heaven of heavens cannot contain thee 1 Kings 8. 27. But there are various degrees of this condescension various kinds of this inhabitation of God among men Under the Old Testament he dwelt in the Tabernacle and Temple by many symbols and pledges of his glorious presence Such in especial was the Ark and Mercy-seat whence that which was done before the Ark is said to be done before the Lord Exod. 30. 5 8. This was as Solomon expresseth it a great condescension in the infinite incomprehensible God and there was a great Glory accompanying this his presence Under the New Testament God dwelleth in his Saints by his Spirit whereby they become an holy Temple unto him And of this inhabitation of God I have treated elsewhere But his dwelling in the Humane Nature of Christ is quite of another nature than either of these and his love with his condescension inconceivably more conspicuous than in them Hence is that expression of our Apostle In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2. 9. It is not any sign or token it is not any effect of the Divine Power Goodness and Grace that dwells in him but the fulness of the Godhead that is the Divine Nature itself And this dwelleth in him bodily that is by the Assumption of the Body or the Humane Nature into Personal Subsistence with the Son of God How glorious should this be in our eyes How did they admire the condescension of God of old in his dwelling in the Tabernacle and Temple by the glorious signs of his presence And yet was it all but a dark representation and shadow of this glorious Love and Grace whereby he dwells in our nature in Christ. 4. The Church hath lost nothing by the removal of the Old Tabernacle and Temple all being supplied by this Sanctuary true Tabernacle and Minister thereof The Glory and Worship of the Temple was that which the Jews would by no means part withall They chose rather to reject Christ and the Gospel than to part with the Temple and its outward pompous worship And it is almost increadible how the vain mind of man is addicted unto an outward beauty and splendor in Religious worship Take it away and with the most you destroy all Religion itself as if there were no beauty but in painting no evidence of health or vigor of body but in warts and wens The Christians of old suffered in nothing more from the prejudice of the whole world Jews and Gentiles than in this that they had a Religion without Temples Altars Images or any Solemnity of worship And in latter Ages men ceased not until they had brought into Christianity itself a worship vying for external Order Ceremony Pomp and Painting with whatever was in the Tabernacle or Temple of old coming short of it principally in this that that was of Gods institution for a time this of the invention of weak superstitious and foolish Men. Thus is it in the Church of Rome And an hard thing it is to raise the minds of Men unto a satisfaction in things meerly spiritual and heavenly They suppose they cannot make a worse change nor more to their disadvantage than to part with what is a present object and entertainment unto their Senses Fancies carnal Affections and Superstitions for that which they can have no benefit by nor satisfaction in but only in the exercise of Faith and Love inclining us to that within the vail Hence is there at this day so great a contest in the world about Tabernacles and Temples Modes of Worship and Ceremonies which Men have found out in the room of them which they cannot deny but God would have removed For so they judge that he will be satisfied with their carnal Ordinances in the Church when the time is come that he would bear his own no longer But unto them that believe Christ is precious And this true Tabernacle with his Ministration is more unto them than all the old pompous Ceremonies and Services of Divine Institution much more the Superstitious Observances of Humane Invention 5. We are to look for the gracious presence of God in Christ only Of old all the Tokens and Symbols of Gods presence were confined unto and included in the Tabernacle There were they to be found and nowhere else Many Altars the People of old did erect elsewhere many high places they found out and prepared but they were all sin and misery unto them God granted his presence unto none of them all Hos. 8. 11. Chap. 12. 11. And many ways there are whereby Men may and do seek after the presence of God after his favour and acceptance with him not in and by this true Tabernacle But they labour in vain and spend their strength for that which doth not profit Neither the Love nor Grace nor Goodness nor Mercy of God are elsewhere to be found nor can we by any other way be made partakers of them 6. It is by Christ alone that we can make our approach unto God in his Worship All Sacrifices of old were to be brought unto the door of the Tabernacle What was offered elsewhere was an Abomination to the Lord. With the Instruments with the Fire with the Incense that belonged unto the Tabernacle were they to be offered and no otherwise And it is now by Christ alone that we have an access in one Spirit unto the Father Ephes. 2. 18. He is the only way of going to him John 14. 6. And it is in and by his blood that he hath consecrated a new and living way unto the holy place Chap. 10. 19 20. 7. It was an Institution of God that the People in all their Distresses should look unto and make their Supplications towards the Tabernacle or holy Temple 1 Kings 8. 29 30. And it is unto the Lord Christ alone who is both the true Tabernacle and the Minister thereof that we are to look in all our spiritual Distresses 8. If any one else can offer the Body of Christ he also is the Minister of the true Tabernacle For the Lord Christ did no more He did but offer himself and they that can offer him do put themselves in his place VER III. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã THE Summary Description of our High Priest designed is carried on in this Verse And the Apostle manifests that as he wanted nothing which any other High Priest had that was necessary unto the discharge of his Office so he had it all in a more eminent manner than any other had ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Qui stat ut offerat Who standeth that is at the Altar that he may offer rendering ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã neutrally the whole sense is imperfect For every High Priest who standeth at the Altar that he may offer gifts and sacrifices therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Oblationem vul Munera Some rather use dona and some donaria sacred Gifts ãâã ãâã ãâã
efficient John 1. 5. Rom. 11. 34. Heb. 1. 2. So it doth here the eternal Spirit was not an inferior instrument whereby Christ offered himself but it was the principal efficient cause in the work The Variety that is in the reading of this place is taken notice of by all Some Copies read by the Eternal Spirit some by the Holy Spirit the latter is the reading of the Vulgar Translation and countenanced by sundry ancient Copies of the Original The Syriac retains the Eternal Spirit which also is the reading of most ancient Copies of the Greek Hence follows a double interpretation of the words some say that the Lord Christ offered himself unto God in and by the acting of the Holy Ghost in his Humane Nature For by him were wrought in him that servent zeal unto the glory of God that love and compassion unto the souls of men which both carried him through his sufferings and rendered his obedience therein acceptable unto God as a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor which work of the Holy Spirit in the Humane Nature of Christ I have elsewhere declared Others say that his own Eternal Deity which supported him in his sufferings and rendred the Sacrifice of himself effectual is intended But this will not absolutely follow to be the sense of the place upon the common reading by the Eternal Spirit For the Holy Spirit is no less an Eternal Spirit than is the Deity of Christ himself The truth is both these concurred in and were absolutely necessary unto the offering of Christ. The acting of his own Eternal Spirit was so unto the efficacy and effect And those of the Holy Ghost in him were so as unto the manner of it Without the first his offering of himself could not have purged our Consciences from dead works No Sacrifice of any meer creature could have produced that effect It would not have had in itself a worth and dignity whereby we might have been discharged of sin unto the glory of God Nor without the subsistence of the Humane Nature in the Divine Person of the Son of God could it have undergone and passed through unto victory what it was to suffer in this offering of it Wherefore this sense of the words is true Christ offered himself unto God through or by his own Eternal Spirit the Divine Nature acting in the person of the Son For 1 it was an Act of his entire Person wherein he discharged the office of a Priest And as his Humane Nature was the Sacrifice so his Person was the Priest that offered it which is the only distinction that was between the Priest and Sacrifice herein As in all other Acts of his Mediation the taking our nature upon him and what he did therein the Divine Person of the Son the Eternal Spirit in him acted in love and condescension so did it in this also of his offering himself 2 As we observed before hereby he gave dignity worth and efficacy unto the Sacrifice of himself For herein God was to purchase his Church with his own blood And this seems to be principally respected by the Apostle For he intends to declare herein the dignity and efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ in opposition unto those under the Law For it was in the will of man and by material fire that they were all offered But he offered himself by the Eternal Spirit voluntarily giving up his Humane Nature to be a Sacrifice in an Act of his Divine Power 3 The Eternal Spirit is here opposed unto the Material Altar as well as unto the Fire The Altar was that whereon the Sacrifice was laid which bore it up in its Oblation and Ascension But the Eternal Spirit of Christ was the Altar whereon he offered himself This supported and bore it up under its sufferings whereon it was presented unto God as an acceptable Sacrifice Wherefore this reading of the words gives a sense that is true and proper unto the matter treated of But on the other side it is no less certain that he offered himself in his Humane Nature by the Holy Ghost All the gracious actings of his mind and will were required hereunto The Man Christ Iesus in the gracious voluntary acting of all the faculties of his Soul offered himself unto God His Humane Nature was not only the matter of the Sacrifice but therein and thereby in the gracious actings of the faculties and powers of it he offered himself unto God Now all these things were wrought in him by the Holy Spirit wherewith he was filled which he received not by measure By him was he filled with that love and compassion unto the Church which acted him in his whole Mediation and which the Scripture so frequently proposeth unto our Faith herein He loved me and gave himself for me He loved the Church and gave himself for it He loved us and washed us in his own blood By him there was wrought in him that zeal unto the glory of God the fire whereof kindled his Sacrifice in an eminent manner For he designed with ardency of love to God above his own life and present state of his Soul to declare his righteousness to repair the diminution of his glory and to make such way for the communication of his love and grace to sinners that he might be eternally glorified He gave him that holy submission unto the Will of God under a prospect of the bitterness of that Cup which he was to drink as enabled him to say in the height of his conflict Not my Will but thy Will be done He filled him with that faith and trust in God as unto his supportment deliverance and success which carried him steadily and safely unto the issue of his tryal Isa. 50. 7 8 9. Through the actings of these graces of the Holy Spirit in the Humane Nature his offering of himself was a free voluntary Oblation and Sacrifice I shall not positively determine on either of these Senses unto the exclusion of the other The latter hath much of spiritual light and comfort in it on many accounts But yet I must acknowledge that there are two Considerations that peculiarly urge the former interpretation 1. The most and most ancient Copies of the Original read by the Eternal Spirit and are followed by the Syriac with all the Greck Scholists Now although the Holy Spirit be also an Eternal Spirit in the unity of the same Divine Nature with the Father and the Son yet where he is spoken of with respect unto his own personal actings he is constantly called the Holy Spirit and not as here the Eternal Spirit 2. The design of the Apostle is to prove the efficacy of the Offering of Christ above those of the Priests under the Law Now this arose from hence partly that he offered himself whereas they offered only the blood of Bulls and Goats but principally from the dignity of his Person in his Offering in that he offered himself by his own Eternal Spirit or
also because the true Understanding of them would put an end at that time unto that Priesthood and Worship which they had adhered unto Wherefore until this time the Church was not able to bear the true Understanding of this Mystery and now they could no longer be without it Hence is it here so fully and particularly declared by our Apostle And we may Observe 1. That the Church never did in any Age nor ever shall want that Instruction by Divine Revelation which is needful unto its Edification in Faith and Obedience This it had in all Ages according unto that gradual progression which God gave unto Light and Truth in the Explication of the great Mystery of his Grace which was hid in him from the Foundation of the World An Instance hereof we have in the things which concern this Melchisedec as we have observed The Church had never need to look after the Traditions of their Fathers or to betake themselves unto their own Inventions their Instruction by Revelation was always sufficient for the State and Condition wherein they were Much more therefore is it so now when the Sum and Perfection of all Divine Revelations is given in unto us by Jesus Christ. 2. It is a great Honour to Serve in the Church by doing or suffering for the Use and Service of future Generations This was the Honour of Melchisedec that he was employed in a Service the true Use and Advantage whereof was not given in unto the Church until many Generations after And I add Suffering unto Doing because it is well known what Glories have sprang up in future Ages upon the past Sufferings of others 3. The Scripture is so absolutely the Rule Measure and Boundary of our Faith and Knowledge in Spiritual things as that what it conceals is Instructive as well as what it expresseth This the Apostle Manifests in many of his Observations concerning Melchisedec and his Inferences from thence But I have as I remember Discoursed somewhat hereof before Secondly Our next Enquiry is Wherein Melchisedec was Typical of Christ or what of all this belongeth unto the following Assertion that he was made like unto the Son of God that is so described as that he might have a great Resemblance of him Answ. It is generally thought that he was so in the whole and in every particular mentioned distinctly Thus he is said to be without Father and without Mother no mention is made of them because the Lord Christ was in some sence so also He was without Father on Earth as to his Humane Nature with respect whereunto God says that he will create a New thing in the Earth That a Woman should compass a Man Jer. 31. 22. or Conceive a Man without Natural Generation And he was without Mother as to his Person or Divine Nature being the only begotten of the Father by an Eternal Generation of his own Person But yet it must not be denyed but that on the other side he had both Father and Mother A Father as to his Divine and a Mother as to his Humane Nature But as to his whole Person he was without Father and Mother Again Whereas he is said to be without Genealogy it is of somewhat a difficult application for the Genealogy of Christ was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Roll of his Pedigree is declared by two of the Evangelists the one driving of it up to Abraham the other unto Adam as it was necessary to manifest the Truth of his Humane Nature and the Faithfulness of God in the accomplishment of his Promises It may be therefore respect is had unto those words of the Prophet Isa. 53. 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Who shall declare his Generation there was somewhat in his Age and Generation by Reason of his Divine praeexistence unto all that was ineffable Again He is said to be without Beginning of Days and end of Life And this also is spoken by our Apostle with respect unto the Narration of Moses wherein mention is made neither of the one nor of the other And it belongs unto his Conformity unto the Son of God or that wherein he Represented him for as unto his Divine Person the Lord Christ had neither the one nor the other as the Apostle proves Chap. 1. 10 11 12. from Psal. 102. 25 26 27. But on the other side as to his Humane Nature he had both he had both beginning of Days and End of Life both which are upon Solemn Record Wherefore it should seem that if there be a likeness in these things on the one account there is none on the other and so no Advantage in the Comparison Considering these Difficulties in the Application of these particulars some do judge that these Instances do not belong unto the Analogy and Resemblance between Christ and Melchisedec but are introduced only in Order unto what ensues namely He abides a Priest for ever wherein alone the similitude between him and Christ doth consist And so they say we find things quoted in the Scripture at large when only some one passage in it may be used directly unto the business in hand But although this will be difficultly proved namely that any Testimony is cited in the Scripture whereof any principal part of it belongs not unto the Matter designed to be confirmed yet it may be granted that it is so sometimes when the sence of the whole Context is to be taken in But there was no Reason on this Ground that the Apostle should make so many Observations on what was not spoken at all which in an Ordinary way ought to have been mentioned if the whole of what he so Observed was not at all to his Purpose Wherefore it must be granted as that which the plain Design of the Apostle exacteth of us that Melchisedec even in these things that in the Story he was without Father without Mother without Genealogy having neither beginning of Days nor End of Life was a Type and Representative of Christ. But it is not of the Person of Christ absolutely nor of either of his Natures distinctly that our Apostle treateth but meerly with respect unto his Office of Priesthood And herein all the things mentioned do concur in him and make a lively Representation of him It was utterly a new Doctrine unto the Hebrews that the Lord Christ was a Priest the only High Priest of the Church so as that all other Priesthood must cease And their chief Objection against it was that it was contrary unto the Law and inconsistent with it And this because he was not of the Line of the Priests neither as to Father or Mother or Genealogy nor had any to Succeed him But in this Type of his the Apostle proves that all this was to be so For 1. In this respect he had neither Father nor Mother from whom he might derive any Right or Title unto his Office And this was for ever sufficient to exclude him from any
Interest in the Priesthood as it was Established by Law 2. He had no Genealogy upon the Priestly Line And that which is Recorded of him on other accounts is so far from having respect unto his Right unto the Priesthood of the Law that it directly proves and demonstrates that he had none For his Genealogy is evidently of the Tribe of Judah which was excluded Legally from that Office as we have besides the Institution an Instance in King Uzziah 2 Chron. 26. 16 17 18. from Exod. 30. 7. Numb 18. 7. Hence our Apostle concludes That had he been on the Earth that is under the Order of the Law he could not have been a Priest there being others who by virtue of their Descent had alone the Right thereunto Heb. 8. 3 4. Wherefore God in these things Instructed the Church that he would erect a Priesthood which should no way depend on Natural Generation Descent or Genealogy whence it inevitably follows that the state of the Priesthood under the Law was to cease and to give place unto another which our Apostle principally designs to prove 3. In this respect also the Lord Christ was without Beginning of Days and End of Life For although in his Humane Nature he was both Born and Died yet he had a Priesthood which had no such Beginning of Days as that it should be traduced from any other to him nor shall ever cease or be delivered over from him unto any other but abides unto the consummation of all things In these things was Melchisedec made like unto Christ whom the Apostle here calls the Son of God made like unto the Son of God I have formerly observed in this Epistle that the Apostle makes mention of the Lord Christ under various Appellations on various Occasions so that in one place or another he makes Use of all the Names whereby he is signified in the Scripture Here he calls him the Son of God and that 1. To intimate that although Melchisedec were an Excellent Person yet was he infinitely beneath him whom he Represented even the Son of God He was not the Son of God but he had the Honour in so many things to be made like unto him 2. To declare how all these things which were any way Represented in Melchisedec or couched in the Story or left unto Enquiry by the vail of silence drawn over them could be fulfilled in our High Priest And it was from hence namely that he was the Son of God By virtue hereof was he capable of an always-living abiding uninterrupted Priesthood although as to his Humane Nature he once died in the Discharge of that Office This Description being given of the Person treated of which makes up the Subject of the Proposition it is affirmed concerning him that he abideth a Priest for ever For any thing we find in the Story of his Death or the Resignation of his Office or the Succession of any one unto him therein he abideth a Priest for ever Some I find have been venturing at some obscure Conjectures of the perpetuity of the Priesthood of Melchisedec in Heaven But I cannot perceive that they well understood themselves what they intended Nor did they consider that the real continuance of the Priesthood for ever in the Person of Melchisedec is as inconsistent with the Priesthood of Christ as the continuance of the same Office in the Line of Aaron But things are so related concerning him in the Scripture as that there is no mention of the ending of the Priesthood of his Order nor of his own Personal Administration of his Office by Death or otherwise Hence is he said to abide a Priest for ever This was that which our Apostle principally designed to confirm from hence namely that there was in the Scripture before the Institution of the Aaronical Priesthood a Representation of an Eternal unchangeable Priesthood to be introduced in the Church which he demonstrates to be that of Jesus Christ. It may not be amiss in the close of this Exposition of these Verses summarily to represent the several particulars wherein the Apostle would have us to observe the likeness between Melchisedec and Christ or rather the especial Excellencies and Properties of Christ that were Represented in the Account given of the Name Reign Person and Office of Melchisedec As 1. He was said to be and he really was and he only first the King of Righteousness and then the King of Peace seeing he alone brought in Everlasting Righteousness and made Peace with God for Sinners And in his Kingdom alone are these things to be found 2. He was really and truly the Priest of the High God and properly he was so alone He offered that Sacrifice and made that Attonement which was signified by all the Sacrifices Offered by Holy Men from the Foundation of the World 3. He Blesseth all the Faithful as Abraham the Father of the Faithful was Blessed by Melchisedec In him were they to be Blessed by him are they Blessed through him delivered from the Curse and all the Fruits of it nor are they Partakers of any Blessing but from him 4. He receiveth all the Homage of his People all their grateful Acknowledgments of the Love and Favour of God in the Conquest of their Spiritual Adversaries and Deliverance from them as Melchisedec received the Tenth of the Spoils from Abraham 5. He was really without Progenitors or Predecessors unto his Office nor would I exclude that Mystical sence from the intention of the place that he was without Father as to his Humane Nature and without Mother as to his Divine 6. He was a Priest without Genealogy or Derivation of his Pedigree from the Loyns of Aaron or any other that ever was a Priest in the World and moreover Mysteriously was of a Generation which none can declare 7. He had in his Divine Person as the High Priest of the Church neither Beginning of Days nor End of Life as no such thing is reported of Melchisedec For the Death which he underwent in the Discharge of his Office being not the death of his whole Person but of his Humane Nature only no Interruption of his endless Office did ensue thereon For although the Person of the Son of God died whence God is said to Redeem his Church with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. yet he died not in his whole Person But as the Son of man was in Heaven whilst he was speaking on the Earth John 3. 13. namely he was so in his Divine Nature so whilst he was dead in the Earth in his Humane Nature the same Person was alive in his Divine Absolutely therefore nor in respect of his Office he had neither Beginning of Days nor end of Life 8. He was really the Son of God as Melchisedec in many Circumstances was made like to the Son of God 9. He alone abideth a Priest for ever whereof we must particularly treat afterwards The Doctrinal Observations that may be taken from these Verses
had unto the whole System of those Laws and Institutions of Worship which our Apostle as was also before observed calls Carnal Ordinances imposed unto the Time of Reformation Chap. 9. 10. They were all Carnal in opposition unto the Dispensation of the Spirit under the Gospel and the Institutions thereof None of these ways was the Lord Christ made a Priest He was not dedicated unto his Office by the Sacrifice of Beasts but Sanctified himself thereunto when he Offered himself through the Eternal Spirit unto God and was consummate in his own Blood He was not of the Carnal Seed of Aaron nor did nor could claim any Succession unto the Priesthood by virtue of an Extraction from his Race And no constitution of the Law in general no Ordinance of it did convey unto him either Right or Title unto the Priesthood It is therefore Evident that he was in no sense made a Priest according to the Law of a Carnal Commandment neither had he either Right Power or Authority to exercise the Sacerdotal Function in the observation of any Carnal Rites or Ordinances whatever And we may observe That what seemed to be wanting unto Christ in his entrance into any of his Offices or in the Discharge of them was on the account of a greater Glory Aaron was made a Priest with a great outward Solemnity The Sacrifices which were Offered and the Garments he put on with his visible separation from the rest of the People had a great Ceremonial Glory in them There was nothing of all this nor any thing like unto it in the Consecration of the Lord Christ unto his Office But yet indeed these things had no Glory in comparison of that excelling Glory which accompanied those invisible Acts of Divine Authority VVisdom and Grace which communicated his Office unto him And indeed in the VVorship of God who is a Spirit all outward Ceremony is a diminution and debasement of it Hence were Ceremonies for Beauty and Glory multiplyed under the Old Testament but yet as the Apostle shews were all but Carnal But as the sending of Christ himself and his Investiture with all his Offices were by Secret and Invisible Acts of God and his Spirit so all Evangelical VVorship as to the Glory of it is Spiritual and Internal only And the removal of the Old Pompous Ceremonies from our VVorship is but the taking away of the Veil which hindred from an insight and entrance into the Holy place 2. The way and manner whereby the Lord Christ was made a Priest is expressed positively ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But according unto the Power of an indissoluble Life ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã denotes an Opposition between the way rejected and this asserted as those which were not consistent He was not made a Priest that way but this How is Christ then made a Priest according to the Power of an endless Life That is saith one in his Paraphrase installed into the Priesthood after his Resurrection VVhat is meant by installed I well know not It should seem to be the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Consecrated Dedicated Initiated And if so this Exposition diverts wholly from the Truth For Christ was installed into his Office of Priesthood before his Resurrection or he did not Offer himself as a Sacrifice unto God in his Death and Blood-shedding And to suppose that the Lord Christ discharged and performed the principal Act of his Sacerdotal Office which was but once to be performed before he was installed a Priest is contradictory to Scripture and Reason it self Ideo ad vitam im mortalem perductus est ut in aeternum sacrdos noster esset He was therefore brought unto an Immortal Life that he might be our Priest for ever saith another But this is not to be made a Priest according to the Power of an endless Life If he means that he might always continue to be a Priest and to execute that Office always unto the consummation of all things what he says is true but not the sence of this place but if he means that he became Immortal after his Resurrection that he might be our Priest and abide so for ever it excludes his Oblation in his Death from being a proper Sacerdotal Act which that it was I have sufficiently proved elsewhere against Crellius and others Some think that the endless life intended is that of Believers which the Lord Christ by virtue of his Priestly Office confers upon them The Priests under the Law proceeded no further but to discharge Carnal Rites which could not confer Eternal life on them for whom they Ministred But the Lord Christ in the Discharge of his Office procureth Eternal Redemption and Everlasting life for Believers And these things are true but they comprise not the meaning of the Apostle in this place For how can Christ be made a Priest according to the Power of that Eternal Life which he confers on others For the comparison and opposition that is made between the Law of a Carnal Commandment whereby Aaron was constituted a Priest and the Power of an endless Life whereby Christ was made so do Evidence that the making of Christ a Priest not absolutely which the Apostle treats not of but such a Priest as he is was the Effect of this endless Life VVherefore the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the indissoluble Life here intended is the life of Christ himself Hereunto belonged or from hence did proceed that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Power whereby he was made a Priest And both the Office it self and the Execution or Discharge of it are here intended And as to the Office it self this Eternal or endless life of Christ is his life as the Son of God Hereon depends his own Mediatory life for ever and his conferring of Eternal life on us John 5. 26 27. And to be a Priest by virtue of or according unto this Power stands in direct opposition unto the Law of a Carnal Commandment It must therefore be enquired how the Lord Christ was made a Priest according unto this power And I say it was because thereby alone he was rendred meet to discharge that Office wherein God was to redeem his Church with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. By Power therefore here both meetness and ability are intended And both these the Lord Christ had from his Divine Nature and his endless life therein Or it may be the Life of Christ in his Humane Nature is intended in opposition unto those Priests who being made so by the Law of a Carnal Commandment did not continue in the Discharge of their Office by reason of Death as our Apostle observes afterwards But it will be said that this Natural life of Christ the life of the Humane Nature was not Endless but had an End put unto it in the Dissolution of his Soul and Body on the Cross. I say therefore this life of Christ was not absolutely the life of the Humane Nature considered separately from his Divine but it was the life of the Person of the Son of God of Christ as God and Man in one Person And so his life was endless For first in the Death which he underwent in his Humane Nature there
was no Interruption given unto his Discharge of his Sacerdotal Office no not for a moment For Secondly His Person still lived and both Soul and Body were therein inseparably United unto the Son of God Although he was truly and really dead in his Humane Nature he was still alive in his indissoluble Person And this the Apostle hath a respect unto in the Testimony which he cites in the next Verse to prove that he is a Priest for ever The Carnal Commandment gave Authority and Efficacy unto the Levitical Priests But Christ is made a Priest according to the Power of an endless life that is through the Power and Efficacy of that Eternal life which is in his Divine Person both his Humane Nature is preserved always in the Discharge of his Office and he is enabled thereby to work out eternal life on the behalf of them for whom he is a Priest And so the Apostle proves the Difference of this other Priest from those of the Order of Aaron not only from the Tribe wherein he was to be and from his Type Melchisedec but also from the way and means whereby the one and the other were enabled to discharge their Office VER 17. The Proof of all before asserted is given in the Testimony of the Psalmist so often before appealed unto For he testifieth thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec The Introduction of this Testimony is by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or he Witnesseth or Testifieth that is David doth in the Psalm or rather the Holy Ghost speaking in and by David doth so testifie He doth not absolutely say that so he speaks but testifies because he used his words in a way of Testimony unto what he had delivered And although one thing be now principally intended by him yet there is in these words a Testimony given unto all the especial Heads of his Discourse As 1. That there was to be another Priest a Priest that was not of the Stock of Aaron nor Tribe of Levi. For he says unto the Messiah Prophesied of who was to be of the Seed of David Thou art a Priest although a stranger from the Aaronical Line 2. That this other Priest was to be after the Order of Melchisedec and was not to be called after the Order of Aaron For he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã after the Order ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is a redundant and not a suffix ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and signifies a state or order of things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Eccles. 3. 18. I said in my Heart concerning the estate of the Sons of Men their condition and Order of all things that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Priesthood of Christ in the mind of God was the Eternal Idea or Original Exemplar of the Priesthood of Melchisedec God brought him forth and vested him with his Office in such a way and manner as that he might outwardly represent in sundry things the Idea of the Priesthood of Christ in his own mind Hence he and his Priesthood became an External Exemplar of the Priesthood of Christ as unto its actual exhibition and therefore is he said to be made a Priest after his Order that is suitably unto the Representation made thereof in him 3. That he was made a Priest namely by him and his Authority who said unto him Thou art a Priest as Chap. 5. 5 6 10. 4. That he was so after the power of an endless life For he was a Priest for ever This word is applyed to the Law and legal Priesthood and signifies a Duration commensurate unto the state and condition of the things whereunto it is applyed There was an ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Law an Age whereunto its continuance was confined So long all the Promises annexed unto it stood in force And as ascribed unto the new state of things under the Gospel it doth not signifie Eternity absolutely but a certain unchangable Duration unto the end of the Time and Works of the Gospel For then shall the Exercise of the Priesthood of Christ cease with his whole Mediatory Work and Office 1 Cor. 15. 28. Christ therefore is said to be a Priest for ever 1. In respect of his Person endued with an endless life 2. Of the Execution of his Office unto the final end of it he lives for ever to make Intercession 3. Of the Effect of his Offices which is to save Believers unto the utmost or with an Everlasting Salvation And the Apostle had sufficient Reason to affirm that what he proposed was eminently manifest namely from the Testimony which he produceth thereof For what can be more evident than that the Aaronical Priesthood was to be abolished if so be that God had designed and promised to raise up another Priest in the Church who was neither of the Stock nor Order of Aaron nor called the same way to his Office as he was and who when he was so raised and called was to continue a Priest for ever leaving no room for the continuance of that Priesthood in the Church nor place for its return when it was once laid aside And we may observe that 1. The Eternal continuance of Christs Person gives Eternal continuance and efficacy unto his Office Because he lives for ever he is a Priest for ever His endless life is the Foundation of his endless Priesthood Whilst he lives we want not a Priest and therefore he says that because he lives we shall live also 2. To make new Priests in the Church is virtually to renounce the Faith of his living for ever as our Priest or to suppose that he is not sufficient to the Discharge of his Office 3. The Alteration that God made in the Church by the Introduction of the Priesthood of Christ was progressive towards its perfection To return therefore unto or look after legal Ceremonies in the Worship of God is to go back unto poor beggarly Elements and Rudiments of the World VER 18 19. IN the Twelfth Verse of this Chapter the Apostle affirms that the Priesthood being changed there was of Necessity a change made of the Law also Having proved the former he now proceeds to confirm his Inference from it by declaring that the Priest and Priesthood that were promised to be introduced were in all things inconsistent with the Law In that place he mentions only a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or change of the Law But he intended not an Alteration to be made in it so as that being changed and mended it might be restored unto its former Use. But it was such a change of it as was an ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an Abrogation of it as in these Verses he doth declare
Evidence of Imperfection And by the Appointment of this Order God signified an Imperfection and Mutability in that Church state Succession indeed was a Relief against death but it was but a Relief and so supposed a want and weakness Under the Gospel it is not so as we shall see afterwards Observe that God will not fail to provide Instruments for his work that he hath to accomplish If many Priests be needful many the Church shall have 3 The Reason of this Multiplication of Priests was because they were not suffered to continue by reason of Death They were mortal men subject unto death and they died Death suffered them not to continue in the Execution of their Office It forbad them so to do in the name of the great Sovereign Lord of Life and Death And hereof an Instance was given in Aaron the first of them God to shew the nature of this Priesthood unto the people and to manifest that the everlasting Priest was not yet come commanded Aaron to dye in the sight of all the Congregation Num. 20. 25 26 27 28. So did they all afterwards as other men dye in their several Generations They were all by death forbidden to continue Death laid an injunction on them one after another from proceeding any farther in the Administration of their Office It is not surely without some especial design that the Apostle thus expresseth their dying They were by death prohibited to continue Wherefore he shews hereby 1. The way whereby an end was put unto the personal Administration and that was by death 2. That there was an Imperfection in the Administration of that Office which was so frequently interrupted 3. That they were seized upon by death whether they would or no when it may be they would have earnestly desired to continue and the people also would have rejoyced in it Death came on them neither desired nor expected with his Prohibition 4. That when death came and seized on them it kept them under its power so that they could never more attend unto their Office But it was otherwise with the Priest of the better Covenant as we shall see immediately Observe 1. There is such a necessity of the continual Administration of the Sacerdotal Office in behalf of the Church that the interruption of it by the death of the Priests was an Argument of the weakness of that Priesthood The High Priest is the Sponsor and Mediator of the Covenant Those of old were so Typically and by way of Representation VVherefore all Covenant Transactions between God and the Church must be through him He is to offer up all Sacrifices and therein represent all our prayers And it is evident from thence what a Ruin it would be unto the Church to be without an High Priest one moment Who would venture a suprizal unto his own soul in such a condition Could any man enjoy a moments peace if he supposed that in his extremity the High Priest might dye This now is provided against as we shall see in the next verse VER 24. But this man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood IN opposition unto what was observed in the Levitical Priests the contrary is here affirmed of the Lord Christ. And the Design of the Apostle is still the same namely to evince by all sorts of Instances his Preeminence as a Priest above them as such also 1. The Person spoken of is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Exceptive Conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but answereth unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã before used and introduceth the other member of the Antithesis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hic ille iste He of whom we speak namely Jesus the Surety of the New Testament We render it this man not improperly he was the Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus Nor doth the calling of him this man exclude his Divine nature for he was truly a man though God and man in one Person And the things here ascribed unto him were wrought in and by the humane nature though he that wrought them were God also But He or this man who was represented by Melchisedec of whom we speak 2. It is affirmed of this Person that he hath an unchangeable Priesthood the Ground and Reason whereof is assigned namely because he continueth ever which must be first considered The sole Reason here insisted on by the Apostle why the Levitical Priests were many is because they were forbidden by death to continue It is sufficient therefore on the contrary to prove the perpetuity of the Priesthood of Christ that he abideth for ever For he doth not absolutely hereby prove the perpetuity of the Priesthood but his perpetual uninterrupted Administration of it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This was the Faith of the Jews concerning the Messiah and his office We have heard say they out of the Law ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Joh. 12. 34. That Christ abideth for ever whereon they could not understand what he told them about his being lifted up by Death And so the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifieth to abide to continue in any state or condition Joh. 21. 22 23. And this was that which principally he was Typed in by Melchisedec concerning whom there is no Record as to the Beginning of Days or End of Life but as unto the Scripture Description of him he is said to abide a Priest for ever It may be said in opposition hereunto that the Lord Christ dyed also and that no less truely and really than did Aaron or any Priest of his Order Wherefore it will not hence follow that he had any more an uninterrupted Priesthood than they had Some say the Apostle here considers the Priesthood of Christ only after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven after which he dyes no more death hath no more power over him And if we will believe the Socinians then he first began to be a Priest This Figment I have fully confuted elsewhere And there is no ground in the Context on which we may conjecture that the Apostle intends the Administration of his Priesthood in Heaven only although he intend that also For he speaks of his Priesthood as typed by that of Melchisedec which as we have proved before respected the whole of his Office I say therefore that although Christ dyed yet he was not forbid by death to abide in his Office as they were He died as a Priest they died from being Priests He died as a Priest because he was also to be a Sacrifice But he abode and continued not only vested with his Office but in the execution of it in the state of death Through the indissolubleness of his Person his soul and body still subsisting in the Person of the Son of God he was a capable subject of his Office And his being in the state of the dead belonged unto the Administration of his Office no less than his Death it self So that from the first
three things must be considered in these words 1 The state and Condition of Christ as an High Priest He liveth alwayes or for ever 2. What he doth as an High Priest in that state and Condition He maketh Intercession for us 3. The Connexion of these things their mutual regard or the Relation of the work of Christ unto his state and condition the one is the end of the other He lives for ever to make intercession for us 1. As to his state and condition He lives for ever He is alwayes living The Lord Christ in his Divine Person hath a threesold life in Heaven The one he lives in himself the other for himself and the last for us 1. The Eternal life of God in his Divine Nature This he liveth in himself As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given unto the son to have life in himself Joh. 5 26. He hath given it him by eternal Generation in a communication unto him of all the divine Properties And he that hath life in himself a life independent on any other he is the living one the living God No creature can have life in himself For in God we live move and have our being He is hereby Alpha and Omega the first and the last the Begining and end of all Revel 1. 11. because he is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the living one ver 18. And this Life of Christ is the foundation of the efficacy of all his Mediatory Actings namely that he was in his own divine Person the Living God Act. 20. 28. 1 Cor. 2. 8. 1 Joh. 3. 16. But this is not the immediate cause of his Mediatory Effects nor is it here intended 2. There is a Life which he liveth for himself namely a Life of unconceivable Glory in his Humane Nature He lead a mortal life in this world a life obnoxious unto misery and death and died accordingly This life is now changed into that of immortal eternal Glory Hence forth he dyeth no more death hath no more Power over him And not only so but this Life of his is unto him the cause of and is attended with all that ineffable Glory which he now enjoyes in Heaven This Life he lives for himself it is his reward the Glory and Honour that he is crowned withal All the endowments all the enjoyments and the whole eternal exaltation of the Humane Nature in the Person of Christ belong unto this Life of Glory And the glorious exaltation of that individual humane nature which the son of God assumed far above all Principalities and Powers and every name that is named in this world or the world to come is the principal part of the Design of Infinite wisdom in the work of the new Creation But neither is this the Life here intended 3. The Lord Christ lives a Mediatory Life in Heaven a Life for us So saith our Apostle he was made a Priest after the Power of an endless Life whereof we have treated before He lives as King Prophet and Priest of the Church So he describes himself Revel 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of Hell and Death As he died for us so he liveth for us and is entrusted with all Power over the Churches adversaries for its good As he died for us so he liveth for us in Heaven and therefore tells us that because he liveth we shall live also Joh. 14. 19. Now this life differeth not essentially from that life of Glory in the Humane Nature which he liveth for himself in Heaven Only it denoteth one especial end of it and that only for a season The Lord Christ will have the life in himself the divine life unto all Eternity and so also will be the Life of Glory in the Humane Nature But he shall cease to live this Mediatory Life for us when the work of his Mediation is accomplished 1 Cor. 15. 28. But he shall lead this life alwaies for us until the whole work committed unto him be accomplished and shall lead it as a Life of Glory in himself unto Eternity Obs. It is a matter of strong consolation unto the Church that Christ lives in Heaven for us It is a spring of unspeakable Joy unto all true Believers that he lives a Life of Immortality and Glory in and for himself in Heaven Who can call to mind all the miseries which he underwent in this world all the reproach and scorn that was cast upon him by his enemies of all sorts all the wrath that the whole world is yet filled withal against him but is refreshed rejoyced transported with a spiritual view by Faith of all that Majesty and Glory which he is now in the Eternal Possession of so was it with Stephen Act. 7. 56. And therefore in all the Appearances and Representations which he hath made of himself since his Ascension into Heaven he hath manifested his present Glory Act. 26. 13. Revel 1. 14 15 16 17 18. And the due consideration hereof cannot but be a matter of unspeakable Refreshment unto all that love him in sincerity But herein lyeth the Life of the Churches Consolation that he continues to live a Mediatory Life in Heaven for us also It is not I fear so considered nor so improved as it ought to be That Christ dyed for us all who own the Gospel profess in words though some so explain their Faith or rather their Infidelity as to deny its proper use and to evacuate its proper ends That so he lived for us here in this world so as that his Life was some way or other unto our Advantage at least thus far that he could not have died if he had not lived before all men will grant even those by whom the principal end of this Life namely to fulfil the Law for us is peremptorily denyed But that Christ now lives a life of Glory in Heaven that most men think is for himself alone But the Text speaks to the contrary He lives for ever to make Intercession for us Neither is this the only end of his present Mediatory Life in Heaven though this only be here expressed Should I undertake to shew the ends of the present Mediatory Life of Christ for the Church it would be too great and long a decursion from the Text. However the whole of the work of this Life of his may be reduced into these three heads 1. His immediate Actings towards the Church it self which respects his Prophetical Office 2. His Actings for the Church in the world by Vertue and Power of his Kingly Office 3. His Actings with God the Father in their behalf in the dischage of his sacerdotal Office 1. The first consisteth in his sending and giving the Holy Ghost unto the Church He lives for ever to send the Holy Spirit unto his Disciples Without this constant effect of the present Mediatory Life of Christ the Being of the Church would fail it
