Infinite Wisdom in fitting and preparing his humane Nature so as to render it every way meet unto the work which it was designed for ought to be the especial Object of our Holy Contemplation But having treated hereof distinctly in a peculiar discourse unto that purpose I shall not here again insist upon it The last thing Observable in this Verse is that this preparation of the Body of Christ is ascribed unto God even the Father unto whom he speaks these words a Body
day whereas he Offered but once so as that the repetition of it is destructive unto it The other is that of the Socinians who would have the Offering and Sacrifice of Christ to be only his appearance before God to receive power to keep us from the punishment of sin upon his doing of the Will of God in the World But the words are express as unto the Order of these things namely that he Offered his Sacrifice for sins before his Exaltation in Glory or his sitting on the Right Hand of God And herein doth the Apostle give Glory unto that Offering of Christ for sins in that it perfectly accomplished what all Legal Sacrifices could not effect This therefore is the only repose of troubled Souls 3. The consequent hereof on the part of Christ is two fold 1. What immediately ensued on this Offering of his Body ver 12. 2. What continueth to be his state with respect thereunto both of them evidencing Gods high approbation and acceptance of his person and what he had done as also the Glory and Efficacy of his Office and Sacrifice above those of the Law wherein no such Priviledge nor Testimony was given unto them upon the discharge of their Office 1. The immediate consequent of his Offering was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that he sat down on the Right Hand of God This Glorious Exaltation of Christ hath been spoken unto and opened before on Ch. 7. 3. Ch. 8. 1. Here it includes a double opposition unto and preference above the State of the Legal Priests upon their Oblations For although the High-Priest in his Anniversary Sacrifice for the Expiation of sin did enter into the most Holy Place where were the visible pledges of the presence of God yet he stood in a posture of humble Ministration he sate not down with any appearance of Dignity or Honour Again his abode in the Typical Holy Place was for a short season only but Christ sate down at the Right Hand of God for ever ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in perpetuum in an unalterable state and condition He sate down never to Offer Sacrifice any more And this is the highest pledge the highest assurance of those two things which are the Pillars and principal Foundations of the Faith of the Church 1. That God was absolutely pleased satisfied and highly glorified in and by the Offering of Christ. For had it not been so the Humane Nature of Christ had not been immediately exalted into the highest Glory that it was capable of See Eph. 5. 1 2. Phil. 2. 7 8 9. 2. That he had by his Offering perfectly Expiated the Sin of the World so as that there was no need for ever of any other Offering or Sacrifice unto the end 1. Faith in Christ doth joyntly respect both his Oblation of himself by Death and the Glorious Exaltation that ensued thereon He so Offered one Sacrifice for sin as that thereon he sate down on the Right Hand of God for ever Neither of these separately is a full Object for Faith to find rest in both in conjunction are a Rock to fix it on And 2. Christ in this Order of things is the great exemplar of the Church He suffered and then entred into Glory If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him ver 13. From henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Footstool So that 2. The state and condition of Christ after his sitting down at the Right Hand of God not absolutely but with respect unto his Enemies is declared in these words The whole Testimony is taken from Psal. 110. 1. and here explained in these Verses It is produced in the Confirmation of what the Apostle asserts concerning the impossibility as well as the needlesness of the Repetition of his Sacrifice For as it was no way necessary as in the Verses following he declares so it is impossible in his present state and condition which was Ordained for him from the beginning This was that he should sit at the Right Hand of God expecting his Enemies to be made his Footstool that is a state of Majesty and Glory But Offer himself he could not without suffering and dying whereof in this state he is no way capable And besides as was before Observed it is an evidence both of the dignity and eternal efficacy of his own Sacrifice whereon at once his Exaltation did ensue I acknowledge my thoughts are inclined unto a peculiar Interpretation of this place though I will not oppose absolutely that which is commonly received though in my judgment I prefer this other before it The Assertion is introduced by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã henceforth say we as unto what remains that is of the dispensation of the personal Ministry of Christ. He was here below he came unto his own he dwelt amongst them that is in the Church of the Hebrews some very few believed on him but the generality of the people the Rulers Priests Guides of the Church engaged against him persecuted him falsly accused him killed him hanged him on a Tree Under the Veil of their Rage and Cruelty he carried on his work of making his Soul an Offering for sin or taking away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Having fulfilled this Work and thereby wrought out the Eternal Salvation of the Church he sits down on the Right Hand of God In the mean time those stubborn Enemies of his who hated rejected and slew him continued raging in the fierceness of their implacable tumults against him and them that believed in him They hated his Person his Office his Work his Gospel many of them expresly sinning against the Holy Ghost Yet did they Triumph that they had prevailed against him and destroyed him as some of their accursed posterity do to this day It was the Judgment of God that those his obstinate Enemies should by his power be utterly destroyed in this World as a pledge of the Eternal Destruction of those who will not believe the Gospel That this was the end whereunto they were designed himself declares Matt. 22. 