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 xxvi. 6, 7. Upon these general principles, wherein they also agreed, and which were the general persua- sion of the whole Judaical church, the apostle lays the foundation of all his argu- ments; and hence he ofttimes takes that for granted which, without this consider- ation, 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 xxvi. 22, 23, 27, xxviii. 23, xiii. 16, 17, ete.; which the reader must have constant re- spect 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. v. 12, vi. 1. Secondly, Because most of the testi- monies 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 pro- mised 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
12 THE PREFACE.
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 ques- tioned 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 adver- saries, as he himself had dealt with Jovinian; which was very far from him whose only design was éandevery ty &yamy,—to promote the truth in love.
IV. He takes it for granted, in the whole Epistle, that the Judaical church-state 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 xv. abolish them, as some suppose, but only free the Gentiles from their observance. Their free use was yet permitted unto the Jews, Acts xxi. 20, 22-26, xxvii. 9; and practised by Paul in particular in his Nazaritical vow, chap. xxi. 26, which was attended with a sac- rifice, Num. vi. 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. xxiv., by Peter, 2 Epist. iii., by James also, chap. vy. 6-9, and by our apostle in this Epistle, chap. x. 37, xii. 25-27, was accomplished.
Hence it is that our apostle calls the times of the gospel “'The world to come,” Heb. ii. 5, vi. 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 xxiii. 5, so doctrinally he takes it for granted that that office was still continued, Heb. viii. 4, 5, with the whole wor- ship of Moses’ institution, chap. xiii. 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. iii. iv.