done away from me and accept of my Repentance that all Ages may know that there is Repentance and that thou wilt receive them that Repent and turn unto thee Hence also they tell us that upon the Pardon of his sin he sang a Song of Praise unto the Lord on the Sabbath Day which is mentioned in the Targum on the Song of Solomon chap. 1. v. 1. as one of the Songs in reference whereunto that of Solomon is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Song of Songs or the most excellent of them And although indeed that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dying thou shalt dye according to the propriety of the Hebrew Tongue denotes only the Certainty and Vehemency of the Death threatned in which case it useth reduplications yet some of them have not been averse to apprehend a twofold death of the Body and of the Soul to be intimated in that expression as Fagius on the place well observes Body and Soul they say both sinned and therefore both were to be punished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If the flesh sâ—n without the spirit why is the soul punished Is it one thing that sins and another that is punished or rather is it not thus that both sin together and so both are justly punished together § 7 Thus is the condition of the Sin and Punishment of our first Parents themselves acknowledged by them And the same is that of their Posterity What was threatned unto what was inflicted upon those who first sinned they are all liable and obnoxious unto Are they not all as subject unto Death as was Adam himself Are the miseries of man in his labour or the sorrows of Women in Childbearing taken away Is the Earth its self freed from the Effects of the Curse Do they not dye who never sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression The Jews themselves grant that all death is poenal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no Death without Sin no Punishment or Correction without iniquity It is the saying of R. Ame in the Talmud Tractat Sabbat cited in Sepher Ikharim lib. 4. cap. 13. And this Principle Mâ—imonides carries so high as to deny all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Correction of Love affirming none to be of that mind but some Gaeonims deceived by the Sect of Muatzali More Nebuch p. 3. cap. 17. And they who dye poenally under the Curse abide in no other estate than that mentioned They acknowledge also the remainder of the Curse on the Earth its self on the same account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole World sayes one of their Masters was not created but for man and therefore after man sinned it came short of its first perfection But these things being of some use for their Conviction as also to discover the perverse obstinacy of some of their later Masters we may a little more particularly take them along with us § 8 First They acknowledge that Adam was a common Head unto all mankind So saith Manasse Ben. Israel from their Principles Cum itaque esset Adam futurus caput principium humanae naturae necesse erat illi a Deo conferri omnem perfectionem scientiam De Fragilitate pag. 34. Whereas Adam was to be the Head and Principle of humane nature it was necessary that God should endow him with all perfection and knowledge And this Perfection of his knowledge Aben Ezra on Gen. 12. proves from Gods bringing all Creatures unto him to give them Names according to their Nature And the same Author again in his Discourse de Termino Vitae Aben Ezra inquit nominibus propriis in Sacra Scriptura non praefigi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He demonstrativum quod tamen in voce Adam fit Gen. 3.22 ratio est quia in Adamo notantur omnes ejus posteri universa species humana designatur Aben Ezra sayes that He Hajedia is not prefixed unto proper names in the Scripture only it is so unto the Word Adam Gen. 3. v. 22. and the Reason is because in Adam all his Posterity the whole Race of Mankind is denoted and signified Now this could not be but by vertue of some Divine Constitution For naturally Adam could have no other Relation to his Posterity than every other man hath unto his own And this was no other but that Covenant which God made with all mankind in him whose Promises and Threatnings Rewards and Punishments must therefore equally respect them with him Wherefore Secondly they grant that on this account his Sin was imputed unto all his Posterity That is some of them do so and those the most sober of them So Rabbi Menahem Rakanatensis in sec. Bereshith c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is no wonder why the Sin of Adam and Eve was engraven and sealed with the Signet of the King to be propagated unto all following Generations For in the day that Adam was created all things were finished so that he was the Perfection and Complement of the whole workmanship of this world Therefore when he sinned the whole world sinned whose Sin we hear and suffer which is not so in the Sin of his Posterity To be sealed with the Signet of the King is their Expression of Gods Constitution And these words are very consonant to those of our Apostle Rom. 5.12 As by one man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin so Death passed upon all men for that or because in him all have sinned To the same purpose speaks the Targum on Eccles. 7. v. 29. in the Copies followed by the Jayan and London Bibles for so the words are not in those of Buxtorf nor the Biblia Regia God made the First man upright and innocent before him but the Serpent and Eve seduced him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gave cause why the day of Death should come on him and all the Inhabitants of the Earth And we can have no more Authentick Testimony of the Apprehensions of their antient Doctors than what their Targums afford us And therefore Joseph Albo in Scher Itharim expresly concludes lib. 1. chap. 11. that all the punishments relating unto Adam and Eve for their first Sin belong unto all mankind And whereas they fancy that some Persons spent their dayes without actual sin at least any such as should deserve Death they charge their Death on the guilt of the sin of Adam So the Targum on the last Chapter of Ruth And Hobed begat Jesse who was called Nachash and there was no iniquity or corruption in him for which he should be delivered into the hâ—nd of the Angel of Death to take his soul from him and he lived manâ— dayes untill the Counsell that the Serpent gave to Eve abode before the Lord and upon that Counsâ—ll were all the inhabitants of the Earth made guilty of death and upon the aâ—â—â—unt of that sin dyed Jesse the Righteous Lud. Capellus in his Annotations on John 3. hath an observation on this passage in the Targum not
suffered together with him The Story by the way of the Martyrdome of this James is at large reported by § 6 Eusebius out of Hâ—gesippus Histor. Eccles. l. 2. cap. 23. in the Relation whereof he is followed by Hierom and sundry others I shall say no more of the whole Story but that the Consideration of it is very sufficient to perswade any man to use the liberty of his own Reason and Judgement in the perusal of the Writings of the Antients For of the Circumstances therein reported about this James and his death many of them as his being of the Line of the Priests his entring at his pleasure into the Sanctum Sanctorum his being carried up and set by a great multitude of people on a pinacle of the Temple are so palpably false that no colour of probability can be given unto them and most of the rest seem altogether incredible That in general this Holy Apostle of Jesus Christ his kinsman according to the flesh was stoned by Ananus during the Anarchie between the Governments of Festus and Albinus Josephus who then lived testifies and all Ecclesiastical Historians agree § 7 The Churches at this time in Jerusalem and Judaea were very numerous The Oppressors Robbers and Seditious of all sorts being wholly intent upon the pursuit of their own ends filling the Government of the Nation with tumults and disorders the Disciples of Christ who knew that the time of their preaching the Gospel unto their Countreymen was but short and even now expiring followed their work with diligence and success being not greatly regarded in the dust of that confusion which was raised by the Nation 's rushing in to its fatal ruine § 8 All these Churches and the multitudes that belonged unto them were altogether with the Profession of the Gospel addicted zealously unto the Observation of the Law of Moses The Synod indeed at Jerusalem had determined that the yoke of the Law should not be put upon the necks of the Gentile Converts Acts 15. But eight or nine years after that when Paul came up unto Jerusalem again Chap. 21. v. 20 21 22. James informs him that the many thousands of the Jews who believed did all zealously observe the Law of Moses and moreover judged that all those who were Jews by birth ought to do so also and on that account were like enough to assemble in a disorderly multitude to enquire into the practice of Paul himself who had been ill reported of amongst them On this account they kept their Assemblies distinct from those of the Gentiles all the world over as amongst others Hierom informs as in his Notes on the first Chapter of the Galatians All those Hebrews then to whom Paul wrote this Epistle continued in the use and practice of Mosaical Worship as celebrated in the Temple and their Synagogues with all other Legal Institutions whatever Whether they did this out of an unacquaintedness with their liberty in Christ or out of a pertinacious adhâ—rence unto their own prejudicate Opinions I shall not determine § 9 From this time forward the Body of the people of the Jews saw not a day of peace or Quietness Tumults Seditions Outrages Robberies Murders increased all the Nation over And these things by various degrees made way for that fatal War which beginning about six or seven years after the Death of James ended in the utter desolation of the People City Temple and Worship foretold so long before by Daniel the Prophet and intimated by our Saviour to lye at the door This was that day of the Lord whose suddain approach the Apostle declares unto them Chap. 10.36 37. For ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God ye may receive the Promise For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A very little while less than you think of or imagine the manner whereof he declares Chap. 12.26 27 28. And by this means he effectually diverted thâ—m from a pertinacious adherence unto those things whose dissolution from God himself was so nigh at hand which Argument was also afterwards pressed by Peter 2 Epist. Chap. 3. § 10 Our blessed Saviour had long before warned his Disciples of all these things particularly of the desolation that was to come upon the whole people of the Jews with the Tumults Distresses Persecutions and Wars which should precede it directing them to the exercise of patience in the discharge of their duty untill the approach of the final Calamity out of which he advised them to free themselves by flight or a timely departure out of Jerusalem and all Judaea Matth. chap. 24. v. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. This and no other was the Oracle mentioned by Eusebius whereby the Christians were warned to depart out of Jerusalem It was given as he sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to approved men amongst them For although the Prophesie its self was written by the Evangelists yet the especial meaning of it was not known and divulged amongst all The Leaders of them kept this secret for a season least an exasperation of the people being occasioned thereby they should have been obstructed in the work which they had to do before its accomplishment And this was the Way of the Apostles also as to other future events which being foretold by them might provoke either Jews or Gentiles if publickly divulged 2 Thess. 2.5 6. But now when the Work of the Church among the Jews for that season was come to its close the Elect being gathered out of them and the final Desolation of the City and People appearing to be at hand by a concurrence of all the signs foretold by our Saviour those entrusted with the sense of that Oracle warned their Brethren to provide for that flight whereunto they were directed That this flight and departure probably with the loss of all their Possessions was grievous unto them may easily be conceived But that which seems most especially to have perplexed them was their relinquishment of that Worship of God whereunto they had been so zealously addicted That this would prove grievous unto them our Saviour had before intimated Matth. 24. v. 20. Hence were they so slow in their Obedience unto that Heavenly Oracle although excited with the remembrance of what befell Lots Wife in the like Tergiversation Nay as it is likely from this Epistle many of them who had made Profession of the Gospel rather than they would now utterly forego their old Way of Worship deserted the Faith and cleaving to their unbelieving Countreymen perished in their Apostasie whom our Apostle in an especial manner forewarns of their inevitable and sore destruction by that Fire of Gods Indignation which was shortly to devour the Adversaries to whom they associated themselves Chap. 10. v. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. This was the Time wherein this Epistle was written This the Condition of the Hebrews § 11 unto whom it was
besides the confession of the Antient Jews consenting unto the Truth contended for we have for our confirmation therein the wofull perplexities of their later Masters in their attempts to evade the force of this Testimony For some Ages they have abhorred nothing more then that the true Messiah should be thought to be here intended For if that be once granted they know that it brings an instant ruine unto the pretences of their Infidelity and that not meerly upon the account of his coming which they have invented a sorry relief against but on that of his being poenally cut off which can no way be reconciled unto their presumptions and expectations But if he be not here intended it is incumbent on them to declare who is For the utmost extent of the time limited in the Prediction being long since expired the Prophecy hath certainly had accomplishment in some one or other and it is known or may be known who or otherwise the whole Angelical Message never was nor ever will be of any use to the Church of God But here our Masters are by no means agreed amongst themselves nor do they know what to answer unto this enquiry And if they do guess at any one it is not because they think it possible he should be designed but because they think it impossible for them to keep life in their cause and not to speak when the sword of truth lyes at the heart of it Some of them therefore affirm the Messiah spoken of to be Cyrus whom God calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Annointed Isa. 45. v. 1. But what the cutting off or death of Cyrus should make in this Prediction they know not Nor do they endeavour to shew that any thing here mentioned to fall out with the cutting off the Messiah hath the least Relation unto Cyrus or his death And if because Cyrus is once called the Annointed of the Lord he must be supposed to be intended in that place where no one word or circumstance is applicable unto him they may as well say that it is Saul the first King of Israel who is spoken of seeing he also is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Annointed of the Lord 1 Sam. 24. v. 6. as was Zedekiah also Lament 4. v. 20. But it must needs be altogether incredible unto any unless they are Jews who can believe what they please that serves their ends that because the Lord calleth Cyrus his Annointed in reference unto the especial work of destroying the Babylonian Empire in which sense the term of annointing namely for a designation unto any employment is obvious and familiar in the Old Testament should therefore be esteemed the promised Messiah of the people of God who is here evidently described But that which casts this fancy beneath all consideration is the time allotted to the cutting off of the Messiah Those amongst the Jews themselves who begin the Account of the Weeks from the most early date imaginable fix their Epocha in the giving of the Promise unto Jeremiah concerning their return from captivity which was in the dayes of Jehojakim Now from thence unto the Death of Cyrus no computation will allow above LXXX years which comes short somewhat above four hundred years of the season here allotted for the cutting off the Messiah And the same is the case with Joshua Zerubbabel and Nehemiah whom some of them would have to be designed For neither were any of them poenally cut off nor did they cause in any sense the Sacrifices to cease but endeavoured to continue them in a due manner nor did they live within some hundreds of years of the time determined nor was any thing besides here forefold wrought or accomplished in their days § 39 Abarbinel and after him Manasse Ben Israel with some others of them fix on Agrippa the last King of the Jews who as they say with his son Monabasius was cut off or slaine at Rome by Vespasian A learned man in his Apparatus ad Origines Ecclesiasticas mistakes this Agrippa for Herod Agrippa who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 12. But he who dyed long before the destruction of the City is not intended by them but the younger Agrippa the Brother and Husband of Berenice Neither is there any colour of probability in this Fancy For neither was that Agrippa properly ever King of the Jews having only Galilee under his Jurisdiction nor was he ever annointed to be their King nor designed of God unto any work on the account whereof he might be called his Annointed nor was he of the posterity of Israel nor did by any thing deserve an illustrious mention in this Prophecy Besides in the last fatal War he was still of the Roman side and party nor was he cut off or slain by Vespasian but after the War lived at Rome in honour and dyed in peace Yea he did not only out-live Vespasian but Titus and Domitian his Sons also and continued unto the third year of Trajan as Justus the Tiberian assures us in his History whose words are reported by Photius in his Bibliotheca So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is nothing of Truth no colour of probability in this desperate figment Their last evasion is that by Messiah the Prince the Office of Magistracy and Priesthood § 40 and in them all annointed unto Authority are intended These they say were to be cut off in the destruction of the City And herein they have the consent of Africanus Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius among the Antients who are also followed by some later Writers But this evasion also is of the same nature with the former yea more vain then they if any thing may be allowed so to be The Angel twice mentioneth the Messiah in his message First His coming and annointing v. 25. and then his cutting off v. 26. If the same person or thing be not intended in both places the whole Discourse is aequivocal and unintelligible no circumstance being added to difference between them who are called by the same Name in the same place And to suppose that the Holy Ghost by one and the same Name within a few words continuing his speech of the same matter without any note of Difference or distinction should signifie things diverse from one another is to leave no place for the understanding of any thing that is spoken by him The Messiah therefore who was to come and be annointed and cut off is one and the same individual person Now it is expresly said that there shall be seven Weeks and sixty two Weeks that is four hundred eighty three years from the going forth of the Decree unto Messiah the Prince I desire therefore to know whether that space of time was passed before they had any such Magistrates or Priests as they pretend afterwards were cut off This is so far from Truth that before that time the Rule of the Hasmonaeans the last Supream Magistrates of their own Nation was put to an end This
misery and happiness ensuing of the people of the Jews that they are forced to complain of the increduliâ—y of men that they would not believe them and who would not believe them The Jews they believe it well enough the Nations and their Kings they are supposed to be the men complaining that they are not believed so that the fondness of this imagination is beyond expression 3. How do they say For the iniquity of my people he was stricken v. 8. Who are they when the people themselves are supposed to speak In brief let all the Jews in the world find out one expression in the whole Prophecy tolerably suited unto this Hypothesis of theirs and I shall be contented that the whole of it be granted unto them and be used according to their desires Secondly They add that the subject of this Prophecy is spoken of in the plural number § 52 and so cannot intend any one singular person This they indeavour to prove from those words of the Lord v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they render à transgressione populi mei plaga illa Lamo is of the plural number and so cannot respect any single person but must denote the whole people Answ. But what perverseness is this whoever be intended in this Prophecy he is spoken of twenty times as a single person and such things spoken of him as can by no artifices be suited unto any collective body of people and shall one expression in the plural number out-weigh all these and be made an Engine to pervert the whole context and to render it unintelligible 2. Suppose yet the word to denote many a people and not one single person will it not unavoidably follow that here is a mention interserted occasionally of some other persons besides him who is the principal subject of the Prophecy and so the sense can be no other but that the people of the Prophet that is the Jews should assuredly be punished for the rejection of him whose person and work he prophesied about 3. The truth is the word hath not necessarily a plural signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lamo is most frequently put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the inserting of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof we have sundry instances in the Scriptures Gen. 6.20 2. Blessed be the Lord of Shem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Canaan shall be his Servant Lamo for Lo Job 20.23 God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall rain it upon him whilst he is eating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So again the same word is used chap. 22. v. 2. Psal. 11. v. 7. The Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his countenance doth behold the upright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in this Prophet chap. 44. v. 15. He maketh it a graven Image 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he falleth down to it Lamo for Lo. And this is so known that there is scarce any Grammarian of their own who hath not taken notice of it so that this Exception also is evidently impertinent They yet urge further those words v. 10. He shall see his seed he shall prolong his § 53 daies This say they is not agreeable unto any but those who have children of their bodies begotten in whom their daies are prolonged Answ. 1. It were well if they would consider the words foregoing of his making his soul an offering for sin that is dying for it and then tell us how he that doth so can see his carnal seed afterwards and in them prolong his daies 2. He that is here spoken of is directly distinguished from the seed that is the people of God so that they cannot be the subject of the Prophecy 3. It is not said that he shall prolong his daies in his seed but he himself shall prolong daies after his death that is upon his Resurrection he shall live eternally which is called length of daies 4. The seed here are the seed spoken of Psal. 22.30 A seed that shall serve the Lord and be all accounted unto him for a Generation That is a spiritual seed as the Gentiles are called the Children of Sion brought forth upon her traveling Isa. 66.8 Besides how the Messiah shall obtain this seed is expressed in the next verse By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justifie many they are such as are converted to God by his Doctrine and justified by Faith in him And that Disciples should be called the seed the off-spring the children of their Masters and Instructors is so common among the Jews and familiar unto them as no phrases or expressions are more in use Thus speaks expresly this Prophet also chap. 8.18 Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given me and who were their Children he declares v. 16. bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples These were the Children whom the Lord had given him And this is the summ of all that which any appearance of Reason is objected against our application of this place unto the Messiah which how weak and trivial it is is obvious unto every ordinary understanding § 54 We may yet add some other Testimonies to the same purpose Danâ—el tells us cap. 9. v. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah shall be cut off that is from the Land of the Living and that not for himself And Zech. 9.9 It is said he shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 poor and in his best condition riding on an Ass which place is interpreted by Solomon Jarchi and others of the Messiah He was also to be pierced chap. 12.10 Being the Shepherd chap. 13.7 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King as the Targum that was to be smitten with the sword of the Lord. The Judge of Israel that was to be smitten with the Rod on the cheek Mich. 4.1 All denoting his persecution and suffering § 55 Agreeable unto these Testimonies the Jews themselves have a Tradition about the sufferings of the Messiah which sometimes breaks forth amongst them In Midrash Tehillim on Psal. 2. Rabbi Hana in the name of Rabbi Idi sayes that the Messiah must bear the third part of the Affliction that shall ever be in the world And R. Machir in Abkath Kocheb affirms that God inquired of the soul of the Messiah at the beginning of the Creation whether he would endure sufferings and afflictions for the purging away the sins of his people to which he answered that he would hear them with joy And that these sufferings of the Messiah are such as that without the consideration of them no rational account can be given of any of their services or sacrifices shall in our Exposition be fully declared Now upon these Testimonies it is evident that the great Argument used by the Jews to disprove Jesus of Nazareth from being the true Messiah namely his meanness poverty persecutions and sufferings in this world
no impeachment can arise against our Interpretation of the predictions insisted on which have a perfect coincidence therewithall 4. The same is the state of things in reference unto what they object about the variety of Religions that are in the world and the multitude of Sects which every where spring up For 1. Although de facto there are at this time sundry false Religions in the world and amongst them that which is professed by the Jews yet de jure they ought not to be there being one true Religion sufficiently declared and promulgated unto the children of men For whereas the Jews and others do wilfully shut their eyes against the light and evidence of truth the guilt and misery is their own the Lord Christ having graciously provided and tendered unto them means of better instruction And 2. It is a mistake that the different Opinions and Sects that are amongst Christians themselves do constitute different Religions For as they all agree in the Worship of the God of Israel by Jesus Christ the Messiah which contains the summ of their Religion so their profession its self is not to be measured by the Doctrines and Conceptions of some amongst them but by the Scripture which they all receive and acknowledge This is the Religion of them all and it is one and the same amongst all that receive Jesus Christ for their Saviour That there are such pertinacious contests about mens different apprehensions of the mind of God in the Word that they labour to impose their private conceptons one upon another is the fault of some men which doth not prejudice the oneness of that Religion which is taught in the Gospel Upon all which it appears that the Promises insisted on have received a glorious and blessed accomplishment § 20 Thirdly They insist on the Promises which concern themselves and these of all others they most mind and urge against their Adversaries Nothing they say is more certain and evident in the Scripture then that the People of Israel shall be brought into a blessed and prosperous condition by the Messiah at his coming and in particular that by him they shall be brought home into their own Land And to this purpose they plead Isa. 11.13 Chap. 52.54 60 61 62 63 66. Jer. 30. 31. Ezek. 36.37 38 39 40 41 42. whereunto sundry other places of a like importance may be added But now say they instead hereof that whole people is scattered over the face of the earth under great misery and oppression for the most part without the least interest in the Country promised unto them And from hence it is that they most obstinately conclude that the Messiah is not yet come for untill they are rich wealthy and powerful they will not believe that God is faithfull § 21 Answ. It would be too long a work and not suitable unto our present design to go over all the Promises in particular which seem to have an aspect this way or wherein mention is made of Abraham the seed of Abraham Jacob Israel and the people of Israel and Judah Besides the Exposition of them may readily be sought from many Learned Commentaries extant in all Languages on the Prophecies of the Old Testament I shall therefore only give such general Answers as being applyed unto the several particular instances will manifest the insufficiency of the Jews Argument from Promises of this Nature 1. Then in the consideration of these Promises we must carefully distinguish between those who had their full at least principal accomplishment in that return of the people from the Captivity of Babylon and those which have a direct respect unto the dayes of the Messiah It is known that the Prophets do very usually set out that mercifull deliverance in Metaphorical Expressions so to set off the greatness of the mercy its self But the present Jews who now look for the accomplishing of all the most strained Allegories in a literal sense supposing that the deliverance which their fore-fathers then obtained because of their ensuing trouble and poverty did not answer what is spoken of it do wrest them all to the times of the Messiah when they hope they shall receive them in full measure For they reckon of all things according to their outward gain and profit and not according to the manifestation of the Love and Glory of God therein These Promises then are in the first place to be set apart as not concerned in our present business and difference 2. We have manifested before that there is mention of a double Israel in the Scripture the spiritual Israel that is all the sons of the faith of Abraham in all Ages and places throughout the world and an Israel according to the flesh or the carnal posterity of Jacob which the present Jews are This distinction we have elsewhere confirmed Now many of the Promises pleaded belong to Israel in the first sense that is the Church and people of God who by faith are admitted into the Covenant of Abraham and so made inheritors of the Promises And these also which are by far the greatest number are to be set aside from our present consideration of them 3. It hath been proved that oftentimes spiritual things are expressed metaphorically in the Prophets by words which in their literal first sense denote things outward and corporeal This is sufficiently evident from the instances formerly given wherein such things are spoken as it is utterly impossible that they should have a literal accomplishment and of the like sort there are others innumerable And thus most of the predictions that concern Peace and Prosperity must necessarily intend spiritual peace with God because concerning the same seasons Wars and Trials are in other places foretold 4. Whatever is foretold and promised concerning the Jews themselves in the dayes of the Messiah doubtless they have no ground nor colour of reason to expect the accomplishment of it until they receive him own him and submit unto him which to this day they have not done When Moses went forth to visit them of old in their distress and slew the Aegyptian that smote one of them because they refused him and would not understand that it was he whom God would deliver them by and endeavoured to betray him to death their bondage was continued forty years longer and yet at length by the same Moses were they delivered And although they have refused and rejected him who was promised to be their Saviour and so continue to this day in their captivity spiritual and temporal yet it is he by whom in the time appointed they shall be delivered from the one and the other But this shall not be done untill they own and receive him which when God shall give them hearts to do they will quickly find the blessed success thereof For 5. We grant that there are many Promises on record in the Scripture concerning their gathering together their return to God by the Messiah with great Peace and Glory
