Wherefore this will of God, which Christ came to fulfil, is that which elsewhere is expressed by ευδοκία, πρόθεσις, βουλη του θελήματος, Eph. i. 5, 11, &c. 'his good pleasure, his purpose, the counsel of his will; his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that is freely, without any cause or reason taken from us, to call, justify, sanctify, and save to the uttermost, or to bring them unto eternal glory. This he had purposed from eternity, to the praise of the glory of his grace. How this might be effected and accomplished, God had hid in his own bosom from the beginning of the world, Eph. iii. 8, 9, so as that it was beyond the wisdom and indagation of all angels and men to make a discovery of. Howbeit, even from the beginning, he declared that such a work he had graciously designed and gave in the first promise, and otherwise, some obscure intimations of the nature of it, for a foundation of the faith in them that were called. Afterwards God was pleased, in his sovereign authority over the church, for their good and unto his own glory, to make a representation of this whole work in the institutions of the law, especially of the sacrifices thereof. But hereon the church began to think, at least many of them did so, that those sacrifices themselves were to be the only means of accomplishing this will of God, in the expiation of sin, with the salvation of the church. But God had now, by various ways and means, witnessed unto the church, that indeed he never appointed them unto any such end, nor would rest in them; and the church itself found by experience, that they would never pacify conscience, and that the strict performance of them was a yoke and burden. In this state of things, when the fulness of time was come, the glorious counsels of God, namely, of the Father, Son, and Spirit, brake forth with light, like the sun in its strength from under a cloud, in the tender made of himself by Jesus Christ unto the Father, ‘Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.' This, this is the way, the only way, whereby the will of God might be accomplished. Herein were all the riches of divine wisdom displayed, all the treasures of grace laid open, all shades and clouds dispelled, and the open door of salvation evidenced unto all.

3dly. This will of God Christ came to do, rov Tomoal, to effect, to establish, and perfectly to fulfil it.' How he did so, the apostle fully declareth in this Epistle. He did it in the whole work of his mediation, from the susception of our nature in the womb, unto what he doth in his supreme agency in heaven at the right hand of God. He did all things to accomplish this eternal purpose of the will of God. This seems to me the first sense of the place. Howbeit, I would not, as I said before, exclude the former mentioned also. For our Lord, in all that he did, was the servant of the Father, and received especial commands for all that he did. This commandment,' saith he, have I received of my Father.' Hence in this sense also he came to do the will of God. He fulfilled the will of his purpose, by obedience unto the will of his commands. Hence it is added in the Psalm, that he delighted to do the will of God, and that his law was in the midst of his bowels.' His delight in the will of God, as unto the laying down of his life at the command of God, was necessary unto this doing of his will. And we may observe,

Obs. XIV. The foundation of the whole glorious work of the salvation of the church, was laid in the sovereign will, pleasure, and grace of God, even the Father. Christ came only to do his will.

Obs. XV. The coming of Christ in the flesh, was in the wisdom, righteousness, and holiness of God, necessary to fulfil his will, that we might be saved unto his glory.

Obs. XVI. The fundamental motive unto the Lord Christ in his undertaking the work of mediation, was the will and glory of God: 'Lo, I come to do thy will.'

έμου,

5. The last thing in this context is the ground and rule of this undertaking of the Lord Christ: and this is the glory of the truth of God in his promises recorded in the word, εν κεφαλιδι βιβλιου γεγραπται περι 'In the volume of the book it is written of me, that I should fulfil thy will, O God.' There is a difficulty in these words, both as to the translation of the original text, and as unto the application of them. And therefore critical observations have been multiplied about them, which it is not my way or work to repeat. Those that are learned know where to find them, and those that are not so, will not be edified by them. What is the true meaning and intention of the Holy Spirit in them, is what we are to inquire into.

