name signified so as it also signified King of righteousnesse But if this had beene onely an appellation of him the Author would not have said king of Salem but Melechsalem as he said not King of Sedec but Melchisedec For who in relating of a mans name will deliver it partly in a strange language and partly in the proper language Wherefore when Melchisedec is in Scripture called king of Salem it is apparent that the name of King doth note his royall office and dignity and Salem notes the place wherein he did reigne And many beeleeve that this City Salem was the same with Jerusalem which at the first was called onely Salem and afterward by the adjection of the word Jeru Jerusalem as a man would say the sight of peace Priest of the most high God For so the Scripture calls him Gen. 14.18 And though the word Cohen signifie also a Prince as the Sons of David are said to have beene Cohenim 2 Sam. 8.18 which our Translation there renders chiefe rulers yet being attributed to Melchisedec it notes him a Priest 1. Because of that addition here made of the most high God for this addition takes away all ambiguity of the word and declares him to be a Priest of God and not a Prince of God 2. Because this is brought as a reason why he blessed Abraham in an especiall manner as shall be shewed afterward 3. Because Abraham payed him tithes which were usually paid to Priests Whence it appeares that the same word Cohen which is given to Christ as he is compared with Melchisedec Psal 110.4 doth not simply signifie a Prince onely as the Jews contend but properly a Priest For it is manifest that those words of the Psalme have respect to the place in Genesis where Melchisedec is called Cohen And it is no strange thing that anciently Melchisedec was both a King and a Priest for anciently Kings were wont to performe Sacred rites which custome grew from hence that in every family the principall person or ruler of it did officate in holy functions Whence it came to passe that they who afterward became Princes or Rulers of a whole Citie became also the publike Priests of that Citie and executed the sacred Ceremonies for the safety of the people For it made most for the honour of God that the most honourable person should minister unto him Who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings The Author mentions not this meeting as if in that there were any Mysterie but because he would shew how Melchisedec blessed Abraham and reciprocally how Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedec In which two points as he shews afterward the chiefe dignitie of Melchisedec appeared And hee mentions this meeting onely to designe the occasion the time and circumstances of the action whereof the History is particularly related Gen. 14. And blessed him Him i. Abraham for so saith the Scripture He blessed him and said Blessed be Abraham of the most high God possessour of heaven and earth Gen. 14.19 that is Let the most high God blesse Abraham and heap his gifts upon him in great abundance And lest any man should think that this was but an ordinary blessing such as commonly is among friends when they mutually pray and wish all happinesse one to another therefore he prefixed these words before it that Melchisedec was a Priest of the most high God thereby to make us know that this was a singular blessing as proceeding from a person that was a peculiar Minister of God Whence it appears that when Melchisedec is said to be a Priest of the most high God thereby is not shewed the reason why he brought forth bread and wine as they would have it who say that Melchisedec offered bread and wine to God and was therefore called a Priest but in those words is shewed the reason why he blessed Abraham and why as it presently follows Abraham gave him tithes But the error of these men who thereby would strengthen their owne opinions may manifestly be convinced from hence that the Author who most diligently prosecutes the likenesse betweene the Priesthood of Melchisedec and Christ makes not any the least mention of offering bread and wine wherein notwithstanding they thinke the greatest likenesse betweene Christ and Melchisedec doth consist and certainly must consist if both offered bread and wine Either therefore the Author omitted that which was the maine point in so accurate a comparison of Christ with Melchisedec or else that Melchisedec or Christ or both of them offered bread and wine to God is but those mens dream Melchisedec brought forth bread and wine that hee might refresh Abraham and his company that were weary after their victory and journey but hee offered none to God for this is refuted by the very word of bringing forth which is never used of offerings and besides the place and time when this is said to have been done refutes it also For wee use not to meet men upon the way there to celebrate divine services or performe holy Ceremonies Also Christ is never read to have offered bread and wine to God but onely to have instituted a holy Ceremonie wherein bread is broken and eaten and wine is drunke out of a cup yet not to perform any offering but to celebrate the memory of Christ whose body was broken for us and his blood shed for us As for the expiatory offering of Christ for our sinnes that was not performed on earth but in heaven Hebrewes 8.4 Neither doth it consist in offering of bread and wine but in Christs offering of himselfe as this Authour testifies in sundry places neither was it to bee iterated often but once onely to bee performed as the Authour clearely delivers it afterwards in this Chapter verse 27. and Chap. 10 14. For that single oblation perfects all the Saints 2. To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all The fifth particular that the Author observes in Melchisedec was that Abraham gave him the tenth part as is related in his history whence a little after the Author collects how far Melchisedec exceeded the Leviticall Priests The gift that Abraham gave him was a part of the spoiles for so it is expressed at the 4. v. following and the portion hee gave was a tenth part of them and there were none of the spoils excepted and reserved for he gave him a tenth part of all By these words hee partly explicates some things related in Scripture of Melchisedec and partly observes other things whereby to make it appeare how great a person Melchisedec was and how properly he was a type of Christ First being by interpretation king of righteousnesse First he ponders the name of Melchisedec and teacheth that there was an omen in his name For the Hebrew name Melchisedec being interpreted or translated into another language doth signifie a king of righteousnesso There are some who tell us that this name signifies my righteous king but it is very usuall with the
the Arke and was a figure of Gods mercy whereby he was propitious to forgive or cover the sins against the Law For sins are no other way propitiated or expiated then as it were by covering or hiding that they may no more appeare against us in the sight of God Hence Gods people are said to be reconciled unto God that is to be sanctified and purged from their sins for when the Tabernacle was sanctified and purged from the sins of the people it was called reconciling Levit. 16.20 And hence God is said to be propitiated or pacified or appeased not as if hereby he were alwayes turned from anger which was in him before but many times that he should not desist from being propitious but continue pacified or appeased towards us and that he should passe by just causes of anger which otherwise he might have For thus God was anciently pacified by the Sacrifices ordained by his Law for it is no way likely that God was really angry with his people for those sins for which he granted an expiation under the Law then when the people procured the timely expiation of their sinnes according to the prescript of Gods Law then certainely God was not actually angry for then God must be angry at set times of the yeare yearely at every solemnity of the Expiation By those sacrifices therefore God was not pacified by being drawne from anger but thereby order was taken that God might still continue pacified and not turne away his grace and favour from his people by reason of their sinnes Hence it appeares that from these words of Reconciling and Pacifying we must not conclude that Gods wrath against us was appeased by Christ but when we heare these words referred unto sinnes we must thereby understand nothing else but their expiation or purgation made by Christ as this Author termed it before chap. 1. v. 3. But how Christ now residing in heaven and exercising the office of his Priesthood doth purge away our sins shall be declared hereafter namely no other way then by the power God hath granted him to forgive them that we should not be punished and perish eternally for them The faithfull are the people of God who are reconciled and whose sins are expiated And this as was noted before was proper to the office of the high Priest who used not to make reconciliation for single persons but for the people on the day of Expiation 18. For in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted He saith not simply that Christ hath suffered but he addes being tempted The sufferings of Christ were not punishments but temptations or trials of his excellent fidelity and piety For there was no sinne in Christ for which he should be punished seeing punishments are onely for sinne And therefore chap. 4. v. 15. speaking of Christs being tempted or tried he expresly addeth that he was without sinne i. his triall was not a punishment as no way merited by sin He is able to succour them that are tempted Afflictions to the faithfull are temptations of their faith and righteousnesse whether they will persevere in their obedience to God or be beaten off by worldly calamities as the offering of Isaac was a temptation to Abraham and our whole spirituall warfare against Satan the world and the flesh is a daily temptation or triall of us In these their trials Christ doth succour them by his assistance of them from perishing under the miseries that presse them And this he doth when he affords them strength and courage to sustaine the afflictions lest by force thereof they fall from the faith and forsake it Or when he so moderates the afflictions that they be not too great for paine or too long for time by lightning of them if they be too or shortening them if they be too long or lastly when he receives their spirits at their death to restore them againe in due time with supreame glory And when Christ succours the faithfull in this manner he doth even thereby expiate their sinnes For thereby he endeavours and provides with all care lest that sinking under their afflictions or being destitute at their death they should by this meanes suffer punishment for their sinnes And therefore the word able to help must be ampliated and extended to be both able willing and carefull for otherwise he should not be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest if having power to succour he had neither will nor care to performe it Hence appeare three verities 1. That Christ our high Priest expiateth our sinnes by succouring us in our temptations 2. That the principall function of his Priestly office is performed now in heaven and was not performed at this death wherein there was only a preparation toward it 3. That neither the Priestly function of Christ nor his Expiation of sins thereby procured consist in this that Christ should suffer punishment for our sins seeing that can have no place in heaven The sum or Contents of this second Chapter are 5. 