Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

Ili. The Lord Christ being consecrated and perfected through sufferings, hath consecrated the way of suffering, for all that follow him,* to pass through unto glory. All complaints of sufferings, all despondencies under them, all fears of them, are rendered unjust and unequal by the sufferings of Christ. It is surely-righteous that they should be contented with his lot here, who desire to be received into his glory hereafter. Now there are sundry things that follow upon this consecration of the way of suffering, by Jesus Christ. As,

First. That they are made necessary and unavoidable. Men may hope and desire other things, and turn themselves several ways in their contrivances to avoid them, but one way or other, sufferings -will be the portion of them that intend to follow this Captain of salvation. The apostle tells believers, that they are “ predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God,” Rom. vii. 29. And lets them know in the close of that chapter, that no small part of this conformity consists in their afflictions and sufferings. The head having passed through them, there is a measure of afflictions belonging unto the body, which every member is to bear his share of, Col. i. 24. And the Lord Jesus himself hath given this law unto us, that every one who will be his disciple must take up his cross and follow him. Discipleship and the cross are inseparably knit together, by the unchangeable law and constitution of Christ himself. And the gospel is full of warnings and instructions to this purpose; that none may complain that they were surprised, or that any thing did befal them in the course of their profession which they looked not for. Men may deceive themselves with vain hopes and expectations, but the gospel deceiveth none; it tells them plainly before-hand, that through many tribulations they must enter into the kingdom of God; and that they Who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If they like not of these terms, they may let the way of Christ alone; if they will not do so, why do they yet complain? Christ will be taken with his cross, or not at all. And the folly of our hearts can never be enough bewailed, in thinking strange of trials and afflictions; when the very first thing that the Lord Christ requireth of them that will be made partakers of him, is, that they deny themselves, and take up their cross. But we would be children, and not be chastised; we would be gold, and not be tried; we would overcome, and yet not be put to fight and contend; we would be Christians, and not suffer. But all these things are contrary to the eternal law of our profession. And so necessary is this way made, that though God deal with his people in great variety, exercising some with such trials and troubles, that others sometimes in comparison of them seem utterly to go free, yet every one, one way or other, shall have his share and measure. And those exceptions that are made in the providence of God, as to some individual persons at some seasons, derogate nothing from the general necessity of the way towards all that do believe.

Secondly. It hath made all sufferings for the gospel honourable. The sufferings of Chiust himself were indeed shameful, and that not only in the esteem of men, but also in the nature of them, and by God’s constitution. They were part of the curse, “ As it is written, Cursed is he that hangs upon a tree.” And as such™our Lord Jesus Christ looked on them, when he wrestled with and conquered the shame as well as the sharpness. But he hath rendered all the sufferings of his that remain, very honourable in themselves, whatever they are in the reputation of a blind perishing world. That which is truly shameful in suffering, is an effect of the curse for sin. This Christ by his suffering hath utterly separated from the sufferings of his disciples. Hence the apostles rejoiced that they had the honour to suffer shame for his name, Acts v. 41,+that is, the things which the world looked on as shameful, but themselves knew to be honourable. They are so in the sight of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ, of all the holy angels, who are competent judges in this case. God hath a great cause in the world, and that such a one as wherein his name, his goodness, his love, his glory is concerned; this in his infinite wisdom is to be witnessed, confirmed, testified unto by sufferings. Now can there be any greater honour done unto any of the sons of men, than that God should single them out from among the rest of mankind, and appoint them unto this work? Men are honoured according to their riches and treasures. And when Moses came to make a right judgment concerning this thing, he esteemed the “ reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt,” Heb. xi. 26. We believe that God gave great honour unto the apostles and martyrs of old in all their sufferings. Let us labour for the same spirit of faith in reference unto ourselves, and it will relieve us under all our trials. This then also hath Christ added unto the way of sufferings, by his consecration of it for us. All the glory and honour of the world is not to be compared with theirs, unto whom itis “given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,” Philip. 1.29; 1 Pet. tv. 14- 106.

Thirdly. He hath thereby made them useful and profitable. Ἴτοιι- bles and afflictions in themselves and their own nature have no good in them, nor do they tend unto any good end: they grow out of the first sentence against sin, and are in their own nature penal, tending unto death, and nothing else. Nor are they in those who have no interest in Christ, any thing but effects of the wrath of God. But the Lord Christ, by his consecrating of them, to be the way of our following him, hath quite altered their nature and tendency; he hath made them good, useful, and profitable. “I shall not here show the usefulness of afflictions and sufferings; the whole Scripture abundantly testifieth unto it, and the experience of believers in all ages and seasons confirms it. I only show whence it is that they become so, and that is, because the Lord Christ hath consecrated, dedicated, and sanctified them unto that end. He hath thereby cut them off from their old stock of wrath and the curse, and planted them on that of love and good-will. He hath taken them off from the covenant of works, and translated them into that of grace. He hath turned their course from death, towards life and immortality; mixing his grace, love, and wis- ‘dom with these bitter waters, he hath made them sweet and wholesome. And if we would have benefit by them, we must always have regard unto this consecration of them.

Fourthly. He Math made them safe. They are in their own nature a wilderness wherein men may endlessly wander and quickly lose themselves. But he hath made them a way, a safe way, that way-faring men, though fools, may not err therein. Never did a believer perish by afflictions or persecutions; never was good gold or silver consumed or lost in this furnace. Hypocrites indeed, and false professors, fearful, and unbelievers, are discovered by them and discarded from their hopes. But they that are disciples indeed, are never safer than in this way, and that because it is consecrated for them. Sometimes it may be through their unbelief, and want of heeding the Captain of their salvation, they are wounded and cast down by them for a season, but they are still in the way, they are never turned quite out of the way. And this through the grace of Christ doth turn also unto their advantage. Nay, it is not only absolutely a safe way, but comparatively more safe than the way of prosperity. And this the Scripture, with the experience of all saints, bears plentiful witness unto. And many other blessed ends are wrought by the consecration of this way for the disciples of Christ, not now to be insisted on.

There remains yet to be considered in the words of the apostle, tlie reason why the Captain of our salvation was to be consecrated by sufferings; and this he declares in the beginning of the verse, “ It became God so to deal with him,’”’ which he amplifies by that description of him, “ον whom are all things, and by whom are all things.” Having such a design as he had, ‘to bring many sons unto glory,” and being he, “ for whom are all things and by whom are all things,” it became him so to deal with the Captain of their salvation. What is the ro πρεπὸν here intended, and what is the importance of the word, was declared before. This becomingness, whatever it be, it ariseth from hence, that God is he for whom are all things, and by whom are all things. It became him, not only who is so, but as he is so, and because he is so, There is no reason for the addition of that consideration of God in this matter, but that the cause is contained and expressed in it, why it became him to do that which is here ascribed unto him. We are then to inquire what it is that is principally regarded in God in this attribution, and thence we shall learn how it became him to bring the Lord Christ unto suffering, Now the description of God in these words, is plainly of him as the first cause and last end of all things; neither is it absolutely his power in making all of nothing, and his sovereign eternal being requiring that all things tend unto his glory, that are intended in the words. But he is the governor, ruler, and judge of all things made by him and for him, with respect unto that order and law of their creation which they were to observe. This rule and government of all things, taking care that as they are of God, so they should be for him, is that which the apostle respects. This then is that which he asserts, namely, that it became God as the governor, ruler, and judge of all, to consecrate Christ by sufferings, which must be farther explained. ‘

Man being made an intellectual creature, had a rule of moral obedience given unto him. ‘This he was to observe to the glory of his Creator and Lawgiver, and as the condition of his coming unto him, and enjoyment of him. This is here supposed by the apostle, and he discourseth how man having broken the law of his creation, and therein come short of the glory of God, might by his grace be again made partaker of it. With respect unto this state of things, God can be no otherwise considered, but as the supreme governor and judge of them. Now that property of God which he exerteth principally as the ruler and governor of all, is his justice, justitia regiminis, the righteousness of government. Hereof there are two branches; for it is either remunerative or vindictive. And this righteousness of God, as the supreme ruler and judge of all, is that, upon the account whereof it was meet for him, or became him, to bring the sons to glory by the sufferings of the Captain of their salvation. It was hence just, equal, and therefore indispensably necessary that so he should do. Supposing that man was created in the image of God, capable of yielding obedience unto him, according to the law concreated with him, and written in his heart, which obedience was his moral being for God, as he was from or of him, supposing that he by sin had broken this law, and so was no longer for God, according to the primitive order and law of his creation; supposing also, notwithstanding all this, that God in his infinite grace and love intended to bring some men unto the enjoyment of himself, by a new way, law, and appointment, by which they should be brought to be for him again: supposing, I say, these things which are all here supposed by our apostle, and were granted by the Jews, it became the justice of God, that is, it was so just, right, meet, and equal, that the Judge of all the world who doth right, could no otherwise do, than cause him, who was to be the way, cause, means, and author of this recovery of men into a new condition of being for God, to suffer in their stead. Vor whereas the vindictive justice of God, which is the respect of the universal rectitude of his holy nature, unto the deviation of his rational creatures from the law of their creation, required that that deviation should be revenged, and themselves brought into a new way of being for God, or of glorifying him by their sufferings, when they had refused to do so by obedience, it was necessary on the account thereof, that, if they were to be delivered from that condition, the author of their deliverance should suffer for them. And this excellently suits the design of the apostle, which is to prove the necessity of the suffering of the Messiah, which the Jews so stumbled at. For if the justice of God required that so it should be, how could it be dispensed withal? Would they have God unjust? Shall he forego the glory of his righteousness and holiness to please them in their presumption and prejudices? It is true indeed, if God had intended no salvation of his sons but one that was temporal, like that granted to the people of old under the conduct of Joshua, there had been no need at all of the suflerings of the Captain of their salvation. But they being such, as in themselves had sinned, and come short of the glory of God, and the salvation intended for them being spiritual, consisting in a new ordering of them for God, and in the bringing of them to the eternal enjoyment of him in glory, there was no way to maintain the honour of the justice of God, but by his sufferings. And as here lay the great mistake of the Jews, so the denial of this condecency of God’s justice, as to the sufferings of the Messiah, is the πρωτοὸν ψευδος of the Socinians. Slichtingius on this place would have no more intended, but that the - way of bringing Christ to suffer, was answerable to that design which God-had laid to glorify himself in the salvation of man. But the apostle says not, that it became, or was suitable to an arbitrary free decree of God, but it became himself as the supreme ruler and judge of all; he speaks not of what was meet on the execution of a free decree, but what was meet on account of God’s holiness and righteousness to the constitution of it, as the description of him annexed doth plainly show. And herein have we with our apostle discovered the great, indispensable, and fundamental cause of the sufferings of Christ. And we may hence observe, that,

V. Such is the desert of sin, and such is the immutability of the justice of God, that there was no way possible to bring sinners to glory, but by the death and sufferings of the Son of God, who undertook to be the Captain of their salvation.—It would have been unbecoming God, the supreme Governor of all the world, to have passed by the desert of sin without this satisfaction. And this being a truth of great importance, and the foundation of most of the apostle’s ensuing discourses, must be a while insisted on.

