Obs. XII. There was a glorious efficacy in the one offering of Christ.
Obs. XIII. The end of it must be effectually accomplished. to-
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494 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. x.
wards all for whom it was offered; or else it is inferior unto the legal sacrifices, for they attained their proper end.
Obs. XIV. The sanctification and perfection of the church being the end designed in the death and sacrifice of Christ, all things necessary unto that end must be included therein, that it be not frustrated.
VERSES 15-18.
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Ver. 15-18.—[ Whereof | the Holy Ghost also is a wit- ness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them: And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these [%s, there is] no more offering for sin.
The foundation of the whole preceding discourse of the apostle, concerning the glory of the priesthood of Christ, and the efficacy of his sacrifice, was laid in the description of the new covenant, whereof he was the mediator; which was confirmed and ratified by his sacri- fice, as the old covenant was by the blood of bulls and goats, chap. viii. 10-13. Having now abundantly proved and demonstrated what he designed concerning them both, his priesthood and his sacrifice, he gives us a confirmation of the whole from the testimony of the Holy Ghost, in the description of that' covenant which he had given before. And because the crisis which he had brought his argument and disputation unto was, that the Lord Christ, by reason of the dignity of his person and office, with the everlasting efficacy of his sacrifice, was to offer himself but “ once,’—which virtually includes all that he had before taught and declared, including in it an imme- diate demonstration of the insufficiency of all those sacrifices which were often repeated, and consequently their removal out of the church,—he returns unto those words of the Holy Ghost, for the proof of this particular also. And he doth it from the order of the words used by the Holy Ghost, as he had argued before from the order of the words in the psalmist, verses 8, 9.
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VER. 15-18. EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 495
Wherefore there is an ellipsis in the words, which must have a supplement, to render the sense perfect. For unto that. proposition, “ After he had said before,” verse 15, with what follows, verse 16, there must be added in the beginning of the 17th verse, “he said ;” after he had said or spoken of the internal grace of the covenant, he said this also, that “their sins and iniquities he would remember no more.” Tor from these words doth he make his conclusive in- ference, verse 18, which is the sum of all that he designed to prove.
There is in the words, first, the introduction of the testimony in- sisted on, “The Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.’ The Hebrews might object unto him, as they were ready enough to do it, that all those things were but his own conclusions and arguings; which they would not acquiesce in, unless they were confirmed by testimonies of the Scripture. And therefore I did observe, in my first dis- courses on this epistle, that the apostle dealt not with these Hebrews as with the churches of the Gentiles,‘namely, by his apostolical authority (for which cause he prefixed not his name and title unto it); but upon their own acknowledged principles and testimonies of the Old Testament; so manifesting that there was nothing now proposed unto them in the gospel but that which was foretold, pro- mised, and represented in the Old Testament, and was therefore the object of the faith of their forefathers. The same way doth he here proceed in, and calls in the testimony of the Holy Ghost, bearing witness unto the things that he had taught and delivered. And there is in the words,—
1. The author of this testimony; that is, “the Holy Ghost.” And it is ascribed unto him, as all that is written in the ee Scripture is so, not only because holy men of old wrote ., ae as they were acted by him, and so he was the author of the whole Scripture; but because also of his presence and authority in it and with it continually. Hence whatever is spoken in the Seripture is, and ought to be unto us, as the immediate word of the Holy Ghost. He continues therein to speak unto us; and this gives _ the reason of—
2. The manner of his speaking in this testimony; maprupsi, “ he beareth witness to us.” He doth it actually and con- stantly in the Scriptures, by his authority therein. And he doth so unto us; that is, not unto us only who preach and teach those things, not unto the apostles and other Christian teachers of the gospel, but unto all of us of the church of Israel, who acknow- ledge the truth of the Scriptures, and own them as the rule of our faith and obedience. So doth he often join himself unto them to whom he wrote and spake of, by reason of the common alliance between them as Hebrews. See chap. ii. 3, and the exposition of