Scripture The major That he that pleaseth God must have Faith is thus made clear and confirmed If it be impossible for any to please God who doth not believe that God is and a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him then he that pleaseth God must believe But without believing thus no man can please God Therefore he that pleaseth God must thus believe Where it 's to be noted That he infers Enoch's Faith from his pleasing God and the inseparable and necessary connexion of Faith and pleasing God For where there is an Effect there must necessarily be a Cause and no Effect can be without its proper Cause For Method's sake I will begin 1. With his Translation 2. Proceed to the demonstration of his Faith 1. This Translation was a Reward and therefore signifies the change was to the better 1. He was translated not to see Death so the Apostle understood the Text of Moses not to see Death is not to dye or suffer Death There was no separation of Soul and Body they remained united the Soul was not unclothed or divested of the Body yet it was changed and made immortal Of all the other Patriarchs before the Flood it 's said They even Methuselah dyed To this their Death this Translation is opposed for it 's not said that Enoch the great and most eminently pious Prophet dyed This was a dispensation with that general Law and Judgment past in Adam upon all mankind Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return and it was an act of that power which God reserved to himself as above his Law In the Chaldee it 's said That God did not slay him that is he did not take away his Life this was a singular exception from the general rule of his Judgments 2. In the Hebrew it 's said He was not In the Chaldee He appeared not In the Greek He was not found These two latter expresse the meaning of the Hebrew Phrase For this followed upon his Translation that he did not appear nor was found upon Earth amongst mortal men for he ceased to be in that place with living mortal men he changed the place and company 3. Lest we should be ignorant either of the Place to which he removed or of the Person who removed him it 's said God took him so the Hebrew God took him to himself so the Arabick Because God had translated him so the Text. The place to which he was removed Physically considered is not expressed yet he after his Translation must be in some place this place was not this Earth for there he was not found It was some better place and seeing there is no place fit for man's Habitation better then the Earth but only Heaven the Habitation of Angels a glorious place of eternal peace holiness and security therefore most do positively affirm that as Elijah so he was taken into Heaven The Person translating him was God for none but he could make him immortal and invest him with Glory This signifies that he was brought nearer unto God and had more full and perfect Communion with him then he enjoyed on Earth So that this Translation was a change of place of company of condition for he was removed from Earth to Heaven from Men to God from the estate of Mortality and Misery to an estate of Immortality and Bliss This was an anticipation of the great Reward and it was like the change of all God's Saints who shall be found living when Christ shall come to Judge the World This God did to signify his great respect unto eminent Piety and to let men know his high and special reserved Power and that there is a Reward of Glory after this Life and such a Reward as shall make men fully happy in Soul and Body too and that for ever This doth further inform us that God can make the Body Immortal without any separation of it from the Soul and also that he can raise and re-unite the Body turned unto Dust and make it Immortal and eternally inseparable The second Proposition was that he obtained this Translation and glorious Reward by Faith For by Faith Enoch was translated But because it was not expressed in the Text of Moses that he was translated by Faith for there is no mention of his Faith he proves his Faith the Cause from the Effect He pleased God and his pleasing of God from the testimony of God For before he was translated he had this testimony that he pleased God And here we may observe 3. Propositions 1. That he pleased God 2. That he had this testimony 3. He had this testimony before he was translated 1. He pleased God He walked with God so the Hebrew He walked in the fear of God so the Chaldee He walked in the Obedience of God so the Arabick He pleased God so the Septuagint whom the Apostle followeth The meaning therefore is that he served God observed his Commands and was obedient unto them The word walked used by the Hebrew Chaldee Arabick Translatours signifies that this was the constant tenour of life it was a life of Righteousness and Holiness and the repetition of this walking in the Text of Moses may imply an eminent degree of Holiness in him more then in other men for his Conversation was so ordered that it was very pleasing and acceptable to God who delights in sincere and constant Obedience whereby men do resemble him as holy and righteous We must not think that he could have walked thus with God by the power of Nature the sanctifying Spirit of Grace was the principle of this Obedience 2. It was testified of him or he had this testimony That he pleased God This was a good Report and so much the more certain because God gave it by his Spirit in the Prophet Moses who hath recorded it to all Generations And this is reported of him not only once but twice Therefore there can be no doubt of it 3. This was testified of him before he was translated the sense is not that Moses testified this of him before he was translated but the thing testified was this that he had pleased God before he was translated For the Text doth testify that he was translated yet it testifies that he pleased God before this Translation This is brought to prove that by Faith he was translated § 9. It might be said that though Enoch pleased God yet it doth not appear how this pleasing of God will prove and infer his Faith neither is the Connexion of Faith and walking with God so evident Therefore to prevent all doubts in this Point he adds Ver. 6. But without Faith it is impossible to be please God for he that cometh unto God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him IN these words he proves the impossibility of separation and the absolute necessity of the Connexion of Faith and pleasing God and they must be considered 1. In themselvs 2. As
Hell to our best friends to the end they may hate the one and escape the other Thus God doth in the Scriptures thus Christ often doth in his heavenly Sermons and useth this as a means to prevent their Damnation and promote their Salvation So that his former discourse was consistent both with Christian Charity and his good perswasion of them I am perswaded better things of you and such as accompany Salvation These words imply 1. That there were good things in them 2. He was perswaded of this The good things which in comparison of the former barrenness or fruitfulness in bringing forth briars and thorns and cursing and burning were better were 1. Their Qualification 2. Their Condition And they were better not because the other was good for they were not but very evil but because they were very good as the other were very bad This is a special kind of Phrase and Expression yet in some Languages ordinary yet it 's improper though elegant Some would call it a Mâ—iosis which is when more is meant than is expressed and so it 's reducible to a Synâ—chdochs Their qualification was from some heavenly vertues which did manifest themselvs in their practice their Condition was that of Salvation They were in the state of Salvation for their vertues were such as that by divine Ordination and Promise there was an inseparable Connexion between Salvation and them For Salvation and divine Graces go together in one Company the Graces go before Salvation follows after yet so that the Graces take hold of Salvation as the word in the Original signifies For such Christians as these Hebrews were have a present Right by Faith evidenced by the Works of Charity unto eternal life and Hope takes hold of it But what these vertues were we shall know from the next Verse 2. That these better things were in them the Apostle was perswaded that is he did not deny them no nor doubt of them but was confident of their good Qualification and Disposition § 10. Yet if a man be confident of another man's sincere Christianity he must have some ground sufficient for his confidence otherwise it 's vain and irrational Therefore he gives us the ground Ver. 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love c. The ground of his confidence concerning 1. Their qualification was his Knowledge of their Divine and Christian virtues 2. Concerning their condition was his Knowledg of God's Righteousness In the first we may observe 1. Their virtues 2. The manifestation of them so as that he might know them The virtues were Faith and Love Faith in Christ Love of the Saints Their Love is expresly mentioned your labour of Love their Faith is implied in that it was toward his Name There were other virtues for these could not be alone as their Patience in suffering of Afflictions for Christ's sake and that with joy and their hope of Glory Chap. 10. 34. The manifestation of these was in their work and labour in continuing to minister unto the Saints whereof he had certain Knowledge Here we are informed that Love will be working and labouring and ever bringing forth fruit and that is not real and sincere Love which is not such Therefore another Apostle exhorts us not to love onely in tongue but in truth and in deed 1 John 3. 18. And what it is to love in truth and indeed is signified in the 16th and 17th Verses going before it 's to give the lives of our bodies for them and relieve them with our goods it's a dying and giving Love And happy they which find this heavenly fire burning in their Souls But in most men though professed Christians we either find no Love or if any it 's but cold it will neither take pains nor be at Charge much less hazard life for the Brethren as Christ gave his life for us This love was fixed upon the suffering Saints who were persecuted for Christ's sake they were the speciall Object of it and this did argue their Love to God and their Faith in Christ without which this love could not have been truly Christian Therefore the Apostle joyns Faith in Christ and Love to all the Saints together Col. 1. 4. By all which we may understand that there is a Connexion of divine vertues For where one is in sincerity there all the rest are they cannot be seperated This work and labour in particular was their Ministration to the Saints Where we must enquire 1. What this Ministration is 2. To whom they did minister 3. How long they did minister 1. This Ministration was a work of Faith and Love whereby they used all just and effectual means in their power to preserve maintain comfort deliver the Saints persecuted and suffering 2. These Saints were Christians which suffered banishment imprisonment loss of Goods and other earthly Comforts for the Profession of their Faith in Christ. And by this Suffering were they known to be Saints Therefore this Love was not meerly natural nor meerly Moral but truly Christian Love and so denominated from the parties that loved who are such as that we are bound to love them above others and this Love is that whereby we may know that we are passed from Death to Life 3. The continuance of this Love was that they had ministred formerly in time past and now for the time present they continued this Work of Love for Christian Love is an immortal fire it will still burn and never dy This Ministration was a great evidence of their good Qualification and a good and firm ground of the Apostle's perswasion The ground of his perswasion concerning their good condition was the Knowledge of God's Righteousness For God is not unrighteous to forget your Work and Labour of Love This Proposition is Negative and includes the Affirmative which is That God is fighteous and will remember their Christian Faith Love and good Works And it 's delivered Negatively to signify the infallible certain truth of the Affirmative for in this Case the Negative is more peremptory and emphatical The ground it self is thus expressed his Knowledge of it is implyed But let 's consider 1. What it is for God here to forget or remember 2. What it is for him to be righteous or not unrighteous 1. God can forget nothing at any time but alwayes remembers all things and the reason of this is the perfection of his Knowledge which is infinite as he himself is Therefore to forget in this place is not to take notice of their vertues and actions so as to recompense them To remember is so to regard them as to render a Reward To reward is an Act of God as a Supream Judge The Righteousness of God is his distributive Justice and faithfulness in performing his Promise in judging according to his Law And this rewarding of his loyal and obedient Subjects is a proper Act of his judicial Justice for God is the universal Judge and is
power to purge the Conscience To proceed unto particulars the parts of the Comparison are two 1. The Proposition 2. The Reddition The first Ver. 13 the second Ver. 14. In the first we have the Cause the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer then the Effect sanctifying to the purifying of the Flesh. Of the Blood of Bulls and Goats which is the same with the Blood of Goats and Calvs Ver. 12. you have heard before for that was the Expiatory Blood wherewith the Priest entring the most Holy place did sprinkle the Mercy-Seat and the Effect of this was the Expiation of the Sins of the Priest and the People whereby they were freed from such penalties as the Law imposed upon persons for some Legal and Ceremonial Offences The second purifying was by the Ashes of a red Heifer mixed with running Water and sprinkled upon Persons or things polluted by touching or being near the dead Of this you may read at large Numb 19. The Effect of both was sanctifying by cleansing from some Legal pollution and Guilt but neither of these could free any person from the Obligation to eternal penalties nor spiritually purify and make holy the Spirit and Soul of Man Some think that the Blood did signify the Death and bloody Sacrifice of Christ the Water the sanctifying Spirit Yet both are here compared with the Blood of Christ as Shadows of it This is the Proposition § 13. The Reddition followeth Ver. 14. Where we have two absolute Propositions and part of the Comparison 1. That Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit without Spot unto God 2. That the Blood of Christ who thus offered himself doth purge the Conscience from dead Works to serve the Living God 3. The Comparative part is that it hath much more Power or doth much more purge the Conscience The first Proposition is Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot unto God Where we may consider 1. The Priest 2. The thing offered 3. The manner how 4. The thing by which 5. The Person to whom the Offering was made 1. The Priest was Christ the Word made Flesh and the Son of God designed a Priest by God 2. The thing offered by this Priest was Himself that is his own Life his own Body and some add his own Soul This was spoken in opposition to such things as the Levitical High-Priests offered as Buls and Goats for none of them offered either other men or themselvs 3. The manner how this was offered is this that it was offered without Spot The thing offered and the Offering and the manner of offering were all pure 4. That by or through which he made this Offering was the eternal Spirit By Spirit some understand the Soul which is said to be eternal because it 's immortal And certainly in respect of his Body he may rather be said to be the thing offered and in respect of his Soul the Priest offering For this offering is said to be the doing of God's Will and an Act of Obedience unto death the death of the Cross and this is a proper Act of his immortal Soul and Spirit Yet this Soul and Body too were united to the Word which as God was an eternal Spirit in which respect some understand by eternal Spirit the Word and Divine Nature of Christ And both Soul and Body were in the highest degree sanctified and supported especially in suffering death by the Holy Ghost which some think is here meant It 's certain he did offer himself by his immortal Spirit sanctified and supported by the Holy Spirit and united to the Word which with the Father and the Holy Ghost are one God and eternal spiritual Substance 5. The party to whom he offered himself was God as supream Lord of Life and Death Law-giver and Judg of Man-kind For he alone had power to appoint him to be Priest to be Offering and to offer and also to accept this Offering in behalf of sinful Man and thereupon to justify him believing and reward him with eternal Life All these are expressed and joyned together to set forth the Excellency and the immanent and internal Vertue of Christ's Blood For How excellent and of what rare vertue and causality must that Blood Death Sacrifice be which was the Blood of Christ who was by God's own immediate Commission and Designment made the highest and the greatest Priest and offered Himself the best Sacrifice that ever was and that through the eternal Spirit purely spiritual and most holy and impolluted and that unto God the supream Lord and Judg and in that manner that the very Act of offering from first to last was most exactly conformable to his Will It had all the perfections of a Sacrifice and in the highest degree The Levitical High-Priest was a Priest but far inferiour to Christ he offered Goats and Calvs but not himself and if he had offered himself yet the thing offered had been nothing to this he offered indeed to God yet he had not that near Relation unto Agreement with and Interest in God as this Priest had He offered by or through his own Spirit which was very imperfect and the imperfections of his very Act of Offering were very many and great Therefore it was no wonder that it should not have the like rare efficiency with this The second Proposition in this Verse is That Christ's Blood doth purge the Conscience c. This is the outward Efficacy and Working of this Blood upon a certain Subject rightly disposed In the words we may observe 1. The Conscience which is the Subject 2. The pollution of the Conscience 3. The purging and cleansing of it 4. The â—ind and Consequent of this cleansing 1. The Conscience is the Spirit and immortal Soul of Man which is Intimum Hominis the in most and most excellent part yet this is not here considered meerly as a spiritual immortal intellective and free Substance created and preserved by God but as subject unto his Power bound by his Laws conscious to it 's own Disobedience and sensible of it For the Blood of Christ doth actually purge no other Soul nor any Soul but thus qualified neither without this Qualification is the Soul immediately capable of this Purgation 2. The Pollution of the Soul is from dead Works where by dead Works it 's generally granted are meant Sins and that not only of Commission but Omission All the Works of Man should be living Works and issue from a Soul endued with a spiritual and supernatural Life have a spiritual and supernatural Form which is Conformity to Divine Law and should tend unto a supernatural and spiritual end When they either issue from a Soul destitute of this heavenly Life or want this Conformity they are dead Works base and such as becomes not so excellent a Creature The ordinary Reasons given by Authors why Sins are called dead Works are because they are the Works of men dead in sin want the Life and
may observe 1. An Effect To perfect the sanctified for ever 2. A Cause of that Effect Christ's one Offering I will begin for Explication's sake with the Effect though it be after the Cause in the Order of Nature In it we may consider 1. An Act. 2. A Subject 3. The Perpetuity of the force of this Act in the Subject 1. The Act is to perfect which may be to consummate or make a thing perfect and seeing the end of Christ's Sacrifice is Man's full Happiness therefore to perfect is to make us perfectly and fully happy and this certainly is intended in this place Yet we must further examine the force of the Greek Verb as it is used in this Epistle and other places of the Holy Scriptures and we find it signifies To consecrate and make one a perfect complete Priest so as that he may minister before God And though some understand the perfecting of the sanctified to be nothing else but to sanctify perfectly yet we find in several places of this Epistle that it signifies to make a Priest and is applyed by the Septuagint to the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons For though they were chosen and designed formerly to be Priests yet they could not act as Priests minister in the Tabernacle offer Sacrifice and officiate before they were consecrated and upon their Consecration finished they were actually constituted Priests and might perform any Acts of Service essential and proper to a Priest so as to please God and be accepted This Work of Consecration was finished in seven dayes and one Sacrifice used in this Consecsation was that of a Ram which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ram of Consecration And as they so we must be consecrated and made Priests to God and that by the Blood of Christ and this life is the time of our Consecration which goes on by degrees and will be made complete for Body and Soul upon the Resurrection when we shall be fit to approach the Throne of Glory and serve our God in a perfect manner in the eternal Temple of Heaven That Christ doth consecrate and make us Kings and Priests is express Scripture He hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father Rev. 1. 6. And this is the acknowledgment of all his redeemed Saints Thou hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5. 10. In this respect we are said to be a Royal Priest-hood an Holy Nation 1 Pet. 2. 9. There in this life though our Consecration be not finished we are styled An holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ ibid. 5. This perfection and Consecration we find attributed to his Blood and Offering 2. The Subject of this Consecration are the Sanctified for Sanctification must go before Consecration and the more sanctified the more consecrated and when our Sanctification is finished then our Consecration is consummate By Sanctification some understand Baptism as it 's a solemn Rite of our Initiation Others say it is Election whereby we are separated and set apart to this Perfection Yet it is that whereby we are freed not only from Infirmities Defects Depravations Inclinations to evil and so made inherently holy and righteous but also from the guilt of Sin The former is an act of the Spirit regenerating us and renuing the Image of God in us the other is the work of the same Spirit sprinkling our Consciences with the Blood of Christ and by the same frees us from God's vindicative Justice and the punishments due unto us for our Sins The former is usually called Sanctification the latter Justification That only the sanctified can be thus consecrated and come so near to God it 's plain out of the former places as Revel 1. 5 6. we are said first to be washed from our Sins in Christ's Blood which is Sanctification before we are be made Kings and Priests And Chap. 5. 9 10. to be redeemed with his Blood before we are Crowned and Consecrated And the persecuted Saints who came out of great Tribulation had their Garments first washed in the Blood of the Lamb before they were admitted to be as Priests before the Throne of God to serve him Day and Night in his Temple Chap. 7. 14 15. Where we learn that upon this Sanctification and Consecration we have near access to the Throne of Glory full communion with our God a clear vision of his eternal beauty and as great a fiuition of his God-head as we shall be capable thereof And upon all this follows our eternal bliss joy and full content when we shall be freed from all evil and enjoy the fountain of eternal life This Sanctification and Consecration is said in the third place to be for ever because they are perpetually continued of endless date and of everlasting continuance § 13. This effect is glorious and most excellent and includes Regeneration Justification Reconciliation Adoption with the inferiour degrees of them all and also the Resurrection and eternal Glorification And surely so rare an effect must have some excellent cause and so it hath and that is that one offering of Christ For Christ is the cause and he isthe cause as offering himself not often but only once For by one Offering he consecrated the sanctified for ever Meer Man or Angel though most excellent was insufficient had no power to undertake and finish this glorious Work For man's Salvation and his eternal blisse must needs be ascribed to the highest first and universal cause and issuing from the fountain of eternal Love was contrived by infinite Wisdom and effected by Almighty Power and no way was thought so fit to accomplish it as this one Offering of this one Priest For this end the eternal Word of God which was God must be made Flesh But neither God as God nor the Word nor Flesh severally were the cause but God by the Word made Flesh yet this is not all this Word made Flesh must be a Priest and as a Priest he must suffer dye and offer himself for the Sin of Man He must be the Priest and Sacrifice too and offer himself without spot unto God the Supream and Universal Lord and Judge that so his Justice being satisfied his mercy might freely and aboundantly issue out upon sinful Man as it did when once this Sacrifice was offered and accepted and being offered once it was so accepted that a second offering was needless For this was of eternal virtue in respect of all Sins and Sinners and was the most noble and highest piece of Service that ever was performed by Men or Angels in Heaven or Earth and was an Ilastical and propitiatory Sacrifice The Priest offering it was the the Head and Representative of Mankind and the second Adam and was made such by God and his own voluntary submission as willing to suffer Death for those whom he did represent By this representation and substitution he became the Surety and Hostage of Mankind