In these verses, that foregoing this, and some of those following, the apostle directly treats of the causes of the sufferings and death of Christ. A matter of great importance in itself, comprising no small part of the mystery of the gospel, and indispensably necessary to be explained and confirmed to the Hebrews, who had entertained many prejudices against it. In the foregoing verse he declared the cause, προηγουμένην, the inducing, leading, moving cause, which was the grace of God, ‘by the grace of God he was to taste death’ for men. This grace he farther explains in this verse, showing that it consisted in the design of God to ‘bring many sons to glory.’ All had sinned and come short of his glory. He had, according to the exigence of his justice, denounced and declared death and judgement to be brought on all that sinned, without exception. Yet such was his infinite love and grace, that he determined or purposed in himself to deliver some of them, to make them sons, and to bring them to glory. To this end he resolved to send or give his Son to be a Captain of salvation to them. And this love or grace of God is every where set forth in the gospel. How the sufferings of this Captain of salvation became useful to the sons on the account of the manifold union that ~ was between them, he declares in the following verses, farther explaining the reasons and causes why the benefit of his sufferings should redound to them. In this verse he expresseth the cause προκαταριτι- knv, the procuring cause of the death and sufferings of Christ, which is the justice of God, on supposition of sin, and his purpose to save sinners. And this on examination we shall find to be the great cause of the death of Christ.

That the Son of God, who did no sin, in whom his soul was always well pleased on account of his obedience, should suffer and die, and that a death under the sentence and curse cf the law, is a great and astonishing mystery; all the saints of God admire at it, the ‘angels desire to look into it.’ What should be the cause and reason hereof? why should God thus bruise him, and put him to grief? This is worth our inquiry, and various are the conceptions of men about it. The Socinians deny that his sufferings were penal, or that he died to make satisfaction for sin, but only that he did so to confirm the doctrine that he had taught, and to set us an example of suffering for the truth. But his doctrine carried its own evidence with it, that it was from God, and was besides uncontrollably confirmed by the miracles that he wrought. Sothat his sufferings on that account might have been dispensed withal. And surely.this great and stupendous matter of the dying of the Son of God, is not to be resolved into a reason and cause that might so easily be dispensed with. God would never have given up his Son to die, but only for such causes and ends as could no otherwise have been satisfied or accomplished. The like also may be said of the other cause assigned by them, namely, to set us an example. It is true,in his death he did so, and it is of great and singular use to us, that so he did. But yet, this was not indispensably necessary, either from any precedent law or constitution, or from the nature of the thing itself, or from any property of God. God could by his grace have carried us through sufferings, although he had not set before us the example of his Son; so he doth through other things no less difficult, wherein the Lord Christ could not in his own person go before us, as in our conversion to God, and mortification of indwelling sin, neither of which the Lord Christ was capable of. We shall leave them, then, as those who acknowledge the death of Christ, yet do not acknowledge or own any sufficient cause or reason why he should die.

Christians generally allow that the sufferings of Christ were penal, and his death satisfactory for the sins of men; but as to ἐν cause and reason of his so suffering, they differ. Some, following Austin, refer the death of Christ solely to the wisdom and sovereignty of God. God would have it so, and therein are we to acquiesce. Other ways of saving the elect were possible, but this God chose, because so it seemed good to him. Hence arose that saying ‘That one drop of the blood of Christ was sufficient to redeem the whole world,’ only it pleased God that he should suffer to the utmost. And herein are we to rest, that he hath suffered for us, and that God hath revealed. But this seems not to me any way to answer that which is here affirmed by the apostle, namely that it became God as the supreme governor of all the werld, so to cause Christ to suffer; nor do I see what demonstration of the glory of justice can arise from the punishing of an innocent person, who might have been spared, and yet all the ends of his being so punished to have been otherwise brought about. And to say that one drop of Christ’s blood was sufficient to redeem the world, is derogatory to the goodness, wisdom, and righteousness of God, in: causing not only the whole to be shed, but also ‘his soul to be made an offering for sin,’ which was altogether needless if that were true. But how far this whole opinion is from truth, which leaves no necessary cause of the death of Christ, will afterwards appear.

Others say, that on supposition that God had appointed the curse of the law, and death to be the penalty of sin, his faithfulness and veracity were engaged so far, that no sinner should go free, or be made partaker of glory, but by the intervention of satisfaction. And therefore on the supposition that God would make some men his sons, and bring them to glory, it was necessary with respect to the engagement of the truth of God, that he should suffer, die, and make satisfaction for them. “But all this they refer originally to a free constitution, which might have been otherwise. God might have ordered things so, without any derogation to the glory of his justice or holiness in the government of all things, as that smners might have been saved without the death of Christ. For if he had not engaged his word, and decJared that death should be the penalty of sin, he might have freely remitted it without the intervention of any satisfaction. And thus all this whole work of death being the punishment of sin, and of the sufferings of Christ for sinners, is resolved into a free purpose and decree of God’s will, and not into the exigence of any essential property of his nature, so that it might have been otherwise in all the parts of it, and yet the glory of God have been preserved every way entire. Whether this be so or not, we shall immediately inquire.

Others grant many free acts of the mind and will of God in this matter; as, 1. The creation of man in such a condition, as that he should have a moral dependence on God in reference to his utmost end, was an eflect of the sovereign pleasure, will, and wisdom of God. But on supposition of this decree and constitution, they say, the nature, authority, and holiness of God required indispensably, that man should yield to him that obedience which he was directed to, and guided in, by the law of his creation, so that God could not suffer him to do otherwise, and remain in his first state, and come to the end first designed to him, without the loss of his authority, and wrong of his justice.

Again, they say, that God did freely by an act of his sovereign will and pleasure decree to permit man to sin and fall, which might have been otherwise. But on supposition that so he should do, and would do, and thereby infringe the order of his dependence on God, in reference to his utmost end, that the justice of God as the supreme governor of all things, did indispensably require that he should receive a meet recompense of reward, or be punished answerably to his crimes, so that God could not have dealt otherwise with him, without a high derogation from his own righteousness. ° Again, they say, that God by a mere free act of his love and grace, designed the Lord Jesus Christ to be the way and means for the saving of sinners, which might have been otherwise. He might, without the least impeachment of the glory of any of his essential properties, have suffered all mankind to have perished under that penalty which they had justly incurred; but of his own mere love, free grace, and good pleasure, he gave and sent him to redeem them. But on the supposition thereof, they say, the justice of God required that he should lay on him the punishment due to the sons whom he redeemed; it became him on the account of his natural essential justice to bring him to sufferings. And in this opinion is contained the truth laid down in our proposition, which we shall now farther confirm, namely, that it became the nature of God, or the essential properties of his nature required indispensably, that sin shouid be punished with death, in the sinner, or in his surety. And therefore, if he would bring any sons to glory, the Captain of their salvation τς undergo death and sufferings, to make satisfaction for them. ‘or,

First, Consider that description which the Scripture giveth us of the nature of God in reference to sin; and this it doth either metaphorically or properly: in the first way it compares God to fire, to ‘a consuming fire,’ and his actings towards sin as the acting of fire on that which is combustible, whose nature it is to consume them, Deut. iv. 24, ‘Thy God is a consuming fire,’ which words the apostle repeats, Heb. xii. 29. ‘Devouring fire and everlasting burnings,’ Isa. xxxili. 14. Hence, when he came to give the law, which expresseth his wrath and indignation against sin, his presence was manifested by great and terrible fires and burnings, till the people cried out, ‘ Let me not see this great fire any more, lest I die,’ Deut. xviii. 16. They saw death and destruction in that fire, because it expressed the indignation cf God against sin, and therefore the law itself is also called ‘a fiery law,’ Deut. xxxiii. 2, because it contains the sense and judgment of God against sin, as in the execution of the sentence of it, the breath of the Lord is said to kindle the fire of it like a stream of brimstone, Isa. xxx. 33, so ch. Ixvi. 15, 16. And by this metaphor doth the Scripture lively represent the nature of God in reference to sin. For as it is the nature of fire to consume and devour all things that are put into it, without sparing any or making difference, so is the nature of God in reference to sin; wherever it is, he punisheth and revengeth it according to its demerit. The metaphor indeed expresseth not the manner of the operation of the one and the other, but the certainty and event of the working of both from the principles of the nature of the one and the other. The fire so burneth by a necessity of nature, as that it acts to the utmost of its quality and faculty by a pure natural necessity. God punisheth sin, as suitably to the principle of his nature, that otherwise he cannot do, yet so as that for the manner, time, measure, and season, they depend on the constitution of his wisdom and righteousness, assigning a meet and equal recompense of reward to every transgression. And this the Scripture teacheth us by this metaphor,

. or otherwise we are led by it from a right conception of that which it doth propose; for God cannot at all be to sin and sinners as a devouring fire, unless it be in the principles of his nature indispensably to take vengeance on them.

