Twenty-Seven Lectures Upon Hebrews, Lectures · Lecture 12
The twelth Lecture, more vponupon the two last verses, and vponupon the first verse of the third Chapter.
17 Wherefore in all things, it behoued him to be made likè vntounto his brethrē, that he might be mercifull, & a faithfull high Priest in things concerning God, that he might make reconciliation for the sinnes of the people.
18 For in that he suffered, and was tempted, bee is able to succour them that are tempted.
CHAP. III.
1 THerfore, holie brethren, partakers of the heauenly vocation, consider the Apostle and high priest of our profession, Christe Iesus
THe Apostle (as I saide) shewed in these last verses, what profite is vntounto vsus, in that Christ became man: for so he was made a merciful and faithfull high Priest. The meanes of this faithfulnes was, for that he hauing experience of our temptation, had the more compassion on vsus, to deliuer vsus.How dangerous a thing it is to denie that Christe hath a natural body like vntounto ours.
Heere we are first taught, that Christe became a faithfull high Priest for vsus, because he was man like vntounto vsus: so that, who soeuer denyeth our Sauiour Christe to hauehave a naturall bodie like vntounto ours, he also denyeth that he is either a mercifull, or faithfull mediatour for vsus; for so it pleased God to instructe him according to his manhood, that by experience and feeling, he should learne to hauehave pitie on others: he calleth him mercifull, in respect of the affection of his minde, which was full of compassion toward vsus: hee is called faithfull, in respecte of his constancie, who would neuer leaue vsus, till he had brought vsus into eternall life. In all this we must learne how to do good vntounto our brother in affliction: and these two things in our Sauiour Christe, we must carefully keepe, if we will be righteous after his similitude: We must ioyne vntounto all our doing, a louelove and compassion to our brother in his want, and a constancie in well deseruing, that our louelove be not wearied with paine and labour: for without louelove, what soeuer I do, it is nothing no, not though I gaue, (as Sainct Paule saith) all the goods I hauehave vntounto the 1. Cor. 13. 4poore. And, I pray you, is not this the law of God? LoueLove thy brother as thy selfe: wherein all our due…e is taught vsus betweene man & man. What then though I do no murther, or steale not, or speake not euil, though I helpe the safetie of my brothers life, though I mainteine his estate, thoughe I bring him increase of goods, though I care for the puritie of his bodie; though I mainteine his good name? Except I hauehave in all this an inwarde louelove and affectiō to do it to him with such a hart as I would hauehave another do the like to mee, and to be grieued with all his hurt, as though I my selfe susteined it: except (I say) some measure of this louelove and compassiō be in my doing, my doing hath none accoūt in the fight of God. Marke this (dearely beloued) and teache it your children: and I would our fathers knew it well, that boast so much of the good works of the old world. There is no good work vnderunder the sunne, but that whiche is done in louelove and compassion of minde: and were their workes such whereof they brag, when they gaue the riche altar clothes, & vestimentes, the costlie hanginges for their chancels, their bels, their gilded crosses: when they carued curious images, and clothed thē with goldsmithes woorke: when they builded chapels and chanteries: when they went farre on their knees, gaue riche gifts vntounto shrines? In all these works so much magnified, where was merciemercy? what louelove, what cōpas sion was there in thē? They pitied not (I am sure) the pouertie of lime & stones, to cloth thē so gorgeously: nor they pitied not y• priest in his furred gowne, to put vponupon him a cope of great price: & for all men in y• world, let him speak y• euer was the better for it: whose bodie was y• warmer for y• costly clothing of y• church walls? whose house was ye lighter for ye torches & candels about ye altar? whole head aked y• lesse for ye goodly garland of an image? or if there were in all this, no profite to my brother, no louelove, no cōpassion of the thing to which I gaue a gift, how could these be good works y• had no goodnes in thē? For I thinke there is no man so vaine y• will thinke he did these things vntounto god: y• were vnspekable blindnes, to thinke y• with the gifts of golde and siluer I could please god: he gaue no gold nor siluer for our raūsō, nor he wil take none for recompence of our sinnes.
