68 For he was once offered to bear the sins of many. SECT. out its dreadful score; by the sacrifice of himself, he appeared to put xii. that he might purchase the pardon of it, and away sin by the sacHeb. effectually teach men to subdue it, when they rifice of himself. ix. 26 see such a ransom paid for their forfeited lives. 27 And just as with respect to the common lot of 27 And as it is mankind, it is appointed to all men once to die, appointed unto men and after that the judgment is ordained, which once to die, but after this the judgfixes them in an unalterable state, without ment: 28 any farther revolution of life and death: So 28 So Christ was Christ passed through one death, no more to once offered to bear h Purchase the pardon of it, and teach men to subdue it.] Dr. Harris (in his Discourses on the principal Representations of the Messiah, p. 252) explains us abernow auagrias, for the abolishing of sin, of wiping out a score, so that it should be no longer actionable. But I think it extends to every method of abolishing sin, or putting it away, and may include, besides the sat isfaction made to the Divine justice, the subduing it also in our own hearts. that can enter into the mind of man more suitable to convey the grand idea which the apostle intended to convey by it, than this would be to a Jew, who well knew the grand solemnity to which it referred. k Without sin.] Mr. Fleming supposes this refers to Christ's having, in that great day, the glory of the Shechinah upon him, of which the splendor of the richest habits Aaron and his sons wore, was but a faint shadow; and that it farther alludes to the stripping Adam of that glory which he contracted from his first interview with the Shechinah, as soon as he had sinned. In consequence of which, Christ appearing in the days of his flesh like one of us, without this glory, might be said to come as with sin, or, as it is expressed, Rom. viii 3, in the likeness of sinful flesh, Flem. Christology, Vol. II. p. 301. Like the High Priest.] I doubt not but there is indeed, as Limborch supposes, an allusion here to the high priest coming out to bless the people who were waiting for him in the temple when the great day of atonement was over. And as he then appeared in his golden garments, whereas before he had officiated in the plain dress of a common priest; and as the trumpet of the jubilee, on that year sounded to proclaim the commencement of that happy period; there is not perhaps an image is To salvation: us owengiar.] Wolfius of opinion, that these words should be Reflections on our obligations to Jesus Christ. 69 IMPROVEMENT. xii. verse We are heirs of an eternal inheritance, and we owe all our ex- SECT. pectations of it to the Mediator of that better covenant, who at the expense of his own blood procured redemption from the guilt and condemnation of those transgressions which have been com- 15 mitted under the first covenant: what praise do we owe to that voluntary victim, who made his blood the seal of that better cove. 16 nant? O, that as all the vessels of the sanctuary, and all the people were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices, on that day 19 22 when Moses entered them into solemn covenant with God; so our souls and all our services might be under the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus! By the efficacy of that were the heavenly 23 places sanctified and prepared for us; by that our way into them is opened: let us be daily looking up to the Lord Jesus Christ, as gone to appear in the presence of God for us, and entered into heaven with his own blood. May his death be as efficacious 24 25 to subdue the power of sin in our hearts, as it is to expiate our guilt before God. Then may we look forward with pleasure to the great solemnities of death and judgment, and expect that 27 28 faithful Redeemer, who though he is to come no more as a sacrifice for sin, will then appear for the complete salvation of all, who have obediently received him under that character, and waited for him according to his word. In the mean time, that we may be engaged thus to apply to 27 him, and improve our knowledge of him to the great purposes intended; may we live in the continual views of death, as what is indispensably appointed to men; and remember that it is our certain inevitable doom. May we also consider it, as standing in a most certain connection with judgment; assuring ourselves, that whatever the period of time between the one and the other may be, there is no room for a change in our character or state. Let therefore the thoughts of judgment, and its awful eternal consequences, stir us up to a diligent preparation for death. Let it engage us to make an immediate application to Christ as the great Saviour, with entire submission to his princely authority; for if that be disregarded, how shall we meet him