1. Wee Christians have more cause to persevere in the Gospel then the Iews had to persist in the law verse 1. Reason 1. Because if wee neglect it our punishment will be more certaine then theirs 2. Because it was first taught by Christ and confirmed by his Apostles by miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost 2. Christ was made lower then the Angels verse 7. Reason 1. Because he was to suffer death not thereby to succour them but men 3. Christ and the faithfull are brethren verse 11. Reason 1. Because they come of one Father who is God Testimonies 3. out of Scripture 4. Christ suffed death verse 14. Reason 1. Because he was to destroy the devill that had the power of death 2. Because he was to deliver the faithfull from the feare and bondage of death for he was to succour not Angels but them 5. Christ was afflicted and tempted like the faithful in all things ver 17. Reason 1. Because he was to be their high Priest to expiate their sinnes 2. Because he was to succour them when they are afflicted and tempted CHAPTER III. 1. WHerefore It referres to all that hath been spoken hitherto concerning the dignity of Christ who seeing hee is so excellent a person as yee have heard therefore ye have great reason to consider him well Holy brethren Separated from the prophane vulgar and worldly by your knowledge in divine mysteries and allied to me not by a vulgar and carnall fraternitie but by a spirituall affinitie in Christ Partakers of the heavenly calling Who together with me and all other Christians have one common spirituall calling whereto we are called And this calling is called heavenly not only because it was notified from heaven and comes from thence but also because it is directive to heaven to teach us the way thither and conductive to heaven to carry us safely thither So that heaven is the double terme of our spirituall calling for heaven is the start of it from
granted and for a ground that Christ is the supreme God because all this testimony out of that Psalm is manifâ—stly spoken of the suprem God but that Christ should be that God is not intimated by any word in all that Psalm And therefore if the Author had taken this for graunted that Christ is the supreme God certainly the Author had discoursed very impertinently and ambiguously to furnish himselfe with such store of arguments and so many Testimonies of Scriptures and those much more obscure then the point to be proved thereby to evince that Christ was better then the angels the Creatour better then the creature This had been to bring proofs no way necessary for a point no way doubtfull seeing all might have been dispatched in one word We must therefore further observe that this Testimony out of Psalme 102. containes three clauses The first concerning the Creation of the world 2. Concerning the destruction of the world 3. Concerning the Duration of God for these three things are the subjects of three verities contained in that Testimonie and all three are spoken supremely and primarily of God the Father But the first can no way be referred to Christ because as is before noted it could not make for the Authors purpose The last referres both to God and Christ for the Duration of Christ is perpetuall and everlasting yet this clause makes nothing for the Authors purpose to prove Christ better then the Angels because for Duration the angels are equall to him seeing they also are immortall and incorruptible perpetuall and everlasting The second clause referres to God supremely and primarily and to Christ subordinately or secondarily for God by Christ will destroy the world God hath given to Christ a transcendent power to destroy and abolish heaven and earth And this makes fully to the Authors purpose and proves Christ clerely better then the angels who have not this power granted to them Now to the words of this Testimony in particular Thou Lord in the beginning God when first he began the world even in the first beginning of â—is visible workes Hast laid the foundation of the earth He alludes to buildings which are raised upon a foundation for the earth is as it were the foundation and ground-work of the world And hee mentions the earth in the first place because in the raising of all buildings men begin from the foundation Now the earth is termed the foundation because it seemes immoveable and fixed as all foundations ought to be And the heavens are the works of thine hands The heavens are all those vast bodies which doe circumvest the earth and one another And they are called heavens plurally because they are built and raised to the height of three regions or stories each above the other The first and lowest heaven is vulgarly called the aire wherein flie the fowles of heaven and therein are the supernall waters that are said to be above in the heavens as clouds raine haile and snow The second or middle heaven is vulgarly called the firmament wherein are all the fires that give light and heat to all the world as the Sunne Moone and Starres The third and highest heaven is called by St. Paul Paradise wherein God and Christ and the angels doe manifest themselves All these are the workes of Gods word and were wrought at his command For God said Let them be and they were so Gen. 1.6 God commanded and they were created Psal 148.5 Yet the Psalmist terms them the works of Gods hands alluding to the speech of the vulgar whose hands and not their words are the instruments of their works which therefore are called the works of their hands Hitherto of the first clause of this Testimony concerning the Creation of the world referred to God onely who only was the Author of it 11. They shall perish Now followes the second Clause of this Testimony concerning the destruction of the world referred to God supremely and primarily but to Christ subordinately and secondarily because the power to destroy the world is given to Christ and therefore principally serves to the Authors purpose to prove him better then the angels They shall perish The heavens and the earth shall perish or be utterly destroyed and abolished as this Author phraseth it afterward in this Epistle chap. 12.27 they shall be removed as things that are concussible and corruptible And as St. Peter saith more expresly 2. Epistle 3.10 The heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also shall be burnt up Now things that passe away and are no where must needs have no being and a thing burnt up must needs perish Here we have a clear testimony that this present world shall be destroyed and abolished For if as some have imagined it shall only be endued with perfecter qualities and be changed into a better state so to remaine under that state how is it said to perish Certainly things changed into a better state to be permanent under that state cannot be said to perish Shall the Saints be said to perish when they are changed from mortall and corruptible creatures to become immortall and incorruptible and be made partakers of a nature and state far more pure and perfect then they had before certainly no. Or if the world shall have a perpetuall permansion or abiding for ever how is it opposed to Gods and Christs permansion or abiding for ever which is the scope of this reasoning as appeares in the words immediatly following But thou remainest and thy yeers shall not fail And they shall wax old as doth a garment The heavens are compared to a garment because as hath been said before they doe circumvest envelop and enwrap the whole earth round about as a garment envolves the body and therefore the attribute of a garment which is to veterate and wax old is by a Metaphor fitly applyed to the heavens Not that the heavens doe insensibly wax old and wear out with length of time as garments usually doe but because at last they shall wholly be abolished therefore they are said to wax old as a garment because a garment waxen old and worn out is at last wholly abolished and cast away For veteration or waxing old is a motion or passage toward destruction and abolition Seeing that which decayeth and waxeth old drawes neere to vanishing away as this Author expresseth it afterward in this Epistle cap. 8. v. 13. But how shall the heavens wax old if they shall be renewed into a better state Is a garment said then to wax old when it is new drest by making it somwhat better and neater 12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up When a garment is waxen so old that we have no minde to weare it any longer then wee usually fold it up and lay it aside for properly a garment is a loose vest which we use to weare outwardly over the rest of our clothing and therefore
offered no otherwise for himself then for the people for so we reade it before in this Epistle chap. 5.3 Now the cause of this his offering for himselfe and the people in that anniversary and yearely Sacrifice was onely for the errours of both And by Errours we must here as wee did before understand such sinnes as proceed either from the ignorance or forgetfulnesse of some divine Law for in such a multitude of Laws and so various respecting not onely matter of naturall honesty and true morality but of positive Ceremony something might easily escape from mens knowledge or memory or from the ignorance of some fact and the circumstances of it or from humane frailty or infirmity which might make the fact as excusable as ignorance doth especially that ignorance which is of the Law And therefore those universall words in Levit. 16. ver 16. where in this yearely sacrifice of Expiation the Priest is commanded to expiate all the sins of the people and to purge the Sanctuary from them must be restrained onely to these sins of Errors 8. The holy Ghost this signifying That the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing In these and the following verses the Author declares both the imperfection of the old Covenant and the infelicitie of those times wherein the Tabernacle and that carnall service of God lasted For first he shewes that during those times the way into heaven was not yet manifested and opened and then he shewes the infirmitie of those sacrifices for the expiating of sinne the latter of these hee doth afterward but the first is delivered in this verse For here hee teacheth what was the meaning of this That no man might enter into the second Tabernacle or most Holy place except the high Priest nor he neither but onely once a yeer To this he saith That the holy Ghost by whose instinct all this was ordered would thereby declare unto us that the way was not yet open into the holiest of all namely into the true and heavenly Sanctuary as long as that earthly Tabernacle was yet standing and continued in that state of holinesse which God for a time had assigned unto it But the abrogation of that Tabernacle or as I may terme it the profanation of it when the vaile of it was so rent and opened that any man might lawfully enter it this did declare that the entrance of the heavenly Sanctuary was now open to all The opening of the way and the libertie of entring that Tabernacle being granted unto all which was then done when God would have that Tabernacle to be holy no longer doth designe unto us a libertie and fredome granted unto all of entrance into the heavenly Sanctuarie which is truely and indeed the most Holy place of all For hence it was that as soone as Christ had given up the Ghost and was dead whereby our passage into heaven was made open the vail of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottome that it might no longer keep any man from entring into the holy place That none are yet actually entred into the Sanctuary of heaven beside Christ our high Priest the cause is not that the faithfull have not a right and a libertie to enter but because they must first put off the ragges of their mortall nature which being