progress had lost their Christendom it was impossible for them to be renewed and initiated again For neither the grace of Repentance could be expected from the Spirit nor any benefit from the Sacrifice of Christ which was never intended for to expiate the Sins of Apostates This is amplified and illustrated by a Similitude For as they who continue and increase in Grace shall be like good Ground and receive the blessing of God so Apostates shall be like bad Ground which being well Husbanded proves barren is cursed and the end is Burning For Apostates render themselves liable to God's Curse and everlasting Fire ver 4 5 6 7 8. 2. Though some of them might be very faulty yet he had better hope of the generality of them and this his hope is grounded on 1. God's Righteousness 2. Their Faith in Christ and labour of love manifested in their constant ministration to the Saints ver 9 10. Thus far the Resolution the Exhortation followeth Wherein we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto which is Perseverance ver 11. 2. The Motive from example of former Saints not named ver 12. Abraham In the example of Abraham the Apostle takes special notice of a Promise made unto him and confirmed by Oath and acquaints them with the end of this confirmation which was 1. To shew to the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel in performing his Promise ver 13 14 15 16 17. 2. To minister Comfort to them ver 18 19. This Digression finished he resumes the words of Confirmation Psal. 110. 4. that they may be the subject of the Chapter following ver 20. CHAP. VII THE Subject whereof is the words of Psal. 100. 4. formerly resumed The Scope to demonstrate the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood The Method Begins with Melchizedec ver 1. Goes on with the Priest-hood of Aaron and the Law ver 11. Concludes with the Priest-hood of Christ ver 20. For the Author discourseth 1. Upon the last word in the Text of the Psalm which is Melchizedec 2. Upon the words Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec 3. Upon the words I have sworn and will not repent 4. Takes notice from the antecedent Context of the Psalm to shew who the person was that was thus confirmed and how excellent and perfect In the first part we may observe 1. A Description of Melchizedec 2. A Demonstration of his excellency He is described from His Offices The acts of his Offices The perpetuity of his Priest-hood 1. For his Offices he was King and Priest ver 1. 2. For the acts of his Priest-hood they were Blessing and Tything Abraham ver 1 2. Regal power they were the righteous Government of his People and procuring their peace These he inferrs from the notation of his own name and the name of the place where he did reside ver 2. 3. For the continuance of his Priest-hood he neither had Predecessor from whom he did derive nor Successor to whom he did transmit his Sacerdotal power in which respect it might be said to be Personal and Perpetual This is the Description of Melchizedec taken from Gen. 14. From which he inferrs his excellency especially as a Priest And this excellency is proved 1. From his tything Abraham so great a Person whereas the Levitical Priests did but Tythe their Brethren which were far inferior to their Father Abraham ver 4. 5. 2. From his blessing of Abraham who had the Promises ver 6 7. 3. From this That the Levitical Priests receiving Tythes dye but Melchizedec who received Tythes of Abraham is witnessed to live ver 8. 4. Levi being then in the Loyns of Abraham when he payed Tythes to Melchizedec may with the Levitical Priests descended from him be laid to pay Tythes unto this great Priest ver 9 10. In the second part which begins ver 11. the Apostle enters upon these words Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec and inferts from them 1. That there must be another Priest of another Order then that of Aaron ver 11. 2. That if there must be and by God's institution another Priest-hood and another Oder then that Levitical Priest-hood which came in with the Law was imperfect Ibid. 3. That seeing it was imperfect it must be changed and that if the Priest-hood then the Law also which was so inseparably joyned with it must be abolished ver 12. 4. That seeing the legal High Priest must by the first institution be of the Tribe of Levi and Christ this great and new High Priest was not of that Family but of the Tribe of Judah therefore it was evident the Priest-hood was changed already ver 13 14. 5. That this Change must needs be made was evident because the Priest which was of another Tribe must be after another Order the Order of Melchizedec ver 15. and another Power of endless life ver 16 17. 6. That the Reason why the Law annexed to the former Priest-hood must be disanulled was because it could sanctify and perfect no man as the Gospel doth ver 18 19. In the third part of this Discourse grounded upon these words of the Psalmist I have sworn and will not repent and the antecedent Context he speaks more distinctly and directly of Christ's perfect Priest-hood and 1. Proves the excellency thereof in that he was a Priest by an Oath which the Levitical High Priest was not ver 20 21. 2. Hence inferrs That his Priest-hood and the Gospel were unalterable and of perpetual continuance because 1. By this Oath he was made Surety of a better Covenant which could sanctify and save ver 22. 2. The Levitical Priests were mortal Christ upon his Resurrection immortal and able for ever to save by his Intercession which he ever lives to make for them who come to God by him ver 23 24 25. 3. He sums up the excellency of Christ whereby it 's evident that He and he Alone because of his perfections was only fit to be our Priest and save us For 1. He is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners ver 26. 2. Higher then the Heavens Ibid. 3. He need not Offer often or for Himself as the Levitical High Priest did He offered but once not for Himself but for his People and that Sacrifice was of eternal Virtue ver 27. 4. The legal High Priest had his infirmities and was not The Son but he that is by the Oath after the Law confirmed Priest hath no infirmities is the Son consecrated for ever ver 28. All these things are implied in the antecedent Context of the Psalm for he that is there confirmed Priest in this manner was the Son of God without sin who having offered himself a Sacrifice unsported was risen again immortal ascended above the Heavens and set at the right hand of God as appears from ver â—â— of the Psalm when God by his Oath did confirm him CHAP. VIII HItherto the Apostle hath demonstrated the excellency of
King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace MElech and so Melchi in Hebrew signifies King Prince or Governour and such is being one person is eminent in Power above the rest Zedeck is Righteousness in that Language This name agrees with Adonizedeck of Adon or Adoni Lord and Zedeck Righteousness as before This Name did truly agree unto this Person and he did answer to his Name He was a just King and did Order and Govern his People in Righteousness by just Judgment and according to just Laws and sought their weal and common good Such all Civil Governours should be for justice is essential to good Government and God never gave any power to any person but bound him to Righteousness nay further governing Power is no Power without wisdom and justice it may be potâ—ntia but not potestas Some Princes are more righteous then other yet this man was eminently righteous because he proved a Prince of Peace For the Fruit of Righteousness is Peace and the more wise and just the Government of any State shall be the greater the Peace and Happiness of the People But Righteousness must go before and after that Peace will follow and Kings must first be Kings of Zedeck before they can be Kings of Salem If the Kings of Sodom had been such they had not been invaded subdued and spoiled by a forraign Enemy The words seem to imply that Zedeck and Salem were two places from whence he had his Name and Title first from the one then from the other or that because he was so just first he was called the King of Righteousness and after that because by his just Government the People enjoyed so great Peace He was called King of Salem § 9. The fourth and last particular is the perpetuity of his Priest-hood For thus it 's written Ver. 3. Without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of Dayes nor end of Life but made like unto the Son of God abideth continually a Priest FOR the better understanding of these words we must consider 1. That if Melchisedec was a man living in Abraham's Dayes he had both Father and Mother and Descent and beginning of Dayes and end too except he as Enoch was translated not to see Death otherwise these words properly understood and strictly taken might justly give occasion to think he was an Angel in humane shape which was the opinion of some 2. Therefore for the most part the words are understood Tropically to this purpose That as he is described Gen. 14. the first and only place of the Old Testament that speaks more largely of him Moses the Historian makes no mention of his Father or Mother or Descent or Birth or Death And he was directed thus to do by the Spirit of purpose either because he being ignorant of all these the Spirit did not reveal them unto him or if he did and he knew them yet he was ordered and moved by the Spirit to conceal them that according to that Description he might appear a more lively and perfect Type of Christ. 3. The words have special reference unto his Priest-hood and gives us a real difference between him and the Levitical Priest and makes him far more like unto the Son of God our everlasting Priest For the Levitical High-Priests had their Priest-hood by Descent and Birth and upon their Death their Successors For as born of a Father of the Tribe of Levi and the House of Aaron after he was once consecrated and as born of a Mother who was a woman married to one of that House so they derived the Priest-hood from the first Investiture after the first Institution And whosoever could not manifest his Genealogy and Descent from that Family could not minister and officiate as a Priest As they had beginning of Dayes and by their Birth and Descent derived their Priest-hood from their Predecessors so they were Mortal and had end of Dayes and so transmitted their Priest-hood to their Successors Thus did not Melchisedec who though he might have Father and Mother and Descent and so beginning and end of Dayes as a man yet as a Priest he had no Predecessor from whom by Birth he might receive his Sacerdotal Power nor Successor who derived his Priest-hood from him So Christ the Son of God derived his Priest-hood from no mortal Predecessor but immediately from his heavenly Father neither will he transmit it to any Successor but when all Enemies shall be subdued and he shall deliver up his Commission by vertue of which he doth now officiate and intercede in Heaven He shall resign the same together with his Kingdom to God who gave him both And thus perhaps Melchisedec this great Priest and lively Type of Christ did And if there be any Priest-hood according to the Law of Nature which is of perpetual continunuance then he seems to be an extraordinary Priest according to the Law For there is the Law of Nature the Law of Moses the Law of Grace and every one of these may have their ordinary Priests and their extraordinary supream Pontiffs immediately instituted of God and the extraordinary supream Pontiff according to the Law of Nature must be above Aaron who was a High-Priest according to that Law which was but for a time and to be abolished and so more fit to typifie Christ the Mediatour and Priest of the New Covenant which shall stand for ever And these things I referr and in them submit my Judgment to the wise and judicious who may take occasion to seek further whether Melchisedec's Sacerdotal Title did not continue to him in Heaven till Christ's Ascension and then was delivered up to Christ and so it continued in him for ever and in this respect he abideth a Priest continually The first three verses seem to be one Proposition and all the whole description till the last words the subject or antecedent and abiding continually the predicate yet so that there are many simple Propositions in the antecedent And it 's observable that Righteousness Peace and Blessing of Melchisedec are perpetual § 10. After the explication of this Description we must consider wherein Melchisedec and Christ agree for there must be an agreement between the Type and the Antitype They agree in Offices Acts and Continuance 1. Melchisedec was a Priest and a King so was Christ Melchisedec was a King first of Righteousness and after of Peace so is Christ for he is the most righteous and just Administratour of his universal and perpetual Spiritual Kingdom and by Righteousness procures an everlasting Peace for our eternal Righteousness is from Him and the Fruit of this Righteousnesse is the perpetuall Peace of all his Loyall and Obedient Subjects 2. Melchisedec as a Priest received Tythes of Abraham and blessed him so Christ doth bless all such as believe in him and makes them eternally happy and all our spiritual Blessings and our eternal Bliss we expect to receive by him and
presupposeth the Command so the Command presupposeth that God spake by his Son more excellent then the Angels and that they had heard his Doctrine This may be the Use or Application of the Doctrine delivered and confirmed in the former Chapter And the Use after the present mode of preaching is an Instruction which virtually includes an exhortation with a dehortation § 3. Ver. 2 3 4. The reason which may perswade and motive which may incline us to performance of the duty both affirmative and negative follows And it is two-fold 1. From the grievous unavoidable punishment to which upon non-performance we shall be liable and in the end suffer 2. From divine Ordination The first we read ver 2 3 4. where we may observe 1. A punishment grievous unavoidable 2. The cause of it 1. There can be no Punishment where there is no Law transgressed For where there is the Law there is no Transgression Rom. 4. 19. And where no transgression or sin there is no â—â—ath or punishment For the wages or desert of Sin is Death Rom. 6. 23. Punishment therefore is some evil determined and threatned in the Law by the Law-giver against the Transgressouâ— as due unto him upon the transgression It 's opposed properly to a reward promised not to a benefit which is no reward This punishment is grievous and the grievousness is implyed in a Comparison For if the Transgressours of the Law then the Transgressours of the Gospel shall be grievously punished and if the former much more the latter if their punishment was grievous much more grievous shall ours be It 's expressed in two words in the Original in three in our translation a just recompence of reward yet according to the Greek it 's a just retribution or rendring of wages that is a punishment of Death which they deserved and was justly due unto them To deserve and to be â—able to punishment is a consequent and moral effect of transgression by vertue of the Law to determine this punishment is an act of the Law-giver to infact it is an act of the Judge which infliction is a rendring of some evil as due to the party suffering as deserving it But as it is first grievous so it is unavoidable This is expressed 1. In that they under the Law receved it 2. In that we under the Gospel cannot escape it How shall we escape § 4. The cause of this grievous unavoidable punishment is some sin which is here expressed And to understand this more fully and distinctly let 's consider 1. The sin and punishment of transgressours under the Law 2. The sin and punishment of the transgressours under the Gospel 3. The force of the reason The words of the second verse informes us 1. Of the sin 2. The punishment of former Offenders 1. The sin is the transgression of the word spoken by Angels 2. The punishment was the destruction of the Offenders In the Text we have 1. A Law 2. The transgression of this Law 3. The punishment of the transgressours 4. The efficacy of the Law in this punishment If we reduce it to Propositions they are these 1. That a word was spoken by Angels 2. This word was disobeyed 3. The disodient suffered condign punishment 4. By this punishment the Law was made firm and valid In the first we have 1. A word 2. The the same spoken 3. The same spoken by Angels 1. By word is no doubt understood a Law consisting of precepts prohibitions promises threats or comminations which are principally here understood as a part of the Law Some think this Law to be the Decalogue yet this cannot be here intended as it stands alone separated from the Judicials and Ceremonials wherein we find many fearful penal Statutes and Comminations So that by Word is understood the whole body and systeme of those Laws God gave by Moses to Israel neither let any wonder that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signify a Word and a Law For in Hebrew Chaldee and Arabick the same verbes which signifie to speak signify to govern and the same Nouns which signifie words signifie Commands and Laws 2. This word was spoken that is this Law was published and promulgated For the matter of the Law the mind and will of the Law-giver the declaration of both do all concurr to constitute the essence of a Law 3. The word and Law was spoken and declared by Angels though the matter and the binding decree was from God and neither of them from the Angels who were used by God in the promulgation Though God in a more special manner is said to have uttered and written the ten Commandments or Decalogue yet in giving of the whole Systeme of the Law he used the ministry of Angels For they received the Law by the disposition of Angels Acts 7. 53. And it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3. 19. where by Law cannot be meant the Decalogue alone as appears by the context antecedent and consequent And God Angels Moses did all concurr as one efficient of the promulgation before it could be compleat Therefore there is no need with Hâ—insius to understand by Angels the Prophets as Angels that is Messengers of God Hence appears the vanity and error of Crellius For he doth suppose and take for granted that if the Law was spoken and published by Angels then it was not published by God or the Son of God in the person of the Diety For by this he might argue against the express words of the Apostle Chap. 1. 1. that because the Old Testament and the Doctrine thereof was published and declared by the Prophets therefore it was not published declared and spoken by God whereas it 's expresly said God spake by the Prophets to the Fathers 2. He argues to this purpose that if the Law was in proper sense delivered by God or the Son in the person of the Deity then it would follow that the Apostle's argument to prove the Gospel above the Law were not good for if the Law was published by God or the Son in the person of the Deity the Law must be more excellent then the Gospel But first He takes the Law only for the Decalogue which should not be done 2. He mistakes the Apostle's comparison and argument For the comparison is not in respect of him that spake but of those by whom he spake The Old and New Testament do not differ in this that God doth speak and declare them For both are the Word of God both were spoken by God in which respect they are equal and the same If God had not spoken in both both had not been the Word of God But the difference is in respect of those by whom he spake For of old he spake by the Prophets in the last days he spake by his Son and the Son is more excellent then the Prophets for here is the inequality and the excellency of the Gospel above the Law spoken by Angels and
