of it onely Therefore those grievous sinnes whereof men stood guiltie and for which they were subject to eternall death must first be expiated before they can enter and receive the eternall inheritance For those sinnes did hinder men from entring it which being purged away now nothing hinders but they may take possession of it But who shall do this shall all promiscuously no certainly but they which are called i. They to whom this eternal inheritance is offered by the Gospel of Christ and who accept this great grace of God by a lively faith For both of these use to be included in the word called But he simply saith they which are called might receive this eternall inheritance because all which are called may receive it if they will and be not wanting to themselves for in God and Christ there is no let 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator Here he gives the cause why he said that by meanes of death this effect of remission of sinnes and receiving the eternall inheritance doth follow because saith he where a Testament is there of necessity the death of the Testator must intervene which reason hee confirmes by a Super-reason in the verse following But here some man may object that the Author doth but sophisticate with words and not draw a reall argument from the thing it selfe Seeing Christ was not the Author of any testament properly but onely the Mediatour of the Covenant although the Greeke writers use the word Testament to signifie a Covenant But the ambiguity of the word must not confound the natures and properties of the things so that what is true of one thing which the ambiguous word signifies should forthwith bee transfered to the other signified by the same word We answer That the speech is here of such a thing as is common to both the significations of the word the proper and improper or rather the generall and the speciall i. that is Covenant and Testament for we said before that every Testament is a Covenant an especiall and best kind of Covenant For Covenant is a generall name whereby those things are called that are more properly named leagues and testaments both which are Covenants And indeed almost throughout the old testament the originall word which our English translation renders Covenant doth properly signifie a League and were better so rendered for because God is a publike person and so is mankinde also therefore all Gods Covenants with man are properly Leagues Hence the Latine translations both vulgar and others constantly render them Faedera So for a testament if we consider the nature of it accuratly then any solemne act of any person testified by his death is properly a testament and he who testifies anothers act though he be no Author but onely the assertor of it is properly the testator of it For hence the Civilians have borrowed their termes of Testament and Testator which commonly concurre in the same person yet not necessarily but accidentally for whatsoever witnesse will testifie upon his death the verity and certainty of another mans last Will and Testament such a witnesse is truely a testator to that Testament And he that mediats to certifie a mans Testament and mediats so farre as to testifie it with his death hee is both the mediator and the testator of that Testament so that a mediator and a testator in respect of the same Testament are not functions incompatible but consentaneous that may easily concurre in the same person Yea hee that in this sence is the testator of a Testament is necessarily thereupon the mediator of it So that Gods two solemne Covenants or rather his Leagues the old and the new are truely and properly called Testaments because they are both testified by bloud and death to certifie confirme and establish them for the old Testament was testified by the bloud and death of calves and goates which was therefore called the bloud of the Testament as it is declared in the verses following But because the new Testament was testified certified confirmed and established by the death and bloud of Christ therefore Christ though hee were not the Author of it yet is most truely and properly the testator of it And because Christ did mediate for this Testament to certifie and publish it to the world that the old and former testament was abrogated and revoaked and that this new one was the last Will and Testament of his Father therefore also be was most truely and properly the Mediatour of it And hee was so constant and earnest a Mediator to certifie the truth of this new Testament that thereupon hee became the testator of it also to testifie and confirme it with his death and blood Nay because Christ was the Testator of it therefore hee must necessarily also be the Mediator of it for no man will testifie that truth or that cause with his bloud for which he no way mediats seeing he â—hat no way mediats for a thing will 〈◊〉 testifie it with his blood Wherefore in the words of these 16. and 17 verses though the Author for a while supposeth and takes it for graunted that not onely death but the death of the Testator which here is Christ must needs intervene to confirme the new Testament yet a little after at the 23. verse and so forward hee clearly demonstrats it For there he teacheth that the matter must not nor could not be effected by the bloud of beasts because he was both the Mediator and the high Priest of the Covenant or League who when he was to appeare before God in his heavenly Sanctuary and there to performe his offering certainly he was not to slay some beast to bring the bloud of it into that Sanctuary but must shed his own bloud to make himselfe his owne offering in heauen thereby to confirme and establish the new League or Covenant which as he might do so he must doe it for the great dignity and sublimity of the particulars therein contained So that in this respect the new Covenant comes neerer to the nature of a Testament then of a League which was the proper nature of the old Covenant For what effect could there be in the bloud of a beast to confirme and make faith unto us of heavenly promises Such a Confirmation had very ill beseemed this divine and heavenly Covenant especially seeing it might be confirmed by other bloud more sutable to it and by bloud that notwithstanding was to be shed for another cause which cause hath already been shewed at the 14. verse Whence wee may perceive that in these words in this 16. verse as they are also extended to Covenants or Leagues and to the Authors and Mediators of them somthing must be understood to make the truth of them fully to appeare which yet is not expressed because it makes nothing to the point in hand For these words of the Author here must be taken as it he had
