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
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
they are some ways one The reason why Christ is said to sanctify is because he hath an active power to sanctify and free from Sin such as are polluted with Sin and men thus polluted are said to be sanctified when they are freed from Sin Christ doth sanctify them by his merit and the application of his merit by his Sacrifice and his Spirit making use of Word and Sacraments And man is first sanctifiable by the Death of Christ and actually sanctified upon his Faith in this Death That this is the sense is plain by these words of his By which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all Chap. 10. 10. The meaning whereof is that by the Death and Sacrifice of Christ remission of Sin and freedom from the pollution was merited so that this doing of his Fathers Will in suffering Death for the sin of man was so accepted of God that it hath an eternal virtue of purging the conscience from sin and in consideration of the same God is always ready upon man's Faith actually to remit and to take away his sin These two are said to be of one Crelliâ—s is here mistaken as in the former verse For he tells us that God brings many Sons to Glory by perfecting their Captain Christ through Sufferings because by his example God doth teach us that by Suffering and by Death though grievous we may attain eternal Glory and suffering is the way unto it This he spake to delude his Reader and seduce him because he would not confess the satisfying and meriting power of Christ's Sacrifice That Christ in his Suffering Death did give us a rare example of many heavenly vertues and an encouragement by his Resurrection and Glorification is true but not intended in this place So neither may we approve of his exposition of these words as any ways genuine and agreeing with the scope of the place For he makes Christ and Believers one as Brethsen because they have God as one Father But this is wide and far from the Apostles intention That of Junius and others is the best that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one masse and humane Nature alluding to the offering of the first Fruits at the Passover or the two Loaves waved at Pentecost by the which all the rest of their Fruits and Bread were sanctified That he means so he expresseth plainly afterwards ver 14. which informs that to be of one is to be partaker of Flesh and Blood as they are Flesh and Blood Therefore the Socinian must be either blind or impudent yet to understand his unity the better you must know 1. That as man had sinned so he was resolved to redeem and deliver him 2. That his wisdom did not think good to redeem him immediately himself nor mediately by Angels but Man must be redeemed by Man 3. That seeing man by sin deserved and was liable to Death he determined to deliver him by the Death which another must suffer for him 4. God as God could not dy therefore God must some way become Man and by his Word assume Flesh and Blood that he might in and by that humane nature suffer Death 5. He that must be Man and suffer Death and so sanctify all the rest must be one with them and not only as having Flesh and Blood as all men are but must be the Head Captain representative of all mankind and this Christ was both by divine Institution and his own voluntary susception And this is the difference between this unity of him with all mankind and the unity of all other men amongst themselves that he is so one with them as to be their Head and general representative for Redemption and Salvation And the difference between all other men considered as men and him considered as man is not only in this that he was holy and they sinful but that he was personally united to the Word they were not for they were distinct persons in themselves § 15. That they were of one is proved in the words following and that two wayes 1. In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so by testimony of Scripture 2. In the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the reason why it 's so and that taken from the end to manifest how it became God thus to do The first is proved out of the Old Testament and first from Psal. 22. 22. That the Psalm is understood of Christ is clear not only because the first words thereof were used and taken up by Christ even when he was Suffering upon the Crosse but also many things in that Psalm were clearly fulfilled in Christ to the very casting Lots upon his Seamless Coat In the words Christ calls his Apostles and Disciples and all such as should believe in his Word declared unto them his Brethren not Strangers or Aliens not Servants or Slaves And by this acknowledgment and owning them he doth signify that he sanctifying and they being sanctifyed were one For he was man and they were men he was the Son of God they the Sons of God he was amongst these as a Brother of the same Society but as the Head of the Society and the first begotten amongst many Brethren The argument is this Brethren are one and of one but Christ and those who are sanctifyed by Christ are Brethren therefore they are one and of one That they are Christ's Brethren is evident because Christ calls them so and is brought in by the infallible Scriptures giving them that Title And how great a condescension was this that the Son of God Lord of Angels should vouchsafe us this honour as to acknowledg us sinful Wretches raised out of the dust his Bretheren And though he cites other words besides these as that He in the midst of the great Congregation would sing praise unto God yet the principal words for which the 40 Psalm is quoted is the word Brethren a term given by Christ unto his Disciples The second proof is found in many places of Scripture but yet they must be taken out of some place which speaks of Christ so as these words may be evidently the words of Christ. Some yea many think they are taken out of 2 Saâ— 22. 3. or out of Psal. 18. 2. where in the Septuagint we find words to the same purpose But seeing the Apostle doth follow the words of the Septuagint when he alledgeth any place out of the Old Testament and these words are not found in either of the former places neither is that Psalm so properly understood of Christ therefore it 's not likely that the Apostle intended to cite any thing out of them Therefore feeing we find the words following concerning trusting in God and concerning him and the Children which God had given him in the Prophet Esay and in the same Chapter of that Prophet and close together too therefore we may conclude with à Lapide and Heinfiâ—s that the place here cited is Esay
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
begotten thee This day as you heard before in the first Chapter is the day of Resurrection and for God to say that day Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee is to make him both a Priest and a King For to have the Birth-right and be the first begotten was to be King and Priest And if God who had all Power in his hands declare him to be his Son and first begotten this is to invest him with the Regal and Sacerdotal Power And though he was designed for this place long before yet till here he was consecrated by his own Blood he did not receive this Honour and it was a reward of Humiliation For you must know that God his Father by the Resurrection did not only restore his life which he had laid down upon the Cross and made him immortal but invested him with his Glory and Power And whereas this Psalm was composed long before the Resurrection and Incarnation of the Son of God yet the thing was not done nor the words spoken to Christ till his Resurrection for the meaning is not that then God did speak these words but after the Incarnation and Resurrection he would by them declare him Priest and King But he finds not only his Patent and Commission for his Priestood but the confirmation of it to him for ever in another place For thus he writes Ver. 6. As he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec THe words here cited we find Psal. 110. 4. Where we may observe 1. That David was the Authour of that Psalm as appears Matth. 22. 43. 2. That the subject of the Psalm is Christ or the Messias and it 's to be understood of speaking of him 3. That it is prophetical and a prediction of things which were then to come and a long time after 4. These things are spoken of the Messias by the Prophet as moved inspired enlightned to see speak write such things as should come to passe and be accomplished in their time 5. The Apostle in this Discourse takes it for granted and as confessed by these Hebrews that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah in whom all these things were fulfilled 6. The things affirmed or predicated of the Messias were spoken done sworn not only after the Resurrection but the Ascension of our Saviour and upon his coming before the Antient of Days For when God set him at his right hand he established his glorious Kingdom and he began instantly to Reign and then it was that he confirmed his everlasting Priest-hood upon him by Oath and that he began to officiate and minister in the heavenly Temple And those words spoken by God were sufficient not only to make him a compleat Priest but to confirm him 7. Both these places prove not only that Christ was a Priest but that he was made an eternal Priest of a far higher Order than that of Aaron and all this by God himself immediately And as he was made a Priest by God so his Priest-hood was the most excellent Priest-hood and most beneficial to sinful Man that ever was or shall be § 7. These two places prove Christ 1. To be a Priest and therefore all things essential to that Office must agree to him according to the Description of a Priest in the beginning of the Chapter 2. They manifest he was a Priest not by Usurpation but by Commission from Heaven 3. The former Scripture informs us that he was constituted a compleat Priest upon his Resurrection the latter that he was confirmed in his unchangeable and everlasting Priest-hood upon his Ascension into Heaven and Session at the right hand of God The words following presuppose his designation and signify the manner of his Consecration which was such as that it did fitly qualify him to be a merciful and eternally-saving High-Priest who offered for himself not as sinful but bearing the punishment of man's Sin and for others too Therefore it follows Ver. 7. Who in the dayes of his Flesh when he offered up Prayers and Supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from Death and was heard in that he feared IN which words with those that follow ver 8 9. we may observe 1. The Consecration of the Son of God 2. The acquisition of a mighty saving Power upon the Consecration once ended In the Consecration by his deep Humiliation we have 1. His effectual Prayers 2. His learning Obedience Concerning his Prayers we are informed of 1. The time when they were offered 2. The manner how they were made 3. The party to whom they were presented 4. The efficacy and success of them He offered up Prayers and Supplications that is he prayed in humble and suppliant manner with bended knees and a bowed and deeply humbled Soul Both the words signify one and the same thing though expressed by two words the one whereof is often the other seldom or rather but once used in Scripture Both are Petitions and especially such as we call Deprecations which are used for the averting of some evil These Petitions were presented unto God for Prayer in strict sense is a representation of our Petitions unto God to move him for to grant our desires It 's a kind of Service or Sacrifice and therefore said to be offered unto God and doth imply an acknowledgment of his supream Dominion Though the word used in the Original sometimes signify a branch of Olive which Suppliants used to carry in their hands yet both the Verb from whence it comes doth signify humbly to request and it doth expresse a Supplication or humble Petition The Prayers here mentioned were the Prayers of Christ the Son of God And 1. They were made for the time in the days of his Flesh The days of his Flesh are the time of his humiliation frailty and mortality before his Death and Resurrection especially the time of his Agony and Suffering upon the Crosse. For in the one he vehemently prayed and deprecated the Cup of his Passion in the other he makes a most sad Complaint of his Desertion and many cruel Sufferings and petitions for help and deliverance and binds himself upon the same by solemn Vows unto his heavenly Father as we may read Psal. 22. And though he made use of the whole Psalm which exactly agrees to him and none else yet the Evangelists relate only the first words My God my God why hast thou for saken me The prayers made at these two times in his deepest and last humiliation are here principally intended by the Apostle 2. The manner how these Prayers were made is expressed in these words with strong cryes and tears which imply 1. His sad and woful condition the anguish sorrow and horrour of his mind and the bitternesse of his Passion 2. Signify the fervency and importunity of his prayers And if Man were once sensible of his sins for which his Saviour Suffered he would be fervent
consequence Therefore though they did not absolve them yet they prayed for them and referred them to the Judgment of God § 6. The Apostle not content barely to affirm this Renovation to be impossible gives us a reason hereof and that in a third Proposition which is They Crucify the Lord Jesus a new and put him to open shame This should have been the second but I follow the order of the words For this is the genuine method 1. Christians may fall away 2. Falling away they Crucify Christ and put him to open shame 3. It 's impossible for them doing so to be renewed by Repentance This third which I handled in the second place contains the medium whereby the impossibility of Repentance is inferred But 1. I will explain the words 2. Shew how they come in upon the former 1. To Crucify the Lord Jesus the Son of God afresh and to put him to an open shame are in some respect the same For the Death of the Crosse is a shameful and ignominious Death and Punishment therefore we read of shame and the Crosse joyned together For it 's said of Christ That he endured the Cross and despised the shame Hebr. 12. 2. There be many tormenting and disgracing Punishments inflicted by higher Powers upon Malefactors Amongst these Capital penalties are the greatest Of Capital Crucifying or putting to Death upon the Crosse is most cruel and ignominious This our blessed Saviour the Son of God once Suffered For such was the malice of the Jews that nothing but his Death and no other Death but the Death of the Crosse besides many other indignities would satisfy them The end of just punishments are loss pain and shame Therefore Malefactors were executed publickly and openly that others might see hear and fear to do the like Sinnes lest they should suffer the like Punishments if they should prove guilty of the like Crimes And not onely the Punishments executed by Man but such as are inflicted by God are exemplary Therefore as the Apostle saith The punishments which the Israelites suffered in the Wildernesse are our ensamples 1 Cor. 10. 6 11. Therefore the word turned put him to open shame signifies to make an example of shame and disgrace To return unto the Text Apostates are said to Crucify Christ unto themselves afresh the meaning is not that they put Christ to Death upon the Cross in proper sense For that they cannot do he dyed upon the Crosse once and rose again is immortal in Heaven and shall never dy any more For in that he dyed he dyed unto Sin or for Sin once and but once seeing he being raised from the Dead he dyed no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. 6. 9 10. Therefore the words are to be understood Tropically they are a Metaphor which is a contract Similitude and signify that they are like unto the Jews and deal with Christ in somethings as they did For as the Jews judged Christ not to be the Messias and Son of God but a Seducer an Impostor and Malefactor and desired Judgment against him as such that he might be Crucified and put to open shame so these Apostates denying Christ whom they had formerly professed must needs account of him no better then the Jews did and so justify all their Accusations against him and his Crucifying as just and justly deserved by him But these Revolters especially agree with the malicious Jews who renounce him blaspheme him and persecute him in those who profess him such Julian was This is to tread under foot the Son of God and to count the blood of the Covenant that is whereby the everlasting Covenant was confirmed and they sanctified an unholy or profane thing This is the highest contempt of Christ and his Blood that possibly can be Some observe from these words Crucify him afresh 1. That though they cannot Crucify him because he is far out of their power yet for their part they are ready and have a mind to do it and would do it if it were in their power 2. That though he was Crucified once yet if he were living and in their reach they would Crucify him again § 7. This is the meaning of the Words Now secondly Let 's consider how they come in upon the former and what connexion they have with them They presuppose that Apostates do Crucify the Son of God to themselves afresh and are guilty of this Crime For Apostacy is their Sin and this necessarily follows upon it and is inseparably joyned with it And they seem to give a reason of the impossibility of their Renovation by Repentance For there can be no Renovation or Sanctification but by the Blood of the Son of God and this they deny renounce trample under foot therefore they can neither repent nor by repentance be renewed or receive any benefit For repentance presupposeth necessarily Faith in the Blood of Christ and the force thereof dependeth upon that Blood and the belief thereof without both which no repentance can ever do any good or benefit any man and this is the immutable Will and Decree of God Neither will God give Repentance to any Apostate or accept him though he should and could repent For Christ did never merit nor God promise to any such persons either of these The reason of all this is That God decreed that Christ should dy but once and that Sinners should be initiated but once and that whosoever makes void to himself this one Death and this one Initiation shall never have any benefit by a second Death or a second Initiation These are contrary to the eternal and unchangeable Rules and Laws of his Kingdom and by these Rules their Sin is irremissible and their final destruction unavoidable Therefore let us hear and fear lest by any means we fall away from that Christianity which we have received professed and engaged in By all this it 's evident that it 's in vain to lay the foundation again by Repentance Faith Baptism and the rest This reason to make it more plain is illustrated by a Similitude which as all other Comparisons hath two parts 1. A Proposition 2. A Reddition The Proposition is expressed the Reddition implyed The subject of the first part or proposition is the Earth and as there are two sorts or kinds of Earth good and bad so there be two parts of the proposition The first Concerning good Earth The second Concerning bad and barren Ground 1. Concerning the good we may consider 1. The Proposition and then the Reddition In the first observe 1. The Fruitfulness 2. God's Blessing The fruitfulness presupposeth Rain Dressing For without these two Moisture and Husbandry no Ground can be fruitful The Rain is from Heaven the Husbandry from Man The goodness of it is that it drinketh in the Rain bringeth forth Herbs meat for them by whom it 's dressed and here by Herbs may be meant all kind of Fruit that 's fit for man's food As it 's fruitful so
and Sin reigned from Adam to Moses Rom. 5. 12 14. And the wages of Sin is Death Rom. 6. 23. Besides it 's said That in Adam all dye that is in Adam sinning for he was that one man by whom Sin entred into the World 1 Cor. 15. 22. So that God appointed Man to dye and to dye but once The second Proposition is That after Death followeth Judgment This is the second thing For Death is first Judgment the second and the word after signifies the order of time For Death goes before and Judgment follows after The party Judged is Man the Judge is God whose Judgment is particular or general particular of every particular individual person general or universal of all For there is the Judgment of the great Day when all shall appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ and this Judgment is appointed of God and appointed to follow after Death after which follows the final and eternal estate of man which shall be unalterable and by Judgment may be meant not only the Sentence of the Judge but the estate of the parties judged which followeth thereupon whether it be an estate of misery or of felicity We live here that we may prepare for this Judgment and we ought so to live as that we may be happy for ever hereafter and prevent the suffering of eternal punishments Yet men do not believe that God will Judge us and that Judgment will follow and that unavoidably after Death or if they do not believe this yet they do not seriously consider it This is the reason why they live secure in their Sins and extream danger and this is the cause of their eternal ruine It 's not material to enquire whether the act of the Judge or the estate of the parties judged or whether particular or universal Judgment be here meant or no. It 's certain that this is a Judgment which followeth after Death and the final and universal Doom seems to be here intended when both Soul and Body the whole man and all men that dye shall be judged This is the proposition § 26. The Reddition followeth in these words Ver. 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto Salvation THis Text informs us of the appearance of Christ for that 's the subject of it This appearance is two-fold the first and the second and both these differ much not only for the manner but the end The first was in Humility and the end was to suffer and by suffering to expiate Sin The second shall be in Glory and the end of it to give eternal Salvation to such as look for him The first was to suffer and save the second to judge and reward his faithful and obedient Servants The propositions therefore are two 1. Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many 2. Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without Sin unto Salvation The first is the same with that in ver 26. But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself The words differ the matter is the same For as there so here two things are observable 1. The Sacrifice the single Sacrifice of Christ. 2. The end of it The single Sacrifice for Christ was once offered the end for he was once offered to bear the Sins of many First he offered himself this was an act of him as a Priest and as he was the best Priest that ever lived so he himself was the best Sacrifice that ever was offered The end was also excellent for he bare the sins of many that is the punishment due for the sins of many and he bare this punishment to satisfy divine Justice and procure God's favour to sinful man We deserved the punishment and he suffers it he is punished that we may be spared It was tender compassion in him to offer himself for us and it was exceeding love in God to send and give him for to suffer and so be the propitiation for our Sins He bare the sins of all to make them pardonable and the sins of many even of all sincere Believers that they may be actually pardoned for ever possibility of pardon is the benefit of all actual pardon of many yet not of all For Christ had no absolute intention to procure the Salvation of all but of such as believe in him yet the reason why all are not pardoned is not from Christ's Death which made the Sins of all pardonable but from some other cause And this is the condemnation of all those to whom the Gospel is preached That Light comes unto them and they love Darkness rather then Light God hath given his only begotten Son and his Son hath offered himself and made the way to Heaven passible and remission of Sins and eternal Life are offered unto u upon fair and reasonable terms and conditions and though to corrupt Flesh and Blood they be difficult yet they are made easy by the power of the Spirit yet we love our Sins more then our Saviour and continue in them to our eternal condemnation § 27. The second Proposition is concerning his second appearance For he shall appear the second time where as before we have the manner and the end The manner is Glorious for he shall appear without Sin yet he never had any Sin and in his first appearance he was without Sin For Sin of his own he had not yet he bare Sins the Sins of others the Sins of many Yet these Sins were not his by Commission but by Imputation so far as to be liable to Death For God laid on him the Iniquities of us all So that without Sin is without suffering for the Sins of others He shall not come the second time to dye for our Sins as he did the first this is the genuine sense When he came to Sacrifice for Sin he came in great Humility and took upon him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross this low condition was suitable to the work he then undertook But now he comes as King and Lord to judge the World and therefore he comes in Glory The end of his coming is to reward and the reward is Salvation and the parties to be rewarded are such as look for him By Salvation is meant eternal Life and full Happiness which he purchased by his precious Blood and it 's so called because man in danger of eternal Death shall then be fully saved and delivered from all Sin and all the sad and woful Consequents of Sin and that for ever for then Death man's last Enemy shall be destroyed Yet this immunity from all evil cannot consist without the enjoyment of those glorious and eternal Blessings which God hath promised this is the great reward which Believers do expect and because they know they shall not