Prophets not by the glorious Son of God This is the first Proposition concerning the Law given § 5. The second proposition is that this Law was transgressed and disobeyed The sin which was the cause of the punishment is expressed by two words Transgression and Disobedience By these words we must not understand any kind of sin as of ignorance or infirmity or a sin upon surprizal or in petty matters for the best of the Saints and Prophets under the Law sinned in this manner But by them is understood some more hainous sins as Idolatry Blasphemy and such like or rebellion or apostacy or an habitual and continued course of Sin joyned with contempt of the Law For these were capital and capitally punished The third Proposition concerning the Punishment you heard before The fourth is concerning the Efficacy of the Law It was stedfast A Law should be armed with power and coactive force otherwise it cannot be executed and without Execution which is said to be the life of the Law it 's but words and can neither be a sufficient ground of hope in the Promises or fear in the Comminations When the Punishments threatned are inflicted it strikes a greater Terrour In this respect the Law proved firm and stedfast when the Offenders were punished according to their Transgressions and by suffering the penalties they knew that the word spoken by Angels was not vain but valid and effectual There is a three-fold stedfastness or firmness of a Law the first is in respect of the unalterable Will of the Law-giver the second in respect of the Execution the third in respect of the Party to whom it s given who firmly and certainly believes it The first is supposed the second is meant and is a great cause of the third The Emphasis is in the first words If the word spoken by Angels that is the word spoken by Angels and not by the Son proved firm and valid and was made and manifested to be such by the punishment of the Transgressors and especially in this that every transgression with an high hand contumacy and contempt was punished and not say such Offence escaped unpunished § 6. After the Sin and Punishment of Offenders in the times of the Law and Old Testament follow the Sin and Punishment of Offenders in the times of the New Testament The Sin is the neglect of the Gospel The punishment is implyed in the words How shall we escape In the first we may consider 1. The Word or Law 2. The Transgression of it In the Law we may observe 1. The Title or Name 2. The Publication 3. The Confirmation The Title is this so great Salvation by which is meant the Gospel which is called Salvation So great Salvation As in the Law so in the Gospel which is the Law of God Redeemer by Christ exhibited we have 1. Precepts and Prohibitions determining mens Duty 2. Promises and Threats declaring Punishments and Rewards according to mens Disobedience or Obedience and as in respect of the former the Gospel is the Rule of Man's Duty so in respect of the latter it 's a Rule of God's Judgment This Gospel is called Salvation because it promiseth Salvation and being followed brings loto Salvation and is said to be the Power of God unto Salvation and therefore is called the Word of Salvation and the Gospel of Salvation So that it 's called Salvation by a 〈◊〉 1. Of the Subject for the Adjunct because the matter and subject of it is Salvation 2. Of the Effect for the Cause because it â—ath a causal vertue and power to save As it's Salvation so it 's great Salvation because it doth promise and conduce to the attaining of eternal deliverance from eternal punishments and the greatest Enemies and of eternal bliss and full happiness the Word spoken by Angels did no such thing This is the Name or Title 2. The Publication or Promulgation is two fold 1. Began by Christ 2. Continued by them who heard him The Gospel is a Law and the Law of God Redeemer in Christ yet it could bind no man except it were published And it was first published by Christ. The Law and the Doctrine of the Old Testament was spoken and published by Angels and Prophets but this by Christ the Son and Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord by Redemption whereby he acquired a Right unto us and Power over us for because he suffered death for our sins God raised him up and made him Lord and Christ and being at his right hand he hath Power to command men and Angels and is the head of the Church which acknowledgeth his power and submits unto it He began to speak and declare the Gospel both before and after his Resutrection and they who heard him were especially the Apostles by whom afterward â—â—dued with the holy Ghost he declared it first to the Jew and these Hebrews then to the Gentiles It was so spoken as it was known by him and them so fully and clearly as was never done by Prophets and Angels before This is the Publication 3. The Confirmation follows where we must observe 1. To whom 2. By whom 3. By what it was confirmed 1. To whom It was confirmed saith the Author to Us that is to himself and these Hebrews so it 's commonly understood That it was confirmed to the Hebrews there can be no doubt and also to Paul who was an Hebrew to whom the Gospel was preached as to the rest of the Jews and also confirmed to him though he did not at the first believe it Yet it will not follow from hence that Paul received his immediate and infallible Knowledge of the Gospel from the Apostles For this he received immediately by Revelation from Christ as the rest of the Apostles did though they heard Christ as many more did who yet were no Apostles In this respect none can ground an Argument upon these words to prove that Paul was not the Author of this Epistle as divers do Again the word Us is often taken largely and indefinitely not strictly and precisely so as formally to include the person speaking And in this sense because it was confirmed to the Hebrews whereof he was one he might say It was confirmed to Us especially seeing it 's he that writes unto them 2. By whom was it confirmed It was confirmed by those which heard him Now many besides the Apostles did hear Him and also confirm the Doctrine of the Gospel Yet the Apostles did it in a more eminent manner and may be principally though not solely here intended Yet Paul did not hear Christ as the other Apostles did for though Christ spake to him from Heaven yet he did not speak to him as he did to others whil'st he conversed on Earth 3. By what was this Doctrine confirmed It was confirmed by two things 1. By Miracles 2. By the Gifts of the Holy Ghost Miracles are called Signs Wonders Powerful Works They are called 1. Signs 2. Wonders 3. Powerful
and strict Judge to condemn us But being propitiated and attoned by the Blood of Christ his Throne is the Throne of Grace and Mercy In this phrase he alludes unto the propitiatory or seat of mercy above the Ark in the Tabernacle or Temple which did typify the propitiation to be made by the Death of Christ upon which accepted of God man's Sins become pardonable and God reconcileable and without this reconciliation it 's no coming near this Throne If once it be made a Throne of Grace then we may come boldly unto it For it 's not like Mount Sinai a Mount of Darknesse Thunder Lightning and Terrour but Mount Zion a Mount of Light Grace and Glory So that now we need not fear God's Wrath but hope in his Mercy And though we may justly be afraid to approach if we look upon our selves yet when we consider that Divine Justice is satisfied by our High-Priest's Sacrifice and that he is the admissional of Heaven ready to take us by the hand and bring us to his Father and plead our cause with his Blood then we may come boldly and ought so to do To come is to pray or to approach for to pray to come with boldness is in the Name of Christ to pray with great confidence not onely to be admitted but to be heard for his sake For by him we have accesse unto that Grace wherein we stand Rom. 5. 2. By him we have accesse by one Spirit to the Father Ephes. 2. 18. And in him we have boldness and access with confidence in the Faith of him cap. 3. 12. But suppose we come what may we expect or what shall we receive We may obtain mercy and find Grace for help in the time of need All our time on Earth is a time of need for we alwayes have need of help yet somtimes we have greater need than at other seasons The word in the Original is seasonable help help in due season and then it 's most seasonable when most needful To afford this help must need be an act of Mercy and Grace whereby sins past are pardoned and power of Sanctification with assistance to prevent sin for time to come obtained And without this help mercy pardon and assistance it 's impossible to enter into God's eternal Rest but by it we assuredly may So that if we persevere and so enter it 's to be ascribed to that Grace and Mercy which we obtain by Prayer if we come short the fault will be our own who do not seek help by our continual and instant Supplications in the Name of Christ. To understand the force of this as a Reason delivered in these three last Verses we must call to remembrance 1. What the Duty is which is to labour to enter into Rest and to hold fast our Profession which is nothing else but perseverance 2. We must consider that it 's taken from Christ as a Priest and it 's very effectual For if 1. He be our great High-Priest 2. Passed into the Heavens and hath taken possession of that eternal Rest and also in our behalf 3. So merciful and sensible of our Infirmities 4. So ready to procure us help when we seek it by Prayer before the Throne of Grace then let us not onely with all diligence but with greatest hope and confidence labour to persevere For a conclusion of these four first Chapters let us observe 1. That the Subject of them is Christ's Prophetical Office as most excellent and above that of other Prophets Angels Moses 2. That though this be the principal and intended Subject yet he speaks something of his Regal and Sacerdotal Function yet onely upon the by and with some reference to his Prophetick Faculty 3. That the principal Duty which he urgeth so strongly upon us from his Prophetical Excellency is perseverance in the Profession of his blessed Doctrine and the Observation of his Laws given by him as a Regal Prophet and Apostle 4. In the pressing of this Duty he insisteth upon the latter part of Psal. 95. where he â— Sexs forth the Example most clearly 2. Applies it to these Hebrrews 5. The last reason is taken from his Priest-hood which is handled and brought in with such Art that it not onely servs for to perswade us to attend to his Prophetical Doctrine and continue in it but also to prepare and make way for his admirable discourse following concerning his eternal Priesthood and is an imperfect Transition CHAP. V. Ver. I. For every High-Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins § 1. BEfore I enter upon the Chapter it self the connexion of this part with the former must be considered and I find the Agreement to be two-fold 1. General 2. More particular The general is very clear for after that in the former four Chapters the Apostle had set forth the Excellency of Christ's Prophetical Office wherein he was far above the former Prophets Angels and Moses and thereupon had exhorted to perseverance in the Profession of his Doctrine declared in the Gospel and pressed the performance of the Duty both from the fearful Punishment of Apostacy and the glorious Reward of Constancy He now in this Chapter enters upon a discourse of his Priest-hood as â—ar more excellent than that of Aaron's so that there was all the Reason in the World to persevere in respect of this Office likewise This is the general Method The particular seems to be implyed in the Particle For which many times is a causal Conjunction and renders a reason of something formerly delivered For seeing he had formerly affirmed Christ to be an High-Priest here he proves him to be such indeed and to have the Nature Properties Qualities and Power of such an Officer This particular refers to the three last Verses of the former Chapter which made way for this discourse that follows § 2. As the occasion of the former Doctrine was an high conceipt which the Hebrews had of the Law as delivered to them by Prophets Angels Moses so the occasion of what follows was their high esteem of Aaron and the Levitical High-Priest The Scope is to demonstrate the Excellency of Christ's Priest-hood as far above that of the Law and perswade them to continue in their Faith in him as so excellent an High-Priest as far above all others The Method is this 1. He delivers his Doctrine 2. Confirms it 3. Applies it The Doctrine is this Christ is a perfect High-Priest more excellent than Aaron or any of the Levitical Order The Confirmation is from his Calling and Order his Ministration and his excellent Sacrifice and this continues from this Chapter to the 19th Verse of the tenth After this confirmation finished he proceeds in cap. 10. 19. to Application which is made principally by way of Exhortation In this Chapter the Apostle doth 1. Manifest Christ to be a Priest for ever according to the the Order
that respect fit to represent and be a Type of Christ as our ever-living Priest But if he was translated and continued a Priest untill the moment of his translation then the representation is more full and lively yet this we find not clearly testified any where of him Some think That the Taxis or Order of his Priest-hood was of perpetual continuance and so it was in Christ the Antitype of whom it 's said He is a Priest for ever § 16. Besides all this the Apostle hath something more to say of the excellency of Melchisedec in respect of the Levitical Priests For it followeth Ver. 9. 10. And as I may so say Levi also who receiveth Tythes paid Tythes in Abraham For he was yet in the Loynes of his Father Abraham when Melchisedec met him THis is another agrument and in form is this He who so received Tythes that he did not give any is more excellent then him that so Tythes others that he Tythed himself But Melchisedec so Tythed Abraham that he was not Tythed by any Superiour Priest and the Levitical Priest did so Tythe his Brethren that himself was Tythed Therefore Melchisedec is the more excellent Priest The minor is proved ver 10. For Levi was then in the Loyns of Abraham when Melchisedec met him and tythed him and Levi in him The sum is Melchisedec Tythed Levi and in him the Levitical Priests therefore he was more excellent And because it was not proper but tropical to say that Levi paid Tythes and that to Melchisedec in Abraham therefore he abates somewhat in his expression by adding if I may so say For by a Trope he might so say though properly he could not because neither Levi nor any Priest of Levi did then actually but only virtually exist in his cause This so is true as that it must be rightly understood otherwise it may be an occasion of errour For Christ himself according to the Flesh was then in Abraham's Loynes yet Christ 1. Was not meerly Man 2. He was not to Descend of Abraham by natural propagation 3. He was in Abraham as the Anti-type of Melchisedec and so could not pay Tythes to him 4. He was to be advanced higher then Melchisedec was and rewarded with far greater priviledges yet none of these did agree to Levi or his Sacerdotal Posterity and so as paying Tythes in Abraham he was inferiour and of an inferiour Order of Priest-hood And here I might take occasion to observe that Parents and Children may be truly accounted as one person and this not only before they be born but in many cases after that they actually exist in themselves and by reason of this unity and identity the Children may be said to do or suffer what their Parents do and suffer and on the contrary § 17. Hitherto the Apostle hath described Melchisedec and set forth his greatness and excellency and now he proceeds to manifest the greatness and excellency of Christ the Antitype and of his Priest-hood as far more excellent then that of Aaron's which is the second part of this Chapter and this is the Coherence and Connexion And as the Theme of the former Discourse was Melchisedec the last word of Psal. 110. 4 So now he goes on to handle in the first place these words of that Text Another Priest after the Order of Melchisedec For though in them we do not read the word and Adjective Another yet it 's implyed because the place doth speak of Christ as another Priest distinct not only from Aaron but from Melchisedec So that the Doctrine or Proposition which he discourseth upon is That after Aaron and the Levitical Priest there must be another Priest after the Order of Melchisedec From this proposed he inferrs several conclusions of great moment concerning the insufficiency and mutation of the Levitical Priest-hood and the efficacy and sufficiency of Christ's Priest-hood And to ground this Discourse he presupposeth that the end of all legal Priest-hood instituted by God is perfection and then begins to argue in this manner Ver. 11. If therefore Perfection were by the Levitical Priest-hood for under it the People received the Law what further need was there that another Priest should rise after the Order of Melchisedec and not be called after the Order of Aaron VVHere we must note 1. That the words are Interrogative and imply that the hypothetical or connex Axiom is Negative and the negation is more vehement and peremptory For if perfection had been by that Priest-hood and that Law there was no further need of another Priest of another Order so far different from that of Aaron's That Priest-hood would have been sufficient and there had been no reason of alteration nor any necessity of a Priest of another Order 2. These words A Priest after the Order of Melchisedec are found in this 11th ver by was of supposition and afterward repeated more fully and expresly out of the Psalm and enlarged upon 3. He gives a reason 1. Why there must be another Priest of another Order 2. Why this other Priest must be constituted in a more perfect manner then the former was And the reason of both is from the insufficiency of the Levitical Priest and the sufficiency of Christ's Priest-hood 4. He joyns both the former and the latter Priest-hoods and the several and distinct Laws according to which being made they must minister 5. From the words of the Psalmist he 1. In this verse inferrs the imperfection both of the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law And 2. In ver 12. the alteration of the Priest-hood and the Law 6. In this Text ver 11. the Apostle's argument in form is this If Perfection were by the Levitical Priest-hood under which they received the Law then there was no farther need that another Priest should rise after the Order of Melchisedec and not called after the Order of Aaron But another Priest after the Order of Melchisedec and not of Aaron must rise Therefore there is no perfection by the Levitical Priest-hood or the Law The consequence presupposing perfection to be the end of Priest-hood and that God doth nothing needless and in vain and that the bringing in of another Priest and Priest-hood is clear and undoubtful The assumption he proves from the words of the Psalm which positively affirms That there shall and must be another Priest after the Order of Melchisedec For if they be the words of God by his Spirit inspiring David the Jews acknowledging the divine authority of the Book of Psalms could not deny it For the words of the Psalmist being the words of God must needs be true yet the words of the assumption are not expresly and wholly found in the Psalm but implyed consequentially For if God constitute another Priest after the Order of Melchisedec and signifies his Will to do so then necessarily it follows that there is further need of such a Priest 7. This Syllogism is Compound and to be referred to the second Connex which