the Covenant between him and the people that the Transgression of it so as to disannul the terms and conditions of it had by Divine Constitution the punishment of death temporal or Excision appointed unto it And this in the next words he proceeds to improve unto his purpose by the way of an Argument à minori ad majus How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation c. There is an Antithesis expressed in one branch as we observed before between the Law and the Gospel namely that the Law was the Word spoken by Angels the Gospel being revealed by the Lord himself But there are also other differences intimated between them though expressed only on the part of the Gospel as that it is in its nature or Effects Great Salvation that is not absolutely only but comparatively unto the benefit exhibited to their fore Fathers by the Law as given on Mount Horeb. The confirmation also of the Gospel by the Testimony of God is tacitely opposed unto the confirmation of the Law by the like Witness and from all these considerations doth the Apostle enforce his Argument proving the Punishment that shall befall Gospel neglecters In the words as was in part before observed there occurrs 1. The Subject matter spoken of so great salvation 2 A further Description of it 1. From its principal Author it began to be spoken by the Lord. 2. From the manner of its propagation it was confirmed unto us by them that heard it 3. From its Confirmation by the Testimony of God Which 4. Is exemplified by a distribution into 1. Signs 2. Wonders 3. Mighty Works and 4. Various Gifts of the Holy Ghost whereof there is 3. A neglect supposed if we neglect and 4. Punishment there intimated wherein 1. The Punishment its self and 2. The manner of its expression how shall we escape are to be considered all which are to be severally explained 1. The subject matter treated of is expressed in those words so great Salvation And it is the Gospel which is intended in that Expression as is evident from the preceding Verse For that which is there called the word which we have heard is here called great salvation As also from the following words where it is said to be declared by the Lord and farther propagated by them that heard him And the Gospel is called Salvation by a Metonymy of the Effect for the Cause For it is the Grace of God bringing salvation Titus 2.11 The Word that is able to save us The Doctrine the Discovery the instrumentally efficient Cause of Salvation Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.20 21. And this Salvation the Apostle calls Great upon many accounts which we shall afterwards unfold And calling it so great salvation he refers them unto the Doctrine of it wherein they had been instructed 〈◊〉 whereby the Excellency of the Salvation which it brings is declared Now though the Apostle might 〈…〉 pressed the Gospel by the word which was declared unto us by the Lord as 〈…〉 the Law by the word spoken by Angels yet to strengthen his Argument 〈◊〉 Moâ—â—â— unto Obedience which he insists upon he chose to give a brief Description of iâ— from its principal Effect it is great Salvation The Law by reason of sin proved the Ministry of Death and Condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 yet being fully published only by Angels Obedience was indispensibly required unto it And shall not the Gospel the Ministry of life and great salvation be attended unto 2. He farther describes the Gospel from its principal Author or Revealer it began to be spoken by the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words may have a twofold sense for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may denote either principium temporis the beginning of time or principium operis the beginning of the work In the first way it asserts that the Lord himself was the first Preacher of the Gospel before he sent or employed his Apostles and Disciples in the same work In the latter that he only began the work leaving the perfecting and finishing of it unto those who were chosen and enabled by him unto that end And this latter sense is also true for he finished not the whole Declaration of the Gospel in his own person teaching vivâ voce but committed the work unto his Apostles Matth. 10.27 But their teaching from him being expressed in the next words I take the words in the first sense referring unto what he had delivered Chap. 1.1 Of Gods speaking in these last dayes in the Person of the Son Now the Gospel hath had a threefold beginning of its Declaration First In Prediction by Promises and Types and so it began to be declared from the foundation of the world Luke 1.70 71. Secondly In an immediate Preparation and so it began to be declared in and by the Ministry of John the Baptist Mark 1.1 2. Thirdly In its open clear actual full Revelation so this work was begun by the Lord himself and carried on to perfection by those who were appointed and enabled by him thereunto Joh. 1.17 18. Thus was it by him declared in his own person as the Law was by Angels And herein lyes the stress of the Apostles Reasonings with reference unto what he had before discoursed concerning the Son and Angels and his Preheminence above them The great Reason why the Hebrews so pertinaciously adhered unto the Doctrine of the Law was the glorious Publication of it It was the word spoken by Angels they received it by the disposition of Angels If saith the Apostle that were a sufficient cause why the Law should be attended unto and that the neglect of it should be so sorely revenged as it was though in it self but the Ministry of death and condemnation Then consider what is your Duty in reference unto the Gospel which as it was in its self a Word of life and great salvation so it was spoken declared and delivered by the Lord himself whom we have manifested to be so exceedingly exalted above all Angels whatever 3. He farther describes the Gospel from the way and means of its conveyance unto us It was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And herein also he prevents an Objection that might arise in the minds of the Hebrews inasmuch as they at least the greatest part of them were not acquainted with the Personal Ministry of the Lord they heard not the word spoken by him For hereunto the Apostle replyes that though they themselves heard him not yet the same word which he preached was not only declared but confirmed unto them by those that heard him And herein he doth not intend all of them who at any time heard him teaching but those whom in an especial manner he made choice of to employ them in that work namely the Apostles So that this expression those that heard him is a Periphrasis of the Apostles from that great priviledge of hearing immediately all things that our Lord taught in his own
at least so long he continued under restraint though in his own hired Hâ—use This time was expired before the writing of this Epistle For he was not only absent from â—â—me in some other part of Italy when he wrote it Chap. 13.24 but also so far at liberty and sui juris as that he had entertained a Resolution of going into the East so soon as Timothy should come unto him Chap. 13.23 And it seems likewise to be written before the Martyrdom of James at Jerusalem in that he affirms that the Church of the Hebrews had not yet resisted unto Blood Chap. 12.4 it being very probable that together with him many others were slain Many great difficulties they had been exercised withal but as yet the Matter was not come to blood which shortly after it arrived unto That is certain also that it was not only written but communicated unto and well known by all the believing Jews before the writing of the Second Epistle of Peter who therein makes mention of it as we have declared Much light I confess to the precise time of its writing is not hence to be obtained because of the uncertainty of the time wherein Peter wrote that Epistle Only it appears from what he affirms concerning the approaching of the time of his suffering Chap. 1.13 that it was not long before his death This as is generally agreed happened in the thirteenth year of Nero when a great progress was made in that War which ended in the fatall and finall destruction of the City and Temple § 3 From these Observations it appears that the best guide we have to find out the certain time oâ— the Writing of this Epistle is Pauls being sent Prisoner unto Rome Now this was in the first year of the Government of Festus after he had been two years detained in Prison at Caesarea by Felix Acts 24.27 Chap. 25. v. 26 27. This Felix was the Brother of Pallas who ruled all things under Claudius and fell into some disgrace in the very first yeâ—â— of Nero as Tacitus informs us But yet by the countenance of Agrippina the Mother of Nero he continued in some regard untill the fifth or sixth year of his Raign when together with his Mother he destroyed many of her Friends and Favourites During this time of Pallas his declension in power it is most probable that his Brother Felix was displaced from the Rule of his Province and Festus sent in his room That it was before his utter ruine in the sixth year of Nero is evident from hence because he made means to keep his Brother from punishment when he was accused for Extortion and Oppression by the Jews Most probably then Paul was sent unto Rome about the fourth or fifth year of Nero which was the fifty ninth year from the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There he abode as we shewed at the least two years in custody where the Story of the Acts of the Apostles ends in the seventh year of Nero and sixty first of our Lord or the beginning of the year following That year it is presumed he obtained his liberty And this was about thirteen years after the determination of the Controversie about Mosaical Institutions as to their obligation on the Gentiles made by the Synâ—d at Jerusalem Acts 13. Presently upon his liberty whilest he abode in some part of Italy expecting the coming of Timothy before he entered upon the journey he had promised unto the Philippians Chap. 2. v. 24. he wrote this Epistle Here then we must stay a little to consider what was the general state and condition of the Hebrews in those dayes which might give occasion unto the writing thereof The time fixed on was about the death of Festus who dyed in the Province and the § 4 beginning of the Government of Albinus who was sent to succeed him What was the state of the people at that time Josephus declares at large in his Second Book of their Wars In brief the Governours themselves being great Oppressors and rather mighty Robbers amongst them than Rulers the whole Nation was filled with Spoil and Violence What through the fury and outrage of the Souldiers in the pursuit of their insatiable Avarice what through the Incursions of Thieves and Robbers in Troops and Companies wherewith the whole Land abounded and what through the tumults of Seditious persons daily incited and provoked by the cruelty of the Romans there was no peace or safety for any sober honest men either in the City of Jerusalem or any where else throughout the whole Province That the Church had a great share of suffering in the outrage and misery of those dayes as in such dissolutions of Government and Licence for all wickedness it commonly falls out no man can question And this is that which the Apostle mentions Chap. 10.31 32 33 34. Ye endured a great sight of aâ—flictions partly whilest ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and aâ—flictions and partly whilest ye became companions of them that were so used and took joyfully the spoyling of your goods This was the lot and portion of all honest and sober minded men in those dayes as their Historian at large declares For as no doubt the Christians had a principal share in all those sufferings so some others of the Jews also were their Companions in them it being not a special persecution but a general calamity that the Apostle speaks of One Joseph the Son of Caehias was in the beginning of those dayes High-Priest put into § 5 that Office by Agrippa who not long before had put him out On the death of Festus he thrust him out again and placed Ananus his Son in his stead This man a young rash Fellow by Sect and Opinion a Sadduce who of all others were the most violent in their hatred of the Christians being especially ingaged therein by the peculiar Opinion of their Sect and Party which was the denyal of the Resurrection first began a direct Persecution of the Church Before his advancement to the Priesthood their Afflictions and Calamities were for the most part common unto them with other peaceable men Only the rude and impious multitude with other seditious persons seem to have offered especial violences unto their Assemblies and Meetings which some of the more unsteadfast and weak began to omit on that account Chap. 10.25 Judicial proceeding against them as to their lives when this Epistle was written there doth not appear to have been any for the Apostle tells them as we before observed that as yet they had not resisted unto blood Chap. 12. v. 4. But this Ananus the Sadduce presently after being placed in power by Agrippa taking advantage at the death of Festus and the time that passed before Albinus his Successor was setled in the Province convents James before himself and his Associates There to make short work he is condemned and immediately stoned And it is not unlikely but that other private Persons
Attonement and Reconciliation and that some such thing was signified in their Sacrifices they do each one for himself torture slay and offer a Cock on the day of Expiation to make attonement for their sins and that unto the Devil The Rites of that Diabolical Solemnity are declared at large by Buxtorfius in his Synagog Judaic cap. 20. But yet as this folly manifests that they can find no rest in their consciences without their Sacrifices so it gives them not at all what they seek after And therefore being driven from all other hopes they trust at length unto their own Death for in Life they have no hope making this one of their constant Prayers Let my Death be the Expiation of all Sins But this is the curse and so no means to avoid it Omitting therefore these horrid follies of men under despair an effect of that wrath which is come upon them unto the uttermost the thing its self may be considered That the Sacrifices of Moses's Law in and by themselves should be a means to deliver men from the guilt of sin and to reconcile them unto God is contrary to the Light of Nature their own proper use and express Testimonies of the Old Testament For First Can any man think it reasonable that the blood of Bulls and Goats should of its self make an Expiation of the sin of the souls of men reconcile them to God the Judge of all and impart unto them an Everlasting Righteousness Our Apostle declares the manifest impossibility hereof Heb. 10. v. 4. They must have very mean and low thoughts of God his Holiness Justice Truth of the Demerit of Sin of Heaven and Hell who think them all to depend on the blood of a Calf or a Goat The Sacrifices of them indeed might by Gods appointment represent that to the minds of men which is effectuall unto the whole End of appeasing Gods Justice and of obtaining his Favour but that they should themselves effect it is unsuitable unto all the Apprehensions which are imbred in the heart of man either concerning the nature of God or the Guilt of Sin Secondly Their Primitive and proper use doth manifest the same For they were to be frequently repeated and in all the Repetitions of them there was still new mention made of sin They could not therefore by themselves take it away for if they could they would not have been reiterated It is apparent therefore that their use was to represent and bring to remembrance that which did perfectly take away sin For a perfect work may be often remembred but it need not it cannot be often done For being done for such an End and that End being obtained it cannot be done again The Sacrifices therefore were never appointed never used to take away sin which they did not but to represent that which did so effectually Besides there were some sins that men may be guilty of whom God will not utterly reject for which there was no Sacrifice appointed in the Law of Moses as was the case with David Psal. 51. v. 16. which makes it undeniable that there was some other way of Attonement besides them and beyond them as our Apostle declares Acts 13. v. 38 39. Thirdly The Scripture expresly rejects all the Sacrifices of the Law when they are trusted in for any such End and Purpose which sufficiently demonstrates that they were never appointed thereunto See Psal. 40 v. 6 7 8. Psal. 50. v. 8 9 10 11 12 13. Isa. 1. v. 11 12 13. Chap. 66. v. 3. Amos. 5.21 22. Micha 6. v. 6 7 8. and other places innumerable Add unto what hath been spoken that during the Observation of the whole Law § 22 of Moses whilest it was in force by the Appointment of God himself He still directed those who sought for Acceptance with him unto a New Covenant of Grace whole Benefits by faith they were then made partakers of and whole nature was afterwards more fully to be declared See Jerem. 31. v. 31 32 33 34. with the inferences of our Apostle thereon Heb. 8.12 13. And this plainly everts the whole Foundation of the Jews Expectation of Justification before God on the account of the Law of Moses given on Mount Sinai For to what purpose should God call them from resting on the Covenant thereof to look for Mercy and Grace in and by another if that had been able to give them the help desired In brief then the Jews fixing on the Law of Moses as the only means of delivery from sin and death as they do thereby exclude all mankind besides themselves from any interest in the Love Favour or Grace of God which they greatly design and desire so they cast themselves also into a miserable restless self-condemned condition in this world by trusting to that which will not relieve them and into Endless misery hereafter by refusing that which effectually would make them Heirs of Salvation For whilest they perish in their sin another better more glorious and sure Remedy against all the Evils that are come upon mankind or are justly feared to be coming by any of them is provided in the Grace Wisdom and Love of God as shall now farther be demonstrated The first intimation that God gave of this work of his Grace in Redeeming mankind § 23 from sin and misery is contained in the Promise subjoyned unto the Curse denounced against our first Parents and their Posterity in them Gen. 3. v. 15. The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Heaa of the Serpent and the Serpent shall bruise his Heel Two things there are contained in these words A Promise of Relief from the misery brought on mankind by the Temptation of Satan and an intimation of the Means or Way whereby it should be brought about That the first is included in these words is evident For First If there be not a Promise of Deliverance expressed in these words whence is it that the execution of the sentence of Death against sin is suspended Unless we will allow an Intervention satisfactory to the Righteousness and Truth of God to be expressed in these words there would have been a truth in the suggestion of the Serpent namely that whatever God had said yet indeed they were not to dye The Jews in the Midrash Tehillim as Kimchi informs us on Psal. 92. whose Title is a Psalm for the Sabbath Day which they generally assign unto Adam say that Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden on the Evening of the sixth day after which God came to execute the Sentence of Death upon him but the Sabbath being come on the Punishment was deferred whereon Adam made that Psalm for the Sabbath Day Without an interposition of some external Cause and Reason they acknowledge that Death ought immediately to have been inflicted and other besides what is mentioned in these words there was none Secondly The whole Evil of sin and Curse that mankind then did or was to suffer under proceeded from the
informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a great Wise Man and one of the Wise Men of the Mishnae as his sayings in it manifest so that all the Wise men of that Generation followed him and took this Barcosba for their King and Mâ—ssiah And He first applyed unto him the Prophesie of Balaam Num. 24. v. 17. concerning the Star that should arise out of Jacob whereon they changed his name and called him Barchocheba or the Son of the Star or as some say that was his name at first whence the blind Rabbin took occasion to apply that Prediction unto him Concerning him also they interpreted the Prophesie of the Shilo and that also in Hâ—ggai about the shaking of the Heavens and the earth as they acknowledge in the Talmud in the place fore-cited This man therefore a Magician and a bloody Murderer by the common advise and Counsel of their Doctors and Wise men they gathered unto in multitudes and embraced as their Deliverer So soon as he had got strength and power he set himself to the work which they expected from their Messiah namely to conquer the Romans and to extirpate the Christians which last as Justin Martyr who lived near those dayes informs us he endeavoured with all Cruelty In the pursuit of this design he continued for three years and an half obstinately managing a bloody War against the Romans until the Impostor himself was slain their great Rabbi taken and tortured to death with iron Cards and such a devastation made of the whole Nation as that to this day they could never gather together in great numbers in any place of the world Maimonides tells us of this Barcosba whom they all received for their Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Wise men required of him neither Sign nor Wonder that is no miracle but others of them report that he caused Fire to come out of his mouth with other diabolical delusions fit to deceive a poor blinded credulous multitude And the Opinion of Maimonides that they look for no Miracles from the Messiah seems to be vented on purpose to obviate the plea of the Christians from the Miracles wrought by the Lord Jesus and is contrary unto the constant perswasion of most of their Masters and his own judgement declared in other places And the Targum its self in Hâ—b 3. v. 18. hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Miraculous Signs and Redemption that thou shalt work for or by thy Messiah So they call the Miracles wrought at their coming out of Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see Hos. 2.15 Targum And on this ground do they studiously and wickedly endeavour to stain by any means the Glory of the Miracles of the Lord Jesus But the end of this Impostor who probably was intended in those words of our Saviour John 5.43 if another come in his own name him will ye receive hath proved the shame and reproach of their hopes and expectations unto all Generations From this time forward the remaining Jews with their Posterity utterly rejected § 7 the faith of their Father Abraham and of the rest of their Progenitors who thereby obtained a good report and this Testimony that they pleased God A Messiah that should be promised unto Adam the common Father of us all one that should be a Spiritual Redeemer from sin and misery a Goel or Redeemer from Death and Wrath a Peace-maker between God and man one that should work out everlasting Salvation the great blessing wherein all the Nations of the Earth were to have an interest a spiritual and eternal Prophet Priest and King God and man in one Person they neither looked for any more nor desired A temporal King and Deliverer promised unto themselves alone to give them Ease Dominion Wealth and Power they would now have or none at all They would not think it thank-worthy towards God himself to send them a Messiah to deliver them from sin And in their expectations of such a one after they had been well wearied with many frustrations they were as was said in their adherence unto Barcosbi almost extirpated from the face of the earth only God in his Providence who hath yet another work to accomplish towards them hath preserved them a Remnant unto his Glory In this condition some of them began to deny that there was any Messiah to be expected § 8 or looked for This opinion is ascribed in the Talmud unto Rabbi Hillel lib. Sand. Câ—p. Chelek This was not that Hilâ—el whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Elder the famous Master of Traditions who with Shammai lived under the second Temple but another of whom some say that he was the Son of Gamaliel others more probably that he lived a long time after those dayes But when ever he lived they say of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi Hillel said A Messiah shall not be given unto Israel for they enjoyed him in the dayes of Hezekiah This was a fruit of their applying that Prophesie of Isaiah Chap. 9. v. 5 6. unto Hezekiah for if he was intended therein he was unquestionably the only Messiah But it doth not appear that this opinion was much followed for a great dispute arose amongst them whither Hillel were not to be esteemed an Apostate and to have lost his interest in the world to come by this Opinion Those who following Maimonides make the Article of the coming of the Messiah one of the Fundamentals of the Law are greatly offended at him but he is more gently treated by Joseph Albo Sepher Ikkarim Orat. 1. on the account that this Article is not fundamental but only one branch of the great Root of Reward and Punishments Abarbinel goes another way to excuse him but generally they all condemn his Opinion In this Perswasion then that a Messiah is promised and shall come they all continue But whereas as was before observed they have utterly rejected the Faith and Light of the Church of old they have in their Talmuds and Ages ensuing their Composition coyned so many foolish imaginations concerning Him his Person Work Office Kingdom Life Continuance and Succession as are endless to recount But yet that the Reader may in them consider the wofull condition of men rejected of God cast out of his Covenant and bereaved of his Spirit and withall of how little use the Letter of the Old Testament is unto the vain minds of men wholly destitute of Divine Illumination and Grace and also learn what is that present Perswasion of the Jews which they prefer before the faith of their Fore-fathers and what they conceive of that Messiah for whose sake they reject him in whom alone there is Salvation I shall give an account of the most important heads of their Opinions and conjectures about him as also of the principal occasions of their being hardened in their impenitency and unbelief Our Apostle tells us 1 Tim. 3. v. 16. That without Controversie
