IV. The common account of the DATE of this epistle is A. D. 64, but others have placed it two or three years earlier. It is needless, however, to detain the reader with their respective reasons for these small differences.

V. With respect to the CHIEF DESIGN of this epistle, and the author's manner of prosecuting it, it will be necessary to observe, That though the Jewish Christians believed the great fundamental article of the faith, namely, that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised and expected Messiah; yet many of them did not properly understand that Messiah's kingdom was to interfere with, far less to abolish the Mosaic establishment, which their fathers had received from God by the ministry of angels, and was confirmed by the most striking interpositions and sensible manifestations of the divine power and presence among them. And as they could not conceive that God would ever abrogate any of his own positive laws and appoint ments; so they naturally imagined that the Messiah had come to restore their political freedom, and to reform their nation, both in Church and State, according to the Mosaic institution, which they considered as unalterable. And though Christ by his death had abolished the Mosaic law of commandments contained in ordinances; yet, out of regard to the scrupulous consciences of the Jewish converts, they were hitherto indulged in observing the peculiarities of that law, while they did not seek justification by it, or urge it upon the Gentile converts as necessary to that end, or make it a term of communion with them. But this temporary indulgence had no good effect on many of them; for instead of growing in the knowledge of Christ as the end of the law for righteousness, they continued in their zealous adherence to the

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law, Acts xv., chap. xxi. 20, 21, which hindered their progress in the knowledge of the gospel, Heb. v. 12—14, weakened their attachment to Christ, and endangered their reverting to Judaism.

Now the chief design of this epistle to the Hebrews was, to bring them off from their attachment to the Mosaic establishment, to carry them forward to perfection in the knowledge of the gospel, and thus to establish them in the Christian faith, and prevent their apostacy from it.

In prosecution of this important and complicated design, he sets out with a sublime description of the divine dignity of the Person by whom God hath in these last days revealed his mind in the gospel, namely, his own Son, whom he hath constituted heir of all things, who is described as the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, by whom also he made the worlds and upholds all things; and so is infinitely superior in nature and office to all God's former ministers, by whom he revealed his will of old, whether they were the most eminent prophets, such as Moses, or even angels, by whose ministry the law was delivered at Mount Sinai, chap. i. iii. 2-7. From this he exhorts them to give the more earnest attention to the gospel, as being spoken by the Lord Jesus in person, and was confirmed to them by those who heard him; to the truth of whose testimony God also bore joint-witness by signs, wonders, miracles, and distribution of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, chap. ii. 1-5. That the gospel kingdom is not subjected to the government of angels, but to that of the Son of God alone, who is also the Son of man, to whom all things, without exception, are subjected, and under whose feet all his enemies shall finally be subdued,

chap. ii. 5-9. That though he was for a little while made less than angels, by assuming the same mortal flesh and blood with the children which God had given him, and so became subject to sufferings and death; yet it was for such glorious purposes as were everyway worthy of God, namely, that by his death he might expiate their sins, defeat their enemies, sympathize with and succour them under all their trials and afflictions, and, as the Captain of their salvation, conduct them to the glory of the heavenly country, chap. ii. 9-17. This was suited to remove all objections to his sufferings and death.

As the Hebrews were much attached to the legal priesthood and sacrifices, the apostle expatiates at great length upon the superior excellence and efficacy of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. The Levitical priests were made according to the law, after the order of Aaron; but Christ was made a priest by the word of the oath which was since the law, and after the superior order of Melchisedec, who was both a king and a priest. They were mortal men, and not suffered to continue by reason of death, and so were many priests succeeding one another; but he is a priest for ever, after the power of an endless life; and so his priesthood does not pass from him to a successor. They had sinful infirmities, and so had to offer for their own sins as well as for the sins of the people; but he was without sin, being holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. They were priests on earth, ministers of a worldly sanctuary, and of the holy places made with hands, which were only figures of the true; but Christ, having risen from the dead, is not a priest on earth, but hath passed through the heavens with his own blood, and is an High Priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

where he officiates as a minister of the heavenly sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man; and there he ever lives, a merciful and faithful High Priest, making intercession for his people, and so is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, chap. iv. 14, 15, vii., viii. 1—6, ix. 11, 24.

With regard to the sacrifices and purifications prescribed by the law, the apostle shews that, though by virtue of God's appointment they sanctified to the purifying of the flesh from ceremonial defilements, and to obtain a discharge from temporal punishments, yet they were but figurative institutions and carnal ordinances, imposed upon the Israelites until the time of reformation, when they should be all set aside. They had no intrinsic worth or virtue in themselves to procure a real and everlasting remission of sins; for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, or cleanse the conscience of the worshipper from the guilt of them, otherwise they would have ceased to be offered; whereas in the repetition of these sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, which shews that they were not really expiated. With these ineffectual sacrifices the apostle contrasts the sacrifice of Christ, and proves, from Psal. xl. 6-9, that as God was not pleased with those sacrifices which were offered according to the law, Christ came into the world to do his Father's will by offering the one sacrifice of himself, by which he hath set aside all the legal sacrifices, made at once a complete atonement for sin, and hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified: And that his sacrifice is not to be repeated, it having procured an everlasting remission of sin, as is evident from this, that when he had offered it, he "for ever sat down on the right hand of God," and

from God's promise in the new covenant, "their sins and iniquities will I remember no more;" from which he concludes, "Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin," chap. ix. 9, 10, 13, x. 1-19.

Moreover, he shews that Christ hath now obtained a more excellent ministry than that of the Levitical high priests, in as much as he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises than the Sinaitic covenant, of which they were mediators. For this he cites, Jer. xxxi. 31-35, where the Lord promises to make a new covenant altogether different from the former; and he argues from God's calling it a new covenant, that he hath antiquated the first, which must of course vanish away to give place to the latter; consequently, that the making of this new covenant must have abrogated the whole Mosaic establishment, chap. viii. 6, to the end.

To guard the Hebrews against unbelief and apostacy, to which some of them had shewn a disposition, he on the one hand sets before them the awful consequences of it in the punishment of their fathers in the wilderness, who came short of the earthly rest through unbelief; and in the more dreadful punishment which will infallibly be inflicted on those who neglect or despise the gospel, or apostatize from the faith after they have been enlightened, chap. ii. 1—5, iii. 7—19, iv., vi. 4—10, x. 26—32, xii. 25. On the other hand, he encourages them to persevere and to hold fast their profession with boldness under all their trials, by the example of the faithful ancients, and particularly of their pious ancestors, who all lived and died in the faith of good things to come, as held forth to them in the promises, chap. vi. 11-16, xi., and especially by the more eminent example of Christ B 2