Hebrews 8

Hebrews 8:1

The apostle briefly recapitulates what he had before demonstrated of the superior dignity of Christ as the High Priest of Christians, and farther illustrates the distinguished excellence of that new covenant which was foretold by Jeremiah as established in him, and plainly enriched with much better promises than the old. Heb. VIII. 1, to the end.

HEBREWS VIII. 1.

NOW the chief article of the things which have been spoken, in the preceding parts of this discourse, [is this] that we have such a great and illustrious High Priest as hath been x. Hebr. VIII. 1 Hebrews VIII. 1. Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: we have such an High Priest, who

e have an High Priest in Heaven :

described, made after the order of Melchizedec, and by the oath of God himself invested with immortal honours ; who having on earth performed all that was necessary, by way of reparation, hath now sat down on the right hand of the majestic throne in the heavens, (compare chap. i. 3, note h,) exalted by the Divine authority to rule over all things, for the glory of God, and the good of his people. And we are ever to regard him under his priestly, as well as his royal character, as a minister of holy things, and of the true tabernacle, which not man, but the Lord himself, hath pitched ; a sanctuary infinitely superior to any which human hands could be concerned in rearing, and proportionable to the boundless wisdom, power, and magnificence of God.

For every high priest, who ministers there, is constituted to offer gifts and sacrifices ; therefore [it was] necessary that this man also, even the glorious person of whom I speak, should have something to present. But we may observe by the way, that if he were always to continue on earth, he could not, in any consistence with the Jewish institutions, have been a priest, a to officiate at the temple of God in Jerusalem ; as there are already a certain order of priests there, who offer the gifts of the people, according to the law, and it is expressly settled, that none of any other family should have access to these services ; nor would it have been agreeable to the Divine schemes, that Jesus should, by extraordinary dispensation, have interfered with their peculiar functions. These he left entirely to those priests, who perform divine service to an economy, which contains only the example and shadow of celestial things : b as Moses was charged by the

a He could not have been a priest.] From hence hath the great argument been taken against Christ’s performing any sacerdotal acts upon earth ; and consequently against the reasonableness of considering his death as a sacrifice, though the scripture expressly declares it was so. But it is evident the sense of the words given in the paraphrase, which undermines all such arguments, can alone be maintained as the true one ; since it is plain, that under the Jewish economy, thou h none but a

priest ever ministered as such in the tabernacle, yet sacrifices were offered by special Divine appointment by some (as by prophets, &c.) who were not of that order ; and being so offered, were accordingly accepted.

b The example, &c. ναυδίγμα των ιστιγών. ] Dr. Sykes would explain it, the copy of what Moses saw in the mount : as if he had said, the former was but copy of the latter, and no more to be compared with it than the shadow to the

A Mediator of a letter covenant:

oracle, when he was about to finish the tabernacle: for see, saith he, [that] thou make all things according to the model shewn thee upon the mountain; lest an error, which may seem to thee small, should be more material than thou art aware. (Exod. xxv. 40.) Now this exactness was required in special regard to the typical representations couched under these ordinances, the particulars of which Moses himself did not perfectly understand. But he, that is, Christ, hath now much nobler services allotted to him in that heavenly sanctuary, inasmuch as he is the Mediator even of a better covenant than that in which the Jewish high priest mediated; which was established upon better promises than those of the Mosaic law: for they only referred to the blessings of a temporal Canaan, to be enjoyed by the people, while they continued obedient to its precepts, which placed them under such a special providence, as the nature of that dispensation absolutely required, and made them a spectacle to the whole world.

This superior excellence of that economy which our Lord introduces, might indeed have been concluded from its being exhibited after the Mosaic: for as we know God never alters but for the better; if that first [covenant] had been esteemed so faultless, as to have no remaining deficiency, there would have been no place sought for a second; yet we in fact see this intimation of an exception taken to it: For finding fault with them, that is, with the Jews, to whom he was addressing, he saith by the

substance. See Sikes on Christianity, p. 184, Peirce in loc. I rather take it in the sense generally given, for the adumbration or sketch of Heavenly blessings. Dr. Burrow, (Vol. II. p. 205,) renders it by a very expressive word, the subindication.