takes away the Consequent to take away the Antecedent If we resolve this Text into simple absolute Propositions They are these 1. There is no Perfection by the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law 2. There is further need of another Priest 3. This other Priest is after the Order of Melchisedec 4. He is not called after the Order of Aaron The first Proposition presupposeth perfection to be the end of Priest-hood and the Laws of God Where we must understand what is meant by perfection in this place perfection is expiation justification sanctification consecration as may appear Hebr. 10. 1 2 4 10 14. For to perfect sinful man is to free him from Sin and the consequents thereof so as to make him righteous holy and capable of eternal happiness in a near Communion with God And here we may take notice of the errour of Crellius who takes expiation for remission and sanctification without any satisfaction Whereas it 's evident that both in the Scriptures and especially in this Epistle it signifies to pacify and propitiate by Blood and something offered to God without which there is no justification and sanctification And this is evident from Chap. 10. 10. where it 's said We are sanctified through the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ. And ver 14. For by one Offering he hath perfected or rather consecrated the Sanctified for ever In both which places it's evident that there must be 1. An Offering or Sacrifice to propitiate God offended 2. That Sanctification and Consecration are by this Propitiation and no ways without it This perfection is the end of Priest-hood and Law For Priest-hood was ordained and with the Priest-hood Laws were made to avert the Wrath of God to procure his favour and to be means conducing to sinful man's Salvation and eternal Happiness and that Priest-hood and that Law which cannot do these things nor reach this end is insufficient and can save no sinful man nor give him hope of Life This perfection is denied to the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law for the Levitical Priest could offer no Sacrifice that could expiate Sin or propitiate God offended or purge the Conscience from dead works Neither could the Law do any such thing as is plainly asserted ver 19. and Chap. 10. 1 2 3 4. And here we must enquire 1. What is here meant by the Law 2. What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under which 3. Why this clause is added and inserted 1. Some will have this Law to be the Law of the Constitution of the Levitical Priest-hood others will have it to be the rule of their administration others will have it to be the Law of Worship Service and Obedience of the People with the Promises and Comminations and the simple word Law in this place included in the compound Verb may signifie all these Thus understood it 's opposed to the Promise made to Abraham and to the Gospel and the Jews sought Righteousness and Life by this Law and the Ministery of the Levitical Priest-hood and were confident of Salvation This was their great errour 2. By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translatours turn under it that is under the Levitical Priest-hood some understand with it and about the same time the people received or were subjected to the Law Junius translates it and Vatablus expounds it differently from the rest in this manner For it that is for Sanctification the people received the Priest-hood or the Law of Priest-hood and so referr the Relative It not to Priest-hood but to perfection or sanctification and with them the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in this place not under but for Crellius seems to agree with them in part but not fully for he referrs the Relative as others do to the word Priest-hood and so will have it rendred That the people received the Law of or touching or concerning the Priest-hood that is the Law of Priest-hood yet according to the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint the place may be rendred thus For under or by the Priest-hood the People were directed or ordered For with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to guide order direct yet because the Apostle puts a plain difference between the Priest-hood and the Law and makes the one depend upon the other and joyns them inseparably and this in the very next Verse therefore the first sense is the best that with the Priest-hood and about the time of the Institution the People received the Law But thirdly Why is this Clause added and inserted It was inserted to inform us in general 1. That there is no Priest-hood especially instituted by God without a Law and Covenant 2. That this Priest-hood was not without a Law and that Law and Covenant was the same which God made with their Fathers in the Wilderness 3. That as the Law is such is the Priest-hood for as they cannot be separated but depend one upon another so the one cannot exceed or excell one another Every Covenant of God hath a Mediator and as the Covenant is better and established upon better Promises so the Mediator or Priest is more excellent For the end of the Priest is by his Ministration to avert the Wrath of God to make Reconciliation for the People and procure the Blessings promised in the Law and Covenant and no other therefore the Levitical Priest-hood could not so officiate or minister as to procure any Blessings but such as the Law or God in the Law did promise nor turn away any Judgments but such as it did threaten And this seems to be the special Reason why these words were added to signify that as there was no perfection by the Priest-hood so neither could there be by the Law and that because there could be no Expiation and Sanctification spiritual and eternal by the Law therefore there could be none by the Priest-hood The sum of all this is That there is no Expiation Remission and eternal Happiness by the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law And whereas the Hebrews or others might demand Why then did God institute that Priest-hood and give that Law if there be no perfection by either of them severally or both joyntly Doth God any thing in vain The Answer is That both the Priest-hood and the Law were indeed from God and he can do nothing in vain neither did he ordain the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law in vain For they were sufficient for that end he intended them But that was not spiritual and eternal Sanctification or the Confirmation of the eternal Covenant but a legal Consecration and Confirmation of that Covenant which was to continue onely for a time And as the Law had but the shadow of far better things to come so the Priest-hood was but a Type of a far better Priest-hood to which this was subordinate For as the Law was but a School-Master to Christ so it may be said of the Priest-hood that it did but lead
to Christ. God never intended them for that perfection which is here meant though if rightly observed and used they might make good the Promises of that former Covenant § 18. Because there was no perfection by that Priest-hood therefore there was further need of another Priest which is the second Proposition David who lived above 400 years after the first Institution of the Levitical Priest-hood and knew the imperfection thereof being inspired from Heaven and enlightned by the Spirit fore-saw that the Lord would make his Lord and Saviour sit at his right hand not onely a King but also a Priest and give him an eternal Priest-hood and did fore-tell that in times to come he would say to Christ I have sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec These words Paul by the same Spirit knew as well as any other to be meant of Christ as a Priest and that to make him such was an Act of God which did presuppose his excellent Wisdom which could neither decree nor effect any thing needless And therefore from them infers the necessity of another Priest which God would never have brought in nor have signified his Will to do so if the Levitical Priest had been sufficient and able to save sinful Man Yet there might have been another Priest endued with excellent power and priviledges that might have been sufficient to sanctify God's People and of some Order but 3. This Priest must be after the Order of Melchisedec This is the third Proposition This was very fitting and suitable to the Divine Wisdom seeing Melchizedec was so great a Priest and of such an excellent Order that from the Creation we do not read of a greater Yet why might he not be called after the Order of Aaron Could not God have raised a Priest of that Order far more excellent than Aaron Not to dispute God's power and what he could have done yet his Will was otherwise For 4. This other Priest must not be called after the Order of Aaron And this is the fourth and last proposition of the Text which informs us That though he might have his Name and so his bate Title after that Order yet this was no wayes fitting But if he should be constituted according to that Order for to be called may signify either to be named or to be constituted then there could be no difference between the Levitical Priest and Him neither could there be any hope of Perfection or Sanctification by him This Negative he infers from the words after the Order of Melchizedec For if he be after that Order and so constituted he could not be constituted after the Order of Aaron which was far inferiour to that of Melchizedec's which was far more excellent § 19. Yet because the words speak of another Priest therefore the Apostle infers two things 1. The Change of the Priest-hood 2. From that the Change of the Law For so we read Ver. 12. For the Priest-hood being changed there is made of necessity a Change of the Law VVHere the Apostle doth two things 1. Presuppose the Change of the Priest-hood 2. Proves from that Change a necessary Change of the Law The Reason why he presupposeth the former Change is because it was necessarily implyed in the words of the former Verse and a necessary Consequent of the words of the Psalm which expresly speaks of another Priest and the same after another Order therefore he might well presuppose it The Reason why he infers a necessity of the Change of the Law is because some might reply That though the Priest-hood was changed and another Priest brought in yet that other Priest might officiate according to the Law and so be a Mediator of that Covenant The Apostle's Argument in Form is this If the Priest-hood be changed the Law of necessity must be changed But the Priest-hood is changed Therefore of necessity the Law must be changed The words of the Text are not difficult therefore I will briefly handle them and 1. Reduce them to propositions 2. Declare the meaning of the word Changed 3. Examine the force of the Consequence 1. The Propositions are two 1. The Priest-hood is changed 2. There is made of necessity a Change also of the Law 2. By Change in this place is meant an abolition and taking away the Levitical Priest-hood For God never intended it to continue to the end but had fixed a time how long it should be in force and when that time once came it might be said to be abolished by exspiration Yet it seems rather to be taken away by actual Constitution of another Priest-hood the Priest-hood of Christ for when he had offered up his great Sacrifice and began to officiate and make Intercession in Heaven the other Priest-hood did cease and could not consist with this which was far better but was made useless When that which is perfect and can perfectly sanctify for ever shall come then that which was imperfect and could not sanctify was put away That it must be changed and the reason why it must be changed you heard before and this is the reason why the Apostle doth presuppose it as a thing made evident and to be granted 3. The force of the Consequence is clear enough to him that shall observe what hath formerly been said In the words of the second Proposition considered in it self we may observe 1. The Change of the Law 2. The necessity of the Change 3. This necessity of this Change after the Change of the Law 1. By Change is meant the abrogation of the Law which answers to the abolition of the Priest-hood Though the bringing in of this Law 430 years after the Promise could not make void the Promise yet the bringing in of a better Law and Covenant made null and void this Law And God as he limited a time how long it should continue so he determined to take it away by a better Covenant and would not abrogate it till that was established and published For the promulgation of the Gospel and the Instituton of Christianity did abrogate it and made it of no force And this was the great Mercy of God 1. That he would change and abrogate that which was imperfect and insufficient 2. That he would not abrogate it till he had confirmed that which was better 2. Of necessity there must be a Change of this Law This implies that the Change was not casual and contingent or arbitrary or any wayes to be provented yet this was not an absolute necessity but upon supposition of the Decree and Promise of God and the Sanctification of sinful Man and the Imperfection and Inability of the Levitical Priest-hood to effect any such thing So that it 's necessitas Consequentiae non Consequentis This word of necessity seems to make the Proposition modal though in strict sense it is not so for the truth of the Proposition doth not depend upon any absolute Connexion of the terms as
Moses spake nothing concerning the Priest-hood These words are added to signify that no man of that Tribe had right to officiate as a Priest For before he had said that no man of that Tribe did serve at the Altar but this was but matter of Fact for though none of Judah did serve at the Altar de facto yet some might de jure as having a right to officiate But these prove as none did serve so none could jure justly and lawfully do it For it they could they might prove their title out of the Books of Moses Yet this cannot be done because Moses never wrote of any such thing there is not in all his Books the lest tittle of the right of any of Judah to officiate as a Priest And the rule of the first Constitution of the legal Priest-hood is to be found there and no where else These words imply that a negative argument from the Scripture in matters of Religion is valid For that which is not to be found in the Scriptures truly understood either expresly delivered or by consequence to be deduced cannot be of divine authority so as to bind men to believe it or do it But those arguments which prove a Negative not only from the silence but also from exclusive terms are the strongest And in this particular cause we find Moses not only silent and saying nothing of the Tribe of Judah concerning the Priest-hood but also speaking so positively of the Levitical Priest as that he so confirms him to the Tribe of Levi and the House of Aaron that he peremptorily and clearly excludes all other persons of all other Tribes from that Office And here we may take notice of the wisdom of God which contrived this business so that he made Augustus though he thought of no such thing an Instrument of this evidence For though the Cense and Enrolment was general of all Countries within the Roman Empire whereof Judea was one yet by this he brought Mary to Bethlehem when she was ready to be delivered of Christ that so he might be born there according to the prophesy of Micah and that it might be evident that he was of the linage of David and so of the Tribe of Judah § 21. Hitherto the Apostle hath manifested that the Priest-hood was changed because the Tribe was changed and another Priest was risen of another Tribe But not content with this he proceeds to make this far more evident For so it followeth Ver. 15 16. And it is yet far more evident for that after the Similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest Who is made not after the Law of a Carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life HEre the Apostle seems to insist upon two words in the Text of the Psalm 1. After the Order or Similitude of Melchisedec 2. A Priest for ever after that Order By both which he is thought to prove the change of the Priest-hood and the Law by the Introduction of a Priest of another Order and a Priest for ever The former proof was evident and sufficient yet this seems to make the change more evident and not only more but far more evident And so the words may be taken as by our Translatours they are turned That this must be understood we may consider 1. What that thing or proposition is which is made far more evident 2. How it is far more evidenced The thing evidenced is the change and abolition of the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law A thing is made evident when it is so clearly represented to the Understanding that if it be rightly disposed it must needs assent unto the truth of it once received as it is represented This evidence may be either immediate from Connexion of the terms distinctly understood or mediately from a third Argument This evidence of this change abolition abrogation is mediate And that argument whereby it 's made so evident is 1. That there must be and then was risen a Priest after the Order of Melchisedec 2. His Priest-hood must be personall and perpetual In the words we may observe two propositions The 1. That another Priest ariseth after the Similitude of Melchisedec The 2. This Priest is made not after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life In this Proposition you must 1. Remember what hath been said formerly concerning the explication 2. You must note that Order mentioned before and Similitude here are the same and to be a Priest after the Similitude is the same with being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedec so that if Christ be of the same Order then he must be like unto Melchisedec By Order is meant a distinct and different kind of Priest-hood and though Christ's Priest-hood be like both to Aarons and Melchisedec's yet it was far more like unto Melchisedec which was far more exellent then that of Aarons This Order might be the better known if we knew the Law and Covenant whereof he was a Priest which was not only the Law of Nature according to which he did minister and serve the most high God as Creatour and Judge of this World but of the Law of Grace according to which he worshipped God as Redeemer by Christ promised to Abraham Seth Enoch Noah Shem and the rest of the Patriarchs before him who believed in Christ to come yet not as to descend from Abraham Whereas it 's said That another Priest ariseth you must know that his rising is his constitution manifestation and beginning of his Officiation And the rising of him was the fall of the Levitical Priest and the abolition of that Priest-hood The force of this proposition considered as a reason is in this That this other Priest is not only of another Tribe and in particular of Judah but after another Order For it might have been said That though Christ was a Priest of the Tribe of Judah yet he might be after the Order of Aaron and so he might be essentially the same kind of Priest though accidentally he might differ from the rest of the Levitical Priests as they were of that Tribe To take away all colour of any such conceit this is added That he was after the Similitude of Melchisedec and not of Aaron This doth prove the change far more strongly and therefore the evidence is far greater The second proposition to evidence the difference yet to be far greater informs us according to what Law he was made a Priest and this is done 1. Negatively not after the Law of a carnal Commandment 2. Affirmatively after the power of an endless life In the Negative we have 1. A Commandment 2. A carnal Commandment 3. The Law of a carnal Commandment 1. By Commandment we may understand the whole System of the Ceremonies and Mosaical Rites prescribed from God by Moses to that People For whatsoever else it may signify or include here yet these are principally if not solily meant 2. This Commandment or body