of Believers Heb. 10. 2. 3. The actual Intercession of Christ in Heaven as the second Act of his sacerdotal Office is a fundamental Article of our Faith and a principal Foundation of the Churches consolation So is it asserted to be 1 John 2. 1 2. And it is expressed by our Apostle as that whereby the Death of Christ is made effectual unto us Rom. 8. 3 4. For it comprizeth the whole care and all the Actings of Christ as our High Priest with God in the behalf of the Church This therefore is the immediate spring of all Gracious communications unto us For hereby doth he act his own Care Love and Compassion and from thence do we receive all Mercy all Supplies of Grace and Consolation needful unto our Duties Temptations and Trials Hereon depends all our encouragement to make our Application unto God to come with boldness of Faith unto the Throne of Grace Chap. 4. 15 16. Chap. 10. 21 22. Wherefore whatever Apprehensions we may attain of the manner of it the thing it self is the center of our Faith Hope and Consolation 4. It is no way unworthy or unbecoming the humane nature of Christ in its glorious Exaltation to pray unto God It was in and by the humane Nature that the Lord Christ exercised and executed all the Duties of his Offices whilst he was on Earth And he continueth to discharge what remains of them in the same Nature still And however that Nature be glorified it is the same essentially that it was when he was in this world To ascribe another kind of Nature unto him under pretence of a more divine Glory is to deny his Being and to substitute a fancy of our own in his Room So then the Humane Nature of Christ however exalted and glorifyed is humane Nature still subsisting in dependance on God and subjection unto him Hence God gives him new Revelations now in his glorified condition Revel 1. 1. With respect hereunto he acted of old as the Angel of the Covenant with expresse Prayers for the Church Zech. 1. 12 13. So the Command given him to intercede by the way of Petition Request or Prayer Psal. 2. 8. Ask of me respects his state of Exaltation at the Right hand of God when he was declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead v. 7 8. And the Incense which he offereth with the Prayers of the Saints Rev. 8. 3 4. is no other but his own Intercession whereby their Prayers are made acceptable unto God 5. This Praying of Christ at present is no other but such as may become him who sits down at the Right hand of the Majesty on High There must therefore needs be a great difference as to the outward manner between his present Intercession in Heaven and his Praying whilst he was on the Earth especially at some seasons For being encompassed here with Temptations and Difficulties he cast himself at the foot of God with strong cryes tears and supplications Chap. 5. 7. This would not become his present glorious state nor is he liable or exposed unto any of the causes or occasions of that kind of treating with God And yet at an another time whilst he was in this world he gave us the best estimate and Representation of his present Intercession that we are able to comprehend And this was in his Prayer recorded John 17th For therein his confidence in God his Union in and with him the Declaration of his Will and Desires are all expressed in such a manner as to give us the best understanding of his present Intercession For a created nature can rise no higher to expresse an Interest in God with an Oneness of mind and Will than is therein declared And as the Prayers with cryes and tears when he offered himself unto God were peculiarly Typed by the Fire on the Altar so was this solemn Prayer represented by that cloud of Incense wherewith the High Priest covered the Ark and the Mercy-seat at his entrance into the most holy place In the vertue of this holy cloud of incense did he enter the Holy places not made with hands Or we may apprehend its Relation unto the Types in this Order His Prayer John 17th was the preparation of the sweet Spices whereof the Incense was made and compounded Exod. 30. 34. His Sufferings that ensued thereon were as the breaking and bruising of those Spices wherein all his Graces had their most fervent exercise as Spices yield their strongest savour under their bruising At his entrance into the Holy place this Incense was fired with Coals from the Altar that is the efficacy of his Oblation wherein he had offered himself unto God through the Eternal Spirit rendred his Prayer as Incense covering the Ark and Mercy-seat that is procuring the fruits of the Attonment made before God 6. It must be granted that there is no need of the use of Words in the immediate Presence of God God needs not our words whilst we are here on Earth as it were absent from him For he is present with us and all things are open and naked before him But we need the use of them for many reasons which I have elsewhere declared But in the glorious presence of God when we shall behold him as the Lord Christ doth in the most eminent manner Face to Face it cannot be understood what need or use we can have of words to express our selves unto God in Prayers or Praises And the souls of men in their separate state and condition can have no use of Voice or VVords yet are they said to cry and pray with a loud voice because they do so virtually and effectually Rev. 6. 9 10. However I will not determine what outward Transactions are necessary unto the glory of God in this matter before the Angels and Saints that are about his Throne For there is yet a Church state in Heaven wherein we have Communion Chap. 12. 22 23 24. What solemn outward and as it were visible Transactions of worship are required thereunto we know not And it may be the Representation of Gods Throne and his worship Revel 4 5. wherein the Lamb in the midst of the Throne hath the principal part may not belong only unto what is done in the Church here below And somewhat yet there is which shall cease and not be any more after the Day of Judgment 1 Cor. 15. 26 28. 7. It must be granted that the vertue efficacy and Prevalency of the Intercession of the Lord Christ depends upon and flows from his Oblation and Sacrifice This we are plainly taught from the Types of it of Old For the Incense and carrying of Blood into the Holy place after the Expiatory Sacrifice the great Type of his Oblation of himself did both of them receive their efficacy and had respect unto the Sacrifice offered without Besides it is expresly said that the Lord Christ by the one Offering of himself obtained for us eternal
to discharge his Ministry and preach the word of God And his Austerities in Food and Raiment were but to express outwardly the Doctrine of Repentance enforced by threats which he preached But as these Persons forsook the Example of Christ and the Gospel to go back unto John and his Ministry so they utterly mistook their pattern and instead of making their Retirement a means and help to discharge the Ministry in calling others unto Faith and Repentance they made it a Covert for their own Ignorance and Superstition And for those Votaries of the Roman Church who pretend in the foolish Imitation of them to fancy a Wilderness in the middest of populous Cities there can be no course of life invented more alien from the conduct of natural Light more useless unto the Glory of God and the Good of the Community of Mankind nor more contrary to the Example and Commands of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles 3. He is not said to be separate from Sinners so in state and condition as Kings and Potentates are from Persons poor and mean and who therefore out of a sense of their own meanness and the others State and Greatness of mind dare not approach unto them No but as he was meek and lowly and took up his whole converse with the lower sort of the People the poor of this world so he did by all ways and means invite and encourage all sorts of sinners to come unto him 4. He is not said to be separate from sinners as though he had been ever in any communion with them in any thing wherein he was afterwads separated from them The Participle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hath the sense of an Adjective declaring what is and not how he came so to be He was always in such a state and condition so Holy so Harmless and Undefiled as never to have a concern in any thing from which he was to be separated It appeareth hence plainly wherein it was that he was separate from sinners namely in Sin in its Nature causes and effects Whatever of that sort he underwent was upon our Account and not his own He was every way in the perfect Holiness of his Nature and his Life distinguished from all sinners not only from the greatest but from those who ever had the least taint of Sin and who otherwise were most Holy And so it became us that he should be He that was to be a middle Person between God and Sinners was to be separate from those sinners in that thing on the Account whereof he undertook to stand in their stead And these are the Properties of the Humane Nature of our High Priest and which were necessary antecedently unto the discharge of any Part or Duty of his Office His present state and condition is in the next place expressed and made higher than the Heavens ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Made higher God is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the most high God God above And Glory is to be asscribed unto him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Highest Luk. 2. 14. And the Lord Christ in his Exaltation is said to sit down at the right hand of the Majesty ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã chap. 1. 3. On high He was for a season made lower than the Angels made on the Earth and descended into the lower parts of the Earth and that for the Discharge of the principal Part of his Priestly Office namely the offering of himself for a Sacrifice unto God But he abode not in that state nor could he discharge his whole Office and all the Duties of it therein and therefore was made higher than the Heavens He was not made higher than the Heavens that he might be a Priest but being our High Priest and as our High Priest He was so made for the discharge of that part of his Office which yet remained to be performed for he was to live for ever to make Intercession for us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as may be seen in the foregoing Instances hath a double signification 1 Of Place 2 Of state and condition 1. If it be Place that is meant then by the Heavens which he is made above those aspectable Heavens with all their Glory are intended He is no longer on the Earth but exalted into a Throne of Majesty above these Heavens So it is said that he passed through these Heavens when he went into the Presence of God chap. 4. 14 15. And there he abides For although the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him as unto the Immensity of his divine Nature yet as unto his humane Nature here spoken of the Heavens must receive him until the time of the Restitution of all things Act. 3. 21. He is in this sense no more on the Earth nor Subject unto any of those inconveniences which his abode here below must be exposed unto Yea had he always continued here he could not have been such an High Priest as became us as our Apostle declares chap. 8. 4. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã may respect state and condition or the Glorious state on the right hand of the Majesty on high which he is exalted unto And in this sense by the Heavens than which Christ is made higher exalted above the Angels the sacred Inhabitants of those Heavenly Places are intended And this our Apostle in other places often insists upon as a great manifestation of the Glory of Christ See Ephes. 1. 21 22. Phil. 2. 10 11. Heb. 1. 4. chap. 2. 7 8. I see no Reason but that both these may be included in this expression He was so exalted as to the place of his Residence from the Earth above those aspectable Heavens as withal to be placed in Honour Dignity and Power above all the Inhabitants of Heaven he only excepted who puts all things under him And so we have finished the Exposition of these words with the vindication of the proper meaning of them Two ends there are why the Apostle gives us such a Description of the High Priest that became us or which we stood in need of 1. To manifest that the Levitical Priests were no way qualifyed for this Office no way meet or able to bring us unto God Something they did represent but nothing of themselves they did effect They all of them came short in every Qualification which was necessary unto this end They were all sinners and living and dying on the Earth they never attained unto that condition of Glory and Dignity which were necessary unto the full and final discharge of that Office So he declares his mind to have been expresly in the next verses 2. To encourage the Faith of Believers by evidencing unto them that whatever was needful in an high Priest to bring them to God and to save them to the utmost was found in all Perfection in Christ Jesus And we may observe that 1. Although these Properties of our High Priest are principally to be considered as rendring him meet to be our
Matth. 11. 27. For it is of the knowledge of heavenly mysteries that he is there discoursing with Nicodemus In his Incarnation he came down from Heaven assuming a Nature upon the earth the highest condescension of God And whereas the actings of his power on the earth is often called his coming down from Heaven Gen. 18. 21. Isa. 64. 1. How much more may this infinite condescension of the second Person in assuming our Nature be so called But yet he was still in Heaven the Son of man which is in Heaven In his Divine Nature he was still on the Throne of Majesty For this being an inseparable property of Divine Authority he could never really forego it Then 3. It is the Humane Nature of Christ or Christ in his Humane Nature or with respect unto it that is capable of this real Exaltation by a real addition of Glory It is not the manifestation of his Glary with respect unto his Humane Nature but the real Collation of Glory on him after his Ascension that is intended This the whole Scripture testifieth unto namely a real communication of Glory unto Christ by the Father after his Ascension which he had not before See Luke 24. 16. John 17. 24. Acts 2. 33. Acts 5. 31. Rom. 14. 9. Ephes. 1. 20 21 22 23. Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Hebr. 1. 3. Chap. 12. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 21. Rev. 5. 9. And concerning this Glory given him of God we may observe 1. That it is not absolutely infinite and essentially divine Glory This cannot be communicated unto any A Creature as was the Humane Nature of Christ cannot be made God by an essential communication of Divine Properties unto it Neither are they so communicable nor is that a capable Subject of their inhesion Wherefore they speak dangerously who assert a real communication of the Properties of the one Nature of Christ unto the other so as that the Humane Nature of Christ shall be Omnipresent Omnipotent and Omniscient neither doth the Union of the two Natures in the Person of Christ require any more the Transfusion of the Divine Properties into the Humane than those of the Humane into the Divine If therefore by that Union the Humane Nature should be thought to be rendred subjectively omnipotent and omnipresent the Divine on the other hand must become limited and finite But whatever belongs unto Christ with respect unto either Nature belongs unto the Person of Christ and therein he is all that he is in either Nature and in both hath done and doth what in either of them he hath done and doth they yet continuing distinct in their essential Properties 2. Yet this Exaltation and Glory of Christ in his Humane Nature is not only absolutely above but also of another kind than the utmost of what any other created Being either hath or is capable of It is more than any other Creature is capable of because it is founded in the Union of his Person a Priviledge which no other Creature can ever pretend unto or be made Partaker of unto Eternity Hebr. 2. 16. This renders his Glory in his Exaltation of another kind than that of the most glorious Creatures in their best condition Again it consists greatly in that Power and Authority over the whole Creation and every individual in it and all their Concerns which is committed unto him See our Explanation hereof at large on Chap. 1. ver 3. 4. This Exaltation of the Person of Christ gives Glory unto his Office as the Apostle here declares It is the Person of Christ which is vested with the office of the Priesthood or God could not have redeemed his Church with his own blood although he exercise all the Duties of it both here below and above in the Humane Nature only And it is the Person of Christ which is thus exalted and made glorious although the especial Subject of this Exaltation and Glory be the Humane Nature only And this gives Glory unto his Office For 1. This is a manifest Pledge and Evidence of the absolute Perfection of his Oblation and that by one offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified When the High Priest of old appeared for awhile in the Holy Place he returned again unto his former station that he might be in a condition to offer another Sacrifice at the return of the year And hence doth our Apostle prove That none of the Worshippers were perfected by those Sacrifices But our High Priest having offered himself once for all now sitting down for ever at the right hand of God in Glory and Majesty unconceivable it is evident that he hath fully expiated the sins of all that come unto God by him And this declares the Glory of his Office 2. By his Glorious Power he makes all things subservient unto the ends of his mediation For he is given to be Head over all things to the Church All things are in his Power and at his Disposal as he is exalted at the right hand of God and he will assuredly make them all work together for the good of them that do believe And 3. He is able to render the Persons and Duties of Believers accepted in the sight of God To present them unto God is the great remaining Duty of his Office That they be so is their only real concern in this world and that alone which their minds are principally exercised about And what greater security can they have hereof than the Interest and Glory which this their High Priest hath in Heaven 1 John 2. 1 2. VER 11. THE second Preeminence of our Lord Christ as our High Priest which the Apostle calls over in this Summary of his Discourse is contained in this second Verse ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Minister ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vul Lat. Sanctorum Rhem. of the Holies Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Holy House or Domus Sanctuarii of the House of the Sanctuary Sanctuarii of the Sanctuary as we shall see ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vul Lat. quod fixit Deus which God hath fixed or pitched Rhem. which our Lord pight following the Original as to the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and not a Son of man Some Copies of the Vulgar Latine Dominus A Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man There are two Parts of these words expressing 1. What is affirmed of our High Priest namely That he was a Minister of the Sanctuary and the true Tabernacle 2. An Amplification of what is so affirmed by the Description and Distinction of this Tabernacle which the Lord fixed and not man In the first also there are two things 1. The Assertion of his Office He is a Minister 2. The Assignation and Limitation of his Discharge of that Office it is the Sanctuary and true Tabernacle 1. It is affirmed that he is ãâã ãâã ãâã
ãâã ãâã a Minister Having declar'd the Glory and Dignity which he is exalted unto as sitting down at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in Heaven what can be farther expected from him There he lives eternally happy in the enjoyment of his own Blessedness and Glory Is it not reasonable it should be so after all the hardships and miseries which he being the Son of God underwent in this world Who can expect that he should any longer condescend unto Office and Duty Neither generally have men any other thoughts concerning him But where then would lie the advantage of the Church in his Exaltation which the Apostle designs in an especial manner to demonstrate Wherefore unto the mention of it he immediately subjoins the continuation of his Office He is still ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Publick Minister for the Church ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is to minister either with God or before God as a Priest for others or for God in the Name of God towards others as do Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel And therefore all these sorts are called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Lord Christ is expresly spoken of here as a Priest it is a name of his Priestly Office wherein he acts towards God Nor is he any where called or said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in any of his Actings from God towards us although he be said therein to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rom. 15. 8. that is he was so in the days of his flesh but that name now no way belongeth unto him He is not therefore styled a Minister because he executeth the Purposes of God towards us as Schlictingius fancieth but he acts towards God and before God on our behalf according to the duty of a Priest He went into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for us and to discharge his Office before God on our behalf And it is granted also that by vertue thereof he doth also communicate all good things from God unto us For the whole administration of things Sacred between God and the Church is committed unto him And we must observe that The Lord Christ in the Height of his Glory condescends to discharge the Office of a publick minister in the behalf of the Church We are not to bound our Faith on Christ as unto what he did for us on the Earth The Life and Efficacy of the whole of his Mediation depends on what he did antecedently thereunto and what he doth consequently unto it For in these things doth the Glory of his Love and Grace most eminently appear Antecedently unto what he did on Earth and to make way for it there was his infinite condescension in assuming our Nature He was in the forme of God and in the eternal enjoyment of all the Blessedness which the Divine Nature is essentially accompanied withal Yet being thus Rich this was his Grace that for our sakes he became poor This ineffable Grace and Love of Christ is the principal object of our Faith and Admiration as it is declared by the Apostle Phil. 2. 6 7 8 9. And as he emptied himself and laid aside his Glory for a season to undertake the Work of Meditation So now he hath reassumed his Glory as to the manifestation of his Divine Power and hath the highest Addition of Glory in his Humane Nature by his exaltation at the right hand of God yet he continueth his care of and Love towards the Church so as yet to discharge the office of a Publick Minister in their behalf As all the shame reproach misery with death that he was to undergo on the Earth deterred him not from undertaking this work So all the Glory which he is environed withal in Heaven diverts him not from continuing the Discharge of it 2dly There is a Limitation of this ministration of our High Priest with respect unto its proper Object and that in a double expression For he is a Minister 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1. He is so ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The word may be either of the Masculine or of the Neuter Gender and so respect either Persons or Things If it be taken in the former way it is of the Saints And this is the ordinary sense of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Books of the New Testament Saints or Holy Persons But they cannot be here precisely intended And the Apostle useth this word frequently in another sense in this Epistle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Neuter Gender may have a double signification 1. Of Holy things in general 2. Of Holy Places 1. Of things So the Uul Lat. renders the word Sanctorum which the Rhemists translate Holies that is of Holy Persons or Holy things And ours place Holy things in the Margen And the sense is true if the signification of the word be extended unto all Holy Things For the ministration of them all is committed unto Jesus Christ. But the word hath yet a more peculiar signification The inmost part of the Tabernacle our Apostle calls ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 9. 3. That is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Holy of Holies the most Holy Place And absolutely he calls it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Holyes Chap 9. 8 12 24 25. Chap. 13. 11. And in answer thereunto he calleth our Spiritual Presence before God whereunto we have an Access by the Blood of Christ by the same name Chap. 10. 19. And hence the word is rendred by most Interpreters the Sanctuary as by the Syr. The House of the Sanctuary Particularly that Part of the Tabernacle whereinto the High Priest entred alone and that but once a year Take this Sanctuary properly and literally and Christ was not the minister of it He never entred into it nor could nor had any Right so to do because it belonged and was appropriated unto others as our Apostle declares ver 4. Wherefore we must take our Direction herein from the words following For mentioning the whole Tabernacle as he doth here one part of it namely the Sanctuary he gives it a note of Distinction from the Old Tabernacle of Moses the true Tabernacle So must the Sanctuary be distinguished from that of Old It is that which answers thereunto And this is nothing but Heaven it self Heaven not as considered absolutely but as the Place of Gods glorious Presence the Temple of the living God where the worship of the Church is represented and all its Affairs transacted This is called Gods Sanctuary Psal. 102. 19. He looked down from the height of his Sanctuary from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth And so the Apostle himself plainly interprets this place Chap. 9. 24. Christ is not entred into the Holy Places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self And this is called the Sanctuary because there doth really dwell and abide all
Righteousness at For Ob. God in his infinite wisdom gives proper times and seasons unto all his Dispensations unto and towards the Church So the accomplishment of these things was in the fulness of times Ephes. 1. 10. that is when all things rendred it seasonable and suitable unto the condition of the Church and for the manifestation of his own glory He hasteneth all his works of grace in their own appointed time Isa. 60. 22. And our duty it is to leave the ordering of all the Concerns of the Church in the accomplishment of promises unto God in his own time Acts 1. 7. 2. That which is ascribed unto the Lord Christ is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Ministry The Priests of old had a Ministry they ministred at the Altar as in the foregoing verse And the Lord Christ was a Minister also so the Apostle had said before he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 2. A Minister of the holy things Wherefore he had a Liturgy a Ministry a Service committed unto him And two things are included herein 1. That it was an office of Ministry that the Lord Christ undertook He is not called a Minister with respect unto one particular Act of Ministration so are we said to minister unto the necessity of the Saints which yet denotes no office in them that do so But he had a standing Office committed unto him as the word imports In that sense also he is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Minister in office Rom. 15. 8. 2. Subordination unto God is included herein With respect unto the Church his Office is supreme accompanied with Sovereign Power and Authority He is Lord over his own house But he holds his Office in subordination unto God being faithful unto him that appointed him So the Angels are said to minister unto God Dan. 7. 10. that is to do all things according unto his will and at his command So had the Lord Christ a Ministry And we may observe 1. That the whole Office of Christ was designed unto the Accomplishment of the Will and Dispensation of the Grace of God For these ends was his Ministry committed unto him We can never sufficiently admire the Love and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in undertaking this Office for us The greatness and glory of the duties which he performed in the discharge thereof with the benefits we receive thereby are unspeakable being the immediate cause of all grace and glory Yet we are not absolutely to rest in them but to ascend by Faith unto the eternal Spring of them This is the Grace the Love the Mercy of God all acted in a way of Sovereign Power These are everywhere in the Scripture represented as the original Spring of all Grace and the ultimate Object of our Faith with respect unto the benefits which we receive by the Mediation of Christ. His Office was committed unto him of God even the Father and his Will did he do in the discharge of it Yet also 2. The Condescension of the Son of God to undertake the Office of the Ministry on our behalf is unspeakable and for ever to be admired Especially will it appear so to be when we consider who it was who undertook it what it cost him what he did and underwent in the pursuance and discharge of it as it is all expressed Phil. 2. 6 7 8. Not only what he continueth to do in Heaven at the right hand of God belongeth unto this Ministry but all that he suffered also upon the Earth His Ministry in the undertaking of it was not a Dignity a Promotion a Revenue Matth. 20. 28. It is true it is issued in glory but not until he had undergone all the evils that humane nature is capable of undergoing And we ought to undergo any thing chearfully for him who underwent this Ministry for us 3. The Lord Christ by undertaking this Office of the Ministry hath consecrated and made honourable that Office unto all that are rightly called unto it and do rightly discharge it It is true his Ministry and ours are not of the same kind and nature But they agree in this that they are both of them a Ministry unto God in the holy things of his worship And considering that Christ himself was Gods Minister we have far greater reason to tremble in our selves on an apprehension of our own insufficiency for such an Office than to be discouraged with all the hardships and contests we meet withall in the world upon the account of it 3. The general way whereby our Lord Christ came unto this Ministry is expressed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He obtained it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is either sorte contingo to have a lot or portion or to have any thing befall a Man as it were by accident or assequor obtineo to attain or obtain any thing which before we had not But the Apostle designeth not to express in this word the especial call of Christ or the particular way whereby he came unto his Ministry but only in general that he had it and was possessed of it in the appointed season which before he had not The way whereby he entred on the whole office and work of his Mediation he expresseth by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 1. 4. he had it by Inheritance that is by free Grant and perpetual Donation made unto him as the Son See the Exposition on that place There were two things that concurred unto his obtaining this Ministry 1 The eternal purpose and counsel of God designing him thereunto an Act of the Divine Will accompanied with infinite Wisdom Love and Power 2 The actual call of God whereunto many things did concur especially his Unction with the Spirit above measure for the holy discharge of his whole Office Thus did he obtain this Ministry and not by any legal Constitution Succession or carnal Rite as did the Priests of old And we may see that Ob. The Exaltation of the Humane Nature of Christ into the Office of this glorious Ministry depended solely on the Sovereign Wisdom Grace and Love of God When the Humane Nature of Christ was united unto the Divine it became in the Person of the Son of God meet and capable to make satisfaction for the sins of the Church and to procure Righteousness and Life Eternal for all that do believe But it did not merit that Union nor could do so For as it was utterly impossible that any created Nature by any Act of its own should merit the Hypostatical Union so it was granted unto the Humane Nature of Christ antecedently unto any Act of its own in way of obedience unto God For it was united unto the Person of the Son by virtue of that Union Wherefore antecedently unto it it could merit nothing Hence its whole Exaltation and the Ministry that was discharged therein depended solely on the Sovereign Wisdom and Pleasure of God And in this Election and Designation of the Humane Nature of Christ
à nobis intelligitur Ipse est Tabernaculum propter carnis tegumentum Ipse est mensa quia noster cibus est et vita Ipse est Arca habens legem Dei reconditam quia est verbum Patris Ipse est candelabrum quia est Lux Spiritualis Ipse est Altare incensi quia est odor suavitatis in Sanctificationem Ipse est Altare Holocausti quia est hostia pro totius mundi vit a in cruce oblata And other Instances he gives unto the same purpose And although I cannot comply with all his particular Applications yet the Ground he builds upon and the Rule he proceeds by are firm and stable And by this Rule we shall enquire into the signification of the things mentioned by the Apostle in the first part of the Tabernacle 1. The Candlestick with its seven Branches and its perpetual Light with pure Oyl giving Light unto all Holy Administrations did represent the fullness of Spiritual Light that is in Christ Jesus and which by him is communicated unto the whole Church In him was Life and the Life was the Light of men Ioh. 1. 4. God gave unto him the Spirit not by measure Ioh. 3. 34. And the Holy Spitit rested on him in all variety of his Gifts and Operations especially those of Spiritual Light Wisdom and Understanding Isa. 11. 2. 3. And in allusion unto this Candlestick with its seven Lamps is called the seven Spirits that are before the Throne of God Revel 1. 4 as He in and by whom the Lord Christ gives out the fullness and perfection of spirituall Light and Gifts unto the illumination of the Church even as the Light of the Tabernacle depended on the seven Lamps of the Candlestick Wherefore by the Communication of the fullness of the Spirit in all his Gifts and Graces unto Christ he became the fountain of all spiritual Light unto the Church For he subjectively enlightens their minds by his Spirit Ephes. 1. 17 18 19. and objectively and doctrinally conveys the means of Light unto them by his word Again There was one Candlestick which contained the holy Oyl a Type of the spirit in it self Thence was it communicated unto the Branches on each side of it that they also should give Light unto the Tabernacle Yet had they originally no oyl in themselves but only what was continually communicated unto them from the body of the Candlestick And so the communications from Christ of spiritual Gifts unto the Ministers of the Gospel whereby they are instrumental In the Illumination of the Church was signified thereby For unto every one of us is given Grace according unto the measure of the Gift of Christ even as he pleaseth Ephes. 4. 7. But hereon we must also remember that this Candlestick was all one beaten work of pure Gold both the Scapus the Body and all the Branches of it There were neither joynts nor screws nor pins in or about it Exod. 25. 36. Wherefore unless ministers are made Partakers of the divine nature of Christ by that faith which is more precious than Gold and are intimately united unto him so as mystically to become one with him no pretended conjunction unto him by joynts and screws of outward order will enable them to derive that pure oyl from him with whose burning Light they may illuminate the Church But this I submitt unto the Judgment of others This is of faith herein That which God instructed the Church in by this holy Utensil and its Use was that the promised Messiah whom all these things typed and represented was to be by the fullness of the spirit in himself and the communication of all Spiritual Graces and Gifts unto others the only cause of all true saving Light unto the Church He is the true Light which lighteneth every man coming into the world namely that is savingly enlightened Upon the entrance of Sin all things fell into Darkness spiritual darkness covered mankind not unlike that which was on the face of the deep before God said let there be Light and there was Light 2 Cor. 4 6. And this darkness had two parts first that which was external with respect unto the will of God concerning Sinners and their acceptance with him secondly on the minds of men in their incapacity to receive such divine Revelations unto that end as were or should be made This was the double Vail the Vail vailed and the Covering covered over the face of all Nations which was to be destroyed Isa. 25. 7. And they are both removed by Christ alone the former by his Doctrine the latter by his Spirit Moreover there was no Light at all in the Sanctuary for the performance of any holy Administrations but what was given unto it by the Lamps of this Candlestick And therefore was it to be carefully dressed every morning and evening by a perpetual Statute And if the communication of spiritual Gifts and Graces do cease the very Church it self notwithstanding its outward order will be a place of Darkness Obs. 1. The Communication of sacred Light from Christ in the Gifts of the Spirit is absolutely necessary unto the due and acceptable performance of all holy Offices and Duties of worship in the Church And 2. No man by his utmost endeavours in the use of outward means can obtain the least beam of saving Light unless it be communicated unto him by Christ who is the only fountain and cause of it The Table and the Shew-bread mentioned in the next place respected him also under another consideration The use of the Table which was all overlaid with Gold was only to bear the bread which was laid upon it What resemblance there might be therein unto the Divine Person of Christ which sustained the humane nature in its duties that Bread of Life which was provided for the Church It may be is not easie to declare Howbeit the Head of Christ is said to be as the most fine Gold Cant. 5. 11. Wherefore the matter of it being most precious and the form of it beautifull and glorious it might as far represent it as any thing would do which is of this Creation as all these things were ver 11. But that the Lord Christ is the only Bread of life unto the Church the only Spiritual Food of our Souls he himself doth fully testifie Ioh. 6. 32. 35. He therefore He alone was represented by this continual Bread of the Sanctuary VER 3 4 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But after the second Vail or Covering Our Latine Translation reads post medium velum that is after the Vail that was in the midst For there were not three Vails whereof this should be in the midst but two only The Syriack somewhat changeth the words The inner Tabernacle which was within the face of the second Gate The same thing is intended but the inner is added and after the second Vail is expressed by an Hebraism what ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is which is rendred
sacerdotal office They are excellent in their Relation unto the Wisdom Grace and Love of God whereof they are the principal effects and excellent in Relation unto the Church as the only means of its eternal Redemption and Salvation Hadthey been of a lower or meaner nature so glorious a means had not been designed for the effecting of them Woe unto them by whom they are despised How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation And 4. Such a Price and value did God put on these things so good are they in his eyes as that he made them the subject of his promises unto the Church from the foundation of the world And in all his promises concerning them he still opposed them unto all the good things of this world as those which were incomparably above them and better than them all And therefore he chose out all things that are precious in the whole Creation to represent their excellencie which makes an Appearance of Promises of earthly Glories in the old Testament whereby the Jews deceived themselves And because of their worth he judged it meet to keep the Church so long in the desire and expectation of them 5. That which the Apostle hath immediate respect unto in the declaration of the Priesthood and Sacrifice of Christ is what he had newly at large declared concerning the Tabernacle and the Service of the High Priest therein Wherefore he assigns a Tabernacle unto this High Priest in answer unto that under the Law whereby he came or wherein he administred the duties of his office And concerning this he first asserts that he came by a Tabernacle 2 Describes this Tabernacle in comparison with the former 1 Positively that it was greater and more excellent 2 Negatively in that being not made with hands it was not of the same Building with it 1. He came by a Tabernacle These words may have prospect unto what is afterwards declared in the next verse and belong thereunto As if he had said being come an High Priest he entred into the Holy Place by a perfect Tabernacle with his own blood for so the High Priest of the Law entred into the Holy Place by or through the Tabernacle with the blood of others But the words do rather declare the constitution of the Tabernacle intended than the Use of it as unto that one solemn service For so before he had described the frame and constitution of the old Tabernacle before he mentioned its use Being come an High Priest by such a Tabernacle that is wherein he administred that office What is the Tabernacle here intended there is great variety in the judgment of expositors Some say it is the Church of the new Testament as Chrysostome who is followed by many Some say it is Heaven itself This is embraced and pleaded for by Schlictingius who labours much in the explanation of it But whereas this is usually opposed because the Apostle in the next verse affirms that Christ entred into the Holies which he expounds of Heaven itself by this Tabernacle which therefore cannot be Heaven also he endeavours to remove it For he saies there is a double Tabernacle in Heaven For as the Apostle hath in one and the same place described a double Tabernacle here on earth a first and a second with their Utensils and services distinguished the one from the other by a vail so there are two places in Heaven answering thereunto The first of these he would have to be the dwelling Place of the Angels the other the Place of the Throne of God himself represented by the most Holy Place in the Tabernacle Through the first of these he saies the Lord Christ passed into the second which is here called his Tabernacle And it is indeed said that the Lord Christ in his exaltation did pass through the Heavens and that he was made higher than the Heavens which would seem to favour that conceit though not observed by him But there is no ground to conceit or fancy such distinct Places in Heaven above yea it is contrary to the Scripture so to do For the Residence of the Holy Angels is before and about the Throne of God So are they always placed in the Scripture Dan. 7. 10. Mat. 18. 10. Revel 5. 11. And these aspectable Heavens which Christ passed through were not so much as the vail of the Tabernacle in his holy service which was his own flesh chap. 10. 20. The only Reason of this ungrounded curious Imagination is a design to avoid the acknowledgment of the Sacrifice of Christ whilst he was on the earth For this cause he refers this Tabernacle unto his entrance into the most Holy Place as the only means of offering himself But the design of the Apostle is to shew that as he was an High Priest so he had a Tabernacle of his own wherein he was to minister unto God This Tabernacle whereby he came an High Priest was his own humane nature The Bodies of men are often called their Tabernacles 2 Cor. 5. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 14. And Christ called his own Body the Temple Ioh. 2. 19. His flesh was the vail Heb. 10. 20. and in his incarnation he is said to pitch his Tabernacle among us Ioh. 1. 14. Herein dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2. 9. that is substantially represented by all the Pledges of Gods presence in the Tabernacle of old This was that Tabernacle wherein the Son of God administred his Sacerdotal Office in this world and wherein he continueth yet so to do in his Intercession For the full proof hereof I refer the Reader unto our exposition on chap. 8. ver 2. And this gives us an understanding of the description given of this Tabernacle in the Adjuncts of it with reference unto that of old This is given us 1 Positively in a double comparative property 1 That it was Greater than it Greater in dignity and worth not quantity and measures The Humane nature of Christ both in itself its Conception Framing gracious Qualifications and Endowments especially in its Relation unto and Subsistence in the Divine Person of the Son was far more excellent and glorious than any material fabrick could be In this sense for comparative Excellency and Dignity is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã almost constantly used in the new Testament So is it in this Epistle chap. 6. 13 16. The humane nature of Christ doth thus more excel the old Tabernacle than the Sun doth the meanest Star 2. More perfect This respects its Sacred use It was more perfectly fitted and suited unto the end of a Tabernacle both for the inhabitation of the divine nature and the means of exercising the Sacerdotal Office in making A tonement for sin than the other was So it is expressed chap. 10. 5. Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldst not have but a body hast thou prepared me This was that which God accepted wherewith he was well pleased when he rejected the other as insufficient unto
that end And we may hence observe That The humane nature of Christ wherein he discharged the duties of his Sacerdotal Office in making Atonement for sin is the greatest the most perfect and excellent Ordinance of God far excelling those that were most excellent under the old Testament An Ordinance of God it was in that it was what he designed appointed and produced unto his own Glory And it was that which answered all Ordinances of worship under the old Testament as the substance of what was shadowed out in them and by them And I have laboured elsewhere to represent the Glory of this ordinance as the principal effect of divine wisdom and goodness the great means of the manifestation of his eternal Glory The wonderful provision of this Tabernacle will be the object of holy admiration unto eternity But the Glory of it is a subject which I have elsewhere peculiarly laboured in the demonstration of And unto the comparison with those of old here principally intended its excellency and glory may be considered in these as in other things 1 Whatever they had of the Glory of God in Type Figure and Representation that it had in Truth Reality and Substance 2 What they only shadowed out as unto Reconciliation and Peace with God that it did really effect 3 Whereas they were capable only of an Holiness by dedication and consecration which is external giving an outward denomination not changing the nature of the things themselves This was Glorious in real internal Holiness wherein the Image of God doth consist 4 The matter of them all was earthly carnal perishing His humane nature was Heavenly as unto its original the Lord from Heaven and immortal or eternal in its constitution he was made a Priest after the Power of an endless life For although he dyed once for sin yet his whole nature had always its entire subsistence in the Person of the Son of God 5 Their Relation unto God was by vertue of an outward Institution or word of command only That of his was by Assumption into personal union with the Son of God 6 They had only outward Typical Pledges of Gods Presence in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily 7 They were exposed unto the injuries of time and all other outward occurrences wherein there was nothing of the glory or worship of God He never did not would suffer any thing but what belonged unto his office and is now exalted above all Adversities and Oppositions And other considerations of the like nature might be added 2. The Son of God undertaking to be the High Priest of the Church it was of necessity that he should come by or have a Tabernacle wherein to discharge that Office He came by a Tabernacle So it is said unto the same purpose that it was of necessity that he should have somewhat to offer chap. 8. 3. For being to save the Church by vertue of and in the discharge of that Office it could not be otherwise done than by the Sacrifice of himself in and by his own Tabernacle Secondly He describes this Tabernacle by a double Negation 1 That it was not made with hands 2 That it was not of this building And this latter clause is generally taken to be exegetical of the former only and that because of its introduction by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to say I shall consider both 1. It was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not made with hands The Old Tabernacle whil'st it stood was the Temple of God So it is constantly called by David in the Psalms Temples were generally sumptuous and glorious Fabrics always answering the utmost ability of them that built them not to have done their best therein they esteemed irreligious For they designed to express somewhat of the greatness of what they worshiped and to beget a veneration of what was performed in them And this men in the degenerate state of Christianity are returned unto endeavouring to represent the Greatness of God and the Holiness of his Worship in magnificent Structures and costly Ornaments of them How beit the best of them all were made by the hands of men and so were no way meet habitations for God in the way he had designed to dwell among us This Solomon acknowledgeth concerning the Temple which he had built which yet was the most glorious that ever was erected and built by God's own appointment 2 Chron. 2. 5 6. The house which I build is great for great is our God above all Gods But who is able to build him an house seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him who am I then that I should build him an house save onely to burn sacrifice before him And 1 Kings 8. 27. Will God indeed dwell on the earth behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house that I have builded Service was to be done unto God in that Temple according unto his appointment but a meet habitation for him it was not And our Apostle lays it down as a Principle suited unto natural light that God who made all things could not dwell ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Acts 14. 24. in Temples made with hands Such was the Tabernacle of Old but such was not that wherein our Lord Jesus administreth his Office There seems to me to have been an apprehension among the Iews that there should be a Temple wherein God would dwell that should not be made with hands Our Lord Jesus Christ in the first year of his Ministry upon his purging of the Temple upon their requiring a sign for the justification of his Authority in what he had done says no more but only Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up John 2. 19. He spake of the same Temple as to their destruction of it and his own raising it again Thus he called his own Body he spake saith the Evangelist of the Temple of his Body That other Fabric was a Type thereof and so partook of the same name with it but yet was no farther a Temple or an habitation of God but as it was Typical of that Body of his wherein the fulness of the Godhead did dwell This testimony of his seemeth to have provoked the Iews above any other unless it was that when he plainly declared his Divine Nature unto them affirming that he was before Abraham For this cast them into so much madness as that immediately they took up stones to cast at him John 8. 58 59. But their malice was more inveterate against him for what he thus spake concerning the Temple For three years after when they conspired to take away his life they made these words the ground of their Accusation But as is usual in such cases when they could not pretend that his own words as he spake them were criminal they variously wrested them to make an appearance of a Crime though they knew not of what nature So the Psalmist prophesied
