necessarily follow that Beliefe was the condition of their entring But as this oath proceeded from the wrath of God touching the non-entry of this generation so it was tempered and mingled with mercy for the next generation who were the children of this For concerning those children this generation had provoked God in saying they should be a prey and dye in the wildernesse But God makes it a part of his oath to the contrary that their children should not bee a prey in the wildernesse but they shall enter the land and possesse it Numb 14.30,31 Into my rest The land of Canaan is called a Rest because the Israelites were to reside and rest after their hard servitude for many yeares in Egypt after their tedious pilgrimage and travell through the vast wildernesse where they wandred for the space of forty yeares and after their severall battells with their enemies which they were to conquer and extirpate from that land Although there be another mysticall use of the word in the Chapter following And God calls it his Rest because the people got it neither by their power not by their desert but by Gods meere benefit and donation to them in performance of the promise he had sworn to their forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. For God by his mighty arme and power brought them out of Egypt carried them through the wildernesse and cast out their enemies before them that they might possesse the land not for any righteousnesse in them but for the wickednesse of the Cananites thereby to performe his word sworne to their fathers Deut. 9 4.5.6 12. Take heed brethren Here he begins another Exhortation to diss wade them from Apostacy from the Christian Religion from the which they were declining and departing For the desertion of God must needs be a greater sinne then the tentation of him Take heed i. Bethinke your selves well and have a great care because the matter is very dangerous for when dangers are at hand we use to be heedfull and carefull Lest there be Lest there be now at this time or if it be not yet lest it creep upon you in time to come for Apostacie is as a serpent that will insinuate into your mindes at any time for it is easily introduced by diffidence and obstinacie In any of you Hee meanes not this distributively for any one single person among them but collectively of them all that all might have a care of all and each one of another An evill heart of unbeliefe An evill heart is an intractable or hard heart that is contumacious and refractory against God and his word And then the heart is especially evill and hard when it is incredulous and unbeleeving q.d. a heart so evill that it will not believe In departing from the living God Here he limits the unbeliefe whereof he spake before designing particularly what unbelief he meant For there is a double unbeliefe one of them who never yet did believe in God another of them who cease to believe and turne Apostates to their former beliefe in departing from it and consequently from God Now he departs from God who departs from Christ and his Religion as in the former Covenant he that departed from the Law departed from God himselfe For as he that believes in Christ doth not finally believe in Christ but in God by Christ as Christ himselfe declareth it John 12.44 So on the contrary he that departeth from Christ departs not only finally from Christ but from God who sent him and ordained him to bee our Lord and Saviour And God is called the living God in opposition to the Idols and false gods of the Gentiles who were as destitute of all life and sense as were their images and statues wherein they were worshipped This Epithet is added here to God thereby to strike so much the greater terrour into them that they might never think of departing from so great a God Therefore he saith afterward chapter 10. ver 31. It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God For hee must needs have an infinite power who is the true and living God Yet positively God is called the living God because he not onely lives truely and perpetually but also lives from himselfe and is the fountain of life to others from whom all living things have their life 13. But exhort one another daily Here he shewes the ordinary way and meanes whereby they may remedy this evill heart of unbeliefe namely if they mutually admonish and exhort one another yet that must not be done seldome at distant times but daily that their mutuall exhortations may be fervent and frequent While it is called to day As long as that day lasteth whereof mention is made in the Psalme before cited To day if ye will hear his voyce Whereupon we noted above that in the literall sence it signified that festivall and solemne day wherein the people resorted to the Temple to performe the worship and service of God where also the Law of God used to be read unto them To this festivall day in the mysticall sence doth answer our Christian festivall or time of Grace wherein we are invited to lay hold of eternall salvation whereto by the Gospel the passage is opened unto us While this day or time of the Gospel doth last we must exhort one another from unbeliefe in departing from God Lest any of you be hardned A man is then hardned when hee hath a will not to beleeve the promises of God or not to obey his precepts Through the deceitfulnesse of sinne He shewes the cause of this hardnesse to be sinne and the manner how sinne hardneth by deceaving us For therefore we are refractory to the voyce or word of God because we are deceived bysinne for we are entrapped by the baits and snares of sin by preferring the whispers of sin before the voyce of God for so the Serpent beguiled Eve and so doth sin deceive us still Yea even from the word of God and from his Commandment whence wee should take occasion to obey him thence will sinne take occasion to deceive us Rom. 7.11 14. For we are made partakers of Christ Hee seemes here to answere a tacite objection For these Hebrewes might thinke that these admonitions concerned not them that they need to take heed of unbeliefe and consequently of Gods wrath seeing they did already beleeve in Christ and so were estated in Christian happinesse To this hee answeres by granting that they were already made partakers of Christ that is of that happinesse which Christ bestowes upon the faith full yet upon that condition that they persevere in the faith of Christ to their lives end For this partaking of Christ or Christian happinesse as it referres to this life consisteth in a full right or title to happinesse but this right or title is presently lost when we recede or depart from the faith of Christ If we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end
of Christs dying and his dying for mens salvation was the grace of God the free love and favour of God did bestow this transcendent benefit upon men that Christ should taste death for them For the Author had no sooner made open mention of Christs death but presently he addes the great and weighty causes of it both finall and efficient lest any man should sleight it and think it not a matter of such moment that therefore the Lord of the faithfull should be lesse then the Angels for that end 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things These words are a circumlocution or a designation of God from his two great attributes of being the last end and the first cause of all things and are introduced as a ground whereby to answer this tacit objection Had it not beene farre more convenient and decent That Christ the Lord and King over Gods people though he were not an Angell but a man by nature mortall should not taste of death and other sufferings but alwaies remaine in his happinesse and glory as it became the worth of so great a King To this the Author answers That it wonderfully became God to proceed this way and not to doe otherwise then he did because this way did especially suite to his end and was a most convenient meanes to attaine the end by God intended For God himselfe is the last end of all things for whom all things are and he is also the first efficient of all things from and by whom all things are and therefore it became God who begins all things by himselfe and finisheth them for himselfe to apply such meanes as are most conducent to his end for it becomes the wisest agent to worke most wisely The particle by whom notes not God as an instrumentall or meane cause as if some higher agent did worke by him but supposeth him the principall and prime agent which is alwayes so when it is used of God as an efficient or agent of some thing For that particle referred to God carries with it this force in sence that the thing mentioned was not onely primely invented and decreed by God but by him also brought to issue by effectuall meanes proceeding from himselfe and not borrowed elsewhere This working of God as being sole Author and sole meanes is distinguished by Paul by these two phrases Of him and through him are all things Rom. 11.36 But by this Author both are comprised in this one by whom are all things And the universall particle all things must be restrained to his proper respective subject formerly mentioned namely all things concerning the salvation of the faithfull In bringing many sons unto glory Here is expressed the intention or end whereat God aymed which was to bring many sons unto glory The faithfull are the sons of God in a double spirituall respect 1. Of their spirituall birth because they are regenerate begotten and borne of God by the action of his holy Spirit upon them 2. Of their spirituall right because they are adopted or instituted to be the universall heires of all his estate by having the same right with Christ whereby they become and are called his brethren For in a rurall sence he that hath a right to anothers estate becomes his son And the estate whereto God brings them is glory whereby is meant all that future happinesse and heavenly inheritance which eminently for the honour of it is called glory and which was mystically understood Psal 8.5 and wherewith a little before Christ is said to be crowned And the sons brought to glory are many not as many is a parcell opposed to all but as it is a multitude opposed to few for God hath ordained to bring to glory not a few sons but a great many even many multitudes God is not as man who can have but a few sons and cannot bring each of them to all his estate but God hath many multitudes of sons and yet will bring each of them to glory even to all his whole estate And therefore no marvaile if for so many sons sake God would not spare their Captaine whom he might have spared partly though not wholly had their number beene but few To make the Captaine of their salvation perfect through sufferings Here is expressed the meane whereby God wrought his end in bringing a multitude of sons to glory namely by giving them a Captaine and perfecting him through sufferings For seeing God hath so many sons or rather so many multitudes therefore they being so great an army required a Captaine Now Christ is the Captaine or in moderne language the Generall over the army of the faithfull in two respects 1. By leading them in their journey going before them in all their troubles and afflictions 2. By governing them as their head and Lord to command over them for in an Army the Generall doth both lead and governe it And he is the Captaine of salvation to the faithfull because he leads and governes them in their journey to salvation that is to the eternall glory wherewith himselfe is crowned as before which to them is salvation because thereby they are safe not only from destruction but from all affliction and all other evils And because Christ is their captain by whom God brings them to salvation by whom God saves them from death therefore Christ is called and is their Saviour And Christ their captaine passed thorow sufferings whereby is meant death especially a violent death comprising also all the miseries and evils that do precede and accompany it through all which sufferings Christ passed which therefore are called and are his passion And by these sufferings Christ was made perfect His mortality was finished and ended and he being translated to immortality was crowned with eternall glory and honour as before which was his ultimate consummation and finall perfection wherein nothing was wanting to him that might accrue to his supreme happinesse Now seeing therefore that this journey to salvation leads for the most part through divers calamities and afflictions through death and a violent death did it not become the wisedome of God that the leader or captaine in this journey should passe through divers sufferings and death yea a violent death before he could penetrate and arrive at the mark of eternall salvation that by his example hee might teach us that this so rough and craggie way which seemes to precipate men into eternall destruction should lead to the highest tower of eternall salvation by finishing our mortality and perfecting us into immortalitie And did it not become the wisdome of God that he into whose hand God had put the salvation of all his sons and whom he would ordaine for their high Priest should in all things be made like unto his brethren and taste of the same cup of sufferings with them that being himselfe acquainted with sufferings he might learne to succour them in theirs 11 For both he
