any more for they are equall unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection Luke 20.35,36 What is all this else but to be an heire and a citizen of that heavenly countrey and city We see then that a heavenly countrey and city is prepared and ordained for Abraham Isaac and Jacob and therefore why should wee doubt but that the very same is reserved also for all us that are the worshippers and servitors of God which right of ours wee need not stand to evict from divers evidences and dark consequences seeing hereof wee have not only most open and clear promises which to those Patriarchs were never declared but also we know for certain that Christ our head doth now enjoy the possession of that countrey and city This only remaines for us that following the example of those Patriarks and much rather of Christ our Captaine wee should finally carry our selves obedient unto God and extending our hopes beyond our death should doe our utmost endeavour that our life should first fail us before we fail of our faith and allegiance toward God 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac The Author here mentions an example of Abrahams faith which of all other was most illustrious namely his offering up of Isaac the circumstances whereof the Authour doth but lightly touch as a thing sufficiently known and at large described in the sacred Scriptures Offered Abraham offered him not really and actually but which is all one with God purposely with an unchangeable and constant purpose of minde with as much endeavour as lay in his power and proceeding so farre in the action as had not God recalled him the effect undoubtedly had followed Thus he offered him and not onely slew him for the slaughter should have preceded and then the offering must have followed by fire for a burnt-offering for so God had commanded When hee was tryed For of his own election or accord it would never have come into his heart to have sacificed unto God who doth most abhorre crueltie with the bloud of man muchlesse of his owne son unlesse he had beene commanded of God to it And he was commanded to do it not that he should actually perform it but that by his willingnesse to performe it and by obeying Gods Command as farre as in him lay hee should give an assured triall of his faith And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten sonne What a strange fact was this of a strange faith where not only the father offered up his son but his only begotten son and what father was it even he who had received the promises who from the same mouth of God had received the promises of a seed a posterity to be propagated by Isaac and had confidently beleeved it he now received a command to slay Isaac before there was any issue from him Therefore truly here also Abraham may be said to have beleeved in hope against hope that we use the Apostles words speaking of another point of his faith who as a little after we shall shew doubted not to reconcile together two things clashing and crossing one another namely the life and death of the same person because it was God who had spake concerning both We may further adde here other circumstances expressed in the history as that three dayes journey with his sonne to a place assigned him by God with that thoughts and cares shall wee think the soule of the poor father was agitated journying toward the resolved slaughter of his deare and only sonne whom he drew on along with him ignorant of his destined calamity to become a sacrifice and a burnt-offering what spirits were in him may we imagine when upon his assent up that fatall Mount he laid the wood upon his sonne wherewith a fire should be kindled to burne him after his father had slaine him what thought he when his sonne perceiving no sacrifice besides himselfe and marvelling at the matter did gently demand of his father where was the Lambe for the burnt-offering what thought he when seasing upon his sonne with his owne hands expecting no such dealing from so dear a father he bound him and laid him on the Altar upon the wood when he drew his knife and standing over him eyed his throat and stretched forth his heavy hand that shook and trembled with fatherly love which of us all reading and considering all these findes not his soule melting in him yet the invincible faith of Abraham conquered all these And Isaac is called the only begotten sonne of Abraham or as it is in the Hebrew his only sonne not that hee only was his sonne for Ismael also was his sonne but because he was his only sonne by Sarah the true wife of Abraham and because hee was his only beloved sonne that was borne to his parents in their extreme old age by the singular gift and wondrous power of God and because he was to be the only heire of his fathers estate and of Gods promises and because the seed of Abraham was to bee called in him only for the children of Isaac only were to be accounted the true posterity of Abraham And he that received the promises The pronoune he whether we thinke it relative to Isaac or to Abraham which is better yet the sense is the same doth notifie unto us a notable circumstance of this fact that makes the faith of Abraham to appear yet much greater Certainly that faith is very great which is seen and tryed in hard cases as was the offering of an only sonne But how much greater is that faith which staggereth not at such an action as naturally would utterly overthrow it Yet such was this fact of Abraham Abraham had received promises from God whereof one was that a numerous posterity should be borne of him the other that the land of Canaan wherein he was a sojourner and a stranger should be given in possession to his posterity These promises Abraham had from God and he beleeved both of them with all his heart as it is signified by the word received and beleeving these promises he shewed himselfe obedient to all Gods commands that he might not faile of his hope from so great blessings Now what command doth God lay upon him God commands him to take Isaac his sonne in whose posterity all those promises were to be fulfilled and from whom as yet he had no grandchild yet him he must offer up that is he must slay and burne him for a sacrifice If Abraham must doe this and looke into the nature of the action could he possibly have any hope of those promises 18. Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called This is therefore added lest any man should thinke that Abraham might imagine though Isaac were extinct yet the promises might have their issue in Ismael For Abraham could not imagine this because God had said unto him in Isaac
