worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (setting at defiance the three glorious Persons of whom the Godhead is composed.) Cast not

away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward; for the just shall live by faith." (Heb. chap. ix. and x.) And "faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." (xi. 1.) And "seeing we also are compassed with a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." It was by faith Christ offered himself; He trusted in his Father and his God. He, like his earthly ancestor faithful Abraham, who, in effect, offered up his beloved son, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also He received him in a figure, a typical representation of that promised seed, in which all the families on earth were promised to be blessed. So Christ was accounted of his Almighty Father, and in full assurance of the promised joy-a joy well suited to his divine benignity, the joy of reconciling all things both in heaven and in earth to their offended God; endured the cross, despising the shame. Let us therefore in all our afflictions, con

sider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest we be weary and faint in our minds. For we have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin; and have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto us as children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." (xii. 1—6.) “Remember them, therefore, which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation : Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein." In this view see to it that ye be not carried about by various and foreign doctrines, disagreeing with each other, and with the great standard of truth in the divine revelation. Many are zealous for such, and particularly Judaizing teachers; but remember it is a good thing that the heart be established in an adherence to the grace of the gospel, and not zealous in those distinctions between various kinds of meats, and reposing its confidence in those ritual observances which some are ready to lay so much stress upon; but by which they, who have been most conversant in them, and regarded them with the greatest exactness, have not profited, so as to

make any real attainment in religion, by all "We that scrupulosity and mortification.”* have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle, (the typical religion being now abolished by the Christian

which erects an altar for its votaries, where-. on to commemorate the great all-perfect sacrifice, of which all others were but symbolic figures, excludeth those who believe not in the atoning efficacy of this all-perfect sacrifice from eating and drinking at it.) For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp, (as instituted in the wilderness, and afterward without the city of Jerusalem were burnt without those shadowy figures ordained to represent the heavenly Jerusalem-without those blissful realms where death can never enter.) Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate, (without the precincts of the heavenly regions: the great Probationary descended down from thence, and suffered on the hard brazen altar in these our nether heavens; and He suffered typically upon Mount Calvary, which we all well know lies without the gate of the city of Jerusalem.) Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach; (and during our probationary state, when required so to do, be willing to suffer in the cause of vir

*Doddridge's Exposition.

tue;) because that here we have no continuing city; (here we are mere probationary sojourners, struggling in pain and sorrow through a sea of strife;) but seeking one to come, (and to which we shall be safely piloted if we keep close to our great Captain of salvation.) By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (xiii. 7-15, 20, 21.)

In this wonderful epistle we find summed up, as it is therein observed, all the mysteries of religion. First, it establishes the doctrine of the glorious Trinity, and the high supremacy of the Son of God over all created beings. It next fully explains the object of our more immediate research, namely, why Christ must needs have suffered, and on what account his sufferings were so acceptable to God-resolving this most important of all questions, by informing us, that it was through sufferings that the glorious Son of God was made perfect, and that being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all who obey him. Then follow some observations on the necessity of faith, together with an exhortation to walk as becomes the disciples of our ever blessed Master, and, as far as in us lies, go on

unto perfection; with a subjoined explanation, that if perfection had been obtainable by the Levitical priesthood there had been no necessity that another priest should arise, of an heavenly and eternal order, to typify the great high heavenly and eternal Priest, of whom all others were but shadowy figures.

A previous description has been inserted, delineating the character, nature, and offices of the heavenly priest Melchisedek, who thus. symboled our Lord, and between whom in some respects a similitude existed, though at the same time taking especial care to proclaim the transcendent dignity of the Son of God over all created beings-that He was the glorious. minister of the celestial sanctuary-of the true tabernacle pitched by the Lord, not man-eliciting also the sole object of the Mosaic types, namely, that they were only intended to serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things; showing that these types were all to be abolished by Christ-fully establishing the doctrine of the universal influence of the atonement wrought through Christ, by asserting, that He is the same yesterday, to-day, for ever, abiding a priest continually; on that account hath an unchangeable priesthood, and is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them; declaring this glorious minister to be the eternal Son of God, consecrated for ever; who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, having in all things done his will: by the