14 Since then the children given to the Son to be saved, participate of flesh and blood by being born of parents who are flesh and blood, even he, to be capable of dying for them, in like manner partook of flesh and blood, by being born of a woman, that through death (the very evil which the devil brought on mankind by sin) he might render ineffectual the malicious designs of him who had the power of bringing death into the world, that is, the devil;

tuary to the believing Gentiles and to a remnant of the Israelites. He was also a stone of stumbling to both houses of Israel; that is, to the greatest part of the Israelites, who were broken or cast off for their unbelief.—4. If Isaiah spake of himself, and of his two sons, when he said, Behold I and the children whom God bath given me, &c. he must have spoken the whole prophecy, and particularly the 16th verse in his own name; Bind up the testimony, and seal the law among my disciples. Now who were Isaiah's disciples, among whom the testimony was to be bound up, and the law sealed? Certainly not the two houses of Israel. For they were Isaiah's disciples, neither by right, nor in fact. This part of the prophecy, therefore, was spoken by Messiah, whose disciples, all who believe the gospel, are. And it is a prediction, that the testimony would be bound up and the law sealed among them, by Christ, and by his apostles who were the children of God, whom God had given to him. See John xvii. 6 And as the testimony was to be bound up, in order to its being laid aside, so the law was to be sealed, for the same purpose. This appears from Dan. ix. 24. LXX. where the phrase og åμagrias, to seal up sins, is used to denote the removing or abolishing of sins. Wherefore, the binding up the testimony, and the sealing up the law, signify that the whole Mosaic œconomy was to be laid aside, as of no farther use, having answered its end. But it was to be laid aside in such a manner, as not to invalidate the law and the prophets as revelations from God, on which that economy was at first established. Accordingly, in this manner the testimony was actually bound up, and the law sealed by Messiah. So our Lord told his hearers, Matth. v. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. I am not come to destroy the authority of the law and the prophets as revelations from God: but to put an end to the economy which was founded on them, after shewing them to have been from God, by fulfilling every thing written in them. That this is our Lord's meaning is evident from his adding, ver. 18. I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.—5. If Isaiah spake of himself and of his sone, in the verse quoted by the writer to. the

15 And deliver them

15 Και απαλλαξη τούτους

who through fear of death όσοι φοβῳ θανατου δια παν

were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

16 For verily he took not an him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

17 Wherefore in all

things it beloved him to be made like unto his brethren; that he might be a

merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconci.

liation for the sins of the people.

τος του ζην ενοχοι ησαν δου λειας.

16 Ου γαρ δήπου αγγελων επιλαμβανεται, αλλα σπερματος Αβρααμ επιλαμβανεται.

17 Όθεν ωφειλε κατα παν τα τοις αδελφοις ὁμοιωθήναι, ἵνα ελεημων γενηται και πιο

5ος αρχιερευς τα προς τον

Θεόν, εις το ἱλασκεσθαι τας ἁμαρτίας του λαου.

Hebrews, as the opposers of Christianity affirm, they ought to shew, what influence, their being placed for signs and wonders in Israel, had in binding up the testimony, and sealing the law. Surely the prophet and his sons had no hand in bringing about these events. But it was accomplished by Christ and his apostles, who were for signs and for wonders in Israel: that is, wrought great miracles, which excited wonder among the Israelites; and were signs or proofs of them, that he was the Christ the Son of God, and had power to abolish the law. These signs, however, as Simeon foretold, when he had the child Jesus in his arms, would be spoken against, Luke ii. 34. particularly the great sign of his resurrection, called the sign of the prophet Fonab.-To conclude, after considering this prophecy in all its parts, it appears, that the writer to the Hebrews hath not erred in applying it to Jesus, as Messiah.

Ver. 14.1. That through death he might render ineffectual. So κατάργηση properly signifies. See Rom. iii. 31. note 1.—Since the Son of God is said to have partaken of the flesh and blood of the children, in the same manner that they themselves partake of these, namely by being born of a woman; and since he was born into the world in that manner to render him capable of dying, that, through his death in the flesh, he might frustrate the malicious contrivance of him who first introduced death into the world, that is, the devil, we are thereby taught, that he is the seed of the woman, which at the fall was promised to bruise the head of the serpent: and that the serpent who deceived Eve, was not a natural serpent, but the devil, who, because he assumed the form of a serpent on that occasion, is called, Rev. xx. 2. the great dragon or serpent ; and that old serpent the devil. S 2 Cor. xi. 3. note 1-The intention of the devil in seducing our first parents, was

15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 1

16 (rag, 91.) Moreover, by no means doth he take hold of angels: but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.

17 (29) Hence it was necessary he should be made like his brethren in all things, that he might be a merciful 1 and faithful high priest, in matters PERTAINING to God, (es To) in order to expiate the sins of the people. 2

15 And deliver from eternal death, those penitent persons, who, through the fear of future funishment, have passed the whole of their life in a gricvous bondage.

16 Moreover, by no means doth he take hold of the angels who sinned, to save them; but of those who are the seed of Abraham by faith, he taketh hold, to deliver them from death, and to conduct them to heaven.

17 Hence it was necessary he should be made like his brethren (ver. 11.) in all things: and particularly in afflictions and temptations, that having a feeling of their infirmity, and being capable of dying, he might become a merciful as well as a faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, in order by his death (ver. 14.) to expiate the sins of the people, and to intercede with God in their behalf.

to destroy them, and thereby to put an end to the human species. This malicious design the Son of God rendered ineffectual, by assuming our nature, and in that nature dying as a sacrifice for sin.

