"63 
 ^775 
 
AN EXPOSITION 
 
 THE EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL 
 
 HEBREWS. 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 JOHN BEOWN, D.D., 
 
 PUOFESSOR OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY TO THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 ANU SENIOR PASTOR OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGKEGATIOX, 
 
 BROUGHTON PLACE, EDINBURGH. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 DAVID SMITH, D.D., 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO. 
 LONDON:. HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 
 
 MDCCCLXII. 
 
lURRAV AND 'UBC, PRINTRKP, "^IMNIi IMIO-H. 
 
CONTENTS or VOL. II. 
 
 PART II.— PK ACTIC AL. 
 
 Sect. 1. General Exhortation and Warning, x. 19-xii. 29 . .1 
 
 „ 2. Particular Exhortations, xiii. 1-19, . _ * 919 
 
 CONCLUSIOX, xiii. 20, 21, . . . _ 251 
 
 POSTSCRIPT, xiii. 22-25, 2^2 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 The Christian's Privilege and Duty.— Hob. iv. 14-16, . . 279 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 Christy, the Author of Eternal Salvation, made perfect by Suffering. 
 
 303 
 
 — Heb. V. 7-9, 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 Christ's Character and Ministry as a High Priest.— Heb. ix. 11, 12, , 323 
 
 DISCOURSE IV. 
 The Superior Efficacy of Christ's Sacrifice.— Heb. ix. 13, 14, . . 337 
 
 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant.— Heb. ix. 15, . . 353 
 
 DISCOURSE VI. 
 Entrance into the Holiest by the Blood of Christ.— Heb. x. 19-22, . 3G9 
 
 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 The joint Perfection of Old and New Testament Saints in Heaven — 
 Heb. xi. 39, 40, ' _ ggg 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 The Christian Altar.— Heb. xiii. 10, . 
 
 DISCOURSE IX. 
 The Great Shepherd of the Sheep.— Heb. xiii. 20, 21, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 397 
 
 409 
 
 431 
 
 1. Principal Matters, 
 
 2. Greek Words and Phrases remarked on, . . • • 434 
 
 3. Authors referred to, . • • • • ' ^^^ 
 
 4. Texts of Scripture, . . • • • 
 
 439 
 
AN EXPOSITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 HEBEEWS. 
 
 PART IL 
 
 PRACTICAL. 
 
 § 1. General Exhortation to Perseverance, and Warning agaitist 
 Apostasy. Chap. x. 19-xii. 29. 
 
 The preceding part of this Epistle has been chiefly occupied with 
 stating, proving, and illustrating some of the grand peculiarities 
 of Christian doctrine ; and the remaining part of it is entirely 
 devoted to an injunction and enforcement of those duties which 
 naturally result from the foregoing statements. The paragraph, 
 vers. 19-23, obviously consists of two parts: — a statement of 
 principles, which are taken for granted as having been fully 
 proved ; and an injunction of duties, grounded on the admission 
 of these principles. " Having therefore, brethren, boldness 
 to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the vail, 
 that is to say, His flesh ; and having an High Priest over the 
 house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assur- 
 ance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold 
 fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for He is 
 
 VOL. II. A 
 
J > EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 faithful that promised)." The principles stated are these:— 
 First, " We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood 
 of Jesus ;" and secondly, We have a great " High Priest over 
 the house of God." The duties enjoined are,—" drawing near," 
 and " holding fast the profession of our faith," or rather, hope. 
 
 The first principle which the Apostle takes for granted as 
 having been sufficiently proved, is thus expressed in our version : 
 
 " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the 
 
 holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He 
 hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say. His flesh." 
 
 It is not often that there is reason to complain of our trans- 
 lation, that it is not sufficiently literal. It is often so literal as 
 to be obscure, if not unintelligible. But in the passage before 
 us there is ground for such a charge. The words, literally ren- 
 dered, run thus : — " Having therefore, brethren, boldness, or 
 confidence, in reference to the entrance into the holiest, by the 
 blood of Jesus— or by blood, of Jesus, — by which entrance^ He 
 has opened, or consecrated, for us a new and living way, — 
 through the vail, that is, of His flesh."^ 
 
 The first question which here suggests itself is. What are 
 we to understand by the entrance of the holiest *? whose en- 
 trance is it that is referred to I and what is the nature of this 
 entrance ? It has been common to consider the entrance into 
 the holiest here as the entrance of believers ; and that entrance 
 has been explained of the thoughts, affections, and devotions of 
 Christians being fixed on and addressed to a reconciled Divinity, 
 by which they have all that intercourse of mind with God which 
 is compatible with a state in which the capacities of the soul are 
 confined by its union to an earthly body. But to this mode of 
 interpretation there are very strong objections. Throughout 
 the whole of this Epistle, the true holy of holies is heaven ; and 
 to enter into this true holy of holies, is just to go to heaven. 
 Besides, it is plain that the principle which the Apostle states 
 here is one which he had already illustrated. Now, what the 
 
 ^ iju may be =: kx(^ 'Jiv. 
 
 2 Jiost justly has Valcknaer remarked, " Hie locus paucis vicletur intel- 
 
 lectus." E(f is expressive of a direction of mind towards an object ; 'x-xp- 
 
 pr,ai» iis, ' boldness in reference to :' Matt. xxvi. 10 ; Acts ii. 25 ; Eom. iv. 
 
 20, xvi. 19, etc., etc. n^ppmia and '^m.ppmi^^sadxi are generally con- 
 
 ' fitrued witli the same prepositions as Triarig and i^tQTivuv. 
 
PART IT. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. § 
 
 Apostle has been illustrating, is neither tliat Christians have a 
 present spiritual access to God in heaven, nor that they shall 
 have a future real, bodily entrance into heaven ; but that Christ, 
 as our High Priest, has really and bodily gone into heaven, the 
 antitype of the holy of holies.^ I cannot doubt, then, that the 
 entrance here mentioned is the entrance of Jesus Christ, and 
 that the true meaning of the whole phrase is, ' the entrance of 
 Jesus into the holiest by His own blood.' 
 
 A few additional remarks on the construction of tlie ])assage 
 are necessary, to open the way to our distinct and satisfactory 
 apprehension of its meaning. The words, " by a new and 
 living way, which He hath opened for us," are, literally, " by 
 which entrance He has opened, or consecrated, for us a new 
 and living way," — and are, I apprehend, parenthetical. The 
 phrase, " through the vail," connects with " the entrance into 
 the holiest through the blood of Jesus;" — it is a further de- 
 scription of this entrance. The entrance of Jesus by His own 
 blood into the holiest through the vail, is just what is described, 
 chap. ix. 11, 12. 
 
 The concluding explicatory clause, " that is. His flesh," has 
 commonly been supposed to I'efer to the words which imme- 
 diately precede it*—" the vail ;" and has been considered as 
 teaching that Christ's body was the antitype of the vail Avhich 
 divided the holy from the most holy place, and that the rend- 
 ing of that vail was emblematical of His death. To this mode 
 of interpretation there are, however, great objections. Through- 
 out this Epistle, as the holy of holies is evidently the heaven of 
 heavens, so the holy place — the tabernacle and its vails — seems 
 as plainly to be the visible heavens, through which our High 
 Pi'iest entered into tlie heaven of heavens. Besides, thoiigh the 
 rending of the vail, taken by itself, and its consequence, the 
 laying open of the holy of holies, may be considered as a fit em- 
 blem of the death of Christ, yet the figure does not hold in the 
 point referred to : the high priest left the vail behind when he 
 entered, — Christ carried " His flesh," His human nature, along 
 with Him to heaven. 
 
 I am disposed to consider the words, " that is, of His flesh," 
 
 ^ The ovii refers back to what immediately precedes, but especially to 
 chap, ix., where it was shown that Christ has entered into the true holy of 
 hohes. — Tholuck. 
 
4 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 as referring to the entrance of our Lord into the holy place, — 
 the word ' entrance' being understood, thus : " that is, the en- 
 trance of His flesh ;" just as the word ' tabernacle' is understood 
 in the parallel passage, — " a greater and more perfect tabernacle, 
 that is, not the tabernacle of this building." The passage with- 
 out the parenthesis would read thus : — " Having then, brethren, 
 boldness in reference to the entrance of Jesus by His own blood 
 into the holiest of all, through the vail, that is, the entrance of 
 His flesh." 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to ascertain the true construction 
 of this somewhat involved and difficult passage, let us shortly 
 illustrate the glorious truths which it unfolds : — Jesus Christ, 
 our great High Priest, has entered into the holiest ; He has 
 done so by His own blood ; He has done so through the vail ; 
 He has done so bodily ; and He has consecrated this entrance 
 for us, a new and a living way. You will observe that these 
 are just the great truths which the Apostle had been stating 
 and illustrating in the preceding section. 
 
 Jesus has " entered into the holiest," i.e., into heaven. He 
 is " a great High Priest passed into the heavens," — a " High 
 Priest set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens," — 
 " He is entered in into the holy place," — " not the holy places 
 made with hands, but into heaven itself."^ 
 
 He has entered in " with blood," with His own blood ; i.e., 
 His entrance into heaven as our High Priest is the resvilt of the 
 all-perfect expiation of our sins, which He effected by the shed- 
 ding of His own blood. " When He had by Himself purged 
 our sins. He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
 high." " For the suffering of death. He was crowned with 
 glory and honour." " As the Captain of salvation. He was 
 made perfect through suffering." " Having been made perfect 
 through the thino;s which He suffered, He is become the Author 
 of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." " He is entered in, 
 not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood." 
 " After He had offered one sacrifice for sins. He for ever sat 
 down on the right hand of God."^ 
 
 He has entered " through the vail ;" that is, through the 
 visible heavens, of which the tabernacle and its vails, as con- 
 cealing the holy of holies from general inspection, as necessary 
 » Heb. iv. 14, viii. 1, is 12, 24. 2 Heb. i. 3, u. 9, 10, v. 9, ix. 12, x. 12. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 5 
 
 to be gone through in order to enter it, were emblematical. 
 Our " great High Priest is passed through the heavens." " He 
 is entered into the holy place, through a greater and more perfect 
 tabernacle than the tabernacle of this building."^ 
 
 He has entered bodily into heaven. His entrance is the 
 entrance of His " flesh," or body, i.e., of Him as embodied ; just 
 as to " present our bodies living sacrifices," means, ' present our- 
 selves as embodied beings.' Our Lord's entrance is not a meta- 
 phorical entrance ; it is as real as that of the high priest, which 
 was its emblem. The same God-man Jesus who died on the 
 cross, ascended up through these heavens, far above them, into 
 the heaven of heavens ; and there, in human nature, as the 
 representative of His people, He appears in the immediate pre- 
 sence of God. 
 
 The only other principle contained in these words is that 
 expressed in the parenthetical clause. This bodily entrance 
 into the holiest by His own blood, through the visible heavens, 
 " He has consecrated for us, a new and living way." The word 
 " consecrate" literally means, ^ opened up ;' and it matters very 
 little whether you understand it in its primary or secondary 
 sense. The idea which the Apostle here expresses is the same 
 as that brought forward in the 20th verse of the 6th chapter, 
 where Jesus is represented as entering as our " Forerunner"^ 
 within the vail. The general meaning is plainly this : — ' By 
 His bodily entrance through these visible heavens into the 
 heaven of heavens, on the ground of His atoning sacrifice, He 
 has secured that in due time all of us Avho are His people shall 
 also, through that blood, bodily pass through these heavens into 
 the heaven of heavens.' When He went away He said to His 
 disciples, " In My Father's house are many mansions : if it were 
 not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
 receive you unto Myself ; that where I am, there ye may be 
 also."^ He is gone to glory through His own blood, that 
 through that blood He may bring the whole company of the 
 " many sons to glory." Through the power of His atonement 
 it is secured that they shall all, like Him, be raised from the 
 dead, and, like Him, be taken up to heaven. These " vile 
 bodies" being changed, " and made like vinto His glorious body," 
 1 Heb. iv. 14, ix. 11, 12, ^ Upolpofcoi. ^ John xiv. 2, 8. 
 
6' EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 they " shall be caught up to meet Him in the air," and go with 
 Him to the heaven of heavens. 
 
 This mode of entering heaven, which Christ has opened for 
 us, is " a new and a living way." His entrance to heaven is 
 our way of entering it ; and it is a new way — a way totally dif- 
 ferent from that in which innocent man would have entered 
 heaven — a way belonging to the New Covenant, in which all 
 things are new — a way which man could never have opened 
 up, and newly proclaimed in the doctrine of Christianity. " A 
 living way" seems equivalent to 'a life-giving way — the way of 
 life to life,' in all the extent of meaning which belongs to 
 that peculiarly emphatic term. To have followed the Jewish 
 high priest into the holy place would have been death. 
 
 Now, concerning this " entrance of our Lord Jesus into the 
 holiest," we have "•' boldness." This is the same word which in 
 chap. iii. 6 is termed "confidence," and chap. iv. 16, "bold- 
 ness." It properly signifies ' freedom of speech,' but often is 
 used for that state of firm belief and assured confidence which 
 leads to freedom of speech and determination of action.^ Here 
 it is, I apprehend, expressive of that state of mental confidence 
 which naturally springs from the knowledge and faith of the 
 truths here referred to. ' Having confidence of mind in refer- 
 ence to our spiritual interests ; knowing and being sure, as we 
 are, that Christ as our High Priest has gone bodily to heaven, 
 and that in due time, through His death and exaltation, we 
 shall be taken bodily to heaven also.' This, then, is the first 
 principle which the Apostle takes for granted as having been 
 already abundantly established. 
 
 The second is, that " we have a great Priest over the house 
 of God." The word "having" is very properly repeated here 
 to make out the sense. Perhaps the whole phrase, " having 
 boldness," or confidence, should have been repeated. "The 
 house of God " may signify either the family of God, or the 
 temple of God. It is plainly used in the first sense in the 
 beginning of the 3d chapter. Though I cannot speak Avith 
 perfect conviction on the subject, I think it probable that it 
 here means the temj^le of God— the celestial temple.^ We 
 
 1 Eph. iii. 12 ; Heb. iii. 6, iv. 16 ; 1 John ii. 28, iii. 21, iv. 17, 
 V. 14. > , , 
 
 2 Comp. X. 19, viii. 1, 2, ix. 24, vii. 25, iv. 16. i^l iised as cli. iii. 6. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 7 
 
 know tliat our Lord Jesus, as our High Priest, is gone to 
 heaven ; and we know also, that there He is over the temple of 
 God — that everything with respect to the acceptable mode of 
 worship is committed to Him. 
 
 The truth here stated, like those formerly referred to, is 
 spoken of as one already established. The greatness of Christ 
 Jesus as a Priest is the grand subject of the third and principal 
 section of the Epistle ; and that He is over the celestial temple, 
 is distinctly asserted in the 1st verse of the 8th chapter. 
 
 On the foundation of these principles, the Apostle proceeds 
 to exhort the Hebrews to " draw near with a true heart, in full 
 assurance of faith," and to " hold fast the profession of their 
 faith without Avavering ; for He is faithful that promised." 
 
 Since these thincrs are so, and since we have abundant evi- 
 dence that they are so, " let us," says the Apostle, " draw near 
 with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith, having our 
 hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our bodies 
 washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our 
 faith without wavering ; for He is faithful who hath promised." 
 
 To "draw near" is the same as to "come to God" — to 
 "come to the throne of grace;" and is expressive of worship- 
 ping God as a reconciled Divinity. The language in which this 
 idea is expressed is borrowed from the Jewish ritual. In all their 
 religious exercises they looked towards, and in many of them 
 they approached towards, the emblem of Jehovah's favourable 
 presence in the holy of holies. "Let us draw near" is just 
 equivalent to — ' let us worship God as the God of peace — let us 
 draw near to Him as propitious to us.' 
 
 And let us do so " with a true heart." This phrase seems 
 to me very nearly synonymous with our Lord's description of 
 acceptable worship, John iv. 24 : " In spirit and in truth." ^ 
 " Let us draw near to God " — not by mere bodily service, but by 
 the exercise of the mind and heart — not figuratively, but really 
 — "with a true heart," — with the mind enlightened with the 
 truth, and with the heart made time, sound, tipruild, through the 
 influence of this truth ; not under the influence of the " evil 
 
 ^ It is the Heb. D^C' ih'l-, rendered »Kn6m K»pl(oe, by the LXX., Isa. 
 xxxviii. 3, and x.ctplict. n-Kstec^l Kings viii. 61, xi. 4, xv. 3. Theophylact thus 
 explains it: d.lo'hov^ oivvTroKplrov tt/soV toj)? ciOiT^^poi/;, ciOtxariKTOV, /:cyihiv dfiCpi- 
 (ha.yj'.ovur,;, y.riliiv hZotct^ovuvi; -Trip] tuv ^eAXo'i/TWi' x.x\ S/oe Toino fintpo^pv^covayif. 
 
8 EPISTLE TO THE HEBEEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 heart of error and unbelief," which leads men away from God, 
 but under the influence of the heart of truth and faith, which, 
 by uniting the mind and heart of man to the mind and heart of 
 God, gives real fellowship with Him. 
 
 Christians are exhorted thus to draw near to God, " in the 
 full assurance of faith." " The full assurance of faith" is just 
 equivalent to—' the fullest and most assured belief.' The ques- 
 tion naturally occurs. The full and most assured belief of what? 
 And the answer is easy : The full and assured belief of that re- 
 specting which we have confidence— that Christ as our High 
 Priest has bodily passed through these heavens into the heaven 1)f 
 heavens by His own blood, thereby proving the perfection of 
 His atoning sacrifice, and the efficacy of his intercession ; and 
 thus securing that in due time we shall also enter in a similar 
 way into the heavens; and that in heaven, whither He has 
 entered as our Forerunner, He is a great High Priest over 
 the celestial temple, having everything connected with the ac- 
 ceptable worship of God committed to His management. We 
 ought to draw near to God with this full assurance, because 
 we have the most abundant evidence that these things are true, 
 and because it is the assurance of these things which enables us 
 to draw near. It is the faith of the truth respecting the reality 
 and efficacy of the sacrifice of .Jesus Christ, and the hope that 
 rises out of that faith, that enable us to draw near to Him, 
 from whom, but for this faith and hope, had we just views of 
 His holiness and justice and power, we would seek shelter, if 
 possible, under rocks and mountains. 
 
 It is a just and important remark of Dr Owen, respecting 
 the meaning of the phrase, " assurance of faith,"—" The full 
 assurance of faith here respects not the assurance that any have 
 of their own salvation, nor any degree of such assurance ; it is 
 only the full satisfaction of our souls and consciences of the 
 reality and efficacy of Christ's priesthood to give us acceptance 
 with God, in opposition to all other ways and means thereof, 
 that is mtended." "Let us draw near in the full assurance of 
 laith, is just— 'Let us worship God in the firm faith of these 
 truths.' 
 
 The two following clauses have, in later times, very generally 
 been considered as both referring to the exhortation, "let us draw 
 near, ' and as descriptive of the qualifications of an acceptable 
 
FART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 9 
 
 worshipper. " Having the heart sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science, and the body washed with pure water," has been con- 
 sidered as just equivalent to such phrases as — •"being purified 
 from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit," — " being sanc- 
 tified in the whole man, soul, body, and spirit ;" and the Apostle 
 has been supposed to teach the important truth, that the worship 
 of men living habitually in the indulgence either of internal or ex- 
 ternal sin cannot be acceptable. I cannot but take a somewhat 
 different view of the matter. This is no doubt an important 
 truth, but it has no particular bearing on the Apostle's argument. 
 The construction of the original text induces me, along with 
 many of the most learned both of ancient and modern expositors, 
 to connect the phrase, " and having our bodies washed with pure 
 water," not with the exhortation, " let us draw near," but with 
 the exhortation, "let us hold fast our profession ; thus: "Let us 
 draw near, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience ; 
 and having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast 
 the profession of our faith." 
 
 The words, " having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science," appear to me not so much intended to state that we 
 must be holy in heart if we would acceptably worship God, as 
 to bring forward the truth, that " having a heart sprinkled from 
 an evil conscience, through the full assurance of faith," we may, 
 and w^e ought, to draw near to God as the God of peace. " An 
 evil conscience " is a conscience burdened and polluted with the 
 sense of unpardoned guilt. A man who has offended God, and 
 knows this, and who has no solid ground of hope of pardon, is 
 totally unfit for affectionate fellowship with God. His mind is 
 a stranger to confidence and love — it is full of jealousy, and 
 fear, and dislike. The man must get rid of this " evil con- 
 science " in order to his coming to God. This is expressed by 
 the Apostle by the " heart being sprinkled from this evil con- 
 science." The " evil conscience " occupies the same place, as a 
 bar in the way of spiritually drawing near to God, as cere- 
 monial defilement did in the way of ceremonially drawing near 
 to God ; and as ceremonial defilement was removed by the 
 sprinkling of the blood of the ritual expiatory sacrifice, so the 
 " evil conscience " is removed by what he terms the sprinkling 
 of the blood of Christ. That which in the New Covenant cor- 
 responds to the sprinkling of the blood, is " the faith of the truth 
 
10 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP, X. lO-XII. 29. 
 
 as it is in Jesus," by which the sinner is delivered from the 
 jealousies of guilt, and the tormenting fear of divine vengeance. 
 The words, then, are just equivalent to — 'Having obtained 
 freedom from those jealousies and fears which arise out of un- 
 pardoned guilt, and keep us at a distance from God, — havino- 
 obtained freedom from these by the faith of these truths, let us 
 draw near to God.' There is an allusion to the consecration of 
 Aaron and his sons, whose garments were sprinkled with blood 
 that they might enter into the sanctuary. Christians are in- 
 vited, sprinkled imoardly — on the conscience with the blood of 
 the only effectual atoning sacrifice, — not only into the sanctuary, 
 but into the holy of holies, where God is, and where the Fore- 
 Tunner is also. 
 
 It must be evident to every person who has attentively 
 considered and distinctly understood what has been said, that 
 the Apostle's exhortation naturally rises out of and is strongly 
 enforced by the principles on which it is grounded. 'Since 
 we have the most satisfactory evidence that Christ Jesus has 
 bodily gone through these visible heavens into the heaven of 
 heavens, on the ground of His own meritorious, expiatory death, 
 thus proving at once the perfection of His sacrifice and the 
 prevalence of His intercession ; and since He has thus secured 
 that all we, believing in Him, shall in due time enter into the 
 heaven of heavens in the same way, — let us worship Jehovah as 
 the God of peace, with enlightened minds and upright hearts, 
 in the assured faith of these truths, by which we are delivered 
 from tliose jealousies and fears which a guilty conscience pro- 
 duces, and which prevent us from approaching Jehovah as the 
 propitiated Divinity, reconcihng the world to Himself, not im- 
 puting to men their trespasses.' 
 
 It must be equally plain that the Apostle meant his readers 
 to draw the conclusion — ' How much better is the way of draw- 
 ing near to God which is thus opened up than the way of 
 drawing near to Him by the ritual of Moses, and how foolish 
 as well as criminal would it be to abandon the former and re- 
 vert to the latter!' The Jews, on the ground of the entrance of 
 their high priest through the tabernacle and its vails into the 
 material holy place by the blood of animal sacrifices, though 
 they had no reason to hope they were ever to be allowed to go 
 mto tlie holiest, were yet encouraged tremblingly to approach 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENEKAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 11 
 
 towards the emblem of tlie reconciled Divinity, having their 
 bodies purified from ceremonial defilement by the sprinkling of 
 "the blood of bulls and goats." But we Christians have the most 
 satisfactory evidence that our High Priest has passed through 
 these heavens into the heaven of heavens by His own blood, 
 and has secured that in due time we shall follow Ilim ; and 
 through the faith of this truth, our consciences are freed from 
 those jealousies and fears which prevent spiritual intercourse 
 with God, and therefore we can, and we ought, in the spiritual 
 institutions of our holy faith, to cultivate affectionate and child- 
 like intercourse with Jehovah as our Father, because His Father 
 — as His God, and therefore our God. 
 
 The Apostle's second exhortation is in these words : " And 
 having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the 
 profession of our faith without wavering." The great body of 
 MSS. read, "profession of our hope," which seems to be the 
 true reading. It does not, however, materially alter the sense. 
 " The profession of our hope " is just equivalent to — ' the hope 
 we profess, the acknowledgment we have made of our hope.' 
 "Let us hold this fast;" i.e., Met us not abandon it. Let us 
 not be induced by any worldly motive to apostatize from the 
 faith of Christ, and thus abandon that hope of entering at last 
 into the true holy place by the blood of His sacrifice, of which 
 we have made a solemn acknowledo;ment.' 
 
 That solemn acknowledgment was made when they sub- 
 mitted to baptism ; and to this, I apprehend, the Apostle refers 
 when he says, " having your bodies washed with pure water." 
 Some have supposed that the allusion is to the divers washings 
 or immersions under the law, by which both the priests and the 
 people were purified for approaching God in worship, and that 
 the Apostle, as it were, says, ' As you have the substance of 
 which the sprinkling of blood was an emblem, so you have also 
 the substance of which the washing of water was an emblem.' 
 I have already, however, stated to you what appear to me 
 satisfactory reasons for considering the words before us as 
 standing in connection, not with the injunction, " let us draw 
 near," but with the injunction, " let us hold fast." And if this 
 mode of connection is adopted, there can scarcely be any doubt 
 that the reference is to Christian baptism. Submitting to 
 Christian baptism by a Jew was a renunciation of Judaism — 
 
u 
 
 
 ^^■^- ^dflt as tme 
 
 and - .7 -n--~ 
 
 pfat 
 
 - - - : Jesus Chris^onwL „ 
 
 - - — ""- cannot doiv 1 1 - 
 
 :o be futkfc^ ^1 2i; ^ 
 
 ' — - siioiild fie ; nor : : : : He 
 
 "" aas pro- 
 
 '-- — ^ r _ :j. regarl :. . . ^ _ . . :. 
 
 -'^~ "^= :r.u^:_: n.::,. — ; . . .ing to E, - - • Hr 
 
 wo lU'I hoc icave in , : i - - ^ __ - ~ ^ ^ 
 
 Holv One to see . IIt j ; _i 
 
 ^ Bern. tL 3-6 ; GaL in. 27-29. 
 
?aZT ~ { LI CK^KKAT- KSBOKtXnSXS ASD VAEQ9GL 13 
 
 dtedead;" aaadHewiUm doetmiefBlfilallthe | »o mises i»iiich 
 
 ~ ~ !Bade tD His people^ boB^iig dtesoi agun £rom t]ie dead, 
 
 - ^ than dnt ''kiiigdon f i repa re d for them b^oce die 
 
 jf Ae woMJ* A. cnwsaJefatmn o£ tiie faitKfuliip** 
 
 :~: Ls tibe pnncaqpdl BKans of stieaigdiaiii^ fudi in 
 
 Tefs. 24. 25. ^ And let ns rnwadtT one araodier to ftawokB 
 nntoloT^ and to goodiraris: not foEsakn^ the asaemlfngof 
 omaelres togsAer, as the wnnrr d sobms is; bat eadMEtb^ 
 oneanodier: and so smdi die moKCf as re see the dar ^pnn^- 
 ij^."* For the pmpose of mntitally aifimii ngeadi other in tihe 
 hope of die Go^d, die Aposde ediorts die Hdbrew Chmdans 
 to ^oonader one anodKr, to pronrofce unto lore and good invks.'* 
 C hrirfian s are not nexi^ to be ooncetned about dieir inqwonne- 
 mtent and safety as infiridiials, but as membeis of one bodr 
 der axe to seek to jMo m ute each odiex^s best int^iests. They 
 aie to ^conader eadh odiex.'* The^ aie to attend to eadi 
 O&e^s «ant% infizautie% te m jitatiotis^ and dangexsr and to ad- 
 winHfaT saitalile aaaistancef advice, rantinn, admonitiany and 
 eanaahtian. In diis ivar ther are to stir iq» eadi odier ''to 
 loveJ' The^mad ^pcotrofce'' is orfinaraljrnsedin abad sense, 
 bat here it is jnst eqaiialent to 'excite.' They aie to act the 
 poort whidi is caknlated to call f ocA in one anodior s bosoms 
 the woiidngs ci that pecnfiar affection vhidb all Christians 
 hare to each odier. Bj doing offices of Christian kindness^ 
 th^ are to e\cate Christian Itrve in irtiim. Iher are rH|iiired 
 to excite eadi odier ''to good insis;*' i.e^ I a^nrdiQid. to die 
 "laboar <^ lor&T^ Ther are to " do good to all as they hare 
 flp|M»tuuity,''and''e^eciaIly-todioserfdiehoaseholdof faith.'' 
 
 Sodi a oooxse iras calcnhied at onoe to confirm dieir own 
 futh and that of dieir breduen. The faidi (rf the trndi, and 
 that hd|T lofe iHddi it prodnoesy act and react on each other. 
 Acc wdiu gfrr, die Apostle exho r ts the Hdxeir Chzistiuis to be 
 r^olar in atten£ng on the stated meetings f kht instmction and 
 wmship: ^Xot forsaking die aaaembfing ei joarselTes to- 
 gedherJ^^ It is by means of die pal£c aswemWies or dinrches 
 
 to n rmj f ujjf, Ae BUBe 
 if tike hnr. gfanaeded 
 
14 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 of the saints that the visible profession of Christ's nanie is kept 
 up in tlie world ; and the exercises in which Christians there 
 engage — reading, preaching the word, prayer, the Lord's 
 Supper — are all well calculated to strengthen their faith and 
 hope. " Some " ^ of the Hebrew Christians had become negligent 
 in attending to this duty. The Apostle calls on his readers, in- 
 stead of imitating the conduct of these persons, to " exhort one 
 another." His meaning may be, to exhort one another to attend 
 on these assemblies ; or, generally, as chap. iii. 12, 13, to exhort 
 one another to be "stedfast and unmoveable, always abound- 
 ing in the work of the Lord." 
 
 He adds a powerful motive : "And so much the more, as ye 
 see the day approaching." "The day" here referred to seems 
 plainly the day of the destruction of the Jewish State and 
 Church. That day had been foretold by many of the prophets, 
 and with peculiar minuteness by our Lord Himself : " And He 
 said, Take heed that ye be not deceived : for many shall come 
 in My name, saying, I am Christ ; and the time draweth near : 
 go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of 
 wars and commotions, be not terrified : for these things must 
 first come to pass ; but the end is not by and by. Then said 
 He unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom : and great earthquakes shall be in divers 
 places, and famines, and pestilences ; and fearful sights and 
 great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, 
 they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering 
 you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought be- 
 fore kings and rulers for My name's sake." ^ He assures His 
 followers that in that awful destruction they should be pre- 
 served. But this seciu'ity was only to be expected in attending 
 to His cautions, and persevering in faith, and hope, and holiness: 
 " Take heed that ye be not deceived : for many shall come in 
 My name, saying, I am Christ ; and the time draweth near : 
 go ye not therefore after them." "Take heed to yourselves, 
 lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and 
 drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon 
 you unawares." "But he that shall endure unto the end, the 
 same shall be saved." ^ These events were now very near; and 
 
 ^ x-xSuc, iSoi; Ttalv, by meiosis for •TirohMlg. ^ Luke xxi. 8-12. 
 
 3 Luke xxi. 8, 34 : Matt. sxiv. 13. 
 
Part ii. § i.] general exhortation and warning. 15 
 
 tlie harbingers of their coming were well fitted to quicken to holy 
 diligence the Hebrew Christians, that they might escape the 
 coming desolation. But the Apostle, to impress on their minds 
 still more strongly the infinite importance of perseverance in 
 the faith and profession of the Gospel, lays before them a 
 peculiarly impressive view of the complete and "everlasting 
 destruction " which awaits the final apostate in a future state. 
 
 Vers. 26, 27. "For if we sin wilfully after that Ave have 
 received the knowledge of the truth, there remalnGth no more 
 sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judo-nient 
 and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." ^ 
 
 The first point which here requires our attention is the de- 
 scription of the persons of whom the Apostle is speaking. That 
 description consists of two parts. They are such as " have re- 
 ceived the knowledge of the truth;" and such as, "after having 
 received the knowledge of the truth, sin." 
 
 They are such as " have received the knowledge of the 
 truth." By the truth, we are, without doubt, to understand 
 Christianity, which is not only truth as opposed to falsehood 
 and error, but — what we apprehend, probably, was chiefly in the 
 Apostle's view — is truth, or reality, as contrasted with the sha- 
 dows of the Mosaic economy. The truth, the reality, of which 
 the shadow was given by Moses in the law, "came by Jesus 
 Christ." The Gospel makes known to us the real High Priest, 
 the real sacrifice, the real holy place. To "receive the know- 
 ledge of this truth," is not only to be furnished with tlie means 
 of obtaining a knowledge of Christian truth, but actually to 
 apprehend its meaning and evidence in some good measure, so 
 as to make a credible ]:>rofession of believino; it. To " receive 
 the knowledge of the truth," seems just the same thing as the 
 " being enlightened," which is spoken of in the 6th chapter. 
 
 Now, it is taken for granted that persons who " have re- 
 ceived the knowledge of the truth " may sin. The persons who 
 are here described are persons who, " after they have received 
 
 ^ Yers. 26-31. These are awfully impressive words. xVs a learned in- 
 terpreter (Carpzov) remarks, in language suggested by a noble passage 
 of Jerome — "Nou loquentem, sed tonitrua dotonantem Periclea audimus 
 Paulum, et tremimus. Horrenda exj)ectatio judicii, irarum saevities, asterna 
 mortis calamitas, infelix in viventis Dei manus lapsus (verba quot, tot ful- 
 mina), manent hos, qui veri cognitionem assecuti, data opera peccant." 
 
16 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, [CHAP, X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 the knowledge of the truth, sinP The word sin here is plainly 
 used in a somewhat peculiar sense. It is descriptive not of sin 
 generally, but of a particular kind of sin, — apostasy from the 
 faith and profession of the truth, once known and professed. 
 "The angels that sinned" are the apostate angels. The apo- 
 stasy described is not so much an act of apostasy as a state of 
 apostasy. It is not, ' If we have sinned, if we have apostatized ;' 
 but, * If we sin, if we apostatize, if we continue in apostasy.' 
 
 They are described as not only habitually sinning, or as 
 continuing in a state of apostasy, but as doing this xoilfully ; i.e., 
 obstinately, determinedly, in opposition to all attempts to re- 
 claim them. The contrast implied in the use of the word 
 " wilfully " does not seem so much between sins committed in 
 ignorance and sins committed knowingly, as between a tem- 
 porary abandonment of the faith and profession of the Gospel, 
 under the influence of fear, or some similar motive, and a de- 
 termined, persevering, final apostasy. The character here de- 
 scribed, then, is that of a man who has at one time obtained 
 such a knowledge of the meaning and evidence of the Gospel 
 as to induce him to make an open profession of Christianity, 
 but who has as openly abandoned its profession, and lives in a 
 state of determined apostasy. 
 
 With regard to such a person, the Apostle declares that 
 "there remains no more sacrifice for sins." The persons im- 
 mediately referred to were Jews. When they became Chris- 
 tians, they gave up the legal sacrifices for sin ; but then, 
 in the one sacrifice of Christ they found what infinitely more 
 than supplied the deficiency. But, renouncing the sacrifice of 
 Christ, what are they to do? There is no salvation without 
 pardon — no pardon without a sacrifice for sin. In apostatizing 
 from the faith of Christ, they have renounced all dependence 
 on His sacrifice : and there is no other. They may return to 
 the legal sacrifices, but these " never could take away sin ; " and 
 now that the substance is come, of which they were but the 
 shadow, they are no longer useful even for the subsidiary pur- 
 pose they once served. Jesus is the High Priest promised in 
 the ancient oracle. It is vain to look for another; and it is 
 equally in vain to look for His appearing a second time to offer 
 sacrifice. To the apostate, then, "there remaineth no more 
 sacrifice for sins." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 17 
 
 The Apostle's assertion is not, ' If a person apostatize, there 
 is no hope of his obtaining pardon through the one sacrifice of 
 Clu'ist ;' but it is, ' If a person persevere in apostasy, putting 
 away from him the one sacrifice of Christ, there is not, there 
 cannot be, for him any otlier sacrifice for sin.' Tlie apostate 
 must perish, not because the sacrifice of Christ is not of efficacy 
 enough to expiate even his guih, but because, continuing in his 
 apostasy, he will have nothing to do with that sacrifice which is 
 the only available sacrifice for sin. 
 
 Instead of another sacrifice for sin remaining for the apos- 
 tate, so that, though he give up Christ, he may yet be saved, 
 there remains for him nothing " but a certain fearful look- 
 ing for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour 
 the adversaries." The word "judgment" here, as in many 
 other places, is equivalent to ' punishment,' to which the sinner 
 is doomed or adjudged : James ii. 13 ; 2 Pet. ii. 4. When it 
 is said that " there remains" for the apostate " a fearful look- 
 ing for" of this punishment, the meaning does not seem to be 
 that every apostate is haunted by a dreadful anticipation of 
 coming destruction ; for, though this has been the case with some 
 apostates, it is by no means characteristic of all apostates : the 
 meaning is, the apostate has nothing to expect but a fearful 
 punishment.^ He has no reason to hope for expiation and par- 
 don, but he lias reason to fear condemnation and punishment. 
 
 The epithet certain here, does not denote either an assured 
 expectation, or the certainty of the punishment. It is used in 
 the same way as in the expressions, ' a certain man,' ' a certain 
 place,' ' a certain occurrence.' It is intended to suggest the idea 
 that the punishment to be expected by the apostate is a punish- 
 ment of undefined, undefinable magnitude — something that is 
 inexpressible, inconceivable. We cannot exactly say what it is ; 
 we can only say that a certain awful punishment awaits him, 
 the nature and limits of whicli cannot be fully understood by 
 any created being. As a sinner, he is exposed to the wTath of 
 God. He obstinately refuses to avail himself of the only " covert 
 from this" fearful " storm," and therefore he must meet it in 
 all its terrors. It must break on his unsheltered head. And 
 ^' who knows the power of His anger '? " The extent of infinite 
 power must be measured, the depths of infinite wisdom must be 
 
 ^ Equivalent to tKOo^c^ npiaiug (pofiipii;. 
 VOL. II. B 
 
18 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 fathomed, ere tliat awful question can be resolved. We can 
 only say, " According to His fear, so is His wrath." The most 
 dreadful conception comes infinitely short of the more dreadful 
 reality. We can only say of it, ' It is a certain fearful punish- 
 ment which the apostate has to expect.' 
 
 This punishment is further described as " fiery indignation." 
 There remains for the apostate, indignation or wrath, even the 
 wrath of God. God is angry with him for all his sins, and espe- 
 cially for the sin of apostasy ; and this " wrath of God abideth 
 on him." He is exposed to the fearful effects of God's moral 
 disapprobation and judicial displeasure ; and having renounced 
 the sacrifice of Christ, he has nothing to save him from these. 
 The displeasure of God is termed " fiery indignation," or ' indig- 
 nation of fire,' to represent in a striking manner its resistless, 
 tormenting, destroying efficacy. 
 
 It will prove its power in " devouring the adversaries." 
 " The adversaries" here, are, I apprehend, primarily the unbe- 
 lievlno- Jews. The Apostle does not say here, as he does else- 
 where, " those that believe not," — " those who obey not the 
 Gospel of Christ;" but, " the adversaries'' The appellation is 
 peculiarly descriptive. The unbelieving Jews M^ere actuated by 
 a principle of the most hostile opposition to Christ and Chris- 
 tianity : " Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own pro- 
 phets, and have persecuted us ; and they please not God, and are 
 contrary to all men."^ The "fiery indignation" of God is to 
 " devour" these adversaries, and along with them the apostates 
 from the faith of Christ. 
 
 It is not improbable that here, as in the passage just quoted 
 from the Epistle to the Thessalonians, there is a reference to 
 the awful judgments which were about to befall the unbelieving 
 Jews, and in which the apostates were to have their full share ; 
 but the ultimate reference seems to be to the great " day of wrath 
 and revelation of the judgment of God," when "the Lord 
 Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in 
 flaming fire, taklne; vena:eance on them that know not God, and 
 obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," who " shall be 
 punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the 
 Lord, and from the glory of His power." Such was the punish- 
 ment which awaited the apostate of the primitive age, and mate- 
 1 1 Thess. ii. 15. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 19 
 
 rially the same is the punishment which awaits the apostate of 
 every succeeding age. 
 
 In the verses which follow we have at once an illustration of 
 the certainty and severity of the doom which awaits the apos- 
 tate, and a vindication of the justice of that doom. Vers. 28, 29. 
 " He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or 
 three witnesses : of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, 
 shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the 
 Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, where- 
 with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite 
 unto the Spirit of grace ■? " 
 
 The general sentiment obviously is — 'If their punishment 
 shall exceed in severity that of the despiser of ]\Ioses' law as 
 much as their crime exceeds his in heinousness — and strict jus- 
 tice requires and secures this, — then it will be severe indeed.' 
 Let us proceed now to examine these dreadful words somewhat 
 more minutely. 
 
 The person with whom the apostate is compared, is " the 
 despiser^ of Moses' law." In every violation of a law there is 
 an implied contempt of the law and the lawgiver. But " the 
 despiser of Moses' law" is plainly not every violator of that law ; 
 since for many of its violations there were expiatory sacrifices. 
 " The despiser," or annuller, " of Moses' law," is the person who 
 acts by the law of Moses the part which the apostate does by 
 the Gospel of Christ, who renounces its authority, who deter- 
 minedly and obstinately refuses to comply with its requisitions. 
 I cannot help thinking that the Apostle has probably a peculiar 
 reference to the person who, having violated the law of ISIoses, 
 refuses to have recourse to the appointed expiations. But what- 
 ever there may be in this, " the despiser of ISIoses' law" is the 
 person who treats ]\Ioses as if he were an impostor, and re- 
 fuses, obstinately refuses, to submit to his law as of divine 
 ^authority. 
 
 Now, such a person under the Mosaic economy, whether a 
 native Jew or a sojourner in the Holy Land, was doomed to 
 death. He " died without mercy under^ two or three witnesses ;" 
 i.e., when the crime was satisfactorily proved, he was capitally 
 
 ^ iTTi, — expressive of the condition on wliicli tlieir condemnation and 
 punishment depend ; = the Heb. ""S'^V : Deut. x\'ii. G, xix. 15. 
 
20" EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 pmiislied ; and it was particularly enjoined, that in sucli cases 
 no pardon nor commutation of punishment should be allowed. 
 The hiMiest punishment man can inflict on man was in such 
 cases uniformly to be inflicted. The best illustration of this 
 statement of the Apostle is to be found in the law to which he 
 refers. " If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or 
 thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is 
 as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying. Let us go and 
 serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy 
 fathers ; namely, of the gods of the people which are round 
 about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one 
 end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth ; thou 
 shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him ; neither shall 
 thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou 
 conceal him : but thou shalt surely kill him ; thine hand shall 
 be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand 
 of all the people." — " If there be found among you, within any 
 of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, 
 that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, 
 in transgressing His covenant, and hath gone and served other 
 gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of 
 the host of heaven, which I have not commanded ; and it be 
 told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, 
 and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomi- 
 nation is wrought in Israel ; then shalt thou bring forth that 
 man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, 
 unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone 
 them with stones, till they die. At the mouth of two witnesses, 
 or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to 
 death ; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to 
 death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to 
 put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people : so 
 thou shalt put the evil away from among you." ^ The justice 
 of this law would be very readily admitted by those to whom 
 the Apostle refers, and must be evident to every person who 
 acknowledges the divine legation of Moses. These, tlien, are 
 the principles which lie at the foundation of the Apostle's argu- 
 ment, that " the despiser of Moses' law" was doomed to certain 
 death, and that it was just that he should be thus doomed. 
 ' Deut. xiii. 6-9, xvii. 2-7. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 21 
 
 He now goes on to describe the conduct of tlie apostate in 
 such language as to make it phiin that he is far more deeply 
 criminal than " the despiser of the law of iMoses," and thus to 
 prepare the way for the conclusion to which he Avishes to bring 
 his readers, that he shall most certainly be far more severely 
 punished. The apostate is one who has " trodden under foot 
 the Son of God." The general idea is—' He has treated with 
 the greatest conceivable contempt a personage of the highest con- 
 ceivable dignity.' " The despiser of Moses' law" trampled under 
 foot Moses as a divine messenger — the servant of God ; but the 
 apostate " tramples under foot" Jesus, who is a divine Person — 
 " the Son of God." " Trampling under foot the Son of God" 
 may be considered as referring generally to the dishonour done 
 to Jesus Christ by apostasy. It is a declaration that He is an 
 impostor,— a declaration that His Gospel is " a cunningly devised 
 fable." But I cannot help thinking that there is a pecuhar 
 reference to the dishonour done to Christ Jesus as the great 
 sacrifice for sin by the apostate. The sacrifice He offered Avas 
 Himself. Now the apostate, in declaring that in his estimation 
 Jesus Christ had offered no sacrifice for sin, as it were tramples 
 on that sacred body, by the offering of which " once for all" 
 Christ Jesus made expiation for the sins of His people. Instead 
 of treating His sacrifice as it ought to be treated— as something 
 of ineffable value, inconceivable efficacy— he treads it under foot 
 as vile and valueless. 
 
 He " accounts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was 
 sanctified, an unholy thing." " The blood of the covenant" is 
 obviously the blood of Christ ; and it receives this name, because 
 by the shedding of this blood the New Covenant was ratified, 
 as the Old Covenant was by the shedding of the blood of animal 
 sacrifices. 
 
 Interpreters have differed as to the reference of the clause, 
 "by which he was sanctified,"— some referring it to Christ, and 
 others to the apostate. Those who refer it to Christ explain it 
 in this way,—' By His own blood Jesus Christ was consecrated 
 to His office as an intercessory Priest.' Those who refer it to 
 the apostate consider the Apostle as stating, that in some sense 
 or other Ae-had been sanctified by the blood of Christ. I can- 
 not say that 1 am satisfied with either of these modes of inter- 
 pretation. I do not think that Scripture warrants us to say that 
 
22 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29, 
 
 any man ^Yho finally apostatizes is sanctified by the blood of 
 Christ in any sense, excej^t that the legal obstacles in the way of 
 human salvation generally were removed by the atonement He 
 made; and though I have no doubt that by His bloodsheddino- 
 our Lord was separated, set apart, sanctified, consecrated, and 
 fitted for the performance of the functions of an interceding 
 High Priest, I cannot distinctly apprehend the bearing which 
 such a statement has on the Apostle's object, which is olDviously 
 to place in a strong light the aggravations of the sin of the 
 apostate. I apprehend the word is used impersonally, and that 
 its true meaning is, ' by which there is sanctification.' It is just 
 equivalent to — ' the sanctifying blood of the covenant.' The 
 word " sanctify," as I have had occasion fully to show in 
 the course of this exposition, is used in a soiuewhat peculiar 
 sense in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It signifies, when used in 
 reference to men, to do what is necessary and sufficient to se- 
 cure them, who are viewed as unclean, favourable access to the 
 holy Divinity. When the blood of Jesus Christ, by which the 
 New Covenant is ratified, is called sanctifying blood, the mean- 
 ing is, that that blood shed expiates sin — renders it just and 
 honouriible in God to pardon sin, and save the sinner ; and that 
 this blood sprinkled {i.e., in plain words, the truth about this 
 blood understood and believed), ^' purges the conscience from 
 dead works," removes the jealousies of guilt, and enables us to 
 serve God with a true heart. This is the pecuHar excellence of 
 the blood of Christ. It, and it alone, thus sanctifies.^ 
 
 Now the apostate accounts this " blood of the covenant, by 
 which," and by which alone, " there is sanctification, an unholy 
 tiling ;" i.e., a common thing, not a sacred thing, — and not only 
 an unconsecrated thing, but a polluted thing. The apostate, 
 instead of accounting the blood of Christ, by which the New 
 Covenant is ratified, possessed of sanctifying virtue, looks upon 
 it as a common, vile, polluted thing,— the blood not only of a 
 mere man, but the blood of an impostor, who richly deserved 
 the punishment he met with,— blood which not merely had no 
 tendency to sanctify, but blood which polluted and rendered 
 dovibly hateful to God all who were foolish enough to place their 
 
 1 It was with great satisfaction I found Professor Moses Stuart had 
 come to the same conchision as to the meaning of this phrase, translating 
 — " the blood of the covenant, by which expiation has been made." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GEXEEAL EXHORTATION AND "WARNING. 23 
 
 liopes of expiation and pardon on its having been shed in their 
 room, and for their salvation. 
 
 The apostate is still further described as " doing despite to 
 the Spirit of grace." " The Spirit of grace" is a Hebraism for 
 'the gracious, the kind, the benignant Spirit.' It has been sup- 
 posed that this phrase is borrowed from Zech. xii. 10. But " the 
 spirit of grace" there being joined with " the spirit of suppli- 
 cation," seems descriptive, not of the Holy Spirit personally, but 
 of the temper He forms — ' a grateful, prayerful temper.' By 
 " the gracious Spirit," I understand that divine Person who, 
 along with the Father and the Son, exists in the unity of the 
 Godhead ; and He is termed " the Spirit of grace," or " the 
 gracious Spirit," to bring before our minds the benignant object 
 of all Plis operations in the scheme of mercy. This benignant 
 Spirit the apostate is represented as " doing despite to," — as 
 treating with indignity and insult. That Holy Spirit dwelt in 
 " the man Christ Jesus." By that Holy Spirit numerous and 
 most strlklno- attestations were o-Iven to the truth of His doctrine. 
 " God bare witness by gifts of the Holy Ghost, accoi'dlng to 
 His own will." When a man in the pi'Imitlve age apostatized, 
 he necessarily joined with the scribes and Pharisees in ascribing 
 to diabolical agency what had been effected by the influence of 
 the Holy Ghost ; than which, certainly, a greater indignity, or 
 more atrocious insult, could not be offered to that divine Per- 
 son. There can be little doubt that the person described here 
 belongs to the class described In the Gth chapter, who are said 
 to have been "made partakers of the Holy Ghost;" i.e., to have 
 been themselves in the possession of the supernatural gifts of the 
 Spirit, as well as the subjects of His common operations. And cer- 
 tainly for such persons to ascribe the benignant operations of the 
 Holy Ghost on themselves to infernal agency, was the most out- 
 rageous and malicious indignity of which human nature is capable. 
 Such, then, is the crime of the apostate. He treats with 
 the greatest conceivable indignity two divine Persons — the Son 
 and the Spirit of God ; he " tramples under foot" Him whom 
 angels adore ; he counts polluted and polluting that which is 
 the sole source of sanctification ; he repays benignity with in- 
 sult — the benignity of a divine Person with the most despiteful 
 insult. PIIs punishment, then, must be inconceivably severe, 
 and absolutely certain. 
 
24 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 This sentiment is stated by the Apostle far more energe- 
 tically in the heart-appalling question that follows, than it 
 could have been by any direct assertion : " Of how much sorer 
 punishment, suppose ye, shall he be counted worthy ? If he 
 that despised," etc. In one point of view the despiser of the 
 law and the apostate from the Gospel seem to stand on a level. 
 They both wilfully renounce a sufficiently accredited divine 
 revelation ; but the aggravations attending the apostate's crime 
 are numerous and great. " The despiser of Moses' law" de- 
 spised indeed a holy man — a divine messenger; but the apos- 
 tate despises the Son and Spirit of God, and acts towards 
 them in a far more malicious and insulting manner than the 
 contemner of Moses' law did towards that legislator. If the one 
 deserved death, does not the other deserve damnation — destruc- 
 tion, " everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, 
 and from the glory of His power?" And if the punishment 
 of " the despiser of Moses' law" was absolutely certain, can the 
 punishment of the contemner and despiser of God's Son and 
 Spirit be in any degree doubtful? The justice of God re- 
 quires that the punishment of the apostate be awfully severe, 
 and indubitably certain. 
 
 In the two verses which follow we have a further illustration 
 of the awful severity and the absolute certainty of the punish- 
 ment of the apostate, from the circumstance, that the declara- 
 tion that a God of infinite power will punish them is made by 
 a God of infinite veracity. Ver. 30. " For we know Him that 
 hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense, 
 saith the Lord. And again. The Lord shall judge His people." 
 The quotations are made from the prophetic song of Moses, — 
 " To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense ; their foot shall 
 slide in due time : for the day of their calamity is at hand, and 
 the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the 
 Lord shall judge His people, and repent Himself for His ser- 
 vants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and there is none 
 shut up, or left,"^— and refer to the punishments which God 
 would inflict on the wicked Israelites at their latter end. The 
 meaning of the words is plainly, — ' I Myself will punish them, 
 and the punishment shall bear the impress of My omnipotence.' 
 
 The appositeness of the second quotation may not at first 
 1 Deut. xxxii. 35, 36. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 25 
 
 sight appear so plainly. It may seem a promise rather than a 
 threatening. It is indeed a promise, and not a threatening ; 
 and I apprehend, that both in the place where it originally 
 occurs and in the passage before us, it is brought forward for 
 the purpose of comforting the minds of those who continued 
 stedfast in their attachment to their God, — assuring them that 
 Avhile He punished rebels and apostates. He would watch over 
 their interests, and protect them from dangers which threatened 
 to overwhelm them. In the prophetic writings generally, the 
 punishment of the enemies of God and the deliverance of His 
 people are closely connected. The same event is very often 
 vengeance to the former and deliverance to the latter. This 
 was the case with the fearful events which were impending over 
 the impenitent and apostate Jews, and to which, in the whole of 
 this passage, I think it highly probable that the Apostle has an 
 immediate reference. The words admit, however, of another in- 
 terpretation. The word judge is not unfrequently used as equi- 
 valent to 'punish,' or ' take vengeance:' Gen. xv. 14; 2 Chron. 
 XX. 12 ; Ezek. vii. 3. In this case it is equivalent to — ' Beware 
 of supposing that the relation you think you stand in to God 
 will protect you. " Judgment will begin at the house of God." 
 " You only have I known of all the families of the earth ; there- 
 fore will I punish you for your iniquities." Whoever escapes, 
 you shall not escape :' Matt. xi. 21-25 ; Luke xii. 47, 48. 
 
 The words, " We know Him that hath said," are just a veiy 
 emphatic manner of saying, ' We know His power to destroy ; 
 and we know also that " His word is quick and powerful, 
 sharper than a two-edged sword." We know that " He is not 
 a man, that He should lie ; nor the son of man, that He should 
 repent : hath He said, and shall He not do it ? or hath He 
 spoken, and shall He not make it good V ' 
 
 The same sentiment, as to the omnipotence of God to punish, 
 is very strikingly repeated in the 31st verse. " It is a fearful 
 thing to fall into the hands of the living God."^ " Who knows 
 the power of His wrath? According to His fear, so is His 
 WTath." The scriptural description of the final punishment of 
 the enemies of God is enough to make the ears of every one 
 ^ ifiTTiash ik rccs x-''P'*s is a Hebraistic mode of expression, — n>li 7S:. 
 In classic Greek it would be — e. V7>6 t«? x''/^*?- Z5»ro?, ' powerful, ever- 
 living,' 
 
26 EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 that lieareth it to tingle. Well may we say, with our Lord, — 
 " Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have 
 no more that they can do : but I will forewarn you whom ye 
 shall fear : Fear Him, which, after He hath killed, hatji power 
 to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you. Fear Him."^ Such is 
 the doom, the certain doom, of the man who lives and dies an 
 apostate. Let none despair. It is not the act of apostasy, it 
 is the state of apostasy, that is certainly damnable. Let all be- 
 ware of being " high-minded." " Let them fear, lest a promise 
 being left them, any man should seem to come short of it." 
 Let them guard against every approach to apostasy. The 
 grand preservative from apostasy is to grow in " the know- 
 ledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ;" and to " add to 
 our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, 
 brotherly-kindness, and charity." ^ It is in doing these things 
 that we are assured that we shall " never fall," and that " so an 
 entrance shall be ministered to us abundantly into the kingdom 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
 To apprehend distinctly the meaning, to feel fully the force, 
 of the exhortations contained in the paragraph which follows, it 
 is necessary that the circumstances of those to whom they were 
 originally addressed should be before the view of the mind. 
 
 This Epistle was written a few years before the final de- 
 struction of the Jewish civil and ecclesiastical polity by the 
 Romans. This was a season of peculiar trial to the Christians 
 in Judea. Christianity was now no longer a new thing. Its 
 doctrines, though they had lost nothing of their truth and im- 
 portance, no longer were possessed of the charm of novelty ; 
 and their miraculous attestations, though to a reflecting person 
 equally satisfactory as ever, were from their very commonness 
 less fitted than at first to arrest attention, and make a strong 
 impression on the mind. The long-continued hardships to 
 which the believing Hebrews were exposed from their unbeliev- 
 ing countrymen, were clearly fitted to shake the stability of their 
 faith, and to damp the ardour of their zeal. Jesus Christ had 
 plainly intimated to them, that ere that generation had passed 
 away He would appear in a remarkable manner, for the punish- 
 ment of His enemies, and the deliverance of His faithful fol- 
 lowers. The greater part of that generation had passed a\^'ay, 
 1 Luke xii. 4, 5. ^2 Pet. i. 5-7. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARXIXG. 27 
 
 and Jesus had not yet come, according to His promise. The 
 scoffers were asking, with sarcastic scorn, " Where is the pro- 
 mise of His coming ?" and " hope deferred" was sickening the 
 hearts of those who were " looking for Him." The " perilous 
 times" spoken of by our Lord had arrived. Mviltitudes of pre- 
 tenders to Messiahship had made their appearance, and had " de- 
 ceived many." INIany of the followers of Jesus were offended — 
 many apostatized, and hated and betrayed their brethren. " Ini- 
 quity abounded, and the love of many," who did not cast off 
 the Christian name, " waxed cold." 
 
 In these circumstances, it was peculiarly necessary that the 
 disciples of Christ should be fortified against the temptations to 
 apostasy, and urged to perseverance in the faith and profession 
 of the Gospel. This is the grand object of this Epistle, and 
 every part of it is plainly intended and calculated to gain this 
 object. The whole of the doctrinal part of the Epistle is occu- 
 pied in showing the pre-eminent excellence of Christianity, by 
 displaying the matchless glory of Christ ; and the greater por- 
 tion of the practical part of the Epistle is employed in stating 
 and enforcino; the exhortation to remain "stedfast and un- 
 moveable" in their attachment to their Lord, in their belief of 
 the doctrines, the observance of the ordinances, and the practice 
 of the duties of their " most holy faith." 
 
 In the preceding context the Apostle has most impressively 
 urged on their minds the peculiar advantages to which their new 
 faith had raised them as to favourable and delightful intercourse 
 with God, and the fearful consecjuences of apostasy, as irresistible 
 arguments to "hold fast their profession;" and in the passage 
 which lies before us for interpretation, in order to gain the same 
 end, he calls on them to recollect their past experience in re- 
 ference to Christianity, — to reflect on all they had suffei-ed for it, 
 and on all which it had done for them under their sufferings, 
 — and to pause and ponder before, by apostasy, they rendered 
 useless all the labours and sorrows they had endured, and 
 blasted all the fair hopes which they had once so fondly 
 cherished, and which had enabled them to bear, not only 
 patiently, but joyfully, all the trials to which they had been ex- 
 posed. Vers. 32-34. " But call to remembrance the former days, 
 in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of 
 afflictions ; partly, whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by 
 
28 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 reproaches and afflictions ; and partly, whilst ye became com- 
 panions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of 
 me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, 
 knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an 
 enduring substance." 
 
 The period to which the Apostle wishes to recall their minds 
 is that which immediately followed their illumination, or, in 
 other words, their obtaining the knowledge of the truth. That 
 state of ignorance and error in which they were previously, is 
 figuratively represented as a state of darkness ; and when, by 
 the statement of Christian truth and its evidence, they were de- 
 livered from ignorance and error, they are said to have been 
 enlightened. 
 
 On their being enlightened, they had to " endure a great fight 
 of afflictions." It is not improbable that the Apostle refers to 
 the severe and general persecution which followed the death of 
 Stephen, and with which, as he had taken a very active part in it 
 himself, he was intimately acquainted ; and to that which took 
 place not long afterwards by Herod, when "he slew James, the 
 brother of John, with the sword." The variety and severity 
 of the trials to which at that period Jewish believers were ex- 
 posed, are very strikingly expressed in the phrase, " great fight 
 of afflictions." It is not improbable that, in using the word 
 endure, the Apostle meant to convey the idea, not only that 
 they had been exposed to these varied and severe trials, but that 
 they had worthily sustained them — they had endured the fight. 
 They had persevered till the conflict was finished, and they had 
 come off conquerors. That is plainly the meaning of the word 
 when the Apostle James says, " Behold, we count them happy 
 who endure." 
 
 In these afflictions they had been involved both personally 
 and by their sympathy with their suffering brethren. They 
 "endured a great fight of afflictions, partly, when they were made 
 a gazing-stock," — made public spectacles, as malefactors, who in 
 the theatres were often made, in the presence of the assembled 
 people, to fight with each other, or with wild beasts. This was 
 literally the case with some of the Christians, though I do not 
 know that any of the Hebrew Christians were thus treated. 
 The idea is — ' set up as objects of the malignant and scornful 
 notice of the public' This they were by the "reproaches" 
 
PAKT II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 29 
 
 which were cast on them. These reproaches were of two kinds : 
 false charges were brought against them, and their faitli and 
 hope were ridiculed — their character and conduct as Christians 
 held up to scorn. By " afflictions," as distinguished from " re- 
 proaches," we are to understand sufferings in person, such as 
 torture of various kinds. And as many of the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians had been "made gazing-stocks " by personally undergoing 
 their trials, so also had they become so by avowing themselves 
 " the companions of those who were so used." Genuine Chris- 
 tians feel towards one another as brethren ; and when they see 
 their Christian brethren suffering for the cause of Christ, they 
 naturally, though not directly, attach themselves to, take part 
 with, their suffering brethren, and thus come in for a share of 
 the public scorn which is poured on them. 
 
 The Apostle particularly notices one instance in which they 
 " became companions of those who were thus used : " " For ye 
 had compassion of me in my bonds." Supposing these words 
 to be the genuine reading, they seem to refer to the kind atten- 
 tion shown to Paul by some of the Hebrew Christians when in 
 londs at Jerusalem and Cesarea.^ But, according to the best 
 critics, the true reading is — " for ye had compassion on those 
 who were bound," or "on the prisoners."^ Those among the 
 Hebrew Christians who were not themselves imprisoned, became 
 companions with them by sympathizing with them, owning them 
 as their brethren, and doing everything which lay in their power 
 to alleviate their sufferings. 
 
 The Apostle, having noticed the sufferings to which they had 
 been exposed in their reputation and persons, and by sympathy 
 with their suffering brethren, now calls to their mind the suffer- 
 ings they had sustained in their property, and the manner in 
 which they had borne them. They were "spoiled of their 
 goods," — they were unjustly deprived of their property ; and 
 when they were so, instead of repining, or thinking of retain- 
 ing their property by giving up their religion, they " took the 
 spoiling of their goods joyfully." They were as it were glad 
 that they had this means of showing their attachment to Christ 
 
 1 Comp. Phil. i. 13, 16 ; Col. iv. 18. 
 
 - Besides the external evidence for haftt'ot;, there is internal evidence 
 also. '2,vf4,7rcidih Oicr/xol; is a strange and unprecedented expression : fiv/i- 
 f^ovivuu ruv htTficov is quite another thing. 
 
30 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAF. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 and His cause — thej counted themselves honoured in being 
 called on to make such a sacrifice. 
 
 This mode of feeling did not arise from stoical apathy, or 
 from enthusiastic feeling : it arose from their persuasion that 
 the religion which called on them to sacrifice their worldly pro- 
 perty secured them in a far more valuable property. In some 
 of the most ancient MSS. the words, " in heaven," are wanting. 
 On the supposition that they do not form a part of the original 
 text, the meaning is — " Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your 
 goods, knowing that in yourselves you had a better and endur- 
 ing substance;" i.e., 'You cheerfully parted with your external 
 property, because you knew that your most valuable and perma- 
 nent property was within you. They could not take from you 
 the love of God — the comforts of the Holy Ghost — the hope of 
 eternal life. If they could have taken these from you — and 
 these you would cast from you if you renounce Christianity — ■ 
 they would have made you poor indeed ; but whatever else they 
 might take from you, if they left you these, you knew that you 
 were onch, rich for ever.' 
 
 If the words, " in heaven," be considered as belonging to the 
 text, then the meaning is somewhat different. ' Ye took joy- 
 fully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves' — i.e., 
 being fully persuaded — ' that whatever the world may think, this 
 is the truth, that in heaven there is laid uj) for you^ true and 
 abiding substance.'^ Worldly wealth scarcely deserves the name 
 of siihstance : it is, like all things worldly, unsubstantial ; and 
 it is, like all things worldly, fading and shortlived. But ce- 
 lestial wealth is real substance, and permanent as real. " IMotli 
 and rust do not" there " corrupt : thieves do not" there " break 
 through, nor steal." The man who is fvilly persuaded that he 
 has in heaven this substance will not grieve very much at the 
 loss of worldly substance in any circumstances ; but when the 
 giving up of the latter is required in order to the obtaining of 
 the former, he will show that he counts it but as the dust in 
 the balance, and will " joyfully take the spoiling of his goods." 
 
 ^ l«iiTo7?, which is the true reading, expresses peculiar property — ' that 
 as your own you have,' etc. 
 
 2 The natural order of the words seems to be — Kpslrrova vvup^iv x.ce.i 
 fiivovadv h ovpccvolg ; but /^svovaxv, as expressing the chief idea, is placed be- 
 hind. Their worldly substance had been found anything but //.ivovax. 
 
PART II. § l.J GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 31 
 
 Such, then, are the things which the Apostle wislies the Hebrew 
 Christians to " call to remembrance." 
 
 It is easy to see how the calling of these things to remembrance 
 was calculated to serve his purpose — to guard them from apostasy, 
 and establish them in the faith and profession of the Gospel. It 
 is as if he had said, ' Why shrink from suffering for Christianity 
 now ? Were you not exposed to suffering from the beginning ? 
 When you first became Christians, did you not Avillingly undera;o 
 sufferings on account of it ? And is not Christianity as worthy 
 of being suffered for as ever ? Is not Jesus the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever? Did not the faith and hope of Chris- 
 tianity formerly support you under your sufferings, and make 
 you feel that they were but the light afflictions of a moment? 
 and are they not as able to support you now as they were then ? 
 Has the substance in heaven become less real, or less endurinsr ? 
 and have you not as good evidence now as you had then that to 
 the persevering Christian such treasure is laid up ? Are you 
 willing to lose all the benefit of the sacrifices you have made, 
 and the sufferings you have sustained ? and they will all go for 
 nothing if you endure not to the end.' These are considerations 
 all naturally suggested by the words of the Apostle, and all 
 well calculated to induce them to " hold fast the profession of 
 their faith without wavering." 
 
 Accordingly, he adds, ver. 35, " Cast not therefore away your 
 confidence, which has great recompense of reward." The " con- 
 fidence" of the Christian Hebrews is just a general name for 
 the open, consistent, fearless adherence to Christianity amid all 
 the difficulties they had been exposed to. This they were to 
 hold fast, and not to cast away. If they shrunk from the con- 
 test, and became cowards, this was to cast it away. Instead of 
 casting it away, they were to hold it fast — to continue " stedfast 
 and unmoveable," in nothing moved by their adversaries; for 
 it "has great recompense of reward;" — i.e.^ a steady, uniform, 
 persevering adherence to Christ will be abundantly rewarded. 
 The sufferings, however great, " were not worthy to be compared 
 with the glory which was to be revealed." Faithful is He who 
 hath said, " Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and per- 
 secute you, and shall say all manner of evil against j^ou falsely, 
 for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your 
 reward in heaven." 
 
32 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 But then the reward can be obtained only by holding fast this 
 confidence — by adhering steadily and perseveringly to Christ 
 and His cause. It is " he who endures to the end that shall be 
 saved." This is the sentiment contained in the 36th verse : 
 " For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the 
 will of God, ye might receive the promise." 
 
 The word "patience" properly signifies 'perseverance;'^ 
 and the phrase, " ye have need of perseverance," is just equi- 
 valent to — ' ye must persevere,' " that, having done the will of 
 God, ye may receive the promise." " The promise" here is the 
 blessing promised ; to receive the promise, is to obtain the pro- 
 mised blessing.^ Now the only way of obtaining the promised 
 blessing is to persevere in doing the will of God. It is by 
 " adding to faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to 
 knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to 
 patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly-kindness ; and 
 to brotherly-kindness, charity ;" — it is in doing these things 
 that we are secured that " we shall never fall," and it is thus 
 that there "will be ministered to us abundantly an entrance 
 into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 The Apostle encourages the Christian Hebrews to persevere, 
 from the consideration that their Lord's promise to appear in 
 their behalf was inviolably faithful, and would soon be accom- 
 plished. Yer. 37. " For yet a little while, and He that shall 
 come will come, and will not tarry." 
 
 In these words there is an allusion to words employed by the 
 prophet Habakkuk ; but it is a mere allusion.^ " He that shall 
 come," or ' He that is coming,' w^as an appellation given by the 
 Jews to the Messiah. It is here used plainly in reference to 
 some " promise of His coming." It cannot refer to His first 
 coming in the flesh, for that was already past. It cannot refer 
 to His second coming in the fiesh, for that is even yet future, 
 
 ^ v-^ofiou'/i : Luke xxi. 19 ; 1 Thess. i. 3 ; Matt. x. 22, xxiv. 13. 
 
