Ver. 4.—1. It is an act of sovereignty in God to call whom he pleaseth unto his work and especial service, and eminently so when it is unto any place of honour and dignity in his house. 2. The
478 SUMMARY OF DOCTRINAL AND [CHAP. V. 5.
highest excellency and utmost necessity of any work to be done for God in this world, will not warrant our undertaking of it or engag- ing in it, unless we are called thereunto. 3. The more excellent any work of God is, the more express ought our call unto it tobe. 4 It is a great dignity and honour to be duly called unto any work, ser- vice, or office, in the house of God.
Ver. 5.—1. The office of the high priesthood over the church of - God was an honour and glory to Jesus Christ. 2. Relation and love are the fountain and cause of God’s committing all authority in and over the church to Jesus Christ.
Ver. 6.—That in all things wherein God hath to do with man- kind, Jesus Christ should have an absolute pre-eminence.
Ver. 7.—1. The Lord Jesus Christ himself had a time of infirmity in this world. . 2. A life of glory may ensue after a life of infirmity. 3. The Lord Christ is no more now in a state of weakness and temp- tation. 4. The Lord Christ filled up every season with duty, with the proper duty of it. 5. The Lord Christ, in his offering up himself for us, laboured and travailed in soul to bring the work unto a good and holy issue. 6. The Lord Christ, in the time of his offering and suffer- ing, considering God, with whom he had to do, as the sovereign Lord of life and death, as the supreme Rector and Judge of all, cast him- self before him, with most fervent prayers for deliverance from the sentence of death and the curse of the law. 7. In all the pressures that were on the Lord Jesus Christ, in all the distresses he had to conflict withal in his sufferings, his faith for deliverance and success was firm and unconquerable. 8. The success of our Lord Jesus Christ in his trials, as our head and surety, isa pledge and assurance of success unto us in all our spiritual conflicts.
Ver. 8.—1. Infinite love prevailed with the Son of God to lay aside the privilege of his infinite dignity, that he might suffer for us and our redemption. 2. In his sufferings, and notwithstanding them all, the Lord Christ was the Son still, the Son of God. 3. A prae- tical experience of obedience to God in some cases will cost us dear, 4, Sufferings undergone according to the will of God are highly in- structive. 5. In all these things, both as to suffering and learning, or profiting thereby, we have a great example in our Lord Jesus Christ. 6. The love of God towards any, the relation of any unto God, hinders not but that they may undergo great suffermgs and trials.
Ver. 9.—1. All that befell the Lord Christ, all that he did or suf- fered, was necessary to this end, that he might be the cause of eter- nal salvation to believers. 2.The Lord Christ was consecrated himself in and by the sacrifice that he offered for us, and what he suffered in so doing. 3, The Lord Christ alone is the only principal
CHAP. V. 12.] PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 479
cause of our eternal salvation, and that in every kind. 4. Salvation is confined to believers.
Ver. 10.—1. God was pleased to put a signal honour upon the person and office of Melchisedec, that in them there should be an early and excellent representation made of the person and priesthood of Jesus Christ. 2. As the Lord Christ received all his honour, as mediator, from God the Father, so the ground and measure of our glory and honour unto him as such depend on the revelation and declaration of it unto us. 3. It is an evidence and testimony that the Lord Christ was able to be, and is, the author of eternal salva- tion unto all that do obey him, because he is a priest after the order of Melchisedec; that is, that his priesthood is eternal.
Ver. 11.—1. There are revealed in the Scripture sundry deep and mysterious truths, which require a peculiar diligence in our attend- ance unto their declaration, that we may rightly understand them or receive them in a due manner. 2. It is necessary for the minis- ters of the gospel sometimes to insist on the most abstruse and diffi- cult truths that are revealed for our edification. 3. There is a glo- rious light and evidence in all divine truths, but by reason of our darkness and weakness, we are not always able to comprehend them. 4. Many who receive the word at first with some readiness, do yet afterwards make but slow progress either in knowledge or grace. 5. It is men’s slothfulness in hearing that is the sole cause of their not improving the means of grace, or not thriving under the dispen- sation of the word. 6. It is a grievous matter to the dispensers of the gospel, to find their hearers unapt to learn and thrive under their ministry, through their negligence and sloth.