was not. And our apostle lays it down as a principle suited unto natural light, that God, who made all things, could not dwell, xgorointi vis, Acts xvii. 24. in temples made with hands. Such was the tabernacle of old, but such was not that wherein our Lord Jesus administereth his office.

There seems to me to have been an apprehension among the Jews, that there should be a temple wherein God would dwell, that should not be made with hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the first year of his ministry, upon his purging of the temple, upon their requiring a sign for the justification of his authority in what he had done, says no more, but only, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,' John ii. 19. He spake of the same temple, as to their destruction of it, and his own raising it again. Thus he called his own body: he spake, saith the evangelist, of the temple of his body. That other fabric was a type thereof, and so partook of the same name with it; but yet was no farther a temple, or a habitation of God, but as it was typical of that body of his, wherein the fulness of the Godhead did dwell. This testimony of his seemeth to have provoked the Jews above any other, unless it was that, when he plainly declared his divine nature unto them, affirming that he was before Abraham; for this cast them into so much madness, as that immediately they took up stones to cast at him, John viii. 58, 59. But their malice was more inveterate against him, for what he thus spake concerning the temple; for three years after, when they conspired to take away his life, they made these words the ground of their accusation. But as is usual in such cases, when they could not pretend that his own words, as he spake them, were criminal, they variously wrested them to make an appearance of a crime, though they knew not of what nature. So the psalmist prophesied that they should do, Psal. lvi. 5, 6. Some of them affirmed him to have said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days,' Matt. xxvi. 61. which was apparently false, as is evident in comparing his words with theirs. Wherefore, others of them observing that the witness was not yet home unto their purpose, and the design of the priests, they sware positively that he said, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands,' Mark xiv. 58. For they are not the words of the same persons, variously reported by the evangelist. For those in Mark are other witnesses, which agreed not with what was sworn before, as he observes, ver. 59. But neither so did their witness agree together. However, they fix on a notion that was passant among them, of a temple to be built without hands. And sundry things there are in the prophets, which led them into an apprehension, that God would dwell among men in a temple or tabernacle, that should not be made with hands. And all their

predictions were accomplished, when the eternal Word, by the assumption of our nature, fixed his tabernacle among us, John i. 14.

This is that which the apostle intimates. Whereas Solomon openly affirms, that the habitation of God could not be in the temple that he had built, because it was made with hands; and it is a principle of natural light, that he who made the world, and all things contained therein, could not dwell in such a temple; and whereas it seems to have belonged unto the faith of the church of old, that there should be a temple wherein God would dwell, that was to be axgoronos, in comparing the human nature of Christ with the old tabernacle, he affirms in the first place, that it was not made with hands.

Respect also is had herein unto the framing of the fabric of the old tabernacle by Bezaleel. For although the pattern of it was shewn unto Moses in the mount from heaven, yet the actual framing and erection of it, was by the hands of workmen, skilful to work in all kind of earthly materials, Exod. xxxv. 30-35. ch. xxxvi. 1. And although, by reason of the wisdom, cunning and skill, which they had received in an extraordinary way, they framed, made and reared a tabernacle most artificial and beautiful; yet when all was done, it was but the work of men's hands. But the constitution and production of the human nature of Christ, was an immediate effect of the wisdom and power of God himself, Luke i. 35. Nothing of human wisdom or contrivance, nothing of the skill or power of man, had the least influence into, or concurrence in the provision of this glorious tabernacle, wherein the work of the redemption of the church was effected. The body of Christ indeed was made of a woman, of the substance of the blessed virgin; but she was purely passive therein, and concurrent in no efficiency, either moral or physical thereunto. It was the contrivance of divine wisdom, and the effect of divine power alone.