taken meerly à minori For there is a greater reason in the nature of things that the Blood of Christ should purge our Consciences from dead works than there is that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should sanctifie unto the purifying of the flesh For that had all its efficacy unto this end from the sovereign pleasure of God in its Institution In it self it had neither worth nor dignity whence in any proportion of Justice or Reason men should be legally sanctified by it The Sacrifice of Christ also as unto its Original depended on the sovereign pleasure wisdom and grace of God But being so appointed upon the account of the infinite dignity of his Person and the nature of his Oblation it had a real efficacy in the justice and wisdom of God to procure the effect mentioned in the way of purchase and merit This the Apostle refers unto in these words Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unto God That the Offering was himself that he offered himself through the eternal Spirit in his Divine Person is that which gives assurance of the accomplishing the effect assigned unto it by his Blood above any grounds we have to believe that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should sanctifie unto the purifying of the flesh And we may observe from this How much more That There is such an Evidence of Wisdom and Righteousness unto a spiritual Eye in the whole Mystery of our Redemption Sanctification and Salvation by Christ as gives an immoveable foundation unto Faith to rest upon in its receiving of it The Faith of the Church of Old was resolved into the meer sovereign pleasure of God as to the efficacy of their Ordinances nothing in the nature of the things themselves did tend unto their establishment But in the dispensation of God by Christ in the work of our Redemption by him there is such an Evidence of the Wisdom and Righteousness of God in the things themselves as gives the highest security unto Faith It is Unbelief alone made obstinate by prejudices insinuated by the Devil that hides these things from any as the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 4. 3. 4. And hence will arise the great aggravation of the Sin and condemnation of them that perish 2. We must consider the things themselves The Subject spoken of and whereunto the Effect mentioned is ascribed is the Blood of Christ. The Person unto whom these things relate is Christ. I have given an account before on sundry occasions of the great variety used by the Apostle in this Epistle in the naming of him And a peculiar Reason of every one of them is to be taken from the place where it is used Here he calls him Christ For on his being Christ the Messias depends the principal force of his present Argument It is the Blood of him who was promised of Old to be the High-Priest of the Church and the Sacrifice for their Sins In whom was the Faith of all the Saints of Old that by him their Sins should be expiated that in him they should be justified and glorified Christ who is the Son of the living God in whose Person God purchased his Church with his own Blood And we may observe That The Efficacy of all the Offices of Christ towards the Church depends on the Dignity of his Person The Offering of his Blood was prevalent for the Expiation of Sin because it was his Blood and for no other Reason But this is a Subject which I have handled at large elsewhere A late learned Commentator on this Epistle takes occasion in this place to reflect on Dr. Gouge for affirming that Christ was a Priest in both Natures which as he says cannot be true I have not Dr. Gouge's Exposition by me and so know not in what sense it is affirmed by him But that Christ is a Priest in his entire Person and so in both Natures is true and the constant Opinion of all Protestant Divines And the following words of this learned Author being well explained will clear the difficulty For he saith that He that is a Priest is God yet as God he is not he cannot be a Priest For that Christ is a Priest in both Natures is no more but that in the discharge of his Priestly Office he acts as God and Man in one Person from whence the Dignity and Efficacy of his Sacerdotal Actings do proceed It is not hence required that whatever he doth in the discharge of his Office must be an immediate Act of the Divine as well as of the Humane Nature No more is required unto it but that the Person whose Acts they are is God and Man and acts as God and Man in each Nature sutably unto its essential Properties Hence although God cannot dye that is the Divine Nature cannot do so yet God purchased his Church with his own Blood and so also the Lord of Glory was Crucified for us The sum is That the Person of Christ is the Principle of all his Mediatory Acts although those Actâ be immediately performed in and by vertue of his distinct Natures some of one some of another according unto their distinct Properties and Powers Hence are they all Theandrical which could not be if he were not a Priest in both Natures Nor is this impeached by what ensues in the same Author namely That a Priest is an Officer and all Officers as Officers are made such by Commission from the Sovereign Power and are Servants under them For 1 It may be this doth not hold among the Divine Persons it may be no more is required in the dispensation of God towards the Church unto an Office in any of them but their own infinite condescension with respect unto the order of their subsistence So the Holy Ghost is in peculiar the Comforter of the Church by the way of Office and is sent thereon by the Father and Son Yet is there no more required hereunto but that the order of the operation of the Persons in the blessed Trinity should answer the order of their subsistence and so he who in his Person proceedeth from the Father and the Son is sent unto his work by the Father and the Son no new Act of Authority being required thereunto but only the determination of the Divine Will to act sutably unto the order of their subsistence 2 The Divine Nature considered in the Abstract cannot serve in an Office yet He who was in the Form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal unto God took on him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto death It was in the Humane Nature that he was a Servant nevertheless it was the Son of God he who in his Divine Nature was in the Form of God who so served in Office and yielded that Obedience Wherefore he was so far a Mediator and Priest in both his Natures as that whatever he did in the discharge of those Offices was the Act of his entire Person whereon the
that was the ground of his Resurrection He was brought again from the dead through the blood of the Covenant And the efficacy of his death depends on his Resurrection only as the evidence of his acceptance with God therein 5 That Christ confirmed his Doctrine by his Blood that is because he rose again All these Principles I have at large refuted in the Exercitations about the Priesthood of Christ and shall not here again insist on their examination This is plain and evident in the words unless violence be offered unto them namely that the Blood of Christ that is his suffering in Soul and Body and his obedience therein testified and expressed in the shedding of his Blood was the procuring cause of the expiation of our Sins the purging of our Consciences from dead works our justification sanctification and acceptance with God thereon And There is nothing more destructive unto the whole Faith of the Gospel than by any means to evacuate the immediate efficacy of the Blood of Christ. Every opinion of that tendency breaks in upon the whole mystery of the wisdom and grace of God in him It renders all the Institutions and Sacrifices of the Law whereby God instructed the Church of Old in the Mystery of his Grace useless and unintelligible and overthrows the foundation of the Gospel The second thing in the words is the means whereby the Blood of Christ came to be of this efficacy or to produce this effect And that is because in the shedding of it he offered himself unto God through the eternal Spirit without spot Every word is of great importance and the whole Assertion filled with the mystery of the wisdom and grace of God and must therefore be distinctly considered There is declared what Christ did unto the End mentioned and that is expressed in the matter and manner of it 1 He offered himself 2 To whom that is to God 3 How or from what principle by what means by the eternal Spirit 4 With what qualifications without spot He offered himself To prove that his Blood purgeth our Sins he affirms that he offered himself His whole Humane Nature was the Offering the way of its Offering was by the shedding of his Blood So the Beast was the Sacrifice when the Blood alone or principally was offered on the Altar For it was the Blood that made Atonement So it was by his Blood that Christ made Atonement but it was his Person that gave it efficacy unto that end Wherefore by Himself the whole Humane Nature of Christ is intended And that 1 Not in distinction or separation from the Divine For although the Humane Nature of Christ his Soul and Body only was offered yet he offered himself through his own eternal Spirit This Offering of himself therefore was the Act of his whole Person both Natures concurred in the Offering though one alone was offered 2 All that he did or suffered in his Soul and Body when his Blood was shed is comprised in this Offering of himself His Obedience in Suffering was that which rendred this Offering of himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor unto God And he is said thus to offer himself in opposition unto the Sacrifices of the High Priest under the Law They offered Goats and Bulls or their blood but he offered himself This therefore was the Nature of the Offering of Christ It was a Sacred Act of the Lord Christ as the High Priest of the Church wherein according unto the Will of God and what was required of him by vertue of the eternal Compact between the Father and him concerning the Redemption of the Church he gave up himself in the way of most profound Obedience to do and suffer whatever the Iustice and Law of God required unto the expiation of Sin expressing the whole by the shedding of his Blood in answer unto all the Typical Representations of this his Sacrifice in all the Institutions of the Law And this Offering of Christ was proper Sacrifice 1 From the Office whereof it was an Act it was so of his Sacerdotal Office he was made a Priest of God for this end that he might thus offer himself and that this Offering of himself should be a Sacrifice 2 From the Nature of it For it consisted in the sacred giving up unto God the thing that was offered in the present destruction or consumption of it This is the Nature of a Sacrifice it was the destruction and consumption by Death and Fire by a sacred Action of what was dedicated and offered unto God So was it in this Sacrifice of Christ. As he suffered in it so in the giving himself up unto God in it there was an effusion of his Blood and the destruction of his Life 3 From the End of it which was assigned unto it in the wisdom and sovereignty of God and in his own intention which was to make Atonement for Sin which gives an Offering the formal Nature of an Expiatory Sacrifice 4 From the way and manner of it For therein 1. He sanctified or dedicated himself unto God to be an Offering Iohn 17. 19. 2. He accompanied it with Prayers and Supplications Heb. 5. 7. 3. There was an Altar which sanctified the Offering which bore it up in its Oblation which was his own Divine Nature as we shall see immediately 4. He kindled the Sacrifice with the fire of Divine Love acting it self by zeal unto God's Glory and compassion unto the souls of men 5. He tendred all this unto God as an Atonement for Sin as we shall see in the next words This was the free real proper Sacrifice of Christ whereof those of old were only Types and obscure Representations the Prefiguration hereof was the sole cause of their Institution And what the Socinians pretend namely that the Lord Christ offered no real Sacrifice but only what he did was called so Metaphorically by the way of allusion unto the Sacrifices of the Law is so far from truth as that there never had been any such Sacrifices of Divine Appointment but only to prefigure this which alone was really and substantially so The Holy Ghost doth not make a forced accommodation of what Christ did unto those Sacrifices of old by way of allusion and by reason of some resemblances but shews the uselesness and weakness of those Sacrifices in themselves any farther but as they represented this of Christ. The Nature of this Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ is utterly overthrown by the Socinians They deny that in all this there was any offering at all they deny that his shedding of his Blood or any thing which he did or suffered therein either actually or passively his obedience or giving himself up unto God therein was his Sacrifice or any part of it but only somewhat required previously thereunto and that without any necessary cause or reason But his Sacrifice his Offering of himself they say is nothing but his appearance in Heaven and the Presentation of himself before
Divine Nature But I shall leave the Reader to chuse whether sense he judgeth suitable unto the scope of the place either of them being so unto the Analogy of Faith The Socinians understanding that both these Interpretations are equally destructive to their Opinions the one concerning the Person of Christ the other about the Nature of the Holy Ghost have invented a sense of these words never before heard of among Christians For they say that by the Eternal Spirit a certain Divine Power is intended whereby the Lord Christ was freed from Mortality and made Eternal that is no more obnoxious unto death By virtue of this Power they say he offered himself unto God when he entred into Heaven than which nothing can be spoken more fond or impious or contrary unto the design of the Apostle For 1 Such a Power as they pretend is no where called the Spirit much less the Eternal Spirit and to feign significations of words without any countenance from their use elsewhere is to wrest them at our pleasure 2 The Apostle is so far from requiring a Divine Power rendering him immortal antecedently unto the offering of himself as that he declares that he offered himself by the Eternal Spirit in his death when he shed his blood whereby our consciences are purged from dead works 3 This Divine Power rendering Christ immortal is not peculiar unto him but shall be communicated unto all that are raised unto glory at the last day And there is no colour of an opposition herein unto what was done by the High Priests of old 4 It proceeds on their ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in this matter which is that the Lord Christ offered not himself unto God before he was made immortal which is utterly to exclude his death and blood from any concernment therein which is as contrary unto the truth and scope of the place as darkness is to light 5 Wherever there is mention made elsewhere in the Scripture of the Holy Spirit or the Eternal Spirit or the Spirit absolutely with reference unto any actings of the Person of Christ or on it either the Holy Spirit or his own Divine Nature is intended See Isa. 61. 1 2. Rom. 1. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 18. Wherefore Grotius forsakes this Notion and otherwise explains the words Spiritus Christi qui non tantum fuit vivus ut in vita terrena sed in aeternum corpus sibi adjunctum vivificans If there be any sense in these words it is the rational Soul of Christ that is intended And it is most true that the Lord Christ offered himself in and by the actings of it For there are no other in the Humane Nature as to any duties of obedience unto God But that this here should be called the Eternal Spirit is a vain conjecture For the spirits of all men are equally eternal and do not only live here below but quicken their Bodies after the Resurrection for ever This therefore cannot be the ground of the especial efficacy of the blood of Christ. This is the second thing wherein the Apostle opposeth the Offering of Christ unto the offerings of the Priests under the Law 1 They offered Bulls and Goats He offered Himself 2 They offered by a material Altar and Fire He by the Eternal Spirit That Christ should thus offer Himself unto God and that by the Eternal Spirit is the center of the mystery of the Gospel An attempt to corrupt to pervert this glorious Truth are designs against the Glory of God and Faith of the Church The depth of this mystery we cannot dive into the height we cannot comprehend We cannot search out the greatness of it of the wisdom the love the grace that is in it And those who chuse rather to reject it than to live by Faith in an humble admiration of it do it at the peril of their souls Unto the Reason of some men it may be Folly unto Faith it is full of Glory In the consideration of the Divine Actings of the Eternal Spirit of Christ in the offering of himself of the holy exercise of all grace in the humane nature that was offered of the nature dignity and efficacy of this Sacrifice Faith finds life food and refreshment Herein doth it contemplate the wisdom the righteousness the holiness and grace of God herein doth it view the wonderful condescension and love of Christ and from the whole is strengthned and encouraged Thirdly It is added that he thus offered himself without spot This Adjunct is descriptive not of the Priest but of the Sacrifice it is not a qualification of his Person but of the Offering Schlictingius would have it that this word denotes not what Christ was in himself but what he was freed from For now in Heaven where he offered himself he is freed from all infirmities and from any spot of mortality which the High Priest was not when he entered into the Holy Place such irrational fancies do false Opinions force men to take up withal But 1 There was no spot in the mortality of Christ that he should be said to be freed from it when he was made immortal A spot signifies not so much a desect as a fault And there was no fault in Christ from which he was freed 2 The Allusion and respect herein unto the legal institutions is evident and manifest The Lamb that was to be slain and offered was antecedently thereunto to be without blemish it was to be neither lame nor blind nor have any other defect With express respect hereunto the Apostle Peter affirms that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18. And Christ is not only called the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world John 1. 29. that is by his being slain and offered but is represented in the worship of the Church as a Lamb slain Rev. 5. 6. It is therefore to offer violence unto the Scripture and common understanding to seek for this qualification any where but in the humane nature of Christ antecedently unto his death and blood-shedding Wherefore this expression without spot respects in the first place the purity of his Nature and the holiness of his Life For although this principally belonged unto the necessary qualifications of his Person yet were they required unto him as he was to be the Sacrifice He was the Holy One of God holy barmless undefiled separate from sinners he did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth he was without spot This is the moral sense and signification of the word But there is a legal sense of it also It is that which is meet and fit to be a Sacrifice For it respects all that was signified by the legal institution concerning the integrity and perfection of the Creatures Lambs or Kids that were to be sacrificed Hence were all those Laws fulfilled and accomplished There was nothing in him nothing wanting unto him that
should any way hinder his Sacrifice from being accepted with God and really expiatory of Sin And this was the Church instructed to expect by all those legal Institutions It may be not unuseful to give here a brief Scheme of this great Sacrifice of Christ to fix the thoughts of Faith the more distinctly upon it 1. God herein in the Person of the Father is considered as the Law-giver the Governor and Judge of all and that as on a Throne of Judgment the Throne of grace being not as yet erected And two things are ascribed or do belong unto him 1 A Denunciation of the sentence of the Law against Mankind Dying ye shall dye and cursed be every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them 2 A Resusal of all such ways of Atonement Satisfaction and Reconciliation that might be offered from any thing that all or any creatures could perform sacrifice and offerings and whole burnt-offerings for sin he would not have Heb. 10. 5 6. he rejected them as insufficient to make Atonement for sin 2. Satan appeared before this Throne with his Prisoners he had the power of death Heb. 2. 14. and entered into judgment as unto his right and title and therein was judged John 16. 11. And he put forth all his power and policy in opposition unto the deliverance of his Prisoners and to the way or means of it That was his hour wherein he put forth the power of darkness Luke 22. 53. 3. The Lord Christ the Son of God out of his infinite love and compassion appears in our Natures before the Throne of God and takes it on himself to answer for the sins of all the Elect to make Atonement for them by doing and suffering whatever the holiness righteousness and wisdom of God required thereunto Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God Above when he said Sacrifice and Offerings and Burnt-offerings for sin thou wouldst not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the Law then said he Lo I come to do thy Will O God he taketh away the first that he might establish the second Heb. 10. 7 8 9. 4. This stipulation and engagement of his God accepteth of and withal as the sovereign Lord and Ruler of all prescribeth the way and means whereby he should make Atonement for sin and Reconciliation with God thereon And this was that he should make his soul an offering for sin and therein bear their iniquities Isa. 53. 10 11. 5. The Lord Christ was prepared with a Sacrifice to offer unto God unto this end For whereas every High Priest was ordained to offer Gifts and Sacrifices it was of necessity that he also should have somewhat to offer Heb. 8. 3. This was not to be the Blood of Bulls and Goats or such things as were offered by the Law ver 4. But this was and was to be himself his humane nature or his body For 1 this body or humane nature was prepared for him and given unto him for this very end that he might have somewhat of his own to offer Heb. 10. 5. 2 He took it he assumed it unto himself to be his own for this very end that he might be a sacrifice in it Heb. 2. 14. 3 He had full power and authority over his own body his whole humane nature to dispose of it in any way and into any condition unto the glory of God No man saith he taketh my life from me I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again John 10. 18. 6. This therefore he gave up to do and suffer according unto the Will of God And this he did 1 In the Will Grace and Love of his Divine Nature he offered himself unto God through the eternal Spirit 2 In the gracious holy actings of his humane nature in the way of zeal love obedience patience and all other graces of the Holy Spirit which dwelt in him without measure acted unto their utmost glory and efficacy Hereby he gave himself up unto God to be a Sacrifice for Sin his own Divine Nature being the Altar and Fire whereby his Offering was supported and confirmed or brought unto the Ashes of Death This was the most glorious spectacle unto God and all his holy Angels Hereby he set a Crown of Glory on the head of the Law fulfilling its precepts in matter and manner unto the uttermost and undergoing its penalty or curse establishing the truth and righteousness of God in it Hereby he glorified the holiness and justice of God in the demonstration of their nature and compliance with their demands Herein issued the eternal Councils of God for the salvation of the Church and way was made for the exercise of grace and mercy unto sinners For 7. Herewith God was well pleased satisfied and reconciled unto sinners Thus was he in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing our sins unto us in that he was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him For in this tender of himself a Sacrifice to God 1. God was well pleased with and delighted in his obedience it was a Sacrifice unto him of a well-smelling savor He was more glorified in that one instance of the Obedience of his onely Son than he was dishonoured by the sin of Adam and all his Posterity as I have elsewhere declared 2. All the demands of his Justice were satisfied unto his eternal glory Wherefore 8. Hereon Satan is judged and destroyed as unto his power over sinners who receive this Atonement all the grounds and occasions of it are hereby removed his Kingdom is overthrown his Usurpation and unjust Dominion defeated his Arms spoiled and Captivity led captive For of the anger of the Lord against sin it was that he obtained his power over sinners which he abused unto his own ends This being atoned the Prince of this world was judged and cast out 9. Hereon the poor condemned sinners are discharged God says deliver them for I have found a ransom But we must return to the Text. The effect of the Blood of Christ through the offering of himself is the purging of our Consciences from dead works This was somewhat spoken unto in general before especially as unto the nature of this purging But the words require a more particular Explication And The word is in the Future Tense Shall purge The blood of Christ as offered hath a double respect and effect 1 Towards God in making Atonement for sin This was done once and at once and was now past Herein by one Offering he for ever perfected them that are sanctified 2 Towards the Consciences of men in the application of the vertue of it unto them this is here intended And this is expressed as future not as though it had not this effect already on them that did believe but upon a double account 1. To declare the certainty of the event or
a compleat relief in this condition two things are necessary 1 A discharge of Conscience from a sense of the guilt of sin or the condemning power of it whereby it deprives us of peace with God and of boldness in access unto him 2 The cleansing of the Conscience and consequently our whole persons from the inherent defilement of sin The first of these was typified by the blood of Bulls and Goats offered on the Altar to make Atonement The latter was represented by the sprinkling of the unclean with the Ashes of the Heiser unto their purification Both these the Apostle here expresly ascribes unto the Blood of Christ and we may briefly enquire into three things concerning it 1 On what ground it doth produce this blessed effect 2 The way of its operation and efficacy unto this end 3 The Reason whence the Apostle affirms that it shall much more do this than the legal Ordinances could sanctifying unto the purifying of the flesh 1. The grounds of its efficacy unto this purpose are three 1. That it was Blood offered unto God God had ordained that Blood should be offered on the Altar to make Atonement for sin or to purge Conscience from dead works That this could not be really effected by the Blood of Bulls and Goats is evident in the nature of the things themselves and demonstrated in the event Howbeit this must be done by Blood or all the institution of legal Sacrifices were nothing but means to deceive the minds of men and ruine their souls To say that at one time or other real Atonement is not to be made for Sin by Blood and Conscience thereby to be purged and purified is to make God a Lyar in all the Institutions of the Law But this must be done by the Blood of Christ or not at all 2 It was the Blood of Christ. Of Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 18. whereby God purchased his Church with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. The dignity of his Person gave efficacy unto his Office and Offering No other person in the discharge of the same Offices that were committed unto him could have saved the Church and therefore all those by whom his Divine Person is denied do also evacuate his Offices By what they ascribe unto them it is impossible the Church should be either sanctified or saved They resolve all into a meer Act of Sovereign Power in God which make the Cross of Christ of none effect 3 He offered this Blood or himself by the eternal Spirit Though Christ in his Divine Person was the Eternal Son of God yet was it the humane nature only that was offered in Sacrifice Howbeit it was offered by and with the concurrent actings of the Divine Nature or Eternal Spirit as we have declared These things make the Blood of Christ as offered meet and fit for the accomplishment of this great effect 2. The second Enquiry is concernig the way whereby the Blood of Christ doth thus purge our Conscience from dead works Two things as we have seen are contained therein 1 The expiation or taking away the guilt of sin that Conscience should not be deterred thereby from an access unto God 2 The cleansing of our souls from vicious defiling habits inclinations and acts or all inherent uncleanness Wherefore under two considerations doth the Blood of Christ produce this double effect First As it was offered so it made Atonement for Sin by giving satisfaction unto the Justice and Law of God This all the expiatory Sacrifices of the Law did prefigure this the Prophets foretold and this the Gospel witnesseth unto To deny it is to deny any real efficacy in the Blood of Christ unto this end and so expresly to contradict the Apostle Sin is not purged from the Conscience unless the guilt of it be so removed as that we may have peace with God and boldness in access unto him This is given us by the Blood of Christ as offered Secondly As it is sprinkled it worketh the second part of this effect And this sprinkling of the Blood of Christ is the communication of its sanctifying vertue unto our souls see Eph. 5. 26 27. Tit. 2. 14. so doth the Blood of Christ the Son of God cleanse us from all our sins 1 John 1. 7. Zech. 13. 2. 3. The Reason why the Apostle affirms that this is much more to be expected from the Blood of Christ than the Purification of the Flesh was from legal Ordinances hath been before spoken unto The Socinians plead on this place that this effect of the death of Christ doth as unto us depend on our own duty If they intended no more but that there is duty required on our part unto an actual participation of it namely Faith whereby we receive the Atonement we should have no difference with them But they are otherwise minded This purging of the conscience from dead works they would have to consist in two things 1 Our own relinquishment of sin 2 The freeing us from the punishment due to sin by an act of power in Christ in Heaven The first they say hath therein respect unto the blood of Christ in that thereby his doctrine was confirmed in obedience whereunto we forsake sin and purge our minds from it The latter also relates thereunto in that the sufferings of Christ were antecedent unto his Exaltation and Power in Heaven Wherefore this effect of the blood of Christ is what we do our selves in obedience unto his doctrine and what he doth thereon by his power and therefore may well be said to depend on our duty But all this while there is nothing ascribed unto the blood of Christ as it was offered in Sacrifice unto God or shed in the offering of himself which alone the Apostle speaks unto in this place Others chuse thus to oppose it This purging of our consciences from dead works is not an immediate effect of the death of Christ but it is a benefit contained therein which upon our faith and obedience we are made partakers of But 1 This is not in my judgment to interpret the Apostles words with due reverence he affirms expresly that the blood of Christ doth purge our conscience from dead works that is it doth make such an Atonement for sin and Expiation of it as that conscience shall be no more pressed with it nor condemn the sinner for it 2 The blood of Christ is the immediate cause of every effect assigned unto it where there is no concurrent nor intermediate cause of the same kind with it in the production of that effect 3 It is granted that the actual communication of this effect of the death of Christ unto our Souls is wrought according unto the method which God in his sovereign wisdom and pleasure hath designed And herein 1 the Lord Christ by his blood made actual and absolute Atonement for the sins of all the Elect. 2 This Atonement is proposed unto us in the Gospel Rom. 3. 25. 3 It
God the Father did order things towards Jesus Christ that he should have a Nature wherein he might be free and able to yield Obedience unto the Will of God with an intimation of the quality of it in having Ears to hear which belong only unto a Body This Sense the Apostle expresseth in more plain terms now after the accomplishment of what before was only declared in Prophesie and thereby the Veil which was upon Divine Revelations under the Old Testament is taken away There is therefore nothing remaining but that we give an Exposition of these words of the Apostle as they contain the sense of the Holy Ghost in the Psalm And two things we must enquire into 1. What is meant by this body 2. How God prepared it 1. A Body is here a Synecdochical expression of the Humane nature of Christ. So is the flesh taken where he is said to be made flesh and the Flesh and Blood whereof he was partaker For the general end of his having this Body was that he might therein and thereby yield Obedience or do the Will of God And the especial end of it was that he might have what to offer in Sacrifice unto God But neither of these can be confined unto his Body alone For it is the Soul the other essential part of Humane Nature that is the principle of Obedience Nor was the Body of Christ alone Offered in Sacrifice unto God He made his Soul an Offering for Sin Isa. 53. 10. which was Typified by the Life that was in the Blood of the Sacrifice Wherefore it is said that he offered himself unto God Chap. 9. 14. Ephes. 5. 2. That is his whole entire Humane Nature Soul and Body in their Substance in all their Faculties and Powers But the Apostle both here and ver 10. mentions only the Body it self for the reasons ensuing 1. To manifest that this Offering of Christ was to be by Death as was that of the Sacrifices of Old and this the Body alone was subject unto 2. Because as the Covenant was to be confirmed by this Offering it was to be by Blood which is contained in the Body alone and the separation of it from the Body carries the Life along with it 3. To testifie that his Sacrifice was visible and substantial not an outward appearance of things as some have fancied but such as truly answered the real Bloody Sacrifices of the Law 4. To shew the Alliance and Cognation between him that Sanctifieth by his Offering and them that are Sanctified thereby Or that because the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood he also took part of the same that he might tast of Death for them For these and the like reasons doth the Apostle mention the Humane Nature of Christ under the name of a Body only as also to comply with the Figurative Expression of it in the Psalm And they do what lies in them to overthrow the principal Foundation of the Faith of the Church who would wrest these words unto a new Aetherial Body given him after his Ascension as do the Socinians 2. Concerning this Body it is affirmed that God prepared it for him Thou hast prepared for me that is God hath done it even God the Father For unto him are those words spoken I come to do thy will O God a Body hast thou prepared me The coming of Christ the Son of God into the World his coming in the Flesh by the assuming of our Nature was the effect of the mutual Counsel of the Father and the Son The Father proposeth to him what was his Will what was his design what he would have done This proposal is here repeated as unto what was Negative in it which includes the Opposite Positive Sacrifice and Burnt Offerings thou wouldst not have but that which he would was the Obedience of the Son unto his Will This Proposal the Son closeth withal Lo saith he I come But all things being Originally in the Hand of the Father the Provision of things necessary unto the fulfilling of the Will of God is left unto him Among those the principal was that the Son should have a Body prepared for him that so he might have somewhat of his own to offer Wherefore the preparation of it is in a peculiar manner assigned unto the Father a Body hast thou prepared me And we may observe that 1. The Supream contrivance of the Salvation of the Church is in a peculiar manner ascribed unto the person of the Father His Will his Grace his Wisdom his good Pleasure the purpose that he purposed in himself his Love his sending of his Son are every where proposed as the eternal springs of all Acts of Power Grace and Goodness tending unto the Salvation of the Church And therefore doth the Lord Christ on all occasions declare that he came to do his Will to seek his Glory to make known his Name that the praise of his Grace might be exalted And we through Christ do believe in God even the Father when we assign unto him the Glory of all the Holy Properties of his Nature as acting Originally in the contrivance and for the effecting of our Salvation 2. The Furniture of the Lord Christ though he were the Son and in his Divine person the Lord of all unto the discharge of his work of Mediation was the peculiar Act of the Father He prepared him a Body he anointed him with the Spirit it pleased him that all fulness should dwell in him From him he received all Grace Power Consolation Although the Humane Nature was the Nature of the Son of God not of the Father a Body prepared for him not for the Father yet was it the Father who prepared that Nature who filled it with Grace who strengthened acted and supported it in its whole course of Obedience 3. Whatever God designes appoints and calls any unto he will provide for them all that is needful unto the Duties of Obedience whereunto they are so appointed and called As he prepared a Body for Christ so he will provide Gifts Abilities and Faculties suitable unto their work for those whom he calleth unto it Others must provide as well as they can for themselves But we must yet enquire more particularly into the nature of this preparation of the Body of Christ here ascribed unto the Father And it may be considered two ways 1. In the Designation and Contrivance of it So preparation is sometimes used for Predestination or the Resolution for the effecting any thing that is future in its proper season Isa. 30. 33. Matt. 20. 23. Rom. 9. 23. 1 Cor. 2. 9. In this sense of the word God had prepared a Body for Christ he had in the Eternal Counsel of his Will determined that he should have it in the appointed time So he was Forc-ordained before the Foundation of the World but was manifest in these last times for us 1 Pet. 1. 20. 2. In the actual effecting ordering and creating of it
hast thou prepared me As unto the Operation in the production of the Substance of it and the forming its Structure it was the peculiar and immediate work of the Holy Ghost Luk. 1. 35. This work I have at large elsewhere declared Wherefore it is an Article of Faith that the Formation of the Humane Nature of Christ in the Womb of the Virgin was the peculiar Act of the Holy Ghost The Holy taking of this Nature unto himself the Assumption of it to be his own Nature by a Subsistence in his Person the Divine Nature assuming the Humane in the Person of the Son was his own Act alone Yet was the preparation of this Body the work of the Father in a peculiar manner it was so in the Infinitely Wise Authoritative contrivance and ordering of it his Counsel and Will therein being acted by the immediate Power of the Holy Ghost The Father prepared it in the Authoritative Disposition of all things the Holy Ghost actually wrought it and he himself assumed it There was no distinction of time in these distinct actings of the Holy Persons of the Trinity in this matter but only a disposition of Order in their Operation For in the same instant of time this Body was prepared by the Father wrought by the Holy Ghost and assumed by himself to be his own And the actings of the distinct Persons being all the actings of the same Divine Nature Understanding Love and Power they differ not fundamentally and radically but only terminatively with respect unto the work wrought and effected And we may Observe that The Ineffable but yet distinct Operation of the Father Son and Spirit in about and towards the Humane Nature assumed by the Son are as an uncontroulable evidence of their distinct Subsistence in the same Individual Divine Essence so a Guidance unto Faith as unto all their distinct actings towards us in the Application of the work of Redemption unto our Souls For their actings towards the Members is in all things conform unto their acting towards the Head And our Faith is to be directed towards them according as they act their Love and Grace distinctly towards us VERSE 6 7. In Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices for Sin thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Lo I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy Will O God TWo things are asserted in the Foregoing Verse in general 1. The Rejection of Sacrifices for the end of the compleat Expiation of Sin 2. The Provision of a new way or means for the accomplishment of that end Both these things are spoken unto apart and more distinctly in these two verses The former ver 6. the latter ver 7. Which we must also open that they may not appear a needless repetition of what was before spoken Ver. 6. He reassumes and farther declares what was in general before affirmed ver 5. Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldst not Hereof we have yet a farther Confirmation and Explication which it stood in need of For notwithstanding that General assertion two things may yet be enquired about 1. What were those Sacrifices and Offerings which God would not For they being of various sorts some of them only may be intended seeing they are only mentioned in general 2. What is meant by that Expression that God would them not seeing it is certain that they were appointed and commanded by him Wherefore our Lord Jesus Christ whose words in the Psalm these are doth not only reassert what was spoken before in general but also gives a more particular account of what Sacrifices they were which he intended And two things he declares concerning them 1. That they were not such Sacrifices as Men had found out and appointed Such the World was filled withal which were offered unto Devils and which the people of Israel themselves were addicted unto Such were their Sacrifices unto Baal and Moloch which God so often complaineth against and detesteth But they were such Sacrifices as were appointed and commanded by the Law Hence he expresseth them by their Legal Names as the Apostle immediately takes notice they were Offered by the Law ver 8. 2. He shews what were those Sacrifices appointed by the Law which in an especial manner he intended and they were those which were appointed for the Legal and Typical Expiation of Sin The general names of them in the Original are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The First was the general name of all Victims or Sacrifices by Blood the other of all Offerings of the Fruits of the Earth as Flower Oyl Wine and the like For herein respect is had unto the general design of the Context which is the removal of all Legal Sacrifices and Offerings of what sort soever by the Coming and Office of Christ. In compliance therewith they are expressed under these two general names which comprehend them all But as unto the especial Argument in hand it concerns only the Bloody Sacrifices Offered for the Attonement of Sin which were of the First sort only or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And this kind of Sacrifices whose incompetency to Expiate Sin he declares are referred unto Two Heads 1. Burnt Offerings In the Hebrew it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Singular Number which is usually rendred by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Plural and Sacrifices of this kind were called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Ascensions from their Adjunct the rising up or ascending of the Smoak of the Sacrifices in their Burning on the Altar a Pledge of that sweet savour which should arise unto God above from the Sacrifice of Christ here below And sometimes they are called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or firings from the way and means of their Consumption on the Altar which was by fire And this respects both the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or the continual Sacrifice Morning and Evening for the whole Congregation which was a Burnt Offering and all those which on especial occasions were offered with respect unto the Expiation of Sin 2. The other Sort is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which the Greek renders by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for or concerning Sin For ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Verb in Kal signifieth to Sin and in Piel to expiate Sin Hence the Substantive ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is used in both those Senses and where it is to be taken in either of them the circumstances of the Text do openly declare Where it is taken in the latter Sense the Greek renders it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Sacrifice for Sin which expression is retained by the Apostle Rom. 5. 3. and in this place And the Sacrifices of this kind were of two sorts or this kind of Sacrifices had a double use For 1. The great Anniversary Sacrifice of Expiation for the Sins of the whole Congregation Levit. 26. was a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Sin Offering 2. The same kind of Offering was also
did Jesus Christ the Son of God in Infinite Wisdom Love and Grace interpose himself in our behalf in our stead to do answer and perform all that God in Infinite Wisdom Holiness and Righteousness required unto that end And we may observe that There is a Signal Glory put upon the undertaking of Christ to make Reconciliation for the Church by the Sacrifice of himself 3. This undertaking of Christ is Signalized by the Remark that is put on the Declaration of it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold A Glorious Spectacle it was to God to Angels and to Men To God as it was filled with the highest Effects of Infinite goodness Wisdom and Grace which all shone forth in their greatest Elevation and were glorified therein It was so unto Angels as that whereon their Confirmation and Establishment in Glory did depend Eph. 1. 10. which therefore they endeavoured with Fear and Reverence to look into 1 Pet. 1. 12 13. And as unto Men that is the Church of the Elect nothing could be so Glorious in their Sight nothing so desirable By this call of Christ behold I come the Eys of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth ought to be fixed on him to behold the glorious work he had undertaken and the accomplishment of it 4. There is what he thus proposed himself for saying Behold me This in general is expressed by himself I come This coming of Christ what it was and wherein it did consist was declared before It was by assuming the Body that was prepared for him This was the Foundation of the whole work he had to do wherein he came forth like the Rising Sun with Light in his Wings or as a Giant rejoycing to run his Race The Faith of the Old Testament was that he was thus to come And this is the Life of the New that he is come They by whom this is denyed do overthrow the Faith of the Gospel This is the Spirit of Antichrist 1 Joh. 3. 1 2 3. And this may be done two ways 1. Directly and Expresly 2. By just consequence Directly it is done by them who deny the Reality of his humane Nature as many did of old affirming that he had only an Aetherial Aerial or Phantastical Body For if he came not in the Flesh he is not come at all So also it is by them who deny the Divine Person of Christ and his preexistence therein before the assumption of the Humane Nature For they deny that these are the words of him when resolved and spoken before this coming He that did not exist before in the Divine Nature could not promise to come in the Humane And Indirectly it is denied by all those who either in Doctrines or practices deny the ends of his coming who are many which I shall not now mention It may be Objected against this fundamental Truth that if the Son of God would undertake this work of Reconciliation between God and Man why did he not do the Will of God by his mighty Power and Grace and not by this way of coming in the Flesh which was attended with all Dishonour Reproaches Sufferings and Death it self But besides what I have at large elsewhere discoursed concerning the necessity and suitableness of this way of his coming unto the manifestation of all the Glorious properties of the Nature of God I shall only say that God and he alone knew what was necessary unto the accomplishment of his Will and if it might have been otherwise effected he would have spared his only Son and not have given him up unto death 2. The End for which he thus promiseth to come is to do the Will of God Lo I come to do thy Will O God The Will of God is taken two ways 1. For his Eternal purpose and design called the Counsel of his Will Eph. 1. 11. and most commonly his Will it self The Will of God as unto what he will do or cause to be done 2. For the Declaration of his Will and Pleasure as unto what he will have us to do in a way of Duty and Obedience that is the Rule of our Obedience It was the Will of God in the former sense that is here intended as is evident from the next Verse when it is said that by this Will of God we are Sanctified that is our Sins were Expiated according to the Will of God But neither is the other sense absolutely excluded for the Lord Christ came so to fulfil the Will of Gods purpose as that we may be enabled to fulfil the Will of his Command Yea and he himself had a Command from God to lay down his Life for the accomplishment of this Work Wherefore this Will of God which Christ came to fulfil is that which elsewhere is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ephes. 1. 5 11. c. His good pleasure his purpose the Counsel of his Will his good pleasure which he purposed in himself that is freely without any Cause or Reason taken from us to call justifie sanctifie and save to the uttermost or to bring them unto Eternal Glory This he had purposed from Eternity to the praise of the Glory of his Grace How this might be effected and accomplished God had hid in his own Bosome from the beginning of the World Ephes. 3. 8 9. So as that it was beyond the Wisdom and Indagation of all Angels and Men to make a Discovery of Howbeit even from the beginning he declared that such a work he had graciously designed and gave in the First promise and otherwise some obscure Intimations of the Nature of it for a Foundation of the Faith in them that were called Afterwards God was pleased in his Soveraign Authority over the Church for their good and unto his own Glory to make a representation of this whole work in the Institutions of the Law especially of the Sacrifices thereof But hereon the Church began to think at least many of them did so that those Sacrifices themselves were to be the only means of accomplishing this Will of God in the Expiation of Sin with the Salvation of the Church But God had now by various ways and means witnessed unto the Church that indeed he never appointed them unto any such end nor would rest in them and the Church it self found by experience that they would never pacify Conscience and that the strict performance of them was a Yoke and Burden In this state of things when the fulness of time was come the glorious Counsels of God namely of the Father Son and Spirit brake forth with Light like the Sun in its strength from under a Cloud in the tender made of himself by Jesus Christ unto the Father Lo I come to do thy Will O God This this is the way the only way whereby the Will of God might be accomplished Herein were all the Riches of Divine Wisdom displayed all the Treasures of Grace laid open all Shades and Clouds dispelled and the open door of Salvation
