by any duty or sacrifice, cannot be effected by its reiteration or re-
petition.—Those generally who seek for atonement and acceptation with God by their own duties, do quickly find that no one of them will effect their desire. Wherefore they place all their confidence in the repetition and multiplication of them; what is not done at
one time, they hope may be done at another; what one will not do,
many shal]. But after all, they find themselves mistaken. For,—
Obs. VII. The repetition of the same sacrifices doth of itself de- monstrate their insufficiency unto the end sought after— Wherefore those of the Roman church who would give countenance unto the sacrifice of the mass, by affirming that it is not another sacrifice, but the very same that Christ himself offered, do prove, if the argument
of the apostle here insisted on be good and cogent, an insufficiency in the sacrifice of Christ for the expiation of sin; for so he affirms it
is with all sacrifices that are to be repeated, whereof he esteems the repetition itself a sufficient demonstration.
Obs. VIII. God alone limiteth the ends and efficacy of his own institutions—It may be said, that if these sacrifices did not make perfect them that came unto God by them, then their so coming unto him was lost labour, and to no purpose. But there were other ends and other uses of this their coming unto God, as we have de- clared; and unto them all they were effectual. There never was, there never shall be, any loss in what is done according unto the command of God. Other things, however we may esteem them, are but hay and stubble, which have no power or efficacy unto any spiritual ends.
VERSES 2, 3.
"Exe! dy eratourro Aan Oi rd endsuiay = aoxeny ert ouvelonow Cuwopriay rods Aarpebovras, Mmas nEenabupmevous, aAN’ ey wbrals avdmvnorg
G af CLapriay nar evaurdr.
The Syriac translation refers that unto the persons which is affirmed of their offerings, P24 YA 48, “ for if they had been perfect,” or “made perfect,”—re- ferring unto what went peron e, that they were not made perfect,—172O8 PI 72> pT 72, “they would haye long since ceased” or “rested from their obla-
VER. 2, 3.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 431
tions” or “offerings.” “They would have offered them no more.” And al- though it doth not at all express rods Awrpevovres, which follows in the verse, yet it regulates the sense of the whole by that word, as it more plainly declares in rendering the following words, P2N? NUH POASN yinb mig Ne Son son bani ym MDIMS ]31 N77, “ because their conscience would no more have tossed” or “disquieted them for their sins, who had at one time been purified ;” which is a good exposition, though not an exact translation of the words. And so it renders the next verse, “but in these sacrifices their sins are remembered (called to mind) every year.” “Evel zy érevoavro. Many ancient copies add the negative, obx,— éxel ox av, whereof we shall speak immediately. “Eze. Vulg., “alioquin;” and so others generally. Of the word, see chap. ix. 26. “For if so,” 2ravoavro xpos- Depoweveet, “ cessassent (semel) oblata;” “they would have ceased, being once offered.” Most render the participle by the infinitive mood, “ desiissent offerri,” “they would have ceased to be offered.” Tovs rurpevovras, “ cultores,” “the worshippers :” “ sacrificantes,” “the sacrificers,” say some, I think improperly, both as to the proper sense of the word and the things intended. The priests only properly were “ sacrificantes,” but the people are here intended. Kexadep- Hevous, (MSS., xexabcpiopevous,) “ mundati,” “ purificati,” “ purgati;” “ cleansed,” “purified,” “purged.” Asa ro pendemelav exsiv ert ovsiOnow &uepriov.. “ Ideo quod nullam habent ultra conscientiam peccati.” Vulg. Lat., “ideo quod,” for “ propterea;” “peccati,” for “peccatorum.” “ Nullorum peccatorum amplius sibi essent conscii,’ Beza; “they should no more be conscious unto themselves of any sin.” The sense is given in the Syriac before mentioned. Arab., “they would have made more mention of the commemoration of sins,” with respect unto the words following. “Avamvyoic. Syr., “but in these they remembered their sins.” Recommemoratio,” “repetita mentio;” a calling to remembrance by acknowledgment.
There is, as was observed, a different reading in the ancient copies of the first words in the second verse. The Syriac and the Vulgar Latin take no notice of the negative particle ox, but read the words positively, “then would they have ceased.” Those who follow other copies take odx for odx/,—* non” for “ nonne,” and render the words interrogatively, as doth our translation; “for then would they not have ceased?” that is, they would have done so. And then és! dv is to be rendered adversatively, by “alioquin,” as it is by most, “for otherwise.” But it may be rendered causally, by “ for then,” if an interrogation be allowed. But the sense is the same in both readings, as we shall see.’
Ver. 2.—For otherwise they would have ceased to be offered ; because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
The words contain a confirmation, by a new argument, of what was affirmed in the verse foregoing. And it is taken from the fre- quent repetition of those sacrifices. The thing to be proved is the insufficiency of the law to perfect the worshippers by its sacrifices. This he proves in the foregoing verse, from the formal cause of that insufficiency; which is, that in them all it had but “a shadow of