THE general concernments of this Epistle have all of them been discussed and cleared in the preceding Exercitations and Discourses. The things and matters confirmed in them we therefore here suppose, and take for granted. And they are such, some of them, as without a demonstration whereof a genuine and perspicuous declaration of the design of the author, and sense of the Epistle, cannot be well founded or carried on. Unto them, therefore, we must remit the reader who desires to peruse the ensuing Exposition with profit and advantage. But yet, because the manner of the handling of things in those Discourses may not be so suited unto the minds of all who would willingly inquire into the Exposition itself, I shall here make an entrance into it, by laying down some such general principles and circumstances of the Epistle as may give a competent prospect into the design and argument of the apostle in the whole thereof:—
I. The first of these concerns the persons whose instruction and edification in the faith is here aimed at. These in general were the Hebrews, the posterity of Abraham, and the only church of God before the promulgation of the gospel; who in those days were distributed into three sorts or parties:—
1. Some of them, believing in Christ through the gospel, were perfectly instructed in the liberty given them from the Mosaical law, with the foundation of that liberty in its accomplishment in the person, office, and work of the Messiah, Acts 2:41, 42.
2. Some, with their profession of faith in Christ as the Messiah promised, retained an opinion of the necessary observation of Mosaical rites; and these also were of two sorts:—(1.) Such as, from a pure reverence of their original institutions, either being not fully instructed in their liberty, or, by reason of prejudices, not readily admitting the consequences of that truth wherein they were instructed, abode in their observation, without seeking for righteousness or salvation by them, Acts 21:20. (2.) Such as urged their observation as indispensably necessary to our justification before God, Acts 15:1; Gal. 3, 4. The first sort of these the apostles bare with in all meekness, yea, and, using the liberty given them of the Lord, to avoid offending of them, joined with them in their practice as occasion did require, Acts 16:3, 21:23, 24, 26, 27:9; 1 Cor. 9:20; whence for a long season, in many places, the worship of the gospel and synagogue worship of the law were observed together, James 2:2; though in process of time many disputes and differences were occasioned thereby between the Gentile and Jewish worshippers, Rom. 14. The other sort they opposed as perverters of the gospel which they pretended to profess, Acts 15:5, 6; Gal. 2:13–16, 4:9–11, 5:2. And of these some afterwards apostatized to Judaism; others, abiding in a corrupt mixture of both professions, separated themselves from the church, and were called Nazarenes and Ebionites.
3. Others,—far the greatest number of the whole people,—persisted in their old church-state, not receiving the salvation that was tendered unto them in the preaching of the gospel; and these also were of two sorts:— (1.) Such as, although they had not embraced the faith, yet were free and willing to attend unto the doctrine of it, "searching the Scriptures" for a discovery of its truth, and in the meantime "instantly serving God," according to the light of the Old Testament which they had received; and in these was the essence of the Judaical church preserved unto its final dissolution, Acts 17:11, 28:22–24. (2.) Such as, being hardened in their infidelity, blasphemed, scoffed at, and persecuted the gospel, with all that professed it, Acts 13:45, 50, 17:5, 18:6; 1 Thess. 2:15, 16; Rom. 11:7–10: whom, not long after, the vengeance of God overtook in their total destruction.
Now, our apostle vehemently thirsting after the salvation of the Hebrews in general, Rom. 9:1–3, 10:1, having all these several sorts or parties to deal withal, he so frames his Epistle unto them that it might be suited to all their good, in their conversion, instruction, edification, and establishment, as their several conditions did require,—the latter sort only excepted, who, being under judicial blindness, were cast out of the care of God and his, Acts 13:46, 51. Hence in part is that admirable contexture of this Epistle, which Peter ascribes unto his eminent wisdom, 2 Pet. 3:15: as it is indeed evident from the story that he did excel in applying himself to the various principles, capacities, and prejudices, of them with whom he had to do; the Lord Christ having set him forth as a great example of that diligence, zeal, and prudence, which he requires in the dispensers of the gospel. Divine reasonings, instructions, exhortations, promises, threats, arguments, are so interwoven in this Epistle, from the beginning to the end, that all to whose hands or hearing it should come might everywhere meet with that which was of especial and immediate concernment to themselves, unto which of the sorts before mentioned soever they did belong. And this principle we must have respect unto, in that intermixture of arguments to prove the truth of the gospel with exhortations to constancy in the profession of it which we shall meet withal. The several conditions of those to whom the apostle wrote required that way of procedure. Hence no one chapter in the Epistle is purely dogmatical, the first only excepted, nor purely parenetical: for though the design that lies in view, and is never out of sight, be exhortation, yet far the greatest part of the Epistle is taken up in those doctrinals wherein the foundations of the exhortations do lie; both interwoven together, somewhat variously from the method of the same apostle in all his other epistles, as hath been observed, that to the Galatians, which is of the like nature with this, only excepted.