in us it is to be feared that we have missed our Season And so it falls out with many They receive Light and Convictions but use them unto other ends They put them it may be upon a Profession and a Relinquishment of some ways and parties of men but farther they use them not Their first proper end is to work our own Souls unto saving Repentance and if we miss their first Impressions their power and efficacy for that end is hardly recoverable 2 It never fails on the first saving view of Iesus Christ as crucified Zech. 12. 10. It is impossible that any one should have a saving view of Christ crucified and not be savingly humbled for Sin And there is no one single Trial of our Faith in Christ whether it be genuine or no that is more natural than this What have been the effects of it as to Humiliation and Repentance Where these ensue not upon what we account our Believing there we have not had a saving view of Christ crucified Thirdly Whereas we call this Repentance initial we must consider that it differs not in Nature and Kind from that which we ought to be exercised in whilst we are in this world whereof afterwards That which we intend thereby is the Use of Repentance in our first admission into an Interest in a Gospel State And with respect hereunto its duration may be considered concerning which we may observe 1 That with some especially in extraordinary cases this Work and Duty may be over in a day as to its initiating use and efficacy So was it with many Primitive Converts who at the same time were savingly humbled and comforted by the Promises of the Gospel Acts 2. 37 38 39 40 41 42. Acts 16. 31 32 33 34. Now although in such persons the things we have ascribed unto this Repentance are not wrought formally and distinctly yet are they all wrought virtually and radically and do act themselves on all future occasions 2 Some are held longer unto this Duty as it is initiating Not only did Paul continue three days and nights under his sore distress without relief but others are kept days and weeks and months oft-times in the discharge of this Duty before they have a refreshing entrance given them thereby into an Estate of Spiritual Rest in the Gospel There is therefore no measure of Time to be allotted unto the solemn attendance unto this Duty but only this that none faint under it wax weary of it or give it over before there be thereby administred unto them an entrance into the Kingdom of God And these confiderations of the Nature of Repentance from dead works as it is initiating may give us some direction in that necessary enquiry concerning our own personal Interest in it Now there are several ways whereby men miss their Duty with respect unto this first Principle and thereby ruine their Souls Eternally 1 Some utterly despise it Such are the presumptuous Sinners mentioned Deut. 29. 19 20. As they disregard the Curse of the Law so they do also the Promise of the Gospel as unto any Repentance or Relinquishment of Sin with respect unto them Such Folly and bruitish Foolishness possesseth the minds of multitudes that they will have some expectation of benefit by the Gospel and will give it an outward compliance but will not touch on the very first thing which it indispensibly requireth of all that intend any concernment in it It were easie to open and aggravate this deplorable folly but I must not stay on these things 2 Some will repent in their dead works but not from them That is upon Convictions Afflictions Dangers they will be troubled for their Sins make confession of them be grieved that they have contracted such guilt and danger with Resolutions to forgo them But yet they will abide in their Sins and dead works still So Pharaoh more than once repented him in his Sins but never had Repentance from them And so it was expresly with the Israelites themselves Psal. 78. 34 35 36 37. And this kind of Repentance ruines not fewer Souls than the former total contempt of it There are not a few unto whom this kind of Repentance stands in the same stead all their days as Confession and Absolution doth to the Papists it gives them present ease that they may return to their former Sins 3 Some repent from dead works in some sense but they repent not off them They will come through the Power of their Convictions to a Relinquishment of many of their old Sins as Herod did upon the Preaching of John Baptist but are never truly and savingly humbled for Sin absolutely Their Lives are changed but their Hearts are not renewed And their renunciation of Sin is always partial whereof before There are many other ways whereby men deceive their Souls in this matter which I must not now insist upon Secondly This Repentance in the Nature and Kind of it is a Duty to be continued in the whole course of our Lives It ceaseth as unto those especial Acts which belong unto our Initiation into a Gospel state but it abides as too our orderly preservation therein There must be no End of Repentance until there is a full End of Sin All Tears will not be wiped from our Eyes until all Sin is perfectly removed from our Souls Now Repentance in this sense may be considered two ways 1 As it is a stated constant Duty of the Gospel 2 As it is Occasional 1. As it is stated it is our humble mournful walking with God under a sense of Sin continually manifesting its self in our Natures and Infirmities And the Acts of this Repentance in us are of two sorts 1 Direct and immediate 2 Consequential and dependant The former may be referred unto two Heads 1 Confession 2 Humiliation These a truly penitent Soul will be continually exercised in He whose Heart is so lifted up on any pretence as not to abide in the constant exercise of these acts of Repentance is one whom the Soul of God hath no delight in The other which are immediate acts of Faith but inseparable from these are 1 Supplications for the Pardon of Sin 2 Diligent watchfulness against Sin It is evident how great a share of our walking with God consists in these things which yet I must not enlarge upon 2. This continued Repentance is Occasional when it is heightned unto a singular solemnity And these occasions may be referred unto three heads 1 A Personal surprisal into any great actual Sin Such an occasion is not to be passed over with the ordinary actings of Repentance David upon his fall brings his renewed Repentance into that solemnity as if it had been his first Conversion to God On that account he deduceth his personal Sins from the Sin of his Nature Psal. 51. 5. besides many other circumstances whereby he gave it an extraordinary Solemnity So Peter upon the denial of his Master wept bitterly which with his following Humiliation
2 Cor. 9. 15. Thanks be to God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for his Gift that cannot be declared that is fully or sufficiently Now this Gift was his Grant of a free charitable and bountiful Spirit to the Corinthians in ministring unto the poor Saints The Grant hereof is called Gods Gift So is the Gift of Christ used also Ephes. 4. 7. according to the measure of the Gift of Christ that is according as he is pleased to give and grant of the fruits of the Spirit unto men see Rom. 5. 15 17. Ephes. 3. 7. sometimes it is taken for the thing given properly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Jam. 1. 17. so it is used Joh. 4. 10. If thou knewest the Gift of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Gift of God that is the thing given by him or to be given by him It is as many judge the Person of Christ himself in that place which is intended But the context makes it plain that it is the Holy Ghost For he is the Living water which the Lord Jesus promiseth in that place to bestow And so far as I can observe ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Gift with respect unto God as denoting the thing given is no where used but only to signifie the Holy Ghost And if it be so the sense of this place is determined Acts 2. 38. Ye shall receive ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Gift of the Holy Ghost not that which he gives but that which he is Chap. 8. 20. Thou hast thought ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the Gift of God may be purchased with money that is the Power of the Holy Ghost in miraculous Operations So expresly chap. 10. 45. chap. 11. 17. Elsewhere ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã so far as I can observe when respecting God doth not signifie the thing given but the grant it self The Holy Spirit is signally the Gift of God under the New Testament And he is said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã heavenly or from Heaven This may have respect unto his work and effect they are heavenly as opposed to carnal and earthly But principally it regards his Mission by Christ after his Ascension into Heaven Acts 2. 33. Being exalted and having received the Promise of the Father he sent the Spirit The Promise of him was that he should be sent from Heaven or from above as God is said to be above which is the same with Heavenly Deut. 4. 39. 2 Chron. 5. 23. Job 31. 2 8. Isa. 2. 2 15. and chap. 45. 8. When he came upon the Lord Christ to anoint him for his work the Heavens were opened and he came from above Matth. 3. 16. so Acts 2. 2. At his first coming on the Apostles there came a sound from Heaven Hence he is said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sent from Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 12. Wherefore although he may be said to be Heavenly upon other accounts also which therefore are not absolutely to be excluded yet his being sent from Heaven by Christ after his Ascension thither and exaltation there is principally here regarded He therefore is this ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the heavenly Gift here intended though not absolutely but with respect to an especial work That which riseth up against this Interpretation is that the Holy Ghost is expresly mentioned in the next clause And were made partakers of the Holy Ghost It is not therefore probable that He should be here also intended Answ. 1 It is ordinary to have the same thing twice expressed in various words to quicken the sense of them and it is necessary it should be so when there are divers respects unto the same thing as there are in this place 2 The following clause may be exegetical of this declaring more fully and plainly what is here intended which is usual also in the Scrptures so that nothing is cogent from this consideration to disprove an Interpretation so suited to the sense of the place and which the constant use of the word makes necessary to be embraced But 3 The Holy Ghost is here mentioned as the great Gift of the Gospel times as coming down from Heaven not absolutely not as unto his Person but with respect unto an especial work namely the change of the whole state of Religious Worship in the Church of God Whereas we shall see in the next words he is spoken of only with respect unto external actual operations But he was the great the promised Heavenly Gift to be bestowed under the New Testament by whom God would institute and ordain a new way and new Rites of Worship upon the Revelation of himself and Will in Christ. Unto him was committed the Reformation of all things in the Church whose time was now come Chap. 9. 10. The Lord Christ when he ascended into Heaven left all things standing and continuing in Religious Worship as they had done from the days of Moses though he had virtually put an end unto it And he commanded his Disciples that they should attempt no alteration therein until the Holy Ghost were sent from Heaven to enable them thereunto Acts 1. 4 5. But when he came as the great Gift of God promised under the New Testament he removes all the carnal Worship and Ordinances of Moses and that by the full Revelation of the Accomplishment of all that was signified by them and appoints the new holy spiritual Worship of the Gospel that was to succeed in their room The Spirit of God therefore as bestowed for the introduction of the New Gospel state in Truth and Worship is the Heavenly Gift here intended Thus our Apostle warneth these Hebrews that they turn not away from him who speaketh from Heaven chap. 12. 25. that is Jesus Christ speaking in the Dispensation of the Gospel by the Holy Ghost sent from Heaven And there is an Antithesis included herein between the Law and the Gospel the former being given on Earth the latter being immediately from Heaven God in the giving of the Law made use of the Ministry of Angels and that on the Earth but he gave the Gospel Church state by that Spirit which although he worketh on men in Earth and is said in every Act or Work to be sent from Heaven yet is he still in Heaven and always speaketh from thence as our Savour said of himself with respect unto his Divine Nature Joh. 3. 13. Secondly We may enquire what it is to taste of this Heavenly Gift The expression of tasting is metaphorical and signifies no more but to make a Trial or Experiment For so we do by tasting naturally and properly of that which is tendred unto us to eat We taste such things by the sense given us naturally to discern our food and then either receive or refuse them as we find occasion It doth not therefore include eating much less Digestion and turning into nourishment of what is so tasted For its
what the Work is God hath in hand thereby In brief he is by it watering manuring cultivating the Souls of men that they may bring forth Fruit unto his Praise and Glory His business by it is to make men holy humble self-denying righteous useful upright pure in heart and life to abound in good works or to be like himself in all things To effect these Ends is this holy means suited and therefore God is justly said to expect these Fruits where he grants this Means And if these be not found in us all the Ends of Gods Husbandry are lost towards us which what a doleful issue it will have the next Verse declares This therefore ought to be always in our minds whilst God is treating with us by the Dispensation of the Gospel It is Fruit he aims at it is Fruit he looks for and if we fail herein the Advantage of the whole both as unto our Good and his Glory is utterly lost which we must unavoidably account for For this Fruit God both expecteth and will require This is the work and effect of the Gospel Col. 1. 6. And the Fruit of it is threefold 1 Of Persons in their Conversion unto God Rom. 15. 16. 2 Of Real internal Holiness in them or the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. 3 The outward Fruits of Rigteousness and Charity 2 Cor. 9. 10. Phil. 1. 11. These God looketh to Isa. 5. 4. Luke 13. 7. And he will not always bear with a frustration A good Husbandman will suffer Thorns and other barren Trees to grow in the Field But if a Vine or Figg-tree be barren in his Garden he will cut it down and cast it into the Fire However God will not always continue this Husbandry Isa. 28. Amos 6. 12. Duties of Gospel Obedience are Fruits meet for God things that have a proper and especial tendency unto his Glory As the precious Fruits of the Earth which the Husbandman waiteth for are meet for his use that is such as supply his wants satisfie his occasions answer his labour and charge nourish and enrich him So do these Duties of Gospel Obedience answer all the Ends of Gods Glory which he hath designed unto it in the world Hereby saith our Saviour is my Father glorified if ye bring forth much Fruit. And we must enquire how these Fruits are meet for God For 1 they are not so as though he stood in any need of them unto his Glory Our Goodness extends not unto him Psal. 16. 2. It doth not so as though he had need of it or put any value on it for its own sake Hence he rejecteth all those multiplied outward Services which men trusted unto as if they obliged him by them because without them or their Services he is the Soveraign Possessor of all created Beings and their Effects Psal. 50. 7 8 9 10 11 12. All thoughts hereof are to be rejected see Job 22. 2 3. chap. 35. 7 8. 2 They are not meet for God as if they perfectly answered his Law For with respect thereunto all our Righteousnesses are as filtby Raggs most unmeet to be presented unto him Isa. 64. 6. And if he should mark what is amiss in us or them who should stand Psal. 130. 3. Much less 3 are they so meet for him as that by them we should merit any thing at his hand This foolish Presumption is contrary to the very nature of God and Man with that Relation between them which necessarily ensues on their very Beings For what can a poor worm of the Earth who is nothing who hath nothing who doth nothing that is good but what it receives wholly from Divine Grace Favour and Bounty merit of him who from his Being and Nature can be under no Obligation thereunto but what is meerly from his own Soveraign pleasure and goodness They are therefore no otherwise meet for God but in and through Christ according to the infinite condescension which he is pleased to exercise in the Covenant of Grace Therein doth the Lord Christ 1 Make our persons accepted as was that of Abel through Faith in him which was the foundation of the Acceptation of his Offering Gen. 4. 4. Heb. 11. 4. And this is of Grace also It is to the praise of his glorious Grace wherein he makes us accepted in the Beloved Ephes. 1. 6. And 2 He bears and takes away the iniquity that cleaves unto them as they proceed from us which renders them unmeet for God This was typed out by the plate of God wherein was inscribed Holiness to the Lord that was on the forehead of the High Priest It was that he might bear the Iniquity of the Holy things of the people Exod. 28. 36 37 38. He bare it in the Expiation he made of all sin and takes it away in the sight of God And 3 He adds of the Incense of his own Mediation unto them that they may have a sweet savour in their Offering to God Rev. 8. 3. On this foundation it is that God hath graciously designed them unto sundry Ends of his Glory and accepts them accordingly For 1 The Will of his Command is fulfilled thereby and this tends to the Glory of his Rule and Government Matth. 7. 21. We are to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven The Glory that God hath in Heaven from the Ministry of all his holy Angels consists in this that they always with all readiness and chearfulness do observe his Commands and do his Will esteeming their doing so to be their Honour and Blessedness For hereby is the Rule and Authority of God owned avouched exalted a neglect whereof was the Sin and Ruine of the Apostate Angels In like manner our Fruits of Obedience are the only Acknowledgements that we do or can make to the supream Authority and Rule of God over us as the one Law-giver who hath power to kill and keep alive The Glory of an Earthly King consists principally in the willing Obedience which his Subjects give unto his Laws For hereby they expresly acknowledge that they esteem his Laws wise just equal useful to mankind and also reverence his Authority And it is the Glory of God when the Subjects of his Kingdom do testifie unto all their willing chearful Subjection unto all his Laws as holy righteous and good by the Fruits of their Obedience as also that it is their principal Honour and Happiness to be ingaged in his Service Joh. 15. 14. Hereby is our Heavenly Father glorified as he is our great King and Law-giver 2 There is in the Fruits of Obedience an Expression of the nature power and efficacy of the Grace of God whereby also he is glorified for he doth all things to the praise of the Glory of his Grace Ephes. 1. 6. In all the actings of Lust and Sin in the drouth and dust of Barrenness we represent an Enmity against him and contrariety unto him acting over the principle of
or in the Love of God by Christ as by and in our own Love to him and his The Mystical Body of Christ is the second great mystery of the Gospel The first is his Person that great mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh. In this mystical Body we have Communion with the Head and with all the Members with the Head by Faith and with the Members by Love Neither will the first compleat our Interest in that Body without the latter Hence are they frequently conjoyned by our Apostle not only as those which are necessary unto but as those which Essentially constitute the Union of the whole mystical Body and Communion therein Gal. 5. 6. Ephes. 6. 23. 1 Thes. 1. 3. 1 Tim. 1. 14. chap. 1. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 13. chap. 2. 22. Wherefore without Love we do no more belong to the Body of Christ than without Faith it self And in one place he so transposeth them in his expression to manifest their inseparable connexion and use unto the Union and Communion of the whole Body as that it requires some care in their distribution unto their peculiar objects Philem. 5. Hearing of thy Love and Faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and towards all Saints Both these Graces are spoken of as if they were exercised in the same manner towards both their Objects Christ and the Saints But although Christ be the Object of our Love also and not of our Faith only yet are not the Saints so the Object of our Love as to be the Object of our Faith also We believe a Communion with them but place not our Trust in them There is therefore a variation in the Prepositions prefixed unto the respective Objects of these Graces ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And this directs us unto a distribution of these Graces in their Operations unto their distinct Objects Faith towards the Lord Jesus and Love to the Saints But they are so mixed here to declare the infallible connexion that is between them in the constitution of the mystical Body of Christ. This therefore is the form life and soul of all mutual Duties between the Members of Christs mystical Body Whatever passeth between them in outward works wherein they may be useful and beneficial unto one another if it spring not from this principle of Love if it be not quickened and animated thereby there is nothing of Evangelical Communion in it Whereas therefore this Grace and Duty is the peculiar Effect and Glory of the Gospel the form and life of the mystical Body of Christ the pledge and evidence of our Interest in those better things which accompany Salvation I shall briefly declare the nature of it and shew the reason of the necessity of its diligent exercise Mutual love among Believers is a fruit of the Spirit of Holiness and effect of Faith whereby being knit together in the Bond of entire Spiritual Affection on the account of their joynt Interest in Christ and participation of the same new divine spiritual Nature from God do value delight and rejoyce in one another and are mutually helpful in a constant discharge of all those Duties whereby their eternal spiritual and temporal Good may be promoted 1. It is a fruit of the Spirit of Holiness of the Spirit of Christ Gal. 5. 22. It is no more of our selves than Faith is it is the Gift of God Natural Affections are in-laid in the constitution of our Beings Carnal Affections are grown inseparable from our nature as corrupted Both excited by various Objects Relations Occasions and Interest do exert themselves in many outward effects of Love But this Love hath no root in our selves until it be planted in us by the Holy Ghost And as it is so it is the principal part of the Renovation of our natures into the Image of God who is Love This Love is of God And every one that loveth is born of God 1 Joh. 4. 7. You are taught of God to love one another 2. It is an effect of Faith Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. Hence as we observed before Love to the Saints is so frequently added unto Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as the effect and pledge of it And although it proceeds in general from Faith as it respects the Commands and Promises of God yet it derives immediately from Faith as acted on the Lord Jesus Christ. For he being the Head of the whole mystical Body it is Faith in him that acts it self by Love towards all the Members Holding him the Head by Faith the whole Body edifies it self in Love Ephes. 4. 15 18. And the more sincere active and firm our Faith in Christ is the more abundant will our Love be towards all his Saints For Faith in Christ doth first excite Love unto him from whom as it were it descends unto all that it finds of him in any others And our Love of the Saints is but the Love of Christ represented and exhibited unto us in them The Papists tell us that Love or Charity is the form or life of Faith without which it is dead It is so far true that according to the Apostle James where it is not there Faith is dead Not that it is the life of Faith but that Faith wherever it is living will work by Love Faith therefore is the life the quickening animating principle of Love and not on the contrary And that Love which proceedeth not from which is not the effect of which is not enlivened by Faith is not that which the Gospel requireth 3. Believers are knit together in an entire Affection This is that Cement whereby the whole mystical Body of Christ is fitly joyned together and compacted Ephes. 4. 16. This mutual adherence is by the uniting cementing efflux of Love It is but an Image of the Body or a dead carkass that men set up where they would make a Bond for Professors of Christianity consisting of outward Order Rules and Methods of Duties A Church without it is an heap of dead stones and not living stones fitly compacted and built up a Temple unto God Break this Bond of Perfection and all spiritual Church Order ceaseth for what remains is carnal and worldly There may be Churches constituted in an outward humane Order on supposed prudential Principles of Union and external Duties of Communion which may continue in their Order such as it is where there is no Spiritual Evangelical Love in exercise among the Members of them But where Churches have no other Order nor Bond of Communion but what is appointed by Christ wherever this Love faileth their whole Order will dissolve 4. This mutual Love among Believers springs from and is animated by their mutual Interest in Christ with their Participation of the same Divine Nature thereby It is from their Union in Christ the Head that all the Members of the Body do mutually contribute what they derive from him unto the edification of the whole
the Truth we assert 2 Vengeance or Punishment of the contrary upon us Wherefore we do ascribe two things unto him whom we invocate in an Oath 1 An absolute Omnisciency or Infallible knowledge of the Truth or Falshood of what we assert 2 A Soveraign Power over us whence we expect Protection in case of Right and Truth or Punishment in case we deal falsly and treacherously And this respect unto punishment is that alone which gives force and efficacy unto Oaths among mankind There is a Principle ingrafted in the minds of men by Nature that God is the supream Rector Ruler and Judge of all men and their Actions as also that the Holiness of his Nature with his Righteousness as a Ruler and Judge doth require that Evil and Sin be punished in them who are under his Government Of his Omnipotent power also to punish all sorts of Transgressors the highest greatest and most exempt from humane Cognizance there is an alike conception and presumption According as the minds of men are actually influenced by these Principles so are their Oaths valid and useful and no otherwise And therefore it hath been provided that men of profligate lives who manifest that they have no regard unto God nor his Government of the world should not be admitted to give Testimony by Oath And if instead of driving all sorts of persons the worst the vilest of men on sleight or light or no occasions unto swearing none might be in any case admitted thereunto but such as evidence in their Conversations such a regard unto the Divine Rule and Government of the world as is required to give the least credibility unto an Oath it would be much better with humane Society And that in-road which Atheisme hath made on the world in these latter Ages hath weakened and brought in a laxation of all the Nerves and Bonds of Humane Society These things belong unto the Nature of an Oath amongst men and without them it is nothing But wherefore then is God said to swear who as the Apostle speaks can have no greater to swear by no Superiour unto whom in swearing he should have respect It is because as to Infinite Omniscience Power and Righteousness the thing respected in an Oath God is that Essentially in and unto himself which he is in a way of external Government unto his Creatures Wherefore when he will condescend to give us the utmost security and assurance of any thing which our Nature is capable of antecedent unto actual enjoyment in and by the express ingagement of his Holiness Veracity and Immutability he is said to swear or to confirm his Word with his Oath The end and use of this Oath of God is so fully expressed ver 17. that I must thither refer the consideration of it Ver. 15. The Event of this Promise giving and Oath of God on the part of Abraham is declared And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the Promises ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And so This was the way and manner of Gods dealing with him and this was the way on the other side how he carried it towards God And the manner of his deportment or the way whereby he attained the end proposed was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He patiently endured after he had patiently endured or rather patiently enduring The word hath been spoken unto before ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã longanimus lentus tardus ad iram One that is not quickly provoked not easily excited unto Anger hasty Resolutions or any distempered passion of mind And sundry things are intimated in this word 1. That Abraham was exposed to Trials and Temptations about the Truth and Accomplishment of this Promise If there be not difficulties provocations and delays in a business it cannot be known whether a man be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or no he hath no occasion to exercise this Longanimity 2. That he was not discomposed or exasperated by them so as to wax weary or to fall off from a dependance on God The Apostle explains fully the meaning of this word Rom. 4. 18 19 20 21. Against Hope he believed in Hope that he might become the Father of many Nations according unto that which was spoken so shall thy Seed be And being not weak in Faith he considered not his own Body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadness of Sarahs Womb He staggered not at the Promise of God through Unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform Continuing in a way of Believing as trusting to the Veracity and Power of God against all Difficulties and Oppositions was his ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or patient endurance 3. That he abode a long season in this state and condition waiting on God and trusting unto his Power It is not a thing quickly tried whether a man be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã one that will patiently endure or no. It is not from his Deportment under one or two Trials that a man can be so denominated The whole space of time from his first call to the day of his death which was just an hundred years are here included Wherefore this word expresseth the Life and Spirit of that Faith of Abraham which is here proposed to the Hebrews as their Example 2 The end of the whole was that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã compos factus est Promissionis obtinuit Promissionem He obtained or enjoyed the Promise Sundry Expositors refer this obtaining of the Promise to the Birth of Isaac a Son by Sarah which he so long waited for and at length enjoyed for this was the principal Hinge whereon all other priviledges of the Promises did depend But Isaac was upwards of 20 years old at that time when the Promise was confirmed by the Oath of God which the Apostle hath respect unto It cannot therefore be that his Birth should be the thing promised Besides he twice informs us chap. 11. ver 13 19. that the Ancient Patriarchs among whom he reckoneth Abraham as one received not the Promises That which he there intends is their full Accomplishment in the actual exhibition of the promised Seed It is not therefore a full actual enjoyment of the thing promised that is here intended as it would be if it respected only the Birth of Isaac Wherefore Abrahams obtaining the Promise was no more but his enjoyment of the Mercy Benefit and Priviledge of it in every state and condition whereof in that state and condition he was capable If therefore we take a view of the Promise as it was before explained we shall see evidently how Abraham obtained it that is how it was every way made good unto him according as the nature of the thing it self would bear For as unto his own personal Blessing whether in things Typical or Spiritual he obtained or enjoyed it As things were disposed in the Type he was blessed and
multiplied in that increase of Goods and Children which God gave unto him Spiritually he was justified in his own person and therein actually enjoyed all the Mercy and Grace which by the promised Seed when actually exhibited we can be made partakers of He who is freely justified in Christ and therewithall made partaker of Adoption and Sanctification may well be said to have obtained the Promise And hereon dependeth Eternal Glory also which our Apostle testifieth that Abraham obtained For that part of the Promise that he should be the Heir of the world and the Father of all that Believe it could not be actually accomplished in his own days wherefore therein he obtained the Promise in the assurance he had of it with the Comfort and Honour which depended thereon As a pledge of all these things he saw the posterity of Isaac in whom they were all to be fulfilled Some things therefore there were in the Promises which could not be actually accomplished in his days such were the Birth of the Blessing Seed the numerousness and prosperity of his Children according to the Flesh the coming in of a multitude of Nations to be his Children by Faith These things he obtained in that assurance and comfortable prospect which he had of them through believing They were infallibly and unchangeably made sure unto him and had their Accomplishment in their proper season Isa. 60. 22. And we may observe that 1. Whatever difficulty and opposition may lye in the way patient endurance in Faith and Obedience will infallibly bring us unto the full enjoyment of the Promises 2. Faith gives such an interest unto Believers in all the Promises of God as that they obtain even those Promises that is the benefit and comfort of them whose actual Accomplishment in this world they do not behold Ver. 16. For men verily swear by the greater and an Oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife The Apostle in these words confirms one part of his Intention of the stability of a Divine Promise confirmed with an Oath by a general maxime concerning the Nature and Use of an Oath among men and withall makes a transition into the second part of his Discourse or the Application of the whole unto the use of them that Believe And therefore sundry things an Observation whereof will give us the sense and explication of them are to be considered As 1. The Reason why God in his gracious Condescension unto our Infirmities is pleased to confirm his Promise with an Oath is introduced by the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For which gives an account of what was spoken ver 13. and the reason intended consists herein That by the Light of Nature witnessed unto by the common consent and usage of mankind the ultimate supream and most satisfactory way of giving assurance unto or confirming what is spoken or promised is by an Oath And the Apostle argueth not meerly from what men do by common consent as it were among themselves but what the Law and Order of all things in subjection unto God doth require For whereas men do or ought to acknowledge his supream Rule and Government over all when their own rights and concerns cannot be determined and peaceably fixed by reason or testimony or any other Instrument whereof they have the use it is necessary that an Appeal be made unto God for his Interposition wherein all must acquiesce This therefore being amongst men the highest assurance and ultimate determination of their thoughts the holy God intending the like assurance in Spiritual things confirms his Promise by his Oath that we may know from what we centre in as to our own occasions that there can be no accession of security made thereunto 2. There is in the words the internal manner and form of swearing amongst men they swear by a greater a Nature above them superiour unto them in whose power and at whose disposal they are which hath been spoken unto 3. The use of an Oath among men is declared and therein 1 The subject matter of it or what is the occasion and subject which it respects And this is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which we have rendered strife contradiction between two or more When one party avers one thing and another another and no evidence ariseth from the matter controverted about nor any of its circumstances there must of necessity be amongst them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an endless strife and mutual contradiction which would quickly bring all things to violence and confusion For if in matters of great concernment and especial Interest one man positively asserts one thing and another another and no Evidence arise from circumstances to state aright the matter in difference it must come to Force and War if there be no other way of bringing all parties unto an Acquiescency for he who hath peremptorily asserted his right will not afterwards voluntarily forego it not only because of the loss of his just claim as he apprehends but also of his Reputation in making an unjust claim thereunto In such cases an Oath is necessary unto the Government and Peace of mankind as without which strifes must be perpetuated or ended by force and violence This the Apostle respects when he saith an Oath amongst men is an end of strife There is therefore unto a lawful Oath required 1 A just occasion or a strife amongst men otherwise undeterminable 2 A lawful Rule or Government with power to propose and to judge about the difference on the Evidence thereof or a mutual consent of persons concerned 3 A solemn Invocation of God as the supream Governour of the world for the interposition of his Omniscience and Power to supply the defects and weaknesses that are in the Rules and Rulers of humane Society 4. This brings in the end of an Oath among men and that is to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to put bounds and limits to the Contentions and mutual contradictions of men about Right and Truth not otherwise determinable to make an end of their strife 5. The way whereby this is done is by interposing the Oath ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the avowing of the truth rendering it firm and stable in the minds of men which did before fluctuate about it If this be the nature use and end of an Oath amongst men if under the conduct of natural Light they thus issue all their differences and acquiesce therein certainly the Oath of God wherewith his Promise is confirmed must of necessity be the most effectual means to issue all differences between him and Believers and to establish their Souls in the Faith of his Promises against all oppositions difficulties and temptations whatever as the Apostle manifests in the next Verses As these words are applied unto or used to illustrate the state of things between God and our Souls we may observe from them 1 That there is as we are in a state of Nature a strife and
they are absolutely immutable no more subject unto change than is the Divine Nature it self The Declarations which God makes concerning their Execution or Accomplishments are of two sorts 1 There are some of them wherein there is necessarily included a respect unto some antecedent moral Rule which puts an express condition into the Declarations although it be not expressed and is always in like cases to be understood Thus God Commands the Prophet to declare that yet forty days and Niniveh should perish Jonah 3. 4. Here seems to be an absolute Declaration of the Purpose of God without any condition annexed a positive prediction of what he would do and should come to pass Either God must change his Purpose or Niniveh must be overthrown But whereas this destruction was foretold for fin and impenitency therein there was an antecedent moral Rule in the case which gives it as compleat a condition as if it had been expressed in words And that is that Repentance from sin will free from the punishment of sin so that the prediction had this limitation by an antecedent Rule unless they Repent And God declares that this Rule puts a condition into all his Threatenings Jerem. 18. 7 8. And this was the course of Gods dealing with the House of Eli 1 Sam. 2. 30. God doth neither suspend his Purpose on what men will do nor take up conditional resolutions with respect thereunto He doth not purpose one thing and then change his Resolutions upon contingent emergencies for he is of one mind and who can turn him Job 23. 13. nor doth he determine that if men do so on the one hand that he will do so and if otherwise that he will do otherwise For instance there was no such Decree or Purpose of God that if Niniveh did Repent it should not be destroyed and if it did not Repent it should perish For he could not so purpose unless he did not foresee what Niniveh would do which to affirm is to deny his very Being and Godhead But in order to accomplish his Purpose that Niniveh should not perish at that time he threatens it with Destruction in a way of prediction which turned the minds of the Inhabitants to attend unto that antecedent moral Rule which put a condition into the prediction whereby they were saved 2 In the Declaration of some of Gods Counsels and Purposes as to the Execution and Accomplishment there is no respect unto any such antecedent moral Rule as should give them either Limitation or Condition God takes the whole in such cases absolutely on himself both as to the ordering and disposing of all things and means unto the end intended Such was the Counsel of God concerning the sending of his Son to be of the Seed of Abraham and the blessing that should ensue thereon No alteration could possibly on any account be made herein neither by the sin nor unbelief of them concerned nor by any thing that might befall them in this world Such was the Counsel of God and such the Immutability of it here intended as it was absolutely unchangeable in it self so as to mans concerns and interest in it it was attended with no condition or reserve 3. This Immutability God was willing ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to shew manifest declare make known It is not his Counsel absolutely but the Immutability of his Counsel that God designed to evidence His Counsel he made known in his Promise All the gracious actings of God towards us are the executing of his holy Immutable Purposes Ephes. 1. 11. And all the Promises of God are the Declarations of those Purposes And they also in themselves are Immutable for they depend on the Essential Truth of God Tit. 1. 2. In hope of Eternal Life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began Gods Essential Veracity is engaged in his Promises And they are so expresly the Declaration of his Purposes that when God had only purposed to give us Eternal Life in Christ he is said to have promised it namely before the world began And this declareth the Nature of Unbelief He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar 1 Jo. 5. 10. because his Essential Truth is engaged in his Promise And to make God a Liar is to deny his Being which every Unbeliever doth as he is able But whereas God intended not only the confirmation of the Faith of the Heirs of Promise but also their Consolation under all their Difficulties and Temptations he would give a peculiar evidence of the Immutability of that Counsel which they embraced by Faith as tendered in the Promise For what was done did not satisfie the fulness of Grace and Love which he would declare in this matter no though it were done so abundantly But 4. He would do it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more abundantly that is beyond what was absolutely necessary in this case The Promise of God who is the God of Truth is sufficient to give us Security Nor could it be by us discovered how the Goodness of God himself should require a further procedure Yet because something further might be useful for the reasons and ends before declared he would add a further Confirmation unto his Word And herein as the Divine Goodness and Condescension are evidently manifested so it likewise appears what weight God lays upon the assuring of our Faith and Confidence For in this Case he swears by himself who hath taught us not so to use his Name but in things of great consequence and moment This is the sense of the word if it respect the Assurance given which is more abundant than it could be in or by a single Promise But ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã may refer unto God himself who gives this Assurance and then it is as much as ex abundanti when God who is Truth it self might justly have required Faith of us on his single Promise yet ex abundanti from a superabounding love and care he would confirm it by his Oath Either sense suits the Apostles design 3. It is declared who they were to whom God intended to give this Evidence of the Immutability of his Counsel and that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Heirs of Promise that is Believers all Believers both under the Old and New Testament It may be indeed that those of the Hebrews were in the first place intended For unto them did the Promise belong in the first place as they were the natural Seed of Abraham and unto them was it first to be declared and proposed upon its Accomplishment Acts 2. 29. Acts 3. 25. Acts 13. 46. But it is not they alone who are intended All the Children of the Faith of Abraham are Heirs also Gal. 4. 27 28. It is therefore with respect unto all Believers absolutely that God confirmed his Promise with his Oath though the natural Seed of Abraham was respected in the first place until they cut off themselves by their Unbelief See Luke 1.
72. Micah 7. 20. Believers are called Heirs of the Promise on a double account 1 With respect unto the Promise it self 2 With respect unto the matter of the Promise or the thing promised This distinction is evidently founded on Chap. 11. ver 13 17 39. compared For look in what sense they are said to be Heirs of the Promise therein they are not actually possessed of it For an Heir is only in expectancy of that whereof he is an Heir Wherefore take the Promise in the first sense formally and it is the Elect of God as such who are the Heirs of it God hath designed them unto an Interest therein and a Participation thereof and he confirmed it with his Oath that they might be induced and encouraged to believe it to mix it with Faith and so come to inherit it or to be made actual partakers of it To this purpose our Apostle disputeth at large Rom. 9. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. In the latter sense taking the Promise materially for the thing promised they are Heirs of it who have an actual Interest in it by Faith and partaking of the present Grace and Mercy wherewith it is accompanied as pledges of future Glory have a Right unto the whole Inheritance Thus all Believers and they only are Heirs of the Promise Rom. 8. 17. Heirs of God that is of the whole Inheritance that he hath provided for his Children And I take the words in this latter sense for it is not the first believing of these Heirs of the Promise that they might be justified which is intended but their establishment in Faith whereby they may be comforted or have strong consolation But whereas this Declaration of the Immutability of Gods Counsel is made in the Promise of the Gospel which is universal or at least indefinitely proposed unto all how it comes here to be cast under this limitation that it is made to Elect Believers or the Heirs of Promise only shall be immediately declared 4. What God did in this matter for the ends mentioned is summarily expressed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he interposed himself by an Oath fidejussit jurejurando He that confirmeth any thing by an Oath is fidejussor one that gives security to Faith And fidejussor in the Law is Interventor one who interposeth or cometh between and ingageth himself to give Security This state of things is therefore here supposed God had given out that Promise whose Nature we have before declared Hereon he required the Faith of them unto whom it was given and that justly For what could any reasonably require further to give them sufficient ground of assurance But although all things were clear and satisfactory on the part of God yet many fears doubts and objections would be ready to arise on the part of Believers themselves as there did in Abraham unto whom the Promise was first made with respect unto that signal Pledge of its Accomplishment in the birth of Isaac In this case though God was no way obliged to give them further Caution or Security yet out of his infinite Love and Condescension he will give them a higher Pledge and Evidence of his Faithfulness and interposeth himself by an Oath he mediated by an Oath he interposed himself between the Promise and the Faith of Believers to undertake under that solemnity for the Accomplishment of it And swearing by himself he takes it on his Life his Holiness his Being his Truth to make it good The Truths which from these words thus opened we are instructed in are these that follow The Purpose of God for the saving of the Elect by Jesus Christ is an Act of Infinite Wisdom as well as of Soveraign Grace Hence it is called the Counsel of his Will or an Act of his Will accompanied with Infinite Wisdom which is the Counsel of God And among all the holy Properties of his Nature the manifestation of whose Glory he designed therein there is none more expresly and frequently mentioned than his Wisdom And it is declared 1 As that which no created understanding of Men or Angels is able perfectly to comprehend neither in the Counsel nor in the Effects of it Hence our Apostle shutteth up his Contemplation of the ways paths and effects of this Wisdom with that Rapture of Admiration Rom. 11. 33 34 35 36. O the depths of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgements and his Ways past finding out For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him again For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen The whole issue of our Contemplation of the Wisdom of God in the Eternal projection of our Salvation by Jesus Christ is only an Admiration of that Abysse which we cannot dive into with an humble Ascription of Glory to God thereon And as to the especial effects of this Wisdom the Angels themselves desire to bow down with an humble diligence in their enquiry into them 1 Pet. 1. 12. And on these considerations our Apostle concludes that without all controversie the work hereof is a great mystery 1 Tim. 3. 16. which we may Adore but cannot Comprehend See the Name of Christ Isa. 9. 6. 2 As that wherein God hath expresly designed to Glorifie himself unto Eternity This is the end of all the free Acts and Purposes of the Will of God neither can they have any other though all other things may be subordinate thereunto Now no Property of the Divine Nature is so conspicuous in the disposal of things unto their proper end as that of Wisdom whose peculiar work and effect it is Wherefore the great end which God will ultimately effect being his own Glory in Christ and the Salvation of the Elect by him the Wisdom whereby it was contrived must needs be Eminent and Glorious So the Apostle tells us Then is the End when Christ shall have delivered up the Kingdom unto God even the Father and he also in his humane Nature subjects himself unto him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 24 28. that is when the Lord Christ hath finished the whole work of his Mediation and brought all his Elect unto the enjoyment of God then shall God be all in all or therein or thereby he will be for ever exalted and glorified when it shall be manifest how all this great work came forth from him and is issued in him Jude 25. 1 Tim. 1. 17. 3 The whole work is therefore expresly called the Wisdom of God because of those Characters and Impressions thereof that are upon it and because it is a peculiar effect thereof So our Apostle tells us that Christ crucified is the Power of God and Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. and that the Gospel whereby it is declared is the Wisdom of God in a mystery 1 Cor. 2.
