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And it was the great injunction which he left with the people, when he ceased to grant any more immediate revelations of his will to the church, Mal. iv. 4. And the Lord Christ himself under the Judaical church did observe them.

3. God doth frequently reject or disallow them in the people as they were attended to and performed by them. But this he did only in the case of their gross hypocrisy, and the two great evils wherewith it was accompanied. The first was, that they did not only prefer the outward observance of them before internal moral obedience, but trusted to them, to the total neglect of that obedience. See Isa. i. 12-17. And the other was, that they put their trust in them for righteousness and acceptance with God, about which he deals, Jer. vii. Yet neither was this the case under consideration in the Psalm. For there is no respect had to any miscarriages of the people about these sacrifices, but to the sacrifices themselves.

Wherefore, some say that the words are prophetical, and declare what the will of God would be after the coming of Christ in the flesh, and the offering of his sacrifice once for all. Then God would no more require them nor accept them. But yet neither is this suited to the mind of the Holy Ghost. For, 1. The apostle doth not prove by this testimony that they were to cease, but that they could not take away sin whilst they were in force. 2. The reason given by the Lord Christ of his undertaking, is their insufficiency during their continuance according to the law. 3. This revelation of the will of God made to the church, was actually true when it was made and given, or it was suited to lead them into a great mistake.

The mind of the Holy Ghost is plain enough, both in the testimony itself and in the use made of it by the apostle. For the legal sacrifices are spoken of only with respect to that end which the Lord Christ undertook to accomplish by his mediation. And this was the perfect real expiation of sin, with the justification, sanctification, and eternal salvation of the church, with that perfect state of spiritual worship which was ordained for it in this world. All these things, these sacrifices were appointed to prefigure and represent. But the nature and design of this prefiguration being dark and obscure, and the things signified being utterly hid from them, as to their especial nature and the manner of their efficacy, many in all ages of the church expected them from these sacrifices, and they had a great appearance of being divinely ordained to that end and purpose. Wherefore this is that, and that alone, with respect whereunto they are here rejected. God never appointed them to this end; he never took pleasure in them with reference thereunto; they were insufficient in the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God to any such purpose. Wherefore the sense of God concerning them as to this end is, that they were not appointed, not approved, not accepted for it.

Secondly. It may be inquired, how this mind and will of God, concerning the refusal of these sacrifices to this end, might be known, so as that it should be here spoken of, as of a truth unquestionable in the church. For the words, thou wouldest not,' thou tookest no pleasure,' do not express a mere internal act of the divine will, but a decla

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ration also of what is, and what is not well pleasing to God. How then was this declaration made? how came it to be known? I answer,

1. The words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, considered as to be incarnate, for the redemption of the church. As such, he was always in the bosom of the Father, participant of his counsels, especially of those which concerned the church, the children of men,' Prov. viii. 22-24, &c. He was therefore always acquainted with all the thoughts and counsels of God, concerning the ways and means of the expiation of sin, and so declared what he knew.

2. As to the penman of the Psalm, the words were dictated to him by immediate revelation, which, if nothing had been spoken of it, or intimated before, had been sufficient for the declaration of the will of God therein; for all revelations of that nature have a beginning when they were first made. But,

3. In, by, and together with the institution of all these legal sacrifices, God had from the beginning intimated to the church, that they were not the absolute ultimate way for the expiation of sin, that he designed or would approve of. And this he did, partly in the nature of the sacrifices themselves, which were no way competent or suited in themselves to this end, it being impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin; partly, in first giving various intimations, and then express declaration of his will, that they were only prescribed for a season, and that a time would come when their observance should utterly cease, which the apostle proves, ch. vii. and viii.; and partly by evidencing that they were all but types and figures of good things to come, as we have at large declared. By these and sundry other ways of the like kind, God had, in the institution and command of these sacrifices themselves, sufficiently manifested, that he did neither design. them, nor require them, nor approve of them, as to this end of the expiation of sin. Wherefore there is in the words no new revelation absolutely, but only a mere express declaration of that will and counsel' of God, which he had by various ways given intimation of before. And we may observe,

