Jonah, chap. i; nor to be weary of it, because of difficulty and opposition which we meet withal in the discharge of our duty, as it sundry times was ready to befall Jeremiah, chap. xv. 10, xx. 7–9; much less desert or give it over on any earthly account whatever, seeing that he who sets his hand to this plough, and takes it back again, is unworthy of the kingdom of heaven,-and it is certain that he who deserts his calling on worldly accounts, first took it up on no other. 2. That we should not envy nor repine at one another, whatever God is pleased to call any unto. 3. That we engage into no work wherein the name of God is concerned without his call; which gives a second observation, namely, that,

Obs. II. The highest excellency and utmost necessity of any work to be done for God in this world, will not warrant our undertaking of it or engaging in it, unless we are called thereunto. Yea,

Obs. III. The more excellent any work of God is, the more express ought our call unto it to be.

Both these observations will be so fixed and confirmed in the consideration of the instance given us in the next verse, as that there is no occasion here to insist upon them.

Obs. IV. It is a great dignity and honour, to be duly called unto any work, service, or office, in the house of God.

VERSE 5.

The description of a high priest according to the law, with respect, -1. Unto his nature; 2. His employment, verse 1; 3. His qualification, verse 2; 4. His especial duty, with regard (1.) to himself, (2.) to others, verse 3; 5. His call, in the instance of him who was the first of the order, verse 4,-being completed, an application of the whole is in this verse entered upon unto our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is done in all the particulars wherein there was or could be an agreement or correspondency between them and him with respect unto this office. And it was necessary to be thus declared by the apostle, unto the end designed by him, for two reasons:1. Because the original institution of those priests and their office was to teach and represent the Lord Christ and his; which was his main intention to manifest and prove. Now this they could not do unless there were some analogy and likeness between them; neither could it be apprehended or understood for what end and purpose they were designed, and did so long continue in the church. 2. That the Hebrews might be satisfied that their ministry and service in the house of God was now come to an end, and the whole use whereunto they were designed accomplished. For by this respect and relation that was between them, it was evident that he was now actually exhibited, and had done the whole work which they were appointed to prefigure and represent. It was therefore impossible

that there should be any further use of them in the service of God; yea, their continuance therein would contradict and utterly overthrow the end of their institution. For it would declare that they had a use and efficacy unto spiritual ends of their own, without respect unto him and his work whom they did represent; which is to overthrow the faith of both churches, that under the old testament and that under the new. Wherefore a full discovery of the proportion between them, and relation of the one unto the other, was necessary, to evince that their continuance was useless, yea, pernicious. But on the other side, it could not be but that those high priests had many imperfections and weaknesses inseparable from their persons in the administration of their office, which could represent nothing nor receive any accomplishment in our Lord Jesus Christ. For if any thing in him had answered thereunto, he could not have been such a high priest as did become us, or as we stood in need of. Such was it that they were subject to death, and therefore were necessarily many, succeeding one another in a long series, according to a certain genealogy: "They truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood," or a priesthood that passeth not from one to another, chap. vii. 23, 24. Herein, therefore, there was a dissimilitude between them, because of their being obnoxious unto death; whence it was inevitable that they must be many, one succeeding to another. But Jesus Christ was to be one high priest only, and that always the same.

Again, they were all of them personally sinners, and that both as men and as high priests; whence they might and did miscarry and sin, even in the administration of their office. Wherefore it was needful that they should offer sacrifice for their own sins also, as hath been declared. Now, as nothing could be represented hereby in Jesus Christ, "who knew no sin," " did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," nor could he therefore offer sacrifice for himself; so these things do cast some darkness and obscurity on those instances wherein they did represent him. Wherefore our apostle steers a straight course between all these difficulties: for, First, He manifests and proves that the legal high priests were indeed types of Jesus Christ in his office, and did bear forth a resemblance of him therein; as also, that they were appointed of God for that very end and purpose. Secondly, He shows what were their qualifications and properties; which he distinguisheth into two sorts:-1. Such as belonged essentially, or were required necessarily, unto the office itself, and its regular discharge. 2. Such as were unavoidable consequents or concomitants of their personal weakness or infirmity. This latter sort, in this application of their description unto Christ and his office, as prefigured thereby, he discards and lays aside, as things

which, though necessary unto them from their frail and sinful condition, yet had no respect unto Christ, nor accomplishment in him. And as for the former, he declares in the discourse immediately ensuing how they were found in Christ, as exercising this office, in a far more eminent manner than in them. This is the design of the discourse in the second part of the chapter, which we are now entering on. Only, whereas in the description of a high priest in general, he begins with his nature, qualifications, work, and duty, closing and issuing it in his call; in his application of the whole unto the Lord Christ, he taketh up that first which he had lastly mentioned, namely, the call of a high priest, and proceedeth unto the others in an order absolutely retrograde.

Ver. 5.—Οὕτω καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς οὐχ ἑαυτὸν ἐδόξασε γενηθῆναι ἀρχιερέα, ἀλλ ̓ ὁ λαλήσας πρὸς αὐτόν· Υἱός μου εἶ σὺ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε.

Ver. 5.-So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee.

Oura xaí, "so also," "and so," or "in like manner;" a note rã ¿Todos, of the application of things before spoken Οὕτω καί. unto the subject principally intended. A respect may be herein unto all the instances in the preceding discourse: As it was with the legal high priest in all the things necessary unto that office, so in like manner was it with Christ;' which he now designeth to manifest. Or the intention of this expression may be restrained to the last expressed instance, of a call to office: 'As they were called of God, so, or in like manner, was Christ also;' which he immediately declares. And this is first regarded, though respect may be had unto it in all the particular instances of analogy and similitude which

ensue.

