Doctrine so it is also a ground of the future Exhortations For if there had been no way made or if there had been a way and we could have had no liberty of accesse unto the Throne of Grace by the Blood of Christ or if there had been a way and liberty to enter and yet no High-Priest set over the House of God it would be in vain to continue in the profession of Christian Faith or to perform any of those Duties exhorted unto in the following part of the Epistle But seeing we have all these and none of them nor any other thing necessary to Salvation is wanting but eternal life is possible and certainly upon these Reason to be obtained therefore we have a great motive and encouragement to go on and continue in the performance of the Duties exhorted unto For the ground of our hope is the possibility and certainty of attaining eternal Salvation and the ground of our practise and perseverance is our Hope which is the stronger because a way is made a liberty to enter obtained and a Priest set over God's House who will secure us of eternal bliss if we continue to believe and obey him to the end This is so much the more an effectuall reason because none of these could be had by the Law § 19. But what are these Duties exhorted unto They are several yet such as have great affinity one with another and all tend to one end The first this is Ver. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of â—aith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water THE Apostle in these words and those which follow exhorts to severall Duties 1 To draw near to God ver 22. 2. To persevere in their Christian Profession ver 23. 3. To stir up one another to Love and good Works ver 24. 4. To Continue in Christian Communion ver 25. In the first Exhortation we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto and to be performed 2. The manner of performance 3. The preparation of the persons who must perform it For the Duty is to no purpose no wayes profitable if it be not 1. Performed 2. Performed in due manner 3. Performed by persons prepared and duly qualified 1. To draw near to God for so the words are to be understood is to Worship God in general in particular to pray and seek Remission and eternal Life from him This is to make use of the way Consecrated through Christ's Flesh and of our liberty to enter into the Holiest procured by the Blood of Christ. It 's the same with coming boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace for seasonable Help Chap. 4. 16. It 's the same with coming to God by Christ to sue for Mercy Chap. 7. 25. The party therefore to whom we come is God yet considered as sitting in the Throne of Grace and propitiated by the Blood of Christ. The drawing nigh or coming to God thus considered is a motion not of the Body but the Soul whereby it turns away both the mind and heart from all other objects and turneth and addresseth it self unto God to converse with him for his Favour Mercy Blessings that it may obtain them from him And it fixeth upon him and abides with him till the business with him be finished This Coming is called Worshipping as Worshippers are called Commers ver 1. 2. This being the Duty it must be performed with a pure heart and in full assurance of Faith this is the manner and the due qualification of the act of drawing nigh to God without which it can neither please God nor profit Man This qualification is two-fold 1. The purity of Heart 2. The full assurance of Faith 1. It must be performed with the Heart For all serious actions issue from the Heart and whatsoever is not done with Knowledg and Will is not the action of a Man as a Man and a rational Creature The Worship of God whereby we seek eternal happiness requires both and in the highest degree of our activity because in it we have to do with God concerning the most weighty business of all others yet we may Worship with the Heart and not with a true Heart that is without sincerity The Heart is then sincere when according to God's Will it 's firmly fixed upon and aims chiefly at the chief End God's Glory and eternal Happiness desiring and intending both far above all other things and this out of clear Understanding And here it 's to be observed That sincerity is required not only in the person Worshipping but in the action of Worship He that is habitually sincere may so fâ—â— forget himself as to worship without sincerity and the principal part essence power reality and truth of that Worship which God requires For this truth and sincerity is the very Life and Soul of acceptable Worship If we incline or have secret and remote thoughts of Vain-glory of falling off from our profession or returning to Sin then our Heart is not perfect sincere upright and our worship must needs be like our hearts which ought in the first place wholly and folely be given and offered to God By this we easily understand and both how few do Worship God sincerely and how defective the Worship of the best may often prove 2. Besides sincerity is required a full assurance of Faith Faith is both a belief and a confidence and assurance full assurance is an higher degree of both As a belief it 's grounded on God's Word in general revealing the Truths and Propositions to be believed as a confidence it 's grounded on the promise a special part of God's Word The belief goes before confidence follows after as depending upon the belief for the promise is first a Truth and so to be considered before it can be conceived under the formal notion of a Promise He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him That God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek him is a truth or true proposition and is to be believed and it is a Promise because therein God signifies that as he is able so he is willing to reward such any he hath in the Gospel signified his unchangeable Will and Decree so to do and hath bound himself both by his Decree and his Word which is the signification of the Decree The full assurance of this Faith is grounded upon the infallible Truth of his Word and the fidelity and immutability of his Promise And where as this full ssurance is thought generally an high degree of Faith yet Faith is no divine Faith without it For no man receives the Word and Promise of God as the Word and Promise of God that wants this full assurance For the firmness of Faith should answer the firmness of God's Word If this full assurance were an assurance of our particular estate
1 Sam. 15. 29. And these are his words I am the Lord I change not therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Malach. 3. 6. So that all is sure on God's part and Man hath no cause to waver except he neglect his Duty and if he perish his destruction must be of himself O therefore let us give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure and persevere unto the end And shall we who have so great advantage so many helps so blessed an Opportunity and the Promise of a faithful God neglect and injure our selves so much as to lose this glorious and incomparable prize Shall we come out of Aegypt and come so near the borders of the heavenly Canaan and turn back or refuse to go forward Let us detest and eternally abhor to waver let us go on whatsoever it may cost us § 22. The third Duty is to further and set forward one another in this blessed Work This is the Exhortation of the Apostle Ver. 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and good Works THE first Duty exhorted unto seems to be principally Faith in the full assurance whereof we must draw nigh to God The second Hope in the Profession whereof we must persevere The third Charity to which we must provoke one another The words have little difficulty in them and so need not much Explication In them we are exhorted 1. To consider one another 2. To provocation upon consideration 3. To provocation unto Love and good Works 1. This consideration is a Work and Duty of every Christian as he is a Member of the Church and it is universal all are bound unto it The Object is every Christian and Fellow-Member The thing to be considered is not their temporal but their spiritual Carriage and Conversation so far as it shall be manifested and made intelligible unto us The immediate End thereof to know their Life Carriage and Conversation which cannot be so well done as by a serious view and animadversion The Duty is to be performed mutually so as that every Christian may be the person considering another and the person considered by another In this Act though we may make use of our Eyes and outward senses yet we most of all must exercise the apprehensive and judicative faculty of our Understanding 2. We must consider to Provocation This word is but used twice in the New Testament and the Verb no oftner yet we find the Verb frequently taken up by the Septuagint under several Hebrew words It may be taken here either actively to provoke others or passively to be provoked our selves We provoke or stir up others when we see them ignorant forgetful negligent cold backward and that by Information minding them of their Duty perswading moving quickning them unto performance Or if we see our Brethren persecuted we stir up such as are able to pity them and by Works of Mercy to relieve them We are passively provoked our selvs by considering the good Example of others to do the like and follow them 3. The thing which we must provoke others or be provoked our selves unto is Charity for we must be provoked and provoke 1. To Love 2. To good Works which are the fruits of Love and amongst these good Works the principal are Works of Mercy whereby God's poor and persecuted Saints are relieved and comforted And that is no true real Love which is without good Works as that is no true Faith which can be separated either from the Love of Christ or from the Love of Christian Brethren From the words considered in the Context and explained in this Latitude many practical Conclusions are deducible 1. From the Context we are informed that Confession without Practice Love and good Works is defective imperfect and to little purpose Confession of the Mouth Love in the Heart and Works issuing from Love must go together and must never be separated in true and sincere Christians 2. From the word provoking taken passively we may learn this lesson to give good Example unto our Brethren and so let that heavenly Light which is in us shine forth that others may see our good Works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven For we should be the Light of the World and our Lives should be a Mirrour of all divine vertues 3. We must consides and take special notice of such as are eminent in Piety Righteousness and true Holness and follow closely their good Example they give us and tread in their paths which lead to the eternal Rest of Heaven 4. Take provoking actively and the Text informs of another Duty and that is to have care not only of our own Souls but the Souls of others and to use all means to promote their Salvation as well as our own Love teacheth us this Lession for we must Love our Neighbour as our self and the greatest Love we can shew unto him is to endeavour his spiritual and eternal good And we must remember that Love especially Christian Love is diffusive and communicative and in imitation of God doth good unto many Non solum nobis nati aâ—t â—eâ—iati sumus We are neither born nor born again for our selvs The End both of our natural and spiritual Birth is to benefit others as well as our selvs we should sharpen quicken and mightily stir up others to the best things especially to Love and good Works And this is the Duty not only of Ministers in relation to their People or of Parents in relation to their Children or of Masters in relation to their Servants but it 's general and so extensive that no Christian is exempted from the performance And the neglect of this Duty hath been the Cause why there is so little Piety so much Iniquity amongst us and why most men are profane or bare Professor and so few are zealous in the best things 5. From hence we may infer the Excellency of Christian Society Civil Society tends much to the temporal good of person civilly associated but spiritual Society in Religion and Christianity is far more excellent and beneficial Yet this presupposeth the Persons associated with whom we live and must converse to be good for otherwise ill Company is most pestiferous Therefore the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to purge out the old Leaven and scandalous Persons which like a contagion infect others And this doth imply that Christian Assemblies should be kept pure and consist of Orthodox and pious Members and to live amongst such must needs be a great advantage unto poor Souls seeking Salvation § 23. There was a fourth Duty exhorted unto For Ver. 25. They mustnot not for sake the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some was but they must exhort one another and so much the more as they saw the day approaching IN which we have 1. A Duty 2. A Reason to enforce the performance The Duty is expressed 1. Negatively They must not for sake the assembling of themselves
For unnecessary private Conventicles with the neglect of the publick Assemblies are usually the Seminaries of Errours and Schisms and very prejudicial to the publick good of the Church So that the Duty exhorted unto is to frequent constantly these Assemblies and make right use of them to edify confirm and encourage one another to perseverance in the Christian Faith and to Love and good Works I might here take occasion to enlarge and reckon up all the particular Duties to be performed in these religious Meetings and shew how subservient they are every one severally and all joyntly to that end whereat the Apostle chiefly aims but I proceed to the Reason § 24. For it might be said What Reason Suasive Motive may be given why we should be so careful to perform this Duty Yes there is a great and powerful Reason and that is Because the day approacheth Where 1. We must understand the words of the Reason considered in it self 2. The force of the Reason in respect of the performance of the Duty In the words of the Reason we have 1. A Day 2. The Approach of that Day 3. The nearer Approach 1. A Day is a part and the principal part of time as opposed to the Night and in this place it signifies some special and more than ordinary time as the day of death of the destruction of Jerusalem of the End of the World The day of death every Man must look for Nothing more certain than death though nothing more uncertain than the Hour of death Every man must dy and then be brought unto his last Account and as that shall be made so shall be the condition of every Man for ever for where the Tree falleth there it lyeth and as Death leavs us Judgment finds us There was a day of Jerusalem's destruction and of the ruine of that Nation appointed and made known by Christ and his Apostles and these Hebrews could not be altogether ignorant of it There is another greater day of the final and universal Judgment and this was part of their Creed All these and every one of these are special and great dayes And one or two or all these three may here be meant Some think the day of Jerusalem's râ—ine was most of all intended by the Apostle though that cannot be evidently evinced to be pointed at so as to exclude the other two 2. This day did approach and was near for first the day of every Man's death could not be far off the day of Jerusalem's destruction was near and so near as many then living might survive not only the Peace and Happiness of that Nation but the very Being and Existence of that City and of the Temple they might see the ruine and destruction of both and for ought they knew the end of the World 3. This day drew nearer and nearer For 1. We no sooner begin to live but we begin to dy for we are born mortal and ready we are to return to that dust from whence we were taken and raised at the first and the more of our Life is past the less is yet to come and every Day Hour Minute of our Life we approach nearer unto death and death unto us 2. As for Jerusalem's destruction there were many Signs of that approaching fore-told and then known to be past It was fatal and unavoidable even then when Christ wept over it lamenting her Sin and Punishment which he certainly did fore-know and when this Letter was written to these Hebrews that day of her Calamity was far nearer 3. For the day of Judgment the particular Year Month Day was hid yet the times of the Gospel were the last times and upon us the ends of the World are come And that which is alwayes unknown may alwayes be looked for seeing it will certainly come and that suddenly And though that day in those times was far off yet it 's nearer now and though now it may be many years before the Son of God shall come from Heaven and the time to Man may seem long yet a thousand years with God is but as one day Besides that day of final Judgment if we consider that the unchangeable condition of every Man begins immediately upon his death then the great day of Judgment may in some sense be said to be as near as death to every particular Person This is the meaning of the words considered in themselvs and now the force of them as containing a Reason remains to be considered For this end we must take notice of the thing here urged and it 's 1. The performance of a Duty 2. The performance of it the rather and the more for the more the day approacheth the more we should prepare for it Not to forsake the assembling of our selvs together and to exhort one another and to be careful very careful diligent and frequent in this Work of Association and Exhortation is a Duty commanded by God and pressed upon us by the Apostle to neglect this Duty is our Sin and Disobedience to do it constantly is our performance And this is that which is intended by this Reason The force thereof is great For seeing 1. The day of our great Account God's final Sentence to be passed upon us and the Execution thereof is so near it concerns us much not only to know our Duty but to bestir our selves and to perform it constantly with all our Power Our progress towards Heaven should be like a natural Motion which is slow or not so swift at the beginning and is swifter and swifter towards the end Upon this performance depends our final and eternal estate For if we neglect fail and fall away then we are undone for ever if we perform and be prepared we are eternally happy Seeing therefore that day is a day of eternal Rewards or Punishments and approacheth so near What should not we do to provide for our everlasting safety Yet men think little of these things If we under stand the Text of the day of Jerusalem's Calamities and desolation which was near at hand and was a day of death to many thousands yea to hundreds of thousands and a lively resemblance of the final Judgment this also might effectually work upon them and move them to performance and perseverance For then they should see and clearly behold the woful End of that unbelieving Nation and most of all of all Apostates from Christianity Then their seducing Brethren and their persecuting Enemies should be destroyed the Temple burnt and demolished all their Judaism and Legal Service wherein they trusted for ever abolished and those which out of fear complyed with them or of Christians turned Jews should suffer in the highest degree Therefore there was no Reason in the World they should forsake or deny Christ and turn from him to Moses from the Gospel to the Law for the day was approaching when they should see God's Judgment executed upon the unbelieving seducing persecuting Jew and the eternal Confusion of
God with a profane and wicked heart some serve him ignorantly or negligently without servency and due affection The Pharisee could give Alms Fast Pray pay Tythe of Mint Anniseed Cumin and neglect the weighty things of the Law as Justice Judgment Mercy they could and did draw near to God with their Lips and yet be far from God with their hearts they served God but according to the Traditions of men The Jews were zealous and devout in Ceremonials yet their hearts were polluted and their hands full of Blood Therefore we must know that no profane man or hypocrite or indisposed person can serve God acceptably To do this doth presuppose man in the state of Grace and an heart prepared and rightly disposed the person must first be accepted before the work can please God And as the Person so the Service must be rightly qualified and so it is when it proceeds from Faith in Christ is conformable to the Word of God and tends unto his Glory And if We and our Service be thus qualified though our infirmities be many yet so great is God's mercy that for Christ's sake he will accept both us and it we must not presume upon his mercy but yet we must rely upon him when we have a special care to shun that which offends him and do that which is just and holy and when we have done our best humbly in the Name of Christ pray for pardon of defects and acceptance of our sincere endeavours Yet we cannot serve God thus acceptably without reverence and godly feat Reverence in God's Service looks at his excellency and glorious Majesty and at our own unworthiness and the infinite distance between Him and Us and therefore we must adore God's excellent Majesty with deep humility abasing our selves very low being afraid and ashamed out of a sense of our own vileness to come near him except in his great mercy and free grace he vouchsafe access Signs of this reverence is cut kneeling bowing covering our faces prostration and such like gestures And if we were either apprehensive and sensible of our own vileness or God's excellency how could we possibly be so profane and unreverent in his Worship Godly fear may be the same with Reverence or distinct from it The word in the Greek signifies sometimes caution sometimes devotion sometimes fear and that in the Service of God which is a religious fear and care not to offend but to please him Both reverence and fear in this place may farther be a more then ordinary care and diligence in the Service of God that we may please him and be accepted of him For as the greatest honour with the greatest humility is due to God that Supreme Lord whose Majesty is infinite and eternal so the greatest caution must be used in his Worship for he will be sanctified in all them that draw near unto him 3. This is the manner how he will be served by all such as are admitted Subjects of this unmoveable and unchangeable Kingdom The reason is He is a consuming Fire These words are improper and metaphorical and a Metaphor is a contract Similitude which here we find In such Comparisons we may observe 1. The things compared as like and agreeing 2. The thing wherein they do agree The things here compared are God and Fire God is like to Fire The thing wherein they agree is this that they are consuming So that the meaning is That God is like unto Fire and he is like to it in this that as That so He hath a consuming force Many are the qualities and effects of Fire but this one is singled to represent the terrour of God For though that flery Law which God gave out of the midst of fire burning up to Heaven be removed yet in the Gospel of sweetest mercy and freest grace there are threatnings of unquenchable Fire and eternal Flames Therefore this expression signifies his punishing and vindictive Justice the Subjects whereof are profane impenitent and unbelieving persons who are disobedient to the Law of Grace and refuse the tender of saving mercy The effect of this Justice upon these Offenders are severe and everlasting punishments which cannot be expressed or conceived but are represented by the raging flames and â—â—erce burning of the most violent Fire which cannot be quenched And as the torment of violent hottest flames is the most grievous so these punishments are and if the Sufferers be immortal and immortally sensible the Torment will be not only grievous but perpetual The sum is that the punishment of delinquent and disloyal Subjects which the Judge shall execute and they suffer is extreme and everlasting The force of the Reason is great for as men tremble to think of everlasting tormenting and consuming Flames so let them have a special care to serve God unto the end in due manner This implies that there is a glorious Reward of eternal Light and delight to all such as shall like loyal Subjects continue constant unto the end in the profession of the Truth and the acceptable Service of this glorious and eternal Soveraign CHAP. XIII § 1. PRofession without Practise Faith without good works cannot attain the fruition of that eternal Life which Christ hath merited and God hath promised therefore the Apostle in this Chapter exhorts to Love good Works constancy in the Truth and other Duties He begins with Love Ver. 1. Let brotherly Love continue THe Analysis of this Chapter is easy for we have 1. The hortatory part thereof 2. The conclusion of the whole The Duties exhorted unto with several Motives are reduced to a kind of order by divers Expositors Yet as this is not exactly done so it 's needless to do it We may indeed enumerate the Duties and reduce them to their proper places and heads in the Body of Divine Wisdom and that is very easie to be done Yet the Wisdom of the Apostle was this that he doth not mention all Duties but such as were most requisite at that time to be performed by those persons and doth not strictly follow the method of the moral Law but takes liberty to place them in that order which he thought most convenient For he knew the performance of them to be the principal thing and it was sufficient for him to press them and then to know them The first Exhortation is to brotherly Love The Duty is 1. Brotherly love 2. Continuance in it Brotherly love is love of the Brethren For there are Brethren and these must be loved To love our Neighbour as our selves is the substance of the second Table of the moral Law And as there are several degrees of Neighbours so there is of Love Neighbours in full extent include Strangers Enemies and all such as are capable of our Love Of these some are more nearly linckt unto us as Brethren Yet these are either natural political or spiritual here spiritual Brethren are meant who have God to be their Father Jerusalem above to be their
