prove that the law, with all the rites of worship annexed unto it, was a type of the good things that were really and actually exhibited in and by the gospel, or by the Lord Christ himself in the discharge of his office. Wherefore, they are called good things to come,' with respect unto the time of the administration of the law. They were so while the law or first covenant was in force, and while the institutions of it were continued. They had indeed their original in the church, or were good things to come,' from the first promise. They were more declared so to be, and the certainty of their coming more confirmed, by the promise made unto Abraham. After these promises, and their various confirmations, the law was given unto the people. Howbeit, the law did not bring in, exhibit, or make present, the good things so promised, that they should no more yet be to come. They were still good things to come,' whilst the law was in force. Nor was this absolutely denied by the Jews, nor is it denied to this day. For though they place more in the law and covenant of Sinai than God ever placed in them; yet they acknowledge that there are good things to come,' promised and fore-signified in the law, which, as they suppose, are not yet enjoyed. Such is the coming of the Messiah, in which sense they must grant, that the law had a shadow of good things to come.'

Hence it is evident what are those good things to come;' namely, Christ himself, with all the grace, and mercy, and privileges, which the church receiveth by his actual exhibition and coming in the flesh, upon the discharge of his office. For he himself first, principally and evidently, was the subject of all promises; and whatever else is contained in them, is but that whereof, in his person, office and grace, he is the author and cause. Hence he was signally termed exoμves, he who was to come,' he that should come.' Art thou he who is to come?' And after his actual exhibition, the denying of him to be so come, is to overthrow the gospel, 1 John iv. 3.

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And these things are called, ra ayala, these good things:" 1. Because they are absolutely so without any alloy or mixture. All other things in this world, however in some respect, and as unto some peculiar end, they may be said to be good, yet are they not so absolutely. Wherefore, 2. These things only are good things; nothing is good, either in itself, nor unto us, without them, nor but by virtue of what they receive from them. There is nothing so but what is made so by Christ and his grace. 3. They are eminently good things; those good things which were promised unto the church from the foundation of the world, which the prophets and wise men of old desired to see, the means of our deliverance from all the evil things which we had brought upon ourselves by our apostasy from God.

These being evidently the good things intended, the relation of the law unto them, namely, that it had the shadow,' but not the very image of them,' will also be apparent. The allusion, in my judgment, unto the art of painting, wherein a shadow is first drawn, and afterwards a picture to the life, or the very image itself, hath here no place; nor doth our apostle any where make use of such curious similitudes, taken from things artificial, and known to very few; nor would he use this among the Hebrews, who of all people were least acquainted with the art of painting. But he declares his intention in another place, where, speaking of the same things, and using some of the same words, their sense is plain and determined, Col. ii, 17. They are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. They are a shadow of things to come,' is the same with this, the law had a shadow of good things to come; for it is the law, with its ordinances and institutions of worship, concerning which the apostle there discourseth, as he doth in this place. Now the shadow there intended by the apostle, from whence the allusion is taken, is the shadow of a body in the light or sun-shine, as the antithesis declares; but the body is of Christ.' Now such a shadow is, 1. A representation of the body. Any one who beholds it, knows that it is a thing which hath no subsistence in itself, which hath no use of its own, only it represents the body, follows it in all variations, and is inse parable from it. 2. It is a just representation of the body, as unto its proportion and dimensions. The shadow of any body represents that certain individual body, and nothing else: it will add nothing unto it, nor take any thing from it; but, without an accidental hindrance, is a just representation of it: much less will it give an appearance of a body of another form and shape, different from that whereof it is the shadow. 3. It is but an obscure representation of the body; so as that the principal concernments of it, especially the vigour and spirit of a living body, are not figured nor represented by it.

Thus is it with the law or the covenant of Sinai, and all the ordinances of worship wherewith it was attended, with respect unto these good things to come. For it must be observed, that the opposition which the apostle makes in this place, is not between the law and the gospel, any otherwise but as the gospel is a full declaration of the person, offices, and grace of Christ; but it is between the sacrifices of the law, and the sacrifice of Christ himself. Want of this observation hath given us mistaken interpretations of the place.

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This shadow the law had: xw, having it.' It obtained it, it was in it, it was inlaid in it, it was of the substance and nature of it, it contained it in all that it prescribed or appointed, some of it in one part, some in another, the whole in the whole. VOL. VI.

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It had the whole shadow, and the whole of it was this shadow. It was so,

1. Because, in the sanction, dedication, and confirmation of it by the blood of sacrifices, in the tabernacle, with all its holy utensils; in its high priest and all other sacred administrations; in its solemn sacrifices and services; it made a representation of good things to come. This hath been abundantly manifested and proved in the exposition of the foregoing chapter. And according unto the first property of such a shadow, without this use it had no bottom, no foundation, no excellency of its own. Take the significancy and representation of Christ, his offices and grace, out of the legal institutions, and you take from them all impressions of divine wisdom, and leave them useless things, which of themselves will vanish and disappear. And because they are no more now a shadow, they are absolutely dead and useless.

2. They were a just representation of Christ only, the second property of such a shadow. They did not signify any thing more or less, but Christ himself, and what belongs unto him. He was the idea in the mind of God, when Moses was charged to make all things according to the pattern shewed him in the mount. And it is a blessed view of divine wisdom, when we do see and understand aright, how every thing in the law belonged unto that shadow, which God gave in it, of the substance of his counsel in and concerning Jesus Christ.