6

2. The apostle adds, as a farther dissimilitude unto the other tabernacle, that is not of this building,' TTTIV & TRUTHS TAS ZTI= Es. Expositors generally take these words to be merely exegetical of the former, not made with hands; that is, not of this building. To me there seems to be an augs in them. It is so not made with hands like unto that tabernacle, as that it is not of the order of any other created thing; not of the same make and constitution with any thing else in the whole creation here below. For although the substance of his human nature was of the same kind with ours, yet the production of it in the world, was such an act of divine power, as excels all other divine operations whatever. Wherefore, God speaking of it, saith, The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man,' Jer. xxxi. 22. or conceive him without natural generation.

KTCs is the word whereby the creation of all things is constantly expressed in the New Testament, and sometimes it signifies the things that are created. Neither is it ever used, nor Tw, whence it is derived, to signify the constitution of the ordinances of the Old Testament, the tabernacle, the temple, or any thing belonging thereunto. Wherefore, Taurus here doth not limit it unto that constitution, so as that not of this building,' should be, not made with hands,' as that tabernacle was. It is therefore not of the order of created things here below, either such as were immediately created at the beginning, or educed out of them by a creating act or power. For although it was so as unto its substance, yet in its constitution and production it was an effect of the divine power above the whole order of this creation, or things created.

Obs. VII. God is so far from being obliged unto any means for the effecting of the holy counsels of his will, that he can, when he pleaseth, exceed the whole order and course of the first creation of all things, and his providence in the rule thereof.

VER. 12.-FROM the comparison between the tabernacle of old, and that of the high priest of the new covenant, there is a procedure in this verse unto another, between his sacerdotal actings, and those of the high priest under the law. And whereas, in the description of the tabernacle and its special services, the apostle had insisted, in a peculiar manner, on the entrance of the high priest every year into the most holy place, which was the most solemn and most mystical part of the tabernacle service: in the first place, he gives an account of what answered thereunto, in the sacerdotal administrations of Christ; and here he shews how much on all accounts, both of the sacrifice, in the virtue whereof he entered into the most holy place; and of the place itself whereinto he entered; and of the time when he entered; it did excel that service of the high priest under the law, both in glory and efficacy.

VER. 12.-Ουδε δι' αίματος τραγων και μόσχων, δια δε τα ίδια αίματος εισήλθεν εφαπαξ εις τα άγια, αιωνίαν λυτρωσιν ευρωμενος.

T४

Aiα de to idis aiμatos, Syг. 7 772, by the blood of his own soul or life.' He made his soul an offering for sin, Isa. liii. 10. Blood is the life of the sacrifice. EQaraž. Syr. 131 8, one time;' not many times, not once every year as they did under the law. Eiç say, Syr. Nwapo nab, into the house of the sanctuary,' less properly; for by that expression, the old tabernacle is intended; but the apostle respects heaven itself, in sancta, sancta sanctorum, sacrarium. That which answers unto the most holy place in the tabernacle, where was the throne of God. the ark, and mercy-seat. Awvidy hutęwoir sugauios. Vul, Lat. Eterna redemptione inventa; aternam redemptionem nactus;

æterna redemptione acquisita; most properly, and according unto the use of the word in all good authors.

VER. 12.-Neither by the blood of goals and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the (most) holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.

In this verse, the apostle enters directly on the consideration of the great mystery of the sacerdotal actings of Christ, especially as to the sacrifice he offered to make atonement for sin. But the method in which the apostle proceedeth, is what he was led to, by the proposal he had made of the types of it under the law. Wherefore, he begins with the complement or consequent of it, in answer unto that act or duty of the high priest, wherein the glory of his office was most conspicuous, which he had newly mentioned.

And here, because part of our design in the exposition of this whole epistle, is to free and vindicate the sense of it, from the corrupt glosses which the Socinians, and some that follow them, have cast upon it; I shall on this great head of the sacrifice of Christ, particularly insist on the removal of these. And indeed, the substance of all that is scattered up and down their writings, against the proper sacrifice of Christ, and the true nature of his sacerdotal office, is comprised in the comment on this epistle, composed by Crellius and Schlictingius. I shall, therefore, first examine their corrupt wrestings of the words, and false interpretations of them, before I proceed unto their exposition.