and produced us into this carnall life for they are opposed unto the Father of spirits as it presently follows in this verse And we gave them reverence By the chastisements of our carnall fathers we were often made ashamed both by the punishment and by the fault and were ashamed of both For chastisement brings with it not only paine but shame But if we referre this to our fathers the sense will be that by their chastisement we were so affected as to reverence them and for shame and fear of them durst not offend against them But if our carnall fathers who were the authors of our carnall life only could by their chastisement effect this in us how much more convenient is it that the chastisement of our spirituall Father should produce in us the like effect Shall wee not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits To be in subjection is in this place to receive and endure that chastisement which proceeds from God with a ready and patient minde and thereupon to shew our selves tractable and obedient unto him in all those things for the amendment whereof he chastised us The Father of spirits That is God who is opposed to the fathers of our flesh to shew us how much more it becomes us to bee in subjection unto him then unto these because the spirit is far more noble and excellent then the flesh For God is not therefore called the father of spirits and opposed to the fathers of our flesh as if we had received our spirit onely whereby we live and understand from God and our flesh onely from our parents seeing God is no lesse the Author and Creator of the one then of the other But by spirit is meant all that which pertaines to our spirit and makes us to be spirituall for this we owe to no other person but to our heavenly father But he is called the father of spirits because he hath begotten us according to the spirit and he alone hath begotten all of us And live Hee shews the fruit and end of our subjection the more to incite us thereto And this fruit is eternall life which to attaine is truly to live Whence oftentimes it is eminently called by the sole name of life 10. And they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure Because he had said we should live if we would be in subjection to the Father of spirits tacitly intimating that this effect would not follow upon our subjection to our carnall fathers therefore now he shews what great difference there is betweene the end and scope whereat our carnall fathers ayme as they are opposed to our spirituall father and in this respect are not subservient unto him and that end which God proposeth in the chastisement of his children Whereupon it also followes that we should farre more willingly submit our selves to endure the chastisements of God then of them in regard they are intended for a farre greater good unto us then the chastisements of our carnall fathers For a few dayes the good or benefit of their chastisement is of use unto us but for a few dayes that we may passe over this life which is concluded within the compasse of a short time the more conveniently and honestly For the Author by these words intends not to say that the chastisement of our fathers lasteth not long but passeth away together with our childhood and youth for what doth this make to the purpose Must we therefore be rather the more in subjection unto God because his chastisement lasteth a long time or through all our life Besides the minde of the Author is to inculcate into us rather the shortnesse of Gods chastisement then the length of it as we might perceive before chap. 10. ver 37. after their owne pleasure They in their chastisements of us did not alwayes seeke our benefit but were many times indulgent to their owne humours and passions or if in some measure they sought our benefit yet they did not alwayes use a right judgement therein They did therein as it seemed good unto them sometime after our desert and sometime after their owne pleasure and oftentimes erred through mis-affection or indiscretion But he for our profit But God is such a father that when he chasteneth his children he alwayes directs his eye to our benefit and profit neither doth ever misse of his intent That we might be partakers of his holinesse Here he specifies in particular the profit we gaine from Gods chastisement that thereby we are sanctified in so great a measure as to partake of his holinesse for the holinesse thereby wrought in us is in a manner divine resembling the holinesse of God Wherein is also contained by way of Metonymy the fruit of this holinesse which is everlasting happinesse 11. Now no chastening for the present He seemes here to take away an objection Some man might say that all chastisement of it owne nature is unpleasing and bitter and therefore it is an hard matter to endure it with patience The Author confesseth this to be true in respect of some time that chastisement for the time present all the while the affliction of it lasteth seemes not so good as indeed it is Seemeth to be joyous It doth not appeare or seeme unto us to tend unto joy or the present sowrenesse and bitternesse of chastisement while the smart of it is upon us doth not seeme to us of that quality that it should determine and end in great joy and pleasure But grievous It seemes to bring nothing else unto us but smart and griefe for all chastisement brings griefe or paine else it should not be chastisement for therefore we are chastised that the paine of the punishment might repell the lust of sinne Neverthelesse afterward it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse The fruit of righteousnesse signifies the fruit that is righteousnesse by a genetive of the difference And the word righteousnesse doth in this place signifie both the habit of doing righteously and by way of Metonymy the effect or reward following it which is Justification or the having of a right to life eternall as in the former verse holinesse signified both holinesse of manners and the happinesse following upon it And this fruit is called peaceable not only in respect of righteousnesse properly taken which brings us peace that is happinesse but in respect of our justification to life eternall because that consisteth in true peace which is our finall happinesse and brings it with it In a sence not unlike Paul said that blessed hope Tit. 2.13 for hope is there taken materially for the thing hoped which is eternall life which is called blessed because it is blessednesse it selfe and makes them blessed who attain it Vnto them which are exercised thereby He specifies here the persons to whom this peaceable fruit accrews and they are such as are exercised by chastisement for chastisement is an exercise to godlinesse and righteousnesse And