These words are correspondent and respective to the sixth verse of this chapter For to be the houses of God and Christ what is it else then to be partaker of Christ This at least every man may easily perceive that these two are so connexed that they cannot be severed one from another And in like manner to hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end is the same if we respect the Authors minde with To hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firme unto the end The originall for confidence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies subsistence and our spirituall subsistence stands in this that we beleeve in Christ and obey his precepts For as long as wee continue in the state of faith and obedience unto Christ so long we have our spirituall subsistence Yet it is well translated confidence figuratively from the effect of it because confidence is a subsistence of things not subsisting for it doth as it were represent unto our view or set before our eyes a thing not yet seen or not yet existing by making us as certaine of it as if we saw it before our eyes or did already really enjoy it Hence afterward the Author notifies confidence or faith to be the substance or subsistence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 15. While it is sayd to day By these words cited out of the Psalm hee would shew that the matter is so as he said in the former verses namely that they who persist in the faith to the end they only are partakers of Christ and his happinesse but they who depart from the faith shall undoubtedly perish what ever were their happinesse and condition heretofore Harden not your hearts against the voice of God who now speaks to us by Christ As in the provocation Hence it plainly appeares to every man who they are that hearing the voyce of God harden their hearts against it and provoke namely they that unbeleeve the Gospel and depart from the Covenant of it For as the Author addeth in the next verse 16. For some when they had heard did provoke Let us now see who hearing the voyce of God did provoke him and who did not and let us compare them one with another For then wee shall easily discover That they hardned their hearts against the voice of God and provoked him who would not finally beleeve him to the end and that they did not provoke him who were constant in their faith as were Caleb and Joshua Who came out of Egypt by Moses Hee shewes that both these kinds who provoked and who provoked not came out of Egypt by Moses i. Who followd Moses and by his leading forsooke Egypt and for some time adhered to him Wherby it appeares that they who have followed Christ their captaine and for some time have adhered to him doe harden their hearts against the voyce of God and provoke him if they forsake Christ their Captaine and will returne back to the spirituall Egypt of the world But contrarily they who having followed him doe adhere to him unto the end as Joshua and Caleb did who never forsooke Moses they shall enjoy that happinesse and eternall rest 17. But with whom was he grieved fourty yeeres Now the Authour from the remaining words of the Psalme doth prove the very same thing namely That they who have followed Christ their Captaine must take heed of offending and sinning against God or as he delivered it before of being hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin for thereby God will be so grieved and provoked against them that thereupon they must needs perish Was it not with them that had sinned i. God was grieved and provoked onely with them that unbeleeved provoked and tempted him Whose carcasses fell in the wildernesse All that came out of Egypt excepting onely Joshua and Caleb died in the wildernesse and heir carcasses were not carried into the land of Canaan From which words of the Psalme he in like manner concludes that God will be grieved and provoked with Christians sinning against him and transgressing his precepts For that he was offended with those offendors for the space of forty yeares it hence appeares in that their carcasses fell in the Desert i. every one of them to a man from twenty yeares old and upward perished in the Desert and entred not into the promised land For this wrath of God continued upon them forty yeares till they were all consumed either by naturall death or by divers plagues See Numb 14.29,33,34 18. And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that beleeved not As the former words shew that those Christians shall perish who are indulgent to sinne and will not obey Gods precepts So these in like manner make it evident that they also shall perish and never enjoy that heavenly and eternall rest who incline to diffidence and will not beleeve Gods promises or after they have beleeved recede from their faith For what induced God to bind himselfe with an oath that the Israelites should not enter into his rest but their unbeliefe in despairing they should never attaine the Land that had beene promised them See Numb 14. from the beginning of it 19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbeliefe From the former passages he inferres this conclusion That the Israelites though they came forth out of Egypt yet they could not enter into the promised Land by reason of their unbeliefe From whence in like manner we must conclude That Christians also having followed Christ their Captaine shall not enter that heavenly rest unlesse by the example of Joshua and Caleb they finally remaine faithfull to their Captaine and fall not into unbeliefe From hence it appeares that the Author would in a manner say what just cause he had to admonish them that they should take diligent heed lest in any of them though now they did beleeve or seemed to themselves to beleeve there should be found an evill and unbeleeving heart that was thinking to depart from the living God Which exhortation of his thus drawne and demonstrated from the former passages he more fully repeats and presseth in the entrance to the next Chapter The Contents of this third Chapter are three 1. A Doctrine Christ is no way inferiour but much superiour to Moses Reason 1. Because Moses was onely a Prophet and not a high Priest but Christ was both ver 1. 2. Moses was in Gods house but as a servant but Christ as a Son and heire ver 5 6. 2. An Exhortation We must not harden our hearts against the voice of God in the Gospel Reason 1. Because thereby we provoke and tempt God as the Israelites did in the wildernesse 2. Because thereby wee shall never enter into eternall rest ver 11. 3. An Exhortation Wee must not apostate and depart from the faith of the Gospel Reason 1. Because we are no longer partakers of Christ and his
