ch. vii. 23, 24 5. He alone did, and could do, the true and proper work of a priest; namely, make reconciliation for the sins of the people. The sacrifices of other priests could only represent what was to be done, the thing itself they could not effect; for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, as the apostle shews, ch. x. 4. but this was done effectually by that one offering which this high priest offered, ver. 11-14. All which things must be afterwards insisted on in their proper places, if God permit. This then is his prerogative, this is our privilege and advantage. II. The assumption of our nature, and his conformity unto us therein, was principally necessary unto the Lord Jesus, on the account of his being a high priest for us. It behoved him to be made like unto us, that he might be a high priest. It is true, that as the great prophet of his church, he did in part teach and instruct it, whilst he was in the flesh in his own person; but this was in a manner a mere consequence of his assuming our nature to be our high priest. For he instructed his church before and after, principally by his Spirit. And this he might have done to the full, though he had never been incarnate. So also might he have ruled it with supreme power, as its King and Head. But our high priest, without the assump tion of our nature, he could not be, because, without this, he had nothing to offer; and of necessity, saith the apostle, he must have somewhat to offer unto God. A priest without a sacrifice, is as a king without a subject. Had not God prepared him a body, he could have had nothing to offer. He was to have a self to offer to God, or his priesthood had been in vain. For God had shewed that no other sacrifice would be accepted, or was effectual for that end which was designed unto this office. On this therefore is laid the indispensable necessity of the incarnation of Christ. III. Such was the unspeakable love of Christ unto the brethren, that he would refuse nothing, no condition, that was needful to fit him for the discharge of the work which he had undertaken for them. Their high priest he must be this he could not, unless he were made like unto them in all things. He knew what this would cost him, what trouble, sorrow, suffering in that conformity unto them, he must undergo; what miseries he must conflict withal, all his life; what a close was to be put unto his pilgrimage on the earth; what woful temptations he was to pass through: all lay open and naked before him. But such was his love, shadowed out unto us by that of Jacob to Rachel, that he was content to submit unto any terms, to undergo any condition, so that he might save and enjoy his beloved church; see Eph. v. 25, 26. And surely he who was so intense in his love, is no less constant therein. Nor hath he left any thing undone that was needful to bring us unto God. But we are yet farther to proceed with our explication of the words. Fifthly, The apostle having asserted the priesthood of Christ, describes in the fifth place the nature of the office itself, as it was vested in him. And this he doth two ways: 1. By a general description of the object of it, or that which it is exercised about; Tao TOO, the things appertaining unto God.' 2. In particular instance taken from the end of his priesthood, and the great work that he performed thereby, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. First, He was to be " a High Priest in the things pertaining unto God," that is, either in things that were to be done for God with men, as the apostle speaks, "We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us," 2 Cor. v. 20. Or in things that were to be done with God for men. For there were two general parts of the office of the high priest, the one to preside in the house and over the worship of God, to do the things of God with men. This the prophet assigns to Joshua the high priest, an especial type of Christ, Zech. iii. 7. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and thou shalt also keep my courts." And of Christ himself, even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a Priest upon his throne," chap. vi. 13. that is," the High Priest of our profession," Heb. iii. i. He was set authoritatively over the house of God, to take care that the whole worship of it were performed according to his appointment, and to declare his statutes and ordinances to the people. And in this sense the Lord Christ is also the High Priest of his church, Taos Tor Oer, feeding and ruling them in the name and authority of God, Micah v. 4. Yet this is not that part of his office which is here intended by the apostle. The other part of the high priest's office was to perform the things toward God, which on the part of the people were to be performed. So Je ,היה אתה לעם מול האלהים .19 .thro adviseth foses, Exod. xviii 6 "Be thou unto the people before God;" which words the LXX. render, given ou tw haw tu wgos Tov Osor, in the phrase here used by the apostle, Be thou to the people in things appertaining to God.' And this was the principal part of the office and duty of the high Priest, the other being only a consequent thereof. And that it was so as to the office of Christ, the apostle manifests in the special limitation which he adjoins to this general assertion: he was a High Priest in things appertaining to God, εις το έλασκεσθαι τας άμαρτίας του λαού, 4 to reconcile, that is, make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Two things are to be considered in these words. 1. The object of the priestly action here assigned to the Lord Christ. 2. The action itself, which with respect thereunto he is said to perform. The first is, ass, the people,' that is, say some, the seed of Abraham, whose interest in the mediation of Christ, and their privilege therein, the apostle here reminds them of, to provoke the Hebrews to constancy in their faith and profession. And so also they limit the term brethren before used, not as they say, that the elect among the Gentiles are excluded, but that he expressly mentions only the first fruits in the Jews. But this sense is not necessarily included in the words; the intention of the apostle in the expression is only to give some light into the effect of the priesthood of Christ, from the office of the high priest under the Old Testament, and the discharge thereof. For as he had a peculiar people for whom he made atonement, so also hath Christ, that is, all his elect. 2. The action ascribed to him is expressed in those words, εις το ίλασκεσθαι τας άμαρτιας, which want not their difficulty, the construction of the verb being inconsistent with its native and proper signification; iaoua is properly and usually in all writers, sacred and others, 'to appease,' 'to atone,'' to please,'' to propitiate,'' to reconcile.' But the following word seems not to admit of that sense in this place, tas pagrias. For how can any one be said to please, or atone, or reconcile sin? Wherefore some laying the emphasis of the expression on the construction, do regulate the sense of the verb by the noun, of the act by the object, and so will have it signify to expiate, cleanse and do away sin, to cleanse the sins of the people, to do away the sins of the people. The Vulgar Latin renders the word repropitio, ut repropitiaret, which as Anselm tells us, and he hath those that follow him, is composed of re, prope and cieo, a barbarous etymology of a barbarous word. Propitio is a Latin word, and used not only by Plautus, but by Suetonius and Pliny, and that 'to appease, atone, please,' or turn away anger. Most translations render it by expio, ad expiandum peccata, but the signification of that word is also doubtful. It is indeed sometimes used for to cleanse,' 'make pure,' and to take away sin,' but never in any good author, but with reference to atonement, to take them away by sacrifice, by public punishments, by men's devoting themselves to destruction. So Livy, speaking of Horatius who killed his sister, Ita ut cades manifesta aliquo tamen piaculo lueretur, imperatum patri, ut filium expiaret pecunia publica. Expiare, is the same with luere piaculo, which is to take away the guilt of a crime by a commutation of punishments. There may then be a double sense of these words. 1. To make atonement and reconciliation for sin, app asing the anger and ་ wrath of God against it. 2. To remove and take away sin, either by the cleansing and sanctifying of the sinner, or by any means prevailing with him not to continue in sin. Against the first sense the construction of the word with Tas pagrias, sins,' is objected. Against the latter, the constant sense of the word itself, which is not to be deserted. It is the former sense therefore which we do embrace, and shall confirm. 