180 SECT. xviii. 38. *37 Reflections on the foregoing examples of faith. In vain were all the terrors of persecuting rage and cruelty opposed to these triumphs. They submitted to imprisonment, and Ver. banishment, how dear soever liberty and their native country 36 might be; they quitted their commodious habitations for rocks, and caves, and their comfortable apparel for sheep skins and 37 goat-skins. And when desarts and dens could no longer shelter their wretchedness, but they were seized by their blood-thirsty enemies, they beheld, and endured, undismayed, the most horrid instruments of death. When the piercing sword entered their vitals, when overwhelming stones dashed them in pieces, when the torturing saw was tearing out their very entrails, there was a principle within superior to all these, which nothing could pierce, which nothing could rend away, which nothing could overwhelm. God hath done an honour to our nature in raising up such illustrious persons, of whom the world was not worthy, and whose 38 distinguished worth could never have been manifested in the eyes of their fellow-creatures, had it not been called out to such rigorous trials. Well might they rejoice on any terms in their dismission from a state of existence, so far beneath the elevation of their views. And though their names may be perished from among men, and the distinct history of each, lost in the crowds of countless multitudes, yet are they all in remembrance before God; and the death of each of his saints, in such circumstances, peculiarly precious in his sight. They are now bathing in those rivers of delight, which flow through the celestial paradise, and waiting the full consummation of their hope in that better resurrection, in the views of which they suffered so bravely. In the mean time, they look down, as it were, from the battlements of Chap. XII. 1. heaven upon our combats, upon our race. O, let them not see us basely shrinking back, or loitering! Let us lay aside every weight; let us, especially, guard against the sin which most easily besets us. And to establish all our fortitude, and to awaken all our ardour, let us look to an object brighter and nobler than all these, even to the Son of God, the Sun of righteousness, shining in high pre-eminence above all this cloud, and as it were gilding it 2 by the reflection of his effulgent rays. Let us look to Jesus, who leads us on; to Jesus, who will complete the triumph of our faith, and set the crown on the head of every one who overcometh! Let us daily think, what agony, what ignominy, he endured for us, and let every consideration of noble ambition, of duty, and of gratitude, fire our souls, and add wings to our zeal so shall we at length share in his joy, and sit down victorious with him on his throne, as he hath also overcome, and is set down with the Father on his throne. 40 SECT They should further consider the example of Christ : 181 SECT. XIX. The Apostle animates the believing Hebrews to bear and improve the afflictions to which they were exposed, and to exert themselves vigorously to promote the united interests of peace and holiness. Heb. XII. 3-14. HEBREWS XII. 3. FOR consider him that endured such contradiction of sin ners against himself, lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds. resisted striving against sin. HEBREWS XII. 3. 4 XIX. Heb. IN order to encourage you, my dear brethren, SECT. in your Christian course, I have directed you, and I must again direct you, to the Lord Jesus Christ; for what can be more important than XII. 3. to consider him, who with patient fortitude, endured such obstinate and perverse contradiction of ungrateful sinners against himself. Think how great and illustrious a Person he was, and what severe things he suffered, that you may not grow weary in your Christian course, nor faint in your minds, when called to share in some de4 Ye have not yet gree of his trials. And indeed you will be inunto blood, excusable if you should desert his cause, on account of any such trials as you have yet endured; for you have not as yet undergone the severest proofs of your integrity, nor resisted unto blood, striving against sin, as he did, who made his life a sacrifice to duty. And ye seem to 5 have forgotten the exhortation, of the word of God, which speaketh to you, as to his sons, My son, despise not (Prov. ii. 11, 12,) saying, My son, despise not not thou the chasten- the chastening of the Lord, as if it were a small matter; nor faint and sink, when thou art rebuked by him; but avoid the extremes of proud 6 For whom the insensibility, and entire dejection. For whom Lord loveth he chas the Lord loveth, he correcteth, and scourgeth, with seeming severity, every son whom he rereceiveth, 5 And ye have for gotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, ing of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. teneth, there seems to be an allusion to the pugiles c Ye have forgotten the Exhortation.] d Whom 6 182 xix. Correction is a proof of adoption: receiveth. 