Scripture The major That he that pleaseth God must have Faith is thus made clear and confirmed If it be impossible for any to please God who doth not believe that God is and a Rewarder of them who diligently seek him then he that pleaseth God must believe But without believing thus no man can please God Therefore he that pleaseth God must thus believe Where it 's to be noted That he infers Enoch's Faith from his pleasing God and the inseparable and necessary connexion of Faith and pleasing God For where there is an Effect there must necessarily be a Cause and no Effect can be without its proper Cause For Method's sake I will begin 1. With his Translation 2. Proceed to the demonstration of his Faith 1. This Translation was a Reward and therefore signifies the change was to the better 1. He was translated not to see Death so the Apostle understood the Text of Moses not to see Death is not to dye or suffer Death There was no separation of Soul and Body they remained united the Soul was not unclothed or divested of the Body yet it was changed and made immortal Of all the other Patriarchs before the Flood it 's said They even Methuselah dyed To this their Death this Translation is opposed for it 's not said that Enoch the great and most eminently pious Prophet dyed This was a dispensation with that general Law and Judgment past in Adam upon all mankind Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return and it was an act of that power which God reserved to himself as above his Law In the Chaldee it 's said That God did not slay him that is he did not take away his Life this was a singular exception from the general rule of his Judgments 2. In the Hebrew it 's said He was not In the Chaldee He appeared not In the Greek He was not found These two latter expresse the meaning of the Hebrew Phrase For this followed upon his Translation that he did not appear nor was found upon Earth amongst mortal men for he ceased to be in that place with living mortal men he changed the place and company 3. Lest we should be ignorant either of the Place to which he removed or of the Person who removed him it 's said God took him so the Hebrew God took him to himself so the Arabick Because God had translated him so the Text. The place to which he was removed Physically considered is not expressed yet he after his Translation must be in some place this place was not this Earth for there he was not found It was some better place and seeing there is no place fit for man's Habitation better then the Earth but only Heaven the Habitation of Angels a glorious place of eternal peace holiness and security therefore most do positively affirm that as Elijah so he was taken into Heaven The Person translating him was God for none but he could make him immortal and invest him with Glory This signifies that he was brought nearer unto God and had more full and perfect Communion with him then he enjoyed on Earth So that this Translation was a change of place of company of condition for he was removed from Earth to Heaven from Men to God from the estate of Mortality and Misery to an estate of Immortality and Bliss This was an anticipation of the great Reward and it was like the change of all God's Saints who shall be found living when Christ shall come to Judge the World This God did to signify his great respect unto eminent Piety and to let men know his high and special reserved Power and that there is a Reward of Glory after this Life and such a Reward as shall make men fully happy in Soul and Body too and that for ever This doth further inform us that God can make the Body Immortal without any separation of it from the Soul and also that he can raise and re-unite the Body turned unto Dust and make it Immortal and eternally inseparable The second Proposition was that he obtained this Translation and glorious Reward by Faith For by Faith Enoch was translated But because it was not expressed in the Text of Moses that he was translated by Faith for there is no mention of his Faith he proves his Faith the Cause from the Effect He pleased God and his pleasing of God from the testimony of God For before he was translated he had this testimony that he pleased God And here we may observe 3. Propositions 1. That he pleased God 2. That he had this testimony 3. He had this testimony before he was translated 1. He pleased God He walked with God so the Hebrew He walked in the fear of God so the Chaldee He walked in the Obedience of God so the Arabick He pleased God so the Septuagint whom the Apostle followeth The meaning therefore is that he served God observed his Commands and was obedient unto them The word walked used by the Hebrew Chaldee Arabick Translatours signifies that this was the constant tenour of life it was a life of Righteousness and Holiness and the repetition of this walking in the Text of Moses may imply an eminent degree of Holiness in him more then in other men for his Conversation was so ordered that it was very pleasing and acceptable to God who delights in sincere and constant Obedience whereby men do resemble him as holy and righteous We must not think that he could have walked thus with God by the power of Nature the sanctifying Spirit of Grace was the principle of this Obedience 2. It was testified of him or he had this testimony That he pleased God This was a good Report and so much the more certain because God gave it by his Spirit in the Prophet Moses who hath recorded it to all Generations And this is reported of him not only once but twice Therefore there can be no doubt of it 3. This was testified of him before he was translated the sense is not that Moses testified this of him before he was translated but the thing testified was this that he had pleased God before he was translated For the Text doth testify that he was translated yet it testifies that he pleased God before this Translation This is brought to prove that by Faith he was translated § 9. It might be said that though Enoch pleased God yet it doth not appear how this pleasing of God will prove and infer his Faith neither is the Connexion of Faith and walking with God so evident Therefore to prevent all doubts in this Point he adds Ver. 6. But without Faith it is impossible to be please God for he that cometh unto God must believe that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him IN these words he proves the impossibility of separation and the absolute necessity of the Connexion of Faith and pleasing God and they must be considered 1. In themselvs 2. As
Hebrews THE parts of this Letter written and sent to the Hebrew Christians are The Substance and Body of the same The Conclusion The End whereat the Apostle aims is The confirmation of them in the belief and profession of the Gospel The Means he useth for the attainment of this end is Clearly to demonstrate the excellency of Christ as a Prophet and a Priest far above all former Prophets and Priests and thereupon to perswade them to rely upon Him who alone can effectually and eternally save them and make them fully blessed The Method observed by him is to deliver 1. The Doctrine of his Prophetical Office and to apply the same and this is done in the first four Chapters 2. The Doctrine of his Sacerdotal Office and to apply it this is begun Chap. 5. and continued to the 18 verse of the last Chapter CHAP. 1. VVHerein the Apostle taking for granted that the Doctrine of the Old Testament was revealed from God by Prophets and by Angels and the Doctrine of the Gospel by Christ he begins his Discourse concerning Christ as a Prophet and proves him 1. More excellent then all the Pen-men of the Old Testament For 1. He was the Son of God 2. He was the Heir of all things 3. God by him did make the Worlds 4. He was the Brightness of his Father's Glory and Character of his Person 5. He upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power 6. He expiated and purged Sin by his Blood 7. He is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on High In all these seven particulars he far excells the former Prophets ver 1. 2 3. 2. More excellent then the Angels because he hath inherited a far more excellent Name Power and Dignity ver 4. He hath obtained by inheritance a more excellent Name Because 1. He is his The Son and God his Father ver 5. 2. God commanded all the Angels to Worship him ver 6. 3. They being created are but Messengers and Servants but Christ the Son sits in a glorious Throne and is possessed of a Kingdom which is everlasting and when the Earth and the Heavens created by him shall wax old and be changed it shall abide unchangeable for ever ver 8 9 10 11 12. 4. He is set at the right hand of God and by the Word and Patent of God is made Supreme and Universal King and Prince a Place never granted to any of the Angels who all of them are but Ministring Spirits under Him for the Heirs of Salvation This Jesus Christ so excellent was a Prophet for God spake by him as more excellent and in a more excellent manner then by them so that his Doctrine is more full more powerful and more perfect then the Doctrine of Prophets and Angels CHAP. II. VVHerein 1. The former Doctrine of the excellency of Christ and the Gospel is applied by way of exhortation 2. The excellency of Christ above the Angels though he was lower then them for a time is further proved In the Exhortation we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reason or Motive to enforce performance 1. The Duty is diligently to attend unto the Doctrine of the Gospel and to take heed of falling from the belief and profession of the same ver 1. 2. The Reason is taken from the most grievous punishment which they cannot escape if they continue not in their Profession This Reason is delivered by way of comparison in quantity For if they who disobeyed the Law then much more they who disobey the Gospel shall be severely punished and shall not escape The Consequence is good and clear from the excellency of the Gospel above the Law For 1. The Law was delivered by Angels the Gospel by Christ. 2. The Law is a Doctrine of Death and Damnation the Gospel of Salvation 3. The Gospel preached by the Apostles commissioned by Christ was attested from Heaven and confirmed by Signs Wonders Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost but the Law was not And from the excellency of the Gospel in respect of the Authour the Matter and Confirmation the Sin is aggravated and the Punishment made more grievous ver 2 3 4. The Exhortation finished the Apostle doth not only enforce the former Reason but proceeds farther to demonstrate the excellency of Christ above the Angels The Argument is That God hath not subjected the World to come to Angels but to Christ who for a little time was lower then the Angels for so it is to be understood ver 5. This Argument is taken out of Psal. 8. 4 5. Where we may observe 1. The words of the Psalm cited ver 6 7. 2. The Apostle's Discourse upon them wherein he observes 1. That all things were put in subjection to him by the Patent and Edict of his heavenly Father yet not actually subdued and brought into subjection ver 8. 2. The Humiliation of Christ which went before his Exaltation For He was made lower then the Angels for a little time Of this Humiliation he delivers the Causes Efficient Final The efficient Cause was 1. The Grace and free Mercy of God which did decree it for the benefit of sinful man ver 9. 2. The Wisdom of God which contrived it as the fittest way in bringing many Sons to Glory to consecrate their Captain by Sufferings ver 10. The final Cause may best be understood if we consider what this Humiliation whereby he was lower then the Angels is It was 1. To be made a Mortal man 2. In this mortal humane Nature to suffer Death 1. The reason why he must be made Man and mortal was Because he that sanctisieth and they that are sanctified must be one and because the sanctified which were to be made Sons did partake of Flesh and Blood therefore he took part with them that in this respect they might be his Brethren And that they were so he proves ver 11 12 13. 2. The End and final Cause why he was made man and mortal was 1. That he might dye for his Brethren and by his Death destroy the Devil and deliver his People ver 14 15. And for this reason he took not the Nature of Angels to deliver them but the Seed of Abraham ver 16. 2. Another end was That he Suffering and being Tempted in their Nature might be a merciful and faithful High Priest and make atonement for the Sins of the People and succour them who were tempted ver 17 18. CHAP. III. VVHerein Christ is proved to be more excellent and a greater Prophet then Moses For the Jews did think it very unreasonable in any part to recede from that Doctrine which they had received from God by Prophets Angels Moses and to hearken unto Christ except he could be proved to be a Greater Prophet sent from God and his Doctrine more excellent and perfect And this was the cause of the Apostle's Undertaking This part of his Discourse is brought in by way of Exhortation Where 1. The Duty exhorted
which follows as will appear anon Two things here I will only observe 1. That to be called is openly and solemnly with power to be declared For this inauguration and confirmation was made with great solemnity and that in the presence of all the Host and Angels of Heaven Whether God commanded any Archangel with sound of heavenly Trumpet to proclaim him and ouer these words before the Throne of Glory and the place of his special presence in the Heaven of Heavens we know not It 's certain by these words he was made an eternal Priest and thereupon all the Angels of Heaven did acknowledg him The second thing to be observed is that he was not only made a Priest but also a King for without either of these he could not be so powerful a Saviour yet he was not so made by these but other words § 10. Now follow a Digression For after that the Apostle had proved him to be a Priest and so made of God and a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec and not after that of Aaron order did require he should enlarge upon the words of the Psalmist yet because this Doctrine was mysterious and profound and they not so capable of it he takes occasion by the way to reprove their dulness stir up their attention and prepare them for this Doctrine concerning Christ's Priest-hood which he intended more fully to declare unto them This reproof is brought in artificially by a kind of Transition and in this manner Ver. 11. Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing â—â— are dull of hearing IN these words and those which follow We have 1. The excellency and copiousness of the matter 2. The Hebrews incapacity 3. The reason of their incapacity The subject whereof he intended to speak was the Priest-hood of Christ and seeing he was a Priest after the Order of Melchisodec he must needs speak something of him The copiousness and aburdince of matter is signified by those words Of whom we have many things to say the excellency in those and hard to be uttered their incapacity they were dull of hearing The cause of this For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again c. which implies their negligence Of whom Some think this Relative whom referrs to Melchisedec others to Christ as Priest But it referrs to both to Christ principally to Melchisedec in order unto Christ For many things were to be known of Melchisedec that it might be made evident how he did typify Christ and how Christ was a Priest according to that Order and not the Order of Aaron This is the subject of which he intended to speak Of this subject he had many things to say This implies 1. That he knew many things concerning this Priest and Priest-hood and the same certainly and infallibly true as revealed unto him by the divine Spirit 2. That these things he could utter and express and that clearly and perspicuously enough and he was willing yea desirous to make them known if he could have found Schollars capable of this excellent Doctrine But such they were not for many excellent things might be taught if men would be careful to learn and improve their time and parts Yet these many things were hard to be uttered This implies that they were excellent and above the capacity of Babes and Children They were not hard or obscure to him for he knew them and fully understood them neither were they such things as he learned when he was rapt up into the third Heaven unutterable in themselves but they were hard to be uttered so as they might understand them For They were dull of hearing This was their incapacity The meaning is not that they were deaf either in whole or part or that such amongst them as were learned could not read them if written or understand the language but by hearing is meant understanding There are outward ears and outward hearing of the body inward ears and inward hearing of the Soul the former they had the latter they had not so as to be capable of such things as he had to say of this Priest and Priest-hood This was no obscurity in the matter but an indisposition in the Soul to receive this Doctrine Dulness was this indisposition which in general is a defect of active Power in particular in this place of the intellective faculty as not able to perceive discern apprehend and judge of this higher Doctrine It 's opposed to that we call acâ—â—â—n the sharpness quickness and piercing power of the wit and intellect yet here this dulness is restrained to a certain object for in other things they might be apprehensive and judicious enough By reason of this defect it is that much excellent and divine Doctrine is lost or at least useless to the greatest part of the People who are no whit moved with Doctrine though excellent if above their capacity For this cause the meanest Teachers are most popular though it 's true that all wise men must have respect unto the capacity of their Hearers and condescend unto them yet men should not be alwayes Babes and Dunces in God's School But what might be the cause of this dulness The Apostle informs us Ver. 12. That when for the time ye ought to have been Teachers you have need that one teach you again the principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat § 11. THis incapacity and defect of the Understanding may be either from natural imperfection as in Ideots and Naturals or such as are not much better or from want of teaching instruction and disciplination or from God's just Judgment and the delusions of Satan or from the negligence of such as are taught and do not attentively hear heed consider or from the sublimity and excellency of the matter taught or from ignorance of the language or terms or manner of expression used by such as take upon them to be Teachers or from the want of Understanding in principles upon which the knowledg of other things doth depend Dulness and so ignorance from some of these causes is blamless and will not be charged upon man in his last tryal For ignorance invincible is not counted a Sin but ignorance and dulness from neglect of the means God hath given Man to improve his knowledg for his own good is inexcusable If the things to be known be necessary and concern his everlasting Salvation or conduce to the same it 's far more hainous Such was the dulness and ignorance of these Hebrews and it 's implyed in this that they had had time and all other necessary means to improve their knowledg to that of Teachers and yet they were so ignorant that they had need to be taught again the very principles of Christianity This was a Sin and the same very grievous and a great impediment to their Salvation and increase
Chapter we have the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first and Covenant understood Few or none make any mention of Priest-hood The Predicate and that which is affirmed of this Covenant is That it had Ordinances of Divine Service and a worldly Sanctuary The meaning is that in the time of the Law the Levitical Priest-hood and the Tabernacle there were such Ordinances and a Sanctuary belonging to the Covenant In the words we have the Sum and Abridgment of the nine following Verses which describe unto us both the Ordinances of Service and the Sanctuary In the words therefore we have two things 1. The Ordinances 2. A Sanctuary The Ordinances of Divine Service imply That there was under the Law the Work of Service and the Ordinances of this Service And because there is Service due to Man and Service due to God and Latreia signifies both therefore the Translators for difference sake and to signify what Service is here meant do add the word Divine For Divine and Religious Service is due only unto God and is to be performed to him as Supream Lord and it cannot without injury be given to any other And when it is so given to any but the true and living God it 's called Idolatry and is against the first Commandment Some distinguish between Service and Worship and it 's true they differ much if Worship be taken for Adoration which is terminated upon the divine Excellency and Dignity and not upon his Power yet the words are used indifferently But whereas the Socinian Expositor saith that Latreia properly signifies Worship he is much deceived as will be evident if we examine the places of the Old Testament where the Septuagint turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that so often This Service of God is two-fold 1. Positive 2. Moral The Moral is the principal as being spiritual and performed by a Spirit unto a spiritual and eternal Substance which is God Positive and Ceremonial is far inferiour and is here meant This Ceremonial Service which never should be performed without the Moral had Ordinances as a Rule to direct both Priest and People in the performance of it and these Ordinances were given by God and were part of the Ceremonial Law determing what religious Rites and Ceremonies must be used especially by the Priests For the Service here meant is chiefly that which was proper to the Priests for as we now serve God by the Ministers in publick so they then by their Priests The word turned Ordinances is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used above 60 times by the Septuagint to interpret the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and though it often signifies Ceremonials yet not alwayes Men ever depending upon God as upon their Supream Lord are ever bound to serve him that they may receive Protection and Happiness from him He that will not serve a God is a profane Atheist he that servs any but the true God is an Idolater he that servs the true God after his own fancies and the inventions of Man is a superstitious fool he that inventeth Rites and Ceremonies and Modes of serving God and imposeth them on others is a presumptuous Wretch For as God alone doth know what kind of Worship and Service is fittest to be performed unto him so he onely hath Power to impose it The highest degree of Service is due unto him alone and he alone hath Power to make Ordinances for it This is the Service and the Ordinances of God which must be performed in some place of his special presence Therefore there was then a worldly Sanctuary A Sanctuary is an holy place consecrated to God and sanctified by his presence There is a bodily and earthly and also a spiritual Sanctuary This was a bodily earthly Sanctuary a Type of a far better and to difference it from a fat better it 's called a worldly Sanctuary though the word may signify a beautiful decent and glorious place And in respect of outward earthly decency beauty and glory it did excel It was made not according to the fancy of Man but according to a pattern given from Heaven and every thing in it was Mystical and the greatest Glory of it was God's special presence This Sanctuary was said to be the Throne and Palace of God residing as a glorious Being in the midst of his People It may be considered mystically as shadowing a far more excellent Throne and Palace which may be Heaven the Humanity of Christ and the Souls and Bodies of sanctified Persons or it may be considered as a convenient place for God's People to assemble there for publick Worship In the former consideration it 's abolished in the latter it may continue for if all things in the Worship of God must be done decently and orderly then surely it 's decent and orderly according to the Law of Nature and the Law of God to have convenient places for Religious Assemblies and Publick and Divine Worship To think there is any holiness in these places as places is the superstitious conceipt of some to think they may not be called Churches is the superstitious fancy of others For a Church or Kirk is but a convenient place where Christians ordinarily assemble to perform Divine Service and God's presence is not tyed to the place but to God's People observing God's Ordinances in this place neither is he tyed to any special presence in such place but by vertue of his gracious Promise neither is there in these places any divine special effectual and spiritual presence there but to such as there worship him in Spirit We are not so bound to these places as though God would not accept our Service else-where or more in such a place than in another but onely in respect of conveniency and the testification of our Union with God's People in the Christian Religion § 4. After that the Subject and Heads of his following discourse were determined and named he proceeds to discourse of them more particularly 1. Of the Sanctuary 2. Of the Service and Ordinances So that we may in the following nine Verses observe a Description 1. Of the Sanctuary or Tabernacle Ver. 2 3 4 5. 2. Of the Service from Ver. 6. to the 10. 1. This Sanctuary leaving out the Court where they sacrificed is divided into two parts The first is the Holy place The second the Holiest of all The holy place divided from the Court by the first Veil or Hanging is described from the sacted things and Utensils therein which are here said to be the Candlestick the Table the Shew-Bread and this was called the Sanctuary Both the place and Utensils of the place had their mystical Representations though not so well known to us The second part divided from the Sanctuary by the second Veil and called the Holy of Holies that is the Holiest of all is set forth from the things therein As 1. The Golden Censer 2. The Ark
Othâ—â— imagine it was the whole World which with the parts thereof both the Tabernacle and Temple did represent wherein the Heaven of Heavens is the Sanctum Sanctorâ—n the Holiest of all and the Sanctuary through which the High-Priest passed into the Holiest place the Aethercal part of the World where the Sun and Moon and Stars represented by the Lights in the Golden Candlestick do ever shine Others determine it to 〈◊〉 the Heaven of Heavens whereof they make some different parts as one to be the place of Angels and Saints and another far more glorious which was the place of God's most blessed and special presence That Christ entred the Heaven of Heavens and that 〈◊〉 he ever ministers and makes Intercession there is express Scripture what difference and degrees of places be there we do not certainly know But let the Tabernacle â—e his Body or the Church Militant or the World or the Heaven of Heavens the second doubt is Whither these words concerning this Tabernacle are to be referred If to the former words which say that Christ being rome an High-Priest of good things to come then it 's nothing but this That Christ is the Minister and High-Priest of a far more glorious Sanctuary But some refer them to the word entred and make the sense to be that as the High-Priest under the Law passeth through the first Sanctuary to enter into the second which is the Holiest of all so Christ passed through the Militant into the Church Triumphant And it 's very true that Christ hath his Sanctuary and Temple here on Earth and that 's his Church wherein God dwels in a special manner and he passed through and from this into the Church Triumphant of Saints and Angels where God is more gloriously present and powerful nay he entred through the Aetherdal part of the World into the highest Heavens and through the Heaven of Angels and Saints unto the highest and most glorious place and Throne of God But the former sense that Christ is come an High-Priest and Minister of a far more glorious and excellent Sanctuary seems to be more genuine and confirmed by Chap. 8. 2. § 11. The third Proposition is concerning Christ's Service and Sacrifice offered in this Temple For Christ not by the Blood of Goats and Calves but by his own Blood iâ—â—red in once into the holy place Where 1. We have the Holy place 2. Christ's Entrance into it 3. His Entrance once 4. His Entrance once by Blood not of Goats and Calvs but by his own Blood 1. The Holy place is the Heaven of Heavens signified by the Holiest of all in the Tabernacle and in the Temple for that was the place into which the High-Priest with Blood entred in once every Year so that there is no difficulty in this particular And that Christ entred into Heaven is clear enough For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the Figures of the true but into Heaven it self there to appear before God for us Ver. 24. of this Chapter 2. Christ entred into this Holy place But there is a Question made of the time when he entred That he entred forty dayes after the Resurrection it 's clear and express For he was taken up into Heaven Acts 1. 11. He was carried up into Heaven Luke 24. 71. And He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all Heavens to fulfil all things Ephes. 4. 10. But there seems to be another entrance before this and that was immediately upon his Death For when he had given up the Ghost immediately the Vail of the Temple was rent in the midst from the top to the bottom and his Soul separated from his Body and commended into his Fathers hands entred into Paradise That he entred at that time into Heaven with his Soul separated from his Body the Text doth seem to affirm And what should the renting of the Catapetasm and the Inner-Vail immediately upon his Death signify but that the great High-Priest was ready to enter Heaven Again it may be said more properly that he entred Heaven with or by his Blood when his Soul was separated from his Body than when his Body was risen and made immortal and both Soul and Body joyntly ascended For it was the custom of the High-Priest according to God's Institution upon the slaying of the Sacrifice and taking of the Blood to enter the holy Place and the Type and Anti-type should agree especially in this particular Further the expiatory Offering was not compleate till the Blood was presented before the Throne of God in the inner Sacrary and it was suitable to the Type that the great High-Priest should after he was slain on Earth present himself as slain in Heaven before the Supream Judge as having suffered Death and satisfied Justice for the sin of man But all this I leave to the judgment of Learned men who shall seriously search the Book of God and impartially examine whether God doth not speak this in Scripture And howsoever it 's certain that whether he entred thus then yet he so entred at one time or other that he obtained eternal Redemption 3. He entred once This informs us that though the High-Priest entred once every year and so might enter above a thousand times yet Christ entred thus but once For as we shall read both in the latter end of this and also in the beginning of the next Chapter once to enter or one entrance in this manner was sufficient because one Death one Offering was able to do that which all the Offerings of all the High-Priests under the Law could not do neither was any more Offering needful seeing this had done all that was requisite for satisfaction and merit 4. This entrance was by or with Blood and this is set down negatively and affirmatively Negatively this was not blood of Goats and Calves and that with which the Legal High-Priests did enter within the Vail For as we may read Levit. 16. upon the day of expiation a Bullock and a Goat must be slain and with the Blood of these he must enter the holy Place The reason of this is because the blood of Beasts could not satisfy divine justice expiate the sin of man and purge his conscience and immortal Soul and so make the eternal penalty removable Therefore it must be a far more excellent blood the blood of the Son of God his own blood which was pare unspotted and most precious The reason 1. Why it must be by blood is because as without blood under the Law there was no Legal Remission or Expiation so it was the Will of God that without blood there should be no eternal Remission For though God was merciful and sate in the Throne of Grace and Mercy yet his Justice did require that satisfaction should be made and seeing sin was committed and punishment was deserved and due by his Law violated therefore sin must be punished before it could be pardonable