pass the Sentence and execute the same The Sacrifice of a broken and penitent heart and of Prayer may be offered often but the propitiatory Sacrifice need not often to be offered one Offering will serve the turn § 11. Thus far the Proposition the Reddition follows Ver. 12. But this Man after he had offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God Ver. 13. From henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Foo◠〈◊〉 Ver. 14. For by one Offering he hath perfected the sanctified for ever VVHere we have 1. The offering of Christ's one Sacrifice 2. The Reason why it was but once offered In the former we are informed 1. Of the Dissimilitude between the Legal Sacrifices and that Sacrifice of Christ and this is expressed 2. Of their Imparity which is implied 1. The Dissimilitude we find in several things 1. There under the Law were many Priests yea the Legal High-Priests were many this Priest Christ is but one 2. Their Sacrifices were many Christ's but one 3. There the same Sacrifices were offered often Christ's one Sacrifice was offered but once 4. Those Priests after they had offered the same Sacrifice stood ready to offer them again at set times Christ when he had offered once never offered again but sate down at the right hand of God 5. They had no Power to take away Sin Christ by this one Sacrifice once offered takes away Sin for ever 2. The Imparity which is great is implyed in the Dissimilitude for that Sacrifice which being but one and but once offered by one Priest took away Sin for ever is incomparably more excellent than those Sacrifices which being many and offered many times by many Priests could never take away Sin But such is Christ's Sacrifice and such were theirs therefore it 's incomparably more excellent The Text may be reduced to three Propositions 1. This Man offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever 2. Having offered it he sate down at the right hand of God 3. Being set there he expects his Enemies to be made his Foot-stool In all which we have the Humiliation and Exaltation of the Son of God In the first Proposition there is little or no difficulty Yet 1. The Connexion of it with the former part of the Comparison is made by the Conjunction But for so they turn the Greek Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place which implies the difference and dissimilitude 2. The Subject of it according to our Translation is This Man but in some Copies the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here it 's read and whereas they supply the Substantive by the word Man this Man yet it may be turned this Priest or this High-Priest as some Manuscripts in the former Verse read every High-Priest 3. When it 's said He had offered one Sacrifice it must be understood not only of one Sacrifice but of one single Offering 4. This is said to be offered for Sins this puts us in mind of our misery God's Mercy and Christ's merit For we have our Sins whereby we are liable to death yet God was so merciful as to give Christ for our Sins and Christ's offering was so acceptable and meritorious that it obtained eternal Remission in respect of which eternal efficacy some think it's said Christ offered this one Sacrifice for ever never to be offered again because of eternal vertue Yet several Copies joyn the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever with the latter Proposition which is 2. That Christ having offered one Sacrifice for Sin sate down at the right hand of God for ever So the Vulgar Vatablus Beza Tremelius out of the Syriack and divers other Greek Copies read it This sitting at the right hand of God doth presuppose Christ's Offering and deep Humiliation his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven 2. It is the highest degree of Glory and Power to that which is infinite which is the Power of God as God 3. This Power which under God is supream and universal is perpetually continued to him and his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Some think this sitting is opposed to the standing of the Levitical Priests which may be so and so it may signify that his Ministration in the Form of a Servant on Earth was ended and did cease for ever 4. This Session and Exaltation is to be considered not only as a Reward of his Humiliation unto death whereby he merited Remission and Salvation but also as a means whereby he might apply his merits and confer the Mercies which by his Sacrifice he had procured for us For as King he sends down the Holy Ghost reveals his Gospel by the Word and Spirit works Faith in us and converts us and so makes us Subjects capable of the benefits of his Redemption and as a Priest pleads his bloody Sacrifice and by his Intercession for us converted obtains our actual Remission and Salvation He need not offer any more but plead his one Offering till all his Saints be fully justified The third Proposition is concerning his expectation of a final Victory over all his Enemies by the Exercise of his transcendent Power at the right hand of God For so God had said and promised when he first invested him with supream Power For the Lord said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool Where we must observe 1. That in respect of himself all his Enemies are conquered they have not the least Power to molest him Yet 2. In respect of his Reign and Government they oppose his Power continually 3. These Enemies are Sin Satan the World and Death all which must be destroyed in his Church and Saints yet this Destruction goes on by degrees and shall be finished in the end when the Saints shall rise and be immortal and freed from all Sin Sorrow Misery Enemies and Death it self 4. This is expectation of their final ruine is not doubtful and uncertain but most certain And this estate of Glory is opposed to his Death and Humiliation and both his Regal and Sacerdotal Power are subservient to this total final Victory § 12. But here it may be enquired what should be the Reason why Christ's Sacrifice should not be iterated but that one single Offering should be sufficient To satisfy us in this particular the Apostle gives the Reason thus Ver. 14. For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified THE Conjunction For doth signify that in these words is given a Reason of something antecedent and that is why the offering of Christ was but one and this it is Because by that one Christ did more than all the Legal Priests by all their many frequent Offerings could do And not only so but also it did enough to consecrate all true Believers for ever and proved to be of eternal vertue in all such as were capable of it In the words themselvs we
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
unto is To consider Christ the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession and to presevere in his Doctrine ver 1. 2. The Reasons by which he presseth the performance of this Duty are 1. Christ was not only faithful in his Trust as Moses was but also far greater then Moses in two respects For 1. Moses was but part in the House builded Christ was the Builder of all things and especially of the Church ver 3 4. 2. Moses was but a Servant in that House Christ was the Lord and Owner ver 5 6. 2. If they persevere in his Doctrine and the Faith they shall be his House of Glory wherein God shall for ever dwell and make them fully blessed ver 7. 3. If they that disobeyed and hardned their hearts against Mose's Doctrine fell in the Wilderness and by a peremprory Oath were shut out of God's Rest much more shall they disobeying the Gospel and falling from the Faith be shut out of God's eternal Rest in Heaven In this Reason we must consider 1. That it 's taken out of Psal. 95. the words whereof are recired ver 7 8 9 10 11. 2. That from these words applied unto them he dehorts them from Unbelief and Apostacy and exhorts them to use all means of perseverance that so he might be partakers of that eternal Rest which Christ had merited for them ver 12 13 14 15. 3. He wisheth them to take special notice of such as did and such as did not enter into God's Rest and what was the cause of the exclusion of those whom God destroyed in the Wilderness and would not suffer to enter into Canaan and that was Unbelief ver 16 17 18 19. CHAP. IV. VVHerein the Discourse upon the words of the Psalm is continued and application made by way of Exhortation And 1. The Duty exhorted unto is To be obedient and mix the word with Faith ver 1. 2. The Reasons are 1. They are partakers of the heavenly Call and the Gospel was preached unto Them as well as to their Fathers 2. They not mixing the Word with Faith but being disobedient to the heavenly Call did not enter but came short ver 2. 3. They which do believe do enter into God's Rest ver 3. And here lest they should be ignorant what Rest of God is meant and to be expected he informs them of a three-fold Rest of God 1. His Rest of Creation 2. His Rest which he promised in the Land of Canaan to their Fathers 3. His spiritual and eternal Rest promised in the Gospel It was not the first ver 3 4. For after this he speaketh of another Rest ver 5. It was not the second into which many of their Fathers because of unbelief did not enter and after this he limitteth another Time and Rest which had never been mentioned if Joshua who brought their Fathers into the Land of Canaan had brought them into This ver 6 7 8. It 's a spiritual and eternal Rest in Heaven which remaineth for the People of God and is to be enjoyed when they cease from all their works of Obedience and Sufferings as God did from his when he had finished the work of Creation ver 9 10. 4. If they do not persevere they may fall after the example of their unbelieving Ancestors and lest they should presume or be secure he lets them know that Christ by the piercing Word of the Gospel will discover their inward and most secret sins and will be a severe and impartial Judg ver 11 12 13. 5. The same great Prophet who hath called us by the Word of the Gospel is our High Priest very sensible of our infirmities and entred into Heaven the eternal Rest of God in our behalf and if we wanting strength do come boldly by him before the Throne of Grace we shall obtain help in due season when we have greatest need ver 14 15 16. CHAP. V. VVHerein after the discourse of the excellency of Christ's prophetical Office he begins to speak of his Priest-hood And 1. Delivers the Doctrine thereof from this Chapter to ver 19 of the 10th 2. Applies the same and continues the Application from the 19th verse of the 10th Chapter unto the latter end of the last The scope of the Apostle in the Doctrine is To demonstrate the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood in respect of 1. The Constitution from the beginning of this Chapter to the 8th 2. The Ministration from the beginning of the 8th to the middle of the 10th In this Chapter we have 1. A Discourse of Priest-hood 2. A Digression begun in the latter end of this Chapter and continued in the 6th 1. The Discourse is 1. Concerning a Priest in general 2. Concerning Aaron 3. Concerning Christ. 1. An High Priest in general is described 1. From his Vocation He is taken from amongst men and ordained ver 1. 2. From his Ministration He must offer Gifts and Sacrifices for sins Ibid. 3. From his Qualification He must be merciful and compassionate ver 2 3. 2. Vocation which consists in Election and Ordination is not from Man but God for no Priest-hood can be efficiently conducing to Man's spiritual good except it be instituted from Heaven as Aaron's was ver 4. 3. Therefore Christ did not usurp his Sacerdotall Power but he had his Vocation Confirmation Consecration from God 1. His Vocation he finds Psal. 2. in these words Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee by which upon his Resurrection he was made and constituted King and Priest ver 5. 2. His Confirmation he reads Psal. 110. 4. I have sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec ver 6. 3. His Consecration which tended to his fuller Constitution was finished in his Agony and Death upon the Cross by which he became the Author of eternal Life to as many as obey him ver 7 8 9. Thus far the Author's Discourse of Priest-hood which is closed up with the Repetition of the words of Confirmation 1. Because the Confirmation followed the Consecration 2. From the same the Apostle takes occasion to make the Digression which followeth And therein he reproves them of their Ignorance contracted by their negligence which was such that whereas for the time they might have been more and apt to able teach others yet were Babes had need to be taught again the first Principles and were uncaple of the Doctrine which he intended to deliver concerning the Priest-hood of Christ ver 11 12 13 14. CHAP. VI. VVHerein 1. The Digression is continued 2. The principal Subject resumed ver 20. In the Digression we have 1. His Resolution 2. An Exhortation In the Resolution 1. The Thing Resolved upon 2. The Reasons of his Resolution The thing resolved upon is expressed 1. Negatively Not to go back and lay the Foundation 2. Affirmatively To go on with his intended Discourse ver 1 2 3. The Reasons are 1. If any of them after a clear conviction and considerable
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
presupposeth the Command so the Command presupposeth that God spake by his Son more excellent then the Angels and that they had heard his Doctrine This may be the Use or Application of the Doctrine delivered and confirmed in the former Chapter And the Use after the present mode of preaching is an Instruction which virtually includes an exhortation with a dehortation § 3. Ver. 2 3 4. The reason which may perswade and motive which may incline us to performance of the duty both affirmative and negative follows And it is two-fold 1. From the grievous unavoidable punishment to which upon non-performance we shall be liable and in the end suffer 2. From divine Ordination The first we read ver 2 3 4. where we may observe 1. A punishment grievous unavoidable 2. The cause of it 1. There can be no Punishment where there is no Law transgressed For where there is the Law there is no Transgression Rom. 4. 19. And where no transgression or sin there is no â—â—ath or punishment For the wages or desert of Sin is Death Rom. 6. 23. Punishment therefore is some evil determined and threatned in the Law by the Law-giver against the Transgressouâ— as due unto him upon the transgression It 's opposed properly to a reward promised not to a benefit which is no reward This punishment is grievous and the grievousness is implyed in a Comparison For if the Transgressours of the Law then the Transgressours of the Gospel shall be grievously punished and if the former much more the latter if their punishment was grievous much more grievous shall ours be It 's expressed in two words in the Original in three in our translation a just recompence of reward yet according to the Greek it 's a just retribution or rendring of wages that is a punishment of Death which they deserved and was justly due unto them To deserve and to be â—able to punishment is a consequent and moral effect of transgression by vertue of the Law to determine this punishment is an act of the Law-giver to infact it is an act of the Judge which infliction is a rendring of some evil as due to the party suffering as deserving it But as it is first grievous so it is unavoidable This is expressed 1. In that they under the Law receved it 2. In that we under the Gospel cannot escape it How shall we escape § 4. The cause of this grievous unavoidable punishment is some sin which is here expressed And to understand this more fully and distinctly let 's consider 1. The sin and punishment of transgressours under the Law 2. The sin and punishment of the transgressours under the Gospel 3. The force of the reason The words of the second verse informes us 1. Of the sin 2. The punishment of former Offenders 1. The sin is the transgression of the word spoken by Angels 2. The punishment was the destruction of the Offenders In the Text we have 1. A Law 2. The transgression of this Law 3. The punishment of the transgressours 4. The efficacy of the Law in this punishment If we reduce it to Propositions they are these 1. That a word was spoken by Angels 2. This word was disobeyed 3. The disodient suffered condign punishment 4. By this punishment the Law was made firm and valid In the first we have 1. A word 2. The the same spoken 3. The same spoken by Angels 1. By word is no doubt understood a Law consisting of precepts prohibitions promises threats or comminations which are principally here understood as a part of the Law Some think this Law to be the Decalogue yet this cannot be here intended as it stands alone separated from the Judicials and Ceremonials wherein we find many fearful penal Statutes and Comminations So that by Word is understood the whole body and systeme of those Laws God gave by Moses to Israel neither let any wonder that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should signify a Word and a Law For in Hebrew Chaldee and Arabick the same verbes which signifie to speak signify to govern and the same Nouns which signifie words signifie Commands and Laws 2. This word was spoken that is this Law was published and promulgated For the matter of the Law the mind and will of the Law-giver the declaration of both do all concurr to constitute the essence of a Law 3. The word and Law was spoken and declared by Angels though the matter and the binding decree was from God and neither of them from the Angels who were used by God in the promulgation Though God in a more special manner is said to have uttered and written the ten Commandments or Decalogue yet in giving of the whole Systeme of the Law he used the ministry of Angels For they received the Law by the disposition of Angels Acts 7. 53. And it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3. 19. where by Law cannot be meant the Decalogue alone as appears by the context antecedent and consequent And God Angels Moses did all concurr as one efficient of the promulgation before it could be compleat Therefore there is no need with Hâ—insius to understand by Angels the Prophets as Angels that is Messengers of God Hence appears the vanity and error of Crellius For he doth suppose and take for granted that if the Law was spoken and published by Angels then it was not published by God or the Son of God in the person of the Diety For by this he might argue against the express words of the Apostle Chap. 1. 1. that because the Old Testament and the Doctrine thereof was published and declared by the Prophets therefore it was not published declared and spoken by God whereas it 's expresly said God spake by the Prophets to the Fathers 2. He argues to this purpose that if the Law was in proper sense delivered by God or the Son in the person of the Deity then it would follow that the Apostle's argument to prove the Gospel above the Law were not good for if the Law was published by God or the Son in the person of the Deity the Law must be more excellent then the Gospel But first He takes the Law only for the Decalogue which should not be done 2. He mistakes the Apostle's comparison and argument For the comparison is not in respect of him that spake but of those by whom he spake The Old and New Testament do not differ in this that God doth speak and declare them For both are the Word of God both were spoken by God in which respect they are equal and the same If God had not spoken in both both had not been the Word of God But the difference is in respect of those by whom he spake For of old he spake by the Prophets in the last days he spake by his Son and the Son is more excellent then the Prophets for here is the inequality and the excellency of the Gospel above the Law spoken by Angels and
Scriptures of the Old Testament received by the Jews as Divine and from God the difficult Question is of whom that Psalm speaketh and whom he meaneth by man the Son of man so minded so visited by God so humbled so advanced Some will have it to be man in the day of his Creation some think it's man fallen some determine it to be man restored in Christ some are resolute that it is Christ himself as man Thus Cramerus Tarnovius and the Lutherans generally who bitterly inveigh against Calvin interpreting otherwise Calvin had his fellows followers Others tell us that it agrees to Man in the literal to Christ in the mystical sense others that there are two literal senses the one whereof agrees to Man the other which is the principal agrees to Christ. Vatablus seems to agree with this Cramerus teckons this amongst the prophetical Psalms The intention of the Psalmist is to praise God for his glorious works wherein he manifested his power wisdom and special mercy The works are not only those of Creation but of his special providence over Man and amongst those works of special providence that of restauration of Man by the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus Christ who is the principal subject of the Psalm according to the parts of it alledged in the New Testament where we find ver 2 6 8. applyed to Christ. Upon this ground Cramerus Tarnovius and others understand it only of Christ It 's true that some things here mentioned do agree to Man in the state of Creation yet the special care of Man in respect of his spiritual and eternal estate appears most of all in Christ to whom set at his right hand he subjected all things for this end That he might convert man and make him converted for ever blessed So that in the words alledged we may observe 1. God's special care of Man and his singular love towards him 2. The same manifested in a most glorious manner in the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. 3. The admiration or rather amazement at such a stupeâ—dious manifestation of such stupendious love All the works of God are in themselves excellent and wonderful but the work of Redemption by Christ is matter of greatest wonder and astonishment even to the Angels § 11. The Application follows where the Authour takes special notice of the last words cited out of the Psalm They are these Thou hast put all things in subjection under his Feet These are not the last words of the Psalm but of the words alledged out the Psalm These understood of Christ proves that which he intended That unto the Angels God hath not put in subjection the World to come but to some other even to Man that special Man whereof the Psalmist speaks Concerning these words he delivers two Propositions The first as a conclusion The second upon the By. The first as a conclusion is this That he left nothing that is not put under him this necessarily follows if God put all things under his Feet Therefore he is the Lord of the World to come and Angels are subjected as included in the word all That these words are understood of Christ and not of any other Man as Heinsius would have them to be is evident from 1 Cor. 15. 27. For he hath put all things under his Feet but when he saith All things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted who did put all things under him Where two things are observable as clear and evident 1. That it was Christ risen from the Dead and set at the right hand of God under whose Poet as his Foot-stool all things were put 2. That nothing is excepted as not put under but God who subdued all things unto him The second Proposition upon the By is But now we see not all things put under him The meaning whereof is that though God hath given him Dominion over all things and all things are subject to his Power yet he hath not as yet exerclsed his Power to destroy all Enemies and reduce all his People to subjection And this we shall never see till the last Saint be converted and Death the last Enemy destroyed which cannot be before the Resurrection whereby all his Servants and Vassals shall be made immortall and fully and for ever freed from Death Ver. 9. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower then the Angels c. This is the second Application of those words of the Psalmist Thou hast made him a little lower then the Angels thou hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Which we find differently expounded translated read pointed Yet the matter is plain and it 's evident they speak of Christ and concerning Him deliver two things 1. His Humiliation 2. His Exaltation 1. His Humiliation in three things 1. That he was lower then the Angels 2. He suffered 3. He suffered Death for all men And the substance of the whole is That though in the state of his humiliation and mortality in respect of his suffering Death he was a little or a little while lower than the Angels yet he rose again and is now crowned with Glory and Honour at the right hand of God and made Lord of All. And there was a special reason why for a time he should be mortal and suffer Death even because that was the way unto Glory and the means of eternal deliverance determined by God Though all this be clear yet the place is wofully obscured and especially by Henisius whilst he tediously endeavours to make it more plain I will not trouble the Reader either with his pointing the words or his manner of rendring them or his exposition in all which he thinks Tâ—cla's Manuscript doth favour him which it doth not § 12. In these words these things are manifest 1. That the subject of them are the words of Psal. 8. 5. 2. That he applys them unto Christ. 3. That in them he observes the Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ. 4. Gives the reasons why Christ must first be humbled before he can be exalted and to shew this last is the scope of the Apostle in the rest of the Chapter unto the end It 's not to prove that Christ is Man as some do think nor to make a digression to speak of his Priest-hood as others tell us That he mentions some acts of Christ as a Priest and other things agreeing to him as Man and as a Priest or King it 's upon the By. In them we find three Propositions 1. That we see Christ for the suffering of Death Crowned with Glory and Honour 2. This Christ is he that was first made a little lower then the Angels 3. One end why Christ was made lower then the Angels was that by the Grace of God he might â—asto Death for every Man The meaning of the first Proposition is easy For it affirms 1. That Christ was Crowned with Glory and Honour 2. And that for suffering Death 3. They