Finding fault with them.] This is translated by Grotius and others, finding fault he saith to them, and understood of finding fault with the former covenant. But that covenant was certainly wise and good, and adapted to the purpose for which it was designed and appointed. It seems therefore much more proper to understand it, finding fault with the Jews, (as God evidently does in the words here preced-

ing those quoted, Jer. xxxi. 29, 30,) for using the proverb against which he expresses so much displeasure in Ezek. xviii. 2. And in the words themselves he also finds fault with them for breaking this covenant though he had with so much tender car brought them out of the land of Egypt. Raphelius in loc. translates the words under consideration (μῖμα φωμικος γὰρ αὐτοῦ λυγῆ,) finding fault with them he saith; agreeably to our common translation; and justifies this version by the authority of Chrysostom, a Greek father, and by two passages from Herodotus, where μῖμα φωμικος is used with a dative case after it.

Better than the covenant made with their others.

prophet Jeremiah, in that celebrated text which undoubtedly refers to the gospel dispensation, (Jer. xxxi. 31,) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. And he expressly mentions the superior excellence of the covenant there referred to, when compared with that which was transacted on mount Sinai. For he adds there, The transaction shall not be according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; (as you well know it was while the great work of conducting them to Canaan was yet imperfect, that the law of Moses was given;) because they continued not in my covenant, and I disregarded them,d saith the Lord. For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days; that is, in the times of the Messiah, saith the Lord; I will give my laws to their soul, and I will inscribe them upon their hearts, in more lasting characters than those in which I wrote the commandments on the tables of stone; and I will be unto them for a God, and they shall be to me for a people: I will answer all the import of that high relation to them, and they shall persist in their obedience to me. And they shall no more have need to teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them even to the greatest of them. They shall have a much more certain and effectual teaching than they can derive one from another. For I will be merciful to their unrighteous deeds,e various and aggravated as they are, and their

d I disregarded them.] The quotation here is according to the Seventy, and by no means agreeable to the Hebrew, which reads it as we do, though I was a husband to them, saith the Lord. Mr. Peirce thinks the seventy interpreters, in their copy, either read נְעֻלָּהוּ, or בְּתֻלָּהוּ, instead of בְּעֻלָּהוּ, in either of which there is only the variation of a single letter, and this will justify the translation here given. Dr. Pocock maintains that the word is capable of such a translation as it now stands in the ori -

inal. So that they seem to agree that our English version of the text in question should be altered. e For I will be merciful.] Some would render ori, and thereupon, that is, in their being thus taught by me; or so that, which signification it is certain that or sometimes hath; but here it may signify that because God hath proposed to extend his pardoning mercy to them, he thus taught them by his Spirit; and therefore I have rendered it for.

Re actions on the covenant esta liste in Cl

ect. sins and their iniquities, of what kind soever, I x. will remember no more, so as to bring them into Heb. judgment; but will pardon the most heinous viii. offences, which were incapable of expiation 12 under the former covenant.

Now I would observe in the close of this argument, that when he saith, A new [covenant] shall be made, he hath in effect made the first old, he hath, as it were, spoken of it as antiquated: now that which is antiquated, and fallen into old age, cannot be expected to live long. And so in like manner [is] that old covenant of Moses just ready to disappear. Divine Providence will put such a period to it ere long, as shall be remarkable in the eyes of the whole world; so that the grand apparatus which now preserves its visible form and lustre, shall be known no more.

IMPROVEMENT.

ADORED be that grace which hath constituted and revealed 6 this everlasting covenant, well ordered in all things and sure; established on such promises, as are, of all that can be conceived, most valuable to sinful creatures; and especially on that, without which no other declaration could impart any comfort to such, 12 will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. With this is connected that other promise, so comprehensive of every thing that is truly valuable, I will be a God unto them, and they shall be unto me a people. Happy indeed the people that are in such a case; yea, happy the people whose God is the Lord, who are taught by him to know him under that character, taught by that energy of his Spirit, which gives his law to their mind, and inscribes it on their heart. There may we ever retain it engraven in living and durable characters, as a law of love, which may make obedience to ever precept easy.

In this connection let us look with pleasure to that High Priest who is sat down on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, an presides over all for the good of his people, that minister of the 2 true tabernacle which the Lord, not man, hath pitched! ever maintaining an humble dependence on the sacrifice he hath offered: A sacrifice better than any of the Aaronical priests could present, in proportion to the degree in which the covenant, of which He is the Mediator, is nobler than theirs. The first covenant, wisely allayed with such a mixture of imperfection as was suitable to its being introductory to the second, is now vanished

The first tabernacle had a worldly sanctuary :

to make way for this second and better dispensation : to this let sect. us therefore adhere, and so doing, cheerfully expect all the invaluable blessings it imparts.