or rather no hope of recovery 2. That he was perswaded better things of them though the negligence of many had been great In his Exhortation ver the 11. two things are chiefly to be taken notice of 1. The duty exhorted unto which was perseverance 2. The reasons whereupon he urgeth the performance § 2. To begin with the Resolution the thing resolved upon is expressed in the first words 1. Briefly Leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go â—â— to perfection 2. More largely Not laying again the Foundation c. This Resolution doth imply that in Christianity there is a Doctrine 1. Of Principles 1. Of perfection The first is for Babes and Children the second is for persons of full age The Principles are like Premises and the more perfect Doctrines like unto Conclusions and as some premises contain many excellent and precious Truths deducible from them and have affinity with many others reducible to them so these principles Both Principles and higher Doctrines must be taught in their time according to the capacity of the persons to be taught And the best must begin with the principles and after they are once well grounded in them they must proceed to higher points The Apostle here presupposeth the principles taught and once learned by these Hebrews therefore he resolves now to lay them aside and omit the Doctrine of them and to ascend to higher matters What he meant by leaving the principles he explains more at large and in particular It was Not to lay again the foundation of Repentance from dead works c. Where 1. He compares the work of man's Salvation to a Building And 2. The teaching of principles to the laying of the foundation which is the first and principal part of the Building supporting all the rest of the Superstructure and the teaching of these prime Truths is the laying of the foundation upon which the rest of Christianity depends 3. To lay this Foundation again presupposeth that he had formerly done this work and initiated them and to do this again implies they had lost their Christianity and were relasped into that Condition wherein they were before they did believe and were baptized and there was need of re-baptizing them 4. Yet this he would not do and to leave the Doctrine of the beginning or principles of Christ and not to lay the foundation of Christianity are the same And lest they or any other should be ignorant what these principles of Christianity and fundamental Doctrines were he informs us That they were the Doctrines Of Repentance Faith Baptism c. To understand these words the better we must consider 1. What was the way and order of initiating Christians 2. What Doctrine is contained in these particular Fundamentals 1. The way and order was this That 1. When they had taught them Repentance and Faith and they had willingly received this Doctrine and signified their acceptation then they most solemnly promised to repent and believe that Doctrine they did professe 2. Upon their promise and profession they were baptized 3. Being baptized they were confirmed by imposition of hands and receiving the Holy Ghost 4. Being confirmed they were exhorted to persevere to the end in hope of Resurrection to eternal life and fear of Condemnation to eternal punishment To lay the foundation in this manner was to admit them Christians again after they had lost their former Christianity 2. The Doctrine contained in these Particulars may easily be understood by the words themselves The first Head or Topick is that of Repentance from dead Works where by dead Works are meant Sins which pollute us spiritually and morally and also render us liable to Death of which hereafter Chap. 9. 14. Repentance from these is an acknowledgment of them with grief of heart and a resolution to forsake them and reform This Doctrine presupposeth the Creation especially of Man in the Image of God and contains those Truths we read in Scripture concerning Satan's Temptation man's Fall and Sin what Sin is and what the Consequents thereof be one whereof is Punishment and Death Knowledge Confession godly sorrow hatred of Sin returning to God this is the first part of the Creed The second Head is Faith in God under which comes in the Doctrine of God who so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to redeem us from our Sins by dying for us and rising again to apply and communicate the benefits of his Redemption The particulars of these parts are the Incarnation the Offices of Christ his Humiliation In taking upon him the form of a Servant and being obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross The immediate effects thereof which are satisfaction merit and putting man into a capacity of Salvation his Resurrection upon which he was made King and Priest his Ascension into Heaven his sitting at the right right hand of God to reign as King and make Intercession as a Priest and so make his satisfaction and merit effectual 3. The third Head is the Doctrine of Baptisms wherein Repentance and Faith are professed new obedience promised and both sealed and confirmed by Baptism To this Head may be referred the Covenant and the confirmation of it This Covenant presupposeth the Gospel with the Precepts and Promises thereof This was revealed by Christ as a Prophet sending the Holy Ghost to reveal it therein commanding promising and performing as a King As it presupposeth the Covenant in general so it doth the making thereof in applying the Precepts and Promises unto the particular persons to be baptized who on their part must professe and promise upon which done the confirmation on Gods part and Man's doth follow in Baptism We need not trouble our selves with the word Baptisms which is plural nor debate the reason why he used that number whether it was because the Baptisms of John and Christ both instituted from Heaven did differ in several particulars and so were Baptisms or because the Baptism of Christ was two-fold of Water and the Spirit which both must joyntly concurr to Regeneration or because that though Baptism in general in respect of the Institution be one yet in respect of several individual persons baptized it 's multiplyed For the Baptism of Peter is one the Baptism of Paul another and so many Baptisms there may be said to be as there are persons Baptized It 's certain he meant but one Baptism Rite and Ceremony instituted by Christ applyed to many several persons and so the Syriack Translatour using a Nown singular understood it 3. The fourth Head is that of Imposition of hands and by this may be meant either the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost proper to the Apostolical Times given upon imposition of the hands of the Apostles and Prayer or the sanctifying Power of the Spirit to confirm them in the Truth and enable them to keep the Covenant of God Under this Head come all the Gifts Virtues and saving-Graces of the Spirit without
so made as that it abrogated the Law of Moses and the Legal Covenant Yet because the Law was given and that Covenant made by God and not by Man and had continued in force about 1500 years many could not be satisfied in the matter of Abrogation and made scruple of rejecting and neglecting of it For that which is confirmed by Law and long Custom can hardly be made void The unbelieving Jew did reject the new Covenant and adhere to the old as instituted from Heaven and sufficient to justify and save those who observed it Some believing Jews feared to neglect it and judged Christ insufficient without it and thought Moses and Christ joyntly must bring them to Heaven and some of the Gentiles seduced by them were entangled with the same Errour So that it was observed by some as necessary by some as indifferent till the ruine of Jerusalem the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of the miserable and captive Jews into all Nations And then when there was no face either of a Civil or Ecclesiasticall Polity in that Nation then it vanished and did not appear It was abrogated therefore by the Promulgation of the Gospel decayed by little and little after that time and in the end was totally abolished The Apostle had in the former Chapter proved the Change of the Law and the Abrogation thereof from the Change and Abolition of the Priest-hood and gives the reason why it was to be abrogated to be this because it could justify and sanctify no Man And this he made good out of Psal. 110. 4. And here he implies that it must be abrogated because it was not faultless but defective and confirms the repeal of it from the words of the Lord by Jeremiah saying I will make a new Covenant and his chief Scope is to prove that Christ hath obtained a better Ministry because he was the Mediator of a better Covenant And that Covenant was better not onely because it was established upon better Promises but in that it was new and so made that it abrogated the former and it self was to continue for ever For God never promised to make another after this new one was once confirmed by the Blood of Christ. § 17. In all this Discourse he takes it for granted and presupposeth it as certain that Christ was the Mediator of this Covenant and in this he may seem to beg and not to make good the assirmative of the Question For the Jew might reply That suppose it were granted that there must be a new Covenant so made as to take away the old as God by the Prophet doth positively affirm it yet How doth it appear that Christ and not some Levitical High-Priest shall be the Mediator of it To remove this and the like Scruples it 's to be observed 1. That no Levitical Priest could be a Mediator of any Covenant but the former made with the Fathers as is evident from the Institution of that Priest-hood and the Rules of Legal Ministration Therefore he was clearly excluded from this Mediation of this new Covenant 2. That if Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias whom God promised the Fathers expected the Prophets fore-told then it will necessarily follow that he was the great Prophet above all former Prophets above Moses above Angels and he must be the great and eternal High-Priest according to the Order of Melchizedee a Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary and a Mediator of this far better Covenant But the reason why he takes it for granted and goes not about to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias was because that was done unto his hands and made evident many wayes For the fulfilling of so many Prophecies of the Old Testament and that so fully even to particular Circumstances in him who was called Jesus of Nazareth the Angel's Testimony who certified his Mother of his Conception the Testimony of an Angel with a Multitude of the heavenly hoast at his Birth did signify this So did the words of his Father at his Baptism and Transfiguration his glorious Works his heavenly Wisdom Knowledg and Doctrine besides the Testimony of John the Baptist his prodigious and stupendious Death and Resurrection Ascension the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the Revelation of the Gospel the rare and excellent gifts of this heavenly Spirit received by such as believed on him and the wonderful works done in his Name did sufficiently and superabundantly prove him to be the Messias § 18. From all this the intelligent Reader may easily understand the Subject Scope and Method of the Apostle in this Chapter The Subject is the Ministry of Christ constituted a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec The Scope is to manifest that Christ is a far more excellent Priest than that of Aaron's Order in respect of his Ministry The Method is to set forth his superexcellent Ministry in respect of the Tabernacle the Service and the Covenant whereof he was Minister for the more excellent the Sanctuary the Service the Covenant the more excellent the Priest The Sanctuary whereof Christ is Minister is heavenly his Service and Offering not â—arnal but supernatural and divine the Blessings promised in the Covenant whereof he is Minister and which by his Ministry he procures are spiritual and eternal and such as once obtained make sinful Man fully and for ever happy And because the Covenant is so excellent and so effectual by his Ministration it 's of eternal continuance The Application of all this to our selves is of Information Exhortation Consolation for by this Doctrine we 1. Understand how excellent and effectual Christ's Priest-hood is in respect of his Ministration in the best Sanctuary by his best Service making effectual the best Covenant that ever was made 2. It stirs us up to admire the wonderful Wisdom of God which contrived such an excellent Priest-hood and Ministry and his infinite Mercy in ordering both for our eternal Salvation For Who are we that the Son of God should be our eternal Priest offer up himself a Sacrifice to confirm his Covenant which he hath made with us and that God should appoint him to minister in the heavenly Sanctaary and by his Ministry there obtain for us the excellent Blessings which he hath merited and God hath promised That he should deal thus with us and do thus for us may be matter of amazement to the very Angels of Heaven How often should we think and seriously meditate on these things and magnify his Wisdom and be eternally thankful for his unspeakable Mercy and engage our selves to his Service for evermore 3. It 's matter of sweetest Comfort that there is so excellent an High-Priest that he is our High-Priest that after he had sacrificed himself on Earth he should minister for us in Heaven that God should make so excellent a Covenant with us promise Power to keep it and bind himself upon the keeping of it to be our God for ever and eternally
ridiculous and a matter of laughter rather then of fears except they did suspect some magick Spells and diâ—belical power might be used in that formal procession 4. The Event was the fall of the Walls of Jericho and the ruine of that City and the Inhabitants Some think this fall to be the sinking of the Wall whole and entire into the ground so that the highest parts of them lay level with the surface of the Earth yet there is no certainty of this But this is certain that they so fell as that Israel might easily enter This was a work of almighty power and by this example we easily understand that when out of Faith we obey God's Commands that which God hath promised will be effected Therefore when any business is difficult to be done we must not so much look at the impotency of natural and secondary Causes as at the promise of God and the performance of our Duty And though it 's true that the principal if not the sole effective cause be the Power of God yet without the Faith and Obedience of man the fulfilling of the Promise cannot be expected This manner of giving Jericho into Israel's hand to humane reason not acquainted with the Counsel of God might seem strange Yet it was an excellent way to animate Israel and terrify the Canaanites For by this miraculous Event Israel might understand how easily without blow or blood of any man the strongest City might be taken and delivered into their hands and the Enemy might know that neither the strongest and highest Walls nor the power of the most warlike Souldiers could be able to stand out The principal thing here to be observed is the excellency of Faith grounded upon the Word and Promise of God § 30. In this strange and fearful destruction of Jericho God remembred mercy and saved Rahab and her Family so that they perished not with the rest For Ver. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the Spies with peace THis is the last Example of those whereupon the Apostle severally and more distinctly insists In it we may observe 1. The Party named and proposed for an Example which was Rahab the Harlot 2. The Work of her Faith She received the Spies in peace 3. Her Preservation in the general ruine of that City 4. Her Faith whereby she obtained that Reward 1. The Party was a Woman her Name Rahab a Gentile a Canaanite an Inhabitant and Native of Jericho an Inn-Keeper and an Harlot for she seems to be both Yet this is so far true that though she had formerly been guilty yet now she was a Penitent and upon her Faith if not before reformed God had prepared her for his own Design and made her a sit Instrument to save the Spies and the Spies fit Agents to inform Joshua of the Truth and to encourage all Israel to go on boldly in the Conquest of all Canaan 2. Her Work of Faith was that she received the Spies in peace These Spies were Agents sent by Joshua to discover the Country on the West-side of Jordan according to his Directions and his End in sending them was to receive Information from them of such things as were convenient to be known as Preparative for the future Conquest As Stratagems so Spies were useful as other Intelligencers are in a well-ordered State that hath to deal with Enemies and if the Cause be just and the Enemies unjust they are certainly lawful These she received though Enemies to her Country not only as Guests but Friends and as she received so she dismissed them in peace that is in safety and as Friends and not as Enemies This she did with so great Care Prudence and Fidelity that their best Friends in that Case could not have done more and better for them The manner how she entertained them the Conference she had with them the Contract made between them the Act how she concealed them the Counsel she gave them and the Contrivance of their safety you may read more at large in the Book of Joshua Her officious Lie which she made in their behalf cannot in strict Justice be excused though in mercy it may be pardoned And in this Act and Work of Charity towards them she was not guilty of persidious Treachery to her own Country which she knew to be wicked and destined by God himself unto Destruction and she was bound to love God more than her Country and his People more than his Enemies By her Faith she had renounced all to serve the true God and in her heart was become already one of God's Saints and Servants Treachery indeed is unjust and contrary to the Laws of God which require fidelity to God first and then to our Country so far as it shall be consistent with Fidelity to the Supream Lord and not one â—ote further 3. Her Reward followed upon this For she perished not with them that believed not Where we have 1. The Destruction of Unbelievers 2. Her Preservation The first implies that her Neighbours and Fellow-Citizens were grievous Sinners and so hardned in their Sins that they did not believe and so were Vessels of Wrath and fitted for Destruction These being such did perish and suffered Punishment due unto their Sins which was a total and final ruine But she perished not but was preserved and the manner of her Preservation we find related in the History For both the Spies and Joshua were faithful to her and performed the Promise and the Oath made unto her By this we learn how easily God can save us even in the midst of general Calamities 4. This her Preservation was a Reward of her Faith not that Faith did merit it but made her capable of God's Mercy This here Faith was wrought in her by the Fame of God's glorious Works and Counsels which she had heard and by the Power of the Holy Ghost and it was manifested much and very much both by her Words and Deeds when she received the Spies and preserved them from Death It was so much the more to be admited seeing she was an Alien a Gentile a Canaaâ—ute and dwelt amongst a cursed People amongst whom she had been a grievous Sinner Surely she will rise up in Judgment against the Unbelievers of our times § 31. The Apostle forbears to insist largely and particularly upon the Faith of any more of the ancient Worthies either Men or Women and draws towards a Conclusion by Contraction of his Discourse and in this manner Ver. 32. And what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barac and of Samson and of Jeptha of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets IN these words and those that follow in this Chapter we must consider 1. The manner how the following Discourse is brought in 2. The matter of it 1. The manner is by a Rhetorical Paraleipsis signifying 1. There was no necessity of any more
presupposeth the Command so the Command presupposeth that God spake by his Son more excellent then the Angels and that they had heard his Doctrine This may be the Use or Application of the Doctrine delivered and confirmed in the former Chapter And the Use after the present mode of preaching is an Instruction which virtually includes an exhortation with a dehortation § 3. Ver. 2 3 4. The reason which may perswade and motive which may incline us to performance of the duty both affirmative and negative follows And it is two-fold 1. From the grievous unavoidable punishment to which upon non-performance we shall be liable and in the end suffer 2. From divine Ordination The first we read ver 2 3 4. where we may observe 1. A punishment grievous unavoidable 2. The cause of it 1. There can be no Punishment where there is no Law transgressed For where there is the Law there is no Transgression Rom. 4. 19. And where no transgression or sin there is no â—â—ath or punishment For the wages or desert of Sin is Death Rom. 6. 23. Punishment therefore is some evil determined and threatned in the Law by the Law-giver against the Transgressouâ— as due unto him upon the transgression It 's opposed properly to a reward promised not to a benefit which is no reward This punishment is grievous and the grievousness is implyed in a Comparison For if the Transgressours of the Law then the Transgressours of the Gospel shall be grievously punished and if the former much more the latter if their punishment was grievous much more grievous shall ours be It 's expressed in two words in the Original in three in our translation a just recompence of reward yet according to the Greek it 's a just retribution or rendring of wages that is a punishment of Death which they deserved and was justly due unto them To deserve and to be â—able to punishment is a consequent and moral effect of transgression by vertue of the Law to determine this punishment is an act of the Law-giver to infact it is an act of the Judge which infliction is a rendring of some evil as due to the party suffering as deserving it But as it is first grievous so it is unavoidable This is expressed 1. In that they under the Law receved it 2. In that we under the Gospel cannot escape it How shall we escape § 4. The cause of this grievous unavoidable punishment is some sin which is here expressed And to understand this more fully and distinctly let 's consider 1. The sin and punishment of transgressours under the Law 2. The sin and punishment of the transgressours under the Gospel 3. The force of the reason The words of the second verse informes us 1. Of the sin 2. The punishment of former Offenders 1. The sin is the transgression of the word spoken by Angels 2. The punishment was the destruction of the Offenders In the Text we have 1. A Law 2. The transgression of this Law 3. The punishment of the transgressours 4. The efficacy of the Law in this punishment If we reduce it to Propositions they are these 1. That a word was spoken by Angels 2. This word was disobeyed 3. The disodient suffered condign punishment 4. By this punishment the Law was made firm and valid In the first we have 1. A word 2. The the same spoken 3. The same spoken by Angels 1. By word is no doubt understood a Law consisting of precepts prohibitions promises threats or comminations which are principally here understood as a part of the Law Some think this Law to be the Decalogue yet this cannot be here intended as it stands alone separated from the Judicials and Ceremonials wherein we find many fearful penal Statutes and Comminations So that by Word is understood the whole body and systeme of those Laws God gave by Moses to Israel neither let any wonder that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signify a Word and a Law For in Hebrew Chaldee and Arabick the same verbes which signifie to speak signify to govern and the same Nouns which signifie words signifie Commands and Laws 2. This word was spoken that is this Law was published and promulgated For the matter of the Law the mind and will of the Law-giver the declaration of both do all concurr to constitute the essence of a Law 3. The word and Law was spoken and declared by Angels though the matter and the binding decree was from God and neither of them from the Angels who were used by God in the promulgation Though God in a more special manner is said to have uttered and written the ten Commandments or Decalogue yet in giving of the whole Systeme of the Law he used the ministry of Angels For they received the Law by the disposition of Angels Acts 7. 53. And it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3. 19. where by Law cannot be meant the Decalogue alone as appears by the context antecedent and consequent And God Angels Moses did all concurr as one efficient of the promulgation before it could be compleat Therefore there is no need with Hâ—insius to understand by Angels the Prophets as Angels that is Messengers of God Hence appears the vanity and error of Crellius For he doth suppose and take for granted that if the Law was spoken and published by Angels then it was not published by God or the Son of God in the person of the Diety For by this he might argue against the express words of the Apostle Chap. 1. 1. that because the Old Testament and the Doctrine thereof was published and declared by the Prophets therefore it was not published declared and spoken by God whereas it 's expresly said God spake by the Prophets to the Fathers 2. He argues to this purpose that if the Law was in proper sense delivered by God or the Son in the person of the Deity then it would follow that the Apostle's argument to prove the Gospel above the Law were not good for if the Law was published by God or the Son in the person of the Deity the Law must be more excellent then the Gospel But first He takes the Law only for the Decalogue which should not be done 2. He mistakes the Apostle's comparison and argument For the comparison is not in respect of him that spake but of those by whom he spake The Old and New Testament do not differ in this that God doth speak and declare them For both are the Word of God both were spoken by God in which respect they are equal and the same If God had not spoken in both both had not been the Word of God But the difference is in respect of those by whom he spake For of old he spake by the Prophets in the last days he spake by his Son and the Son is more excellent then the Prophets for here is the inequality and the excellency of the Gospel above the Law spoken by Angels and
