or "the Son," or "the Son of God," but Christ being come; that is, the Messiah being come. Under that name and notion was he promised from the beginning, and the fundamental article of the faith of the church was, "that the Messiah was to come." Wherefore by calling him by this name, as it was most proper when he was to speak of his coming, so in it he minds the Hebrews of what was the ancient faith of their church concerning him, and what in general they expected on his coming.

$3. As a general foundation of what is afterwards ascribed to him, or the way whereby he entered on his office, he affirms that (apayevouevos) he is come; intending the accomplishment of the ancient promise of Christ's exhibition in the flesh. For although the word is inseparable in its construction with what followeth, being come an high priest; yet his coming itself in order to the susception and discharge of that office is included. And upon this coming itself depended the demonstration of the faithfulness of God in his promises. This is the great fundamental article of the Christian religion, in opposition to Judaism, 1 John iv, 2, 3; and there is not only an argument here to the apostle's design, but that which being duly weighed, would fully determine all the controversy he had with these Hebrews. For all their legal administrations were only subservient to his coming, and representations of it, given to confirm the truth of the divine promises; wherefore upon his coming they must all necessarily cease, and be removed out of the church.

$4. "Being come an High Priest;" that is, in the room of the legal high priest, "of the good things to come.' The high priests of the law were priests of "good things" present, not of the good things promis. ed, and to come. And this is the force of the article

prom

(Twv) of the good things; those which God had ised to the church, signified by all the legal ordinances, and which were the desire and expectation of the church in all preceding ages. In brief, all the good things in spiritual redemption and salvation which they looked for by the Messiah are here called the "good things to come." Those wherein the actual administration of his office consist, particularly his oblation and intercession, with their effects, which are all included in eternal redemption.

$5. "By a greater and more perfect tabernacle." What the apostle hath immediate respect to in his account of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, is what he had at large declared concerning the tabernacle and the service of the high priest. Wherefore "he came by a tabernacle," in which he administered that office. The design of the apostle is to shew, that as he was an high priest, so he had a tabernacle in which he was to administer to God-his own human nature. The bodies of men are often called their tabernacles, 2 Cor. v, 1; 2 Pet. i, 14. And Christ called his own body "the temple," John ii, 19. His flesh was the veil, Hebrews x, 20. And in his incarnation he is said to "pitch his tabernacle among us," John i, 14. Herein dwelt the fulness of the godhead bodily, Col. ii, 9; that is, substantially represented by all the pledges of God's presence in the tabernacle of old, see on chap. viii, 2. The human nature of Christ, both in itself, its conception, gracious qualifications, and endowments, especially in its relation to and subsistence in the divine person of the Son, was incomparably "more excellent" and glorious than any material fabric could be. In this sense, for comparative excellency and dignity, is the Greek term (v) almost constantly used in the New Testament. "More perfect." It was more perfectly

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fitted and suited to the end of a tabernacle, both for the inhabitation of the divine nature and the means of exercising the sacerdotal office in making atonement for sin than the other was.

§6. It was (8 xεipotо8) not made with hands. The old tabernacle, whilst it stood, was the temple of God, and so it is constantly called by David in the Psalms. Temples were generally sumptuous and glorious fabrics; however, the best of them all were made by the hands of men; and so were no habitations for God, in the way he had designed to dwell among us, see 2 Chron. ii, 5, 6; John viii, 58, 59; "That is not of this building." Expositors generally take these words to be merely exegetical of the former; to me there seems to be an auxesis in them. It is so "not made with hands," as that it is not of the order of any other created thing. Wherefore God, speaking of it, saith, "The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth," Jer. xxxi, 22. It was an effect of the divine power above the whole order of this creation.

§7. (II.) From hence we may deduce the ensuing observations:

1. These things alone were the true and real good things that were intended for and promised to the church from the beginning of the world. The Jews had now utterly lost the true notion of them, which proved their ruin; and yet do they continue in the same fatal mistake to this day.

2. These things alone are absolutely good to the church; all other good things are good or evil as they are used or abused.

3. So excellent are these good things, as that the performance and procuring of them was the cause of the Son of God's coming with the susception and discharge of his sacerdotal office. Had they been of a

lower nature, so glorious a means had not been adopted for effecting them. Woe to them by whom they are despised! How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? And,

4. Such a price and value did God put on these things, so "good" are they in his eyes, as that he made them the subject of his promises to the church from the foundation of the world.

§8. We may observe, moreover, these particulars: 1. The human nature of Christ, wherein he discharged the duty of his sacerdotal office in making atonement for sin, is the greatest, the most perfect and excellent ordinance of God, excelling incomparably those that were most excellent under the Old Testament. The wonderful provision of this tabernacle will be the subject of holy admiration to eternity.

2. The Son of God undertaking to be the High Priest of the church it was necessary he should come by or have a tabernacle wherein to discharge that office; for being to save the church by virtue of that office, it could not be otherwise done than by the sacrifice of himself, by his own tabernacle.

3. God is so far from being obliged to any means for effecting the holy counsels of his will, as that he can when he pleaseth exceed the whole order of the first creation, and the general laws of his ruling providence.

VERSE 12.

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

$1. The apostle's general design ascertained, The Socinian interpretation refuted. $2. His particular design in this verse S. (1) Chrst's entrance into the holies. $4, 5 In virtue of his own blood. §6. Having obtained eternal redemption for us. $7. (L.) Observations.

$1. THE entrance of the high priest into the holy place was not his sacrifice; for it supposed his sacrifice to be offered before, in virtue of which, and with the memorial of it, he entered into the holiest; for all sacrifices were offered at the brazen altar, and that of the high priest on the day of expiation expressly, Lev. xvi. And the entrance of Christ into heaven was not the oblation of himself; for he offered himself to God "with strong cries and supplications;" but his entrance into heaven was triumphant. The high priest indeed carried of the blood into the holy place, and so may be said to enter into it with blood, as ver. 7, yet it is not that the apostle here intends, but the sacrifice at the altar, where the blood of it was shed and offered, and by virtue of which he entered. The apostle allows a treble dissimilitude between the type and the antitype; for Christ entered by his own blood, the high priest by the blood of calves and goats; Christ only once, the high priest every year; Christ entered into heaven, the high priest into the tabernacle made with hands. But in other things he confirms a similitude betwen them, particularly in the entrance of the high priest into the holy place by or with the blood of his sacrifice.

The Socinian notion of Christ's oblation, as consisting only in his "appearance in heaven" without flesh