person of God and commands all things in the Name of God and therefore in Christ God himselfe is worshipped And the execution of this Command that the Angels doe really performe this worship appeares in the Revelation where they are said to stand round about the Throne and to fall downe before the Throne on their faces to worship Christ Revel 7.11 7. And of the Angels he saith A third argument from the testimony of Scripture Psal 104.4 to prove Christ made better then the angels Who maketh his angels spirits This is not spoken of their Creation but of their Emission that God employeth them as his Emissaries or Messengers to shew their state and condition to be servants unto God wherein they greatly differ from the state of Christ sitting at Gods right hand and is not sent forth any whether And his Ministers a flaming fire Herein the Author aimes at no more then what he saith at the last verse of this Chapter that they are all Ministring spirits saving that he alludes from the Psalme to the manner of their Ministery which is like a spirit or a winde very forcible and yet invisible and like a flaming fire or lightning very penetrable subtile and agile moving almost in an instant from one part of heaven to another 8. But unto the Sonne he saith Thy Throne O God! Herein hee opposeth Christ to the Angels and preferres him above them from a testimony of Scripture Psal 45.6 which is literally spoken of Solomon but mystically of Christ And therein Solomon is said to have a throne and called God for the royalty of his throne and sublimitie of his power over Gods people And therefore Christ of whom Solomon was but a shadow is by a farre greater right called God because the Throne of Christ is farre more royall in being seated at the right hand of God And consequently Christ is farre better and superiour to the Angels as the King sitting on his throne is greater then his servants that minister unto him Is for ever and ever Solomons throne or kingdome is said to be everlasting or perpetuall because hee was promised to reigne in his person and in his posteritie after him for many ages Namely so long as the carnall and earthly state of Gods people should require an earthly King See Psal 89.28,29 and verse 36 37. For that Solomons posteritie were deprived of the kingdom before the coming of Christ which notwithstanding was restored in Christ though after a more divine and spirituall manner that hapned through the soule sinnes of his posteritie which God neither would nor could any longer tolerate Seeing God put this Article or condition in the Covenant which he made with David and his posteritie that his posterity should observe his Law See 1. Chron. 28.7 But this perpetuity of throne or kingdome agrees farre more eminently unto Christ because Christ was made immortall to live for ever and to raigne in his owne person for ever without any posterity to succeed him and he is to raigne so long as the people of God shall need such a King which Throne must needs last to the end of the world till all his enemies be destroyed And consequently the Throne or Kingdome of Christ is most properly and truely everlasting for ever and ever A Scepter of righteousnes is the Scepter of thy Kingdome Scepter is figuratively put for government because it is the ensigne of Royall government and Scepter of righteousnes is by an Hebraisme put for a righteous government Literally Solomons government was very just righteous and mystically the government of Christ is most just and righteous over the faithfull who are Gods people 9. Thou hast loved righteousnes and hated iniquity These words doe but amplifie and illustrate the former Literally Solomon did not only governe righteously but loved to doe it and hated to doe the contrary And mystically Christ loved it much more for he committed no iniquity nor sinne at all he never did any man injury nor suffers it to be done unpunished Therefore God hath anointed thee with the oile of gladnesse He alludes to the anointing of Kings or rather to the anointing of guests at feasts which was an ancient custome because oyle doth exhilerate and refresh the spirits and cheer up the minde especially being perfumed with some sweet odour And therefore Oyle of gladnes is an Hebraisme put for exhilerating and cheering oile To this custome the Psalmist relates Psal 23.5 and our Saviour Matt. 6.17 and Luke 7.46 The literall sence is God did entertain Solomon more delicately then other men endowing him with extraordinary gifts and graces particularly with these three Wisedom Riches and Glory for he gave him his owne asking and that besides which hee asked not See 1. Kings 3.5 for his extraordinarie wisedome See 1. Kings 3.12 and 1. Kings 4.29 for his Riches and Glory See 1. Kings 3.13 and 1. Kings 10.21 to the end of the chapter The mysticall sence is That as God was the God of Solomon to endow him so he was the God of Christ also who endowed Christ anointing him with the holy Ghost and with spirituall graces in farre more extraordinary manner for spirituall wisedom whereby he knew the secrets of God and the thoughts of men with spirituall riches which is holinesse and righteousnsse with spirituall power and glory to have dominion over all men and angels See Luk. 1.15 and Luk. 4.1 and Luk 2.40 and Mat. 12.42 and Joh. 1.14 and Joh. 1.16 Above thy fellows The literall sence is Solomons brethren who were the rest of Davids children were cheerfully anointed or blessed of God with Wisedom Riches and Honours but Solomon was blessed above them all in a singular and eminent degree and advanced by God to the Kingdome of Israel before and above them so that all they were not onely rejected from the Crowne but made subject to him The Mysticall sence is All the faithfull like Solomons fellowes or brethren are begotten from the same Father that Christ is begotten and are anointed with the holy Ghost and have many things common with Christ yet notwithstanding Christ is anointed by God above all the faithful hath an immence measure power of the holy Ghost powred upon him especially after his resurrection from the dead when he was totally sanctified and advanced to be King and Lord over the faithful 10 And thou Lord c. A fourth Argument to prove Christ better then the Angels taken from a testimonie of Scripture Psal 102. vers 25 26 27. And here wee must note that this Testimony doth so farre onely belong to Christ as it conduceth to the scope of the Author which as appeares at the fourth verse of this chapter is to prove that Christ after that he was seated at the right hand of God was made better then the angels To which purpose the Creation of heaven and earth makes nothing at all For that cannot be referred to Christ unlesse the Author had taken it for
