CHAPTER IV: Privilege of believers under the New Testament compared with those of believers und
Our conversation (if such as becomes the gospel) is to be in heaven, Phil. 3:20. But prayer is here made, comparatively unto that ordinary conversation, an entering into heaven in so eminent a manner, as if that we walked out of heaven when in our callings, &c., and entered anew sometimes, but now and then, and that when we pray and come to worship. Likewise where Christians' state is to sit together in heavenlies with Christ—Eph. 2:5, 6, 'Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus'—if you be quickened, and have the least of spiritual life begun in you, then hath Christ placed thee in heaven; and our actings in prayer should be in its degree (and this exercise doth excel all other) answerable to our state, and therefore should be a praying as persons in heaven. Certainly if any part of worship, this in the nature of it, above all other, calls for it.
This reason is but a general, from the heavenliness of the gospel.
CHAPTER IV
The privilege of believers under the New Testament illustrated, and proved by the difference between them, and believers under the Old
Testament, who had not this freedom of entering into the holiest.
There is a further special account to be given of this privilege, from a difference between the manner of the dispensation under the law, and now under the gospel, as in respect unto this particular of prayer; together with an explication wherein this difference lies of us from the old Jew, who yet directed their prayers unto God that was in heaven, and implored him to hear in heaven when they prayed, as in 1 Kings 8 you often have it, and elsewhere abundantly.
That there was and is (notwithstanding this now said of them) a difference of privilege between them and us in this respect, it is plain that this exhortation in the text, to come boldly into the holiest, is
spoken oppositely to what was theirs, specially when compared with other passages of this epistle concerning them; the text also styling this our manner of coming into the heavens to be a 'new way initiated,' or 'new begun,' (as the word 'consecrated' in ver. 20 doth also signify), by the flesh of Jesus rent, as ver 20, and by his blood, ver. 19, newly shed, as the words in the original do import, of which further after.
Concerning which difference, 1. I will not hold you in the briers of a dispute about the meaning of that difficult place of our apostle, chap. 9:8, affirming that to the people of the Old Testament, 'The way' (that is, for us) 'into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest; while as the first tabernacle was yet standing;' that is, whilst the Jewish worship was yet in force, which was until Christ the true high priest was ascended up unto his holiest, the heavens. The plainest meaning to me is, that the mystery of this was kept hid, in a great measure, that Christ might have the greater honour in the discovery of it, upon and after his ascension; and also to shew, that by virtue of his blood it is that any do now, or ever did, enter therein. But still so as, whatever de facto was then, that the godly entered into heaven at death, yet the way to be through Christ's entering, this was not then manifest (I take hold of, and keep to, the proper import of the word). He says not that none had in reality, or indeed, not entered, for Enoch and Elias had, but that it was not manifest; nor yet was it that it were altogether unknown to them that they should one day come thither, for the patriarchs knew it, and expected it, Heb. 11:10, 14, 16. All which still was but with a glimmering, obscure light; as a dark shadow. I take, therefore, the apostle's meaning in the same sense that the same apostle speaks it, of the whole mystery of the gospel itself. Eph. 3:5,
'Which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.' Even so this particular of it was not manifest, that is, in that clear manner that it is now, upon Christ's ascension. The very apostles (in the
name of whom Philip seems to speak it), John 14:5, say, 'Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?'