The Prophet plainely sayth: Al my goods can bring nothing vntounto thee, O Lord. And how doth the Lord him Psal. 16. 2.selfe reiect such vaine thoughts of our hearts, when he saith? If I be hungrie I will not tell thee: and such other like speaches in the fiftie psalme, commaunding expresly, if we will doe good with meate, drinke, cloath, golde, siluer, &c. bestowe it vponupon the needie brethren: for God taketh no such gifts at our hands. And therfore (dearely beloued) al these good works of which you hauehave heard such boasting, before God they are as nothing, & there is no goodnes in them: for neither is there any merciemercy in such doings, and without it, it is impossible to please God in thy doeing. And thus we see their workes, euen their greatest workes, and of supererogation, when you hauehave weighed thē wel, they are found lighter then straw. And their woorkes of dignitie next vntounto these, they are of the same sort, of no value, as light as vanitie it selfe. Such are their penie or groate doles, when the man is dead, that his executours vse to giuegive for his soule. Was there euer folie like vntounto this? No work is good without louelove & compassion of mine owne flesh: yet then is the worke done for me, when my flesh is without sense, and when there is no compassion or feeling left within mee. But God is iust, and for so fruitelesse a work he gaue a helplesse reward … they bestowed a verie ydle liberalitie, and GOD recompenced it with verie ydle thankes, that for their benefite the foolish people should say, Lorde hauehave merciemercy on his soule: for whome I thinke they prayed not al the dayes of his life, when the acceptble 2. Cor. 6. 2.time was, and the day of health (as Sainct Paule saith) in which they might hauehave ben heard. But god at the last hath visited vsus, & this vanitie is scattered away: I would y• remēbrance of it were gon with it.
An other propertie is here attributed to Christ, that he was faythfull, that is, constant, and vnmoueable in his louelove, til he had finished our reconciliation: a lesson vntounto vsus, y• louelove should not faint within vsus, nor we be wearie with the labour and trauell of it: for true it is, louelove is not an idle affection, to say, I would hee were well, Or, God helpe him: but louelove is painefull to helpe in time of neede, and well willing, that no paine can wearie it. So S. Paul saith: Eternall life is giuen to thē which looke for it, in continuāce Rom. 2. 7.of wel doing. And in another place he bideth vsus not to be wery of wel doing: for we shal reape Gal. 6. 9.the fruit of it, & not be wearie: a thing (dearely beloued) cōfessed of al men, yea, the verie Gentiles knew it, y• all my well doing is nothing worth, if at last I would leaue my brother in miserie, & not help him stil. But it is a thing practised of verie few, when I hauehave once or twise traueled in my brothers cause, not to be wearie, but to helpe him stil: this corruption of y• world, let vsus take heede of it, & correct the frowardnes of our own nature. Tell me, I pray, if I saw a man like to drowne in y• mids of the Thames, what if I came vntounto him, and brought him nigh to the shore, and then lest him drowning by the banck side, what good did I to him? Sure, no more then he that looked on, and let him alone in the middes: only I made him languish with a vaine hope, whereby his death was the bitterer. And tell me thou fainting wearie friende: if Christ should hauehave done so with thee, how great had beene thy miserie? If he had endured for thee the paine of his birth, the trauel of his life, the affliction of his flesh, the reproches of men, ye tentatiōs of the diuel, & then had left thee in bondage of death whiche thou couldst not escape, what hadst thou beene the better? Let vsus learne then to be faithfull as he was faithfull, & endure to the ende in well doing. I speake this with griefe, to see y• world, how euerie man is left in his righteous cause: faire words & goodly countenances are not hard to gett, but a faithfull heart to deliuer the iust out of trouble, I hauehave seene it in Christ: I hauehave not else found it in one. Yet this I am sure of, he that is faithful in this behalfe, he is like vntounto Christ, and Christe liueth in him. And thus farre of the last verses of this second Chapter.
Now let vsus come to ye third. Therfore holie brethren partakers of the heauenly calling, cōsider the Apostle & high Priest of our professiō Christ Iesus: Now y• Apostle leaueth to make any further description of the persō of Christ, wherof we hauehave heard, & beginneth a more particular declaration of his offices: & first, how hee is our Prophet, to the 14. verse of the next chapter. And now let vsus learne to be fruitefull hearers: and this exhortatiō, let it make vsus wise, that carefully & diligently we may hearken, and learne the my sterie of y• Lord Iesu, in which we be saued: that we may hauehave the testimonie in our selues, that we be y• children of the Newe testament.
