400 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. II.
image of God, capable of yielding obedience unto him, according to the law concreated with him and written in his heart, which obedi- ence was his moral being for God, as he was from or of him; sup- posing that he by sin had broken this law, and so was no longer for God, according to the primitive order and law of his creation; sup- posing also, notwithstanding all this, that God in his infimite grace and love intended to bring some men unto the enjoyment of him- self, by a new way, law, and appointment, by which they: should he — brought to be for him again ;—supposing, I'say, these things, which — are all here supposed by our apostle and were granted by the Jews, it became the justice of God, that is, it was so just, right, meet, and equal, that the judge of all the world, who doth right, could no otherwise do, than cause him who was to be the way, cause, means, and author of this recovery of men into a new condition of being for God, to suffer in their stead. For whereas the vindictive justice of God, which is the respect of the universal rectitude of his holy nature unto the deviation of his rational creatures from the law of their creation, required that that deviation should be revenged, and themselves brought into a new way of being for God, or of glo- rifying him by their sufferings, when they had refused to do so by obedience, it was necessary, on the account thereof, that if they were to be delivered from that condition, the author of their deliver- ance should suffer for them. And this excellently suits the design of the apostle, which is to prove the necessity of the suffering of the Messiah, which the Jews so stumbled at. For if the justice of God required that so it should be, how could it be dispensed withal? Would they have God unjust? Shall he forego the glory: of his righteousness and holiness to please them in their presumption and prejudices? It is true, indeed, if God had mtended no salvation for his sons but one that was temporal, like that granted unto the people of old under the conduct of Joshua, there had been no need at all of the sufferings of the captain of their salvation. But they being such as in themselves had sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the salvation intended them being spiritual, consisting in a new ordering of them for God, and the bringing of them unto the eternal enjoyment of him in glory, there was no way to maintain the honour of the justice of God but by his suffering. And as here lay the great mistake of the Jews, so the denial of this condecency of God’s justice, as to the sufferings of the Messiah, is the xpérov -)ed80g of the Socinians. Schlichtingius on this place would have no more intended but that the way of bringing Christ to suffer was answerable unto that design which God had laid to glorify himself in the salvation of man. But the apostle says not that it became or was suitable unto an arbitrary free decree of God, but that it became himself as the supreme ruler and judge of all. He speaks not of
VER. 10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 401
what was meet unto the execution of a free decree, but of what was meet, on the account of God’s holiness and righteousness, to the con- stitution of it, as the description of him annexed doth plainly show. And herein have we with our apostle discovered the great, indispens- able, and fundamental cause of the sufferings of Christ. And we may hence observe, that,—
VY. Such is the desert of sin, and such is the immutability of the justice of God, that there was no way possible to bring sinners unto glory but by the death and sufferings of the Son of God, who under- took to be the captain of their salvation.
It would have been unbecoming God, the supreme governor of
all the world, to have passed by the desert of sin without this satis- faction. And this being a truth of great importance, and the foun- dation of most of the apostle’s ensuing discourses, must be a while insisted on. _ In these verses, that foregoing this, and some of those follow- ing, the apostle directly treats of the causes of the sufferings and death of Christ ;—a matter as of great importance in itself, com- prising no small part of the mystery of the gospel, so indispensably necessary to be explained and confirmed unto the Hebrews, who had entertained many prejudices against it. In the foregoing verse he declared the cause sponyouuévqy, the inducing, leading, moving eause ; which was “the grace of God,’”—by the grace of God he was to taste death for men. This grace he further explains in this verse, showing that it consisted in the design of God to “bring many sons unto glory.” All had sinned and come short of his glory. He had, according to the exigence of his justice, denounced and declared death and judgment to be brought upon all that sinned, without exception. Yet such was his infinite love and grace, that he deter- mined or purposed in himself to deliver some of them, to make them sons, and to bring them unto glory. Unto this end he re- solved to send or give his Son to be a captain of salvation unto them. And this love or grace of God is everywhere set forth in the gospel. How the sufferings of this captain of salvation became use- ful unto the sons, upon the account of the manifold union that was between them, he declares in the following verses, further explain- ing the reasons and causes why the benefit of his sufferings should redound unto them. In this verse he expresseth the cause, spoxa- suparixiy, the procuring cause, of the death and sufferings of Christ; which is the justice of God, upon supposition of sin and his purpose to save sinners. And this, upon examination, we shall find to be the great cause of the death of Christ.