Joseph or Ephraim Armillus having received § 15 a defeat by Nehemiah Ben Husiel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shaâ—â— gather the forces of all the Nations of the world into the vallâ—y of decision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall fight with Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they shall slay of them of Armillus his Army heaps or multitudes on heaps and they shall finite a few of Israel and they shall slay the Messiah of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the ministring Angâ—lls shall come and perfuming his body shall lay it up with the antient Fathers where it is to be kept many dayes without putrefaction as Hâ—ctors Body was in Homer after he was slain by Achilles And it is not unlikely but that they may allude somewhat to the Prophesie of the two Witnesses Rev. 11. who were to be slain and afterwards called up to Heaven Thus do they at their pleasure dispose of this creature of their own for having framed him themselves he is their own to do with him what they will alive and dead But that which is the poyson and sting of this Fable is that the death of this fictitious Messiah must amongst them bear all that is spoken in the Scripture or continued by Tradition concerning the Humiliation suffering and death of the true Messiah of the Lord. § 16 We need not stay long in the removall of this Mormo out of our way Should they invent twenty other Messiahs as they have done this and which on the same grounds and with as good Authority they may the case would still be the same Who gave them power to substitute themselves in the place of God to give New Promises to appoint New Saviours and to invent new wayes of Deliverance The Scripture is utterly silent of any such person nor have they any Antetalmudical Tradition concerning him And what their Masters have invented in the Talmuds is of no more Authority then what they coyn every day themselves The truth is this whole story of Armillus and Ben Joseph is a Talmudical Romance the one the Giant the otheâ— the Knight But these fictions seria ducunt Poor creatures are hardened by them unto their eternal destruction But is the world bound to believe what every one whom they are pleased to call Rabbi can imagine though never so contrary to the Principles of that Religion which themselves pretend to own and profess so indeed some of them say that if their Masters teach the right hand to be the left yea Heaven to be Hell yet their Authority is not to be questioned and as I remember others say some such things of the Pope But God I hope of his Goodness will not suffer poor mankind to be alwayes so deluded All the Promises of God all the Prophesies from the foundâ—tion of the world concern only one Messiah of the Seed of Abraham of the Tribe of Judah and of the family of David All the faith of the Church of old as we have proved respected that one only And who will lay any weight upon what is spoken foretold or promised concerning him if the Jews have power to invent another at their pleasure § 17 Again Their Masters have not only dealt dishonestly and blasphemously but foolishly also in this matter in that they have not suited their own creature unto the Ends for which they have made him The End as was shewed before why they advanced this imagination was to give countenance unto what is spoken in the Scriptures or retained by themselves in Tradition concerning the sufferings of the Messiah And it is somewhat strange to me that having raised up this Ben Joseph they did not use him worse then they have done but by a little foolish Pity have spoiled their own whole design They have a Tradition among themselves that the Messiah must bear a third part of all the afflictions or persecutions that ever were or shall be in the world And what proportion doth a mans being slain in battel where his Army is victorious which is all the hardship this Ben Joseph is to meet withall bear unto the Afflictions which befall the Church in every Age And for the Scripture it is meer lost labour to compare the death of this Warriour with what is delivered therein concerning the sufferings of the Messiah Every one not judicially blinded must needs see that there is no affinity between them The fifty third Chapter of Isaiah is acknowledged by their Targum and sundry of the principal Masters of their faith to be a Prophesie concerning him and we shall afterwards undeniably prove it so to be Now the Person there spoken of is one whom the Jews are to reject and despise whom God is to aâ—flict and bruise by causing the sins of the whole Church to meet upon him One who by his sufferings is to fulfill the pleasure of the Lord making his Soul an Offering for sin justifying the Elect and conquering Satan by his Death This fictiâ—â—ous Messiah is to be honoured of all the Jews to raise Armies to fight a Battel and therein after the manner of other men to be slain So that a story was never worse told nor to less purpose No other use can be made of it that I know of but only to consider in it the blindness of poor obstinate sinners given up unto hardness of heart and a spirit of folly for the rejection of him whom God sealed annointed and sent to be the Saviour of the world Leaving them therefore in the embraces of this cloud we may consider the other expected Messiah whom they call Ben David in whom principally they place their confidence § 18 The Endless Fables of the Jews about their Messiah as they have been in part discovered by others so I design not here at large to recount them The chief Masters of them in the Talmud are full of disputes and contradictions about him and those of after Ages succeed them in their uncertainties Such will the conceptions of all men be when they take up fancies and opinions of their own in matters of Divine Revelation But some things there are wherein they all generally agree and those relating unto his Person Work and Office which it shall suffice to give an account of as answering our present Design First Therefore they contend that he shall be a meer man and there is nothing that they strive to avoid more then the Testimonies of Scripture which shew that the promised Messiah was to be God and man in one Person as hath been already evidenced They contend also that he shall be born after the manner of all men not of a Virgin but of a married Woman begotten by her Husband About the place of his birth they are not fully agreed for although they all acknowledge the Prophesie of Micah about Bethlehem to relate unto him Chap. 5.2 yet knowing that Town now to have been desolate for many Generations and waste without inhabitant which would seem to
the sins whereof they know themselves to be guilty to what end should they look for a Redeemer to bring in Everlasting Righteousnâ—ss or to make Attonement for sin Why should they look out in this case for Relief seeing they have enough at home to serve their turns Let them that are weâ—â—y and heavy laden seek after such a Deliverer they have no need of him or his Salvation According therefore as this building of Self-Righteousness went on and prospered amongst them Faith in the Messiah as to the true Ends for which He was promised decayed every day more and more untill at length it was utterly lost For as our Apostle tells them if Righteousness were by the Law the Promise of the Messiah was to no purpose and if the Law made things Perfect the bringing in of another Priesthood and Sacrifice was altogether needless § 24 So is it also with them as to their Apprehension of the Judgement of God concerning the Desert of sin The natural notion hereof the vilest Hypocrites amongst them were sometimes perplexed withall See Isa. 33. v. 14 15. Micah 6. v. 8. But the generality of them have long endeavoured by prejudicate Imaginations to cast out the true and real sense of it That God is angry at sin that in some cases an Attonement is needfull they will not deny But so low and carnal are their thoughts of his severity that they think any thing may serve the turn to appease his Wrath or to satisfie his Justice especially towards them whom alone he loves Their Afflictions and Persecutions the Death of their Children and their own Death especially if it be of a painful distemper they suppose to make a sufficient Propitiation for all their sins Such mean and unworthy thoughts have they of the Majesty Holiness and Terror of the Lord. Of late also lest there should be a failure on any account they have found out an invention to give their sins unto the Devil by the Sacrifice of a Cock the manner whereof is at large described by Buxtorfius in his Synagoga Judaica And this also hath no small influence on their minds to pervert them from the Faith of their Fore-Fathers Let the Messiah provide well for them in this world and they will look well enough unto themselves as to that which is to come § 25 And hence ariseth also their Ignorance of the whole Nature Vse and End of the Mosaical Law which also contributes much to the producing of the same Effect upon them To what End the Law was given whereunto it served what was the nature and proper use of its Institutions shall be declared as occasion is offered in the Exposition of the Epistle its self For the present it may suffice unto our purpose to consider their Apprehensions of it and what influence they have into their misbelief In general they look on the Law and their observance of it as the only means of obtaining Righteousness and making an Attonement with God So they did of old Rom. 9. v. 32 33 34. In the observation of its Precepts they place all their Righteousness before God and by its Sacrifices they look for Attonement of all their sins That the Law was not given that the Sacrifices were not appointed for these Ends that the Fathers of old never attended unto them absolutely with any such Intention shall be afterwards declared In the mean time it is evident that this Perswasion corrupts their minds as to their thoughts about the Messiah For if Righteousness may be obtained and Attonement made without him to what End serves the Promise concerning him But having thus taken from him the whole Office and Work whereunto of God he was designed that he might not be thought altogether useless they have cut out for him the work and employment before mentioned For looking on Righteousness and Attonement with the consequent of them Eternal Salvation as the proper Effects of the Law they thought meet to leave unto their Messiah the work of procuring unto them Liberty Wealth and Dominion which they found by experience that the Law was not able to do But had indeed their Eyes been opened in the knowledge of God and themselves they would have found the Law no less insufficient to procure by its self an Heavenly than an Earthly Kingdom for them And against their Prejudicate obstinacy in this matter doth the Apostle principally oppose himself in his Epistle unto them § 26 But here by the way some may possibly enquire how the Jews if they look for Attonement and the Remission of sins by the Sacrifices of the Law can now expect to have their sins pardoned without which they cannot be eternally saved seeing they are confessedly destitute of all Legal Sacrifices whatever Have they found out some other way or do they utterly give over seeking after Salvation This very Question being put unto one of them he answers that they now obtain the pardon of their Sins by Repentance and Amendment of Life according to the Promises made in the Prophets unto that Purpose as Ezek. 18. v. 20. And concludes Quamvis jam nulla sint sacrificia quae media erant ad tanto facilius impetrandam remissionem peccatorum eadem tamen per poenitentiam ac resipiscentiam declinando a viis malis impetratur Although there are now no Sacrifices which were a means the more easily to obtain the forgiveness of sins yet it may be obtained by Repentance and a departure from wayes of evil This is their Hope which like that of the Hypocrite is as the giving up of the Ghost For 1. It is true Repentance and Amendment of Life are required in them who seek after the forgiveness of their sins and many Promises are made unto them But is this all that God required that sin might be forgiven They are sufficient indeed in their own way and place but are they so absolutely also Did not God moreover appoint and require that they should make use of Sacrifices to make attonement for sins without which they should not be done away See Levit. 16. And 2. What is the meaning of that Plea that by Sacrifices indeed Remission of sins might more easily be obtained but obtained it may be without them Doth this more easily respect God or man if they say it respects God I desire to know if he can pardon sin without Sacrifice why he cannot do it as easily as with them or what is he eased of by Sacrifices If it respect themselves as indeed it doth then it may be enquired what it is that they shall be eased of in the obtaining of the Pardon of sins by the use of Sacrifices when that is again restored unto them this can be of nothing but of that which they are now forced to make use of for that end and purpose and what is that Why Repentance and Amendment of Life If then they had their Sacrifices these might be spared or at least much in them abated which at
instance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So they did to the Son of Stada and they hanged him on the Eve of the Passeover The Witnesses they speak of are no others but the false witnesses mentioned Matt. 26.60 61. The kind of his death hanged on a Tree with the time of it the Eve of the Passeover do also fully make naked their intentions The Age only or the time of his life remains from whence any difficulty is pretended This Jesus the Son of Pandira they have affirmed to have lived in the dayes of Alexander and to have been crucified in the dayes of Aristobulus an hundred or an hundred and ten years before the birth of Christ. But the mysterie of this Fiction also is discovered by Abraham Levita in his Cabala Historiae He tells us that the Christians placed the death of their Christ under Pilate that so they might shew that the destruction of the City and Temple fâ—ll out not long after his death whereas he sayes it is apparent from the Mishna and Talmud that he was crucified in the dayes of the Maccabes an hundred years before And here we have unawares the sore discovered and the true reason laid open why the Talmudists attempted to transferr the time of his death from the dayes of Herod the Tetrarch to the Rule of Aristobulus the Hasmonaean namely lest they should be compelled to acknowledge their utter ruine to have so suddenly ensued upon their rejection of him as indeed it did However as to our present purpose we have in general this confession of our Adversaries themselves that the Lord Jesus came before the destruction of the City and Temple which was that we undertook to confirm We Secondly In the pursuit of our Argument affirmed that no other person came § 7 at or within the time limited that could pretend to be the Messiah This the Jews themselves confess nor can they think otherwise without destroying themselves For if any such person came seeing they received him not nor do own him unto this day Their guilt would be the same that we charge upon them for the refusing of our Lord Jesus There is no need then that we should go over the Tragical Stories of Barchocheba Moses Cretensis David el David and such other Imposters For whereas none of them came or lived within the time determined so they are all disclaimed by themselves as Seducers and Causers of great misery unto their people and Nation Herein then we have the consent of all parties concerned which renders all further evidence unnecessary From what therefore hath been spoken and disputed It remaineth that either § 8 our Lord Jesus was and is the true Messiah as coming from God in the season limited for that purpose or that the whole promise concerning the Messiah is a meer figment the whole Old Testament a Fable and so both the old and present Religion of the Jews a delusion At that season the Messiah must come or there is an end of all Religion If any came then whom they had rather embrace for their Messiah then our Lord Jesus let them do so and own him that we may know who he was and what he hath done for them If none such there were that can be so esteemed as in truth and as themselves universally acknowledge there was not their obstinacy and blindness in refusing the only promised Messiah is such as no reasonable man can give an account of who doth not call to mind the righteous Judgement of God in giving them up to blindness and obstinacy as a just punishment for their rejection and murthering his only Son And this Argument is of such importance as that with the consideration of the Doctrine of Christ and his success in the world it may well be allowed to stand alone in this contest Our second Argument is taken from those Characteristical notes that are given in § 9 the Scripture of the Messiah Now these are such as by which the Church might know him and upon which they were bound to receive him All these we shall find to agree and center in the person of our Lord Jesus Some of the principal of them we shall therefore insist upon and vindicate from the exceptions of the Jews The stock whereof he came the place and manner of his Birth the course of his life and death what he taught and what he suffered are the principal of those signs and notes that God gave out to discover the Messiah in his appointed time and as they were very sufficient for that purpose So upon the matter they comprise all the signs and tokens whereby any person may be predesigned and signified First For the Family Stock or lineage whereof he was to come There was a threefold § 10 restitution of it after the promise had for a long time run in general that he should be of the seed of the Woman or take his nature from among mankind The first was unto the seed of Abraham Gen. 15.17 and under that alone there was no more required but that he should spring from among his posterity untill God added that peculiar limitation unto it in Isaac shall thy seed be called Gen. 21.12 After this in the Family of Isaac Jacob peculiarly inherited the promise and his posterity being branched into twelve Tribes or Families the rise or nativity of the Messiah was confined unto the Tribe of Judah Gen. 49.10 This made it further necessary that from him by some one of the numerous families that sprang of him he should proceed Out of that Tribe God afterwards raised the Kingly Family of David to be a Type and representation of the Kingdom of the Messiah and hereupon he restrained the promise unto that familie though not unto any particular branch of it Hereunto no other restriction was ever afterwards added It was not then at any time made necessary by promise that the Messiah should proceed from the Royal branch or familie of the House of David but only that he should be born of some of his posterity by what family soever poor or rich in power or subjection he derived his Genealogie from him His Kingdom was to be quite of anothâ—r nature thâ—n that of David or Solomon nor did he derive his Title in the least thâ—reunto from the right of the Davidical House to the Kingdom of Judah Thus far then it pleased God to design this Stock and Family of the Messiah He was to be of the posterity of Abraham of the Tribe of Judah of the family of David And although this evidence in its latitude will conclude only thus far that no one can be pretended to be the Messiah whose Genealogie is not so derived by David and Judah unto Abraham yet by the addition of this circumstance in the Providence of God that no one since the destruction of the City and Temple can plead or demonstrate that original seeing this was given out for a note and sign to know him by it proves
the miraculous power of God shall no more in the like kind be exerted it is an infallible evidence and demonstrative note of the true Messiah He and he alone was to be born of a Virgin so alone was Jesus of Nazareth and therefore he alone is the true Messiah The Jews being greatly pressed with this Prophecy and the Accomplishment of it § 21 do try all means to escape by breaking through one of them And we might expect that they would principally attempt the story of the Evangelist but circumstances on that side are so cogent against them that they are very faint in that endeavour For if it was so indeed that Jesus was not born of a Virgin as is recorded and as both himself and his Disciples professed why did they not charge him with untruth herein in the dayes of his flesh Why did they not call his Mother into question especially considering that the being espoused unto an Husband they might upon conviction have put her unto a publick and shamefull death None of this being done or once undertaken by their fore-fathers no less full of Envy and Malice against the Person and Doctrine of Jesus then themselves and much better furnished and provided for such an undertaking might any colour be given unto it then they are they insist not much upon the denyal of the Truth of the Record but to relieve themselves they by all means contend that the words of the Prophet are no way applicable unto the birth of our Lord Jesus which the Evangelist reports them prophetically to express And to this end they multiply Exceptions against our interpretation of the Prophecy First They deny that here is any thing spoken of the conception or bearing of a § 22 Son by a Virgin For the word here used say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth any Young Woman married or unmarried Yea sometimes an Adulteress as Proverbs 30.18 so that the whole foundation of our interpretation is infirm and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here intended was they say no other but either the Wise of the Prophet or the Wife of Ahaz the King or some young Woman in the Court then newly married or to be married to the King or some other person Secondly They say that the birth of this Child with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or young Woman mentioned was to conceive was immediately to ensue so as to be a sign unto Ahaz and the house of David of the deliverance promised unto them from the Kings of Damâ—scus and Samaria and so could not be Jesus of Nazareth whose nativity happening seven hundred years after this would be no pledge unto them of any thing that should shortly come to pass Thirdly They insist that v. 16. it is promised that before that Child which should be so concâ—ived and born should come to the years of discretion to know to refuse the evil and to choose the good the Kings of Damascus and Samaria should be dâ—stroyâ—d Now this came to pass within few years after and therefore can have no relation to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth Fourthly Thâ—y affirm that in the following Chapter the accomplishment of this Prophecy is declaâ—ed in the Prophets going in unto the Prophetess and hâ—r conceiving a Son concerning whom it is said that before he should have knowledge to say my Father and my Mâ—ther the Land should be forsakâ—n of both her Kings in answer unto what is spoken of the Child of the Virgin Chap. 7. v. 16. Chap. 8. v. 1. Fifthly That the name of this Child was to be Immanuel whereas he of whom we speak was called Jesus Mat. 1.21 Sixthly That the Child here mentioned was to be fed and nourished with butter and hony which cannot be spoken nor is written of Jesus of Nâ—zâ—reth § 23 In answer unto thâ—se Objâ—ctions some lâ—arned men have granted unto the Jews that thâ—se words of the Prophet were literally fulfilled in some one then a Virgin and afterwards married in those dayes and that they are only in a mystical sense applyed by Matthâ—w to the birâ—h of the Lord Jesus as they say are sundry other things that are spokâ—n pâ—imarily of othâ—â—s in the Old Testament But the truth is this Answer is neither â—aâ—e in its self nor nâ—edfull as to the Argument of the Jews nor consistâ—nt with the senâ—e of the place or Truth of the words themselves First It is not safe as to the faith of Chrisâ—iâ—ns For wherâ—as the birth of the Messiah of a Virgin was so signal a Miracle and so emiâ—ent a charactâ—ristical note of his person if it be not directly foâ—eâ—old and prophâ—siâ—d of in this place there was no one prediction of it made unto the Church of the Jews Now how this should seem reasonable whereas things of far less concernment are foretold is not easily made to appear Sâ—condly Upon thâ—s interpretation of the words there is no ground left for the application of thâ—ir mystical sense which they pretend to be made by Matthew For if indeed the Person primarily directly and literally spoken of did not conceive a Child wâ—ilest she was a Virgin but only that she who was then a Virgin did afterwards upon marriage conceive in the ordinary course of nature there remains no ground for the application of what is spoken concerning her unto one who in and after her conception and the Birth of her Child continued a Virgin For although it be not required that there be an agreement in all things between the Type and the Antitype yet if there be no agreement between them in that wherein the one is designed to signifie the other they cannot on any account stand in that relation David as he was a King was a Type of Messiah the Great King There was we know not an absolute similitude in all things between David and him nor was there any necessity that so there should be that he might be his Type But yet if he had not been a King he could have been no Type of him at all in his Kingdom No more can any person here spoken of unless she did conceive a Son and bring forth continuing a Virgin be a Type of her who was so to do For how can the miraculous work of the Conception of a Virgin be signified or expressed by the ordinary Conception of a Woman in the State of Wedlock Besidâ—s this Answâ—r is wholly needless as to the objection of the Jews and inconsistent with the sense of the place as will be seen in the consideration of the words themselves § 24 We have formerly eâ—inced that the foundation and end of the Judaical Church and State and of the preservation of the Davidical family was solely the bringing forth of the promised Mâ—ssiah And this the Event hath fully demonstrated in their utter rejection after the accomplishment of that end And hence the prâ—mise of the Messiah was the Foundation Cause and Reason of all other promises made unto that people as
see c. Considering therefore what is elsewhere written of all the Regions about bringing in their sick weak and impotent and of the cures of Persons by the touching of his garment it is evident that his Personal Miracles amounted unto thousands which might well give occasion to the Hyperbole used by John in recounting of them Hence some among the Jews were convinced that he was the Messiah not only by the greatness but also by the number of his works John 7.31 Many of the People believed on him and said when Christ cometh will he do more Miracles then these which this man doeth And what are the seventy six Miracles of Moses unto those as to number which in the first place the Jews glory in And if we may add those which were wrought by his power by them that preached the Gospel on his Commission as they are all of the same efficacy unto the end proposed or confirmation of his being the Messiah they amount not unto thousands only but probably unto millions For of this sort were all the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost that were granted unto the Church all the world over So that as to the number of Miracles he was sufficiently by them attested unto to be the Messiah the great Law-giver of the people of the New Covenant Again The Jews much insist on this that all other Prophets wrought Miracles by § 64 the Intervention of Prayer Moses alone without it at his own pleasure The Rod they say was committed unto him as a Kingly Scepter to denote that Authority whereunto the whole nature of things gave place It is true indeed it is not recorded that Moses prayed in words before every Miracle that was wrought by him or in reference unto his Ministry but yet this is plain in story that he wrought no mighty work but either upon his prayer or some express command and direction from God in particular which everts the Judaical pretence of an abiding power remaining with him enabling him to work Miracles when and how he would But this which they falsly ascribe unto Moses was eminently true in the Lord Jesus Those thousands of miraculous works which he wrought were the arbitrary effects of a word of command without any especial direction for every new work arguing the constant presence of an infinite power with him exerted according to his will Come forth of him come out of the grave I will be thou clean be ye opened and the like expressions he used as signs and pledges thereof Thus was it not with Moses as the story manifests yea he himself greatly doubted of the greatest effect of the Divine power put forth by him when he smote the Rock to bring forth water The nature of the Miracles also wrought by the one and the other may be compared § 65 and we shall see from thence on which side the pre-eminence will be found For those wrought by Moses or by God himself whilest he employed him in the service of giving the Law and the delivery of the people they were for the most part portentous Prodigies suited to fill men with wonder astonishment and fear Such were all the signs of the presence of God on Mount Sinai The effects also of most of them were evil and destructive proceeding from wrath and indignation against sin and sinners such were all the mighty works wrought in Aegypt such those of the swallowing up of Dathan and Abiram in the Wilderness Those that tended unto the good and relief of mankind as the bringing of water from the rock were typical and occasional And those kinds of works were suited unto that Ministry of Death and Condemnation which was committed unto him But on the other side the mighty works of the Lord Jesus were evidently effects of Goodness as well as of Power and consisted in things useful and helpful unto mankind Healing the sick opening the eyes of the blind and ears of the deaf giving strength to the lame casting out of Devils feeding hungry multitudes raising the dead are things amiable and useful And though terrible Prodigies may more affect and astonish carnal minds such as the Jews were filled with yet these works of Grace and Goodness do more allure those who attend unto the dictates of right Reason Evidences they were of a gracious Ministry tending unto salvation and peace in every kind such as that of the Messiah was promised and foretold to be As Miracles then were the tokens of their several Ministries and bespake the nature of them those of the Lord Christ were exceedingly more excellent then those of Moses § 66 Furthermore as Moses had not a power of working miracles constantly resident with him which he might exert according unto his own will so he was very far from being able to communicate any such power unto others God indeed took of the Spirit that was on him and gave it unto the Elders that were to be joyned with him in the Government of the people Numb 11.25 but yet neither was there a power of working miracles going along with that Spirit but only ability for Rule and Government nor yet was that communication of it any act of Moses at all But now our Lord Jesus as he had the Divine Power mentioned alwayes with him so he could give Authority and Power unto whom he pleased to effect all such miraculous works as were any way necessary for the confirmation of their Doctrine Of this nature was the Commission which he gave the Twelve when he sent them forth Matth. 10.8 Heal the sick cleanse the Lepers raise the dead cast out Devils As also that unto the LXX Luke 10.17 19. yea he promised them which also came to pass that by his power and presence with them they should do greater things then those which they had seen him to do John 14.12 Mark 16.17 And this difference is so eminent that nothing can be objected against it This more evidently confirmed him to be the Master then all the mighty works which he wrought in his own Person on the earth § 67 Again all the miracles of Moses ended with his life The Jews indeed some of them tell us a company of foolish stories about his death which as their manner is they would fix on those words Deut. 34.5 and Moses dyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the mouth or word of the Lord as namely how he contended with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of Death and drove him away with his rod so that he could not dye until God laid his mouth unto his and so took out his soul from him But these figments are shamefull and such as become none but themselves However these things extended only unto his death therewith ended his Ministry and Miracles But now the greatest Miracle of our Lord Jesus was wrought by him after the violent and cruel death which he underwent for our sakes For he took his life again and raised himself from the dead John