us to Imitation And whom should we follow if not him to whom we have so near Relation and upon whom that Religion and Faith whereby we hope to be saved doth so much depend for the institution efficacy and perpetual continuance The second Proposition This Jesus Christ for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the Shame Wherein we have 1. The Rice or Vertue 2. Prize or Reward The way was tough the Prize was excellent yet he ran the Race and won the Prize That which made the way so troublesom was the Cross and the Shame of the Cross yet he endured the Cross and made nothing of the Shame but run through Pain and Shame and so attained the eternal Crown of Glory By Cross is meant all the cruel pains of his Body and bitter sorrows of his Soul which islued from and were caused by all these Wrongs and Evils inslicted upon him unjustly and maliciously from Men and Devils yet justly from God for our Sins which he had undertaken to expiate These were such as never any man did suffer which never any Angel could have born as He did thus dear it cost our Saviour to propitiate for our Transgressions though many make a mock of Sin By shame we understand all the Abuses Reproaches and Indignities cast upon him He was apprehended accused condemned as a Malefactor buffetted hood-winkt spit upon scourged reviled derided and put to death upon a Cross which was the most ignominious death of all others And the more excellent and innocent he was the more intolerable the shame All this must be laid upon him that God might manifest his hatred of Sin the sacred power of his Laws his severest justice against Sin his Love to Man in transferring from him unto Christ his own Son that Punishment which was deserved by our Sin and to let men know that he would not pardon Sin except his Justice were satisfied Therefore let no man presume to Sin but to be afraid to offend his God and Supreme Lord Yet he endured the Cross which implies that he was sore pressed with our sins and was very sensible of the pressure but notwithstanding his strength was such as he bare this heaviest burden and that with greatest patience He did not yield faint murmur or despair he overcame all He despised the shame Some high Spirits dare look Death in the face and be no whit daunted or appaled yet even these cannot brook shame and disgrace they will rather dye then suffer in their Honour and Reputation which are dear unto them Yet Christ endured the shame and with that patience and constancy as that he made nothing of it He despised it as though it were nothing though it was much and so much as never any suffered That which in all this did strengthen and encourage him was the glorious prize and the joy set before him This joy by a Metonymy signifies that happy and glorious estate which followed upon his Suffering for immediately upon his Resurrection he attained an estate of perfection and layd aside his mortality and the infirmities of his humiliation was fully and for ever freed from all Sorrows and Sufferings did enjoy a most sweet calm and blessed peace of eternal continuance after that ascends above all Heavens entred the place of Glory and had fulness of joy in his Fathers presence and pleasures at his right hand for evermore and so bathes himself perpetually in the streams of eternal delights This joy was set before him both by a clear representation and a firm promise and he had a lively apprehension of it as it was represented and a certain expectation of it as it was promised This joy and blessed estate so apprehended so expected did strengthen revive and refresh him in the midst of his Suffering so that his burden was made the lighter and his sorrows much abated and this was the reason why he was so patient and chearful in his Sufferings and so much despised the shame This patience and chearfulness might be attributed to his Faith for he did both believe and trust in his heavenly Father Yet this Faith was of another kind then ours far more perfect and far above our Sphear And if we had a firmer belief more lively apprehensions and a more full assurance of Heaven's Joy and Glory we might rejoyce in Tribulation and be exceeding glad in the midst of siery Flames Christ knew the time of the Cross and shame was but short the distance between him and eternal Joy not long and his assurance of Glory very great and this was the reason why he made so little account of the greatest evils that any ever yet did suffer Proposit. 3. After he had endured the Cross despising the shame he sate down at the right hand of the Throne of God God's Throne puts us in mind of his Majesty and Power for he is the Supreme and Universal Lord Lawgiver and Judge of the World The right hand of this Throne is the highest place of Honour Dignity and Power next unto that of Gods Christ was set at the right hand of this Throne when he was advanced and mounted above all Angels and all other Creatures For all Power in Heaven and Earth was given him before his Ascension and after he was solemnly invested in Heaven he began to reign and exercise this Power as Administratour-General of the World This glorious estate was the great Reward which he received and enjoyed after that he had endured the Cross and despised the shame For because he had taken upon him the form of a Servant and been Obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross God exalted him and gave him a Name above every Name Proposit. 4. In running with patience the Race that is set before us we must look on Christ thus represented He that hath a Copy or Pattern set before him for imitation must often look upon the Pattern or Copy and the more excellent the Pattern the more carefully and frequently it must be eyed and observed This Pattern is the best that ever was proposed and that in three respects 1. Of the person 2. Of the rare performance of the hard Service performed so patiently and chearfully 3. The glorious Reward which followed thereupon 1. The person was the Authour and Finisher of our Faith one far above all others 2. The Pattern wherein his heavenly Virtues were manifest was the fairest and most excellent that ever was given And though the Service was the hardest that ever was undertaken yet it was performed with the greatest perfection 3. The reward attained and enjoyed was incomparable and most glorious All these must severally and seriously and frequently be viewed that we may be the more effectually encouraged § 3. Besides what had been said of Christ example there was something in it farther considerable therefore he goes on with his Exhortation in the words following Ver. 3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of Sinners against
boldness to come before the Throne of Grace made accessible by his Blood This was a Law or Covenant rather of Justice than of Mercy of Fear than of Hope of Servitude and Bondage rather than of Liberty It was made to discover Sin to make it exceeding sinful to be a School-master to Christ. 2. This was the terrible manner of Promulgation the Effect whereof was fear and terror and the same very great and exceeding and that 1. In the People as we heard before who could not endure either the Voice or the strict Commands and Comminations They endured it a little but could endure no longer for fear of present death 2. And that which was more in Moses for so terrible was the sight that Moses feared did quake did fear and quake exceedingly and he said so and expressed his great fear And how terrible must that sight be which did strike such a terrour into a man so holy of such a constant Spirit so familiarly acquainted with God and who alone at that time should comfort and encourage the People That Moses said thus we do not read yet that which is affirmed by a man inspired as inspired must needs be true 3. They were not come to this Mount to receive so terrible a Law but they were freed from all these Terrours and from the Curses threatned and had received the Spirit of Adoption and therefore there was no reason why they should fall off to Judaism and return to that dreadful Mount and consuming Fire any more § 20. Thus far of the terrour of the Law the condition of such as were under it and the freedom of these Hebrews from it Now follows the condition of them as freed from the Law and living under the Gospel Before their Conversion they were in Minority Servitude and continual Fear but since they are in a more happy condition as being translated into the Kingdom of God's dear Son wherein they enjoyed incomparable Priviledges spiritual Liberty and many sweet Comforts To understand all this the Apostle saith Ver. 22. But ye are come unto Mount Zion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and an innumerable Company of Angels IN these words and those which follow unto the five and twentieth Verse we may observe 1. A Description of a spiritual and eternal Kingdom 2. The Enjoyment of or rather the Admission into the same In the Description some observe 1. The Place 2. The Persons of this Kingdom The Place is Zion the City of the Living God the new Jerusalem The Persons are Subjects Soveraign The Subjects are Angels Men. Living Departed The Soveraign is God the King and Judg. Christ the Priest and Mediator There was a certain Place and certain Persons and they were come unto this Place these Persons Here we have a Zion a City a Jerusalem this Zion is a Mount this City is the City of the living God this Jerusalem is the heavenly Jerusalem Zion the Mount the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem here are the same and they may signify the Place or the Persons or the Association of Persons in such a Place and they may signify grammatically and properly or Rhetorically and Tropically Grammatically Zion opposed to Sinai is a Mount in Jerusalem where was first a Fort of the Jebusites then the Royal Palace of King David who adorned it with other Buildings and thence it was called The City of David On the North of this Mount some say the Temple was built and because that was the Palace and Throne of God therefore according to some Writers it was styled The City of the great King and because God did choose that place for his special presence it had the Name of The City of the Living God Shindler observs that the whole City was called Jerusalem in the Dual Number because it had two parts the one was the City of David on Mount Zion the other the City of Vision on Moriah which afterwards was inclosed But not to stand upon these things Zion and Jerusalem are taken for one City which God in former times did honour above all Cities in the World Therefore sung the Psalmist Why leap ye ye high Hills This is the Hill which God desireth to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever Psal. 68. 16. For by God's special Residence in this place it was advanced above all other Cities of the Earth though never so magnificent But this was her greatest Glory That Christ the Son of God was presented there preached there and there did glorious Works there the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven upon the Apostles there the Gospel began first to be preached and thence it came out into all the World According to the Prophecy of old it came to pass for so the Evangelical Prophet wrote And in the last dayes it shall come to pass that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be established in the top of the Mountains and exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it And a little after for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa. 2. 2 3. Where by Law and the Word of God understand the Doctrine of the Gospel This is the Grammatical sense Rhetorically Zion and the City of Jerusalem often signify the Church Militant and Triumphant by reason of God's spiritual and supernatural presence and habitation in the same If we consider this Church locally the place of our Pilgrimage is the Earth the place of our Rest and perpetual Abode is Heaven from whence we receive our spiritual Being where we must converse and whither we tend in these respects Heaven may be said to be the place whither upon our first Conversion we come The Persons which make up this Body and the spiritual Inhabitants are more intended by this Zion and this City yet they cannot make up this Politick Body Society and Common-weal but as associated under their Soveraign God-Redeemer And to distinguish this Zion and City of Jerusalem from that which was on Earth situate and lying in the Land of Canaan in the Tribe of Judah and Benjamin this is said to be The heavenly Jerusalem which is above and the Mother of us all which one day shall come down from Heaven as a Bride prepared for her Husband and God who dwells in her by Grace shall then dwell in her by Glory and bless her fully and for ever To come to this City and Kingdom is to be admitted and incorporated into the same upon our sincere Faith in Christ. In this City we find many Persons amongst whom the most eminent are the Angels those holy immortal and blessed Spirits of Heaven who ever see the face of God and environ his glorious Throne These are not few but many for they are an innumerable Company or Multitude for the Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands or many thousands of Angels Psal. 68. 17. The number of the Angels
round about the Throne of God are ten thousand times ten thousand even thousands of thousands Revel 5. 11. To come to these is to be of their Society and every true Believer upon his Regeneration begins to have Communion with these blessed Spirits for regenerate Men and Angels are fellow-Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem and fellow-Subjects of the same Kingdom They are above us and we are a great Distance from them in respect of our present Estate yet some of them are very near us though we do not see them nor speak unto them nor familiarly converse with them and they love us have a special care of us and all of them are ministring Spirits for us who shall be Heirs of Salvation § 21. Yet there are other Subjects of this Kingdom of a lower and inferiour Ranck and a Supream Lord and Judg of all For we come Ver. 23 To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born who are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect VVHere we have God the Soveraign both of Angels and Men the Men who are Subjects in this Kingdom are the Living or Dead both in his Dominion and under his Power Some Copies and Translations joyn the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the word Angels in the former verse You are come to Myriads the general assembly of Angels But others read as we do in our English The sense is not much altered by this difference for there is a general Assembly of Angels and a general Assembly of Men and these are different yet both make but one Body and Community of Subjects in this heavenly and spiritual Polity The Propositions are these 1. There is a general Assembly and Church of the first-born who are written in Heaven 2. There is God the Judge of all 3. There are Spirits of just men made perfect 4. They were come to these 1. In the first we have the first-born these are written in Heaven these are a great Assembly and Church 1. The first-born in this place are 1. Such as are regenerated and adopted for here to be born is to be born again and made the Sons of God by Word and Spirit They are God's first-born because they have the spiritual priviledges of primogeniture they are Heirs and also Kings and Priests to God for ever This signifies their excellent dignity above other men and their near relation to God and Christ. 2. These first-born are written or enroll'd in Heaven which is the same with having their Names written in Heaven and in the Book of Life Luke 10. 20. Rev. 20. 12. and in the Book of the Lamb. The meaning of the Phrase is that upon their serious Faith in Christ God doth account them as his Children and Heirs of Glory therefore it imports two things 1. Their title unto everlasting Glory 2. The certainty of the possession in due time so that there shall be no alteration of their Condition They are destined to an eternal Inheritance by an immutable decree and therefore their Names are said to be written in this Book from the beginning of the World and so they shall never be blotted or rased out again This enrolment is but virtual which upon their new Birth becomes actual This is a great priviledg to have our Names enrolled in the Register of Heaven which never shall be changed and an unspeakable comfort by our sincere Faith and Obedience to know it 3. There is the Church of these first-born that is though they be many yet they are called chosen congregated and united into one spiritual Body politick and made one Society therefore the Church is so often compared to a Body which hath many members yet all these united make but one Systeme called the Church the members and parts whereof are not natural but naturalized and by free Grace ingrafted 4. They are a general Assembly made up of many different persons gathered together out of several Countries into one Body though not into one place Some think the Apostle alludes unto the Olympian and other Assemblies of the Greeks wherein many from many places met together Some were Schollars as Philosophers Poets Orators who did exercise their wit some did manifest their activity in running wrastling and other bodily Exercises they had also their Delights and Recreations But the Analogy is not in these things but in this that they were one general Assembly and so did represent the Church as Catholick and Universal For these are a number gathered and redeemed by the Blood of Christ out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and a great multitude not only of Jews but Gentiles which no man can number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues Rev. 5. 9 7 9. They were come to these and were incorporated into this Society and made Subjects of this Kingdom and the first-born of God had a title to the same heavenly Inheritance and their Names were enrolled in the Book of Life and they were destin'd to eternal Glory 2. They were come to God the Judge of all What is the Body without an Head a Kingdom or multitude of Subjects without a King who is the Basis of the People and the Center of them all wherein they are united and the Corner-stone that doth support them Therefore in this most excellent Society there must be a King and Soveraign and this is God who is here styled the Judg of all In Hebrew to judg is to rule and govern and a Judg is a Ruler and Governour and so it may be taken here Yet there are inferiour and subordinate Rulers and also supream and universal Such God is for all things are subject to his Power yet he hath a special Kingdom as he is Lord and Redeemer by Christ and so he is in a special manner the Supream Governour of this general Assembly and Church of the first-born who are not only his Servants and Subjects but his Sons and Heirs of Glory He is their Lord and Father their Law-giver and their Judg he takes a special care of them and by his Laws doth order them to eternal Happiness and in the End rewards them with Glory He is Almighty in Power exactly just wonderfully wise and infinitely merciful and exerciseth his Perfections in promoting their eternal Bliss And they were come to him and admitted into his Kingdom received into his Protection and as he is able so he is resolved to destroy all their Enemies and give everlasting Peace His Angels must guard them all Creatures serve them and all things must work together for their good He continually sits in the Throne of Grace not in the midst of Smoak and Fire as upon Mount Siâ—ai he is compassed with Light and ever shines upon them with his favour 3. They were come unto the Spirits of just men made perfect Those Spirits were not Angels but the Souls of Men yet not in their Bodies but
and now again in these last dayes then by Moses and the Prophets now by Christ his Son 2. That when he gave the Law and made the former Covenant he spake on Earth upon Mount Sinai but when he spake by Christ he spake from Heaven for he came from Heaven returned to Heaven again and from Heaven sent down the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and by that Spirit in them revealed the Gospel 3. That some Sins are more hainous than others and the more hainous the Sin is the more heavy the Punishment will be 4. That to refuse God speaking on Earth was a grievous Sin and deserved a grievous Punishment and so to refuse him speaking from Heaven is a great Sin and renders the Refuser liable to fearful Punishment 5. That the latter is a more grievous Sin than the former and deservs a greater Punishment These things presupposed the Reason is clear and we must in any wise take heed of rejecting or renouncing the Gospel because if they who transgressed the Law given on Earth were severely punished then they if guilty of a far greater Sin as all such are who refuse the Gospel revealed from Heaven then they must suffer a far greater Penalty and no wayes could they escape it This differs something from the Argument used Chap. 2. 2 3 c. for that compares the Law delivered by Angels with the Gospel spoken and confirmed by Christ and the excellency of Christ above the Angels is the ground of his Argument But here God's speaking on Earth by Angels is compared with God's speaking from Heaven by Christ and here the Excellency of Heaven from whence the Gospel was revealed above the Earth where the Law was given is made the Foundation of the Reason And God by giving the Law on Earth and the Gospel from Heaven did intimate that there was some Excellency in the Gospel which was not in the Law in the new Covenant which was not in the old otherwise God could have revealed them both on Earth or both from Heaven Let us apply this unto our selvs and consider 1. Who speaks unto us 2. What he speaks 3. From whence he speaks 1. It 's not Man but God not Moses but Christ The Law indeed was by Moses but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ. The Majesty and Power of him who speaks is such as Angels are bound to attend and obey with all humble Submission and shall we Worms nay Dust and Ashes refuse to hear this glorious Lord 2. The Matter that he speaks and we hear is the best the most sweet the most comfortable and the most excellent never better things seen or heard or understood by the Heart of Man The Gospel is a Doctrine of profoundest Wisdom of greatest Love and Mercy and of highest Concernment and most conducing to our everlasting good And shall we reject it Shall we sin against so great a Majesty so great a Mercy Sins against the Mercies of God so freely tendred to us in Jesus Christ are the most hainous of all others Let us tremble to think of these Sins and those Punishments which they must suffer that are guilty of them 3. He speaks from Heaven for the Gospel is a Mystery hid from the beginning of the World and was brought unto us from the Bosom of the Father by his only begotten Son and by the Holy Ghost it 's the clearest manifestation of God's deepest Counsels concerring Man's eternal Estate and of his greatest Love to sinful Wretches the brightest Light that ever shined from Heaven yet we hear it and most men regard it not but reject it to their everlasting Woe § 24. The Apostle draws to a Conclusion and urgeth Perseverance by another Argument in the words following Ver. 26. Whose Voice then shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying Yet once more I shake not the Earth only but Heaven also Ver. 27. And this Word Yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain GOD shook the Earth when he gave the Law and from this shaking the Authour takes occasion from the words of Haggai to prove the Immutability of the Gospel and the Administration of Christ's Kingdom In the Text the Proposition concerning this Immutability is 1. Cleared 2. Applyed in the two last Verses of the Chapter In the first he doth 1. Affirm the shaking of the Earth in giving of the Law 2. Alledgeth God's Promise of another shaking not only of Earth but Heaven 3. From that Promise he infers the Immutability of the Evangelical Administration The Propositions of the first part of the Text are two 1. That God then shook the Earth 2. That he that then shook the Earth promised to shake once more not only the Earth but Heaven also 1. God then shook the Earth The Adverb then points at the time of giving the Law on Mount Sinai for in the former Verse it 's said that he spake on Earth in the Hearing of all Israel That then he shook the Earth is the express words of the History Mount Sinai was all on a Sâ—â—ak and the whole Mount quaked greatly Exod. 19. 18. With this agrees that of the Psalmist When thou O God wentest before thy People when thou didst march through the Wilderness The Earth shook the Heavens also dropped at the presence of God even Sinai it self was moved at the presence of God the God of Israel Psal. 68. 7 8. The principal things then signified by this shaking the Mount and the Earth were two 1. The Alteration of the former Administration of the Church and 2. The Constitution of that Order which continued untill the times of the Gospel For 1. Then God made a great Alteration in the Kingdom of Aegypt divided the Red Sea and shook the hearts of men in several Nations 2. He reduced the People of Israel into a Polity both Civil and Ecclesiastical made a Covenant with them gave them Laws Moral Ceremonial Judicial ordained a Priest-hood instituted a Form of Worship to continue till the coming of the Messias Thus then he shook the Earth 2. He promised once more to shake not only the Earth but Heaven Where the Subject is Shaking and presupposeth one Shaking past and informs us of another and the same far greater The former was only of the Earth the latter of Heaven too This Shaking is the thing promised the Promise was made first the Performance followeth several hundred years afterwards The Promise we find in Haggai the Prophet the words are these For thus saith the Lord of Hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the Heavens and the Earth and the Sea and the dry Land And I will shake all Nations and the Desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this House with Glory saith the Lord Hag. 2. 6 7. Where we may observe 1. That the Occasion of these words was this the
People of Judah returned out of Captivity rebuilt the Temple and dedicated the same with great Joy yet so that many in this Solemnity did weep for the ancient People which had seen the former House built by Solomon knew that it was far more magnificent than this latter Temple which was no wayes comparable to the former God to comfort these dejected Jews makes a Promise to make this latter House far more glorious than the former by the coming of Christ who should honour it with his presence 2. That the Apostle neither follows the Hebrew nor the Septuagint precisely yet he takes that which was for his purpose and retains the sense and rather expounds than translates or cites the Prophet for â—ie signifies 1. That the words are a Promsse of God 2. That the Shaking promised and to come was greater than the former for then God's Voice shook the Earth but now he would shake not only the Earth but the Heavens 3. That the Earth the Sea the dry Land are the same and only different parts of the same Globe By all this we understand the mighty Power of God who by his Word and Voice can shake the Earth the Rocks the strongest Mountains who can shake not only Earth but Heaven who can make great Alteration in the World when he pleaseth yet the proud and stony Heart of Man is little moved at the word of this glorious God But for the more full Explication of the words of the Prophet we must consider what this shaking of Heaven and Earth is and how this was fulfilled 1. This Shaking is a Work of God whereby he makes great Alterations and Commotions in the World preparing for something to follow and in this he usually manifests his glorious Power and Wisdom Yet these Alterations are seldom made without some prodigious and miraculous Works and such as many times amaze and terrify mortal men Thus before the coming of Christ when this Promise was fulfilled there were many prodigious and dreadful Signs iâ— Heaven Earth the Sea before the Civil Warrs between Pompey and Cesar and that between Augustus and Brutus Cassius Lepidus Antony Upon these followed the Alteration of the Roman Government and an universal Peace At Christ's Birth the universal Enrollment was a great Commotion amongst men the Angels from Heaven singing and celebrating Christ's Nativity on Earth and the new Star seen of the wise men in the East and directing them to the place where Christ was born imply an extraordinary Commotion in Heaven When Christ suffered and dyed upon the Cross the Heavens were darkned the Earth did quake the Rocks were rent asunder and the Graves were opened and at his Resurrection there was an Earth-quake and a glorious Angel descended from Heaven so that even then the Earth and the Heaven were shaken and so they were before the Ruine and Destruction of Jerusalem But the principal performance of this Promise was the Alteration made by taking away the Law and bringing in the Gospel Then Heaven was shaken for Christ ascended entred sate down at the right hand of God began to reign and make Intercession the Angels and all the Holls of Heaven became Subject unto him and all Creature were at his Command Then the Earth was shaken for the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles the Gospel was preached to Jews and Gentiles the Law and Levitical Service and Priest-hood were taken away the Idolatâ—y of the Gentiles beaten down the Jews and Gentiles are converted and became Christian. So that this Shaking was an Alteration in Religion and in the Administration of Christ's Kingdom and it was universal in Heaven and Earth § 25. The latter part of the Text is a Discourse of the Apostle upon the words of the Propher wherein he 1. Takes notice of the word Yet once more 2. Informs us what it signifies and imports Yet once more hath no sense without the Verb I will shake which is therefore to be understood The Action is Shaking yet once more the Circumstance The meaning is I have once shaken the Earth and I will shake it again and not shake it but Heaven also and make a far greater Alteration yet I will but do this once and no more From hence in the second place the Apostle inferrs two things 1. That whatsoever was removed and abolished in this latter Shaking was removed for ever and 2. Whatsoever was then brought in must stand unalterable for ever This is that which the Apostle saith is signified by that word Yet once more If the words be reduced to Propositions they are these 1. There is a removing of things shaken as of things made 2. There are things which cannot be shaken which remain 3. The former things were removed that the latter might remain 4. All this was signified by the word of God's Promise Yet once more 1. There is a removing c. 1. We have things shaken The things are the Levitical Law Priest-hood Tabernacle Service and the Administration of God's Kingdom under the Law and the first Covenant These things were shaken moved and altered yet an Alteration may be of the Substance or Accidents of the thing but this was of the Substance for they were so moved that they were removed the very Substance and Being of them was so changed that they were wholly taken away for as one Law may be so made as to repeal and wholly abrogate another so the Gospel and the Administration of Christ were so brought in by God as they took away and wholly abolished the Law It 's further said that there was a removing of these as of things made which some do so understand as though the things made were the Tabernacle or Temple with all the Utensils of both which though they were made according to the Pattern in the Mount yet were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things made with hands and but Shadows of far better things which once exhibited these must needs vanish Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signify things finished and past never to return again The Hebrew woâ—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is very often turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signify to destroy suppress and make an End of 2. There were things which could not be shaken which remained Things not shaken or moved are the Gospel and the manner of the Administration of Christ's Kingdom after his sitting at the right hand of God These are not shaken nor altered either in part or whole in Substantials or Accidentals but they remain in full force and shall so continue unto the End No other Doctrine Manner of Worship Order in Heaven or Earth or Administration must be expected for the Christian Religion shall continue to the End till time shall be no more and this was God's purpose in the bringing in of these things 3. The former things were removed that these might be introduced and established When two things cannot stand together the one is removed that the other might take place and