Again, The Scripture expresseth this nature of God with reference to sin, properly as to what we can conceive thereof in this world, and that is by his holiness, which it sets forth to be such, as that on the account thereof he can bear with no sin, nor suffer any sinner to approach to him, that is, let no sin go unpunished, nor admit of any sinner into his presence whose sin is not expiated and satisfied for. And what is necessary on the account of the holiness of God, is absolutely and indispensably so, his holiness being his nature. ‘Thou art,’ saith Habakkuk, ‘of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity,’ ch.1. 13. Thou canst not by any means have any thing to do with sin, that is, it may be, because he will not, nay, saith he, it is on the account of his purity or holiness. That is such, as he

-cannot pass by sin, or let it go unpunished. The Psalmist also expresseth the nature of God to the same purpose, Ps. v.4, 5,6. ‘Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all the workers of iniquity, thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing, the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.’ What is the formal reason and cause of all these things, that he hates, abhors, and will destroy sin and sinners? It is because he is such a God. Thou art not a God to do otherwise; a God of such purity, such holiness; and should he pass by sin without the punishment of it, he would not be such a God as he is. Without ceasing to be such a God, so infinitely holy and pure, this cannot be. The foolish and all workers of iniquity must be destroyed, because he is such a God. And in that proclamation of his name, wherein he declared many blessed eternal properties of his nature, he adds this among the rest, that ‘he will by no means clear the guilty,’ Exod. xxxiv.7. This his nature, this his eternal holiness requireth, that the guilty be by no means cleared. So Joshua instructs the people in the nature of this holiness of God, ch. xxiv. 19, ‘Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins.’ ‘That is, if you continue in your sins, if there be not a way to free you from them, it is in vain for you to have any thing to do with this God, for he is holy and jealous, and will therefore certainly destroy you for your iniquities. Now, if such be the nature of God, that with respect thereunto, he cannot but punish sin in whomsoever it be found, then the suffering of every sinner, in his own person, or by his surety, doth not depend on a mere free voluntary constitution, nor is resolved merely into the veracity of God, in his commination or threatening, but is antecedently to them indispensably necessary, unless we would have the nature of God changed, that sinners may be freed. Whereas, therefore, the Lord Christ is assigned the Captain of our salvation, and hath undertaken the work of bringing sinners to glory, it was meet with respect to the holiness of God, that he should undergo the punishment due to their sin. And thus the necessity of the sufferings and _satisfaction of Christ, is resolved into the holiness and nature of God, he being such a God as he is, it could not otherwise be.

Secondly, The same is manifest from that principle whereunto the punishment of sin is assigned, which is not any free act of the will of God, but an essential property of his nature, namely, his justice or righteousness. What God doth because he is righteous, is necessary to be done. And if it be just with God im respect of his essential justice to punish sin, it would be unjust not to do it: for to condemn the innocent and acquit the guilty is equally unjust. Justice is an eternal and unalterable rule,-and what is done according to it, is necessary; it may not otherwise be, and justice not be impeached. That which is to be done with respect to justice must be done, or he that is to do it is unjust. Thus it is said to be ‘a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to sinners,’ 2 Thess. i. 6, because he is righteous, and from his righteousness or justice, so that the contrary would be unjust, or would not answer his righteousness. And it is the judgment of God that ‘they who commit sin are worthy of death,’. Rom. 1.32. Namely, it is that which his justice requireth should be so, that is, the judgment of God. Not only doth he render death to sinners because he hath threatened so to do, but because his justice necessarily requireth that so he should do. So the apostle farther explains himself, Rom. 11. 5—9, where he cails the last day, ‘the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,’ wherein by rendering tribulation to sinners, he will manifest what his righteousness requires. And what that requires cannot otherwise be, God being naturally, necessarily, essentially righteous. And this property of God’s nature requiring that punishment be inflicted on sin and sinners, is often in Scripture called his anger and wrath. For although sometimes the effects of anger and wrath in punishment itself, be denoted by those expressions, yet often also they denote the habitude of the nature of God in his justice towards sin. For anger in itself being a passion and perturbation of mind, including change and weakness, cannot properly be ascribed to God; and therefore when it is spoken of, as that which is in him, and not of the effects which he works on cthers, it can intend nothing but his vindictive justice, that property of his nature which necessarily inclines him to the punishment of sin. Thus it is said, that his wrath or anger ‘is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness,’ Rom. i. 18. That is, he discovers in his judgments what is his justice against sin. And thus when he comes to deal with Christ himself, to make him a propitiation for us, he is said to have set him forth, εἰς ἐνδειξιὶν τὴς

ἱκαιοσυνης, Rom. iii. 25, 26. “Τὸ declare his righteousness for the remission of sins, that he might be just, and the justitier of them that believe in Jesus.’ As God would pardon sin, and justify them that believe, so he would be just also. And how could this be? by punishing our sins in Christ; that declared his righteousness: ενδειξις, here, is as much as evderypa, documentum, a declaration by an especial instance or example; or as ὑποδείγμα, as he is said to have punished Sodom and Gomorrah, and to have left them, ὑποδείγμα pe\AovTwv ἀσεβειν, ‘an example to them that should live ungodly,’ that is, an instance of what his dealings would be with sinners. So God is said here to have declared his righteousness by an example in the sufferings of Christ, which indeed was the greatest instance of the severity and inexorableness of justice against sin, that God ever gave in this world; and this he did, that he might be just as well as gracious and merciful in the forgiveness of sin. Now, if the justice of God did not require that sin should be punished in the Mediator, how did God give an instance of his justice in his sufferings; for nothing can be declared, but in and by that which it requires; for to say, that God showed his righteousness in doing that, which might have been omitted without the least impeachment of his righteousness, is in this matter not safe.

Thirdly, God is the supreme Ruler, Governor, and Judge of all. To him as such it belongeth to do right. So saith Abraham, Gen. xvi. 25. ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right” undoubtedly he will do so, it belongs to him so to do. For, saith the apostle, ‘Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world,’ Rom. iii. 5, 6, Right judgment in all things belongs to the universal rectitude of the nature of God, as he is the supreme Governor and Judge of all the world. Now the goodness and rightness of all things, consists in the observance of that place and order which God in their creation allotted to them, whereon he pronounced that they were ‘exceeding good.’ And that this order be preserved for the good of the whole, it belongs to the government of God to take care; or if it be in any thing transgressed, not to leave all things in confusion, but to reduce them into some new order and subjection to himself. That this order was broken by sin we all know. What shall now the Governor of all the world do? Shall he leave all things in disorder and eonfusion? cast off the works of his hands, and suffer all things to run at random? Would this become the righteous Governor of all the world? What then is to be done to prevent this confusion? Nothing remains, but that he who brake the first order by sin, should be subdued into a new one by punishment. This brings him into subjection to God on a new account. And to say that God might have let his sin go unpunished, is to say, that he might be not righteous in his government, or not do that which is necessary for the good, beauty, and order of the whole. But hereof somewhat was spoken in the opening of the words, so that it needs not farther be insisted on.

Lastly. There is no common presumption ingrafted in the hearts of men, concerning any free act of God, and which might have been otherwise. No free decree or act of God is, or can be known to any of the children of men, but by revelation, much less have they all of them universally an inbred persuasion concerning any such acts or actings. But of the natural properties of God, and his acting suitable to them, there is a secret light and persuasion ingrafted in the hearts of all men by nature. At least, those things of God, whereof there is necessary, and essential to him, Now, that God is just, and that therefore he will punish sin, all sin, is an inbred presumption of nature, that can never be rooted out of the minds of men. All sinners have an inbred apprehension that God is displeased with sin, and that punishment is due toit. They cannot but know that it is the judgment of God, that they who commit sin are worthy of death. And therefore, though they have not the law written to instruct them, yet their thoughts accuse them on sin, Rom. 11. 14, 15; that is, their consciences, which is the judgment which a man makes of himself in reference to the judgment of God. And therefore all nations who retained any knowledge of a Deity, constantly invented some ways and means whereby they thought they might expiate sin, and appease the

God that they feared: All which manifests, that the punishment of sin, inseparably follows the nature of God, and such properties thereof as men have a natural inbred notion and presumption of. For if it depended merely on the will of God, and his faithfulness in the accomplishing of that threatening and constitution, whereof they had πο knowledge, they could not have had such an immoveable and unconquerable apprehension of it. But these things I have handled at large

And this fully discovers the vile and horrid nature of sin. ‘ Fools,’ as the wise man tells us, ‘make a mock of it.’ Stifling for a while their natural convictions, they act as if sin were a thing of nought, at least not so horrible as by some it is represented. And few there are who endeavour aright to obtain a true notion of it, contenting themselves in general, that it is a thing that ought not to be. What direct opposition it stands in to the nature, properties, rule, and authority of God, they consider not. But the last day will discover the true nature of it, when all eyes shall see what it deserves in the judgment of God, which is according to righteousness. Is it a small thing for a creature to break that order which God at first placed him and all things in? to cast off the rule and authority of God, to endeavour to dethrone him, so that he cannot continue to be the supreme Governor of all things, and Judge of all the world, unless he punish it? Is ita small thing to set up that which hath an utter inconsistency with the holiness and righteousness of God, so that if it go free, God cannot be holy and righteous? If these things will not now sink into the minds of men, if they will not learn the severity of God in this matter from the law, on the threatening and curse whereof he hath impressed the image of his holiness and justice, as was said, they will learn it all in hell. Why doth God thus threaten and curse sin and simers? Why hath he prepared an eternity of vengeance and torment for them? Is it because he would? Nay, because it could not otherwise be, God being so holy and righteous as he is. Men may thank themselves for death and hell. They are no more than sin hath made necessary, unless God should cease to be holy, righteous, and the Judge of all, that they might sin freely and endlessly. And this appears most eminently in the cross of Christ, for God gave in him an instance of his righteousness, and of the desert of sin. Sin being imputed to the only Son of God, he could not be spared. If he be made sin, he must be made acurse. If he will take away our iniquities, he must make ‘his soul an offering for sins,’ and bear the punishment due to them. Obedience in all duties will not do it, intercession and prayers will not do it, sin required another manner of expiation. Nothing but undergoing the wrath of God and the curse of the law, and therein answering what " the eternal justice of God required, will effect that end. How can God spare sin in his enemies, who could not spare it on his only Son? Had it been possible, this cup should have passed from him: but this could not be, and God continue righteous. These things, I say, will give us insight into the nature of sin, and the horrible provocation wherewith it is attended.