of Ceremonies and Rites is carnal that is outward bodily fleshly For besides Circumcision which was in the Flesh their Sacrifices and Offerings were outward and bodily and they had their effect upon their Bodies and Flesh in freeing the People from legal guilt and impurities 3. There was a Law which did direct how these must be used and binding them to the observation of them and this Law had promises of some legal Blessings and Deliverances and Comminations of some temporal penalties That they were carnal it doth imply that they were not spiritual had no power upon the immortal Soul and could not any waies procure spiritual and eternal Blessings nor free from the eternal penalties due to Sin Neither could that Priest who was by such outward Rites and Ceremonies consecrated by his Ministration according to that Law expiate any sin nor make any spiritual reconciliation The Levitical Priest was made after this Law and to minister according to the same But here it 's said That Christ was not made a Priest after this Law which was a body of carnal precepts in respect of the Priest the Tabernacle the Service and Ministry and the effects thereof For if He had been made after the Law He could have done no more then they did and then both He and his Ministry had been defective frail and of a short continuance therefore it 's denied that he was made a Priest after that Law concerning the consecration ministration succession and operation of the Levitical Priest 2. The affirmative He was made a Priest after the power of an endless or indissoluble life Where we have 1. Life 2. An indissoluble life 3. The power of an endless indissoluble life 1. Life is either the bare continuance and duration of a living Beeing or the happiness and perfection of that Beeing in this latter sense most Expositors take it 2. This life whether it be the continuance of that more perfect Beeing which is living or the happiness thereof may be temporary or perpetual in respect of time to come so that though it may have beginning yet it never shall have end Such a life is here meant 3. The power here may be a Law which is powerful not only in binding but in promising so that the event thereof will be endless happiness as the Gospel is said to be the power of God unto Salvation Christ is said to be made according to this powerful Law and so is 1. Of eternal continuance himself in his person And 2. Hath power by this Law to give eternal life to such as are his People depend upon him and come to God by him For by his death he merited and by his life and intercession he procureth spiritual and eternal Expiation and Blessings Neither of these could the Levitical Priest by that carnal Ceremonial Law and his Ministration according to it effect That Christ must be made such a Priest he proves in the next words Ver. 17. For he testifieth Thou are a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec VVHere two things 1. That Christ is made a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec 2. That this is testified The force and Emphasis is in the words for ever and testified The first Proposition is concerning the Eternity of Christ's Priest-hood the second concerning the declaration of this Eternity or Perpetuity And we must 1. Consider the meaning of the words 2. Declare the end for which they are brought In the first part we have 1. The Order of Melchizedec 2. The perpetuity of the Priest constituted according to that Order 1. Melchizedec was formerly affirmed to have no end of dayes and so in some respect was of endless life and for this particular Reason these words so often taken up are repeated here the sixth time Christ is made a Priest after this Order as one who must continue for ever In the second part it 's said that this was testified where to testify is Solemnly by a formal and powerful Edict to declare and pronounce him not onely to be a Priest but a Priest for ever And it was God himself as Supream Lord who made this Declaration before all the Angels of Heaven and by it constituted and confirmed Christ an everlasting Priest The end why these words are alledged and here repeated is to prove that Christ was not made a temporary Priest according to a carnal and temporary Law but according to a Law and Power of endless life that is that he was made an everlasting Priest of everlasting power to save The words prove this effectually 1. Because the words of the Psalmist signify expresly that he was a Priest for ever 2. Because it was God as the Supream Lord who by his solemn Declaration made him such This is the Apostle's Discourse upon those words of the Psalm I have said Thou art a Priest for ever The Scope of the Apostle in all this is 1. To prove that the Priest-hood was changed 2. It was changed to bring in a better Priest 3. Christ is this Priest and more excellent than the Levitical Priest as being a Priest of perpetual continuance and of everlasting power and therefore was to be honoured far above Aaron or any Priest of that Order § 22. Hitherto the Apostle hath proved that the Priest-hood was changed and given the Reason which was because by it there was no perfection And by the Change of the Priest-hood the Change of the Law is inferred and in the words following he gives the Reason why the Law must be changed This is the coherence of this Text with the former So that this is his Method He proves 1. By the words of the Psalm That there must be another Priest besides and after the Levitical Priest 2. That if the other Priest be brought in the Levitical Priest-hood must be changed 3. That if the Priest-hood be changed the Law is changed 4. He infers the Change of the Priest-hood from the Change of the Tribe and of the Order 5. He infers from the words of the Psalm that this other Priest must be an everlasting Priest and of everlasting power 6. He gives the Reason of this Change and that was because there was no perfection by the former Priesthood as there is by the latter Now because the Priest-hood and the Law are alwayes so inseparably joyned that they live and dy stand and fall begin and end together therefore he take it for granted that having proved the change of the Priest-hood he had proved the Change of the Law For as the Priest-hood could do nothing but was useless without the Law so the Law could do nothing but was useless without the Priest-hood Therefore he thought it needless any farther to prove the Change of the Law for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was changed was evident enough and proceeds to give the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Change thereof in this manner Ver. 18. For there is verily a disanulling of the
to bring in Christ and the Gospel which were effectual to save § 24. The Apostle hath hitherto proved the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood above that of Aaron 1. Because it 's after the Order of Melchisedec which was above the Order of Aaron from ver 1. to the 11th 2. Because Perfection is by Christ's Priest-hood and not by that of Aaron's and by the Gospel and not the Law 3. Because the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law were changed Christ's Priest-hood and the Gospel having a power of perpetual Sanctification abides for ever Now he draws a fourth Argument from the words of the Psalm I have sworn and will not repent And the form is this That Priest-hood which is confirmed by an Oath is more excellent then that which is not so confirmed But the Priest-hood of Christ was confirmed by Oath and the Levitical Priest-hood was not Therefore Christ's Priest-hood is more excellent This argument we find in these words Ver. 20 21 22. And in as much as not without an Oath he was made Priest For these Priests were made without an Oath but this with an Oath by him that said unto him The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec By so much was Jesus made the Surety of a better Testament VVHere we find the major Proposition ver 20. the Assumption ver 21. the Conclusion ver 22. For a Priest to be constituted by Oath and by the Oath of God was extraordinary Of an Oath in general and of the Oath of Angels and of Men and of God I have formerly spoken in Chap. 9. This was the Oath of God the Proposition we read ver 20. In as much as not without an Oath The words are Ellyptical and therefore supplyed and made out by the Translators from the following verse where it 's said But this with an Oath Not to be made without an Oath and to be made with an Oath are the same for it follows if Christ was made with an Oath then he was not made without an Oath and è coâ—tâ—â— The Negative and the Affirmative expression of the same thing makes it more evident and implies the greater certainty In this Major we have a two-fold Comparison one in quality another in quantity In quality a dissimilitude one Priest is made with an Oath another without In quantity He that is made with an Oath is more excellent then he that 's made without an Oath All this is implyed in ver 20 22. out of both which the Proposition is to be made This presupposeth that Priests may be made several ways and in a different manner For some may be made by divine designation and consecrated and confirmed by outward Rites instituted by God some may be made such by humane Election and Ordination and both without an Oath Some may be made and consecrated in another manner and confirmed by a solemn Oath of the eternal God The Apostle doth take it for granted That the more excellent the constitution and confirmation of any Office and in particular of a Priest shall be the more excellent the Officer and Priest is For this manner of Constitution doth imply that he receives the greater power for some more excellent end The Assumption follows Ver. 21. For those Priests were made without an Oath but this with an Oath c. THis is closed within a Parenthesis where we have not only the Minor but the proof and confirmation The Minor denies the one Priest and affirms the other to be made by Oath And the Priests being that of Levi and Christ are compared as dislike the one as made without the other as made with an Oath this is the dissimilitude The proof of the former part That the Levitical Priest was made without an Oath is not expressed but taken for granted because in his Constitution as related by Moses the only authentical Authour who speaks of it there is no mention made of an Oath which without all doubt had not been concealed if there had been any such thing The proof of the latter is taken out of the words of the Psalmist where we must consider 1. The Oath 2. The thing confirmed by Oath The Oath I have sworn and will not repent and the Apostle informs us That the party swearing was the Lord the eternal Jehovah named in the first verse of that Psalm and implies from thence that the party to whom he sware was the Lord Christ and that the time when he sware to him was when he was ascended into Heaven and set at the right hand of God For then when he was possessed of his everlasting universal Kingdom was his universal and eternal Priest-hood confirmed unto him And this Oath was made use of for the greater solemnity and the stronger confirmation And by the same he signified that he was infinitely pleased with that great Sacrifice wherein he offered himself upon the Cross that in respect he was the fittest of all other or rather only fit to be this Priest that there could never be any cause of repentance or change neither would there be any further need of any other Priest because he would fully and for ever sanctify his People which no other Priest could do This was the highest and most solemn confirmation that possibly could be made and doth fully satisfy and quiet the minds of all such as rely upon Christ. For they need not seek their Priest they know him and are assured that he was made a Priest by God and confirmed in his Priest-hood by God this is the confirmation the thing confirmed is That Christ should be a Priest for ever God might have made the Levitical Priest by Oath and yet he might have been changed but if he had made him by Oath to be a Priest for ever then he could not have repented that is changed but he must of necessity have been a Priest for ever Therefore you must take special notice that God did not only swear that Christ should be a Priest or that he should be a Priest for a long time but a Priest for ever so that there should never be any Priest joyned with him or come after him So that if we consider the Oath and the thing confirmed by this Oath two things will be manifest 1. That Christ's Priest-hood is personal and setled in one single person for ever so that he can have no Fellow or Co-partner nor any Successor in his Priest-hood 2. That by this Oath God did limit his arbitrary supream and absolute power in this particular and took away the use and exercise of it and that for ever For now he hath no power to make Christ no Priest or take away his Priest-hood at will and pleasure And in this God did discover his unspeakable love unto Christ in that he did so much honour him and so highly reward him and his abundant mercy to Man For by this Oath known unto Man he signifies that he
excellent then the Levitical Priest and now he proceeds further and hath something more to say and prove his super-excellency He had indeed touched upon those words Thou art a Priest for ever and seems here to repeat them yet if we accurately consider it 's one thing to be a Priest for ever and another to receive an eternal Priest-hood by a solemn Oath which now he undertakes to manifest So that the Subject of three verses following the 23d 24th 25th is the eternal effectual unchangeable Priest-hood of Christ made such by Oath And in them we may observe the Perpetuity of Christ's Priest-hood Efficacy The Perpetuity and Immutability is affirmed ver 23 24. The Efficacy ver 25. In ver 23. we have the discontinuance of the one in the 24th the continuance of the other And both together manifest the difference and so dissimilitude between them and the excellency of the one above the other and this is done comparatively For by comparison both the dissimilitude and the imparity are made to appear He begins with the Levitical Priest in this manner They truly were many Priests c. Where we have 1. Their Multitude 2. Their Mortality And the Mortality was the cause of their Multitude Their Multitude was evident For they were many Priests and their Mortality They died And hence he inferrs that they could not continue for the cause why they could not continue was Death The intention of the Apostle is to inform us of an imperfection and defect in the Levitical Priests that they were all and every one of them mortal and died one after another and none could possesse and keep the Priest-hood long but must transmit it to another Aaron first unto his Son then his Son to a third and that to a fourth and so to the last High-Priest So that though they might all joyntly be considered as one person morally by fiction of Law yet they were many men and many Priests physically and so the Priest-hood was continued by Succession and though the Priest died yet the Priest-hood continued till it was abolished In this respect it might be said to be immortal as Corporations and Societies are yet this is no perfect immortality nor real perpetuity This was their imperfection Christ's perfection was that he continued ever Ver. 24. But this man because he conâ—inâ—uth ever hath an unchangeable Priest-hood THe Copulative And in the former verse did signify the Connexion and that of another new argument to the former and here the Discretive But implies the difference between Christ and the Levitical Priest in that they were Priests but he a Priest they were many he but one they continued not he continues for ever In the words we have three propositions 1. That Christ continueth ever 2. He hath an unchangeable Priest-hood 3. Because he continueth ever therefore he hath an unchangeable Priest-hood The Apostle may seem to reason and argue thus He that continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priest-hood But Christ continueth ever Therefore he hath an unchangeable Priest-hood 1. This man continueth ever Where 1. By this Man is meant Christ who was truly Man though this Man this individual Man was united unto the Word so as never any was He was so united unto the Word that he might truly be said to be God Yet as God he was not he could not be a Priest and this is evident if we consider either what a Priest is or what he must do Therefore is it said This Man continueth for ever and in another place There is one God and one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 2. He is said to continue ever that is liveth ever but this is to be understood of him as risen again from the Dead For before in the state of his Humiliation he was mortal and not only so but dyed Yet after the Resurrection he became immortal and shall never dye but continue for ever For Christ being raised from the Dead diâ—th no more Death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. 2. This Man hath an unchangeable Priest-hood The word translated Unchangeable may be understood 1. So as though the Apostle did inferr from the words of the Psalam Will not repent or change that Christ's Priest-hood should never be abolished and changed to another Order Or 2. Because it may signify not passing from one another to conclude from this that Christ continueth ever that his Priest-hood doth not pass from him to any other his Successor as the Priest-hood of Aaron did And this latter seems to be the genuine sense because he opposeth the Priest-hood of Christ unto that of Levi which did pass from one to another so that his Priest-hood did continue in this one individual Man who lives for ever 3. Because he continueth ever therefore his Priest-hood is unchangeable and doth not pass from him to another This follows clearly For if he individually be made a Priest and a Priest for ever and this by Oath and he that was thus made was immortal then his Priest-hood is personal and to be continued in him one single person for ever Now we enter upon the Comparison and make it in this form He that liveth and continueth ever so that his Priest-hood is not transmitted to another is more excellent then they who not continuing by reason of Death transmit their Priest-hood to their Successors who are many But Christ doth thus continue and the Levitical Priests do not Therefore He is a more excellent Priest § 26. This excellency is yet more because of the efficacy of the Priest-hood and the ability of the Priest when perpetuity and efficacy meet in one the Priest-hood must needs be excellent indeed But let 's hear the Apostle proving this Efficacy Ver. 25. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost or for ever that come to God by him seeing be ever liveth to make Intercession for them THE judgment of this Text is Dianoetical as is evident from the Illative Wherefore and in form he argueth thus He that ever liveth to make Intercession for them that come to God by him is able to save them for ever But Christ ever liveth to make Intercession for them that come to God by him Therefore he is able to save them for ever Where from his perpetual and effectual Intercession he inferrs his ability to save for ever and from both his super-excellency which is principally intended In the words we have 1. His ability to save them for ever that come to God by him 2. The reason of it because he ever liveth to make Intercession for them In the first we have 1. His active power 2. The subject upon which it works effectually 1. His active power that he is able to save to the uttermost 1. He is able that is he hath an active power to produce some excellent effect and reach some glorious end 2. This power is not physical but moral nay super-natural