Mother are born of the same incorruptible seed animated with the same Spirit of Christ and partakers of a divine Nature This spiritual consangunity is a principle of spiritual Love and this Divine Nature an object of a more ardent affection Though therefore we must love others truly and as our selves yet these if we be Christians we must love more then others And though we know no man's heart and reins yet such as appear and manifest themselves by their profession and practise to be Saints we must love as Brethren and though they be not such and we mistake yet our Love is acceptable to God This Love is not only a complacency in them and an esteem of their persons as having more of God in them then other men but we must effectually desire their good and happiness and when occasion serves really promote it It must be a real and a giving and a suffering love For as Christ laid down his Life for us so we must lay down our Lives for the Brethren And we must not love only in word and tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3. 16 18. By vertue of this Love there is in us a secret Sympathy which will manifest it self by rejoycing with them that rejoyce and mourning with them that mourn Yet this spiritual Love and divine Affection is found in few and it 's not so fervent and effectual in us as it should be Self-love and love of the World do much abate it And as the Brethren love the Brethren so the World hates them and counts them their greatest Enemies This is the love we must love them but this love must remain and continue in them This doth presuppose that they formerly had loved them and that was evident enough for they had ministred unto the Saints and did minister Chap. 6. 10. and became Companions of such as were teproached Chap. 10. 34. And their Duty was that as they had begun so they should go on and love to the End Life and Love must end together whilest we live we must love the Brethren And the words are not onely Paul's Exhortation but God's Command and the same universal and binds us as well as them § 2. The second Duty is Hospitality Ver. 2. Be not forgetful to entertain Strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares VVHere 1. The Duty is to entertain Strangers 2. The Motive is Because some have thereby been so happy as to entertain Angels unawares The Object of this Duty is Strangers the Duty it self is to entertain them the Cayeat is Not to forget so to do Strangers in this place may be either Christians or others both are an Object of Charity but especially the former We are Strangers when we are from home in another Place or Country where we have few Friends are not well known And being amongst Strangers where we have neither harbour nor other necessaries we must needs be in a miserable Condition and a proper Object of Hospitality Though this extends to others yet it 's principally understood of such as in these times were persecuted and scattered in strange Countries and being spoiled of their Goods were in great necessity not knowing sometimes where to have the next Lodging or Morsel of Bread These are principally meant and must be entertained To entertain them is freely to take them into our Houses and according to our ability supply their Wants for where should these receive Comfort or Relief but with Christian Brethren Some might pretend themselves to be such and that falsly and so abuse the Charity of well-meaning Christians yet there were several wayes whereby poor Christians and their sad Condition might be known And if they were once known we must not forget this Duty to forget is to neglect it not to forget is to perform it The Motive or Reason is this That by the performing of this Duty some have entertained Angels unawares The Persons who are here understood were Abraham and Lot both pious and righteous men of great Civility and Humanity and such as considered the Condition of Strangers as being Strangers themselves and dealt with them accordingly These received and entertained Angels who being sent by God did appear first to Abraham then to Lot Their business was to destroy Sodom Gomorrah and the Cities of the Plaines Yet in the Execution of this Judgment God remembred Abraham and Lot and according to his tender care of them gave these Angels a Charge and Instructions to preserve them They first came to Abraham in the appearance of men and of Strangers and as such he invites them and entertains them in the same manner they came to Sodom where they were invited and entertained under the same Notion yet they were truly and really Angels though conceived to be Men Therefore is it said they entertained them unawares that is though wittingly and willingly they received them as Men yet they knew them not at first to be Angels The force of this Reason to perswade Hospitality is 1. In respect of the Guests 2. Of the benefit they received by them 1. It was an Honour and a special Grace that the glorious blessed immortal Inhabitants of Heaven should enter their Houses and Tents accept of their Invitation and be so familiar with them 2. In respect of the benefit they received by them for first they came from Heaven to Abraham to let him know his Wife Sarah should bear him a Son and within a short time God would perform his Promise unto him This was a great Blessing much expected and desired of a long time and now determined assuredly to a certain Period within the present Year besides God acquainted him by these Angels with his Intention to destroy Sodom and yet upon his Intercession to save the Righteous in it and this Prayer may be conceived to be effectual for saving though not the City yet his Kinsman in it Lot also had the Honour and the Benefit too for by his blessed Guests he was saved not only from the cursed Sodomites but from the Flames that destroyed that City Yet it may be said What was this to these Hebrews or What is it to us It was a rare thing and not expected of these Saints and beloved Servants of God Yet it is much to us for by the receiving Strangers out of Faith in Christ and Love to God we may receive precious Saints and with them some blessed Angels which have a special Charge to keep and guard them in that condition and if a Cup of cold Water shall be rewarded how much more will so great a Work of Mercy be remembred Nay which is more by receiving them we receive Christ who will acknowledg this kindness as done to Him For in the day of final Judgment He will acknowledge before all Men all Angels and his heavenly Father that this Work of Mercy done to His was done to Him § 3. Yet there is another Work of Mercy which he exhorts them unto
it self both will and deed are from him because he makes us of unwilling willing and causeth us actually to do that which we do 2. That we cannot obtain any mercy of God but by Christ nor do any Good pleasing to God but by him For without me saith Christ ye can do nothing This Petition is reducible to that in the Lord's Prayer Thy will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven The Doxology followeth To whom be Glory for ever and ever This presupposeth 1. God's glorious and excellent perfections for he is glorious for ever in himself 2. The manifestation of these glorious and excellent perfections 3. The acknowledgment of this glory manifested in his works unto him so as to ascribe praise honour thanks unto him as due 4. The ascribing of it to him as due for ever and ever This may be understood by that of the Apocalyptist Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy Will and pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 11. Where we may observe 1. That God did manifest his excellency and perfections by his glorious works 2. That in this respect Glory Honour and Power was due unto him and deserved by him for he was worthy to receive it both from Men and Angels 3. This they acknowledg and by their acknowledgment return and give them unto him And here this Glory may be understood as given unto him for that great and blessed Work of raising Christ and making him the great Shepheard of the Sheep for their eternal Salvation As when we depart out of the presence of Kings and great Ones we bow and bless them so when we have made our Prayers and presented our Petitions to the great Soveraigh of Heaven and Earth we do not abruptly and rudely turn our backs and so depart but in all humility bless and glorify his Name and acknowledg him worthy of eternal praise This is one of the Ceremonies used in the Court of Heaven The Petition presented is sealed up with Amen which is to be understood as added not only to the Petition but the Doxology it 's the conclusion of the whole and seems to request that God would subscribe his Fiat to our Petitions and so seal up and confirm our Prayer We find it used in the Old Testament to signify our consent with others in what they had said or pray'd and so it 's implyed it should be used under the Gospel 1 Cor. 14. 16. It 's a word of Faith and Hope as Prayer is an Act of both and though our Prayer be long yet it 's an Abridgment and contains the substance of all and repeats and in one word prayes the whole prayer over again § 19. The third part of the Close is a kind of Exhortation or entreaty Ver. 22. And I beseech you Brethren suffer the Word of Exhortation for I have written a Letter unto you in few words IN these words we have two Propositions 1. Paul had written unto them in a few words 2. He beseecheth or entreates them to suffer the Word of Exhortation which he had written in a few words unto them 1. That which he had written and sent unto them in writing was this Epistle and it 's the largest Epistle of all the Epistles general of James Peter John and Jude and of Paul's except two that to the Romans and the first to the Corinthians Yet he terms it brief and if we consider the hortatory part it is but brief though the whole be somewhat large If we consider the matter and subject it required a very large Discourse yet he comprised much matter concerning the Offices of Christ both prophetical and facerdotal in a few words For we find that he omits many things not only because of their incapacity but because he had confined himself to such things as were most pertinent necessary and of greatest concernment And by this his practice he seems to condemn all such as unnecessarily enlarge their Discourses upon a certain distinct subject by impertinent needless and sometimes empty and unprofitable Digressions as many of copious Inventions and yet of no solid Judgment use to do 2. Because his Discourse was brief and contracted and not likely either to oppress their Memory or confound their Judgment he beseecheth them as Brethren for that 's his loving Compellation to suffer it He calls it a word of Exhortation By a Word is meant an orderly solid and Methodical Discourse and by a Word of Exhortation may be understood a Discourse of Comfort as the Vulgar Syriack Arabick turn the word or of Reproof Instruction Admonition For the word may imply if not directly signify all for Sermons and whole Discourses had the Name of Exhortation though we find in them many other things Howsoever the Apostle meant by the word the whole Epistle which in respect of the last part from Chap. 10. 19. is chiefly hortative and consolatory They must suffer this so our Translators and some others turn the word which gave occasion to some to tell us that Paul was more offensive to the Hebrews than any other of the Apostles because they were so much taken with the Law and Ceremonies to which they had been so long accustomed and therefore he both conceals his Name and desires them to bear with this Discourse and not to be offended with it But whether this was so or no it 's certain that the word here used signifies not only to suffer and tolerate but to receive hear and obey and so certainly it must be taken here For if they did not thus receive his Doctrine and Exhortation with Attention and Obedience the Epistle had been in vain and unprofitable unto them And whereas he might have commanded them as Inferiours and subject to his Apostolical Power yet in his Wisdom he thought good to entreat them as Brethren And this might the rather perswade them because his Discourse was brief and contained much profitable and necessary matter in a few words This implies 1. That it is our Duty to receive the Word of God readily and with all Attention and with Thankfulness of heart because it 's so great a Blessing 2. Yet such is our Corruption and depraved disposition that a short Discourse though full of heavenly matter is tedious to us and we are soon weary of it But profane and wicked Persons will not endure it § 20. The fourth thing is Information concerning Timothy Ver. 23. Know ye that our Brother Timothy it set at liberty with whom if he come shortly I will see you THis was Intelligence and good News the Subject of it was Timothy and himself Of Timothy he delivers 1. That he was set at Liberty 2. Gives some hope that he would come shortly Of himself he promiseth upon condition of Timothy's speedy coming to them that he would 1. Come with him 2. See them so that there was some hope that they might see both him
AN EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrewes Wherein The Text is cleared Theopolitica improved The Socinian Comment examined Optimus ille Lector est qui dictorum intelligentiam expectet ex dictis potius quà m imponant retulcrit magis quam attulerit neque cogat id videri dictis contineri quod ante lectioâ—em praesumpserit intelligendum Hilar. de Trinitate lib. 1. By GEORGE LAVVSON Rector of More in the County of Salop. LONDON Printed by J. S. for George Sawbridge at the Sign of the Bible on Ludgate-Hill 1662. THE EPISTLE MAny receive their Knowledg in matters of Salvation from the Words and Writings of other men upon trust and at the second hand But that is the most certain and purest Doctrine and the most effectual both to inform the Mind and ulso to reform the Heart and Life of ignorant and sinful man which is taken from the Scriptures clearly explained and truly understood And though there be many good and prositable Books yet those are the best which are written by learned and pious men who being endued with the knowledg of Arts and the Original Languages have by the assistance of God and their diligent study found out those hidden Treasures of heavenly wisdom contained in those blessed Writings Of this sacred Volume there be many parts and some more edifying than others and amogst the rest the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews is inferiour to none The Subject thereof is The Prophetical and Sacerdotal Office of Christ our blessed Saviour upon whom our eternal Salvation doth depend the Frame and Contexture is wonderful and excellent the Method clear and exact the Arguments whereby the Truth is confirmed demonstrative and undeniable the Motives whereby heavenly Duties are pressed piercing powerful and prevailing This I have singled out to be the Subject of the ensuing Discourse and after the Labours of other learned and worthy men have endeavoured in our native Language to make it plain and more easy to be understood by meaner Capacities and my earnest desire and hearty prayer is That it may have the same effect upon our Hearts which the blessed Apostle intended it should have upon these Hebrews My design in this Work principally was by searching the Original and the Translations to find out the sense of the Phrases and Expressions by giving the Analysis of the several Chapters by shewing the Connexion of one part with another and the tendency of them to the main Scope to make a positive clear Explication of the whole And by this I improve my Theo-Politica for divers points and parts of divine Wisdom concerning the Prophetical and Sacerdotal Office of Christ final Perseverance Faith the Sacrifice of our great High Priest but briefly touched there are more largely handled here Neither is this all but whilst I proceed in this Work I take notice of the Vanity of the Socinian Expositor who goes about to elude such Texts as asserts the Deity of Christ as the eternal Word of God whereby the World was made his Incarnation and his expiation of Sin by a bloody Sacrifice offered by him as Priest and accepted of God before his Ascension into Heaven and his Sâ—ssion at the right hand of God Where he was not first made but confirmed by Oath an everlasting Priest according to the Order of Melchizedec For all these he denies contrary to the scope of the Apostle and the express words of Scripture in other places Impertinent Digressions and needless Amplifications I have forborn I am neither too brief as some nor too large and voluminous as others have been I have endeavoured to observe the Golden mean My desire is by this Discourse to edify confirm and comfort God's People who aim at Heaven and seek eternal Life by our blessed Saviour The whole I submit unto the Judgment of the pious learned and judicious Reader who I hope will pardon my Imperfections correct my Mistakes accept my Endeavours and if he find the Work beneficial will give the Praise and Glory to God Who is blessed for evermore AMEN ERRATA PAge 1. line 29. 15. read 19. p. 2. l. 57. both infallible r. that infallbly p. 3. l. 22. dele sit p. 4. l. 58. there r. three p. 8. l. 1. he r. they p. 10 l. 5. dele Zurick p. 11. l. 10. sor Zanch. Divlnes r. or the Zurick Divines Ibid. l. 13. Zank read Zurick p. 14. l. 2. the r. they Ibid. l. 12. the r. they Ibid. l. 29. the r. their p. 20. l. 38. Rivera r. Ribera p. 21. l. 7. that r. they p. 25. l. 2. then some r. yet some p. 27. l. 28. so must r. so much p. 30. to Angels r. 1 ot to Angels p. 4. l. 25. in these r. in thesi Ibid. l 58. of those r. of those times p. 42. in the margent for Sacraments r. Ser mons p. 50. l. 1. our with r. with our Ibid. l. 8. then those r. then of those p. 63. l. 12. and invest men r. but actually investeth men p. 66. l. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. l. 39. that they are r. that there are p. 77. l. 56. sussabdi r. jus subditi p. 78. l. 11. predicated r. predicate p. 88. l. 24. in r. in my Theopolitica p. 193. l. 15. r. Metaphorical not a Metaphorical p. 121. l. 33. 9. for 6. p. 127. l. 35. him r. them p. 130. l. 24. excepted r. accepted p. 13 r. l. 1. he r. they p. 152. l. 33. for 12. r. 1. 2. p. 160. l. 17. Being r. King p. 174. l. 5. pledges r. pleadet p. 177. l. 36. part r. party p. 188. l. 18. figured r. fig uring p. 192. l. 4. or if he do not believe it r. or if they do believe it p. 197. l. 56. Vetâ—siuâ— r. Velâ—sius his Copy p. 201. l. 32. Nobitius r. Nobilius p. 203. l. 10. Megittath r. Megillath p. 215. l. 56. any r. nay p. 225. l. 2. professeth r. professed Ibid. l. 8. as so r. so as p. 226. l. 14. dele or p. 243. l. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 245. l. 5. ter r. chapter p. 249. l. 7. meant r. made p. 251. l. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 256. after the last line blot out the word fountain p. 257. l. 13. end r. evil Ibid. l. 4. 49. stored r. stered p. 283. l. 46. impulsive mountains r. impossible mountains p. 290. l. 23. to referred r. to be referred p. 294. l. 9. descerti r. deserti p. 299. l. 56. deprivation r. depravation p. 303. l. 8. that we in r. that we may p. 304. l. 50. receiving r. reviving p. 312. l. 49. regeneration r. generation p. 312. l. 48. portions r. potions p. 340. l. 21. exhorted r. dehorted p. 342. l. 36. simple r. single Ibid. l. last prefection r. protection p. 343. l. 13. to on stand r. to stand on p. 349. l. 26. are all of us by nature r. even all us by nature are contrary A brief Analysis of the Epistle to the
another then a third till the whole was finished One part was declared as it was revealed by one Prophet another by another a third by a â—â—ird 3. That one part was written at one time another at another and the whole â—â— several and sundry times 4. There was a considerable time between the Prophet and the parts and a great distance between the first and the last For some of the best Chronologâ—ts â—ell us that the time from Moses to Malachi was a thousand and two hundred years 5. This 〈◊〉 â—ay referr to the matter which was various 4. As it was delivered by parts and in several times so it was revealed and declared many and several ways as it seemed good to the manifold wisdom of God â—ho 〈◊〉 many ways both to inform his Prophets and instruct his People In this they all agreed that they were moved inspired illuminated and infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost Yet this eternal Spirit did inform them by several representations made to the oâ—â—ward 〈◊〉 whilst they were waking or to the inward senses in Dreams oâ— Exâ—â—fies or more partly of immediately to the immortal Soul by illaps and powerful penâ—â—â—tion with a divine Light into the intellectual Spirit And as he did notify and make known his thoughts and 〈◊〉 lent Counsels several ways unto the Prophets so by them he declared them to â—â—â— People in any ways as by words by writing by writings read by visible Figures So that he 〈◊〉 any way did apply himself to the Fathers and used several means to cause them to understand his Will He omitted no way which was either necessary or expedient for their good From all this we may collect a Description of that part of the Scripture which we call the Oâ—â— Testament It is the Word of God which at sundry times by parts many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 times past he spake by the Prophets to the Fathers These were not all the Prophets 〈◊〉 the beginning For Adam was a Propher so was Eâ—och and 〈◊〉 and Nâ—â—h â—â—â— Abraham but these were they by whom God spake to the Fathers and Ancestors of those 〈◊〉 and were the pen-men of the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament whereof 〈◊〉 were Priests and Kings That God by these was pleased to speak unto the Fathers 〈◊〉 a peculiar mercy and special favour to that People above all other People and was in act of â—â—â—gular care and extraordinary providence And it was a prerogative and a 〈◊〉 priviledg that they were trusted with his Oracles It 's true that the Church never was without some Prophecy and Word of God whereby he supplyed the ignorance and negligence of men and defects of humane reason and memory in divine things in 〈◊〉 known those things concerning man's eternal good which otherwise could never have been known § 5. The first Proposition is That the Prophets are excellent as hath been made evident The second follows and affirms That Christ is more excellent and that not only as a Prophet but many other ways Both are excellent because God spake by both and the Fathers as also their Children happy because God spake to both Yet Christ is more excellent because God spake by Him as by his Son and their Children more happy then the Fathers because God spake to them not by Prophets but his Son For in these last Days God hath spoken to us by his Son c. Ver. 2. In the words four things are to be considered 1. Who spake 2. To whom He spake 3. When He spake 4. By whom He spake 1. Who spake It was God the same God who spake unto the Fathers For the same God is the Authour of the whole Canon of the Scripture both of the Old and New Testament 2. To whom did He speak To us that is the Children and Posterity of the Fathers living in the time of Christ and the Apostles Such were these Hebrews and the Apostles For whom God reserved this special happiness above their Ancestors For many Prophets and Kings desired to see those things which they saw and did not see them and to bear those things which they heard and did not hear them Luke 10. 24. 3. When did God speak to the Children Even in the last days which in this respect were the best days because of clearest light and greatest mercy wherewith this time was blessed above the former days 4. By whom did he speak then unto them By his Son the Greatest and most Excellent of all the Prophets and far above them all For the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst them and they beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. § 6. The intention of the Apostle in these words is to set forth the excellency of Christ and therefore he gives us a description of Him which we must 1. Understand 2. From thence conclude his Excellency both absolutely and comparatively In the description some things affirmed of Christ agree to him as the Word not made Flesh some agree to him as the Word made Flesh or Incarnate Christ Jesus if we observe is the Son of God by whom he spake whom he hath made Heir of all things by whom he made the Worlds the brightness of his Fathers Glory c. 1. He is the Son of God and that in a Supereminent manner so as neither Men or Angels though Sons of God are therefore is He said to be his only begotten He is a Son not only in respect of his person Divine but of the humane Nature united to the Word He is a Son not only because like God or because adopted but by a divine and ineffable generation and production which far transcends the capacity of humane reason As the Word He is so near to God that He is God as Flesh and Man He is nearer then either Men or Angels 2. This Son of God is a Prophet for God spake by him as he did by the Prophets yet by him in a more perfect and excellent manner 3. God hath appointed him Heir of all things To be Heir is to be Lord to be made Heir is to receive Power to be made Heir of All is to receive an Universal and supream Power not only over Men but Angels This Power he received and it was given him upon the Resuâ—rection Therefore being risen he saith All Power in Heaven and Earth is given unto me Matth. 28. 18. This includes 1. A right 3. A possession upon a Solemn investicure In this phrase he seems to allude unto the priviledg of the first born Son who was Lord of the whole Inheritance and must Rule over his Brethren And this agrees to Christ as Man yet united to the Word 4. By him he made the Worlds This is affirmed and to be understood of Christ as the Word not incarnate and made Flesh. In the words we may observe 1. Worlds made 2. The making of them 3. By whom they were made
4. Who made them by him 1. By Worlds some understand 1. All times 2. All things in all times Others think that he used the expression of the Rabbins who make there Worlds 1. The lowest which is the Earth Sea and all things in them The second and the middle is the Ayr and the Aethereal part with the Sphears The third is the supream the World of Angels God and Souls Yet all these are but one World and systeme of Heaven and Earth and the Word signifies all times and durations with all places and all things in all times and places 2. The making of these Worlds is the giving them their Being after that they had no Being and is the same with creating and framing as we may read in many other places 3. These Worlds were made by the Word which once made Flesh was Christ For by the Word and Wisdom of God which was the Rule and Idea of all things all things were modeled and received their forms shapes and distinct beings 4. It was God who by this Word which was his Word and was with him in the beginning and also from eternity so that it was God as he was God the same God the same essence Yet we must not understand this so as though God made the World by his Son as by an instrument or inferiour distinct Agent but Father Word and Spirit were an individual efficient sole cause of the Worlds This is the same with that of the divine Evangelist All things were made by him that is by the Word and without him was not any thing made which was made Joh. 1. 3. The Apostle Paul expresseth this more particularly and distinctly for speaking of the Son he saith That by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in â—arâ—â— visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominâ—ons or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him Colos. 1. 16. This is so clear that I wonder with what face Crâ—llius could expound the words so as by the Worlds to understand Man and by making and creating the Worlds the reforming and restoring Mankind This seems to be more strange seeing he understands those words By Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God Heb. 11. 3. of the Creation of the World The cause of this his false exposition is plain enough For this being affirmed of Christ that by him God made the Worlds it did plainly evince his Existence before his conception of the Virgin Mary nay before the World which was contrary to their damnable Errour Therefore he wilfully devised this interpretation lest he should grant the etemity of the Son of God But in Chap. 11. 3. where there was no mention of Christ he could give the genuine sense § 7. Ver. 3. Who being the brightness of his Glory To be Hâ—iâ— of all things did agree to him upon the Resurrection that God made the Worlds by Him referrs unto the work of Creation but to be the brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express image of his person agrees to Him from eternity For in these words we may observe his eternal generation and production Some think the expression is taken out of the Book of Wisdom though Apocryâ—hâ—l Chap. 7. 26. where Wisdom is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness oâ— effulgency of eternal Light For we find diverse expressions of those Apocryphal Books taken up and used in the New Testament For the better understanding hereof we must observe 1. That God is often called Light because this bodily and visible Light is Glorious and in several respects resembles that eternal glorious essence of God 2. That here God is said to have Light or Glory not that Glory or Light is an accident in God but because he is said to have that which he is For God is not only lightfome and glorious but Light and Glory Therefore this Glory is essential Glory or Light â— 3. The Similitude here used is taken not from accidental but substantial Light as the same is said to be a Light Purity beauty delectability in Light do teach us something of Him 4. Brightness or effulgency here must not be understood to be either an effect or an accident of this spiritual infinite and eternal Glory yet it 's something issuing from and produced by that Glory as the mental Word which is a kind of invisible brightness is the issue product or broode of the intellect which is a spiritual Light From this pâ—ice and such like the Nicene Fathers did conlude That Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God begotten of his Father before all Worlds God of God Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made By this we may easily understand that they believed 1. The Glory to be a substance 2. The brightnesse to be a substance not an effect or accident 3. That the glory and brightnesse were one and the same substance 4. That the brightness issued from and was a product of the Glory not meerly as from a substance but as from a substance acting and acting upon it self 5. That Christ in this respect did exist from eternity We know little of this bodily Light less of the intellectual Light of the Soul and least of all of this eternal Light Therefore we trust believe according to plain Scripture most certainly that which we cannot clearly understand From hence we may understand the reason why Jesus Christ is called the Word and it is as because the word of the Intellect reflecting upon it self to know it self is a product of it self so is the Son of God the product of the eternal Intellect beholding it self to know itself yet this is the difference that this Word of the Soul is not so perfect nor real as this Word of God And the express Image of his person If Light produce Light then the Light produced must be like unto and in some measure represent more the Light and Glory producing and the more perfect and immediate the production is the more perfect is the resemblance and expression And because this production was perfect therefore this brightness is said to be the express Image of his Father The word translated here the express Image is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Character or impression made by Sculpture or some other way and this Character if rightly made is a lively expression of the samplar as an ectypon of the prototype This brightness is said to be the Character of his Hypostasis which some turn substance some turn person This implys 1. That he is a substantial Image yet not another but the same substance 2. That there is a relation between God who is this eternal Light and this image or brightness for he is the Image of this Glory 3. Yet he is not the Image of nor hath relation unto the Essence for
