The greatest and utmost mercies that God ever intended to com- municate unto the church, and to bless it withal, were enclosed’ in the new covenant. Nor doth the efficacy of the mediation of Christ extend itself beyond the verge and compass thereof; for he is only the mediator and surety of this covenant. But now God had before made a covenant with his people. A good and holy covenant it was; such as was meet for God to prescribe, and for them thankfully to accept of. Yet notwithstanding all the privileges and advantages of it, it proved not so effectual, but that multitudes of them with whom God made that covenant were so far from obtaining the blessedness
——
* Exposition.— Kaya auianoe. This is the Septuagint rendering. The Hebrew, according to A. V., is, “though I was an husband to them.” Some ex- plain the discrepancy by conjecturing that the Greek translators had the guttural cheth instead of ayin in their copies. As the Arabic cognate word signifies to despise or reject, Kimchi and Pococke adopt this translation of the Hebrew word in this passage. Hengstenberg in his Christology denies that the word can bear this sense.—lp.
VER. °.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 121
of grace and glory thereby, as that they came short, and were de- prived of the temporal benefits that were included therein. Where- fore, as God hereon promiseth to make a “new covenant” with them, seeing they had forfeited and lost the advantage of the former, yet if it should be of the same kind therewith, it might also in like manner prove ineffectual. So must God give, and the chureh re- ceive, one covenant after another, and yet the ends of them never be obtained.
To obviate this objection, and the fear that thence might arise, God, who provideth not only for the safety of his church, but also for their comfort and assurance, declares beforehand unto them that it shall not be of the same kind with the former, nor liable to be so frustrated, as to the ends of it, as that was.
And there are some things remarkable herein :—
1. That the preface unto the promise of this new covenant is a blame charged on the people,—“ finding fault with them,” blaming ‘them, charging them with sin against the covenant that he had made with them.
2. That yet this was not the whole ground and reason of making this new covenant. It was notso, I say, that the people were not steadfast in it and unto the terms of it. For had it been so, there would have no more been needful to reinstate them in a good condi- tion, but only that God should pardon their former sins, and renew the same covenant unto them again, and give them another venture or trial thereon. But.inasmuch as he would do so no more, but would make another covenant of another nature with them, it is evident that there was some defect in the covenant itself,—it was not able to communicate those good things which God designed to bless the church withal.
3. These two things being the only reason that God gives why he will make this new covenant, namely, the sins of the people, and the insufficiency of the first covenant to bring the church into that blessed estate which he designed them ; ‘it is manifest that all his dealings with them for their spiritual and eternal good are of mere sovereign grace, and such as he hath no motive unto but in and from himself alone. There are sundry things contained in these words :—
First, An intimation that God had made a former covenant with his people: Ti» diadjuny jv éxoinc, There is in these verses a repetition three times of making covenant; ,,, eee and in every place in the Hebrew the same words are used, 2.3, But the apostle changeth the verb in every place. First, he expresseth it by cuvreAéow, verse 8; and in the last place by d:a400%0, which is most proper, verse 10, (Sefa: and diaridéver 1ab4xnv axe usual in other authors;) here he useth évro/nou, in reference unto that covenant which the people brake and God dis-
122 AN EXPOSITION OF THE | [CHAP. VIII.
annulled. And it may be he did so, to distinguish their alterable covenant from that which was to be unalterable, and was confirmed with greater solemnity. God made this covenant as others of his outward works, which he resolved to alter, change, or abolish, at the appointed season. It was a work whose effects might be shaken, and itself afterwards be removed ; so he speaks, Heb. xii. 27. The change of the things that are shaken is #¢ wwomuévav,— as of things that are made,” made for a season ; so made as to abide and endure for an appointed time only: such were all the things of this cove- nant, and such was the covenant itself. It had no “ criteria ster- nitatis”” upon it,—no evidences of an eternal duration. Nothing hath so but what is founded in the blood of Christ. He is 1°38, “the everlasting Father,” or the immediate author and cause of every thing that is or shall be everlasting in the church. Let men labour and contend about other things whilst they please;—they are all shaken, and must be removed.