(1.) This suits not at all with the purpose and design of the apostle, which is plainly to prove that the Lord Christ, then when he spake to us, and revealed the will of God, and in that work, was above the angels ; which is not at all proved by showing what befell him after his work was accomplished.
(2.) It receives no countenance from that other place of chap ii. 5, whither we are sent by these interpreters; for that the apostle is there treating of a matter quite of another nature, without any re- spect unto these words, shall be there declared. Neither doth he absolutely there mention o/xouyévqy, “ the world,” but with the addi- tion of uéAroveay, “to come;” which what it is we shall inquire upon the place.
(8.) Oixovpévn signifies properly the “habitable earth,” and is never used absolutely in the Scripture but for the habitable world, or men dwelling in it; and causelessly to wrest it unto another signification is not to interpret but to offer violence unto the text.
2. By Oixouyévn, then, “the world,” or “habitable earth,” with them that dwell therein, and nothing else is intended; for as the word hath no other signification, so the psalmist in the place from whence the ensuing testimony is taken expounds it by “the multitude of isles,” or the nations lying abroad in the wide earth. This is the
156 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP, IL
world designed, even that earth wherein the rational creatures of God converse here below. Into this was the Lord Christ brought by the Father.
We are therefore nextly to inquire wherein the Father’s bringing of the Son into this world did consist. We have seen formerly that some have assigned it unto one thing in particular, some to another ; some to his incarnation and nativity, some to his resurrection, some to his mission of the Spirit and propagation of his kingdom that ensued. The opinion about his coming to reign in the world a thousand years, as also that of his coming at the general judgment, we have already excluded. Of the others I am apt to think that it is not any one in particular, exclusive of the others, that the apostle intendeth or designeth. That which was intended in the Old Tes- tament in the promises of his coming into the world, is that which is here expressed by the phrase of bringing him in. See Mal. ii. 1, 2, “The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come... .. But who may abide the day of his coming?” Now, it was not any one special act, nor any one particular day that was designed in that and the like promises; but it was the whole work of God in bringing forth the Messiah, by his conception, nativity, unction with the Spirit, resurrection, sending of the Holy Ghost, and preaching of the gos- pel, which is the subject of those promises. And their accomplish- ment it is which these words express, “ When he bringeth the first- begotten into the world ;” that is, after he had kept his church, under the administration of the law given by angels in the hand of Moses the mediator, in the expectation of the coming of the Messiah, when he bringeth him forth unto and carries him on in his work unto the accomplishment of it, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” And herein most of the former senses are comprised.
And this interpretation of the words completely answers the in- tention of the apostle in the citation of the ensuing testimony, namely, to prove that, in the discharge of his work of revealing the will of God, he was such a one as, by reason of the dignity of his person, had all religious worship and honour due unto him from the angels themselves.
This sense, also, we are led unto by the psalm whence the ensuing testimony is taken, Ps. xcvii, The exultation which the first verse of the psalm requires and calls for is not unlike that which was, in the name of the whole creation, expressed at his nativity, Luke ii. 14, And the four following verses are an allegorical description of the work that the Lord Christ should perform in and by the preaching of the gospel. See Mal. iii, 1-4, iv. 1; Matt. ii, 12; Luke ii. 17. And hereon ensues that shame and ruin which was brought upon idols and idolaters thereby, verse 7; and the joy of the whole church in the presence of Christ, verse 8; attended with his glorious reign
VER. 6.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 157
in heaven, as a consequent of the accomplishment of his work,
verse 9 ; which is proposed as a motive unto obedience, and a matter
of confidence and rejoicing unto the church. And this isthe Father’s
bringing of the Son into the world, described by the psalmist and intended by the apostle.
It remains that we inquire why and in what sense Christ is here called xpwréroxos, “ primogenitus,” or “the first-born.” The common answer is, “ Non quod post illum alii, sed quod ante illum nullus;” —“ Not that any was born after him” (in the same way), “ but that none was born before him;” which, as we have showed before, will agree well enough with the use of the word. And this is applied both to the eternal generation of his divine person, and to the con- ception and nativity of his human nature.