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Here he shewes the great alliance betweene Christ and Christians and what good cause there is why not onely Christ but also the faithfull are stiled by the name of the sonnes of God seeing Christ and they have the same parentage and come as it were from one stocke And he seems to deliver it as a generall rule that the sanctifier and sanctified are all of one i. draw their originall from one person as procreated from one and the same Father To sanctifie is to expiate or purge away sinne and to be sanctified is to have their sinnes expiated or purged away for as sinne doth pollute and prophane us so Expiation doth sanctifie and hallow us And in this sence the word sanctified is often taken in Scripture especially by this Author Now Christ is he that doth sanctifie for hee doth expiate or purge away our sinnes and the faithfull are they that are sanctified for by Christ their sinnes are expiated or purged away And therefore Christ and the faithfull are all of one linage and parentage for hee and they draw their originall from one person even from God who is the common Father to them both and consequently Christ and the faithfull make up betweene themselves but as it were one nation or one people under God and consequently againe he and they are brethren one to another An example hereof was under the Law among the Hebrews to whom this Author writes and to whom therefore this rule of union and fraternitie by meanes of sanctification was the better known For among them the high Priest was he that did sanctifie the people by expiating and purging away their sinnes making atonement to God for them and the people were they who were sanctified by being expiated and purged from their sinnes And both Priest and people were of the same nation sprung from Jacob who was one common Father to them whereupon they used to call one another brethren In like manner the case stands between Christ who is the high Priest to sanctifie and the faithfull who are Gods people to be sanctified as we have already declared it For which cause hee is not ashamed to call them brethren Indeed this cause is very pregnant to make this consequent to follow upon it For seeing that Christ and the faithfull are all of one God as of one common Father therefore they are the brethren of Christ and Christ is not ashamed to call them so for all children proceeding from one common Father are brethren and should not be ashamed to call one another so Indeed the condition of the faithfull is in this life so contemptible and shamefull that Christ might think it a shame to him to have such brethren In which sence this Author saith afterward chap. 11. 16. That God was not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob For how vile are those Patriarks compared to God the Soveraigne Lord of all things especially then being rotted to dust for so many ages before So all Christians how vile and wretched are they how poore contemned and despised insomuch that Christ now so great a King of so great Majestie and glory might justly disdaine to call such creatures his brethren but Christ is not ashamed either to acknowledge them his brethren or to call them by the name of brethren 12. Saying I will declare thy Name unto my brethren in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee By three Testimonies out of Scripture hee proves that Christ is not ashamed to call the faithfull brethren The first Testimony is taken from Psal 22.22 The literall sence is David was King over the people of Israel yet hee calls them his brethren and when God had saved him from death he professeth to praise God in their company in the midst of the Congregation or assemby The mysticall sence is Christ is a King over the faithfull yet hee calls the faithfull his brethren and when God had raised and saved him from death he appeared to his disciples where they were congregated and in the middest of their assembly he really declared the power of God in raising him from the dead and with out all doubt did celebrate the Name of God with words of praise and thanksgiving For hence it is we read John 20.17 That Christ after his Resurrection willed Mary to goe unto his brethren and say of him I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God In which words he gives the reason why he calls them his brethren namely because he and they had one common God and Father 13 And againe I will put my trust in him The second Testimony to prove the former point is taken as I conceive out of Psal 91.2 because that Psalme is so frequently applyed to Christ though this testimony be extant in severall other places The literall sence David makes God his God and confidence to put his trust in him and persevering will put his trust in him The literall sence Christ in like manner made God his God and confidence to trust in him and persevered to trust in him For before his Resurrection when he hanged on the Crosse he said My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me Which words argue no despaire but a confident and persevering trust in God that though God did seeme to forsake him yet he should be his God and hee would trust in him Yea the Priests and Scribes mocked at his confidence and trust in God Matth. 27.43 And after his Resurrection he calls God his God in the place precited Joh. 20.17 But now the Quere will be what this makes to the purpose of proving the faithfull to be the brethren of Christ The answer is It proves it directly though not immediatly For seeing Christ and the faithfull have God for their God and for their confidence to put their trust in him therefore he and the faithfull are of one i. are confidents and dependents upon one and the same God and Father and by means of that they must needs be brethren as was before concluded upon verse 11. So this testimony proves their unitie in God and their unity in God proves their fraternity betweene themselves For when the first truth is the reason of the second it is also the reason of all other truths whereof the second is the reason And again Behold I and the children which God hath given me The third Testimony to prove the former point taken from Esai 8.18 The literall sence God had given the Prophet children and he and they were brethren in this that they were to be for signes and wonders and were so appointed to be from God The mysticall sence Christ is the Sonne of God and the faithfull are the children of God Gods post-nati after Christ and therefore are the brethren of Christ And God hath given them unto Christ by bringing them to beleeve in Christ and
words of the Psalme wherein God calls this rest his rest For the Rest proper to God himselfe wherewith he himselfe rested is by a far better title called the Rest of God then that whereof God was only the donor such as was the Rest of the Israelites in the land of Canaan Not that this rest proper to God is numerically the very same with that future rest which God hath promised us but because generically it is a Rest of the same kinde For as Gods Rest was a perpetuall Rest in resting from his workes for ever so shall our Rest bee perpetuall in resting for ever from all our labours and troubles wherein we shall have an eternall festivall 4. For he spake in a certaine place of the seventh day Here hee shews the reason why he understands that rest of God to be his Rest from his workes which hee had finished from the beginning of the world namely because the Scripture or the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scripture speaketh in that manner of the seventh day as Gen. 2 2. and Exod 20.11 And God did rest the seventh day from all his works In these words wee have shewed us the Rest of God neither in the whole Scripture to which only we must look here is mentioned or named any other rest of God whereof the people should come to bee partakers 5. And in this place againe If they shall enter into my rest q d. Wherefore seeing here againe in these words of the Psalme there is mention made of Gods rest whereof Gods people shall partake therefore with good reason in a genuine and mysticall sense doe we understand it of that only rest of God specified in the Scripture But that this rest also belongs unto the people the very festivall and rest of the Sabbath commanded to Gods people is a clear argument wherein there is not only a commemoration of Gods rest past but also a Representation of the Rest of Gods people to come Whereof we shall speake further at the ninth verse following 6. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein After he had shewed that by the words of the Psalme in a mysticall sense we must understand the proper rest of God or that wherein God himselfe rested now he proceeds on to shew that that rest of God mentioned in the words of the Psalme doth appertaine unto us and that a passage therto is opened unto us And first he layes certain grounds for this doctrine and then removes the obstacles that may seem against it The first ground is That some must enter into the rest 2. That they to whom it was first proposed and promised entered not into it For from these two grounds it will follow That some other after that time must enter it But because it might be objected That though those Israelites who came our of Egypt entered not that rest yet their children entred it by the conduct of Josuah their Captaine And therefore it cannot bee concluded that Christians are they that shall enter it This Objection or rather Exception hee dissolves by shewing that in those words of the Psalme whereof he yet treats for some severall ages after the Israelites were possessed of the land of Canaan there is another time appointed wherein an entrance into Gods Rest was to be opened whence it followes that by the conduct of Joshuah Gods people have not yet attained the true rest Whereupon the Author at length concludes That as yet there remaines a Sabbatisme or rest for the people of God This being done he repeats the exhortation begun at the beginning of this Chapter and so returnes to the point from whence he had digressed This is the summe of all that is said unto the end of the 11 verse Now let us consider the severall words in order That some must enter therein Seeing it is the will and good pleasure of God that a passage should be open to that rest and that some should enter into it for this the Author supposeth as a thing well knowne and no way doubtfull For that those first people that fell in the wildernesse were by their owne fault excluded from it this nothing derogates from Gods promise whereby he assured this rest by oath upon the posterity of Abraham to be fulfilled in other persons better and more worthy then those first that failed of it But under the cover of carnall promises and an earthly rest there lay hidden spirituall promises of an heavenly rest pertaining to the spirituall seed of Abraham And the entrance of the Israelites into that earthly rest obtained by the conduct of Josuah what is it else but a type and shadow of Christians future entrance into a heavenly rest by the conduct of Jesus Christ And they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbeliefe First preached in the originall they that had the first good message for the entring of it This is the other point that he confirmes and by occasion whereof the Holy Ghost leaves us the following admonition To day if ye will heare his voice harden not your hearts For because those first of our fathers to whom God had sent the message by Moses for the entring of that rest deserved by their diffidence and disobedience to be excluded from it therefore the Holy Ghost hath in these words appointed to their posterity another day or time wherein they may and must ente into Gods rest and withall exhorts them to it lest following the like disobedience to their forefathers they incur a like issue of their impiety 7. Againe he limiteth a certaine day This is very good cause why another day should be limited for enterance into Gods rest if some must enter it at all and they who were first invited entered it not For if either none were to enter it or some had already entered it then there were no necessity why another day or time should be limited or appointed for entering it But in these words of the Psalm that the holy Ghost in a mysticall sence shewes there is such a day limited which pertains to the times of the Messias these following arguments declare 1. Because by these words the people are admonished to shunne the example of their forefathers that came out of Egypt that they may not be like them in their sin But their forefathers sin was chiefly this that they would not rest in Gods promises for their enterance into his rest Therefore if wee must truly be either like or unlike to them wee also must have Gods promise for our entrance into Gods rest and therefore this day here is limited unto us for our entrance into it 2. Because in this Psalme is proposed to the people the judgement or punishment of God whereinto their fathers fell that they being terrified thereby and fearing the like would not imitake their fathers But that punishment was a rejection from entrance into Gods rest which penaltie no man can incurre but he that hath
had first a power to enter it and was thereto invited Seeing therefore that in these words of the holy Ghost the people are admonished to avoid that punishment it is consonant to reason that a day or time of entrance should be limited to them that we at this day might do what anciently our fathers would not But that this Psalme pertaineth also to the times of the Messias this is an argument That it clearly appears there is a respect therein to some solemn and seltivall time wherein the people were accustomed to assemble in the temple of God and employ themselves about his worship for this is plaine from the words of the people cohorting one another to praise God and from the word to day which the holy Ghost useth All which seeme not to note out some common day but some notable day deputed for the worship and service of God especially for the hearing of his word or voice such as were the festivall and solemne dayes But what day is more solemne what time more festivall what greater celebrity and concourse of people then that which in the times of the Messias was to be and was of all expected From these considerations therefore it may well be collected That by those words of the holy Ghost in a mysticall sence the people are warned to open a ready eare to the voyce of God who in his due time will call and invite them to his true and heavenly rest by the Messias which their forefathers would not doe when they heard Gods voyce promising them the earthly rest by Moses In the literall sence this Psalme pertained to the Israelites who lived before the times of Christ wherein they were admonished that upon the day when they were to heare the Law of God they should be obedient unto him lest following the disobedience of their forefathers they should be debarred from Gods rest or otherwise punished and plagued of God But who sees not that this sence wherein the sinne and punishment are made of one kinde doth better square with it then that wherein both of them are made of a diverse kinde Aster the Author had shewed that God had limited another day for entrance into his rest lest any man should take this day to be that day wherein God granted the children of those fathers a power to enter into the land of Canaan by the conduct of Joshua therefore the Author inserts these words Saying in David To day after so long a time He saith the holy Ghost limiteth this day in David i. speaking it by David After so long a time namely wherein God had debarred those fathers from enterance by reason of their unbelief and admitted their children to it To day if ye will heare his voice harden not your hearts Whence it appeares that here is not appointed a day for enterance into the land of Canaan neither is thae enterance here aymed at For David lived many ages after the enterance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan yea in the time of his reigne the Israelites did most entirely possesse it and flourish in it Seeing therefore the day of entering into Gods rest cannot be understood of the earthly rest which the people obtained by Joshua therefore there must needs be another rest besides that earthly rest which yet remaines to the people of God and a rest of far greater perfection 8. For if Iesus had given them rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another