the world doth enlighten every man with his light yet not presently at his first rising but in processe of time as the Sun carrieth his light from one part of the world to another and by degrees dispels the darknesse Compare this place with John 9.5 and John 12.46 There remaine two opinions which strive as I may say for the mastery of the truth The one is that this comming of Christ into the world should be taken for that his comming when he made his first entrance among men to performe his ministeriall office The other is that it be understood of his entrance into the future world to come whereof this Author made mention before chap. 1.2 and chap. 2.5 and which is called by the single name of the world Rom. 4.13 Now the arguments which seeme to perswade us for the taking of it not for this present world but for the future world to come are chiefly three 1. Because God did not abrogate those Legall sacrifices and offerings before Christ entered and came into that future world but here the Author speakes of their abrogation 2. Because Christ saith A body hast thou prepared me For how can this be applyed to Christs first entrance upon his ministeriall function in this world among men Did Christ receive from God a new body and another different from what he had before then when he was first made knowne to the world by preaching of the Gospel And if wee should here understand that mortall body in which Christ first preached the Gospel what would this make to the abrogation of the Legall sacrifices Certainely either nothing at all or no way else but by many turnings and windings But if by this comming of Christ here wee understand his entrance into that future world to come then these words will much conduce to the matter For unlesse God had given Christ a new and incorruptible body he could not have entered that dwelling of immortality and there have offered himselfe to God and appeare before him neither could he have sitten at the right hand of this throne Therefore seeing God would abrogate and abolish those earthly sacrifices by the heavenly Sacrifice of Christ for that purpose God fitted him a body proper for that heavenly Sanctuary For that the Author in citing this testimony had a respect to these words is plaine by his words a little after at the tenth verse where he mentions the offering of the body of Christ By which forme of speech seeinghe useth it no where else he seemes as it were to point at these words in this testimony wherein God is said to have prepared a body for Christ 3. Because in an other passage of the 40. Psalme a little before this testimony cited by the Author David doth sing a song of thanksgiving unto God for his deliverance from a grievous calamitie saying He brought me up also out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feete upon a rock and established my goings and he hath put a new song in my mouth c. Psal 40.2,3 If therefore Christ may bee thought to have sung these words of the Psalme with the rest cited by the Author after his deliverance from death and the grave then might the Author well affirme that Christ said both these and the rest by him cited at his comming or entrance into that future world to come Now these words cannot be meant of Christs comming into the world by his Resurrection from the dead because when the Scripture speakes of his comming into this world she thereby usually understands his being made known unto the world but Christ after and by his resurrection was not made knowne unto the world but was seene of a few onely who were to be witnesses of it to the world And therefore when the time of his death drew neere and of his departure to his Father after his death he himselfe affirmed that he should be no longer in the world He saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not Of the words themselves we shall speake upon the next verse wherewith they wholly agree in matter But here let us enquire why the Author affirmes that Christ then when hee commeth into the world saith these words The Author seemes to affirme this from the following words which Christ alledgeth presently after Loe I come to do thy will O God ver 7. For to what purpose did Christ come into the world whether we understand this world or that to come If we understand this world wee must say that Christ then when he came into this world or as the Author speakes before chap 9.26 when first hee appeared said these words unto God his Father Because the Legall sacrifices and offerings please thee not therefore Loe I am come to do thy will i. to offer thee such a sacrifice that is wholly according to thy good will and pleasure But if yee please to understand the future world to come then we must affirme that Christ said them when he entered in thither Seeing O God thou dost no longer approve the Legall sacrifices Lo I come to doe thy will i. to offer up my selfe unto thee that so I may wholly expiate the sinnes of thy people For this is the will of God and the pleasure of the Lord that shall prosper in the hand of Christ Isaiah 53.10 That every one who seeth the Son and beleeveth on him should be freed from the guilt and paine of all his sinnes and have everlasting life John 6.40 But a body hast thou prepared me It is not necessary we should thinke that the Author mentioned these words in respect of any sence proper to his purpose but cited them onely because they stood connexed with the other words of the testimonie which were pertinent to his intention This hee himselfe seemes to intimate at the eighth and ninth verses following where in the repetition of this testimony he leaves out these words and takes only the rest that serve for his scope which is this That the Legall sacrifices are abrogate and in their place the Sacrifice of Christ is established Though at the tenth verse following the Author speakes of the offering of the body of Christ yet it is not altogether necessary that wee therefore should say that he had reference to these words seeing the body of Christ might by an Hebraisme be put for Christ himselfe Againe the Authour might have no respect to the proper sence of these words for this reason because in the Hebrew other words are read for them But because the Author followed the Greek Translation therefore he alleaged the words as they stood in the Greeke lest men well accquainted with the Greeke Translation should conceive that hee had corrupted or changed the text a rule that this Author hath observed in other passages also as hath been noted The Hebrew text hath it Mine eares hast thou opened wherein there is a manifest allusion to the custome commanded by God when any
him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to feare the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to doe them That his heart be not lified up above his brethren and that he turne not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left All Gods Laws are his will for they are that will of God which God would have done hee therefore that doth Gods Laws he doth his will And seeing all the future Kings of his people were to doe Gods will as here it was writen of them therefore David also when he was become King was to doe the will of God as in this Chapter of Gods Booke it was written of him And therefore David againe was to write himselfe a copy of the Law in a booke he must read therein all the dayes of his life hee must keep all the words of it and not lift his heart above his brethren for in doing these things he did the will of God as it was written of him in a Chapter of the Law But some man may hereupon demand how shall this belong to Christ must he write out a booke of the Law of Moses and perpetually read in it and never depart from it The Answer is easie That for the mysticall sense we must not tye our selves to every single word but only to the breviat and sum of the matter that which is spoken properly of the type must be so applied to the antitype as the nature of the antitype requires The sum of the matter in this place is That the King of Gods people must be obedient to Gods will particularly to that will of God which God would have him to observe and consequently to that Law of God which God would have stand in force As long as the Law of Moses was in force so long the Kings over Gods people must observe that Law But that Law being by God abrogated no man is bound to observe it much lesse is the King of Gods people bound to it And a new Law being surrogated Gods people and their King must observe that new Law Wherefore the Law written in the Chapter of that booke must be so taken or understood of Christ as the nature of the thing will beare it and as the Majesty and divinity of Christ requires Many things are said of the shadow which the perfection of the body doth reject But we must further observe that the sence of the words in this Psalme may yet be further extended seeing in the Hebrew text to the sence whereof the Author might have more regard then to the Greek Translation it is simply said In the volume of the booke i. of the Law and although according to the Greek Translation we understand that Chapter of the Law which we cited in Deuteronomy yet that very Chapter hath reference to the whole Law of God or it referres the King to all the words and precepts of the Law which the King of Gods people was to exccute Wherefore in a mysticall sence we may understand all those things wherein Christ was to performe the will of God and particularly those that belong to his expiatory Sacrifice which here is the thing in hand Whence it is in a manner yet left doubtfull whether Christ said these words when hee came into this world or the world to come For if by this will of God wee understand nothing else but the sacrifice of Christ strictly and properly taken excluding his death from it then we must affirme that Christ said these things when he came into that future world But if we extend the sacrifice or offering of Christ more largely and include his death the necessary antecedent unto it as in this place it seemes wee must doe and as wee have before intimated that wee may not set aside the excellent and proper act of Christ himselfe pertaining to his offering and sacrifice most acceptable to God seeing he saith that he came to doe the will of God and that we know that Christ himselfe had also his part herein then the thing it selfe declares that these words must be attributed to Christ when he came into this world And it is no obstacle to this that both according to the Greek Translation and according to the literall sence of the Hebrew words we respect that place wherein the office of the King is described whence Christ as now made a King seemes to speake these things as David also did For besides that the Hebrew words of the Psalme are more large as wee have said and therefore especially in the literall sence may justly be more largely extended this also must be marked That Christ although he were not yet a King actually yet because he was for certaine to be one and ordained to a Kingdome by Gods immutable Decree hee might very well even then referre to himselfe the precept wherein the King of Gods people is commanded to do Gods will 8. Above when he said From the words of Christ the Author further inferres that the legall sacrifices and offerings were abrogated and in their place the sacrifice and offering of Christ was instituted And he shews this to be manifest from the very manner of Christs words and from the cleere opposition of the things therein specified Above i. in the first place when he spake of sacrifices and offerings to be rejected before he spake of his comming to doe the will of God Sacrifice and offering and burnt-offerings and offering for sin thou wouldst not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the Law The words which are offered by the Law must be read as included in a parenthesis whereby the Author specifies that the legall sacrifices and offerings are abrogated because the sacrifices and offerings which Christ saith here that God would not have neither had any pleasure in them and therefore must be taken away are no other but the legal sacrifices which were instituted by the Law of Moses and were offered according to that Law 9. Then said he Christ after he had spoken the former words for the abrogation of the Legall sacrifices then hee added these that follow For these are the words of the Author relating the words of Christ Loe I come to doe thy will O God Because Gods will was to abrogate the Legall sacrifices therefore Christ comes to do that will and pleasure of God which God should surrogate in stead of the Legall sacrifices He taketh away the first that he may establish the second q.d. What is this else but to abrogate the former that he may establish the latter But that former thing was the Legall sacrifices which Christ abrogates the latter is the will of God which he establisheth 10. By the which will we are sanctified Here he shews what benefit we gaine by this will of God performed by Christ and establisheth in the place of the Legall sacrifices For it might be demanded
wherein it is opposed to the legall Tabernacle whereof one of the roomes was the most holy yet not absolutely but comparatively only in respect of the other which was called the first Tabernacle and the holy place because it was lesse holy then the second as the second was farre lesse holy then heaven which is farre the holiest of all By the bloud of Iesus For from the bloud of Jesus wee draw our boldnesse both for our liberty and confidence to enter because both the New Testament whereby is granted unto us not only leave but a right to enter into the holiest is confirmed by the bloud of Jesus but also the new sacrifice once only offered and never to be iterated for the offering whereof Christ entered into the holiest was prepared by the bloud of Jesus For by the entrance of Jesus into the holiest who is our leader and our head we have liberty that we may and we take courage that wee shall enter seeing whither soever our leader and head whom God himselfe hath appointed unto us doth enter and arrive thither also a right and liberty of entring is granted unto us for not only the same issue of the journey is promised to us that was granted to our Captain and Head but also therefore our Captaine entered heaven and obtained all power there that both from his example and from the power he hath there we might have an assured faith and hope of those heavenly blessings and in due time might really enjoy them 20. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us Here the Author seems to declare whence it is that we have our liberty and confidence to enter heaven and he saith we have it hence That Christ hath consecrated for us a way to it Consecrated here is initiated or dedicated for the Greek word is the same that before we rendred dedicated Chap. 9. v. 18. Now Christ is said to consecrate or initiate this way unto us not only as he was the first that entered heaven after death and a death so fearfull and shamefull but also because hee hath procured us a right to the same way that we may lawfully passe along in it and trace the steps of Christ to immortality For Christ hath consecrated this way for us by using it himselfe first and then leaving the use of it free to us for consecration is the first use of a holy thing before which it might not lawfully bee used by any other Before Christ opened heaven by his entrance thither and consecrated the way leading thither it was lawfull for no man to enter it especially after death But now this way being consecrated dedicated or initiated any man that will may enter it and by it passe safely unto heaven This way is called new not only because it was lately or newly consecrated or initiated but especially because it was lately discovered and newly opened even in the latter times and last age of the world and besides because it is an appendent and concurrent with the New Testament for during the Old Testament and the old Tabernacle the way to the holiest was not open The way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was yet standing Chap. 9.8 This new way is so marked with the steps of Christ that no length of time can deface it especially seeing so many thousands of the godly have heretofore followed and hereafter will follow Christ their leader in that journey and the way by their steps is continually renewed and kept open And it is called a living way not formally but finally because life is the end of it whereto it leads for so bread is called the bread of life and living bread because effectually it doth vivifie and make us live Hee seemes herein to have a tacite reference to the entrance into the holy places under the Law which was a mortall and deadly way because it was death for any man to enter them excepting only the high Priest and he but once a yeare upon a prefixed day to performe solemne ceremonies And therefore he opposeth the way to the heavenly holy place to the way of the old legall holy place in as much as this latter is a deadly way that brings death but the former is a living way that leadeth unto life Besides this entrance and way leading to the heavenly holy place is commonly made by death and sometimes by a horrid and cruell death and so may seem rather to lead unto destruction and therefore he called it a living way very seasonably to comfort us by teaching us that it hath a far different issue from what it seems at the first sight Through the vaile that is to say his flesh Hee alludes to the vaile that was spread between the two holy places of the Tabernacle and disparted the one from the other To which vaile he saith the flesh of Christ is answerable For as the old legall high Priest could not enter into the most holy place unlesse the vaile were withdrawne So Christ could not enter into the heavenly holy place before his flesh was withdrawne and as I may say rent and broken Therefore the high Priest entered by moving the vaile aside and Christ by laying his flesh aside so Christ entered through the vail An open sign whereof was in the death of Christ whereby his flesh was dissolved and laid aside For when Christ yeelded up the ghost suddenly the vail of the Temple was rent in twain And this renting of that vaile what doth it portend else then that by Gods appointment those holy places should be no more shut but open and common and become in a manner of publicke use so that any man might lawfully either looke into or enter them And hereby what else was signified but that the flesh of Christ being rent and broken by the death of the Crosse thereupon the passage unto the heavenly holy places was unlocked and set open to Christ and to all that beleeve in him so that not onely Christ himselfe might enter but all that are Christs may enter also and before they enter actually may looke in by faith and hope While the mortall body of Christ was entire and whole both Christ himselfe was debarred from the entrance of those heavenly places and we both from the entrance and prospect of them but after that this vaile of Christs flesh was by death dissolved then both Christ himselfe did enter heaven and procured us a right and power to enter and before we do enter actually to view the happinesse of it by faith and taste the sweetenesse of it by hope For the entrance of Christ into heaven following upon his death doth make us certainely to see and hope for the inheritance of heaven which was hidden from us by Christ as by a vaile till he was withdrawne and taken from us by his death and Resurrection 21. And having a great high Priest Christ is called a great high