things therefore may be considered in the Wisdom of God giving Immutability to his Counsel concerning the Salvation of the Elect by Jesus Christ. 1 Thereby he saw at once not only whatever was needful for the Accomplishing of it but that which would infallibly effect it He chose not probable and likely means for it and such as might do it unless some great obstruction did arise such as whose efficacy might be suspended on any conditions and emergencies but such as should infallibly and inevitably reach the End intended In the first Covenant wherein God had not immutably decreed to preserve mankind absolutely in their Primitive Estate he made use of such means for their preservation as might effect it in case they were not wanting unto themselves or that Obedience which they were enabled to perform This man neglecting the means appointed of God as to their success depending thereon by Gods own Appointment that End which in their own Nature they tended unto was not attained and that because God had not immutably determined it But now whereas God engaged himself in an unchangeable-Purpose in his infinite Wisdom he fixeth on those means for its Accomplishment as shall not depend on any thing whereby their efficacy might be frustrated Such was his sending of his Son to be Incarnate and the Dispensation of Grace of the New Covenant which is in its Nature infallibly effectual unto the End whereunto it is designed 2 God in his infinite Wisdom foresaw all the Interveniencies on our part that might obstruct the certain Accomplishment of the Promise The Promise was first given indefinitely unto all mankind in our first Parents But soon after the wickedness of the whole world with their absolute contempt of the Grace of the Promise was such as that any Creature would conceive that it would be of none effect being so visibly so universally rejected and despised But a perfect View hereof lying under the Wisdom of God he provided against it for the Immutability of his Purpose and Infallibility of his Promise by singling out first one then another and at last the whole Posterity of Abraham towards whom the Promise should be accomplished But yet after a long season there came the last and uttermost trial of the whole matter For the generality of the Seed of Abraham rejected the Promise also whereby it appeared really to have been frustrated and to be of none effect as our Apostle declares in his Answer to that Objection Rom. 9. 6. But instead of changing his Purpose God then more fully discovered wherein the Immutability of his Counsel did consist and whereon it did depend as Gal. 3. 8. And this was that all along and under all those Apostasies he ever had and ever will have in the world an Elect people chosen by him before the foundation of the world in and towards whom his Purpose was Immutable and his Promise Infallible No Interveniency can possibly shake or alter what hath been settled by infinite Wisdom There is not a particular Believer but is made so sensible of his own unworthiness that at one time or another he cannot but be almost brought to a loss how it should be that such a one as he should ever inherit the Promise But God foresaw all that hath befallen us or will do so and hath in his infinite Wisdom provided against all Interveniencies that his Purpose might not be changed nor his Promise frustrated Infinite Goodness as acting it self in Christ was not satisfied in providing and preparing good things for Believers but it would also shew and declare it unto them for their present Consolation God was willing to shew to the Heirs of Promise and the end was that they might have strong Consolation As it is with a good wise Father and an Obedient Son The Father is possessed of a large and profitable Estate And as the son hath a present allowance suitable to his Condition so being Obedient he hath a just expectation that in due time he shall enjoy the whole Inheritance this being usual amongst men and that which the Law of Nature directs unto For Parents are to lay up for their Children and not Children for their Parents But the whole being yet absolutely in the Fathers power it is possible he may otherwise dispose of it and it may not come to the right Heir But now if his Father seeth his Son on some occasion to want Encouragement or he be to put him on any difficult Service where he may meet with Storms and Dangers he will shew unto him his Deeds of Settlement wherein he had irrevocably confirmed unto him the whole Inheritance So God deals with Believers with his Children in this case He is Rich in Grace Mercy and Glory and all his Children are Heirs of it Coheirs with Christ and Heirs of God Rom. 8. 17. that is of the whole Inheritance that God hath provided for his Children This they have an expectation of by the Promise according to the Law of the New Covenant But although their state be thus secured by their being Heirs of the Promise yet God knowing that they have a difficult work and warfare to go through withall and what it is to serve him in Temptations for their Encouragement and Consolation he produceth and sheweth them his irrevocable Deed of Settlement namely his Promise confirmed by his Oath whereby the whole Inheritance is infallibly secured unto them He was free and willing to shew it unto the Heirs of Promise At first God gave out a meer Precept as the Declaration of his Will and a Promise couched in a Threatening This was that which Divine Goodness acting in a way of Nature did require and whereof man had no cause to complain For as the mind of God was sufficiently declared therein so man in himself had no grounds of discouragements from a compliance therewith And God might so deal with us all giving out the whole Revelation of his Will in a systeme of Precepts as some seem to suppose that he hath done But things are now changed on two Accounts For 1 It was herein the peculiar Design of God to glorifie his Goodness Love Grace and Mercy by Jesus Christ and he will do it in an abundant manner He had before glorified his Eternal Power and infinite Wisdom in the Creation of the World and all things therein contained Psal. 19. 1 2 3. Rom. 1. 21. And he had glorified his Holiness and Righteousness in giving of the Law accompanied with Eternal Rewards and Punishments But Grace and Truth in the provision of it and the Accomplishment of the Promise came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 18. And therefore that the Lord Christ in all this may have the preheminence he will do it in an abundant and unconceiveable manner above the former Declarations of his Glory in any other of his Attributes Hence in the Scripture the Communication of Grace is expressed in words that may intimate its exceeding and passing all understanding
the Truth and Stability of his Promises given in a way of Grace have no reason to expect nor shall receive any thing but what he will do and can do in a way of Justice and Vengeance It is not all mankind universally but a certain number of persons under certain Qualifications to whom God designs to manifest the Immutability of his Counsel and to communicate the Effects thereof It is only the Heirs of Promise whom God intendeth But herein two things are to be considered 1 The outward Revelation or Administration of these things and 2 Gods Purpose therein The former is made promiscuously and indefinitely unto all to whom the Gospel is preached For therein is contained a Declaration of the Immutability of Gods Counsel and his Willingness to have it known But if God did design the Communication of the Effect of it in the same latitude with the outward Administration of it then must he be thought to fail in his Purpose towards the greatest part of them who receive it not This is that which the Apostle disputes upon Rom. 9. Having supposed that the generality of the Jews of the Posterity of Abraham according to the Flesh were cut off from the Promise by Unbelief and declared his sense thereon ver 1. he raiseth an Objection against that supposition ver 6. that if it were so the Promise of God was of none effect for unto them all it was given and declared Hereunto the Apostle answers and replies in that and the following Verses 7 8 9 10 11. And the substance of his Answer is that although the Promise was promiscuously proposed unto all yet the Grace of it was intended only unto the Elect as he also farther declares chap. 11. 7. But why then doth God thus cause the Declaration to be made promiscuously and indefinitely unto all if it be some only whom he designs unto a Participation of the effects of his Counsel and good things promised I Answer Let us always remember that in these things we have to do with him who is greater than we and who giveth no Account of his matters What if God will take this way of procedure and give no reason of it who are we that we should dispute against God Wherefore our Apostle having at large discoursed this whole matter and pleaded the absolute freedom of God to do whatever he pleaseth winds up the whole in a resignation of all unto his Soveraignty with a deep Admiration of his unsearchable Wisdom wherein it is our Duty to acquiesce Rom. 11. 33 34 35. But yet I may add That the Nature of the thing it self doth require this Dispensation of the Promise indefinitely to all though the benefit of it be designed to some only For the way whereby God will give a participation of the Promise unto the Heirs of it being by the Administration of his Word and such means as are meet to work on the minds of men to perswade and prevail with them unto Faith and Obedience He would not do it by immediate Revelation or Inspiration and the like extraordinary Operations of his Spirit alone but by such ways as are suited to glorifie Himself and his Grace in the Rational minds of his Creatures capable thereof Now this could no way be done nor can unto this day but by the Declaration and Preaching of the Promise with Commands Motives and Encouragements unto Believing In this work all those whom He employs are utterly ignorant who they are who are Heirs of the Promise until they are discovered by their actual Believing wherefore they have no other work but in the first place to propose the Promise promiscuously unto all that will attend unto it leaving the singling out of its proper Heirs unto the Soveraign Grace of God So the Word is preached unto all Indefinitely and the Election obtains whilst the rest are hardened God alone knows the due measures of Divine Condescension or what becomes the Divine Nature therein Who could have once apprehended who durst have done so that the Holy God should swear by himself to confirm his Word and Truth unto such worthless Creatures as we are Indeed there is yet a more transcendent act of Divine Condescension namely the Incarnation of the Son of God the Glory whereof will be the Object of the Admiration of Men and Angels unto Eternity For alas what created Understanding could ever have raised it self unto a thought that the Eternal Word should be made Flesh God alone who is infinitely Wise only Wise knew what became the Holiness of his Being and his Goodness therein And so is it in its measure in this of his Oath And as we are with holy Confidence to make use of what he hath done in this kind seeing not to do so is to despise the highest expression of his Goodness so we are not in any thing to draw Divine Condescension beyond Divine Expressions So unspeakable is the weakness of our Faith that we stand in need of unconceivable Divine Condescension for its Confirmation The Immutability of Gods Counsel is the Foundation of our Faith until this be manifest it is impossible that ever Faith should be sure and stedfast But who would not think that Gods Declaration thereof by the way of Promise were every way sufficient thereunto But God knew that we yet stood in need of more not that there was want of sufficient Evidence in his Promise but such a want of stability in us as stood in need of a superabundant Confirmation as we shall see in the next Verse Verse 18. That by two Immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us Two things in general the Apostle further designs in this Verse 1 That the Declaration which God had made of the Immutability of his Counsel in this matter was every way sufficient and satisfactory 2 What was the especial End and Design which he had therein towards the Heirs of Promise For the first He doth it by declaring the Evidence given and the Nature of it which consisted in two Immutable things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is an Act or Deed such as we make and deliver when we convey any thing from one to another An Instrument of an Assurance This is the Promise and the Oath of God Security is given by them both from their own Nature and also because they are two two Witnesses whereby the thing intended is established But what need was there of two such things Is it because one of these was weak infirm alterable such as may be justly challenged or excepted against that the other is added to strengthen and confirm it No saith the Apostle both of them are equally Immutable Wherefore we must still carry along with us the infinite and unconceiveable Condescension of God in this matter who to obviate our Temptations and relieve us under our weaknesses
are 1. When any were of Old designed to be Types of Christ there was a Necessity that things more Excellent and Glorious should be spoken or intimated of them than did properly belong unto them So many things are here observed of Melchisedec which were not properly and literally fulfilled in him And so there are likewise of David and Solomon in sundry places And the Reason is because the things so spoken were never intended of them absolutely but as they were designed to Represent the Lord Christ unto whom alone they did truly belong And in the Exposition of such Typical Prophecies the utmost Diligence is to be used in distinguishing aright what is absolutely spoken of the Type only and what is spoken of it meerly as Representing Christ himself 2. All that might be spoken so as to have any probable Application in any sence unto Things and Persons Typically coming short of what was to be fulfilled in Christ the Holy Ghost in his Infinite Wisdom supplied that defect by Ordering the Account which he gives of them so as more might be apprehended and learned from them than could be expressed And where the Glory of his Person as vested with his Office could not be Represented by positive Applications it is done by a Mystical Silence as in this Story of Melchisedec And the most Eminent and Glorious things assigned unto Types as such have a more Glorious signification in Christ than they have in them See to this purpose our Exposition on Chap. 1. ver 5. 3. That Christ abiding a Priest for ever hath no more a Vicar or Successor or Substitute in his Office or any deriving a real Priesthood from him than had Melchisedec whereof we shall speak afterwards 4. The whole Mystery of Divine Wisdom effecting all unconceivable Perfections centred in the Person of Christ to make him a meet Glorious and most Excellent Priest unto God in the behalf of the Church This it is the principal Design of the whole Gospel to demonstrate namely to declare that all the Treasures of Divine Wisdom and Knowledge are hid in Jesus Christ Col. 2. 3. The Constitution of his Person was the greatest Mystery that ever Infinite Wisdom effected 1 Tim. 3. 16. And thereby did God Gloriously Represent himself and all his Infinite Perfections unto us Heb. 1. 3. Col. 1. 14 15. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Had he not the Divine Nature he could not have been the Express Image of God in himself And had he not been Man he could not have Represented him unto us Nor can any thing be more Mysteriously Glorious than the Furniture of his Person as Mediator with all fulness of Power Wisdom and Grace for the accomplishment of his Work John 1. 16. Col. 1. 18 19. Chap. 2. 9. Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8 9. The work that he wrought in Offering himself a Sacrifice and making attonement for sin hath the highest unconceivable Impression of Divine Wisdom upon it John 3. 16. Acts 20. 28. Rev. 5. 8. Eph. 5. 2. And so also hath the Grace that is from thence administred by him and from him unto Jews and Gentiles Eph. 3. 8 9 10 11. And Instances of the like kind may be multiplyed And we may consider thence first into what Condition of sin and misery we were fallen by our Apostacy from God whence nothing would or could recover us but this Blessed work of the whole Mystery of Divine Wisdom And then the unspeakable Riches and Excellencies of that Wisdom Love and Grace which provided this way for our Recovery VER 4 5 6. THE Proceed of these Verses is unto the Application of what was before Discoursed For having proved that Christ the promised Messiah was to be a Priest after the Order of Melchisedec from Psal. 110. and given a Description both of the Person and Office of this Melchisedec from the Historical Narration of them as laid down by Moses he makes Application of the whole unto his present purpose And from the consideration of sundry particulars in his Description confirms in general the Argument which he had in hand For that which principally he designeth to prove is that a more Excellent Priesthood than that of Aaron being introduced according to the Purpose and Promise of God it followed necessarily that that Priesthood with all the Worship Rites and Ceremonies which belonged unto it was to cease and be taken out of the way For as this new Promised Priesthood was inconsistent with it and could not be Established without the Abolition of it so it brought a far greater Benefit and Spiritual Advantage unto the Church than it before enjoyed And we are not to wonder that the Apostle insists so much hereon and that with all sorts of Arguments especially such as the Old Testament furnished him withal For this was the Hinge on which the Eternal Salvation or Destruction of that whole Church and People at that time did turn For if they would not forgoe their Old Priesthood and Worship their Ruine was unavoidable Christ would either be rejected by them or be of no profit unto them Accordingly things fell out with the most of them they clave absolutely unto their Old Institutions and rejecting the Lord Christ perished in their unbelief Others contended for the Continuance of their Priesthood and Worship for which they supposed they had Invincible Reasons although they admitted the Profession of Christ and the Gospel therewithal But our Apostle knowing how inconsistent these things were and how the retaining of that Perswasion would keep them off at present from believing the Necessity Usefulness Glory and Advantages of the Priesthood of Christ and the Spiritual Worship of the Gospel as also dispose them unto Apostacy for the future laboureth by all means to eradicate this pernicious Fundamental Error out of their minds Unto this End doth he so diligently insist on all the Instances and particulars of them whereby God of Old did intimate unto their Fore-fathers the Introduction of this Alteration with the Advantage of the Church thereby And I mention these things that we may see the Reason the Apostle did so Scrupulously as it were to insist on all the ensuing particulars which otherwise we may not so easily discern the necessity of and withal to shew 1. How hard it is to dispossess the minds of men of inveterate Perswasions in Religion 2. The great Care and Diligence they ought to Use and Exercise who have the Care of the Souls of Men committed unto them when they discern them in apparent danger of Ruine That the Old Priesthood was to be removed and the New one mentioned to be introduced He proves in the first place by the Greatness of the Person who was first chosen of God to praefigure and Represent the Lord Christ in his Office of Priesthood For if he were so Excellent in his Person and Office as deservedly to be preferred above Aaron and all his Successors then he who was praefigured and represented by him must be so also
Melchisedec And we see in like manner when Men are possessed with an inveterate conceit of their being the Church and having all the Priviledges of it enclosed unto them although they have long since forfeited openly all Right thereunto how difficult a thing it is to dispossess their minds of that pleasing presumption 2. That every Particle of Divine Truth is Instructive and Argumentative when it is rightly used and improved Hence the Apostle presseth all the Circumstances of this Story from every one of them giving light and evidence unto the great Truth which he sought to Confirm 2. That it might yet farther appear how great Melchisedec was who received Tithes of Abraham he declares who Abraham was in an instance of his great and especial Priviledge It was he who received the Promises This he singles out as the greatest Priviledge and Honour of Abraham as it was indeed the Foundation of all the other Mercies which he enjoyed or Advantages that he was entrusted withal The Nature of this Promise with the Solemn manner of its giving unto Abraham and the Benefits included in it he had at large declared Chap. 6. ver 13 14 15 16. Hereby Abraham became the Father of the Faithful the Heir of the World and the Friend of God so that it exceedingly Illustrates the Greatness of Melchisedec in that this Abraham paid Tithes unto him The Medium of the Argument in this instance is lyable only unto one Exception namely That Abraham was not the first that received the Promises so that although he were not yet there might be others greater than Melchisedec who never made any acknowledgment of his Preeminence For the Promise was given unto Adam himself immediately after the Fall as also unto Noah in the Covenant made with him and to others also who before Abraham died in the Faith Answ. It is true they had the Promise and the Benefit of it but yet so as in sundry things Abraham was preferred above them all For 1. He had the Promise more plainly and clearly given unto him than any of his Predecessors in the Faith Hence he was the first of whom it is said that He saw the Day of Christ and Rejoiced as having a clearer view of his Coming and of Salvation by him than any that went before him 2. The Promise was confirmed unto him by an Oath which it had not been unto any before 3. The Promised Seed was in it peculiarly confined unto his Family or Posterity See Heb. 2. 17. 4. His receiving of the Promise was that which was the Foundation of the Church in his Posterity which he had peculiarly to deal withal He had therefore the Preeminence above all others in this matter of receiving the Promises But it may yet be said that Abraham had not received the Promises then when he was Blessed of Melchisedec so that it was no Argument of his Preeminence at that time But 1. He had before received the same Promise for the Substance of it which was afterwards more Solemnly confirmed unto him on the trial of his Faith in Offering his only Son Gen. 12. 2 3. Chap. 13. 15 16. 2. He was then actually instated in a Right unto all that farther Confirmation of the Promises which he received on various Occasions and what followed added not unto the Dignity of his Person but served only unto the Confirmation of his Faith So Melchisedec Blessed him who had the Promises And we may Observe 1. We can be made partakers of no such Grace Mercy or Priviledge in this World but that God can when he pleaseth make an addition thereunto He who had received the Promises was afterwards Blessed VVe depend upon an infinite Fountain of Grace and Mercy from whence it is made out unto us by various degrees according to the good pleasure of God Neither will he give unto us nor are we capable to receive in this world the whole of what he hath provided for us in the enjoyment whereof our final Blessedness doth consist VVherefore as it is required of us to be thankful for what we have or to walk worthy of the Grace we have received Yet we may live in constant expectation of more from him and it is the great Comfort and Relief of our Souls that we may so do 2. It is the Blessing of Christ Typed in and by Melchisedec that makes Promises and Mercies effectual unto us He is himself the great Subject of the Promises and the whole Blessing of them cometh forth from him alone All besides him all without him is of or under the Curse In him from him and by him only are all Blessings to be obtained 3. Free and Soveraign Grace is the only Foundation of all Priviledges All that is spoken of the Dignity of Abraham is resolved into this That he received the Promises VER 7. But what if Abraham was thus Blessed by Melchisedec doth this prove that he was less than he by whom he was Blessed It doth so saith the Apostle and that by virtue of an unquestionable general Rule ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã less and greater are in the Neuter Gender and so rendred in most Translations illud quod minus est à majore only the Syriack reduceth them to the Masculine ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He who is the less is Blessed of him who is greater or more Excellent than him which is the sence of the words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Erasm. Porro nemo negat absque ulla omni contradictione and without all Contradiction And without all Contradiction the Less is Blessed of the Greater The words prevent an Objection which is supposed not expressed And therefore are they continued with those fore-going by the Conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as carrying on what was before asserted by a farther Illustration and Confirmation of it And there is in them 1. The Manner of the Assertion and 2. The Proposition it self 1. The Manner of it is in these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã without beyond above all reasonable Contradiction A Truth this is that cannot that will not be gain-said which none will deny or oppose as that which is evident in the Light of Nature and which the Order of the things spoken of doth require All Truths especially Divine Truths are such as ought not to be Contradicted and which no Contradiction can evert or change their Natures that they should not so be But against some of them not for want of Truth but either from want of Evidence in themselves or for want of light in them unto whom they are proposed Contradictions may arise and they may be called into Dispute or Question Thus it hath fallen out with all Truths which we receive by meer Supernatural Revelation The Darkness of the minds of Men unable clearly to discern them and perfectly to comprehend them will raise Disputes about them and Objections against them But some
God indeed by his Grace did influence the Minds of true Believers among them unto Satisfaction in their Obedience helping them to adore that Soveraignty and Wisdom which they believed in all his Institutions And he gave unto them really the Benefits of the good things that were for to come and that were prefigured by their Services But the state wherein they were by reason of these things was a state of Bondage Nor could any Relief be given in this state unto the Minds or Consciences of Men by the Levitical Priesthood For it was it self the principal cause of all these Burdens and Grievances in that the Administration of all Sacred things was committed thereunto The Apostle takes it here for granted that God designed a ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or state of Perfection unto the Church and that as unto its Worship as well as unto its Faith and Obedience We find by the Event that it answered not the Divine VVisdom and Goodness to bind up the Church during its whole Sojourning in this VVorld unto a VVorship so Carnal Burdensome so imperfect so unsuited to express his Grace and Kindness towards it or its sense thereof And who can but pity the woeful condition of the present Jews who can conceive of no greater Blessedness than the Restauration of this burdensome Service So true is it what the Apostle says the Vail is upon them unto this present day yea Blindness is on their minds that they can see no Beauty but only in things Carnal and like their fore-fathers who preferred the Bondage of Egypt because of their Flesh-pots before all the Liberty and Blessings of Canaan so do they their old Bondage-state because of some Temporal Advantages it was attended withal before the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God In Opposition hereunto there is a worship under the Gospel which hath such Properties as are constitutive also of this Perfection By Gospel-worship I understand the whole Way and Order of that Solemn VVorship of God which the Lord Christ hath Commanded to be observed in his Churches with all the Ordinances and Institutions of it and all the private Worship of Believers in their whole Access unto God The Internal Glory and Dignity of this Worship must be referred unto its proper place which is Chap. 10. 19 20 21 22. Here I shall only mention some few things wherein its Excellency consists in opposition unto the defects of that under the Law on the account whereof it is Constitutive of that Evangelical Perfection whereof we treat 1. It is Spiritual which is the Subject of the Apostle's Discourse 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8 9 c. And it is so on a two-fold Account 1. In that it is suited unto the Nature of God so as that thereby he is glorified as God For God is a Spirit and will be Worshipped in Spirit which our Saviour asserts to belong unto the Gospel-state in opposition unto all the most glorious Carnal Ordinances and Institutions of the Law John 4. 21 22 23. So is it opposed unto the old Worship as it was Carnal It was that which in and by it self answered not the Nature of God though Commanded for a Season See Psal. 50. ver 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. 2. Because it is performed meerly by the Aids Supplies and Assistances of the Spirit as it hath been at large proved elsewhere 2. It is easie and gentle in opposition unto the Burden and insupportable Yoke of the Old Institutions and Ordinances That so are all the Commands of Christ unto Believers the whole System of his Precepts whether for Moral Obedience or Worship himself declares Take my Yoke upon you saith he and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart and ye shall find Rest unto your Souls for my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Mat. 11. 29 30. So the Apostle tells us that his Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. But yet concerning this Ease of Gospel-worship some things must be observed 1. As to the Persons unto whom it is so easie and pleasant and it is so only unto them who being weary and heavy laden do come unto Christ that they may have Rest and do learn of him that is unto convinced humbled converted Sinners that do Believe in him Unto all other who on meer Convictions or by other means do take it upon them it proves an insupportable Burden and that which they cannot endure to be obliged unto Hence the Generality of Men although Professing the Christian Religion are quickly weary of Evangelical worship and do find out endless Inventions of their own wherewith they are better satisfied in their Divine Services Therefore have they multiplyed Ceremonies fond Superstitions and down-right Idolatries which they prefer before the Purity and Simplicity of the VVorship of the Gospel as it is in the Church of Rome And the Reason hereof is that Enmity which is in their Minds against the Spiritual things represented and exhibited in that VVorship For there being so near an Alliance between those things and this VVorship they that hate the one cannot but despise the other Men of unspiritual Minds cannot delight in Spiritual VVorship It is therefore 2. Easie unto Believers on the Account of that Principle wherewith they are acted in all Divine things This is the New Nature or New Creature in them wherein their Spiritual life doth consist By this they delight in all Spiritual things in the inner Man because they are cognate and suitable thereunto Weariness may be upon the Flesh but the Spirit will be willing For as the Principle of Corrupted Nature goeth out with delight and vehemency unto Objects that are unto its Satisfaction and unto all the means of its Conjunction unto them and Union with them so the Principle of Grace in the Heart of Believers is carried with Delight and Fervency unto those Spiritual things which are its proper object and therewithal unto the ways and means of Conjunction with them and Union unto them And this is the proper Life and Effect of Evangelical VVorship It is the means whereby Grace in the Soul is conjoyned and united unto Grace in the VVord and Promises which renders it easie and pleasant unto Believers so that they delight to be Exercised therein 3. The constant Aid they have in and for its performance if they be not wanting unto themselves doth entitle it unto this Property The Institution of Gospel-worship is accompanied with the Administration of the Spirit Isa. 59. 21. and he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã helpeth and assisteth in all the worship of it as was intimated before 4. The Benefit which they receive by it renders it easie and pleasant unto them For all the Ordinances of Evangelical-worship are of that Nature and appointed of God unto that End so as to excite increase and strengthen Grace in the worshippers as also to convey and exhibit a sense of the Love and Favour of God unto their Souls And in
unparallel'd effect of divine wisdom in taking our nature into that unconceiveable nearness unto himself in the union of it unto the Person of his Son For as all things in this bringing of us nigh to God who were afar off are expressive effects of wisdom and Grace so that of taking our nature into union with himself is glorious unto Astonishment And as we are thereby made unconceiveably more nigh to God in our nature than we were upon our first Creation or than Angels shall ever be so by vertue thereof are we in our Persons brought in many things much nearer to God then ever we could have been brought by the Law of Creation O Lord our God how excellent is thy name in all the earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens Psal. 8. 1. It is in the Admiration of this unspeakable Grace that the Psalmist is so ravished in the contemplation of God as hath been declared in our Exposition on the second Chapter of this Epistle 3. All our Approximation unto God in any kind all our Approaches unto him in holy worship is by him alone who was the blessed Hope of the Saints under the Old Testament and is the life of them under the New These things must be afterwards spoken unto VER 20 21 22. THE Apostle had warned the Hebrews before that he had many things to say and those not easie to be understood concerning Melchisedec And herein he intended not only those things which he expresseth directly concerning that Person and his office but the things themselves signifyed thereby in the Person and Office of Christ. And therefore he omits nothing which may from thence be any way represented So from that one Testimony of the Psalmist he makes sundry Inferences unto his purpose As 1. That the Lord Christ was to be a Priest which included in it the cessation of the Levitical Priesthood seeing he was of the Tribe of Judah and not of the Tribe of Levi. 2. That he was to be Another Priest that is a Priest of another Order namely that of Melchisedec And this he variously demonstrates to prove his Preheminence above the Aaronical Priesthood as also thereon that upon his Introduction that Order was utterly to cease and be disanulled 3. He observes from the same Testimony unto the same purpose that he was to be a Priest for ever so as that there should never more upon his death or otherwise be any need of another Priest nor any possibility of the return of the former Priesthood into the Church 4. Neither yet doth he rest here but observes moreover the manner how God in the Testimony insisted on declared his purpose of making the Lord Christ a Priest which was constitutive of his Office and that was by his Oath And thence takes occasion to manifest how far his Priesthood is exalted above that under the Law This is that which now lyes before us in these verses And we have in these things an Instance given of what unsearchable stores of Wisdom and Truth are laid up in every parcel of the word of God if we have a spiritual light in their Investigation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The words of the 20th verse being Elliptical the sense of them is variously supplyed Most Translators carry on the sense unto that which is the middest of the 21 in our Translation Others were made Priests without an Oath The Syriack refers the words unto them foregoing ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and confirmed it that is the better Hope with an Oath And Beza etiam quatenus non sine jurejurando superintroducta est in as much as that Hope is not brought in without an Oath And another since Et eo potior illa spes quatenùs n n absque jurejurando superintroducta est Schmid But this limits the comparison unto this verse which the Apostle really finisheth ver 22. Vul. Lat. quantum est non sine jurejurando which the Rhemists render and in as much as it is not without an Oath Ours supply he was made a Priest in as much as not without an Oath he was made a Priest no doubt according to the mind of the Apostle For he hath a prospect in these words unto what ensues where he expresly applyes this Oathunto the Priesthood of Christ and the consummation thereof ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Etiam quatenus quatenus and in as much ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is omitted by the Syriack Vul. in quantum est in as much hereunto answereth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 22. eatenus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is the same with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã jusjurandum an Oath But it is here principally applyed unto those Oaths whereby Conventions compacts or Covenants were confirmed Hence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã were the sacrifices that were offered in the confirmation of sworn Covenants It is three times used here by our Apostle on this occasion ver 20 21 28. and no where else in the new Testament ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Alii quidem which the Rhemists mend by rendring it and the other Beza nam illi quidem and so the Syriack ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and they ours for those Priests rather and truly those Priests though ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã have only the force of a causal conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã were but the manner of their being made Priests is intended and so the words are to be expressed fully facti sunt were made ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Syriack adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the hand of David It is not the giving of the Oath but the recording of it in the Psalm that he intendeth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã non poenitebit Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and will not lye will not repent or change his mind ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. in tantum to answer in quantum before Tantò eatenùs tanto by so much Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hoc toto by all this and so proceeds this Covenant was more excellent wherein Jesus was made the Surety Of the signification of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I shall speak afterwards VER 20 21 22. And in as much as not without an Oath For they truely 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 surety of a better Covenant The same Argument is pursued as in the foregoing verses only with a new Medium and that such as leads on towards the conclusion of the whole Disputation The Introduction of a new Priesthood the Cessation or Abolition of the Old with the Advantage of the Church thereby because of its Dignity Preheminence and stability above that which was to give place unto it are the things which the Apostle is in the proof and confirmation of There are three things in these three verses
shall see more at large afterwards Chap. 9. 19 20. And if Moses were concerned herein it was as he executed the office of the Priest in an extraordinary manner Therefore the High-Priest offering solemn sacrifices in the name and on the behalf of the People making Attonement for them according to the terms of that Covenant supplyed the place of the Surety thereof And we may observe That How good and glorious soever any thing may appcar to be or really be in the Worship of God or as a way of our coming to him or walking before him if it be not ratified in and by the immediate Suretiship of Christ it must give way unto that which is better it could be neither durable in it self nor make any thing perfect in them that made use of it 2. In what is positively asserted in the words we may observe 1. The Person who is the subject spoken of and that is Jesus He had in general declared the nature of the Priesthood of him who was to have that Office according to the order of Melchisedec But he had not yet in this whole chapter that is from the beginning of this discourse mentioned who that Person was or named him But here he makes application of the whole unto him it is Jesus who in all these things was intended And this he doth suitably unto his design and occasion For two things were in question among the Hebrews 1. What was the Nature of the Office of the Messiah 2. Who was the Person For the first of these he proves unto them from their own acknowledged Principles that he was to be a Priest as also what was the nature of that Priesthood and what would be the necessary consequents of the setting up that office in the Church and the exercise of it this his whole precedent discourse is designed unto Now he asserts the second part of the difference namely that it was Jesus who is this Priest because in him alone do all things concurre that were to be in that Priest and he had now discharged the principal part and Duty of that Office It was sufficient for the Church of the Jews to believe in the Messiah and to own the work of Redemption which he was to accomplish Nor did the meer actual coming of Christ make it absolutely necessary that they should all immediately be obliged to believe him to be the Person Many I doubt not died after his Incartion and went to Heaven without an actual belief that it was He who was their Redeemer But their obligation unto Faith towards that individual person arose from the Declaration that was made of him and the Evidences given to prove him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the world So he tells those unto whom he preached and who saw his miracles if ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins John 8. 24. It would not now suffice them to believe in the Messiah in general but they were also to believe that Jesus was He or they must perish for their unbelief Howbeit they only were intended who hearing his words and seeing his Miracles had sufficient Evidence of his being the Son God Of others in the same Church this was not as yet required Nor it may be doth our Saviour oblige them immediately unto Faith in this matter only he declares what would be the event with them who upon his Accomplishment of his work in the Earth and the sending of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension whereby he gave the principal Declaration and Evidence of his being the Messiah should continue in their unbelief Hereon and not before the Belief in his individual Person in Jesus the Son of God became the Foundation of the Church so that whoever beleived not in him did die in their sins Wherefore the Apostles immediately upon the coming of the Holy Ghost made this the first and principal subject of their Preaching namely that Jesus was the Christ. See Acts 2 3 4 5. so our Apostle in this place having asserted the Nature of the Office of the promised Messiah makes an application of it unto his Person as he also had done Chap. 2. 9. And we may observe that All the Priviledges Benefits and Advantages of the Offices and Mediation of Christ will not avail us unless we reduce them all unto Faith in his Person Indeed it is not so much what is done though that be unconceivably great as by whom it is done namely Jesus the Son of God God and Man in One Person It is a matter of somewhat a surprizing Nature that divers in these days do endeavour to divert the minds and Faith of men from a Respect unto the Person of Christ. But that the crafts of Satan have made nothing be it never so foolish or impious in Religion to seem strange a man could not but admire how such an Attempt should be either owned or countenanced For my part I must acknowledge that I know no more of Christian Religion but what makes me judge that the principal trouble of Believers in this world lies herein that they can no more fervently love nor more firmly Believe in the Person of Christ than what they have as yet attained unto But this notion hath been vented and carried on among us by Persons who out of an aym after things novel and contrary to the received Faith have suffered themselves to be imposed on by those who have other Principles than what they seem to own For the Socinians denying the Divine Nature of Christ do in the pursuit of that Infidelity their utmost to take the minds of men from a regard unto his Person and would reduce all Religion unto a meer Obedience unto his Commands And indeed there can be no place for that Divine Faith in him trust on him and Love unto him which the Church always professed if it be supposed that he is not God and Man in one Person And their reasonings they are unto this purpose which some represent unto us who yet will not avow that Principle from whence alone they are taken and do rise But so long as we can hold the Head or this great Foundation of Religion that the Lord Christ is the Eternal Son of God which alone gives life and efficacy unto his whole work of Mediation our Faith in all its actings will be reduced unto his Person there it beginneth there it endeth It is Jesus who is this Mediator and Surety of the Covenant in whose Person God Redeemed the Church with his own Blood 2. That which is affirmed of this Person is that he was made a Surety 1. The way whereby he became so is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He was made so So is this word used with respect unto him Chap. 1. 4. of the same importance with another translated appointed Chap. 3. 2. and it signifies what is expressed Chap. 5. 5. The places may be consulted with our exposition of
and distinctly in several Persons as they were under the Old Testament could never extend their Acts and Effects unto all the occasions and necessities of the Church The business of our Apostle in this chapter is to prove that the Office of the Priesthood as vested in Aaron and his Successors made nothing perfect did not consummate the Church state nor could effect its Salvation The Kingly Office as it was Typically managed by David and others was remote from answering that Rule and Safety which the Church stood in need of Neither did nor could any one Prophet no nor yet all the Prophets together reveal and declare the whole Counsel of God But 5. These Offices as they were in Christ did perfectly answer and yet do all that belongs to the Redemption Sanctification Protection and Salvation of the Church And this they do on two Accounts 1. Because they were Committed unto him in a more full ample and unlimited manner than either they were or could be unto others on Purpose that they might answer all the ends of Gods Grace towards the Church So as he was made a King not this or that degree or enlargement of Power was committed unto him but all Power in Heaven and in Earth over all the Creation of God in all things Spiritual Temporal and Eternal See our Description and Delineation of this Power on Chap. 1. ver 2 3. As a Prophet he did not receive this or that particular Revelation from God but all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge were laid up in him and he knew the whole mind and Counsel of God as coming forth from his Divine Bosom And as unto his Sacerdotal Office we are now engaged in an enquiry into its especial nature as differing from and exalted above whatever was committed unto any of the Sons of men under that Name 2. The principal Reason of the All-sufficiency of the Office-Power and Ability of Christ is taken from his own Person which alone was capable of a Trust of such a Power and able to execute it unto all the Ends of it He alone who was God and Man in one Person was capable of being such a King Priest and Prophet as was able to save the Church unto the uttermost Wherefore in the consideration of this Office-Power of Christ wherein all our Salvation doth depend we have two things to attend unto First his Person who bears these Offices and who alone was fit and able so to do and secondly the especial Nature of the Office as committed unto him On these grounds he was Able to do infinitely more as a Priest than all the Priests of the Order of Aaron could do So the Apostle expresseth it in the next words 3. He is able to save ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã even to save to save also not for this or that particular end but absolutely even to save The general sense of this word is limited and determined in the use and Application of it throughout the Scripture not any temporal Deliverances but that which is supernatural spiritual and eternal is intended thereby And 1. The Notion of the word includeth in it a supposition of some Evil or Danger that we are delivered from This is sin with its consequents of Misery in the Curse of the Law and the VVrath to come VVherefore it is said of Christ that he saves his People from their sins Math. 1. 21. from the Curse Gal. 3. 13. and from the Wrath to Come 1 Thess. 1. 10. In these things all that is or can be Evil unto our nature here or unto eternity are included 2. The bringing of us into an estate of present Grace and Right unto future Blessedness with the enjoyment of it in its appointed season is intended in it For although this be not included in the first notion of the VVord yet it belongs unto the Nature of the thing intended This Salvation called therefore great and Eternal Salvation doth not meerly respect the evil we are delivered from but the contrary Good also in the present favour and future enjoyment of God And concerning this Salvation two things are to be considered 1. That there is Power and Ability required unto this work He is able to save It was no easie thing to take away sin to subdue Satan to fulfil the Law to make Peace with God to procure Pardon to purchase Grace and Glory with all other things great and glorious that belong unto this Salvation And it is the great concernment of Faith well to fix this principle that he who hath undertaken this work is able to accomplish it and that by the means he hath designed to use and the way wherein he will proceed We are apt to pass this over without any enquiry into it and to take it for granted that God is able to do whatever he pleaseth But it is not of the absolute Power of God whereof we speak but of the Power of God or of Christ put forth in such a peculiar way And the want of Faith herein is the first and most proper part of Unbelief VVherefore as God ingageth his Omnipotency or All-sufficiency as the Foundation of all his Covenant Actings towards us Gen. 17. 1. So he often pleadeth the same Power to assure us of the Accomplishment of his Promises Isa. 40. 28 29. And it is expresly asserted as the principal ground of Faith Rom. 4. 21. Chap. 11. 23. 1 Cor. 10. 10. 13. Ephes. 3. 20. 2. Tim. 1. 12. Jude 24. and often in this Epistle 2. It is here supposed that the discharge of Christs Priestly Office is the Way designed to save us by or to effect this great work of Salvation No other way or means is appointed of God unto this End Here we must look for it or go without it Wherefore the enquiry is necessary whether in the discharge of this Office and within the bounds and limits of it he be able to save us with this Salvation For indeed many are like those sons of Belial who said of Saul when God had anointed him King how shall this man save us and despised him 1 Sam. 10. 21. They understand not how Christ is able to save them by his Priesthood and therefore under various Pretences they trust to themselves and despise him All false Religion is but a choice of other things for men to place their trust in with a neglect of Christ. And all Superstition grows on the same Root in all effects or instances of it be they great or small VVherefore I say we are to consider whether this Office and the Acts of it be suited and meet for the effecting all things that belong to this Salvation For if we find them not so we cannot believe that he is a Priest able to save us But they evidence themselves to be otherwise unless our minds are darkned by the Power of Unbelief as we shall see in the particulars afterwards insisted on by our Apostle And we are here taught
unto the Glory of our High Priest For after he had offered his great Sacrifice unto God he entred not into the Holy Place made with hands but into Heaven it self And he entred not to stand with humble Reverence before the Throne but to sit on the Throne of God at his right hand Nor did he do so to abide there for a season but for evermore 2. As to the words themselves we may observe that the Apostle three times in this Epistle maketh use of them with some little variety Chap. 1. 3. Chap. 12. 2. And in this place Chap. 1. 3. He sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on High where there is no mention of the Throne Chap. 12. 2. He is sate down at the right hand of the Throne of God where Majesty is not added Here we have both the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty In the first place the Glory of his Kingly Power is intended in the last his Exaltation and Glory as they ensued on his Sufferings and in this place the Declaration of his Glory in his Priestly Office The same Glory and Advancement hath respect unto various Acts and Powers in the Lord Christ. The manner of his enjoyment of this Dignity and Glory is expressed in the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He sate down Hereof there was nothing Typical in the Legal High Priest who never sate down in the Holy Place But as he was in many things typed by the Levitical Priests so in what they could not reach unto he was represented in Melchisedec who was both a King and a Priest And hence he is prophesi'd of as a Priest upon his Throne Zech. 6. 13. And the immutable stability of his state and condition is also intended 2. The Dignity it self consists in the place of his Residence where he sate down and this was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã at the right hand See the Exposition hereof Chap. 1. 3. 3. This right hand is said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There is frequent mention in the Scripture of the Thorne of God A Throne is Insigne Regium an Ensign of Royal Power That intended by it is the manifestation of the Glory and Power of God in his Authority and Sovereign Rule over all 4. This Throne is here said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of Majesty or Glorious Greatness and Power that is of God himself for his essential Glory and Power is intended The Right hand of the Throne of Majesty is the same with the Right hand of God Only God is represented in all his Glory as on his Throne Christ is sate down at the Right hand of God as considered in all his glorious Power and Rule Higher expression there cannot be used to lead us into an holy Adoration of the tremendous invisible Glory which is intended And this is the eternal stable condition of the Lord Christ our High Priest A state of inconceivable Power and Glory Herein he dischargeth the remaining Duties of his Mediation according as the nature of his especial Offices do require In this state doth he take care and provide for the application of the benefits of his Oblation or Sacrifice unto Believers and that by Intercession whereof we have spoken 5. Thus is he said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Heavens as in the other place ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Highest that is Heavens And by the Heavens here not these visible aspectable Heavens are intended for with respect unto them he is said to be exalted above all Heavens and to have passed through them But it is that which the Scripture calls the Heaven of Heavens 1 Kings 8. 27. wherein is the especial residence and manifestation of the glorious presence of God With respect hereunto our Saviour hath taught us to call on our Father which is in Heaven And from the words we may observe that The principal Glory of the Priestly Office of Christ depends on the glorious Exaltation of his Person To this end is it here pleaded by the Apostle and thereby he evinceth his glorious Excellency above all the High Priests under the Law To evidence and make useful this Observation the things ensuing are to be observed 1. The Divine Nature of Christ is capable of no real Exaltation by an addition of Glory but only by the way of manifestation So God absolutely is often in the Scripture said to be exalted that is he is so when he himself by any Acts of Grace or Providence makes the eternal Glory of his Power his Holiness or any other properties of his Nature manifest and conspicuous or when others ascribe unto him the Glory and Praise that are his due So only may the Lord Christ be exalted or made glorious with respect unto his Divine Nature wherein he is essentially over all God blessed for ever And there is in this way an Exaltation or Manifestation of Glory peculiar and proper unto the Person of Christ as distinct from the Persons of the Father and the Holy Spirit For he did in a peculiar way and manner for a season forego and leave his Glory as to the Manifestation of it For being essentially in the form of God and counting it no robbery to be equal with God yet he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant Phil. 2. 6 7. In his Incarnation and his whole converse on the Earth he cast a vail over his eternal Glory so as that it appeared not in its own native lustre Those indeed who believed on him saw his Glory the Glory as of the onely begotten of the Father full of grace and truth John 1. 14. But they saw it darkly and as in a Glass during the time of his Humiliation But after his Resurrection his Glory was unvailed and made conspicuous even when he was declared to be the Son of God with power according unto the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 4. 2. The Person of Christ as to his Divine Nature was always on the Throne and is uncapable of the Exaltation here mentioned of sitting down at the right hand of it Although he came down from Heaven though he descended into the lower parts of the Earth although he was exposed unto all miseries was obedient unto death the death of the Cross wherein God redeemed his Church with his own blood yet did he all this in the humane nature that he assumed his Divine Person can no more really leave the Throne of Majesty than cease to be So he saith of himself No man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven John 3. 13. His Ascension into Heaven in this place which preceded the actual Ascension of his humane Nature is nothing but his admission into the knowledge of heavenly things of all the secrets of the counsel of God see John 1. 18.