them such for Nature such for Office First For their Nature they are Spirits and a flame of sire for Office Angels and Ministers 1. They are Spirits that is spiritual and intellectual Creatures For whereas many think because Ruack in Hebrew and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signify sometimes the Winds and that here the Angels are compared to the Winds for swiftness it 's poor For the word signifies the Soul of Man the Affections and Operations and the Mind it signifies also Angels both good and bad as they are spiritual and intellectual Substances 2. They are a flame of fire or flaming fire that is Seraphims bright glorious and excellent Creatures They are called Cherubims and Seraphims which are Spirits near unto the Throne of God ever in his presence like Princes tending upon his Majesty ready ever to do him Service and glorify him 1. God makes them and gives them an excellent Being and qualifies them and makes them fit to be his Servants 2. He makes them Servants and Officers to do him high and glorious Service 1. They must be Angels to know and declare his Will to those to whom he sends them 2. They must be Ministers to do and execute his Will He made them both their excellent Nature and their Office and both from him Here it might be noted that the Angels are not any kind of Servants but such as are in eminent place as Officers be yet Officers are but Servants and not Lords The Sum of all is that Angels though excellent Creatures are but Servants and Ministers and this the Apostle intended out of these words to prove § 16. Ver. 8 9. But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God c. Where we must consider 1. The Connexion 2. The Translation 3. The principal sense 4. The Scope of the Apostle 1. The Connexion is not copulative but discretive and implies an opposition and an eminency For Christ is here opposed to the Angels as Servants and Subjects are to Soveraigns as invested with a super-eminent Dignity and Power therefore the particle ω is well translated but. 2. The Translation is 1. Of the words of Allegation 2. Of the words alledged First Of the words of Allegation which may be translated either as they are here read To the Son he saith or as the former of the Son he saith or as for the Son he saith He that is God or the Psalmist or the Scripture or the Spirit by the Psalmist in the Scripture saith thus of the Son Secondly Of the words alledged the Translation is somewhat doubtful for they may be turned Thy Throne O God as they are commonly translated or Thy Throne is God as Genebrard ieforms us some Rabbins understand it or thy Throne of God and every one of these may be true 3. The genuine sense is this that the Power of Christ is from God a royal and divine Power for his Kingdom was not of this World but an heavenly Kingdom of universal and eternal continuance and of a perfect constitution and administration For because that he loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity so far as to be righteous and holy not only in life but death and by his death to expiate the sin of Man and to sanctify all that believe in him for ever therefore God even his God anointed him that is exalted him above all Kings and Prophets even above the Angels By Oyl of gladness is meant Oyl that maketh glad which here signifies not only the gifts but the power of the holy Spirit and to be anointed with this Oyl is not onely to receive gifts and ability but power and authority spiritual and divine and the same super-eminent above all power communicated to any other And this transcendent power was given him for his great and glorious Service in the work of Redemption by his Death and Sufferings 4. The Scope of the Apostle is to prove that Christ is more excellent than the Angels and the reason is strong they are but Messengers Ministers Servants God never made any of them an universal and eternal King but such he hath made Christ. The Apostle implies that the 45. Psalm speaks of Christ. § 17. Ver. 10 11 12. And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth c. How these words agree with the Scope of the Apostle so as to prove Christ to be more excellent than the Angels is difficult to understand They are taken out Psal. 102. The whole Psalm is a Prayer directed to God Redeemer by Christ the matter of the Petition is to hasten the coming of Christ and his glorious Kingdom the repair of the Church and the enlargement of it to all Nations that the People may be gathered together and the Kingdoms to serve the Lord that is the Lord Christ and that his Saints being mortal may be changed and inherit eternal life by that Lord Christ who shall destroy all Enemies consume the World with fire and eternally glorify the Saints The Propositions or divine Axioms contained in these words are 1. That Christ being Jehovah made the World 2. That Heaven and Earth created by him are mutable and shall be changed by him 3. That he is immutable and his Kingdom everlasting 4. That his Subjects and Servants though mortal shall enjoy eternal peace and happiness by him In all these things Christ is far above the Angels especially in this that he being Creator of the World shall be an everlasting King of an everlasting and unchangeable Kingdom Yet this is so to be understood that it doth not agree to Christ as the Word alone because as the Word alone he is not Redeemer nor to Christ as Flesh or Man alone for as such he could not create the World but it agrees unto him as the Word made Flesh and exalted at the right hand of God This may be considered either as a distinct proof from the former or a confirmation of the same in respect of his eternal Throne and Kingdom The Socinian upon this place 1. Denies Christ to be the Creator of the World and so to be God 2. Affirms that the intention of the Apostle is to prove Christ more excellent than the Angels onely by one thing in the words and that is by his secondary power to change Heaven and Earth which power God never gave unto the Angels And his design in all this was to cloud this place which so plainly affirms the Deity and immutable Being of Christ. 1. That Christ is the Creator of the World hath been clear from Joh. 1. 2 3. from the second Verse of this Chapter from Coloss. 1. 16. For Christ is not meerly Man as they affirm but the Word by which all things were made which in fulness of time was made flesh 2. That he that made the World is the same that shall change it and shall abide the same for ever For to create the World to change it to remain for ever are all affirmed of
one Person and if that Person be Christ then all not onely one of them agree unto him This Erasmus Johannes did very well observe in his dispute with Socinus concerning some kind of existence which Christ must needs have before the Incarnation Socinus in his Answer doth miserably shift and offers plain violence to the place Volkelius doth the like Crellius Volkelius Socinus make this the Scope of the Apostle in this first Chapter to demonstrate that Christ is more excellent than the Angels onely in such things as he received as Man from God after his Death and Resurrection But as you heard before his intent is to prove 1. That Christ is more excellent than the Prophets 2. Than the Angels And as he was more excellent than the Prophets not onely as sitting at the right hand of God but as creating the World and being the brightness of his Father's Glory and the express Image of his Person so he was more excellent than Angels not onely as sett at the right hand of God but as creating the World It was an hard thing and is still to understand the Mystery of the Incarnation That the eternal Word and Wisdom of God by which he created the World should be made Flesh and possesse dwell in and be united to the Nature of Man is plain Scripture but how he doth possess it dwell in it and is united to it so as he never possessed or dwelt in or was united unto any other Man or Angel is far above our reach and capacity Believe that it is so we must we may we are bound unto it it 's clear certain and the Word of God expresseth it plainly Understand the manner how it is we cannot And how should we seeing we are so ignorant how the Soul and Body are united In this Case as in many other Non vivacitas intelligendi sed simplicitas credendi not our evident Knowledg but our Faith must save us But it 's a wickedness which God will punish to deny that which God doth plainly affirm because we cannot fully comprehend it § 18. Ver. 13. 14. But to which of the Angels said he at any time c. These words may be understood to be a Conclusion of the former premisses or a new Argument If a Conclusion then we must conceive the premisses and the former discourse to amount to this that God set Christ at his right hand and not the Angels and here he briefly sums up the whole and inferrs therefore Christ is above the Angels Yet they rather seem to contain a new another Argument taken from the Psalmist Psal. 110. The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand c. 1. To sit at the right hand of God is not onely to be for ever happy and blessed by enjoying those pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore nor onely to be advanced to the highest place of honour and dignity next unto God but to be invested with a supream and universal Power above all Men and Angels and by the same actually to reign for with the Apostle to sit at the right hand of God is to reign 1 Cor. 15. 25. This is to be Administrator-general as Law-giver and Judge in that spiritual Kingdom whereby God orders sinful Man unto eternal Glory This agrees to him as the Word made Flesh raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven 2. This Glory Dignity and Power was given to Christ as Man yet united to the Word For the Lord said unto my Lord that is David's Lord who yet according to the Flesh was David's Son who though Flesh was far greater after his Humiliation than his Father David not onely as the Word and the same Supream Lord with the Father but as Flesh and Man The Chaldee turns it to his Word the Lord said to his Word yet to his Word made Flesh. 3. The party who advanced him to his right hand was God for it was God who gave him a Name above all Names none else could give it 4. He gave it him by his Word and Edict For he said In this word we have the Patent or Commission of Christ in which he signifies his Will was that he should be Lord and King and with the word gives him the Power so that his Title is good and valid and stands firm and inviolable 5. The date of this Reign is expressed in those words untill his Enemies be made his Foot-stool that is till the Resurrection and final Glorification of all his Saints This being the meaning of the words the Apostle insists chiefly upon that part of the Text said to my Lord as though he should say 1. You confess that Psalm to be part of the holy Scripture revealed from Heaven 2. That the words are not to be understood of Angels but the Messiah 3. That in the first words of that Psalm God speaks to some certain Person to whom he gives Power to reign 4. He did not by those words give Power unto the Angels but to Christ thence he argues If God gave this Power to Christ and never to any of the Angels did the like then Christ is more excellent than the Angels and the Angels inferiour to Christ But this was said this power was given to Christ and not to the Angels therefore he is more excellent This Argument is stronger and more convictive because it 's negative and exclusive for they might have said that though God did advance and honour Christ and gave him an everlasting Kingdom yet he might do the like to some of the Angels To prevent this he out of the Text proves that God said this to Christ and there is no mention there nor in any part of the Scripture of God's advancing any of them to his right hand And that his Argument might be more forcing he proposeth it interrogatively To which of the Angels said he at any time That is He said not any such thing at any time to any of the Angels If he did he challengeth them to prove or produce the place which they could never do § 19. Ver. 14. Are they not all ministring Spirits c. These words may be considered absolutely in themselvs or relatively as conducing unto the main Conclusion intended by the Apostle The subject of them are Angels of whom something here is affirmed The manner of Expression is Rhetorical by way of Interrogation The Answer implyed is affirmative for they say that negative Interrogations are more vehement Affirmations The Proposition in general is That all the Angels are ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation The parts infolded in the general or the whole are many 1. They are Spirits 2. Ministring Spirits 3. Sent forth to minister 4. The Minister for the Heirs of Salvation 5. They are all such 1. They are Spirits that is incorporeal incorruptible intellectual active substances the most noble and excellent Creatures God made 2. They are ministring
ministreth unto you the spirit and worketh Miracles amongst you doth he it by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith Chap. 3. 5. Where he doth imply 1. That he did not so many and great Miracles amongst them to confirm the Doctrine of the Law but to confirm the Faith that is the Gospel 2. He did not minister the Spirit and gifts of the Holy Ghost by the preaching nor they receive the Spirit by the hearing of the Law but of the Gospel 3. That God to testify the excellency of the Gospel above the Law did concurr to work Miracles and give the Spirit in confirmation of the one not of the other Therefore if the Gospel in so many respects be more excellent then the Law then to let it slip to recede from it to neglect it is a far greater sin and therefore makes us obnoxious to far more grievous punishment So we are come to the principal Conclusion which is to take heed of departing from or neglecting of this Doctrine of so great Salvation § 8. The application of this is to be made unto all and every one who having the use of reason hath heard the Gospel Let every one of them seriously consider that God speaks in it he speaks not by Angels but his own Son it 's the most clear full and powerful Doctrine that ever was revealed from Heaven a Doctrine of eternal Salvation it 's confirmed by most glorious works and the excellent Gifts of the blessed Spirit It 's a discovery of profoundest wisdom a manifestation of greatest love and the last warning God will give No other knowledg so useful so excellent so absolutely necessary as this Therefore receive it readily lay it up in your hearts never forget ever remember it prize it never neglect it never depart from it If the love of God cannot perswade you let the fear of his eternal displeasure and the love of your own Salvation prevail with you What will you despise his sweetest mercy reject the tender of Salvation bring upon your selves eternal and unavoidable misery It will be the greatest Sin that you can commit and make you obnoxious to the greatest punishment if you shall refuse to hearken to this great Propher Shall the word of Angels transgressed be so severely punished and shall no Offender escape And shall the word of the eternal Son of God be disobeyed and any Offender guilty in this particular escape everlasting penalties Let not any slatter themselves and think to escape For how shall we escape if we neglect c Ver. 5. For unto the Angels hath he not put in subjection the World to come whereof we speak § 9. The words are difficult to be understood and must be explained before the scope of the Apostle in them can be discovered The subject matter of them is the World to come and God's subjection of it The greatest difficulty is to know what 's meant by the World to come which many think referrs to the state of glory and the World which follows the Resurrection Thus à Lapide and some of the Antients Riverae understands the Church-Christian as opposed to the Church of former times especially under the Law This is the more probable sense For the Apostle speaks of these last times wherein God spake unto men by his Son and it 's opposed to the times wherein he spake by his Prophets and Angels Yet we must not understand it of the Church exclusively as though God had not subjected other things even Angels for the good of the Church That World and those times whereof the Apostle speaks are here meant but he speaks of the times of the Gospel The proposition is negative God subjected not the World to come to Angels In former times God had used very much the ministery of Angels in ordering the Church and put much power in their hands to that end Yet now in this last time he made Christ his Son who by reason of his suffering was a little lower then the Angels to be the administratour-General of his Kingdom the Universal Lord and subjected the very Angels unto him The expression seems to be taken from Esay 9. 6. for whereas there amongst others Titles given to Christ one is â—verlasting Father the Sepâ—uagint turn it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father or Governour of the World to come which seems to be the genuine sense of the Hebrew words The sum is that God did not subject the Church in the times of the Gospel nor the World of those times to Angels but to Christ. The words thus understood may inform us 1. That Christ is more excellent then the Angels 2. If the Law and Word spoken by Angels when neglected and disobeyed was so severely punished much more severely shall they who neglect the Gospel spoken by Christ be punished 3. That if it was the duty of the Fathers and those who lived in former times to hearken to the Word spoken by Angels which are but Servants Then it 's much more the duty of us who live in these last times to hearken unto the Word of so great Salvation spoken by Christ made Lord of All. From hence we may understand the scope of the words to be the same with that of the former and that may be considered either aâ—part of the former reason why we should hearken to Christ and not neglect the Gospel or they may with the latter words following contain another distinct reason and in this manner that seeing God hath not to the Angels subjected the World to come but to Christ who by his Suffering and Death was for a little time made lower then the Angels and for that suffering afterward made Lord of all even of Angels then we ought to give the more earnest heed to his Doctrine Crellius understands by the World to come Heaven but without any reason but rather contrary to reason and to the purpose of the Apostle § 10. The former Text being negative doth not express but imply that the World to come was put in subjection to Christ. But in these words he doth not only express it but prove it And to this purpose he alledgeth the words of Psal. 8 4 5 6. In this testimony we may observe the allegation or the words alledged application of them The manner of the allegation we need not examine the Authour neither names the Book of Psalms as a distinct part of the Scriptures of the Old Testament nor the particular Psalm which is for number the 8th nor the Authour of the Psalm David But saith 1. That one or a certain man testifieth 2. He testifieth in a certain place This he did not through ignorance or defect of memory but out of some other reason He knew that the testimony or thing testified was the principal thing and that these Hebrews were well acquainted with the Scriptures and especially with the Book of Psalms To return to the words alledged out of the holy
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
were yet here they are called Brethren as believing in Christ and holy as sanctified by the Spirit of Christ So that this is a Fraternity in respect of Religion Christian. They became such Brethren and so holy by the heavenly Call they were partakers of the heavenly Calling For as they were not Brethren so neither were they holy by natural Generation but by supernatural and spiritual Regeneration as before To be partakers of this Call is either barely to be called or to be partakers of this Mercy together with others It 's said to be Heavenly as some understand it in respect of the efficient and the final Cause It 's from Heaven that is from God who is the principal Cause of this Work and because they are to be called to Heaven that is eternal Glory which is the end and ultimate Effect thereof In it we may consider 1. The Work of God 2. The Duty of Man 3. The Benefit following upon both The Work of God is by the Word of the Gospel and the Power of the Spirit to enlighten and sanctify man and gave him a Divine Power to believe and turn unto Him The duty of Man is to be obedient to the heavenly Call The benefit is the admission of him as obedient unto his heavenly Kingdom and receiving him as an Heir of Glory Upon this heavenly Call followeth a great change both in the disposition and condition of man called For his disposition he is made of unholy holy and therefore said to be called with an holy Calling and to be called unto Holiness For his condition he is made of miserable happy and therefore said to be called unto eternal Glory And because the distance between holiness and happiness and sinful and miserable Man is so great therefore this work of God is a work of great power and because the change is so happy therefore it 's a work of great mercy wherein God freely prevents man so that if he should not thus prevent him he would be for ever sinful and miserable Wo unto all such as are disobedient to this heavenly Call and neglect this preventing Grace for as their Sin is more hainous so their Punishment shall be more grievous The Apostle seems to put them in mind of this Calling to let them know how deeply they are engaged to God and how unworthy they should be if they should not persevere unto the end § 3. The duty exhorted unto is expressed ver 6. It 's to hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope firm to the end and is repeated ver 14. It 's opposed to unbelief ver 12. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God The duty therefore is persevetance which presupposeth that they had received the Truth of the Gospel and professed their Faith in Christ and is a continâ—ance in this Faith once received and professed to the end This Faith was from God and was wrought in them by the heavenly Call and the continuance of it depends upon God He gave it at the first he continues it to the last yet so that man must be obedient at the first and use all means with diligent care to preserve it to the last Some refuse to obey at the first others who have professed and received the Truth fall off before the end and both these are sins and they only guilty of them § 4. The reasons follow 1. From the excellency of Christ which is set forth by Comparison The parties compared are Christ and Moses both excellent but Christ far more And here it is observable 1. That the duty is the same with that which was pressed Chap. 2. 2. That the ground of that was the excellency of Christ above the Angels of this the excellency of Christ above Moses 3. The reason there was that if the disobedience unto the word of Angels was punished with Death how much more grievously shall they be punished which disobey the Gospel of Christ 4. The reason here is that if their fathers for their unbelief and disobedience to the Doctrine of Moses were eternally shut out of God's rest how much more shall they he shut out of Heaven and Christ's eternal rest if they do not continue in the Faith of Christ but fall off from their profession To understand this first reason we must consider 1. The excellency of Christ and the excellency of Moses absolutely and positively 2. The excellency of both comparatively that so we may understand the excellency of the one fâ—t above the the excellency of the other 1. Therefore they must consider the excellency of Christ Jesus which is this That he is the Apostle and High-Priest of their Profession Their profession was of the Christian Faith and Religion which they did professe The Authour Apostle and Legate sent from Heaven who first published this Faith and Doctrine was Christ the Son of God by whom God spake who was formerly proved to be more excellent then the Prophets then the Angels So that their Religion was from God nor by Prophets or Angels but by Christ the great Prophet For here to be an Apostle is to be a Prophet Yet Moses and so many others may be Prophets yet no High-Priest but Christ Jesus is not only the Prophet but the High-Priest who mediates between God and Man and officiates so as to make his Doctrine effectual and saving and expiate his Peoples Sin that they may be reconciled to their God This two-fold power was necessary as without which he could not have been a perfect Saviour These are his two Offices upon which the Apostle so much enlargeth and insisteth But 〈◊〉 may be an Officer and yet prove unfaithful and not discharge his trust yet Christ was faithful For it follows Ver. 2. Who was faithful to him that appointed him § 5. This is concerning Christ's fidelity expressed both absolutely in these words and comparatively in those which follow 1. Absolutely He was faithful to him who appointed him 2. Comparatively As Moses was faithful in all his House The former words 1. Imply his ordination 2. Expresse his fidelity to him that ordained him Where we have two Propositions 1. That God appointed Him 2. He was faithful to God In that He was appointed or made an Apostle and High-Priest of our Christian profession for so the words are to be understood it 's evident that He did not Usurp this two-fold Power and Office but received it and acquired it legally and none could invest Him with this Power but onely God and the reason is because it is so eminent and transcendent After he was once advanced he was faithful to that God who advanced and trusted him with so great a Power This fidelity was the true and full discharge of his Apostolical and Sacerdotal Office in perfectly doing all things necessary for the eternal Salvation of Man so far as it depended upon this two-fold Office As an Apostle or Prophet