II. A second thing to be previously observed is, that although those to whom the apostle wrote were of the several sorts before mentioned, yet they centred in this, that they were Hebrews by birth and religion, who all agreed in some common principles relating to the subject he treated with them about. These he makes use of unto them all: for though the unbelieving Jews did deny, or did not yet acknowledge, that Jesus was the Christ, yet they also consented unto, or could not gainsay, what in the Old Testament was revealed concerning the person, office, dignity, and work of the Messiah when he should come; that being the faith whereby they were saved before his appearance, Acts 26:6, 7. Upon these general principles, wherein they also agreed, and which were the general persuasion of the whole Judaical church, the apostle lays the foundation of all his arguments; and hence he ofttimes takes that for granted which, without this consideration, should we look on any of those to whom he writes under the general notion of unbelievers, would seem to be the thing principally in question. And therefore have we at large already manifested what was the avowed profession of the sounder part of the Judaical church in those days concerning the Messiah, which the apostle here and elsewhere, in dealing with the Jews, built upon, Acts 26:22, 23, 27, 28:23, 13:16, 17, etc.; which the reader must have constant respect unto.
III. In urging testimonies out of the Old Testament, he doth not always make use of those that seem to be most perspicuous and apposite to his purpose, but oftentimes takes others, more abstruse, obscure, and of less evident consequence, at first view; and that upon a double account:— First, That he might instruct the believers amongst them in the more abstruse prophecies of the Old Testament, and thereby incite them to the further search after Christ under the Mosaical veil and prophetical allegories whereby he is therein expressed; aiming to lead them on towards perfection, Heb. 5:12, 6:1. Secondly, Because most of the testimonies he makes use of were generally granted by the Jews of all sorts to belong to the Messiah, his kingdom and offices; and his design was to deal with them chiefly upon their own concessions and principles. As we have some few other helps remaining to acquaint us with what was the received sense of the Judaical church concerning sundry passages in the Old Testament relating unto the promised Christ, so the paraphrases of Scripture that were either at that time in use amongst them, as was the Greek translation amongst the Hellenists, or about that time composed, as the Targums, at least some parts of them, will give us much light into it. What of that ancient sense appeareth yet, in the corrupted copies of those translations which remain, being considered, will much evince the reason and suitableness of the apostle's quotations. And this is needful to be observed, to refute that impiety of some (as Cajetan), who, not being able to understand the force of some testimonies cited by the apostle, as to his purpose in hand, have questioned the authority of the whole Epistle; as also the mistake of Jerome, who in his epistle to Pammachius rashly affirmed that Paul did quote scriptures that were not indeed to his purpose, but out of design to stop the mouths of his adversaries, as he himself had dealt with Jovinian; which was very far from him whose only design was ἀληθεύειν ἐν ἀγάπῃ,—to promote the truth in love.
IV. He takes it for granted, in the whole Epistle, that the Judaical churchstate did yet continue, and that the worship of it was not yet disallowed of God; suitably to what was before declared concerning his own and the other apostles' practice. Had that church-state been utterly abolished, all observation of Mosaical rites, which were the worship of that church as such, had been utterly unlawful, as now it is. Neither did the determination recorded Acts 15 abolish them, as some suppose, but only free the Gentiles from their observance. Their free use was yet permitted unto the Jews, Acts 21:20, 22–26, 27:9; and practised by Paul in particular in his Nazaritical vow, chap. 21:26, which was attended with a sacrifice, Num. 6:13–21. Nor was Mosaical worship utterly to cease, so as to have no acceptance with God, until the final ruin of that church, foretold by our Saviour himself, Matt. 24, by Peter, 2 Epist. 3, by James also, chap. 5:6–9, and by our apostle in this Epistle, chap. 10:37, 12:25– 27, was accomplished.
Hence it is that our apostle calls the times of the gospel "The world to come," Heb. 2:5, 6:5,—the name whereby the Jews denoted the state of the church under the Messiah,—proper unto it only whilst the legal administrations of worship did continue. Thus, as de facto he had showed respect unto the person of the high priest as one yet in lawful office, Acts 23:5, so doctrinally he takes it for granted that that office was still continued, Heb. 8:4, 5, with the whole worship of Moses' institution, chap. 13:11, 12. And this dispensation of God's patience, being the last trial of that church, was continued in a proportion of time answerable to their abode in the wilderness upon its first erection; which our apostle minds them of, chap. 3, 4.
The law of Moses, then, was not actually abrogated by Christ, who observed the rules of it in the days of his flesh; nor by the apostles, who seldom used their liberty from it, leaving the use of it to the Jews still; but having done its work whereunto it was designed, and its obligation expiring, ending, and being removed or taken away, in the death and resurrection of Christ, and promulgation of the gospel that ensued thereupon, which doctrinally declared its ἀνωφελείαν, or uselessness, God in his providence put an end unto it as to its observation, in the utter and irrecoverable overthrow of the temple, the place designed for the solemn exercise of its worship. So did it "decay, wax old," and "vanish away," chap. 8:13.