7. Luke 19. 24. Those mine Enemies that would not have me reign over them bring them hither and slay them before my face After our Lord Christ left this World there was a mighty Contest between the dying Apostate Church of the Jews and the rising Gospel Church of Believers The Jews boasted on their success in that by fraud and cruelty they had destroyed him as a Malefactor The Apostles and the Church with them gave Testimony unto his Resurrection and Glory in Heaven Great expectation there was what would be the end of these things which way the Scale would turn After a while a visible and glorious determination was made of this controversie God sent forth his Armies and destroyed these Murderers burning up their City Those Enemies of the King which would not have him to Reign over them were brought forth and slain before his face so were all his Enemies made his Footstool I
which he had all along compared and expressed Wherefore to convince the Hebrews not only of the certainty and severity of the Judgment declared but also of the Equity and Righteousness of it he proposeth unto them the consideration of Gods constitution of punishment under the Old Testament with respect unto the Law of Moses which they could not deny to be Just and Equal Ver. 28. he lays down the matter of fact as it was Stated under the Law Wherein there are three things 1. The sin whereunto that of Apostasie from the Gospel is compared He that despised Moses Law 2. The Punishment of that sin according to the Law he that was guilty of it dyed without Mercy 3. The way whereby according unto the Law his sin was to be charged on him it was under two or three Witnesses Unto the first two things did concur 1. It was such a sin as by the Law was capital as Murder Adultery Incest Idolatry Blasphemy and some others Concerning them it was provided in the Law that those who were guilty of them should be put to Death God alone by vertue of his Soveraignty could dispense with the Execution of this sentence of the Law as he did in the case of Lavid 2 Sam. 12. 13. but as unto the people they were prohibited on any account to dispense with it or forbear the Execution of it Numb 35. 31. 2. It was required that he did it presumptuously or with an high hand Ex. 21. 14. Numb 15. 30 31. Deut. 17. 12. He that was thus guilty of sin in sinning is said to despise Moses Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to abolish it to render it useless that is in himself by contempt of the Authority of it or the Authority of God in it And it is called a contempt and abolishing of the Law as the word signifies 1. Because of Gods indulgence unto them therein For although the general sentence of the Law was a Curse wherein death was contained against every Transgression thereof Deut. 29. yet God had ordained and appointed that for all their sins of Ignorance Infirmity or surprisals by Temptations an Attonement should be made by Sacrifice whereon the guilty were freed as unto the terms of the Covenant and restored to a right unto all the Promises of it Wherein they would not abide in those Terms and Conditions of the Covenant but transgress the bounds annext to them it was a contempt of the whole Law with the wisdom goodness and authority of God therein 2. They rejected all the Promises of it which were given exclusively unto such sins nor was there any way appointed of God for their recovery unto an interest in them Hereby they made themselves Lawless Persons contemning the Threatnings and despising the Promises of the Law which God would not bear in any of them Deut. 29. 18 19 20 21. It is the contempt of God and his Authority in his Law that is the Gall and Poyson of sin This may be said in some measure of all voluntary sins and the more there is of it in any sin the greater is their guilt and the higher is their aggravation who have contracted it But there is a degree hereof which God will not bear with namely when this presumptuous contempt hath such an influence into any sin as that no ignorance no infirmity no special temptation can be pleaded unto the extenuation of it I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief And sundry things are required hereunto 1. That it be known unto the sinner both in point of right and fact to be such a sin as whereunto the penalty of death without dispensation was annexed 2. That therefore the sence of God in the Law be suggested unto the soul in and by the ordinary means of it 3. That the Resolution of continuing in it and the perpetration of it doth prevail against all convictions and fear of punishment 4. That Motives unto the contrary with reluctancies of Conscience be stifled or overcome These things rendered a sinner presumptuous or caused him to sin with an high hand under the Law Whereunto the Apostle adds in the next verse the peculiar aggravations of sin against the Gospel This it is to despise the Law of Moses as it is explained Numb 15. 30 31. 2. The Punishment of this sin or of him that was guilty of it was that he died without mercy He died that is he was put to death not alvaies it may be de facto but such was the constitution of the Law he was to be put to death without mercy There were several waies of inflicting Capital punishments appointed by the Law as hanging on a Tree burning and stoning Of all which and the application of them unto particular Cases I have given a description in the Exercitations unto the first Volume of these Commentaries And it is said that he dyed without mercy not only because there was no allowance for any such mercy as should save and deliver him but God had expresly forbidden that either mercy or compassion should be shewed in such cases Deut. 13. 