3. And this abundantly discovers the vanity and folly of them who make use of the creation in an opposition unto the Lord Christ and his peculiar interest in this world. His own power is the very ground that they stand upon in their opposition unto him, and all things which they use against him consist in him. They hold their lives absolutely at the pleasure of him whom they oppose; and they act against him without whose continual supportment and influence they could neither live nor act one moment: which is the greatest madness and most contemptible folly imaginable.
Proceed we now with our apostle in his description of the person and offices of the Messiah.
This beginning of the epistle, as hath been declared, contains a summary proposition of those things which the apostle intends seve- rally to insist upon throughout the whole; and these all relate to the person and offices of the Messiah, the principal subject of this epistle. Having, therefore, first declared him to be the great pro- ” phet of the new testament; and, secondly, the lord, ruler, and governor of all things, as also manifested the equity of the grant™of that universal sovereignty unto him, from the excellency of his person on the account of his divine nature, and the operations thereof in the works of creation and providence; he proceeds to finish and close his general proposition of the argument of the epistle by a
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brief intimation of his priestly office, with what he did therein, and what ensued thereon, in the remaining words of this verse.
And this order and method of the apostle is required by the nature of the things themselves whereof he treats; for the work of purging sins, which as a priest he assigns unto him, cannot well be declared without a previous manifestation of his divine nature. For it is “opus Qzuvdpsndv,’—a work of him who is God and man; for as God takes it to be his property to blot out our sins, so he could not have done it “by himself” had he not been man also. And this is asserted in the next words:—
AV éavrot xabuprowiv roinsdwuevos rv Guapridy juav—“ Having by himself purged our sins.”
The Vulgar Latin renders these words, “Purgationem peccatorum faciens,” not without sundry mistakes. For, first, these words, 4/ tavrod, “by himself,’ and judy, “our,” are omitted; and yet the emphasis and proper sense of the whole depend upon them. Secondly, romodwevoc, “having made,” is rendered in the present tense, “making;” which seems to direct the sense of the words to another thing and action of Christ than what is here intended. And therefore the expositors of the Roman church, as Thomas, Lyranus, Cajetan, Estius, Ribera, & Lapide, all desert their own text, and expound the words according to the original. The ancients, also as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Gicumenius, lay the chief weight of their whole exposition of this place on the words omitted in that translation.
The doctrine of purging our sins by Christ is deep and large, extending itself unto many weighty heads of the gospel; but we shall follow our apostle, and in this place pass it over briefly and in general, because the consideration of it will directly occur unto us im our progress. ,
Two things the apostle here expresseth concerning the Messiah; and one, which is the foundation of both the other, he implieth or supposeth :—First, He expresseth what he did,—he “ purged our sins;’ Secondly, How he did it,—he did it “by himself.” That which he supposeth, as the foundation of both these, is, that he was the great high priest of the church; they with whom he dealt knowing full well that this matter of purging sins belonged only unto the priest.
Here, then, the apostle tacitly enters upon a comparison of Christ with Aaron, the high priest, as he had done before with all the pro- phetical revealers of the will of God; and as he named none of them in particular, no more doth he here name Aaron: but afterwards, when he comes more largely to insist on the same matter again, he expressly makes mention of his name, as also of that of Moses.
And in both the things here ascribed unto him as the great high priest of his church doth he prefer him above Aaron :—First, In that
110 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [orar. 1
he “purged our sins,”—that is, really and effectually before God and in the conscience of the sinner, and that “for ever;” whereas the purgation of sins about which Aaron was employed was in itself but typical, external, and representative of that which was true and real : both of which the apostle proves at large afterwards. Secondly, In that he did it “by himself,” or the offering of himself; whereas what- ever Aaron did of this kind, he did it by the offering of the blood of bulls and goats, as shall be declared.
And hence appears also the vanity of the gloss of a learned man on these words. ‘“Postquam,” saith he, “morte sua causam dedisset ejus fidei per quam & peccatis purgamur, quod nec Moses fecerat nec prophete.” For as we shall see that Christ’s purging of our sins doth not consist in giving a ground and cause for faith, whereby we purge ourselves, so the apostle is not comparing the Lord Christ in these words with Moses and the prophets, who had nothing to do in the work of purging sin, but with Aaron, who by office was designed thereunto.