be translated otherwise as it is by the Syriack Vatablus and the Vulgar This passage hath reference to that word especially my Rest for there is a Rest of God promised in the Gospel yet truly this is not God's Rest from his work of Creation upon the seventh day That was a Rest 1. Of God 2. That Rest wherewith he rested himself 3. It was his Rest from the works of Creation 4. It was that Rest which he rested the first seventh day of the World after he had finished the Works of Heaven and Earth For this purpose the Apostle alledgeth the words of Moses Gen. 2. 1 2 3. This Rest indeed might signify the perpetual Rest of Men and Angels when they have finished their work of Obedience and God might institute the Sabbath for this end Yet though this was a Rest of God yet it was not the Rest implyed in the Psalm not that which is promised in the Gospel That it was not he makes plain Ver. 5. And in this place again If ye shall enter into my Rest. THat is there is a second Rest long after promised to Israel and it is that which he gave them in the Land of Canaan this the Psalmist intends in these words As I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest yet this is not that which is promised in the Gospel This he makes evident by the words following Ver. 6. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Unbelief Ver. 7. Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David To day after so long a time as it is said To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts Ver. 8. For if Jesus had given them Rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another Rest. THis part of the Chapter is more easily understood if we reduce it to Propositions which are these 1. That though there was a Rest of the Land of Canaan whereinto some must enter and did enter yet a certain day is limited and appointed by David of entring into another Rest. 2. This day was appointed long after the entrance of Israel into the Land of Canaan 3. The words whereby another day of another Rest is appointed and promised are these To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts 4. If Jesus or Joshua had brought Israel into that Rest which David speaks of there had been no need of speaking of and promising another Rest so long after The Apostle infers from all this that there is a Rest yet remaining for the People of God though it be neither the Rest of God from the Works of Creation nor the Rest in the Land of Canaan For the Scriptures mention but three Rests or Sabbatisms the first of Creation the second of Canaan the third of Heaven and this last is that which is meant by the Psalmist and promised in the Gospel And he further adds that this Rest had some affinity with that of Canaan and with that of God's Sabbath For Ver. 10. He that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his VVHich words may be understood two wayes 1. Of the Title and Right to enter into this Rest or 2. Of the actual enjoyment and full possession In the former respect it 's certain that no Man can have so much as a Title or any hope of this eternal Rest till he cease from and forsake his own Works of Sin by true Repentance In the latter respect which is more probably intended no Man can actually enjoy the Rest of Heaven untill by perseverance he hath finished all his Work of Evangelical Obedience as God did not keep his Sabbath till he had fully finished all his works of Creation This is a Doctrine full of sweet and heavenly Comfort That Christ hath purchased an eternal glorious Sabbath God hath promised it in the Gospel and we who by the Sanctification of the Spirit persevere in our Christian Profession and Practice shall certainly enjoy it fully and for ever All men desire Rest yet it 's not to be found on Earth but in Heaven not in the Creature but in God Happy they which know the Excellency and Glory of this Rest and with all diligence and constancy use the means to attain it by following the Doctrine of the great Prophet Jesus Christ unto the end § 4. Here comes in the Exhortation to the great Duty in Ver. 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest lest any man fall after the same Example of Unbelief THese words may be considered 1. In their Coherence 2. In themselves 1. The Coherence is implyed in the Particle and Illative Conjunction therefore which informeth us that this Exhortation is a Conclusion inferred upon some antecedent Premisses and that Proposition of the Apostle We which have believed do enter into Rest Ver. 3. Which 1. Implies that there is a Rest for us under the Gospel 2. Affirms that they who believe do enter The former he manifests at large that there is a Rest besides that of Creation and that of the Land of Canaan remaining for the People of God The latter is plain out of the Psalm and he takes it for granted that such as hear and believe shall enter and onely such have admission Hence he inferrs That if there be an eternal glorious Rest prepared and promised to be enjoyed by Believers then it 's our Duty to labour to enter This is the Connexion The Exhortation considered in it self with the rest of the Chapter to the end doth 1. Propose the Duty 2. Urge the performance upon effectual Reasons The Duty is to labour to enter into that Rest where we have A Rest. Entring into it Labouring to enter What the Rest is you have heard before The entrance is to acquire and attain the actual possession and full enjoyment and that it may be considered 1. As a Duty of man and then it is the use of all means ordained of God for the attainment 2. As a gift and gracious Work of God admitting and receiving us unto the enjoyment yet because man should not mistake by thinking it an easie matter to enter at his will and pleasure he here implies that it 's a work of labour of difficulty of striving it 's an entring in at the strait Gate and we must labour use all our power and put our strength to the utmost For this is the greatest business which we have to do in this Life and our will must be most firmly resolved and bent upon it our understanding intended and as it were set upon the rack in all the operations thereof and our executive power exercised to the utmost degree For out wit will and power and all the faculties of the Soul and Body must be taken up continually in this work as the most necessary and excellent of all others The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
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
and divine and that 's evident from the effect which is Salvation he is able to save This Salvation is not natural or temporal but spiritual and a full deliverance from sin the greatest evil and the most woful Consequents thereof for he so delivers that he makes the parties saved fully happy and blessed 3. He might save Man and that spiritually and yet but for a time but he is able to save for ever and this is full and compleat Salvation indeed and it 's indifferent whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be turned to the uttermost or for ever for both are intended Neither could Christ save fully and to the uttermost except he should save for ever with an everlasting Salvation 2. The subject and parties whom he thus saves are not all and every one but such as come to God by him Some will not come to God at all some will come to God but not by him But they who will be saved must 1. Come to God and none else And 2. Must come to God by him and by none else This is the qualification and right disposition of the subject without which it 's not capable of Salvation For Actus activorum sunt in passo unit disposito may be applyed here For as this rule is true in natural so it 's true in supernatural Phisophy To come to God some times is to turn from Sin and Satan to God and Righteousness and the further we depart from Sin the nearer we come to God For this coming is a spiritual and divine motion between the terms of Sin and God it 's from Sin and to God Sometime it 's to worship God which if done aright presupposeth the former motion When a man doth worship God he turns his back upon all other things and leaves all other business and company and turns his face the face of his Soul to God as Supream Lord and the fountain of all happiness One part of Worship is to pray and present our petitions unto God wherein as we seek for many things so amongst others we sue for pardon This is a principal Suit which sinful man hath to his God therefore to come to God in this place is by prayer to sue earnestly for pardon of Sin everlasting Salvation and the more sensible of Sin we are the more powerful is our prayer Yet we may come to God and sue earnestly for mercy and not speed except we take the right way We must therefore not only come but come by Him that is by Christ God is not accessible to sinful guilty man without a Mediatour who may and can satisfy his justice merit his favour and mercy and will effectually intercede for him and plead his Cause These things only Christ can and will do and if we will speed we must believe that he alone is our Mediatour and rely upon him alone as our only Propitiatour and Intercessour And all such as live under the Gospel must rely upon him as having suffered Death already offered his great Sactifice obtained eternal Redemption hath ascended Heaven and is set at the right hand of God where he is made an everlasting King and interceding Priest They who thus come to God by him renounce all righteousness in themselves acknowledg themselves guilty and miserable Wretches plead the Blood of Jesus Christ and cast themselves wholly upon his infinite mercy which he hath merited and God hath promised with a resolution to subject their selves wholly to him and obey him for ever Thus the Saints of God did come to him by Faith 1. In the Seed of the Woman who should bruise the Serpents Head Then 2. In Christ as the Seed of Abraham in whom all Nations should be blessed 3. In the Son of David who should sit upon his Throne and reign for ever and ever 4. In him as exhibited and glorified The faith of the former was but implicite the faith of these last is more explicite clear and distinct This is his ability to save wholly and to the uttermost 2. The reason of this is Because He ever liveth to make Intercession for then Where we must consider 1. What it is to make Intercession 2. For whom this Intercession is made 1. To intercede is to sue plead and sollicite for another and so in generall it 's taken here This Intercession presupposeth that he is immortal is in Heaven appears continually before his Father's Throne for all his Clients in the Court of Heaven He hath great interest in the supream Judge as a most beloved Son before a Father sitting in the Throne of Grace He sues for Pardon and Salvation He pleads his own Blood and Propititation his Father's Promise his Clients Faith and except he should plead his Propitiaion he could not make the cause of his Client good Therefore we have his Intercession and Propitiation joyned together for he is our Advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. This is directly against the Socinian 2. The parties for whom he pleads are they who come to God by him for it 's in vain and against the rules of that Court to plead for any others who are impenitent and unbelieving For though the Scripture saith He died for all to make their sin 's reâ—sissible yet it no where saith He makes Intercession for all to obtain actual Remission and Salvation For his Blood and Sacrifice doth merit Remission the Covenant doth promise it to Believers Faith makes us immediately capable and justifiable and by virtue of the Promise gives us right Christ's Intercession obtains actual pardon These who come to God by him are his Clients and he undertakes their cause and is alwayes ready to carry it for them The reason why Advocates were appointed by the imperial Laws as Civilians tell us was to supply the defects of such Clients as could not alwayes be present were ignorant of the Law and could not manage their own cause before the Judge So the imperfection of our prayers our unworthiness and our many defects gave occasion to the supream and universal Lord and Judge out of his abundant mercy to appoint Christ Jesus Advocate-General in the Court of Heaven and to make our Justification to depend not only upon his death suffered on Earth but his intercession made in Heaven He is that Angel which John saw in Heaven who came and stood by the Altar having a Golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense which he should offer or add unto it the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar which was before the Throne Rev. 8. 3. This is an allusion to the Levitical Priest offering Incense in his Golden Censer upon the Golden Altar before the Throne or Mercy-seat of God and praying for the People And in this he was a Type of Christ making such Intercession in Heaven as that the prayers of penitent Sinners perfumed with the Incense of his merits and offered unto God the
in his Conception Birth Life Death as innocent and harmless as the new born Child never tainted or stained with the lest Sin and so separate from Sinners that though he did converse with them to convert them yet he was far from being drawn to sin by them or partaker of sin with them or any wayes guilty by his presence amongst them All these do signify that he was both habitually and actually more virtuous and righteous then ever any was and far more free from any vicious quality habit act then any Priest on Earth or Angel in Heaven ever was and therefore was the fittest of all others to be a Priest as being more like and nearer unto God then ever any other In this respect he was more fit then any to draw nearer unto God as one that had the greatest interest in him And therefore He was made higher then the Heavens For he ascended far above all Heavens where he ever liveth and keeps his Residence and being entred into that holy and glorious Sanctuary he was made King to Reign and by Oath confirmed an everlasting Priest to officiate there and make his great Sacrifice effectual and actually beneficial to all true Believers And God advanced him not only above the highest place but above all the Angels and Inhabitants of that glorious Palace His work in this Temple is to make Intercession not to Sacrifice for Ver. 27. He needed not daily as those High-Priests to offer Sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the People's for this he did once when he offered up himself THis Text though here brought in upon the By and handled of purpose and more at large Chap. 9. 10. is concerning one of his chiefest Services which was his great Sacrifice wherein he far excelled all the Levitical Priests in severall respects for in this 1. He offered Himself whereas they offered Bullocks and Goats 2. He offered not for his own but the Peoples sins but they offered first for their own then the Peoples sins 3. He offered but once they daily and often Therefore is it said That this man Christ after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God From henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Foot-stool Chap. 10. 12 13. Where it 's observable That this Sacrifice was of that eternal efficacy as that he needed not to offer any more but only to enter into the Sacrary of Heaven and make Intercession and plead this Sacrifice for every penitent and believing Sinner And these words are added to the former That he was holy harmless undefiled and separate from Sinners made higher then the Heavens 1. To signifie that the reason why this Sacrifice was of so great virtue was because the Priest was so holy and devoid of sin that he had no need to offer for himself as not having any infirmity which the best of the former Priests had 2. To shew why upon this offered he was advanced above the Heavens 3. To manifest the time when he was by Oath confirmed a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec and that was after he had offered this Sacrifice and was set at the right hand of God in the highest Heavens In these words we may note 1. His excellent qualification whereby he was free from all sin 2. His pure unspotted Sacrifice and offering of himself 3. His exaltation above the Heavens upon the same so that he had no need to offer any Sacrifice again And these things were so ordered of God that one should be subordinate to another the first to the second and that to the third For without this qualification he could not have offered so perfect a Sacrifice without this Sacrifice thus offered he could not have entred the Sanctuary of Heaven neither could his Intercession have been so powerful to save No God did not swear unto him and by Oath make him a Priest for ever but as so qualified and as by vertue of that qualification having offered so perfect a Sacrifice and as by virtue of this Sacrifice having entred Heaven This man and thus considered was he who by the Oath of the everlasting God was made an everlasting Priest And in the Text we might as formerly observe 1. The similitude 2. The dissimilitude and difference 3. The superexcellency 1. The similitude they were Priests Christ was a Priest they offered Sacrifice Christ offered Sacrifice 2. The dissimilitude they were many he but one they offered often he but once they offered Buls and Goats and other things he himself they offered for themselves and the People he offered not for himself as having no infirmity but only for the People 3. The superexcellency of Christ above them especially in two things 1. That he needed not offer for himself as being without sin 2. He needed not to offer often for the People but only once and by that one Sacrifice once offered he did infinitely far more then they did or could do by their daily offerings This superexcellency also did appear both in his perfect qualification and his exaltation above the Heavens These things are so plain in these Enthymatical words that there is no need to reduce them to the precise form of a Syllogism or Syllogisms according to the rules of Logick The first words of these two verses 26 27. which are handled last are these For such an High-Priest became us wherein we must consider 1. What such an High-Priest is 2. How and in what sense he is said to become us 1. Such an High-Priest is one who is described from 1. His Qualification 2. His one perfect Sacrifice 3. His being made higher then the Heavens For 1. He must be pure and holy without any sin or else he cannot offer a pure unspotted Sacrifice which being offered is able to purge the Conscience and expiate the sins of the People for ever 2. If he do not offer such a Sacrifice he cannot enter into the holy place of Heaven as the High-Priest without Blood could not enter the earthly Sanctuary 3. Except he enter Heaven he cannot be ready there to make Intercession for us 2. Such a Priest doth become us To become is 1. To be sit suitable convenient 2. To be useful and profitable 3. Sometimes to be necessary All these significations are here intended But to whom is he so convenient profitable necessary even to us To understand this we must consider what our condition is It 's sinful miserable for we are guilty polluted with sin liable to Death have no access to God and at a great distance from eternal Life and that which is worst of all we are sensless of this sad condition and if we once know it we are hopeless helpless We cannot propitiate God or sanctify our selves or come near the Throne of God's Justice and except we find one that is fit to mediate and deal with God in our behalf we perish utterly and for ever For our
signified by God's Promise to Abraham I will be thy shield and thy exceeding great Reward Gen. 15. 1. and that Acknowledgment of the Psalmist The Lord God is a Sun and a Shield Psal. 84. 11. To be a Shield is to save and protect either by prevention or removal of all dangers and evils not only temporal but spiritual and eternal And to be a Reward a great Reward and an exceeding great Reward cannot come short of Heavens Glory and that eternal Bliss which is an aggregation of all Blessings which shall ever issue from that Sun which shall in his Meridian fully and for ever shine upon his Saints And to be a People to this God is to be a subject of all Mercies Man can possibly desire He begins to be our God in this manner upon our first Connversion when his Laws are first written in our hearts and goes on to bless and save us more and more till we be fully happy for the more his Laws are imprinted in our heart the more he will manifest himself to be our God and when he is once engaged he will go on and finish our felicity till he be all in all Some make this writing of his Laws to depend much upon our Free-will and that by it we may lose our God But it 's certain that though by our Free-will we may neglect the means and so be guilty of not receiving the Impressions of these heavenly Doctrines yet by this natural Freedom we can do nothing to purpose in this business we can by it neither prepare our hearts nor apprehend nor relish these heavenly Doctrines which are above out Sphere And the beginning and continuance of God being our God depends upon an higher more efficacious and more excellent Cause This Promise is most excellent and a Fountain of unspeakable Comfort for happy is that People who have God to be their God and miserable are they who are without the Covenant of Promises without hope without Christ without God How vast is the distance between them and eternal happiness As they come not near their God so God will not come near them § 12. After this second Promise it followeth Ver. 11. And they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least unto the tâ—â—â—reatâ—st THese words are not so easily understood as appears by the many and different Interpretations of several Expositors which here I will not recount The Subject of them is the Knowledge of the Lord which shall be far more excellent clear full and effectual and generally diffused then in the times of the former Covenant Whether it be a distinct Promise from the former or the same and these words added for the fuller Explanation of the former shall be examined hereafter In themselvs they seem to be an Enthymeme which may be supplied and reduced into this Form If in the new Covenant all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest then they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother But all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest Therefore they shall not teach every man his Neighbour c. In the Text there are two Propositions 1. They shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother 2. They shall all know the Lord from the least to the greatest The former is inferred from the latter and the Connexion of both as Conclusion and Premisses is expressed by the causal Conjunction For The Conclusion is negative and signifies that there shall not be any such teaching under the new Covenant as was under the old In the words we have 1. The Master 2. The Schollar 3. The Lesson taught by the Master to the Schollar 4. The teaching of this Lesson The Master is every Man not absolutely but every man that hath the Knowledge of God and is able to teach another For every one that hath any Knowledge of God should teach others that are ignorant and this is a general Duty of all knowing men but most of all of such as having a more eminent degree of Wisdom do take upon them the Charge of others The Schollar is every man's Neighbour and Brother that is Such as are near unto them by Co-habitation or Relation or both and are ignorant of God so as they need Instruction and Teaching yet are capable The Lesson is to know God this is the chief and best Lesson any Man can learn The Object to be known is the most excellent there is none better not any so good the Act is answerable to the Object For of all Knowledg the Knowledg of God as it is most necessary to Man's Salvation so it is far above any other Knowledg But this Knowledge is not a bare Knowledge but to know the Lord is to fear him serve him and obey him Therefore the Chaldee Paraphâ—ast doth usually interpret the Knowledg of the Lord to be the Fear of the Lord. And this is agreeable to that of the Apostle 1. Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments He that saith I know him and keeps not his Commandments is a Liar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 3 4. Not they who have some high Notions of God and can discourse of his eternal Power and glorious Perfections and yet are Workers of Iniquity but they who keep his Commandments may be said truly and really to know him To teach in this place is not barely by Instruction to inform the Understanding but by exhortation to move the heart and stir up Man to Obedience and Practice To teach this Lesson and to perswade and exhort men to know and fear God is a good Work and a Moral Duty and as such of perpetual and universal Obligation and therefore must continue in the Church Christian as it did in the Jewish Yet it 's said that they shall not so teach under this new Covenant which implies there was some defect and imperfection both in the teaching and also the Knowledge which did depend upon it which shall not be found in the Teaching and Knowledge of the new Covenant But of this anon The second Proposition is That All shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest Where we have 1. The party to be known 2. The Knowledge of him 3. The parties that shall know him and that is All from the least to the greatest The party to be known as in the former so in this part of the Text is the Lord For they shall know Me saith the Lord so it 's in the Hebrew Jereâ— 31. 34. And this is the fourth time that Expression is taken up in that Prediction of this Covenant Yet God is Lord by Creation by Preservation by Redemption and Regeneration In this place is meant God not onely Creator and Preserver but Redeemer by Jesus Christ exhibited glorified manifested and represented to us in the
Gospel To be Lord in this manner is to manifest himself in the Excellency of his Wisdom Power and Mercy To know him as such is not any wayes to understand those excellent things testified of him in the Gospel but effectually to believe those Truths as revealed from Heaven and to rely upon him and him alone as our onely Saviour renouncing all Righteousness in our selves and all Confidence in all other things and counting all things loss and dung in comparison of him This is that which we call Faith in Christ whereby we are justified and saved yet this Knowledge and Faith was not without teaching For how should they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how should they hear without a Preacher And again So then Faith is by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God that is taught and preached Rom. 10. 14 17. And the Apostles had Commission to go and teach or disciple all Nations Mat. 28. 19. and they must teach Repentance Faith in Christ and Remission of sins in his Name And when Christ ascended into Heaven he gave Gifts to men and sent Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers Ephes. 4. 11. Yet this Teaching of Man was not without the Power of the Spirit teaching inwardly the same which they taught outwardly yet in a more excellent manner and with far greater efficacy The Persons who shall know God were all from the least to the greatest 1. The Jew taught but the Jew or his Proselyte the Apostles both Jew and Gentile of all Nations 2. All to whom the Gospel is preached aright know God or may know him 3. All may be restrained to all those who are taught not onely of Man but of God who writes his Laws in their hearts and gives them one heart and one way that they may fear him for ever and so puts his fear in them that they shall not depart from him Jerem. 22. 39 40. And he had promised to give his People an heart to know him that he was the Lord and they his People and he their God for they shall return unto him with their whole heart Jer. 24. 7. Where it 's observable 1. That God will so give them one heart as that they shall turn with their whole heart to the Lord. 2. So turned they shall not only know God to be the Lord but to be their God and they his People 3. That this place compared with that of the same Prophet Chap. 31. 33 34. alledged in this place doth signify that this Knowledge is such as upon which will follow Remission of Sins and this is justifying Faith § 13. Two things remain to be considered 1. How this Reason infers this Conclusion That they shall not under the Gospel every Man teach his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord. 2. How these words come in upon the former whether so as to be a distinct and different Promise from the former or not For the first 1. It 's certain that in Heaven the Knowledge of the Lord shall be so perfect as that there shall be no need of any teaching of Man no nor of Prophets or Apostles therefore some of the Ancients understood the place of the perfection of Saints in the state of Glory 2. That unâ—er the Gospel there is need of Man's Teaching not onely for the first Conversion but for their further Edification till the Saints be perfect in Christ. 3. Yet there is a great difference between the teaching under the Law and that under the Gospel and that in three respects 1. Of the matter taught 2. Of the Teachers 3. Of the manner of Teaching 1. For the matter taught For the matter taught under the Law was The Lord bringing them out of Aegypt into the Land of Canaan and giving them Moral Judicial and Ceremonial Laws and blessing them in that good Land whilst in their manner and measure they observed these Laws Christ also was taught in Types and Shadows But the matter taught under the Gospel is God Redeemer by Christ exhibited glorified reigning at God's right hand and officiating in Heaven as being far more clearly and fully revealed 2. The Teachers under the Law whether Priests or Levites or Scribes or Parents or Masters or any private Persons were but Ministers of the Letter not of the Spirit But under the Gospel they were Ministers not onely of the Letter but of the Spirit and their Knowledge was far greater and clearer than that of the Teachers under the Law 3. For the manner of Teaching it was more clear more full more powerful as accompanied by the Spirit of Christ enlightning the Understanding and inclining the heart For in the Law there was no Promise of the Spirit to take away their stony heart and give them an heart of Flesh and to be put in them to cause them to walk in his Statutes As the saying of Austin is Lex jubet non juvat If the Spirit had been thus given to make the Doctrine of their Teachers effectual upon the heart of their Disciples and imprint the Knowledg of the Lord so deeply in their hearts as that they should never depart from him then the Promises of that Covenant had not been so far short of the Promises of the new Covenant But as the Law could expiate no Sin so it could not minister the Spirit It 's true that under the Law they had Faith in Christ to come and were enlightned and sanctified by the Spirit yet this they had not by vertue of the Law but the Promise by Christ to come and not by Moses And they who had it were few in number and their Knowledge of Christ was but implicit and the Power of the Spirit far less But under the Gospel they were many in number not only Jews and Proselytes but Gentiles of all Nations their Faith was far more explicit and the Power of the Spirit far greater So that the force of the Reason is That if the Teaching under the Gospel â—e so far more excellent in respect of the matter taught the Teachers and manner of Teaching which is such as that they all from the least to the greatest shall know the Lord so clearly fully and powerfully then there shall be no such Teaching as under the Law For seeing there is no distinct actual Knowledge without some kind of Disciplination and Instruction therefore where any Knowledg of the Lord is whether under the Law or the Gospel there must be some kind of Disciplination under both And here the Disciplination and Teaching of the Law and the Gospel are compared together And that of the Law was so weak and imperfect in respect of the Knowledg of the Lord which it did produce and that of the Gospel so powerful and also so perfect in respect of the Knowledge of the Lord the Effect thereof that there was great Reason that the former should cease as needless useless and imperfect For as the Apostle saith in another