6 7 8 9. Deut. 19. This is expresly added unto the highest instance of despising the Law namely the decalogue in the foundation of it whereon all other precepts of the Law were built and that which comprised a total Apostacy from the whole Law Wherefore I doubt not but the Apostle had an especial respect unto that sin in its punishment which had a compleat parallel with that whose hainousness he would represent However When the God of mercies will have men shew no mercy as in the Temporal punishment he can and will upon repentance shew mercy as to Eternal punishment For we dare not condemn all unto Hell which the Law condemned as unto temporal punishment 3. The way of Execution of this Judgment it was not to be done under two or three witnesses that is that were so of the fact and crime The Law is express in this case Deut. 17. 6. Chap. 19. 13. Numb 35. 30. Although God was very severe in the prescription of these Judgments yet he would give no advantage thereby unto wicked and malicious persons to take away the lives of innocent men He rather chose that those who were guilty should through our weakness go free for want of evidence against them than that innocence should be exposed unto the malice of one single testimony or witness And such abhorrency God had of false witnesses in criminal Causes as that which is most contrary unto his Righteousness in the Government of the world as that he established a Lex talionis in this case alone that a false witness should suffer the utmost of what he thought and contrived to bring on another The Equity of which Law is still continued in force as suitable to the Law of Nature and ought to be more observed than it is Deut. 19. 16 17 18 19 20 21. On this Proposition of
in them all Consider now what aggravations this sin is accompanied withall above all sins whatever against the Law and be your selves Judges of what will follow hereon What do you think in your own hearts will be the Judgment of God concerning these sinners This argument the Apostle doth frequently insist upon as chap. 2. 2 3 4. chap. 12. 25. and it had a peculiar cogency towards the Hebrews who had lived under the terror of those legal punishments all their dayes I. The inevitable certainty of the Eternal punishment of Gospel-despisers depends on the Essential holiness and righteousness of God as the Ruler and Judge of all It is nothing but what he in his just Judgment which is according unto truth accounteth them worthy of Rom. 1. 32. II. It is a righteous thing with God thus to deal with men Wherefore all hopes of Mercy or the least relaxation of Punishment unto all Eternity are vain and false unto Apostates they shall have Judgment without Mercy III. God hath allotted different degrees of Punishment unto the different degrees and aggravations of sin The wages indeed of every sin is Death but there is unto such persons as these a Savour of death unto death and there shall be different degrees of Eternal Punishment IV. The Apostacy from the Gospel here described being the absolute height of all sin and impiety that the nature of man is capable of it renders them unto Eternity obnoxious unto all punishment that the same nature is capable of The greatest sin must have the greatest Judgment V. It is our Duty diligently to enquire into the nature of sin lest we be overtaken in the great Offence Such Persons as they in the Text it may be little thought what it was that they should principally be charged withal namely for their Apostasie and how dreadful was it when it came upon them in an evident conviction VI. Sinning against the Testimony given by the Holy Ghost unto the truth and power of the Gospel whereof men have had experience is the most dangerous Symtom of a perishing Condition VII Threatnings of future Eternal Judgments unto Gospel-despisers belong unto the preaching and declaration of the Gospel VIII The Equity and Righteousness of the most severe Judgments of God in eternal Punishments against Gospel-Despisers is so evident that it may be referred to the Judgment of men not obstinate in their Blindness IX 'T is our Duty to justifie and bear witness unto God in the Righteousness of his Judgments against Gospel-Despisers VERSE XXX XXXI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã VERSE 30 31. For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. And again the Lord shall Judge his People It is a fearfull thing to fall into the Hands of the living God THere is in these Verses the confirmation of all that was spoken before by the consideration of what God is in himself with whom alone we have to do in this matter and what he assumeth unto himself in this and the like Cases As if the Apostle had said In the severe sentence which we have denounced against Apostates we have spoken nothing but what is suitable unto the holiness of God and what indeed in such cases he hath declared that he will do The conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã denotes the introduction of a Reason of what was spoken before but this is not all which he had discoursed on on this Subject but more particularly the reference he had made unto their own Judgments of what sore punishment was due unto Apostates Thus it will be with them thus you must needs determine concerning them in your own minds for we know him with whom we have to do in these things Wherefore the Apostle confirms the truth of his discourse or rather illustrates the evidence of it by a double consideration 1. Of the person of him who is and is to be the sole Judge in this case who is God alone For we know him And 2. What he hath assumed unto himself and affirmed concerning himself in the like-cases which he expresseth