On this note of inference there ensueth a double proposition on the same supposition. The supposition that they both are resolved into is, that "Christ is an high priest." Hereon the first proposition, with respect unto his call and entrance on that office, is negative, “He glorified not himself to be made an high priest." The other is positive or affirmative, "But he that said unto him, Thou art my Son;" that is, he glorified him so to be, or he made him so. 'O Xpierós, "Christ," the subject spoken of; that is, the promised Ο Χριστός, Messiah, the anointed one. Ο Χριστός. The apostle in this epistle calls him occasionally by all signal names, as "the Son," chap. i. 2, 8; the "Son of God," chap. iv. 14; the "Word of God," chap. iv. 12; "Jesus," chap. ii. 9; "Christ," chap. iii. 6; "Christ Jesus," chap. iii. 1. Here he useth the name of Christ as peculiarly suited unto his present occasion; for he had designed to prove that

the promised Messiah, the hope and expectation of the fathers, was to be the high priest for ever over the house of God. Therefore he calls him by that name whereby he was known from the beginning, and which signified his unction unto his office,-the anointed one. He was to be on in, the "anointed priest;" that is, "Christ."

The subject spoken of being stated or described by his name, the supposition of his being a high priest takes place. This the apostle had before taught and proved, chap. ii. 17, iii. 1, iv. 14. But yet, considering the constitution of the law, and the way of any one's entering on that office, a difficult inquiry yet remained, namely, how he came so to be. Had he been of the tribe of Levi, and of the family of Aaron, he might have been a priest, he would have been so, and have been so acknowledged by all. But how he should become so, who was a stranger to that family, who "sprang of the tribe of Judah, concerning which Moses spake nothing of the priesthood," might be highly questioned. Fully and satisfactorily to resolve this doubt, and therein to take in the whole difficulty whence it arose, the apostle in the preceding verse lays down a concession in a universal maxim, that none who had not a right thereunto, by virtue of an antecedent law or constitution,-which Christ had not, as not being of the tribe of Levi,-could be a priest, without an immediate call from God, such as Aaron had. By and on this rule he offers the right of the Lord Christ unto this office to trial; and therein acknowledgeth that if he were not extraordinarily called of God thereunto he could be no high priest. To this purpose he declares,— First, Negatively, that "he glorified not himself to be made an high priest." Outward call by men, or a constitution by virtue of any ordinance of the law, he had none. ἐδόξασε. Seeing therefore he is a priest, or if so he be, he must be made so by God, or by himself. But as for himself, neither did he take this honour to himself, nor was it possible that so he should do; for the whole office, and the benefit of his discharge of it, depended on a covenant or compact between him and his Father. Upon the undertaking of it, also, he was to receive many promises from the Father, and was to do his will and work; as we have elsewhere declared and fully proved. It was therefore impossible that he should make himself a high priest.

Οὐχ ἑαυτὸν

The Socinians do but vainly raise a cavil against the deity of Christ from this place. They say, 'If he were God, why did another glorify him in any kind, why did he not glorify himself?' And the Jews on all occasions make the same exception. There were, indeed, some force in the objection against us, if we believed or professed that the Lord Christ were God only; but our doctrine concerning his person is that which is declared by our apostle, Phil. ii. 6, 7, “Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but

he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Wherefore there is no more weight in this cavil than there would be in another, namely, if one, unto those testimonies, that "all things were made by him," and that he "in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth," should ask, 'How could this be, seeing he was a man, born in the fulness of time?' But this objection, for the substance of it, was raised by the Jews of old, and fully answered by himself. For whereas they objected unto him that he, being not fifty years old, could not have seen Abraham, as he pretended, who was dead near two thousand years before, he replied, "Before Abraham was, I am," John viii. 58. If he had no other nature than that wherein they thought he was not fifty years old (being indeed little more than thirty), he could not have known Abraham, nor Abraham him. As, therefore, if he had been man only, he could not have been before Abraham, so had he been God only, another could not have glorified him to be a priest. But he was man also; and these words are spoken not with respect unto his divine nature, but his human.

Again; as it was impossible he should, so it is plain that he did not glorify himself to be a high priest, or take this dignity and honour to himself by his own will and authority. And this may be evidenced by a brief rehearsal of the divine acts necessary to the making of him a high priest; all which I have handled at large in the previous Exercitations. And they were of two sorts:-1. Authoritative, and wholly without him; 2. Perfective, whereunto his own concurrence was required. Of the first sort were,-(1.) His eternal designation unto this office. (2.) His mission unto the discharge of it. (3.) His unction with the Spirit for its due discharge. (4.) The constitution of the law of his priesthood, which consisted of two parts; the first prescribing what he should do, what he should undergo, what he should offer, or what should be the duties of his office; the other declaring, appointing, promising what should be attained, effected, and accomplished thereby. (5.) The committing and giving a people unto him, for whose sake and on whose account he was to bear, execute, and discharge this holy office. And all these, whereby he was authoritatively vested with his office, were sovereign acts of the will and wisdom of the Father, as I have elsewhere proved. By these was he called and glorified to be a high priest. Again, there were some acts perfective of his call, or such as gave it its complement; and these were wrought in him and by him, neither could they be otherwise: but yet by them did he not make himself a high priest, but only complied with the will and authority of the Father. Thus, when Aaron was called of God to his office, the law for its constitution being made and given, the person designed and called out by name, his pontifical garinents put on, and the anoint