God; the first fruits they had in possession and use, the whole in right and title; and continual application of it was made to their souls by the hope which will not make ashamed.

How this substance is better than outward enjoyments, and abiding, needs not to be explained, they are things in themselves so plain.and evident.

§10. (II.) The following short observations may be here made,

1. A wise management of former experience is a great direction and encouragement to future obedience.

2. All men by nature are darkness, and in darkness. 3. Saving illumination is the first fruit of effectual vocation.

4. Spiritual light in its first communication puts the soul on the diligent exercise of all graces.

5. It is suited to the wisdom and goodness of God to suffer persons on their first conversion to fall into manifold trials and temptations.

6. All temporary sufferings, in all their aggravating circumstances, in their most dreadful preparations and appearances, are but light things in comparison of the gospel and its precious promises.

7. There is nothing in the whole nature or circumstances of temporary sufferings, that we can claim an exemption from, after we have undertaken the profession of the gospel.

8. It is reserved to the sovereign pleasure of God, to measure out to all professors of the gospel their special lot and portion of trials and sufferings so as that none ought to complain, none envy one another.

$11. 1. Faith giving an experience of the excellency of the love of God in Christ, and of the grace received thereby, with its incomparable preference above all outward perishing things, will give joy and satisfaction

VOL. IV.

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in the loss of them all, on account of an interest in these better things.

2. It is the glory of the gospel that it will, from a sense of an interest in it, afford satisfaction and joy in the worst of suffering for it.

3. It is our duty to take care that we be not surprised with outward sufferings, when we are in the dark as to our interest in these things.

4. Internal evidences of the beginnings of glory, in divine grace; a sense of God's love, and assured pledges of our adoption, will afford inseparable joy under the greatest outward sufferings.

5. It is our present and eternal interest to preserve our evidences for heaven clear and unstained, so that we may "know in ourselves" our right and title to it.

6. There is a substance in spiritual and eternal things, whereto faith gives a subsistence in the souls of believers. See chap. xi, 1.

7. There is no rule of proportion between eternal and temporal things; hence the enjoyment of the one will give joy in the loss of the other.

VERSES 35, 36.

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward; for ye have need of patience; that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

St. (1.) Connexion and exposition of the words. Not to cast away confidence, what. $2. The matter of it. §3. The season of continuing the duty. §4. (II.) Observations.

N

§1. (I.) In these two verses there is both an inference from the former argument, and a confirmation of it; the inference is plain; seeing you have suffered so many things in your persons and goods, seeing God by the power of his grace hath carried you through with satisfaction and joy, do not now despond. The

confirmation lies in ver. 26; that which he exhorts them to is the preservation and continuance of their (Tappa) confidence, as to invincible constancy of mind and boldness in professing the gospel, in the face of all difficulties, through a trust in God, and a valuation of the eternal reward.

This confidence which hath been of such use to them, they are exhorted (un añoßaλle) not to cast away; he doth not say, leave it not, forego it not; but "cast it not away;" for where any graces have been stirred up to their due exercise, and have had success, they will not fail, nor be lost, without some positive act of the mind in rejecting them. When faith, on any occasion, is impaired and insnared, this confidence will not abide; and so soon as we begin to fail in our confidence, it will reflect weakness on faith itself; and hence it appears how great is the evil here dehorted from, and what a certain entrance it will prove into apostasy itself if not seasonably prevented.

§2. What the apostle, as to the matter of it, here calls a recompence of reward," he in the next verse, from the formal cause of it, calls the promise, that promise which we receive after we have done the will of God; wherefore, what is here intended is the glory of heaven, proposed as a reward by way of recompence to them that overcome in their sufferings for the gospel. A free gift of God, for the "wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." They are as sure in divine promises as in our own profession; and although they are yet future, faith gives them a present subsistence in the soul, as to their power and efficacy, for ye have need of (Uzoμovus) patience; a bearing of evils with quietness and complacency of mind, without raging, fretting, despondency, or inclination to compliance

with undue ways of deliverance: "In patience possess your souls;" confidence will engage men in trouble and difficulties in a way of duty; but if patience take not up the work, and carry it on, confidence will flag and fail. See chap vi, 11, 12. Patience is the perfecting grace of suffering Christians, Jam. i, 4.

This, saith the apostle, "you have need of." He speaks not absolutely of the grace itself, as though they had it not, but of its continual exercise in their condition; and the necessity here intimated is grounded on these two suppositions;-That those who profess the gospel in sincerity shall ordinarily meet with trials on the account of that profession; and that without the constant exercise of patience, none can pass through them to the glory of God, and their own advantage in obtaining the promise of eternal life. Patience is not a mere endurance of trouble, but is, indeed, the due exercise of all graces under sufferings; nor can any grace be acted in that condition where patience is wanting: it is therefore indispensably necessary for this condition.

§3. "That after ye have done the will of God." There is no discharge from his duty until we have done the will of God. The will of God is twofold;— the will of his purpose and good pleasure, the eternal act of his counsel, which is accompanied with infinitẹ wisdom concerning all things which shall come to pass; and the will of his command presenting to us a required duty. And both these senses, I judge, are included in this place.

What is meant here by the "promise" is evident from the context; even all the promises of grace and mercy in the covenant which they had already received. God had not only given them the promises of these things, but he had given them the good things

themselves, as to their degrees and the measures of their enjoyment in this world. And as to the promise of eternal life and glory, they had received that also, and did mix it with faith; but the thing itself promised they had not received. This different notion of the promises, the apostle declares, chap. xi, 17, 39; as we shall see, God willing.

§4. (II.) From the whole observe the following things;

1. In times of suffering, and in the approaches of them, it is the duty of believers to look on the glory of heaven under the notion of a refreshing, all-sufficient reward.

2. He that would abide faithful in difficult seasons, must fortify his soul with an unconquerable patience. 3. The glory of heaven is an abundant recompence for all we undergo in our ways towards it.

4. Believers ought to sustain themselves in their sufferings with the promise of future glory.

5. The future blessedness is given us by promise, and is therefore free and undeserved.

6. The consideration of eternal life, as the free effect of divine grace, and as proposed in a gracious promise, is a thousand times more full of spiritual refreshment to a believer, than if he should conceive of it as a reward proposed to our own doings or merits.

VERSES 37-39.

For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and not tarry. Now the just sholl live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

§1. Introduction. 2. (1.) Exposition of the words,

He that was to come,

Christ. 3. The just living by faith. $4. The contrary character. $5. The sentence denounced against apostas y. $6. The apostle's charitable conclusion concerning the Hebrews. §7-10, (II) Observations:

$1. THE

HE substance of the apostolical exhortation, as hath been often observed, is to inspire the Hebrews