them everlasting life Hee 's that Joshua who leads us and gives us possession of our spiritual and celestial Canaan 2. This Captain Prince and Authour was made perfect of God by Suffering or God made him perfect by Sufferings To be perfected in this place is to be consecrated and made a compleat Priest or at least to be put in an immediate capacity to act as a Priest Aaron and the Levitical Priests had their Consecration and it was not without Blood and the death of Sacrifices and the form was instituted and prescribed by God who alone could give them this Glory Power and Office That Christ was a Priest is expresse Scripture as we shall understand in this Epistle hereafter Yet such he could not be without Consecration neither could he be consecrated without Blood and suffering of Death and offering a bloody Sacrifice And the difference of the Consecration of other Priests and him was this that though both were consecrated by Blood yet they were consecrated by the blood of Beaâ—â—s sacrificed He by his own Blood when he sacrificed and offered himself without spot unto God The reason of this was Because he must be a Meditatour between God and sinful Man to reconcile them but no reconcilion without Blood and no Blood but his own Blood immaculate would be accepted For though God was merciful and willing to be reconciled yet his justice would admit of no reconciliation but upon satisfaction to be made by this Blood God did manifest his Justice and hatred of sin by punishing it in Christ before he would pardon it in Man It was God that did Consecrate him for no Man or Angel could conferr this Office upon him or make him an universal and eternal Priest to officiate and minister in Heaven only God could do this And he as supream Lord and Law-giveâ— could appoint and accept him to be Redeemer prescribe the manner of Consecration and as supream Judge accept of his Consecration once finished and invest him with this sacerdotal Power In these respects God is said to Consecrate him By him thus consecrated many Sons are brought to Glory There are many Sons brought to Glory he that brings them to Glory is God he doth this by Christ consecrated and made their Captain To bring to Glory is in the end to give possession of Glory and that everlasting and most excellent Estate prepared for the Sons of God These are many and are made his Sons by Regeneration and Adoption The one doth make them capable of the other gives them right to Glory which they shall fully enjoy when their heavenly Birth and gracious Adoption are perfected They derive their title from their Captain as consecrated by Suffering and received by Faith For as they are the Sons and Heirs of God so are they joynt-Heirs with Christ and in his right And if he never had been consecrated by Sufferings they never had been either Sons or Heirs or Glorified For he by his Sufferings merited all and laid the foundation of their eternal Happiness And for this Suffering he made him Captain and Head of all his Sons and gave him power to give eternal Life to as many as he had given him It 's God who brings these Sons to Glory by their Head and Captain He loved Man he gave his Son to Death he raised him up again made him King and Priest and gave him power to convert us and by him he adopts us and by him he gives us Glory The sum of all is this The glorification of sinful Man from first to last is from God it 's he and he alone that brings him to Glory yet though the persons glorified be many yet they are all Sons and none but Sons shall enjoy the Inheritance neither are they Sons by Nature or of themselves He makes them such by Christ and Christ was consecrated by Sufferings and made their Captain It became him for whom and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons to Glory thus to do God is here described from his efficiency where-by he is the cause of all things the universal Agent who produceth preserveth ordereth all things to their end especially his Sons unto Glory For though his works be many then some are more excellent then others and one of the chiefest is the Salvation of man Some do think that by these words for whom and by whom are meant that God is the final and efficient cause of all yet in strict sense God cannot in himself be said to be the end of any thing yet the manifestation of his glorious Perfection may be said to be intended by him in all his Works To consecrate the Captain of all his Sons by Sufferings did become him that is it seemed best to his divine Wisdom to use this means as most fit to manifest his justice and mercy in the Redemption and Salvation of man What Ways and means as conducing to this end he knew or his divine Wisdom did dictate unto him is hidden from us but this here mentioned he resolved upon as the best and most agreeable to his excellent perfection For God doth nothing but that which becomes him so glorious in himself and so excellent an Agent Men may do many things unbeseeming and no ways befitting them to do nay Angels have done many things which did not become so noble Spirits to do but God doth nothing but what God may do And this is the reason why Christ must taste of Death for every man Because it seemed good to God by that way and means to save sinful man And this is the relative consideration and connexion implyed in the causal conjunction For. They give a reason why Christ was lower then the Angels and suffered Death And why It became God so to do Ver. 11. For both he that Sanctifieth c. § 14. The Apostle in these and the following words doth manifest how it became God to cast Christ below the Angels and consecrate him by Sufferings and he doth so manifest it as that it may appear to be agreeable to Reason which is a spark or ray of divine Light To understand this the better you must remember 1. That Christ was lower then the Angels in suffering Death 2. That as God or Angel he could not suffer Death 3. If he could have suffered Death as a Spirit yet that Death was not so fit to redeem Man or expiate his sin and sanctify him 4. That seeing he must both dy and dy for man he must be Man and mortal Man to sanctify man These things premised the Apostle proves that it became God to make Christ a mortal Man and the reason is because he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctifyed ought and must be of one and this is the coherence In the words themselves we have the unity and indentity of the Sanctifier and sanctified By the Sanctifier or the person sanctifying is meant Christ and by the sanctified sinful men by being of one that
8. 17 18 verses where we have in the Septuagint the very words here used and alledged of the Apostle In that part of the Chapter we have a clear prophecy of Christ fulfilled in the time of his abode on Earth and before his ascent into Heaven There is a plain prediction of Christ's Incarnation and living amongst men and of his Disciples who did believe on him as also of the unbelief of the greatest part of the Jews of their rejection of Christ and of God's rejection of them and the destruction of Jerusalem And Christ is brought in saying And I will wait upon â—â— for the Lord that hideth or turneth his Face from the House of Jacob and I will trust in him as in the Septuagint Behold I and the Children which God hath given me These words are to be understood of him as one with his Disciples and man as they were men And in that Chapter we find some passages directly agreeing with the words of Simons which he spake after that he being in the Temple had received Christ being then Incarnate and an infant into his arms So that to understand the Apostle and the Prophet too we must not so must stand upon the words in themselves severed from the rest but joyntly with the context of the Chapter speaking of Immanuel that is Christ Incarnate § 16. In ver 11 he had said That both he that sanctifieth and they that are saâ—ctified are of one and in these words he assumes but the sanctified are parâ—akers of Flesh and Blood and so concludes that he must have Flesh and Blood and therefore saith He likewise took part with them And those which he called The sanctified by him ver 11. Here he names Children according to the words of the Prophet and these were Disciples and such as believed in him And it 's to be observed 1. That to be of one is to be Flesh and Blood and so man 2. That there is a two-fold union of Christ with Mâ—nsâ— The first by his Incarnation And the second by his actual Sanctification In the first respect he is one with all mankind as they are men and the Head of the whole body of them In the second respect he is one in a special manner with his Elect. By him â—â— man and dying for man all men receive this benefit to to be savable which Angels sinning do not By him as man dying and believed upon all such as do believe are actually sanctified and in the end saved And He and the Sanctified which are the Church are one in a special manner yet because to take part with the Children and be man was not sufficient except he dyed for them that by his Death he might be beneficial unto them therefore it 's added That he took part with them that he might destroy him that had the power of Death which is the Devil Where we may observe two things 1. That the Devil hath the power of Death 2. That Christ by Death destroyed him The first is implyed The second is expressed The word Devil is to be understood collectively for the Devils but in a special manner for the Prince of Devils who is said to be a Lyar and a Murderer Joh. 8. 44. because by his lyes he deceived our first Parents inducing them to Sin whereby they were made liable to Death For by his Temptations and false Suggestions he insinuateth into man and infuseth his poyson into their Soul Man yielding unto his Temptations falls into his hands and comes under his Power so that he hath dominion over him reigns in him blinds him perverts him inclines him effectually to sin and by sin stings him to Death And because he hath so great power to draw man into sin he may be said to have the Power of Death because by this means he makes man more and more obnoxious to Death which so unavoidably by the Law follows upon Sin yet he may be said to have the power of Death as a Jaylour Hangman or Executioner may be said to have such a power and God in his just Judgment may deliver disobedient man into his hand and by him execute his punishments as some understand the place and by divine permission he may have great strength to torment and destroy man Otherwise he can have no right unto Man to judg condemn him punish as being his Lord and Judg For that belongs only unto God who if man yield unto Satan may deliver him into his hand and he may detain him as his Captive The Scripture speaks much of the power of Satan over man till God deliver him out of his hand and this power can be no power of Life but of Death and Destruction This is the first thing implyed the second is That Christ by his Death destroyed him He destroyed him he destroyed him by his Death To destroy him is not to take away his immortal Life and Being but to take away his power or strength For the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the power of an Enemy over a Captive is not a legal and regular power and authority This strength and force and also right unto man as his Captive Christ took away by his Death For by his Death he satisfied God's Justice and merited a power and right to him as having by a lutron or price payed to the supream Lord and Owner bought him So that upon this price and ransome paid and accepted man became his and the Devil had only the possession of him though Christ had the right unto him and the propriety in him Therefore Christ in his prayer doth acknowledg that his Father had given power over all Flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as he had given him Again by this Death Christ made Death removable because by it he made man's sin remissible Bacon Thorpe tells us that the Devil by putting Christ being innocent to Death lost all his power over man because he had no Commission from God to put any person innocent and free from all sin unto Death yet for this he brings no clear Scripture though this be certain that God gave all men to Christ because he dyed for them This Death aimed at a further end then the destruction of the Devil as having the power of Death Christ indeed came to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 8. and though the Devil at the first as a strong man keeps peaceable possession yet Christ is that stronger man who takes away his power disarms him takes possession and all this is done to deliver man out of his hands For 1. Christ must be lower then the Angels and mortal Man that he may dy 2. He must dy that he may destroy the power of the Devil 3. He must destroy the power of the Devil that man may be delivered from the danger of Death Man cannot be delivered except the power of the Devil be destroyed this
power cannot be destroyed except Christ dy Christ cannot dy except he be lower then the Angels and made mortal Man This connexion and subordination of these things did become God and was agreeable to his heavenly wisdom whereas the Socinian saith That for Christ to take part with Men and be Flesh and Blood as they are doth not prove that the Incarnation is true if we consider it barely in it self as a participation of humane nature and mortality Yet if we consider the subject of this participation and the person taking part with man to be the Son of God by whom he made the Worlds the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the expresse Image of his Person and look upon him as that word which was in the beginning and was with God and was God then if this Son this Word be made Flesh as here the Apostle doth affirm and else-where then the Incarnation is plain and clear enough it cannot be denyed § 17. This farther end is expressed in these words Ver. 15. And deliver them who through the fear of Death were all their life-time subject to bondage This Text represents unto us two things 1. The sad condition of such as are under the power of Satan 2. A deliverance or freedom from it The sad condition is an estate of perpetual slavery and fear of Death For to be subject to bondage is to be a slave and to be thus subject all the time of his Life is to be a perpetual slave for time of Life And this is a grievous slavery and bondage not only because it 's perpetual but because of the great danger For by fear of Death may by a Metonymy be meant the danger of Death For the proper cause of fear is danger once apprehended for it 's true that men may be in danger and yet without fear because the danger is not seen apprehended known And the bondage of perpetual fear is woful if not intolerable This Death which is so dangerous and ever threatens to terrify and torment us is not only bodily but spiritual not only temporal but eternal and the greatest Evil of all others and if we be Satan's slaves and in his power he is a most cruel Tyrant and Enemy and seeks our extream and everlasting misery and we can expect nothing better from him who delights in our destruction Oh that man did but see his condition and were sensible of it For then he could take no rest Day or Night and he would seek and cast about for deliverance We see how sad it is by the terrours and torments of Judas and Cain and by the fears griefs troubles wounds sigh◠groans of such as were once sensible of their sins and apprehensive of the wrath of God Though this be a sad condition yet there is deliverance from this continual danger this perpetual fear which is the greatest slavery of all other The beginning of comfort is to know that there is a possibility of Freedom and that the Danger is avoidable or removable The first degree of this deliverance is in Christ's Death whereby divine justice was satisfied and freedome merited 2. That the power of the Devil was destroyed for whilst it continued this fear could not be removed 3. This freedome and liberty is more compleat when upon Faith in Christ's Death Sin is pardoned and the cause of this fear is taken away For the justified have peace with God are freed from condemnation and the Law of Sin and Death and they who feared eternal Punishments rejoyce in the hope of Glory Then this slavery is changed into a blessed liberty fear into hope and the sorrow of Death into the joy of Life § 18. It follows Ver. 16. For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham In these words it 's conceived a reason is given why Man and not Angels are delivered from the slavery of death and danger of eternal punishments and the reason is this because the Word was made Flesh and Man not a Spirit or an Angel And they more clearly explain these words Seeing the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood he took part with them By Death to deliver them For if he 1. Took part with them 2. To deliver them 3. Deliver them by Death then he took not part with Angels but with the seed of Abraham as a fit means which it became God to use The Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not always causal to inferr a reason of some thing from the cause or some other argument For it is sometimes expletive sometimes hath another signification and so it may be here But to let that pass let 's consider the Text in it self which logically considered is a discretive axiom denying the same thing of one subject and affirming it of a another Christ took upon him something But 1. That was not the Angels or nature of Angels 2. He took upon him or to him the seed of Abraham So that in the words we have two simple axiomes or propositions The first is negative For verily he took not upon him the nature of Angels The second is affirmative He took on him the seed of Abraham The negation in the former proposition is strong for it 's not barely said He took not but he no where or not at all For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify nusquam aut nequaquam no where or in no wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies verily To understand the whole Text is difficult because of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some turn apprehend it he took hold on and think the expression is taken from such as pursue and follow hard after one that flyes from them to take hold on him and bring him back So Man runs from God and God became Man to follow after Man and take hold on him to save him Thus Chrysostome and from him Bishop Andrews Heinsius à Lapide with others Crellius and the Socinians turn the word another way and understand the place thus Christ succoured not the Angels but succoured the seed of Abraham This and also the former may be true but not pettinent The reason why Crellius likes the latter sense is because he likes not the Doctrine of the Incarnation he cannot digest it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated and that rightly by Vatablus Beza the Turgurines and Tremelius out of the Syriack assumpsit he assumed and by our English took on him doth answer to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned by the Septuagint several times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used And not to take the Angels that is nature of Angels is not to be made an Angel or Officer the individual substance of an Angel to redeem the Angels that sinned To assume or take the Seed of Abraham is 1. To be a man as Abraham and his Seed were men and partakers of Flesh and Blood
2. That whereas he became man in latter times he must needs be of some Nation and People with reference to the Head and first Father of that Nation and for Nation he was according to his humane Nature a Jew the first Father of which Nation was Abraham The reason hereof is this because God had made a special promise to Abraham That in his Seed all Nations should be blessed By which word Seed is meant Christ and Christ as descended from him according to the Flesh He is also called the Son of David because God promised That he should be born of his Family in Bethlehem the native place of David This sense 1. Is most agreeable to the Context antecedent where it 's said That Christ must be lower then the Angels must taste of Death must be consecrated by Suffering must be one with the sanctisied must be partaker of Flesh and Blood and deliver sinful man from the Devil But if he had assumed the nature of Angels none of these could be affirmed of him 2. The former two senses cannot be good because then he should have only apprenended and succoured the Seed of Abraham according to the Letter of this Text. Therefore seeing he took upon him the Seed of Abraham as he did the Seed of David therefore to take on him or assume the Seed of Abraham is to be of the Seed of Abraham as he was of David 2 Tim. 2 8. and to be made of the Seed of Abraham as he was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh Rom. 1. 3. And it is the same with that of the Divine Evangelist The Word was made Flesh Joh. 1. 14. Crellius here trifles egregiously for he excepts against this sense 1. Because to apprehend or take hold of a thing is not to assume the nature of it 2. The word Angels which is plural should have been singular But 1. Who will grant him that which neither others do nor he can prove that the word must be turned apprehended in this place whereas it hath other senses both in the Septuagint and in the New Testament and is turned oftner and by more Translatours assume as was shewed before 2. If Christ had assumed the individual substance of an Angel he had assumed the Nature of Angels He did but assume one individual Flesh and Blood yet he is said to take part with the Children which were many He again objects that if it be said that he took the nature not of Angels but Men then these words cannot contain and render a reason That Christ was made lower then the Angels because it is the same But 1. How will he prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is causal if it should be denied 2. Who told him that it referrs only to those words of the 7th verse as a reason of them whereas it 's plain if the conjunction be causal it referrs to that which went immediately before 3. To be lower then the Angels and assume the nature of Man are not precisely the same For now he is Man and yet above the Angels These words thus explained and cleared inform us 1. Of some special love of God shewed unto Man and to Angels and of some benefit issuing from that love and given unto Man and denied to the Angels He so loved Man that he gave his only begotton Son to be the propitiation for his sin and not for the Angels Christ and the eternal Word must be Man and dy for him but he must not be an Angel to dy for Apostate Angels or redeem them The cause of this was the free will of God who might have neglected both the one as well as the other for both were sinful and deserved Death Yet there might be a reason why he passed by the Angels and not Man even because Angels were not tempred yet sinned but Man was deceived and so was a subject more capable of mercy though he deserved no mercy Yet if Man will be obstinate in his sin and refuse to acknowledg this love and receive Christ God will turn his love into hatred and send him a cursed wretch into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and he shall lose eternally the benefit of Christ's Redemption which is remission and eternal life 2. They let us know the condescension and deep humiliation of the Son of God who vouchsafed not only to be Man but took upon him the form of a Servant and was obedient unto Death the Death of the Crosse. And this Incarnation is a deep mystery and this humiliation a matter of greatest wonder 3. They acquaint us with the excellent dignity and high advancement of the humane Nature in that it was assumed and inseparably united unto that eternal Word which is God The Angels in many things are above us and more excellent then we are yet in this we are above the Angels and nearer unto God and our nature in Christ is Lord of Angels 4. We learn from them that the Seed of Abraham and the People of the Jews have a priority and priviledg above all People For Christ took upon him their Flesh and Blood and they were his Brethren of whom according to the Flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Rom. 9. 5. This is the reason why he said when he lived on Earth That he was sent to the lost Sheep of Israel and why he chose out of them the Apostles preached the Gospel unto them first for the tender of eternal life was first made to them and why he began and finished the work of Redemption amongst them 5. From them we understand something of the nature of the Incarnation For herein we have 1. One person the eternal Word and the Son of God 2. Two Natures Divine and Humane 3. The union of these two by assumption for the Word assumed the nature of Man and this Nature was thereby united to the Word in the unity of person 4. The distinction of these two Natures for the Word is God and not Man this humane Nature remains Man and is not God and the difference is very great and perpetual And thus God-Man is Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer and happy are they who know him and believe in him Ver. 17 18. Wherefore in all things it behâ—â—ved him to be made like unto his Brethren c. § 19. In these words we have another reason why Christ must be lower then the Angels Man and like his Brethren One end was that he might suffer and dy and this he could not do except he be partaker of Flesh and Blood and therefore he took upon him the Nature of Men and not of Angels The end why he must dy was 1. That he might destroy the Devil who had the power of Death and so deliver them that were in continual danger 2. That he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest and so make reconciliation for the sins of his People and be