day Joshua is called Jesus by the 70. Interpreters and by other Greeke writers for both those names signifie the same thing namely Saviour and they differ onely in dialect Had given them rest Joshua did give them possession in the land of Cannan and thereby rest yet not that perfect rest that was yet remaining for Gods people He would not afterward have spoken of another day If Joshua had given them a perfect rest beyond which there was none further to be expected then certainly the holy Ghost after the people once entered and seated there would not have spoken of another day wherein the people must enter into his rest 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God From the former passages he concludes that there remaines for the people of God another rest after the rest obtained in Canaan for the happy state of Gods people doth not stay at that earthly rest This rest hee calls not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by the word he used hitherto but hee calls it a Sabbatisme thereby to make us understand that he had respect to the seventh dayes rest wherein God himself rested and commanded the Israelites to rest in memory of it and was therefore distinguished by the name of Sabbath which signifies rest also and also further to the teach us what kinde of rest remaineth to the people of God namely a Sabbaticall rest i. a rest like to that wherewith God himselfe rested whereof the festivall Sabbath of the seventh day is a most slender shadow for therein the Israelites rested from their cares and labours after and during their earthly rest given them by Joshua 10. For he that is entered into his rest By these words hee proves that there remaines to us a Sabbatisme i. such a rest as is denominated from the seventh dayes rest in Commemoration and Representation whereof the perpetuall observation of the weekly rest was commanded But this rest consisteth in a cessation from all works as God also ceased from his workes This he proves from this reason because we must enter into Gods rest as appeares by the words of the Psalme But to enter into Gods rest what is it else but to rest after the same manner that God rested and kept the Sabbath He also hath rested from his own works as God did from his Hath rested is an Hebraisme for doth rest for the Hebrews many times put the tense praeter for the future When Joshua had given the Israelites an earthly rest in the land of Canaan they thereby had quiet possession and rested from their enemies and they had a Sabbath also to rest from their labours but their Sabbath was not continuall and daily but weekly onely upon the seventh day of it for the first six dayes of the week they rested not but followed their labours so their Sabbatisme was not a totall and finall rest from labours but their labours were to returne upon them after one dayes rest in a weeke But the Sabbatisme that is after the image of Gods rest is a totall and finall rest from all labours never to be wearied with labour or work any more but is an eternall festivall that shall never expire For these words may be construed with the word remaineth in the former verse thus Therefore I affirm that there yet remaineth a rest to the people of God because the Israelites did not so rest from their workes as never to be exercised with more labours afterward But he that hath entered
and carrieth his name as we shall declare a little afterward Neither must we thinke that Christ now inhabiting heaven doth to speake properly intercede or pray for us for that were repugnant to his supreme dominion and power over all things Wherefore his Priestly office lyes in this that having power given him of God he takes away the punishment of our sinnes and by all means procures our salvation And therefore this Priestly office of Christ is really the same with his regall office as we said before Hence Christ as a Priest is said to save us perfectly or rather for ever cap. 7.25 he is also said as a Priest to succour us being tempted cap. 2. ult and in this chapter v. 16. Both which actions are regall Hence it is that other holy Writers make no expresse mention of Christs Priest-hood but this Author chap. 3. v. 1. included the regall office of Christ in his Priestly and chap. 5. v. 5. he interprets that testimony of Scripture to be meant of his Priestly office which treats of his regall Christ therefore is called a high Priest not that this office is really diverse from his regall but because of diverse resemblances which Christ hath with the legall high Priest and of diverse properties and circumstances in his regall office upon which that resemblance is grounded and which that Metaphoricall appellation of high Priest doth better insinuate into our mindes then the proper appellation The resemblance lies chiefly in this That Christ having first shed his blood entered into heaven to expiate our sins or to take away the punishments which by our sinnes we had deserved and appeared before God as the legall high Priest having shed the blood of the sacrifice was wont to enter the Tabernacle and there appeare before God to expiate sinnes by taking away the guilt and penalty of them But because the high Priest performed this by bringing the blood of the slain sacrifice into the sight of God and offering it unto him with certaine rites and so interceding for finners with God from whom the forgivenesse of sinnes proceeded Therefore also it is said of Christ who was himselfe slaine like a sacrifice and had shed his owne blood that entring into the heavenly Tabernacle he offered himselfe to God and appearing in his sight intercedeth for us Not that hee doth properly intercede but that as wee said he is like to the high Priest offering and interceding especially because he forgives sinnes not of his own authority but by power received from God whereby he is not unfitly compared with him who obtained forgivenesse of sinnes from God by his intercession From hence in some measure may be gathered those properties and circumstances of Christs regall office which his appellation of high Priest doth better represent unto our mindes then his name of King though this name bee proper to him and the other Metaphoricall His Kingly name shewes not that he saves sinners but his Priestly doth That shewes not that he is a man for God both is and is called our King but this doth for in the beginning of the fifth Chapter the Author shewes That every high Priest is taken from among men and is ordained for men That shewes not that he received his authority and power from another but this doth chap. 5. 4. That shewes not that he is touched with a sense of our miseries this doth That shewes not that he shed his bloud to expiate our sinnes but this doth for a Priest must offer sacrifices for sinnes which cannot be offered without shedding of bloud but Christ shed no bloud besides his owne That shewes not that he shall come forth from heaven but this doth Hence therefore it is that the Holy Ghost gives Christ the name of High Priest A great high Priest Christ is called a great high Priest not only to distinguish him from the ordinary and inferiour Priests but also from the chiefe high Priest under the Law who compared to Christ is very little yea but a small and slender shadow of Christ For he must needs bee a great high Priest indeed who is immortall who expiates all sinnes even the most heynous who hath power in himselfe to take away all punishments of sinne among which eternall death is one who hath right and power to give eternall life to succour men in all their afflictions and to comprise all with the Author in a few words who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens chap. 8. 1. which thing hee intimates also here when he addes in the first place That is passed into the heavens Therefore among other respects he is great because he hath passed through all the heavens By heavens are understood all those regions of heaven which are interposed between God and us namely 1. The whole region of the aire which in the Scripture is called the heaven 2. The heavens wherein are the Sunne the Moon and the rest of the Startes or lights of heaven above all which Christ is now exalted Eph. 3.10 and Heb. 7.26 3. After all these is that heaven which is the habitacle of immortality wherein God resides and whereinto Christ our high Priest hath entered Iesus Here he names this great high Priest and shewes who he is although in this be tacitly contained that which afterward he utters expresly namely that he is touched with a feeling of our infirmities For when he called him Jesus he called him also that man whose sufferings and death were evident But because he intended to set first clearly before our eyes his transcendent excellency therefore that it might better appear how great an high Priest he is he adds in the second place The Son of God He calls him not a Son of God but prefixeth the specifique article calling him the Sonne to shew that he is no ordinary Sonne of God in a vulgar sense but that singular and eminent Sonne of God even he of whom he spake in the first chap. whom God appointed heire of all things who is become far more excellent then the Angels For so it ought to be that the singular and only Sonne of God should obtaine Gods greatest love should be in highest dignity and have right and dominion over all his fathers goods Even him we have for our high Priest Whence it appears that Christ can effect all things with his Father by reason of the great love and authority which he possesseth Wherefore as the Author addeth Let us hold fast our confession Here he infers his admonition that seeing we have so great an high Priest of our Confession therefore let us hold our confession fast i. let us not only imbrace the Christian Religion in our hearts but constantly professe it with our mouths 15. For we have not an high Priest He clears an objection Some man will say What can this great high Priest helpe me when I suffer misery for the confession of my faith who the greater he is
because the Law made men high Priests which have infirmity i. such as can never depose their infirmity which alwayes held them in this condition that after expiation for their sinnes and errors they againe fell into the like sinnes and errors which required againe another expiation But the word of the oath which was since the Law The word containing the oath whereof he spake before vers 20. That oath whereby Christ was ordained Priest was since the Law and therefore the Priesthood of Christ is no way depending or established by the Law For here the word of the oath made since the Law is opposed to the Law Maketh the sonne who is consecrated for evermore Maketh the sonne Priest The sonne is here put eminently for the Sonne of God and opposed to common men who have infirmities as those men had whom the Law made Priests so in many places of Scripture Christ is opposed to the rest of men See Gal. 1.1 and Ephes 2.7 Consecrated for evermore Christ is expiated for evermore not in respect of the time past as of old under the Law under which the Priests by reason of their infirmities were forced to renue their expiation every year But Christ by his one single expiation upon the crosse was freed from all further sufferings and paines for evermore so that hee hath no further need to expiate or offer for them any more for ever And hence againe it appears that Christ was not fully perfectly our high Priest before he was consecrated expiated and perfected for evermore That is before he became immortall The Contents of this seventh Chapter are 1. Melchisedec was a Priest v. 1. Reason 1. Because he blessed men sacerdotally for so he blessed Abraham v. 1. 2. Because he received tithes for Abraham gave him a tenth v. 2. 2. Melchisedec was a singular Priest v. 3. Reason 1. Because there were no more Priests of his order for he was without father or mother without predecessour or successour v. 2. 2. Because he was a perpetuall Priest for he had neither beginning of dayes nor end of life but remained a Priest continually v. eod 3. Melchisedec was greater then Abraham v. 1. Reason 1. Because he blessed Abraham sacerdotally v. eod 2. Because he received tithes from Abraham v. 2. 3. Because he was in a manner an eternall person that had no parentage neither beginning of dayes nor end of life 4. Melchisedec was greater then the Leviticall Priests v. 5. Reason 1. Because he blessed them in Abraham who had the promises of them that they should be his seed v. 6. 2. Because he tithed them in tithing Abraham for they were then in the loynes of Abraham v. 5. 9. 10. 3. Because he was a singular and an eternall Priest but they were many and mortall for they dyed and succeeded one another v. 8. 5. Christ is not a Priest after the order of Aaron v. 11. Reason 1. Because Christ sprang not from the tribe of Levi as Aaron did but from Juda another tribe v. 13. 14. 2. Because Christ was not ordained by vertue of any carnall law that respected his birth and parentage as Aaron and his successours were v. 16. 3. Because Christ was made with an oath to make his Priesthood immutable and irrevocable but they without an oath v. 20. 21. 4. Because Christ was a singular and eternall Priest whose Priesthood is unchangeable but they were many and mortall and their Priesthood transitory changing upon death from one person to another v. 23 24. 5. Because Christ is in a divine and blessed state for he is inviolable unharmable undefileable seperate from sinners and seated in heaven They had not the substance of this state but only some shadow of it v. 26. 6. Because Christ needed but one offering for himselfe whereby to expiate and put off his infirmities for ever they needed yearly a new expiation for their infirmities v. 27 28. 6. Christ is a Priest after the order of Melchisedec chap. 6. v. ult Reason 1. Because Christ is a Royall Priest both a King and a Priest as Melchisedec was v. 1. 2. Because Christ is a singular Priest having no other Priest after his order but himselfe for he was without predecessour and successour as Melchisedec was v. 3. 3. Because Christ is an eternall Priest who liveth for ever as Melchisedec is said to have done 7. The Leviticall Priesthood is expired v. 11. Reason 1. Because Christ another Priest is raised up who is not after Aarons order v. eod 2. Because the Priesthood is translated from the tribe of Levi upon whom the Law had setled it v. 13 14. 3. Because that Priesthood was ruled by a carnall law with respect to the birth life and death of the Priest v. 16. 4. Because it made no perfect expiation for sinnes for thereto it was weake and unprofitable v. 18 19. 8. The Leviticall Law is expired v. 12. Reason 1. Because that Priesthood is abrogate and changed v. eod 2. Because the commandements and precepts of it were carnall touching the line the birth and death of Priests touching washings of the flesh of men and sacrificing the flesh of beasts v. 16. 3. Because it made no perfect expiation for sin but to that effect was weake and unprofitable CHAPTER VIII 1. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the summe Wee have such an high Priest Hee had before spoken many things concerning Christ our high Priest both for his quality what manner of person hee is and for his dignity how farre hee exceedeth the legall Priests Now being partly to adde something further and partly to repeat something formerly spoken he calles this repetition the summe of what hee had spoken Now the summe may signifie either the breviat of what hee had spoken or else the maine head and principall point which last sense is most agreeable to this place q.d. Of all those things which have been or may bee spoken concerning Christ our high Priest the main head or principall point is this That we have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand c. Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens Of these words we treated chap. 1.3 And by them is signified unto us so great a dignity and Majesty in Christ our high Priest that there was scarce extant any shadow of it in the ancient legall Priests seeing none of them did ever sit at the right hand of that throne which was placed in the oracle of the Sanctuary namely of the Mercy-seat or covering of the Arke which was all over shadowed by the wings of the Cherubines and called the Throne of God whereupon God was said to sit between the Cherubines But all those legall high Priests when they entred into the oracle or most holy place of the Sanctuary were forced to stand before the Arke and so before the Mercy-seat upon it But Christ is so great an high Priest that he sits on
