were yet time enough for Christ to iterate his offerings and by a just proportion equall the number of the legall offerings although hee began not to suffer and offer himselfe from the foundation of the world For because hee suffered and offered himselfe in the end of the world hence it appeares that there is not time enough yet to come to serve for the multitude of his sufferings and offerings But the time wherein Christ came is therefore called the end of the world because it is the last age of the world and as it were the old age of it and because the other comming of Christ which is joyned with the consummation and end of the world is alwayes supposed to be at hand which could in no wise be if the offering of Christ were to be iterated answerably to the just number and proportion of the old Legall offerings But the holy Ghost would have us perpetually wait for the expectation of Christs comming For that his comming and together with it the end of the world is yet deferred and that so many ages have passed since his first comming into the world seating upon his heavenly throne this in a manner is accidentall by reason of the long suffering of God who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 To put away sin by the sacrifice of himselfe He shews the finall cause of the comming and appearance of Christ which is for the putting away of sin which is done when all the force and power of sin is destroyed Which destruction of sin is effected two wayes the one is when sin hath no power to condemne men the other when it hath no power to subdue men by enthralling them under the yoke of it That both these effects might be produced Christ hath appeared both that he might deliver men from the punishment of sinne and also from the dominion of it even freeing them from sin it selfe Now the meanes whereby Christ hath put away sinne in destroying the power of it is by the sacrifice of himselfe For this act may be joyned as well with the word suffered as with appeared as other Interpreters also have observed How the sacrifice of Christ purgeth away our sins For Christ by the sacrifice of himselfe hath cashired and put away sinne by taking from it all it power to condemne and to reigne which though we have declared before yet are we willing to repeat it againe because the matter is of such moment that if it may be we might drive and fasten it throughly into mens mindes For as concerning the guilt and punishments of sinnes can there bee any sinnes so that we doe our duty which a sacrifice so acceptable to God offered in the Sanctuary of heaven and by so great an high Priest cannot expiate Can there be any danger that he will deale negligently in our cause who offered up himselfe as a sacrifice for our sinnes and who having himselfe suffered all those miseries and pressures that can possibly befall us hath assumed a minde so prone to pity us Hath not yet the wished effect been answerable to so holy a sacrifice and to so carefull a provision of our high Priest Is not the power of our salvation in the power of our high Priest and in his hand to release whom he will of sinne and to bestow eternall life and whatsoever good thing besides upon whom he will Doth he not negotiate the matter with his most deare Father who himselfe burnes with a desire of our salvation who himselfe hath made a sacred Covenant for the remission of our sinnes who himselfe ordained the holy Sacrifice for our sinnes who himselfe would have it offered unto him and caused it to be offered who himselfe ordained our high Priest with an oath and committed unto him the whole care of our salvation Now concerning the dominion of sinne for the excussion of the yoke of it can it possibly be that when we perceive so great and so certaine causes and proofes of our eternall salvation and of plenary remission of our sinnes that we should not with all our souls embrace the faith of Christ and devote our selves wholly to him when by this means through the grace and mercy of our God wee are effectually purged and justified from the guilt of all our sins shall we not contend with our whole force to abandon sin for ever after wholy addict our selves to holines shall we not labour to the utmost to preserve this great grace of God entire and whole to our last gaspe that at length we may enjoy the full fruit of it in our deliverance from death and inheritance of eternall life And shall it not mightily incourage us to shake off the yoke of sin in that our heavenly high Priest will perpetually support us with his Spirit supply us with power enough to live holily if we will live so and will strive to do it This therefore is the manner after which Christ by the Sacrifice of himself hath put away sin that neither it might hurt us nor reign in us The Sacrifice of Christ is Christ himself sacrificed being first slain then raised to immortall life that he might enter his heavenly Tabernacle and therein offer himself and appear for us for ever The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred a Sacrifice though it come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to slay yet it useth not to be taken in Scripture abstractedly for the slaughter but concretly for the creature slaughtered or rather for that part of it which is offered to God But if any man keeping the same sense will joyn these words by the sacrifice of himself with the verb appeared then the particle by must be taken for with and in that sense as we have noted before that John saith Christ came by water and bloud i. with water and bloud not that at his first comming into the world hee shed his bloud but because he therefore came that he might shed his bloud though not forthwith So Christ may be said to appeare with the sacrifice of himselfe not that as soon as he appeared he was made a sacrifice but that he so appeared that in his due time he might be made a sacrifice But we best approve of that sense which joynes these words by the sacrifice of himselfe with the words immediatly preceding to put away sinne For the finall end of the appearance or comming of Christ was to put away sin and the meanes whereby he abolished it was by the sacrifice of himselfe Seeing therefore Christ came in the end of the world that he might abolish sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe therefore hence it appears that he must not often iterate his sacrifice after the manner of the legall high Priest for otherwise he must have begunne this action more early and not have deferred it to the last age of the world 27. And as it