that cannot be But he hath relation to the essence as acting upon it self and producing an Image of himself for Christ is the Word and Image of the Father and his Person This is the same with that we read in another place That he is the Image of the invisible God Coloss. 1. 15. The word invisible seems to be added for to distinguish Christ from these visible Images of visible things For God is not visible to mortal and bodily Eyes neither is his Image visible in that manner For though Christ had a body yet he neither in that body nor in his humane Soul but as the Word was he the express Image of his Father Crellius his glosse upon these words is grosse and nothing to purpose For he tells us 1. That Christ is the lustre â—ay and beam of God's Majesty this is very obscure and in proper sense affirmed of Christ as the Word is false 2. That he was thus a ray and beam only as sent and manifested in the humane Nature unto us This is agreeable to his erroneous Doctrine denying the Deity and Incarnation of the Word contrary to expresse Scripture 3. That Man resembles God in some attributes but Christ is the Image of his Person as Lord and Soveraign This is both obscure illiterate and impertinent For to resemble God in Power and Dominion and to bear his person as his Substitute is political to resemble him in Wisdom Knowledg Holiness is physical and to be his Image as he had said before that Man is These he jumbles and confounds together and contradicts himself Again to be his Image and bear his person in respect of Power and Dominion is the same with that of being Heir of all things And will any man imagine that the Apostle in so few words so full of different matter would tautologize And where do we find political representation for Power and Lordship signified in Scripture by such terms But that he was guilty of a willful Errour he would never have sought to elude the genuine sense by such a â—rosse sophistication § 8. And upholding all things by the Word of his Power As before he made the Worlds and with the Father created all things so here he is affirmed to support and order all things so that he is Creatour and Preserver We may here observe two things 1. The Word by his Power 2. The upholding of all things by this Word of Power his Word of Power is his powerful Word Christ is the Word in respect of the Father the eternal Word of the Father and there is a word of the Word in respect of some thing to be done and effected This word of the Word for effecting something ad extra out of God is here meant This is the Word of Creation whereby God sald ' Let there be Light and there was Light And it is the Word of Providence as in this place we must understand is This word is sometimes an expression sometimes a decree sometimes a command sometimes a deed Here it 's a decree and command expressed whereupon the deed follows and something willed decreed and expressed is effected This is a Word of Power that is very powerful of almighty Power so that what is spoken is done and what the Word signifieth is effected This Word Power is added to signify the efficiency and wonderful efficacy of the Word which is such that we cannot well distinguish betwixt the Word and the executive Power Therefore it 's said God spake and it was done he commanded and is stâ—â—d 〈◊〉 Psal. 33. 9. And the same Nown Verbal both in Hebrew and Greek which signifies a Word signifies a deed And Christ's Word is his deed this Word being a Word of Power is the cause the effect here is the upholding of all things The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify to preserve and as Erasmus à Lapide Heinsius observe to govern And so it may expresse the two acts of Providence Conservation and Government and both universal for it upholds and orders all things This is the same which we find in another Scripture That by him all things subsist Coloss. 1. 17. In which place we may observe that as all things both visible and invisible were created by him so all things consist and be upholden by him This agrees to the Word not incarnate though being incarnate it doth not cease to exercise the same causal power because the Word made Flesh remains the Word and hath its universall causality as before the incarnation The Socinian lest he should grant the Deity and eternal existence of Christ understands this of Christ doing his Miracle by his Word and restrains all things to a few things done by Christ a Man And this is directly contrary to the Apostle affirming all things to consist by Christ even all things created and that from the beginning § 9. When he had by himself purged our Sins This was an act of Christ 1. As the word Incarnate 2. As a Priest 3. As a Priest offering himself a Sacrifice for our sins 4. This Sacrifice as not only offered but accepted of God had this power This purging of our Sin is not only actual pardon or sanctification but something antecedent and an immediate effect of Christ's Death as of a Sacrifice offered and accepted in behalf of sinfull man In the words we have an effect the purging of sin and the cause Christ by himself In the effect the object is our sins the act the purging of them By sins our sins are meant the consequents of sin in particular the guilt of sin yet joyned with the stain These are the sins of Men not of Angels our Sins The act of purging is the making of the consequents of sin especially the guilâ— removable upon certain terms determined by God our supream Judge and Law-giver This was done by satisfaction of divine justice and by merit For upon Christ's Sacrifice offered and the punishment due to us for our sins willingly suffered by him God was so well pleased as that he was willing to pardon that sin which was punished and by himself in his ownSon Sin therefore here by a Metonymie is said to be purged when this Sacrifice by which believed and pleaded sin is actually pardoned was offered and accepted because as offered and accepted it did make sin immediately pardonable and had a causal vertue to procure the actual pardon This causal vertue and vigour is said to be Purging But of this more hereafter especially in Chap. 9. The cause of this expiation is Christ by himself for he alone was the Priest he alone the Sacrifice He and he alone offered he and he alone was the thing offered he was the sole cause and efficient of this purging Neither Men or Angels did co-operate in this Work as co-efficients with him Crellius expounds these words yet so that his expression is neither exact nor clear nor altogether true For 1. By expiation and purging he
understands the removing of guilt and punishment and affirms that by the oblation they are removed whereas instrict sense it did not remove them but make them removeable and so he himself saith afterward That it had then only an efficacy and power 2. He distinguisheth between the Slaughter and the offering of the Sacrifice and saith That the Slaughter was on Earth and the Offering in Heaven That Christ dyed and suffered Death on Earth is clear That he willingly suffered this Death to expiate the sin of Man in obedience to his heavenly Father none can truly deny and this willing Suffering for sin in obedience may be truly said to be an offering and an act of a Priest as properly a Priest though they will not have him to be a Priest untill he entered Heaven which is very untrue Was not the High Priest a Priest before he entred with the expiatory blood into the holy Place There were many Sacrifices offered to God the Blood whereof was not presented in the holy place yet it may be granted that if type and antitype agree so far as the Scripture makes them so to do then Christ must present himself in Heaven and he did so For by his own Blood he entered in once into the holy Place Heb. 9. 12. But whether he entered as mortal or immortal in Soul only or in Soul and Body as dead or living when he presented himself before the Throne of the great eternal Judge may be doubted That his Soul that very day he dyed was in Paradise it 's certain and that entrance was properly by Blood with his Soul separated from his Body and made the expiation For when he enters the second time forty days after his Resurrection he enters as immortal in Soul and Body to make Intercession not to make Satisfaction and expiation or to merit § 10. Sâ—te down on the right hand of the Majesty on High This was a reward for his suffering and being obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross. This agrees unto him as the Word incarnate and in respect of his Man-hood And thus to sit is to be next to God above all Men and Angels and every Creature in holiness bliss honour and especially in Power and Dominion This properly agrees to him as King This is not to participate of the divine perfections and excellency as infinite and eternal but so far as the most noble Creature was capable From all this is manifest the excellency of Christ above all Prophers both as a Prophet and in other respects For as a Prophet he knew more of God and of his mind then all the Prophets joyned in one He declared his Will more fully clearly and powerfully then he did and this both by himself and by his Apostles God gave the Spirit not in measure but in fulness unto him He is more excellent not only as a Prophet but in other respects 1. As the Son of God 2. As Heir of all things 3. As he by whom the Worlds were made 4. As he is the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the expresse Image of his Person 5. As upholding all things with the word of his Power 6. As by himself purging our Sins 7. As set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high There is not the least of these though all be very great but therein he far excels the Prophets This might be added that he spake by him 1. As by his Son so did he not by any of the Prophets 2. In the last Days after which he will speak no more to mortal Men neither will there be any need § 11. The second Proposition is That Christ is more excellent then the Angels Being made so much better then the Angels This might be a conclusion of the former words but that in them Christ is compared with the Prophets Therefore we will consider it as a distinct Proposition concerning Christ as compared with the Angels And if he be more excellent then them he must needs be more excellent then the Prophets He is more excellent then the Angels in the seven sormer Respects but the Divine Apostle seems to insist principally upon the last as will appear by that which follows The occasion of this Discourse may be this because the Jews or Hebrews might say That though Christ was more excellent then the Prophets yet he was inferiour to the Angels by whom the Law was given and who spake to the Fathers and the Prophets so that they were Prophets and God spake by them and it 's not like that Jesus of Nazareth was above them or equal with them This is the more probable because it follows If the Word spoke by Angels c. Chap. 2. 2. Which implys that some part of the Old Testament especially the Law was declared by Angels For the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3. 19. The Revelation was signified to John by an Angel of Christ Revel 1. 1. And this Angel calls himself a Prophet For he had the Testimony of Jesus which was the Spirit of Prophecy and was one of the Brethren the Prophets Revel 19. 10 22 9. So that some part of the New Testament was delivered by Angels Now to take away this conceit of the excellency of Angels above Christ he not only affirms that Christ is equal with but above the Angels and not only affirms it but ptoves it His first argument in form is this He that hath inherited a more excellent Name then Angels is more excellent then the Angels but Christ hath inherited a more excellent Name therefore he is more excellent § 12. Let 's first consider the terms of the Major then the connexion of those termes or the Consequence The terms are Angels Name a Name by Inheritance 1. Angels are Spirits or spiritual Substances the most noble and excellent Creatures God made and because Angels are good or bad who being made good became bad by their own folly here the Apostle understands the holy loyal and obedient Angels who never sinned against God They are called Angels by reason of their Office and imployment not of their nature The Word signifies Messengers because they are God's Messengers sent by him not only to do but declare his Will Angelus is the same that Malaach Nâ—â—tius Legaâ—us and those names agree to their Prophetical Office 2. These Angels have a Name but Christ a more excellent Name By Name in this place is not signified a bare Title but the Dignity and Power of Christ and a more excellent Name as a more excellent Dignity and Power Thus the word Name is used Phil. 2. 9. Ephes. 1. 21. For Fame Glory Dignity it 's signified by Name in the Old Testament and in many other Authours and in several Languages That the Apostle understands thus for a Title not only of Dignity but Power inherent in the person whose Titlo it is may easily appear from what follows 3. This more excellent Name
did see it To be Crowned with Glory and Honour is to be invested with great Glory Honour Dignity and Power and the words signify the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of God We need not here distinguish of Crowns which were of many sorts For if the Author did allude to any of these the sacerdotal Mitte and the imperial Diadem did most of all resemble the eminency and dignity of this Celestial Pontiff and this universal King But why may i◠not be an Hebraism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Crown doth signify To compass about for God had circuminvested Christ with the highest and most eminent degree of Dignity and Power and this is the Word used by the Psalmist For the suffering of Death This passion was the meritorious cause his Glory and Honour the Reward according to another Scripture which informs us that because Christ was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross Therefore God did highly exalt him Phil. 2. 8 9. Neither need we fear to say that Christ merited eternal Glory for Himself if we confess he merited it for Us. It 's true he could not merit the personal union and such things which necessarily followed upon the same but this is nothing to that Crown of Glory which was given him in consideration of that most excellent piece of Service which he performed in expiating the Sin of man and that by his own Blood which is plain Scripture Some referr this clause unto the former of Christ being made a little lower then the Angels yet understand it differently For some say He was made lower then the Angels by or in respect of his Death Others think that it denotes the final cause of his minoration as though the end why he was cast below the Angels was that he might suffer But neither of these are probable we see that is it was manifest both by the glorious Miracles done and excellent Gifts of the Spirit given in his Name and other ways and they did therefore see it The second Proposition He was made a little lower then the Angels It 's not material whether we understand by little a little measure of inferiority or a little time for both are true But the principal thing in these words is where in he was made lower then the Angels and that was in this that he was man and mortal Man is inferior to an Angel as man and much more as mortal because the Angels never dy Now Christ had the body of a man and a Soul separable from his body till the Resurrection and that was the little time here meant the time of his mortality Both might be joyned in one divine Axiome thus We see for the suffering of Death Crowned with Glory and Honour that Jesus who for a little time was made lower then the Angel The third Proposition That he by the Grace of God might taste of Death for 〈◊〉 man In these words we have the reason and the end why Christ was made lower then the Angels for a time For it was that through the Grace of God he might redeem us by his Death In the words we have 1. The Death of Christ. 2. The parties for whom he dyed 3. The inward motive which inclined God to give him to Death and the first Original of Redemption 1. It 's said He insted of Death we need not play the Critick in the explication of the word taste For the plain meaning is that he suffered Death and by this is signified all his Sufferings which were many and bitter the principal and consummation whereof was Death wherein they all ended and without which there had been no expiation 2. He suffered Death for every man not that every man should absolutely enjoy the ultimate benefit thereof for every one doth not yet every man as a sinner hath some benefit by it Because the immediate effect of this Death was that every man's sin in respect of this Death is remissible and every man savable because Christ by it made God propitious and placable in that he had punished man's sin in him and laid on him the iniquities of us all And the reason why every man is not actually justified and saved is not for want of sufficient Propitiation but upon another account 4. That which moved God to transferr the punishment due to our sins upon Christ his only begotten Son was his Grace and free love For he so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our Sins The end therefore why Christ was made lower then the Angel was that he being man and mortal yet holy and innocent without sin might suffer Death that our sins might be expiated divine justice satisfied and a way made for mercy to save us Ver. 10. For it became him c. § 13. These words must be considered absolutely in themselves relatively in their connexion Absolutely considered they inform us and do affirm that it became God to bring us to Salvation by the Suffering of Christ. This is the substance In the words we may observe the end means conveniency of the means 1. The end is to bring many Sons unto Salvation 2. The means is to perfect their Captain by Sufferings 3. The convenience of these means in respect of this end it was such as that is became God to use them All these may be reduced to certain Propositions which are these 1. Christ is the Captain of Salvation 2. God made this Captain perfect by Suffering 3. This was the means to bring many Sons to Glory 4. Thus to do became him for whom and by whom are all things 1. Christ is the Captain of the Salvation of the Sons of God The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned Captain signifies a Prince of a multitude eminent for dignity and priority or one who besides his eminent Dignity is invested with Power to command direct and order the rest inferiour and subject to his Power or one who in any work is a principal cause and hath a great and eminent influx upon the Subject to produce the Effect In all these significations Christ may be here taken For he in respect of all Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Saints Martyrs and Believers is the most eminent for dignity and invested with supream and universal Power and in both respects he is called their Lord and King and Head for as the Head is in respect of the members so is Christ in respect of his Saints and many Sons of God He is also the Authour Beginner and principal cause of their Salvation both for the merit of it and the application of the merit and the actual consummation and collation He by his Death laid the foundation and by his Word and Spirit makes them capable of Salvation and gives them a right unto it He by his Intercession procures their actual Justification and Glorification He by his Power doth raise them up and gives
drink it and receive it into our bodies yet if we neither eat the one when it 's set before us nor drink the other when put into our hands we may perish for hunger and thirst So it is spiritually with our Souls in respect of the Word preached and heard only our with outward ears and not received and receiued in our hearts by a true and lively Faith So that the cause why the Word of God being so great a Blessing and so excellent a means of Salvation doth us no good is from our selves or in our selves who either refuse it at the first or reject it after we have professed it and promised to live according to it And this refusal and rejection as they are hainous sins not onely against God's just Laws but his merciful tender of eternal life so they will prove in the end the cause of our eternal misery which shall be greater and more intolerable than those to whom the Word of God was never preached 4. Therefore it concerns us all to fear this Sin of Apostacy as we fear loss of heavenly Rest God's eternal displeasure Hell Death and eternal Punishments The Apostle by this word fear implies there is danger of falling away and if we consider there is danger and the same very great For if we look upon our weakness and the remainders of corruption the deceipt and hypocrisy of our own hearts the imperfection of our Understanding in heavenly things the inconstancy of our Wills our little experience in the wayes of God and the violence and power of temptation from the Devil and the World we may easily see that it 's a wonder if not a matter of amazement that we stand one day one hour yet when we look up towards Heaven remember our Saviour Christ reigning and victorious the power of the blessed Spirit the helps God hath given us the Promises of assistance there is great cause of hope yet this hope doth not exclude but require our diligent Care continual Watching and instant Prayers without which we cannot by which we may hope to stand Oh how should we carefully and constantly attend unto God's Word lay it up in our hearts make it the Rule of our whole life so as to obey his Commands rely upon his Promises and fear his threats and every day call to mind the Profession we have made and the Promises whereby we have engaged our selves unto our God And seeing so few do fear it 's no wonder so many fall and come short of this blessed Rest. Most men presume upon the Promise and neglect the Duty The Israellres had a Promise yet did not enter because they did not believe § 3. There follows another distinct Reason from the former and that is the great benefit that follows upon the performance of the Duty Ver. 3. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said As I have sworn in my Wrath c. THere is some difficulty to know the coherence of these words with the former as also of those that follow with these and amongst themselves Some say they come in upon the words immediately antecedent and give a reason why the Word not mixed with Faith did not profit nor bring the hearers into God's Rest For onely we that believe do enter that is There is no entrance but by Faith but by Faith there is Others think they propose a reason why we should fear Apostacy and be careful to persevere and that from the happy consequent and the glorious reward which follows upon perseverance in belief and that is entrance and admittance into God's Rest yet they may referr to those words of the former Chapter For some when they had heard did provoke howbeit not all that came out of Aegypt by Moses For Caleb and Joshua heard and believed and persevered for it 's said of Caleb and it 's the Testimony of God That he had another Spirit with him and followed the Lord fully Numb 14. 24. This he applyes to himself and the Hebrews to this purpose That though some did not enter because of Unbelief yet some did believe and did not provoke and so entred so likewise shall we believing do As the former might cause fear so this latter might cause hope and prove a strong motive why we should fear to fall and be very careful to persevere So that if we will sum up that which went before it 's this in brief To day if we will hear God's voice we must not harden our hearts 1. Because if we do harden them we shall be shut out of God's Rest as our rebellious and Apostate Fathers were 2. If we do not harden our hearts but believe we shall enter into God's Rest as Caleb and Joshua did It follows As he said I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest c. These words serve to inform us of three things 1. That the Word not believed could not profit because by Unbelief they provoked God to wrath and in his Wrath he sware they should not enter into his Rest so likewise we should fear to be guilty of Unbelief because if we prove such God in his Wrath by the like Oath will exclude us 2. That as God by this Oath did exclude none but Unbelievers and brought the Believers into Canaan so he will exclude none out of the Rest promised in the Gospel but Unbelievers and will without all fail bring us believing into our spirituall Canaan 3. That as the Oath so the Exhortation used by the Prophet David implied that as there was a Rest in the dayes of Joshua so there is another Rest besides that of the promised Land Therefore because it might be doubted what Rest either David meant or the Gospel doth promise the Apostle proceeds to prove that there is yet a Rest prepared for God's People under the Gospel and determines what Rest that is This is done by distinction for he informs us of a three-fold Rest 1. Of the Sabbath 2. Of the Land of Canaan 3. Of the eternal Rest in Heaven That it was the intention of the Apostle to manifest that there was a Rest for the People of God under the Gospel and yet that Rest was neither the first of the Sabbath nor the second of the Land of Canaan is evident by that which follows especially Ver 19 10. That it was expedient if not necessary for him to do thus is as clear because he had alledged the words of the Psalm To day if ye will hear his Voice and also said in Ver. 1. That a Promise was left us of entring into his Rest. The first is the Rest of the Sabbath in these words Although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World And Ver. 4. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day in this wise And God did rest the seventh day from all his Works THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is turned here although yet it may signify and
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 study ye And as one well observe Studium est vehemens applicatio axim ad aliquid agendum Study is a vehement application of the mind to do something Yet that which is matter of lamentation and a sad presage of the eternal ruine of many Souls is the great neglect of this Duty for few go seriously about it The vigonr and strength both of our Souls and Bodies is imployed and wholly spent in seeking the vanities of the World § 5. The Reasons whereupon the performance of this Duty is urged are three 1. From the sad and woful Consequent 2. From the severity of the all-seeing Judge 3. From the help and assistance of our High-Priest The reason from the sad Consequent is expressed thus Lest any fall after the same example of Unbelief THis implies 1. There is danger and an evil to be feared 2. The evil is falling 3. All and every one is in this danger lest any fall 4. Lest any should sleight the danger he instanceth in the Israelites who fell by Unbelief To fall may be a Sins or a Punishment If a Sin it 's Apostacy which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie in this as in many other places Rebellion and Apostacy If a Punishment it 's exclusion out of God's Rest with all the miseries that accompany it so it seems here to be taken By this as by many other places we easily understand how we must conceive of Examples and what use we must make of them If they be examples of Punishments we must account them as executions of God's Laws and especially of his Comminations The use that we must make of them is to avoid those Sins for which they were inflicted and to be the more careful in this particular because by them we may easily know that God's Laws are not only words and his Threats only wind It 's not with God as it 's often with Men who will threaten more then they will or can do Thence the Saying Threatned men live long But here it 's otherwise God's Word is his Deed and his Punishments threatned against Apostates are unavoidable They are not made unadvisedly and out of rash passion but according to the eternal Rules of Wisdom and Justice And let every one know that that God that spareth neither Men nor Angels nor his own chosen and beloved People will not spare Us. Therefore as we desire to escape this fearful Punishment let us labour to enter into that Rest which God hath promised § 6. The second Reason is from the severity of the Judge For Ver. 12. The Word is quick and powerful and sharper then a two-edged Sword c. TO understand this Text we need not doubt whether by Word is meant the Scripture and Doctrine of the Gospel or Christ Jesus which is the Word of God made Flesh or the penal decrees of the Gospel For by Word of God is meant the Law of God with his judicial Sentence For God is here brought in as a most perfect Law-giver and a most severe and exact Judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Word is often taken for a Law as the ten Laws or Commandments are in the Hebrew called Ten-words Exod. 20. 1. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dabar both in Chaldee Syriack and Arabick doth sometimes signify to Order and Govern and because Government is by Laws and Judgment therefore Word signifies both This is more evident from Chap. 2. 2. Where you read If the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Transgression and Disobedience received a just recompence of Reward Where by Word is meant the Law without all doubt as you heard before wherein there were not only Precepts but Comminations according to which Judgment did proceed and was executed By Word therefore is meant the Law and Doctrine of God by Christ wherein we have not only precepts and prohibitions but promises and threats and according to these God will judge every Man to whom the Gospel shall be preached This is a defect in humane Laws that they cannot reach many Offendors and leave the conscience exempt from humane Tribunals and this is an imperfection in many Judges that they cannot attain the perfect and clear knowledg of many Causes brought before them or if they know them will not impartially punish them The Apostle removes these defects and imperfections from this Law-giver and Judge this Law and this Judgment For the Word or Law of God is quick and powerful The latter word explains the fornâ—er for those things that are living are said to be active in opposition to such things which are dead which have lost their power and to be lively and very active are many times the same and this signifies the efficacy and active power of this Law This active vigour and efficacy is illustrated by a Similitude For the Law is compared to a two-edged Sword which being used by a powerful and skilful hand doth manifest how sharp and cutting it is for it pierceth quickly into the inward parts and divideth between Soul and Spirit and the Bones and Marrow which are most nearly united and more hidden and secret in living Bodies So that in the Similitude we have two acts of a Sword or any such cutting Instrument The first is dividing things most nearly united The second discovering things most secret There cannot be any more perfect division or discovery in any dissection or anatomy then is here expressed The reddition of this Comparison seems to be made in these words And is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart For this cannot agree to a Sword or any cutting Instrument and therefore the meaning must be that as a Sword doth divide things so closely united and discover things so secretly hidden in Bodies so doth this Law in the Soul especially when it 's applyed by the Judge unto the case of sinful Man to be determined by him The most hidden things in Man as a subject of God's Judgment are the intents and thoughts of the heart and they seem to be closely and inseparably conjoyned both with the heart which is the most intimate thing in Man for cor intimum honunis and also one with another We need not curiously explain the words thoughts and intents of the heart or distinguish between them The heart is the Soul of Man endued with a faculty of understanding and willing such things as are the proper objects of it The Soul is in continual motion and action framing and moulding things with in it self Thoughts and intents are the secret acts both speculative and practical of the understanding and rational appetite The words turned thoughts and intentions may signify apprehensions conceptions judgments noetical or dianoetical consultations about mens intents concerning the ends decrees and all other acts of the Soul and may here be so understood And many of these acts and operations are most secret and concealed and in respect of them God saith The heart of man