7 If ye endure chas tening, God dealeth with you as with sons ; whom the father chas teneth not? for what son is he out But if ye all the ge- whereof all are parta 8 But if ye be withchastisement, SEC1. Ceiveth, to peculiar favour. It is evident there- teneth, and scourgeth XIX. fore, that if ye endure chastening, God dealeth every son whom he with Heb. you as wise and affectionate parents deal XII. 7. with their beloved sons; for what son is there whom the father chasteneth not, more or less? There are scarce any children, who do not some times need correction, and no wise and good 8 parent, who will always forbear it. are without chastisement, of which nuine children are partakers, then are ye kers, then are ye bastreated as men often treat bastards about whose tards and not sons, education they are often careless as being ashamed of them, and looking upon them as a scandal to their families; and not as they treat their legitimate sons, whom they intend to make their heirs, and concerning whom they are solicitous, that they may be happy themselves, and a credit and comfort to the family they stand related to; which a child left to himself, without correction, is by no means like to prove. 9 9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which cor rected us, and we gave Now if when we had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us, we gave them reverence, & and submitted patiently and quietly to their discipline, shall we not much rather, on the justest them reverence: shall principles of filial duty, be in subjection to the we not much rather be great Father of our spirits, by whom that noble in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and part of our nature was produced, in the produc- live? tion of which our earthly parents had no share? And indeed we know this to be necessary, d Whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.] There seems to be a beautiful gradation in these words. To receive, signifies here to have a particular regard for. Compare Isa. xliii. 1. in the Seventy. The passage is quoted from Prov. iii. 11, 12; and the last clause of the apostle's citation, which is, And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, is by our English version, and the old Latin, there rendered, Even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. And this is agreeable to the modern pointing. But without any change in the Hebrew letters, the clause may be translated as it is by the apostle, agreeably to the rendering of the Seventy, and some other ancient versions. See Mr. Hallet in loc. e Bastards.] In those dissolute ages there were among the heathen many baseborn children. And it is highly probable, that as for sucb, their education, (like that of Jeptha, whose fatal error might perhaps be owing to it,) was much if we desire neglected, so as to come almost into a proverb. f Now if] Instead of lx, the Syriac version seems to have read de, but if. This reading is followed by Curcellæus ; Beza expresses some approbation of it.—The learned Albert, and Raphelius, consider the clause as a smart and animated interrogation, and produce various passages to show that this is the force of the Greek particle la But g When we had fathers of our flesh,—we gave them reverence.] It had indeed been more literally rendered, We had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence: which some consider as a Hebraism, as if he had said, Who corrected us that we might give them reverence. it scems more natural to understand the particle, xa, as connecting the two clauses. We had fathers of our flesh, and we gave them reverence In which view the version I have given fully expresses the apostle's design. h And And God correcteth us for our spiritual advantage : 183 xix. desire to live, since rebellion against him will SECT. Heb. 10 For they verily But not to insist on considerations of terror; XII. 10. for a few days chasten- let us attend to those of a more ingenuous nature, ed us, after their own pleasure: but he for and particularly those which arise from the reaour profit, that we son of things, and a view of what will on the might be partakers of whole be most conducive to our own truest adhis holiness. vantage. As for our earthly parents, they indeed for a few days, while we were in a state of infancy and childhood, corrected [us] as they thought good, and there might sometimes be a mixture of weakness and arbitrary passion in their chastisements; but we are sure this can never be the case with respect to our heavenly Father. O, far from that if he take the rod into his hand, it is for our advantage, and that we may be partakers of his holiness; which is indeed the greatest dignity, beauty, and glory of the rational nature, and what most immediately tends to the happiness of time and eternity. 