done then in their due time namely at the comming of Christ they shall enter by multitudes into that heavenly Sanctuary the palace of Immortalitie and then take possession of that inheritance whereto now they have but a title 9. Which was but a figure for the time then present Hee teacheth here the maine use of the Tabernacle and of the divine service annexed unto it that all was but for a figure or a shew a mysterie or a maske of somthing to be further understood by it which as before wee have expressed was the true heavenly Sanctuary and the true worship and service of God to be performed there by Saints and Angels And it was but a temporary figure to last only for a time during the time present as it is opposed to the time to come or as the Author determines it in the next verse until the time of Reformation Wherein were offered both gifts and sacrifices He intimates here that the divine service by gifts and sacrifices was also figurative as well as the Tabernacle and thereupon he declares the time which was assigned for this figurative Tabernacle how long it should continue and when it should determine Namely that the figurative Tabernacle must last as long as the figurative service for whose sake it was ordained as long as gifts and sacrifices were to be offered Whereby he yet further intimates that with great reason it stood that the Tabernacle or Temple in the roome of it stood not now in force for seeing the figurative services of offering gifts and sacrifices were but temporary ordained only till the time of Reformation therefore those figurative services being abolished the figurative Tabernacle also which was but subservient to those services must needs be abolished Which could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience By him that did the service is not meant the Priest onely who made the offering but also any other person who brought his offering for a gift or sacrifice thereby to worship and serve God who thereupon might justly be called the worshipper and servitor of God The services therefore by offerings of gifts and sacrifices could not make the servitors perfect To make perfect here is fully to expiate sinne as wee heard before chap. 7. ver 11.19 And to perfect as pertaining to the conscience is nothing else as appeareth by the opposition of those sins which in the verse following are said to be expiated by the Legall sacrifices but to purge away or expiate those sins which polluted and burdened the conscience it self and not those onely which defiled the flesh and made the party outwardly uncleane nothing else but to abolish all guilt even of the most heinous sins and so to abolish it that thou shalt not feare not temporall punishments onely but not eternall also and besides that thou maiest hope for eternall life and be assured that thy sins past though they have beene very grievous shall not exclude thee from salvation upon condition thou change the course of thy life and carry thy selfe holily for the time to come and as much as such a tried hope of salvation can draw thee and so great a favour of God can excite thee and thy trust in his helpe can support thee to endeavour by all meanes to keepe thy selfe unblameable and free from all sin 10. Which stood onely in meates and drinks He shews what sins the Legall sacrifices did expiate and for what purposes they were ordained namely for the sins of Legall impurity or carnall uncleannesse as if a man had eaten or tasted any of
they differ in beauty and glory as in the Courts of great Kings wee may distinguish the place where the Kings throne or chaire of State is seated by the foot-pace Canopy and furniture of it from the rest of the roome though it be not severed by any partition In the old Tabernacle the inmost and most holy place was at first continuous with the rest of the Tabernacle and not severed but by availe for without some such crosse materiall the one could not be severed from the other But in heaven the difference of brightnesse and glory serves for a vaile Christ therefore being to enter into the inmost and most holy place of heaven to sit at the right hand of Gods throne must needs passe through the large and common mansion of heaven as the Legall high Priest entered the second Tabernacle by passing through the first There are three things that seeme to favour this opinion 1. Because the Author did mention and describe a double Tabernacle before therefore the resemblance of the comparison doth require that to a double Tabernacle on earth there should be answerable a double place in heaven one a holy place and the other the most holy 2. Because these words doe indeed seeme to depend upon the verbe entered in the next verse as appeares by the particle neither at the beginning of that verse for that particle doth use to couple those things that are contained under one verbe which is here the verbe entered 3. Because the high Majesty of the Deity seemes to require that in his heavenly Mansion which no question is most ample and spacious there should be some most holy place sparkling and glittering with the brightnesse of unapproachable light where the most high God and supreme Lord of all things hath his throne and residence answerable to the most holy place in the Tabernacle wherein the throne of God was said to be seated This first Tabernacle of heaven through which Christ passed is said to be greater and more perfect i. then the terrene Tabernacle under the Law and it is greater and perfecter not only in quantity but in dignity Not made with hands that is to say not of this building Hee would give one instance at the least to declare the dignity of Christs Tabernacle to bee greater and more perfect then the legall because it is not made with hands or by art of man as the legall was Yet because the Author would shew that by these words hee comprehends something more then appeares at the first sight therefore he declares what he meanes thereby namely that Christs Tabernacle is not of this building It is not only not made by the hand or art of man but also it is not of the number of visible creatures which though they be not made by the hand and industry of men yet they are like to handy workes because they are visible and corruptible as handy-works are In which sense the Apostle opposing the house of our glorious body to this of our corruptible and fraile body saith of it that it is no handy-worke made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 Or rather the Tabernacle of Christ is said not to be of this building or creating because it is not framed of visible materials or any other stuffe subject to the eye whereof all handy-works wrought by mans art are made Therefore these words not of the building must be extended more largely then the other not made with hands doe properly signifie For it doth not presently follow that if it be not made with hands therefore it is not of this building unlesse as we have said wee take a handy-worke made by hand to signifie metaphorically that also which is like to a handy-worke made by hand as are all things of this building or creating which have been made from the beginning of the world or else so which comes all to one as to comprehend all things which in respect of their matter are of the same kinde with handy-workes as are all things made of God from the beginning of the world for of these are all handy-workes framed Hence it appeares that there is another building or creature of God far more excellent then the building or frame of this world whose forme and matter is of another kinde far more faire pure sublime and stable then this which we see And to this building pertaines that heavenly Tabernacle of Christ our high Priest which is the Temple and residence of the most high God 12. Neither by the bloud of goats and calves Here he opposeth the sacrifice of Christ to the sacrifice of the old legall Priest The old high Priest entered the most holy place by the blood of goats and calves But Christ entered not by such base bloud but by most pretious bloud which could be no other besides his owne for as his person was most pretious so must needs his bloud be The bloud of man is more pretious then the bloud of a beast but the bloud of Christ is far more pretious then the bloud of all men besides Seeing Christ himself is far more excellent then all other men yea then all other ereatures for he is more deare and neare unto God then all as being his unigenit and only begotten Sonne But by his owne bloud Wee are to note that the Author to sute the elegancie of his comparison did in the first member of it use the particle by although the legall high Priest entered the holy place not only by the bloud of goats and calves i. having first shed the bloud of those beasts or after the shedding of their bloud but also with their bloud which he carryed into the holy place with him and offered it by sprinkling it upon and before the Mercy-seat But in the sacrifice of Christ the resemblance could not be extended so far seeing Christ shed not the bloud of an other creature but his owne bloud neither in his heavenly Tabernacle did he offer his bloud after his death but himselfe when hee was become immortall and had cast off the rags of flesh and bloud because they cannot possesse the Kingdome of God And therefore he entred the holy place of heaven not with his bloud but only after hee had shed his bloud Now because Christ entred thus therefore the Author said lesse of the legall high Priest then indeed the thing it selfe was and used the particle by to fit the comparison For in the sacrifice of Christ the matter was in part somewhat otherwise then in the old expiatory sacrifice In that old sacrifice as also in other sin-offerings the beast it selfe that was slaine was not offered unto God nor burnt as a sweet savour unto him as the Scripture termes it but the kidneyes and the fat of it only neither was the carkasse brought into the holy place but the bloud of it only But in the sacrifice of Christ not his bloud which he shed when he was slaine but he himselfe must be offered and hee must