6 1. The constant use of the word in all good authors of the Greek tongue, will admit no other. Iacou is of an active import, and denotes propitium facio, placo, as we observed before, to appease and atone.' And this is that whereby the heathen generally expressed their endeavours to turn away the wrath of their gods, to appease them; and then they use it transitively, with an accusative case of the object; as Homer, Iliad 3. πρώτος εγω κελομεν θεον ἱλασκεσθαι. To propitiate or appease God.' And, Iliad 1. Φοίβω θ' ἱερὴν ἑκατόμβην Ρέξαι ὑπερ Δαναών οφρ' ἱλασκώμεθ' ανακτα To offer a hecatomb unto Apollo for the Greeks, and appease him who hath sent on them so many sorrows,' or atone him. And when it hath the accusative case of the person joined with it, it can bear no other sense. So Plutarch, io vciGE gas; and Lucian, iarato Toy Osos, to appease God.' Sometimes it is used with a dative case, as Plutarch in Public. inacojesvos TM don; and then it hath respect unto the sacrifice whereby atonement is made, and anger turned away; and is rendered piaculare sacrum facere, to offer a piacular sacrifice.' So that the word constantly hath regard unto the anger and wrath of some person, which is deprecated, turned away, appeased, by reconciliation made. 6 2. The use of the word by the LXX. confirms it unto this sense. Commonly they render the Hebrew 5 by it; which, when regarding God, always signifies atonement,' and 'to atone.' So the noun, Psal. xlix. 8. No man can redeem his nor can he give to God his לא יתן לאלהים כפרו,brother ransom, or the price of his redemption, . And unto the verb where it respecteth the offence to be atoned for, they usually annex g to it, Exod. xxxii. 30. "You have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord, ΕΝΟΠ 13, ένα εξιλάσομαι περι της άμαρτίας ύμων, that I may atone for your sins." And it is God who is the object of the act of appeasing, or atoning; to make atonement with God for your sin.' So Numb. xxviii. 29. 30. Neh. x. 33. Once in the Old Testament it is used transitively, and sin placed as the object of it, Dan. ix. 24. 17, xxi tu tğıkaraçĴui tus adixime, to atone sin, or unrighteousness; that is, 66 Tegi ons adixias, to make atonement with God for sin.' also they express the person with περί, for whom the atonement is made. Εξιλάσασθαι περί αυτε, αυτών, ψυχής αυτ8, Exod. xxx. 15, 16. Lev. i. 4. iv. 20. 26. vi. 30. Num. xv. 25. 28. And still God is respected as he who is offended, and is to be reconciled; as it is expressed, Lev. x. 17. και εξιλασησθε περί αυτών έναντι Κυρίκ, "shall make atonement for them before the Lord." And sometimes they add that wherewith the atonement is made, namely, offerings or sacrifices of one sort or another, Levit. viii. 17. And they will give us the sense of the word in another place, Prov. xvi. 15. The wrath of a king is as messengers of death," ανης δε σοφος εξιλάσεται αυτον, a wise man shall appease him;' referring that to the king, which the original doth to his wrath, , shall turn away,' that is, by appeasing him. In the use of this word then, there is always understood, 1. An offence, crime, guilt or debt, to be taken away. 2. A person offended, to be pacified, atoned, reconciled. 3. A person offending to be pardoned, accepted. 4. A sacrifice, or other means of making the atonement, sometimes one is expressed, sometimes. another, but the use of the word hath respect unto them all. And in vain doth Crellius pretend, ad Grot. ad cap. 7. p. 360. that ἱλασκεσθαι τινα and ἱλασκεσθαι περι τινος, are the same, and denote the same thing, the former always denoting the person offended, the latter the person offending, or the offence itself; the one is to atone or appease another, the other to make atonement for another, which surely are sufficiently different. 3. The Jews to whom Paul wrote, knew that the principal work of the high priest was to make atonement with God for sin; whereof their expiations and freedom from it was a consequent; and therefore they understood this act and duty accordingly, it being the usual expression of it that the apostle applies unto it. They knew that the great work of their high priest was to make atonement for them, for their sins and transgressions, that they might not die, that the punishment threatened in the law might not come upon them, as Lev. xvi. 10. 21. is fully declared. And the apostle now instructs them in the substance of what they had before attended unto in types and shadows. Nor is there any mention in the Scripture of the expiation of sins but by atonement, nor doth this word ever in any place signify the real cleansing of the sinner from sin inherent; so that the latter sense proposed, hath no consistency with it. The difficulty pretended from the construction, is not of any moment. The sense and constant use of the word being what we have evinced, there must be an ellipsis supposed, and ixarκέσθαι τας άμαρτίας, is the same in sense with ἱλασκεσθαι τον Θεόν περι |