Therefore holy brethren, &c. Let vsus marke diligently euerie woorde, in this excellent exhortation: for they are not onelyonly a wise persuasion to moue vsus to care and diligence in learning: but the exhortation is so gathered out of the former doctrine, that this one sentence is a plaine expositiō of all the doctrine taught before from the eleuenth verse, to the end of the Chapter. He saith first: Therefore, Or, for this cause: as if he would say: Seeing it is so with vsus, seeing God hath receiued vsus into this grace, seeing such an excellēt prophet is giuē vntounto vsus, let vsus heare him. So in the first worde he sheweth, that this exhortation is according to his former doctrine.
Then he calleth them, Holie, alluding to that he spake in the eleuenth verse: He that sanctifieth, & they that are sanctified are one: to teach vsus that we be holie, that we are one with Christ, and y• by his spirit sanctifying vsus, we be receiued into his felowship. He calleth them Brethren, repeating that he taught in the 11. & 12. verse, that Christ hath taken our nature, & we are euen as his brethren, fellow-heires with him in the kingdome of his Father: and that this is the meaning of, Brethren, the words following declare. Partakers of the heauenly calling: these wordes shewe what brotherhood he speaketh of: that is, a heauenly brotherhood which we hauehave with Christe: for Christ the sonne of God, who hath brought downe heauenlie giftes, hath imparted himselfe vntounto vsus, & made vsus fellowes with him in these heauenly blessings: first reuealing his fathers wil, then defending vsus from our enimies: and at last presenting vsus faultlesse before God, abolishing the diuel and the feare of death, of whiche heauenlie giftes he spake in the 12. 13. 14. & 15. verses. After he addeth: The Apostle and high priest of our profession: In these words he teacheth, what offices he had before attributed to Christ, in y• texts alledged: first y• he is our prophet, calling him by the name of Apostle, that is, the messinger of God, to teach vsus our profession, verse 12: then y• he is our priest, to present vsus before God, as verse. 13. And although, as I hauehave often tolde you, his kingdome is also manifestly proued by that is saide afore: yet by this place I gather, that the Apostle hath especially and of purpose, onelyonly taught this, that Iesus Christ, God and man, is only our Prophet & priest, to declare and worke our saluation, exhorting vsus now to learne carefully so great a mysterie.
Now let vsus consider further this exhortation, to see what profitable thinges we hauehave to learne in it: where we are first called Holie Brethren, we may see in these wordes a good image of the Churche of Christe: Brethren (as is said) noteth our vnitie with Christ our head, by the participation of his spirit, so the church is a people graffed into Christ, y• is, made members of Christ, and sanctified with his spirite. This is our knowledge of the church, which is true and catholique: it is not in any obseruation of time, of place, of person, but where this brotherhood is a people ioyned to the Lord Iesus, and sanctified by him, there is the church: to talke of any places, it is great follie, Christ will not hauehave his Churche to be known by countrie or kinred, or respect of persons, but only by this, that they are graffed in him, and made a holy brotherhod. And here let vsus learn what is true holinesse, euen to be made partakers of the holinesse that is in Christ: for he hath sāctified him selfe for vsus, and is made vntounto vsus our sanctification of God, without whome we are fleshe & bloud, the cogitations of our heart bent to euil, & all our righteousnes as a defiled cloath. For if the Angels that are greater then wee in all power & excellencie, can not iustifie themselues in his sight: what can we do, (as Eliphas saith) yt dwell in houses of clay, whose Iob. 4. 19.foundation is in the dust, & who shalbe destroyed before the moth? The Lord hath no neede of our workes, nor they shall euer come in account before him: for if one man could do all that all fleshe hathe euer done, yet stil he might say, he were vnprofitable. The great iustice, fortitude, temperance, liberalitie, and all other vertues, whiche so abounded in some of the Gentiles, what hauehave they to glorie in them? Nothing at all before God: except they say, as Paule witnesseth of them: When we thought our selues wise, we were verie fooles. And why was all their doing nothing worth? Because they sought their righteousnes in them selues, and were not of y• brotherhood of Christ, to seeke all their holinesse in his person. Euen