of Christs dying and his dying for mens salvation was the grace of God the free love and favour of God did bestow this transcendent benefit upon men that Christ should taste death for them For the Author had no sooner made open mention of Christs death but presently he addes the great and weighty causes of it both finall and efficient lest any man should sleight it and think it not a matter of such moment that therefore the Lord of the faithfull should be lesse then the Angels for that end 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things These words are a circumlocution or a designation of God from his two great attributes of being the last end and the first cause of all things and are introduced as a ground whereby to answer this tacit objection Had it not beene farre more convenient and decent That Christ the Lord and King over Gods people though he were not an Angell but a man by nature mortall should not taste of death and other sufferings but alwaies remaine in his happinesse and glory as it became the worth of so great a King To this the Author answers That it wonderfully became God to proceed this way and not to doe otherwise then he did because this way did especially suite to his end and was a most convenient meanes to attaine the end by God intended For God himselfe is the last end of all things for whom all things are and he is also the first efficient of all things from and by whom all things are and therefore it became God who begins all things by himselfe and finisheth them for himselfe to apply such meanes as are most conducent to his end for it becomes the wisest agent to worke most wisely The particle by whom notes not God as an instrumentall or meane cause as if some higher agent did worke by him but supposeth him the principall and prime agent which is alwayes so when it is used of God as an efficient or agent of some thing For that particle referred to God carries with it this force in sence that the thing mentioned was not onely primely invented and decreed by God but by him also brought to issue by effectuall meanes proceeding from himselfe and not borrowed elsewhere This working of God as being sole Author and sole meanes is distinguished by Paul by these two phrases Of him and through him are all things Rom. 11.36 But by this Author both are comprised in this one by whom are all things And the universall particle all things must be restrained to his proper respective subject formerly mentioned namely all things concerning the salvation of the faithfull In bringing many sons unto glory Here is expressed the intention or end whereat God aymed which was to bring many sons unto glory The faithfull are the sons of God in a double spirituall respect 1. Of their spirituall birth because they are regenerate begotten and borne of God by the action of his holy Spirit upon them 2. Of their spirituall right because they are adopted or instituted to be the universall heires of all his estate by having the same right with Christ whereby they become and are called his brethren For in a rurall sence he that hath a right to anothers estate becomes his son And the estate whereto God brings them is glory whereby is meant all that future happinesse and heavenly inheritance which eminently for the honour of it is called glory and which was mystically understood Psal 8.5 and wherewith a little before Christ is said to be crowned And the sons brought to glory are many not as many is a parcell opposed to all but as it is a multitude opposed to few for God hath ordained to bring to glory not a few sons but a great many even many multitudes God is not as man who can have but a few sons and cannot bring each of them to all his estate but God hath many multitudes of sons and yet will bring each of them to glory even to all his whole estate And therefore no marvaile if for so many sons sake God would not spare their Captaine whom he might have spared partly though not wholly had their number beene but few To make the Captaine of their salvation perfect through sufferings Here is expressed the meane whereby God wrought his end in bringing a multitude of sons to glory namely by giving them a Captaine and perfecting him through sufferings For seeing God hath so many sons or rather so many multitudes therefore they being so great an army required a Captaine Now Christ is the Captaine or in moderne language the Generall over the army of the faithfull in two respects 1. By leading them in their journey going before them in all their troubles and afflictions 2. By governing them as their head and Lord to command over them for in an Army the Generall doth both lead and governe it And he is the Captaine of salvation to the faithfull because he leads and governes them in their journey to salvation that is to the eternall glory wherewith himselfe is crowned as before which to them is salvation because thereby they are safe not only from destruction but from all affliction and all other evils And because Christ is their captain by whom God brings them to salvation by whom God saves them from death therefore Christ is called and is their Saviour And Christ their captaine passed thorow sufferings whereby is meant death especially a violent death comprising also all the miseries and evils that do precede and accompany it through all which sufferings Christ passed which therefore are called and are his passion And by these sufferings Christ was made perfect His mortality was finished and ended and he being translated to immortality was crowned with eternall glory and honour as before which was his ultimate consummation and finall perfection wherein nothing was wanting to him that might accrue to his supreme happinesse Now seeing therefore that this journey to salvation leads for the most part through divers calamities and afflictions through death and a violent death did it not become the wisedome of God that the leader or captaine in this journey should passe through divers sufferings and death yea a violent death before he could penetrate and arrive at the mark of eternall salvation that by his example hee might teach us that this so rough and craggie way which seemes to precipate men into eternall destruction should lead to the highest tower of eternall salvation by finishing our mortality and perfecting us into immortalitie And did it not become the wisdome of God that he into whose hand God had put the salvation of all his sons and whom he would ordaine for their high Priest should in all things be made like unto his brethren and taste of the same cup of sufferings with them that being himselfe acquainted with sufferings he might learne to succour them in theirs 11 For both he