And this also opens the mystery of the wisdom, and love, and grace of God, in the salvation of sinners. This is that which he will for ever be admired in; a way he hath found out to exercise grace, and satisfy justice, at the same time, in and by the same person; sin shall be punished, all sin, yet grace exercised; sinners shall be saved, yet justice exalted—all in the cross of Christ.

Ver. 11—13.—TueE great reason and ground of the necessity of the sufferings of Christ hath been declared. It became God that he should suffer. But it doth not yet appear on what grounds this suffering of his could be profitable or beneficial unto the sons to be brought unto glory. It was the sinner himself against whom the law denounced the judgment of death. And although the Lord Christ, undertaking to be a Captain of salvation unto the sons of God, might be willing to suffer for them, yet what reason is there, that the punishment of one should be accepted for the sin of another? Let it be granted that the Lord Christ had an absolute and sovereign power over his own life, and all the concerns of it, in the nature which he assumed, as also that he was willing to undergo any sufferings that God should call him unto; this indeed will acquit the justice of God, in giving him up unto death. But whence is it, that sinners should come to be so interested in these things, as thereon to be acquitted from sin, and brought unto glory. In these verses, the apostle enters upon a discovery of the reasons hereof also. He supposeth, indeed, that there was a compact and agreement between the Father and Son in this matter: of which he afterwards expressly treateth, ch. x. He supposeth also, that in his sovereign authority, God had madea relaxation of the law, as to the person suffering, though not as to the penalty to be suffered, which God abundantly declared unto the church of the Jews in all their sacrifices, as we shall manifest. These things being supposed, the apostle proceeds to declare the grounds of the equity of this substitution of Christ, in the room of the sons, and of their advantage by his suffering; the proposition whereof he lays down in these verses, and the especial application in those that ensue.

There is no variety in the reading of these words in any copies, nor do translators differ in rendering the sense of them, The Syriac renders the last testimony, as if the words were spoken unto God, ‘ Be~ hold I and the children, sx *> nar, whom thou hast given unto me, O God.’ The Ethiopic, ‘Wherefore they who sanctify, and they who are sanctified are altogether:᾿ to what purpose I cannot guess.

ς Αγιαζω is used in this Epistle both in the legal sense of it, 10 separate, consecrate, dedicate, and in the evangelical, to purify, sanctify, to make internally and really holy. It seems in this place to be used in the latter sense, though it include the former also, κατ᾽ ἀνακολου- θησιν, by ‘just consequence,’ for they who are sanctified, are separated unto God. The word then expresseth what the Lord Christ doth unto and for the sons, as heis the Captain of their salvation; he consecrates them unto God, through the sanctification of the Spirit, and washing in his own blood.

Ἐξ évoc. It may be of the masculine gender, and so denote one person, or of the neuter, and so one thing, one mass, one common principle, whereof afterwards.

It is not certain whence the second testimony is taken. Some suppose it to be from Isa. viii. 17, from whence the third also is cited. The words of the prophet there 1> sm, are rendered by the LXX. και πεποιθως ἐσομαι ex’ avTw, the words here used by the apostle. But there are sundry things that will not allow us to close with this supposal. First, the original is not rightly rendered by the LX X., and as we shall see, the apostle’s words do exactly express the original in another place. Besides, yp 15 never but in this place, and once more, turned into πειθω by the LXX., but is constantly rendered by them, μενω, OF ὑπομενω. So that it is not improbable, but that these words might be inserted into the Greek text out of this place of the apostle, there being some presumptions and likelihoods that it was the place intended by him, especially because the next testimony used by the apostle, consists in the words immediately ensuing these in the prophet;

but yet that yields another reason against this supposition. For if the apostle continued on the words of the prophet, to what end should he insert in the midst of them, that constant note of proceeding unto another testimony, καὶ παλιν, ‘and again,’ especially considering, that the whole testimony speaks to the same purpose,: We shall then refer these words unto Psal. xviii. 2, \a°moMN, which the LXX. render, eAmw ex’ αὐτῳ; “1 will hope in him;’ the apostle more properly, ἐσομαι πεποιθως ex’ αὐτῳ, “1 will put my trust in him.’ And that that Psalm had respect unto the Lord Christ and his kingdom, our apostle showeth elsewhere by citing another testimony out of it, concerning the calling of the Gentiles, Rom. xv. 9. Nor was the latter part of the Psalm properly fulfilled in David at all.

Ver. 11—13.—For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sancttfied, are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And agam, I will put my trust in him: And again, behold I and the children which God hath given me.

First. A farther description of the Captain of salvation, and the sons to be brought unto glory by him, mentioned in the verse foregoing, taken from his office and work towards them, and the effect thereof upon them—He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified; which is the subject of the first proposition in these words.

Thirdly. A natural consequence of that assertion, which includes also the scope and design of it—He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

First. He describes the Captain of salvation, and the sons to be brought unto glory, by their mutual relation to one another in sanctification. He is, ὃ ἁγιαζων, ‘he that sanctifieth,’ and theyare οἱ ἁγιαζο- μενοι, ‘ they that. are sanctified.” That itis the Son, the Captain of salvation, that is intended by the Sanctifier, both what the apostle affirms immediately of him and them, and the ensuing testimonies whereby he confirms it, do make evident. And as in the verse foregoing, giving an account why God would have Christ to suffer, he describes him by that property of his nature, which includes a necessity of his so doing; so setting forth the causes, on our part, of that suffering, and the grounds of our advantage thereby, he expresseth. him and the children by those terms, which manifest their relation unto one another; and which they could not have stood in, had ‘they not been of the same nature, as he afterwards declares. Now thesame word being here used actively and passively, it must in both places be understood in the same sense, the one expressing the effect of the other. As Christ sanctifies, so are the children sanctified. And the act of Christ which is here intended, is that which he did for the sons, when he suffered for them according to God’s appointment; as ver. 10. Now, as was said before, to sanctify is either to separate and to dedicate unto sacred use, or to purify and make really holy, which latter sense - is here principally intended. Thus when the apostle speaks‘of the effects of the offerings of Christ for the elect, he distinguisheth between their τελείωσις, or ‘consummation,’ and their ἁγιασμος, or ‘ sanctification,’ ch. x. 14, μια προσφορα τετελειωκεν τους ἁγιαζομενους, “ by one offering, he consummated or perfected the sanctified.’ First, He sanctifieth them, and then dedicates them unto God, so that they shall never more need any initiation into his favour and service. This work was the Captain of salvation designed unto; the children that were to be brought unto glory, being in themselves unclean and unholy, and on that account separated from God, he was to purge their natures, and to make them holy, that they might be admitted into the favour of, and find acceptance with God. And for the nature of this work, two things must be considered: 1. The impetration of it, or the way and means whereby he obtained this sanctification for them; and, 2. The application of that means, or the real effecting of it. The first consisteth in the sufferings of Christ, and the merit thereof. Hence we are so often said to be sanctified, and washed in his blood, Eph. v. 25, 26; Acts xx. 32; Rev.i. 5; and his blood, is said to cleanse us from all our sins, 1 John i. 7, As it was shed for us, he procured by the merit of his obedience therein, that those for whom it was shed, should be purged and purified, Titus 11. 14. The other consists in the effectual workings of the Spirit of grace, communicated unto us by virtue of the blood-shedding and sufferings. of Christ, as the apostle declares, Tit. 11. 4—6. And they who place this sanctification merely on the doctrine and example of Christ, as Grotius on this place, besides that they consider not at all the design and scope of the place, so they reject the principal end, and the most blessed effect of the death and blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus. Now, in this description of tle Captain of salvation, and of the sons, the apostle intimates a farther necessity of his sufferings, because they were to be sanctified by him, which could no otherwise be done but by his death and blood-shedding. Having many things to observe from these verses, we shall take them up as they offer themselves unto us in our procedure; As here,

I. That all the children which are to be brought unto glory, antecedently unto their relation unto the Lord Christ, are polluted, defiled, separate from God.—They are all to be sanctified by him, both as to their real purification and consecration to be God’s hallowed portion. This, for many blessed ends, the Scripture abundantly instructs us in, Tit. πὶ. 3, ‘We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, and disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating of one another.’ A most wretched, defiled, and loathsome condition, that which justly might be an abhorrence to God, and to all his holy angels; and such indeed God describes it to be by his prophet, Ezek. xvi. 5,6, ‘Thou wast polluted in thy blood, and cast out in the field, to the loathing of thy person.’ Thus we were, saith the apostle, even we, who are now sanctified and cleansed by the means which he afterwards relates. The like description he gives of this estate, 1 Cor. vi. 11, 12, with an assertion of the same deliverance from it. We are naturally very proud, apt to please ourselves in ourselves, to think of nothing less than of being polluted or defiled, or at least not so far, but that we can wash ourselves. What a hard thing it is to persuade the great men of the world, in the midst of their ornaments, paintings, and perfumes, that they are all over vile, leprous, loathsome, and defiled! Are they not ready to wash themselves in the blood of them who intimate any such thing unto them? But whether men will hear or forbear, this is the condition of all men, even of the sons of God themselves, before they are washed and sanctified by Christ Jesus. And as this sets out the infinite love of God, in taking notice of such vile creatures as we are, and the unspeakable condescension of the Lord Christ, with the efficacy of his grace in cleansing us by his blood, so it is sufficient to keep us humble in ourselves, and thankful unto God all our days.