so made as that it abrogated the Law of Moses and the Legal Covenant Yet because the Law was given and that Covenant made by God and not by Man and had continued in force about 1500 years many could not be satisfied in the matter of Abrogation and made scruple of rejecting and neglecting of it For that which is confirmed by Law and long Custom can hardly be made void The unbelieving Jew did reject the new Covenant and adhere to the old as instituted from Heaven and sufficient to justify and save those who observed it Some believing Jews feared to neglect it and judged Christ insufficient without it and thought Moses and Christ joyntly must bring them to Heaven and some of the Gentiles seduced by them were entangled with the same Errour So that it was observed by some as necessary by some as indifferent till the ruine of Jerusalem the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of the miserable and captive Jews into all Nations And then when there was no face either of a Civil or Ecclesiasticall Polity in that Nation then it vanished and did not appear It was abrogated therefore by the Promulgation of the Gospel decayed by little and little after that time and in the end was totally abolished The Apostle had in the former Chapter proved the Change of the Law and the Abrogation thereof from the Change and Abolition of the Priest-hood and gives the reason why it was to be abrogated to be this because it could justify and sanctify no Man And this he made good out of Psal. 110. 4. And here he implies that it must be abrogated because it was not faultless but defective and confirms the repeal of it from the words of the Lord by Jeremiah saying I will make a new Covenant and his chief Scope is to prove that Christ hath obtained a better Ministry because he was the Mediator of a better Covenant And that Covenant was better not onely because it was established upon better Promises but in that it was new and so made that it abrogated the former and it self was to continue for ever For God never promised to make another after this new one was once confirmed by the Blood of Christ. § 17. In all this Discourse he takes it for granted and presupposeth it as certain that Christ was the Mediator of this Covenant and in this he may seem to beg and not to make good the assirmative of the Question For the Jew might reply That suppose it were granted that there must be a new Covenant so made as to take away the old as God by the Prophet doth positively affirm it yet How doth it appear that Christ and not some Levitical High-Priest shall be the Mediator of it To remove this and the like Scruples it 's to be observed 1. That no Levitical Priest could be a Mediator of any Covenant but the former made with the Fathers as is evident from the Institution of that Priest-hood and the Rules of Legal Ministration Therefore he was clearly excluded from this Mediation of this new Covenant 2. That if Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias whom God promised the Fathers expected the Prophets fore-told then it will necessarily follow that he was the great Prophet above all former Prophets above Moses above Angels and he must be the great and eternal High-Priest according to the Order of Melchizedee a Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary and a Mediator of this far better Covenant But the reason why he takes it for granted and goes not about to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messias was because that was done unto his hands and made evident many wayes For the fulfilling of so many Prophecies of the Old Testament and that so fully even to particular Circumstances in him who was called Jesus of Nazareth the Angel's Testimony who certified his Mother of his Conception the Testimony of an Angel with a Multitude of the heavenly hoast at his Birth did signify this So did the words of his Father at his Baptism and Transfiguration his glorious Works his heavenly Wisdom Knowledg and Doctrine besides the Testimony of John the Baptist his prodigious and stupendious Death and Resurrection Ascension the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles the Revelation of the Gospel the rare and excellent gifts of this heavenly Spirit received by such as believed on him and the wonderful works done in his Name did sufficiently and superabundantly prove him to be the Messias § 18. From all this the intelligent Reader may easily understand the Subject Scope and Method of the Apostle in this Chapter The Subject is the Ministry of Christ constituted a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec The Scope is to manifest that Christ is a far more excellent Priest than that of Aaron's Order in respect of his Ministry The Method is to set forth his superexcellent Ministry in respect of the Tabernacle the Service and the Covenant whereof he was Minister for the more excellent the Sanctuary the Service the Covenant the more excellent the Priest The Sanctuary whereof Christ is Minister is heavenly his Service and Offering not â—arnal but supernatural and divine the Blessings promised in the Covenant whereof he is Minister and which by his Ministry he procures are spiritual and eternal and such as once obtained make sinful Man fully and for ever happy And because the Covenant is so excellent and so effectual by his Ministration it 's of eternal continuance The Application of all this to our selves is of Information Exhortation Consolation for by this Doctrine we 1. Understand how excellent and effectual Christ's Priest-hood is in respect of his Ministration in the best Sanctuary by his best Service making effectual the best Covenant that ever was made 2. It stirs us up to admire the wonderful Wisdom of God which contrived such an excellent Priest-hood and Ministry and his infinite Mercy in ordering both for our eternal Salvation For Who are we that the Son of God should be our eternal Priest offer up himself a Sacrifice to confirm his Covenant which he hath made with us and that God should appoint him to minister in the heavenly Sanctaary and by his Ministry there obtain for us the excellent Blessings which he hath merited and God hath promised That he should deal thus with us and do thus for us may be matter of amazement to the very Angels of Heaven How often should we think and seriously meditate on these things and magnify his Wisdom and be eternally thankful for his unspeakable Mercy and engage our selves to his Service for evermore 3. It 's matter of sweetest Comfort that there is so excellent an High-Priest that he is our High-Priest that after he had sacrificed himself on Earth he should minister for us in Heaven that God should make so excellent a Covenant with us promise Power to keep it and bind himself upon the keeping of it to be our God for ever and eternally
which took away these Rites not as sinful but as imperfect and then useless when a better kind of Service was instituted The word here used in the Greek may signify Perfection Confirmation and Establishment and if we consult the Septuagint they tuâ—â— the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signify to perfect confirm and establish That therefore which in our Translation is a time of Reformation is a time of Perfeâ—â—â—â— Confirmation and Establishment and this is the time of the Gospel when the 〈◊〉 imperfect is taken away and that which is firm and stable shall be brought in and 〈◊〉 for evermore By this we may observe That because the Ceremonial Law was imposed by God the Jews were bound to observe it 2. That God intended not the Serviâ— of the Law as a means to sanctify the Conscience for then it should have continued 3. It was imposed onely for a time untill the Introduction of a better Service and then it was to cease And this is the third Imperfection it was not perfect firm stable and of perpetual continuance And this is to be understood not onely of some of these Services but of all even of that which is the principal and more excellent than all the rest even the yearly Sacrifice of Expiation § 10. Thus far the Typical Tabernacle and Service the Anti-Typical follows and begins in these words Ver. 11. But Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this Building Ver. 12. Neither by the Blood of Goats and Calvs but by his own Blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us TO understand this Text the better it 's to be observed 1. That as in the Type so here in the Anti-Type to make the Comparison perfect there are three things 1. An High-Priest 2. A Tabernacle with two Sanctuaries 3. A Service and Sacrifice to be performed by the High-Priest in the inmost Sacrary and Holiest of all into which he could not enter but by passing through the Sanctuary within the first Veil 2. That the words have special Reference to the seventh Verse which speaks of the Highest Levitical Service and Sacrifice which the High-Priest alone was to perform once a Year in the Holiest of all 3. That the Scope of the Apostle is to set forth the Excellency of Christ's Priest-hood as far above that of Aaron's in respect of the Service 4. That seeing this was the highest and most excellent Service which could procure the greatest good promised in the former Covenant therefore the Apostle singles out this informing us that it was but a shadow of a far more excellent Service which was of far greater Power and Efficacy to be performed by Christ. 5. That the Excellency of this Service and Sacrifice is set forth by rare and excellent Effects Consequents and Benefits which were such as the best and greatest Service of the Levitical Priest could not reach 6. That the first Effect is eternal Redemption which immediatly follows upon the performance of this Service and is the principal thing in this Text. In the Text we have four things 1. Christ come an High-Priest of good things to come 2. The Tabernacle whereof he is Minister 3. The Service and Sacrifice performed by this High-Priest 4. The first most excellent Effect thereof eternal Redemption The first Proposition is concerning Christian High-Priest and it 's affirmed 1. That he is come that is exhibited present and consecrated 2. That 〈◊〉 â—onsecrated he is a compleat High-Priest both these are demonstratively 〈…〉 in the former part of the Epistle 3. That he is an High-Priest 〈…〉 The end of all Priests and especially High-Priest 〈…〉 and Ministry to procure some Mercy and Benefit which the People want desire and have need of Yet they can proâ—â—â—â— no Mercy but such as God hath promised in that Covenant where of they are Priests 〈◊〉 Mediators therefore the Legal High-Priest could not obtain any greater Mercy than the Law did promise But because Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant established upon better Promises he doth procure for his People far greater Mercies which God hath promised in this Covenant Therefore 1. By good things understand those Mercies Benefits and Blessings which are promised in the new Covenant the principal whereof are Remission of Sin for ever and eternal life following thereupon 2. These good things are said to be future and to come and that either in respect of the Law which went before the Gospel according to that 〈◊〉 follows Chap. 10. 1. For the Law having a Shadow of good things to come Or 〈◊〉 of full enjoyment of them which is reserved for Heaven and that World 〈…〉 is yet to come For there is a World to come a Life to come an abidiâ—◠〈…〉 me a Glory to come which shall be revealed upon the Sons of God 〈…〉 long after and wait for this Life this City this Glory to come Again the time of the Gospel is said to be the World 〈◊〉 Chap. 2. 5 6. 5. The sense therefore may be this That Christ was an High-Priest effectually procuring these good things which were shadowed out and typified in the Law and were then to come but present and exhibited in the times of the Gospel The second Proposition which is concerning the Tabernacle doth affirm That Christ's Tabernacle wherein he must minister is greater and better than the Legal as not being of that Building To be greater may be understood of quantity or quality iâ— of quantity then it 's signified that it 's far larger and so Heaven where Christ doth minister is if of quality then the latter word explains the former and so greater is 〈◊〉 and both together inform us that it 's far more glorious and excellent And that it â—â— so it 's evident because it 's not of this Building but of a far better The former was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pitched by the Art and Industry of Man yet so that the pattern and direction was from Heaven The Workman and Builder was not Man but God and is the Wisdom skil and Hand of God is infinitely above the Wisdom Skill and Power of Man so his Building must needs be far more excellent Therefore the Apostle told us before Chap. 〈◊〉 That Christ was the Minister of High-Priest of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched not Man The former was but a Shadow and diâ— but imperfectly represent this which was the Substance The Holiest of all though the most sacted and glorious place of the former Tabernacle and Temple was nothing to this Yet it 's much doubted 1. What this Tabernacle is 2. Whitherto these words are to 〈◊〉 referred First Some think this Tabernacle to be the Body of Christ yet this was the thing to be sacrificed and offered Others conceive it was the Church Militant
fully enjoy it till his second appearance therefore they look and wait for his coming from Heaven that then their joy may be full Some think the Apostle doth here allude to the manner and order of the Levitical Service which was this The High-Priest enters the Sanctuary to pray and expiate Sin and the People stay without and wait for his coming out to bless them So Christ enters Heaven that glorious and eternal Sanctuary there appears before God and stayes a while and all his Saints do wait and look for his return and coming out from thence that they may by him be eternally Blessed These Lookers for him are they who shall be rewarded For though Christ came the first time to dye for all so far as to make their Sins remissible yet he comes the second time to conferr the ultimate benefit of his Redemption only upon them that look for him To look for Christ from Heaven doth presuppose the parties regenerate and renewed from Heaven justified and in the estate of justification and as having a title unto eternal Glory with a certain belief that Christ will come from Heaven and appear in Glory and that then they shall be glorified with him And this looking for Christ is their hope with a longing desire expressed sometimes by groans and yet a patient waiting God's leisure out of an assurance that he that shall come will come and will not tarry All this is signified by that of the Apostle And not only they but our selves also who have the first Fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodie Rom. 8. 13. Where we have 1. The persons waiting or the expectants 2. The thing waited for 3. The act and manner of waiting 1. The persons waiting are such as have the first Fruits of the Spirit which is a certain measure of Sanctification and consolation for these are the beginnings of Heaven where our holiness and comfort shall be perfect and full and these being but a little which bear the like proportion with eternal Glory as the first Fruits do with the Harvest do assure us as an Earnest of the full possession 2. Adoption is said to be the Redemption of our Bodies that is the Resurrection when our Adoption shall be compleat for then our minority being past and the time appointed by our heavenly Father come we shall be put into full possession of the Inheritance and glorious eternal estate which God hath prepared for those that love him and this is that which is called Salvation in this place 3. The act of waiting is an act of hope which resting upon the promise is assured and fully perswaded of the fruition of Glory in God's time and looks often towards it as our own The manner of this waiting is with vehement desires and longings and gâ—oans and yet with patience For because this blessed estate is so full of happiness and yet to come and only present in the first Fruits therefore we earnestly desire and long for Christ's comming saying Come Lord Jesu come quickly And because for the present we are pressed with the remainders of sin and corruption within us and with temptations and persecutions without and the distance between Heaven and Us is great therefore we groan and sigh and say Oh when will that time come when I shall be rid and fully freed from Sin and sorrow for ever I see the place of mine eternal Rest afar off when shall I come near and enter and enjoy my God for ever Yet because we have God's Word to assure us of possession we therefore are patient and content our selves in God's Will For if it be his will and pleasure that we must stay a while longer and suffer more we desire his will may be done and we submit unto it and there is great reason we should so do For we are unworthy of the least mercy and he might require a thousand years tryal and suffering and to give us so great and glorious reward and that within so short a time after our first regeneration is an act of greatest love and bounty § 28. Thus far the words have been absolutely handled now it 's time to consider them comparatively The notes of Similitude for it 's a comparison in quality are As and So For as man dies so Christ dies As man dies once So Christ dies once and no more And as man is appointed by God to dye but once so Christ was appointed by God to dye but once And as man after Death comes to Judgment so Christ after he died once will not dye again but come to Judgment Yet as in all things that are like there is some dissimilitude and difference so there is in Man and Christ. Man dies for his own Sin Christ for the Sins of others Man's Death doth not satisfy for Sin Christ's Death satisfies divine Justicé and his Sacrifice doth expiate the Sins of many for ever Upon man's Death follows Judgment and he himself is judged but after once suffering and offering Christ appears and comes to Judge and not to be judged to reward such as believe in him but not to be rewarded And here it 's to be noted 1. That as Christ died to make man savable so he appears before God actually to save and comes to Judgment to make man fully happy As by his Death he merited Remission and Glorification inestimable Benefits so he appears before God for us now and in the end will come to Judgment that he may communicate these Benefits and make men actually partakers of them 2. That remission of Sins and the enjoyment of Salvation and full happiness do depend upon Christ's Sacrifice once offered as the effect depends upon the cause To sum up the Chapter we must observe 1. That the Subject of it is the Sacrifice of Christ. 2. That in it the scope of the Authour is to prove the excellency of the same above all Levitical Services 3. That his method is this 1. He describes the Tabernacle and the parts thereof and the Services performed therein and singles out the greatest Service performed by the greatest Priest in the most holy place which was the yearly Sacrifice of Expiation 2. He proves the Sacrifice of Christ to be far more excellent then this in many respects but chiefly in respect of the effects thereof The first effect is eternal Expiation ver 12. The second purification of the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God in which respect it did excell all Legal purifications ver 14. The third is the confirmation of the New Covenant by virtue of this Expiation and Purification ver 15. The fourth lest they should think it strange that the Death and Blood-shed of their Messias should be any wayes conducing or necessary to these effects of Confirmation Expiation and Purification he lets them know First That for confirmation of the New Covenant it was very
conducing and necessary 1. By a Similitude taken from a Testament and last Will For as the Death of the Testatour is necessary for to make his Testament of force and effectual so the Death of Christ was for the making effectual the Covenant of Grace ver 16 17. 2. From the manner of the Sanction and confirmation of the first Covenant which was solemnly confirmed by Blood God even then signifying That the better Covenant must be established by Blood yet by better blood ver 18 19 20. Secondly He manifests that it was as necessary for purification and expiation of the parties in Covenant and this also by a Similitude from the Law Ceremonial whereof we may observe two parts 1. The proposition concerning Expiation and Purification under the Law For then the Tabernacle and Vessels and almost all things were purified by Blood and without Blood there was no Legal Expiation and Remission ver 21 22 23. The Reddition follows and therein is signified That if it was necessary that these shadows should be purified with the blood of Sacrifice men certainly it was necessary that the heavenly things shadowed should be purified and that with the blood of some better Sacrifice and this Sacrifice was that of Christ himself by the blood whereof he enters Heaven and there appears before God for us ver 23 24. Yet lest they should think that as the High-Priest entred often and every time with blood therefore Christ must often suffer Death that he may often offer he informs them that though the High-Priest was a Type of Christ and was like unto him in many things yet in these two they did much differ 1. Then they entred often 2. They entred with the blood of Beasts But Christ 1. Offered but once and entred Heaven 2. He offered himself and by his own Blood entred Heaven and took away Sin for ever And in this God made him like to other men for whom he suffered For as he hath appointed that they shall dye once and after come to Judgment so he had ordained that Christ should dye but once and after that to come in Glory to reward his Saints with eternal Salvation § 29. Before I proceed unto the next Chapter it will not be amisse to take notice of the glosse of the Socinian Expositor upon the former proposition of this Text. For he would have us to believe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bear the Sins is to take away Sin by removing it and sanctifying his People To this end he 1. Observes that the word sometimes so signifies and argues that because the Offering of Christ was performed in Heaven therefore it cannot here signify to bear Punishment for Sin But 1. The word doth no where in the New Testament signify to take away but either to take or bear up unto an higher place or to offer and suppose it should signify in some few places of the Old Testament to take away yet in many and very many places it hath another signification and under one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's used by the Septuagint 80 times for to offer Neither are any of the four places cited by him truly and sincerely but falsly alledged But suppose it should signify sometimes â—ay often to take away doth it follow from thence that therefore it must so signify here 2. Sin may be and is taken away 1. By suffering the Punishment to make it remissible 2. By pardon and Remission 3. By sanctifying and renewing the Sinner And To conclude that because it 's taken away by Sanctification therefore it 's not taken away by Suffering and Expiation is very inconsequent 3. For Christ's offering of himself in Heaven we know that in his sense it cannot be true For Christ's willing Suffering for the Sin of Man is the offering of himself and this was done on Earth as is evident from the Scriptures And though when he presenred himself in Heaven as having suffered and this before God yet this is seldom called offering Yet if it were it presupposeth another Act antecedent which is an offering in proper sense CHAP. X Concerning the Perfection of Christ's Sacrifice and certain Duties which we are bound to performs in respect of his Priest-hood § 1. THE Author continues his Discourse concerning Christ's Sacrifice which being finished he proceeds to apply the Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood and Sacrifice and deduce some practical Conclusions from it The parts therefore of the Chapter are two 1. Concerning Christ's Sacrifice 2. Concerning certain Duties which he exhorts these Hebrews to perform This is so plain that there is a general agreement amongst Expositors concerning the same Christ's Sacrifice as in the former Chapter so here is considered and handled comparatively and with reference to the Levitical Sacrifices The intention of the Apostle is to set forth the Excellency of it as far above the other in respect of the Efficacy So that we have of this first part of the Chapter two Branches 1. Concerning the Imperfection and Impotency of the Legal Sacrifices 2. Concerning the Perfection and Efficacy of Christ's one Sacrifice This takes up the first part of the Chapter unto Ver. 20. where the Apostle begins the hortatory part grounded upon the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood and the Perfection and Efficacy of his Sacrifice The Duties exhorted unto principally are Faith Perseverance in Profession And both these are urged upon several strong and powerful Reasons The former briefly the latter largely unto the last Chapter The principal Arguments in this Chapter are taken 1. From the Punishment which must be suffered if we fall away where according to the Aggravations of the Sin the grievousness of the penalty is set forth 2. From their former Constancy and Patience whereof he doth remind them 3. From the glorious Reward which they shall shortly and certainly receive upon their perseverance This is the general Method and so clear and obvious to the intelligent and observant Reader that it 's generally agreed upon for the Substance of it The particulars shall be more distinctly delivered in the Explication To enter upon the words let 's begin with Ver. 1. For the Law having a Shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the Commers thereunto perfect THese words are in Effect the same with those of the former Chapter Ver. 9. and serve to infer the necessity of that better Sacrifice of Christ. For the Authour had said That it was necessary that the heavenly things themselves should be purified with better Sacrifices than these Ver. 23. These words therefore contain a Reason whereby is proved the Imperfection of the Levitical Sacrifices in respect of Sanctification The Argumentation in Form is this That which had but a Shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things themselves could not by the yearly Sacrifices continually offered perfect the commers
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
may observe 1. An Effect To perfect the sanctified for ever 2. A Cause of that Effect Christ's one Offering I will begin for Explication's sake with the Effect though it be after the Cause in the Order of Nature In it we may consider 1. An Act. 2. A Subject 3. The Perpetuity of the force of this Act in the Subject 1. The Act is to perfect which may be to consummate or make a thing perfect and seeing the end of Christ's Sacrifice is Man's full Happiness therefore to perfect is to make us perfectly and fully happy and this certainly is intended in this place Yet we must further examine the force of the Greek Verb as it is used in this Epistle and other places of the Holy Scriptures and we find it signifies To consecrate and make one a perfect complete Priest so as that he may minister before God And though some understand the perfecting of the sanctified to be nothing else but to sanctify perfectly yet we find in several places of this Epistle that it signifies to make a Priest and is applyed by the Septuagint to the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons For though they were chosen and designed formerly to be Priests yet they could not act as Priests minister in the Tabernacle offer Sacrifice and officiate before they were consecrated and upon their Consecration finished they were actually constituted Priests and might perform any Acts of Service essential and proper to a Priest so as to please God and be accepted This Work of Consecration was finished in seven dayes and one Sacrifice used in this Consecsation was that of a Ram which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ram of Consecration And as they so we must be consecrated and made Priests to God and that by the Blood of Christ and this life is the time of our Consecration which goes on by degrees and will be made complete for Body and Soul upon the Resurrection when we shall be fit to approach the Throne of Glory and serve our God in a perfect manner in the eternal Temple of Heaven That Christ doth consecrate and make us Kings and Priests is express Scripture He hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father Rev. 1. 6. And this is the acknowledgment of all his redeemed Saints Thou hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5. 10. In this respect we are said to be a Royal Priest-hood an Holy Nation 1 Pet. 2. 9. There in this life though our Consecration be not finished we are styled An holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ ibid. 5. This perfection and Consecration we find attributed to his Blood and Offering 2. The Subject of this Consecration are the Sanctified for Sanctification must go before Consecration and the more sanctified the more consecrated and when our Sanctification is finished then our Consecration is consummate By Sanctification some understand Baptism as it 's a solemn Rite of our Initiation Others say it is Election whereby we are separated and set apart to this Perfection Yet it is that whereby we are freed not only from Infirmities Defects Depravations Inclinations to evil and so made inherently holy and righteous but also from the guilt of Sin The former is an act of the Spirit regenerating us and renuing the Image of God in us the other is the work of the same Spirit sprinkling our Consciences with the Blood of Christ and by the same frees us from God's vindicative Justice and the punishments due unto us for our Sins The former is usually called Sanctification the latter Justification That only the sanctified can be thus consecrated and come so near to God it 's plain out of the former places as Revel 1. 5 6. we are said first to be washed from our Sins in Christ's Blood which is Sanctification before we are be made Kings and Priests And Chap. 5. 9 10. to be redeemed with his Blood before we are Crowned and Consecrated And the persecuted Saints who came out of great Tribulation had their Garments first washed in the Blood of the Lamb before they were admitted to be as Priests before the Throne of God to serve him Day and Night in his Temple Chap. 7. 14 15. Where we learn that upon this Sanctification and Consecration we have near access to the Throne of Glory full communion with our God a clear vision of his eternal beauty and as great a fiuition of his God-head as we shall be capable thereof And upon all this follows our eternal bliss joy and full content when we shall be freed from all evil and enjoy the fountain of eternal life This Sanctification and Consecration is said in the third place to be for ever because they are perpetually continued of endless date and of everlasting continuance § 13. This effect is glorious and most excellent and includes Regeneration Justification Reconciliation Adoption with the inferiour degrees of them all and also the Resurrection and eternal Glorification And surely so rare an effect must have some excellent cause and so it hath and that is that one offering of Christ For Christ is the cause and he isthe cause as offering himself not often but only once For by one Offering he consecrated the sanctified for ever Meer Man or Angel though most excellent was insufficient had no power to undertake and finish this glorious Work For man's Salvation and his eternal blisse must needs be ascribed to the highest first and universal cause and issuing from the fountain of eternal Love was contrived by infinite Wisdom and effected by Almighty Power and no way was thought so fit to accomplish it as this one Offering of this one Priest For this end the eternal Word of God which was God must be made Flesh But neither God as God nor the Word nor Flesh severally were the cause but God by the Word made Flesh yet this is not all this Word made Flesh must be a Priest and as a Priest he must suffer dye and offer himself for the Sin of Man He must be the Priest and Sacrifice too and offer himself without spot unto God the Supream and Universal Lord and Judge that so his Justice being satisfied his mercy might freely and aboundantly issue out upon sinful Man as it did when once this Sacrifice was offered and accepted and being offered once it was so accepted that a second offering was needless For this was of eternal virtue in respect of all Sins and Sinners and was the most noble and highest piece of Service that ever was performed by Men or Angels in Heaven or Earth and was an Ilastical and propitiatory Sacrifice The Priest offering it was the the Head and Representative of Mankind and the second Adam and was made such by God and his own voluntary submission as willing to suffer Death for those whom he did represent By this representation and substitution he became the Surety and Hostage of Mankind