re praeteritâ loquatur Respons ad cap. x. But as Beza very well observes the Apostle had before mentioned the one offering of Christ as already perfected and compleated Chap. 7. 27. He cannot therefore speak of it now but as that which was past and here he only shews how necessary it was that he should have himself to offer and so to offer himself as he had done And from these words we may observe 1. That there was no salvation to be had for us no not by Jesus Christ himself without his Sacrifice and Oblation It was of necessity that he should have somewhat to offir as well as those Priests had of old according to the Law Some would have it that the Lord Christ is our Saviour because he declared unto us the way of salvation and gave us an example of the way whereby we may attain it in his own personal obedience But whence then was it of necessity that he must have somewhat to offer unto God as our Priest that is for us For this belongeth neither unto his Doctrine nor Example And it was necessary that he should have somewhat to offer in answer unto those Sacrifices of old which were offered for the expiation of sin Nor would our salvation be otherwise effected by any other Acts or Duties of our High Priest For the Church could not be saved without taking away the guilt of sin And the whole design of the Priests and Sacrifices of old was to teach and instruct the Church how alone this might be performed And this was only by making atonement for it by Sacrifice wherein the Beast sacrificed did suffer in the room of the Sinner and did by Gods institution bear his iniquity And this our Apostle hath respect unto and the realizing of all those Typical Representations in Christ without which his whole discourse is useless and vain Wherefore there was no other way for our salvation but by a real propitiation or atonement made for our sins And whosoever looketh for it otherwise but in the faith and virtue thereof will be deceived 2. As God designed unto the Lord Christ the work which he had to do so he provided for him and furnished him with whatever was necessary thereunto Somewhat he must have to offer And this could not be any thing which was the matter of the Sacrifices of the Priests of old For all those Sacrifices were appropriated unto the discharge of the Priesthood And besides they were none of them able to effect that which he was designed to do Wherefore a body did God prepare for him as is declared at large Chap. 10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 c. 3. The Lord Christ being to save the Church in the way of Office he was not to be spared in any thing necessary thereunto And in conformity unto him 4. Whatever state or condition we are called unto what is necessary unto that state is indispensibly required of us So is Holiness and Obedience required unto a state of Reconciliation and Peace with God VER IV. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã VUl. Lat. si esset super terram all others in terra to the same purpose Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Earth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã even also he should not be a Priest ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Vulgar omits ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and renders the words cum essent qui offerrent Rhem. Whereas there were who did offer The Syriack agrees with the Original Manentibus illis Sacerdotibus quum sint alii Sacerdotes In the preceding Discourses the Apostle hath fully proved that the Introduction of this new Priesthood under the Gospel had put an end unto the old and that it was necessary so it should do because as he had abundantly discovered in many instances it was utterly insufficient to bring us unto God or to make the Church-State perfect And withall he had declared the nature of this new Priesthood In particular he hath shewed that although this High Priest offered his great expiatory Sacrifice once for all yet the consummation of this Sacrifice and the derivation of the Benefits of it unto the Church depended on the following discharge of his Office with his personal state and condition therein For so was it with the High Priest under the Law as unto his great Anniversary Sacrifice at the Feast of Expiation whose efficacy depended on his entrance afterwards into the holy place Wherefore he declares this state of our High Priest to be spiritual and heavenly as consisting in the Ministry of his own Body in the Sanctuary of Heaven Having fully manifested these things unfolding the mystery of them he proceeds in this Verse to shew how necessary it was that so it should be namely that he should neither offer the things appointed in the Law nor yet abide in the state and condition of a Priest here on earth as those other Priests did In brief he proves that he was not in any thing to take on him the Administration of holy things in the Church according as they were then established by Law For whereas it might be objected If the Lord Christ was an High Priest as he pleaded why then did he not administer the holy things of the Church according to the duty of a Priest To which he replies That so he was not to do yea a supposition that he might do so was inconsistent with his Office and destructive both of the Law and the Gospel For it would utterly overthrow the Law for one that was not of the Line of Aaron to officiate in the holy place and God had by the Law made provision of others that there was neither room nor place for his Ministry And the Gospel also would have been of no use thereby seeing the Sacrifice which it is built upon would have been of the same nature with those under the Law This the Apostle confirms in this Verse For indeed if he were on earth he should not be a Priest seeing that there are Priests that offer Gifts according to the Law The words are an Hypothetical Proposition with the Reason or Confirmation of it The Proposition is in the former part of the Verse For if indeed he were on the earth he should not be a Priest Hereof the remainder of the words is the Reason or Confirmation Seeing that there are Priests that offer Gifts according unto the Law And we may consider first the Causal Connexion For which relates unto what he had discoursed immediately before as introducing a Reason why things ought to be as he had declared He had in sundry instances manifested his present state and condition with the way and manner of the discharge of his Office A Priest he was and therefore he must have somewhat to offer which must be somewhat of his own seeing the Law would not accommodate him with a Sacrifice nor yet the whole Creation the Law having prepossessed unto its own use all that was clean and fit
as a Covenant For then all the Worship of the Church was to proceed from it and to be conformed unto it Then it was established Hence it follows in answer unto the second difficulty that as a Promise it was opposed unto the Covenant of Works as a Covenant it was opposed unto that in Sinai This Legalizing or authoritative establishment of the New Covenant and the Worship thereunto belonging did effect this alteration In the last place the Apostle tells us whereon this establishment was made and that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã on better Promises For the better understanding hereof we must consider somewhat of the original and use of Divine Promises in our Relation unto God And we may observe 1. That every Covenant between God and man must be founded on and resolved into Promises Hence essentially a Promise and a Covenant are all one and God calls an absolute Promise founded on an absolute Decree his Covenant Gen. 9. 11. And his Purpose for the continuation of the course of nature unto the end of the World he calls his Covenant with day and night Jer. 33. 20. The Being and Essence of a Divine Covenant lies in the Promise Hence are they called the Covenants of Promise Ephes. 2. 12. Such as are founded on and consist in Promises And it is necessary that so it should be For 1. The Nature of God who maketh these Covenants requireth that so it should be It becometh his Greatness and Goodness in all his voluntary Transactions with his Creatures to propose that unto them wherein their advantage their happiness and blessedness doth consist We enquire not how God may deal with his Creatures as such what he may absolutely require of them on the account of his own Being his absolute essential excellencies with their universal dependance upon him Who can express or limit the Sovereignty of God over his Creatures All the Disputes about it are fond We have no measures of what is infinite May he not do with his own what he pleaseth Are we not in his hands as Clay in the hands of the Potter And whether he make or marr a Vessel who shall say unto him What doest thou He giveth no account of his matters But upon supposition that he will condescend to enter into Covenant with his Creatures and to come to agreement with them according unto the terms of it it becometh his Greatness and Goodness to give them Promises as the foundation of it wherein he proposeth unto them the things wherein their Blessedness and Reward doth consist For 1 Herein he proposeth himself unto them as the eternal Spring and Fountain of all Power and Goodness Had he treated with us meerly by a Law he had therein only revealed his Soveraign Authority and Holiness the one in giving of the Law the other in the nature of it But in Promises he revealeth himself as the eternal Spring of Goodness and Power For the matter of all Promises is somewhat that is good and the communication of it depends on Soveraign Power That God should so declare himself in his Covenant was absolutely necessary to direct and encourage the Obedience of the Covenanters And he did so accordingly Gen. 17. 1. Gen. 15. 1. Hereby he reserves the glory of the whole unto himself For although the terms of agreement which he proposeth between himself and us be in their own nature holy just and good which sets forth his praise and glory yet if there were not something on his part which hath no antecedent respect unto any goodness obedience or desert in us we should have wherein to glory in our selves which is inconsistent with the glory of God But the matter of those Promises wherein the Covenant is founded is free undeserved and without respect unto any thing in us whereby it may in any sense be procured And so in the first Covenant which was given in a form of Law attended with a Penal Sanction yet the foundation of it was in a Promise of a free and undeserved Reward even of the eternal enjoyment of God which no goodness or obedience in the Creature could possibly merit the attainment of So that if a man should by virtue of any Covenant be justified by Works though he might have whereof to glory before men yet could he not glory before God as the Apostle declares Rom. 4. 2. and that because the Reward proposed in the Promise doth infinitely exceed the Obedience performed 2. It was also necessary on our part that every Divine Covenant should be founded and established on Promises For there is no state wherein we may be taken into Covenant with God but it is supposed we are yet not arrived at that perfection and blessedness whereof our nature is capable and which we cannot but desire And therefore when we come to Heaven and the full enjoyment of God there shall be no use of any Covenant any more seeing we shall be in eternal rest in the enjoyment of all the blessedness whereof our nature is capable and shall immutably adhere unto God without any farther expectation But whilst we are in the way we have still somewhat yea principal parts of our blessedness to desire expect and believe So in the state of Innocency though it had all the Perfection which a state of Obedience according unto a Law was capable of yet did not the Blessedness of eternal Rest for which we were made consist therein Now whil'st it is thus with us we cannot but be desiring and looking out after that full and compleat happiness which our nature cannot come to rest without This therefore renders it necessary that there should be a Promise of it given as the foundation of the Covenant without which we should want our principal encouragement unto Obedience And much more must it be so in the state of Sin and Apostasie from God For we are now not only most remote from our utmost happiness but involved in a condition of misery without a deliverance from which we cannot be any ways induced to give our selves up unto Covenant Obedience Wherefore unless we are prevented in the Covenant with Promises of deliverance from our present state and the enjoyment of future Blessedness no Covenant could be of use or advantage unto us 3. It is necessary from the nature of a Covenant For every Covenant that is proposed unto men and accepted by them requires somewhat to be performed on their part otherwise it is no Covenant But where any thing is required of them that accept of the Covenant or to whom it is proposed it doth suppose that somewhat be promised on the behalf of them by whom the Covenant is proposed as the foundation of its acceptance and the reason of the duties required in it All this appears most evidently in the Covenant of Grace which is here said to be established on Promises and that on two Accounts For 1 At the same time that much is required of us in the way
to have been a distinct Covenant and not a meer administration of the Covenant of Grace 1. This Covenant called the Old Covenant was never intended to be of itself the absolute Rule and Law of Life and Salvation unto the Church but was made with a particular design and with respect unto particular ends This the Apostle proves undeniably in this Epistle especially in the Chapter foregoing and those two that follow Hence it follows that it could abrogate or disannul nothing which God at any time before had given as a general Rule unto the Church For that which is particular cannot abrogate any thing that was general and before it as that which is general doth abrogate all antecedent particulars as the New Covenant doth abrogate the Old And this we must consider in both the instances belonging hereunto For 1. God had before given the Covenant of Works or perfect Obedience unto all Mankind in the Law of Creation But this Covenant at Sinai did not abrogate or disannual that Covenant nor any way fulfill it And the reason is because it was never intended to come in the place or room thereof as a Covenant containing an entire Rule of all the Faith and Obedience of the whole Church God did not intend in it to abrogate the Covenant of Works and to substitute this in the place thereof Yea in sundry things it reinforced established and confirmed that Covenant For 1. It revived decIared and expressed all the Commands of that Covenant in the Decalogue For that is nothing but a Divine Summary of the Law written in the heart of man at his Creation And herein the dreadful manner of its delivery or promulgation with its Writings in Tables of Stone are also to be considered For in them the nature of that first Covenant with its inexorableness as unto perfect Obedience was represented And because none could answer its demands or comply with it therein it was called the Ministration of Death causing fear and bondage 2 Cor. 3. 7. 2. It revived the Sanction of the first Covenant in the Curse or Sentence of Death which it denounced against all Transgressors Death was the penalty of the transgression of the first Covenant In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death And this Sentence was revived and represented anew in the Curse wherewith this Covenant was ratified Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them Deut. 27. 26. Gal. 3. 10. For the design of God in it was to bind a sense of that Curse on the Consciences of men until he came by whom it was taken away as the Apostle declares Gal. 3. 14 15 16. 3. It revived the Promise of that Covenant that of eternal Life upon perfect Obedience So the Apostle tells us that Moses thus describeth the Righteousness of the Law that the man which doth these things shall live by them Rom. 10. 5. as he doth Lev. 18. 5. Now this is no other but the Covenant of Works revived Nor had this Covenant of Sinai any Promise of eternal Life annexed unto it as such but only the Promise inseparable from the Covenant of Works which it revived saying Do this and live Hence it is that when our Apostle disputeth against Justification by the Law or by the Works of the Law he doth not intend the Works peculiar unto the Covenant of Sinai such as were the Rites and Ceremonies of the Worship then instituted but he intends also the Works of the first Covenant which alone had the Promise of Life annexed unto them And hence it follows also that it was not a New Covenant of Works established in the place of the Old for the absolute Rule of Faith and Obedience unto the whole Church for then would it have abrogated and taken away that Covenant and all the sorce of it which it did not 2. The other instance is in the Promise This also went before it neither was it abrogated or disannulled by the introduction of this Covenant This Promise was given unto our first Parents immediately after the entrance of sin and was established as containing the only way and means of the Salvation of Sinners Now this Promise could not be abrogated by the introduction of this Covenant and a new way of Justification and Salvation be thereby established For the Promise being given out in general for the whole Church as containing the way appointed by God for Righteousness Life and Salvation it could not be disannulled or changed without a change and alteration in the counsels of him with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning Much less could this be effected by a particular Covenant such as that was when it was given as a general and eternal Rule But whereas there was an especial Promise given unto Abraham in the Faith whereof he became the Father of the Faithful he being their Progenitor it should seem that this Covenant did wholly disannul or supersede that Promise and take off the Church of his Posterity from building on that foundation and to fix them wholly on this New Covenant now made with them So saith Moses The Lord made not this Covenant with our Fathers but with us even us who are all of us alive here this day Deut. 5. 3. God made not this Covenant on Mount Sinai with Abraham Isaac and Jacob but with the People then present and their Posterity as he declares Deut. 29. 14 15. This therefore should seem to take them off wholly from that Promise made to Abraham and so to disannul it But that this it did not nor could do the Apostle strictly proves Gal. 3. 17 18 19 20 21 22. Yea it did divers ways establish that Promise both as first given and as afterwards confirmed with the Oath of God unto Abraham two especially 1. It declared the impossibility of obtaining Reconciliation and Peace with God any other way but by the Promise For representing the Commands of the Covenant of Works requiring perfect sinless Obedience under the Penalty of the Curse it convinced men that this was no way for Sinners to seek for Life and Salvation by And herewith it so urged the Consciences of men that they could have no rest nor peace in themselves but what the Promise would afford them whereunto they saw a necessity of betaking themselves 2. By representing the ways and means of the Accomplishment of the Promise and of that whereon all the efficacy of it unto the Justification and Salvation of Sinners doth depend This was the Death Bloodshedding Oblation or Sacrifice of Christ the promised Seed This all its Offerings and Ordinances of Worship directed unto as his Incarnation with the Inhabitation of God in his Humane Nature was typed by the Tabernacle and Temple Wherefore it was so far from disannulling the Promise or diverting the minds of the People of God from it that by all means it established it and lead unto it But 3. It will be said as was before observed that
ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 4 The property of it it is a New Covenant 1. He who gives this Testimony is included in tht word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he saith For finding fault with them he saith He who complains of the People for breaking the Old Covenant promiseth to make the New So in the next Verse it is expressed Saith the Lord. The Ministry of the Prophet was made use of in the declaration of these words and things but they are properly his words from whom they are by immediate inspiration 1. He saith that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã saith the Lord is the formal object of our faith and obedience Hereinto are they to be refered herein do they acquiesce and in nothing else will they so do All other foundations of Faith as thus saith the Pope or thus saith the Church or thus said our Ancestors are all but delusions Thus saith the Lord gives rest and peace 2. There is the Note of Introduction calling unto attendance ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Behold It is always found eminent either in itself or in some of its circumstances that is thus performed For the word calls for a more than ordinary diligence in the consideration of an attention unto what is proposed And it was needful to signalize this Promise for the People unto whom it was given were very difficultly drawn from their adherence unto the Old Covenant which was inconsistent with that now promised And there seems to be somewhat more intimated in this word besides a call unto especial attention And that is that the thing spoken of is plainly proposed unto them concerned so as that they may look upon it and behold it clearly and speedily And so is this New Covenant here proposed so evidently and plainly both in the entire nature and properties of it that unless men wilfully turn away their eyes they cannot but see it 2. Where God placeth a Note of Observation and Attention we should carefully fix our Faith and Consideration God sets not any of his marks in vain And if upon the first view of any place or thing so signalized the evidence of it doth not appear unto us we have a sufficient call unto farther diligence in our enquiry And if we are not wanting unto our Duty we shall discover some especial impression of Divine Excellency or another upon every such thing or place 3. The things and concernments of the New Covenant are all of them Objects of the best of our consideration As such are they here proposed and what is spoken of the declaration of the nature of this Covenant in the next Verse is sufficient to confirm this Observation 3. The time is prefixed for the accomplishment of this Promise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The days come Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world and he hath determined the times of their accomplishment As to the particular precise times or seasons of them whilest they are future he hath reserved them unto himself unless where he hath seen good to make some especial Revelation of them So he did of the times of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt of the Babylonish Captivity and of the coming of the Messiah after the return of the People Dan. 9. But from the giving of the first Promise wherein the foundation of the Church was laid the accomplishment of it is frequently referred unto the latter days See our Exposition on Chap. 1. ver 1. Hence under the Old Testament the days of the Messiah were called the world to come as we have shewed Chap. 2. 5. And it was a Periphrasis of him that he was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Mat. 11. 3. He that was to come And the Faith of the Church was principally exercised in the expectation of his coming And this time is here intended And the expression in the Original is in the Present Tense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã from the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The days coming not the days that come but the days come And two things are denoted thereby 1. The near approach of the days intended The time was now hastening apace and the Church was to be awaken'd unto the expectation of it And this accompanied with their earnest desires and prayers for it which were the most acceptable part of the Worship of God under the Old Testament 2. A certainty of the thing itself was hereby fixed in their minds Long expectation they had of it and now stood in need of new security especially considering the tryal they were falling into in the Babylonish Captivity For this seemed to threaten a defeat of the Promise in the casting away of the whole Nation The manner of the expression is suited to confirm the Faith of them that were real Believers among them against such fears Yet we must observe that from the giving of this Promise unto the accomplishment of it was near 600 years And yet about 90 years after the Prophet Malachi speaking of the same season affirms That the Lord whom they sought should suddenly come unto his Temple Mal. 3. 1. Ob. There is a time limited and fixed for the accomplishment of all the Promises of God and all the Purposes of his Grace towards the Church See Hab. 2. 3 4. And the Consideration hereof is very necessary unto Believers in all Ages 1. To keep up their hearts from desponding when difficulties against their accomplishment do arise and seem to render it impossible Want hereof hath turn'd aside many from God and caused them to cast their lot and portion into the world 2 To preserve them from putting themselves on any irregular ways for their accomplishment 3 To teach them to search diligently into the wisdom of God who hath disposed times and seasons as unto his own glory so unto the tryal and real benefit of the Church 4. The Subject matter of the Promise given is a Covenant ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The LXX render it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Testament And that is more proper in this place than a Covenant For if we take Covenant in a strict and proper sense it hath indeed no place between God and man For a Covenant strictly taken ought to proceed on equal terms and a proportionate consideration of things on both sides But the Covenant of God is founded on Grace and consists essentially in a free undeserved Promise And therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Covenant is never spoken of between God and man but on the part of God it consists in a free Promise or a Testament And a Testament which is the proper signification of the word here used by the Apostle is suited unto this place and nothing else For 1 Such a Covenant is intended as is ratified and confirmed by the death of him that makes it And this is properly a Testament For this Covenant was confirmed by the death of Christ and that both as it was the death
Covenant with Abraham saying Unto thy Seed will I give this Land As unto the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it signifies a Covenant improperly properly it is a testamentary disposition And this may be without any conditions on the part of them unto whom any thing is bequeathed 2. The whole of the Covenant intended is expressed in the ensuing description of it For if it were otherwise it could not be proved from thence that this Covenant was more excellent than the former especially as to security that the Covenant Relation between God and the People should not be broken or disannulled For this is the principal thing which the Apostle designs to prove in this place and the want of an observation thereof hath led many out of the way in their exposition of it If therefore this be not an entire description of the Covenant there might yet be something reserved essentially belonging thereunto which might frustrate this end For some such conditions might yet be required in it as we are not able to observe or could have no security that we should abide in the observation of them And thereon this Covenant might be frustrated of its end as well as the former which is directly contrary unto Gods declaration of his design in it 3. It is evident that there can be no condition previously required unto our entering into or participation of the benefits of this Covenant antecedent unto the making of it with us For none think there are any such with respect unto its original constitution nor can there be so in respect of its making with us or our entering into it For 1. This would render this Covenant inferior in a way of Grace unto that which God made with the people at Horeb. For he declares that there was not any thing in them that moved him either to make that Covenant or to take them into it with himself Everywhere he asserts this to be an Act of his meer Grace and Favor Yea he frequently declares That he took them into Covenant not only without respect unto any thing of good in them but although they were evil and stubborn See Deut. 7. 7 8. Chap. 9. 4 5. 2. It is contrary unto the Nature Ends and express Properties of this Covenant For there is nothing that can be thought or supposed to be such a condition but it is comprehended in the Promise of the Covenant itself For all that God requireth in us is proposed as that which himself will effect by vertue of this Covenant 4. It is certain That in the outward dispensation of the Covenant wherein the Grace Mercy and Terms of it are proposed unto us many things are required of us in order unto a participation of the benefits of it For God hath ordained that all the Mercy and Grace that is prepared in it shall be communicated unto us ordinarily in the use of outward means wherewith a compliance is required of us in a way of Duty To this end hath he appointed all the Ordinances of the Gospel the Word and Sacraments with all those Duties publick and private which are needful to render them effectual unto us For he will take us ordinarily into this Covenant in and by the rational faculties of our natures that he may be glorified in them and by them Wherefore these things are required of us in order unto the participation of the benefits of this Covenant And if therefore any one will call our attendance unto such Duties the condition of the Covenant it is not to be contended about though properly it is not so For 1 God doth work the Grace of the Covenant and communicate the Mercy of it antecedently unto all ability for the performance of any such duty as it is with elect Infants 2 Amongst those who are equally diligent in the performance of the duties intended he makes a discrimination preferring one before another Many are called but few are chosen and what hath any one that he hath not received 3 He actually takes some into the Grace of the Covenant whilest they are engaged in an opposition unto the outward dispensation of it An example of this Grace he gave in Paul 5. It is evident That the first grace of the Covenant or Gods putting his Law in our hearts can depend on no condition on our part For whatever is antecedent thereunto being only a work or act of corrupted nature can be no condition whereon the dispensation of spiritual Grace is superadded And this is the great ground of them who absolutely deny the Covenant of Grace to be conditional namely that the first grace is absolutely promised whereon and its exercise the whole of it doth depend 6. Unto a full and compleat interest in all the Promises of the Covenant Faith on our part from which Evangelical Repentance is inseparable is required But whereas these also are wrought in us by vertue of that Promise and Grace of the Covenant which are absolute it is a meer strife about words to contend whether they may be called conditions or no. Let it be granted on the one hand that we cannot have an actual participation of the relative grace of this Covenant in Adoration and Justification without Faith or Believing and on the other that this Faith is wrought in us given unto us bestowed upon us by that Grace of the Covenant which depends on no condition in us as unto its discriminating administration And I shall not concern my self what men will call it 7. Though there are no conditions properly so called of the whole grace of the Covenant yet there are conditions in the Covenant taking that term in a large sense for that which by the order of divine constitution precedeth some other things and hath an influence into its existence For God requireth many things of them whom he actually takes into Covenant and makes Partakers of the Promises and Benefits of it Of this nature is that whole Obedience which is prescribed unto us in the Gospel in our walking before God in uprightness and there being an order in the things that belong hereunto some acts duties and parts of our gracious Obedience being appointed to be means of the farther additional supplies of the grace and mercies of the Covenant they may be called conditions required of us in the Covenant as well as duties prescribed unto us 8. The Benefits of the Covenant are of two sorts 1 The Grace and Mercy which it doth collate 2 The future Reward of glory which it doth promise Those of the former sort are all of them means appointed of God which we are to use and improve unto the obtaining of the latter and so may be called conditions required on our part They are only collated on us but conditions as used and improved by us 9. Although ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the word here used may signifie and be rightly rendred a Covenant in the same manner as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth yet that
this Relation 1 The foundation of it 2 The mutual actings in it by vertue of this Relation Unto the manifestation of the foundation of it some things must be premised 1. Upon the entrance of Sin there continued no such Covenant Relation between God and man as that by virtue thereof he should be their God and they should be his people God continued still in the full enjoyment of his Soveraignty over men which no Sin nor Rebellion nor Apostasie of man could in the least impeach And man continued under an obligation unto dependance on God and subjection unto his will in all things For these cannot be separated from his nature and being until final judgment be executed after which God rules over them only by power without any respect unto their wills or obedience But that especial Relation of mutual interest by virtue of the first Covenant ceased between them 2. God would not enter into any other Covenant with sinful fallen man to be a God unto them and to take them to be a peculiar people unto him immediately in their own persons nor was it consistent with his wisdom and goodness so to do For if man was not stedfast in Gods Covenant but brake and disannulled it when he was sinless and upright only created with a possibility of defection what expectations could there be that now he was fallen and his nature wholly depraved any new Covenant should be of use unto the glory of God or advantage of man To enter into a new Covenant that must necessarily be broken unto the aggravation of the misery of man became not the wisdom and goodness of God If it be said God might have so made a New Covenant immediately with man so as to secure their future obedience and so to have made it firm and stable I answer it would not have become the Divine wisdom and goodness to have dealt better with men after their Rebellion and Apostasie than before namely on their own account He did in our first Creation communicate unto our nature all that grace and all those priviledges which in his wisdom he thought meet to endow it withall and all that was necessary to make them who were partakers of it everlastingly blessed To suppose that on its own account alone he would immediately collate more grace upon it is to suppose him singularly well pleased with our Sin and Rebellion This then God would not do Wherefore 3. God provided in the first place that there should be a Mediator a Sponsor an Undertaker with whom alone he would treat about a New Covenant and so establish it For there were in the contrivance of his grace and wisdom concerning it many things necessary unto it that could no otherwise be enacted and accomplished Nay there was not any one thing in all the good which he designed unto Mankind in this Covenant in a way of love grace and mercy that could be communicated unto them so as that his honor and glory might be advanced thereby without the consideration of this Mediator and what he undertook to do Nor could Mankind have yielded any of that obedience unto God which he would require of them without the interposition of this Mediator on their behalf It was therefore with him that God firstly made this Covenant How it was needful that this Mediator should be God and man in one person how he became so to undertake for us and in our stead what was the especial Covenant between God and him as unto the work which he undertook personally to perform have according unto our poor weak measure and dark apprehension of these heavenly things been declared at large in our Exercitations on this Epistle and yet more fully in our Discourse of the Mystery and Glory of the Person of Christ. Wherefore as unto this New Covenant it was firstly made with Jesus Christ the Surety of it and Undertaker in it For 1. God neither would nor Salvâ justitiâ sapientiâ honore could treat immediately with sinful rebellious men on terms of grace for the future until satisfaction was undertaken to be made for sins past or such as should afterwards fall out This was done by Christ alone who was therefore the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of this Covenant and all the grace of it See 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Gal. 3. 13 14. Rom. 3. 25. 2. No Restipulation of obedience unto God could be made by man that might be a ground of entering into a Covenant intended to be firm and stable For whereas we had broken our first Covenant engagement with God in our best condition we were not likely of our selves to make good a new engagement of an higher nature than the former Who will take the word or the security of a Bankrupt for Thousands who is known not to be worth one farthing especially if he have wasted a former estate in Luxury and Riot continuing an open Slave to the same lusts wherefore it was absolutely necessary that in this Covenant there should be a Surety to undertake for our answering and firm standing unto the terms of it Without this the event of this New Covenant which God would make as a singular effect of his wisdom and grace would neither have been glory to him nor advantage unto us 3. That Grace which was to be the Spring of all the blessings of this Covenant unto the glory of God and salvation of the Church was to be deposited in some safe hand for the accomplishment of these ends In the first Covenant God at once committed unto man that whole stock of grace which was necessary to enable him unto the obedience of it And the grace of reward which he was to receive upon the performance of it God reserved absolutely in his own hand yea so as that perhaps man did not fully understand what it was But all was lost at once that was committed unto our keeping so as that nothing at all was left to give us the least relief as unto any new endeavors Wherefore God will now secure all the good things of this Covenant both as to grace and glory in a third hand in the hand of a Mediator Hereon the Promises are made unto him and the fulness of grace is laid up in him John 1. 14. Col. 1. 17. Chap. 2. 2. Eph. 3. 8. 2 Cor. 1. 21. 4. As he was the Mediator of this Covenant God became his God and he became the Servant of God in a peculiar manner For he stood before God in this Covenant as a publick Representative of all the Elect. See our Comment on Chap. 1. 5 8. Chap. 2. 13. God is a God unto him in all the Promises he received on the behalf of his mystical Body and he was his Servant in the accomplishment of them as the pleasure of the Lord was to prosper in his hand 5. God being in this Covenant a God and Father unto Christ he became by vertue thereof to be our God and Father
John 20. 17. Heb. 2. 12 13. And we became heirs of God joint heirs with Christ and his People to yield him all sincere obedience And these things may suffice briefly to declare the foundation of that Covenant Relation which is here expressed Wherefore The Lord Christ God and man undertaking to be the Mediator between God and man and a Surety on our behalf is the spring and head of the New Covenant which is made and established with us in him Secondly The nature of this Covenant-Relation is expressed on the one side and the other I will be unto them a God and they shall be to me a People 1. On the part of God it is I will be unto them a God or as it is elsewhere expressed I will be their God And we must make a little enquiry into this unspeakable Priviledge which Eternity only will fully unfold 1. The person speaking is included in the Verb ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will be I Jehovah who make this Promise And herein God proposeth unto our Faith all the glorious Properties of his Nature I who am that I am Jehovah Goodness and Being itself and the cause of all Being and Goodness to others infinitely wise powerful righteous c. I that am all this and in all that I am will be so Here lies the eternal Spring of the infinite Treasures of the supplies of the Church here and for ever Whatever God is in himself whatever these Properties of his Nature extend to in it all God hath promised to be our God Gen. 17. 1. I am God Almighty walk before me Hence to give establishment and security unto our Faith he hath in his Word revealed himself by so many names titles properties and that so frequently it is that we may know him who is our God what he is and what he will be unto us And the knowledge of him as so revealing himself is that which secures our confidence faith hope fear and trust The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble and they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee Psal. 9. 9 10. 2. What he promiseth is that he will be a God unto us Now although this compriseth absolutely every thing that is good yet may the notion of being a God unto any be referred unto two general Heads 1 An all-sufficient Preserver and 2 An all-sufficient Rewarder So himself declares the meaning of this expression Gen. 17. 1. Gen. 15. 1. I will be all this unto them that I am a God unto in the way of preservation and recompence Heb. 11. 6. 3. The declared rule and measure of Gods actings towards us as our God is the promises of the Covenant both of mercy grace pardon holiness perseverance protection success and spiritual victory in this world and of eternal glory in the world to come In and by all these things will he in all that he is in himself be a God unto those whom he takes into this Covenant 4. It is included in this part of the Promise that they that take him to be their God they shall say Thou art my God Hos. 2. 23. and carry it towards him according unto what infinite goodness grace mercy power and faithfulness do require And we may observe 1. As nothing less than God becoming our God could relieve help and save us so nothing more can be required thereunto 2. The efficacy security and glory of this Covenant depend originally on the nature of God immediately and actually on the mediation of Christ. It is the Covenant that God makes with us in him as the Surety thereof 3. It is from the engagement of the properties of the Divine Nature that this Covenant is ordered in all things and sure Infinite wisdom hath provided it and infinite power will make it effectual 4. As the Grace of this Covenant is inexpressible so are the obligations it puts upon us unto obedience The Relation of man unto God is expressed in these words And they shall be unto me a People or they shall be my People And two things are contained herein 1 Gods owning of them to be his in a peculiar manner according to the tenor and promise of this Covenant and dealing with them accordingly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Pet. 2. 5. A peculiar People Let others take heed how they meddle with them lest they intrench on Gods propriety Jer. 2. 3. 2 There is included in it that which is essentially required unto their being his People namely the profession of all subjection or obedience unto him and all dependence upon him Wherefore this also belongs unto it namely their avouching this God to be their God and their free engagement unto all that obedience which in the Covenant he requireth For although this expression And they shall be unto me a People seem only to denote an Act of Gods Grace assuming of them into that Relation unto himself yet it includes their avouching him to be their God and their voluntary engagement of obedience unto him as their God When he says Ye are my People they also say Thou art my God Hos. 2. 23. yet is it to be observed 1. That God doth as well undertake for our being his People as he doth for his being our God And the Promises contained in this Verse do principally aim at that end namely the making of us to be a People unto him 2. Those whom God makes a Covenant withall are his in a peculiar manner And the profession hereof is that which the world principally maligneth in them and ever did so from the beginning V E R. XI And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest THE second general Promise declaring the nature of the New Covenant is expressed in this Verse And the matter of it is set down 1 Negatively in opposition unto what was in use and necessary under the first Covenant 2. Positively in what should take place in the room of it and be enjoyed under this New Covenant and by vertue of it 1. In the former part we may observe the vehemency of the negation in the redoubling of the negative Particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They shall by no means do so that shall not be the way and manner with them whom God makes this Covenant withall And this is designed to fix our minds on the consideration of the priviledge which is enjoyed under the New Covenant and the greatness of it 2. The thing thus denied is Teaching not absolutely but as unto a certain way and manner of it The Negation is not universal as unto Teaching but restrained unto a certain kind of it which was in use and necessary under the Old Covenant And this necessity was either from Gods institution or from practice taken up among themselves which must be inquired into 3. The
called the Sanctuary 1 The subject treated of is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Tabernacle the common name for the whole fabrick as the Temple was afterwards of the House built by Solomon An Eminent Type this was of the Incarnation of Christ whereby the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily Col. 2. 9. Substantially in the humane nature as it dwelt Typically and by Representation in this Tabernacle Hence is it so expressed He was made flesh ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Joh. 1. 14. and pitched his Tabernacle amongst or with us The consideration hereof the Apostle on set purpose fixed on as the great Concomitant Priviledge or Glory of the first Covenant whereof he treats and whose consideration was excellently suited unto his Design Immediately on the giving of the Law and making that Covenant in Horeb which was accepted of by the People and solemnly ratified Exod. 24. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. the whole of their remaining station in that place for some months was taken up in Moses his receiving Revelations and the People's making provision about and for this Tabernacle with what belonged thereunto Forty daies was Moses in the Mount with God whilest he instructed him in all things that belonged unto it so great and glorious was the Design of Divine wisdom in this Tabernacle and its appurtenances For it was the House wherein his Glory was to dwell and not only so but a Type and Representation of the Depth of his counsel in the incarnation of his Son whereby the Divine Nature would personally dwell in the Humane for ever 2. It is affirmed of this Tabernacle that it was made Tabernaculum extructum constructum praeparatum ornatum adornatum built prepared adorned There is more included in the word than the meer building of the Fabrick For the Apostle in this one word reflects on and compriseth 1. The Provision of materials made by the people 2 The Workings of those materials by Bezaliel 3 The Erection of the whole by the Direction of Moses 4 The Adorning of it unto its use that is the substance of the Book of Exodus from Chap. 25th to the end First Preparation was made for it then the materials were wrought and that with such curious workmanship accompanied with such rich devoted Ornaments that it was adorned in its making It was prepared in its materials it was wrought into its form it was beautified in its ornaments unto all which respect is had in this word That which principally gave unto it its Order Beauty Glory and use was that it was entirely and in all the Parts and appurtenances of it made according to the Pattern which God shewed Moses in the Mount And therefore when it was finished and Erected all the Parts belonging unto it and all that was in it was distinctly recounted and it is added concerning them all seperately and in conjunction they were all made as the Lord commanded Moses Exod. 40. and 19 22. For it is the Authority and wisdom of God alone that gives beauty use and order unto all that belongs unto his worship The first Part of this Tabernacle being so prepared it had its furniture that was to abide and be used in it 1. There was in it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Candlestick The Vulgar Latine reads candelabra in the plural number Hence many disputes arise among the expositors who adhere unto that Translation Some of them contend that the Apostle hath respect unto the Temple of Solomon wherein were ten Candlesticks five on the one side and five on the other 1 Kings 7. 49. which is directly contrary to his scope and the words of the Text. Some suppose that the one Candlestick which was in the Tabernacle was intended but is spoken of in the plural number because of the six Branches that came out of it three on each side and that which went directly upwards made seven having lamps in them all Exod. 25. 31. But whereas it is constantly called the Candlestick and spoken of as one Utensil only the Apostle could not call it the Candlesticks for that was but one Wherefore the most sober of them depart from their common translation and adhere unto the Original and make use of the expression to prove that it was the Tabernacle of Moses and not the Temple of Solomon wherein were ten Candlesticks that the Apostle refers unto The making of this Candlestick is particularly described Exod. 25. 31. to the end of the chapter It s frame measures and use are not of our present consideration they may be found in Expositors on that place It was placed on the South side of the Tabernacle near the Vails that covered the most Holy Place and over against it on the North side was the Table with the Shew-bread And in the midst at the very entrance of the most Holy Place was the Altar of Incense see Exod. 40. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27. And this Candlestick was made all of beaten Gold of one peice with its lamps and appurtenances without either joynts or screws which is not without its Mystery To fit it for its service pure Oyl Olive was to be provided by the way of offering from the People Exod. 27. 20. And it was the office of the High Priest to order it that is to dress its Lamps every evening and every morning supplying them with fresh Oyl and removing whatsoever might be offensive Exod. 27. 21. And this is called a statute for ever unto the Generations of the Priests on the behalf of the Children of Israel which manifests the great concernment of the Church in this holy Utensil On the other side of the Sanctuary over against the Candlestick was the Table and the Shew-bread which the Apostle reckons as the second Part of the furniture of this first part of the Tabernacle distinguishing them from each other The Table and the Shew-bread The making of this Table with its measures and use its form and fashion are recorded Exod. 25. 23 24. 25 26 27. 28 29. chap 37. 10 c. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Table The manner of its Covering when it was to be carried whilest the Tabernacle was movable is described Numb 4. 7 8. And it was an Utensil fashioned for Beauty and Glory Upon this Table which the Apostle adds was the Shew-bread It is here rendred by the Apostle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Proposition of the Bread or Leaves by an Hypallage for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Bread of Proposition as it is rendred Matth. 12. 4. the Bread that was proposed or set forth In the Hebrew it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Bread in the singular number which the Apostle renders by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Plural as also doth the Evangelist For that Bread consisted of many loaves as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã properly signifies a loaf So the LXX render it by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Exod. 25.