the Sacrifice takes efficacy and force to purge sin from the subsequent oblation of Christ in offering himselfe in heaven but also as it is the bloud of the Covenant it received great force from the subsequent resurrection and glory of Christ For the death of Christ is as it were animated and quickned by his Resurrection and glory and then are the mightie effects of it when he that suffered death to confirm the new covenant is thereupon acknowledged to be the Sonne of God and the Christ which certainly could not have been without his Resurrection and the subsequent glory of it For then wee plainely perceive the boundlesse love of God in delivering Christ to death for us and the boundlesse love of Christ in dying for us from both which wee may easily draw an undoubted hope of our salvation And then also wee see from his most shamefull death a passage open to immortall life and lastly then we esteem the Covenant most sacred that was confirmed by a death so precious But if Christ had not risen from the dead who therefore died that he might appear to be the Christ and the King over Gods people his death had thereby lost all the force of it yea it would have been of force to nullifie the faith of all his promises But he had promised us eternal life in the Name of his Father and that he himself would give it us by raising us from the dead yea hee openly said of himselfe that he would rise the third day thereby to confirm his doctine wherefore unles the event had been answerable his doctrine had been stripped of all authority But let us returne to the offering of Christ which the Author opposeth to the offering of the old high Priest for severall respects 1. In that Christ offered through the Spirit and the eternall Spirit but the high Priest under the Law did enter the Holy place and offer through his infirmitie a weake man compassed with the flesh But Christ was filled with the eternall Spirit i. with the power of God which clarified him from all mortalitie and made him eternall subject to no destruction Now this Spirit seemes to be called eternall not onely because it eternally resides in Christ but because it makes him to become eternall Of which Spirit if Christ had been destitute he could not have offered himselfe in that heavenly Sanctuary to have remained there for ever Therefore in these words about which Interpreters have diverse disputes as men must needs do when the genuine sence of any place is either not perceived or not allowed is expressed the cause how Christ being before not onely of a mortall nature and compassed with flesh but also slaine as a sacrifice could afterward enter the heavenly Sanctuary the palace of immortality and there as a Priest offer himselfe to God This he saith was effected by the benefit of the eternall Spirit who throughly consecrated Christ and devested him from all naturall and terrene infirmities That which hee had spoken before chap. 7. ver 16. that Christ was made a Priest after the power of an endlesse life now hee saith againe in other words that Christ offered through the eternall Spirit for if wee looke into the thing it selfe what is the power of an endlesse life other then this eternall Spirit In a like manner Paul treating of Christ as he is ordained and declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead i. as God after his resurrection made him the celestiall and eternall King of his people with supreme power mentions the Spirit of holinesse or sanctification Rom. 1.4 and he saith that Christ was declared the Sonne of God according to the Spirit of holinesse as he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh For seeing he opposeth this Spirit to the flesh of Christ i. to whatsoever was humane in his nature what can he else understand but the power of Gods Spirit powred upon Christ which abolishing from him all his mortall condition did throughly consecrate him unto God made him a person most divine and most like unto God in nature and power and rendered him fully capable of a celestiall and eternall kingdome Hither also must that of Peter be referred where he saith as it is in the Greek that Christ was mortified in the flesh but vivified by the Spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 where as the flesh of Christ is made the cause of his mortality and consequently of his death so is the Spirit namely of God in Christ made the spring and fountaine of his vivification or life 2. He opposeth the offering of Christ to that of the old high Priest in that Christ offered himselfe but the Legall Priest offered not himselfe but the bloud of slaine beasts but what force could that bloud have being offered and sprinkled before the Mercy-seate for the purifying of the flesh if we respect the nature of the thing But Christ himselfe being offered for us in the heavenly Tabernacle was he not a most acceptable sacrifice to God Is there any sin of those that are truly faithfull in Christ which by the offering of so holy a Sacrifice and by the authority and care of so great an high Priest with his heavenly Father could not be expiated 3. In that hee offered himselfe without spot or blemish For the old sacrifice must bee very pure and free from any spot wherefore seeing our high Priest himselfe was the sacrifice hee must needs bee void of all spot or blemish But the old high Priest when he entered the most holy place and offered was not without spot or blemish for even then he was to procure the expiation no lesse of his owne sins then of the peoples But Christ when he entered the heavenly Sanctuary and offered himselfe to God was then free from all spot not onely in respect of his most innocent life which he passed without the least spot of sinne but also which as wee said in the seventh Chapter the Author chiefly respecteth in respect of his immortall nature which he obtained free from all spot of infirmity when he was quickned with that eternall Spirit whereby he entered the heavenly Sanctuary But what is meant by this offering of Christ wee have declared before For these things are not properly spoken of Christ but onely comparatively and allusively to the ancient high Priest So that by this offering of Christ is signified his singular and onely care for the expiation of our sins and for our salvation Yet it is a care worthy and sutable to so great an high Priest who is not destitute of power in himselfe to conferre salvation upon us but is forced to obtaine it from another as the old high Priest was but is one that enjoyeth all command both in heaven and earth one that exerciseth all Judgement delivered over unto him from his Father and one that by his owne proper power doth release us from all guilt of our sins