gifts and sacrifices and incense are commonly termed the services of the Sanctuary See Exod. 35.19,21,24 and Numb 4.4,19,24,27 and Numb 8.11,15,22,24,25 and Numb 18.4,6,7,21,23,31 Thus the publike honour of God hath two maine branches namely worship by holy reverences and service by holy actions and each of these againe have their particular kindes under them And in many passages of Scripture these two generals of worship and service are joyned together thereby as well to include all the wayes of honouring God as to exclude all the wayes of honouring Idols and Images See Exod. 20.5 and Deut. 4.19 and Deut. 8.19 and Deut. 11.16 and Deut. 30.17 and 1 Sam. 1.3 and 2 King 17.36 and Jer. 13.10 and Mat. 4.10 And we are to note that the worship of God is in a manner determined by the Law of nature for it is generally the same in all Ages and among all Nations who before under and since the Law have worshipped God with gestures of holy reverences almost alike so that God hath prescribed no particular ordinances to regulate how we should honour him in respect of worship because the light of nature doth sufficiently instruct us that this is to be done with most humble lowly and reverent gestures But for the service of God God hath made especiall provision by divers particular Ordinances under the first Covenant for therein are severall Laws and Precepts for all the severall services of the Sanctuary how the offerings of incense gifts and sacrifices should be performed For men must not serve God after their owne will and pleasure but after his seeing service must not be done after the servants pleasure but after the Lords pleasure to whom the service is done But now that first Covenant being abrogated the divine services thereunto appropriated are also abrogated And we' are further to note that when these two words of worship and service are not conjoyned in one sentence but either of them is put singly alone then many times it is ampliated and extended so generally as to signifie the whole honouring of God and to include the other for we finde worship put for it selfe and service and service for it selfe and worship And many times they are interchanged and by a Metonymie of the adjunct either is put for the other as here though the originall be latria which is properly worship yet it is here put for service and therefore rightly so translated for the Ordinances of the first Covenant prescribed nothing for divine worship but only for divine service Hence manifestly appears the true and proper difference between latria and doulia whereof the first properly signifieth worship and the other service yet both are honour and when these honours are divine for they may be used humanely and civilly seeing honourable reverences and honourable services may be due to a Land-lord by tenure of a Fee then they are so proper unto God that divinely they cannot bee communicated either to Saints or Angels And they are so concurrent or connexed each with other that the right of the one cannot be separated from the other but to what person soever the one is due to him the other is due also so that if we grant unto the Saints or Angels cultum douliae i. divine service wee must also necessarily grant them cultum latriae i. divine worship Neither can divine service be performed without divine worship for then the service is without reverence seeing worship is nothing else but that reverence which is used at or during our service And a worldly Sanctuary A Sanctuary is a divine or holy place where divine and holy honours are to bee done where divine worship and divine service are by divine ordinance to bee performed And the legall Sanctuary under the first Covenant is called a worldly Sanctuary because it was seated in this present world and stood in opposition to the Sanctuary of the world to come whereof it was a figure and a shadow So that by worldly Sanctuary is properly meant a temporary and earthly Sanctuary whereas the other is eternall and heavenly 2. For there was a Tabernacle made Having specified two principall things contained in the first Covenant namely Ordinances for divine service and a worldly Tabernacle he severally explicates these shewing the defects of both but he begins first with that which hee named last to wit the Tabernacle for Orders were first for the erecting of the Tabernacle before any Ordinances were prescribed for the services of it For the materialls frame and coverings of the Tabernacle see Exod. 26. The first wherein was the candlesticke and the table and the shew-bread The Tabernacle was but one single edifice for the fabrick or frame of it yet there were in it two partitions divided by a rich hanging called the second vaile in opposition to the first vaile at the doore of the Tabernacle In the first of these partitions which for distinction from the inward partition is here called the first Tabernacle and first for entrance onely not for dignity was the Candlestick whose matter frame parts and use are described Exod. 25.31 c. and the table whose matter frame measures and parts are described Exod. 25.23 c. and the shew bread which were twelve flat loaves or cakes set upon the table in two rowes with frankincense and changed every Sabbath whereof see the making Levit. 24.5 Which is called the Sanctuary This first partition of the Sanctuary was for distinctions sake from the other called the Sanctuary or holy place 3. And after the second vaile the Tabernacle which is called the holiest of all That partition or roome of the Tabernacle which was inmost and separated from the outward partition or room by the second vail was called the Oracle or the most holy place The Hebrews called it the holy of holies for because their language hath no superlatives therefore they used to expresse a superlative sense by a repetition of positives 4. Which had the golden censer The golden Altar because the use of it was for incense to bee burnt upon it is called here the golden censer So that for the frame or fashion of it it was an Altar and for the use of it a censer For the matter form and measures of it see Exod 30.1 This altar or censer was indeed in the fust Tabernacle but because it was placed close up to the vaile which parted the second Tabernacle from the first and the insense burnt thereon was principally to perfume the second or inmost roome therefore the Author attributes it to the second or inmost roome of the Tabernacle For we read nothing either in the bookes of Moses or else where that besides that altar of incense there was any other censer in the oracle or most holy place Neither can it stand with reason there should bee any for it was not lawfull for the Priest to enter into the oracle or most holy place without burning incense before he entred and therefore the altar
or censer whereon he was first to burne incense must needs bee without the oracle or else he could not first come at it And the arke of the Covenant overlaid round about with gold The Arke was a strong chest or coffer the matter forme and measures whereof see Exod. 25.10 This was called the Arke of the Covenant for the use of it which was to inclose the tables wherein the first Covenant was written Wherein was the golden pot that had Manna Wherein must be referred to the Arke as appears by the beginning of the next verse for in this verse the Author would shew what was in the Arke and in the next what was over it This pot of Manna was gathered before the building of the Tabernacle and commanded to be laid up before the Testimony there to be kept when the Tabernacle should be built See Ex. 16.33.34 And Aarons rod that budded Concerning Aarons rod how it budded and upon what occasion and for what purpose it did so See Num. 17. And the tables of the Covenant There were severall parcels of the old Covenant for there were the tables of the Covenant which the Lord wrote with his owne finger in stone containing the Decalog and there was the booke of the Covenant which Moses wrote and read in the audience of the people and sprinkled it with bloud when the Covenant was confirmed with a solemne sacrifice See Exod. 24.4 and afterward in this Chapter vers 19. Now wee finde none but the tables of the Covenant to bee laid up in the Arke yet not those tables that were first written for they were broken upon the indignation which Moses had at the worshipping of the golden Calfe but the tables written afterward were there reserved But how could the pot of Manna and Aarons rod bee in the Arke when wee read expresly that nothing was in the Arke save the two tables of stone 1 King 8.9 and 2 Chron. 5.10 The Answer is Either wee must say that in successe of time the pot of Manna and Aarons rod came to bee put into the Arke which before were not so Or wee must say that the particle In here must be a little extended in sense to include those things that were adjacent to the Arke being neare or about it So John is said to baptise in Bethabara because he baptised neare or about it John 1.28 So Joshua is said to be in Jericho when he was by or neare it Josh 5.13 And in this sense the Author first expresseth those things which were by or neare the Arke as the pot of Manna and Aarons tod then the things in the Arke as the tables of the Covenant And lastly in the following verse the things over the Arke as the Cherubims And this might happily bee the cause why under the particle in hee would first comprise the things by the. Arke before those in it that he might make use of this gradation 5. And over it the Cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-seate The Cherubims were two Images of solid gold fashioned like winged men whose wings did over shadow the Mercy-seate being one at the one end of it and the other at the other having their faces looking one towards another Of them see Exod. 25.17 And they were called the Cherubims of glory by an Hebraisme for glorious Cherubims because of their lustre and brightnesse which in Scripture is often called glory The Mercy-seate had two uses one to bee a Cover for the Arke to shut up the Tables of the Covenant the other to represent the seat or throne of God where God would speake with Moses to give answers for the people and to shew himselfe mercifull And the originall word in the Hebrew carries a twofold sence to answer and fit this two-fold use for Capporeth derived from the verbe Caphor which signifies to cover a vessell and to cover sinne which last is the proper act of mercy Therefore though the Hebrew word might have beene simply and fully enough rendred the Cover yet the Septuagint following the other signification of the word have translated Hilasterion i. a Propitiatory or Mercy-seate which distinguisheth this cover from all others as a peculiar use and property of it And it is very consonant to reason that by the ambiguity of the word the Spirit of God would signifie so much Of which we cannot now speake particularly Though each of these particulars concerning the first Covenant might require particular explication and serve highly for advancing the dignity of Christs Priesthood and of the new Covenant yet the time will not now permit it because our purpose calls us on to other matters 6. Now when these things were thus ordained Having briefly described the Tabernacle and the severall furniture of it now he comes to describe the way of divine service therein which according to the two partitions or roomes of the Tabernacle was twofold whereof he toucheth the first in this verse and handleth the other in those following The Priests went alwayes into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the service of God The ordinary Priests went onely into the first Tabernacle for none but the high Priest went into the second And into the first they went alwayes that is every day daily for herein they are opposed to the high Priest who went into the second Tabernacle once every yeare The daily services of God accomplished by the Priests in the first Tabernacle were to burne Incense on the golden Censer and to light up or mend the Lamps of the Candlestick c. 7. But into the second went the high Priest alone once every yeare The high Priest went in alone and therefore he onely yet he went not in daily but yearely once every yeare at the solemne fast of Expiation whereof see Levit. 16. Not without bloud which he offered Not without bloud is with bloud and with bloud onely for the high Priest offered in the second Tabernacle nothing else but bloud For he must enter thither with the bloud of a Bullock and of a Goate and offer it by sprinkling it with his finger upon and before the Mercy-seate seven times Whence it appeares that this offering of the high Priest did not consist in the slaughter of those beasts whose bloud he offered and therefore neither did the offering of Christ answerable thereto whereof the Author treates consist in the death of Christ but by his entrance into heaven after his death Indeed the death of Christ is called an offering and sacrifice yet it is so called for the resemblance of it with the free-will and peace-offerings and therefore especially because it was most gratefull and acceptable to God in which respect also other notable works of piety may be and are called in Scripture offerings and sactifices unto God For himselfe and for the errours of the people Here is a little trajection of the words for the right sence is thus for the errours of himselfe and of the people For in this sacrifice the Priest