and he stood so strictly upon these terms that except these were performed he would neither promise not give Remission and Salvation but Man must lye under his eternal displeasure Christ's mediation by intreaties or interpretations and declarations of the will of both the partie could do no good to be hately a Prophet would not serve the turn Therefore to mediate in this place is to be a Surety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you heard in the former Chapter And as Sponsor and Surety he first undertake to satisfy God's Justice by his own purest Blood and so make an arâ—â—â—ment and way for God's metoy to make promises upon easy terms and for the performance of the terms and conditions he by this Blood merits the Grace of the Spirit to enable man to repent's believe reform and relye wholly upon God's mercy procured by Christ's Sacrificeâ— neither is this all but in the second place he undertakes to obtain the mercies promised by his intercessions and pleading his blood in Heaven for penitent and believing Sinners That he is Mediatoâ—â— by his Blood shed and offered is evident from Chap. 9. 16. where it 's said That for this cause is he the Mediator of the new Covenant that by means of Death for the Redemption or Remission of the Transgressions that were under the first Covenant they which are called might receive the Promise of eternal Inheritance Where we may observe 1. That he was the Mediator of the new Covenant 2. That he was Mediator for his Sacrifice and offering of himself without spot to God 3. That whereas there was no expiation of Sin by any Sacrifice of the Law the sins then committed were expiated and remitted by vertue of his Death and Sacrifice 4. That except this expiation and remission had been obtained by this death the called could not have received the Promise of eternal Inheritance That he is Mediator of this Covenant by his Intercession is evident from 1 Joh. 2. 1. and other places Now both these agree to Christ as a Priest and therefore he is the Mediator of this new Covenant of better Promises as a Priest The Levitical Priests were Mediators for the former Covenant by their Offerings and Prayers to obtain the Promises of that Covenant and this Mediation was but a shadow and an obscure Representation of this heavenly and far more excellent Service and Ministry For 5. He by reason of this Mediation obtained and so enjoyed a more excellent Ministry and Office of Priest-hood For he that could lay the foundation of such an excellent Covenant by satisfying divine Justice and as Surety make it so valid so effectual and of eternal continuance must needs be a more excellent Priest in respect of his Ministration which had far more glorious effects than the Ministration of the High-Priests under the Law Where by the way observe That Christ is an High-Priest in respect of his Office and a Minister in respect of his Officiation which was the work and end of his Office From all this the force of the Argument is clear and evident for every Cause is to be valued according to its causal activity and the effects produced by it For that cause which produceth more noble and excellent Effects Physical Moral or Divine is more noble and excellent And seeing Christ as Priest by his Ministration doth produce far more glorious supernatural and divine Effects tending most effectually to Man's spiritual and eternal happiness therefore he is far more excellent than the Levitical Priests which were Mediators only of a far inferior Covenant and yet could not by their Officiation make that effectual Yet the Apostle not contented with this that he obtained a better Ministry further adds that the Ministry was so much the more excellent as the Covenant whereof he was Mediator was more excellent But the Covenant was far better and more excellent by many degrees therefore the Ministry is such too The major Proposition would easily be granted That the more excellent the Covenant the more excellent the Ministry But the Assumption might be excepted against and that several wayes as 1. There was no other Covenant or 2. If there was it was not better or more excellent Both these he therefore proves and 1. That the Covenant was better for it was established upon better Promises In which words we may observe two Arguments one expressed the other implyed For 1. The more excellent the Promises and the Rewards and Duties promised are the more excellent the Covenant must needs be this is expressed 2. When he saith that it 's established upon better Promises he implies that it is stable firm and raâ—fied so as not to be altered such the former was not Both these he proves and that two wayes 1. By an Artificial Argument 2. By Testimony § 6. First By an Artificial Argument Ver. 7. For if the first Covenant had been faultless then there should have no place been sought for the second IN the handling of this Text I will 1. Consider it absolutely and explain it 2. Inquire into the Apostle's Argumentation 3. Examine what the Apostle intends to prove 1. Absolutely considered it presupposeth as a thing well-known to these Hebrews that there are two Covenants the first and the second Upon this presupposed we find two absolute Propositions 1. That the first Covenant was not faultless 2. There was place sought for a second And both these are presupposed here as a ground of the Apostle's Argumentation though both are proved afterwards By this first Covenant is meant as we shall understand anon the Covenant made with the Israelites in the Wilderness after they were come out of Aegypt of it we find it affirmed that it was faulty or not faultless Not to be faultless is to be imperfect and defective and so not able to sanctify and perfect any man though the Jew thought otherwise and through his Unbelief and erroneous Imagination sought perfection by it Yet God in giving it intended no such thing but aimed at other ends for which it was sufficient neither could it possibly perfect any man because it neither gave Man any sanctifying Power to enable him to perform spiritual Obedience neither could the Priests by their Ministration expiate any Sin Therefore to be faulty is not to be unjust or justly blamable or insufficient for those ends God intended it but to be unable to justify as the Jew falsly judged it to be 2. There was place sought for a second The second was the Covenant of Grace in the Gospel called the second because it came in after the first It 's true that the Promise was 430 years before the Law and was the same for Substance with the Gospel but differed in this that it held out Christ onely in Promise to be exhibited in time then to come and required Faith in him not yet incamate But this new Covenant of the Gospel required Faith in Christ already come Between these two the Promise and the new
imprinted there more perfectly Yet the word turned Laws signifies in the Hebrew Doctrines And these are the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ's Person Nature Offices and the Work of Redemption the Doctrines of Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and eternal Life and these either presuppose or include the Moral Law For they must be such Truths as are necessary and effectual to Man's Salvation without the Knowledge and practice whereof sinful Man cannot attain eternal Life Further they are Doctrines concerning Christ as already exhibited glorified reigning and officiating in Heaven 2. The Book or Tables wherein they must be written are the mind and heart of Man By Mind some conceive is meant the Understanding and by Heart the Will and rational Appetite But by both words are meant the immortal Soul endued with a Power to understand and will or nill that which is understood The word in the Hebrew turned by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind and intellective Faculty signifieth the inward parts because as the heart and reins are the inmost parts of the Body so the mind thoughts and rational Appetite are intima Anime the inmost parts if we may so speak of the Soul They are as it were the Center of that immortal Substance where all the active vigour and powers of the Soul are united There is the Spring and Original of all rational and moral Operations of all thoughts affections and inward Motions There is the directive Counsel and imperial commanding Power There is the prime Mover of all humane Actions as such This is the Subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural Truths and Doctrines and all Laws There divine Characters may be imprinted and made legible to the Soul it self This is the most noble and excellent Book that any can write in This is an Allusion to the Tables of Stone wherein the Law was written for the Law was not written in the heart but in stone upon Phylacteries Frontlets Posts and Walls of their Houses And now the Scriptures and divine Revelations are written in Books so as that they are legible by the Eye they may be spoken and so uttered by Man as to be perceived by the Ear and from these be conveyed to the common sense and fancy and by degree be transmitted to the Soul which by them receives some imperfect representations not informations This immortal Soul is the Book or Table wherein these Laws and divine Doctrines must be written 3. The Scribe or Pen-man is God for it 's said I will give or put I will write He that said so was the Lord And it must be He because the Work is so curious and excellent that it 's far above the Sphere of created activity He alone can immediately work upon the immortal Soul to inform it move it alter it and mould it anew so as neither Man or Angel can do They may by the outward senses and the fancy come near the Soul but immediately prepare it and make lively Impressions and write clear Characters of divine Truth upon it they cannot They may move it and affect or disaffect it yet to take away the stony heart and make an heart of Flesh is far above their Power Therefore God doth alwayes ascribe this great Work unto himself 4. The Act and Work of this Pen-man is to write and write these Laws and write them in the heart How he doth it we know not That he doth it is clear enough His preparations illuminations impulsions inspirations are strange and wonderful of great and mighty force For in this Work he doth not onely represent divine Objects in a clearer light and propose high Motives to incline and turn the heart but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive Power whereby the Soul more easily and clearly apprehends and more effectually affects heavenly things The Effect of this Writing is a divine Knowledge of God's Laws and a ready and willing heart to obey them and conform unto them a Power to know and do the Word of God This is that Work of the Spirit which is called Vocation Renovation Regeneration Conversion actively taken without which Man cannot repent believe obey and turn to God It 's said to be a quickning of Man dead in sin a putting God's fear in Man's heart a putting God's Spirit within Man to cause him to obey his Laws a calling out of Darkness into Light a writing upon the fleshy Tables of Man's heart By this writing Man is said to have a new Heart and Spirit not that God creates in Man a new Soul or new Faculties but because he gives new Power new Light new Life new Qualifications so that Man is made partaker of a divine Nature and moulded anew with so much alteration that he is another Man though not for Substance yet for Qualities and Operations All this tends to an imperfect explication of this Promise wherein this new Covenant differs from and is more excellent than the former For that had no Promise of God's writing his Laws and Doctrines in Man's heart or of giving any sanctifying or renewing Power to enable them to observe and keep his Judgments Yet lest we mistake this excellent and most comfortable part of Scripture many things are to be observed 1. Concerning the Laws 2. Concerning the heart 3. Concerning God's writing in the heart 1. The Laws the Laws of God are written in the heart not the inventions fancies of men nor natural nor mathematical nor moral Philosophy much less the Errors and Blasphemies of Seducers and false Prophets It 's true that humane Learning and Languages are excellent means to find out the sense of the Scriptures and are great Blessings ordained of God for that end and being used with Prayer and sanctified may do much Yet we must know that these Doctrines are not only those of the Moral Law but these high Mysteries concerning Christ the Redemption Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and the eternal Punishments and Rewards in the World to come as they are revealed in the Gospel For the matter and subject of them is God's Kingdom and the Government of God-Redeemer ordering Man to his final and eternal estate as I have manifested in another Treatise 2. The heart of Man is by Nature a very untoward and indisposed Subject and not capable of these heavenly Doctrines It 's blind and perverse and there is an Antipathy between it and these Laws It hath some little parcels of the Law of Nature written in it but not any thing of these heavenly and evangelical Truths it neither knows them nor can relish them And when they are represented unto it yet it hath no intellective Power to understand them nor any Will or Desire to seek them or inclination to obey the Laws of God which direct unto everlasting life It 's not only ignorant but filthily blotted and blurred with Errours both in matters of Religion and humane Conversation And this is the condition not only of Heathens
satisfaction made Neither is it cruelty but Justice to require explation to be made and to accept it for a guilty Person and so upon the same to remit him is a great Mercy The second word is Not to remember To remember Sin in this place is an Act of a Judge taking notice of Sin so as to punish the Sinner Not to remember is not to charge the Sin upon the Sinner and so punish him but to free him from the Punishment and the Guilt too so that he shall neither be punished nor be liable to Punishment And it 's observable 1. That he will not only be mercifull but he will not remember 2. That though in the Hebrew there be but one Negative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in the Septuagint and the Apostle we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double Negative where by the Multitude of words is signified that God's Mercy will be very great and by the Negatives that it will be very certain and the Sinner shall have no cause to doubt And both the words and the Negatives imply that God will certainly and abundantly pardon and he will in no wise punish 3. This Remission is eternal and takes away the Guilt of Sin for ever and puts the sinful guilty wretch once pardoned in a condition of eternal safety In the Law notwithstanding their Sacrifices for Sin and Burnt-Offerings and Expiations there was a yearly remembrance of Sin upon the day of Expiation and their many Sacrifices offered by many Priests often could not take away Sin But Christ by one Offering consecrated the sanctified for ever and by his Blood entring into the Holy place obtained eternal Remission and made Sin eternally pardonable And upon Repentance and Faith follows actual and eternal Remission and freedom from all Guilt and Punishment for evermore So that the pardon here promised is plenary for it 's total of all sins and perpetuall and an Act of eternal Amnesty or Oblivion will be passed in the supream Court of Heaven No sin not any shall in any wise be remembred any more 4. The party pardoning is God who makes the Covenant and in the Covenant this Promise For it 's said I will be mercifull I will not remember He is the supream Law-giver and the supream Judg and if he once justify none can condemn His Sentence cannot be revoked and null'd there lyes no Appeal from his Tribunal his Decrees once passed stand firm for ever Yet God pardons as propiâ—â—ated by the Blood of Christ and â—s there upon freely and abundantly merciful For to pardon one whom he may justly punish is Mercy to pardon many grievous sins is abundant Mercy to pardon for ever is eternal Mercy It is the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious â—â—ng-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth Keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity and Transgression and Sin Exod. 34. 6. 7. Where we may observe that Mercy goes before Remission He loved and piâ—yed us when we were sinful and Enemies and gave his only begotten Son for us that by his Blood he might make way for his Mercy make our Sins paâ—â—â—onable and when the Sinner once repetus and believs and the Blood of Christ is once pleaded then he actually freely abundantly eternally pardons How are God's justified Ones bound to praise him with all their heart for evermore 5. The Persons pardoned are not all Sinners and every Transgressout For though God's Mercy â—e as he himself is infinite yet it 's by his Wisdom and Justice limited to certain Persons For though Christ hath merited pardon by his death yet no Sinner as a Sinner is capable of it his Death makes Sin and Faith makes the Sinner pardonable God must write his Laws in Man's heart and Man must know his God and Saviour and believe in him and Christ must make Intercession before Man can be actually justified Therefore this Promise follows all the rest Except Man receive God for his God and God become his God no pardon can be expected God received as our God and engaging himself to be our God in Christ doth justify And this is great Mercy of God that seeing Man is by Nature uncapable of Remission because sensless of his Sin and ignorant of his Saviour he writes his Laws in his heart to take away the stony and sensless quality thereof and makes it tender and sensible and so Man sees his Sin hates it is humbled and grieved for it willing to turn unto his God He enlightens him and lest he should despaire he manifests unto him his Saviour and his infinite Mercy in him promiseth pardon invites and calls him and lets him know there is plentiful Redemption Upon all this Man is willing to submit himself and take God to be his God in Christ and now he is in a capacity of pardon and justifiable Thus Man by God's Grace and performance of his Duty by the power of that Grace is prepared for this great Mercy of Remission and Justification And they who through neglect of hearing God's Word and Prayer continue in their Sin and harden their hearts can have no hope of this great benefit which God is so willing to give and sinful Man unwilling upon God's terms to receive These words thus explained contain this Promise That God will forgive Man his Sin and justify him and the words are brought in upon the former by the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek turned by our Translators For. And as I have observed before it 's sometimes expletive sometimes illative for therefore sometimes causal and accordingly is rendred Sometimes the Hebrew Particle signifies When. If it be expletive it 's used onely to bring in this last Promise and joyn it with the rest But if it be not such but used here as a rational Conjunction the Connexion of these words with the former is very doubtful Some make Remission to be the ground of all the other Priviledges which God doth promise because he will forgive their Sins Thus Dr. Gouge seems to understand it Yes this seems to give a Reason why God will write his Laws in their hearts be their God and so teach them as that they shall know him and it 's this That he may make them capable of Remission and being made such he may remit them This is certain that this is a distinct Promise of the Covenant different from the rest and it 's such a Promise and of so great a Blessing that the Law had none such neither by the Observation of it could any Man obtain Pardon and Justification And it 's certain and clear enough that one end why God made this Covenant and in the same promised to write his Laws in our hearts was that by them so written we might repent and believe and by them obtain Remission For the chief Laws and Commandments of this new Covenant are those of Repentance and Belief