a disobedience is one kinde of transgression yet every transgression may become a disobedience namely if it be committed out of malice and contumacy Received a just recompence of reward Punishment is then a just recompence of reward when it is congruous and sutable to the sin according to the due desert of the sinne But these words of the Author cannot meane that every transgression of the Law without exception had a capitall punishment ordained by Law or was de facto inflicted for every penall Law was not alwayes put in execution And those transgressions which were committed out of ignorance or infirmity had their expiation appointed by Law but disobedients or contempts or as the Scripture termes them sinning presumptuously or with a high hand could not be expiated any other way then by that capitall punishment that by the Law was ordained see Numb 15.27 And seeing it is apparent that the Authour speakes of a matter openly and vulgarly knowne it is not credible that he would be understood of those private and secret judgements or punishments that God himselfe inflicted for such for the most part were concealed and not knowne Wherefore we must needs conceive that this Author takes not the particle every logically and strictly but vulgarly for the most part of transgressions and disobediences and hath speciall respect to the sacred precepts of the Law and to the examples of those persons whose transgressions against those Laws are mentioned and whom the Scripture testifies to have beene severely punished of God according to their demerits For if in some cases the rigour of the Law was mitigated as in the case of David those cases being extraordinary and rare must not take place against the generall rule Although David also had no small punishment from God upon him so that here the Author speakes of divine punishments which God himselfe inflicted for otherwise it would not follow that the Law was made stedfast with God therefore because the Magistrate punished transgressors but because God himselfe did it or tooke order it should be done either by the Magistrate or by others For when he speakes on the opposite part concerning the contemners of the Gospel the punishments are understood to be inflicted by God himself 3. How shall we escape If the transgressions of the Law were deservedly and justly punished by Gods hand much leste shall we escape it If we neglect so great salvation If we neglect the Gospel He might have called the Gospel the word spoken by Christ as before he termed the Law the word spoken by Angels for this had beene enough to inferre his conclusion and also a more eloquent opposition but he calls the Gospel Salvation for three reasons 1. To expresse the effect and fruit of the Gospel which is Salvation for as S. Paul saith of it It is the power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth Rom. 1.16 2. To intimate the dignity and excellency of the Gospel above the Law because the Law contained no open promâ—se of salvation but onely hidden under shadowes of things and coverts of words neither did the Law specifie that condition whereby men might attaine salvation but that onely whereby they incurred condemnation and the punishment of death Hence S. Paul saith The Law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 and he calls the Law the ministration of death and a killing letter 2 Cor. 3.6,7 So that the Law might be justly called rather the word of death and damnation then of life and salvation 3. To adde force and strength to his argument against the danger of neglecting the Gospel seeing thereby we neglect salvation it selfe to which the Gospel is the meanes And he cals not the Gospel simply salvation but great salvation Salvation may be manifold and various as of our bodies and goods in this life and such a salvation was to Gods people under the Law whereby God saved them from their enemies and thereupon is frequently in Scripture called their Saviour Hence David saith of them They forgat God their Saviour Psal 106.21 See Isai 45.15 and 49.26 and 63.8 But the salvation promised in the Gospel is a great and mighty salvation even the salvation of soules by the inheritance of eternall life Neglect This great salvation in the Gospel is neglected when either we despise the acceptance of it or beleeve not the promises of it or observe not the precepts annexed to the promises but live so as if there were no salvation at all or no promises extant of it or no precepts concerning it or as if none of these were knowne unto us So that the neglect here mentioned meanes not some one small sin of negligence by the single breach of some one precept but includes a contempt and despising of the Gospel for it is opposed to the transgressions and disobediences against the Law that were punished with death as a just recompence of reward at the former verse If therefore they escaped not punishment who transgressed the Law which promised not salvation but onely threatned condemnation how shall we escape if we neglect the Gospel wherein eternall salvation is openly promised and a totall remission of all our sinnes is offered yet onely upon condition that afterward we pollute not our selves with any wickednesse or accustome our selves to any sinne with pardon notwithstanding of our infirmity but live holily in the sight of God as farre as our faith in his promise and our hope of salvation may support us If I say we neglect or despise these things so worthy of all reverence and acceptance what greater ingratitude can we possibly shew to God whose grace the greater it is towards us the greater is our sin to despise it and to despise the greatest grace must needs make up the greatest sin Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord The Lord Christ was not the first Author of the Gospel as the Angels were not of the Law but God was the prime and first Author both of the Law and the Gospel But as the Angels were the first publishers and proclaimers of the Law upon Mount Sinai by commission received from God So Christ was the first publisher and preacher of the Gospel upon earth by a like Commission from his Father So the Gospel was preached by him who is Lord over the Angels and whom they reverence and adore as their Lord. But because this Gospel of salvation was preached by others also therefore to shew the difference in the order of time betweene him and others it is said of him that he preached it first and after him others preached it that were instructed in it by him And in this preaching first begun by Christ is included all whatsoever that he either taught or did or suffered to gaine beliefe to his preaching that he might first also confirme it by himself as afterward it was confirmed by others And lest any man might say that all men did not heare the preaching of Christ himselfe therefore
up in the Psalme But in the mysticall sence the particle all must be left wholly to his absolute universality and full amplitude for all things both in heaven and earth namely all creatures whatsoever are put in subjection under Christ because from the universality of Christs dominion God onely is excepted who did put all things besides in subjection under Christ 1 Cor. 15.27 For in that he put all be left nothing not put under him In these and the words immediately following the Author discovers and teacheth us that this place of the Psalme must be understood of some other man then an earthly man For the words being absolutely uttered are a cleere argument that the holy Ghost would have them taken in some other sence altogether universally in which latitude S. Paul also takes them 1 Cor. 15.27 In so much that in them the world to come is also comprehended And taking the words universally who sees not that during this mortall life they cannot be verified and fulfilled of a mortall man And therefore the Author immediatly addes But now we see not yet all things put under him Now while man lives this present and mortall life not yet not from the beginning of the world to this present time we see not all things universally made subject to any mortall man when notwithstanding man was made lesse or lower then the Angels but for a little time as wee shewed before And therefore the fulfilling of these words that all things universally even the world to come should be subject to man cannot be meant of any mortall man but of some man translated to immortality Yet who that immortall man should be the Author hath not hitherto declared But in the following verse he shews that it is Jesus Christ translated to immortality Whence it appeares that if we respect the mysticall sence of the words in this Psalme they must be taken principally and properly of Christ but of Christians onely respectively and as it were proportionably For no one of the faithfull shall solely and singly possesse all things but all joyntly as coheires shall possesse all things yet not all the faithfull joyntly shall possesse all things universally though ye sever them from Christ their head for they shall not have dominion over the Angels but Christ onely shall possesse all things universally for he only shall rule over the Angels that hath dominion over the faithfull And yet againe there is one person excepted from the dominion of Christ and that is God the Father who hath given to Christ his universall dominion 9. But we see Iesus who was made a little lower then the Angels Here he declares who that man was in whom the words of the Psalme were to be fulfilled namely that Jesus Christ was the man to whom all things universally and therefore the world to come was to be subject and therewithall makes way to handle the Priesthood of Christ And hence now it appeares that in this there is no absurdity or repugnancy to truth that he who in respect of his mortall nature was a little lower for a little time then the Angels should be exalted to become much higher then they for ever after Yea seeing the Scripture testifies that the man who was lesse then the Angels must become Lord of all who sees not that the exaltation of the man Christ far above all the orders of Angels doth excellently agree with Scripture And hereby the Author removes the absurdity that seemes in this That Christ a man should become far greater then the Angels and be said to be their Lord. For the suffering of death The Reason or cause why Christ for a little time was made a little lower then the Angels was this that he might suffer death And this was not the formall cause of his lownesse for he was not made lower then Angels in this respect by his suffering death an evill which they suffer not though it be true that he was also lower therein But the formall cause of his lownesse was his mortall nature in respect whereof he was made for a little while a little lower then the Angels And the finall cause of his lownesse in that mortall nature was actuall death for he was made in a mortall nature to this end that he might suffer death under it for unlesse his nature had beene dyable he could not have dyed Christ was made a mortall man whereby for a little while he was a little lower then the Angels but why to what end was he not at first made immortall but mortall It was to this end that he might be passive to suffer death for had he beene at first made immortall he could not have dyed We see him crowned with glory and honour Christ hath now an universall dominion over all not onely over this visible and present world and all the creatures here but also over the invisible and future world and all the creatures there which is a crowne or highest degree of glory and honour to him whereto he was exalted after his suffering of death And though it be most true that his suffering of death was the cause or occasion of his exaltation to glory for Paul expresly so affirmes it Phil. 2.8,9 Yet in this place the Author here intends not to speake of Christs death as the cause of his glory as appeares by the words here following For in what sence can it be said that Christ because he suffered death he was crowned with glory and honour that he should taste death for every man as if after his crowning with glory he suffered or were to suffer death But here his intent is to shew Christs death for the order of it that for time it was antecedent to his glory and his glory for time was consequent after his death We see him crowned We see him so by faith with the eyes of our soule and not by sence or the eyes of our body for we beleeve it from the pregnant testimonies of the holy Ghost in the Scriptures That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man To taste death is to dye for a little time as for a day or two as Christ did for when we take but a little of a thing then we are said to taste of it The final cause why Christ in nature was for a little while a little lower then the Angels was this That he might suffer death And the super-finall cause why he suffered death was this That his death might be propitious and salutiferous to men For the glory of God and the salvation of men required it that the Prince of salvation should taste of death to bring men to salvation yea God had so decreed Now that he might bring men to salvation by this meanes i. By suffering of death he must by nature be a mortall man and not an Angel because by nature Angels are immortall and naturally cannot dye And the efficient cause of both these subordinate finals
of their life is free from the fear of it for though every minute they doe not actually fear it yet every minute they are subject to fear and may justly fear it From this slavish fear of death Christ hath delivered men by his death while by his death he not onely passed to an immortall life but also obtained power to represse and destroy the power of Satan Hence Christ saith to John Fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of hell and of death Revel 1.17.18 For what man now will fear death to be his eternall undoing when he sees a deliverance from death with a most glorious issue if he imitate Christ when he sees that the forces of his enemy who before oppressed him and enthralled to eternall death are no longer to be feared but are broken and destroyed by him who himself under-went a bloody death And hence it further appeares that with the death of Christ here wee must joyne his Resurrection for that wee might no longer fear death Christ must needs not only suffer death but must againe be raised from death For if Christ be not raised our faith is vaine we are yet in our sins and the dead in Christ are perished 1. Cor. 15.17,18 16 For no where he taketh hold of Angels Here he confirmes the doctrine delivered at the ninth verse That Christ was not made in the nature of an Angel but was made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death Why so The reason is here laid downe because Christ was not ordained to succour and help the Angels who by nature are immortall and die not and therefore need not be succoured or holpen from death For no where There is no testimonie or authority extant in Scripture whereon to ground this for it is no where said that he takes hold of Angels to help them Taketh hold The word in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies properly to take a man with thy hand either to lead him some whither or to uphold him thereby to help him See Mark 8.23 and Luke 9.47 and Luke 14.4 Hence figuratively it is translated to signifie succouring or helping For when we would help one from falling or sinking under some burden or would raise him being fallen then wee put our hand to him and take hold of him Hence it is said of Wisdome that she exalteth her children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and layeth hold of them that seeketh her i. shee helpeth or aideth them that seeke her And there is the same sence of the counterverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because when we would help a man up with his burden we take hold of it over against him And this sence of the word is explicated afterward by the Author at the last verse of this Chapter for what he calls here taking hold of there he expresseth by the word succouring That Christ suffering himselfe being tempted is able to succour them that are tempted for in both these verses he treates of the same thing and the reason of the consequence proposed in this verse is explicated in that Thus for the sence of the word now for the sence of it It is not of the preter-tense as if referred to a time past particularly to that time when as it is at the ninth verse before Christ was made a little lower then the Angels for at that time being the time of his birth he did neither help Angels nor men but it is of the present tense he taketh not hold in reference to the time of his death upon which the Author groundeth all this argument For by his death he destroyes the devill and delivers men from the feare of death What is the reason of that Because by his death he taketh not hold of Angels to help and succour them or deliver them from the feare of death who being immortall by nature cannot feare it Neither can here be any enallage of the present tense for the preter but rather of the present for the future Christ was made lower then the Angels Why so Because by his death he was not to take hold of the Angels to help and succour them from the feare of it Now both this sense and this sense of the word was well perceived by our last Translators of the Bible into English for they have noted it in the margent of this verse though in the Text they correspond with some other Translations Hence it plainly appeares how these words are mistaken by some Translators and Interpreters who from hence would shew that Christ tooke not on him the nature of Angels which assertion though it be in it selfe most true yet it cannot be the meaning of this place For 1. It is against the sence of the words whereof there are but two and it goes against the sence of them both For to apprehend or take hold of a thing cannot signifie to assume or take on us the nature of it And the word Angels in the plurall number cannot imply an assumption of their nature for then it must have beene Angel in the singular 2. It is against the context or reasoning of the Author who could not nor ought not to take that for an argument or a reason which by argument and reason he was to prove for no one and the same truth can be an argument or a reason to it selfe why it selfe should be true At the seventh verse before this truth is laid downe That Christ tooke not on him the nature of Angels but was made lower whereof how can a reason be given by this that he tooke not on him the nature of Angels seeing these two sayings are identicall whereof neither can be the cause or reason of the other But if we understand these words of not helping or succouring the Angels then all things cohere most elegantly and rationally thus Christ tooke not the nature of Angels but was made lower then them because by his death he was not to help or succour the Angels from feare of death but to succour a creature lower then they who is all his lise in bondage of death and subject to the feare of death But hee tooke hold of the seed of Abraham That Christ should helpe the Angels is no where said in Scripture but it is said in some one or severall places of Scripture that hee was ordained to take hold of the seed of Abraham to helpe and succour it For to take hold in this clause of the verse carries the very same sence that it did in the former where it was denyed of the Angels The word seed especially among the Hebrews is for the most part a Noune collective and signifies a multitude of persons and therefore the Author fitly useth the word seed importing a multitude that he might oppose it to the Angels in the plurall number And the seed of Abraham are the children