 ^ Ti5» fisyxTir,!/ fiiffdotTfoloaixv^ ver. 35 ; Tvju vTirxp^tv iv ovpavolg^ ver. 34 ; 
 fTayysA/a, res promissa, Heb. vi. 15, ix. 15, xi. 39. 
 
 ^ Habakkuk's words (ii. 3, 4), according to the LXX., are: eccv vanpyicyi, 
 Vzo^cciiuov avrou, on ipx6/^£vo; »j|£< kxi ov ^'<j ;<;pow/aij. 'Eav v'TFOoTU'hrirxi, ovx. 
 tu6ox.£li ij i^vx'/> fy-ov tv xvru^ 6 "he 'hi'x.xio; Ix. Trtanug fiov ^'/jaerui. The writer 
 iises the words of the prophet as the vehicle of his own ideas. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 33 
 
 after the lapse of nearly eighteen centuries ; whereas the com- 
 ing here mentioned was a coming just at hand. But though 
 these are the only comings of the Son of God in the flesh, they 
 are by no means the only comings that are mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture. There are particularly two comings mentioned in the 
 New Testament : His coming in the dispensation of the Holy 
 Spirit ; and His coming for the destruction of His Jewish ene- 
 mies, and the deliverance of His persecuted people. The first 
 is referred to in John xiv. 18, 19 : "I will not leave you com- 
 fortless : I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world 
 seeth Me no more ; but ye see Me : because I live, ye shall live 
 also." The second, in Matt. xxiv. 27 : " For as the lightning 
 cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west ; so 
 shall also the coming of the Son of man be." It is to the last of 
 these that there is a reference in the passage before us. Jesus 
 Christ had promised, that when He came to execute vengeance 
 on His enemies of the Jewish nation. His friends should not 
 only be preserved from the calamity, but obtain deliverance 
 from their persecutions : " When these things begin to come 
 to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads ; for your re- 
 demption draweth nigh."^ This coming was to take place 
 before that generation passed away. More than thirty years 
 had already elapsed ; and within eight or nine years — " a 
 little while" — the prediction was accomplished. It is as if the 
 Apostle had said, ' Hold out but a little longer, and the com- 
 ing of the Lord, both as showing the fearful doom of His ene- 
 mies and His faithfulness in reference to tlie promise made to 
 His friends, will free you from your present temptations to 
 apostasy.' 
 
 The Apostle concludes this paragraph by asserting at once the 
 necessity of faith — continued faith — in order to salvation, and the 
 certainty of apostasy leading to destruction. The words in the 
 38th verse are also an allusion to the words of Habakkuk, but they 
 do not seem quoted in the way of argument: "Now, the just shall 
 live by faith : but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no 
 pleasure in him." The words, " The just by faith shall live," may 
 either mean, ' The just or righteous man shall live by faith as the 
 influencing principle of his conduct,' — as the Apostle says, "The 
 life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God;" or 
 1 Luke xxi. 28. 
 VOL. IT. O 
 
34 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29; 
 
 they may signify, "The man who is just by faith, shall live," i.e., 
 shall be saved, shall obtain eternal life. The passage is quoted and 
 reasoned from by the Apostle in two passages: Rom. i. 16, 17, 
 " For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the 
 power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the 
 Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteous- 
 ness of God revealed from faith to faith : as it is written. The 
 just shall live by faith." And Gal. iii. 11, " But that no man 
 is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident : for, 
 The just shall live by faith." In both these passages, the words 
 are to be understood in the last of these senses ; and though 
 either of them will afford a suitable meaning in the place before 
 us, I think it most likely that the Apostle uses them in the same 
 way as in other places of his writings. It is the man justified 
 by believing that is saved ; and the man justified by believing is 
 not the man who has believed merely, but the man who continues 
 believing : that is the man who " shall live" — who obtains true, 
 permanent happiness. 
 
 " But if any man draw back. My soul shall have no pleasure 
 in him." The word, any man, is a supplement, and has been 
 added to prevent any inference unfavourable to the perseverance 
 of the saints from being drawn from this passage. It is not 
 right, however, to add to the word of God, even to defend truth.^ 
 If the man "justified by faith" -were to "draw back," God's "soul 
 could have no pleasure in him." This is in no way inconsistent 
 with the doctrine of the perseverance of the elect, which appears 
 to us very plainly taught in Scripture. If God has " chosen 
 them in Christ before the foundation of the world," and " pre- 
 destinated them to the adoption of children to Himself" — if He 
 has " called them according to His purpose," and if they are 
 really " washed, and sanctified, and justified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" — if there is " an in- 
 heritance laid up in heaven for them," and if they are " kept to 
 it by the power of God, through faith unto salvation" — if there 
 be an inseparable connection between being foreknown and pre- 
 destinated, and being called, and justified, and glorified, — then it 
 is evident that they must "persevere" in faith and holiness " unto 
 the end," and at last " receive the end of their faith, even the 
 salvation of their souls." But it should never be forgotten that 
 ^ Bloomfield's long note here deserves to be consulted. 
 
TART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 35 
 
 the Scripture doctrine of the perseverance of the elect is one 
 thing, and the apphcation of it to individuals quite another 
 thing. No elect person can know that he is an elect person 
 till he believe the Gospel ; or that he shall " persevere unto 
 the end," but while he is actually persevering in faith and holi- 
 ness. The question is not, whether the elect shall persevere ; 
 that is a clearly revealed truth ; but the question is, Am I among 
 the number? This I cannot know but by believing, and per- 
 severing in believing, and in the necessary results of believing : 
 adding to my faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, 
 godliness, brotherly-kindness, and charity. Yet it is perfectly 
 consistent with this for me to believe that if I " draw back," 
 God's " soul will have no pleasure" in me; and the faith of this 
 is just one of the appropriate means to prevent my drawing back» 
 
 " But," says the Apostle, in the spirit of Christian charity, 
 which " hopeth all things," on the principle that the Hebrew 
 Christians were what they professed to be — ver. 39. " We are not 
 of them who draw back to perdition"' — among those who, having 
 apostatized, shall perish ; " but of them who believe to the saving 
 of the soul,"^ — I.e., who believe straightforward till the soul is 
 saved — who continue to the end, and, continuing to the end, 
 are saved. This passage, though containing some things peculiar 
 to the state of the Hebrew Christians, is in its substance plainly 
 applicable to Christians in all countries and in all ages. 
 
 The Apostle now, for the illustration and enforcement of 
 his exhortation, brings forward a great variety of instances, from 
 the history of former ages, in which faith had enabled individuals 
 to perform very difficult duties, endure very severe trials, and 
 obtain very important blessings. The principles of the Apostle's 
 exhortation are plainly these : ' They who turn back, turn back 
 unto perdition. It is only they who persevere in believing that 
 obtain the salvation of the soul. Nothing but a persevering 
 faith can enable a person, through a constant continuance in 
 
 ^ 'H/iiils ova iafch vvoaro'Kvig t'l; oL'xL'hitc/.v. Many interpreters supply viol 
 or T£xi/« ; but this is not necessary. AVe tlo not belong to the apostasy — 
 the apostates doomed to destruction. 
 
 2 ' H^as;? ia^h 'xianui iig Trepnroiyiaii' '4^v)C^i- We belong to the faith — the^ 
 believers, destined to obtain " the salvation that is in Christ with eternal 
 glory." Kypke considers the phrase as = ij/^ug oi/x. ia/niv (l|) cc. — atXA' 
 (l;c) TT., and considers oi Ik -Trhna;, Gal. iii. 7 ; rouix, tt., Rom. iii. 26; o/ 15 
 ipidiias^ Rom. ii. 8, as parallel modes of expression. 
 
3^6 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 well-doing, and a patient, humble submission to the will of God, 
 to obtain that glory, honour, and immortality which the Gospel 
 promises. Nothing but a persevering faith can do this ; and a 
 persevering faith can do it, as is plain from what it has done in 
 former awes.' 
 
 The Apostle's illustration of the efficacy of faith in enabling 
 the believer to perform duty, endure trial, and obtain blessings, 
 is prefaced by a remark or two explicatory of the sense in which 
 he employs the word faith in this discussion. Chap. xi. 1. " Now 
 faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
 not seen." 
 
 Faith is in the New Testament employed sometimes to signify 
 the act or state of the mind Avhich we call belief, and sometimes 
 the object of the mind in this state or act — the thing believed. 
 It is here obviously employed in the first sense, as equivalent to 
 * believing.' Now what, according to the Apostle, is faith, or 
 believing 1 It is " the substance of things hoped for, the evi- 
 dence of things not seen." I have always felt it difficult to 
 attach distinct ideas to these English words. They have gene- 
 rally been considered as intended to express the following senti- 
 ment : — ' Faith gives, as it were, a real subsistence in the mind 
 to things hoped for ; it makes evident things which are not seen 
 — it gives a present existence to things future, a visible form to 
 things unseen. A promise is made of future good — a revela- 
 tion of something not discoverable by sense or reason. To the 
 unbeliever the promised good, the revealed truths, are an un- 
 substantial vision — mere creatures of the imagination ; to the 
 believer they are substantial realities.' This is no doubt truth ; 
 but I cannot help thinking these ideas are rather put into the 
 words than brought out of thera.^ Taking the English words 
 in their ordinary meaning : Believing a j)romise respecting 
 future good, is not the substance of that good ; nor is believing 
 a revelation with respect to things unseen, the evidence on which 
 I believe. The act of faith or believing, the object of faith or 
 truth in reference to what is future or unseen, and the ground 
 of faith, or evidence, are obviously three completely distinct 
 things ; and without the greatest confusion of thouglit, one of 
 them cannot be mistaken for any of the two other. 
 
 ^ Kuinoel says of this exegesis, " Arguta interpretatio nee a simplicitate 
 commeudabilis." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 37 
 
 The word translated "substance" occurs only five times in the 
 New Testament, and all these instances are in the writings of the 
 Apostle Paul. In one case, Heb. i. 3, it is translated person; but 
 that passage is plainly altogether inapplicable to the illustration of 
 the phrase before us. In the other three places where it occurs — 
 2 Cor. ix. 4, xi. 17; Heb. iii. 14 — it is translated confidence; and 
 that, too, is the reading in the margin in the present instance. 
 I have little doubt that that word expresses the Apostle's idea. 
 ' Faith, or believing, is a confidence respecting things hoped for.' 
 The word translated " evidence'^ is derived from a verb which 
 signifies ' to convince ;' and its natural and most obvious mean- 
 ing is, ' conviction.' It occurs only in one other place in the 
 New Testament — 2 Tim. iii. 16, where I think there is little 
 doubt that its meaning is ' conviction.' " All Scripture is pro- 
 fitable for doctrine, for reproof," — rather, ' for conviction,' Le., 
 for teaching men what is true, and for showing them that it is 
 true. This, I apprehend, is its meaning here : ' Faith is a con- 
 viction in reference to things not seen.'^ This, then, is the 
 Apostle's account of faith : ' It is a confidence respecting things 
 hoped for ; it is a conviction respecting things not seen.' A 
 promise is made respecting future good. I am satisfied that He 
 who promises is both able and willing to perform His promise. 
 I believe it ; and in believing it, I have a confidence respecting 
 the things which I hope for. A revelation is made respecting 
 what is not evident either to my sense or my reason. I am 
 satisfied that this revelation comes from One who cannot be de- 
 ceived, and who cannot deceive. I believe it ; and in believing 
 it, I have a conviction in reference to things which are not seen. 
 'Faith in reference to events which are past, is belief of testimony 
 with regard to them ; faith in reference to events which are 
 future, is belief of promises with regard to them. 
 
 This " confidence respecting things hoped for," founded on 
 a divine promise — this " conviction respecting things unseen" — 
 is the grand spring of dutiful exertion, and dutiful submission ; 
 it is this, and this alone, that can induce a man to persevere in 
 doing and suffering the will of God, till in due time the pro- 
 mised blessing is obtained. That it had been so in past ages, is 
 the proposition which the Apostle is about to prove and illus- 
 trate by a numerous induction of particular instances ; and he 
 introduces them by remarking generally, that by this faith the 
 
38 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 ancient saints had been enabled to do, and suffer, and obtain, so 
 as to have their names, and services, and trials, and attainments 
 honourably recorded in the Book of God. Ver. 2. "For by it 
 the elders obtained a good report." 
 
 For is here obviously a mere connective particle, equivalent 
 to moreover. The Avords do not contain in them any reason for 
 what is stated in the previous verse. The word " elders" is used 
 both in the Old and New Testament as a title of office ; but here 
 it is plainly equivalent to ' ancients,' and refers to the same 
 persons who are called "the fathers"^ in the first verse of the 
 Epistle. By means of their faith these good men performed 
 actions, sustained trials, and obtained blessings, of which we have 
 an account in the Book of God. Thus on account of their faith 
 they are favourably testified of by God, or have "'obtained a 
 good report." The reference does not seem to be chiefly, if at 
 all, to the high opinion entertained of them by their descendants, 
 but to the honourable record which God has given of them, and 
 to which the Apostle is about more particularly to turn his at- 
 tention.^ We would have naturally expected that the Apostle 
 should now immediately proceed to bring forward one of these 
 ancients, as an illustration of the efficacy of faith in enabling 
 men to do duty, sustain trial, and obtain blessings. But i)i- 
 stead of this, he interposes an observation, the object of whicli 
 seems to be, to illustrate by an example what he meant by faita 
 being " a conviction in reference to things not seen." 
 
 Ver. 3. " Through faith we understand that the worlds wer c 
 framed^ by the word of God ; so that things which are seon 
 were not made of things which do appear." The particula i 
 manner of the creation of the world is an object of faith. It is 
 one of the unseen things. We did not witness it. Reason 
 might perhaps have discovered, what when discovered it can 
 satisfactorily prove, that the world was created, and created by 
 God ; but how the world was created, whether out of nothing 
 or out of pre-existent materials, reason could say nothing. God 
 has given us a revelation on this subject, and our knowledge 
 rises out of our belief of that revelation. It is because we be- 
 
 ^ Ebrard considers the words as = ' were testified to in reference to their 
 faith,' i.e., as being believers. This is probably the true exegesis. 
 " KXTupri^sti/, parare, creare, = vuiiv. Ps. Ixxiii. 16. 
 
PAET II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 39 
 
 lieve what we find written in the first chapter of Genesis, that 
 we know that " in the beginning" God created the universe by 
 merely commanding it to be. The concluding clause of this 
 verse is very obscure : " So that the things which are seen were 
 not made of things that do appear." ^ -This, then, is an illus- 
 tration of what faith is, viewed as a " conviction in reference 
 to things not seen." I know that God created the world out of 
 nothing ; but how do I know ? I did not see it ; but God has told 
 me so in a well-accredited revelation, which I believe ; and by 
 believing it, or by faith, "I understand that the worlds were 
 framed by the word of God."^ 
 
 The Apostle now proceeds to give us an account of the effi- 
 cacy of faith in enabling men to perform duties, endure trials, 
 and obtain benefits, as exemplified in the experience of some of 
 
 1 Many interpreters, following the Vulgate, Chrysostom, Theodoret, 
 Tlieophylact, and fficumenius, think that f^n ix. <pa.iuopi.iuuu stands for Ik 
 f/.71 (pctiuoiiciuo)u. Chrysostom's words are, 5-^Ao'v iaTi on si ovx, ouruv rcc ourx 
 iTroi'/iaeu 6 &s6;, sk ruv /hy) (poi,ivo,uiuuu rcc tponuo/aivx, ik ruu ^vj {/(piaruruv rd 
 v(piarcoT». In support of these views, they assert that such transpositions are 
 common in the best writers, and that the Hebrews were in the habit of 
 calling a thing not existing, KVfD3 NP, oi'X ii'ptcX'Oj^ii'ov ; and they quote as a 
 parallel passage, 2 Mace. vii. 28, ovx, l| ouruv i'jroi'miv ai,lra, (viz., the heaven 
 and the earth, and all things in them). On the other hand, Beza, Schmid, 
 Storr, Schulz, Bohme, Winer, and Kuinoel, consider this transposition 
 as arbitrary, and think that the particle ^05 should be connected with 
 yiynuiueti. The meaning in this case is, ' The world exists by the will of 
 God ; so that it is not formed of pre-existent matter, but called into being, 
 when there was nothing but God.' We have the same sentiment, 2 Mace. 
 vii. 28, x^iu as, rix.vov, oLux^'hi-^eturx ilg rov ovpetuov kx\ tyiv yvjv, x,xl r» iu 
 cclrol; itkvrot, i^ovrct, yuuuxt, on ovx, l^ ouruv iTror/iinu eturx 6 0£Of, nut ro ruv 
 dudpuTTuu yiuoq oiirug ytyivyirxi. Calvin, usually SO judicious in his interpre- 
 tations, for the sake of an ingenious notion, as Tholuck justly says, departs 
 from the prevalent and correct explanation. He connects ik with the verb, 
 forces on rd ^'Ktiroy.iux the signification of ' mirror,' and translates, " fide in- 
 telliginms aptata esse secula verbo Dei, ut non apparentium (the rx xopxr* 
 of Rom. i. 20) specula fierent." 
 
 2 Rational as the doctrine is, I apprehend no man ever held it who did 
 not owe it to revelation. Thales, Plato, Aristotle, and other eminent philo- 
 sophers, indulged in visionary speculations about the creation of the world, 
 very different indeed from the view which " He who made it, and revealed 
 His work to Moses," has given. The opinions of the ancient philosophers 
 may be reduced to two. They either thought that the world had existed 
 from eternity, or that its materials were eternal, which the Divinity at some 
 very remote period had put into order. 
 
40 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 those ancients of wliom God in His word has, on account of 
 their faith, given a favourable testimony. The first individual 
 in whose history the Apostle finds an illustration of the bene- 
 ficial efficacy of believing is Abel. Ver. 4. " By faith Abel 
 offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which 
 he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his 
 gifts ; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh." 
 
 The history to which the Apostle refers is to be found 
 Gen. iv. 1-5 : " And Adam knew Eve his wife ; and she con- 
 ceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the 
 Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was 
 a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in 
 process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit 
 of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also 
 brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. 
 And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering : but 
 unto Cain, and to his offering. He had not respect. And Cain 
 was very wroth, and his countenance fell." Both Cain and 
 Abel offered sacrifice ; but Abel offered a more excellent sacri- 
 fice. It has been supposed by many interpreters, that the word 
 translated more excellent^ — properly signifying, ' fuller, larger, 
 more abundant' — refers to Abel's offering an expiatory sacrifice, 
 in addition to the eucharistic sacrifice, which alone Cain pre- 
 sented. It has been thought by others that the Apostle's mean- 
 ing is, that the sacrifice of Abel was in itself a more valuable 
 one, consisting of animals, than that of Cain, which consisted of 
 vegetables. We are rather disposed to think that the meaning 
 is, generally, ' Abel's sacrifice was a bettei', a more valuable, a 
 more availing sacrifice, than Cain's.' " It better answered the end 
 6i a sacrifice, which is to be acceptable to God. How it was so, 
 will appear by and by. 
 
 It was by faith that Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice 
 than Cain. Faith throughout the whole of this chapter is the 
 belief of a divine revelation. It is plain, then, that a revelation 
 had been made both to Cain and Abel respecting the duty of 
 offering sacrifice, and the acceptable method of performing that 
 duty. Though we have no particular account of the institution 
 of sacrifice, the theory of its originating in express divine ap- 
 pomtment is the only tenable one. The idea of expressing re- 
 
TART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 41 
 
 ligious feelings, or of expiating sin, by shedding the blood of 
 animals, could never have entered into the mind of man. We 
 read that God clothed our first parents with the skins of animals ; 
 and by far the most probable account of this matter is, that 
 these were the skins of animals which He had commanded them 
 to offer in sacrifice.^ We have already seen, in our illustrations 
 of the ninth chapter, ver. 16, that all divine covenants, all 
 merciful arrangements in reference to fallen man, have been 
 ratified by sacrifice. The declaration of mercy contained in the 
 first promise seems to have been accompanied with the institu- 
 tion of expiatory sacrifice. And expiatory sacrifice, when offered 
 from a faith in the divine revelation in reference to it, was ac- 
 
 1 "It is easy to be demonstrated," says Hallett, "that sacrifices owed 
 their original to the will and appointment of God. The Apostle says, as 
 Moses said before him, that Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God. But it 
 would not have been acceptable if it had not been of divine institution, 
 according to that plain, obvious, and eternal maxim of all true religion. 
 Christian, Mosaic, and natural, ' In vain do they worship God, teaching 
 for doctrines the commandments of men,' Mark vii. 7. If there be any 
 truth in this maxim, Abel would have worshipped God in vain, and God 
 would have had no respect to his offering, if his sacrificing had been merely 
 a commandment of his father Adam, or an invention of his own. The 
 divine acceptance, therefore, is a demonstration of a divine institution."— 
 " Anything that has been answered to the argument for the divine mstitu- 
 tion of sacrifice, taken from this passage, is," as Dr M'Crie remarks, " ex- 
 tremely futile. The words of Episcopius are self -contradictory, and even 
 ridiculous : ' Abel fide sola, nullo prtecepto divino adductus, i.e., ratioms 
 rectfe solius instinctu, Deum judicavit colendum esse rebus quas habebat m 
 pecuho suo optimis." Instlt. Theol. lib. i. cap. viii. § 3. That must be 
 fancy, not faith, which has a respect to no precept or word of God. Is 
 it then the same thing to act from faith and from the dictates of right rea- 
 son? This is not only glaringly untheological, but unphilosophical also. 
 Nor is the attempt of the learned Spencer to elude the force of this argu- 
 ment more successful. He describes the faith of Abel to have been a firm 
 persuasion, deeply fixed in his mind, as to the favourable disposition of 
 God to men, which caused him to form his conduct by the rules of piety. 
 He adds, that he and the rest of the patriarchs offered sacrifice 'from a 
 certain pious simplicity of mind (ex pia quadam simplicitate).' ^^^ t^e 
 Apostle does not speak of any general persuasion which influenced Abels 
 worship ; but he asserts that faith was specially exercised by him in the act 
 of offering this sacrifice, and that it was this which rendered it more excel- 
 lent than Cain's. As to this pia simplicilas, it is degrading to the patri- 
 archs to impute it to them, although this is often done by persons who, 
 boasting of their own superior light, have become ' vam in their imagina- 
 tions.' "— Philistok. Christian Marjazinc for 1803, vol. vu., pp. 407, 408. 
 
42 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 ceptable to God, both as the appointed expression of conscious 
 guilt and ill desert, and of the hope of mercy, and as an act of 
 obedience to the divine will. 
 
 It would appear that this revelation was not believed by 
 Cain, that he did not see and feel the need of expiatory sacri- 
 fice, and that his religion consisted merely in an acknowledg- 
 ment of the Deity as the author of the benefits which he enjoyed, 
 Abel, on the other hand, did believe the revelation. He readily 
 acknowledges himself a sinner, and expresses his penitence and 
 his hope of forgiveness in the way of God's appointment. Be- 
 lieving what God had said, he did what God had enjoined ; — he 
 brought the sacrifice God had appointed, and offered it in the 
 way in which He had appointed it to be offered. What was the 
 extent of Abel's knowledge of the nature and design of expi- 
 atory sacrifice, we cannot tell. All that we know, and all that 
 is necessary for the Apostle's argument, is this : Abel, believing 
 what God revealed, did what God commanded, and obtained 
 evidence that God was pleased with him and his services ; while, 
 on the other hand, Cain, not believing wdiat God had revealed, 
 did not do what God had commanded, and instead of receiving 
 evidence that God was pleased with him, had a clear demonstra- 
 tion that He was displeased with him.^ 
 
 On account of this faith thus influencing his conduct, 
 Abel " obtained witness that he was righteous." " The Lord 
 had respect unto Abel and his offering." To be righteous, is 
 just to be an object of the approbation of the Supreme Judge. 
 How God manifested His approbation of Abel, and disapproba- 
 tion of Cain, we cannot tell. It is not an improbable conjecture, 
 that it was in a manner similar to that in which He testified His 
 approbation of Elijah and his sacrifice, of Abrani and his sacri- 
 fice, and of Aaron's sacrifice on his entering on the priest's office : 
 Gen. XV. 17 ; Lev. ix. 24 ; 1 Kings xviii. 3. Abel's sacrifice 
 was probably consumed by fire from heaven, while Cain's re- 
 mained untouched. At the same time, though a probable con- 
 jecture, this is but a conjecture. It is enough that we know that 
 he did receive a distinct testimony of the approbation of God. 
 "God testifying of his gifts;" i.e., 'God making it manifest 
 that his gifts were acceptable to Him, while his brother's gifts 
 were not acceptable.' 
 
 ^ 3/ 5JJ, I.e., -TTiaTias, not dvaix;. 
 
PART II. § 1] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 43 
 
 The concluding clause of the verse is somewhat obscure : 
 "And by it he, being dead, yet speaketh;" i.e., I apprehend, 
 ' By or on account of his faith,' manifested in his sacrifice. Fol- 
 lowing a different reading from that adopted by our transla- 
 tors, some render the w^ords, ' and on account of this, he is yet 
 spoken of.' This, though a truth, is one which has no direct 
 bearing on the Apostle's object. Besides, the reading followed 
 by our translators is admitted by the best critics to be the 
 genuine one. 
 
 But what are we to understand by these words, " On ac- 
 count of his faith," or, "by means of his faith, he, though dead, 
 yet speaketh?" It has been common to suppose that this just 
 means, that Abel still speaks to us by his example, as recorded 
 in Scriptui'e — still speaks to us of the importance and efficacy of 
 faith. But this is not at all peculiar to Abel ; it is equally true 
 of all the persons who are mentioned in this chapter. Besides, 
 in whatever the Apostle states in reference to these elders, he 
 obviously alludes to what is testified of them in Scripture. I 
 therefore cannot at all doubt that the Apostle refers to the sub- 
 sequent part of Abel's history, as detailed in the fourth chapter 
 of the Book of Genesis : " And He said, What hast thou done ? 
 the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the 
 ground." ^ And this conviction is strengthened by noticing the 
 way in which the Apostle contrasts the blood of Christ — called 
 by him " the blood of sprinkling" — with " the blood of Abel," 
 chap. xii. 24. ' On account of his faith, manifested in his sacri- 
 fice, though dead, he yet spoke ;'^ i.e., God manifested His regard 
 to him by the punishment He inflicted on his murderer. The 
 earth would not cover his blood. His blood was precious in 
 God's sight ; and He proved it to be so by not allowing him who 
 shed it to escape unpunished. His faith, manifested by his sacri- 
 fice, drew down upon him, both while living and dead, proofs 
 that he was the object of the divine favourable regards. Such 
 
 1 Gen. iv. 10. 
 
 2 From Philo it appears that the Jews were struck with tlie representa- 
 tion of Abel, though dead, speaking by his blood to God : ^yj Ss tjjj/ h Qei 
 l^uviv ivhocifiouoi, f^upirvpu "hi to xP^"^^" ^oyiov, iv ^ (pavyt p^pii^si/of x.xt ^ouv — 
 ivpitrxirxi. " He," i.e., Abel, "lives in God a happy life; for the sacred 
 Scripture gives testimony of him, in which he is found using a voice," i.e., 
 ' speaking and crying.' 
 
44. EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. ID-XII. 29. 
 
 is the first of tlie Apostle s illustrations of the importance and 
 efficacy of faith. 
 
 The second example of the power of faith is that of Enoch. 
 Ver. 5. " By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see 
 death ; and was not found, because God had translated him : 
 for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased 
 God." 
 
 To the illustration of this paragraph, two things are neces- 
 sary. We must first attend to the Apostle's account of the high 
 privilege which Enoch obtained — he " was translated ;" and then 
 to the Apostle's proof that it was " by faith " that he obtained 
 this privilege. 
 
 The account we have of the strange transaction referred to, 
 in Gen. v. 24, is in these words : " Enoch was not, for God 
 took him."^ The Apostle quotes from the Septuagint, and by 
 his quotation sanctions the view that version gives of the words. 
 Enoch, instead of dying like other men, was in some miraculous 
 manner carried bodily to heaven ; some change taking place, no 
 doubt, on his body, and that of Elijah, similar to that which is 
 to take place on the bodies of the saints that are found alive at 
 the end of the world, to fit them for the celestial state ; for we 
 know that " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
 God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption." This is all 
 the information the Scriptures give us with respect to Enoch's 
 translation ; and it were worse than a waste of time to bring 
 forward the baseless conjectures which men, anxious to be wise 
 beyond what is written, have advanced on the subject. 
 
 Let us now attend to the Apostle's proof that it was " by 
 faith" that Enoch obtained this distinguished privilege. That 
 proof is brought forward in the following words : " For before 
 his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." 
 Ver. 6. " But without faith it is impossible to please Him : for 
 he that cometh to God nuist believe that He is, and that He is 
 a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." 
 
 The words, " before his translation," etc., are obviously equi- 
 valent to — ' for in the sacred history, before we read of his trans- 
 lation, we read of his being the object of the peculiar favour of 
 God. His translation is there represented as the consequence of 
 
 ^ nj5?, the same word used in reference to Elijah, 2 Kings ii. 3. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 45 
 
 this peculiar favour of God ; and this peculiar favour he could 
 not have enjoyed, had he not been a believer, for to the enjoy- 
 ment of this peculiar favour faith is absolutely necessary.' This 
 is the Apostle's argument. Let us look at its various parts, that 
 we may distinctly see that it is fairly drawn from the passage of 
 Old Testament history from which it is deduced. 
 
 In our version of Genesis we read nothino; of Enoch's 
 pleasing God. We read, " Enoch walked with God," which is 
 a literal version of the Hebrew text. The expression, " walked 
 with God," has commonly been considered as descriptive of 
 Enoch's character as a singularly piovis man, who, realizing the 
 divine presence, habitually thought and felt, spoke and acted, as 
 under the eye of God. I am rather disposed to consider it as 
 descriptive of Enoch's privilege : he was beloved of God, and, as 
 an evidence of it, he was admitted to intimate and delightful 
 intercourse with Him. He was a prophet, to whom God made 
 communications of His will ; and it is not at all unlikely that, 
 as in the case of Moses, sensible proofs might be given to his 
 cotemporaries that he was in a remarkable degree the object of 
 the divine regard. I am induced to take this view of it, be- 
 cause I find the two most ancient versions of the Scriptures (the 
 Syriac and Greek) rendering the phrase, " walked with God," 
 " pleased God," not only here, but in Gen. vi. 9, where the 
 same phrase again occurs in reference to Noah ;^ and the Apostle 
 sanctions this interpretation by reasoning from it. This, then, 
 is the first step in the Apostle's argument, to prove that " by 
 faith Enoch was translated." The Scriptures testify that Enoch 
 was the object of the divine peculiar regard previously to his 
 translation, and represent that translation as an expression of 
 this peculiar regard. 
 
 The second step is, Faith, or believing, is absolutely neces- 
 sary in order to any man's being the object of the peculiar 
 regard of Jehovah. " Without faith it is impossible to please 
 God." These words admit of two different interpretations, 
 according as you explain the reference of the phrase, " to 
 please God." They may either signify, ' without believing the 
 truth about God, it is impossible to enjoy His favour ;' or, 
 ' without believing the truth about God, it is impossible to pos- 
 sess that character, or to prosecute that course of conduct, which 
 1 Vide Gen. xvii. 1, xxiy. 40 ; Ps. Ivi. 13, cxvi. 9. 
 
4t) EFISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 only can meet with His approbation.' Both are truths. The 
 last is the view most commonly taken of the assertion here ; but 
 I am inclined to consider the first as probably expressing the 
 Apostle's idea. The only way in which guilty men, who have 
 forfeited God's favour, can regain it, is through the faith of the 
 truth respecting Him. " By the deeds of the law no flesh 
 living can be justified." If Enoch enjoyed the divine favour, 
 it must have been through believing. 
 
 The Apostle confirms his assertion, that without believing, it 
 is impossible to be well-pleasing to God, by adding, " for every- 
 one that Cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is 
 the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him." " To come to 
 God," is here plainly equivalent to — ' to be the object of His kind 
 regards.' No one can draw near to Him with acceptance, as to 
 a Father and a Friend, who does not " believe that He is, and 
 that He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him." To 
 " believe that God is," is something more than to believe that 
 there is a God. There are many who believe that there is a 
 First Cause, whom they call God, whose notions of the cha- 
 racter of God are not only gi'eatly defective, but greatly eiTo- 
 neous. These persons believe that there exists a being whom 
 they call God ; but their faith is not the faith of the truth. 
 There really exists no such being in the universe as the being 
 they conceive of : he is a mere creature of their own minds. 
 To " believe that God is," is to believe in the existence of such 
 a Being as God's works and word declare Him to be : it is to 
 believe the truth with regard to Him. No person can be the 
 object of the complacency of God who does not credit the reve- 
 lation He has made to him of Himself. 
 
 There is particularly one truth about God which must be 
 believed by all who would approach to Him with acceptance, 
 and that is, that " He is the rewarder of all who diligently 
 seek Him;" — in other words, that He is merciful, and dis- 
 posed to pardon and save all who seek Him, — that is, who in 
 the way of His appointment, by believing His word and hop- 
 ing in His mercy, seek their happiness in Him. The faith 
 of the truth about God, as disposed to pity, pardon, and save 
 all, even the most guilty of the children of men, who come to 
 Him in the way of His appointment — that is the faith by which, 
 in every age of the world, men have been justified. The degree 
 
PART II, § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 47 
 
 of information respecting the details of the method of salvation 
 has been very different in different ages ; but the great truth, 
 through the faith of which men are interested in that method of 
 salvation, has never varied. It is, " that God is, and that He 
 is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him." 
 
 This, then, is the Apostle's argument, and it is plainly a 
 good one : ' Enoch is a glorious illustration of the efficacy of 
 faith in obtaining benefits. He obtained a most important 
 benefit — translation to heaven without tasting of death ; and 
 it was through believing that he obtained this benefit. The 
 Scriptures represent him as before his translation an object of 
 the peculiar divine favour ; and they represent his translation 
 as a manifestation of this peculiar favour. But none but a be- 
 liever can be an object of the divine peculiar favom\ It is by 
 faith, and faith alone, that a man can be justified.' 
 
 The concluding part of the 6th verse is valuable, as giving 
 us a further illustration of the Apostle's description of faith in 
 the first view. To believe the truth with regard to the character 
 of God, is " conviction with regard to things unseen," " for no 
 man hath seen God at any time ;" and to believe " that He is 
 the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him," is " confidence 
 respecting things hoped for." It is also useful for confuting 
 two very absurd tenets which have been adopted by some men. 
 There are men, even professed Christians, wdio maintain the 
 innocence of error, — who say it is of no consequence what men 
 believe, if they but live well. That is just equivalent to saying 
 that it is of no consequence to " please God" — to be an object 
 of His complacency and kind regard ; for " without faith it is 
 impossible to please God." There are others who affirm, that 
 in serving God we ought to have no respect to the " recompense 
 of reward." But the Apostle states it as forming a necessary 
 part of that truth which must be believed in order to our 
 pleasing God, " that He is the rewarder of those who diligently 
 seek Him." 
 
 This passage has often been abused for the purpose of 
 proving that the heathen, who have no written revelation, are 
 not in such deplorable circumstances as the friends of missions 
 represent them. They have the means of knowing that •' God 
 is, and that He is the rewarder of them wlio diligently seek 
 Him ;" and if they believe this, they, like Enoch, will please 
 
48 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 God, and tliougli they should not, Hke him, be translated, yet 
 when they die they will certainly go to heaven. That the hea- 
 then have to a certain extent the means of knowing that " God 
 is," is plain from the first chapter of the Eomans ; but the 
 Apostle, who asserts this truth, asserts also, that in consequence 
 of the depravity of man's nature, these means are not improved, 
 and therefore but increase their guilt and deepen their condem- 
 nation ; and that, in fact, the heathen world " by wisdom knew 
 not God," but, on the contrary, " did service to them who by 
 nature are no gods." The views of every heathen are not only 
 necessarily very defective, from the imperfection of the means 
 of knowledge, but, as experience teaches, they are uniformly 
 greatly erroneous. The god or gods in whose existence they 
 believe, is not the true God. With regard to the second article 
 of that faith which the Apostle represents as necessary to please 
 God, " that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek 
 Him," that is M'hat no man without an express revelation could 
 ever discover. It is very consonant with reason to believe that 
 God will make innocent and obedient creatures happy ; but as 
 to whether God will be reconciled to sinners, and make them 
 ultimately happy, or in what way He is to be sought for this 
 purpose, it is plain that unenlightened reason can give no infor- 
 mation. The faith here spoken of must be founded on a super- 
 natural revelation of the true character of God, and of His pur- 
 poses of mercy towards a lost world. It was through the faith 
 of the revelation made in his time on this subject, that Enoch 
 was accepted of God ; it is through the faith of the revelation 
 now made to us, that we are to be accepted of God. It is not 
 my purpose to enter into the general question of the salvability 
 of the heathen ; but I think it must be evident to every careful 
 reader, that that doctrine receives no support from the passage 
 before us. It would be a strange thing indeed, if in an Epistle, 
 the great object of which is to show the supreme importance of 
 the faith of the Gospel, we should meet with a declaration that 
 men may be saved without knowing anything about the Gospel. 
 The third example of the efficacy of faith which he brings 
 forward, is that afforded by the history of Noah. Ver. 7. " By 
 faith ^ Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, 
 
 ^ 7r/(7T£/ must be construed, not with xp-zifio-nudili^ but with K<x.ri(sy.ivvMi: 
 V jjj must not be referred to ki^utou^ but to Trlarsi. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 49 
 
 moved with fear, prepared an ai'k to the saving of his house ; 
 by the which he condemned the worhl, and became heir of the 
 righteousness which is by faith." Let us first shortly attend to 
 the facts of the case ; and then consider the illustration which 
 they afford of the efficacy of faith in enabling to perform 
 duties, to endure trials, and to obtain blessings. 
 
 The facts are these : " Noah was warned of God of things 
 not seen as yet ;" in consequence of this, he was " moved with 
 fear," and built an ark ; he obtained the salvation of his family ; 
 " he condemned the world, and he became an heir of the right- 
 eousness that is by faith." 
 
 The first fact is, " Noah was warned of God of things not 
 seen as yet." The approaching deluge was the event of which 
 Noah was warned. The circumstances of that event are termed 
 " things not seen as yet ;" because, though in their own nature 
 sufficiently apprehensible by the senses, they were then unseen, 
 because future, and because nothing in the appearance of nature 
 indicated their approach. We have a particular account of the 
 warning in Gen. vi. 12-18 : "And God looked upon the earth, 
 and, behold, it was corrupt : for all flesh had corrupted his way 
 upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh 
 is come before Me ; for the earth is filled with violence through 
 them : and, behold, I will destroy them with the eartli. Make 
 thee an ark of gopher-wood : rooms shalt thou make in the ark, 
 and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is 
 the fashion which thou shalt make it of ; The length of the ark 
 shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and 
 the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the 
 ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above ; and the door of 
 the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof ; with lower, second, 
 and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, 
 do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, 
 wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven ; and every 
 thino; that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I estab- 
 lish My covenant : and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and 
 thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." 
 
 The second fact refers to the influence wliich this warning 
 had on the mind and conduct of Noah. He was " moved with 
 fear," and he " prepared an ark." When it is said that Noah 
 was " moved with fear," we are not to suppose that he was in 
 
 VOL. II. D 
 
50 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 any degree afraid that he or his family Avere to perish in the 
 approaching deluge. He had precisely the same reason for ex- 
 pecting his deliverance, and that of his family, along with a 
 small remnant of all species of living creatures, that he had for 
 expecting the destruction of the rest of mankind and the animal 
 tribes. It is easy, however, to see how Noah Avas " moved with 
 fear." An evil of such tremendous magnitude, inflicted on 
 account of sin, placed in a very striking light the irresistible 
 power, the immaculate purity, the inflexible justice of God, and 
 was fitted to fill the mind with reverence and godly fear. Be- 
 sides, Noah knew that he and all his family were sinners, and de- 
 served to perish along with the rest of their race ; and he knew 
 also, that though, if the ark was prepared, according to the divine 
 appointment, all was safe ; it was equally true, that if the ark 
 was not prepared, he and they must perish in the general ruin. 
 The very idea of this must have excited a salutary terror, and 
 operated as a powerful motive to diligence in the building of the 
 ark. When we consider the size of the ark, — especially when 
 connected with the collection of the various animals, which 
 from the history seems to have been Noah's work, — the under- 
 taking, in any circumstances, must have been an arduous one ; 
 and when we consider the difficulties which must have arisen 
 out of the state of sentiment and feeling of the great body of 
 mankind, it may well be considered as one of the most extraor- 
 dinary examples of difficult duty which the world has ever wit- 
 nessed. The testimony of God on this subject is this — adding, 
 after a particular detail of the commands laid on Noah, — 
 " Thus did Noah ; according to all that God commanded him, 
 so did he." 
 
 The third fact stated by the Apostle is, that Noah thus 
 obtained the deliverance of his family. He " built an ark to 
 the saving of his house." " House," here, is plainly equivalent 
 to ' family.' The words, " to the saving of his house," taken 
 by themselves, may either signify what was the design of Noah 
 in building the ark, or what was the result of his building the 
 ark. In the first case, they are equivalent to — ' he built an ark 
 that his family might be saved ;' in the second case, they are 
 equivalent to — ' he built an ark, and thus his family was saved.' 
 Both are truths ; but it is the last of these truths which serves 
 the Apostle's object — the illustration of the eflScacy of faith. By 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AKD WARNING. 51 
 
 building the ark, Noali obtained the salvation of his family. 
 " And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, 
 and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that 
 creepeth upon the earth, and every man : all in whose nostrils 
 was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 
 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the 
 face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping 
 things, and the fowl of the heaven ; and they were destroyed 
 from the earth : and Noali only remained alive, and they that 
 were with him in the ark." ^ When " all flesh" had died, " Noah 
 remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." 
 
 The next fact stated is, " He condemned the world." These 
 words have generally been supposed to refer to that tacit con- 
 demnation which Noah, by his conduct, in obeying the divine 
 commandment, and preparing for the coming deluge, as it were 
 pronounced on an ungodly world.^ But as it is said that " by 
 faith" (for I apprehend there can be no doubt the reference is 
 to faith in the relative " which," and not to the ark, as some 
 have supposed ; for it was by the same thing, whatever it was, 
 that he " condemned the world" and " became the heir of the 
 righteousness of faith ;" and certainly it was not by the ark 
 that he was justified) " he condemned the world," I am dis- 
 posed to consider the words as referring to the same fact which 
 Peter, in his second Epistle, ii. 5, refers to, when he calls Noah 
 " a preacher of righteousness." I think we are warranted from 
 the declaration here, as explained by that in the Epistle of Peter, 
 to conclude, that the warning Noah received from God he pub- 
 licly proclaimed, — remonstrated with the men of his age on their 
 wickedness, called them to repentance, and denounced, on their 
 continuing in sin, the awful sentence of a common and univer- 
 sal destruction. 
 
 The last fact stated is, that Noah " became," or ^cas, " an 
 heir of the righteousness which is by faith." " The righteous- 
 ness by faith" is just the justification by believing; and to be 
 
 1 Gen. vii. 21-23. 
 
 2 The following passage from Ecclesiasticus has been referred to for 
 illustration: — KotTUKpivit Se ItKUto; Kccfiuv rov; ^uvretg dasjieii^ xxi veorri; 
 n'hiaduffo, rayjui vo'^virig yyipx; d^ix-ov. " The dead just man condemns 
 the living ungodly; and the finished youth swiftly condemns the protracted 
 old age of the wicked." 
 
52 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. ig-XII. 29. 
 
 " an heir of the righteousness of faith," is just to participate 
 in the blessing of justification by believing — to be justified by 
 believing. In this part of his statement, I apprehend the 
 Apostle refers to two passages in the book of Genesis : the first, 
 ch. vi. 8, " Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord ;" and 
 the second, ch. vi. 9, " Noah walked with God ;" which, as the 
 Apostle has explained it in the preceding context, is equivalent 
 to — ' Noah was well-pleasing to God,' — Noah was a justified per- 
 son — a person treated by God as if he had been righteous, as 
 an object of His peculiar favour ; and, as the Apostle has shown, 
 if he was so, it must have been through believing. 
 
 These are the facts of the case. Let us now see how they 
 illustrate the efficacy of faith for enabling to perform duties, to 
 endure trials, and to obtain blessings. 
 
 It has been supposed by some, that the Apostle means to 
 say that it was hy faith that Noah was " warned of God of 
 things not seen as yet ;" — that is, that the warning given to Noah 
 was a proof of God's peculiar regard to Noah ; and that this token 
 of peculiar regard, like every other, was bestowed on him as a 
 believer. But I rather think that the phrase, " by faith," is in- 
 tended to refer to " moved by fear, prepared an ark ;" the 
 warning being considered as the revelation which was the sub- 
 ject of that faith through which Noah performed his difficult 
 duties, endured his severe trials, and obtained the glorious i-e- 
 ward. Had the Avaming not been believed, Noah would not 
 have been " moved with fear" — he would not have " prepared 
 an ark." He would have continued, like the unbelieving gene- 
 ration among whom he lived, careless and disobedient. But 
 believing, as he did, the warning in all its extent, he could not 
 but be " moved with fear" — he could not but set about "pre- 
 paring the ark." Noah believed the whole testimony. It was 
 a declaration of universal destruction, with the exception of 
 himself and his family, and a declaration that even they could 
 be saved only by the " preparing of an ark." Had Noah be- 
 lieved merely that " the end of all flesh was come before God," 
 he would indeed have been filled with fear, but that fear would 
 not have moved him to prepare an ark. It was the faith at 
 once of the coming general destruction and the particular way 
 of escape which produced the effect of his prosecuting the 
 laborious and difficult work of preparing the ark. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 53 
 
 As it was by faith that Noah prepared the ark, so it was by 
 faith that he obtained the salvation of his family. That privi- 
 lege was connected in inseparable union with a preceding duty, 
 which preceding duty could not have been performed without 
 faith. Had not the ark been prepared, Noah and liis family 
 could not have been saved ; and had not Noah believed, the ark 
 would not have been prepared. You see, then, how the salva- 
 tion of Noah's family was the result of his faith. 
 
 It was by faith also that he " condemned the world." The 
 revelation which he believed furnished him with the great sub- 
 ject of his condemnatory addresses ; and it was the faith of this 
 revelation that enabled him, in defiance of their scorn, to tell 
 them the truth. He believed, and therefore spoke. 
 
 It was by faith also that " he became an heir of the right- 
 eousness which is by faith." This scarcely requires any illustra- 
 tion. The language of the Apostle is not in reality, what it is 
 in appearance, tautological. When he says, Noah by faith 
 " became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," he just 
 means, that Noah by his own personal faith obtained an inte- 
 rest in that method of justification, in which no man can obtain 
 an interest but by believing.^ 
 
 This example of Noah is thus admirably fitted to serve the 
 Apostle's purpose. Faith enabled Noah to perform very diffi- 
 cult duties. It enabled him to make the laborious preparations, 
 which must have occupied many years, for the approaching 
 deluge; it enabled him to do his duty, and to persevere in doing 
 it, amid many difficulties and discouragements ; it enabled him 
 fearlessly, though alone, as " a preacher of righteousness," to 
 pronoimce the sentence of condemnation on a guilty world, 
 -though in doing so he must have exposed himself to cruel mock- 
 ings, and very probably to imminent hazards. Faith enabled 
 Noah to endure very severe trials. The conviction, that without 
 building the ark he and his family must perish, and if it were 
 prepared they were safe, rendered powerless the shafts of ridicule. 
 He endured, as seeing what was yet invisible. Faith enabled him 
 to obtain most important benefits, — the deliverance of his family, 
 and a personal interest in the justification that is by believing. 
 
 1 The phrase, h x-xto. ttwt. om., is pluinly the same thing as ij 5/x. ex 
 -tt/ctt., Rom. i. 17, ix. 30, x. 6 ; aud oix Trior., Kom. iii. 22, Phil. iii. 9 ; or 
 simply otK. r^t'oT., Kom. iv. 13. 
 
54 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 The example is the more instructive, as it naturally, and 
 almost necessarily, brings before the mind the fearfully destruc- 
 tive efficiency of unbelief. The world that perished had mate- 
 rially the same message delivered to them as that which Noah 
 received. Had they repented, there is no reason to doubt that 
 the fearful infliction would not have taken place. Noah be- 
 lieved, and feared, and obeyed, and was saved. They disbelieved, 
 and mocked, and were disobedient, and perished. 
 
 Faith and unbelief are the same things still. The believer, 
 like Noah, has been " warned of God of things not seen as 
 yet." He has heard that " all have sinned," and that God 
 cannot " clear the guilty," and " the wicked must be turned 
 into hell ;" and he has heard also, that " God hath set forth 
 His Son a propitiation through His blood," and that " whoso- 
 ever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting life ;" and 
 that by the believer seeking " glory, honour, and immortality," 
 eternal life shall assuredly be obtained. Like Noah, he believes 
 the divine warning ; he is filled with fear at the display which 
 these truths give of the power, and holiness, and justice of God ; 
 he sees that everlasting destruction is his inevitable portion, 
 unless he avail himself of the only Avay of escape, and that, 
 availing himself of this way of escape, he is secure of everlasting 
 happiness ; and believing this, he " flees for refuge to the hope 
 set before him," — and he continues fleeing for refuge ; and in 
 the Avay of God's appointment, the way of faith and holiness, 
 he seeks perseveringly, and he obtains assuredly, " the end of 
 his believing, even the salvation of his soul." He believes the 
 whole of the divine testimony. If he believed only the first 
 part of it, he would despair ; if he believed only the last part of 
 it, he would presume. But believing both, he both fears and 
 hopes ; and under the combined influence of fear and hope, he 
 performs duty, endures trials, and ultimately obtains the pro- 
 mised blessing. 
 
 The unbeliever, like the ungodly world in the days of Noah, 
 hears the divine testimony, but will not receive it. Hell excites 
 no fears — heaven no desires. He continues in impenitence and 
 disobedience, till down comes the thunderbolt. He is conveyed 
 into the regions of hopeless punishment, and learns, too late, 
 how criminal and dangerous it is, under the influence of " an 
 evil heart of unbelief," to " depart from the living God." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 55. 
 
 The fourth example of the efficacy of faith is derivctl from 
 the history of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation. Vers. 
 8-10. " By faith Abraham, when lie was called^ to go out into a 
 place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; 
 and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he 
 sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwell- 
 ing in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of 
 the same promise : for he looked for a city which hath founda- 
 tions, whose builder and maker is God." 
 
 Of the facts referred to in the 8th verse, we have an ac- 
 count in the beginning of the 12th chapter of the book of 
 Genesis. " Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out 
 of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's 
 house, unto a land that I will show thee : and I will make of 
 thee a great nation, and I wall bless thee, and make thy name 
 great ; and thou shalt be a blessing : and I will bless them that 
 bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee : and in thee shall all 
 families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the 
 Lord had spoken unto him ; and Lot went with him : and 
 Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of 
 Haran."2 
 
 Though in the Mosaic history the account of this call is not 
 given till after the account of the death of Terali in Haran, 
 yet it is plain from the speech of Stephen that it took place in 
 Mesopotamia, previously to his leaving that country along with 
 his father. The call consisted of two parts, — a command and 
 a promise. The command was, " Get thee out of thy country, 
 and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land 
 that I will show thee." The promise was partly implicit, — " I 
 will give thee this land for an inheritance ;" and partly explicit, 
 — " I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, 
 and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing : and I 
 will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee : 
 and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 
 
 ^ Thcodoret supposes that KoiT^ovf^euo; 'Afipux/^ refers to the change of the 
 patriarch's name from Abram to Abraham. Some MSS. and versions read 
 6 KuT^ovfAsi/o; ; but the whole context shows that the reference is to what is 
 usually termed " the call" of Abraham, — his being divinely commanded to 
 leave his native country, and go into a laud to be pointed out to him. 
 
 2 Gen. xii. 1-4. 
 
56 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 Abraham believed that both the command and the promise came 
 from God ; and therefore he obeyed the command, and ex- 
 pected the fulfilment of the promise. His faith was " confi- 
 dence in reference to things hoped for ;" it was " conviction in 
 reference to things not seen as yet." Had Abraham not be- 
 lieved that the call came from God, or had he not believed that 
 God was at once able and disposed to perform His promises, he 
 would have disregarded the call, and continued in Mesopotamia ; 
 but because he believed, he obeyed. It was his faith which led 
 him to break asunder those very strong bands which bind men 
 to their country and their kindred, and to undertake a journey 
 of unknown length, and difficulty, and danger, — towards a 
 country of which he knew nothing, but that God had said to 
 him, " I will show it thee." " He went forth, not knowing 
 whither he went." He proceeded in the direction which the 
 divine call pointed out ; and he went onward till the same 
 divine call directed him to stop. 
 
 This certainly was a very remarkable manifestation of the 
 power of faith in enabling a man to perform a difficult duty. 
 It is difficult for us to form a distinct conception of it, as no 
 case strictly analogous can occur among us. But let us suppose 
 a person, previous to the discovery of America, leaving the 
 shores of Europe, and committing himself and his family to the 
 mercy of the waves, in consequence of a command of God, 
 and a promise that they should be conducted to a country 
 where he should become the founder of a great nation, and the 
 source of blessings to many nations; and we have something 
 like what actually took place in the case of Abraham. 
 
 The object for which this instance of the power of faith is 
 brought forward is obvious, and it is well fitted to serve that 
 object. Nothing but faith could have enabled Abraham to act 
 as he did. Faith made what would otherwise have been impos- 
 sible, easy. God was calling the Hebrew Christians to break 
 through bands as strong as those which bound Abraham to 
 Mesopotamia, in abandoning Judaism, and to take a course in a 
 determined attachment to Christianity, the consequences of which 
 were as apparently hazardous, and as completely unknown to 
 them and beyond their control, as the circumstances of Abra- 
 ham's journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Nothing could 
 enable them to do this but faith — a full persuasion that the 
 
TART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION .WD WARNING. 57 
 
 command to embrace Jesus of Nazareth as "the end of the 
 law for righteousness," and the promise of eternal life as the 
 gift of God to all who did so, equally came forth from God. 
 And while nothing could enable them to do this but such a 
 faith, such a faith would make these otherwise impracticable 
 duties easy. This would prevent them from " turning back 
 to perdition," and would enable them to "press onward to 
 the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 And it is equally true now as it was then. Nothing but the 
 faith of the Gospel can induce a man to abandon the world and 
 commence a pilgrimage towards heaven. And wherever there 
 is the faith of the Gospel, there will be such an abandonment — 
 there will be the commencement and the prosecution of such a 
 pilgrimage. If Abraham had continued in ^lesopotamia, or 
 stopped short of Canaan, it would have been a proof that he 
 did not believe the divine testimony ; and whatever men may 
 profess, if they continue to love the world, and become " weary 
 in well-doing," it is clear evidence that they have not believed 
 the Gospel. 
 
 We have another instance of the power of faith in enabling 
 to persevere in a course of duty, while the blessing promised is 
 not immediately conferred, brought before our minds in the 
 next verse. This, too, is taken from the history of Abraham. 
 Ver. 9. " By faith he sojourned in the land^ of promise, as in 
 a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, 
 the heirs with him of the same promise." 
 
 When Abraham came into the land of Canaan, the promise 
 which was implied in what was said to him at his call in Meso- 
 potamia, was given him in the most explicit language : " The 
 Lord appeared unto Abram, and said. Unto thy seed will I give 
 this land." ^ Hence that country received the aj)pellation, " the 
 land of promise," or the promised land. But that promise was 
 not immediately, was not soon, fulfilled. Abraham did not^ 
 obtain possession of it, nor did his posterity, till nearly five cen- 
 turies after. To use the language of Stephen, " God gave him 
 no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on : yet 
 
 ^ et; yviv for h yyi. Such a use of n'? with a noun of place is not un- 
 frequent. Brctscbneidcr's Lex. s/j, 5, c. 
 2 Gen. xii. 7. 
 
5S EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and 
 to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." ^ Had 
 Abraham not been a persevering believer — had he not con- 
 tinued to "account Him faithful who had promised" — he 
 would not have continued in Canaan in such circumstances, a 
 pilgrim and sojourner, dwelling in tents, and having no certain 
 or abiding dwelling-place. He would have returned to the 
 country from which he had come out, and where his relations 
 had possessions and fixed places of abode ; or he would have 
 gone into some other country, where, with the property he had, 
 he might have procured for himself an inheritance. But be- 
 cause Abraham believed that in due time the promise w^ould be 
 fulfilled, he preferred dwelling in a tent in Canaan to dwelling 
 in a palace anywhere else. He goes into Egypt during the 
 time of famine ; but it is to sojourn, not to settle. He sends 
 Eliezer to obtain a wife for Isaac into Mesopotamia, and takes 
 an oath of him, that even in the case of his not succeeding in 
 getting one of his kinswomen as a wife to Isaac, he was not to 
 take Isaac back again to the land of his ancestors. He con- 
 tinued, along with Isaac and Jacob — to whom as well as to 
 Abraham the promises were made, and who are therefore 
 called "heirs with him of the same promise," — to live in Canaan, 
 though not put in possession of it. Though the promise was 
 long in being fulfilled, he did not doubt but it would be in due 
 time fulfilled ; and therefore he determined that he and his 
 posterity should continue in the land to which the promise re- 
 ferred. 
 
 It is equally easy here, as in the former case, to see the 
 object the Apostle had in view in bringing forward this par- 
 ticular exemplification of the power of faith, and to see how 
 well fitted it is for gaining that end. Nothing but continued 
 faith could have enabled Abraham to continue a pilgrim and a 
 sojourner in Canaan, waiting for the fulfilment of the promise. 
 Continued faith did enable Abraham to do so. Nothing but 
 continued faith could enable the Christian Hebrews to continue 
 " stedfast and unmoveable " in the profession and practice of 
 Christianity during that season of privation and suffering, of 
 undefined length, which might intervene before the full accom- 
 phshment of the promises which had been made to them. Per- 
 
 ^ Acts vii. 5. 
 
PAKT II. § 1.] GEx\ERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 59' 
 
 severinfi faith would enable them to do this. He who continues 
 believing will " endure to the end," and " be saved." 
 
 The words which follow in the 10th verse seem to contain 
 the reason why Abraham continued to sojourn in the land of 
 promise. Ver. 10. " For he looked for a city which hath 
 foundations, whose builder and maker is God." 
 
 These words have been supposed by some very learned in- 
 terpreters to refer to the literal Jerusalem, the metropolis of 
 the Holy Land, when it became the possession of the descend- 
 ants of Abraham. They consider the Apostle as saying, ' The 
 reason why Abraham continued to live in Canaan, though he 
 had no inheritance there, though he and his family had to live 
 in moveable tents, was, that he expected that in due time, in 
 that country, a stable city would be erected for them by the re- 
 markable providence of God — that the whole territory should 
 be peopled by his descendants, not as wandering tribes, but as 
 the inhabitants of towns and cities, having Jerusalem built on 
 the rocky mountains as its metropohs.' This is ingenious, but 
 it is not satisfactory. We have no reason to believe that any 
 revelation was made to Abraham as to the building of Jerusa- 
 lem. The "city which has foundations" seems plainly the 
 same city mentioned in the subsequent context as a city pre- 
 pared for them by God, in the better, the heavenly country 
 and the description, " whose builder and maker is God," which 
 seems nearly equivalent in meaning to the expression respecting 
 the true tabernacle, "which, it is said, God pitched, not man," 
 seems to exclude the workmanship of man, and points it out to 
 us as not a literal but a figurative expression, indicating not an 
 earthly, but a heavenly city. The Apostle's assertion then is, 
 that Abraham " looked for a city which has foundations, whose 
 builder and maker was God." What does it mean ? 
 
 The land of promise is in the Scriptures the emblem of the 
 heavenly inheritance, and the earthly Jerusalem of the resi- 
 dence of the saints there. They are represented as dwelling in 
 a glorious city, with Jehovah in the midst of them as their 
 King. To denote the stability, the immutability, and the eter- 
 nity of this state of happiness, the heavenly city is said to 
 " have foundations." It is not a collection of tents or taber- 
 nacles, which have no foundations, and which are easily re- 
 moved, but it is a city built on the everlasting hills of Paradise. 
 
60 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 It is not unlikely that Psalm Ixxxvii. 1 was in the Apostle's mind : 
 " His foundation is in the holy mountains." The travelling tent, 
 pitched in the evening and struck in the morning, finely con- 
 trasts with the " city which has foundations" — firmly builded. 
 And to denote its divine origin and transcendent excellence, it 
 is termed a city " whose builder and maker is God." It is thus 
 opposed to all earthly cities, which are built by man's hands, 
 just as the Apostle distinguishes the heavenly sanctuaiy from 
 the earthly by describing it as being " made without hands," 
 and as he distinguishes the resurrection body from the " earthly 
 house of this tabernacle," as " a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens." 
 
 According to the Apostle, then, Abraham expected true, per- 
 manent happiness from God in a future state. This expecta- 
 tion must have been founded on a revelation made to him, and 
 believed by him. Our Lord teaches us that the promise of 
 immortality and the resurrection is implied in the promise, " I 
 will be a God to thee ; " and there is nothing improbable in the 
 supposition, that the patriarchs may have had clearer revelations 
 of a future state made to them than any that are recorded in 
 Scripture. If we admit the inspiration of this Epistle, it is 
 plain, however we may explain it, that Abraham did cherish an 
 expectation of permanent and perfect happiness in a future 
 world. 
 
 All that remains to be explained, is the connection in which 
 the words in the 10th verse stand to the preceding statement. 
 If the word for be understood in its most usual sense, as ex- 
 pressing the reason of a previous assertion, then the meaning 
 is — 'Abraham's expectation of permanent, perfect happiness in 
 heaven, enabled him patiently to submit to all the inconveni- 
 ence of a state of pilgrimage in Canaan during the period 
 which was to elapse before that land became the inheritance of 
 his posterity.' If the word /or be understood, as it often must, 
 as merely connective, as equivalent to ' moreover,' then the 
 meaning is — 'Abraham's expectation that God would in His 
 own time fulfil the promise, that Canaan was to be the in- 
 heritance of his posterity, induced him to continue in that 
 country, though but a pilgrim and sojourner. But Abraham 
 had higher expectations than this. He not only expected for 
 his posterity a secui'e settlement in Canaan, but he expected for 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 61 
 
 himself an everlasting abode in heaven.' It matters very little 
 in which of these two ways the connection is explained.^ 
 
 The great practical truth intended to be taught us by this 
 passage of Scripture is, that it is the faith of the Gospel, pro- 
 ducing the expectation of eternal life, that can alone enable a 
 person cheerfully to submit to all the privations and sufferings 
 connected with the Christian life, and induce him, " by a pa- 
 tient continuance in well-doing, to seek," so as to obtain, " glory, 
 honour, and immortality." 
 
 The design of the paragraph which follows, is to show, from 
 the history of Abraham, that faith is not only efficacious in en- 
 abling men to perform difficult duties and to endure severe trials, 
 but also to obtain important blessings. Vers. 11, 12. "Through 
 faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and 
 was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she 
 judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there 
 even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of 
 the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore 
 innumerable." The substance of this statement is — 'Through 
 believing, Abraham and Sarah, though arrived at a time of life 
 when, according to the ordinary course of nature, it was not to be 
 expected that they would have any children, became the founders 
 of a family numerous as the stars of heaven, or as the sand 
 along the sea-shore,' This blessing was conferred on them as 
 believers. It was as the gracious reward of their faith that they 
 obtained this high honour. 
 
 Some learned interpreters have supposed that it is Abraham's 
 faith alone that is spoken of in this paragraph, and that the 
 Apostle's intention is to say, ' As the reward of Abraham's faith, 
 Sarah became fruitful, and brought him a son, from whom sprang 
 innumerable descendants.' The words, however, certainly seem 
 
 ^ TVakefield's note on these verses does credit to his taste. " Orationem 
 magis exquisitjB venustatis nusquam reperies. IlupoiKslv est hospitari j)ro 
 tempore; kxtoikuu, Jixam domum habere. In tei'ra igitiir ista vivebant, ut 
 hospites; in tabernaculis vero semper: certani domum incolebant in aliena 
 terra ; hanc mox relicturi, illam, dum viverent, uunquam. Et eleganter op- 
 ponuntur tabernacula mobilia, in terrai superficie posita, l^/Ve/a, atque hue 
 illuc pi'o re nata transferenda, civitati fiuidamentis staJnlitm: Isa. xxxviii. 
 12, LXX. 'Tixuir/ig vero is est qui excoijilat formam asdificii ; I'/if^iovpyo;, 
 qui struit seJificium. Hinc nostri reddere debuerant, ut poterant satis 
 simpliciter: whose contriver and builder is God." 
 
62 EPISTLE TO THE HEBEE\YS. [CHAP. X. 19-Xir. 29. 
 
 more naturally to refer to Sarah's faith. The facts of the case 
 seem to have been these : — Jehovah appeared to Abraham, and 
 promised that lie should have a son by his vidfe Sarah. The 
 promise was afterwards repeated in the hearing of Sarah^ who 
 laughed at it within herself as a thing incredible, considering the 
 advanced age of herself and her husband; and afterwards, through 
 fear, she denied that she laughed ; so that she was in the first 
 instance guilty both of unbelief and of falsehood. But when 
 she found that the hidden reasonings of her heart had been de- 
 tected by tlie divine Messenger — when she heard Him put the 
 silencing question, " Is anything too hard for the Lord ?" and 
 received from Him new assurances that she certainly would be- 
 come a mother, — she perceived that the promise was the word of 
 Him who Avas able to do as He had said, however inconsistent 
 with the ordinary course of nature ; and she no longer laughed 
 at the promise, but believed it, reckoning that He who had pro- 
 mised was faithful. As the gracious reward of her faith, Sarah 
 obtained strength to lay the foundation of a race or family ; for 
 so the words may be, and so we apprehend they ought to have 
 been rendered.^ The meaning of the whole verse is — ' To Sarah 
 the believer God gave the high honour of being the mother of 
 His peculiar people.' 
 
 The connective particle therefore seems to me equivalent to 
 — ' for this cause ;' i.e., Because of faith, through means of be- 
 lieving, " there sprang of one, and him as good as dead," — or in 
 reference to these things, dead, — " so many as the stars of the sky 
 in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumer- 
 able." It is not necessary to enter into a minute examination of 
 these words. The general sentiment is, plainly, ' Abraham and 
 Sarah, through believing, obtained a high honour, an important 
 privilege, — the honour and privilege of being the founders of the 
 holy nation, — an honour and privilege, the attainment of which 
 
 ^ jcfl5To«/3oX^ signifies ' foundation,' cb. iv. 3, ix. 26 ; a'Tv'ip^a, signifies ' a 
 family — offspring,' cli. ii. 16, ver. 18 n?/. The Latins says, " f undare domum" 
 or "familiam." Euripides, Here. Fur. 1261, uses the verb ;c«T«/3aXAojt<«< 
 in this sense. This is the exegesis of Ernesti, C. F. Schmid, Cramer, 
 Bohme, and Kuinoel. It is greatly preferable to scarcely decent interpre- 
 tations of many critics. The manner in which some critics contrive to in- 
 troduce discussions of an indelicate kind into works of Scripture inter- 
 pretation, a fault by no means uncommon, is exceedingly revolting to every 
 rightly constituted mind. " A lewd interpreter is never just." 
 
PART ir. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 63 
 
 at the time it was promised to them was highly improbable— was 
 all but impossible, which nothingbut faith in God could have led 
 them to expect, which without faith in God they would never 
 have obtained.' 
 
 It is not difficult to see how this statement was calculated 
 to gain the Apostle's object. God had made promises to the 
 Christian Hebrews, the fulfilment of which seemed to involve as 
 great difficulties at least as the fulfilment of the promise made 
 to Abraham. The language of Abraham's example to them 
 was, "Fear not, only believe." All the blessings and honours 
 
 included in the salvation that is in Christ with eternal glory 
 
 all these will assuredly be yours, if ye continue to " count Him 
 faithful who has promised." Whatever difficulties, whatever 
 apparent impossibilities, lie in the way, like Abraham, "be 
 strong in faith, and give glory to God;" be fully persuaded 
 that "what He has promised He is able to perform;" be 
 fully persuaded that "He cannot deny Himself;" "against 
 hope, believe in hope,"— z'.<?., confidently expect what but for the 
 divine promise it would have been folly, it would have been 
 presumption, to have expected. Abraham did so, and his hope 
 did not make him ashamed. "Go ye and do hkewise," and 
 your hope shall not make you ashamed nor confounded, world 
 without end. 
 
 But let us never forget that it was God's testimony and 
 promise which Abraham believed, and not a figment of his own 
 imagination. Let us take heed that it is God's testimony and 
 promise that we believe — let us take heed that we really believe 
 it — let us take care to cherish no hope but what that testimony 
 and promise warrant ; and then it is impossible for us to believe 
 too firndy, or to hope too confidently. 
 
 The importance of persevering faith is plaiidy an idea which 
 the-Apostle wished to impress on the minds of those to whom he 
 was writing; and to gain this object, he turns their attention to 
 the instructive fact, that the ancient saints of whom he had been 
 speaking continued believers as long as they continued in this 
 world. They lived believing, and they died believing. Vers. 
 13-16. "These all died in faith, not having received the pro- 
 mises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of 
 them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers 
 and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare 
 
64 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 plainly tliat they seek a couiitiy. And truly, if tliey had been 
 mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might 
 have had opportunity to have returned : but now they desire a 
 better country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore God is not 
 ashamed to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for them 
 a city." 
 
