VER. 10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 409
unconquerable apprehension of it. But these things I have handled at large elsewhere.’
And this fully discovers the vile and horrid nature of sin. “Fools,” as the wise man tells us, “make a mock of it.” Stifling for a while their natural convictions, they act as if sin were a thing of naught ; at least, not so horrible as by some it is represented. And few there are who endeavour aright to obtain a true notion of it, contenting themselves in general that it isa thing that ought not to be. What direct opposition it stands in unto the nature, properties, rule, and authority of God, they consider not. But the last day will discover the true nature of it, when all eyes shall see what it deserves in the judgment of God, which is according unto righteousness. Is it a small thing for a creature to break that order which God at first placed him and all things in, to cast off the rule and authority of God, to endeavour to dethrone him, so that he cannot continue to be the supreme governor of all things, and judge of all the world, unless he punish it? Is it a small thing to set up that which hath an utter inconsistency with the holiness and righteousness of God, so that if it go free, God cannot be holy and righteous? If these things will not now sink into the minds of men, if they will not learn the severity of God in this matter from the law, on the threatening and curse whereof he hath impressed the image of his holiness and justice, as was said, they will learn it all in hell. Why doth God thus threaten and curse sin and sinners?) Why hath he prepared. an eternity of vengeance and torment for them? Is it because he would? Nay, but because it could not otherwise be, God being so holy and righteous as he is. Men may thank themselves for death and hell. They are no more than sin hath made necessary, unless God should cease to be holy, righteous, and the judge of all, that they might sin freely and endlessly. And this appears most eminently in the cross of Christ; for God gave in him an instance of his righte- ousness and of the desert of sin. Sin being imputed unto the only Son of God, he could not be spared. If he be made sin, he must be made a curse; if he will take away our iniquities, he must make his soul an offering for sins, and bear the punishment due unto them. Obedience in all duties: will not do it; intercession and prayers will not do it; sin required another manner of expiation. Nothing but undergoing the wrath of God and the curse of the law, and therein answering what the eternal justice of God required, will effect that end. How can God spare sin in his enemies, who could not spare it on his only Son? Had it been possible, this cup should have passed from him; but this could not be, and God continue righteous. These things, I say, will give us an insight into the
1Tn his treatise De Divina Justitia, etc., vol. x of the author’s works.—Ep.
410 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IL
nature of sin, and the horrible provocation wherewith it is at- tended,
And this also opens the mystery of the wisdom, and love, and grace of God, in the salvation of sinners. This is that which he will for ever be admired in: A way he hath found out to exercise grace and. satisfy justice at the same time, in and by the same person. Sin shall be punished, all sin, yet grace exercised; sinners shall be saved, yet justice exalted ;—all in the cross of Christ.
Verses 11-13.
The great reason and ground of the necessity of the sufferings of Christ hath been declared. It became God that he should suffer. But it doth not yet appear on what grounds this sufferimg of his could be profitable or beneficial unto the sons to be brought unto glory. It was the sinner himself against whom the law denounced the judgment of death; and although the Lord Christ, undertaking to be a captain of salvation unto the sons of God, might be willing to suffer for them, yet what reason is there that the punishment of one should be accepted for the sin of another? Let it be granted that the Lord Christ had an absolute and sovereign power over his own life and all the concernments of it, in the nature which he assumed, as also that he was willing to undergo any sufferings that God should call him unto; this, indeed, will acquit the justice of God. in giving him up unto death, but whence is it that sinners should come to be so interested in these things as thereon to be acquitted from sin and brought unto glory? In these verses the apostle enters upon a discovery of the reasons hereof also. He supposeth, indeed, that there was a compact and agreement between the Father and Son in this matter; which he afterwards expressly treateth on, chap. x. He supposeth, also, that in his sovereign authority, God had made a relaxation of the law as to the person suffering, though not as to the penalty to be suffered ; which God abundantly declared unto the church of the Jews in all their sacrifices, as we shall manifest. These things being supposed, the apostle proceeds to declare the — grounds of the equity of this substitution of Christ in the room of the sons, and of their advantage by his suffering, the proposition whereof he lays down in these verses, and the especial application in those that ensue.