My inference from this is, that if the way of entrance at last into that holy of holies was not then so manifest to them, then much less was this way of worshipping and praying, by an immediate entrance of themselves (through Christ) into heaven itself, whenever they prayed; and as present with their high priest himself, to present themselves by faith unto God through him, and so offer up their prayers to him; but stood as aloof, as men on earth, whilst they prayed unto God as dwelling in heaven. But this the apostle in my text hath taught us; and this way, I may safely say of it, was not manifest then as it is now. But, 2. Besides the obscurity of the knowledge of this way of praying, they were preoccupated from such an address immediate, into heaven itself (such as we have), in that God appointed another place of his residence, viz., his temple on earth, and therein specially the holy of holies, calling upon them to look unto, and make their addresses to him, as dwelling also there; whereas now he hath appointed heaven itself immediately for us in prayer to come into, when we come unto him, where also our high priest is present. Their case stood thus: they knew, indeed, that God's dwelling-place was heaven, and that when they prayed, God heard in heaven his dwelling-place; and therefore when they prayed, they spread forth their hands towards heaven, as Solomon in his prayer did. But yet withal, they were first called upon to do homage to God, as sitting on his throne on earth; as sitting between the cherubims on the mercy-seat, which covered the ark in the holy of holies. So Hezekiah directs his prayer, 2 Kings
19:15, 'O God, that sittest between the cherubims;' and others in the psalms the like. And thereupon also, when they prayed (though in private prayer), they were bidden to look 'towards the holy place and temple;' as Ps. 28:2, 'Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee; when I lift up my hands to thy holy oracle.' This oracle was the most holy place, where the ark, the mercy-seat, and the cherubims were; as you find 1 Kings 8:6, and chap. 6:5. And in this
manner Solomon, in the dedication of his temple, directs his own prayer made by himself, and unto this course directed the people also: in that 1 Kings chap. 8 he prays unto God, that dwelt in heaven, to hear in heaven; and yet draws down their eyes towards that house on earth, as dwelling there; ver. 27–30, 'But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication,
O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee to-day; that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there; that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place; and when thou hearest, forgive.' So as they took God up, as dwelling in both places; but first looked to his dwelling-house, or himself as dwelling on earth. And from thence their faith was to climb up to him, as dwelling in that other, the most holy house in heaven, whereof this on earth was the type; and thereby was to their weakness a help unto their faith in prayer, to have God so near them
(as the phrase is), as on earth; that God should come down to earth, and there had a visible dwelling-house amongst them; as Exod. 25:8,
'And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them;' which he had not again on all the earth.
And hence ariseth a manifest difference betwixt their condition and ours, that though they prayed unto God that was in heaven, and to hear in heaven, yet, (1.) Themselves looked upon themselves as standing afar off, at a distance from heaven, whilst they were a-praying; and entered not themselves by faith into heaven, as we are here called upon to do. I may therefore again say, this way of prayer in the holiest was not then manifest, as it is now. And,
(2.) Though they desired God would hear in heaven, yet the cry of their prayer and the eye of their faith were directed first unto and towards his holy of holies on earth;* from whence, as by a rebound
(as I may so speak), it should as by an echo ascend up into the ears of the Lord of hosts in heaven. Even as a man directing his speech, going immediately to such or such a hollow place, or cavern, the sound thereof comes back at second hand by reflection, to one that is further off: and their intercourse with God in heaven was like as if one should send a letter, or a petition to a great person, who had two dwelling-houses, one in a city, the other in some village very far off from that city; and the man is appointed to send his petition or letter directly to the country-house, but directed to him withal in his standing house in his city. So as indeed the holiest saint of them looked unto God in both, and did homage to him as dwelling in both, and were not to neglect either. Whereas we take a direct course to heaven when we pray, and divert not the least cast of an eye to anything on earth wherein God should be. We look not to the right hand, nor the left; not to one place more than another: 'Let prayers be made everywhere,' 1 Tim. 2:8, spoken in opposition to the Jews looking to their temple.
And one reason of this was, that God dealing then with them as children under age, Gal. 4:1, and instructing them by figures of the time (as Heb. 9:24, where he speaks of and applies that maxim to this very thing we are upon), he therefore would have a figurative house to dwell in; not such as in common he is said to dwell in all the earth, but separated from the rest of the earth; which house vas consecrated by himself, and wherein his glory and shadowy presence did often shine and appear from forth the oracle, the holy of holies, and filled that temple: and thither their faith and prayers were to approach him first, and take up by the way, as we say, in their addresses to heaven. God condescended herein to the weakness of them whom he trained up as children. And it was a way of worship fit for children, and suited to their capacity; and yet sanctified unto them, because thus appointed by God.