in it self but as it is an object of that hope which is a divine vertue and this eternal Life which though it be not the only yet is the principal object of our Christian hope Sometimes it 's taken properly for the expectation of this glorious and great Reward of eternal felicity It presupposeth Faith whereby we certainly believe it possible to be had and enjoyed with a vehement desire and longing after it And though the distance between us and it be great yet we are patient and willing to stay God's leisure There is a vain and groundless hope which is irrational there is a rational and probable hope yet not so firm and certain there is a firm and certain hope and that is when we have assurance of the thing hoped for This assurance also may admit of degrees for it may be full or not full This full assurance is the second thing and it 's that which removes all doubts and fears and this it may do at sometimes and not at others it may be interrupted or continued to the end This place speaks of full assurance of hope to the end This assurance will not be had much less continued to the end by sloth by diligence it may And so we are in the third place come unto the Duty which is to use all means and that with diligence whereby we may attain this assurance and continue it full unto the end And here he implies that they had been formerly diligent and so diligent as to have attained this assurance yet here he tells them 1. That they must continue the same diligence to the end 2. That the same diligence zeal affection they had shewed formerly being continued would serve the turn Assurance or certainty is either of the thing or the person The latter presupposeth the former for there can be no certainty to the person of a thing which is not certain in it self This certainty is in respect of the person who is either God or Man Eternal life is certain in respect of God who is able to give it and hath decreed so to do And that it might be certain unto us and that before the time of possession he hath signified his purpose bound himself by promise and confirmed his promise by Oath so that on his part it 's fully and every way certain Yet because the promise requireth a qualification and a performance of duty in the person to whom the promise is made therefore before we can be certain we must not only perform the duty and have the qualification but we must certainly know that we have done that which the Promise requireth and are duly qualified And the more clear and full the knowledg is the more full the assurance of hope and if this full knowledg continue this full assurance continueth to the end which is no groundless presumption but a firm and well-grounded hope Yet this is so to be understood that so far as Man may neglect his Duty and abate in the Qualification so far this assurance may abate If man's diligence in performing the Duty continue to the end this full assurance will do so too For to them who by patient continuance in well-doing shall seek Glory Honour and Immortality God will render eternal life Rom. 2. 7. Yet this patient continuance in well-doing depends upon God's special assistance and support For it 's God that worketh in us the Will and the Deed of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. And this is the reason why we must work out our Salvation with fear and trembling The full assurance not only depends upon the merit and intercession of Christ the Decree Promise and Oath of God but also requireth the diligence of Man and the continual support of God God's support assistance and concurrence are alwayes ready yet so is not Man's diligence For the best and most confirmed Saints on Earth may sometimes be remisse and so have their failings whereupon follow desertions to their great discomfort Yet neither do their failings wholly annihilate Grace nor frustrate the final event but God sometimes in his wonderful wisdom by with-drawing his comforts awakens and quickens them to Duty and useth outward Afflictions as Chastisements to improve their inherent virtues and corrects them And in that he promiseth to be their Father he binds himself to Chastise them if need require Otherwise he should not take them as Sons but account them as Bastards and so utterly neglect them So that we may apply that of the Psalmist in this case If his Children for sake my Law and walk not in my Judgments If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquities with Stripes Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Psal. 89. 30 31 32 33. So God's adopred Children may have their failings yet God will Chastise them that their Covenant may stand firm unto the end Yet let every one be diligent to the end and look for no comfort but upon performance of Duty For that God who is most merciful will be holy and just and he requires his Children should be so too Therefore let all those who have made so great a progress in Grace as to attain a full assurance of hope and a sight of their heavenly Canaan go on with all care and diligence for it 's a sad thing after that we are upon the borders of our heavenly Country to be turned back and wander in this Wilderness For Ver. 12. We must not be slothfull but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises § 14. THE Duty exhorted unto may be sufficiently understood by what hath been said already but that 's not sufficient it must be performed Yet who will go about it except it be reasonable And to manifest this is the next Work of the Apostle declaring the Reasons and Motives the first whereof is from Examples 1. Of many not named 2. Of Abraham in particular Examples do prove the Duty to be not onely possible but to have been actually performed and as such they do not bind though they may encourage but because the matter of them is something commanded they may and do oblige and not onely so but God commands us to imitate them and for that end makes them known and proposeth them yet in these patterns there is a special reason and motive superadded for as they by Faith and Patience obtained the Promises so shall we if we follow them The Persons intended are patterns for imitation in two things 1. The end whereat they aimed which was the attainment of the Promises 2. The means whereby they attained this end Faith Patience 1. They attained the Promises By Promises understand the things promised which were spiritual deliverances blessings and rewards and in one word Salvation yet temporal Mercies in reference to spiritual are not to be excluded For God
heard them Luke 10. 23 24. 3. The joy of Simeon when he saw his Saviour though then but an Infant and imbraced that blessed Babe in his arms doth manifest the same 4. We might add that the times of the Gospel were more excellent because the Angels came to School on Earth amongst Men to learn something that they had not known before This is implyed by these words of Paul And to let all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent that Now unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord Eph. 3. 9 10 11. And by those of Peter 1 Pet. 1. 17. Which things the Angels desire to look into 5. Upon the exhibition of Christ and the revelation of the Gospel the rule of Faith was more fully clearly and distinctly declared as the former places do signify and the Holy Ghost was more plentifully powred down from Heaven So that the times of the Gospel were times of far greater perfection then the former had been 2. This better thing was provided by God who disposeth of all times and of all things to be done as knowing both what and when is most fit to be effected And as by his Wisdom he contrived this better thing so by his Will he determined it and when the time came by his Almighty Power he accomplished what he had provided This implieâ— that it was his Work and from his own free Will he made this provision without any thoughts of Man 3. He provided this better thing for us that is for Paul and the Hebrews and all such as lived under that excellent dispensation and enjoyed the light of the Gospel For they are the parties who had the benefit and the priviledg which the Elders and Ancient worthies expected but never received in their times § 40. They were not perfected without us this is the second Proposition which 1. Implies That they were perfected 2. Expresly affirms That they were not perfected without us 1. The former times were times of imperfection both in respect of the object of Faith which was Christ to come and also in respect of the revelation and proposal of the rule which was then more dark and implicite and therefore before Christ's exhibition and the clear light of the Gospel the Saints and Elders of Old could not be perfected What the imperfection of their Souls and Spirits separated was before the time of Christ's Ascention we know not so clearly and we are ignorant in part of that perfection which they then acquired But certainly besides that some of them were raised with Christ their condition was much bettered The knowledg of their Saviour was much increased and their joyes much advanced But that this perfection should be their deliverance out of the dark Limbus and upper part of Hell I cannot be perswaded I find no Scripture for it 2. Yet they were not perfected without us who live under the Gospel God so ordered it that as their Faith was not so perfect as ours so their estate should not be bettered till the glorious light of Heaven shined out upon us and them joyntly and upon us both together If they were not made perfect without us and they received not the promise and we did and they continued constant in Faith how much more are we who have received it bound to be constant and persevere § 41. Though we find many examples in Scripture proposed for imitation and several Duties pressed thereupon yet we find no place in this kind so full so large so particular as this of the Apostle wherein he singles out the prime and choisest Worthies of God which have lived in all Ages before Christ from the beginning of the World And it 's a kind of Induction which though not expresly yet implicitely reacheth almost a general For examples logically considered are but particular individuals which united together make up a Totum genericum which many say is nothing but species â—â—sima but we must not quarrel about words Morally and Theologically taken they do illustrate and make plain the matter whereof they are examples but as examples do not bind except the matter be found in some precept in force or of universal and perpetual obligation as this of Faith and perseverance in Faith is Yet this is observable in Scripture that God doth not only give us examples for imitation but commands us to follow them and they are added to the precepts to make the duty more evident more easy and more fit for encouragement Surely there was some special reason why the Authour should so inlarge in this topick of examples The reason seems to be the necessity of Faith in respect of Salvation which was such as that never any of the best of Saints could attain it or did attain it without this Virtue Besides as there was danger so there was great fear of Apostacy because of many temptations And it 's remarkable that he doth not instance in any Ceremonial Duty as of Sacrifice and such like nor in the works of the Law but in Faith yet a most lively and working Faith and he doth manifest that this was a fundamental virtue from the beginning As for his method it 's as clear as such a matter is capable of and the subject is handled with a great deal of artifice He 1. Describes Faith and makes that the basis and foundation of his following Discourse not only to let them know what the duty was he formerly exhorted unto but to give light to the Examples following 2. He signifies that it was an ancient and general vertue whereby the Elders became so famous 3. Because it was fit in producing so many Examples to observe some Order and so begin with one more ancient than the rest as with Abel who was the second Son of the first Man and lest it might be said that there were many Ages of the World before his time he informs us that the World had a beginning and that by Faith we believe it and therefore his first Example is one living in the beginning of the World and from him draws the Series or Catalogue down to latter times CHAP. XII Wherein the Exhortation to Perseverance is continued § 1. THE Analysis of this Chapter is easy for in the Exhortation continued we must observe 1. The Duty exhorted upto which is Perseverance 2. The Reasons and Motives whereupon it 's urged Which are 1. The former Examples 2. The Example of Christ. 3. The Nature of their Sufferings as they come from God 4. Divers ill Consequents if Apostacy and the Causes and Occasions thereof be not avoided 5. The Excellency of the Church under the Gospel above the Church under the Law 6. The Manner of revealing the Gospel 7.
and Beeing but to be happy For as bitter Pills and Portions and also correcting Plaisters may effectually cure our Bodies motrally wounded or diseased so the Lord's Chastisements may heal our sick Spirits and so prevent spiritual Death and Punishments And as the Patient must be willing to receive bitter Pills and Potions for recovery so must we chearfully submit unto our heavenly Fathers Correction for our eternal safety and felicity § 11. Thus far the absolute consideration of these words Now follows the Comparison which presupposing some agreement in quality as in quanity of imparity For if we be bound to obey and reverence our earthly Fathers correcting us then we are bound to obey and be in subjection to our heavenly Father chastening us The reason is because as they so he hath power over us But this is not all for if we are bound if to them much then to him much more They are only Fathers of our Flesh and Bodies and have only a correcting power over them but he is the Father not only of our Bodies but also of our Spirits and hath an absolute Dominion over both not only to instruct counsel command but also to correct and his Correction tends not only to our temporal but our spiritual Health Safety and Happiness This the Apostle makes evident in the 10th Verse Where again we may consider some things 1. Absolute concerning our Earthly Heavenly Father 2. Comparative The words absolutely considered inform us 1. That our earthly Fathers for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure 2. That God our heavenly Father chasteneth us for our profit that we may be Partakers of his Holiness 1. In the former Chastisement we may observe 1. It 's short and for a few dayes 2. It 's arbitrary after their own pleasure 1. It 's short because it continues only for the time f our Child-hood and Minority when we are most apt to go astray and least able to direct out selves In these tender years Children may receive any Impression and that more easily than afterwards then the Foundation of Vertue or Vice is laid and if Children have their Liberty be neglected and left unto themselvs they are most subject to be corrupted Therefore theâ— they have most need of Correction and may be more easily kept under yet many times it falls out that Fathers devoid of Wisdom and not considering what is best and most truly good for their Children out of Passion and rashly not aiming at the choise End do correct them And the more Power they have and the less Resistance there is the more arbitrary and irregular their Chastisements prove so that as the time of their Chastening is short so it 's not regulated by the Dictates of Reason but follows Fancy and false Imaginations of the mind which many times represents as just and good that which indeed is evil and unjust The Intention of the Apostle in these words is to manifest the imperfection and deficiency of humane Castigation whereby it differs from that which is divine For 2. God chasteneth â—â— for our Profit that we may partake of his Holiness This is the Perfection of God's Correction which is not for a few dayes but continues for term of Life till he hath made us perfect and done his whole Work upon us It 's always regulated by his perfect Wisdom issues from purest Love tends unto and ends in our Happiness It 's no wayes arbitrary for he never chasteneth but when he sets cause and knows certainly that it will be good for us All this is implyed in these words for our profit where by profit we must not understand the good things of this World and the great Mammon which so many worship but some better thing some spiritual and divine benefit which in a word is a Participation of God's Holiness which Clause seems to be exegetical that we might know what he meant by Profit For whatsoever tends to make us spiritually better more like to God and more capable of Communion with him that 's true Profit God's Holiness may either be that whereby she is holy in himself oâ— that whereby weare holy He in himself is essentially infinitely and eternally holy most glorious excellent and pure in himself For the Holiness of God is sometimes taken for his Excellency and Glory sometimes for his Purity and perfect Righteousness in which respect it 's said That he is Light and in him is no Darkness so that he cannot sin be impure or unjust and therefore may be said to be Holiness it self As he is holy in himself so he is the Efficients and Fountain of Holiness to us for he makes us holy yet our Holiness is from him by participation and participated by us is more his than ours To be Partakers of his Holiness is either to be made holy as he is and so purified from Sin or being made holy to have Communion with him in some degree here or fully and for ever hereafter This Holiness is communicated to us by Chastisement accompanied with the Sanctisication of the Spirit for that 's the end whereaâ— God aims and the Effect which he produceth in his Children His Love doth set him on work his Wisdom directs and his Almghty Power effecteth that which his Love desireth This is the Absolute Consideration the Comparative followeth and that in quantity inequal for he argues from the less unto the greater For if they had with Patience endured their earthly Fathers chastizing them for a few dayes after their pleasure how much more should they with Patience and all humble Subjection endure their heavenly Father chastizing them in Wisdom for their everlasting Good This is a place which teacheth all Children their Duty towards their Parents chastening them and they must acknowledg their Power humbly submit unto it and be thankful unto them and their God for this good Work without which they might have been more wicked and more miserable And all Fathers should know that their Children are trusted in their hands by God not only to be instructed but corrected and in this part of Education they must imitate God and chasten them wisely in Love for their good The principal thing to be remembred is that seeing it is God that doth chastile them and in this manner and for their greatest good therefore they should not faint in their Sufferings for their Profession § 11. The Apostle proceeds further to discourse on the Text in Proverbs which speaks of Chastisement Of which it might be said that it 's a matter not of Joy but Grief and how then can it proceed from Love and be any wayes beneficial By way of prevention he resolvs this doubt in the words following Ver. 11. Now no Chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby BY these words we learn what the End and Effect of the Lord 's Chastening is
upon this mercy and power as having raised and advanced Christ first that by him thus raised and exalted he may first sanctify us fully and then give us everlasting Glory Therefore the Apostle saith That God out of his great mercy and love had quickned the believing Ephesians being formerly dead in Sins Trespasses together with Christ and raised them up together and set them in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 4 5 6. Where we may observe 1. That he quickened Christ being dead raised him up and set him in heavenly places 2. That he quickened them being dead in Sins and Trespasses raised them up and set them in heavenly places together with Christ and by Christ. 3. That both these were done by the same mercy and power first exercised upon Christ and then upon them After the Adoration and Compellation follows the Petition wherein the principal thing desired is Sanctification and the power of Regeneration continued in them that so they might perform a constant and universal Obedienceâ— which was a means to attain the possession of eternal Glory Where we must observe 1. That the Apostle having requested their prayers formerly doth in these words being not requested but of his own accord pray for them 2. That having exhorted them to the performance of several Duties and the exercise of several Virtues knowing that without the sanctifying Grace of God they could not perform these Duties constantly to the end in these words he prayes for the continuance of God's sanctifying power to enable them to do that which they without it cannot do 3. That seeing the Duties exhorted unto were but few and there were many more he desires God to perfect them not only in these but in every good Work that so they might perform an universal Obedience These things first observed in the words we must consider 1. Their Duty which is to be perfect in every good Work to do God's Will and that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. 2. God's Power whereby they are enabled to do their Duty and the same sought for by prayer 1. The Duty 1. Hath for the Rule the Will of God 2. This Will is observed when we do every good Work 3. Every good work thus done according to the Will of God is well-pleasing unto God 1. By the Will of God is meant his legislative and commanding Will whereby he signifies unto man what is just and good and binds him to observe these his Laws 2. The Will of God being our binding Rule our Duty is to observe it and we observe it when we do every good Work The works of man are the actions and operations of Man as a rational Creature and subject to the Laws and Will of God These works may be good or bad and then they are good when they are conformable to the Will and Law of God and this goodness presupposeth knowledg of this Will and the right disposition and qualification of the heart For if the heart be not good the work which is qualified by the heart cannot be good But it 's not sufficient to do some but every good work For the Laws of God command all good works and require that every work of man be good This is universal Obedience for the Law binds in all things and at all times so that it gives no liberty to do evil or transgress at any time 3. Every good work as good is well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ because it 's agreeable to his Will for to please God so as to be accepted of God is a Consequent of the goodness of the work as it is the end whereat man must aim Yet it cannot please God but by Faith in Jesus Christ For without Faith it 's impossible to please God Though these word Jesus Christ may be referred also to the Prayer wherein they desire sanctifying power through him and for his sake 2. The sanctifying power desired of God is expressed in two words 1. Perfecting 2. Working 1. The work of God must perfect us before we can do any good the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint signifies to uphold stablish direct compose and make up a thing so as to set it in order and finish it that it may be fit for the end it was made Thus to compose and make up a man in this place is to sanctify him and give him a power to do every good work and this is a work of the regenerating Spirit of God abiding in us and renewing us more and more In this respect we are said to be God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Eph. 2. 10. Yet this is not here meant of the first Regeneration but of the continuance and increase of this sanctifying Grace to strengthen us more and more As preservation and providence is to Creation so this work of perfecting is to the first Regeneration and as we are at first created unto good Works so we are perfected in Christ. Another thing desired of God is working in us that which is well pleasing unto him this signifies that God doth not only give us Power but continually co-operate and work in us and with us without whose co-operation we can do nothing that will please him For it is he that works in us both the Will and the Deed of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. This prayer in effect is the same with that we read was made for the Colossians For the Apostle and Timothy did not cease to pray for them and desire that he might be filled with the knowledg of God's Will in all spiritual Wisdom and Understanding That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fritful in every good Work increasing in the knowledg of God Col. 1. 9 10. Where we have 1. The Will of God as here which is the rule of our Obedience 2. Being fruitful in every good Work which is the same with doing every good Work which is the observation of God's Will 3. They must walk worthy to all pleasing so here they must do that which is well pleasing in his sight not in the sight of Man And as here when we do every good work we please him so there we please him by being fruitful in every good work 4. As here they could not please God except God perfect them and work in them so there neither could the Colossians please God without spiritual Knowledg Wisdom and Understanding of God's Will for Knowledg spiritual Wisdom and Understanding are the same as appears Prov. 2. 6. Where we find the words of the Septuagâ—nt taken up by the Apostle 5. As there this Grace of wisdom and fulness of it was sught by prayer so this continuance of God's sanctifying Grace is prayed for here This prayer informs us 1. That in doing all our good works we depend upon God both for the power given at the first and continued unto us and also for the working