a great High-Priest above all others as Universal and Supream Pontiffe of Heaven and Earth in comparison of whom all other Priests even the highest are but shadows This is the excellency of his Office His Relation to us is this that we have him that is He is our great High-Priest in whom we who professe our Faith in him have a special Interest so that He as a Priest doth officiate for us and his excellent Office was instituted of God for our eternal good no Unbelievers can be said to have him in this manner Of this great High-Priest it 's affirmed that He is passed into the Heavens This entrance into Heaven was shadowed by the High-Priests entrance into the inmost sacrary of the Tabernacle or Temple which was called the Holy of Holiest The reason why this which is here first affirmed of him is mentioned may well be this because by this he hath not only obtained and taken possessiâ—â— of this eternal Rest wherein we must seek to enter but by this means hath procured an entrance for us For where he is there we shall be and the Head and Members must be and abide together Therefore if we labour and strive we cannot doubt of entrance seeing he hath made a passage open for us This of it self is a great encouragement that our High-Priest is passed into the heavenly Rest not only for himself but also in our behalf even to assure us that if we follow him trust in him and labour to enter that we shall not come short yet this is not all the encouragement is yet greater For it followeth Ver. 15. For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without Sin I Will not here mention the principal Exhortation expressed in the former verse but reserve it to the last For it is usual upon several Reasons delivered to repeat the exhortation In the words we may observe two things 1. Christ's merciful disposition towards us 2. The Reason of it His mercy is set down negatively in that he is not sensless of our Infirmities but is one that will be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities To be inwardly affected and moved with the miseries of others doth argue an excellent temper of spirit and is a proper act of that we call mercy and compassion and it issues from goodness and love Christ as God is infinitely merciful and mercy it self and in his Word doth signify how readily and abundantly he is inclined unto it and he would have man to know it And as Man none so merciful as He and that God might manifest what store of his mercy he had for sinful Man He became Man nay miserable and mortal Man and because experimental knowledg and sense is the most effectual therefore as Man he was willing to Suffer and be Tempted And this is the Reason why he is so sensible of our sad condition because he was tempted in all points like unto us This is that wonderful way which God by his profound Wisdom contrived to make his mercy greater and in some sort more then Infinite He would have a kind of knowledg of man's infirmities which as God and infinite he could never have That which makes us an object of compassion is our infirmity that which makes him so sensible of our condition is That he was tempted in all points like us yet alwayes without Sin Infirmity is sometimes weaknesse and so the word signifies sometime Sickness and Diseases which cause weaknesse The one is opposed to strength and the other to eucrasy and health and both are twofold either of Body or Soul and here is meant the weakness and distemper of the Soul and may be Sin or Punishment which makes our Case very miserable For sin taken either for native or acquired corruption and imperfection doth fearfully weaken the Soul because it doth not only incline to actual sin but makes us unable to resist temptation so that we are easily overcome by Satan a potent subtle malicious enemy who will not only violently but continually assault us This is the reason why our sins are so many and we so often and so halnously guilty and have continually great need of mercy and pardon which cannot be obtained without the effectual intercession of this righteous Advocate and merciful High-Priest And how merciful must he needs be that was tempted himself For he was tempted in all points like unto us but without Sin Where two things are observed 1. That his temptations were in all points like ours 2. That yet he was without Sin Temptation may be taken for Sufferings or for an inducement to Sin as directly tending to sin and having a power or causality moving us thereunto As for Christ's Sufferings they were exactly like unto Ours To that end he took a Body and Soul and continued for a while in a state of Humiliation whereby he was obnoxious unto them and did actually fall under them and felt them As for temptation to sin it 's inward outward inwardly he was not tempted outwardly he was Of us it 's truly said that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed But in him there was no such corruption lust or inward concupiscence yet he was outwardly vehemently assaulted by Men and Devils as much as ever any Man was and was tempted to the same kind of sins to which we being tempted to do commit This appears from the History of the temptation and passion yet though we being tempted do often sin yet he being often and violently tempted never sinned never yielded to the temptation but alwayes resisted and alwayes overcame This is a great comfort to us that he never sinned for because of this his Intercession for us is the more effectual with God and the more acceptable unto him For a guilty person pleading for guilty persons could not have made reconciliation for their sins As it is a comfort so it 's a rare example for us to follow that when we are tempted we should use all means to avoid Sin as he did § 8. But let it be granted Christ is so merciful an High-Priest and though entred into Heaven so sensible of our miseries what benefit do we receive by him This the Apostle resolves in the words following Ver. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need IN which words we may observe 1. That as we may so we ought to come boldly unto the Throne of Grace 2. That coming thus we may speed and attain that which we desire That which in the first Proposition is presupposed is that God sits in the Throne of Grace There is a Throne of Justice and a Throne of Grace If He look upon Man according to the Law of works he must needs sit upon the Throne of Justice as a severe Lord
which follows as will appear anon Two things here I will only observe 1. That to be called is openly and solemnly with power to be declared For this inauguration and confirmation was made with great solemnity and that in the presence of all the Host and Angels of Heaven Whether God commanded any Archangel with sound of heavenly Trumpet to proclaim him and ouer these words before the Throne of Glory and the place of his special presence in the Heaven of Heavens we know not It 's certain by these words he was made an eternal Priest and thereupon all the Angels of Heaven did acknowledg him The second thing to be observed is that he was not only made a Priest but also a King for without either of these he could not be so powerful a Saviour yet he was not so made by these but other words § 10. Now follow a Digression For after that the Apostle had proved him to be a Priest and so made of God and a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec and not after that of Aaron order did require he should enlarge upon the words of the Psalmist yet because this Doctrine was mysterious and profound and they not so capable of it he takes occasion by the way to reprove their dulness stir up their attention and prepare them for this Doctrine concerning Christ's Priest-hood which he intended more fully to declare unto them This reproof is brought in artificially by a kind of Transition and in this manner Ver. 11. Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing â—â— are dull of hearing IN these words and those which follow We have 1. The excellency and copiousness of the matter 2. The Hebrews incapacity 3. The reason of their incapacity The subject whereof he intended to speak was the Priest-hood of Christ and seeing he was a Priest after the Order of Melchisodec he must needs speak something of him The copiousness and aburdince of matter is signified by those words Of whom we have many things to say the excellency in those and hard to be uttered their incapacity they were dull of hearing The cause of this For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again c. which implies their negligence Of whom Some think this Relative whom referrs to Melchisedec others to Christ as Priest But it referrs to both to Christ principally to Melchisedec in order unto Christ For many things were to be known of Melchisedec that it might be made evident how he did typify Christ and how Christ was a Priest according to that Order and not the Order of Aaron This is the subject of which he intended to speak Of this subject he had many things to say This implies 1. That he knew many things concerning this Priest and Priest-hood and the same certainly and infallibly true as revealed unto him by the divine Spirit 2. That these things he could utter and express and that clearly and perspicuously enough and he was willing yea desirous to make them known if he could have found Schollars capable of this excellent Doctrine But such they were not for many excellent things might be taught if men would be careful to learn and improve their time and parts Yet these many things were hard to be uttered This implies that they were excellent and above the capacity of Babes and Children They were not hard or obscure to him for he knew them and fully understood them neither were they such things as he learned when he was rapt up into the third Heaven unutterable in themselves but they were hard to be uttered so as they might understand them For They were dull of hearing This was their incapacity The meaning is not that they were deaf either in whole or part or that such amongst them as were learned could not read them if written or understand the language but by hearing is meant understanding There are outward ears and outward hearing of the body inward ears and inward hearing of the Soul the former they had the latter they had not so as to be capable of such things as he had to say of this Priest and Priest-hood This was no obscurity in the matter but an indisposition in the Soul to receive this Doctrine Dulness was this indisposition which in general is a defect of active Power in particular in this place of the intellective faculty as not able to perceive discern apprehend and judge of this higher Doctrine It 's opposed to that we call acâ—â—â—n the sharpness quickness and piercing power of the wit and intellect yet here this dulness is restrained to a certain object for in other things they might be apprehensive and judicious enough By reason of this defect it is that much excellent and divine Doctrine is lost or at least useless to the greatest part of the People who are no whit moved with Doctrine though excellent if above their capacity For this cause the meanest Teachers are most popular though it 's true that all wise men must have respect unto the capacity of their Hearers and condescend unto them yet men should not be alwayes Babes and Dunces in God's School But what might be the cause of this dulness The Apostle informs us Ver. 12. That when for the time ye ought to have been Teachers you have need that one teach you again the principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat § 11. THis incapacity and defect of the Understanding may be either from natural imperfection as in Ideots and Naturals or such as are not much better or from want of teaching instruction and disciplination or from God's just Judgment and the delusions of Satan or from the negligence of such as are taught and do not attentively hear heed consider or from the sublimity and excellency of the matter taught or from ignorance of the language or terms or manner of expression used by such as take upon them to be Teachers or from the want of Understanding in principles upon which the knowledg of other things doth depend Dulness and so ignorance from some of these causes is blamless and will not be charged upon man in his last tryal For ignorance invincible is not counted a Sin but ignorance and dulness from neglect of the means God hath given Man to improve his knowledg for his own good is inexcusable If the things to be known be necessary and concern his everlasting Salvation or conduce to the same it 's far more hainous Such was the dulness and ignorance of these Hebrews and it 's implyed in this that they had had time and all other necessary means to improve their knowledg to that of Teachers and yet they were so ignorant that they had need to be taught again the very principles of Christianity This was a Sin and the same very grievous and a great impediment to their Salvation and increase
imprinted there more perfectly Yet the word turned Laws signifies in the Hebrew Doctrines And these are the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ's Person Nature Offices and the Work of Redemption the Doctrines of Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and eternal Life and these either presuppose or include the Moral Law For they must be such Truths as are necessary and effectual to Man's Salvation without the Knowledge and practice whereof sinful Man cannot attain eternal Life Further they are Doctrines concerning Christ as already exhibited glorified reigning and officiating in Heaven 2. The Book or Tables wherein they must be written are the mind and heart of Man By Mind some conceive is meant the Understanding and by Heart the Will and rational Appetite But by both words are meant the immortal Soul endued with a Power to understand and will or nill that which is understood The word in the Hebrew turned by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind and intellective Faculty signifieth the inward parts because as the heart and reins are the inmost parts of the Body so the mind thoughts and rational Appetite are intima Anime the inmost parts if we may so speak of the Soul They are as it were the Center of that immortal Substance where all the active vigour and powers of the Soul are united There is the Spring and Original of all rational and moral Operations of all thoughts affections and inward Motions There is the directive Counsel and imperial commanding Power There is the prime Mover of all humane Actions as such This is the Subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural Truths and Doctrines and all Laws There divine Characters may be imprinted and made legible to the Soul it self This is the most noble and excellent Book that any can write in This is an Allusion to the Tables of Stone wherein the Law was written for the Law was not written in the heart but in stone upon Phylacteries Frontlets Posts and Walls of their Houses And now the Scriptures and divine Revelations are written in Books so as that they are legible by the Eye they may be spoken and so uttered by Man as to be perceived by the Ear and from these be conveyed to the common sense and fancy and by degree be transmitted to the Soul which by them receives some imperfect representations not informations This immortal Soul is the Book or Table wherein these Laws and divine Doctrines must be written 3. The Scribe or Pen-man is God for it 's said I will give or put I will write He that said so was the Lord And it must be He because the Work is so curious and excellent that it 's far above the Sphere of created activity He alone can immediately work upon the immortal Soul to inform it move it alter it and mould it anew so as neither Man or Angel can do They may by the outward senses and the fancy come near the Soul but immediately prepare it and make lively Impressions and write clear Characters of divine Truth upon it they cannot They may move it and affect or disaffect it yet to take away the stony heart and make an heart of Flesh is far above their Power Therefore God doth alwayes ascribe this great Work unto himself 4. The Act and Work of this Pen-man is to write and write these Laws and write them in the heart How he doth it we know not That he doth it is clear enough His preparations illuminations impulsions inspirations are strange and wonderful of great and mighty force For in this Work he doth not onely represent divine Objects in a clearer light and propose high Motives to incline and turn the heart but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive Power whereby the Soul more easily and clearly apprehends and more effectually affects heavenly things The Effect of this Writing is a divine Knowledge of God's Laws and a ready and willing heart to obey them and conform unto them a Power to know and do the Word of God This is that Work of the Spirit which is called Vocation Renovation Regeneration Conversion actively taken without which Man cannot repent believe obey and turn to God It 's said to be a quickning of Man dead in sin a putting God's fear in Man's heart a putting God's Spirit within Man to cause him to obey his Laws a calling out of Darkness into Light a writing upon the fleshy Tables of Man's heart By this writing Man is said to have a new Heart and Spirit not that God creates in Man a new Soul or new Faculties but because he gives new Power new Light new Life new Qualifications so that Man is made partaker of a divine Nature and moulded anew with so much alteration that he is another Man though not for Substance yet for Qualities and Operations All this tends to an imperfect explication of this Promise wherein this new Covenant differs from and is more excellent than the former For that had no Promise of God's writing his Laws and Doctrines in Man's heart or of giving any sanctifying or renewing Power to enable them to observe and keep his Judgments Yet lest we mistake this excellent and most comfortable part of Scripture many things are to be observed 1. Concerning the Laws 2. Concerning the heart 3. Concerning God's writing in the heart 1. The Laws the Laws of God are written in the heart not the inventions fancies of men nor natural nor mathematical nor moral Philosophy much less the Errors and Blasphemies of Seducers and false Prophets It 's true that humane Learning and Languages are excellent means to find out the sense of the Scriptures and are great Blessings ordained of God for that end and being used with Prayer and sanctified may do much Yet we must know that these Doctrines are not only those of the Moral Law but these high Mysteries concerning Christ the Redemption Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and the eternal Punishments and Rewards in the World to come as they are revealed in the Gospel For the matter and subject of them is God's Kingdom and the Government of God-Redeemer ordering Man to his final and eternal estate as I have manifested in another Treatise 2. The heart of Man is by Nature a very untoward and indisposed Subject and not capable of these heavenly Doctrines It 's blind and perverse and there is an Antipathy between it and these Laws It hath some little parcels of the Law of Nature written in it but not any thing of these heavenly and evangelical Truths it neither knows them nor can relish them And when they are represented unto it yet it hath no intellective Power to understand them nor any Will or Desire to seek them or inclination to obey the Laws of God which direct unto everlasting life It 's not only ignorant but filthily blotted and blurred with Errours both in matters of Religion and humane Conversation And this is the condition not only of Heathens
the Conscience The first Proposition is It was a Figure for the time then present By Tabernacle in this place may be understood the whole Building with all the parts especially the two Sanctuaries This was a Figure the Word in the Original is a Parable which is a kind of Figure or Shadow representing by the similitude and resemblance some other thing and usually the thing represented and resembled is more excellent than the thing resembling as the Body is more excellent than the Shadow and the Figure more easily known than the thing figured Therefore Similitudes and Parables are usually taken from things easily known and obvious to the senses and the end of it is by that which is more easily known to inform us of that which is more inward and secret So this Tabernacle and the parts thereof with the things therein contained are visible and easily perceived and known yet so made as to signify far better things which were spiritual and divine such also were the Services therein performed And all this did imply the Imperfection of the Tabernacle of the things therein contained and of the Services accomplished in it for Types and Shadows are very imperfect things It was a Parable or Figure for the time then present as a time of Infancy and Non-Age and to continue only till the things figured and represented should be exhibited and then to cease and vanish and this is the reason why they had so little Power The second Proposition is In this Tabernacle were offered Gifts and Sacrifices Every religious Building and all Sanctuaries and Temples are erected for the Service and Worship of a God present in them so was this and it was so much better than others because it was consecrated to the true God and by his Command and Direction And seeing this and others are for the Service of God therefore there must be something to be given and offered as Gifts and Sacrifices These must be offered they must be offered to God and this Offering of them is the Service of God as it was in this Tabernacle The third Proposition is These Gifts and Sacrifices could not perfect them who did the Service as appertaining to the Conscience This doth presuppose that the end of God's Service is the benefit of Man serving The benefit here is the perfecting of such as did the Service To perfect is to sanctify free Man from Sin reconcile him to God so he may have some Communion with God and derive some Happiness from him There is an outward and also an inward spiritual and divine Sanctification The Service of the Law in the Tabernacle in offering Gifts and Sacrifices might sanctify the outward Man with an inferiour kind of Sanctification so that both Priest and People might have some outward Communion with God prevent or avert or remove some temporal Penalties obtain some temporal Blessings and Priviledges Yet all this was nothing to Sanctification of the Conscience and the immortal Soul conscious of Sin so as to remove the spiritual Guilt or the eternal Punishment or obtain spiritual and eternal Blessings All the Service of the Law could do no such thing it had no such Power and Efficacy It 's true that they who in performing these Services with an humble and penitent heart looked far beyond these figures upon Jesus Christ to come might obtain the Sanctification of the Conscience Yet this they could not do by the figures and shadows but by the things signified by them This was the reason why Paul did so much dis-esteem all his Priviledges and his Righteousness according to the Law in respect whereof he was blameless and did so much esteem so highly value and so much long after the Righteousness by Faith in Christ. This therefore was one Imperfection of the Law that it had not any such sanctifying Power as appertaining to the Conscience and this the Hebrews must take special notice of and they must know the figure and shadow had not the Power of the Substance § 9. The third Imperfection follows Ver. 10. Which stood only in Meats and Drinks und divers Washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them till the time of Reformation IT 's very difficult to find the Grammatical Congruity and good Construction in these words and the Connexion is obscure the printed Books differ and so do the Translations The Reason of all this may be from some Errour in the Transcription of the Manuscripts The Syriack is more plain than the rest and the whole may be summ'd up in two Propositions 1. That the Service of the Law consisted in Gifts and Sacrifices together with Meats and Drinks and divers Washings and carnal Ordinances 2. That these were imposed upon the Jews till the time of Reformation In the first Proposition Meats and Drinks are not ordinary but religious and by them may be intended Meat-Offerings and Drink-Offerings and some extend the sense so far as to include Meats clean and unclean allowed or forbidden by God Baptisms or Washings are here to be understood to be such as were religious and used in the Service of God and these were divers and of several sorts some were by water onely some by Blood some by other things mixt with Water some with sprinkling some with bathing some with washing another The end of them all was legal Cleansing and Purification And because there were other Rites he summs them up all in one word Ordinances which were carnal The word for Ordinances is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that is used in the first Verse and some translate it Justifications that is Legal Sanctifications But it 's taken here for Rites and Ceremonies in this place as in the Margent is expressed These Ordinances with the Offerings Meats Drinks Washings are said to be carnal that is outward sensible bodily and such as have their Effect in the use of them upon the Body the outward Man and bodily things This Epithet carnal is thought to be added for to give a Reason why they cannot perfect and sanctify the Conscience or have any Effect upon the immortal Soul and so this first Proposition belongs unto the former Verse to signify the inability of the Legal Service in perfecting the Conscience which is the second Imperfection The second â—â—oposition These Rites and this Ceremonial Service were imposed till the time of Reformation It might be said If they were so poor imperfect and ineffectual why were they observed The Answer is They were imposed till a better time a time of Reformation To be imposed is to be commanded so that the People of those times were bound to observe them and serve God in that Mystical and Ceremonious manner for the divine Precept made the Observation necessary Some so understand the word in the Greek as to imply they were a Yoke or Burden and so indeed they were Yet whether this be here intended may be a Question The time of Reformation is conceived to be the time of the Gospel