in Christ which performed Remission which the Law did neither promise nor could give will certainly follow And before I conclude this part I will inform you 1. That Remission of Sins and Justification are the same 2. That there is no Justification but by the Blood of Christ. 3. That no man is justifiable by the Blood of Christ but upon his Faith 4. That this Remission and Justification takes away from the party justified all the sad and woful Consequents of Sin 5. That God never justifies any but in justifying he sanctifies him and doth not onely free him from the Guilt of Sin past but from the Power and Dominion of Sin so as to preserve Man from Sin for time to come The Imperfection and Corruption of Man which followed upon the first Sin is one of the greatest Punishments that Man can suffer and be liable to and to remove this Punishment is one part of our Justification 6. In this Remission is included Reconciliation Adoption and all those Blessings which tend to everlasting Salvation 7. Though upon our first Conversion and our first true and lively Faith we enter into the state of Justification which frees us from the eternal penalty yet we are not perfect in this state till all Sins even the last be pardoned and all Punishments fully and for ever prevented and removed which will not be before the Resurrection Thus you have heard the words of the Prophet alledged by the Apostle explained Now we must consider what they prove and being the words of God they must needs prove strongly and the thing proved is That the Covenant whereof Christ is Mediator is established upon far better Promises than the former Covenant with the Fathers was § 15. The Apostle by the words of the Prophet hath proved that the Covenant whereof Christ was Mediator was a better Covenant because established upon better Promises Yet though this was sufficient he proceeds further out of the same Text to prove the abrogation of the former Covenant whereof the Levitical Priest was Mediator and that in this manner Ver. 13. In that he saith a new Covenant he hath made the first old Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away THE Subject of these words is the Old Covenant made with the Fathers and they inform us of two things 1. The Abrogation 2. The total Abolition of it 1. The Abrogation It 's made old 2. The total Abolition It being made old is near vanishing and Abolition The Abrogation he proves from these words of the Lord by the Prophet I will make a new Covenant If God make a new Covenant then he abrogates the old But he makes a new Covenant Therefore he abrogates the old To understand the force of this Argument let 's enquire into the meaning of the words 1. To make old in this place must be to abrogate for as old things lose their Power Strength and Vigour so the Covenant being made old loseth it's binding force which is the very Essence of a Law from which the vigour and the vertue of it as a Law doth issue Hence that Phrase to antiquate a Law which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to take away the Authority of a Law And this is the genuine sense of the word in this place 2. It may be doubted whether the making a new Covenant or Law doth antiquate the former Law and Covenant for the making of a new doth not alwayes take away the old but sometimes confirm it Therefore you must know That for God to make a new Covenant is to make such a Covenant as is different from and inconsistent with the former â—ay to make it so as by it to take away the former as useless needless and imperfect Such and so made is this new Covenant and the former doth lose all force two wayes 1. By Expiration for it was intended to continue untill the latter was made and upon the making thereof it became out of Date 2. By another Law and Covenant which could not stand with it but must needs destroy it These words thus understood do necessarily infer the Antiquation of the former Covenant and the inference is evident in the light of Nature and needs no further Confirmation The Argument That God will make a new Covenant we find in the express words of the Prophet's Text. This is the Abrogation The total Abolition which follows upon this Abrogation is expressed in this Proposition That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish Where to decay and wax old are but Synonymal and signify the utter Abrogation of a Law and Covenant in general of this Covenant with the Fathers in particular That which is thus antiquated is said to be nigh or ready to vanish or disappear and as it were to lose its Being The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned Vanishing is used oft by the Septâ—â—gint as a Verbal to signify destruction and desolation and the Verb whence it 's derived signifies to ruine destroy Persons Cities Countries so as to take away their Being and Existence And this Expression may intimate thus much that as things after they become old and have lost their strength and vigot may retain some kind of imperfect Being for a time and moulder away by little and little till they vanish and totally perish so the Law once abrogated may continue though in no force for a while and by little and little decay till it totally cease § 16. This is the Explication of the Text which may be further cleared and made more evident if we examine the time of the Abrogation and Abâ—lition It was not abrogated in the dayes of the Prophet Jâ—remiah by whom God revealed the making of the new Covenant and the tenour and substance of it for it continued in force for many years after even untill the exhibition of Christ. Neither was it abrogated upon his Birth or Baptism but upon his Death which unhinged the Law and so virtually nul'd this Covenant Yet it was not actually abrogated but upon the Promulgation of the Gospel for then the force of it was taken away and no baptized Christian was bound to observe it yet there were many attempts made that by some who professed Christianity to continue iâ— in power Hence that great Controversy raised in the famous Church of Antiocâ— in Syria which occasioned the great Synod at Jerusalem mentioned Act. 15. where it was unanimously determined that it was abrogated therefore they would not impose it upon the Gentiles And though after that they suffered some believing Jews to observe it in some particulars as a thing indifferent yet the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians doth clearly demonstrate that whosoever should observe it as necessary and so binding as that Christ could not save them without ' it they were fallen from Grace and went about to make void the Gospel By all which it 's evident that the new Covenant of the Gospel was
so made as that it abrogated the Law of Moses and the Legal Covenant Yet because the Law was given and that Covenant made by God and not by Man and had continued in force about 1500 years many could not be satisfied in the matter of Abrogation and made scruple of rejecting and neglecting of it For that which is confirmed by Law and long Custom can hardly be made void The unbelieving Jew did reject the new Covenant and adhere to the old as instituted from Heaven and sufficient to justify and save those who observed it Some believing Jews feared to neglect it and judged Christ insufficient without it and thought Moses and Christ joyntly must bring them to Heaven and some of the Gentiles seduced by them were entangled with the same Errour So that it was observed by some as necessary by some as indifferent till the ruine of Jerusalem the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of the miserable and captive Jews into all Nations And then when there was no face either of a Civil or Ecclesiasticall Polity in that Nation then it vanished and did not appear It was abrogated therefore by the Promulgation of the Gospel decayed by little and little after that time and in the end was totally abolished The Apostle had in the former Chapter proved the Change of the Law and the Abrogation thereof from the Change and Abolition of the Priest-hood and gives the reason why it was to be abrogated to be this because it could justify and sanctify no Man And this he made good out of Psal. 110. 4. And here he implies that it must be abrogated because it was not faultless but defective and confirms the repeal of it from the words of the Lord by Jeremiah saying I will make a new Covenant and his chief Scope is to prove that Christ hath obtained a better Ministry because he was the Mediator of a better Covenant And that Covenant was better not onely because it was established upon better Promises but in that it was new and so made that it abrogated the former and it self was to continue for ever For God never promised to make another after this new one was once confirmed by the Blood of Christ. § 17. In all this Discourse he takes it for granted and presupposeth it as certain that Christ was the Mediator of this Covenant and in this he may seem to beg and not to make good the assirmative of the Question For the Jew might reply That suppose it were granted that there must be a new Covenant so made as to take away the old as God by the Prophet doth positively affirm it yet How doth it appear that Christ and not some Levitical High-Priest shall be the Mediator of it To remove this and the like Scruples it 's to be observed 1. That no Levitical Priest could be a Mediator of any Covenant but the former made with the Fathers as is evident from the Institution of that Priest-hood and the Rules of Legal Ministration Therefore he was clearly excluded from this Mediation of this new Covenant 2. That if Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias whom God promised the Fathers expected the Prophets fore-told then it will necessarily follow that he was the great Prophet above all former Prophets above Moses above Angels and he must be the great and eternal High-Priest according to the Order of Melchizedee a Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary and a Mediator of this far better Covenant But the reason why he takes it for granted and goes not about to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias was because that was done unto his hands and made evident many wayes For the fulfilling of so many Prophecies of the Old Testament and that so fully even to particular Circumstances in him who was called Jesus of Nazareth the Angel's Testimony who certified his Mother of his Conception the Testimony of an Angel with a Multitude of the heavenly hoast at his Birth did signify this So did the words of his Father at his Baptism and Transfiguration his glorious Works his heavenly Wisdom Knowledg and Doctrine besides the Testimony of John the Baptist his prodigious and stupendious Death and Resurrection Ascension the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the Revelation of the Gospel the rare and excellent gifts of this heavenly Spirit received by such as believed on him and the wonderful works done in his Name did sufficiently and superabundantly prove him to be the Messias § 18. From all this the intelligent Reader may easily understand the Subject Scope and Method of the Apostle in this Chapter The Subject is the Ministry of Christ constituted a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec The Scope is to manifest that Christ is a far more excellent Priest than that of Aaron's Order in respect of his Ministry The Method is to set forth his superexcellent Ministry in respect of the Tabernacle the Service and the Covenant whereof he was Minister for the more excellent the Sanctuary the Service the Covenant the more excellent the Priest The Sanctuary whereof Christ is Minister is heavenly his Service and Offering not â—arnal but supernatural and divine the Blessings promised in the Covenant whereof he is Minister and which by his Ministry he procures are spiritual and eternal and such as once obtained make sinful Man fully and for ever happy And because the Covenant is so excellent and so effectual by his Ministration it 's of eternal continuance The Application of all this to our selves is of Information Exhortation Consolation for by this Doctrine we 1. Understand how excellent and effectual Christ's Priest-hood is in respect of his Ministration in the best Sanctuary by his best Service making effectual the best Covenant that ever was made 2. It stirs us up to admire the wonderful Wisdom of God which contrived such an excellent Priest-hood and Ministry and his infinite Mercy in ordering both for our eternal Salvation For Who are we that the Son of God should be our eternal Priest offer up himself a Sacrifice to confirm his Covenant which he hath made with us and that God should appoint him to minister in the heavenly Sanctaary and by his Ministry there obtain for us the excellent Blessings which he hath merited and God hath promised That he should deal thus with us and do thus for us may be matter of amazement to the very Angels of Heaven How often should we think and seriously meditate on these things and magnify his Wisdom and be eternally thankful for his unspeakable Mercy and engage our selves to his Service for evermore 3. It 's matter of sweetest Comfort that there is so excellent an High-Priest that he is our High-Priest that after he had sacrificed himself on Earth he should minister for us in Heaven that God should make so excellent a Covenant with us promise Power to keep it and bind himself upon the keeping of it to be our God for ever and eternally
which took away these Rites not as sinful but as imperfect and then useless when a better kind of Service was instituted The word here used in the Greek may signify Perfection Confirmation and Establishment and if we consult the Septuagint they tuâ—â— the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signify to perfect confirm and establish That therefore which in our Translation is a time of Reformation is a time of Perfeâ—â—â—â— Confirmation and Establishment and this is the time of the Gospel when the 〈◊〉 imperfect is taken away and that which is firm and stable shall be brought in and 〈◊〉 for evermore By this we may observe That because the Ceremonial Law was imposed by God the Jews were bound to observe it 2. That God intended not the Serviâ— of the Law as a means to sanctify the Conscience for then it should have continued 3. It was imposed onely for a time untill the Introduction of a better Service and then it was to cease And this is the third Imperfection it was not perfect firm stable and of perpetual continuance And this is to be understood not onely of some of these Services but of all even of that which is the principal and more excellent than all the rest even the yearly Sacrifice of Expiation § 10. Thus far the Typical Tabernacle and Service the Anti-Typical follows and begins in these words Ver. 11. But Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this Building Ver. 12. Neither by the Blood of Goats and Calvs but by his own Blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us TO understand this Text the better it 's to be observed 1. That as in the Type so here in the Anti-Type to make the Comparison perfect there are three things 1. An High-Priest 2. A Tabernacle with two Sanctuaries 3. A Service and Sacrifice to be performed by the High-Priest in the inmost Sacrary and Holiest of all into which he could not enter but by passing through the Sanctuary within the first Veil 2. That the words have special Reference to the seventh Verse which speaks of the Highest Levitical Service and Sacrifice which the High-Priest alone was to perform once a Year in the Holiest of all 3. That the Scope of the Apostle is to set forth the Excellency of Christ's Priest-hood as far above that of Aaron's in respect of the Service 4. That seeing this was the highest and most excellent Service which could procure the greatest good promised in the former Covenant therefore the Apostle singles out this informing us that it was but a shadow of a far more excellent Service which was of far greater Power and Efficacy to be performed by Christ. 5. That the Excellency of this Service and Sacrifice is set forth by rare and excellent Effects Consequents and Benefits which were such as the best and greatest Service of the Levitical Priest could not reach 6. That the first Effect is eternal Redemption which immediatly follows upon the performance of this Service and is the principal thing in this Text. In the Text we have four things 1. Christ come an High-Priest of good things to come 2. The Tabernacle whereof he is Minister 3. The Service and Sacrifice performed by this High-Priest 4. The first most excellent Effect thereof eternal Redemption The first Proposition is concerning Christian High-Priest and it 's affirmed 1. That he is come that is exhibited present and consecrated 2. That 〈◊〉 â—onsecrated he is a compleat High-Priest both these are demonstratively 〈…〉 in the former part of the Epistle 3. That he is an High-Priest 〈…〉 The end of all Priests and especially High-Priest 〈…〉 and Ministry to procure some Mercy and Benefit which the People want desire and have need of Yet they can proâ—â—â—â— no Mercy but such as God hath promised in that Covenant where of they are Priests 〈◊〉 Mediators therefore the Legal High-Priest could not obtain any greater Mercy than the Law did promise But because Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant established upon better Promises he doth procure for his People far greater Mercies which God hath promised in this Covenant Therefore 1. By good things understand those Mercies Benefits and Blessings which are promised in the new Covenant the principal whereof are Remission of Sin for ever and eternal life following thereupon 2. These good things are said to be future and to come and that either in respect of the Law which went before the Gospel according to that 〈◊〉 follows Chap. 10. 1. For the Law having a Shadow of good things to come Or 〈◊〉 of full enjoyment of them which is reserved for Heaven and that World 〈…〉 is yet to come For there is a World to come a Life to come an abidiâ—◠〈…〉 me a Glory to come which shall be revealed upon the Sons of God 〈…〉 long after and wait for this Life this City this Glory to come Again the time of the Gospel is said to be the World 〈◊〉 Chap. 2. 5 6. 5. The sense therefore may be this That Christ was an High-Priest effectually procuring these good things which were shadowed out and typified in the Law and were then to come but present and exhibited in the times of the Gospel The second Proposition which is concerning the Tabernacle doth affirm That Christ's Tabernacle wherein he must minister is greater and better than the Legal as not being of that Building To be greater may be understood of quantity or quality iâ— of quantity then it 's signified that it 's far larger and so Heaven where Christ doth minister is if of quality then the latter word explains the former and so greater is 〈◊〉 and both together inform us that it 's far more glorious and excellent And that it â—â— so it 's evident because it 's not of this Building but of a far better The former was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pitched by the Art and Industry of Man yet so that the pattern and direction was from Heaven The Workman and Builder was not Man but God and is the Wisdom skil and Hand of God is infinitely above the Wisdom Skill and Power of Man so his Building must needs be far more excellent Therefore the Apostle told us before Chap. 〈◊〉 That Christ was the Minister of High-Priest of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched not Man The former was but a Shadow and diâ— but imperfectly represent this which was the Substance The Holiest of all though the most sacted and glorious place of the former Tabernacle and Temple was nothing to this Yet it 's much doubted 1. What this Tabernacle is 2. Whitherto these words are to 〈◊〉 referred First Some think this Tabernacle to be the Body of Christ yet this was the thing to be sacrificed and offered Others conceive it was the Church Militant