progress had lost their Christendom it was impossible for them to be renewed and initiated again For neither the grace of Repentance could be expected from the Spirit nor any benefit from the Sacrifice of Christ which was never intended for to expiate the Sins of Apostates This is amplified and illustrated by a Similitude For as they who continue and increase in Grace shall be like good Ground and receive the blessing of God so Apostates shall be like bad Ground which being well Husbanded proves barren is cursed and the end is Burning For Apostates render themselves liable to God's Curse and everlasting Fire ver 4 5 6 7 8. 2. Though some of them might be very faulty yet he had better hope of the generality of them and this his hope is grounded on 1. God's Righteousness 2. Their Faith in Christ and labour of love manifested in their constant ministration to the Saints ver 9 10. Thus far the Resolution the Exhortation followeth Wherein we may observe 1. The Duty exhorted unto which is Perseverance ver 11. 2. The Motive from example of former Saints not named ver 12. Abraham In the example of Abraham the Apostle takes special notice of a Promise made unto him and confirmed by Oath and acquaints them with the end of this confirmation which was 1. To shew to the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel in performing his Promise ver 13 14 15 16 17. 2. To minister Comfort to them ver 18 19. This Digression finished he resumes the words of Confirmation Psal. 110. 4. that they may be the subject of the Chapter following ver 20. CHAP. VII THE Subject whereof is the words of Psal. 100. 4. formerly resumed The Scope to demonstrate the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood The Method Begins with Melchizedec ver 1. Goes on with the Priest-hood of Aaron and the Law ver 11. Concludes with the Priest-hood of Christ ver 20. For the Author discourseth 1. Upon the last word in the Text of the Psalm which is Melchizedec 2. Upon the words Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec 3. Upon the words I have sworn and will not repent 4. Takes notice from the antecedent Context of the Psalm to shew who the person was that was thus confirmed and how excellent and perfect In the first part we may observe 1. A Description of Melchizedec 2. A Demonstration of his excellency He is described from His Offices The acts of his Offices The perpetuity of his Priest-hood 1. For his Offices he was King and Priest ver 1. 2. For the acts of his Priest-hood they were Blessing and Tything Abraham ver 1 2. Regal power they were the righteous Government of his People and procuring their peace These he inferrs from the notation of his own name and the name of the place where he did reside ver 2. 3. For the continuance of his Priest-hood he neither had Predecessor from whom he did derive nor Successor to whom he did transmit his Sacerdotal power in which respect it might be said to be Personal and Perpetual This is the Description of Melchizedec taken from Gen. 14. From which he inferrs his excellency especially as a Priest And this excellency is proved 1. From his tything Abraham so great a Person whereas the Levitical Priests did but Tythe their Brethren which were far inferior to their Father Abraham ver 4. 5. 2. From his blessing of Abraham who had the Promises ver 6 7. 3. From this That the Levitical Priests receiving Tythes dye but Melchizedec who received Tythes of Abraham is witnessed to live ver 8. 4. Levi being then in the Loyns of Abraham when he payed Tythes to Melchizedec may with the Levitical Priests descended from him be laid to pay Tythes unto this great Priest ver 9 10. In the second part which begins ver 11. the Apostle enters upon these words Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedec and inferts from them 1. That there must be another Priest of another Order then that of Aaron ver 11. 2. That if there must be and by God's institution another Priest-hood and another Oder then that Levitical Priest-hood which came in with the Law was imperfect Ibid. 3. That seeing it was imperfect it must be changed and that if the Priest-hood then the Law also which was so inseparably joyned with it must be abolished ver 12. 4. That seeing the legal High Priest must by the first institution be of the Tribe of Levi and Christ this great and new High Priest was not of that Family but of the Tribe of Judah therefore it was evident the Priest-hood was changed already ver 13 14. 5. That this Change must needs be made was evident because the Priest which was of another Tribe must be after another Order the Order of Melchizedec ver 15. and another Power of endless life ver 16 17. 6. That the Reason why the Law annexed to the former Priest-hood must be disanulled was because it could sanctify and perfect no man as the Gospel doth ver 18 19. In the third part of this Discourse grounded upon these words of the Psalmist I have sworn and will not repent and the antecedent Context he speaks more distinctly and directly of Christ's perfect Priest-hood and 1. Proves the excellency thereof in that he was a Priest by an Oath which the Levitical High Priest was not ver 20 21. 2. Hence inferrs That his Priest-hood and the Gospel were unalterable and of perpetual continuance because 1. By this Oath he was made Surety of a better Covenant which could sanctify and save ver 22. 2. The Levitical Priests were mortal Christ upon his Resurrection immortal and able for ever to save by his Intercession which he ever lives to make for them who come to God by him ver 23 24 25. 3. He sums up the excellency of Christ whereby it 's evident that He and he Alone because of his perfections was only fit to be our Priest and save us For 1. He is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners ver 26. 2. Higher then the Heavens Ibid. 3. He need not Offer often or for Himself as the Levitical High Priest did He offered but once not for Himself but for his People and that Sacrifice was of eternal Virtue ver 27. 4. The legal High Priest had his infirmities and was not The Son but he that is by the Oath after the Law confirmed Priest hath no infirmities is the Son consecrated for ever ver 28. All these things are implied in the antecedent Context of the Psalm for he that is there confirmed Priest in this manner was the Son of God without sin who having offered himself a Sacrifice unsported was risen again immortal ascended above the Heavens and set at the right hand of God as appears from ver â—â— of the Psalm when God by his Oath did confirm him CHAP. VIII HItherto the Apostle hath demonstrated the excellency of
Christ's Priest-hood in respect of the Constitution and now proceeds to prove his excellency in respect of the Ministration For if he be a Priest he must minister and officiate and his ministration is two-fold or there be two parts thereof The first whereof Which is his great Offering was performed on Earth The second Which is his Intercession is performed in Heaven He was a Priest elect when he offered on Earth He was a Priest constituted and confirmed before he did intercede in Heaven These things premised the Author doth 1. Sum up briefly the substance of his former Discourse Concerning the constitution of Christ's Priest-hood ver 1. 2. Proceed to set forth his excellency in respect of his Ministration 1. More generally in this Chapter 2. More particularly hereafter That he may do this the better he takes it for granted that the due ministration of a Priest requires 1. A Tabernacle or Temple 2. A Sacrifice or something to be offered 3. A Covenant whereof he must be Mediatour These things presupposed he proves the excellency of Christ's ministration in respect 1. Of the Tabernacle which is not made with hands but pitched by God ver 2. 2. Of the thing offered and the service both which are supernatural and divine not after the pattern of heavenly things ver 3 4 5. 3. Of the Covenant which he did confirm and make effectual as Mediatour which is better then that of Works whereof the Levitical High-Priest was Mediatour ver 6. That it was better he proves because it was established upon better Promises Where two things are observable 1. That the Promises of the Covenant were better 2. That it's stable and firm Ibid. To make both these evident he 1. Recites the words of the Prophet Jeremy concerning both the Covenants 2. In the words he 1. Informs us 1. Of the deficiency of the former ver 8 9. 2. Of the excellent Promises of the latter ver 10 11 12. 2. From the word Now he inferrs the abolition of the former to bring in the latter ver 13. CHAP. IX VVHerein the Apostle proceeds farther to evidence the excellency of Christ's ministration and this he doth more particularly by setting forth the excellency of his great Sacrifice and Offering That he may do this the better he singles out from all the other legal Services the anniversary Sacrifice of Expiation with the Blood whereof the High Priest alone once in the year only entred into the Holiest of all and proving Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross to be far more excellent than this he doth clearly evince the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood The parts of the Chapter are two The first is concerning the Typical Tabernacle Priests Service The Tabernacle is described ver 1 2 3 4 5. The Priests ver 6 7. The Service Ibid. The imperfection of their Service ver 8 9 10. The principal part of the Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies The principal Priest the High Priest The principal Service the presenting of the Blood of the Expiatory Offering in the Holiest place Where the Apostle observes 1. That because none but the High Priest alone might enter within the 2d Veil therefore the way into the Holiest was not yet made manifest 2. That because the Services and so the Ministration were but carnal therefore they could not perfect the Performers The second part is concerning the Antitypical Tabernacle Priest Service and especially the Service of Christ's great Offering which he proves to be far more excellent then the legal great Sacrifice of expiation and so than all other legal Sacrifices from the Effects and Consequents thereof For by it Christ entring the Holy place 1. Obtained eternal Redemption ver 11 12. 2. Purgeth the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God ver 13 14. 3. Confirms the new Covenant makes it effectual and unalterable ver 15. This Confirmation is illustrated 1. From the Testaments of Men confirmed by the Death of the Testator ver 16 17. 2. From the Sanction and Confirmation of the former Covenant by Blood ver 18 19 20. The former purifying and expiating Virtue of Christ's Sacrifice is illustrated from the Purification Expiation and Consecration of most things under the Law by Blood And hence inferrs That heavenly and spiritual things must be purified by better Sacrifices ver 21 22 23. 4. Entring Heaven he appears before God for us making Intercession and needs not come out of that Holy place again to re-iterate his Death and Sacrifice as the High Priest under the Law did but he stayes there pleading his One Offering of eternal Virtue untill he come to Judgment and give the actual possession of eternal life to all such as wait for him and this is the ultimate benefit of this Great Offering ver 24 25 26 27 28. CHAP. X. VVHetein 1. The Doctrine of Christ's Sacrifice is continued 2. The same Doctrine is applied Of this Doctrine there be two parts 1. Concerning the imperfection of the legal Offeringâ— 2. Concerning the perfection of Christ's The imperfection of the former was in this They could nor sanctify because 1. They were but shadows ver 1. 2. They were re-iterated and left a conscience of sin ver 2 3. 3. They were but carnal and the Blood of Bulls and Goats could not take away the spiritual stain and guilt of Sin to purge the immortal Soul 4. God did reject them as insufficient for that purpose and did accept Christ's one Offering This is proved out of Psal. 40. 7 8 c. and here 1. The words are cited ver 5 6 7. 2. The principal thing intended thence concluded that not by them but this Sacrifice of Christ we are sanctified ver 8 9 10. 3. They being many offered many times by many Priests could not take away sin but this one Sacrifice offered but once and by one Priest doth consecrate the Sanctified for ever ver 11 12 13 This he proves out of Jer. 31. 1. Citing the words ver 15 16 17. 2. Thence concluding the eternal Virtue of this Offering ver 18. Thus far the Doctrine now follows the Application continued from this place to the latter end of the last Chapter In this Application we may consider 1. The Duties exhorted unto which are many but the principal is Perseverance 2. The Motives 3. Sometime the Means The first Duty exhorted unto is To draw near with a sincere Heart in assurance of Faith 2. The Motives The holy place is open A new way is made We have an High Priest ver 19 20 21 22. The second Duty is To hold fast our Profession and persevere ver 23. The Means 1. To stir up one another ver 24. 2. Not to forsake the Assemblies ver 25. The Motives 1. God is faithful who hath promised ver 23. 2. The time is near at hand ver 25. 3. If we fall away after we have received the Truth the Sin will be very hainous the punishment very grievous and unavoidable ver 26 27 28 29 30
Spirits To be Ministers is 1. To be Servants in general 2. To be Officers and imployed either in sacred or civil Service therefore the word doth signify Priests or Magistrates Yet these are Ministers or Servants in the Court of Heaven under God the Supream Lord of all 3. They are sent forth for as they have their Office so they have their Imployment they are sent forth to Minister They do not go of their own head but have their work designed by God and receive both Direction and Command from him 4. The parties for whose good the Minister are the converted Believers who are designed Heirs of Salvation and eternal Glory For though they be God's Servants yet they serve for the good of his Children and this is their principal work and their happiness is the end of their Service 5. They are all and every one both Servants and also sent forth for this Service the greatest is not exempted This is the absolute consideration of the words The relative as they referr unto the scope of the Apostle is to prove that Christ is more excellent and they inferior to Christ. The force of the argument lyes chiefly in this 1. That they are Ministers and Servants 2. That all of them none excepted are such For all and every of them be Ministers not Lords and Kings then they are inferior to Christ. Nay they all and every one of them are subject to Christ as the Word from the Creation and after Christ as the word incarnate was set at the right hand of God they all were his Servants commanded and sent by him for the promoting of the Salvation of his redeemed ones believing on him So that they are not only Servants but his Servants this Doctrine informs us 1. Of the excellency of Christ advanced in our Nature above the Angels 2. Of the benefit of Believers they are Heirs of Salvation and the Angels the heavenly Spirits must take a special care of them 3. Of our Duty 1. To believe that we may be Heirs of Salvation and enjoy the guardance guidance and protection 2. To be humble Servants unto God to do good to others especially the Houshold of Faith seeing Angels though excellent are humble Servants to Christ for our good This principal matters in this Chapter are several The first is concerning the excellency of the Scriptures wherein God speaks by Prophets and by his own Son 2. The excellency of Christ in respect of the Prophets and the Angels 3. The Nature and Ministry of Angels The Use of this Doctrine follows in the beginning of the next Chapter CHAP. II. Ver. 1. § 1. THis Chapter is an Exhortation to the constant Profession of the Doctrine of the Gospel These words may be considered 1. In that Connexion with and dependence upon the former 2. In themselves The Connexion and Dependence is signified by the illative therefore which implys that the proposition in the first verse is a conclusion inferred from some premisses in the former Chapter wherein the Apostle had not only affirmed and proved that Christ was a Prophet more excellent then the former Prophets but the Angels And if he was so then it follows he must needs be heard and his Doctrine observed which is the substance of the first verse For seeing God speaks by the Prophets and more excellently by Christ therefore Prophets much more Christ are to be heard § 2. This is a Connexion The words themselves we must consider First As an Exhortation And secondly in the same 1. The duty exhorted unto 2. The reasons whereby the performance is urged An exhortation is reducible to a Rhetorick and proper to a deliberative Theme according to Aristotle and Tully ' whose Rules are not meerly Rhetorical but Political and are miscellaneous It presupposeth the party exhorted to know and remember the thing exhorted unto and a perswasion that it 's good especially honest and just The end of it is to move inslame and stir up the Will and Heart of the Auditor to performance This upon the by To proceed we have 1. The matter of the Exhortation or the Duty exhorted unto For the subject of divine Exhortations is some duty possible by the power of Grace to be performed Duty presupposeth a Command of God upon which follows an obligation to performance and a duty is nothing else and is a duty whether performed or not The duty is affirmative or negative So that in the words we have not only an exhortation but a dehortation too yet to speak properly they are but implyed For the Apostle signifies rather that the matter is a duty then exhorts unto it The affirmative is to give the more earnest heed to the things heard the negative not to let them slip yet the former must be done lest the latter which is a Sin should follow The matter of the duty is the things heard that is the Doctrine of Christ the great Prophet and his Apostles as made known and heard by them The act is attention earnest attention the more earnest attention because spoken by Christ more excellent then the Prophets then the Angels This attention is not only a diligent consideration of the things heard but a belief and constant profession joyned with practise and presupposeth the knowledg of them The negative which upon the neglect of the affirmative will follow is not to let them slip Thus it 's translated in our English but with divers Latine Interpreters it's to leak or flow out or aside And here Expositors compare the Soul unto a broken Cistern or torn-Vessel which will not keep any liquid substance powred into it In this sense to let slip seems to be nothing else then to forget But the Sytiack turns it so lest we fall off or from our profession The Septuagint use the Apostles word Prov. 3. 21. where the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luz which signifies not only in that Language but in the Chaldee to depart go back decline from a thing Therefore here the sin we must take heed of is not only to forget the Doctrine of Christ but to fall from the Faith and Profession of it And the reason why they must be so careful is because there was great danger and many temptations which would prove the more effectuall against the careless and the negligent In a word the duty is upon most dillgent attention constantly to believe and profess the Doctrine of Christ and never to recede or fall from it Thus to do is our duty there is a necessity of precept God's Command binds us we ought and the reason is because the Doctrine we have heard is the Doctrine of Christ the Doctrine of God made Man And it was God's Command to hear him the great Prophet upon peril of total Destruction This duty is reducible to the first Commandment evangelically understood and not to hear believe profess the Doctrine of God Redeemer by Christ is a grievous sin there forbidden As the duty
were yet here they are called Brethren as believing in Christ and holy as sanctified by the Spirit of Christ So that this is a Fraternity in respect of Religion Christian. They became such Brethren and so holy by the heavenly Call they were partakers of the heavenly Calling For as they were not Brethren so neither were they holy by natural Generation but by supernatural and spiritual Regeneration as before To be partakers of this Call is either barely to be called or to be partakers of this Mercy together with others It 's said to be Heavenly as some understand it in respect of the efficient and the final Cause It 's from Heaven that is from God who is the principal Cause of this Work and because they are to be called to Heaven that is eternal Glory which is the end and ultimate Effect thereof In it we may consider 1. The Work of God 2. The Duty of Man 3. The Benefit following upon both The Work of God is by the Word of the Gospel and the Power of the Spirit to enlighten and sanctify man and gave him a Divine Power to believe and turn unto Him The duty of Man is to be obedient to the heavenly Call The benefit is the admission of him as obedient unto his heavenly Kingdom and receiving him as an Heir of Glory Upon this heavenly Call followeth a great change both in the disposition and condition of man called For his disposition he is made of unholy holy and therefore said to be called with an holy Calling and to be called unto Holiness For his condition he is made of miserable happy and therefore said to be called unto eternal Glory And because the distance between holiness and happiness and sinful and miserable Man is so great therefore this work of God is a work of great power and because the change is so happy therefore it 's a work of great mercy wherein God freely prevents man so that if he should not thus prevent him he would be for ever sinful and miserable Wo unto all such as are disobedient to this heavenly Call and neglect this preventing Grace for as their Sin is more hainous so their Punishment shall be more grievous The Apostle seems to put them in mind of this Calling to let them know how deeply they are engaged to God and how unworthy they should be if they should not persevere unto the end § 3. The duty exhorted unto is expressed ver 6. It 's to hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope firm to the end and is repeated ver 14. It 's opposed to unbelief ver 12. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God The duty therefore is persevetance which presupposeth that they had received the Truth of the Gospel and professed their Faith in Christ and is a continâ—ance in this Faith once received and professed to the end This Faith was from God and was wrought in them by the heavenly Call and the continuance of it depends upon God He gave it at the first he continues it to the last yet so that man must be obedient at the first and use all means with diligent care to preserve it to the last Some refuse to obey at the first others who have professed and received the Truth fall off before the end and both these are sins and they only guilty of them § 4. The reasons follow 1. From the excellency of Christ which is set forth by Comparison The parties compared are Christ and Moses both excellent but Christ far more And here it is observable 1. That the duty is the same with that which was pressed Chap. 2. 2. That the ground of that was the excellency of Christ above the Angels of this the excellency of Christ above Moses 3. The reason there was that if the disobedience unto the word of Angels was punished with Death how much more grievously shall they be punished which disobey the Gospel of Christ 4. The reason here is that if their fathers for their unbelief and disobedience to the Doctrine of Moses were eternally shut out of God's rest how much more shall they he shut out of Heaven and Christ's eternal rest if they do not continue in the Faith of Christ but fall off from their profession To understand this first reason we must consider 1. The excellency of Christ and the excellency of Moses absolutely and positively 2. The excellency of both comparatively that so we may understand the excellency of the one fâ—t above the the excellency of the other 1. Therefore they must consider the excellency of Christ Jesus which is this That he is the Apostle and High-Priest of their Profession Their profession was of the Christian Faith and Religion which they did professe The Authour Apostle and Legate sent from Heaven who first published this Faith and Doctrine was Christ the Son of God by whom God spake who was formerly proved to be more excellent then the Prophets then the Angels So that their Religion was from God nor by Prophets or Angels but by Christ the great Prophet For here to be an Apostle is to be a Prophet Yet Moses and so many others may be Prophets yet no High-Priest but Christ Jesus is not only the Prophet but the High-Priest who mediates between God and Man and officiates so as to make his Doctrine effectual and saving and expiate his Peoples Sin that they may be reconciled to their God This two-fold power was necessary as without which he could not have been a perfect Saviour These are his two Offices upon which the Apostle so much enlargeth and insisteth But 〈◊〉 may be an Officer and yet prove unfaithful and not discharge his trust yet Christ was faithful For it follows Ver. 2. Who was faithful to him that appointed him § 5. This is concerning Christ's fidelity expressed both absolutely in these words and comparatively in those which follow 1. Absolutely He was faithful to him who appointed him 2. Comparatively As Moses was faithful in all his House The former words 1. Imply his ordination 2. Expresse his fidelity to him that ordained him Where we have two Propositions 1. That God appointed Him 2. He was faithful to God In that He was appointed or made an Apostle and High-Priest of our Christian profession for so the words are to be understood it 's evident that He did not Usurp this two-fold Power and Office but received it and acquired it legally and none could invest Him with this Power but onely God and the reason is because it is so eminent and transcendent After he was once advanced he was faithful to that God who advanced and trusted him with so great a Power This fidelity was the true and full discharge of his Apostolical and Sacerdotal Office in perfectly doing all things necessary for the eternal Salvation of Man so far as it depended upon this two-fold Office As an Apostle or Prophet