having a Promise not believing entred not into God's Rest and some of them believing did enter So they having a Promise if they believe not shall not enter if they believe shall enter and enjoy the benefit and Rest promised The ground of this Application is that they had a Promise and this thing promised is God's Rest For there was a Rest remaining for them as well as for their Fathers The words are A Promise being left of entring into his Rest. SOme translate and understand the words of leaving and by unbelief forsaking the Promise yet this cannot be the intention of the Apostle which is made clear by these words There remaineth therefore a Rest or Sabbatism to the People of God ver 9. where we have the same simple though not the same compound Verb. To understand this we must know that God promised Rest unto the Israelites in the Land of Canaan which should be their Inheritance Therefore some understand the word left to be taken Metaphorically as Legacies are left and bequeathed in a Testament unto Children and so this was left to them by God's Promise As they had a Promise of a Rest so these Hebrew Christians had a Promise of a far more excellent Rest as well as they But then the Question is where have we this Promise and who makes it and where is it made God makes it and he makes it in the Gospel Therefore he first proves that a Promise is left them as their Fathers had a Promise For it followeth Ver. 2. For unto Us was the Gospel preached as well on to Them VVHere we have two Propositions 1. That the Gospel was preached to the Israelites in the Wilderness 2. It was preached to these Hebrews 1. It was preached to the Israelites For as a Promise was made to Abraham that he in his Seed should inherit the Land of Canaan so this Promise was renewed unto them in the Wilderness and God was ready to perform it and give them possession Yet this Promise was made and to be performed upon certain conditions and duties to be performed by them And because this Canaan was a Type and Figure of the heavenly Inheritance and eternal Rest to be obtained by Jesus Christ therefore the Gospel might be said to be preached to them though darkly and implicitly 2. It was preached to these Hebrews yet more clearly and fully by the Apostles In this Gospel as preached to them the Promises are one principal thing and amongst the Promises that of eternal Rest is the chiefest and includes all the rest This Promise is made for and in consideration of Jesus Christ the condition is Faith in Christ meriting the same and after his Sufferings being entred into this rest This Promise of Rest upon Faith in Christ already come is the substance and matter of the Gospel and the Doctrine thereof is the Gospel in proper sense hough the Doctrine preached to the Israelites whereâ—n Rest was promised upon condition of Faith was also the Gospel and might be so called though imperfectly But what was the issue of this Promise in respect of the Israelites It was two-fold 1. In respect of them who believed not it did not profit them 2. In respect of them that believed they entred into God's rest for so the Apostle informs us But the Word preached did not profit them not mixed with Faith in them that heard it In which words may be observed 1. The Event 2. The Reason The Event It profited not the Reason They believed not the Word For though the Word be the Power of God unto Salvation in them that believe yet it 's a Word of eternal death to Unbelievers Both these the Event and the Reason are delivered in two Propositions 1. That the Word preached did not profit them 2. It was not mixed with Faith in them that heard it The latter is the former in order of Nature Both include many Propositions 1. That the Word was preached unto them 2. They did hear it for how should they hear without a Preacher Where by the way note that the Gospel of Doctrine here meant in the Original is called the Word of Hearing implying that it was so preached as that they did or might hear it as they were bound to do 3. They who heard it did not believe The Expression in the Original is that it was not mixed with Faith For that whereby the Soul receiveth the Word is Faith and that whereby it receiveth it effectually is a sincere Faith For this heavenly Doctrine is like a liquor it 's an heavenly Water and is poured upon men by preaching and is of rare and excellent vertue when it 's received and digested in the Soul by Faith For the saying in Philosophy is true in this case Actus activorum sunt in passo unito disposito For by the Soul rightly disposed and by Faith receiving this Doctrine the Doctrine is as it were incorporated into the Soul and made one with it 4. This Word not believed did not profit that is did not prove any wayes effectual either for a title to eternal rest or for the possession of it For they not performing the condition God was no wayes bound to perform his promise to them yet this was not all he was so offended with them that he pastan irrevocable sentence of exclusion upon them By all this we may understand 1. That it 's a great Mercy in God to vouchsafe us the Gospel and to have it faithfully and constantly preached unto us so that we may hear it This of it self is an excellent means of our Conversion and the mighty Power of God unto Salvation It 's like the Mannâ— and heavenly kind of Food which being eaten and received into our Souls will nourish and preserve us It 's a divine light to guid us to Heaven And â—o unto them to whom God denies it for they sit in darkness and the shadow of death without any hope of Salvation 2. In this Gospel there are precious Promises the cheifest whereof is that of entring into God's Rest The condition of it is sincere Faith and continuance therein unto the end This Rest was merited by Jesus Christ To believe sincerely and persevere therein is the Duty commanded and to be performed to enter is the great Reward Therefore we should diligently consider that it promises the greatest good that God did ever give or Man is capable of and in this respect is the best Doctrine in the World yet lest Man should presume he promiseth it upon condition of perseverance and for the merit of a Saviour If we do attain it we do not deserve it for the enjoyment of it is a free Gift of God yet though God give it freely yet he gives it to none that are guilty of Unbelief and Apostacy 3. Men may hear the Gospel preached and yet receive no benefit by it through their own fault Meat will feed if it be eaten Water will quench thirst if we
in his prayers and most earnestly deprecare the Wrath of God as his Saviour did The sense of sin will break the stoniest heart and quicken our Prayers cause cryes and tears But we neither consider the grievousnesse of our sins nor the bitternesse of our Saviour's Passion therefore our Prayers are cold and weak and mercy stands afar off and pardon comes not near us 3. These Prayers were made and directed to God as One that was able to save him from Death All Petitions made to any Person either unable or unwilling to do that which is desired are in vain might and mercy power and goodness are necessarily required in him to whom Prayers which shall in the issue prove effectual are to be offered And because none but God is absolutely Powerfull and Good Almighty and Almerciful therefore to him alone as Supream Lord all Prayers are to be made as to the prime Authour and principal efficient of all Blessings and Mercies To addresse our selves in this manner to any other is flat Idolatry and a breach of the first and great Command None can deliver from Death but only He. Therefore Christ offered his Prayers and Supplications to Him as able to save from Death and this ability to save in greatest dangers was the ground of his confidence God was able to save from Death either by prevention and not suffering him to dy or if he suffered Death by raising him up again and restoring life once taken away and lost The latter he did the former he denied to do yet by Death in this place may be meant some other thing then loss of this mortal and temporal Life for in Scripture it signifies all kind of evils Man or Angel is subject unto and in this place something which he feared prayed against and was freed from by God his heavenly Father supporting him so that he did not sink under the heavy burden laid upon him He endured all with patience and willingness of mind and was not overcome or overwhelmed He suffered something far more terrible then all bodily pains and that Death which is only a separation of Soul and Body and this was violent temptation for he was tempted more violently then ever any was yet he never yielded the least but continued firm faithful obedient unto his heavenly Father in the midst of his greatest conflicts That which upheld him was the power of his Father and that which obtained the victory was his support obtained by his fervent Prayers For 4. His Prayers and Supplications were effectual he was heard in that he feared To be heard in the Hebrew is by a Metonymy sometimes to have our prayers granted and the thing requested done And to be heard when we pray for deliverance is to be delivered saved holpen This might be made manifest out of many places of the Old Testament translated by the Septuagint Two of them Heinsius observes as 2 Chron. 18. 31. where it 's written That Jehoshaphat cryed out and the Lord helped him so the Hebrew heard him so the Septuagint And Psal. 56. 16. As for me I will call upon God and the Lord will save me so the Hebrew hath heard me so the Greek So that for Christ to be heard was for Christ to be delivered But what was he delivered from certainly not from Death so as not to suffer it for he dyed but from something he seared For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifyeth fear Metonymically in this place signifies the thing feared which was the object and cause of his fear This word is once used by the Septuagint for so they translate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josh. 22. 24. But what did Christ fear Death No not bodily Death but such a Death as he suffered wherein he was so fearfully tempted For if God had deserted him wholly as he did in part and not have supported him he as man might have been overcome have sunk under the burden in distrust or dispair or impatience This he feared more then ten thousand Deaths of his Body and so to do was his holiness and though he knew his Father would support him yet he must offer vehement Prayers and be put hard unto it before he did obtain it Thus though he knew he must dy yet he defired vehemently that the Cup of his Passion if it were possible might passe and be omitted God began to hear him when he sent an Angel from Heaven to comfort him but then he heard fully when he had supported him to the end of his Passion so that he commended his Soul unspotted and victorious into his Fathers hand and made haste unto that Paradise into which no unclean thing shall ever enter When all was done and suffered the Devil found nothing in him could not charge him with the least Sin This was the efficacy of his Prayers which he offered for himself as different from all others that ever were made in his extremity whereby he learned to pity others in their temptations and necessities For an High-Priest must offer for himself as well as for others because he is compassed with infirmities So Christ though he had no Sin yet had infirmities and was tempted and had need to pray for himself as well as for his People and Ver. 8. Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered VVHere we may observe two things and two propositions Two things 1. His eminent Dignity he was a Son 2. His obedience Two propositions 1. He was a Son 2. Though a Son yet he learned obedience by the things â—he Suffered 1. He was a Son the Son of God and in a more excellent manner then any either Man or Angel was or could be He was as the Word the Son of God so as that he was God and as Flesh and Man he was assumed by the Word and conceived by the holy Spirit in the Virgin 's Womb yet so that there were not two Sons but one the Word made Flesh and as such a Son he was nearer God then any other Heir of all things Lord of Men and Angels and the only-begotten Son of God Yet 2. Though a Son yet learned he obedience For though as a Son he was very high yet he humbled himself very low and took upon him the form of a Servant and in that form became obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross which was the Death of a Servant as he was sold for thirty pence the ordinary price of a Servant and Slave His obedience presupposed his subjection as Flesh unto his heavenly Father as his Supream Lord and a Command not only to Do but to Suffer even the Death of the Crosse and this was the highest greatest and hardest command to dye such a Death for the Sin of Man This command above all others he learned to obey He learned this hard Lesson not only to know it but chiefly to do it not meerly by speculation but real
experience For to learn to obey is to obey and to learn to suffer is to suffer God by laying on him the Iniquities of us all was the Master he by bearing that heavy burden became the Schollar for by the things he suffered that is by suffering so many things and amongst the rest the Death of the Cross he did perfectly learn and experimentally understand what obedience was This Lesson no Angel did ever learn in this manner they had no such command neither did they ever obey it though they knew it By the former words we understand that he offered prayers for himself and by these that he offered himself for us and learned to have pity upon poor Sinners who in their extremities cry unto God By this obedience was signified God's severity against Sin and his tender mercy towards Sinners § 8. Thus Christ was consecrated and by this Suffering and Sacrifice of himself fitly qualified for to be a Priest and a saving Priest unto all his loyal and obedient Servants For Ver. 9. Being made perfect he became the Authour of eternal Salvation uâ—to all â—â—â—m that obey him FIrst He is made perfect Secondly He became the Authout of Savation 1. To be made perfect is to be consecrated and made fit to minister before God as a Priest For though God did design Aaron for a Priest yet he did not suffer him to minister before he was consecrated There is no legal Consecration without Blood of Sacrifices therefore Christ was consecrated by his own Blood the Blood of that Sacrifice wherein he offered his life himself It was the Wisdom of God to order it and his Will â—o decree that Christ should first Suffer and shed his Blood for the Sin of man and so sanctify him by Suffering before he should have power to save For the best and most merciful Priest that ever was must be made in the best and most convenient manner Upon this strange and wonderful Consecration he became an Authour of Salvation Where we may observe 1. An Effect eternal Salvation 2. The Authour or efficient Christ consecrated 3. The Subject to which this Salvation is communicated such as obey him 1. By Salvation is meant deliverance from Sin and all the Consequents thereof so as that the party saved is made for ever happy There be both bodily and spiritual temporal and eternal dangers whereunto man by Sin is liable and this Salvation is a deliverance from all There is deliverance as from some evils and not all so deliverance only for a time and not for ever but this Salvation is a total deliverance from all evil and that for ever Eternal peace safety felicity is the issue and consequent thereof 2. This Salvation being so noble and glorious an effect must have some Cause some Authour and Efficient and this Efficient was Christ yet Christ as perfected and consecrated For by his Blood and purest Sacrifice of himself 1. He satisfied divine Justice and merited this Salvation 2. Being upon his Resurrection constituted and made an High-Priest and King and fit to minister and officiate as a Priest and Reign as King in Heaven he ascends into that glorious Temple and Palace and is set at the right hand of God 3. Being there established he begins as King to send down the Holy Ghost reveal the Gospel and by both to work Faith in the hearts of Men and qualify them for Justification and Salvation 4. When men are once qualified and prepared so as to sue for pardon in his Name before the Throne of God he as Priest begins his Intercession and by the plea of his own Blood for them procures their pardon and eternal Salvation So that as consecrated and perfect he becomes the great efficient Cause of this Salvation by way of merit intercession and actual communication There be many other ministerial and adjuvant causes of this effect yet he is the principal so the word which signifies a Cause in general was understood by our Translators who turn it the Authour 3. If it be communicated from and by him it must be received in some subject and if in him there be an eternal saving virtue and he exercise it there must be some subject and persons in whom this saving power shall produce this effect so as that they shall be saved And though this Power be able to save all yet only they and all they who obey him shall be saved Efficient causes work most effectually in Subjects united and disposed aright And so it is in this case for though the mercies of God mericed by Christ may be so far communicable to all as that all may become savable which is a great and universal Benefit yet they are not actually communicated to all because all are not obedient For the divine Wisdom and Justice have limited them to a certain subject and to regulate the manner of communicating them And seeing the proper subject of this Salvation are such as do obey this Saviour therefore here it 's presupposed that Christ is a King and Soveraign Prince and as such gives Commands and Laws to all his Subjects and such as submit unfainedly unto his Regal Power and obey his Laws and none else may expect this Salvation His Laws require this sincere submission and obedience in renouncing all others and a total dependance upon him and him alone in repenting of our Sins and believing upon him And this sincere Faith is the fundamental vertue and potentially all obedience Therefore is it said That whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting Life And he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life Joh. 3. 16. 36. § 9. Yet before he was an immediate and compleat Authour of eternal Salvation he must not only be consecrated But Ver. 10. Called of God an High-Priest after the Order of Melchisedec THese words are added and repeated not only to expound his former proof out of Psalm 110 but also to shew when and how he became so mighty and glorious a Saviour and also to bring in 1. The digression 2. The discourse that followeth 1. They are exegetical and declare the meaning of those words alledged ver 6. Thou are â—â— Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec For by this Text we are informed 1. That those words were spoken by God 2. That God by those words did make him a compleat and eternal Priest and by Oath confirmed his Priest-hood For this Text was alledged to prove that Christ did not glorify himself and usurp this Sacerdotal Office but God gave it him and so he came justly and legally by it They are 2. Added to shew when Christ became so compleat an High-Priest and to exercise his saving Power and that was not only upon his consecration but this confirmation of him at his right hand For then instantly he began to work and convert Men make Intercession for them and bring them to Salvation 3. Upon these words reiterated he takes occasion to deliver that
which they can neither be renewed or mortified and proceed in the wayes of Righteousness and Holiness unto the attaining of eternal life 5. Resurrection is the fifth part of this Doctrine and seems to signisy in this place immortality and eternal Glory as a Reward This presupposeth the exercise of all heavenly Virtues and the continuance of their Faith and Obedience Under this Head may be brought Justification Reconciliation Adoption with the continuance of the sanctifying and regenerating Spirit and also the joys and comforts of God's Saints in this Life and their security and bliss upon their departure out of this Life untill the Resurrection 6. The sixth Doctrine is that of eternal Judgment Both Resurrection and this Judgment presuppose men's Obedience or Disobedience to the Laws of God and by Judgment may be understood either Judgment in general which follows the Resurrection and determines finally the eternal Punishments and Rewards or by a Synecdoche for the eternal Punishments which that Judgment shall award to certain persons This latter seems to be the intended sense because the word is usually taken for Condemnation and Punishment and so much the rather because we never find Judgment taken properly said to be everlasting This presupposeth impenitence and unbelief both Negative and Positive and to this Head are reducible all the spiritual Penalties inflicted upon Man in this Life as fore-runners of this eternal Vengeance It was necessary in the first place to lay the foundation in teaching these Truths of Repentance Faith the sealing of the Covenant the sanctification of the Spirit and the retribution of eternal Rewards and Punishments according to men's observation or violation of the Covenant of Grace This Doctrine they had formerly learned and professed and it was the sum and substance of the antient Creeds And if they any wayes were fallen from this it was in vain to lay the foundation anew and initiate them again Therefore he was resolved to proceed and do that which he had proposed if God would permit and assist him for all resolutions of Men are in God's Power For he alone can so assist them as to make them effectual or hinder them so as to frustrate their designs This implies the Authour's dependance upon God for the carrying on and finishing his intended Discourse concerning the Priest-hood of Christ. § 4. Thus far the Apostle's Resolution the Reasons follow The first is because to lay the foundation anew would be in vain It would prove so because such as fall from these principles render themselves uncapable of any benefit to be received by Christ's Death and Passion neither can they be renewed again unto Repentance The argument in form is this The Apostle presupposing that no man ought and no wise man will do that which he knows to be in vain and to no purpose he proves that to lay the foundation again is in vain thus To attempt that which is impossible is in vain But to attempt by laying the foundation again to renew unto Repentance such as fall away is to attempt that which is impossible therefore it 's in vain To understand the force of this Reason let us reduce the Apostles words into these Propositions 1. They which have been enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come may fall away 2. If they fall away it is impossible for them to be renewed again unto Repentance 3. The reason why it is impossible is because they Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame These may be reduced to one Syllogism thus It 's impossible that they which Crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame should be again renewed to Repentance But such as fall away from Christianity once received do Crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame Therefore it 's impossible again to renew them to Repentance The sum of all is this he would not lay again the foundation of Christianity because it was in vain It was in vain because the recovery of such as fall away and renounce Christ was impossible In the first Proposition I will consider 1. What it is to fall away 2. Who they are that may fall away 1. To fall away is here to be Apostates and forsake Christianity once received it 's not to fall into any kind of Sin but such as are contra integrum faedus contrary to the essence and substance of Christianity such are impenitency and unbelief after Repentance and Faith In this respect David's Murther and Adultery though very grievous Sins and against the Covenant yet they were not a violation of it essentially and formally considered This is falling away or Apostacy in this place 2. The subject of this Apostacy and parties which may fall away are such as have received Christianity and have been convinced of the Truth thereof For he that never was a Christian cannot be said to fall away from Christianity he must be a Christian before he can be an Apostate But to enter more particularly upon the Description of the Subject of Apostacy and persons that may fall away 2. They are described from sive things or adjuncts 1. They are enlightned 2. Have tasted of the heavenly Gift 3. Are partakers of the Holy Ghost 4. Have tasted of the good Word of God 5. Have tasted of the Powers of the World to come 2. The difference of several Writers in the Exposition of these five particulars is great For with some 1. To be enlightned is Repentance 2. To taste of the heavenly Gift is Faith in God 3. To be partakers of the Holy Ghost is to receive the Gifts of the Spirit 4. To taste of the good Word of God answers to Imposition of hands 5. To taste of the Powers of the World to come is to have some apprehensions of the Resurrection and eternal Judgment with affections suitable Others understand 1. By enlightning Baptism 2. By tasting of the heavenly Gift spiritual Peace and Joy 3. By the Holy Ghost Gifts of that blessed Spirit 4. By tasting the good Word of God The sinding how sweet and comfortable the Doctrine and especially the Promises of the Gospel be 5. By tasting of the Powers of the World to come The experience of the efficacy and moving Power of the Doctrine of everlasting Life and Death believed Others not differing much think that 1. Enlightning is the knowledg of saving-Truth 2. Tasting of the heavenly Gift is the receiving of Christ by Faith 3. Participation of the Holy Ghost is receiving of the Gifts of the Spirit 4. Tasting of the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come is some experimental effects of the Gospel and Spirit 3. Yet upon examination the first three may be one And that is the illumination of the heart and mind by the heavenly Gift of
King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem which is King of Peace MElech and so Melchi in Hebrew signifies King Prince or Governour and such is being one person is eminent in Power above the rest Zedeck is Righteousness in that Language This name agrees with Adonizedeck of Adon or Adoni Lord and Zedeck Righteousness as before This Name did truly agree unto this Person and he did answer to his Name He was a just King and did Order and Govern his People in Righteousness by just Judgment and according to just Laws and sought their weal and common good Such all Civil Governours should be for justice is essential to good Government and God never gave any power to any person but bound him to Righteousness nay further governing Power is no Power without wisdom and justice it may be potâ—ntia but not potestas Some Princes are more righteous then other yet this man was eminently righteous because he proved a Prince of Peace For the Fruit of Righteousness is Peace and the more wise and just the Government of any State shall be the greater the Peace and Happiness of the People But Righteousness must go before and after that Peace will follow and Kings must first be Kings of Zedeck before they can be Kings of Salem If the Kings of Sodom had been such they had not been invaded subdued and spoiled by a forraign Enemy The words seem to imply that Zedeck and Salem were two places from whence he had his Name and Title first from the one then from the other or that because he was so just first he was called the King of Righteousness and after that because by his just Government the People enjoyed so great Peace He was called King of Salem § 9. The fourth and last particular is the perpetuity of his Priest-hood For thus it 's written Ver. 3. Without Father without Mother without Descent having neither beginning of Dayes nor end of Life but made like unto the Son of God abideth continually a Priest FOR the better understanding of these words we must consider 1. That if Melchisedec was a man living in Abraham's Dayes he had both Father and Mother and Descent and beginning of Dayes and end too except he as Enoch was translated not to see Death otherwise these words properly understood and strictly taken might justly give occasion to think he was an Angel in humane shape which was the opinion of some 2. Therefore for the most part the words are understood Tropically to this purpose That as he is described Gen. 14. the first and only place of the Old Testament that speaks more largely of him Moses the Historian makes no mention of his Father or Mother or Descent or Birth or Death And he was directed thus to do by the Spirit of purpose either because he being ignorant of all these the Spirit did not reveal them unto him or if he did and he knew them yet he was ordered and moved by the Spirit to conceal them that according to that Description he might appear a more lively and perfect Type of Christ. 3. The words have special reference unto his Priest-hood and gives us a real difference between him and the Levitical Priest and makes him far more like unto the Son of God our everlasting Priest For the Levitical High-Priests had their Priest-hood by Descent and Birth and upon their Death their Successors For as born of a Father of the Tribe of Levi and the House of Aaron after he was once consecrated and as born of a Mother who was a woman married to one of that House so they derived the Priest-hood from the first Investiture after the first Institution And whosoever could not manifest his Genealogy and Descent from that Family could not minister and officiate as a Priest As they had beginning of Dayes and by their Birth and Descent derived their Priest-hood from their Predecessors so they were Mortal and had end of Dayes and so transmitted their Priest-hood to their Successors Thus did not Melchisedec who though he might have Father and Mother and Descent and so beginning and end of Dayes as a man yet as a Priest he had no Predecessor from whom by Birth he might receive his Sacerdotal Power nor Successor who derived his Priest-hood from him So Christ the Son of God derived his Priest-hood from no mortal Predecessor but immediately from his heavenly Father neither will he transmit it to any Successor but when all Enemies shall be subdued and he shall deliver up his Commission by vertue of which he doth now officiate and intercede in Heaven He shall resign the same together with his Kingdom to God who gave him both And thus perhaps Melchisedec this great Priest and lively Type of Christ did And if there be any Priest-hood according to the Law of Nature which is of perpetual continunuance then he seems to be an extraordinary Priest according to the Law For there is the Law of Nature the Law of Moses the Law of Grace and every one of these may have their ordinary Priests and their extraordinary supream Pontiffs immediately instituted of God and the extraordinary supream Pontiff according to the Law of Nature must be above Aaron who was a High-Priest according to that Law which was but for a time and to be abolished and so more fit to typifie Christ the Mediatour and Priest of the New Covenant which shall stand for ever And these things I referr and in them submit my Judgment to the wise and judicious who may take occasion to seek further whether Melchisedec's Sacerdotal Title did not continue to him in Heaven till Christ's Ascension and then was delivered up to Christ and so it continued in him for ever and in this respect he abideth a Priest continually The first three verses seem to be one Proposition and all the whole description till the last words the subject or antecedent and abiding continually the predicate yet so that there are many simple Propositions in the antecedent And it 's observable that Righteousness Peace and Blessing of Melchisedec are perpetual § 10. After the explication of this Description we must consider wherein Melchisedec and Christ agree for there must be an agreement between the Type and the Antitype They agree in Offices Acts and Continuance 1. Melchisedec was a Priest and a King so was Christ Melchisedec was a King first of Righteousness and after of Peace so is Christ for he is the most righteous and just Administratour of his universal and perpetual Spiritual Kingdom and by Righteousness procures an everlasting Peace for our eternal Righteousness is from Him and the Fruit of this Righteousnesse is the perpetuall Peace of all his Loyall and Obedient Subjects 2. Melchisedec as a Priest received Tythes of Abraham and blessed him so Christ doth bless all such as believe in him and makes them eternally happy and all our spiritual Blessings and our eternal Bliss we expect to receive by him and
