more bitter then the paine of it and therefore the Author addes Despising the shame It was a great shame and disgrace to the Sonne of God who well knew the high dignity of his person after he had delivered so many gracious doctrines and wrought so many admirable miracles after so great hope and expectation raised of him to be seized upon by hangmen dragged to execution nailed to a crosse lifted up on high to endure the faces and eyes of all men upon him and be set as a marke for the spears and darts of bitter tongues Yet Christ despised all this despite all this shame and this disgrace that for a momentany shame be might attaine everlasting glory and for a temporall paine on earth eternall joy in heaven And is set downe at the right hand of the throne of God This is added to shew that Christ was not frustrated of his hope but that hee received a large reward of his faith and patience To teach us that if we also follow him in this race we shall have the like issue of our faith and patience But the great dignity and glory to Christ that is signified by his sitting at the right hand of Gods throne is before explicated Chap. 1. ver 3. From this place and the other Chap. 8.1 it appears that when Christ is said to sit at the right hand of God by Gods right hand is not understood his power and strength as elsewhere it is but in this phrase by a simily drawne from men is signified that the place at Gods right hand is more honourable then that at his left For otherwise it were not rightly said the right hand of the throne of God because a throne hath no hand nor is supposed to have any but only a right side of it And many times in the same sense Christ is said to sit in the plurall number at the right hands of God or his power For when the power of God is understood or a right hand is attributed unto him by way of analogie it is not called the right hands of God in the plurall number but his right hand in the singular But when the right or left place is signified it is commonly expressed plurally by right or left hands though it be uttered in respect of one person only See Mat. 20.21 and Mat. 25.33,34 41. 3. For consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himselfe lest ye be wearied and faint in your mindes Hee expresseth the end and use of the example of Christ why wee should diligently consider it because we are to make this use of it that our mindes may not bee tired with adversities and afflictions and so wee become wearied and faint in the course of our faith and patience which here by profession of Christ we have begun to runne 4. For ye have not resisted unto blood striving against sinne He exhorts them with a new argument to an invincible courage in bearing the afflictions which they suffered For it seemes he would make them somwhat ashamed that seeing the miseries wherewith they were pressed were not so grievous as that hitherto they had drawne bloud from them yet they begun to fail in courage and strength contrary to Gods expresse monition Here also he alludes to strifes yet such as were by fencing or fighting and not by running For sinne would beat us from our constancy of faith and pietie toward God but among the afflictions which come to be suffered of us for the love of Christ is the abnegation or deniall of sinne against which we must fight In this fight therefore while the combat is but upon our goods our credit and reputation the matter is not yet come to bloud but when cruelty torture and death chargeth upon our bodies then the businesse is in good earnest and the fight is in the heat These Hebrewes as it seems were not yet in danger of their lives for Christ but their sufferings were only mockings reproaches and spoiling of their goods as appeareth chap. 10. ver 33.34 The Authour therefore shewes what a shamefull thing it is to turne the backe and flie at the first skirmish as it were and entrance of the fight But when he brings in sinne for their enemy with whom they are to deale he doth therein by a most effectuall argument encourage them to an holy valour lest they should fail in their combat with an enemy so base and dangerous 5. And ye have forgotten the exhortation And for and yet by way of a particle adversative As if he had said Though ye have not yet spent your life and bloud for the love of Christ yet the divine admonition or exhortation is slipt out of your minde wherein yee are commanded to receive the chastning of the Lord with a ready minde and to beare it patiently And consequently yee have forgotten your dutie contained in that exhortation For the Authour doth not reprehend them meerly for their memory that they had forgotten the words of that exhortation but for their negligence in not performing the duty therein commanded We have said elswhere that hee is said to remember a person or a matter who hath a care of it and therefore hee that hath not such care though otherwise hee remember him in mind doth forget him This hath place chiefly in commands councells and exhortations which are not given therefore only to remaine in our memories but they must so remain in our memories as that they be put in execution and actually performed And when the authoritie of the commander or admonisher is so great that it is not likely but that hee who doth but onely remember the command or monition would obey it with great reason they may be said to forget it who though they retaine it in a lively memory yet obey it not Which speaketh unto you as unto children The Author commends this exhortation from the qualitie of it that it is very gentle and fatherly in regard it termes them children to whom it is directed For who but a froward and obstinate person would not give way to such an exhortation The exhortation is said to speak by way of Metonymie because he that exhorteth speaketh by it or rather because it is the very speech of him that exhorteth Now the person who exhorteth is openly Solomon but secretly God by whose instinct Solomon uttered this Pro. 3.11 Therefore in this exhortation God himselfe calleth us his children from whence it follows that we should receive it readily and observe it diligently My sonne despise not thou the chastning of the Lord. When we make God himselfe to speak and not Solomon then the name or Nowne of the Lord must bee supposed to be put for the Pronowne my after the Hebrew phrase To despise or as it is in the Hebrew to reject the chastning of the Lord is nothing else but an unwillingnesse to bear it patiently but to kick against it as against a prick By the chastning of the
shall thy seed be called that is the children to be borne of Isaac shall be accounted thy seed and posterity namely that thy posterity for whom I have ordained my blessing and the possession of that land and therefore Isaacs children only shall be called the posterity of Abraham In this perplexity then and contrariety between the promise and the command what issue could Abraham find for his faith To doubt of Gods promises and of their performance he thought it impiety and therefore he obeyed Gods command for the offering up of Isaac But then considering that this sacrifice would in the eye of nature overthrow all his hope therefore he builds a new and high faith upon the ground of his former faith namely 19. Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the daed This way onely the passage was open for Abraham to beleeve that God was able to raise Isaac even from the dead This point he did beleeve though he had no president or example for it For he would rather ascend up to the highest pitch of faith then relapse or retire in any degree and would rather cumulate a high faith with a higher then make the least doubt of Gods promises Accounting is in the Greeke reasoning after he had reasoned within himselfe casting up all the wayes possible how to salve up Gods command with Gods promise at last hee determined and concluded a possibility this way And which way was that that though he should slay Isaac and offer him up to God as a burnt-offering yet God was able to raise him up even from the dead This was the summe of his account and the conclusion of his reasoning that God was Almighty and able to doe not only all other things that are easily done but even to raise from the dead which is an act so difficult and so remote from humane reason that man might account it an act altogether impossible That God was able He reasoned and concluded of Gods power only because he had no reason to doubt of his will seeing he had received the promises of God wherein God had sufficiently declared his will The only doubt therefore rested upon Gods power which doubt he solves by his faith From whence also he received him in a figure Abraham did not only beleeve that God was both able and willing to raise Isaac from the dead but in a manner saw him raised from the dead and in a manner received him againe from God as raised from death In a figure In the Greeke it is in a parable or in a similitude In a figure is opposed to the proprietie and truth of the thing For truely and properly Isaac was not raised nor received from the dead because hee was not dead but in a figure and in a manner hee was both raised and received For Abraham accounted his Isaac for dead and therefore seeing now hee remained alive and beyond all hope was rescued from the stroke which his father had aimed at his throat it was in a manner all one to Abraham and all one to Isaac as if Isaac had beene dead and raised againe from the dead For hence wee use to say of those that are delivered from some extreme danger wherein they were given for dead that they are as it were revived and recovered from the grave Holy David many times makes such expressions of himselfe and Paul when God had delivered him from an extreme danger wherein hee wholly despaired of life saith We had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but God which raiseth the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver 2. Cor. 1.9,10 20. By faith Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau concerning things to come Now the Author mentions the peculiar faith of Isaac with an example of it in blessing Jacob and Esau concerning things to come He prayed to God for blessings to come upon them that should have their event after many ages to come For this blessing of Isaac was no ordinary or vulgar Benediction as that of Parents commonly is who when they blesse their children expresse only the wishes and desires of their mind but whether the blessing will succeed according to their wishes and desires they are no way certaine although such blessings of theirs may proceed from some faith but Isaac so blessed his sonnes and so prevailed with God for the things for which he prayed as if in a manner he had simply foretold them nothing doubting of their event but certainely perswaded that God would doe no otherwise then as hee had wished and prayed For when he perceived his errour in the person of his sonnes yet he said I have blessed him yea and he shall be blessed Gen. 27.33 In which words he plainly signified that the blessing he had given was so confirmed that hee could not recall it But the Authour names Jacob first though Esau was the first-born because Iacob had the first and the best blessing albeit hee obtained it by a wile God so disposing the matter For before either of them were born God using his owne freedome in bestowing his blessings upon whom he will had appointed to preferre Jacob before Esau the yonger before the elder Therefore God suffered not Isaac to bestow the best blessing upon Esau that neither the decree of God nor the blessing of Isaac might faile especially seeing Esau had already voluntarily and freely sold away his birth-right which as the Scripture saith he despised We say he sold it voluntarily and freely because he was not driven to that sale by any destiny or decree of God For Esau might have kept the honour and benefit of his birth-right and yet as God had decreed his posteritie might have become yonger or subject to have served the posteritie of Jacob. 