or posterity of Abraham whether they be carnall by birth onely or spirituall by faith onely or both by birth and faith And he rather said the seed of Abraham in two respects 1. Because we often reade in Scripture that Christ is promised to no other men properly but to the posterity of Abraham or at least to his seed chiefly and in the first place 2. Because this word would be most pleasing to the Hebrews to whom he writes who were themselves the seed or posterity of Abraham But by this ambiguous appellation which might signifie the seed of Abraham whether carnall or spirituall he so ingratiates the Hebrews that withall he might tacitely invite them to continue Christians because Christians onely of what Nation soever they be are the spirituall seed of Abraham Gal. 3.29 For Christ was destinate to take hold of to help succour and save onely that spirituall seed as being their onely mercifull and faithfull high Priest And by the words here we must understand rather the spirituall seed of Abraham then the carnall but they that are his seed both wayes both carnally and spiritually as these Hebrewes were may challenge Christ in a manner by a double right to be their ayder and helper The summe of all is As in the former clause of this verse the Author proved the negative That Christ was not made an Angel because he was not to take hold of them to help and succour them So in this clause he proves the affirmative why he was made lower then the Angels why he tooke part of flesh and bloud Because by his death he was to take hold of the seed of Abraham to help and succour the faithfull in delivering them from the feare and bondage of death So the words shew not what Christ was by his birth but what he did by his death Hence now it plainly appeares how incongruously these words are wrested to Christs taking on him humane nature For this sence is contrary to the context and altogether crosse to right reasoning for by it the same truth is made a reason whereby to conclude it selfe At the fourteenth verse before this is laid downe for a truth That Christ tooke part of our flesh and bloud i. he did partake of humane nature of which truth how can a reason be given by this that hee tooke on him our humane nature seeing these two truths are identicall though not in words yet altogether in sence But if we understand these words of helping and succouring the faithfull then there runs a veine of evident reasoning Christ was made lower then the Angels and tooke part of flesh and bloud to what end that he might suffer death Why so To destroy the Devils power of death Why that Because he was to deliver men from the feare and bondage of death Why did he that Because he was to take hold of men to helpe and succour them who are the seed of Abraham 17. Wherefore in all things Hitherto he hath shewed that Christ must be a mortall man to suffer death now from the last cause of his helping or succouring men he teacheth that he must not onely be mortall but subject to divers afflictions and not onely subject but actually to suffer them and that not some few but even all wherewith the rest of the faithfull are afflicted It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren How and why the faithfull are the brethren of Christ hath before beene shewed and proved Yet in this place againe the word brethren carries a powerfull force of reasoning It behooveth a brother to helpe and succour his brother and Christ therefore takes hold of the faithfull to help and succour them because they are his brethren especially the seed of Abraham who are his brethren both by God and man And it behooveth also a brother to be like a brother and the more alike they are the more lovely they are to all and the more loving one to another And therefore it behooved Christ to be made like unto his brethren not onely in some one thing as in their nature to be made a little lower then the Angels as his brethren were or to take part of flesh and bloud as they did but also to be like them in all things even in their whole condition to be subject to afflictions and temptations as they are and actually to suffer all sorts of them as they doe yet he was not like them in sin for that is excepted Heb. 4.15 and a universall saying must alwayes abate when a particular exception is expresly made against it That he might be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest Christ must be made like unto his brethren in nature that he might be their high Priest for the Priest and the people must be of one Nation he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified must be all of one and he was made like them in condition for suffering afflictions and therefore he must bee unto them a mercifull and faithfull high Priest 1. He must be mercifull to be touched with a sence of his brethrens miseries and sorrowes and to thinke them so his owne or so neere him that he may be moved readily to succour or help them as himselfe For mercy is a sorrow for anothers misery moving us to succour him 2. He must be faithfull to administer and performe all things with all care and diligence in their behalfe that concernes their sanctifying or succouring to expiate their sins and help them from misery And this faithfulnesse takes some roote and growth from mercifulnesse for mercy doth beget and nourish faithfulnesse Now that Christ might be truly mercifull and faithfull to his brethren in all things therefore he must bee made like them in all things even in all their afflictions and sorrowes In things pertaining to God The office of the high Priest in generall was this to administer in things pertaining to God as to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin as the Author explicates it afterward chap. 5.1 And it was peculiar and proper to the high Priest to expiate or make atonement for the sins of the whole people together and not of single persons by themselves for that was common to other Priests This popular Expiation was performed by Christ our high Priest when after the shedding of his bloud on earth he entred into heaven as into the Sanctuary or holiest of all there to appeare in the presence of God to make Intercession for us that is that resting in heaven with God he might administer and performe all things that concernes our deliverance from the punishments of our sins To make reconciliation for the sins of the people The end of the office of the high Priest was to make reconciliation for the sins of the people i. To propitiate or expiate their sinnes The word in the originall signifies to cover hence the cover of the Arke was called the propitiatory because it covered the Tables of the Law that lay in
example of Aarons calling As was Aaron Aaron did not of his owne accord intrude himselfe into the office of high Priesthood but being thereto enjoyned and commanded by God he accepted of it by way of obedience to him that enjoyned it For God first did choose Aaron and after him his eldest son and by proper Laws determined the rights of succession in this office which were alwayes observed while the state was administred by the Laws of God Hitherto he hath specified severall properties of the high Priest all which may be reduced to three heads The first is that he offer for sinnes and negotiate the cause of men with God to which this may be referred that he must be a man 2. That he must be mercifull and propense toward sinners whereto this belongs that he himselfe be compassed with infirmity and thereupon offer for his owne sinnes as well as for the peoples 3. That he must be called to this office of God himselfe Now in an order retrograde or reverse beginning with the last he demonstrates that all these agree with Christ Whence it followes that Christ hath a truly Priestly dignity which he received from God and is touched with singular compassion toward the afflicted and will afford his owne people not onely opportune helpe but eternall happinesse 5. So also Christ glorified not himselfe to be made an high Priest Hee begins now with the last property of the high Priest and shewes that it agrees with Christ because Christ did not arrogate to himselfe the honour of this office This he doth to no other end then thereby to shew that the Priesthood of Christ was true and lawfull and that Christ had not been a true Priest if he had assumed this office of himselfe and not been called of God to receive it If I saith Christ glorifie my selfe my glory is nothing it is my Father that glorifies mee By the like reason willing to assert the truth of his doctrine hee denies that he spake of himselfe but refers his doctrine to his Father and professeth that he received it from his Father thereby intimating that his doctrine had not been true had hee spoken it of himselfe That which the Author saith here of Christ is so much the more remarkable because the Priesthood which Christ sustaineth is of that nature that no man can possibly take it upon him no man can possibly have but he upon whom God collates it But some man under the Law might arrogate the legall Priesthood and some did arrogate it when their state was corrupt But this high Priesthood of Christ to minister eternally in the Sanctuary of heaven to have absolute power and authority to take away from us all punishments of our sinnes to succour and helpe us in our miseries to deliver us from death and translate us to eternall life for these are the functions of his high Priesthood no mortall man can challenge this Priesthood or usurpe it or execute the functions of it unlesse God himselfe qualifie and raise him to such high faculties Therefore also the Author speaking of Christ and his high Priesthood used the word glorified that Christ glorified not himselfe because the Priesthood of Christ is a most glorious office containing most glorious functions all tending to eternall glory Hence it is manifest that Christ is not supreme God for if he were so from whom else could he receive this glory but from himselfe But this the Author plainly denyes shewing that otherwise hee could not bee a true and lawfull high Priest and therefore he was not the supreme God And we will passe by this point also that the supreme God can no way bee a Priest But he that said unto him Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee The Author saith not barely that Christ was made a high Priest by God but presently produceth Gods edicts wherein he ordained Christ to be a high Priest from whence it manifestly appears that Christ did not arrogate the Priesthood to himselfe but was ordained into it by God himselfe The first of these edicts is taken out of Psalme 2. The other Psal 110. That these words were spoken of God himselfe no man can bee ignorant but in these very words Christ is ordained high Priest whence it manifestly follows that hee tooke not this dignity from himselfe but received it of God Concerning the former of these testimonies we have spoken sufficiently chap. 1.5 We shall here note only three things 1. That the God who or dained Christ to be high Priest was the Father of Christ For the Father only hath power to call Christ by the name of his Sonne as in these words he did Whence it appeares that Christ in this place how great soever he be yea as he is the Sonne of God is opposed to God and it and of him it is denyed that he tooke the Priesthood to himselfe 2. That the Priestly office of Christ is not really distinguished from his Kingly because these words of the Psalme Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee which as we saw in the first chap. treat of Christs Kingly dignity in regard whereof he is chiefly the Sonne of God are by the Author in this place applyed to his Priesthood Wee may further adde here That Christ performed not his Priestly office at least not perfectly at the time when hee suffered the death of the Crosse neither was his death a perfect oblation expiatory for these words of the Psalme are cleerly interpreted by St. Paul of his resurrection and glory Act. 13. and here above chap. 1. But Christ in his death was most deeply humbled and debased Whereas in these words of the Psalme he is declared the Sonne of God and withall became far more excellent then the Angels as appeares before chap. 1.4,5 But in respect of his death most especially he was much lesse then the Angels As Christ suffered death hee exercised not his Kingly office but only did that whereby he might attaine it but when hee administers his Priestly office he withall executes the parts of his Kingly function Wherefore hee did not execute it actually in his death but was thereby prepared to execute it 3. In those words of the Psalme Thou art my Sonne to day have I begotten thee there is no intimation of any generation or begetting of Christ from the essence of his Father before all worlds but of such a generation whereby Christ was ordained a high Priest of God and therefore of such a one as was done in time for Christ was not made our high Priest from all eternity but from a certaine time namely upon his Resurrection 6. As he saith also in another place The other testimony of Scripture shewing the decree of God taken Psal 110. Hee saith i. God saith Thou art a Priest for ever In this testimony there is expresse treating of Christs Priesthood Whence it appeares that it was also treated of in the former testimony seeing both
the testimonies are alleadged for the same thing Some men that they may elude the true sense of the former testimony which the Holy Ghost shewes to be in the words Thou art my Sonne To day have I begotten thee say that those words are not alleadged as a testimony of Gods collating the Priesthood upon Christ but as a description of him who conferred this office upon him There men doe a manifest injury to the truth and to the words of the Author For how should these following words agree with the former as he saith also in another place doth hee not by these latter words manifestly declare that now another place or Psalm is cited by him wherein the same point is proved for which the former testimony was produced For ever The Priestood of Christ shall last for ever in the person of Christ without ever having any successour in his office for his office shall last as long as there needs any expiation for sinnes even to the end of the world and so long he shall continue in that office After the order of Melchisedeck The duration or terme of Christs Priesthood shall runne out like the duration of Melchisedecks Priesthood or as the Author expresseth himselfe afterward chap. 7.15 after the similitude of Melchisedeck But of these words we shall speake further chap. 7. where the Author explicates this likenesse more fully But here he tacitly meets with a doubt which some man might imagine touching the Priesthood of Christ in that Christ descended not from the family of Aaron or tribe of Levi to which tribe the Priesthood was limited by the Law of God For the type of Melchisedeck doth not only require an eternall Priesthood but also requires that no respect of tribe or family should be had therein as we shall shew hereafter 7. Who in the dayes of his flesh From the third property required in a high Priest and concluded to agree with Christ he ascends now to the second property and saith that Christ also was compassed with infirmity and by reason thereof offered for himselfe This he shews in this 7. verse and then at the 8. verse he inferres that from this infirmity Christ learned to be mercifull toward the distressed and afflicted In the dayes of his flesh By flesh hee understands the infirmity of Christ for flesh is the subject of infirmity and in a manner the cause of it And the dayes of his flesh are the dayes wherein he suffered for in that time chiefly his infirmity most appeared For then it most appeared that Christ was flesh When he had offered prayers and supplications Now he shews that Christ offered also for himselfe Of which his oblation his infirmity and afflictions were the cause the sence whereof how deepely it struck into his soule and how greatly it exercised him appeares from the things which he offered For he shews distinctly both what he offered and to whom as also the adjunct of his offering and the issue of it The matter of his offering was Prayers This is a generall word to signifie all petitions or rather all kinde of speech unto God And supplications which are the prayers or petitions of supplicants whose manner is to fall upon their knees casting themselves at the feet or touching the knees of them to whom they make their prayer The originall word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as some Interpreters note doth properly signifie an olive-branch wrapped about with wooll which supplicants held in their hands Hence we may easily imagine in what anguish of soule Christ was and what pangs of paine he felt when he was driven to such earnest prayers and devout supplications But what prayers and supplications the Author means will appeare from the words following wherein the person to whom he prayed is described in such manner that thence wee may easily understand what he prayed although the adjunct of his prayer doth partly also declare it Vnto him that was able to save him from death In these words he shews not only the person to whom Christ offered but also the cause why he offered him prayers and what the thing was for which he so earnestly prayed And this is the cause why he would describe God after this manner rather then simply name him for therefore he so devoutly supplicated to God because God onely is hee that can save from death which Christ by his prayers chiefly requested He indeed requested some other things besides for in the garden hee petitioned that the cup might passe from him i. he there was an humble supplicant prostrate upon his knees and afterward on his face praying againe and againe with great ardour of minde that hee might be delivered from the great anguish and heavinesse which hee felt in his soule And hanging upon the crosse he poured forth this lamentation unto God My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Wherein hee prayed that God would put an ease and an end to his extreme paines But the summe and breviate or at least the head of all those prayers was this for his delivery from death For hee that is delivered from death in that sence that Christ here desired hee hath found an end of all paines both of soule and body and hath obtained supreme happinesse This delivery Christ prayed for in commending his Spirit to God when he was ready to expire For to commend the spirit to God or to pray that God would receive it into his hands what is it else but to pray that he would preserve it and afterward restore it and consequently to recal him from death to life whose spirit it is That the Author had respect to these prayers of Christ it may appeare by their adjunct which he also mentions in saying That his prayers were offered up With strong crying and teares The holy History of the Evangelists doe testifie that Christ hanging upon the Crosse complained in the words of the Psalme with a great cry that God had forsaken him and afterward being ready to expire he commended his Spirit to God But the Sacred History mentions not any teares of Christ shed at that time yet notwithstanding it appeares that it was so and was knowne to the Authour to bee so Now this cry and teares doe further shew how deepely the sence of paine was impressed into him when it forced him to expresse such cryes and teares Hence it appeares further that Christ thus exercised with so great a sence of paines himselfe cannot but be moved at the miseries and paines of his people cannot but willingly hear the dolefull cryes and complaines and affoord his opportune succour and help in their afflictions and distresses From these words of the Authour it appeares how Christ offered for himselfe namely that hee offered not himselfe but his prayers for himselfe and then he offered them not when he became immortall in his heavenly Tabernacle but in the dayes of his flesh or infirmity For when he became immortall he could not