Obs. III. No sacrifices of the law, not all of them together, were a means for the expiation of sin, suited to the glory of God, or necessities of the souls of men.-From the first appointment of sacrifices, immediately after the entrance of sin and the giving of the promise, the observance of them in one kind or another, spread itself over the whole earth. The Gentiles retained them by tradition, helped on by some conviction on a guilty conscience, that by some way or other atonement must be made for sin. On the Jews they were imposed by law. There are no footsteps of light or testimony, that the Gentiles did ever retain any sense of the true reason and end of their original institution, and of the practice of mankind thereon, which was only the confirmation of the first promise, by a prefiguration of the means and way of its accomplishment. The church of Israel being carnal also, had very much lost the understanding and knowledge hereof. Hence both sorts looked for the real expiation of sin, the pardon of it, and the taking away of its punishment, by the offering of those sacrifices. As for the Gentiles, God suffered them to walk in their own ways, and winked at the time

of their ignorance. But as to the Jews, he had before variously intimated his mind concerning them, and at length by the mouth of David, in the person of Christ, absolutely declares their insufficiency, with his disapprobation of them as to the end which they in their minds applied them to.

Obs. IV. Our utmost diligence, with the most sedulous improvement of the light and wisdom of faith, is necessary in our search into and inquiry after the mind and will of God, in the revelation he makes of them. The apostle in this Epistle proves, by all sorts of arguments taken from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, from many other things that God had done and spoken, and from the nature of these institutions themselves, as here also by the express words of the Holy Ghost, that these sacrifices of the law, which were of God's own appointment, were never designed nor approved by him as the way and means of the eternal expiation of sin. And he doth not deal herein with these Hebrews on his apostolical authority, and by new evangelical revelation, as he did with the church of the Gentiles; but pleads the undeniable truth of what he asserts from these direct records and testimonies which themselves owned and embraced. Howbeit, although the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets were read to them and among them continually, as they are to this day, they neither understood nor do yet understand the things that are so plainly revealed in them. And as the great reason hereof is the veil of blindness and darkness that is on their minds, 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14, so in all their search into the Scripture, they are indeed supinely slothful and negligent. For they cleave alone to the outward husk or shell of the letter, utterly despising the mysteries of truth contained therein. And so it is at present with the most of men, whose search into the mind of God, especially as to what concerns his worship, keeps them in the ignorance and contempt of it all their days.

Obs. V. The constant use of sacrifices to signify these things, which they could not effect or really exhibit to the worshippers, was a great part of the bondage that the church was kept in under the old testament. And hereon, as those who were carnal bowed down their backs to the burden, and their necks to the yoke, so those who had received the Spirit of adoption, did continually pant and groan after the coming of him, in and by whom all was to be fulfilled. So was the law their schoolmaster unto Christ.

Obs. VI. God may in his wisdom appoint and accept of ordinances and duties to one end, which he will refuse and reject when they are applied to another. So he doth plainly in these words those sacrifices which, in other places, he most strictly enjoins. How express, how multiplied are his commands for good works, and our abounding in them! Yet when they are made the matter of our righteousness before him, they are as to that end, namely, of our justification, rejected and disapproved.

Secondly. The first part of ver. 5 declares the will of God concerning the sacrifices of the law. The latter contains the supply that God in his wisdom and grace made of the defect and insufficiency of these sacrifices. And this is not any thing that should help, assist, or make

. them effectual, but somewhat brought in, in opposition to them, and for their removal.

This he expresseth in the last clause of this verse. 'But a body hast thou prepared me.' The adversative de, 'but,' declares that the way designed of God for this end was of another nature than those sacrifices were. But yet this way must be such as should not render those sacrifices utterly useless from their first institution, which would reflect on the wisdom of God by whom they were appointed. For if God did never approve of them, never delight in them, to what end were they ordained? Wherefore, although the real way of the expiation of sin be in itself of another nature than those sacrifices were, yet was it such as those sacrifices were meet to prefigure and represent to the faith of the church. The church was taught by them, that without a sacrifice there could be no atonement made for sin; wherefore the way of our deliverance must be by a sacrifice. It is so, saith the Lord Christ, and therefore the first thing God did in the preparation of this new way, was the preparation of 'a body for me,' which was to be offered in sacrifice. And in the antithesis intimated in this adversative conjunction, respect is had to the will of God. As sacrifices were that which he would not,' to this end, so this preparation of the body of Christ was that which he would, which he delighted in, and was well pleased withal. So the whole of the work of Christ, and the effects of it, are expressly referred to this will of God, ver. 9, 10.