21. By faith Iacob when he was a dying blessed both the sonnes of Ioseph Now he mentions the particular faith of Jacob which appeared in this blessing of the sonnes of Joseph And he addeth the circumstance of time that Iacob did this when he was a dying that hence it might appeare how hee persisted in the faith to his last breath and how constantly hee beleeved the promises of God whereby God had setled his blessing and the possession of the land of Canaan upon his posterity The History hereof is in Genesis 48. But wee may wonder why the Author mentions onely the sonnes of Joseph seeing with the very same faith Jacob gave blessings to all his children was it because he shewed a particular faith in beleeving that Ephraim though the younger should be afterward preferred before Manasses the elder and therefore crossing his hands otherwise then Joseph expected and had placed his sons laid his right hand upon Ephraim who stood at his left hand and his left hand upon Manasses who stood at his right Or was it because he beleeved that these sons of Joseph should be
God This reason St. Paul gives applying to the Resurrection of Christ the words of the Psalme Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Act. 13.33 Whom he hath appointed heire God hath appointed Christ to inherit the sovereigne dominion and Kingdome of God first by granting him a right or title to it and afterward by giving him the reall possession of it Yet he possesseth it not successively after his father as the manner is among men but accessorily and joyntly together with his father Of all things His universall heire he alludes to an only son who is the sole heire of all his fathers estate For Christ is the unigenit or only son of God not that God hath not other sons but that he hath none such as he Seeing then God is the universall proprietary and Lord of all things therefore Christ being his only son and heire becomes universall Lord also of all things over all Angells and men whether alive or dead By whom also he made the world God by the mediation or meane of Christ did reforme and restore mankinde who is the chiefest part of the world by giving him a new state and condition by a new Covenant For the Hebrews who have no or few compound verbs say a thing is made when in regard of some qualities it is altered or renewed or made otherwise then it was before by assuming a new forme or fashion for a better condition So we are said to be created in Christ to good workes and we are called a new creature not in regard of any new creation or new nature but because of new relations unto God or new qualities in our selves 3. Who being the brightnesse of his glory Christ was the lustre raye or beam of Gods Majesty For seeing God is invisible and cannot be seen of men by reason of his immense and infinite light therefore God sent forth Christ as a raye or beam of his light that in Christ men might have a kinde of sight of Gods Majesty And the expresse image of his person These words doe but interpret the former Adam and in him every man made is made in the image of God to resemble God in some of Gods attributes but Christ is the character or image of Gods person for God did as it were imprint his person upon Christ that Christ might be his substitute upon earth to personate represent and resemble the person of God to be in wisdome as God by publishing the mysteries and secrets of God and by knowing the thoughts of men to be in holinesse as God without all staine of sin to be in power as God having dominion over all creatures over windes seas and devills For such divine wisdome holinesse and power are brightnesses images or markes of Gods Supremacie or Soveraigne Majestie Vpholding all things by the word of his power Christ carried all things by his powerfull Command for according to the Hebrew sence Word is put for Command as Psal 33.7 and Psal 143.15 And the Word of his power is an Hebraisme also for his powerfull word q. d. Christ did personate God not onely for the acts of his power but also for the manner of his acts because he wrought all his miracles by his sole Word or Command For at his Word or Command the windes ceased the sea calmed diseases were healed the divels were ejected and the dead raised And to this the Centurion applied his faith when he said Lord Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed Mat. 8.8 When he had by himself purged our sinnes Christ offered up himself in his own person and did not as the Leviticall Priest who used to offer sacrifices that were not himself but Christ was both the Priest who offered and the sacrifice which was offered And by this oblation of himselfe he expiated or purged away our sinnes by removing our guiltines and the punishment due to our sins Christ was a sacrifice to expiate our sinnes and the slaughter of this sacrifice was made on earth upon the crosse but the offering of this sacrifice was then performed when he entred into heaven and made his Appearance in the presence of God as the Leviticall Priest after the sacrifice was slain entered into the Sanctuary to offer the blood of it And this Oblation of Christ had then onely an efficacy or power to expiate our sins but the effect of it followes not upon us till we on our part performe our office by beleeving in Christ and obeying him Sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high The Leviticall high Priest when he went into the Oracle where God was said to dwell and sit betweene the Cherubins did not sit downe with God betweene the Cherubins but stood as a minister or waiter with great reverence of the Divine Majestie offering and sprinkling that blood wherewith he entered But Christ ascending on high and entering into heaven did not stand before the Throne of God as a minister or supplicant but sat downe at the right hand of Gods Majestie Yet he sat not by way of an Assistant unto God as Nobles and Councellers doe to earthly Princes but by way of Cor-regnant to reigne with him having absolute power over the people or Church of God and for the Churches sake over all other things For according to Saint Paul 1. Cor. 15.25 To sit at the right hand of God is to reigne and governe as God And Christ doth now reigne and governe absolutely and arbitrarily in all things not defined by Gods law but where Gods law orders things there he governs accordingly 4. Being made so much better then the Angels The Apostle formerly having tacitely preferred Christ before all the Prophets and before the high Priests proceeds now to compare and preferre Christ before the Angels to wit which must be marked from the time of his session at Gods right hand corregnant with him Whereupon he layes down this position or doctrine That Christ sitting at Gods right hand reigning with him in absolute power is become more excellent then the Angels This doctrine he presently proves by severall arguments following As he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name then they This is the first argument whereby he proves his former doctrine because Christ hath obtained a more excellent name then the Angels By name here we are not to understand that dominion or dignity of Christ whereby he reignes with his Father in absolute power for this were to argue tautologously seeing he mentioned that before But by name he meanes the Appellation or title given to Christ noting his state and condition For from Appellations and titles especially given by God we may easily gather the dignitie and excellency of any person And this excellent name Christ hath obtained by Inheritance Which shewes that he had it not by nature nor from eternitie but in time by grace from the favour of God 5. For unto which of the Angels said he at any time
person of God and commands all things in the Name of God and therefore in Christ God himselfe is worshipped And the execution of this Command that the Angels doe really performe this worship appeares in the Revelation where they are said to stand round about the Throne and to fall downe before the Throne on their faces to worship Christ Revel 7.11 7. And of the Angels he saith A third argument from the testimony of Scripture Psal 104.4 to prove Christ made better then the angels Who maketh his angels spirits This is not spoken of their Creation but of their Emission that God employeth them as his Emissaries or Messengers to shew their state and condition to be servants unto God wherein they greatly differ from the state of Christ sitting at Gods right hand and is not sent forth any whether And his Ministers a flaming fire Herein the Author aimes at no more then what he saith at the last verse of this Chapter that they are all Ministring spirits saving that he alludes from the Psalme to the manner of their Ministery which is like a spirit or a winde very forcible and yet invisible and like a flaming fire or lightning very penetrable subtile and agile moving almost in an instant from one part of heaven to another 8. But unto the Sonne he saith Thy Throne O God! Herein hee opposeth Christ to the Angels and preferres him above them from a testimony of Scripture Psal 45.6 which is literally spoken of Solomon but mystically of Christ And therein Solomon is said to have a throne and called God for the royalty of his throne and sublimitie of his power over Gods people And therefore Christ of whom Solomon was but a shadow is by a farre greater right called God because the Throne of Christ is farre more royall in being seated at the right hand of God And consequently Christ is farre better and superiour to the Angels as the King sitting on his throne is greater then his servants that minister unto him Is for ever and ever Solomons throne or kingdome is said to be everlasting or perpetuall because hee was promised to reigne in his person and in his posteritie after him for many ages Namely so long as the carnall and earthly state of Gods people should require an earthly King See Psal 89.28,29 and verse 36 37. For that Solomons posteritie were deprived of the kingdom before the coming of Christ which notwithstanding was restored in Christ though after a more divine and spirituall manner that hapned through the soule sinnes of his posteritie which God neither would nor could any longer tolerate Seeing God put this Article or condition in the Covenant which he made with David and his posteritie that his posterity should observe his Law See 1. Chron. 