ministreth unto you the spirit and worketh Miracles amongst you doth he it by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith Chap. 3. 5. Where he doth imply 1. That he did not so many and great Miracles amongst them to confirm the Doctrine of the Law but to confirm the Faith that is the Gospel 2. He did not minister the Spirit and gifts of the Holy Ghost by the preaching nor they receive the Spirit by the hearing of the Law but of the Gospel 3. That God to testify the excellency of the Gospel above the Law did concurr to work Miracles and give the Spirit in confirmation of the one not of the other Therefore if the Gospel in so many respects be more excellent then the Law then to let it slip to recede from it to neglect it is a far greater sin and therefore makes us obnoxious to far more grievous punishment So we are come to the principal Conclusion which is to take heed of departing from or neglecting of this Doctrine of so great Salvation § 8. The application of this is to be made unto all and every one who having the use of reason hath heard the Gospel Let every one of them seriously consider that God speaks in it he speaks not by Angels but his own Son it 's the most clear full and powerful Doctrine that ever was revealed from Heaven a Doctrine of eternal Salvation it 's confirmed by most glorious works and the excellent Gifts of the blessed Spirit It 's a discovery of profoundest wisdom a manifestation of greatest love and the last warning God will give No other knowledg so useful so excellent so absolutely necessary as this Therefore receive it readily lay it up in your hearts never forget ever remember it prize it never neglect it never depart from it If the love of God cannot perswade you let the fear of his eternal displeasure and the love of your own Salvation prevail with you What will you despise his sweetest mercy reject the tender of Salvation bring upon your selves eternal and unavoidable misery It will be the greatest Sin that you can commit and make you obnoxious to the greatest punishment if you shall refuse to hearken to this great Propher Shall the word of Angels transgressed be so severely punished and shall no Offender escape And shall the word of the eternal Son of God be disobeyed and any Offender guilty in this particular escape everlasting penalties Let not any slatter themselves and think to escape For how shall we escape if we neglect c Ver. 5. For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the World to come whereof we speak § 9. The words are difficult to be understood and must be explained before the scope of the Apostle in them can be discovered The subject matter of them is the World to come and God's subjection of it The greatest difficulty is to know what 's meant by the World to come which many think referrs to the state of glory and the World which follows the Resurrection Thus à Lapide and some of the Antients Riverae understands the Church-Christian as opposed to the Church of former times especially under the Law This is the more probable sense For the Apostle speaks of these last times wherein God spake unto men by his Son and it 's opposed to the times wherein he spake by his Prophets and Angels Yet we must not understand it of the Church exclusively as though God had not subjected other things even Angels for the good of the Church That World and those times whereof the Apostle speaks are here meant but he speaks of the times of the Gospel The proposition is negative God subjected not the World to come to Angels In former times God had used very much the ministery of Angels in ordering the Church and put much power in their hands to that end Yet now in this last time he made Christ his Son who by reason of his suffering was a little lower then the Angels to be the administratour-General of his Kingdom the Universal Lord and subjected the very Angels unto him The expression seems to be taken from Esay 9. 6. for whereas there amongst others Titles given to Christ one is â—verlasting Father the Sepâ—uagint turn it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father or Governour of the World to come which seems to be the genuine sense of the Hebrew words The sum is that God did not subject the Church in the times of the Gospel nor the World of those times to Angels but to Christ. The words thus understood may inform us 1. That Christ is more excellent then the Angels 2. If the Law and Word spoken by Angels when neglected and disobeyed was so severely punished much more severely shall they who neglect the Gospel spoken by Christ be punished 3. That if it was the duty of the Fathers and those who lived in former times to hearken to the Word spoken by Angels which are but Servants Then it 's much more the duty of us who live in these last times to hearken unto the Word of so great Salvation spoken by Christ made Lord of All. From hence we may understand the scope of the words to be the same with that of the former and that may be considered either aâ—part of the former reason why we should hearken to Christ and not neglect the Gospel or they may with the latter words following contain another distinct reason and in this manner that seeing God hath not to the Angels subjected the World to come but to Christ who by his Suffering and Death was for a little time made lower then the Angels and for that suffering afterward made Lord of all even of Angels then we ought to give the more earnest heed to his Doctrine Crellius understands by the World to come Heaven but without any reason but rather contrary to reason and to the purpose of the Apostle § 10. The former Text being negative doth not express but imply that the World to come was put in subjection to Christ. But in these words he doth not only express it but prove it And to this purpose he alledgeth the words of Psal. 8 4 5 6. In this testimony we may observe the allegation or the words alledged application of them The manner of the allegation we need not examine the Authour neither names the Book of Psalms as a distinct part of the Scriptures of the Old Testament nor the particular Psalm which is for number the 8th nor the Authour of the Psalm David But saith 1. That one or a certain man testifieth 2. He testifieth in a certain place This he did not through ignorance or defect of memory but out of some other reason He knew that the testimony or thing testified was the principal thing and that these Hebrews were well acquainted with the Scriptures and especially with the Book of Psalms To return to the words alledged out of the holy
did see it To be Crowned with Glory and Honour is to be invested with great Glory Honour Dignity and Power and the words signify the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of God We need not here distinguish of Crowns which were of many sorts For if the Author did allude to any of these the sacerdotal Mitte and the imperial Diadem did most of all resemble the eminency and dignity of this Celestial Pontiff and this universal King But why may i◠not be an Hebraism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Crown doth signify To compass about for God had circuminvested Christ with the highest and most eminent degree of Dignity and Power and this is the Word used by the Psalmist For the suffering of Death This passion was the meritorious cause his Glory and Honour the Reward according to another Scripture which informs us that because Christ was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross Therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2. 8 9. Neither need we fear to say that Christ merited eternal Glory for Himself if we confess he merited it for Us. It 's true he could not merit the personal union and such things which necessarily followed upon the same but this is nothing to that Crown of Glory which was given him in consideration of that most excellent piece of Service which he performed in expiating the Sin of man and that by his own Blood which is plain Scripture Some referr this clause unto the former of Christ being made a little lower then the Angels yet understand it differently For some say He was made lower then the Angels by or in respect of his Death Others think that it denotes the final cause of his minoration as though the end why he was cast below the Angels was that he might suffer But neither of these are probable we see that is it was manifest both by the glorious Miracles done and excellent Gifts of the Spirit given in his Name and other ways and they did therefore see it The second Proposition He was made a little lower then the Angels It 's not material whether we understand by little a little measure of inferiority or a little time for both are true But the principal thing in these words is where in he was made lower then the Angels and that was in this that he was man and mortal Man is inferior to an Angel as man and much more as mortal because the Angels never dy Now Christ had the body of a man and a Soul separable from his body till the Resurrection and that was the little time here meant the time of his mortality Both might be joyned in one divine Axiome thus We see for the suffering of Death Crowned with Glory and Honour that Jesus who for a little time was made lower then the Angel The third Proposition That he by the Grace of God might taste of Death for 〈◊〉 man In these words we have the reason and the end why Christ was made lower then the Angels for a time For it was that through the Grace of God he might redeem us by his Death In the words we have 1. The Death of Christ. 2. The parties for whom he dyed 3. The inward motive which inclined God to give him to Death and the first Original of Redemption 1. It 's said He insted of Death we need not play the Critick in the explication of the word taste For the plain meaning is that he suffered Death and by this is signified all his Sufferings which were many and bitter the principal and consummation whereof was Death wherein they all ended and without which there had been no expiation 2. He suffered Death for every man not that every man should absolutely enjoy the ultimate benefit thereof for every one doth not yet every man as a sinner hath some benefit by it Because the immediate effect of this Death was that every man's sin in respect of this Death is remissible and every man savable because Christ by it made God propitious and placable in that he had punished man's sin in him and laid on him the iniquities of us all And the reason why every man is not actually justified and saved is not for want of sufficient Propitiation but upon another account 4. That which moved God to transferr the punishment due to our sins upon Christ his only begotten Son was his Grace and free love For he so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our Sins The end therefore why Christ was made lower then the Angel was that he being man and mortal yet holy and innocent without sin might suffer Death that our sins might be expiated divine justice satisfied and a way made for mercy to save us Ver. 10. For it became him c. § 13. These words must be considered absolutely in themselves relatively in their connexion Absolutely considered they inform us and do affirm that it became God to bring us to Salvation by the Suffering of Christ. This is the substance In the words we may observe the end means conveniency of the means 1. The end is to bring many Sons unto Salvation 2. The means is to perfect their Captain by Sufferings 3. The convenience of these means in respect of this end it was such as that is became God to use them All these may be reduced to certain Propositions which are these 1. Christ is the Captain of Salvation 2. God made this Captain perfect by Suffering 3. This was the means to bring many Sons to Glory 4. Thus to do became him for whom and by whom are all things 1. Christ is the Captain of the Salvation of the Sons of God The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned Captain signifies a Prince of a multitude eminent for dignity and priority or one who besides his eminent Dignity is invested with Power to command direct and order the rest inferiour and subject to his Power or one who in any work is a principal cause and hath a great and eminent influx upon the Subject to produce the Effect In all these significations Christ may be here taken For he in respect of all Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Saints Martyrs and Believers is the most eminent for dignity and invested with supream and universal Power and in both respects he is called their Lord and King and Head for as the Head is in respect of the members so is Christ in respect of his Saints and many Sons of God He is also the Authour Beginner and principal cause of their Salvation both for the merit of it and the application of the merit and the actual consummation and collation He by his Death laid the foundation and by his Word and Spirit makes them capable of Salvation and gives them a right unto it He by his Intercession procures their actual Justification and Glorification He by his Power doth raise them up and gives
they are some ways one The reason why Christ is said to sanctify is because he hath an active power to sanctify and free from Sin such as are polluted with Sin and men thus polluted are said to be sanctified when they are freed from Sin Christ doth sanctify them by his merit and the application of his merit by his Sacrifice and his Spirit making use of Word and Sacraments And man is first sanctifiable by the Death of Christ and actually sanctified upon his Faith in this Death That this is the sense is plain by these words of his By which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all Chap. 10. 10. The meaning whereof is that by the Death and Sacrifice of Christ remission of Sin and freedom from the pollution was merited so that this doing of his Fathers Will in suffering Death for the sin of man was so accepted of God that it hath an eternal virtue of purging the conscience from sin and in consideration of the same God is always ready upon man's Faith actually to remit and to take away his sin These two are said to be of one Crelliâ—s is here mistaken as in the former verse For he tells us that God brings many Sons to Glory by perfecting their Captain Christ through Sufferings because by his example God doth teach us that by Suffering and by Death though grievous we may attain eternal Glory and suffering is the way unto it This he spake to delude his Reader and seduce him because he would not confess the satisfying and meriting power of Christ's Sacrifice That Christ in his Suffering Death did give us a rare example of many heavenly vertues and an encouragement by his Resurrection and Glorification is true but not intended in this place So neither may we approve of his exposition of these words as any ways genuine and agreeing with the scope of the place For he makes Christ and Believers one as Brethsen because they have God as one Father But this is wide and far from the Apostles intention That of Junius and others is the best that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one masse and humane Nature alluding to the offering of the first Fruits at the Passover or the two Loaves waved at Pentecost by the which all the rest of their Fruits and Bread were sanctified That he means so he expresseth plainly afterwards ver 14. which informs that to be of one is to be partaker of Flesh and Blood as they are Flesh and Blood Therefore the Socinian must be either blind or impudent yet to understand his unity the better you must know 1. That as man had sinned so he was resolved to redeem and deliver him 2. That his wisdom did not think good to redeem him immediately himself nor mediately by Angels but Man must be redeemed by Man 3. That seeing man by sin deserved and was liable to Death he determined to deliver him by the Death which another must suffer for him 4. God as God could not dy therefore God must some way become Man and by his Word assume Flesh and Blood that he might in and by that humane nature suffer Death 5. He that must be Man and suffer Death and so sanctify all the rest must be one with them and not only as having Flesh and Blood as all men are but must be the Head Captain representative of all mankind and this Christ was both by divine Institution and his own voluntary susception And this is the difference between this unity of him with all mankind and the unity of all other men amongst themselves that he is so one with them as to be their Head and general representative for Redemption and Salvation And the difference between all other men considered as men and him considered as man is not only in this that he was holy and they sinful but that he was personally united to the Word they were not for they were distinct persons in themselves § 15. That they were of one is proved in the words following and that two wayes 1. In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so by testimony of Scripture 2. In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the reason why it 's so and that taken from the end to manifest how it became God thus to do The first is proved out of the Old Testament and first from Psal. 22. 22. That the Psalm is understood of Christ is clear not only because the first words thereof were used and taken up by Christ even when he was Suffering upon the Crosse but also many things in that Psalm were clearly fulfilled in Christ to the very casting Lots upon his Seamless Coat In the words Christ calls his Apostles and Disciples and all such as should believe in his Word declared unto them his Brethren not Strangers or Aliens not Servants or Slaves And by this acknowledgment and owning them he doth signify that he sanctifying and they being sanctifyed were one For he was man and they were men he was the Son of God they the Sons of God he was amongst these as a Brother of the same Society but as the Head of the Society and the first begotten amongst many Brethren The argument is this Brethren are one and of one but Christ and those who are sanctifyed by Christ are Brethren therefore they are one and of one That they are Christ's Brethren is evident because Christ calls them so and is brought in by the infallible Scriptures giving them that Title And how great a condescension was this that the Son of God Lord of Angels should vouchsafe us this honour as to acknowledg us sinful Wretches raised out of the dust his Bretheren And though he cites other words besides these as that He in the midst of the great Congregation would sing praise unto God yet the principal words for which the 40 Psalm is quoted is the word Brethren a term given by Christ unto his Disciples The second proof is found in many places of Scripture but yet they must be taken out of some place which speaks of Christ so as these words may be evidently the words of Christ. Some yea many think they are taken out of 2 Saâ— 22. 3. or out of Psal. 18. 2. where in the Septuagint we find words to the same purpose But seeing the Apostle doth follow the words of the Septuagint when he alledgeth any place out of the Old Testament and these words are not found in either of the former places neither is that Psalm so properly understood of Christ therefore it 's not likely that the Apostle intended to cite any thing out of them Therefore feeing we find the words following concerning trusting in God and concerning him and the Children which God had given him in the Prophet Esay and in the same Chapter of that Prophet and close together too therefore we may conclude with à Lapide and Heinfiâ—s that the place here cited is Esay
8. 17 18 verses where we have in the Septuagint the very words here used and alledged of the Apostle In that part of the Chapter we have a clear prophecy of Christ fulfilled in the time of his abode on Earth and before his ascent into Heaven There is a plain prediction of Christ's Incarnation and living amongst men and of his Disciples who did believe on him as also of the unbelief of the greatest part of the Jews of their rejection of Christ and of God's rejection of them and the destruction of Jerusalem And Christ is brought in saying And I will wait upon â—â— for the Lord that hideth or turneth his Face from the House of Jacob and I will trust in him as in the Septuagint Behold I and the Children which God hath given me These words are to be understood of him as one with his Disciples and man as they were men And in that Chapter we find some passages directly agreeing with the words of Simons which he spake after that he being in the Temple had received Christ being then Incarnate and an infant into his arms So that to understand the Apostle and the Prophet too we must not so must stand upon the words in themselves severed from the rest but joyntly with the context of the Chapter speaking of Immanuel that is Christ Incarnate § 16. In ver 11 he had said That both he that sanctifieth and they that are saâ—ctified are of one and in these words he assumes but the sanctified are parâ—akers of Flesh and Blood and so concludes that he must have Flesh and Blood and therefore saith He likewise took part with them And those which he called The sanctified by him ver 11. Here he names Children according to the words of the Prophet and these were Disciples and such as believed in him And it 's to be observed 1. That to be of one is to be Flesh and Blood and so man 2. That there is a two-fold union of Christ with Mâ—nsâ— The first by his Incarnation And the second by his actual Sanctification In the first respect he is one with all mankind as they are men and the Head of the whole body of them In the second respect he is one in a special manner with his Elect. By him â—â— man and dying for man all men receive this benefit to to be savable which Angels sinning do not By him as man dying and believed upon all such as do believe are actually sanctified and in the end saved And He and the Sanctified which are the Church are one in a special manner yet because to take part with the Children and be man was not sufficient except he dyed for them that by his Death he might be beneficial unto them therefore it 's added That he took part with them that he might destroy him that had the power of Death which is the Devil Where we may observe two things 1. That the Devil hath the power of Death 2. That Christ by Death destroyed him The first is implyed The second is expressed The word Devil is to be understood collectively for the Devils but in a special manner for the Prince of Devils who is said to be a Lyar and a Murderer Joh. 8. 44. because by his lyes he deceived our first Parents inducing them to Sin whereby they were made liable to Death For by his Temptations and false Suggestions he insinuateth into man and infuseth his poyson into their Soul Man yielding unto his Temptations falls into his hands and comes under his Power so that he hath dominion over him reigns in him blinds him perverts him inclines him effectually to sin and by sin stings him to Death And because he hath so great power to draw man into sin he may be said to have the Power of Death because by this means he makes man more and more obnoxious to Death which so unavoidably by the Law follows upon Sin yet he may be said to have the power of Death as a Jaylour Hangman or Executioner may be said to have such a power and God in his just Judgment may deliver disobedient man into his hand and by him execute his punishments as some understand the place and by divine permission he may have great strength to torment and destroy man Otherwise he can have no right unto Man to judg condemn him punish as being his Lord and Judg For that belongs only unto God who if man yield unto Satan may deliver him into his hand and he may detain him as his Captive The Scripture speaks much of the power of Satan over man till God deliver him out of his hand and this power can be no power of Life but of Death and Destruction This is the first thing implyed the second is That Christ by his Death destroyed him He destroyed him he destroyed him by his Death To destroy him is not to take away his immortal Life and Being but to take away his power or strength For the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the power of an Enemy over a Captive is not a legal and regular power and authority This strength and force and also right unto man as his Captive Christ took away by his Death For by his Death he satisfied God's Justice and merited a power and right to him as having by a lutron or price payed to the supream Lord and Owner bought him So that upon this price and ransome paid and accepted man became his and the Devil had only the possession of him though Christ had the right unto him and the propriety in him Therefore Christ in his prayer doth acknowledg that his Father had given power over all Flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as he had given him Again by this Death Christ made Death removable because by it he made man's sin remissible Bacon Thorpe tells us that the Devil by putting Christ being innocent to Death lost all his power over man because he had no Commission from God to put any person innocent and free from all sin unto Death yet for this he brings no clear Scripture though this be certain that God gave all men to Christ because he dyed for them This Death aimed at a further end then the destruction of the Devil as having the power of Death Christ indeed came to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8. and though the Devil at the first as a strong man keeps peaceable possession yet Christ is that stronger man who takes away his power disarms him takes possession and all this is done to deliver man out of his hands For 1. Christ must be lower then the Angels and mortal Man that he may dy 2. He must dy that he may destroy the power of the Devil 3. He must destroy the power of the Devil that man may be delivered from the danger of Death Man cannot be delivered except the power of the Devil be destroyed this
power cannot be destroyed except Christ dy Christ cannot dy except he be lower then the Angels and made mortal Man This connexion and subordination of these things did become God and was agreeable to his heavenly wisdom whereas the Socinian saith That for Christ to take part with Men and be Flesh and Blood as they are doth not prove that the Incarnation is true if we consider it barely in it self as a participation of humane nature and mortality Yet if we consider the subject of this participation and the person taking part with man to be the Son of God by whom he made the Worlds the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the expresse Image of his Person and look upon him as that word which was in the beginning and was with God and was God then if this Son this Word be made Flesh as here the Apostle doth affirm and else-where then the Incarnation is plain and clear enough it cannot be denyed § 17. This farther end is expressed in these words Ver. 15. And deliver them who through the fear of Death were all their life-time subject to bondage This Text represents unto us two things 1. The sad condition of such as are under the power of Satan 2. A deliverance or freedom from it The sad condition is an estate of perpetual slavery and fear of Death For to be subject to bondage is to be a slave and to be thus subject all the time of his Life is to be a perpetual slave for time of Life And this is a grievous slavery and bondage not only because it 's perpetual but because of the great danger For by fear of Death may by a Metonymy be meant the danger of Death For the proper cause of fear is danger once apprehended for it 's true that men may be in danger and yet without fear because the danger is not seen apprehended known And the bondage of perpetual fear is woful if not intolerable This Death which is so dangerous and ever threatens to terrify and torment us is not only bodily but spiritual not only temporal but eternal and the greatest Evil of all others and if we be Satan's slaves and in his power he is a most cruel Tyrant and Enemy and seeks our extream and everlasting misery and we can expect nothing better from him who delights in our destruction Oh that man did but see his condition and were sensible of it For then he could take no rest Day or Night and he would seek and cast about for deliverance We see how sad it is by the terrours and torments of Judas and Cain and by the fears griefs troubles wounds sigh◠groans of such as were once sensible of their sins and apprehensive of the wrath of God Though this be a sad condition yet there is deliverance from this continual danger this perpetual fear which is the greatest slavery of all other The beginning of comfort is to know that there is a possibility of Freedom and that the Danger is avoidable or removable The first degree of this deliverance is in Christ's Death whereby divine justice was satisfied and freedome merited 2. That the power of the Devil was destroyed for whilst it continued this fear could not be removed 3. This freedome and liberty is more compleat when upon Faith in Christ's Death Sin is pardoned and the cause of this fear is taken away For the justified have peace with God are freed from condemnation and the Law of Sin and Death and they who feared eternal Punishments rejoyce in the hope of Glory Then this slavery is changed into a blessed liberty fear into hope and the sorrow of Death into the joy of Life § 18. It follows Ver. 16. For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham In these words it 's conceived a reason is given why Man and not Angels are delivered from the slavery of death and danger of eternal punishments and the reason is this because the Word was made Flesh and Man not a Spirit or an Angel And they more clearly explain these words Seeing the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood he took part with them By Death to deliver them For if he 1. Took part with them 2. To deliver them 3. Deliver them by Death then he took not part with Angels but with the seed of Abraham as a fit means which it became God to use The Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not always causal to inferr a reason of some thing from the cause or some other argument For it is sometimes expletive sometimes hath another signification and so it may be here But to let that pass let 's consider the Text in it self which logically considered is a discretive axiom denying the same thing of one subject and affirming it of a another Christ took upon him something But 1. That was not the Angels or nature of Angels 2. He took upon him or to him the seed of Abraham So that in the words we have two simple axiomes or propositions The first is negative For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels The second is affirmative He took on him the seed of Abraham The negation in the former proposition is strong for it 's not barely said He took not but he no where or not at all For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify nusquam aut nequaquam no where or in no wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies verily To understand the whole Text is difficult because of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some turn apprehend it he took hold on and think the expression is taken from such as pursue and follow hard after one that flyes from them to take hold on him and bring him back So Man runs from God and God became Man to follow after Man and take hold on him to save him Thus Chrysostome and from him Bishop Andrews Heinsius à Lapide with others Crellius and the Socinians turn the word another way and understand the place thus Christ succoured not the Angels but succoured the seed of Abraham This and also the former may be true but not pettinent The reason why Crellius likes the latter sense is because he likes not the Doctrine of the Incarnation he cannot digest it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated and that rightly by Vatablus Beza the Turgurines and Tremelius out of the Syriack assumpsit he assumed and by our English took on him doth answer to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned by the Septuagint several times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used And not to take the Angels that is nature of Angels is not to be made an Angel or Officer the individual substance of an Angel to redeem the Angels that sinned To assume or take the Seed of Abraham is 1. To be a man as Abraham and his Seed were men and partakers of Flesh and Blood