and seeing the punishment was Death Death must first be suffered This was thus appointed and done to signify his purest holiness his hatred and detestation of sin his love of Justice and his respect unto the Law which bound to obedience or upon disobedience to punishment By this he signified and all men must know it that it 's a dangerous thing to transgress his Laws and this must hear and fear But then 2. Why by his own blood The reason in general is the will of God which did determine upon this blood and the wisdom of God which knew that it was the fittest of all other But more particularly the blood of Goats and Calves was no wayes convenient For it is not possible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins Hebr. 10. 4. Nor the blood of man of the best man though far above the blood of Bullocks and Goates was fit for all men are guilty and their blood is stained Neither was the life of Angels fit for though it might be precious yet God did not think it sufficiently satisfactory and meritorious for sinful man And suppose an High-Priest should offer his own blood yet that would not serve Therefore it must be Christ's blood his own blood which was pure and without spot and most precious not only because it was the blood of God that eternal Word made Flesh which was God but because it was shed with greatest pain and most willingly out of love to sinful man whose Flesh and Blood he had assumed and in obedience to his heavenly Father who had made him the great High-Priest appointed him to be the Head Surety and Hostage of sinful man and commanded him to lay down his life and do this great Service And without the blood of this Sacrifice he could not have entred into the holy place and obtained eternal Redemption This is the fourth thing observed in the Text and the Subject of the fourth Proposition concerning one immediate effect of his blood For he entring by his own blood once obtained eternal Redemption Where we must enquire 1. What Redemption is 2. Why this Redemption is said to be eternal 3. How it was obtained by the blood of Christ entring into Heaven or by Christ entring Heaven once with his own blood 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Copher in Hebrew which signifies a price or gift offered to a Judge or an Enemy to deliver one from Death or some other evil or punishment and it 's called a Ransome in this respect Christ is said to give himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lytron a Ransome 1 Tim. 2. 6. and Matth. 20. 28. In that place it 's such a price as is given to a Judge who hath power of Life and Death for to save the life of one capitally guilty and by Law bound to suffer Death The effect of this price is 1. To propitiate the Judge 2. Upon this propitiation made to save the lise of the party guilty In this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the effect of this price and is turned Redemption Expiation Remission Propitiation It 's true that the word may signify many other things and any kind of deliverance from evil But in this place it 's evident that it signifies the deliverance of guilty persons from Death upon a price given and accepted The party to whom this price was given is God as Supream Judge before whose Tribunal man stands guilty and liable to Death The effect of it is propitiation which includes satisfaction of divine Justice and merit of his favour and love Upon this propitiation sin becomes remissible and pardonable therefore Redemption and Propitiation are sometimes by a Metonymy taken for Remission according to that of the Apostle In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Ephes. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. In both which places the latter word seems to explain the former Yet Redemption is not Remission properly and actually but efficienter as the effect is said to be in the cause before it exist because of the virtue and power which abiding in the cause is sufficient to produce the effect and Christ must make sin by this Redemption remissible before it can be actually remitted 2. This Redemption and Propitiation is said to be eternal not because Christ is always redeeming and propitiating for that work was performed speedily and in a short time But it 's such because the virtue of it is of perpetual continuance in respect of all Sinners capable of all sins according to the Laws of God-Redeemer remissible and of the remission it self which frees the Sinner from all his sins from the eternal guilt and all penalties for ever Upon this Redemption is grounded that comfortable promise of the New Covenant formerly mentioned Chap. 8. 12. where God binds himself to remember our iniquities no more that is to give eternal pardon This adjunct of perpetuity is added to difference this Redemption and Expiation from that of the Law which must be made atleast every year It did but extend backward to sins of one year and the force of it presently expires 3. This was found and obtained by Christ as by his own blood entring once into the holy place None could make this propitiation but Christ neither could he do it except he enter the holy place Neither by that except he enter with blood his own blood But if he enter with that blood but once then the work is done for ever Why this Expiation and Propitiation should be made by blood and Christ's blood you have heard already But why with his blood must he enter the holy place and how being entered by and with this blood propitiation should be made for us as Translators by adding these words understand and supply the place though more difficult yet is to be cleared 1. Some tell us that because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Aorist tense consignifying time past eternal Redemption and Propitiation was found and obtained first and then afterward he entred the holy place And it 's true that when Christ had suffered Death the principal work was done and the foundation of eternal Remission was laid Yet if Death and shedding of his blood obtained eternal Redemption before he entred Heaven at lest in his Soul separated from his Body then the Type and Anti-type did not agree For the legal Redemption and Expiation was not made instantly upon the slaying of the Coates and Bullocks but before the work could be finished and sin expiated the High-Priest must take the Blood and Incense and enter the Holy of Holies and first burn the Incense and then sprinkle the blood upon and before the Mercy-seat without both which done neither his own sins nor the sins of the People could be expiated In all bloody and propitiatory Sacrifices were required Mactatio
Rom. 8. 17. so may we likewise say If no Sons then no Heirs None can be Sons that are not justified none can be justified which believe not in the Death and Blood of Christ there can be no Belief in this Blood if not shed This Death and Blood of Christ 1. Expiates sin and makes it remissible 2. Merits the eternal Inheritance promised and the Promise too 3. It merits the Spirit to enable Man to keep the Covenant so as to obtain and receive the Inheritance 4. It merits a Power in Christ 1. To reveal the Gospel and give the Spirit to work Repentance and Faith in sinful Man's heart 2. Upon Repentance and Faith and his Intercession a Power to give Remission and the eternal Inheritance Take away this Death this Blood there is no Expiation of Sin no Inheritance no Covenant and suppose a Covenant and a Promise yet it 's ineffectual invalid without this Blood this Death For all the heavenly Promises are made for and in consideration of this Blood satisfying his Justice and meriting his Favour so that without it they are all nothing to purpose neither without it can the called though obedient to the heavenly Call ever have any Right unto or Possession of eternal Life So that the whole strength and efficacy of the Covenant doth depend upon this Blood for by it our Sins are expiated and our Consciences purged so as to be capable of the Inheritance This is a most clear Text to prove that the Saints even under the Law were called and saved and that not by the Ministry and Sacrifice of the Levitical Priests but by the Blood of Christ the vertue whereof extended to former times even the times of Adam Neither did they trust in their Sacrifices and their Priests and the Blood of Bulls and Goats and their Water of separation but in the Blood of Christ yet their Faith was very implicit The third Proposition is Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant for this Reason and for this End An excellent Covenant must have an excellent Priest and Mediator and seeing this Covenant doth promise eternal Remission and an eternal Inheritance it requires such a Priest as shall be able by his Ministry and Service to obtain this Remission and Inheritance This no Priests by their Sacrifices or any other Service could do but Christ could and therefore not they but He and He alone was made the Mediator of this new Covenant For by his Death he expiates sin and purgeth the Conscience so that the called receive the Promise of eternal Inheritance and the vertue of this Death is universal in respect of time and persons called The Sum of all this is That Christ by reason of his Death and Blood expiating Sin and purging the Conscience is the Mediator of the new Testament or Covenant to confirm and make it effectual to the Heirs of the Promise § 15. This Confirmation of the new Covenant is illustrated from a two-fold Similitude the one is taken a Jure Naturali the other a Jure Ceremoniali The first is taken from the Law of Nature for to it the Civilians refer the Rules of Testaments and Wills and is delivered Ver. 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator Ver. 17. For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilest the Testator liveth THis is an imperfect and contract Similitude for the parts thereof as of all Comparisons are two 1. The Proposition 2. The Reddition And yet the Proposition is only expressed and the Reddition is only implyed and to be supplied from the antecedent Context In the Proposition we may observe two things 1. The necessity of the Death of the Testator barely asserted Ver. 16. 2. The Reason thereof rendred Ver. 17. The Argument in Form may be this That which is not of force whilest the Testator liveth that necessarily requireth the Death of the Testator to make it of force But a Testament is not of force whilest the Testator liveth Therefore it requireth to make it of force the Death of the Testator The Assumption is expressed 1. Affirmatively A Testament is of force after men who are Testators are dead 2. Negatively It 's of no strength whilest the Testator liveth The Comparison at large is this As the Death of the Testator is necessary to make the Testament of force so the Death of Christ is necessary for to make the new Covenant of force For though Christ might in some respect be a Mediator of the new Covenant yet he could not make it valid firm and effectual without his death neither we under the Gospel nor the Fathers under the Law could without this Death be saved by it And as the death of the Testator gives full force and efficacy to the Testament and this Confirmation is an Effect of his Death so the Death of Christ gives full force to the new Covenant and makes â—â— effectual and this validity and efficacy is an Effect of this Death of Christ and manifests the excellency of this Sacrifice and of Christ the Priest who offered it The things compared as like are the Death of Christ and the Death of a Testator The things wherein they agree are 1. The like Effect of both which is to confirm and make effectual some Instrument 2. The necessity of both for that end to confirm and make effectual § 16. The Propositions in the first part of the Comparison are these 1. There are Testaments of men 2. These are not of force whilest the Testators live 3. They are of force upon the Death of the Testators 4. The Death of the Testators is necessary to make them of force 1. The matter of all Testaments is a temporal estate of these earthly Goods which God hath given Man to preserve this temporal Life The Testator is one that hath a just Title unto these Goods so that he hath power to dispose of them The Testament it self is the manner of disposing these Goods so as to give the same Right which he had in them unto other Persons after his Death and therefore it must signify his Will concerning these Goods and nominate the Persons who must succeed him so as to have them And because it 's an Act of Reason so to do therefore the Testator when he makes his Will must be Compos mentis and have the Use of his Reason and also sui Juris and not under the power of another The end of it is to prevent future suits and dissensions and Injustice about his Estate The Light of Nature doth teach men thus to dispose of their temporal Goods and therefore they are of ancient and universal Use. 2. These are not in force whilest the Testators live and the Reason of this is not only because whilest they are living they have need of or do use their Goods and though they make their Will in their life-time yet they
and heavenly things principally intended are the Consciences and immortal Souls of men which being purged make up the Body of the Church which is Militant first on Earth and after that to be Triumphant in Heaven 2. The better Sacrifice above the former is the Sacrifice of Christ and the pure unsported Blood of him who offered himself by the eternal Spirit to God The purifying vertue of this Sacrifice was in this that Christ the Son of God innocent holy righteous as Surety and Hostage of Man-king appointed to be so by God did deny himself took up the Cross shed his Blood for to expiate the Sin of Man and was obedient unto death the death of the Cross For him so excellent to suffer death so willingly for so glorious an end and that at the Command of God was the highest and purest degree of Obedience that ever was performed unto God and was highly accepted and did fully satisfy divine Justice so far as was required In the offering of this Sacrifice he gave himself wholly to his heavenly Father and became as it were a whole Burnt-Offering being wholly consumed with the Zeal of his Father's Glory and the Love of Man-kind And here it is to be noted upon the By That though in the Text we read Sacrifices in the plural number yet this one Sacrifice of Christ is onely meant Estius thinks it's an Enallage of number the Plural for the Singular for the Sacrifice whereby heavenly things are purified is but only one once offered Yet it may be called Sacrifices because it had more vertue than all other purifying Sacrifices and also because it was one of those expiating Sacrifices which were offered unto God yet more excellent than all the rest It 's like that expression of Jâ—phtah's Butial for it 's said he was buried in the Cities of Gâ—lead that is one of the Cities of that Country which was Mizpeh as some think Judg. 12. 7. 3. For the heavenly things and the Consciences of men to be purified is to be freed from Sin that is from the Guilt and Dominion of Sin which is to be justified and sanctified as these words are usually taken This Purification is vertual or actual for when the Blood of Christ was shed offered and accepted for the Sins of men then they may be said to be purified virtually as upon the death of Christ we are said to be reconciled because made reconcilable And when by Faith this Blood is sprinkled upon our Consciences and pardon obtained by Christ's Intercession for peniâ—ent and believing Sinners then they are said to be actually purified and when they are wholly freed from all the Guilt and Power of Sin then they are perfectly purified 4. This Purification by this Sacrifice was necessary for supposing God's Will and Decree concerning the eternal Happiness of sinful Man in Communion with his God it was necessary Man should be purified for otherwise he could have no fellowship with God so as to derive eternal Happiness from him For as God is Light and just and holy so they must be Light just and holy who shall see and enjoy him And because no Sacrifice but this of Christ could thus qualify him therefore it was necessary both that he should be purified and purified with this Sacrifice § 22. Thus far you have heard of the necessity of the death of Christ for the Confirmation of the Covenant illustrated by Similitudes taken from the Law of Nature and the Ceremonial Law of Moses Therefore the Jews except they were very ignorant could have no cause to be offended with this death upon the Cross seeing it was so necessary to the purchasing of the eternal Inheritance and the purging of mens Consciences that they might be capable of the Possession and have a Title unto it for the ground of the Promise from whence the Title is immediately derived is this Sacrifice without which the Promise was never made neither if it had been made could it without this have been valid But let 's consider what follows for he saith Ver. 24. For Christ is not entred into the Holy places made with hands which are Figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear before God for us THese words considered absolutely in themselvs seem to be plain and easily understood but the coherence is doubtful Some and amongst the rest Esâ—ius takes little notice of it as not much material Many others finding the causal Conjunction For do agree that in these words the Apostle gives a Reason of something that went before but they differ much in the particular Explication of the Reason Dr. Gouge conceivs that the Apostle's intention is to prove that the Sacrifice of Christ is more excellent than the Sacrifices of the Law and this is true but yet imperfect Beza thinks that the Author in this Text begins another and a new Collation or Comparison to prove the excellency of this Offering and this cannot be denyed Dr. Lushington who is said to be the Translator of Crellius tells us that here is proved That the Heavenly places are purified by better Sacrifices and that because Christ entred not into the earthly Sanctuary but into Heaven it self This doth presuppose that Heaven it self is purified by the Blood of Christ and that Christ entred thereinto for that end But this is difficult to understand and supposeth that which few will grant him A Lapide differs from all these and saith that the Apostle gives in this Text a Reason why he called the Church heavenly or heavenly things and that is because Christ entred into Heaven to unlock the Gates and open the Doors thereof that the faithful might enter thereinto This is not so clear and satisfactory though it hath something of Truth To find out the Connexion we must observe 1. That the Conjunction for or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes expletive and redundant 2. Sometimes the same that but or moreover is 3. That though it be called by the Grammarians a Causal yet it doth not alwayes imply a Cause but it 's used to bring in any other Reason or Argument and therefore might be called a rational Conjunction Yet Whittington in his Grammar saith that a Causal Conjunction signifies the Cause or Order of that which goeâ— before where he implies that it doth not alwayes joyn the Cause and the Effect 4. Let it be taken for a Conjunction which joyns these words to the former so as to contain a Reason we must consider what was formerly â—ffiâ—med and how it 's here proved To this end let us remember that the Subject of the former discourse was Purification or Expiation of things by Blood of Sacrifices and these things are earthly and carnal or spiritual and heavenly Of these latter he affirmed that it was necessary they should be purified with better Sacrifices The manner how he proves this is this He presupposing that these heavenly things must be purified proves 1. That they were purified by
