3. The words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “ When he cometh into the world, he saith.” And it is a vain inquiry, when in particular he spake these words; unto whom or where any men- tion is made of them in the story of him. It is no way needful that they should be literally or verbally pronounced by him. But the Holy Ghost useth these words in his name, as his, because they de- clare, express, and represent his mind, design, and resolution, in his coming into the world; which is the sole end and use of words. On the consideration of the insufficiency of legal sacrifices (the only appearing means unto that purpose) for the expiation of sin and the making of reconciliation with God, that all mankind might not eternally perish under the guilt of sin, the Lord Christ represents his readiness and willingness to undertake that work, with the frame of his heart and mind therein.
The ascription of thése words unto the Lord Christ on the reason mentioned, gives us a prospect into, 1. The love of his undertaking for us, when all other ways of our recovery failed, and were disallowed as insufficient; 2. Into the foundation of his: undertaking: for us, which was the declaration of the will of God concerning the insuff- ciency of these sacrifices; 3. Into | his readiness to | undertake the work of redemption, notwithstanding the difficulties that! lay in the way of it, and what he was to undergo in ithe stead of the legal sacrifices,
Obs. I. We have the solemn word of Christ, in the declaration he made of his readiness and willingness to undertake the work of the expiation of sin, proposed unto our faith, and engaged as a sure anchor of our souls.
THIRDLY, The season of his speaking those words in the manner declared, was on his coming into the world: “ Where- fore, coming ” (or “ when he cometh’) “ into the world, he saith.” E/cepydmevos, “ veniens,” or“ venturus;” when he was to enter into the world, when the design of his future coming into the world was declared. So 6 ép-yémevo¢ 1s, “he that is to come,” Matt. xi. 8; and épxeras, John iv. 25, That, therefore, rey be the
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Eioepycopeevos els ray xoopoy.
450 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. X.
sense of the words:—upon the first prediction of the future coming of the Son of God into the world, the design, mind, and will where- with he came, was declared.
Refer the words unto some actual coming of the person spoken of into the world, and various interpretations are given of them. “When he came in sacrifices, typically,” say some. But this seems not to be a word accompanying the first. institution of sacrifices; namely, “Sacrifices thou wouldest not have.” ‘His coming into the world, was his appearance and public showing of himself unto the world, in the beginning of his ministry, as David came out of the wilderness and caves to show himself unto the people as king of Israel,” saith Grotius. But the respect unto David herein is frivolous; nor are those words used with respect unto the kingly office of Christ, but merely as unto the offering himself in sacrifice to God.
The Socinians contend earnestly, that this his coming into the world is his entrance into heaven after his resurrection. And they embrace this uncouth interpretation of the words to give counte- nance unto their pernicious error, that Christ offered not himself in sacrifice to God in his death, or whilst he was in this world. For his sacrifice they suppose to be metaphorically only so called, con- sisting in the representation of himself unto God in heaven, after his obedience and suffermg. Wherefore they say, that by “the world” which he came into, “the world to come,” mentioned chap. ii. 5, is intended. But there is nothing sound, nothing probable or specious in this wresting of the words and sense of the Scripture. For, 1. The words in the places compared are not the same. This is xéomos only; those are oixouuévn wZAdAovew, and are not absolutely to be taken in the same sense, though the same things may be intended in various respects, 2. O/xovuévy is the habitable part of the earth, and can on no pretence be applied unto heaven. 3. I have fully proved on that place, that the apostle in that expression intendeth only the days and times of the Messiah, or of the gospel, commonly called among the Jews, wnyn obi, “the world to come;” that new heaven and earth wherein righteousness should dwell. But they add, that ziowos itself is used for heaven, Rom. iv. 13, To xAnpovdwov abroy eivau rod xdouov,—that “he should be the heir of the world;” ‘that is, of heaven, the world above.’ But this imagination is vain also. For Abraham’s being “heir of the world” is no more but his being the “father of many nations;” nor was there ever any other promise which the apostle should refer unto of his being heir of the world, but only that of his being the father of many nations, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also; as the apostle explains it, Rom. iv. 8-12. Respect also may be had unto the promised Seed pro- ceeding from him, who was to be the “heir of all things.”