Othâ—â— imagine it was the whole World which with the parts thereof both the Tabernacle and Temple did represent wherein the Heaven of Heavens is the Sanctum Sanctorâ—n the Holiest of all and the Sanctuary through which the High-Priest passed into the Holiest place the Aethercal part of the World where the Sun and Moon and Stars represented by the Lights in the Golden Candlestick do ever shine Others determine it to 〈◊〉 the Heaven of Heavens whereof they make some different parts as one to be the place of Angels and Saints and another far more glorious which was the place of God's most blessed and special presence That Christ entred the Heaven of Heavens and that 〈◊〉 he ever ministers and makes Intercession there is express Scripture what difference and degrees of places be there we do not certainly know But let the Tabernacle â—e his Body or the Church Militant or the World or the Heaven of Heavens the second doubt is Whither these words concerning this Tabernacle are to be referred If to the former words which say that Christ being rome an High-Priest of good things to come then it 's nothing but this That Christ is the Minister and High-Priest of a far more glorious Sanctuary But some refer them to the word entred and make the sense to be that as the High-Priest under the Law passeth through the first Sanctuary to enter into the second which is the Holiest of all so Christ passed through the Militant into the Church Triumphant And it 's very true that Christ hath his Sanctuary and Temple here on Earth and that 's his Church wherein God dwels in a special manner and he passed through and from this into the Church Triumphant of Saints and Angels where God is more gloriously present and powerful nay he entred through the Aetherdal part of the World into the highest Heavens and through the Heaven of Angels and Saints unto the highest and most glorious place and Throne of God But the former sense that Christ is come an High-Priest and Minister of a far more glorious and excellent Sanctuary seems to be more genuine and confirmed by Chap. 8. 2. § 11. The third Proposition is concerning Christ's Service and Sacrifice offered in this Temple For Christ not by the Blood of Goats and Calves but by his own Blood iâ—â—red in once into the holy place Where 1. We have the Holy place 2. Christ's Entrance into it 3. His Entrance once 4. His Entrance once by Blood not of Goats and Calvs but by his own Blood 1. The Holy place is the Heaven of Heavens signified by the Holiest of all in the Tabernacle and in the Temple for that was the place into which the High-Priest with Blood entred in once every Year so that there is no difficulty in this particular And that Christ entred into Heaven is clear enough For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the Figures of the true but into Heaven it self there to appear before God for us Ver. 24. of this Chapter 2. Christ entred into this Holy place But there is a Question made of the time when he entred That he entred forty dayes after the Resurrection it 's clear and express For he was taken up into Heaven Acts 1. 11. He was carried up into Heaven Luke 24. 71. And He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all Heavens to fulfil all things Ephes. 4. 10. But there seems to be another entrance before this and that was immediately upon his Death For when he had given up the Ghost immediately the Vail of the Temple was rent in the midst from the top to the bottom and his Soul separated from his Body and commended into his Fathers hands entred into Paradise That he entred at that time into Heaven with his Soul separated from his Body the Text doth seem to affirm And what should the renting of the Catapetasm and the Inner-Vail immediately upon his Death signify but that the great High-Priest was ready to enter Heaven Again it may be said more properly that he entred Heaven with or by his Blood when his Soul was separated from his Body than when his Body was risen and made immortal and both Soul and Body joyntly ascended For it was the custom of the High-Priest according to God's Institution upon the slaying of the Sacrifice and taking of the Blood to enter the holy Place and the Type and Anti-type should agree especially in this particular Further the expiatory Offering was not compleate till the Blood was presented before the Throne of God in the inner Sacrary and it was suitable to the Type that the great High-Priest should after he was slain on Earth present himself as slain in Heaven before the Supream Judge as having suffered Death and satisfied Justice for the sin of man But all this I leave to the judgment of Learned men who shall seriously search the Book of God and impartially examine whether God doth not speak this in Scripture And howsoever it 's certain that whether he entred thus then yet he so entred at one time or other that he obtained eternal Redemption 3. He entred once This informs us that though the High-Priest entred once every year and so might enter above a thousand times yet Christ entred thus but once For as we shall read both in the latter end of this and also in the beginning of the next Chapter once to enter or one entrance in this manner was sufficient because one Death one Offering was able to do that which all the Offerings of all the High-Priests under the Law could not do neither was any more Offering needful seeing this had done all that was requisite for satisfaction and merit 4. This entrance was by or with Blood and this is set down negatively and affirmatively Negatively this was not blood of Goats and Calves and that with which the Legal High-Priests did enter within the Vail For as we may read Levit. 16. upon the day of expiation a Bullock and a Goat must be slain and with the Blood of these he must enter the holy Place The reason of this is because the blood of Beasts could not satisfy divine justice expiate the sin of man and purge his conscience and immortal Soul and so make the eternal penalty removable Therefore it must be a far more excellent blood the blood of the Son of God his own blood which was pare unspotted and most precious The reason 1. Why it must be by blood is because as without blood under the Law there was no Legal Remission or Expiation so it was the Will of God that without blood there should be no eternal Remission For though God was merciful and sate in the Throne of Grace and Mercy yet his Justice did require that satisfaction should be made and seeing sin was committed and punishment was deserved and due by his Law violated therefore sin must be punished before it could be pardonable
respect of the prohibition and commination of the Law is guilt and rendring of the Sinner obnoxiâ—us unto vindicative Justice of the Law-giver and Judge This guilt can no waye he taken away but either by suffering or pardon or both as here it 's put away by Christ's suffering and God's pardon for Christ suffers for Sin God pardons it so Christ's sake and in consideration of his suffering and offering The effect of Sin is to render the party sinning obnoxious and liable to punishment and God's vindicative Justice and by this virtue of the commination of the Law God to make way for pardon by a transâ—endent extraordinary power makes Christ man's Surety and Christ voluntarily submits himself out of love to his Brethren to God's will so far as to suffer Death for man's Sin and offers himself as being â—lain to the Supream Judge Upon his submission he becomes one person with sinful man as a Surety with the principal and so is liable to that punishment which sinful man should have suffered as a Surety becomes liable to pay the debt of the principal From all this it 's evident that Sin is an efficient moral cause of Christ's suffering and Christ's suffering is a punishment in proper sense though both these be denied without any reason by the Socinian By this Legal substitution of Christ and the offering of himself Sin is made remissible and the way is made open to pardon and upon the penitency and faith of the Sinner actual pardon follows That Sin is pardonable and pardoned is the end and effect of Christ's Suffering To put away Sin is first to make Sin pardonable and the consequents of Sin removable For this is the work and immediate effect of Christ's Sacrifice of himself and the same not often but once offered in the end of the World In all this we may observe the difference between Christ and the Levitical High-Priest Christ suffers and offers himself and enters Heaven with his own Blood but the Levitical High-Priest offers often and enters with the blood of Bulls and Goats The virtue of the High-Priest's offering was but for a little time but the virtue of Christ's extends to all time In these respects Christ's Sacrifice is far more excellent and more purifying § 25. This discourse of Christ's once offering and once suffering is continued and enlarged for the Apostle informs us that the reason why Christ suffered but once in the end of the World was the Decree of God which had determined of Christ as he had done of other men and this decree was regulated by Divine Wisdom which alwayes dictates that which shall be best and fittest This Decree is two-fold 1. Concerning other men 2. Concerning Christ. And because there is some agreement between the lot of Christ and other Men in respect of Death and that which followeth Death therefore the singularity of Christ's Death is set forth comparatively And of the comparison we have 1. The Proposition Verse 27. And as it was appointed unto Men once to dye but after that the Judgment IN which words we have 1. Something 's ordained 2. The ordination The things ordained are two 1. That men once dy 2. Come to Judgment The words absolutely considered may be reduced to two Propositions 1. That it 's appointed unto men once to dye 2. But after Death follows Judgment The first tells us 1. That men dye and this we certainly know 2. That they dye but once 3. That this is appointed yet though men must dye and it 's so certain and so evident and easily known yet men little consider it but their hearts are strangely taken up with the things of this life and they admire the vanities of this World and promise unto themselves long life and certain enjoyment of these earthly things They do not remember that they are mortal and that there is no assurance that they shall live one hour before Death arrest them and seise upon their estates and all earthly comforts in that day their thoughts perish and their pride and glory are laid in the dust Oh inconsiderate Wretches are ye able to conquer Death turn Mortality into Eternity and Earth into Heaven Be wise and never forget that you must dye 2. Men dye but once there is no return into this World again neither any recovery of what man once dead hath lost As no man can keep alive his Soul so no man can raise his Body and re-unite the Soul unto it This is a work proper to God who made us and far above the power of any Creature When it 's said That men must dye it 's to be understood of the generality of mankind that all must dye because all are obnoxious to Death and Mortal even Enoch and Elias and all those who shall be found alive when Christ shall come to Judge the World And though the two Prophets did not and they who remain till Christ's coming shall not dye as others do yet the former suffered and the latter shall suffer a change equivalent to Death though in both there seems to be some exception from the general rule So to dye but once is the general rule and the ordinary fate yet Lazarus and others may dye twice because God reserved an arbitrary power to himself to raise some unto a mortal life so that they became obnoxious to a double Death and he did exercise this power to manifest his Glory in some particular persons Yet this was an extraordinary case and this reservation did not take away the general and ordinary rule according to which the Apostle is to be understood 3. This is appointed for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is understood and translated and it 's capable of that signification by a Trope The party who appointed decreed and ordained both that all men shall dye and dye once and but once is not expressed but it 's easily understood For the Supream Lord of Life and Death who hath an Universal Power over all Men is God and none else and therefore this must be a Decree of God as Supream Lord and a Sentence of him as Judge and the same irrevocable yet dispensable in some particular and extraordinary Cases as should seem good unto him Death is a punishment and therefore men being obnoxious unto it must be guilty of some Crime and condemned thereunto for some Offence against some Law threatening Death And that was the positive Law which God gave to Adam saying But of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Gen. 2. 17. This Law was transgressed and the Sentence followed in these words Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Gen. 3. 19. Whereas the Socinian saith That Death is natural and not from any Decree of God his Opinion is not reconcileable with that of the Apostle As by one man Sin entred into the World and by Sin Death
obeyed it how could it have sanctified us But Christ came to do this Will and did it And he did it by offering of his Body once for all Where we may take notice of 1. The Body of Christ. 2. The Offering of it 3. The Offering of it once 1. The Body of Christ was the thing to be slain and sacrificed For he had said before A Body hast thou prepared me and here we understand why God did prepare him a Body and that is that it might be Sacrificed So that the matter of this Sacrifice was a Body yet not any Body but the Body of Christ which was the Body of the Son of God and so of God in a singular manner 2. This Body of Jesus Christ must be offered this was the form of the Sacrifice And here we might enquire and search out a reason why it 's said That the Body of Christ was offered And to discover this we must know That the God-head could not be offered For who can offer himself or any other thing to himself Neither could the Soul of Christ be offered because it was immortal For when it 's said That God made his Soul an offering for Sin Esay 53. 10. yet there by Soul is meant the Life of Christ. For the thing to be sacrificed must be slain the Blood shed and it must be offered to God But Christ's Soul though obedient unto Death was not slain had no Blood to be shed could not be sacrified to God Yet his Body might be slain the Blood thereof shed and both tendered unto God In this respect it 's said by Christ himself The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I give for the Life of the World And when he instituted the Eucharist in memory of this great Sacrifice he mentions his Body broken and given and his Blood shed This Body must be offered and resigned up to God and willingly yielded unto Death out of obedience to God's Command and love to sinful Man with an intention to propitiate God offended and to expiate the Sin of Man For otherwise if it had been crucified and separated from the Body and not out of this obedience and love and for this end it could never have sanctified us For it must be offered yet though offered if not accepted of God as a Ransome for Man's Sin it could not have had this effect For as it was God's free love to give his only begotten Son so it was his free love to accept this Offering in the behalf of sinful Man the rare and excellent effects thereof depended upon his Will It 's true that this Offering in it self was very acceptable yet that thereupon so incomparable a benefit should redound unto Man was from his Will and good Pleasure For though in it self it was far above all Offerings of the Law and the dignity of the person was great yet to sanctify Man and free him from eternal penalty did depend upon God's acceptation 3. This Body was but offered once for that once was sufficient and so much accepted of God that a second Offering of the same Body or any other thing was needless And that cause which by one efficiency can reach the effect must not act again for a new production of it Neither did it seem good to the infinite Wisdom of God to require any offering of this Sacrifice but this one § 10. Thus far the excellency of this Offering considered absolutely in it self hath been declared the comparative excellency is set forth in the words following to ver 15. Where we have 1. The Proposition concering the Legal Offering ver 11. 2. The Reddition ver 12 13 14. The Proposition we find Ver. 11. And every Priest standeth daily Ministring and Offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away Sins IN which Text we may take notice of 1. The Minstration of the Legal Priests 2. The inefficacy or weakness of their Ministration The Priests are of the Order of Aaron and are here implied to be many in opposition to Christ which was but one for it 's said Every Priest These Priests were ordained of God to minister before him and especially the High-Priests which are here principally intended whose principal Work it was by the yearly Sacrifice offered on the tenth day of the seventh Month to expiate the Sins of Israel 1. In the Ministration of those Priests which was principally to offer we may consider 1. The Sacrifices offered 2. The frequency of their Offering 3. Their continual attendance at the Altar for that purpose 1. That which they offered was Sacrifice yet the Sacrifices were many individually yet the same in kind for the same kind of Sacrifice was offered several times And hence 2. The frequency of offering and the manifold Re-iteration of the Act for they offered the same Sacrifices often and many several times 3. Lest this Work and Service should at any time be neglected every Priest stands daily ready to offer such Sacrifices as God had instituted and commanded to be offered at set and determinate times The Sum is that 1. Many Priests 2. Offered many Sacrifices individual of the same kind 3. Offered the same Sacrifice oftentimes 2. Though these many were many times offered by many Priests and often by the same individual Priest yet they could never take away Sin This was their impotency and ineffectual Causality in respect of Expiation spiritual and eternal Where it 's to be noted 1. That to perfect to sanctify to take away Sin is the same 2. That there is a Legal carnal Expiation and a spiritual and eternal and this latter is here to be understood as denyed of the Legal Sacrifices which could not expiate Sin in this manner 3. Whereas it sometimes falls out that that which one Cause cannot many may effect and that Cause which may be deficient at one time may be efficacious at another yet here it is said that not all these nor any of these could take away Sin at any time They could never take it away 4. Whereas Sin may be expiated and made remissible for ever in respect of the Sacrifice yet not actually taken away or remitted by reason of the indisposition of the Subject and impenitency of the Sinner in this place you must know that these Sacrifices were deficient not only in respect of the indisposition of the Subject but also in respect of the active expiating power of the Cause For they never made any Sin spiritually remissible or the spiritual and eternal Punishment removable For otherwise that Blood of Christ which obtained eternal Remission hath no Effect of Justification upon impenitent Unbelievers for before Sin can be actually taken away from any Person there must be 1. A propitiatory Sacrifice and such as God will accept as a full satisfaction for Sin 2. The party sinful must repent believe pray 3. Christ the great High-Priest since his Ascension must make Intercession and plead 4. God the Supream Judg must
his Body the Veil of the Temple was rent from the Top to the bottom to signify that Christ the great High-Priest was ready by his own Blood being shed to enter the Holy place of Heaven to procure eternal Redemption or Remission for sinful Man and by this means divine Justice being satisfied God was made accessible And no Man now can have actual access into his presence but by this Blood and through this Veil of the Flesh by him who was crucified and whose Body was separate from his Soul § 16. Thus the Way is made and consecrated The next thing is the Liberty which we have to enter into the Holiest through this way by the Blood of Christ where three things are to be observed 1. The place into which this way doth lead us 2. The Liberty to enter through this Way into this place 3. The means whereby we obtain this Liberty 1. The place is the Holiest for into that the High-Priest entred once a Year with the Blood of Expiation There was the Mercy-Seat which must be sprinkled with Blood We need not here enquire Whether that Holiest place on Earth signify Heaven or some other thing for it 's certain the Mercy-Seat did signify that which this Apostle calls The Throne of Grace Chap. 4. 16. The Throne of Grace is the Throne of God propitiated by the Blood of Christ so that to enter into the Holiest is to come to God as Supream Lord first offended by the Sin of Man and then made propitious by the Death and Sacrifice of Christ which was so acceptable unto him that for and in consideration of the same he is willing to admit Man into his presence graciously to receive his Petitions and bless him The Throne of God might be said to be three-fold 1. Of Justice 2. Of Grace 3. Of Glory To the Throne of Justice strict Justice no sinful guilty Man can approach To the Throne of Grace every penitent Sinner may have access The Throne of Glory is inaccessible to mortal Man We need not locally ascend into Heaven for to come unto the Throne of Grace it stands in the midst of God's People as the Tabernacle did in the midst of Israel For God is alwayes in all places nigh to such as call upon him in truth Christ stood before the Throne of Justice when he suffered for our Sins Penitent Sinners stand before the Throne of Grace when they worship him in Faith And after the Resurrection we shall all stand before the Throne of Glory and ever abide in his presence Yet this way lyes by the Throne of Grace and we pass by it to the Throne of Glory There is one way to both 2. We have Liberty to enter into the Holiest The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as you have heard signifies Freedom and Boldness of Speech it signifies also Liberty The Vulgar and the Syâ—iack turn the word Confidence which is the same with Boldness though some what more The Arabick and Arias Mortanâ—â— Liberty The Aethiopick Grace or Licence All agree for they signify 1. That we have a Licence and Liberty graciously granted unto us 2. A Right 3. This Liberty and Right is so full that we may come with Boldness and Confidence to be admitted and accepted This is a great Priviledge and Favour which God doth graciously vouchsafe unto Believers and denies to all others which are not admitted to come so near him 3. We have this Right Liberty and Confidence by the Blood of Christ for the Blood and Death of Christ satisfied God's Justice and merited his Favour and made him accessible and upon the same he promised to admit penitent Believers And upon our Repentance and Faith we have actual Right and Liberty so that we who could not come near him for our sins may come near him by Faith in his Blood This Priviledg is more fully expressed in these words of the Apostle In whom we have boldness and access with Confidence by Faith of him Ephes. 3. 12. Where 1. We have access and may enter into God's blessed presence Yet 2. Because one may come with fear and doubt here we may come with boldness and confidence 3. There is no such access but by Christ the Blood of Christ. 4. Neither is there any such access granted but by Faith in that Blood that is to such as believe The sum of all is That Sin had made God as the fountain of goodness inaccessible to Sinners as Sinners Christ by his Death had made him accessible to Sinners as believing § 17. We have 1. A way 2. A liberty to enter into the Holiest And 3. We have an High-Priest over the House of God Where by the House of God we must understand the Church which is the Society and Corporation of Believers and by this High-Priest Christ Jesus as exalted at the right hand of God No man under the Law could come to God without the High-Priest he must present their Offerings their Incense their Prayers and the Blood of Expiation unto God and make Intercession for them So Christ is ever ready before his Fathers Throne to bring us into his presence as the Admissional of Heaven to make Intercession for us and as our Advocate to plead our Cause by his Blood and make all our Services acceptable and effectual without all which neither way nor liberty to enter could be beneficial and to purpose § 18. Thus the words are explained and inform us of a way made through the Veil of liberty to enter of Christ set over the House of God as an High-Priest to bring us unto God to make our prayers effectual and to procure for us all things necessary to make us happy Now it remains we consider the words 1. As a recapitulation of some former Doctrine 2. As a ground of the consequent exhortations and both these I will make clear in a few words 1. They are a brief abridgment of the former Doctrine concerning Christ's Priest-hood For in the 5th and 7th Chapters he had not only asserted but proved That Christ was an High-Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec That he had made a way to God by his Blood and procured us liberty to enter into God's presence before the Throne of Grace so that we might boldly come with confidence to obtain all mercies necessary to our everlasting happiness he had made evident by the rare virtue and excellent effects of Christ's Sacrifice partly Chapter 9th partly in the former part of this For Christ as a Son is over his own House Chap. 3. 6. And this House is the Church We have a great High-Priest who is passed into the Heavens and sensible of our Condition Chap. 4. 14 15. And he is the Minister of the Sanctuary and the true Tabernacle which the Lord pâ—tched and not Man Chap. 8. 2. From all this you easily understand that the former Doctrine is repeated and briefly contracted in these words 2. As it is a Recapitulation of the former