You may perhaps in part understand an Old Testament Jewish heart, and that of one that was truly penitent, by the spirit of that poor publican, whose character and frame of spirit Christ hath lively set forth to us, Luke 18. And therein view the distance which they keep.
He was a sinner truly humbled, and an expectant of mercy. It is said, 'He went up to pray in the temple,' ver. 10; so then it therein falls pat with the subject afore me. Now, observe what confirms the foregone differences (as on their part) I have given. 1. 'He stood afar off;' so ver. 13. There is the distance I spake of. 2. 'He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven;' but, 3. applied himself, and his prayer unto God, as sitting on his mercy-seat in the holiest; in those words,
'But smote upon his breast, and said, God be merciful unto me a sinner.' It is that word—God be merciful to me—I take hold of for this. In the original, the word ἱλάσθητι, that is there used, is a verb answering to the noun ἱλαστήριον, the mercy-seat; and unto ἱλασμός, a propitiation for sin, as 1 John 2:2. And so it is as if he had said, According to that mercy, thou, O God, that sittest between the cherubims, over and upon thy mercy-seat (which is called ἱλαστήριον by the Septuagint, and owned by the apostle, Heb. 9:5), declaring thereby that thou art and wilt be propitious and merciful to poor sinners, according unto that mercy thereby set forth, be merciful to me a poor sinner, that am at this distance from that thy holy place thou dwellest in. Yet I do look unto that thy mercy-seat, and to thee who sittest thereon; and have my eye and hopes fixed wholly thereupon for pardon. And though I dare not look up to heaven itself, where thou dwellest, yet my soul looks toward this mercy-seat, whereon thou sittest on earth. You may, I say, understand hereby the level of a Jewish faith. And that word ἱλάσθητι, as spoken by him, shews that they understood, though darkly, what that mercy-seat did signify. That God, that sat thereupon, was merciful, and favourable to expiate and make atonement for sins, and then to cover, and pardon them, as the Hebrew word importeth (of which more afterwards); unto which the word ἱλάσκεθαι, and ἱλάσκειν answereth; signifying both to make atonement or reconciliation by Christ (so Heb. 2:17), and also to be merciful and forgive, upon such a reconciliation made: as by Dan. chap 9:14, and Deut. 21:8, 'Be
merciful, O Lord,' &c. Now of this man, Christ says, he went away justified. He being humbled, and having this faith. I but observe here how yet he stood afar off, two courts off from the holy of holies, where this mercy-seat was: yea, in the remotest place, out of that outermost court, did this man stand; for it is comparatively spoken unto that nearer approach which the Pharisee for sooth made, he going up unto the highest part of that outward court; thither he crowds up himself with confidence, even next to the door of the priest's court: but into that priest's court none was to enter but a Levite. Well, but here, in this Heb. 10, we see the faith we are exhorted unto: 'Christ being come, an high priest of good things to come;' not as then, but in a shadow revealed, we are bidden to 'enter with boldness:' yea, to draw near, when we are entered, with full assurance of faith, and confidence, even into the holy of holies; the heaven where Christ is sitting at the throne of the majesty on high.
Under the law, the holiest saint of that people was not to enter into the first earthly mundane tabernacle, into which the priests came.
Yea, some have said, they were not so much as to see into it (but that I am not fully resolved of; for they brought their sacrifice to the door of that first tabernacle, and one would think should see it sacrificed too for them); but enter they did not, that is certain. And to that end there was a veil, called the first veil, placed at the entrance of the first tabernacle of the priests, to shut out the people; as well as there was a second veil placed afore the holy of holies, as the apostle plainly insinuates, Heb. 9:2. I will not dispute whether it was to hinder the people's sight of what was done in the priests' court, as well as the second veil hindered the priests' sight of what was in the holy of holies; but, to be sure, it forbade entrance to the people, if not wholly debarred their sight.
