This is that which the apostle intimates: Whereas Solomon openly affirms that the habitation of God could not be in the temple that he had built, because it was made with hands, and it is a prin- ciple of natural light, that he who made the world and all things contained therein could not dwell in such a temple; and whereas it seems to have belonged unto the faith of the church of old that there should be a temple wherein God would dwell that was to be ayveiporoinros; in comparing the human nature of Christ with the old tabernacle, he affirms in the first place that it was not made with hands.
Respect also is had herein unto the framing of the fabric of the old tabernacle by Bezaleel. For although the pattern of it was shown unto Moses in the mount from heaven, yet the actual framing and erection of it.was by the hands of workmen skilful to work in © all kinds of earthly materials, Exod. xxxi. 1-6, xxxvi 1. And although by reason of the wisdom, cunning, and skill which they had received in an extraordinary way, they framed, made, and reared a tabernacle most artificial and beautiful; yet when all was done, it was but the work of men’s hands. But the constitution and pro- duction of the human nature of Christ was an immediate effect of the wisdom and power of God himself, Luke i. 35. Nothing of human wisdom or contrivance, nothing of the skill or power of man, had the least influence into or concurrence in the provision of this glorious tabernacle, wherein the work of the redemption of the © church was effected. The body of Christ, indeed, was “ made of a woman,” of the substance of the blessed Virgin; but she was purely
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VER. 12.] EPISTLE TO. THE HEBREWS, 271
passive therein, and concurrent in no efficiency either moral or phy- sical thereunto. It was the contrivance of divine wisdom and the effect of divine power alone.
[2.] The apostle adds, as a further dissimilitude unto the other tabernacle, “That is, not of this building.” LExpositors > 4,.,, 43 generally take these words to be merely exegetical of casens ris xe/- the former: “‘ Not made with hands; that is, not of ”** this building.” To me there seems to be an at&yorg in them. ‘It is so not made with hands like unto that tabernacle, as that it is not of the order of any other created thing; not of the same make and constitution with any thing else in the whole creation here below.’ For although the substance of his human nature was of the same kind with ours, yet the production of it in the world was such an act of divine power as excels all other divine operations whatever. Wherefore God speaking of it saith, “The Lorp: hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man,” Jer. xxxi. 22; or conceive him without natural generation.
Krioig is the word whereby the creation of all things is constantly expressed in the New Testament; and sometimes it signifies the things that are created. Neither is it ever used, nor xri%w, whence it is derived, to signify the constitution of the ordinances of the old testament, the tabernacle, the temple, or any thing belonging there- unto. Wherefore ratrys here doth not limit it unto that constitu- tion, so as that “not of this building” should be, “not made with hands as that tabernacle was.” It is therefore not of the order of ereated things here below, either such as were immediately created at the beginning, or educed out of them by a creating act of power. For although it was so as unto its substance, yet in its constitution and production it was an effect of the divine power above the whole order of this creation, or things created.
Obs. VII. God is so far from being obliged unto any means for the effecting of the holy counsels of his will, as that he can when he pleaseth exceed the whole order and course of the first creation of all things, and his providence in the rule thereof.
VERSE 12.
From the comparison between the tabernacle of old and that of the high priest of the new covenant, there is a procedure in this yerse unto another, between his sacerdotal actings and those of the high priest under the law. And whereas, in the description of the tabernacle and its especial services, the apostle had insisted in a peculiar manner on the entrance of the high priest every year into the most holy place,—which was the most solemn and most mystical part of the tabernacle service,—in the first place he gives an account of what answered thereunto in the sacerdotal administrations of
272 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. IX.
Christ; and how much on all accounts, both of the saerzfice in the virtue whereof he entered into the most holy place, and of the place itself whereinto he entered, and of the time when, it did m glory and efficacy excel that service of the high priest under the law.
Ver. 12.—Ov0: O° aiwarog rpdywy nal wooyav, dice Oe Tov dieu aimo- r0g eloHAbev Epdmuk cig Ta Kyi, aiuviay AUrpwow sipamevos.
Ait 38 rod idlov alimeros. Syr., TUE 8272, “ by the blood of his own soul” or * life.” He made his soul an offering for ae Isa, lili. 10. Blood is the life of the sacrifice. “EQeéxreg. Syr., 121 84, “one time;” not many times, not once every year, as they did under the law. Eis rd dyia. Syr., 7 ae ma, «into the house of the sanctuary;” less properly, for by that expression the Ree taber- nacle is intended, but the apostle respects heaven itself. “In sancta,” “sancta sanctorum,” “ sacrarium ;”—that which answers unto the most holy place in the tabernacle, where was the throne of God, the ark and mercy-seat. Alaviay Avrpacw evpamcvoc. Wulg., “ eterna redemptione inventa;” “ternam redemp- tionem nactus;” “ zterna redemptione acquisita;’’ most properly, and according unto the use of the word in all good authors.