Exposition of Hebrews 6-10, Exegesis of chapter 7 · Exegesis of verse 16
VER. 16.
This Verse containeth an Illustration and Confirmation of the foregoing Assertion, by a Declaration of the way and manner how this other Priest, who was not of the Seed of Aaron, should come unto that Office. And this was necessary also for the prevention of an Objection, which the whole Discourse was obnoxious unto. For it might be said, that whatever was affirmed concerning another Priest, yet there was no way possible, whereby any one might come so to be, unless he were of the Family of Aaron. All others were expressely excluded by the Law. Nor was there any way or means ordained of God, any especial Sacrifice instituted whereby such a Priest might be dedicated, and initiated into his Office. In prevention of this Objection, and Confirmation of what was before declared, the Apostle adds,
Who was made, not after the Law of a Carnal Commandment, but after the Power of an Endless Life.
The words declare, (1.) That this Priest was made so; and (2.) How he was made so, both negatively and positively.
1. He was made so; foreign, which Priest was made; or who was made a Priest. The force of this Expression hath been explained on Chap. 3. 2. and Chap. 5. 5. foreign.The Lord Christ did not meerly on his own Authority and Power take this Office upon himself. He became so, he was made so by the Appointment and Designation of the Father. Nor did he do any thing in the whole work of his Mediation, but in Obedience unto his Command, and in compliance with his Will. For it is the Authority of God alone which is the Foundation of all Office, Duty, and Power in the Church. Even what Christ himself is and was unto the Church, he is and was so by the Grace and Authority of God even the Father. By him was he sent, his will did he perform, through his Grace did he die, by his Power was he exalted, and with him doth he intercede. What Acts of God in particular do concur unto the constitution of this Office of Christ, and to the making him a Priest, have been declared before.
2. The manner of his being made a Priest is expressed Negatively, foreign, foreign.not after; or not according unto the Law of a Carnal Commandment. Syr. foreign the Law of Bodily Commandments. It is unquestionable, that the Apostle by this Expression intendeth in the first place the Law of the Levitical Priesthood, or the way and manner, whereby the Aaronical Priests were first called and vested with their Office, and then any other Law, Constitution, Rule, or Order of the same kind. He was made a Priest neither by that Law, nor any other like unto it. And two things we must enquire into. (1.) Why the Call of the Aaronical Priests is said to be after the Law of Commandment (2.) Why this Commandment is said to be Fleshly.
1. For the first, we may observe that the whole Law of Worship among the Jews is called by our Apostle, foreign, Ephes. 2. 15. The Law of Commandments in Ordinances. And it is so called for two Reasons.
(1.) Because Commands were so multiplyed therein, that the whole Law was denominated from them. Hence it became foreign, a Yoke hardly to be born, if not altogether intolerable, Acts 15. 10. (2.) Because of that Severity wherewith Obedience was exacted. A Command in its formal Notion expresseth Authority, and the multiplication of them Severity: And both these God designed to make Eminent in that Law; whence it hath this denomination, a Law of Commandments. Hereof the Law of the constitution of the Office of the Priesthood and the Call of Aaron thereunto, was a part, and he was therefore made a Priest by the Law of Commandments; that is, by a Preceptive Law, as a part of that System of Commands wherein the whole Law consisted. See this Law and all the Commands of it, Exod. 28. throughout.
2. Why doth the Apostle call this Commandment Carnal or Fleshly. Answ. It foreign.may be on either of these three Accounts.
(1.) With respect unto the Sacrifices which were the principal part of the consecration of Aaron unto his Office. And these may be called Fleshly on two Accounts. 1. Because of their Subject-matter, they were Flesh, or the Bodies of Beasts; as the Syriack reads these words, the Commandment of Bodies, that is, of Beasts to be Sacrificed. 2. In themselves and their Relation unto the Jewish State they reached no further than the purifying of the Flesh. They Sanctified unto the Purifying of the Flesh, as the Apostle speaks, Chap. 9. 13. And thus the whole Commandment should be denominated from the principal Subject-matter, or the Offering of Fleshly Sacrifices unto the Purifying of the Flesh.
(2.) It may be called Carnal, because a Priesthood was Instituted thereby, which was to be continued by Carnal Propagation only; the Priesthood appointed by that Law was confined unto the Carnal Seed and Posterity of Aaron, wherein this other Priest had no Interest.
(3.) Respect may be had unto the whole System of those Laws and Institutions of Worship, which our Apostle, as was also before observed, calls Carnal Ordinances, imposed unto the Time of Reformation, Chap. 9. 10. They were all Carnal in opposition unto the Dispensation of the Spirit under the Gospel and the Institutions thereof.
None of these ways was the Lord Christ made a Priest. He was not dedicated unto his Office by the Sacrifice of Beasts, but Sanctified himself thereunto, when he Offered himself through the Eternal Spirit unto God, and was consummate in his own Blood. He was not of the Carnal Seed of Aaron, nor did, nor could claim any Succession unto the Priesthood by virtue of an Extraction from his Race. And no constitution of the Law in general, no Ordinance of it, did convey unto him either Right or Title unto the Priesthood.
