OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 421
"pitch" or "bitumen;" hence what God says to Noah about making the ark, ^"l??], Gen. vi. 1-1, the LXX. have rendered a<s(paX7ui(Siig rf! aafdXrw, — " bituminabis bitumine." "i^? in pihel is " placavit, ex- piavit, expiationem fecit ; " because by sacrifice sins are covered as if they had not been, to cover or hide being the first use of the word.
And this is the rise and use of the word "ransom" in the Scrip- ture, both n^, "Ti? and "i^^b^ wliich are rendered by Xvrpov, 'inpiKd- OapiJ^a, dvT/XvTpov, aXXay/j.a. It denotes properly a price of redemption, a valuable compensation made by one thing for another, either in the native signification, as in the case of the first word, or by the first translation of it from the sacrifice of atonement, as in the latter. Of this farther afterward, in the business of redemption. For the present it sufficeth that the death of Christ was a price of ransom, and these are the words whereby it is expressed.
II. It was a SACRIFICE ; and what sacrifice it was shall be de- clared:—
That Christ offered a sacrifice is abundantly evident from what was said before, in the consideration of the time and place when and wherein Christ was a high priest. The necessity of this the apostle confirms, Heb. viii. 3, " For every high priest is ordained to offer both gifts and sacrifices : wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer." If he be a priest, he must have a sacrifice; the very nature of his employment requires it. The whole and entire office and employment of a high priest, as a priest, consists in offering sacrifice, with the performance of those things which did necessarily precede and follow that action. It is of necessity, then, that he should also have somewhat to offer as a sacrifice to God.
For the other part of our inquiry, namely, what it was that he sacrificed, I shall manifest in this order of process (taking leave to enlarge a little in this, intending not so much the thing, proved be- fore, as the manner of it) : — 1. He was not to offer any sacrifice that any priest had offered before by God's appointment; 2. He did not actually offer any such sacrifice; S. I shall show positively what he did offer.
1 . He was not to offer any sacrifice that the priests of old had appointed for them to offer. He came to do another manner of work than could be brought about with the blood of bulls and goats. It cost more to redeem our souls. That which was of more worth in itself, of nearer concernment to him that offered it, of a more manifold alliance to them for whom it was offered, and of better acceptation with God, to whom it was offered, was to be his sacrifice. This is the aim of the Holy Ghost, Heb. x. 1-7, " For the law," etc.
This is the sum of the apostle's discourse : The sacrifices instituted by the law could not effect or work that which Christ, our high priest, was to accomplish by his sacrifice ; and therefore he was not
422 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
to offer them, but they were to be abolished, and something else to be brought in that might supply their room and defect.
What was wanting in these sacrifices the apostle ascribes to the law whereby they were instituted. (1.) The law could not do it; that is, the ceremonial law could not do it. The law which instituted and appointed these sacrifices could not accomplish that end of the in- stitution by them. And with this expression of it he subjoins a reason of this weakness of the law : " It had a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things " themselves, — an ob- scure representation of those good things which, when they were instituted and in force, were iMiWovra, to come, though now actually exhibited and existent; that is, Jesus Christ himself, and the good things of the gospel accompanying of him. It had but a " shadow " of these things, not the " image," — that is, the substance of them ; for so I had rather understand " image" here substantially, as that may be called the image of a picture by which it is drawn, than to make c%ta and £/'/cwi/ here to differ but gradually, [i. e., in degree,] as the first rude shape and proportion and the perfect limning of any thing do. The reason, then, why all the solemn, oj^erose, burdensome ser- vice of old could not of itself take away sin, is because it did not contain Christ in it, but only had a shadow of him.
(2.) The apostle instances, in particular, by what means the law could not do this great work of " making the comers thereunto per- fect;" rovg TpodBp^ofMsvovg, — that is, those who come to God by it, the worshippers; which is spoken in opposition to what is said of Christ, Heb. vii. 25, " He is able to save to the uttermost roug -Ttpoffsp^o/Ms- vovg," — " those that come to God by him." The word expresseth any man under the consideration of one coming to God for acceptation; as chap. xi. 6, " He that cometh unto God," — AsT rhv vpoGipyoihiMov. These it could not make perfect ; that is, it could not j^erfectly atone God, and so take away their sins that the conscience should no more be troubled or tormented with the guilt of sin, as chap. x. 2-4. By what could not the law do this? By those sacrifices which it offered year by year continually.