9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated 9 By coming to destroy the devil and his works, Thou hast shewed the wickedness, therefore (greatest love of righteousness, and hatred of wickedness, therefore, O God, thy God, John xx. 17. hath bestowed on thee as a king, and a priest, and a prophet, endowments whereby thou excellest all thy associates in these offices. 05, ver. 8. note 1.) O God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness' above (T85 μSTOx858) thy associates. 10 And, Thou Lord, in the beginning foundedst the earth,1 and the works of thy hands are the hea vens. 11 They shall perish,1 but thou dost remain, and they all as a garment shall grow old; 12 and as (gboλasov) an upper garment, thou wilt fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall never fail. 10 And, still farther to display the greatness of the Son above all the angels (See ver. 14.) it is said, Ps. cii. 25.-27. Thou Lord in the beginning didst firmly build the earth, and the works of thy power are the heavens. 11 They, though firmly founded, shall perish, but thou their maker possessest an endless existence: and they all, as a garment become uscless by long wearing, shall grow old; unfit for answering the purpose of their creation; 12 And then, as a worn out upper garment, thou wilt fold them up and lay them aside as useless, and they shall be changed for the new heavens and the new earth, to be substituted in their place; but thou their maker, art the same without any change, and thy duration shall never have an end. wise: especially as it would not have been to the apostle's purpose to quote it here, if it had been addressed to the Father. By affirming that these words were spoken to the Son, the apostle confuted the opinion of those Jews who held that the angels assisted in making this mundane system : An error which was afterwards maintained by some heretics in the Christian church. Ver. 11.-1. They shall perish. Of the perishing of the earth, and heavens or atmosphere, Peter hath written, 2 epist. iii. 10.-13. where alsq he hath foretold, that there are to be new heavens and a new earth formed for the righteous to live in, after the old creation is destroyed. 13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, un til I make thine enemies thy footstool? 14 Are they not all ministring spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? 13 Προς τινα δε των αγ γελων ειρηκε ποτε Καπου εκ δεξιων μου, έως αν δω τους υποποδιον των εχθρούς σου 14 Ουχι παντες εισι λειτουργικά πνεύματα, εις δια κονιαν αποςελλόμενα δια τους μέλλοντας κληρονομείν σωτηρίαν ; 2. But thou dost remain. Apsvus, dost remain continually. This word may be either the present of the Indicative, or the future, according as it is written with, or without the circumflex. In the common Greek copies it is written without the circumflex; for which reason our translators have rendered it, Thou remainest. But Peirce contends that it should be rendered, Thou shalt remain, because the other verbs in the verse are in the future tense. Ver. 12.-1. And as an upper garment, or cloak. Beza thinks the word Tepboxov signifies the covering of a tent, which, when the tent is to be moved to another place, is taken down and folded up. 2. And they shall be changed. The word anagnovτat, signifies both to change and to exchange. Here the meaning is, that the present earth and its atmosphere, are to be exchanged for the new heavens and earth, of which St. Peter speaks, 2 Ep. iii. 10. Ver. 13.-1. Sit thou at my right hand. Our Lord, Matth. xxii. 43. spake of it to the Pharisees as a thing certain, and allowed by all the Jewish doctors, that David wrote the CX. Psalm by inspiration of the Spirit concerning Christ. This passage therefore is rightly applied to Christ, by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews. See chap. v. 10. note. 2. Till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. The eastern Princes used to tread on the necks of their vanquished enemies, in token of their utter subjection, Josh. x. 24. And some of the more haughty ones, in mounting their horses, used them as a footstool. This passage, there CHAPTER II. View and Illustration. THE foregoing display of the greatness of the Son of God being designed, not only to give the objections of the Jews their full force, but to make mankind sensible of the obligation they are under to obey Jesus, and to hearken to his apostles, the writer of this epistle very properly begins his second chapter with an exhortation to the Hebrews, to pay the utmost attention to the things which they had heard from Jesus and his apostles, 13 (▲, 104.) Moreover, to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit thou at my right hand1 till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet? 14 Are they not all ministring spirits,1 sent forth to minister for them who shall inherit salvation? 13 Moreover, none of the angels have any proper dominion over the world. For, to which of the angels did God at any time say, as he said to his Son in the human nature, Ps. cx. 1. Sit thou at my right hand; reign thou over the universe; till I utterly subject all thine enemies to thee? 14 Instead of exercising sovereign dominion, Are not all the angels called, Ps. civ. 4. ministring spirits, subject to the Son, (ver. 6.) and by him sitting at God's right hand, (ver. 13.) sent forth to minister for them, who shall inherit immortality as the sons of God? fore, is a prediction of the entire conquest of evil angels and wicked men, Christ's enemies. Ver. 14.-1. Are they not all ministring spirits ? This is said, perhaps in allusion to the Hebrew name of angels, which properly signifies, Messongers.-The word all here is emphatical, denoting that even the highest orders of angels, Dominions, Thrones, Principalīties, and Powers, (Philip. ii. 10. Eph. i. 21. 1 Pet. iii. 22.) bow the knee, and are subject to Jesus; ministring in the affairs of the world according to his direction. But, although the scriptures speak of all the angels as thus ministring, the word all, does not imply, that every individual angel is actually employed in ministring for the heirs of salvation, but that every one of them is subject to be so employed. 