Obs. V. The constant use of sacrifices to signify those things which they could not effect or really exhibit unto the worshippers, was a great part of the bondage that the church was kept in under the old testament.—And hereon, as those who were carnal bowed down their backs unto the burden, and their necks unto the yoke, so those who had received the Spirit of adoption, did continually pant and groan after the coming of him in and by whom all was to be fulfilled. So was the law their schoolmaster unto Christ.
Obs. VI. God may in his wisdom appoint and accept of ordinances and duties unto one end, which he wiil refuse and reject when they are applied unto another.—So he doth plainly in these words those - sacrifices which in other places he most strictly enjoins. How ex- press, how multiplied are his commands for good works, and our abounding in them! yet when they are made the matter of our righteousness before him, they are as unto that end, namely, of our justification, rejected and disapproved.
Secondly, The first part of verse 5 declares the will of God con- cerning the sacrifices of the law. The latter contains the supply that God in his wisdom and grace made of the defect and insuf-
VER. 5-10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. ABT
ficiency of these sacrifices. And this is not any thing that should - help, assist, or make them effectual, but somewhat brought in, in Opposition unto them, and for their removal. This he expresseth in the last clause of this verse: “ But a body hast thou prepared me.” The adversative 62, “but,” declares that the way
designed of God for this end was of another nature
than those sacrifices were. But yet this way must be such as should not render those sacrifices utterly useless from their first institution; which would reflect on the wisdom of God by whom they were ap- pointed. For if God did never approve of them, never delight in them, unto what end were they ordained? Wherefore, although the real way of the expiation of sin be in itself of another nature than those sacrifices were, yet was it such as those sacrifices were meet to prefigure and represent unto the faith of the church. The church was taught by them that without a sacrifice there could be no atonement made for sin; wherefore the way of our deliverance must be by a sacrifice. ‘It is so,’ saith the Lord Christ; ‘and therefore the first thing God did in the preparation of this new way, was the preparation of a body for me, which was to be offered in sacrifice. And in the antithesis, intimated in this adversative conjunction, respect is had unto the will of God. As sacrifices were that which he would not unto this end, so this preparation of the body of Christ was that which he would, which he delighted in and was well pleased withal. So the whole of the work of Christ and the effects of it are expressly referred unto this will of God, verses 9, 10. ;
And we must first speak unto the apostle’s rendering of these words out of the psalmist. They are in the original, % ny. DIN, “mine ears hast thou digged,” “bored,” “prepared.” All sorts of cri- tical writers and expositors have so laboured in the resolution of this difficulty, that there is little to be added unto the industry of some, and it were endless to confute the mistakes of others. I shall therefore only speak briefly unto it, so as to manifest the oneness of the sense in both places. And some things must be premised thereunto:—
1. That the reading of the words in the psalm is incorrupt, and they are the precise words of the Holy Ghost. Though of late years sundry persons have used an unwarrantable boldness in feign- ing various lections in the Hebrew text, yet none of any judgment has attempted to conjecture at any word that might be thought to be used in the room of any one of them, And as for those which some have thought the LXX. might possibly mistake, that signify . “a body,” as 211,—which sometimes signifies “a body” in the Chaldee dialect,—or A, there is in neither of them any the least analogy unto 5)2!8, so that they are ridiculously suggested.
2. It doth not seem probable unto me that the LXX. did ever
458 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. X.
translate these words as they are now extant in all the copies of that translation, Saya 6: xarnpricw wo. For, (1.) It is not a trans- lation of the original words, but an interpretation and exposition of the sense and meaning of them; which was no part of their design. (2.) If they made this exposition, they did so either by chance, as it were, or from a right understanding of the mystery contained in them. That they should be cast upon it by a mere conjecture, is altogether improbable; and that they understood the mystery couched in that metaphorical expression (without which no account can be given of the version of the words) will not be granted by them who know any thing of those translators or their translation. (3.) There was of old a different reading in that translation. For instead of capa, “a body,” some copies have ar/a, “the ears;” which the Vulgar Latin follows: an evidence that a change had been made in that translation, to comply with the words used by the apostle. :