\\INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 2\\

In this chapter the apostle, from the superior excellency of Christ,
by whom the Gospel revelation is come, discoursed of in the
preceding, urges the believers he writes to, to a more diligent
attention to the Gospel, and the doctrines of it; to which he adds
another motive inducing thereunto, lest those things should be let
slip, and be lost, \\#Heb 2:1\\ and then, by another argument from
the less to the greater, that if the law, which was given by angels,
could not be broken with impunity, then how should such escape divine
punishment that neglected and despised the Gospel, which is a
doctrine of salvation, was delivered by the Lord himself, and
confirmed by various testimonies and miracles, \\#Heb 2:2-4\\. And
besides the Gospel dispensation is not put into the hands of angels,
but into the hands of Christ, to whom all things are subject, which
is proved out of \\#Ps 8:4-6\\ and which proof shows, that though
Christ, on account of his sufferings and death, was for a while made
lower than the angels, yet being now crowned with glory and honour,
he is above them, and they are subject to him, since all things are,
\\#Heb 2:5-9\\. And this anticipates an objection that might be taken
from hence against what the apostle had asserted in the foregoing
chapter, concerning the superiority of Christ to angels; and this
leads him on to observe the reason of the sufferings and death of
Christ, and also of his incarnation; that the moving cause of
Christ's sufferings and death was the grace and good will of God;
that he did not suffer for himself, but for others, for everyone of
those described in the context; that inasmuch as he was the surety of
those persons, it was agreeable to the justice of God, and it could
not be otherwise, but he must be made perfect through suffering; and
this was the way to bring many sons to glory, \\#Heb 2:9,10\\ and as
for his incarnation, or his becoming man, that was necessary, that
the sanctifier and the sanctified might be of the same nature, that
he might be able to call them brethren and children, \\#Heb 2:11-13\\
as he does, for which are cited \\#Ps 22:22 18:2 Isa 8:18\\ and because
the children he engaged to bring to glory were partakers of flesh and
blood; and also that he might be capable of dying, and by dying destroy
the devil, and deliver his timorous people, who, through fear of death,
lived in a continual state of bondage, \\#Heb 2:14,15\\ for which
reason he did not take upon him the nature of angels, but of the seed
of Abraham, \\#Heb 2:16\\ And besides, it was necessary he should be in
all things like unto his brethren, that he might be merciful to them,
and faithful to God, and be in a state and condition capable of
sympathizing with them, and succouring them under their temptations,
which he was able to do by suffering through temptation himself,
\\#Heb 2:17,18\\.