2. That whereas he became man in latter times he must needs be of some Nation and People with reference to the Head and first Father of that Nation and for Nation he was according to his humane Nature a Jew the first Father of which Nation was Abraham The reason hereof is this because God had made a special promise to Abraham That in his Seed all Nations should be blessed By which word Seed is meant Christ and Christ as descended from him according to the Flesh He is also called the Son of David because God promised That he should be born of his Family in Bethlehem the native place of David This sense 1. Is most agreeable to the Context antecedent where it 's said That Christ must be lower then the Angels must taste of Death must be consecrated by Suffering must be one with the sanctisied must be partaker of Flesh and Blood and deliver sinful man from the Devil But if he had assumed the nature of Angels none of these could be affirmed of him 2. The former two senses cannot be good because then he should have only apprenended and succoured the Seed of Abraham according to the Letter of this Text. Therefore seeing he took upon him the Seed of Abraham as he did the Seed of David therefore to take on him or assume the Seed of Abraham is to be of the Seed of Abraham as he was of David 2 Tim. 2 8. and to be made of the Seed of Abraham as he was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh Rom. 1. 3. And it is the same with that of the Divine Evangelist The Word was made Flesh Joh. 1. 14. Crellius here trifles egregiously for he excepts against this sense 1. Because to apprehend or take hold of a thing is not to assume the nature of it 2. The word Angels which is plural should have been singular But 1. Who will grant him that which neither others do nor he can prove that the word must be turned apprehended in this place whereas it hath other senses both in the Septuagint and in the New Testament and is turned oftner and by more Translatours assume as was shewed before 2. If Christ had assumed the individual substance of an Angel he had assumed the Nature of Angels He did but assume one individual Flesh and Blood yet he is said to take part with the Children which were many He again objects that if it be said that he took the nature not of Angels but Men then these words cannot contain and render a reason That Christ was made lower then the Angels because it is the same But 1. How will he prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is causal if it should be denied 2. Who told him that it referrs only to those words of the 7th verse as a reason of them whereas it 's plain if the conjunction be causal it referrs to that which went immediately before 3. To be lower then the Angels and assume the nature of Man are not precisely the same For now he is Man and yet above the Angels These words thus explained and cleared inform us 1. Of some special love of God shewed unto Man and to Angels and of some benefit issuing from that love and given unto Man and denied to the Angels He so loved Man that he gave his only begotton Son to be the propitiation for his sin and not for the Angels Christ and the eternal Word must be Man and dy for him but he must not be an Angel to dy for Apostate Angels or redeem them The cause of this was the free will of God who might have neglected both the one as well as the other for both were sinful and deserved Death Yet there might be a reason why he passed by the Angels and not Man even because Angels were not tempred yet sinned but Man was deceived and so was a subject more capable of mercy though he deserved no mercy Yet if Man will be obstinate in his sin and refuse to acknowledg this love and receive Christ God will turn his love into hatred and send him a cursed wretch into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and he shall lose eternally the benefit of Christ's Redemption which is remission and eternal life 2. They let us know the condescension and deep humiliation of the Son of God who vouchsafed not only to be Man but took upon him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto Death the Death of the Crosse. And this Incarnation is a deep mystery and this humiliation a matter of greatest wonder 3. They acquaint us with the excellent dignity and high advancement of the humane Nature in that it was assumed and inseparably united unto that eternal Word which is God The Angels in many things are above us and more excellent then we are yet in this we are above the Angels and nearer unto God and our nature in Christ is Lord of Angels 4. We learn from them that the Seed of Abraham and the People of the Jews have a priority and priviledg above all People For Christ took upon him their Flesh and Blood and they were his Brethren of whom according to the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Rom. 9. 5. This is the reason why he said when he lived on Earth That he was sent to the lost Sheep of Israel and why he chose out of them the Apostles preached the Gospel unto them first for the tender of eternal life was first made to them and why he began and finished the work of Redemption amongst them 5. From them we understand something of the nature of the Incarnation For herein we have 1. One person the eternal Word and the Son of God 2. Two Natures Divine and Humane 3. The union of these two by assumption for the Word assumed the nature of Man and this Nature was thereby united to the Word in the unity of person 4. The distinction of these two Natures for the Word is God and not Man this humane Nature remains Man and is not God and the difference is very great and perpetual And thus God-Man is Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer and happy are they who know him and believe in him Ver. 17 18. Wherefore in all things it behâ—â—ved him to be made like unto his Brethren c. § 19. In these words we have another reason why Christ must be lower then the Angels Man and like his Brethren One end was that he might suffer and dy and this he could not do except he be partaker of Flesh and Blood and therefore he took upon him the Nature of Men and not of Angels The end why he must dy was 1. That he might destroy the Devil who had the power of Death and so deliver them that were in continual danger 2. That he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest and so make reconciliation for the sins of his People and be
were yet here they are called Brethren as believing in Christ and holy as sanctified by the Spirit of Christ So that this is a Fraternity in respect of Religion Christian. They became such Brethren and so holy by the heavenly Call they were partakers of the heavenly Calling For as they were not Brethren so neither were they holy by natural Generation but by supernatural and spiritual Regeneration as before To be partakers of this Call is either barely to be called or to be partakers of this Mercy together with others It 's said to be Heavenly as some understand it in respect of the efficient and the final Cause It 's from Heaven that is from God who is the principal Cause of this Work and because they are to be called to Heaven that is eternal Glory which is the end and ultimate Effect thereof In it we may consider 1. The Work of God 2. The Duty of Man 3. The Benefit following upon both The Work of God is by the Word of the Gospel and the Power of the Spirit to enlighten and sanctify man and gave him a Divine Power to believe and turn unto Him The duty of Man is to be obedient to the heavenly Call The benefit is the admission of him as obedient unto his heavenly Kingdom and receiving him as an Heir of Glory Upon this heavenly Call followeth a great change both in the disposition and condition of man called For his disposition he is made of unholy holy and therefore said to be called with an holy Calling and to be called unto Holiness For his condition he is made of miserable happy and therefore said to be called unto eternal Glory And because the distance between holiness and happiness and sinful and miserable Man is so great therefore this work of God is a work of great power and because the change is so happy therefore it 's a work of great mercy wherein God freely prevents man so that if he should not thus prevent him he would be for ever sinful and miserable Wo unto all such as are disobedient to this heavenly Call and neglect this preventing Grace for as their Sin is more hainous so their Punishment shall be more grievous The Apostle seems to put them in mind of this Calling to let them know how deeply they are engaged to God and how unworthy they should be if they should not persevere unto the end § 3. The duty exhorted unto is expressed ver 6. It 's to hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope firm to the end and is repeated ver 14. It 's opposed to unbelief ver 12. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God The duty therefore is persevetance which presupposeth that they had received the Truth of the Gospel and professed their Faith in Christ and is a continâ—ance in this Faith once received and professed to the end This Faith was from God and was wrought in them by the heavenly Call and the continuance of it depends upon God He gave it at the first he continues it to the last yet so that man must be obedient at the first and use all means with diligent care to preserve it to the last Some refuse to obey at the first others who have professed and received the Truth fall off before the end and both these are sins and they only guilty of them § 4. The reasons follow 1. From the excellency of Christ which is set forth by Comparison The parties compared are Christ and Moses both excellent but Christ far more And here it is observable 1. That the duty is the same with that which was pressed Chap. 2. 2. That the ground of that was the excellency of Christ above the Angels of this the excellency of Christ above Moses 3. The reason there was that if the disobedience unto the word of Angels was punished with Death how much more grievously shall they be punished which disobey the Gospel of Christ 4. The reason here is that if their fathers for their unbelief and disobedience to the Doctrine of Moses were eternally shut out of God's rest how much more shall they he shut out of Heaven and Christ's eternal rest if they do not continue in the Faith of Christ but fall off from their profession To understand this first reason we must consider 1. The excellency of Christ and the excellency of Moses absolutely and positively 2. The excellency of both comparatively that so we may understand the excellency of the one fâ—t above the the excellency of the other 1. Therefore they must consider the excellency of Christ Jesus which is this That he is the Apostle and High-Priest of their Profession Their profession was of the Christian Faith and Religion which they did professe The Authour Apostle and Legate sent from Heaven who first published this Faith and Doctrine was Christ the Son of God by whom God spake who was formerly proved to be more excellent then the Prophets then the Angels So that their Religion was from God nor by Prophets or Angels but by Christ the great Prophet For here to be an Apostle is to be a Prophet Yet Moses and so many others may be Prophets yet no High-Priest but Christ Jesus is not only the Prophet but the High-Priest who mediates between God and Man and officiates so as to make his Doctrine effectual and saving and expiate his Peoples Sin that they may be reconciled to their God This two-fold power was necessary as without which he could not have been a perfect Saviour These are his two Offices upon which the Apostle so much enlargeth and insisteth But 〈◊〉 may be an Officer and yet prove unfaithful and not discharge his trust yet Christ was faithful For it follows Ver. 2. Who was faithful to him that appointed him § 5. This is concerning Christ's fidelity expressed both absolutely in these words and comparatively in those which follow 1. Absolutely He was faithful to him who appointed him 2. Comparatively As Moses was faithful in all his House The former words 1. Imply his ordination 2. Expresse his fidelity to him that ordained him Where we have two Propositions 1. That God appointed Him 2. He was faithful to God In that He was appointed or made an Apostle and High-Priest of our Christian profession for so the words are to be understood it 's evident that He did not Usurp this two-fold Power and Office but received it and acquired it legally and none could invest Him with this Power but onely God and the reason is because it is so eminent and transcendent After he was once advanced he was faithful to that God who advanced and trusted him with so great a Power This fidelity was the true and full discharge of his Apostolical and Sacerdotal Office in perfectly doing all things necessary for the eternal Salvation of Man so far as it depended upon this two-fold Office As an Apostle or Prophet
having a Promise not believing entred not into God's Rest and some of them believing did enter So they having a Promise if they believe not shall not enter if they believe shall enter and enjoy the benefit and Rest promised The ground of this Application is that they had a Promise and this thing promised is God's Rest For there was a Rest remaining for them as well as for their Fathers The words are A Promise being left of entring into his Rest. SOme translate and understand the words of leaving and by unbelief forsaking the Promise yet this cannot be the intention of the Apostle which is made clear by these words There remaineth therefore a Rest or Sabbatism to the People of God ver 9. where we have the same simple though not the same compound Verb. To understand this we must know that God promised Rest unto the Israelites in the Land of Canaan which should be their Inheritance Therefore some understand the word left to be taken Metaphorically as Legacies are left and bequeathed in a Testament unto Children and so this was left to them by God's Promise As they had a Promise of a Rest so these Hebrew Christians had a Promise of a far more excellent Rest as well as they But then the Question is where have we this Promise and who makes it and where is it made God makes it and he makes it in the Gospel Therefore he first proves that a Promise is left them as their Fathers had a Promise For it followeth Ver. 2. For unto Us was the Gospel preached as well on to Them VVHere we have two Propositions 1. That the Gospel was preached to the Israelites in the Wilderness 2. It was preached to these Hebrews 1. It was preached to the Israelites For as a Promise was made to Abraham that he in his Seed should inherit the Land of Canaan so this Promise was renewed unto them in the Wilderness and God was ready to perform it and give them possession Yet this Promise was made and to be performed upon certain conditions and duties to be performed by them And because this Canaan was a Type and Figure of the heavenly Inheritance and eternal Rest to be obtained by Jesus Christ therefore the Gospel might be said to be preached to them though darkly and implicitly 2. It was preached to these Hebrews yet more clearly and fully by the Apostles In this Gospel as preached to them the Promises are one principal thing and amongst the Promises that of eternal Rest is the chiefest and includes all the rest This Promise is made for and in consideration of Jesus Christ the condition is Faith in Christ meriting the same and after his Sufferings being entred into this rest This Promise of Rest upon Faith in Christ already come is the substance and matter of the Gospel and the Doctrine thereof is the Gospel in proper sense hough the Doctrine preached to the Israelites whereâ—n Rest was promised upon condition of Faith was also the Gospel and might be so called though imperfectly But what was the issue of this Promise in respect of the Israelites It was two-fold 1. In respect of them who believed not it did not profit them 2. In respect of them that believed they entred into God's rest for so the Apostle informs us But the Word preached did not profit them not mixed with Faith in them that heard it In which words may be observed 1. The Event 2. The Reason The Event It profited not the Reason They believed not the Word For though the Word be the Power of God unto Salvation in them that believe yet it 's a Word of eternal death to Unbelievers Both these the Event and the Reason are delivered in two Propositions 1. That the Word preached did not profit them 2. It was not mixed with Faith in them that heard it The latter is the former in order of Nature Both include many Propositions 1. That the Word was preached unto them 2. They did hear it for how should they hear without a Preacher Where by the way note that the Gospel of Doctrine here meant in the Original is called the Word of Hearing implying that it was so preached as that they did or might hear it as they were bound to do 3. They who heard it did not believe The Expression in the Original is that it was not mixed with Faith For that whereby the Soul receiveth the Word is Faith and that whereby it receiveth it effectually is a sincere Faith For this heavenly Doctrine is like a liquor it 's an heavenly Water and is poured upon men by preaching and is of rare and excellent vertue when it 's received and digested in the Soul by Faith For the saying in Philosophy is true in this case Actus activorum sunt in passo unito disposito For by the Soul rightly disposed and by Faith receiving this Doctrine the Doctrine is as it were incorporated into the Soul and made one with it 4. This Word not believed did not profit that is did not prove any wayes effectual either for a title to eternal rest or for the possession of it For they not performing the condition God was no wayes bound to perform his promise to them yet this was not all he was so offended with them that he pastan irrevocable sentence of exclusion upon them By all this we may understand 1. That it 's a great Mercy in God to vouchsafe us the Gospel and to have it faithfully and constantly preached unto us so that we may hear it This of it self is an excellent means of our Conversion and the mighty Power of God unto Salvation It 's like the Mannâ— and heavenly kind of Food which being eaten and received into our Souls will nourish and preserve us It 's a divine light to guid us to Heaven And â—o unto them to whom God denies it for they sit in darkness and the shadow of death without any hope of Salvation 2. In this Gospel there are precious Promises the cheifest whereof is that of entring into God's Rest The condition of it is sincere Faith and continuance therein unto the end This Rest was merited by Jesus Christ To believe sincerely and persevere therein is the Duty commanded and to be performed to enter is the great Reward Therefore we should diligently consider that it promises the greatest good that God did ever give or Man is capable of and in this respect is the best Doctrine in the World yet lest Man should presume he promiseth it upon condition of perseverance and for the merit of a Saviour If we do attain it we do not deserve it for the enjoyment of it is a free Gift of God yet though God give it freely yet he gives it to none that are guilty of Unbelief and Apostacy 3. Men may hear the Gospel preached and yet receive no benefit by it through their own fault Meat will feed if it be eaten Water will quench thirst if we
drink it and receive it into our bodies yet if we neither eat the one when it 's set before us nor drink the other when put into our hands we may perish for hunger and thirst So it is spiritually with our Souls in respect of the Word preached and heard only our with outward ears and not received and receiued in our hearts by a true and lively Faith So that the cause why the Word of God being so great a Blessing and so excellent a means of Salvation doth us no good is from our selves or in our selves who either refuse it at the first or reject it after we have professed it and promised to live according to it And this refusal and rejection as they are hainous sins not onely against God's just Laws but his merciful tender of eternal life so they will prove in the end the cause of our eternal misery which shall be greater and more intolerable than those to whom the Word of God was never preached 4. Therefore it concerns us all to fear this Sin of Apostacy as we fear loss of heavenly Rest God's eternal displeasure Hell Death and eternal Punishments The Apostle by this word fear implies there is danger of falling away and if we consider there is danger and the same very great For if we look upon our weakness and the remainders of corruption the deceipt and hypocrisy of our own hearts the imperfection of our Understanding in heavenly things the inconstancy of our Wills our little experience in the wayes of God and the violence and power of temptation from the Devil and the World we may easily see that it 's a wonder if not a matter of amazement that we stand one day one hour yet when we look up towards Heaven remember our Saviour Christ reigning and victorious the power of the blessed Spirit the helps God hath given us the Promises of assistance there is great cause of hope yet this hope doth not exclude but require our diligent Care continual Watching and instant Prayers without which we cannot by which we may hope to stand Oh how should we carefully and constantly attend unto God's Word lay it up in our hearts make it the Rule of our whole life so as to obey his Commands rely upon his Promises and fear his threats and every day call to mind the Profession we have made and the Promises whereby we have engaged our selves unto our God And seeing so few do fear it 's no wonder so many fall and come short of this blessed Rest. Most men presume upon the Promise and neglect the Duty The Israellres had a Promise yet did not enter because they did not believe § 3. There follows another distinct Reason from the former and that is the great benefit that follows upon the performance of the Duty Ver. 3. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said As I have sworn in my Wrath c. THere is some difficulty to know the coherence of these words with the former as also of those that follow with these and amongst themselves Some say they come in upon the words immediately antecedent and give a reason why the Word not mixed with Faith did not profit nor bring the hearers into God's Rest For onely we that believe do enter that is There is no entrance but by Faith but by Faith there is Others think they propose a reason why we should fear Apostacy and be careful to persevere and that from the happy consequent and the glorious reward which follows upon perseverance in belief and that is entrance and admittance into God's Rest yet they may referr to those words of the former Chapter For some when they had heard did provoke howbeit not all that came out of Aegypt by Moses For Caleb and Joshua heard and believed and persevered for it 's said of Caleb and it 's the Testimony of God That he had another Spirit with him and followed the Lord fully Numb 14. 24. This he applyes to himself and the Hebrews to this purpose That though some did not enter because of Unbelief yet some did believe and did not provoke and so entred so likewise shall we believing do As the former might cause fear so this latter might cause hope and prove a strong motive why we should fear to fall and be very careful to persevere So that if we will sum up that which went before it 's this in brief To day if we will hear God's voice we must not harden our hearts 1. Because if we do harden them we shall be shut out of God's Rest as our rebellious and Apostate Fathers were 2. If we do not harden our hearts but believe we shall enter into God's Rest as Caleb and Joshua did It follows As he said I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest c. These words serve to inform us of three things 1. That the Word not believed could not profit because by Unbelief they provoked God to wrath and in his Wrath he sware they should not enter into his Rest so likewise we should fear to be guilty of Unbelief because if we prove such God in his Wrath by the like Oath will exclude us 2. That as God by this Oath did exclude none but Unbelievers and brought the Believers into Canaan so he will exclude none out of the Rest promised in the Gospel but Unbelievers and will without all fail bring us believing into our spirituall Canaan 3. That as the Oath so the Exhortation used by the Prophet David implied that as there was a Rest in the dayes of Joshua so there is another Rest besides that of the promised Land Therefore because it might be doubted what Rest either David meant or the Gospel doth promise the Apostle proceeds to prove that there is yet a Rest prepared for God's People under the Gospel and determines what Rest that is This is done by distinction for he informs us of a three-fold Rest 1. Of the Sabbath 2. Of the Land of Canaan 3. Of the eternal Rest in Heaven That it was the intention of the Apostle to manifest that there was a Rest for the People of God under the Gospel and yet that Rest was neither the first of the Sabbath nor the second of the Land of Canaan is evident by that which follows especially Ver 19 10. That it was expedient if not necessary for him to do thus is as clear because he had alledged the words of the Psalm To day if ye will hear his Voice and also said in Ver. 1. That a Promise was left us of entring into his Rest. The first is the Rest of the Sabbath in these words Although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World And Ver. 4. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day in this wise And God did rest the seventh day from all his Works THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is turned here although yet it may signify and