habitation is here meant For only they who persevere unto the end shall be his House in this manner Though it may be said That we are his House now and shall be his House for ever in a more glorious manner if we persevere unto the end This is the meaning of the words The force of the argument from them thus understood is evident and very great For if this blessed and glorious estate of being Christ's House will certainly follow upon the final perseverance in sincere Christianity how much will it move and work upon such as believe and certainly hope that upon this duty performed so incomparable a Reward will follow And how careful will they be in case of all means which conduce to this perseverance For the greater good believed to follow upon any performance the greater and more powerful the motive is This is the second Reason § 11. The third follows and that is from the penalty that will follow upon non-perseverance and Apostacy This reason is annexed to a dehortation from hardening of the heart and apostacy which is unbelief yet this dehortation presupposeth the principal exhortation to Faith and continuance therein to the end and therefore because it is a reason of the dehortation from the contrary sin it must needs be a reason of the exhortation to the duty opposed to that sin It 's taken out of Psal. 95. from ver 8. unto the end And though it seem to be directed unto the People of those wherein the Psalm was composed yet it directly points at the Gospel and the dayes of the same In that part of the Psalm we may observe 1. The dehortation 2. The reason why they should take heed of the sin dehorted from The reason is from an example of the like Sin punished in their fore-fathers The Sin in one word was Unbelief expressed and declared by the effects thereof which were tempting of God and so offending him because they erred in their hearts and did not know or take notice of his wayes The punishment was exclusion out of Canaa◠their rest intended by God Which punishment was 1. Absolutely denounced by way of a final and peremptory sentence passed with an Oath 2. Executed by overthrowing their Carkasses in the Wildernesse The sum of all this was to let them know That if they sinned as their Fathers did they should certainly suffer the like punishment The conclusion inferred hence is That they must have a special care to persevere in the Faith and take heed of Apostacy This may suffice to be observed upon the words of the Psalmist § 12. The next thing is the Application of these words of the Psalmist unto the present Hebrews to whom he writes Wherein he 1. Presseth the Duty upon them according to the words of the Psalm 2. That his counsel might be more forcible and the Duty more diligently and carefully performed he useth two reasons The first from the benefit which will follow 2. From the punishment they must suffer if they fall away 1. The duty is the same which was formerly urged and that is perseverance and constancy in their Christian Profession which is opposed to unbelief and apostacy which is a departing from the living God which in the Psalmist is the hardning of the heart For that passage of the Psalmist presupposeth a Day and Time of God's speaking to mortal man and exhorteth man in that Day to hear and obey constantly till the Day of God's Voice be ended and dehorteth from hardness of heart Disobedience and Apostacy In this place the Apostle making the same application to the Children and Posterity which David did to their Fathers living in his time declareth the Duty 1. Negatively or rather apotreptic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of dehortation 2. Affirmatively by way of exhortation to that which will be a means of continuance and perseverance The dehortation is Ver. 12. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of Unbelief in departing from the living God Where we must consider 1. The evil dehorted from 2. The dehortation it self The evil is an evil of Sin not of punishment where we have the root of it in the primary subject an evil heart of Unbelief the fruit and effect departing from the living God The heart is the primary and proper subject and also the cause of sin yet the heart as the heart is not the cause of actual sin but as an evil heart and here an evil heart of Unbelief Unbelief may in this place signify perfidiousnesse when the heart inclines to deny and forsake that Truth which was formerly professed and to violate that promise of Obedience made to God at the first entrance into Christianity and so actual unbelief is a breach of Covenant This unbelieving heart is an evil that is a disobedient impious perverted heart This is the basest temper and most malignant quality of the Soul whereby it 's most contrary to the most just and holy Law of God and the conditions of the Covenant of Grace That it is so is evident from the act or effect thereof which is to depart from the living God This departing from God is actual and formal apostacy which is so directly contrary to Perseverance This is signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Orginal which is to renounce something formerly received and acknowledged It 's like to a rebellion revolt and renouncing of a lawful Soveraign formerly acknowledged by allegiance and fidelity promised These Hebrews had received the Gospel acknowledged Christ their Saviour made a Covenant with the living God to whom they submitted themselves as their Soveraign Lord Redeemer by Christ. In their Baptism they had solemnly professed their Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and promised obedience To deny this profession or this Faith professed to break this promise to forsake their Christianity turn Jews or Heathens especially after that by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost that were so strongly convinced of the Truth must needs be an hainous sin issuing from an evil and malignant heart indeed There is an hardning of the heart against the light and motives of the Gospel when Christ is first tendered and not yet received There is an hardning of the heart against the Truth once received this latter not the former is Apostacy and the Sin here meant both hainous both forbidden by God both tending to eternal Death yet this more then the other And here it 's to be noted that positive unbelief blindness and hardness of heart are often taken for the same The Duty therefore is to take heed lest there be such an heart in any of them Where it 's implyed 1. That every one was in danger 2. That this sin began in the heart 3. Therefore all and every one must be very wary careful diligent to avoid the same and all the causes thereof For if they were not well-grounded in the principles of Christianity they
might be deluded by the Sophisms of the unbelieving Jews and their cunning Emissaries if they were not strong in Faith and their former holy resolutions they might the more easily be overcome by the sear of persecution and the love of their Temporal Peace Safety Estates Liberty Lives The reason of this dehortation was because he knew that if they did not carefully avoid the contrary which was destructive of perseverance they could not persevere To avoid this sin he adds an exhortation wherein he prescribes a means tending to continue us in the Truth saying Vet. 13. But exhort one another daily whilst it 's called to Day lest any of you be hardued through the deceitfulness of sin § 13. Though we may exhort one another in private yet this seems to have some reference to their publick Assemblies for Religious Worship For as the Psalm was composed for the publick Worship and to be sung as a preparative to the same especially that part which is concerning the hearing of God's Word So in the times of the Gospel it was used by some Christian Churches to prepare the People assembled as for other Duties so for that of hearing the Gospel Thus we find it placed in our Liturgy And upon due consideration it will appear to be an excellent place of Scripture and most fit for that end In the words we have 1. An exhortation 2. A reason In the exhortation we have 1. The duty 2. The time of performance The duty is mutual exhortation and encouragement of one another The time is daily while it 's said To Day The reason is to prevent obduâ—ation lest any of you be hardned Before I enter upon the particular explication of these words I must inform the Reader That the Apostle having recited the words of the Psalm in the application of them follows the order of the principal words and parts thereof The first was Harden not your heart this he insists upon ver 12 13 14. The second The Fathers provoked God this he takes up in ver 15 16. The third God was grieved with that Generation this you find ver 17. The fourth is The shutting of these unbelieving Ancesters out of God's Rest this you may read of ver 18 19. The fifth is Entring into rest granted and promised to God's People after the days of David This takes up the greatest part of the Chapter following The duty exhorted unto is to exhort one another so that it is an exhortation to exhortation Where we must consider 1. What it is to exhort 2. Who they be who are concerned in this duty to perform it 1. To exhort is to move stir up encourage comfort strengthen perswade The end is confirmation and continuance in Christianity The means are proposing the divine Precepts the glorious Reward promised the fearful Punishments threatned to manifest the clear and pure Truth of the Gospel and the Divine confirmations of the same with the falshood of all contrary Doctrines To these we may add their publick and private Prayers with the Sacraments 2. This Duty concerned all and every one For every Christian according as he hath power and opportunity is bound as to convert others so to edisy and confirm one another converted and mutually further and promote their Salvation And this is a special work of Christian Charity which we owe one to another is Christian Brethren and fellow-Members of the same Body Yet the greater our Abillties and the more excellent out Gifts the greater is our Obligation And Ministers of all others are most concerned in it and the end of out Christian Assemblies for Religious Worship and Discipline is to do this work But how guilty are we of neglect how careless are we of this work How justly may God charge the Blood of the Souls of our Apostate Brethren upon us Most men hinder and that many wayes and few further the Salvation of their Brethren It 's high time for us all to reform in this particular This is the Duty to exhort one another the time limited for the performance is to Day whilst it 's said to Day For so the Psalmist saith To Day if you will hear his Voyce This presupposeth a time when God will speak and we must hear God speaks by his Word and here in particular by the Gospel and the Professors and Ministers thereof By it he Commands all men to repent and believe and being once converted to persevere unto the end and by it he promiseth to such as obey a glorious Reward He is further ready to accompany this Word of the Gospel with the power of his Spirit without which man cannot perform his Duty This is that which we call Vocation so that to Day is the time of Vocation granted to any People or to single Persons And whilst God grants to any the Word and Spirit which are the means of conversion He may be said to Call and Man is bound to hear and be Obedient Some think this Day to be the whole time of every man's life whilst he is a member of the visible Church yet we find that many of the Israelites were by an Oath excluded out of God's Rest before they dyed and that Jerusalem had by her hardness of heart made her case desperate and her ruine unavoidable long before it was destroyed so likewise many a man's Day and Time of possibility and hope to be saved is spent and ended before his life determine Therefore by Day in this place is understood in a special manner the present time because no man is certain of the future Therefore they must exhort one another whilst it 's said to Day that is presently and in no wise delay or intermit the performance of this Duty The reason of this exhortation is from the end which is the preventing hardness of heart through the deceitfulness of Sin This presupposeth that sin is deceitful and implies that the deceitfulness thereof will harden the heart Sin in it self is base and filthy and an object of abhomination and except it be represented in some appearance of good every one would abhor it Satan therefore when he would tempt and perswade man to it deludes his Understanding with false colours of Pleasure or Profit or something desirable but conceals the baseness and the sad and woful consequents thereof This outward appearance of goodness makes it like a bait fastned on an hook and man being greedy of the bait swallows the hook When he finds no mischief to follow upon the Commission immediately he goes on by degrees till he acquire an habit which hardens the heart makes it sensless blots out the Characters of divine Truth and so in the end changeth the very quality of the heart Whereas man before was very pliable and ready to receive the impressions of Divine Truth now he is blinded and become stupid Divine commands promises threats exhortations admonitions cannot work upon him and then how easily will he be perswaded to fall off
from Christ and deny the Faith he had professed Hardness of heart may be considered as a Judgment of God or as a Sin of Man here it 's to be considered as a Sin And such it may be either in respect of the first Call and so is or implies at least a refusal of Christianity and so it 's either a rejection of that Christianity which was once received and professed or at least makes way for it and thus it 's to be understood in this place For no man can fall off from the Christian Faith once received but his heart must needs be hardned and stand unmoved against all former convictions This considered either in the former or latter sense may be conceived 1. As a Not yielding unto the Reasons and Motives unto belief and profession proposed in the Gospel 2. As an obstinate resisting of these Motives and Reasons joyned with some power of the Spirit And both these may be caused either from the delusion of the understanding apprehending and 〈◊〉 to contrary Motives and Reasons which are not really such but seem to be such which may be called sinful 〈◊〉 as the words of the Text may be understood oâ— from the pure malignancy of the Will or from both Now to prevent all these mutual exhortation is an excellent mean ordained by God to that end And the neglect of this Duty is a great Cause or at least a great Advantage of sin and leaves the way open for Apostacy to come in For frequent proposals and representations of the true Reasons why we should believe and a continual â—itring up to holy Duties are effectual causes of the confirmation of our profession and so of our perseverance § 14. We must mutually exhort one another whilst it 's said to Day for to prevent Apostacy and we must prevent Apostacy because without final perseverance we cannot be partakers of Christ. For Ver. 14. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end This seems to be the same with that in ver 6. yet the expression is some what different For to hold fast our confidence and rejoycing of hope firm unto the end is the same with holding the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end And to be Christ's House the same with being partakers of Christ. So that I need not say much of this Text only some things may be observed As 1. That Hypostasis turned confidence may in this place signifie our Christian Faith 2. That the beginning of it is the first receiving of it or the principles of Christianity 3. That as it may signify a firm standing so it 's applyed to the Soul as firmly standing and continuing in the belief and profession of the Faith without wavering or doubting and is opposed to falling For though the principles and fundamental Truths are firm and stable for ever in themselves yet they are not so firm in the hearts of many who professe them Therefore it 's our duty to seek a firm existence of them in our hearts and a firm fixing of our hearts upon them never to be removed 4. That to be partakers of Christ is to partake of and attain the great Reward of eternal Glory merited by Christ For the word Christ is here taken Metonymically for the benefits of Christ. 5. That though this may seem to be the same reason with the former yet here it seems to be brought as a reason from the penalty that will follow upon our Apostacy which is an unspeakable loss of eternal Glory the greatest benefit Christ hath purchased for us For if we shall be partakers of Christ only upon this condition of perseverance to the end then if we harden our hearts and fall off we must needs lose eternal Glory and that great Benefit which Christ merited § 15. Thus far the Apostle hath made use of those words of the Psalmist To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts Now he proceeds to the words following As in the Day of Provocation and enlargeth upon them in this manner Ver. 15. While it is said to Day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation For some when they had heard provoked c. Where 1. He takes in the former words with this of Provocation 2. Though the Psalmist do not mention whether all their Fathers provoked and tempted God or no yet he observes that only some not all did provoke The connexion of these words with the former seems to be this That as their Fathers by hardning their hearts provoked God to wrath so if they hardned their hearts they will provoke God likewise and he will be offended with them The argument in form is this e must Wnot do any thing that will provoke God to anger but if we harden our hearts we shall provoke him to anger Therefore we must take heed of hardning our hearts and of Apostacy The proposition in these here presupposed is That hardning the heart will provoke The propositions here delivered in the Hypothesis are 1. That some of their Fathers did provoke 2. That all did not provoke That which all these imply and inferr is this as applyed to them That they must not harden their hearts lest they provoke Lest this discourse should not be so pertinent and effectual let us first enquire what this provodation is The Hebrew word is translated by the Septuagint to signify contention contradiction and exacerbation and so they turn it only in this place And the Apostle follows their Translation and useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is a word 1. Compound 2. Derivative and is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies bitter as Meâ—â—s or Drinks are biâ—â—er to the taste The signification therefore in this place is Mephorical and informs us That as some Meats and Drinks being bitter are very offensive to the taste so hardness of heart and apoâ—â—acy are very offensive unto God The words used in the Psalm may be either Proper and so translated as in Meribah and Massa or Anellâ—tive as here the Apostle understands them This provocation may be considered either at a Sin or a consequent of Sin here it seems to be a consequent of sin yet necessarily presupposing the Sin Sin every sin being contrary to God 's Law provokes him to anger and gives him just cause to execute his vindictive Justice upon the Sinuer Yet some sins are more provoking then others especially such as are committed by People in Covenant with God who act contrary to their solemn Vows and Engagements as Israel in the Wilderness did And this hardning of the heart so as to fall away is the most provoking of all For it not only deserves punishment and by vertue of the Law makes the Sinner liable to it but provoks God to pass a definitive sentence and to proceed to execution This particular consequent of sin is that which here
this he in some sort pledged his Beeing and Deity to confirm his Sentence 2. This Oath he sware in his Wrath he sware to Abraham in his great mercy to confirm unto him the immutability of his Counsel which was to bless him and this he did upon the acceptation of his sincere Obedience But this was in wrath not of rash passion which God is in no ways subject unto but in his severe vindictive Justice moved by their abhominable disobedience and rebellion after so many mercies deliverances wonders and convictions 3. The end of this Oath was to make the Sentence immutable His Word and bare Sentence was sufficient but to manifest his high displeasure and to cut off from that People all hope of entrance he added this Oath which in some sort stands good against all such Apostate Wretches who can have no hope of God's eternal Rest which they have eternally forfeited This is the Question To whom did God thus swear and who were those Israelies who by this Oath were absolutely debarred of all entrance into that Land The Answer follows though proposed as the former Interrogatively in these words But to them that believed not This is evident and very clear and by it is signified 1. The Parties who were excluded 2. The Sin for which they were excluded and it was Unbelief They believed not God's Word and Promise were not moved by all his Mercies and Miracles and former Judgments And thereupon became guilty of the breach of Covenant refused obstinately to perform the conditions of it in the obedience of God's Command They hardned their hearts and departed from the living God and became perfidious and rebellious Apostates From these words he concludes the Chapter in this manner Ver. 19. So we see they could not enter in because of Unbelief For this was the scope whereat he aymed to make clear what the cause of their not entring into Cauaan was that special notice might be taken of the Sin that they might take heed of the like Sin that so they might avoid the like Punishment Where by the way we may take notice that God's Judgments are just and He never condemns any but for Sin and as the Sin is more or less hainous so he proportions the Punishment The sum and substance of this example of the Fathers proposed in the Psalm is this That if they should be guilty of hardning their hearts and unbelief as their Fathers were they should be punished with the like punishment under the Gospel And if their Fathers were so fearfully punished for their disobedience to the Law of Moses how much more grievously should they be punished if they disobeyed the Gospel and forsook Jesus Christ their Saviour The whole Chapter as you heard is an exhortation to perseverance in the Christian Profession and that upon several Reasons As 1. The exocllency of Christ so far above Moses 2. The incomparable benefit that would follow thereupon 3. The dreadful punishment they must suffer if they did fall away To make this last the more effectual He 1. Alledges the words of the Psalm 2. Applies them to these Hebrews that by the example of their Fathers they might take heed of Apostacy and Unbelief Yet this Application is but begun here and finished in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. Ver. I. FOR the better understanding of this part of the Epistle we must considor 1. The Coherence with the former 2. The Scope 3. The Method and parts 1. For the Coherence it agrees 1. With the former three Chapters in the subiect the prophetical Office of Christ and in urging the duty of attention belief prosession and obedience unto his Doctrine into the end 2. It agrees with the last part of the 〈◊〉 in a special manner For having made evident that the cause why their Fathers 〈◊〉 not into God's Rest was Unbelief therefore they must take â—eed of that Sin last they â—â—ffer the like searful punishment For he that will avoid the effect must take heed of that cause upon which that effect will certainly follow He further urgeth that exhortation of the Psalmist To day if 〈◊〉 will hear his Voyce so as to be edmitted into God's Rest we must not harden our hearts provoke grieve God as their Fathers in the Wilderness did 2. The scope of the Apostle presupposing a Rest promised in the Gospel is to perswade them and thâ— them up to use with all diligence those means whereby we may attain it and enter In a word it 's the same with that of the second and third Chapters to confirm them in the profession and practice of Christ's Doctrine so as to perse 〈◊〉 unto the end and so attain that eternal Rest and Happiness to which it directeth 3. The parts are two 1. A Dehortation ver 1. 2. An Exhortation ver 11. In the Dehortation we have 1. The thing dehorted from 2. The Reasons 3. The determination of the rest In the exhortation we may observe 1. The duty exhorted unto 2. The Reasons These are the parts and this is the method the particulars whereof you shall understand hereafter To enter upon the first part which is a Dehortation In every Dehortation we must observe there is some evil or sin to be avoided and the duty is to take heed of it The sin is to come short which we cannot do but by falling off from our profession which is Apostacy And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies deficere to fall off and is called a failing of the Grace of God or a falling from the Grace of God Chap. 12. 15. The Sin therefore is Unbelief which was observed in the former Chapter to be the cause why the Israelites could not enter into God's Rest. It 's true that many understand it of the punishment of not entring into Rest which is an inevitable consequent and moral effect of falling away The duty is to fear this and to be very careful to avoid the Sin that they may avoid the Punishment This duty lies upon all and every one For it 's said lest any of you and not only so but lest any of you seem which the Syriach interprets lest any of you be found Some indeed will have the meaning to be that they must be so careful to continue in the Faith that they must not so much as seem to fall off or make any appearance of Apostacy Yet there is no necessity so to understand it for the principal thing is to take heed of the Sin which if committed will appear and be judged and punished This is the duty brought in upon the words of the former Chapter by this illative Therefore as though he should say Seeing ye have so dreadful an example of God's wrath executed upon your Fathers for their Unbelief Take heed of their Sin lest ye suffer the like Punishment § 2. The reason follows from the example of their Fathers applyed to them The sum of it is this That as many of their Fathers
having a Promise not believing entred not into God's Rest and some of them believing did enter So they having a Promise if they believe not shall not enter if they believe shall enter and enjoy the benefit and Rest promised The ground of this Application is that they had a Promise and this thing promised is God's Rest For there was a Rest remaining for them as well as for their Fathers The words are A Promise being left of entring into his Rest. SOme translate and understand the words of leaving and by unbelief forsaking the Promise yet this cannot be the intention of the Apostle which is made clear by these words There remaineth therefore a Rest or Sabbatism to the People of God ver 9. where we have the same simple though not the same compound Verb. To understand this we must know that God promised Rest unto the Israelites in the Land of Canaan which should be their Inheritance Therefore some understand the word left to be taken Metaphorically as Legacies are left and bequeathed in a Testament unto Children and so this was left to them by God's Promise As they had a Promise of a Rest so these Hebrew Christians had a Promise of a far more excellent Rest as well as they But then the Question is where have we this Promise and who makes it and where is it made God makes it and he makes it in the Gospel Therefore he first proves that a Promise is left them as their Fathers had a Promise For it followeth Ver. 2. For unto Us was the Gospel preached as well on to Them VVHere we have two Propositions 1. That the Gospel was preached to the Israelites in the Wilderness 2. It was preached to these Hebrews 1. It was preached to the Israelites For as a Promise was made to Abraham that he in his Seed should inherit the Land of Canaan so this Promise was renewed unto them in the Wilderness and God was ready to perform it and give them possession Yet this Promise was made and to be performed upon certain conditions and duties to be performed by them And because this Canaan was a Type and Figure of the heavenly Inheritance and eternal Rest to be obtained by Jesus Christ therefore the Gospel might be said to be preached to them though darkly and implicitly 2. It was preached to these Hebrews yet more clearly and fully by the Apostles In this Gospel as preached to them the Promises are one principal thing and amongst the Promises that of eternal Rest is the chiefest and includes all the rest This Promise is made for and in consideration of Jesus Christ the condition is Faith in Christ meriting the same and after his Sufferings being entred into this rest This Promise of Rest upon Faith in Christ already come is the substance and matter of the Gospel and the Doctrine thereof is the Gospel in proper sense hough the Doctrine preached to the Israelites whereâ—n Rest was promised upon condition of Faith was also the Gospel and might be so called though imperfectly But what was the issue of this Promise in respect of the Israelites It was two-fold 1. In respect of them who believed not it did not profit them 2. In respect of them that believed they entred into God's rest for so the Apostle informs us But the Word preached did not profit them not mixed with Faith in them that heard it In which words may be observed 1. The Event 2. The Reason The Event It profited not the Reason They believed not the Word For though the Word be the Power of God unto Salvation in them that believe yet it 's a Word of eternal death to Unbelievers Both these the Event and the Reason are delivered in two Propositions 1. That the Word preached did not profit them 2. It was not mixed with Faith in them that heard it The latter is the former in order of Nature Both include many Propositions 1. That the Word was preached unto them 2. They did hear it for how should they hear without a Preacher Where by the way note that the Gospel of Doctrine here meant in the Original is called the Word of Hearing implying that it was so preached as that they did or might hear it as they were bound to do 3. They who heard it did not believe The Expression in the Original is that it was not mixed with Faith For that whereby the Soul receiveth the Word is Faith and that whereby it receiveth it effectually is a sincere Faith For this heavenly Doctrine is like a liquor it 's an heavenly Water and is poured upon men by preaching and is of rare and excellent vertue when it 's received and digested in the Soul by Faith For the saying in Philosophy is true in this case Actus activorum sunt in passo unito disposito For by the Soul rightly disposed and by Faith receiving this Doctrine the Doctrine is as it were incorporated into the Soul and made one with it 4. This Word not believed did not profit that is did not prove any wayes effectual either for a title to eternal rest or for the possession of it For they not performing the condition God was no wayes bound to perform his promise to them yet this was not all he was so offended with them that he pastan irrevocable sentence of exclusion upon them By all this we may understand 1. That it 's a great Mercy in God to vouchsafe us the Gospel and to have it faithfully and constantly preached unto us so that we may hear it This of it self is an excellent means of our Conversion and the mighty Power of God unto Salvation It 's like the Mannâ— and heavenly kind of Food which being eaten and received into our Souls will nourish and preserve us It 's a divine light to guid us to Heaven And â—o unto them to whom God denies it for they sit in darkness and the shadow of death without any hope of Salvation 2. In this Gospel there are precious Promises the cheifest whereof is that of entring into God's Rest The condition of it is sincere Faith and continuance therein unto the end This Rest was merited by Jesus Christ To believe sincerely and persevere therein is the Duty commanded and to be performed to enter is the great Reward Therefore we should diligently consider that it promises the greatest good that God did ever give or Man is capable of and in this respect is the best Doctrine in the World yet lest Man should presume he promiseth it upon condition of perseverance and for the merit of a Saviour If we do attain it we do not deserve it for the enjoyment of it is a free Gift of God yet though God give it freely yet he gives it to none that are guilty of Unbelief and Apostacy 3. Men may hear the Gospel preached and yet receive no benefit by it through their own fault Meat will feed if it be eaten Water will quench thirst if we
