Heb. X. 5 — 10. When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou ivouldest 7iot, hut a body hast thou prepared me : m hurnt-offerings and sacrifices for si7i thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come {in the volume of the hook it is tvrittoi of me,) to do thy tvill, O God. Jhove token he said, Sacrifice and offering and hurnt-offerings and offering 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, 0 God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the ivhich will we are sa?ictified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
THERE is not any important truth contained in the New Testament, which was not before revealed in the Old. But we have an advantage over the Jews, in that the obscurity, which was cast over the language of prophecy, is removed by the interpreta- tions of men divinely inspired to explain the sacred oracles. Hence we are enabled to see, what the Jews could never comprehend, though plainly and repeat- edly declared to them, God's determination to abro- gate the Mosaic economy, in order to make way for the Christian dispensation. This was declared by David, while the law was yet in full force : and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews both quotes his words in proof of this point, and confirms them by additional declarations to the same effect.
We shall consider,
I. The quotation as explained by the Apostle —
In his comment on David's words the Apostle throws great light upon,
1. What is expressed in them —
The Psalm beyond all doubt refers to Christ : for it was not possible that David should boast of his own obedience as superseding the law ; since a compliance with the law consti- tuted a very essential part of his duty. If it be thought that what is spoken in ver. 12. is adverse to this construction, it
y2