Verse 7

Then said I, Lo, I come (in the Volume of the Book it is written of me) to do your Will, O God.

This is the close of the testimony used by the Apostle out of the Psalmist, which in the next verses he interprets, and makes application of to his purpose. And it contains the second branch of the antithesis, that he insists on. The Lord Christ having declared the Will of God, and what God said to him concerning legal sacrifices, and their insufficiency to the expiation of sin, and the salvation of the Church, he expresseth his own mind, will and design to God the Father thereon. For it was the will and grace of God that this great work should be wrought, however he disapproved of legal sacrifices as the means thereof. For there is herein represented to us as it were a consultation between the Father and the Son, with respect to the way and means of the expiation of sin, and the salvation of the Church.

In the words we may consider, (1.) How the Son expressed his mind in this matter; he said; I said. (2.) When or on what consideration he so expressed himself; it was then: then I said. (3.) A remark put upon what he said, in the word Behold. (4.) What he undertakes, or tenders himself to do in what he said; it was to do the Will of God, I come to do your Will, as to that work and end, with respect whereunto sacrifices were rejected. (5.) The warranty that he had for this undertaking; it was no more than what the Holy Ghost had before left on record in the Scripture: In the Volume of the Book it is written of me. For these words do represent the mind and will of Christ upon his actual undertaking of his work, or his coming into the World, when many prophesies and divine predictions had gone before concerning it.

1. The expression of his mind is in that word [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], I said. There is no necessity, as was before observed, that these very words should at any one season be spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. The meaning is, this is my resolution, this is the frame of my mind and will. The representation of our mind, will and desires to God, is our speaking to him: he needs not our words to that end; nor absolutely do we so our selves upon the account of his omniscience. However this is the work that the Lord Christ engaged his truth and faithfulness to undertake. And in these words, I said, he engages himself in the work now proposed to him. Hereon whatever difficulties afterwards arose, whatever he was to do or suffer; there was nothing in it but what he had before solemnly engaged to God.

And we ought in like manner, to be faithful in all the engagements that we make to him and for him. Surely, says he, they are my people, children that will not lie.

2. There is the season, wherein he thus said, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], then, or thereon. For it may respect either the order of the time, or the stating of the case in hand. First, it may respect an order of time; He said, Sacrifice and Burnt Offerings you would not have; then said I. But it is, as I judge, better extended to the whole case in hand. When things were come to this pass, when all the Church of God's Elect were under the guilt of sin, and the curse of the law thereon; when there was no hope for them in themselves, nor in or by any divine institution; when all things were at a loss, as to our recovery and salvation; then did Jesus Christ the Son of God in infinite wisdom, love and grace, interpose himself in our behalf, in our stead, to do, answer and perform all that God in infinite wisdom, holiness and righteousness required to that end. And we may observe, that

There is a signal glory put upon the undertaking of Christ, to make reconciliation for the Church by the sacrifice of himself.

3. This undertaking of Christ is signalized by the remark that is put on the declaration of it, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], Behold. A glorious spectacle it was to God, to angels and to men: to God, as it was filled with the highest effects of infinite goodness, wisdom and grace, which all shone forth in their greatest elevation, and were glorified therein. It was so to angels, as that whereon their confirmation and establishment in glory did depend (Ephesians 1:10), which therefore they endeavoured with fear and reverence to look into (1 Peter 1:12, 13). And as to men, that is, the Church of the Elect, nothing could be so glorious in their sight, nothing so desirable. By this call of Christ, behold I come, the eyes of all creatures in heaven and earth ought to be fixed on him, to behold the glorious work he had undertaken, and the accomplishment of it.

4. There is what he thus proposed himself for, saying Behold me. This in general is expressed by himself; I come. This coming of Christ, what it was, and wherein it did consist, was declared before. It was by assuming the body that was prepared for him. This was the foundation of the whole work he had to do, wherein he came forth like the rising sun, with light in his wings, or as a giant rejoicing to run his race.

The faith of the Old Testament, was, that he was thus to come: and this is the life of the New, that he is come. They by whom this is denied, do overthrow the faith of the Gospel. This is the Spirit of Antichrist (1 John 3:1, 2, 3). And this may be done two ways. (1.) Directly and expressly. (2.) By just consequence. Directly, it is done by them who deny the reality of his human nature, as many did of old, affirming that he had only an aetherial, aerial or phantastical body; for if he came not in the flesh, he is not come at all. So also it is by them who deny the divine person of Christ, and his preexistence therein, before the assumption of the human nature. For they deny that these are the words of him when resolved, and spoken before this coming. He that did not exist before in the divine nature, could not promise to come in the human. And indirectly it is denied by all those, who either in doctrines or practices deny the ends of his coming, who are many, which I shall not now mention.