 The expression, " all these," does not refer to the whole of 
 the ancient saints mentioned in the previous context, for Enoch 
 never died at all ; and though Abel and Noah died, and died in 
 faith, yet from the 15th verse it is plain that the expression 
 refers only to the whole of the persons last mentioned as so- 
 journers in the land of Canaan, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and 
 Jacob. " They all died in faith-''' i.e., they all died believers — 
 they all died expecting the fulfilment of the divine promises. 
 They had lived in this faith, and they died in it. They had 
 not indeed "received the promises," i.e., the promised blessings. 
 They had not received the inheritance of Canaan — they had not 
 received the blessings connected with the coming of that illus- 
 trious descendant of Abraham, " in whom all the nations of the 
 earth were to be blessed;" but they saw these blessings " afar off," 
 i.e., they knew that at a future period — with regard to some of 
 them a distant period — the promise would certainly be fulfilled. 
 They " were persuaded of them." These words are not to be 
 found in the most valuable MSS., or in any of the ancient 
 versions or commentators, and are probably a comparatively 
 modern interpolation. They add nothing to the sense. They 
 merely give the meaning of the previous figurative expression, 
 they " saw them afar off,"^ and they " embraced them." They 
 were not only persuaded of the truth and certainty of the promises, 
 but also of the goodness of the things promised. The blessings 
 promised were the objects of their desire, esteem, and affection ; 
 and in consequence of this — in consequence of their placing their 
 chief affection on objects which they knew they were never to 
 enjoy in this world — they " confessed that they were strangers 
 and pilgrims on the earth." Abraham did so when he wished to 
 purchase, not an inheritance for himself living, but a sepulchre 
 
 ^ The iTTxyyi'hia.i^ the promised blessings, are represented as coasts which 
 the seafaring man descries at a distance. Virgil has a similar expression : 
 " Qimm procul obscures colles humilemque videmus 
 Italiam."— JS?i. iii. 522, 523. Tiioluck. 
 
PART II. 5 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 65 
 
 for himself and his fcamily when dead: "I am a strano-er and a 
 sojourner with you : give me a possession of a burying-placc with 
 you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight."^ Jacob made 
 the same confession to Pharaoh. He represents his own hfe 
 and the life of his fathers as a pilgrimage : " And Jacob said 
 unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimao-e are an 
 hundred and thirty years : few and evil have the days of the 
 years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of 
 the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrim- 
 age."^ This confession meant more than that they had not 
 yet obtained the earthly inheritance. Long after Israel had 
 entered into Canaan we find David saying, " Hear my prayer, 
 O Lord, and give ear unto my cry ; hold not Thy peace at my 
 tears : for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my 
 fathers were." " I am a stranger in the earth ; hide not Thy 
 commandments from me."^ We find him using this expression 
 not only for himself, but for the whole congi-egation of Israel : 
 " For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all 
 our fathers : oui' days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is 
 none abiding."* 
 
 That the confession, that " they were strangers and so- 
 journers," implied more than that they had not obtained that 
 inheritance which they yet firmly believed their posterity would 
 obtain, is plain from what follows: Ver. 14. "For they that 
 say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." 
 
 They who confess that they are " pilgrims and strangers on 
 the earth," and do so as long as they continue on the earth, by 
 doing so, plainly^ intimate that they are seeking a country which 
 is not on earth. 
 
 The word rendered " country" is very expressive. It is 
 exactly rendered by a word lately borrowed from the German, 
 and scarcely yet fully naturalized in our language, fatherland— 
 a country where a man's father dwells, which he possesses as 
 his own, and in which his children have a right to dwell with 
 him. Thus it is exactly opposed to a strange or foreign land. 
 That it was not their earthly fatherland that they were seeking, 
 
 ^ Gen. xxiii. 4. 2 Gen. xlvii. 9. 
 
 3 Ps. xxxix. 12, cxix. 19. < 1 Chrou. xxix. 15. 
 
 * e^ucpoivil^ovaiu — ' they did uot conceal it.' This is the word used by the 
 LXX., Isa. iii. 9, to render ^nriD ii!?. 
 
 YOL. 11. E 
 
66 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 is plain. Abraham at God's command had renounced that ; 
 "and indeed," ver. 15, "if they had been mindful of that coun- 
 try from whence they came out, they might have had oppor- 
 tunity to have returned." 
 
 The country of Terah, their father, where their natural rela- 
 tions had possessions, was Chaldea ; and if it had been it that 
 they were seeking, they might easily have returned to it. From 
 the call of Abraham to the death of Jacob-'was a space of 200 
 years. During this period they might easily have returned to 
 Chaldea. The distance was no obstacle. There does not seem 
 to have been any external obstruction. But they gave clear 
 evidence that they were not disposed to return. Abraham takes 
 an oath of his servant that he will not endeavour to induce Isaac 
 to return to that land. Jacob indeed went thither; but there he 
 would not stay, and through innumerable dangers returned to 
 Canaan. ' No,' says the Apostle ; ' they were indeed seeking a 
 country, but it was a better country, even a heavenly one.' 
 They looked for true happiness in a future state. They ex- 
 pected the complete fulfilment of the promise, " I will be thy 
 God," in heaven. 
 
 " Wherefore," or for this cause, " God is not ashamed to be 
 called their God ; for He hath prepared for them a city." God 
 had " prepared for them a city ;" i.e., in plain terms, ' God had 
 secured for them immutable, eternal happiness in heaven ;' and 
 because He had done so, He " was not ashamed to be called 
 their God." The idea here, I apprehend, is not the condescen- 
 sion on the part of God in taking the name of the God of the 
 patriarch, but the inconceivable glory and blessedness of that 
 final state which He has prepared for them. It is a glory and 
 happiness worthy of God to bestow on those who are the objects 
 of His peculiar love. In preparing such a city for them, and in 
 bringing them to it, He fully answers all the expectations which 
 His calling Himself their God, and calling them His people, 
 could awaken in their minds. When "brought home to glory," 
 every one of His people will be disposed to say, ' Now I under- 
 stand what is meant by the promise, " I will be thy God." He 
 has done all that He said ; He has done more than it ever could 
 have entered into my mind to conceive. He has no reason to 
 be ashamed when he calls Himself my God.' 
 
 These remarks of the Apostle (vers. 13-16), though in some 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. G7 
 
 measure a digression, are well fitted to gain his great object. 
 It is as if he had said, ' The grand ultimate object of the faith 
 and hope of the patriarchs was not Canaan, nor the blessings 
 of the external economy to be established there ; it was sub- 
 stantially the very same object which Christianity more clearly 
 holds out to our faith and hope — spiritual, eternal happiness 
 in the enjoyment of God in heaven.' Religion is materially 
 the same thing in all countries and ages. Are we in possession 
 of it? 
 
 Another very striking illustration of the efficacy of faith 
 in enabling to sustain a very severe trial, to perform a very 
 difficult duty, and to obtain a very important blessing, is con- 
 tained in the paragraph which follows, vers. 17-19. The pas- 
 sage of Old Testament history referred to is one of tlie most 
 interesting in the sacred volume. " And it came to pass after 
 these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, 
 Abraham. And he said. Behold, here I am. And He said, 
 Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and 
 get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a 
 burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee 
 of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled 
 his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his 
 son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and 
 went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the 
 third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar 
 off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here 
 with the ass ; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and 
 come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt- 
 offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son ; and he took the fire in 
 his hand, and a knife ; and they went both of them together. 
 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said. My father : 
 and he said. Here am I, my son. And he said. Behold the fire 
 and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? 
 And Abraham said. My son, God will provide Himself a lamb 
 for a burnt-offering : so they went both of them together. And 
 they came to the place which God had told him of ; and libraham 
 built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac 
 his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abra- 
 ham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 
 And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, 
 
68 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said. Here am I. And 
 He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou 
 anything unto him : for now I know that thou fearest God, 
 seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from 
 Me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold 
 behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns : and Abra- 
 ham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt- 
 offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name 
 of that place Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day. In the 
 mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And the Angel of the 
 Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and 
 said, By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord ; for because thou 
 hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only 
 son : that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I 
 will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the 
 sand which is upon the sea-shore ; and thy seed shall possess the 
 gate of his enemies : and in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
 earth be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed My voice." ^ Such 
 is the inspired narrative. 
 
 Let us now attend to the Apostle's inspired annotations. 
 ^' By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac : 
 and he that had received the promises offered up his only 
 begotten son, of whom it was said. That in Isaac shall thy 
 seed be called : accounting that God was able to raise him up, 
 even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a 
 figure." 
 
 The whole of the Apostle's statements are reducible to the 
 
 following propositions : — Abraham sustained a very severe trial ; 
 
 ) 
 
 1 Gen. xxii. 1-18. — The audacity of the German neological inter- 
 preters is amusingly displayed in the manner they dispose of this narrative. 
 " Canansei, inter quos Abrahamus degebat, homines et imprimis infantes 
 immolare solebant. Die quodam Patriarcha, cui persuasum esset hostias 
 humanas Deo abcminabiles esse, audierat vicinos deo Utasse hostiis humanis. 
 Ea quse vigilans cogitarat, somnium ipsi ita reddebat ut Gen. xxii. legimus, 
 et persuasionem ipsius, Deum ejus modi sacrificia detestari, graviter con- 
 firmabat. Somnium narrabat domesticis. Narratio ore propagata, quae in 
 somniis evenerant, vere evenisse tradebat, et ita Uteris consignabatur." — 
 Greverus, in Comm. Misc. Syntag., Oldenburg, 1794, p. 94. Whatever 
 Abraham did, there is no doubt this interpreter dreamed, when he wrote 
 this ; and unless men are themselves under the influence of the 'Kviv^ot, 
 KxruyiJ^iu;, Rom. xi. 8, they will but laugh at such dreamers and such 
 dreams. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 69 
 
 Abraham performed a very difficult duty ; Abraham obtained a 
 very important blessing ; and it was through belie\ang that he 
 did all this. It was his faith which enabled him thus to suffer, 
 thus to act, and thus to obtain. 
 
 Abraliam sustained a very severe trial. " He was tried." 
 In these words the Apostle obviously refers to the first verse of 
 the 22d chapter of Genesis. The words used, both in Genesis 
 and in the passage before us, signify, either ' to put to trial,' or 
 ' to tempt,' i.e., to solicit to sin ; and in order to know which of 
 these two senses it bears in any particular passage, it is neces- 
 sary to inquire what is the character of the agent who occasions 
 the trial or temptation, and the objects which he has in view. 
 Wherever God is represented as tempting men — as in the case 
 before us — the word is to be understood in the sense of trial. 
 " Let no man," says the Apostle James, " say, when he is 
 tempted" — i.e., plainly, to commit sin — " that he is tempted of 
 God : for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He 
 any man." He never deceives any man's judgment; He never 
 corrupts any man's affections ; He never does anything that can 
 make Him chargeable with the blame of men's sins. In the 
 case before us, Abraham was not solicited to sin ; but a trial 
 was made of the reality and of the strength of his principles 
 of faith and obedience. 
 
 When we speak of God's trying men, we are not to suppose 
 that He needs to discover by experiment what is their real cha- 
 racter. He knows what is in them before the trial, He knows 
 beforehand what will be the effect of the trial ; but He thus 
 makes men's characters known to themselves and to their fellow- 
 men, for ends worthy of His own infinite wisdom, righteousness, 
 and kindness. It also deserves to be noticed that the means 
 which God employs to prove His people are fitted to improve 
 them. The means He employs to discover the good that is in 
 them are calculated to increase and perfect it ; the means He 
 employs to discover the evil that is in them are calculated to 
 lessen and destroy it. The means of Abraham's trial was the 
 command recorded in the 2d verse of the 22d chapter of 
 Genesis. The commandment was given apparently in such a 
 manner as left Abraham no room to doubt that it was the 
 commandment of Jehovah. Without this, there had been no 
 sufficient ground for faith, or for the trial of faith. 
 
70 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 This trial of faith was perhaps as severe as ever was ex- 
 perienced. He is commanded to do a thing for which no reason 
 could be assigned but the will of Him who gave the command. 
 He is commanded to do what was most abhorrent to natural, 
 and to innocent, praiseworthy, natural feeling. He must not 
 only consent to the death of a son, but he must with his own 
 hand put him to death ; and he must do this, not while his 
 mind is warm and agitated by the divine communication, but 
 after an interval of some days, during the whole of which the 
 revolting deed, in all its horrors, must be before his mind. And 
 then such a son ! — the son of his old age — a son just at that time 
 of life when the opening faculties and affections made him an ob- 
 ject of peculiar fond regard to a father — a son, too, we have reason 
 to believe, of the most amiable dispositions and most engaging 
 manners. He is commanded to do what is, apparently, equally 
 inconsistent with the divine command and the divine promise. 
 The sacredness of human life was a principle very distinctly 
 stated in the revelation made to man after the deluge : " I 
 will require the life of man of the hand of his brother. Whoso- 
 ever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." 
 The apparent incongruity between such a statute and a com- 
 mand to put to death a human being who had been guilty of 
 no crime, was well fitted to try the reality and strength of 
 Abraham's faith. Besides, God had promised to Abraham a 
 numerous posterity, through whom the most important blessings 
 were to be communicated to mankind at large ; and it had been 
 distinctly stated to him, that "in Isaac his seed should be 
 called ;" i.e., that the posterity in reference to whom these 
 glorious predictions had been given forth, were to be the de- 
 scendants of Isaac. Isaac had yet no children ; and his death 
 at this period, in any circumstances, seemed to lay the grave- 
 stone on Abraham's hopes, rendering the accomplishment of 
 them altogether impossible. It is quite natural to suppose also 
 that such thoughts as the following would suggest themselves 
 to his mind : — ' How will Sarah bear this awful bereavement 1 
 Isaac's death in any circumstances would probably bring down 
 her grey hairs in sorrow to the grave. How will it be pos- 
 sible for me to inform her of this awful mandate, or, more 
 dreadful still, of that awful mandate having been executed? 
 What effect will this apparently most unnatural action have 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 71 
 
 on the minds of the surrounding inhabitants, who know not 
 Jehovah? Must they not account me a monster, and my 
 Divinity a demon?' 
 
 Such was the trial to which Abraham was exposed. But he 
 sustained the triah He yiekled obedience to the apparently 
 unreasonable and hard command. He performed the difficult 
 and all but impracticable duty. He " offered his son," says the 
 Apostle.^ We know that he did not actually slay his son and 
 burn his body; but he laid him on the altar, his hand was 
 lifted up to inflict the fatal blow, and the sacrificial pile was 
 prepared and ready to be lighted up. The sacrifice on the part 
 of Abraham was essentially offered up. Whatever inward 
 workings of natural affection there may have been, however 
 strange and unaccountable the command may have appeared to 
 him, Abraham seems never for a moment to have hesitated. He 
 rises early in the morning which succeeded the night when the 
 divine communication was made to him, makes the necessaiy 
 preparations, commences his journey, and loses no time in reach- 
 ing the spot which he believed destined for the fearful sacrifice ; 
 and even there, there is no trace of hesitation, or even reluctance 
 to execute the will of Jehovah in the immolation of a child in- 
 conceivably dear to him. Never was a human being, perhaps, 
 called to a more difficult duty ; and never, perhaps, was any 
 duty performed in a spirit of more perfect submission of mind 
 and heart to the will of God. 
 
 But Abraham is represented as not only sustaining a very 
 severe trial, and performing a very difficult duty, but as obtain- 
 ing a very important blessing. He receives his son from the 
 dead as " in a figure."^ It seems to me not probable that the 
 
 ^ 'jtpoai'j'ftvaxiv^ ' showed himself ready to offer :' John viii. 27, xiv. 17 ; 
 Acts xxi. 13. The word, like our English word offer, has a general mean- 
 ing, as well as the particular meaning of present in sacrifice. It is well 
 rendered by C. F. Schmid, " adduxit eum instar victirase." As Salvian 
 says, "quantum ad defunctionem cordis pertinet, immolavit.'' — De tjuhern. 
 Dei, lib. i. 
 
 2 ohv may be rendered either unde or quare : ' whence' — that is, sk 
 viKpuv—ov ' for which reason,' Itx vianu, manifested in his readiness to obey. 
 In the first sense it occurs. Matt. xiv. 7 ; Acts xxvi. 19, =1^ o5 ; in the 
 second, Heb. ii. 17, iii. 1, vii. 25, viii. 3, ix. 18. The Avords, »vti)» kxI h 
 -TTotpoilio'h.Yi iKOf^iffXTo, STQ amoug the IvavoYirx, 2 Pet. iii. 16. They admit, 
 and as a matter of course they have received, a great variety of interpreta- 
 tion. Most consider the words, tv ^ra^oa/SoAji, as meaning, ' in a similitude,' 
 
72 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 Apostle, In showing the influence of faith, not only in enabling 
 men to sustain trials and perform duties, but also to obtain 
 benefits, would neglect to avail himself of the very striking 
 illustration afforded by this very remarkable event. In Abra- 
 ham's estimation, and in his own, Isaac was as it were already 
 dead, and God as it were restored him from the dead. Isaac's 
 restoration to Abraham in these circumstances must have been 
 felt as a greater blessing than his bestowal at first, especially 
 when connected, as it was, with a most gracious declaration of 
 the divine approbation, and a renewal of the " exceeding great 
 and precious promises" which had been formerly made to 
 him. 
 
 Now the Apostle's assertion is, that it was by faith, or 
 through believing, that Abraham sustained this trial, performed 
 this duty, and obtained this benefit. Let us inquire into the 
 nature and extent of this influence of faith. 
 
 It was faith which enabled him to sustain the trial. Had 
 he not believed that God is infinitely wise, and powerful, and 
 faithful, and good ; and had he not believed that the command 
 to offer up his son came from God, as well as the promise that 
 in him sliould his seed be called, — had he not believed this, it 
 is obvious that he could not have sustained the trial to which 
 he was exposed ; and it is equally obvious that a sufficiently 
 
 ' as it were ;' but they explain this'siirdJitude variously. Some refer it to hia 
 having received Isaac in rij; vtKpSi; /ayirpx? 'S.d.ppxi, — from a mother as good as 
 dead. But the words seem to refer to something subsequent to his offering 
 Isaac— the reward of his offering him. Others consider it as saying that he 
 received Isaac as a type of his great descendant, who was to be really 
 offered, and really to rise from the dead. We should need a new revelation 
 to assure us that this is the meaning. Others, as an image or type of the 
 resurrection of the dead generally. This is equally unsupported ; it is 
 entirely arbitrary. Others have considered h ■TrupcclioT.Yi as = ' in circum- 
 stances of great danger,'— as if it were 'Trap £As-/oa ; but this is not satis- 
 factorily supported, though I find, to my surprise, Tholuck adopting this 
 view. Others consider h TrotpxIioT.yi as equivalent to — ' with an oracular 
 declaration,' and suppose the reference to be to the declaration made by God 
 to Abraham, Gen. xxii. 12, 16-18 ; and consider the use of the word 'Trupcc- 
 fio\')i as applied to Balaam's oracles. Num. xxiii. 7, 18, xxiv. 3, 16, 20, as 
 supporting this view of it. This is ingenious, but too ingenious to be 
 satisfactory,— ar<7M/:a, not simplex. By far the simplest and most satisfactory 
 interpretation adopted, is that which considers the words as = ' he received 
 him as it were,' quodammodo— not actually, but h Trctp^t^oM, h 6,uoii>- 
 uuTi — ' from the dead.' 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 73 
 
 firm faith in these truths was quite adequate to produce the 
 effects which we know were produced. 
 
 It was this which enabled him to perform a duty so pecu- 
 liarly difficult. Had he been weak in faith, he would have 
 doubted whether tAvo revelations, apparently inconsistent, could 
 come from the same God, or, if they did, whether such a God 
 ought to be trusted to or obeyed. But being strong in faith, ho 
 reasoned in this way : ' This is plainly God's command. I have 
 satisfactory evidence of that ; and therefore it ought to be imme- 
 diately and implicitly obeyed. I know Him to be infi-nitely wise 
 and righteous, and what Pie commands must be right. Obe- 
 dience to this command does indeed seem to throw obstacles in 
 the way of the fulfilment of a number of promises which God 
 has made to me. I am quite sure God has made these pro- 
 mises. I am quite sure that He will perform them. How He 
 is to perform them, I cannot tell. That is His province, not 
 mine. It is His to promise, and mine to believe — His to com- 
 mand, and mine to obey — His to bestow blessings, and mine to 
 receive them ; but I am persuaded that, sooner than let these pro- 
 mises fail of accomplishment, God will reanimate the ashes of 
 my Isaac, and that in him, though offered up as a burnt-offer- 
 ing, my seed shall yet be called.' He was persuaded " that 
 God was able even to raise him from the dead." You thus see 
 how it was through believing that Abraham performed this very 
 difficult duty. 
 
 It is equally plain that it was through believing that Abra- 
 ham obtained the great blessing of receiving his beloved Isaac, 
 as " in a figure," from the dead. This important favour was 
 conferred on Abraham as the gracious reward of his believing. 
 It was indeed the reward of his submission and obedience ; but 
 that submission and obedience were the result of his believing. 
 
 The bearing which this statement has on the Apostle's object 
 is direct and obvious. The Christian Hebrews were exposed to 
 severe trials, called to difficult duties, and they had promises 
 made to them which, if they " consulted with flesh and blood," 
 they must have supposed were not very likely ever to be per- 
 formed. How are these trials to be endured, these duties to be 
 perfonned, these benefits to be obtained ? Look to Abraham. 
 Are your trials more severe than his? are your duties more 
 difficult than his ? are the blessings you look for less likely to be 
 
74 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29 
 
 conferred on you than the blessings which were promised to him, 
 and which in due time were all performed to him ? How did 
 he sustain the trial? how did he perform the duty? how did he 
 obtain the blessing ? By believing. " Go ye and do likewise." 
 Without faith, any trial becomes insupportable, any duty be- 
 comes impracticable. With faith, no trial is insupportable, no 
 duty is impracticable ; nay, every trial, every duty, is easy. Of 
 such infinite importance is it that we believe, and persevere in 
 believing. A very natural practical reflection from what has 
 been said is, that Christians should not be afraid of trials, nor 
 backward to submit to them, when God calls them to it. Abra- 
 ham's trial, though as severe a one as any saint ever met with, 
 was meant in kindness, and in effect was conducive both to his 
 spiritual improvement and to his true happiness. Who would 
 not willingly endure Abraham's trial to obtain Abraham's re- 
 ward ? Trials are necessary to the saint in the present state. 
 There is a ' need be' that we be " in heaviness through manifold 
 trials." Yet ought Christians " to count it all joy when they 
 are brought into manifold trials, knowing that the trying of 
 faith worketh patience," or rather perseverance. " Tribulation 
 worketh patience ; patience, experience ; and experience, hope." 
 " No chastisement for the present is joyous, but grievous ; but 
 it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are 
 exercised thereby." " The trial of our faith, which is more 
 precious than that of gold, will be found to glory and honour at 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Let us never forget, 
 however, that, in order to our trials being useful to us, they 
 must be endured in faith. " Our afflictions will work out for us 
 a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory, if" — but 
 only if — " we look not at the things which are seen and temporal, 
 but at the things which are unseen and eternal." No spiritual 
 child of Abraham need expect an exemption from trials — from 
 severe trials. These are not to be courted, but neither are they 
 to be sinfully shunned. They are to be submitted to in a 
 humble dependence on Him who supported and strengthened 
 Abraham, and who says to all His people in their trials, " My 
 grace is sufficient for you ; My strength shall be made perfect 
 in weakness." A firm faith in this will carry us through the 
 severest trials triumphantly ; and "we shall be made more than 
 conquerors through Him that loves us." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 75 
 
 We have three new witnesses brought forward to the iin 
 portance of faith, in the 20th, 21st, and 22d verses — Isaac, 
 Jacob, and Joseph. " By faitli Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau 
 concerning things to come. By faitli Jacob, when he was a 
 dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph ; and worshipped, loan- 
 ing upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, 
 made mention of the departing of the children of Israel ; and 
 gave commandment concerning his bones." 
 
 The general principle contained in these statements seems 
 to be this : Faith enabled Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph to do 
 what otherwise they could not have done — to pronounce pro- 
 phetic benedictions on their posterity, which in succeeding ages 
 were accurately accomplished. Now, fully to apprehend the 
 meaning and design of the Apostle's statements, it will be neces- 
 sary that we first attend to the facts to which he refers — to what 
 Isaac and Jacob did ; then show how it was through believing 
 that they did what they did ; and, lastly, point out the manner 
 in which this illustrates the importance of faith, and serves the 
 Apostle's object — the placing in a clear point of light the neces- 
 sity of the Hebrew Christians persevering in the faith of the 
 Gospel, notwithstanding all the temptations to apostasy to which 
 they were exposed. 
 
 The facts to which the Apostle refers in the 20th verse are 
 recorded in the 27th chapter of the book of Genesis. " And it 
 came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, 
 so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said 
 unto him, My son. And he said unto him. Behold, here am I. 
 And he said. Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my 
 death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy 
 quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some 
 venison ; and make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring 
 it to me, that I may eat ; that my soul may bless thee before I 
 die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. 
 And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 
 And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I 
 heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me 
 venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless 
 thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, 
 obey my voice, according to that which I command thee. Go 
 now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the 
 
76 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 goats ; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such 
 as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he 
 may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And 
 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother. Behold, Esau my brother is 
 a hairy man, and I am a smooth man : my father peradventm'e 
 will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver ; and I shall 
 bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother 
 said unto him. Upon me be thy curse, my son ; only obey my 
 voice, and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched, and 
 brought them to his mother : and his mother made savoury 
 meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly 
 raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the 
 house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son. And she 
 put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon 
 the smooth of his neck. And she gave the savoury meat and 
 the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son 
 Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father. 
 And he said, Here am I ; who art thou, my son ? And Jacob 
 said unto his father, I am Esau thy first-born ; I have done ac- 
 cording as thou badest me : arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my 
 venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his 
 son. How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son ? And 
 he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And 
 Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel 
 thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And 
 Jacob went near unto Isaac his father ; and he felt him, and 
 said. The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of 
 Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were 
 hairy, as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. And 
 he said, Art thou my very son Esau ? And he said, I am. And 
 he said. Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, 
 that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, 
 and he did eat : and he brought him wine, and he drank. And 
 his father Isaac said unto him. Come near now, and kiss me, 
 my son. And he came near, and kissed him : and he smelled 
 the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said. See, the 
 smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath 
 blessed : therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the 
 fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine : let people 
 serve thee, and nations bow down to thee : be lord over thy 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 77 
 
 brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee : cursed 
 be every one that em'seth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth 
 thee. And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end 
 of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the 
 presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from 
 his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought 
 it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, 
 and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. And 
 Isaac his father said unto him. Who art thou 1 And he said, I 
 am thy son, thy first-born, Esau. And Isaac trembled very ex- 
 ceedingly, and said. Who "? where is he that hath taken venison, 
 and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, 
 and have blessed him ? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when 
 Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and 
 exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father. Bless me, even 
 me also, O my father ! And he said. Thy brother came with 
 subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said. Is 
 not he rightly named Jacob ? for he hath supplanted me these 
 two times : he took away my birthright ; and, behold, now he 
 hath taken away my blessing. And he said. Hast thou not re- 
 served a blessing for me *? And Isaac answered and said unto 
 Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren 
 have I given to him for servants ; and with corn and wine have 
 I sustained him : and what shall I do now unto thee, my son 1 
 And Esau said unto his father. Hast thou but one blessing, my 
 father ? bless me, even me also, O my father ! And Esau lifted 
 up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his father answered and 
 said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the 
 earth, and of the dew of heaven from above ; and by thy sword 
 shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to 
 pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break 
 his yoke from off thy neck."^ Thus " Isaac blessed Jacob and 
 Esau concerning things to come ;" i.e., he pronounced a pro- 
 phetic benediction^ — for that is the import of the original word 
 — first on Jacob, and then on Esau, in reference to events which 
 were to take place in future ages. The blessing pronounced on 
 Jacob runs in these terms (vers. 28, 29) : " God give thee of the 
 dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn 
 and wine : let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee : 
 ' Gen, xxvii. 1-40. ^ ivhoyuv. 
 
78 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 be- lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to 
 thee : cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that 
 blesseth thee." The blessing pronounced on Esau runs thus : 
 " Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of 
 the dew of heaven from above ; and by thy sword shalt thou 
 live, and shalt serve thy brother ; and it shall come to pass, when 
 thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke 
 from off thy neck." Both these prophetic benedictions respect- 
 ing "things to come" were in due time fully and minutely 
 realized. Such are the facts of the case as to Isaac. 
 
 Now the question naturally occurs. How was it hy faith 
 that Isaac pronounced these benedictions ? Xhe answer to that 
 question is : A revelation was made to the mind of Isaac by 
 God respecting the events which were to occur to his descend- 
 ants in future times. Isaac firmly believed this revelation ; and 
 it was his faith in this revelation that led him to utter these pro- 
 phetic benedictions. In ordinary circumstances, no wise man 
 will be very minute or very confident in his statements respect- 
 ing future events. But we see Isaac, believing the divine 
 revelation, speaking with perfect confidence and with great 
 minuteness "concerning things to come;" and we see also the 
 event justifying the confidence with which he spoke. Though 
 the events were, some of them, of a very improbable kind, — such 
 as that the children of one who was but a stranger and sojourner, 
 having no property but a burying-place, were to be numerous 
 and powerful nations, — yet Isaac, believing that the revelation 
 came from God, and having no doubt respecting the power 
 and the faithfulness of the Revealer, unhesitatingly uttered the 
 prediction. 
 
 There is indeed a difficulty connected with this subject, that 
 is likely to suggest itself to the reflecting mind, arising out of 
 the circumstance, that Isaac conceived that he was pronouncing 
 a benediction on Esau when he uttered Jacob's blessing. The 
 difficulty is more apparent than real. The revelation made to 
 Isaac's mind was, that the events to which that benediction re- 
 fers were to take place respecting the posterity of the individual 
 who was now before him. That was Jacob, though Isaac sup- 
 posed him Esau. And that this was the truth, is plain from the 
 fact, that when Isaac discovered his mistake, he does not say, 
 ^ The blessing was originally intended for Esau, and therefore will 
 
PART ir. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 79 
 
 be his, though through my mistake it was pronounced over his 
 brother;' but he says, "I have blessed him, and he shall be 
 blessed;" — plainly intimating two things : that in the revelation 
 made to him, the reference was to the person before him ; and 
 that in uttering it, he merely declared the will and determination 
 of Him " whose counsel shall stand, and who will do all Ilis 
 pleasure." The whole transaction is a striking proof of what 
 the Apostle says, " The prophecy of old time came not by the 
 will of man, but holy men spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost." Isaac had too firm a faith in the unalterableness 
 of the divine determinations to suppose for a moment that his 
 private affection could transfer the superior blessing from his 
 younger to his elder son. 
 
 The next inquiry that suggests itself is. How does this state- 
 ment, that " by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning 
 things to come," subserve the Apostle's object — the impressing 
 on the minds of the Hebrew Christians the importance and ne- 
 cessity of their persevering in faith in order to their performing 
 their duties, enduring their trials, and obtaining their inherit- 
 ance as Christians ? It plainly illustrates this general principle : 
 ' Faith can enable a man to do what nothing else could enable 
 him to do. What but faith in a divine revelation could have 
 enabled Isaac, or any man, to utter predictions referring to dis- 
 tant ages, which predictions were in due time accurately ful- 
 filled?' The Hebrew Christians were called on to act, and 
 suffer, and expect, in a way which nothing but faith could 
 enable them to do. They were required to " deny themselves, 
 take up their cross, and follow Christ;" they were required to 
 "forsake father, and mother, and houses, and lands;" they 
 were required to " cut off right hands, and to pluck out right 
 eyes ;" and they were called on, amid all this, to cherish an un- 
 suspecting dependence on the divine peculiar kindness, and an 
 unclouded hope of gloiy, honour, and immortality. To do all 
 this, was really, in a moral sense, as far out of their power as 
 the prediction of future events, in a physical sense, was out of 
 the power of Isaac. But as a faith in the revelation made to 
 Isaac enabled him to do what otherwise he could not have done, 
 so a faith in the revelation made to them would enable them to 
 do what otherwise they could not have done. If they, know- 
 ing who and what Jesus Christ is — knowing His power, and His 
 
80 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 wisdom, and His faithfulness — firmly believed what He has said, 
 that "whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have 
 everlasting life ;" that whosoever denies Him shall be denied 
 by Him, and whosoever confesses Him shall be confessed by 
 Him, in the presence of His Father and the holy angels ; that 
 " it is the Father's good pleasure to give His people the king- 
 dom," — if they firmly believed this revelation, they would be 
 enabled to do things as far exceeding the unassisted powers of 
 man as predicting future events is — they would be brought under 
 " the powers of the world to come," and be enabled to act, and to 
 suffer, and to hope as " seeing the God that is invisible," and 
 the world that is " unseen and eternal." 
 
 And as Isaac could not possibly have without faith pro- 
 phetically blessed his children " concerning things to come," so 
 neither could they without faith persevere in doing and suffer- 
 ing the will of God, and in looking for the mercy of God unto 
 eternal life. Such, so far as I have been able to apprehend, is 
 the force of the fact stated in the 20tli verse, as affording an 
 illustration of the importance of faith, and suggesting a motive 
 to the Hebrew Christians to persevere in believing. 
 
 The next facts brought forward are quite of the same Idnd : 
 — " By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the 
 sons of Joseph ; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his 
 staff." " Jacob, when a dying," or drawing near death — when 
 on his deathbed — like his father Isaac, under the influence of 
 the Spirit of prediction, uttered prophetic benedictions respect- 
 ing his posterity. 
 
 It is the ingenious conjecture of a learned interpreter, that 
 the words, " of Joseph," did not originally belong to this verse, 
 but were introduced by an early transcriber from the begin- 
 ning of the next verse ; and that the statement made by the 
 inspired writer is, " Jacob, when dying, blessed each of his 
 children." This certainly agrees with what we know to be the 
 fact. He pronounced prophetic benedictions on all his children, 
 which in the future history of their descendants were remark- 
 ably realized. He called his sons to him, and said, " Gather 
 yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in 
 the last days." You have a record of these prophetic benedic- 
 tions in the 49tli chapter of Genesis. And these were given 
 " when a dying," in the strictest sense of the word ; for " when 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. ftl 
 
 he had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up 
 his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered 
 to liis people." 
 
 At the same time, this, though an ingenious conjecture, is but 
 a conjecture. The fact, as it is stated by the Apostle, agrees also 
 with the history ; and the mere circumstance of our thinking it 
 more likely that he should refer to the blessing of all his chil- 
 dren than to the blessing of Joseph's children, is no sufficient 
 reason, in opposition to the uniform testimony of MSS. and 
 versions, to conclude that there has been a change in the text. 
 Considering, then, the present reading as correct, the facts re- 
 ferred to are these, recorded in the 48th chapter of Genesis. 
 When Joseph heard that his father was sick, he went to visit him, 
 along with his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. The history of their 
 benediction cannot be so well told as in the words of the inspired 
 historian : — " And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who 
 are these ? And Joseph said unto his father. They are my sons, 
 whom God hath given me in this place. And he said. Bring 
 them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. (Now the eyes 
 of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see.) And he 
 brought them near unto him ; and he kissed them, and embraced 
 them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy 
 face ; and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed, And Joseph 
 brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself 
 with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim 
 in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and ]\Ianasseh in 
 his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them 
 near unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and 
 laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left 
 hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly ; for 
 Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph, and said, 
 God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the 
 God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel 
 which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; and let my 
 name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham 
 and Isaac ; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of 
 the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right 
 hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him : and he held 
 up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto 
 Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my 
 VOL. II. F 
 
82- EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 father : for tliis Is the first-born ; put thy right hand upon his 
 head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I 
 know it : he also shall become a people, and he also shall be 
 great ; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, 
 and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he 
 blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, 
 God make thee as Ephraim, and as Manasseh. And he set 
 Ephraim before Manasseh."^ 
 
 The words which the Apostle adds regarding Jacob, " and 
 worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff," have by some been 
 supposed merely to describe the circumstances in which the 
 benediction of Ephraim and Manasseh was given. But we 
 apprehend they refer to a different fact altogether, in which 
 the power of faith was illustriously displayed. The fact re- 
 ferred to is recorded in the 47th chapter of Genesis. " And the 
 time drew nigh that Israel must die : and he called his son 
 Joseph, and said unto him. If now I have found grace in thy 
 sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal 
 kindly and truly with me ; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt : 
 but I will lie with my fathers ; and thou shalt carry me out of 
 Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place. And he said, I will 
 do as thou hast said. And he said. Swear unto me. And he sware 
 unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head."^ 
 
 To remove the appearance of discrepancy which exists be- 
 tween the words of Moses and of Paul, it is but necessary to 
 remark, that the word translated, to how hhnself, often signifies 
 ' to worship,' as bowing a person's self is an ordinary token or 
 sign of religious worship ; and that the word rendered " bed " 
 by our translators in Genesis, and " staff " here, is a word which, 
 according to the manner in which it is pointed, has the one or 
 other of these significations.^ The question is between the ac- 
 curacy of the ^lasoretic punctuation, and the version of the 
 LXX. and the Apostle's quotation. 
 
 1 Gen. xlviii. 8-20. ^ Qen. xlvii. 29-31. 
 
 ^ Great respect is due to the Masoretic punctuation, as generally the re- 
 cord of the aucient interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures ; but, as Mr 
 Stuart justly remarks, " that the present vowel-points of the Hebrew do not 
 in every case give the most probable sense of the original, will not appear 
 strange to any one who reflects that they were introduced after the fifth 
 century of our present era. All enhghtened critics of the present day dis- 
 claim the idea that they are authoritative," 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 83; 
 
 The reference does not seem to me to be so much to the fact 
 taken by itself, as in connection with the other facts -with 
 which it is related in the sacred narrative. The words were in- 
 tended to bring the whole scene before the mind, and in this 
 way are equivalent to — ' Jacob, when dying, by faith expressed 
 an earnest desire to be buried in the land of promise ; and on 
 receiving satisfactory assurance that this wish would be com- 
 plied with, testified his firm confidence in the promise — a belief 
 in which excited this desire — by worshipping, bending over his 
 staff, which was necessary to support his now enfeebled frame.' ^ 
 
 These are the facts : now let us see how it was hy faith that 
 Jacob did these things. The whole of the illustrations respect- 
 ing Isaac's benediction of his sons, are plainly equally applicable 
 to Jacob's benediction of his sons or grandsons. A revelation 
 was made to Jacob's mind respecting their future fortunes ; he 
 believed it ; and his faith in this revelation enabled him to da 
 what otherwise lie could not have done — predict what was to 
 happen to his descendants through a long series of generations. 
 With regard to the second fact : it plainly was Jacob's faith in 
 the promise that Canaan was to be the inheritance of his 
 posterity, and in tlie other promises connected with this, that led 
 him to wdsh to be buried there^ and not in the land of Egypt. 
 The ordering that he should take enfeoffment of it, as it were, 
 by his dead body, was a very strong expression of his full per- 
 suasion that in due time his posterity should, according to the 
 
 ^ The fact is mentioned not only as a picturesque one, bringing the 
 whole scene before the mind of the reader, but as intimating that even in 
 the last extremity of human feebleness Jacob "continued strong in faith, 
 giving glory to God." It is scarcely credible how much absurdity has been 
 taught about this act of worship. Some of the Fathers, Schoetgen says, 
 have " pie magis quam docte " written on this subject : really we cannot help 
 thinking their piety and learning on the subject much on a level. Hear the 
 drivelling nonsense which flows from the pen of one of them: — "Jacob 
 Patriarcha, fihis suis benedicturus, nonne, paullulum se attollens e lecto, in 
 quo recubabat, Kcd l-irl to oix.pov rii; p»0Oov uvrou s'Triarriptx^eii, et in summo 
 sive extremo baculi, qui crucem pretiosam signijicabat^ innixus,.£i/ ru arccvpovu 
 ret; x^'P^^i xi/rov^ ovto; si/hoyii ctvrovs, manus crucis in modum componendo, 
 sic ipsis fausta et felicia precabatur?" — Gkigentu'S Sepurenensis, in dis- 
 putatione cum Herhano Judxo. A likely method indeed this to convert the 
 Jews ! Others insist that there was a cross on the top of the staff, and that 
 the patriarch worshipped it. Surely men were given up to " strong de- 
 lusions," who could believe this. 
 
84 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 divine promise, possess it as an inheritance ; and the pious ex- 
 pression of his satisfaction at obtaining security that this would 
 be done, was a very becoming manner of testifying his full con- 
 fidence in the divine promise. 
 
 The manner in which the first of these facts is calculated to 
 serve the Apostle's purpose has been already explained. The 
 manner in which the last of them does so may be thus stated : 
 * Faith enabled Jacob, when dying in Egypt, at a distance from 
 Canaan, when all his family were in Egypt, and when there 
 was nothing that looked like their returning to Canaan, firmly to 
 expect, and to give clear evidence of his expecting, the fulfilment 
 of the promise respecting that land being the inheritance of his 
 posterity. Nothing but faith could have enabled him to do so. 
 Faith, and nothing but faith, can enable you, amid events which 
 seem to make the fulfilment of the promises made to you all 
 but an impossibility, firmly to expect their accomplishment, and 
 exhibit satisfactory evidence that you hold fast that confidence 
 which has gi'eat recompense of reward.' 
 
 The next fact brought forward refers to Joseph, and is nearly 
 of the same kind as those which we have just been illustrating. 
 Ver. 22. "By faith Joseph, when he died"^ — i.e., when on his 
 deathbed — " made mention of the departing of the children of 
 Israel ; and gave commandment concerning his bones." There 
 are two facts stated here respecting Joseph. Of both we have 
 the record in the 50th chapter of Genesis : " And Joseph said 
 unto his brethren, I die ; and God will surely visit you, and 
 bring you out of this land unto the land which He sware to 
 Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 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." ^ Joseph predicted the 
 exodus of the children of Israel. He believed the promises 
 made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that Canaan should be 
 the possession of their posterity ; he believed the promise made 
 to Jacob immediately before he came into Egypt, — " And He 
 said, I am God, the God of thy father : fear not to go down 
 into Egypt ; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I 
 will go down with thee into Egypt ; and I will also surely bring 
 thee up again : and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes ;"^ 
 
 ^ Ti'hiVTuv : the complete expression, tsX. /3/o». 
 2 Gen. 1. 2-i, 25. ^ q^^^ jiyi. 3, 4. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 85 
 
 — and it is not at all unlikely that a direct revelation had been 
 made to himself on the subject. As a proof of his faith in the 
 divine promises, " he gave commandment concerning his bones ;" 
 — he took an oath of his brethren, that they should convey his 
 remains to the land of promise. 
 
 We have already, by anticipation, said all that is necessary 
 to show how these things were done by faith, and how their 
 being done by faith is an illustration of the importance of faith, 
 and in this way well fitted to serve the Apostle's purpose, as a 
 motive to the Hebrew Christians to believe, and to persevere 
 in believing — to live believing, and to die believing. Many of 
 these displays of faith which have come under our review, have 
 been given towards the close of life, or in the article of death. 
 It is a question of deep interest to us all. Have we a faith 
 which will support us amid the frailties of age, amid the debili- 
 ties or the agonies of dissolving nature ? AYe all pi'ofess faith 
 now: the hour which is to try whether we possess it or not is 
 fast approaching. The reality and the strength of our faith 
 must by and by — God only knows how soon — be put to a severe 
 trial. Ah ! how many, who thought they had faith in health, 
 find they liave none in sickness ; and how many, who thought 
 their faith strong, find then that it is indeed but " as a grain 
 of mustard-seed!" Let us now, by seeking clear, distinct, 
 extended views of Christian truth and its evidence, " lay up 
 a good foundation for the time to come, that we may lay hold 
 on eternal life." Nothing but the faith of the Gospel can 
 enable a rationally thinking man to enter with composure and 
 delight into the unseen world. It is the faith of the Gospel, 
 and that alone, which can enable the expiring mortal to exult in 
 the dissolution of " the earthly house of this tabernacle," and 
 say, " O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
 victory?" 
 
 In the paragraph which follows, we have a further illustra- 
 tion of the importance of faith, drawn first from the conduct of 
 Moses' parents, and then from the conduct of !Moses himself. 
 The illustration drawn from the conduct of Moses' parents is 
 contained in the 23d verse : " By faith Moses, when he was 
 born, was hid three months of his parents,^ because they saw he 
 
 1 Uotripi; is used for both parents, as Euripides uses (ictairivai for 
 Admetus and his queen. 
 
86 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 was a proper child ; and they were not afraid of the king's com- 
 mandment." Here, as in the preceding illustrations, I shall 
 first attend to what Moses' parents did ; then show how they did 
 it by faith ; and then point out the bearing of this illustration 
 on the Apostle's great object — the fortifying of the believing 
 Hebrews against the temptations to apostasy to which they were 
 exposed. 
 
 The facts, as we learn from the 2d chapter of Exodus, were 
 these : — Some time before the birth of Moses, the king of Egypt, 
 alarmed at the rapid multiplication of the Israelites, issued an 
 edict that every male child born among them should be put to 
 death. On Moses being born, his parents, Amram and Joche- 
 bed, instead of complying with this atrocious enactment, con- 
 cealed him for three months ; and while they showed by con- 
 cealing him that in one sense they were afraid of the king's 
 commandment — ^as they knew, if they were discovered, that both 
 his life and theirs would have been sacrificed to the tyrant's re- 
 sentment, — yet they were not so afraid of the king's command- 
 ment as to purchase security, as it is to be feared too many did, 
 by becoming to a certain degree accessory to the murder of their 
 children. The remarkable beauty of the child, which is noticed 
 by Stephen, and particularly described by Josephus, is here re- 
 presented as having had its influence over the minds of his 
 parents, in rendering them solicitous for his preservation : "They 
 saw that he was a joroper^' ^ — rather, beautiful — " child." 
 
 But, though not insensible to the force of such natural prin- 
 ciples, their conduct is chiefly to be traced to a higher principle. 
 It was by faith that they did all this. A considerable number 
 of good expositors consider this as just equivalent to — ' In the 
 exercise of trust in God, they acted in this way. They knew 
 that, in endeavouring to protect their infant child, they were but 
 doing their duty ; and they, trusting in the divine righteousness 
 and benignity, expected that they would be protected in the 
 discharge of this duty.' This is, however, to depart from the 
 meaning which the Apostle has given to the word " faith," as 
 " confidence respecting things hoped for, conviction respecting 
 things unseen," founded on an express revelation of the divine 
 
 ^ A child not maimed or sickly, but who looked well and likely to live : 
 = the Heb. i^n nit2, 1 Sam. xvi. 12 ; dyx06s rji ©>««/, LXX. Stephen 
 represents him as daruoi ru ©ew, Acts vii. 20. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 87 
 
 will. I have no doubt that the word has here the same mean- 
 ing as in the other parts of the chapter, and that the Apostle's 
 statement is, that it was Moses' parents believing a divine re- 
 velation that enabled them to act as they did. But the question 
 naturally occurs. What revelation of the divine will did they be- 
 lieve ? It is highly probable, not only that they were acquainted 
 with the divine, frequently repeated, promises respecting the 
 numerous posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their pos- 
 session of Canaan as an inheritance, and with the divine oracle 
 respecting their deliverance in the fourth generation from that 
 country in which they were to suffer so many hardships ; but 
 I cannot help thinking that there is a reference to a more par- 
 ticular revelation, made to the parents of Moses themselves. We 
 have no account of any such revelation being made in the book 
 of Exodus ; but we know that many events, and many events 
 of importance, took place which are not recorded in Scripture. 
 We know that, at the time this Epistle was written, it was the 
 common faith of the Jews that such a revelation had been made. 
 Josephus, in his " Antiquities of the Jews," Book ii. chap, v., 
 expressly states, that a divine communication was made to 
 Amram during the pregnancy of Jochebed, that the child about 
 to be born was to be the deliverer of his nation from Egyptian 
 tyranny. There is nothing in Scripture inconsistent with this. 
 Though we have no account in Scripture of an express revela- 
 tion made as to sacrifice, we conclude, from its being said that 
 it was " by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than 
 Cain," that such a revelation was made ; and on the same prin- 
 ciple, I cannot help considering the Apostle as here giving sanc- 
 tion to the commonly received belief of the Jews on this subject, 
 and stating that it was the faith of Moses' parents in this re- 
 velation that led them to act as they did, in preserving their 
 infant's life at the risk of their own. 
 
 In this view of the matter, everything is plain. Had Amram 
 and Jochebed not believed the divine declaration, it is probable 
 that they would have acted as many others did, and, fearing the 
 king's commandment, have secured their own lives by allowing 
 the birth of their infant son to be known, which would have led 
 to his destruction ; but believing that the declaration came from 
 God, and believing His power and faithfulness, they took a 
 course which to the eye of sense seemed full of hazard, but 
 
88 EPISTLE TO THE HEBEEWS. [CHAP. X< 19-XII. 29. 
 
 which, through their believing, they knew to he the path of secU- 
 ritj as well as of duty. 
 
 The bearing of this on the Apostle's object is direct and 
 obvious. The Hebrew Christians were required to follow a 
 course full of difficulties and hazards ; but if, like Amram and 
 Jochebed, they believed that it was a course prescribed by God, 
 and prescribed, too, as the means of the accomplishment of 
 "exceeding great and precious promises," their faith would 
 raise them above the influence of fear, and make what seemed 
 at first impossible, not only practicable, but easy. 
 
 Though it is not particularly mentioned, there can scarcely 
 be any doubt that it w^as under the divine direction that Moses' 
 parents not only concealed him for three months, but at the ex- 
 piration of this period had recourse to tlie plan which they 
 adopted, by preparing for the infant deliverer of Israel a little 
 ark of bulrushes, and laying him among the flags by the side of 
 the Nile. The Jewish historian already referred to expressly 
 says, that in doing so, they determined rather to entrust the care 
 of the child to God than to depend on their own concealment of 
 him, whereby both themselves and the child should be in imminent 
 danger ; but they believed that God would in some way for cer- 
 tain procure the safety of the child, in order to secure the truth 
 of His own predictions. Whether we consider the conduct of 
 the parents of Moses as the consequence of a belief in a second 
 express revelation, or of such believing reasonings on the former 
 revelation, it is a very striking demonstration of the power of 
 faith. When constrained by the necessity of circumstances, or 
 called by an express declaration of the divine will, they place 
 their infant — peculiarly dear to them from the hazards they had 
 already run for him, and the important interests which were 
 bound up in his life — in circumstances of apparently great 
 danger, assuredly believing that "He was faithful who had 
 promised," and that Moses was as safe in the ark of bulrushes 
 on the banks of the Nile, as he could have been in his mother's 
 bosom, in some peaceful cottage far removed beyond the power 
 of the cruel Egyptian king. 
 
 If the first part of the history strikingly illustrates the power 
 of faith in enabling men to sustain severe trials and perform 
 difficult duties, the sequel of it equally illustrates its power in en- 
 abling them to obtain important benefits. The expectations of 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 89 
 
 Amram and Jocliebed, founded on tlieir faith in a divine re- 
 velation, were not disappointed. ]\Ioses' life was preserved, and 
 lie was brought into the circumstances most favourable for his 
 being trained up for the important work to which he was 
 destined. The faith of Amram and Jochebed was richly re- 
 warded, when they saw their son enjoying all the advantages of 
 the most accomplished education which Egypt could supply, and, 
 through the wonderful providence of Jehovah, that power which 
 had meditated his destruction, employed for his welfare, and, in 
 being so employed, preparing the means of its own overthrow. 
 
 The history of Moses' infancy, as an illustration of the faith 
 of his parents, is thus admirably fitted to serve the Apostle's 
 object. It illustrates his general principle : ' Persevering faith 
 will do what nothing else can : it will enable you to do and suifer 
 all the will of God, and, after having done so, to receive the 
 promise.' You may be called to trials and duties as difficult and 
 severe as those of Amram or Jochebed, — you may be called to 
 what will expose your life, and what may be dearer to you than 
 your life, to extreme danger ; but a faith in the Gospel will pre- 
 vent you from shrinking from the task assigned you — will sup- 
 port you while engaged in it, while He in whom you believe 
 will render even these difficulties and hazards the very means of 
 securing for you the great end of your faith, and the great object 
 of your hope — the salvation of your souls. 
 
 We are now to direct our attention to the still more re- 
 markable display of the importance of faith afforded by the con- 
 duct of Moses himself. Ver. 24. "By faith Moses, when he 
 was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
 daughter : 25. Choosinf!; rather to suffer affliction with the 
 people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; 
 26. Esteeming the repi'oach of Christ greater riches than the 
 treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto the recompense of 
 the reward." ^ We shall first attend to the account of INIoses' 
 conduct, and then show how his conduct was influenced by his 
 
 1 In some codd. the following words are inserted between verse 23 and 
 verse 2-i : vlani i^iyctc; yiuof^ivog ^Uwar,; a.vu'Kiu rov A/yi/xr/oi/, KctTcivouv rtiv 
 ToiTruveaatv ruu ocoihUpuv xvtov. Mill considers the words as genuine; but 
 they are not by any means sufficiently supported. The repetition of -Trlarft 
 M. ^. y. is very unlike the concinnity of the writer of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. It seems to have been added by some transcriber from Acts vii. 24. 
 
90 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, [CHAP. X. 19-XIL 29. 
 
 faith. We shall first inquire what he did, and then show that 
 it was by faith that he did it. 
 
 " When he came to years, he refused to be called the son of 
 Pharaoh's daughter ; " he " chose rather to suffer affliction with 
 the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a sea- 
 son ; " and he " esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches 
 than the treasures of Egypt." The phrase, " when he was come 
 to years," literally signifies, Svhen he became great;' and, taken 
 by itself, might refer to that elevated station in society to which 
 Moses was raised in the Egyptian court. It seems, however, 
 plainly contrasted with the phrase, " when he was born," in the 
 23d verse, and is just equivalent to, ' when he arrived at matu- 
 rity.'^ " He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." 
 On Moses being found by this princess in the ark of bulrushes 
 on the banks of the Nile, moved with compassion, she seems to 
 have resolved immediately to take charge of the infant ; and ac- 
 cordingly the charge she gave to his mother, who providentially 
 became his nurse, was, " Take this child, and nurse it for me, 
 and I will give you your wages." It might very probably then 
 be her intention to educate him as her slave, or for some of the 
 ordinary' professions ; but, on his being brought back by his 
 mother, she was so much delighted with the beautiful child, 
 that she resolved to adopt him as her own, — " he became her 
 son ;" and as a memorial of the remarkable circumstances of his 
 coming under her protection, she called him Moses, which in 
 the Egyptian language, signifies ' out of the water.' It has been 
 supposed by some that the king of Egypt had no other child 
 than the daughter mentioned in the book of Exodus ; that she 
 had no children ; and that Moses, as her adopted son, might be 
 considered as the heir apparent to the Egyptian crown. This 
 appears not very probable ; at any rate, it is not certain. It is 
 obvious, however, that the adopted son of the daughter of the 
 king of Egypt, then one of the richest, most populous, and 
 civilised nations in the world, must have occupied a very digni- 
 fied station in society, and possessed in no ordinary measure 
 worldly wealth and honours. During childhood and youth he 
 bare the name of " the son of Pharaoh's daughter," and enjoyed 
 the secular advantages which were connected with so honourable 
 a title. 
 
 ^ /"nj'l is tised in the same way, Exod. ii. 11> 
 
tART 11. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. ' 91 
 
 But " when he was come to years " — arrived at mature age 
 — " he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." It 
 is quite possible that the Apostle may refer to some particular 
 fact in JNIoses' history, known when he wrote, but now forgotten. 
 There may have been some public occasion on which the con- 
 tinued enjoyment of the honours connected with this title by 
 Moses might be suspended on his doing something which would 
 have amounted to a renunciation of the religion of his fore- 
 fathers, and which led him openly to renounce the dignified situa- 
 tion he had so long occupied. This may have been the case, but 
 the words before us do not warrant us to say that it was so. 
 They merely intimate that he voluntarily renounced the honours 
 and advantages connected with the title of " the son of Pharaoh's 
 daughter." He saw his kinsmen enslaved and oppressed ; he 
 knew that by renouncing all connection with them, he might re- 
 tain that situation of ease, and affluence, and honour which he 
 possessed ; he saw that, if he identified himself with them, he 
 must renounce his wealth and his dignities ; and he unhesitat- 
 ingly made his choice. He gave up the name of an Egyptian 
 prince and took in its room that of an Israelitish bondman. 
 
 When he was grown, he went out to his brethren, and looked 
 on their burdens ; and burning with indignation at the unjust 
 treatment which one of them received from an Egyptian, exe- 
 cuted summary vengeance on the oppressor. That act was a 
 renouncing for ever of the name of "the son of Pharaoh's 
 daughter." " He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people 
 of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." By 
 " the people of God " we are to understand the Israelites, now 
 in Egypt. They were " chosen out of all the families of the 
 earth " to be the depositaries of the true religion, to enjoy pecu- 
 liar privileges, and to serve important pvirposes in the develop- 
 ment of the grand scheme of divine mercy for the salvation of 
 mankind. The number of genuine saints among them at the 
 period referred to seems to have been small ; but almost all the 
 saints on the earth were to be found among them, and as a people 
 — as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — they were 
 in covenant with God. This "people of God" were, at the period 
 referred to, " suffering affliction." Of these afflictions we have 
 an account in Exod. i. 13, 14, and ii. 23 : "And the Egyptians 
 made the children of Israel to serve with rigour. And they made 
 
92 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and 
 in all manner of service ip the field : all their service, wherein 
 they made them serve, was with rigour." " And it came to 
 pass, in process of time, that the king of Egypt died : and the 
 children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they 
 cried; and their cry came up unto God, by reason of the bond- 
 age." Moses was originally one of this people, and in the perils 
 of his childhood shared in their afflictions. By the remarkable 
 care of Providence, he had been for a season separated from 
 them, and placed in circumstances of security and ease. But 
 when he arrived at mature age, he voluntarily preferred casting 
 in his lot with the afflicted people of God to the continued enjoy- 
 ment of the honours and pleasures of the Egyptian court. These 
 are termed " the pleasures of sin." Many of the pleasures of a 
 court life are usually in their own nature sinful pleasures. But 
 here, I apprehend, the idea intended to be conveyed is this : The 
 pleasures of the Egyptian court, even such of them as were in- 
 nocent in themselves — and we have no reason to think that Moses 
 ever indulged in any other — were sinful pleasures in his case. 
 He could not continue to enjoy them without in effect renounc- 
 ing his connection with the people of God, and his interest in 
 those blessings which were secured to them by the divine cove- 
 nant. If he continued to enjoy them, he could not have dis- 
 charged the duties of that office to which he was destined, as the 
 deliverer of the people of God, and must have been implicated 
 in the guilt of their Egyptian oppressors. The sinful pleasures 
 which Moses renounced are termed "pleasures for a season" i.e., 
 temporary — liable to innumerable interruptions in this life, and 
 unavoidably ending with it. He chose rather to endure for a 
 season the afflictions of the people of God, than to enjoy for a 
 season the pleasures of an ungodly world. 
 
 The same general truth is represented in a different way in 
 the next clause : " He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater 
 riches than all the treasures of Egypt." I believe every attentive 
 reader of the Bible has felt some difficulty in satisfactorily ex- 
 plaining to himself this passage. He to whom the appellation 
 " Messiah, Christ, or Anointed " belongs, did not appear in our 
 world till more than 1500 years after the days of Moses. The 
 Son of God indeed existed from eternity, but He did not be- 
 come the Christ till He assumed human, nature. The great 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 93 
 
 Deliverer had indeed been promised, but He had not been pro- 
 mised under the name of the ^lessiah. 
 
 " The reproach of Christ " is a phrase of which, when taken 
 by itself, the most natural meaning is, Hhe reproach which 
 Christ Himself suffered ;' and if we depart from this primary 
 sense, the next meaning which the Avords suggest is, ' reproach 
 endured on account of Christ.' It does not seem possible to 
 make sense of the passage, adopting either of these meanings. I 
 shall very shortly state what appear to me the only two probable 
 interpretations which have been given of the passage, leaving my 
 readers to make their choice between them. I cannot say either 
 of them is entirely satisfactory to my own mind. 
 
 The word " Christ " is by some interpreters considered as 
 referring not to our Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed — i.e., the 
 divinely chosen and designated — Deliverer, but to the Israelitish 
 people, the divinely chosen and designated people. There can 
 be no doubt that the patriarchs of that people are termed God's 
 christs, or anointed ones, Ps. cv. 15 ; and in Hab. iii. 13, it 
 seems highly probable that the Israelitish people are termed 
 God's anointed : " ivith Thine anointed ;" rather. Ho save Thine 
 anointed,' or ' for the salvation of Thine anointed.' In this 
 case " the reproach of Christ " is nearly synonymous with the 
 " afflictions of the people of God," just as " the treasures of 
 Egypt " correspond with " the pleasures of sin for a season." 
 
 The second mode of interpretation goes on the principle, 
 that "the reproach of Christ" is equivalent to — 'reproach 
 similar to that which Christ sustained;' just as in 2 Cor. i. 5 
 the phrase, " sufferings of Christ," is equivalent to — ' sufferings 
 similar to those which Christ endured.' In the first case the 
 meaning is, * Moses willingly took part in the contempt and re- 
 proach to which the oppressed Israelites were exposed ;' in the 
 second, the meaning is, ' Moses, the deliverer of Israel, willingly 
 submitted to reproaches similar to those which were heaped on 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour of man.' It does not matter much 
 which of the two modes of interpretation you adopt. In both 
 cases the words express a truth, and an appropriate truth. At 
 the same time, I confess that I lean to the first mode of inter- 
 pretation.^ 
 
 ^ I thiuk it not improbable that there is a particular reference to " cir- 
 cumcision," the mark of belonging to the ■jcptato; 'KetU^ or y,piar(A/ A., — that 
 
94- EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 Moses' voluntary preference of the abject state of the Israelites 
 to the elevated station he held in Pharaoh's court, is verj em- 
 phatically described as his "esteeming their reproach greater 
 riches than all the treasures of Egypt." The idea intended to 
 be conveyed, we apprehend, is this — he counted it more his in- 
 terest to be poor and reproached with the Israel of God, than to 
 be wealthy and honoured with the ungodly Egyptians. 
 
 Such was the estimate Moses formed, and his conduct cor- 
 responded with it. He took a decided part with them, the con- 
 sequence of which was that he was obliged to abandon all the 
 comforts of a courtly life, to flee into the deserts of Arabia, and re- 
 main there in obscurity for a considerable number of years ; and 
 on his return to Egypt, for the purpose of delivering his country- 
 men, he identified himself with them, and exposed himself to 
 great difficulties and dangers by doing so. Now what was it 
 that induced Moses to think and act in this way ? What made 
 him " refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter?" What 
 led him to " choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
 God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season?" What 
 made him " esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
 the treasm-es in Egj'pt?" It was faith, says the Apostle. "By 
 faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called 
 the son of Pharaoh's daughter ; choosing rather ta suffer afflic- 
 tion with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin 
 for a season ; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches 
 than the treasures in Egypt : for he had respect unto the re- 
 compense of the reward." Now there are here two questions : 
 What did ISIoses believe ? and how did his belief influence his 
 judgment, his choice, and his conduct ? 
 
 It is not very easy to say what was the extent of Moses' be- 
 lief, for we do not know exactly the extent of the revelation 
 made to him. It is not improbable that revelations were made 
 to the patriarchal Church of which we have no record ; but in 
 speaking of Moses' faith, we must confine ourselves to what 
 we know from Old Testament history was made known to him, 
 
 cYifiilov having a peculiar reference to the Messiah. This distinction excited 
 contempt and ridicule among foreigners. How the Roman poets laugh 
 at the Verpi ! Mart. vii. 82 ; Catullus xlv. ; Juvenal xiv. 104. On the 
 other hand, the prseputium, uncircumcision, is termed in Scripture " the 
 reproach of Egypt," ovuha^iv AiyvTirTov^ Josh. v. 9. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 95 
 
 or to what, from the statements in the passage before us, we 
 liave ground to conclude was made known to him. ]\'Ioscs, then, 
 like his parents, believed the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, as to Israel being God's peculiar people, as to their 
 ultimately being a numerous and prosperous nation, and as to 
 Canaan being tlieir inlieritancc. He believed also the prediction 
 of their deliverance from the land in which they were for a long 
 term of years to endure severe oppression, and that God would 
 judge, or punish, their oppressors. He believed, I doubt not, the 
 divine intimation given to his parents respecting his being the 
 deliverer of Israel ; and if, as is not improbable, a similar revela- 
 tion was made directly to himself, he believed that. 
 
 Still further, it seems plain from the passage before us, that 
 Moses believed a revelation which had been made respecting a 
 future state of rewards in another world : " he had respect" we 
 are told, " to the i^ecompense of the reward^ This is one of the 
 passages which lead me to think that plainer revelations of a 
 future state were made to the patriarchs than any that are re- 
 corded in the Old Testament Scriptures. " The recompense of 
 reward" cannot refer to the possession of Canaan, for ]Moses 
 was never to enter into that country. The meaning seems to be 
 this — ''Moses expected that all the sacrifices he made in the 
 cause of God and His people would be far more than com- 
 pensated in a future state;' and this expectation could only be 
 grounded on a corresponding revelation. Such was the faith of 
 Moses. 
 
 Now it is not difficult to perceive how this faith led Moses 
 to judge as he judged, to choose as he chose, to act as he acted. 
 If Moses really believed that Israel was the peculiar people of 
 God, whom He had promised to protect, and bless, and deliver ; 
 and if he believed that Jehovah was infinitely powerful, and 
 wise, and faithful ; was it not the natural and the necessary con- 
 sequence of this, that he should seek to identify himself with 
 them ? If he really believed that Jehovah would certainly punish 
 their Egyptian oppressors, and that the time of righteous retri- 
 bution was fast approaching, was not the natural consequence of 
 this to renounce all connection with them, and to consider the 
 highest and most honoiu'able situation among them as the very 
 reverse of desirable ? If he really believed that God had aj)- 
 pointed him to be the agent in effecting the deliverance of Israel, 
 
96 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 was not tins sufficient to make liim leave the court of Pharaoh, 
 and interfere for the protection and defence of his oppressed 
 brethren ? And if he really believed that in a future world 
 Jehovah would abundantly recompense him for all the sacri- 
 fices, and losses, and sufferings to which he might be exposed, 
 was it not natm'al for him to prefer affliction with the Israelites 
 to ease and pleasure with the Egyptians, and to count it his true 
 interest to be poor and despised with the former, rather than 
 affluent and honoured with the latter? In all this there is no 
 mystery. It is the rational account of Moses' conduct : it is 
 impossible to account for it in any other way. Had Moses had 
 no faith on these subjects, or an opposite faith, his judgment, 
 and choice, and conduct would have been different. He would 
 have gladly been "called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;" he 
 would have chosen rather to enjoy " the pleasures of sin for a 
 season," than to "suffer affliction with the people of God;" he 
 would have accounted " the treasures of Egypt " greater riches 
 than " the reproach of Christ ;" for, not believing, he could not 
 have " had respect to the recompense of reward." 
 
 None of the exemplifications of the importance of believing, 
 brought forward by the Apostle, is better fitted to serve his pur- 
 pose than that which we have been considering. The Hebrew 
 Christians were called on to part with an honour which they 
 were accustomed to value above all other dignities. They were 
 excommunicated by their unbelieving brethren, and denied the 
 name of true children of Abraham. Their unbelieving country- 
 men were enjoying wealth and honour. The little flock they 
 were called on to join were suffering affliction and reproach. 
 Like Moses, they were called on to make great sacrifices, submit 
 to great privations, endure severe sufferings. Now, how is this 
 to be done 1 ' Look at Moses. Believe as Moses believed, and 
 you will find it easy to judge, and choose, and act as Moses did. 
 If you believe what Christ has plainly revealed, that "it is His 
 Father's good pleasure to give" His little flock, after passing 
 through much tribulation, " the kingdom ;" if you are per- 
 suaded that, according to His declaration, " wrath is coming to 
 the uttermost" on their oppressors, you will not hesitate to 
 separate yourselves completely from your unbelieving country- 
 men in a religious point of view, at whatever expense, — you will 
 " come out from among them, and be separate," — you will at all 
 
TART. II. § 1.] GENEEAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 97 
 
 hazards connect yonrselves with the suffering people of God, 
 fully persuaded that " faithful is He who hath promised.'" 
 " Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or 
 father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for j\Iy name's 
 sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlastino- 
 life.''^ 
 
 The practical bearing of the passage is not confined to the 
 Hebrew converts, or to the Christians of the primitive age. In 
 every country, and in every age, Jesus proclaims, " If any man 
 would be My disciple, he must deny himself, he must take up 
 the cross and follow Me." No man can do this but by believ- 
 ing. Believing, every man may, must do this. The power of the 
 present world can only be put down by " the power of the world 
 to come ;" and as it is through sense that the first power operates 
 on our minds, it is through faith alone that the second power 
 can operate on our minds. Some find it impossible to make 
 the sacrifices Christianity requires, because they have no faith. 
 ]\Iultitudes find it diflScult to make them, for they have little 
 faith. If we have faith, we shall find such sacrifices practicable ; 
 if we have strong faith, we will find them easy. They must be 
 made ; otherwise our Christianity is but a name, our faith is but 
 a pretence, and om- hope a delusion. 
 