be translated otherwise as it is by the Syriack Vatablus and the Vulgar This passage hath reference to that word especially my Rest for there is a Rest of God promised in the Gospel yet truly this is not God's Rest from his work of Creation upon the seventh day That was a Rest 1. Of God 2. That Rest wherewith he rested himself 3. It was his Rest from the works of Creation 4. It was that Rest which he rested the first seventh day of the World after he had finished the Works of Heaven and Earth For this purpose the Apostle alledgeth the words of Moses Gen. 2. 1 2 3. This Rest indeed might signify the perpetual Rest of Men and Angels when they have finished their work of Obedience and God might institute the Sabbath for this end Yet though this was a Rest of God yet it was not the Rest implyed in the Psalm not that which is promised in the Gospel That it was not he makes plain Ver. 5. And in this place again If ye shall enter into my Rest. THat is there is a second Rest long after promised to Israel and it is that which he gave them in the Land of Canaan this the Psalmist intends in these words As I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest yet this is not that which is promised in the Gospel This he makes evident by the words following Ver. 6. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Unbelief Ver. 7. Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David To day after so long a time as it is said To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts Ver. 8. For if Jesus had given them Rest then would he not afterward have spoken of another Rest. THis part of the Chapter is more easily understood if we reduce it to Propositions which are these 1. That though there was a Rest of the Land of Canaan whereinto some must enter and did enter yet a certain day is limited and appointed by David of entring into another Rest. 2. This day was appointed long after the entrance of Israel into the Land of Canaan 3. The words whereby another day of another Rest is appointed and promised are these To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts 4. If Jesus or Joshua had brought Israel into that Rest which David speaks of there had been no need of speaking of and promising another Rest so long after The Apostle infers from all this that there is a Rest yet remaining for the People of God though it be neither the Rest of God from the Works of Creation nor the Rest in the Land of Canaan For the Scriptures mention but three Rests or Sabbatisms the first of Creation the second of Canaan the third of Heaven and this last is that which is meant by the Psalmist and promised in the Gospel And he further adds that this Rest had some affinity with that of Canaan and with that of God's Sabbath For Ver. 10. He that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his VVHich words may be understood two wayes 1. Of the Title and Right to enter into this Rest or 2. Of the actual enjoyment and full possession In the former respect it 's certain that no Man can have so much as a Title or any hope of this eternal Rest till he cease from and forsake his own Works of Sin by true Repentance In the latter respect which is more probably intended no Man can actually enjoy the Rest of Heaven untill by perseverance he hath finished all his Work of Evangelical Obedience as God did not keep his Sabbath till he had fully finished all his works of Creation This is a Doctrine full of sweet and heavenly Comfort That Christ hath purchased an eternal glorious Sabbath God hath promised it in the Gospel and we who by the Sanctification of the Spirit persevere in our Christian Profession and Practice shall certainly enjoy it fully and for ever All men desire Rest yet it 's not to be found on Earth but in Heaven not in the Creature but in God Happy they which know the Excellency and Glory of this Rest and with all diligence and constancy use the means to attain it by following the Doctrine of the great Prophet Jesus Christ unto the end § 4. Here comes in the Exhortation to the great Duty in Ver. 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest lest any man fall after the same Example of Unbelief THese words may be considered 1. In their Coherence 2. In themselves 1. The Coherence is implyed in the Particle and Illative Conjunction therefore which informeth us that this Exhortation is a Conclusion inferred upon some antecedent Premisses and that Proposition of the Apostle We which have believed do enter into Rest Ver. 3. Which 1. Implies that there is a Rest for us under the Gospel 2. Affirms that they who believe do enter The former he manifests at large that there is a Rest besides that of Creation and that of the Land of Canaan remaining for the People of God The latter is plain out of the Psalm and he takes it for granted that such as hear and believe shall enter and onely such have admission Hence he inferrs That if there be an eternal glorious Rest prepared and promised to be enjoyed by Believers then it 's our Duty to labour to enter This is the Connexion The Exhortation considered in it self with the rest of the Chapter to the end doth 1. Propose the Duty 2. Urge the performance upon effectual Reasons The Duty is to labour to enter into that Rest where we have A Rest. Entring into it Labouring to enter What the Rest is you have heard before The entrance is to acquire and attain the actual possession and full enjoyment and that it may be considered 1. As a Duty of man and then it is the use of all means ordained of God for the attainment 2. As a gift and gracious Work of God admitting and receiving us unto the enjoyment yet because man should not mistake by thinking it an easie matter to enter at his will and pleasure he here implies that it 's a work of labour of difficulty of striving it 's an entring in at the strait Gate and we must labour use all our power and put our strength to the utmost For this is the greatest business which we have to do in this Life and our will must be most firmly resolved and bent upon it our understanding intended and as it were set upon the rack in all the operations thereof and our executive power exercised to the utmost degree For out wit will and power and all the faculties of the Soul and Body must be taken up continually in this work as the most necessary and excellent of all others The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to null and abrogate it The effect of this Gospel upon the Expiation made by Christ is the Perfection that is the Justification and Sanctification of sinful guilty Man whereby he is freed from the sad and woful Consequents of Sin and especially from the condemning vindicative Justice of God and eternal death and so may draw nigh to God Where we must consider 1. What it is to draw nigh to God 2. Why this Clause is added To draw nigh to God is sometimes a Duty somtimes a Reward and Priviledge given for Christ's merit to such as perform the Duty As it is a Duty it 's sometimes a coming to the place where God hath put his Name and where he vouchsafed his special presence as in the Tabernacle and Temple he did for to worship him It 's sometime a worshipping of God or performing any divine Service unto him for then we pretend to leave the World and turn our backs upon all things and to present our selves before his Throne as in Prayer and other Duties Again it is a turning from our sins with a Resolution to forsake them and an engagement of our selvs and that with our whole hearts to be his Servants and obedient Subjects And this we cannot do effectually without Faith in Christ and the further we depart from sin the nearer we draw to him and are more like unto him This is a Duty But to have peace with God to be reconciled to him so as to have free access with boldness and confidence to the Throne of Grace where he sits as propitiated by the Blood of Christ and as a Father looks upon us as his Children is a great and gracious reward and special priviledg and presupposeth the former Duty performed and the party performing it in the state of Justification and Reconciliation For being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have acccess by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand c. Rom. 5. 1 2. To understand this more fully we must consider That the words are in some sort Metaphorical wherein the Apostle alludes either to the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai where he represented himself very terrible as sitting in the Throne of Justice and not of Grace and Mercy so as that to draw nigh unto him was a present Death The People must keep at a distance only Moses might come near and ascend the Mount which was a special and extraordinary favour or he may allude unto the legal dispensation under which no unclean person as a Leper or one defiled by touching a dead body or some other way might come into the Congregation or nigh the Tabernacle or Temple so as to worship with God's People before they were cleansed and purified but upon their purification finished they might draw nigh and come with the rest of God's unpolluted Servants to Worship and to serve their God so as to have communion with him and receive mercies blessings and comforts from him So in this place such as are perfected that is justified and sanctified through Faith by the Blood of Christ have liberty to draw nigh to God as to a Father to seek and receive mercies and increase of Grace and heavenly Comforts and have sweet communion with him Before their justification and reconciliation they stood at a distance from their God and looked upon him as a consuming Fire and to draw near was danger though even then they might have some hope of mercy They are like the Publican standing a far off and beating upon his Brest and saying Lord be merciful to me a Sinner but when their Consciences are purged and their Souls by Faith are cleansed in the Blood of Christ they then have liberty and draw nigh to serve and worship God with confidence that he will accept their persons prayers and other Services This is the drawing nigh to God here meant yet you must know that these approaches are not so nigh in this life but that there is some distance But in the place of Glory the approach shall be so near as that it will take away all distance and we shall have immediate and full communion with our God The reason why this Clause was added which is the second thing is to let us know how far more excellent the Gospel is above the Law For by the Law no Man was brought nigh to God or might approach unto him in this manner It 's true they might draw nigh to the place of God's special presence if legally clean or cleansed and by observation of the Law escape some temporal Judgments obtain some temporal Blessings and enjoy some earthly Comforts yet continue spiritually unclean guilty and liable to eternal penalties be far from God with their hearts remain unjustified unsanctified and so could have no spiritual peace with God nor any heavenly comfort neither could they draw nigh to God with boldness so as to have any near communion with him To draw nigh to God as to a Father in Christ is a far more excellent priviledg and could not be obtained by the Law Some do make these words a reason to prove that Perfection was had by the Priest-hood of Christ because by it we draw nigh to God And it 's true that by Christ as a Priest and the Gospel we obtain this priviledg which the Law could not give us For to draw nigh to God presupposeth the party approaching perfected and sanctified and by what we are sanctified by that we draw nigh and this priviledg doth prove perfection by the Gospel as the effect doth prove and manifest the cause So that the argumentation in form is this By what we draw nigh to God by that we are perfected But by the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel we are perfected Therefore by them we draw nigh to God For as we must not seperate the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law so neither must we divide the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel In all this discourse two things are observable 1. That God did not take away the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law till he brought in the Priest-hood of Christ and the Gospel 2. That he took away that which was imperfect to bring in that which was perfect and far more excellent And all this was done as to manifest his wisdom so especially his mercy and serious intention to save man For he would leave nothing undone that was necessary for the compleating of man's eternal Salvation For if the Levitical Priest-hood and the Law could have justified Man and so given life He had never sent Christ and made him a Priest and revealed the Gospel For then both Christ and Gospel had been needless and useless to that end For as the Apostle saith If there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by that Law Gal. 3. 21. But because both Law and Priest-hood were insufficient therefore he decreed
is there is no more offering for Sin IN all which we may observe 1. The Apostle's manner of Allegation ver 15. 2. The Text alledged ver 16 17. 3. The Aoostle's Application of the Text to the point in hand ver 18. 1. The manner of Allegation we have in these words Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us For after he had said before The principal things here considerable are 1. The thing testified 2. The Witness testifying The thing testified is implyed in the word Whereof and it is the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice in respect of the virtue thereof in taking away Sin for this is the principal Subject of his present Discourse and the demonstration of this Virtue is chiefly intended The witness testifying this is the Holy Ghost a greater a better Witness we cannot have This Testimony we find in the Scriptures which signifie That all Scripture is given by inspiration from God we read it in the Prophet Joremiah therefore he spake and wrote this as moved by the Holy Ghost Jeremy so speaks and writes them as the words of God for saith the Lord is his Style from whence we observe That the Holy Ghost is the eternal Jehovah For that which Jehovah saith there The Spirit is sâ—d to witness or testify here Therefore seeing it 's the Spirit that testifieth and upon Record the thing testified must needs be of infallible and undeniable Truth 2. The matter of the Text alledged is a Promise and it is two-fold 1. Of putting God's Laws in our hearts that we may believe and be converted 2. The Remission of our Sins upon our Faith and Conversion The first is done by illumination and inspiration whereby that word concerning Christ and Salvation which we hear is made effectual and the power of the Spirit is added to work Faith by that word in our hearts to make us capable of Remission The second is done by the Sentence of the Supream Judge absolving us The first is referred to Vocation The second to Justification And here we must observe what the Apostle's intention is which will appear in The third thing which is the Apostle's Application in ver 18. 1. The difference between the second Allegation of the same Text here and in Chapter 8th is That there he proves the excellency of the Covenant above the former Covenant from the excellency of the promises but here he proves the excellency of Christ's one offering above all the offerings of the Law because by virtue of it Sins are taken away which implies that the mercies promised in the New Covenant were merited by this Sacrifice and that in respect of this Sacrifice offered he was the Mediatour of this Covenant so that without it those promises had been never made or if they had been made they never had beeneffectual and beneficial unto sinful Man For in consideration of this offering God made these promises and for Christ's sake offering himself once he gives the things promised to such as are capable of them according to the Tenour of the Covenant 2. He singles out the latter promise of Remission as most pertinent to the point in hand for though the former promise be excellent and the thing promised necessary for to enable Man to keep the Covenant yet it is but subordinate to this second promise because if the Covenant be not kept there can be no remission neither is there any keeping of the Covenant except God's Laws be written in man's heart as well as in the Scripture outwardly 3. He puts an Emphasis upon the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Hebrew Text and the double negative in the Greek which imports That he will in no wise remember out Sins any more he will forgive them for ever 4. From hence he draws this conclusion there is no more offering for Sin 5. And from thence that Christ's Sacrifice was of that excellent virtue that by one offering it took away Sin all Sin and made it eternally Remissible and upon Faith eternally to be remitted So that the substance of the Doctrinal part of this Chapter is to demonstrate the inefficacy of the many Legal Offerings and the Efficacy of Christ's one Offering And all this tends to this end to inform us 1. That Legal Offerings cannot help and save us 2. That Christ's can 3. That Christ's is far more excellent and absolutely necessary And the Comparison therefore is in respect of the expiating power and vertue of both which of the one is little or none of the other is very great and sufficient for our Salvation and eternal happinesse And this Doctrine is full of heavenly Comfort to humble penitent and believing Sinners for by this Offering though our Sins be many and hainous yet they are all eternally pardoneâ— and we for ever consecrated § 15. The Apostle having finished his Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood begins here to apply the same and that by way of Exhortation to certain Duties which they were bound to perform by vertue of God's Command and that Faith in Christ they did profess The former Doctrine did serve to inform their Understanding more fully and to improve and confirm their Faith the Exhortations following tended to stir up the heart informed by the Understanding and directed by Faith to the performance of other Duties necessary to the attainment of that eternal life which Christ had merited for them This is the second part of this Chapter and almost of the whole Epistle for the Connexion will make it appear to be so if we either consider the matter or manner For the matter we find that these words are joyned with the antecedent Doctrine concerning the Excellency of Christ both as Prophet and Priest and so it 's the second part of the whole which is 1. Doctrinal 2. Practical For the former part is didascalical this latter protreptical and more practical But if we consider the immediate Connexion then it will appear that it 's in a more special manner joyned with the Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood continued from the fifth Chapter to this place and the first Application following as the last Chap. 13. doth more especially respect Christ's Priest-hood The manner of the Connexion is evident from the Illative Therefore which signifies that the Exhortations are so many Conclusions deduced from the former Doctrine especially that of Christ's Priest-hood The principal Duty exhorted unto and urged by many and powerful Arguments is Perseverance in the Christian Faith which they did profess Yet he exhorts unto many other which should alwayes accompany sincere Faith and are not separable from it These things premised it 's time to enter upon the Text as delivered Ver. 19. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Christ Ver. 20. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh Ver. 21. And having an High-Priest over the House of God THE Method of
and of our Title to eternal Life and of our perseverance it might be though an high degree of Faith and separable from true and sincere Faith in many but the object of this full Assurance is the Word and Promise of God considered antecedently to the application of them to this or that particular Subject or our selves and to the conclusion we deduce from thence concerning our own particular estate And it 's necessarily required in every one who will draw near to God The confidence and reliance which is grounded upon God's Promise is not an assurance that God hath justified us already or that he will justify and save us absolutely but that he will justify save and reward those who by Repentance and Faith in Christ diligently seek him and by consequence that he will save us seeking him in that manner For the Promises of God include the Duty of Man and bind God only unto such as perform the Duty And he that comes to the Throne of Grace without a full assurance of Christ's Merit and God's Promise and the performance of it to them that do their Duty they come not aright their Worship is not acceptable their Prayers not effectual Therefore said the Apostle If any man lack Wisdom let him ask it of God c. But let him ask it in Faith nothing wavering c. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of God Jam. 1. 5 6 7. Where by a wavering man some understand not only a man not assured of the truth of God's Promises or doubting of them but one not resolved to perform the Conditions of the Covenant For any such unresolved man to think that he shall receive the mercies promised and prayed for is plain Presumption Therefore this full assurance is necessarily required in every person drawing nigh to God even then when he draws nigh and converseth with his God We must therefore draw near to God and pray every where lifting up holy hands without Wrath or Doubting 1 Tim. 2. 8. Doubting is as prejudicial to Prayer as Wrath or impure hands This is the qualisication of actual Worship 3. The qualification of the Party followeth which is the purification of the heart and body For 1. Our hearts must be sprinkled from an evil Conscience 2. Our Bodies washed with pure water and the Apostle seems to presuppose them thus qualified because Believers The expressions are taken out of the Books of Moses in which God prescribed a two-fold purification one by bood which we have spoken of another by water And no person legally impure might draw nigh to God to worship him in the Tabernacle or Temple before he was purified And by this was signified that no man guilty and conscious of sin is fit to draw nigh unto or to worship God before he be purged from Sin The Ethiopick Translation is not here so wording as many other Translations be but is a Paraphrase and gives the true sense thus Our hearts being purged and our selves purified from Sin The reason hereof is this God heareth not Sinners Joh. 9. 31 But for the more distinct explication of the words we must observe 1. Our Hearts 2. The sprinkling of our Hearts 3. The sprinkling of them from an evil Conscience 4. The purifying of our Bodies with pure water 1. By Hearts are meant the rational appetite and will as subject unto the power of God and bound by his Laws This Heart and Will is the principal efficient of our actual Sins and proper and primary subject of Unrighteousness If this be pure all is pure if this be polluted all that issues out of it is polluted For out of the heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries c. Matth. 15. 19. 2. If this be unclean it must be sprinkled that is purged and cleansed for that 's the true meaning of the word For under the Law the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer were sprinkled upon the unclean and their Bodies being sprinkled with this Blood with these ashes were sanctified to the purifying of the Flesh so that the sanctified might be admitted into God's holy Tabernacle or Temple to Worship God with the rest of the People which were clean So under the Gospel such as are morally and spiritually unclean must be spiritually sprinkled and purged by the Blood of Christ which doth not only justify but sanctify the penitent Believer So that to have our hearts sprinkled is to have them justified and sanctified by the Blood of Christ. 3. The thing from which they must be cleansed is an evil Conscience which the Aethiopick Translatour interprets to be an evil Work or Sin For Evil here is Sin and an evil Conscience is the Sin whereof we are guilty and conscious For nothing doth spiritually and morally pollute us but Sin which makes us not only guilty and liable to punishment but also filthy and unfit for Communion with God 4. The Body must be washed with pure water Some understand the Body in proper sense as contra-distinct to the Heart and Soul and this water to be the water of Baptism which is sprinkled upon the Body and though not physicially yet sacramentally and mystically doth purge it and the Soul too from Sin This it 's said to do by virtue of the Institution by the merit of Christ's Blood and the power of the Spirit For Baptism is the washing of Renegeration by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tiâ— 3. 5. Yet this purifying cannot be by washing away the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 3. 21. It 's true that not only the Soul but the Body are polluted with Sin and both by reason of Sin are liable to punishment and both must be cleansed by the sprinkling of Christ's Blood and the Sanctification of the Spirit and this is the principal sense of the words The thing to be observed is That 1. No man unconverted unregenerate not sanctified by the Holy Ghost is fit to draw nigh to God 2. The regenerate who are in the State of justification and sanctification if they contract new guilt must by Repentance Faith in Christ's Blood and Prayer for the Spirit to sanctify them first cleanse themselves before they come to God The Body is but once washed with water and that is in Baptism but as it 's taken here it must be often washed and cleansed by the renewing of out Repentance and Faith So that by Heart and Body is meant the whole man and by sprinkling and washing is understood justification and sanctification not only begun upon our first conversion but continued by our Repentance and Faith continued habitually and re-iterated and actually exercised especially upon our relapfes and contracting of new guilt and pollution David knew this qualification to be necessary and therefore said I will wash my hands in innocency so will I compass thine Altar Psal. 26 6. To