of Melchizedeâ—k 2. Conceiving these Hebrews hardly capable of that discourse concerning this excellent and eternal Priest-hood which he intended he iâ—proves their Ignorance caused by their great negligence In the first part he 1. Informs us what an High-Priest in general is 2. Shews that none can be a lawful Priest who is not called 3. Proves Christ to be called and by Commission from Heaven made an High-Priest and invested with a Sacerdotal Power But to proceed unto particulars and enter upon the Text which gives us a description of an High-Priest and lets us know that he is an Officer in matters of Religion 2. That his Work is to offer Gifts and Sacrifices for Sin 3. He must be of a mercifull disposition and inclined to compassionate the People as having Infirmities of his own 4. The end whereat he must aim to make God propitious and procure his favour for the remission of the Peoples Sin He is an Officer in matters of Religion To be an Officer is the general wherein he agrees with all others in any Office to be such in matters of Religion differenceth him from all Magistrates and Civil Officers Before we handle the parts of the Description we must take notice first what the definitum or thing described is and it 's said to be an High-Priest Priest-hood if we consult the Greek or Latine Name is a sacred Office the word Cohen in Hebrew also is an Officer either sacred or civil and comes of a Verbe in Piel which signifie to minister or act in political or religious matters and such a Person may be a Magistrate or Minister a Prince or a Priest For anciently Princes were Priests and Priests Princes so Melchizedeck was King and Priest and such if we may believe some ancient Authours were the first-born of Families and had the Power and Charge of Civil and Ecclesiastical Government in the Family This Office is a place of power and dignity Yet there usually was an inequality between Priests for some were high-Priests some inferiour and the High-Priest was President over the rest of greater dignity and power and could and might officiate in some things wherein the inferiour could not In this place the thing or Person described is an High-Priest though many of these things might agree to other Priests And first he is an Officer For He is one taken from among men and ordained for men By this with that which follows we may easily understand that the Priest here described is a Man and not an Angel and an Officer for men and for sinful men 1. He must be taken from among man which implies not onely that he must be a Man but of the same ranck and quality with other men who are no Officers no Priests but of no Priests made Priests yet they should be duly qualified and fit for the place how else can they officiate as they ought to do This phrase to be taken from among men we find Exod. 28. 1. where Moses is commanded to take Aaron and his Sons from the midst or from among the children of Israel and a like Expression is used Levit. 8. 1. when Aaron must be consecrated This is a kind of election and designation of the person whereby he is singled out of and separated from the rest to be put in another and higher rank and order This designation is made by Lot or Birth-right or Election or divine immediate determination for here there must be no Usurpation After the Person is once designed and determined upon he must be constituted ordained set over other men for their good for the end of all Officers is to seek and endeavour the temporal or spiritual good of those to whom they are made Officers For though God can do all things immediately himself yet he is pleased to make use of man and by man communicate his Blessings to man This constitution is by a Mandate of him or them who can constitute an Officer and by this Mandate is signified the Constitutor's Will The effect of it is to give the Person constituted Power and to bind him to officiate For every Officer by his Ordination receivs a power and a charge to do the Works of his place And as the power and charge are many times great so the Constitution is made with solemn Rites which are used in the Inauguration of Princes and Consecration of Priests This is the general Nature of a Priest he is an Officer Yet there be Civil and there be Religious Officers but a Priest is an Officer in Religion and the things of God For we have to do with Men and we converse with God The Subject therefore wherein a Priest is imployed is things pertaining to God for he is the Supream Lord to whom all Glory Service and Obedience are due in the highest degree upon him we all alwayes do wholly depend both for our Being and Happiness both spiritual and temporal And though all men must worship him yet there are publick Services which none but a Priest may perform so as to be accepted Every one doth not know how God will be served neither if they knew it are they fit or qualified for it Therefore God ordained Priests who knew his Will his instituted Worship and how it should be performed and to come to God without them was in vain and for any other to officiate in that place is an Usurpation and a great Offence By this Office God did signify that sinful Man cannot come near unto him without a Mediator And it was an unspeakable Mercy of God to institute such Services as he requires at Man's hands and to ordain such Persons for the performance as he would accept As Religion so Priest-hood in general sin presupposed seems to be of the Law of Nature For no Nation is without Religion no Religion without a Priest therefore we read in Authours so much of Temples Altars Priest and amongst these High-Priests and Supream Pontiffs Yet there may be Officers in Religion who are no Priests but subservient unto them therefore we must know what is the proper Work of a Priest which is the next thing whereof the Apostle informs us in these words That he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for Sins The Law and Ligh of Nature dictate unto us that something must be offered unto God in acknowledgment of his Supream Dominion and because men have their Sins and are guilty and God is just and hath power of life and death of punishment and pardon therefore Sacrifices must be offered to satisfy his Justice avert his Wrath and procure his favour But by what Gifts and Sacrifices God may be propitiated and in what manner they must be offered the Law of Nature will not teach us These things must be revealed and instituted from Heaven and so must the Priest-hood and party officiating too for every one must not offer these Gifts and Sacrifices either for himself or others but such as God shall either mediately or
in his prayers and most earnestly deprecare the Wrath of God as his Saviour did The sense of sin will break the stoniest heart and quicken our Prayers cause cryes and tears But we neither consider the grievousnesse of our sins nor the bitternesse of our Saviour's Passion therefore our Prayers are cold and weak and mercy stands afar off and pardon comes not near us 3. These Prayers were made and directed to God as One that was able to save him from Death All Petitions made to any Person either unable or unwilling to do that which is desired are in vain might and mercy power and goodness are necessarily required in him to whom Prayers which shall in the issue prove effectual are to be offered And because none but God is absolutely Powerfull and Good Almighty and Almerciful therefore to him alone as Supream Lord all Prayers are to be made as to the prime Authour and principal efficient of all Blessings and Mercies To addresse our selves in this manner to any other is flat Idolatry and a breach of the first and great Command None can deliver from Death but only He. Therefore Christ offered his Prayers and Supplications to Him as able to save from Death and this ability to save in greatest dangers was the ground of his confidence God was able to save from Death either by prevention and not suffering him to dy or if he suffered Death by raising him up again and restoring life once taken away and lost The latter he did the former he denied to do yet by Death in this place may be meant some other thing then loss of this mortal and temporal Life for in Scripture it signifies all kind of evils Man or Angel is subject unto and in this place something which he feared prayed against and was freed from by God his heavenly Father supporting him so that he did not sink under the heavy burden laid upon him He endured all with patience and willingness of mind and was not overcome or overwhelmed He suffered something far more terrible then all bodily pains and that Death which is only a separation of Soul and Body and this was violent temptation for he was tempted more violently then ever any was yet he never yielded the least but continued firm faithful obedient unto his heavenly Father in the midst of his greatest conflicts That which upheld him was the power of his Father and that which obtained the victory was his support obtained by his fervent Prayers For 4. His Prayers and Supplications were effectual he was heard in that he feared To be heard in the Hebrew is by a Metonymy sometimes to have our prayers granted and the thing requested done And to be heard when we pray for deliverance is to be delivered saved holpen This might be made manifest out of many places of the Old Testament translated by the Septuagint Two of them Heinsius observes as 2 Chron. 18. 31. where it 's written That Jehoshaphat cryed out and the Lord helped him so the Hebrew heard him so the Septuagint And Psal. 56. 16. As for me I will call upon God and the Lord will save me so the Hebrew hath heard me so the Greek So that for Christ to be heard was for Christ to be delivered But what was he delivered from certainly not from Death so as not to suffer it for he dyed but from something he seared For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifyeth fear Metonymically in this place signifies the thing feared which was the object and cause of his fear This word is once used by the Septuagint for so they translate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 22. 24. But what did Christ fear Death No not bodily Death but such a Death as he suffered wherein he was so fearfully tempted For if God had deserted him wholly as he did in part and not have supported him he as man might have been overcome have sunk under the burden in distrust or dispair or impatience This he feared more then ten thousand Deaths of his Body and so to do was his holiness and though he knew his Father would support him yet he must offer vehement Prayers and be put hard unto it before he did obtain it Thus though he knew he must dy yet he defired vehemently that the Cup of his Passion if it were possible might passe and be omitted God began to hear him when he sent an Angel from Heaven to comfort him but then he heard fully when he had supported him to the end of his Passion so that he commended his Soul unspotted and victorious into his Fathers hand and made haste unto that Paradise into which no unclean thing shall ever enter When all was done and suffered the Devil found nothing in him could not charge him with the least Sin This was the efficacy of his Prayers which he offered for himself as different from all others that ever were made in his extremity whereby he learned to pity others in their temptations and necessities For an High-Priest must offer for himself as well as for others because he is compassed with infirmities So Christ though he had no Sin yet had infirmities and was tempted and had need to pray for himself as well as for his People and Ver. 8. Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered VVHere we may observe two things and two propositions Two things 1. His eminent Dignity he was a Son 2. His obedience Two propositions 1. He was a Son 2. Though a Son yet he learned obedience by the things â—he Suffered 1. He was a Son the Son of God and in a more excellent manner then any either Man or Angel was or could be He was as the Word the Son of God so as that he was God and as Flesh and Man he was assumed by the Word and conceived by the holy Spirit in the Virgin 's Womb yet so that there were not two Sons but one the Word made Flesh and as such a Son he was nearer God then any other Heir of all things Lord of Men and Angels and the only-begotten Son of God Yet 2. Though a Son yet learned he obedience For though as a Son he was very high yet he humbled himself very low and took upon him the form of a Servant and in that form became obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross which was the Death of a Servant as he was sold for thirty pence the ordinary price of a Servant and Slave His obedience presupposed his subjection as Flesh unto his heavenly Father as his Supream Lord and a Command not only to Do but to Suffer even the Death of the Crosse and this was the highest greatest and hardest command to dye such a Death for the Sin of Man This command above all others he learned to obey He learned this hard Lesson not only to know it but chiefly to do it not meerly by speculation but real
which they can neither be renewed or mortified and proceed in the wayes of Righteousness and Holiness unto the attaining of eternal life 5. Resurrection is the fifth part of this Doctrine and seems to signisy in this place immortality and eternal Glory as a Reward This presupposeth the exercise of all heavenly Virtues and the continuance of their Faith and Obedience Under this Head may be brought Justification Reconciliation Adoption with the continuance of the sanctifying and regenerating Spirit and also the joys and comforts of God's Saints in this Life and their security and bliss upon their departure out of this Life untill the Resurrection 6. The sixth Doctrine is that of eternal Judgment Both Resurrection and this Judgment presuppose men's Obedience or Disobedience to the Laws of God and by Judgment may be understood either Judgment in general which follows the Resurrection and determines finally the eternal Punishments and Rewards or by a Synecdoche for the eternal Punishments which that Judgment shall award to certain persons This latter seems to be the intended sense because the word is usually taken for Condemnation and Punishment and so much the rather because we never find Judgment taken properly said to be everlasting This presupposeth impenitence and unbelief both Negative and Positive and to this Head are reducible all the spiritual Penalties inflicted upon Man in this Life as fore-runners of this eternal Vengeance It was necessary in the first place to lay the foundation in teaching these Truths of Repentance Faith the sealing of the Covenant the sanctification of the Spirit and the retribution of eternal Rewards and Punishments according to men's observation or violation of the Covenant of Grace This Doctrine they had formerly learned and professed and it was the sum and substance of the antient Creeds And if they any wayes were fallen from this it was in vain to lay the foundation anew and initiate them again Therefore he was resolved to proceed and do that which he had proposed if God would permit and assist him for all resolutions of Men are in God's Power For he alone can so assist them as to make them effectual or hinder them so as to frustrate their designs This implies the Authour's dependance upon God for the carrying on and finishing his intended Discourse concerning the Priest-hood of Christ. § 4. Thus far the Apostle's Resolution the Reasons follow The first is because to lay the foundation anew would be in vain It would prove so because such as fall from these principles render themselves uncapable of any benefit to be received by Christ's Death and Passion neither can they be renewed again unto Repentance The argument in form is this The Apostle presupposing that no man ought and no wise man will do that which he knows to be in vain and to no purpose he proves that to lay the foundation again is in vain thus To attempt that which is impossible is in vain But to attempt by laying the foundation again to renew unto Repentance such as fall away is to attempt that which is impossible therefore it 's in vain To understand the force of this Reason let us reduce the Apostles words into these Propositions 1. They which have been enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come may fall away 2. If they fall away it is impossible for them to be renewed again unto Repentance 3. The reason why it is impossible is because they Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame These may be reduced to one Syllogism thus It 's impossible that they which Crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame should be again renewed to Repentance But such as fall away from Christianity once received do Crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame Therefore it 's impossible again to renew them to Repentance The sum of all is this he would not lay again the foundation of Christianity because it was in vain It was in vain because the recovery of such as fall away and renounce Christ was impossible In the first Proposition I will consider 1. What it is to fall away 2. Who they are that may fall away 1. To fall away is here to be Apostates and forsake Christianity once received it 's not to fall into any kind of Sin but such as are contra integrum faedus contrary to the essence and substance of Christianity such are impenitency and unbelief after Repentance and Faith In this respect David's Murther and Adultery though very grievous Sins and against the Covenant yet they were not a violation of it essentially and formally considered This is falling away or Apostacy in this place 2. The subject of this Apostacy and parties which may fall away are such as have received Christianity and have been convinced of the Truth thereof For he that never was a Christian cannot be said to fall away from Christianity he must be a Christian before he can be an Apostate But to enter more particularly upon the Description of the Subject of Apostacy and persons that may fall away 2. They are described from sive things or adjuncts 1. They are enlightned 2. Have tasted of the heavenly Gift 3. Are partakers of the Holy Ghost 4. Have tasted of the good Word of God 5. Have tasted of the Powers of the World to come 2. The difference of several Writers in the Exposition of these five particulars is great For with some 1. To be enlightned is Repentance 2. To taste of the heavenly Gift is Faith in God 3. To be partakers of the Holy Ghost is to receive the Gifts of the Spirit 4. To taste of the good Word of God answers to Imposition of hands 5. To taste of the Powers of the World to come is to have some apprehensions of the Resurrection and eternal Judgment with affections suitable Others understand 1. By enlightning Baptism 2. By tasting of the heavenly Gift spiritual Peace and Joy 3. By the Holy Ghost Gifts of that blessed Spirit 4. By tasting the good Word of God The sinding how sweet and comfortable the Doctrine and especially the Promises of the Gospel be 5. By tasting of the Powers of the World to come The experience of the efficacy and moving Power of the Doctrine of everlasting Life and Death believed Others not differing much think that 1. Enlightning is the knowledg of saving-Truth 2. Tasting of the heavenly Gift is the receiving of Christ by Faith 3. Participation of the Holy Ghost is receiving of the Gifts of the Spirit 4. Tasting of the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come is some experimental effects of the Gospel and Spirit 3. Yet upon examination the first three may be one And that is the illumination of the heart and mind by the heavenly Gift of
consequence Therefore though they did not absolve them yet they prayed for them and referred them to the Judgment of God § 6. The Apostle not content barely to affirm this Renovation to be impossible gives us a reason hereof and that in a third Proposition which is They Crucify the Lord Jesus a new and put him to open shame This should have been the second but I follow the order of the words For this is the genuine method 1. Christians may fall away 2. Falling away they Crucify Christ and put him to open shame 3. It 's impossible for them doing so to be renewed by Repentance This third which I handled in the second place contains the medium whereby the impossibility of Repentance is inferred But 1. I will explain the words 2. Shew how they come in upon the former 1. To Crucify the Lord Jesus the Son of God afresh and to put him to an open shame are in some respect the same For the Death of the Crosse is a shameful and ignominious Death and Punishment therefore we read of shame and the Crosse joyned together For it 's said of Christ That he endured the Cross and despised the shame Hebr. 12. 2. There be many tormenting and disgracing Punishments inflicted by higher Powers upon Malefactors Amongst these Capital penalties are the greatest Of Capital Crucifying or putting to Death upon the Crosse is most cruel and ignominious This our blessed Saviour the Son of God once Suffered For such was the malice of the Jews that nothing but his Death and no other Death but the Death of the Crosse besides many other indignities would satisfy them The end of just punishments are loss pain and shame Therefore Malefactors were executed publickly and openly that others might see hear and fear to do the like Sinnes lest they should suffer the like Punishments if they should prove guilty of the like Crimes And not onely the Punishments executed by Man but such as are inflicted by God are exemplary Therefore as the Apostle saith The punishments which the Israelites suffered in the Wildernesse are our ensamples 1 Cor. 10. 6 11. Therefore the word turned put him to open shame signifies to make an example of shame and disgrace To return unto the Text Apostates are said to Crucify Christ unto themselves afresh the meaning is not that they put Christ to Death upon the Cross in proper sense For that they cannot do he dyed upon the Crosse once and rose again is immortal in Heaven and shall never dy any more For in that he dyed he dyed unto Sin or for Sin once and but once seeing he being raised from the Dead he dyed no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. 6. 9 10. Therefore the words are to be understood Tropically they are a Metaphor which is a contract Similitude and signify that they are like unto the Jews and deal with Christ in somethings as they did For as the Jews judged Christ not to be the Messias and Son of God but a Seducer an Impostor and Malefactor and desired Judgment against him as such that he might be Crucified and put to open shame so these Apostates denying Christ whom they had formerly professed must needs account of him no better then the Jews did and so justify all their Accusations against him and his Crucifying as just and justly deserved by him But these Revolters especially agree with the malicious Jews who renounce him blaspheme him and persecute him in those who profess him such Julian was This is to tread under foot the Son of God and to count the blood of the Covenant that is whereby the everlasting Covenant was confirmed and they sanctified an unholy or profane thing This is the highest contempt of Christ and his Blood that possibly can be Some observe from these words Crucify him afresh 1. That though they cannot Crucify him because he is far out of their power yet for their part they are ready and have a mind to do it and would do it if it were in their power 2. That though he was Crucified once yet if he were living and in their reach they would Crucify him again § 7. This is the meaning of the Words Now secondly Let 's consider how they come in upon the former and what connexion they have with them They presuppose that Apostates do Crucify the Son of God to themselves afresh and are guilty of this Crime For Apostacy is their Sin and this necessarily follows upon it and is inseparably joyned with it And they seem to give a reason of the impossibility of their Renovation by Repentance For there can be no Renovation or Sanctification but by the Blood of the Son of God and this they deny renounce trample under foot therefore they can neither repent nor by repentance be renewed or receive any benefit For repentance presupposeth necessarily Faith in the Blood of Christ and the force thereof dependeth upon that Blood and the belief thereof without both which no repentance can ever do any good or benefit any man and this is the immutable Will and Decree of God Neither will God give Repentance to any Apostate or accept him though he should and could repent For Christ did never merit nor God promise to any such persons either of these The reason of all this is That God decreed that Christ should dy but once and that Sinners should be initiated but once and that whosoever makes void to himself this one Death and this one Initiation shall never have any benefit by a second Death or a second Initiation These are contrary to the eternal and unchangeable Rules and Laws of his Kingdom and by these Rules their Sin is irremissible and their final destruction unavoidable Therefore let us hear and fear lest by any means we fall away from that Christianity which we have received professed and engaged in By all this it 's evident that it 's in vain to lay the foundation again by Repentance Faith Baptism and the rest This reason to make it more plain is illustrated by a Similitude which as all other Comparisons hath two parts 1. A Proposition 2. A Reddition The Proposition is expressed the Reddition implyed The subject of the first part or proposition is the Earth and as there are two sorts or kinds of Earth good and bad so there be two parts of the proposition The first Concerning good Earth The second Concerning bad and barren Ground 1. Concerning the good we may consider 1. The Proposition and then the Reddition In the first observe 1. The Fruitfulness 2. God's Blessing The fruitfulness presupposeth Rain Dressing For without these two Moisture and Husbandry no Ground can be fruitful The Rain is from Heaven the Husbandry from Man The goodness of it is that it drinketh in the Rain bringeth forth Herbs meat for them by whom it 's dressed and here by Herbs may be meant all kind of Fruit that 's fit for man's food As it 's fruitful so