given out with the Law various Promises of intervenient and mixed mercies to be enjoyed in earthly things in this world that had their immediate respect unto the mercy of the Land of Canaan representing spiritual Grace annexed to the then present Administration of the Covenant of Grace Some of these concerned the collation of good things others the preventing of or delivery of them from Evils both expressed in great variety § 8 Of the Promises whose accomplishment depended on the Institution of God by others that is the principal and comprehensive of the rest which is expressed Exod. 20.12 Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be prolonâ—ed This saith our Apostle is the first commandment with promise Ephes. 6.2 Not that the fore-going Precepts have no Promises annexed to the observation of them nor meerly because this hath a Promise literally expressed but that it had the special kind of Promise wherein Parents by Gods institution have power to prolong the lives of obedient Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall prolong thy days that is negatively in not cutting of their life for disobedience which was then in the power of natural Parents and possibly by praying for their prosperity blessing them in the name of God and directing them into the ways and means of universal obedience whereby their days might be multiplied and on sundry other accounts § 9 For the penalties annexed unto the transgression of the Law which our Apostle principally hath respect unto in his discourses on this subject they will require somewhat a larger consideration and they were of two sorts First such as God took upon himself to inflict and secondly such as he appointed others to see unto the execution of The first are of three sorts First That Eternal punishment which he threatned unto them that transgressed and disannull'd his Covenant as renewed and ordered in the Administration of the Law and the Ordinances thereof This we have manifested elsewhere to be the importance of the Curse which every such transgressor was obnoxious unto Secondly The punishment which the Jews express by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Excision or cutting off It is first mentioned Gen. 17.14 in the matter of Circumcision Sometimes emphatically Numb 15.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cutting off that soul shall be cut off from among his people and frequently afterwards Exod. 12.15 19. chap. 31.14 Levit. 7.10 chap. 20.3 5 6. It is rendred by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 3.23 shall be destroyed from among the people that is by the hand of God as is declared 1 Cor. 10.10 Heb. 11.28 Twenty five times is this punishment threatned in the Law still unto such sins as disannul the Covenant which our Apostle expresly respects chap. 2.2 as shall be declared on that place Now this punishment the Jews generally agree to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the hand of § 10 Heaven or that which God himself would immediately inflict and it is evidently declared so to be in the interpretation given of it Levit. 17.10 chap. 20.4 5 6. But what this punishment was or wherein it did consist neither Jews nor Christians are absolutely agreed the latter on this subject doing little more then representing the opinions and judgments of the other which course also we may follow Some of them say that Vntimely Death is meant by it so Abarbinel on Numb 5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the cutting off the days of the sinner and his death before the natural term of it inflicted by the hand of Heaven This untimely death they reckon to be between the years of twenty and sixty whence Schindler 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exterminium cum quis praematurâ morte inter vigessimum sexagessimum annum à Deo è medio tollitur ita tamen ut relinquat liberos Cutting off is when any one is taken away by untimely death between the twintieth and sixtieth year of his age yet so as that he leave children That clause or condition so that yet he leave posterity or children behind him is as far as I can find no where added by them nor doth any thing in the Scripture give countenance thereunto Yea many of the Hebrews think that this punishment consisted in this that such a one should leave no children behind him but that either he should be wholly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without children or if he had any before his sin they should all die before him and so his name and posterity be cut off which say they is to be cut off from among his people So Aben-Ezra on Gen. 17.14 And this opinion is not without its countenance from the Scripture it self And therefore Jarchi on the same place with much probability puts both these together He shall be cut off by untimely death and leave no children behind him to continue his name or remembrance amongst the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they speak He that hath no children is accounted as dead but he that hath is as if he lived and his name is not cut off They have a third opinion also that by this cutting off the death of the soul is intended § 11 especially when the word is ingemminated Cutting off he shall be cut off as Numb 15.31 So Maimonides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that soul shall perish it shall not live or subsist any more for ever Few embrace this opinion as being contrary to their general perswasion of Eternal punishments for the transgressions of the Covenant Wherefore it is disputed against by Abarbinel on Numb 15. who contends that the death of the soul in everlasting separation from God is intended in this threatning And both the principal parts of these various opinions namely that of immature corporal death and eternal punishment ate joyned together by Jonathan in his Targum on Numb 15.31 He shall be cut off in this world and that man shall be cut off in the world to come and bear his sin in the day of Judgment For my part as I have shewed that eternal death was contained in the curse of the Law so this especial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or extermination from among the people seems to me to intend some especial judgment of God in taking away the life of such a person answering unto that putting to death by the Judges and Magistrates in such cases when they were known which God did appoint And herein also was an eminent Representation of the everlasting cutting off of obstinate and final transgressors of the Covenant Thirdly In Judgments to be brought providentially upon the whole Nation by Pestilence § 12 Famine Sword and Captivity which are at large declared Levit. 26. and Deut. 28. Fourthly Total Rejection of the whole body of the people in case of unbelief and disobedience upon the full and perfect Revelation that was to be made of the will and mind of God upon the coming of the Messiah Deut. 18.18
by the Jews of all sorts to belong to the Messiah his Kingdom and Offices and his design was to deal with them chiefly upon their own concessions and principles As we have some few other helps remaining to acquaint us with what was the received sense of the Judaical Church concerning sundry passages in the Old Testament relating unto the promised Christ so the Paraphrases of Scripture that were either at that time in use amongst them as was the Greek Translation amongst the Hellenists or about that time composed as the Targums at least some parts of them will give us much light into it What of that antient sense appeareth yet in the corrupted Copies of those Translations which remain being considered will much evince the reason and suitableness of the Apostles Quotations And this is needful to be observed to refute that impiety of some as Cajetan who not being able to understand the force of some Testimonies cited by the Apostle as to his purpose in hand have questioned the Authority of the whole Epistle as also the mistake of Hierom who in his Epistle to Pammachius rashly affirmed that Paul did quote Scriptures that were not indeed to his purpose but out of design to stop the mouths of his Adversaries as he himself had dealt with Jovinian which was very far from him whose only design was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to promote the Truth in Love IV. He takes it for granted in the whole Epistle that the Judaical Church-State did yet continue and that the Worship of it was not yet disallowed of God suitably to what was before declared concerning his own and the other Apostles practice Had that Church-State been utterly abolished all observation of Mosaical rites which were the Worship of that Church as such had been utterly unlawfull as now it is Neither did the determination recorded Acts 15. abolish them as some suppose but only free the Gentiles from their observance Their free use was yet permitted unto the Jews Acts 21.20 22 25 26. Chap. 27.9 and practised by Paul in particular in his Nazaretical Vow Acts 21.26 Which was attended with a Sacrifice Numb 6.13 Nor was Mosaical Worship utterly to cease so as to have no acceptance with God until the final ruine of that church foretold by our Saviour himself Mat. 24. by Peter 2 Ep. 3. by James also Chap. 5.6 7 8 9. and by our Apostle in this Epistle Chap. 10.37 Chap. 12.25 26 27. was accomplished Hence it is that our Apostle calls the times of the Gospel the world to come Chap. 2.5 Chap. 6.5 the name whereby the Jews denoted the State of the Church under the Messiah proper unto it only whilest the legal administrations of Worship did continue Thus as de facto he had shewed respect unto the Person of the High Priest as one yet in lawful Office Acts 23.5 So doctrinally he takes it for granted that that Office was still continued Chap. 8.4 5. with the whole worship of Moses institution Chap. 13.11 12. And this dispensation of Gods patience being the last tryal of that Church was continued in a proportion of time answerable to their abode in the Wilderness upon its first Erection which our Apostle minds them of Chap. 3. c. 4. The Law of Moses then was not actually abrogated by Christ who observed the rules of it in the dayes of his flesh nor by the Apostles who seldom used their liberty from it leaving the use of it to the Jews still but having done its work whereunto it was designed and its obligation Expiring ending and being removed or taken away in the death and resurrection of Christ and promulgation of the Gospel that ensued thereupon which doctrinally declared its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or uselesness God in his Providence put an end unto it as to its observation in the utter and irrecoverable overthrow of the Temple the place designed for the solemn exercise of its Worship so did it decay wax old and vanish away Chap. 8.13 And this also God ordered in his infinite wisdom that their Temple City and Nation and so consequently their whole Church-State should be utterly wasted by the Pagan Romans before the power of the Empire came into the hands of men professing the name of Christ who could neither well have suffered their Temple to stand as by them abused nor yet have destroyed it without hardning them in their impenitency and unbelief V. That which is proposed unto confirmation in the whole Epistle and from whence all the Inferences and Exhortations insisted on do arise and are drawn is the Excellency of the Gospel and the Worship of God therein revealed and appointed upon the account of its manifold relation to the Person and Offices of Christ the Mediator the Son of God Now because those to whom it is directed did as hath been declared some of them adhere to Mosaical Ceremonies and Worship in conjunction with the Gospel others with a preferency of them above it and some to a relinquishment of it especially when they once found its profession obnoxious to Persecution the Apostle institutes and at large prosecutes a comparison between Moses's Law and the Gospel as to their usefulness and excellency in reference unto mens acceptation with God of the one and the other as also of the Spirituality Order and Beauty of the Worship severally required in them And herein though he derogates in no respect from the Law that which was justly due unto it yet on the accounts before mentioned he preferreth the Gospel before it and not only so but also manifests that as Mosaical Institutions were never of any other use but to prefigure the real Mediatory work of Christ with the benefits thereof so he being exhibited and his work accomplished their observation was become needless and themselves if embraced to a neglect or relinquishment of the Gospel pernicious This comparison wherein also the proof of the positive worth and Excellency of the Gospel is included omitting for weighty reasons intimated by James Acts 21.21 by himself Acts 9.25 Chap. 22.19 20 21. all Prefatory salutations he enters upon in the first verses of the Epistle and being thereby occasioned to make mention of the Messiah from whose Person and Office the difference he was to insist upon did wholly arise he spendeth the residue of the Chapter in proving the divine excellency of his Person and the Eminency of his Office as the only King Priest and Prophet of his Church on all which the dignity of the Gospel in the Profession whereof he exhorts them to persevere doth depend He then that would come to a right understanding of this Epistle must alwayes bear in mind 1. To whom it was written which were the Jews of the several sorts before mentioned 2. To what End it was written even to prevail with them to embrace the Gospel and to persist in the Profession of it without any mixture of Mosaical Observations 3. On what Principles the Apostle deals with
Worship they laboured to keep them up and to restore them being cast down that so they might prolong their expectation of that to come which indeed was already past This in the righteous and holy Providence of God proved the means of their ruine For their endeavour to maintain their Liberty Rule and Government after the coming of the Messiah was the cause of the utter overthrow of all Rule Authority and publick Worship amongst them by Vespasian and Titus his Son Their endeavour to restore themselves into a State and People under their false Messiah Barcosbi was the means of their utter desolation from all hopes of being a people and Nation any more by Adrian as also of their extermination for ever out of that Countrey wherein they were separated from all Nations for that End which God appointed unto them After this once more still to avoid the thoughts that the Messiah was come and had put an end unto their former condition they endeavoured and were encouraged by Julian the Emperour to rebuild their Temple and restore their Sacrifices And this attempt also God turned to their further confusion For whereas in former dayes in the building of the Temple he encouraged and supported them against all difficulties and oppositions being now upheld and strengthened by the favour and wealth of the Roman Empire in the same work he sets himself against them and scatters them with no less indignation than he did the builders of Babel of old When he would have a Temple amongst them he punished them with famine for building their own houses and suffering his to lye waste Hag. 2. v. 8 9 10 11. Now they may build houses for themselves where they please but if they take in hand to build a Temple God is against them This State of theirs being now continued sixteen hundred years were not blindness come upon them to the utmost they could not but see that it is not the Will of God that they should be a People State or Church on the former account any more What then is become of their Messiah who was to come unto them whilest they were so seeing they were so by their own confession only for his sake This puts their latter Masters to their last miserable shifts For 2. Contrary to the open nature of all things relating unto them from the appropriating of the Promise to the Family of Abraham contrary to the whole design of the Scripture and the express testimonies of it before mentioned with many other to the same purpose they deny that their Messiah was to come to them or at least to abide with them for the work whereunto he was destinated whilest their State Temple and Sacrifices continued In the management of this shift of unbelief they are wofully divided amongst themselves 1. For the Continuance of their State untill the coming of the Messiah Gen. 49.11 Some say that by Shilo the Messiah is not intended who are confuted by their own Targums all rendring the word Messiah and the constant Tradition of the Elder Doctors Some that by the Scepter and Scribe that the Rod of Affliction and Instruction only are intended which is a gloss evidently contrary to the design of the Prophecy the use of the words in all places where their sense is not restrained by evident circumstances the Targums all Old Writers asserting that which was not peculiar to Judah nor true in its self that Tribe having for so long a season enjoyed as flourishing a condition as any people in the world as good as the Jews look for under the Messiah This State then is utterly gone and their Messiah as it seems not come 2. What say they unto their Temple that second House whereunto he was to come and so render the glory of it greater than that of the former Hag. 2. Mal. 3. Of old they unanimously agreed that he was born whilest the Temple stood or that day that it was destroyed as Aben Exra confesseth on Isa. 53. Many stories out of them might be told to this purpose where he was born how and of whom to whom it was revealed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who saw him where he was disposed of where he is but being all the fancies of idle curious heads and unbelieving hearts which St. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4.7 prophane and old wives fables we shall not trouble the Reader with them Abarbinel who in corrupting the Prophecies concerning the Messiah hath a reach beyond his fellows affirms that Haggai speaks not of the Second but of a Third Temple to be built under the Messiah but this is nothing but a bold contradiction of the Prophet who three or four times signally declares that he spake of that House which was then building which their eyes saw and which so many contemned as not to be compared with the former Ch. 1.4 this House Ch. 2.7 This House v. 8. This House so v. 18. Others say that the glory of that House did not consist in the coming of the Messiah unto it but in its duration and continuance for it stood ten years longer than the former But this also is contrary 1. To the Catholick perswasion of their fore-fathers Targums Talmuds and all antient Doctors 2. To experience for what could the miserable languishing of ten years by that House whilest it was by their own confession a Den of Thieves contribute unto it to enable it to vye for glory with that wonder of the world the Temple of Solomon in comparison whereof their fore-fathers thought it no more than some of them of old thought themselves compared to the Sons of Anak 3. To the Truth affirming that the glory of that House was to consist in the coming of the Lord whom they sought the desire of all Nations unto it All which things are vindicated in our Prolegomena 3. Their Temple being utterly destroyed as well as their State and their Messiah not yet come what think they of their Sacrifices Daniel tells them that he was to come and to be cut off before the ceasing of the daily Sacrifices But they must confess that all Sacrifices are long since utterly ceased for surely their offering of a Cock to the Devil on the day of Expiation is no continuance of them Some say that the Messiah intended by Daniel was King Agrippa whom Vespasian slew at Rome But this obstinacy is intolerable that a Semi-Pagan as Agrippa was should be their Messiah so honourably foretold of is a figment which whatever they pretend themselves believe not Nor was Agrippa slain or cut off but lived in peace to the day of his death The most of them know not what to say but only object that the computation of Daniel is dark and obscure which Christians themselves are not agreed about Concerning which I must refer the Reader to our Proiegomena as also for the full and large handling of the things here by the way only touched upon This makes it evident
as to their authority on the veracity of him that maketh use of them and as to their cogency in Argument on the acknowledgment of them on whom they are pressed Where we find these concurring as in this place there remains nothing for us but to endeavour a Right understanding of what is in it self infallibly true and unquestionably cogent unto the ends for which it is used Indeed the main Difficulty which in this place Expositors generally trouble themselves withall ariseth purely from their own mistake They cannot understand how these words should pâ—ove the Natural Sonship of Jesus Christ which they supposed they are produced to confirm seeing it is from thence that he is exalted above the Angels But the truth is the words are not designed by the Apostle unto any such end his aim is only to prove that the Lord Christ hath a Name assigned unto him more excellent either in it self or in the manner of its Attribution than any that is given unto the Angels which is the medium of this first Argument to prove him not as the Eternal Son of God nor in respect of his Humane Nature but as the Revealer of the Will of God in the Gospel to be preferred above all the Angels in heaven and consequently in particular above those whose ministery was used in the giving of the Law Two things then are necessary to render this Testimony effectual to the purpose for which it is cited by the Apostle first that it was originally intended of him to whom he doth apply it secondly that there is a Name in it assigned unto him more excellent than any ascribed unto the Angels For the first of these we must not wave the Difficulties that Interpreters have either found out in it or cast upon it The words are taken from 2 Sam. 7.14 and are part of the Answer returned from God unto David by Nathan upon his resolution to build him an house The whole Oracle is as followeth v. 11. The Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house v. 12. And when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his Kingdom Or as 1 Chron. 17.11 And it shall come to pass when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers that I will raise up thy seed after thee which shall be of thy sons and I will establish his kingdom v. 13. He shall build an house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever chap. 13. v. 12. he shall build me an house and I will establish his throne for ever v. 14. I will be his Father and he shall be my son if he commit iniquity I will chastise him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men v. 15. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away before thee 1 Chron. 13. I will be his Father and he shall be my son and I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him that was before thee v. 16. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before me thy throne shall be established for ever 1 Chron. But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever and his throne shall be established for evermore This is the whole Divine Oracle from whence the Apostle takes the testimony under consideration and the difficulty wherewith it is attended ariseth from hence that it is not easie to apprehend how any thing at all in these words should be appropriated unto the Lord Christ seeing Solomon seems in the whole to be directly and only intended And concerning this difficulty there are three Opinions among Interpreters 1. Some cutting that knot which they suppose could not otherwise be loosed affirm that Solomon is not at all intended in these words but that they are a direct and immediate Prophesie of Christ who was to be the Son of David and to build the Spiritual House or Temple of God And for the confirmation of this Assertion they produce sundry Reasons from the Oracle it self As 1. It is said That God would raise up to David a seed or son intimating that he was not as yet born being foretold to be raised up whereas Solomon was born at the time of this Prophesie 2. It is also affirmed that this Son or seed should reign and sit upon the throne of David after his decease and being gathered unto his fathers whereas Solomon was made King and sate upon the Throne whilst David was yet alive and not entred into rest with his fathers 3. The Throne of this Son is to be established for ever or as the same promise is expressed Psal. 89. whilst the Sun and Moon continue The Throne of Solomon and his posterity failing within a few Genâ—rations 4. The Title there given unto him who is directly prophesied of shews him as our Apostle intimates to be preferred above all the Angels and none will say that Solâ—mon was so who as he was inferiour to them in Nature and Condition so by sin he greatly provoked the Lord against himself and his posterity But yet all these Observations though they want not some appearance and probability of reason come short of proving evidently what they are produced for as we may briefly manifest for 1. It doth not appear that Solomon was born at the time of the giving forth of this Oracle if we must suppose that God intimated in it unto David that none of the sons which he then had should succeed him in his Kingdom yea it is manifest from the story that he was not Besides raising up doth not denote the Birth or Nativity of the person intended but his Designation or Exaltation to his Throne and Office as is the usual meaning of that expression in the Scripture so that Solomon might be intended though now born yea and grown up if not yet by the providence of God marked and taken out from amongst his brethren to be King as afterwards he was 2. Although a few days before the death of David to prevent Sedition and Division about Titles and Pretensions to the Kingdom Solomon by his appointment was proclaimed King or Heir to the Crown yet he was not actually vested with the whole Power of the Kingdom until after his natural decease Moreover also David being then very weak and feeble and rendred unable for Publick Administration the short remainder of his days after the Inauguration of Solomon needed no Observation in the Prophesie The other two remaining Reasons must be afterwards spoken unto And for the present removal of this Exposition I shall only observe That to affirm Solomon not at all to be intended in this Oracle nor the House or Temple which afterwards he built is to make the whole Answer of God by the
in novo faedere praecipit But these things agree neither with the truth nor with the design of the Apostle in this place nor with the Principles of them by whom they are asserted It is acknowledg'd that God hath other sons besides Jesus Christ and that with respect unto him for in him we are adopted the only way whereby any one may attain unto the priviledge of Sonship but that we are sons of God with or in the same kind of sonship with Jesus Christ is 1. False because 1. Christ in his Sonship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only begotten Son of God and ther◠〈◊〉 is impossible that God should have any more sons in the same kind with him for if he had certainly the Lord Christ could not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his only begotten Son 2. The only way of Filiation the only kind of Sonship that Believers share in is that of Adoption in any other kind of sonship they are not partakers Now if Christ be the Son of God in this kind he must of necessity antecedently unto his Adoption be a Member of another Family that is of the Family of Sathan and the World as we are by Nature and from thence be transplanted by Adoption into the Family of God which is Blasphemy to imagine So that neither can Believers be the sons of God with that kind of sonship which is proper to Christ he being the only begotten of the Father nor can the Lord Christ be the Son of God with the same kind of Sonship as Believers are which is only by Adoption and their translation out of one Family into another So that either to exalt Believers into the same kind of Sonship with Christ or to depress him into the same rank with them is wholly inconsistent with the Analogy of Faith and Principles of the Gospel 3. If this were so that the Lord Christ and Believers were the Sons of God by the same kind of Sonship only differing in degrees which also are imaginary for the formal Reason of the same kind of Sonship is not capable of variation by degrees what great matter is in the condescension mentioned by the Apostle chap. 2.11 that he is not ashamed to call them brethren which yet he compares with the condescension of God in being called their God chap. 11.16 2. This conceit as it is Vntrue so it is contrary to the design of the Apostle For to assert the Messiah to be the Son of God in the same way with men doth not tend at all to prove him more excellent than the Angels but rather leaves us just ground of suspecting their preference above him 3. It is contrary unto other declared Principles of the Authors of this Assertion They else-where affirm that the Lord Christ was the Son of God on many accounts as first and principally because he was conceived and born of a Virgin by the power of God now surely all Believers are not partakers with him in this kind of Sonship Again they say he is the Son of God because God raised him from the dead to confirm the Doctrine that he had taught which is not so with Believers Also they say he is the Son of God and so called upon the account of his sitting at the Right Hand of God which is no less his peculiar priviledge than the former So that this is but an unhappy attempt to lay hold of a word for an advantage which yields nothing in the issue but trouble and perplexity Nor can the Lord Christ which is affirmed in the last place be called the Son of God and the first-born because in him was that Holiness which is required in the new Covenant for both all Believers under the Old Testament had that Holiness and likeness unto God in their degrees and that Holines consists principally in Regeneration or being born again by the Word and Spirit out of a corrupted estate of death and sin which the Lord Christ was not capable of Yea the truth is the Holiness and Image of God in Christ was in the kind of it that which was required under the first Covenant an Holiness of perfect Innocency and perfect Righteousness in Obedience So that this last invention hath no better success than the former It appeareth then that the Lord Christ is not called the first-begotten or the first-born with any such respect unto others as should include him and them in the same kind of Filiation To give therefore a direct account of this Appellation of Christ we may observe that indeed the Lord Christ is never absolutely called the first-begotten or first-born with respect either to his Eternal Generation or to the Conception and Nativity of his Humane Nature In respect of the former he is called the Son and the only begotten Son of God but no where the first-born or first-begotten and in respect of the latter indeed he is called the first-begotten Son of the Virgin because she had none before him but not absolutely the first-born or first-begotten which Title is here and else-where ascribed unto him in the Scripture It is not therefore the thing it self of being the first-born but the Dignity and Priviledge that attended it which are designed in this Appellation So Col. 1.15 he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-born of the creation which is no more but he that hath Power and Authority over all the creatures of God The word which the Apostle intends to express is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which oft-times is used in the sense now pleaded for namely to denote not the birth in the first place but the priviledge that belonged thereunto So Psal. 89.27 God is said to make David his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his first-born which is expounded in the next words higher than the Kings of the earth So that the Lord Christ being the first-born is but the same which we have insisted on of his being Heir of all which was the priviledge of the first-born And this priviledge was sometimes transmitted unto others that were not the first-born although the natural course of their nativity could not be changed Gen. 21.10 chap. 49. v. 3 4 8. The Lord Christ then by the appointment of the Father being entrusted with the whole Inheritance of Heaven and Earth and Authority to dispose of it that he might give out portions to all the rest of God's family is and is called the first-born thereof There remains now but one word more to be considered for the opening of this Introduction of the ensuing Testimony and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith that is God himself saith they are His words which shall be produced What ever is spoken in the Scripture in his name it is his speaking and he continueth to speak it unto this day He speaks in the Scripture unto the end of the world This is the foundation of our faith that which it riseth from and that which it is râ—solved into
