CHAP. 1.2 which places mark the truth of a Jewish canon of interpretation, that wherever the ex

Acts ii. 17.

pression Last days' occurs, the days of Messiah are designed. Moreover, may not the Apostle refer to Peter's application of Joel, in Acts ii. 17? Which testimony many of the Hebrews, to whom Paul wrote, most probably had seen confirmed by the miraculous distributions of the Holy Ghost in the day of Pentecost; for I think Peter's sermon, in Comp. Heb. ii. 4, Acts ii., is very similar to the argument in the beginning of this Epistle; and the Apostle, in order to remind the Hebrews, may be alluding to the arguments and signs, that were instrumental in producing the beginning of their confidence.

with Acts ii. 17,

and 22; Heb. i. 3.

with Acts ii. 32,

33; Heb. i. 13, and v. 6, with

Acts ii. 34, 35.

"In a Son."

The gospel dispensation may be the Last days,' in accordance with the tradition of the house of Elias, which teaches, that the duration of the world would be 6000 years; and divides it into three parts, 2000 void, (or without the Law,) 2000 in the Law, and 2000 the days of the Messiah.

"In a Son." The Apostle is discoursing of Christ, as the appointed establisher of the present dispensation of the Last days,' and only of those words, which God spake in him after the commencement of that dispensation; for his expression is, "God God.... hath in these last days spoken in a Son."

The preceding age apparently concluded

Chap. ix. 26.

with the death of Christ;

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Once, at the con

clusion of the ages, hath he been manifested

Matt. ii. 15, v. 17,

xxiii. 2, 3. Luke

i. 42. John ii. 13.

vii. 10.

for the abolition of sins by the sacrifice of CHAP. I. 2. himself." Prior to this, our Lord not only abstained from abolishing, but personally observed, all the Mosaic ritual. It was after his resurrection that he sent forth his disciples to found the new dispensation; "All Matt.xxvii.19,90. power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, go ye, therefore, and teach all nations," &c. "And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." The speaking of Christ here Lake xxiv. 49. mentioned could not, therefore, have been prior to the period between his resurrection and ascension, when he discoursed of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; Acts i. 3. and in Heb. iii. and xii. 25, he is declared to be yet speaking.

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ship.

It follows also, I apprehend, that the essential Sonship is not here contemplated; nor that, which Immanuel received at his incar- Resurection Sonnation; but it is the decreed Sonship, which he inherited at the resurrection: this the Apostle proceeds to prove, by quoting Ps. ii., and afterwards asserts, when introducing the citation from Ps. xcvii. That the second should subsist in human nature, comes within the compass of God's decree, by virtue of which he becomes Heir of All; therefore, Heb. x. 5, it is said, that Christ should have a body, was written in the volume of the book, i. e. it comes under the decree; for he might have taken the nature of angels, Heb.ii.

person

CHAP. I. 2. That he took that particular individual nature, came within the compass of God's appointment; for it was only by the grace of union that all merit flows, and doth not precede it, therefore Augustine saith, what could that nature deserve to be taken into fellowship, more than any other nature?" The Son took our nature, that he might be a fit speaker; as we cannot see God and live, so we cannot hear God and live.

Goodwin.

John iv. 25.
also Jude, ver. 3.

See Goodwin's

There appears an implied antithesis; God spake by piecemeal in the Prophets, but Messiah has given a complete revelation; and this accords with the prevalent notion, as expressed by the Samaritan woman; See When he (i.e. Messias) is come, he will tell us all things." But though with regard to the matter, God spake partially to the Jews, and entirely on ushering in this dispensation, yet with regard to the manner, he deals similarly with us, the light whereby we discern is partial, and, in the latter day, knowledge shall be increased; let us labour, therefore, to grow in knowledge.

Sermon, in locum.

"A Son, whom he hath appointed heir." Heirship is a derived right; and neither as essential nor incarnation* Son could Christ properly be heir, because heirship, upon either

* By the term incarnation Son, in distinction from that of essential Son, I mean the sonship of the "Holy thing" born of the Virgin, according to which, he was not the adopted, or decreed Son of God, for the person is the object of filiation, and not the divine and human natures, and his person being not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by the assump

of these suppositions, would imply succession; CHAP. Í. 2. but Christ derives this, as all his offices, from the decree of predestination. The Kingly, as here and Ps. ii. 6; the Priestly, and Prophetical, Heb. iii. 1, 2, and Deut. Heb. iil. 1, 2, and xviii. 18.

Heir of All" persons and things; alluding, perhaps, to Ps. ii. 8, and which the Apostle afterwards establishes from Ps. viii. He is the heir of all things, because he is the end of all things. All things were made for him; he was first appointed heir, then God made worlds for him to inherit; therefore it is said, all things were made for him.

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By whom also he made the worlds." Having stated the authority committed, the Apostle shews the equity of deputing to him that great power: He, who made all, was fit to reconcile all; and it was meet that he, who reconciled all, should inherit all.

Ps. ii. 6.

Deut. xviii. 18.

"Heir of All.”

Ps. ii. 8.

Doddridge's translation is, " by whom also Doddridge. he constituted the ages;" and Mr. Vaughan's Vaughan. explanation is, that God constituted the times and states of the creature, by the WORD, in his predestinative assumption before time, of the relation of risen Sonship;* thus inti

tion of the manhood into God,' humanity, when assumed into the person, was also assumed into the relation of Son, which the Word had previous to incarnation; else the essential relationship of the Son to the Father would be altered.

* I suppose he means, that the decree of the times and states of the creature presupposes the consideration of the risen Son; but if so, it presupposes the rising of Christ, and consequently his death, and also his incarnation, and the state and condition

CHAP. 1.2 mating that he, who established all dispensations, was the fit one to abolish them; I am, however, disposed to follow those, who understand, by this expression, the creation of the material worlds; for though the word aion (in the singular number) may more commonly relate to time, yet we find it used (in the plural) in a passage of this Epistle, which, I believe, all allow to signify the material worlds. Through faith we understand, that the worlds were framed by the word of God; so that things, which are seen, were not made of things which do appear."

Heb. xi. 3.

Ps. cii.

It seems, moreover, that, in these introductory verses, the propositions are laid down, which the Apostle afterwards proves; and I suppose him to cite Ps. cii. in order to esta

of the creature he assumed: viz. a condition obnoxious to death; then the decree concerning the conditions or states of the creature, presupposes the risen Son, and the risen Son presupposes the various states of the creature, which appears impossible. The term used by Hussey, though perhaps somewhat quaint, yet avoids this species of involution of the divine decrees, which a term expressing means and end comprises. He speaks of setting up the Glory-man, but this would not answer Mr. Vaughan's idea, for he appears to me to suppose, that the ages were constituted by the Word in the predestinative assumption of his present co-ordinate state. Now this condition, if first in intention, must be last in execution; but the present state of the risen Christ is not the final state, but is intermediate to the giving up of the kingdom to the Father, when all things shall have been put under his feet, and then shall he appear in his own glory. Comp. ii. 8; 1 Cor. xv. 28; Matt. xxv. 31. Dr. Twisse, in answer to Cotton, has shaped an argument in a similar manner, to shew, that there was no thought of Christ's incarnation before the presupposal of man's fall, and which, mutatis mutandis, I have here adopted.