3. The more excellent any work of God is, the more express 4. It is a great dignity and honour to be duly called unto any 1. The office of the high priesthood over the church of God, was an honour and glory to Jesus Christ, 2. Relation and love, are the fountain and cause of God's commit- 5. The Lord Christ in his offering up himself for us, laboured and travailed in soul to bring the work unto a good and holy issue, 536. 6. The Lord Christ, in the time of his offering and suffering, con- sidering God with whom he had to do, as the sovereign Lord of life and death, as the supreme Rector and Judge of all, cast him- self before him, with most fervent prayers for deliverance from 7. In all the pressures that were on the Lord Jesus Christ, in all the distresses he had to conflict withal in his sufferings, his faith for deliverance and success, was firm and unconquerable, $. The success of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his trials as our head and surety, is a pledge and assurance of success unto us in all ib 1. Infinite love prevailed with the Son of God, to lay aside the privilege of his infinite dignity, that he might suffer for us and 5. In all these things, both as to suffering and learning, or profit- ing thereby, we have a great example in our Lord Jesus Christ, ib. 6. The love of God towards any, the relation of any unto God, ib. 2. The Lord Christ was consecrated himself, in and by the sacri- fice that he offered for us, and what he suffered in so doing, 3. The Lord Christ alone, is the only principal cause of our eter- 1. God was pleased to put a signal honour upon the person and office of Melchisedec, that in them there should be an early and excellent representation made of the person and priesthood 2. As the Lord Christ received all his honour as Mediator from God the Father, so the ground and measure of our glory and honour unto him as such, depends on the revelation and decla 3. It is an evidence and testimony that the Lord Christ was able to be, and is, the Author of eternal salvation unto all that do obey him, because he is a priest after the order of Melchisedec, 1. There are revealed in the Scripture, sundry deep and myste- rious truths, which require a peculiar diligence in our attendance unto their declaration, that we may rightly understand them, 2. It is necessary for the ministers of the gospel, sometimes to in- sist on the most abstruse and difficult truths that are revealed 3. There is a glorious light and evidence in all divine truths, but 4. Many who receive the word at first with some readiness, do yet afterwards make but slow progress either in knowledge or grace, 575 5. It is men's slothfulness in hearing, that is the sole cause of their not improving the means of grace, or not thriving under the 6. It is a grievous matter to the dispensers of the gospel, to find their hearers unapt to learn and thrive under their ministry, 1. The time wherein we enjoy the great mercy and privilege of 589 2. Churches are the schools of Christ, wherein his disciples are 590 3. It is the duty of ministers of the gospel, to endeavour to pro- mote the increase of their hearers in knowledge, until they al- so are able to instruct others, according to their calls and op- 5. God hath in infinite love and wisdom so disposed of his word, as that there are first principles, plain and necessary, laid down in it, to facilitate the instruction he intends thereby, 6. They who live under the preaching of the gospel, are obnoxious to great and provoking sins, if they diligently watch not against 7. There will be a time when false and unprofitable professors will be made manifest and discovered, either to their present 8. Men do oft-times secretly wax worse and worse, under profes- 9. There are provisions of truth in the Scripture, suitable to the * spiritual instruction and edification of all sorts of persons that ib. 1. The gospel is the only word of righteousness in itself and to us, 610 2. It is a great aggravation of the negligence of persons under the dispensation of the gospel, that it is a word of righteousness, 613 3. That God requires of all those who live under the dispensation of the gospel, that they should be skilful in the word of righ- teousness, ib. 3. It is an evidence of a thriving and healthy state of soul, to have an appetite unto the deepest mysteries of the gospel, its most solid doctrines of truth, and to be able profitably to di- 4. The assiduous exercise of our minds about spiritual things, in at spiritual manner, is the only means to make us profit in the hear- 5. The spiritual sense of believers, well exercised in the word, is the best and most undeceiving help in judging of what is good CHAPTER III. VERSES 7-11. HAVING demonstrated the pre-eminence of the Lord Christ above Moses, in their respective ministries about the house of