540 AN EXPOSITION OF THE - [CHAP. Vv.
ruinous unto the souls of men; but also, to expect any assistance by, or acceptance in, such acts of religion or worship as he hath not appointed, and therefore doth not fill up with his grace, nor com- municate from his own fulness by it, is the highest folly imaginable. This, therefore, is the great wisdom of faith, to esteem of Christ and to rest upon him as that which he is indeed, namely, the only author of salvation unto them that believe. For,—
Obs. IV. Salvation is confined to believers; and those who look for salvation by Christ, must secure it unto themselves by faith and obedience. It is Christ alone who is the cause of our salvation; but he will save none but those that obey him. He came to save sin- ners, but not such as choose to continue in their sins; though the gospel be full of love, of grace, of mercy, and pardon, yet herein the sentence of it is peremptory and decretory: “ He that believeth not shall be damned.”
VERSE 10.
In the 10th verse the apostle returns unto the improvement of the testimony given unto the priesthood of Christ taken from Ps. ex. And hereby he makes way unto another necessary digression, without which he could not profitably pursue the instruction which he intended [for] the Hebrews from that testimony, as we shall see in the following verses. He had drawn forth nothing out of that testi- mony of the psalmist, but only that the Lord Christ was a priest; and. when he had done this in general, which was necessary for him to do, he declares his sacerdotal actings which he was enabled unto by virtue of that office: for a priest- he must be who so “ offered” unto God as he did. But he had yet a further and peculiar intention in the production of that testimony. And this was, not only to prove him to be a priest in general, and so to have right to perform all sacerdotal offices and duties in behalf of the people, which he did accordingly, verses 7-9, but withal to declare the especial nature and pre-eminence of his priesthood, as typed or shadowed out by the priesthood of Melchisedec. The demonstration and declaration whereof is that which he now designs. But so soon as he hath laid down his general assertion, in this verse, considering the greatness of the matter he had in hand, as also the difficulty of understanding it aright which he should find among the Hebrews, he diverts unto a preparatory digression, wherein he continues the remainder of this and the whole ensuing chapter, resuming his purpose here pro- posed in the beginning of the seventh chapter.
Ver. 10.—Mpoouwyopevdels bard rod Ocod cpysepeds xard ray rac Mea- ioeden.
* TRANSLATIONS.—IIposwy. Declared of God.—Craik. Having been named
VER. 10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 541
Ver. 10.—Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Tipoowyopevdeic, “called.” He refers unto the testimony produced, verse 6. And it is here manifest who it is that is in- tended in those words, “As he saith in another place, 9.//7°”"” Thou art a priest.” That is, God said so; for he was wpocwyopevdels xd rod @od,—dictus, cognominatus, SPI; “ called,” “pronounced.” “Salutatus,” as “salutare aliquem regem,” is to pronounce him so. And we may inquire into the reason of this peculiar expression. He had before declared that the Lord Christ, the Son of God, was “a priest after the order of Melchisedec.” Now there may be more supposed herein than is indeed intended. When we say that Phinehas, and Eli, and Zadok, were high priests of the order of Aaron, we intend that they had the very same priesthood that Aaron had. But that is not the meaning of the expression in this place and matter. The priesthood of Christ and of Melchisedec were not the same; for that of Christ is such as no mere man could possibly sustain or exercise: only these two priesthoods, as expressed in the Scripture, had an especial agreement in sundry things, the particulars whereof the apostle enumerates and explains, chap vil. For on the account of sundry things that were singular in the person of Melchisedec (either absolutely, or as his story is related in the Scripture, which is the rule of our comprehension of sacred things), and suited to prefigure or shadow out the Lord Christ in his priest- hood, above what wasin Aaron or his office, he is said to be made “a priest after the order of Melchisedec,” or according to the things spoken of Melchisedec. He is not said to be a priest of the order, but NITY, nara rae, according to the things spoken of Melchise- dec, as he was a priest; after the manner of what is related con- cerning him. And this, in my judgment, is the reason of the use of this word spoowyopevdets in this place; for it doth not signify a call to office,—that is xAnré¢ constantly,—but it is the denomination of him who is so called, for some certain reason. ‘Because,’ saith the apostle, ‘of the especial resemblance that was between what Mel- chisedec was and what Christ was to be, God called his priesthood Melchisedecian; whereon I must necessarily declare wherein that resemblance did consist:’ which he doth afterwards, So was his priesthood surnamed from his type, and not Aaronical.