enter the holy place of heaven by himselfe For hence afterward at the 14. verse it is said that Christ offered himselfe to God and not his bloud although otherwise the comparison with the expiatory sacrifices seem to require this latter resemblance He entred in once into the holy place The entrance into the most holy place is necessarily required to that sacrifice for the Offering wherein the nature of the sacrifice chiefly consisteth could not be performed before the entrance because it must be made in the holy place by sprinkling upon and before the Mercy-seat Hence it is manifest that the offering and sacrifice of Christ our high Priest was not made upon the Crosse but was performed in heaven and is yet in the performing Into this true holy place of heaven Christ entred but once not often and yearly as the legali high Priest did Having obtained eternall redemption Now hee opposeth the Expiation obtained by the offering or sacrifice of Christ to the old Expiation obtained by the legall Priest By Redemption he understands expiation or deliverance from the guilt of sinnes For to be guilty of sinne and thereupon bound over to death and damnation is a grievous captivity and slavery When he calls this Expiation eternall he tacitly gives a reason why he said before that Christ entred once only into the holy place namely because by his entrance and offering of himselfe he expiated or atoned men for ever as it is said chap. 10.14 Christ therefore obtained an eternall redemption because he hath fully expiated all the sinnes not only past but to come of all men beleeving in him who have lived heretofore or do now live or shall live hereafter to the worlds end So that this expiation doth pertaine to all sinnes of all times and of all men who truly pertaine to Christ But the legall expiation performed yearly every yeare did not extend to all sinnes but only to Ignorances and Infirmities nor to all times not at all to the time future but only to the time past within the circuit of one year nor to all persons but only to those who were then living when the expiation was made and therefore it was not eternall but only annuall The word having obtained must not bee understood preteritively as if Christ had obtained the redemption before he entred but presentively that he had obtained it by and upon his entrance or when he entred then he obtained See what we explicated before concerning indefinite participles Chap. 6. ver 13. 13. For if the bloud Hee confirmes his former assertion That Christ by his one oblation of himselfe hath obtained an eternall expiation for us And that he might compasse this the better he proves by an argument à minori ad majus that Christ hath purged away those sinnes that pollute our consciences For the expurgation of these doth produce this effect that laying aside all sinne we shall serve God ever after in all holinesse and righteousnesse and if we doe this wee shall need no further offering for our sinnes As on the contrary if we finally forsake not our sinnes but after expiation of them relapse into them againe which wee then doe when this expiation doth not so far prevaile with us as to withdraw us from our sinnes then we have need of another offering and sacrifice to obtaine remission of our relapses For it stands not with reason that men should be expiated with one only sacrifice and yet be still enslaved to the same sinnes and be nothing the better for their expiation Therefore either the expiation is prevalent and of force to withdraw men from sinne and make them live holily ever after or else as men alwayes returne to their sinnes so the expiation must be alwayes iterated and then it cannot bring eternall redemption to them It is therefore manifest that the offering of Christ seeing it is but one can really profit no man but him that having received the faith of Christ doth shake off the yoke of sinne and wholly devote himselfe to God to live in a holy course of life ever after Of buls and goats Hee calls those Bulls which in the former verse he called Calves as well for their age being of a middle grouth between Calves and Bullocks in which sense also a Heifer is sometime put for a Cow as by a synecdoche putting either of these indifferently for any beast of the herd as opposed to those of the flocke which were goats or sheep For in the yearly sacrifice for the sinnes of the whole people to which the Authors words refer to speake properly there was no Bull slaine but only an heifer or as our Translation renders it a Bullock for the sins of the Priest and a goat for the sins of the people And this is the reason why the Author joynes these beasts here as likewise he doth it afterward Chap. 10.4 And the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean How the water of seperation was made of the ashes of a burned heifer and sprinkled upon the uncleane see Numb 19. It is not necessary for the concluding of the Authors argument that the ashes of the heifer should be put here for a type of the bloud of Christ for the argument here is not drawn from the type to the antitype unlesse it be accidentally but from termes of disparity and excellency of Christs offering This we therefore note lest any man should thinke it might be gathered from hence that the Author compares this sacrifice of Christ with any other legall sacrifices besides the anniversarye at which the high Priest entered the most holy place Although we willingly acknowledge that those ashes were a type of Christs bloud and a most lively type because those ashes were a kinde of perpetuity and must alwayes bee in a readinesse and had force at any time to cleanse any person sprinkled therewith from his legall uncleannesses of the flesh and this force or effect of it depended not on the pleasure of any man but only from the decree of God alone So the bloud of Christ is a perpetuall standing remedy that hath force and power at any time to cleanse men from the guilt of their sinnes if they be truly sprinkled with it by being washed from the filth of their sinnes i. if they cast them off for the time to come and this force the bloud of Christ hath from the good pleasure of God These ashes are said to sprinkle not efficiently as if the action began at them and they sprinkled themselves but instrumentally because the uncleane was sprinkled with the water wherein they were infused as wee say the sword woundeth because the sword is the instrument wherewith the wound is made Sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh To sanctifie is to cleanse for sanctified is commonly opposed to polluted as polluted and common and promiscuously used is easily polluted and cannot be cleane seeing then a thing is cleane when it is separated from ordinary and
even of the most heynous in them who having tasted the force of that sacrifice do afterward live holily I say all kind of penalties not only of temporall death but of eternall which by force of the law all incurred that had truly and morally sinned For temporall life opposed to temporal death proceeded from the observation of the Law otherwise then eternall life did opposed to eternall death For to attain or preserve temporall life it sufficed to keep the Law taken in an open and literall sease as they call it and to expiate certain offences by certain rites and sacrifices But the latter could no man attaine by force of the Law unlesse a man had kept the precepts of it taken in a mysticall sense i. most fully and perfectly as the Gospell proposeth them For seeing eternall life was not contained in the promises of the Law but in a mysticall sense it was great equity that he who would attaine it by the benefit of the Law should likewise keep the precepts of the Law in a mysticall sense Neither only so but it must be kept exactly and without any sinne so that there should need no sacrifices or expiations For no sacrifices were of such force as to take away the guilt of eternall death and so estate a man in a right to eternall life neither did the Law open any other way to arrive at a plenary justification joyned with the reward of eternall life then by the merit of workes To serve the living God Here is the effect of this Expiation wrought in us by the bloud and offering of Christ For when our conscience doth clearly acknowledge that in respect of God it is freed from all guilt of all sinne even the most grievous and nothing can hinder us but our selves from enjoying the reall effect of our being acquitted from all sinne it comes to passe here by that we must needs have strong motives to carry us on to the worship and service of God and to receive the faith of Christ to the end wee may effectually enjoy so great a blessing and having once enjoyed it never lose it but afterward abstaine from all sinne with all our possible endeavour knowing well that so great a blessing is attained and preserved with true piety Hence it appeares that this purging of our conscience gotten by the bloud of Christ must be so understood in this place that for the reall effect of it it depends upon our duty on our part i. then it begins to have it effect in us when our faith and obedience begins toward God and Christ and is continued by the continuance of our faith and obedience and by constancie and perseverance in faith and godlinesse to the end is at length consummated and doth rest in a full and immutable right to eternall life the effect whereof will most certainly follow in due time For unlesse this effect and complement of our expiation depend reciprocally upon our duty and our duty and will to serve God flowed immediatly from it what one man among a thousand would serve God upon the expiation of his finnes if he knew that without this he could be expiated effectually and released from the guilt of all his sinnes and enjoy a full right to eternall life because therefore this offering of Christ doth withdraw us from sinne and makes us afterward serve the living God hence it comes to passe that Christ doth expiate us by one only offering or that our expiation flowing from the offering and sacrifice of Christ is eternall and lasteth forever For what need the offering be iterated if men once expiated sinne no more For although sometime by error or infirmity the true worshippers of God may offend yet because the offering of Christ doth not so properly intend to expiate such light offences as sinnes that are more heynous as appears by the proper nature of the new Covenant as it stands distinguished from the old therefore the oblation of Christ must not be iterated for our light infirmities and lapses Therefore for the removing of the guilt of such light offences the perpetuall residence of Christ our high Priest in his heavenly Sanctuary and his intercession to his Father for us is abundantly sufficient so that for them he need not shed his bloud againe and after the shedding of it enter into his Sanctuary The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwayes signifie all kind of obedience and service done unto God but chiefly that divine service done to God publikly most properly as hath before been shewed those holy reverences which we perform in the worship of God Yet the Author useth it here by a Metonymie for all divine service that is joyned with the worship of God for worship and service are mutuall adjuncts connexed each to other For so great a benefit of God as the expiation of all our sins should easily move us to perform divine services unto God by praises and thanksgivings and wholly to devote out selves to worship to good a God for then we take courage to approach unto God to worship and serve him and to hope that the honour we do him will not be unacceptable unto him when we feel our conscience clean quiet as purged from all sin Or else the word here is taken by way of Metaphor whereby all good works pleasing unto God and done for his sake are accounted for sacrifices and offerings acceptable to God and that wholy endeavours them may fitly be said to serve God God is here called the living God according to the ordinary phrase of Scripture which notwithstanding in this place wants not an emphasis Not only because hereby the true God is distinguished from all the feigned gods of the Gentiles which because they were nothing but woodden or stony Idols and therefore woodden and stony gods were called vaine and livelesse gods and are opposed to the living God But also to shew the cause why we should worship and serve God and withall the happinesse of those that devote themselves unto him For seeing hee is the living God hee is also the true God who can reward his worshippers and servitors with great benefits and recompence them with fearfull judgments who neglect him To this end Paul writing to the Thessalonians saith Yee are turned from Idols to God to serve the living and true God 1 Thess 1.9 And the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to serve And God is eminently called the living God not only because he truly lives but also because he is the fountaine of life to all other things which do live In which sense sometimes hee alone is said to live or to have life and immortality in himself 15. And for this cause Here the Author confirmes his former assertion by a new argument in that Christ is the Mediatour of the new Testament or that Christ made the New Testament and sealed it with his bloud For this is the nature of