It is therefore Evident, that he was in no sense made a Priest according to the Law of a Carnal Commandment; neither had he either Right, Power, or Authority to exercise the Sacerdotal Function in the observation of any Carnal Rites or Ordinances whatever: And we may observe,
That what seemed to be wanting unto Christ in his entrance into any of his Offices, or in the Discharge of them, was on the account of a greater Glory. Aaron was made a Priest with a great outward Solemnity. The Sacrifices which were Offered, and the Garments he put on, with his visible separation from the rest of the People, had a great Ceremonial Glory in them. There was nothing of all this, nor any thing like unto it, in the Consecration of the Lord Christ unto his Office. But yet indeed these things had no Glory, in comparison of that excelling Glory, which accompanied those invisible Acts of Divine Authority, VVisdom, and Grace which communicated his Office unto him. And indeed in the VVorship of God, who is a Spirit, all outward Ceremony is a diminution and debasement of it. Hence were Ceremonies for Beauty and Glory multiplyed under the Old Testament, but yet as the Apostle shews, were all but Carnal. But as the sending of Christ himself and his Investiture with all his Offices were by Secret and Invisible Acts of God and his Spirit, so all Evangelical VVorship, as to the Glory of it, is Spiritual and Internal only. And the removal of the Old Pompous Ceremonies from our VVorship is but the taking away of the Veil, which hindred from an insight and entrance into the Holy place.
2. The way and manner whereby the Lord Christ was made a Priest is expressed positively: foreign. But according unto the Power of an foreign.indissoluble Life. foreign denotes an Opposition between the way rejected and this asserted, as those which were not consistent. He was not made a Priest that way, but this.
How is Christ then made a Priest according to the Power of an endless Life? That foreign.is, saith one in his Paraphrase, installed into the Priesthood after his Resurrection. VVhat is meant by installed, I well know not. It should seem to be the same with foreign, Consecrated, Dedicated, Initiated. And if so, this Exposition diverts wholly from the Truth. For Christ was installed into his Office of Priesthood before his Resurrection, or he did not Offer himself as a Sacrifice unto God in his Death and Blood-shedding. And to suppose that the Lord Christ discharged and performed the principal Act of his Sacerdotal Office, which was but once to be performed, before he was installed a Priest, is contradictory to, Scripture and Reason it self. Ideo ad vitam im mortalem perductus est, ut in aeternum sacrdos noster esset. He was therefore brought unto an Immortal Life, that he might be our Priest for ever, saith another. But this is not to be made a Priest according to the Power of an endless Life. If he means, that he might always continue to be a Priest, and to execute that Office always unto the consummation of all things; what he says is true, but not the sence of this place: but if he means, that he became Immortal after his Resurrection, that he might be our Priest, and abide so for ever, it excludes his Oblation in his Death from being a proper Sacerdotal Act, which that it was, I have sufficiently proved elsewhere, against Crellius and others.
Some think that the endless life intended is that of Believers, which the Lord Christ by virtue of his Priestly Office confers upon them. The Priests under the Law proceeded no further but to discharge Carnal Rites, which could not confer Eternal life on them, for whom they Ministred. But the Lord Christ in the Discharge of his Office, procureth Eternal Redemption and Everlasting life for Believers. And these things are true, but they comprise not the meaning of the Apostle in this place. For how can Christ be made a Priest according to the Power of that Eternal Life, which he confers on others. For the comparison and opposition that is made between the Law of a Carnal Commandment, whereby Aaron was constituted a Priest, and the Power of an endless Life, whereby Christ was made so, do Evidence, that the making of Christ a Priest, not absolutely, which the Apostle treats not of, but such a Priest as he is, was the Effect of this endless Life.
VVherefore the foreign, the indissoluble Life here intended, is the life of Christ himself. Hereunto belonged, or from hence did proceed that foreign, or Power, whereby he was made a Priest. And both the Office it self and the Execution or Discharge of it, are here intended. And as to the Office it self, this Eternal or endless life of Christ, is his life as the Son of God. Hereon depends his own Mediatory life for ever, and his conferring of Eternal life on us, John 5. 26, 27. And to be a Priest by virtue of, or according unto this Power, stands in direct opposition unto the Law of a Carnal Commandment.
It must therefore be enquired, how the Lord Christ was made a Priest according unto this power. And I say it was, because thereby alone he was rendred meet to discharge that Office, wherein God was to redeem his Church with his own Blood, Acts 20. 28. By Power therefore here, both meetness and ability are intended. And both these the Lord Christ had from his Divine Nature and his endless life therein.
Or it may be the Life of Christ in his Humane Nature is intended, in opposition unto those Priests, who being made so by the Law of a Carnal Commandment, did not continue in the Discharge of their Office by reason of Death, as our Apostle observes afterwards. But it will be said, that this Natural life of Christ, the life of the Humane Nature was not Endless, but had an End put unto it in the Dissolution of his Soul and Body on the Cross.
I say therefore this life of Christ was not absolutely the life of the Humane Nature considered separately from his Divine; but it was the life of the Person of the Son of God, of Christ as God and Man in one Person. And so his life was endless. For first, in the Death which he underwent in his Humane Nature, there was no Interruption given unto his Discharge of his Sacerdotal Office, no, not for a moment. For Secondly, His Person still lived, and both Soul and Body were therein inseparably United unto the Son of God. Although he was truly and really dead in his Humane Nature, he was still alive in his indissoluble Person. And this the Apostle hath a respect unto in the Testimony, which he cites in the next Verse, to prove that he is a Priest for ever. The Carnal Commandment gave Authority and Efficacy unto the Levitical Priests. But Christ is made a Priest according to the Power of an endless life; that is, through the Power and Efficacy of that Eternal life which is in his Divine Person, both his Humane Nature is preserved always in the Discharge of his Office, and he is enabled thereby to work out eternal life on the behalf of them for whom he is a Priest. And so the Apostle proves the Difference of this other Priest from those of the Order of Aaron, not only from the Tribe wherein he was to be, and from his Type Melchisedec, but also from the way and means, whereby the one and the other were enabled to discharge their Office.