But the Law had but the Shadow not the very Image Therefore it could not perfect the commers To understand this with that which follows more fully we must observe That the Question is Whether the Law by the Service and Sacrifices prescribed in it could perfect or sanctify any man that did use or observe them The Apostle denies this and proves the Negative and by this Argument because it had but the Shadow not the Substance of good things to come The Propositions in the Text are two 1. The Law had a Shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things 2. The Law could never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commers thereunto perfect In the first we have 1. A Shadow of things to come 2. The very Image of the things 3. The Law which is affirmed to have the Shadow not the very Image of good things to come 1. The good things to come are some great and excellent Blessings which issued from the great Love of God to sinful Man and tended to his everlasting Salvation and Happiness and they were to come upon the Exhibition of Christ and the Revelation of the Gospel These were Christ the Work of Redemption and the benefits of Redemption Of this Phrase I have formerly spoken Chap. 9. 11. where we â—ead Christ was said to be come an High-Priest of good things to come The Shadow of these good things is the same which was called a Type or Figure that is an imperfect and dark Representation Christ was represented of old not onely by words in the Promises but by things yet in such a manner as that the People of former times had no clear and distinct Knowledg of these things as under the Gospel now we have It was a Mercy of God to give them a Shadow and by the same remind them often of their Saviour that they might the more desire him long for him and expect his coming 2. The very Image of the things themselvs according to some is a more lively Representation of them and these think the Expression to be taken from Limmers which first make a rude Draught after that finish and perfect it so as that the Picture is a more full distinct and lively Representation of the thing to be represented This they make the difference between a Shadow and the Image and this is thus far true as that they under the Law had but a rude imperfect and dark Representation of these good things which the Gospel doth reveal and represent to us far more clearly Their Light might be like that of the Moon and Stars ouâ—'s like that of the Sun already risen Yet others do observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Image is two-fold 1. The Pattern or Samplar 2. That which is conformed to the Pattern and in this place the Image may be the Pattern and Samplar it self of which the Ceremonies of the Law were imperfect Figurations The word in the Syriack signifying Ipse and turned by the Syriack Translator Ipsa Substantia seems to favour this sense So that the very Image of the things is both the lively Representation of them and the things themselvs represented 3. The Law had the one not the other Where by the Law understand the Ceremonial Law of Moses yet so as it was joyned with the other Laws This Law had a Shadow that is did prescribe certain Shadows and imperfect Representations that is Ceremonies or Ceremonial things and the People under the Law were bound to observe them and did enjoy these Shadows for to lead them to Christ and in this they were more happy than other People though not so happy as we under the Gospel And the Reason hereof was that God neither gave them the things themselves nor the clear Representation of them both which were reserved to the time of Christ's Exhibition § 2. In the second Proposition we have two things 1. Sacrifices offered year by year continually 2. Their Impotency to perfect the commers thereunto 1. By Sacrifices are meant Ilastical and propitiatory Sacrifices such as God commanded under the Law to be offered for Sin and the chief of them principally intended were those Anniversary Offerings of Expiation therefore it is said they were offered year by year And though there was an Intermission of the space of a Year between every single and individual Sacrifice yet they are said to be offered continually For as Year succeeded after Year from the time of Moses unto the Suffering of Christ so there was a continued Succession of these Offerings 2. These Sacrifices as Causes had their Effects and such as God intended for they did legally expiate and shadow out and continually remind the People of the necessity of Expiation to be made by a better Sacrifice for ever Yet they could not perfect that is consecrate and sanctify and free eternally from the eternal Punishment due to sin The parties who might expect Justification and Sanctification from them were such as came unto them and did worship God by them that is the parties for whom they were offered and did humble and afflict themselvs at the yearly solemnity of Expiation who are said to be Worshippers in the next Verse and such as did the Service Chap. 9. 9. And this was the impotency imperfection and insufficiency of them The Reason of this impotency is given in the former words for they were but Shadows and how can Shadows have any such causal Power as the Substance hath This Effect was reserved for that substantial and most noble Sacrifice of Christ himself offered by the eternal Spirit without spot unto God Therefore the Jews did exceedingly wrong themselves and prejudice their own Souls when they rested in these and looked not for their Saviour And we Christians are no better when we rely upon the outward Service of God and the Signs of the Sacraments and not upon Jesus Christ the Pith and Marrow of all who can benefit no Man but such as with a penitent heart rely upon him and him alone This impotency is fully expressed by a peremptory Negation for they could in no wise perfect This Effect was too noble and far and very far above the Power and Activity of Shadows This is the Apostle's first Reason to prove the insufficiency of the Sacrifices oâ— the Law § 3. The second Reason follows Ver. 2. For then they would not have ceased to be offered because that the Worshippers once purged should have had no more Conscience of Sins THis is a new Argument taken from the continuance of them which had been needless if they could have purged away Sin so that the Worshippers thereof should have had no more Conscience of it So that here we have 1. The continuance of them 2. The Reason of the continuance implyed For the Apostle argues from the non-cessation and the re-iteration of them and thence infers their Imperfection But there is some difficulty in the
is there is no more offering for Sin IN all which we may observe 1. The Apostle's manner of Allegation ver 15. 2. The Text alledged ver 16 17. 3. The Aoostle's Application of the Text to the point in hand ver 18. 1. The manner of Allegation we have in these words Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us For after he had said before The principal things here considerable are 1. The thing testified 2. The Witness testifying The thing testified is implyed in the word Whereof and it is the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice in respect of the virtue thereof in taking away Sin for this is the principal Subject of his present Discourse and the demonstration of this Virtue is chiefly intended The witness testifying this is the Holy Ghost a greater a better Witness we cannot have This Testimony we find in the Scriptures which signifie That all Scripture is given by inspiration from God we read it in the Prophet Joremiah therefore he spake and wrote this as moved by the Holy Ghost Jeremy so speaks and writes them as the words of God for saith the Lord is his Style from whence we observe That the Holy Ghost is the eternal Jehovah For that which Jehovah saith there The Spirit is sâ—d to witness or testify here Therefore seeing it 's the Spirit that testifieth and upon Record the thing testified must needs be of infallible and undeniable Truth 2. The matter of the Text alledged is a Promise and it is two-fold 1. Of putting God's Laws in our hearts that we may believe and be converted 2. The Remission of our Sins upon our Faith and Conversion The first is done by illumination and inspiration whereby that word concerning Christ and Salvation which we hear is made effectual and the power of the Spirit is added to work Faith by that word in our hearts to make us capable of Remission The second is done by the Sentence of the Supream Judge absolving us The first is referred to Vocation The second to Justification And here we must observe what the Apostle's intention is which will appear in The third thing which is the Apostle's Application in ver 18. 1. The difference between the second Allegation of the same Text here and in Chapter 8th is That there he proves the excellency of the Covenant above the former Covenant from the excellency of the promises but here he proves the excellency of Christ's one offering above all the offerings of the Law because by virtue of it Sins are taken away which implies that the mercies promised in the New Covenant were merited by this Sacrifice and that in respect of this Sacrifice offered he was the Mediatour of this Covenant so that without it those promises had been never made or if they had been made they never had beeneffectual and beneficial unto sinful Man For in consideration of this offering God made these promises and for Christ's sake offering himself once he gives the things promised to such as are capable of them according to the Tenour of the Covenant 2. He singles out the latter promise of Remission as most pertinent to the point in hand for though the former promise be excellent and the thing promised necessary for to enable Man to keep the Covenant yet it is but subordinate to this second promise because if the Covenant be not kept there can be no remission neither is there any keeping of the Covenant except God's Laws be written in man's heart as well as in the Scripture outwardly 3. He puts an Emphasis upon the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Hebrew Text and the double negative in the Greek which imports That he will in no wise remember out Sins any more he will forgive them for ever 4. From hence he draws this conclusion there is no more offering for Sin 5. And from thence that Christ's Sacrifice was of that excellent virtue that by one offering it took away Sin all Sin and made it eternally Remissible and upon Faith eternally to be remitted So that the substance of the Doctrinal part of this Chapter is to demonstrate the inefficacy of the many Legal Offerings and the Efficacy of Christ's one Offering And all this tends to this end to inform us 1. That Legal Offerings cannot help and save us 2. That Christ's can 3. That Christ's is far more excellent and absolutely necessary And the Comparison therefore is in respect of the expiating power and vertue of both which of the one is little or none of the other is very great and sufficient for our Salvation and eternal happinesse And this Doctrine is full of heavenly Comfort to humble penitent and believing Sinners for by this Offering though our Sins be many and hainous yet they are all eternally pardoneâ— and we for ever consecrated § 15. The Apostle having finished his Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood begins here to apply the same and that by way of Exhortation to certain Duties which they were bound to perform by vertue of God's Command and that Faith in Christ they did profess The former Doctrine did serve to inform their Understanding more fully and to improve and confirm their Faith the Exhortations following tended to stir up the heart informed by the Understanding and directed by Faith to the performance of other Duties necessary to the attainment of that eternal life which Christ had merited for them This is the second part of this Chapter and almost of the whole Epistle for the Connexion will make it appear to be so if we either consider the matter or manner For the matter we find that these words are joyned with the antecedent Doctrine concerning the Excellency of Christ both as Prophet and Priest and so it 's the second part of the whole which is 1. Doctrinal 2. Practical For the former part is didascalical this latter protreptical and more practical But if we consider the immediate Connexion then it will appear that it 's in a more special manner joyned with the Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood continued from the fifth Chapter to this place and the first Application following as the last Chap. 13. doth more especially respect Christ's Priest-hood The manner of the Connexion is evident from the Illative Therefore which signifies that the Exhortations are so many Conclusions deduced from the former Doctrine especially that of Christ's Priest-hood The principal Duty exhorted unto and urged by many and powerful Arguments is Perseverance in the Christian Faith which they did profess Yet he exhorts unto many other which should alwayes accompany sincere Faith and are not separable from it These things premised it 's time to enter upon the Text as delivered Ver. 19. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Christ Ver. 20. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh Ver. 21. And having an High-Priest over the House of God THE Method of
and now again in these last dayes then by Moses and the Prophets now by Christ his Son 2. That when he gave the Law and made the former Covenant he spake on Earth upon Mount Sinai but when he spake by Christ he spake from Heaven for he came from Heaven returned to Heaven again and from Heaven sent down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and by that Spirit in them revealed the Gospel 3. That some Sins are more hainous than others and the more hainous the Sin is the more heavy the Punishment will be 4. That to refuse God speaking on Earth was a grievous Sin and deserved a grievous Punishment and so to refuse him speaking from Heaven is a great Sin and renders the Refuser liable to fearful Punishment 5. That the latter is a more grievous Sin than the former and deservs a greater Punishment These things presupposed the Reason is clear and we must in any wise take heed of rejecting or renouncing the Gospel because if they who transgressed the Law given on Earth were severely punished then they if guilty of a far greater Sin as all such are who refuse the Gospel revealed from Heaven then they must suffer a far greater Penalty and no wayes could they escape it This differs something from the Argument used Chap. 2. 2 3 c. for that compares the Law delivered by Angels with the Gospel spoken and confirmed by Christ and the excellency of Christ above the Angels is the ground of his Argument But here God's speaking on Earth by Angels is compared with God's speaking from Heaven by Christ and here the Excellency of Heaven from whence the Gospel was revealed above the Earth where the Law was given is made the Foundation of the Reason And God by giving the Law on Earth and the Gospel from Heaven did intimate that there was some Excellency in the Gospel which was not in the Law in the new Covenant which was not in the old otherwise God could have revealed them both on Earth or both from Heaven Let us apply this unto our selvs and consider 1. Who speaks unto us 2. What he speaks 3. From whence he speaks 1. It 's not Man but God not Moses but Christ The Law indeed was by Moses but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ. The Majesty and Power of him who speaks is such as Angels are bound to attend and obey with all humble Submission and shall we Worms nay Dust and Ashes refuse to hear this glorious Lord 2. The Matter that he speaks and we hear is the best the most sweet the most comfortable and the most excellent never better things seen or heard or understood by the Heart of Man The Gospel is a Doctrine of profoundest Wisdom of greatest Love and Mercy and of highest Concernment and most conducing to our everlasting good And shall we reject it Shall we sin against so great a Majesty so great a Mercy Sins against the Mercies of God so freely tendred to us in Jesus Christ are the most hainous of all others Let us tremble to think of these Sins and those Punishments which they must suffer that are guilty of them 3. He speaks from Heaven for the Gospel is a Mystery hid from the beginning of the World and was brought unto us from the Bosom of the Father by his only begotten Son and by the Holy Ghost it 's the clearest manifestation of God's deepest Counsels concerring Man's eternal Estate and of his greatest Love to sinful Wretches the brightest Light that ever shined from Heaven yet we hear it and most men regard it not but reject it to their everlasting Woe § 24. The Apostle draws to a Conclusion and urgeth Perseverance by another Argument in the words following Ver. 26. Whose Voice then shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying Yet once more I shake not the Earth only but Heaven also Ver. 27. And this Word Yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain GOD shook the Earth when he gave the Law and from this shaking the Authour takes occasion from the words of Haggai to prove the Immutability of the Gospel and the Administration of Christ's Kingdom In the Text the Proposition concerning this Immutability is 1. Cleared 2. Applyed in the two last Verses of the Chapter In the first he doth 1. Affirm the shaking of the Earth in giving of the Law 2. Alledgeth God's Promise of another shaking not only of Earth but Heaven 3. From that Promise he infers the Immutability of the Evangelical Administration The Propositions of the first part of the Text are two 1. That God then shook the Earth 2. That he that then shook the Earth promised to shake once more not only the Earth but Heaven also 1. God then shook the Earth The Adverb then points at the time of giving the Law on Mount Sinai for in the former Verse it 's said that he spake on Earth in the Hearing of all Israel That then he shook the Earth is the express words of the History Mount Sinai was all on a Sâ—â—ak and the whole Mount quaked greatly Exod. 19. 18. With this agrees that of the Psalmist When thou O God wentest before thy People when thou didst march through the Wilderness The Earth shook the Heavens also dropped at the presence of God even Sinai it self was moved at the presence of God the God of Israel Psal. 68. 7 8. The principal things then signified by this shaking the Mount and the Earth were two 1. The Alteration of the former Administration of the Church and 2. The Constitution of that Order which continued untill the times of the Gospel For 1. Then God made a great Alteration in the Kingdom of Aegypt divided the Red Sea and shook the hearts of men in several Nations 2. He reduced the People of Israel into a Polity both Civil and Ecclesiastical made a Covenant with them gave them Laws Moral Ceremonial Judicial ordained a Priest-hood instituted a Form of Worship to continue till the coming of the Messias Thus then he shook the Earth 2. He promised once more to shake not only the Earth but Heaven Where the Subject is Shaking and presupposeth one Shaking past and informs us of another and the same far greater The former was only of the Earth the latter of Heaven too This Shaking is the thing promised the Promise was made first the Performance followeth several hundred years afterwards The Promise we find in Haggai the Prophet the words are these For thus saith the Lord of Hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land And I will shake all Nations and the Desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this House with Glory saith the Lord Hag. 2. 6 7. Where we may observe 1. That the Occasion of these words was this the