And this also God ordered, in his infinite wisdom, that their temple, city, and nation, and so, consequently, their whole church-state, should be utterly wasted by the pagan Romans, before the power of the empire came into the hands of men professing the name of Christ; who could neither well have suffered their temple to stand as by them abused, nor yet have destroyed it without hardening them in their impenitency and unbelief.
V. That which is proposed unto confirmation in the whole Epistle, and from whence all the inferences and exhortations insisted on do arise and are drawn, is the excellency of the gospel, and the worship of God therein revealed and appointed, upon the account of its manifold relation to the person and offices of Christ, the Mediator, the Son of God. Now, because those to whom it is directed did, as hath been declared, some of them adhere to Mosaical ceremonies and worship in conjunction with the gospel, others with a preferency of them above it, and some to a relinquishment of it, especially when they once found its profession obnoxious to persecution, the apostle institutes, and at large prosecutes, a comparison between Moses' law and the gospel, as to their usefulness and excellency, in reference unto men's acceptation with God by the one and the other; as also of the spirituality, order, and beauty of the worship severally required in them. And herein, though he derogates in no respect from the law that which was justly due unto it, yet, on the accounts before mentioned, he preferreth the gospel before it; and not only so, but also manifests that as Mosaical institutions were never of any other use but to prefigure the real mediatory work of Christ, with the benefits thereof, so he being exhibited and his work accomplished, their observation was become needless, and themselves, if embraced to a neglect or relinquishment of the gospel, pernicious.
This comparison (wherein also the proof of the positive worth and excellency of the gospel is included), omitting for weighty reasons (intimated by James, Acts 21:21; by himself, Acts 22:19–21, 24:14) all prefatory salutations, he enters upon in the first verses of the Epistle: and being thereby occasioned to make mention of the Messiah, from whose person and office the difference he was to insist upon did wholly arise, he spendeth the residue of the chapter in proving the divine excellency of his person and the eminency of his office, as the only king, priest, and prophet of his church; on all which the dignity of the gospel, in the profession whereof he exhorts them to persevere, doth depend.
He, then, that would come to a right understanding of this Epistle must always bear in mind,—1. To whom it was written; which were the Jews of the several sorts before mentioned: 2. To what end it was written; even to prevail with them to embrace the gospel, and to persist in the profession of it without any mixture of Mosaical observations: 3. On what principles the apostle deals with them in this argument; which are no other, for the most part, than what were granted by the Jews of all sorts: 4. What testimonies out of the Old Testament he insists on to prove his purpose; namely, such as were commonly received in the Judaical church to belong unto the Messiah and his office: 5. What he labours to instruct them in, as to the general use of all sorts amongst them; which is, the nature and use of Mosaical rites: 6. The main argument he insists on, for the ends before mentioned; which is, the excellency of the gospel, the worship instituted therein, and the righteousness manifested thereby, upon the account of its author and subject, the principal efficient cause of its worship, and only procurer of the righteousness exhibited in it, even Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Mediator,—the eternal Son of God. Unless these things are well borne in mind, and the case of the Jews particularly heeded, our Exposition will, it may be, seem ofttimes to go out of the way, though it constantly pursue the design and scope of the apostle.
VI. Though this Epistle was written unto the Hebrews, and immediately for their use, yet it is left on record in the canon of the Scripture by the Holy Ghost, for the same general end with the other parts of the Scripture, and the use of all believers therein to the end of the world.
This use in our Exposition is also to be regarded, and that principally in the parenetical or hortatory part of it. That, then, which is dogmatical, and the foundation of all the exhortations insisted on, may be two ways considered:—
1. Properly, as to the special and peculiar tendency of the principles and doctrines handled; and so they specially intend the Jews, and must be opened with respect to them, their principles, traditions, opinions, objections,—all which must therefore be considered, that the peculiar force and efficacy of the apostle's reasonings with respect unto them may be made manifest. And from the doctrinal part of this Epistle so opened, the exhortations that arise do chiefly respect the Jews, and are peculiarly suited unto them, their state and condition.
2. Again, the doctrines treated on by the apostle may be considered absolutely and abstractedly from the special case of the Jews, which he had in his eye,—merely as to their own nature; and so they are, many of them, of the chief, fundamental principles of the gospel. In this respect they are grounds for the application of the exhortations in the Epistle unto all professors of the gospel to the end of the world. And this must guide us in our Exposition. Having to deal with the Jews, the doctrinal parts of the Epistle must be opened with special respect unto them, or we utterly lose the apostle's aim and design; and dealing with Christians, the hortatory part shall be principally insisted on, as respecting all professors;—yet not so but that, in handling the doctrinal part, we shall weigh the principles of it, as articles of our evangelical faith in general, and consider also the peculiar respect that the exhortations have unto the Jews.
Now, whereas, as was said, many principles of the Jews are partly supposed and taken for granted, partly urged and insisted on to his own purpose by the apostle, we must in our passage make some stay in their discovery and declaration, and shall insert them under their proper heads where they occur, even as many of them as are not already handled in our Prolegomena.