 The verses which follow bring before our mind other illus- 
 trations of the importance and efficacy of faith, derived from the 
 histoiy of Moses. The first of these is contained in the 27th 
 verse. " By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of 
 the king : for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." 
 Here we shall follow the general plan we have adopted in re- 
 ference to these illustrations : — Attend first to the facts, and 
 then to the Apostle's account of these facts ; inquire first what 
 Moses did, and then show how it was by faith that he did what 
 he did. 
 
 Now, what did Moses do ? " He left Egj-pt;" he " did not 
 fear the wrath of the king;" and " he endm'ed." Moses twice 
 left Egypt — once as a solitary fugitive, and once as the leader 
 of the hosts of the Israelitish people. It has been a question 
 among expositors, to which of these events does the Apostle re- 
 fer. This appears to us a question of no very difficult solution. 
 Whether it was by faith that Moses left Egypt when he fled 
 
 ^ Matt. xix. 29. 
 VOL. II. G 
 
98 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 into Midian, is a point not very easily determined ; but certainly, 
 when he left Egypt on that occasion, it could not have been said 
 that he " did not fear the wrath of the king ;" for fear of the 
 king was obviously the principal cause of his flight. When 
 Moses found that his slaughter of the Egyptian was known, he 
 " feared." And " when Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to slay 
 Moses ;" " and Moses," we are told, " fled from the face of 
 Pharaoh, and dwelt in Midian." It plainly, then, cannot be to 
 this leaving of Egypt that the Apostle refers : it must be to 
 his second leaving of Egypt. Now, as this was the closing act 
 of a long, closely connected series of events, there can be little 
 doubt that it is in this point of view that the Apostle considered 
 it ; and therefore, in order to bring the illustration fully before 
 the mind, we must take a hurried view of these antecedent 
 events. 
 
 Moses left the land of Midian, where he was comfortably 
 settled, and for forty years had enjoyed the advantages of the 
 tranquillity of the pastoral life ; returned to Egypt for the pur- 
 pose of effecting the deliverance of his countrymen from ser- 
 vitude, and leading them towards Palestine, their promised in- 
 heritance ; and, after a long struggle with the unbelief of his 
 countrymen, and the obstinacy of the Egyptian king, which 
 was overcome by a series of the most wonderful miracles, ulti- 
 mately succeeded in his hazardous and apparently hopeless en- 
 terprise. 
 
 In thus " forsaking Egypt," he " did not fear the wrath of 
 the king." The king was very much enraged at Moses, and 
 no doubt wished above all things to destroy him, and seemed 
 to have it completely in his power to realize his wish. But 
 Moses discovered no fear. He prosecuted his object till he 
 gained it, unterrified by all Pharaoh's threats ; and having left 
 Eg}q3t, though followed by Pharaoh and his embattled hosts, yet 
 still he remained unmoved. " Fear not," said he to the terrified 
 Israelites, — " fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of 
 God." 
 
 It is also stated that Moses "endured." The word, we ap- 
 prehend, is expressive of Moses' firm, determined perseverance 
 in the course of conduct which he had adopted, notwithstanding 
 all the difficulties he met with in it, from the unbelief of his 
 countrymen, and from the policy and power of the Egyptian 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATIOX AND WARNING. 99 
 
 king. The whole statement in reference to Moses' conduct is 
 this : Neither the terrors of the wrath of the king of Egjqit, nor 
 the disgust which the ingratitude, and unbehef, and wayward- 
 ness of his countrymen were calculated to produce, prevented 
 him from prosecuting the great object which he had in view till 
 he brought it to a prosperous issue. Such was the conduct of 
 Moses. 
 
 Now, to what are we to attribute it ? The Apostle's answer 
 is, To his faith. " By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the 
 wrath of the king : for he endured, as seeing Him who is in- 
 visible." And here, as formerly, there are two questions which 
 call for resolution : What did ISIoses believe 1 and how did his 
 faith influence his conduct? The answer to these two ques- 
 tions will be most satisfactorily given, not in a separate, but in a 
 combined form. 
 
 Moses believed the revelations made to him respecting the 
 deliverance of the children of Israel, the part he was to act in 
 that deliverance, and the assistance Jehovah would afford him 
 in accomplishing it. What these revelations were, you will find 
 by consulting the book of Exodus. " Now Moses kept the flock 
 of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian : and he led 
 , the flock to the back-side of the desert, and came to the moun- 
 tain of God, even to Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord ap- 
 peared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush ; 
 and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and 
 the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn 
 aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And 
 when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called 
 unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. 
 And he said. Here am I. And He said. Draw not nigh hither : 
 put off thy shoes from off thy feet ; for the place whereon 
 thou standest is holy ground. Moreover He said, I am the 
 God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
 and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face ; for he was 
 afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely 
 seen the affliction of INIy people which are in Egypt, and have 
 heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters ; for I know their 
 sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand 
 of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto 
 a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and 
 
100 EPISTLE TO THE HEBEEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 honey ; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and 
 the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the 
 Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of 
 Israel is come unto Me : and I have also seen the oppression 
 wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, 
 and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth 
 My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." "And they shall 
 hearken to thy voice : and thou shalt come, thou and the elders 
 of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, 
 The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us : and now let 
 us go, we beseech thee, three days' Journey into the wilderness, 
 that we may sacrifice to the Lord oui^ God. And I am sm'e 
 that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty 
 hand. And I will stretch out My hand, and smite Egypt with 
 all My wonders which I will do in the midst thereof : and after 
 that he will let you go."^ Had Moses not believed that this re- 
 velation came from God, or had he not believed that Jehovah 
 was at once powerful and faithful, able and disposed to do what 
 He had said, Moses would have remained in Midian, where he 
 seems to have been very comfortably settled; but, firmly believing 
 that this revelation did come from God, and that He was both 
 able and willing to do what He had said, Moses could not but leave 
 Midian, and deliver the message with which he was entrusted, 
 both to his kinsmen and to the Egyptian king. The reception he 
 at first met with from the Israelites was powerfully calculated, 
 both in itself and as a begun fulfilment of the divine oracle, to 
 encourage him. On the message being delivered, and the signs 
 performed, " the people believed ; and when they heard that the 
 Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked 
 upon their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped."^ 
 But subsequent events were in their own nature fitted to dis- 
 courage him ; and indeed, had it not been for his faith, would 
 certainly have induced him to abandon his enterprise in despair. 
 When he delivered his message to Pharaoh, he met with a direct 
 and most insolent refusal. " Thus saith the Lord," said Moses, 
 " the God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast 
 to ^le in the wilderness." Pharaoh's impious reply was, " Who 
 is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go ? I 
 know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Instead of 
 1 Exod. iii. 1-10, 18-20. ^ Exod. iv. 31. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 101 
 
 procuring Israel's release, this interference brought on them a 
 double weiglit of oppression, which drew forth from thoni cut- 
 ting reproaches against Moses, and even imprecations of divine 
 vengeance on him. And here IMoses' faith seems to have betrun 
 to fail him ; for he " returned unto the Lord, aud said, Lord, 
 wherefore hast Thou so evil-entreated this people? why is it 
 that Thou hast sent me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak 
 in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people ; neither hast 
 Thou delivered Thy people at all."^ A new revelation was made 
 to him for the strengthening of his faith. "Then the Lord said 
 unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh : for 
 with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand 
 shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto 
 IMoses, and said unto him, I am the Lox'd: and I appeared 
 unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God 
 Almighty ; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. 
 And I have also established My covenant w^ith them, to give 
 them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein 
 they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the 
 children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage ; and I 
 have remembered My covenant. Wherefore say unto the chil- 
 dren of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from 
 under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of 
 their bondage ; and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, 
 and with great judgments. And I will take you to Me for a 
 people, and I will be to you a God ; and ye shall know that I 
 am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the 
 burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the 
 land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, 
 to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give it you for an heritage: 
 I am the Lord."^ And though after this the people of Israel 
 " hearkened not to him for anguish of spirit and cruel bondage ;" 
 and though Pharaoh continued obstinate, amid all the miraculous 
 judgments inflicted on him and his people ; yet Moses, believing 
 the divine declarations, persevered. Had he not believed, he must 
 have soon given up the undertaking as hopeless ; but believing, 
 he found even in Pharaoh's obstinacy, which had been predicted, 
 encouragement to persevere. The state of exasperation into 
 which Pharaoh was thrown by such repeated and dreadful 
 1 Exod. V. 22, 23. ^ Exod. vi. 1-8. 
 
102 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29, 
 
 calamities, was well fitted to fill witli terror sucli an unprotected 
 individual as Moses ; but believing that " God was for him," he 
 " did not fear what man could do to him." At last, overwhelmed 
 by the fearful infliction of the sudden death, in one night, of all 
 the first-born in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh gave an extorted 
 consent to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt; and 
 Moses, at their head, "forsook Egypt." The undertaking in which 
 Moses thus engaged, was one which nothing but faith could have 
 induced any rational man to enter on. The endless difficulties of 
 conducting such a prodigious multitude of men, women, children, 
 and cattle, through waste solitudes, or the territories of hostile 
 tribes, towards a countiy already in the possession of numerous 
 and powerful nations, must have appeared altogether insur- 
 mountable. But Moses, by faith, entered on this apparently 
 desperate enterprise, because he believed that Jehovah had pro- 
 mised, and that He was both able and willing to perform Hi 
 promise, " to bring them in unto the land, concerning which He 
 had sworn to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." 
 
 He persevered in the course prescribed to him " as one who 
 saw Him who is invisible." These words admit of two modes of 
 interpretation : Either, ' his faith had the same effect on him 
 as if the unseen Deity, with every conceivable emblem of His 
 power, and wisdom, and faithfulness, had become an object of 
 bodily vision ;' or, 'he endured as one who saw' — i.e., by the eye 
 of faith, the only way in which He can be seen — ' the invisible 
 Divinity.' Either mode of interpretation gives a good sense, 
 but we apprehend the latter is the Apostle's meaning. The ex- 
 pression naturally leads the mind back to the declaration in the 
 first verse. His faith was " confidence respecting things hoped 
 for, conviction in reference to things not seen." Without such 
 faith, Moses could not have done, and suffered, and obtained as 
 he did ; with such faith, the discharge of the duties enjoined on 
 him, though very difficult — the enduring of the trials assigned 
 him, though very severe — the attainment of the blessings, though 
 very valuable and apparently unattainable, became natural and 
 easy. 
 
 The bearing of this illustration on the Apostle's gi'eat object 
 is direct and obvious : ' What faith did for Moses, faith can do 
 for you ; what nothing but faith could do for Moses, nothing but 
 faith can do for you.' The Hebrew Christians were placed in cu- 
 
TAET II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 103 
 
 cumstances somewhat analogous to those of Moses. They were 
 required to " come out and be separate" from their unbelieving 
 countrymen. The difficulties that lay in the way of renouncing 
 Judaism were, though of another nature, scarcely less formidable 
 than those which lay in the Avay of Moses leaving Egypt ; and, 
 like him, in abandoning Judaism they had to commence a course 
 of indefinitely long and severe labour and trial, previously to 
 their obtaining a permanently secure and happy settlement in 
 the heavenly Canaan. What could enable them to make such 
 sacrifices, to put forth such exertions, to submit to such priva- 
 tions, to encounter such opposition, and to persevere in doing 
 so, amid all those circumstances which had an obvious tendency 
 to damp their ardour and shake their resolution *? Faith, and 
 nothing but faith. 
 
 In the word of the truth of the Gospel it had been dis- 
 tinctly stated to them that Jesus Christ was the divine Deliverer 
 promised to the fathers — that '' His blood cleanses from all sin" 
 — that " all power in heaven and on earth" belongs to Him — ■ 
 that "whosoever bebeveth in Him shall not perish, but have 
 everlasting life" — that, to be His disciples, men must " deny 
 themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him" — that " He 
 will never leave and never forsake His people" — that "His 
 grace shall be made sufficient for them," and that He " will per- 
 fect His strength in their weakness" — that He will "make all 
 things work together for their good" — that He " will confess 
 before His Father and the holy angels" those who "confess 
 Him before men," and " deny before His Father and the holy 
 angels" those who " deny Him before men" — and that " to him 
 who overcometh He will give to sit with Him on His throne, 
 even as He also hath overcome, and is set down with His Father 
 on His throne." 
 
 Now, if these truths were not believed, it could not be 
 expected that they would "forsake father, and mother, and 
 sisters, and brothers, and houses, and lands, for Christ's sake and 
 the Gospel's," — it could not be expected that they should enter 
 on and prosecute a course of conduct directly opi)Oscd to all the 
 strongest inclinations of unchanged human nature. 
 
 But if they really did believe these truths— if by the eye of 
 faith they habitually contemplated the invisible God, the unseen 
 Saviour, and the great reaUties of the eternal world, — would 
 
10^ EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS, [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 not the fear of Gocl extinguish all other fear — the love of the 
 Saviour neutralize the power of all opposing affections — the 
 majestic glories of eternity make all earth-born glory grow dim 
 or disappear, shrink to a thing of nought, — nay, would not the 
 very afflictions and trials they met with, when viewed as a veri- 
 fication of the declarations of the Saviour, operate as a confir- 
 mation of their faith, that He whose declaration, that " in the 
 world they should have tribulation," had been fulfilled, would be 
 found equally true to the other connected declaration, " In Me ye 
 shall have peace ?" Under the influence of an enlightened faith, 
 the very circumstances which to the unstable prove the occasion 
 of apostasy, are found, as evidences of the faithfulness of the 
 Saviour, and the truth of His declarations, the means of attach- 
 ing the Christian the more closely to the cause of his Lord and 
 Saviour. 
 
 The duties and difficulties, the trials and privations of Chris- 
 tians, are substantially the same in all countries and in all ages ; 
 and nothing can enable them to conduct themselves properly 
 in reference to these but faith. Looking away from what is 
 seen and temporal to the God who is invisible, the Saviour who 
 is unseen, the world which is eternal, — that, and that alone, will 
 enable us to brave dangers before which the stoutest heart, un- 
 supported by the faith of the Gospel, must quail, and make the 
 feeblest of us " more than conquerors " over the most powerful 
 of our spiritual foes. Believing "the exceeding great and 
 precious promises" of God, and the power and faithfulness 
 of Him who has given them, the Christian remains "stedfast 
 and unmoveable" amid all the storms of temptation which 
 threaten to shake his attachment to Christ and His cause. Isa. 
 xl. 28-31. 
 
 We come now to the last of these displays of the import- 
 ance of faith, drawn from the history of JMoses. 
 
 Ver. 28. "Through faith he kept the passover, and the 
 sprinkUng of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should 
 touch them." Let us here, as in former cases, attend first to 
 the facts, and then to the Apostle's account of the facts ; or, in 
 other words, inquire first what Moses did, and then show that 
 it was by faith that he did what he did. The facts are—" Moses 
 kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood ;" and he did so, 
 " in order that the destroyer might not''— or^ " so that the de- 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 105 
 
 stroyer did not — toucli them ;" for the words will achnit either 
 rendering. 
 
 The phrase rendered, " kept^ the passover," taken by itself, 
 may either signify — ' instituted^ or ' observed the passover.' In 
 one of the old English versions it is rendered — " he ordained 
 the passover, and the sprinkling of blood." It was not so much 
 Moses, however, as Jehovah, that ordained these religious ob- 
 servances. The phrase here employed is the same as that used 
 by our Lord, when He says, ISIatt. xxvi. 18, "I will keep the 
 passover at thy house with My disciples." " Keep" is perhaps 
 not the best word which might have been employed : it suits 
 very well with the word " passover," but it does not suit so 
 well with the phrase, " sprinkling of blood." " Observe" apj)lies 
 equally well to both. ' Moses observed the passover, and the 
 sprinkling of blood.' The facts referred to are narrated at large 
 in the 12th chapter of the book of Exodus. The following is a 
 brief summary of them : — A short time before the departure of 
 Israel from Egypt, Moses gave warning both to Pharaoh and 
 to the Israelites, that' at midnight on the fourteenth day of 
 the month Abib, all the first-born both of man and of beast 
 were, by a miraculous visitation of Heaven, suddenly to die. 
 He predicted also that this dreadful infliction of divine wrath 
 would not only make the Egyptians consent to the departure 
 of the children of Israel, but make them anxiously urge their 
 departure. And, as a means of protecting the first-born of the 
 children of Israel from the general desolation, he commanded 
 every family to set apart a male lamb or kid of the first year, on 
 the tenth day of the month ; and on the fourteenth day of the 
 month this lamb or kid was to be slain, in the evening ; its blood 
 was to be sprinkled, by means of a bunch of hyssop, on the door- 
 posts and lintels of their house ; and the flesh, having been 
 roasted, was to be eaten with unleavened bread and l)itter herbs ; 
 while, with girt loins, and sandals on their feet, and staff in 
 hand, they stood ready to commence their march from Egypt 
 towards the land of promise. The event exactly corresponded 
 with Moses' prediction ; and he and the children of Israel, ac- 
 cording to the divine appointment, " observed the passover, and 
 the sprinkling of blood." That is, they sacrificed the lambs and 
 kids, and prepared all their carcases, according to the divine ap- 
 
 ^ iri'TTOlYlX.i. 
 
l06 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP, X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 pointment, and with their blood sprinkled the door-posts and 
 lintels of their dwellings. 
 
 This service received the name of " the passover," because, 
 while Jehovah visited in wrath every house of the Egyptians, 
 He passed over the houses of the Israelites, and did not suffer 
 the destroyer to come into their houses to smite them. This 
 fact is referred to in the concluding part of the verse. Moses 
 " observed the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who 
 destroyed the first-born should touch them." 
 
 The appellation, " destroyer^ of the first-born," seems to be 
 descriptive of some angelic agent employed by Jehovah in tlie 
 execution of this awful judgment. No doubt Jehovah Himself 
 must be considered as the grand primaiy agent ; for " can 
 there be evil in a city," or land, " and He has not done it ? " but 
 in the words, " The Lord will pass over the door, and will not 
 suffer the destroyer to come in unto it to smite you," Jehovah 
 and the destroyer are plainly distinguished from each other. 
 Some interpreters would explain this by saying, that the ancient 
 Jews were accustomed to ascribe all remarkable phenomena to 
 the agency of invisible beings ; and that all that is meant, is just 
 that, by some means or other, the first-born of man and beast in 
 Egypt suddenly died. It appears to us the far more rational 
 mode of interpretation to consider the words as bearing their 
 plain meaning, and as intended to teach us that one of those 
 " angels who excel in strength " was employed by Him, whose 
 will they do, and to the voice of whose word they dutifully listen, 
 to execute the richly deserved, though awfully severe, judgment 
 which He had denounced against the Egyptians.^ 
 
 For this destroyer " not to touch" the Israelites, is obviously 
 equivalent to — ' not to injure, hurt, or destroy them.' The 
 phraseology very probably is intended to suggest the idea of the 
 perfect ease with which this angelic agent performed his dread- 
 ful office. His touch was fatal. 
 
 The words, " Moses observed the passover, and the sprinkling 
 of blood, lest he who destroyed the first-born should touch them," 
 may either be understood as expressing the object which Moses 
 had in view in observing the passover and the sprinkling of 
 
 ^ rvrW'O of the Hebrew. 
 
 2 2 Kings xix. 35 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 12, 15 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 21 ; Ecclus. 
 xlviii. 21 : Isa. xxxvii, 36. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 107 
 
 blood, or the eveiit of his doing so. In the first case they are 
 equivalent to — ' Moses observed the passover, and the sprinkling 
 of blood, in order that the destroyer of the first-born might not 
 touch them.' In the second case they are equivalent to — 
 ^ Moses observed the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, so that 
 he who destroyed the first-born did not touch them.' Both are 
 truths, and both are truths which directly bear on the Apostle's 
 object. If I were required to choose between the two inter- 
 pretations, I would probably prefer the second ; as in this case 
 the facts brought forward are a proof not only of faith enabling 
 a man to do what otherwise he could not have done, but also of 
 its enabling a man to attain what otherwise he could not have 
 attained. So much, then, for the facts stated by the Apostle in 
 this verse : " Moses observed the passover, and the sprinkling 
 of blood." 
 
 Let us now inquire into the account which the Apostle gives 
 of these facts. The following questions naturally present them- 
 selves to the mind : What made Moses observe the passover, 
 and the sprinkling of blood ? How came he to know that the 
 children of Israel were to depart from Egypt on the fourteenth 
 day of the month Abib ? Plow came he to know that the proxi- 
 mate cause of their leaving Egypt was to be the sudden and 
 simultaneous death of the first-bom both of man and beast 
 throughout that country ? How came he to consider the sacri- 
 fice of a lamb or kid, the eating of it roasted, and the sprinkling 
 of its blood on the door-posts and lintels, as a preservative 
 for the Israelites from the destruction which walked in dark- 
 
 ness 
 
 The only satisfactory answer to all these questions is that 
 given by the Apostle. It was by faith Moses did these things. 
 Divine revelations were given him on these subjects ; and he 
 believed these revelations, and he acted accordingly. Without 
 such revelations, or without a faith in these revelations, he could 
 not have done as he did ; with such revelations, and with a 
 faith in them, he could not but act as he did. The deliverance 
 of Israel from Egypt could not have been foreseen by human 
 sagacity. It was, at the time Moses intimated that it would 
 take place on a certain day, less probable than when he first 
 entered on his enterprise. Even supposing the event to be of a 
 kind which human sagacity could have predicted as at no great 
 
108 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 distance, could human sagacity have enabled him to fix the 
 precise day ? could it have enabled him to say what was to be 
 the immediate cause of .effecting so unlikely an event? and even 
 supposing him possessed of all necessary information on these 
 points, would it ever have entered into his mind to have encum- 
 bered the Israelites, on the very eve of their departure, Avith such 
 an operose religious ceremony as the passover and the sprink- 
 ling of blood, or to have considered such rites as in any degree 
 calculated to protect the Israelites from a calamity so general 
 that not one family in Egypt was free from it? The only 
 satisfactory account — and it is a satisfactory one — is this : By 
 faith Moses did all this. God revealed to Moses that Israel was 
 to be delivered on the fourteenth day of the month Abib — that 
 the universal destruction of the first-born among the Egyptians 
 was to be the proximate cause of their deliverance — that the ap- 
 pointed Atay of securing the Israelites from the general calamity 
 was the passover and the sprinkling of blood ; and Moses be- 
 lieved these revelations, and, believing them, spoke and acted 
 accordingly. 
 
 Such appears to me to be the meaning of the declaration in 
 the text, " By faith IMoses kept the passover, and the sprinkling 
 of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch 
 them." I am aware that many excellent men have attached a 
 very different meaning to these words. Misapprehending the 
 design of the Apostle in the whole of this discussion, — sup- 
 posing that it is his object to prove the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith in Christ Jesus, instead of to illustrate the im- 
 portance and power of faith in a divine revelation, — they have 
 considered the statement in the text as equivalent to — ' Moses 
 observed the passover and the sprinkling of blood by faith, 
 looking through these rites as emblems of the atoning sacrifice 
 of Jesus Christ, and the manner of that sacrifice becoming effec- 
 tual for the salvation of the individual sinning.' That sacrifice, 
 and especially the sacrifice of the passover, was a divinely in- 
 tended emblem of the manner in which our guilt was to be ex- 
 piated, and our salvation obtained, by the obedience to the death 
 of the incarnate Son of God, is most clearly taught in the Holy 
 Scriptures. But how far Moses and the other Old Testament 
 samts were aware of this emblematical reference, is another 
 question, and one by no means so easily resolved. What were 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION -\ND WARNING. 109 
 
 the precise views entertained by the true Israel respecting tlie 
 offices of the ^lessiali and the Avork of redemption — respect- 
 ing the import and reference of expiatory sacrifice, is indeed 
 among the most curious and intricate questions in theology. AVe 
 know that they were saved, as we are, through the atonement ; 
 and we know also that they were saved by faith. We know, to 
 use the language of a great writer, that " the cross of Christ, 
 considered as the meritorious basis of acceptance, the only real 
 satisfaction for sin, is the centime round which all the purposes of 
 mercy to fallen men have continued to revolve. Fixed and de- 
 termined in the counsel of God, it operated as the grand con- 
 sideration in the divine mind on which salvation was awarded 
 to believers in the earliest ages, as it will continue to operate in 
 the same manner to the latest boundaries of time." ^ We know, 
 too, that it was through believing that in every age the indi- 
 vidual sinner obtained a personal interest in the blessings secured 
 by that atonement ; but that faith must have corresponded to 
 the revelation made. We have no evidence that any revelation 
 was made to them of the precise manner in which the salvation 
 of a sinner is to be made compatible with the perfections of God, 
 the honour of His law, and the great ends of His moral admi- 
 nistration. In offering sacrifice, the believing Israelite recog- 
 nised his guilt, his just exposure to destruction, and his ex- 
 clusive reliance on divine mercy. " The way into the holiest 
 was not made manifest" to them. I do not know if the circum- 
 stances of the ancient Church have ever been moi'e accurately — 
 they cannot be more beautifully — described, than in the words of 
 the author whom I have just quoted : — " Exposed to dangers 
 from which they knew of no definite mode of escape, and placed 
 on the confines of an eternity feebly and faintly illumined, they 
 had no other resource besides an implicit confidence in myste- 
 rious mercy." 
 
 But apart from these general considerations altogether, I 
 apprehend that in the object of the Apostle, which we have 
 endeavoured to bring distinctly out in the course of these lec- 
 tui'es, we have the most satisfactory evidence that the faith 
 by which Moses observed the passover and the sprinkling of 
 blood, was just the belief of the revelations which were made to 
 him on these subjects. 
 
 1 Robert Hall. 
 
110 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 It only remains that we very shortly show the bearing which 
 this statement has on the Apostle's great object, which is the 
 importance, and necessity, and sufficiency of believing, and con- 
 tinuing to believe, in order to the discharge of the duties en- 
 joined on the Christian, the sustaining of the trials allotted to 
 him, the attainment of the blessings promised to him. Chris- 
 tians are called on sometimes to perform duties which must 
 appear unreasonable and absurd to an unbelieving world, and 
 for which they themselves can assign no reason but the will of 
 Him who has appointed them. A Christian in a heathen 
 country strictly observing the Lord's day, to the apparent 
 material disadvantage of his worldly interests, is a case in 
 point. How is he to be enabled to persevere in the performance 
 of this duty, amid the temptations to neglect it to which he is 
 exposed ? Look to Moses and the children of Israel observing 
 the passover and the sprinkling of blood. The Egyptians, no 
 doubt, thought it a very strange and unaccountable thing for 
 the Israelites to be, all of them, bedaubing the entrances of their 
 houses with blood ; and the Israelites themselves could give no 
 reason but one for it — God had commanded it. Yet believing 
 this, they observed the appointed rite. In like manner, faith in 
 the divine origin of the Christian Sabbath, and in the threaten- 
 ings and promises in reference to it, will induce a Christian, 
 even amid very strong temptations to act otherwise, to remember 
 the Sabbath day to keep it holy. A similar case in point might 
 be taken from a small body of Christians in a heathen country 
 observing the Lord's Supper. But further. Christians are called 
 on also to expect very important ends by very strange means. 
 They are called on to expect a complete change of state and 
 character by means of the death of God's Son on a cross, and 
 by means of their understanding and believing the truth respect- 
 ing this death. This seems as irrational an expectation as that 
 of obtaining security from the destroyer of the first-born by ob- 
 serving the passover and the sprinkling of blood. A firm faith 
 that God had established a connection between these two things, 
 led Moses and the Israelites to perform the commanded rites as 
 the means of' obtaining the promised security ; and a belief that 
 " God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting 
 life," will enable the Christian to hold fast this confidence, that, 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. Ill 
 
 believing the truth as it is in Jesus, he shall have peace with 
 God, and victory over the world, and eternal life, through the 
 blood of the Lamb. 
 
 The next illustration of the power of faith which the 
 Apostle, following down the course of Israelitish history, brings 
 forward, is that furnished by that people passing in safety 
 through the Arabian Gulf, while their Egyptian pursuers, in 
 attempting to follow them, were overwhelmed by its waters. 
 Ver. 29. " By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry 
 land ; which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." 
 
 The facts of the case are narrated at large in the 14th 
 chapter of the book of Exodus. " And the Lord spake unto 
 Moses, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, that they 
 turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the 
 sea, over against Baal-zephon : before it shall ye encamp by the 
 sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are 
 entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And 
 I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them ; 
 and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host ; 
 that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they 
 did so. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled : 
 and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against 
 the people, and they said. Why have we done this, that we have 
 let Israel go from serving us ? And he made ready his chariot, 
 and took his people with him. And he took six hundred chosen 
 chai'iots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every 
 one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh 
 king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel : and 
 the children of Israel went out with an high hand. But the 
 Egyptians pursued after them (all the horses and chariots of 
 Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army), and overtook them 
 encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. 
 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up 
 their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them ; and 
 they were sore afraid : and the children of Israel cried out unto 
 the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no 
 graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilder- 
 ness ? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth 
 out of Egypt ? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in 
 Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? 
 
-11^ EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 for it liacl been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that 
 we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto the 
 people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the 
 Lord, which He will show to you to-day : for the Egyptians 
 whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for 
 ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your 
 peace. And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou 
 unto Me ? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go for- 
 ward : but lift thou vip thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over 
 the sea, and divide it ; and the children of Israel shall go on dry 
 ground through the midst of the sea. And I, behold, I will 
 harden the hearts of the EgyjDtians, and they shall follow them : 
 and I will get Me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, 
 upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians 
 shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten Me honour 
 upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. And 
 the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, re- 
 moved, and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud went 
 from before their face, and stood behind them. And it came 
 between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel ; 
 and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by 
 night to these : so that the one came not near the other all the 
 night. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea ; and 
 the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all 
 that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were 
 divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the 
 sea upon the dry ground : and the waters were a wall unto 
 them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians 
 pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even 
 all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it 
 came to pass, that, in the morning-watch, the Lord looked unto 
 the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire, and of the 
 cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off 
 their chariot-wheels, that they drave them heavily : so that the 
 Eg)q3tians said. Let us flee from the face of Israel ; for the 
 Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord 
 ^aid unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the 
 waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, 
 and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand 
 over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 113 
 
 morning appeared ; and the Egj-ptians fled against it ; and the 
 Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And 
 the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horse- 
 men, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after 
 them : there remained not so much as one of them. But the 
 children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea ; 
 and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and 
 on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the 
 hand of the Egyptians ; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead 
 upon the sea-shore. And Israel saw that great work which the 
 Lord did upon the Egyptians ; and the people feared the Lord, 
 and believed the Lord, and His servant Moses." Such is the 
 inspired historian's narrative : now for the inspired Apostle's 
 commentary. 
 
 " By faith they" — i.e., Moses and the Israelitish people — 
 "passed through the Eed Sea as by dry land." A revela- 
 tion had been made to them, that tliey should safely pass 
 along that strange path^vay, which, by the arm of Jehovah, 
 had been opened up for them through the waters of the Ara- 
 bian Gulf. Had no revelation been made to them, — in which 
 case there could have been no faith, there being nothing to 
 believe, — or had the revelation not been believed by the Israel- 
 ites, they durst not have ventured into the fearful chasm, but 
 in all probability would have sought, by unqualified submis- 
 sion, to appease the fury of the tyrant from whose grasp 
 they had escaped, as the more probable way of saving their 
 lives. But believing the divine declaration, and no doubt 
 having their faith strengthened by the miraculous division of 
 the waters as they approached them (for it was natural for 
 them to reason in tliis way : ' He who has divided the waters 
 can keep them divided ; — He has performed one part of His 
 wonderful prediction ; He will perform the other also. He 
 cannot have done this great wonder to lure us to our doom, 
 but to open a way for us to secure deliverance '), they entered 
 the dried-up channel, and proceeded along that untrodden 
 path, till they safely arrived on the opposite shore. Faith thus 
 enabled the Israelites to do what otherwise they could not have 
 done — obey the command of God, to attempt a passage of this 
 arm of the sea through the midst of its waters. It enabled 
 the Israelites also to obtain what otherwise they could not 
 
 VOL. II. H 
 
114 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 have obtained — a safe passage, and complete security from their 
 Egyptian pursuers. 
 
 The question has often been ]nit, Was the faith by which tlie 
 IsraeHtes passed through the Red Sea saving faith ? I have no 
 doubt that a number of the IsraeHtes, as well as Moses, were 
 believers of the comparatively dim revelation of that scheme of 
 mercy of which we have the completed revelation, and through 
 that faith obtained eternal life. I have as little doubt, how- 
 ever, that by far the greater part of them were in this sense of 
 the word unbelievers ; and, in consequence of their unbelief of 
 this revelation, never entered into the heavenly rest, even as, on 
 account of their unbelief of anotlier revelation, they never 
 entered into the rest of God in Canaan. It is equally obvious, 
 I think, that the faith of the revelation made to !Moses respecting 
 the Israelites obtaining a safe passage through the Red Sea, was 
 not what we ordinarily term saving faith ; and there is nothing 
 to make us think that the Israelites, in believing that revelation, 
 understood that it had a typical reference, and in consequence 
 believed that God would deliver them from spiritual dangers, of 
 which the waves of the Arabian Gulf, furiously agitated by 
 tempest, afforded but an imperfect emblem. 
 
 The Apostle's object is to show the power of real faith in 
 God, whatever be its object. The nature and extent of that 
 efficacy will depend on the nature and extent of the revelation 
 behoved. A faith in a revelation respecting the safe passage of 
 the Red Sea enabled the Israelites fearlessly to entrust them- 
 selves in the strangely formed valley between two mountainous 
 ridges of tumultuous waves, and to reach in safety the opposite 
 shore. A faith in the revelation of salvation from guilt and 
 depravity, and death and hell, will enable the Christian to per- 
 form all the duties, and endure all the difficulties, that are in- 
 volved in obtaining complete possession of this salvation, and 
 will in due time bring him into the enjoyment of all its bless- 
 ings, in all their perfection. 
 
 A subject often receives much illustration by contrast. This 
 mode of illustration is adopted here. The j)ower of faith, in 
 enabling the Israelites to pass through the Red Sea safely, is 
 illustrated by the helpless, hopeless destruction of the infatuated 
 Egyptians, who attempted to follow them. The Egyptians had 
 no faith on this subject — they could have none. No revelation 
 
FART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 115 
 
 liacl been made to them ; and even if the revelation liad been 
 made to them Avhich was made to the Israelites, it is doubtful if 
 they would have believed it. And if they had believed it, it 
 would not have led them to follow the Israelites, but, on the 
 contrary, would have prevented them. The same revelation, 
 though equally firmly believed, will produce different effects on 
 different individuals. A revelation that the Israelites were to 
 be safely led through the Red Sea, though believed by an 
 Egyptian, could be no ground of expectation that he was to be 
 led safely through the Red Sea also. The revelation of a free 
 and a full salvation to the guiltiest of the human race, believing 
 in Jesus, though believed by a fallen angel, could be no ground 
 of expectation that he was to be a partaker of this salvation. 
 
 The Egyptians, led not by faith in a divine revelation, but 
 by their furious passions, followed the Israelites into the Red 
 Sea. It was night, and, to the Egyptians, dark night. The 
 chasm in the waters of the gulf was probably of very consider- 
 able width, extending very likely for some miles. The Egyp- 
 tians were probably neither aware of the great miracle which had 
 been wrought for Israel, nor of the extreme danger in which 
 they had involved themselves. In darkness they were pursuing 
 Israel. Where Israel went, they supposed they might follow ; 
 and It does not seem that they discovered their real circum- 
 stances till in the morning they found themselves in the midst 
 of the sea. Then they said, "Let us flee from the face of 
 Israel ; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians."^ 
 But it was too late. Now had arrived the hour when much- 
 endui'ing, long-despised divine forbearance was to be avenged 
 for all the insults offered to it. It is difficult to say whether 
 the historical or the poetical account of the fearful catastrophe 
 is most picturesque and affecting. We have the first in Exod. 
 xiv. 26-28 : "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine 
 hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the 
 Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And 
 Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea re- 
 turned to his strength when the morning appeared ; and the 
 Egyptians fled against it ; and the Lord overthrew the Egj'p- 
 tians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and 
 covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of 
 ^ Exod. xiv. 25. 
 
116 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 Pharaoh that came into the sea after them : there remained not 
 so much as one of them." We have the second in chap. xv. 
 4-11 : " Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the 
 sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. 
 The depths have covered them : they sank into the bottom as a 
 stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power : 
 Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. 
 And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown 
 them that rose up against Thee : Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, 
 which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of Thy 
 nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood 
 upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart 
 of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I 
 will divide the spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon them ; I 
 will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst 
 blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them ; they sank as lead 
 in the mighty waters. Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among 
 the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in 
 praises, doing wonders?" 
 
 The general truth taught by the ineffectual and ruinous 
 attempt of the Egyptians is this : that they who attempt to do 
 without faith, what believers successfully do by faith — those 
 who attempt to obtain without faith, what believers succeed in 
 obtaining by faith- — will assuredly be disappointed. The be- 
 liever obtains peace with God; but all the unbeliever's attempts 
 to obtain sbiid peace will end in disappointment. Men are 
 sanctified through the belief of the truth ; but all attempts to 
 make a pe:^son's self holy without believing, will assuredly end in 
 disappointment. By believing, a man will make a consistent 
 profession of Christianity amid all the temptations to which 
 he may be exposed : a man who enters on a profession of 
 Christianity without faith, is sure, sooner or later, to manifest 
 its hollowness. Every persevering believer will certainly obtain 
 the salvation of his soul as the end of his believing ; but every 
 man who is seeking genuine and permanent happiness without 
 believing, will find himself at last, like the Egyptians, engulphed 
 in the depths of destruction, when he hoped as a conqueror to 
 set his foot on the shore of the celestial country. 
 
 The bearing of this illustration on the Apostle's object is 
 direct and obvious. The Hebrew Christians were exposed to 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 117 
 
 numerous and severe afflictions in the maintenance of their 
 Christian profession, and submission to these was absohitely 
 necessary in order to their progress towards the heavenly pro- 
 mised land. Faith alone could enable them — faith would as- 
 suredly enable them — to enter on and pass through these trials, 
 however severe. Without faith, in the mere prospect of them, 
 they may very probably return to spiritual Egypt ; or, if they 
 presumptuously plunge in, like the Egyptians, they are likely to 
 be overwhelmed by them. Nothing but faith, persevering faith, 
 can enable the Christian to pass safely through all the trials 
 and dangers of the wilderness, uphold him amid the waves of 
 the Red Sea of affliction and the swellings of the Jordan of 
 death, and give him a sm-e and everlasting resting-place in the 
 Canaan above. 
 
 The next illustration of the importance of faith, is that taken 
 from the miraculous overthrow of the walls of Jericho. Ver. 30. 
 *' By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they w^ei*e com- 
 passed about seven days." 
 
 The facts of this case are narrated at large in the book of 
 Joshua : " And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, 
 that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a 
 man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand : and 
 Joshua went unto him, and said unto him. Art thou for us, or 
 for our adversaries ? And he said. Nay ; but as captain of the 
 host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face 
 to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him. What saith 
 my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's 
 host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for 
 the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. 
 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of 
 Israel : none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said 
 unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the 
 king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall 
 compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the 
 city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests 
 shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns ; and 
 the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the 
 priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to 
 pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, 
 and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall 
 
118 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. I'J-XII. 20. 
 
 shout with a great shout ; and the wall of the city shall fall clown 
 flat, and the people shall ascend up, every man straight before 
 him. And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said 
 unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven 
 priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of 
 the Lord. And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass 
 the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of 
 the Lord. And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto 
 the people, that the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of 
 rams' horns, passed on before the Lord, and blew with the 
 trumpets ; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed 
 them. And the armed men went before the priests that blew 
 with the trumpets, and the rere-ward came after the ark, the 
 priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua 
 had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor 
 make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed 
 out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout ; then shall 
 ye shout. So the ark of the Lord compassed the city, going 
 about it once : and they came into the camp, and lodged in the 
 camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests 
 took up the ark of the Lord. And seven priests, bearing seven 
 trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord, went on 
 continually, and blew with the trumpets : and the armed men 
 went before them ; but the rere-ward came after the ark of the 
 Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets. 
 And the second day they compassed the city once, and re- 
 turned into the camp : so they did six days. And it came to 
 pass on the seventh day, that they rose early, about the dawning 
 of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven 
 times : only on that day they compassed the city seven times. 
 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew 
 with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people. Shout ; for the 
 Lord hath given you the city. And the city shall be accursed, 
 even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord : only Rahab the 
 harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, 
 because she hid the messengers that we sent. And ye, in any- 
 wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make 
 yourselves accm*sed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and 
 make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the 
 silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 119 
 
 unto the Lord : tlicy shall come into the treasury of the Lord. 
 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets : 
 and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the 
 trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the 
 wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, 
 every man straight before him, and they took the city."^ 
 
 The destruction of the walls of Jericho was obviously mira- 
 culous — produced immediately by the power of God. It may 
 be asked, Then how was it " by faith ?" Whose faith is referred 
 to, and how did this faith influence the events The faith re- 
 ferred to is plainly the faith of Joshua, believing the divine 
 oracle uttered to him, and the faith of the people of Israel, 
 believing the same oracle as reported to them by Joshua. 
 How, then, faith influenced the event, is easily explained. The 
 oracle distinctly declared that the manifestation of the divine 
 power in a particular way was connected with certain actions 
 to be performed by the children of Israel. They believed the 
 oracle ; because they believed the oracle, they performed the 
 actions ; and according to the oracle, the miraculous event took 
 place. Suppose no oracle delivered, or suppose the oracle not 
 to be believed— suppose Joshua or the people of Israel to have 
 considered the appearance of the glorious personage, styling 
 
 1 Joshua V. 13-15, vi. 1-20.— The comment of a rationalist interpreter 
 is worth recording, if but to prove what fearful arpi^-KoiTotl of the divme 
 word these men are : " Historia procul dubio " (the confidence of men be- 
 lieving without evidence is generally proportioned to their confidence in 
 disbelieving in the face of evidence. Keological interpreters do wonderful 
 feats in both ways) "hajc est. Jussit Josua milites suos per septem dies 
 urbem circuire, et ab omni in eam impetu abstinere ; quo facto cum incote 
 ita securi essent, Josua milites suos septimo die in tirbis earn partem, qum 
 minus munita esseV (where did he find out that?) " irruere jussit, et moania 
 urbis inter tubarum clangorem et clamores horridos oppugnare, idque tanta 
 cum vehementia actum putamus, ut moenia cadere sponte viderentur. In 
 qua quidem historia si vel maxima nonnulla sint poetice adumbrata, ndnl 
 tameu ejus gravitati derogatur. Nam ad Triariv nihil refert, utruni htec 
 miraculosa ratione, an ordine rerum antea ignoto gesta sint."— Dindorf. 
 " To laugh were want of goodness and of grace, 
 But to be grave exceeds all power of face." 
 But ridicule and scorn are not the appropriate feelings. We "do well to 
 be angry " at such unfair treatment of an ancient, still more an inspired 
 writer ; and our hearts should dissolve in pity for men who, endowed with 
 strong inteUects and extensive learning, and applying both to the study of 
 the Scriptures for a lifetime, arrive only at such results as these. 
 
120 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 himself "the captain of the Lord's host," to have been a mere 
 dehision of the fancy : their conduct is altogether unaccount- 
 able. They are before one of the most strongly defended cities 
 in the land of Canaan. They dig no trenches to preserve them- 
 selves safe. They stand not in battle-array to meet any sally 
 on them by the garrison. They lay no formal siege, set no 
 battering engines, raise no shouts to intimidate the inhabitants. 
 But in solemn silence, in sacred procession, the whole armed 
 men, following the ark and the priests, encircled the city once 
 every day for six days. On the seventh day the strange pro- 
 cession compassed the devoted city six times in accustomed 
 portentous silence, till at last, at a signal given by Joshua, the 
 priests blew a united blast on their unmusical trumpets, and the 
 people raised one shout of anticipated triumph, and by the 
 power of God the walls of Jericho fell flat, and they marched 
 at once on all sides into the heart of the city. On the supposi- 
 tion of the revelation being made and believed, all is natural. 
 Joshua and the people of Israel could not have acted differently. 
 
 The general truth here is the same as that involved in the 
 former instance. Faith, persevering faith, enabled Joshua and 
 the Israelites to do what otherwise they could not have done, 
 and by doing so, to obtain what otherwise they could not have 
 obtained ; and the bearing of this on the Apostle's object is not 
 difficult to perceive or explain. 
 
 The Hebrew Christians were engaged in a cause, the success 
 of which, in the estimation of human reason, was even more 
 hopeless than the capture of Jericho by the Israelites. The 
 final triumph of the religion of Jesus over Judaism and pagan- 
 ism, false philosophy and worldly power, which had been dis- 
 tinctly predicted, seemed very unlikely. The means — the only 
 means they were warranted to employ, appeared very ill fitted 
 to gain their object. The preaching of the Gospel, the prayers 
 of the Church, the holy conversation of believers, and their 
 patience under manifold and severe afflictions, — what Mlton 
 happily styles " the unresistible might of weakness,"— these were 
 to be the means by which the powers of darkness were to be 
 shaken, and the walls of adamant and iron, reaching even up to 
 heaven, within which superstition had entrenched herself, levelled 
 with the ground. " The Captain of the Lord's host" had uttered 
 the following oracle :— " All power in heaven and earth is given 
 
PART. II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 121 
 
 unto Me. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations : and, lo, I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This believed, 
 was quite enough to induce them to commence and continue, 
 amid all discouragements, the use of the appointed means, till 
 the promised end was gained. Nothing else could have induced 
 them to do so. 
 
 And it is equally true still, that faith — that nothing else 
 but faith — can carry forward the Christian Church in its pre- 
 dicted triumph over the world and hell. What is the reason 
 that there has been so little missionary effort in the Christian 
 Church, in comparison of what there ought to have been ? and 
 why has that little effort been so languid, interrupted, and inef- 
 fectual ? What but the want of a sufficiently implicit persever- 
 ing faith in the promises, leading to a correspondingly implicit 
 and persevering obedience to the commandments, of the great 
 " Captain of our salvation ?" 
 
 Nor is it difficult to perceive that this has a bearing on the 
 transactions of the inward life of every Christian. Every indivi- 
 dual Christian, in " working out his own salvation," has to contend 
 with the same enemies, as in doing his part in the great work of 
 the propagation of Christianity throughout the world. The 
 Apostle's words, Eph. vi. 12, which in their primary meaning 
 refer to the difficulties of the apostolic ministry, are true when 
 used in reference to every Christian. They have to " wrestle 
 with flesh and blood;" but not only with flesh and blood, but 
 " with principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness 
 of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places." Barriers 
 more difficult to be broken down than the walls of Jericho, seem 
 to stand between them and holiness and heaven. How are these 
 enemies to be overcome ? how are these barriers to be removed ? 
 Faith can do it ; nothing but faith can do it. Let all the allure- 
 ments and all the terrors of the world be laid before the Chris- 
 tian, and use their combined influence to draw him away from 
 truth, and holiness, and God ; and let, through means of believ- 
 ing, the awful and the delightful realities of the eternal world be 
 brought before his mind, and " this will be the victory, even our 
 faith" overcoming the world. O how false, and hollow, and 
 worthless, and absurd, and detestable seem all the promises and 
 all the threats of " the prince of this world," when by the ear of 
 faith we hear the Prince of the universe proclaim, "Be of good 
 
122 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 clieer, I have overcome the world," — " I am the First, and the 
 Last, and the Living One," — " Be faithful to death, and I will 
 give you a crown of life," — "To him that overcometh, will I give 
 to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, 
 and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth sav- 
 ing he that receiveth it !" Then the Christian feels that greater 
 indeed is " He who is in him, than he who is in the world." 
 Difficulties vanish ; great mountains become a plain ; there is 
 no propensity so strong but he finds it now possible to resist, 
 almost delightful to mortify ; and just in the degree in which he 
 believes, can he "do all things through Christ strengthening him." 
 
 The last of those Scripture illustrations of the power of 
 faith which the Aj)ostle unfolds particularly, is drawn from the 
 history of Eahab the Canaanitess. Ver. 31. " By faith the 
 harlot E,ahab perished not with them that believed not, when 
 she had received the spies with peace." Here, as on former 
 occasions, let us look first at the facts, and then at the Apostle's 
 account of the facts : first to what Rahab did and obtained ; and 
 then to the influence of her faith in leading her to act as she 
 acted, and in enabling her to attain what she attained. 
 
 The discreditable appellation given to Rahab in our version 
 has appeared to some learned men not warranted by the original 
 term. They consider it as properly signifying ' a hostess or 
 innkeeper ;' or, undei'standing the word in a figurative sense, 
 interpret it as equivalent to ' idolater.' ^ I rather think our 
 translators, in common with by far the greater part of other in- 
 terpreters, have accm-ately expressed the truth ; and that in the 
 conversion of Rahab (for I apprehend we have good evidence of 
 her spiritual conversion) we are furnished with a beautiful dis- 
 play of the sovereignty of divine gi-ace, and the power of divine 
 influence, through the faith of the truth, to elevate the most de- 
 graded, and purify the most depraved, forms of human character. 
 
 The facts stated in reference to Rahab are two. She " re- 
 ceived the spies ^ in peace ;" and she " perished not with them 
 
 ^ The word cannot be derived regularly from U\ ' to feed.' It comes 
 
 '-T 
 
 obviously from nJT, ' to commit whoredom ; ' and though idolatry was 
 
 TT 
 
 spiritual whoredom in the Israelitish people, yet I do not know that an in- 
 dividual Jewish idolater is termed a whoremonger or adulterer, far less a 
 Gentile who did not belong to the nation married to Jehovah. 
 ^ nuruaKOTTovg, James calls them dy/i'hov;, ii. 25. 
 
PART 11. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 123 
 
 Avho believed not." When Joshua, previously to Israel's passing 
 the Jordan, sent from Shittim two men as spies to Jericho, to 
 bring him intelligence of the state of matters among the 
 Canaanites, they were hospitably entertained by Rahab, to 
 w^hose house they were providentially directed; and when sought 
 for by order of the king of Jericho, they were concealed by 
 her at the peril of her own life, and through her dexterity ob- 
 tained a secure retreat. As a reward for this important service, 
 when all the inhabitants of Jericho were put to the sword, 
 Eahab and her family were preserved alive, and obtained a 
 place among the peculiar people of God, — Rahab marrying 
 Salmon, the prince of Judah, and thus becoming one of the 
 ancestors of the jMessiah. Such are the facts : now for the 
 Apostle's account of these facts. 
 
 How came Rahab to act as she acted? — how came she to 
 obtain what she obtained ? It was by believing, says the Apostle. 
 Had Rahab acted on the ordinary principles of human nature, 
 she would immediately, on discovering who the Israelitish spies 
 were, and what was their errand, have given information to the 
 authorities of the city, that they might be apprehended ; at any 
 rate, when search was made for them, she never would have 
 exposed her own life to imminent peril in order to save them. 
 What was that principle which exceeded in force the love of 
 country and the fear of death ? It was faith. Hear Rahab's 
 own confession of her behef : " And she said unto the men, I 
 know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your 
 terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land 
 faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried 
 up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of 
 Egypt ; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amoritcs, 
 that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye 
 utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, 
 our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage 
 in any man, because of you ; for the Lord your God, He is 
 God in heaven above, and in earth beneath."^ Had Rahab 
 not heard these things in reference to Jehovah as the God of 
 Israel, or had she, like many of her countrymen, heard but not 
 believed them, she could not have acted as she did ; but having 
 heard and beheved them, she could not but act as she did. It 
 ^ Josliua ii. 9-11. 
 
124 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. i'9. 
 
 deserves notice that no direct revelation was made to Ealiab, but 
 she had credible evidence of the reality of the revelations which 
 Jehovah had made of His power and regard for Israel, which 
 laid a fonndation for firm belief. The efficacy of faith as an 
 operative principle does not depend on the divine revelation 
 which is the subject of faith being made directly to the indi- 
 vidual, but on the individual's being fully persuaded, on suffi-. 
 cient evidence, that such a revelation has been made. 
 
 But how was it by faith that Eahab perished not with her 
 unbelieving countrymen ? The answer is obvious : her deliver- 
 ance was the reward of her treatment of the spies, which ori- 
 ginated in her faith. Had she not believed, she w^ould not have 
 been delivered ; had she remained an unbeliever, she must have 
 perished among the unbelievers. 
 
 We are not to suppose that the whole conduct of Eahab in 
 reference to the spies receives the approbation of the inspired 
 writer, while he represents that conduct as an illustration of the 
 power of faith. Kahab's falsehood cannot be justified, and is a 
 proof that, if strong in faith in one way, she was weak in faith 
 in another. All that the Apostle says — and we have seen how 
 completely he is borne out by the history in what he says — is, 
 ' Faith enabled Eahab to do what otherwise she could not have 
 done, and to attain what otherwise she could not have attained.' 
 
 This illustration of the power, the necessity, the sufficiency 
 of faith, w^as peculiarly fitted to come home to the business and 
 bosom of the Hebrew Christians. They, like Eahab, were called 
 on to do violence to their patriotic feelings, to separate them- 
 selves from their unbelieving kindred and country, and to follow 
 a course which exposed them not only to " the spoiling of their 
 goods," but to imminent hazard of their lives. Nothing but 
 faith could enable them to act properly in these circumstances. 
 If they really believed Jesus Christ to be the true Messiah, their 
 Saviour and Lord — if they really believed His declarations, and 
 promises, and threatenings : " He that loveth father, or mother, 
 or sister, or brother, or houses, or lands, more than Me, is not 
 worthy of Me ;" " He that loseth his fife shall find it ; he that 
 saveth his life shall lose it;" " He that continueth to the end 
 shall be saved ;" — if they really believed this, they would readily 
 do all and suffer all that was required of them — they would 
 submit to privations, ejipose themselves to dangers, and make 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 125 
 
 sacrifices, from ^vllicll otlierwise tliey would have slirunk "vvitli 
 terror ; they would be content to have " their name cast out as 
 evil " by their countrymen ; and in this " patient continuance in 
 well-doing," growing out of their believing, they would in due 
 time attain to complete deliverance — " to glory, honour, and im- 
 mortality." While, on the other hand, if they did not belicA'^e, 
 they must fall before their temptations, and perish among their 
 unbelieving countrymen . 
 
 And is not the illustration replete with instruction to pro- 
 fessors of Christianity in every country and in every age ? The 
 terms of discipleship have never varied. " If any man will 
 be ]\Iy disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and 
 follow Me." All who would live godly must make sacrifices, 
 and expose themselves to hazards. Faith, and nothing but faith, 
 can enable persons cheerfully to make such sacrifices, to expose 
 themselves to such dangers. Faith can do it ; and, in the de- 
 liverance from the destruction which awaits the unbelievers, will 
 in due time obtain for them a rich recompense for all they have 
 hazarded and all they have lost in the cause of Christ. 
 
 Instead of prosecuting the course which he had begun, of 
 particularly detailing the facts in which the power of faith 
 manifested itself in the doings, and sufferings, and attainments 
 of the Old Testament worthies, the Apostle, perceiving that this 
 would have extended the Epistle beyond due limits, contents 
 himself with barely enumerating the names of a number more 
 of these believers, and in general terms describing the effects of 
 their faith ; intimating at the same time that there were many 
 more besides those whom he mentions, who, in their actions 
 and sufferings, in their lives and in their deaths, gave striking 
 evidence to the power of believing in endowing man as it were 
 with a supernatural strength, both for action and endurance. 
 Vers. 32-38. "And what shall I more sayl for the time would 
 fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of 
 Jephthae ; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets : 
 who throuoh faith subdued kinoxloms, wrought rifrhteousness, 
 obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the 
 violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness 
 were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
 armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life 
 again : and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; 
 
126 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had 
 trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds 
 and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, 
 were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered about 
 in sheep-skins and goat-skins ; being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
 mented (of whom the world was not worthy) : they wandered 
 in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the 
 earth." 
 
 This is a very beautiful paragraph. It divides itself into 
 two parts. Generally, it is an illustration of the power of faith ; 
 but the power of faith is viewed in two aspects — its power to 
 enable men to do what otherwise they could not have done, and 
 its power to enable men to suffer what otherwise they could not 
 have suffered. We have an illustration of the first from the 
 beo-inninc: of the 32d to the end of the first clause of the 35th 
 verse ; we have an illustration of the second from the begin- 
 ning of the second clause of the 35tli verse to the end of the 
 38th verse. 
 
 Let us examine, then, the Apostle's illustration of the power 
 of faith to enable men to do what otherwise they could not have 
 done. " And what shall I more say 1 " or, ' Why should I recite 
 examples any longer ? The point is already fully proved, clearly 
 illustrated. Besides, time would fail me to recount all the ex- 
 amples recorded in Old Testament history of the power of faith. 
 It would swell the Epistle to an inconvenient size.' He there- 
 fore contents himself with referring to a number of other illus- 
 trious individuals, who by faith had "obtained a good report;" 
 and by turning to the Old Testament they could easily verify 
 his reference, and see that in their actions the power of faith 
 was not less strikingly manifested than in those which had been 
 more particularly detailed. 
 
 The first person mentioned is Gideon. At a time when the 
 worship of Baal prevailed to such an extent in Israel that the 
 opposer of it was considered as a criminal worthy of death, 
 Gideon cut down the grove dedicated to that idol, and over- 
 threw his altar. What enabled Gideon to do this 1 It was faith. 
 A revelation was made to him ; he believed the revelation, and 
 acted accordingly. " And it came to pass the same night, that 
 the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even 
 the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 127 
 
 of Baal that thy father hath, and cut clown the grove that is by- 
 it ; and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon tlie top of 
 this rock, in the ordered jilace, and take the second bullock, and 
 offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou 
 shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, 
 and did as the Lord had said unto him : and so it was, because 
 he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that 
 he could not do it by day, that he did it by night." ^ Gideon, 
 after collecting an army of thirty-two thousand men to fight 
 against the Midianites and Amalekites, who at that time op- 
 pressed Israel, made proclamation, that eveiy indi^'idual who 
 was afraid of the approaching combat was at liberty to retire, 
 and thus reduced his troops to ten thousand. He then subjected 
 them to a very strange kind of trial, by bringing them to a pool 
 of water and making them drink ; dismissing such of them as 
 lay down to cbink, and retaining only such as, in a bending 
 posture, lapped the water with their hands. His army was thus 
 reduced to three hundred men ; and these three hundred men 
 he armed in a very extraordinary manner — with trumpets and 
 with empty pitchers, and with lamps in these pitchers. By 
 tliese most unlikely means Gideon obtained a complete victory, 
 and delivered Israel out of the hands of their enemies. 
 
 Now how are "sve to account for Gideon's conduct, and for 
 Gideon's success? There is but one way. He did all this " by 
 faith." A divine revelation was given him ; he believed, and 
 acted accordingly. He used the means appointed by God, 
 though in themselves utterly unfit for gaining the end ; and it 
 ■vy^as to him according to his faith. Without such a revelation 
 as he had, and without faith in that revelation, he could not 
 have acted as he did ; with such a revelation, and with faith in 
 such a revelation, he could not but act as he did. 
 
 Barak is the next person mentioned as affording in his history 
 an illustration of the power of faith. He, at a period when the 
 Israelites were completely subjected to the oppressive yoke of 
 Jabin, king of Canaan, raised a small band of ten thousand 
 men, and at their head attacked Sisera, the commander of 
 Jabin's numerous and well-appointed army, and completely dis- 
 comfited him. 
 
 What was it that enabled Barak to undertake, and what was 
 1 Judges vi. 25-27. 
 
128 EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 it that enabled him to succeed in, so apparently hopeless an 
 enterprise ? It was faith. A divine revelation was made to him 
 through the medium of Deborah the prophetess ; he believed 
 it, and acted accordingly. Had no revelation been made, or had 
 he disbelieved it, the attempt would never have been made. 
 
 The next illustration of the power of faith is taken from the 
 very singular history of Samson. Samson performed many 
 wonders. He tore a lion to pieces, as if it had been a kid ; he 
 burst asunder the strongest cords with which he could be bound, 
 and, single-handed, slew a thousand of his enemies ; he carried 
 off the gates of Gaza and their posts on his shoulders ; and he 
 overturned the pillars by which the stately temple of Dagon was 
 supported. 
 
 Now how did Samson do all these things ? By faith. We 
 are generally told, previously to any of his extraordinary feats, 
 " The Spirit of the Lord came upon him." That is, I appre- 
 hend, a revelation was made to his mind that the divine power 
 was to be put forth in connection with some exertion of his, so 
 that he was to be enabled to do something far exceeding his 
 natural powers. He believed this, and acted accordingly ; and 
 found that it was to him according to his faith. 
 
 Jephthah is next mentioned as an exemplification of the 
 power of faith. At the time when the children of Israel were 
 oppressed by the Ammonites, Jephthah, a man of low birth, 
 with very inadequate means, effected their dehverance. How 
 was this accomplished ? It was through his believing. " The 
 Spirit of the Lord came upon him ;" i.e., a revelation was made 
 to him that he was to be the deliverer of Israel. He beheved it, 
 and acted accordingly. 
 
 David is next mentioned ; but it were tedious to bring be- 
 fore you all the illustrations of the power of faith furnished by 
 his eventful history. It is not improbable that the Apostle 
 particularly refers to his victorious combat with the Philistian 
 giant. David, a young man, unarmed but with a sling and a 
 few pebbles, entered the lists with the veteran and well-ac- 
 coutred gigantic champion of the Philistines, and gained the 
 victory. These are the facts. What is the only rational ac- 
 count of them ? David had received a divine revelation. This 
 is plain from the confident manner in which he speaks : " This 
 day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand : and I will 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 129' 
 
 smite thee, aiid take thine liead from thee ; and I will give the 
 carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of 
 the air, and to the w^ild beasts of the earth ; that all the earth 
 may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly 
 shall know that the Lord savetli not with sword and spear : for 
 the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands." ^ 
 He believed it, and this accounts satisfactorily both for his con- 
 duct and for his success. Other instances of the power of faith 
 will readily occur to the mind of every person intimately ac- 
 quainted with David's history. 
 
 Samuel is the last of the ancients mentioned by name as 
 exemplifying the power of faith. We cannot say certainly to. 
 what the inspired writer refers. It is possible that he refers to 
 his anointinfj David to be kincj over Israel, notwithstandino; the 
 extreme danger to which this exposed him. A divine revela- 
 tion was made to him ; he believed it, and acted accordingly. 
 His anointing Saul was another proof of the power of faith. 
 But the event to which Ave are disposed to think it most pro- 
 bable, from its miraculous character, that the Apostle refers, 
 is that recorded in 1 Sam. xii. 16-18: " Now therefore stand 
 and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your 
 eyes. Is it not wheat-harvest to-day ? I will call unto the 
 Lord, and He shall send thunder and rain ; that ye maj^ per- 
 ceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done 
 in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel 
 called unto the Lord ; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that 
 day : and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel." 
 A revelation was made to Samuel that the divine power was to 
 be put forth in connection with certain words which he spoke. 
 He believed that revelation; he spoke the words, and the event 
 followed. 
 
 "The prophets" are then brought forward as exemplifying 
 the power of faith. Appropriate instances will readily occur to 
 cveiy person familiarly acquainted with Old Testament history. 
 Nathan reproving David ; Micaiah denouncing Ahab's over- 
 throw ; Elijah fed by ravens — miraculously increasing the meal 
 , and the oil of the wudow of Zarephath, and raising from the 
 dead her son — bringing down fire from heaven to consume the 
 sacrifice on Mount Carmel — withholding and bestowing rain by 
 1 1 Sam. xvii. 46, 47. _ 
 
 VOL. II. I 
 
130 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 his prayers ; Elisha performing similar wonders ; Isaiah pre- 
 dicting Hezekiah's lengthened life, and the sudden destruction 
 of the Assyrian army. These, and multitudes of other similar 
 events in the history of the prophets, attest the power of faith. 
 They are events of which no rational account can be given on 
 any principle but this : A revelation of the divine will was made 
 to them ; they believed it, and this produced its appropriate 
 effect. They were enabled to do what otherwise they could not 
 have done. 
 
 The Apostle goes on to particularize some of the wonderful 
 works which these men did, under the influence of faith, in the 
 33d and following verses. 
 
 The question has sometimes been put. Were all the persons 
 here mentioned true saints ? The question is rather a curious 
 than a useful one. My answer to it is. Really I do not know. 
 I am sure that some of them were ; I hope all of them were. 
 But all that is of importance for us to know is this, that all of 
 them believed some divine revelation made to them, and that 
 their faith of that revelation enabled them to do what otherwise 
 they would not have been able to do. Their being brought 
 forward here as illustrations of the power of faith, in no degree 
 sanctions any pieces of their conduct which are inconsistent 
 with the principles of truth and righteousness. Gideon's making 
 an ephod out of the spoils of the Midianites ; Jephthah's immo- 
 lating his daughter, or devoting her to perpetual celibacy — 
 for it seems difficult to determine which of these he did ; Sam- 
 son's taking a Philistian wife, and keeping company with a 
 harlot; David's complicated sin in the matter of Uriah the 
 Hittite ; — none of these receive any sanction from the state- 
 ment of the plain, well-supported fact, that all of these men, in 
 consequence of their believing, were enabled to do things which 
 otherwise they could not have done. These sins were proofs, 
 not of faith, but of unbelief. In every one of them they acted 
 without a divine revelation, or in opposition to a divine revelation. 
 In reading Scripture history, let us recollect that the faults of 
 good men are recorded to serve as beacons, not as guide-posts ; 
 that in copying any mere human character we must be cautious. 
 There is but one a/Z-perfect pattern. He is "all fair; there 
 is no spot in Him." He has "set us an example;" let us 
 " follow His steps." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 131 
 
 The paragraph from vers. 33-38 naturally divides itself 
 into two parts : the first, illustrative of the power of faith to 
 enable men to accomplish successfully the most difficult enter- 
 prises ; the second, illustrative of its power to enable men to 
 sustain patiently the most severe trials. Let us examine these 
 two divisions of the paragraph in their order. 
 
 The first reaches from the beginning of the 33d verse to 
 the end of the first clause of the 35th verse. "Who" {i.e., 
 the ancient worthies referred to in the preceding verses) 
 " through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob- 
 tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the 
 violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weak- 
 ness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight 
 the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to 
 life again. "^ 
 
 They " subdued 'kingdoms." This refers, I apprehend, to 
 Joshua and David. Joshua subdued the kingdoms in Canaan, 
 and David subdued those which were around that country — such 
 as :Moab, Amnion, Edom, and Syria ; and they both subdued 
 these kingdoms through believing. God had clearly revealed, 
 not merely that it was Plis purpose that these kingdoms should 
 be subdued, but also that Joshua and David were to be in- 
 struments of their subjugation. They believed this divine re- 
 velation; their faith manifested itself by corresponding exertions; 
 and God, according to His promise, and in reward of their faith, 
 crowned their exertions with success. 
 
 They " wrought righteousness." To " work righteousness," 
 sometimes means in Scripture, to 'live a holy Hfe;' as in such 
 passages as these :—" Lord, who shall abide in Thy taber- 
 nacle ? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill ? He that walketh up- 
 rightly, and worketh righteousness." " But in every nation he 
 that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
 Him."2 There can be no doubt that many of the persons re- 
 
 1 This is a very admirable passage. Most justly does Carpzov remark, 
 " Demosthenico artificio exempla cumulat eorum, qui sola fide constantiam 
 servarunt, qui calamitates, pericula, ignes, vincula, cruciatus, ludibria, 
 scuticas, lapides, gladiorum mucrones, mortem ijisam, magno animo pertu- 
 lerunt. Hie omnes notaj, in dicendo sestus, vis et fulmen in eloqueudo, 
 davuCirx^ delectus vocum," et.v'i,-fi(jis kxI hlumic, Tnmi; Kot\ ipurmi;, KkifiUKig 
 uSpoia/iiol, afoopov kxi iudovaixarDiov ■jrxdo;, comparent." 
 
 - Ps. XV. 1, 2; Actsx. 35. . 
 
132 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 ferred to did live holy lives, and that their living holy lives was 
 owing to their believing the truth with regard to the divine 
 character and will ; and that the enabling an entirely depraved 
 being, such as all men naturally are, habitually to live a holy 
 life, is one of the most remarkable exemplifications of the power 
 of faith. Yet I apprehend the general scope of the passage 
 leads us to interpret the phrase, " wrought righteousness," in a 
 more restricted sense, as equivalent to — ' carried the laws of 
 justice into execution, executed judgment.' I think it not im- 
 probable that the Apostle had in his eye Phinehas and Elijah, 
 who both of them, through believing, executed judgment — in- 
 flicted merited punishment on notorious offenders — in circum- 
 stances in which, had they not been believers, they durst not 
 have done it. The particulars of the two cases may be read 
 — the first, in Num. xxv. 7 ; and the second, 1 Kings xviii. 40. 
 Or the phrase may signify, ' procured justice for the oppressed;' 
 as many of the judges did, by executing righteous judgment 
 on the oppressors. 
 