Superlative Degree expressed by the Repetition of the Substantive as is usual in the Hebrew Some give instances of this kind of Phraseology in Greek writers remote enough from Hebraisms as Sophocles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã misera miserarum es that is miserrima But however the phrase of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã may be Greek the Apostle intends to express the Hebraism itself And Holy in the Hebrew is of the singular number Holies of the plural but in the Greck both are of the plural number And what is thus called was most eminently Typical of Christ who is called by this name Dan. 9. 24. to anoint the most Holy The place in the Tabernacle which was most sacred and most secret which had the most eminent Pledges or Symbols of the divine presence and the clearest Representations of God in Christ reconciling the word unto himself is so called The more of Christ by the way of representation or exhibition any institutions of divine worship do contain or express the more sacred and Holy are they in their use and exercise But It is Christ alone who in himself is really the Most Holy the Spring and Fountain of all holiness unto the Church 3. The first Utensil reckoned unto this second part of the Tabernacle is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the relation of it thereunto is that it had it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He doth not say it was in it but it had it If any one would see the various conjectures of learned men about this assertion of the Apostle as also about that following concerning what was contained in the Ark He may consult the collections of Mr. Pool on the place where he will find them represented in one view My design being only to declare what I conceive consonant unto the truth I shall not spend time in repeating or refuting the conjectures of other men ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã we translate a Censer but it may as well be rendred the Alar of Incense as it is by the Syriack the House of Spices the place for the Spices whereof the Incense was compounded The Altar of Incense was all overlaid with beaten Gold hence it is here said to be ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of Gold And whereas it was one of the most glorious vessels of the Tabernacle and most significant if the Apostle intended it not in this word he takes no notice of it at all which is very unlikely And of this Altar he says not that it was in the second Tabernacle but that it had it And in that expression he respects not its situation but its Use. And the most Holy Place may well be said to have the Altar of Incense because the High Priest could never enter into that place nor perform any service in it but he was to bring Incense with him taken in a Censer from this Altar Whereas therefore there was a two fold use of the Altar of Incense the one of the Ordinary Priests to burn Incense in the Sanctuary every day and the other of the High Priest to take Incense from it when he entered into the most Holy Place to fill it with a cloud of its smoak the Apostle intending a comparison peculiarly between the Lord Christ and the High Priest only in this Place and not the other Priests in the daily discharge of their office he takes no notice of the use of the Altar of Incense in the Sanctuary but only of that which respected the most Holy Place and the entrance of the High Priest thereinto For so he expresly applyes it ver 12. And therefore he affirms this Place to have had this Golden Altar its principal use and end being designed unto the service thereof This I judge to be the true meaning of the Apostle and sense of his words and shall not therefore trouble my self nor the reader with the repetition or confutation of other conjectures And that this was the principal use of this Altar is plainly declared in the order for the making and disposal of it Exod. 30. 6. Thou shalt put it before the Vail that is by the Ark of the Testimony before the Mercy-seat that is over the Testimony where I will meet with them Although it was placed without the Vail and that for this end that the High Priest might not enter one step into the most Holy Place until the smoak of the Incense went before him yet had it peculiar respect unto the Ark and Mercy-seat and is therefore reckoned in the same place and service with them by the Apostle And this is yet made further evident in that when the High Priest entred into the most Holy Place and had no service to perform but with respect unto the things pertaining thereunto he was to make atonement on this Altar with the blood of the Sin-offering as he did on the Ark and Mercy-seat Exod. 30. 10. This is an undeniable demonstration that as unto the use of it it belonged principally unto the most Holy Place and is here so declared by the Apostle Wherefore the assignation hereof unto that place by the Author is so far from an objection against the Authority of the Epistle unto which end it hath by some been made use of as that it is an argument of his divine wisdom and skill in the nature and use of these institutions The manner of the service of this Altar intended by the Apostle was briefly thus The High Priest on the solemn day of expiation that is once a year took a Golden Censer from this Altar After which going out of the Sanctuary he put fire into it taken from the Altar of Burnt-Offerings without the Tabernacle in the Court where the perpetual fire was preserved Then returning into the Holy Place he filled his hands with Incense taken from this Altar the place of the residence of the Spices And this Altar being placed just at the entrance of the most Holy Place over against the Ark and Mercy-seat upon his entrance he put the Incense on the fire in the Censer and entred the Holy Place with a cloud of the smoak thereof see Levit. 16. 12. 13. The composition and making of this Incense is declared Exod. 30. 34. 35. c. And being compounded it was beaten small that it might immediately take fire and so placed on this Altar before the Ark ver 36. And the placing of this Incense before the Testimony as is there affirmed is the same with what our Apostle affirms that the most Holy Place had it That in general by Incense Prayer is signified the Scripture expressly testifieth Let my Prayer come before thee as Incense Psal. 141. 2. And there is a fourfould Resemblance between them 1. In that it was Beaten and Pounded before it was used So doth acceptable Prayer proceed from a broken and contrite Spirit Psal. 51. 17. 2. It was of no use untill fire was put under it and that taken from the Altar Nor is that Prayer of any Vertue or
Essicacy which is not kindled by the fire from above the Holy Spirit of God which we have from our Altar Christ Jesus 3. It naturally ascended upwards towards Heaven as all Offerings in the Hebrew are called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã aseensions risings up And this is the Design of Prayer to ascend unto the Throne of God I will direct unto thee and look up that is Pray Psal. 5. 3. 4. It yielded a sweet savour which was one end of it in Temple services wherein there was so much burning of flesh and blood So doth prayer yeild a sweet savour unto God a savour of Rest wherein he is well pleased In this general sense even the Prayers of the Saints might be typified and represented in that daily burning of Incense which was used in the Sanctuary But it must be granted that this Incense is distinguished from the Prayers of the Saints as that which is in the hand of Christ alone to give Vertue and Efficacy unto them Revel 8. 4. Wherefore this Golden Altar of Incense as placed in the Sanctuary and whereon Incense burned continually every Morning and Evening was a Type of Christ by his Mediation and Intercession giving Efficacy unto the continual Prayers of all Believers But that which the Apostle in this place hath alone respect unto was the burning of the Incense in the Golden Censer on the day of Expiation when the High Priest entered into the most Holy Place And this Represented only the personal Mediatory Prayer of Christ himselfe Concerning it we may observe 1. That the time of it was after the Sacrifice of the Sin-Offering For the High Priest was to take along with him the Blood of that Sacrifice to carry with him into the Holy Place Levit. 16. 2. That the Incense was kindled with Fire taken from the Altar where the Blood of the Sacrifices was newly offered And two things in the Mediatory Prayer of Christ are hereby intimated unto us 1. That the Efficacy of them ariseth from and dependeth on the Sacrifice of himself Hence Intercession is best apprehended as the Representation of himself and the Efficacy of his sacrifice in Heaven before the Throne of God 2. That this Prayer was quickened and enlivened by the same fire wherewith the Sacrifice of himself was kindled that is by the eternal spirit whereof we shall treat on ver 14th Yet we must not so oblige our selves unto the times seasons and order of these things as to exclude the prayers which he offered unto God before the oblation of himself Yea that solemn prayer of his recorded Ioh. 17. wherein he sanctified himself to be an oblation was principally prefigured by the cloud of incense which filled the most Holy Place covering the Ark and Mercy-seat For by reason of the imperfection of these Types and their accommodation unto the present service of the Church so far as it was carnal they could not represent the order of things as they were to be accomplished in the person of Christ who was both Priest and Sacrifice Altar Tabernacle and Incense For the Law had only a shadow of these things and not the perfect image of them Some obscure lines of them were drawn therein but their beautiful order was not represented in them Although therefore the offering of incense from the Golden Altar in the most holy Place was after the offering of Sacrifice on the Altar of burnt-offerings yet was the mediatory Prayer of Christ for the Church of the elect wherein he also prepared and sanctified himself to be a sacrifice thereby typified So also the beating or bruising of the incense before its firing did represent the Agony of his soul with strong cryes and supplications that he offered unto God therein And we may observe 1. The mediatory intercession of Iesus Christ was a sweet savour unto God and essicacious for the salvation of the Church The smoak of this perfume was that which covered the Ark and Mercy-seat Hereby the Law itself which was contained in the Ark became compliant unto our salvation For herein Christ was declared to be the end of the Law for righteousness unto them that do believe 2. The efficacy of Christs Intercession dependeth on his oblation It was fire from the Altar of Burnt-Offerings wherewith the incense was kindled 3. The Glory of these Types did no way answer the Glory of the Antitype or that which was represented by them It is acknowledged that the service of the High Priest at and from this Golden Altar and his entrance with a cloud of incense into the most Holy Place had great Glory in it and was suited to ingenerate a great veneration in the minds of the People Howbeit they were all but carnal things and had no glory in comparison of the spiritual Glory of Christ in the discharge of his office We are apt in our minds to admire these things and almost to wish that God had ordained such a service in the Gospel so outwardly Glorious For there is that in it which is suited unto these Images of things which men create and are delighted withal in their minds And besides they love in divine service to be taken up with such a bodily exercise as carries Glory with it an appearance of solemn veneration Wherefore many things are found out by men unto these ends But the reason of all is because we are carnal We see not the Glory of spiritual things nor do know how to be exercised in our minds about them with pure acts of Faith and Love 4. We are alwaies to reckon that the Efficacy and Prevalency of all our Prayers depends on the Incense which is in the hand of our merciful High Priest It is offered with the Prayers of the Saints Revel 8. 4. In themselves our Prayers are weak and imperfect it is hard to conceive how they should find acceptance with God But the unvaluable Incense of the Intercession of Christ gives them Acceptance and Prevalency The second thing in this Part of the Tabernacle mentioned by the Aposte is the Ark. This he describes 1. from its Appellation the Ark of the Covenant 2. From one particular in its Fabrick it was overlaid round about with Gold 3. From the things that were in it accompanied it and had no other use but to be laid up in it The Golden Pot that had Manna and Aarons Rod that Blossomed 4. From what was Placed in it which to preserve was its principal use The Tables of the Covenant This Vessel in the Hebrew is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As the Ark in the flood was called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã But the Greeks render both by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Latines by Arca. This with the Mercy-Seat wherewith it was covered was the most Glorious and Mysterious Utensil of the Tabernacle and afterwards of the Temple the most eminent Pledge of the Divine presence the most Mysterious Representation of the Holy Properties of his Nature in Christ. This
by the High Priest in the name of and for the service of the Church But this entrance being only once a year by the High Priest only and that with the blood of atonement which was always to be observed whilst that Tabernacle continued he did manifest that the access represented was not to be obtained during that season For all believers in their own persons were utterly excluded from it And we may hence observe 1. That the divine ordinances and institutions of worship are filled with wisdom sufficient for the instruction of the Church in all the mysteries of faith and obedience How eminent was the divine wisdom of the Holy Ghost in the structure and order of this Tabernacle What Provision of Instruction for the present and future use of the Church was laid up and stored in them What but infinite wisdom and praescience could order things so in their typical signification He that considers only the outward frame and state of these things may see a curious and beautiful structure a beautiful order of external worship Yet can he find nothing therein but what the wisdom and contrivance of men might attain unto At least they might find out things that should have as glorious an outward appearance But take them in their proper state as unto their signification and representation of spiritual and heavenly things in Christ Jesus and there is not the least concernment of them but it infinitely transcends all humane wisdom and projection He alone in whose divine understanding the whole mystery of the Incarnation of the Son God and his Mediation did eternally reside could institute and appoint these things And to instruct us unto an humble adoration of that wisdom is the framing of the whole fabrick and the institution of all its ordinances contained in the sacred Record for the use of the Church 2. It'is our duty with all humble diligence to enquire into the mind of the Holy Ghost in all Ordinances and Institutions of divine worship Want hereof lost the Church of Israel They contented themselves with the consideration of outward things and the external observance of the services enjoyned unto them Unto this day the Jews perplex themselves in numberless curious enquiries into the outward frame and fashion of these things the way manner and circumstances of the external observation of the services of it And they have multiplyed determinations about them all and every minute circumstance of them so as it is utterly impossible that either themselves or any living creature should observe them according to their traditions and prescriptions But in the mean time as unto the mind of the Holy Ghost in them their true use and signification they are stark blind and utterly ignorant Yea Hardness and Blindness is so come upon them unto the utmost that they will not believe nor apprehend that there is either spiritual wisdom instruction or signification of heavenly things in them And herein whilst they profess to know God are they abominable and disobedient For no creatures can fall into higher contempt of God than there is in this imagination namely that the old Institutions had nothing in them but so much Gold and Silver and the like framed into such shapes and applyed to such outward uses without regard unto things spiritual and eternal And it is a great evidence of the Apostate condition of any Church when they rest in and lay weight upon the external parts of worship especially such as consist in corporeal observances with a neglect of spiritual things contained in them wherein are the effects of divine wisdom in all sacred Institutions And whereas the Apostle affirms that this frame of things did plainly signify as the word imports the spiritual mysteries which he declares it is evident with what great diligence we ought to search into the nature and use of divine Institutions Unless we are found in the exercise of our duty herein the things which in themselves are plainly declared will be obscure unto us yea utterly hidden from us For what is here said to be clearly signified could not be apprehended but by a very diligent search into and consideration of the way and means of it It was to be collected out of the things he ordained with the order of them and their respect unto one another Most men think it not worth while to enquire with any diligence into sacred Institutions of divine worship If any thing seem to be wanting or defective therein if any thing be obscure and not determined as they suppose in the express words without more adoe they supply it with somewhat of their own But there are many things useful and necessary in the worship of God which are to be gathered from such intimations of the mind of the Holy Ghost as he hath in any place given of them And those who with humility and diligence do exercise themselves therein shall find plain satisfactory significations of his mind and Will in such things as others are utterly ignorant of 3. That which the Holy Ghost did thus signifie and instruct the Church in the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This in the words was that the way into the most Holy Place the way of the Holies was not yet made manifest And for the explication hereof we must consider the things before proposed 1. What the Apostle intends by the Holies It is generally supposed by expositors that it is Heaven itself which is hereby intended Hence some of the Antients the School-men and sundry expositors of the Roman Church have concluded that no believers under the old Testament none of the antient Patriarchs Abraham Isaac or David were admitted into Heaven whilst the first Tabernacle stood that is untill the Ascension of Christ. Hereon they framed a Limbus for them in some subterranean Receptacle whither they suppose the soul of Christ went when it is said that he descended into hell where they were detained and whence by him they were delivered But whatever becomes of that imagination the most learned expositors of that Church of late such as Ribera Estius Tenae Maldenat A Lapide do not fix it on this Text For the supposition whereon it is founded is wholly alien from the scope of the Apostle and no way useful in his present argument For he discourseth about the Priviledges of the Church by the Gospel and Priesthood of Christ in this world and not about its future state and condition Besides he saies not that there was no entrance into the Holies during that season but only that the way of it was not yet manifest Wherefore they might enter into it although the way whereby they did so was not yet openly declared for they had but a shadow or dark obscure representation of good things to come And this is the interpretation that most sober expositors do give of the words Heaven with eternal Blessedness was proposed unto the Faith Hope and expectation of the Saints under the old Testament This
necessary unto it in its present condition so as that it might be guided in its faith and encouraged unto obedience 4. Though the standing of the first Tabernacle was a great Mercy and Priviledge yet the removal of it was a greater for it made way for the bringing in of that which was better 5. The divine wisdom in the Oeconomy and disposal of the Revelation of the way into the Holiest or of Grace and acceptance with himself is a blessed object of our contemplation The several degrees of it we have considered on chap. 1. ver 1. 6. The clear manifestation of the way of Redemption of the Expiation of sin and peace with God thereon is the great Priviledge of the Gospel 7. There is no access into the gracious Presence of God but by the sacrifice of Christ alone VER IX X. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Lat. quae Parabola est Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an Exemplar or Example so all render it though it answer the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Parable or Proverb Quod erat Exemplar so Beza and others ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Lat. Tempor is instantis of the instant time or season which Arias rectifies into in tempus praesens for the time present Beza pro tempore illo praesente for that present time pro tempore tum praesente for the time that was then present Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for that time omitting ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Lat. juxta quam it being uncertain what he refers quam unto Arias rectifieth it juxta quod for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã answereth unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and not unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quo wherein Syr. in quo wherein ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Lat. Munera Hostiae Dona Sacrificia Syr. Gifts that is Meat and Drink Offerings and Sacrifices by Blood Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Oblations and Victims or bloody Sacrifices ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vul Lat. juxta Conscientiam perfectum facere servientem make him that did the service perfect according to Conscience others in Conscientia sanctificare cultorem others consummare of the sense of the word we have spoken before Syr. Perfect the Conscience of him that offered them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. in Meat and Drink in the singular number ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in the washing of kinds Kinds that is various kinds with respect not unto the various rites of washing but the various kinds of things that were washed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Lat. Iustitiis Carnis so it renders ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Iustitia or Iustificatio constantly but very improperly Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Precepts of the flesh Ritibus carnalibus Ordinances Institutions Rites of the flesh concerning fleshly things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Vul. Lat. Impositis others Imposita incumbent on lying on them VER IX X. Which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both Gifts and Sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Which stood onely in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation I shall not alter the Translation but shew what might be more properly expressed as unto some Instances in our Exposition Expositors have made use of various Conjectures in their Commentaries on this place What is material in the most eminent of them the Reader may see in Mr. Pool's Collections But I must needs say that in my judgment they have brought more difficulty unto the Text than they have freed it from Wherefore I shall not detain the Reader in the examination of them but I shall give that interpretation of the Text which I hope will evidence its Truth unto such who impartially seek after it and are in any measure acquainted with the things treated of The Apostle in these two Verses gives a summary Account and Reason of the Imperfection of the Tabernacle and all its Services wherein the Administration of the Old Covenant did consist This was direct and proper unto his present Argument For his design is to prove the Preeminence of the New Covenant above the Old from the excellency of the High Priest thereof with his Tabernacle and Sacrifice Unto this end a discovery of the imperfections and weakness of the first Tabernacle and Services was indispensably necessary And if notwithstanding its outward Excellency and Glory it was no other but what it is here declared to be as evidently it was not then was it not only an unreasonable thing and a plain rejection of the Wisdom and Grace of God to adhere unto it in opposition unto the Gospel which was done by the most of the Hebrews but it was altogether unmeet and useless to be retained with the Profession of the Gospel which the residue of them earnestly contended for This was that which the Apostle designed ultimately to convince them of and a work herein both great and difficult was committed unto him For there is nothing more difficult than to dispossess the minds of men of such Persuasions in Religion as they have been bred up in and received by a long Tract of Tradition from their Fathers So we find it to be in such Persuasions and Observances as are evidently false and impious unto the understandings of all that are not under the power of such Prejudices So is it at present with them of the Roman Church and others But these Hebrews had a Pretence or Plea for their obstinacy herein which none other ever had in the like case but themselves For the things which they adhered unto were confessedly of Divine Institution Wherefore the Apostle labours principally to prove that in the Will and Wisdom of God they were to continue only for a season and also that the season of their Expiration was now come And this he doth in this place by a declaration of their nature and use whil'st they did continue whence it is evident that God never designed them a perpetual station in the Church and that because they could not effect what he purposed and had promised to do for it This is the substance of his present Argument There is in the words themselves 1. The Subject spoken of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which 2. The proper Use and End of it It was a Figure 3. The limitation of that Use as unto Time For the Time then present 4. The especial Nature of it The offering of Gifts and Sacrifices 5. The Imperfection of it therein They could not consummate the Worshippers in Conscience 6. The reason of that Imperfection It stood only in Meats and Drinks c. 7. The manner of its Establishment It was imposed 8. The time alotted for its Continuance Until the Time of Reformation 1. The Subject spoken of is expressed by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which
Ordinances such as for the matter manner of performance and end of them were Carnal This being their nature it evidently follows that they were instituted only for a time and were so far from being able themselves to perfect the state of the Church as that they were not consistent with that perfect state of spiritual things which God would introduce and had promised so to do The scope and design of the Apostle being thus fixed the Coherence and Interpretation of the words will not be so difficult as at first view they may appear ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Onely in Meats and Drinks c. Our Translators observing the sense Elliptical have supplied it with Which stood Which stood onely in Meats and Drinks And that Supplement may give a double sense 1 It may respect the substance of the things spoken of Which relates to Gifts and Sacrisices And so the sense intended is that they consisted in Meats and Drinks and divers Washings And this was the natural substance of them They consisted in such things as might be eat and drunk being duly prepared as Flesh Flower Salt Oyl and Wine Hence were they called Meat and Drink-offerings And they had Washings also that belonged unto them as the washing of the inwards Exod. 29. 17. and of the Burnt-offerings peculiarly Ezek. 40. 38. of the hands and feet of the Priests Exod. 30. 18. and of the Leper Lev. 14. 9. Howbeit it cannot be said that the Gifts and Sacrifices as they were such did consist in these things though in them things of this nature were offered unto God Wherefore the supplement of Which stood cannot be admitted in that sense 2 It may respect the consummation of these Gifts and Sacrifices or the Celebration of the whole Service that belonged unto them and all their necessary Circumstances or Consequents which stood in these things that is which were accompanied with them and not perfected without them The Argument in the words is to prove the insufficiency of the Gifts and Sacrifices of the Law unto the end mentioned of perfecting Conscience before God And this is evidenced by the consideration of their necessary Adjuncts or what belonged unto them and were inseparable from them It is not said that these Gifts and Sacrifices were onely Meats and Drinks and so things of no value For neither doth the Apostle treat of the old Institutions with such contempt nor would the truth of his assertion been evident unto the Hebrews But he argues unto a discovery of their use and end from the things that did always accompany them and were inseparable from them For those by whom they were offered were obliged by the same Divine Institution at the same time unto sundry Meats and Drinks and divers Washings which proves both the Gifts and Sacrifices to have been of the same kind and to have had respect unto carnal things as they had For if those Gifts and Sacrifices had an immediate effect on the Consciences of men unto their purification before God by any vertue inherent in them whence is it that the Observances which by the same Law accompanied them were onely about Meats and Drinks and divers Washings And this sense is not to be refused But whereas there is an Ellipsis in the Connexion of the words it may be otherwise supplied For having mentioned the Gifts and Sacrifices of the Law the Apostle makes an addition unto them of the remaining Institutions and Ceremonies of it whose very nature and use declared their insufficiency unto the end enquired after And other Laws onely concerning Meats and Drinks and divers Washings which in general he calls Carnal Rites Hereby is the Argument in hand carried on and compleated There are four things in the words 1 An Account of the legal Institutions under several Heads 2 Their Nature in general with that of others of the same kind they were carnal Ordinances or fleshly Rites 3 The way of the Relation of the People unto them they were imposed on them 4 The Time for which they were imposed or the measure of their duration which was until the time of Reformation 1. For the Nature of them they consisted in Meats and Drinks Take the words in their full extent and they may be comprehensive of four sorts of Institutions 1 Of all those which concerned meats or things to be eaten or not eaten as being clean or unclean an account whereof is given Lev. 11. throughout With reference thereunto doth the Apostle reflect on the Levitical Institutions in those words Touch not Taste not Handle not which all are to perish with their using Col. 2. 21 22. are all carnal things 2 The Portion of the Priests out of the Sacrifices especially what they were to eat in the Holy Place as the Portion of the Sin-offering Exod. 29. 31 32 33. Lev. 10. 12 13 17. and what they were to eat of the Peace-offerings in any clean place ver 14 15. And the prohibition of drinking wine or strong drink in the Holy Place ver 8 9. may be here respected in Drinks about which these Institutions were And these were such as without which the service of the Sacrifices could not be acceptably performed ver 17 18. And therefore are they intended in this place in an especial manner if it be the design of the Apostle to prove the insufficiency of the Sacrifices from the nature of their inseparable Adjuncts which were carnal and perishing things 3 The eating of the Remainder of the Peace-offering whether of a Vow or of Thanksgiving the Law whereof is given as an holy Ordinance Lev. 7. 14 15 16 17. 4 The Laws concerning the Feasts of the whole People with their eating and drinking before the Lord Lev. 23. All these Divine Ordinances were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã concerning meats and drinks that were necessary to be observed with their offering of Gifts and Sacrifices declaring of what nature they were And the observation of them all was at the same time imposed on them 2. They consisted in or were concerning divers Washings ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is any kind of washing whether by dipping or sprinkling putting the thing to be washed into the water or applying the water unto the thing it self to be washed Of these washings there were various sorts or kinds under the Law For the Priests were washed Exod. 29. 4. and the Levites Numb 8. 12. and the People after they had contracted any impurity Lev. 15. 8 16. But the Apostle seems to have particular respect unto the washings of the Priests and of the Offerings in the Court of the Tabernacle before the Altar For these were such as without which the Gifts and Sacrifices could not be rightly offered unto God 3. It is added in the description of these things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã institutis carnalibus ritibus ceremoniis justitiis justificationibus carnis Carnal Ordinances say we The signification of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in this place hath been spoken unto
the Throne of God whereon he receiveth power to deliver them that believe in him from the punishment due to sin But 1 This appearance of Christ in Heaven is no where called his Oblation his Sacrifice or his Offering of himself The places wherein some grant it may be so do assert no such thing as we shall see in the Explanation of them for they occur unto us in this Chapter 2 It no ways answers the Atonement that was made by the Blood of the Sacrifices at the Altar which was never carried into the Holy Place yea it overthrows all Analogy all Resemblance and Typical Representation between those Sacrifices and this of Christ there being no similitude nothing alike between them And this renders all the reasoning of the Apostle not only invalid but altogether impertinent 3 The Supposition of it utterly overthrows the true Nature of a proper and real Sacrifice substituting that in the room of it which is only metaphorical and improperly so called Nor can it be evidenced wherein the Metaphor doth consist or that there is any ground why it should be called an Offering or a Sacrifice For all things belonging to it are distinct from yea contrary unto a true real Sacrifice 4 It overthrows the Nature of the Priesthood of Christ making it to consist in his actings from God towards us in a way of power whereas the Nature of the Priesthood is to act with God for and on the behalf of the Church 5 It offers violence unto the Text For herein Christ's offering of himself is expressive of the way whereby his Blood purgeth our Consciences which in their sense is excluded But we may observe unto our purpose 1. This was the greatest expression of the unexpressible love of Christ he offered himself What was required thereunto what he underwent therein have on various occasions been spoken unto His condescension and love in the undertaking and discharge of this work we inay we ought to admire but we cannot comprehend And they do what lies in them to weaken the Faith of the Church in him and its love towards him who would change the Nature of his Sacrifice in the offering of himself who would make less of difficulty or suffering in it or ascribe less efficacy unto it This is the foundation of our faith and boldness in approaching unto God that Christ hath offered himself for us Whatsoever might be effected by the glorious dignity of his Divine Person by his profound Obedience by his unspeakable Sufferings all offered as a Sacrifice unto God in our behalf is really accomplished 2. It is hence evident how vain and insufficient are all other ways of the expiation of sin with the purging of our consciences before God The sum of all false Religion consisted always in contrivances for the expiation of sin what is false in any Religion hath respect principally thereunto And as Superstition is restless so the Inventions of men have been endless in finding out means unto this end But if any thing within the power or ability of men any thing they could invent or accomplish had been useful unto this end there would have been no need that the Son of God should have offered himself To this purpose see Chap. 10. 5 6 7 8. Micah 6. 8 9. 2dly The next thing in the words is unto whom he offered himself that is to God He gave himself an Offering and a Sacrifice to God A Sacrifice is the highest and chiefest Act of Sacred Worship especially it must be so when one offereth himself according unto the Will of God God as God or the Divine Nature is the proper Object of all Religious Worship unto whom as such alone any Sacrifice may be offered To offer Sacrifice unto any under any other Notion but as he is God is the highest Idolatry But an offering an expiatory Sacrifice for Sin is made to God as God under a peculiar Notion or Consideration For God is therein considered as the Author of the Law against which Sin is committed as the Supreme Ruler and Governor of all unto whom it belongs to inflict the punishment which is due unto sin For the end of such Sacrifices is averruncare malum to avert displeasure and punishment by making atonement for sin With respect hereunto the Divine Nature is considered as peculiarly subsisting in the person of the Father For so is he constantly represented unto our Faith as the Judge of all Heb. 12. 23. With him as such the Lord Christ had to do in the offering of himself concerning which see our Exposition on Chap. 5. v. 7. It is said if Christ was God himself how could he offer himself unto God That one and the same Person should be the Offerer the Oblation and he unto whom it is offered seems not so much a mystery as a weak imagination Ans. 1. If there were one Nature onely in the Person of Christ it may be this might seem impertinent Howbeit there may be cases wherein the same individual Person under several capacities as of a good man on the one hand and a Ruler or Judge on the other may for the benefit of the Publick and the preservation of the Laws of the Community both give and take satisfaction himself But whereas in the one Person of Christ there are two Natures so infinitely distinct as they are both acting under such distinct capacities as they did there is nothing unbecoming this mystery of God that the one of them might be offered unto the other But 2. It is not the same Person that offereth the Sacrifice and unto whom it is offered For it is the Person of the Father or the Divine Nature considered as acting it self in the Person of the Father unto whom the Offering was made And although the Person of the Son is Partaker of the same Nature with the Father yet that Nature is not the object of this Divine Worship as in him but as in the Person of the Father Wherefore the Son did not formally offer himself unto himself but unto God as acting Supreme Rule Government and Judgment in the Person of the Father As these things are plainly and fully testified unto in the Scripture so the way to come unto a blessed satisfaction in them unto the due use and comfort of them is not to consult the cavils of carnal wisdom but to pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory would give unto us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of our understandings being enlightned we may come unto the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. 3dly How he offered himself is also expressed it was by the eternal Spirit By ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It denotes a concurrent operation when one works with another Nor doth it always denote a subservient instrumental cause but sometimes that which is principally
yet what use and advantage was it of with respect unto them that he should dye an accursed death under the Curse of the Law and a sense of God's displeasure Hereof the Socinians and those that follow them can yield no reason at all It would become these men so highly pretending unto reason to give an account upon their own Principles of the death of the onely begotten Son of God in the highest course and most intense Acts of Obedience that may be compliant with the wisdom holiness and goodness of God considering the kind of death that he dyed But what they cannot do the Apostle doth in the next words Eighthly The death of the Mediator of the New Testament was for the Redemption of Transgressions and for this End it was necessary Sin lay in the way of the enjoyment of the Inheritance which Grace had prepared It did so in the Righteousness and Faithfulness of God Unless it were removed the Inheritance could not be received The way whereby this was to be done was by Redemption The Redemption of Transgressions is the deliverance of the Transgressors from all the Evils they were subject unto on their account by the payment of a satisfactory price The words used to express it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã will admit of no other signification Here it must answer the purging of Conscience by the blood of Christ. And he calls his life a Ransom or Price of Redemption And this utterly destroys the foundation of the Socinian Redemption and Expiation for Sin For they make it only a freedom from Punishment by an Act of Power Take off the covering of the words which they use in a sense foreign to the Scripture and their proper signification and their sense is expresly contradictory unto the sense and words of the Apostle He declares Christ to have been the High-Priest and Mediator of the New Testament in the same Acts and Duties They teach that he ceased to be a Mediator when he began to be a Priest He affirms that the Blood of Christ doth expiate Sins They that he doth it by an Act of Power in Heaven where there is no use of his Blood He says that his death was necessary unto and was the means or cause of the Redemption of Transgressions that is to be a price of Redemption or just Compensation for them They contend that no such thing is required thereunto And whereas the Scriptures do plainly assign the Expiation of Sin Redemption Reconciliation and Peace with God Sanctification and Salvation unto the Death and Blood-shedding of Christ They deny them all and every one to be in any sense Effects of it only they say it was an antecedent sign of the Truth of his Doctrine in his Resurrection and an antecedent condition of his Exaltation and Power which is to reject the whole Mystery of the Gospel Besides the particular Observations which we have made on the several passages of this Verse something may yet in general be observed from it As 1. A New Testament providing an Eternal Inheritance in Sovereign Grace the Constitution of a Mediator such a Mediator for that Testament in infinite Wisdom and Love the Death of that Testator for the Redemption of Transgressions to fulfil the Law and satisfie the Iustice of God with the communication of that Inheritance by Promise to be received by Faith in all them that are called are the substance of the Mystery of the Gospel And all these are with wonderful wisdom comprised by the Apostle in these words 2. That the Efficacy of the Mediation and Death of Christ extended it self unto all the called under the Old Testament is an evident Demonstration of his Divine Nature his Pre-existence unto all these things and the Eternal Covenant between the Father and him about them 3. The first Covenant did only forbid and Condemn Transgressions Redemption from them is by the New Testament alone 4. The Glory and Efficacy of the New Covenant and the Assurance of the Communication of an Eternal Inheritance by vertue of it depend hereon that it was made a Testament by the death of the Mediator which is farther proved in the following Verses VER XVI XVII ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the death of him is declared shewed argued or proved Mors intercedat necesse est Necesse est mortem intercedere Ar. Necesse est mortem ferri which is not proper in the Latine Tongue however there is an emphasis in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more than is expressed by intercedo ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of him that made it of the Testator ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in him that is dead in mortuis among them that are dead ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã vulg confirmatum est and so the Syriac ratum est more proper ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Syr. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There is no use profit or benefit in it Ar. nunquam valet quandoquidem nunquam valet nondum valet it is not yet of force For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be brought in the death of the Testator For a Testament is firm or ratified after men are dead otherwise it is of no force whil'st the Testator liveth There is not much more to be considered in these verses but only how the Observation contained in them doth promote and confirm the Argument which the Apostle insists upon Now this is to prove the necessity and use of the death of Christ from the Nature Ends and Use of the Covenant whereof he was the Mediator For it being a Testament it was to be confirmed with the death of the Testator This is proved in these Verses from the Notion of a Testament and the only use of it amongst men For the Apostle in this Epistle doth argue several times from such usages amongst men as proceeding from the Principles of Reason and Equity were generally prevalent among them So he doth in his discourse concerning the assurance given by the Oath of God Chap. 6. And here he doth the same from what was commonly agreed upon and suitable unto the reason of things about the nature and use of a Testament The things here mentioned were known to all approved by all and were the principal means of the preservation of Peace and Property in Humane Societies For although Testaments as unto their especial Regulation owe their original unto the Roman Civil Law yet as unto the substance of them they were in use amongst all Mankind from the foundation of the world For a Testament is the just determination of a Man's Will concerning what he will have done with his Goods after his decease Or it is the Will of him that is dead Take this power from men and you root up the whole foundation of all industry and diligence in the world For what man will labour to increase his substance if when
afterwards 7 This Imagination is destructive of the principal design and Argument of the Apostle For he proves the Imperfection of the Sacrifices of the Law and their insufficiency to consummate the Church from their annual Repetition affirming that if they could have perfected the Worshippers they would have ceased to have been offered Yet was that Sacrifice which he respects repeated only once a year But on this Supposition the Sacrifice of Christ must be offered always and never cease to be actually offered which reflects a greater Imperfection on it then was on those which were repeated only once a year But the Apostle expresly affirms that the Sacrifice which could effect its End must cease to be offered Chap. 10. 2. Whereas therefore by One offering he hath for ever perfected them that are Sanctified he doth not continue to offer himself though he doth so to appear in the Presence of God to make Application of the Vertue of that One offering unto the Church The Expositors of the Roman Church do raise an Objection on this place for no other End but that they may return an Answer unto it perniciously opposite unto and destructive of the Truth here taught by the Apostle though some of them do acknowledge that it is capable of another answer But this is that which they principally insist upon as needful unto their present Cause They say therefore that if Christ cease to offer himself then it seems that his Sacerdotal Office ceaseth also For it belongs unto that office to offer Sacrifices continually But there is no force in this Objection For it belongs to no Priest to offer any other or any more Sacrifices but what were sufficient and effectual unto the End of them and their office And such was the One Sacrifice of Christ. Besides though it be not actually repeated yet it is vertually applyed always and this belongs unto the present discharge of his Sacerdotal Office So doth also his Appearance in Heaven for us with his Intercession where he still continues in the actual exercise of his Priesthood so far as is needful or possible But they have an Answer of their own unto their own Objection They say therefore that Christ continueth to offer himself every day in the Sacrifice of the Mass by the hands of the Priests of their Church And this Sacrifice of him though it be unbloody yet is a true real Sacrifice of Christ the same with that which he offered on the Cross. It is better never to raise Objections then thus to answer them For this is not to expound the words but to dispute against the Doctrine of the Apostle As I shall briefly evince 1. That the Lord Christ hath by the One offering of himself for ever perfected them that are Sanctified is a Fundamental Article of Faith Where this is denied or overthrown either directly or by just Consequence the Church is overthrown also But this is expresly denied in the Doctrine of the frequent Repetition of his Sacrifice or of the offering of himself And there is no Instance wherein the Romanists do more expresly oppose the Fundamental Articles of Religion 2. The Repetition of Sacrifices arose solely from their Imperfection as the Apostle declares Chap. 10. 2. And if it undeniably proved an Imperfection in the Sacrifices of the Law that they were repeated once every year in one place only how great must the Imperfection of the Sacrifice of Christ be esteemed if it be not effectual to take away Sin and perfect them that are Sanctified unless it be repeated every day and that it may be in a thousand Places 3. To say that Christ offereth himself often is expresly and in Terms contradictory to the Assertion of the Apostle Whatever therefore they may apprehend of the offering of him by their Priests yet most certain it is that he doth not every day offer himself But as the Faith of the Church is concerned in no offering of Christ but that which he offered himself of himself by the eternal Spirit once for all so the pretence to offer him often by the Priests is highly Sacrilegious 4. The infinite actings of the Divine Nature in Supporting and Influencing of the Humane the inexpressible Operation of the Holy Ghost in him unto such a peculiar acting of all Grace especially of Zeal unto the Glory of God and compassion for the Souls of men as are inimitable unto the whole Creation were required unto the offering of himself a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling Savour unto God And how can a poor sinful Mortal man such as are the best of their Priests pretend to offer the same Sacrifice unto God 5. An unbloody Sacrifice is 1 A Contradiction in it self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is the only Sacrifice which the Apostle treats of is victimae mactatio as well as victimae mactatae oblatio It is a Sacrifice by death and that by blood-shedding other ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there never was any 2 If it might be supposed yet is it a thing altogether useless For without shedding of Blood there is no Remission The Rule I acknowledge is firstly expressed with respect unto legal Sacrifices and Oblations Yet is it used by the Apostle by an Argument drawn from the Nature and End of those Institutions to prove the necessity of blood-shedding in the Sacrifice of Christ himself for the Remission of Sin An unbloody Sacrifice for the Remission of Sin overthrows both the Law and the Gospel 3 It is directly contrary unto the Argument of the Apostle in the next verse wherein he proves that Christ could not offer himself often For he doth it by affirming that if he did so then must he often suffer that is by the Effusion of his Blood which was absolutely necessary in and unto his Sacrifice Wherefore an unbloody Sacrifice which is without Suffering whatever it be is not the Sacrifice of Christ. For if he be often offered he must often suffer as the Apostle affirms Nor is it unto any Purpose to say that this unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass receiveth its Vertue and Efficacy from the One Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross as it is pleaded by the defenders of it For the Question is not what value it hath nor whence it hath it but whether it be the Sacrifice of Christ himself or no. To sum up the substance of this whole Controversie The Sacrifice or Offering of Christ was 1 By Himself alone through the eternal Spirit 2 Was of his whole Humane Nature as to the matter of it He made his Soul an offering for Sin 3 Was by Death and Bloodshedding whereon its entire Efficacy as unto Attonement Reconciliation and the Sanctification of the Church do depend 4 Was once only offered and could be so no more from the Glory of his Person and the Nature of the Sacrifice it self 5 Was offered with such glorious internal actings of Grace as no Mortal creature can comprehend 6 Was accompanied with his bearing the
cannot refer it unto the same Divine Constitution with the future judgment which is natural in no sense at all Death was so far natural from the beginning as that the frame and constitution of our nature were in themselves liable and subject thereunto But that it should actually have invaded our nature unto its dissolution without the intervention of its meritorious Cause in Sin is contrary unto the Original state of our Relation unto God the nature of the Covenant whereby we were obliged unto Obedience the Reward promised therein with the threatning of Death in case of disobedience Wherefore the Law Statute or Constitution here related unto is no other but that of Gen. 2. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye with that addition dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Chap. 3. 19. God enacted it as an everlasting Law concerning Adam and all his Posterity that they should dye and that once as they were once taken out of the Dust. But in the words of God before mentioned there are two things 1. A penal Law enacted Gen. 3. 17. 2. A judicial sentence denounced Chap. 2. 19. not onely Death but future judgment also was appointed thereby Thus it is appointed to men that is to all men or men indefinitely without exception it is their lot and portion It is appointed unto men not meerly as men but as sinners as sinful men For it is of sin and the effects of it with their removal by Christ that the Apostle discourseth It is appointed unto them to dye that is penally for sin as Death was threatned in that Penal statute mentioned in the curse of the Law And death under that consideration alone is taken away by the death of Christ. The sentence of dying naturally is continued towards all but the moral nature of dying with the consequents of it are removed from some by Christ The Law is not absolutely reversed but what was formally penal in it is taken away Observe 1. Death in the first constitution of it was penal And the entrance of it as a penalty keeps the fear of it in all living Yea it was by the Law Eternally Penal Nothing was to come after death but Hell And 2. It is still penal Eternally penal unto all unbelievers But there are false notions of it amongst men as there are of all other things Some are afraid of it when the penalty is separated from it Some on the other hand look on it as a Relief and so either seek it or desire it unto whom it will prove only an entrance unto judgment It is the interest of all living to enquire diligently what death will be unto them 3. The death of all is equally determined and certain in Gods constitution It hath various wayes of approach unto all individuals Hence is it generally looked on as an accident befalling this or that man But the Law concerning it is general and equal The Second part of the Assertion is that after this is the judgment This by the same Divine unalterable constitution is appointed unto all God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousness Death makes an not end of men as some think others hope and many would desire it should Ipsa mors nihil post mortem nihil But there is something yet remaining which death is subservient unto Hence it is said to be after this As surely as men dye it is sure that somewhat else follows after death This is the force of the particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but but after it Now this after doth not denote the immediate succession of one thing unto another if one go before and the other certainly follow after what ever length of time be interposed between them the Assertion is true and proper Many have been long dead probably the most that shall dye and yet judgment is not come after But it shall come in its appointed season and so as that nothing shall interpose between death and judgment to make any alteration in the state or condition of the persons concerned in them The souls of them that are dead are yet alive but are utterly incapable of any change in their condition between death and judgment As death leaves men so shall judgment find them The second part of this penal constitution is judgment after death judgment It is not a particular judgment on every individual person immediately on his death although such a judgment there be For in and by death there is a declaration made concerning the eternal condition of the deceased But judgment here is opposed unto the second appearance of Christ unto the Salvation of believers which is the great or general judgment of all at the last day ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã used with respect unto this day or taken absolutely do signifie a condemnatory sentence only ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the resurrection of or unto judgment is opposed unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the resurrection of or unto life Joh. 5. 29. See ver 22 23 24. So is it here used Judgment that is condemnation for sin follows after death in the righteous constitution of God by the sentence of the Law And as Christ by his death doth not take away death absolutely but only as it was penal so on his Second appearance he doth not take away judgment absolutely but only as it is a condemnatory sentence with respect unto Believers For as we must all dye so we must all appear before his judgment seat Rom. 14. 10. But as he hath promised that those that believe in him shall not see death for they are passed from death unto life they shall not undergo it as it is penal so also he hath that they shall not come ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the word here used into judgment Joh. 5. 24. They shall be freed from the condemnatory sentence of the Law For the nature and manner of this judgment see the Exposition on Chap. 6. 5. This then is the sense of the words Whereas therefore or in as much as this is the constitution of God that man sinful man shall once dye and afterwards be judged or condemned for sin Which would have been the event with all had not a Relief been provided which in opposition hereunto is declared in the next verse And no man that dyes in sin shall ever escape judgment VER XXVIII This verse gives us the Relief provided in the wisdom and Grace of God for and from this condition And there is in the words 1. The Redditive note of comparison and opposition So 2. The subject spoken of the offering of Christ. 3. The End of it to bear the sin of many 4 The consequent of it which must be spoken to distinctly 1. The Redditive note is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So in like manner in answer unto that state of things and for the Remedy against it in a blessed condecency unto Divine