Righteousness of any Law whatever 2. Wisdom is required to the making of Righteous Laws This is the eye of Authority without which it can act nothing rightly or equally Effects of Power without Wisdom are commonly unjust and Tyranical alwayes useless and burdensom The Wisdom of Law-makers is that which hath principally given them their renown So Moses tells the Israelites that all Nations would admire them when they perceived the Wisdom of their Laws Deut. 4. Now the Lord Christ is abundantly furnished with Wisdom for this purpose He is the foundation stone of the Church that hath seven eyes upon him Zech. 3.9 A perfection of Wisdom and Understanding in all Affairs of it being anointed with the Spirit unto that purpose Isa. 11.3 4. Yea in him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge Col. 2.3 it having pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell Col. 1.19 So that there can be no defect in his Laws and Administrations on this account He is Wise of heart and knows perfectly what Rules and Actings are suited to the Glory of God and the condition of the subjects of his Kingdom and what tendeth to their spiritual and eternal Advantage He knows how to order all things unto the great end which in his Government he aimeth at And thence do all his Laws and Administrations become righteous And this also well deserves their consideration who take upon them to appoint Laws and Rules within his Dominion unto his Subjects for the ends of his Rule and substance of his Worship Have they Wisdom sufficient to enable them so to do doth the Spirit of the Lord Christ rest upon them â—o make them of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord Are they acquainted with the state and condition the Weakness Temptations Graces of all the people of Christ If they are not how know they but that they may command and appoint them things greatly to their disadvantage when they think to profit them It seems a great self-assuming for men to suppose themselves wise enough to give Laws to the Subjects of Christ in things directly appertaining to his Kingdom 3. They are Righteous because they are Easie gentle and not burdensome The Righteousness and uprightness here mentioned doth not denote strict rigid severe Justice extending its self unto the utmost of what can be required of the subjects to be ruled but Equity mixed with Gentleness tenderness and condescension which if it be absent from Laws and they breath nothing but severity rigor and arbitrary impositions though they may not be absolutely unjust yet they are grievous burdensom Thus Peter calls the Law of commandments contained in the Ordinances of old a yoke which neither their Fathers nor themselves were able to bear Acts 15.10 that is could never obtain rest or peace in the precise rigid observation required of them But now for the Rule of Christ he tells us that his yoke is easie and his burden light Matth. 11.30 and that his commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 And this gentleness and easiness of the rule of Christ consisteth in these three things 1. That his Commands are all of them Reasonable and suited unto the principles of that natural Obedience we owe to God and so not grievous unto any thing in us but that principle of sin and darkness which is to be destroyed He hath not multiplied Precepts meerly arbitrary and to express his Authority but given us only such as are in themselves Good and suitable unto the Principles of Reason as might be evinced by the particular considerations of his Institutions Hence our Obedience unto them is called our reasonable service Rom. 12.1 2. His commands are easie because all of them are suited to that principle of the new Nature or new Creature which he worketh in the hearts of all his Disciples It likes them loves them delights in them which makes them easie unto it The Lord Christ rules as we said by his Word and Spirit these go together in the Covenant of the Redeemer Isa. 59.20 21. And their work is suited and commensurate one to the other The Spirit creates a new Nature fitted for Obedience according to the Word and the Word gives out Laws and Precepts suited unto the inclination and disposition of that Nature and in these two consist the Scepter and Rule of Christ. This suitableness of Principle and Rule one to the other makes his Government easie upright and righteous 3. His commands are easie becauses he continually gives out supplies of his Spirit to make his subjects to yield obedience unto them This is that which above all other things sets a lustre upon his Rule The Law was holy just and good of old but whereas it exhibited not strength unto men to enable them unto Obedience it became unto them altogether useless and unprofitable as to the end they aimed at in its observation It is otherwise in the Kingdom of Christ what ever he requires to have done of his subjects he gives them strength by his Spirit and grace to perform it which makes his rule easie righteous equal and altogether lovely Neither can any of the sons of men pretend to the least share or interest in this priviledge 4. This Rule and Administration of Christs Kingdom is righteous because useful and profitable Then are Laws good wholesome and equal when they lead unto the benefit and advantage of them that do observe them Laws about slight and trivial things or such as men have no benefit or advantage by their observation are justly esteemed grievous and burdensome But now all the Laws and whole Rule of the Lord Christ are every way useful and advantagious to his subjects They make them holy righteous such as please God and are useful to mankind This is their nature this their tendency Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report they are all ingenerated in the soul by and in the observance of these Laws of Christ's Rule They free the soul from the power of lust the service of sin fear of death hell and the world guide it in the truth make it fruitful amongst mankind and amiable unto God himself 5. Their end manifests them to be righteous The worth and equity of Laws is taken off when low and unworthy ends are proposed unto their observation But these of the Lord Christ direct unto the highest end propose and promise the most glorious reward so that whatsoever may be done or suffered in an adherence unto them bears no proportion to that exceeding rich and eternal reward which they are attended withall which renders them highly righteous and glorious And many other considerations of the like nature may be added And hence a three-fold Corolary may be taken 1. That our submission to this Scepter of the Lord Christ our obedience to the Laws of his Kingdom and the
and vigour untill the very day of his death But he sayes it was old and decayed when it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 near to a disappearance to its End Period and an utter uselesness as then it was even as all things that naturally tend to an end do it by Age and decayes And in this not the former sense are the Heavens and Earth said to wax old because of their tendency to that period which either in themselves or as to their use they shall receive which is sufficient to manifest them to be of a changeable perishing nature And it may be that it shall be with these Heavens and Earth at the last day as it was with the Heavens and Earth of Judaical Institutions for so are they frequently called especially when their dissolution or abolition is spoken of in the day of Gods creating the new Heavens and the Earth in the Gospel according to his promise For though the use of them and their power of obliging to their Observation was taken away and abolished yet are they kept in the world as abiding monuments of the Goodness and Wisdom of God in teaching his Church of old So may it be with the Heavens and Earth of the old creation though they shall be laid aside at the last day from their use as a Garment to cloath and teach the Power and Wisdom of God to men yet may they be preserved as eternal monuments of them In opposition hereunto it is said of Christ that he abideth he is the same and his years fail not One and the same thing is intended in all these Expressions even his Eternal and absolutely immutable Existence Eternity is not amiss called a nunc stans a present existence wherein or whereunto nothing is past or future it being alwayes wholly present in and to its self This is expressed in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou standest abidest endurest alterest not changest not The same is also expressed in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art he or art the same or as the Syriack hath it the same that thou art There is an Allusion in these words unto if not an expression of that name of God I am that is who is of himself in himself alwayes absolutely and unchangeably the same And this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tu ipse the Hebrews reckon as a distinct name of God Indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all the same name of God expressing his Eternal and immutable self-subsistence The last Expression also though Metaphorical is of the same importance Thy years fail not He who is the same Eternally properly hath no years which are a measure of transient time denoting its Duration Beginning and Ending This is the measure of the world and all things contained therein Their Continuance is reckoned by years To shew the Eternal subsistence of God in Opposition to the frailty of the world and all things created therein it is said his years fail not that is theirs do and come to an end of his Being and Existence there is none How the Apostle proves his Intendment by this Testimony hath been declared in the opening of the words and the force of it unto his purpose lyes open to all we may now divert unto those Doctrinal Observations which the words offer unto us As I. All the Properties of God considered in the Person of the Son the head of the Church are suited to give Relief Consolation and supportment unto Believers in all their distresses This Truth presents it self unto us from the use of the words in the Psalm and their Connection in the design of the Psalmist Under the consideration of his own mortality and frailty he relieves himself with thoughts of the Omnipotency and Eternity of Christ and takes Arguments from thence to plead for relief And this may a little further be unfolded for our use in the ensuing Observations 1. The Properties of God are those whereby God makes known himself to us and declares both what he is and what we shall find him to be in all that we have to deal with him He is infinitely Holy Just Wise Good Powerful c. And by our Apprehension of these things are we lead to that Acquaintance with the Nature of God which in this life we may attain Exod. 34.5 6 7. 2. God oftentimes declares and proposeth these properties of his nature unto us for our supportment Consolation and Relief in our Troubles Distresses and endeavours after Peace and Rest to our souls Isa. 40.27 28 29 30 31. 3. That since the Entrance of sin these Properties of God absolutely considered will not yield that Relief and satisfaction unto the souls of men which they would have done and did whilest man continued obedient unto God according to the Law of his Creation Hence Adam upon his sin knew nothing that should encourage him to expect any help pity or relief from him and therefore fled from his presence and hid himself The Righteousness Holiness Purity and Power of God all infinite eternal unchangeable considered absolutely are no way suited to the Advantage of sinners in any condition Rom. 1.32 Heb. 1.12 4. These Properties of the Divine Nature are in every person of the Trinity entirely so that each Person is so infinitely holy just wise good and powerful because each person is equally partaker of the whole Divine Nature and Being 5. The Person of the Word or the Eternal Son of God may be considered either absolutely as such or as designed in the Counsel Wisdom and Will of the Father by and with his own Will and Consent unto the work of Mediation between God and Man Prov. 8.22 27 28 29 30 31. And in him as such it is that the Properties of the nature of God are suited to yield relief unto Believers in every condition For 1. It was the Design of God in the Appointment of his Son to be Mediator to retrieve the communion between himself and his creature that was lost by sin Now man was so created at first as that every thing in God was suited to be a Reward unto him and in all things to give him satisfaction This being wholly lost by sin and the whole Representation of God to man becoming full of dread and terror all gracious intercourse in a way of special love on the part of God and spiritual willing Obedience on the part of man was intercepted and cut off God designing again to take sinners into a communion of Love and Obedience with himself it must be by Representing unto them his blessed Properties as suited to their encouragement satisfaction and reward And this he doth in the Person of his Son as designed to be our Mediator Heb. 1.2 3. For 2. The Son is designed to be our Mediator and the Head of his Church in a way of Covenant wherein there is an Engagement for the exerting of all the Divine Properties of the nature of God for the Good and
Eternity and their fear of Eternity embitters all things that they should use for the relief of their frailty and that security which they provide against both encreaseth their misery by sin here and suffering hereafter 2. This also will teach us how to use these earthly things how dying Persons should use dying creatures That is to use them for our present service and necessity but not as those that look after rest or satisfaction in them which they will not afford us Vse the world but live on Christ. 3. Not to despond under a sense of our present frailty we see what blessed relief is provided against our fainting on that account Verse XIII THe next Verse contains the last Testimony produced by the Apostle for the confirmation of the Preheminence of the Lord Christ above Angels in the words ensuing Ver. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no difference about the reading of these words As they are here expressed by the Apostle so are they in the Translation of the LXX and the Original Text is exactly rendred by them Verse 13. But unto which of the Angels said he at anytime Sit thou on my right hand until I make put place thine enemies thy foot-stool the foot-stool of thy feet The usefulness of this testimony for the confirmation of the Dignity and Authority of the Messiah is evidenced by the frequent quotation of it in the New Testament as by our Saviour himself Matth. 22.42 by Peter Acts 2.34 35. and twice by our Apostle in this place and 1 Cor. 15.28 As the words are here used we may consider the Introduction of the Testimony and the Testimony it self The Introduction of the Testimony is by way of Interrogation Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time And herein three things may be observed 1. That in the Interrogation a vehement negation is included He said not at any time to any Angels he never spake these words or the like concerning them there is no testimony unto that purpose recorded in the whole Book of God The way of Expression puts an emphasis upon the denial And the speaking here relates unto what is spoken in the Scripture which is the only means of our knowledge and rule of our faith in these things 2. That he makes application of this testimony to every Angel in heaven severally considered For whereas he had before sufficiently proved the Preheminence of the Messiah above the Angels in general to obviate their thoughts about the especial Honour and Dignity of any one or more Angels or Angels in a singular manner such as indeed they conceived he applies the present testimony to every one of them singly and individually considered Vnto which of the Angels said he at any time 3. A tacit Application of this testimony unto the Son or the Messiah unto the Angels he said not but unto the Son he said Sit thou on my right hand That the testimony it self doth clearly prove the intendment of the Apostle provided the words were originally spoken of him or to him unto whom they are applied is beyond all exceptions For they contain an Elogium of him of whom they are spoken and an assignation of Honour and Glory to him beyond what ever was or can be ascribed unto any Angel what ever It remains therefore that this be first proved and then the importance of the testimony it self explained 1. For those that believe the Gospel the Authority of the Lord Christ and his Apostles applying this testimony unto him is sufficient for their conviction By our Saviour as was observed it is applied unto the Messiah in Thesi Matth. 22.42 43 44. And had not this been generally acknowledged by the Scribes and Pharisees and whole Church of the Jews as it had not been to his purpose to have mentioned it so they had not been reduced unto that conviction and shame by it as they were The Apostles apply it unto the true Messiah in Hypothesi and herein doth our faith rest 2. But a considerable part of the controversie which we have with the Jews relating much unto this Psalm we must yet farther clear the application of it unto the Messiah from their exceptions Of the Targum or Chaldee Paraphrase there are two Copies one printed in Arias Bible the other in the Basil Edition by Buxtorf The Title of the Psalm in both of them is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A song by the hand of David And the beginning of it is thus rendred by the former of them The Lord said by his word that he would give me the Kingdom because I studied the doctrine of the Law of his right hand wait thou until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool By the other thus The Lord said by his word that he would appoint me the Lord of all Israel but he said unto me again Stay for Saul who is of the Tribe of Benjamin until he die for a Kingdom will not admit of a Companion and after that I will make thine enemies thy foot-stool Besides what appears from other considerations it is hence sufficiently evident that this Targum was made after the Jews began to be exercised in the controversie with Christians and had learned to corrupt by their glosses all the testimonies given in the Old Testament unto the Lord Christ especially such as they sound to be made use of in the New Their corrupting of the sense of the Holy Ghost in this place by a pretended Translation is openly malitious against evident light and conviction The Psalm they own from the Title to be written by David but they would have him also to be the subject of it to be spoken of in it And therefore those words The Lord said unto my Lord they translate The Lord said unto me which assertion is contrary to the Text and false in it self for who ever were the Pen-man of the Psalm he speaks of another person The Lord said unto my Lord say they The Lord said unto me And thereunto are annexed those imaginations about studying the Law and waiting for the death of Saul which in no case belongs to the Text or matter in hand Others therefore to avoid this Rock affirm that the Psalm speaks of David but was not composed by him being the work of some other who calls him Lord. So David Kimchi on the place And this he endeavours to prove from the inscription of the Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is saith he A Psalm spoken to David for it denotes the third and not the second Case or variation of Nouns But this is contrary to the use of that Prefix throughout the whole Book of Psalms and if this observation might be allowed all Psalms with this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 le David which are the greatest part of those composed by him must be adjudged from him contrary to the received sense and consent of Jews and Christians But fully to manifest the folly of this pretence and that the Author
Will and Understanding of the Humane Nature is the principle of those Theandrical acts whereby Christ ruleth over all in the Kingdom given him of his Father Rev. 1. v. 17 18. As he was God he was Davids Lord but not his Son As he was Man he was Davids Son and so absolutely could not be his Lord. In his Person as he was God and Man he was his Lord and his Son which is the intention of our Saviours Question Matth. 22. v. 45. 3. For the Nature and Manner of this speaking when and how God said it four things seem to be intended in it 1. The Eternal Decree of God concerning the Exaltation of the Son incarnate So David calls this Word the Decree the Statute or Eternal Appointment of God Psal. 2. v. 7. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Internal and Eternal Word or speaking of the Mind Will and Counsel of God referred unto by Peter 1 Epist. 1. v. 20. God said this in the Eternal Purpose of his Will to and concerning his Son 2. The Covenant and Compact that was between the Father and Son about and concerning the Work of Mediation is expressed also in this saying That there was such a Covenant and the nature of it I have else-where declared See Prov. 8. v. 30 31. Isa. 53. v. 10 11 12. Zech. 6. v. 12 13. Joh. 17. v. 4 5 6 In this Covenant God said unto him Sit thou at my right hand which he also pleaded in and upon the discharge of his work Isa. 50. v. 8 9. Joh. 17. v. 4 5. 3. There is also in it the Declaration of this Decree and Covenant in the Prophesies and Promises given out concerning their accomplishment and execution from the foundation of the world Luke 1. v. 40. 1 Pet. 1.11 12. Gen. 3.15 He said it by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began And in this sense David only recounts the prophesies and promises that went before Luke 24. v. 25 26 27. And all these are comprised in this speaking here mentioned Thus the Lord said unto him And all these were past when recorded by David But he yet looks forward by a Spirit of prophesie into the actual accomplishment of them all when upon the Resurrection of Christ and the fulfilling of his work of Humiliation God actually invested him with the promised Glory which is the fourth thing intended in the expression Acts 2. v. 33.36 chap. 5.33 1 Pet. 1. v. 20 21. All these four things center in a new Revelation now made to David by the Spirit of Prophesie This he here declares as the stable Purpose Covenant and Promise of God the Father revealed unto him The Lord said And this also gives us an account of the manner of this Expression as to its imperative Enunciation Sit thou It hath in it the force of a promise that he should do so as it respected the Decree Covenant and Declaration thereof from the foundation of the world God engaging his Faithfulness and Power for the effecting of it in its appointed season speaks concerning it as a thing instantly to be done And as those words respect the glorious accomplishment of the thing it self so they denote the acquiescence of God in the work of Christ and his Authority in his glorious Exaltation 4. The thing spoken about is Christ's sitting at the right hand of God wherein that consists hath been declared on verse 3. In brief it is the Exaltation of Christ into the glorious Administration of the Kingdom granted unto him with Honour Security and Power or as in one word our Apostle calls it his Reigning 1 Cor. 15.25 Concerning which we have treated already at large And herein we shall acquisce and not trouble our selves with the needless curiosity and speculation of some about these words Such is that of Maldonat on Matth. 16. before remarked on verse 3. saith he Cum filius dicitur sedere ad dextram Patris denotatur comparatio virtutis filii Patris potentia filii major dicitur ratione functionis Officii administrationis Ecclesiae Paterque videtur fecisse filium quodammodo se superiorem donasse illi nomen etiam supra ipsum Dei nomen quod omnes Christiani tacitè significant cùm audito nomine Jesu detegunt caput audito autem nomine Dei non item Than which nothing could be more presumptuously nor foolishly spoken For there is not in the words the least intimation of any comparison between the Power of the Father and the Son but only the Father's Exaltation of the Son unto Power and Glory expressed But as was said these things have been already considered 5. There is in the words the End aimed at in this sitting down at the right hand of God and that is the making of his Enemies the foot-stool of his feet This is that which is promised unto him in the state and condition whereunto he is exalted For the opening of these words we must enquire 1. Who are these Enemies of Christ. 2. How they are to be made his foot-stool 3. By whom For the first we have shewed that it is the glorious Exaltation of Christ in his Kingdom that is here spoken of and therefore the Enemies intended must be the Enemies of his Kingdom or Enemies unto him in his Kingdom that is as he sits on his Throne carrying on the work designed and ends of it Now the Kingdom of Christ may be considered two ways First in respect of the Internal Spiritual Power and Efficacy of it in the hearts of his subjects Secondly with respect unto the outward glorious Administration of it in the world And in both these respects it hath enemies in abundance all and every one whereof must be made his foot-stool We shall consider them apart The Kingdom Rule or Reigning of Christ in the first sense is the Authority and Power which he puts forth for the conversion sanctification and salvation of his Elect. As he is their King he quickens them by his Spirit sanctifies them by his grace preserves them by his faithfulness raiseth them from the dead at the last day by his power and gloriously rewardeth them unto Eternity in his righteousness In this work the Lord Christ hath many enemies as the Law Sin Sathan the World Death the Grave and Hell all these are enemies to the Work and Kingdom of Christ and consequently to his Person as having undertaken that work 1. The Law is an enemy unto Christ in his Kingdom not absolutely but by accident and by reason of the consequents that attend it where his subjects are obnoxious unto it It slays them Rom. 7. v. 9 10 11. which is the work of an enemy is against them and contrary unto them Col. 2. v. 14. and contributes strength to their other adversaries 1 Cor. 15. v. 56. which discovers the nature of an enemy 2. Sin is universally and in its whole nature an enemy unto Christ Rom. 8. v. 7. Sinners
and enemies are the same Rom. 5. v. 8 10. Col. 1. v. 21. It is that which makes special direct and immediate opposition to the quickning sanctifying and saving of his his people Rom. 7. v. 21 23. Jam. 1. v. 14 15. 1 Pet. 2. v. 11. 3. Sathan is the sworn enemy of Christ the adversary that openly constantly avowedly opposeth him in his Throne Matth. 16.18 Ephes. 6. v. 12. 1 Pet. 5.8 And he exerts his enmity by temptations 1 Cor. 7. v. 5. 1 Thess. 3. v. 5. accusations Rev. 12. v. 10. persecutions Rev. 2. v. 10. All which are the works of an enemy 4. The World is also a professed enemy of the Kingdom of Christ Joh. 15. v. 18. in the Things of it the Men of it the Rule of it it sets it self against the work of the Lord Christ on his Throne The things of it as under the curse and subject to vanity are suited to alienate the hearts of men from Christ and so act an enmity against him Jam. 4. v. 4. 1 Joh. 2. v. 15 16 17. 1 Tim. 6. v. 9 10 11. Matth. 13. v. 22 The men of the world act the same part Matth. 10. v. 22. chap. 24. v. 9. By examples by temptations by reproaches by persecutions by allurements they make it their business to oppose the Kingdom of Christ. And to that end is the Rule of it for the most part directed or over-ruled 1 Cor. 15. v. 24 25. 5. Death is also an enemy so it is expresly called 1 Cor. 15.26 it designs execution of the first Curse against all believers and therein contributes aid and Assistance unto all other Adversaries giving up its self to the service of Satan and therefore said to be in his power Chap. 2.14 of this Epistle and borrows a sting of sin 1 Cor. 15.56 to make its self the more terrible and sharp 6. The Grave is an Adversary also It fights against the faith of the Subjects of Christ by reducing their Mortality into Corruption and holding fast the dead untill they are powerfully rescued from the jaws of it 7. Lastly Hell is that Enemy in a subordination whereunto all these others do act They all aim to bring men into Hell which is an Eternal Enemy where it prevails This attends the workings and successes of those other Adversaries to consume and destroy if it were possible the whole Inheritance of Christ Rev. 6.8 All these are Enemies to Christ in his Work and Kingdom with every thing that contributes aid or Assistance unto them every thing that they make use of in the pursuit of their Enmity against him Now all these Enemies as far as they oppose the spiritual internal carrying on of the work of Christ must be made the footstool of his feet The Expression is Metaphorical and is to be interpreted and applyed variously according to the Nature and Condition of the Enemies with whom he hath to do The Allusion in general is taken from what was done by Joshua his Type towards the Enemies of his people Josh. 10. v. 24. To shew the ruine of their power and his absolute prevalency against them he caused the people to set their feet upon their necks See 2 Sam. 22.39 Psal. 8.6 To have his Enemies then brought under his feet is to have an absolute compleat conquest over them And their being made his footstool their perpetual and unchangeable Duration in that condition under the weight of what ever burden he shall be pleased to lay upon them This being that which is to be done we may consider how it is accomplished now this whole work of conquest and prevalency over all his enemies is done 1. Meritoriously 2. Exemplarily 3. Efficiently 1. Meritoriously By his Death and blood-shedding he hath procured the sentence of Condemnation in the Cause depending between him and them to be pronounced against them so that they shall have no more Right to exert their Enmity against him or his He hath given them all their deaths wounds and leaves them to dye at his pleasure So hath he prevailed against the Law Gal. 3.13 Col. 2.14 Rom. 7.6 He hath removed that strength which it gave to sin 1 Cor. 15.55 56. So that it hath no right to disquiet or condemn any of his Subjects for the future And 2. Against sin Rom. 8.2 3. So that it should not reign in nor condemn his any more And 3. Satan also Heb. 2.14 15. as to all pretence of Liberty or Right unto any part of his cursed work And 4. So likewise the World Joh. 16.33 Gal. 1.4 And against 5. Death Heb. 2.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.55 56. with 6. The Grave and 7. Hell or the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1.10 They are all meritoriously conquered in his death and Resurrection And all this hath he done for his Church 2. Exemplarily All these Adversaries peculiarly exercised their Enmity against and tryed their strength and power upon his own person The Law brought its curse upon him Gal. 3.13 Sin its Guilt 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 8.2 3. Satan put forth all his power against him Col. 2.15 as also did the World in all sorts of things and persons in all kinds of Opposition and Persecutions Death also he tasted of Heb. 2.9 and lay in the Grave descending into the lower parts of the earth Ephes. 4.9 And he was not unassaulted by the pains of Hell when he bare our Iniquities Isa. 53.5 6 10. Now all of them did he absolutely conquer in his own person For he satisfied the Law removed the Curse and took it away Rom. 8.3 made an end of sin Dan. 9.24 destroyed the Devil Heb. 2.14 and triumphed over him Col. 2.15 subdued the world John 16. â—3 conquered death Acts 2.24 and the Grave v. 27. and Hell also And in his own person hath he set an Example of what shall be done in and for the whole Church 3. It is done Efficiently in by and for his whole Church and this in three instances 1. Initially in their Vnion with himself When and as he unites any of them unto himself he begins the conquest of all Enemies in them and for them giving them a Right to the compleat total and final Victory over them all 2. Gradualy he carries them on in their several seasons towards perfections treading down their Enemies by degrees under them And 3. Perfectly at the last day when having freed them from the Law and sin trodden down Satan prevailed against the World recovered them from death rescued them from the Grave and delivered them from Hell he shall be himself perfectly victorious in them and they made compleatly sharers in his Victory wherein the making of all his Enemies his Footstool consisteth Secondly The Kingdom of Christ respects his Administration of it visibly in this world in the Profession and Obedience of his Subjects unto him and this also with the Opposition made unto it is respected in this Expression God the Father in the Exaltation of Jesus Christ hath given unto him