the New Testament as we shewed in the former Chapter to containe the remission of all our sinnes even the most heinous and consequently to be of force to purge our conscience And because it is a Testament therefore it was first to be confirmed by death which here neither can nor must be any other then the death of Christ Whence it is manifest that the death or bloud of Christ as it confirmes the New Testament doth purge our conscience from dead workes The particle and shews that a new argument is alledged and the words for this cause note the finall cause for which Christ died He is the Mediatour of the New Testament Wee now use the word Testament and not Covenant because the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies a Testament and not a Covenant though sacred Writers use it to signifie also a Covenant And the ambiguity of the word did well serve the Author to draw his argument from that which must needs be done in a Testament And to speake a little yet more accurately Testament and Covenant differ but alternly as genus and species For every Testament is a Covenant though not è contra for though the heire doe not covenant with the Testator at the making of the Testament because that may be done altogether without his knowledge which is necessarily required in him that covenanteth Yet he covenants at the validity of the Testament for when the Covenant takes effect by his acceptance of the condition specified in the Testament and by his entrance upon the Inheritance then though before he were free he covenants ex Lege to performe the will of the Testatour So that every Testament at least when it is consummate and valid is a kinde of Covenant and it is the best kinde of Covenant 1. Because it is most solemnely testified by sealing and witnessing from whence it is called a Testament 2. Because it is most preciously confirmed even by death and the death of him that makes it who establisheth his owne deed by his owne death 3. Because it containes an extraordinary benefit in conveying the Testators inheritance and whole estate to the heire And lastly because it proceeds with the greatest freedome in leaving the heire to his liberity whether he will accept of the Inheritance or not Now this New Testament is the last will of God which must stand for ever because it is already confirmed and therefore cannot be revoked But how Christ is the Mediatour of it hath beene partly shewed before chap. 8.6 and is partly to be shewed afterward yet his Mediatorship consisteth chiefly in these two acts first in declaring or publishing it and then in confirming or establishing it by his death as a Testament ought to be That by meane of death for the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance Here is a file of finall causes linked one to another whereof the last end is the obtaining of an eternall inheritance the intermean is the redemption for the transgressions which were under the first Testament the prime Mean to these two former subordinate ends whereby they are successively atrained is death which in a Testament must necessarily intervene Hence we may see that the redemption of transgressions doth properly depend and flow from the New Testament and the death of Christ doth give force and strength to this Testament The word Redemption is put for Expiation as was shewed ver 12. For Expiation is one kinde or sort of Redemption both because the effect of expiation is a delivery and because also the meanes or it whereby it is wrought is an expence for it commonly costeth bloud Hence some Translators in this place render it Expiation But because the word Redemption carries the sense of Expiation therefore it both followes the construction of it and is simply called the redemption of transgressions either for their expiation as wee have said In which sense the Scripture speakes elswhere For Prov 16.6 where the vulgar Latine reads it By truth iniquity is redeemed there our English translation hath it By truth iniquity is purged i. expiated Or for redemption from transgressions For Cicero himselfe in a sense not unlike saith Liberationem culpa for à culpâ And he useth the word Transgressions whereby grievous sinnes are commonly signified to shew us what sinnes chiefly are remitted in the New Testament namely heynous and grievous sinnes for which in the Old Testament there was no expiation allowed but the punishment of death imposed Wherefore he addeth Which were under the first Testament He means which remained in force or could not be expiated or for which no remission was allowed under the Law But hee seems withall to intimate that those grievous sinnes had their being and were wont to bee committed under the Old Testament whereas the New Testament together with their guilt doth wholly take away their being in them who cordially beleeve the promises of it For that this is the force and effect of the New Testament and of the bloud of Christ we have already shewed partly in the eight Chapter and partly here And he mentions not the expiation of transgressions only or grievous sins therfore as if under the New Testament also all lighter sins were not expiated but it is as much as if he had said Yea even of those transgressions under c. For somtimes the Scripture speaketh simply not to exclude other things but to teach us that those other things wherof there might be greater doubt are included which being thoght included much more is it to be thought so of the rest So Psal 25.8 David saith of God That he is good and upright therefore wil he teach sinners in the way i. Yea even sinners and not righteous men only though he will teach them also and much rather for so he presently addes in the verse following The meeke will he guide in judgement and teach his way So Paul Rom. 4.5 saith That God justifieth the ungodly not that he justifieth him onely but that hee is so gracious as to justifie him also Or else the Authour mentions only transgressions or grievous sins to shew that they chiefly are expiated under the new Testament and that this is the proper fruit of the new Testament and of the oblation of Christ But if the guilt of grievous sins be taken away under the new Testament much more must it be true of lighter sinnes Besides grievous sins do much more grieve the conscience then lighter for to lighter sinnes there was some expiation granted in the law whereby men might imagine that God of his infinite goodnes would also release the penalty of eternall death but to the other no expiation was allowed Might receive the promise To receive the promise of eternall inheritance doth in this place signifie to enter the reall possession of the eternall inheritance which was before promised and not to receive the promise
is appointed unto men once to dye He brings a new argument to confirm and illustrate the single or only sacrifice of Christ drawne from a similitude or comparison of the death of Christ with the common law and condition of men who dye but once and not often The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is well rendred by some learned men befalleth as one death befalleth all men For it seems not that the Author intended that this word by it selfe should signifie some divine decree although he thereby excludes it not for this word may have such a latitude of sense as to signifie both that which is appointed unto men by the law of nature and that which by Gods decree is destinated to some particular man In the first particle of these words which speake of death he seems to respect rather what is done by the force and course of nature then what follows by force of Gods decree For that death must bee here understood that is common to all men even to the godly and is temporall because it is that death after which judgement follows which kinde of death is due unto us rather by our naturall condition then destinated to us by force of any divine decree And besides we must understand that the Author speaks not here so much of the necessity of death that men are simply appointed to dye for that gives no helpe to his argument as of the singularity of death in that men dye but once and not twice or more often to the end he might from thence conclude that Christ also must dye but once onely and therefore must offer himselfe but once onely But the singularity of mens death that they dye but once proceeds meerly from nature and depends not from any peculiar decree of God but for a man to dye a second time or more often cannot be but from a peculiar decree of God And therefore by these words nothing else is signified then that one onely death is allotted unto men or that they dye but once only But after this the judgement This indeed depends from Gods decree therefore the word appointed as we said must be taken in his latitude and generally to signifie only a thing whose event is certaine whether it flow from nature it selfe as once to dye or whether it follow upon Gods decree as the future judgement But that judgement doth not so much consist in pronouncing the sentence upon all men both quicke and dead as in executing the sentence already adjudged For this is no humane judgement but a divine for the dispatch whereof there needs no witnesses no prooffes no accusers or advocates no tedious disquisition of the truth For to Christ who is the supreme Judge all things are already evident and he hath already determined who is to be condemned and who to be justified before he doth actually condemne or justifie any one i. either destroyes or saves any one As therefore one death befalles men and after that will come the judgement wherein all shall appeare againe to be judged i. either to be rewarded or punished according to every mans deeds 2 Cor. 5.19 So also Christ once only suffered death that he might once only performe his offering but he shall appeare againe in judgement and shall shew himself to be seen of them that expect him to salvation 28. So Christ was once offered His offering answers to his death not that his offering consisteth in his death for that is untrue as wee have shewed before but because the offering of a creature that hath life cannot bee performed without death And therefore Christ was offered but once because he must dye but once and but one single offering could follow one single death To beare the sinnes of many The end whereto his offering was a meane was to beare the sinnes of many The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beare though it properly signifie to lift or carry something from a lower place to an higher or at least from one place to another yet in this place it simply signifies to take away For things lifted up are first taken away from the place where they were before and things taken or carried away from a man must first be raised and lifted up But in that sinnes are said to be taken away is a metaphor But that the word to beare here doth simply signifie to take away or put away as we have said wee can make it plaine by divers examples extant in the Septuagint see Jof 24.32 and 2 Sam. 21.13 and Ezra 1.11 and Psal 102.24 where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath this sense But in this place this sense is necessary seeing this is the end for which Christ was once offered but the offering of Christ as we have shewed was performed in heaven Whence it follows that this word no way signifies that Christ tooke upon himself the punishment of our sinnes because that cannot be done in heaven seeing heaven is no place for punishment Besides it is most reasonable that these words should have the same sense with the former that Christ appeared to put away sinne seeing these are correspondent one to another and the end of Christs offering is shewed in both But he faith to beare the sinnes of many Not simply of all partly because this benefit for the effect and issue of it pertaines not by Gods purpose promiscuously to all but onely to those that beleeve in Christ and obey him partly because all will not beleeve in Christ and obey him whence it comes to passe that all are not in effect eased from the burden of sinne which notwithstanding in respect of Gods purpose is but in event because all to whom soever God offers his grace and calls both may and ought to beleeve and obey The same also we say for the taking away of sinnes whose end is that men should be no longer addicted to their sinnes for if we respect the event or effect it selfe Christ by his offering hath put away the sins of many onely not of all and thereby hath effected that many and not all doe live holily For in respect of the force and efficacy of Christs offering Christ is to be supposed to have taken away the sinnes themselves and the punishment of sinnes from all men He shall appeare the second time without sinne The second time is in Judgement and the words without sinne may be taken two wayes First as they may signifie without an offering or sacrifice for sin which according to a common use of Scripture is called sinne in which sence this appearance without sin may fitly be opposed to his former appearance with sinne that is with an offering for sin ver 26. And by reason of this opposition it will not seeme amisse to joyne the words by the sacrifice of himselfe with the word appeared unlesse we had rather make this latter part of the verse opposite to the former part that so the going of Christ
and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rams For disobedience is as the sinne of witchcraft and stubbornesse is as wickednesse and Idolatary 1 Sam. 15.22,23 But in the mysticall sense Christ saith absolutely that God had no further will to them and tooke pleasure in them no longer but his will and pleasure was they should be antiquated and abrogated Of this mysticall sense this is a good argument that Christ is here brought in to mention not only sacrifices of thanksgiving which only were pertinent to Davids purpose but also expiatory offerings and sacrifices for sinne whereof if wee respect Davids intent there should here be made no mention For Davids intent was a testification of his thankfulnesse unto God and not an expiation of his sins at that time But because the Holy Ghost would wrap up a mysticke and deep sense in these words therefore the Author doth here specifie and reckon up all kindes of sacrifices and offerings whatsoever which are reduced to three sorts 1. By sacrifice and offering in the fifth verse he seems to understand all offerings eucharistical or of thanksgiving whereof a part went to God as the bloud and the fat part was a Fee to the Priest and the rest returned to him that offered it 2. By burnt offerings in this verse are understood those which were wholly burnt and went wholly to God which are sometime called sacrifices of praise because they were offered wholly in honour of God as he was the Lord Almighty and not by way of speciall thanksgiving for any particular benefit then received from God which was the proper consideration for a sacrifice of thanksgiving 3. By sacrifices for sinne are meant all expiations or offerings to put away the guilt and punishment of ignorances and infirmities for which kinde of sins only those sacrifices were allowed and in the Hebrew are oftentimes called simply sins 7. Then said I Loe I come This word of comming doth shew a mysticall sense For how did David come when hee spake this word in the literall sense Therefore in the literall sense it signifies only Loe I am at hand or I am ready I have prepared my self to do thy will But in the mysticall and proper sense it signifies the appearance of Christ in that future world to execute the will of God In the volume of the booke it is written of me In these words David shews the cause why he is ready to doe the will of God or if ye please the manner and way of his obeying God q. d. I am ready to doe as it is written of me in the volume of the booke or else for so it is written of me that I should doe thy will Therefore in these words we must understand either some particle of likenesse as according or some casuall particle for because or seeing for such particles are oftentimes concealed or silenced But here againe we meet with another difference betweene the Greek translation and the Hebrew text In the Hebrew it is in the volume of the booke which hath a plaine and an open sense for by the booke he eminently understands the booke of the Law which is called