11. That the Lord Christ is the great Sanctifier of the church. —His title is, ὃ ἁγιαζων, ‘ the Sanctifier;’ of which more afterwards.

III. The Lord Christ, the Captain of our salvation, sanctifies every son whom he brings unto glory. He will never glorify an unsanctified person. The world indeed is full of an expectation of glory by Christ, but of that which is indispensably previous thereunto, they have noregard. But this the Scripture gives us, as a principal effect of the whole mediation of Christ—of his death, Eph. v. 26; Titus 11. 14—of his communication of his word and Spirit, John xvi. 19; Titus ii. 5, 6 —of his blood-shedding in an especial manner, 1 John i. 7; Rom. vi. 5, 6; Rev. i. 5—of his life in heaven, and intercession for us, Col. ii. 1—3. This he creaies his people unto by his grace, Eph. 11. 8, excites them unto by his promises, 2 Cor. vil. 1, and commands, John xv. 16,17. So that no end of the mediation of Christ is accomplished in them, whoare not sanctified and made holy. And this was necessary for him to do, on the part, 1. Of God. 2. Of himself. 3. Of themselves.

1. Of God, unto whom they are to be brought in glory. He is holy, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity: no unclean thing can stand in his presence. Holy in his nature, glorious in holiness; holy in his commands, and will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him, And this Peter urgeth, as that which requires holiness in us, 1 Pet. i. 15, 16, ‘As he that hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy;’ and thence it is said, that holiness becometh his house, that is, all that draw nigh unto him; and the apostle sets it down as an uncontrollable maxim, that ‘without holiness no man shall see Ged.’

If the Lord Christ then will bring the children unto God, he must make them holy, or they can have no admittance into his presence, no acceptance with him; for no unclean thing, nothing that defileth, can enter into the new Jerusalem, the place where his holiness dwelleth. It is utterly impossible, that any soul not washed with the blood of Christ, not sanctified by his Spirit and grace, should stand in the sight of God. And this was expressed in all the typical institutions about cleansing, which God appointed unto his people of old. He did it to teach them, that unless they were sanctified, washed, and cleansed from their sins, they could be admitted unto no communion with him, nor enjoyment of him. Neither can any serve him here, unless their consciences be purged by the blood of Christ from dead works; nor can they come to him hereafter, unless they are washed from all their defilements. Their services here he rejects as an unclean and polluted thing, and their confidences for the future he despiseth as a presumptuous abomination. God will not divest himself of his holiness, that he may receive, or be enjoyed by unholy creatures. And the day is coming, wherein poor unsanctified creatures, who think they may miss holiness in the way to glory, shall cry out, Who amongst us shall inhabit with those everlasting burnings? for so will he appear unto all unsanctified persons.

2. Of himself, and the relation whereunto he takes these sons with himself. He is their head, and they are to be members of his body. Now he is holy, and so must they be also, or this relation will be very unsuitable and uncomely. A living head and dead members, a beautiful head and rotten members, how uncomely would itbe? Sucha monstrous body Christ will never own. Nay, it would overthrow the whole nature of that relation, and take away the life and form of that union that Christ and his are brought into, as head and members. For whereas it consists in this, that the whole head and members are animated, quickened, and acted, by one and the self-same Spirit of life; nor doth any thing else give union between head and members; if they be not sanctified by that Spirit, there can be no such relation between them. Again, he takes them unto himself to be his bride and spouse. Now you know, that it was appointed of old, that if any one would take up a captive maid to be his wife, she was to shave her head, and pare her nails, and wash herself, that she might be meet for him. And the Lord Christ, taking this bride unto himself, by the conquest he hath made of her, must by sanctification make them meet for this relation with himself. And therefore he doth it, Eph. v. 25, 26, ‘ Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word: ver. 27, that he might present it unto himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish.’ This it became him to do, this was the end why he did it: he sanctifieth his church, that he may present it a meet bride or spouse unto himself, The like may be said of all other relations wherein the Lord Christ stands unto his people; there is no one of them, but makes their sanctification absolutely necessary.

3. On the part of the children themselves; for unless they are regenerate, or born again, wherein the foundation of their sanctification is laid, they can by no means enter into the kingdom of God. It is this that makes them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. As without it, they are not meet for their duty, so are they not capable of their reward. Yea, heaven itself, in the true light and notion of it, is undesirable unto an unsanctified person. Such an one neither can, nor would enjoy Godif he might. In a word, there is no one thing required of the sons of God, that an unsanctified person can do, no-one thing promised unto them that he can enjoy.

There is surely then a woeful mistake in the world. If Christ sanctifies all whom he saves, many will appear to have been mistaken in their expectations at another day. It is grown amongst us almost an abhorrency unto all flesh, to say, that the church of God is to be holy. What though God hath promised that it should be so; that Christ hath undertaken to make it so? What if it be required to be so? What if all the duties of it be rejected of God if it be not so? It is all one; if men be baptised whether they will or not, and outwardly profess the name of Christ, though not one of them be truly sanctified, yet they are, as it is said, the church of Christ. Why then let them be so: but what are they the better for it? Are their persons, or their services, therefore accepted with God? Are they related or united unto Christ? Are they under his conduct unto glory? Are they meet for the inheritance of the saints in light? Not at all; not all, not any of these things, do they obtain thereby. What is it then that they get by the furious contest which they make for the reputation of this privilege? Only this, that satisfying their minds by it, resting, if not priding themselves in it, they obtain many advantages to stifle all convictions of their condition, and so perish unavoidably. A sad success, and for ever to be bewailed. Yet is there nothing at all at this day more contended for in this world, than that Christ might be thought to be a Captain of salvation unto them unto whom he is not a sanctifier; that he may have an unholy church, a dead body. These things tend neither to the glory of Christ, nor to the good of the souls of men. Let none then deceive themselves, sanctification is a qualification indispensably necessary unto them, who will be under the conduct of the Lord Christ unto salvation: he leads none to heaven, but whom he sanctifies on the earth.’ The holy God will not receive unholy persons. ‘This living head will not admit of dead members, nor bring men into the possession of a glory which they neither love nor like.

Secondly. Having given this description of the Captain of salvation, and of the sons to be brought unto glory, the apostle affirms of them, that they are εἕ évoe, ‘of one,’ which made it meet for him to suffer, and for them to be made partakers of his sufferings. The equity hereof lies in the agreement, that he and they are of one; which, what it is, We must now inquire.

The word hath this ambiguity in it, that it may be of the masculine gender, and denote one person; or of the neuter, and signify one thing. If it relate unto the person, it may havea double interpretation.

lst. That it is God who is intended: they are of one, that is God. And this may be spoken in several respects. The Son was of him by eternal generation, the many sons by temporal creation; they were made by him. Or they are all of him: he ordained him to be the Sanctifier, them to be sanctified; him to be the Captain of salvation, and them to be brought unto glory. And this sense, the last testimony produced by the apostle seems to give countenance unto: ‘ Behold I,and the children whom God hath given unto me:’ me to be their Father, Captain, Leader; they to be the children to be cared for, and conducted by me. And this way went most of the ancients, in their exposition of this place. In this sense, the reason yielded by the apostle in these words, why the Captain of salvation should be made perfect by sufferings, because the sons to be brought unto glory were also to suffer; and they were all of one, both he and they, even of God. But though these things are true, yet they contain not a full reason of what the apostle intends to prove by this assertion. For this interpretation allows no other relation to be expressed between Christ and the sons, than what is between him and angels; they are also with him of one God. And yet the apostle afterwards showeth, that there was another union and relation between Christ and the elect needful, that they might be saved by him, than any that was between him and angels. And if nothing be intimated but the good pleasure of God, appointing him to be a Saviour, and them to be saved, because they were all of himself, of one God, which was sufficient to make that appointment just and righteous, then nothing is here asserted to prove the meetness of Christ to be a Saviour unto men, and not to angels, which yet the apostle in the following verses expressly deduceth from hence.

2ndly. If it respect a person, it may be ex uno homine, ‘of one man,’ that is, of Adam. They are all of one common root and stock, he and they came all of one Adam; unto him is the genealogy of Christ referred by Luke. And as a common stock of our nature, he is often called the one, the one man, Rom. v. And this, for the substance of it, falls in with what will be next considered.

3rdly. It may be taken in the neuter sense, and denote one thing; and so also it may receive a double interpretation.