as our Judge! For when he appears the second time for the salvation of his peo connected with those immediately pre- pear-to salvation. And certainly this is ceding, as expressing the view with which they waited for the returning Saviour, namely, that they might obtain complete salvation. But, with Grotius, I think it preferable to connect them in this manner, cânσeral—us owenpiav, he shall ap much more natural, than with Beza and Erasmus Schmidius, to refer it to so remote a clause as εις το πολλων ανενεγκείν auaglias to bear the sins of many, in order to their salvation. See Wolfii Cure Philo logic. in loc. 70 The legal sacrifices could not make them perfect: SECT. ple, he will execute righteous vengeance on his enemies; and xii. that vengeance can never appear so terrible, as when considered as coming from the mouth of him who was once manifested to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. SECT. xiii. Heb. SECT. XIII. The apostle returns from his digression to prove, that the legal ceremonies could not by any means purify the conscience; and from thence argues the insufficiency of the Mosaic law, and the necessity of looking beyond it. Heb. X. 1-15. HEBREWS X. 1. HEBREWS X. 1. OU see that it is the design of all this FOR the law hav You sacrifices which they make ing a shadow of discourse, to raise your minds from the good things to come, Mosaic law to the gospel; and it is an import- and not the very im x. 1 ant design, which the dearer you are to me, age of the things, the more earnestly I must pursue. For the law can never with those having, as it were, only a shadow, or imperfect offered year by year sketch, of future good things, and not the com- continually, plete delineation, or the very image of the things the comers thereun to perfect. [themselves,] could by no means, even by those sacrifices of atonement which they always offer yearly, and are the most solemn which belong to the whole Hebrew ritual, perfect those who come unto [them,] so as to remove the moral guilt of their offences, and bring them into a state of reconciliation with God, and to that settled peace of conscience, which results 2 from a sense of his favour. And indeed the 2 For then would Shadow and image: oxiav, emova.] Here is an allusion, I apprehend, to the different state of a painting, when the first sketch only is drawn, and when the piece is finished; or to the first sketch of a painting, when compared with what is yet more expressive than even the completest painting, an exact image. I cannot be of opinion with Mr. Peirce, that unov, image, here signifies the original from whence the delineation or draught is made. It is a very unusual sense of the word; nor can I think, Rom. i. 23, sufficient to justify and support it. Besides, even under the gospel, we have not the heavenly blessings themselves, but only a clearer representation or revelation of them. b Sacrifices which they always offer year. ly.] The sacrifices, offered on the day of atonement, being by far the most solemn of any of the expiatory kind among the Jews, are mentioned here with the utmost propriety. And this interpretation seems to supersede the necessity of following Mr. Peirce's translation, who would, by transposing the points, render it. The law having only a shadow of good things to come, yearly, can never with the same sacrifices, which they continually offer, make the comers thereunto perfect. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away xiii. to be offered; be- they would have ceased to be offered any more, sECT. cause that the wor- at least by the same persons: because they shippers once purged, should have had who had performed that service, being once purino more conscience fied by it, would have had no more consciousness of sins. of sins; but have enjoyed the efficacy of that atonement to the last moment of their lives, on applying to it on any future occasions; as we Christians do, by renewed acts of faith on our great sacrifice, if through the frailty of human nature we are so unhappy as to fall into 3 But in those sac- sin. But in them, [there is] of course, as it 3 rifices there is a re- were, a yearly commemoration of sins, by a membrance again made of sins every yearly presentation of the atoning blood of new sacrifices in the most holy place; which shows that their efficacy is so far from extending as that of the true expiation does, to all nations, times, and places, that it only looks back upon the year completed,d and hath no influence, even with regard to those persons who are actually present in the temple, on any thing future. year. should take away sins. f Heb. 4 For it is not pos- And indeed the reason of this is plain; for 4 sible that the blood [it is] in the nature of things impossible that of bulls and of goats the blood of bulls and of goats should, on the whole, take away