God, the apostle, according unto his design and method, proceeds unto the application of the truth he had evinced, in an exhortation unto stability and constancy in faith and obedience. And this he doth in a way that adds a double force to his inference and exhortation. First, in that he presseth them with the words, testimonies and examples recorded in the Old Testament, unto which they owned an especial reverence and subjection; and then the nature of the examples which he insists upon is such, as supplies him with a new argument unto his purpose. Now this is taken from the dealing of God with them who were disobedient under the ministry and rule of Moses, which he further explains, ver. 15-19. For if God dealt in severity with them, who were unbelieving and disobedient, with respect unto him and his work who was but a servant in the house; they might easily understand what his dispensation towards them would be, who should be so, with respect unto the Son and his work, who is "Lord over the whole house, and whose house are we." VER. 7—11.— Διο, καθώς λέγει το Πνεύμα το άγιον. Σημερον εαν τη Φωνής αυτού ακουσητε, Μη σκληρύνητε τας καρδίας ὑμῶν, ὡς εν τω πως ραπικρασμώ, κατα την ήμεραν το πειρασμό εν τη ερήμω Ο isligaσαν με οι πατέρες ύμων, εδοκίμασαν με, και είδον τα έργα με τεσσαρα Δύο προσώχθισα τη γενια εκείνη, και είπον Ας πλατων αυτοί δε εκ εγνωσαν τας όδες με Ως ώμοσα εν τη Ει εισελεύσονται εις την καταπαυσιν με. ποντα έτη. ται τη καρδια bern 48. There are some little varieties in some words and letters observed in some old manuscripts, but of no importance or use, and for the most part mere mistakes. As ενδοκιμασαν for εδοκιμα σαν, ταυτη for εκείνη, ειπα for επον. As many such differences occur, where some have tampered to make the apostle's words and the translation of the LXX. in all things to agree. Katus, sicut; the Syriac and Arabic translations omit this word; "Wherefore the Holy Ghost saith," "Dis sy To Tagaπixgaσes so the LXX. in the Psalm. Sicut in exacerbatione; in irritatione, in the provocation.' Syr. ut ad iram eum provocelis tanVOL. IV. B quum exacerbatores, both in the psalm and here also; departing both from the Hebrew text, and the apostolical version; "that you stir him not up to anger as provokers.” Κατά την ήμερων του garuo so the LXX. in the psalm. Vulg. Secundum diem tentationis, "According to the day of temptation;" that is, as those others, the fathers of the people, did in the day of temptation. So also in this place following the LXX. in the Psalm, though not only the original, but that version also, might more properly be rendered, Sicut in die tentationis, "As in the day of temptation." 'Ou swigurar-the translation of the Syriac version in the psalm, qua tentarunt; that is, qua die, referring it unto the time of the temptation, the day wherein.' Here quum, when,' to the same purpose; neither was there any need of the variety of expression, the word used by that translator inboth places being the same, referring unto time, not place, the day of temptation, not the wilderness wherein it was. Vulg. Ubi, properly where;' as the Arabic, in quo, in which,' desert, the next antecedent. Ethiop. Eo quod tentarunt eum patres vestri, tentarunt me, Whereas your fathers tempted him, they tempted me.' For it was Christ who was tempted in the wilderness, 1 Cor. x. 9. 6 "Saw my works,” Tirragaxovta sTn, " forty years." Here the apostle completes the sense. For although sundry editions of the New Testament, as one by Stephen, and one by Plantin, out of one especial copy, place the period at sya pov, 'my works,' yet the insertion of do after Tragaxorta ST by the apostle, proves the sense by him there to be concluded. So is it like-wise by the Syriac in the psalm, and by all translations in this place. However, the Ethiopic omitting dis seems to intend another sense. The LXX. and Vulgar Latin in the psalm, follow the original, though some copies of the LXX. have been tampered withal, to bring them to conformity with the apostle here, as usually it hath fallen out. And there is no doubt but that the order of the words in the Syriac version on the psalm came from this place. Пexbia, offensus fui, incensus fui, Arab. execratus sum, I cursed this generation.' Auhay, the original in the psalm, D, this people,' which on the psalm is followed by the Syriac, and contrary to the apostle, the same expression is retained in that version of this place. The LXX. on the psalm, have taken in these words of the apostle, and left out those of the original, wherein they are (as almost constantly on the psalms) followed by the Vulgar Latin. A, wherefore;' it expresseth an inference from what was spoken before, manifesting the ensuing exhortation to be deduced from thence. And it hath respect unto the exhortation itself, which the apostle directly enters upon, ver. 12. "Take |