and carrieth his name as we shall declare a little afterward Neither must we thinke that Christ now inhabiting heaven doth to speake properly intercede or pray for us for that were repugnant to his supreme dominion and power over all things Wherefore his Priestly office lyes in this that having power given him of God he takes away the punishment of our sinnes and by all means procures our salvation And therefore this Priestly office of Christ is really the same with his regall office as we said before Hence Christ as a Priest is said to save us perfectly or rather for ever cap. 7.25 he is also said as a Priest to succour us being tempted cap. 2. ult and in this chapter v. 16. Both which actions are regall Hence it is that other holy Writers make no expresse mention of Christs Priest-hood but this Author chap. 3. v. 1. included the regall office of Christ in his Priestly and chap. 5. v. 5. he interprets that testimony of Scripture to be meant of his Priestly office which treats of his regall Christ therefore is called a high Priest not that this office is really diverse from his regall but because of diverse resemblances which Christ hath with the legall high Priest and of diverse properties and circumstances in his regall office upon which that resemblance is grounded and which that Metaphoricall appellation of high Priest doth better insinuate into our mindes then the proper appellation The resemblance lies chiefly in this That Christ having first shed his blood entered into heaven to expiate our sins or to take away the punishments which by our sinnes we had deserved and appeared before God as the legall high Priest having shed the blood of the sacrifice was wont to enter the Tabernacle and there appeare before God to expiate sinnes by taking away the guilt and penalty of them But because the high Priest performed this by bringing the blood of the slain sacrifice into the sight of God and offering it unto him with certaine rites and so interceding for finners with God from whom the forgivenesse of sinnes proceeded Therefore also it is said of Christ who was himselfe slaine like a sacrifice and had shed his owne blood that entring into the heavenly Tabernacle he offered himselfe to God and appearing in his sight intercedeth for us Not that hee doth properly intercede but that as wee said he is like to the high Priest offering and interceding especially because he forgives sinnes not of his own authority but by power received from God whereby he is not unfitly compared with him who obtained forgivenesse of sinnes from God by his intercession From hence in some measure may be gathered those properties and circumstances of Christs regall office which his appellation of high Priest doth better represent unto our mindes then his name of King though this name bee proper to him and the other Metaphoricall His Kingly name shewes not that he saves sinners but his Priestly doth That shewes not that he is a man for God both is and is called our King but this doth for in the beginning of the fifth Chapter the Author shewes That every high Priest is taken from among men and is ordained for men That shewes not that he received his authority and power from another but this doth chap. 5. 4. That shewes not that he is touched with a sense of our miseries this doth That shewes not that he shed his bloud to expiate our sinnes but this doth for a Priest must offer sacrifices for sinnes which cannot be offered without shedding of bloud but Christ shed no bloud besides his owne That shewes not that he shall come forth from heaven but this doth Hence therefore it is that the Holy Ghost gives Christ the name of High Priest A great high Priest Christ is called a great high Priest not only to distinguish him from the ordinary and inferiour Priests but also from the chiefe high Priest under the Law who compared to Christ is very little yea but a small and slender shadow of Christ For he must needs bee a great high Priest indeed who is immortall who expiates all sinnes even the most heynous who hath power in himselfe to take away all punishments of sinne among which eternall death is one who hath right and power to give eternall life to succour men in all their afflictions and to comprise all with the Author in a few words who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens chap. 8. 1. which thing hee intimates also here when he addes in the first place That is passed into the heavens Therefore among other respects he is great because he hath passed through all the heavens By heavens are understood all those regions of heaven which are interposed between God and us namely 1. The whole region of the aire which in the Scripture is called the heaven 2. The heavens wherein are the Sunne the Moon and the rest of the Startes or lights of heaven above all which Christ is now exalted Eph. 3.10 and Heb. 7.26 3. After all these is that heaven which is the habitacle of immortality wherein God resides and whereinto Christ our high Priest hath entered Iesus Here he names this great high Priest and shewes who he is although in this be tacitly contained that which afterward he utters expresly namely that he is touched with a feeling of our infirmities For when he called him Jesus he called him also that man whose sufferings and death were evident But because he intended to set first clearly before our eyes his transcendent excellency therefore that it might better appear how great an high Priest he is he adds in the second place The Son of God He calls him not a Son of God but prefixeth the specifique article calling him the Sonne to shew that he is no ordinary Sonne of God in a vulgar sense but that singular and eminent Sonne of God even he of whom he spake in the first chap. whom God appointed heire of all things who is become far more excellent then the Angels For so it ought to be that the singular and only Sonne of God should obtaine Gods greatest love should be in highest dignity and have right and dominion over all his fathers goods Even him we have for our high Priest Whence it appears that Christ can effect all things with his Father by reason of the great love and authority which he possesseth Wherefore as the Author addeth Let us hold fast our confession Here he infers his admonition that seeing we have so great an high Priest of our Confession therefore let us hold our confession fast i. let us not only imbrace the Christian Religion in our hearts but constantly professe it with our mouths 15. For we have not an high Priest He clears an objection Some man will say What can this great high Priest helpe me when I suffer misery for the confession of my faith who the greater he is
