LVII. Mark xiv. 38.......... Prayer and Watchfulness LVIII. James i. 5, 6.......... Confidence in Prayer LIX. Heb. vi. 17-20. ... Christ a sure Refuge PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS, &c. &c. I. DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST. HEB. i. 1-4. 1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. In this language St. Paul, himself a Hebrew, addresses his Hebrew countrymen. It was no new thing to them, as it was to the heathen disciples to whom his other epistles were addressed, that God had revealed himself to mankind. The Jews acknowledged, the whole nation boasted, that God had made his counsels known to them at sundry times and in divers manners. They had "Moses and the prophets," who in time past had spoken unto them in his name. But now in these last days God had spoken to them by one who was "more than a prophet:" by one who revealed what "prophets had desired to B see, and had not seen:" by one who was not only to be heard, but to be adored: by one who had effected what none of the sons of men could ever have accomplished; for he had "taken away the sin of the world." 1 It was hard for the Jews to understand this, when spoken concerning Jesus. They had seen him grow up amongst them "as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground;" and they were slow to believe that he came, not as Moses, or Samuel, or Elijah had come, possessed of the power with which God endued them; but came in his own authority, being "equal to the Father as touching his godhead, though inferior to the Father" in the human nature which he had assumed. St. Paul, therefore, reminds them, that God had appointed him heir of all things:-heir, that is, possessor, lord, governor ;-that he had "been with God from the beginning," as Creator of the world: so that, when he came into the world, "he came unto his own;" and when "his own received him not,' " 4 he whom they rejected was their Creator. Unless they believed this, they could have no due sense of what they owed to him, no knowledge of the value of his redemption. The apostle, therefore, proceeds to describe his greatness, as far as words can describe what it is impossible for the mind of man fully to comprehend or conceive. 3. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4. Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. The ministry of angels was familiar to the Jews, and their history abounds with examples of its exercise. It might have been natural for them to regard Jesus as a created being, sent as one of the ministers of God to do his pleasure. St. Paul thinks it needful to guard against this error, by reminding his countrymen that the prophets, whose authority they acknowledged, had spoken of their expected Messiah in terms which could never be applied to angels. If any should affirm that Jesus was an angel sent from God to fulfil his will on earth, how would they account for the prophetic passage in the ninety-seventh Psalm, which, after describing in magnificent terms the advent of the Messiah, calls on all the angels of God to worship him? Angels, no doubt, have a great office and dignity assigned them: they are spirits, ready to obey the command of their Maker: they are as a flame of fire, quick and prompt to execute his will. But they are not represented as possessing independent power; not as ruling, but obeying: whereas the Son is addressed, as seated on an eternal throne; as bearing the emblem of kingly majesty, a sceptre of righteousness; as having " a name that is above every name." His majesty is that of the Father himself, whose incomprehensible splendour was reflected in the 5 St. Paul, it seems, so understood the words which are rendered in our translation, "Worship him, all ye gods." He quotes from the Septuagint version. |