then offer for this end that he might be saved from death which as wee have cleared from the words of the Authour was indeed the end of his offering Besides being in heaven he offered himselfe immaculate and therefore had no need to offer for himselfe there Wherefore Christ offered one way for himselfe and another way for us for for himselfe hee offered prayers on earth for us he offered himselfe in heaven for himselfe when yet he was mortall or in the dayes of his flesh for us when he was made an immortall and eternall Spirit And was heard The effect and issue of these prayers offered was this that he was delivered and saved not from death for hee suffered it and dyed but out of death from whence he was raised For whom God heareth praying in that manner him he delivers and frees though not from his misery before he suffer it yet out of it after hee hath suffered So speakes David as a type of Christ Psal 22.21 Thou hast heard mee from the hornes of the Vnicornes i. as learned men have noted thou hast heard to save me from extreame dangers So that the word heard is taken here Metonymically to include the effect of his hearing hee was heard and saved In that he feared Hee was saved from or out of the thing hee feared namely out of death The originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some take for a passionate feare the object whereof here in Christ was death and so by a Metonymie feare is here put for death the act for the object or thing to be feared For of all terrours death is most terrible and fearfull and this feare was the cause of his prayers and supplications at least of the cryes and teares wherewith they were offered And then this example of Christ may teach us partly with what fervency of soule we must implore the help of God in the times of our distresses partly what things especially we must pray for partly wherein that opportune help chiefly consists whereof the Author spake in the end of the former chapter namely in this that Christ saveth us out of death into eternall life Others take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a reverentiall or religious feare for this sence is set in the margent of our last translation that he was heard for his pietie And then the object of his pietie reverence or fear was God to whom he prayed And so this feare of God was the proper motive to this offering of Christ and to all the circumstances of his offering His offering it selfe proceeded from his pietie or feare of God for every offering is an act of pietie His prayers and supplications proceeded from it for prayer also is an act of pietie his cryes and teares proceeded from it for they also are concurrents of pietie and fervent devotion His exaudition in being heard of God proceeded from it for Gods hearing of our prayers is the fruit of our pietie and devotion seeing God heareth not impious and sinfull persons but such as are pious to reverence and worship him and doe his will those hee heareth John 9.31 The prayers of Christ were supplications i. as before is noted petitions exhibited upon the knees with great worship and reverence given to God His prayers in the garden were such supplications performed with great worship and reverence bowing toward God for first hee fell upon his knees and afterward hee went more humbly and fell upon his face And his prayers on the crosse were supplications also as the Author termeth them and therefore performed with reverent bowing also such as was possible for Christ to use in that case being stretched and nailed upon the crosse where because he could not bow his knees therefore as the Sacred story relates it hee bowed his head when hee cryed and commended his spirit unto God Which bowing of his head was not a simple act of a dying man as some Interpreters slightly passe it over but an act of worship and reverence of a pious man that was making his offering unto God by prayers and supplications adding cryes and teares and all religious meanes for exaudition that God might heare him Wherefore it carries a very congruous sence to say that Christ was heard for his pietie i. for the feare and reverence he used toward God in his prayers and supplications for fear is the inward motion of the soule from which the outward worship and reverend bowings of the body do proceed And these outward reverences of bowing the head bowing the body and bowing the knees are acts of worship unto God which have beene used by Gods people in all ages of the world For bowing the head See Gen. 24.26.48 and Exod. 4.31 and Exod. 12.27 and Exod. 34.8 and 1. Chro. 29.20 and 2. Chro. 20.18 and 2. Chro. 29.30 and Nehem. 8.6 Hence it appeares also from this example of Christ that our prayers and supplications unto God should proceed from inward piety and fear of God and should be offered unto him with outward worship and reverence accompanyed with cryes and teares in times of extreme distresses if we mean to have exaudition that God should graciously heare us 8. Who though he were a son Christ by the evils which he suffered became such a one as to have compassion on those who labour to obey God through difficulties and sufferings Hee learned obedience He learned what it is to obey God what a difficult and harsh duty it is how bitter and unpleasing to flesh and blood For in this place hee takes obedience for that part of obedience which is seene in difficult and hard cases such as are these to be afflicted and suffer death for the justice and truth of God Yet I conceive the word obedience is here to be understood more literally and derivatively from audience for a giving of audience Christ who upon his prayers and supplications made to God with cryes and teares to save him from death had audience of God and was heard therein did therby learne to give audience and hearing to his people when in their distresses they offer up prayers and supplications with cryes and teares to him thereby to have compassion on them and deliver them from their distresses For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here fitly renderd obedience doth carry an elegant symploce of sence both of audience to heare another what he would have done and of obedience to doe the thing which he hath heard And that very act of compassion in Christ in hearing the distressed though it be his audience to them yet it is his obedience to God who ordained a high Priest for that function By the things that hee suffered In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of or from the things that he suffered so it is rendred Mat. 24.32 Learne a parable of the figtree Christ by or from his owne evills and sufferings learned what bitternesse and trouble there lyes in suffering persecutions for righteousnesse
accord was an action Remission was signified as the action of John himselfe who in a manner represented the person of God as his legat or messenger and in the name of God did promise men the remission and purgation of their sinnes and declared this by the signe of washing But the Baptisme of Christ doth not only represent repentance and remission of sinnes or is not only received as a signe of future repentance and remission but over and above it is a signe of putting on Christ and with him of dying to sinne and rising to newnesse of life that at last with him also wee may attaine everlasting life for baptisme doth elegantly shadow out our death and buriall with Christ by our immersion into the water and our resurrection with him by our emersion out of the water This Paul hath taught us in some passages of his Epistles See Rom. 6.3,4 and Col. 2.12 And of laying on of hands Some by this understand that Imposition of hands which was in use anciently in the Christian Church whereby the Elders laid their hands upon such as were admitted to the communion and society of the faithfull which use as it seems was derived or drawne from the Apostles who were wont to lay their hands upon such as were to receive the Holy Ghost But if we follow the former sense of these words as we have already explicated them it is better to take them for that Imposition of hands which the Apostles used for this end that the Disciples of Christ might receive the Holy Ghost See Acts 8.17,18,19 and 2 Tim. 1.6 Yet the sense will be no lesse elegant if wee take the words the latter way to signifie the doctrine which belonged to those that are baptised and have hands laid on them As if the Author had said Let us not returne to learne the doctrine of repentance and faith in God which useth to be proposed to them that are baptised and have hands laid on them For wee were long since baptised and had hands laid on us Let us leave these matters to novices and to such as come newly to the discipline of Christ This sense hath pleased some learned men and if we admit it we must read the words as it were in a Parenthesis And of resurrection of the dead The two remaining points are fundamentall And by the resurrection of the dead in this place and many others hee seems to comprehend immortall life as the reward which the godly attaine after death And of eternall judgement Which is the punishment ordained for the ungodly For seeing in this place the word judgement may signifie two things either the sentence or decree in generall touching men or damnation and punishment in particular the latter of these is more consonant to reason because of the word eternall attributed to judgement For this is more proper and usually called eternall punishment then the passing of the sentence which in it selfe is not eternall though in the effect of it it be eternall If therefore eternall judgement signifie eternall punishment then the resurrection of the dead in this place must signifie an eternall reward i. a blessed and immortall life which also a Popish Interpreter upon this place hath observed by saying Among other things these two were principally delivered to the catechised the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and of eternall judgement that by hope of the resurrection they might willingly expose themselves unto all dangers for Christ and for feare of the judgement never returne to their former sins 3. And this will we do if God permit i. If God permit wee will lay the foundation againe As if he had said Although by all meanes we should take heed that the matter fall not to this passe as to cast a necessity upon us to lay the foundation againe Yet we will doe so if God shall please to permit us whereby he tacitly intimates that God would not alwayes suffer this to be done yet the Authors words are so carried that as he did not altogether hope it so neither did he wholly despaire it For in the words following he seemes to respect both these cases the former of them in the next words ver 4. and the latter at the ninth verse where he is perswaded better things of them and things that accompany salvation of which his perswasion or hope he alledgeth a reason drawne from the righteousnesse and goodnesse of God 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned In these words the Author brings a reason partly of what he lately intimated touching Gods permission and partly of what he had openly said of not laying againe the foundation namely because it is impossible that effect should follow which hereby may be intended Besides as we noted before it appeares that the Author speakes here properly of Apostates who condemne Christian Religion as false and thereupon desert it Of these he saith It is impossible for them to be renewed unto repentance Which impossibility partly depends upon the naturall difficulty that such should be againe converted unto Christ who have once forsaken him for it is an easier labour to retaine the Christian Religion being once attained then to recover it being once lost but if those men have not performed the easier worke in retaining it much lesse will they performe the harder in recovering it And if Christianity could not so work upon them as not to reject it how shall it gaine upon them to re-embrace it and receive it for true when it stands rejected And the impossibility partly depends upon Gods will and decree who when men become so ungracious as to staine their soules with such an incredible wickednesse is wont to judge them unworthy of his grace and thereupon to reprobate and curse them which word the Author useth afterward at the eighth verse by a simily drawne from a barren soile Whence it comes to passe that as the Scripture speakes God hardens them and holds them captives to his judgements Which notwithstanding must not be so understood as if God would never release this just rigour and severity but onely that he useth not to release it For the Civilians say That which depends upon the pleasure of the Prince is deemed impossible i. That which by the common course of Law cannot be done unlesse the Prince grant it by vertue of his prerogative is not thought possible and seasable especially if the thing be such as the Prince useth not to grant Renovation therefore is impossible unlesse God as it were make use of his prerogative to extend his singular grace and favour toward such a man not onely not to harden him and oppose himselfe against his conversion but also to further him by his speciall assistance and supply him with most effectuall remedies for his reclaiming For otherwise the saying of Jeremy must stand good Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may yee also do good that are
without an oath by so much is the new Covenant better then the old 21. For those Priests were made without an oath but this with an oath This whole verse must be read in a parenthesis because it containes an opposition between the old Priests and Christ in as much as they were made Priests without any oath of God but Christ with an oath By him that said unto him namely by him that said those words unto him Thou art a Priest for ever c. And by him that said those words to Christ God himself seems to be understood although the words next cited The Lord sware and will not repent him seeme not to be the words of God himself but of the Prophet who relates this oath of God But because the words following Thou art a Priest for ever are the words of God therefore by him that said unto him the Author might well meane God For although in these words there bee no oath of God expressed yet it is as much as if it had been expressed seeing the Prophet testifies that God uttering these words did swear which therefore the Author would not omit though he were to relate the words of God himselfe and not of the Prophet But if by him who said these words unto Christ we understand not God but the Prophet as some Interpreters upon that Psalme do who so expound these words as if the Psalmist had said The Lord sware c. Thou art a Priest for ever then the Prophet must be meant by a common forme of speech that Christ was made Priest by the Prophet because the Prophet by these words did foretell and declare that he should bee made Priest For many times in Scripture the declaring of a thing is said to be the doing of it In this sense Jeremy is said to have been appointed to root out and to destroy to build and to plant Jer. 1.10 So the Prophet Esay is said to raise up the tribes of Jacob to restore the preserved of Israel and to be given for a light to the Gentiles because he prophesied and foretold of these things The Lord sware and will not repent this oath argues that the matter of it was great certain and unchangeable and because God will not repent it therefore it was very good and acceptable to God So that the thing must not be altered or undone both in regard of the oath and of the goodnesse of it Unlesse by not repenting we conceive the setled constancie of God never to revoke or alter the matter For repentance attributed to God signifies only a change of the fact by way of resemblance from men who if they repent doe commonly alter the thing if it lye in their power 22. By so much was Iesus made the surety of a better testament These words are cleerely answerable to the beginning of the 20. verse as appeares by the particles of relation there and here in as much and by so much Jesus is called the surety of the Covenant or Testament because he contracted it with us in the Name of God and ratified it on Gods part making faith of it unto us that God would keepe the promises of his Covenant Not therefore as if he became our surety to God and tooke upon him the payment of our debts For we sent not Christ unto God is our name but God sent him to us in his Name And Christ came to us from God made a Covenant with us became surety for the promises of it and undertooke they should be performed And therefore he is not called a Surety simply but the Surety of the Covenant And he undertooke for the truth of Gods Covenant diverse wayes as by his perpetuall testimony in words for the force and strength of it by proving the faith of his function in it in many documents by his perfect innocency and holinesse of life by severall divine workes and miracles which he wrought by suffering a grievous death to assert the truth of his doctrine Hence his Apostle John produced those three witnesses of undoubted faith to confirme the truth of Christian Religion namely the Spirit water and bloud 1 John 5.8 Where by Spirit he understands that divine power in Christ which he shewed in his admirable workes by water the blamelesse and spotlesse life of Christ and by bloud his bloudy death For Christian truth approves it selfe by such witnesses That divine Spirit testified by so many wondrous workes doth it not evidently declare that Christ was a divine man sent from God and therefore that he preached nothing forged of himselfe but onely that which he had received from the God of truth Would that God who is most holy replenish an impostor with such so great gifts of his Spirit The most pure and holy life of Christ is it not an open testimony that Christ respected no earthly thing that he sought no worldly wealth no honors nor pleasures but had reposed all his hopes in God and in those heavenly goods which he promised unto others From whence otherwise could so great holinesse of life proceed and so great contempt of all worldly things For Impostors use not to trust in God and to expect from him the rewards of heaven Impostors use not to passe their life in such holinesse abstinence from all sin For why do they labour to delude men with their impostures and deceits Do they it only to deceive without any advantage to themselves and to expose themselves to nothing but diverse dangers and troubles which commonly accompany such impostures and making themselves guilty of this one thanklesse wickednesse to follow piety in all things else certainely nothing lesse Such kinde of persons seeke their owne commodity to gaine wealth to get a vaine glorious name and to abound in pleasure which whoso aymes at cannot leade a life innocent and void of all blame Hence the Apostle speaking of Impostors or false teachers doth justly affirme that they have their belly for their god and minde earthly things that they are enemies to the Crosse of Christ and have their conscience seared with a hot iron Phil. 3.18,19 and 1 Tim. 4.2 And Christ warning his Disciples to beware of false prophets tels them that such may be knowne by their fruits i. by their works which are an infallible signe of their deceit Doe men saith he gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles an evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.16 For however for a time they may dissemble and make shew of godlinesse yet they cannot do it constantly For feigned holinesse lasteth not long and covert wickednesse lyes not long hid The life therefore of Christ being carried on in one perpetuall tenor of innocency and holinesse doth wholly vindicate him from the crime of any imposture Hence Christ himselfe contends with the Jews by this argument Which of you convinceth me of sin and if I say the truth why do yee not beleeve me John 8 46. q.d. Either convince
the New Testament as we shewed in the former Chapter to containe the remission of all our sinnes even the most heinous and consequently to be of force to purge our conscience And because it is a Testament therefore it was first to be confirmed by death which here neither can nor must be any other then the death of Christ Whence it is manifest that the death or bloud of Christ as it confirmes the New Testament doth purge our conscience from dead workes The particle and shews that a new argument is alledged and the words for this cause note the finall cause for which Christ died He is the Mediatour of the New Testament Wee now use the word Testament and not Covenant because the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Testament and not a Covenant though sacred Writers use it to signifie also a Covenant And the ambiguity of the word did well serve the Author to draw his argument from that which must needs be done in a Testament And to speake a little yet more accurately Testament and Covenant differ but alternly as genus and species For every Testament is a Covenant though not è contra for though the heire doe not covenant with the Testator at the making of the Testament because that may be done altogether without his knowledge which is necessarily required in him that covenanteth Yet he covenants at the validity of the Testament for when the Covenant takes effect by his acceptance of the condition specified in the Testament and by his entrance upon the Inheritance then though before he were free he covenants ex Lege to performe the will of the Testatour So that every Testament at least when it is consummate and valid is a kinde of Covenant and it is the best kinde of Covenant 1. Because it is most solemnely testified by sealing and witnessing from whence it is called a Testament 2. Because it is most preciously confirmed even by death and the death of him that makes it who establisheth his owne deed by his owne death 3. Because it containes an extraordinary benefit in conveying the Testators inheritance and whole estate to the heire And lastly because it proceeds with the greatest freedome in leaving the heire to his liberity whether he will accept of the Inheritance or not Now this New Testament is the last will of God which must stand for ever because it is already confirmed and therefore cannot be revoked But how Christ is the Mediatour of it hath beene partly shewed before chap. 8.6 and is partly to be shewed afterward yet his Mediatorship consisteth chiefly in these two acts first in declaring or publishing it and then in confirming or establishing it by his death as a Testament ought to be That by meane of death for the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance Here is a file of finall causes linked one to another whereof the last end is the obtaining of an eternall inheritance the intermean is the redemption for the transgressions which were under the first Testament the prime Mean to these two former subordinate ends whereby they are successively atrained is death which in a Testament must necessarily intervene Hence we may see that the redemption of transgressions doth properly depend and flow from the New Testament and the death of Christ doth give force and strength to this Testament The word Redemption is put for Expiation as was shewed ver 12. For Expiation is one kinde or sort of Redemption both because the effect of expiation is a delivery and because also the meanes or it whereby it is wrought is an expence for it commonly costeth bloud Hence some Translators in this place render it Expiation But because the word Redemption carries the sense of Expiation therefore it both followes the construction of it and is simply called the redemption of transgressions either for their expiation as wee have said In which sense the Scripture speakes elswhere For Prov 16.6 where the vulgar Latine reads it By truth iniquity is redeemed there our English translation hath it By truth iniquity is purged i. expiated Or for redemption from transgressions For Cicero himselfe in a sense not unlike saith Liberationem culpa for à culpâ And he useth the word Transgressions whereby grievous sinnes are commonly signified to shew us what sinnes chiefly are remitted in the New Testament namely heynous and grievous sinnes for which in the Old Testament there was no expiation allowed but the punishment of death imposed Wherefore he addeth Which were under the first Testament He means which remained in force or could not be expiated or for which no remission was allowed under the Law But hee seems withall to intimate that those grievous sinnes had their being and were wont to bee committed under the Old Testament whereas the New Testament together with their guilt doth wholly take away their being in them who cordially beleeve the promises of it For that this is the force and effect of the New Testament and of the bloud of Christ we have already shewed partly in the eight Chapter and partly here And he mentions not the expiation of transgressions only or grievous sins therfore as if under the New Testament also all lighter sins were not expiated but it is as much as if he had said Yea even of those transgressions under c. For somtimes the Scripture speaketh simply not to exclude other things but to teach us that those other things wherof there might be greater doubt are included which being thoght included much more is it to be thought so of the rest So Psal 25.8 David saith of God That he is good and upright therefore wil he teach sinners in the way i. Yea even sinners and not righteous men only though he will teach them also and much rather for so he presently addes in the verse following The meeke will he guide in judgement and teach his way So Paul Rom. 4.5 saith That God justifieth the ungodly not that he justifieth him onely but that hee is so gracious as to justifie him also Or else the Authour mentions only transgressions or grievous sins to shew that they chiefly are expiated under the new Testament and that this is the proper fruit of the new Testament and of the oblation of Christ But if the guilt of grievous sins be taken away under the new Testament much more must it be true of lighter sinnes Besides grievous sins do much more grieve the conscience then lighter for to lighter sinnes there was some expiation granted in the law whereby men might imagine that God of his infinite goodnes would also release the penalty of eternall death but to the other no expiation was allowed Might receive the promise To receive the promise of eternall inheritance doth in this place signifie to enter the reall possession of the eternall inheritance which was before promised and not to receive the promise
