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to the Jews, who dwelt in the land, and who, CHAP. I. 1.
in those apostatizing times, were most likely
to draw back from the purity of the Gospel
to legal rites; for the Apostle deals mainly
with what the Jewish writers call
nances affixed to the land," as the Temple
Sacrifices, Priesthood, &c.

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Ordi

Lightfoot.

The title, To the Hebrews,' confirms this, according to the distinction made in Acts, vi. 1. "There was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews;" the Hellenists meaning, according to Lightfoot, the Jews, that dwelt amongst the Greeks, and the Hebrews meaning, those Jews, that dwelt in Judea. Du Veil, however, observes on this passage, Du Veil on Acts, that he thinks the proselytes were called Hellenists; yet he says, on Acts ii., that those Jews were called Hellenists, who were carried into Egypt by Ptolemy Lagus.

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chap. vi. 1.

Comparing his manner of argument," says Lightfoot, Iwith the Talmuds Zohar and Rabboth, and such like, you might easily tell with whom he is dealing, though the Epistle were not inscribed To the Hebrews;' the very style of it may argue the scholar of Gamaliel," and, we may add, the matter of it marks one" who had profited in the Jews' religion more than many;" and, in my mind, Gal. i. 14. this sufficiently accounts for the writer's name being suppressed, not because the Apostle of the Gentiles desired to address the Jews ano- See Heb. xiii. 18, nymously, but because he wished to sink his apostolic authority, and to argue with the

19, and x. 34.

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CHAP. I. 1-4. Jews upon their acknowledged principles, How thankful should we be, that the Holy Ghost has thus taken occasion to give this luminous comment upon the Old Testament; for, "as the brilliancy of the sun appears far greater, when contrasted with the darkness of the shade, so this Epistle compares the light of the Gospel with the shadows and types of the Old Testament; and by this means displays the glory of the Gospel in its full relief; for as shadows are images of bodies, so the ancient shadows are images of Jesus Christ, of his power and of his graces, and assist us to recognize more and more the substance and the truth; but from hence we also derive this additional advantage, viz. that although the shadows of other bodies serve only to obscure them, the shadows of the Old Testament are so many reflectors, contributing light to the Gospel."

Mestrezat.

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The introductory verses, 1 to 4.

"In divers parts and in divers manners God "having formerly spoken to the Fathers in the Prophets, hath in the last [period] of these days* spoken to us in a Son, whom he hath appointed Heir of All, by whom also he made the worlds ;" "who being the effulgence of his glory, and the engraved character of his subsistence, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having made by himself a purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty "on high, being so much superior to angels, in

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"proportion as he has inherited a more excellent name than they ;" or, "in comparison with "them."

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CHAP. I. 4.

e Or "being in so much superior to angels, by how much he hath inherited," &c.

The Jews adhered tenaciously to the Mosaic ritual, because it was delivered immediately by God to Moses. "We know," said John ix. 29. they, "that God spake unto Moses; but this [one] we know not whence he is." This opinion the Apostle meets, by declaring the efficient cause of all revelation to be one and the same, "whensoever the time, whatsoever the means, whosoever the man, wheresoever the place, whomsoever the people, yet the word was the Lord's." God' is here Deering. used, I apprehend, as a personal and not an essential term, because distinguished expressly from the Son, and, by evident implication, from the Holy Spirit.

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Prov. iv. 18. word is exactly

Owen says the

"In divers parts."-Our authorised trans- "In divers parts,” lation has sundry times,' but more appears to be intended. Sundry parts would, indeed, infer sundry times of revelation, but this also expresses, that each succeeding revelation added light to what went before. The path of this Just One being as the shining light, shining more and more the perfect day.' Bos, I think, says, the expressions are terms in music, implying the various notes, that make one harmonious whole; this, therefore, implies the gradual unfolding of God's purpose in the different dispensations of the Old Testament, com

until

that

the same sign as the Heb. there

used, i. e. 123

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CHAP. I. 1. mencing with the seed of all the promises in the promise of The Seed,' which was firmly rooted, in the form of a covenant with Noah. The immutability of God's counsel was declared by his confirmatory oath to Abraham. Added to this, was the sacramental seal of initiation in circumcision, then followed the farther pledge of communion in the Paschal Lamb, with the typical Gospel of the Law, and then the gospel interpretation of the Types in the Prophets.

Acts vi. 13, 14. See also Acts xxi. 21.

"In divers manners."

Hos. xii. 10.

Isa. v.

"In times past."

This, therefore, implies, that all revelation was not included in the Law, which alone came by Moses, and which, the Jews supposed, could not be abolished nor superseded; "This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and change the rites, which Moses delivered unto us.'

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"In divers manners,"-not the various manners, in which God communicated to the Prophets; as visions, dreams, &c., but the way the Holy Ghost spake in the Prophets, multiplying visions and using similitudes," speaking in parables, or by blood-shedding, in types, or by signs.

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"In times past;" times past,' and "last days," as it is in our authorized version, (or formerly," and "the last of these days," as I have ventured to adopt,) appear expressions manifestly in opposition to each other; and

as the Apostle is discoursing of the Son, as establishing a new dispensation, viz. that of the last days," the times past' must, therefore, be the former dispensations; and I suppose it embraces (as in chap. xi.) all times from the days of Abel; for Abel had faith; which faith must have been exercised on the promise of God.

"In the Prophets"-not by the Prophets, but in them, which implies the actual inspiration of the very words and typical actions of the Prophets, and not simply a revelation made to them: God speaks by his ministers, but in his Prophets.

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CHAP. I. }.

"In the Pro

phets."

The last of these days." This implies "Last days." the conclusion of something in common with 'the times past' before mentioned. • The last days' of what? I conceive of the old covenant, which the Apostle subsequently mentions as ready to vanish away. The time, in which the Apostle wrote, A.D. 62, was the dispensation of these last days;' and, as I conceive, that none would date the dispensation, under which we now are, as commencing later than Pentecost, this present dispensation is that of the last days; but to this, as to every other portion of time, there must be a beginning and an ending; we, therefore, must observe the distinction between the dispensation of the Last days,' and the last days of the dispensation.

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The phrase occurs in Gen. xlix. 1; Num. xxiv. 14; Isa. ii. 2; Micah iv. 1; Hos. iii. 5;

Acts ii. 17.

2 Tim. iii. 1.

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