28.7 But this perpetuity of throne or kingdome agrees farre more eminently unto Christ because Christ was made immortall to live for ever and to raigne in his owne person for ever without any posterity to succeed him and he is to raigne so long as the people of God shall need such a King which Throne must needs last to the end of the world till all his enemies be destroyed And consequently the Throne or Kingdome of Christ is most properly and truely everlasting for ever and ever A Scepter of righteousnes is the Scepter of thy Kingdome Scepter is figuratively put for government because it is the ensigne of Royall government and Scepter of righteousnes is by an Hebraisme put for a righteous government Literally Solomons government was very just righteous and mystically the government of Christ is most just and righteous over the faithfull who are Gods people 9. Thou hast loved righteousnes and hated iniquity These words doe but amplifie and illustrate the former Literally Solomon did not only governe righteously but loved to doe it and hated to doe the contrary And mystically Christ loved it much more for he committed no iniquity nor sinne at all he never did any man injury nor suffers it to be done unpunished Therefore God hath anointed thee with the oile of gladnesse He alludes to the anointing of Kings or rather to the anointing of guests at feasts which was an ancient custome because oyle doth exhilerate and refresh the spirits and cheer up the minde especially being perfumed with some sweet odour And therefore Oyle of gladnes is an Hebraisme put for exhilerating and cheering oile To this custome the Psalmist relates Psal 23.5 and our Saviour Matt. 6.17 and Luke 7.46 The literall sence is God did entertain Solomon more delicately then other men endowing him with extraordinary gifts and graces particularly with these three Wisedom Riches and Glory for he gave him his owne asking and that besides which hee asked not See 1. Kings 3.5 for his extraordinarie wisedome See 1. Kings 3.12 and 1. Kings 4.29 for his Riches and Glory See 1. Kings 3.13 and 1. Kings 10.21 to the end of the chapter The mysticall sence is That as God was the God of Solomon to endow him so he was the God of Christ also who endowed Christ anointing him with the holy Ghost and with spirituall graces in farre more extraordinary manner for spirituall wisedom whereby he knew the secrets of God and the thoughts of men with spirituall riches which is holinesse and righteousnsse with spirituall power and glory to have dominion over all men and angels See Luk. 1.15 and Luk. 4.1 and Luk 2.40 and Mat. 12.42 and Joh. 1.14 and Joh. 1.16 Above thy fellows The literall sence is Solomons brethren who were the rest of Davids children were cheerfully anointed or blessed of God with Wisedom Riches and Honours but Solomon was blessed above them all in a singular and eminent degree and advanced by God to the Kingdome of Israel before and above them so that all they were not onely rejected from the Crowne but made subject to him The Mysticall sence is All the faithfull like Solomons fellowes or brethren are begotten from the same Father that Christ is begotten and are anointed with the holy Ghost and have many things common with Christ yet notwithstanding Christ is anointed by God above all the faithful hath an immence measure power of the holy Ghost powred upon him especially after his resurrection from the dead when he was totally sanctified and advanced to be King and Lord over the faithful 10 And thou Lord c. A fourth Argument to prove Christ better then the Angels taken from a testimonie of Scripture Psal 102. vers 25 26 27. And here wee must note that this Testimony doth so farre onely belong to Christ as it conduceth to the scope of the Author which as appeares at the fourth verse of this chapter is to prove that Christ after that he was seated at the right hand of God was made better then the angels To which purpose the Creation of heaven and earth makes nothing at all For that cannot be referred to Christ unlesse the Author had taken it for
granted and for a ground that Christ is the supreme God because all this testimony out of that Psalm is manifâ—stly spoken of the suprem God but that Christ should be that God is not intimated by any word in all that Psalm And therefore if the Author had taken this for graunted that Christ is the supreme God certainly the Author had discoursed very impertinently and ambiguously to furnish himselfe with such store of arguments and so many Testimonies of Scriptures and those much more obscure then the point to be proved thereby to evince that Christ was better then the angels the Creatour better then the creature This had been to bring proofs no way necessary for a point no way doubtfull seeing all might have been dispatched in one word We must therefore further observe that this Testimony out of Psalme 102. containes three clauses The first concerning the Creation of the world 2. Concerning the destruction of the world 3. Concerning the Duration of God for these three things are the subjects of three verities contained in that Testimonie and all three are spoken supremely and primarily of God the Father But the first can no way be referred to Christ because as is before noted it could not make for the Authors purpose The last referres both to God and Christ for the Duration of Christ is perpetuall and everlasting yet this clause makes nothing for the Authors purpose to prove Christ better then the Angels because for Duration the angels are equall to him seeing they also are immortall and incorruptible perpetuall and everlasting The second clause referres to God supremely and primarily and to Christ subordinately or secondarily for God by Christ will destroy the world God hath given to Christ a transcendent power to destroy and abolish heaven and earth And this makes fully to the Authors purpose and proves Christ clerely better then the angels who have not this power granted to them Now to the words of this Testimony in particular Thou Lord in the beginning God when first he began the world even in the first beginning of â—is visible workes Hast laid the foundation of the earth He alludes to buildings which are raised upon a foundation for the earth is as it were the foundation and ground-work of the world And hee mentions the earth in the first place because in the raising of all buildings men begin from the foundation Now the earth is termed the foundation because it seemes immoveable and fixed as all foundations ought to be And the heavens are the works of thine hands The heavens are all those vast bodies which doe circumvest the earth and one another And they are called heavens plurally because they are built and raised to the height of three regions or stories each above the other The first and lowest heaven is vulgarly called the aire wherein flie the fowles of heaven and therein are the supernall waters that are said to be above in the heavens as clouds raine haile and snow The second or middle heaven is vulgarly called the firmament wherein are all the fires that give light and heat to all the world as the Sunne Moone and Starres The third and highest heaven is called by St. Paul Paradise wherein God and Christ and the angels doe manifest themselves All these are the workes of Gods word and were wrought at his command For God said Let them be and they were so Gen. 1.6 God commanded and they were created Psal 148.5 Yet the Psalmist terms them the works of Gods hands alluding to the speech of the vulgar whose hands and not their words are the instruments of their works which therefore are called the works of their hands Hitherto of the first clause of this Testimony concerning the Creation of the world referred to God onely who only was the Author of it 11. They shall perish Now followes the second Clause of this Testimony concerning the destruction of the world referred to God supremely and primarily but to Christ subordinately and secondarily because the power to destroy the world is given to Christ and therefore principally serves to the Authors purpose to prove him better then the angels They shall perish The heavens and the earth shall perish or be utterly destroyed and abolished as this Author phraseth it afterward in this Epistle chap. 12.27 they shall be removed as things that are concussible and corruptible And as St. Peter saith more expresly 2. Epistle 3.10 The heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also shall be burnt up Now things that passe away and are no where must needs have no being and a thing burnt up must needs perish Here we have a clear testimony that this present world shall be destroyed and abolished For if as some have imagined it shall only be endued with perfecter qualities and be changed into a better state so to remaine under that state how is it said to perish Certainly things changed into a better state to be permanent under that state cannot be said to perish Shall the Saints be said to perish when they are changed from mortall and corruptible creatures to become immortall and incorruptible and be made partakers of a nature and state far more pure and perfect then they had before certainly no. Or if the world shall have a perpetuall permansion or abiding for ever how is it opposed to Gods and Christs permansion or abiding for ever which is the scope of this reasoning as appeares in the words immediatly following But thou remainest and thy yeers shall not fail And they shall wax old as doth a garment The heavens are compared to a garment because as hath been said before they doe circumvest envelop and enwrap the whole earth round about as a garment envolves the body and therefore the attribute of a garment which is to veterate and wax old is by a Metaphor fitly applyed to the heavens Not that the heavens doe insensibly wax old and wear out with length of time as garments usually doe but because at last they shall wholly be abolished therefore they are said to wax old as a garment because a garment waxen old and worn out is at last wholly abolished and cast away For veteration or waxing old is a motion or passage toward destruction and abolition Seeing that which decayeth and waxeth old drawes neere to vanishing away as this Author expresseth it afterward in this Epistle cap. 8. v. 13. But how shall the heavens wax old if they shall be renewed into a better state Is a garment said then to wax old when it is new drest by making it somwhat better and neater 12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up When a garment is waxen so old that we have no minde to weare it any longer then wee usually fold it up and lay it aside for properly a garment is a loose vest which we use to weare outwardly over the rest of our clothing and therefore