enter the holy place of heaven by himselfe For hence afterward at the 14. verse it is said that Christ offered himselfe to God and not his bloud although otherwise the comparison with the expiatory sacrifices seem to require this latter resemblance He entred in once into the holy place The entrance into the most holy place is necessarily required to that sacrifice for the Offering wherein the nature of the sacrifice chiefly consisteth could not be performed before the entrance because it must be made in the holy place by sprinkling upon and before the Mercy-seat Hence it is manifest that the offering and sacrifice of Christ our high Priest was not made upon the Crosse but was performed in heaven and is yet in the performing Into this true holy place of heaven Christ entred but once not often and yearly as the legali high Priest did Having obtained eternall redemption Now hee opposeth the Expiation obtained by the offering or sacrifice of Christ to the old Expiation obtained by the legall Priest By Redemption he understands expiation or deliverance from the guilt of sinnes For to be guilty of sinne and thereupon bound over to death and damnation is a grievous captivity and slavery When he calls this Expiation eternall he tacitly gives a reason why he said before that Christ entred once only into the holy place namely because by his entrance and offering of himselfe he expiated or atoned men for ever as it is said chap. 10.14 Christ therefore obtained an eternall redemption because he hath fully expiated all the sinnes not only past but to come of all men beleeving in him who have lived heretofore or do now live or shall live hereafter to the worlds end So that this expiation doth pertaine to all sinnes of all times and of all men who truly pertaine to Christ But the legall expiation performed yearly every yeare did not extend to all sinnes but only to Ignorances and Infirmities nor to all times not at all to the time future but only to the time past within the circuit of one year nor to all persons but only to those who were then living when the expiation was made and therefore it was not eternall but only annuall The word having obtained must not bee understood preteritively as if Christ had obtained the redemption before he entred but presentively that he had obtained it by and upon his entrance or when he entred then he obtained See what we explicated before concerning indefinite participles Chap. 6. ver 13. 13. For if the bloud Hee confirmes his former assertion That Christ by his one oblation of himselfe hath obtained an eternall expiation for us And that he might compasse this the better he proves by an argument à minori ad majus that Christ hath purged away those sinnes that pollute our consciences For the expurgation of these doth produce this effect that laying aside all sinne we shall serve God ever after in all holinesse and righteousnesse and if we doe this wee shall need no further offering for our sinnes As on the contrary if we finally forsake not our sinnes but after expiation of them relapse into them againe which wee then doe when this expiation doth not so far prevaile with us as to withdraw us from our sinnes then we have need of another offering and sacrifice to obtaine remission of our relapses For it stands not with reason that men should be expiated with one only sacrifice and yet be still enslaved to the same sinnes and be nothing the better for their expiation Therefore either the expiation is prevalent and of force to withdraw men from sinne and make them live holily ever after or else as men alwayes returne to their sinnes so the expiation must be alwayes iterated and then it cannot bring eternall redemption to them It is therefore manifest that the offering of Christ seeing it is but one can really profit no man but him that having received the faith of Christ doth shake off the yoke of sinne and wholly devote himselfe to God to live in a holy course of life ever after Of buls and goats Hee calls those Bulls which in the former verse he called Calves as well for their age being of a middle grouth between Calves and Bullocks in which sense also a Heifer is sometime put for a Cow as by a synecdoche putting either of these indifferently for any beast of the herd as opposed to those of the flocke which were goats or sheep For in the yearly sacrifice for the sinnes of the whole people to which the Authors words refer to speake properly there was no Bull slaine but only an heifer or as our Translation renders it a Bullock for the sins of the Priest and a goat for the sins of the people And this is the reason why the Author joynes these beasts here as likewise he doth it afterward Chap. 10.4 And the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean How the water of seperation was made of the ashes of a burned heifer and sprinkled upon the uncleane see Numb 19. It is not necessary for the concluding of the Authors argument that the ashes of the heifer should be put here for a type of the bloud of Christ for the argument here is not drawn from the type to the antitype unlesse it be accidentally but from termes of disparity and excellency of Christs offering This we therefore note lest any man should thinke it might be gathered from hence that the Author compares this sacrifice of Christ with any other legall sacrifices besides the anniversarye at which the high Priest entered the most holy place Although we willingly acknowledge that those ashes were a type of Christs bloud and a most lively type because those ashes were a kinde of perpetuity and must alwayes bee in a readinesse and had force at any time to cleanse any person sprinkled therewith from his legall uncleannesses of the flesh and this force or effect of it depended not on the pleasure of any man but only from the decree of God alone So the bloud of Christ is a perpetuall standing remedy that hath force and power at any time to cleanse men from the guilt of their sinnes if they be truly sprinkled with it by being washed from the filth of their sinnes i. if they cast them off for the time to come and this force the bloud of Christ hath from the good pleasure of God These ashes are said to sprinkle not efficiently as if the action began at them and they sprinkled themselves but instrumentally because the uncleane was sprinkled with the water wherein they were infused as wee say the sword woundeth because the sword is the instrument wherewith the wound is made Sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh To sanctifie is to cleanse for sanctified is commonly opposed to polluted as polluted and common and promiscuously used is easily polluted and cannot be cleane seeing then a thing is cleane when it is separated from ordinary and
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
at the same time seeing hee to his former words of confirming the Testament by bloud doth simply subjoyne that Moses did also sprinkle the Tabernacle and the ministerial vessels with bloud which may as well be taken of another time as of the same Although Moses saith not openly that the Tabernacle and ministeriall vessels after they were all finished were sprinkled with bloud but only anointed with the holy oyle Yet because we read that the Altar was not onely anointed with oyle but also sprinkled and consecrated with bloud therefore hence we may gather that in the consecration of the Tabernacle it selfe and of the ministeriall vessells sprinkling of blood was joyned with their anointing For Josephus delivers this in plain words in his Antiquitie lib. 3. cap. 9. Where describing the Ceremonie and forme of that Consecration hee saith Then hee sprinkled the garments of Aaron and his sonnes with the bloud of the Sacrifices-purifying them with running water and with the ointment c. He sprinkled also the Tabernacle and his vessels with the ointment and with the bloud of bullocks and rams slaine every other day after their kind From this verse therefore it may appeare that anciently there were many things among the Jewes especially concerning external rites of manifest truth which notwithstanding are not written in the bookes of Moses and therefore wee need not marvell that this Author doth affirme some things which we finde not delivered in the books of Moses as we have noted already in this chapter verse 4. and verse 19. 22. And almost all things by the law are purged with bloud He amplifies his former instances drawing them from particulars almost to an universall to conclude his assertion by way of Induction Not only the Tabernacle and Ministeriall vessels which were the principall utensils about the worship of God but almost all things else were purged with bloud He saith almost all things because some things were purged without bloud for some were purged or cleansed onely by the washing of water as hee that carried out the Scape-goat must cleanse himselfe by washing his clothes and bathing his flesh in water Levit. 16.26 And the Priest who became uncleane by the touch of a person or thing unclean must cleanse himself by washing his flesh with water Levit. 22.6 And some other things were first purged by melting in the fire and afterward repurged over with the water of separation as silver and gold and all other mettals that could abide to passe through the fire Numb 31.22,23 According to the Law i. According as the Law prescribed things should be purged And without shedding of blood is no remission How ever other things were purged yet this is certaine that under the Law sinnes were not remitted without shedding of bloud Whence wee may rationally gather that the shedding of bloud must also intervene for the purging of our consciences or to expiate those sinnes that pollute our consciences That which the Author here affirmes is most certaine universally and suffers no exception unlesse in case of extreme poverty when the persons to bee purged were so poore that for the purging of their sinne they were not able to bring for their offering a paire of Turtles or a paire of yong Pigeons whereof see Levit. 5.12 Otherwise the rule holds vniversally not onely for a sinne of the whole people but also for the sin of any single person whatsoever bloud must be shed and a sacrifice must be offered See Levit. chap. 4. chap. 5. and chap. 6. 23. It was therefore necessary that the paterns of things 〈◊〉 the heavens should be purified with these Hitherto the Author hath taught that bloud was required for the purging both of the Tabernacle and of sins Now some man might say Although blood were required for this purifying yet it was not necessary that the blood of Christ should be shed for it but the bloud of beasts might have served the turne as it did under the Law To this tacite objection the Author answeres in these words and sheweth that heavenly things were to be purged with farre better Sacrifices then the Sacrifices of beasts For the purging of earthly holy things the sacrifices of beasts did suffice but for the purging of heavenly holy things which of all other are most excellent there needed a most excellent Sacrifice And none could be more excellent then Christ And besides for the purging of any Sanctuarie there must needs be a Sacrifice or at least some thing of the Sacrifice must be brought into it But neither beasts themselves nor their bloud or bodies neither must nor can be brought into that heavenly Sanctuary But Christ himselfe and his body made immortall was brought in thither Therefore for heavenly holy things the bloud of Christ must be shed and not the bloud of beasts Againe the holy things under the Law were not onely purged when they were first made and dedicated but also were yearly to be purged by the annuall Sacrifice For they were accounted pollutted by the yearely sinnes and uncleannesses of the people Whereof see Levit. 16.15 How the earthly holy things were paternes of those things which are in heaven and for what cause we have already shewed chap. 8. ver 5. The things in the heavens are put for the holy heavenly things from which the heaven it self that invisible heaven which is the most holy Sanctuary must not be excluded But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices then these The heavenly things are the heavenly holy things as the verse following shewes But it may be demanded how those heavenly holy things can be said to be purged seeing they never were polluted Wee answer That this is said of the heavenly Sanctuary onely by way of Comparison as a thing very usuall And the nature of Comparisons is to breed many abusions For if we respect the scope of the Author it is enough for us to understand that the Sacrifice to be offered in the heavenly Sanctuary must be much more excellent then those which of old were wont to be offered in the earthly Sanctuarie For this both the nature of the heavenly Sanctuary wholly requires and also the effect of the oblation sutable to heaven But if any man yet demand a more neere resemblance it may be said That heavenly Sanctuary was indeed purged by the Sacrifice and offering of Christ First in as much as it was so consecrated thereby that an accesse is made open for us unto it and as I may say it is dedicated for our use hereafter As the old Tabernacle and many things else were not open and free for mens use before they were consecrated and they for their uncleannesse as it was accounted but this for our uncleannesse which must bee purged away before a right and an use of that heavenly Sanctuary can be granted us So that in this sence by a contrary way of speech and yet not unusuall the Author said that heaven must be purged for our