11 Now no chasten. Now it is true, that all chastening for the present 11 ing for the present seemeth not to be matter] of joy, but of grief: but grievous: never it is painful to the flesh, and human nature theless, afterward it would rather desire to be excused from it: but yieldeth the peaceful afterwards it yieldeth the peaceful fruit of rightfruit of righteousness, unto them which are cousness, to those that are in a suitable manexercised thereby. ner exercised therewith. It produces and improves those virtues which afford peace and joy to the mind, and like a nobler crown than that which many endure so much to obtain, richly rewards the most strenuous labours, and most afflictive struggles. seemeth to be joyous, 12 Wherefore lift up the Therefore rally your languid spirits, lift up the 12 h And live.] This awful, yet tender insinuation of the terrible consequences of rebellion against the Father of spirits, (in which there is an allusion to the capital punishment to be inflicted on a disobedient child, Deut. xxi. 18, &c.) is very remarkable; and an instance of the apostle's forci ble manner of suggesting the most weighty thought, sometimes in an oblique manner, and in very few words. Compare Rom. xii. ult. 1 Tim. iv. 16. Tit. ii. 15. Phil. i. 29. Heb. xii. 28. And many passages to be found in all his writings. i For a few days.] This is to be applied both to our earthly parents, and our heavenly Father, and it contains a beautiful and comfortable intimation, that this whole life, when compared with our future be hands ing, is but as a few days: indeed infinitely k Peaceful fruit of righteousness.] Pos- 1 Exercised therewith.] Not only corrected, but instructed and edified; setting themselves to search out the proper lessons which afflictive dispensations are intended to teach. m Lift 184 XIX. Heb. Wherefore they should be stedfast and courageous. knees; feet, lest that which is ther be healed. SECT. hands that hang down", that they may exert the hands which hang themselves in this glorious combat, and strength- down, and the feeble en the feeble tottering knees, that they may hold XII. 13. out to the end of this important race. And by 13 And make the proper exercise of discipline in your Chris- straight paths for your tian societies, and by all the other offices of lame be turned out of true and faithful friendship, make strait paths the way, but let it rafor your feet. Regulate matters so, that the way of duty may be as obvious and easy as possible, that the infirm, the lame, and the decrepit, may not, by discouragements and temptations, be turned out of the way, or thrown down, but that every such feeble traveller in the way to Sion, may rather be healed; recovered from falls or weakness, and strengthened to a course of more strenuous and persevering piety. 14 And while the jarring interests of this world so often occasion scandalous contentions between men, and even between Christians, let it be your faithful and zealous care to pursue peace with all men, even when it may seem to flee from you. And at the same time remember, whatever the consequence may be, to cultivate universal holiness, in all its branches; without which, how ready soever men may be to flatter themselves with vain expectations, no man shall see the Lord. For it is his unalterable decree, for ever to exclude those souls in which sin reigns, from that sight of him in the celestial world, for which their tempers and dispositions render them altogether unfit, even to a degree of utter incapacity. 14 Follow peace with all men, and ho liness, without which no man shall see the Lord. IMPROVEMENT. IN what clearer words can those exhortations of the apostle be expressed! by what more powerful motives can they be enforced! 14 Behold, the whole of our duty comprehended in one word: to follow after peace and holiness! Behold the most awful engagements suggested, that no man, whatever his profession, or hope, m Lift up the hands that hang down.] The connection of these words in Isaiah xxxv. 3, from whence they are borrowed, leads us to understand them of assistance given to others. But this must by necessary consequence suppose a care to exert ourselves with vigour and resolution. It is certain that these are likewise agonistic phrases, by the following expression, make straight paths for your feet, which some un or derstand, ordering their lives so that others might be directed and encouraged by their example. Diodate gives it a singular sense, as if it had been said, By your voluntary and chearful obedience, make the rules of the gospel seem easy. I have in the pa raphrase endeavoured to unite both the views to ourselves and others, as it is certain one could not be intended as exclusive of the other. |