thus (dearely beloued) and none otherwise, it is with all Iusticiaries in the worlde, whether they be Gentiles, or whether they be Papists, in their righteousnesse they are defiled, and in their wisdome they are made foolishe: if they seeke their holinesse in them selues, or iustifie the worke which their hands hauehave brought foorth. And let no mā, be he neuer so holie, if he were as good as Paul, exempt him self: for Paule him selfe confesseth this with vsus, that what soeuer he could do, he would accompt it but as doung, that he might hauehave the righteousnes, not which was of him selfe, but that which was by faith in Iesus Christ, that he might be of this brotherhood, & as he sayth, that he might be found Phil. 3. 9.in him. This is the true rule of holinesse, otherwise to talke of our grandfathers and fathers, what good works they hauehave done: it is to shew forth our owne ignorance in the faith of Christ. For what hauehave our fathers done: but Socrates, Aristides, Scipio, Fabricius, and a thousande among the Gentiles did as much? Or, if they had done neuer so much, if they had giuen all their goods to the poore, and their bodie to the fire, what then? Except they had bene brethren with Iesu Christ, one with him, & sought for their righteousnesse by fayth in him, they had no holinesse in them. And I merueile how this beeing so plaine, so many yet can bee deceiued, to louelove still that idolatrous nation, whiche teacheth them to glorie in their owne workes: and let no man thinke we slander them, or that they giuegive not this glorie to their owne workes: for their owne wordes testifie against them: they hauehave named it distinctly, Opus operatum, A worke wrought of it selfe, without grace, without Christ, without fayth, Opus operatum, The thing done it is meritorious. Did euer Pagane attribute more to them selues? Then we may boldly conclude against them, and our Sauiour Christ shall be our warrant. They are not of God, because they seke their owne glorie: and let vsus giuegive glorie vntounto God, to acknowledge all our holinesse to be in this brotherhood, as we be one with Christ, and Christ with vsus, whome God hath giuen a sanctification vntounto vsus.
In that we are saide, to be Partakers of the heauenly calling: we must consider what is the honour offered vntounto vsus: and that we be not dull of hearing, when such a blessed sound is brought vntounto our eares. If we were called to vile things, wee might stop our eares, but hauing a heauenly calling, they be, and let them be excuselesse that despise it. It was a vsuall persuasion with Saint Paule, to put the Churches in minde of their calling they had of God, to stir them vp the more willingly to follow it. I beseech you brethren Ephe 4. 1.(saith he to the Ephesians) walke worthy of your calling, in which you are called. And of him self he testifieth to the Philippians, that his continuall traue…le was to be carried to the price of his high calling of God, which was in Christ Iesu: so let vsus also be inflamed Phil. 3. 14.with the louelove of our calling, to followe it, lest it come vponupon vsus also, which was spoken in the Prophets: See you despisers, & maruell and vanishe away: for I will woorke a woorke in your dayes, a Act. 13. 40.worke which you will not beleeue, though a man should tell it you. We hauehave not to deale, as our fathers had, with men that preache lies, and are learned to tell tales, and happie had they beene, if they had reiected them: but the sonne of God is come vntounto vsus, and hath called vsus with a heauenly calling, and yet againe his voice hath shaken, not the earth only, but also Heauen. And how muche thinke you were it better for vsus, that we were againe in the darke dayes, and blacknesse of our olde superstition, then thus openly to heare the Gospell, and litle or nothing to giuegive heede vntounto it? But this is a case almoste desperate, and when we speake, we are almost without hope. We hauehave so many yeres despised this heauenly calling: and lewde men, lewde I may wel call them, though some be riche, and some be high, who take suche libertie, by reason of their riches & titles, that they dare openly blaspheme the Gospell, and contemne our churche and congregations, and no man is to controll them: for this cause, (for my part) I am nighe persuaded, that God will cut off this generation, whome he hath loued, and raise vp another, which yet he will blesse more, and they shall bring a discipline into his Church, which shall stoppe the mouthes of these mightie grants, whiche thinke by their strength, to do what they will. But I leaue this to the Lord, who doth regarde it.
