But he yet undertakes to prove that what is here mentioned is the whole of what Christ doth as a priest for us, his discourse whereof, because it compriseth the substance of all that he hath to plead in this cause, I shall at large transcribe and examine:—
19. “ Ad ea vero confirmanda et illustranda adhibentur a D. auie- tore ea que subjiciuntur initio, cap. v., ut indicat particula ‘enim,’ que initium istud cap. v., cum fine capitis preecedentis connectit. Quare ex illis constare potest quid D. auctor sibi velit verbis, qua- tenus ea ad Christum accommodari debent, qu Grotius hie urget, eaque de causa totum locum adscribemus. Est autem hujusmodi, ‘Non habemus pontificem qui non possit compati infirmitatibus nos- tris; sed tentatum per omnia secundum similitudinem absque pec- cato. Accedamus ergo cum fiduciaad thronum gratia, ut accipiamus misericordiam et gratiam ad opportunum auxilium. Omnis enim
SECT. 19.] OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 231
pontifex ex hominibus acceptus pro hominibus constituitur in iis quze ad’ (vel ‘ apud’) ‘Deum, ut offerat dona et victimas pro pec- catis: qui possit moderate condolere ignorantibus et errantibus; siquidem etiam ipse circundatus est infirmitate, ete. Ubi vides illis cap. v. verbis, quod ‘ pontifex constituatur in iis que ad Deum,’ ut ‘offerat dona et victimas pro peccatis, nihil in preecedentibus respon- dere preeter illa, quod a Christo accepturi simus ‘ misericordiam et gratiam ad opportunum auxilium;’ quod sit cum nobis tentatis, ac vehementer trepidantibus succurrat, et ne malorum pondere pressi tentationi succumbamus, ac peccatorum nostrorum pcenas luamus, efficit; aut tunc, cum impii suorum scelerum dant pcenas, ipse nos tuetur, et ne cum illis una pernicie involvamur, potestate sua divina intercedit. Quod idem, ut vidimus, cap. ii. indicatur in verbis illis, ubi expiationis, quam Christus apud Deum peragit, modus explicatur. At hujusmodi actio circa nos primo versatur, non vero circa Deum, nisi improprie loquamur.”
Ams. (1.) I have at large transcribed this whole passage, that we may see what is the only-foundation which he builds upon, or argu- ment he hath to prove that the sacerdotal acts of Christ respect us in the first place, and not God. The whole of what he pleads issues from this single supposition, that the apostle in the beginning of the fifth chapter intends nothing but the confirmation of what he had delivered in the end of the fourth; and therefore, that the offering of “ gifts and sacrifices for sins’ unto God is only his giving help and succour unto us in our temptations,—which is the most uncouth ex- pression and explication of one thing by another that ever was in the world. Now, this supposition is evidently false, and the con- nection of the discourse, which he feigneth at pleasure, every way insufficient to enforce us unto such a fond and brainless exposition of the words. That which alone he pleads in justification of his assertion, is the introduction of this new discourse by the causal particle yép, “for;’ as though it intimated that the apostle designed
no more but to give a reason of what he had before laid down con- cerning the help and succour which we have in all our temptations and sufferings from our high priest. This, indeed, he doth also, in the description he gives us of the nature and duties of this office; where- in he doth not merely explain what he had before delivered, but adds other considerations also of the nature and acts of that office, confirming our faith and expectation therein. But his principal re- gard is to the whole subject-matter treated of, as being now to give -his reasons why he doth so industriously instruct them in the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ. And this use of the same particle in _ his transitions from one thing to another,—wherein it respects not so much what immediately went before in particular, as the relation of
232 OF THE ACTS AND ADJUNCTS [EXERC, XXXII
what ensues unto his whole design, and is also sometimes redundant, —we have manifested by sundry instances in our Exposition. Where- fore, the apostle having occasionally digressed from the priesthood of Christ, which he had proposed unto consideration in the end of the second chapter, through the third and unto the 14th verse of the fourth, he there returns again unto his first design. And this he doth by declaring in general the glory of Christ as a priest, his emi- nency above those of the order of Aaron, and the spiritual advantage which we receive, not from his being a priest, but from his being such a person, so qualified for the discharge of his office, as he is there by him described. Having expressed this in the last verses of the fourth chapter, and thereby stirred up the Hebrews to a diligent attention unto what he had to instruct them in with respect here- unto, in the beginning of the fifth he lays the foundation of all his subsequent discourses about the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, in a general description of that office and the duties thereof, with what belongs essentially thereunto in all that are partakers thereof, adding some particular instances of the imperfections that attended it in the priests under the law, making application of the former unto Jesus Christ, and discarding the consideration of the latter. As, therefore, in the end of the fourth chapter, he prepares his way unto his intended declaration of the nature and duties of the sacer- dotal office of Christ, by declaring in general the advantage we have — by his susception of that office who was the Son of God incarnate ; so here, in the beginning of the fifth, he adds a description of the power, acts, and duties of that office, whence our benefits by it do originally arise. There is therefore no such coherence between these passages as should warrant us to look on Christ’s helping and assist- ing of them that are tempted to be the same with his offering gifts and sacrifices to God. Yea, suppose that the apostle in these words doth only give the reason of what he had before asserted,—which is all that is pleaded by Crellius to impose this nonsensical sense upon us,—yet thereby also his pretension would be everted ; for the reason of any thing differs from the thing itself. And if he proves only that we may have help and succour from Christ, as our high priest, on this ground, that every priest doth offer gifts and sacrifices for sin, it doth not follow that his helping of us and his offering of sacrifice are the same, yea, it doth that they are distinct and differ- ent, the latter being given in as a reason and cause of the former. (2.) What is here further discoursed concerning our deliverance by the power and care of Christ from sin and destruction, even then when wicked and impenitent persons shall be utterly destroyed, is true ; but yet it is not his offering of sacrifice unto God for sin, but ~ it is a consequent thereof. The consideration of it is indeed a mat-