Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_700.lzh/6_761.TXT

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in obedience to his law, moral and ceremonial, and
in the discharge of all religious duties: he walked
with God in peace, without quarrelling with any-
.of his dispensations towards him; he did nothing to
break the peace that subsisted between them, but
always did the-things which pleased his father, and
had peace in what he did; and he walked with him
in equity, or righteousness, fulfilling his righteous
law, and bringing in an everlasting righteousness:
and did turn ninny away from iniquity; doctrinal and
practical; which is to be understood, not of a bare re-
formation only in principle and practice, butof true real
conversion; of which there were many instances
tinder the ministry of his forerunner John the Baptist,
and under his own ministry when in person on earth;
and under the ministry of his apostles, artended with
his spirit and power, both in Jades, and in the Gentile
world.
Vet. 7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge,
&c.] Or shall keep knowledge, as the Septuagint and
Vulgate Latin versions; or do keep knowledge, as the
Arabic version; and so the Syriac version, for the lips
of the priest drop knowledge; all this is true of Christ
our great High-priest; for as it was predicted of him,
that his lips should keep knowletige, so they have kept
it, and do keep it; not concealing it, but preserving it,
and commnnicating it fieely and openly; as he did to
his disciples and followers when here on earth, and by
them to others; and still does by his spirit, giving to
men the knowledge of themselves and state; the
knowledge or' himself, and the way of salvation by
him, and or' the truths of the Gospel: and the. y should
seek the law at his mouth; not the law of Moses, but
the doctrine of grace, and any wholesome instruction
and advice; which he is greatly qualified to give,
being the wonderful Counsellor: it may be rendered,
they shall seek, or do seek; and which has been ful-
filled, especially in the Gentiles, and in the isles that
waited for his law or doctrine, Isa. xi. 10. and xlii. 4:
for tte is the messenger of the Lord of hosts; or angel {w};
he is the Angel of God's presence, and of the covenant,
Isa. lxiii. 9. Mal. iii. 1. which name he has from being
sent, for he came not of himself, but his father sent
him; he was sent as a priest to atone for the sins of
his people, and to be their Saytour; and as a prophet,
to instruct and teach them; and' therefore they should
seek to him for knowledge, and attend his word and
ordinances, and implore his spirit and grace.
Vet. 8. But ye are departed out of .the way, &c.]
Of truth and righteousness, of life and peace, of eternal
salvation and happiness, pointed to by Christ and his
forerunner, and by his apostles and ministers that fol-
lowed him, and which was clearly shewed in the
preaching of the Gospel: this was the character of the
chief,priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, in Christ's time, to
which the prophet seems to have respect; who not
only failed in their observance of legal sacrifices, com-
plained of in the former chapter, but left that way of
atonement and salvation they directed to,. and led
othersout of the way with them: ye havecaused many
to stumble at the law; at the doctrine 9fjustification by
the righteousness of Christ; which was the stumbling-
stone they fell at, seeking ibr righteousness, and direct-
ing others to seek for it, not by faith, but as it, were
by the works of the law, Rom. ix. 32, 33: ye have cor-
rupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts:
that which was shadowed out by the Levitical priest-
hood and covenant, namely, the covenant of grace, dis-
pensed under the Gospel dispensation by the ministry
of the word and ordinances; which they rejected, de-
spised, and set at nought, and as much as in them
endeavoured to make void, by not attending to thcs:c
things, nor suffering others, but doing all they could
to bring them into disuse,.contempt; and disgrace.
Vet. 9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible
and base, &c.] When their city and temple were
stroyed by the Romans, and they were carried captive
by them, and became a taunt and a proverb in ali
places where they came: before all the people; the ha-
lions of the world, among Whom they were scattered:
according as ye have not kept .ray ways; neither those
which the law directed to, either moral or ceremonial;
nor what the .Gospel directed to, the .ordinances and
institutions of Christ, particularly baptism, which the
Jews rejected against themselves, Luke vii. 30: but
have been partial in the law; in the observance of it,
attending to the lesser, and taking no notice of the
weightier matters of it, as the Jews are charged by
Christ, Matt. xxiii. e3. and in the interpretation of
it, restraining its sense only to outward actions, for
which they are reproved, Matt, v. or received faces, or
accepted persons in the law"; in matters of the law they
were concerned in, they had respect to the persons of
men, by giving the sense of it, and pronouncing judg-
ment, in fayour of some, to the prejudice. of others,
wrongly.
Ver. 10. Have ye not all one father ? &c.] Whether
this is understood of Adam the first man, of whose
blood all nations of the earth are made, and who in
the same sense is .the father of all living, as Eve was
the mother of all living; or of Abraham the father of
the Jewish people, of whom, as their father, they used
to glory; or of Jacob, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra inter-
pret it, whom the Jews used to call our father Jacob;
or of God, who is the Father of all men by creation,
and of the Jews by national adoption of them; and who
may the rather be thought to be meant, since it fol-
lows, hath not one God created us? either as men, or
formed us as a body politic; which may serve to ex-
plain what is meant by their having one father: whichj-
ever is the sense of these words, the argument from
hence is strong; that there ought to be no partiality
used in the law, or any respect had to persons, in that
the rich and the poor have all one Father and one
Creator; see Jam, it. 1--8: why do we deal tr. eacherously
every man against his brother; by perverting justice,
having respect to persons, fayouting one to the preju-
dice of another, as it follows: by profaning the cove-
nant of your fathers ? the covenant made with them
at Sinai, as Jarchi explains it; the law that was then


{w} \^Kalm\^ \~aggelov\~, Sept; angelus, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius &
Tremellius, Cocceius, Burkius.
{x} \^hrwtb Mynp Myavwnw\^ et accepistis faciem in lege, Pagninus;
assumentes facies, Montanus; suscipitis faciam, Piscator; accipitis
faciem, Cocceius; et ferentes faciem in lege, Burkius.