And we must first speak to the apostle's rendering these words out of the Psalmist. They are in the original, mine ears hast thou digged,'' bored,' 'prepared.' All sorts of critical writers and expositors have so laboured in the resolution of this difficulty, that there is little to be added to the industry of some, and it were endless to confute the mistakes of others. I shall therefore only speak briefly to it, so as to manifest the oneness of the sense in both places. And some things must be premised thereunto.

1. That the reading of the words in the Psalm is incorrupt, and they are the precise words of the Holy Ghost. Though of late years sundry persons have used an unwarrantable boldness in feigning various lections in the Hebrew text, yet none of any judgment have attempted to conjecture at any word that might be thought to be used in the room of any one of them. And as for those which some have thought the LXX. might possibly mistake, that signify a body,' as 7, which sometimes signifies a body' in the Chaldee dialect, or , there is in neither of them any the least analogy to N, that they are ridiculously suggested.

2. It doth not seem probable unto me, that the LXX. did ever translate these words, as they are now extant in all the copies of that translation, Zwμa de KaтηρTION μo. For, 1. It is not a translation of the original words, but an interpretation and exposition of the sense and meaning of them, which was no part of their design. 2. If they made this exposition, they did so either by chance, as it were, or from a right understanding of the mystery contained in them. That they should be cast upon it by a mere conjecture, is altogether improbable. And that

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they understood the mystery couched in that metaphorical expression (without which no account can be given of the version of the words) will not be granted by them who know any thing of those translators or their translation. 3. There was of old a different reading in that translation. For instead of awua, a body,' some copies have it wria, 'the ears,' which the Vulgar Latin follows; an evidence that a change had been made in that translation, to comply with the words used by the apostle.

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3. The words, therefore, in this place, were the words whereby the apostle expressed the sense and meaning of the Holy Ghost in those used in the Psalmist, or that which was intended in them. He did not take them from the translation of the LXX. but used them himself, to express the sense of the Hebrew text. For although we should not adhere precisely unto the opinion, that all the quotations out of the Old Testament in the New, which agree in words with the present translation of the LXX. were by the scribes of that translation, transferred out of the New Testament into it, which yet is far more probable than the contrary opinion, that the words of the translation. are made use of in the New Testament, even when they differ from the original; yet sundry things herein are certain and acknowledged. As 1. That the penmen of the New Testament do not oblige themselves unto that translation, but in many places do precisely render the words of the original text, where that translation differs from it. 2. That they do oftentimes express the sense of the testimony which they quote, in words of their own, neither agreeing with that translation, nor exactly answering the original Hebrew. 3. That sundry passages have been unquestionably taken out of the New Testament, and inserted into that translation, which I have elsewhere proved by undeniable instances. And I no way doubt but it hath so fallen out in this place, where no account can be given of the translation of the LXX. as the words now are in it. Wherefore,

4. This is certain, that the sense intended by the Psalmist, and that expressed by the apostle, are the same, or to the same purpose. And their agreement is both plain and evident. That which is spoken, is as an act of God the Father towards the Son. The end of it is, that the Son might be fit and meet to do the will of God in the way of obedience. So it is expressed in the text, 'mine ears has thou bored, or a body hast thou prepared me; then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.' This was the sole end why God so acted towards him. What this was, is so expressed in the Psalmist, 'mine ears hast thou bored,' with a double figure. 1. A metaphor from the ear, wherewith we hear the commands we are to obey; obedience being our compliance with the outward commands of God, and the ear being the only means of our receiving those commands, there is nothing more frequent in the Scripture, than to express obedience by hearing and hearkening, as is known. Wherefore, the ascription of ears to the Lord Christ by an act of God, is the preparation of such a state and nature for him, as wherein he should be meet to yield obedience unto him. 2. By a synecdoche, wherein the part is put for the whole. In his divine nature alone, it was impossible that the Lord Christ should come to do the

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