 They "received promises." The word "promise" in the 
 New Testament is often used to signify the thing promised. 
 " The promise of the Father," is that which the Father has pro- 
 mised ; " the promise of the Spirit," is the Spirit who is promised 
 — -the promised Spirit ; to " inherit the promises," is to enjoy the 
 promised blessings. In the same way, in the passage before 
 us, to " receive promises," is to obtain the blessings promised. 
 Through believing, these elders who have " obtained a good re- 
 port," obtained possession of the blessings promised to them. It 
 was promised to Joshua that he should conquer Canaan ; and 
 through believing he obtained the conquest of Canaan. It was 
 promised to Gideon that he should defeat the Midianites ; and 
 through believing he obtained their complete discomfiture. It 
 was promised to David that he should be king over Israel ; and 
 through believing he obtained the Idngdora. Great difficulties 
 seemed to be in the way of these good men obtaining the bless- 
 ings promised. Without believing, they could not have obtained 
 them ; by believing, they did obtain them. 
 
 There is no inconsistency between the declaration here, that 
 these "received promises," and the declaration in the 39th verse, 
 that they "did not receive the promise." They received the 
 accomplishment of many particular promises made to them, but 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 133 
 
 they did not receive the accomplishment of the promise — the 
 promise of the ^lessiah, or of the " salvation with eternal 
 glory" which is in Him. 
 
 They "stopped the mouths of lions." This has by some 
 been referred to what Samson and David did when, unarmed, 
 they each of them slew a lion. But the words seem rather to 
 describe what took place in the case of Daniel, when cast into 
 the den of lions for his fidelity to his God. God sent His 
 angel to shut the lions' mouths, that they did not hurt him. 
 And this was done by faith ; for it is expressly stated, that this 
 was done " because he believed in his God." 
 
 They " quenched the violence of fire." Some have supposed 
 that the reference here is to Aaron running, under a divine im- 
 pulse, in consequence of a revelation made by IMoses, into the 
 midst of the congi'egation at the time a plague was destroying 
 the Israelites by thousands, and, by making an atonement for 
 them, arresting its fatal progress. But these interpreters seem 
 to have confounded two separate events — the destruction of the 
 250 men of the company of Korah by fire from heaven, the vio- 
 lence of which was not quenched ; and the plague, which does 
 not seem to have been fire from heaven, that on the succeeding 
 day destroyed 14,700 of the people, on account of their impious 
 murmurings. The reference is probably to what happened to the 
 three young Israelites in Babylon, who refused to yield obedience 
 to the edict of Nebuchadnezzar, requiring all to worship the 
 colossal image which he had erected in the plain of Dura. They 
 were cast into " a burning fiery furnace, seven times heated," — 
 in which they were not only preserved alive, but walked up and 
 do^vn in the midst of the flames; and on being taken out, it was 
 fovmd that the violence of the fire had indeed been quenched — that 
 it had had no power over their bodies — that " not even the hair 
 of their heads was singed, nor their coats changed, nor had the 
 smell of fire passed upon them." It was by faith that the violence 
 of the fire was quenched. A revelation had been made to their 
 minds that God would preserve them alive in the fiery furnace. 
 They believed it; and, believing it, they permitted themselves to 
 be cast into it, and found that it was to them according to their 
 faith. " Our God, whom we serve," said they, " is able to de- 
 liver us from the burning fiery furnace ; and He will deliver us 
 out of thine hand, king. But if not,"— tliat is, even if it were 
 
134 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 otherwise, though no such deliverance awaited us, — " be it known 
 unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship 
 the golden image which thou hast set up."^ 
 
 They " escaped the edge of the sword." To " escape from 
 the edge of the sword," may be considered as a general phrase : 
 ' to obtain deliverance in circumstances of extreme danger.' And 
 in this case it is applicable to many incidents recorded in the 
 Old Testament, of persons, through the faith of a divine revela- 
 tion, obtaining such deliverances; as in the case of David when in 
 Keilah, where, but for a divine revelation and faith in it, he must 
 have fallen by the sword of Saul. You have the story at length 
 in the 23d chapter of 1st Samuel. It is not unlikely, however, 
 that there is a direct reference to the cases of Moses and Elijah. 
 We find !Moses saying, Exod. xviii. 4, — " The God of my 
 father was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of 
 Pharaoh." The flight of Moses from Egypt into ^lidian was 
 probably the result of a divine revelation made to him, and be- 
 lieved by him. Elijah's life was in extreme danger when Jezebel 
 threatened to slay him with the sword, as he had done the priests 
 of Baal. But he " escaped the edge of the sword." He fled 
 into the wilderness ; and though we have no particular account 
 of this being the result of a divine revelation, yet, as Elijah 
 seems to have taken few steps of importance withoiit direct 
 divine instruction, it is highly probable that it was. This seems 
 to us a more probably just interpretation of the phrase, " by 
 faith they escaped the edge of the sword," than considering it 
 as equivalent to — ' God protected them because they believed in 
 Him.' 
 
 " Out of weakness they were made strong." When weak, 
 through faith they became strong. This may refer to such in- 
 stances as Barak, and Gideon, and Jephthah, who in consequence 
 of believing the divine revelation made to them, and acting on 
 it, from weak, helpless individuals, became powerful leaders of 
 mighty armies. But as the word " weakness" properly refers 
 to bodily sickness or disease, the reference most probably is to 
 the case of Hezekiah, who in consequence of his faith re- 
 covered from a mortal disease. You have the particulars of this 
 case in 2 Kings xx., and in Isa. xxxviii. A revelation was made 
 to Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah, confirmed by a miraculous 
 1 Dan. iii. 17, 18. 
 
PART 11. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 135 
 
 sign. Hezekiali believed it ; it was to lilm according to his 
 faith — " out of weakness lie became strong." 
 
 They " waxed," or were made/ " valiant" — that is, strong — 
 "in fight," or battle. In the case of many of the heroes mentioned 
 above, their faith of the divine promise of success gave them a 
 kind of preternatural courage and strength in battle — enabled 
 them to achieve exploits to which otherwise they would have 
 found themselves entirely unequal. 
 
 " Turned to flight^ the armies of the aliens." Of this Ave 
 have many examples in Old Testament history. Let two or three 
 serve as a specimen. Josh. x. 1-10. Here we have " armies of 
 the aliens;" here we have a divine revelation; Joshua believing 
 it ; and in consequence of his faith, " turning these armies of 
 the aliens to flight." 2 Sam. v. 17-25. Here, too, we have 
 " armies of the aliens;" a divine revelation made ; David believ- 
 ing it; and in consequence of believing it, "turning these armies 
 to flight." 2 Chron. xx. 1-26. 
 
 " Women received their dead raised to life again." The 
 reference seems here plainly to the restoration to life of the 
 Sareptan and Shunammite widows' sons by Ehjah and Elisha : 
 1 Kings xvii. 22-24 ; 2 Kings iv. 36. It was " by faith" that 
 these strange events were brought about. A revelation, made to 
 the minds of the prophets and believed by them, led them to speak 
 the word or do the action which by divine appointment was con- 
 nected with the putting forth of the divine power to work the 
 miracle. Such is the illustration of the power of faith to enable 
 men successfully to accomplish the most arduous enterprises ; 
 and the conclusion to be drawn from it plainly is. There is no 
 enterprise so difficult, but faith in a divine revelation promising 
 success can enable a man cheerfully to undertake, steadily to 
 prosecute, and prosperously to finish it. 
 
 The second division of the paragraph is an illustration of the 
 power of faith to enable men patiently to endure the severest 
 trials — to continue stedfast in their duty to God notwithstand- 
 ing their being exposed to extreme suffering. 
 
 Ver. 35. " Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; 
 that they might obtain a better resurrection." " Others," — i.e., 
 
 ^ lyiVYlSmoiv. 
 
 2 'Uxii/av is well rendered, " turned to flight." Thus Homer, II. E. 37 : 
 Tpux; iKAiinK,]) Acti/xoi. 
 
136 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XIL 29. 
 
 another set of believers, persons different from those whose 
 wonderful achievements and attainments have just been men- 
 tioned. The word translated " tortured," properly signifies to 
 stretch upon an instrument called TvixTravov (the shape of whicli 
 is not certainly known at present), for the purpose of giving the 
 body an attitude of peculiar exposure to the power of cudgels 
 or rods. It involves the idea of double suffering, from being 
 stretched on this instriunent of torture and beaten; and, as used 
 here, it plainly signifies tortured to death in this way.^ Perhaps 
 the word may, without impropriety, be considered as signifying 
 torturing to death in any way. There can be little doubt that, 
 under tlie idolatrous kings of Israel and Judah, numbers of in- 
 dividuals were put to death for their steady attachment to the 
 pure worship of Jehovah ; but it is scarcely possible, I think, 
 carefully to read the history of the persecutions under Antiochus 
 Epiphanes without coming to the conclusion that it is to them 
 the inspired writer directly refers. 
 
 There is no doubt, says the judicious Dr Owen, that the 
 Apostle here refers to the story that ns recorded in the sixth and 
 seventh chapters of the second book of the Maccabees. For 
 the words are a summary of the things and sayings that are 
 ascribed to lileazar, who was beaten to death when he had beeii 
 persuaded or allured to accept deliverance by transgressing the 
 law. And the same may be said of the mother and her seven 
 sons, whose story and torments are there also recorded. The words 
 of Josephus are — " They eveiy day underwent great miseries 
 and bitter torments ; for they were whipped Avith rods, and their 
 bodies were torn to pieces, and were crucified while they were 
 still alive and breathed."^ When they were thus tortured they 
 would not accept of deliverance ; i.e., on the condition of their 
 denying Jehovah and violating His law. When Eleazar was 
 offered the means of escaping punishment, he replied, " It be- 
 cometh not our age to dissemble. For the present time I should 
 
 ^ To this mode of tortiire Prudentius seems to refer in the 14:th Hymn 
 of his Peristephanon : 
 
 " Tundatur tergum crebris ictibus, 
 Plumboque cervix verberata extuberet. 
 
 * » * * 
 
 Pulsatur ergo martyr, ilia grandine, 
 Postquam inter ictus hymnum dixit plumbeos." 
 2 Antiq. ix. 5. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 137 
 
 be delivered from the punishment of men, yet should I not escape 
 the hand of the Almighty, alive and dead."' When the youngest 
 of the seven sons of the Jewish mother was assured by Antiochus, 
 with an oath, " that he would make him both a rich and a happy 
 man if he would turn from the laws of his fathers, and that also 
 he would take him for a friend, and trust him with affairs," he 
 obstinately refused ; and when the king urged the mother to 
 counsel the young man to save his life, her reply was, " I will 
 counsel my son;" and turning to her son, she said, " Fear not this 
 tormentor, but, being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death, that 
 I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren." 
 
 The reason of their constancy amid tortures is given — " that 
 they might obtain a better resurrection." The reference of the 
 word " better" is not at once seen by an English reader. The 
 first clause of the verse, literally rendered, is, " Women received 
 their dead by a resurrection^^ These tortured saints refused de- 
 liverance that they might obtain a resurrection, and a better re- 
 surrection than that which restored these dead persons to a life 
 in this world — even the resurrection to life eternal. It de- 
 serves notice that the hope of the resurrection is expressly stated 
 by those who were tortured to death, and who would not ac- 
 cept of proffered deliverance, as the reason of their continuing 
 constant unto death. "It is good," said one of those noble 
 martyrs, when mangled, and tormented, and ready to die — " It 
 is good, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God, 
 to be raised up again by Him." "My brethren," said the 
 youngest of them, " are dead under God's covenant of everlast- 
 ing life ;" and the mother bore all her sufferings with a good 
 courage, because of the hope which she had in the Lord. 
 
 Ver. 36. " Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, 
 yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment." " Mockings" refer to 
 the scorn, derision, and buffetings which the victims of persecu- 
 tion experienced. " Scourgings" refer to another mode of in- 
 flicting stripes than that referred to in the former verse. Micaiah 
 and Jeremiah are instances of persons who were tried by " bonds 
 and imprisonment," and who stood the trial — remained " sted- 
 fast and unmoveable." 
 
 ^ Afterwards, too, he said, Avucif^Bvog ccTro'KvSyi'jai rol Suudrov, okKtiP*? 
 V7ro(pepu KciTX TO au/iix ccTiy/iZotix; fmoTr/ovimvo;, kxtcc ^pv^yju oi iidiu; oicc 
 Tou CCV70V (TOT KXriOT) (pifiou roivr oc 7r«(7;c<y. 2 Macc. vi. 30. 
 
138 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 Yer. 37. " They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were 
 tempted, were slain with the sword." Sawing asunder was a 
 most cruel method of inflicting death, in use in very early times 
 — 2 Sam. xii. 31 — and still employed, it is said, in the Burman 
 Empire. Tradition teaches that Isaiah the prophet was put to 
 death in this horrible manner by Manasseh. The instances 
 mentioned in this verse are not recorded in the Old Testament, 
 but were doubtless all of them realities, and often repeated under 
 the dreadful persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 
 The phrase, " they were tempted," has occasioned much 
 difficulty to interpreters.^ It does seem strange that a word 
 expressive of suffering in general should be introduced in the 
 midst of words descriptive of particular kinds of suffering. The 
 word does not seem used in its general sense of trial, but of 
 temptations to forsake their religion, presented to them in the 
 midst of their sufferings, of which we have already had an in- 
 stance. This seems to have been a common practice. Not only 
 life, but wealth and honour, were frequently proffered in the 
 midst of tortures most agonizing to the human frame, in order 
 to tempt the martyrs to forsake their religion. Such tempta- 
 tions, in such circumstances, were among the severest trials of 
 faith ; and to enable them to rise above them, was one of faith's 
 noblest triumphs. 
 
 Others of these ancient believers, who were not deprived of 
 life, were yet exposed to numerous and great inconveniences. 
 They had to abandon their own habitations, and, destitute of the 
 ordinary accommodations of human civilised society, lived in the 
 wilderness like wild beasts. " They wandered about in sheep- 
 skins and in goat-skins, in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens 
 and caves of the earth, destitute, afflicted, and tormented."^ These 
 
 ^ Some consider it as an interpolation, inserted by mistake, in conse- 
 quence of the preceding word being twice written. Others suppose that the 
 original reading was — i'TvvpuS'/idct.v^ iTrvpa.(s6ncitii.v, S7rp'/ia6riaxv — all signifying, 
 'they were burned ;' or eTryipadyiaxv, ' they were mutilated ;' or sTrpa.a^ma.v, 
 'they were sold as slaves;' or ia7rii()a,admo(,v, or laTrnpot.dmot.v,'' thQj were 
 tortured and killed by being tied to the spokes of wheels put in motion ;' 
 or iva.pdma.v^ ' they were transfixed.' But aU this is conjecture, and the 
 best critics keep the word in the text. 
 
 2 Mountains, waste places, and caves, are spoken of in Scripture as the 
 usual places of refuge in times of affliction : Matt. xxiv. 16 ; 1 Sam. xxii. ; 
 2 Sam. xxiv. ; Judges vi. 2 ; 1 Sam. xiii. 6 ; Isa. ii. 19. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GEXERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 139 
 
 Words need no explanation ; and the best commentary on tliem 
 is just the history of the persecutions which the people of God, 
 in various ages, have undergone. It is a striking fact, that 
 these words are just as descriptive of what the Christian Church 
 has undergone since the Apostle wrote, as they were of what 
 the Jewish Church had undergone before he wrote. 
 
 The parenthesis in the beginning of the 38th verse is pe- 
 culiarly beautiful: " Of whom the world was not worthy." Their 
 persecutors thought them not worthy of the world ; but the 
 truth was, the world was not worthy of them. The world could 
 not bear a comparison with them in respect of wortli. They 
 were of a character far elevated above the rest of the world. 
 " To tell the great, the mighty, the wealthy, the rulers of the 
 M'orld, that they are not worthy of the society of the poor, desti- 
 tute, despised wanderers whom they hunt and persecute as the off- 
 scourinfr of all things, fills them with indimiation. There is not 
 an informer or apparitor but would think himself disparaged by 
 it. But they may esteem it as they please. We know that this 
 testimony is true, and the world shall one day confess it to be so." 
 
 The great truth which the Apostle means to bring before 
 the mind by these statements is : ' Faith can enable men to en- 
 dui'e the severest sufferings. It was faith that enabled these 
 holy confessors to suffer all this patiently, cheerfully, persever- 
 ingly. Nothing but faith could have done this.' The applica- 
 tion to the Hebrews is plain and obvious : ' You have much to 
 do, you have much to suffer, as Christians. Faith can — nothing 
 but faith can — enable you to do and suffer it all.' The truth is 
 one of importance to us as well as to them. 
 
 The Apostle concludes his historical illustrations of the im- 
 portance of faith in the remarkable Avords, vers. 39, 40, " And 
 these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received 
 not the promise : God having provided some better thing for 
 us, that they without us should not be made perfect." 
 
 The words, " all these" have by some interpreters been con- 
 sidered as referring only to the whole of those who are repre- 
 sented as having suffered under the influence of faith ; and they 
 have supposed that they are here spoken of in contrast with 
 those who acted under the influence of faith. The latter class, 
 by faith, obtained promises ; the former, though they have ob- 
 tained a good report through faith, received not the promise. 
 
140 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 While Gideon, and Barak, and Jeplitliah, and Samson, and David, 
 and Samuel, by their heroic deeds, performed under the influence 
 of faith, obtained possession of blessings that had been promised 
 to them, those who, when exposed to the fierce persecutions of 
 the Svro-Macedonian king, through faith endured tortures of 
 the most exquisite kind, died without obtaining such blessings. 
 On carefully looking at the passage, however, it must appear 
 that the statement of such a contrast coiild in no way serve the 
 Apostle's purpose ; and the contrast stated is not between two 
 different classes of the ancient worthies — between the working 
 believers and the suffering believers, but between believers under 
 the ancient economy and believers under the new economy. 
 All those persons to whose history the Apostle in the preceding 
 part of the chapter has referred, as an illustration of the power 
 of faith, — all those whose names are honourably recorded in 
 the book of God, either expressly on account of their faith, or 
 on account of achievements which originated in faith, — "all 
 these received not the promise." 
 
 These words, taken by themselves, may either signify, ^ had 
 not the promise made to them,' or, ' had not the promise fulfilled 
 to them.' Those interpreters who take the first view of these 
 words explain them thus : ' Those ancient believers had a num- 
 ber of promises made to them ; but there was one promise, which 
 by way of eminence may be called the promise — the promise 
 of the resurrection and of an immortal life of happiness, — that 
 promise was not given to them — they obtained it not. " Life 
 and immortality have been brought to light by the Gospel." 
 This better thing has been provided for us.' .This is, however, 
 by no means satisfactory ; for it is quite evident, from the state- 
 ments made in the preceding part of this chapter, that the pro- 
 mise, " I am the Lord thy God," included the promise of the 
 resurrection and immortal happiness, and was understood by these 
 ancients to include this promise. The promise, no doubt, is more 
 fully unfolded, and expressed in much plainer terms, under the 
 new than it was under the old economy ; but the promise of 
 eternal life, though forming no part of the law, was yet given to 
 the people of God both before the law and under the law. To 
 " receive the promise," must be understood as signifying, to re- 
 ceive the promised blessing, just as to " inherit the promises" is 
 to possess the promised blessings. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 141 
 
 But what is the promised blessing which none of these Old 
 Testament worthies, though renowned for their faith, received ? 
 The great blessing promised to the ancient Church was the 
 Messiah, and salvation, in all the extent of that word, through 
 Him. It was promised to them that " the seed of the woman 
 should braise the head of the serpent;" that "in Abraham's 
 seed all the families of the earth should be blessed;" that to 
 them " a Son should be born, a Child given, whose name should 
 be Wonderful, Counsellor, the ]\[ighty God;" that Israel 
 should be " saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." 
 Now, this blessing, which is indeed a congeries of blessings, these 
 ancient believers did not receive while they lived. They died be- 
 fore the Messiah became incarnate, and suffered, and died, and 
 rose again ; and of course they could not enjoy those blessings 
 which originate in that fuller and clearer revelation of the truth 
 respecting the salvation of the IMessiah, and that correspondingly 
 enlarged communication of divine influence which were the 
 natural consequences of that great event. On their death, in- 
 deed, they entered jnto a state free from sin, and fear, and 
 suffering ; but still they " received not the promise." They 
 waited in heaven, some of them for some thousands of years, 
 expecting the revelation of the mystery of mercy ; but till that 
 took place they could not have the full knowledge and enjoy- 
 ment of the promised blessing. We have no reason to think 
 that the departed spirits of good men knew more of the plan of 
 redemption than the angels did, who had to learn from the dis- 
 pensations of God to the Church this "manifold wisdom of 
 God." On the finishing of the great work given to the incarnate 
 Son to do, and on His taking possession of His mediatorial 
 throne, a prodigious accession must have been made to the 
 happiness of the spirits of the ancient believers. But even yet 
 they have not fully received the promise. The promise of a 
 glorious resurrection, and an immortal restoi'ed life in their glori- 
 fied bodies, remains yet unperformed. This is not matter of 
 enjoyment, but of expectation. Their " flesh rests in hope," 
 and their spirits, looking forward to the glorious consummation, 
 breathe out the words, " How long, O Lord, how long !" Thus 
 did all these ancient worthies, though celebrated for their faith, 
 not receive the promised blessing. 
 
 One would have naturally expected a declaration of an 
 
142 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. Ip-XII. 29. 
 
 opposite kind: ' All these, having obtained a good report through 
 faith, did receive the promise. After all the difficulties and 
 trials, labours and sufferings, to which they were exposed, they 
 at last obtained in the promised blessing a rich recompense for 
 them all.' And this might have been justly enough said ; for all 
 true believers under the former economy did, immediately on 
 death, obtain blessings which more than compensated for all 
 their toils and sorrows ; and further, such a statement would 
 have been well fitted to support the Christian Hebrews amid 
 their trials. But the statement contained In the text Is equally 
 true — that these excellent men, notwithstanding their faith, 
 were not immediately, nor soon, put In possession of the great 
 blessing promised to them. And its statement was well fitted 
 also to prevent the Christian Hebrews from casting away their 
 confidence, and to induce them to persevere, though the pro- 
 mised blessing might be long in being conferred on them. 
 
 Some have supposed that the intended practical application of 
 the Apostle's remark may be thus expressed : — ' These ancient 
 believers persevered in their attachment to Jehovah and His 
 cause in life and In death, though the great object of their faith, 
 and hope, and desire, was not bestowed on them. How much 
 stronger Is the obligation, how much greater the encouragement, 
 to perseverance in your case, who have received the promise ! 
 How easy it is to continue to believe in a well attested past 
 fact, in comparison with continuing to believe in a future event, 
 which Is In itself very improbable, and for which they had no 
 ground of expectation but the divine promise ! How much more 
 are your circumstances calculated to facilitate perseverance than 
 theirs !' 
 
 There is force in this arguing ; but we do not think that it is 
 the argument suggested by the Apostle's train of thought. It 
 is quite plain that he represents the enjoyment of the promised 
 blessing as yet future, even with regard to the Christian He- 
 brews : " Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have endured 
 the will of God, ye may obtain the promise."^ It is as if he had 
 said, ' Let not the fact, that the great object of your expectation 
 is something yet future — something which you are never to 
 enjoy in this world — something which, in all its extent, you are 
 not to enjoy till the time of the consummation of all things, — 
 
 1 Heb. X. 36. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 143 
 
 let not this prevent you from persevering. All these elders, 
 ■\vho through faith obtained a good report, and are now entered 
 on the inheritance of the promised blessing, — all these, during 
 the whole of their lives on earth, and many of them for ages 
 after their death, did not obtain the promised blessing.' 
 
 That this is the practical bearing of the passage, will, I 
 trust, become more apparent as we proceed with the illustration 
 of the 40th verse, which is certainly one of the most difficult in 
 the whole Epistle : — " God having provided some better thing 
 for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." 
 
 " God has provided some better thing for tis." There can 
 be no doubt that the pronoun us refers to saints under the Chris- 
 tian economy. For them God has " provided some better thing." 
 The question naturally occurs. Better than what ? And the 
 answer ordinarily returned is, Better than what the saints under 
 the Old Testament economy enjoyed. Thei/ did not receive 
 the promise, i.e., the promised blessing : lue have received it. 
 The Messiah is come, and we are blessed with heavenly and 
 spiritual blessings in Him. " Blessed," says our Lord, " are 
 the eyes which see the things which ye see ; for verily I say 
 unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired 
 to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to 
 hear the things which ye hear, and have not heard them." " The 
 mystery which was kept secret from former ages and genera- 
 tions, is now made manifest." The true atonement for sin has 
 been made, and clearly revealed. " The way into the holiest 
 has been made manifest." The influence of the Holy Spirit has 
 been more copiously dispensed. Life and immortality have been 
 illuminated by the Gospel. A rational, spiritvial, and easy sys- 
 tem of worship, has taken the place of the complicated, and 
 burdensome, and carnal ordinances of the law. The Church 
 has passed from a state of minority, subjected to tutors and 
 governors — a state of pupillage, into a state of mature sonship. 
 All this is truth, and important truth ; but still I doubt if it is 
 the truth here stated. The promise here spoken of does not 
 seem to be directly and principally the promise of the Messiah, 
 or of the blessings of His reign to be enjoyed in this world ; but 
 "the promise of eternal inheritance," — a promise, the full 
 accomplishment of which the saints under the new economy 
 do not obtain in the present state, any more than the saints 
 
144 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 under the ancient economy, — a promise, the full accomplish- 
 ment of which they are to obtain after a patient enduring of 
 the will of God. These " better things" which God has pro- 
 vided for us, or foreseen concerning us, are to be enjoyed when 
 we and our elder brethren are together perfected. 
 
 The answer to the -question. What is the reference of the 
 word " better" in the clause before us ? — with what are the 
 things provided for Christians by God compared 1 — which we 
 would be disposed to give is this : The comparison is not be- 
 tween what the saints under the old economy enjoyed and 
 what saints under the New Testament economy enjoy on earth, 
 but between what the saints under the new economy enjoy on 
 earth, and what they are ultimately to enjoy in heaven. ' God 
 has provided something better for us than anything we can 
 attain in the present state, just as He had provided something 
 better for them than anything they could attain in the present 
 state. The ultimate object of their faith and hope lay beyond 
 death and the grave, and so does ours.' 
 
 The good things provided for us by God are thus described 
 by the inspired writers : — " We know that when the earthly 
 house of our tabernacle is destroyed, we shall have a building 
 of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 When we are " absent from the body," we shall be " present 
 with the Lord." " We know that them who sleep in Jesus, God 
 will bring with Him." " When He who is om' life shall ap- 
 pear, v,'e shall appear with Him in glory." " When He shall 
 appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." 
 " We look for the Saviour from heaven, who shall change these 
 vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His own glorious body." 
 " And so shall we be for ever with the Lord." " For this 
 mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put 
 on incorruption ; and then shall be brought to pass that saying. 
 Death is swallowed up in victory." These are the things pro- 
 vided for Christians by God, inconceivably better than anything 
 they can enjoy here below. 
 
 But it may be said, ' These things are not provided exclu- 
 sively for Christians ; they are equally provided for the ancient 
 believers. We readily admit this ; but we do not think that there 
 is anything in the Apostle's language that would lead us to con-f 
 gider the good things spoken of as the exclusive possession of 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 145 
 
 Christians. Indeed, the Apostle does not seem to be here 
 pointing out a contrast, but a resemblance, in the circumstances 
 of Old Testament and New Testament believers : ' Old Testa- 
 ment believers did not obtain the promise in the present state, 
 and neither do New Testament believers ; for God has provided 
 for them better things than any bestowed on them here below. 
 We, as well as our elder brethren, nuist die in faith as well as 
 live in faith. We must live believino;, and die believing.' 
 
 It now only remains that we turn our attention to the con- 
 cluding clause of the sentence, " that they without us should 
 not be made perfect." Some connect the words with the first 
 clause, considering the second as a parenthesis ; thus : " All these, 
 having obtained a good report through faith, received not the 
 promise, that they might not without us be perfected." We 
 consider them as equally connected with both clauses. Their 
 meaning, I apprehend, would be brought out somewhat more 
 distinctly by a very slight change in their order, which the ori- 
 ginal certainly warrants, if it does not demand : " that they, not 
 without us, might be made perfect." God has so arranged mat- 
 ters, that the complete accomplishment of the promise, both to 
 the Old Testament and New Testament believers, shall take 
 place together ; they shall be made perfect, but not without us ; 
 we and they shall attain perfection together. 
 
 The Old Testament saints died without receiving the pro- 
 mised blessing ; but their faith was. not therefore of no avail. 
 In due season they shall be perfected ; i.e., the promise, in its 
 full extent, shall be performed to them. And as God has pro- 
 vided for us, too, " better things" than any we enjoy here be- 
 low, when they are perfected we shall be perfected along with 
 them. 
 
 To " be made perfect," is, I apprehend, just the same thing 
 as to " receive the promise," or to enjoy the " better things" 
 provided for us. This exactly accords with the representations 
 in other parts of Scriptm'c. The whole body of the saved are 
 together to be introduced into the full possession of the " salva- 
 tion that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." There is to be 
 " a gathering together unto the Lord Jesus at His coming." 
 They are to be presented " a glorious Chm'ch," perfect and 
 complete, " without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." As one 
 assembly, they are to be invited to enter into " the kingdom 
 
 VOL. II. K 
 
146 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 prepared for them from the foundation of the world." They 
 are to be " caught up together to meet the Lord in the air ; and 
 so are they to be for ever with the Lord." 
 
 Such views were well fitted to encourage the Christian He- 
 brews to persevere in believing, — to live by faith, to die in 
 faith. ' The ancient believers lived and died without obtaining 
 the great promised blessing, and so must you ; but the promised 
 blessing, in all its extent, will in due time be conferred on you 
 both. They shall be perfected, and so shall you.' 
 
 Such is the interpretation of this very difficult passage 
 which appears to me most probable. It is an interpretation 
 which gives meaning and coherence to every part of the state- 
 ment ; the meaning given is in accordance with the doctrine of 
 the Scriptures generally, and bears directly on the particular 
 object which the Apostle has in view, the impressing on the 
 mind of the Hebrews the importance of persevering faith. 
 
 At the same time, as in a number of points it is not the 
 common mode of interpretation, it may be proper to state, in 
 as few words as possible, how this passage is ordinarily ex- 
 j)lained. " The ancient worthies persevered in their faith, 
 although the Messiah was known to them only by promise. We 
 are under greater obligations than they to persevere ; for God 
 has fulfilled His promise respecting the Messiah, and thus 
 placed us in a condition better adapted to perseverance than 
 theirs. So much is our condition preferable to theirs, that we 
 may even say, Without the blessing w^e enjoy, their happiness 
 could not be completed." This is excellent sense, but I cannot 
 bring it out of the Apostle's words. 
 
 The particular use to be made of the great truth which we 
 think taught in them, that the great object of our hope, as well 
 as that of the ancient believers, is yet future, is abundantly ob- 
 vious ; and the Apostle has in another of his Epistles very 
 clearly pointed it out. If " our life is hid with Christ in God," 
 and if we are not to appear in gloiy till we appear along with 
 Him, ought we not supremely to " seek the things which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth at God's right hand," — "set our 
 affections on the things above, and not on the things which are 
 on the earth," — " mortify our members which are on the earth," 
 — " mortify the flesh, with its affections and lusts f" Habitually 
 " looking for and hasting to the coming of our Lord Jesus," 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 1-47 
 
 wliicli is to be the gathering together of all His chosen people, 
 may we all of us in that clay find mercy of the Lord ; and along 
 with the venerable assembly of patriarchs and prophets, the 
 goodly fellowship of the ancient believers, with the glorious com- 
 pany of the apostles, with the noble army of the martyrs, and 
 the holy catholic Church of God throughout all the earth, 
 obtain the " salvation that is in Christ with eternal glory." 
 
 The words which follow, in ch. xii. 1, 2, — " "Wherefore, see- 
 ing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily 
 beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before 
 us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith ; 
 who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, 
 despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the 
 throne of God," — contain the practical improvement of the 
 Apostle's long and eloquent historical proof and illustration of 
 the power of persevering faith, to enable men to do whatever 
 God commands, however difficult, — to endure whatever God 
 appoints, however severe, — and to obtain whatever God pro- 
 mises, however great and glorious, strange, and apparently 
 unattainable. They are substantially an exhortation to the 
 Hebrew Christians to a steady, active, persevering discharge of 
 Christian duty, notwithstanding all the privations and sufferings, 
 dangers and difficulties, to which this might expose them. Fully 
 to apprehend their meaning and feel their force, it will be ne- 
 cessary that we attend in succession to the principle on which 
 the exhortation proceeds, to the duty which it enjoins, to the 
 means which it prescribes for facilitating its performance, and 
 to the manner in which it requires this duty to be performed. 
 
 The principle on which the exhortation is founded is, " "VVe 
 are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses ;" the duty en- 
 joined is, " miming perseveringly the race set before us ;" the 
 means prescribed for facilitating the performance of this duty 
 are, " the laying aside every weight, and especially the laying 
 aside the sin that does most easily beset us ;" and the manner 
 in which this duty is to be performed is, " looking to Jesus, the 
 Author and Finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set 
 before Plim, endured the cros.s, despising the shame, and is set 
 down at the right hand of the throne of God." 
 
 The paragraph is highly rhetorical; and its meaning will 
 
148 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 be but imperfectly understood — its force and beauty will be 
 utterly lost to us — if we do not distinctly apprehend, and steadily 
 keep in view, those historical facts or ancient customs from 
 which the inspired writer borrows his imagery, and in allusion 
 to which he fashions his language. 
 
 Some learned interpreters have considered the imagery and 
 language as borrowed from the march of the Israelites through 
 the deserts of Arabia towards the promised land ; and that the 
 divinely recorded experience of the faithful under the Old 
 Testament dispensation, guiding the steps and cheering the 
 hearts of Christians in their journeyings through the wilderness 
 of this world towards the heavenly Canaan, is here represented 
 under the emblem of that cloud of glory which marshalled the 
 way for the hosts of Israel through untrodden paths to the good 
 land promised to their fathers. The suggestion is ingenious, 
 but not at all satisfactory. It applies only to the first clause of 
 the paragraph ; and even in reference to it, the analogy does not 
 hold, for the cloud of glory did not encompass the camp of 
 Israel — it went before them ; and valuable as the recorded ex- 
 perience of the saints undoubtedly is, it could very imperfectly 
 serve to the spiritual Israel the purpose which the cloud of 
 glory served to Israel after the flesh. It is to the word and 
 Spirit of the great God our Saviour, and not to the experi- 
 ence of men, however holy, that we look primarily for direction 
 and consolation amid the perplexities and sorrows of our pil- 
 grimage. 
 
 The reference is not to Jewish history, but to Grecian cus- 
 tom ; and the Hebrew Christians are not here represented as 
 journeying through a " waste, howling wilderness" towards a 
 fertile country, but as engaged in running a race, the gaining 
 of which would crown them with rich rewards and unfading 
 honours. The allusion is here, as in many other parts of the 
 Apostle's writings,^ to those public agonistic or gymnastic 
 games, which among the Greeks had less the character of a 
 frivolous amusement than that of a gi-ave civil institution, or a 
 solemn religious ceremony. The most imposing form of this 
 singular custom was perhaps that presented at Olympia, a town 
 of Elis, where games were celebrated in honour of Jupiter once 
 every five years. An almost incredible multitude, from all the 
 1 E.g., 1 Cor. ix. 24; Phil. iii. 12 ; 1 Tim. vi. 12 ; 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 149 
 
 states of Greece and from the surrounding countries, attended 
 these games as 'spectators. The noblest of the Grecian youths 
 appeared as com'petitors. In the race, to which there is an allu- 
 sion in the paragraph before us, a course was marked out for the 
 candidates for public fame, and a tribunal erected at the end 
 of the course, on which sat the judges — men Avho had them- 
 selves in former years been successful competitors for Olympic 
 honours. The victors in the morning contests did not receive 
 their prizes till the evening, but, after their exertions, joined the 
 band of spectators, and looked on while others prosecuted the 
 same arduous labours which they had brought to an honourable 
 termination. By keeping these few facts in your memory, the 
 meaning and force of the Apostle's language will be much more 
 readily and distinctly perceived. 
 
 The first thing to which our attention is to be directed, is 
 the principle on which the Apostle's exhortation proceeds, " We 
 are surrounded with a great cloud of witnesses." He takes this 
 for granted, as already proved. The words are a brief summary 
 of what he had stated at length in the preceding chapter, ex- 
 pressed in language suited to the figurative view which he is 
 giving of the character and duty of the Hebrew Christians. 
 The witnesses here referred to are plainly the worthies under 
 the former dispensations, mentioned or referred to in the pre- 
 ceding context. 
 
 The word " witness" has two meanings : ' a person who gives 
 testimony,' and *a spectator.' The word Is applicable to the 
 elders, who for their faith are honourably mentioned In Scrip- 
 ture, In the first of these senses. Their recorded achievements, 
 and sufferings, and attainments, attest In the most satisfactory 
 way the power of faith, its necessity, and its sufficiency for all 
 the purposes of duty and trial. And had It been simply said, 
 ' Seeing we have so many witnesses to the power and Import- 
 ance of persevering faith, let us persevere in believing,' we should 
 at once have said, this Is the meaning of the expression. But 
 when we look at the whole passage in Its connection, we cannot 
 help seeing that the word is used here in its second sense. 
 These venerable men are represented as the spectators of the 
 exertions of the Christian Hebrews. 
 
 These witnesses are represented as surrounding the Christian 
 racers, as, in the course appointed for them, they " run that they 
 
150 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAp. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 may obtain." It lias been supposed by many that these words 
 teach us that the departed spirits of holy men^ ire acquainted 
 with what is going on in the Church below, anc take a deep in- 
 terest in the labours and trials of those who, after their example, 
 are through persevering faith seeking for the full possession of 
 the promised blessings. It may be so, it not improbably is so ; 
 but the words do not teach any such doctrine. They obviously, 
 as I have already said, are just a summary of the statements 
 contained in the 11th chapter ; and certainly there is no such 
 statement made there, as that " the spirits of the just made per- 
 fect " are spectators of the labom's and trials of their younger 
 brethren still on the earth. 
 
 The whole paragraph is figurative ; and, in accordance with 
 the principal figure — that which represents the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians as racers — the ancient worthies wdiose actions are recorded 
 in Scripture are represented as spectators ; their deeds, and suffer- 
 ings, and triumphs, as recorded in Scripture, being calculated 
 to have the same influence on the minds of the believing 
 Hebrews, as the interested countenances and encouraging plau- 
 dits of the surrounding crowd had on the minds of the Grecian 
 combatants. The solitary Christian, in the exercise of faith, 
 finds that, under the influence of that divine principle, he is not 
 solitary. The inspired history is converted as it were into a 
 glorious amphitheatre, from wdiich, while he treads the arena, or 
 courses along the stadium, a countless host of venei'able counte- 
 nances beam encom^agement, and ten thousand times ten thou- 
 sand friendly voices seem to proclaim, 'So run that ye may 
 obtain : we once struggled as you now struggle, and you shall 
 conquer as we have conquered. Onward! onward!' 
 
 The Apostle speaks of a cloud of such witnesses. The word 
 is expressive of their great number. It is common, I apprehend, 
 in all languages to describe a vast assembly under the figure 
 of a cloud.^ We find instances of this use of the phrase both 
 in the Old and New Testament. " Who are these" — says the 
 prophet Isaiah, referring to the prodigious numbers of converts 
 in the latter days, when, to use another figure, "nations shall 
 
 ^ Virgil, Mn. vii. 793, speaks of " nimbus peditum." Livy, xxxv. 49, 
 speaks of " peditum equitumque nimbus." Herodian viii. 105 : ui(po; 
 roaovTO a,v6pu7ruv. Euripides, Phceniss. 1321 : vi<poi 'nohi^iuv. Homer, II. 
 ■^. 133 : ;/£(pof %i^Zsv. Diodorus Siculus, iii. 28 : i/i(piy^Yi, i.q. ;/£(po; ix-piluv. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 151 
 
 be born in one day," — " Who are these that fly as a cloud, and 
 as the doves to then* ^yindows?"' And Ezeldel, speaking of 
 Gog and ^lagog, whose number is to be as the sand of the sea, 
 says, " Thou shalt be hke a cloud to cover the land." ^ And the 
 Apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, speaking of 
 the joyful events of the time of the consummation of all things 
 to the people of Christ, says, they who have been raised, and 
 they who have been changed, shall be " caught up together in 
 clouds" not 'in the clouds,' — i.e., in prodigious numbers, — "to 
 meet the Lord in the air." The number of the holy men who, 
 in consequence of their experience being recorded to us in the 
 Bible, are as it were present with us, cheering and encouraging 
 us, is very great. The Apostle particularizes a great many, and 
 then says, " But what shall I say more ?" — or, ' wliy should I go 
 on to multiply examples?' — "for the time would fail me," etc. 
 
 The peculiar mode of the Apostle's statement deserves notice. 
 It is not, ' Ye are surrounded,' but "ive ;" not, 'Do ye run,' but 
 " let lis run." He here speaks " according to the wisdom given 
 to him,"^ and admonishes Christian teachers, that their duties 
 and those of their hearers are substantially the same ; that they 
 need the motives they urge on others ; and that they are then most 
 likely to be successful in impressing truth on others, Avhen they 
 show that they feel strongly their own individual interest in it. 
 
 The particle also is in our version unfortunately placed. 
 As it stands, it conveys the idea — ' The ancient worthies were 
 surrounded with a cloud of witnesses, and so are we ;' which 
 certainly is not what he intends to communicate. The par- 
 ticle, unless it is simply an expletive, which is not unfrequently 
 the case, ought either to be connected with the particle which 
 precedes it, and the two rendered, 'And therefore;' or with the 
 succeeding clause, "let us run the race that is set before us." 
 ' They ran the race set before them ; let us also run the race set 
 before us.' 
 
 The force of the connective particle " wherefore," or ' there- 
 fore,' is sufficiently plain. ' Since such a multitude of great and 
 good men, by the recorded triumphs of their persevering faith, 
 
 1 Isa. Ix. 8. ■ 2 Y^2.ck. xxxviii. 9, 16. 
 
 3 We prefer this view to Carpzov's, who says, " More rhetorum, facundus 
 scriptor ac hoirvivaTo;^ hi^-ilt; scripsit, ut 2 Cor. ix. 4, ri^£7f, hex, f^vj 'hiyu^^iv 
 
 Vfiili,'''' 
 
152 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 cheer us on as if they were spectators of our labours and trials, 
 let us run the race set before us.^ 
 
 These words bring before our mind the second point to 
 which we proposed to turn your attention — the duty which the 
 Apostle enjoins. The language is figurative, but it is not ob- 
 scure. The whole of Christian duty is represented as a race — 
 a race set before them, which they must run, and " run with 
 patience." The principal ideas suggested by this figurative view 
 of Christian duty are the following : It is active, laborious, re- 
 gulated, progressive, persevering exertion. 
 
 The duties of the Christian are of a kind that call for the 
 vigorous exertion of all the faculties of his nature, both intel- 
 lectual and active. The Christian life is a race, in which the 
 powers of movement require to be fully put forth. Christianity 
 does not consist, as too many seem to think it does, in abstract 
 or mystical speculation, enthusiastic feeling, and specious talk. 
 It no doubt does interest the understanding and the heart ; but 
 it proves the hold it has of both by unlocking the sources of 
 activity which they contain, and making them flow forth abund- 
 antly in useful exertion. It leads the man to " deny ungodli- 
 ness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, and righteously, and 
 godly ;" "to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with his 
 God." 
 
 Christianity is laborious as well as active exertion. The 
 angels never tire in their race, but it is otherwise with even the 
 most thoroughly sanctified of the children of God in the present 
 state. In their but imperfectly renewed natures, as well as in 
 external circumstances, they have numerous causes which tend 
 to check the rapidity and regularity of their movement. " With- 
 out are fightings, within fears." They are in danger of stum- 
 bling and falling ; their attention is in danger of being called 
 off by surrounding objects ; and through continued exertion they 
 are apt to become " weary and faint in their minds." To re- 
 present the Christian life as an unvaried scene of pleasurable 
 emjDloyment, is equally to contradict the declarations of Scrip- 
 ture and the lessons of experience. There is pleasure, higher 
 pleasure than aught that the world can afford, even in the most 
 laborious parts of Christian duty, if performed under the in- 
 fluence of Christian principle ; but there is toil and difficulty 
 also. It is no easy matter to "flesh and blood" to deny self, 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 153 
 
 to take up the cross, to follow Christ, to cut off the right hand, 
 to pluck out the right eye, to "mortify our members which 
 are on the earth," to " crucify the flesh, with its affections and 
 lusts." 
 
 Christian duty, still further, is regulated exertion. A man 
 may make active and laborious exertion by running up and 
 down in various directions, but this is not to run a race. The 
 racer must keep to the course prescribed; he must "run the 
 race set before him," else his exertions, however active and 
 laborious, will serve no good purpose. Christian dvity must be 
 regulated by the law of Christ. It consists not merely in doing, 
 but in doing what Christ has commanded ; not merely in suffer- 
 ing, but in suffering what Christ has appointed. 
 
 Progression is another idea suggested by the figurative re- 
 presentation here given of Christian duty. A man may be very 
 active and laborious without moving from the spot where he 
 stands, but this is not a race. The Christian must make pro- 
 gress ; he must grow in knowledge, and faith, and humility, and 
 usefulness, and universal holiness ; he must, to use the language 
 of one Apostle in reference to himself, " forget the things which 
 are behind, and reach forth towards those which are before, and 
 press toward the mark " — or along the prescribed course — " for 
 the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;" or, to 
 borrow the language of another Apostle in prescribing the duty 
 of Christians, he must "add to his faith virtue, and to virtue 
 knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance 
 patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly- 
 kindness, and to brotherly-kindness charity." 
 
 Finally, Christian duty is here represented as persevering 
 exertion. This idea is suggested by the very term race ; for no 
 race is won in which the runner does not continue running till 
 he reach the goal. But it is still more distinctly brought out in 
 the exliortation, " Run with patience the race set before you." 
 
 Patience^ properly signifies that temper wdiich enables us to 
 bear long-continued privation or suffering without murmuring, 
 and to maintain a quiet, contented mind, while promised and 
 expected blessings are long in being bestowed on us. This is a 
 most valuable temper, but it is not exactly the temper which best 
 suits the running of a race. That requires ardour rather than 
 
154 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 patience. The truth is, the word here, and in many other pas- 
 sages of the New Testament, rendered "patience," properly 
 signifies 'perseverance.' To "run with patience" is to run 
 perseveringly, to persevere in running, just as " the patience of 
 hope " is persevering hope. Christian duty is not to be thought 
 of as having any limit but the limits of life. We must " be 
 faithful to the death" if we would "obtain the crown of life ;" 
 we must " endure to the end " if we would " be saved." It is 
 in continuing to " add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temper- 
 ance, patience, godliness, brotherly-kindness, and charity," that 
 we are assured " we shall never fall, but so an entrance shall be 
 ministered to us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
 From these remarks, the meaning of the Apostle's exhorta- 
 tion to the Hebrew Christians, " Run with patience the race set 
 before you," appears to be — ' Persevere in the active discharge 
 of all the duties enjoined on you as Christians, notwithstanding 
 all the difficulties and dangers to which this may expose you. 
 Hold fast the faith of Christ, and live under its influence. Let 
 neither the allurements nor the terrors of the world induce you 
 to turn from your course, or to slacken your pace. Beware of 
 yielding to the influence of spiritual languor ; but, trusting in 
 the Lord, renew your strength ; run, and be not weary ; walk, 
 and be not faint.' 
 
 The third topic to which these words call our attention, is 
 the means which the Apostle prescribes for facilitating com- 
 pliance w'ith the exhortation, to persevere in running the race 
 set before the Hebrew Christians. They must " lay aside every 
 weight,^ and the sin that did most easily beset them." 
 
 The language in the first of these clauses is figurative, and is 
 borrowed from the practice of the Olympic racers laying aside 
 all superfluous clothing, and disencumbering themselves of every- 
 thing which could impede their movements as they pressed toward 
 the mark for the prize. The meaning is, that Christians should 
 immediately abandon and most carefully avoid everything, either 
 in opinion, or disposition, or conduct, which tends to prevent the 
 ready, persevering discharge of the duties enjoined on them. 
 For the persevering performance of Christian duty, everything 
 
 ^ oyx,o; is properly " swelling ;" — everything that increased the size and 
 weight of the body, and was an encumbrance to free motion. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 155 
 
 ill itself sinful must be abandoned and avoided.^ Christians 
 are sometimes apt to think that they scarcely stand in need 
 of being exhorted to abstain from what is obviously criminal ; 
 but such a thought springs from their not being sufficiently 
 aware of the power of " sin that dwells in them," — from their 
 not believing with sufficient firmness that " in them, that is, in 
 their flesh, dwells no good thing." lie who knows them better 
 than they do themselves has thought it proper to give to them 
 such exhortations as the following : — " Take heed to your- 
 selves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with sur- 
 feiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life."^ " Let us cast 
 off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of 
 light." " Let us walk honestly, as in the day ; not in rioting 
 and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in 
 strife and envying." " Put off, concerning the former con- 
 versation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceit- 
 ful lusts. — Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man 
 truth with his neighbour : for we are members one of another. — 
 Let him that stole steal no more : but rather let him labour, 
 working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may 
 have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communica- 
 tion proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the 
 use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. — 
 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil- 
 speaking, be put away from you, with all malice." " ]\Iortify 
 therefore your members which are upon the earth ; fornication, 
 uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covet- 
 ousness, which is idolatry."^ False views, depraved dispositions, 
 immoral actions, have obviously a direct and powerful influence 
 in impeding the Christian in his Christian race. His principal 
 danger is perhaps, however, from another kind of weight — the 
 indulging in an undue degree, affections, and the prosecuting 
 with an undue degree of intensity, pursuits which are not in 
 
 ^ Chrysostom explains SyKOV as = rou vvuov, r^v o'hiyupi'xu^ rov; "hoyta- 
 f^ov; rovs sure'hil?, -TTeii/rx rd oivSponrivct. " Sleep, negligence, lo^ and abject 
 thoughts, all human business." — Theophylact's exposition is : to fixpoi tZi/ 
 ynivuv -rpxyfiKTuv, K»i ruu ITT xurolg (ppovriouv. " The weight of 'svorldly 
 businesses, and anxious thoughts about them." 
 
 2 Luke xxi. 34. 
 
 3 Eom. xiii. 12, 13 ; Eph. iv. 22, 25, 28, 29, 31 ; Col. iii. 5. 
 
156 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 themselves sinful ; nay, whicli may be not only innocent, but 
 praiseworthy. It is our duty to love father and mother, sister 
 and brother; but if we love them more than Christ, we are unfit 
 for the Christian course. It is our duty to be " diligent in 
 business ;" but if we embark in worldly pursuits, however just 
 and honourable, with an undue ardour — if we devote to them 
 too many of our thoughts, and too much of our time, we are 
 subjecting ourselves to a load under which we shall move heavily, 
 if we move at all, in the spiritual race. Indeed, every earthly 
 inclination — every earthly pursuit, however innocent in itself, 
 when it interferes with the cultivation of Christian dispositions 
 and the practice of Christian duties, becomes a weight which 
 must be laid aside. There are certain habits in reference to re- 
 ligion itself which form great encumbrances to the persevering 
 discharge of Christian duty. A fondness for what is curious 
 and new in religion — a disposition to " intrude into things not 
 seen," because not revealed — a giving heed to doctrines which 
 minister questions rather than godly edifying — a turning aside 
 unto vain janglings, — this appears to me one of the weights 
 which Christians of the present as well as of the apostolic age 
 need to lay aside, if they would so run as to obtain. The great 
 enemy of our souls does not care much what it is that keeps us 
 from prosecuting our Christian course, if we are but kept from 
 prosecuting it ; and when he can so far delude us as to make us 
 believe that we are prosecuting that course when we are either 
 standing still or proceeding in another direction, he considers his 
 object as gained in the best possible way. 
 
 There is one general principle which may be laid down on 
 this subject. Whatever tends to bring us more under the in- 
 fluence of present, sensible objects, is a weight which must im- 
 pede our progress towards heaven. Hence the necessity of 
 guarding against the love of the world in all its varied forms, so 
 strongly stated by our Lord and His Apostles: " Take heed, and 
 beware of covetousness." " Love not tlie world, neither the things 
 of the world." The language of the Apostle in the clause before 
 us, places in a very forcible point of view the extreme folly of 
 Christians allowing themselves to be unduly attached to worldly 
 pursuits. An Olympic racer binding himself with a heavy load, 
 which greatly retarded his progress, rendered doubtful his suc- 
 cess, and could be of no use to him when he reached the goal, 
 
PART 11. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 157 
 
 is but a feeble figure of the incongruous folly of a worldly- 
 minded professor of Christianity. 
 
 But in order to their running the Christian race, they must 
 not only " lay aside every weight," but also, or especially, " the 
 sin that does so easily beset them." This sin, whatever it is, is 
 considered as the burden or encumbrance of which it was espe- 
 cially desirable that they should get and keep rid. Interpreters 
 have found much difficulty in fixing the precise import of the 
 word which is rendered in our translation by the circumlocution, 
 " which so easily hesetsT^ It occurs nowhere else in the New 
 Testament, and it occurs in no classical Greek author. Ety- 
 mology, analogy, and the context, are therefore the only means 
 we have of ascertaining its signification. Some expositors ren- 
 der it ' perilous, full of danger,' and consider it as referring to 
 the peculiarly hazardous nature of the sin of apostasy, into which 
 the Hebrew Christians were in peculiar danger of falling. The 
 hazards connected with that sin are strikingly depicted in the 
 beginning of the 6th and the end of the 10th chapter. Others, 
 rendering the word 'the well-surrounded sin,'' consider the 
 Apostle as referring to the frequent occurrence of this sin at 
 this period, according to our Lord's prophecy, that " when ini- 
 quity abounded, the love of many should wax cold," and guard- 
 ing them against committing the well-patronized sin — following 
 the multitude in deserting the Saviom'. 
 
 Upon the whole, we are disposed to prefer the sense given by 
 our translators to both of these. It equally suits the etymology 
 of the word, — which may with as much regard to the analogy 
 of the language be rendered, which readily surrounds, as which is 
 toell surrounded; the epithet is very descriptive of the sin to 
 which, we apprehend, he refers ; and in this case there is an 
 allusion — which is not the case in either of the other modes of 
 interpretation — to the leading figure of the paragraph. This sin 
 is compared to a loose garment which readily comes round the 
 limbs of the racer, and, entangling him, diminishes his speed, 
 retards him in his course. So much for the meaning of the 
 word. Now for its reference. 
 
 Many good divines have supposed that there is no reference 
 
 ^ sv-Trepi'arccrou. 
 
 2 Sin in this case is to be considered as personified — as a Sxv/^xra.'Troioc, 
 who has crowds of worshippers and admirers aroimd him. 
 
158 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 to any particular sin ; but that it is a caution to the Hebrew 
 Christians individually to be particularly on their guard against 
 that sin to which, from constitution or circumstances, they are pe- 
 culiarly liable. That there is in every individual a predominant 
 tendency to some one form of immoral disposition or habit, is 
 more than I am prepared to admit. At the same time, there 
 can be no doubt that, from the constitution of the body or 
 of the mind, and from the circumstances in which individuals 
 are placed, there are certain sins into which they may more 
 readily fall than others. The young are in most danger from 
 the love of pleasure; the middle-aged, from the love of influence 
 and power ; the old, from the love of money. One has a tend- 
 ency to be parsimonious, another to be profuse. Riches and 
 j)overty have their respective temptations ; and even the desir- 
 able middle lot is not without them ; and a great deal of practi- 
 cal religious wusdom consists in carefully marking these tend- 
 encies and temptations, and guarding against them. While I 
 have no doubt that this general truth is very fairly deducible 
 from the passage before us, I apprehend that the Apostle refers 
 to that sin to which, from the peculiar circumstances in which 
 they were placed, the Hebrew Christians were especially liable. 
 
 What that sin was, it is not difficult to discover. It is the sin, 
 to guard them against which is the great object of the whole of the 
 Epistle — the yielding to the " evil heart of unbelief, in departing 
 from the living God." Tlieir former prejudices in favour of 
 Judaism, the privations and sufferings to which their profession 
 of Christianity exposed them, the numerous instances of those 
 who " went back and walked no more with Jesus," — all these 
 powerfully operated, along with those depraved principles which 
 are common to human nature in all circumstances, to shake the 
 constancy of their faith. While they ought to watch against 
 everything which might impede their progress, it was peculiarly 
 their duty to guard against what would assuredly prevent them 
 from ever reaching the goal, by turning them aside from the 
 course altogether. 
 
 We, my brethren, are not exposed to the same temptations 
 as the Hebrew Christians to open apostasy ; but that inward 
 apostasy from Christ which consists in unbelieving thoughts and 
 feelings, is a sin that easily besets Christians in all countries and 
 ages, and is indeed the bitter and abundant source of all their 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 159 
 
 sins and all their sorrows. We live by faith — we walk by faith — 
 we run by faith — we fight by faith. Without faith we cannot run 
 at all ; and if our faith wax feeble, our pace will be slackened. 
 There is no prayer the Christian needs to put up more fre- 
 quently than, " Lord, increase my faith ; help my nnbelief." 
 Whatever darkens our views or shakes our confidence with re- 
 spect to any of the great principles of our Christian faith, cuts 
 the very sinews of dutiful exertion, so that it becomes very dif- 
 ficult, or rather altogether impossible, to persevere in running 
 " the race that is set before us." 
 
 It only remains now that Ave turn our attention to the 
 manner in which the Apostle calls on the Hebrew Christians to 
 perform the duty enjoined on them. They are to persevere in 
 running the race set before them, " looking to Jesus, the Author 
 and Finisher of their faith ; who, for the joy that was set before 
 Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at 
 the right hand of the throne of God." 
 
 The first thing to be done here, is to inquire into the mean- 
 ing of the appellation here given to our Lord, " The Author and 
 Finisher of our faith." You will notice that the word our is a 
 supplement. The Apostle's expression is, " the Author and 
 Finisher of faith," or rather, "of the faith." The ordinary 
 meanings of faith are two — 'believing,' and 'what is believed.' 
 Understanding the word in its first sense, Jesus may be con- 
 sidered as " the Author and Finisher of faith," as He by His 
 Spirit enables men first to believe, preserves them believers, 
 and increases their faith, till that, like every other part of 
 the Christian character, is made perfect in heaven. Under- 
 standing the word in its second sense, Jesus Christ is "the 
 Author and Finisher of the faith," i.e., of the Christian religion. 
 He is the Introducer and Perfecter of it. He is at once its 
 Author and its subject — " the Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
 and the ending, "the all in all of it. Both of these modes of in- 
 terpretation bring out a good meaning, but neither seems to bring 
 out a meaning particularly appropriate to the Apostle's object. 
 
 I cannot help thinking that the faith here is a general name 
 for ' the faithful,' or believers ; just as the circumcision is for 
 the circumcised, the uncircumcision for the uncircumciscd, the 
 captivity for the captives ; or, to refer to analogous modes of ex- 
 pression from later times, the League, in French history, for the 
 
160 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29 
 
 Leaguers ; or, to come nearer home, Dissent for Dissenters, 
 the Secession for the Seceders. The word translated author oc- 
 curs in apphcation to our Lord in three other passages of Scrip- 
 ture : " The Prince of hfe. Acts iii. 15 ; "A Prince and a 
 Saviour," Acts v. 31 ; " The Captain of salvation," Heb. ii. 10. 
 The proper signification is ' leader' — one who goes before and 
 conducts others, and who thus by example shows them how to 
 proceed. This, we apprehend, is its meaning here : ' Jesus, the 
 Leader, and as the Leader, the Exemplar, of the faith.' ^ Jesus, 
 who has run the race before us, and " set us an example, that 
 we should follow His steps." 
 
 The word rendered finisher or perfecter^ is, I apprehend, 
 equivalent to — 'rewarder.' The Apostle never loses sight of 
 the principal figure, the Olympic stadium ; and Jesus is here 
 represented as one who. Himself having gained the highest 
 honours of the race on a former occasion, sits now on an exalted 
 throne, near the goal, as judge of the competitors, and with gar- 
 lands in His hand to crown the victors.^ He is the Rewarder 
 of the faithful, or believers. " Be faithful to death," says He, 
 " and I will give thee a crown of life." " To him that over- 
 cometh will I give to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also 
 overcame, and am set down with My Father on His throne." 
 
 The words that follow seem to me illustrations of these two 
 appellations here given to our Lord. He is the Leader and 
 Exemplar of the faithful ; for " He endured the cross, despising 
 the shame," and He did this " for the joy that was set before 
 Him." The Man Christ Jesus lived a life of faith when here 
 below ; He " looked not at the things which were seen and tem- 
 poral, but at the things u^nseen and eternal." He believed that 
 His own exaltation and the salvation of His people would cer- 
 tainly be the result of His doing and suffering the will of God ; 
 and therefore He " endured the cross." He patiently and per- 
 severingly did and suffered all the will of God. " He became 
 obedient to death, even the death of the cross." And He " de- 
 
 ^ eipxyiyoi TJjf xxKiocs, 1 Mace. ix. 61, are "examples of wickedness." 
 Lacliish is represented by Mic. i. 13 as dp^nyoi Kfcxprtag, " the exemplar 
 of sin." Cicero calls Cato (de Fin. iv. 16), " Omnium virtutum auctor" — 
 the example, or pattern, of every virtue. 
 
 2 rsT^iiuT'yi; was the name of the fipxiiivf, who judged the competitors 
 and conferred the prizes. 
 
PART IT. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 161 
 
 spised the shame ;" i.e., tlie ignominy to which He was exposed 
 never in tlie sHghtcst degree induced Him to slirink from the 
 discharge of duty,— not that He did not count ignominy an 
 evil, for " reproach broke His heart,"— but that no evil could 
 shake His determination to " finish the work which the Father 
 had given Him to do." 
 
 As our Leader and Exemplar He thus acted, "for the joy 
 which was set before Him." This clause admits of two dif- 
 ferent interpretations, according to the meaning ^^ou affix to the 
 particle for. Tlie proper signification is, instead of; but it is 
 not unfrequently used to signify on account of. If we under- 
 stand it in the first way, the meaning is, that Jesus, our Leader 
 and Exemplar, voluntarily gave up a state of glory and enjoy- 
 ment in order to endure the cross, and despise the shame. 
 " Being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, and took on 
 Him the form of a servant." Li this case, the exhortation, to 
 "look to Jesus" as our Exemplar, is nearly parallel to that in 
 Phd. ii. 5, " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ 
 Jesus," etc. The only objection to this mode of interpretation 
 is, that the epithet, " set before Him," does not seem so well 
 to^ suit our Lord's pre-existent glories, as His mediatorial honours 
 laid before Him, held up to Him as the reward of His media- 
 torial labours. 
 
 If we understand the particle for in the second way, as 
 equivalent to—' for the sake of,' the meaning is, that the anti- 
 cipated glories of that state to which Jesus was to be raised on 
 His finishing the work given Him to do, animated Him to a 
 persevering performance of the duties and endurance of the 
 evils connected with its performance. This is a true and scrip- 
 tural sentiment also. Our Lord believed the promises made to 
 Him : He believed that He was to " be exalted, and extolled, 
 and made very high "—that He was to « see of the travail of 
 His soul, and be satisfied "—that " His soul should not be left 
 in the separate state, nor His body see corruption "—that " God 
 would show Him the path of life ;" and, believing this, He '' did 
 not fail, nor was He discouraged;"— He persevered, amid in- 
 conceivable difiiculties and sufferings, till He could say, « It is 
 finished." 
 
 We are disposed to prefer the latter mode of interpretation, 
 as it presents Jesus as an example of the very duty which the 
 VOL. II. j^ 
 
1 02 EIlSTLi; TO Tin; IfKRREWS. rCIfAI'. X. 19-XII, 29. 
 
 ApoKtlo Ih lj<;r<; enjoining on lli'; lI':hrowH — tin; pcrHCvering, 
 under ihc hiiltutucM of faitli, in fJoInji; tl»c will of" Ood, notwitli- 
 fttanrling ail the <langcr« and diUir^ulticH in wln'rli t,lii« may in- 
 volve UH. Such is the ApoKtle'H illiiKtration of the appellation, 
 " th<; Leader or Exemplar of the faithful.' A« the J'min/uir, the 
 I'i'/rft'xUiT, the Jtewarder of th(; faithful, " Jle is set down on the 
 right hand of the throne of God ;" z.«., lie in exalted to a state 
 of tlie high<!St lionour and authority. "All powe-r in lieaven 
 and in earth" is given to ilim, and ther(;fore ile is ahle abund- 
 antly to reward those who continue faithful \X) the deatli; and 
 His h(.'ing so gloriously rewarded, is satisfact^^ry evidence that 
 in due time they shall he rewarded also. 
 
 Now, in running with perseveranai the race that is set be- 
 fore them, (yliristians are to " look \jh Jesus CJhrist" as their 
 Leader and Kxemplar, tli(;ir J*erf(;cter and Jtewarder ; i.c,.^ they 
 are habitually to make the trutli respecting Him in tlicse dia^- 
 racters the subject of their believing contftrnplation. It is as if 
 })(• had saifl, * 'J'Ik; record ui the labours, and sufferings, and 
 triumphs of Old Testament believers, may and ought \m be a 
 source of iriHlruction, niotive, and encouragernrint to you amid 
 your difUculties and trials; but the record of the unparalleled 
 labf^urs, and sufferings, and glories of your Lord and Saviour 
 is th(j grand source of instruction, motive, and encouragement.' 
 A firm habitual faith of what (jhrist has done for them, and of 
 what I [(J will do for them, is at once necessary and sufficient 
 to jnake (Jhristians, in o[)position to evf;ry conceivable difficulty 
 and temptation, persevere in running "tlie race set before them." 
 If they " become weary and faint in their minds," it is because 
 they do not " considf-r Iliin." If they nttglect their duty, it is 
 because they forget th(;ir Saviour. I low infinitely important, 
 then, is tlie knowledge of the trutli i/i reference to our Lord! 
 All our comfort, all our ht>liness, depends on this. Ijct us, with 
 the Apostle, count all things loss for this excellcjnt knowledge 
 Let tliosc who are destitute of it seek above all things to obtain 
 it. " It is more precjfjus than ri]bif;s ; and all the things that 
 can be desired an; not to be comjtared to it." Seek, then, this 
 wisdom ; and with all your seeking, secjk this understanding; 
 and let tho:-ie who know the Lord follow on to know Tfim. 
 
 In the paragraph wliich follows, the Apostle's object plainly 
 is, to guard the Hebrew Christians against the temptations to 
 
I'Ain II. ;•( I.I fiiNi.kAi, K.xiioin'ATroN ano waunino. 163 
 
 apo.stasy wliicli iiatiirully .'irow; out of ili.'if, Htat,(! of Hiiffcriii^ in 
 vvliioli tlioir |)rof(rH,sIoti of ( !tiri.st,i;uiit,y iiivolvcid t,li(!iM, AikI tlio 
 first (;oiiHl(|cr;itIoii wlilcli Ik; hriii^.s forw.'inl for tlii.s piirjioHc, \h 
 <leriv(!fl from I Ik; Hiiff(rriii^H to which the; Son of (iod putiontly 
 Hubiriitt<;(l, while; working out tho Halvation of His fxroplc. 
 V(jr. '.'>. " l<'or cou.siihjr Iliin that c.iifhintd Hii<-.h coutradifition of 
 sinnorH agairi.st Jliirisclf, h;,st y<; hi; wcarird ;i(id f;iint in your 
 inindn." 
 
 The (;oiiti(;f;tivi! piirtlrlc tr;uiHhit<;d for, i;i luTc., ;is in many 
 othor j>hu;(!H, cfjuivah-.nt to ' rrionjovor.' Tiio Iliihi-fiw OhrintiaiiH 
 wen; in danger of " hcconiing wr^ary ;i.nd faint in their inindM." 
 The hinguagJ! is figurative, hut not ohHf.ure. Sf;rij»tun! is g<fn<i- 
 raliy the he.st interpreter of Seriptiu'e ; and ;i. p;ri :;i;/e in the 
 book of lt(!veh)tion, r;h. ii. 2, tlin^ws nnjeh hght on that now 
 before us. " I know," says our Lord to the ehure.fi of Kphf;suM, 
 "thy works, and thy lahoiu, ;uid thy patience" — ruther, thy per- 
 severance. — " Thou hast home, and hast [)atience" or nither, 
 bast ]ntrwiV(;rcA — " and for My name's sakf; hast hihour<d, luid 
 not faintefJ." To faint and he w<:ary, ix just the rcvcfHc ui' 
 persfivering hihour and suflering fr^r the name of (yhrist.' It \h, 
 under tlie d<rpresHing and discouraging infhjenfie, of nevere mui 
 long-r;ontinued trials, t/> al>andofi, either jjartially or tr>tally, th<'- 
 duties which rise out of the. (jliristian profe.s.nion. Seven; and 
 long-continued j^rivation.s arifl Hufferings on acc.oinit of om- crjn- 
 nection with (jhriht, try tlie reality and th*; .'^tn;ngth of our attiieh- 
 rnont t^> Illm. 
 
