V $R. 5. Epfiletothe HEi'ItE.Ws. gi' Kai mduv, and again. That is inanother place, oragain it is fa id to the Soli, what riáátr: isno where fpokeis unto the Angels. 'Eyciïoowa:; 114 +4- Át111 2t317 14 mritil]ZY, theprefx'd 7 doth not denote a Subftitution or Comparifon, but the truth of the 1polaat dulF thing it felt. So it is Paid ofRebeckgh, 7wz17 +4';Irfi, thewas unto him, not for, or Fs na7Ela inftead, orin the place of, bút, his wife.' And in the words ofthe Covenant, 3er. 3 t. 33. I will be to them 0+77Hl-,.4 and they {hall be to me r=py ; not, I will be unto them infteadof God, and they fhall be unto me inffead ofa people ; but, I will be their God, and they {hallbe mypeople. And the fame is thefignification of there words, I will be bit Father, andhefhall be my Son. This is the fecond teftimony produced by the Apoftle to prove the preheminenceof the Lord Chrill above the Angels, from the excellency ofthe Namegiven unto him: One word, one witnefs, the testimony being that of God, and not of man, had been sufficient to have evinced the truth of his affertion. But the Apoflle addes a fécond here, partly tomanifeft the importance of thematter he treated of, and partly to Ifir them up unto a diligent fearch of the Scripture, where the fame truths, efpecially thofe that are ofmoftconcernment unto us, are{cored up and down in fundry places, as the holy Ghoft had Occafion to make mentionofthem. This is that Mine of pre- cious Gold which we are continually to dig for, And fearch after, if we intend to grow, and to be rich in the knowledgeof God in Christ, Prov. 2. 3, ¢. Expfuorsdo generally perplex themfelves and their Readers about théapplication of there words unto the Lord Chrifl. Cajetan for thiscaul, that this Teffimony is not rightly pro- duced nor applied asit ought, rejects thewhole Epifile, as not written by the Apostle, . nor ofCanonicalauthority. Suchinflances do even Wife andLearned men give oftheir follyand felf-fulnefs every day. Theconclulion that he makes mutt needs be built on thefe two fuppofitions. First, that what ever any man might or could apprehend concerning the right application of this testimony, that he himfelfmight and. could fo do ; for otherwife he might have acknowledged his own infuffcien j, and have left the solution of the difficulty unto them to whom 'God should be pleatedto reveal ir. . Secondly, That when menof anyGeneration cannot understand the force and efficacy of the Reafonings of the Pen-men ofthe holy Ghoft, nor difcern the fuitablenefs of the . Teftimonies they make ufe of, unto the things they produce them in the confirma tionof, they maylawfully rcjecf anyportion ofScripture thereon. Thefolly and ini- quityof which principles or suppofitions are manifest. The application of Teltimomes out of the 01d Tefiament in the Mm, depends au to their authority, on the veracity ofhim that maketh ufe ofthem ; and as to their co- geney in Argument,on theacknowledgment of them on whom they are preffed. Where wefind the{, concurring, as in this place, there remains nothing for us, but to endea- vour a Right underffandingofwhat is in it Pelf infallibly true, and unquestionably cogent unto theends for which se is ufed. Indeed the main Difficulty, which in this place Expositors generally trouble than- fans withal!, arifeth purely from their own miftake. They cannot understand haw there words should prove the NaturalSonlhip of Jesus Chrill, which they fappofed theyare produced to confirm, feeing it is from thence that he is exalted above the Angels. But the truth is, the words are not designed by the Apoffle unto any fuch end; his aim is only to prove, that the Lord Chrill hath a Name aligned unto hint moreexcellent, either in it felt, or in themanner of its Attribution, than any that is given unto the Angels, which is themediumof this first Argument to provehim, not as the Eternal SonofGod', nor in refpeol of his Humane Nature, but as the Revealer oftheWill of God in the Gofpul, tobe preferred above all the Angels inheaven, and confequently in particularabove thofe whofe miniiffery was used in the givingof the Law. Two things thenare necefiary to fenderthis Teffimony effèdual to the purpofe for which it is cited by theApolhie ; first, that it was originally intendedofhim to whom he doth apply it : fecondly, that there is a Namein it Aligned- unto him, moreexcellent than any afcribed unto the Angels. For the fifi ofthere, we muttnot wave theDifficulties that Interpreters have either f undout in it, or'cJfupon it. Thewords aretaken from z Sam. 7. tç_ and are part of the flnfwer returned from God unto David by Nathan, Upon his refolution tobuild him an hohfe. The whole Oracle is as followeth, v. a 1. ?he Lord telleth thee, that he willmake thee an boufe. v. 12. AndWhen thy days befulfilled, and thou (halt f%ep with thy- fathers, Iwillfet up thyfeed after thee,which fallproceed out ofthy bowels, and will effa- bliflo
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