his transcendent Gifts nor his heavenly Wisdom nor his Glorious Workâ— nor his rare Virtues nor his great work of Expiation nor his Glory and Power which he enjoyes at the right hand of God could any wayes move him but he vilifies him and debaseth him that was higher then the Heavens as low as the dust and dirt under his feet yet this debasement was only an act of his base mind but could not in the least degree diminish or obscure the Glory and Excellency of Christ This is the first aggravation of Apostacy 2. He counteth the Blood of the Covenant whereby he was sanctified an unholy thing Where we have 1. The Blood of the Covenant 2. The sanctifying Power of this Blood 3. The counting of it unholy 1. By the Blood understand the blooddy Sacrifice of Christ so much magnified in the former Chapter for it 's that Blood by which Christ entring the holy place of Heaven obtained eternal Redemption that Blood which purgeth the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God that Blood which confirmed the everlasting Covenant in which respect it 's called the Blood of the Covenant This Covenant is called the Conant of Grace wherein for and in consideration of the unspotted Blood of Christ once shed God promiseth Remission of Sins and the eternal Inheritance of Glory upon condition of Repentance and Faith in Christ. And it 's called the Blood of this Covenant because upon it the Covenant was grounded and by virtue of it all the Promises thereof are made unalterable firm and effectual 2. This was the Blood by which this Apostate upon his receiving the knowledg of the Truth was sanctified For 1. This Blood as offered and accepted of God made his Sin remissible 2. Upon the profession of his Faith and his Baptism his Sin was at least conditionally pardoned and purged 3. So long as he continued in his profession and so far as he proceeded according to certain degrees in Faith and the profession of it so far he might be said to be in a state of Justification or at least in the way to Justification and not only to Justification but Sanctification as it 's made distinct from Justification though Sanctification be taken in this Epistle for Justification For this Blood of Christ is more beneficial to those which receive the Gospel are baptized believe with some degree of Faith than to others who either never heard the Gospel or if they heard did reject it And all the power against sin that any professing baptized Christian receives all the hope joy comfort which follows upon their profession are from the Blood of Christ. And how far some men may proceed in Christianity and what benefit they may receive by Christ and yet after fall away you have heard something in this sixth Chapter And such is the benefit which such do receive by the Blood of Christ that in a fair sense they may be said to be sanctified and have their sins purged by it Yet the meaning of the Apostle may be not only that they were some wayes sanctified by it but that it was the Blood and the Blood alone which could sanctify them and from which alone they could expect Sanctification 3. Yet this sanctifying Blood the Apostate counts unholy or common To be common Blood may be understood 1. Such as hath no expiating and purging power 2. Such as is no better then the Blood of Bulls and Goats sacrificed 3. Such as differs not from the Blood of other men 4. Such as is the Blood of a Malefactor guilty and vicious person and that is impure and unholy Blood So that the Apostate though he had received some kind and measure of Sanctification from it yet ascribed no more virtue and excellency to it then to common Blood denyed the sanctifying power of it nay did account it unholy and polluted Yet you must note that though it be so vile in his conceit and judgment yet it 's really in it self the onely sanctifying Blood and effectually sanctifying to all such as do sincerely believe This is the second aggravation 3. The Apostate doth despite unto the Spirit of Grace where we must enquire 1. What this Spirit is 2. Why he is called the Spirit of Grace 3. What it is to do despite unto this Spirit 1. This Spirit is not the spirit of Man neither is it any Angel nor any created Person or Substance but it 's an uncreated Spirit the Spirit of God so as that it is God therefore the perfections and operations of God are predicated of it It 's that Spirit which with the Father and the Son is the Supream object of our Faith that Spirit by which God made the World preserves and governs the same that Spirit whereby he regenerates and sanctifies his People and animates the whole Body of the Church 2. This Spirit is said to be the Spirit of Grace Thus he may be called in opposition to the Spirit of bondage and fear which is the Spirit proper to the Law For the Spirit by the Law which had no Expiation for Sin no Blood to purge the Conscience no promise of power to keep it nor of pardon if transgressed could work nothing but fear which was a continued slavery and bondage The Spirit of the Gospel which is the Spirit of Christ promised and given in the Gospel is a Spirit of comfort and confidence a Spirit of Adoption which manifests the special love of God in Christ our Justification Reconciliation and gives us power to keep the Covenant Some understand it to be called the Spirit of Grace because he is given out of Grace and free Mercy Others think that this Name is given to this Spirit because by it God gives us Grace For by Grace they understand those spiritual and supernatural Graces which sanctify the Soul and dispose it for communion with God and all those supernatural comforts which issue from that Communion And it 's very true that as God by this Spirit works all things so especially by him he produceth these heavenly Virtues which tend so much unto eternal life 3. They do despite unto this Spirit In this despight there are Injury Reproach Contempt and the greater the Person to whom the despite is done the more hainous it is This here meant is not done to Man but God because done to that Spirit which is so the Spirit of God that he is God This is committed 1. By resisting the sanctifying Power of God 2. By undoing all that God by his Spirit had done in him for his Salvation 3. By accounting the Gifts Notions Motions of this Spirit the Works Delusions and Impulses of the Devil and that not only in himself but in others sanctified by this Spirit and endued with his Gifts This is the more hainous because done not out of ignorance or infirmity but out of pure malignity of the Will with malice to Christ and deâ—estation of Christian Religion and all this after upon conviction
ever This is called Treasure and an Inheritance but divine and far aboe all other Estates which may decay or be taken from the Owners 2. This Substance is in Heaven because 1. It 's in God and in his Power and at his disposal 2. It 's prepared for us in Heaven and the place of eternal Glory mounted far above the Sphear of corruptible things 3. It 's to be enjoyed fully and for ever in the Heavens That it 's better enduring and in Heaven we learn from that Exhortation of our Saviour But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thievs do not break through and steal Math. 6. 20. and from the words of the Apostle Peter who informs us that the Regenerate are born to an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens 1 Pet. 1. 4. In both these places we find 1. Treasures and an Inheritance which are the same with Substance 3. These far better and more excellent than any earthly Substance 3. Enduring both in themselvs and in the Possession 4. Laid up and reserved in Heaven 3. They had this Substance that is by vertue of God's Promise they had a Title and Right unto it and some security for the full Possession of it in due time by the first-fruits and earnest of the Spirit For this Substance was promised only to them prepared only for them secured only unto them So that in Hope and Reversion they were the richest men in the World 4. They knew this in themselvs That which was the formal Object of this Knowledg was the Promise that which was the particular Object was their own Qualification and fulfilling of the Conditions of the Promise For all that are rightly qualified according to the tenour of the Promise had certain Right unto this Substance and this they knew by Faith But they were thus qualified and did certainly know it Therefore they might conclude thence that they had right unto it Besides the Spirit did testify to their Spirits that they were the Sons of God and if Sons then Heirs And this was the ground on which their Joy was bottom'd For to be Sons of God and Heirs of this Substance and Inheritance was Matter and to know this was an immediate Efficient of Joy This and this known did cause them even in tribulation to rejoyce and so much the rather because our Saviour had pronounced them blessed that suffered for Righteousness sake and they might rejoyce and be exceedingly glad because great was their Reward in Heaven Mat. 5. 11 12. And if we suffer with Christ as they did we shall be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. The Patience and Faith of the Thessalonians in all their Persecutions and Tribulations which they endured were a manifest token of the just Judgment of God that they might be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which they did suffer 2 Thes. 1. 5 6. § 35. These were their Sufferings it remain we consider the time the remembrance of these Sufferings and the end of this remembrance 1. The time was after they were enlightned Some understand enlightning to be Baptism And it 's true that some upon their Baptism received a divine Light yet the Doctrine of the Gospel is a divine Light and when the blessed Spirit with this Light enters the Soul it gives a divine visive Faculty and Power unto the Understanding represents more clearly the Mysteries of God's Kingdom and works powerfully upon the heart and hence follows Conversion And they were first enlightned when they were first converted they who were first the Children of Darkness became the Children of Light and were translated out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light The Reason of this Expression is because Illumination is the beginning of Regeneration For as God first created Light in this visible World so in this second and more wonderful Creation he first makes the Light of the Gospel to shine in the heart by the Power of the Spirit The People to whom the Gospel was never preached are said to sit in Darkness and when the Gospel comes Light comes unto them and when by the Power of the Spirit it enters into our hearts then Light is in us and without this divine Light in us there is no Regeneration The sense is that they were no sooner enlightned converted and born from Heaven but they were persecuted became Souldiers and were put to fight 2. They must remember what then they suffered The Children of God must not only look forward and know what they must do but they must look back and consider both what they have done and also what they have suffered And so these Hebrews are exhorted to look back and call to remembrance former times especially those which followed upon their Conversion when they were reproached afflicted and spoiled of their Goods These Sufferings must be remembred yet not only these but their Patience their Faith their Joy their Victory and the foil of their Enemies and God's Assistance and Support the Battle and the happy Issue must not be forgotten 3. Yet to what end must they remember all this Not to boast and glory in their own strength and ascribe this happy issue to their own Wisdom and Prowess But they must remember they had been in the Battle had fought a great fight had conquered 1. That they might give the whole Glory unto God 2. For time to come to depend upon him 3. To be encouraged to go on and improve their strength more and more 4. To be ashamed to give back now after their strength is improved Did they when Tyrones and but newly-listed endure so great a fight keep the field and beat off the Enemy and will they now begin to faint and after so much experience prove Cowards and stain their former Honour The greatest brunt was past and the most violent Storm passed over the final Victory was almost in their hands and the great Reward almost obtained Therefore the Remembrance of their former Success and God's Assistance should encourage them much to march on till God had given the Anakims into their hands subdued all their Enemies and attained certain and eternal Rest on every side § 36. After this Motive of encouragement from Remembrance of what is past there is another from the great Reward which certainly follows upon Perseverance And because in the former great fight the Victory was obtained by Patience and Confidence he lets them know how needful this Patience and Confidence was for the attaining of the Reward For thus we read Ver. 35. Cast not away therefore your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Ver. 36. For you have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God you might receive the Promise SOme think that the Work of the Apostle in these words and the rest of this Chapter is to give directions and prescribe the means whereby
Title of God's People may be given to the Church of all times which began to suffer in Abel and continued suffering to our dayes and shall do unto the end For as Affliction is the common Lot of all Christ's Members so it is the way of God's training them for an eternal Crown of Glory 2. He was willing to suffer with them for they were his own Brethren and the best Society in the World and had the highest Promises with the greatest Priviledges and the best Hopes Yet though these were in a suffering condition he had rather partake with them in their Miseries than forfeit their Hopes and Priviledges Though Suffering as Suffering was grievous and no way desirable or eligible as such yet as it was the Lot of God's People and tended to a most excellent End it put on the notion of Good and might be willingly accepted and as the Case then stood not to be refused 3. When there is no better Condition to be expected a wise man will make a vertue of necessity and make the best use of that which in it self was bad and no wayes avoidable But there were pleasures which he either did enjoy or might have enjoyed Yet these were pleasures of Sin and but for a time and these abated much and it was better to suffer a little Misery for an eternal Reward than to enjoy a little momentary pleasure and after that endure eternal Punishment As eternal Pleasures do far excel temporal so Justice is infinitely better than Sin Hoâ—ustum is far above Jucundum and infinitely more desirable To suffer with God's People willingly and patiently was a rare vertue but the Delights of Pharoah's Court though they should have been lawful were no such thing But they were not lawful they were Pleasures of Sin that is sinful Pleasures they could not be enjoyed without Sin The matter of them might be base and no wayes allowable and besides the Use and Enjoyment of them might be immoderate and inordinate and with all unsanctified Persons addicted to them they prove sinful in both respects These being carnal blind the hearts of men and cause them to forget their God and neglect their Souls and eternal Estate Besides they were but for a time a little season and vanish suddenly away a little pleasure leavs a cruel Sting behind it which will torment for ever The just and vermous Suffering with God's People upon which followed a glorious Estate of Bliss was far more eligible than momentary sruful Pleasures Therefore he did prefer and choose the one before the other He saw two wayes before him the one was rough the other smooth yet at the end of one he saw a Paradise and at the end of the other a Lake of Fire he refuseth the smooth to avoid the Lake of Fire and takes the rough that he might enter into the Paradise to which it led him This was Moses Choice which few in the World take Most men look at present Pleasures not at future Joyes § 25. The next thing to be enquired is the Ground of this Choice and that was the ultimate Dictate of illuminated and elevated Reasons whereby he did believe For by Faith he made both this Refusal and this Choice resolved to deny himself and to take up the Cross and actually and constantly did both for they were the principal parts of his Obedience The Objects of this Reason were three 1. The Reproach of Christ. 2. The Treasures of Aegypt 3. The Recompence of Reward The divine inspired Truth gave a true Representation of every one of these and did so direct him that he judged aright both of the Reproach of Christ and the Treasures of Aegypt and that not onely absolutely but comparatively tooâ— and did furnish him with a strong Reason taken from the Reward to determine his Election The first Object was the Reproach of Christ that is such a Reproach as that of the Cross which Christ was to suffer or which he resolved to suffer for Christ's sake and by the Dictate of Faith in Christ For Moses his Faith was conformable unto that of his Fathers whereby they believed in that Seed of theirs in whom all Nations should be blessed which was Christ. Some Apprehensions they had of Christ's Sufferings and his Glory which should follow after but whether they had any distinct Notion of the Cross which was the Sum of all Afflictions and Sufferings may be doubted of us because we know not what special Revelations they might have This Cross was not only a suffering of Pain but of Reproach for that kind of death was both cruel and very ignominious and therefore much abhorted by Flesh and Blood which sometimes fears Reproach more than Pain This Reproach if suffered for our own Crimes and not for Christ and Righteousness sake can minister no Comfort or be in any wise gainful Yet it was counted Riches and a rare Revenue an incomparable Treasure not in respect of it self but of that which followed by vertue of God's Promise Thus it was considered if suffered patiently for Christ out of Faith in Christ and Love to Christ. The second Object was the Treasures of Aegypt These he considered and knew to be great yet of a finite value for though men dote upon these earthly Treasures idolize them take them for a God yet the price and worth of them was not very much they were like the Pleasures that is sinful and only for a little season Thus he considered them absolutely but not content with that he weighs them in a true Ballance and compares them and finds the Reproach of Christ greater the Treasures of Aegypt less the latter base in respect of the former which was far more excellent And if we would compare the Treasures of the Earth which men so much affect with the Treasures of Heaven which few seek after they would appear no better than Trash or Dung The third Object was The Recompence of the Reward Reward here must be understood of the great and final Reward of eternal Glory this Reward though excellent in it self is little worth except it be rendred that is given by God and received and enjoyed by us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both that is the Reward and the rendring of it yet it 's given only to such as are willing to bear the Reproach of Christ in compensation of our Sufferings for Christ. At this Reward promised by God merited by Christ and to be rendred unto Man he looked he eyed it very much and understood and that most certainly that it put a very high price upon suffering the Reproach of Christ and made it of far greater value than the Treasures of Aegypt because it was the way and means for to attain eternal Glory a Reward which neither the Treasures of Aegypt nor of all the World could purchase or parallel So that the Reproach of Christ was not so excellent in it self but as leading to the Estate of Heaven's Glory not that it
any Man to suffer the most cruel Punishments and the worst of Tortures Man can inflict than lye under extream and everlasting Pains and the loss of Heaven in the Life to come and this was a Principle and Ground of their Patience Constancy and Fidelity to their God Thus they became true Martyrs proved Victorious and were crowned in Heaven § 35. Besides the former there were others who suffered other kinds of Evils for it follows Ver. 36. And others had Trial of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonment HEre are three different Evils suffered by the Saints 1. Mockings 2. Scourgings 3. Bonds and Imprisonments So that the parts of the Text are three 1. The Enumeration of these Evils 2. Their Suffering of them 3. Their Faith 1. The Evils were 1. Mockings The Parties mocked were God's Saints and Prophets the Parties mocking were their Enemies and Persecutors which proved to be sometimes their own Brethren of the same Nation Language Kindred Religion and amongst these sometimes the basest of the People sometimes the Priests Princes and Rulers who should have honoured and protected them These Mockings issue out of Contempt and tend unto the Disgrace and Dishonour of the Party mocked and makes it a Sport to abuse them so as to rejoyce in their misery These Mockings are sometimes in words sometimes in signs sometimes in both And because to a grave serious Person of eminent Worth some of these Mockings are very bitter cutting cruel not only in respect of the matter but also of the Circumstances this made the Sufferings more glorious But why our Translators should add the word Cruel I know not the Septuagint and other Authors do not use either the Verb or Noun in that sense Yet to proud men that stand upon their Honour Mocking is far more grievous than to the lowly humble 2. Scourgings This is a Punishment also of great disgrace somtimes of cruel pain when by Whips either of Cords or Wires not only the Skin is broken but the very Flesh torn And this was the more grievous because it was an usual Punishment of Slaves of vilest Persons and of such as were of worst behaviour and by it they were not only put to pain but to open shame 3. The third Punishment was of Bonds and Imprisonnsent Bonds were Shackles Feâ—â—ers Chains Manacles wherewith their feet or hands or some other parts were bound Prisons were usually strong places and many times nasfy and uncomfortable and the worst kind of them were deep dark and dirty Dungeons Both these were restraints of Liberty which is so precious and desirable The End of them was the Reservation of Malefactors or suspected Persons till the time of Trial and Judgment and close Imprisonment was so much the more grievous when they were deprived of all comfortable Society and no friends suffered to relieve them 2. These they suffered some endured one of them some more some all For they had Trial or Experience of these things so some understand it as though the sense were that they did not fear them threatned but feel them inflicted Others think that these were called Trials from God to manifest the sincerity of their Faith and their heavenly Vertues that they might certainly know the happiness of their Condition or from their Petsecutors to shake their Faith and cause them to renounce their Fidelity to God But the former sense is more plain and genuine as appears by the Septuagint using it so and also from the 29th Verse of this Chapter and it signifies that they were not onely in danger of but under the present pressure of these evils Though their Enemies did afflict and vex them unjustly and wickedly yet they suffered them patiently and resolved that though God should kill them yet they would trust in him 3. They thus suffered these things by Faith For they knew the way to Heaven was rough and troublesom and that these Sufferings could not separate them from the Love of God nor deprive them of the great Reward but prepare them for eternal Glory For they vetily believed that there was eternal Life that God had promised it and that Constancy in the Covenant and Perseverance in the way of Righteousness was the only means to attain Possession and they knew that though their Sufferings were grievous yet the Reward would infinitely recompence all § 36. The Catalogue of the Saints Sufferings is continued and enlarged For Ver. 37. They were stoned sawen asunder tempted slain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins destitute afflicted tormented IN this Text we find several sorts of Sufferers for some were put to Death some banished or fled and wandred in great want and misery seeking to save their Lives and keep a good Conscience So that they are of two sorts 1. Such as were put to Death 2. Such as wandred and continued a miserable Life 1. Those that dyed were 1. Either stoned or 2. Sawen asunder or 3. Tempted or 4. Slain with the Sword These were the several wayes whereby they were put to Death And those capital Punishments which God and just Law-givers determined for capital Offendors were inflicted upon the most innocent and best Persons of the World The Power of punishing Offenders is good and from God but the abuse of it is most intolerable for Persecutors condemn those whom God doth justify 1. Some were stoned This was a Punishment determined by God in the Judicial Laws of Moses to be executed upon several Delinquents and Transgressors Yet no Judg had Warrant from God to condemn any innocent Person to this kind of Death yet Zacharias for charging the Jews with their Sins and denbuncing God's Judgments against them was stoned to Death 2. Some were sawen asunder Thus some say Isaiah was slain by Manasses this was a cruel kind of Execution 3. Some were tempted so many printed Books read yet few can make sense of it Others think it should be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were buâ—â—t and this is more agreeable to the Place and Scope Others omit it as the Syriack the Aethiopick the first Greek Manu-script in New-Colledge Oxford Neither do Chrysostom or Theophylact read it as Grotius informs us yet a Lapide finds it in Chrysostom which seems to imply that either one of them was mistaken or that they followed several Editions If it should be read and in this place as it 's hardly probable then it signifies that several were tempted by some cruel kind of Death to forsake their God yet they did not 4. Some were slain by the Sword which is used as well by the Magistrate against offending Subjects as by the Souldier against Enemies Martyrs might be thus slain either judicially or extrajudicially without any formal Process of Judgment for many times they laid hainous Crimes to their Charge suborned Witnesses and so sentenced them to Death Sometimes they made Justice Injustice Obedience to God Disobedience to
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
heard them Luke 10. 23 24. 3. The joy of Simeon when he saw his Saviour though then but an Infant and imbraced that blessed Babe in his arms doth manifest the same 4. We might add that the times of the Gospel were more excellent because the Angels came to School on Earth amongst Men to learn something that they had not known before This is implyed by these words of Paul And to let all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that Now unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3. 9 10 11. And by those of Peter 1 Pet. 1. 17. Which things the Angels desire to look into 5. Upon the exhibition of Christ and the revelation of the Gospel the rule of Faith was more fully clearly and distinctly declared as the former places do signify and the Holy Ghost was more plentifully powred down from Heaven So that the times of the Gospel were times of far greater perfection then the former had been 2. This better thing was provided by God who disposeth of all times and of all things to be done as knowing both what and when is most fit to be effected And as by his Wisdom he contrived this better thing so by his Will he determined it and when the time came by his Almighty Power he accomplished what he had provided This implieâ— that it was his Work and from his own free Will he made this provision without any thoughts of Man 3. He provided this better thing for us that is for Paul and the Hebrews and all such as lived under that excellent dispensation and enjoyed the light of the Gospel For they are the parties who had the benefit and the priviledg which the Elders and Ancient worthies expected but never received in their times § 40. They were not perfected without us this is the second Proposition which 1. Implies That they were perfected 2. Expresly affirms That they were not perfected without us 1. The former times were times of imperfection both in respect of the object of Faith which was Christ to come and also in respect of the revelation and proposal of the rule which was then more dark and implicite and therefore before Christ's exhibition and the clear light of the Gospel the Saints and Elders of Old could not be perfected What the imperfection of their Souls and Spirits separated was before the time of Christ's Ascention we know not so clearly and we are ignorant in part of that perfection which they then acquired But certainly besides that some of them were raised with Christ their condition was much bettered The knowledg of their Saviour was much increased and their joyes much advanced But that this perfection should be their deliverance out of the dark Limbus and upper part of Hell I cannot be perswaded I find no Scripture for it 2. Yet they were not perfected without us who live under the Gospel God so ordered it that as their Faith was not so perfect as ours so their estate should not be bettered till the glorious light of Heaven shined out upon us and them joyntly and upon us both together If they were not made perfect without us and they received not the promise and we did and they continued constant in Faith how much more are we who have received it bound to be constant and persevere § 41. Though we find many examples in Scripture proposed for imitation and several Duties pressed thereupon yet we find no place in this kind so full so large so particular as this of the Apostle wherein he singles out the prime and choisest Worthies of God which have lived in all Ages before Christ from the beginning of the World And it 's a kind of Induction which though not expresly yet implicitely reacheth almost a general For examples logically considered are but particular individuals which united together make up a Totum genericum which many say is nothing but species â—â—sima but we must not quarrel about words Morally and Theologically taken they do illustrate and make plain the matter whereof they are examples but as examples do not bind except the matter be found in some precept in force or of universal and perpetual obligation as this of Faith and perseverance in Faith is Yet this is observable in Scripture that God doth not only give us examples for imitation but commands us to follow them and they are added to the precepts to make the duty more evident more easy and more fit for encouragement Surely there was some special reason why the Authour should so inlarge in this topick of examples The reason seems to be the necessity of Faith in respect of Salvation which was such as that never any of the best of Saints could attain it or did attain it without this Virtue Besides as there was danger so there was great fear of Apostacy because of many temptations And it 's remarkable that he doth not instance in any Ceremonial Duty as of Sacrifice and such like nor in the works of the Law but in Faith yet a most lively and working Faith and he doth manifest that this was a fundamental virtue from the beginning As for his method it 's as clear as such a matter is capable of and the subject is handled with a great deal of artifice He 1. Describes Faith and makes that the basis and foundation of his following Discourse not only to let them know what the duty was he formerly exhorted unto but to give light to the Examples following 2. He signifies that it was an ancient and general vertue whereby the Elders became so famous 3. Because it was fit in producing so many Examples to observe some Order and so begin with one more ancient than the rest as with Abel who was the second Son of the first Man and lest it might be said that there were many Ages of the World before his time he informs us that the World had a beginning and that by Faith we believe it and therefore his first Example is one living in the beginning of the World and from him draws the Series or Catalogue down to latter times CHAP. XII Wherein the Exhortation to Perseverance is continued § 1. THE Analysis of this Chapter is easy for in the Exhortation continued we must observe 1. The Duty exhorted upto which is Perseverance 2. The Reasons and Motives whereupon it 's urged Which are 1. The former Examples 2. The Example of Christ. 3. The Nature of their Sufferings as they come from God 4. Divers ill Consequents if Apostacy and the Causes and Occasions thereof be not avoided 5. The Excellency of the Church under the Gospel above the Church under the Law 6. The Manner of revealing the Gospel 7.