of Ceremonies and Rites is carnal that is outward bodily fleshly For besides Circumcision which was in the Flesh their Sacrifices and Offerings were outward and bodily and they had their effect upon their Bodies and Flesh in freeing the People from legal guilt and impurities 3. There was a Law which did direct how these must be used and binding them to the observation of them and this Law had promises of some legal Blessings and Deliverances and Comminations of some temporal penalties That they were carnal it doth imply that they were not spiritual had no power upon the immortal Soul and could not any waies procure spiritual and eternal Blessings nor free from the eternal penalties due to Sin Neither could that Priest who was by such outward Rites and Ceremonies consecrated by his Ministration according to that Law expiate any sin nor make any spiritual reconciliation The Levitical Priest was made after this Law and to minister according to the same But here it 's said That Christ was not made a Priest after this Law which was a body of carnal precepts in respect of the Priest the Tabernacle the Service and Ministry and the effects thereof For if He had been made after the Law He could have done no more then they did and then both He and his Ministry had been defective frail and of a short continuance therefore it 's denied that he was made a Priest after that Law concerning the consecration ministration succession and operation of the Levitical Priest 2. The affirmative He was made a Priest after the power of an endless or indissoluble life Where we have 1. Life 2. An indissoluble life 3. The power of an endless indissoluble life 1. Life is either the bare continuance and duration of a living Beeing or the happiness and perfection of that Beeing in this latter sense most Expositors take it 2. This life whether it be the continuance of that more perfect Beeing which is living or the happiness thereof may be temporary or perpetual in respect of time to come so that though it may have beginning yet it never shall have end Such a life is here meant 3. The power here may be a Law which is powerful not only in binding but in promising so that the event thereof will be endless happiness as the Gospel is said to be the power of God unto Salvation Christ is said to be made according to this powerful Law and so is 1. Of eternal continuance himself in his person And 2. Hath power by this Law to give eternal life to such as are his People depend upon him and come to God by him For by his death he merited and by his life and intercession he procureth spiritual and eternal Expiation and Blessings Neither of these could the Levitical Priest by that carnal Ceremonial Law and his Ministration according to it effect That Christ must be made such a Priest he proves in the next words Ver. 17. For he testifieth Thou are a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec VVHere two things 1. That Christ is made a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec 2. That this is testified The force and Emphasis is in the words for ever and testified The first Proposition is concerning the Eternity of Christ's Priest-hood the second concerning the declaration of this Eternity or Perpetuity And we must 1. Consider the meaning of the words 2. Declare the end for which they are brought In the first part we have 1. The Order of Melchizedec 2. The perpetuity of the Priest constituted according to that Order 1. Melchizedec was formerly affirmed to have no end of dayes and so in some respect was of endless life and for this particular Reason these words so often taken up are repeated here the sixth time Christ is made a Priest after this Order as one who must continue for ever In the second part it 's said that this was testified where to testify is Solemnly by a formal and powerful Edict to declare and pronounce him not onely to be a Priest but a Priest for ever And it was God himself as Supream Lord who made this Declaration before all the Angels of Heaven and by it constituted and confirmed Christ an everlasting Priest The end why these words are alledged and here repeated is to prove that Christ was not made a temporary Priest according to a carnal and temporary Law but according to a Law and Power of endless life that is that he was made an everlasting Priest of everlasting power to save The words prove this effectually 1. Because the words of the Psalmist signify expresly that he was a Priest for ever 2. Because it was God as the Supream Lord who by his solemn Declaration made him such This is the Apostle's Discourse upon those words of the Psalm I have said Thou art a Priest for ever The Scope of the Apostle in all this is 1. To prove that the Priest-hood was changed 2. It was changed to bring in a better Priest 3. Christ is this Priest and more excellent than the Levitical Priest as being a Priest of perpetual continuance and of everlasting power and therefore was to be honoured far above Aaron or any Priest of that Order § 22. Hitherto the Apostle hath proved that the Priest-hood was changed and given the Reason which was because by it there was no perfection And by the Change of the Priest-hood the Change of the Law is inferred and in the words following he gives the Reason why the Law must be changed This is the coherence of this Text with the former So that this is his Method He proves 1. By the words of the Psalm That there must be another Priest besides and after the Levitical Priest 2. That if the other Priest be brought in the Levitical Priest-hood must be changed 3. That if the Priest-hood be changed the Law is changed 4. He infers the Change of the Priest-hood from the Change of the Tribe and of the Order 5. He infers from the words of the Psalm that this other Priest must be an everlasting Priest and of everlasting power 6. He gives the Reason of this Change and that was because there was no perfection by the former Priesthood as there is by the latter Now because the Priest-hood and the Law are alwayes so inseparably joyned that they live and dy stand and fall begin and end together therefore he take it for granted that having proved the change of the Priest-hood he had proved the Change of the Law For as the Priest-hood could do nothing but was useless without the Law so the Law could do nothing but was useless without the Priest-hood Therefore he thought it needless any farther to prove the Change of the Law for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was changed was evident enough and proceeds to give the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Change thereof in this manner Ver. 18. For there is verily a disanulling of the
excellent then the Levitical Priest and now he proceeds further and hath something more to say and prove his super-excellency He had indeed touched upon those words Thou art a Priest for ever and seems here to repeat them yet if we accurately consider it 's one thing to be a Priest for ever and another to receive an eternal Priest-hood by a solemn Oath which now he undertakes to manifest So that the Subject of three verses following the 23d 24th 25th is the eternal effectual unchangeable Priest-hood of Christ made such by Oath And in them we may observe the Perpetuity of Christ's Priest-hood Efficacy The Perpetuity and Immutability is affirmed ver 23 24. The Efficacy ver 25. In ver 23. we have the discontinuance of the one in the 24th the continuance of the other And both together manifest the difference and so dissimilitude between them and the excellency of the one above the other and this is done comparatively For by comparison both the dissimilitude and the imparity are made to appear He begins with the Levitical Priest in this manner They truly were many Priests c. Where we have 1. Their Multitude 2. Their Mortality And the Mortality was the cause of their Multitude Their Multitude was evident For they were many Priests and their Mortality They died And hence he inferrs that they could not continue for the cause why they could not continue was Death The intention of the Apostle is to inform us of an imperfection and defect in the Levitical Priests that they were all and every one of them mortal and died one after another and none could possesse and keep the Priest-hood long but must transmit it to another Aaron first unto his Son then his Son to a third and that to a fourth and so to the last High-Priest So that though they might all joyntly be considered as one person morally by fiction of Law yet they were many men and many Priests physically and so the Priest-hood was continued by Succession and though the Priest died yet the Priest-hood continued till it was abolished In this respect it might be said to be immortal as Corporations and Societies are yet this is no perfect immortality nor real perpetuity This was their imperfection Christ's perfection was that he continued ever Ver. 24. But this man because he conâ—inâ—uth ever hath an unchangeable Priest-hood THe Copulative And in the former verse did signify the Connexion and that of another new argument to the former and here the Discretive But implies the difference between Christ and the Levitical Priest in that they were Priests but he a Priest they were many he but one they continued not he continues for ever In the words we have three propositions 1. That Christ continueth ever 2. He hath an unchangeable Priest-hood 3. Because he continueth ever therefore he hath an unchangeable Priest-hood The Apostle may seem to reason and argue thus He that continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priest-hood But Christ continueth ever Therefore he hath an unchangeable Priest-hood 1. This man continueth ever Where 1. By this Man is meant Christ who was truly Man though this Man this individual Man was united unto the Word so as never any was He was so united unto the Word that he might truly be said to be God Yet as God he was not he could not be a Priest and this is evident if we consider either what a Priest is or what he must do Therefore is it said This Man continueth for ever and in another place There is one God and one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 2. He is said to continue ever that is liveth ever but this is to be understood of him as risen again from the Dead For before in the state of his Humiliation he was mortal and not only so but dyed Yet after the Resurrection he became immortal and shall never dye but continue for ever For Christ being raised from the Dead diâ—th no more Death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6. 9. 2. This Man hath an unchangeable Priest-hood The word translated Unchangeable may be understood 1. So as though the Apostle did inferr from the words of the Psalam Will not repent or change that Christ's Priest-hood should never be abolished and changed to another Order Or 2. Because it may signify not passing from one another to conclude from this that Christ continueth ever that his Priest-hood doth not pass from him to any other his Successor as the Priest-hood of Aaron did And this latter seems to be the genuine sense because he opposeth the Priest-hood of Christ unto that of Levi which did pass from one to another so that his Priest-hood did continue in this one individual Man who lives for ever 3. Because he continueth ever therefore his Priest-hood is unchangeable and doth not pass from him to another This follows clearly For if he individually be made a Priest and a Priest for ever and this by Oath and he that was thus made was immortal then his Priest-hood is personal and to be continued in him one single person for ever Now we enter upon the Comparison and make it in this form He that liveth and continueth ever so that his Priest-hood is not transmitted to another is more excellent then they who not continuing by reason of Death transmit their Priest-hood to their Successors who are many But Christ doth thus continue and the Levitical Priests do not Therefore He is a more excellent Priest § 26. This excellency is yet more because of the efficacy of the Priest-hood and the ability of the Priest when perpetuity and efficacy meet in one the Priest-hood must needs be excellent indeed But let 's hear the Apostle proving this Efficacy Ver. 25. Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost or for ever that come to God by him seeing be ever liveth to make Intercession for them THE judgment of this Text is Dianoetical as is evident from the Illative Wherefore and in form he argueth thus He that ever liveth to make Intercession for them that come to God by him is able to save them for ever But Christ ever liveth to make Intercession for them that come to God by him Therefore he is able to save them for ever Where from his perpetual and effectual Intercession he inferrs his ability to save for ever and from both his super-excellency which is principally intended In the words we have 1. His ability to save them for ever that come to God by him 2. The reason of it because he ever liveth to make Intercession for them In the first we have 1. His active power 2. The subject upon which it works effectually 1. His active power that he is able to save to the uttermost 1. He is able that is he hath an active power to produce some excellent effect and reach some glorious end 2. This power is not physical but moral nay super-natural
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
They were all in themselves considered indifferent things and a fit matter and subject of some positive Law 3. The offering and also the shedding of the blood of Christ were in respect of Christ acting and officiating in both purely moral and divine in the highest degree of Service For his suffering of Death for the sin of man at the Command of his heavenly Father was the highest degree of obedience that ever was performed to God There was in it so much love to God so much love of Man so much self denial so much humility and patience and such a resignation of himself to God as never could be parallel'd It was so excellently qualified that it was in a moral sense most powerfull to move God to mercy who is so mightily inclined to mercy of his own accord It was most pleasing unto God and most highly accepted of God considered in it self But seeing it was the suffering of a party different from man guilty who was bound himself to make satisfaction or to suffer according to the Law transgressed that it should be so far accepted of God as to make the Sinner pardonable and that certain pardon should follow upon Repentance and Faith depended upon the free will of God who in strict justice might have refused any satisfaction offered him in behalf of man who deserved to dye and might justly have been condemned to eternal Death It was one thing to accept the service and obedience in it self and another thing to accept it so for sinful man as to determine such inestimable benefits should follow thereupon and accrue to the sinful guilty Wretch The Socinian upon the Text is very muddy and obscure And 1. Though he deny Christ's satisfaction and merit yet he confesseth that the shedding of the blood of Christ even of its own nature had force and power to procure unto Christ all power in Heaven and Earth and all judgment and arbitrament of our Salvation and to produce in us the cleansing of Conscience This is not only obscure but if well examined false For what is it of its own nature to procure For if he mean by the word procure merit upon satisfaction it 's true that by his blood he satisfied and merited but both these he denies If he understand that of it own nature it did so procure this power and this effect so as it did solely or principally depend upon the will of Christ as Man for he denies him to be God and not principally and solely upon the will of God it 's false Here I must demand What difference he makes between procuring and meriting and also take occasion to shew the nature of meriting which is a moral act upon which some good or reward doth follow not necessarily and exnaturá rei but voluntarily according to the will of him in whose power the reward is but of this else-where 2. He puts a difference between Christ's Priest-hood and his Mediatourship and makes his Mediatourship to end with his Death and his Priest-hood there to begin But the Apostle makes no such difference but in this Epistle he takes Mediatour and Priest for the same That his Mediatourship should end and his Priest-hood should begin with and upon his Death I will believe when he can prove it which he can never do for there is not the least ground for it in the Word of God and it must needs be false upon this account that both are the same 3. He affirms that the blood of Christ takes efficacy and force to purge fin from the subsequent oblation of Christ in offering himself in Heaven and this he not only here but else-where doth often assert But 1. It 's very clear and certain that the total resignation of himself unto the will of his heavenly Father and his willing suffering of Death the voluntary laying down of his life the making himself a whole Burnt-offering was properly the oblation of himself This was on Earth this was the great act of Obedience the great Service that was so acceptable to God wherein Christ shewed himself a mirrour of so many heavenly virtues The representing of himself slaln in Heaven was not this offering nor the appearing before his Fathers Throne upon his Ascension The Scripture no where affirms it he cannot instance in one place for this And though God did require it yet it was not the meritorious act therefore never let him or any of that party delude us with his false and groundless notion of offering himself in Heaven By his Death Christ did satisfy and merit by his Resurrection and Ascension he makes his Death effectual unto us both by revealing the Gospel and sending the Spirit to work Faith in us and make us capable of remission and eternal life and by his Intercession and pleading his blood he obtains actual pardon and in the end full fruition of eternal life This is the meaning of those words Who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. 4. He tells us that Christ was filled with the eternal Spirit that is with the power of God which clarified him from all mortality and made him eternal subject to no destruction This is a strange fancy of his own and invented because he is so great an Adversary to Satisfaction And 1. He saith that eternal Spirit is the power of God which he so understands as that he denies him to be God 2. The power is either God himself or some active power whether natural or supernatural created by God in some of his Creatures or an act of God extrinsecally supporting and preserving something creued Now that which made Christ's Sacrifice and Suffering so acceptable to God and so efficacions was the sanctifying power of the Spirit enduing him with such heavenly virtues and supporting him in this great Service of sacrificing himself For if he had not received a divine and supernatural active power of holiness and righteousness inherent in his Soul which so strongly inclined and moved him to obedience in greatest temptations and had been extrinsecally supported by him this Offering had never been so acceptable to God nor efficacious to purge the Conscience And this was a far more glorious effect of the Spirit then to make him immortal and bring him into Heaven For this immortality and entrance into Heaven were Rewards not Virtues and only made way for the exercise of his Regal and Sacerdotal Power in the Palace and Temple of Heaven 5. He saith that by the Offering of Christ is signified his singular and only care for the Expiation of our Sins and for our Salvation Where it is to be observed 1. That he understands this of Christ as entred by his Ascension into Heaven 2. That by Expiation he means Remission and Sanctification without any respect unto Propitiation and Satisfaction by blood antecedent 3. Christ's offering of himself is a religious Service performed unto God as Supream Lord and Judge offended with sinful
man yet willing upon certain terms to be merciful unto him And one condition which performed he will accept is that Christ as Surety for man should suffer Death for man to satisfie divine Justice In this respect is he said to give himself a Ransome or Price How far different this is from the offering here described is easy to understand The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used about sixteen times in this Epistle but never taken in his sense which is so absurd and unworthy that no rational man as rational much less a Christian and a Schollar can any wayes approve but reject with scorn The rest of his discourse upon this Text is like his description of Christ's offering and by it he seeks to cast a mist upon the divine Doctrine of the Apostle lest he should confound himself and suffer his Reader to see the truth Dr. Gouge upon this Text affirms Christ to be a Priest in both natures which cannot be true for though he that is Priest be God yet as God he is not he cannot be a Priest For a Priest is an Officer and all Officers as Officers are made such by Commission from the Supream Power from whom they derive their Office whom they represent and are Servants under them to serve them There are two prime and proper acts of Christ as a Priest to Sacrifice and offer himself to God as Supream Lord and to make Intercession to him To attribute either of these to God as God and affirm them of him in proper sense is plainly blasphemous and inexcusable it turns the Lord into the Servant and God into Man § 14. Hitherto the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice and Service hath been manifested by two glorious and excellent effects the one immediate which is Expiation the other mediate which is purging the Conscience from Dead Works The former made Sin pardonable and the Consequents thereof removable the latter actually takes away Sin and the Consequents thereof in him who believeth Besides these two there is a third effect shewing it to be yet more excellent and that is confirmation of the New Covenant for thus he writes Ver. 15. And for this cause is he the Mediatour of the New Covenant that by means of Death for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Test ament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance THe subject of this Verse is the confirmation of the New Covenant by the Death and Sacrifice of Christ which is affirmed here and illustrated from ver 16. to the 23. afterwards And here the Coherence is 1. To be examined 2. The Text in it self to be considered The coherence with the former is in these words And for this cause The Copulative and may be as in other places expletive or it may be used to signify that the Death and bloody Sacrifice of Christ as it was ordained for another end besides the two former of Propitiation and purging the Conscience so it hath another and a third effect which is The confirmation of the New Covenant For this is to observed that he speaks and still continues his discourse of the Death and Blood of Christ. The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this cause which are turned by some therefore may referr either to that which goes before or that which follows If to that which goes before then they inform us that because Christ by his Blood entring the holy place of Heaven obtained eternal Remission and by it offering himself through the eternal Spirit without spot doth purge the Conscience to serve the living God therefore and for this cause and in respect of these two effects is he the Mediatour of the New Covenant If they relate to that which follows they are to be understood in this manner That because by the Death of Christ the Called receive the promise of eternal Inheritance therefore he is the Mediatour of the New Covenant This is the Coherence The absolute consideration of the Text followeth wherein we have two principal express Axioms or Propositions 1. Christ is the Mediatour of the New Covenant 2. By means of Death for the Redemption of Transgressions under the first Covenant the Called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance 3. Christ is a Mediatour of the New Covenant that by means of Death for Redemption c. the Called may receive the promise c. In the first we have 1. A New Covenant 2. A Mediatour of this New Covenant 3. Christ the Mediatour 1. The New Covenant is that of the Gospel whereof you have heard in the former Chapter where it was opposed unto and compared with the Old Covenant made with the Fathers in the Wilderness Exod. 19. as established upon better promises And that word which was there turned Covenant is turned Testament not that there is any necessity but a conceived congruity For because here is mention of an Inheritance which is usually conveyed by the Will and Testament of man which Will is then firm and unalterable when the Testatour dieth therefore it was conceived by some that in this place that which formerly was called a Covenant should be called here a Testament yet notwithstanding it agrees with a Testament and may by a Metaphor be so termed yet it is more properly a Covenant 2. We have a Mediatour of this Covenant and what a Mediatour is you have heard before as also the distinctions of Mediators Some tell us that a Mediatour is aut â—untius aut sequester pacis aut arbiter aut sponsor yet we need not insist upon these terms for the Mediatour of this Covenant is a Priest and a Minister of it as the High-Priest was of the former Covenant 3. This Mediatour is Christ who may be said to be Nuntius à Dâ—o Intercessor pro hâ—mine Arbiter inter utrumque Sponsor pro utroque and he is a Messenger declaring the Covenant as a Prophet an Arbitratour between God and Man as a King a Surety and Intercessour as a Priest Yet though all this said may be in some respect true yet it 's neither accurate nor pertinent in this place Christ as a Priest and as a Priest officiating and offering himself a Sacrifice to propitiate God and purge the conscience of sinful Man is the Mediatour of this Covenant For as such and in this respect he mediates between God and Man to propitiate God and to make man fit for the receiving of the eternal Reward promised and both these he doth by his Blood and Death without which offered and applyed the promise would be void and never take effect It 's true that Christ doth procure the Covenant declares it confirms it and makes it effectual and in all these respects he may be said to be a Mediatour Yet here he is made such principally and most properly as confirming and making it effectual Moses and not Aaron was the Mediatour in the making and confirming the Old Covenant For he dealt between God and the