It may be objected against this fundamental truth, that if the Son of God would undertake this work of reconciliation between God and man, why did he not do the will of God by his mighty power and grace, and not by this way of coming in the flesh, which was attended with all dishonor, reproaches, sufferings and death itself? But besides what I have at large elsewhere discoursed concerning the necessity and suitableness of this way of his coming to the manifestation of all the glorious properties of the nature of God, I shall only say, that God, and he alone knew what was necessary to the accomplishment of his will; and if it might have been otherwise effected, he would have spared his only Son, and not have given him up to death.

(2.) The end for which he thus promises to come, is to do the will of God; Lo, I come to do your Will, O God.

The will of God is taken two ways. (1.) For his eternal purpose and design, called the Counsel of his Will (Ephesians 1:11), and most commonly his will itself; the will of God as to what he will do, or cause to be done. (2.) For the declaration of his will and pleasure, as to what he will have us to do in a way of duty and obedience; that is, the rule of our obedience.

It was the will of God in the former sense that is here intended; as is evident from the next verse, when it is said, that by this will of God we are sanctified, that is, our sins were expiated according to the will of God. But neither is the other sense absolutely excluded, for the Lord Christ came so to fulfil the will of God's purpose, as that we may be enabled to fulfil the will of his command. Yes, and he himself had a command from God to lay down his life for the accomplishment of this work.

Therefore this will of God, which Christ came to fulfil, is that which elsewhere is expressed by [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] (Ephesians 1:5, 11, etc.): his good pleasure, his purpose, the counsel of his will; his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that is, freely without any cause or reason taken from us, to call, justify, sanctify and save to the uttermost, or to bring them to eternal glory. This he had purposed from eternity, to the praise of the glory of his grace. How this might be effected and accomplished, God had hid in his own bosom from the beginning of the world (Ephesians 3:8, 9), so as that it was beyond the wisdom and investigation of all angels and men to make a discovery of. Howbeit, even from the beginning, he declared that such a work he had graciously designed, and gave in the first promise, and otherwise some obscure intimations of the nature of it for a foundation of the faith in them that were called. Afterwards God was pleased in his sovereign authority over the Church for their good, and to his own glory, to make a representation of this whole work in the institutions of the law, especially of the sacrifices thereof. But hereon the Church began to think (at least many of them did so) that those sacrifices themselves were to be the only means of accomplishing this will of God, in the expiation of sin, with the salvation of the Church. But God had now by various ways and means witnessed to the Church, that indeed he never appointed them to any such end, nor would rest in them; and the Church itself found by experience, that they would never pacify conscience, and that the strict performance of them was a yoke and burden. In this state of things when the fullness of time was come, the glorious counsels of God, namely of the Father, Son and Spirit broke forth with light, like the sun in its strength from under a cloud, in the tender made of himself by Jesus Christ to the Father, Lo, I come to do your Will O God. This, this is the way, the only way whereby the will of God might be accomplished. Herein were all the riches of divine wisdom displayed, all the treasures of grace laid open, all shades and clouds dispelled, and the open door of salvation evidenced to all.

(3.) This will of God Christ came to do [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], to effect, to establish and perfectly to fulfil it. How he did so the Apostle fully declares in this Epistle. He did it in the whole work of his mediation, from the susception of our nature in the womb, to what he does in his supreme agency in heaven at the right hand of God. He did all things to accomplish this eternal purpose of the will of God.

This seems to me the first sense of the place. Howbeit, I would not, as I said before, exclude the former mentioned also. For our Lord in all that he did was the servant of the Father, and received especial commands for all that he did. This commandment, says he, have I received of my Father. Hence in this sense also he came to do the will of God. He fulfilled the will of his purpose, by obedience to the will of his commands. Hence it is added in the Psalm, that he delighted to do the will of God, and that his law was in the midst of his bowels. His delight in the will of God, as to the laying down of his life at the command of God, was necessary to this doing of his will. And we may observe,

1. The foundation of the whole glorious work of the salvation of the Church, was laid in the sovereign will, pleasure and grace of God, even the Father. Christ came only to do his will.

2. The coming of Christ in the flesh, was in the wisdom, righteousness and holiness of God, necessary for to fulfil his will, that we might be saved to his glory.

3. The fundamental motive to the Lord Christ in his undertaking the work of mediation, was the will and glory of God; Lo, I come to do your Will.

5ly. The last thing in this context is the ground and rule of this undertaking of the Lord Christ; and this is the glory of the truth of God in his promises recorded in the word; In the Volume of the Book it is written of me, that I should fulfil your Will O God. There is a difficulty in these words, both as to the translation of the original text, and as to the application of them. And therefore critical observations have been multiplied about them, which it is not my way or work to repeat. Those that are learned, know where to find them, and those that are not so, will not be edified by them. What is the true meaning and intention of the Holy Spirit in them, is what we are to enquire into.

The Socinian expositors have a peculiar conceit on this place. They suppose the Apostle useth this expression, [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], to denote some especial chapter or place in the Law. This they conjecture to be that of Deuteronomy 17:18–19. And it shall be, that when He (the King to be chosen) shall sit on the Throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book, out of that which is before the Priests, the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein, all the days of his Life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Law, and these Statutes, to do them. David they say spoke those words in the Psalm; and it is no where said that he should come to do the Will of God, but in this place of Deuteronomy, as he was to be the King of that people. But there can be nothing more fond than this empty conjecture.