alwayes upon the Bench and in the end will pass final â—â—â—tence upon all Men and Angels This seems to be understood of that final Doom in which eternal Punishments and Rewards shall be determined This could be no ground of his perswasion except he knew it and he knew this Judgment in generall as he knew the Gospel that is infallibly and by divine Revelation But that they should be eternally rewarded in particular he understood so far as he was certain of their Works So that the ground of his perswasion was this that he knew God was not unrighteous to forget their vertues and good works § 11. In this part and passage of Scripture divers things are remarkable 1. Real Love to God's persecuted Saints is a great evidence of sincere Christianity Therefore saith the divine Apostle By this we know that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren 1 Joh. 3. 14. 2. Where there is sincere Christianity it will manifest it self by good Works for as a good tree manifests its Goodness by its fruits so doth Faith and inward sincere Christianity 3. To whomsoever this Christianity is thus manifested in any persons they ought to love them and be well perswaded of their happy condition and state of Salvation 4. They that are thus perswaded ought to signify their Love and good Opinion of them as occasion shall require For by this they may prevent suspicions quiet their minds encourage and comfort them 5. There are certain divine Vertues and good Works which have an inseparable connexion with Salvation and eternal Life and which God will not forget 6. This inseparable Connexion is not necessary as from the Vertues and the Works as though they did merit Salvation or necessitate God to reward them 7. It is from God's Righteousness and Promise with respect had to Christ's merit and the qualification of the parties 8. As there are some Persons hardned and delivered up unto a reprobate mind and some sins committed in this life and sometimes long before death which are irremissible so there are certain Vertues and good Works found in Christians that in this life whereupon they are put in a state of Confirmation 9. This state of Confirmation infallibly prevents though not all sins yet final and total Apostacy 10. This state of Confirmation doth depend upon God's Righteousness and faithfulness not upon the Excellency of the Vertues and good Works 11. If such as be endued with these Vertues have done these Works should fall away totally and finally then they should never be rewarded 12. If they should never be rewarded but forgotten God should be unrighteous and unfaithful which to imagine is a bominable 13. Therefore God hath made some Promise whereby he hath bound himself certainly to support such as attain to this Qualification that so they may be eternally rewarded God may be said to be righteous three wayes 1. In respect of strict Justice 2. Of bounty and free beneficence 3. Of Promise First He may be said to be strictly just when he rewardeth Man according to his perfect Obedience yet no Obedience though never so perfect can bind him to reward Man or Angel 2. He is just by way of bounty when he rewards Man capable of Reward and worthy though not in respect of his perfect Righteousness in himself yet because he is some wayes righteous in respect of others who are unrighteous Thus Righteousness is often taken in Scripture therefore it 's written that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble his persecuted Saints and to his Saints troubled Rest with the Apostles 2 Thes. 1. 6 7. And Righteousness for this reason somtimes signifies Metonymically the great Reward of eternal life as Seek ye the Kingdom of God and his Righteousnesse first of all Mat. 6. 33. So Psal. 24. 5. Isa. 51. 5. The third Righteousness is in the performance of his Promise for though his Promise be free yet if it be once made Justice doth require it and God is not free but bound to perform it and if he should not perform he should be unjust which he cannot be This is the Righteousness here meant If any reply against this Doctrine and alledge the words of God saying that when the righteous turneth away from his Righteousness his Righteousness shall not be mentioned unto him he shall dy Ezrk. 18. 24. The Answer is 1. That the place speaketh of Legal Righteousness and Legal Repentance and Legal Life and Death according to the Covenant maâ—â— with their fathers in the Wilderness 2. Yet there is a Righteousness and a certaindegree thereof and that under the Gospel from which Christians may fall finally and totally To understand both these we must observe 1. That no good Works can expiate Sins either antecedent or consequent to them for there is no expiating Power in them at all neither doth any Laws that require constant Obedience allow that latter vertuous Acts should satisfy for former Crimes nor former good Deeds though excellent take away the guilt of future Offences 2. There was a Legal Righteousness required in the Covenant made between God and Israel before Mount Sinai and it consisted in the Obedience of the Moral Judicial Ceremonial Laws of Moses which did prevent God's temporall Judgments and was a means whereby they obtained and enjoyed God's Protection Safety Peace Plenty and many a Blessing in the good Land of Canaan This is evident out of Levit. 26. and many places of Deuteronomy and in particular out of the 28th Chapter and so out of many Passages which we read in the Books of the Prophets As there is a Legal Obedience so there is a Legal Repentance upon which followed deliverance from temporal Judgments of Sword Famine Captivity and the Curses threatned in the Law So we find Levit. 26 40 41 42 c. and Deut. 30. 1,2,3 c. But that Righteousness whereby they obtained eternal Peace and that Repentance whereby they were freed from eternal Punishments did depend upon that Promise of the blessed Seed made to Abraham That there was such a Righteousness in them under the Law from which they might fall and though they did not fall yet by it they could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven appears by that young Man who came to Christ to know what he should do to inherit eternal Life Matth. 19. 16 17 18 c. and by Paul who touching the Righteousness of the Law was blameless Phil. 3. 6. There is also a Righteousness and Repentance according to the Law and Light of Nature according to which men are blessed or delivered temporally But the Righteousness and the state thereof which is here intended is far higher It presupposeth both Moral and Legal Righteousness and Repentance for the Substance of it yet is more 3. Of this Righteousness under the Gospel is found in many such a degree as they may fall from it and that totally and finally
King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace MElech and so Melchi in Hebrew signifies King Prince or Governour and such is being one person is eminent in Power above the rest Zedeck is Righteousness in that Language This name agrees with Adonizedeck of Adon or Adoni Lord and Zedeck Righteousness as before This Name did truly agree unto this Person and he did answer to his Name He was a just King and did Order and Govern his People in Righteousness by just Judgment and according to just Laws and sought their weal and common good Such all Civil Governours should be for justice is essential to good Government and God never gave any power to any person but bound him to Righteousness nay further governing Power is no Power without wisdom and justice it may be potâ—ntia but not potestas Some Princes are more righteous then other yet this man was eminently righteous because he proved a Prince of Peace For the Fruit of Righteousness is Peace and the more wise and just the Government of any State shall be the greater the Peace and Happiness of the People But Righteousness must go before and after that Peace will follow and Kings must first be Kings of Zedeck before they can be Kings of Salem If the Kings of Sodom had been such they had not been invaded subdued and spoiled by a forraign Enemy The words seem to imply that Zedeck and Salem were two places from whence he had his Name and Title first from the one then from the other or that because he was so just first he was called the King of Righteousness and after that because by his just Government the People enjoyed so great Peace He was called King of Salem § 9. The fourth and last particular is the perpetuity of his Priest-hood For thus it 's written Ver. 3. Without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of Dayes nor end of Life but made like unto the Son of God abideth continually a Priest FOR the better understanding of these words we must consider 1. That if Melchisedec was a man living in Abraham's Dayes he had both Father and Mother and Descent and beginning of Dayes and end too except he as Enoch was translated not to see Death otherwise these words properly understood and strictly taken might justly give occasion to think he was an Angel in humane shape which was the opinion of some 2. Therefore for the most part the words are understood Tropically to this purpose That as he is described Gen. 14. the first and only place of the Old Testament that speaks more largely of him Moses the Historian makes no mention of his Father or Mother or Descent or Birth or Death And he was directed thus to do by the Spirit of purpose either because he being ignorant of all these the Spirit did not reveal them unto him or if he did and he knew them yet he was ordered and moved by the Spirit to conceal them that according to that Description he might appear a more lively and perfect Type of Christ. 3. The words have special reference unto his Priest-hood and gives us a real difference between him and the Levitical Priest and makes him far more like unto the Son of God our everlasting Priest For the Levitical High-Priests had their Priest-hood by Descent and Birth and upon their Death their Successors For as born of a Father of the Tribe of Levi and the House of Aaron after he was once consecrated and as born of a Mother who was a woman married to one of that House so they derived the Priest-hood from the first Investiture after the first Institution And whosoever could not manifest his Genealogy and Descent from that Family could not minister and officiate as a Priest As they had beginning of Dayes and by their Birth and Descent derived their Priest-hood from their Predecessors so they were Mortal and had end of Dayes and so transmitted their Priest-hood to their Successors Thus did not Melchisedec who though he might have Father and Mother and Descent and so beginning and end of Dayes as a man yet as a Priest he had no Predecessor from whom by Birth he might receive his Sacerdotal Power nor Successor who derived his Priest-hood from him So Christ the Son of God derived his Priest-hood from no mortal Predecessor but immediately from his heavenly Father neither will he transmit it to any Successor but when all Enemies shall be subdued and he shall deliver up his Commission by vertue of which he doth now officiate and intercede in Heaven He shall resign the same together with his Kingdom to God who gave him both And thus perhaps Melchisedec this great Priest and lively Type of Christ did And if there be any Priest-hood according to the Law of Nature which is of perpetual continunuance then he seems to be an extraordinary Priest according to the Law For there is the Law of Nature the Law of Moses the Law of Grace and every one of these may have their ordinary Priests and their extraordinary supream Pontiffs immediately instituted of God and the extraordinary supream Pontiff according to the Law of Nature must be above Aaron who was a High-Priest according to that Law which was but for a time and to be abolished and so more fit to typifie Christ the Mediatour and Priest of the New Covenant which shall stand for ever And these things I referr and in them submit my Judgment to the wise and judicious who may take occasion to seek further whether Melchisedec's Sacerdotal Title did not continue to him in Heaven till Christ's Ascension and then was delivered up to Christ and so it continued in him for ever and in this respect he abideth a Priest continually The first three verses seem to be one Proposition and all the whole description till the last words the subject or antecedent and abiding continually the predicate yet so that there are many simple Propositions in the antecedent And it 's observable that Righteousness Peace and Blessing of Melchisedec are perpetual § 10. After the explication of this Description we must consider wherein Melchisedec and Christ agree for there must be an agreement between the Type and the Antitype They agree in Offices Acts and Continuance 1. Melchisedec was a Priest and a King so was Christ Melchisedec was a King first of Righteousness and after of Peace so is Christ for he is the most righteous and just Administratour of his universal and perpetual Spiritual Kingdom and by Righteousness procures an everlasting Peace for our eternal Righteousness is from Him and the Fruit of this Righteousnesse is the perpetuall Peace of all his Loyall and Obedient Subjects 2. Melchisedec as a Priest received Tythes of Abraham and blessed him so Christ doth bless all such as believe in him and makes them eternally happy and all our spiritual Blessings and our eternal Bliss we expect to receive by him and
to null and abrogate it The effect of this Gospel upon the Expiation made by Christ is the Perfection that is the Justification and Sanctification of sinful guilty Man whereby he is freed from the sad and woful Consequents of Sin and especially from the condemning vindicative Justice of God and eternal death and so may draw nigh to God Where we must consider 1. What it is to draw nigh to God 2. Why this Clause is added To draw nigh to God is sometimes a Duty somtimes a Reward and Priviledge given for Christ's merit to such as perform the Duty As it is a Duty it 's sometimes a coming to the place where God hath put his Name and where he vouchsafed his special presence as in the Tabernacle and Temple he did for to worship him It 's sometime a worshipping of God or performing any divine Service unto him for then we pretend to leave the World and turn our backs upon all things and to present our selves before his Throne as in Prayer and other Duties Again it is a turning from our sins with a Resolution to forsake them and an engagement of our selvs and that with our whole hearts to be his Servants and obedient Subjects And this we cannot do effectually without Faith in Christ and the further we depart from sin the nearer we draw to him and are more like unto him This is a Duty But to have peace with God to be reconciled to him so as to have free access with boldness and confidence to the Throne of Grace where he sits as propitiated by the Blood of Christ and as a Father looks upon us as his Children is a great and gracious reward and special priviledg and presupposeth the former Duty performed and the party performing it in the state of Justification and Reconciliation For being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have acccess by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand c. Rom. 5. 1 2. To understand this more fully we must consider That the words are in some sort Metaphorical wherein the Apostle alludes either to the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai where he represented himself very terrible as sitting in the Throne of Justice and not of Grace and Mercy so as that to draw nigh unto him was a present Death The People must keep at a distance only Moses might come near and ascend the Mount which was a special and extraordinary favour or he may allude unto the legal dispensation under which no unclean person as a Leper or one defiled by touching a dead body or some other way might come into the Congregation or nigh the Tabernacle or Temple so as to worship with God's People before they were cleansed and purified but upon their purification finished they might draw nigh and come with the rest of God's unpolluted Servants to Worship and to serve their God so as to have communion with him and receive mercies blessings and comforts from him So in this place such as are perfected that is justified and sanctified through Faith by the Blood of Christ have liberty to draw nigh to God as to a Father to seek and receive mercies and increase of Grace and heavenly Comforts and have sweet communion with him Before their justification and reconciliation they stood at a distance from their God and looked upon him as a consuming Fire and to draw near was danger though even then they might have some hope of mercy They are like the Publican standing a far off and beating upon his Brest and saying Lord be merciful to me a Sinner but when their Consciences are purged and their Souls by Faith are cleansed in the Blood of Christ they then have liberty and draw nigh to serve and worship God with confidence that he will accept their persons prayers and other Services This is the drawing nigh to God here meant yet you must know that these approaches are not so nigh in this life but that there is some distance But in the place of Glory the approach shall be so near as that it will take away all distance and we shall have immediate and full communion with our God The reason why this Clause was added which is the second thing is to let us know how far more excellent the Gospel is above the Law For by the Law no Man was brought nigh to God or might approach unto him in this manner It 's true they might draw nigh to the place of God's special presence if legally clean or cleansed and by observation of the Law escape some temporal Judgments obtain some temporal Blessings and enjoy some earthly Comforts yet continue spiritually unclean guilty and liable to eternal penalties be far from God with their hearts remain unjustified unsanctified and so could have no spiritual peace with God nor any heavenly comfort neither could they draw nigh to God with boldness so as to have any near communion with him To draw nigh to God as to a Father in Christ is a far more excellent priviledg and could not be obtained by the Law Some do make these words a reason to prove that Perfection was had by the Priest-hood of Christ because by it we draw nigh to God And it 's true that by Christ as a Priest and the Gospel we obtain this priviledg which the Law could not give us For to draw nigh to God presupposeth the party approaching perfected and sanctified and by what we are sanctified by that we draw nigh and this priviledg doth prove perfection by the Gospel as the effect doth prove and manifest the cause So that the argumentation in form is this By what we draw nigh to God by that we are perfected But by the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel we are perfected Therefore by them we draw nigh to God For as we must not seperate the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law so neither must we divide the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel In all this discourse two things are observable 1. That God did not take away the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law till he brought in the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel 2. That he took away that which was imperfect to bring in that which was perfect and far more excellent And all this was done as to manifest his wisdom so especially his mercy and serious intention to save man For he would leave nothing undone that was necessary for the compleating of man's eternal Salvation For if the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law could have justified Man and so given life He had never sent Christ and made him a Priest and revealed the Gospel For then both Christ and Gospel had been needless and useless to that end For as the Apostle saith If there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by that Law Gal. 3. 21. But because both Law and Priest-hood were insufficient therefore he decreed
and seeing the punishment was Death Death must first be suffered This was thus appointed and done to signify his purest holiness his hatred and detestation of sin his love of Justice and his respect unto the Law which bound to obedience or upon disobedience to punishment By this he signified and all men must know it that it 's a dangerous thing to transgress his Laws and this must hear and fear But then 2. Why by his own blood The reason in general is the will of God which did determine upon this blood and the wisdom of God which knew that it was the fittest of all other But more particularly the blood of Goats and Calves was no wayes convenient For it is not possible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins Hebr. 10. 4. Nor the blood of man of the best man though far above the blood of Bullocks and Goates was fit for all men are guilty and their blood is stained Neither was the life of Angels fit for though it might be precious yet God did not think it sufficiently satisfactory and meritorious for sinful man And suppose an High-Priest should offer his own blood yet that would not serve Therefore it must be Christ's blood his own blood which was pure and without spot and most precious not only because it was the blood of God that eternal Word made Flesh which was God but because it was shed with greatest pain and most willingly out of love to sinful man whose Flesh and Blood he had assumed and in obedience to his heavenly Father who had made him the great High-Priest appointed him to be the Head Surety and Hostage of sinful man and commanded him to lay down his life and do this great Service And without the blood of this Sacrifice he could not have entred into the holy place and obtained eternal Redemption This is the fourth thing observed in the Text and the Subject of the fourth Proposition concerning one immediate effect of his blood For he entring by his own blood once obtained eternal Redemption Where we must enquire 1. What Redemption is 2. Why this Redemption is said to be eternal 3. How it was obtained by the blood of Christ entring into Heaven or by Christ entring Heaven once with his own blood 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Copher in Hebrew which signifies a price or gift offered to a Judge or an Enemy to deliver one from Death or some other evil or punishment and it 's called a Ransome in this respect Christ is said to give himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lytron a Ransome 1 Tim. 2. 6. and Matth. 20. 28. In that place it 's such a price as is given to a Judge who hath power of Life and Death for to save the life of one capitally guilty and by Law bound to suffer Death The effect of this price is 1. To propitiate the Judge 2. Upon this propitiation made to save the lise of the party guilty In this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the effect of this price and is turned Redemption Expiation Remission Propitiation It 's true that the word may signify many other things and any kind of deliverance from evil But in this place it 's evident that it signifies the deliverance of guilty persons from Death upon a price given and accepted The party to whom this price was given is God as Supream Judge before whose Tribunal man stands guilty and liable to Death The effect of it is propitiation which includes satisfaction of divine Justice and merit of his favour and love Upon this propitiation sin becomes remissible and pardonable therefore Redemption and Propitiation are sometimes by a Metonymy taken for Remission according to that of the Apostle In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Ephes. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. In both which places the latter word seems to explain the former Yet Redemption is not Remission properly and actually but efficienter as the effect is said to be in the cause before it exist because of the virtue and power which abiding in the cause is sufficient to produce the effect and Christ must make sin by this Redemption remissible before it can be actually remitted 2. This Redemption and Propitiation is said to be eternal not because Christ is always redeeming and propitiating for that work was performed speedily and in a short time But it 's such because the virtue of it is of perpetual continuance in respect of all Sinners capable of all sins according to the Laws of God-Redeemer remissible and of the remission it self which frees the Sinner from all his sins from the eternal guilt and all penalties for ever Upon this Redemption is grounded that comfortable promise of the New Covenant formerly mentioned Chap. 8. 12. where God binds himself to remember our iniquities no more that is to give eternal pardon This adjunct of perpetuity is added to difference this Redemption and Expiation from that of the Law which must be made atleast every year It did but extend backward to sins of one year and the force of it presently expires 3. This was found and obtained by Christ as by his own blood entring once into the holy place None could make this propitiation but Christ neither could he do it except he enter the holy place Neither by that except he enter with blood his own blood But if he enter with that blood but once then the work is done for ever Why this Expiation and Propitiation should be made by blood and Christ's blood you have heard already But why with his blood must he enter the holy place and how being entered by and with this blood propitiation should be made for us as Translators by adding these words understand and supply the place though more difficult yet is to be cleared 1. Some tell us that because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Aorist tense consignifying time past eternal Redemption and Propitiation was found and obtained first and then afterward he entred the holy place And it 's true that when Christ had suffered Death the principal work was done and the foundation of eternal Remission was laid Yet if Death and shedding of his blood obtained eternal Redemption before he entred Heaven at lest in his Soul separated from his Body then the Type and Anti-type did not agree For the legal Redemption and Expiation was not made instantly upon the slaying of the Coates and Bullocks but before the work could be finished and sin expiated the High-Priest must take the Blood and Incense and enter the Holy of Holies and first burn the Incense and then sprinkle the blood upon and before the Mercy-seat without both which done neither his own sins nor the sins of the People could be expiated In all bloody and propitiatory Sacrifices were required Mactatio