This practical instance I have, as by the way, and in the middle of my discourse, inserted, to shew the difference mentioned of a Jewish faith and prayer, and as giving light to the rest of my discourse on this argument.
I proceed to confirm the former notion further.
II. As in this manner they directed their prayers unto God in his temple, on their parts, so answerably on God's part he both promises, 1. That his eyes shall be open, and his ears attent unto the prayer that was made in that place. 'For now' (saith he), 'I have chosen and sanctified my house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.' And in 1 Kings 9:3, it is added by God, 'My heart shall be there perpetually.'
2. It is de facto said and spoken of God, that his hearing of their prayers was out of his holy temple, as well as out of heaven; and to send forth help, and blessings, and deliverances of his people upon their prayers; yea, and to work all his works of wonder, which he executes over the whole earth from out of his temple, his dwellingplace on earth.
But especially in the deliverances of his people: Ps. 3:4, 'I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill.' It was uttered by David when he fled from Absalom, as the title to the psalm is (he having before placed the tabernacle and ark on Zion,* the city of David, 2 Sam. 6:12, 17, which he calls in that Ps. 3, 'The holy mount'); and that speech of his here hath an aspect and reference unto those passages in the story of his flight, 2 Sam. 15. The high priest did offer to carry the ark with him into the field, ver. 24. No, says David, let it stand in its proper place, in the tabernacle appointed for it, ver. 25; and, thought he, my prayer shall be towards it, as it is placed in that ordained seat which God hath appointed.
And his prayers having been heard, though at that distance from the ark itself, he glorifies God that had heard him at that distance 'out of his holy hill' (thus Calvin glosseth on the words); David's faith glorying and triumphing in this, that whilst Absalom, who came and possessed the city of Jerusalem, and so had the outward presence of the temple and ark with him (and let him take that to himself); but David, in the mean while, though removed from it, bent his prayers thither, and those prayers prevailed, and were heard therein (says
he), whilst his wretched son was rejected, who had the local being of the ark close by him and with him, for he was possessed of Jerusalem
(let these things be compared with the story). In like manner, Ps. 20, he brings in the people praying for their king; their petition, ver. 2, is, 'Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion.' And lo, as he hears the prayer in his sanctuary, so the performance of it is likewise said to come from God, as dwelling in the sanctuary; from thence it was he gave forth his commands for the execution; and yet so as heaven thereby was signified too. And therefore, upon this experiment, David (who was the king they had prayed for) strengthens his faith for the future: ver. 6, 'Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.'
Many other like passages you may find scattered up and down in the Psalms and elsewhere; that what God doth at the prayer of his people, he is said to do it in his temple; that is, that from out of his temple the sentence to come forth, to render recompence to his enemies, is said to be a voice out of his temple. Isa. 66:6, 'A voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompence to his enemies.' For God sat as a judge in his holy temple, and ruled thence the whole earth, Hab. 2:20. And Ps. 99:2, 'The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above all people;'—'and terrible out of his holy places,' Ps. 68:35. The great deliverances of his people when threatened to be besieged by Sennacherib and his host in Hezekiah's times; Ps. 76:2, 3,* 'In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwellingplace in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.' Observe how it is said, 'There he brake,' namely, in his temple, his habitation there. For unto that his temple doth the coherence in the verse afore carry it, for that was last in mention, and with the greatest emphasis above the former; either
Jerusalem or the land of Judah, ver. 1. And 'there he brake the spear,'
&c., that is, frustrated and made void all their weapons prepared for the battle, though not one stroke were struck; so he is said to 'break the arm of the king of Egypt,' Ezek. 30, that is, to weaken his power.
But that which puts the greatest notoriety upon this, as to our