2. Sent forth to minister (da) for them who shall inherit salvation. The apostle does not say minister to, but for them, &c. The angels are ministers who belong to Christ, not to men, though employed by him for the be nefit of men. Wherefore, this passage affords no ground for believing that every heir of salvation has a guardian angel assigned to him.-Of the ministry of angels for the benefit of the heirs of salvation, we have many examples, both in the Old and in the New Testament. ver. 1.—For, says he, if our fathers, who disobeyed the command to enter into Canaan which God spake to them by angels, were justly punished with death, ver. 2.-how can we hope to escape eternal death, if we neglect the great salvation from sin and misery, together with the possession of heaven? which was first preached to us by the Lord himself, and which was afterwards confirmed to us by his apostles and ministers, who heard him preach and promise that salvation, ver. 3.—and whose testimony ought to be credited, since God bare witness with them, by the miracles which he enabled them to perform, and by the gifts of the Holy Ghost which he distributed to them, ver. 4.-But lest the Hebrews might despise the gospel, because it was not preached to them by angels, the apostle told them, that God had not employed angels to lead believers into the future heavenly world, the possession of which is the great salvation whereof he spake. By this observation he insinuated, that the tidings of the great salvation, were not to be disregarded because they were preached to them by men, and not by angels, since these men were commissioned by Christ and attested by God, ver. 5. The Hebrews being thus prepared for listening with attention to the apostle, he proceeded to answer the different objections urged by the doctors against our Lord's pretensions to be the Son of God. These objections, it is true, he hath not formally stated, because they were in every one's mouth; but from the nature of the things which he hath written, it is easy to see what they were. The first objection was taken from our Lord's being a man. This, in the opinion of the Jews, was sufficient to overthrow his claim altogether; because for a man to call himself the Son of God, was so contrary to every idea they had formed of the Son of God, that even the common people thought it a blasphemy, which deserved to be punished with death. John x. 33. For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because thou being a man, makest thyself God. See also John v. 18. and 1 John v. 5. note. In this prejudice the people were confirmed, by the sentence of the chief priest, elders, and scribes, who after a solemn trial, pronounced Jesus guilty of blasphemy, and condemned him to death, because he called himself the Christ, the Son of the blessed God; Mark xiv. 61. A sentence for which there was no foundation, since in their own scriptures it was expressly and repeatedly declared, that the Christ, was to be the Son, both of Abraham and of David. But the doctors, it seems, understood this in a metaphorical sense. For, when Jesus asked the scribes, how the Christ could be both David's Son and David's Lord, they were not able to answer him a word: being ignorant that the Christ was really to become man, by descending from Abraham and David, according to the flesh. A second objection raised against our Lord's being the Son of God and King of Israel, was taken from his mean condition; from his never having possessed any temporal dominion; and from his having been put to death. These things they thought incompatible with the greatness of the Son of God, and with his glory as the Christ, or king universal, described in their sacred writings. And therefore, when Jesus mentioned his being lifted up, the people objected John xii. 34. We have heard out of the law, that the Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? Their notions concerning the temporal dominion of the Christ, and his abiding on earth for ever, the doctors founded on Dan. ii. 44. where the empire of the Christ was foretold, under the idea of a kingdom which the God of heaven was to set up, and which was never to be destroyed;—but which should break in pieces and consume all kingdoms. Also on Dan. vii. 13, 14. Where one like the Son of man, is represented as coming in the clouds of heaven, and receiving dominion, and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. Likewise in other passages, the kingdom and victories of the Christ, are described by ideas and expressions taken from the kings and kingdoms of this world: And, the Christ himself is called God's king, whom he would set on his holy hill of Zion: And, Messiah, or Christ, the Prince. These things led the Jews to fancy, that the Christ was to be a great temporal prince, who would set the Jews free from foreign tyranny, and subject all nations to their dominion; that Jerusalem was to be the seat of this universal empire: and that every individual Jew would have some share in the administration of it. Wherefore when Jesus of Nazareth refused to be made a king, and disclaimed all temporal dominion, and lived in the greatest privacy, subject to poverty, persecution and death, they derided his pretensions to be the Christ, Mark xv. 31. The chief priests mocking, said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others, himself he cannot save. 32. Let Christ the king of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. These learned men were ignorant that the kingdom of the Christ is not of this world; that it is established, not by force, but by the power of persuasion, Ps. cx. 3. that it has for its object, the destruction of sin and of all its abettors, and the establishment of righteousness in the earth; that the victories by which these grand events are brought to pass, are all of a spiritual kind; and that the greatness of the Christ consists in ruling, not the bodies but the spirits of men, by drawing their affections and influencing their wills. And, as the Jews had no conception of these things, so neither did they know that the felicity which the subjects of the Christ are to enjoy, is not of this world, but of the heavenly country which was promised to Abraham and to his seed by faith. The ideas which the Jews had formed of the Christ, and of his kingdom, being founded in ignorance of their own scriptures, though pretended to be derived from that source, it became necessary by clear testimonies out of these very scriptures, to prove, That, from the beginning, God determined to |