To-day therefore they should hear his voice. the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end, 103 iii. house: whose house which as Heir of all things he hath not only a SECT. are we, if we hold fast trust and office, but also a property, and which is appointed for him to inhabit and preside over; Heb. whose house, his chosen and delightful habitation, III. 6. we Christians now are, if we strenuously maintain [our] freedom of profession, and boasting of hope, stedfast unto the end; if having so glorious an hope set before us, in which we may justly boast as our greatest honour and happiness, we resolutely adhere to it, and permit nothing to wrest it out of our hands. 7 Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To voice, hearts, as in the pro deruess: 9 When your fathers me, and saw my works forty years. tempted me, proved And to this I am labouring to animate you, 7 dav, if ye will hear his by the representation I have given of the dignity and glory of our blessed Saviour. Therefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, in a psalm which he dictated to David, (Psal. xcv. 7,) To day if ye will 8 Harden not your ever hear his voice at all, Harden not your hearts 8 vocation, in the day of any longer; lest you bring destruction upon temptation in the wil- yourselves, as your predecessors did, in the bitter provocation which they presumed to offer me in the day of temptation in the wilderness; When your unbelieving fathers tempted me, and 9 proved me, as if they would have made an experiment how much it was possible for me to bear; and this, though they saw my works in such a variety of wonders, as passed in the wilderness in the course of forty succeeding years. 10 Wherefore I was Therefore I was angry with that perverse gene- 10 ration, and said, They ration, and said they always do and will err do alway err in their in [their] hearts, through their own obstinacy hearts; and they have and folly, and they have not known my ways, not known my ways. nor paid any regard to the clearest discoveries of 11 So I sware in my my will and design; wrath, They shall not abuses of my patience and long-suffering, I So that after repeated 11 sware in my wrath, and solemnly declared by my own holy and majestic name, that they should never enter into my rest; but that the carcases of all that came adult out of Egypt, shall fall in the wilderness, and that generation of men be 12 Take heed, bre- totally consumed. How awful a determination, 12 thren, after all the hopes which such signal deliverances grieved with that gene enter into my rest. the very words are used and translated be- had 104 iii. Reflections on the superiority of Christ to Moses. SECT. had concurred to inspire! See to it therefore, thren, lest there be in brethren, lest there ever be in any of you a wick- any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departed heart of unbelief, in apostatizing from him who ing from the living III. 12. still wears the same omnipotent terrors, and God. Heb. another daily while it continues, and will ever continue, the living and true God, to whom you profess so great a regard, and from whom you will indeed revolt, if you give up the religion of Christ Jesus his Son. 13 You are surrounded with many temptations to 13 But exhort one do this; but exhort one another daily, while you is called, To-day; lest are under this dispensation of grace, whilst it is any of you be hardencalled to-day, and the deserved judgments of ed through the deccit God are suspended, that no one of you may by fulness of sin. insensible degrees and artful insinuations, be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and its fallacious advances on the mind; whereby if you are not resolutely on your guard, you may be seduced finally to forfeit the invaluable blessings, which are so freely offered, and which have so long been set before you. Ver. 1 IMPROVEMENT. WE are partakers of this heavenly calling, and to us are the messages of mercy addressed: let us therefore hear with reverence and obedience, the admonitions of the word of God. Let us behold with veneration and delight, the Son of God becoming the Mes2 senger of his Father's love, and the High Priest of our Christian profession. He is the great prophet too, whom God hath raised up 6 unto us like Moses, in many respects; but O how far superior to him! More completely faithful to him, who hath appointed him; faithful as a Son in his own house. The world is an edifice raised by Christ the church is the house 4 in which he delights to reside. Let both be considered in this important view. The Divine perfections of the great Architect are indeed illustriously displayed in the construction and constitution of this visible world. Does the meanest house or cottage declare itself to be the work of some intelligent agent? And does it not much more evidently appear, that this commodious and magnificent structure must have been planned and reared by proportionable wisdom, grandeur and power? It is the work of Christ; and let it often be devoutly surveyed and contemplated in this view; and from thence let us infer his Divine glories, and read in them his matchless condescensions. Let i Whilst it is called to-day.] L'Enfant God still exercises towards a nation soon thinks this refers to that patience which to be overwhelmed with his judgments. a Forasmuch, They should hold their confidence stedfast unto the end: iii. 105 Let us learn with how much security and delight we may com- ICT. mit our immortal souls to him who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and shall endure the same when they shall be dissolved and perish. Let us view him also as the Lord of the church; and consider the fabric of grace as raised to his honour; that in that as his temple, every one might speak of his glory; and let all the churches, and every member of each, make it their faithful care to honour him more and more. In this view may we hold fast the confidence, and rejoicing of Ver. our hope, stedfast unto the end, and never suffer any one to take our 6 crown, or terrify, or allure us, from that faithful subjection of soul to Christ, which his perfections and our obligations, to him concur 12 to demand. Who of us can say, he is beyond all danger of being 13 ensnared by an evil heart of unbelief, of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin? Let us then, in compliance with so salutary and necessary an exhortation, redouble our guard; let us watch over ourselves and each other; exhorting one another daily, while it is called to-day, and charging our souls by the awful authority of the living God, that after having approached so near him, that after having so solemnly professed to devote ourselves to him, nothing may ever prevail upon us deliberately and wickedly to depart from him. SECT. IV. The Apostle goes on to repeat the caution he had given against unbelief, as what would prevent their entering into rest: an expression which he shows to refer to something much nobler than that rest which the Jews enjoyed in Canaan, even on their most sacred days, and in their most prosperous ages. Heb. III. 14.