sins, or make a real atonement to God as the great Governor of the world, for the moral guilt of any transgression : though it may by Divine appointment put a stop to any rther prosecution which might proceed in Jewish courts, or any such extraordinary judgment, as the peculiar state of things among that people might otherwise re5 Wherefore, quire. Therefore when the Messiah is de- 5 when he cometh in- scribed in David, as making his entrance into to the world, he saith, Sacrifice and the world, he saith, in those well known words, offering thou would. (Psal. xl. 7.) "Sacrifice and offering thou They would have ceased to be offered.] This reading is more easy and natural than that which our translators have followed; while they have placed this in the margin. It is supported by many copies, and adopted by the Vulgate and Syriac version. Looks back upon the year complet. ed] I am surprised that Diodate should imagine this must have been expressly revealed to the apostle: I think it sufficiently appears from the tenor of the Mosaic law; for if the expiation was to be X.2 offered yearly for the whole people, it 72 xiii. Therefore he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. SECT. Wouldest not [accept,] but a body hast thou pro- est not, but a body hast thou prepared vided me, in which I may render thee a more acceptable service: In whole burnt offerings Heb. me : 6 In burnt offer 1.6 and sin offerings thou hadst no complacency, ings and sacrifices when considered in this view, and in refer- for sin thou hast had 7 ence to this great event. Then I said with no pleasure : 7 Then said I, the most cheerful consent, Behold, I come; Lo, I come (in the in the volume of the book, which contains the volume of the book ancient prophecies, it is written of me, that I it is written of me) to do thy will, Ó should accomplish this service, and I delight God. to do thy will, O my God; for thy law in all its 8 branches is within my heart." Having in 8 Above, when he effect said above, As for sacrifice and offering, said, Sacrifice, and whether they were burnt offerings, or sacrifices offering, and burnt offerings, and offerfor sin, thou didst not desire [them,] or take pleas- ings for sin thou ure [in them,] which comprehends the most wouldest not,neither material and considerable of those things which hadst pleasure therein, (which are offer9 were offered to God under the law; Then he ed by the law;) said, Behold I come to do thy will, O God. So 9 Then said he, that you see, he taketh away the first, that is, Lo, I come to do thy burnt offerings and sacrifices, that he may estab- will, O God. taketh away the first, lish the second, that is, doing God's will; point- that he may establish ing therein to that great act of obedience, by the second. which the pardon of sin was to be secured, and the Divine honour most effectually promoted. 10 In the execution of which will we are sanctified, 10 By the which cleansed from our sins, and recommended to ed through the offerthe Divine acceptance, even by the offering up ing of the body of the body of our Lord Jesus Chri, once for all, Jesus Christ once as an atoning sacrifice. A body hast thou provided me.] After having deliberately considered the various interpretations which have been given of this text, I find none so probable as that of Mr. Peirce, who supposes that the original reading of the Hebrew which the Seventy follow, instead of pas was ; and that sometimes signifies to procure, as well as to dig; and then their version will be justified, and the apostle's following it easily accounted for. Next to this is the solution of the ingenious and learned Mr. Saurin, who supposes the Seventy chose to explain the phrase of boring the ear, by that of preparing the body for service, as better known to those for whom the version was intended; and therefore preferred also by the apostle, who, though he directs this epistle to the Hebrews, to whom the other custom might be known, intended it for general use. Saurin's Serm. He will we are sanctifi for all. Vol. XI. p. 17-23. The interpretation given by Elsner, (Observ. Vol. II. p. 362,) is much to the same purpose with this of Mr. Saurin. f Volume of the book.] This is, in the Pentateuch, the only book containing prophecies of Christ written before David's time. As if he had said, I rejoice, that I am registered in thy book as thy servant. This is the sense of Bishop Fell. On the whole, I think the apostle so plainly ar gues from this text, that it proves the psalm to which he refers to be a literal prophesy of the Messiah; and consequently the twelfth verse of it, which affords the only material argument against this interpretation, must either be explained of those iniquities, which, though not properly Christ's own, were laid upon him; or rather those calamities which he bore for the expiation of sin. |