Where Christ is said here, to be The Apostle and highe priest of our profession: we must learne this, that we that be Christians professe no other teacher, nor no other Sauiour: but this is all we beleeue, and all we speake, that Christ is bothe our wisedome & our iustification: his worde is ours, his doctrine is ours, his wisedome is ours, we professe not one iot, or one title wherof he hath not bene an Apostle vntounto vsus: and whoso euer he be, that teacheth vsus other things, then what Christ hath taught vsus al, he is not of our profession, nor of our brotherhood: and more then this, we are sure he teacheth nothing but vaine illusions and imaginations of men: for all treasures of wisdome and true knowledge are hid in Christ. And seeing it hath pleased him to be our Apostle, who is the sonne of God, ye brightnes of his glorie, y• ingrauen forme of his substance, ye heire of al things the maker of heauen & earth, farre greater then Angels: how vnthankfull be we, if his doctrine be not our profession? Nay, how madd be we, if we will change him either for any other, or els for al other? What so euer glorious names they bring of Fathers, Doctours, Counsels, and suche like boasting words, we neither knowe them, nor their names: if they be ministers of Christ vntounto vsus, their feete are beautifull, and their names are honorable: if they be their owne ministers, wee know them not, nor all their glorie: if they say, they be Doctours, we may well say againe, they are but Phariscies that will be called Rabbie. We hauehave no Doctour but one, and that is Christ, & he is The Apostle of our profession.
Now, where the Apostle calleth Christe the highe Priest of our profession, as we hauehave learned before, if he be our Apostle, we hauehave no other teacher: so we learne here, if he bee the Priest of our profession, no part nor parcell of the office of his priesthoode wee may giuegive to another, but professe it clearly, that he is our Priest alone. And as the Priest is ordeined to make sacrifice for sinne, and to be a mediatour betweene God and man: so all this worke wee must leaue wholy vntounto him, know no other, receiue no other, professe no other, vponupon whome we will lay this reconciliation, to purge our sinnes, and to bring vsus vntounto God, but Christe alone: for he is The Priest of our profession, he hath washed vsus from our sinnes, he hath ioyned vsus vntounto God, let him hauehave all the praise of this saluation. Let vsus call all the worlde into a reckoning, who soeuer they be, Popes, prelates, abbats, monks, friers, heremites, ankers, their indulgences, their pardons, their blessinges, their orders, their garments, their vowes, accōpt all their works, prayers, fastings, meditations, pouertie, nakednesse, and al the chastisings of their bodies: if in al this laid on a heape, thou seekest to counterpeise but the least iot of thy sinne, thou makest thy selfe thy priest, and art an hypocrite or an hypocrits disciple & hast denied Christ to be the Priest of thy profession: for if he be thy Priest, he is thy Priest alone, purging al & eueryevery one of thy sinnes, & hath neither fellowe, nor helper in his worke: but as he hath saide, so he hath done: and hee hath troaden alone the wine-presse of the wrath of God. Beware therefore (dearely beloued) of such doctours, & of such doctrine, which in the question of forgiuenesse of sinnes, carrie away your senses to any man, or woorke of mans hand: for it is but subtiltie to make you blinde, that Christe should not be the Prieste of your profession. And as it is thus in the purging of our sinnes, so in beeing mediatour betweene God and vsus, to offer vp our workes, our prayers, and vsus our selues faultlesse before his father, there is no other but hee alone: for if all Angels would present our prayers, yet they could not, our thoughts are so euil and our wordes so vncleane, that the Angels of God can not make them righteous in his sight.