and Ends of it that it no way takes off from the evidence of their subordination and subjection unto him And with this Demonstration the Apostle closeth the Argument he had so long insistâ—d on Of the nature of this Ministery of Angels for the good of them that shall inherit salvation because it belongs not directly unto the present design of the Apostle and would in the full consideration of it cause a long diversion from the work in hand I shall not treat although it be a matter singularly deserving our meditation For the present it may suffice us to observe That in the government and protection of his Saints here below both as to the dispensation of Grace and Providence God is pleased to make use of the Ministery of Angels wherein much of their Honour and our Safety doth consist For a close of the whole we may only observe the Way and Manner whereby the Apostle proposeth this doctrine of the Ministery of Angels unto the Hebrews Are they not saith he he speaks of it as a matter well known unto them and acknowledged by them Their Nature their Dignity their Office was declared in the Old Testament Thence were they instructed that as to their Nature they were Spirits in Dignity Thrones Principalities and Powers in Office Ministers unto God sent out for the good of his Church And therefore these things the Apostle in sundry places takes for granted as those that were already known and received in the Church of God Rom. 8. v. 32. Ephes. 1. v. 20 21. Col. 1. v. 16. This Doctrine then I say was propagated from the Jews unto the Christians And from them also came forth much of that curiosity and superstition about Angels which afterwards infected the minds of many in the Christian Church For after they were forsaken of God and began to give up themselves unto vain speculations there was not any thing wherein the vanity of their minds did more early manifest it self than in their imaginations about Angels wherein they exercise themselves unto this day For to omit their monstrous figments about the Original of Devils most of whom they affirm to have been begotten by Adam on Lilith before God formed Eve and many to have issued from Adam and Eve severally whilst they lived separate an 150 years after the death of Abel as later follies it is certain that some of them began to vent curiosities about Angels in the Apostles time Col. 2.18 and to express their fancies about their Names Orders Degrees and Employments And this they continue yet to do although they peremptorily deny that they are to be invocated or prayed unto wherein they are out-done by others Names they have invented for them innumerable and those many of them uncouth and insignificant Orders also or Degrees they assign unto them some four some five some seven some nine some thirteen according as it hath seemed good unto this or that Great Master among them From them the Pseudodionysius about the fourth or fifth Century after Christ took the occasion and rise of his operous figment about the Celestial Hierarchy though he mixed their inventions with many Peripatetical and Pythagorean notions Aristotle proportioned the number of the Intelligencies unto the Spheres of the Heavens more he granted not The Pythagoreans and Platonicks asserted all things here below to be influenced by the Planets in their Orbs the inferiour receiving a communication of vertue from the higher and imparting it unto them beneath So they interpreted the Exsection of Saturn by Jupiter as that of Coelum by Saturn to be the interception of their procreative influence that it should not immediately be communicated unto things below but by them Out of all these fancies did Dionysius raise his Hierarchy From the Jews he took the Disposition of his Angels into Orders of Superiority and Rule from Aristotle their number placing an Order instead of a single Intelligence to answer what is taught in the Scripture concerning their multitude and from the Pythagorean Platonicks the communication of Light Knowledge and Illumination from God by the highest to the lowest Series or Order and from them to Men on earth And on this foundation such as it is are built the Discourses of many Commentators on this place in their Enquiries whether Angels of the Superiour Orders are sent forth to minister for the good of Believers which is denied by many though by some later Expositors as Estius Ribera Tena A Lapide granted and proved not without much ado So hard is it sometimes for men to cast down sear-crows of their own setting up It remaineth only that we close our whose discourses on this Chapter with some Observations for our own use and instruction from this last Verse as 1. The highest Honour of the most glorious Spirits in Heaven is to minister unto the Lord in the service whereunto he appoints them This is the Office this the work of Angels and this is their Honour and Glory For what greater Honour can a Creature be more partaker of than to be emploied in the service of his Creator What greater glory than to stand in the Presence and to do the Will of the King of Heaven If it be an Honour on earth to stand before Princes dying perishing men and that unto men in nature and kind equal unto those before whom they stand what is it for them who by nature are at an infinite distance from the Glory of God to stand before him who lives for ever and ever And surely it will be unconceivably woful unto poor souls at the last day to find how they despised in this world a share and interest in that service which is and ever was the Glory and Honour of Angels 2. Such is the love and care of God towards his Saints labouring here below that he sends the most glorious Attendants on his Throne to minister unto him in taking care of them He who gave his only Son for them will not spare to send his holy Angels unto them Heaven and earth shall be witnesses of his care of them and the value that he puts upon them Now this being a matter of so great importance as it is unto the Churches consolation and the Doctrine directly taught in the Text we may a little farther enquire into it in answer unto these two Questions First Wherefore God is pleased to use the Ministry of Angels in the dispensation of his care and good will unto the Church the Heirs of salvation seeing he can by an Almighty facility exert all the effects of it by his own immediate Power Secondly Vnto what especial end and purpose doth God make use of the Ministery of Angels for the good of them that believe For the first of these the principal account of it is to be resolved into his own Sovereign Will Wisdom and Pleasure Thus are we always to live in an holy Admiration of him when ever we consider any of his works or ways Rom. 11.
2. That they may be left inexcusable and the Lord Christ be justified in his proceedings against them at the last day If they should be surprized with fiery indignation and everlasting burnings at the last day how might they plead that if they had been warned of these things they would have endeavoured to have fled from the wrath to come And how apt might they be to repine against his Justice in the amazing Greatness of their destruction But now by taking order to have the Penalty of their disobedience in the threatnings of the Gospel declared unto them they are left without excuse and himself is glorified in taking vengeance He hath told them before-hand plainly what they are to look for Heb. 10.26 27. 2. They are so on the part of Believers themselves Even they stand in need to be minded of the terrour of the Lord and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God and that even our God is a consuming fire And this 1. To keep up in their hearts a constant Reverence of the Majesty of Jesus Christ with whom they have to do The threatning sanction of the Gospel bespeaks the Greatness Holiness and Terrour of its Author and insinuates into the hearts of Believers thoughts becoming of them It lets them know that he will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him and so calls upon them for a due reverential preparation for the performance of his Worship and unto all duties wherein they walk before him Heb. 12.28 29. This influenceth them also into a diligent attendance unto every particular Duty incumbent on them as the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 5.11 2. They tend unto their Consolation and supportment under all their afflictions and sufferings for the Gospel This relieves their hearts in all their sorrows when they consider the sore vengeance that the Lord Jesus Christ will one day take of all his stubborn adversaries who know not God nor will obey the Gospel 2 Thess. 1.5 6 7 8 9 10. For the Lord Jesus is no less faithful in his Threatnings than in his Promises and no less able to inflict the one than to accomplish the other And he is glorious unto them therein Isa. 63. 11 12 13. 3. They give them constant matter of praise thankfulness when they see in them as in a Glass that will neither flatter nor causelesly terrifie a Representation of that wrath which they are delivered from by Jesus Christ 1 Thess. 1.10 For in this way every Threatning of the Gospel proclaims the Grace of Christ unto their souls And when they hear them explained in all their terrour they can rejoyce in the hope of the glory that shall be revealed And 4. They are needful unto them to ingenerate that fear which may give check unto the remainder of their lusts and corruptions with that security and negligence in attending to the Gospel which by their means is apt to grow upon them To this purpose is the punishment of despisers and back-sliders here made use of and urged by our Apostle The hearts of Believers are like Gardens wherein there are not only flowers but weeds also and as the former must be watered and cherished so the latter must be curbed and nipped If nothing but dews and showers of Promises should fall upon the heart though they seem to tend to the cherishing of their Graces yet the weeds of corruption will be apt to grow up with them and in the end to choak them unless they are nipped and blasted by the severity of the threatnings And although their Persons in the use of means shall be secured from falling under the final execution of Comminations yet they know there is an infallible connexion signified in them between sin and destruction 1 Cor. 6.9 and that they must avoid the one if they will escape the other 5. Hence they have in a readiness wherewith to ballance Temptations especially such as accompany sufferings for Christ and the Gospel Great reasonings are apt to rise in the hearts of Believers themselves in such a season and they are byassed by their infirmities to attend unto them Liberty would be spared Life would be spared it is hard to suffer and to die How many have been betrayed by their fears at such a season to forsake the Lord Christ and the Gospel But now in these Gospel threatnings we have that in a readiness which we may oppose unto all these reasonings and the efficacy of them Are we afraid of a man that shall die Have we not much more reason to be afraid of the Living God Shall we to avoid the anger of a Worm cast our selves into his wrath who is a consuming fire Shall we to avoid a little momentary trouble to preserve a perishing life which a sickness may take away the next day run our selves into eternal ruine Man threatens me if I forsake not the Gospel but God threatens if I do Man threatens death temporal which yet it may be he shall not have power to inflict God threatens death eternal which no back-slider in heart shall avoid On these and the like accounts are Comminations useful unto Believers themselves 3. These declarations of eternal punishment unto Gospel neglecters do become the Gospel with respect unto them that are the Preachers and dispensers of it that their message be not slighted nor their persons despised God would have even them to have in a readiness wherewith to revenge the disobedience of men 2 Cor. 10.6 not with carnal weapons killing and destroying the bodies of men but by such a denunciation of the vengeance that will ensue on their disobedience as shall undoubtedly take hold upon them and end in their everlasting ruine Thus are they armed for the warfare wherein by the Lord Christ they are engaged that no may be encouraged to despise them or contend with them They authorized to denounce the eternal wrath of God against disobedient sinners and whomsoever they bind under the sentence of it on earth they are bound in heaven unto the judgment of the Great Day On these grounds it is that we say that the threatnings and denunciations of future punishments unto all sorts of persons are becoming of the Gospel and therefore the using of them as motives unto the end for which they are designed is Evangelical And this will farther appear if we shall yet consider 1. That threatnings of future Penalties on the disobedient are far more clear and express in the Gospel than in the Law The Curse indeed was threatned and denounced under the Law and a pledge and instance of its execution were given in the temporal punishments that were inflic◠〈…〉 â—â—ansgressors of it But in the Gospel the nature of this curse is explained 〈…〉 â—â—nsisteth in is made manifest For as Eternal life was obscurely only proâ—◠〈…〉 â—ld Testament though promised so death eternal under the curse an◠〈…〉 was only obscurely threatned therein though threatned And thereâ—◠〈◊〉
in your minds The Sons of God are sometimes ready to think it strange that they should fall into calamity and distresses and are apt to say with Hezekiah Remember O Lord we beseech thee how we have walked before thee in truth and with an upright heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and weep sore supposing that this might have freed them from oppositions and Persecutions And as it was with Gideon when the Angel told him the Lord was with him He replies Whence is all this evil come upon us For when they find it is otherwise and begin to apply themselves unto their condition yet if their troubles continue if they are not in their season removed they are ready to be weary and faint in their minds But saith the Apostle consider the Captain of your salvation he hath set you another manner of Example notwithstanding all his sufferings he fainted not The like Argument he presseth Chap. 13.12 13. And the Scripture in many places represents unto us the same consideration The Jews have a saying that a third part of the afflictions and troubles that shall be in the world do belong unto the Messiah But our Apostle who knew better than they makes all the afflictions of the Church to be the afflictions of Christ Col. 1.24 who both before underwent them in his own person and lead the way to all that shall follow him And as the Obedience of Christ which is our pattern doth incomparably exceed what ever we can attain unto so the sufferings of Christ which are our Example did incomparably exceed all that we shall be called unto Our pattern is excellent inimitable in the substance and parts of it unattainable and unexpressible in its degrees and he is the best Proficient who attends most thereunto But what is the End of all this Obedience and suffering death lyes at the door as the Ocean whereunto all these streams do run and seems to swallow them up that there they are lost for ever No for 3. This Captain of our salvation is gone before us in passing through death and entring into glory He hath shewed us in his own Resurrection that great pledge of our immortality that death is not the end of our course but a passage into another more abiding condition He promiseth that whosoever believeth on him that they shall not be lost or perish or consumed by death but that he will raise them up at the last day John 6.39.40 But how shall this be confirmed unto them Death looks ghastly and dreadful as a Lyon that devours all that come within his reach why saith Christ behold me entring into his jaws passing through his power rising from under his dominion and fear not so shall it be with you also This our Apostle disputes at large 1 Cor. 15.12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. He is gone before us through death and is become the first fruit of them that sleep And had Christ passed into Heaven before he dyed as did Enoch and Elijah we had wanted the greatest Evidence of our future immortality What then remains for the finishing of our course why the Captain of our salvation after he had suffered entred into Glory and that as our Leader or fore-runner Heb. 6.20 Jesus as our fore-runner is entered into Heaven He is gone before us to evidence unto us what is the End of our Obedience and Sufferings In all this is he a Captain and Leader unto the Sons of God Secondly He guides them and directs them in their way This also belongs unto him as their Captain and Guide Two things in this are they of themselves defective in 1. They know not the way that leads to happiness and glory and 2. They want ability to discern it aright when it is shewed unto them and in both they are relieved and assisted by their Leader in the first by his Word in the latter by his Spirit First Of themselves they know not the way as Thomas said how can we know the way The Will of God the Mysterie of his Love and Grace as to the way whereby he will bring sinners unto Glory is unknown to the Sons of men by nature It was a secret hid in God a sealed Book which none in Heaven or Earth could open But this Jesus Christ hath fully declared in his Word unto all the Sons that are to be brought unto glory He hath revealed the Father from his own bosome John 1.18 and declared those heavenly things which no man knew but he that came down from Heaven and yet at the same time was in Heaven John 3.12 13. In his Word hath he declared the Name and revealed the whole counsel of God and brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 What ever is any way needful useful helpful in their Obedience Worship of God Suffering Expectation of Glory he hath taught it them all revealed it all unto them Other Teachers they need not Had there been any thing belonging unto their way which he had not revealed unto them he had not been a perfect Captain of salvation unto them And men do nothing but presumptuously derogate from his Glory who will be adding and imposing their prescriptions in and about this way Again The Way being revealed in the Word he enables them by his Spirit to see discern and know it in such an holy and saving manner as is needful to bring them unto the End of it He gives them eyes to see as well as provides paths for them to walk in It had been to no purpose to have declared the way if he had not also given them light to see it This blessed work of his Spirit is every where declared in the Scripture Isa. 43.16 And by this means is he unto us what he was unto the Church in the Wilderness when he went before them in a Pillar of fire to guide them in their way and to shew them where they should rest And herein lyes no small part of the discharge of his Office towards us as the Captain of our salvation What ever acquaintance we have with the Way to Glory we have it from him alone and what ever Ability we have to discern the way he is the fountain and Author of it This God hath designed and called him unto And all our Wisdom consists in this that we betake our selves unto him to him alone for instruction and direction in this matter Mark 17.5 Doth not he deservedly wander yea and perish who in war will neglect the orders and directions of his General and attend unto every idle tale of men pretending to shew him a way that they have found out better than that which his Captain hath limited him unto Thirdly He supplyes them with strength by his Grace that they may be able to pass on in their way They have much work lyes before them much to do much to suffer and without him they can do nothing John 15.5
havâ— more Assurance of success more Assistance in the conflict more Joy in the tryal than any other Conquerors have Or we do not only conquer but triumph also For Satan he tells Believers that they have overcome the wicked one 1 John 12.13 14. And shews how it came to pass that they should be able to do so Chap. 4. v. 7. It is because greater is he that is in them than he that is in the world The Good Spirit which he hath given unto them to help and assist them is infinitely greater and more powerful than that evil Spirit which rules in the Children of disobedience And by this means is Satan bruised even under their feet A conflict indeed we must have with them we must wrestle with principalities and powers in heavenly places but the success is secured through the Assistance we receive from this Captain of our salvation The World also is subdued in them and by them 1 John 5.4 Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Faith will do this work it never failed in it nor ever will He that believeth shall overcome the whole strength of Christ is engaged unto his Assistance Sin is the worst and most obstinate of all their Enemies This puts them hard to it in the Battle and makes them cry out for aid and help Rom. 7.24 But this also they receive strength against so as to carry away the day I thank God saith the Apostle through Jesus Christ our Lord v. 15. namely for deliverance and victory Sin hath a double design in its Enmity against us 1. To reign in us 2. To condemn us If it be disappointed in these designs it is absolutely conquered and that it is by the Grace of Christ. As to its Reign and Dominion it is perfectly defeated for the present Rom. 6.14 The means of its Rule is the Authority of the Law over us that being removed and our souls put under the Conduct of Grace the Reign of sin comes to an end Nor shall it condemn us Rom. 8.1 And what can it then do Where is the voice of this Oppressor It abides but a season and that but to endure and dye Death also contends against us by its own sting and our fear but the first by the Grace of Christ is taken from it and the latter we are delivered from and so have the Victory over it And all this is the work of this Captain of our salvation for us and in us 5. He doth not only conquer all their Enemies but he avenges their sufferings upon them and punisheth them for their Enmity These enemies though they prevail not absolutely nor finally against the Sons of God yet by their Temptations Persecutions Oppressions they put them oft times to unspeakable hardships sorrow and trouble This the Captain of their salvation will not take at their hands but will avenge upon them all their ungodly endeavours from the lowest unto the greatest and highest of them Some he will deal withal in this world but he hath appointed a day wherein not one of them shall escape See Rev. 20.10 14. Devil and Beast and false Prophet and Death and Hell shall altogether into the lake of fire 6. He provides a Reward a Crown for them and in the bestowing thereof accomplisheth this his blessed Office of the Captain of our salvation He is gone before the Sons into Heaven to make ready their Glory to prepare a place for them and he will come and receive them unto himself that where he is there they may be also John 14.2 3. When he hath given them the Victory he will take them unto himself even unto his Throne Rev. 3.22 And as a Righteous Judge give unto them a crown of Righteousnâ—ss and Glory 2 Tim. 4.8 And thus is the whole work of conducting the Sons of God unto Glory from first to last committed unto this great Captain of their salvation and thus doth he discharge his Office and trust therein and blessed are all they who are under his leading and guidance And all this should teach us First To betake our selves unto him and to relye upon him in the whole course of our Obedience and all the passages thereof To this purpose is he designed by the Father this hath he undertaken and this doth he go through withal No address that is made unto him in this matter will he ever refuse to attend unto no Case or Condition that is proposed unto him is too hard for him or beyond his Power to relieve He is careful watchful tender faithful powerful and all these Properties and blessed Endowments will he exercise in the discharge of this Office What should hinder us from betaking our selves unto him continually Is our Trouble so small are our Duties so ordinary that we can wrestle with them or perform them in our own strength Alas we can do nothing not think a good thought not endure a reproachful word And what ever we seem to do or endure of our selves it is all lost for in us there dwelleth no good thing Or are our Distresses so great our Temptations so many our corruptions so strong that we begin to say there is no hope Is any thing too hard for the Captain of our salvation Hath he not already conquered all our enemies Is he not able to subdue all things by his Power Shall we faint whilest Jesus Christ lives and reigns But it may be we have looked for Help and Assistance and it hath not answered our Expectation so that now we begin to faint and despond Sin is not subdued the World is still triumphant and Satan rageth as much as ever his Temptations are ready to pass over our souls But have we sought for his Help and Assistance in a due manner with faith and perseverance unto right Ends of his Glory and Advantage of the Gospel Have we taken a right measure of what we have received Or do we not complain without a cause Let us not judge according to outward appearance but judge righteous judgement What is it to us if the World triumph if Satan rage if Sin tempt and vex we are not promised that it shall be otherwise But are we forsaken Are we not kept from being prevailed against If we ask amiss or for improper Ends or know not what we do receive or think because the strength of Enemies appears to be great we must fail and be ruined Let us not complain of our Captain for all these things arise from our own Unbelief Let our Application unto him be according unto his Command our Expectations from him according to the Promise our Experiences of what we receive be measured by the Rule of the Word and we shall find that we have all grounds of Assurance that we can desire Let us then in every condition look unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith who hath undertaken the leading of us in the