the Throne of the Majesty in the heavens i. that he himselfe by virtue of a supreme power over all things given him by his Father doth save his owne people that he himselfe doth release them from the guilt of all their sins and free them from all punishments and at last settle them in the reall possession of eternall blessednesse In these words thus transferied from the old high Priest unto Christ the metaphor is so much the neater and fitter because this way Christ is so said to procure perfect our salvation that withall it may appeare what difference in that regard there is between God and Christ and because Christ is thus farre like to one appearing and interceding for others in that he is very desirous and carefull of our salvation yet hath not the power to save us from himselfe but hath received it all from God So that in this respect Christ may bee said to be and is our Intecessour and Advocate and God of his mercy to conferre salvation upon us Besides in the Legall high Priest his appearance was a thing different and distinct from his offering though both were done at once and united in time because the high Priest was one and the offering another for the high Priest appeared but the bloud of the sacrifice was offered But in Christ our high Priest the offering and appearance as also the intercession were really the same if his appearance and intercession be taken not for his bare comming to his Father but for his comming joyned with his procuration of our salvation as here they must be taken because in Christ the Priest and the offering were the same For Christ by his appearance offers himselfe and by offering himselfe he appeares and by offering and appearing he intercedes The particle now is opposed to the times past especially to those of the Old Testament wherein no such high Priest and Advocate appeared in the presence of God for the people of God O the hard condition of those times and contrarily Happy we who have an high Priest and Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours onely but also for the sins of the whole world 1 John 2.1,2 25. Not yet that he should offer himselfe often The particle nor yet shews that the Author delivers two negatives concerning Christ our high Priest One is that he is not entered into the holy places made with hands but into heaven it selfe for this he taught in the former verse The other when he entered into heaven yet he did not so enter that he should iterate the oblation of himselfe and offer himselfe often contrary to the manner of the legall high Priests under the Law who were by Law constrained often to iterate their offering of bloud in the holy place This he teacheth in this verse which he therefore seemes to do that hence also it may appeare how farre the sacrifice of Christ excelled the Legall sacrifices which must needs be often offered for no other cause but by reason of their imperfection From which respect he gathers in the next Chapter that they did not please God and must at length be abrogated and were abrogated by the sacrifice of Christ And Christ should be said to offer himselfe often if once he should breake off his first appearance before God and going out of his heavenly Sanctuary should re enter in thither to iterate his offering For his oblation once begun is not iterated and multiplyed by the duration or continuation of it for then seeing Christ doth perpetually appeare and intercede for us and therefore perpetually offer the Author could not affirme that Christ hath offered himselfe onely once and by one oblation of himselfe to perfect for ever those that are sanctified There was not required a double entrance into the earthly holy place to make a double oblation when there are two things that are offered and a double slaughter preceded if those things were living creatures But when the thing to be offered is but one the offering of it cannot be iterated unlesse the entrance and the slaughter before the entrance be also iterated For the slaughter must not be made in the holy place it selfe neither can it be in heaven but without the holy place Therefore the Author saith That Christ hath not so entered into the holy places of heaven to performe his offering that he should often iterate it As the high Priest entereth into the holy place every yeare with bloud of others It was the manner of the Legall high Priest to iterate their oblation often And in this opposition betweene Christ and the Legall high Priest that Christ should not offer often but the Legal high Priest every yeare that Christ entered heaven to offer himselfe but the Legall high Priest entered into the holy place with the bloud of others every man sees that the offering of Christ and the entrance of the Legall Priest do answer one another Whence it is manifest that the expiatory offering of Christ as well as that of the Legall Priest was performed by meanes of his entrance into the holy place Entereth He seemes not to use the present tense therefore as if he had respect to a thing yet in being and practise among the people of the Jews but rather in an accustomed manner of speech to draw the minde of the reader to a thing as it were present after which forme he spake also before ver 22. And in the Gospel of Marke we often meet with the like manner of speech That the Legall Priest entered with bloud hath the same sence with the saying before that he entered by bloud ver 12. yet in the Greek here it is in bloud which for the sence of it is truly translated with bloud So John writes that Christ came in water and bloud i. with water and bloud though there our English Translation render it by water and bloud to suite the particle by going immediately before 1 John 5.6 But the Author shuns to say That the Legall high Priest was wont to enter the holy place with bloud though this were the proper saying left the fitnesse of the comparison betweene Christ and the Legall Priest should in this respect be lost whereof see what we have said before ver 12. Of others The bloud wherewith the Legall Priest entered into the holy place was not his owne but the bloud of other creatures for he entered with the bloud of Goats and Calves as it is before ver 12. 26. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world He proves why Christ must not offer himselfe often by an argument from an absurdity that would follow upon it if he did so because then he must often have suffered seeing the oblation of a living creature cannot be made without slaughter and suffering and he must have suffered also from the foundation of the world But why from
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
he that shall consult the Sacred history and shall diligently both reade and relect it shall finde nothing either written or any way intimated concerning that matter But this divine Author relating examples from the holy Scriptures upon their authority and infallibility seemes not to say or affirme any particular concerning those holy Elders but what is grounded upon the holy Scriptures Yet that Abraham Isaac and Jacob had a hope not onely of some life and happinesse after death but also of a City which hath foundations that is of heaven it selfe and that heavenly happinesse which shall never determine or have end and upon that hope did undergoe all the travels and troubles of a continuall pilgrimage to leade alwayes an uncertaine and flitting life this the holy Scriptures have no where discovered Yea rather what hopes Abraham sometime had in this respect it may hence appeare in that while he was yet destitute of children when God spake to him and said Feare not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Abraham answered Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childlesse and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus and behold one borne in my house is mine heire Gen. 15.1,2 Doth it not hence appeare that the summe of all Abrahams desires came to this that hee might leave behinde him a sonne and heire of his owne body seeing he abounded already in all other goods and riches For if at that time he had with any firme hope conceived of heaven it selfe and the everlasting happinesse thereof when God promised him an exceeding great reward would he have answered Lord God what wilt thou give me For in these words he signified that God had already abundantly rewarded him and given him goods in a full measure and to promise him more was to no purpose seeing he had no childe of his owne to whom hee might leave his estate Whence it appeares that Abraham extended not that exceeding great reward which God promised him beyond the goods and happinesse of this life Wherefore it is more likely that in these words of Abrahams expectance the Author intended not to give a reason why Abraham indured with such constancie the toyles of a continuall pilgrimage and of a life alwayes unsetled but rather of the event as we said why God gave Abraham no possession in that land to inherit as his owne proper right granted him no City to dwell in nor seat where to settle himselfe but would have him dwell in tents with his sonne and grand-childe Namely because as afterward at the sixteenth verse the Author saith God had prepared for him a City infinitly greater and better then all the land of promise with all the Cities in it And the promises of God made to Abraham and his seed doe in the mysticall sense containe this spirituall happinesse and heavenly inheritance And in the same sense the seed of Abraham doth signifie the seed of all the faithfull who follow the faith of Abraham For both these senses are taught us by the Apostle Rom. 4.11,12,13 and Gal. 3.7 and Gal. 4 22. Therefore Abraham expected or looked for a City which hath foundations rather by reason of the event and purpose of God then from any intent and purpose of his owne whereby he might seem to fore know it For in this sense we many times attribute expectation to a thing so this Author Chap. 10. ver 27. saith that to them who sinne willingly there remaines a certaine fearfull expectation or looking for of judgement whereas if we referre this to their intent and purpose of minde sinners most times expect and looke for nothing lesse then the punishment of their sinnes Abraham then is therefore said to looke for this City because this City was by Gods decree reserved and appointed for him and because his faith was so constant in God neither broken nor shaken with any travels or troubles and his whole course of life was such as theirs is who relying upon Gods promise do really expect this heavenly City as a reward of their labours Whereof the first is spoken by way of Metonymie putting the effect for the cause and this latter is said by way of Metaphor This City the Author opposeth to Tabernacles and Tents and the matter is not great to live a while in a Tent that afterward we may live for ever in a City And it is a City that hath foundations By which attribute Heaven is opposed not only to Tabernacles or Tents which have no foundations but to all Cities which though they have foundations yet in comparison of Heaven they have none because they have none such And hereby is signified unto us the firmnesse and strength of our heavenly City which no force no tract of time no change of things can possibly shake or move which shall not be ruined by the ruine of that heaven and earth which to us is visible whereof see the Author afterward Chap. 12. ver 26 27 28. Whose builder and maker is