Doctrine so it is also a ground of the future Exhortations For if there had been no way made or if there had been a way and we could have had no liberty of accesse unto the Throne of Grace by the Blood of Christ or if there had been a way and liberty to enter and yet no High-Priest set over the House of God it would be in vain to continue in the profession of Christian Faith or to perform any of those Duties exhorted unto in the following part of the Epistle But seeing we have all these and none of them nor any other thing necessary to Salvation is wanting but eternal life is possible and certainly upon these Reason to be obtained therefore we have a great motive and encouragement to go on and continue in the performance of the Duties exhorted unto For the ground of our hope is the possibility and certainty of attaining eternal Salvation and the ground of our practise and perseverance is our Hope which is the stronger because a way is made a liberty to enter obtained and a Priest set over God's House who will secure us of eternal bliss if we continue to believe and obey him to the end This is so much the more an effectuall reason because none of these could be had by the Law § 19. But what are these Duties exhorted unto They are several yet such as have great affinity one with another and all tend to one end The first this is Ver. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of â—aith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water THE Apostle in these words and those which follow exhorts to severall Duties 1 To draw near to God ver 22. 2. To persevere in their Christian Profession ver 23. 3. To stir up one another to Love and good Works ver 24. 4. To Continue in Christian Communion ver 25. In the first Exhortation we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto and to be performed 2. The manner of performance 3. The preparation of the persons who must perform it For the Duty is to no purpose no wayes profitable if it be not 1. Performed 2. Performed in due manner 3. Performed by persons prepared and duly qualified 1. To draw near to God for so the words are to be understood is to Worship God in general in particular to pray and seek Remission and eternal Life from him This is to make use of the way Consecrated through Christ's Flesh and of our liberty to enter into the Holiest procured by the Blood of Christ. It 's the same with coming boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace for seasonable Help Chap. 4. 16. It 's the same with coming to God by Christ to sue for Mercy Chap. 7. 25. The party therefore to whom we come is God yet considered as sitting in the Throne of Grace and propitiated by the Blood of Christ. The drawing nigh or coming to God thus considered is a motion not of the Body but the Soul whereby it turns away both the mind and heart from all other objects and turneth and addresseth it self unto God to converse with him for his Favour Mercy Blessings that it may obtain them from him And it fixeth upon him and abides with him till the business with him be finished This Coming is called Worshipping as Worshippers are called Commers ver 1. 2. This being the Duty it must be performed with a pure heart and in full assurance of Faith this is the manner and the due qualification of the act of drawing nigh to God without which it can neither please God nor profit Man This qualification is two-fold 1. The purity of Heart 2. The full assurance of Faith 1. It must be performed with the Heart For all serious actions issue from the Heart and whatsoever is not done with Knowledg and Will is not the action of a Man as a Man and a rational Creature The Worship of God whereby we seek eternal happiness requires both and in the highest degree of our activity because in it we have to do with God concerning the most weighty business of all others yet we may Worship with the Heart and not with a true Heart that is without sincerity The Heart is then sincere when according to God's Will it 's firmly fixed upon and aims chiefly at the chief End God's Glory and eternal Happiness desiring and intending both far above all other things and this out of clear Understanding And here it 's to be observed That sincerity is required not only in the person Worshipping but in the action of Worship He that is habitually sincere may so fâ—â— forget himself as to worship without sincerity and the principal part essence power reality and truth of that Worship which God requires For this truth and sincerity is the very Life and Soul of acceptable Worship If we incline or have secret and remote thoughts of Vain-glory of falling off from our profession or returning to Sin then our Heart is not perfect sincere upright and our worship must needs be like our hearts which ought in the first place wholly and folely be given and offered to God By this we easily understand and both how few do Worship God sincerely and how defective the Worship of the best may often prove 2. Besides sincerity is required a full assurance of Faith Faith is both a belief and a confidence and assurance full assurance is an higher degree of both As a belief it 's grounded on God's Word in general revealing the Truths and Propositions to be believed as a confidence it 's grounded on the promise a special part of God's Word The belief goes before confidence follows after as depending upon the belief for the promise is first a Truth and so to be considered before it can be conceived under the formal notion of a Promise He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him That God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek him is a truth or true proposition and is to be believed and it is a Promise because therein God signifies that as he is able so he is willing to reward such any he hath in the Gospel signified his unchangeable Will and Decree so to do and hath bound himself both by his Decree and his Word which is the signification of the Decree The full assurance of this Faith is grounded upon the infallible Truth of his Word and the fidelity and immutability of his Promise And where as this full ssurance is thought generally an high degree of Faith yet Faith is no divine Faith without it For no man receives the Word and Promise of God as the Word and Promise of God that wants this full assurance For the firmness of Faith should answer the firmness of God's Word If this full assurance were an assurance of our particular estate
and of our Title to eternal Life and of our perseverance it might be though an high degree of Faith and separable from true and sincere Faith in many but the object of this full Assurance is the Word and Promise of God considered antecedently to the application of them to this or that particular Subject or our selves and to the conclusion we deduce from thence concerning our own particular estate And it 's necessarily required in every one who will draw near to God The confidence and reliance which is grounded upon God's Promise is not an assurance that God hath justified us already or that he will justify and save us absolutely but that he will justify save and reward those who by Repentance and Faith in Christ diligently seek him and by consequence that he will save us seeking him in that manner For the Promises of God include the Duty of Man and bind God only unto such as perform the Duty And he that comes to the Throne of Grace without a full assurance of Christ's Merit and God's Promise and the performance of it to them that do their Duty they come not aright their Worship is not acceptable their Prayers not effectual Therefore said the Apostle If any man lack Wisdom let him ask it of God c. But let him ask it in Faith nothing wavering c. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of God Jam. 1. 5 6 7. Where by a wavering man some understand not only a man not assured of the truth of God's Promises or doubting of them but one not resolved to perform the Conditions of the Covenant For any such unresolved man to think that he shall receive the mercies promised and prayed for is plain Presumption Therefore this full assurance is necessarily required in every person drawing nigh to God even then when he draws nigh and converseth with his God We must therefore draw near to God and pray every where lifting up holy hands without Wrath or Doubting 1 Tim. 2. 8. Doubting is as prejudicial to Prayer as Wrath or impure hands This is the qualisication of actual Worship 3. The qualification of the Party followeth which is the purification of the heart and body For 1. Our hearts must be sprinkled from an evil Conscience 2. Our Bodies washed with pure water and the Apostle seems to presuppose them thus qualified because Believers The expressions are taken out of the Books of Moses in which God prescribed a two-fold purification one by bood which we have spoken of another by water And no person legally impure might draw nigh to God to worship him in the Tabernacle or Temple before he was purified And by this was signified that no man guilty and conscious of sin is fit to draw nigh unto or to worship God before he be purged from Sin The Ethiopick Translation is not here so wording as many other Translations be but is a Paraphrase and gives the true sense thus Our hearts being purged and our selves purified from Sin The reason hereof is this God heareth not Sinners Joh. 9. 31 But for the more distinct explication of the words we must observe 1. Our Hearts 2. The sprinkling of our Hearts 3. The sprinkling of them from an evil Conscience 4. The purifying of our Bodies with pure water 1. By Hearts are meant the rational appetite and will as subject unto the power of God and bound by his Laws This Heart and Will is the principal efficient of our actual Sins and proper and primary subject of Unrighteousness If this be pure all is pure if this be polluted all that issues out of it is polluted For out of the heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries c. Matth. 15. 19. 2. If this be unclean it must be sprinkled that is purged and cleansed for that 's the true meaning of the word For under the Law the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer were sprinkled upon the unclean and their Bodies being sprinkled with this Blood with these ashes were sanctified to the purifying of the Flesh so that the sanctified might be admitted into God's holy Tabernacle or Temple to Worship God with the rest of the People which were clean So under the Gospel such as are morally and spiritually unclean must be spiritually sprinkled and purged by the Blood of Christ which doth not only justify but sanctify the penitent Believer So that to have our hearts sprinkled is to have them justified and sanctified by the Blood of Christ. 3. The thing from which they must be cleansed is an evil Conscience which the Aethiopick Translatour interprets to be an evil Work or Sin For Evil here is Sin and an evil Conscience is the Sin whereof we are guilty and conscious For nothing doth spiritually and morally pollute us but Sin which makes us not only guilty and liable to punishment but also filthy and unfit for Communion with God 4. The Body must be washed with pure water Some understand the Body in proper sense as contra-distinct to the Heart and Soul and this water to be the water of Baptism which is sprinkled upon the Body and though not physicially yet sacramentally and mystically doth purge it and the Soul too from Sin This it 's said to do by virtue of the Institution by the merit of Christ's Blood and the power of the Spirit For Baptism is the washing of Renegeration by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tiâ— 3. 5. Yet this purifying cannot be by washing away the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 3. 21. It 's true that not only the Soul but the Body are polluted with Sin and both by reason of Sin are liable to punishment and both must be cleansed by the sprinkling of Christ's Blood and the Sanctification of the Spirit and this is the principal sense of the words The thing to be observed is That 1. No man unconverted unregenerate not sanctified by the Holy Ghost is fit to draw nigh to God 2. The regenerate who are in the State of justification and sanctification if they contract new guilt must by Repentance Faith in Christ's Blood and Prayer for the Spirit to sanctify them first cleanse themselves before they come to God The Body is but once washed with water and that is in Baptism but as it 's taken here it must be often washed and cleansed by the renewing of out Repentance and Faith So that by Heart and Body is meant the whole man and by sprinkling and washing is understood justification and sanctification not only begun upon our first conversion but continued by our Repentance and Faith continued habitually and re-iterated and actually exercised especially upon our relapfes and contracting of new guilt and pollution David knew this qualification to be necessary and therefore said I will wash my hands in innocency so will I compass thine Altar Psal. 26 6. To
the supream Judg. Angels or Men may have the use of it but the Propriety is in God And that you may understand it more fully you must know that this Power of punishing is an universal a supream an original Power as it belongs to God and none else It extends to all Persons to all Causes and to these in all respects For he hath Jurisdiction over Angels and the Consciences and immortal Souls of men and can irrogate spiritual and eternal Punishments 2. As Vengeance so Retribution belongs unto the Lord and it may be considered not only as it is a Power or Right to recompense but the Act and Exercise of vindicative Justice and may include both the Sentence and the Execution which is nothing else but a returning evil for evil the evil of Punishment for the evil of Sin The Apostle in this follows the Septuagint which turn it I will recompence which seems to imply that as he is 1. Just to punish Sin 2. Hath a power of Retribution So. 3. He will recompense and exercise this Power and that certainly 3. He will judg his People This may be understood two wayes 1. That God will judg the Cause of his oppressed and persecuted People by punishing and destroying their Enemies and this the Context in Denteronomy seems to imply 2. That he will judg his People and punish severely all Apostates among them So that by People may be meant all men punishable either according to the Law of Nature or of Moses or according to the Gospel Amongst those which are punishable such as â—â—e in Covenant with God and by Covenant are his Heople if they revolt are the greatest Offenders and amongst the Revolters such as fall away from the Truth of the Gospel once received are the most hainous Delinquents of all To judg these is to condemn them and to inflict the Punishment to which they are condemned and when it 's said He will judg them it signifies he will certainly do it and they shall not escape Men may threaten and never condemn they may condemn and never execute but God will certainly do both 4. The Lord saith so Man might have said it and it might have been otherwise out of Ignorance he might have been deceived or out of pravity he might lye and deceive others or if any earthly Judg who knew his own mind and power should have said so yet he might change his mind or want power and so Recompence might fail But it 's God who is Supream Judg who cannot be deceived cannot deceive cannot change his mind who hath almighty Power that saith so and his Word is his Deed. If therefore he say I will recompense I will judg Recompence and Judgment will certainly follow they cannot fail 5. They knew it was God who said so that God who could certainly do as he had said If any other had said it or God himself had said it and they had been ignorant of it their fear had been less though the danger had been as great as if they had known it Seeing therefore it is the Lord who said it and they knew that it was said and that by him their fear should be answerable to the danger and so much the greater as their Knowledge was more clear and certain They knew this and that by Scripture which they believed to be the Word of God Ignorance of this Truth makes men secure and presumptuous and so doth Unbelief This seems to prove the Punishment to be unavoidable § 31. Yet though it be certain and unavoidable yet if it be lesse it 's lesse feared But Ver. 31. It 's a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the Living God THis again doth signify how grievous the Punishment of Apostates must needs be for they fall into the hands of the Living God And this is deduced from the former Text c for there it 's said God will recompence God will judg and take Vengeance And if it be the Punishment that the Living God will execute then it must needs be most fearful and unavoidable To understand the force of the Text we must observe in it 1. The Living God 2. The hands of the Living God 3. The falling into his hands 4. The fearfull Condition of such as fall into his hands 1. The Living God is here opposed not only to dumb and dead Idols but to mortal men and the word Living is added to signify not only the eternal Duration of his Existence but his active and lively Power and Strength which is said to be almighty and is of himself 2. The Hands and Arm of God in Scripture doth usually signify this Power and Strength of God which is exercised sometimes in Mercy sometimes in severe Justice For it is this Almighty Strength of God which doth deliver and save his People and punish and execute Vengeance on their Enemies And here it 's taken for his punishing and revenging hand whereby he executes his Wrath upon Apostates and manifests his greatest Indignation against them 3. To fall into his Hands is by Apostacy to make our selvs obnoxious to the severâ—ty of his revenging Justice in that manner as no wayes to escape either the Sentence or the Execution For this Sin is the most provoking of all others renders the Sinner uncapable of any Mercy makes him liable to the greatest Punishment Man can suffer and he shall be no wayes able to avoid it but must in the end certainly feel it We are all in God's hands and in his power at all times but the Apostate casts himself into the hands of his severest Justice never to be delivered ever to be tormented 4. It 's a fearfull thing Where we must note that to fall into the hands of the Living God is the Subject or Antecedent and a fearfull thing is the Predicate and Consequent of the Proposition and argues the Antecedent as an Adjunct inseperable doth it's Subject yet in this place to be fearful is to be apt to cause fear The Object of all fear is some evil approaching and the greater the evil is the more approaching and approaching as inevitable the greater Cause of fear there is The Evil is Punishment the greatest Punishment Man can suffer and it 's very near for he is already fallen into the hands of the Living God and he can no wayes escape It 's a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of a severe and potent Judg or of a cruel Enemy much more into the hands of this supream and eternal Judg who can not only kill the Body but cast both Soul and Body into Hell and eternally and extreamly torment both The Sum and Substance of this Argument is that seeing the Punishment of Apostates will be most grievous and unavoidable therefore it concerns them much to consider seriously of it and take heed of falling away from their Profession § 32. The Apostle proceeds to another argument Ver. 32. But call to remembrance the former dayes in
enlarge but also polish his Discourse and excellently set forth their Faith and the forenamed Effects thereof The whole is an excellent Testimony of the three eminent Patriarchs and therein we have 1. The Duty they performed 2. God's owning them and expressing his dear Affection towards them The first of these is continued from the beginning of Ver. 13. to the latter end of the 16th in the last words whereof we have the second thing here observed Their Duty and the Performance thereof may be reduced to certain Propositions 1. These all not receiving the Promises dyed in the Faith Of which two parts 1. Their not receiving the Promises 2. Their dying in the Faith though they received them not 1. They received not the Promises Where by Promises understand the things promised For otherwise it cannot be true because it 's certain that Promises were made unto them they knew them and received them by Faith But the things promised were neither given nor received till long after and these are reduced to four heads which be these 1. A numerous Posterity 2. The Land of Canaan 3. The Incarnation and Exhibition of Christ. 4. The Resurrection to eternal Glory The parties here meant are Abraham Isaac and Jacob not any named before nor any mentioned after these Three for they were the Persons who came from beyond the River Euphrates who sojourned in the Land of Canaan who dwelt in Tabernacles Of these it 's said that they received not the things promised For neither was their Posterity made as yet so numerous nor had they any hereditary Possession of the Land of Canaan nor did they see Christ in the Flesh or hear the Gospel for that followed about 2000 years after the Promises were first made nor did they attain the Resurrection and Immortality 2. Yet they dyed even all of them in the Faith Which words signify 1. They did believe 2. Continued firm in the Faith unto the end though they received not the Promises The meaning is they not only lived but dyed Believers delay and non-enjoyment did not break their hearts neither could Death it self when they might perhaps be put to the greatest Conflict separate their Souls and their Faith though it separated their Souls and their Bodies For this divine vertue was deeply rooted and fastned in them and was immortal as their better part was and followed the Soul into another World Death might bereave them of their Friends and their temporal Estates and all their earthly Comforts but of Faith it could not And it 's to be noted that not only one but all of them dyed in the Faith These were rare Patterns of Perseverance in this rare and incomparable vertue of Faith The second Proposition is That seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them This should not have been a distinct Proposition for it's part of the former and added to those words not receiving the Promises And it 's somewhat observable that the word perswaded is wanting in several Manuscripts They received them not but 1. Saw them afar off For they were distant and to come and not to be accomplished or enjoyed in their dayes and some of them were more distant from their times than others some were nearer The principal which were the Exhibition of Christ and the universal Resurrection stood at the most remote distance of time from them Yet these they saw for divine Revelation as a celestial Light did represent them unto them the Promise did signify they had a Right unto them and part in them And as by this divine Light they were manifested unto them so by the Eye of Faith which is the spiritual visive Faculty of the Soul they saw them as they were represented that is at a distance For Faith can see beyond and above the World and hath some glimmering or imperfect sight of Eternity 2. They were perswaded of them and assured that in God's good time which was the sittest they should be fulfilled The Revelation and Promise was a sure Ground of this Perswasion and the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen 3. They embraced them the word signifies to salute to draw near to rejoyce to embrace for in saluting dearest friends we draw near unto them embrace them rejoyce to seethem Some think the word here is Metaphorical and the Expression taken from such as after a long and tedious Voyage at Sea come within ken of Land and discover their own dearest Country where they expect to abide and rest For so soon as they discover and have sight of their own dear native Soil they wonderfully rejoice and begin with joyful Acclamations to say Land Land Land Haven Haven Haven now Rest and Safety are near So it 's certain that these Saints and heavenly Worthies drawing near their end beheld these excellent Blessings and especially their Saviour and their heavenly Country and being sure of the futurition and enjoyment of them rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Our Saviour saith thus Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8. 56. When Abraham lived the day of Christ's Incarnation and the blessed Redemption of sinful Man was to come and afar off Yet Abraham by Faith saw that day and seeing it though not near or so clearly he was glad and rejoyced wonderfully And now our Faith and Hope of eternal Glory though afar off is a Cause of unspeakable Joy The third Proposition They confessing themselvs Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth declared plainly that they sought a Country Here we may consider 1. What they did express 2. What they did imply 1. The thing expressed is That they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth For 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth 2. They did openly confess this 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth That they did so journ in the Land of promise as in a strange Country you heard before yet they sojourned not only there but in other places as in Gerar and Aegypt and for the whole time of their mortal Life they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth and could not be said to be Free-men Denizons or Members of any Community or Commonwealth in the World But they might be such either Politically or Spiritually and they were in both respects such for Man being immortal should provide for some place of perpetual Abode and many thinking only of their Settlement on Earth and of perpetuating themselves and their Names in their Posterity by successive Generations look no higher than this World If these travel out of their native Country they must needs be Strangers in all Forreign States if not naturalized in some of them As for these Patriarchs they had forsaken their own Country out of which God had called them and lost all their native and birth-right Priviledges yet they did not seek to settle themselvs in any other part of the Earth neither did they incorporate with any other People in the