and the more remote from me the lesse is he touched with any care of us To this he answers by saying that he is not such a high Priest Which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Our infirmities here signifie our sufferings and troubles both of minde and body wherewith we are afflicted for the profession of our Religion These are called our infirmities because our naturall infirmity gives way unto them or else from the effect because they make both our minde and body infirm For our minde doth languish with griefe as with a disease And the Author useth this word the rather because the legall high Priest was to have a feeling of the infirmities of Gods people although those infirmities were humane lapses errors Now to have a feeling of our infirmities is to be touched with an affection and sense of them i. with mercy which is a sense of another mans misery That cannot be touched doth not simply here signifie the faculty of compassion for any Angell may have the faculty of compassion but to have both the power and readinesse and will to compassionate as wee explicated the same word chap. 2. at the last verse And it is as much as if hee had said we have not an hard hearted high Priest who is not easily moved with the evills and troubles of another as commonly such are who themselves never had experience of evills and troubles But was in all things tempted like as we are Hee illustrates what kinde of high Priest we have by the contrary or rather by the cause of a contrary effect Because he was tempted in all things therefore he can and will be moved with all our infirmities By temptations are many times signified afflictions because a man is tempted by afflictions for they make a triall of the strength and patience that is in him See Jam. 1.2,3 In all points He was afflicted with all kindes of evils for hee had the triall of calumnies reproaches and bonds of divers anguishes in soule and tortures of the body yea of a fearfull and shamefull death Like as we are There is no difference between his sufferings and ours for both are all alike as he said before that he must be made like his brethren in all things Yet without sinne Christ was altogether innocent and no way deserved the evills hee suffered This he said partly to answer their calumny who gave it out that he deserved the punishment of the crosse partly to admonish other Christians to follow innocence and to take heed they suffered not as malefactors but rather strive to bee like Christ who suffered for no fault of his owne neither should they refuse to undergoe divers calamities for the name of Christ though they be innocent nor make it a marvell if such measure fall upon them that happened unto Christ their Lord and leader and should thinke that Christ will much the sooner succour them when they fall into persecutions torments and death innocently for the more innocence they bring with them to their sufferings the more ready he is to helpe them It is a vulgar error to thinke that in this place Christ is said to be like us simply in all things sinne onely excepted For neither the words of the Author nor the truth of the thing will beare this sense For Christ was much unlike to all us in many other points besides sinne as in divine power and wisdome and the admirable manner of his birth For because we should not thinke that hee speaks here of likenesse in nature only therefore sinne is mentioned which can no way be referred to nature 16. Let us therefore come boldly From the saying before he infers another exhortation which notwithstanding is subservient to that hee made at the 14. verse and is to second it Seeing wee enjoy such a high Priest that hath himselfe had triall of all sorts of evill let us implore his helpe boldly In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with boldnesse or rather with free liberty of speech for here he treats of praying and it signifies not only a confident hope of the minde to obtaine our desires but an audacity or undauntednes flowing from an inward confidence whereby we are imboldned to have our accesse to his throne to speake and pray unto him For a liberty of speech then appeares in us when neither the authority majesty or severity of another nor the feare of offence can deter us from speaking which doth excellently suit with this place For seeing there is a great Majesty of that throne where we must become supplicants it might easily fall out that a man being afraid thereof and also conscious of his owne unworthinesse might not dare to approach that throne and supplicate to him that sits upon it Wherefore the Author endeavours to encourage our mindes and raise us to a freedome of speech when he shews us that with so great a Majesty there is joyned clemencie favour and mercy toward distressed Christians Vnto the throne of grace He names not him to whose throne we must come or that sits upon the throne but because he commands us to come to this throne therefore in that we have such a high Priest who can have a feeling of our infirmities and thereupon is ready to pity and helpe us and we must come for this end that wee may finde mercy and help from all these it appeares that it is the throne of our high Priest as it is said Psal 45.6 Thy throne O God is for ever and ever But he names a throne that he may represent unto us his exceeding great Majesty and power that our freedome of speech there should not lessen our reverence and that wee should fully conceive him not onely mercifull to be willing to help us but also powerfull to be able And againe lest the high throne and Majesty of Christ should appale our mindes he calls it the throne of grace that we may conceive though our high Priest sit in a throne vested with great Majesty yet he is full of love and mercy towards us That so the throne and Majesty of Christ might raise in our mindes due reverence and his grace and favour towards us might cherish our confidence and freedome of speech to him They who say This is the throne of God himself oppose not us seeing Christ sits in the throne of God unlesse happily they say it therefore that they may exclude Christ from this throne against so many cleare testimonies of Scripture and the force of this passage also thereby to wrest from us this argument for the invocation of Christ This we easily grant that here we may understand God no lesse then Christ and it is very likely that this Author did rather call it the throne of grace in generall then either of God or Christ in particular that hee might leave us an equall right and liberty to approch either to God in the Name of our high Priest or