People as a third part 1. In making the Covenant in signifying God's Will unto the People and returning the People's Answer unto God Exod. 19. 2. 2. In confirming it by Blood as an indifferent distinct person Exod. 24. To which place the Apostle doth allude as we shall understand hereafter in the illustration This is the meaning of the first Proposition The second may be divided for explication and made two 1. Christ by means of Death expiated Transgressions under the former Covenant 2. By means of this Death the Called receive the promise of eternal Inheritance The first implies 1. That there were Transgressions under the former Covenant 2. That there was a Redemption of these Transgressions 3. This Redemption was by the Death of Christ. The first is clear enough for Moses Aaron David and the Saints of God from the times of Moses till the exhibition of Christ had their sins much more others not sanctified The second cannot be doubted of for if there was no Redemption of those Sins and Transgressions then they could not be saved they must suffer eternal punishments as they did temporal By Redemption here is meant Expiation and Propitiation whereby their sins were made remissible and upon certain terms and conditions performed actually to be remitted The third will be granted in general that the Expiation was by Death and Blood but that they were expiated by the Blood of Christ many of the Jews denied Yet if they had understood the Books of Moses they might have known that the Blood of Bulls and Goats could not expiate the Sin of Man a rational and immortal Creature not free from the eternal Punishment Some Legal frailties and infirmities they might expiate and avert some temporal penalties Therefore there must of necessity be some other Death and Blood that must do it And this was the Blood of Christ which all their Ilastical Sacrifices and Lustrations did typify Yet this is not so to be understood as though their Sins were not remissible and remitted till Christ dyed and offered his Sacrifice for by vertue of this Death fore-seen and fore-accepted they were in their Life-time upon their Repentance Faith in Christ to come and their fervent Prayers pardoned They did not rely upon their Legal Sacrifices nor expected Remission from them but relyed upon this Death of Christ to come according to the Promise That in him all Nations should be blessed This Proposition is not to be understood exclusively as though Christ's Death did expiate no Sin but that which was committed under the first Covenant but emphatically to singnify 1. That there was no Expiation for Transgressions under the Law 2. That if Christ's Death expiate former Transgressions under the Law much more will it expiate such as are committed under the Gospel 3. That there was no reason as some observe why they should be offended with the Death of Christ seeing without his Death and Blood neither they nor their Fathers could be saved but must suffer eternal penalties The second part of this second Proposition informs us that 1. There is an eternal Inheritance 2. There is a Promise of it 3. The called receive this Promise 4. By means of Christ's Death they receive this Promise For in the words we have an Inheritance the Heirs the Conveyance the Purchase or rather the price whereby it 's purchased The Inheritance is eternal Happiness the Heirs are the called the Conveyance is by Promise and Covenant the price of the purchase is Christ's Death and Blood 1. The Inheritance is that blessed and glorious Estate which is to be enjoyed upon the Resurrection for the full possession and enjoyment is reserved for Heaven where it 's said to be laid up and reserved It 's said to be eternal in opposition to the Land of Canaan which was the temporal Inheritance of them and their Fathers and to be enjoyed with the Blessings thereof so long as they kept the Covenant of their God and this was the Inheritance promised in the former Covenant and to this which formerly was called God's Rest the Apostle seems to allude as a Type of this which was far more excellent and glorious of eternal continuance in respect of the Inheritance it self the parties enjoying it and the enjoyment thereof 2. This eternal Inheritance was promised there was a Promise of it It was God's and the disposal of it was at his Will Man for his sin was cast out of Paradise and forfeited Heaven with the eternal Bliss thereof yet it was in his mind to give it sinful Man who deserved it not so great was his mercy and bounty and Man must know this For this end he promised it and by his Promise bound himself to give it and in it did signify his Will The Effect of this Promise was Obligation on God's part and a Right unto it on Man's part an Hope to obtain it and a Comfort upon this Hope And here it 's to be observed that our Title to eternal life depends immediately upon the Promise and is derived from it for as the Israelites had the Land of Canaan and held it by Covenant and Promise so do all the Children of God expect the heavenly Canaan and hope to have it by Promise of the new Covenant Some do ' understand by the Promise of eternal Inheritance this Inheritance promised yet there must be a Promise received before we receive the thing promised 3. After the Inheritance and the Promise and Conveyance follows the Heirs which are here said to be the called Some are not called at all these have no Promise of the Inheritance Such were the Gentiles before the Gospel was preached unto them they were Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no Hope and without God in the World Ephes. 2. 12. Some are called and have the means of Conversion but reject the terms of the Covenant and refuse to enter into it and engage themselvs such were the unbelieving Jews and many others Some are called enter the Covenant and solemnly bind themselvs to the observation of it yet do not observe it In respect of these two last it is that Christ saith Many are called but few are chosen Matth. 22. 14. None of these are Heirs Some are called and are obedient to the heavenly Call and keep the Covenant these receive the eternal Inheritance promised and first acquire the Title and after that the Possession Some were called before the Exhibition of Christ some after the former are here principally meant though the latter with them receive the Inheritance 4. These called Ones of former times with us receive this Promise by vertue of Christ's Death expiating their sins and of his Blood purging their Conscience To understand this you must consider that none but such whose Sins are expiated and their Consciences purged can be Heirs for they must be regenerated and acted by the Spirit and adopted Sons before they can be Heirs For as the Apostle argues If Sons then Heirs
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
anoy them and so he wrote by them From hence it follows that the Authority of this Tstimony is divine and infallibly true and acknowledged so to be by them and it 's of◠much the more force because it was written in the time of the Law whilst it was in force Yet before I enter upon the matter we must consider of their connexion and bringing the words in Where three things are observable 1. The connexion with the former by the particle illative therefore 2. A Prosopopaeia whereby he brings in Christ speaking and makes the words his 3. The time when he speaks them 1. The illative particle signifies thus much That because the former Sacrifices were so unfit and so insufficient therefore for that cause God did even then by the Prophet David signify That he would reject them and pitch upon a better and that he had no intention to make use of them for to perfect and purge but from the beginning designed Christ's Sacrifice to that end and for that purpose 2. They are brought in Rhetorically as the words of Christ directing his Speech to God his heavenly Father The praediction that Christ would use these words is David's but the words must be Christs 3. The time when Christ should use these words was the time of his coming into the World which was then to come and now is past But the controversy is What should be meant by his coming into the World which most understand of his Incarnation and more particularly his inauguration and entrance upon his publick Ministry It 's certain they must be the words of Christ Incarnate after that God had signified his Will and Pleasure that he should sacrifice himself unto him for the Sin of Man The Socinian will have it to be his coming into the future World and entrance into Heaven and the reason of this opinion is his false conceit of Christ's Offering which is contrary to express Scripture as hath been formerly shewed But to come unto the matter contained in the words first as we find them in the Psalm secondly as they are understood and explained and so applyed by him to the point in hand § 7. The words of the Psalmist may be considered Grammatically or Theologically In them Grammatically considered we find a difference between the Hebrew and the Translation of the Septuagint which the Apostle follows and it is in one Clause For the Hebrew words translated as they seem properly to signify Mine ears hast thou opened the Septuagaint turn A body hast thou fitted me or prepared for me Here the Hebrew Text and the Greek Translation seem so much to differ as though they were not reconcileable A Greek Scholiast tells us that Paul understood and knew the Hebrew well enough yet he makes use of the word body used in the Septuagint as most subservient to his purpose And here I will not mention either what Nobitius observes upon the words of the Psalm or how several Authours translate the words or how à Lapide and many others seek to reconcile the Hebrew and the Septuagint Genebrard upon the Psalm by a tropical Explication endeavours the reconciliation The Tropes are 1. A metaphor in the Hebrew Verb and a Synechdoche in the Nown For as by Digging Hewing Cutting Lapidaries shape and fashion stones into the form of a Body so God created and framed Christ a Body this is Metaphorical And as many times a part is taken for the whole so Ear which is a part is taken for the whole Body this is Synechdochical Yet this will not satisfie therefore it 's to be observed That the Septuagint's Translation being not wording as formerly hath been noted but many times paraphrastical doth often leave the words and give the sense which here they seem to do For 1. To bore or digg the Ear is to addict one that is willing to perpetual Service This was the Ceremony prescribed by God Exod. 21. 6. This was in the Servant a denying himself a renouncing of his Liberty and a free voluntary total submission of his own will unto the will of his Master In the Master it was a Solemn engagement of the person willing to his perpetual Service According to this Christ the Lord of all made himself of no Reputation took upon him the form of a Servant and addicted himself wholly to his heavenly Father's Will 2. Yet Christ as the Word whereby the World was made could not be a Servant therefore the Word was made Flesh and God prepared him a Body a Flesh that in that Flesh he might be his Servant 3. Because the chiefest piece of Service was in offering up his Body and his Life for the Sin of Man which to perform was the Will and Command of his Father therefore the Interpretation of the Septuagint was most excellent Further it 's observable That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies a Servant and then the sense is That God made him his Servant and fitted him for the hardest Service that ever was even the Service of Sacrificing himself and of being obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross. Thus far the words have been Grammatically examined If we consider them Theologically we may observe in them two things 1. The Will of God concerning Christ. 2. The Coming of Christ to do the Will of God For God had determined that the Sin of Man should be expiated by some offering and this Will and Determination is expressed in the Text 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively For thus it 's written Ver. 5. Wherefore when he cometh into the World he saith Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a body thou hast prepared me Ver. 6. In Burnt-Offering and Sacrifices for Sin thou hast had no pleasure VVHere we have 1. Sacrifices Offerings Burnt-Offerings Offerings for Sin by all which is signified all the Levitical Offerings for Expiation prescribed by God 2. The rejection of these for God would not have them he desired them not he took no pleasure in them This is the Negative Will of God in respect of these Offerings For he never intended them for to perfect and sanctify Worshippers because he knew them unfit for any such purpose Therefore all these were but shadows of a far better Offering 3. The Body of Christ different from and opposed to all the Legal Offerings as far more excellent 4. God's acceptance of this Body which God prepared for him that he might offer it for it was designed for that purpose and was far more fit for to expiate the Sin of Man This is God's Will Christ's will and readiness to perform God's Will follows For 1. Christ doth the Will of God 2. He came to do it 3. This was written in the Volume of God's Book 1. Christ's doing of God's Will is not that which we call his active Obedience unto the moral Law but his suffering Death willingly upon the Cross and offering his Body and Flesh for the life of the World For this was the
For unnecessary private Conventicles with the neglect of the publick Assemblies are usually the Seminaries of Errours and Schisms and very prejudicial to the publick good of the Church So that the Duty exhorted unto is to frequent constantly these Assemblies and make right use of them to edify confirm and encourage one another to perseverance in the Christian Faith and to Love and good Works I might here take occasion to enlarge and reckon up all the particular Duties to be performed in these religious Meetings and shew how subservient they are every one severally and all joyntly to that end whereat the Apostle chiefly aims but I proceed to the Reason § 24. For it might be said What Reason Suasive Motive may be given why we should be so careful to perform this Duty Yes there is a great and powerful Reason and that is Because the day approacheth Where 1. We must understand the words of the Reason considered in it self 2. The force of the Reason in respect of the performance of the Duty In the words of the Reason we have 1. A Day 2. The Approach of that Day 3. The nearer Approach 1. A Day is a part and the principal part of time as opposed to the Night and in this place it signifies some special and more than ordinary time as the day of death of the destruction of Jerusalem of the End of the World The day of death every Man must look for Nothing more certain than death though nothing more uncertain than the Hour of death Every man must dy and then be brought unto his last Account and as that shall be made so shall be the condition of every Man for ever for where the Tree falleth there it lyeth and as Death leavs us Judgment finds us There was a day of Jerusalem's destruction and of the ruine of that Nation appointed and made known by Christ and his Apostles and these Hebrews could not be altogether ignorant of it There is another greater day of the final and universal Judgment and this was part of their Creed All these and every one of these are special and great dayes And one or two or all these three may here be meant Some think the day of Jerusalem's râ—ine was most of all intended by the Apostle though that cannot be evidently evinced to be pointed at so as to exclude the other two 2. This day did approach and was near for first the day of every Man's death could not be far off the day of Jerusalem's destruction was near and so near as many then living might survive not only the Peace and Happiness of that Nation but the very Being and Existence of that City and of the Temple they might see the ruine and destruction of both and for ought they knew the end of the World 3. This day drew nearer and nearer For 1. We no sooner begin to live but we begin to dy for we are born mortal and ready we are to return to that dust from whence we were taken and raised at the first and the more of our Life is past the less is yet to come and every Day Hour Minute of our Life we approach nearer unto death and death unto us 2. As for Jerusalem's destruction there were many Signs of that approaching fore-told and then known to be past It was fatal and unavoidable even then when Christ wept over it lamenting her Sin and Punishment which he certainly did fore-know and when this Letter was written to these Hebrews that day of her Calamity was far nearer 3. For the day of Judgment the particular Year Month Day was hid yet the times of the Gospel were the last times and upon us the ends of the World are come And that which is alwayes unknown may alwayes be looked for seeing it will certainly come and that suddenly And though that day in those times was far off yet it 's nearer now and though now it may be many years before the Son of God shall come from Heaven and the time to Man may seem long yet a thousand years with God is but as one day Besides that day of final Judgment if we consider that the unchangeable condition of every Man begins immediately upon his death then the great day of Judgment may in some sense be said to be as near as death to every particular Person This is the meaning of the words considered in themselvs and now the force of them as containing a Reason remains to be considered For this end we must take notice of the thing here urged and it 's 1. The performance of a Duty 2. The performance of it the rather and the more for the more the day approacheth the more we should prepare for it Not to forsake the assembling of our selvs together and to exhort one another and to be careful very careful diligent and frequent in this Work of Association and Exhortation is a Duty commanded by God and pressed upon us by the Apostle to neglect this Duty is our Sin and Disobedience to do it constantly is our performance And this is that which is intended by this Reason The force thereof is great For seeing 1. The day of our great Account God's final Sentence to be passed upon us and the Execution thereof is so near it concerns us much not only to know our Duty but to bestir our selves and to perform it constantly with all our Power Our progress towards Heaven should be like a natural Motion which is slow or not so swift at the beginning and is swifter and swifter towards the end Upon this performance depends our final and eternal estate For if we neglect fail and fall away then we are undone for ever if we perform and be prepared we are eternally happy Seeing therefore that day is a day of eternal Rewards or Punishments and approacheth so near What should not we do to provide for our everlasting safety Yet men think little of these things If we under stand the Text of the day of Jerusalem's Calamities and desolation which was near at hand and was a day of death to many thousands yea to hundreds of thousands and a lively resemblance of the final Judgment this also might effectually work upon them and move them to performance and perseverance For then they should see and clearly behold the woful End of that unbelieving Nation and most of all of all Apostates from Christianity Then their seducing Brethren and their persecuting Enemies should be destroyed the Temple burnt and demolished all their Judaism and Legal Service wherein they trusted for ever abolished and those which out of fear complyed with them or of Christians turned Jews should suffer in the highest degree Therefore there was no Reason in the World they should forsake or deny Christ and turn from him to Moses from the Gospel to the Law for the day was approaching when they should see God's Judgment executed upon the unbelieving seducing persecuting Jew and the eternal Confusion of
they apprehend the peril so will their fear be and they cannot apprehend the Judgment but as very grievous near at hand pressing hard upon them and unavoidable and so it will terrify and torment them before the time of Execution The sum of this Text is that as there is no hope of mercy and pardon so there remains a fearful expectation of grievous punishment and the same unavoidable § 28. And lest the Apostate should slatter himself and promise impunity to his Soul the Apostle proceeds to prove it unavoidable and very grievous according to the hainousness of the Sin and this he doth in these words Ver. 28. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three Witnesses Ver. 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trâ—dden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace THese words are a Comparison and it 's two-fold 1. In quality 2. In quantity The first is presupposed and implyed The second intended and expresly delivered The first in quality informs that as he that transgressed Moses Law was punished without mercy so shall he be that Sins wilfully under the Gospel after he hath received the knowledg of the Truth In the second in quantity we may observe 1. The Proposition ver 28. 2. The Reddition ver 29. In the handling of these we must consider 1. The parts absolutely 2. The whole under the notion of a Comparison 3. The force of the Comparison as it is a reason In the Proposition we may take notice of 1. The party to be punished 2. The manner of judicial proceeding 3. The punishment it self 1. The party to be punished is one that transgressed Moses Law that is the Law of God given to Israel by Moses where we have the Person and the Crime or Cause The Person is one under the Law of Moses while it was in force before the time of the Gospel The Crime is a transgression of that Law and this transgression was not any disobedience but such as for which there was no Expiation appointed no Remission in that Law promised it was such a Crime as God determined to be capital and to be punished with a Capital punishment and loss of Life The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Septuagint intrepret by the word used in the Text and both signify to revolt and that Revolt from the Law was answerable to Apostacy from the Gospel This was a breach of that fundamental Law Thou shalt have no other Gods but me This was a revolt from the true God their God whom they had acknowledged to be their God unto Idols Yet there might be other Crimes which might so grate upon the Foundation as to amount to this hainous sin of Revolt 2. The manner of proceeding against such a Transgressour was by information and delation of such a Transgressour before a competent Judge who must proceed Secunduns allegata probata and could not justly sentense the party but upon evidence Sometimes the fact might be notorious or confessed and sometimes maintained by the party offending yet the ordinary way was by Witnesses and in case of a man's life he required two witnesses at least in which respect singular is testis nullus testis The end of witnesses was Evidence that so the merit or demerit of the Cause might appear to the Judge and so the Cause be in an immediate capacity for Sentence 3. The demerit of the cause once made evident Judgment passed upon the party and he was sentenced to Death without any mercy and this Judgment must be executed So that if the Judge did make the Law of Moses his rule he could not acquit or absolve the party nor impose any other punishment nor help the Offender by commutation nor abate the least of this penalty for he by his transgression had made himself uncapable of mercy In this Proposition two things are especially to be noted 1. The Crime which was hainous 3. The Punishment which was Death without mercy § 29. The Reddition follows in the next words where we must observe as before 1. The Sin 2. The Penalty 1. The Sin is described or rather aggravated from three particulars It 's 1. A creading of the Son of God under foot 2. A counting the Blood of the Covenant whereby the Transgressor was sanctified an unholy thing 3. A doing of despite unto the Spirit of Grace The Sin is Apostacy and no man can Apostate from Christianity once received but he shall be guilty of the Contempt 1. Of the Son of God 2. Of the Blood of the Covenant 3. Of the Spirit of Grace The first aggravation therefore is from the contempt of the Son of God For 1. The Apostate treads under foot the Son of God the expression is metaphorical and presupposeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and affirmeth that he though the Son of God is trodden under foot To tread a thing under foot is 1. To undervalue it if it be of any worth 2. To vilify it 3. To vilify it very much 4. To expresse this contempt by casting it upon the Ground and trampling upon it which is the greatest debasement and is sometimes an expression of utter detestation Thus Jezabel was thrown down upon the Earth and trampled upon by Jehu's Horses To vilify and debase things that are base is no fault and to despise unworthy men is tolerable but the Apostate undervalues vilifieth and in an high degree the Son of God and the greater his dignity the greater the indignity He is not meer man though man yet as man the best of men for he is the Son of God and that not any kind of Son but the only begotten and beloved Son of God the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his person and so the Son of God that he is God Though he did descend so low for a little time as to be made man and humbled himself so far as to take upon him the form of a Servant and in that form to be obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross yet in this low estate he was the Son of God But after his humiliation even as man he is advanced to the right hand of God and is made Lord of Men and Angels an everlasting King an everlasting Priest Yet this Son of God the Apostate Christian so far vilifies as that he denies him to be God to be the Son of God to be a just Man nay judgeth him to be an Impostor a false Prophet a Malefactor and justly and worthily Crucified and if he had been living on Earth and in the Apostate's power he would have dealt with him as they did Thus neither the Person and Deity of Christ nor his Natures nor the personal Union of them nor