God Certainly that City must needs be most stable ample most beautifull and plentifull of all happinesse which had such a builder and such a maker as God to found and raise it He opposeth God to men who are the founders and builders of all earthly Cities And therefore this City must needs be so divine and heavenly so firme and strong that no hand of man can prevaile against it Cities built by men by men may be destroyed and many times are so but the City whereof God is the builder and maker is secure and safe from all hazard 11. By faith also Sara her selfe received strength to receive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age It may here be doubted whether the Author doth speak here of the faith of Sarah or of Abraham as he first began and afterward goes on The former of these seems to be gathered first from the words of the Author when hee saith Sarah her selfe For it seems as much as if he had said Not only Abraham but also Sarah her selfe by faith received strength So that he joynes Sarah with Abraham in respect of her faith Secondly because the words She judged him faithfull which follow in the next clause of this verse seem to be referred to the next antecedent which is Sarah But the latter opinion seems perswasible First because the Author first began and afterward proceeds to speake of the faith of Abraham Secondly because the sacred History mentions not the faith of Sarah when Isaac was promised but rather the Scripture seems to mention something contrary to her faith for shee laughed within her selfe saying After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also and the Angell questioned Abraham upon it to know the cause of it saying Wherefore did Sarah laugh Is any thing too hard for the Lord Gen. 18.12,13 Whence also Paul discoursing upon the same point mentions only the strength of Abrahams
themselves in the former chapter he denied that they had already received the promise of God and were made perfect but that their state and condition is such that perfection and eternall happinesse is now remaining to them in a way immutable so that the certainty of attaining it is such as if they did already really enjoy it In this very sense Saint Paul useth the same word of himselfe when hee saith Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect Phil. 3.12 that is not that I am now in that state as if I could no way faile of that blessed resurrection for of this it was that he spake in the former verse for otherwise that he had not yet really attained eternall life no man could be ignorant and it were a fond thing to affirme it The Author therefore shews that those just ones though they had not attained eternall salvation in perfection in regard now nothing of them was extant but their spirits yet without all doubt should certainely enjoy it by the immutable decree of God Hence it appeares what it is for God to be Judge of all and what happinesse is therein contained if a man come both to the Judge and to the spirits of the just and be admitted into their society For thereby he is certain though his life here-faile him yet he shall not faile of the reward of eternall life 24. And to Iesus the Mediatour of the new Testament The Israelites heretofore came to Moses the Mediatour of the old Testament but Christians come to Jesus the Mediatour of the New But how much Jesus is better then Moses and the new Covenant better then the old we have shewed before chap. 3.8 and chap. 8.6 The word Mediatour is in a manner proper to the holy Scripture and peradventure no where used among profane Authors as others have noted Yet it is found out of the Sciptures in Philo who being a Jew used a forme of language that had some affinity with the sacred writers And what this word signifies being used of Christ we are easily taught by the example of Moses to whom that name was first attributed For although of it owne nature it may signifie any one who intervenes as a meane betweene two parties yet the example of Moses and the name of Covenant added that thereby is signified no other but an herald or hee who intervenes as a mean between God and men to make a Covenant for the joyning of them in a mutuall and firme peace and friendship For the effecting whereof it is not forthwith necessary to appease and mitigate the minde either of one or both parties when it may be either both parties as it was in the making of the old Covenant or one of them as it was under the new namely God doth freely incline to peace and friendship yea doth alone seeke offer and procure it And to the blood of sprinkling An Hebraisme for the blood which is sprinkled or wherewith aspersion is made Hee alludes to that blood of the old Covenant wherewith Moses after hee had rehearsed all the precepts of the Law sprinkled both the booke of the Law and the whole people whereof he said This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoyned unto you as we had it before chap. 9. vers 19 20. We Christians are in like manner sprinkled with bloud and that with the most precious blood of Christ himselfe And wee are sprinkled with the bloud of Christ when in our hearts wee conceave and embrace the force of that bloudy death which he suffered to confirme the new Covenant in such manner that thereby wee have an infallible assurance made us of the promises comprehended in the Covenant whence it comes to passe that wee are made parties to the Covenant and obtaine a right of attaining to all the blessings promised therein That speaketh better things then that of Abel He commends this bloud wherewith Christians are sprinkled by mentioning the force and effect of it that they may joy the more for their aspersion with it and may moreover more carefully endeavour that they wash not the droppes of that bloud from their soules that is that they never fall away from the new Covenant nor cease to feel the force of the bloud of Christ and so deprive themselves of that great blessing which they gained by the shedding of it namely a right to eternall happinesse To the blood of Christ hee ascribes speech in a figurative sense as likewise to the bloud of Abel Both their blouds speake or as the Scripture saith of the bloud of Abel both cry unto God but Abels bloud cryes for vengeance upon his fratricide but Christs bloud cryes for remission and pardon even upon paricides for they may justly be called paricides who murdered Christ And unto these no lesse then unto all other sinners the bloud of Christ begs pardon from God of all their sinnes if they will repent and be converted from them And he begs it as hee engageth God to grant forgivenesse of sinnes to all penitent persons whatsoever their sinnes have been And he engageth God as hee was employed of God to confirme and establish the new Covenant which is so remarkable for that promise 25. See that yee refuse not him that speaketh To his former passages hee now subjoynes an Exhortation and fortifies it with new reasons And herein he seemes to allude to that fact of the Israelites whereof we spake before when they were stricken with such terrour of Gods Majesty that they entreated that God would speak no more unto them which fact of theirs was a kinde of presage or token that afterward they would not carry an ear and mind obedient to the voice of God He therefore admonisheth Christians that now after they have given their ear and mind to the voyce of God in the Gospel they would not againe turne their ear and mind from it which is done both by Apostacy and by disobedience See i. take diligent heed for they who take diligent heed cast about their eyes every way that they may escape the danger imminent For if they escaped not By an argument of comparison hee shewes that if they doe otherwise they shall not escape a grievous punishment for they the Israelites escaped not namely the punishment and avenging hand of God whereof wee treated chapters the 3. and 4. where wee saw that the Israelites for their unbeliefe and disobedience were debarred from entrance into that land of Promise wherein they should have rested after their grievous servitude in Egypt and perished in the wildernesse by divers destructions Who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turne away from him that speaketh from heaven He opposeth him who spake on earth to him who spake from heaven Now there can be no doubt but by him who spake from heaven hee understands God himselfe for presently after he addes verse 26. Whose voice then shooke the
earth but now hee hath promised saying yet once more I shake not the earth onely but also heaven For here it is manifest that the whole verse is meant of God But who shall wee say is understood by him who spake on earth By him may be understood both God himselfe and that single Angel who bare the name and person of God in Mount Sinai If by him wee understand God himselfe then here will be no opposition betweene divers persons but onely betweene divers places from whence God delivered the Law and from whence the Gospel Namely that the Law was published on earth from Mount Sinai but the Gospel was published by God from heaven You will say that God then no lesse published the Law from heaven then afterward he did the Gospell seeing God himselfe descends not from heaven but as he sent Christ from heaven to preach the Gospel so he sent an Angell from heaven in his name to deliver the Law To this I answer There is a great difference between the mission or sending of Christ from God and of that Angel For Christ being sent from God carried himselfe alwayes as a person diverse from God which the thing it selfe declares for he was the sonne of man and called himself Gods messenger sent from God did manifestly professe and testifie that his doctrine was not his owne but his who sent him that he spake nothing of himselfe but what he had received and heard from the Father But that Angell so descended from heaven that hee bare the person and name of God and therefore he alwayes speaks as if he had been God himselfe And this was the cause why Christ had not such Majesty and visible glory about him as had that Angel For Christ had but that Majesty and glory which became Gods legate or messenger and he a man and a mortall man But that Angell had that Majesty and glory which was sutable to God himselfe if God himselfe had descended from Heaven It may therefore be well said that God himselfe descended in that Angell and must be considered as if he himselfe had spoken upon earth Contrarily because God sent Christ to preach the Gospell as his Apostle or messenger and sent him from heaven as a person distinct from him not as of old he sent Moses from the earth that is but from Mount Sinai therefore now with good reason he is said to deliver his oracles and to publish his pleasure to us from heaven But it is a far greater matter to deliver oracles from heaven it selfe then from earth or from some earthly mountaine seeing heaven is far higher and worthier then any mountaine Therefore although the manner which God used in publishing and revealing his Gospel was not if we respect the outward shew and splendour of it so illustrious as that wherewith he published the Law yet indeed it was far more divine and perfect and in all respects most beseeming the perfect discipline of Evangelicall truth For what else did it signifie that God descended on earth to publish the Law but that the precepts of the Law were earthly and not heavenly For they that speake from a low place seem to speake but low matter and they earthly that speake from the earth as we read in the Gospell of John chap. 3.31 But contrarily that God remaining in heaven and not descending himselfe on earth either in his own person or in the person of another hath