with constancy in their profession against persecutions and temptations. To this end he commends to them the necessary use of confidence and patience; and in these verses, he makes a transition to the consideration of faith itself, whereunto he resolves the whole consideration to constancy.

§2. (I.) "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." It might arise in the minds of these Hebrews, that it was a long time for them to be exercised with these troubles, and they might begin to fear they should be worn out by them. To encourage them against the influence of this temptation, the apostle accommodates a testimony out of the prophet Habbakuk, which leads him directly to the consideration of the power and efficacy of faith, Hab. ii, 3, 4. "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it, because it shall surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith." He speaks of a "vision," that is, a prophetical vision of good things, which God would effect in due time; and there is the same reason, in general, of all the promises of God. "Though it tarry," saith he, that is, seem to you to do so; for believers are apt, under their sufferings, to regard the seeming delays of the accomplishment of divine promises, of long continuance; (as wicked men and scoffers, on the contrary, harden themselves in their sins and impieties on the same account of God's threatenings, 2. Pet. iii, 3, 4,) but, saith he, "it will not tarry," that is, although it seem to you to do so, and are dejected about it, yet there is an appointed time for it, and in itself no long time, beyond which it shall not be deferred one moment, Isa. lx, 22; 2, Pet, iii. This whole sense the

apostle compriseth in this short verse,—(Mingov) a little space; though it seem to tarry, wait for it, it will come after a short space of time, as if he had said, "My brethren faint not, be not weary nor discouraged, keep up confidence and patience, you know what you expect, which will be an abundant recompence to you for all your sufferings; and whatever appearances there may be of its tarrying, whatever it may seem to you, yet if you have but a prospect into eternity, be it what it will, it is but a very little while."-"He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." What the prophet spake of the vision he saw, the apostle applies to the person of Christ, (ó sexoμevos) he that shall come; for this term is frequently used as a periphrasis of him. Once it is used to express his eternity, Rev. i, 8; but generally it hath respect to the promise of him; yet, after he was come in the flesh, he was to come again on a double account.

1. In the power of his Spirit, and the exercise of his royal authority; the assistance of his Spirit, with his miraculous operations with the ministers of the gospel, was an illustrious advent of Christ, not in his own person, but in that of his representative, whom he promised to send in his stead.

He was to come in the exercise of his royal authority, for the punishment and destruction of his stubborn and inveterate adversaries; and thus, in respect of his enemies, Christ is still "he that is to come," and as such, is to be believed in, and his coming prayed for by all the saints; for he is to destroy "the man of sin," the head of the apostasy, by the brightness of his coming.

2. Christ is (o Egxoμevos) he who is to come; with respect to his coming to judgment at the last day: this is known and confessed, and the business of his com

ing therein is the prayer of the whole church, Rev. xxii, 20. To every state of the church there is a coming of Christ suited and accommodated to their condition, whereby their faith is kept in continual exercise of desires after it. This was the life of faith under the Old Testament, as to his coming in the flesh, until it was accomplished. This faith, after his resurrection, they lived by, though but for a short season, until he came in the power of his Spirit, and his miraculous operations, to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Nor do I understand how the just can live by faith, without a continual expectation of the coming of Christ, in a way suited to the sufferings and deliverance of his church. All the saints have exercised faith in this word, that it was but a little while, and he that shall come, will come; and the case is the same with those who suffer under the antichristian apostasy. They live by faith in the expectation of that coming of Christ, wherewith the man of sin shall be consumed; and although it seem to tarry, they wait for it: this is the faith and patience of the saints.

Wherefore the end for which this coming of Christ is proposed to the church, being the support and encouragement of their souls to faith and patience, a respect must be had to such a coming, as is suited to their relief in their present state and condition; and this, to these Hebrews, was then (el pinpov cov öcov) yet a little while, in a literal sense. It is accommodated to all other states of the church, and the consideration of the coming of Christ, at the last day, to the final and eternal judgment, ought not to be omitted.

$3. "Now the just shall live by faith;" the Greek particle (ds) which we render "now," is taken for (7) the Hebrew prefix, which is oftentimes exceptive

(773) and in the prophet the expression is plain, because it followeth the description of the contrary frame to what is here asserted, "whose heart is lifted up." But the Greek particle (dɛ) hath the force of an exceptive only in respect to the difficulty supposed in the case under consideration, the sufferings and temptations of professors, and the appearance of delay as to their deliverance out of them. "But," saith the apostle, notwithstanding these things, "the just shall live by faith,” (o dinasos) a just person, a man really made just, or justified by faith. Yet what is principally here intended, is that qualification of a righteous man, which is opposed to pride and haste of spirit through unbelief, whereon men draw back from God in the profession of the gospel. The just man, he who is humble, meek, sincere, subdued to the will of God, waiting for his pleasure, as all justified persons are in their several degrees shall live; for he is free from the principle of pride and unbelief, which ruins the souls of men in times of trial. "Shall live by faith," (en Tilews) by faith, may be joined with (o dinaios) the just, and so express the instrumental cause whereby a man becomes to be just. Or it may denote the way whereby a just man perseveres even to life, in his profession; and this sense I embrace, because it is an entrance into the demonstration of the mighty things which have been done and suffered through faith by believers. Whatever difficulties and oppositions a just man meets with in the way to life eternal, faith will carry him through them with safety and success. "He shall live," life in both the principal senses of it is here intended:-he shall not die from his profession; he shall not perish as trees plucked up from the roots, twice dead; he shall maintain a spiritual life, the life of God, as the psalmist speaks, "I shall not die but live, and declare the

loving kindness of the Lord." And, finally, he shall live, attain the promise of eternal life; or, as in the next verse, "believe to the saving of the soul."

$4. In the latter part of the verse there is a description of others, on a supposition of the contrary state and event. In the former the person is righteous, the way of his acting is by faith, and the event is life; "he shall live." On the other hand, there is a supposition made of a person not so qualified, not so acting, not so living, not having the same success, but contrary in all these things. Wherefore, they do greatly deceive themselves and others, who suppose it is the same person who is thus spoken of, and countenance 'themselves by the defect of the pronoun (Ti) any one, which is naturally and necessarily supplied in our translation. Wherefore, in the next verse, the apostle makes an express distinction concerning whom he speaks in the two states; the one, (uroloans) of perdition; the other, (Tiolews) of faith. Of the latter he had spoken in the first words, and of the former in these; I shall therefore retain the supplement, "if any ́man, or any one, draw back," "if there be in any an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God."

There is an appearance of a great change in the words of the prophet. For "his soul," which in the prophet is referred to the persons offending, is by the apostle referred to God who is offended. But it is enough that the apostle gives us the plain general sense; and indeed he seldom keeps to the proper words of the testimonies he quotes, but always gives the mind of the Holy Ghost in them. (Trociña) draw back; the word in the prophet denotes the cause of the sin intended. The original of all defection from the gospel is a sinful relation of heart, not submitting to, no