 To Kucb privations ;ind HufferingH the Hebrew ('hristians 
 were exposed; and that they rm'ght not yield to their influenc*;, 
 the Apostle turns their minds U> the multiplied, xevere, and long- 
 continued Huffe.ring.s of our Lord, and ll'tn patient and jMfrwjver- 
 ing endurance of tliern. lla y/hm expow;d to worn; Mufl'erings 
 than they were, and ycH; He never ber;aine weary or faifjt in His 
 mind. 'I'lii.s in the great truth be brings forward tm a j;revcntivc 
 and antidote; t/> spiritual wearineHS and faintnex.H, 
 
 JcJiUJi (Jbri.st was* expo»<;d to " the contradirrtion of ninnerH 
 
 ' H(Hti<', c/iitUf/'X ■t'/.i', ■^vy//A'i C^/.'Jiv witf) ■/.//,f/,firi. ''. i» \h'XUu' Ui nniUt-rX 
 with iiif.vif/Avoi. Y.'j.f/.vo, in ofU^n \wA in rt^firinnrj; U> nii:iiUt.\ fati«ii<;, witfj- 
 r/Mt any qiiAlifyinj/ pfiraw;, wf(i/;Ji in iitii, t\n; cftwj wit.ft h./vofiai. At v<fr, .0 
 ituh-M if. iA wA xirnj/ly ; but tf«;n tfc: full cxj/nsyJon \iiu\ \n-A!t\ «;i«|;loy(;/l 
 imnuA'mii:ly Mora. 
 
164 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP, X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 against Himself." The word rendered contradiction, in its strict 
 sense, refers to contumelious language ; but it is here, as in other 
 places, used as equivalent to ' opposition,' — ill usage generally.^ 
 Jesus Christ was opposed, by words and actions, on the part of 
 " sinners," i.e., by the wicked Jews who were His cotemporaries. 
 The whole of our Lord's history is a commentary on these words. 
 They ridiculed Him as a low-born, low-bred, fanatical madman ; 
 they branded Him as " a glutton and wine-bibber" — " a friend 
 of publicans and sinners" — an impostor — a seditious person — 
 an impious usurper of divine honours — a person in league with 
 apostate spirits ; and their conduct corresponded with their lan- 
 guage. They laid snares for His life ; and after, through the 
 treachery of one of Plis disciples. He was put into their hands, 
 they treated Him with the most contumelious scorn and bar- 
 barous cruelty."^ 
 
 The Apostle not only states that our Lord was exposed to 
 this opposition from sinful men, but that He endured it. That 
 expression not merely intimates that He suifered this, but it 
 describes how He suffered it. He " endured this contradiction :" 
 He patiently bore it ; He did not " become weary or faint in His 
 mind." His purpose of " finishing the work given Him to do" 
 was never shaken. He endured — endured to the end. 
 
 The Apostle's exhortation, " Consider^ Him that endured 
 such contradiction of sinners against Himself," contains more 
 in it than a careless reader is apt to suppose ; and everything 
 contained in it is calculated to serve his purpose, to prevent the 
 Christian Hebrews from yielding to the dispiriting influence of 
 the calamities to which they were exposed. " Consider Him 
 who endured," etc. ' Recollect His relation to God and Plis 
 relation to you. Eemember that He was the only-begotten and 
 well-beloved Son of God, — the brightness of His glory, and the 
 express image of His person. If He suffered, should you^ 
 
 1 It is = the Heb. n''"i, Hos. iv. 4, and "no, Isa. Ixv. 2, LXX. Vide 
 Jolm xix. 12 ; Tit. ii. 9. 
 
 2 The expression is dvrt'hoyici, dg uvtov. In some cocld., for ui/r6u we 
 read uvrov;. This is obviously a gloss, arising from supposing that il; 
 etvrou was superfluous, and that ug «.i>rovg expressed the idea — ' in opposi- 
 tion to their own true interests.' The genuineness of the text, recep. is 
 undoubted. 
 
 3 dvuXoyiaaak, cogitate, instituta comparatione. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 165 
 
 creatures, sinners, wonder that you suffer, or murmur wlien you 
 suffer ? Eemember that He is your Lord and Teacher ; and is 
 it not enough that the disciple should be as his teacher, and the 
 servant as his lord? Eemember that all His sufferino-s were 
 for you ; and will you shrink to suffer for Him ? Consider not 
 only Him who suffered, but what He suffered. Consider Him 
 who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. 
 Think how numerous, how varied, how severe, how complicated, 
 how uninterrupted, how long-continued, were His sufferings. 
 T\Tiat are your sufferings in comparison of His ? And then con- 
 sider not only what He suffered : think of the temper in which 
 - He suffered, — how meek in reference to men — how submissive 
 in reference to God ! and by this consideration learn not to 
 allow your sufferings to produce, on the one hand, resentment 
 towards men, nor, on the other, discontent towards God. And 
 especially, let the thought, that He endured all this — that not- 
 withstanding all this. He stood steadily to His purpose of saving 
 you, at Avhatever price — excite in you an invincible resolution 
 also to endure, — to suffer no affliction to shake your attachment 
 to Him ; but, as every reproach, and insult, and injury but 
 made Him the more set His face as a flint, let your afflictions 
 l)ut rouse into more energetic vigour all the princij^les of Chris- 
 tian obedience ; and knowing that He suffered for you, and what 
 He suffered for you, and how He suffered for you, — and know- 
 ing how well He deserves that you suffer for Him, and has, in 
 suffering for you, set you an example, that ye should follow His 
 steps, — instead of being weary and faint in your minds, let tribu- 
 lation work perseverance, and perseverance experience, and ex- 
 perience hope.' Such, and so powerful, is the first consideration 
 which the Apostle brings forward to counteract the influence of 
 affliction on the minds of the Christian Hebrews to produce a 
 partial or total abandonment of Christian duty. 
 
 The second consideration is drawn from the fact, that tlie 
 sufferings to which they had yet been exposed were by no means 
 so severe as they might have been — so severe as they might yet 
 be — so severe as the sufferings not only of Christ, but of many 
 confessors in former ages, had been. Ver. 4. " Ye have not 
 yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." 
 
 The Hebrew Christians were engaged in a contest. They 
 were " striving against sin." " Sin" has, by some very good 
 
166 EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 interpreters, been considered as equivalent to ' sinners/ refer- 
 ring to their unbelieving countrymen. We think it more natu- 
 ral to consider the words as figurative. Sin is personified, and 
 is represented as the combatant ^Yith which the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians were contending. The various afilictions to which they 
 were exposed in consequence of their attachment to the cause of 
 Christ, may be viewed as the means which sin employs in order 
 to subdue them, or as the evils to which they are exposed in the 
 prosecution of their warfare. 
 
 Now, in " striving against sin" — in resisting the attempts 
 made to induce them to apostatize — they had sustained temporal 
 loss in a variety of forms. They had lost the good opinion of 
 their countrymen. Their " names had been cast out as evil." 
 They had been reviled and calumniated. They had, some of 
 them, been " spoiled of their goods." They had " endured a 
 great fight of afilictions," having been made " a gazingstock 
 by reproaches and afflictions." Some of them had even fallen 
 as martyrs, such as Stephen, and James the brother of John. 
 But at the period when this Epistle was written, none of them 
 were called to lay down their life for the cause of truth and 
 righteousness. The force of the Apostle's admonition may be 
 thus expressed : — 'Your sufferings, though numerous and severe, 
 are not such as to excuse weariness or faintness of mind. You 
 have not yet been called to part with life.^ Many believers 
 under a former dispensation were called on to make this sacrifice, 
 and they cheerfully made it. When tortured even to death, 
 they refused deliverance on the condition of apostasy ; and will 
 you abandon the cause of truth before you are exposed to such 
 a trial ? Jesus, the great Leader and Rewarder of the faithful, 
 resisted to blood. He would not abandon your cause, though it 
 should cost Him His life ; and will ye abandon His cause, merely 
 because it exposes you to reproach and poverty f 
 
 The words seem also to intimate, that not yet called on to 
 resist to blood in their combat with sin, it was quite possible that 
 they might soon. And in this view of the matter, there is an 
 appeal made to the principle of honourable shame. When they 
 became Christians, they were told plainly at what hazard they 
 
 ^ fiiXP' et'ifiocTOi = f^^XP' ^<^iiov sive 6ot.i/xTov, 2 Mac. xiii. 14. AT/iix, like 
 the Heb. D'^, often signifies a violent death : 2 Sam. iii. 28 ; Matt, sxiii. 
 30, xxyii. 24. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 167 
 
 became so : they were not inveigled into the profession of that 
 relio-ion by false representations of ease and worldly comfort. 
 They were told, that if they would live godly in Christ Jesus, 
 they must lay their account with suffering persecution ; and that 
 losing even their life for Christ's sake was by no means an im- 
 possible or an improbable event. ' Now what sort of soldiers 
 are you, if the minor hardships of warfare so dispirit you as to 
 make you think of abandoning your standard before you have 
 received a wound, in a cause of Avhich you are not worthy to 
 be defenders if you are not ready to shed the last drop of your 
 blood !' The Christian soldier should be thankful when his trials 
 are not extreme ones. To use Dr Owen's words, whatever be- 
 falls us on this side blood is to be looked on as a fruit of divine 
 tenderness and mercy. In taking on them the profession of the 
 Gospel, the Christian HebreAvs had engaged to bear the cross in 
 all the extent of that expression. They were not yet called on 
 to redeem their pledge in all its extent ; but that very circum- 
 stance rendered their conduct the more blam.eable and shameful, 
 if they refused to give what was much less than they had pro- 
 mised. It is of great importance, if we would remain faithful 
 in times of trial, that we habitually keep in mind the worst evils 
 we can be exposed to. This will preserve us from being shaken 
 or surprised by the less evils which may befall us, and make us 
 feel that, instead of murmuring that the biu'den laid on us is so 
 heavy, we have reason to be thankful that it is not heavier. 
 
 The third consideration brought forward in the following 
 verses is founded on the nature and design of the afflictive dis- 
 pensations to which they were exposed. Their afflictions were 
 not, as their enemies insisted, and as their unbelieving hearts 
 were but too apt to suspect, intimations that they were the ob- 
 jects of the divine displeasure, — tokens that God disapproved 
 of their connectino- themselves with Jesus of Nazareth and His 
 followers, — but were indeed tokens of His parental love, and 
 means used by Him for disciplining them for that higher state 
 of being, and that nobler order of enjoyment, which Jesus had 
 died on earth to procure for them, and gone to heaven to pre- 
 pare for them. This is the subject of the Apostle from the 5th 
 down to the 13th verse. 
 
 The words in the beginning of the fifth verse ought, we 
 apprehend, to be read interrogatively : " And have ye forgotten 
 
EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29; 
 
 the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children ? My 
 son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
 thou art rebuked of Him : for whom the Lord loveth He chas- 
 teneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." The 
 afflictions which befell the primitive Christians in consequence 
 of their attachment, were to many of them stumblingblocks. 
 With their JeAvish prejudices, this was the very reverse of what 
 they expected. The peculiar people of God, the followers of 
 Messiah, were, in their estimation, entitled to anticipate a very 
 different lot. This mode of thinking naturally led them to 
 entertain doubts that they had done wrong in embracing Chris- 
 tianity ; that, instead of being the favourites of Heaven, they 
 were the objects of divine displeasure ; and that the best thing 
 they could do was to revert to their old creed, by means of which 
 they would obtain security from the evils which so severely 
 pressed on them. 
 
 The Apostle meets this tendency to apostasy by showing 
 them the true nature and design of the afflictive dispensations 
 to which they were exposed. And he does so by appealing to 
 those Scriptures which they admitted to be " given by inspira- 
 tion of God," and which were " profitable for doctrine, for 
 reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness." 
 It is as if he had said, ' Surely these afflictions could never 
 have made you weary and faint in your minds if you had under- 
 stood and habitually remembered the words of God in the Old 
 Testament Scriptures, in which, as a wise and kind Father, He 
 represents affliction as a necessary discipline for the spiritual 
 improvement of His children.' 
 
 There are tv/o very important general remarks which are 
 naturally suggested by the manner in which the Apostle intro- 
 duces this quotation. The first is, that the Old Testament 
 Scriptures are intended for our instruction as well as for the 
 instruction of those to whom they were originally addressed. 
 The exhortation contained in the book of Proverbs speaks to 
 the Christians of the primitive age. " Whatsoever things were 
 written aforetime, were written for our learning." There is need 
 of wisdom in drawing from the Old Testament Scriptures the in- 
 struction they are intended to give us ; but, directly or indirectly, 
 every part of these holy writings is intended to instruct us. 
 
 The second general remark is, that the true way of being 
 
PART II. § 1.] GEXEPwVL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 169 
 
 preserved from going -wrong, is to look at everything in tlie 
 light of tlie Holy Scriptures. Afflictions, which, when considered 
 by themselves, may be considered as a temptation to apostasy, 
 when viewed in the liglit of God's Avord, will be found to be an 
 argument to stedfastness. If, in consequence of their afflic- 
 tions, the Hebrew Clrristians were in danger of " becoming 
 weary and faint in their minds," it was because they had for- 
 gotten the scriptural view of the nature and design of afflic- 
 tions, and of their duty under afflictions. 
 
 The passage quoted is from the book of Proverbs, ch. iii. 12 : 
 " For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a father 
 the son in whom he delighteth." The quotation is made from 
 the LXX,, the version in common use at the time the Epistle 
 was written. Though not a literal rendering of the Hebrew text, 
 it yet gives its meaning with sufficient accuracy ; and this is one 
 out of very many instances in which it is evident that the writers 
 of the New Testament, in quoting the Old, frequently quote in 
 a general way, keeping close to the meaning, tliough by no means 
 to the words. 
 
 The view given of the nature of affliction is contained in 
 the 6th verse, as connected with the address. My son. " Whom 
 the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and He scourgeth every son 
 whom He receiveth." The general truth is. Affliction, in some 
 form or other, is allotted by God to every individual whom He 
 regards with peculiar favour, as the necessary means of promot- 
 ing their spiritual improvement ; and is therefore to be considered 
 as a proof of His parental love. The doctrine is not, that in 
 every case affliction is a proof of God's fatherly love to the indivi- 
 dual afflicted ; but, that every child of God may expect affliction, 
 and that to him affliction is a proof of his heavenly Father's kind 
 regard. 
 
 The exhortation founded on this view of the nature and 
 design of affliction is, " Despise not thou the chastening of the 
 Lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of Him." The 
 Hebrew Christians were not to despise the chastisements of the 
 Lord ; they were not to count them of little value. ' Instead 
 of spurning them from you, regard them as important blessings. 
 They are chastisements, — discipline, intended, calculated, neces- 
 sary for your real welfare ; they are not the strokes of an enemy, 
 but the rod of a Father ; they are the chastisement of the Lord, 
 
170 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 the greatest, the wisest, the best of beings, who can do nothing 
 without a reason, nothing without a good reason — nothing in 
 caprice, nothing in cruelty. Treat them not, then, as common, 
 valueless things.' 
 
 And while you thus regard them, " faint not when you are 
 rebuked of Him." To' faint when we are rebuked of God, is, 
 under the influence of despondency, to sink into a state of cri- 
 minal inaction — to become unfit for the discharge of our active 
 duties. Now Christians should not thus faint under afflictions ; 
 for they are the rebukes of a Father — of One who loves them, 
 and who rebukes tliem, not to depress, but to excite them. Let 
 our afflictions rouse our spiritual energies. The thought that 
 we need rebuke, and that He who rebukes is infinitely wise and 
 good, should equally prevent us from sinking into a state of 
 desponding, helpless inactivity. In this case we directly con- 
 tradict the design of God in these dispensations, which is to 
 quicken and animate us. 
 
 The words which follow are the Apostle's amplification of the 
 argument against apostasy contained in the words of the in- 
 spired Israelitish sage, and his application of it to the circum- 
 stances of those to whom the Epistle was addressed. Vers. 7-11. 
 " If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons : 
 for what son is he whom the father chasten eth not ? But if ye 
 be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye 
 bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of 
 our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence : shall 
 we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, 
 and live ? For they verily for a few days chastened us after 
 their own pleasure ; but Pie for our profit, that we might be 
 partakers of His holiness. Now, no chastening for the present 
 seemeth to be joyous, but grievous : nevertheless afterward it 
 yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which 
 are exercised thereby." The substance of his statements may 
 be summed up in the following propositions : — Afflictions are so 
 far from being proofs that those who are visited with them are 
 objects of the divine displeasure, that an entire freedom from 
 them would be a ground of doubt whether the individual was 
 an object of the divine peculiar favour. The character of Him 
 from whom these afflictions come, and the design for which they 
 are sent, should induce us dutifully to receive, and patiently to 
 
TART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATIOX AND WARNING. 171 
 
 bear them. The consequences of these afflictions, when thus 
 endured, are so advantageous, that they more than compensate the 
 pain they occasion to us during tlieir continuance. — To the con- 
 sideration of these truths, pecuharly suited to the circumstances 
 of the believing Hebrews, but full of interest to Christians in 
 all countries and in all ages, let us now turn our attention. 
 
 The first of these principles is contained in the 7th and 8th 
 verses. " If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as 
 with sons : for what son is he whom the father chastcneth not ? 
 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, 
 then are ye bastards, and not sons." 
 
 The words, " if ^ ye endure chastening," have by many good 
 interpreters been considered as equivalent to — ' if ye patiently 
 and perseveringly submit to the afflictions laid on you.' There 
 is no doubt that the phrase, taken by itself, may signify this ; 
 but it seems plain, from its being opposed, not to impatient 
 suffering, but to exemption from suffering, that the Apostle's 
 intention is to express merely tlie fact of being afflicted, not to 
 describe the manner in which the affliction is received. ' If ye 
 meet with affliction, God deals with you as with children.'' 
 We cannot conclude that when we meet with affliction, there- 
 fore we are the children of God— the objects of His peculiar 
 favour; for affliction is the common lot of man; in that re- 
 spect, "one event happens to the righteous and the Avicked;" — 
 but neither can we conclude that we are His enemies, the ob- 
 jects of His judicial displeasure. The Apostle's sentiment is, 
 ' Afflictions, however severe, are no proofs that we are not God's 
 children.' 
 
 "For what son is there whom the father chastens not?" 
 This question i)resents in a very lively manner, the reason, along 
 with the proof that afflictions are not necessarily wrathful inflic- 
 tions, why we are not to conclude from our afflictions merely that 
 
 1 There is a various reading here worth noticing. A number of good 
 MSS., and some of the ancient versions and Fathers, read, instead of e 
 'Treiihiotv, si; ■Trccihixu, and connect it with what goes before — TrctpaoiyjTut 
 iU i:ciiliiot.v. ' TTTo/x.ivire. The ordinary reading, is, however, preferable. 
 lictihvsiv is not exactly = ^ccanyovu or ko>.»^s(v : the word signifies, in its 
 primitive sense, ' to educate ; ' — this is its classic signification. It then 
 came to signify, '■ correction,' as a part of education — ' discipline.' In 
 Greek the allusion to the paternal relation is retained, which is not the case 
 in our word ' chastisement.' 
 
172 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 we are not the children of God. Every son among men stands 
 in need of chastisement in some form or degree ; and every wise 
 and kind father will inflict chastisement when he sees it to be 
 necessary for the good of his son. The most endearing of all 
 the relations in which God is pleased to reveal Himself to His 
 people, that of a Father, thus leads them to expect afflictions. 
 There is none of them but stand in need of discipline ; and He 
 who condescends to call them children, and Himself their 
 Father, means all that these words convey, and certainly loves 
 them too well to withhold those chastisements which in His in- 
 finite wisdom He sees to be absolutely necessaiy and most fitted 
 for promoting their spiritual improvement.-^ 
 
 But this is not all. Not only is it true that affliction is no 
 proof that we are not the children of God, but the want of 
 affliction would be a ground of doubt whether the individual 
 exempted was a member of God's spiritual family. " But if ye 
 be without chastisement, whereof alV^ — i.e., all the children — 
 " are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." 
 
 The allusion here, is either to spurious children whom an 
 adulterous wife attempts to impose on her husband, and whom 
 he refuses to take care of as his children ; or to illegitimate off- 
 spring, who usually — though certainly most criminally — are 
 almost entirely neglected, so far as parental superintendence and 
 discipline are concerned, by their father. ' If ye were free of 
 affliction, that, instead of being a proof of your being the ob- 
 jects of God's peculiar regard, would be the veiy reverse.' 
 
 The words do not necessarily imply that any human being 
 is a stranger to affliction. They only assert that, were any 
 human being in these circumstances, it would be a proof, not of 
 his being an object of the divine peculiar favour, but of his 
 being an outcast of His family. They, however, suggest the 
 
 ^ There is a remarkable passage in Seneca, whicli almost tempts one to 
 believe that he had seen the ^mssage before us. After representing a good 
 man as "progenies Dei," he goes on to say : " Parens ille maguificus, vir- 
 tutum non lenis exactor, sicut severi patres, progeniem durius educat. 
 Itaque quura videris bonos viros acceptosque diis laborare, sudare, per 
 arduum ascendere, malos autem lascivire et voluptatibus fluere : cogita fili- 
 orum nos modestia delectari, vernularum licentia ; — illos disciplina tristiore 
 contineri, horum ali audaciam : idem tibi de Deo hqueat. Bonum virum in 
 deliciis non habet, non moUiter educat, experitur, iudurat, sibi ilium prae- 
 parat." — Seneca, de j^rovidentia^ cap. i. ad Jin. 
 
PART II. § l.J GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 173 
 
 truth — and, I apprehend, were intended to suggest the truth — • 
 that a hfe of comparative freedom from afflictions, being un- 
 friendly, in the present state, to our religious and moral improve- 
 ment, is by no means to be considered by itself as an indication 
 of the peculiar regard of God. In all ages, the remarkable 
 prosperity of individuals obviously and decidedly irreligious has 
 attracted attention. Not that the irreligious are uniformly, or 
 usually, remarkably prosperous — the reverse is the truth, — but 
 that they are occasionally so ; and where it is so, their prosperity, 
 instead of being a blessing to them, is a curse : just as the ille- 
 gitimate child, deprived of the advantage of parental discipline, 
 and left in many cases to the unrestrained influence of his 
 appetites and passions, finds his liberty his ruin. " Wherefore 
 do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power ? Their 
 seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring 
 before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is 
 the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth 
 not ; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send 
 forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. 
 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of 
 the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment 
 go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart 
 from us ; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What 
 is the Almighty, that we should serve Him ? and what profit 
 should we have, if we pray unto Him ?" " For I was envious 
 at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For 
 there are no bands in their death ; but their strength is firm. 
 They are not in trouble as other men ; neither are they plagued 
 like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a 
 chain ; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand 
 out with fatness : they have more than heart could wish. They 
 are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression : they 
 speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens ; and 
 their tongue walketli through the earth." ^ 
 
 Remarkable prosperity should produce gratitude, but it 
 should not produce exultation. On the contrary, it should ex- 
 cite fear and caution, lest we should be among those whose 
 portion is in the present state, and whose prosperity will destroy 
 them, 
 
 > Job. xxi. 7-15 ; Ps. Ixxiii. 3-9. 
 
174 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 The statement contained in these two verses seems a de- 
 duction from the quotation from the book of Proverbs. God 
 chastens whom He loves ; He scourges His sons. Of course, 
 "when ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons." 
 He chastens all whom He loves ; " He scourges every son whom 
 He receives." It follows, " If ye be without chastisement, of 
 which all the children are made partakers, then are ye bastards, 
 and not sons." 
 
 The second proposition to which we were to give our atten- 
 tion is, The character of Him from wdiom these afflictions come, 
 and the purpose which they are intended to answer, should in- 
 duce us dutifully to receive and patiently to bear them. This 
 is contained in the 9th and 10th verses. 
 
 There is a very striking contrast between our human and 
 divine fathers. " We have had fathers of our flesh" — i.e., we 
 have had natural parents ; they chastened us — they had a right 
 to do so from their relation, and they did so ; they restrained us 
 — they "corrected us;" and we did not rebel against them — 
 "we gave them reverence." Now, if it Avas reasonable and 
 right in us to submit to their chastisement, must it not be much 
 more obviously reasonable and right to submit to the chastise- 
 ment of the Father of our spirits ? i.e., as I apprehend, not so 
 much the Creator of our immortal minds, who " breathed into 
 our nostrils the breath of life," and thus made us " living souls," 
 which is true, but our spiritual Father, as opposed to our 
 natural fathers, — He to whom we are indebted for spiritual and 
 eternal life. " Shall we not much rather be in subjection to 
 Him?" 
 
 To be in subjection to our spiritual Father is a phrase of 
 extensive import. It denotes " an acquiescence in His sovereign 
 right to do what He will with us as His own ; a renunciation of 
 self-will; an acknowledgment of His righteousness and wisdom in 
 all His dealings with us ; a sense of His care and love, with a 
 due apprehension of the end of His chastisements ; a diligent 
 application of ourselves unto His mind and will, or to what He 
 calls us to in an especial manner at that season ; a keeping of our 
 souls by persevering faith from weariness and despondency ; a 
 full resignation of ourselves to His will, as to the matter, manner, 
 times, and continuance of our afflictions;"' — in one word, a 
 ^ Owen. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATIOX AND WARNING. 175 
 
 " lying passive in His hand, and having no will but His." Tins 
 is to be subject to " the Father of our sj)irits." ' And surely, if 
 our natural relation to our earthly parents, and the favours they 
 are the instruments of conferring on us, make it fitting that we 
 should submit to them, surely the spiritual relation in which we 
 stand to our heavenly Father, and the infinitely more valuable 
 and numerous blessings of which He is the Author, make it 
 proper that we should be subject to Him. 
 
 A strong additional motive to this subjection is contained in 
 the concluding clause — " and live." To live, here, is equivalent 
 to — ' to be happy.' Subjection to " the Father of our spirits," 
 when He chastens us, is the only way, and the sure way, to true 
 happiness. There is an inward satisfaction in a childlike sub- 
 mission to divine chastisement — a conscious union of mind and 
 will with God, fellowship with "the Father of our spirits" — which 
 is far superior to any earthly pleasure ; and it is in a patient suf- 
 fering, as well as in a persevering doing, of the will of God, that 
 His children in due time arrive at "glory, honour, and immor- 
 tality," and receive, in its most perfect form, " eternal life." 
 
 A further argument for submission to the chastisements of 
 our spiritual Father is derived from His object in these chas- 
 tisements, as contrasted with the object which our natural 
 fathers had in their chastisements. " For they verily for a few 
 days chastened us after their own pleasure ; but He for our 
 profit, that we may be made partakers of His holiness." Our 
 earthly fathers restrained us and corrected us " for a few days,"" 
 — a short season — the season of infancy, childhood, and early 
 youth; and they did so "after their own pleasure,"^ or as it 
 seemed good to them. 
 
 There are many parents who, in inflicting chastisement, are 
 guided just by the impulse of the moment, and have no direct 
 reference to the ultimate welfare of the child ; and even the 
 
 ^ As Num. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16, ~\t^2~b^h nn^"in ^i^S, o QiogrZv orvivf/.uruu 
 Kxt -TTua-fig aupnoi. Proclus terms the Demiurgus tuv ■J/uxuv liuTvip. Plat. 
 Theol. lib. vi. cap. iii, 
 
 2 -Trpog joined to nouns of time is = af/, or per: Gal. ii. 5 ; Luke viii. 
 13 ; John v. 35 ; 2 Cor. vii. 8. Their chastisement has a reference to our 
 brief sojourn on earth — at best, 6. i). ; His^ to our everlasting state. 
 
 ^ K-crcc TO "ooKovv^ pro (irhitrio suo. In many cases parents act on the 
 principle, " Sic volo, sic jubco, stat pro ratione voluntas." 
 
176 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XTI. 29. 
 
 wisest and kindest human parent, in chastising his child, may 
 not only mistake as to the kind and measure of chastisement 
 that is best fitted for promoting his child's moral impx'ovement, 
 but may be to a very considerable degree arbitrary in his correc- 
 tions — more influenced by natural irritation than by a reason- 
 able wish to do his child good. 
 
 But our heavenly Father never chastises His children except 
 "for their profit." His object is uniformly their real advan- 
 tage ; and the form, the degree, the duration of the affliction, is 
 all ordered by infinite wisdom so as best to gain this object. He 
 "does not afflict willingly," i.e., arbitrarily, nor grieve without 
 cause. All the afflictions of His people are intended and are 
 requisite for promoting their highest interest. Kind, wise in- 
 tention does not always in an earthly parent secure the employ- 
 ment of the best means to realize that intention ; but in God 
 they are always united in the highest degree. 
 
 " Parents may err, but He is wise, 
 Nor lifts the rod in vain." 
 
 The concluding words are commonly considered as stating 
 in what the " profit" of God's children, which is His object 
 in their afflictions, consists. It consists in their becoming " par- 
 takers of His holiness." The holiness of God consists in His 
 mind and will being in perfect accordance with truth and 
 righteousness. And to become " partakers of His holiness," 
 is just to have the mind brought to His mind, the will brought 
 to His will : to think as He thinks — to will as He yy-ills — to find 
 enjoyment in that in which He finds enjoyment. This is 
 man's profit. This is the perfection of his nature, both as to 
 holiness and happiness. This is to live — to live the life of angels, 
 to live the life of God ; to partake of His holiness is to " enter 
 into His joy." And this is the design of God in all the afflic- 
 tions of His people — experimentally to convince them of the 
 vanity of the creature, and the absolute necessity and sufficiency 
 of God in order to true happiness. 
 
 I am not quite sure but this clause is to be considered as 
 opposed to the clause, " for a few days," and ought, as it may 
 be rendered, " till^ we become partakers of His holiness." 
 
 ^ Tliere is no doubt tliis is a signification of the preposition ei; : Gal. 
 iii. 24, s/f 'S.ptdTov, vintil Christ. Vide note on sis tou xxipov rov iuiar^KOTx, 
 sup. ch. ix. 9. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 177 
 
 God's chastening will never entirely cease till its end be gained. 
 So long as we are here below, we need chastening, and Ave shall 
 receive it. The great transforming process, in which chastise- 
 ment holds an important place, will go on till it is completed in 
 our being made " partakers of His holiness" — till we have no 
 mind different from the mind of God, no will different from 
 the will of God — till, according to our measure, we be holy as 
 He is holy, and perfect as He is perfect. And then, the end of 
 chastisement being gained, it will cease for ever; and as the 
 mature, the fully grown, the thoroughly educated children of 
 God, we shall live for ever in our Father's house above, in the 
 eternal enjoyment of that happiness which He has secured for 
 us by the obedience to the death of His own Son, and for which 
 He has prepared us by the influence of His Spirit and the disci- 
 pline of His providence. Oh ! who would not submit patiently, 
 thankfully, to discipline, necessary, fitted, intended, certain — if 
 endured in a childlike spirit — to produce so glorious a result ? 
 
 We proceed now to the illustration of the third of these pro- 
 positions : — The consequences of these afflictions, when dutifully 
 sustained, are so advantageous, that they more than compensate 
 the pain which they occasion during their continuance. This is 
 plainly stated in the 11th verse : "Now, no chastening for the 
 present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous : nevertheless after- 
 ward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them 
 which are exercised thereby." 
 
 One of the excellences of Christian morality is its suitable- 
 ness to the essential principles of our nature. There is nothing 
 impracticably rigid in its principles. It makes war with nothing 
 in human nature but with its depravity. It proves itself the work 
 of Him who at once is intimately acquainted with, and who 
 tenderly pities, the innocent weakness of humanity — one who 
 " knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust." The 
 principles of Christian morality in reference to affliction are 
 striking illustrations of these remarks. Fortitude, and patience, 
 and resignation under affliction are required, but not apathy to 
 affliction. The stoical philosophy, the purest of all the ethical 
 systems of the Grecian schools, required its followers to account 
 pain no evil, and to be equally joyful in the deepest adversity 
 and in the highest prosperity. It has been justly observed, this 
 is either absurdity, or it is a mere play upon words. 
 
 VOL. II. M 
 
178 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 The Apostle admits that it is of the very nature of affliction 
 to produce pain and sorrow. "No chastisement" — i.e., no 
 affliction — "for the present" — i.e., while it continues — ^^ seemeth 
 to heV These words are not intended to intimate that the pain 
 produced by affliction is merely apparent, not real ; they sug- 
 gest the idea — ' Afflictions are thought and felt by those who 
 bear them to be not joyous, but grievous.' They produce pain- 
 ful, not pleasurable emotions ; they are intended to do so ; they 
 cannot serve the purpose for which they are sent without doing 
 so. There is a necessity not only that we be occasionally and 
 " for a season in manifold tribulations " or trials, but " in heavi- 
 ness," through means of these manifold tribulations or trials. 
 
 There are men who seem to think it a point of mental 
 courage and hardihood, when visited with affliction, to keep off 
 a sense of it. They count it pusillanimity to mourn or be af- 
 fected with sorrow on account of them. This is neither natural 
 nor Christian. Reason and revelation equally condemn all such 
 attempts, as calculated to counteract the great design of afflic- 
 tion. There is no pusillanimity in acknowledging that we feel 
 the strokes of an almighty arm. It is the truest wisdom of a 
 creature to humble itself " under the mighty hand of God." If 
 we are among His people. He will mercifully compel us to ac- 
 knowledge that His chastisement is not a thing to be despised 
 or made light of. He will — O how easily can He do it % — con- 
 tinue or increase our affliction, or bring upon us other afflictions, 
 till He break the fierceness and tame the pride of our spirits, and 
 bring us like obedient children to be subject to " the Father of 
 our soirits." 
 
 But while the Apostle admits that the afflictions of Chris- 
 tians are, during their continuance, " not joyous, but grievous," 
 he at the same time teaches, that " afterwards they yield the 
 peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised by 
 them." Let us first attend to the phraseology, which is some- 
 what peculiar ; and then, shortly illustrate the important and 
 encouraging sentiment which it conveys. 
 
 The language is obviously figurative. " The peaceable fruit 
 of righteousness." The phrase, " fruit of righteousness," taken 
 by itself, most naturally signifies, ' the effects of righteousness 
 — the fruits which righteousness, whatever that word signifies, 
 produces.' But here you will notice that it is chastisement or 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 179 
 
 affliction that is represented as producing the fruit. "Whatever 
 is meant by the " fruit of righteousness," is plainly represented 
 as the effect of affliction. The phrase, " fruit of righteousness," 
 seems to be a phrase of the same kind as "the first fruits of the 
 Spirit ;" i.e., the influences of the Spirit tranquillizing, and puri- 
 fying, and blessing the soul, which are the commencement of the 
 celestial blessedness. The " fruit of righteousness" is not some 
 effect of righteousness, but it is righteousness itself considered 
 as the effect of affliction. Chastisement produces fruit, and that 
 fruit is righteousness. Bigliteousncss is here, I apprehend, to be 
 understood as just equivalent to a frame of mind and a course 
 of conduct corresponding to what is right ; it is the same thing 
 as becoming "partakers of God's holiness," 
 
 This fruit is termed "peaceable fruit." Peace, according 
 to the Hebrew idiom, is equivalent to happiness or prosperity. 
 "The peaceable fruit" is just equivalent to — ' the salutary, use- 
 ful, happy fruit.' Affliction produces the happy result of pro- 
 moting spiritual improvement, making men more holy. 
 
 And it produces this happy result " to those who are exer- 
 cised with it." The expression, " exercised with it," is a word 
 borrowed from the gymnastic games. It describes those persons 
 who, divested of the greater part or the whole of their clothing, 
 were trained by a variety of hardships and exercises for the race 
 or combat. The Apostle's idea seems to be this, that afflictive 
 dispensations of Providence, when viewed and treated as divinely 
 appointed means of disciplining men for the service of God, pro- 
 mote the spiritual improvement of those who are visited with 
 them, which is a most salutary result, and more than compen- 
 sates the pain which they occasion while they continue. 
 
 These salutary fruits are produced aftenvards. The salutary 
 effect may not be immediately produced.^ Like the production 
 of fruit, it may be gradual ; but such will, in good time, be the 
 result of all sanctified affliction. 
 
 Having thus explained the phraseology, and brought out the 
 Apostle's meaning — namely, that afflictions, when viewed and 
 treated as divinely appointed means for disciplining us for God's 
 service, however painful while they continue, will ultimately pro- 
 
 ^ varipou seems used in contrast with "Trpo; o'a. -^^. above. ' Aftenvards, 
 when the few days of life are gone by, the fruits of God's chastisement will 
 be enjoyed.' 
 
180 EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XIL 29. 
 
 duce the salutary effect of bringing our minds, and hearts, and 
 conduct into a completer correspondence with the perfect rule 
 of righteousness, the divine will, in other words, will promote 
 our spiritual improvement, let us briefly illustrate this principle. 
 
 And here let it be distinctly understood that it is not afflic- 
 tion taken by itself that is represented as producing this effect : 
 it is affliction understood to be, and treated as, the chastisement 
 of the Lord. The natural effect of affliction on an unsanctified 
 mind, is either to irritate or depress ; in either case, instead of 
 promoting, it hinders spiritual improvement. That, however, 
 arises entirely from the ignorance, and unbelief, and obstinacy 
 of the person afflicted. And even with regard to Christians, it 
 is true that it Is just in the proportion as they regard and im- 
 prove affliction as the chastisement of the Lord, that affliction 
 will promote their spiritual interests. 
 
 Affliction, rightly considered, is calculated to impress on the 
 mind the evil of sin generally, our own sinfulness, the vanity of 
 the world, the importance of an Interest in the divine favour, 
 the value of a good conscience, the blessedness of a well-grounded 
 hope of eternal life. In the time of ease and prosperity, the 
 mind is naturally thoughtless and inconsiderate ; the realities 
 of the spiritual and eternal state are in some measure forgotten ; 
 the enjoyments of life supply, as it were, the place of the hap- 
 piness which arises from a good conscience and peace with God. 
 But sanctified affliction makes us see things as they really are ; 
 leads to serious self-inquiiy ; prevents us from saying, " Peace, 
 peace, when there is no peace ;" fixes the mind on the things 
 which concern our everlasting interests, and excites an anxiety 
 to remove everything which interferes with or endangers them. 
 Prosperity not only produces inconsideration, but pride. It is 
 said of the wicked, that "because their strength is firm, and 
 they are not in trouble as other men, pride compasseth them 
 about as a chain." ^ Even Christians are in danger of feeling 
 in some measure this malignant influence of long-continued 
 prosperity ; they are in danger of being elated with, and glory- 
 ing In, their enjoyment — of forgetting the Giver in the gift — 
 of overestimating the value of such blessings, and underrating 
 their dangers. In such cases afflictions are excellent and necessary 
 correctives. They make us feel our own meanness, wretched- 
 ^ Ps. Ixxiii. 4-6. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 181 
 
 ness, frailty, and folly ; they tend to wean the affections from 
 the " things which are on the earth," — to lead us to seek for 
 happiness in growing conformity to the will of God, — in one 
 word, to " look not at the things which are seen and temporal, 
 but at the things which are unseen and eternal." It is in this 
 way that " our afflictions work for us a far more exceeding and 
 an eternal weight of glory ;" it is in this way they improve our 
 character, and increase our happiness ; it is in this way they 
 fit us for more actively doing and more patiently suffering the 
 will of God ; it is in this way they make death less dreadful and 
 heaven more desirable, and thus j)repare us for both. 
 
 In the 12th and loth verses, the Apostle points out the use 
 which the Christian Hebrews should make of the considerations 
 which he had brought forward in reference to their afflictions. 
 " Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble 
 knees ; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which 
 is lame be turned out of the way ; but let it rather be healed." 
 
 In the first part of this sentence there is obviously a re- 
 ference to Isa. XXXV. 3, " Strengthen ye the weak hands, and 
 confirm the feeble knees ;" and in the second part, to Prov. iii. 
 26, "For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy 
 foot from being taken ;" but it is merely an allusion. For the 
 hands to hang down, and the knees to be feeble, are figurative 
 expressions to denote a tendency to abandon the discharge of 
 Christian duty. To " lift up the hands " and " the feeble knees " 
 — to support them, as it were, by bandages bracing them — is a 
 figurative expression for, ' Be active and persevering in the dis- 
 charge of duty ; rouse yoiu'selves and each other to this activity 
 and perseverance.' " INIake straight paths for your feet ;'" — i.e., 
 ' Proceed straight forwards in the discharge of Christian duty, 
 notwithstanding all difficulties ; beware of turning aside in any 
 degree that may lead to abandonment of the right way alto- 
 gether ; proceed straight onwards;' — "lest that which is lame 
 
 ^ Kxi rpoxtx; opSoii ■yroiyjrrecTi ro7; Tvrmv v^uv. These words form a hexa- 
 meter verse. It not rarely happens that writers in prose unconsciously ex- 
 press their ideas in what corresponds to the ai-tificial rules of rhythm. T. o. 
 do not mean paths that have no windings in them, for it is no easy matter 
 to make such paths straight ; but the words denote smooth, in opposition 
 to rough, and filled with obstructions and stumblingblocks. In this way 
 the phrase occurs in the LXX., Prov. iv. 11, 12, xi. 5, xii. 15. 
 
182 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 be turned out of the way." The word rendered, " turned out of 
 the way," may with equal propriety be rendered, 'be dislocated :' 
 'Proceed straight onward; for if you go into bye-paths, the 
 joints which are already lame may be dislocated, and you pre- 
 vented from prosecuting the course altogether.' The meaning 
 of that is, ' Beware of moving, even in a slight degree, from the 
 path of duty ; for that may end in final apostasy.' On the con- 
 trary, let what is lame "rather be healed" — let the feeble joint 
 be bandaged and strengthened: i.e., in plain words, 'By turning 
 your minds to the truths which I have been pressing on your 
 attention, let every disposition to halt in or abandon the on- 
 ward way of well-doing be removed.' 
 
 The force of the connective particle is obvious. ' For these 
 reasons, — since your great Leader endured such contradiction 
 of sinners ; since your sufferings are not so severe as those of 
 many who have gone before you ; since it is so far from being 
 true that your sufferings are proofs that God does not love you, 
 that an entire exemption from these sufferings would have given 
 you ground to doubt if you belonged to His family ; since these 
 afflictions come from your spiritual Father, and are intended for 
 your spiritual benefit ; since, in one word, however painful at 
 present, they certainly will, if rightly received by you, promote 
 your spiritual improvement, — surely you ought not to abandon 
 the cause of Christ. On the contrary, you should persevere 
 with increasing determination and ardour, removing and disre- 
 garding all obstacles which obstruct your progress, and keeping 
 straight forward, as the only way of reaching the mark for the 
 prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' 
 
 The exhortation seems so expressed as to point out the duty 
 of the Hebrew Christians not only to themselves, but to each 
 other. We are to use the statements furnished us by the Apostle 
 not only for our own special improvement, but also for that of 
 our brethren. Let vis all take care not to be the cause of 
 stumbling to our brethren. The best way of doing this is by 
 making " straight paths for our own feet." The fear of offend- 
 ing or making to stumble a brother, must not make us neglect 
 our duty. 
 
 It seems universally agreed among expositors that the prac- 
 tical part of the Epistle to the Hebrews divides itself into two 
 parts: the first consisting of a general exhortation to perseverance 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 183 
 
 ill the fiiitli, profession, and practice of Christianity, notwith- 
 standing all the difficulties and dangers in which this might in- 
 volve them ; and the second embracing a variety of particular 
 exhortations suited to the circumstances of the Hebrew Christians 
 at the time this Epistle was written. 
 
 There is not the same harmony of opinion as to where the 
 first of these divisions terminates, and the second commences. 
 In the judgment of some interpreters, the 13th verse of this 
 chapter closes the first division, and the second opens at the 
 14th. It appears to' me more probable that the first division 
 reaches to the close of this chapter, and the second commences 
 with the beginning of the following one. The comparative 
 view of the two economies, the Mosaic and the Christian, and 
 the impressive warning with which this chapter closes, form a 
 most appropriate termination to the hortatory discourse com- 
 mencing with the 19th verse of the tenth chapter, to " hold fast 
 the profession of their hope without wavering," and seem plainly 
 to mark the conclusion of one of the divisions of the Epistle. 
 
 This is not a mere question of arrangement — it has an im- 
 portant bearing on the interpretation of the passage which lies 
 before us ; as, on the supposition that it forms a part of the 
 general exhortation to stedfastness, the particular duties here 
 enjoined must be considered as urged with a peculiar reference 
 to their circumstances, as exposed to temptations to apostasy, and 
 under obligations to resist these temptations. The Apostle had 
 placed before their minds the fearful consequences of apostasy ; 
 he had also presented them with abundant evidence, that per- 
 severing faith, as it was absolutely necessary, was completely 
 sufficient, to enable them to perform all the duties enjoined on 
 them, to undergo all the trials allotted to them, and to obtain 
 all f he blessings promised to them as Christians. He had shown 
 them that the affiictions to which they were exposed on account 
 of their Christian profession, instead of operating as temptations 
 to apostasy, ought to be felt as motives to perseverance ; and in 
 the words which follow, he instructs them as to the course of 
 conduct which in their circumstances they ought to follow, in 
 order to their continuing " stedfast and unmoveable" in the 
 faith, and profession, and practice of the religion of Christ. 
 
 Taking this general view of the paragraph, let us proceed to 
 examine somewhat more minutely its various parts. Ver. 14. 
 
184 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no 
 man shall see the Lord." 
 
 It is the duty of Christians to be at peace among them- 
 selves, to be on their guard against all alienation of affection 
 towards each other; and there can be no doubt that the main- 
 tenance of this brotherly-kindness is well fitted to promote 
 stedfastness in the faith and profession of the Gospel. But in 
 the words before us there seems to be a reference not so much to 
 the peace which Christians should endeavour to maintain among 
 themselves, as that which they should endeavour to preserve in 
 reference to the world around them. They are to " follow 
 peace with all men." 
 
 They live amidst men whose modes of thinking, and feeling, 
 and acting are very different from — are in many points directly 
 opposite to — theirs. They have been fairly warned, that " if they 
 would live godly in this world, they must suffer persecution." 
 They have been told that " if they were of the world, the world 
 would love its own; but because they are not of the world, but 
 Christ has chosen them out of the world, therefore the world 
 hateth them." " In the world," says their Lord and Master, 
 " ye shall have tribulation." But this, so far from making 
 them reckless as to their behaviour towards the men of the 
 world, ought to have the directly opposite effect. If the world 
 persecute them, they must take care that this persecution has in 
 no degree been provoked by their improper or imprudent be- 
 haviour. They must do everything that lies in their power, 
 consistent with duty, to live in peace with their ungodly neigh- 
 bours. They must carefully abstain from injuring them ; they 
 must endeavour to promote their happiness. They must do every- 
 thing but sin in order to prevent a quarrel. 
 
 This is of great importance, both to themselves and to their 
 unbelieving brethren. A mind harassed by those feelings which 
 are almost inseparable from a state of discord, is not by any 
 means in the fittest state for studying the doctrines, cherish- 
 ing the feelings, enjoying the comforts, or performing the duties 
 of Christianity ; and, on the other hand, the probability of our 
 being useful to our unbelieving brethren is greatly diminished 
 when we cease to be on good terms with them. As far as lies 
 in us, then, if it be possible, we are to " live peaceably with all 
 men." 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 185 
 
 But while the Christian Hebrews were, by a harmless, kind, 
 and useful behaviour towards their unbelieving neighbours, to 
 cultivate peace with them, they were never to forget that there 
 was something more valuable still — something which must not 
 be sacrificed even to secure peace, i.e., holiness. " Follow peace 
 with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the 
 Lord ;" i.e., ' Endeavour to live at peace with all mankind, so far 
 and no further than that is compatible with the holiness with- 
 out which no man can see the Lord.' 
 
 The proper meaning of the word holiness is ' devotedness to 
 God.' Christians " are not their own ; they are bought with a 
 price ;" — they have been consecrated to God "by the washing 
 of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." They 
 have voluntarily devoted themselves to Him. Holiness is that 
 temper of mind and that course of conduct which correspond 
 to this state and character. 
 
 To " follow holiness," is to live like persons devoted to God, 
 as the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
 to make it evident that we are His, and are determined to serve 
 Him ; that to promote His interests and to advance His glory 
 are our great objects in life. 
 
 Without this spiritual devotedness to God we shall never 
 " see the Lord." By the Lord, I apprehend we are here to un- 
 derstand our Lord Jesus Christ ; and by seeing Him, we un- 
 derstand, the being with Him where He is, and beholding His 
 glory — the enjoyment of the celestial happiness, the essence of 
 which consists in more intimate knowledge of, more complete 
 conformity to, more intimate fellowship with, Jesus Christ. 
 Without sincere, habitual devotedness to God through Christ 
 Jesus, we can never attain the heavenly happiness ; and that 
 for two reasons : (1.) Such is the unalterable determination of 
 God ; and (2.) this unalterable determination of God is not 
 an arbitrary arrangement, but corresponds with the nature of 
 things. A person not sanctified, not devoted to God, is entirely 
 unfit for the celestial enjoyments. It is equally true that we 
 must be like Him in order to our seeing Him as He is, and 
 that the seeing Him as He is shall make us more and more like 
 Him. 
 
 We must, then, at all events " follow holiness ;" at all hazards 
 we must act the part of persons sincerely and entirely devoted 
 
186 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 to God. If, in consistency with this, we can hve in peace with 
 all men, it is so much the better ; but if peace with men can- 
 not be purchased but at the expense of devotedness to God, 
 then we must — we must willingly — submit to the inconveniences 
 arising from having men to be our enemies, knowing that it is 
 infinitely better to have the whole world for our enemies and 
 God for our friend, than to have the whole w^orld for our friends 
 and God for our enemy. 
 
 The whole exhortation seems to us equivalent to — ' Beware 
 of unnecessarily provoking the resentments of the men of the 
 world. If possible, live at peace with them; but never act a part 
 inconsistent with your character as persons devoted to God in 
 order to secure yourselves from their persecutions : if you do, you 
 will act a very unwise part, for you will shut yourselves out from 
 the enjoyment of the celestial blessedness.'^ 
 
 As a further means of preventing apostasy, the Apostle ex- 
 horts the Christian Hebrews to watch over each other with a 
 holy jealousy. Vers. 15-17. " Looking diligently lest any man 
 fail of the grace of God ; lest any root of bitterness springing 
 up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled ; lest there be any 
 fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of 
 meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, 
 when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected : for 
 he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully 
 with tears." 
 
 The natural order in explaining such a passage as that now 
 before us, is to attend, first, to the evils against which the 
 Apostle exhorts the Hebrew Christians to guard ; and then to 
 the manner in which they are to guard against them. The 
 evils to be guarded against are : " any man's failing of the grace 
 of God" — " any root of bitterness which should trouble and defile 
 them" — "any profane" or sensual "person" rising up among them, 
 who should for present enjoyment sacrifice future happiness. 
 
 The Hebrew Christians are exhorted to guard against " any 
 
 1 " 'Follow peace with all men' {i.e., Do not think it necessary to 
 enter on hostile aggressions against any man, not even the heathen Romans), 
 'and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord ;' i.e., but at the 
 same time do not so mix yourselves up with them as to lose that purity, 
 oLyioci^iv, which is to Christians what ceremonial holiness was to the 
 Jews." — St.vnley. 
 
PART 11. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 187 
 
 man's failing of the grace of God.'' Here two question.? meet 
 us : What is the grace of God ? and what is it to fail of the 
 grace of God ? 
 
 The grace of God, in the language of systematic theology, is 
 either divine influence, or the effect of divine influence. In the 
 Scriptures, the grace of God is the divine kindness, or some 
 effect of the divine kindness. In the passage before us, I ap- 
 prehend, the grace of God, or this grace of God, refers to that 
 effect of divine favour or kindness mentioned in the preced- 
 ing verse : seeing tlie Lord — obtaining the celestial blessedness, 
 which consists in the knowledge of, conformity to, and fellow- 
 ship with, Christ. And to fail of this grace of God, is just to 
 come short of heaven. 
 
 Now, the Hebrew Christians were to watch over each other, 
 lest any of them should, by not following holiness, by not culti- 
 vating devotedness to God, fail of attaining that state of perfect 
 holy happiness in the immediate presence of the Lord, which is 
 the prize of our high calling.^ 
 
 They were to watch particularly " lest any root of bitterness 
 springing up should trouble them, and thereby many be defiled." 
 The Apostle's language is figurati\'e, and borrowed from a 
 passage in Deuteronomy : " Lest tliere should be among you 
 man, or woman, or family, or tribe, Avhose heart turneth away 
 this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of 
 these nations ; lest there should be among you a root that 
 beareth gall and wormwood."^ 
 
 " A root that beareth gall and wormwood," is just another 
 name for a secret apostate, a false-hearted professor of the 
 true religion ; or, as Moses expresses it, " a man or woman 
 whose heart turnctli away from the Lord our God." For such 
 a root to " spring up," is for such individuals to manifest their 
 apostatizing tendencies by their words or their conduct. When 
 circumstances call these forth — as when persecution for the 
 word's sake arises — then such persons trouble the Church. 
 Their false doctrines and their irregular conduct trouble their 
 
 ^ This seems more satisfactory than interpreting x'>^P'i &^ou, ' religio 
 Christiana ; ' and is certainly juster than the utterly untenable Arminian 
 interpretation of this as well as Gal. v. 4, to lose finally the pecuUar favour 
 of God, once possessed. 
 
 ^ Deut. xxix. 18. 
 
188 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 brethren, not only by producing grief and regret, but also in 
 many cases by introducing strife and debate, and all the innu- 
 merable evils that rise out of them. And by this means " many 
 are defiled." The " root of bitterness" has as it were a power 
 of contaminating the plants in the neighbourhood of which it 
 puts forth its bitter leaves and brings forth its poisonous fruits. 
 A false-hearted professor, introducing false doctrines, or sinful 
 practices, is very apt to find followers. " Evil communications 
 corrupt good manners ;" and " a little leaven," vrhen allowed to 
 ferment, will go far to " leaven the whole lump." " Profane 
 and vain babblings increase unto more unoodliness."^ 
 
 But they were to guard not only against speculative irreli- 
 gion and error, to which I apprehend there is a direct reference 
 in the words just explained, but also against practical ungodli- 
 ness and immorality. They are to " look diligently, lest there 
 be among them any fornicator, or profane person, like Esau, 
 who for a morsel of bread sold his birthrin;ht." Esau is not in 
 the Old Testament represented as a fornicator, but the Jewish 
 interpreters with one consent accuse him of incontinence ; and 
 liis marrying two Canaanitish wives against the will of his pious 
 ])arents, certainly does not speak favourably either for his con- 
 tinence or piety. 
 
 It is strange that fornicators and profane persons should be 
 in any way connected wdth a Christian church. They cer- 
 tainly have no business there. In a Christian church, where 
 anything approximating to primitive discipline prevails, they 
 will not be allowed to remain when they appear in their true 
 colours. But it would appear that at a very early period such 
 persons did find their w^ay into the Christian Church ; and it is 
 deeply to be regretted that such persons are still to be found 
 in her communion — persons who, while they make a profession 
 of Christianity, are secretly the slaves of impurity, lightly 
 regard the promises and threatenings of religion, and, where 
 they think themselves safe, can speak contemptuously of its 
 doctrines and laws. Esau was such a person; and he manifested 
 
 ^ " ' Lest any root,' etc. ; ' lest there be any profane,' etc. : i.e., lest any 
 of you, for the sake of his temporary gratification, should go after heathen 
 customs ; lest any of you, for the sake of his temporary gratification in the 
 sacrificial feast, fall into the sins by which these feasts are so often accom- 
 panied. 1 Cor. viii. 13, vi. 13." — Stanley. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 189 
 
 Ills character by relinquishing all claim and title to the privileges 
 connected with primogeniture, for a trifling and temporary en- 
 joyment. You have an account of the facts referred to in the 
 25th chapter of Genesis, vers. 29, etc. 
 
 The case of Esau is introduced not only for the purpose of 
 the awfully impressive warning which follows, but also to sug- 
 gest this thought to the Christian Hebrews ; ' Beware of permit- 
 ting sensual and profane men to find their way into, or to retain 
 their place in, your society; for whenever the temptation occurs, 
 they will act like Esau : they will openly apostatize ; to avoid 
 present suffering, or to obtain present enjoyment, they will make 
 shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.' Such are the evils 
 against which the Apostle exhorts the Hebrew Christians toguard. 
 
 The means which he recommends them to use for this pur- 
 pose is to look diligently. The word rendered "looking dili- 
 gently"^ is the same which in 1 Pet. v. 2 is translated " taking 
 the oversight," and from which the word usually employed to 
 designate the rulers of the Church is taken — bishops, or over- 
 seers. A careful discharge of their official duties on the part of 
 the eldei's, is one of the best safeguards of the Christian Church 
 against the evils here referred to. But it seems plain that the 
 Apostle is not here addressing the elders among the Hebrew 
 Christians in particular, but the whole brotherhood ; and of 
 course he does not refer principally, if at all, to official superin- 
 tendence, but to the common care and oversight which all the 
 members of a Christian church should exercise in relation to 
 each other. The relation in which the members of a Christian 
 church stand to each other, gives rise, like every other relation 
 established by God, to a set of corresponding duties ; and this 
 duty of mutual superintendence is one of the most important. 
 Every member of such a society should consider himself as his 
 " brother's keeper ;" and recollecting that not only the best in- 
 terests of the individual but of the society are concerned — that 
 his own interests, and, what is of highest consideration, the in- 
 terests of his Lord and Master, are concerned — every member 
 of a Christian church should " look earnestly lest any" of his 
 brethren " fail of the grace of God." If he discovers anything 
 in his opinions, or temper, or language, or conduct which en- 
 dangers his final salvation, he ought to attend to our Lord's rule, 
 
 ^ tTrtuKOTrolurig. 
 
190 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 by first speaking to tlie individual by himself ; then^ if this does 
 not serve the purpose, by speaking to him in the presence of one 
 or two of the brethren ; then, if this does not serve the purpose, 
 b}' bringing the matter before the assembly appointed for that 
 purpose, that is, according to our views of Church discipline, the 
 assembly of the elders. In this way a constant watch should be 
 kept " lest any man fail of the grace of God ;" " lest any root 
 of bitterness spring up ;" " lest there be any profane" or sensual 
 "person," who in the day of trial will abandon his profession. 
 
 I am afraid that a great deal of that impurity of Christian 
 communion which is one of the worst characters of the Chris- 
 tianity of our times, and produces such deplorable results in 
 many ways, is to be traced to a neglect of this mutual superin- 
 tendence. I do not mean to exculpate those who are officially 
 overseers ; but it must be obvious that all their attempts, how- 
 ever honest, to secure purity of communion will be of but little 
 avail, if they are not seconded by the brotherly oversight of the 
 members themselves. This is a duty very plainly commanded 
 in the passage before us ; and this is by no means the only 
 passage of Scripture where it is enjoined. See Heb. iii. 13 ; 
 1 Thess. V. 14 ; 1 Cor. xii. 24, 25. 
 
 The words in the 17th verse are obviously intended to strike 
 terror into the minds of those who might be induced, like Esau, 
 to sacrifice spiritual privileges for worldly advantages ; and the 
 general idea is, ' A time will come when you will bitterly, but in 
 vain, regret your foolish choice and conduct.' Esau did so. 
 When he found that, by the overruling providence of God, the 
 blessings connected with primogeniture were given to Jacob, he 
 earnestly sought to inherit the blessing ; and when he was told 
 it was impossible, he still sought, even with tears, to make his 
 father repent, or change his mind. But in vain. He had de- 
 spised and sold his birthright, and must take the consequences.^ 
 
 ^ Schoetgen's note is excellent. " Vox iA,iT(x.uoiix, h. 1. non notat poeni- 
 teutiam in sensu theologico, sed quamcunque mentis et consilii immuta- 
 tionem. Isaacus benedixerat Jacobo. Esavus malebat, ut benedictionem 
 retractaret ; et id cum lacrimis qusesivit. Poenitentiam vero male factorum 
 et levitatis tunc nondum egerat, quia erat (iilirfKo; et Jacobo fratri mortem 
 intentabat." The Jews, wlio are often wise beyond what is written, say he 
 afterwards became a true penitent. We shall be glad to find it so. " Vox 
 lA.iTikvotot. non poenitentiam quasi Esavo denegatam, sed Isaaci retractationem 
 frustra qusesitam, denotat." — Hutchinson, Not. ad Cyropsediam, lib. i. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 191 
 
 In like manner, the profane and sensual professor of Chris- 
 tianity, who for pi'eseut enjoyment gives np the promised in- 
 heritance in heaven, will one day regret, and vainly regret, his 
 choice: Luke xiii. 25-28. He will "find no room for repent- 
 ance;" i.e., no means of altering the divine determination, that 
 the man who prefers earth to heaven while here, must, Avhen he 
 leaves earth, go to hell and not to heaven. This passage, rightly 
 interpreted, throws no obstacles in the way of a sinner who has 
 made and long persisted in a foolish choice, making a wise one 
 now. "Now is the accepted time; noio is the day of salvation." 
 If you wish to inherit the blessing, you may ; but there is 
 only one way in which you can — the way of faith, repent- 
 ance, and obedience. Eternal life is yours if you choose it, 
 not otherwise. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord; and nothing but an obstinate refusal to re- 
 ceive it shall exclude any man who hears the Gospel from its 
 enjoyment. 
 
 The words which follow, vers. 18-28, form the concluding 
 paragraph of the general exhortation, to hold fast the faith and 
 profession of Christianity, in opposition to all temptations to re- 
 turn to Judaism, grounded on the demonstration of the immea- 
 surable superiority of the former to the latter, which had been 
 presented to them in the doctrinal part of the Epistle. It opens 
 with a very striking comparative view of the two economies, the 
 Mosaic and the Christian ; and the general sentiment intended 
 to be conveyed is plainly this : ' From the Sinaitic dispensation 
 — rigid in its requisitions, terrible in its sanctions, severe and 
 unbending in its whole character — it is in vain to look for sal- 
 vation ; but the Christian economy, " full of grace and of 
 truth," reveals a propitiated Divinity, and unites earth with 
 heaven. How wise is it to seek security from the terrors of 
 Sinai in the peace and serenity of Sion ! How foolish to aban- 
 don the perpetual sunshine, the unfading verdure, the undis- 
 turbed tranquillity of Sion, for the murky clouds, and lurid 
 lightnings, and angry thunders, and barren wastes of Sinai!' 
 Let us proceed to examine somewhat more minutely this com- 
 parative view of the two economies. 
 
 Vers. 18—21. "For ye are not come unto the mount that 
 might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto black- 
 ness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, 
 
192 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 and tlie voice of words ; which voice they that heard entreated 
 that the word should not be spoken to them any more : (for 
 they could not endm'e that which was commanded, And if so 
 much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust 
 through with a dart : and so terrible was the sight, that Moses 
 said, I exceedingly fear and quake.)" 
 
 The particle for does not connect these words with what im- 
 mediately precedes, but with the general design of the section. 
 It is equivalent to — ' moreover,' or, ' another reason for your 
 holding fast your profession is to be found in the contrast exist- 
 ing between the law and the Gospel.' The general sentiment 
 is, 'Ye are not under the law, which was a rigid and severe 
 economy.' 
 
 That sentiment is, however, very rhetorically expressed. That 
 economy was established at Sinai. The assembled congregation 
 of Israel were there placed under that order of things. To be 
 under that economy is here figuratively represented as being of 
 the congregation of Israel at Sinai at the giving of the law ; 
 and the severe character of that economy is indicated by a most 
 graphic description of the terrific natural and supernatural 
 phenomena by which its establishment was accompanied. In- 
 stead of saying in simple words, 'Ye are not under the law, 
 that severe and wrathful economy,' he says, ' Ye are not of the 
 congregation of Israel who came to Mount Sinai, and from its 
 cloud-capt summit received, amid cloud's, and darkness, and 
 thunder, and lightnings, a fiery law.' 
 
 There can be no doubt that the mountain here referred to is 
 Mount Sinai in the desert of Arabia. It is termed " the mount 
 which might be touched." Some interpreters have suspected 
 that the negative particle has been omitted, and that the Apostle's 
 expression originally was, * the mount that might not be touched,' 
 referring to the injunction quoted in a succeeding verse ; but this 
 is a conjecture which receives no support from any MS. or 
 version. Others have connected this word, as well as the word 
 " burned," with the clause, "with fire :" ' the mount which was 
 touched and burned with fire' — i.e., 'struck by lightning;' but 
 this is a sense which the words do not naturally suggest.^ The 
 Apostle's meaning is, that they were not come to the material, 
 
 ^ In that case, opu would have either preceded ■\^yi7\ci(pu^i,ivu, or followed 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 193 
 
 tangible mountain, Sinai/ but to the immaterial, spiritual moun- 
 tain, Sion. Before examining particularly the phraseology in 
 ■which the Apostle describes the awful solemnities which at- 
 tended the giving of the law, it will serve a good purjiose to 
 bring before your mind the Mosaic history of these transactions. 
 "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone 
 forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the 
 wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, 
 and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the 
 wilderness ; and there Israel camped before the mount. And 
 Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of 
 the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, 
 and tell the children of Israel ; Ye have seen what I did unto 
 the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought 
 you unto INIyself. Now therefore, if ye will obey ISIy voice in- 
 deed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar trea- 
 sure unto Me above all people : for all the earth is Mine. And 
 ye shall be unto j\Ie a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. 
 These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children 
 of Israel. And Moses came, and called for the elders of the 
 people, and laid before their faces all these words which the 
 Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, 
 and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses 
 returned the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord 
 said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that 
 the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee 
 for ever. And Moses told the Mords of the people unto the 
 Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and 
 sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their 
 clothes, and be ready against the third day : for the third day 
 the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon 
 Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round 
 about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into 
 the mount, or touch the border of it : whosoever toucheth the 
 mount shall be surely put to death : there shall not an hand 
 touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through ; whether 
 it be beast or man, it shall not live : when the trumpet soundeth 
 long, they shall come up to the mount. And j\Ioses went down 
 from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people ; and 
 
 ^ ot-laSriroi^ iTviyiiog^ in contrast 'witli 'TTUiVf^a.TiKog^ vo/iTOf, ovpuvio;. 
 VOL. ir. N 
 
194 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be 
 ready against the third day : come not at your wives. And it 
 came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were 
 thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and 
 the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud ; so that all the people 
 that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the 
 people out of the camp to meet with God ; and they stood at the 
 nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on 
 a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire ; and the 
 smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the 
 whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the 
 trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses 
 spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord came 
 down u}X>n Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount : and the 
 Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount ; and Moses went 
 up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the 
 people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and 
 many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come 
 near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth 
 upon them. And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot 
 come up to Mount Sinai : for Thou chargedst us, saying. Set 
 bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. And the Lord said 
 unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, 
 and Aaron with thee : but let not the priests and the people 
 break through to come up unto the Lord, lest He break forth 
 upon them. So Moses went down unto the people, and spake 
 unto them. And God spake all these words, saying, I am the 
 Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of 
 Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other 
 gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
 image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or 
 that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the 
 earth : thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve 
 them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and 
 fourth generation of them that hate Me ; and showing mercy 
 unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My command- 
 ments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in 
 vain : for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His 
 name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 195 
 
 Six days shalt tliou labour, and do all thy work : but the seventh, 
 day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not 
 do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-ser- 
 vant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that 
 is within thy gates : for in six days the Lord made heaven and 
 earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
 day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed 
 it. Honour thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may be 
 long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou 
 shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt 
 not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- 
 bour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt 
 not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his 
 maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy 
 neighbour's. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the 
 lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain 
 smoking : and, when the people saw it, they removed, and stood 
 afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and 
 we will hear : but let not God speak with us, lest we die'' 
 " And ye came near, and stood under the mountain ; and the 
 mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with dark- 
 ness, clouds, and thick darkness." "These words the Lord 
 spake unto all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of 
 the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great 
 voice ; and He added no more : and He wrote them in two 
 tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. And it came to 
 pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness 
 (for the mountain did burn with fire), that ye came near unto 
 me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders ; and ye 
 said, Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us His glory, and 
 His greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the midst of 
 the fire : we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, 
 and he liveth. Now therefore why should we die ? for this 
 great fire will consume us : if we hear the voice of the Lord our 
 God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all 
 flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out 
 of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived ? Go thou near, 
 and hear all that the Lord our God shall say ; and speak thou 
 unto us all that the Lord our God shall s[)eak unto thee, and 
 we will hear it, and do it. And the Lord heard the voice of 
 
196 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 your words, when ye spake unto me ; and the Lord said unto 
 me, 1 have heard the voice of the words of this people, which 
 they have spoken unto thee : they have well said all that they 
 have spoken. Oh that there were such an heart in them, that 
 they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, 
 that it might be well with them, and with their children for 
 ever ! Go say to them. Get you into your tents again. But as 
 for thee, stand thou here by Me, and I will speak unto thee all 
 the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which 
 thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which 
 I give them to possess it."^ 
 
 With the facts of the case before us, we will find little diffi- 
 culty in explaining the language used by the Apostle in reference 
 to them. Indeed, the greater part of his description is borrowed 
 from the Mosaic history. The words rendered, "that burned 
 with fire," according to our translation, are a further description 
 of Mount Sinai. They may with equal propriety be rendered, 
 'the burninf fire :' 'Ye are not come to the material mountain 
 of Sinai, nor to the burning fire,' — a prodigious, supernatural 
 burning, which is called in Deuteronomy "the great fire of 
 God," and which reached up to heaven, from the midst of which 
 came forth the voice of Him who " is a consuming fire." The 
 "blackness and darkness" describes the lurid, murky state of 
 the atmosphere ; the " tempest," the violent agitation of the 
 clouds by sudden gusts of wind. " The sound of a trumpet" re- 
 fers either to thunder, or to some supernaturally produced noise 
 more resembling the piercing sound of a trumpet, and, from its 
 unnatural sound, more terrific than thunder. "The voice of 
 words " is the articulate voice pronouncing, from the midst of 
 the unearthly fire, the law of the ten commandments ; and so 
 awfully impressive was that voice, that when it ceased, the 
 Israelites earnestly requested Moses to intercede with God that 
 they might hear it no more.^ 
 
 The Apostle notices in a parenthesis, that the prohibition, 
 
 1 Exod. xix. 1-xx. 19 ; Deut. iv. 11, v. 22-31. 
 
 2 The description of Philo is very graphic, and strikingly resembles that 
 of the inspired writer. YIccutu, V, ug iiKog, rix, Trspl rov tottov i^ocvfiXTovp- 
 •yilro, x.rv'Troig (ipovruv (/.n^ovuv Vj oxjn X'-'P-'" e'^'O*'?, ddrpoC'Trav 'ha.ui^iaiv ccuyo 
 slliaTXTXi;, dopcirov acthinyyog '/ixV '^P°> f^yiyciarou dvoTiivavr/i xu&oOa vinpiT^-zig, 
 ^ Kiovog TpoTTOu TViU fiiv ^»iitv i'JS^l yijg iipvpsiaro, to Be «XAo crufioi Tirpog xidipiou 
 
TAUT II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 197 
 
 under a very severe penalty, of even touching the mountain, 
 greatly alarmed the people of Israel. " They could not endure 
 that which was commanded." These words have by some been 
 referred to what goes before, as if it had been meant to state, 
 that the reason Avhy the children of Israel desired to hear no 
 more " the voice of words," Avas that they could not endure the 
 laws which it had promulgated. But not only does what fol- 
 lows require that tliese words should be viewed in reference to 
 it, but it is obvious from the history that it was not the laic, 
 but the manner of its promulgation, which alarmed them. "They 
 could not endure that which was commanded ;" i.e., it affected 
 them with intolerable terror. If even an irrational animal was 
 to be put to death in a manner which marked it as unclean, 
 somethinfT not to be touched, what nuVht rational offenders ex- 
 pect as the punishment of their sin ? and if the violation of a 
 positive institution of this kind involved consequences so fear- 
 ful, what must be the result of transgressing the moral requisi- 
 tions of the great Lawgiver ? 
 