spoken to us by Christ sent from heaven as his Interpreter and messenger what else can this signifie but that he hath spoken heavenly things and that Christ is far greater then Moses For as it is written in the fore-cited place of John He that commeth from above is above all and he that commeth from heaven is above all In this sense therefore that Angell representing God must stand for God and Christ must not be compared with that Angell who represented the person and name of God but with Moses and the difference between Christ and Moses must stand in this that God spake to Moses on earth but to Christ in heaven and that God sent Moses from the mount to the Israelites but Christ from heaven to Christians If this be displeasing to any man which yet we beleeve to be most agreeable both to the truth and to the Scripture and to the Text we may say which is our other answer to the question proposed and another sense of the words that by him who spake on earth must be understood that Angell who in Gods name published the Law on Mount Sinai and by him who spake from Heaven must be understood the most high God himselfe For he that by himselfe delivers Laws on earth doth thereby shew that he is not the most high God For the Majesty of the most high God permits not that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords should depart from his inaccessible light and from his heavenly throne to descend downe upon earth But hee that offers himselfe as God to be heard from heaven he by far greater reason must be reckoned for God himselfe But you will say when did God himselfe publish the Gospell from heaven I answer This was done then when by his voice uttered from heaven he testified that Christ was his beloved Sonne and therefore his Ambassadour and withall commanded us to heare him For shall not God himselfe be thought to speak to us from heaven when we heare that doctrine which God himselfe authorised by his voice uttered from heaven For although by the wise determination of God the promiscuous multitude heard not this voice with their ears yet it was heard and published by them whose testimony is irrefragable But in the publishing of the Law was no such thing Whence it is manifest that even in this sense the Authors argument wants no force For it is a greater crime to turne away from God who spake from heaven then from an Angell who spake on earth though he sustained the name of God Hee turnes away from God and as it were turnes his backe upon him who refuseth either to beleeve or obey the voice of God 26. Whose voice then shooke the earth From these words it seems to be gathered that the Author by him who spake on earth understands God himselfe For here he mainifestly attributeth to God himself the shaking of the earth i. of Mount Sinai which happened at the publishing of the Law from thence But nothing hinders why this action may not be ascribed both to God and to the Angell who in publishing the Law sustained the person of God as likewise that speaking or uttering the oracles a little before mentioned For the Angell properly and immediatly did both shake the earth or mountaine and also spake and God did it mediatly by that very Angell But in these words there is a tacit answer to an objection and withall a strong reason why Christians must obey the voice of God published by Christ For some man
might say that the Law was published with great terrour insomuch that the earth was shaken with the voice of God whence we may easily gather what a fearfull punishment remaines to the forsakers of the Law To this terrour of the Law he Author opposeth a far greater terror and shews that under the Gospell matters will be far more terrible for not only the earth but heaven it selfe shall be shaken From whence any man may easily perceive that there shall be no place of escape from Gods punishments for them who have been disobedient against the voice of the Gospell For whither shall they flye if the heavens themselves which doe encompasse the earth round about shall be shaken yea shall fall and perish as we are taught in the following verse Whose voice The thunder called the voice of God By the voice of God wee may understand those thunders by whose cracks the Mount quaked and trembled for in severall places of Scripture the thunder is called the voice of God See Job 37.4,5 and Psal 18.13 and Psal 29. per tot Shooke the earth Some part of the earth as Mount Sinai and the plaine adjoyning Whence it appears that under the times of the Gospel there will be another manner of earthquake when not only some one mountaine or some small territory but the whole universall earth shall be shaken and broken to the lowest foundations of it But now he hath promised saying The word now doth not expresse the time of the promise but the time of performance of the thing promised namely the time wherein God will shake both heaven and earth So that now must be referred to the times of the Gospell as the shaking of Mount Sinai was to the times of the Law Therefore the minde of the Author is to say Now under the times of the Gospel God will shake not only the earth but the heaven also as he promised by the Prophet saying Yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven This Prophesie is extant Hag. 2.6 But the Author would speake briefly and speedily expresse the thing in the words of God himselfe as in many passages St. Paul also doth In the Hebrew it is yet once it is a little while i. there yet remaines but a very small time for the fulfilling of that which God there promiseth for the moving of heaven and earth But in the Greek translation of the Septuagint whom hitherto our Author hath followed in the testimonies he hath cited out of Scripture we read it yet once It may be the Septuagint did not read the Hebrew word mead a little while but only achath once But we need not marvell why here the Author would rather follow the Greek translation seeing it suiteth better with the mysticall sense of the Prophets words For in the literall sense these words containe a Prophesie that it should come to passe that God would move heaven and earth by raising up divers countries and nations who should come to the Temple at Jerusalem and bring with them the desire of all Nations that is that which is desireable and precious among all Nations namely silver and gold to adorne the Temple of God as it is explicated in the words following But because these words of moving heaven and earth are more magnificent then only to contain so narrow a sense therefore we must needs conceive that they carry some other more proper sense namely that God shall really shake heaven and earth to which sense the Greeke translation as we said better agrees For it cannot be but in a qualified manner that the time should be called a little while which is extended from this Prophesie to the end of the world If any demand how it can be said that God will yet once more shake heaven and earth seeing hee never shooke heaven before Wee answer It is said because the earth is there mentioned which God did shake before namely at the publishing of the Law Not the earth only but also heaven The Hebrew text hath it simply the heaven and the earth but the Author would rather speake thus that he might more fitly and evidently oppose that shaking which shall come to passe in the times of the Gospel to that shaking which fell out at the publishing of the Law that now under the Gospell not the earth only as then it was but also the heaven it selfe shall be shaken 27. And this word yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken From the words yet once more the Author gathers what manner of shaking shall come upon heaven and earth and saith that those words doe signifie or declare the removing of the things that are shaken By removing is signified the abolition or destruction of heaven and earth for those things that are wholly abolished and destroyed are extremely removed not only from their former place but from all place See chap. 7. ver 12. That are shaken is put for that shall be shaken the present tense for the future a forme of speech usuall among the Hebrews especially the Prophets But how doe the words yet once more signifie that heaven and earth shall bee so shaken that by their shaking they shall be removed or abolished They signifie it by this reason that if heaven and earth should remaine after this shaking it scarce seems possible but that they must be once shaken againe yea it must necessarily be so if as it appears from other words of the Prophets heaven and earth must one day be abolished for then at the least when they are abolished they must be shaken and so they shall be shaken not yet once more but twice It is therefore manifest that these words yet once more do signifie such a shaking of heaven and earth as shall be accompanied with their removing or abolishing And hence also it is plaine that this Epistle was written in Greek seeing this collection of the Author is grounded only upon the Greek translation for in the Hebrew text it cannot take place unlesse as we said the word Mead a little while be expunged which at this day is read in all copies and seems necessary to the literall sense As of things that are made He inserts the cause which argues and shews the removing or abolishing of heaven and earth that in due time it shall certainly come to passe namely because they are things made But the words things made in this place must needs bee taken somewhat strictly For even that heaven which shall not be shaken was made and our future glorious and heavenly bodies shall be made Therefore things made do in this place signifie those things that were made of some grosse and corporeall matter as are all things of this creation as the Author speaks before chap. 9.11 or else which were made of such matter which receives a forraine forme besides and beyond her naturall inclination for matter receiving such a forme suffers a kinde of violence and
saying your conversation is without covetousnesse but imperative Let your conversation be so Lastly because the contents of this Chapter seeme not to be matter of Doctrine but of Exhortation whose Mood is imperative moving us as we have said to severall duties and good offices If then wee understand these words Indicatively by supplying them with the verbe is Then the sence will be That mariage is in all or among men of all sorts and ranks a thing honest and by it onely the bed is undefiled so that a man may live in mariage with the safety of piety and honesty contrary to what is done in fornication and adultery But if we understand them imperatively or preceptively by supplying them with the verbe let be Let mariage be honourable Then the sence will be Let mariage bee preserved in it due honour and let the meanes to preserve it so be by keeping the bed undefiled from adulteries for nothing is more dishonourable to a maried person then to have his bed stained and defiled by the uncleannesse of another which is done in every adultery for the nature of adultery is here modestly defined to be the defiling of anothers bed The words in all may be referred either to things or persons If wee referre them to things the sence will be that mariage be in every thing observed honestly and chastly and that the bed be not polluted with any uncleane or strange lust But if wee referre in all to persons the sence will be that mariage must be had in honour and esteeme among all persons of all sexes that no person should so despise it as to presume or dare to invade anothers bed whether he be a single person or maried For all persons ought to have such an opinion of mariage as to esteeme it a thing sacred and not to be polluted for he that doth otherwise