even of the most heynous in them who having tasted the force of that sacrifice do afterward live holily I say all kind of penalties not only of temporall death but of eternall which by force of the law all incurred that had truly and morally sinned For temporall life opposed to temporal death proceeded from the observation of the Law otherwise then eternall life did opposed to eternall death For to attain or preserve temporall life it sufficed to keep the Law taken in an open and literall sease as they call it and to expiate certain offences by certain rites and sacrifices But the latter could no man attaine by force of the Law unlesse a man had kept the precepts of it taken in a mysticall sense i. most fully and perfectly as the Gospell proposeth them For seeing eternall life was not contained in the promises of the Law but in a mysticall sense it was great equity that he who would attaine it by the benefit of the Law should likewise keep the precepts of the Law in a mysticall sense Neither only so but it must be kept exactly and without any sinne so that there should need no sacrifices or expiations For no sacrifices were of such force as to take away the guilt of eternall death and so estate a man in a right to eternall life neither did the Law open any other way to arrive at a plenary justification joyned with the reward of eternall life then by the merit of workes To serve the living God Here is the effect of this Expiation wrought in us by the bloud and offering of Christ For when our conscience doth clearly acknowledge that in respect of God it is freed from all guilt of all sinne even the most grievous and nothing can hinder us but our selves from enjoying the reall effect of our being acquitted from all sinne it comes to passe here by that we must needs have strong motives to carry us on to the worship and service of God and to receive the faith of Christ to the end wee may effectually enjoy so great a blessing and having once enjoyed it never lose it but afterward abstaine from all sinne with all our possible endeavour knowing well that so great a blessing is attained and preserved with true piety Hence it appeares that this purging of our conscience gotten by the bloud of Christ must be so understood in this place that for the reall effect of it it depends upon our duty on our part i. then it begins to have it effect in us when our faith and obedience begins toward God and Christ and is continued by the continuance of our faith and obedience and by constancie and perseverance in faith and godlinesse to the end is at length consummated and doth rest in a full and immutable right to eternall life the effect whereof will most certainly follow in due time For unlesse this effect and complement of our expiation depend reciprocally upon our duty and our duty and will to serve God flowed immediatly from it what one man among a thousand would serve God upon the expiation of his finnes if he knew that without this he could be expiated effectually and released from the guilt of all his sinnes and enjoy a full right to eternall life because therefore this offering of Christ doth withdraw us from sinne and makes us afterward serve the living God hence it comes to passe that Christ doth expiate us by one only offering or that our expiation flowing from the offering and sacrifice of Christ is eternall and lasteth forever For what need the offering be iterated if men once expiated sinne no more For although sometime by error or infirmity the true worshippers of God may offend yet because the offering of Christ doth not so properly intend to expiate such light offences as sinnes that are more heynous as appears by the proper nature of the new Covenant as it stands distinguished from the old therefore the oblation of Christ must not be iterated for our light infirmities and lapses Therefore for the removing of the guilt of such light offences the perpetuall residence of Christ our high Priest in his heavenly Sanctuary and his intercession to his Father for us is abundantly sufficient so that for them he need not shed his bloud againe and after the shedding of it enter into his Sanctuary The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwayes signifie all kind of obedience and service done unto God but chiefly that divine service done to God publikly most properly as hath before been shewed those holy reverences which we perform in the worship of God Yet the Author useth it here by a Metonymie for all divine service that is joyned with the worship of God for worship and service are mutuall adjuncts connexed each to other For so great a benefit of God as the expiation of all our sins should easily move us to perform divine services unto God by praises and thanksgivings and wholly to devote out selves to worship to good a God for then we take courage to approach unto God to worship and serve him and to hope that the honour we do him will not be unacceptable unto him when we feel our conscience clean quiet as purged from all sin Or else the word here is taken by way of Metaphor whereby all good works pleasing unto God and done for his sake are accounted for sacrifices and offerings acceptable to God and that wholy endeavours them may fitly be said to serve God God is here called the living God according to the ordinary phrase of Scripture which notwithstanding in this place wants not an emphasis Not only because hereby the true God is distinguished from all the feigned gods of the Gentiles which because they were nothing but woodden or stony Idols and therefore woodden and stony gods were called vaine and livelesse gods and are opposed to the living God But also to shew the cause why we should worship and serve God and withall the happinesse of those that devote themselves unto him For seeing hee is the living God hee is also the true God who can reward his worshippers and servitors with great benefits and recompence them with fearfull judgments who neglect him To this end Paul writing to the Thessalonians saith Yee are turned from Idols to God to serve the living and true God 1 Thess 1.9 And the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to serve And God is eminently called the living God not only because he truly lives but also because he is the fountaine of life to all other things which do live In which sense sometimes hee alone is said to live or to have life and immortality in himself 15. And for this cause Here the Author confirmes his former assertion by a new argument in that Christ is the Mediatour of the new Testament or that Christ made the New Testament and sealed it with his bloud For this is the nature of