of it onely Therefore those grievous sinnes whereof men stood guiltie and for which they were subject to eternall death must first be expiated before they can enter and receive the eternall inheritance For those sinnes did hinder men from entring it which being purged away now nothing hinders but they may take possession of it But who shall do this shall all promiscuously no certainly but they which are called i. They to whom this eternal inheritance is offered by the Gospel of Christ and who accept this great grace of God by a lively faith For both of these use to be included in the word called But he simply saith they which are called might receive this eternall inheritance because all which are called may receive it if they will and be not wanting to themselves for in God and Christ there is no let 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator Here he gives the cause why he said that by meanes of death this effect of remission of sinnes and receiving the eternall inheritance doth follow because saith he where a Testament is there of necessity the death of the Testator must intervene which reason hee confirmes by a Super-reason in the verse following But here some man may object that the Author doth but sophisticate with words and not draw a reall argument from the thing it selfe Seeing Christ was not the Author of any testament properly but onely the Mediatour of the Covenant although the Greeke writers use the word Testament to signifie a Covenant But the ambiguity of the word must not confound the natures and properties of the things so that what is true of one thing which the ambiguous word signifies should forthwith bee transfered to the other signified by the same word We answer That the speech is here of such a thing as is common to both the significations of the word the proper and improper or rather the generall and the speciall i. that is Covenant and Testament for we said before that every Testament is a Covenant an especiall and best kind of Covenant For Covenant is a generall name whereby those things are called that are more properly named leagues and testaments both which are Covenants And indeed almost throughout the old testament the originall word which our English translation renders Covenant doth properly signifie a League and were better so rendered for because God is a publike person and so is mankinde also therefore all Gods Covenants with man are properly Leagues Hence the Latine translations both vulgar and others constantly render them Faedera So for a testament if we consider the nature of it accuratly then any solemne act of any person testified by his death is properly a testament and he who testifies anothers act though he be no Author but onely the assertor of it is properly the testator of it For hence the Civilians have borrowed their termes of Testament and Testator which commonly concurre in the same person yet not necessarily but accidentally for whatsoever witnesse will testifie upon his death the verity and certainty of another mans last Will and Testament such a witnesse is truely a testator to that Testament And he that mediats to certifie a mans Testament and mediats so farre as to testifie it with his death hee is both the mediator and the testator of that Testament so that a mediator and a testator in respect of the same Testament are not functions incompatible but consentaneous that may easily concurre in the same person Yea hee that in this sence is the testator of a Testament is necessarily thereupon the mediator of it So that Gods two solemne Covenants or rather his Leagues the old and the new are truely and properly called Testaments because they are both testified by bloud and death to certifie confirme and establish them for the old Testament was testified by the bloud and death of calves and goates which was therefore called the bloud of the Testament as it is declared in the verses following But because the new Testament was testified certified confirmed and established by the death and bloud of Christ therefore Christ though hee were not the Author of it yet is most truely and properly the testator of it And because Christ did mediate for this Testament to certifie and publish it to the world that the old and former testament was abrogated and revoaked and that this new one was the last Will and Testament of his Father therefore also be was most truely and properly the Mediatour of it And hee was so constant and earnest a Mediator to certifie the truth of this new Testament that thereupon hee became the testator of it also to testifie and confirme it with his death and blood Nay because Christ was the Testator of it therefore hee must necessarily also be the Mediator of it for no man will testifie that truth or that cause with his bloud for which he no way mediats seeing he â—hat no way mediats for a thing will 〈◊〉 testifie it with his blood Wherefore in the words of these 16. and 17 verses though the Author for a while supposeth and takes it for graunted that not onely death but the death of the Testator which here is Christ must needs intervene to confirme the new Testament yet a little after at the 23. verse and so forward hee clearly demonstrats it For there he teacheth that the matter must not nor could not be effected by the bloud of beasts because he was both the Mediator and the high Priest of the Covenant or League who when he was to appeare before God in his heavenly Sanctuary and there to performe his offering certainly he was not to slay some beast to bring the bloud of it into that Sanctuary but must shed his own bloud to make himselfe his owne offering in heauen thereby to confirme and establish the new League or Covenant which as he might do so he must doe it for the great dignity and sublimity of the particulars therein contained So that in this respect the new Covenant comes neerer to the nature of a Testament then of a League which was the proper nature of the old Covenant For what effect could there be in the bloud of a beast to confirme and make faith unto us of heavenly promises Such a Confirmation had very ill beseemed this divine and heavenly Covenant especially seeing it might be confirmed by other bloud more sutable to it and by bloud that notwithstanding was to be shed for another cause which cause hath already been shewed at the 14. verse Whence wee may perceive that in these words in this 16. verse as they are also extended to Covenants or Leagues and to the Authors and Mediators of them somthing must be understood to make the truth of them fully to appeare which yet is not expressed because it makes nothing to the point in hand For these words of the Author here must be taken as it he had
said where a Testament is there must needs bee the death of the Testator or at least as in leagues which in a manner resemble Testaments the death of some creature whereby the League is confirmed by him that makes it for till death intervene a Testament or League is of no force and strength which exception or rather which correction of his generall saying why it was not added here the cause hath been already shewed We may also answer the former objection thus That his reasoning here is comparative by way of similitude not explicitely but contractedly as is ofen used And the words are to be taken as if he had said as when a Testament is made the death of the Testator must needs accede because it must be animated by the death of the Testator for while the Testator lives the Testament lives not or is not in force So also when the new League or Testament was ordained his death must accede that made it and was in stead of the Testator that the Testament might be firme and of force For though Christ made not the new Testament as the Author or principall agent of it yet because hee was the Mediator and instrument of his Father to speed it in his Fathers name therefore he may be said to have made it for wee commonly attribute the same action both to the agent who is the prime cause of it and to the Instrument who is the means of it From hence it manifestly appears what force the bloud of Christ hath in procuring us remission of sinnes namely these two forces first that by it the New Testament was established or confirmed and secondly that thereupon he offered himselfe to God for us in heaven So that his bloud was confirmatory to settle the eternall inheritance upon us and expiatory to procure an eternall redemption of our sinnes whereof the former is handled in this verse the latter in those precedent Why Christ is called here the Testator we have before sufficiently reasoned namely because he was the maine witnesse to certifie the truth of the Testament by his death and because he was the maine party by whose death the Testament which till then lay dead became alive and valid to be of force and effect Yet here wee shall adde one reason more because it will serve wondrously to annimate our faith and love toward Christ and that is because the inheritance conveyed unto us by this New Testament is properly the inheritance of Christ for hee is the unigenit or only begotten Sonne of God and was ordained to be Lord and heire of all his Fathers estate and hath admitted us that will accept of it to be co-heires and fellow-partners with him in it and dyed as the Testator to settle the possession of it upon us Or to speake in the words of Paul He hath received us to the glory of God Rom. 15.7 And the words of Christ to his Disciples tend to this sense I appoâ—nt unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto mee Luke 22.29 17. For a testament is of force after men are dead This is the reason why the death of the testator must accede to the testament hee hath made because all the while the testator lives his testament is dead and of no force to give any possession to the heire of the inheritance and estate thereby to be conveyed but when the testator is dead then the testament takes life and becomes of force for then the heire hath an actuall right and power to enter upon the inheritance And therefore he addes Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth These are the same words in effect with the former and are but a consequence from them by that rule of reasoning which we call conversion by contraposition For if a testament be of force when the testator is dead then it must needs follow that while the testator is not dead the testament is of no force Which kinde of reasoning is frequent in Scripture yet among many passages we shall instance but in this one and in this the rather because the texts of it are much obscured by Interpreters who labour to reconcile them as if they seemed opposite whereas no two texts can be more according for they are wholly equipollent and each consequent to the other Christ saith He that is not with me is against me Mat. 12.30 and he saith againe He that is not against us is for us or which is all one He that is not against me is with me Luke 9.50 This latter saying in Luke is so farre from being opposite or contrary to the former in Matthew that it is a most immediate and necessary consequence from it For if this saying be true as it is because the truth hath said it He that is not with Christ is against him Then this also from thence must needs follow for a truth He that is not against Christ is with him Because this latter saying is the conversion of the former by contraposition 18. Whereupon neither the first was dedicated without bloud What he had said before in generall of testaments now he declares in particular and proves by an example in the first or Old Testament and makes way for himselfe to apply the same unto Christ and to the New Testament established by him For because under the Old Testament it selfe was confirmed by bloud and because almost all things were cleansed by bloud at least sinnes could not be cleansed without shedding of bloud Therefore from hence he gathers by way of similitude that death and shedding of bloud must needs intervene under the New Testament that thereby both the Testament it selfe might be confirmed and our sinnes purged Was dedâ—cated The Greeke word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Interpreters note is properly said when some solemne act is done whereby a new thing being perfected and finished begins to come in use So the Consecration of Solomons new Temple was called the Dedication of it and the Consecration of the new Altar erected by Judas Maccabeus was called the Dedication of it 1 Maccab. 4.56 And the annuall celebration of that dedication is called the feast of the dedication John 10.22 yet this word applied to leagues signifies nothing else but to confirme them And leagues are then confirmed when they are so ratified as thereby they have force and strength to become obligatory and binding to all parties therein interessed For the confirmation of a league is some solemne act done by the confederates or in their name whereby they mutually so binde their faith that it shall not bee lawfull for either party to rescinde or revoke the league And although there bee many formes of confirmation for leagues yet anciently the usuall forme was by bloud and that of the Old Testament was performed by the bloud of beasts Wherefore with good reason the Author saith that it was not dedicate or confirmed without bloud i. it began not to come
is appointed unto men once to dye He brings a new argument to confirm and illustrate the single or only sacrifice of Christ drawne from a similitude or comparison of the death of Christ with the common law and condition of men who dye but once and not often The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is well rendred by some learned men befalleth as one death befalleth all men For it seems not that the Author intended that this word by it selfe should signifie some divine decree although he thereby excludes it not for this word may have such a latitude of sense as to signifie both that which is appointed unto men by the law of nature and that which by Gods decree is destinated to some particular man In the first particle of these words which speake of death he seems to respect rather what is done by the force and course of nature then what follows by force of Gods decree For that death must bee here understood that is common to all men even to the godly and is temporall because it is that death after which judgement follows which kinde of death is due unto us rather by our naturall condition then destinated to us by force of any divine decree And besides we must understand that the Author speaks not here so much of the necessity of death that men are simply appointed to dye for that gives no helpe to his argument as of the singularity of death in that men dye but once and not twice or more often to the end he might from thence conclude that Christ also must dye but once onely and therefore must offer himselfe but once onely But the singularity of mens death that they dye but once proceeds meerly from nature and depends not from any peculiar decree of God but for a man to dye a second time or more often cannot be but from a peculiar decree of God And therefore by these words nothing else is signified then that one onely death is allotted unto men or that they dye but once only But after this the judgement This indeed depends from Gods decree therefore the word appointed as we said must be taken in his latitude and generally to signifie only a thing whose event is certaine whether it flow from nature it selfe as once to dye or whether it follow upon Gods decree as the future judgement But that judgement doth not so much consist in pronouncing the sentence upon all men both quicke and dead as in executing the sentence already adjudged For this is no humane judgement but a divine for the dispatch whereof there needs no witnesses no prooffes no accusers or advocates no tedious disquisition of the truth For to Christ who is the supreme Judge all things are already evident and he hath already determined who is to be condemned and who to be justified before he doth actually condemne or justifie any one i. either destroyes or saves any one As therefore one death befalles men and after that will come the judgement wherein all shall appeare againe to be judged i. either to be rewarded or punished according to every mans deeds 2 Cor. 5.19 So also Christ once only suffered death that he might once only performe his offering but he shall appeare againe in judgement and shall shew himself to be seen of them that expect him to salvation 28. So Christ was once offered His offering answers to his death not that his offering consisteth in his death for that is untrue as wee have shewed before but because the offering of a creature that hath life cannot bee performed without death And therefore Christ was offered but once because he must dye but once and but one single offering could follow one single death To beare the sinnes of many The end whereto his offering was a meane was to beare the sinnes of many The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beare though it properly signifie to lift or carry something from a lower place to an higher or at least from one place to another yet in this place it simply signifies to take away For things lifted up are first taken away from the place where they were before and things taken or carried away from a man must first be raised and lifted up But in that sinnes are said to be taken away is a metaphor But that the word to beare here doth simply signifie to take away or put away as we have said wee can make it plaine by divers examples extant in the Septuagint see Jof 24.32 and 2 Sam. 21.13 and Ezra 1.11 and Psal 102.24 where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath this sense But in this place this sense is necessary seeing this is the end for which Christ was once offered but the offering of Christ as we have shewed was performed in heaven Whence it follows that this word no way signifies that Christ tooke upon himself the punishment of our sinnes because that cannot be done in heaven seeing heaven is no place for punishment Besides it is most reasonable that these words should have the same sense with the former that Christ appeared to put away sinne seeing these are correspondent one to another and the end of Christs offering is shewed in both But he faith to beare the sinnes of many Not simply of all partly because this benefit for the effect and issue of it pertaines not by Gods purpose promiscuously to all but onely to those that beleeve in Christ and obey him partly because all will not beleeve in Christ and obey him whence it comes to passe that all are not in effect eased from the burden of sinne which notwithstanding in respect of Gods purpose is but in event because all to whom soever God offers his grace and calls both may and ought to beleeve and obey The same also we say for the taking away of sinnes whose end is that men should be no longer addicted to their sinnes for if we respect the event or effect it selfe Christ by his offering hath put away the sins of many onely not of all and thereby hath effected that many and not all doe live holily For in respect of the force and efficacy of Christs offering Christ is to be supposed to have taken away the sinnes themselves and the punishment of sinnes from all men He shall appeare the second time without sinne The second time is in Judgement and the words without sinne may be taken two wayes First as they may signifie without an offering or sacrifice for sin which according to a common use of Scripture is called sinne in which sence this appearance without sin may fitly be opposed to his former appearance with sinne that is with an offering for sin ver 26. And by reason of this opposition it will not seeme amisse to joyne the words by the sacrifice of himselfe with the word appeared unlesse we had rather make this latter part of the verse opposite to the former part that so the going of Christ