compass God's Altar was to draw nigh to God and to worship him to wash his hands in innocency was to cleanse his Heart and Body from sin before he did approach unto that God who requires holiness in all them that draw nigh unto him for they must be holy as he is holy This seems to be the reason why in our Liturgy the Confession of Sin was premised and began the Worship of God § 20. The second duty exhorted unto follows in these words Ver. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised THe first Exhortation is to the exercise of Divine and religious Worship upon which both our perseverance and eternal happiness depend and if the parties drawing nigh be prepared and the Worship duly performed there will be greater hope of Salvation In these words we are exhorted to perseverance in the profession of our Christian Faith and Hope which is necessary to the attainment and actuall enjoyment of the great Reward In the words two things are observable 1. The Duty Perseverance 2. The reason why the Duty should be performed This is the principal Duty and both the former and the two latter are means and helps which will enable us to perform it In the Duty we may take notice 1. Of Faith 2. Of the Confession of Faith 3. The holding of this Confession without wavering 1. We must have Faith that divine and fundamental vertue in our hearts Most Copies make no mention of Faith but of Hope and so do most of the Translations so that we may wonder what Copy our Translatours followed Yet this doth not vary the sense For where there is Hope there must be Faith and where there is true Faith there is certainly Hope for Faith is the ground of Hope and Hope depends upon Faith and these two are inseparable Besides Faith as a confidence hath great affinity with Hope and though they may be distinguished so as that confidence may look at the party promising and Hope at the thing promised yet both are taken often for the same I need not here inform you of the Nature of Hope for that I have done already Chap. 3. ver 6. 6. 11. Both Faith and Hope with Charity are by the School-men called Theological vertues 2. If there be Hope there must be a Confession of it Hope is inward and invisible as Faith is and must be manifested to others by our Confession This Confession may be made by Works or Words When our Works are holy and just and agreeable to our Faith we thereby signify that we believe in Christ and expect eternal Glory by him When in Words we signify to men that we believe that God raised up Jesus Christ from the dead and testify our Hope of the Resurrection unto everlasting Life then we confess both our Faith and Hope This Confession is solemnly made in Baptism and also in the Eucharist and by our Communion with God's People in our publick Assemblies This Confession is necessary without it such as are at Age are not capable of Baptism neither can they without it be justly admitted to the Lord's Supper To deny Christ before men as Peter did is contrary to this Confession and a grievous Sin For with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10. 10. So that as without Faith there is no Righteousness so without Confession there is no Salvation 3. A man may confess his Hope for a time yet as his mind may alter so his Confession may waver therefore the Duty is to hold fast this Confession without wavering The more sincere Faith and Hope shall be and the more deeply they shall be rooted in the heart the more likely they are to persevere yet perseverance doth chiefly depend upon God's support and assistance For if temptation be violent and he desert us but for a little time we shall be in danger to waver if not to fall yet this divine assistance cannot be expected but in the diligent use of the means therefore saith the Apostle Let us hold fast And this will be the more easy in time of Peace when we shall meet with no Opposition But when the subtle Arguments of Seducers shall begin to delude the Understanding and the fear of cruel Persecution of bloody Enemies on the one hand and the desire of temporal Life Peace Happiness on the other hand shall work upon the Will then it will be a difficult thing to hold fast and not be shaken § 21. The Reason to perswade stir up and encourage is God's Promise and Fidelity For 1. We have a Promise 2. It 's God's Promise 3. God promising is faithful 1. We have a Promise We are secure when one that is able hath passed his word and by Promise bound himself unto us then we make sure thus far of the thing promised The thing which we desire and which is promised unto us is not onely the Reward of eternal Glory which is the Object of our Hope but power and ability with assistance to do all things necessary for the attainment thereof for in the Gospel not only the Reward but Power to perform our Duty are promised Therefore Paul prayes that the Ephesians may be enlightned that they may more fully know not only the excellency of the Reward of Glory but also the exceeding greatness of that Power which must not only strengthen but support and assist them in the seeking of the full possession and enjoyment Eph. 1. 16 17 18 19. 2. This Promise is not the Promise of any Man or Angel but of God this is more than if all the best men and all the holy Angels had bound themselvs unto us and given us all security which possibly they could The Reason hereof is that his Power is absolute and almighty and nothing can resist or hinder it if once it begin to work The Power of Men and Angels is great yet nothing unto this Besides God's Mercy is like his Power and as he is able so he is willing to do what he hath promised and he hath signified his Will and Purpose through Faith by his Power to preserve us unto Salvation 3. Yet one may be able and for a time willing and yet upon several Reasons and Motives change his mind for the Mind and Will of Man or Angel is not absolutely immutable and so though perhaps they will not yet it 's possible they may fail us But God will not God cannot for God who hath promised is faithful For as he cannot forget or be hindred by any contrary Power so he cannot change his Will If he say the word it must be done if he pass his Promise he will perform This faithfulness presupposeth his Power and his Promise and it 's the immutability of his Will for as he is unchangeable in his Being so he is in his Promise For the strength in Israel will not lye nor repent
we may persevere and do conceive these means to be three 1. Confidence 2. Patience 3. Faith But upon due consideration it will appear that he urgeth Perseverance by a new Argument taken from the Reward And as formerly he dehorted from Apostacy from the Punishment which would prove to be very grievous and unavoidable so here he exhorts to Perseverance from the Reward which was very great and most certain And whilest he proceeds to this Motive from the Recompence he by the way puts them in mind of their former constancy in Suffering to encourage them to go on and by the same makes way for the pressing further of the Duty from the Reward So that the former Reason from Remembrance of Suffering past is but a branch of this great Motive Before I enter upon the words I must inform you of some things in general as 1. That Confidence Patience Faith are but one and the same thing which is Perseverance 2. That the Motive is from the Reward 3. That he urgeth the Performance of the Duty both from the excellency and certainty of the Reward For first He affirmeth it to be great Secondly To be certain unto Perseverance and certainly and speedily to be received 4. He proves it to be certain 5. Applies the Proof unto themselvs This is the Sum and Scope of the Close of this Chapter from the 35 Ver. unto the End These things premised we may consider in the words of these two Verses these two things 1. The Duty 2. The Reward The Duty is Perseverance which is expressed by two words 1. Confidence 2. Patience And the words imply an Exhortation to continuance in and of both The words implying this Exhortation are these Cast not away your Confidence and You have need of Patience For that which must not be cast away and whereof they have need must be kept and kept unto the end and to keep these to the end is Perseverance The Reward is said 1. To be great 2. Certainly to be received when they had done the Will of God And it 's to be considered 1. As a Recompence 2. As promised The Argumentation of the Apostle reduced to Form is this That Duty by which we have great Recompence of Reward and by which after we have done the Will of God we receive the Promise ought to be performed But by Confidence and Patience continued we have great Recompence of Reward and after we have done the Will of God we receive the Promise Therefore we ought to continue in both In the 35th Verse we have 1. Confidence 2. The continuing of this Confidence 3. The great Recompence of Reward 4. The having of this great Recompence 1. By Confidence if we consider the word in the Original it seems to signify their Boldness in Profession of the Christian Faith For they were not ashamed to confess Christ before men no not before their persecuting Enemies in the midst of Reproaches and Afflictions Yet this profession without was grounded upon and issued from Faith in Christ and hope of eternal life within and these two were as the matter so the Soul and Life of the profession And to profess Christ and their Faith and Hope in him in the midst of persecution did argue their undaunted boldness and divine fortitude and courage 2. The continuance of this confidence is signified here negatively They must not cast it away The expression some think is taken from those cowardly Souldiers which in a Battel cast away their Shield and Armour and either begin to cry for Quarter or to run away and turn their backs upon an Enemy This is suitable to his former Metaphor whereby he had expressed their Courage and Constancy For they had endured a great Fight and here exhorts them to endure still which they could not do if they did cast away their Confidence which was like a Shield These are military terms and signify that we are spiritual Souldiers who will not fear to fight till we have attained a final Victory which without continued and final confidence we can never do To cast this divine Shield from us is an act of fear and cowardize and argues a weakness of our Faith and Hope Therefore the Duty is to be strong in Faith and in the power of God and not to shrink or give back for any thing man can do unto us for it 's but little and if God be for us who can be against us 3. If they do not cast away but hold fast their confidence there is a great recompence of Reward Recompence of reward is one word in the Greek and is turned by some Remuneration So that we have 1. A Reward 2. A rendring or returning of the Reward The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Hire or Wages given in recompence of some Work and Service The Work or Service being done the Reward is due whether it be given or not given and rendred For to be due is one thing to be rendred another yet if it be due it 's injustice not to render it In strict Justice the Service and the Hire are equal yet there is no necessity of this equality in respect of the excess for one may out of his own goodness give more then is deserved and this is not injustice but liberality Any blessing especially that great one of eternal Glory given by God upon the performance of some Duty by Man may be called Wages Hire or Reward by a Metaphor Yet no Man can deserve or merit any thing at God's hands but yet the Reward may be due by vertue of the Covenant The word doth signifie 1. That there is a Reward 2. That it 's due to such as persevere 3. That it shall be rendred Yet a Reward may sometimes be taken Synechdochically for punishment and the recompence thereof an actual punishment for Sin Thus as you may read it 's taken Chap. 2. 2. A reward may be poor or rich less or greater but here it 's said to be great so great indeed it is that no tongue of man can express the greatness or excellency of it For here the Apostle speaks of the final Reward which is unspeakable according to the promise of God to Abraham I am thine exceeding great Reward Gen. 15. 1. 4. This continuance hath this great Reward Which informs us that it will be not only due but certainly conferred upon and rendred to the person persevering for by divine ordination Perseverance and the Reward are inseparably joyned together so that the one shall infallibly follow upon the other § 37. Ver. 36. Agrees with the former in substance though it differ in expressions and as the former doth inform us 1. Of the Duty 2. Of the Reward The Duty is implyed in these words Ye have need of patience The reward in those which follow That after ye have done the Will of God ye may receive the promise The former is the means the latter is the end For explication's sake take notice 1.
Sufferings shall speedily determine their Joys shall never end For when life is ended all these Conflicts and cruel Fights are ended and they are instantly at rest cease from all their Labours and are secured of their eternal full Glory 3. A thousand years with Man are but as one day with God and in this â—espect his stay till the last Saint shall be perfected and finally Victorious is not much 4. When the day appointed is once come he will not stay an hour no not a minute He will rend the Heavens and come down and do glorious things And is his coming so certain and so speedy and hath God said so why should we be impatient and complain of delay The Saints of God sometimes will cry out Oh when shall these Labours these Difficulties these Sufferings of ours have an end How long will my Saviour delay his Coming When will he come in the Clouds of Heaven with all his holy Angels Shall I never see an end of this Battel and obtain a final Victory and so triumph for ever And the Church is alwayes praying Come Lord Jesu come quickly To all this his answer is Surely I come quickly And Behold I come quickly and again Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to render to every one according to his Works Revel 22. 7 12 20. And if we will not be patient strive suffer and fight a little while and that for a great and glorious Reward which we shall receive certainly and without all doubt we shall render our selvs unworthy altogether of so blessed a Victory and so joyful a Triumph as God hath of his free and unspeakable mercy promised us § 39. Further to encourage them he proves the certainty of their Reward to such as persevere and his displeasure against all such as draw back out of the next words of the Prophet which he renders thus Ver. 38. Now the Just shall live by Faith but if â—â—y man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him IN the handling of these words we must consider 1. How they come in upon the former 2. To what end the Apostle doth alledge them 3. What the matter therein contained is 4. For particular and more distinct Explication reduce then to Propositions 1. They come in upon the former as agreeing with them in the matter which is the great Reward Yet they have more immediate Connexion with the words immediately aâ—tecedent 1. As being taking out of the same place of the Prophets 2. As signifying that when Christ shall come he will accept and reward those that persevere and reject the rest 2. The End Scope is to encourage them from God's own words and Promise for they are the words of God to persevere and not draw back 3. The material parts are two 1. The final Acceptation of such as persevere 2. The Rejection of such as do not but draw back The Propositions are two 1. The just shall live by Faith 2. If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him In the first Proposition we have 1. Faith 2. Righteousness 3. Life These three are subordinate for by Faith we attain Righteousness by Righteousness Life and by what we are justified by that we live No Faith no Righteousness no Righteousness no Life these three go together In the words we have two Propositions at least implied 1. We are justified or just by Faith 2. We are glorified and live by Faith According to the former Proposition the Apostle made use of this Text in the Prophet Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3. 11. to prove Justification by Faith in Christ without Works For because Man is sinful and guilty his Justification is Remission of Sin which presupposing the party penitent and believing depends upon the Satisfaction Merits and Intercession of Christ and the Mercy of God expressed in the Promise As there he makes use of this Text to prove gratuitous Justification so here he takes it up again to assure them that if they continue in this justifying Faith to the End in the End they shall live and be glorified and that Faith which is first justifying shall be Faith glorifying 1. We have Faith which is a divine practical Assent unto the saving Truths of the Gospel and a reliance upon the Promises of God And here it 's taken for this Faith continued to the End even in the midst of all Persecutions and Afflictions and includes the former continued Boldness of Profession with Patience and other heavenly Vertues with which it hath an inseparable Connexion and is the foundation of all 2. Upon Faith followeth Righteousness for the just have Faith and are just and justified by Faith For by just are here meant the justified by Faith according to the Tenour of the new Covenant For Man being sinful and guilty cannot be justified by his own Innocency Purity inherent Righteousness and perfect Obedience He is condemnable by Reason of his Guilt and is freed from Condemnation by deprecating the Wrath of the Supream Judg and pleading Christ's Sacrifice and God's Promise according to his penitent Faith God in justifying is merciful because the Person justified is a Sinner yet just because Christ hath suffered God hath promised and Man guilty doth believe This Justification doth not leave a Man under the Power and Dominion of Sin but in freeing from Guilt he renews and sanctifies him by his Spirit so that he is inherently righteous So that he is justified and inherently just yet the place is to be understood of such as are finally just as they are finally believing For he that hath Faith is just he that continueth in Faith continueth just and he that is finally believing is finally just 3. As guilty Man is just by Faith so being just he shall live by Faith By Life in this place is meant a spiritual happy and eternal Life the Life of Glory which is the great Reward which will certainly follow upon final Faith For it 's Faith which by vertue of Christ's Merit and God's Promise gives a Right to Life and upon a finall Faith the Possession and full Enjoyment of this blessed Life doth certainly follow The Duty therefore which the Apostle urgeth is final Perseverance in Faith and the Motive whereby he seeks to stir them up to Performance is the certain full Possession of the great Rewards for which he alledgeth God's own Word and Promise recorded in the Prophet And if they will hearken unto God speaking by the Prophet and take his Word and Promise there is great Reason why they should persevere § 40. As the former Reason is taken from God's Promise of Life so the latter is drawn from the Punishment and Displeasure of God which if they fall away they must suffer as certainly threatned by God For if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him The Proposition is hypothetical or compound and connex the Nature whereof is to deduce a Consequent from an
enlarge but also polish his Discourse and excellently set forth their Faith and the forenamed Effects thereof The whole is an excellent Testimony of the three eminent Patriarchs and therein we have 1. The Duty they performed 2. God's owning them and expressing his dear Affection towards them The first of these is continued from the beginning of Ver. 13. to the latter end of the 16th in the last words whereof we have the second thing here observed Their Duty and the Performance thereof may be reduced to certain Propositions 1. These all not receiving the Promises dyed in the Faith Of which two parts 1. Their not receiving the Promises 2. Their dying in the Faith though they received them not 1. They received not the Promises Where by Promises understand the things promised For otherwise it cannot be true because it 's certain that Promises were made unto them they knew them and received them by Faith But the things promised were neither given nor received till long after and these are reduced to four heads which be these 1. A numerous Posterity 2. The Land of Canaan 3. The Incarnation and Exhibition of Christ. 4. The Resurrection to eternal Glory The parties here meant are Abraham Isaac and Jacob not any named before nor any mentioned after these Three for they were the Persons who came from beyond the River Euphrates who sojourned in the Land of Canaan who dwelt in Tabernacles Of these it 's said that they received not the things promised For neither was their Posterity made as yet so numerous nor had they any hereditary Possession of the Land of Canaan nor did they see Christ in the Flesh or hear the Gospel for that followed about 2000 years after the Promises were first made nor did they attain the Resurrection and Immortality 2. Yet they dyed even all of them in the Faith Which words signify 1. They did believe 2. Continued firm in the Faith unto the end though they received not the Promises The meaning is they not only lived but dyed Believers delay and non-enjoyment did not break their hearts neither could Death it self when they might perhaps be put to the greatest Conflict separate their Souls and their Faith though it separated their Souls and their Bodies For this divine vertue was deeply rooted and fastned in them and was immortal as their better part was and followed the Soul into another World Death might bereave them of their Friends and their temporal Estates and all their earthly Comforts but of Faith it could not And it 's to be noted that not only one but all of them dyed in the Faith These were rare Patterns of Perseverance in this rare and incomparable vertue of Faith The second Proposition is That seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them This should not have been a distinct Proposition for it's part of the former and added to those words not receiving the Promises And it 's somewhat observable that the word perswaded is wanting in several Manuscripts They received them not but 1. Saw them afar off For they were distant and to come and not to be accomplished or enjoyed in their dayes and some of them were more distant from their times than others some were nearer The principal which were the Exhibition of Christ and the universal Resurrection stood at the most remote distance of time from them Yet these they saw for divine Revelation as a celestial Light did represent them unto them the Promise did signify they had a Right unto them and part in them And as by this divine Light they were manifested unto them so by the Eye of Faith which is the spiritual visive Faculty of the Soul they saw them as they were represented that is at a distance For Faith can see beyond and above the World and hath some glimmering or imperfect sight of Eternity 2. They were perswaded of them and assured that in God's good time which was the sittest they should be fulfilled The Revelation and Promise was a sure Ground of this Perswasion and the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen 3. They embraced them the word signifies to salute to draw near to rejoyce to embrace for in saluting dearest friends we draw near unto them embrace them rejoyce to seethem Some think the word here is Metaphorical and the Expression taken from such as after a long and tedious Voyage at Sea come within ken of Land and discover their own dearest Country where they expect to abide and rest For so soon as they discover and have sight of their own dear native Soil they wonderfully rejoice and begin with joyful Acclamations to say Land Land Land Haven Haven Haven now Rest and Safety are near So it 's certain that these Saints and heavenly Worthies drawing near their end beheld these excellent Blessings and especially their Saviour and their heavenly Country and being sure of the futurition and enjoyment of them rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Our Saviour saith thus Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8. 56. When Abraham lived the day of Christ's Incarnation and the blessed Redemption of sinful Man was to come and afar off Yet Abraham by Faith saw that day and seeing it though not near or so clearly he was glad and rejoyced wonderfully And now our Faith and Hope of eternal Glory though afar off is a Cause of unspeakable Joy The third Proposition They confessing themselvs Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth declared plainly that they sought a Country Here we may consider 1. What they did express 2. What they did imply 1. The thing expressed is That they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth For 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth 2. They did openly confess this 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth That they did so journ in the Land of promise as in a strange Country you heard before yet they sojourned not only there but in other places as in Gerar and Aegypt and for the whole time of their mortal Life they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth and could not be said to be Free-men Denizons or Members of any Community or Commonwealth in the World But they might be such either Politically or Spiritually and they were in both respects such for Man being immortal should provide for some place of perpetual Abode and many thinking only of their Settlement on Earth and of perpetuating themselves and their Names in their Posterity by successive Generations look no higher than this World If these travel out of their native Country they must needs be Strangers in all Forreign States if not naturalized in some of them As for these Patriarchs they had forsaken their own Country out of which God had called them and lost all their native and birth-right Priviledges yet they did not seek to settle themselvs in any other part of the Earth neither did they incorporate with any other People in the