neither now is nor hereafter shall be vacant or unoccupied in this action neither is this subjection attributed to God otherwise then as God doth it by Christ or gives power and strength unto Christ whereby he may and doth effect it therefore in the word expecting wee must acknowlegde a trope and the signification of it must be admitted onely thus far as it argues that Christ by the gift and benefit of God doth reigne subdue his enemies to him so that in this respect not Christ but God is said to subdue his enemies and Christ expecteth onely till it be done Besides in regard of the time wherein at last all the enemies of Christ shall be subdued unto him Christ may be said thus farre to depend upon his Father as it is in his Fathers owne power to order the times and seasons of things or Christ himselfe doth testifie 14 For by one offering He brings another reason why Christ offered onely but once because by one offering he perfected or finished all things As on the contrary the legall high Priests offered often because they could never perfect all things by all their oblations Hee perfected for ever them that are sanctified Perfected is throughly and wholy expiated see Chap. 7. ver 11. For ever is in respect of all future times and ages to come not as it was under the Law only for the time past and that time but for the space of one yeare They that are sanctified are they that are expiated purged or cleansed from sin in their conscience and the word must not bee restrained to the present time only but extended and dilated to all differences of time to those that ever have been sanctified or now are or ever shall be For Christ may be said to perfect or expiate men for ever in a double sense First as every man that is expiated is not expiated for some certain time but for ever and secondly as his offering is of efficacy and force to expiate all men of all times and ages to the end of the world so that it shall never need bee iterated either for the same men or for any others 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witnesse to us After that he had proved by severall reasons that the offering of Christ must bee made only once now he further proves the same by a testimony of the Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost witnesseth the same thing For this truth is so evident and so materiall that it hath not only the reasons formerly alleadged to confirme it but hath also a testimony of Scripture wherein the Holy Ghost doth testifie it The Holy Ghost is said to witnesse a thing when the Scripture saith it because as Peter teacheth us that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 After that he had said before After the Holy Ghost had said before which saying follows in the next verse 16. This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Lawes into their hearts and in their minds will I write thm Of these words of the Holy Ghost we have treated before Chap. 8.10 17. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Between the former verse and this something must be understood that is silenced namely then he said as the Author himself speaks at the ninth verse before For at the fifthteenth verse upon which this dependeth the Author had written for after that he said before namely the Holy Ghost therefore here must be understood then he said namely the Holy Ghost againe said the words of this Text And their sinnes and iniquities c. 18. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sinne From these words of the Holy Ghost wherein the remission of sinnes and iniquities is promised to Gods people now the Author inferres that the offering of Christ must bee but one only Namely because the Holy Ghost doth testifie that God under the New Testament and so by Christ and his offering will remit unto his people all sinnes and iniquities even the most grievous for ever Now where there is such a remission of sinnes proceeding from Gods Will and Covenant and that universally in respect of time for ever and also universally in respect of persons to all men there can be given no other sacrifice for sinnes and therefore one sacrifice only for sinnes is sufficient But that no further sacrifice is allowed for sins where such a remission of them is granted by Covenant it appears from hence because otherwise remission should be granted and ordained also by Covenant to them that persist in their sinnes which were a thing very unfit and unworthy of Gods grace For if men repent and change their minde and wayes into better courses partly they abstaine from sinne with all care and partly by virtue of the new Covenant and so by the one single offering of Christ they have ready prepared for them a remission of all those sinnes which either went before their true repentance or to follow it that they neither lose it nor make it void Anciently under the Law when remission was granted only of ignorances and infirmities it was no marvell if upon the stay or returne of the same sinnes for which offering had been made the offerings were often iterated and instead of them another offering were introduced far better and perfecter which is that of Christ but now seeing the most grievous sinnes are expiated by the offering of Christ under the New Testament what place can be yet left for any other offering For either a man engaged by so great a benefit doth afterward lead an holy life or not If he live holily there needs no other offering for to expiate his sin seeing hee commits it not if he live not holily there must be none 19. Having therefore brethren boldnesse Here the Author doth in a manner summe up those things which hitherto he had spoken of the Priesthood and sacrifice of Christ and from thence infertes his following admonition By boldnesse here hee understands an assured hope and confidence flowing from the faculty and liberty granted us of entring into heaven the most holy Sanctuary So that by the word boldnesse is signified unto us both our faculty or liberty of entring into heaven and also our confidence or assurance of minde issuing from our knowledge of our faculty or liberty to enter which liberty is opposed to that restraint under the Law whereby it was lawfull for no man to enter into the holy place under paine of death except the high Priest once a yeare And for feare that any one should attempt it all were forbidden it To enter into the holiest Heaven is that Sanctuary whereinto on Gods part we have liberty that we may enter and on our owne part we have confidence that we shall enter And of all Sanctuaries the heavenly is absolutely the holiest