The Socinian expositors have a peculiar conceit on this place. They suppose the apostle useth this expression, Ev Kepaλidi, to denote some especial chapter or place in the law. This they conjecture to be that of Deut. xvii. 18, 19, And it shall be, that when he' (the king to be chosen,) shall sit on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein, all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them.' David, they say, spoke those words in the Psalm; and it is nowhere said that he should come to do the will of God, but in this place of Deuteronomy, as he was to be the king of that people. But there can be nothing more fond than this empty conjecture. For,

1st. David is not at all intended in these words of the Psalmist, any otherwise but as he was the penman of the Holy Ghost, and a type of Christ, on which account he speaks in his name. They are the words of Christ, which David was inspired by the Holy Ghost to declare and utter: neither would David speak these words concerning himself; because he that speaks, doth absolutely prefer his own obedience, as unto worth and efficacy, before all God's holy institutions. He presents it unto God, as that which is more useful unto the church than all the sacrifices which God had ordained. This David could not do justly.

2dly. There is nothing spoken in this place of Deuteronomy concerning the sacerdotal office, but only of the regal. And in this place of the Psalmist, there is no respect unto the kingly office, but only unto the priesthood, for comparison is made with the sacrifices of the law. But the offering of these sacrifices was expressly forbidden unto the kings; as is manifest in the instance of king Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 18-20. Besides, there is in that place of Deuteronomy, no more respect had unto David than unto Saul, or Jeroboam, or any other, that was to be

king of that people. There is nothing in them that belongs unto David in a peculiar manner.

3dly. The words there recorded, contain a mere prescription of duty, no prediction of the event, which for the most part was contrary unto what is required. But the words of the Psalmist are a prophecy, a divine prediction and promise, which must be actually accomplished. Nor doth our Lord Christ in them declare what was prescribed unto him, but what he did undertake to do, and the record that was made of that undertaking of his.

4thly. There is not one word in that place of Moses, concerning the removal of sacrifices and burnt-offerings, which, as the apostle declares, is the principal thing intended in those of the Psalmist. Yea, the contrary, as unto the season intended, is expressly asserted. For the king was to read in the book of the law continually, that he might observe and do all that is written therein, a great part whereof consists in the institution and observance of sacrifices.

5thly. This interpretation of the words utterly overthrows what they dispute for immediately before. This is, that the entrance mentioned of Christ into the world, was not indeed his coming into this world, but his going out of it, and entering into heaven. For it cannot be denied, but that the obedience of reading the law continually, and doing of it, is to be attended unto in this world, and not in heaven; and this they seem to acknowledge, so as to recal their own exposition. Other absurdities, which are very many in this place, I shall not insist upon.

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Ev Kepaλid, we, with many others, render, in answer unto the Hebrew, in the volume or roll.' Ribera contends, that this translation of the word,' the volume or roll of the book,' is absurd; because, saith he, the book itself was a volume or a roll; and so it is as if he had said, ' in the roll of the roll.' But, which we translate a book,' doth not signify a book as written in a roll, but only an enunciation or declaration of any thing. We now call any book of greater quantity a volume;' but, is properly a roll,' and the words used by the Psalmist do signify, that the declaration of the will of God made in this matter was written in a roll; the roll which contains all the revelations of his mind. And the word used by the apostle is not remote from this signification, as may be seen in sundry classic authors, Kepaλıç, volumen, because a roll is made round after the fashion of the head of a man.

As the book itself was one roll, so the head of it, the beginning of it, amongst the first things written in it, is this recorded concerning the coming of Christ to do the will of God. This includeth both senses of the word; in the head, in the beginning of the roll, namely, of that part of the Scripture which was written when David penned this Psalm. Now this can be no other but the first promise, which was recorded, Gen. iii. 15. Then it was first declared, then it was first written and enrolled, that the Lord Christ the Son of God should be made of the seed of the woman, and in our nature come to do the will of God, and to deliver the church from that woeful estate whereinto it was brought by the craft of Satan. In this promise, and the writing of it in the head of the volume, lies the verification of the Psalmist's assertion, In the volume of the book it is written.' Howbeit, the following declarations

of the will of God herein, are not excluded, nor ought so to be. Hence are we herein directed unto the whole volume of the law. For indeed it is nothing but a prediction of the coming of Christ, and a presignification of what he had to do. That book which God had given to the church, as the only guide of its faith-the Bible, that is, the book, all other books being of no consideration in comparison of it; that book, wherein all divine precepts and promises are enrolled or recorded in this book, in the volume of it, this is its principal subject, especially in the head of the roll, or the beginning of it, namely, in the first promise, it is so written of me. God commanded this great truth of the coming of Christ to be so enrolled for the encouragement of the faith of them that should believe. And we may observe, that,

Obs. XVII. God's records in the roll of his book, are the foundation and warrant of the faith of the church in the head and members. Obs. XVIII. The Lord Christ, in all that he did and suffered, had continual respect unto what was written of him. See Matt. xxvi. 24.

