all that was designed to be revealed in these words : but we are informed by God himself, that " when it was said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," it ivas desigiied to intimate, that all the legal sacrifices should he swept away, and the whole Jeivish economy he superseded hy the Christian dispensation : " He taketh away the first, that he may establish THE SECOND." This was an explanation of God's hidden pur- pose, an explanation, which no uninspired man could have dared to offer. But in several other parts of this epistle are similar explanations given, and not in a way of conjecture, but of authoritative declaration. Thus, from the mention of a new covenant which God would make with his people, the Apostle infers, " In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away^." In another place, having cited God's declaration that, to those who laid hold on that covenant, their sins and iniquities he would remember no more, he draws this inference ; " Now where remission of sins is, there is no more offering for sin ; and consequently all the Jewish sacrifices are swept away'*. Again, in another place having cited the words of the Prophet Haggai, " Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven," he says, " This word. Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things which are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain \"]
Thus we have obtained a deep insight into the recondite meaning of our text, and may with con- fidence proceed to consider,
II. His declaration founded upon it —
There are two important points which the Apostle deduces from these words of David ; namely, that salvation flows,
1. From God's will as the source — [Sanctification imports a setting apart of any thing for God. Hence the tabernacle with all its vessels are said to have been sanctified'^; and Christ himself says, " For their sakes I sanctify myself :" and it is in this sense that the term "sanctified" is used in the text™: it means a separation for God, in order to eternal salvation.
Now it is solely from the " will of God" thus made known to his Son, and thus fulfilled by him, that any of the children of men are made partakers of salvation. It was not possible
g Heb. viii. 8, 13. ^ Heb. x. 17, 18. i Heb. xii. 2G, 27.
^ Exod. xl. 10 — 12. 1 John xvii. 19. "» Comp. ver. 14.