Lord the Author understands the afflictions which the Hebrewes suffered for Christs sake because many times God is wont to use such afflictions not onely to make triall of men but to make men good and to amend them by a fatherly correction And wee must conceive that this had then befallen those Hebrewes Nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Another abuse of Gods chastening quite contrary to the former and that is to faint and sinke downe under it For some when they are chastned of God are of a stubborne and impatient spirit others are soft natured or have no spirit at all whence it comes to passe that being overcome with afflictions they faint and forsaking their trust and hope in God turne aside from the pathes of righteousnesse 6. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth The reason expressed in the exhortation it selfe why we should be obedient unto it is because chastening is an effect and an argument of Gods love toward us And what proceeds from Gods love must not be despised or rejected but be held in high esteem neither must it deject our minds from faith and hope in God but rather raise and encourage us to receive it But we must note that chastisement that is that correction or punishment which God inflicts upon us for our amendment is a token and effect of Gods love and not every punishment which oftentimes is laid on men for their destruction for this is the effect of Gods wrath and indignation against which David supplicates in the sixth Psalme Besides this reason must be taken with a limitation for God doth not chastise every one whom he loves if we take chastising not simply for affliction but for a punishment but then onely when they deserve chastising as for the most part they doe But it appears by the scope and intent of the Author that these words must be taken as if it had been said Whom the Lord loveth he at last chastiseth or sometime chastiseth Which sentence is more fully expressed in the Hebrew text if wee looke upon the following words as wee shall see presently For otherwise we could not hence gather that chastising is alwayes an effect and token of Gods love For saving the truth of the words in the text a man may imagine that whom God loveth hee chastiseth but not conversly that whom he chastiseth he loveth so that it may be doubted whether chastising proceed from Gods love or hatred Neither are these sayings repugnant Whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth and whom he loveth not he chastiseth seeing God may chastise both these unlesse as we said we understand the particle at last in the latter part of the former saying which in such sayings falles out very frequently And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth This is but a repetition of the same saying In the Hebrew it is even as a father the son in whom he delighteth which is nothing else but the converse of the former saying as if Solomon had said whom God loveth he chastiseth and whom he chastiseth he loveth So that chastising is a most certain and undoubted effect and token of Gods love Whom he receiveth i. whom God adopteth acknowledgeth and accounteth for his Sonne For God doth not acknowledge all for sonnes who call themselves the Sonnes of God 7. If ye endure chastning God dealeth with you as with sons From the former divine exhortation the Author frames in a manner a new argument to excite them unto patience in suffering of afflictions because then God dealeth with them as with sonnes Ye have this commodity by your patience that God offers himselfe unto you as unto children and he on his part performes the office of a Father so thereby ye have God for your Father And God delighteth in him whom he chastiseth as a father in his sonne For what sonne is he whom the father chastiseth not It is the office of the father to chastise the sonne that deserveth it and he alwayes doth it unlesse many and great injuries have overcome his patience and there be something that hee fears more then he blames 8. But if ye be without chastisement To be without chastisement in this verse is opposed to endure chastening in the former verse whence it appears that the word endure in the former verse doth not signifie the vertue of patience which is a duty belonging to the godly but only the suffering or sense of paine which concernes their state and condition Hee shews on the other part illustrating the thing from the contrary what an inconvenience it is for a man to be without chastisement and to receive no trouble nor evill from God And the inconvenience is this that such goe not for sonnes but are reputed of God as bastards and children of adultery and changelings which of all inconveniences is to man the greatest We must therefore needs chuse one of these two either to be acknowledged for the sons of God and so undergoe chastisement or if we will not be chastised we must bee accounted bastards Whereof all are partakers To be the Son of God and to be chastised at least as often as need requires are conditions so connexed and coupled between themselves that all the Sons of God must needs undergoe this Law all must needs feele their Fathers hand and be partakers of chastisement All must needs be partakers hereof yet not universally but generally because there are few sons or rather but one only who deserved not chastisement neither had any need of it And yet even he was exercised with hard conditions not that hee was partaker of chastisement properly that is of punishment for what place could punishment have in him that was most innocent but that by his stripes and wounds we might be perfectly healed Hence the chastisement of our peace or that brought us true peace and happines is said to have been upon him Esay 53.5 in which place the word chastisement must by way of synecdoche be taken for affliction Then are ye bastards and not sonnes Ye are not truly borne of God not such whom God acknowledgeth for his sonnes and children but yee are bastards and changelings For they are bastards who goe for the sonnes of such a man yet indeed were not begotten of him and such are not alwayes acknowledged of their carnall fathers but our spirituall Father cannot be deceived for he knowes all that are not borne of him and acknowledgeth them for none of his and thereupon vouchsafeth not to bestow any fatherly care and chastisement for the framing of their manners and behaviour 9. Further more we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us He shews by another argument which is yet of affinity with the former that we must endure Gods chastisements and so endure them that thereby we become corrected and amended for such as do this they only receive chastisement as they ought The fathers of our flesh are our carnall fathers that begat us according to the flesh