being laid aside is usually solded up Hence it appeares that at last the time shall come that the heavens shall no longer circumvest or enwrap the earth and therefore must needs be destroyed and abolished And they shall be changed What change must here be understood moe have shewed before namely a destruction abolition or perishing a change not for the better but for the worse a change from being to not being as a garment waxen old and thereupon folded up becomes changed for the worse till first it fall into clouts and ragges and at last rots quite away Hitherto of the second Clause of this testimony concerning the destruction of the world referred primarily by the Psalmist to God but secondarily and subordinatly by this Author to Christ by whose power under God this destruction shall be made and thereby is proved to be better then the angels But thou remainest Now follows the third Clause of this testimony referred both to God and Christ as the second Clause was yet we shall speak of it only in reference to Christ because the main purpose of the Author in this Clause is to prove not that Christ herein is better then the angels but to shew upon the by that the Duration of Christs person and Kingdom doth not only exceed the age of the world which shall be destroyed but shall be everlasting and perpetuall remaining for ever The world shall not remaine but shall cease to be But Christ shall remaine and never cease to bee but if the world be Innovated into a better state to remaine ever under that state wherein shall stand the opposition betweene the Duration of the world and Christ certainly in nothing Thou art the same The heavens and earth shall not be the same alwayes but at last shall be changed from being to not being But Christ once seated at the right hand of God continues alwayes the same and shall be the same everlastingly And thy yeares shall not fail The world had a beginning and then her years began but because she shall be destroyed and abolished therefore her yeares shall faile and come to an end Christ also had a beginning of his age and yeares but because hee is now immortall therefore his yeares shall never have an end but shall run forth in to eternity and last everlastingly 13. But to which of the angels said he at any time The fift and last Argument to prove Christ better and greater then the angels taken from a testimony of Scripture Psal 110.1 Shewing that God never vouchsafed them that high dignity and degree of honour as to sit at his right hand Sit on my right hand The meaning of this phrase see before in this chapter verse 3. For so great a dominion and power as to correigne with God over all things in heaven and earth was never granted to any of the angels Vntill I make thine enemies thy footstool Here is declared the expiration and terme of that spirituall Kingdome which Christ now administers upon earth and such a terme as therewithall shewes one of the greatest and most excellent effect of that Kingdome In so much as it is no marvell his Kingdome should determine after the production of that effect All which tends to the highest commendation of that Kingdome For if Christ had obtained that Kingdom for some short time or should relinquish it before he had destroyed and abolished all his enemies much would bee wanting to the dignitie of his Kingdome The terme therefore unto which the Kingdom of Christ must be produced which also is a most glorious effect of his Kingdome is expressed when God saith untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole By enemies here we must understand not onely the adversaries to the person of Christ who once reproached and crucified him or since to this day blaspheme and oppose him but also all things adverse and hurtfull to the people of Christ who are the faithfull Of which enemies the chiefest is death so far forth as it doth hurt or may hurt the faithfull who are the people of Christ as the Apostle teacheth 1. Cor. 15.26 For the death which domineers and remaines upon the ungodly and unbeleevers shall not be abolished because their death is no enemy unto Christ but militant and subservient unto him in doing the worke upon which he employes it And the enemies of Christ are then made his footstoole when they are so fully conquered that all power of doing hurt is taken from them or as St. Paul expounds it 1. Cor. 15.26 when they are destroyed and abolished And God is said to put Christs enemies downe not that Christ shall be no agent in that action but because God gives Christ the power to performe it and Christ shall execute it by vertue of that power that is given him As in the Scripture 1. Kings 5.3 God is said to have put Davids enemies under his feet yet David was not idle in the wars but very active Or as some King when his enemies were conquered should say that God had subdued them unto him because God had given him power and courage to performe it For that Christ also himselfe shall subdue his enemies it plainly appeares from the words of St. Paul 1. Cor. 15.24 and Phil. 3.21 14. Are they not all ministring spirits They i. the Angels In the former verse having shewed the Sublimity and Maiesty of Christ in his seat at Gods right hand and in the victory over his enemies he now on the other part opposeth the condition of the angels that the great dignity of him above them may evidently appeare Christ doth sit and he sits at the right hand of God i. he raignes as a King and the manner of Kings is to sit But all the angels none excepted are ministring spirits i. waiting spirits and the manner of waiters is to stand and appeare and be sent forth at his command upon whom they wait Sent forth to minister The angels are Gods messengers and ministers for they are sent forth and the end of their sending forth is to minister or doe service What ministery or service that is hee will presently shew and withall will intimate how long their ministery shall last namely till the persons for whose sake they minister shall attaine salvation For them who shall be heires of salvation The angels are properly ministers unto God and Christ for properly a man ministers unto him that hath a right to command him though his ministery or service be many times performed for the use and behoofe of another So the angels are ministers not unto the Saints and heires of salvation but for the Saints i. for the benefit and commodity of the Saints they minister unto Christ for the vse of the Saints and then they minister to the Saints when they are sent for the custody and guard of their bodies and soules to provide for their safety in both respects For seeing Satan and the other devils doe not only pursue and
because the Law made men high Priests which have infirmity i. such as can never depose their infirmity which alwayes held them in this condition that after expiation for their sinnes and errors they againe fell into the like sinnes and errors which required againe another expiation But the word of the oath which was since the Law The word containing the oath whereof he spake before vers 20. That oath whereby Christ was ordained Priest was since the Law and therefore the Priesthood of Christ is no way depending or established by the Law For here the word of the oath made since the Law is opposed to the Law Maketh the sonne who is consecrated for evermore Maketh the sonne Priest The sonne is here put eminently for the Sonne of God and opposed to common men who have infirmities as those men had whom the Law made Priests so in many places of Scripture Christ is opposed to the rest of men See Gal. 1.1 and Ephes 2.7 Consecrated for evermore Christ is expiated for evermore not in respect of the time past as of old under the Law under which the Priests by reason of their infirmities were forced to renue their expiation every year But Christ by his one single expiation upon the crosse was freed from all further sufferings and paines for evermore so that hee hath no further need to expiate or offer for them any more for ever And hence againe it appears that Christ was not fully perfectly our high Priest before he was consecrated expiated and perfected for evermore That is before he became immortall The Contents of this seventh Chapter are 1. Melchisedec was a Priest v. 1. Reason 1. Because he blessed men sacerdotally for so he blessed Abraham v. 1. 2. Because he received tithes for Abraham gave him a tenth v. 2. 2. Melchisedec was a singular Priest v. 3. Reason 1. Because there were no more Priests of his order for he was without father or mother without predecessour or successour v. 2. 2. Because he was a perpetuall Priest for he had neither beginning of dayes nor end of life but remained a Priest continually v. eod 3. Melchisedec was greater then Abraham v. 1. Reason 1. Because he blessed Abraham sacerdotally v. eod 2. Because he received tithes from Abraham v. 2. 3. Because he was in a manner an eternall person that had no parentage neither beginning of dayes nor end of life 4. Melchisedec was greater then the Leviticall Priests v. 5. Reason 1. Because he blessed them in Abraham who had the promises of them that they should be his seed v. 6. 2. Because he tithed them in tithing Abraham for they were then in the loynes of Abraham v. 5. 9. 10. 3. Because he was a singular and an eternall Priest but they were many and mortall for they dyed and succeeded one another v. 8. 5. Christ is not a Priest after the order of Aaron v. 11. Reason 1. Because Christ sprang not from the tribe of Levi as Aaron did but from Juda another tribe v. 13. 14. 2. Because Christ was not ordained by vertue of any carnall law that respected his birth and parentage as Aaron and his successours were v. 16. 3. Because Christ was made with an oath to make his Priesthood immutable and irrevocable but they without an oath v. 20. 21. 4. Because Christ was a singular and eternall Priest whose Priesthood is unchangeable but they were many and mortall and their Priesthood transitory changing upon death from one person to another v. 23 24. 