in a double Testimony of Scripture And then lastly there is the way whereby our minds are influenced from this Person and what he hath said which is that we know him The first consideration confirming the Evidence and certainty of the truth asserted is the person of him who is the only Judge in this case I confess the Pronoun herein is not exprest in the Original but as 't is included in the Participle and Article prefixed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he that saith who expresseth himself in the words ensuing But it is evident that the Apostle directeth unto a special consideration of God himself both in the manner of the expression and in the addition of those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Testimony which he writes immediately If you will be convinced of a righteousness and certainty of this dreadful destruction of Apostates consider in the first place the Author of this Judgment the only Judge in the case We know him that hath said I. There can be no right Judgment made of the nature and demerit of sin without a due consideration of the Nature and Holiness of God against whom it is committed Fools make a mock of sin they have no sense of its guilt nor dread of its punishment Others have slight thoughts of it measuring it only either by outward effects or by presumptions which they have been accustomed unto Some have general notions of its guilt as 't is prohibited by the Divine Law but never search into the nature of that Law with respect unto its Author Such false measures of sin ruin the souls of men Nothing therefore will state our thoughts aright concerning the guilt and demerit of sin but a deep consideration of the infinite greatness holiness righteousness and power of God against whom it is committed And hereunto this also is to be added That God acts not in the effect of any of these Properties of his nature but on a preceding contempt of his Goodness Bounty Grace and Mercy As it is impossible that sin should come into the world but by the contempt of these things Antecedently unto all possibility of sinning God communicates the effects of his goodness and bounty unto the Creation And in those sins which are against the Gospel he doth so also of his Grace and Mercy This is that which will give us a due measure of the guilt and demerit of sin Look upon it as a contempt of infinite Goodness Bounty Grace and Mercy and to rise up against infinite greatness holiness righteousness and power and we shall have a view of it as it is in it self II. Under apprehensions of great severities of Divine Judgments the consideration of God the Author of them will both relieve our Faith and quiet our hearts Such instances are given of the Eternal casting off Multitudes of Angels on
to express the sufferings of Christ Chap. 2. 10. Chap. 5. 8. It 's a general name for every thing that is hard and afflictive unto our nature from what cause or occasion soever it doth arise Even what wicked men undergo justly for their crimes is what they suffer as well as what Believers undergo for the truth and profession of the Gospel Materially they are the same 1 Pet. 4. 14 15 16. It is therefore the general name of all the evils troubles hardships distresses that may befall men upon the account of their profession of the truth of the Gospel This is that which we are called unto which we are not to think strange of Our Lord Jesus requires of all his disciples that they take up their Cross to be in a continual readiness to bear it and actually so to do as they are called And there is no kind of suffering but is included in the Cross. He calls us indeed unto his Eternal glory but we must suffer with him if we desire to reign also with him 2. Of these Trials Afflictions Persecutions they had ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That labour and contention of Spirit which they had in their profession with sin and Sufferings is expressed by these words which set forth the greatest most earnest vehement actings and endeavours of Spirit that our nature can arise unto It is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in this place and by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2 Tim. 4. 7. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã See 2 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 9. 25. The Allusion is taken from their striving wrestling fighting who contended publickly for a Prize Victory and Reward with the Glory and Honour attending it The custom of the Nations as then observed is frequently alluded unto in the New Testament Now there was never any way of life wherein men voluntarily or of their own accord engaged themselves into such hardships difficulties and dangers as that when they contended in their Games and strivings for mastery Their preparation for it was an universal temperance as the Apostle declares 1 Cor. 9. 25. And an abstinence from all Sensual pleasures wherein they offered no small violence unto their natural Inclinations and Lusts. In the conflicts themselves in wrestling and fighting with the like dangerous exercises in skill and strength they endured all pains sometimes death it self And if they failed or gave over through weariness they lost the whole reward that lay before them And with words which signify all this contest doth the holy Ghost express the fight or contention which Believers have with sufferings There is a reward proposed unto all such persons in the promises of the Gospel infinitely above all the Crowns Honours and Rewards proposed unto them in the Olympick Games No man is compelled to enter into the way or course of obtaining it but they must make it an act of their own wills and choice but unto the obtaining of it they must undergo a great strife contention and dangerous conflict In order hereunto three things are required 1. That they prepare themselves for it 1. Cor. 9. 