-IV. 11. HEBREWS III. 14: FOR we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the begin ning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. HEBREWS III. 14. iv. GIVE you such cautions to guard against the CT. deceitfulness of sin, and an evil heart of unbelief, because I know your highest interests are Heb. concerned; for we are made partakers of the III. 14. grace and mercy of Christ, and admitted by him into the family of God, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence in him as our great Saviour, stedfast unto the end of our lives, whatever difficulties and oppositions may arise. Let 15 us therefore be strenuous and incessant in this his care; forasmuch as it is said, in the passage I have 15 While it is said, To-day, if ye will hear a Forasmuch, as it is said.] The words and may either signify, forasmuch as it is 27 Tw Ayto 9a are something ambiguous, said, or while it is said; and if the latter version 106 iv. Heb. For unbelief would prevent their entering into rest. · provocation. provoke: howbeit not SECT. I have quoted above, To-day, if ye will hear his his voice, harden not voice, harden not your hearts, as they did in the your hearts, as in the provocation which was offered to God in the III. 16. wilderness. For some of them who heard so many 16 For some, when Divine messages solemnly declared, and the law they had heard, did spoken by the very mouth of God himself from all that came out of mount Sinai, provoked [him] to indignation; Egypt by Moses: but not all they who came out of Egypt by Moses: there was a remnant then, as there now is, of believing and obedient souls, to whom the promise of God shall be accomplish17 ed. And by whom was he provoked by a long succession of infidelity and folly for forty years? was he grieved forty [was it] not with those who well deserved that them that had sinned, displeasure? With those who sinned against whose carcases fell in him by suspecting his presence with them, after the wilderness ? so many amazing and unparalleled demonstrations of it; whose carcases, according to his awful prediction, fell in the wilderness during those years of wandering to which they were justly 17 But with whom years? was it not with 18 doomed? And was there any thing in this 18 And to whom that looks like a breach of promise on the part should not enter into sware he that they of the blessed God? Far from it.-To whom his rest, but to them did he swear that they should not enter into his that believed not? rest, but unto those who were so obstinate and disobedient, as entirely to forfeit all claim to bis 19 promise and favour? And when we come to consider the cause of that disobedience, we see that it was owing to a secret infidelity with regard to the Divine power and goodness, either to preserve them in the wilderness, or conduct them into Canaan. So that "I may say they could not possibly enter into the promised rest, because of unbelief: that was upon the whole, version be preferred, perhaps this 15th b But not all they who came out of Egypt.] the 19 So we see that because of unbelief. they could not enter in were they that when they heard, that is, heard the report of the spies, (Numb. xiv.) did provoke him? Were not they all that came out of Egypt? And this he supposes is a distinct argument for perseverance, taken from the infectious nature, as well as pernicious consequences of infidelity and apostacy. But had this been the sense, I think would have been used instead of aλ', especially as by this means the correspondence with the 17th verse would have been more evident. c There was a remnant.] Joshua, Caleb, the women and children, and some think, some of the Levites, were not included in the sentence. Bishop Fell mentions this as an intimation, that all shall not apostatize in the worst times. d Let The Jews entered not because of unbelief. being left us of enter come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them, but the word preached did с iv. Heb. 107 IV. 1. Let us there the evil that destroyed them. Let us there. SECT. fore fear,lest a promise fore improve so awful a dispensation of Proviing into his rest,any of dence to our own instruction, and fear, lest you should seem to promise being now left [unto us] of entering into 1¡V• . his most happy and glorious rest, any of us should even at any time, so much as seem like to come short [of it.] For we are made parta- 2 kers of the good tidings of the promised rest, as they also were. But the word of promise not profit them, not which they heard, did not profit them, as it might in them that heard it. otherwise have done, in matters of the highest importance, not being duly mired and attempered with faith in them that heard [it.] 3 For we which have For we cordially believing the gospel, and g believed do enter into faithfully retaining it, are so secure of final happiness, that it may with some propriety be said, wrath, If they shall we have already entered into rest; as he said in enter into my rest; al- the fore-cited text, So I sware in my wrath they though the works were should not enter into my rest. And this may being mixed with faith rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my finished from the foundation of the world. And God did rest the lead us farther to reflect on what is elsewhere said concerning his works; as they were finished For he spake in a from the foundation of the world. For after t eertain place of the se- Moses had given us an account of the creation, venth day on this wise, he somewhere saith concerning the seventh [day] seventh day from all thus, (Gen ii. 2; Exod. xxxi. 17,) And God rested the seventh day from all his works. And, 5 And in this place in this [place] which we have quoted, again he saith [I have sworn] they shall not enter into my rest. Now this certainly implies, that when there words were written, there was a rest of God his works. again, If they shall enfer into my rest. d Let us therefore fear.] This example, as has often been observed, is most suitable, being taken from their own ances tors, the evil being the same, namely, unbelief, the time resembling it just after the establishment of a new constitution, and the consequence the same, the exclusion from the rest. The superior dignity of Christ above Moses, and the superior excellence of Heaven above Canaan, greatly confirm the force of the argument. Pierce on Heb. iii. 12, note n. e Any of us.] Some copies read, , instead of upww you; and their authority is evidently confirmed by the connection. See Dr. Mills in loc. f Partakers of the good tidings.] So I chuse to render the word unyy. For, that we have the gospel (taking it for the message by Christ) at least as well as these people had in the wilderness, and indeed a great deal more plainly, is so evi VOL. X. dent, that it may seem but a very low g We believing have entered, &c.] Mr. h His works finished from the foundation, &c.] Mr. Pierce thinks the apostle intends to lay in an answer to an objection which might arise against the caution given, from their being entered into rest already, that is, into the land of Canaan, where they celebrated the sabbath. He therefore shews that the words could neither extend to the one or the other of these rests. ilf 5 |