5. Because Christ is in a divine and blessed state for he is inviolable unharmable undefileable seperate from sinners and seated in heaven They had not the substance of this state but only some shadow of it v. 26. 6. Because Christ needed but one offering for himselfe whereby to expiate and put off his infirmities for ever they needed yearly a new expiation for their infirmities v. 27 28. 6. Christ is a Priest after the order of Melchisedec chap. 6. v. ult Reason 1. Because Christ is a Royall Priest both a King and a Priest as Melchisedec was v. 1. 2. Because Christ is a singular Priest having no other Priest after his order but himselfe for he was without predecessour and successour as Melchisedec was v. 3. 3. Because Christ is an eternall Priest who liveth for ever as Melchisedec is said to have done 7. The Leviticall Priesthood is expired v. 11. Reason 1. Because Christ another Priest is raised up who is not after Aarons order v. eod 2. Because the Priesthood is translated from the tribe of Levi upon whom the Law had setled it v. 13 14. 3. Because that Priesthood was ruled by a carnall law with respect to the birth life and death of the Priest v. 16. 4. Because it made no perfect expiation for sinnes for thereto it was weake and unprofitable v. 18 19. 8. The Leviticall Law is expired v. 12. Reason 1. Because that Priesthood is abrogate and changed v. eod 2. Because the commandements and precepts of it were carnall touching the line the birth and death of Priests touching washings of the flesh of men and sacrificing the flesh of beasts v. 16. 3. Because it made no perfect expiation for sin but to that effect was weake and unprofitable CHAPTER VIII 1. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the summe Wee have such an high Priest Hee had before spoken many things concerning Christ our high Priest both for his quality what manner of person hee is and for his dignity how farre hee exceedeth the legall Priests Now being partly to adde something further and partly to repeat something formerly spoken he calles this repetition the summe of what hee had spoken Now the summe may signifie either the breviat of what hee had spoken or else the maine head and principall point which last sense is most agreeable to this place q.d. Of all those things which have been or may bee spoken concerning Christ our high Priest the main head or principall point is this That we have such an high Priest who is set on the right hand c. Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens Of these words we treated chap. 1.3 And by them is signified unto us so great a dignity and Majesty in Christ our high Priest that there was scarce extant any shadow of it in the ancient legall Priests seeing none of them did ever sit at the right hand of that throne which was placed in the oracle of the Sanctuary namely of the Mercy-seat or covering of the Arke which was all over shadowed by the wings of the Cherubines and called the Throne of God whereupon God was said to sit between the Cherubines But all those legall high Priests when they entred into the oracle or most holy place of the Sanctuary were forced to stand before the Arke and so before the Mercy-seat upon it But Christ is so great an high Priest that he sits on
the right hand of the throne of Majesty and that in heaven The throne of the Majesty is the Majesticke and stately Throne whereon he sits who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords who only is Almighty who only hath immortality and dwells in a light unapproachable 2. A minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle The Epethite or Attribute true must be added both to Sanctuary and Tabernacle that Christ is a Minister of the true Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which is Gods heavenly habitation This is called the true Sanctuary and Tabernacle not in reference to false and fained Sanctuaries but in respect of umbratilous and terrene Sanctuaries which did but represent and signifie the true perfect solid and heavenly Sanctuary wherein God himselfe doth really and truely dwell and whereto the name of the true and right Sanctuary doth perfectly agree Of this true and heavenly Sanctuary Christ is the Minister as anciently the legall high Priest was the minster of the terrene Sanctuary For these words serve somewhat to declare the residence of Christ at the right hand of Gods throne Now to bee a Minister of the Sanctuary is nothing else but to Minister unto God in the Sanctuary to officiate and be busied about the Sanctuary to procure and order the things that pertaine to the worship of God in the Sanctuary And Christ recideing in heaven doth Minister there by executing Gods decrees by ordering heavenly things and whatsoever pertaines to Gods heavenly worship and service prescribed and commanded in the new Covenant The word Leiturgist or Minister doth not always signifie a simple officer waiter or hand-servant but many times such a one who with speciall authority and power doth execute some charge as the legall high Priests in the Tabernacle had the chief authority and presidency over all things pertaining to divine worship Which the Lord pitched and not man Either these words containe the cause why that heavenly Sanctuarie is called the true Tabernacle because it was erected not of man as that was under the Law but God himselfe who is our Soveraigne Lord. For that Sanctuary must needs bee the true and right one which the hand of man did not frame for God but which God raised for himself by his owne hand Or else these words are added to amplifie and illustrate the point to make it the more evidently appeare how much this heavenly Sanctuary differs from the earthly and exceeds it So also Paul to the earthen and fraile tabernacle of our mortall body opposeth that heavenly building of our glorious body made of God and not by the hand of men Ye have the same opposition afterward in this Author between the earthly Sanctuary and the heavenly chap. 9. verse 11.24 in like manner betweene cities made by the hand of men and that heavenly city prepared for the godly whose Architect and Builder is God himselfe Chapter 11.10 3. For every high Priests is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices He proves that Christ our high Priest is a Minister of the Sanctuary because he is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices for this function is naturall to the office of a Priest and he that offers gifts and sacrifices must needs be the Minister of a Sanctuary Wherefore it is of necessitie this man have somwhat also to offer The sence of these words is not so to be taken as to leave a scruple in us as if Christ had only somwhat that he might offer and yet wee might doubt whether hee would offer or must offer or doth indeed offer but that according to the nature of his office hee doth actually offer For in this sence wee often say I have somthing to give or to say unto you i. I will or must give or say somthing unto you From these words of the Author it is most manifest that Christ doth now offer in heaven for as the Author will shew afterward he offers himselfe to God For hee proves as we have said that Christ doth minister in the heavenly Sanctuary as appeares by the precedent and subsequent passages And this hee proves from hence because every Priest and therefore Christ is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices and therefore if he will performe his office hee must indeed offer which if hee doe then it followes that hee is a minister of the Sanctuary 4. For if be were on earth hee should not be a Priest Here hee confirmes the other part of the second verse that Christ is a Minister not of the umbratilous and terrene Sanctuary but of the true and heavenly because if he were on earth he should not be a Priest at all Hence it appears that Christ is a Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary and doth offer unto God there Whence it necessarily follows that Christ while he was upon earth did not finish his perfect expiatory offering whereof the Author treats in this Epistle For could hee performe and finish it being out of his proper Sanctuary which is heaven Seeing that there are Priests that offer gifts according to the Law Hee gives here a reason why Christ should not be a Priest if he ministed on earth because there are already other Priests ordained of God to Minister on earth and to offer gifts of whose number Christ is none nor can be as was shewed in the former Chapter These terrene Priests are said to offer according to the Law because the Law hath granted them only this right and priviledge that no other person beside themselves without breach of the Law should usurpe the office of offering upon earth or ministring in the earthly Sanctuary 5. Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things In these words either the Author gives a reason why Christ if hee were on earth could not be a Priest namely because those Priests who offer here on earth serve but for a shadow of heavenly things but Christ our high Priest must not serve for such a shadow Or els he illustrates from the contrary that Christ is a Minister of the true Tabernacle but the legall Priests did only serve as paternes and shadows of the heavenly Sanctuary By heavenly things he means the Sanctuary and holy functions wherein Christ doth minister in heaven As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle For see saith he that thou make all things according to the paterne shewed to thee in the mount He proves from a testimony of Scripture that the ancient legall high Priests served but as a paterne and shadow of the true and heavenly Sanctuary And he cites the words wherein Moses is commanded to make that ancient Tabernacle and all things pertaining to it according to the model or paterne shewed him in the Mount Exod. 25.40 Therefore the Tabernacle shewed him in the Mount was the type or modell and the Tabernacle made by Moses was but a sample or copy of that model Now that modell shewed by God in the Mount