power to purge the Conscience To proceed unto particulars the parts of the Comparison are two 1. The Proposition 2. The Reddition The first Ver. 13 the second Ver. 14. In the first we have the Cause the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer then the Effect sanctifying to the purifying of the Flesh. Of the Blood of Bulls and Goats which is the same with the Blood of Goats and Calvs Ver. 12. you have heard before for that was the Expiatory Blood wherewith the Priest entring the most Holy place did sprinkle the Mercy-Seat and the Effect of this was the Expiation of the Sins of the Priest and the People whereby they were freed from such penalties as the Law imposed upon persons for some Legal and Ceremonial Offences The second purifying was by the Ashes of a red Heifer mixed with running Water and sprinkled upon Persons or things polluted by touching or being near the dead Of this you may read at large Numb 19. The Effect of both was sanctifying by cleansing from some Legal pollution and Guilt but neither of these could free any person from the Obligation to eternal penalties nor spiritually purify and make holy the Spirit and Soul of Man Some think that the Blood did signify the Death and bloody Sacrifice of Christ the Water the sanctifying Spirit Yet both are here compared with the Blood of Christ as Shadows of it This is the Proposition § 13. The Reddition followeth Ver. 14. Where we have two absolute Propositions and part of the Comparison 1. That Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit without Spot unto God 2. That the Blood of Christ who thus offered himself doth purge the Conscience from dead Works to serve the Living God 3. The Comparative part is that it hath much more Power or doth much more purge the Conscience The first Proposition is Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot unto God Where we may consider 1. The Priest 2. The thing offered 3. The manner how 4. The thing by which 5. The Person to whom the Offering was made 1. The Priest was Christ the Word made Flesh and the Son of God designed a Priest by God 2. The thing offered by this Priest was Himself that is his own Life his own Body and some add his own Soul This was spoken in opposition to such things as the Levitical High-Priests offered as Buls and Goats for none of them offered either other men or themselvs 3. The manner how this was offered is this that it was offered without Spot The thing offered and the Offering and the manner of offering were all pure 4. That by or through which he made this Offering was the eternal Spirit By Spirit some understand the Soul which is said to be eternal because it 's immortal And certainly in respect of his Body he may rather be said to be the thing offered and in respect of his Soul the Priest offering For this offering is said to be the doing of God's Will and an Act of Obedience unto death the death of the Cross and this is a proper Act of his immortal Soul and Spirit Yet this Soul and Body too were united to the Word which as God was an eternal Spirit in which respect some understand by eternal Spirit the Word and Divine Nature of Christ And both Soul and Body were in the highest degree sanctified and supported especially in suffering death by the Holy Ghost which some think is here meant It 's certain he did offer himself by his immortal Spirit sanctified and supported by the Holy Spirit and united to the Word which with the Father and the Holy Ghost are one God and eternal spiritual Substance 5. The party to whom he offered himself was God as supream Lord of Life and Death Law-giver and Judg of Man-kind For he alone had power to appoint him to be Priest to be Offering and to offer and also to accept this Offering in behalf of sinful Man and thereupon to justify him believing and reward him with eternal Life All these are expressed and joyned together to set forth the Excellency and the immanent and internal Vertue of Christ's Blood For How excellent and of what rare vertue and causality must that Blood Death Sacrifice be which was the Blood of Christ who was by God's own immediate Commission and Designment made the highest and the greatest Priest and offered Himself the best Sacrifice that ever was and that through the eternal Spirit purely spiritual and most holy and impolluted and that unto God the supream Lord and Judg and in that manner that the very Act of offering from first to last was most exactly conformable to his Will It had all the perfections of a Sacrifice and in the highest degree The Levitical High-Priest was a Priest but far inferiour to Christ he offered Goats and Calvs but not himself and if he had offered himself yet the thing offered had been nothing to this he offered indeed to God yet he had not that near Relation unto Agreement with and Interest in God as this Priest had He offered by or through his own Spirit which was very imperfect and the imperfections of his very Act of Offering were very many and great Therefore it was no wonder that it should not have the like rare efficiency with this The second Proposition in this Verse is That Christ's Blood doth purge the Conscience c. This is the outward Efficacy and Working of this Blood upon a certain Subject rightly disposed In the words we may observe 1. The Conscience which is the Subject 2. The pollution of the Conscience 3. The purging and cleansing of it 4. The â—ind and Consequent of this cleansing 1. The Conscience is the Spirit and immortal Soul of Man which is Intimum Hominis the in most and most excellent part yet this is not here considered meerly as a spiritual immortal intellective and free Substance created and preserved by God but as subject unto his Power bound by his Laws conscious to it 's own Disobedience and sensible of it For the Blood of Christ doth actually purge no other Soul nor any Soul but thus qualified neither without this Qualification is the Soul immediately capable of this Purgation 2. The Pollution of the Soul is from dead Works where by dead Works it 's generally granted are meant Sins and that not only of Commission but Omission All the Works of Man should be living Works and issue from a Soul endued with a spiritual and supernatural Life have a spiritual and supernatural Form which is Conformity to Divine Law and should tend unto a supernatural and spiritual end When they either issue from a Soul destitute of this heavenly Life or want this Conformity they are dead Works base and such as becomes not so excellent a Creature The ordinary Reasons given by Authors why Sins are called dead Works are because they are the Works of men dead in sin want the Life and
man yet willing upon certain terms to be merciful unto him And one condition which performed he will accept is that Christ as Surety for man should suffer Death for man to satisfie divine Justice In this respect is he said to give himself a Ransome or Price How far different this is from the offering here described is easy to understand The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used about sixteen times in this Epistle but never taken in his sense which is so absurd and unworthy that no rational man as rational much less a Christian and a Schollar can any wayes approve but reject with scorn The rest of his discourse upon this Text is like his description of Christ's offering and by it he seeks to cast a mist upon the divine Doctrine of the Apostle lest he should confound himself and suffer his Reader to see the truth Dr. Gouge upon this Text affirms Christ to be a Priest in both natures which cannot be true for though he that is Priest be God yet as God he is not he cannot be a Priest For a Priest is an Officer and all Officers as Officers are made such by Commission from the Supream Power from whom they derive their Office whom they represent and are Servants under them to serve them There are two prime and proper acts of Christ as a Priest to Sacrifice and offer himself to God as Supream Lord and to make Intercession to him To attribute either of these to God as God and affirm them of him in proper sense is plainly blasphemous and inexcusable it turns the Lord into the Servant and God into Man § 14. Hitherto the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice and Service hath been manifested by two glorious and excellent effects the one immediate which is Expiation the other mediate which is purging the Conscience from Dead Works The former made Sin pardonable and the Consequents thereof removable the latter actually takes away Sin and the Consequents thereof in him who believeth Besides these two there is a third effect shewing it to be yet more excellent and that is confirmation of the New Covenant for thus he writes Ver. 15. And for this cause is he the Mediatour of the New Covenant that by means of Death for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Test ament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance THe subject of this Verse is the confirmation of the New Covenant by the Death and Sacrifice of Christ which is affirmed here and illustrated from ver 16. to the 23. afterwards And here the Coherence is 1. To be examined 2. The Text in it self to be considered The coherence with the former is in these words And for this cause The Copulative and may be as in other places expletive or it may be used to signify that the Death and bloody Sacrifice of Christ as it was ordained for another end besides the two former of Propitiation and purging the Conscience so it hath another and a third effect which is The confirmation of the New Covenant For this is to observed that he speaks and still continues his discourse of the Death and Blood of Christ. The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this cause which are turned by some therefore may referr either to that which goes before or that which follows If to that which goes before then they inform us that because Christ by his Blood entring the holy place of Heaven obtained eternal Remission and by it offering himself through the eternal Spirit without spot doth purge the Conscience to serve the living God therefore and for this cause and in respect of these two effects is he the Mediatour of the New Covenant If they relate to that which follows they are to be understood in this manner That because by the Death of Christ the Called receive the promise of eternal Inheritance therefore he is the Mediatour of the New Covenant This is the Coherence The absolute consideration of the Text followeth wherein we have two principal express Axioms or Propositions 1. Christ is the Mediatour of the New Covenant 2. By means of Death for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Covenant the Called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance 3. Christ is a Mediatour of the New Covenant that by means of Death for Redemption c. the Called may receive the promise c. In the first we have 1. A New Covenant 2. A Mediatour of this New Covenant 3. Christ the Mediatour 1. The New Covenant is that of the Gospel whereof you have heard in the former Chapter where it was opposed unto and compared with the Old Covenant made with the Fathers in the Wilderness Exod. 19. as established upon better promises And that word which was there turned Covenant is turned Testament not that there is any necessity but a conceived congruity For because here is mention of an Inheritance which is usually conveyed by the Will and Testament of man which Will is then firm and unalterable when the Testatour dieth therefore it was conceived by some that in this place that which formerly was called a Covenant should be called here a Testament yet notwithstanding it agrees with a Testament and may by a Metaphor be so termed yet it is more properly a Covenant 2. We have a Mediatour of this Covenant and what a Mediatour is you have heard before as also the distinctions of Mediators Some tell us that a Mediatour is aut â—untius aut sequester pacis aut arbiter aut sponsor yet we need not insist upon these terms for the Mediatour of this Covenant is a Priest and a Minister of it as the High-Priest was of the former Covenant 3. This Mediatour is Christ who may be said to be Nuntius à Dâ—o Intercessor pro hâ—mine Arbiter inter utrumque Sponsor pro utroque and he is a Messenger declaring the Covenant as a Prophet an Arbitratour between God and Man as a King a Surety and Intercessour as a Priest Yet though all this said may be in some respect true yet it 's neither accurate nor pertinent in this place Christ as a Priest and as a Priest officiating and offering himself a Sacrifice to propitiate God and purge the conscience of sinful Man is the Mediatour of this Covenant For as such and in this respect he mediates between God and Man to propitiate God and to make man fit for the receiving of the eternal Reward promised and both these he doth by his Blood and Death without which offered and applyed the promise would be void and never take effect It 's true that Christ doth procure the Covenant declares it confirms it and makes it effectual and in all these respects he may be said to be a Mediatour Yet here he is made such principally and most properly as confirming and making it effectual Moses and not Aaron was the Mediatour in the making and confirming the Old Covenant For he dealt between God and the
People as a third part 1. In making the Covenant in signifying God's Will unto the People and returning the People's Answer unto God Exod. 19. 2. 2. In confirming it by Blood as an indifferent distinct person Exod. 24. To which place the Apostle doth allude as we shall understand hereafter in the illustration This is the meaning of the first Proposition The second may be divided for explication and made two 1. Christ by means of Death expiated Transgressions under the former Covenant 2. By means of this Death the Called receive the promise of eternal Inheritance The first implies 1. That there were Transgressions under the former Covenant 2. That there was a Redemption of these Transgressions 3. This Redemption was by the Death of Christ. The first is clear enough for Moses Aaron David and the Saints of God from the times of Moses till the exhibition of Christ had their sins much more others not sanctified The second cannot be doubted of for if there was no Redemption of those Sins and Transgressions then they could not be saved they must suffer eternal punishments as they did temporal By Redemption here is meant Expiation and Propitiation whereby their sins were made remissible and upon certain terms and conditions performed actually to be remitted The third will be granted in general that the Expiation was by Death and Blood but that they were expiated by the Blood of Christ many of the Jews denied Yet if they had understood the Books of Moses they might have known that the Blood of Bulls and Goats could not expiate the Sin of Man a rational and immortal Creature not free from the eternal Punishment Some Legal frailties and infirmities they might expiate and avert some temporal penalties Therefore there must of necessity be some other Death and Blood that must do it And this was the Blood of Christ which all their Ilastical Sacrifices and Lustrations did typify Yet this is not so to be understood as though their Sins were not remissible and remitted till Christ dyed and offered his Sacrifice for by vertue of this Death fore-seen and fore-accepted they were in their Life-time upon their Repentance Faith in Christ to come and their fervent Prayers pardoned They did not rely upon their Legal Sacrifices nor expected Remission from them but relyed upon this Death of Christ to come according to the Promise That in him all Nations should be blessed This Proposition is not to be understood exclusively as though Christ's Death did expiate no Sin but that which was committed under the first Covenant but emphatically to singnify 1. That there was no Expiation for Transgressions under the Law 2. That if Christ's Death expiate former Transgressions under the Law much more will it expiate such as are committed under the Gospel 3. That there was no reason as some observe why they should be offended with the Death of Christ seeing without his Death and Blood neither they nor their Fathers could be saved but must suffer eternal penalties The second part of this second Proposition informs us that 1. There is an eternal Inheritance 2. There is a Promise of it 3. The called receive this Promise 4. By means of Christ's Death they receive this Promise For in the words we have an Inheritance the Heirs the Conveyance the Purchase or rather the price whereby it 's purchased The Inheritance is eternal Happiness the Heirs are the called the Conveyance is by Promise and Covenant the price of the purchase is Christ's Death and Blood 1. The Inheritance is that blessed and glorious Estate which is to be enjoyed upon the Resurrection for the full possession and enjoyment is reserved for Heaven where it 's said to be laid up and reserved It 's said to be eternal in opposition to the Land of Canaan which was the temporal Inheritance of them and their Fathers and to be enjoyed with the Blessings thereof so long as they kept the Covenant of their God and this was the Inheritance promised in the former Covenant and to this which formerly was called God's Rest the Apostle seems to allude as a Type of this which was far more excellent and glorious of eternal continuance in respect of the Inheritance it self the parties enjoying it and the enjoyment thereof 2. This eternal Inheritance was promised there was a Promise of it It was God's and the disposal of it was at his Will Man for his sin was cast out of Paradise and forfeited Heaven with the eternal Bliss thereof yet it was in his mind to give it sinful Man who deserved it not so great was his mercy and bounty and Man must know this For this end he promised it and by his Promise bound himself to give it and in it did signify his Will The Effect of this Promise was Obligation on God's part and a Right unto it on Man's part an Hope to obtain it and a Comfort upon this Hope And here it 's to be observed that our Title to eternal life depends immediately upon the Promise and is derived from it for as the Israelites had the Land of Canaan and held it by Covenant and Promise so do all the Children of God expect the heavenly Canaan and hope to have it by Promise of the new Covenant Some do ' understand by the Promise of eternal Inheritance this Inheritance promised yet there must be a Promise received before we receive the thing promised 3. After the Inheritance and the Promise and Conveyance follows the Heirs which are here said to be the called Some are not called at all these have no Promise of the Inheritance Such were the Gentiles before the Gospel was preached unto them they were Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no Hope and without God in the World Ephes. 2. 12. Some are called and have the means of Conversion but reject the terms of the Covenant and refuse to enter into it and engage themselvs such were the unbelieving Jews and many others Some are called enter the Covenant and solemnly bind themselvs to the observation of it yet do not observe it In respect of these two last it is that Christ saith Many are called but few are chosen Matth. 22. 14. None of these are Heirs Some are called and are obedient to the heavenly Call and keep the Covenant these receive the eternal Inheritance promised and first acquire the Title and after that the Possession Some were called before the Exhibition of Christ some after the former are here principally meant though the latter with them receive the Inheritance 4. These called Ones of former times with us receive this Promise by vertue of Christ's Death expiating their sins and of his Blood purging their Conscience To understand this you must consider that none but such whose Sins are expiated and their Consciences purged can be Heirs for they must be regenerated and acted by the Spirit and adopted Sons before they can be Heirs For as the Apostle argues If Sons then Heirs
have power to change and alter them but chiefly because in a Will the Inheritance is so alienated and transmitted to others as that they can have no Right unto it but upon the Death of the Testators who signify in their Wills what their Heirs shall have not whilest themselves are living but only when they are dead If any alter these after they are dead the alteration is void because it signifies not the Will of him that is dead 3. They are in force only upon the death of the Testators This is that wherein the death of Christ and of a Testator do agree and for which the Author made this Comparison for Illustration of his former Doctrine To be of force is to be valid and firm so as to give an immediate Title unto the right Heirs upon whom the Testator's Right actually descends The Reason of this legal force and validity is not only because there is no possibility of Alteration but also because the Testator being by Death disseised of all Right and Possession of any temporal estate in this Life the time signified in the Testament is come wherein the Heir may challenge his Right and the Will may be put in execution 4. The necessity of this Death to make the Testament valid is evident from what hath formerly been said The Reddition of this Comparison hath been already made and from all this we learn that though a Testament and the new Covenant are like in this that as there must be the Death of the Testator for to make the Testament valid and the Death of Christ to make the new Covenant of force yet they are unlike and different in many other things For the Death of the Testator doth not purchase the Inheritance norexpiate the Offences of the Heir yet Christ's Death doth both Therefore the new Covenant is not a Testament in proper sense but is so called metaphorically A Lâ—pide and others labour to make it a Testament but all they can say is to little purpose Others again endeavour to prove a Testament to be a Covenant and from hence infer that the new Covenant is a Testament yet this is vain and needless For all that can be said in this Point if we will follow the Apostle and the Scriptures is that for matter of Confirmation the new Covenant and a Testament agree in this that both are confirmed by Death and Blood For as the Testator hath no intention to give his Inheritance and part with the Title or Possession before he dy so God did never intend to give Remission and eternal Life which he promiseth in the new Covenant but for and in the consideration of Christ's Death by which they were purchased and merited and if Christ had not dyed the Promises had been in vain and of no force Therefore the Death of Christ is the Foundation Life and Soul of the new Covenant not only unto those who were called after his Death but also unto those who believed before his Death and Exhibition Yet this Comparison may be made and so intended by the Author as to signify that Christ's Blood is of far greater force to confirm the new Covenant then the death of the Testator to confirm a Testament made by him for the former is of divine the latter but of humane constitution and the former can no wayes be violated the latter may be many wayes made void § 17. The second Illustration is a Jure Ceremoniali from the positive Ceremonial Law of Moses instituted by God and that for several Ends and amongst the rest for Confirmation of the Covenant Purification of things and persons The Apostle instanceth in both and first in the Blood of Confirmation Ver. 18 19 20. Where we must consider 1. The Conneion 2. The words themselvs The Connexion we have in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned unde itaque propterea in Latine and in English Whereupon The sense is this Seeing the best way of Confirmation and firmest Sanction of Laws Covenants Testaments is by Death and Blood and judged so to be by God himself therefore it seemed good to him to confirm the first Covenant by Blood and by that did even then intimate that the far better Covenant to succeed should be confirmed by far better Blood And therefore none should think it strange that the new Covenant should be confirmed by the Death and Blood of Christ seeing it was the usuall and onely way of confirming Testaments according to the Custom of the Eastern Nations and besides the first Covenant was so confirmed That it was so the Apostle 1. Affirms 2. Proves He affirms it Ver. 18. Whereupon neither was the first dedicated without Blood VVHere we have 1. The first 2. The Dedication of the first 3. The Dedication of it by Blood 2. By first we must understand the first Covenant which God made with Israel in Mount Horeb. 2. By Dedication is meant the Confirmation and the solemn Sanction of the same For it was 1. Made between God and Israel Exod. 19. 2. Then Laws given as certain Articles and Conditions to be observed by the Peeople were revealed and afterwards written 3. Both Laws and Promises were read and assented unto 4. The whole Covenant thus compleated was confirmed Exod. 24. That which is dedicated unto God by vertue of the Dedication becomes sacred and inviolable and so this Covenant upon the Confirmation was In this respect that which is Dedication in respect of persons or things is Confirmation in in respect of the Covenant 3. This Dedication was by Blood for that way of Dedication or Confirmation is the highest most solemn serious and firm for stronger cannot be For using of Blood for sanction of Leagues and Covenants seems to signify that the parties confederating engage Blood and Life for the observation of them Whereas it 's said That neither without Blood which may seem to be Negative It 's the same with this and with or by Blood which is Affirmative and the Copulative signifies that not only Testaments of Men but the first Covenant of God was thus confirmed § 18. That which he affirmed he proves Ver. 19. For when Moses had spoken every Precept to the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Bulls and Goats with Water and scarlet Wooll and Hysopâ— and sprinkled both the Book and all the People Ver. 20. Saying This is the Blood of the Covenant which God hath enjoyned you THe substance of this we find Exod. 24. And we need not trouble our selves either in the Omissions or Additions of the Apostle for the Omissions may be easily supplyed from the place of Moses and the Additions are there implyed and here expressed for explication In the words themselves we may observe 1. The action of Confirmation 2. The words 1. The Action is sprinkling of Blood The Sprinkler was of Scarlet Wooll and Hysope for the Sprinkler used in the Passover was a bunch of Hysope Exod. 12. 20. The blood