Slaughter of the Person to be sacrificed and he trust be offered as a burnt Offering upon the Altar This Offering once consummate would be the total Destruction of Isaac as to this mortal Life and that before he had any Issue Abraham is said to have offered him though he did not consummate and compleat the Oblation For 1. In his heart he had parted with him and given him wholly unto his God and was resolved to slay him and burn his Body upon the Altar So that this Oblation was finished in his heart 2. He proceeded further began really to do what he had resolved came to the place of Offering had prepared the Wood bound Isaac laid him upon the Altar and had lift up his hand to give the fatal blow and had done all the rest of his Work if God by the Voice of his Angel had not instantly staid his hand This was a difficult piece of Service and the more difficult the more excellent his Obedience for it was Isaac his only begotten of Sarah whom he was commanded to offer § 18. The next thing to be considered is his Faith for by Faith he offered Isaac This Faith was high and excellent because having so many difficultie to encounter yet conquered all and became finally victorious so that nothing could stand before it The difficulties may be reduced to two sorts 1. Such as seemed to be contrary to Reason 2. Such as were contrary to dear and tender Affection 1. Reason might doubt whether the Revelation was from God or a delusion of Satan and this was the first debate Yet upon serious consideration he knew assuredly that it was from God and as from him he by Faith receives it 2. But suppose it were from God and as from him he by Faith receivs it 2. But suppose it were from God yet he might scruple whether it was a Command and of absolute Obligation 3. Let it be so He might question the matter of the Command as contrary to an express Law against the Light of Nature and against all Justice and Equity to slay an innocent Person seemed so to be 4. Reason would most of all plead the Promise of God which was to be fulfilled in Isaac and would alledg that if Isaac be slain offered burnt then the Performance would be impossible and God would not prove faithful But Abraham in all these particulars wholly resigned up and sacrificed his reason to the Wisdom of God and by Faith was perswaded that the Commandment was from God was just did absolutely bind him and rested upon God's Almighty Power as able to raise him again out of the Ashes as he created the first man out of the Dust. And he had an Experiment of this Power which in his very Generation and Conception and Birth did above the Power of Nature as it were raise him from the dead according to those words From whence he received him in a Figure whereby is signified that his Generation was a kind of Resurrection from the dead and was very like unto it For his Body when he begot him and Sarah's Womb when she conceived him were in respect of generative Power both dead So that the Knowledg and Experience of God's Almighty Power and his full Assurance of God's fidelity in fulfilling his Promise did wholly silence and refuse the debates of Reason natural and not enlightned 2. As his Reason so his dear and tender Affection not only natural but moral was hardly and sorely put unto it For 1. God did not command him to offer his Bullocks Goats Rams or Lambs but his Son not his Son Ismael but Isaac the Son of his Joy the Son of his Love whom he loved as his own Son as his only Son by Sarah as a dutiful and pious Son as a Son given him extraordinarily from Heaven as the Son of Promise and which is more than all a Son from whom he expected Christ and in whom all the Promises were to be fulfilled To part with a Son with such a Son to have him slain to slay him himself and embrue his hands in the innocent Blood of so dearly beloved a Child whom he prized above any thing in the World for whose life he would have given his greatest Estate in whose Person so many of his Comforts were treasured up was grievous to Flesh and Blood and a Service and Work above the Power of Nature yet Faith was strong and overcame his Affection By this Act of Obedience we learn that Faith is a rare vertue and a great gift from Heaven that when God requires hard and difficult things from us as to forsake Father Mother all our dearest Relations Life it self and to bear the Cross we must deny our Reason and our Affections and resign our selvs wholly up to God's Wisdom and Will and the more we love our God the more we love our selvs in God This Isaac in this particular was a lively Type of Christ whom God gave for us For Christ was the only begotten and the dearly beloved Son of God better than all the World yet God to manifest his Love unto us sent him into the World and made Him a Burnt-Offering for us And he suffered most cruel pains was slain indeed and suffered a cruel and ignominious death In this Example which we are all bound to follow we may observe God's great Mercy unto Abraham in that he put him not to this hard Trial till his Faith was highly improved and was taught to love nothing above his God § 19. The Apostle observing the Order of time descends from Abraham to Isaac of whom it 's written thus Ver. 20. By Faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come BEfore I enter upon the Example I will put you in mind of some things only hinted and darkly implyed or not mentioned formerly As 1. Though God commanded Isaac to be sacrificed upon which Sacrifice and burnt-Offering once consummate the Performance of God's Promise seemed impossible yet God did fulfil in Isaac what he promised in that manner that the Command was no wayes contrary nor prejudicial to the Performance of the Promise 2. That though Abraham thought that the raising of Isaac from the dead might he a way for God to shew his faithfulness yet that was not God's way but another for when Abraham was ready to give the fatal and mortal blow God stayed his hand prevented his death and saved his Life Yet this was till that very moment concealed from Abraham that he might fully try him and manifest his total Resignation of himself to God 3. That though Abraham was willing yea resolved and ready to sacrifice his Son and for this was highly accepted of God yet this doth no wayes warrant or justify such as sacrificed their Children or were ready to offer the fruit of their Body for the Sin of their Soul For 1. They had no Commandment or Warrant from God as Abraham had 2. They offered their Children to Idols and
us to Imitation And whom should we follow if not him to whom we have so near Relation and upon whom that Religion and Faith whereby we hope to be saved doth so much depend for the institution efficacy and perpetual continuance The second Proposition This Jesus Christ for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame Wherein we have 1. The Rice or Vertue 2. Prize or Reward The way was tough the Prize was excellent yet he ran the Race and won the Prize That which made the way so troublesom was the Cross and the Shame of the Cross yet he endured the Cross and made nothing of the Shame but run through Pain and Shame and so attained the eternal Crown of Glory By Cross is meant all the cruel pains of his Body and bitter sorrows of his Soul which islued from and were caused by all these Wrongs and Evils inslicted upon him unjustly and maliciously from Men and Devils yet justly from God for our Sins which he had undertaken to expiate These were such as never any man did suffer which never any Angel could have born as He did thus dear it cost our Saviour to propitiate for our Transgressions though many make a mock of Sin By shame we understand all the Abuses Reproaches and Indignities cast upon him He was apprehended accused condemned as a Malefactor buffetted hood-winkt spit upon scourged reviled derided and put to death upon a Cross which was the most ignominious death of all others And the more excellent and innocent he was the more intolerable the shame All this must be laid upon him that God might manifest his hatred of Sin the sacred power of his Laws his severest justice against Sin his Love to Man in transferring from him unto Christ his own Son that Punishment which was deserved by our Sin and to let men know that he would not pardon Sin except his Justice were satisfied Therefore let no man presume to Sin but to be afraid to offend his God and Supreme Lord Yet he endured the Cross which implies that he was sore pressed with our sins and was very sensible of the pressure but notwithstanding his strength was such as he bare this heaviest burden and that with greatest patience He did not yield faint murmur or despair he overcame all He despised the shame Some high Spirits dare look Death in the face and be no whit daunted or appaled yet even these cannot brook shame and disgrace they will rather dye then suffer in their Honour and Reputation which are dear unto them Yet Christ endured the shame and with that patience and constancy as that he made nothing of it He despised it as though it were nothing though it was much and so much as never any suffered That which in all this did strengthen and encourage him was the glorious prize and the joy set before him This joy by a Metonymy signifies that happy and glorious estate which followed upon his Suffering for immediately upon his Resurrection he attained an estate of perfection and layd aside his mortality and the infirmities of his humiliation was fully and for ever freed from all Sorrows and Sufferings did enjoy a most sweet calm and blessed peace of eternal continuance after that ascends above all Heavens entred the place of Glory and had fulness of joy in his Fathers presence and pleasures at his right hand for evermore and so bathes himself perpetually in the streams of eternal delights This joy was set before him both by a clear representation and a firm promise and he had a lively apprehension of it as it was represented and a certain expectation of it as it was promised This joy and blessed estate so apprehended so expected did strengthen revive and refresh him in the midst of his Suffering so that his burden was made the lighter and his sorrows much abated and this was the reason why he was so patient and chearful in his Sufferings and so much despised the shame This patience and chearfulness might be attributed to his Faith for he did both believe and trust in his heavenly Father Yet this Faith was of another kind then ours far more perfect and far above our Sphear And if we had a firmer belief more lively apprehensions and a more full assurance of Heaven's Joy and Glory we might rejoyce in Tribulation and be exceeding glad in the midst of siery Flames Christ knew the time of the Cross and shame was but short the distance between him and eternal Joy not long and his assurance of Glory very great and this was the reason why he made so little account of the greatest evils that any ever yet did suffer Proposit. 3. After he had endured the Cross despising the shame he sate down at the right hand of the Throne of God God's Throne puts us in mind of his Majesty and Power for he is the Supreme and Universal Lord Lawgiver and Judge of the World The right hand of this Throne is the highest place of Honour Dignity and Power next unto that of Gods Christ was set at the right hand of this Throne when he was advanced and mounted above all Angels and all other Creatures For all Power in Heaven and Earth was given him before his Ascension and after he was solemnly invested in Heaven he began to reign and exercise this Power as Administratour-General of the World This glorious estate was the great Reward which he received and enjoyed after that he had endured the Cross and despised the shame For because he had taken upon him the form of a Servant and been Obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross God exalted him and gave him a Name above every Name Proposit. 4. In running with patience the Race that is set before us we must look on Christ thus represented He that hath a Copy or Pattern set before him for imitation must often look upon the Pattern or Copy and the more excellent the Pattern the more carefully and frequently it must be eyed and observed This Pattern is the best that ever was proposed and that in three respects 1. Of the person 2. Of the rare performance of the hard Service performed so patiently and chearfully 3. The glorious Reward which followed thereupon 1. The person was the Authour and Finisher of our Faith one far above all others 2. The Pattern wherein his heavenly Virtues were manifest was the fairest and most excellent that ever was given And though the Service was the hardest that ever was undertaken yet it was performed with the greatest perfection 3. The reward attained and enjoyed was incomparable and most glorious All these must severally and seriously and frequently be viewed that we may be the more effectually encouraged § 3. Besides what had been said of Christ example there was something in it farther considerable therefore he goes on with his Exhortation in the words following Ver. 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of Sinners against
liveless and sonsless This is the deficiency of the Body from which the Metaphor is taken For the deficiency of the Soul in the profession of the Christian Faith is intended and signified by these words therefore is added the word mind that is lest you â—e â—â—ary and faint in your mind This implies that there is a divine spiritual or moral strength and fortitude of the mind whereby it 's enabled to endure Persecutions and Contradictions though many and long continued Yet as the Body so the Mind may be wearied faint yield ly under the burden and entertain thoughts of forsaking the Faith and at length forsake it indeed And this was the Devils design to tire and weary them out that so they might be willing to renounce Christianity the Profession whereof was so toublesom 2. The Remedy here mentioned whereby this sad Event might be prevented was to consider what Contradiction Christ suffered from Sinners and yet endured with Patience to the End This through the Sanctification of God's Spirit would refresh strengthen and revive them And here we must observe that some are of so poor a spirit as that they will yield before their Strength fail them some are lazy and love their Ease some are negligent and make no use of such Helps as God hath put in their power and this is a great Sin in any of us who profess the Faith of Christ and it tends to Apostacy For God requires whilst we have any strength to use it 3. Therefore they are exhorted to use the means and consider Christ's Patience and Constancy and following his Example not sink under a far leighter burden seeing he did not shrink under a far more heavy Temptation § 4. Besides the Example of Christ which they must consider there is another Reason Ver. 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto Blood striving against Sin THough this may seem to be another distinct Reason from the former yet it may be a Branch of the same For Christ had resisted to Blood which they had not done Yet there may be something more in the Text for not only Christ but also other Saints far inferiour to Christ had been faithful unto Death and had sealed their Profession with their Blood This was no more than Duty and God required it at their hands and to faint and fall off before that Period was agrievous Sin This therefore presupposeth that it was their Duty to resist unto Blood and to suffer far more than yet they had endured therefore they must go on In the words we have two Propositions 1. They did strive against Sin or they did suffer striving against Sin 2. In striving against Sin they had not yet resisted unto Blood 1. By Sin is not meant any kind of Sin but some one principal and far above the rest and its Apostacy called so Antonomastik 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s by way of Eminency It 's true that it 's a general Duty of all Christians to strive against all Sin for we are no sooner regenerate and have renounced the Devil and the World and bid desiance and proclaimed eternal Feud and Hostility but we are fearfully assaulted and after that time our Life is a continued Warfare hence the many fearful Conflicts between Flesh and Spirit within us The Events of this War are many and various but the final Issue is a total final eternal Victory The great Design of Satan in this Battle is to shake our Faith in pieces for then if that be done the Conquest is compleat Therefore said our Saviour to Peter Simon Simon Behold Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as Wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not Luk. 22. 31 32. And if Christ should not strengthen and support no Man could stand Therefore we should remember and consider what our condition is it 's a state of War and not of Peace and we are environed continually with potent vigilant and cruel Enemies which seek our temporal and eternal Ruine in this respect we must alwayes sight and strive with all our Power and stand continually upon our Watch pray for help and humbly depend upon our God and of all other things let us keep our Faith If that be safe all is safe and all other Sins pardonable but if that be lost all is lost and our case is desperate 2. Yet in this War they had not resisted to Blood By Blood is meant Death and a violent taking away of Life and though they had resisted stoutly and suffered much yet their lives were safe Reproaches and loss of Goods were grievous yet Life is very precious and the best thing we have in this World it 's far more than Goods and these temporal Estates and Man will do much and give much to save it In this respect Death is said to be so terrible as the greatest of all temporal Evils Upon this he urgeth this Duty of Perseverance in Resistance because their Life was due to Christ and whosoever will not lay it down for Christ's sake cannot be his Disciple For if any man saith Christ come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple Seeing therefore their Duty was to do and suffer far more than yet they were put unto they should not faint under the loss when they were bound to beaâ— the greater burden And as this was their Duty so it 's ours and if we think it unreasonable to be put unto so hard Service to resist even unto Blood if God require it let us consider that Christ suffered cruel pains and laid down his Life for us that many of God's Saints did cheerfully suffer loss of all earthly Comforts and of life it self that if we lose our life which is but mortal and momentany we find a Life immortal glorious and for ever blessed that we resist and strive not for our temporal Estates Wives Children earthly Country but for our eternal Safety Peace and Happiness that our Sufferings though far greater than they are yet are but leight and for a moment but the Glory which will follow is exceeding and eternal and will make amends for all Lord encrease our Faith and strengthen our hearts in the hour of Temptation § 5. The next Argument is taken from the Nature of their Sufferings as they are Chastisements upon them from God as a Father chastning every Child according to his Wisdom for their Good and Happiness wherein they end for the end of them is Peace This Argument we find proposed first and then excellently polished It begins Ver. 5. And ye have forgotten the Exhortation which speaketh to you as to Children My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked ef him IN these words with those that follow unto Ver. 14 we may observe 1. Something presupposed 2. Something expressed 1. The thing presupposed is
taken from our subjection to our earthly Fathers and that from 1. The excellency of our heavenly Father as far above the Fathers of the Flesh ver 9. 2. The manner of Chastening us for our greater good ver 10. The reasoning in form is to this purpose If we have been subject to the Fathers of our Flesh how much more ought we to be subject to the Father of Spirits that we may live But we have been subject to the one Chastening us Therefore much more ought we to be subject to the other This is the substance of ver 9. The Consequence he proves thus 1. If our earthly Fathers Chastened us only for a few dayes and after their own pleasure and yet we were subject to them much more ought we to be subject to God our heavenly Father chastening us for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness But we were subject to them so chastening us for a few dayes after their pleasure Therefore much more ought we to be subject to him Chastening us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness This being the form of the Apostle's Argument I will proceed to consider the words 1. Absolutely 2. Comparatively I need not stand upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned furthermore whereby the Connexion with the former words is signified to this purpose that besides what I have observed out of the former Text it 's further observable that God is compared to a Father who both as a Father and as Chastening is far more excellent then any earthly Father and from thence an argument and that of great force is drawn to prove that they should take his Chastening patiently This premised the words considered 1. Absolutely declare some things of Man as chastising Fathers God as chastising his Children Of men three things 1. We have had the Fathers of our Flesh. 2. These corrected us 3. We gave reverence to them correcting us 1. We have had Fathers of our Flesh. All Children have their Fathers for in that respect they are called Fathers because they have Children There are Fathers Moral Political Physical and all regenerate persons have a Father spiritual and the same subordinate or supreme By Fathers here are meant they who are Physical or Natural who under God by regeneration are causes of our natural Being and these are said to be the Fathers of our Flesh that is as most do understand it of our Bodies thereby implying that our Souls are not by Genetation or Ex traduce but in a more excellent and immediate manner from God creating and infusing them as many do express it Whether these be proper or fitting expressions I do not here debate but only say that the immortall Soul is concreated with and in the Body as a fit Receiptacle by an higher way and in a more excellent manner then we do or can know This doth not exclude though it doth not intend Fathers by Adoption and seems to be added to difference Men from God and earthly Fathers from our heavenly who makes the Body yet frames the Soul in a more special manner 2. These Fathers of the Flesh did correct us And this is the Duty of all Parents if they wisely and truly love their Children desire their happiness hope for comfort from them And there are very few Children which do not sometimes need Correction as well as Instruction Yet many Parents are very negligent in this particular Some are imprudent some are too indulgent and remiss some are careless and do not consider what the Consequents of this neglect will be The ignorance imperfection corruption of Children conceived and born in Sin require in their Parents a more then ordinary care Yet many Children are duly corrected and this Correction is a kind of punishment and yet a mercy and may prevent many sins and much misery for time to come for the end of it is reformation and though the party correcting may in respect of correction be thought to be and in some sort is a severe Judg yet in respect of the good intended he is a loving Father Happy are those Children which are duly corrected in time 3. Being corrected we gave them reverence The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems in signification to agree with the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is with humility to submit For Children being ashamed of what they have done amisse do with humility submit not only to their Fathers instruction but correction And though they would take it ill at the hands of others yet they endure it patiently from them to be beaten and scourged for their faults And all Children should know that their Fathers have power not only to instruct and direct but to punish them when they see just Cause and they should the more willingly subject themselves because their Parents are under God the Cause of their Beeing maintain them love them and even in punishing them seek their good § 10. These absolutely declare some things concerning Men as earthly Fathers the words following inform us of some things concerning God as a Father and our Duty to him as such and they are three 1. God is the Father of Spirits 2. We must be subject to him 3. We must be subject that we may live 1. God is the Father of Spirits By Spirits some understand spiritual intellectual substances as Angels and immortal Souls yet here it seems to be restrained to humane Souls as contradistinct to the Flesh and Body mentioned before And the Soul is a Spirit that is an invisible spiritual intellectual Substance of a far more curious and excellent constitution then the Body Yet here it may be taken not only Physically as a Soul and Spirit but Morally as capable of a spiritual Felicity God is here said to be the Father of this Soul this Spirit in the Creation whereof the earthly Father hath no efficiency as by Generation not able to reach so noble and divine a Substance God only is the Efficient and Maker of it as you have heard before and that in some special manner And he is the Father not only because he hath made it but also because he alone hath power over it so that it 's exempted from all jurisdiction both of Men and Angels who as they cannot make it so they cannot command or judge it For the Conscience and immortal Soul is only subject unto his Imperial Dictates especially as it is ordinable unto an eternal estate 2. Therefore as he alone hath power over it so our Spirits and Souls are bound to be subject to him and him alone For where there is Soveraignity there subjection is due and as it 's due to him alone so we must submit freely and willingly to him alone as our Supreme Lord both commanding and as a Father correcting and sanctifyng his correction unto our good 3. For we must be subject unto him that we may live To live is not only to enjoy a physical Life
that is The peaceable fruit of Righteousness for surely there is nothing which God doth unto his Children but therein he intends their good The Subject Matter of this Passage as of the former is the Lord 's chastening of his Children and it 's considered 1. In respect of it self for the present 2. In respect of the Fruit which follows afterward According to these two Considerations we have two Propositions 1. That Chastening for the present seeineth not to be joyous but grievous 2. That nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised therewith 1. The Nature of all Chastening in general and of the Lord 's Chastening his Children in particular is here assumed to be grievous and evil For it 's not matter of Joy but Sorrow to the Party suffering it for as Good present is the cause of Joy so Evil is the cause of Sorrow Yet this Evil is not the evil of Sin but of Punishment yet it 's for Sin as deserving it and to take away Sin and prevent the Punishment and when Sin is taken away and the Party chastened is reformed then God's chastizing hand is taken off us and in Heaven where shall be no Sin shall be no Chastening Yet because it issues from Love and tends unto the good of the Party chastened therefore the Evil is so little that it may be a Question whether it should have the Denomination of Evil For this Reason the Apostle useth terms of Abatement as 1. It 's so only for the present 2. It seemeth to be so not that it is so absolutely or in any high degree or in it self but rather in the sense and conceit of the Sufferer 3. It 's not of Joy that is it seemeth not to be Joyous for many times God's Saints rejoyce in Tribulation and these very Hebrews suffered joyfully the spoiling of their Goods In the second Proposition we may observe 1. The Benefit and Profit of Chastisement 2. The Parties that reap this Benefit by it 3. The time of receiving this Benefit 1. This Benefit is the peaceable fruit of Righteousness where fruit of Righteousness is nothing but Righteousness which is here compared to Fruit as every Effect may be said to be a fruit of it's Cause Man is the Soil God's Chastening is the Culture or good Husbandry and this Man thus cultivated by Chastening accompanied with the Word and Spirit yields and brings forth this Fruit. But it 's much doubted what this peaceable Righteousness is Some think that Righteousness signifies heavenly Vertues or the Works of these Vertues for Justitia in sâ—fâ— virtutes coâ—tinâ—â— omnes and righteous Works are vertuous Works Others conceive that by Righteousness is meant that particular Vertue of Patience which seems to be a proper Fruit of Chastizing Tribulations and Afflictions For Tribulation worketh Patience Rom. 5. 3. and the trying of our Faith by Temptations and Afflictions worketh Patience saith another Apostle Jam. 1. 3. And Patience may be said to be peaceable because it is the quiet the peace the calm of the Soul in the midst of the Storms of Affliction But to understand the words more fully we must consider 1. That the End of God's Chastening is Correction Reformation and the reducing of the Party chastened into the right way For saith David Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy Word Psal. 119. 67. and again It 's good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes Ver. 71. Where we may observe 1. That Afflictions which are God's Chastisements are for Sin for he had gone astray 2. The End and Effect is Obedience keeping of God's Word and learning to do his Statutes To obey and do God's Laws is Righteousness 2. Upon this Reformation follows Peace for God's Anger and Chastisements the Effects thereof do cease the Conscience is quiet and the Comfort of the Party corrected is great 3. This Chastening may be used as a means of our first Conversion and so of unrighteous may make us righteous or it may be made subservient to the Reformation of one converted by making him sensible of Sin and causing him to renew his Repentance and exercise and improve his heavenly Vertues which lay dormant in him through his neglect The Sum of all this is 1. God by his Chastisements joyned with his Word and Spirit makes his Children more holy and righteous and also more happy By this that is Smiting and Affliction or Chastisement shall the Iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away Sin Isa. 27. 9. And the End of all our Chastisements which we suffer here on Earth is that when this Life is ended we may be perfectly righteous and attain eternal Peace For they exercise our Graces of Repentance and Faith whereby we obtain Remission of Sin a greater measure of Sanctification and Reconciliation with our God 2. The Parties that are Partakers of this benefit are such as are exercised therewith There is an Exercise of the Body whereby men are made stronger more active more skilful in the thing wherein they are exercised and by continued Practice are enabled to endure and hold out far more and far longer than others can do There is also an Exercise of the Soul in the School of Affliction for this is the manner of God's training of his Children and the stirring up and improving of their heavenly vertues The principal Vertue he intends to teach them is Patience which once had and brought unto some Perfection is a rare vertue This is an hard Lesson and not easily learned and without Exercise cannot be attained yet this vertue once made habitual raiseth Man to an high degree of Christianity so that nothing will be difficult unto him Therefore this was the Exhortation of the Apostle Let Patience have her perfect Work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting of nothing James 1. 4. They therefore who are exercised by Afflictions so as to be habitually patient are they who receive this benefit and reap the peaceable fruit of Righteousness 3. Yet there must be some time before an habit be acquired therefore the Apostle saith That not at first but afterward when we have been well â—vâ—rcised then it yieldeth this peaceable fruit and not before God could so sanctify us at first and in an instant so deeply implant all heavenly vertues in us that this Exercise might be needless Yet it was not his Will and Pleasure so to do he will humble us try us refine us before he admits into his Kingdom of Glory He knew this was good for us for it is good for a Man that he bear the Yoke in his Youth He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him Lament 3. 27. 28. The Sum of this Discourse is That seeing from the Text of Solomon it appears that God out of Love chasteneth all his Children so that none are exempted and