Obs. XIX. In the record of these words, 1. God was glorified in his truth and faithfulness. 2. Christ was secured in his work, and the undertaking of it. 3. A testimony was given unto his person and office. 4. Direction is given unto the church, in all wherein they have to do with God, what they should attend unto, namely, what is written. 5. The things which concern Christ the mediator, are the head of what is contained in the same records.

VER. 8-10.-Above, when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein; (which are offered by the law.) Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second; by the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

THE use and signification of most of the words of these verses, have already in our passage been spoken unto.

There are two things in these three verses. 1. The application of the testimony, taken out of the Psalmist, unto the present argument of the apostle, ver. 8, 9. 2. An inference from the whole, unto the proof of the only cause and means of the sanctification of the church, the argument he was now engaged in.

As to the first of these, or the application of the testimony of the Psalmist, and his resuming it, we may consider,

1. What he designed to prove thereby, and this was, that by the introduction and establishment of the sacrifice of Christ in the church, there was an end put to all legal sacrifices; and he adds thereunto, that the ground and reason of this great alteration of things in the church by the will of God, was the utter insufficiency of these legal sacrifices in themselves for the expiation of sin and the sanctification of the church. In ver. 9, he gives us this sum of his design, 'He takes away the first, that he may establish the second.'

2. The apostle doth not here directly argue from the matter or sub

stance of the testimony itself, but from the order of the words, and the regard they have in their order unto one another. For there is in them a twofold proposition; one concerning the rejection of legal sacrifices, and the other an introduction and tender of Christ and his mediation. And he declares from the order of the words in the Psalmist, that these things are inseparable; namely, the taking away of legal sacrifices, and the establishment of that of Christ.

3. This order in the words of the apostle, is declared in that distribution of avwrepov and TOTε, 'above,' and 'then :' avwrɛpov, 'above,' that is, in the first place,' these his words, or sayings, recorded in the first place.

4. There is in the words themselves these three things.

1st. There is a distribution made of the legal sacrifices into their general heads, with respect unto the will of God concerning them all: Sacrifices, and offering, and whole burnt-offerings, and sacrifice for sin.' And in that distribution he adds another property of them, namely, they were required according to the law.'

2dly. He had respect not only unto the removal of the sacrifices, but also of the law itself, whereby they were retained; so he enters on his present disputation with the imperfection of the law itself, ver. 4.

3dly. Allowing these sacrifices and offerings all that they could pretend unto, namely, that they were established by the law; yet, notwithstanding this, God rejects them as unto the expiation of sin and the salvation of the church. For he excludes the consideration of all other things, which were not appointed by the law, as those which God abhorred in themselves, and so could have no place in this matter. And we may observe, that,

Obs. XX. Whereas the apostle doth plainly distinguish and distribute all sacrifices and offerings into those, on the one side, which were offered by the law, and that one offering of the body of Christ, on the other side; the pretended sacrifice of the mass is utterly rejected from any place in the worship of God.

Obs. XXI. God, as the sovereign lawgiver, had always power and authority to make what alteration he pleased, in the orders and institutions of his worship.

Obs. XXII. That sovereign authority is that alone which our faith and obedience respects in all ordinances of worship.

After this was stated and delivered, when the mind of God was expressly declared, as unto his rejection of legal sacrifices and offerings, TOTE, then he said;' after that, in order thereon, upon the grounds before mentioned, he said, Sacrifice,' &c. In the former words he declared the mind of God, and in the latter his own intention and resolution to comply with his will, in order unto another way of atonement for sin, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;' which words have been opened before.

In the last place, he declares what was intimated and signified in this order of those things being thus spoken unto; sacrifices, on the one hand, which was the first, and the coming of Christ, which was the second in this order and opposition. It is evident,

1. That these words, avaipei TO TOWтоv, he taketh away the first,'

VOL. IV.

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