those meates which by the Law were declared uncleane and forbidden to be eaten for which see Levit. 11. or if a man had drunke in an uncleane vessell or had tasted of any water wine or liquor whereinto some uncleane thing had fallen for see Levit. 16.32,33 And divers washings and carnall ordinances Or if a man had neglected to wash himselfe or his clothes after he was casually uncleane either by touching some uncleane thing or by an issue or by the Leprosie And carnall ordinances and such other Ceremonies ordained of God after an arbitrary and positive way pertaining not to the conscience but to the body and the flesh as the touching of a dead carkasse or of any other uncleane thing For although some morall sinnes committed against the morall Laws as wee call them were expiated by Sacrifices yet none such as were committed presumptuously or with a high hand and in contempt of Gods Law and thereupon truly polluted the conscience but onely such as we have already noted wherein some excusable ignorance or infirmity had place being lapses and falls very familiar to man and not unworthy of Gods pardon Besides these sins were expiated by those Sacrifices onely thus farre that after a full restitution in case of injury no other punishment of those sins was thereby taken away but that which pertained to the flesh or body in this life for to take away eternall punishment those Sacrifices were not able Imposed on them It is true that meates and drinks and diverse washings were imposed upon Gods Legall people for a time onely yet the word imposed hath not reference to them here for the Greek text will not beare that construction but it referres to gifts and sacrifices in the former verse for they were imposed to expiate the sins touching meates and drinkes and diverse washings Hence we see plainly for what sinnes principally under the Law those Legall sacrifices were ordained and what sinnes were thereby expiated We see also what force those sacrifices had in expiating those sins that they could not reach unto the consciences to wash away the true and foule spots that had stained it neither could they free them whom they expiated from all feare of divine punishment for they chiefly washed away the staines of the flesh whereby men were accounted uncleane and thereupon forbidden civill conversation and publique commerce so that these impediments from conversation and commerce were expiated by those Sacrifices than men might passe about their worldly affaires Vntill the time of reformation The gifts and sacrifices imposed on the people to expiate their corporall or carnall staines were not perpetuall ordinances but temporary onely for a time and the terme of that time expired at the time of Reformation Which is a generall correction or amendment of all things whatfoever pertaining either to the service of God or to the happinesse of Gods people whereby things should be brought to an excellent state and condition The time of this Reformation or correction is also called the fulnesse of time and that time was fully come at the comming of Christ who as the woman of Samaria said of him at his comming would tell us all things she meant all things concerning the true worship and service of God For at the time of his comming the carnall service of God was turned into spirituall and such a sacrifice ordained that by the benefit thereof men might be throughly expiated in their consciences so that freed before God from the guilt of all their sinnes whatsoever and delivered from the feare not onely of temporall but of eternall punishment they might exult and rejoyce in the hope of immortall life and then being inflamed with such high graces and favours from God and with a care never to lose the fruits of them might burne in love of God and godlinesse and forcibly be carried to every good work 11. But Christ being become an high Priest of good things to come Hitherto we have had the proposition of the comparison betweene the old Covenant and the new in respect of the Tabernacle and divine service Now followes the reddition of it wherein the high Priest is opposed to the high Priest the Tabernacle to the Tabernacle the service to the service the Sacrifice to the Sacrifice the Offering to the Offering and the Expiation to the Expiation And all this he comptiseth in two verses this and the next which afterwards in the rest of the Chapter he amplifies and illustrates Christ was ordained an high Priest long before and that by oath as we have heard before but he did not actually execute the office of it while the Tabernacle or Temple was yet standing and in force but when the vaile of the Temple was tent that the Tabernacle was disanulled and the time of Reformation was come then Christ entered upon his office became an high Priest to execute it for ever after the order of Melchisedec And Christ is a high Priest of good things to come in opposition or difference to the old high Priest By good things to come may be understood either those that were to come in respect of the Law or those to come in respect of this world In respect of the Law a perfect expiation of sinnes was to come and in respect of this world eternall life is to come which is the super-perfection or complement of perfect expiation Now Christ is our high Priest for these good things because we attaine them by his sacrifice and offering for he it is who provides and takes order for them as the Legall Priest did to procure unto the people the good things present for this life By a greater and more perfect Tabernacle If these words depend upon the verbe entered in the next verse how can Christ be said to enter into the holy place by a Tabernacle that is greater and more perfect for then he must enter into a Tabernacle by a Tabernacle Therefore either the particle by in this place is put for in and so referred to the preceding words of this verse considering the Tabernacle as an adjunct to Christs Priesthood wherein he doth minister as if the Author had said Christ is become a high Priest both of better things and of or in a better Tabernacle greater and more perfect then that wherein the legall Priest ministred Or else we must say that the Author because he mentioned a double Tabernacle terrestriall with two partitions or roomes in it therefore also he considers a double Sanctuary celestiall in a manner answerable to the two holy places of the old Tabernacle the first and the second The one of those celestiall Sacraries is larger and more common wherein the Angels abide the other is more inward and most sacred wherein is the throne of the divine Majesty For although happily the one be not so seperate from the other as the two holy places were in the Tabernacle and Temple disjoyned by a vaile and a wall yet it sufficeth if
were yet time enough for Christ to iterate his offerings and by a just proportion equall the number of the legall offerings although hee began not to suffer and offer himselfe from the foundation of the world For because hee suffered and offered himselfe in the end of the world hence it appeares that there is not time enough yet to come to serve for the multitude of his sufferings and offerings But the time wherein Christ came is therefore called the end of the world because it is the last age of the world and as it were the old age of it and because the other comming of Christ which is joyned with the consummation and end of the world is alwayes supposed to be at hand which could in no wise be if the offering of Christ were to be iterated answerably to the just number and proportion of the old Legall offerings But the holy Ghost would have us perpetually wait for the expectation of Christs comming For that his comming and together with it the end of the world is yet deferred and that so many ages have passed since his first comming into the world seating upon his heavenly throne this in a manner is accidentall by reason of the long suffering of God who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 To put away sin by the sacrifice of himselfe He shews the finall cause of the comming and appearance of Christ which is for the putting away of sin which is done when all the force and power of sin is destroyed Which destruction of sin is effected two wayes the one is when sin hath no power to condemne men the other when it hath no power to subdue men by enthralling them under the yoke of it That both these effects might be produced Christ hath appeared both that he might deliver men from the punishment of sinne and also from the dominion of it even freeing them from sin it selfe Now the meanes whereby Christ hath put away sinne in destroying the power of it is by the sacrifice of himselfe For this act may be joyned as well with the word suffered as with appeared as other Interpreters also have observed How the sacrifice of Christ purgeth away our sins For Christ by the sacrifice of himselfe hath cashired and put away sinne by taking from it all it power to condemne and to reigne which though we have declared before yet are we willing to repeat it againe because the matter is of such moment that if it may be we might drive and fasten it throughly into mens mindes For as concerning the guilt and punishments of sinnes can there bee any sinnes so that we doe our duty which a sacrifice so acceptable to God offered in the Sanctuary of heaven and by so great an high Priest cannot expiate Can there be any danger that he will deale negligently in our cause who offered up himselfe as a sacrifice for our sinnes and who having himselfe suffered all those miseries and pressures that can possibly befall us hath assumed a minde so prone to pity us Hath not yet the wished effect been answerable to so holy a sacrifice and to so carefull a provision of our high Priest Is not the power of our salvation in the power of our high Priest and in his hand to release whom he will of sinne and to bestow eternall life and whatsoever good thing besides upon whom he will Doth he not negotiate the matter with his most deare Father who himselfe burnes with a desire of our salvation who himselfe hath made a sacred Covenant for the remission of our sinnes who himselfe ordained the holy Sacrifice for our sinnes who himselfe would have it offered unto him and caused it to be offered who himselfe ordained our high Priest with an oath and committed unto him the whole care of our salvation Now concerning the dominion of sinne for the excussion of the yoke of it can it possibly be that when we perceive so great and so certaine causes and proofes of our eternall salvation and of plenary remission of our sinnes that we should not with all our souls embrace the faith of Christ and devote our selves wholly to him when by this means through the grace and mercy of our God wee are effectually purged and justified from the guilt of all our sins shall we not contend with our whole force to abandon sin for ever after wholy addict our selves to holines shall we not labour to the utmost to preserve this great grace of God entire and whole to our last gaspe that at length we may enjoy the full fruit of it in our deliverance from death and inheritance of eternall life And shall it not mightily incourage us to shake off the yoke of sin in that our heavenly high Priest will perpetually support us with his Spirit supply us with power enough to live holily if we will live so and will strive to do it This therefore is the manner after which Christ by the Sacrifice of himself hath put away sin that neither it might hurt us nor reign in us The