 Another circumstance mentioned by the Apostle as strik- 
 inoly illustratino; the terrific character of the mving of the law, 
 is that Moses was agitated with fear, even to trembling. " So 
 terril)le was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and 
 quake." The fact here referred to is not recoi'ded in the JMosaic 
 history. It is indeed said, Exod. xix. IG, that "all the people 
 in the camp trembled" — a declaration including Moses. The 
 fear mentioned by Moses, Deut. ix. 19, — "For I w^as afraid of the 
 anger and hot displeasure Atherewith the Lord was wroth against 
 you to destroy you" — was on a different occasion. The particular 
 fact to which the Apostle refers, like others mentioned by him 
 in his writings, seems to have been preserved by tradition, of 
 which, indeed, traces are to be found in the rabbinical writ- 
 ings.-^ Of the truth of the fact here asserted by an inspired 
 writer, we can have no doubt. Moses, who had witnessed so 
 
 v\po; dvtrsivi, irv^l'; ovpccviov (popa. kcittvu j3o(.6-t rx. Iv x,vkKu avaKi(x.(^ourog. 
 " All things, as was meet (in the presence of the Deity), were preternatural 
 and prodigious : deafening peals of thunder, most vivid coruscations of 
 lightning, the sound of an invisible trumpet issuing from a distant cloud, 
 like a lofty pillar resting on the earth, and its head in the height of heaven, 
 and a thick smoky cloud, produced by the force of celestial fire, darkening 
 the surrounding atmosi^here." 
 
 ^ Vide Capell. in loc, et "Wetsteiu, Gal. iii. 19. 
 
198 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 many remarkable displays of the divine power and majesty — 
 who above every other mere human being had been accustomed 
 to intercourse with God, — even he was constrained, by the over- 
 whelming terror of the scene, to exclaim, "I exceedingly fear 
 and quake." ^ 
 
 The circumstances of the giving of the law were in accord- 
 ance with its genius as a divine economy. The people of Israel 
 in a " waste, howling wilderness," standing in speechless terror 
 at the foot of a rugged mountain enveloped with black clouds, 
 now agitated by tempest, and now partially illuminated by 
 flashes of lightning ; while from the midst of a devouring fire, 
 towering above the summit of the mountain, and flaming up to 
 heaven, an unearthly trumpet uttered its spirit-quelling notes, and 
 the voice of Jehovah proclaimed the statutes of that all-perfect 
 law, which forbids sin in all its forms and degrees, and requires 
 the unreserved submission of the mind and heart, and the un- 
 deviating obedience of the whole life, — were a striking emblem 
 of the situation of all under that dispensation which was then 
 established — a dispensation of which the leading features were 
 strongly marked in these circumstances. 
 
 The material mountain is an emblem of its earthly and sen- 
 sible character : the clouds and darkness, of its obscurity ; and 
 the tempest and flaming fire, the fearful trumpet, and yet more 
 awful voice, of the strictness of its precepts, and of the severity 
 of its sanctions ; — the holiness and the justice of Jehovah being 
 plainly revealed, while but a very dim and imperfect manifesta- 
 tion was made of His grace and mercy. 
 
 The Apostle's statement, then, is equivalent to — 'The law — 
 the Mosaic economy — is a system, the leading characters of 
 which, marked in the circumstances of its establishment, are ex- 
 ternality, obscurity, and severity ; and you as Christians are not 
 under this economy.' 
 
 He then goes on to describe the Christian economy in the 
 same highly rhetorical manner, under the emblem of a spiritual 
 mountain and city, whose names are borrowed from the moun- 
 tain and city dedicated to the divine service in the Holy 
 Land — Sion and Jerusalem; where is the spiritual temple of 
 
 1 The Apostle seems to refer to some well-founded tradition, as SteiDlien 
 seems to do when he represents Moses as iurpoftog ysvofisi/o; at the bixrniug 
 bxish, Acts vii. 32. 
 
PART II. § 1.1 GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 199 
 
 Jehovah, the Judge, the God of all ; where " Jesus, the Me- 
 diator of the New Covenant," ministers ; where the host of 
 angels, and the congregation of the first-born redeemed from 
 among men, hold their holy and joyful assembly. And the fact 
 of the Hebrew Christians being under this economy is repre- 
 sented by their coming to this holy hill and city, and joining 
 this august convocation. 
 
 If this idea is distinctly apprehended, it will at once put an 
 end to the question, whether the passage before us refers to the 
 state of the Christian Church on earth or in heaven. It is 
 plainly a description of the whole economy — an economy which 
 extends both to earth and to heaven, and which, beginning in 
 ■ time, will continue throughout eternity. The general sentiment 
 is, 'In becoming Christians you have joined a holy and happy 
 society, at the head of which is the Father of spirits, and next 
 to Him Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, and under them the 
 whole host of holy angels, and the whole family of redeemed 
 men, whether on earth or in heaven,' Let us examine some- 
 what more minutely the particular expressions. 
 
 " Ye are come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living 
 God, the heavenly Jerusalem." The literal Mount Sion was a 
 beautiful hill on the south-east side of Jerusalem, on one of 
 the eminences of which stood the temple : Ps. xlviii. 2. The 
 name is plainly here used figuratively. The Sion here spoken 
 of is a soiritual mountain, as contrasted with the mountain 
 which could be touched — the mountain which is spiritually^ 
 called Sion, on which the Lamb stands with the hundred forty 
 and four thousand who have His Father's name written in their 
 foreheads. The literal Jerusalem was the divinely appointed 
 metropolis of the Holy Land, the seat of government and reli- 
 gion. Jerusalem's " foundations were in the holy mountains," 
 and " as a city, was builded compact together." " Thither the 
 tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of 
 Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For there are 
 thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David." Jeru- 
 salem, like Sion, is here used figuratively for the heavenly 
 Jerusalem. As the people of Israel, pilgrims in a wilderness, 
 without fixed dwelling-place, trembling at the foot of a preci- 
 pitous mountain covered with clouds and darkness, are an em- 
 ' TTVivf^oiTiKus, Kev. xi. 8. 
 
200 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP, X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 blem of those under the law, the same j)eople, dwelHng safely in 
 stable habitations, in the magnificent and delightfully situated 
 city Jerusalem, enjoying all the advantages of a pure religion 
 and a stable government, are an emblem of those who possess 
 the privileges of the Gospel economy. 
 
 The emblem is highly significant. It marks the economy to 
 which they belong, as one which brings them into close and 
 delightful fellowship with God. They do not stand at the foot 
 of the mountain, while Jehovah dwells on its summit amid the 
 thick darkness and the devouring fire ; but they come even to 
 His seat, they dwell in His presence, they have constant access 
 to Him. It marks, too, the permanence of that economy. 
 They dwell not in tents, but in " a city which has foundations, 
 whose builder and whose maker is God." These appear to me 
 the leading ideas : ' Ye are brought into a state of permanent, 
 favourable intercourse with Jehovah ; ye are become citizens of 
 heaven.' All that follows is an expansion of that idea. 
 
 By coming to Mount Sion and the New Jerusalem, they of 
 course mingle with the inhabitants of this divine city. These 
 are of two kinds : angelic and human. " Ye are come," says 
 the Apostle, "to an innumerable company of angels." A careful 
 reader of the original text will see that the following word, 
 "the general assembly," does not refer to the first-born, but to 
 the angels. The words, literally rendered, are, " Ye are come 
 to myriads, the general assembly, of angels." Angels are 
 unembodied spiritual intelligences, holding a higher place than 
 man in the scale of being. Those of them who kept their first 
 abode are described in Scripture under the names of seraphim 
 and cherubim — '■ burning ones, powerful ones,' — " principalities 
 and powers," " thrones and dominions." They dwell in God's 
 presence ; they " do His commandments, hearkening to the voice 
 of His word." Vast numbers of these holy beings were on 
 Mount Sinai at the giving of the law : Deut. xxxiii. 2. The 
 law was given by the ministration of angels. But the Israelites 
 did not come to them. They were at the bottom of the hill in 
 darkness, while the angels surrounded Jehovah in the inaccessible 
 light. " But," says the Apostle, " ye are come to myriads, to 
 the general assembly, of angels." The word rendered " general 
 assembly" properly signifies a solemn festal convocation, such 
 as was held by the Greeks at their public religious games. The 
 
PAIJT II. § 1.] GEXEP.AL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 201 
 
 general idea is, 'You are brought into intimate relation with the 
 whole host of holy unembodied spirits.' By the mediation of 
 Jesus Christ, the Apostle informs us that it is the purpose of 
 God, " in the dispensation of the fulness of times," which is just 
 the Gospel economy, to " bring together into one" holy society 
 " things on earth and thino;s in heaven." Christians come to 
 angels, not by sensible intercourse, but by spiritual relation. On 
 our being reconciled to God, we are reconciled to all His holy 
 creatnres. They love us — we love them. We engage in sub- 
 stantially the same religious services ; we have the same joys. 
 Even in the present state, they, though unperceived by us, 
 minister to our welfare ; and in due time tlie barriers in the way 
 of immediate intercourse will be removed, and, equal to the 
 angels of God, we shall mingle with them in an unreserved in- 
 terchange of thought and feelins;. 
 
 But angels are not the only citizens of the New Jerusalem. 
 We come to " the church of the first-born, whose names are 
 written in heaven." The word rendered church is by no means 
 of so definite a meaning as that English word is. It designates 
 any assembly, whether sacred or civil. Here, I apprehend, it 
 refers to the whole body of truly good men on earth, viewed as 
 one great assembly. Many consider it as referring to the sacred 
 assembly of the upper world ; but they are afterwards described 
 as " the spirits of just men made perfect ;" and in the other 
 places of Scripture where persons are described as having their 
 " names written in heaven," or " in the book of life," they are 
 always spoken of as being on earth. The people of God are 
 termed " the first-born " in allusion to what is said of Israel : 
 "Israel is My son. My first-born." It marks them as dedi- 
 cated to the service of God, and the heirs of the " inherit- 
 ance incoiTuptible, undefiled, and that fadetli not away." And 
 bv their names beinf^ written in heaven, or enrolled in the 
 celestial album, we apprehend we are to understand that the 
 persons referred to are genuine Christians — men who have not 
 only been admitted to external communion, whose names are 
 not merely enrolled in the books of the visible Church, but 
 who have been admitted to fellowship by the Great Head of 
 the Church, and their names inscribed in His book of life. The 
 idea is, ' In becoming Christians ye become connected with 
 the whole body of the faithful, an innumerable company out 
 
202 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 of many a kindred, people, and tongue. Every good man is your 
 brother.' 
 
 But, what is greater and more glorious still, you come " to 
 God the Judwe of all." These words ought to be rendered, " to 
 the Judge the God of all." Christians approach, they draw 
 near, the Judge. The Israelites stood afar off, but the Christian 
 draws near — draws near with boldness — to the Judge ; for he 
 knows that He is " God in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." " The God 
 of all;" i.e., the God of all the citizens of Sion — He "of whom 
 all the family in heaven and in earth are named." When it is 
 said He is their God, it means, He acknowledges them with 
 favour and approbation : Eph. iv. 6 ; Eom. iii. 29 ; Heb. viii. 
 10, xi. 16; Rev. xxi. 3, 7} 
 
 They come also to "the spirits of just men made perfect ;" 
 i.e., to the disembodied spirits of departed holy men, who, having 
 finished their com*se, have obtained their reward. They who 
 by the faith of the truth become the subjects of the new 
 economy, " sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob," and 
 all the prophets, and Apostles, and martyrs, and confessors, " in 
 the kingdom of their Father." 
 
 " One family, we dwell in Him ; 
 
 One Church, above, beneath ; < 
 
 Though now divided by the stream — 
 The narrow stream of death." 
 
 We are bound together by the tie which binds us to one God and 
 one Saviour. We think along with them ; we feel along with 
 them. They love us ; we love them. It may be the intercourse 
 on their side with us even here is more intimate than we are 
 aware of ; and yet a little while, and the whole family will be 
 assembled in their Father's house, never more to go out for ever. 
 Still further. Christians " come to Jesus the Mediator of 
 the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks 
 better things than that of Abel." It may seem strange that 
 Jesus and His atoning blood should be mentioned last ; but it is 
 easy to account for it ; for it is by our coming to Him that we 
 are led to the spiritual Sion, and introduced to Sion's God and 
 
 ^ Tholuck remarks : " I do not think that God is here mentioned as 
 xptTv; to enhance the idea of terror, but to point out God as the legislative 
 Head — the fountain of that law which binds together the ' civitas coelestis.' " 
 
FART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 203 
 
 Sion's citizens. We have already explained at large the mean- 
 ing of the phrases, "New Covenant," and "Mediator." Jesus 
 is the person who, in the new and better economy, interposes 
 between God and us, and does all that is necessary in order to 
 our obtaining its advantages and blessings. We come not to 
 the Aaronical priesthood, the mediator of the Old Covenant, 
 but to "Jesus the ^lediator of the New^ Covenant," who is 
 "such alNIediator and High Priest as becomes us ; holj^, harmless, 
 and undefiled, made higher than the heavens," — " who being 
 the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of 
 His person, has by Himself purged our sins, and is set down on 
 the right hand of the Majesty on high ; being made so much 
 better than the angels, as He has obtained by inheritance a more 
 excellent name than they," — " worthy of more honour than 
 Moses," — having obtained a more excellent ministry than Aaron," 
 — " a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec." 
 
 The sentiment in the last clause might have been expressed 
 thus: "Who hath sprinkled us with His own blood;" but the 
 Apostle prefers to speak of the blood of expiation separately. 
 " The blood of sprinkling" is just the blood by the sprinkling 
 of which the individual was so purified that he might lawfully 
 approach unto God. " The blood of sprinkling" is just the 
 obedience to the death of the Son of God. That blood shed ex- 
 piates guilt, makes it a just thing in God to pardon sin ; that 
 blood sprinkled on the conscience — i.e., the truth in reference to 
 this expiation understood and believed — removes the jealousies 
 of guilt, produces love to God, and enables the sinner to wor- 
 ship with acceptance and delight. They have such an interest 
 in His atonement as enables them to "draw near with bold- 
 ness to the throne of grace." 
 
 That blood " speaks better things than that of Abel."^ The 
 language is figurative, but not obscure. Abel's blood cried for 
 
 1 The Apostle uses csotj instead of lioctv/n. The one word is more full 
 of meaning than the other. It conveys the idea of freshness — perpetual 
 freshness and vigour. What is jccciv'/i may become ■nrx'hxicc ; but vix and 
 ■xxhatii, are incongruous ideas. 
 
 2 Griesbach considers the reading to^A/SeX as equal to the T. R. In 
 some MSS. toS is found. ' Abel by his blood,' and ' the blood of Abel,' mean 
 the same thing. The phrase, 7r«/5« r()v "A/SsTi, is just = ij to atJ^wa rw" k^iK 
 
204 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 vengeance — for the infliction of punishment on the murderer ; 
 but the blood of Christ proclaims peace and salvation. The 
 voice of Abel's blood drove Cain away from God ; but the voice 
 of Jesus' blood invites us, and, when sprinkled on the conscience, 
 constrains us, to come near. It is a very unnatural interpreta- 
 tion to refer " the blood of Abel " to the blood of his sacrifice. 
 His sacrifice, as typical, spoke the same things, though not so 
 distinctly, as what is here termed " the blood of sprinkling." 
 It spoke, though in enigmatical language, of atonement, and 
 reconciliation, and pardon, and salvation. — Such is the contrast 
 between the former and the latter dispensation. There, all is 
 awful, terrible, and threatening ; here, all is gracious, alluring, 
 and animating. What folly to adhere to the former ! what 
 absolute madness to renounce the latter ! It is impossible to con- 
 ceive a more appropriate conclusion to the exhortation to per- 
 severance than this comparative view, and the awfully impressive 
 exhortation with which it is followed. 
 
 The words which follow — vers. 25-28 — appear to me to be 
 the conclusion of the body of the Epistle (the thirteenth chapter 
 having much the appearance of a double postscript), and ad- 
 mirably comports with the place it holds. The Epistle com- 
 mences with the declaration that the Gospel is the completed 
 revelation of the divine will respecting the salvation of men, — 
 a revelation made not by man or angel, but by the Only-begotten 
 of God ; and it closes with a solemn exhortation to beware of 
 treating such a revelation in a manner unworthy of its cha- 
 racter, as the ultimate manifestation of the mind of God, made 
 by that Eternal Word of life who was in the beginning with the 
 Father, and who has declared Him unto men. The first and 
 the last paragraphs of the Epistle, properly so called, bind to- 
 gether as it were all the intervening statements, illustrations, and 
 arguments. " God, who at sundry times spoke to the fathers by 
 the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son." 
 *' See, then, that ye refuse not Him that speaketh." ^ 
 
 The interpretation of the whole passage depends on the re- 
 ference which we give to the phrase. Him that spealceth. By 
 
 ^ In reading such a passage as this, who does not feel the justice of the 
 burning words of that accomplished scholar Burmann? " Qais unquam 
 divinas illas, et ubertate et suavitate sermonis affluentes, beati Pauli 
 Epistolas, — quis sacras ejus ad populum, vel ad Christianorum coetum, con- 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 205 
 
 some interpreters, the appellation has been considered as having a 
 different reference each time it is used. They have supposed the 
 Apostle's meaning to be, ' Beware of neglecting or despising the 
 warning of him who now speaks to you,' i.e., of the Apostle 
 himself ; ' for if they escaped not who neglected or despised 
 him who spoke on earth' — i.e., Moses, or, as some strangely think, 
 Abel, — ' how shall we escape if we neglect or despise Him who 
 speaks from heaven? ' i.e., Jesus Christ. Others refer the phrases, 
 " Him that speaketh," and " Him that speaketh from heaven," 
 to Jesus Christ ; and " him that spake on earth " to Moses. 
 It appears to us far more simple and natural to consider the 
 phrase, " Him that speaketh," as referring to the same person in 
 all the three instances ; and that the person referred to is God, 
 as the Author of all revelation. " God, who at sundry times, 
 and in divers manners, spake to the fathers by the prophets," 
 and who " now in these last days speaks to us by His Son," who 
 is " the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His 
 person," and " who, having purged our sins by Himself, is set 
 down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." " He who 
 speaketh " is the general appellation ; and " He that speaketh on 
 earth" and "He that speaketh from heaven," or "He speaking 
 on earth" and " He speaking from heaven," are not two dif- 
 ferent speakers, but the same speaker speaking in different cir- 
 cumstances.^ These remarks, distinctly understood, will carry 
 light throughout the whole paragraph. 
 
 When God is here termed " He that speaketh," the idea in- 
 tended to be conveyed is, Christianity is a divine religion : the 
 declarations of the Apostles are a revelation of the will of God. 
 It is precisely the same sentiment wliich is more fully expressed 
 in the beginning of the second chapter : ' A great salvation has 
 been made known to us : it began to be spoken by the Lord ; 
 it has been confirmed by them who heard Him ; and God has 
 borne testimony, both by signs and wonders, and divers miracles, 
 
 clones, sine ingcnte animi commotione legat? etin maximam admirationem 
 traductus nou exclamet. eximiam dicendi vim ! ubcrrimum eloqucntiee 
 flumcn ! Deo ipso dignum et convenientem sermonem ! " — Oral, de elo- 
 quentia et poetica, p. 25. 
 
 ^ Carpzov justly remarks : " In monte Sinai eadem (puuvi prif^uruv, idem 
 terram coucussit Aoyof, qui coelum suo tempore commovebit. Verba 
 Haggsei ii. 7, laudata ad v. 26 et sumpta ibi de Deo Patre, hoc etiam loco 
 suadent de Eo sumi, ne subjectum diversum subaudiatur." 
 
206 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His will.' Christ is 
 to be considered as the Messenger of His Father. God spoke 
 by Him. He was the Prophet of whom Jehovah spoke to Moses 
 when He said, " I will put My words in His mouth, and He 
 shall speak unto them all that I command Him. And it shall 
 come to pass, that whosoever Avill not hearken unto My words, 
 which He shall speak in. My name, I will require it of Him." 
 The " voice from the most excellent glory,'" proclaiming, " This 
 is My beloved Son, hear ye Him" declared the words of Jesus 
 the voice of God ; and His declaration was, " The words which I 
 speak are not Mine, but His that sent Me." And in the same 
 manner, the doctrine of the Apostles was the voice of God ; for, 
 says our Lord, " He that heareth you, heareth Me ; and he that 
 heareth Me, heareth Him that sent Me." To " refuse Him that 
 speaketh," then, is just not to attend to, not to believe, not to 
 obey the Christian revelation, as the voice of God. 
 
 Against this sin the Apostle cautions the Hebrews : " See," 
 then, " that ye refuse not Him that speaketh." ' Beware of in- 
 attention, unbelief, and disobedience in reference to the Chris- 
 tian revelation. Consider that it is a divine revelation — a divine 
 revelation on the most important of all subjects — a divine re- 
 velation of the completest form — a divine revelation by the most 
 exalted of messengers ; and consider all this, see that ye neglect 
 and despise it not.' 
 
 The exhortation is enforced by a fact and an argument. 
 The fact is, " They who refused Him speaking on earth escaped 
 not;" the argument is, "If they escaped not who refused Him 
 speaking on earth, much more shall not they escape who refuse 
 Him speaking from heaven." Let us attend to these in their 
 order. 
 
 The fact is, " They who refused Him speaking on earth 
 escaped not." God " speaking on earth" seems to me nearly 
 equivalent to — ' God making a revelation of His will by means of 
 men ; God speaking to the fathers by the prophets.' The phrase 
 includes — it probably directly refers to — the revelation of the 
 divine will by Moses ; but I do not see any reason to limit it to 
 that particular revelation. " They who refused God speaking 
 on earth did not escape ;" they met with " a just recompense of 
 reward," and especially " they that despised Moses' law died with- 
 out mercy." " With many of them," says the Apostle, " God 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 207 
 
 was not well pleased" — the reason was, they refused Him speak- 
 ing to them, — " and they were overthrown in the wilderness." 
 The Old Testament histoiy is full of illustrations of this state- 
 ment, that " they who refused God speaking on earth did not 
 escape." Many of them were punished in a most exemplary 
 manner on earth, and such of them as died impenitent are suffer- 
 ing the vengeance of eternal fire. 
 
 The fact is in itself sufficiently alarming ; but it lays a 
 foundation for a still more alarming argument. " If they who 
 refused Him speaking on earth did not escape, much more shall 
 not we escape," says the Apostle, " if we turn away from Him 
 speaking from heaven." As for God to speak on earth, is to 
 speak — reveal His will, by the instrumentality of men ; so, for 
 God to speak from heaven, is to reveal His will by the instrumen- 
 tality of a divine Person — His own Son, — one who, even when 
 on earth, was in heaven, and who, in His glorified human nature, 
 is now " at the right hand of the Majesty on high." The reve- 
 lation referred to is the Christian revelation, the completion of 
 which was given by our Lord after His ascension from earth to 
 heaven. The Apostles had the mind of Christ. He came by 
 them " preaching peace to them who were afar off," as well as 
 " to them who were nigh." There is a double argument in the 
 Apostle's words : ' If they were punished because they refused 
 Plim, we will be punished if we refuse Him, — if they were 
 punished who refused Him speaking on earth, much more will 
 we be punished if we refuse Him speaking from heaven.' The 
 superior dignity of the Messenger, and the superior importance 
 of the message, which the employment of such a Messenger 
 necessarily implies, make it equitable, and that, under the 
 government of a righteous God, makes it certain, that our 
 punishment will be more severe than theirs. What must be 
 the measure of the severity, if it corresponds to the value 
 of the salvation rejected, and the dignity of the Saviour de- 
 spised ! Let us recollect that these awful words are not less 
 applicable to us than to those to whom they were originally ad- 
 dressed. God speaks to us from heaven ; for He speaks to us 
 by His Son. In this precious book we have the voice of God in 
 heaven ; and His merciful exhortation is still, " After so long a 
 time. To-day, if ye will hear My voice, harden not your hearts." 
 " Now is the accepted time ; now is the day of salvation." 
 
208 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 We enjoy privileges of incalculable value, in having the Chris- 
 tian revelation, — of incalculable value, when we contrast our 
 circumstances with the Jews under the law, and still more when 
 we contrast them with those of the heathen nations. But if 
 we " refuse Him who speaks," Ave will have reason to envy 
 throughout eternity the comparatively tolerable doom of the 
 disobedient Jew and the wicked heathen. " How can we escape, 
 if we neglect so gi'eat salvation 1 " 
 
 It has sometimes occurred to me, that the Apostle, in the 
 Avords now before us, carries forward the imagery of the pre- 
 ceding paragraph, and that he contrasts God speaking from the 
 material mountain Sinai, and establishing a carnal and tempo- 
 rary economy, and God speaking from the spiritual mountain 
 Sion, and establishing a spiritual and everlasting economy. This 
 limits the reference of the words, " speaking on earth," to what 
 took place at Sinai, and " speaking from heaven" to the revela- 
 tion made by God through Jesus Christ, exalted to heaven, 
 when the new economy was established. In this case the force 
 of the argument is, — ' If those who disobeyed Jehovah, speaking 
 on earth respecting an earthly and temporary economy, were 
 punished, surely much more will they be punished who disobey 
 Him speaking from heaven, respecting a spiritual and everlast- 
 ing order of things.' This view of the passage seems best to 
 harmonize with what follows, in which the different eifects of 
 the voice of God on earth and the voice of God in heaven are 
 very graphically described. 
 
 With regard to the voice of God on earth, it is said that it 
 " shook the earth." ^ I cannot doubt that the language here was 
 suggested by the fact, that at the giving of the law the moun- 
 tain of Sinai and its neighbourhood were shaken by an earth- 
 quake. At the same time, as the material mountain is plainly 
 emblematical of the external economy Avhich was established 
 then, the shaking of the earth is emblematical of the change 
 which took place in the establishment of that economy. Shak- 
 ing is emblematical of change ; shaking the earth, of external 
 change. A most important change took place at the giving of 
 the law. The external state of the Jewish people was most 
 materially altered, — high and important privileges were con- 
 ferred on them ; but great and glorious as was the change, it did 
 ^ Oil 7] (puvv, T'f.v ysjv iaoihivai tc'ts, ii3 a complete elegiac verse. — Carpz. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 200 
 
 not extend to heaven. The promise — the economy which God, 
 immediately after the fall, had established in reference to man's 
 spiritual and eternal interests — remained unchanged. The eco- 
 nomy established at Sinai, viewed hy itself, was a temporal and 
 temporary covenant with a worldly nation, referring to tem- 
 poral promises, an earthly inheritance, a worldly sanctuary, a 
 typical priesthood, and carnal ordinances. 
 
 The voice in heaven produces more extensive and more per- 
 manent effects. It shakes both earth and heaven — effects a 
 change both on the external and spiritual circumstances of those 
 who are under it ; and it effects a permanent change, which is to 
 admit of no radical essential change, for ever. The Apostle, 
 according to the wisdom given to him, does not in plain direct 
 terms assert the complete abolition of the Mosaic economy, and 
 the establishment of a spiritual and perpetual order of things in 
 its room ; but he refers to an ancient oracle, in which the extent 
 and nature of the change which was to take place on the coming 
 of the Messiah are described ; and thus in the least offensive man- 
 ner introduces an important doctrine, to the reception of which 
 the prejudices of the Jews opposed very powerful obstacles. 
 
 " But now He hath promised." The word now does not 
 denote the period when the promise was made, but the period to 
 which the promise refers, which was now, opposed to tlien, when 
 the law was established. It is equivalent to — ' But with regard 
 to the present period, which is the commencement of a new order 
 of things. He has promised, saying.' This use of the word now 
 in the Apostle's writings is common : Rom. iii. 21, xvi. 26. The 
 passage referred to is Hag. ii. 7, " And I will shake all nations, 
 and the Desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill this 
 house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts ;" — a passage admitted 
 by the Jews to refer to the coming of the Messiah. 
 
 " To shake heaven and earth," is in Scripture often expres- 
 sive of a very great change. Here, however, the meaning is 
 obviously more definite ; it is a shaking heaven and earth as 
 contrasted with a shaking earth only. Some interpreters con- 
 sider these words as referring to events yet future, — the changes 
 which will usher in the consummation of all things ; but it is 
 plain the Apostle considers the shaking as past, and as having 
 produced its effect in the establishment of " a kingdom which 
 cannot be moved." Some interpreters would refer these words 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
210 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 to the miraculous changes, both in the visible heavens and in 
 the earth, by which the commencement of the Christian dispen- 
 sation was distinguished ; others, to the political and ecclesiastical 
 changes which it produced. We think it much more natural to 
 understand the words as equivalent to — ' I will make a great 
 change, not only in the external, but in the spiritual state of the 
 Church.' The earth was shaken ; Le., the external form and 
 state of the Church was completely altered. But that was not 
 all : the heavens were shaken ; a clearer and more extensive 
 revelation of spiritual truth was made, — a more abundant and 
 powerful dispensation of divine influence was given. The whole 
 system of the Church was put into a new order. He who sits 
 upon the throne saith, " Behold, I make all things new." 
 
 But the Apostle refers not only to the extent of the change, 
 but also to its permanence, especially as that permanence, estab- 
 lished as it is by change, involves in it the entire abrogation of 
 the state of things whose place the new economy occupies. The 
 ancient oracle not only indicates the extent, but the permanence 
 of the change ; " for," says the Apostle, " this word," or oracle, 
 " Yet once more^^ — the Apostle quoting only the first words, 
 while he plainly refers to the whole passage, though his argu- 
 ment is more particularly grounded on the words, " Yet once 
 ■more,'^ — " this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of 
 those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that 
 those things which cannot be shaken may remain." The gene- 
 ral idea is : The language intimates that this shaking of the 
 heaven and earth of the Church is to be the last shaking ; 
 and, of course, that nothing in her constitution henceforward 
 remains of a perishable kind — or that can be shaken ; all is 
 permanent and immovable. The order of things now intro- 
 duced is not, like that which preceded it, to give way to an- 
 other. The things which are shaken are removed. The things 
 shaken are the earth and the heaven of the Church ; that is, 
 the external and the spiritual state of things : they are to be so 
 shaken as to be removed ; a complete change is to take place. 
 The law was added to the promise as a temporary appendage, 
 and did not abrogate it ; but the Gospel takes the place of the 
 law, and thus abolishes it. The law was but a change on the 
 earth of the Church, and left the heaven, which Avas regulated 
 by the promise, unshaken, unchanged ; but the Gospel reaches 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 211 
 
 both the earth and the heaven of the Church, and " old things 
 pass away, and all things become new." 
 
 The clause, " as of things which are made," is considerably 
 obscure. The " things that are shaken" — the state of the 
 heaven and the earth of the Church under the former eco- 
 nomy — " are removed, as things which are made." " Things 
 that are made ;" what is the meaning of this ? Some have 
 considered these words as equivalent to — ' frail, perishing 
 things,' as things of a corporeal and created kind generally are : 
 * The heavens and the earth of the Church under the old 
 economy were like the material heaven and earth : they were to 
 perish. But the new heavens and earth, which were to be the 
 result of this ultimate shaking, were to endure for ever.' They 
 (consider the Apostle's idea as the same as that of the prophet, 
 when he says, in reference to the very same event, " Lift up 
 your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath ; for 
 the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax 
 old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like 
 manner : but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteous- 
 ness shall not be abolished."^ The only difficulty here is in get- 
 ting these ideas out of the word made. Others, with much less 
 probability, have explained the word as equivalent to — ' destined, 
 or doomed ;' and others, as equivalent to — ' fashioned so as to 
 make a great show ;' and others have, without any sufficient 
 reasons, suspected a slight change in the text, and that the word 
 originally written by the Apostle was one which signifies lahour- 
 ing,^ like a ship tossed in the waves, ready to go to pieces ; or to 
 vary the figure, and use the words of the Apostle, " become old, 
 and ready to vanish away." Admitting the first mode of inter- 
 pretation, the words, " that those things which cannot be shaken 
 may remain," are equivalent to — ' so that those things which 
 cannot be shaken may remain ;' i.e., the declaration in the pas- 
 sage, that the change referred to is to be the idtimate change in 
 the state of the Church, is an intimation that the thincs which 
 remain unchanged by it are to remain unchanged for ever. 
 
 I cannot help thinking that the words, " us of things which 
 
 are made," are not to be viewed as a separate clause, but as 
 
 most intimately connected with what follows. " Things which 
 
 were made, in order that tlie things which cannot be shaken 
 
 ^ Isa. li. G. ^ TTi'^ovYifieuciiu for ^STrotyifciuuv. 
 
212 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 might remain," is the description of the heavens and earth of 
 the Church under a former dispensation. They were made not 
 to continue ; they were made in reference to a system which was 
 to continue ; and when they had served their purpose, they passed 
 away. Just as, in building a bridge across a wide ravine or 
 mighty river, there is a cumbrous and unsightly mass of scaf- 
 folding and enginery erected, till the work is completed and 
 the key-stone fixed; and then there is a shaking among the 
 scaffolding, till it gives way, and is entirely removed. It seems 
 a work of entire destruction ; but it is but the removal of what 
 was never anything better than necessary preparation — what, 
 now that the end is gained, is unsightly encumbrance.^ And now 
 the work of art, which had been but obscurely seen when rising 
 to perfection, bursts on the delighted eye, self-supported, — 
 
 " Like the cerulean arch we see, 
 
 ^lajestic in its own simplicity." 
 
 Everything in the new dispensation is solid. We have not 
 the emblem of Divinity, but God Himself ; not a typical expia- 
 tion, but a real atonement ; not bodily purifications, but spiritvial 
 holiness : all is spiritual, all is real, all is permanent. How 
 happy is the individual who is interested in this new and better 
 economy ! The living during the period of this economy does 
 not secure an interest in its blessings ; the belonging to a visible 
 society called a church does not secure an interest in its 
 blessings. He who belongs to this new creation must himself 
 become " a new creature ;" he " must be born again ;" he 
 must be " transformed, by the renewing of his mind." Faith 
 in the truth as it is in Jesus is the only way in which we can 
 be introduced into this new and better world, and be made par- 
 ticipants of its high and holy blessings. Just in the degree in 
 which we understand and believe the truth do we become par- 
 ticipants of these blessings. And now " may the God of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto you the spirit 
 of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him : the eyes of 
 your understanding being enlightened ; that ye may know what 
 
 ^ A similar meaning is brought out by connecting fisiv/j with to, acCK.^ 
 not with T« i^'/i aat.'h. ; thus, " The removal of the things which were made, 
 that — for the purpose that — they might wait for the things that cannot be 
 shaken, — remain until these came, or were established, and no longer." — 
 Bauldry, quoted by Carpzov. 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 213 
 
 is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of 
 His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding great- 
 ness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the 
 Avorking of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, 
 when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own 
 right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
 power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, 
 not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and 
 hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head 
 over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of 
 Him that fiUeth all in all."^ 
 
 The concluding words of the chapter contain in them an 
 account of the practical improvement which the Apostle wished 
 the Hebrew Christians to make of the view he had given them 
 of the glories of the Gospel economy. Vers. 28, 29. "AVliere- 
 fore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us 
 have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with rever- 
 ence and godly fear : for our God is a consuming fire." 
 
 To " receive a kingdom," is to be invested with royalty — to 
 be made a king ; and to " receive a kingdom which cannot be 
 moved," is permanently to be invested with royalty — to be made 
 a king for ever. From the connective particle, ivherefoy^e, it 
 is plain that to receive an immovable kingdom is but another 
 mode of expressing what is meant by " coming to Mount Sion," 
 etc. It is another figurative mode of expressing the privileges 
 and honours which, under the new economy, men obtain by the 
 faith of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 It is a common thing in Scripture to represent the privileges 
 and honours of Christians under the figure of a kingdom. The 
 figure is, however, not always employed in the same way. Vei*} 
 frequently the whole of the new economy is represented as u 
 kingdom : " the kingdom of God " — " the kingdom of heaven." 
 Of this kingdom Messiah is the Prince, and true Christians are 
 the subjects. When a man believes the Gospel, he enters into 
 this kingdom, and becomes a partaker of its numerous and in- 
 valuable rights and privileges. At other times the blessings 
 enjoyed by Christians are represented under the figure of a 
 kingdom ; and in this case they are represented, not as subjects, 
 but as kings — possessors of royalty. They are " a royal priest- 
 1 Eph. i. 17-23. 
 
214 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 hood ;" tliey " reign in life by Christ Jesus;" they are " kings and 
 priests." It is plainly in the last way that the figure is employed 
 in the passage before us. " We," says the Apostle — that is, ob- 
 viously, we Christians — " have received a kingdom" — have been 
 invested with royalty — have been made kings.^ 
 
 Royalty is the most exalted form of human life. The kingly 
 state is the most dignified known on earth ; and, however mis- 
 takenly, men have been accustomed to consider royal happiness 
 as the consummation of mortal blessedness. When the Apostle 
 says, then, " We have received a kingdom," he means, in plain 
 words, we have obtained happiness and honour, of which the 
 most dignified and happy state known among men affords but 
 an imperfect representation. And who that knows the truth on 
 this subject, and is capable of rightly appreciating the value of 
 things, can hesitate as to the justness of the Apostle's repre- 
 sentation ? To enjoy the peculiar favour of, to be admitted to 
 familiar intercourse with, the greatest and best of beings ; to be 
 associated with angels and '' the spirits of just men made per- 
 fect;" to have the inheritance of the world; to be secured that 
 everything in the universe is ours, so far as it is necessary to 
 promote our true happiness ; to be loved and esteemed by all the 
 wise, and holy, and benignant beings in the universe, — surely 
 this is real dignity, true happiness. This is royalty indeed ; and 
 '• this honour" — this felicity — " have all the saints." 
 
 But they not only receive a kingdom, but " a kingdom which 
 cannot be moved ;" they not only are made kings, but " they 
 shall reign for ever and ever." The privileges conferred on 
 them are indefeasible privileges, they never can be taken from 
 them. Jehovah said to Israel, when at Sinai He constituted 
 them His people, "Ye shall be to Me a kingdom of priests;" 
 but the kingdom bestowed on them was a kingdom which could 
 be moved. It was shaken ; it was removed. The royal, sacred 
 dignities of Israel after the flesh are no more ; they have passed 
 away with the economy out of which they originated. But it is 
 otherwise with the kingdom of which we Christians, by the be- 
 lief of the truth, become possessors. The blessedness and the 
 honour arising from the favour, the image, and the fellowship 
 of Jehovah, are substantial and real. The vicissitudes of time 
 cannot affect them ; over them death can have no poAver ; and 
 ^ OvTOS ycip -^upaT^xjiuv /SaaAs/ai/, 2 Mac. x. 11. 
 
PART IT. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 215 
 
 eternity will but develop their excellence and demonstrate their 
 indestructibility. Well then might the Apostle say, " We have 
 received a kingdom which cannot be moved." We have been 
 made kings unto God, and we shall reign for ever and ever. 
 We have obtained, through the faith of the truth, privileges 
 and honours of the very highest kind ; and they are stable as the 
 throne, endless as the years, of Him who has conferred them. 
 
 Privilege and duty are closely, are indissolubly connected. 
 The more valuable the privilege, the stronger the obligation to 
 gratitude and obedience to Him who has graciously conferred 
 it. This is a principle which pervades the wliole of the Apostle's 
 writings ; and we find him applying it here when he says, 
 *•' Wherefore, we having received " — i.e., since we have received 
 — " a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, where- 
 by we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear : 
 for our God is a consuming fire." 
 
 The exhortation, " let us have grace," has been variously in- 
 terpreted. Grace, in the language of systematic theology, is 
 divine influence ; and it is common to understand the exhorta- 
 tion as if it were — ' Let us seek divine help, which is necessary in 
 order to our acceptably serving God, and which we shall obtain 
 if we seek it.' This is good enough sense, but it is impossible to 
 bring it out of the Apostle's words. It gives to the word grace 
 a sense which it is very doubtful if it ever has in Scripture ; and 
 to the phrase, have grace, a meaning which it is certain it never 
 has. Grace in Scripture signifies the free favour of God. That 
 is its primary and proper signification ; but it is often used to 
 denote particular manifestations of the divine favour, — in other 
 words, divine benefits. It has been supposed that here it refers 
 — as in the passage, " We beseech you that ye receive not the 
 grace of God in vain" — to that remarkable manifestation of the 
 divine favour, that invaluable divine benefit, the revelation of 
 mercy ; and that the word have is here — as it is apparently in 
 some passages of Scripture, 1 Tim. i. 19, iii. 9 ; Rev. vi. 9 — 
 equivalent to hold ; and that the Apostle's exhortation is, ' Let 
 us hold fast that divine favour, the revelation of mercy, by 
 means of which we have obtained the kingdom which cannot be 
 moved ; let us continue stedfast in the faith, notwithstanding 
 all the temptations to apostasy to which we are exposed, by 
 whicJi continued faith alone we can serve God acceptably.' 
 
216 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. i9-XII. 2S(. 
 
 This also gives a good sense, but it is not the sense which the 
 words naturally suggest.^ 
 
 The phrase translated have grace is idiomatical (like the Latin 
 ago gratias), and is used to signify, ' to be grateful, to express 
 gratitude.' Of this use of the phrase we have a number of in- 
 stances in the New Testament. Luke xvii. 9, " Doth he thank 1 " "^ 
 literally, 'Does he have grace f 1 Tim. i. 12, "I tJmnk;"^ 
 literally, 'I have grace.' 2 Tim. i. 3, "I thank ;" literally, 'I 
 have grace.' This, I apprehend, furnishes us with the key to 
 the expression. ' Let us be thankful ; let the reception of bless- 
 ings so invaluable excite a corresponding gratitude.' " Having 
 received a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us be thankful." 
 Gratitude is, as it were, the soul and the sum of the Chris- 
 tian's duty. Where it is absent, no duty can be performed 
 aright ; where it is present in due energy, every duty will be 
 performed aright. The duty which the Apostle enjoins on the 
 Hebrew Christians he himself habitually performed. Who can 
 read his Epistles without being struck with the deep, habitual 
 gratitude which he discovers to Jesus Christ, and to God as the 
 God and Father of Jesus Christ? "I thank God," exclaims he, 
 " through Jesus Christ our Lord." " Thanks be to God, who 
 giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." " Thanks 
 be to God for His unspeakable gift."^ How frequently, how- 
 affection ately, does he urge this duty on Christians ! " Give 
 thanks always to God and the Father in the name of Jesus 
 Christ."^ " Give thanks to the Father, which hath made us 
 meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light ; 
 who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath 
 translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." The Apostle's 
 exhortation, then, is, ' Let us be grateful to Him who has con- 
 ferred on us blessings so rich and honours so high — who has 
 given us a kingdom, a kingdom which cannot be moved,' 
 
 Let us be grateful, " that we may serve God acceptably." 
 The words, " whereby we may serve God acceptably," are paren- 
 thetical, and contain the reason why we should cultivate grati- 
 tude to Him who has conferred on us such benefits. We ought 
 to serve Him. Our service will be of no use if it is not accept- 
 
 ' It would, I apprehend, require tlie article : Tn" x°''P"'i instead of Y,»pfj. 
 ^ Rom. vii. 25 ; 1 Cor. xv. 57 ; 2 Cor. ix. 15. * Eph,. v. 20. j 
 
PART II. § 1.] GENERAL EXHORTATION AND WARNING. 217 
 
 able ; and it cannot be acceptable if it is not the result of 
 gratitude, the expression of thankfulness. The word rendered 
 ^' serve "^ God, properly refers to religious worship. I do not 
 think that it is here to be restricted to religious duties properly 
 80 called ; but I apprehend it is used to express the idea, that 
 every duty on the part of a Christian should have a religious 
 character. Whatever he docs should be in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. 
 The pi'esenting of himself a living sacrifice to God in all the 
 duties of life, is "rational worship."^ The Christian, though in- 
 vested with royal dignity, must remember that there is a King 
 of kings, and that his true honour, as well as duty, consists in 
 serving Him. External acts of duty will serve no good purpose 
 if they are not acceptable ; i.e., if they are not regarded with 
 complacency by Him to whom they are performed. Now they 
 will not be regarded with complacency by Him, unless they are 
 the expression of gratitude. The only homage which is accept- 
 able to Him is the homage of the heart — of the heart penetrated 
 with gratitude for His " unspeakable gift," and of which the 
 native lansuage is, ' We love Him who hath so loved us.' 
 
 But while the Apostle calls on the Hebrew Christians to be 
 thankful, seeing they have " received a kingdom which cannot 
 be moved," he calls on them to be thankful "with reverence 
 and godly fear." Their gratitude and its expressions were not 
 to be of that light character which the reception of temporal 
 and temporary blessings is calculated to excite, but of that 
 grave, chastened, solemn, sublime character, which corresponds 
 with the spiritual, heavenly, and eternal benefits that had 
 been conferred on them. There is something awful in every- 
 thing connected with God ; and when Christians rejoice, they 
 should " rejoice with trembling." When a Christian considers 
 how the blessings which he enjoys were obtained, such a mani- 
 festation of the divine holiness and righteousness, as well as 
 benignity, is brought before the mind, as, while it does not in 
 the slightest degree impair his joy in the Lord and his con- 
 fidence in His mercy, excites an overwhelming sense of His in- 
 finite majesty and purity, and induces him to say, " Who shall 
 not fear Thee, and glorify Thy name ? for Thou only art holy." 
 
 The ground of that holy fear, with which our grateful, joy- 
 
 ^ >iCCTptvuf<,iy. ^ T^oyiKVi y.xrpeiot^ Rom. XU. 1. 
 
218 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. X. 19-XII. 29. 
 
 ful services to Him who has given us " a kingdom that cannot 
 be moved " should be accompanied, is stated in the concluding 
 verse of this chapter : " For our God is a consuming fire." 
 Hence the necessity and propriety of "reverence and godly 
 fear." The Apostle obviously refers to the words of jSIoses, 
 Deut. iv. 24, where God is termed a consuming Jive. The ideas 
 intended to be conveyed seem to be absolute moral purity, con- 
 nected v/ith irresistible power. Our God is glorious in holiness, 
 and inflexible in justice. He will "by no means clear the 
 guilty," without complete satisfaction to the injured honours of 
 law and government. He shows Himself " a consuming fire" 
 in not sparing His Son when He took our place, but wounding 
 and bruising Him even to the death, " the Just One in the room 
 of the unjust;" and He shows Himself "a consuming fire" in 
 punishing with peculiar severity those who neglect and despise 
 the revelation of grace, reigning through righteousness unto 
 eternal hfe. The God of the law and the God of the Gospel is 
 the same God — unchanged, unchangeable. His mercy beams 
 forth more gloriously in the Gospel than in the law, but His 
 holiness is not obscured by the effulgence of His mercy. No, 
 the displeasure of God against sin is more strongly marked in 
 the sacrifice of His Son, than in all the hecatombs of victims 
 which bled on the Jewish altars ; and we may rest assured, 
 that " if he who despised Moses' law died without mercy, he 
 will be accounted worthy of much sorer punishment, who treads 
 under foot the Son of God, treats as unclean the sanctifying 
 blood of the covenant, and does despite to the Spirit of grace." 
 The Gospel despiser, the impenitent apostate, will find that there 
 is no wrath like the wrath of contemned, abused mercy, and 
 that it is indeed " a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
 living God." The belief of the infinitely energetic holiness of 
 God, manifesting itself both in the sufferings of Christ and in 
 the peculiarly sore punishment of the despiser and neglecter of 
 the Gospel, is admirably fitted to produce that " reverence and 
 godly fear," which is in perfect harmony with that grateful love 
 which arises from the faith of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 It is a just remark of a judicious expositor and divine, 
 " God does not leave our compliance with the Gospel merely to 
 the generosity and gratitude of the human heart; for, however 
 noble these principles are, the hearts of believers themselves are 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 219 
 
 not always under their vigorous influence. Indeed, the human 
 heart is not so generous and grateful in this imperfect state as 
 many imagine ; and he must be a stranger to his own heart who 
 does not feel this. We need to have our fears as well as our hopes 
 stimulated, and the Gospel affords sufficuent motives for botli."^ 
 Let us then, in the careful study of the character of God, as 
 manifested in the person, work, and doctrine of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the great Revealer of Divinity, lay our minds and hearts 
 open to all the motives, of whatever kind, which it suggests ; 
 and having obtained such high and holy privileges, and such 
 *' exceeding great and precious promises," let us " cleanse our- 
 selves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and per- 
 fect holiness in the fear of God." 
 
 § 2. Paiiicular Eicliortations. Chap. xiii. 1-14. 
 
 This chapter may be considered as dividing itself into two 
 parts, — the first being an exhortation to a variety of duties, the 
 second being the conclusion of the Epistle. The duties en- 
 joined are some of them moral, and others religious. The moral 
 duties recommended are — the love of the brethren, and its ap- 
 propriate manifestations in hospitality towards strangers and 
 sympathy with sufferers ; chastity ; freedom from covetous- 
 ness ; contentment ; a grateful recollection and pious improve- 
 ment of the instructions and examples of their deceased pastors; 
 and liberality and beneficence. The religious duties recom- 
 mended arc — fidelity to God; unshaken steadiness in the faith 
 and profession of the Gospel, notwithstanding all the suffering 
 and reproach to which it might subject them; thanksgiving; duti- 
 ful subjection to their pastors ; and prayer for the Apostle and 
 his brethren. The conclusion of the Epistle consists of three 
 parts : a prayer to God; a request to his brethren; and a parting 
 salutation and benediction. Let us examine these various parts 
 as they lie in order. 
 
 The chapter begins with a recommendation of brotherly 
 love. Ver. 1. " Let brotherly love continue." 
 
 The persons to whom this Epistle was addressed were at 
 once Jews and Christians ; and according as we view them in 
 the one or other of these aspects, the phrases, " brotherly love," 
 
 1 M'Leau. 
 
220 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 and the "continuance" of brotherly love, must be somewhat 
 differently interpreted. The Jews had a peculiar regard to 
 each other, as distinguished from the Gentile nations ; and it 
 was one of the charges which the unbelieving Jews brought 
 against their Christian brethren, that they had become enemies 
 to their nation. Now, the Apostle may be understood as say- 
 ing, ' Give no occasion for this reproacli. Show that in becom- 
 ing Christians you have not ceased to be, in every good sense of 
 the word, Jews — that the expansion of your philanthropy has 
 not lessened the ardour of your patriotism. Let all the regard 
 you ever had for your brethren, your kinsmen according to the 
 flesh, continue ; only let your mode of manifesting it correspond 
 with the juster views which you have now obtained of their true 
 interests.' Paul's " own brotherly love," in this sense, con- 
 tinued. What a striking expression of it have we in these 
 words ! Rom. ix. 1-5, x. 1. 
 
 But the persons wliom he was addressing were not only 
 Jeios, but Christians ; and as Christians they formed part of a 
 spiritual brotherhood bound together by ties more intimate and 
 sacred. They were all " the children of God by faith in Christ 
 Jesus." They all stood in the relation of children to God ; 
 they had all been formed to the character of the children of 
 God ; and the faith of the truth, by which at once the relation 
 was constituted and the character formed, naturally and neces- 
 sarily led to mutual esteem and love. This is, we apprehend, 
 the view the Apostle is here taking of the Christian Hebrews ; 
 and this peculiar affection with which genuine Christians regard 
 each other, is that brotherly affection the continuance of which 
 is the subject of the Apostle's exhortation. All true Christians 
 are taught of God to love one another. " He who loves Him 
 who begat, must also love those who are begotten of Him." 
 He who does not love the children of God, is not himself a child 
 of God. 
 
 The degree in which this love is felt depends on a great 
 variety of circumstances. It obviously was felt in a very great 
 degree in the earlier days of the primitive Hebrew Church : Acts 
 ii. 44, 45, iv. 32, 34. To this the Apostle refers in chap. vi. 
 10, and x. 32, 33, 34 : " Ye became companions of those who 
 were made a gazingstock ; and ye had compassion of me in my 
 bonds." It is not unlikely that, owing to a variety of circum- 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 221 
 
 stances, the ardour of their first love had abated. " Iniquity," 
 according to the Saviour's pro[)hecy, " was abounding, and the 
 love of many," both towards the Saviour and towards one 
 another, "was waxing cold." The Aj)ostle's exhortation is, 
 "Let brotherly love continue." 'Persevere in that warm, dis- 
 interested affection towards each other as Christians, by which, 
 after ye were illuminated, ye were so remarkably characterized.' 
 The instruction afforded by this exhortation is suited to 
 Christians in all countries and in all ages. Love to the brother- 
 hood is a duty wherever the brotherhood exists. From the im- 
 pure state of Church conmiunion, in consequence of which 
 there are so many in external fellowship whom an enlightened 
 Christian cannot regard as brethren in Christ, and from the 
 division of the Christian Church into a variety of hostile fac- 
 tions, there are difficulties thrown in the way of the cultivation 
 of this Christian virtue ; but the obligation to cherish this dis- 
 position is in no degree diminished. Wherever you see the 
 image of your Lord — wherever there is a consistent profession 
 of the faith of Christ — there ought we to fix our Christian 
 affections ; and having fixed them, we are not easily to allow 
 them either to abate or to be transferred. It is finely remarked 
 by tlie illustrious divine to whom I have already more than 
 once referred : " The love which is among His disciples is that 
 whereon the Lord Christ hath laid the weight of the manifesta- 
 tion of His glory in the world. But there are only a few foot- 
 steps of it left in the visible Church, some marks that it hath 
 been, and dwelt there of old. It is, as to its lustre and splen- 
 dour, retired to heaven, abiding in its power and efficacious 
 exercise only in some corners of the earth and secret retire- 
 ments. Envy, wrath, selfishness, love of the world, with cold- 
 ness in all the concerns of religion, have possessed the place of 
 it. And in vain shall men Avrangle and contend about their 
 differences in opinions, faith, and worship, pretending to ad- 
 vance religion by an imposition of their persuasion on others : 
 unless tliis holy love be again re-introduced among all those 
 who profess the name of Christ, all the concerns of religion 
 will more and more run to ruin. The very continuance of the 
 Church depends secondarily on the continuance of this love. 
 It depends primarily on faith in Christ, whereby we are built 
 on the Kock and hold the Head. But it depends secondarily on 
 
222 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 this mutual love. Where this faith and love are not, there is no 
 Church. Where they are, there is a Church materially, always 
 capable of evangelical form and order." ^ 
 
 Having enjoined the continuance of brotherly love, the 
 Apostle goes on to point out some of the ways in which the ex- 
 istence and continuance of this principle were to be manifested ; 
 and he particularly mentions the appropriate display of love to 
 stranger brethren, and to suffering brethren. With regard to 
 stranger brethren, he says, ver. 2, "Be not forgetful to enter-, 
 tain strangers : for thereby some have entertained angels un- 
 awares." With regard to suffering brethren, he says, ver. 3, 
 " Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them ; and 
 them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the 
 body." Let us attend to these commanded methods of display- 
 ing the love of the brotherhood in their order. 
 
 The duty enjoined in the 2d verse is repeatedly in the 
 apostolical Epistles termed " hospitality," but is something con- 
 siderably different from what is now ordinarily meant by that 
 word. To be hospitable, in the common use of the term, is 
 descriptive of the disposition and habit of liberally entertaining 
 friends, relations, neighbours, or acquaintances. Where such 
 entertainments proceed from genuine kindness, and are un- 
 stained by excess, where they do not occupy too much time, 
 where they do not in their expense trench on the demands of 
 justice and benevolence, they are at least innocent, and may 
 serve a number of useful purposes. The Christian duty here 
 enjoined is something totally different. It is the gratuitous and 
 kind entertainment of Christian brethren who are " strangers." 
 In the primitive age, Christians, in consequence of persecution, 
 were often driven from their habitations and native covmtries, 
 and Christian teachers travelled into strange lands to plant and 
 water the churches. It was the duty of Christians to show the 
 love of the brotherhood by receiving such persons into their 
 houses, and supplying them with the necessaries and comforts 
 of life. For his exemplary discharge of this duty, John pro- 
 nounces an eulogium on " the well-beloved Gains," 3 John 5-8. 
 Besides, Christians travelling even on secular business were, in 
 consequence of their Christianity, exposed to inconveniences 
 among pagans of which we can form no very distinct concep- 
 
 ^ Dr Owen. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 223 
 
 tion ; and it was of mucli importance, both to their comfort and 
 their improvement, that they should Hve with a Christian 
 family. Accordingly, we find Phoebe, who seems to have gone 
 from Corinth to Rome on business, commended to the kind 
 attentions of the Roman Christians, that they should not only 
 " receive her in the Lord as becometh saints," but that they 
 should "assist her in whatsoever business she had need of them." 
 The Apostle's injunction then is, ' Be ever ready, according to 
 your ability, to receive into your houses, and entertain with 
 kindness, such Christian strangers as, in the service of the Gos- 
 pel, from the force of persecution, or in the ordinary course of 
 business, stand in need of your hospitality.' 
 
 The motive which the Apostle employs to enforce this ex- 
 hortation is drawn from the unlooked-for honour and advantage 
 which in former times had arisen from the performance of a 
 similar duty. " For thereby" — i.e., by entertaining strangers — 
 " some have entertained angels unawares." There is plainly 
 here a reference to Abraham and Lot, who entertained angels 
 hospitably in their houses, supposing that they were human 
 strangers. It is quite possible that the same thing may have 
 happened to other good men under the former dispensation. 
 The force of the motive does not seem to lie in any probability 
 that they might have the same honour, but in this general 
 principle, that they might derive advantage from the exercise of 
 hospitality greater than they anticipated ; that they might have 
 the honour and happiness of entertaining men distinguished for 
 their Christian worth and excellence, and who, by the spiritual 
 communications made by them, would far more than compen- 
 sate for the external accommodations afforded them. 
 
 The circumstances of Christians are greatly changed in the 
 course of ages, but the spirit of Christian duty remains un- 
 changed. It is still the duty of Christians to open their houses 
 as well as their hearts to their stranger brethren, especially to 
 such as are occasional visitants on business connected with the 
 kingdom of our Lord Jesus. I do not think it creditable to the 
 state of Chnstian feeling among us, that ministers occasionally 
 visiting our city on public business are in many cases under the 
 necessity of seeking accommodation at their own cost, or at the 
 expense of the public cause wliich they are promoting. I am 
 persuaded wealthy Christians would find a rich reward in per- 
 
224 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP, XIIL 1-14. 
 
 forming the duty of Christian hospitality. In entertaining such 
 strangers, they woukl entertain occasionally men who have 
 much of the spirit of angels. A more powerful recommenda- 
 tion of the duty than even that contained in the passage before 
 us, is to be found in the words of our Lord at the great day, 
 when He is to " come in His glory, and all the holy angels with 
 Him." " Then will He say to those on His right hand, I was a 
 stranger, and ye took Me in." And when they answer, " Lord, 
 when saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in I " He shall 
 reply, " Inasmuch as ye did it to the least of these My brethren, 
 ye did it to Me." 
 
 Another way in which the Christian Hebrews were to 
 manifest their brotherly love, was by " remembering them who 
 were in bonds, as bound with them ; and them who suffer ad- 
 versity, as being themselves in the body." " Those who were 
 in bonds " are plainly the Christians who for their religion had 
 been committed to prison. This was a very common occurrence 
 in the primitive age. These were to be remembered "by their 
 brethren. They were to be often thought of with affection and 
 interest ; they were to be prayed for ; they were to be visited ; 
 they were to be supplied with food and clothing and other 
 comforts, and every lawful means employed to mitigate the 
 rigour of their confinement and to obtain their liberty. Onesi- 
 phorus, whose conduct Paul mentions with so much gratitude, 
 is an example of the mode of behaviour here recommended : 
 " The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus ; for he 
 oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain : but, when 
 he was in Home, he sought me out very diligently, and found 
 me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the 
 Lord in that day : and in how many things he ministered unto 
 me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well."^ 
 
 They were to " remember those who were in bonds, as bound 
 with them." The language is very emphatic. When Saul 
 was persecuting the Church, Jesus called to him from heaven, 
 " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me V and in answer to 
 the question, " Who art Thou, Lord?" He replied, " I am Jesus 
 whom thou persecutest." He considered Himself as bound and 
 persecuted in those who were bound and persecuted in His 
 cause. In like manner Christians are to sympathize with their 
 1 2 Tim. i. lG-18. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 225 
 
 imprisoned brethren as if tliej- themselves were in bonds. They 
 are to make the same exertions for them that they would be 
 disposed to make for themselves if they Avere in their circum- 
 stances. 
 
 But " bonds and imprisonment" are but one of the njany 
 evils to which Christians are exposed ; and therefore the Apostle 
 adds, "Eemember them who suffer adversity, as being your- 
 selves in the body." To " suffer adversity," when by itself, may 
 signify every species of affliction, whether personal or relative, 
 mental or bodily— sickness, pain, loss of relatives or property. 
 At the same time, I think it probable that the Apostle had a 
 direct and principal reference to afflictions undergone in the 
 cause of Christ. To be reproached, turned out of secular em- 
 ployment, spoiled of goods, banished, or in any other way to be 
 exposed to suffering on account of the profession of the Gospel, 
 — all this is included in suffering adversity. 
 
 Now, such Christians were to be remembered by their more 
 prosperous brethren, " as being themselves in the body." These 
 words admit of two modes of interpretation. It may mean that 
 they ought to sympathize with, comfort, and assist them, as being 
 themselves members of the same mystical body with thenT 
 according to the Apostle's statement ; " For as the body is one^ . 
 and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, 
 being many, are one body ; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit 
 are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or 
 Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and have been all made 
 to drink into one Spirit.— That there should be no schism in the 
 body ; but that the members should have the same care one for 
 another. And whether one member suffer, all the members 
 suffer with it ; or one member be honoured, all the members re- 
 joice with-it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in 
 particular."^ Or it may mean— and, we rather think, does mean 
 —' Pity them and help them ; for ye too are yet in the body— ye 
 too are liable to the same afflictions under which they now la- 
 bour. Their situation may soon be yours.' Christians in our 
 country and age are not exposed in the same degree to affliction 
 on account of their religion ; but there is still, ami there ever will 
 be, suffering on account of religion ; and Avherever this is to be 
 found in any form, or in any degree, it ought to draw out the 
 1 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13, 25-27. This is Calvin's exegesis. 
 VOL. II. p 
 
226 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 tenderest sympathies of their fellow-Chiistians. How admirably 
 fitted is Christianity to improve at once the character and the 
 situation of mankind ! It is plainly calculated to make mankind 
 happier, in the most afflicted conceivable situation, than without it 
 they could be in the most prosperous conceivable circumstances. 
 
 A family is the elementary form of human society, the 
 germ of nations and churches ; and the relation in which fami- 
 lies originate is the foundation of all other human relations. 
 The institution which forms that relation must of course be of 
 peculiar importance. That institution is of direct divine ap- 
 pointment, and is nearly coeval with the existence of the human 
 race. In its primitive and only legitimate form, it is the union 
 of one man and one woman for life ; and just in proportion as it 
 has preserved this form, has it served its purpose, in distinguish- 
 ing man from the brute creation, in excluding the disorders of 
 licentiousness, and in cultivating the best affections of the heart. 
 It has been well said, that whatever there is of virtue, honour, 
 oi'der, or comeliness among men — whatever is praiseworthy and 
 useful in all societies, economical, ecclesiastical, or political — de- 
 pends on this institution ; and that by all to whom children are 
 dear, relations useful, and inheritances valuable, marriage should 
 be accounted honourable. 
 
 Marriage, as an institution, has in every age received the 
 approving sanction of every enlightened philosopher and every 
 wise legislator ; and the opinion of those who would banish or de- 
 grade it, has always been considered by sober thinkers as a sen- 
 timent indicative of a dark mind and a depraved heart, and 
 which, if brought into action, would be found equally hostile to 
 the worth and to the happiness of mankind. The Holy Scrip- 
 tures stamp this important institution with the broad seal of the 
 divine approbation. They lead us back to its commencement in 
 Paradise ; they inform us that a divine benediction rests on it ; 
 they borrow from it an image to illustrate the tender and inti- 
 mate relation between Christ and His people ; they unfold its 
 duties and enforce them by the most cogent motives; they 
 class its prohibition with the " doctrine of devils ;"^ and in the 
 passage before us they pronounce it " honourable in all." 
 
 Ver. 4. "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed unde- 
 filed : but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." 
 
 1 Jay. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 227 
 
 At the period this Epistle was written, and among those to 
 whom it was addressed, there seem to have prevailed a variety 
 of mistaken notions respecting marriage, and some subjects 
 closely connected with it. In the corrupt age of the Jewish as 
 of the Christian Church, a false notion of the superior sanctity 
 of a state of celibacy seems to have been entertained ; and the 
 opinion, which was universal apparently among the Pagans, seems 
 also to have been common amonn; the Jews, that if the marriaije 
 VOW was not violated — if the seventh commandment was not 
 broken in the letter — no harm was done, no moral guilt was 
 contracted. Whether we view these words before us as an asser- 
 tion or a precept, they seem to be directed against these false 
 and dangerous opinions. 
 
 If, with our translators, we consider them a statement, their 
 meaning appears to be — ' Marriage is a state which itself is 
 honourable among all classes of men ; and the bed un defiled is 
 honourable,' — i.e., there is nothing morally degrading, there is 
 nothing polluted, as the Jewish Essenes alleged, in the marriage 
 relation, if its duties be strictly observed ; on the contrary, it is 
 worthy of respect, — 'among all classes of men ; but the unbridled 
 indulgence of that principle of our nature Avhich makes marriage 
 a wise and benevolent institution, and for the proper regulation 
 of which marriage is intended, is in a very high degree displeas- 
 ing to God, and will draw down tokens of His righteous dis- 
 pleasvu'e.' 
 
 This is excellent sense, but still, I apprehend, it is not just 
 the meaning of the Apostle. I apprehend the words are a pre- 
 cept, and not a statement.^ They stand in the midst of a set of 
 moral precepts, and the sentence is constructed on precisely the 
 same principles as the next verse, which cannot otherwise be 
 rendered than as an injunction. We have, we are afraid, in 
 the manner in which the words are rendered, an instance of the 
 undue influence of the wish to obtain an argument aixainst an 
 enemy's doctrine. That the passage, rendered as a statement, con- 
 tains in it a stronger and more direct condemnation of the detest- 
 able doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church respecting the celi- 
 bacy of the clergy, and the peculiar sanctity of a state of celibacy, 
 than when translated as a precept, seems to have been the true 
 reason why the first mode of rendering has been preferred by our 
 ^ The word to be supplied is not sari, but iuTco. 
 
