75 lines
4.4 KiB
XML
75 lines
4.4 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Heb.i" n="i" next="Heb.ii" prev="Heb" progress="74.93%" title="Introduction">
|
||
<div class="Center" id="Heb.i-p0.1"><h2 id="Heb.i-p0.2">Hebrews</h2>
|
||
<p id="Heb.i-p1">Completed by <span class="smallcaps" id="Heb.i-p1.1">William Tong</span>.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<hr/>
|
||
<pb id="Heb.i-Page_887" n="887"/>
|
||
<div class="Center" id="Heb.i-p1.3">
|
||
<p id="Heb.i-p2"><b>AN</b></p>
|
||
<h3 id="Heb.i-p2.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
|
||
<h4 id="Heb.i-p2.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
|
||
R V A T I O N S,</h4>
|
||
<h5 id="Heb.i-p2.3">OF THE EPISTLE TO</h5>
|
||
<h2 id="Heb.i-p2.4">T H E H E B R E W S.</h2>
|
||
<hr style="width:2in"/>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Heb.i-p3"><span class="smallcaps" id="Heb.i-p3.1">Concerning</span>
|
||
this epistle we must enquire, I. Into the divine authority of it;
|
||
for this has been questioned by some, whose distempered eyes could
|
||
not bear the light of it, or whose errors have been confuted by it;
|
||
such as the Arians, who deny the Godhead and self-existence of
|
||
Christ; and the Socinians, who deny his satisfaction; but, after
|
||
all the attempts of such men to disparage this epistle, the divine
|
||
original of it shines forth with such strong and unclouded rays
|
||
that he who runs may read it is an eminent part of the canon of
|
||
scripture. The divinity of the matter, the sublimity of the style,
|
||
the excellency of the design, the harmony of this with other parts
|
||
of scripture, and its general reception in the church of God in all
|
||
ages—these are the evidences of its divine authority. II. As to
|
||
the divine amanuensis or penman of this epistle, we are not so
|
||
certain; it does not bear the name of any in the front of it, as
|
||
the rest of the epistles do, and there has been some dispute among
|
||
the learned to whom they should ascribe it. Some have assigned it
|
||
to Clemens of Rome; other to Luke; and many to Barnabas, thinking
|
||
that the style and manner of expression is very agreeable to the
|
||
zealous, authoritative, affectionate temper that Barnabas appears
|
||
to be of, in the account we have of him in the acts of the
|
||
Apostles; and one ancient father quotes an expression out of this
|
||
epistle as the words of Barnabas. But it is generally assigned to
|
||
the apostle Paul; and some later copies and translations have put
|
||
Paul's name in the title. In the primitive times it was generally
|
||
ascribed to him, and the style and scope of it very well agree with
|
||
his spirit, who was a person of a clear head and a warm heart,
|
||
whose main end and endeavour it was to exalt Christ. Some think
|
||
that the apostle Peter refers to this epistle, and proves Paul to
|
||
be the penman of it, by telling the Hebrews, to whom he wrote, of
|
||
Paul's having written to them, <scripRef id="Heb.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:2Pet.3.15" parsed="|2Pet|3|15|0|0" passage="2Pe 3:15">2 Pet.
|
||
iii. 15</scripRef>. We read of no other epistle that he ever wrote
|
||
to them but this. And though it has been objected that, since Paul
|
||
put his name to all his other epistles, he would not have omitted
|
||
it here; yet others have well answered that he, being the apostle
|
||
of the Gentiles, who were odious to the Jews, might think fit to
|
||
conceal his name, lest their prejudices against him might hinder
|
||
them from reading and weighing it as they ought to do. III. As to
|
||
the scope and design of this epistle, it is very evident that it
|
||
was clearly to inform the minds, and strongly to confirm the
|
||
judgment, of the Hebrews in the transcendent excellency of the
|
||
gospel above the law, and so to take them off from the ceremonies
|
||
of the law, to which they were so wedded, of which they were so
|
||
fond, that they even doted on them, and those of them who were
|
||
Christians retained too much of the old leaven, and needed to be
|
||
purged from it. The design of this epistle was to persuade and
|
||
press the believing Hebrews to a constant adherence to the
|
||
Christian faith, and perseverance in it, notwithstanding all the
|
||
sufferings they might meet with in so doing. In order to this, the
|
||
apostle speaks much of the excellency of the author of the gospel,
|
||
the glorious Jesus, whose honour he advances, and whom he justly
|
||
prefers before all others, showing him to be all in all, and this
|
||
in lofty strains of holy rhetoric. It must be acknowledged that
|
||
there are many things in this epistle hard to be understood, but
|
||
the sweetness we shall find therein will make us abundant amends
|
||
for all the pains we take to understand it. And indeed, if we
|
||
compare all the epistles of the New Testament, we shall not find
|
||
any of them more replenished with divine, heavenly matter than this
|
||
to the Hebrews.</p>
|
||
</div2> |