Sacrifice of Christ is Christ himself sacrificed being first slain then raised to immortall life that he might enter his heavenly Tabernacle and therein offer himself and appear for us for ever The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred a Sacrifice though it come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to slay yet it useth not to be taken in Scripture abstractedly for the slaughter but concretly for the creature slaughtered or rather for that part of it which is offered to God But if any man keeping the same sense will joyn these words by the sacrifice of himself with the verb appeared then the particle by must be taken for with and in that sense as we have noted before that John saith Christ came by water and bloud i. with water and bloud not that at his first comming into the world hee shed his bloud but because he therefore came that he might shed his bloud though not forthwith So Christ may be said to appeare with the sacrifice of himselfe not that as soon as he appeared he was made a sacrifice but that he so appeared that in his due time he might be made a sacrifice But we best approve of that sense which joynes these words by the sacrifice of himselfe with the words immediatly preceding to put away sinne For the finall end of the appearance or comming of Christ was to put away sin and the meanes whereby he abolished it was by the sacrifice of himselfe Seeing therefore Christ came in the end of the world that he might abolish sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe therefore hence it appears that he must not often iterate his sacrifice after the manner of the legall high Priest for otherwise he must have begunne this action more early and not have deferred it to the last age of the world 27. And as it
and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of Rams For disobedience is as the sinne of witchcraft and stubbornesse is as wickednesse and Idolatary 1 Sam. 15.22,23 But in the mysticall sense Christ saith absolutely that God had no further will to them and tooke pleasure in them no longer but his will and pleasure was they should be antiquated and abrogated Of this mysticall sense this is a good argument that Christ is here brought in to mention not only sacrifices of thanksgiving which only were pertinent to Davids purpose but also expiatory offerings and sacrifices for sinne whereof if wee respect Davids intent there should here be made no mention For Davids intent was a testification of his thankfulnesse unto God and not an expiation of his sins at that time But because the Holy Ghost would wrap up a mysticke and deep sense in these words therefore the Author doth here specifie and reckon up all kindes of sacrifices and offerings whatsoever which are reduced to three sorts 1. By sacrifice and offering in the fifth verse he seems to understand all offerings eucharistical or of thanksgiving whereof a part went to God as the bloud and the fat part was a Fee to the Priest and the rest returned to him that offered it 2. By burnt offerings in this verse are understood those which were wholly burnt and went wholly to God which are sometime called sacrifices of praise because they were offered wholly in honour of God as he was the Lord Almighty and not by way of speciall thanksgiving for any particular benefit then received from God which was the proper consideration for a sacrifice of thanksgiving 3. By sacrifices for sinne are meant all expiations or offerings to put away the guilt and punishment of ignorances and infirmities for which kinde of sins only those sacrifices were allowed and in the Hebrew are oftentimes called simply sins 7. Then said I Loe I come This word of comming doth shew a mysticall sense For how did David come when hee spake this word in the literall sense Therefore in the literall sense it signifies only Loe I am at hand or I am ready I have prepared my self to do thy will But in the mysticall and proper sense it signifies the appearance of Christ in that future world to execute the will of God In the volume of the booke it is written of me In these words David shews the cause why he is ready to doe the will of God or if ye please the manner and way of his obeying God q. d. I am ready to doe as it is written of me in the volume of the booke or else for so it is written of me that I should doe thy will Therefore in these words we must understand either some particle of likenesse as according or some casuall particle for because or seeing for such particles are oftentimes concealed or silenced But here againe we meet with another difference betweene the Greek translation and the Hebrew text In the Hebrew it is in the volume of the booke which hath a plaine and an open sense for by the booke he eminently understands the booke of the Law which is called a volume because unciently the Law was wont to bee written in skinnes of parchment or velum one glued to another and so rolled up and unrolled in the forme of a Court-role which in Latine is properly called Volumen from the rolling of it and hence bookes are called Volumes A famous Expositor among the Romanists preferres the Greeke reading in this place before the Hebrew and writes that it is a vaine repetition to say in the volume of the booke for that is all one as to say in the booke of the booke This is a vame cavill for all volumes or rolles are not bookes but there are volumes and rolles of many other things besides So that the word booke is fitly added to volume to specifie the differences of volumes We meet with a like phrase Jer. 36.2 But why doth the Greeke translation read it in a Chapter of the Booke The reason may be because the Hebrew word Megillah doth not only signifie a whole booke consisting of many skinnes but also any one single skinne which may containe only some Chapter of the Booke And therefore the Greek Translator conceived that he should not go from the sense of the words if for the whole volume he should put only some part or certain Chapter of it especially because by this means the redundancie in words would seem the lesse or none at all yet some there would seeme to be if he had said the volume and that had been taken to signifie the whole booke Wherefore these words must bee taken as if he had said In a Chapter of the booke namely of the Law it is written of me By which meanes not onely all shew of redundancy is taken away but also a more speciall place is designed where the thing is written that is here spoken Now let us a little enquire what Chapter this might bee Certainly other Chapter it can be none but that wherein the very thing is handled which David said he came to doe i. that David should doe the will of God For wee have said that in these words is shewed the cause why David said hee came to doe Gods will or the manner how hee should doe it But where is it said that David must doe the will of God Namely there where the Kings of Gods people are commanded to doe so which is set downe in the last parcell of the 17. Chapter of Deuteronomy from the 13. verse to the end For David in a peculiar way was ordained of God himselfe to bee the first King over Gods people and the Kingdome was to remaine in his posterity for ever And therefore hee saith that there it is written of him not that it is there written of him by name as David but written of him as a King And here also the Holy Ghost seems to have left us some footstep of a mysticall sense For it might be said of Christ properly that there it is written of him by name for the Holy Ghost doth every where aim chiefly at Christ Hence it appears that they are in an errour who by a Chapter in the Booke understand the beginning of Genesis because as they thinke there it is written of Christ that he created heaven and earth But is there also any thing written of David or of Christ there that hee should doe the will of God But in the 17. Chapter of Deuteronomy before cited among other things which God willed to be observed by the future King of his people this is also delivered ver 18. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a booke out of that which is before the Priests his Levites And it shall be with
what doth this concerne us and the expiation of our sins that instead of the Legall sacrifices Christ saith he will do or hath done the will of God Therefore the Author shews that this will of God and the execution of it doth consist in the sacrifice and offering of Christ made for us whence also this will of God is tacitly compared with the Legall sacrifices and withall is preferred before them as farre more excellent and acceptable to God Therefore he saith that we are sanctified by it even we who as he presently addeth are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ In which words he withall teacheth what that will of God is namely that it is the offering of the body of Christ once for all or at least that it is altogether concurrent with this offering For how else should we be said to be sanctified or expiated by this will of God seeing we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ For this will of God seems to be opposed thus far to the legall sacrifices that by it we are truly sanctified For while our sanctification is attributed to the will of God as it stands opposed to the legall sacrifices it is tacitely taken from them As if the Author had said By which wil of God we are sanctified not by the old legal sacrifices The will of God is here put not for the action of his will but for the object or matter of his wil for the thing he would have done which he approves and wherein he hath pleasure for it is opposed to the legall sacrifices which he would not have done which he approves not and wherein he hath no pleasure And therefore it signifies the sacrifice and offering of Christ as the object or matter which is now his will as the words following teach us Sanctified is explated purged and cleansed from our sins for which see chap. 9.13 Through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all The offering not of legall sacrifices often made and yearely iterated and therefore ineffectuall and imperfect but of the body of Christ once made is that offering which greatly pleaseth God and is wholly conformable to his will and truely sanctifieth us 11. And every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices Hitherto hee hath compared the offering of Christ with the legall sacrifices chiefly in respect of the iteration that the legall sacrifices were offered often that is yeare by yeare for the whole people but that of Christ but once only Now he begins to cōpare the high Priests together namely the old with the new the legall Priests with Christ that they offered and ministred yeare by yeare but Christ once onely For where there are many sacrifices successively iterated