If any thing further were wanted to shew that the testimony is here properly adduced, we might observe, that our blessed Lord himself quotes the very words before the text as appli- cable to himself, and as being generally understood to refer to the Messiah^. ^
Having ascertained the meaning of the testimony, let us consider,
II. The points established by it —
Some interpreters understand the text as quoted only in an accommodated sense : but the words them- selves, and the scope of the Apostle's argument, prove that w^e must understand it as a prophecy that has been strictly and literally fulfilled. In this view it contains much respecting the Lord Jesus : It proves,
I. The dignity of his person —
[The scope of the Apostle's argument in the two first chapters of this epistle is, to shew that Christ is superior to the heavenly hosts, and " hath by inheritance a more excellent name than they." Him the Father acknowledges as his only-begotten Son*^: and commands all the angels to adore him^. Him he addresses as the Creator and Governor of all things, the eternal, immutable Jehovah^, to whom all adverse powers shall assuredly be subjected^: to whom also the Chris- tian dispensation (" of which St. Paul speaks," and which he designated as the " world to come,") is altogether committed, that he may order every thing relating to it according to his sovereign will and pleasure^. As for angels, he has never spoken such things concerning them, or committed such power
c Ps. ii. 2. with Matt. xxi. 15, 16. ^ Heb. i. 5.
e Heb. i. 6. f Heb. i. 8—12. g Heb. i. 18.
ii Heb. ii. 5.