we may persevere and do conceive these means to be three 1. Confidence 2. Patience 3. Faith But upon due consideration it will appear that he urgeth Perseverance by a new Argument taken from the Reward And as formerly he dehorted from Apostacy from the Punishment which would prove to be very grievous and unavoidable so here he exhorts to Perseverance from the Reward which was very great and most certain And whilest he proceeds to this Motive from the Recompence he by the way puts them in mind of their former constancy in Suffering to encourage them to go on and by the same makes way for the pressing further of the Duty from the Reward So that the former Reason from Remembrance of Suffering past is but a branch of this great Motive Before I enter upon the words I must inform you of some things in general as 1. That Confidence Patience Faith are but one and the same thing which is Perseverance 2. That the Motive is from the Reward 3. That he urgeth the Performance of the Duty both from the excellency and certainty of the Reward For first He affirmeth it to be great Secondly To be certain unto Perseverance and certainly and speedily to be received 4. He proves it to be certain 5. Applies the Proof unto themselvs This is the Sum and Scope of the Close of this Chapter from the 35 Ver. unto the End These things premised we may consider in the words of these two Verses these two things 1. The Duty 2. The Reward The Duty is Perseverance which is expressed by two words 1. Confidence 2. Patience And the words imply an Exhortation to continuance in and of both The words implying this Exhortation are these Cast not away your Confidence and You have need of Patience For that which must not be cast away and whereof they have need must be kept and kept unto the end and to keep these to the end is Perseverance The Reward is said 1. To be great 2. Certainly to be received when they had done the Will of God And it 's to be considered 1. As a Recompence 2. As promised The Argumentation of the Apostle reduced to Form is this That Duty by which we have great Recompence of Reward and by which after we have done the Will of God we receive the Promise ought to be performed But by Confidence and Patience continued we have great Recompence of Reward and after we have done the Will of God we receive the Promise Therefore we ought to continue in both In the 35th Verse we have 1. Confidence 2. The continuing of this Confidence 3. The great Recompence of Reward 4. The having of this great Recompence 1. By Confidence if we consider the word in the Original it seems to signify their Boldness in Profession of the Christian Faith For they were not ashamed to confess Christ before men no not before their persecuting Enemies in the midst of Reproaches and Afflictions Yet this profession without was grounded upon and issued from Faith in Christ and hope of eternal life within and these two were as the matter so the Soul and Life of the profession And to profess Christ and their Faith and Hope in him in the midst of persecution did argue their undaunted boldness and divine fortitude and courage 2. The continuance of this confidence is signified here negatively They must not cast it away The expression some think is taken from those cowardly Souldiers which in a Battel cast away their Shield and Armour and either begin to cry for Quarter or to run away and turn their backs upon an Enemy This is suitable to his former Metaphor whereby he had expressed their Courage and Constancy For they had endured a great Fight and here exhorts them to endure still which they could not do if they did cast away their Confidence which was like a Shield These are military terms and signify that we are spiritual Souldiers who will not fear to fight till we have attained a final Victory which without continued and final confidence we can never do To cast this divine Shield from us is an act of fear and cowardize and argues a weakness of our Faith and Hope Therefore the Duty is to be strong in Faith and in the power of God and not to shrink or give back for any thing man can do unto us for it 's but little and if God be for us who can be against us 3. If they do not cast away but hold fast their confidence there is a great recompence of Reward Recompence of reward is one word in the Greek and is turned by some Remuneration So that we have 1. A Reward 2. A rendring or returning of the Reward The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Hire or Wages given in recompence of some Work and Service The Work or Service being done the Reward is due whether it be given or not given and rendred For to be due is one thing to be rendred another yet if it be due it 's injustice not to render it In strict Justice the Service and the Hire are equal yet there is no necessity of this equality in respect of the excess for one may out of his own goodness give more then is deserved and this is not injustice but liberality Any blessing especially that great one of eternal Glory given by God upon the performance of some Duty by Man may be called Wages Hire or Reward by a Metaphor Yet no Man can deserve or merit any thing at God's hands but yet the Reward may be due by vertue of the Covenant The word doth signifie 1. That there is a Reward 2. That it 's due to such as persevere 3. That it shall be rendred Yet a Reward may sometimes be taken Synechdochically for punishment and the recompence thereof an actual punishment for Sin Thus as you may read it 's taken Chap. 2. 2. A reward may be poor or rich less or greater but here it 's said to be great so great indeed it is that no tongue of man can express the greatness or excellency of it For here the Apostle speaks of the final Reward which is unspeakable according to the promise of God to Abraham I am thine exceeding great Reward Gen. 15. 1. 4. This continuance hath this great Reward Which informs us that it will be not only due but certainly conferred upon and rendred to the person persevering for by divine ordination Perseverance and the Reward are inseparably joyned together so that the one shall infallibly follow upon the other § 37. Ver. 36. Agrees with the former in substance though it differ in expressions and as the former doth inform us 1. Of the Duty 2. Of the Reward The Duty is implyed in these words Ye have need of patience The reward in those which follow That after ye have done the Will of God ye may receive the promise The former is the means the latter is the end For explication's sake take notice 1.
an Argument to prove something antecedent In the first consideration they yield two Propositions 1. Without Faith it 's impossible to please God 2. He that cometh unto God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him 1. Without Faith it 's impossible to please God Where we might observe 1. The Effect pleasing God 2. The Cause Faith 3. The inseparable Connexion of both When one thing doth depend upon another for its being then it 's impossible for it to exist without that other upon which it doth so much depend as the Effect depends upon its Cause as receiving Being from it Therefore Causes and Effects are said to be Arguments absolutely consentany and of inseparable Connexion and impossible Separation If there be a Cause formally and actually as a Cause there must of necessity be an Effect if there be an Effect there must needs be the Cause that gave it being If there be the beams of the Sun there must necessarily be the Sun from whence they issue The World created is an Effect and cannot exist without God as creating it So here to please God is an Effect and Faith is the Cause without which we cannot possibly please God The Sum is that as it is impossible for an Effect to be without a Cause so it 's impossible without Faith to please God 2. This is made more clear from an Act of Faith Some think that the Text is dianoetical or discursive as though the Apostle should argue in this Form If he that commeth unto God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him then without Faith it 's impossible to please God But the Antecedent is true Therefore the Consequent They are induced thus to think from the Conjunction For. This seems to be an arguing a definitione ad definitum For in this latter Proposition we have a more accurate definition of that Faith whereby we attain eternal Life than in the first Verse In it we may observe 1. The Object 2. The Act 3. The Subject of Faith 1. The Object complex is two-fold 1. God is 2. He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him So that the Object of Enoch's Faith and so of all saving Faith in general is God This most noble Object may be considered 1. As God 2. As Rewarder of Man seeking him 1. God is This is prima veritas complexa the first Categorical Positive Affirmative Proposition For as God's Being and Existence is first and before all other things and existences so that God is or doth exist must needs be the first Truth The Subject of this Proposition being God by God we must understand the most perfect and excellent Being which is known unto us in some measure by his Work but is more fully represented unto us by his Attributes and his eternal necessary acting upon himself as we read in Scripture Of these things I have written more at large in my Theo-Politica This Being and Existence of God so far as it cannot be understood by Reason but by a diviner Light of Revelation is the first Object of Faith 2. The second Object of this Faith is God as beatificans hominem rewarding Man where we must consider 1. The party rewarding 2. The party rewarded The party rewarding is God who first is and doth exist in himself before he can be a Rewarder This Act of Remuneration presupposeth the Creation of the World especially of Man as a Rational Creature capable of Laws Rewards Punishments and God's Supream Dominion and Laws and his Judgment according to the Laws given Man and Man's Observation of the same nay even the Observation of those Laws according to which sinful guilty Man is rewardable The party rewarded or to be rewarded and made happy is 1. Man 2. Sinful Man 3. Sinful Man seeking God 4. Sinful Man seeking God with that sincerity and constancy as to find him This seeking God in this manner is the Observation of his Laws 2. This being the Object the Act is to believe He that cometh unto God must believe To this Act is required an Object not only materially but formally considered a Rule and an intellective Faculty The material Object you have heard before the formal Object are these as intelligible and credible without which there can be no Act. That which makes them credible is the Rule which is the divine Revelation or the Word of God representing the Object as intelligible and credible For Reason without Revelation cannot attain any certain Knowledg and Evidence of these things Something it may conclude and determine of God from his Works something may be taught and testified by Man without Divine Revelation But that God will render eternal Rewards unto sinful Man to be redeemed by Christ upon condition of Repentance Faith and new Obedience is far above Reason not elevated above it's Sphere Therefore the Rule must be supernatural and divine Revelation and Testimony which is infallible because of Godâ— veracity and this Revelation must be in the Soul and known to be divine before it can be a Rule to Man This Faith is a vital and elicit Act of the Soul as intellective for without this intellective active Power the Soul is not capable of the divine Representation nor can be informed by it The Act therefore is a Belief of these things thus represented this Belief is an Assent unto these things revealed as true This Assent must be certain infallible practical 1. It must be certain because the things to be believed concern Man's everlasting Estate 2. It must be infallible for the same Reason 3. It must be practical because it must stir up men effectually to seek eternal Life and deliverance from eternal Death Yet the Cause of the certainty infallibility and practical force is the Word of God conveyed into the Soul and made powerful by the divine Spirit illuminating and inspiring Man in an ineffable manner for a divine Faith it a supernatural Gift of God And as it is divinely practical and effective it 's inconsistent with any predominant Lust and Corruption 3. The Subject of this Faith is one that cometh unto God even every one that cometh unto God To come to God is for Man to turn unto God and to make him the chiefest Object of his Understanding and Will so as to serve him and walk with him so as to obtain eternal Life from him If we reflect upon Enoch it is to come to God for to walk with him for before Enoch could walk with God he must come to God Therefore this coming may be Conversion which depends upon divine Vocation yet this coming as also this walking presupposeth Faith and follows upon it as an Effect upon the Cause For Faith is the Principle of this divine motion both as first begun and after continued So that the sense is that a man cannot begin to walk with God without this Faith for to
could merit the Reward but only qualify him for the Enjoyment and give a Title to it by vertue of God's Promise made upon the Merit of Christ who by the Cross did merit this Reward for all such as by Faith should bear the Cross and follow him This Faith moved him to this Obedience of Self-Denial and bearing the Cross and gave him Power to overcome the World and that Faith which is not thus victorious is not justifying and saving The Philosopher's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Temperance and Fortitude seem to have some Affinity with this Doctrine but comes far short And here it 's observable That the Honour to be Pharoah's Daughter's Son the temporary Pleasures of Sin and the Treasures of Aegypt go together so do Afflictions of God's People and the Reproach of Christ. The Reproach of Christ is opposed to Honor the Afflictions of God's People to the Pleasures of Sin the Riches of Reproach for Christ to the Treasures of Aegypt The Reproaches of Christ and Afflictions are better to Man as his Case now stands not only in this that they tend to the Reward but also through Sanctification of the Spirit they exercise and improve our heavenly vertues and prevent many grievous Sins If we will be happy with Moses we must make Moses Choice and pray for the Power of the Spirit to enable us not only to resolve but also perform as he did and also often to eye the great Reward which will be a mighty Motive to Obedience Neither must we think it mercenary to look at the Reward for God's Glory and our Happiness are linked together so that the Belief and Expectation of the Reward do no wayes abate of our Love to God in Christ. § 26. The second Work of Moses his Faith wherein the Apostle instanceth was his forfaking of Aegypt For Ver. 27. By Faith he for sook Aegypt not fearing the Wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who was invisible FOR the better understanding both of this and the former part of the Example of Moses we must observe 1. That Moses had some divine Information of God's Intention by him to deliver Israel as is implyed by this that he visited his Brethren when he was forty years of Age for then it came into his heart to do so and in this Visitation he slew an Aegyptian who wronged and oppressed one of his Brethren By this Visitation and Act he supposed his Brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them but they understood not Acts 7. 23 24 25. 2. That if he would have laid aside all Affection and Care of his Brethren and all thoughts of delivering them he might have still continued to have been called the Son of Pharoah's Daughter and to have enjoyed the Pleasures and Treasures of Aegypt 3. That he was resolved though with the loss of all to attempt and undertake this Work and began it with this Visitation and Deliverance of one particular Person yet this way proved ineffectual for the time was not yet come 4. That in this Visitation it so fell out through the Folly and Iniquity of one of his own Brethren that Pharoah was incensed against him and sought to kill him and now he begins to suffer Affliction with God's People and to bear the Reproach of Christ. And now his Case was this that he must either fly and forsake Aegypt or be slain He cared not so much for the King's Wrath nor did he fear Death so much as he was grieved for the sad condition of his Brethren and troubled that the design of their Deliverance did for the present fail But to return unto the words wherein we may observe these Propositions 1. Moses for sook Aegypt not fearing the Wrath of the King 2. In this he endured as seeing him who is invisible In the former we have 1. His leaving Aegypt 2. The manner how he left it 1. He forsook Aegypt Two several times 1. When he fled into the Land of Midian where he was a Stranger and a Shepherd for many years 2. When he brought Israel out of Aegypt The great doubt is Whether of these is here intended Some think the former some the latter some both Yet whether it be one or both it 's certain both that he did leave Aegypt and that he did leave it in this manner In the former Departure he fled to avoid danger in the latter he marched out like a Prince and General with a mighty Host. The former was the loss of all his Honour high and happy Estate which he formerly enjoyed in Pharoah's Court and the beginning of his suffering Affliction and Reproach with the People of God This was from himself who out of Pity and ardent Affection to his Brethren brought himself into this Condition This seemed to be a great Fall for a great Prince became a poor Fugitive yet he was well content nay judged the Estate of the latter to be far better than that of the former For it was far more free from Temptation and more calm so that he might freely give himself to contemplation and converse with his God Therefore if we well consider this the former forsaking Aegypt is rather to be referred and ascribed to that Faith whereby he denyed himself and took up the Cross looking at the great Reward 2. In the latter though the Wrath of the King was great yet he feared it not The last time he was in the King's presence he did fearfully menace him saying Get thâ—t from me take â—eed to thy self see my face no more for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt dy Exod. 10. 28. This signifies that he was enraged against Moses and though upon the last and greatest Execution upon the Egyptians in the death of the first born he did for the present remit his fury and sending to Moses and Aaron did dismiss them and all Israel yet he suddenly changed his mind and armed all Aegypt to pursue them This Moses knew full well yet he marched with all the Armies of Israel out of that wicked Country with invincible Boldness and certain Confidence that God would make his March good and their Deliverance full and effectual against all the fury and force of that wicked King The Reason of this Boldness was his Faith whereby he endured as seeing him who is invisible which is the second Proposition Where 1. The Object of his Faith was the Invisible 2. The Act was he saw him or looked upon him 3. The Effect immediate was he endured 1. He that was invisible was God who is said to be the eternal immortal invisible God 1 Tim. 1. 17. whom no man hath seen nor can see Cap. 6. 16. and the invisible God Colos. 1. 15. To be invisible as here is meant must needs be proper unto God It 's true that many things especially spiritual Substances as immortal Souls and Angels are not visible or perceivable by bodily Eyes and in that
of All and many great miseries for his sake and continued faithful in the Covenant of their God 4. They did all this by Faith For they believed the Word of God to be true rested in his promises exspected the great Reward and were assured that it was better to suffer Affliction for a while then lose the eternal Comforts of their God § 38. Thus the Catalogue and Induction of these rare Worthies is finished and by it we understand the universal necessity of Faith and the excellency of it in the rare Effects thereof and the Chapter is closed up thus Ver. 39. And these all having obtained a good Report through Faith received not the Promise Ver. 40. God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect IN these words we may observe the difference of the Times wherein these Worthies and those wherein the Apostle and these Hebrews lived with the imperfection of the one and the perfection of the other In the former Verse we have a Rhetorical Epanalepsis and a elegant Repetition of the main Proposition which the Author intended to prove by Induction For he had said ver 2. That by Faith which he had described the Elders obtained a good Report This he repeats again in this manner These all having obtained a good Report through Faith The propositions are two 1. The forementioned Elders obtained a good Report through Faith 2. Yet they received not the Promise In the first we must consider 1. The parties intended 2. Their good Report 3. The means whereby they obtained this good Report These things were formerly spoken of and therefore I may be brief 1. The persons formerly said to be the Elders that is the Saints who lived in former time This was a general term which is here more explicitely limited and enlarged by pointing at the particular persons The words are all these by these are meant Abel Enoch Noah Abraham and the rest by name expressed or some other wayes implyed All this note of universality puts them all and every one together without exclusion or exception of any one 2. These all these obtained a good Report and had their Testimonials To be witnessed is to be commended and well spoken of by a Synechdoche as you formerly heard The person who approved and testified of them was God and that in the holy Scriptures and Records of former times and they must needs be good whom God doth commend All expressed by name are spoken of expresly and particularly in the Canonical Writings of the Old Testament and some others not named at all The rest who lived after the Canon was finished are also in the Canon commended implicitely and by undoubted Consequence For when God approves any Virtues and virtuous Acts he approves all such as are endued with those Vertues and manifest them in their lives and conversation 3. The means whereby they became so famous and of so good report was their Faith For without it they neither could have pleased God nor done so rare and glorious Works nor obtained so great Promises nor suffered with patience so great tryals and afflictions Faith was the fundamental Virtue in them all and the very principle of all their divine Actions and Sufferings These obtained a good Report yet received not the Promise For 1. They had a Promise 2. They received it not 1. By Promise understand something promised which upon God's Promise made to them they expected What this was is doubted by many some will have it to be the Resurrection some the Deliverance out of Limbus where it 's imagined their Souls were lodged till Christ descended into Hell and brought them out of that Lake As for the former opinion if understood of the universal Resurrection it may be true As for the latter it presupposeth divers things which yet were never proved and therefore it 's no matter or fit object of a divine Faith it 's a meer fiction and no better This is very certain and clear out of Scripture that they all had a Promise of Christ to be exhibited and this was the great Promise the foundation and chief corner-stone of their Faith No Faith but in him could please God or give sinful man any hope of eternal Glory 2. This Promise they received not for though it be said before ver 33. That many of them received Promises and it 's true they did so yet Christ was not exhibited in their times they all dyed before the Incarnation Passion Death and Glorification of Christ The Word made Flesh. This signifies both the imperfection of those Times and of their Faith for they believed indeed in Christ and by that Faith were justified and saved yet their Faith was in Christ to come and could not be so full and clear as that of the Saints under the dispensation of the Gospel And the Redemption of Christ to come was fore-seen and fore-accepted of God and was effectual to all Believers from the beginning Yet this doth manifest the excellency of Faith in that it was so effectual in these Saints before the exhibition of Christ and doth much commend these Saints who seeing Christ represented unto them at so great a distance yet did so firmly believe in him and by that Faith did effect so glorious Works and so constantly endured so many Afflictions And here one thing specially is to be noted that is that the Faith whereby they obtained a good Report was not a meer speculative assent but a divine lively powerful working Faith Such must ours be or else we can never certainly expect eternal life This condemns many of us living in the times and light of the Gospel For some of us have no Faith some have only a speculative liveless Faith some have only a weak Faith and come far short of these Worthies Yet we have their example and enjoy a clearer Light Thus far concerning the times wherein these Saints lived 3. In the next place follows God's benignity and favour unto us who live in the dayes of the Gospel For God hath provided some better thing for us that without us they should not be made perfect Where we have two Propositions 1. God provided some better thing for us 2. They were not made perfect without us In the former observe 1. Some better thing 2. The same provided by God for us This better thing is the exhibition of Christ and the revelation of the Gospel which made the latter times more perfect and more happy The truth of this appears 1. By that Halelujal◠which the Angels sung at Christ's Nativity when they brought the News thereof from Heaven Luke 2. 13 14. 2. By words of our Saviour who turning unto his Disciples said privately Blessed are the Eyes which see the things that ye see For I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see the things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear the things which ye hear and have not