have spent their life for his sake For by witnesses in this place wee must chiefly understand them who testifie Gods faithfulnesse and goodnesse with their bloud and hence are eminently called Martyrs i. witnesses A cloud of witnesses That is a great multitude of witnesses which carry the shew and bulke of a cloud Hence God himselfe comparing the multitude of our sins to a cloud saith I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sinnes Isaiah 44.22 Let us lay aside every weight Hee recedes not from his simily proposed For they that will contend in the running of a race must free themselves from all weights and lighten themselves as much as they can By weight in this spirituall race of faith wee must understand the love of this life and the care of things pertaining to it wherewith our soules are burdened and pressed downeward to the earth as it were with a great weight And the sinne which doth so easily beset us He seemes to allude to long and loose garment which unlesse they be laid aside are a great hinderance to runners about whose legs such garments doe easily wave and wrap themselves By sinne he seemes to meane all outward vicious acts as before by weight he signified the inward vices of the soule For vicious acts doe easily insinuate themselves upon us in our race of faith and greatly retard us in our course begun unlesse we cast off all our love to sin for as often as we commit an actuall sinne so often we fall as it were in our course of godlinesse And let us runne with patience the race that is set before us This race is the course it selfe wherein we strive by running for in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby is signified all kinde of strife in this manner whether it be by running wrestling hurling or any other way but here he speakes of running Therefore to runne the race is nothing else but to strive by running and by this strife in running he meanes especially the strife of our faith which consists in this that we never be cast in our hope of Gods promises made by Christ especially when wee are to doe or suffer some hard matter for Christs sake To this strife particularly Paul exhorts his Timothy when he calls upon him to fight the good fight of faith 1 Tim. 6.12 And the very same is signified by this Author when in the next verse willing to excite us to this strife and to strengthen us for it he requires us to looke unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith For this we must therefore doe least we should waver in our faith fainting and failing under it for this is opposed to the strife of faith ver 3. This race is said to be set before us namely by God and Christ because the price or reward of eternall life is appointed us upon no other condition but of our running this race And wee are commanded to runne with patience either because without patience it is impossible to keepe our faith with God or rather because this race or strife of faith appeares and shewes it selfe in nothing more then in a constant suffering of adversities in so much that he who with an invincible courage doth suffer all evils for Gods sake and Christ is thereby truly said to runne the race of faith things doth strive with afflictions and will not be conquered or foiled by them 2. Looking unto Iesus the author and finisher of the faith Here hee shews from whence especially we must procure courage and strength for our race of faith and patience and what should incite us to runne stoutly and beare all things patiently for righteousnesse sake Namely the example of the Captaine of our faith upon whom we must cast and fasten the eyes of our minde considering seriously both what he did and what he suffered what a race he ran and what a prize hee obtained having finished his course But he calls him not the Captain of faith simply but of the faith adding the article the to specifie unto us some particular and singular faith which is denominated from him and called the Christian faith because Christ was the Author and Captain of it not only because he was the first that taught it but also the first that performed it or the first that did run the race of it And he is also called the finisher of our faith because as he was the first Author that began it so he is the finisher thereof to bring it to an issue and put an end unto it for a thing is then finished when it hath attained the proper end In like manner our faith shall be finished when it is come to the issue of it whereby we attaine the salvation of our soules which as Peter saith is the end of our faith 1 Pet. 1.9 And this end is attained through Christ For the like reason it was that this Author before Chap. 3. ver 1. called Christ Jesus the Apostle and high Priest of our profession For the appellation of Apostle though it rather note that Christ was the first teacher of our faith then the first sufferer for it and contrarily the appellation of the Captaine of our faith which here the Author useth notes rather the latter then the former yet both these appellations doe tacitly include both But Christ is our high Priest especially therefore because it is his office to procure the expiation of our sinnes and the eternall salvation of our soules in which point as we said consisteth the finishing and ending of our faith For to this present purpose this appellation of Christ is very sutable and of great force to strengthen our minds and confirme them against all afflictions For with what face should we forsake that faith which hath so great a Captaine to it and hath him for the finisher of it who is the Author of it Who for the joy that was set before him Christ to obtain the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and counterpoised the paine of death against the joy of eternall life Hence it appears that the joy of heaven cannot be gotten at any lesse price then the crosse if need require And he saith this joy was set before Christ in allusion to the prize that is proposed to them that run in a race or strive at some other game By Joy he understands that supreme and heavenly happinesse which Christ attained and he calls it joy from the adjunct of it because it is accompanied with unspeakable and perpetuall joy and withall is opposed to the paine of the Crosse which he suffered Of such high advantage it is for thee to endure trouble and torment for a small time that thereby thou maiest attaine heavenly joyes and pleasures for ever Endured the crosse The crosse hath in it two things extremely bitter extreme paine and extreme shame yet the shame of it is to a noble spirit far