wherein it is opposed to the legall Tabernacle whereof one of the roomes was the most holy yet not absolutely but comparatively only in respect of the other which was called the first Tabernacle and the holy place because it was lesse holy then the second as the second was farre lesse holy then heaven which is farre the holiest of all By the bloud of Iesus For from the bloud of Jesus wee draw our boldnesse both for our liberty and confidence to enter because both the New Testament whereby is granted unto us not only leave but a right to enter into the holiest is confirmed by the bloud of Jesus but also the new sacrifice once only offered and never to be iterated for the offering whereof Christ entered into the holiest was prepared by the bloud of Jesus For by the entrance of Jesus into the holiest who is our leader and our head we have liberty that we may and we take courage that wee shall enter seeing whither soever our leader and head whom God himselfe hath appointed unto us doth enter and arrive thither also a right and liberty of entring is granted unto us for not only the same issue of the journey is promised to us that was granted to our Captain and Head but also therefore our Captaine entered heaven and obtained all power there that both from his example and from the power he hath there we might have an assured faith and hope of those heavenly blessings and in due time might really enjoy them 20. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us Here the Author seems to declare whence it is that we have our liberty and confidence to enter heaven and he saith we have it hence That Christ hath consecrated for us a way to it Consecrated here is initiated or dedicated for the Greek word is the same that before we rendred dedicated Chap. 9. v. 18. Now Christ is said to consecrate or initiate this way unto us not only as he was the first that entered heaven after death and a death so fearfull and shamefull but also because hee hath procured us a right to the same way that we may lawfully passe along in it and trace the steps of Christ to immortality For Christ hath consecrated this way for us by using it himselfe first and then leaving the use of it free to us for consecration is the first use of a holy thing before which it might not lawfully bee used by any other Before Christ opened heaven by his entrance thither and consecrated the way leading thither it was lawfull for no man to enter it especially after death But now this way being consecrated dedicated or initiated any man that will may enter it and by it passe safely unto heaven This way is called new not only because it was lately or newly consecrated or initiated but especially because it was lately discovered and newly opened even in the latter times and last age of the world and besides because it is an appendent and concurrent with the New Testament for during the Old Testament and the old Tabernacle the way to the holiest was not open The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was yet standing Chap. 9.8 This new way is so marked with the steps of Christ that no length of time can deface it especially seeing so many thousands of the godly have heretofore followed and hereafter will follow Christ their leader in that journey and the way by their steps is continually renewed and kept open And it is called a living way not formally but finally because life is the end of it whereto it leads for so bread is called the bread of life and living bread because effectually it doth vivifie and make us live Hee seemes herein to have a tacite reference to the entrance into the holy places under the Law which was a mortall and deadly way because it was death for any man to enter them excepting only the high Priest and he but once a yeare upon a prefixed day to performe solemne ceremonies And therefore he opposeth the way to the heavenly holy place to the way of the old legall holy place in as much as this latter is a deadly way that brings death but the former is a living way that leadeth unto life Besides this entrance and way leading to the heavenly holy place is commonly made by death and sometimes by a horrid and cruell death and so may seem rather to lead unto destruction and therefore he called it a living way very seasonably to comfort us by teaching us that it hath a far different issue from what it seems at the first sight Through the vaile that is to say his flesh Hee alludes to the vaile that was spread between the two holy places of the Tabernacle and disparted the one from the other To which vaile he saith the flesh of Christ is answerable For as the old legall high Priest could not enter into the most holy place unlesse the vaile were withdrawne So Christ could not enter into the heavenly holy place before his flesh was withdrawne and as I may say rent and broken Therefore the high Priest entered by moving the vaile aside and Christ by laying his flesh aside so Christ entered through the vail An open sign whereof was in the death of Christ whereby his flesh was dissolved and laid aside For when Christ yeelded up the ghost suddenly the vail of the Temple was rent in twain And this renting of that vaile what doth it portend else then that by Gods appointment those holy places should be no more shut but open and common and become in a manner of publicke use so that any man might lawfully either looke into or enter them And hereby what else was signified but that the flesh of Christ being rent and broken by the death of the Crosse thereupon the passage unto the heavenly holy places was unlocked and set open to Christ and to all that beleeve in him so that not onely Christ himselfe might enter but all that are Christs may enter also and before they enter actually may looke in by faith and hope While the mortall body of Christ was entire and whole both Christ himselfe was debarred from the entrance of those heavenly places and we both from the entrance and prospect of them but after that this vaile of Christs flesh was by death dissolved then both Christ himselfe did enter heaven and procured us a right and power to enter and before we do enter actually to view the happinesse of it by faith and taste the sweetenesse of it by hope For the entrance of Christ into heaven following upon his death doth make us certainely to see and hope for the inheritance of heaven which was hidden from us by Christ as by a vaile till he was withdrawne and taken from us by his death and Resurrection 21. And having a great high Priest Christ is called a great high
