Toy werroy- rw ayubor,
VER. 1.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 421
firstly, principally, and evidently, was the subject of all promises; and whatever else is contained in them is but that whereof, in his person, office, and grace, he is the author and cause. Hence he was signally termed 6 ép7éev0g,—“‘ he who was to come,” “ he that should come:” ‘ Art thou he who is to come?” And after his actual exhi- bition, the denying of him to be so come is to overthrow the gospel, 1 John iv. 3.
And these things are called r& dyadd, “these good things,” 1. Be- cause they are absolutely so, without any alloy or mixture. All other things in this world, however in some respect, and as unto some peculiar end, they may be said to be good, yet are they not so abso- lutely. Wherefore, 2. These things only are good things: nothing is good, either in itself or unto us, without them, nor but by virtue of what it receives from them. There is nothing so but what is made so by Christ and his grace. 8. They are eminently “good things;” those good things which were promised unto the church from the foundation of the world, which the prophets and wise men of old desired to see; the means of our deliverance from all the evil things which we had brought upon ourselves by our apostasy from God.
These being evidently “the good things” intended, the relation of the law unto them, namely, that it had the “shadow,” but “not the very image” of them, will also be apparent. The. allusion, in my judgment, unto the art of painting, wherein a shadow is first drawn, and afterwards a picture to the life, or the very image itself,
_ hath here no place, nor doth our apostle anywhere make use of such curious similitudes taken from things artificial, and known to very
few; nor would he use this among the Hebrews, who of all people were least acquainted with the art of painting. But he declares his intention in another place, where, speaking of the same things, and using some of the same words, their sense is plain and determined: Col. ii. 17, “ They are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” “They are a shadow of things to come,” is the same with this, “The law hath a shadow of good things to come;” for it is the law with its ordinances and institutions of worship concerning which the apostle there discourseth, as he doth in this place. Now the “shadow” there intended by the apostle, from whence the allu- sion is taken, is the shadow of a body in the light or sunshine, as the antithesis declares, “ But the body is of Christ.” Now such a shadow is, 1. A representation of the body. Any one who beholds it, knows that it is a thing which hath no subsistence in itself, which hath no use of its own; only it represents the body, follows it in all its variations, and is inseparable from it. 2. It is a just representation of the body, as unto its proportion and dimensions. The shadow of any body represents that certain individual body, and nothing else: it will add nothing unto it, nor take anything from it, but, without an
422 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP, X.
accidental hinderance, is a just representation of it; much less will it give an appearance of a body of another form and shape, different from that whereof it is the shadow. 3. It is but an obscure repre- sentation of the body; so as that the principal concernments of it, especially the vigour and spirit of a living body, are not figured nor represented by it.
Thus is it with the law, or the covenant of Sinai, and all the ordi- nances of worship wherewith it was attended, with respect unto these “good things to come.” For it must be observed, that the opposi- tion which the apostle makes in this place is not between the law and the gospel, any otherwise but as the gospel is a full declaration of the person, offices, and grace of Christ; but it is between the sacrifices of the law and the sacrifice of Christ himself. Want of this observation hath given us mistaken interpretations of the place.
This shadow of good things the law had: ¢»,—“ having it.” It obtained it, it was in it, it was inlaid im it, it was of the substance and nature of it; it contained it in all that it prescribed or appointed, some of it in one part, some in another,— the whole in the whole. It had the whole shadow, and the whole of it was this shadow. It was so,—
1. Because, in the sanction, dedication, and confirmation of it, by the blood of sacrifices; in the tabernacle, with all its holy utensils; in its high priest, and all other sacred administrations ; in its solemn sacri- fices and services; it made a representation of good things to come. This hath been abundantly manifested and proved in the exposition of the foregoing chapter. And according unto the first property of such a shadow, without this use it had no bottom, no foundation, no excel- lency of itsown. Take the significancy and representation of Christ, his offices and grace, out of the legal institutions, and you take from them all impressions of divine wisdom, and leave them useless things, which of themselves will vanish and disappear. And because they are no more now a shadow, they are absolutely dead and useless.