1. David is not at all intended in these words of the Psalmist, any otherwise but as he was the penman of the Holy Ghost, and a type of Christ, on which account he speaks in his name. They are the words of Christ, which David was inspired by the Holy Ghost to declare and utter, neither would David speak these words concerning himself; because he that speaks, does absolutely prefer his own obedience as to worth and efficacy, before all God's holy institutions. He presents it to God, as that which is more useful to the Church, than all the sacrifices which God had ordained. This David could not do justly.

2. There is nothing spoken in this place of Deuteronomy concerning the sacerdotal office, but only of the regal. And in this place of the Psalmist, there is no respect to the kingly office, but only to the priesthood. For comparison is made with the sacrifices of the Law. But the offering of these sacrifices was expressly forbidden to the kings; as is manifest in the instance of King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:18–20). Besides, there is in that place of Deuteronomy, no more respect had to David than to Saul, or Jeroboam, or any other, that was to be King of that people. There is nothing in them that belongs to David in a peculiar manner.

3. The words there recorded contain a mere prescription of duty, no prediction of the event, which for the most part was contrary to what is required. But the words of the Psalmist are a prophecy, a divine prediction and promise which must be actually accomplished. Nor does our Lord Christ in them, declare what was prescribed to him, but what he did undertake to do, and the record that was made of that undertaking of his.

4. There is not one word in that place of Moses concerning the removal of sacrifices and burnt offerings, which, as the Apostle declares, is the principal thing intended in those of the Psalmist. Yes, the contrary as to the season intended, is expressly asserted. For the King was to read in the Book of the Law continually, that he might observe and do all that is written therein, a great part whereof consists in the institution and observation of sacrifices.

5. This interpretation of the words utterly overthrows what they dispute for immediately before. This is, that the entrance mentioned of Christ into the World, was not indeed his coming into this World, but his going out of it, and entering into Heaven. For it cannot be denied but that the obedience of reading the Law continually, and doing of it, is to be attended to in this World, and not in Heaven; and this they seem to acknowledge, so as to recal their own exposition. Other absurdities which are very many in this place, I shall not insist upon.

[⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], We with many others render, in answer to the Hebrew, in the Volume or Roll. Ribera contends that this translation of the word, the Volume or Roll of the Book, is absurd; because, says he, the Book itself was a Volume or a Roll; and so it is, as if he had said, in the Roll of the Roll. But [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], which we translate a Book, does not signify a Book as written in a Roll, but only an enunciation or declaration of any thing. We now call any Book of greater quantity a Volume; but [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩] is properly a Roll, and the words used by the Psalmist do signify that the declaration of the Will of God made in this matter, was written in a Roll. The Roll which contains all the revelations of his mind. And the word used by the Apostle, is not remote from this signification, as may be seen in sundry classic authors, [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], volumen; because a Roll is made round after the fashion of the head of a man.

As the Book itself was one Roll, so the Head of it, the beginning of it, among the first things written in it, is this recorded concerning the coming of Christ to do the will of God. This includes both senses of the word; in the Head, in the Beginning of the Roll, namely of that part of the Scripture, which was written when David penned this Psalm. Now this can be no other but the first promise, which was recorded (Genesis 3:15). Then it was first declared, then it was first written and enrolled, that the Lord Christ the Son of God should be made of the Seed of the Woman, and in our nature come to do the will of God, and to deliver the Church from that woful estate whereinto it was brought by the craft of Satan. In this promise, and the writing of it in the Head of the Volume, lies the verification of the Psalmist's assertion, in the Volume of the Book it is written. Howbeit, the following declarations of the will of God herein, are not excluded, nor ought so to be. Hence are we herein directed to the whole Volume of the Law. For indeed it is nothing but a prediction of the coming of Christ, and a presignification of what he had to do. That Book which God had given to the Church, as the only guide of its faith: the Bible: that is the Book, all other Books being of no consideration in comparison of it; that Book wherein all divine precepts and promises are enrolled or recorded: in this Book, in the Volume of it, this is its principal subject, especially in the Head of the Roll, or the Beginning of it, namely in the first promise, it is so written of me. God commanded this great truth of the coming of Christ to be so enrolled for the encouragement of the faith of them that should believe. And we may observe, that

1. God's records in the Roll of his Book are the foundation and warranty of the faith of the Church, in the Head and Members.

2. The Lord Christ in all that he did and suffered, had continual respect to what was written of him (see Matthew 26:24).

3. In the record of these words, (1.) God was glorified in his truth and faithfulness. (2.) Christ was secured in his work, and the undertaking of it. (3.) A testimony was given to his Person and Office. (4.) Direction is given to the Church in all, wherein they have to do with God, what they should attend to; namely, what is written. (5.) The things which concern Christ the Mediator, are the Head of what is contained in the same records.