uncloathed and divested of their Bodies Yet there were Millions upon Millions of separated Souls before their times and many of these the Souls of men dying in their Sins but these were the Souls and Spirits of just men who in their mortal Life upon Earth were upright walked with their God and endeavoured an universal Obedience yet they were not perfectly righteous in themselvs but were justified sanctified and cleansed from all Sin by their Faith in Christ before they departed this World For they were the Spirits of Patriarchs Prophets Martyrs and the Saints of God who lived in former times which were made perfect To be made perfect is to be washed in the Blood of Christ and consecrated as many in this Life are yet these had finished their time of Consecration and were made capable of a nearer Communion with God than we Mortals are Though these were removed out of the Church Militant yet they had not attained an Estate of full Perfection for they had not received their full Reward though they were secure of it as of the Resurrection of their Bodies and were nearer unto God and eternal Bliss than we on Earth can be These were the Spirits of just men made perfect and to these the believing Hebrews were come For wheresoever or howsoever God had disposed of them yet they were within the Verges of his Kingdom and not only in but of this society and fellow-Members of the same Body They were come unto them though not in the same place with them and must expect to be by Death removed and more nearly associated with them when the time of their Consecration should be finished and then they should be freed from all Sin and Temptation and their condition would be comfortable and most certain Our Converse with Saints departed is very little or none though some Communion there is between them and us living upon Earth We and they have the same God and Sovereign the same Head Jesus Christ the same Charity the same desire and hope of Resurrection § 22. They were also come Ver. 24. To Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the Blood of Sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel THis Text informs us 1. That Jesus is the Mediatour of the New Covenant by his Blood 2. This Blood of Sprinkling speaks better things than that of Abel 3. They were come to this Mediatour and this Blood of Sprinkling 1. Christ is the Mediatour of the New Covenant by his Blood Of this Covenant and of Christ the Mediatour of it you have formerly heard Chap. 8. 6. Cap. 9. 15. It 's written that the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3. 19. This Mediatour was Moses who 1. Signifies the mind of God to Israel in his stipulation of Subjection and Obedience and his Promise to be their God and make them his peculiar People and return the Promise and Restipulation of that People unto God Exod. 19. 5. 6 7 8. 2. He confirms this Covenant by sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice Exod. 24. 34 5 6 7 8. In this he was a Type of Christ who is the Mediatour of the new and better Covenant to procure it confirm it make it effectual Some inform us that he procure it by his Blood and Sacrifice satisfying God's Justice and meriting his Mercy for sinful Man He makes it effectual 1. By proposing it unto Man and pressing the keeping of it upon powerful Motives and this is done by the Word of the Gospel 2. He enables Man by the Spirit to keep it 3. Upon his keeping of it by his Repentance and Faith he makes Intercession for Man repenting and believing and obtains Pardon of his Sins and Defects and Acceptation of his endeavours and in the End he as a Judg gives Possession of eternal Life So that after once the Covenant is procured by his Blood as a Prophet he proposeth and declareth it as a Priest he makes Intercession as a King and Judg he gives Possession Yet according to the Scripture Christ is a Mediatour in proper and more strict sense as a Priest and his Blood and Death is the Foundation of this Covenant for all the Promises thereof are made for and in consideration of this Blood and Death without which there is no Expiation of Sin or hope of Pardon And though the Promises were made from the beginning and that upon condition of Faith in his Blood yet they had been vain and unprofitable to Man if Christ in fulness of time had not shed his Blood and by his Death made this Covenant firm and unalterable for ever And as this Blood satisfying divine Justice and meriting his favour and all Mercies necessary for our happiness is the Foundation of this Covenant so this Blood by Christ's Intercession sprinkled upon our Souls makes this Covenant effectual So that as this Blood being shed procures and confirms this Covenant in it self so this Blood pleades before the Throne of Grace in our behalf confirms this Covenant to us and makes it effectual to our Salvation Therefore though Christ as a Prophet and a King may do something about this Covenant yet it mainly depends upon Christ as a Priest and as a Priest he is a Mediatour Take away this Blood shed and there is no Covenant take away the pleading of this Blood before the Judgment-Seat of God and there is no efficacy of this Covenant to us in particular And here as we must distinguish of this Blood as shed as pleaded and as sprinkled so we must of this Covenant as procured as made as confirmed as likewise of it as kept and as made effectual unto us In all these respects it depends upon Christ as a Priest and upon his Blood and by and in respect of this Blood he is a Mediatour And it is further to be observed that a Mediatour is one that deals and acts between two Parties and is distinct from both at least so to be considered The Parties here are God and sinful Man Christ as a Priest is different from both for though he agrees with both yet in this business he is neither The End of this Mediation is Reconciliation of God and Man of the Sovereign offended and the Subject offending God offended will not hear of Reconciliation but upon certain terms as the satisfaction of his Justice by Blood the Repentance of Man offending casting himself wholly upon his Mercy and the Intercession of a just Party which had shed his Blood for Sins Christ therefore being the Word made Flesh offers his pure and unspotted Blood in behalf of Man to satisfy Justice and this Blood is accepted he makes Intercession for Man repenting and relying upon this Blood and God's Mercy and so the Reconciliation is made and the Covenant proves effectuall on both sides and that by vertue of a Mediatour coming between God angry and Man guilty and interposing between Man repenting and God sollicited by this
in this manner Ver. 3. Remember them that are in Bonds ' as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being your selvs also in the Body IN this Exhortation we have as in the former 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reason why we should perform it In the Duty there be 1. Some Persons to be remembred 2. The Remembrance of them 1. The Persons are of two sorts and the Reasons applyed severally 1. There are Persons bound and here we must consider 1. Their Condition 2. The Cause 1. Their Condition in general is miserable in particular they are restrained of their Liberty which is a precious thing The misery of them that are bound may be greater or less according to the place of Imprisonment or their Usage or Absence from such as would relieve them or some other Accidents The Place may be a Dungeon or filthy and nasty or very grievous in respect of the wicked fellow-Prisoners Their Usage may be very bad because they may be denyed Food and other necessaries their friends not suffered to come to them or relieve them or they may be scourged and abused They may be so consined as that their Friends may be ignorant both of the Place where they are and also of their Condition 2. The Cause in this place may imply that they are Christians and God's Servants thus Paul and Silas and Peter and many other Disoiples were cast in Prison and that for the Profession or Preaching of the Gospel this was to suffer for Righteousness sake and for Christ's sake and in a good Cause This Imprisonment if just was a disgrace a securing of Malefactors not only to restrain them from mischief but to reserve them for Trial and Punishment and sometimes it was a Punishment in it self and was never intended for innocent but for criminous and guilty Persons These must be remembred and their Case and Cause considered that so they might be visited comforted encouraged relieved or released eased and delivered Thus to remember is an Act not only of the Understanding but the Will and also the Executive Power so that the word is taken both Metonymically and Synechdochically 2. They and so we must remember them as being bound or in Bonds This implies the Manner how they must and also a Reason why they must remember them We must love our Neighbour as our selves and this we cannot so well do except we make our selvs ohe with them and make their condition ours so as that we may do as we would be done unto In particular when we seriously suppose our selvs bound even then when we are free and at Liberty we are made far more sensible of their misery and are the more effectually moved to Compassion therefore some observe that Misericordia est miseria aliena in corde nostro For when the Misery of others is not only in our Memory but in our hearts we are affected with it sensible of it and moved to relieve and comfort them This is the manner of Remembrance The Reason implied is That seeing they are one Person with us and our Brethren if they be bound we are bound with them because one part of us is in Bonds and as we would be sensible of our misery and would use all means to release and relieve our selves so we should endeavour to help and deliver them They are part of our selves therefore we must remember them Again we are one with them so that we are in the same Condition with them so far that we are obnoxious to Bonds as well as they and we know not how soon it may be our Case and this should perswade us much to do our Duty For we being in Bonds will stand in need of the help of others and of them if they be set at Liberty when we are bound The second Duty is to remember those that are in Adversity This implies that there are many kinds of Afflictions besides Bonds for that is one kind of misery and that of Bonds is not alwayes single but joyned often with other Vexation and Adversities Therefore not only they that are in Bonds but others in other Adversities must be remembred and so relieved and comforted and we must use all our Power and Ability which God hath given us to remove their Afflictions and make their Condition more comfortable For the Providence of our heavenly Father doth so order it that the whole Body and all the Members of the Church should not be afflicted at one time but whilest some are afflicted others are free that they may relieve and comfort their Brethren and so exercise their Grace and manifest their Vertues And the Afflictions of our Brethren will discover either our sincerity or hypocrisy The Reason why we should remember these is because we are in the Body To be in the Body and to be in the Flesh are Scripture-Phrases and signify the same thing They imply that there are some in the Body and some out of the Body the one living the other dead For while we are living on Earth the Soul which is the principal part is in the Body which is said to be the Tabernacle and Mansion of the Soul But Death separates them and divests and dispossesseth the Soul This Soul in it solf is above the Power of Man and no mortal hand can reach it not touch it immediately yet because of the Body which is so nearly united unto it men may vex and torment it and that very much and whilest it 's in the Body it 's liable to these Vexations and the Body whilest it 's enlivened by the Soul is sensible of many miseries But when these are parted by Death both are free from all sense of these Afflictions Therefore said our Saviour That when men have killed the Body after that they have no more that they can do Luke 12. 4. All this being presupposed the Apostle to perswade them to Compassion towards their afflicted Brethren puts them in mind of their present condition They were yet in the Body that is they were obnoxious to the same Adversities and cannot promise to themselvs security from them for a day or an hour therefore they must pity them as themselves and use all means to comfort help and deliver them Thus to remember our Brethren in Bonds and Adversity is the Duty of all such as profess their Faith in Christ and own the Name of Christian yet few perform what by their Profession they are bound to do Where are our Bowels of Compassion Where is our Christian Charity We should remember that as Christ pitied us so we should pity our distressed Brethren and shew Mercy unto them as we desire God in the time of our distress to have Mercy upon us But many who are Christians in Name are devoid not only of Christian Compassion and Charity but of Humanity and Civility which have bin found in very Heathens and Mahometans § 4. These were Duties which we owe unto others especially
particularly confined to that part of providence whereby God supplies their wants in Necessaries yet so as that it doth rather include then exclude his protection against Dangers and Enemies This is the meaning of the words the force of the reason contained in them is very strong both to dehort from Coveâ—ousness and exhort to Contentedness For there is no reason in the World why we should either cover these earthly Goods inordinately or immoderately so as to distract and vex our minds or that we should not be contented with that we have though little seeing God hath so deeply and strongly engaged himself to be present with us and to provide for us If we had Faith to believe this and were so qualified as that we could truly apply it to our selves it would effectually quiet our minds in God in all our Necessities Sâ—raits and Perplexities For the words being the words of God fully and perfectly expressing his mind and purpose delivered by way of Promise whereby he so strongly obligeth himself extending to all persons in Covenant with him keeping the Conditions thereof including all times and all conditions and all kind of helps and assistance are abundantly sufficient to cut off all covetous thoughts and cares and to content the mind with any estate For whilst we have our God we have Perfection Safety Food Raiment and all things that are necessary in this our time of Pilgrimage untill we come to our abiding City § 6. After the Promise of God follows the Confidence of Man grounded upon this Promise For we may boldly say The Lord is my Helper and I will not fear what Man shall do unto me Where we must enquire 1. Whence the words are taken 2. What the Substance of them is and what they do import 1. We find words to the same purpose Psal. 56. 4 11. Yet the very same without any variance we reaâ— Psal. 118. 6. if we follow the Septuaginr The words in the Hebrew are Elleiptical and are made up and expounded from the Verse following for the first words are turned by Hierom Thou art my Lord by Pagâ—ine The Lord is with me by Prâ—tensis The Lord is for me The Septuagint give the sense That the Lord was my Lord with me for me to help me For it follows Ver. 7. Thou are amongst or with them that help me For the Lord to be with us for us and as Vatablus hath it to on stand our side is for God to be our Help 2. The Matter of the words are God's Help Man's Safety and Security The Psalm is understood of Christ and his Church and People Here the Apostle applies it to God's People 1. These have their Enemies signified by the word Man What Man may do against me 2. These men being Enemies do much against them or at least attempt to do much for wicked men together with the Devil are great Enemies to Christ's Kingdom and his Subjects The Devil designs their spiritual the wicked their temporal Ruine and the Design of the one is subservient to the other The Devil makes Use of temporal Persecutions to shake their Faith both have the Church and thrust sore at it and consult and combine their forces to destroy it They fine God's Servants imprison them banish them torture them murther some of them spoil others make them poor and bring them very low and sometimes to a Morsel of Bread 3. Yet God is with them stands for them helps them strengthens and protects them and will not see them perish or want Bread and gives them Safety in the midst of Danger Joy in the midst of Sorrow Bread in the midst of Famine If they kill the Body he will save the Soul and raise up the Body again at the last day and all their Sufferings shall conduce to their eternal Happiness 4. If God be with them for them and their Help they need not fear any thing no not the worst that Man can do unto them but may be confident of Safety and Deliverance they need not much desire the best things of the World nor fear the worst 5. They may think believe say and be assured That God is their Help And so much the rather because God hath promised that he will not leave them or forsake them at any time and why should they be covetous or fearful there is no cause of either Thus the Apostle disswades from Covetousnesse and perswades to Contentedness and that upon most powerful Reasons taken out of the Book of God wherewith they were well acquainted And though both the places are restrained to this particular Duty yet they are of far greater latitude and minister effectual Comfort § 7. The next Duty exhorted unto is the Imitation of their Teachers in Ver. 7. Remember them who have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their Conversation Ver. 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever THese words may be considered in their general Coherence with the former as they are an Exhortation to another distinct Duty or in their particular Connexion with the Text immediately antecedent for their Guides and Teachers have given them an Example in that not being covetous but contented alwayes with their present Estate though poor they continued constant in the Profession and Preaching of the Gospel of Christ in the midst of all necessities and persecutions and did not doubt of God's Presence and Providence nor fear what Man could do unto them The former Connexion is certain the latter probable In the Duty exhorted unto we may observe 1. Three Acts. 2. Their three Objects 3. The subordination of these Acts upon these Objects one unto another 1. The Acts are Remembrance Consideration Imitation 2. The Object of their Remembrance was their Guides which had spoken to them the Word of God the Object of their Consideration was the end of their Conversation the Object of their Imitation was their Faith 3. The Subordination was that they must remember that they may consider consider that they may imitate They must remember their Guides who had taught them the Word of God they must remember them that they may consider the end of their Conversation they must consider the End of their Conversation that they may follow their Faith In the first Act upon the first Object we may observe three Propositions 1. They had their Guides 2. These had spoken unto them the Word of God 3. These they must remember 1. They had their Guides These were the Apostles especially and principally and also others both extraordinary and ordinary Dispensets of the Gospel These were Guides because they did direct them unto Christ by Christ to God and in God to eternal Life for without a Guide sinful blind and ignorant Wretches know nothing of Christ God eternal Life and the way leading thereunto and therefore they wander in the wide way which leadeth unto Destruction These Guides are said
God to expiate Sin given unto man in the Word and Sacrament as Food to preserve both Body and Soul unto eternal Life And as the Jews only had right to eat of their Sacrifices so Christians and only Christians have right unto and by a true and lively Faith according to the Gospel may partake of the same and live for ever For this meat alone doth profit those alone whose hearts are established with or by Grace and the Doctrine of the Gospel 2. To eat of this Altar and Sacrifice they who serve the Tabernacle have no right They who served the Tabernacle were unbelieving Jews Priests and People who adhered to the Law of Moses rejected the Gospel and refused to receive Christ for their Saviour These could have no right unto the benefit of Christ's Sacrifice◠for it was ordained only for the Salvation of such as should believe on him But these Jews out of a perverse belief that they should be justified and saved by the Law would not believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and seek righteousness by Faith in Christ. So that Israel following after the Law of Righteousnes attained not to the Law of Righteousness And why they sought not Righteousness by Faith in Christ who was the end of the Law which was a School-master to Christ. They were so confident that the Law was given for Justification and Salvation that they thought Christ not only needless but an Enemy to Moses and all Christians to be Hereticks and worthy to be persecuted to Death The force of the Apostle's Argument is That if their heart was not established with Grave but carried about with divers and strange Doctrines they deprived themselves of the inestimable benefit of Christ's Sacrifice for there is no Faith without the Gospel and no benefit in the Sacrifice of Christ without Faith for all right unto and participation of this Sacrifice is by Faith grounded upon the Gospel § 11. That they that serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat of this Altar he proves thus Ver. 11. For the body of those Beasts whose Blood is brought into the Sanctuary by the High-Priest are burnt without the Camp Ver. 12. Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the People with his own Blood suffered without the Gate IN these words we have 1. An Argument to prove the unbelieving Jew to have no right to eat of the Sacrifice of Christ And this is a Doctrine 2. A practical Conclusion and Application of this Doctrine unto our selves in the two verses following In the Argument we may observe 1. The Proposition and the Type 2. The Reddition and Anti-type 1. There were several Beasts Sacrificed whose Bodies were burnt without the Camp yet their Blood was not brought into the Sanctuary therefore it can hardly be thought the Apostle intended any Sacrifice so much as that of general Expiation whereof we read Lev. 16. For though this doth agree to other Sacrifices that their Blood was brought into the Sanctuary to be sprinkled upon the horns of the Altar of Incense and before the Veil and their Bodies were burnt without the Camp as we may understand from Exod. 29. Lev. 4. Yet of this Sacrifice it 's clearly written 1. That the Blood was brought into the inward Sanctuary within the second Veil and was sprinkled upon the Mercy-seat 2. This was done by the High-Priest alone and could be done by none else 3. This Blood was brought in and sprinkled for Expiation and Reconciliation 4. The Bodies of these Sacrifices were burnt without the Camp This Sacrifice as you have heard was a more lively resemblance of Christ who is the propitiation for the Sins of the whole World The principal thing the Apostle takes notice of is the burning of their Bodies out of the Camp for the Camp was that plot of Ground which was taken up with the Tents and Habitations of the Israelites in the Wilderness All this was counted holy and all unclean persons and things were to be removed out of the same And because the sins of the People were laid upon these Beasts therefore they were unclean accursed and God to signify that all Sinners are accursed and to be cast out of his presence and to be tormented with eternal fire and also to express his detestation of Sin he caused these Bodies 1. To be removed out of the Camp 2. To be burned 2. This was the Type the Anti-type was Christ of whom it is affirmed 1. That he Suffered without the Gate 2. That he Suffered there that he might sanctify the People by his Blood To Suffer here is to be Crucified and dye upon the Cross Without the Gate signifies the place where he Suffered and was Crucified and in particular it was Golgotha which was without the Gate of Jerusalem which was called the holy City because God chose that City to put his Name there and so did consecrate it this answered to the holy Camp The reason why God thus in his wise providence did order it was because Christ had taken upon him the Sins of the World and God had laid on him the Iniquities of us all One sad consequent of Sin not pardoned is a Curse and Excommunication out of God's presence so as that the person cursed is put at a distance and deprived of all communion with Saints and God Therefore it is written That Christ was made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. The end of this Suffering and that without the Gate was that by his Blood he might sanctify the People The People are all such as believe in him To sanctify them is to free them from the guilt and punishment of Sin For he was made a Curse for us that he might redeem us from the Curse due unto us for our Sins And this he doth immediately by his Blood being shed and his Death which virtually and efficiently took away Sin and procures actual Remission and Sanctification upon our Faith For his Suffering out of the Gate made Sin pardonable and the punishment endured by him and deserved by us removable But when by Faith it 's sprinkled upon our Souls we are actually pardoned and the punishment actually removed because God will not punish Sin both in him and us believing The comparison is in similitude and like quality The things wherein the Type and Anti-type agree are these In the Sacrifice of general Expiation 1. The Blood is brought into the holy Place so Christ by his own Blood entred the holy place of Heaven 2. That Blood did expiate Sin so this doth obtain eternal Expiation and the People are sanctified by it 3. The Bodies of those Sacrifices were burnt without the Camp so Christ suffered upon the Cross without the Gate of Jerusalem 4. As they who serve at the Tabernacle had no Right not Licence to eat of those Sacrifices whose Bodies were burned without the Camp so no Jews that will not leave Judaism nor any other that will not go out of the World to suffer
