Ver. 8-10.—* Above when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and [offerings] for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure [therein]; (which are offered by. the law;) then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all].” _
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VER. 5-10.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. ATS
The use and signification of most of the words of these verses have already in our passage been spoken unto.
There are two things in these three verses: 1. The application of the testimony taken out of the psalmist unto the present argument of the apostle, verses 8,9. 2. An inference from the whole, unto the proof of the only cause and means of the sanctification of the church, the argument he was now engaged in, verse 10.
‘As to the first of these, or the application of the testimony of the psalmist, and his resuming it, we may consider,—
1. What he designed to prove thereby: and this was, that by the introduction and establishment of the sacrifice of Christ in the church there was an end put to all legal sacrifices.) And he adds thereunto, that the ground and reason of this great alteration of things in the church, by the will of God, was the utter insufficiency of those legal sacrifices in themselves for the expiation of sin and sanctification of the church. In verse 9 he gives us this sum of his desion, “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
2. The apostle doth not here directly argue from the matter or substance of the testimony itself, but from the order of the words, and the regard they have in their order unto one another. For there is in them a twofold proposition; one concerning the rejection of legal sacrifices, and the other an introduction and tender of Christ and his mediation. And he declares, from the order of the words
in the psalmist, that these things are inseparable; namely, the taking away of legal‘sacrifices, and the establishment of that of
Christ.
3. This order in the words of the apostle is declared in that dis- tribution of drdrepov' and rére, “above” and “ then.” *Avdrepov, “above ;’—that is, in the first place,—these his words or sayings, recorded in the first place.
4, There are in the words themselves these three things:—
(1.) There is a distribution made of the legal sacrifices into their general heads, with respect unto the will of God concerning them all;
_ “Sacrifices and offering, and whole burnt-offerings, and sacrifice for sin.” And in that distribution he adds another property of them, namely, they were required according to the law.
_[1.] He had respect not only unto the removal of the sacrifices, but also of the law itself, whereby they were retained; so he enters on his present disputation with the imperfection of the law itself, verse 1.
_[2.] Allowing these sacrifices and offerings all that they could pretend unto, namely, that they were established by the law, yet notwithstanding this, God rejects them as unto the expiation of sin and the salvation of the church. For he excludes the consideration of all other things which were not appointed by the law, as those
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476 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. X.
which God abhorred in themselves, and so could have no place in this matter And we may observe, that,—
Obs. XXI. Whereas the apostle doth plainly distinguish and dis- tribute all sacrifices and offerings into those on the one side which were offered by the law, and that one offering of the body of Christ on the other side, the pretended sacrifice of the mass is utterly re- jected from any place in the worship of God.
Obs. XXII. Ged, as the sovereign lawgiver, had always power and ~ authority to make what alteration he pleased’ im the orders and in- stitutions of his worship.
Obs. XXIII. That sovereign authority is that alone which our faith and obedience respect in all ordinances of worship.
(2.) After this was stated and delivered, when the mind of God was expressly declared as unto his rejection of legal sa- erifices and offerings, rérs, “ then he said ;”—after that, in order thereon, upon the grounds before mentioned, “he said, Sa- crifice,” ete. Inthe former words he declared the mind of God, and in the latter his own intention and resolution to comply with his will, in order unto another way of atonement for sin: “ Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;’—which words have been opened before.
3.) In the last place, he declares what was intimated and signified in this order, or in those things being thus spoken unto; sacrifices, on the one hand, which was the first; and the coming of Christ, which was the second, in this order and opposition. It is evident,—
[1.] That these words, ’Avasps? rd xpirov, “ He taketh away the first,” do intend sacrifices and offerings. But he did not so do it immediately at the speaking of these words, for they continued for the space of some hundreds of years afterwards; but he did so declaratively, as unto the indication of the time, namely, when the “second” should be introduced,