the Hebrew Copies we have now translate the place thus And Israel bowed himself upon the Beds-head To reconcile these some tell us of the difference of Mittah and Matteh the one signifying a Bed the other a Staff and say that the word being at first unpointed might be taken to signify the one or the other or both so that he might be at the head of his Bed leaning upon a Staff It 's true that the Chaldee and Samaritan read it Mittah a Bed The Syriack turns the word Sceptrum Yet this is clear enough that the Apostle followed the Greek Translation and we may safely follow him being divinely inspired Upon this Staff he leaned and by it supported himself after that Joseph had sworn to him that he would bury him in the Land of Canaan in the burying place of his Fathers He leaned thus upon his Staff that he might bow and worship But the Question is To whom he bowed Some think he bowed to Joseph not looking upon him now as his Son but as a Prince and Administrator General of the Kingdom of Egypt and this might give occasion to the Syriack Interpreter to think this Staff was Joseph's Scepter as though by this Posture he gave not only Honour but Thanks unto his Son that he would not only promise but confirm his Promise by Oath Others conceive that he had far higher thoughts and that with all humility he adored the divine Majesty and dd praise his glorious Name that he had provided for his Burial in the Land of Promise where his Posterity should settle where his Saviour should be born and where he should rise again to eternal Glory and this outward bowing was a Sign of his most humble Submission and Adoration of the supream and eternal Lord. This doth teach us 1. That the Object of religious Adoration is God as Supream Lord of infinite and eternal Excellency 2. That Humility is essential to this Act of Adoration 3. That by outward Carriage in the Worship of God we should signify our inward Humility 4. That near our End we should think not only of Death but of the Resurrection and with the thoughts thereof support and comfort our hearts Thus Jacob blessed thus he bowed and both by Faith For they were Effects of Faith without which it was impossible to do either of them as he did them This is the principal thing intended in all the Examples to shew the necessity and excellency of Faith and by both to perswade Perseverance therein And surely Jacob had some divine Revelation concerning the future Fates of his Grand-children and upon Joseph's Oath of his Burial in the Land of Canaan and he did most certainly believe it and rely upon it and this Belief and Reliance was the inward Principle of his Benediction and Adoration otherwise they had neither been effectual nor acceptable § 21. Thus both Joseph's Sons were blessed by the Faith of his Father Jacob and Joseph also had his Faith which was effectual too For Ver. 22. By Faith Joseph when he dyed made mention of the departing of the Children of Israel and gave Commandment concerning his Bones HEre likewise we have 1. The Effects of Joseph's Faith 2. His Faith the ground of these Effects The Effects are two 1. Mention of Israel 's Departure 2. A Charge or Command concerning his Bones 1. Joseph made mention of Israel's Departure Israel was the divine Name of Jacob for it was given him from Heaven because by his earnest and fervent Prayers he prevailed with God This Name was after given to his Posterity according to the Flesh and in the New Testament to his Children according to the Spirit In this place it signifies those Children and that Posterity of his who were living when God sent Moses to Pharaoh This Departure here meant is their departure out of Aegypt and Freedom from that miserable Bondage they suffered there This Deliverance Joseph being ready to dy and knowing his End to be near remembred as a matter of very great moment and out of this remembrance puts the Israelites his Brethren and probably his own Children and Nephews in mind of it and this perhaps also he did with a special Charge they should make it known to their Childrens Children that it might not be forgotten Of this we thus read And Joseph said unto his Brethren I dy and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this Land unto the Land which he sware to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob Gen. 50. 24. These words do fully explain this part of the Text. This was the first Effect 2. The second was That he gave Commandment concerning his Bones This is explained by the words following Gen. 50. 25. And Joseph took an Oath of the Children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my Bones from hence These words imply that he had a great desire that his very Bones and that part which at the time of their Deliverance remained might be buried in Canaan and so take Possession of that Land where his Saviour should be born redeem sinful Man and rise again to Glory Out of this desire he gives a strict Charge unto his surviving Brethren and their Posterity to carry his Bones with them out of Aegypt into that Holy Land and if their Love to him could not perswade them as his Father took an Oath of him so he took an Oath of them to do this last Service and Office of Love that so not only Affection and Respect to him but the fear of the eternal God by whom they had sworn might make them and their Posterity mindful of their Promise And according to his Command their Promise and Oath the thing was done For Moses took the Bones of Joseph with him for he had straitly sworn the Children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my Bones hence with you Exod. 13. 19. And they were buried many years after in Shechem the Portion of Joseph Josh. 24. 32. All this was done by Faith which was grounded upon that Promise which was confirmed by an Oath unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob that he would give them the Land of Canaan and bring their Children out of Aegypt for to settle them in that Country which was a Type of Heaven and in which by Christ they should rise again to everlasting Life This Revelation from Heaven he did assuredly believe and rested upon the Promise This Example should teach us to remember and never to forget the Promises of God to mind others of them perswade them to rest upon them and deeply to engage them to their God and the Performance of their Duty This doth also inform us of the Excellency of the Bodies of the Saints which have been Temples of the Holy Ghost and one day shall be made immortal § 22. And now we are come to the great Prophet Moses whose Preservation was wonderful and his Works glorious The Apostle instanceth 1. In
ridiculous and a matter of laughter rather then of fears except they did suspect some magick Spells and diâ—belical power might be used in that formal procession 4. The Event was the fall of the Walls of Jericho and the ruine of that City and the Inhabitants Some think this fall to be the sinking of the Wall whole and entire into the ground so that the highest parts of them lay level with the surface of the Earth yet there is no certainty of this But this is certain that they so fell as that Israel might easily enter This was a work of almighty power and by this example we easily understand that when out of Faith we obey God's Commands that which God hath promised will be effected Therefore when any business is difficult to be done we must not so much look at the impotency of natural and secondary Causes as at the promise of God and the performance of our Duty And though it 's true that the principal if not the sole effective cause be the Power of God yet without the Faith and Obedience of man the fulfilling of the Promise cannot be expected This manner of giving Jericho into Israel's hand to humane reason not acquainted with the Counsel of God might seem strange Yet it was an excellent way to animate Israel and terrify the Canaanites For by this miraculous Event Israel might understand how easily without blow or blood of any man the strongest City might be taken and delivered into their hands and the Enemy might know that neither the strongest and highest Walls nor the power of the most warlike Souldiers could be able to stand out The principal thing here to be observed is the excellency of Faith grounded upon the Word and Promise of God § 30. In this strange and fearful destruction of Jericho God remembred mercy and saved Rahab and her Family so that they perished not with the rest For Ver. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the Spies with peace THis is the last Example of those whereupon the Apostle severally and more distinctly insists In it we may observe 1. The Party named and proposed for an Example which was Rahab the Harlot 2. The Work of her Faith She received the Spies in peace 3. Her Preservation in the general ruine of that City 4. Her Faith whereby she obtained that Reward 1. The Party was a Woman her Name Rahab a Gentile a Canaanite an Inhabitant and Native of Jericho an Inn-Keeper and an Harlot for she seems to be both Yet this is so far true that though she had formerly been guilty yet now she was a Penitent and upon her Faith if not before reformed God had prepared her for his own Design and made her a sit Instrument to save the Spies and the Spies fit Agents to inform Joshua of the Truth and to encourage all Israel to go on boldly in the Conquest of all Canaan 2. Her Work of Faith was that she received the Spies in peace These Spies were Agents sent by Joshua to discover the Country on the West-side of Jordan according to his Directions and his End in sending them was to receive Information from them of such things as were convenient to be known as Preparative for the future Conquest As Stratagems so Spies were useful as other Intelligencers are in a well-ordered State that hath to deal with Enemies and if the Cause be just and the Enemies unjust they are certainly lawful These she received though Enemies to her Country not only as Guests but Friends and as she received so she dismissed them in peace that is in safety and as Friends and not as Enemies This she did with so great Care Prudence and Fidelity that their best Friends in that Case could not have done more and better for them The manner how she entertained them the Conference she had with them the Contract made between them the Act how she concealed them the Counsel she gave them and the Contrivance of their safety you may read more at large in the Book of Joshua Her officious Lie which she made in their behalf cannot in strict Justice be excused though in mercy it may be pardoned And in this Act and Work of Charity towards them she was not guilty of persidious Treachery to her own Country which she knew to be wicked and destined by God himself unto Destruction and she was bound to love God more than her Country and his People more than his Enemies By her Faith she had renounced all to serve the true God and in her heart was become already one of God's Saints and Servants Treachery indeed is unjust and contrary to the Laws of God which require fidelity to God first and then to our Country so far as it shall be consistent with Fidelity to the Supream Lord and not one â—ote further 3. Her Reward followed upon this For she perished not with them that believed not Where we have 1. The Destruction of Unbelievers 2. Her Preservation The first implies that her Neighbours and Fellow-Citizens were grievous Sinners and so hardned in their Sins that they did not believe and so were Vessels of Wrath and fitted for Destruction These being such did perish and suffered Punishment due unto their Sins which was a total and final ruine But she perished not but was preserved and the manner of her Preservation we find related in the History For both the Spies and Joshua were faithful to her and performed the Promise and the Oath made unto her By this we learn how easily God can save us even in the midst of general Calamities 4. This her Preservation was a Reward of her Faith not that Faith did merit it but made her capable of God's Mercy This here Faith was wrought in her by the Fame of God's glorious Works and Counsels which she had heard and by the Power of the Holy Ghost and it was manifested much and very much both by her Words and Deeds when she received the Spies and preserved them from Death It was so much the more to be admited seeing she was an Alien a Gentile a Canaaâ—ute and dwelt amongst a cursed People amongst whom she had been a grievous Sinner Surely she will rise up in Judgment against the Unbelievers of our times § 31. The Apostle forbears to insist largely and particularly upon the Faith of any more of the ancient Worthies either Men or Women and draws towards a Conclusion by Contraction of his Discourse and in this manner Ver. 32. And what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barac and of Samson and of Jeptha of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets IN these words and those that follow in this Chapter we must consider 1. The manner how the following Discourse is brought in 2. The matter of it 1. The manner is by a Rhetorical Paraleipsis signifying 1. There was no necessity of any more
Instances because the former were sufficient 2. That to go on to instance so largely in the rest of the following Ages would be too tedious take up much time and enlarge his Letter till it swell to a great Volume 3. Yet he lets them know that if need were and it were requisite he could instance in many more but yet he thought it no Wisdom to do so 2. In the matter we have 1. A particular enumeration of certain former Worthies 2. Their rare Exploits 3. Their many Sufferings 4. Their Deeds and Sufferings issuing from Faith 5. The time when they lived believed did these Works and suffered 6. God's benignity to us who in his Wisdom did so order it that they should not be perfect without us This is the Sum and Substance of the rest of this Chapter which contracts much matter into a narrow Compass and expresseth it in a few words As for the Persons commended for their Faith 1. Some of them are signified particularly by Name some by a general term expressing their Office 2. That though he names but six yet this was not because there were no more but these or that he was ignorant of them but because it was not needful 3. Amongst these we have four Judges one Prophet one King yet so that the Prophet was a Judge and the King a Prophet The Persons not mentioned by Name but signified by their Office were the Prophets and whereas there were Prophets both ordinary and extraordinary the extraordinary are intended By this passage and proceeding of the Apostle we learn that in our Discourses we should not be needlesly tedious and say all that we can but that only which is sufficient most expedient and conducing to the main Scope This was a Letter and he was not willing to enlarge beyond the bounds of a Letter which he must needs have done if he had instanced and amplified in all the particulars which he knew § 32. These are the Persons Their rare Exploits and Works of Faith follow for thus we read Ver. 33. Who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the Mouths of Lions Ver. 34. Quenched the violence of Fire escaped the Edge of the Sword out of Weakness were made strong waxed strong in Fight turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens THE Effects of their Faith being doing great things obtaining great Mercies suffering great Afflictions are here only touched upon and briefly related Yet this is done without any Attribution of them to the Persons formerly named and mentioned for of these Persons those things are to be understood and they are all Effects and Consequents of Faith There is it said Who by Faith subdued c. And seeing his chief Intention was to shew the Excellency of Faith and these Effects were rare and excellent and such as depended upon Faith as Effects upon the Cause it was sufficient in this manner to reckon them up and to inform these Hebrews of them 1. They subdued Kingdoms Though this may agree to and be affirmed of others yet in this particular David seems to be most eminent who subdued the Philistins Edomites Ammonites and other of the Syrian Kingdoms For to understand this it 's to be observed 1. That the Cause of the Conqueror was just 2. That he had Warrant from God and many times the Warrant was extraordinary 3. Sometimes he had Directions from God who was first consulted 4. He depended not upon his own strength and policy but upon his God 5. The Victory was given by God upon the Faith and Prayer of the victorious Party 6. The Kingdoms subdued were not only Enemies to God's People but to God himself and his Laws so that both the safety of the People and also of Religion did much depend upon these Victories which were far more glorious and excellent because given upon the Faith of such as trusted in their God Others might prove Conquerors who waged War against others out of Ambition Pride Covetousness Cruelty without any just Cause of Commission from Heaven and they were rather Executioners of God's just Judgments upon wicked People and Offenders whom they cruelly punished without any thoughts of God or care of Justice as being wicked Person themselvs 2. They wrought Righteousness The subduing of Kingdoms was the exercise of their Military Power and this may seem to be the Use of the Sword of Justice For the Judges and David were Generals in War and Judges in peace they went out before the People and fought their Battles and in the time of Peace they did Justice and Judgments by reason of their Faith they were victorious in their Wars and just in their Judgment The Duty of a Prince is to defend his People from Forreign Enemies and to protect their just and loyal Subjects and punish the Oppressors and Injurious This Righteousness therefore is judicial Righteousness and their doing of Righteousness their constant Administration of Justice For the meaning is not meerly that they did some few Acts of Justice for so many wicked Princes do but these did execute Justice and Judgment constantly and in an eminent manner And the more their Faith the more their Righteousness for Faith must needs effectually incline them unto it 3. By Faith they obtained Promises By Promises understand things promised and these not general but particular To the Patriarchs before Joshua the Land of Caâ—aan was promised yet not given not enjoyed only their Posterity under Joshua obtained that Promise Christ was promised to them all yet they obtained not this Promise for he was not exhibited till many years after These were more general Promises There were besides many eminent Mercies particular of Victory Deliverance Peace and other things which by Faith they obtained yet so as that they used the means which God vouchsased unto them and these means without Faith had been insufficient This informs us that as great things are done so great things are obtained by Faith which believeth the Word of God and relyeth upon his Promises For God promised they believed the things promised were performed 4. By Faith they stopped the Mouths of Lions This is understood principally of Daniel Sampson slew a Lion and so did David Daniel was saved from the hungry fierce Lions when he was cast into their Den of purpose to be devoured This he acknowledged as a great and special Mercy from his God when he said to Darius My God hath sent his Angel and hath shut the Lions Mouths that they have not hurt me Dan. 6. 22. This Preservation was miraculous and a Mercy obtained by Faith For his Cause was just he would not intermit his constant Devotion and his Supplications unto his God though he should suffer Death and resolved to observe the just Command of God and refused to obey the unjust Command of Man and was perswaded that God was able to deliver him and therefore he cast himself wholly upon his Mercy This he could never have done without Faith
he doth this not like our earthly Fathers in an arbitrary way but after a certain Rule of perfect Wisdom and that for our good that we may be more holy and reap the peaceable fruit of Righteousness let us endure it with Patience and patiently continue to the End § 12. After this Discourse the Exhortation to the main Duty is expressed and repeated in these words Ver. 12. Wherefore lift up the Hands which hang down and the feeble Knees Ver. 13. And make strait Paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be heaeled THis Text might be considered as a Conclusion drawn from the former Discourse or inferred from the last words of Ver. 13. If from the former then take it in this manner If Suffering be God's Chastening issuing from Love ordered in Wisdom ending in our greater good then we must lift up the hands which hang down c. If from the latter then the Argument is drawn from the ill Consequence of our fainting Remissness we shall like that which is lame be turned out â—f the way In the words themselvs we have 1. A Duty 2. The Reason why it should be performed 1. The Duty is set forth in Metaphorical terms and the Similitudes seem to be taken 1. From Wrastlers 2. From such as run in a Race The former when once they begin to faint hang down their hands and cannot lift them up the latter when they are wearied become feeble in their knees cannot run strait on but turn or are turned out of the way These things are translated unto the Soul It implies that these Hebrews through neglect of their heavenly vertues and other means of Perseverance and Prayer unto God began to faint and lag in their heavenly Course They were wearied much and vexed with the Opposition of their unbelieving Brethren reproaching persecuting threatning them and spoiling them of their Goods and began to waver in their Profession They perhaps entertained thoughts of falling away and debated within themselvs whether they should continue or no and to doubt and be unresolved was a degree of Apostacy This was in them a Sin and though the words are an Exhortation yet they imply a Reproof The Duty exhorted unto was a Reformation of this deficiency by a more serious consideration of so many and rare Examples the nature of Sufferings they were Chastisements the glorious Reward of Perseverance the fearful Punishment of Apostacy And by this consideration with Prayer for strength they ought to encourage themselvs rouze up their drowzy Spirits gird up the Loyns of their minds and resolve to go on and finish their Race They must not through sloth love of Ease of their Estates of Liberty of their Lives now begin to turn back and so lose the benefit of their former Labours and Sufferings By this we understand our frailty and how ready we are to give back in the way to eternal Glory if God do desert us yet this is our Comfort that he will not deny to support us except we give him Cause by our negligence and grievous Sins 2. The Reason why we should often renew and raise up those Graces which are left in us is lest we prove lame and so be turned out of the way To be lame is to lose our spiritual strength and vigour of heavenly motion and this is our Sin because we diminish it by not using that Power which God hath given us And the Punishment of this Sin is to turn us out of the way and reject us for God may in this Case justly withdraw his sanctifying Power and condemn us as unworthy of that eternal glorious Reward to which he called us Yet this turning out may be considered either as a Punishment and Judgment from God or as a Sin of Man who willingly turns out of the way and makes himself guilty of Apostacy This Lameness may be cured for some times it is not a mortal and desperate Disease but such as by Discipline of the Church and Penitency of the Party may be healed Therefore it 's added But let it rather be healed This seems to point at Ecclesiastical Censures whereby Persons that begin to fall away are excommunicated and delivered up to Satan and so left in a desperate Case yet the Apostle doth advise that where there is any hope of Recovery the Church should endeavour to make them penitent and so to absolve and restore them upon Repentance and not leave them to perish Thus the ancient Church dealt with those who were called Lapsi And according to this sense to turn out of the way is to censure and excommunicate and to heal is to restore them made penitent § 13. Though Perseverance both in Faith and the Profession thereof be the principal Dâ—ty yet Faith cannot be without other vertues as Peace and Holiness therefore he adds Ver. 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see God THe reason of this Exhortation to these two Duties of Peace and Holiness may be this 1. Because without these our Profession is but Hypocrisy 2. These beautify and grace Christian Religion much and demonstrate our sincerity 3. By these we so demean our selves that our very Adversaries can have no just occasion to persecute us 4. If we follow peace with all men we shall avoid many Troubles which unadvised Zelots busy-Bodies turbulent and quarrelsom Persons bring upon themselves other good Christians If we follow holiness we shall give no scandal unto others please God and prepare our selves for Heaven the vision and fruition beautifical which will be our full hapiness So that there was special reason for to add these Exhortations But to consider the words in themselves we find in them a two-fold Duty 1. Of peace with Men. 2. Of holiness towards God 1. We must follow peace with all men where we must consider 1. What peace is 2. The parties with whom we must have peace 3. The following of this peace 1. Peace in this place is not agreement with every one in opinion affection practise for many have false opinions corruptions in affections and their practise is ungodly But peace is a virtue whereby we live quietly It issues from the loving of our Neighbour as our selves It 's opposed to a turbulent disposition of the Soul and all those qualities motions passions which cause dissension It cannot be without humility meekness patience forbearance kindness It so orders all words and actions that they tend to preserve concord and it gives no just cause of offence to any It labours to make up Breaches and reconcile Differences It 's an excellent virtue and is hardly separable from any Duty of the second Table therefore some have thought that by Peace in this place is signified the observation of all the Duties of that part of the moral Law which prescribes the duty of man to man 2. The parties with whom we must have peace are all