Author therefore might taxe these marriages in Esau as prophane uncleane and incestuous which also are most carefully to be avoided of all Christians and so much the more as they are more holy then the sonnes of the Patriarchs Notwithstanding the Author seems properly to brand that fornication which was so growne into custome among the Gentiles that it was scarce accounted any vice or dishonesty as it plainly appears by the holy Scriptures see Acts 15.20,29 Rom. 1.29 1 Corinth 6.13 And this sin he would have to be far from Christians And in the prohibition of fornication is included also the prohibition of adultery and of all kind of unclean pleasures because they are greater sins Or prophane person That person properly is prophane who esteems nothing holy who either despiseth things holy or discernes them not from things common How this should properly agree to Esau it doth not equally appear For the birth-right which he despised and sold for so base a price was not a thing properly holy though it were a singular priviledge and not to be despised either therefore it is not Esau who is called prophane but only he is proposed for an example of a prophane person in regard he did an act resembling prophanenesse Or if hee himselfe be called a prophane person he deserved that appellation by his likenesse to a prophane person especially seeing his fact seems to be a signe of a prophane person Who for one morsell of meat sold his birth-right The first borne both seemed in a manner peculiarly sacred unto God and were the first and chiefe heires of then parents and by a naturall right had a prerogative and preeminence above their brethren Whence under the Law the first borne was to have a double portion out of his fathers inheritance which came to as much as any two of his brethren Deut. 21.17 Hence we read that the dignity royall was devolved from Reuben the first-borne of Jacob unto Judah passing by also Simeon and Levi who were elder then Judah because all these had defiled themselves with wickednesse Reuben because he had gone up to his fathers bed and the rest because they had stained their hands with the murther of the Sichemites and had made themselves incapable of that dignity If therefore Esau were filthy and prophane because he sold his birth-right for a morsell of meat how much more are they filthy prophane and wicked who being chosen and adopted for the Sonnes of God in Christ doe esteem so basely of their rights to heaven which God through his infinit mercy hath conferred upon them that they countervalue them with fornications gluttonies and other base pleasures and sins 17. For ye know that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected That we might learne what great calamity is incident to prophane persons such as Esau was and consequently how much it concerns us to shun prophanenesse therefore the Author here shews what great incommondity it brought unto Esau that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing due by the right of nature to the first-borne above others and sued to his father Isaac for it hee was rejected because he had already sold it unto Jacob and Jacob had already gotten that blessing God so ordering the matter the same calamity therefore remaines to all those that by lusts and uncleane pleasures and such like sinnes disable themselves from the right of that eternall blessing whereto God of his great mercy had admitted them by adopting them for his sons For he had no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares The Author therefore addes this lest any prophane person should thinke that he could move God afterward by his tears and cryes not to deprive him finally of that blessing which is heavenly happinesse For the same condition will befall them that happened unto Esau who found no place for repentance though hee sought it earnestly with tears and cryes as the Scriptures testifie From this place it clearly appears that to enjoy the birth-right and the chiefe blessing otherwise due of course to the first-borne were things distinct And Esau though he had not sold his birth-right might notwithstanding God so willing and disposing have failed of the chiefe blessing because it was already setled upon Jacob. For if Esau having now solâ— and lost his birth-right would yet have gotten the chiefe blessing and did sue with prayers and teares to his father for it why might not Jacob though he had not gotten the birth-right aspire to the blessing was it not free for God to bestow it rather upon Jacob then Esau Although therefore without the rejection of his birth-right Esau might not be preferred before Jacob for the blessing yet seeing he had for merly despised his birth-right hee was altogether worthy to lose the fruit of it also that so he might faile of the blessing not only by Gods decree and pleasure but by his owne fault and demerit The pronoune it though it may be relative to the blessing yet it rather seems referable to repentance and yet not to the repentance of Esau but of Isaac For Esau must be supposed to seek that which he found not for the Author doth manifestly oppose these two one to the other but hee found not repentance and therefore he sought repentance For to find no place of repentance is all one with not to finde repentance that the forme of the opposition may the better appeare unlesse we say that one thing was sought and another was not found for the thing whose place cannot be found that thing cannot be made existent But now seeing Esau sought not his owne repentance for he did repent of his fact and testified his sorrow with tears and cryes it remaines therefore that by that repentance whose place could not be found wee understand the repentance of Isaac whereto Esau by his weeping and complaints would move Isaac that he would revoke the blessing given to Jacob and translate it upon himselfe But he was therein disappointed and frustrated for his teares and cryes came too late and did not help him And this point the Author leaves to the consideration of all prophane persons that after they have rejected or neglected their right to eternall salvation their tears and cryes will availe them nothing if they come too late as all those doe which only then are powred forth when the time is past for amendment of life and the time already come for judgement and punishment or else their tears are not serious enough and effectuall to a new course of life and to true holinesse for the recovery of that right which they had lost For the Author had determined it before that without holines no man should see the Lord ver 14. And therefore a matter of this consequence must not thinke to be gained only with cryes and tears wherein prophane persons can be as abundant and commonly are more fluent then the true Saints of God Hence it