and heavenly things principally intended are the Consciences and immortal Souls of men which being purged make up the Body of the Church which is Militant first on Earth and after that to be Triumphant in Heaven 2. The better Sacrifice above the former is the Sacrifice of Christ and the pure unsported Blood of him who offered himself by the eternal Spirit to God The purifying vertue of this Sacrifice was in this that Christ the Son of God innocent holy righteous as Surety and Hostage of Man-king appointed to be so by God did deny himself took up the Cross shed his Blood for to expiate the Sin of Man and was obedient unto death the death of the Cross For him so excellent to suffer death so willingly for so glorious an end and that at the Command of God was the highest and purest degree of Obedience that ever was performed unto God and was highly accepted and did fully satisfy divine Justice so far as was required In the offering of this Sacrifice he gave himself wholly to his heavenly Father and became as it were a whole Burnt-Offering being wholly consumed with the Zeal of his Father's Glory and the Love of Man-kind And here it is to be noted upon the By That though in the Text we read Sacrifices in the plural number yet this one Sacrifice of Christ is onely meant Estius thinks it's an Enallage of number the Plural for the Singular for the Sacrifice whereby heavenly things are purified is but only one once offered Yet it may be called Sacrifices because it had more vertue than all other purifying Sacrifices and also because it was one of those expiating Sacrifices which were offered unto God yet more excellent than all the rest It 's like that expression of Jâ—phtah's Butial for it 's said he was buried in the Cities of Gâ—lead that is one of the Cities of that Country which was Mizpeh as some think Judg. 12. 7. 3. For the heavenly things and the Consciences of men to be purified is to be freed from Sin that is from the Guilt and Dominion of Sin which is to be justified and sanctified as these words are usually taken This Purification is vertual or actual for when the Blood of Christ was shed offered and accepted for the Sins of men then they may be said to be purified virtually as upon the death of Christ we are said to be reconciled because made reconcilable And when by Faith this Blood is sprinkled upon our Consciences and pardon obtained by Christ's Intercession for peniâ—ent and believing Sinners then they are said to be actually purified and when they are wholly freed from all the Guilt and Power of Sin then they are perfectly purified 4. This Purification by this Sacrifice was necessary for supposing God's Will and Decree concerning the eternal Happiness of sinful Man in Communion with his God it was necessary Man should be purified for otherwise he could have no fellowship with God so as to derive eternal Happiness from him For as God is Light and just and holy so they must be Light just and holy who shall see and enjoy him And because no Sacrifice but this of Christ could thus qualify him therefore it was necessary both that he should be purified and purified with this Sacrifice § 22. Thus far you have heard of the necessity of the death of Christ for the Confirmation of the Covenant illustrated by Similitudes taken from the Law of Nature and the Ceremonial Law of Moses Therefore the Jews except they were very ignorant could have no cause to be offended with this death upon the Cross seeing it was so necessary to the purchasing of the eternal Inheritance and the purging of mens Consciences that they might be capable of the Possession and have a Title unto it for the ground of the Promise from whence the Title is immediately derived is this Sacrifice without which the Promise was never made neither if it had been made could it without this have been valid But let 's consider what follows for he saith Ver. 24. For Christ is not entred into the Holy places made with hands which are Figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear before God for us THese words considered absolutely in themselvs seem to be plain and easily understood but the coherence is doubtful Some and amongst the rest Esâ—ius takes little notice of it as not much material Many others finding the causal Conjunction For do agree that in these words the Apostle gives a Reason of something that went before but they differ much in the particular Explication of the Reason Dr. Gouge conceivs that the Apostle's intention is to prove that the Sacrifice of Christ is more excellent than the Sacrifices of the Law and this is true but yet imperfect Beza thinks that the Author in this Text begins another and a new Collation or Comparison to prove the excellency of this Offering and this cannot be denyed Dr. Lushington who is said to be the Translator of Crellius tells us that here is proved That the Heavenly places are purified by better Sacrifices and that because Christ entred not into the earthly Sanctuary but into Heaven it self This doth presuppose that Heaven it self is purified by the Blood of Christ and that Christ entred thereinto for that end But this is difficult to understand and supposeth that which few will grant him A Lapide differs from all these and saith that the Apostle gives in this Text a Reason why he called the Church heavenly or heavenly things and that is because Christ entred into Heaven to unlock the Gates and open the Doors thereof that the faithful might enter thereinto This is not so clear and satisfactory though it hath something of Truth To find out the Connexion we must observe 1. That the Conjunction for or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes expletive and redundant 2. Sometimes the same that but or moreover is 3. That though it be called by the Grammarians a Causal yet it doth not alwayes imply a Cause but it 's used to bring in any other Reason or Argument and therefore might be called a rational Conjunction Yet Whittington in his Grammar saith that a Causal Conjunction signifies the Cause or Order of that which goeâ— before where he implies that it doth not alwayes joyn the Cause and the Effect 4. Let it be taken for a Conjunction which joyns these words to the former so as to contain a Reason we must consider what was formerly â—ffiâ—med and how it 's here proved To this end let us remember that the Subject of the former discourse was Purification or Expiation of things by Blood of Sacrifices and these things are earthly and carnal or spiritual and heavenly Of these latter he affirmed that it was necessary they should be purified with better Sacrifices The manner how he proves this is this He presupposing that these heavenly things must be purified proves 1. That they were purified by
respect of the prohibition and commination of the Law is guilt and rendring of the Sinner obnoxiâ—us unto vindicative Justice of the Law-giver and Judge This guilt can no waye he taken away but either by suffering or pardon or both as here it 's put away by Christ's suffering and God's pardon for Christ suffers for Sin God pardons it so Christ's sake and in consideration of his suffering and offering The effect of Sin is to render the party sinning obnoxious and liable to punishment and God's vindicative Justice and by this virtue of the commination of the Law God to make way for pardon by a transâ—endent extraordinary power makes Christ man's Surety and Christ voluntarily submits himself out of love to his Brethren to God's will so far as to suffer Death for man's Sin and offers himself as being â—lain to the Supream Judge Upon his submission he becomes one person with sinful man as a Surety with the principal and so is liable to that punishment which sinful man should have suffered as a Surety becomes liable to pay the debt of the principal From all this it 's evident that Sin is an efficient moral cause of Christ's suffering and Christ's suffering is a punishment in proper sense though both these be denied without any reason by the Socinian By this Legal substitution of Christ and the offering of himself Sin is made remissible and the way is made open to pardon and upon the penitency and faith of the Sinner actual pardon follows That Sin is pardonable and pardoned is the end and effect of Christ's Suffering To put away Sin is first to make Sin pardonable and the consequents of Sin removable For this is the work and immediate effect of Christ's Sacrifice of himself and the same not often but once offered in the end of the World In all this we may observe the difference between Christ and the Levitical High-Priest Christ suffers and offers himself and enters Heaven with his own Blood but the Levitical High-Priest offers often and enters with the blood of Bulls and Goats The virtue of the High-Priest's offering was but for a little time but the virtue of Christ's extends to all time In these respects Christ's Sacrifice is far more excellent and more purifying § 25. This discourse of Christ's once offering and once suffering is continued and enlarged for the Apostle informs us that the reason why Christ suffered but once in the end of the World was the Decree of God which had determined of Christ as he had done of other men and this decree was regulated by Divine Wisdom which alwayes dictates that which shall be best and fittest This Decree is two-fold 1. Concerning other men 2. Concerning Christ. And because there is some agreement between the lot of Christ and other Men in respect of Death and that which followeth Death therefore the singularity of Christ's Death is set forth comparatively And of the comparison we have 1. The Proposition Verse 27. And as it was appointed unto Men once to dye but after that the Judgment IN which words we have 1. Something 's ordained 2. The ordination The things ordained are two 1. That men once dy 2. Come to Judgment The words absolutely considered may be reduced to two Propositions 1. That it 's appointed unto men once to dye 2. But after Death follows Judgment The first tells us 1. That men dye and this we certainly know 2. That they dye but once 3. That this is appointed yet though men must dye and it 's so certain and so evident and easily known yet men little consider it but their hearts are strangely taken up with the things of this life and they admire the vanities of this World and promise unto themselves long life and certain enjoyment of these earthly things They do not remember that they are mortal and that there is no assurance that they shall live one hour before Death arrest them and seise upon their estates and all earthly comforts in that day their thoughts perish and their pride and glory are laid in the dust Oh inconsiderate Wretches are ye able to conquer Death turn Mortality into Eternity and Earth into Heaven Be wise and never forget that you must dye 2. Men dye but once there is no return into this World again neither any recovery of what man once dead hath lost As no man can keep alive his Soul so no man can raise his Body and re-unite the Soul unto it This is a work proper to God who made us and far above the power of any Creature When it 's said That men must dye it 's to be understood of the generality of mankind that all must dye because all are obnoxious to Death and Mortal even Enoch and Elias and all those who shall be found alive when Christ shall come to Judge the World And though the two Prophets did not and they who remain till Christ's coming shall not dye as others do yet the former suffered and the latter shall suffer a change equivalent to Death though in both there seems to be some exception from the general rule So to dye but once is the general rule and the ordinary fate yet Lazarus and others may dye twice because God reserved an arbitrary power to himself to raise some unto a mortal life so that they became obnoxious to a double Death and he did exercise this power to manifest his Glory in some particular persons Yet this was an extraordinary case and this reservation did not take away the general and ordinary rule according to which the Apostle is to be understood 3. This is appointed for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is understood and translated and it 's capable of that signification by a Trope The party who appointed decreed and ordained both that all men shall dye and dye once and but once is not expressed but it 's easily understood For the Supream Lord of Life and Death who hath an Universal Power over all Men is God and none else and therefore this must be a Decree of God as Supream Lord and a Sentence of him as Judge and the same irrevocable yet dispensable in some particular and extraordinary Cases as should seem good unto him Death is a punishment and therefore men being obnoxious unto it must be guilty of some Crime and condemned thereunto for some Offence against some Law threatening Death And that was the positive Law which God gave to Adam saying But of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17. This Law was transgressed and the Sentence followed in these words Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. Whereas the Socinian saith That Death is natural and not from any Decree of God his Opinion is not reconcileable with that of the Apostle As by one man Sin entred into the World and by Sin Death
and Sin reigned from Adam to Moses Rom. 5. 12 14. And the wages of Sin is Death Rom. 6. 23. Besides it 's said That in Adam all dye that is in Adam sinning for he was that one man by whom Sin entred into the World 1 Cor. 15. 22. So that God appointed Man to dye and to dye but once The second Proposition is That after Death followeth Judgment This is the second thing For Death is first Judgment the second and the word after signifies the order of time For Death goes before and Judgment follows after The party Judged is Man the Judge is God whose Judgment is particular or general particular of every particular individual person general or universal of all For there is the Judgment of the great Day when all shall appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and this Judgment is appointed of God and appointed to follow after Death after which follows the final and eternal estate of man which shall be unalterable and by Judgment may be meant not only the Sentence of the Judge but the estate of the parties judged which followeth thereupon whether it be an estate of misery or of felicity We live here that we may prepare for this Judgment and we ought so to live as that we may be happy for ever hereafter and prevent the suffering of eternal punishments Yet men do not believe that God will Judge us and that Judgment will follow and that unavoidably after Death or if they do not believe this yet they do not seriously consider it This is the reason why they live secure in their Sins and extream danger and this is the cause of their eternal ruine It 's not material to enquire whether the act of the Judge or the estate of the parties judged or whether particular or universal Judgment be here meant or no. It 's certain that this is a Judgment which followeth after Death and the final and universal Doom seems to be here intended when both Soul and Body the whole man and all men that dye shall be judged This is the proposition § 26. The Reddition followeth in these words Ver. 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto Salvation THis Text informs us of the appearance of Christ for that 's the subject of it This appearance is two-fold the first and the second and both these differ much not only for the manner but the end The first was in Humility and the end was to suffer and by suffering to expiate Sin The second shall be in Glory and the end of it to give eternal Salvation to such as look for him The first was to suffer and save the second to judge and reward his faithful and obedient Servants The propositions therefore are two 1. Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many 2. Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation The first is the same with that in ver 26. But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself The words differ the matter is the same For as there so here two things are observable 1. The Sacrifice the single Sacrifice of Christ. 2. The end of it The single Sacrifice for Christ was once offered the end for he was once offered to bear the Sins of many First he offered himself this was an act of him as a Priest and as he was the best Priest that ever lived so he himself was the best Sacrifice that ever was offered The end was also excellent for he bare the sins of many that is the punishment due for the sins of many and he bare this punishment to satisfy divine Justice and procure God's favour to sinful man We deserved the punishment and he suffers it he is punished that we may be spared It was tender compassion in him to offer himself for us and it was exceeding love in God to send and give him for to suffer and so be the propitiation for our Sins He bare the sins of all to make them pardonable and the sins of many even of all sincere Believers that they may be actually pardoned for ever possibility of pardon is the benefit of all actual pardon of many yet not of all For Christ had no absolute intention to procure the Salvation of all but of such as believe in him yet the reason why all are not pardoned is not from Christ's Death which made the Sins of all pardonable but from some other cause And this is the condemnation of all those to whom the Gospel is preached That Light comes unto them and they love Darkness rather then Light God hath given his only begotten Son and his Son hath offered himself and made the way to Heaven passible and remission of Sins and eternal Life are offered unto u upon fair and reasonable terms and conditions and though to corrupt Flesh and Blood they be difficult yet they are made easy by the power of the Spirit yet we love our Sins more then our Saviour and continue in them to our eternal condemnation § 27. The second Proposition is concerning his second appearance For he shall appear the second time where as before we have the manner and the end The manner is Glorious for he shall appear without Sin yet he never had any Sin and in his first appearance he was without Sin For Sin of his own he had not yet he bare Sins the Sins of others the Sins of many Yet these Sins were not his by Commission but by Imputation so far as to be liable to Death For God laid on him the Iniquities of us all So that without Sin is without suffering for the Sins of others He shall not come the second time to dye for our Sins as he did the first this is the genuine sense When he came to Sacrifice for Sin he came in great Humility and took upon him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross this low condition was suitable to the work he then undertook But now he comes as King and Lord to judge the World and therefore he comes in Glory The end of his coming is to reward and the reward is Salvation and the parties to be rewarded are such as look for him By Salvation is meant eternal Life and full Happiness which he purchased by his precious Blood and it 's so called because man in danger of eternal Death shall then be fully saved and delivered from all Sin and all the sad and woful Consequents of Sin and that for ever for then Death man's last Enemy shall be destroyed Yet this immunity from all evil cannot consist without the enjoyment of those glorious and eternal Blessings which God hath promised this is the great reward which Believers do expect and because they know they shall not
not respect The words give occasion of noting several things As 1. That the Word turned by our English to respect in the Hebrew signifies to behold or look upon with delight as well pleased with it The Chaldee Paraphrast useth a word which signifies to be well pleased with or graciously to accept Symmachus turns The Lord was delighted The Syriack translates to the same purpose But Theodotion saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflammavit He fired or consumed with fire For by fire sent from Heaven God did signify his acceptation of Aaron's Sacrifice Levit. 9. 24. Of Solomon's 2 Chron. 7. 1. and of Elijah's 1 King 18. 38. 2. God had respect first unto the Person then unto his Offering for if the Person be not rightly qualified the Sacrifice cannot be pleasing unto God 3. The thing which rendered both him and his Offering so acceptable was Faith 4. That he did not thus accept Cain's because he was not righteous had no Faith Some and amongst other Cornelius Bertram think that by this acceptation of Abel's Sacrifice God designed him to the Priest-hood and rejected Cain and this was the cause first of Envy then of Murder But whether God did testify of his Gifts by Fire and by that testimony design him to be Priest we need not trouble our selves This is certain he accepted Abel and his Offering and that acceptation was some wayes signified and by that signification he testified of him that he was righteous All persons who worship God are Cains or Abels offer with or without Faith how careful therefore should we be in the Service of our God to come with prepared and disposed hearts For it 's a blessed thing and a matter of sweetest comfort to be accepted of our God and a sad and woful Curse with Cain to be rejected The Reward after his Death is expressed in the third Proposition And by it being dead yet speaketh Where it 's said 1. He yet speaketh or is spoken of 2. Being dead he speaketh 3. By it he speaketh The Copies and Books differ for some read he speaketh some he is spoken of yet both these may signify his fame and good report continuing in the Church to this Day He may be said to be spoken of because his Name and his Faith are upon Record in Scripture where he though dead is remembred and commended and shall be remembred and commended to the World's end and no length of time which consumeth many things shall ever raze his memory he shall never be forgotten Yet most do read he speaketh and the Translators most do follow that reading Now the Question is what he speaketh and to whom and what this speaking is 1. He speaketh Faith and Righteousness and Virtue and the Reward of Virtue and calls aloud for imitation of his Faith and Righteousness that we may be accepted of God and rewarded as he was This is the Voice of all good Examples made known unto us There is another thing which he is said to speak of which hereafter 2. He speaketh first to Men for to whom God in the Scriptures speaks to them the Saints and Martyrs by their good Example may be said to speak Now the Scriptures were written for men living and God in them doth speak unto us whilst we living read or hear them 3. This speaking is not like the speaking of Abel when he was living nor as one man speaketh to another but this Speech is Metaphorical For as by Speech we declare and signify something unto others so Vertues Rewards Crimes Punishments made known unto Mortals by word or writing declare and signify that Vertue shall be rewarded and that Sin shall be punished and by the punishments warn us to take heed of Sin and by the rewards encourage us to Virtue This is not a speaking immediate of the person by words but a speaking by things In this respect it may be said that the dead whose Voice shall never be heard on Earth do speak But seeing Abel speaketh it 's further inquirable by what he speaketh It 's said by it he speaketh and by it may be his Faith and Sacrifice or Blood By the former he speaks as you heard before and the voice of Deeds and good Examples is far more effectual then the voice of Words and continues to sound far longer For the Voice is but heard whilst those who live can speak but the voice of Deeds is heard after Death yet some understand that he spake by his Blood and that he might do two wayes 1. As living he spake by his Faith and Offering but being dead by his patience and suffering and by this he exhorteth us not only to live well but with patience to suffer Death for Righteousness sake This is an Alarum to Martyrdom the highest pitch of Virtue and of Obedience 2. As dead he speaketh by his Blood not only as famous for his Martyrdom but as crying for Vengeance For so God said to Cain The Voice of thy Brothers Blood cryeth unto me from the Ground Gen. 4. 10. And in the following Chapter Christ's Blood is mentioned as speaking better things then the Blood of Abel Chap. 12. 24. Abel's Blood cryed aloud for Vengeance but Christ's for Mercy and Pardon Abel's Blood joyntly with the Blood of all Martyrs may call for justice unto the Supream Judg and when the Sufferings of all are finished then full Vengance shall be executed upon all bloody Persecutors Something to this purpose we may read Rev. 6. 10 11. In this sense it may be said they being dead do yet speak and will speak as dead and being slain by their cruel Enemies And by Faith they speak thus for without Faith they might have suffered justly for their Crimes and then they could not solicite the Supream Judg to revenge their innocent Blood not expect any Reward and Crown of Martyrdom § 8. After Abel follows Enoch the seventh from Adam yet the second from Abel of eminent note in the History of Moses Of him it 's said Ver. 5. By Faith Enoch was translated not to see Death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this Testimony that he pleased God IN this Text we may observe 1. The Reward which was Translation 2. The Virtue he was translated by Faith 3. The Testimony and good Report of him he pleased God Yet these may be reduced to two 1. The Reward he was translated 2. His Virtue by Faith he pleased God If we take the two Verses together we may reduce them to two Propositions thus 1. Enoch was translated 2. By Faith Enoch was translated And because the latter Proposition is not evident as not expressed in the Text the Apostle first presupposing this Translation to be a great Reward and obtained by Faith he proves it thus He that pleaseth God must have Faith But Enoch pleased God Therefore he had Faith That he pleased God he proves it by Testimony for that he did so is express
enlarge but also polish his Discourse and excellently set forth their Faith and the forenamed Effects thereof The whole is an excellent Testimony of the three eminent Patriarchs and therein we have 1. The Duty they performed 2. God's owning them and expressing his dear Affection towards them The first of these is continued from the beginning of Ver. 13. to the latter end of the 16th in the last words whereof we have the second thing here observed Their Duty and the Performance thereof may be reduced to certain Propositions 1. These all not receiving the Promises dyed in the Faith Of which two parts 1. Their not receiving the Promises 2. Their dying in the Faith though they received them not 1. They received not the Promises Where by Promises understand the things promised For otherwise it cannot be true because it 's certain that Promises were made unto them they knew them and received them by Faith But the things promised were neither given nor received till long after and these are reduced to four heads which be these 1. A numerous Posterity 2. The Land of Canaan 3. The Incarnation and Exhibition of Christ. 4. The Resurrection to eternal Glory The parties here meant are Abraham Isaac and Jacob not any named before nor any mentioned after these Three for they were the Persons who came from beyond the River Euphrates who sojourned in the Land of Canaan who dwelt in Tabernacles Of these it 's said that they received not the things promised For neither was their Posterity made as yet so numerous nor had they any hereditary Possession of the Land of Canaan nor did they see Christ in the Flesh or hear the Gospel for that followed about 2000 years after the Promises were first made nor did they attain the Resurrection and Immortality 2. Yet they dyed even all of them in the Faith Which words signify 1. They did believe 2. Continued firm in the Faith unto the end though they received not the Promises The meaning is they not only lived but dyed Believers delay and non-enjoyment did not break their hearts neither could Death it self when they might perhaps be put to the greatest Conflict separate their Souls and their Faith though it separated their Souls and their Bodies For this divine vertue was deeply rooted and fastned in them and was immortal as their better part was and followed the Soul into another World Death might bereave them of their Friends and their temporal Estates and all their earthly Comforts but of Faith it could not And it 's to be noted that not only one but all of them dyed in the Faith These were rare Patterns of Perseverance in this rare and incomparable vertue of Faith The second Proposition is That seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them This should not have been a distinct Proposition for it's part of the former and added to those words not receiving the Promises And it 's somewhat observable that the word perswaded is wanting in several Manuscripts They received them not but 1. Saw them afar off For they were distant and to come and not to be accomplished or enjoyed in their dayes and some of them were more distant from their times than others some were nearer The principal which were the Exhibition of Christ and the universal Resurrection stood at the most remote distance of time from them Yet these they saw for divine Revelation as a celestial Light did represent them unto them the Promise did signify they had a Right unto them and part in them And as by this divine Light they were manifested unto them so by the Eye of Faith which is the spiritual visive Faculty of the Soul they saw them as they were represented that is at a distance For Faith can see beyond and above the World and hath some glimmering or imperfect sight of Eternity 2. They were perswaded of them and assured that in God's good time which was the sittest they should be fulfilled The Revelation and Promise was a sure Ground of this Perswasion and the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen 3. They embraced them the word signifies to salute to draw near to rejoyce to embrace for in saluting dearest friends we draw near unto them embrace them rejoyce to seethem Some think the word here is Metaphorical and the Expression taken from such as after a long and tedious Voyage at Sea come within ken of Land and discover their own dearest Country where they expect to abide and rest For so soon as they discover and have sight of their own dear native Soil they wonderfully rejoice and begin with joyful Acclamations to say Land Land Land Haven Haven Haven now Rest and Safety are near So it 's certain that these Saints and heavenly Worthies drawing near their end beheld these excellent Blessings and especially their Saviour and their heavenly Country and being sure of the futurition and enjoyment of them rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Our Saviour saith thus Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8. 56. When Abraham lived the day of Christ's Incarnation and the blessed Redemption of sinful Man was to come and afar off Yet Abraham by Faith saw that day and seeing it though not near or so clearly he was glad and rejoyced wonderfully And now our Faith and Hope of eternal Glory though afar off is a Cause of unspeakable Joy The third Proposition They confessing themselvs Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth declared plainly that they sought a Country Here we may consider 1. What they did express 2. What they did imply 1. The thing expressed is That they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth For 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth 2. They did openly confess this 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth That they did so journ in the Land of promise as in a strange Country you heard before yet they sojourned not only there but in other places as in Gerar and Aegypt and for the whole time of their mortal Life they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth and could not be said to be Free-men Denizons or Members of any Community or Commonwealth in the World But they might be such either Politically or Spiritually and they were in both respects such for Man being immortal should provide for some place of perpetual Abode and many thinking only of their Settlement on Earth and of perpetuating themselves and their Names in their Posterity by successive Generations look no higher than this World If these travel out of their native Country they must needs be Strangers in all Forreign States if not naturalized in some of them As for these Patriarchs they had forsaken their own Country out of which God had called them and lost all their native and birth-right Priviledges yet they did not seek to settle themselvs in any other part of the Earth neither did they incorporate with any other People in the