particularly confined to that part of providence whereby God supplies their wants in Necessaries yet so as that it doth rather include then exclude his protection against Dangers and Enemies This is the meaning of the words the force of the reason contained in them is very strong both to dehort from Coveâ—ousness and exhort to Contentedness For there is no reason in the World why we should either cover these earthly Goods inordinately or immoderately so as to distract and vex our minds or that we should not be contented with that we have though little seeing God hath so deeply and strongly engaged himself to be present with us and to provide for us If we had Faith to believe this and were so qualified as that we could truly apply it to our selves it would effectually quiet our minds in God in all our Necessities Sâ—raits and Perplexities For the words being the words of God fully and perfectly expressing his mind and purpose delivered by way of Promise whereby he so strongly obligeth himself extending to all persons in Covenant with him keeping the Conditions thereof including all times and all conditions and all kind of helps and assistance are abundantly sufficient to cut off all covetous thoughts and cares and to content the mind with any estate For whilst we have our God we have Perfection Safety Food Raiment and all things that are necessary in this our time of Pilgrimage untill we come to our abiding City § 6. After the Promise of God follows the Confidence of Man grounded upon this Promise For we may boldly say The Lord is my Helper and I will not fear what Man shall do unto me Where we must enquire 1. Whence the words are taken 2. What the Substance of them is and what they do import 1. We find words to the same purpose Psal. 56. 4 11. Yet the very same without any variance we reaâ— Psal. 118. 6. if we follow the Septuaginr The words in the Hebrew are Elleiptical and are made up and expounded from the Verse following for the first words are turned by Hierom Thou art my Lord by Pagâ—ine The Lord is with me by Prâ—tensis The Lord is for me The Septuagint give the sense That the Lord was my Lord with me for me to help me For it follows Ver. 7. Thou are amongst or with them that help me For the Lord to be with us for us and as Vatablus hath it to on stand our side is for God to be our Help 2. The Matter of the words are God's Help Man's Safety and Security The Psalm is understood of Christ and his Church and People Here the Apostle applies it to God's People 1. These have their Enemies signified by the word Man What Man may do against me 2. These men being Enemies do much against them or at least attempt to do much for wicked men together with the Devil are great Enemies to Christ's Kingdom and his Subjects The Devil designs their spiritual the wicked their temporal Ruine and the Design of the one is subservient to the other The Devil makes Use of temporal Persecutions to shake their Faith both have the Church and thrust sore at it and consult and combine their forces to destroy it They fine God's Servants imprison them banish them torture them murther some of them spoil others make them poor and bring them very low and sometimes to a Morsel of Bread 3. Yet God is with them stands for them helps them strengthens and protects them and will not see them perish or want Bread and gives them Safety in the midst of Danger Joy in the midst of Sorrow Bread in the midst of Famine If they kill the Body he will save the Soul and raise up the Body again at the last day and all their Sufferings shall conduce to their eternal Happiness 4. If God be with them for them and their Help they need not fear any thing no not the worst that Man can do unto them but may be confident of Safety and Deliverance they need not much desire the best things of the World nor fear the worst 5. They may think believe say and be assured That God is their Help And so much the rather because God hath promised that he will not leave them or forsake them at any time and why should they be covetous or fearful there is no cause of either Thus the Apostle disswades from Covetousnesse and perswades to Contentedness and that upon most powerful Reasons taken out of the Book of God wherewith they were well acquainted And though both the places are restrained to this particular Duty yet they are of far greater latitude and minister effectual Comfort § 7. The next Duty exhorted unto is the Imitation of their Teachers in Ver. 7. Remember them who have the Rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their Conversation Ver. 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever THese words may be considered in their general Coherence with the former as they are an Exhortation to another distinct Duty or in their particular Connexion with the Text immediately antecedent for their Guides and Teachers have given them an Example in that not being covetous but contented alwayes with their present Estate though poor they continued constant in the Profession and Preaching of the Gospel of Christ in the midst of all necessities and persecutions and did not doubt of God's Presence and Providence nor fear what Man could do unto them The former Connexion is certain the latter probable In the Duty exhorted unto we may observe 1. Three Acts. 2. Their three Objects 3. The subordination of these Acts upon these Objects one unto another 1. The Acts are Remembrance Consideration Imitation 2. The Object of their Remembrance was their Guides which had spoken to them the Word of God the Object of their Consideration was the end of their Conversation the Object of their Imitation was their Faith 3. The Subordination was that they must remember that they may consider consider that they may imitate They must remember their Guides who had taught them the Word of God they must remember them that they may consider the end of their Conversation they must consider the End of their Conversation that they may follow their Faith In the first Act upon the first Object we may observe three Propositions 1. They had their Guides 2. These had spoken unto them the Word of God 3. These they must remember 1. They had their Guides These were the Apostles especially and principally and also others both extraordinary and ordinary Dispensets of the Gospel These were Guides because they did direct them unto Christ by Christ to God and in God to eternal Life for without a Guide sinful blind and ignorant Wretches know nothing of Christ God eternal Life and the way leading thereunto and therefore they wander in the wide way which leadeth unto Destruction These Guides are said
to be Overseers which have a Charge of men's Souls committed unto them for Direction unto eternal Bliss and also Rulers because of their Power and Authority whereby they may in the Name of Christ command them to obey his Laws and in this respect the People are subject unto them in that manner that if they hear and receive them they receive Christ who sent them and God who sent Christ And whosoever receiveth not but despiseth them desplseth Christ and God who sent them 2. These Guides lest they should be ignorant who they were were such as had spoken the Word of God unto them The Word of God is that part of the Word of God which we call The Gospel which is concerning Christ exhibited humbled exalted and reigning at the right hand of God contained in that part of the Scripture we call The New Testament This Doctrine is the Word of God not only because it speaks of God but also because it was revealed by God and that by his own Son in the last dayes This Word they had spoken and declared both by Word and Writing and that infallibly according as by Inspiration they had received an immediate Knowledg of it and this their infallible Doctrine was the Rule of inferiour Teachers 3. These they must remember Some of these might be living some of them dead both must be remembred To remember in this place is to call to mind which presupposeth a former Act of Understanding and is a Reiteration of the same Act upon the same Object These must be remembred not only as Men but as Guides and as such as had spoken the Word of God even unto them so as that they had heard them and learned from them the Mystery of the Gospel so as to believe in Christ Yet amongst these they must principally remember the most eminent and in particular those by whom they had believed For if men begin once to forget their Teachers they will soon forget their Doctrine The second part of their Duty to which their former Remembrance was subservient is the Consideration of the end of their Conversation Their Conversation and Course of life no doubt was agreeable to their Doctrine and the Word of God they taught their Preaching and their Practice were suitable and as their Conversation was good so the End was answerable In that Faith they lived in the same they dyed and as their Life was holy so their Death was happy In these words some observe two things 1. That these were dead and some of them at least had sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood and dyed Martyrs 2. That they had been constant in the Profession and Practice of that heavenly Truth which they had preached and taught to others This Constancy and blessed Issue of their Conversation they are exhorted to consider and seriously review with the Eyes of their Souls as a rare and excellent Pattern worthy their Imitation 3. And if they were so worthy Imitation it was their Duty in the third place to follow their Faith that is their Doctrine which they preached believed professed practised unto Death and which they confirmed by their Suffering This is the true End of hearing Word of God and the true Use of all good Examples which are given us and set before our Eyes for this very End that we may do as they did and as they taught us both by their Words and Works their Doctrine and Practice We must follow the Example of all good men and above others of such Guides as these were amongst these Guides the most eminent in Truth Piety and Perseverance because their Doctrine and Life did agree and contiued suitable to the End § 8. It followeth Jesus Christ the same c. These words seem to stand absolute in themselvs without any dependance upon or Connexion with the Context antecedent or consequent and this hath given occasion to many several and different Expositions Some of the Ancients consider them in themselvs and understand them of Christ as God and from them prove his God-head by his perpetual Existence because he was is and shall be for ever and by his immutability because he alwayes is the same Some understand this of Christ as Redeemer whose Power and Efficacy in redeeming and saving all such as believe in him was from the first time that he was promised unto the World's End for he saved all those who believed in him for to come and all such who believe in him already come and exhibited Both these senses are true but whether intended here or no may be a Question But most Expositors consider the words in Coherence either with that which goes before or that which follows 1. With that which goes before and that two wayes 1. That as Christ the Word not incarnate or made Flesh spake to Joshua and promised not to leave him and forsake him so if they follow the Faith of their Guides and Teachers and persevere in the same to the End Christ will be with them and not leave them nor forsake them 2. That the Faith of their Guides was Faith in Christ according to their Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ an eternal unchangeable and never-failing Saviour and this their Faith in Christ they must follow and then Christ will be to them the same he was to their Guides and will certainly save them In this sense the words not only signify what kind of Faith that of their Teachers was and what was the Object and Foundation of it but also contain a Reason why they should follow it For their Faith was Faith in Christ which is the only saving Faith for ever as he Himself is the same for ever The Aethiopick Version favours this sense in part for thus they translate the words Follow me in the Faith of Christ c. So that according to this Christ is Faith in Christ. But others understand by Jesus Christ the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is the same as Christ is and that for ever and never shall be changed Therefore they must follow it and never turn from it Christ may by a Metonymy signify Faith in Christ and the Doctrine of Christ because he was the Object of their Faith and the Subject of their Doctrine This Vatablus terms an Enallage This seems to be confirmed by the Exhortation following To apply this to our selves as it is our Duty so we must have a care often to remember the Apostles and their Successours who have taught us the Word of God and considering their happy Departure out of this World with the Joy and Comfort which they found in their Saviour let us follow their Doctrine and their Faith in Christ which if we do we shall have the same End and find the same Comfort in Christ who will be the same to us which he was to them for as He so his Doctrine is unchangeable for ever and whosoever shall follow his Doctrine and believe in him shall
is a Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks-giving 2. This Praise is the fruit of our Lips and so is Thanks-giving 3. This Sacrifice of Praise must be offered unto God with Thanks-giving to his Name 4. This Sacrifice must be offered by Christ. 5. It must be offered continually 1. There is a Sacrifice of Praise for there is Praise and this Praise is a Sacrifice Praise as it 's a Duty to be performed to God 1. Hath for Object some divine Vertues and Perfections and the same manifested unto us by his Word or Works or both and also apprehended by us 2. It is an Acknowledgment of these Perfections as proper unto God as most glorious and excellent in respect of them 3. Some outward Expression of this Acknowledgment as by word of Mouth or some other way 2. This Praise is a Sacrifice because to be offered to God of which hereafter 2. This Praise is the fruit of our Lips because by our words which issue from the heart we express our inward thoughts and high Apprehensions of the same Therefore our Tongue in Hebrew is said to be our Glory and the Reason given by some is not only this that by our Speech and Language we excel irrational Creatures but because it was given us to praise and glorify God And as our Understanding is given us to think of God and to know him so our Speech was given us to speak of God and declare his wondrous Works and his excellent Perfections manifested therein In this respect Praise is said to be a speaking well of the person or thing to be praised This Expression is made either in private or publick and the publick is the principal It is made either in our Prayers in our singing of Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs wherein the Voice is louder sweeter and melodious which is called Vocal Musick sometimes joyned with that which is called Instrumental The Reason why in Assemblies we use this Vocal Praise is to inform others and stirr them up to praise God joyntly with us Thanks-giving also is the Fruit of our Lips wherein we use our Voice as in Praise and sometimes Praise and Thanks-giving are the same therefore the word here used signifies Confession which presupposing our inward Acknowledgment is an outward Declaration of the same Yet Thanks-giving strictly taken is different from Praise for the object of it is the works of God as beneficial to us and manifesting his mercy love and kindness and the act of it is an acknowledgment of his love mercy and kindness and an expression of the same And this is also a Fruit of our Lips as well as Praise and is signified outwardly for the same Reasons for which the inward Acknowledgment of Praise is expressed This Phrase Fruit of our Lips is taken out of the Prophets as Isa. 57. 19. but especially Hosea 14. 2. where the word Calves is turned by the Septuagint Fruit. 3. This Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks-giving must be offered to God and to his Name A Sacrifice is sometimes taken largely for an Oblation or Offering and in this sense a Sacrifice is an Offering of something to God as Supream Lord. Praise therefore and so Thanksgiving being something offered to God as Supream may be said to be a Sacrifice which is proper to a Deity Praise is due to Him as Supream in some Perfections Thanks as to the Supream Benefactor and Fountain of all Goodness Blessings Mercies These are due to him as he is Supream and we are bound to offer these by vertue of the first Commandment which requireth Love Fear Praise Thanks-giving Honour and other Duties to be performed to Him alone as Supream in the highest degree The Reason why the Authour mentions Sacrifice may be this Because all Religions require Sacrifices to be offered to a God whether true or imaginary and God required in the Law several kinds of Sacrifices both Ilastical and Eucharistical to be offered unto him and these Hebrews might say What is the Law of Moses so abrogated that all Sacrifices and Offerings to God are taken away Hath Christian Religion no such thing Is it singular in this particular To this the Apostle answers that indeed all Sacrifices of Bullocks Goats Lambs Rams which were carnal are taken away yet there are more excellent Sacrifices which are moral and spiritual of which praise and thanksgiving are not the least to be offered unto God as Supreme Lord. For you are an holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices c. 1 Pet. 2. 5. Where it 's expresly signified 1. That there must be Sacrifices in the Christian Religion and Worship Yet 2. These Sacrifices must not be carnal but spiritual And under the Law God required the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving more then the Blood of Bulls and Goats Psal. 50. 14. and the Knowledg of God and mercy more then those Legal Sacrifices of Beasts Hos. 6. 6. and the Sacrifices of a broken Spirit of a broken and contrite heart Psal. 51. 17. This Sacrifice of praise was and is most solemnly to be offered in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for that inestimable blessing of Redemption by that great Sacrifice offered upon the Cross. Therefore that Sacrament was called the Eucharist or Thanksgiving and a Commemoration of Christ's Death And this might be the reason why the Antients so often called it a Sacrifice to signify that neither the Heathens nor Jews had any reason to upbraid them with the want or neglect of Sacrifice It must be offered unto God and God alone as Supreme and to his Name where by Name may be signified either his Majesty and Supremacy and it is the same with offering unto God or it may signify his Glory and then the meaning is that it must be offered to him to manifest his Glory and to ascribe all Glory Honour excellency and Perfection unto him 4. This Sacrifice must be offered by Christ. By Christ that is by Faith in Christ 1. As having propitiated God by his Blood and made his Throne accessible For by him we have access by Faith into this Grace wherein we stand Rom. 5. 2. Through him we have access by one Spirit to the Father Eph. 2. 18. And in him we have boldness and access with confidence by Faith of him Col. 3. 12. For how should sinful guilty man dare to approach into his presence of an holy and just Lord if satisfaction be not made first unto Divine Justice offended by Sin 2. By Faith in him as having merited God's favour and acceptance of our Services for without this Merit we are unworthy to enter into his presence and our best Services considered in themselves without his merit are not acceptable 3. By him as our Mediatour and Intercessour for he is our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. As no man under the Law could offer his Sacrifice unto God but by the Priest so under the Gospel no man can offer his Prayers Praises Alms or any other
spiritual Sacrifice unto God but by Christ as his High-Priest who offers them unto God John in a Vision sawin Heaven an Angel standing at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given him much Incense that he should offer it with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne Rev. 8. 3. This Angel is Christ our High-Priest who offers the Prayers of all his Saints perfumed with the Incense of his merits mhich makes them as offered by him so acceptable and so effectual This is the reason why we conclude our prayers in Christ's Name and desire that they may be heard for his sake 5. We must offer this Sacrifice continually not that we must be like the Euchitae which would do nothing but pray but that we must keep a constant Course and observe a certain order in worshipping God both in private and publick For God is continually beneficial unto us blessing and delivering his People every day and by new mercies giving new matter of praise and thanksgiving and there are some mercies so general and so beneficial that they should never be forgotten but remembred before God every day This is the same with that Exhortation of the Apostle To give thanks alwayes for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of Jesus Christ Eph. 5. 20. We read that the four Beasts which were the universal Church did not rest Day and Night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is come Rev. 4. 8. For this is one continual Imployment of the universal Church militant to give Praise and Glory to God for ever The more lively apprehension we have of God's perfection and the more sensible of his love and mercy we shall be the more excellent and acceptable this Service will prove § 15. There is another Sacrifice to be offered which is the matter of another Exhortation Ver. 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased VVHere we have 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Motive 1. The Duty is Not to forget to do good and to communicate This hath some affinity with the former and is fitly subjoyned For 1. If God be beneficial to us and communicate his goodness then we must be benesicial unto our Neighbour especially his poor Saints and communicate of those Goods he hath given us for he hath not given us a greater measure of his Blessings either to hoard them up or spend them vainly and sinfully upon our selves to maintain our pride and pleasure We are but Stewards and only trusted with them and must give an account 2. There were Eucharistical Sacrifices under the Law wherein they must remember the Levit the Poor the Fatherless the Widow such as these are and God requires them in the Gospel 3. By doing good to others we manifest our praise and thankgiving offered to God to be real and sincere for I cannot think that any man can be truly thankful to God who is not merciful to his Brother The matter of this Duty is something of these worldly Goods which God hath given us are justly our own and which we may spare though never so little if but the poor Widow's mite for God requires our Charity according to our portion we must give willingly and plentifully The Objects of this our Charity are such as want and we are able to relieve and amongst others the poor Saints of Christ. This Duty must not be forgotten that is neglected but we must have a special care to exercise our Charity as God shall call for it Though we are not bound to relieve others by the Laws of Men yet we are deeply obliged unto it by the Laws of God and therefore we are not left at liberty to give or not give it 's an universal Duty and lies upon us and all Christians and upon them more then upon any other 2. The reason and motive is With such Sacrifices God is well pleased Where it 's implyed every work of Charity should be a Sacrifice and so given to Man as to be offered to God So it is when it 's done out of Faith in Christ love to God and in obedience to his Command In this respect Alms are part of God's Worship given and offered to God at the perception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist added unto their thanksgiving Therefore they were called Oblations and also were reckoned as works of Sanctification of the Christian Sabbath 1 Cor. 16. 1 2 c. This Sacrifice if offered aright is pleasing to God there are Sacrifices which God is not well pleased with for some he abhominates some he regards not but this he accepts and it 's very pleasing unto him For the benevolence and charity of the Philippians sent to Paul was an Odour of sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God Phil. 4. 18. Where we may observe 1. That it was a Sacrifice 2. It was acceptable and well-pleasing that is very much and highly accepted of God It 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ministration of divine Service a part of the Liturgy and Service of God 2 Cor. 9. 12. Thatit is thus pleasing to God is evident because hecommands it commends it and that often and much promiseth to reward it with temporal and spiritual Blessings takes that which is given to the poor as lent unto himself and becomes Debtor to repay it Christ takes that done to himself which was done to his poor Saints and assures us that a Cup of cold water should not be forgotten and magnisies the Widow's mite cast into the Treasury And how willing and ready should we be to perform that Duty which God so much accepts § 16. The last Exhortation followeth Ver. 17. Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit uour Selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you CHrist in the administration of his heavenly Kingdom and the ordering of men unto everlasting Life hath his Officers under him For though by his Spirit alone without the Ministry of Men or Angels he could save us yet he is pleased to make use of Min and by Man convert Man and bring him to everlasting Glory Therefore when he ascended up on high to take possession of his Kingdom he gave Gifts to Men and gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers and all this for the building up of his Church In laying the foundation he used extraordinary in building upon the foundation ordinary Officers and this Text is concerning both the work of these Officers and the duty of the People subject unto them In that as being an Exhortation we have as in most of the rest 1. The Duty exhorted unto 2. The Reasons and Motives 1. The Duty is To obey them who have the Rule over us and