to submit our selves The parties who must perform this Duty are Christian People as having Rules over them they are the Flock under their Shepheards Subjects under their Governours The parties to whom the Duty must be performed are such as have the Rule over them who before were called Guides which taught unto them the Word of God and here such as watch over their Souls All this implies that they are Superiors Governours Officers and to distinguish them from Civil Magistrates they are said to be trusted with men's Souls not their Bodies and Estates these are Officers in the Church whether extraordinary or ordinary of what order ranck or quality soever if instituted by Christ yet ordinary are here chiefly meant These are called Ministers of the Gospel Elders Pastors Teachers Their work chiefly is in Word Prayer administration of the Sacraments These most be fitly qualified for knowledg life utterance and approved by such as being sufficient to judg of them are appointed by the Church for that work They should be such as against whom no exception can justy be taken And this is said to be their Vocation upon which usually follows Ordination by Imposition of hands a certain form of words and prayer These are acts of the Church designing and engaging fit persons but their power is from Christ All this is to be understood of ordinary Pastors These are the persons to whom the Duty is to be performed The duty is Obedience and Subjection Obedience presupposeth Commands and subjection Power The Commands must be done the Power must be acknowledged The Power is spiritual and from God for they are made Overseers of the Church by the Holy Ghost Act. 20. 28. And it 's so great that Christ plainly affirms That whosoever heareth and receiveth them heareth and receiveth Christ and God who sent Christ and he that despiseth them despiseth Christ and God who sent him Matth. 10. 40. Luke 10. 16. And this is true not only of the Apostles but of their Successors Yet this presupposeth that they do all things in their place according to their Commission from Christ and in his Name exercising their Power according to his Command 2. The Reasons are taken 1. From their Work 2. From their Account 1. Their work is to watch over their Souls and here we must take notice 1. That the subject of their work are mens Souls and the Soul is the principal and more noble part of man and here it 's to be considered as immortal and capable of an eternal estate of felicity or misery And here they are considered as in great danger of eternal punishment and the work of the Minister must be to prevent it so far as he can This is done by watching which is a Metaphor taken from a Shepheard or a Scout or Sentinel And whatsoever the one should do for his Sheep and the other for his Country to save and preserve them this he must do for the Salvation of mens Soul For mens Souls are as Sheep without a Shepheard wandring in the wayes of Sin in danger of Satan Hell and Death dâ—stâ—â—ute of all necessary saving Blessings and all power either to direct or protect themselves And this Watching includes many works as instruction of the Ignorant reproof of the Guilty threatening the Stubborn strengthening the Weak comforting the Sorrowful directing all giving good example to all encouraging all praying for all To Watch is to do the whole work of the Ministry for Doctrine and Worship in the right dispensation of the Word and Sacraments Some understand by these Guides and Rulers all other Officers and Governours of the Church for Discipline but these may be other besides Ministers which are here principally intended Seeing these watch and that over their Souls and for their eternal Salvation to prevent their damnation they should be considered as most necessary of all other men and should be esteemed highly in love for their works sake People do little consider how great a blessing from God and happiness to Man good and faithful Ministers are but if they once find the power of their Doctrine and the comfort of the Spirit they prize them as Messengers and Angels sent from Heaven out of great mercy for their eternal good Yet the best are most hated of the Devil despised by Men reviled persecuted and sometimes martyred Yet we must not think this any strange thing seeing they called Christ Beelzebub and counted the Apostles the filth of the World and the off-scouring of all things But the insufficiency and infidelity of vicious lazy ambitious covetous Wretches though it may give some occasion of contempt cannot excuse the wickedness of the World in this particular 2. As Watching over mens Souls is the first reason so the second is taken from their Account which may be good or bad in respect of the Ministers or the People committed to their Charge where it 's to be observed that it may be good in respect of the Minister who hath been faithful and yet bad in respect of the People who have been disobedient Yet here the account is chiefly considered with reference to the People And it is two-fold 1. Good and made with joy which is profitable 2. Bad and made with grief which is unprofitable to the People This implies that Ministers as they receive power from Christ so they receive Mandates with Instructions and are deeply charged and wo unto Paul if he preach not the Gospel For such will be guilty not only of their own sins but of the Blood and Damnation of the Peoples Souls this is an heavy Charge This implies they are Stewards and the Flock is not their own but Christ's who trusted them in their hands and will call them to account and as they prove faithful or unfaithful so he will deal with them and punish or reward them more then other men and surely if we did remember this Account or loved Christ we would feed his Flock which cost him so dear even his own Life and Blood And the People should consider the expence of Christ's Blood the charge the study the pains the prayers of their faithful Ministers and this consideration should work much upon them and perswade them to obedience and submission because the performance of the Duty will end in the Ministers joy and their profit For as it is a great grief to their Guides to see the People impenitent and all their labour lost in respect of them so it is a matter of great joy to see them converted and brought into an estate of Salvation so that they can say These Souls I have gained and saved from Hell and can present them blameless as washed in the Blood of Christ before the Judgment-seat of God And as it is a joy to their Pastors so it is a profit and great advantage unto them for their joy shall end in the Peoples Salvation who will bless the Day that ever they hearkened to them and in receiving them received
that he was miraculously delivered and restored unto them for their great Comfort and the benefit of the Church And it 's certain many Prayers were made for Paul's Liberty when a Prisoner at Rome For they thought it a great Prejudice to the Gospel a Dammage to the Church and an hinderance of the Conversion of many Souls that so vigilant laborious faithful zealous and eminent an Apostle should be imprisoned and consined And Paul himself knew that his Liberty and his Presence would be both a great Comfort and also a Benefit not only unto these Hebrews but to many other Christians and Disciples Therefore he requests them as they desired the Comfort and Benefit of his presence amongst them upon his speedy Release to pray for him frequently and servently § 18. The next part of the Conclusion is the Apostle's Prayer Ver. 20. Now the God of all Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant Ver. 21. Make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen THESE words are a perfect Prayer of which we have two principal parts 1. A Petition 2. A Doxology Yet these may be made four 1. The Compellation of the Party invocated 2. The Petition of the Party invocating 3. The Doxology 4. The Conclusion and Confirmation of the whole Yet the first and last of these four belong both to the Petition and Doxology To begin with the Petition which presupposing Adoration begins with the Compellation and goes on with the Petition In the Compellation we have a Description of God the Party prayed to and that is from his Titles 1. Of Peace and 2. Of Power He is first acknowledged the God of Peace as in another place the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5. 10. The God of all Peace and Grace may be the same and that is a most gracious and loving God Yet if Peace be taken according to the Hebrew for perfect Happiness and the Enjoyment of all Blessings then the God of Peace is that God which is the Fountain of all Goodness and perfect full eternal Happiness yet such he is as a gracious God and loving Father reconciled and propitiated by the Blood of Christ. As he is a God of Peace so he is of Power and this Power is set forth by that glorious Work of raising Christ from the dead for therein was manifested the exceeding greatness of his Power according to the working of the sâ—â—e when he raised Christ Ephes. 1. 19 20. The Party whom he raised was Jesus Christ whom he describes from his Relation to the Church to be the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant Where we may observe 1. That there is the Blood of the everlasting Covenant 2. By or through this Blood Christ became the great Shepherd of the Sheep 3. God raised this great Shepherd from the dead 1. The Covenant is the Law and Covenant of Grace wherein God binds himself to sinful Man by excellent Promise upon the Conditions of Repentance and Faith to give him remission of all his Sins and everlasting Life Of this you have heard Chap. 8. This Covenant is everlasting because though the Covenant made with Israel in the Wilderness was abolished yet this is unalterable and shall continue for ever and by it and it alone the Called attain both the title and possession of the eternal Inheritance The Blood of this Covenant so called by Christ Mark 13. 22. Luke 22. 20. is the Blood of Christ which was shed as for other ends so for the confirmation of this Covenant And the Blood Death and Sacrifice of Christ confirmed the Covenant because it made it effectual and able to reach the end which was the eternal Salvation of sinful man For by this Blood being shed he satisfied divine Justice and made Sin remissible and merited the mercies promised the promises themselves the terms and conditions and power to perform them and by this Blood pleaded in Heaven upon the performance of the conditions he obtains actual Remission and in the end actual fruition of their eternal Inheritance The former Covenant with Israel was indeed confirmed with Blood of Sacrifices yet because that Blood could not expiate Sin and the Levitical High-Priest could not enter Heaven to plead any such expiatory Blood therefore that Covenant was not everlasting In respect of this Blood purging mens Consciences from dead Works Christ was made the Mediatour of the New Covenant of which you may see Chap. 9. 15. By this Blood therefore it is said That Christ is the great Shepheard of the Sheep For because Christ took upon him the form of a Servant and became obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross and shed his Blood therefore God exalted him and gave him a Name above every Name And therefore did his Father love him and made him an eternal Shepheard of the Sheep because he had laid down his life for his Sheep Joh. 10. 17. For this very cause his Father gave him Poâ—er over all Flesh that he might give eternal Life to as many as he had given him Joh. 17. 2. So that by this Blood he became the Shepheard the Great Shepheard For all the Prophets and the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel are Shepheards yet so that they are but Servants under him the Sheep are not theirs but Christ's who bought them by his Blood And God raised him and made him Lord and the great and chief Shepheard of the Flock that he might keep them raise them up at the last Day and then give them everlasting life This Shepheard was raised by the mighty power of God who not only raised him From the Dead but made him King and Priest for ever that is the great and chief Shepheard This is more at large described Eph. 1. 19 20 21. to the end for that place doth expound this for one part For if we consider Christ in this place as the Object of God's almighty Power We may observe 1. His Humiliation 2. His Exaltation His Humiliation is signified by his Blood and Death whereby the new and everlasting Covenant is confirmed Thus humbled thus Dead he is the subject of God's almighty Power which did manifest it self 1. By raising him from the Dead 2. By making him the great Shepheard Lord and King advancing him above the Angels the Principalities Powers and Dominions of Heaven and all Names and Powers on Earth and gave him to be Head and Shepheard of the Church-Universal And the reason why the Apostle gives God these titles of Peace and Power and instanceth in the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ as glorious Effects of this Power is because the continued sanctification and perfection of man once regenerate which is the thing desired in the Petition following depends
for Christ's sake can have any Right to eat of this Altar and Sacrifice of Christ so as to be saved by it § 13. Therefore the Apostle draws a practical Conclusion from the former words in this manner Ver. 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the Camp bearing his Reproach Ver. 14. For here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come THis Text is an Exhortation and therein two things are observable 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reason whereupon it 's urged 1. The Duty is two-fold 1. We must go forth to him 2. We must bear his Reproach 1. We must come forth of the Camp or City to him 1. The Camp or City is Judaism and all erroneous Sects and also the World and men of the World we must separate from all things inconsistent with the Truth and Christ. This is not expressed but implied 2. Out of this Camp or City we must come forth and that we do when we renounce all Errours in Religion and all earthly Affections Our Opinions and Errours in Religion are so many Idols setup in our Souls and are contrary to the Truth of the Gospel and the things of the World which we so much affect and dearly love are all of us by Nature contrary to the Love of Christ We have something in our hearts which keeps us from our God till we be truly converted 3. To come forth to Christ therefore is to be rightly informed and to believe the saving Truth of Christ and upon this right Information to love him above all as far more necessary excellent and beneficial than any thing than all things else This is the same with denying ourselvs forsaking all for his sake hating Father Mother Wife Children Brethren Sisters and Life itself out of love to him and to forsake all for his sake For lay all of these with all the Kingdoms and rarest Contents of the World together on oneside and Christ on the other they are all base uncertain vain empty things Dross and Dung and nothing to Christ who is infinitely precious and incomparably more excellent than all and more beneficial to a poor guilty Sinner To come forth to him is not to change the Place but our Hearts it 's a Motion not of the Body but the Soul and if we once knew the Beauty of Christ and had tasted of his Sweetness we should be ravished with him and all the World could not keep us from him In him alone true Happiness is to be found 2. The second part of the Duty is to bear his Reproach Here is Reproach his Reproach the bearing of his Reproach In this the Author alludes unto the bearing of the Cross which was the greatest Shame and Disgrace any man could be put unto To endure Shame and Disgrace and suffer in our Reputation Credit Honour and good Name is a very grievous Evil and few can endure it and some can better suffer Death than Ignominy and Disgrace The Cross was not only a matter of Reproach but of grievous pain and torment and was the Epitome of all positive Evils and therefore by Reproach is signified all kind of afflictions and miseries which we may suffer from men or may be obnoxious unto in this Life Yet this Reproach and this Cross here meant must be his Reproach his Cross. If we suffer Punishment for our own Crime and through our own Folly then it 's not Christ's Cross Simon of Cyrene did not bear his own but Christ's Cross and followed him This is a Reproach and Cross laid upon us for his sake because we profess his Truth obey his Laws oppose Sin and his Enemies refuse to comply with the World in any Sin renounce all Errours Idolatry Superstition and wicked Customs of the World and all this out of Love to Christ. To bear this Cross is not meerly to suffer any wayes but to suffer the worst Man can do unto us with Patience with Constancy with Joy and to think our selveâ— happy and much honoured that we are counted worthy to suffer for so great a Saviour â—nd in so noble a Cause This requires a divine Faith well grounded upon the Word and Promises of God and a special Assistance of the dâ—vine Spirit for these will strengthen our hearts and make us willing to suffer any thing before we offend our God and lose our Saviour § 13. The words of the former Verse considered as a Doctrine or Proposition are a Conclusion deducible from antecedent Premisses but as containing a Duty to be performed they are inferred from the 14. Ver. where we have a Reason given us why we should come forth to Christ and it is two-fold 1. Because we have here no abiding City 2. Because we seek one to come 1. We have no abiding City By City understand two things 1. A place fit for comfortable and safe habitation 2. An Estate answerable unto this Habitation whereby we may live happily in this place For neither can an Estate without a place nor a place without an Estate make our condition good and such as we desire An abiding City is a place of eternal Rest and Safety which in it self stands firm for ever and the Inhabitants shall never remove or be dispossessed As it is such a Place so it 's an Estate not only of all necessaries but of all things delectable and desirable with plenty of them sufficient to make a man fully happy and as these things in themselvs so the Enjoyment of them is everlasting Yet here that is in this life on Earth and under Heaven there is no such City no such Place no such Estate And as it is not here so we have it not for nothing can be had or enjoyed where it is not We may have many great and glorious things on Earth for here are goodly Estates Kingdoms and vast Empires strong and beautiful Cities Towns and Habitations and some have them yet these are not abiding in themselvs nor in the Possession of the Owners Experience of all times besides the Word of God doth teach us this certain Truth Therefore we knowing that there is no such City here seek no such thing here because no such thing can be had here 2. But we seek one to come That is though there be no such thing here neither have we any such City on Earth yet there is such a City though not here yet else-where though not present yet to come and we seek it There is one a Place of everlasting Rest and firm Mansions in our Father's House and a glorious Estate of full and perfect Happiness far above the Conceit and Imagination of mortal men and the Possession both of the Place and Estate shall be everlasting as all the Inhabitants and Owners of this City shall live for ever Yet it 's to come which signifies that no such thing is here neither can it be enjoyed in this present mortal life the full and perfect Fruition is reserved for Heaven
and the time of Resurrection and Immortality And we seek it this implies 1. That we believe there is such an Estate and that upon sure Ground for God hath said so 2. That we knowing the Excellency and Glory of it do much desire and long for it as that which once possessed will make us fully and for ever blessed 3. That we have some hope of the attainment and the same certain as being grounded upon the Promise of God confirmed to us by an Oath and besides we have a present Title unto it and the first fruits thereof even in this Vale of Tears This Belief this Hope this Title these first-Fruits set us on seeking of this City and all our Life-time is nothing else but a Seeking and this is our great business all our other Works and Labours are but upon the by or subordinate to this This Seeking is the Exercise of our uâ—most Power with greatest diligence in the Use of those means God hath ordained for the attaining of that blessed Condition which was prepared from the beginning but to be fully enjoyed in the End of the World The outward means are Word and Sacraments the inward Knowledg Repentance Faith and new Obedience for by the Use of the outward and Improvement of the inward means we are made capable of Heaven The words being thâ—s explained let us consider the force of the Reasons and Motives therein contained which are two 1. We have no abiding City 2. We seek one to come 1. If we have nothing certain and constant here Why should we be willing to abide here where we have no abiding nor enjoy any thing that is abiding and permanent All things are Vanity of Vanities even most vain flitting and empty of all solid Goodness Every thing under Heaven though never so excellent and lasting is subject to waste and consumption yea the Heavens and the Earth shall perish and wax old and God shall change them as a Garment and as a Vesture shall they be changed And as all things are mutable and perishing in themselvs so our Possession of them is uncertain and how many wayes may we be dispossessed of them And shall it trouble us to part with that which one day and we know not how soon must be taken from us and to leave that place which suddenly must be left For at the time of death if not sooner shall we be stript of all take our leave with dearest Friends and all things and persons though never so near and dear unto us must be left behind us and then we must remove hence and be no more seen And why should the thoughts of bearing his Reproach torment our minds For Christ hath born it before us and the burden is but leight and shall not ly long upon our backs for no Sufferings can extend beyond this mortal Life 2. The second Reason is very effectual for we have an abiding City to come Christ as you heard for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and why should not we follow him and do as he hath done We can lose nothing of much value but for what we lose we shall receive many things incomparably better for Treasure on Earth Treasure in Heaven for a Mortal Life an Immortal for uncertain and fading things certain and everlasting for a removable Tabernacle an everlasting Temple for a Wilderness an ever-blessed Canaan And every step of our Remove out of this World is but an Approach unto our abiding City where will be no Reproach no Cross no Suffering but perpetual Ease Peace Safety Happiness And if we had any effectuall Faith and lively Hope of these eternal Mansions and this glorious Estate how easy were it for us even with Joy to go out of this Camp this City to our Saviour bearing his Reproach For want of Consideration we have no lively clear Apprehension no firm Belief and effectual Hope of this heavenly City Some press this Duty upon other Reasons implied in the former words namely because 1. We shall be Partakers of the Sacrifice of Christ. 2. We are sanctified by his Blood 3. He went out of the City first carrying his Cross and gave us an Example Yet these may inferr and prove this to be a Duty though they be not so powerful Motives stirring up to Performance § 14. The next Duty we are exhorted unto we find Ver. 15. By him therefore let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the fruit of our Lips confessing unto his Name LET us consider 1. The Context 2. The Text. 1. The Context and Connexion with the former words is implied in the Illative Therefore which usually inferrs a Conclusion from some Premisses Antecedent and most Expositors do take this Text to be a Conclusion but what the Premisses be they do not agree 1. Some think they referr to Ver. 10. We have an Altar though not Mosaical and Levitical therefore let us make use of it and offer upon it some Moral and Spiritual not Carnal Sacrifice Others inferr it from Ver. 12. where it 's said We are sanctified by Christ's Blood therefore let us offer c. For the Priests were first sanctified and consecrated by Blood before they could minister and Sacrifice Others make it part of the formet Duty Ver. 13. and urged upon Motives in the 14th and in this manner Seeing we have no abiding City here but seek one to come which is purchased by Christ's Blood let us not only go forth to him bearing his Reproach but let us also do this with Praise and Thanksgiving in that we are counted worthy to suffer for him and with him This seems to agree with that of the Apostle Coloss. 1. 11 12. where Prayer is made for strength that they may be able to suffer with Patience long-Suffering and Joyfulness giving thanks that they were made fit to have part of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And it 's true that this Conclusion may be inferred from these severally or from all jointly in this manner That seeing we have an Altar an High-Priest are sanctified by his Blood and made capable of an abiding City to come therefore let us offer and offer this Sacrifice of Praise and that by him Yet the Cónjunction thereforeÌ„ may be expletive here as sometimes it is and the words have no Reference to the former but be a new Exhortation distinct from the former and added unto them 2. The Text in it self is an Exhortation and therein we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto which is to offer the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving 2. The Directions how it must be offered and they are these It must be offered 1. By Christ. 2. To God 3. Continually 4. To his Name Yet the Directions concerning the manner are properly two It must be offered 1. By Christ. 2. Continually If we reduce these into divine Axioms or Propositions we may digest them thus 1. There