and transgresseth the Laws of mariage by defiling his bed and body with a stranger incurres a heavy penalty which God himselfe will one day execute upon him But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge Here he brings a Motive or Reason whereby hee would perswade us to the former dutie of honouring mariage by our honesty and chastity namely because God will shew a judgement upon whoremongers and adulteres who are the maine transgressours against mariage to violate and dishonour it for to the honesty of mariage and the chastitie of the bed he opposeth whoredome and adulterie as a bed polluted and defiled For mariage is dishonoured and disgraced two wayes chiefly first by whoremongers who despise it and will not marry and secondly by adulterers who violate and affront mariage And the judgement which God hath already denounced and will certainly execute upon whormongers and adulterers is that they shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven See Gal. 5. verse 19.20.21 and Ephes 5.5 And the Author makes God the Judge to condemne and punish these whoremongers and adulterers to the end they might thinke and consider that though they commit their wickednesses secretly and many times escape the eyes and judgements of men yet they shall not evade the avenging hand of God and in vaine they deale warily if they live not chastly For God doth severely persecute uncleannes especially in them whom he hath seasoned with the knowledge of Christ sequestred from profane and worldly men and accepted as persons sacred to himselfe If therefore men would avoide this judgement of God in the losse of eternall life let them avoid the defiling sins of whoredome and adulterie Of single life Concerning celibate or single life here is nothing ordained because although a chaste celibate be purer and holier then mariage yet the necessitie of it is not commanded or imposed upon any man by the sacred Scripture But Christ doth only perswade it yet onely to them who can containe themselves Mat. 19.11,12 and Paul more amply and openly 1. Cor. 7. ver 8 26. and thence to the end of the chapter Here therefore we must walke in a middle way And as mariage must not be detruded into the number of fornications and uncleannesses as some anciently did who esteemed mariage nothing else but a kind of licenced whoredom so again on the other side it must not be equalled to a chaste celibate which the Scripture clearly prefers before mariage as containing more puritie and holinesse in it But as wee said it must be exacted from no man lest while we affect extream puritie either we our selves fall into mischiefes and uncleannesses or precipitate others into them who aspire either to the glory of celibate or to other vertues and offices inclosed with the necessitie of celibate Whatsoever is honourable honest and undefiled as the Authour here testifies of maririage that must bee granted free to any man especially if there arise a weightie cause as in this case there may to cut off all occasions of whoredomes adulteries and other defilements And they who debarre from mariage those which burne as the Apostle speakes doe all one as if a man who cannot hinder the disease doth yet forbid to use the remedy for what else can follow upon this but a soarer sicknesse For mariage is the remedie for burning and lust which when it is denyed to them that burne the issue will be that at length they fall into a farre worse disease and runne into uncleane and unlawfull pleasures Besides it detracts much from the dignity of celibate if it cease to be voluntary and be forced by law and arise not from free-will But to returne to the words of the Authour Whoredome is betweene those parties that are both free from the bond of mariage but adulterie is between parties whereof either both or one of them at least is married Anciently under the old Testament when husbands might have more wives then one it was not adultery for a married man to lie with a single woman unmarried but onely whoredome But under the new Testament where this licenciousnes of husbands is limited by the law of Christ and restrained to the company of one wife onely adultery is committed as well on the husbands part as on the wives as may easily appeare by the words of Christ Matth. 19.9 where he saith Whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and shall marry another committeth adultery Which certainely is not because of the mariage-bond for that of it selfe is rather to avoid uncleanesse then increase it but absolutely and simply because having a wife before hee presumes to lie with another woman when by Law the former woman ceaseth not to bee his wife because his divorce was illegall and a nullitie 5. Let your conversation be without covetousnesse The fifth dutie whereto he exhorts is Contentednesse by avoiding the vice of covetousnesse which here the Author disswades next after uncleannesse in the former verse For these two vices of uncleannes and covetousnes love to goe together or one to follow close upon another for
respect the plenary expiation of our sinnes or the full reconciliation of Gods favour and grace towards us that for that effect there is no further need of any Sacrifices of beasts or other things corporeall Neither is there reason why any man should say that in the Christian Religion there are other Sacrifices and oblations which Christians must offer and therefore by that sacrifice other Sacrifices and oblations are not excluded For the Author doth not oppose that Sacrifice to those that are wholly incorporeall and spirituall and whereof no meat can be made as are the Sacrifices to be offered by Christians such as a contrite and humbled heart as David speakes the Sacrifices of praise the fruits of our lippes confessing unto the name of God communicating or doing good as the Authour hath it afterwards and other workes of pietie But hee opposeth it to those Sacrifices wherein are offered things corporeall and fit for food so that he leaves no further place for all these Therefore herewith the Sacrifice of the Masse must needs fall wherein a thing corporeall that may be eaten is said to be daily offered But some man may demand how it can be true that in the Christian Religion there remaines that Sacrifice whereby the bloud of slaine beasts was by the Priests brought into the Sanctuary for sinne and their bodies burnt without the campe We answer because that under Christianity there remaines the Sacrifice of Christ our high Priest which is the antitype and solid body whereof that Sacrifice was but a type and shadow Which sacrifice of Christ by the comming of it hath abolished all other carnall sacrifices and the eating of them Whereof this is an open and manifest argument that in the type and shadow of it there was no place allowed for eating but the bodies of the beasts slaine for it were wholly burnt and that without the campe Yet it is not necessary we should say that here is a reference to that yearly Sacrifice onely whereby the high Priest entered the Oracle or the holiest of all seeing the reference may be to all those Sacrifices which were made as well for the high Priest himself as for the whole people For the bloud of those beasts that were slaine for a sin-offering was by the high Priest brought into the Sanctuary although not into the Oracle or holiest place of all yet into the first Tabernacle which is properly called the Sanctuary chap. 9. vers 2. which in other Sacrifices for private men was not done wherein the bloud of the beasts slain after the high Priest had sprinkled the hornes of the Altar that stood in the court at the doore of the Tabernacle was all poured downe at the bottome of the Altar Levit. 4.25 and the bodies of the beasts so slaine for sinne-offerings were no lesse burned without the campe then was done in that solemne anniversary Sacrifice as it appears in the same fourth chapter of Leviticus 12. Wherefore Iesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud suffered without the gate Because hee had said that in those Sacrifices that caryed a type and shadow of the Sacrifice of Christ the bodies of the beasts slaine were wholly burnt without the campe therefore he affirmes it came to passe that Jesus also whom those beasts slaine for the Expiation and Salvation of the whole people fully represented and shadowed suffered without the gate And this hee doth for this end that the conformitie and resemblance betweene the tipe and antitipe betweene the shadow and the bodie might appeare the better which at the first sight would sufficiently argue that one was referred to the other The Citie of Jerusalem wherein the people after their conquest of Canaan seated themselves is answerable to the campe wherewith they journeyed in the wildernesse and succeeded in the roome of that campe And therefore in this respect it was all one for a man to bee drawne without the gate or walles of Jerusalem when the people dwelt in that Citie as without the campe when they had a campe for their Citie Iesus also the particle also hath in this place the force of a comparison as if hee had said not onely the bodies of those beasts were burnt without the campe but Jesus also himselfe suffered without the gate Suffered namely the death of the Crosse the genus being put for the species And the death of Christ is answerable not onely to the slaughter of the beasts that were made within the campe and Citie or compasse of the Temple but also to the burning of their bodies which was performed without the campe and City for this death answered their slaughter as his bloud was shed and their burning as his body was buried And the things that in the tipe and shadow were as it were severed were in the antitipe and body united so that onely death in Christ answered both the slaughter and burning of the beasts That hee might sanctifie the people In these words Christ is tacitely compared with the legall high Priest whose proper office it was to sanctifie or expiate not this or that single person but the whole people and the bloud of Christ is compared to the bloud of those beasts which was shed for the whole people And Jesus did sanctifie and wholly expiate the people with his bloud in that by the intervention of his cruell death hee entered into the heavenly Sanctuary and appeares for us for ever in the sight of God to make intercession for us i. to free us by his care from all the guilt and penalties of our sinnes For the same saying is expressed by Saint Paul in other words Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us For that which is sanctified or made holy is rightly opposed to that which is execrated or made a curse Wee have already observed heretofore that the Author thought he had occasion to speak of Christs bloud brought into the heavenly Tabernacle whereto his comparison and resemblance of Christ to the legall high Priest might invite him yet doth purposely avoide it and useth onely words from which it might appeare that our sinnes were expiated by the bloud of Christ yet not as brought into the Tabernacle of heaven and offered unto God but onely as it was shed and prepared entrance for Christ into heaven and there to help himselfe unto God The same caution is used also by the Author in this place who in the former verse having made expresse mention of the bloud of beasts brought by the high Priest into the Sanctuarie for sin-offerings yet when hee comes to the bloud of Christ saith nothing else of it but that hee Sanctified his people with it or as it is in the Greeke by it that is by shedding it By his owne bloud Not as the high Priest under the Law who sanctified the people by bloud yet not by his owne bloud but by the bloud of beasts but because