the Apostles rejoyced thâ—t they had the honour to suffer shame for his Name Acts 5.41 that is the things which the world looked on as shameful but themselves knew to be honourable They are so in the sight of God of the Lord Jesus Christ of all the holy Angels which are competent judges in this case God hath a great cause in the world and that such a one as wherein his Name his Goodness his Love his Glory is concerned this in his infinite Wisdom is to be witnessed confirmed testified unto by sufferings Now can there be any greater Honour done unto any of the sons of men than that God should single them out from among the rest of mankind and appoint them unto this work Men are honoured according to their riches and treasures And when Moses came to make a right judgment concerning this thing he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Heb. 1â— 29 We believe that God gave great honour unto the Apostles and Martyrs of old in all their sufferings Let us labour for the same spirit of faith in reference unto our selves and it will relieve us under all our trials This then also hath Christ added unto the way of sufferings by his consecration of it for us All the glory and honour of the world is not to be compared with theirs unto whom it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for him 1 Pet. 4.14 15 16. Thirdly He hath thereby made them usâ—ful and profitable Troubles and afflictions in themselves and their own nature have no good in them nor do they tend unto any good end they grow out of the first sentence against sin and are in their own nature poenal tending unto death and nothing else Nor are they in those who have no interest in Christ any thing but effects of the wrath of God But the Lord Christ by his consecrating of them to be the way of our following him hath quite altered their nature and tendency he hath made them good useful and profitable I shall not here shew the usefulness of Afflictions and sufferings the whole Scripture abundantly testifieth unto it and the experience of Believers in all ages and seasons confirms it I only shew whence it is that they become so and that is because the Lord Christ hath consecrated dedicated and sanctified them unto that end He hath thereby cut them off from their old stock of wrath and the curse and planted them on that of Love and Good-will He hath taken them off from the Covenant of works and translated them into that of Grace He hath turned their course from death towards life and immortality mixing his Grace Love and Wisdom with these bitter waters he hath made them sweet and wholesome And if we would have benefit by them we must always have regard unto this consecration of them Fourthly He hath made them safe They are in their own nature a Wilderness wherein men may endlesly wander and quickly lose themselves But he hath made them a way a safe way That way-faring men though fools may not erre therein Never did a Believer perish by afflictions or persecutions never was good Gold or Silver consumed or lost in this Furnace Hypocrites indeed and false Professors fearful and unbelievers are discovered by them and discarded from their hopes But they that are Disciples indeed are never safer than in this way and that because it is consecrated for them Sometimes it may be through their unbelief and want of heeding the Captain of their salvation they are wounded and cast down by them for a season but they are still in the way they are never turned quite out of the way And this through the grace of Christ doth turn also unto their advantage Nay it is not only absolutely a safe way but comparatively more safe than the way of Prosperity And this the Scripture with the experience of all Saints bear plentiful witness unto And many other blessed ends are wrought by the consecration of this way for the Disciples of Christ not now to be insisted on There remains yet to be considered in the words of the Apostle the Reason why the Captain of our salvation was to be consecrated by sufferings and this he declares in the beginning of the Verse It became God so to deal with him which he amplifies by that description of him For whom are all things and by whom are all things Having such a design as he had to bring many sons unto glory and being he for whom are all things and by whom are all things it became him so to deal with the Captain of their salvation What is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here intended and what is the importance of the word was declared before This Becomingness what ever it be it ariseth from hence That God is he for whom are all things and by whom are all things It became him not only who is so but as he is so and because he is so There is no reason for the addition of that consideration of God in this matter but that the cause is in them contained and expressed why it became him to do that which is here ascribed unto him We are then to enquire what it is that is principally regarded in God in this Attribution and thence we shall learn how it became him to bring the Lord Christ unto suffering Now the description of God in these words is plainly of him as the first Cause and last End of all things neither is it absolutely his Power in making all of nothing and his Sovereign Eternal Being requiring that all things tend unto his glory that are intended in the words But he is the Governour Ruler and Judge of all things made by him and for him with respect unto that Order and Law of their Creation which they were to observe This Rule and Government of all things taking care that as they are of God so they should be for him is that which the Apostle respects This then is that which he asserts namely that it became God as the Governour Ruler and Judge of all to consecrate Christ by sufferings which must be farther explained Man being made an intellectual Creature had a Rule of Moral Obedience given unto him This was he to observe to the glory of his Creator and Law-giver and as the condition of his coming unto him and enjoyment of him This is here supposed by the Apostle and he discourseth how man having broken the Law of his Creation and therein come short of the glory of God might by his grace be again made partaker of it With respect unto this state of things God can be no otherwise considered but as the Supreme Governour and Judge of them Now that Property of God which he exerteth principally as the Ruler and Governour of all is his Justice Justitia regiminis the Righteousness of Government Hereof there are
horrid nature of sin Fools as the Wise man tells us make a mock of it Stifling for a while their natural convictions they act as if sin were a thing of nought at least not so horrible as by some it is represented And few there are who endeavour aright to obtain a true notion of it contenting themselves in general that it is a thing that ought not to be What direct Opposition it stands in unto the Nature Properties Rule and Authority of God they consider not But the last day will discover the true nature of it when all eyes shall see what it deserves in the judgement of God which is according unto Righteousness Is it a small thing for a Creature to break that Order which God at first placed him and all things in To cast off the Rule and Authority of God to endeavour to dethrone him so that he cannot continue to be the Supream Governour of all things and Judge of all the world unless he punish it Is it a small thing to set up that which hath an utter inconsistency with the Holiness and Righteousness of God so that if it go free God cannot be holy and righteous If these things will not now sink into the minds of men if they will not learn the severity of God in this matter from the Law on the threatning and curse whereof he hath impressed the Image of his Holiness and Justice as was said they will learn it all in Hell Why doth God thus threaten and curse sin and sinners Why hath he prepared an Eternity of Vengeance and Torment for them Is it because he would Nay because it could not otherwise be God being so Holy and Righteous as he is Men may thank themselves for Death and Hell They are no more than sin hath made necessary unless God should cease to be Holy Righteous and the Judge of all that they might sin freely and endlesly And this appears most eminently in the Cross of Christ for God gave in him an instance of his Righteousness and of the desert of sin Sin being imputed unto the only Son of God he could not be spared If he be made sin he must be made a curse If he will take away our iniquities he must make his soul an offering for sins and bear the punishment due unto them Obedience in all Duties will not do it Intercession and Prayers will not do it sin required another manner of Expiation Nothing but undergoing the wrath of God and the Curse of the Law and therein answering what the eternal Justice of God required will effect that End How can God spare sin in his Enemies who could not spare it on his only Son Had it been possible this Cup should have passed from him but this could not be and God continue Righteous These things I say will give us an insight into the nature of sin and the horrible provocation wherewith it is attended And this also opens the Mysterie of the Wisdom and Love and Grace of God in the salvation of sinners This is that which he will for ever be admired in A way he hath found out to exercise Grace and satisfie Justice at the same time in and by the same Person sin shall be punished all sin yet Grace exercised sinners shall be saved yet Justice exalted all in the Cross of Christ. Verse XI XII XIII THe great Reason and Ground of the Necessity of the sufferings of Christ hath been declared It became God that he should suffer But it doth not yet appear on what Grounds this suffering of his could be profitable or beneficial unto the Sons to be brought unto Glory It was the sinner himself against whom the Law denounced the Judgement of death And although the Lord Christ undertaking to be a Captain of Salvation unto the Sons of God might be willing to suffer for them yet what Reason is there that the Punishment of One should be accepted for the sin of Another Let it be granted that the Lord Christ had an absolute and Soveraign Power over his own Life and all the Concernments of it in the nature which he assumed as also that he was willing to undergo any sufferings that God should call him unto this indeed will acquit the Justice of God in giving him up unto death But whence is it that sinners should come to be so interested in these things as thereon to be acquitted from sin and brought unto Glory In these Verses the Apostle enters upon a discovery of the Reasons hereof also He supposeth indeed that there was a Compact and Agreement between the Father and Son in this matter which he afterwards expresly treateth on Chap. 10. He supposeth also that in his Soveraign Authority God had made a Relaxation of the Law as to the Person suffering though not as to the Penalty to be suffered which God abundantly declared unto the Church of the Jews in all their Sacrifices as we shall manifest These things being supposed the Apostle proceeds to declare the grounds of the Equity of this Substitution of Christ in the room of the Sons and of their Advantage by his suffering the Proposition whereof he layes down in these Verses and the especial Application in those that ensue Verse 11 12 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no Variety in the reading of these words in any Copies nor do Translators differ in rendring the sense of them The Syriack renders the last Testimony as if the words were spoken unto God Behold I and the children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom thou hast given unto me O God The Aethiopick Wherefore they who sanctifie and they who are sanctified are altogether to what purpose I cannot ghess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is used in this Epistle both in the Legal sense of it to separate consecrate dedicate and in the Evangelical to purifie sanctifie to make internally and really holy It seems in this place to be used in the latter sense though it include the former also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by just consequence for they who are sanctified are separated unto God The Word then expresseth what the Lord Christ doth unto and for the Sons as he is the Captain of their salvation He consecrates them unto God through the sanctification of the Spirit and washing in his own blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It may be of the Masculine Gender and so denote one Person or of the Neuter and so one thing one Mass one common Principle whereof afterwards The first Testimony is taken from Psal. 22.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 narrab◠annuntiabo the Apostle renders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more properly than they by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the rest of the words there is a Coincidence the Originall being expresly rendered in them For though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be rendered simply to praise yet it s most
besides that they consider not at all the design and scope of the place so they reject the principal End and the most blessed Effect of the death and bloodshedding of the Lord Jesus Now in this Description of the Captain of Salvation and of the Sons the Apostle intimates a farther necessity of his sufferings because they were to be sanctified by him which could no otherwise be done but by his death and bloodshedding Having many things to observe from these Verses we shall take them up as they offer themselves unto us in our procedure As here I. That all the children which are to be brought unt◠glory antecedently unto their Relation unto the Lord Christ are polluted defiled separate from God They are all to be sanctified by him both as to their real Purification and Consecration to be Gods hallowed Portion This for many blessed Ends the Scripture abundantly instructs us in Tit. 3.3 We our selves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating of one another A most wretched defiled and loathsome condition that which justly might be an Abhorrency to God and all his holy Angels and such indeed God describes it to be by his Prophet Ezek. 16.5 6. Thou wast polluted in thy blood and cast out in the field to the loathing of thy Person Thus we were saith the Apostle even w◠who are now sanctified and cleansed by the means which he afterwards relates The like description he gives of this estate 1 Cor. 6.11 12. with an Assertion of the same delivery from it We are naturally very proud apt to please our selves in our selves to think of nothing less than of being polluted or defiled or at least not so far but that we can wash our selves What a hard thing is it to perswade the great men of the world in the midst of their Ornaments Paintings and Perfumes that they are all over vile leprous loathsome and defiled Are they not ready to wash themselves in the blood of them who intimate any such thing unto them But whether men will hear or forbear this is the condition of all men even of the Sons of God themselves before they are washed and sanctified by Christ Jesus And as this sets out the Infinite Love of God in taking notice of such vile creatures as we are and the unspeakable Condescension of the Lord Christ with the Efficacy of his Grace in cleansing us by his blood so it is sufficient to keep us humble in our selves and thankful unto God all our dayes II. That the Lord Christ is the great sanctifier of the Church His Title is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sanctifier of which more afterwards Thirdly The Lord Christ the Captain of our Salvation sanctifies every Son whom he brings unto glory He will never glorifie an unsanctified person The world indeed is full of an Expectation of Glory by Christ but of that which is indispensibly previous thereunto they have no regard But this the Scripture gives us as a principal Effect of the whole Mediation of Christ. Of his death Ephes. 5.26 Titus 2.14 Of his communication of his Word and Spirit John 17.19 Titus 3.5 6. Of his blood-shedding in an especial manner 1 John 1.7 Rom. 6.5 6. Rev. 5.5 Of his Life in Heaven and Intercession for us Col. 3.1 2 3. This he creates his people unto by his Grace Ephes. 2.8 excites them unto by his Promises 2 Cor. 7.1 and commands John 15.16 17. So that no End of the Mediation of Christ is accomplished in them who are not sanctified and made holy And this was necessary for him to do on the part 1. Of God 2. Of himself 3. Of themselves 1. Of God unto whom they are to be brought in glory He is holy of purer eyes than to behold iniquity No unclean thing can stand in his presence Holy in his nature glorious in Holiness holy in his Commands and will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him And this Peter urgeth as that which requires Holiness in us 1 Epist. 1.15 16. As he that hath called them is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation because it is written be ye holy for I am holy and thence it is said that Holiness becometh his house that is all that draw nigh unto him and the Apostle sets it down as an uncontrollable Maxime that without Holiness no man shall see God If the Lord Christ then will bring the children unto God he must make them Holy or they can have no admittance into his presence no acceptance with him for no unclean thing nothing that defileth can enter into the New Jerusalem the place where his Holiness dwelleth It is utterly impossible that any soul not washed with the blood of Christ not sanctified by his Spirit and Grace should stand in the sight of God And this was expressed in all the typical Institutions about cleansing which God appointed unto his people of old He did it to teach them that unless they were sanctified washed and cleansed from their sins they could be admitted unto no Communion with him nor Enjoyment of him Neither can any serve him here unless their consciences be purged by the blood of Christ from dead works nor can they come to him hereafter unless they are washed from all their defilements Their services here he rejects as an unclean and polluted thing and their confidences for the future he despiseth as a presumtuous abomination God will not divest himself of his Holiness that he may receive or be enjoyed by unholy creature And the day is coming wherein poor unsanctified creatures who think they may miss Holiness in the way to glory shall cry out who amongst us shall inhabit with those everlasting burnings for so will he appear unto all unsanctified persons 2. Of Himself and the Relation whereunto he takes these Sons with himself He is their Head and they are to be members of his body Now he is holy and so must they be also or this Revelation will be very unsuitable and uncomely A living head and dead members a beautiful head and rotten members how uncomely would it be Such a monstrous body Christ will never own Nay it would overthrow the whole nature of that Relation and take away the life and form of that Union that Christ and his are brought into as head and members For whereas it consists in this that the whole Head and members are animated quickned and acted by one and the self same Spirit of life nor doth any thing else give Union between head and members if they be not sanctified by that Spirit there can be no such Relation between them Again he takes them unto himself to be his Bride and Spouse Now you know that it was appointed of old that if any one would take up a Captive Maid to be his Wife she was to shave her head and pare her nayls and wash her self that
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 17. every way like Here it is restrained by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that is flesh and blood Humane Nature as to the Humane Nature he was every way as the children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Partem habuit particeps erat he took part And in the use of this Word the Dative Case of the Person is still understood and sometimes expressed So Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might share or partake in the same acts with them And it is here also understood That he might partake with them of flesh and blood And the Apostle purposely changeth the word from that which he had before used concerning the children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had Humane Nature in common they were men and that was all having no Existence but in and by that nature Concerning him he had before proved that he had a Divine Nature on the account whereof he was more excellent than the Angels And here he sayes of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Existing in his Divine Nature he moreover took part of that nature with them which makes a difference between their Persons though as to Humane Nature they were every way alike and this removes the exception of Schlictingius or Crellius that he is no more said to be incarnate than the children That by death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This word is peculiar to Paul He useth it almost in all his Epistles and that frequently Elsewhere it occurs but once in the New Testament Luke 13.17 and that in a sense whereunto by him it is not applyed That which he usually intends in this word is to make a thing or person to cease as to its present condition and not to be what it was So Rom. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect cause it to cease render the promise useless And v. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do we make the Law void by faith take away its use and End Chap. 4.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the promise is made ineffectual Chap. 7.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If her husband is dead she is freed from the Law The Law of the Husband hath no more power over her So v. 6. 1 Cor. 13.8 10 11. Chap. 15.24 26. 2 Cor. 3.10 13. Gal. 3.17 Chap. 5.4 11. Ephes. 2.15 The Intention of the Apostle in this word is the making of any thing to cease or to be void as to its former Power and Efficacy not to remove annihilate or destroy the Essence or Being of it And the Expression here used is to the same purpose with that in Psalm 8.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to quiet or make to cease the enemy and self-avenger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly vis robur potentia Force Strength Power like that of Arms or Armies in battle And sometimes it is used for Rule Empire and Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be in Place of Power and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be able to dispose of what it relates unto And in both senses we shall see that the Devil is said to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of death Now there is not any notion under which the Devil is more known unto or spoken of among the Jews than this of his having the power of death his common appellation among them is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of death And they call him Samael also So the Targum of Jonathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 3.6 And the woman saw Samael the Angel of death And Maimon More Nebu. lib. 2. cap. 30. tells us from the Midrash that Samael rode upon the Serpent when he deceived Eve that is used him as his instrument in that work And most of them acknowledge Sathan to be principally intended in the temptation of Eve though Aben Ezra deny it in his Comment on the words and dispute against it And he addes that by Samael the Angel of death they understand Sathan which he proves from the words of their wise men who say in some places that Sathan would have hindred Abraham from sacrificing of Isaac and in others that Samael would have done it which proves that it is one and the same who by both names is intended And hence they usually call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked Samael the Prince of all the devils and say of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Samael brought death upon all the world So that by this Samael or Angel of death it is evident that they intend him who is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Prince and Ruler of the rest So also they speak expresly in Baba Bathra distinc Hashatephir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi Simeon said the same is Sathan and the Angel of death and the evil figment that is the cause and author of it And they call him the Angel of death on many accounts the consideration whereof may give us some light into the reason of the Expression here used by the Apostle The first is that before mentioned namely that by his means death entred and came upon all the world His temptation was the first occasion of death and for that reason is he termed by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 8.44 a murtherer from the beginning And herein he had the power of death prevailing to render all mankind obnoxious to the sentence and stroke of it Secondly Because he is employed in great and signal Judgments to inflict death on men He is the head of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil Angels who slew the Aegyptians Psal. 78 49. So in Psal. 91.5 those words Thou shalt not fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the arrow that flieth by day are rendred by the Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the arrow of the Angel of death which he shooteth by day And in the next verse those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the destruction that wasteth at noon day they render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the troop of devils that walk at noon-day the Psalmist treating of great and sudden destructions which they affirm to be all wrought by Sathan and thence the Hellenists also render the latter place by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the devil at noon-day wherein they are followed by the Vulgar Latine Arabick and Aethiopick Translations And this the Apostle seems to allude unto 1 Cor. 10.10 where he says that those who murmured in the wilderness were destroyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the destroyer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the destroying Angel or the Angel of death as in this Epistle he terms him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chap. 11.28 And it may be this is he who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 18.13 the first-born of death or he that hath right unto the administration of it They term him also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the waster or destroyer and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to waste or destroy as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as John tells us is the Hebrew name of the Angel of the bottomless pit Revel 9.11 as his Greek name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly The latter Jews suppose that this Angel of death takes away the life of every man even of those who die a natural death And hereby as they express the old faith of the Church that death is poenal and that it came upon all for sin through the temptation of Sathan so also they discover the bondage that they themselves are in for fear of death all their days For when a man is ready to die they say the Angel of death appears to him in a terrible manner with a sword drawn in his hand From thence drops I know not what poison into him whereon he dies Hence they wofully houl lament and rend their garments upon the death of their friends And they have composed a prayer for themselves against this terrour Because also of this their being slain by the Angel of death they hope and pray that their death may be an expiation for all their sins Here lies the sting of death mentioned by the Apostle 1. Cor. 15.55 Hence they have a long story in their Midrash or mystical Exposition of the Pentateuch on the last section of Deuteronomy about Samaels coming to take away the life of Moses whom he repelled and drove away with the Rod that had the Shem Hamphorash written in it And the like story they have in a book about the acts of Moses which Aben-Ezra rejects on Exod. 4.20 This hand of Sathan in death manifesting it to be poenal is that which keeps them in bondage and fear all their days Fourthly they suppose that this Angel of death hath power over men even after death One horrible penalty they fancy in particular that he inflicts on them which is set down by Elias in his Tishbi in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Midrash of Rabbi Isaac the son of Parnaer for when a man as they say departs out of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Angel of death comes and sits upon his grave And he brings with him a Chain partly of iron partly of fire and making the soul to return into body he breaks the bones and torments variously both body and soul for a season This is their Purgatory and the best of their hopes are that their punishment after this life shall not be eternal And this various interest of Sathan in the power of death both keeps them in dismal bondage all their days and puts them upon the invention of several ways for their deliverance Thus one of their solemn Prayers on the day of Expiation is to be delivered from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or this punishment of the devil in their graves to which purpose also they offer a Cock unto him for his pacification And their prayer to this purpose in their Berachoth is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it may please thee good Lord to deliver us from evil Decrees or Laws from poverty from contempt from all kind of punishments from the judgment of hell and from beating in the grave by the Angel of death And this supposition is in like manner admitted by the Mahumetans who have also this prayer Deus noster libera nos ab Angelo interrogante tormento sepulchri à via mala And many such lewd imaginations are they now given up unto proceeding from their ignorance of the Righteousness of God But yet from these apprehensions of theirs we may see what the Apostle intended in this expression calling the devil him that had the power of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et liberaret ipsos hos quotquot quicunque and free those who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to dismiss discharge free and in the use of the word unto the Accusative case of the Person the Genitive of the thing is added or understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I free thee from this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristoph to deliver thee from this eye-sore And sometimes the Genitive case of the thing is expressed where the Accusative of the person is omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to free or deliver one from fear as here the Accusative case of the person is expressed and the Genitive of the thing omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to deliver them that is from death or from fear because of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is obnoxius obstrictus reus damnas He that is legally obnoxious subject liable to any thing that is Law Crime Judge Judgment Punishment in all which respects the word is used He that is under the power of any Law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subject unto its authority and penalty See Matth. 5.21 22. chap. 26.66 Mark 3.29 1 Cor. 11.27 James 2.10 Now the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 servitude or bondage here mentioned is poenal and therefore are men said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obnoxious unto it Verse 14 15. For as much then as or seeing therefore that the children are were in common partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise after the same manner took part did partake of the same that through by death he might destroy make void the authority of him that had the power of death that is the devil And deliver free discharge them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage In former Verses as was shewed the Apostle declared the necessity that there was on the part of God intending to bring many sons unto glory to constitute such an union between them and the Captain of their salvation as that it might be just for him to suffer in their stead In these he proceeds to manifest in particular what that Nature is in the common participation whereof their union designed did consist wherein they were all of one and what were the especial reasons why the Lord Christ was made partaker of that nature This coherence of these Verses Chrysostom briefly gives us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having shewed the brotherhood that was between Christ and the children he lays down the causes of that dispensation and what they are we shall find here expressed There are sundry things which the Apostle supposeth in these words as known unto and granted by the Hebrews As first that the Devil had the power of death Secondly That on this account men were filled with fear of it and led a life full of anxiety and trouble by reason of that fear Thirdly That a deliverance from this condition was to be effected by the Messiah Fourthly That the way whereby he was to do this was by his suffering All