3. They were but an obscure representation of these things, which is the third property of a shadow. The glory and efficacy of these good things, appeared not visible in them. God by these means designed no further revelation of them, unto the church of the Old Testament, but what was in types and figures, which gave a shadow of them, and no more.

This being granted unto the law, there is added thereunto, in the second place, what is denied of it, wherein the argument of the apostle doth consist. It had not the very image of the things. The πραγματά are the same with the τα αγαθα μέλλοντα, before mentioned. The negation is of the same whereof the concession was made, the grant being in one sense, and the denial in another. It had not authy Thy sixova, the very image itself; that is, it had not the things themselves:" for that is intended by this image of them. And the reasons why I so interpret the words, are these:

1. Take the image only for a clear express delineation and description of the things themselves, as is generally conceived, and we invalidate the argument of the apostle. For he proves that the law by all its sacrifices could not take away sin, nor perfect the church, because it had not this image. But suppose the law to have had this full and clear description and delineation of them, were it never so lively and complete, yet could it

not by its sacrifices take away sin. Nothing could do it but the very substance of the things themselves, which the law had not, nor could have.

2. Where the same truth is declared, the same things are expressly called the body, and that of Christ; that is, the substance of the things themselves, and that in opposition unto the shadow which the law had of them, as it is here also. Col. ii. 17. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.' And we are not without cogent reasons to depart from the explication of the metaphor there given us. For these expressions are every way the same;

which is Christ.'

They had not the body,

3. That is intended which doth completely expiate sin, which doth consummate and perfect the church, which is denied unto the law. Now, this was not done by an express and clear declaration of these things, which we acknowledge to be contained in the gospel, but it was done by the things themselves,' as the apostle hath proved in the foregoing chapter, and doth further confirm in this: that is, it was done by Christ alone in the sacrifice of himself.

4. It is confessed by all that there is an uw dęxsTUTIś, '& substantial image;' so called, not because it is a representation of what it is not, but because it is that whereof somewhat else is an image and representation, as the law in its institutions and sacrifices was of these good things. And this the apostle directs us unto by his emphatical expression, avlny Ty sxova, ipsissimam rerum imaginem, the things themselves.' So it is rendered by the Syriac translation, ipsam rem, or ipsam substantiam, the 'substance itself.' And six is frequently used in the New Testament in this sense. Rom. i. 23. εν όμοιωματα εικονός φθαρτε ανθρώ *, into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man;' that is, into the likeness of a corruptible man.' The image of the man is not something distinct from him, something to represent him, but the man himself. See Rom. viii. 29. 2 Cor. iv. 4. Col. i. 15. iii. 10.

This therefore is that which the apostle denies concerning the law. It had not the actual accomplishment of the promise of good things; it had not Christ exhibited in the flesh; it had not the true real sacrifice of perfect expiation: it represented these things; it had a shadow of them, but enjoyed not, exhibited not the things themselves. Hence was its imperfection and weakness, so that by none of its sacrifices it could make the church perfect.

Obs. I. Whatever there may be in any religious institutions, and the diligent observance of them, if they come short of ex◄ hibiting Christ himself unto believers, with the benefits of his mediation, they cannot make us perfect, nor give us acceptance

with God.-For, 1. It was he himself, in his own person, that was the principal subject of all the promises of old. Hence they who lived not to enjoy his exhibition in the flesh are said to die in faith, but not to receive the promises, chap. xi. 39. But it is through the promise that all good things are communicated unto us. 2. Nothing is good or useful unto the church, but through its relation unto him. So was it with the duties of religious worship under the Old Testament. All their use and worth lay in this, that they were shadows of him and his mediation. And the excellence of those in the New Testament is, that they are more efficacious means of his exhibition and communication unto us. 3. He alone could perfectly expiate sin and consummate the state of the church by the sacrifice of himself.

This being the state of the law or first covenant, the apostle makes an application of it unto the question under debate in the last words of the verse; the law can never with those sacrifices, which they offer year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. We must first speak unto the reading of the words, and then unto the sense and meaning.

Expositors generally take notice, that in the original there is a trajection in the words, or that they are placed out of their proper order, which translators do rectify. Kal' autor THIS BUTINIS as wear pignon, every year, or yearly, with the sacrifices which they offer;' for Tais xalilov burials, with those sacrifices which they offer year by year,' as we have rendered the words. But the apostle seems to place xalal in the entrance of the words, to signalize the annual sacrifice, which he principally intended. But there is a great difficulty in the distinction and pointing of the words that follow, us to divizes, in perpetuum, continually, or for ever; that is, which they were so to do indispensably by the law, while the tabernacle or temple was standing, or those ordinances of worship were in force.

But neither the signification of the word, nor the use of it in this epistle, will allow it in this place to belong unto the words and sentence going before. For it doth not any where signify a duration or continuance with a limitation. And the apostle is far from allowing an absolute perpetual duration unto the law and its sacrifices, of what use soever they were, especially in this place, where he is proving that they were not perpetual, nor had an efficacy to accomplish any thing perfectly, which is the other signification of the word. And it is used only in this epistle, chap. vii. 3. in this place, and ver. 12. 14. of this chapter. But in all these places it is applied only unto the office of Christ, and the efficacy of it in his personal ministry. It is of the same signification with Twins, chap. vii. 25. for ever,' to the uttermost,' perfectly.' Wherefore, that which is affirmed of Christ and his sacrifice, ver. 12. 14. of the chapter, is