They begin: Nunc etiam opponit sacrificium ipsius Christi, sacrificio pontificis antiqui. This is the erodes of their interpretation of this and the following verses. If this be not so, all that they afterwards assert, or infer from it, falls of itself. But this is most false. There is not any thing directly, either of the sacrifice of Christ, or of the high priest, but only what was consequent unto the one and the other: yea, there is that which excludes them from being intended. The entrance of the high priest into the holy place, was not his sacrifice. For his sacrifice is supposed to be offered before, in the virtue whereof, and with the memorial of which, he so entered; that is, with the blood of goats and calves. For all sacrifices were offered at the brazen altar. And that of the high priest on the day of expiation, is expressly declared so to have been, Lev. xvi. And the entrance of Christ into heaven, was not his sacrifice, nor the oblation of himself; for he offered himself unto God with strong cries and supplications; but his entrance into heaven was triumphant. He entered into heaven by virtue of his sacrifice, as we shall see; but his entrance into heaven was not the sacrifice of himself.

They add in explication hereof:-Pontifex antiquus per san.

guinem hircorum et vitulorum ingrediebatur in sancta, Christus verò non per sanguinem tam vilem, sed pretiosissimum; quod alius esse non potuit quam ipsius proprius. Nam sanguis quidem humanus sanguine brutorum, sed sanguis Christi, sanguine cæterorum omnium hominum longe est pretiosior; cum ipse quoqne cæteris hominibus omnibus imò omnibus creaturis longe sit præstantior, Deoque charior et proprior, utpote unigenitus ejus filius. What they say of the preciousness of the blood of Christ, above that of brute creatures, is true: but they give two reasons for it, which comprise not the true reason of its excellency as unto the ends of his sacrifice. 1. They say, it was the blood of a man. 2. That this man was more dear to God than all other creatures, as his only begotten Son. Take these last words in the sense of the Scripture, and the true reason of the preciousness and efficacy of the blood of Christ in his sacrifice, is assigned. Take them in their sense, and it is excluded. The Scripture by the Son of God, intends his eternal generation, as the Son of the Father; they intend only, his nativity of the blessed virgin, with his exaltation after his resurrection. But the true excellency and efficacy of the blood of Christ in this sacrifice, was from his divine person, whereby God purchased his church with his own blood, Acts xx. 28.

Nor do I know of what consideration the preciousness of the blood of Christ can be with them in this matter; for it belonged not unto his sacrifice or the oblation of himself, as they pretend. For they would have the offering of himself to consist only in his entrance into heaven, and appearing in the presence of God, when, as they also imagine, he had neither flesh nor blood.

They proceed unto a speculation about the use and signification of the preposition, per, by,' or dia:-Notandum est autorem, ut elegantiæ istius comparationis consuleret, usum esse in priori membro voce, per; licet pontifex legalis non tantum per sanguinem hircorum et vitulorum, hoc est, fuso prius sanguine istorum animalium, seu interveniente sanguinis eorum fusione, sed etiam cum ipsorum sanguine in sancta fuerit ingressus, ver. 7. Verùm quia in Christi sacrificio similitudo edusque extendi non potuit, cum Christus non alienum sed suum sanguinem fuderit, nec sanguinem suum post mortem, sed seipsum, et quidem jam immortalem, depositis carnis et sanguinis exuviis, quippe quæ regnum Dei possidere nequeant, in cælosti illo tabernaculo obtulerit; proindeque non cum sanguine, sed tantum fuso prius sanguine, seu interveniente sanguinis sui fusione in sancta fuerit ingressus; idcirco autor minus de legali pontifice dixit quam res erat; vel potius ambiguitate particu la, per que etiam idem quod, cum, in sacris literis significare solet comparationis concinnitatl consulere voluit.

The design of this whole discourse, is to overthrow the nature of the sacrifice of Christ, and to destroy all the real simi