the apprehension of the Sinner but by the true Causes and Grounds of it Now these lye herein alone that Sin was not perfectly expiated for where this is not there must be a conscience of Sin that is disquieting judging condemning for Sin The Apostle speaks on the one side and the other of them who were really interested in the Sacrifices whereunto they might trust for the Expiation of Sin The way hereof as unto them of old and the Legal Sacrifices was the due attendance unto them and performance of them according unto Gods institution Hence are the persons so interested called the comers to them and the worshippers The way and means of our interest in the Sacrifice of Christ is by Faith only In this state it often falls out that true Believers have a conscience judging and condemning them for Sin no less than they had under the Law but this trouble and power of conscience doth not arise from hence that Sin is not perfectly expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ but only from an apprehension that they have not a due interest in that Sacrifice and the benefits of it Under the Old Testament they questioned not their due interest in their Sacrifices which depended on the performance of the Rites and Ordinances of Service belonging unto them but their consciences charged them with the Guilt of Sin through an apprehension that their Sacrifices could not perfectly expiate it And this they found themselves led unto by Gods institution of their Repetition which had not been done if they could ever make the Worshippers perfect It is quite otherwise as unto conscience for Sin remaining in Believers under the New Testament for they have not the least Sense or Fear concerning any insufficiency or imperfection in the Sacrifice whereby it is expiated God hath ordered all things concerning it so as to satisfie the consciences of all Men in the perfect Expiation of Sin by it only they who are really purged by it may be in the dark sometimes as unto their personal interest in it But it may be objected that if the Sacrifices neither by their native efficacy nor by the frequency of repetition could take away Sin so as that they who came unto God by them could have peace of conscience or be freed from the trouble of a continual Condemnatory Sentence in themselves then was there no true real peace with God under the Old Testament for other way of attaining it there was none But this is contrary unto innumerable Testimonies of Scripture and the promises of God made then unto the Church In answer hereunto I say the Apostle did not nor doth in these words declare what they did and could or could not attain unto under the Old Testament only what they could not attain by the means of their Sacrifices so he declares it in the next Verse for in them remembrance is made of Sins But in the use of them and by their frequent repetition they were taught to look continually unto the great Expiatory Sacrifice whose Virtue was laid up for them in the promise whereby they had peace with God Obser. 1. The discharge of conscience from its condemning Right and Power by vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ is the foundation of all other priviledges we receive by the Gospel Where this is not there is no real participation of any other of them 2. All peace with God is resolved into a purging Attonement made for sin Being once purged 3. It is by a principle of Gospel-light alone that conscience is directed to condemn all Sin and yet to acquit all Sinners that are purged It s own natural Light can give it no guidance herein VERSE 3. But in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of Sins every year IT is the latter part of the foregoing assertion namely that the Worshippers were not purged or perfected by them in that they had still remaining a conscience for Sin which is proposed unto confirmation for this being a matter of fact might be denied by the Hebrews Wherefore the Apostle proves the truth of his Assertion from an inseparable adjunct of the yearly repetition of these Sacrifices according unto Divine Institution There are Four things to be opened in the words 1. The Introduction of the Reason intended by an adversative conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but. 2. The Subject spoken of those Sacrifices 3. What belonged unto them by Divine Institution which is a renewed remembrance of Sin 4. The seasons of it it was to be made every year 1. The note of introduction gives us the nature of the Argument insisted on Had the Worshippers been perfect they would have had no more conscience for Sins But saith he it was not so with them for God appoints nothing in vain And he had not only appointed the Repetition of these Sacrifices but also that in every Repetition of them there should be a Remembrance made of Sin as of that which was yet to be expiated 2. The Subject spoken of is expressed in these words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in them But this Relative is remote from the Antecedent which is in the first Verse by the interposition of the second wherein it is repeated we transfer it hither from the first Verse in our Translation but in these Sacrifices And we supply the defect of the Verb Substantive by there is for there is no more in the Original than but in them a Remembrance again of Sins The Sacrifices intended are principally those of the Solemn day of Expiation For he speaks of them that were repeated yearly that is once every year Others were repeated every day or as often as occasion did require these only were so yearly And these are peculiarly fixed on because of the peculiar Solemnity of their Offering and the interest of the whole people at once in them By these therefore they looked for the perfect Expiation of Sin 3. That which is affirmed of these Sacrifices is their inseparable adjunct that in them there was a remembrance of Sin again That is there was so by virtue of Divine Institution whereon the force of the Argument doth depend For this remembrance of Sin by Gods own Institution was such as sufficiently evidenced that the Offerers had yet a conscience condemning them for sins Respect is had unto the command of God unto this purpose Levit. 16. 21 22. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is an express remembrance or a remembrance expressed by Confession or Acknowledgment See Gen. 40. 9. chap. 42. 21. For where it respects Sin it is a recalling of it unto the Sentence of the Law and a sense of punishment See Num. 5. 15. 1 King 17 18. And hereby the Apostle proves effectually that these Sacrifices did not make the worshippers perfect For notwithstanding their Offering of them a sense of Sin still returned upon their Consciences and God himself had appointed that every year they should make such an acknowledgment and confession of
is denyed of these Sacrifices is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the taking away of sins The thing intended is variously expressed by the Apostle as by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 2. 17. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 1. 3. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 9. 14. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 9. 26. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 28. To make Reconciliation to purge sin to purge the Conscience to abolish sin to bear it And that which he intendeth in all these expressions which he denies of the Law and its Sacrifices and ascribes unto that of Christ is the whole entire effect thereof so far as it immediately respected God and the Law For all these Expressions respect the Guilt of Sin and its removal or the pardon of it with righteousness before God acceptance and peace with him To take away sin is to make Attonement for it to Expiate it before God by a satisfaction given or price paid with the procurement of the Pardon of it according unto the Terms of the New Covenant The Interpretation of these words by the Socinians is contrary unto the signification of the words themselves and the whole design of the Context Impossibile est saith Schlictingius ut sanguis taurorum hircorum peccata tollat hoc est efficiat ut homines in postcrum à peccatis abstinerent sic nullam amplius habeant peccatorum conscientiam sive ullas corum poenas metuant quam cnim quaeso vim ad haec praestandum sanguis animalium habere potest Itaque hoc dicit taurorum hircorum sanguinem eam vim nequaquam habere ut habeat impossibile esse ut homines à peccatis avocet ne in posterum peccent efficiat And Grotius after him speaks to the same purpose ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã quod suprà ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã est extinguere peccata quod sanguis Christi facit cum quia fidem in nobis parit tum quia Christo jus dat nobis auxilia necessaria impetrandi pecudum sanguis nihil efficit tale 1. Nothing can be more Alien from the Design of the Apostle and Scope of the Context They are both of them to prove that the Sacrifices of the Law could not Expiate Sins could not make Attonement for them could not make Reconciliation with God could not produce the effect which the Sacrifice of Christ alone was appointed and ordained unto They were only Signs and Figures of it They could not effect that which the Hebrews looked for from them and by them And that which they expected by them was that by them they should make Attonement with God for their sins Wherefore the Apostle denies that it was possible they should effect what they looked for from them and nothing else It was not that they should be Arguments to turn them from Sin unto newness of life so as that they should sin no more By what way and on what consideration they were means to deter Men from Sin I have newly declared But they can produce no one place in the whole Law to give countenance unto such an Apprehension that this was their end so that the Apostle had no need to declare their Insufficiency with respect thereunto Especially the great Anniversary Sacrifice on the day of Expiation was appointed so expresly to make Attonement for Sin to procure its Pardon to take away its Guilt in the sight of God and from the Conscience of the Sinner that he should not be punished according unto the Sentence of the Law as that it cannot be denyed This is that which the Apostle declares that of themselves they could not effect or perform but only Typically and by way of Representation 2. He declares directly and positively what he intends by this taking away of Sin and the ceasing of Legal Sacrifices thereon ver 17 18. Their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more now where Remission of these is there is no more Offering for Sin The cessation of Offerings for Sin follows directly on the Remission of Sin which is the effect of Expiation and Attonement and not upon the turning away of Men from Sin for the future It is therefore our Justification and not our Sanctification that the Apostle discourseth of 3. The words themselves will not bear this sense For the Object of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that which it is exercised about is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is an Act upon Sin it self and not immediately upon the Sinner Nor can it signifie any thing but to take away the Guilt of Sin that it should not bind over the Sinner unto punishment whereon Conscience for sin is taken away But to return 4. The manner of the Negation is that it was impossible that it should be otherwise And it was so 1. From Divine Institution Whatever the Jews apprehended they were never designed of God unto that end and therefore had no Virtue or Efficacy for it Communicated unto them And all the Virtue of Ordinances of Worship depends on their Designation unto their end The Blood of Bulls and Goats as offered in Sacrifice and carried into the most Holy Place was designed of God to represent the way of taking away sin but not by it self to effect it and it was therefore impossible that so it should do 2. It was impossible from the Nature of the things themselves in as much as there was not a Condecency unto the Holy perfections of the Divine Nature that Sin should be Expiated and the Church perfected by the Blood of Bulls and Goats For 1. There would not have been so unto his Infinite Wisdom For God having declared his severity against Sin with the necessity of its punishment unto the Glory of his Righteousness and Soveraign Rule over his Creatures what Condecency could there have been herein unto infinite Wisdom What Consistency between the severity of that Declaration and the taking away of Sin by such an Inferiour Beggarly means as that of the Blood of Bulls and Goats A great appearance was made of infinite displeasure against sin in the giving of the Fiery Law in the Curse of it in the threatnings of Eternal Death should all have ended in an outward shew there would have been no manner of proportion to be discerned between the Demerit of Sin and the means of its Expiation So that 2. It had no Condecency unto Divine Justice For 1. As I have elsewhere proved at large Sin could not be taken away without a Price a Ransome a Compensation and satisfaction made unto Justice for the Injuries it received by Sin In satisfaction unto Justice by way of Compensation for Injuries or Crimes there must be a proportion between the Injury and the Reparation of it that Justice may be as much Exalted and Glorified in the one as it was depressed and debased in the other But there could be no such thing between the Demerit of Sin and the Affront put on the Righteousness of God on the one
whole of the work of Christ and the effects of it is expresly referred unto this Will of God ver 9 10. And we must First speak unto the Apostles rendring these words out of the Psalmist They are in the Original ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã my Ears hast thou digged bored prepared All sorts of Critical Writers and Expositors have so laboured in the resolution of this difficulty that there is little to be added unto the Industry of some and it were endless to confute the Mistakes of others I shall therefore only speak briefly unto it so as to manifest the oneness of the sense in both places And some things must be premised thereunto 1. That the Reading of the words in the Psalm is incorrupt and they are the precise words of the Holy Ghost Though of late years sundry persons have used an unwarrantable boldness in feigning various Lections in the Hebrew Text yet none of any judgment have attempted to conjecture at any word that might be thought to be used in the room of any one of them And as for those which some have thought the LXX might possibly mistake that signifie a Body as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which sometimes signifies a Body in the Chaldee Dialect or ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there is in neither of them any the least Analogy unto ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that they are ridiculously suggested 2. It doth not seem probable unto me that the LXX did ever Translate these Words as they are now Extant in all the Copies of that Translation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã For 1. It is not a Translation of the Original words but an Interpretation and Exposition of the sense and meaning of them which was no part of their design 2. If they made this Exposition they did so either by chance as it were or from a right understanding of the Mystery contained in them That they should be cast upon it by a meer conjecture is altogether improbable And that they understood the mystery couched in that Metaphorical expression without which no account can be given of the Version of the words will not be granted by them who know any thing of those Translators or their Translation 3. There was of old a different Reading in that Translation For instead of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Body some Copies have it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Ears which the Vulgar Latin follows an evidence that a change had been made in that Translation to comply with the words used by the Apostle 3. The words therefore in this place were the words whereby the Apostle expressed the sense and meaning of the Holy Ghost in those used in the Psalmist or that which was intended in them He did not take them from the Translation of the LXX but used them himself to express the sense of the Hebrew Text. For although we should not adhere precisely unto the Opinion that all the Quotations out of the Old Testament in the New which agree in words with the present Translation of the LXX were by the Scribes of that Translation transferred out of the New Testament into it which yet is far more probable than the contrary Opinion that the words of the Translation are made use of in the New Testament even when they differ from the Original yet sundry things herein are certain and acknowledged As 1. That the Penmen of the New Testament do not oblige themselves unto that Translation but in many places do precisely render the words of the Original Text where that Translation differs from it 2. That they do oftentimes express the sense of the Testimony which they Quote in words of their own neither agreeing with that Translation nor exactly answering the Original Hebrew 3. That sundry passages have been unquestionably taken out of the New Testament and inserted into that Translation which I have elsewhere proved by undeniable instances And I no way doubt but it hath so fallen out in this place where no account can be given of the Translation of the LXX as the words now are in it Wherefore 4. This is certain that the sense intended by the Psalmist and that expressed by the Apostle are the same or unto the same purpose And their Agreement is both plain and evident That which is spoken is an act of God the Father towards the Son The end of it is that the Son might be fit and meet to do the Will of God in the way of Obedience So it is expressed in the Text mine Ears hast thou bored or a Body hast thou prepared me Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God This is the sole end why God so acted towards him What this was is so expressed in the Psalmist my Ears hast thou bored with a double Figure 1. A Metaphor from the Ear wherewith we hear the commands we are to obey Obedience being our compliance with the outward commands of God and the Ear being the only means of our receiving those commands there is nothing more frequent in the Scripture than to express Obedience by hearing and hearkening as is known Wherefore the ascription of Ears unto the Lord Christ by an act of God is the preparation of such a State and Nature for him as wherein he should be meet to yield Obedience unto him 2. By a Synecdoche wherein the part is put for the whole In his Divine Nature alone it was impossible that the Lord Christ should come to do the Will of God in the way whereby he was to do it Wherefore God prepared another Nature for him which is expressed Synecdochically by the Ears for the whole Body and that significantly because as it is impossible that any one should have Ears of any use but by Vertue of his having a Body so the Ears are that part of the Body by which alone Instruction unto Obedience the thing aimed at is received This is that which is directly expressed of him Isa. 59. 4 5. He wakeneth Morning by Morning he wakeneth my Ear to hear as the Learned The Lord God hath opened my Ear and I was not rebellious or I was obedient And so it is all one in what sense you take the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whether in the more common and usual to dig or bore or in that whereunto it is sometimes applyed to fit and perfect For I do not judge there is any allusion in the expression unto the Law of boring the Ear of the Servant that refused to make use of his Liberty at the year of release Nor is the word used in that case ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Exod. 21. 6. But it respects the framing of the Organ of hearing which is as it were bored and the internal sense in readiness unto Obedience is expressed by the framing of the outward Instrument of Hearing that we may learn to obey thereby Wherefore this is and no other can be the sense of the words in the Psalmist namely that
the State of things under the Law by Gods appointment as to Sin and Punishment the Apostle makes his Inference unto the certainty and equity of the punishment he had declared with respect unto sins against the Gospel v. 29. Of how sorer punishment c. And there is in these words three things 1. The nature of the sin unto which the punishment is annexed 2. The punishment it self expressed comparatively with and unto that of the transgression of Moses Law 3. The evidence of the inference which he makes for this is such as he referrs it unto themselves to judge upon suppose ye-shall be thought worthy The Sin it self is described by a threefold Aggravation of it each instance having its especial Aggravation 1. From the Object sinned against 2. From the Act of the minds of men in sinning against it 1. The first aggravation of the sin intended is from the Object of it the Person of Christ the Son of God and that included in it is the Act of their minds towards him they trod or trampled upon him 2. The second against the Office of Christ especially his Sacerdotal Office and the Sacrifice of his blood which he offered therein the blood of the covenant wherewith he was Sanctified And the aggravation included therein from the act of their minds towards it that they accounted it an unholy thing 3. A third aggravation as unto the Object is the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of grace and the aggravation included therein is that they do despight unto him In general the Nature and Aggravation of the sin intended may be reduced unto these heads 1. The Object of it which is the summ and substance a divine constellation of all the blessed effects of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Grace yea the whole divine Wisdom Goodness and Grace of God in the most glorious manifestation of them All these things are comprized in the Person Office and Glory of the Son of God as the Saviour and Redeemer of the Church 2. The Actings of the minds of men towards this Object which is in and by all the vilest affections that humane nature is capable of Contempt Scorn and Malice are ascribed unto such sins they trample on they despise and do despight Wherefore if it be possible that any thing any sins of men can provoke the heat of divine indignation if any can contract such a guilt as that the holiness righteousness truth and faithfulness of God shall be engaged unto its eternal punishment the sin here intended must do it We shall therefore consider it in its Nature and distinct Aggravations The sin in General is that which we have spoken to before namely sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth and in an absolute total relinquishment and rejection of the Gospel In the description of the special Object of this sin that which is first exprest is the Person of Christ the Son of God I have on sundry occasions before shewed how the Apostle doth vary in his expression of Christ here he calls him the Son of God and he maketh use of this name to give a sence of the glorious greatness of the person with whom they had to do against whom this sin was committed For although he were a man also who had Blood to shed and did shed it in the Sacrifice of himself and notwithstanding what cursed Blasphemous thoughts they might have of him yet indeed he is and will appear to be the Eternal Son of the Living God But how comes this Son of God to be concerned herein What injury is done him by Apostates from the Gospel I answer that as the Lord Christ in his own Person was the special Author of the Gospel as his Authority is the special Object of our Faith in it as his Office with all the fruits of it is the Subject Summ and Substance of the Gospel So there is no reception of it in a due manner unto Salvation no rejection of it unto final condemnation but what is all of it Originally fundamentally and vertually contained in the reception or rejection of the person of Christ. This is the Life the Soul and Foundation of all Gospel truth without which it is of no power or efficacy unto the Souls of men But I have treated at large of these things elsewhere I cannot but Observe that as whosoever rejects refuses forsakes the Gospel rejecteth and forsaketh the Person of Christ so on what account soever men take up the Profession of it and perform the Duties of it if the foundation be not laid in a reception of Christ himself of the Person of Christ all their profession will be in vain This is the first aggravation of this sin it is committed immediately against the Person of the Son of God and therein his Authority Goodness and Love But it may be thought if the Person of Christ be concerned herein yet it is indirectly or consequentially only and in some small degree No saith the Apostle but he that is guilty of this sin doth trample on the Son of God or tread him under foot The word is rendred with great variety but that of our Translation is proper and 't is the highest expression of scorn contempt and malice amongst men To tread under foot is to despise and insult over as is plain in the Metaphor And this contempt respects both the Person of Christ and his Authority He is proposed in the Gospel was professed by this sort of sinners for a while to be the Son of God the true Messiah the Saviour of the World Hereon Faith in him and all holy reverence unto him are required of us as on him whom God had exalted above principalities and powers and whom therefore we ought to exalt and adore in our Souls But now by this sort of Persons he was esteemed an Evil doer a Seducer one not at all sent of God but one that justly suffered for his crimes Herein they trod under foot the Son of God with all contempt and scorn Again it respects his Authority This the Gospel declared and those who had come unto any profession of it as those had done whereof he speaks in this place as all must have done who contract the guilt of this sin did avow and submit themselves unto The profession they made was to Observe and do all that he had commanded them because all Power was given unto him in Heaven and Earth This they now utterly rejected and despised as unto the outward observance of his Commands Ordinances and Institutions of Divine Worship they openly rejected them betaking themselves unto other Modes and Rites of Divine Service in opposition and contradiction unto them even those of the Law Neither did they retain any regard in their minds unto his Authority I. Though there may be sometimes an appearance of great severity in Gods Judgments against sinners yet when the nature of their sins and the aggravation of
in them all Consider now what aggravations this sin is accompanied withall above all sins whatever against the Law and be your selves Judges of what will follow hereon What do you think in your own hearts will be the Judgment of God concerning these sinners This argument the Apostle doth frequently insist upon as chap. 2. 2 3 4. chap. 12. 25. and it had a peculiar cogency towards the Hebrews who had lived under the terror of those legal punishments all their dayes I. The inevitable certainty of the Eternal punishment of Gospel-despisers depends on the Essential holiness and righteousness of God as the Ruler and Judge of all It is nothing but what he in his just Judgment which is according unto truth accounteth them worthy of Rom. 1. 32. II. It is a righteous thing with God thus to deal with men Wherefore all hopes of Mercy or the least relaxation of Punishment unto all Eternity are vain and false unto Apostates they shall have Judgment without Mercy III. God hath allotted different degrees of Punishment unto the different degrees and aggravations of sin The wages indeed of every sin is Death but there is unto such persons as these a Savour of death unto death and there shall be different degrees of Eternal Punishment IV. The Apostacy from the Gospel here described being the absolute height of all sin and impiety that the nature of man is capable of it renders them unto Eternity obnoxious unto all punishment that the same nature is capable of The greatest sin must have the greatest Judgment V. It is our Duty diligently to enquire into the nature of sin lest we be overtaken in the great Offence Such Persons as they in the Text it may be little thought what it was that they should principally be charged withal namely for their Apostasie and how dreadful was it when it came upon them in an evident conviction VI. Sinning against the Testimony given by the Holy Ghost unto the truth and power of the Gospel whereof men have had experience is the most dangerous Symtom of a perishing Condition VII Threatnings of future Eternal Judgments unto Gospel-despisers belong unto the preaching and declaration of the Gospel VIII The Equity and Righteousness of the most severe Judgments of God in eternal Punishments against Gospel-Despisers is so evident that it may be referred to the Judgment of men not obstinate in their Blindness IX 'T is our Duty to justifie and bear witness unto God in the Righteousness of his Judgments against Gospel-Despisers VERSE XXX XXXI ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã VERSE 30 31. For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord. And again the Lord shall Judge his People It is a fearfull thing to fall into the Hands of the living God THere is in these Verses the confirmation of all that was spoken before by the consideration of what God is in himself with whom alone we have to do in this matter and what he assumeth unto himself in this and the like Cases As if the Apostle had said In the severe sentence which we have denounced against Apostates we have spoken nothing but what is suitable unto the holiness of God and what indeed in such cases he hath declared that he will do The conjunction ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã denotes the introduction of a Reason of what was spoken before but this is not all which he had discoursed on on this Subject but more particularly the reference he had made unto their own Judgments of what sore punishment was due unto Apostates Thus it will be with them thus you must needs determine concerning them in your own minds for we know him with whom we have to do in these things Wherefore the Apostle confirms the truth of his discourse or rather illustrates the evidence of it by a double consideration 1. Of the person of him who is and is to be the sole Judge in this case who is God alone For we know him And 2. What he hath assumed unto himself and affirmed concerning himself in the like-cases which he expresseth in a double Testimony of Scripture And then lastly there is the way whereby our minds are influenced from this Person and what he hath said which is that we know him The first consideration confirming the Evidence and certainty of the truth asserted is the person of him who is the only Judge in this case I confess the Pronoun herein is not exprest in the Original but as 't is included in the Participle and Article prefixed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he that saith who expresseth himself in the words ensuing But it is evident that the Apostle directeth unto a special consideration of God himself both in the manner of the expression and in the addition of those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to the Testimony which he writes immediately If you will be convinced of a righteousness and certainty of this dreadful destruction of Apostates consider in the first place the Author of this Judgment the only Judge in the case We know him that hath said I. There can be no right Judgment made of the nature and demerit of sin without a due consideration of the Nature and Holiness of God against whom it is committed Fools make a mock of sin they have no sense of its guilt nor dread of its punishment Others have slight thoughts of it measuring it only either by outward effects or by presumptions which they have been accustomed unto Some have general notions of its guilt as 't is prohibited by the Divine Law but never search into the nature of that Law with respect unto its Author Such false measures of sin ruin the souls of men Nothing therefore will state our thoughts aright concerning the guilt and demerit of sin but a deep consideration of the infinite greatness holiness righteousness and power of God against whom it is committed And hereunto this also is to be added That God acts not in the effect of any of these Properties of his nature but on a preceding contempt of his Goodness Bounty Grace and Mercy As it is impossible that sin should come into the world but by the contempt of these things Antecedently unto all possibility of sinning God communicates the effects of his goodness and bounty unto the Creation And in those sins which are against the Gospel he doth so also of his Grace and Mercy This is that which will give us a due measure of the guilt and demerit of sin Look upon it as a contempt of infinite Goodness Bounty Grace and Mercy and to rise up against infinite greatness holiness righteousness and power and we shall have a view of it as it is in it self II. Under apprehensions of great severities of Divine Judgments the consideration of God the Author of them will both relieve our Faith and quiet our hearts Such instances are given of the Eternal casting off Multitudes of Angels on
render Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born I will not offend and that properly And ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was of common use in the Greek Tongue in Assertory Oaths So Demosthenes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He sware ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that he would destroy Philip. The Vulgar Latine renders it by nisi that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã contrary to the sense of the Ancients Chrysostome Oecumenius and Theophylact as some of the Expositors of the Roman Church do acknowledge But yet that manner of expression denotes a sense not unusual in the Scripture For there is an Intimation in it of a reserved Condition rendring the saying ensuing a most sacred Oath Unless I bless thee let me not be trusted in as God or the like But the formality of the Oath of God is neither in Genesis nor here expressed only respect is had unto what he affirms by my self have I sworn Surely undoubtedly The Promise it self is expressed in those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee Our Apostle renders the words of Moses exactly Gen. 22. 17. Only where it is said there I will multiply thy Seed he expresseth it by I will multiply thee which is all one or to the same purpose for he could be no way multiplied but in his Seed and he proceedeth no farther with the words of the Promise as being not concerned in what followeth For although his Seed was actually multiplied yet it was Abraham himself who was blessed therein The Vulgar Latine in this place reads Benedicens benedicam blessing I will bless but in Genesis hath only benedicam and multiplicabo Hence divers of the Roman Expositors as Ribera Tena and others give sundry reasons why the Apostle changed the expression from what was used in Moses where it is only said I will bless thee into blessing I will bless thee And which I cannot but observe Schlictingius who followeth in this place the Exposition of Ribera complies with him also in that Observation aliis quidem verbis saith he promissionem hanc apud Mosem extulit But all this is but the mistake of the Vulgar Interpreter on Gen. 22. For the words in the Original have the Reduplication rendered by the Apostle which the Lxx also observe And this Reduplication is a pure Hebraisme vehemently affirming the thing promised and hath in it the nature of an Oath It also intends and extends the matter promised Blessing I will bless thee I will do so without fail I will do so greatly without measure and eternally without end And this kind of Asseveration is common in the Hebrew Gen. 2. 17. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã In the day thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt dye thou shalt assuredly dye be certainly obnoxious unto Death it may be also that the double Death temporal and eternal is included therein See Gen. 37. 33. 2 Kings 2. 23. 1 Sam. 23. 22. Josh. 24. 10. Jer. 23. 17. Dan. 11. 10. We have need of every thing that any way evidenceth the stability of Gods Promises to be represented unto us for the encouragement and confirmation of our Faith As God redoubled the word at the first giving out of the Promise unto Abraham for the strengthening of his Faith so is the same here expressed by the Apostle that it might have the same effect upon us And two things especially God seems to impress upon our minds in this vehemency of expression 1 The sincerity of his Intentions without reserve 2 The stability of his Purposes without alteration and change It is to signifie both these that such emphatical vehement expressions are used even among men and both these Unbelief is apt to question in God He that believeth not maketh God a liar 1 Joh. 5. 10. He is a lyar who in his Promises intendeth not what his words signifie but hath other reserves in his mind and he who having promised changeth without cause Both these doth Unbelief impute to God which makes it a sin of so hainous a nature The first time God used this kind of Reduplication it was in his threatening of Death unto the Transgression of the Command Gen. 2. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt dye And that which Sathan deluded our first Parents by was in perswading them that there was not sincerity in what God had said but that he had reserved to himself that it should be otherwise The Serpent said unto the woman ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã dying ye shall not dye Gen. 3. 4. But this being directly contrary unto what God had expresly affirmed how could Sathan imagine that the Woman would immediately consent unto him against the express words of God Wherefore he useth this Artifice to prevail with her that although God had spoken those words yet he had a Reserve to himself that it should not be unto them indeed as he had spoken ver 5. By these means Unbelief entered into the world and hath ever since wrought effectually in the same kind There is no Promise of God so plainly expressed but Unbelief is ready to suggest innumerable exceptions why it should have such reserves accompanying of it as that it doth not belong unto us Most of these exceptions we gather from our selves and were it not for them we suppose we could believe the Promise well enough But the truth is when we are called to believe when it is our Duty so to do when we pretend that we are willing and desirous to do so were it not for such and such things in our selves it is the sincerity of God in his Promises we all in question and we think that although he proposeth the Promise unto us and commandeth us to believe yet it is not his intention and purpose that we should do so or that we should be made partakers of the good things promised By the purpose of God I do not here intend the Eternal purpose of his Will concerning the effects and events of things about which we are called to exercise neither Faith nor Unbelief until they are manifested But the whole Rule of our Duty is in Gods Command and the Faith required of us consists in this that if we comply with what God prescribeth we shall enjoy what he promiseth if we believe we shall be saved And herein to question the Truth or Sincerity of God is an high effect of Unbelief This distrust therefore God removes by the Reduplication of the word of the Promise that we might know he was in good earnest in what he expressed The like may be spoken concerning the stability of the Promises with respect unto change which because it must be particularly afterwards spoken unto shall be here omitted And these things we have need of If we think otherwise we know little of the nature of Faith or Unbelief of our own weakness the efficacy of the Deceits of Sathan or the manifold oppositions which
rise up against believing 2. For the Promise it self here intended or the matter of it it may be considered two ways 1 As it was personal unto Abraham or as the Person of Abraham was peculiarly concerned therein 2 As it regards all the Elect of God and their Interest in it of whom he was the Representative As this Promise was made personally unto Abraham it may be considered 1 With respect unto what was Carnal Temporal and Typical 2 Unto what was Spiritual and Eternal typed out by those other things As unto what was Carnal and Typical the things in it may be referred unto two Heads 1 His own temporal prosperity in this world Gods Blessing is always ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an addition of good unto him that is blessed So it is said Gen. 24. 1. God hath blessed Abraham in all things which is explained ver 35. in the words of his Servant The Lord hath greatly blessed my Master and he is become great and he hath given him Flocks and Herds Silver and Gold God increased him in Wealth Riches and Power until he was esteemed as a mighty Prince by the people among whom he dwelt Gen. 23. 6. And this in the Blessing was a Type and Pledge of that full Administration of Grace and Spiritual things which was principally intended 2 What concerned his Posterity wherein he was blessed And herein two things were in the Promise both expressed at large 1 The greatness of their number They were to be as the Stars of Heaven or as the Sand by the Sea-shore that is innumerable 2 Their success and prosperity that they should possess the Gates of their Enemies which principally respected the mighty successes which they had and Conquests which they made under the conduct of Joshua and afterwards of David In both these things were they Typical of the more numerous Subjects of the Kingdom of Christ and of his spiritual Conquest for them and in them of all their spiritual Adversaries See Luke 1. 70 71 72 73 74 75. In these two Branches of the Promise the Faith of Abraham was greatly exercised as unto the Accomplishment of them For as unto the first or multiplication of his Posterity though he lived after this about 70 years yet he never saw any more than two persons Isaac and Jacob that were interested in this Promise For although he had other Children and Posterity by them yet in Isaac only was his Seed to be called as to this Promise He had therefore during his own days no outward visible pledge or appearance of its Accomplishment and yet however he lived and died in the Faith thereof And as unto the latter of their prosperity and success he was told before that they should be in Affliction and Bondage for 400 years Yet looking by Faith through all these difficulties in its proper season he inherited the Promise And he was a great Example herein unto all Believers under the New Testament For there are many Promises remaining as yet unaccomplished and which at present as in other Ages seem not only to be remote from but as unto all outward means to be cast under an impossibility of accomplishment Such are those as concerning the calling of the Jews the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles with the enlargement and establishment of the Kingdom of Christ in this world Concerning all these things some are apt to despond some irregularly to make haste and some to reject and despise them But the Faith of Abraham would give us present satisfaction in these things and assured expectation of their Accomplishment in their proper season Secondly The peculiar Interest of Abraham in this Promise as to the spiritual part of it may also be considered and hereof in like manner there were two parts 1. That the Lord Christ should come of his Seed according to the flesh And he was the first person in the world after our first Parents to whom in the order of nature it was necessary to whom the Promise of the Messiah to spring from them was confirmed It was afterwards once more so confirmed unto David whence in his Genealogy he is said in a peculiar manner to be the Son of David the Son of Abraham For unto these two persons alone was the Promise confirmed And therefore is he said in one place to be the Seed of David according to the Flesh Rom. 1. 3. and in another to have taken on him the Seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. Herein lay Abrahams peculiar Interest in the spiritual part of this Promise He was the first who had this priviledge granted unto him by especial Grace that the promised Seed should spring from his Loyns In the Faith hereof he saw the Day of Christ and rejoiced this made him famous and honourable throughout all Generations 2. As he was thus to be the natural Father of Christ according to the flesh whence all Nations were to be blessed in him or his Seed so being the first that received or embraced this Promise he became the spiritual Father of all that do believe and in them the Heir of the world in a spiritual Interest as he was in his carnal Seed the Heir of Canaan in a political Interest No men come to be accepted with God but upon the account of their Faith in that Promise which was made unto Abraham that is in him who was promised unto him And we may observe That The Grant and Communication of spiritual Priviledges is a meer act or effect of Soveraign Grace Even this Abraham who was so exalted by spiritual Priviledges seems originally to have been tainted with the common Idolatrie which was then in the world This account we have Josh. 24. 2 3. Your Father dwelt on the other side of the Flood in old time Terah the Father of Abraham and the Father of Nachor and they served other Gods And I took your Father Abraham from the other side of the Flood It is true the charge is express against Terah only but it lying against their Fathers in general on the other side of the Flood and being added that God took Abraham from the other side of the Flood he seems to have been involved in the Guilt of the same sin whilst he was in his Fathers House and before his Call Nor is there any account given of the least preparation or disposition in him unto the state and Duties which he was afterwards brought into In this condition God of his Soveraign Grace first calls him to the saving knowledge of himself and by degrees accumulates him with all the Favours and Priviledges before mentioned Hence in the close of his whole course he had no cause to glory in himself neither before God nor men Rom. 4. 2. For he had nothing but what he gratuitously received Indeed there were distances of time in the collation of several distinct Mercies and Blessings on him And he still through the supplies of Grace which he received under every mercy
exhibition of Christ and confirmed in his death and by the Sacrifice of his blood thereby becoming the sole Rule of new spiritual Ordinances of Worship suited thereunto was the great Object of the Faith of the Saints of the Old Testament and is the great foundation of all our present mercies All these things were contained in that New Covenant as such which God here promiseth to make For 1 There was in it a Recapitulation of all Promises of Grace God had not made any promise any intimation of his Love or Grace unto the Church in general nor unto any particular Believer but he brought it all into this Covenant so as that they should be esteemed all and every one of them to be given and spoken unto every individual person that hath an interest in this Covenant Hence all the Promises made unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob with all the other Patriarchs and the Oath of God whereby they were confirmed are all of them made unto us and do belong unto us no less than they did unto them to whom they were first given if we are made partakers of this Covenant Hereof the Apostle gives an instance in the singular promise made unto Joshua which he applies unto Believers Chap. 13. 5. There was nothing of love nor grace in any of them but was gathered up into this Covenant 2 The actual exhibition of Christ in the flesh belonged unto this Promise of making a New Covenant for without it it could not have been made This was the desire of all the Faithful from the foundation of the world this they longed after and fervently prayed for continually And the prospect of it was the sole ground of their joy and consolation Abraham saw his day and rejoiced This was the great Priviledge which God granted unto them that walked uprightly before him such an one saith he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the land that is very far off Isa. 33. 16 17. That prospect they had by faith of the King of Saints in his beauty and glory though yet at a great distance was their relief and their reward in their sincere Obedience And those who understand not the glory of this Priviledge of the New Covenant in the Incarnation of the Son of God or his exhibition in the flesh wherein the depths of the counsels and wisdom of God in the way of grace mercy and love opened themselves unto the Church are strangers unto the things of God 3 It was confirmed and ratified by the death and bloodshedding of Christ and therefore included in it the whole work of his Mediation This is the spring of the life of the Church and until it was opened great darkness was upon the minds of Believers themselves What peace what assurance what light what joy depend hereon and proceed from it no Tongue can express 4 All Ordinances of Worship do belong hereunto What is the benefit of them what are the advantages which Believers receive by them we must declare when we come to consider that comparison that the Apostle makes between them and the carnal Ordinances of the Law Chap. ix Whereas therefore all these things were contained in the New Covenant as here promised of God it is evident how great was the concernment of the Saints under the Old Testament to have it introduced and how great also ours is in it now it is established 5thly The Author or Maker of this Covenant is expressed in the words as also those with whom it was made The first is included in the Person of the Verb I will make I will make saith the Lord. It is God himself that makes this Covenant and he takes it upon himself so to do He is the principal Party covenanting I will make a Covenant God hath made a Covenant He hath made with me an everlasting Covenant And sundry things are we taught therein 1 The freedom of this Covenant without respect unto any merit worth or condignity in them with whom it is made What God doth he doth freely ex mera gratia voluntate There was no cause without himself for which he should make this Covenant or which should move him so to do And this we are eminently taught in this place where he expresseth no other occasion of his making this Covenant but the Sins of the People in breaking that which he formerly made with them And it is expressed on purpose to declare the free and soveraigns grace the goodness love and mercy which alone were the absolute springs of this Covenant 2 The wisdom of its contrivance The making of any Covenant to be good and useful depends solely on the wisdom and foresight of them by whom it is made Hence men do often make Covenants which they design for their good and advantage but they are so ordered for want of wisdom and foresight that they turn unto their hurt and ruine But there was infinite wisdom in the constitution of this Covenant whence it is and shall be infinitely effective of all the blessed ends of it And they are utterly unacquainted with it who are not affected with an holy admiration of Divine Wisdom in its contrivance A man might comfortably spend his life in the contemplation of it and yet be far enough from finding out the Almighty in it unto perfection Hence is it that it is so Divine a Mystery in all the parts of it which the wisdom of the flesh cannot comprehend Nor without a due consideration of the infinite wisdom of God in the contrivance of it can we have any true or real conceptions about it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã profane unsanctified minds can have no insight into this effect of Divine wisdom 3 It was God alone who could prepare and provide a Surety for this Covenant considering the necessity there was of a Surety in this Covenant seeing no Covenant between God and man could be firm and stable without one by reason of our weakness and mutability And considering of what a nature this Surety must be even God and man in one person it is evident that God himself alone must make this Covenant And the provision of this Surety doth contain in it the glorious manifestation of all the Divine Excellencies beyond any act or work of God whatever 4 There is in this Covenant a soveraign Law of Divine Worship wherein the Church is consummated or brought into the most perfect estate whereof in this world it is capable and established for ever This Law could be given by God alone 5 There is ascribed unto this Covenant such an efficacy of grace as nothing but Almighty Power can make good and accomplish The grace here mentioned in the promises of it directs us immediately unto its Author For who else but God can write the Divine Law in our hearts and pardon
all our sins The Sanctification or Renovation of our Natures and the Justification of our Persons being promised herein seeing infinite power and grace are required unto them He alone must make this Covenant with whom all power and grace do dwell God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God also unto thee O Lord belongeth mercy Psal. 62. 11 12. 6 The Reward promised in this Covenant is God himself I am thy Reward And who but God can ordain himself to be our Reward Ob. All the efficacy and glory of the New Covenant do originally arise from and are resolved into the Author and Supreme Cause of it which is God himself And we might consider unto the encouragement of our Faith and the strengthning of our consolation 1 His infinite condescension to make and enter into Covenant with poor lost fallen sinful man This no heart can fully conceive no tongue can express only we live in hope to have yet a more clear prospect of it and to have an holy admiration of it unto Eternity 2 His wisdom goodness and grace in the nature of that Covenant which he hath condescended to make and enter into The first Covenant he made with us in Adam which we brake was in itself good holy righteous and just it must be so because it was also made by him But there was no provision made in it absolutely to preserve us from that woful disobedience and transgression which would make it void and frustrate all the holy and blessed ends of it Nor was God obliged so to preserve us having furnished us with a sufficiency of ability for our own preservation so as we could no way fall but by a wilful Apostasie from him But this Covenant is of that nature as that the grace administred in it shall effectually preserve all the Covenanters unto the end and secure unto them all the benefits of it For 3 His power and faithfulness are engaged unto the accomplishment of all the Promises of it And these Promises do contain every thing that is spiritually and eternally good or desirable unto us O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth How glorious art thou in the ways of thy grace towards poor sinful Creatures who had destroyed themselves And 4 He hath made no created good but himself only to be our Reward Secondly The Persons with whom this Covenant is made are also expressed The House of Israel and the House of Judah Long before the giving of this Promise that People were divided into two parts The one of them in way of distinction from the other retained the name of Israel These were the Ten Tribes which fell off from the House of David under the conduct of Ephraim whence they are often also in the Prophets called by that name The other consisting of the Tribe properly so called with that of Benjamin and the greatest part of Levi took the name of Judah and with them both the Promise and the Church remained in a peculiar manner But whereas they all originally sprang from Abraham who received the Promise and sign of Circumcision for them all and because they were all equally in their Forefather brought into the Bond of the Old Covenant they are here mentioned distinctly that none of the Seed of Abraham might be excluded from the tender of this Covenant Unto the whole Seed of Abraham according to the flesh it was that the terms and grace of this Covenant was first to be offered So Peter tells them in his first Sermon That the Promise was unto them and their Children who were there present that is the House of Judah and to them that are afar off that is the House of Israel in their dispersions Acts 2. 39. So again he expresseth the order of the dispensation of this Covenant with respect to the Promise made to Abraham Acts 3. 25 26. Ye are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying unto Abraham and in thy Seed shall all the Kindreds of the earth be blessed unto you first God having raised his Son Jesus sent him to bless you namely in the preaching of the Gospel So our Apostle in his Sermon unto them affirmed that it was necessary that the Word should be first spoken unto them Acts 13. 46. And this was all the Priviledge that was now left unto them For the Partition-wall was now broken down and all Obstacles against the Gentiles taken out of the way Wherefore this House of Israel and of Judah may be considered two ways 1 As that People were the whole entire Posterity of Abraham 2 As they were typical and mystically significant of the whole Church of God Hence alone it is that the Promises of Grace under the Old Testament are given unto the Church under those names because they were Types of them who should really and effectually be made Partakers of them In the first sense God made this Covenant with them and this on sundry accounts 1 Because He in and through whom alone it was to be established and made effectual was to be brought forth amongst them of the Seed of Abraham as the Apostle plainly declares Acts 2. 25. 2 Because all things that belonged unto the Ratification of it were to be transacted amongst them 3 Because in the outward dispensation of it the terms and grace of it was first in the counsel of God to be tendred unto them 4 Because by them by the Ministry of men of their Posterity the dispensation of it was to be carried unto all Nations as they were to be blessed in the Seed of Abraham which was done by the Apostles and other Disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Law of the Redeemer went forth from Sion By this means the Covenant was confirmed with many of them for one week before the calling of the Gentiles Dan. 9. 27. And because these things belonged equally unto them all mention is made distinctly of the House of Israel and the House of Judah For the House of Judah was at the time of the giving of this Promise in the sole possession of all the Priviledges of the Old Covenant Israel having cut off themselves by their revolt from the House of David being cast out also for their sins amongst the Heathen But God to declare that the Covenant he designed had no respect unto those carnal Priviledges which were then in the possession of Judah alone but only unto the Promise made unto Abraham he equals all his Seed with respect unto the mercy of this Covenant In the second sense The whole Church of elect Believers is intended under these denominations being typified by them These are they alone being one made of twain namely Jews and Gentiles with whom the Covenant is really made and established and unto whom the grace of it is actually communicated For all these with whom this Covenant is made shall as really have the