for Christ's sake can have any Right to eat of this Altar and Sacrifice of Christ so as to be saved by it § 13. Therefore the Apostle draws a practical Conclusion from the former words in this manner Ver. 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the Camp bearing his Reproach Ver. 14. For here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come THis Text is an Exhortation and therein two things are observable 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reason whereupon it 's urged 1. The Duty is two-fold 1. We must go forth to him 2. We must bear his Reproach 1. We must come forth of the Camp or City to him 1. The Camp or City is Judaism and all erroneous Sects and also the World and men of the World we must separate from all things inconsistent with the Truth and Christ. This is not expressed but implied 2. Out of this Camp or City we must come forth and that we do when we renounce all Errours in Religion and all earthly Affections Our Opinions and Errours in Religion are so many Idols setup in our Souls and are contrary to the Truth of the Gospel and the things of the World which we so much affect and dearly love are all of us by Nature contrary to the Love of Christ We have something in our hearts which keeps us from our God till we be truly converted 3. To come forth to Christ therefore is to be rightly informed and to believe the saving Truth of Christ and upon this right Information to love him above all as far more necessary excellent and beneficial than any thing than all things else This is the same with denying ourselvs forsaking all for his sake hating Father Mother Wife Children Brethren Sisters and Life itself out of love to him and to forsake all for his sake For lay all of these with all the Kingdoms and rarest Contents of the World together on oneside and Christ on the other they are all base uncertain vain empty things Dross and Dung and nothing to Christ who is infinitely precious and incomparably more excellent than all and more beneficial to a poor guilty Sinner To come forth to him is not to change the Place but our Hearts it 's a Motion not of the Body but the Soul and if we once knew the Beauty of Christ and had tasted of his Sweetness we should be ravished with him and all the World could not keep us from him In him alone true Happiness is to be found 2. The second part of the Duty is to bear his Reproach Here is Reproach his Reproach the bearing of his Reproach In this the Author alludes unto the bearing of the Cross which was the greatest Shame and Disgrace any man could be put unto To endure Shame and Disgrace and suffer in our Reputation Credit Honour and good Name is a very grievous Evil and few can endure it and some can better suffer Death than Ignominy and Disgrace The Cross was not only a matter of Reproach but of grievous pain and torment and was the Epitome of all positive Evils and therefore by Reproach is signified all kind of afflictions and miseries which we may suffer from men or may be obnoxious unto in this Life Yet this Reproach and this Cross here meant must be his Reproach his Cross. If we suffer Punishment for our own Crime and through our own Folly then it 's not Christ's Cross Simon of Cyrene did not bear his own but Christ's Cross and followed him This is a Reproach and Cross laid upon us for his sake because we profess his Truth obey his Laws oppose Sin and his Enemies refuse to comply with the World in any Sin renounce all Errours Idolatry Superstition and wicked Customs of the World and all this out of Love to Christ. To bear this Cross is not meerly to suffer any wayes but to suffer the worst Man can do unto us with Patience with Constancy with Joy and to think our selveâ— happy and much honoured that we are counted worthy to suffer for so great a Saviour â—nd in so noble a Cause This requires a divine Faith well grounded upon the Word and Promises of God and a special Assistance of the dâ—vine Spirit for these will strengthen our hearts and make us willing to suffer any thing before we offend our God and lose our Saviour § 13. The words of the former Verse considered as a Doctrine or Proposition are a Conclusion deducible from antecedent Premisses but as containing a Duty to be performed they are inferred from the 14. Ver. where we have a Reason given us why we should come forth to Christ and it is two-fold 1. Because we have here no abiding City 2. Because we seek one to come 1. We have no abiding City By City understand two things 1. A place fit for comfortable and safe habitation 2. An Estate answerable unto this Habitation whereby we may live happily in this place For neither can an Estate without a place nor a place without an Estate make our condition good and such as we desire An abiding City is a place of eternal Rest and Safety which in it self stands firm for ever and the Inhabitants shall never remove or be dispossessed As it is such a Place so it 's an Estate not only of all necessaries but of all things delectable and desirable with plenty of them sufficient to make a man fully happy and as these things in themselvs so the Enjoyment of them is everlasting Yet here that is in this life on Earth and under Heaven there is no such City no such Place no such Estate And as it is not here so we have it not for nothing can be had or enjoyed where it is not We may have many great and glorious things on Earth for here are goodly Estates Kingdoms and vast Empires strong and beautiful Cities Towns and Habitations and some have them yet these are not abiding in themselvs nor in the Possession of the Owners Experience of all times besides the Word of God doth teach us this certain Truth Therefore we knowing that there is no such City here seek no such thing here because no such thing can be had here 2. But we seek one to come That is though there be no such thing here neither have we any such City on Earth yet there is such a City though not here yet else-where though not present yet to come and we seek it There is one a Place of everlasting Rest and firm Mansions in our Father's House and a glorious Estate of full and perfect Happiness far above the Conceit and Imagination of mortal men and the Possession both of the Place and Estate shall be everlasting as all the Inhabitants and Owners of this City shall live for ever Yet it 's to come which signifies that no such thing is here neither can it be enjoyed in this present mortal life the full and perfect Fruition is reserved for Heaven
himself lest you be wearied and faint in your minds THe Apostle here seems to use a Rhetorical Prolepsis or anticipation for to prevent an Objection which might be made For they might say We have not only been reproached and spoiled of our Goods but much opposed and our profession is continually contradicted So the Jews at Rome could tell Paul As concerning this Sect we know that every where it 's spoken against Acts 28. 22. The Answer implied in these words is to this purpose What though it be so much contradicted and opposed yet there is no reason why ye should be wearied and faint in your minds if you consider Christ who endured such contradiction of Sinners against himself The Text is an Exhortation and in it we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The reason why we should perform it In the Duty we have 1. The Matter and Object to be considered 2. The Act of consideration All this may be reduced to Propositions thus 1. Christ endured much contradiction of Sinners against himself 2. This they must consider 3. It must be considered left they be wearied and faint in their minds For to understand the first we may note the several parts of it as 1. Christ himself was contradicted 2. He was contradicted by Sinners 3. He was contradicted much 4. Yet he endured all this contradiction from Sinners Propos. 1. 1. Christ himself was contradicted To be contradicted in strict sense is to be spoken against yet sometimes the word is taken more largely to be opposed and so one may be in words or deeds This contradiction presupposeth 1. A difference in Judgment 2. For the most part in Affection and this difference is signified usually by words or writing or some other way It 's either just or unjust Just when it ariseth from a certain knowledg of and a firm adherence unto the Truth with that affection that the party contradicting cannot brook the contrary errour Unjust issues either from ignorance or the contrary errour received into a man's mind and sometimes it 's joyned not only with an hatred of the Truth but of the person professing it Such was the contradiction here expressed The party contradicted was not John the Baptist though he was spoken against nor the Apostles and Disciples but Christ himself and they spake not only against his Doctrine and his Miracles but against his person and his divine Offices They not only denied his Doctrine as false and refused to receive it but accused him as a false Prophet a seducer of the People an Impostor an Enemy to Moses a Blasphemer They ascribed his glorious Miracles to Belzebuh the Prince of Devils They denyed him to be the Son of God the great Prophet the King of Israel and the Messias 2. This contradiction was from Sinners For though he was innocent and never deserved any blame nor ever gave them any cause of contradiction and they were many wayes guilty of many grievous sins yet they did oppose and contradict him so that the most worthy suffered from most unworthy wicked cursed persons It 's true that Christ suffered from all sort of persons both Civil and Military and Ecclesiastical and from these of all ranks even very abjects yet they who most opposed him were the Scribes Pharisees Priests and Rulers who under pretence of greatest Piety and purest Holiness were the most cursed wicked and abhominable Wretches under Heaven They were proud ambitious covetous envious malicious bloody wretches and guilty of most damnable Hypocrisy He was the best and they the worst of all others That he so excellent should suffer from them so vile did aggravate as their Sin so his Suffering very much For 3. He suffered much For such is so much contradiction And this implies that it was much and that it was so much that is very much And so it was in respect 1. Of the Persons which were Sinners and they very many 2. Of the Contradictions which were also many frequent bitter base malicious continued to the end of his Life yea after his Death and Resurrection Even Paul himself was a Blasphemer and many more and did violently contradict him 4. Yet he endured all this He was not wearied he fainted not but as the contradiction was continued so was his patience For he did not yield or abate the least of his heavenly zeal and fervour but went on to testify the Truth to confirm it by his miraculous Works to reprove Sin to convert Sinners to gather Disciples and to finish his Fathers great business His courage and constancy was invincible and unparallel'd Propos. 2. This is the thing to be considered to consider this is the Duty What consideration is you have heard before it is opposed to glances to leight sleighty superficial momentany thoughts and cogitations of a serious business It 's an act of the Understanding which more clearly apprehends more exactly judgeth of things and re-views and remembers them often so that in it we find the use of apprehension judgment memory and all the acts of the intellective faculty And they must not only consider what these Contradictions were but also how many and sum them up that they may appear not only what they are but how great they be this the word implies The end of all this is the more perfect knowledge of them both as absolute and also as comparative The object and matter which we must consider is 1. Christ so excellent the party suffering 2. The thing suffered Contradiction 3. The parties from whom he suffered Sinners so base so unworthy 4. How much how long he suffered 5. How patiently and constantly he endured all And shall he so far more excellent then we are endure so long so patiently from such unworthy persons so vile and so much contradiction And shall we so unworthy not endure far less Was not He most innocent and more glorious then the Angels and We poor and unworthy Wretches Are our Sufferings comparable to his And shall he endure and we be impatient under so light a burden O continue patient to the end Propos. 3. This must be considered left they be weary and faint in their minds wherein three things 1. The dificiency of their minds 2. The remedy to prevent it 3. The use of the remedy for prevention 1. There is a two-fold deficiency one of the Body another of the Mind The former is expressed in two words weariness and fainting These are accidential to the Body and may signify the same thing or if they differ it 's but gradually and weariness is a less fainting an higher degree of deficiency which may arise from labour hunger thirst sickness travall which abate the strength weaken the active power and dull the vital spirits and principle of motion so that the body requires some rest or refreshment or receiving Cordial without which all labour motion resistance toleration ceaseth and sometimes the vital power is contracted retires and leaves the curward parts
round about the Throne of God are ten thousand times ten thousand even thousands of thousands Revel 5. 11. To come to these is to be of their Society and every true Believer upon his Regeneration begins to have Communion with these blessed Spirits for regenerate Men and Angels are fellow-Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and fellow-Subjects of the same Kingdom They are above us and we are a great Distance from them in respect of our present Estate yet some of them are very near us though we do not see them nor speak unto them nor familiarly converse with them and they love us have a special care of us and all of them are ministring Spirits for us who shall be Heirs of Salvation § 21. Yet there are other Subjects of this Kingdom of a lower and inferiour Ranck and a Supream Lord and Judg of all For we come Ver. 23 To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born who are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect VVHere we have God the Soveraign both of Angels and Men the Men who are Subjects in this Kingdom are the Living or Dead both in his Dominion and under his Power Some Copies and Translations joyn the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the word Angels in the former verse You are come to Myriads the general assembly of Angels But others read as we do in our English The sense is not much altered by this difference for there is a general Assembly of Angels and a general Assembly of Men and these are different yet both make but one Body and Community of Subjects in this heavenly and spiritual Polity The Propositions are these 1. There is a general Assembly and Church of the first-born who are written in Heaven 2. There is God the Judge of all 3. There are Spirits of just men made perfect 4. They were come to these 1. In the first we have the first-born these are written in Heaven these are a great Assembly and Church 1. The first-born in this place are 1. Such as are regenerated and adopted for here to be born is to be born again and made the Sons of God by Word and Spirit They are God's first-born because they have the spiritual priviledges of primogeniture they are Heirs and also Kings and Priests to God for ever This signifies their excellent dignity above other men and their near relation to God and Christ. 2. These first-born are written or enroll'd in Heaven which is the same with having their Names written in Heaven and in the Book of Life Luke 10. 20. Rev. 20. 12. and in the Book of the Lamb. The meaning of the Phrase is that upon their serious Faith in Christ God doth account them as his Children and Heirs of Glory therefore it imports two things 1. Their title unto everlasting Glory 2. The certainty of the possession in due time so that there shall be no alteration of their Condition They are destined to an eternal Inheritance by an immutable decree and therefore their Names are said to be written in this Book from the beginning of the World and so they shall never be blotted or rased out again This enrolment is but virtual which upon their new Birth becomes actual This is a great priviledg to have our Names enrolled in the Register of Heaven which never shall be changed and an unspeakable comfort by our sincere Faith and Obedience to know it 3. There is the Church of these first-born that is though they be many yet they are called chosen congregated and united into one spiritual Body politick and made one Society therefore the Church is so often compared to a Body which hath many members yet all these united make but one Systeme called the Church the members and parts whereof are not natural but naturalized and by free Grace ingrafted 4. They are a general Assembly made up of many different persons gathered together out of several Countries into one Body though not into one place Some think the Apostle alludes unto the Olympian and other Assemblies of the Greeks wherein many from many places met together Some were Schollars as Philosophers Poets Orators who did exercise their wit some did manifest their activity in running wrastling and other bodily Exercises they had also their Delights and Recreations But the Analogy is not in these things but in this that they were one general Assembly and so did represent the Church as Catholick and Universal For these are a number gathered and redeemed by the Blood of Christ out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and a great multitude not only of Jews but Gentiles which no man can number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues Rev. 5. 9 7 9. They were come to these and were incorporated into this Society and made Subjects of this Kingdom and the first-born of God had a title to the same heavenly Inheritance and their Names were enrolled in the Book of Life and they were destin'd to eternal Glory 2. They were come to God the Judge of all What is the Body without an Head a Kingdom or multitude of Subjects without a King who is the Basis of the People and the Center of them all wherein they are united and the Corner-stone that doth support them Therefore in this most excellent Society there must be a King and Soveraign and this is God who is here styled the Judg of all In Hebrew to judg is to rule and govern and a Judg is a Ruler and Governour and so it may be taken here Yet there are inferiour and subordinate Rulers and also supream and universal Such God is for all things are subject to his Power yet he hath a special Kingdom as he is Lord and Redeemer by Christ and so he is in a special manner the Supream Governour of this general Assembly and Church of the first-born who are not only his Servants and Subjects but his Sons and Heirs of Glory He is their Lord and Father their Law-giver and their Judg he takes a special care of them and by his Laws doth order them to eternal Happiness and in the End rewards them with Glory He is Almighty in Power exactly just wonderfully wise and infinitely merciful and exerciseth his Perfections in promoting their eternal Bliss And they were come to him and admitted into his Kingdom received into his Protection and as he is able so he is resolved to destroy all their Enemies and give everlasting Peace His Angels must guard them all Creatures serve them and all things must work together for their good He continually sits in the Throne of Grace not in the midst of Smoak and Fire as upon Mount Siâ—ai he is compassed with Light and ever shines upon them with his favour 3. They were come unto the Spirits of just men made perfect Those Spirits were not Angels but the Souls of Men yet not in their Bodies but
find this to be so § 9. Because the Faith and Doctrine of Jesus Christ taught by the Apostles is as Christ himself the same yesterday to day and for ever therefore the Apostle dehorteth them thus Ver. 9. Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with Grace and not with meats which have not profited them which have been occupied therein THese words are a Dehortation and in it we may consider 1. The Sin dehorted from 2. The reason why they should take heed of it 1. The Sin is to be carried about with divers and strange Doctrines Doctrines divers and strange are all such as are different from the Gospel which is a Doctrine of perpetual and immutable truth and alwayes uniform the same Therefore the word divers may signify such as are different from it and different amongst themselves as all false and heretical Doctrines are though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies new or absurd and such all errors in Religion are They are new because invented and vented after the Truth was revealed and absurd because all such are irrational and many of them very gross They are also strange as having not the same Original with the Truth which was revealed from Heaven and of another stamp and quality By these some think he means Judaism and Philosophy and the Errors and Superstitions of the Morinthians and Cerinthians who attempted to make up one Body of Religion by joyning Judaism and Christianism together yet not only these but all other Heresies whatsoever are here intended They must not be carried away or about with these this is the Duty The Metaphor seems to be taken from Wethercocks or Ships which turn every way as the Wind carries them to be so carried about implies that they turn from the truth of the Gospel believe these false Doctrines and so are deceived as the word in the Original may signify and it signifies the inconstancy of such as receive them as not being firm and fixed in the saving Truth For if we once turn away from that we fall first into one Error then into another and are first of one Sect after that of another and can settle no where We have had sad experience of this in our times wherein many forsaking their Orthodox Teachers and the antient and apostolical Doctrine turned Anabaptists Seekers Quakers and men above the Ordinances of Scripture Sacraments Sabbaths Such we must not be not so erroneous heretical unstable This Text agrees with many others as Rom. 16. 17. Ephes. 4. 14. Colos. 2. 8 16. and many more noted by Curcellaâ—s Great is our frailty in this particular because of the imperfection of our Understanding the corruption of our Hearts the subtilty of the Devil and Seducers therefore let us he well informed in the Truth endeavour to live according to the Truth certainly known pray for the Spirit of Truth to guide us For it is not wit or learning without the Grace of God can preserve us from these Doctrines which carry us away from Christ and cause us to wander in by-wayes that lead our Souls into Destruction 2. The reason is 1. Because the Doctrine of the Gospel can save us 2. These strange Doctrines cannot promote our Salvation it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 1. It 's good the heart be established with Grace not with Meats By Grace may understand the Truth and the Truth of the Gospel so it 's taken Tit. 2. 11. And it 's called Grace because it 's the Word or Doctrine of Grace Act. 20. 24 32. which manifests the Grace of God in Christ and the Knowledg and Love of it is a Grace and Mercy of God To have the heart established therewith is to understand it believe it be affected with it so as to adhere unto it and make it our care in seeking eternal Life And then the heart is thus established with it when the Spirit of God writes it in our hearts so that we know it more clearly and are effectually moved to follow and practise it It must be deeply imprinted in our hearts and our hearts must be firmly fixt in it And this is good and profitable for Sanctification and Salvation but meats are not so By Meats is understood the Doctrine of Meats and by Doctrine of Meats may be meant Doctrine of Ceremonies such we find in the Books of Moses yet all abolished by the Gospel The Jews were perswaded that they were sanctified by the observation of Mosaical Ceremonies and the Traditions of their Elders This also was the perswasion of all Superstitious Wretches whether Heathens or Hereticks For Meats may here signify not only false Doctrines and Ceremonial Observations of the Jews but also all other various strange and different Opinions and Superstitions of all others whose hearts were not stablished by Grace And though men's hearts be never so pertinaciously fixed in them yet they could not advance their Salvation For it followeth which have not profited such as were occupied or as the Greek word signifies walked therein To walk in them is to profess and in their practise constantly to observe them Not to profit them is not to sanctify justify them or make them acceptable to God For that is truly profitable in this kind which makes a man more holy brings him nearer unto God and renders him more capable of eternal Life The sum is they must take heed of all false Doctrines and adhere to the truth of the Gospel And the reason is 1. Because establishment in the truth of the Gospel is good and certainly conduceth to eternal Life 2. The belief profession practice of any other Doctrine is not so cannot further our happiness § 10. There is another reason why they must not return to Judaism or any other Doctrine different from the Gospel For Ver. 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle IN these words we have 1. A benefit or priviledg 2. A right unto it granted unto Christians denied unto Jews and others The Propositions are two 1. We have an Altar 1 2. They who serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat of it 1. Altar here is the Priest or Sacrifice offered upon and sanctified by the Altar The Sacrifice is that of Christ's Body slain and offered by the eternal Spirit without spot unto God To have this is to have a right unto it so as to eat and be partakers of it The expression and phrase is Legal and Levitical For in the Law there were certain Sacrifices whereof part was given and offered to God part was given to the Priests to eat thereof part was allowed to the People which brought the Sacrifice and they might eat thereof before the Lord in the Tabernacle or the Temple The same Custom many of the Gentiles had To this the Apostle doth allude and doth imply that the Body of Christ was slain and offered unto