a volume because unciently the Law was wont to bee written in skinnes of parchment or velum one glued to another and so rolled up and unrolled in the forme of a Court-role which in Latine is properly called Volumen from the rolling of it and hence bookes are called Volumes A famous Expositor among the Romanists preferres the Greeke reading in this place before the Hebrew and writes that it is a vaine repetition to say in the volume of the booke for that is all one as to say in the booke of the booke This is a vame cavill for all volumes or rolles are not bookes but there are volumes and rolles of many other things besides So that the word booke is fitly added to volume to specifie the differences of volumes We meet with a like phrase Jer. 36.2 But why doth the Greeke translation read it in a Chapter of the Booke The reason may be because the Hebrew word Megillah doth not only signifie a whole booke consisting of many skinnes but also any one single skinne which may containe only some Chapter of the Booke And therefore the Greek Translator conceived that he should not go from the sense of the words if for the whole volume he should put only some part or certain Chapter of it especially because by this means the redundancie in words would seem the lesse or none at all yet some there would seeme to be if he had said the volume and that had been taken to signifie the whole booke Wherefore these words must bee taken as if he had said In a Chapter of the booke namely of the Law it is written of me By which meanes not onely all shew of redundancy is taken away but also a more speciall place is designed where the thing is written that is here spoken Now let us a little enquire what Chapter this might bee Certainly other Chapter it can be none but that wherein the very thing is handled which David said he came to doe i. that David should doe the will of God For wee have said that in these words is shewed the cause why David said hee came to doe Gods will or the manner how hee should doe it But where is it said that David must doe the will of God Namely there where the Kings of Gods people are commanded to doe so which is set downe in the last parcell of the 17. Chapter of Deuteronomy from the 13. verse to the end For David in a peculiar way was ordained of God himselfe to bee the first King over Gods people and the Kingdome was to remaine in his posterity for ever And therefore hee saith that there it is written of him not that it is there written of him by name as David but written of him as a King And here also the Holy Ghost seems to have left us some footstep of a mysticall sense For it might be said of Christ properly that there it is written of him by name for the Holy Ghost doth every where aim chiefly at Christ Hence it appears that they are in an errour who by a Chapter in the Booke understand the beginning of Genesis because as they thinke there it is written of Christ that he created heaven and earth But is there also any thing written of David or of Christ there that hee should doe the will of God But in the 17. Chapter of Deuteronomy before cited among other things which God willed to be observed by the future King of his people this is also delivered ver 18. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a booke out of that which is before the Priests his Levites And it shall be with
any more for they are equall unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection Luke 20.35,36 What is all this else but to be an heire and a citizen of that heavenly countrey and city We see then that a heavenly countrey and city is prepared and ordained for Abraham Isaac and Jacob and therefore why should wee doubt but that the very same is reserved also for all us that are the worshippers and servitors of God which right of ours wee need not stand to evict from divers evidences and dark consequences seeing hereof wee have not only most open and clear promises which to those Patriarchs were never declared but also we know for certain that Christ our head doth now enjoy the possession of that countrey and city This only remaines for us that following the example of those Patriarks and much rather of Christ our Captaine wee should finally carry our selves obedient unto God and extending our hopes beyond our death should doe our utmost endeavour that our life should first fail us before we fail of our faith and allegiance toward God 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac The Author here mentions an example of Abrahams faith which of all other was most illustrious namely his offering up of Isaac the circumstances whereof the Authour doth but lightly touch as a thing sufficiently known and at large described in the sacred Scriptures Offered Abraham offered him not really and actually but which is all one with God purposely with an unchangeable and constant purpose of minde with as much endeavour as lay in his power and proceeding so farre in the action as had not God recalled him the effect undoubtedly had followed Thus he offered him and not onely slew him for the slaughter should have preceded and then the offering must have followed by fire for a burnt-offering for so God had commanded When hee was tryed For of his own election or accord it would never have come into his heart to have sacificed unto God who doth most abhorre crueltie with the bloud of man muchlesse of his owne son unlesse he had beene commanded of God to it And he was commanded to do it not that he should actually perform it but that by his willingnesse to performe it and by obeying Gods Command as farre as in him lay hee should give an assured triall of his faith And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten sonne What a strange fact was this of a strange faith where not only the father offered up his son but his only begotten son and what father was it even he who had received the promises who from the same mouth of God had received the promises of a seed a posterity to be propagated by Isaac and had confidently beleeved it he now received a command to slay Isaac before there was any issue from him Therefore truly here also Abraham may be said to have beleeved in hope against hope that we use the Apostles words speaking of another point of his faith who as a little after we shall shew doubted not to reconcile together two things clashing and crossing one another namely the life and death of the same person because it was God who had spake concerning both We may further adde here other circumstances expressed in the history as that three dayes journey with his sonne to a place assigned him by God with that thoughts and cares shall wee think the soule of the poor father was agitated journying toward the resolved slaughter of his deare and only sonne whom he drew on along with him ignorant of his destined calamity to become a sacrifice and a burnt-offering what spirits were in him may we imagine when upon his assent up that fatall Mount he laid the wood upon his sonne wherewith a fire should be kindled to burne him after his father had slaine him what thought he when his sonne perceiving no sacrifice besides himselfe and marvelling at the matter did gently demand of his father where was the Lambe for the burnt-offering what thought he when seasing upon his sonne with his owne hands expecting no such dealing from so dear a father he bound him and laid him on the Altar upon the wood when he drew his knife and standing over him eyed his throat and stretched forth his heavy hand that shook and trembled with fatherly love which of us all reading and considering all these findes not his soule melting in him yet the invincible faith of Abraham conquered all these And Isaac is called the only begotten sonne of Abraham or as it is in the Hebrew his only sonne not that hee only was his sonne for Ismael also was his sonne but because he was his only sonne by Sarah the true wife of Abraham and because hee was his only beloved sonne that was borne to his parents in their extreme old age by the singular gift and wondrous power of God and because he was to be the only heire of his fathers estate and of Gods promises and because the seed of Abraham was to bee called in him only for the children of Isaac only were to be accounted the true posterity of Abraham And he that received the promises The pronoune he whether we thinke it relative to Isaac or to Abraham which is better yet the sense is the same doth notifie unto us a notable circumstance of this fact that makes the faith of Abraham to appear yet much greater Certainly that faith is very great which is seen and tryed in hard cases as was the offering of an only sonne But how much greater is that faith which staggereth not at such an action as naturally would utterly overthrow it Yet such was this fact of Abraham Abraham had received promises from God whereof one was that a numerous posterity should be borne of him the other that the land of Canaan wherein he was a sojourner and a stranger should be given in possession to his posterity These promises Abraham had from God and he beleeved both of them with all his heart as it is signified by the word received and beleeving these promises he shewed himselfe obedient to all Gods commands that he might not faile of his hope from so great blessings Now what command doth God lay upon him God commands him to take Isaac his sonne in whose posterity all those promises were to be fulfilled and from whom as yet he had no grandchild yet him he must offer up that is he must slay and burne him for a sacrifice If Abraham must doe this and looke into the nature of the action could he possibly have any hope of those promises 18. Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called This is therefore added lest any man should thinke that Abraham might imagine though Isaac were extinct yet the promises might have their issue in Ismael For Abraham could not imagine this because God had said unto him in Isaac
better if it had beene an impossibility never to have beene borne So sometime we call them happy who were not borne in troublesome and sad times whereto also in a manner we may referre the words of Christ Behold the dayes are comming in the which they shall say Blessed are the barren and the wombes that never bare and the paps which never gave suck Luke 23.29 In like manner they who by their death have prevented some calamities by dying before they suffered under them are in that respect commonly called happy because they might have lived so long as to have suffered them And in this sence a Philosopher said That it was best for a man not to be borne and it was next to best to dye presently after he was borne Contrarily wee often call them unhappy who dyed before they had brought their state to some happy condition or lived not to see those happy times that immediately succeeded their death Therefore in the number of these non-entities they may be reckoned who though they were yet unborne yet might have beene borne Hence with very good reason as we may call those unhappy who shall never be borne but are intercepted by the end of the world and therefore shall never attaine that heavenly and eternall happinesse so much more are we happy and blessed who are already borne because by the providence and goodnesse of God the perfection of the godly is deferred to our times whereby there remaines to us a passage and entrance to it And to comprise the matter in a few words and answer briefly In that decree of God whereby he is said to have provided some better thing for us who were not yet borne then it would have beene if he had long since perfected the godly wee must be considered neither as already borne nor yet as to be borne after infinite ages to come but as they who might be borne while yet the end of the world was not for many ages to be deferred and Gods decree being passed must be borne Happy therefore we are by vertue of this Decree but otherwise wee should have beene unhappy Better for us that is for us that are Christians for this must not be restrained onely to the Hebrewes to whom this Epistle was written but must be extended to all men under the same covenant namely to all Christians Whence in a manner it appeares that the former examples of those who suffered such various afflictions belong to the Jews under the old Covenant and not to the Christians under the new God having provided Gods Decree is here signified For the thing here specified depends onely from the decree and ordinance of God as if he had said God having procured for to provide is to procure That they without us should not be made perfect How variously the Author useth the word perfecting in this Epistle may appeare from our former explications and here he takes it in a sence different from all the former He said in the last verse preceding that they received not the promises and now he iterates the very same thing and saith in other words they are not made perfect And therefore in this place to receive the promise and to be made perfect that is finally to attaine eternall blessednesse is all one thing And in this sence it seemes he used this word of Christ before chap. 5.9 where he opposed Christ being made perfect to Christ subject unto sufferings Now they who do receive that promise of eternall life and happinesse are fitly said to be perfected first because before they attaine it whether they are living or dead they are many wayes imperfect and secondly because when they have attained it they have filled up the measure of their happinesse and made it so absolute that it neither hath any defect neither can it receive any accesse but is for ever finished The Contents of the 11. Chapter are Notions The principles of Faith are two 1. Every subsistence of a thing hoped for is faith 2. Every sight of a thing unseene is faith ver 1. The necessity of faith is that without it it is impossible to please God ver 6. The chiefe points or specialties of faith are two 1. To beleeve that God is 2. To believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him v. 6. 1. Doctrine By faith we know the world was made by God v. 3. Reason Because in the things that are seene we have a sight of things unseene ibid. 2. Doctrine By faith the Patriarchs obtained a good report ver 2. Example As Abel Enoch and Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses Josua and Rahab c. Reason 1. Because they had a sight of things unseene which God had promised them 2. Because they had a subsistence of things hoped for for they hoped for the things promised 3. Doctrine The Patriarchs have not yet received the promise Reason Because God hath so provided that they without us should not be made perfect CHAPTER XII 1. WHerefore seeing we also He enters upon an exhortation to the Hebrewes to be constant in the faith especially not to be discouraged by reason of the afflictions which they suffered And this exhortation he inferres from the examples specified in the former Chapter and confirmes it with new arguments for their better encouragement We also q.d. Let not us shew out selves inferiour to them whose examples were formerly mentioned but let us also performe the same things which they did Are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses The Author addes this because it is of great force to stir us up unto the course and conflict of our faith And in this his exhortation he useth an elegant allegory drawne from the simily of a race which was a thing then much in use He brings us in as it were upon a spacious theater whereunto a multitude of spectators are collected which having filled all the seates and roomes doth encompasse the runners round about like a thick cloud and he makes us to be runners having the eyes of such a multitude of spectators upon us And as anciently such a multitude of spectators did adde courage to the runners and was a mighty spur unto them to contend for the victory so also to us so many witnesses who have themselves formerly laboured in the same race should adde courage that we might runne the race begun to the utmost of our strength and breath He calls them witnesses not only in allusion to the spectators at a race as wee said who are a kinde of witnesses of their activity that run but also and much rather because they testifie of God of his righteousnesse and goodnesse and all of them with one voice as it were say that God is and is a rewarder of them that seeke him and that he as the supreme depositary keeps the prize for them that run well that he is most faithfull in his promises and can even after death make them happy who