1. It may denote the same mass of human nature. Εἰ ἕνος φυραματος, ‘of one and the same mass of human nature; or εἕ ἕνος αἵματος. So it is said of all mankind, that God made them, εἕ ivoc αἵματος, ‘of one blood,’ Acts xvii. 26, of one common principle, which gives an alliance, cognation, and brotherhood unto the whole race of mankind. As the making of all mankind by one God gives them all a relation unto him, as saith the apostle, “ We are all his offspring;’ so their being made of one blood gives them a brotherhood among themselves; see Acts xiv.15. And this interpretation differs not in the substance of it from that last preceding; inasmuch as the whole mass of human nature had its existence in the person of Adam, only it refers not the oneness mentioned formally unto his person, but unto the nature itself whereof he was made partaker. And this sense the apostle farther explains, ver. 14, as he also observes it, Rom. ix. 5.

2. By one, some understand the same spiritual nature, the principles of spiritual life which is in Christ the head, and the children his members. And this they say is that which is their peculiar oneness, or being of one; seeing all wicked men, even reprobates, are of the same common mass of human nature as well as the children. But yet this is not satisfactory. It is true indeed, that after the children are really sanctified, they are of one and the same spiritual nature with their Head, 1 Cor. xii. 12, and hereby they are differenced from all others. But the apostle here treats of their being so of one, that he might be meet to suffer for them, which is antecedent unto their being sanctified, as the cause is unto the effect. Neitheris it of any weight that the reprobates are partakers of the same common nature with the children, seeing the Lord Christ partook of it on! on the children’s account, as ver. 14. And of their nature he could not be partaker, without being partaker of that which was common to them all, seeing that of one blood God made all nations under heaven. But the bond of nature itself is in the covenant, reckoned only unto them that shall be sanctified.

It is then one common nature that is here intended. He and they are of the same nature, of one mass, of one blood. And hereby he became to be meet to suffer for them, and they to be in a capacity of enjoying the benefit of his sufferings; which how it answers the whole design of the apostle in this place, doth evidently appear.

First. He intends to show that the Lord Christ was meet to suffer for the children; and this arose from hence, that he was of the same nature with them, as he afterwards at large declares. And he was meet to sanctify them by his sufferings, as in this verse he intimates. For as in an offering made unto the Lord, of the first-fruits, of meat, or of meal, a parcel of the same nature with the whole was taken and offered, whereby the whole was sanctified, Lev. 1; so the Lord Jesus Christ, being taken as the first-fruits of the nature of the children, and offered unto God the whole lump, or the whole nature of man in the children, that is all the elect is separated unto God, and effectually sanctified in their season. And this gives the ground unto all the testimonies which the apostle produceth unto his purpose out of the Old Testament. For being thus of one nature with them, he is not ashamed to call them brethren as he proves from Ps. xxii. For although it be true that as brethren is a term of spiritual cognation and love, he calls them not so until they are made partakers of his Spirit, and of the same spiritual nature that is in him, yet the first foundation of this appellation lies in his participation in the same nature with them, without which, however he might love them, he could not properly call them brethren. Also his participation of their nature, was that which brought him into such a condition, as wherein it was needful for him to put his trust im God, and to look for deliverance from him in a time of danger, which the apostle proves in the second place by a testimony out of Psal. xviii. which could not in any sense have been said of Christ, had he not been partaker of that nature, which is exposed unto all kinds of wants and troubles, with outward straits and oppositions, which the nature of angels is not. And as his being thus of one with us, made him our brother, and placed him in that condition with us, wherein it was necessary for him to put his trust in God for deliverance, so being the principal head and _firstfruits of our nature, and therein the author and finisher of our salvation, he is a Father unto us, and we are his children, which the apostle proveth by his last testimony from Isa. vii. “ Behold I, and the children which the Lord hath given unto me.” And further upon the close of these testimonies, the apostle assumes again his proposition, and asserts it unto the same purpose, ver. 14, showing in what sense he and the children were one, namely in their mutual participation of flesh and blood.

And thus this interpretation of the word will sufficiently bear the whole yveight of the apostle’s argument and inferences. But if any one list to extend the word farther, and to comprise it in the manifold relation that is between Christ and his members, I shall not contend about it. There may be in it, 1. Their being of God, designing him and them to be one mystical body, one church, he the head, they the members. 2. Their taking into one covenant, made originally with him, and exemplified in them. 3. Their being of one common principle of human nature. 4. Designed unto a manifold spiritual union in respect to that new nature which the children receive from him, with every other thing that concurs to serve the union and relation between them; but that which we have insisted on is principally intended, and to be so considered by us. And we might teach from hence, that,

III. The agreement of Christ and the elect in one common nature, is the foundation of his fitness to be an undertaker on their behalf, and of the equity of their being made partakers of the benefits of his mediation. But that this will occur unto us again more fully, ver. 14.

And by all this doth the apostle discover unto the Hebrews, the unreasonableness of their offence at the afflicted condition and sufterings of the Messiah. He had reminded them of the work that he had to do, which was to save the elect by a spiritual and eternal salvation. He had also intimated what was their condition by nature, wherein they were unclean, unsanctified, separate from God. And withal had made known what the justice of God, as the supreme Governor and Judge of all required, that sinners might be saved. He now reminds them of the union that was between him and them, whereby he became fit to suffer for them, as that they might enjoy the blessed effects thereof im deliverance and salvation.

Thirdly. The apostle lays down an inference from his preceding assertion, in those words, ‘ For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.’ In which words, we have, 1. The respect of that which is here affirmed unto the assertion foregoing—for which cause. 2. The thing itself affirmed, which is—that the Lord Christ calls the sons to be brought unto glory his brethren. 3. The manner of his so doing— he is not ashamed to call them so. And herein also the apostle according to. his wonted way of proceeding, which we have often observed, makes a transition towards somewhat else which he had in

‘For which cause;’ thatis, because they are of one, partakers of one common nature, ‘he calls them brethren.’ This gives a rightful foundation unto that appellation. Hereon is built that relation which is between him and them. It is true, there is more required to perfect the relation of brotherhood between him and them, than merely their being of one; but it is so far established from hence, that he was meet to suffer for them, to sanctify and save them. And without this, there could have been no such relation. Now this calling of them brethren, doth both declare that they are so, and also that he owns them, and avouches them as such. But whereas it may be said, that they are thus of one in respect of their common nature, yet upon sundry other accounts he is so glorious, and they are so vile and miserable, that he might justly disavow this cognation, and reject them as strangers; the apostle tells us it is otherwise, and that passing by all other distances between them, and setting aside the consideration of their unworthiness, for which he might justly disavow them, and remembering wherefore he was of one with them, he is not ashamed to call them brethren. There may be a μείωσις in the words, and the contrary asserted to that which is denied: ‘He is not ashamed,’ that is, willingly, cheerfully, and readily he doth it. But I rather look upon it as an expression of condescension and love; and herein doth the apostle show the use of what he taught before, that they were of one, namely that thereby they became brethren, he meet to suffer for them, and they meet to be saved by him. What in all this the apostle confirms by the ensuing testimonies, we shall see in the explication of them; in the meantime we may learn for our instruction,

IV. That notwithstanding the union of nature which is between the Son of God incarnate, the Sanctifier, and the children that are to sanctified, there is in respect of their persons an inconceivable distance between them, so that it is a marvellous condescension in him to call them brethren.

He is not ashamed to call them so, though considering what himself is, and what they are, it should seem that he might justly be so. The same expression, for the like reasons, is used concerning God’s owning his people in covenant, ch. xi. 16, ‘Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.’ And this distance between Christ and us, which makes his condescension so marvellous, relates unto a fourfold head.

First. The immunity of the nature, wherein he was of one with us in his person, from all sin. ‘He was made like unto us in all things, sin excepted.’ The nature of man in every other individual person, is defiled with, and debased by sin. We are every one gone astray, and are become altogether filthy or abominable. This sets us at no small distance from him. Human nature defiled with sin, is farther distanced from the same nature as pure and holy, in worth and excellency, than the meanest worm is from the most glorious angel. Nothing but sin casts the creature out of its own place, and puts it into another distance from God, than it hath by being a creature. This is a debasement unto hell, as the prophet speaks, ‘Thou didst debase thyself even unto hell,’ Isa. lv. 9. And therefore the condescension of God unto us in Christ, is set out by his regarding of us, when we were enemies unto him, Rom. v. 10; that is, whilst we were sinners, as ver. 8, This had cast us into hell itself, at the most inconceivable distance from him. Yet this hindered not him, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, to own us as his brethren. He says not with those proud hypocrites in the prophet, ‘Stand farther oft, I am holier than you;’ but he comes unto us, and takes us by the hand in his love, to deliver us from this condition.

Secondly. We are in this nature obnoxious unto all miseries in this world, and that which is to come. Man now is born to trouble, all the trouble that sin can deserve, or a provoked God inflict: his misery is great upon him, and that growing and endless. He, justly in himself, free from all, obnoxious to nothing that was grievous or irksome, no more than the angels in heaven, or Adam in paradise. Pcena noxam sequitur: ‘Punishment and trouble follow guilt only naturally.” He did no sin, nor was there guile found in his mouth; so that God was always well pleased with him. Whatever of hardship or difficulty he underwent, it was for us, and not for himself. Might not he have left us to perish in our condition, and freely enjoyed his own? We see how unapt those who are in prosperity, full and rich, are to take notice of their nearest relations in poverty, misery, and distress; and who among them would do so, if it would cast them into the state of those who are already miserable? Yet so it did the Lord Christ. His calling us brethren, and owning of us, made him instantly obnoxious unto all the miseries, the guilt whereof we have contracted upon ourselves. The owning of his alliance unto us, cost him, as it were, all he was worth; for being rich, for our sakes he became poor. He came into the prison, and into the furnace toown us. And this also renders his condescension marvellous.