and Beeing but to be happy For as bitter Pills and Portions and also correcting Plaisters may effectually cure our Bodies motrally wounded or diseased so the Lord's Chastisements may heal our sick Spirits and so prevent spiritual Death and Punishments And as the Patient must be willing to receive bitter Pills and Potions for recovery so must we chearfully submit unto our heavenly Fathers Correction for our eternal safety and felicity § 11. Thus far the absolute consideration of these words Now follows the Comparison which presupposing some agreement in quality as in quanity of imparity For if we be bound to obey and reverence our earthly Fathers correcting us then we are bound to obey and be in subjection to our heavenly Father chastening us The reason is because as they so he hath power over us But this is not all for if we are bound if to them much then to him much more They are only Fathers of our Flesh and Bodies and have only a correcting power over them but he is the Father not only of our Bodies but also of our Spirits and hath an absolute Dominion over both not only to instruct counsel command but also to correct and his Correction tends not only to our temporal but our spiritual Health Safety and Happiness This the Apostle makes evident in the 10th Verse Where again we may consider some things 1. Absolute concerning our Earthly Heavenly Father 2. Comparative The words absolutely considered inform us 1. That our earthly Fathers for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure 2. That God our heavenly Father chasteneth us for our profit that we may be Partakers of his Holiness 1. In the former Chastisement we may observe 1. It 's short and for a few dayes 2. It 's arbitrary after their own pleasure 1. It 's short because it continues only for the time f our Child-hood and Minority when we are most apt to go astray and least able to direct out selves In these tender years Children may receive any Impression and that more easily than afterwards then the Foundation of Vertue or Vice is laid and if Children have their Liberty be neglected and left unto themselvs they are most subject to be corrupted Therefore theâ— they have most need of Correction and may be more easily kept under yet many times it falls out that Fathers devoid of Wisdom and not considering what is best and most truly good for their Children out of Passion and rashly not aiming at the choise End do correct them And the more Power they have and the less Resistance there is the more arbitrary and irregular their Chastisements prove so that as the time of their Chastening is short so it 's not regulated by the Dictates of Reason but follows Fancy and false Imaginations of the mind which many times represents as just and good that which indeed is evil and unjust The Intention of the Apostle in these words is to manifest the imperfection and deficiency of humane Castigation whereby it differs from that which is divine For 2. God chasteneth â—â— for our Profit that we may partake of his Holiness This is the Perfection of God's Correction which is not for a few dayes but continues for term of Life till he hath made us perfect and done his whole Work upon us It 's always regulated by his perfect Wisdom issues from purest Love tends unto and ends in our Happiness It 's no wayes arbitrary for he never chasteneth but when he sets cause and knows certainly that it will be good for us All this is implyed in these words for our profit where by profit we must not understand the good things of this World and the great Mammon which so many worship but some better thing some spiritual and divine benefit which in a word is a Participation of God's Holiness which Clause seems to be exegetical that we might know what he meant by Profit For whatsoever tends to make us spiritually better more like to God and more capable of Communion with him that 's true Profit God's Holiness may either be that whereby she is holy in himself oâ— that whereby weare holy He in himself is essentially infinitely and eternally holy most glorious excellent and pure in himself For the Holiness of God is sometimes taken for his Excellency and Glory sometimes for his Purity and perfect Righteousness in which respect it 's said That he is Light and in him is no Darkness so that he cannot sin be impure or unjust and therefore may be said to be Holiness it self As he is holy in himself so he is the Efficients and Fountain of Holiness to us for he makes us holy yet our Holiness is from him by participation and participated by us is more his than ours To be Partakers of his Holiness is either to be made holy as he is and so purified from Sin or being made holy to have Communion with him in some degree here or fully and for ever hereafter This Holiness is communicated to us by Chastisement accompanied with the Sanctisication of the Spirit for that 's the end whereaâ— God aims and the Effect which he produceth in his Children His Love doth set him on work his Wisdom directs and his Almghty Power effecteth that which his Love desireth This is the Absolute Consideration the Comparative followeth and that in quantity inequal for he argues from the less unto the greater For if they had with Patience endured their earthly Fathers chastizing them for a few dayes after their pleasure how much more should they with Patience and all humble Subjection endure their heavenly Father chastizing them in Wisdom for their everlasting Good This is a place which teacheth all Children their Duty towards their Parents chastening them and they must acknowledg their Power humbly submit unto it and be thankful unto them and their God for this good Work without which they might have been more wicked and more miserable And all Fathers should know that their Children are trusted in their hands by God not only to be instructed but corrected and in this part of Education they must imitate God and chasten them wisely in Love for their good The principal thing to be remembred is that seeing it is God that doth chastile them and in this manner and for their greatest good therefore they should not faint in their Sufferings for their Profession § 11. The Apostle proceeds further to discourse on the Text in Proverbs which speaks of Chastisement Of which it might be said that it 's a matter not of Joy but Grief and how then can it proceed from Love and be any wayes beneficial By way of prevention he resolvs this doubt in the words following Ver. 11. Now no Chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby BY these words we learn what the End and Effect of the Lord 's Chastening is
High-Priest ascended into Heaven 2. This Blood of Sprinkling speaketh better things thau the Blood of Abel This Blood is the Blood of Christ and the End and so the principal Effect is to cleanse away Sin yet this it cannot do except it be first shed and then sprinkled Once shed it hath a cleansing Power and Vertue yet actually cleanseth and purifieth no man till it be sprinkled upon him The Blood of sprinkling is Blood to be sprinkled and it is to be sprinkled upon the unclean to make clean and therefore the Blood of Sprinkling is by a Metonymy cleansing and purifying Blood Yet there was a sprinkling of Blood in the Sanction and Confirmation of the Old Covenant and so Blood of Sprinkling here may be the Blood of Confirmation for as you heard Chap. 9. 16 17. a Testament is of force after men are dead so upon and by the death of Christ the new Covenant was made firm valid and in full force and power for that end God intended it If Christ had not dyed God might have abrogated or altered his Covenant but upon his death he was bound to stand to it for ever and the Title to the heavenly Inhâ—râ—tance is good to all such as observe the terms and conditions yet in this Expression it is very probable the Apostle alludes to the Legal Purifications by Water Ashes Blood which being sprinkled upon such as were Legally unclean or upon the Lepers did purify them The like Effect Christ's Blood hath upon all such as are capable of it therefore do we read that the Blood of Christ doth cleanse us from all Sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. and to cleanse is to forgive to be cleansed is to be pardoned as is implyed in that Text If we confess our Sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Unrighteousness Ver. 9. This Blood is sprinkled upon such as confess repent believe pray receive the Sacraments The means of sprinkling is the Word Sacraments and principally the Spirit or whatsoever worketh or increaseth and strengthneth Faith and then it 's sprinkled when it 's so applyed as that the Person receiveth the benefit of Christ's Passion one Effect and the principal is Remission of Sin and Sanctification whereby we are freed from Sin and the woful Consequents thereof for this Blood speaketh better things than that of Abel Abel's Blood was shed so was Christ's Abel's Blood shed speaketh so Christ's Blood shed speaketh Abel's Blood speaketh to God so Christ's speaketh to him likewise they both speak loud and cry so that God hears Abel's Blood was precious Christ's far more precious and the Cry of both is heard in Heaven Thus far they agree yet differ much for the one cryes for Mercy the other for Judgment the one cryes against Man that did shed it the other for Man though his Sins did cause it to be shed The meaning is that Cain's Murther of his Brother Abel did so much offend God that it moved him to revenge it Christ's death as caused by the cursed cruel impenitent Jews did so far provoke God that he fearfully punished them and their Children according to their own words Let his Blood be upon us and our Children yet as suffered for the Sin of Man and offered unto God it was so pleasing so precious and so highly accepted that for and in condsieration of it God was effectually moved both to reward him and pardon all penitent and believing Sinners and that for evermore This Blood spake when it was shed and speaks effectually when pleaded before the eternal Judg. 3. They were come to this Mediator to this Blood They were not come to the Mount of Fire Smoak Darkness Terrour Death where there was no Mediator to make their peace with God no blood to cry for Metcy and cleanse them from their Sin and free them from eternal Death But they were come into that Society where Christ was their Mediator and Priest where they were freed from the Law of Sin and Death and under the Covenant of Free Mercy Grace and Life where the Blood of Christ sprinkled upon their Souls did cry aloud to Heaven for Mercy and did cleanse them from all Sin for ever And now since they were received into an heavenly Society where Angels and the best of men both living and dead were their fellow-Subjects God Redeemer sitting in the Throne of Grace their Soveraign Christ the Son of God their Priest who shed his Blood to wash away their Sins and though they had many Offences yet upon their Repentance would make Reconciliation for them and though they had many failings yet he was a righteous Advocate with their Father and would plead their Cause with his own Blood procure their pardon according to the Covenant of Grace so that they should be justified and live for ever there was no Reason in the World to return to Sinai and the Law again and forsake the best and happiest Kingdom that ever was a Kingdom of eternal Righteousness and Peace If they did Heaven might be astonished and Earth amazed at their Folly In this with that which follows the Apostle seems to sum up briefly in a few words all the former Arguments taken from the excellency of the Prophetical Office of the Covenant of the Priest-hood of Christ and he doth this in that manner that he clearly takes away all colour of excuse from such as should incline to Apostacy § 23. Therefore he further argues thus Ver. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven THE words are a Dehortation wherein we have 1. The Sin dehorted from 2. The Reason why we should take heed of it 1. The Sin is to refuse him that speaketh 2. The Reason is taken from the greater Punishment to be suffered if they do refuse 1. To refuse him that speaketh implyes 1. That Christ doth speak and God by him To speak is not only to reveal the Doctrine of the Gospel which is the thing spoken but also to command Repentance and Faith in Christ with a Promise of Righteousness and eternal Life and a Commination of eternal Death unavoidable To refuse him that thus speaketh is either to reject this Doctrine and not receive it or if they have once received it to renounce it so that this Refusal includes both Unbelief and also Apostacy from the Christian Profession But they who had made Profession of this Doctrine must not refuse to continue in it nor renounce it to the dishonour and Contempt of God who out of greatest Mercy had tendred Salvation upon fairest terms 2. The Reason is taken from the hainousness of the Sin and the grievousness of the Punishment both which are set forth by a Comparison in Quantity And this Comparison presupposeth many things as 1. That God did speak in former times
to be Overseers which have a Charge of men's Souls committed unto them for Direction unto eternal Bliss and also Rulers because of their Power and Authority whereby they may in the Name of Christ command them to obey his Laws and in this respect the People are subject unto them in that manner that if they hear and receive them they receive Christ who sent them and God who sent Christ And whosoever receiveth not but despiseth them desplseth Christ and God who sent them 2. These Guides lest they should be ignorant who they were were such as had spoken the Word of God unto them The Word of God is that part of the Word of God which we call The Gospel which is concerning Christ exhibited humbled exalted and reigning at the right hand of God contained in that part of the Scripture we call The New Testament This Doctrine is the Word of God not only because it speaks of God but also because it was revealed by God and that by his own Son in the last dayes This Word they had spoken and declared both by Word and Writing and that infallibly according as by Inspiration they had received an immediate Knowledg of it and this their infallible Doctrine was the Rule of inferiour Teachers 3. These they must remember Some of these might be living some of them dead both must be remembred To remember in this place is to call to mind which presupposeth a former Act of Understanding and is a Reiteration of the same Act upon the same Object These must be remembred not only as Men but as Guides and as such as had spoken the Word of God even unto them so as that they had heard them and learned from them the Mystery of the Gospel so as to believe in Christ Yet amongst these they must principally remember the most eminent and in particular those by whom they had believed For if men begin once to forget their Teachers they will soon forget their Doctrine The second part of their Duty to which their former Remembrance was subservient is the Consideration of the end of their Conversation Their Conversation and Course of life no doubt was agreeable to their Doctrine and the Word of God they taught their Preaching and their Practice were suitable and as their Conversation was good so the End was answerable In that Faith they lived in the same they dyed and as their Life was holy so their Death was happy In these words some observe two things 1. That these were dead and some of them at least had sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood and dyed Martyrs 2. That they had been constant in the Profession and Practice of that heavenly Truth which they had preached and taught to others This Constancy and blessed Issue of their Conversation they are exhorted to consider and seriously review with the Eyes of their Souls as a rare and excellent Pattern worthy their Imitation 3. And if they were so worthy Imitation it was their Duty in the third place to follow their Faith that is their Doctrine which they preached believed professed practised unto Death and which they confirmed by their Suffering This is the true End of hearing Word of God and the true Use of all good Examples which are given us and set before our Eyes for this very End that we may do as they did and as they taught us both by their Words and Works their Doctrine and Practice We must follow the Example of all good men and above others of such Guides as these were amongst these Guides the most eminent in Truth Piety and Perseverance because their Doctrine and Life did agree and contiued suitable to the End § 8. It followeth Jesus Christ the same c. These words seem to stand absolute in themselvs without any dependance upon or Connexion with the Context antecedent or consequent and this hath given occasion to many several and different Expositions Some of the Ancients consider them in themselvs and understand them of Christ as God and from them prove his God-head by his perpetual Existence because he was is and shall be for ever and by his immutability because he alwayes is the same Some understand this of Christ as Redeemer whose Power and Efficacy in redeeming and saving all such as believe in him was from the first time that he was promised unto the World's End for he saved all those who believed in him for to come and all such who believe in him already come and exhibited Both these senses are true but whether intended here or no may be a Question But most Expositors consider the words in Coherence either with that which goes before or that which follows 1. With that which goes before and that two wayes 1. That as Christ the Word not incarnate or made Flesh spake to Joshua and promised not to leave him and forsake him so if they follow the Faith of their Guides and Teachers and persevere in the same to the End Christ will be with them and not leave them nor forsake them 2. That the Faith of their Guides was Faith in Christ according to their Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ an eternal unchangeable and never-failing Saviour and this their Faith in Christ they must follow and then Christ will be to them the same he was to their Guides and will certainly save them In this sense the words not only signify what kind of Faith that of their Teachers was and what was the Object and Foundation of it but also contain a Reason why they should follow it For their Faith was Faith in Christ which is the only saving Faith for ever as he Himself is the same for ever The Aethiopick Version favours this sense in part for thus they translate the words Follow me in the Faith of Christ c. So that according to this Christ is Faith in Christ. But others understand by Jesus Christ the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the same as Christ is and that for ever and never shall be changed Therefore they must follow it and never turn from it Christ may by a Metonymy signify Faith in Christ and the Doctrine of Christ because he was the Object of their Faith and the Subject of their Doctrine This Vatablus terms an Enallage This seems to be confirmed by the Exhortation following To apply this to our selves as it is our Duty so we must have a care often to remember the Apostles and their Successours who have taught us the Word of God and considering their happy Departure out of this World with the Joy and Comfort which they found in their Saviour let us follow their Doctrine and their Faith in Christ which if we do we shall have the same End and find the same Comfort in Christ who will be the same to us which he was to them for as He so his Doctrine is unchangeable for ever and whosoever shall follow his Doctrine and believe in him shall
shall never be destitute of a powerful and effectual Priest able for ever to save and this doth minister unto sinful man most sweet and heavenly comfort And this comfort is so much the greater because Ver. 22. By so much was Jesus made the Surety of a better Testament THat is by so much was Jesus a better and more excellent Priest The words with the 20th verse make up the Major proposition and these with those understood in general or of a Priest in general without mention of the Levitical Priest or Christ may make the proposition Categorical or a simple Axiom which otherwise must be Hypothetical and a compound Connex In a simple Syllogism the principal part of the Question is the Consequent or Predicate and is always disposed in the Proposition which for that reason is called the Major because of the principal and greater part of the Question But to return unto the Text which is the conclusion of the former Premises wherein we must consider two things or rather Axioms 1. That Christ is an excellent Priest 2. That He is a more excellent Priest To explicate the former you must know That to be the Surety of a Covenant in this place is to be a Priest and this may easily appear by the Context this in general In particular we must enquire 1. What the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used and translated by many in this place a Testament and in the eighth Chapter following Ver. 6. a Covenant doth signify 2. What it is to be a Surety of this Testament or Covenant 3. What Covenant or Testament is here meant 1. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Law a Covenant a Testament To know this we need not consult Lexicons as Varinus who interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law or Budâ—us with whom it signifies a Testament and Covenant For the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets translated into Greek will tell us that it alwayes signifies a Law or a Covenant and for the most part both So it doth in the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists where it very seldom signifies the last Will and Testament of a Man The same thing is a Law in respect of the Precepts and a Covenant in respect of the Promises for Laws are nothing else but Pacts and Covenants between the Prince and People and the Laws of God alwayes have their precepts and their promises For in respect of God there is a two-fold Obligation one whereby he binds his People to Obedience another whereby he binds himself to reward upon Obedience performed On the People's part there is also a two-fold bond the first arising from the Law whereby they are bound to obey or suffer the second is from their voluntary Submission to God and promise of Obedience The former is passive this latter active yet these Laws of God can never properly be called a Testament tropically and metaphorically they may And because Covenants had their Sanction not by promises and comminations but by some solemn Rites and Sacrifices and Feasts therefore the Obligation was so much the stronger and the danger of them which should violate them the greater This was a Law and Covenant between God and Man and not only so but a Covenant between God Redeemer and sinful Man of which more anon 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned Surety signifies one that undertakes for another to see something paid or performed and though the word is not found in the New Testament except in this place yet we find it three times in the Apocryphal Books from whence several Expressions used by the Apostles are taken And we have the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to be Surety for another as Prov. 6. 1. 17. 18. 20. 16. And thus the Septuagint turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thrice And they interpret it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 43. 9. 44. 32. Psal. 119. 121. and this in the Canonical Books But Varinus tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Meâ—â—â—s a Mediator and so it 's taken here as it s expounded by the Apostle in the Chapter following and because a Priest doth undertake to procure from God both the confirmation and performance of the Promises unto the People and to that end mediates between both therefore he is a Surety and Mediator of the Covenant and in this respect a Surety and Mediator of the Covenant is a Priest But thirdly What Covenant is this 1. The Text faith it 's the better Covenant 2. If it be the better then there is another for a Comparison must be between two 3. In the following Chapter we learn that there were two Covenants the first of the Law made with the Fathers the second of the Gospel This is that of the Gospel which is described out of Jeremy 31. of which more at large when we come to that Text. 4. As the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law so the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel go together and cannot be separated Thus far the first Proposition which considers Christ absolutely in himself which was this That he is an excellent Priest because a Surety of an excellent Covenant What it is to be the Surety or Mediator of this Covenant you shall hear more at large Chap. 8. 6. The Comparative Proposition which is That Christ is a more excellent Priest is now to be considered This Comparison is implyed in the words By so much and better So much answers to as much Ver. 20. It 's between the Levitical Priest and Jesus who are compared in quantity Where we must note 1. That both are excellent because both were instituted of God 2. That the excess and advantage is on Christ's part he was the more excellent 3. The reason of the excellency is their manner of Constitution for the Levitical Priest was made without Christ with the Oath of God and is much as a Priest made by Oath doth excel him that is made without so much Christ is more excellent 4. The excellency was not onely in this that Christ was made a Priest by Oath but also and chiefly because by that Oath he was made personally an everlasting Priest of a better far more excellent and everlasting Covenant This is the fourth Argument taken out of the Psalm to prove comparatively the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood so that the believing Hebrews had no cause to repent of chusing Christ to be their Priest and depending upon him for Salvation As for the Socinian who makes Christ a Surety of this Covenant in respect of his holy Life miraculous Works and Death sealing it as a testimony by his Blood and not in respect of his satisfaction merit and intercession we shall say something hereafter and so proceed unto the Text following Ver. 23. And they truly were many Priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of Death c. § 25. HItherto the Apostle had proved by several Arguments That Christ was more