yeare by yeare there the high Priest also must necessarily minister and offer yeare by yeare but where there is but one sacrifice or offering to be made there the high Priest ministers and offers but once onely For hitherto the author hath intended onely this to shew that Christ entring into his heavenly Sanctuary not to offer often according to the manner of the legall high Priests but to make one only offering as appeares in the former chapter verse 25. For to this point as to his main scope all his arguments are directed The high Priest being en tered into the holy place did not sit there but was wont to stand there before the Mercy-seat as before the Throne of God And hee stood there daily which must not be so understood that he did so every day in the yeare but upon a set and certaine day of the yeare which had it circuit and came about yeare by yeare namely at the solemne anniversary fast for the universall expiation of the whole people for he daily offered upon that day whensoever it had recourse For in this sense he used the same word before chap. 7.27 where he openly spake of that solemne annuall sacrifice upon the day of Expiation whereto he hath reference in this place also as particularly appeares from the third verse of this chapter where he mentions the Commemoration of sins every yeare which were constantly confessed by the whole people at that sacrifice Which can never take away sins The cause is here shewed why the legall high Priest must offer those sacrifices often namely because they could never take away sinnes i. They could never so effectually free men from their sinnes that they who were once expiated thereby should have no further conscience of sinnes And what this is hath been already explicated in this chapter verse 2. 12. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sat downe at the right hand of God Here he opposeth Christ to the legall high Priest in three particulars First in that Christ offered for sins but once onely for he so offered that he never iterated his offering more Secondly in that after his offering hee sat downe at the right hand of God Thirdly that he continued his seat there for ever even unto the end of the world And these two latter particulars are a reason of the former for because Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and sits there for ever to the worlds end therefore he shall never offer sacrifice more For how can it beseeme or rather how can it befall so great a Majestie to offer againe another Sacrifice that is to die againe and then againe to enter into heaven For seeing Christ sitteth at Gods right hand for ever therefore the Majestie of Christ must continue for ever also and then how can Christ ever offer again For then a thing lasteth for ever when it hath a continuall duration through all times and ages without any intermission 13. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstoole Here he shewes the issue or effect that will follow upon Christs sitting at the right hand of God For thereupon it will follow that at the last all his enemies shall be put under his feet and made his footstoole So farre shall Christ be from offering againe to bee violated and put to death againe by his enemies that he expects their subjection to him to be made his footstoole And when all the enemies of Christ among whom death is the last and chiefest shall be made his footstool i. shall be wholy mastered yea abolished what cause can there be why hee should iterate his offering That this subjection will follow the Author gathers it from this saying of God unto Christ Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole Psalme 110.1 Therefore Christ sitting at the right hand of God doth expect this And he saith that Christ expecteth this fitting his words to the words of the Psalme wherein God himselfe doth vindicate this subjection of Christs enemies unto him by putting them under his feet But because wee know that Christ himselfe neither heretofore hath beene
be as things now stood For it seems hee was already free from prison and set at liberly as may bee gathered from the 23. verse following 20. Now the God of peace Here begins the close of this Epistle which first containes a devotion concluded with a doxologie then certaine monitions or rather requests which againe he ends with another devotion and withall ends the whole Epistle In his devotion he first names and describes the person of whom all those things are to be performed which he prayeth and wisheth to them Then are expressed the wishes themselves He saith therefore But the God of peace The particle but containes a tacit opposition as if he had said I have hitherto proposed unto you divers monitions and precepts but the God of peace enable you to keep them But he describes the Author and donor of the blessings he wisheth unto them first in calling him the God of peace And the descriptions of God that aâ—…â—sed in wishes are commonly fitted to the wishes themselves In this place because the Author wisheth to the Hebrewes that which might render them truly happy namely that in all respects they might please God therefore by the word peace seems to be meant rather happinesse according to the ordinary phrase among the Hebrewes then concord or what else the word peace doth elsewhere signifie and in this sense this title is more frequently attributed unto God but in the other seldome And God is called the God of peace that is of happinesse not only because God alone can make men happy but because hee will and also doth make them so by supplying them abundantly with all those meanes and helpes whereby true happinesse may be attained by men And therefore in this place hee describes God in this manner thereby to teach us that from him proceeds all happinesse and from him must bee sought and may be easily obtained all things belonging to the attaining of it because he is ready and free to grant happinesse to all that seeke it by due means That brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus that great shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant He adjoynes another description of God from whence it appears how certainly God will make those men happy and blessed that believe and obey him And hee mentions that mighty and admirable worke of God which to all the godly brings a most assured hope of eternall happinesse and blessednesse and so he manifestly proves him to be the God of peace or happinesse And this worke was That he brought againe from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the sheep and that through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant wherein hee describes withall our Lord Jesus himselfe that hence it may appeare what an infinit blessing God bestowed upon men by this bringing againe of our Lord Jesus from the dead If God had delivered but some ordinary man from the dead and estated him in eternall life yet even for that he must needs bee accounted the author of happinesse But now that he hath raised from the dead not an ordinary person but the Shepheard of the sheep not an ordinary shepheard but that great Shepheard nor constituted by an ordinary way but through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant he is much more to be accounted the author and donor of happinesse Which that this Author might declare the more amply and fully therefore it is that he proceeds by words that are very passionate and stately That brought againe from the dead That raised from death to life The word reducing or bringing againe is very accommodate to signifie that God was the Shepheard of Christ our Shepheard whose office it is to lead forth his sheep and bring them againe and that God brought Christ againe from the hideous den of death and so together with him all his sheep For the reduction of our Shepheard from the grave is also our reduction and resurrection from it It was in our Shepheard first that God shewed an essay of his great power and goodnesse and that experiment on Christ was an engagement unto us to assure us also of our resurrection But who this God of peace is that brought againe our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead both the thing it self and the holy Scriptures clearly shew namely that it is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ In the description of our Lord Jesus almost every word of the Author is emphaticall For first hee calls him the Shepheard of the sheep which must not be understood as restrained to that time only wherein Christ lived upon earth but enlarged and much rather to the time following since he sat on the Throne of God for since that time he became most perfectly properly the Shepheard of the sheep Now Christ is the Shepheard of the sheep not only because he ministers to them the wholesome food of Gods word and Spirit but because he every way lookes unto them for he assembles and collects them he governes and defends them and finally procures their eternall salvation For it is the part of a Shepheard not only to feed the sheep but to defend and governe them and looke to them in all things as need shall require Whence Peter when he called our Saviour the Shepheard addeth to it the word Bishop which signifies a Guardian especially as the Hebrewes use to understand it 1 Pet. 2.25 For when wee have a great care of any thing we often visit inspect and see it from whence ariseth the word Bishop which properly signifies a visitor or overseer Hee that desires to know the properties of a good shepheard let him read in the tenth Chapter of John the parable of the good Shepheard which there Christ applies unto himselfe The article that prefixed here before the Shepheard teacheth us that he is no ordinary or vulgar shepheard but an eminent and excellent person whose description and promise also is extant Ezek. 24. But the addition of the word great unto this Shepheard declares his excellency more manifestly when the Author saith that great Shepheard For by this appellation he specifies what manner of shepheard he understands namely a Shepheard so exceeding great that in comparison of him all other shepheards are very little In which sense also St. Peter calls him the chiefe Shepheard or Prince of shepheards 1 Pet. 5.4 And certainly Christ must needs be a great Shepheard indeed seeing hee is equall to God in wisdome power and dominion seated in heaven at the right hand of God upon the throne of God and feeds his sheepe wholly in the same manner that God doth seeing he appoints all other shepheards of his sheep and hath them subject unto him seeing he gathers his sheep out of all Nations into one sheep-fold of his Church seeing though he hath an innumerable multitude of sheep yet he knows them all and so provides for all that no one can stray from him no one can perish no one