more bitter then the paine of it and therefore the Author addes Despising the shame It was a great shame and disgrace to the Sonne of God who well knew the high dignity of his person after he had delivered so many gracious doctrines and wrought so many admirable miracles after so great hope and expectation raised of him to be seized upon by hangmen dragged to execution nailed to a crosse lifted up on high to endure the faces and eyes of all men upon him and be set as a marke for the spears and darts of bitter tongues Yet Christ despised all this despite all this shame and this disgrace that for a momentany shame be might attaine everlasting glory and for a temporall paine on earth eternall joy in heaven And is set downe at the right hand of the throne of God This is added to shew that Christ was not frustrated of his hope but that hee received a large reward of his faith and patience To teach us that if we also follow him in this race we shall have the like issue of our faith and patience But the great dignity and glory to Christ that is signified by his sitting at the right hand of Gods throne is before explicated Chap. 1. ver 3. From this place and the other Chap. 8.1 it appears that when Christ is said to sit at the right hand of God by Gods right hand is not understood his power and strength as elsewhere it is but in this phrase by a simily drawne from men is signified that the place at Gods right hand is more honourable then that at his left For otherwise it were not rightly said the right hand of the throne of God because a throne hath no hand nor is supposed to have any but only a right side of it And many times in the same sense Christ is said to sit in the plurall number at the right hands of God or his power For when the power of God is understood or a right hand is attributed unto him by way of analogie it is not called the right hands of God in the plurall number but his right hand in the singular But when the right or left place is signified it is commonly expressed plurally by right or left hands though it be uttered in respect of one person only See Mat. 20.21 and Mat. 25.33,34 41. 3. For consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himselfe lest ye be wearied and faint in your mindes Hee expresseth the end and use of the example of Christ why wee should diligently consider it because we are to make this use of it that our mindes may not bee tired with adversities and afflictions and so wee become wearied and faint in the course of our faith and patience which here by profession of Christ we have begun to runne 4. For ye have not resisted unto blood striving against sinne He exhorts them with a new argument to an invincible courage in bearing the afflictions which they suffered For it seemes he would make them somwhat ashamed that seeing the miseries wherewith they were pressed were not so grievous as that hitherto they had drawne bloud from them yet they begun to fail in courage and strength contrary to Gods expresse monition Here also he alludes to strifes yet such as were by fencing or fighting and not by running For sinne would beat us from our constancy of faith and pietie toward God but among the afflictions which come to be suffered of us for the love of Christ is the abnegation or deniall of sinne against which we must fight In this fight therefore while the combat is but upon our goods our credit and reputation the matter is not yet come to bloud but when cruelty torture and death chargeth upon our bodies then the businesse is in good earnest and the fight is in the heat These Hebrewes as it seems were not yet in danger of their lives for Christ but their sufferings were only mockings reproaches and spoiling of their goods as appeareth chap. 10. ver 33.34 The Authour therefore shewes what a shamefull thing it is to turne the backe and flie at the first skirmish as it were and entrance of the fight But when he brings in sinne for their enemy with whom they are to deale he doth therein by a most effectuall argument encourage them to an holy valour lest they should fail in their combat with an enemy so base and dangerous 5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation And for and yet by way of a particle adversative As if he had said Though ye have not yet spent your life and bloud for the love of Christ yet the divine admonition or exhortation is slipt out of your minde wherein yee are commanded to receive the chastning of the Lord with a ready minde and to beare it patiently And consequently yee have forgotten your dutie contained in that exhortation For the Authour doth not reprehend them meerly for their memory that they had forgotten the words of that exhortation but for their negligence in not performing the duty therein commanded We have said elswhere that hee is said to remember a person or a matter who hath a care of it and therefore hee that hath not such care though otherwise hee remember him in mind doth forget him This hath place chiefly in commands councells and exhortations which are not given therefore only to remaine in our memories but they must so remain in our memories as that they be put in execution and actually performed And when the authoritie of the commander or admonisher is so great that it is not likely but that hee who doth but onely remember the command or monition would obey it with great reason they may be said to forget it who though they retaine it in a lively memory yet obey it not Which speaketh unto you as unto children The Author commends this exhortation from the qualitie of it that it is very gentle and fatherly in regard it termes them children to whom it is directed For who but a froward and obstinate person would not give way to such an exhortation The exhortation is said to speak by way of Metonymie because he that exhorteth speaketh by it or rather because it is the very speech of him that exhorteth Now the person who exhorteth is openly Solomon but secretly God by whose instinct Solomon uttered this Pro. 3.11 Therefore in this exhortation God himselfe calleth us his children from whence it follows that we should receive it readily and observe it diligently My sonne despise not thou the chastning of the Lord. When we make God himselfe to speak and not Solomon then the name or Nowne of the Lord must bee supposed to be put for the Pronowne my after the Hebrew phrase To despise or as it is in the Hebrew to reject the chastning of the Lord is nothing else but an unwillingnesse to bear it patiently but to kick against it as against a prick By the chastning of the