25. self-denial and readiness for the Cross contempt of the world and the enjoyments of it are this preparation without this we shall never be able to go through with this conflict 2. A vigorous acting of all graces in the conflict it self in opposition unto and destruction of our Spiritual and worldly adversaries Eph. 6. 10 11 12. Heb. 12. 5. He could never prevail nor overcome in the publick contests of old who did not strive mightily putting forth his strength and skill both to preserve himself and oppose his Enemy Nor is it possible that we should go successfully through with our conflict unless we stir up all graces as faith hope trust unto their most vigorous exercise 3. That we endure the hardship and the evils of the conflict with Patience and Perseverance which is that the Apostle here specially intends This is that which he commends in the Hebrews with respect unto their first trials and sufferings ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã you endured and bare patiently so as not to faint or despond or to turn away from your profession They came off conquerers having failed in no point of their conflict This is that which they were called unto that which God by his Grace enabled them to and through which they had that success which the Apostle would have them to call to remembrance that they might be strengthened and encouraged unto what yet remains of the same kind This hath been the lot and portion of sincere Professors of the Gospel in most ages And we are not to think it a strange thing if it come to be ours in a higher degree than what as yet we have had experience of How many ways God is glorified in the sufferings of his people what advantages they receive thereby the prevailing Testimony that is given thereof unto the truth and honour of the Gospel are commonly spoken to and therefore shall not be insisted on VERSE 33. Partly whilest ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilest ye became companions of them that were so used Having mentioned their sufferings and their deportment under them in general he distributes them into two heads in this verse The First is what immediately concerned their own persons and the Second their concernment in the sufferings of others and their participations of them This distribution is exprest by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on this hand and that The whole of their sufferings was made up of various parts many things concurred thereunto they did not consist in any one trouble or affliction but a confluence of many of various sorts did meet in them And this indeed is for the most part the greatest difficulty in sufferings Many of them come at once upon us so that we shall have no rest from their assaults For it is the design of Satan and the world on these occasions to destroy both Soul and Body and unto that end he will assault us inwardly by temptations and fears outwardly in our Names and Reputations and all that we are or have But he that knows how to account all such things but Loss and Dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus is prepared for them all What referrs unto the first part is their suffering in their own persons And herein he declares both what they suffered and the manner how That which they suffered was reproaches and afflictions and for the manner of it they were made a gazing stock unto other men The first thing wherein they suffered was Reproaches ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a great aggravation of sufferings unto ingenuous minds The Psalmist in the person of the Lord Christ himself complains that reproaches had broken his Heart Psal. 69. 20. And elsewhere frequently he complaineth of it as one of the greatest evils he had to conflict withal
Persons which is affirmed of their Offerings ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for if they had been perfect or made perfect referring unto what went before that they were not made perfect ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they would have long since ceased or rested from their Oblations or Offerings They would have offered them no more And although it doth not at all express ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which follows in the Verse yet it regulates the sense of the whole by that word as it more plainly declares in rendring the following words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Because their conscience would no more have tossed or disquieted them for their sins who had at one time been purified which is a good Exposition though not an exact Translation of the Words And so it renders the next Verse but in these Sacrifices their Sins are remembred called to mind every year ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã many ancient Copies add the negative ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whereof we shall speak immediately ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Alioquin and so others generally of the word see Chap. 9. 26. For if so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cessassent semel oblata they would have ceased being once offered Most render the Participle by the Infinitive Mood desiissent offerri they would have ceased to be offered ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cultores the Worshippers sacrificantes the Sacrificers say some I think improperly both as to the proper sense of the Word and the Things intended The Priests only properly were sacrificantes but the people are here intended ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã M. S. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã mundati purificati purgati cleansed purified purged ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ideo quod nullam habent ultrà conscientiam peccati Vul. Lat. ideo quòd for propterea peccati for peccatorum Nullorum peccatorum amplius sibi essent conscii Bez. They should no more be conscious unto themselves of any sin The sense is given in the Syriack before mentioned Arab. They would have made more mention of the Commemoration of Sins with respect unto the Words following ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. But in these they remembred their Sins Recommemoratio repetita mentio A calling to remembrance by acknowledgment There is as was observed a different reading in the ancient Copies of the First words in the Second Verse The Syriack and the vulgar Latin take no notice of the Negative Particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but read the words positively then would they have ceased Those who follow other Copies take ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã non for nonne and render the words Interrogatively as doth our Translation for then would they not have ceased That is they would have done so And then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is to be rendred Adversatively by alioqui as it is by Most for otherwise But it may be rendred Causally by for then if an Interrogation be allowed But the sense is the same in both Readings as we shall see VERSE 2. For otherwise they would have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins THe words contain a confirmation by a new argument of what was affirmed in the verse foregoing And it is taken from the frequent repetitions of those Sacrifices The thing to be proved is the insufficiency of the Law to perfect the Worshippers by its Sacrifices This he proves in the foregoing verse from the formal cause of that insufficiency which is that in them all it had but a shadow of good things to come and so could not effect that which was to be done only by the good things themselves Here the same truth is proved ab effectu or à signo from a demonstrative sign and evidence of it in their Repetition The present Argument therefore of the Apostle is taken from a sign of the Impotency and insufficiency which he had before asserted There is as was observed a variety in the original copies some having the negative particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã others omitting it If that note of negations be allowed the words are to be read by way of Interrogation would they not have ceased to be offered that is they would have done so or God would not have appointed the Repetition of them If it be omitted the assertion is positive They would have then ceased to be offered there was no Reason for their continuance nor would God have appointed it And the notes of the inference ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are applicable unto either reading For then in that case on this supposition that they could perfect the worshippers would they not or they would Have ceased to be offered There would have been rest given unto them a stop put to their offering That is God would have appointed them to have been offered once and no more So the Apostle observes signally of the Sacrifice of Christ that he once offered himself that he offered once for all because by one offering and that once offered he did perfect them that were sanctified or dedicated unto God thereby That which the Apostle designes to prove is that they did not by their own force and efficacy for ever perfect the Church or bring it unto that State of Justification Sanctification and acceptance with God which was designed unto it with all the priviledges and spiritual worship belonging unto that State That this they did not do he declares in the words following by a notable instance included in their Repetition For all means of any sort as such do cease when their end is attained The continuance of their use is an evidence that the end proposed is not effected In opposition unto this argument in general it may be said that this reiteration or repetition of them was not because they did not perfectly expiate Sins the Sins of the offerers all that they had committed and were guilty of before their offering But because those for whom they were offered did again contract the guilt of Sin and so stood in need of a renewed expiation hereof In answer unto this Objection which may be laid against the foundation of the Apostles Argument I say there are two things in the Expiation of Sin First The Effects of the Sacrifice towards God in making attonement Secondly The Application of those Effects unto our consciences The Apostle treats not of the later or the means of the Application of the Effects and Benefits of the Expiation of sin unto our Consciences which may be many and frequently repeated Of this nature are still all the Ordinances of the Gospel and so also are our own Faith and Repentance The principal end in particular of that great Ordinance of the Supper of the Lord which by his own command is frequently to be repeated and ever was so in the Church is to make Application unto us of the vertue and efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ in his death unto our Souls For a
renewed participation of the thing Signified is the only use of the frequent repetition of the Sign So renewed Acts of Faith and Repentance are continually necessary upon the incursions of new acts of sin and defilement But by none of these is there any attonement made for sin or an expiation of it only the one the great Sacrifice of Attonement is applyed unto us not to be repeated by us But the Apostle treats only of that we mentioned in the first place the efficacy of Sacrifices to make Reconciliation and Attonement for sin before God which the Jews expected from them And actings towards God need no repetition to make Application of them unto him Wherefore God himself being the only object of Sacrifices for the Expiation of sin what cannot be effected towards him and with him by one and at once can never be done by Repetition of the same Supposing therefore the end of Sacrifices to be the