2. Him who had the power of death. In this passage, Tov Exovra, is the participle of the imperfect of the indicative, and is rightly translated, Him who bad the power of death. For the apostle's meaning is, that the devil, at the beginning of the world, had the power of bringing death on all mankind, by tempting their first parents to sin. Hence he is called a murderer from the beginning. And a liar, and the father of it, John viii. 44.-It is observable, that the power of death ascribed to the devil is called xparos, and not

, because he had no right to it. It was a power usurped by guile.-All the baneful effects of this power Christ at the resurrection will remove, at least so far as they relate to the righteous.

Ver. 15.-1. Deliver them who through fear of death, &c. Here the apostle had the pious Gentiles especially in his eye, who having lived without any written revelation from God, were grievously enslaved by the fear of death, because they had no assurance of the pardon of sin, nor any certain hope of a blessed immortality.

Ver. 16.-1. Doth be take boid of angels; but of the seed of Abraham he taketh bold. In this translation I have followed the Vulgate. Nusquam enim angelos apprehendit sed semen Abrahamæ apprehendit.—The word επιλαμ Cavera, signifies the taking hold of a thing with one's hand, in order to support, or to carry it away. Accordingly it is so translated in the margin of

our Bible and in Luke ix. 47. xx. 20. 26.-If the sin of the angels, who, as Jude tells us verse 6. kept not their own office, consisted in their aspiring after higher stations and offices than those originally allotted to them by God, as Jude's expression insinuates, we can see a reason why the Son of God did not take hold of them to save them, but took hold of the seed of Abraham, that is, of believers of the human species. The first parents of mankind sinned through weakness of nature and inexperience; and by their lapse brought death on themselves and on their posterity, notwithstanding their posterity were not accessary to their offence. Whereas the angels, through discontentment with their own condition, and envy of their superiors, perhaps also animated by pride, rebelled presumptuously against God. Wherefore, since they could not plead weakness of nature and inexperience, in excuse of their sin : nor complain that the sin for which they were doomed to punishment was the act of another, they were justly left by the Son of God to perish in their sin.

Ver. 17.-1. A merciful and faithful high priest. The Son of God, who made men, no doubt had such a knowledge of their infirmity as might have rendered him a merciful intercessor, though he had not been made flesh. Yet, considering the greatness of his nature, it might have been difficult for men to have understood this. And therefore, to impress us the more strongly with the belief, that he is most affectionately disposed, from sympathy,

CHAPTER III.

View and Illustration of the Reasonings in this Chapter.

THE apostle, in the first chapter of this epistle, having affirmed, that Jesus of Nazareth, the person by whom God spake the gospel revelation to mankind, is God's Son: Also, in the same chapter having proved from the Jewish scriptures, that God constituted his Son the heir or Lord of all things, because by him he made the worlds: Moreover, in the second chapter, having answered the objections urged by the Jewish doctors for invalidating the claim of Jesus to be God's Son, and having thereby given full effect to the direct proofs which established his claim, and which were well known to the Hebrews living in Judea, where they were publicly exhibited, He in this third chapter proceeds to shew what is implied, in Christ's being the Heir, or Lord of all things: which is the third fact on which the authority of the gospel revelation depends.

18 (rag, 91.) Besides, by what he suffered himself when tempted,1 he is able (Ess. iv. 30.) to succour them who are tempted.2

18 Besides, by what he suffered himself when tempted, he knows what aids are necessary to our overcoming temptations, so that he is able and willing in the exercise of his government as king, mentioned ver. 9. to succour them who are tempted.

to succour us when tempted; and, in judging us at the last day, to make every reasonable allowance for the infirmity of our nature, he was pleased to be made like us in all things, and even to suffer by temptations.

2. The sins of the people; not the people of the Jews, but the people of God of all nations, whether Jews or Gentiles, called in the foregoing verse, the seed of Abraham. Hence John tells us, he is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, 1 John ii. 2. 9. See note 3. on ver. 9. of this chapter. Ver. 18.-1. Being tempted. That our Lord's life was a continued scene of temptation, we learn from himself, Luke xxii. 28. Ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations.—Christ's temptations, like those of his brethren, arose from the persecutions and sufferings to which he was exposed, as well as from direct attacks of the devil by evil suggestions: such as those mentioned in the history of his temptation in the wilderness.

2. To succour them who are tempted. Virgil hath expressed the same sentiment in that passage of the Eneid, where he makes Dido say, Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. Lib. 1. lin. 634.

A proper account of this matter was necessary, First, because the title of Jesus to remove the Mosaic œconomy and to substitute the gospel dispensation in its place, was founded on the power which he possessed as the Son of God and heir of all things. Secondly, because many of the Jews, in the persuasion that the law of Moses was of perpetual obligation, and that its sacrifices were real atonements for sin, rejected Jesus as an impostor for pretending to abolish these institutions. Wherefore, to shew the unbelieving Jews their error, the apostle, who in the first and second chapter, had proved the Son of God to be the heir or lord of all things, exhorted the unbelieving Hebrews in this chapter, to consider attentively Christ Jesus the apostle and high-priest of our religion; that is, to consider how great a person he is, that knowing him to be the Son of God and heir of all things, they might be sensible, that it belonged to him to form and govern the house or church of God, ver. 1.-Next, to convince them that in forming and governing God's house Jesus acted agreeably to the will of his Father, the apostle affirmed, that when he excluded the law of Moses, and the Levitical