SECTION VII. A Treatise concerning the Acts or Exercises of the Son of God's everlasting Priesthood; or, containing the manner or means by which the Son of God, through the continual exercise of his everlasting priesthood in his heavenly sanctuary, doth now de facto set free indeed all such as seek for the working out of their own salvation with fear and trembling. CHAP. XLIII. 1. THE manner how the sons of Adam are set free by the Son of God hath been in part heretofore-or rather the first part of this freedom hath been-declared at large in the eighth book of these Commentaries, sect. 2. chap. 6, &c. Amongst other qualifications of the Son of God incarnate, for destroying the works of the devil, it was a special one, that he should take upon him the form of a servant, to the end he might without any wrong to his person, or any injustice done upon his human nature by God the Father, die the death of a servant, that is, the death of the cross, and by such death and sufferings pay the full ransom of all mankind's redemption, and set us all free de jure. The main business yet remaining to be discussed is-concerning the manner, the several ways or means, by which he doth de facto set free indeed (that is, perfectly) all such as seek to work out, or rather industriously labour for the working of their own salvation with fear and trembling'-that is, I take it, with such fervent prayers and supplications to God the Father, 253 his agony, or in the days of his consecration to that everlasting priesthood which he now exerciseth in the heavenly sanctuary, where he now sitteth at the right hand of God the Father. 2. With the manner of Christ's sitting at the right hand of the throne of Majesty, I am resolved not to meddle in this book; the manner of his sitting there being no article of our faith, nor any of the most useful appertenances (as I conceive it) to that grand mystery of his exaltation as man above all powers and principalities. St. Austin's answer unto Dardanus, who (as far as my reading serves me) first moved that curious question which of late hath much troubled the church'Whether Christ's sitting at the right hand of God the Father include any UBIQUITARY PRESENCE of his humanity'-doth very well satisfy me, and I intreat the ingenuous reader, it may (for this time) suffice him, till it please God that he see more b. The sum of this reverend father's answer is- That the session of Jesus Christ the Son of God at the right hand of the throne of Majesty, is to be extended neither further nor shorter than to the place, or heavenly places, whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.' From much better authority than St. Austin's, or any visible church representative here on earth, either in or since his time, we are taught and enjoined to believe, that the Son of God, by whom the world was made, sitteth now in our nature at the right hand of the Almighty Creator, and that this his seat is in the heavenly 254 sanctuaries, which are not made with hands, (as the first tabernacle in the wilderness, and as the temple at Jerusalem were,) that he sits there as the High Priest of our souls, continually exercising his function for acb See the eleventh book, vol. x. a See the ninth book, sect. 6. chap. 39. vol. viii. p. 465. complishing the redemption or freedom of all such as are capable of it; giving all men a competent time (the definite extent whereof is only known to God and to himself) for their repentance and conversion unto him.. Only thus much we know indefinitely, that there he shall sit as our High Priest, until the enemies of his gospel and despisers of his priesthood be made his footstool; that is, until the iniquity of the retchless part of mankind, and the number of such as are predestinated unto eternal life, be accomplished. This glass being run, he will appear as King, to give royal sentence upon all such as shall be alive at his coming, or have been dead before, and render to every man according to his works. Thus much we may learn from our apostle, in the eighth and ninth chapters of that divine Epistle to the Hebrews, which I have proposed as my guide or map for my safe conduct through this treatise, concerning the power and continual exercise of Christ's priesthood in his heavenly sanctuary. CHAP. XLIV. The Coherence of the eighth Chapter to the Hebrews with the seven preceding and two following.—The exact Proportions or Parallels betwixt the mundane Tabernacle, with the two Sanctuaries therein, and the celestial with those in it; betwixt the Manner or Rites in the Consecration of the one and the other; betwixt the High Priests of the Old Testament, and Christ our only High Priest of the New, intimated in this, explicated in the following Chapters. HEBREWS VIII. 1, 2. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. unto that which he had said in the seven chapters precedent; the other, unto some passages following in this eighth, ninth, and tenth, &c. Of the doctrinal parts of the seven chapters precedent, and of the mysteries contained in them, it hath been my lot to treat in former books of these Commentaries; and as the matters handled in them did minister occasion, upon a great part of the first chapter, upon some principal passages in the second and third, upon the most part of the fifth, sixth, and seventh, the reader may find what I did conceive to be most useful for his instruction or meditation, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth books of the Commentaries. 2. The places whereunto the first verse of this eighth chapter hath more special reference are the four first verses of the first chapter: God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, &c.; who when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance 255 obtained a more excellent name than they, &c. But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? ver. 13. Another place (whereunto the same words, ch. viii. 1, refer, most to be observed as a principal pillar of our belief concerning the heavenly sanctuary wherein Christ sits on the right hand of God) is that, ch. vi. 19, 20: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. 3. With this last passage of chap. vi, the mysteries contained in the eighth, ninth, and tenth chapters do most immediately accord. Mysteries I am bold to style them, (though some interpreters make them no more than metaphors, or unhandsome rhetorical tropes,) because the matters contained in them are expressed in divine allegories, which (as hath been observed before) do herein far exceed allegories merely rhetorical, or concerning matters secular, in that they always afford concludent proof, that is, true arguments of real proportions. The principal terms, or real subjects of proportions, in the eighth and ninth chapters of this Epistle, are these following: the earthly or mundane tabernacle, and the celestial-the two sanctuaries contained in the earthly tabernacle, and the two heavenly sanctuaries which in proportion answer to them-the several manner of dedication or consecration of all these sanctuaries-the several manner of rites used in the dedication of all these sanctuaries-the distinct offices of the high priest and ordinary priests of the old testament or covenant, and of the only High Priest of the new. 4. In the earthly tabernacle, framed and pitched by Moses, and so likewise in the temple of Jerusalem, projected by David, but finished and consecrated by Solomon his son, there were two sanctuaries or holy places : one, into which the ordinary priests were by precept to enter every day; the other, into which it was lawful for none save for the high priest alone to enter, and that but once every year. Now this earthly or mundane tabernacle (which contained these two sanctuaries) being erected by God's special command unto Moses, according to the pattern which had been shewed him in the mount, it is a clear case, from our apostle's authority and exposition of Moses, that both these sanctuaries, or holy places made with hands, were but |