which as they are contained in the first Promise so that they were allowed of by the Hebrews of old we have fully proved else-where And by all these doth the Apostle yield a reason of his former concession that the Messiah was for a little while made lower than the Angels the Causes and Ends whereof he here declares There are in the words First A supposition of a two-fold state and condition of the children to be brought unto glory First Natural or their natural state and condition they were all of them in common partakers of flesh and bloud For as much then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood Secondly Moral their moral state and condition they were obnoxious unto death as it is poenal for sin and in great bondage through fear of it them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage Secondly There is a double inference with respect unto this supposition on the part of Christ the Captain of salvation First As to their natural condition that he did partake of it he was so to do He himself also did partake of the same Secondly As to their moral condition he freed them from it and deliver them Thirdly The means whereby he did this or this was to be done evidencing the necessity of his participation with them in their condition of nature that he might relieve them from their condition of trouble he did it by death that by death Fourthly The immediate Effect of his death tending unto their delivery and freedom and that is the destruction of the devil as to his power over and interest in death as poenal whereof their deliverance is an infallible consequent and destroy him c. In the first place the Apostle expresseth as by way of supposition the natural condition of the children that is the children whom God designed to bring unto glory those who were given unto Christ they were in common partakers of flesh and blood I shall not stay to remove the conceit of some who yet are not a few among the Romanists who refer those words unto the participation of the flesh and blood of Christ in the Sacrament whereunto also as we observed the Aethiopick Version gives countenance For not only is there not any thing in the expression that inclines unto such an imagination but also it enervates the whole design of the Apostles discourse and argument as from the former consideration of it doth appear Flesh and blood are by an usual Synecdoche put for the whole humane nature not as though by blood the soul was intended because the life is said to be in it as not acting without it but this expression is used because it is not humane nature as absolutely considered but as mortal passible subject unto infirmities and death it self that is intended And it is no more than if he had said the children were men subject unto death For he gives his reason herein why the Lord Christ was made a man subject unto death That he and the children should be of one nature he had shewed before for as much then as this was the condition of the children that they were all partakers of humane nature liable to sufferings sorrow and death he was so also And this is thus expressed to set forth the love and condescension of Jesus Christ as will afterward appear The second thing in these words is the moral condition of the children and there are sundry things partly intimated partly expressed in the description that is here given us of it as 1. Their estate absolutely considered they were subject to death 2. The consequences of that estate 1. It wrought fear in them 2. That fear brought them into bondage 3. The continuance of that condition it was for the whole course of their lives First It is implied that they were subject obnoxious unto guilty of death and that as it was poenal due to sin as contained in the curse of the Law which what it comprehendeth and how far it is extended is usually declared On this supposition lies the whole weight of the Mediation of Christ. The children to be brought unto glory were obnoxious unto death the curse and wrath of God therein which he came to deliver them from Secondly The first effect and consequent of this obnoxiousness unto death concurring unto their state and condition is that they were filled with fear of it for fear of death Fear is a perturbation of mind arising from the apprehension of a future imminent evil And the greater this evil is the greater will the perturbation of the mind be provided the apprehension of it be answerable The fear of death then here intended is that trouble of mind which men have in the expectation of death to be inflicted on them as a punishment due unto their sins And this apprehension is common to all men arising from a general presumption that death is poenal and that it is the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death as Rom. 1.32 chap. 2.15 But it is cleared and confirmed by the Law whose known sentence it is The soul that sinneth shall die And the troublesome expectation of the event of this apprehension is the fear of death here intended And according unto the means that men have to come unto the knowledge of the righteousness of God are or ought to be their apprehensions of the evil that is in death But even those who had lost all clear knowledge of the consequents of death natural or the dissolution of their present mortal condition yet on a confused apprehension of its being poenal always esteemed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most dreadful of all things that are so unto humane nature And in some this is heightned and increased until it come to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Apostle speaks chap. 10.27 A fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries And this is the second thing that is in this description of the estate and condition of the children to be brought unto glory being obnoxious unto the sentence of death they could not but live in fear of the execution of it Thirdly They are by this means brought into bondage The troublesome expectation of death as poenal brings them into bondage into the nature whereof we must a little enquire Sundry things concur to make any state a state of bondage as 1. That it be involuntary no man is in bondage by his will that which a man chuseth is not bondage unto him A man that would have his ear bored though he were always a servant was never in bondage for he enjoyed the condition that pleased him Properly all bondage is involuntary 2. Bondage ingenerates strong desires after and puts men on all manner of attempts for liberty Yokes gall and make them on whom they are desire ease So long as men are sensible of bondage which is against nature for that
which is not so is not bondage they will desire and labour for liberty When some in the Roman Senate asked an Ambassador of the Priernates after they were overthrown in battel if they granted them peace how they would keep it what peace they should have with them He answered Si bonam dederitis fidam perpetuam si malam haud diuturnam Whereat when some in the Senate stormed as if he had threatned them with War and Rebellion the wiser sort commended him as one that spake like a man and a free-man adding as their reason An credi posse ullum populum aut hominem denique in ea conditione cujus eam poeniteat diutius quam necesse sit mansurum Liv. lib. 8. So certain it is that bondage wearieth and stirreth up restless desires in all endeavours in some after liberty 3. Bondage perplexeth the mind It ariseth from fear the greatest perturbation of the mind and is attended with weariness and distrust all which are perplexing 4. Where bondage is compleat it lies in a tendency unto future and greater evils Such is the bondage of condemned malefactors reserved for the day of execution such is the bondage of Sathan who is kept in chains of darkness for the judgment of the great day And all these things concur in the bondage here intended which is a dejected troublesome state and condition of mind arising from the apprehension and fear of death to be inflicted and their disability in whom it is to avoid it attended with fruitless desires and vain attempts to be delivered from it and to escape the evil feared And this is the condition of sinners out of Christ whereof there are various degrees answerable unto their convictions For the Apostle treats not here of mens being servants unto sin which is voluntary but of their sense of the guilt of sin which is wrought in them even whether they will or no and by any means they would cast off the yoke of it though by none are they able so to do for Fourthly They are said to continue in this estate all their lives Not that they were always perplexed with this bondage but that they could never be utterly freed from it For the Apostle doth not say that they were thus in bondage all their days but that they were obnoxious and subject unto it They had no ways to free or deliver themselves from it but that at any time they might righteously be brought under its power and the more they cast off the thoughts of it the more they increased their danger This was the estate of the children whose deliverance was undertaken by the Lord Christ the Captain of their salvation And we may hence observe that All sinners are subject unto death as it is poenal The first sentence reacheth them all Gen. 2.17 And thence are they said by nature to be children of wrath Ephes. 2.3 obnoxious unto death to be inflicted in a way of wrath and revenge for sin This passeth upon all in as much as all have sinned Rom. 5.12 This all men see and know but all do not sufficiently consider what is contained in the sentence of death and very few how it may be avoided Most men look on death as the common lot and condition of mankind upon the account of their frail natural condition as though it belonged to the natural condition of the children and not the moral and were a consequent of their being and not the demerit of their sin They consider not that although the principles of our nature are in themselves subject unto a dissolution yet if we had kept the Law of our Creation it had been prevented by the power of God engaged to continue life during our obedience Life and obedience were to be commensurate until temporal obedience ended in life eternal Death is poenal and its being common unto all hinders not but that it is the punishment of every one How it is changed unto Believers by the death of Christ shall be afterward declared In the mean time all mankind is condemned as soon as born Life is a reprieve a suspension of execution If during that time a pardon be not effectually sued out the sentence will be executed according to the severity of justice Under this Law are men now born this yoke have they pulled on themselves by their apostasie from God Neither is it to any purpose to repine against it or to conflict with it there is but one way of delivery 2. Fear of death as it is poenal is inseparable from sin before the sinner be delivered by the death of Christ. They were in fear of death There is a fear of death that is natural and inseparable from our present condition that is but natures aversation of its own dissolution And this hath various degrees occasioned by the differences of mens natural constitution and other accidental occurrences and occasions so that some seem to fear death too much and others not at all I mean of those who are freed from it as it is in the curse and under the power of Sathan But this difference is from occasions forreign and accidental there is in all naturally the same aversation of it And this is a guiltless infirmity like our weariness and sickness inseparably annexed unto the condition of mortality But sinners in their natural state fear death as it is poenal as an issue of the curse as under the power of Sathan as a dreadful entrance into eternal ruine There are indeed a thousand ways whereby this fear is for a season stifled in the minds of men Some live in brutish ignorance never receiving any full conviction of Sin Judgment or Eternity Some put off the thoughts of their present and future estate resolving to shut their eyes and rush into it when as they can no longer avoid it Fear presents it self unto them as the fore-runner of death but they avoid the encounter and leave themselves to the power of death it self Some please themselves with vain hopes of deliverance though well they know not how nor why they should be partakers of it But let men fore-go these helpless shifts and suffer their own innate light to be excited with such means of conviction as they do enjoy and they will quickly find what a judgment there is made in their own souls concerning death to come and what effects it will produce They will conclude that it is the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 and then that their own consciences do accuse and condemn them Rom. 2.14 15. Whence unavoidably fear dread and terrour will seize upon them And then 3. Fear of death as poenal renders the minds of men obnoxious unto bondage which what it is we have in part before declared It is a state of trouble which men dislike but cannot avoid It is a poenal disquietment arising from sense of future misery fain would men quit themselves of it but are not
he could not dye which it was necessary that he should do I desire to know why if the death which he was to undergo was not that death which they were obnoxious unto for whom he dyed how could it be any way more beneficial unto them than any thing else which he might have done for them although he had not dyed There is no ground then to pretend such an Amphibologie in the words as that which some contend for Now as we observed before the Death of Christ is here placed in the midst as the End of one thing and the Means or cause of another the End of his own Incarnation and the means of the Childrens Deliverance from the first we may see VII That the first and principal End of the Lord Christs assuming Humane Nature was not to reign in it but to suffer and dye in it He was indeed from of old designed unto a Kingdom but he was to suffer and so to enter into his glory Luke 24.26 And he so speaks of his coming into the world to suffer to dye to bear witness unto the truth as if that had been the only work that he was incarnate for Glory was to follow a Kingdom to ensue but suffering and dying was the principal work he came about Glory he had with his Father before the world was John 17.5 and therein a joynt Rule with him over all the works of his hands He need not have been made partaker of flesh and blood to have been a King for he was the King immortal invisible the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the only Potentate from everlasting But he could not have dyed if he had not been made partaker of our Nature And therefore when the People would have taken him by force and have made him a King he hid himself from them John 6.15 But he hid not himself when they came to take him by force and put him to death but affirmed that for that hour or business he came into the world John 18.4 5 11. And this farther sets forth his Love and Condescension He saw the work that was proposed unto him how he was to be exposed unto Miseries Afflictions and Persecutions and at length to make his soul an offering for sin yet because it was all for the Salvation of the children he was contented with it and delighted in it And how then ought we to be contented with the Difficulties Sorrows Afflictions and Persecutions which for his sake we are or may be exposed unto When he on purpose took our nature that for our sakes he might be exposed and subject unto much more than we are called unto There yet remains in these Verses the Effects of the Death of Christ that he might destroy sin and deliver wherein we must consider 1. Who it is that had the Power of Death 2. Wherein that Power of his did consist 3. How he was destroyed 4. How by the Death of Christ 5. What was the Delivery that was obtained for the children thereby 1. He that had the Power of Death is described by his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devil the great Enemy of our salvation the great Calumniator make-bate and false Accuser the firebrand of the creation The Head and Captain of the Apostasie from God and of all desertion of the Law of the creation The old Serpent Prince of the Apostate Angels with all his Associates who first falsly accused God unto man and continues to accuse men falsly unto God of whom before 2. His Power in and over Death is variously apprehended What the Jews conceive hereof we have before declared and much of the Truth is mixed with their fables And the Apostle deals with them upon their Acknowledgement in general that he had the Power of death Properly in what sense or in what respect he is said so to have it Learned Expositors are not agreed All consent 1. That the Devil hath no absolute or Soveraign supream power over death Nor 2. Any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Authority about it de jure in his own Right or on Grant so as to act lawfully and rightly about it according unto his own Will Nor 3. Any judging or determining power as to the Guilt of death committed unto him which is peculiar to God the supream Rector and Judge of all Gen. 2.17 Deut. 32.39 Rev. 1.18 But wherein this Power of Satan doth positively consist they are not agreed Some place it in his Temptations unto Sin which bind unto death some in his Execution of the Sentence of death he hath the Power of an Executioner There cannot well be any doubt but that the whole Interest of Satan in reference unto Death is intended in this Expression This Death is that which was threatned in the beginning Gen. 2.17 Death poenally to be inflicted in the way of a Curse Deut. 27.26 Gal. 3.20 that is death consisting in the Dissolution of soul and body with every thing tending poenally thereunto with the everlasting Destruction of body and soul. And there are sundry things wherein the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Power of Satan in reference unto this death doth consist As 1. He was the means of bringing it into the world So is the Opinion of the Jews in this matter expressed in the Book of Wisdom written as is most probable by one of them not long before this Epistle They tell us Chap. 1.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God made not death it belonged not unto the Original Constitution of all things but Chap. 2.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Envy of the Devil-death entred into the world And that expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is retained by the Apostle Rom. 5.12 Only he layes the End of it on the morally deserving cause the sin of man as here it is laid on the efficiently procuring cause the Envy of the Devil And herein consisted no small part of the Power of Satan with respect unto death Being able to introduce sin he had power to bring in death also which in the righteous judgement of God and by the Sentence of the Law was inseparably annexed thereunto And by a parity of Reason so far as he yet continueth to have Power over sin deserving death he hath Power over death it self 2. Sin and Death being thus entered into the world and all mankind being guilty of the one and obnoxious unto the other Satan became thereby to be their Princess as being the Prince or Author of that state and condition whereinto they are brought Hence he is called the Prince of this world John 12.32 and the God of it 2 Cor. 4.4 Inasmuch as all the world is under the Guilt of that sin and death which he brought them into 3. God having passed the sentence of death against sin it was in the Power of Satan to terrifie and affright the consciences of men with the Expectation and dread of it so bringing them into Bondage And many God gives up
omnes inimicos suos quorum caput est diabolus coercet eorum vires frangit eosque tandem penitus abolebit But if this be so and the abolishing of the power of Satan be an act of Soveraign Power then it was not done by the death of Christ nor was there any need that he should partake of flesh and blood for that purpose or dye So that this Exposition contradicts both the express words of the Apostle and also the whole design of his discourse No proposition can be more plain than this is that the Power of Satan was destroyed by the death of Christ which in this Interpretation of the words is denyed 5. And hence it lastly appears what was the Delivery that was procured for the children by this dissolution of the Power of Satan It respects both what they feared and what ensued on their fear that is Death and Bondage For the delivery here intended is not meerly a Consequent of the destruction of Satan but hath regard unto the things themselves about which the power of Satan was exercised They were obnoxious unto death on the Guilt of sin as poenal as under the Curse as attended with Hell or everlasting misery This he delivered the children from by making an Attonement for their sins in his death virtually loosing their Obligation thereunto and procuring for them Eternal Redemption as shall afterwards be fully declared Hereon also they are delivered from the Bondage before described The fear of death being taken away the bondage that ensues thereon vanisheth also And these things as they are done virtually and legally in the death of Christ so they are actually accomplished in and towards the children upon the Application of the death of Christ unto them when they do believe And we may now close our consideration of these Verses with one or two other Observations as X. The death of Christ through the wise and righteous disposal of God is victorious all conquering and prevalent The aim of the world was to bring him unto death and therein they thought they had done with him The aim of Satan was so also who thereby supposed he should have secured his own Kingdom And what could worldly or Satanical Wisdom have imagined otherwise He that is slain is conquered His own followers were ready to think so We trusted say they that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel Luke 24.21 But he is dead and their hopes are with him in the grave What can be expected from him who is taken slain crucified Can he save others who it seems could not save himself Per mortem alterius stultum est sperare salutem Is it not a foolish thing to look for life by the death of another This was that which the Pagans of old reproached the Christians withal that they believed in one that was crucified and dyed himself and what could they expect from him And our Apostle tells us that this death this Cross was a stumbling block unto the Jews and folly to the Greeks 1 Cor. 1.18 23. And so would it have been in its self Acts 2.13 Chap. 4.28 had not the Will and Counsel and Wisdom and Grace of God been in it But he ordered things so that this death of Christ should pull out that pin which kept together the whold fabrick of sin and Satan that like Sampson he should in his death pull down the pallace of Satan about his ears and that in dying he should conquer and subdue all things unto himself All the Angels of Heaven stood looking on to see what would be the end of this great trial Men and Devils were ignorant of the great work which God had in hand And whilest they thought they were destroying him God was in and by him destroying them and their power Whilest his heel was bruised he brake their head And this should teach us to leave all Gods works unto himself See John 11.6 7 8 9 10. He can bring light out of darkness and meat out of the Eater He can disappoint his Adversaries of their greatest hopes and fairest possibilities and raise up the hopes of his own out of the grave He can make suffering to be saving death victorious and heal us by the stripes of his Son And in particular it should stir us up to meditate on this mysterious work of his Love and Wisdom We can never enough search into it whilest our Enquiry is guided by his Word New Mysteries all fountains of Refreshment and Joy will continually open themselves unto us untill we come be to satisfied with the endless fulness of it unto Eternity Again XI One principal end of the death of Christ was to destroy the power of Satan To destroy him that had the power of death This was promised of old Gen. 3.15 He was to break the head of the Serpent From him sprang all the miseries which he came to deliver his Elect from and which could not be affected without the dissolution of his Power He was anointed to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening the Prison to them that were bound Isa. 61.1 To this End he was to conquer him who detained them which he did by his death Col. 2.15 and so lead Captivity Captive Psalm 68.18 stilling this enemy and self-avenger Psal. 8.3 binding the strong man Mat. 12. and dividing the spoil with him Isa. 53.12 And this he did by the merit of his blood and the Attonement he made for sin thereby This took away the Obligation of the Law unto death and disarmed Satan And moreover by the Power of the Eternal Spirit whereby he offered himself unto God he conquered and quelled him Satan laid his claim unto the Person of Christ but coming to put it in Execution he met with that great and hidden Power in him which he knew not and was utterly conquered And this as it gives us a particular consideration of the Excellency of our Redemption wherein Satan our old Enemy who first foyled us who alwayes hates us and seeks our ruine is conquered spoiled and chained so it teacheth us how to contend with him by what Weapons to resist his Temptations and to repell his Affrightments even those whereby he hath been already subdued Faith in the death of Christ is the only Way and Means of obtaining a Conquest over him He will fly at the Sign of the Cross rightly made Verse XVI HAving asserted the Incarnation of the Lord Christ the Captain of our salvation and shewed the necessity of it from the Ends which were to be accomplished by it and therein given the Reason of his concession that he was for a season made less than the Angels The Apostle proceeds in this Verse to confirm what he had taught before by Testimony of the Scripture and adds an especial Amplification of the Grace of God in this whole Dispensation from the consideration of the Angels who were not made partakers of the like Love and Mercy Verse 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to help assist or relieve can in any sense be applied unto the Angels that must be intended if any For the word must denote either any help assistance or relief in general or that especial help and assistance which is given by Christ in the work of Reconciliation and Redemption If the first be intended I much question the truth of the assertion seeing the Angels owe their establishment in grace unto Christ and their advancement in glory Ephes. 1.10 If it be to be taken in the latter sense as is pretended then the nature of the discrete Axiom here used by the Apostle requires that there be the same need of the help intimated in both the disparates which is denied as unto the one and affirmed as unto the other But now the Angels that is the good Angels had no need of the help of Redemption and Reconciliation unto God or of being freed from death or the fear of it which they were never obnoxious unto And what remains for the clearing of the mind of the Apostle will appear yet farther in the ensuing Observations from the words I. The Lord Jesus Christ is truly God and Man in one Person and this is fully manifested in these words For first there is supposed in them his prae-existence in another Nature than that which he is said here to assume He was before he subsisted before or he could not have taken on him what he had not This was his Divine Nature as the like is intimated where he is said to be made flesh Joh. 1.14 to be made of a woman Gal. 4.4 to be manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 to take on him the form of a servant Phil. 2.8 9. as here he took the seed of Abraham he was before he did so that is the Son the Word of God the Son of God as in the places mentioned eternally prae-existing unto this his Incarnation For the subject of this Proposition he took on him c. denotes a person prae-existing unto the act of taking here ascribed unto him which was no other than the Son of God 2. He assumed he took to himself another nature of the seed of Abraham according unto the promise so continuing what he was he became what he was not For 3. He took this to be his own nature he so took it as himself to become truly the seed of Abraham to whom and concerning whom the promise was given Gal. 3.16 and was himself made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 1.3 and as concerning the flesh came of the fathers Rom. 9.5 and so was the Son of David the Son of Abraham Matth. 1.1 And this could no otherwise be done but 4. by taking that Nature into Personal Subsistence with himself in the Hypostasis of the Son of God the nature he assumed could no otherwise become his For if he had by any ways or means taken the person of a man to be united unto him in the strictest union that two persons are capable of a Divine and an Humane the nature had still been the nature of that other person and not his own But he took it to be his own nature which it could no ways be but by personal union causing it to subsist in his own person And he is therefore a true and perfect Man for no more is required to make a complete and perfect man but the entire nature of man subsisting And this is in Christ as a man the Humane nature having a subsistence communicated unto it by the Son of God And therefore 6. This is done without a multiplication of persons in him For the Humane Nature can have no personality of its own because it was taken to be the nature of another person who was prae-existent unto it and by assuming of it prevented its proper personality Neither 7. did hence any mixture or confusion of natures ensue or of the essential properties of them for he took the seed of Abraham to be his Humane Nature which if mixed with the Divine it could not be And this he hath done 8. inseparably and for ever Which things are handled at large else-where II. The Redemption of Mankind by the taking of our nature was a work of meer Sovereign grace He took the seed of Abraham he took not the nature of Angels And for what cause or reason Can any be assigned but the Sovereign Grace Pleasure and Love of God nor doth the Scripture any where assign any other And this will the better appear if we consider First That for a sinning nature to be saved it was indispensibly necessary that it should be assumed The nature of Angels being not taken those that sinned in that nature must perish for ever and they that fancy a possibility of saving sinners any other way but by satisfaction made in the nature that had sinned seem not to have considered aright the nature of sin and the Justice of God Had any other way been possible why doth the perishing of Angels so inevitably follow the non-assumption of their nature This way alone then could it be wrought Secondly That we were carrying away all humane nature into endless destruction for so it is intimated whence Christs assumption of it is expressed by his putting forth his hand and taking hold of it to stop it in its course of apostasie and ruine Of Angels only some individual persons fell from God but our whole nature in every one to whom it was communicated from and by Adam was running head-long to destruction In it self there could be no relief nor any thing to commend it unto God Here Sovereign Grace interposeth The love of God to mankind Tit. 3.4 As to the Angels he spared them not 2 Pet. 2.4 He spared not them and spared not his Son for us Rom. 8.32 And if we consider rightly what the Scripture informs us of the number and dignity of the Angels that sinned of their nature and ability to accomplish the will of God and compare therewith our own vileness and low condition we may have matter of eternal admiration suggested unto us And there was infinite Wisdom as well as Sovereign Grace in this dispensation sundry branches whereof the Apostle afterwards holds out unto us Verse XVII XVIII HAving declared the general Reasons why the Son or Messiah was for a little while to be made lower than the Angels in his Incarnation and sufferings and shewed the ends thereof the Apostle proceeds to declare other especial ends of this divine Dispensation and therein makes way unto what he had to instruct the Hebrews in about the Priestly Office of Christ which was the principal ground and foundation of what he intended more fully afterwards to discourse with them about and to inform them in Verse 17 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. unde debuit whence he ought So Beza Syr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which cause or wherefore it was just meet or equal Others