But if Christe giuegive vntounto vsus his spirite, to minister sighes in our-heartes: and in his owne righteousnes in whose mouth was no deceite, will sanctifie our prayers, which are of polluted lipps: then wee hauehave a fre enterance vntounto the throne of grace: for he hath sanctified him selfe for vsus, and what so euer we aske in his name, we shall obteine: for thus neither our prayers are of vsus, but they are of the spirite of God, niether are they presented from vsus, but from him who is our Mediatour, and giueth them his owne righteousnesse to make them accepted: and thus in his holie and vnsearchable wisedome, findeing a meanes to sanctifie with his holines all that is ours, euen vsus our selues also hee hath sanctified in him selfe, and giuen vsus the righteousnes of his humanitie, to be righteousnesse vntounto our fleshe, and so presenteth vsus vnblamable vntounto his father. Thus Christ is the Priest of our profession, and in all Christianitie there is no other. It greeueth me heere, to see the subtiltie of some, who with colored words deceiue the heartes of many that are not euill. When they would pull this profession out of our mouth, they speake not in plaine wordes, to byd vsus denie that Christ is our Priest, for then we would hate them: therfore to kepe their credit, and yet to worketheir mischefe, they stammer in their tongs, that the simple should not perceiue them, and they say, a Mediatour (which is one part of his priesthood) is of two sortes, one of redemption, and so is Christe alone: another of intercession, and so are all the Saints and Angels. Thus they stop the mouthes of ignoraunt men, & then with a harlots forehead, boast in their lies. But when you meet these Rabbines, and Apostles of their owne profession, aske of them what they meane by a Mediatour of intercession: they may as well say, an intercessour of mediation, for both are one: & it is (as ye Logicians call it) a meere nugation: For where there is one Mediatour beetweene God and man, the man Iesus Christ, it is his office to redeeme vsus from sinne, and to make intercession to God for vsus. And they rob him of this last parte of his honour, who make you beleue it is a seuerall thing belonging to an other: as by example we may make this more plaine. It is the office of a king to rule ouer bodie and goods, in whiche cause God commaundeth our obedience: now a froward person, that would denie to pay his tribute, shall say, a King is of two sortes, one ouer the bodie, another ouer goods: my bodie I graunt to any lawfull seruice, as due to our King: but our Kinge is not onelyonly the King of our goodes, and I will bestowe mine otherwise. Doe you not see what follie is in this? because God hath submitted to Kinges, two thinges, bodie and goods, therfore, to say, there bee two sortes of Kinges? Euen so, God hath made a Mediatour, bothe to redeeme vsus, and to present vsus vntounto God: and they blinde your eyes, and tell you there be two sortes of Mediatours. Surely, euen with as good reason they might say: because a man hath bodie & soule, there be two sortes of men, one of a bodie, another of a soule: but to let suche deceiuers go, let vsus confesse a better fayth, and acknowledge that Christe is the one and whole Prieste of our profession.
And heere let vsus not forget this, that our religion, our sayth, our hope, is called our profession: so he calleth it againe in the fourth chapter, verse 14. Our profession.and againe in the tenth Chapter, the confessiou of our hope: whereby we learne, except wee professe it, it is no religion, no hope, no fayth.
The Prophet sayth: I hauehave beleeued, therfore I hauehave spoken: and S. Paule maketh this common to vsus all: …. Cor. 4. 13.we hauehave also beleued and therfore hauehave we spoken: and Saint Paul sayth to the Romanes: As in hart we Ro. 10. 10.beleue vntounto righteousnesse, so in mouth we confesse 1. Ioh. 4. 15.vntounto saluation: and Sainct Iohn sayth, who soeuer shall openly professe that Iesus is the sonne of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And who soeuer he be, that for any seare of man, or for any cause maketh it not knowen that thus he beleueth, or wil not professe his fayth, the scripture testifieth against the thoughts of his heart, and sayth plainlie: He loueth the glorie of man more thē the glorie of God. Let vsus not be guiltie of so great sinne: for this cause the calling of the Gentiles was so greatly magnified, because the name of God should be greate from one end of the earth to the other. Howe doe we holde our peace, if wee be called in this couenant: and not onelie so, but what creature is there whiche is his dumbe nature, sheweth not out the prayse of his Creatour? The Heauens declare the glorie of GOD, and the firmament sheweth his hand…e woorke: howe should then man, of whome GOD hath bene esspecially mindful, ty his toung, so excellent a member of his bodie, & not with it speake forth y• praise of God, and make the world his witnes what faith he hathe in Christe? But of this I spake before in the eleuenth lecture, and vponupon the twelfth verse. Nowe let vsus pray, &c.