from us and his returne unto us may be opposed to his offering which was performed by his bloudy death and after it by his entrance into heaven for thereby Christ was taken from the eyes of men and ceased to be seene but by his returne he will againe shew himselfe to bee seene and then the words without sinne are opposed to those to beare or take away the sinnes of many and the words the second time shall be opposed to the particle once and yet the second time may in this place be all one with afterward that it may answer the words of the former verse after this the judgement so in the Epistle of Jude ver 5. the words once and afterward are opposed Secondly the words without sinne may be so taken as thereby to shew that when Christ shall appeare the second time there shall bee no more guilt of sinne in the people of God as there was when first he appeared which therefore he must take away by his sacrifice For undoubtedly the Author here alludes to the returne of the Legall high Priest out of the holy place who went into the holy place to take away the guilt of sinnes and returned from thence without sinne for he had taken away the guilt of sinne by his offering So Christ entered into heaven that there offering himselfe to God and appearing in his presence he might purge his people from the guilt of their sinnes but having abolished the guilt of sins he shall returne out from heaven and appeare unto his people to give them the effect of that guilt taken away not in words onely as the Legall high Priest gave the people his benediction and prayed for them but in very deed for he shall vindicate them from death and estate them in eternall life Vnto them that looke for him unto salvation The words unto salvation may agree either with he shall appeare or with the words to them that looke for him And the Author seemes to have placed them so on purpose that they might be referred to both For both Christ shall appeare to give his people salvation and the people of Christ shall looke for his comming out of heaven to receive salvation from him For as Christ is here tacitly compared with the Legall high Priest entered into the boly place so his people are resembled to the people of Israel expecting without the Tabernacle For of old the people looked for the Legall Priest after their manner to salvation namely that by him they might obtaine remission of their sinnes which were then expiated and might heare his benediction to them in the Name of God So the people of Christ being without the heavenly Tabernacle upon earth do looke for Christ their high Priest unto salvation that he comming forth out of his heavenly Sanctuary they may by him obtaine eternall salvation The Author in these words doth elegantly describe a Christian for this expectation doth comprehend faith in Christ for unlesse men beleeve in Christ they will never expect his returne from heaven as their heavenly high Priest And this expectation doth either beget holinesse of life or is begotten of it for these affoord each other their helpe The expectation of salvation upon condition of obedience doth beget piety and piety brought forth doth reciprocally bring forth a daughter like to her mother that is a most certaine and ardent expectation of salvation Hither belong the words of Paul to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 1.9,10 where he describes all Christian people and their whole duty saying Ye have turned to God from Idols to serve the living and true God and to waite for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Iesus who delivered us from the wrath to come After a like manner he designes all beleevers in Christ by the name of them that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 The Contents of this ninth Chapter are 1. Doctrine The tabernacle under the first Covenant was imperfect v. 1. Reason 1. Because it was a worldly manifacture for beth in the first and second place of it there were only bandiworks 1 2 3. 2. Because the most holy place of it was alwayes shut to all except to the high Priest and alwayes to him except once a year v. 6. 7. 3. Because under it the way to the holiest of all in heaven was not yet manifest v. 8. 4. Because it was but a figure and resemblance of the heavenly Sanctuary v. 9. 2. Doctrine The services or sacrifices under the old Testament were imperfect v. 9. Reason 1. Because they could not expiat the consciences of them that brought the sacrifices v. 9. 2. Because they were only carnal ordinances concerning fleshly things as meats drinks and washings v. 10. 3. Because they were temporary imposed for a while untill the time of Reformation v. 10. 3. Doctrine The Sanctuary wherein Christ is a Priest is more excellent then the old Legall Sanctuary v. 11. Reason 1. Because it is no worldly building wrought by the hands of men v. 11. 4. Doctrine The expiatory Sacrifice of Christ is more excellent then the old legal expiations v. 12. Reason 1. Because the bloud shed for his sacrifice was his owne bloud and not the bloud of buls and calves v. 12. 2. Because his death and bloudshed doth purge the conscience whereas the bloudshed under the old legall sacrifice did but parge the flesh v. 13. 14. 3. Because his death and bloudshed doth expiate those transgressions which were inexpiable under the law v. 15. 5. Doctrine Confirmations made by death are the surest v. 15. Reason 1. Because the New testament was confirmed by the death of Christ ver 15. 2. Because all mens testaments are confirmed by the death of the testator ver 16. 17. 3. Because the old legall testament was confirmed by the bloud and death of goats and calves v. 18 19. 20. 4. Because all Consecrations under the law were confirmed by bloud and death v. 21. 5. Because all Expiations and Remissions under the law were confirmed by bloud and death v. 22. 6. Doctrine The sacrifice made by Christ was singular one onely once offered ver 12. Reason 1. Because he entered into his holy Sanctuary by his bloud and the bloud of any living creature can be shed but once v. 16. 2. Because by his sacrifice he obtained an eternall expiation and things eternall cannot be iterated ibid. 3. Because then he must have suffered often and have begun his sufferings since the beginning of the world v. 26. 4. Because he died before his offering it and men are subject to death but once v. 27. CHAPTER X. 1. FOr the Law having a shadow He had said before that the Legall high Priest entered yearly into the holy place not with his owne bloud but with the bloud of others contrary to what Christ did who offered himselfe once onely Now here he gives the reason thereof because the Law by a continuall offering of the same sacrifices
name of hope seems to comprehend all the heads of our Christian profession 1. Pet. 3.15 Without wavering We must hold this hope so fast that wee neither decline from it our selves nor suffer our selves to be beaten from it by any engins of temptation or affliction For he is faithfull that promised Hee inserts the cause why we should hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering namely because this hope is grounded both upon a promise and a promise of him that is faithfull to performe it namely of God himselfe God is therefore termed faithfull because he keeps his faith i. He alwayes performes whatsoever hee hath undertaken for his part and never disappoints his people of his help and favour Therefore we are never to doubt of Gods faith so we keepe our owne and performe our parts with all care and diligence 24. And let us consider one another This may be understood that we should looke unto both one anothers state and condition of life and also one anothers behaviour and action And for what end wee should doe this hee presently shewes in adding To provoke unto love To provoke is to intend or increase the force of a thing and love is then provoked when it is quickened and increased And it gathers increase from our mutuall consideration and inspection either in our selves or others In our selves it is increased when wee are either stirred up by the notable examples of other men or moved by their state and condition to embrace them with more ardent affection and good will if their estate be prosperous that wee doe not onely envie them but use our endeavour to defend and advance their happinesse to our power but if they are in distresse that we succour and benefit them in what we are able In others love is increased when we look into their lives and manners for this end that where they grow negligent in their duties or suffer their love to decay there by our admonitions and exhortations we excite to good workes and to repaire the decayes of their love Therefore this provoking to love may be taken either passively when the increase of love is made upon our selves or actively when we increase it upon others And to good workes Then we are provoked to good workes when we follow them with an ardent affection or as Paul would have us when wee are zealous of good workes Hee adjoynes good workes to love to teach us that our love should not be barren but fruitfull of workes although workes may be taken more largely and extended to all workes of holinesse as well concerning God as our selves 25. Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together Namely for this especiall end to retaine and preserve the communion of Saints and the unity of the Spirit Which is then done when Christians meet together to performe the worship of God to heare his word to powre forth unanimous prayers unto him to exercise that censure of manners which Christ and his Apostles have prescribed to celebrate the memory of Christs death by sacred breaking of bread according to his own institution to make a common supply for the poore and distressed as occasion requires and with all their forces and advices to promote the affaires of the Church As the manner of some is It is apparent that in those times there were some who though they had not forsaken the Christian religion yet had forsaken the assemblies of the faithfull that they might the better lie hid and thereby more easily avoide dangers and persecutions And it is apparent also hence that they sinne grievously who withdraw themselves from the company of the faithfull and from the assemblies of the Saints But exhorting one another To the neglect of assembling hee opposeth this mutuall exhorting or admonishing Whence it is manifest that Christian assemblies were ordained among other ends for this also to exhort and admonish one another which may be done most opportunely when men are assembled into some one place And so much the more as yee see the day approaching The words so much the more must also be communicated to the day of approaching as well as referred to the exhorting By how much the more ye see the day approaching by so much the more let us exhort one another By the day as the article the doth intimate must be understood some certaine day and that well knowne i. the day of judgement and punishment for the disobedient Which judgement seeing it is twofold we must needs understand a twofold day or time of it For we may take it both for the time of Gods taking vengeance upon the Jewes in the finall destruction of Jerusalem and also for the last day of the whole world at the finall destruction of the world The approach of that former day they might easily perceive both from the signes foretold by Christ and also from the predictions of those Prophets who lived in those times in the Church of God The approach of this latter day every man sees though not in respect of the whole world and of the present age yet every man sees it in respect of himselfe For as death is alwayes approaching unto every one of us and the terme of every mans life draws nearer so also thereby every mans last day doth approach and draw nearer not only because after death there shall bee no change in respect of our salvation and damnation but also because that whole time intercurrent between the last moment of our life and the last judgement is none in respect of the dead For when we are dead and thereby void of all sense of time the last moment of our life departing and the first moment of our life returning for returne it shall at the last judgement will seem one and the same to us at our rising againe to life They who lye in a deep sleep are not sensible of the time that passeth though the time be very long and death is a deeper sleep then any sleep of those that sleep alive And this is the cause why the holy Scriptures doe sometime speake so as if we should wholy live till the comming of Christ or were presently after our death translated to the Lord and so to the joyes of heaven For they have no regard of the time intercurrent between the last end of our life and the comming of Christ and the future happinesse of the godly see 2 Cor. 5.8 and Ephes 4.30 and Phil. 1.6,26 and 1 Tim. 6 14. and Jam. 5.7,8 and some others 26. For if we sinne wilfully Hee brings a cause or a motive why they should diligently exhort one another because otherwise it might easily fall out that after knowledge of the truth received they might sin wilfully in which case how miserable and unhappy their condition would be he presently declares To sin in this place may be taken in two senses either largely or strictly Largely as it is extended to divers sins which are committed against the
the Old Testament pertinent to his purpose or because he thought them not to be mentioned by reason of that sinne whereby they made themselves and their posterity subject unto death especially seeing in those Canonicall bookes we no where reade that God ever pardoned our first Parents for their sinne although the Author of the booke of Wisdome in the beginning of the tenth chapter affirmes That Wisdome preserved the first formed father of the world that was created alone and brought him out of his fall that is she freed him from the guilt and punishment of his sinne Therefore he begins with Abel their son placing him in the first place as the first person among those whose piety towards God and Gods love toward them is celebrated in Scripture and then shews what Abel obtained by his faith Of him therefore he saith That he offered a more excellent sacrifice then Cain Some render it a more bountifull sacrifice others a more valuable thinking the Author intended to note that Cain as an ungratefull and a distrustfull person offered onely a few fruits but Abel to testifie his affection and faith offered things of more value namely the firstlings and fattest of his sheepe But the more simple and certaine meaning is that Abels sacrifice was not more bountifull or more valuable of it selfe then the others but more acceptable unto God who accepted and esteemed it better and more excellent by reason of the righteousnesse and godlinesse of the person that offered it for upon that ground it is that God esteemes and values all offerings made unto him Now there was no other cause of that godlinesse and consequently of Gods acceptation of Abels sacrifice but onely Abels saith whereby he stood perswaded that God was and was a Rewarder of those that seeke him and sue to him for his favour by godlinesse and righteousnesse And there was no other cause of his faith but that he had in him the substance of things hoped for for his hope of Gods favour and of Gods reward did breed this faith of God in him Furthermore he whose offering God hath in esteeme his person must needs be in more esteeme with God for from this roote growes the true happinesse of every man But that Cain offered the fruits of the earth and Abel the firstlings of his cattell the reason was because Cain was an husbandman and Abel an heards-man So both of them offered their sacrifice to God out of that substance wherein each abounded And that the word sacrifice which properly signifies an offering from the Herd which is slaine should be tacitly referred to Cains offering which was onely of fruits this must be attributed to the runne of the comparison the fitting whereof doth many times make way to some abusions or improprieties By which he obtained witnesse that he was righteous The words by which are better referred to Abels faith then to his sacrifice for the following words and by it he being dead yet speaketh are in like manner referred to his faith for they expresse a peculiar fruit of it But where did Abel obtaine this testimony of his righteousnesse even in that passage of Scripture where God had respect to him and to his sacrifice but not to that which Cain offered as we reade it Gen. 4.4,5 or as the Author declares himselfe in the words following God testifying of his gifts For therein God testified of his gifts or offerings that they were acceptable unto him in that he had respect unto them And very probable it is that God shewed his testimony and acceptance thereof by some fire sent from heaven which consumed the sacrifice and offering of Abel And when God doth accept of a mans gifts and offerings being graciously pleased to receive them he doth thereby testifie and witnesse that man to be a righteous person seeing no gifts or offerings are acceptable to God but such as come from a righteous man for the sacrifice of fooles or sinners is an abomination to him And when God in his discourse with Cain rendred him a reason why he had no respect to his offering he shewed cleerely enough that both Cain did not well and that Abel did well which is to be just See Gen. 4.7 And by it be being dead yet speaketh Another fruit of Abels faith which was the cause that God would be an avenger of his innocent bloud to persecute and banish from his presence his brother that had murdered him Abels bloud is said to speake or cry unto God by way of metaphor because God thereby is vehemently incited and moved to take vengeance for the murder of a person that was righteous and acceptable to God as if his bloud had cried and sued to God for justice to be done upon the murtherer So in the Revelation the souls of them that were slaine for the word of God are said to cry with a loud voice How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Revel 6.10 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him In the second place hee brings the Example of Enoch and sheweth what he obtained by his faith Into what place Enoch was translated the Scripture expresseth not but from what the Authour addes that he should not see death it appeares hee was translated into such a place wherein men see not death i. Are exempt and free from dying which seemes to be no other or at least no other knowne to us then that heavenly habitacle of Immortalitie wherein God and Christ and the holy Angels dwell But because the Scripture expresly saith not that Enoch obtained this favour by his faith therefore the Authour proves it by adding For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God The reason may runne thus Enoch was translated because he pleased God which the thing it selfe shewes and the Scripture testifies that before his translation he pleased God But without faith it is impossible to please God therefore Enoch was translated by his faith The consequence of this argument shal be defended afterward Or rather the reason may thus be gathered Enoch was translated because he pleased God and because he pleased God therefore hee had Gods testimoniall of it And againe because hee pleased God therefore hee had in himselfe some substance of things hoped for and some evidence of things not seene and because hee had in him this substance and evidence of things hoped for and not seene therefore hee had faith and because he had faith therefore by his faith hee was translated For in affirmative arguments that which is first in nature is last in course of reason He had this testimony namely either from the holy Scripture or from the holy Ghost by whom the Scripture was indited But the giving or the taking of this testimony must not be joyned with the preceding words before his translation