Thirdly. He is inconceivably distanced from us, in respect of that place and dignity which he was designed unto. This, as we have shown at large, was to be Lord of all, with absolute sovereign authority over the whole creation of God. We are poor abjects, who either have not bread to eat, or have no good right to eat that which we meet withal. Sin hath set the whole creation against us. And if Mephibosheth thought it a great condescension in David on his throne to take notice of him being poor, who was yet the son of Jonathan, what is it in this King of kings to own us for brethren in our vile and low condition. Thoughts of his glorious exaltation will put a lustre on his condescension in this matter.

Fourthly. He is infinitely distanced from us in his person, in respect of his divine nature, wherein he is and was God over all, blessed for ever. He did not so become man, as to cease to be God. Though he drew a veil over his infinite glory, yet he parted not with it. He who calls us brethren, who suffered for us, who-died for us, was God still in all these things. The condescension of Christ in this respect, the apostle in an especial manner insists upon and improves, Phil. i. 5— 11. That he who in himself is thus over all, eternally blessed, holy, powerful, should take us poor worms of the earth into this relation with himself, and avow us for his brethren, as it is not easy to be believed, so it is for ever to be admired, And these are some of the heads of that distance, which is between Christ and us. Notwithstanding his participation of the same nature with us, yet such was his love unto us, such his constancy in the pursuit of the design and purpose of his Father, in bringing many sons unto glory, that he overlooks as it were them all, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. And if he will do this, because he is of one with us, because a foundation of this relation is laid in his participation of our nature, how much more will he continue so to do, when he hath perfected this relation by a communication of his Spirit.

And this is a ground of unspeakable consolation unto believers, with support in every condition. No unworthiness in them, no misery upon them, shall ever hinder the Lord Christ from owning them, and openly avowing them to be his brethren. He is a brother born for the day of trouble, a Redeemer for the friendless and fatherless. Let their miseries be what they will, he will be ashamed of none but of them who are ashamed of him and his ways when persecuted and reproached. A little while will clear up great mistakes,: all the world shall see at the last day whom Christ will own; and it will be a great surprisal when men shall hear him call them brethren, whom they hate, and esteem as the offscouring of all things. He doth it indeed already by his word, but they will not attend thereunto. But at the last day they shall both see and hear, whether they will or not. And herein, I say, hes the great consolation of believers. ‘The world rejects them, it may be their own relations despise them, they are persecuted, hated, reproached; but.the Lord Christ is not ashamed of them. He will not pass by them because they are poor, and in rags, it may be reckoned as he himself was for them, among malefactors. They may see also the wisdom, grace, and love of God in this matter. His great design in the incarnation of his Son, was to bring him into that condition, wherein he might naturally care for them as their brother, that he might not be ashamed of them, but be sensible of their wants, their state and condition in all things, and so be always ready to meet and relieve them. Let the world now take its course, and the men thereof do their worst: let Satan rage, and the powers of hell be stirred up against them: let them load them with reproaches and scorn, and cover them all over with the filth and dirt of their false imputations; let them bring them unto rags, into dungeons, unto death; Christ comes in the midst of all this confusion, and says, surely these are my brethren, the children of my Father, and he becomes their Saviour. And this is a stable foundation of comfort and supportment in every condition. And are we not taught our duty also herein, namely, not to be ashamed of him or his gospel, or of any one that bears his image? The Lord Christ is now himself in that condition, that even the worst of men esteem it an honour to own him, when indeed they are no less ashamed of him, than they would have been when he was carrying his cross upon his shoulders, or hanging upon the tree. For of every thing that ne hath in this world they are ashamed; his gospel, his ways, his worship, his Spirit, his saints, they are all of them the objects of their scorn; and in these things it is, that the Lord Christ may be truly honoured or be despised. For those thoughts which men have of his present glory, abstracting from these things, he is not concerned in them; they are all exercised about an imaginary Christ, that is unconcerned in the Word and Spirit of the Lord Jesus. These are the things, when we are not to be ashamed of him; see Rom. 1. 16; 2 Tim. 1. 16, iv. 16.

That which remaineth of these verses, consisteth in the testimonies which the apostle produceth out of the Old Testament in the confirmation of what he had taught and asserted. And two things are to be considered concerning them; the end for which they are produced, and the special importance of the words contained in them. ‘The first he mentions is from Ps. xxi. 22, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise unto thee.” The end why the apostle produceth this testimony, is to confirm what he had said immediately before, namely, that with respect unto his being one with the children, Christ owns them for his brethren, for this he doth expressly in this place. And we are to take notice, that the apostle in the use of these testimonies, doth not observe any order, so that one of them should confirm one part, and another, another part of his assertion, in the order wherein he had laid them down; it sufficeth him, that his whole intendment in all the parts of it, is confirmed in and by them all, one having a more especial respect unto one part than another. In this first it is clear, that he proves what he had immediately before affirmed, namely, that the Lord Christ owns the children for his brethren, because of their common interest in the same nature. And there needs nothing to evince the pertinency of this testimony, but only to show that it is the Messiah which speaketh in that Psalm, and whose words these are, which we have done wully already in our Prolegomena.

For the explication of the words themselves, we may consider the two-fold act or duty that the Lord Christ takes upon himself in them; first, that he will declare the name of God unto his brethren; and secondly, that he would celebrate him with praise in the congregation. In the former we must inquire what is meant by the name of God, and then how it is or was declared by Jesus Christ.

This expression, the name of God, is variously used. Sometimes it denotes the being of God, God himself; sometimes his attributes, his excellencies, or divine perfections, some one or more of them. As it is proposed unto sinners as an object for their faith, trust, and love, it denotes in an especial manner his love, grace, and goodness, that in himself he is good, gracious, and merciful, Isa. 1. 10, And withal-it intimates what God requires of them towards whom he is so good and gracious. This name of God is unknown to men by nature, so is the way and means whereby he will communicate his goodness and grace unto them. And this is the name of God here intended, which the Lord Jesus manifested unto the men given him out of the world, John xvii. 5, which is the same with his declaring the Father, whom no man hath seen at any time, John i. 18. This is that name of God which the Lord Jesus Christ had experience of in his sufferings,. and the manifestation whereof unto his brethren he had procured thereby..

Hereof he says in the Psalm, mmppx, ‘I will declare it,’ recount it in order, number the particulars that belong unto it, and so distinctly and evidently make it known. Απαγγελω, ‘I will make it known as a messenger,’ sent from thee and by thee. And there are two ways whereby the Lord Christ declared this name of God. 1. In his own person, and that both before and after his sufferings; for although it be mentioned here, as a work that ensued his death, yet is it not exclusive of his teachings before his suffering; because they also were built upon the supposition thereof. Thus in the days of his flesh, he instructed his disciples, and preached the gospel in the synagogues of the Jews, and in the temple, declaring the name of God unto them. So also after his resurrection, he conferred with his apostles concerning the kingdom of God, Actsi. 2. By his Spint: and that both in the effusion of it upon his disciples, enabling them personally to preach the gospel unto the men of their own generation, and in the inspiration of some of them, enabling them to commit the truth unto writing for the instruction of the elect unto the end of the world. And herein doth the apostle, according unto his wonted manner, not only confirm what he had before delivered, but make way for what he had farther to instruct the Hebrews in; namely, the prophetical office of Christ, as he is the great revealer of the will of God and teacher of the church, which he professedly insists upon in the beginning of the next chapter.

In the second part of this first testimony is declared farther: 1. what Christ will moreover do; ‘ He will sing praises unto God:’ and 2. when he will do it; ‘in the midst of the congregation.’ The expression of both these is accommodated unto the declaration of God’s name, and praising of him in the temple. The singing of hymns of praise unto God in the great congregation was then a principal part of his worship. And in the first expression two things are observable. 1. What Christ undertakes to do, and that is to praise God. Now this is only exegetical of what went before. He would praise God by declaring his name. There is no way whereby the praise of God may be celebrated, like that of declaring his grace, goodness, and love unto men, whereby they may be won to believe and trust in him, whence glory redounds unto him. 2. The cheerfulness and alacrity_ of the Spirit of Christ in this work, he would do it as with joy and singing, with such a frame of heart as was required in them, who were to sing the praises of God in the great assemblies in the temple. 2. Where would he do this, 5p ana, ‘in the midst of the congregation;’ the great congregation as he calls it, ver. 25, that is, the great assembly of the people in the temple. And this was a type of the whole church of the elect under the New Testament. The Lord Christ in his own person, by his Spirit in his apostles, and his word, by ail his messengers unto the end of the world, setting forth the love, grace, goodness, and mercy of God in him the Mediator, sets forth the praise of God in the midst of the congregation. I shall only add, that whereas singing of hymns unto God, was an especial part of the instituted worship under the Old Testament, to whose use these expressions are accommodated, it is evident that the Lord Chnist hath eminently set forth this praise of God in his institution of worship under the New Testament, wherein God will ever be glorified and praised, This was that which the Lord Christ engaged to do upon the issue of his sufferings, and we may propose it unto our example and instruction: namely,

V. That which was principally in the heart of Christ upon his sufferings, was to declare and manifest the love, grace, and good -will of God unto men, that they might come to an acquaintance with him, and acceptance before him. There are two things in the Psalm, and the words, that manifest how much this was upon the heart of Christ. The most part of the Psalm containeth the great conflict that he had with his sufferings, and the displeasure of God against sin declared therein. He is no sooner delivered from thence, but instantly he engageth in this work. As he lands upon the shore from that tempest wherein he was tossed in his passion, he cries out, ‘ I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee.’ And thus we find, that upon his resurrection he did not immediately ascend into glory, but first declared the name of God unto his apostles and disciples, and then took order that by them it should be declared and published to all the world. This was upon his spirit, and he entered not into his glorious rest until he had performed it. The words themselves also do evidence it, in that expression of celebrating God’s name with hymns, with singing. It was a joy of heart unto him to be engaged in this work. Singing is the frame εὐθυμουντων, James v. 13, of them that are in a glad, free, rejoicing condition. So was the Lord Christ in this work. He rejoiced of old with the very thoughts of this work, Prov. viii. 30, 31; Isa. [χ]. 1—3. And it was one of the glorious promises that were made unto him upon his undertaking the work of our salvation, that he should declare or preach the gospel, and the name of God therein, unto the conversion of Jews and Gentiles, Isa. xlix. 1—10. He rejoiced therefore greatly to do it; and that,