and produced us into this carnall life for they are opposed unto the Father of spirits as it presently follows in this verse And we gave them reverence By the chastisements of our carnall fathers we were often made ashamed both by the punishment and by the fault and were ashamed of both For chastisement brings with it not only paine but shame But if we referre this to our fathers the sense will be that by their chastisement we were so affected as to reverence them and for shame and fear of them durst not offend against them But if our carnall fathers who were the authors of our carnall life only could by their chastisement effect this in us how much more convenient is it that the chastisement of our spirituall Father should produce in us the like effect Shall wee not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits To be in subjection is in this place to receive and endure that chastisement which proceeds from God with a ready and patient minde and thereupon to shew our selves tractable and obedient unto him in all those things for the amendment whereof he chastised us The Father of spirits That is God who is opposed to the fathers of our flesh to shew us how much more it becomes us to bee in subjection unto him then unto these because the spirit is far more noble and excellent then the flesh For God is not therefore called the father of spirits and opposed to the fathers of our flesh as if we had received our spirit onely whereby we live and understand from God and our flesh onely from our parents seeing God is no lesse the Author and Creator of the one then of the other But by spirit is meant all that which pertaines to our spirit and makes us to be spirituall for this we owe to no other person but to our heavenly father But he is called the father of spirits because he hath begotten us according to the spirit and he alone hath begotten all of us And live Hee shews the fruit and end of our subjection the more to incite us thereto And this fruit is eternall life which to attaine is truly to live Whence oftentimes it is eminently called by the sole name of life 10. And they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure Because he had said we should live if we would be in subjection to the Father of spirits tacitly intimating that this effect would not follow upon our subjection to our carnall fathers therefore now he shews what great difference there is betweene the end and scope whereat our carnall fathers ayme as they are opposed to our spirituall father and in this respect are not subservient unto him and that end which God proposeth in the chastisement of his children Whereupon it also followes that we should farre more willingly submit our selves to endure the chastisements of God then of them in regard they are intended for a farre greater good unto us then the chastisements of our carnall fathers For a few dayes the good or benefit of their chastisement is of use unto us but for a few dayes that we may passe over this life which is concluded within the compasse of a short time the more conveniently and honestly For the Author by these words intends not to say that the chastisement of our fathers lasteth not long but passeth away together with our childhood and youth for what doth this make to the purpose Must we therefore be rather the more in subjection unto God because his chastisement lasteth a long time or through all our life Besides the minde of the Author is to inculcate into us rather the shortnesse of Gods chastisement then the length of it as we might perceive before chap. 10. ver 37. after their owne pleasure They in their chastisements of us did not alwayes seeke our benefit but were many times indulgent to their owne humours and passions or if in some measure they sought our benefit yet they did not alwayes use a right judgement therein They did therein as it seemed good unto them sometime after our desert and sometime after their owne pleasure and oftentimes erred through mis-affection or indiscretion But he for our profit But God is such a father that when he chasteneth his children he alwayes directs his eye to our benefit and profit neither doth ever misse of his intent That we might be partakers of his holinesse Here he specifies in particular the profit we gaine from Gods chastisement that thereby we are sanctified in so great a measure as to partake of his holinesse for the holinesse thereby wrought in us is in a manner divine resembling the holinesse of God Wherein is also contained by way of Metonymy the fruit of this holinesse which is everlasting happinesse 11. Now no chastening for the present He seemes here to take away an objection Some man might say that all chastisement of it owne nature is unpleasing and bitter and therefore it is an hard matter to endure it with patience The Author confesseth this to be true in respect of some time that chastisement for the time present all the while the affliction of it lasteth seemes not so good as indeed it is Seemeth to be joyous It doth not appeare or seeme unto us to tend unto joy or the present sowrenesse and bitternesse of chastisement while the smart of it is upon us doth not seeme to us of that quality that it should determine and end in great joy and pleasure But grievous It seemes to bring nothing else unto us but smart and griefe for all chastisement brings griefe or paine else it should not be chastisement for therefore we are chastised that the paine of the punishment might repell the lust of sinne Neverthelesse afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse The fruit of righteousnesse signifies the fruit that is righteousnesse by a genetive of the difference And the word righteousnesse doth in this place signifie both the habit of doing righteously and by way of Metonymy the effect or reward following it which is Justification or the having of a right to life eternall as in the former verse holinesse signified both holinesse of manners and the happinesse following upon it And this fruit is called peaceable not only in respect of righteousnesse properly taken which brings us peace that is happinesse but in respect of our justification to life eternall because that consisteth in true peace which is our finall happinesse and brings it with it In a sence not unlike Paul said that blessed hope Tit. 2.13 for hope is there taken materially for the thing hoped which is eternall life which is called blessed because it is blessednesse it selfe and makes them blessed who attain it Vnto them which are exercised thereby He specifies here the persons to whom this peaceable fruit accrews and they are such as are exercised by chastisement for chastisement is an exercise to godlinesse and righteousnesse And
spectacle or sight that appeared was so terrible and horrible that not onely the promiscuous multitude stroke with extreame terrour entreated they might not be constrained to stand and hear any more but even Moses also who was the Mediator and Messenger betweene God and the people said I exceedingly fear and quake That ever Moses said this wee no where read in the sacred History but without doubt the Author affirmed it as knowne to him by some other meanes See chap. 9.19 22. But yee are come Here follows the other part of the comparison which the Author had framed wherein hee shewes how far the things whereof we are made partakers by meanes of the Gospel exceed those which of old befell the Israelites at the promulgation of the Law This accesse or comming must be understood of a spirituall accesse or approach as unto things and persons spirituall for it is opposed to that carnall accesse or comming of the Israelites to the earthly Mount Yet this accesse must further be understood diversly according to divers things and persons which are here mentioned In generall it consisteth in a kinde of conjunction which wee have with those things and persons as in some measure thence forward pertaining to us although also this conjunction be divers according to the diversitie of those things and persons Vnto Mount Sion Hee opposeth Mount Sion unto Mount Sinai whereto the Israelites came when the Law was published But Mount Sion even taken properly was farre more beautifull and comely then Mount Sinai neither was it seated in the wildernes but in the land of Promise And there can be no doubt but by Mount Sion in this place that must be understood whereto the Mount was but a figure and a shadow For as the thing figured is sometime used for the figure as was shewed a little before so much more often is the figure taken for the thing figured And although sometime by Sion and the holy Mount the Church it self be shadowed yet because Jerusalem the Citie of the living God which the Author mentions in the second place may more fitly be referred to signifie the Church therefore by Mount Sion wee may better understand heaven it selfe or some spirituall Mount whose top is heaven the dwelling of everlasting blessednesse For we read more frequently that heaven is signified by mount Sion then the Church For as in one head of mount Sion which was called Morea the temple of God was built wherein God was said to dwell there was also in another head of it the palace of David who was a type or shadow of Christ the king of Gods people so in heaven truely is the temple of the most high God and there is also the palace of Christ our heavenly king Therefore we say that in this place may be signified some spirituall mount whose top is heaven because by the heavenly Jerusalem as wee shall shew afterward the Church may seeme to be understood as it is now existent upon earth But the allegory will be more full if by Mount Sion wee understand not onely heaven it selfe but conceive in our minde some spirituall mount whose top is in heaven and his foot reacheth unto earth that as of old Jerusalem was seated at the foot and forward upon the side of Mount Sion so also the Church as it is now on earth may be said to be built and so forward on the side of a Mount which hath his top in Heaven that is hath a great vicinity and contiguity with Heaven and is already in some degree raised up into Heaven as they who dwell at the foot and side of some Mountaine are nearest neighbours and borderers to that Mountaine and have not only liberty to ascend it but in regard they already possesse the sides of it are in some degree promoted toward the top We therefore are come to heaven it selfe or to that spirituall mount or state whose top is heave as we are made neighbours unto heaven and have a right and liberty to ascend it yea in some sense we may well be said inhabitants of it for from the Church there is a neare and open passage even to the top of heaven Hence it appears that not only this Mount whereto we Christians are come by the preaching of the Gospel and by our faith given unto it is by infinite degrees and without all comparison far surpassing Mount Sinai but that our accesse also or comming to it doth farre surpasse the accesse or comming of the Israelites who stood near that Mount but had no right to ascend it nor liberty to touch it unlesse they would presently be overwhelmed with stones or struck through with darts And unto the city of the living God What City this is he presently declares by saying the heavenly Ierusalem The attribute heavenly doth manifestly shew that here he treats of that Jerusalem whereof that earthly City the head of the Kingdome of Israel was but a type and a shadow Hence also it appears that this City whereof the Author treats is by far greater reason called both the City of God and Jerusalem that is the sight of peace by which word the Hebrewes use to understand happinesse But this heavenly Jerusalem may bee understood to be the City of the living God in a double sense First so as it signifies some stately place destined for the dwelling of the godly and so wholly different from the Church that is the City having foundations whose builder is God and which God hath prepared for Abraham Isaac and Jacob and for their spirituall posterity whereof we spake in the former Chapter And these buildings and palaces ordained for the habitation of the godly are situated as I may say in Heaven as the City Jerusalem possessed the spaces of Mount Sion This City he understands in the Chapter following ver 14. when he saith Here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come And this sense seems most proper to this place But secondly this City of the heavenly Jerusalem may be taken for the structure of the Church it selfe which consiseth not of any houses but of single persons joynted and composed one with another in a peculiar order and frame And that is in a manner twofold For one structure of the Church is upon earth though that Church be heavenly also the other shall be hereafter in heaven both of these are understood by the heavenly Jerusalem in the Revelation of St. John chap. 21.2 c. and ver 9.10 For that the Church or her structure is there meant it appeares by this in that she is called the Bride of the Lambe and the twelve foundations of her wall are said to be signed with the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lambe and many things there read of her declare that she is there considered both as she is for the present on earth and as she shall be for the time to come in heaven For the present in that she is said