receive that place or countrey for an inheritance So the foresight of that countrey to come and the hope to have it for an inheritance were the causes to produce in Abraham that faith whereby he obeyed the call of God and thereupon went out of his own countrey not knowing as yet whither he went There were many reasons on the contrary to withdraw Abraham from this obedience and to remove him from so strange a journey For it was very hard especially upon no urgent necessitie for a man to forsake his countrey his house and lands and possessions to leave his kindred friends and acquaintance to wander without any certaine abode and become a stranger in a forraigne countrey It seemes a rash enterprise for a man to prepare himselfe for a journey before hee knowes whither hee should goe or to what place hee should travaile But the faith of Abraham was so firme and strong that it admitted none of these thoughts but vanquished and banished them all being fully perswaded that no man could possibly miscarry in his obedience to God whatsoever the command might be and how rash soever the enterprise might seeme But wee must note that Abraham did not leave his country to become a pilgrime and wanderer in the world upon any rash or unadvised motion of his owne but he was called to goe out i. He was appointed and commanded to goe out and the person calling him to it was God at whose word and command he thought it fit for him to leave his countrey and acquaintance Whereby he becomes to us an example that when God commands and requires any thing of us we should refuse no burden labour or trouble no losse of countrey friends or fortunes that we might fulfill his will Yet when there is no just cause wee should not by any rash or foolish humour either deprive our selves of those blessings that God hath given us or involve our selves in any calamity or misery by an unprofitable piety For it is a more certaine triall of our faith and a thing more worthy to doe and undergoe that at the command of God or as our duty requires which otherwise we would not doe Of this fact of Abraham See Gen. 12. 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange countrey Another effect of Abrahams faith common to him with Isaac his son and Jacob his nephew which withall shews us how constant they also were in it He sojourned by living there as an alien or a stranger for sojourner in this sence is opposed to a native who lives in the same place where he was borne enjoying it by birth or right of inheritance So we finde Paul opposing strangers and forraigners to fellow-citizens Ephes 2.19 And the land wherein he sojourned was a strange land unto him partly because he was not a native of it but onely a sojourner or forraigner there but chiefly because he had no right of inheritance for any present possession there for God gave him no inheritance in it not so much as to set his foote on Acts 7.5 But it was onely the land of promise to him for God had promised to give the inheritance and possession of it to him and his posterity after him while yet he had neither posterity nor childe See againe Acts 7.5 Dwelling in tabernacles Here is expressed the reason why and the manner how Abraham is said to sojourne in the land of promise namely because he dwelt there in tabernacles for this argues that to that land he was a sojourner or stranger and that land to him was a strange countrey For though God had promised to give it to him and his seed yet he for his owne particular never dwelt in it as his owne demaine but as a stranger dwels in a strange countrey among the natives of it For he built himselfe neither City nor house to inhabite but onely lived in Tabernacles or tents as strangers doe who have no certaine residence nor make no long abode in any place but being alwayes ready to remove are for the time of their stay covered onely with tents and when they journey from one place to another carry their houses with them for to them that have no possession of their own where they may make themselves a fixed and certaine seat tents are the most commodious dwelling because they may suddenly and easily transport them at their pleasure But hence is drawne an evidence of Abrahams faith and his constancy therein in that to shew his obedience to God he lead a travelling life all his dayes and though the land were promised unto him yet he neither founded City nor built house neither did he either purchase or possesse any but as a flitting inhabitant removed his tent from place to place and wanting the right of a native lived there onely by tenure of curtesie Yet he possessed an assured hope that after some few ages his posterity should possesse that whole land because it was the land of promise which the Lord had promised him With Isaac and Iacob the heires with him of the same promise Isaac and Jacob are not therefore joyned with Abraham as if Abraham had lived in tents all that time with both of them For Isaac being borne many yeares after Abrahams comming into that land could not all that while live in Abrahams tent and Jacob dwelt in the land after Abrahams death But they are therefore joyned with him because they also never came to the possession or inheritance of that land but lived like sojourners and strangers there as Abraham had done for as they were heires of the same promise so they lived in the same manner And hence is manifested their faith and their constancy in it because their sojourning in that manner moved them not at all to doubt any thing of the faith and truth of Gods promise though the performance of it were so long delayed 10. For he looked for a City which hath foundations Here the Author gives the reason why Abraham though he had a promise of that land from God yet was never put in possession of it but dwelt there all his dayes in tents as a sojourner and a stranger The reason hereof was because he expected or looked for a City having foundations Some man may doubt whether these words are to be understood of Abrahams intent and purpose or of the event that afterward fell out Certainely as we will not deny but that Abraham hoped to have from God some life and happinesse after his death in regard he knew the great goodnesse of God toward his servitors and the great power of God that he is able to raise even the dead and can give his servants a blessing or reward after their death and withall did easily perceive the vanity of earthly happinesse especially now in his declining yeares and might have a desire of a re-surviving life to befall him after his death a thing that seemes naturall to all men living Yet
any more for they are equall unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection Luke 20.35,36 What is all this else but to be an heire and a citizen of that heavenly countrey and city We see then that a heavenly countrey and city is prepared and ordained for Abraham Isaac and Jacob and therefore why should wee doubt but that the very same is reserved also for all us that are the worshippers and servitors of God which right of ours wee need not stand to evict from divers evidences and dark consequences seeing hereof wee have not only most open and clear promises which to those Patriarchs were never declared but also we know for certain that Christ our head doth now enjoy the possession of that countrey and city This only remaines for us that following the example of those Patriarks and much rather of Christ our Captaine wee should finally carry our selves obedient unto God and extending our hopes beyond our death should doe our utmost endeavour that our life should first fail us before we fail of our faith and allegiance toward God 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac The Author here mentions an example of Abrahams faith which of all other was most illustrious namely his offering up of Isaac the circumstances whereof the Authour doth but lightly touch as a thing sufficiently known and at large described in the sacred Scriptures Offered Abraham offered him not really and actually but which is all one with God purposely with an unchangeable and constant purpose of minde with as much endeavour as lay in his power and proceeding so farre in the action as had not God recalled him the effect undoubtedly had followed Thus he offered him and not onely slew him for the slaughter should have preceded and then the offering must have followed by fire for a burnt-offering for so God had commanded When hee was tryed For of his own election or accord it would never have come into his heart to have sacificed unto God who doth most abhorre crueltie with the bloud of man muchlesse of his owne son unlesse he had beene commanded of God to it And he was commanded to do it not that he should actually perform it but that by his willingnesse to performe it and by obeying Gods Command as farre as in him lay hee should give an assured triall of his faith And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten sonne What a strange fact was this of a strange faith where not only the father offered up his son but his only begotten son and what father was it even he who had received the promises who from the same mouth of God had received the promises of a seed a posterity to be propagated by Isaac and had confidently beleeved it he now received a command to slay Isaac before there was any issue from him Therefore truly here also Abraham may be said to have beleeved in hope against hope that we use the Apostles words speaking of another point of his faith who as a little after we shall shew doubted not to reconcile together two things clashing and crossing one another namely the life and death of the same person because it was God who had spake concerning both We may further adde here other circumstances expressed in the history as that three dayes journey with his sonne to a place assigned him by God with that thoughts and cares shall wee think the soule of the poor father was agitated journying toward the resolved slaughter of his deare and only sonne whom he drew on along with him ignorant of his destined calamity to become a sacrifice and a burnt-offering what spirits were in him may we imagine when upon his assent up that fatall Mount he laid the wood upon his sonne wherewith a fire should be kindled to burne him after his father had slaine him what thought he when his sonne perceiving no sacrifice besides himselfe and marvelling at the matter did gently demand of his father where was the Lambe for the burnt-offering what thought he when seasing upon his sonne with his owne hands expecting no such dealing from so dear a father he bound him and laid him on the Altar upon the wood when he drew his knife and standing over him eyed his throat and stretched forth his heavy hand that shook and trembled with fatherly love which of us all reading and considering all these findes not his soule melting in him yet the invincible faith of Abraham conquered all these And Isaac is called the only begotten sonne of Abraham or as it is in the Hebrew his only sonne not that hee only was his sonne for Ismael also was his sonne but because he was his only sonne by Sarah the true wife of Abraham and because hee was his only beloved sonne that was borne to his parents in their extreme old age by the singular gift and wondrous power of God and because he was to be the only heire of his fathers estate and of Gods promises and because the seed of Abraham was to bee called in him only for the children of Isaac only were to be accounted the true posterity of Abraham And he that received the promises The pronoune he whether we thinke it relative to Isaac or to Abraham which is better yet the sense is the same doth notifie unto us a notable circumstance of this fact that makes the faith of Abraham to appear yet much greater Certainly that faith is very great which is seen and tryed in hard cases as was the offering of an only sonne But how much greater is that faith which staggereth not at such an action as naturally would utterly overthrow it Yet such was this fact of Abraham Abraham had received promises from God whereof one was that a numerous posterity should be borne of him the other that the land of Canaan wherein he was a sojourner and a stranger should be given in possession to his posterity These promises Abraham had from God and he beleeved both of them with all his heart as it is signified by the word received and beleeving these promises he shewed himselfe obedient to all Gods commands that he might not faile of his hope from so great blessings Now what command doth God lay upon him God commands him to take Isaac his sonne in whose posterity all those promises were to be fulfilled and from whom as yet he had no grandchild yet him he must offer up that is he must slay and burne him for a sacrifice If Abraham must doe this and looke into the nature of the action could he possibly have any hope of those promises 18. Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called This is therefore added lest any man should thinke that Abraham might imagine though Isaac were extinct yet the promises might have their issue in Ismael For Abraham could not imagine this because God had said unto him in Isaac
namely those which presently he would specifie in particular even unto those words of verse 35. Others were tortured And so as from thence it followeth where after he had reckoned up divers calamities which the servitors of God supported by their faith in God had endured at last he addes that they received not the promise It may seem therefore the Author would say that some by their faith obtained the effect of Gods promises as namely they before mentioned who in this life attained those great benefits of God which he reckoned up but others afterward mentioned though they had no lesse faith in God then the former yet enjoyed not the performance of Gods promise because they were deprived of their lives for their righteousnesse and faith in God Stopped the mouths of Lions As Daniel did the history whereof is extant Dan. 6. 34. Quenched the violence of fire As those three young men in Babylon who seem in a manner to be accounted among the Prophets see Daniel 3. Escaped the edge of the sword As many of the Prophets did whose lives were attempted by the Kings and the people as Elias Elisha Jeremy Micheas Out of weaknesse were made strong By recovering from dangerous and deadly sicknesses as Ezechias 2 King 20. Waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the Armies of the aliens As Sampson and David though we may refer this valour not only to their courage of minde but to their strength of body Of Sampson see Judg. 14. and the Chapters following Of David Psal 18.35.37 c. And hither we may refer those severall Worthies of David of whom we read 2 Sam. 23. and 1 Chron 11. 35. Women received their dead raised to life againe Namely by the faith of the Prophets Elias and Elisha see 1 King 17.19 2 King 4.21 and in the latter of these two miracles there was an accesse of the mothers faith also And others were tortured The word others doth shew that the Author now speaks of another sort of persons eminent also for their faith Namely of such whose faith was not conspicuous for victories or warlike exploits which belong not so much to Christians nor for the sole workes of righteousnesse or other notable gift of God as their faith was of whom he spake hitherto but of a faith whereof tryall was made in suffering persecutions and grievous afflictions for God and Righteousnesse sake which is more properly a Christian Faith For of the same faith the effects are divers The torture here mentioned is in the Greeke tympanized which is a torture whereby a man is distended or stretched alive like a drum and then beaten with cudgels as a drum is which kinde of torture is in use at this day among many Nations And it was inflicted upon Eleazer that reverend old man in the time of Antiochus the persecuter 2 Maccab. 6. For without doubt the Author in this place had respect to those times Although some of the afflictions which hee afterwards mentioneth happened in the time of Elias under Ahab and Jesabel see 1 King 18.4.13 and Chap. 19.10 Not accepting deliverance When deliverance or release from their tortures was offered them upon condition to renounce Gods Law they would not accept it see the history of Eleazer 2 Maccab. 6.19,30 for to those words there the Author seems to have relation here That they might obtaine a better resurrection He shews with what faith and with what hope they endured their tortures namely because they beleeved and hoped they should obtaine from God a farre better resurrection But whence did they gain this faith and hope Certainly not from any open or clear promise of a resurrection extant in the Law of God but only trusting upon the sole goodnesse righteousnesse and power of God For seeing they did strongly beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him and yet saw that unlesse with extreme wickednesse they would forsake the Law of God they must suffer heavy calamities as banishment imprisonment tortures and cruell deaths they were hereupon raised into this hope that there were rewards laid up for the vertue and piety of Gods worshippers to be received after this life and that it could not possibly be that God who is most gracious and righteous should have no reward in store for that vertue and piety which of all other is the greatest doth cost men the losse of their lives then which nothing can be dearer unto them Thus therefore God even under the Old Testament did with such rudiments by little and little exercise his people toward the hope of another life although there can be no doubt but that the servitors of God were under those hard and sad times of persecution inspired by the Spirit of God and did thereby so much the more taste and swallow this hope in their soules Now if they by hope of the future Resurrection whereof they had no open promise of God and knew not in any certainty the future quality and blessednesse thereof did suffer such grievous calamities for their constancie to Gods Law How much more should we who have an open promise of the resurrection and know both the future qualities of it and the great happinesse that will accompany it feare no terrors no banishments no torments nor punishments for Christ and for righteousnesse sake As it is usuall in comparisons he tacitly calls their deliverance from punishment a resurrection by way of abusion while he opposeth it to the true resurrection as to a condition much better Therefore they despised deliverance which was but an umbratilous and transitory resurrection to obtaine the true resurrection accompained with eternall life and happinesse 36. And others had triall of cruell mockings and scourgings As the mother with her seven sons 2 Macab 7. Yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments While Antiochus did rage in his persecution there must needs be a great number of those who because they would not forsake the Law of their God were cast into bonds and prisons from whence a while after divers of them were drawne forth to divers punishements which are presently mentioned 37. They were stoned they were sawne asunder were tempted were slaine with the sword He recounts divers kinds of punishments which of old the worshippers of God endured trusting and relying upon God that by their example he might stir up the followers of Christ to the like constancie in their sufferings Were tempted In the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some suspect to be corrupted and to be read for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were burned And indeed if this word were usuall there could seem no doubt of this reading for it might easily be written by changing the vowell into the dipthong seeing the sense i very agreeable to the place For here are recounted divers kinds and means of death as stones sawes axes swords and among which fire also may well be placed But tempting seems not any of the