making of Attonement with God for sin and the procurement of all the priviledges wherewith it is accompanied which was the faith of the Jews concerning them and the Repetition of them doth invincibly prove that they could not of themselves effect what they were applyed unto or used for especially considering that this repetition of them was enjoyned to be perpetual whilst the Law continued in force If they could at any time have perfected the Worshippers they would have ceased to be offered for unto what end should that continuance serve To abide in a shew or pretence of doing that which is done already doth no way answer the wisdom of Divine Institutions And we may see herein both the obstinacy and miserable state thereon of the present Jews The Law doth plainly declare that without Attonement by blood there is no Remission of sins to be obtained This they expect by the sacrifices of the Law and their frequent repetition not by any thing which was more perfect and which they did represent But all these they have been utterly deprived of for many Generations and therefore must all of them on their own principles dye in their sins and under the Curse The woful superstitious follies whereby they endeavour to supply the want of those Sacrifices are nothing but so many Evidences of their obstinate blindness And it is hence also evident that the superstition of the Church of Rome in their Masse wherein they pretend to offer and every day to repeat a propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead doth evidently demonstrate that they disbelieve the efficacy of the one Sacrifice of Christ as once offered for the expiation of sin For if it be so neither can it be repeated nor any other used for that end if we believe the Apostle The remaining words of this verse confirm the Argument insisted on namely that these Sacrifices would have ceased to be offered if they could have made the Church perfect for saith he the worshippers being once purged they should have had no more conscience of Sin And we must enquire 1. who are intended by the worshippers 2. what it is to be purged 3. what is the effect of this purging in having no more conscience of sins 4. How the Apostle proves his intention hereby The Worshippers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Comers in the Verse foregoing And in neither place the Priests who offered the Sacrifices but the people for whom they were offered are intended They it was who made use of these Sacrifices for the Expiation of Sin Concerning these persons it is supposed that if the Sacrifices of the Law could make them perfect then would they have been purged wherefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is the effect of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to be purged of being made perfect For the Apostle supposeth the Negation of the latter from the Negation of the former If the Law did not make them perfect then were they not purged This Sacred ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã respects either the guilt of Sin or the filth of it The one is removed by Justification the other by Sanctification The one is the effect of the Sacerdotal actings of Christ towards God in making attonement for Sin the other of the application of the Virtue and Efficacy of that Sacrifice unto our Souls and Consciences whereby they are purged cleansed renewed and changed It is the purging of the first sort that is here intended such a purging of Sin as takes away the Condemning Power of Sin from the Conscience on the account of the guilt of it If they had been purged as they would have been had the Law made the Comers unto its Sacrifices perfect that is if there had been a compleat Expiation of Sin made for them And the supposition denyed hath its qualification and limitation in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã once By this word he expresseth the efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ which being one at once effected what it was designed unto And it doth not design only the doing of a thing at one time but the so doing of it as that it should never more be done That these Worshippers were not thus purged by any of the Sacrifices which were offered for them the Apostle proves from hence because they had not the necessary effect and consequence of such a Purification For if they had been so purged they would have had no more conscience of sins but that they had so he proves in the next Verse from the Legal Recognition that was made of them every year And if they had had no more conscience of Sin there would have been no need of offering Sacrifices for their Expiation any more 1. The Introduction of the Assertion is by the Particles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã because that which directs unto the Argument that is in the words they would have ceased to be offered because their end would have been accomplished and so themselves taken away 2. On the Supposition made there would have been an alteration made in the state of the Worshippers When they came unto the Sacrifices they came with conscience of Sin This is unavoidable unto a Sinner before Expiation and Attonement be made for it Afterwards if they were purged it should be so no more with them they should no more have conscience of Sin They should no more have conscience of Sin or rather they should not any more or farther have any conscience of Sins or they should have no conscience of Sins any more The meaning of the word is singularly well expressed in the Syriack Translation They should have no conscience agitating tossing disquieting perplexing for Sins no conscience judging and condemning their persons for the Guilt of Sin so depriving them of Solid Peace with God It is conscience with respect unto the Guilt of Sin as it binds over the Sinner unto punishment in the judgment of God Now this is not to be measured by