the New Testament as we shewed in the former Chapter to containe the remission of all our sinnes even the most heinous and consequently to be of force to purge our conscience And because it is a Testament therefore it was first to be confirmed by death which here neither can nor must be any other then the death of Christ Whence it is manifest that the death or bloud of Christ as it confirmes the New Testament doth purge our conscience from dead workes The particle and shews that a new argument is alledged and the words for this cause note the finall cause for which Christ died He is the Mediatour of the New Testament Wee now use the word Testament and not Covenant because the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Testament and not a Covenant though sacred Writers use it to signifie also a Covenant And the ambiguity of the word did well serve the Author to draw his argument from that which must needs be done in a Testament And to speake a little yet more accurately Testament and Covenant differ but alternly as genus and species For every Testament is a Covenant though not è contra for though the heire doe not covenant with the Testator at the making of the Testament because that may be done altogether without his knowledge which is necessarily required in him that covenanteth Yet he covenants at the validity of the Testament for when the Covenant takes effect by his acceptance of the condition specified in the Testament and by his entrance upon the Inheritance then though before he were free he covenants ex Lege to performe the will of the Testatour So that every Testament at least when it is consummate and valid is a kinde of Covenant and it is the best kinde of Covenant 1. Because it is most solemnely testified by sealing and witnessing from whence it is called a Testament 2. Because it is most preciously confirmed even by death and the death of him that makes it who establisheth his owne deed by his owne death 3. Because it containes an extraordinary benefit in conveying the Testators inheritance and whole estate to the heire And lastly because it proceeds with the greatest freedome in leaving the heire to his liberity whether he will accept of the Inheritance or not Now this New Testament is the last will of God which must stand for ever because it is already confirmed and therefore cannot be revoked But how Christ is the Mediatour of it hath beene partly shewed before chap. 8.6 and is partly to be shewed afterward yet his Mediatorship consisteth chiefly in these two acts first in declaring or publishing it and then in confirming or establishing it by his death as a Testament ought to be That by meane of death for the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance Here is a file of finall causes linked one to another whereof the last end is the obtaining of an eternall inheritance the intermean is the redemption for the transgressions which were under the first Testament the prime Mean to these two former subordinate ends whereby they are successively atrained is death which in a Testament must necessarily intervene Hence we may see that the redemption of transgressions doth properly depend and flow from the New Testament and the death of Christ doth give force and strength to this Testament The word Redemption is put for Expiation as was shewed ver 12. For Expiation is one kinde or sort of Redemption both because the effect of expiation is a delivery and because also the meanes or it whereby it is wrought is an expence for it commonly costeth bloud Hence some Translators in this place render it Expiation But because the word Redemption carries the sense of Expiation therefore it both followes the construction of it and is simply called the redemption of transgressions either for their expiation as wee have said In which sense the Scripture speakes elswhere For Prov 16.6 where the vulgar Latine reads it By truth iniquity is redeemed there our English translation hath it By truth iniquity is purged i. expiated Or for redemption from transgressions For Cicero himselfe in a sense not unlike saith Liberationem culpa for à culpâ And he useth the word Transgressions whereby grievous sinnes are commonly signified to shew us what sinnes chiefly are remitted in the New Testament namely heynous and grievous sinnes for which in the Old Testament there was no expiation allowed but the punishment of death imposed Wherefore he addeth Which were under the first Testament He means which remained in force or could not be expiated or for which no remission was allowed under the Law But hee seems withall to intimate that those grievous sinnes had their being and were wont to bee committed under the Old Testament whereas the New Testament together with their guilt doth wholly take away their being in them who cordially beleeve the promises of it For that this is the force and effect of the New Testament and of the bloud of Christ we have already shewed partly in the eight Chapter and partly here And he mentions not the expiation of transgressions only or grievous sins therfore as if under the New Testament also all lighter sins were not expiated but it is as much as if he had said Yea even of those transgressions under c. For somtimes the Scripture speaketh simply not to exclude other things but to teach us that those other things wherof there might be greater doubt are included which being thoght included much more is it to be thought so of the rest So Psal 25.8 David saith of God That he is good and upright therefore wil he teach sinners in the way i. Yea even sinners and not righteous men only though he will teach them also and much rather for so he presently addes in the verse following The meeke will he guide in judgement and teach his way So Paul Rom. 4.5 saith That God justifieth the ungodly not that he justifieth him onely but that hee is so gracious as to justifie him also Or else the Authour mentions only transgressions or grievous sins to shew that they chiefly are expiated under the new Testament and that this is the proper fruit of the new Testament and of the oblation of Christ But if the guilt of grievous sins be taken away under the new Testament much more must it be true of lighter sinnes Besides grievous sins do much more grieve the conscience then lighter for to lighter sinnes there was some expiation granted in the law whereby men might imagine that God of his infinite goodnes would also release the penalty of eternall death but to the other no expiation was allowed Might receive the promise To receive the promise of eternall inheritance doth in this place signifie to enter the reall possession of the eternall inheritance which was before promised and not to receive the promise