better if it had beene an impossibility never to have beene borne So sometime we call them happy who were not borne in troublesome and sad times whereto also in a manner we may referre the words of Christ Behold the dayes are comming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombes that never bare and the paps which never gave suck Luke 23.29 In like manner they who by their death have prevented some calamities by dying before they suffered under them are in that respect commonly called happy because they might have lived so long as to have suffered them And in this sence a Philosopher said That it was best for a man not to be borne and it was next to best to dye presently after he was borne Contrarily wee often call them unhappy who dyed before they had brought their state to some happy condition or lived not to see those happy times that immediately succeeded their death Therefore in the number of these non-entities they may be reckoned who though they were yet unborne yet might have beene borne Hence with very good reason as we may call those unhappy who shall never be borne but are intercepted by the end of the world and therefore shall never attaine that heavenly and eternall happinesse so much more are we happy and blessed who are already borne because by the providence and goodnesse of God the perfection of the godly is deferred to our times whereby there remaines to us a passage and entrance to it And to comprise the matter in a few words and answer briefly In that decree of God whereby he is said to have provided some better thing for us who were not yet borne then it would have beene if he had long since perfected the godly wee must be considered neither as already borne nor yet as to be borne after infinite ages to come but as they who might be borne while yet the end of the world was not for many ages to be deferred and Gods decree being passed must be borne Happy therefore we are by vertue of this Decree but otherwise wee should have beene unhappy Better for us that is for us that are Christians for this must not be restrained onely to the Hebrewes to whom this Epistle was written but must be extended to all men under the same covenant namely to all Christians Whence in a manner it appeares that the former examples of those who suffered such various afflictions belong to the Jews under the old Covenant and not to the Christians under the new God having provided Gods Decree is here signified For the thing here specified depends onely from the decree and ordinance of God as if he had said God having procured for to provide is to procure That they without us should not be made perfect How variously the Author useth the word perfecting in this Epistle may appeare from our former explications and here he takes it in a sence different from all the former He said in the last verse preceding that they received not the promises and now he iterates the very same thing and saith in other words they are not made perfect And therefore in this place to receive the promise and to be made perfect that is finally to attaine eternall blessednesse is all one thing And in this sence it seemes he used this word of Christ before chap. 5.9 where he opposed Christ being made perfect to Christ subject unto sufferings Now they who do receive that promise of eternall life and happinesse are fitly said to be perfected first because before they attaine it whether they are living or dead they are many wayes imperfect and secondly because when they have attained it they have filled up the measure of their happinesse and made it so absolute that it neither hath any defect neither can it receive any accesse but is for ever finished The Contents of the 11. Chapter are Notions The principles of Faith are two 1. Every subsistence of a thing hoped for is faith 2. Every sight of a thing unseene is faith ver 1. The necessity of faith is that without it it is impossible to please God ver 6. The chiefe points or specialties of faith are two 1. To beleeve that God is 2. To believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him v. 6. 1. Doctrine By faith we know the world was made by God v. 3. Reason Because in the things that are seene we have a sight of things unseene ibid. 2. Doctrine By faith the Patriarchs obtained a good report ver 2. Example As Abel Enoch and Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses Josua and Rahab c. Reason 1. Because they had a sight of things unseene which God had promised them 2. Because they had a subsistence of things hoped for for they hoped for the things promised 3. Doctrine The Patriarchs have not yet received the promise Reason Because God hath so provided that they without us should not be made perfect CHAPTER XII 1. WHerefore seeing we also He enters upon an exhortation to the Hebrewes to be constant in the faith especially not to be discouraged by reason of the afflictions which they suffered And this exhortation he inferres from the examples specified in the former Chapter and confirmes it with new arguments for their better encouragement We also q.d. Let not us shew out selves inferiour to them whose examples were formerly mentioned but let us also performe the same things which they did Are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses The Author addes this because it is of great force to stir us up unto the course and conflict of our faith And in this his exhortation he useth an elegant allegory drawne from the simily of a race which was a thing then much in use He brings us in as it were upon a spacious theater whereunto a multitude of spectators are collected which having filled all the seates and roomes doth encompasse the runners round about like a thick cloud and he makes us to be runners having the eyes of such a multitude of spectators upon us And as anciently such a multitude of spectators did adde courage to the runners and was a mighty spur unto them to contend for the victory so also to us so many witnesses who have themselves formerly laboured in the same race should adde courage that we might runne the race begun to the utmost of our strength and breath He calls them witnesses not only in allusion to the spectators at a race as wee said who are a kinde of witnesses of their activity that run but also and much rather because they testifie of God of his righteousnesse and goodnesse and all of them with one voice as it were say that God is and is a rewarder of them that seeke him and that he as the supreme depositary keeps the prize for them that run well that he is most faithfull in his promises and can even after death make them happy who
be as things now stood For it seems hee was already free from prison and set at liberly as may bee gathered from the 23. verse following 20. Now the God of peace Here begins the close of this Epistle which first containes a devotion concluded with a doxologie then certaine monitions or rather requests which againe he ends with another devotion and withall ends the whole Epistle In his devotion he first names and describes the person of whom all those things are to be performed which he prayeth and wisheth to them Then are expressed the wishes themselves He saith therefore But the God of peace The particle but containes a tacit opposition as if he had said I have hitherto proposed unto you divers monitions and precepts but the God of peace enable you to keep them But he describes the Author and donor of the blessings he wisheth unto them first in calling him the God of peace And the descriptions of God that aâ—…â—sed in wishes are commonly fitted to the wishes themselves In this place because the Author wisheth to the Hebrewes that which might render them truly happy namely that in all respects they might please God therefore by the word peace seems to be meant rather happinesse according to the ordinary phrase among the Hebrewes then concord or what else the word peace doth elsewhere signifie and in this sense this title is more frequently attributed unto God but in the other seldome And God is called the God of peace that is of happinesse not only because God alone can make men happy but because hee will and also doth make them so by supplying them abundantly with all those meanes and helpes whereby true happinesse may be attained by men And therefore in this place hee describes God in this manner thereby to teach us that from him proceeds all happinesse and from him must bee sought and may be easily obtained all things belonging to the attaining of it because he is ready and free to grant happinesse to all that seeke it by due means That brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus that great shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant He adjoynes another description of God from whence it appears how certainly God will make those men happy and blessed that believe and obey him And hee mentions that mighty and admirable worke of God which to all the godly brings a most assured hope of eternall happinesse and blessednesse and so he manifestly proves him to be the God of peace or happinesse And this worke was That he brought againe from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the sheep and that through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant wherein hee describes withall our Lord Jesus himselfe that hence it may appeare what an infinit blessing God bestowed upon men by this bringing againe of our Lord Jesus from the dead If God had delivered but some ordinary man from the dead and estated him in eternall life yet even for that he must needs bee accounted the author of happinesse But now that he hath raised from the dead not an ordinary person but the Shepheard of the sheep not an ordinary shepheard but that great Shepheard nor constituted by an ordinary way but through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant he is much more to be accounted the author and donor of happinesse Which that this Author might declare the more amply and fully therefore it is that he proceeds by words that are very passionate and stately That brought againe from the dead That raised from death to life The word reducing or bringing againe is very accommodate to signifie that God was the Shepheard of Christ our Shepheard whose office it is to lead forth his sheep and bring them againe and that God brought Christ againe from the hideous den of death and so together with him all his sheep For the reduction of our Shepheard from the grave is also our reduction and resurrection from it It was in our Shepheard first that God shewed an essay of his great power and goodnesse and that experiment on Christ was an engagement unto us to assure us also of our resurrection But who this God of peace is that brought againe our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead both the thing it self and the holy Scriptures clearly shew namely that it is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ In the description of our Lord Jesus almost every word of the Author is emphaticall For first hee calls him the Shepheard of the sheep which must not be understood as restrained to that time only wherein Christ lived upon earth but enlarged and much rather to the time following since he sat on the Throne of God for since that time he became most perfectly properly the Shepheard of the sheep Now Christ is the Shepheard of the sheep not only because he ministers to them the wholesome food of Gods word and Spirit but because he every way lookes unto them for he assembles and collects them he governes and defends them and finally procures their eternall salvation For it is the part of a Shepheard not only to feed the sheep but to defend and governe them and looke to them in all things as need shall require Whence Peter when he called our Saviour the Shepheard addeth to it the word Bishop which signifies a Guardian especially as the Hebrewes use to understand it 1 Pet. 2.25 For when wee have a great care of any thing we often visit inspect and see it from whence ariseth the word Bishop which properly signifies a visitor or overseer Hee that desires to know the properties of a good shepheard let him read in the tenth Chapter of John the parable of the good Shepheard which there Christ applies unto himselfe The article that prefixed here before the Shepheard teacheth us that he is no ordinary or vulgar shepheard but an eminent and excellent person whose description and promise also is extant Ezek. 24. But the addition of the word great unto this Shepheard declares his excellency more manifestly when the Author saith that great Shepheard For by this appellation he specifies what manner of shepheard he understands namely a Shepheard so exceeding great that in comparison of him all other shepheards are very little In which sense also St. Peter calls him the chiefe Shepheard or Prince of shepheards 1 Pet. 5.4 And certainly Christ must needs be a great Shepheard indeed seeing hee is equall to God in wisdome power and dominion seated in heaven at the right hand of God upon the throne of God and feeds his sheepe wholly in the same manner that God doth seeing he appoints all other shepheards of his sheep and hath them subject unto him seeing he gathers his sheep out of all Nations into one sheep-fold of his Church seeing though he hath an innumerable multitude of sheep yet he knows them all and so provides for all that no one can stray from him no one can perish no one
can want his care for feeding ruling and defending and lastly seeing he so feeds his sheep that he recovers them from the jaws of death and hell and settles them in possession of the Kingdome of Heaven Through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant These words must not be referred to the words brought again but must be construed with the word shepheard And a shepheard by or through bloud is such a shepheard as had shed his bloud for so we read 1 John 5.6 That Christ came by water and bloud not by water only but by water and bloud that is he was not only pure and clear from all spot or stain of sinne which purity is signified by the word water but also that he suffered a bloudy death by shedding of his bloud The Author had intimated before that this great Shepheard was dead in saying that God brought him againe from the dead but now he further shewes not onely the manner of his death that it was violent cruell and bloudy but also the cause of his death to what end he dyed which end tendeth to our infinite benefit namely to confirme and seale the everlasting covenant For the bloud of the Covenant is that bloud which is shed to dedicate establish and confirme the Covenant that it may never be revokeable But the Author understands the new Covenant which was confirmed by the bloud of Christ Whence wee may easily collect how certaine and sure we may be of the promises contained in that Covenant if we performe the conditions of it which are most just and equall When he calls this Covenant everlasting he tacitly opposeth it to the old covenant by Moses which was not to continue to the end of the world therfore was not properly everlasting And by the eternity of this Covenant that it is everlasting is withall intimated the perfection of it for if it were not perfect it could not be everlasting as the former old covenant was not everlasting because it was not perfect but weake and unprofitable and therefore it was disanulled and abolished as the Author said before chap. 7.18 For there is verily a disanulling of the commandement going before for the weakenesse and unprofitablenesse thereof And what is said of one commandement or precept may well be referred to the whole covenant Besides the eternity of this covenant is mentioned of purpose to advance our comfort and strengthen our hope for whereas it is called everlasting that shews that it shall not onely produce his full effect but also shall last to the end of the world Our Lord Iesus In these words the Author points out the person whom we must understand to be that great Shepheard namely no other then our Lord Jesus that is our Lord who is Jesus so that our Lord holds the place of the subject and the name Jesus is added to declare who is meant by our Lord. By which appellation the Author teacheth us what a great Shepheard Jesus is seeing he is our Lord constituted so by God his Father who brought him againe from the dead That onely Lord by whom are all things and we by him whom wee must worship with God the Father Yet in all this pathetick and stately description of our Lord Jesus the Author signifies nothing more unto us then what was formerly contained in his appellation of high Priest so frequently attributed unto him in this Epistle From all which what great hope and comfort wee may gather to our soules need not here bee repeated 21. Make you perfect in every good worke Now he expresseth the wish it selfe which is wholly concerning their owne duty For to attaine eternall happinesse nothing else is required on our part but to performe our duty according as it is enjoyned us To make them perfect in every good worke is so to enable them that no good worke office or Christian vertue be wanting in them and that they be wanting in no good worke to performe it perfunctorily unwillingly or disaffectedly especially in point of temptation and matter of persecution wherein because it is for the triall of their faith Patience must have her perfect worke as S. James requires it Jam. 1.4 To doe his will The particle to here doth not signifie the finall cause because to be perfect in every good worke and to doe the will of God are really the same thing and therefore these can neither be the end nor the meanes one of another But this particle is here explicative to the former words and is all one with so as for he that is perfect in every good worke or Christian vertue he truly and properly doth the will of God Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight He expresseth the way or meanes whereby God is to make them perfect in every good worke namely by working in them that which is well-pleasing in his sight That which pleaseth God is every good worke And God worketh a good worke in us when he exciteth and moveth us to it and preventeth us with his grace while we thinke not of it when hee ministreth unto us sufficient strength and helpe thereto suggesteth occasions unto us and lastly when he cherisheth and perfecteth it in us And not that he worketh in us without our worke that is while we are unwitting unwilling or idle but while we are willing endeavouring and acting For otherwise there were neither need nor reason that the Author should exhort us with so many monitions incitements and precepts unto godlinesse whereto he with good reason also added his wish to teach us that we must joyne Gods helpe with our endeavours and our endeavours with his helpe Through Iesus Christ It is doubtfull whether these words must hee joyned with the word working or with the words well-pleasing to shew us what is well-pleasing in the sight of God namely that which is done through Iesus Christ and by him commanded to be done So Peter 1 Epist 2.5 when he had said that wee must offer spirituall sacrifices acceptable unto God added also by Jesus Christ shewing us thereby what those sacrifices are namely no other then what are commanded in the Religion of Jesus Christ For those words in Peter seeme rather to bee referred to acceptable then to offered although the latter may be admitted To whom be glory for ever and ever The pronoune to whom is placed so indifferently by the Author that it may be referred both unto God in the former verse and to Jesus Christ mentioned immediately before And the Author seemes to have ordered it so of purpose and to reserve the mention of Christ for the last place that with this one doxology he might celebrate and magnifie both persons both God and Christ For he that is a true Christian cannot be ignorant that glory for ever and ever must be ascribed no lesse unto Christ then unto God himselfe Whereof reade what is written Revel 5.12,13 Whence also Peter concludes his 2. Epistle with the like