Devils 3. If they had offered them to God their Blood could not have expiated their Sins The Case being so different though the Obedience of Abraham was so pleasing to God yet their sacrificing was plainly unnatural Murther and abominable Idolatry 4. If our Faith be sincere we must Sacrifice our Isaac even what we love most unto our God The Lord increase our Faith that we may do this Service readily In the Text two things are observable 1. Isaac's Blessing and Effect or Work of his Faith 2. His Faith whereby he blessed his Sons In the Blessing we have 1. The Parties blessed 2. The Matter of the Blessing 3. The Blessing it self 1. The Parties blessed were Jacob and Esau these were Twins conceived and born together For as their Birth so their Conception were simultaneous in respect of time They were both his Children both Sons and all the Children which he had for we read of none others born unto him Jacob was the Younger because born thâ— lâ—â—ter yet preferred before the Elder by God's free Election and also in this Blessing for he received the Priviledges of the first-begotten and in him not in Esau he made the Covenant good 2. The Matter of the Blessing were things to come hoped for not seen and therefore fit Objects of Faith as no wayes certainly intelligible by the natural Light of Reason These things were Blessings and the same both temporal and spiritual Esau's Blessings were only temporal and not spiritual Jacob's both temporal and spiritual From which dispensation of these Mercies we may observe 1. That profane Persons as Esau may enjoy temporal Blessings and Prosperity and that in a greater measure than God's Children do and therefore they are no Argument of God's special Love for God causeth his Rain to fall and his Sun to shine as well upon the unjust as upon the just 2. That the godly such as Jacob was have the Blessings of this Life and of that which is to come And because they desire heavenly more than earthly Blessings therefore God though sometimes he denyes them earthly Prosperity yet will be sure to give them heavenly Comforts 3. The Blessing it self was an Act of Isaac though God was the principal Cause Of blessing others I have spoken Chap. 7. 6 7. All Blessings come from God for he is the Fountain and first Cause of them and disposeth of them as he pleaseth He sometimes communicates them by Man to Man as in this particular Example and makes Priests Prophets Parents instrumental and gives them Power to bless in his Name and that either in an ordinary or extraordinary way This Blessing was extraordinary wherein God made his words effectual for what he said came to pass The words of Benediction were Prophetical yet not meerly a Prophecy or Prediction but a Prediction with Power And though he intended to have blessed Esau with the principal Blessing yet Jacob obtained it It was God's Will to order it so yet his Will gave no Warrant to Rebeccah or Jacob to use any unlawfull means neither did their frailties hinder God's Mercy so gracious he was When the Blessing of Jacob intended for Esau was once past it proved irrevocable though profane Esau sought it even with tears yet there was no place found for Repentance But how did Isaac thus bless his Sons The Text informs that he blessed them by Faith and this is evident because the Benediction was concerning things to come This Faith required some divine Revelation and Promise as a necessary Ground and Foundation God had promised before great Blessings to his Father Abraham and to him yet to be fulfilled to their Posterity by this he understood that they should fall upon his Children but whether the principal Mercies should be given to Jacob and his Posterity or to Esau and his Children he knew not that was not revealed unto him and therefore he was so much mistaken Yet besides the former Revelation and Promise he had some more particular Illumination concerning his Sons and their Children for time to come and his Faith did believe both and relyed confidently upon the Promises and out of this Faith he blessed them really which without Faith he could not have done This shews the excellency of Faith and may perswade all Parents to believe and may encourage them to continue in Faith forby it they may derive some Blessings to their Children if they shall prove capable For some Children prove to be profane as Esaâ— and are not capable of spiritual Blessings § 20. Jacob succeeded Isaac and being blessed by his Father he blessed Joseph's Children For Ver. 21. By Faith Jacob when he was a dying blessed both the Sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning on his Rod. IT 's an happiness to be the Children of believing Parents who by their Faith transmit Blessings to Posterity For Jacob the Son of believing Isaac was blessed and he by his Faith transmits God's Blessings to Joseph's Children In the words we may note 1. Jacob's Effects or Works of Faith 2. His Faith The Effects are two 1. His Blessing of Joseph's Children when he was a dying 2. His Adoration leaning upon his Staff 1. To begin with the Blessing which was both predictive and effective as the former was we may observe 1. The Persons blessed 2. Divers Circumstances and Passages of this Act. The Persons were not his own immediate Children but his Grand-Children by Joseph every one of the Sons of Joseph These were Maâ—â—asseh and Ephrains and as we read of no other so it 's likely these two were all the Sons of Joseph at that time The Blessings by him solemnly then declared were to be expected and received by their Posterity 2. The Circumstance of time is expressed to be when he was a dying that is a little before and when he was drawing nigh unto death For then having some thoughts and care of his Posterity and especially of Joseph and his Children whom he dearly loved the Spirit of the Almighty came upon him to inform him of things to come especially concerning his Nephews and moved him to bless them and that being done he leavs the World The Passages are many Joseph presents his two Sons before him and perhaps by some divine Instinct or Impulse that he might bless them before his death and intended the Priviledg of Birth-right to his Elder Son as Isaac did formerly purpose Jacob layes his hands upon them a Rite used in Benediction He guided them so that he laid his right hand upon Ephraim the Younger and this was purposely done by divine direction This being done he adopts them and by Adoption makes them his immediate Children and by his Blessing gives them the Portion of two Tribes with the rest of his Sons and prefers the Younger before the Elder 2. The second Effect is his Adoration leaning upon his Staff where you must observe that the Apostle follows the Septuagint as in most part of this Epistle he doth Whereas others following
to be Overseers which have a Charge of men's Souls committed unto them for Direction unto eternal Bliss and also Rulers because of their Power and Authority whereby they may in the Name of Christ command them to obey his Laws and in this respect the People are subject unto them in that manner that if they hear and receive them they receive Christ who sent them and God who sent Christ And whosoever receiveth not but despiseth them desplseth Christ and God who sent them 2. These Guides lest they should be ignorant who they were were such as had spoken the Word of God unto them The Word of God is that part of the Word of God which we call The Gospel which is concerning Christ exhibited humbled exalted and reigning at the right hand of God contained in that part of the Scripture we call The New Testament This Doctrine is the Word of God not only because it speaks of God but also because it was revealed by God and that by his own Son in the last dayes This Word they had spoken and declared both by Word and Writing and that infallibly according as by Inspiration they had received an immediate Knowledg of it and this their infallible Doctrine was the Rule of inferiour Teachers 3. These they must remember Some of these might be living some of them dead both must be remembred To remember in this place is to call to mind which presupposeth a former Act of Understanding and is a Reiteration of the same Act upon the same Object These must be remembred not only as Men but as Guides and as such as had spoken the Word of God even unto them so as that they had heard them and learned from them the Mystery of the Gospel so as to believe in Christ Yet amongst these they must principally remember the most eminent and in particular those by whom they had believed For if men begin once to forget their Teachers they will soon forget their Doctrine The second part of their Duty to which their former Remembrance was subservient is the Consideration of the end of their Conversation Their Conversation and Course of life no doubt was agreeable to their Doctrine and the Word of God they taught their Preaching and their Practice were suitable and as their Conversation was good so the End was answerable In that Faith they lived in the same they dyed and as their Life was holy so their Death was happy In these words some observe two things 1. That these were dead and some of them at least had sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood and dyed Martyrs 2. That they had been constant in the Profession and Practice of that heavenly Truth which they had preached and taught to others This Constancy and blessed Issue of their Conversation they are exhorted to consider and seriously review with the Eyes of their Souls as a rare and excellent Pattern worthy their Imitation 3. And if they were so worthy Imitation it was their Duty in the third place to follow their Faith that is their Doctrine which they preached believed professed practised unto Death and which they confirmed by their Suffering This is the true End of hearing Word of God and the true Use of all good Examples which are given us and set before our Eyes for this very End that we may do as they did and as they taught us both by their Words and Works their Doctrine and Practice We must follow the Example of all good men and above others of such Guides as these were amongst these Guides the most eminent in Truth Piety and Perseverance because their Doctrine and Life did agree and contiued suitable to the End § 8. It followeth Jesus Christ the same c. These words seem to stand absolute in themselvs without any dependance upon or Connexion with the Context antecedent or consequent and this hath given occasion to many several and different Expositions Some of the Ancients consider them in themselvs and understand them of Christ as God and from them prove his God-head by his perpetual Existence because he was is and shall be for ever and by his immutability because he alwayes is the same Some understand this of Christ as Redeemer whose Power and Efficacy in redeeming and saving all such as believe in him was from the first time that he was promised unto the World's End for he saved all those who believed in him for to come and all such who believe in him already come and exhibited Both these senses are true but whether intended here or no may be a Question But most Expositors consider the words in Coherence either with that which goes before or that which follows 1. With that which goes before and that two wayes 1. That as Christ the Word not incarnate or made Flesh spake to Joshua and promised not to leave him and forsake him so if they follow the Faith of their Guides and Teachers and persevere in the same to the End Christ will be with them and not leave them nor forsake them 2. That the Faith of their Guides was Faith in Christ according to their Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ an eternal unchangeable and never-failing Saviour and this their Faith in Christ they must follow and then Christ will be to them the same he was to their Guides and will certainly save them In this sense the words not only signify what kind of Faith that of their Teachers was and what was the Object and Foundation of it but also contain a Reason why they should follow it For their Faith was Faith in Christ which is the only saving Faith for ever as he Himself is the same for ever The Aethiopick Version favours this sense in part for thus they translate the words Follow me in the Faith of Christ c. So that according to this Christ is Faith in Christ. But others understand by Jesus Christ the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the same as Christ is and that for ever and never shall be changed Therefore they must follow it and never turn from it Christ may by a Metonymy signify Faith in Christ and the Doctrine of Christ because he was the Object of their Faith and the Subject of their Doctrine This Vatablus terms an Enallage This seems to be confirmed by the Exhortation following To apply this to our selves as it is our Duty so we must have a care often to remember the Apostles and their Successours who have taught us the Word of God and considering their happy Departure out of this World with the Joy and Comfort which they found in their Saviour let us follow their Doctrine and their Faith in Christ which if we do we shall have the same End and find the same Comfort in Christ who will be the same to us which he was to them for as He so his Doctrine is unchangeable for ever and whosoever shall follow his Doctrine and believe in him shall
Supream Judge by him prove most effectual In that place it 's observable that he offers only the prayers of Saints and in another place he makes Intercession only for the Apostles and such as by their word should believe in him Joh. 17. 9 20. Saints and Believers are they who come to God by him And this is our Duty 1. To come to God and him alone for remission and eternal Salvation for they are found in him and in him alone and no where else 2. We must come to him by Christ as our only Propitiatour and Intercessour who alone can and will effectually plead our cause and make it good And as this is our Duty so upon the performance of it this will be the comfort of all penitent Sinners who groan under the heavy burden of their Sins and sigh and long and pray for Salvation 1. That Christ will certainly plead for them and by his Intercession obtain their everlasting Salvation And why should poor believing Sinners quake and tremble at the Bar of God seeing Christ doth plead their Cause which is more then if all Saints and Angels and the blessed Virgin the Mother of our Saviour should pray for him And why should be fear the Tryal or upon the Tryal Damnation or eternal Death For who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifirth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us Rom. 8. 33 34. It was expedient as he said to his Disciples That Christ should go away and that to his Father's House that as a Priest and Advocate he might be ever ready in that Court of Heaven to plead our Cause His presence and his perpetual Intercession there is far more beneficial to us then his bodily presence here on Earth it 's not only beneficial but necessary For when we have sinned what should we do if we had not him our righteous Advocate and Propitiatour with his Father we were redeemed indeed by his Death but we are saved and justified by his Life because he ever liveth to make Intercession for us and will fully and for ever save us For because he is a perpetual and effectual Intercessour therefore he is so able fully and for ever to save even all that come to God by him and this is a clear proof of his excellency above the Levitical Priest § 27. Now the Apostle seems to have finished his Discourse upon that excellent Text I have sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec Psal. 110. 4. and to conclude in these words following Ver. 26 27. For such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled seperate from Sinners and made higher then the Heavens Who needeth not c. VVHich words may be handled 1. Absolutely in themselves 2. Considered in their connexion and reference to the former But I will begin with the coherence and connexion which is difficult to be known as appeareth by the different â—pinion of Expositors upon the place For some think it 's a Conclusion and as it is the last part and close of the Chapter it may be so called for in this sense the word is sometimes taken yet this is no proposition inferred from former premises Others conceive that the Apostle proceeds by other Arguments to prove the superexcellency of Christ and this is true for so he doth Others imagine that these words give a reason why there must be such a Priest as lives for ever to make Intercession for us for such a Priest became us and none other would serve our turn Others judge a reason to be given here why the Intercession of Christ was so powerful and that is from his excellent qualification and his pure unspotted Sacrifice And it 's very certain that his Intercession had not been so effectual without this qualification of the person and the excellency of his Sacrifice Though all these things may be true yet something is to be observed and upon serious condesiration we shall find that the Apostle hath not done with his Text in the Psalmist but hath something more to say upon it and that he doth in these words It was well observed by the Rhemists that the Apostle scanneth every word of Psalm 110. 4. And there was one word more to be further examined For we have heard 1. Of Melchizedec 2. Of another Priest after his Order to arise after the Levitical Priest 3. That he is a Priest for ever 4. That he is made by Oath a Priest immortal and living for ever Yet in all this here is no mention of the person who he is that is thus made not what his qualification was nor of the time when he was thus made and why he was so confirmed But in these words he satisfices us in all these particulars as is implyed and presupposed in that very Psalm 1. The party was David's Lord For the Lord said unto my Lord ver 1. Who was above David not only because of his union with the Word but because he was advanced to far higher dignity and invested with far greater power and was the Son of God who lives for ever 2. His qualification was excellent For he was holy harmless undesiled and separate from Sinners 3. The time when he was thus made High-Priest for ever and that by Oath was after that he had offered one Sacrifice not many for the People not for himself once not often of everlasting virtue not effectual for some petty expiation for a time and after he was risen ascended and set at the right hand of God 4. The reason why he was thus made such a Priest was not only his excellent qualification and his immortality upon his Resurrection but because he had offered up himself without spot unto God That this is the intention of the Apostle will appear by the last words of the Chapter But to enter upon the words Ver. 26. For such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undesiled separate from Sinners and made higher then the Heavens IT may be truly said with Junius That in these words with those in the verse following Christ is circumscribed or described 1. From his Person 2. From his Ministry For his Person he had all the perfections of a Priest for his Service he was entred the holy place of Heaven to plead his excellent Sacrifice for all his Saints For his Perfections He was holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners These are perfections which were required in the Levitical High-Priest so far as humane frailty was capable But they agreed to Christ exactly and in a far higher degree then they did agree unto any even the best of them And though the words may signify several qualities different at lest in respect yet they make but one perfect qualification of this Priest who was holy as Man
in his Conception Birth Life Death as innocent and harmless as the new born Child never tainted or stained with the lest Sin and so separate from Sinners that though he did converse with them to convert them yet he was far from being drawn to sin by them or partaker of sin with them or any wayes guilty by his presence amongst them All these do signify that he was both habitually and actually more virtuous and righteous then ever any was and far more free from any vicious quality habit act then any Priest on Earth or Angel in Heaven ever was and therefore was the fittest of all others to be a Priest as being more like and nearer unto God then ever any other In this respect he was more fit then any to draw nearer unto God as one that had the greatest interest in him And therefore He was made higher then the Heavens For he ascended far above all Heavens where he ever liveth and keeps his Residence and being entred into that holy and glorious Sanctuary he was made King to Reign and by Oath confirmed an everlasting Priest to officiate there and make his great Sacrifice effectual and actually beneficial to all true Believers And God advanced him not only above the highest place but above all the Angels and Inhabitants of that glorious Palace His work in this Temple is to make Intercession not to Sacrifice for Ver. 27. He needed not daily as those High-Priests to offer Sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the People's for this he did once when he offered up himself THis Text though here brought in upon the By and handled of purpose and more at large Chap. 9. 10. is concerning one of his chiefest Services which was his great Sacrifice wherein he far excelled all the Levitical Priests in severall respects for in this 1. He offered Himself whereas they offered Bullocks and Goats 2. He offered not for his own but the Peoples sins but they offered first for their own then the Peoples sins 3. He offered but once they daily and often Therefore is it said That this man Christ after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God From henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Foot-stool Chap. 10. 12 13. Where it 's observable That this Sacrifice was of that eternal efficacy as that he needed not to offer any more but only to enter into the Sacrary of Heaven and make Intercession and plead this Sacrifice for every penitent and believing Sinner And these words are added to the former That he was holy harmless undefiled and separate from Sinners made higher then the Heavens 1. To signifie that the reason why this Sacrifice was of so great virtue was because the Priest was so holy and devoid of sin that he had no need to offer for himself as not having any infirmity which the best of the former Priests had 2. To shew why upon this offered he was advanced above the Heavens 3. To manifest the time when he was by Oath confirmed a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec and that was after he had offered this Sacrifice and was set at the right hand of God in the highest Heavens In these words we may note 1. His excellent qualification whereby he was free from all sin 2. His pure unspotted Sacrifice and offering of himself 3. His exaltation above the Heavens upon the same so that he had no need to offer any Sacrifice again And these things were so ordered of God that one should be subordinate to another the first to the second and that to the third For without this qualification he could not have offered so perfect a Sacrifice without this Sacrifice thus offered he could not have entred the Sanctuary of Heaven neither could his Intercession have been so powerful to save No God did not swear unto him and by Oath make him a Priest for ever but as so qualified and as by vertue of that qualification having offered so perfect a Sacrifice and as by virtue of this Sacrifice having entred Heaven This man and thus considered was he who by the Oath of the everlasting God was made an everlasting Priest And in the Text we might as formerly observe 1. The similitude 2. The dissimilitude and difference 3. The superexcellency 1. The similitude they were Priests Christ was a Priest they offered Sacrifice Christ offered Sacrifice 2. The dissimilitude they were many he but one they offered often he but once they offered Buls and Goats and other things he himself they offered for themselves and the People he offered not for himself as having no infirmity but only for the People 3. The superexcellency of Christ above them especially in two things 1. That he needed not offer for himself as being without sin 2. He needed not to offer often for the People but only once and by that one Sacrifice once offered he did infinitely far more then they did or could do by their daily offerings This superexcellency also did appear both in his perfect qualification and his exaltation above the Heavens These things are so plain in these Enthymatical words that there is no need to reduce them to the precise form of a Syllogism or Syllogisms according to the rules of Logick The first words of these two verses 26 27. which are handled last are these For such an High-Priest became us wherein we must consider 1. What such an High-Priest is 2. How and in what sense he is said to become us 1. Such an High-Priest is one who is described from 1. His Qualification 2. His one perfect Sacrifice 3. His being made higher then the Heavens For 1. He must be pure and holy without any sin or else he cannot offer a pure unspotted Sacrifice which being offered is able to purge the Conscience and expiate the sins of the People for ever 2. If he do not offer such a Sacrifice he cannot enter into the holy place of Heaven as the High-Priest without Blood could not enter the earthly Sanctuary 3. Except he enter Heaven he cannot be ready there to make Intercession for us 2. Such a Priest doth become us To become is 1. To be sit suitable convenient 2. To be useful and profitable 3. Sometimes to be necessary All these significations are here intended But to whom is he so convenient profitable necessary even to us To understand this we must consider what our condition is It 's sinful miserable for we are guilty polluted with sin liable to Death have no access to God and at a great distance from eternal Life and that which is worst of all we are sensless of this sad condition and if we once know it we are hopeless helpless We cannot propitiate God or sanctify our selves or come near the Throne of God's Justice and except we find one that is fit to mediate and deal with God in our behalf we perish utterly and for ever For our