First. Because herein consisted the manifestation and exaltation of the glory of God, which he principally in his own work aimed at. He came to do the will, and thereby to set forth the glory of the Father. By and in him God designed to make his glory known; the glory of his love and grace in sending him; the glory of his justice and faithfulness in his sufferings; the glory of his mercy in the reconciliation and pardon of sinners; the glory of his wisdom in the whole mystery of his mediation; and the glory together of all his eternal excellencies in bringing his sons unto the everlasting enjoyment of him. Now nothing of all this could have been made known, unless the Lord Christ had taken upon him to preach the gospel and declare the name of God. Without this, whatever else he had done or suffered, had been lost as unto the interest of the glory of God. This ‘then being that which he principally aimed at, this design must needs be greatly in his mind. He took care that so great glory, built on so great a foundation as his incarnation and mediation, should not be lost. His other work was necessary, but this was a joy of heart and soul unto him.

all their interest in the benefit of his sufferings, depended on this work of his. How much he sought that, his whole work declares. For their sakes it was, that he came down from heaven, and was made flesh, and dwelt amongst them; for their sakes did he undergo all the miseries that the world could cast upon him; for their sakes did he undergo the curse of the law, and wrestle with the displeasure and wrath of God against sin. And all this seemed as it were little unto him, for the love he bare them, as Jacob’s hard service did to him for his love unto Rachel. Now after he had done all this for them, unless he had declared the name of God unto them in the gospel, they could have no benefit by it. For if they believe not, they cannot be saved. And how should they believe without the word, and how or whence could they hear the word, unless it had been preached unto them. They could not of themselves have known any thing of that name of God, which is their life and salvation. Some men talk of I know not what declaration of God’s name, nature, and glory, by the works of nature and providence; but if the Lord Christ had not indeed revealed, declared, and preached these things, these disputers themselves would not have been in any other condition than all mankind are who are left unto those teachers, which is most dark and miserable. The Lord Christ knew, that without his performance of this work, not one of the sons, the conduct of whom to glory he had undertaken, could ever have brought unto the knowledge of the name of God, or unto faith in him, or obedience unto him, which made him earnestly and heartily engage in it.

Thirdly. Hereon depended his own glory also. His elect were to be gathered unto him; in, among, and over them was his glorious kingdom to be erected. Without their conversion unto God, this could not be done. In the state of nature they also are children of wrath, and belong to the kingdom of Satan. And this declaration of the name of God, is the great way and means of their calling, conversion, and translating from the power of Satan into his kingdom. ‘The gospel is the rod of his strength, whereby his people are made willing in the day of his power. In brief, the gathering of his church, the setting up of his kingdom, the establishment of his throne, the setting of the crown upon his head, depend wholly on his declaring the name of God in the preaching of the gospel. Seeing therefore that the glory of God which he aimed at, the salvation of the sons which he sought for, and the honour of his kingdom which was promised unto him, do all depend on this work, it is no wonder, if his heart were full of it, and that he rejoiced to be engaged in it..

And this frame of heart ought to be ‘in them, who under him are called to this work. The work itself we see is noble and excellent, such as the Lord Christ carried in his eye through all his sufferings, as that whereby they were to be rendered useful to the glory of God, and the souls of men. And by his rejoicing to be engaged in it, he hath set a pattern to them whom he calls to the same employment. Where men undertake it for filthy lucre, for selfish ends, and carnal respects, this is not to follow the example of Christ, not to serve him, but their own bellies. Zeal for the glory of God, compassion for the souls of men, love to the honour and exaltation of Christ, ought to be the principles of men in this undertaking.

Moreover the Lord Christ by declarmg that he will set forth the praise of God in the church, manifests what is the duty of the church itself, namely, to praise God for the work of his love and grace in our redemption by Christ Jesus. This he promiseth to go before them in; and what he leads them to, is by them to be persisted in. This is indeed the very end of gathering the church, and of all the duties that are performed therein and thereby. The church is called to the ‘olory of the grace of God,’ Eph. i. 6, that it may be set forth in them, and by them. This is the end of the institution of all ordinances of worship in the church, Eph. ii. 8—10. And in them do they set forth the praises of God to men and angels. This is the tendency of prayer, the work of faith, the fruit of obedience. It isa fond imagination which some have fallen on, that God is not praised in the church for the work of redemption, unless it be done by words and hymns particularly expressing it. All praying, all preaching, all administration of ordinances, all our faith, all our obedience, if ordered aright, are nothing but giving glory to God, for his love and grace in Christ Jesus, ina due and acceptable manner. And this is that which ought to be in our design in all our worship of God, especially in what we perform in the church. To ‘set forth his praise,’ to ‘declare his name,’ to give glory to him by believing, and by the profession of our faith, is the end of all we do. And this is the first testimony produced by our apostle.

His next is taken from Ps. xvii. 2, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ The whole Psalm literally respects David, with his straits and deliverances; not absolutely, but as he was a type of Christ. That he was so the Jews cannot deny, seeing the Messiah is promised on that account under the name of David. And the close of the Psalm treating of the calling of the Gentiles, as a fruit of his deliverance from sufferings, manifests him to be principally intended. And that which the apostle intends to prove by this testimony is, that he was really and truly of one with the sons to be brought to glory: and that he doth from hence, inasmuch as he was made and brought into that condition, wherein it was necessary for him to trust in God, and act in that dependence on him, which the nature of man whilst exposed to troubles doth indispensably require. Had he been only God, this could not have been spoken of him. Neither is the nature of angels exposed to such dangers and troubles, as to make it necessary for them to betake themselves to God’s protection with respect thereunto. And this the word mon, used by the Psalmist properly signifies, ‘ to betake a man’s self’ to the care and protection of another, as Ps. i. ult. This then the condition of the Lord Christ required, and this he did perform in all troubles and difficulties, that he had contended withal, ‘ He put his trust in God,’ as Isa. 1. 8,9; Ps. xxi. 19. And this evinceth him to have been truly and really of one with the children, his brethren; seeing it was his duty no less than it is theirs, to depend on God in troubles and distresses. And in vain doth Slichtingius hence endeavour to prove, that Christ was the Son of God by grace only, because he is said to depend on him, which if he had been God by nature he could not do, True, if he had been God only; but the apostle is now proving, that he was man also, like to us in all things, sin only excepted. And as such his duty it was, in all straits, to betake himself by faith to the care and protection of God. And some things may hence also be briefly observed. As,

1. That the Lord Christ, the Captain of our salvation, was exposed in the days of his flesh, to great difficulties, anxiety of mind, dangers, and troubles.—This is included im what he here affirms about ‘ putting his trust in God.’ And they were all typified out by the great sufferings of David before he came to his kingdom. In the consideration of the sufferings of Christ, men commonly fix their thoughts solely on his death. And indeed therein was a recapitulation of all that he had before undergone, with an addition of the wrath of God. But yet neither are the sufferings of his life to be disregarded. Such they were as made his whole pilgrimage on the earth dangerous and dolorous. There was on him a confluence of every thing that is evil or troublesome to human nature. And herein he is principally our example, at least so far, that we should think no kind of sufferings strange to us.

2. The Lord Christ in all his perplexities and troubles, betook himself to the protection of God, trusting in him.—See Isa. 1. 7, 8. And he always made an open profession of this trust, insomuch that his enemies reproached him with it in his greatest distress, Matt. xxvii. 43. But this was his course, this was his refuge, wherein at length he had blessed and glorious success.

3. He both suffered and trusted as our Head and Precedent.— What he did in both these kinds he calls us to. As he did, so must we undergo perplexities and dangers in the course of our pilgrimage. The Scripture abounds with instructions to this purpose, and experience confirms it. And professors of the gospel do but indulge pleasing dreams, when they fancy any other condition in this world to themselves. They would not be willing, I suppose, to purchase it at the price of inconformity to Jesus Christ. And he is a Precedent to us in trusting, as well as in suffermg. As he betook himself to the protection of God, so should we do also; and we shall have the same blessed success with him.

There remains yet one testimony more, which we shall briefly pass through the consideration of. ‘ Behold 1 and the children which God hath given me.’ It is taken from Isa, vii. 18. That it was a prophecy of Christ which is there insisted on, we have proved at large in our Prolecomena, so that we need not here again farther to discourse that matter. That which the apostle aims at in the citation of this testimony, is farther to confirm the union in nature, and the relation that ensues thereupon, between the Captain of salvation, and the sons to be brought to glory. Now as this is such, that thereon he calls them brethren, and came into the same condition of trouble with them, so they are by the grant and appointment of God, his children. Being of the same nature with them, and so meet to become a common Parent to them all, God, by an act of sovereign grace, gives them to him for his children. This is the aim of the apostle, in the use of this testimony to his present purpose. In the words themselves we may consider,

First. That God gives all the sons that are brought to glory, to Jesus Christ.—The Lord hath ‘ given them to me.’ ‘ Thine they were, saith he, ‘and thou gavest them unto me, John xvii. 6. God having separated them, as his peculiar portion in the eternal counsel of his will, gives them to the Son to take care of them, that they may be preserved and brought to the glory that he designed for them. And this work he testifies that he undertook, so that none of them shall be lost, but that whatever difficulties they may pass through, he ‘ will raise them up at the last day, and give them an entrance into life and immortality.