Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews

But the captivity and dispersion which hath befallen them upon the sins of those who lived before the destruction of the second Temple, as they were in their manner and entrance much more terrible, dreadful and tremendous then the former; so they have now continued in them above twenty times seventy years without any promise of a recovery. God being still the same that he was, if the Old Covenant with the Jews be still in force. The difference between this dispensation must arise from the difference of the sins of the one sort of persons, and the other. Now of all the sins, which on the general account of the Law of God, the sons of men can make themselves guilty of, Idolatry doubtless is the greatest: The choosing of other Gods is a complete renunciation of the true one. And therefore comprised in it all other sins what ever, for casting off the yoke of God, and our dependence on him as the first cause, and last end of all, it doth that in gross, and by whole-sale, which other sins do only by retail; and therefore is this sin forbidden in the head of the Law, as intimating, that if the command of owning the true God, and him alone, be not adhered unto, it is to no purpose to apply our selves unto them that follow. Now it is known to all that this sin of Idolatry abounded amongst them under the first Temple, and that also for a long continuance, attended with Violence, Adulteries, Persecution and Oppression, but that those under the second Temple had contracted the guilt of this sin, the present Jews do not pretend; and we know that they hated all appearance of it. Nor are they able to assign any other sins what ever, wherein they went higher in their provocations, then their Progenitors under the first Temple. What then is the cause of the different event and success between them before insisted on? It cannot be, but that either they have contracted the guilt of some sin, wherewith God was more displeased, then with the Idolatry of their fore-fathers, or that the Covenant made with them is expired, or that there hath been a coincidence of both these; and that indeed is the condition of things with them. The Messiah came, in whom the carnal Covenant was to expire, and they rejected and slew him, justly deserving their perpetual rejection from it, and disinheritance.

But the captivity and dispersion which hath befallen them upon the sins of those who lived before the destruction of the second Temple, as they were in their manner and entrance much more terrible, dreadful and tremendious then the former; so they have now continued in them above twenty times seventy years without any promise of a recovery. God being still the same that he was, if the Old Covenant with the Jews be still in force. The difference between this dispensation must arise from the difference of the sins of the one sort of persons, and the other. Now of all the sins, which on the general account of the Law of God, the sons of men can make themselves guilty of, Idolatry doubtless is the greatest: The choosing of other Gods is a compleat renunciation of the true one. And therefore comprised in it all other sins what ever, for casting off the yoke of God, and our dependance on him as the first cause, and last end of all, it doth that in gross, and by whole-sale, which other sins do only by retail; and therefore is this sin forbidden in the head of the Law, as intimating, that if the command of owning the true God, and him alone, be not adhered unto, it is to no purpose to apply our selves unto them that follow. Now it is known to all that this sin of Idolatry abounded amongst them under the first Temple, and that also for a long continuance, attended with Violence, Adulteries, Persecution and Oppression, but that those under the second Temple had contracted the guilt of this sin, the present Jews do not pretend; and we know that they hated all appearance of it. Nor are they able to assign any other sins what ever, wherein they went higher in their provocations, then their Progenitors under the first Temple. What then is the cause of the different event and success between them before insisted on? It cannot be, but that either they have contracted the guilt of some sin, wherewith God was more displeased, then with the Idolatry of their fore-fathers, or that the Covenant made with them is expired, or that there hath been a coincidence of both these; and that indeed is the condition of things with them. The Messiah came, in whom the carnal Covenant was to expire, and they rejected and slew him, justly deserving their perpetuall rejection from it, and disinheritance.