228 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 own and by many other of the Protestant translators. Con- 
 sidered as a precept, which for the reasons ah'eady assigned we 
 are disposed to do, the words are, " Let marriage be honourable 
 among all, and let the bed be undefiled; for^ whoremongers and 
 adulterers God will judge:" i.e., 'Let marriage be accounted 
 a sacred and venerable thing, both by those who have and by 
 those who have not entered into it. Let the purity of the mar- 
 riage bed be equally respected by the married and the un- 
 married ; for im]3urity of every kind is hateful in the estimation 
 of God ; and all its perpetrators will assuredly be subjected to 
 the righteous judgment, and will as assuredly meet with the 
 unqualified condemnation, of God.' 
 
 These words are not less applicable to us than they were to 
 those to whom they were originally addressed. From the pecu- 
 liarities of modern society, especially in large cities, peculiar 
 facilities are afforded both for the commission and the conceal- 
 ment of the sins against which this divine injunction is parti- 
 cularly directed ; and it is to be feared that even among the 
 professors of Christianity there are persons who avail themselves 
 of these facilities. If there be any such who may read these pages, 
 in the name of God I assure them that their sin will find them 
 out; and that, however they may cloke these abominations from 
 the eye of man, they must one day be made manifest before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ, and have their final doom determined 
 by that law that declares that " no whoremonger nor unclean 
 person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God or of Christ." 
 " Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of 
 these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of dis- 
 obedience." 
 
 The next moral precept refers to the repressing of covetous- 
 iiess, and the cultivation of contentment. Vers. 5, 6. " Let your 
 conversation be without covetousness ; and be content with such 
 things as ye have : for He hath said, I will never leave thee, 
 nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say. The Lord is my 
 helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." 
 
 " Conversation," in modern English, signifies colloquial dis- 
 course. When our translation of the Scriptures was made, it 
 is obvious that its meaning was more extensive. It plainly 
 
 ^ The Vulgate translates Is enim ; Griesbach and Lachmann read yxp 
 instead of li. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 229 
 
 then -was equivalent to — ' cliaractcr and conduct.' " Lot your 
 conversation be such as becoraeth the Gospel of Christ," is 
 plainly equivalent to — ' Let your whole frame of sentiment, 
 affections, and habits correspond to the revelation of mercy.' 
 " Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles " is equi- 
 valent to — ' Habitually conducting yourselves in such a manner 
 as to impress even the unconverted heathen with sentiments of 
 respect for you.' The word is plainly used in this extensive 
 sense in the passage before us. " Let your ■ conversation be 
 without covetousness " is equivalent to — ' Let your manners be 
 without covetousness. Let not covetousness characterize your 
 behaviour ;' in other words, ' Be not covetous.' 
 
 The word generally rendered covetousness in the New Testa- 
 ment^ is a term expressive of an undue regard for anything pre- 
 sent and sensible, seen and temporal. The word here rendered 
 " covetousness"^ is of a more limited signification ; it denotes one 
 variety of the love of the world — the love of worldly wealth, 
 the love of money. The injunction is. Be not inordinately fond 
 of worldly possessions. This is an important Christian duty at 
 all times ; but it was peculiarly called for from the Hebrew 
 Christians at the time this Epistle was written. A man could 
 not become a Christian without exposing his worldly property 
 to great hazards, and in many instances to certain loss. Ln- 
 portant worldly advantages were to be gained by concealing or 
 renouncing Christianity. A man under the powerful influence 
 of the love of money was in danger of employing means for ob- 
 taining it inconsistent with his duty as a Christian — was in dan- 
 ger of " making sacrifices of faith and a good conscience" to 
 retain It ; and when deprived of it, was in danger of mourning 
 its loss as if it were the loss of his happiness. The danger of 
 this principle to a Christian is very graphically described by the 
 Apostle, when he says, " They that will" — that are determined 
 to — " be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many 
 hurtful and foolish lusts, which drown men in destruction and 
 perdition. For the love of money" — the same word as in the 
 text — " is the root of all evil, which, while some have coveted 
 after, they have erred from the faith, and have plei'ced them- 
 selves through with many sorrows." It is an evil against 
 which Christians in every country and age ought carefully to 
 
230 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 guard ; and never perhaps was there a country and an age in 
 which it was of more importance to guard against it than our 
 own. 
 
 In opposition to this love of money, so dangerous, so ruinous 
 to a Christian, the Apostle enjoins the cultivation of content- 
 ment. "Be content with such things as ye have," — literally, 
 'Be content with present things.'^ "Godliness witli content- 
 ment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, 
 and it is certain we can carry nothing out ; and having food 
 and raiment, let us be therewith content." We are to be satis- 
 fied with food and raiment ; and if we are not, " our conversa- 
 tion" is not " without covetousness." But it may be said, 
 ' There are different kinds and qualities of food and raiment. 
 The rich man and Lazarus had equally food and raiment ; but 
 the one was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptu- 
 ously every day ; the other was covered with rags, and fed with 
 the crumbs from the rich man's table. What is to be the stand- 
 ard of contentment as to food and raiment 1 ' The Apostle 
 furnishes us with it in the words before us : " Be content with 
 present things." Indeed, if we do not make this the standard of 
 contentment, we will never be content at all. The Apostle him- 
 self admirably exemplified the virtue which he here recommends. 
 " Not that I speak in respect of want : for I have learned, in 
 whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both 
 how to be abased, and I know how to abound : everywhere, and 
 in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, 
 both to abound and to suffer need."' This contentment is not 
 at all inconsistent with a duly regulated desire to improve our 
 circumstances, and the use of the lawful means fitted for obtain- 
 ing this purpose. It does not consist in a slothful neglect of 
 the business of life, or a real or pretended apathy to worldly in- 
 terests. It is substantially a satisfaction with God as our portion, 
 and with what He is pleased to appoint for us. It is opposed to 
 covetousness, or the inordinate desire of wealth ; and to unbe- 
 lieving anxiety — dissatisfaction with what is present, distrust as 
 to what is future. 
 
 Numerous powerful motives to the repressing of covetous- 
 
 1 ret TTxpovrx. " Facultates quae ad vitae usum utut parvse prsesto sunt — 
 natura paucis contenta." — Carpz. 
 
 2 Phil. iv. 11, 12. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 231 
 
 ness and the cultivation of contentment might be brought for- 
 ward, but the Apostle confines himself to one ; but that one is 
 a most cogent and persuasive one : " For He hath said, I will 
 never leave thee, nor forsake thee."^ The passage quoted is a 
 promise made to Joshua, on his being intrusted with the great 
 work of bringing in God's chosen people into the inheritance of 
 the Gentiles, Josh. i. 5. Similar promises are to be found in 
 various parts of the Old Testament. These words have a direct 
 reference to Joshua, but they lay a foundation for the faith of 
 every saint. God stands in the same relation to all His people. 
 The promise here quoted was really made to Joshua alone ; but 
 the Apostle argues on the obviously fair principle, that the un- 
 changeable God will do like things in like cases. God 2:)romised 
 to be constantly with Joshua amid all the difficulties and trials 
 of his situation ; and He will be with His people in every age, 
 in all their difficulties and trials. 
 
 There is something peculiarly emphatic in the way in which 
 he introduces the motive : " For He hath said." It is some- 
 what similar to — " We know Tlini that has said," ch. x. 30. It 
 is more emphatic than if it had been said — ' God hath said.' He 
 has said ; and His power is omnipotent, and His wisdom un- 
 searchable, and His faithfulness inviolable. " He is not a man, 
 that He should lie ; neither the son of man, that He should 
 repent : hath He said, and shall He not do it ? or hath lie 
 spoken, and shall He not make it good ? " And if He be with 
 us — if infinite power be our defence, and infinite wisdom our 
 guide, and infinite love and excellence our portion — what need 
 of covetousness, what ground of contentment ! What would we 
 have more than Divinity with us ? What is all the wealth, and 
 honour, and pleasure of the world, if He is not with us t If He 
 leave us, what matters it what is left behind ; and if He does not 
 leave us, wdiat matters who or what forsake us 1 Well may we 
 without anxiety, and with sweet inward satisfaction, pass through 
 floods and fires if He is with us. The one will not drown, the 
 other will not consume us. "The floods will not overwhelm, 
 the fires will not kindle on us." Yea, when we walk through 
 the shadow of death, we need fear no evil ; for still lie is with 
 us ; His staff and His rod they will sustain us. 
 
 ^ This is perhaps the strongest negation in the Bible. There are five 
 negative particles : oii ^^ — ovV ov f^*}. 
 
232 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 " So that "WE may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I 
 will not fear what man shall do to me." If He has said, I will, 
 never leave, WE may well say, A^'liat shall man do. The quota- 
 tion here is from Ps. cxviii. 6. The best commentary on these 
 w^ordis to be fomid in the 8th chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans : " If God be for us, who can be against us ? He that 
 spared not His o^Yn Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how 
 shall He not with Him also freely give us all things I Who shall 
 lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justi- 
 fieth ; who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea 
 rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, 
 who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from 
 the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, 
 or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? (as it is written, For 
 Thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are accounted as 
 sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more 
 than conquerors through Him that loved us. For 1 am per- 
 suaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
 nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
 nor depth, nor any other creatm'e, shall be able to separate us 
 from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."^ " If 
 God be for us, who can be against us ?" God is for us, for He has 
 not spared His Son ; and He will continue for ever to be for us, 
 for nothing can separate us from His love. What abundant 
 consolation, what strong support, have Christians amid the evils 
 of life ! and how shameful is it when they allow either the hope 
 of worldly good things, or the fear of worldly evils, so to influence 
 their minds as to induce them to act a part inconsistent with 
 their obligations to Him who has said, " I will never leave thee, 
 I will never forsake thee !" Surely we should be ready to 
 say. We will never leave Him, we will never forsake Him. 
 But we must look to Him to enable us to form and to keep this 
 resolution ; for it is only by His not forsaking us that we can 
 be secured from not forsaking Him. 
 
 The great design of the Apostle in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, as I have frequently had occasion to remark since I 
 connnenced its exposition, is to fortify those to whom it is ad- 
 dressed against the numerous and powerful temptations to 
 apostasy to which they were exposed, and to induce them to 
 1 Eom. viii. 31-39. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 233 
 
 continue " stedfast and unrnoveablc" in the faith of the truth 
 as it is in Jesus, in the profession of that faith, and in the 
 performance of the duties which rise out of that faith and 
 profession. This leading object is scarcely ever for a moment 
 lost sight of by the inspired writer. Everything of tlie nature 
 of statement, argument, or motive throughout the Epistle^ will 
 be found to bear more or less directly on this point ; and almost 
 everything of the nature of injunction or exhortation will be 
 found to have for its object, either directly the persevering faith 
 and profession and practice of Christianity, or something that is 
 fitted instrumentally to promote, to secure this persevering faith 
 and profession and practice. 
 
 Among the motives which the Apostle employs, those derived 
 from example hold a conspicuous place. The whole of the 
 11th chapter consists of a most persuasive recommendation of 
 persevering faitli, from the achievements it had enabled holy 
 men under a former dispensation to perform, the trials it had 
 enabled them to sustain, and the attainments it had enabled 
 them to realize. In the passage before us, he brings the motive 
 derived from example to bear on the minds of his readers in 
 another, and, if possible, a still more impressive form. He 
 brings before their mind the faithfulness even unto the death 
 of those venerable men who in former years had presided 
 among them, and calls upon them to go and do likewise. 
 
 Ver. 7. " Remember them which have the rule over you, 
 who have spoken unto you the word of God ; whose faith 
 follow, considering the end of their conversation." To a careful 
 reader of this passage, it must be plain that it refers, not to the 
 present, but to the former, not to the living, but to the dead 
 rulers of the Hebrew Church. The "conversation" or life of 
 the persons spoken of had come to an end, and they were thus 
 the proper objects of remembrance. In this case it would have 
 been better to have rendered the words translated " them who 
 have the rule over you" — a phrase which describes living 
 pastors — simply, "your rulers,"^ — an expression which merely 
 designates the office, without fixing anything as to whether they 
 now filled it or had formerly filled it. 
 
 To understand the divine injunction contained in this verse, 
 it will be proper that we consider, first, the description here 
 
234 EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 given us of the persons in reference to whom a variety of duties 
 are enjoined on the Hebrew Christians ; and then, that we 
 attend to these various duties that are enjoined in reference to 
 these persons. 
 
 The persons in reference to whom the Apostle speaks, are 
 described as their rulers, and as having spoken to them the 
 word of God. There can be no doubt that the persons referred 
 to were the pastors, or elders, or bishops of the Hebrew Church. 
 These pastors are represented as at once rulers and teachers. In 
 every orderly society there must be rulers ; and our Lord Jesus, 
 who is not the author of confusion, but of peace, in all the 
 churches of the saints, among the gifts which He has bestowed 
 on these churches, has included " governments," or rulers. The 
 pastors, or bishops, or elders of the primitive Church had no 
 arbitrary power over their brethren. The command of our 
 Lord to the primitive rulers of His Church was, " Be not ye 
 called masters ;" and His command equally to the pastors and 
 to the flock was, " Call no man master on earth." " The 
 princes of the Gentiles," said our one Master in heaven, " exer- 
 cise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise au- 
 thority upon them ; but it shall not be so with you." ^ But though 
 they had no arbitrary power, they yet bare rule. Chosen by 
 their brethren, they presided in their assemblies ; they declared 
 the will and executed the laws of the supreme and sole King of 
 the Church ; they reproved, they rebuked, they exhorted with 
 all authority. They enjoined the believers to '"' observe all things 
 whatsoever Christ had commanded them ;" they reproved theni 
 when they neglected or violated His laws ; and when any indi- 
 vidual was obstinate and impenitent in transgression, they ex- 
 cluded them from the communion of the faithful. Li all this 
 they exercised no legislative authority : they had no power to 
 enjoin new laws, to institute new ordinances, to invent new 
 terms of communion. Their authority was entirely subordinate 
 to the authority of Christ. Yet, within the limits He prescribed 
 to them, they were rulers ; and it was the duty of the brethren, 
 who had chosen these pastors to be over them in the Lord, to 
 obey them, and submit themselves to them. 
 
 There never has been any change introduced by Him who 
 alone has the power of alteration in such a case, into the con- 
 • Matt. XX. 25. 
 
PART. II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTxVTIOXS. 235 
 
 stitution of His Church ; and it is of equal importance that tlie 
 office-bearers in a church should not aspire to a higher degree 
 of authority, and should not be content with a lower degree of 
 authority, than that which their Master has assigned them ; 
 and that the members of a church should equally guard against 
 basely submitting to a tyranny which Christ has never instituted, 
 and lawlessly rebelling against a government which He has ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 These pastors are represented as not only rulers, but as 
 teachers. They " spoke the word of God" to them. Indeed, 
 it was in a great measure as teachers that they were rulers and 
 guides. They ruled and guided their brethren by declaring to 
 them the will of God, and bringing to bear on their consciences 
 the numerous and powerful motives which urge them to yield 
 obedience to it. It does not seem that, in the primitive age, rulers 
 were uniformly teachers. The Apostle speaks of " the elders 
 who rule well, especially those who labour in word and in doc- 
 trine ;" which seems to indicate that there were elders who 
 ruled, and who ruled well, who yet did not labour in word and 
 in doctrine. And this is our scriptural authority for that class 
 of church officers commonly, though absurdly, called ' lay elders^ 
 The terms, ' clergy' and ' laity,' are not scriptural terms, and the 
 ideas they are intended to express are not sci'iptural ideas. If 
 the term, ' clerical,' or ' clergy,' be equivalent to — ' vested with 
 ecclesiastical office' — elected and ordained to rule in Christ's 
 Church (and this is the least objectionable sense which can be 
 given to tlie term) — the elders who only rule are as really clerical 
 as the elders who both rule and teach. The individuals referred 
 to by the Apostle, however, were obviously among those who 
 both ruled and laboured in word and doctrine. 
 
 The manner in Avhich the Apostle describes this last and 
 most important part of their duty deserves our attention. 
 " They spoke the word of God." They made plain to their 
 brethren the meaning and evidence of the divinely inspired re- 
 velation of the will of God. It is very possible some of the 
 persons referred to were inspired men ; but the description is 
 perfectly applicable to the duty of Christian teachers in all 
 countries and ages, though uninspired. Their great business 
 is just to " speak the word of God." The more Christian 
 teachers realize this description in their mode of teaching, the 
 
236 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 more good are they likely to do. We who are teachers are in 
 danger of indulging too much in speculations of our own about 
 the things which are the subjects of the word of God ; and those 
 who are hearers are in danger of being so pleased with the ex- 
 ercise which this species of teaching gives to the imaginative and 
 reasoning powers, as to consider it as the best species of teaching. 
 But, in truth, it is only in the degree in which we " speak the 
 word of God" — in which we clearly exhibit its meaning and 
 evidence, in which we bring man's mind into contact with God's 
 mind — that we discharge our duty to our Master, or promote 
 the real sjDiritual imj)rovement of our hearers. To have made 
 a single doctrinal statement of Scripture better understood 
 and more firmly believed — to have made a man in his con- 
 science feel more strongly the obligation of a single religious 
 or moral duty — is in reality doing more solid good than sending 
 away an audience delighted and astonished with the ingenuity 
 of the preacher's speculations, the force of his reasoning, the 
 splendour of his imagery, and the resistless force of his elo- 
 quence. To "speak the word of God" is the grand duty of 
 the Christian teacher. Such are the persons in reference to 
 whom the Apostle enjoins a variety of duties — the deceased 
 pastors of the Plebrew Church, men who had ruled them and 
 spoken the word of God to them. 
 
 The duties he enjoins in reference to them are the follow- 
 ing : They were to " remem-ber" them ; they were to " follow 
 their faith ;" they were to " consider the end of their conversa- 
 tion." 
 
 The Christian Hebrews were to " remember" their pastors 
 who had guided and taught them ; i.e., they were not to forget 
 them, they were often to think of them, to recall to mind the 
 wholesome instructions they had given them, and the holy ex- 
 ample they had set before them. It is not one of the credit- 
 able points in the character of human nature that we are so apt 
 to consign to oblivion those to whom we have been deeply in- 
 debted. This tendency operates in reference to deceased pastors 
 as well as other benefactors. He who consults his own spiritual 
 improvement will guard against it. We are so constituted that 
 religious truth makes a deeper impression on us, and a holy ex- 
 ample exercises a more powerful influence on us, when the one 
 is stated and the other exhibited by an individual to whom we 
 
PART II. § 2.] rAETICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 237 
 
 are closely connected, and whom we personally esteem and love ; 
 and if we do not give way to an ungrateful forgetfulness, the 
 circumstance of that individual being no more on earth, instead 
 of diminishing, will increase that impression and influence. In 
 this way departed friends, and especially departed pastors, will 
 promote the spiritual improvement of those with Avhom they 
 were connected long after their death. 
 
 While the Apostle exhorts them generally to remember with 
 affectionate gratitude their departed pastors, he particularly 
 urges them to " follow their faith." It is not very easv to fix 
 the precise import of these words. " Faith," as I have often 
 had occasion to state, usually signifies one of two things : either 
 that act or state of mind which we term believing, or that which 
 is the object of the mind in that state or act, i.(?., the thing 
 believed. It also sometimes signifies the virtue of fidelit}^, or 
 faithfulness. 
 
 Understanding the word in the first sense, the meaning is, 
 ^ Your departed teachers were eminent believers. They were 
 strong in faith, and thus gave glory to God. They remained 
 unshaken in their belief of the doctrines of Christ, and did not 
 yield to the impulses of the evil heart of unbelief. Follow 
 them. Be ye also strong in faith. Let nothing shake your 
 conviction, that in having received the Gospel, you have not 
 followed a cunningly devised fable ; but that it is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation, the very truth most sure.' 
 
 Understanding the word in the second sense, the meaning 
 is, ' There are many diverse and strange doctrines now taught 
 you ; beware of giving heed to them. Do not change your 
 creed ; hold by the belief of your deceased pastors ; follow their 
 faith. They were, many of them, inspired men, who spake to 
 you as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The doctrine 
 they taught you was the true doctrine of Christ, and they gave 
 you the fullest evidence of this. Do not be carried away by 
 the pretences of these innovators. Recollect your original in- 
 structors ; and hold fast the form of sound words which ye have 
 learned of them, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.' 
 
 Understanding the word " faith " in the last sense, as equi- 
 valent to ' fidelity,' the meaning is, ' Your departed teachers 
 continued stedfast in the faith, and profession, and practice of 
 Christianity till the close of their life. They were faithful to 
 
238 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 their great Master — faithful even to death. Imitate their 
 fidelity. Be followers of them, as they were of Christ.' 
 
 In whichever of these senses you understand the words, they 
 convey an important and appropriate meaning. I confess that 
 I find it difficult to determine which is the preferable mode of in- 
 terpretation. I hesitate between the second and the third. When 
 I consider the injunction as connected with that contained in 
 the 9th verse, I am disposed to prefer the second : ' Hold fast 
 the faith of your primitive and inspired instructors, now with 
 God, and do not adopt the diverse and strange doctrines which 
 are pressed upon you by new and self-appointed teachers.' 
 When I look at it in its connection with the clause to which 
 it is immediately attached — " considering the end of their con- 
 versation" — I am disposed to prefer the third : ' Reflecting on the 
 manner in which they finished their course. Be imitators of 
 their fidelity.' 
 
 The third duty which the Apostle enjoins on the Christian 
 Hebrews in reference to their departed pastors, is the considera- 
 tion of " the end of their conversation." " Conversation " here 
 is just equivalent to — 'manner of life:' their sentiments, affec- 
 tions, and habits as Christians. " The end of their conversation" 
 is the result, the termination — or, to use rather a familiar, but 
 still a veiy expressive word, the ujyshot, of their Christian course. 
 These good men continued faithful to the death, and died in the 
 faith of Christ, and the hope of eternal life in Him. Some of 
 them, like Stephen and Jarnes the brother of John, suffered 
 martyrdom, but they were " more than conquerors through Him 
 that loved them." The dying scenes of such men were well 
 fitted to confirm the faith of their surviving brethren. When 
 the Christians returned from witnessing Stephen's martyrdom, 
 must they not have said within themselves, ' Jesus Christ is well 
 worth dying for !' and, instead of fearing, must they not rather 
 have coveted a similar end to their conversation ? When mini- 
 sters on their deathbed are enabled to exhibit an example of the 
 power of the faith of the Gospel to sustain and console the mind, 
 amid exanimating sickness and agonizing pain, and in the pros- 
 pect of the awful solemnities of judgment, and the untried 
 realities of an eternal and unchangeable state, it is very much 
 fitted to operate as a motive on their people to imitate at once 
 their faith and their fidelity. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 239 
 
 I am rather disposed to think that the phrase, " end of their 
 conversation," looks beyond death into the unseen world. The 
 Apostle's exhortation seems to be, ' Consider not only how their 
 com'se closed in this world, but consider in what it has termi- 
 nated in a future world.' He seems to turn their mind to the 
 same glorious scene which was presented to the mental view of 
 John the divine. He as it were bids them contemplate their 
 departed pastors " standing before the throne, and before the 
 Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and 
 crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God, that sitteth on 
 the throne, and to the Lamb ;" and says to them, ' These are 
 those who had the rule over you, and who spoke to you the word 
 of God. They have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and 
 by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives 
 to the death. " They have come out of great tribulation, and 
 have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of 
 the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and 
 serve Him day and night in His temple. And He that sitteth 
 on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no 
 more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on 
 them, nor any heat ; for the Lamb, who is in the midst of the 
 throne, shall feed them, and lead them to fountains of living 
 water ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
 This is the end of their conversation. Faithful unto death, 
 they have obtained a crown of life.' The consideration of the 
 state of glory and blessedness into which their departed faithful 
 pastors had entered, was certainly very well fitted to induce 
 the Hebrew Christians to hold fast their faith, and to emulate 
 their faithfulness. 
 
 To this exhortation to remember their departed pastors, and 
 especially so to consider the termination of their Christian course 
 as to imitate their faith and fidelity, the Apostle subjoins the 
 emphatic words, " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, 
 and for ever." One is almost tempted to suspect that these 
 words have fallen out of their proper place. They wo\dd come 
 in well between the 5th and Gth verses. But this conjcctm'e is 
 unsupported by external evidence, and therefore cannot be en- 
 tertained. 
 
 These words are obviously elliptical. The ellipsis may 1)c 
 supplied in two ways : Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, 
 
240 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 to-day, and for ever :' or, ' Let Jesus Christ be the same yes- 
 terday, to-day, and for ever.' Understanding the words as an 
 assertion, the meaning is not, I apprehend, ' Jesus Christ is the 
 unchangeable Jehovah,' though that is a truth, and an infi- 
 nitely important one ; but, ' Jesus Christ never changes ;' i.e.^ 
 either, ' His mind, as that mind has been made known to you 
 by your inspired teachers, who are now with Him, can never 
 change, so that any new doctrine brought to you under His 
 name must be false. Men's opinions are constantly changing, 
 but Jesus Christ is " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," 
 — His doctrines are invariable.' Or, ' He ever lives ; and His 
 affection and care of His people are unchanged and unchange- 
 able. Yom' most valuable pastors must die, but He ever lives ; 
 and He ever lives to protect and bless those who put their confi- 
 dence in Him.' 
 
 I am disposed to understand the words rather as an exhorta- 
 tion than as a statement. The same reasons which led me to 
 consider the fourth verse as an exhortation, influence me in 
 taking a similar view of the verse now before us. It stands in 
 the midst of exhortations, a number of which are expressed in 
 the same elliptical manner. ' Let Jesus Christ be the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever ;' i.e., let Him be the same to 
 you. He is the same in Himself ; His person is as certainly 
 divine. His doctrine is as true. His promises are as trustworthy. 
 His laws as wise and good, as ever they were. You have em- 
 braced Him as your Saviour, and your Teacher, and your Lord. 
 Why should you abandon Him ? He really is what your pas- 
 tors, now with the Lord, represented Him to be, and what you, 
 belie^-ing then- representations, have acknowledged Him to be. 
 By your steady adherence to Him in all His characters, make 
 it plain that to you, in yom* estimation. He is " the same yes- 
 terday, to-day, and for ever." 
 
 The exhortation which follows naturally rises out of this. 
 Yer. 9. " Be not carried about with divers and strange doc- 
 trines : for it is a good thing that the heart be estabhshed with 
 grace ; not with meats, which have not profited them that have 
 been occupied therein." 
 
 " Divers doctrines" are doctrines different from the doc- 
 trines of pure Christianity ; " strange doctrines" are doctrines 
 foreign to, alien from, these doctrines. '• To be carried about," 
 
PART ir. § 2.] PARTICULAR ESHOETATIONS. 241 
 
 or carried hither and thither, by these doctrines, is to have the 
 mind brought into an unsettled state, which naturally produces 
 a corresponding unsteadiness of conduct. The doctrines spoken 
 of by the Apostle, as is plain from what follows, referred to 
 the Jewish doctrines respecting clean or unclean meats, accord- 
 ing as they were or were not to be offered on the altar ; and pro- 
 bably he has in view the attempt, which was very early made, to 
 connect Judaism with Christianity. 
 
 " For it is a good thing that the heart be established with 
 grace ; not with meats, which have not profited them that have 
 been occupied therein." " To have the heart established," is a 
 Jewish phrase, directly referring to the effect of food in produc- 
 ing refreshment, and used as equivalent to — * to obtain real satis- 
 faction.' The Apostle's sentiment is this : ' Grace — i.e., the free 
 favour of God to sinners, as revealed in the Gospel — ' is far 
 more fitted to give solid, permanent satisfaction to the mind and 
 heart, than a superstitious regard to distinction of meats.' The 
 man who understands and believes the truth with regard to the 
 grace of God bringing salvation, walks at liberty, keeping God's 
 commandments, is taught to " deny ungodliness and worldly 
 lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
 world ;" but the man who is fettered with notions that this 
 species of food is lawful and that unlawful, — that the first may 
 be safely eaten, but that the other must be avoided, under the 
 penalty of incurring God's displeasure, — has his mind occupied 
 with trifles, which lead away from the great fundamental duties 
 of piety and virtue, and, having no solid ground of hope towards 
 God, can have no settled or rational tranquillity of mind. 
 
 The Apostle adds, what indeed to us must be vciy obvious, 
 that " they who have occupied themselves with these things 
 had not been profited." Every deviation from the purity of 
 primitive truth, and from the simplicity of primitive usage, must 
 be hmlful to those who indulge in it. The advice contained in 
 these words, though having a peculiar reference to the circum- 
 stances of the Hebrew Christians, is full of impoi'tant instruc- 
 tion to us. For more than a hundred years the Church in this 
 country has not been so much harassed as of late with " divers 
 and strange doctrines." ^ Had the description been [^meant for 
 
 ^ This was originally written in 1830, when what wore called the Row 
 heresies were exciting very general attention. — Ed. 
 
 VOL. II. Q 
 
242 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 those dogmas wliich have been, and are still, so sedulously incul- 
 cated, it could not have been more appropriate. The doctrines of 
 the sinfulness of our Lord's human nature, of universal pardon, 
 and of the identity of the faith of the Gospel with an assm-ance of 
 personal salvation, are certainly " divers and strange doctrines ;" 
 and the duty of Christians in general in reference to them, is 
 very distinctly stated in the passage before us. They are not 
 to be " carried about" by them ; they are not to be tossed to 
 and fro with these words of doctrine. They will " not profit 
 those who occupy themselves therewith." 
 
 It is a fact as honourable to Christianity as disgi'aceful to 
 human nature, that the difficulty with wdiich that religion has 
 hitherto made its way in our world has been owing, not to its 
 faults, but to its excellences ; and that those qualities which 
 chiefly recommend it to the admiration of the higher and un- 
 corrupted orders of intelligent beings, as " the manifold wisdom 
 of God," ai-e the very qualities which have excited the contempt 
 and loathing, the neglect and opposition of mankind, and led 
 the great majority of those in every age to wdiom its claims have 
 been addressed, to consider it as absolute foolishness. Purity, 
 simplicity, and spirituality are the leading features of Christian- 
 ity ; and it is because it is pure, and simple, and spiritual that 
 it is so much admired in heaven, and so much despised on earth — 
 that holy angels " desire to look into" it, and that depraved men 
 " make light'of it." 
 
 The fondness of man for what is material in relimon, and 
 his disrelish of wdiat is spiritual, is strikingly illustrated in the 
 extreme difficulty which was experienced by the primitive 
 teachers of Christianity in weaning the Jews, even such of them 
 as by profession had embraced the Gospel, from their excessive 
 attachment to a system which had so much in it to strike the 
 senses as Judaism. The manner in which these inspired men 
 laboured to attain this end, discovers " the wisdom from above" 
 by which they were guided. They showed the Jews, whether 
 converted or unconverted, that everything that was excellent 
 under the former economy had a counterpart under the new 
 order of things still more excellent ; that the spiritual reality 
 was far better than the material shadow ; and that Avhat was 
 glorious had now no glory, " by reason of the glory that excel- 
 leth." They showed them, that if we Christians have no visible, 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 243 
 
 material manifestation of the divine gloiy on earth, towards 
 which we bodily draw near when we worship, we have the 
 spiritual Divinity in heaven, to whom in spirit we approach, in 
 exercises which employ our highest faculties, and interest our 
 best affections ; that, if we have no splendid temple like that of 
 Jerusalem, within whose sacred precincts acceptable homage can 
 be presented to Jehovah, we have access to the omnipresent God 
 at all times, and in all circumstances ; that, if we have no order 
 of priests like that of Aaron to transact our business with God, 
 we have, in the person of the incarnate Son of God, " a great 
 High Priest," who has by tlie sacrifice of Himself expiated our 
 sins, and who " ever lives to make intercession for us." 
 
 In the passage which comes now before us for explication, 
 we find the Apostle applying this mode of reasoning to the sub- 
 ject of sacred meats, on which the Jews seem to have valued 
 themselves. Of many of the offerings which w^ere laid on the 
 altar of Jehovah part only was consumed, and the rest reserved 
 as food, either for the priests, or for the offerer and his guests. 
 This food was considered as peculiarly sacred, and the eating of it 
 viewed as an important religious privilege. In the verse which 
 immediately precedes the passage for exposition, the Apostle, in 
 reference to these sacred meats, had said in effect, ' The grace 
 of God — the free favour of God to sinners, manifested in the 
 Gospel — understood and believed, will do the heart more good 
 than the use of any kind of food, however sacred.' And in the 
 paragraph, on the illustration of which I am about to enter, 
 he shows that Christians had a species of spiritual sacred food, 
 far more holy than any which the Jewish people, or even the 
 Aaronical priestliood, were permitted to taste. 
 
 Vers. 10-12. " We have an altar, whereof they have no right 
 to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those 
 beasts, wdiose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high 
 priest for sin, are burnt without the camp. Wherefore Jesus 
 also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suf- 
 fered without the gate." I shall endeavour first to explain the 
 meaning of these words, and then illustrate the general senti- 
 ment which they express. 
 
 Before doing this, however, I sluill rpiote Tholuck's beautiful 
 sketch of the Apostle's train of thought : — " The asyndeton gives 
 greater emphasis to the thought. The reference to what precedes 
 
244 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 is tins : ' If ye would indeed hold by ^pcofiara, or meats, ye have 
 surely far more excellent jSpco/jLara, or meats, in Christianity than 
 in Judaism.' The thought contained in the image that Christians 
 have a higher altar, leads first of all to the idea, that Jesus, as the 
 great sacrifice of atonement, is the true /Spwfjba, or meat, of the 
 faithful. The sacrifice of Christ naturally suggests the idea of 
 His suiferings. Then comes the thought, we should be the com- 
 panions of His sufferings, and even for His sake go out of the 
 city, the emblem of this earthly existence, and endure a death 
 like flis, of pain and shame. And then comes the additional 
 thought, that as Christ is the true sacrifice, all our sacrifices are 
 of a figurative and spiritual kind, — no longer sin-offerings and 
 expiatory sacrifices, but simply sacrifices of praise ; and these 
 are not to consist merely in words, but also in good works. Such 
 is the brilliant chain of thought from ver. 10 to ver. 16." 
 
 It is quite plain that the language in the 10th verse is ellip- 
 tical. Nor is it difficult to supply the ellipsis : " We" — i.e., we 
 Christians as opposed to Jews — " w^e have an altar, of which 
 we have a right to eat, but of which they who serve the taber- 
 nacle have no right to eat." By " the altar" we are either to 
 understand the sacrifice laid on the altar, or, what comes to 
 the same thing, the phrase, " to eat of," or from,, " the altar," 
 is to be understood as meaning, to eat of the sacred food which 
 had been offered on the altar. " Those who serve the taber- 
 nacle," or rather, ' those who minister in the tabernacle,' are, I 
 apprehend, the Levitical priesthood. There were, as we have 
 already remarked, certain sacrifices of which the offerer and his 
 friends were allowed to eat a part ; and of by far the greater 
 number of sacrifices a considerable portion was assigned to the 
 priests.^ But there w^as a class of offerings of which the priest 
 was nt)t allowed to appropriate the smallest part to himself : the 
 animal was considered as entirely devoted to God, and was 
 wholly burnt with fire, either on the altar, or in a clean place 
 without the camp, while Israel w^as in the wilderness, and with- 
 out the city, after the erection of the temple at Jerusalem.^ 
 
 Now it appears to me that the Apostle says, ' We Christians 
 are allowed to feast — spiritually, of course — on a sacrifice belong- 
 
 ^ Lev. vi. 26 ; Num. xviii. 9, 10 ; Ijev. vii. oi ; Num. vi. 19 ; Lev. vii. 
 15, xix. 6. 
 J Lev. xvi. U-16, 27 ; iv. 3-12. 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAE EXHORTATIONS. 245 
 
 iniT to that class of Avhich.not onlj no ordinary Israelite, but no 
 priest, was under the law allowed to taste.' The sacrifice re- 
 ferred to is plainly the sacrifice which our Lord, as our j]i;reat 
 High Priest, offered up once for all, even the sacrifice of Him- 
 self. Of the class of sacrifices to which the Apostle refers, and 
 which AA^as not a large class, the sacrifice for the sins of the 
 people on the great day of atonement was the most remarkable ; 
 and I think there can be no doubt that this sacrifice was directly 
 in his view when he made the statement which we are consider- 
 ing. That sacrifice was not to be used as food : the blood was to 
 be brought into the holy place, which is here equivalent to the 
 holy of holies ; and after certain portions had been burnt on 
 the altar, all the rest was to be taken without the camp, or with- 
 out the city, and there burnt to ashes. Instead of being allowed 
 to be eaten, it was considered as entirely a devoted thing ; and 
 he that touched it was not permitted to mingle with the congre- 
 gation of Israel till he had submitted to certain lustratory rites. 
 Now the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus belongs to this class. When 
 He suffered, it was that by the shedding of His blood " He 
 might sanctify the people ;" i.e., expiate the sins of the spiritual 
 Israel of God, and fit them for acceptable spiritual intercourse 
 with God. His sacrifice was a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins 
 of all His people, answering to the sacrifice for the sins of all 
 Israel on the great day of atonement. And that our Lord's 
 sacrifice was of this character, was marked by His suffering 
 death without the gates of Jerusalem, as the bodies of the vic- 
 tims offered for the sins of the Israelitish people were consumed 
 withovit the camp, or without the city. ^Maimonides says. What 
 originally was not laAvful to be done in the camp, it was after- 
 wards unlawful to do in the city. 
 
 The sacrifice of Christ plainly, then, belongs to that class of 
 sacrifices of which not only the Israelites generally, but the 
 priests, ay, even the high priest, were forbidden to participate. 
 We Christians are permitted spiritually to feast on this sacri- 
 fice — to " eat the flesh and to drink the blood of the Son of 
 man." We arc allowed to feed on the sacrifice offered up for 
 our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole 
 people of God. And we thus have a far higher privilege in- 
 reference to sacred food, not merely than the Israelites, but even- 
 than the priests themselves enjoyed. Such seems to me the 
 
246 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 general meaning of the j)assage. The meaning of the Apostle 
 does not seem to be, as some have supposed, ' We Christians 
 have an altar' — meaning the Lord's table — ' to which no Jew, 
 continuing to practise the rites of Judaism, can be admitted ;' 
 nor, ' We have a sacrifice on which we spiritually feed, but of 
 which no Jew, continuing to practise the rites of Judaism, can 
 participate ;' but, ' We Christians are allowed to feed on the 
 propitiatory sacrifice for our own sins, the sins of the people of 
 God, which even the priests under the Old Testament economy 
 were not permitted to do.' 
 
 Thus it appears that these words contain a statement, and a 
 proof of that statement. The statement is, ' We Christians, 
 Avith regard to sacred food, have higher privileges, not only 
 than the Jews, but even than the Jewish priests. We are 
 allowed to feast on a sacrifice of the highest and holiest kind, 
 which they were not.' The proof is, ' The highest and holiest 
 kind of sacrifice Avas that which was offered on the great day of 
 atonement for the sins of the people of God. Of that sacrifice 
 even the priests were not permitted to eat. The blood was 
 brought into the holy place, and what was not burnt on the 
 altar was consumed Avithout the camp, or without the city. The 
 sacrifice of Jesus Christ was a sacrifice of this highest and 
 holiest kind. It was a sacrifice for sin — it Avas a sacrifice for the 
 sins of the Avhole spiritual people of God ; and to mark it as the 
 antitype of the sacrifice for sin on the great day of atonement, 
 He suffered Avithout the gates of Jerusalem. On this sacrifice 
 we Christians are permitted to feed. We eat the flesh and we 
 drink the blood of the Son of man, offered in sacrifice for our 
 sins.' The conclusion is direct and inevitable : ' We Christians 
 haA'e higher privileges in reference to sacred food, not merely 
 than the Jews, but than the JeAvish priests. We haA-e an altar 
 of Avhich they have no right to eat Avho serve the tabernacle.' 
 
 HaAing thus endeavoured to ascertain the meaning of the 
 Apostle's Avords, let us proceed to illustrate the sentiment Avhich 
 they contain. Fully to perceiA^e the meaning and design of this 
 statement, thus most satisfactorily proA'ed, it Avill be necessary to 
 inquire into the nature and value of the privilege of the Jews 
 and the JeAvish priests in feeding on sacrifices ; then to inquire 
 into the nature and value of the privilege of Christians in 
 feeding spiritually on the sacrifice of Christ ; and then, by a 
 
PAKT II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 247 
 
 compai'ison of these, to evince the superiority of tlie latter to the 
 former. 
 
 With regard to the privilege of the Jews and the Jewish 
 priests, it is quite plain, Avhatever superstitious notions might 
 be entertained by them, that tlie flesh which had been offered 
 in sacrifice was not better as food than any other flesh of the 
 same quality, and that the mere eating it could be of no spiritual 
 advantage to the individual; just as, whatever superstitious 
 notions may be entertained respecting the bread and wine in 
 the Lord's Supper, they have no qualities as bodily nourish- 
 ment different from common bread and wine, and the mere 
 eating the one and drinking the other can communicate no 
 spiritual benefit. Sacrifice was emblematical, and feasting on 
 sacrifice was emblematical also. Eating the flesh of the sacri- 
 fice was, I apprehend, emblematical of two things, or perhaps, 
 to speak more accurately, of two aspects of the same thing. 
 Eating of the sacrifice was a natural emblem of deriving from 
 the sacrifice the advantages it was intended to secure — expiation 
 of ceremonial guilt, removal of ceremonial pollution, and access 
 to the external ordinances of the tabernacle and temple wor- 
 ship. As the altar is in Scripture represented as God's table — 
 Mai. i. 7 ; Ps. I. 12, 13 ; Ezek. xxxix. 20, xli. 22— eating of the 
 sacrifice is emblematical of being in a state of reconciliation 
 with God : sitting at His table, and eating of the sacrifice which 
 liad been presented to Him, interested in the blessings promised, 
 and secured from the evils threatened, in the Old Covenant. 
 This, wdiatever extravagant notions the Jews might entertain 
 on the subject, seems to have been the true nature and value of 
 the privilege of feeding on sacrifices. 
 
 Now let us inquire into the nature and value of the privilege 
 enjoyed by Christians. They "eat the flesh and drink the 
 blood of the Son of man," who gave Himself a sacrifice and an 
 oifering in the room of His people. I need scarcely say the 
 language is figurative ; that eating and drinking are not to be 
 understood literally, but spiritually. But what is meant by 
 spiritually feeding on the sacrifice of Christ — spiritually eating 
 His flesh and drinking His blood ? It is, in plain words, our 
 deriving from the sacrifice of Christ the blessings which it is 
 intended and calculated to obtain. This we do by the belief of 
 the truth respecting this sacrifice. Believing that truth, we 
 
248 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 have the forgiveness of our sins, the sanctification of our na- 
 tures, and spiritual favourable intercourse with God as onr 
 reconciled Father. We have in Him the redemption that is 
 through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins ; we are washed 
 and sanctified ; we have access with boldness to the throne of 
 grace. We have not merely the emblems of these in the Lord's 
 Supper, but in the faith of the truth of the Gospel respecting 
 the sacrifice of Christ we have these invaluable blessino-s tliem- 
 selves; and seated spiritually at the table of a reconciled Divinity, 
 we feast along with Him. That which satisfied His justice, 
 magnified His law, glorified all His perfections, and gave Him 
 perfect satisfaction, is that Avhich quiets our conscience, trans- 
 forms our nature, rejoices our heart. We find enjoyment in 
 that in whicli He finds enjoyment : " our fellowship is with the 
 Father." We hear Him saying, as it were, in reference to the 
 sacrifice of His Son, ' I am fully satisfied ; ' and our souls echo 
 back, ' So are we.' He says, " This is My Son, in whom I am 
 well pleased ; " and we reply, ' This is our Saviour, and He is 
 all our salvation and all our desire.' 
 
 It will not require many words to show the superiority, the 
 infinite superiority, of the privilege of the Christian as to sacred 
 food, above that of the Jewish people, and even of the Jewish 
 priests. They had merely, in eating the sacrifices, the emblem 
 of blessings ; we, in spiritually feeding on the sacrifice of Christ, 
 have the blessings themselves. They had but the emblems 
 of expiation, and forgiveness, and purification, and fellowship 
 with God; we have expiation, and forgiveness, and purifica- 
 tion, and fellowship with God. But this is by no means all. 
 The blessings of which, in eating the sacrifices, they enjoyed 
 the emblems, were of a kind far inferior to the blessings of 
 which we, in eating spiritually the sacrifice of Christ, actually 
 participate. What is expiation and forgiveness of ceremonial 
 guilt to the expiation and forgiveness of moral guilt ? What is 
 external purification to inward sanctification ? What is external 
 communion to spiritual fellowship ? Nor is even this all. The 
 circumstance that it was but a part of the sacrifice that was set 
 before them that they were allowed to eat of, probably intimated 
 — and the circumstance that there were certain sacrifices, and 
 those of the most solemn and sacred nature, of which they 
 were not permitted to participate at all, certainly intimated — 
 
PART II. § 2.] PARTICULAR EXHORTATIONS. 249 
 
 that complete atonement had not been made for them, and tliat 
 God and the worshipper were not yet altogether at peace ; 
 whereas we, in the faith of the truth, are permitted to feast on 
 the whole sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We not only eat Ilis flesh, 
 but we do what none of the priests durst do with regard to any 
 of the sacrifices, we drink His blood. We enjoy the full mea- 
 sure of benefit which His sacrifice was designed to secure. We 
 are allowed to feed freely on the highest and holiest of all 
 sacrifices. Our reconciliation with God is complete, our fellow- 
 ship with Him intimate and delightful. 
 
 The bearing of this statement on the Apostle's object is 
 direct and obvious. It is a striking illustration of the general 
 principle of the Epistle. ' In Christ you have all that you had 
 under Moses, and much more. Let your unbelieving brethren 
 boast of their privileges with regard to sacred food : you enjoy 
 far higher privileges than they, or even than their venerated 
 priests. Even tlieij durst not eat of the sacrifice of atonement 
 for all the people of Israel. But you are permitted daily, hourly, 
 without ceasing, to feast on the sacrifice of the incarnate Son 
 of God, who suffered, the Just One in the room of the unjust, 
 who gave Himself an offering of a sweet smelling savour in 
 the room of all the sanctified ones.' 
 
 From this statement the Apostle draws an important practi- 
 cal inference in the 13th verse. " Let us go forth therefore 
 unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach."^ 
 
 The meaning and force of this exhortation are not difficult 
 to perceive. If Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, in order to 
 expiate our sins, submitted to become a sin-offering — voluntarily 
 subjected Himself to so much suffering and shame, and if we, 
 from our interest in this sacrifice, enjoy such invaluable privi- 
 leges ; let us cheerfully submit to whatever suffering and shame 
 we may be exposed to in cleaving to Him and His cause. There 
 He is, hanging on a cross as one accursed — cast out of the 
 holy city as unworthy even to die within its walls. But who 
 is this ? "A man approved of God" — "the Holy One and the 
 Just" — " the Brightness of the Father's glory" — " God mani- 
 
 1 No Seceder should be ignorant that this was the text frcni which 
 William AYilson of Perth, one of the illustrious four who were the fathers 
 of the Scottish Secession, preached on the thiy that by civil authority he 
 was prevented from ofiiciatiug iu the parish church. 
 
250 EFISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 1-14. 
 
 fest in flesh ; " and " He is wounded for our iniquities, and 
 bruised for our transgressions, and the chastisement of our 
 peace is on Him, and our healing is in His wounds." Shall we 
 then seek to enjoy worldly honour and pleasure by remaining 
 among His murderers 1 Shall we not leave the city, and take our 
 place by the cross of our Saviour, and willingly bear whatever 
 reproach and suffering may be cast on us for our attachment to 
 Him ? Is it not quite reasonable and right that we should even 
 be willing to be crucified for Him who was crucified for us ? 
 
 It is impossible to conceive the duty of the Christian Hebrews, 
 readily to sacrifice worldly advantages, and submit cheerfully to 
 suffering and reproach for the cause of Christ, more cogently 
 recommended than in these words. And, it does seem probable 
 that the Apostle meant to suggest, by this way of stating the 
 truth, that an entire separation from their unbelieving country- 
 men, and an entire abandonment of the overdated Mosaic in- 
 stitution, were called for on their part, in order to an unreserved 
 devotement of themselves to Jesus Christ ; and that this, what- 
 ever it might cost them, should be immediately made by them.^ 
 The Apostle adds, in the 14th verse, a powerful additional rea- 
 son for their thus willingly submitting to such reproaches and 
 sufferings as an honest attachment to Jesus Christ might bring 
 upon them. Ver. 14. " For here have we no continuing city, 
 but we seek one to come." 
 
 Some have supposed that the Apostle refers here to the ap- 
 proaching destruction of Jerusalem, and the final overthrow of 
 the temple worship and the economy to which it belonged. 
 We rather think his idea is, ' The sacrifices we may be called 
 on to make, the sufferings we may be called on to endure, the 
 reproaches which may be cast on us for our attachment to 
 Christ, ought not to make any very deep impression on us. We 
 are but pilgrims and strangers here ; we have no fixed resi- 
 dence, no continuing city. This is not our home. But we have 
 a home, at which in due time we shall arrive. To get safely 
 
 ^ Chrysostom is a good interpreter in many cases, but he does not sus- 
 tain his character when from this passage he, in his 32d Horn, on this 
 Epistle, teaches that Christians, after the example of Christ, should be 
 buried extra urhem. It would have been well, however, if the practice, for 
 which so whimsical a reason is assigned by the Byzantine bishop, had been 
 universally followed. 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 251 
 
 there, is the great matter. This is what we arc seeking ; and if 
 we succeed in this — of which, if we be real Christians, there is 
 no doubt — that home will far more than make amends for all the 
 toils and sufferings we have met with on our road to it. These 
 reproaches and sufferings for Christ's sake will soon pass away ; 
 and in the heavenly Jerusalem above, from which we shall 
 never be called on to go out, we shall meet with an abundant 
 compensation for all the sufferings, the privations, and re- 
 proaches we may l)e called to sustain in the cause of our Lord 
 while here below.' 
 
 While there is a peculiar propriety in these words, viewed 
 as addressed to the Plebrew Christians, in their substance they 
 are applicable to Christians in every country and in every age. 
 All who by faith have feasted on the sacrifice of Christ, are 
 bound by gratitude and duty cheerfully to submit to all the 
 reproach and suft'ering which may be involved in an honest and 
 open profession of attachment to Him, and dutiful observance 
 of all His ordinances. It is their duty to renounce the world, 
 and all that is in it, even their lawful enjoyments, when these 
 come in competition with their adherence to Christ. They are 
 not, as it has been very justly remarked, to steal out of the 
 camp or city, but they are boldly to go forth, making a public 
 profession of their dependence on Christ's atonement, and their 
 subjection to His authority. And they are to do this under a 
 deep conviction that all that is earthly is transitory, and that what 
 is spiritual is alone permanent. All the worldly advantages 
 which may be purchased by unfaithfulness to our Lord will 
 soon be as if they had never been ; nothing will remain but the 
 shame and pvmishment. All the w^orldly disadvantages which 
 may be incurred by faithfulness to our Lord will also soon be 
 as if they had never been, and nothing will remain but " the 
 recompense of reward," the " exceeding and etei'ual weight of 
 glory." May we all who name the name of Christ be enabled to 
 be " faithful to the death, that we may obtain the crown of life." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Privilege and duty are very closely connected under the 
 Christian economy. All the Christian's duties, when rightly 
 
252 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 understood, will be found to be privileges, and all liis privi- 
 leges will be found sources of obligation and motives to dutj. 
 We have, in the paragraph of which our subject of exposition 
 forms a part, a very interesting view of the leading privileges 
 and duties of Christians in their intimate mutual connection. 
 The description is given in language borrowed from the Jewish 
 economy. Christians, as they need a high priest, have such an 
 high priest as they need in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son 
 of God. On that all-perfect sacrifice for sin which He has 
 offered up in His own spotless obedience unto the death, they as 
 a holy priesthood are allowed s})intually to feed ; enjoying thus 
 a higher privilege than belonged to the Jewish people, or even 
 to the Jewish priesthood, under the former dispensation. They 
 have no sacrifice of atonement to offer for themselves : that is 
 not necessary ; for " by His own sacrifice He has for ever per- 
 fected " — i.e., completely expiated the sins of all — " them who 
 are sanctified," of the whole body of the separated ones. They 
 do not need to present a sacrifice of expiation : that has been 
 done in their room. What remains for them is to feast on that 
 sacrifice; or, in other words, to enjoy the glorious results of 
 this all-perfect sacrifice, in reconciliation with God, peace of 
 conscience, and the joyful hope of the glory of God. 
 
 But while they have no sacrifice of atonement to offer, they 
 still, as a spiritual priesthood, are required to offer spiritual 
 sacrifices to God ; and the fact that the perfection of the 
 Savioiu*'s atoning sacrifice supersedes entirely the necessity of 
 their attempting to do anything for the expiation of their own 
 sins, is the most powerful of all motives to their diligent dis- 
 charge of their duties as spiritual priests, in presenting them- 
 selves to God a " living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is 
 their reasonable service." 
 
 What are some of those sacrifices which gratitude to Christ, 
 for giving Himself for our sins a sacrifice and offering, should 
 induce Christians to present, may be learned from the 15th and 
 16th verses. Vers. 15, 16. " By Him therefore let us offer the 
 sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our 
 lips, giving thanks to His name. But," or and, " to do good and 
 to communicate forget not : for with such sacrifices God is well 
 pleased." 
 
 The Jews were required to offer not only sacrifices of ex- 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 253 
 
 piation, but sacrifices of tlianksgiviiig. " The thank-offering 
 consisted in the presentation of an ox, sheep, or goat, which was 
 brought by the offerer to the akar, and slain by him at the south 
 side of it. The priest received the blood and sprinkled it round 
 the altar. The fat was burnt on the altar. The breast and the 
 shoulder — the former of which was to be heaved, and the latter 
 waved by the offerer — belonged to the priest. The rest Avas 
 applied to the purpose of a sacrificial feast for the offerer and 
 his friends. These offerings were sometimes presented in token 
 of gratitude for some particular blessing received from God, and 
 sometimes as an expression of a habitiial sentiment of thankful- 
 ness for God's continual kindness. The first of these kinds of 
 thank-offerings was united with meat-offerings, consisting of un- 
 leavened cakes and a leavened loaf, which went to the priests."^ 
 
 Under the Christian dispensation there were no such ma- 
 terial thank-offerings, but there was something far better. We 
 Christians are bound by obligations peculiarly strong and tender 
 to present a thank-offering to God ; but the thank-offering we are 
 to present is not anything material : it is " the fruit of the lips, 
 giving thanks to God's name." What we present is not the 
 offspring of an animal ; but, as the Prophet Hosea expresses it, 
 " the calves of our lips ;" not the fruit of the earth, but " the 
 fruit of our lips." The words, " giving thanks to His name," 
 are to be joined in construction with the word " lips :" ' our lips 
 giving thanks to His name.' " The fruit of our lips giving 
 thanks to God's name" — i.e., giving thanks to God as revealed 
 to us — is just a circumlocution for our grateful acknowledg- 
 ments. " Let us offer the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our 
 lips giving thanks to His name," is just equivalent to — ' Let us 
 gratefully acknowledge the divine kindness.' 
 
 What is the particular divine benefit for which the Apostle 
 here calls on Christians to give thanks, it is not difiicidt to per- 
 ceive. It is indicated by the word tlierefore, which plainly looks 
 back to the preceding statement. A sacrifice of expiation has 
 been presented for us, in the offering of the body of Cin-ist once 
 for all. That sacrifice has been accepted of God ; and this is 
 intimated to us by our being ])ermitted spiritually to feast on this 
 sacrifice. " We have been redeemed to God by the blood of His 
 Son ;" " Christ has died for us, the Just One in the room of the 
 ^ Winer^s Bib. Diet., as quoted by Dr Pye Stnitli. 
 
254 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 unjust," and "His blood cleanses us from all sin;" and " in 
 Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness 
 of sin, according to the riches of divine grace." It is therefore 
 that we ought to " offer the sacrifice of praise" to Him who 
 appointed, to Him Avho accepted, the great atoning sacrifice — 
 to Him who gave His Son for us — to Him who gives His Son 
 to us. 
 
 This spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving we are to present to 
 God continually. The sacrifices under the law could only be 
 presented at particular times, and in particular places ; but our 
 spiritual services may be presented at any time, in any place. 
 And as they may, so they ought, to be presented continually. 
 Not that we are to be uninterruptedly engaged in praise, but 
 that we are frequently to be so employed ; and that we are con- 
 stantly to cherish a grateful sense of the divine kindness in the 
 appointment and acceptance of the great sacrifice of atonement, 
 and in permitting us habitually spiritually to feast on it, so as 
 always to be ready to avail ourselves of every proper opportvmity 
 of expressing these sentiments in praise and thanksgiving. 
 
 This spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving to God we are con- 
 tinually to present hy Christ Jesus. By Him. All the sacrifices 
 of the people of Israel under the law were offered by, through 
 the medium of, the priests. All our religious services must be 
 presented through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ — in a 
 dependence on what He did on earth, and is doing in heaven. 
 It is only when viewed in connection with His atonement and 
 intercession that any of our religious services can be acceptable 
 to God. 
 
 But praise is not the only species of thank-offering which 
 Christians are required to present to God. " Thanksgiving is 
 good," as Mr Henry quaintly but justly remarks, "but thanks- 
 living is better." The Apostle accordingly adds, ver. 16, " To 
 do good and to communicate forget not." 
 
 The connective particle rendered " but," is merely connective. 
 It is equivalent to ' moreover.' I can scarcely doubt that the 
 Apostle here refers to the custom of the Jews, who were ac- 
 customed to send portions of the sacrificial feast, on the eucha- 
 ristic sacrifices, to the poor : Lev. vii. 14 ; Deut. xii. 12, xiv. 29, 
 xvi. 11. It is the duty of Christians to express their gratitude 
 to God for His goodness to them, through Christ Jesus, by doing 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 255 
 
 good ; i.e., by performing acts of beneficence — in feeding the 
 hungry, clothing the naked, relieving the distressed ; and in this 
 way communicating to their poor and afflicted brethren of the 
 blessings Providence has conferred on them, — " doing good to 
 all men, especially to those who are of the household of faith." 
 While the terms are of that general kind as to express benefi- 
 cence and the communication of benefits generally, it seems 
 probable that the Apostle had a direct reference to doing good 
 by communicating to others those blessings for which they were 
 especially bound to give thanks. It is the duty of Christians to 
 do good to their fellow-men by communicating to them, so far 
 as this is competent to them, those heavenly and spiritual bless- 
 ings for which they are bound continually to give thanks to God 
 by Christ Jesus. 
 
 The motive by which the Apostle enforces the duty of offer- 
 ing these spiritual sacrifices of praise and beneficence, and the 
 communication of benefits, is a very powerful one : " With these 
 sacrifices God is well pleased." These were sacrifices with 
 which God at all times was well pleased — better pleased than 
 with external, positive religious duties. " I will have mercy," 
 said He, " and not sacrifice." With regard to praise, we find tlie 
 psalmist saying, " Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me : and to 
 him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salva- 
 tion of God." " I will praise the name of God with a song, and 
 will magnify Him with thanksgiving."^ And with regard to 
 well-doing and communicating we find the prophet saying, 
 " Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? a day for a man to 
 afflict his soul ? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to 
 * spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? Avilt thou call this a fast, 
 and an acceptable day to the Lord ? Is not this the fast that I 
 have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the 
 heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye 
 break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, 
 and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? 
 when tlion seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that tiiou 
 hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? Then shall thy light 
 break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring fortli 
 speedily ; and thy righteousness shall go before thee : the glory 
 of the Lord shall be thy re re- ward. ""■^ But it is probable that the 
 1 Ps. 1. 23, Ixix. 30. 2 isa. lyiii. 5-8. 
 
256 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 Apostle's design was to convey the idea, that these were now the 
 only kind of thank-offerings which were acceptable to God. The 
 ceremonial thank-offerings had ceased to be pleasing to Him ; 
 for the economy to which they belonged had come to an end. 
 These spiritual eucharistic sacrifices are the only ones which, 
 under the new and spiritual dispensation, are agreeable to Him. 
 When the Apostle says that praise, and kindness, and libe- 
 rality, are sacrifices which are acceptable to God, I trust I 
 need scarcely say he does not intend to represent them as 
 available to remove the divine displeasure, or to propitiate the 
 divine favour. They are not expiatory sacrifices at all. Ex- 
 piatory virtue is to be found only in the great atoning sacrifice 
 of our Lord. He merely means, — God approves of them ; 
 they are well pleasing to Plim. This surely is a very strong 
 incitement to offer such sacrifices, " an exceeding great re- 
 ward" for offering them. Beyond this the highest aspirations 
 of a Christian cannot go. It is all he can wish ; it is above all 
 that he can think. To have the approbation of good men is de- 
 lightful ; to have the approbation of our own conscience is more 
 delightful still ; but to have the approbation of God, this is 
 surely the highest recompense a creature can reach. This ap- 
 probation is very strongly expressed in the word of God already. 
 " God is not unrighteous, to forget your work and labour of love 
 which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have mini- 
 stered to the saints, and do minister." "My God shall supply all 
 your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."^ 
 It will be still more illustriously displayed when the Son appears 
 in the glory of the Father, and in the presence of an assembled 
 universe proclaims to those who, as a token of gratitude to God 
 for the blessings of the Christian salvation, have " done good 
 and communicated :" " For I was an hungered, and ye gave 
 Me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink : I was a stranger, 
 and ye took Me in : naked, and ye clothed Me : I was sick, and 
 ye visited Me : I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then 
 shall the righteous answer Him, saying. Lord, when saw we 
 Thee an hungered, and fed Thee ? or thirsty, and gave Thee 
 drink "? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in ? or 
 naked, and clothed Thee ? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in 
 prison, and came unto Thee ? And the King shall answer and 
 1 Pliil. iv. 19. 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 257 
 
 say unto them, Verily I say unto yon, Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have clone it 
 unto Me."^ 
 
 The next duty which the Apostle enjoins on the Hebrew 
 Christians, is obedience to their spiritual rulers. He had for- 
 merly pointed out to them their duty in reference to their de- 
 ceased pastors, ver. 7 ; now he points out their duty to their 
 living pastors, and enforces its performance by very powerful 
 motives. Ver. 17. " Obey them that have the rule over you, 
 and submit yourselves : 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." 
 
 I have already had an opportunity of explaining to you the 
 nature and extent of Church rule.'"^ The Hebrew Christians 
 were to be obedient to their spiritual rulers. They were to 
 consider the Christian ministry as an ordinance of Christ ; and 
 they were to yield obedience to those who filled it, in so far as 
 they taught them the doctrines and commandments of Jesus 
 Christ. They were not to obey them with a slavish, implicit 
 respect to their authority, but they were to obey them from an 
 enlightened regard to Christ's authority ; and they were to 
 .submit themselves, not only in receiving with humility their 
 instructions, but also their faithful reproofs and admonitions. 
 
 The motives to the conscientious performance of these duties 
 are contained in the concluding part of the verse : — " Thev 
 watch for your souls, as those who must give an account." 
 Christian pastors, if they ai*e at all what they ought to be, 
 " watch for the souls" of those who have called them to take 
 the oversight of them in the Lord. The spiritual improvement, 
 the everlasting salvation of their people, is their great object : 
 and to gain this great object, they watch. They know, that to 
 gain it, constant attention is necessary ; and they endeavour to 
 yield it. They occupy a place of trust : they have not only 
 been called by their people, but they have been commissioned 
 by their Lord. They have been entrusted with the care of a 
 portion of that " Church which He purchased with His own 
 blood ;" and they know that " they must give account." They 
 must do so at the close of life, when the command comes forth, 
 *' Give an account of thy stewardship ; thou must be no longer 
 '"' . ■ 1 Matt. xxT. 35-40. - Vide pp. 234, 235. 
 
 VOL. II. R 
 
258 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-2-5. 
 
 steward ;" and at the great day of judgmentj when both mini- 
 sters and people " must give an accomit to God." But this is 
 not all : they must give account even here. Ministers ought to 
 keep up a constant intercourse with their great Master. They 
 ought to bear their people on their hearts before the Lord. If 
 their work prospers, — if the souls of their people seem to prosper 
 and be in health, — then they ought with joy and thankfulness 
 to give an account of this to Him ; and if, on the other hand, 
 the souls of their people seem languid and diseased, — if igno- 
 rance and carelessness prevail, — if " questions gendering strife 
 rather than godly edifying" occupy their attention, — if there 
 " be among them roots of bitterness," or " enemies of the cross 
 of Christ," — then too ought the Christian minister to pour out 
 his sorrows before the Lord, giving his account " with grief." 
 It is to this giving account that, I apprehend, the Apostle refers 
 in the passage before us. 
 
 The consideration of these facts should induce the Christian 
 people to " obey" their pastor, and " submit themselves." He 
 may urge on you unpalatable truth — he may utter sharp re- 
 proofs ; but recollect he has no choice ; remember he is " a man 
 under authority." Put the question. Has he said anything that 
 Christ has not said ? If he has, disregard him ; if he has not, 
 blame him not, — he has but discharged his duty to his Master 
 and to you ; and recollect, you cannot in this case disregard the 
 servant without doing dishonour to the Master. If he had been 
 appointed to amuse you, to " speak smootli things" to you, you 
 might reasonably find fault with him for his uncompromising 
 statements and Jiis keen rebukes. But he " watches for your 
 souls." Your spiritual improvement, your everlasting salvation, 
 is his object ; and therefore he must not, to spare your feelings, 
 endanger yom' souls. It were cruel kindness in the physician, to 
 save a little present pain, to allow a fatal disease to fix its roots 
 in the constitution, Avhich must by and by produce far more 
 suffering than what is now avoided, and not only suffering, but 
 death. 
 
 The last clause of the verse is connected with the first clause : 
 " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, 
 that when they give in their account, they may give it in with 
 joy, and not with grief ; for that is unprofitable to you." If a 
 minister is but faithful, so far as he himself is concerned, he 
 
PAI^T II.] CONCLUSION. 259 
 
 may, he must, give in his account with joy. Whether the Gos- 
 pel, as administered by him, be " the savour of Hfe unto life" or 
 " of death unto death," if he is but faithful, he will be " a sweet 
 savour of Christ unto God," in them that perish as well as in 
 them that believe ; his uiisuccessfvil as well as his successful 
 labours will meet the approbation of the great JSIaster, and 
 obtain an abundant " recompense of reward." But so far as 
 liis people are concerned, the account given in by him will be 
 joyful or sorrowful just in proportion to his success ; and for 
 him to give in a joyful account, is profitable for them ; for him 
 to give in a sorrowful account, is unprofitable. It affords the 
 purest satisfaction to a Christian minister to find that his labours 
 among his people are " not in vain in the Lord ;" that the 
 thoughtless are becoming serious ; that those alanned about their 
 spiritual interests are seeking and finding rest in the faith of the 
 truth, and the well-grounded hope of eternal life ; and that those 
 who have believed through grace are growing up in all things 
 to Him who is the Head, becoming more intelligent and active, 
 more harmless and useful, more weaned from earth, more fit 
 for heaven. Every Christian minister, if he deserve the name 
 at all, can in some measure say, with the x\postle John, " I have 
 no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth ;"' 
 or with the Apostle Paul, " For what is our hope, or joy, or 
 crown of rejoicing ? are not even ye in the presence of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ at His coming ? For ye are our glory and 
 joy."^ In these circumstances he gives his accoimt to his 
 ISIaster with joy, and thus is profitable to his people. His holy 
 joy enables him to prosecute with growing alacrity the duties of 
 his office ; and the great Head of the Church, by a still further 
 communication of divine influence, shows His satisfaction with 
 His ol)edient children. On the other hand, if the meml)ers of 
 a Christian church do not obey their pastor in the Lord and 
 submit themselves, and if their souls ob^"iously are not prosper- 
 ing under his ministry, it nnist be with a sad heart that he gives 
 in his account to his Lord. 
 
 It is very strikingly said by Dr Owen, With what sighing, 
 
 and groaning, and mourning, the accounts of faithful ministers 
 
 to Christ are often accompanied, He alone knows, and the last 
 
 day will manifest. For the accounts of ministers to be given 
 
 1 3 Johu i. 2 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. 
 
260 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XHI. 15-25. 
 
 in in this way, is not profitable for their people.^ The heart of 
 the minister is discouraged ; the great Master is displeased ; 
 the tokens of His favour are withdrawn ; spiritual barrenness 
 prevails ; and the clouds seem, as it were, commanded to rain 
 no rain on the unfruitful vineyard. 
 
 The Apostle now solicits from the Hebrew Christians an 
 interest in their prayers, ver. 18. "Pray for us." The Apostle 
 was fully persuaded of two things : that all the blessings he stood 
 in need of could be obtained from God, from God alone ; and 
 that prayer was the appointed means of obtaining these bless- 
 ings. Hence we find him very frequently requesting the prayers 
 of the churches : 2 Cor. i. 11 ; Eph. vi. 19 ; Col. iv^S ; 2 Thess. 
 iii. 1. By soliciting the prayers of the Hebrew Christians, he 
 also intimates the high opinion he entertained of them as right- 
 eous men, whose prayers would " avail much." He adds, " For 
 we trust that we have a good conscience, willing in all things to 
 live honestly." 
 
 There never was a man more exposed to obloquy than the 
 Apostle Paul ; and it seems likely that unfavourable reports had 
 been circulated among the Hebrew Christians respecting him. 
 It is in reference to these that he says, " We trust we have a 
 good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly." ' Though 
 my name may be cast out as evil, and I may suffer as if I were 
 an evil-doer, yet I am conscious of my own integrity and faith- 
 fulness in the ministry committed to me. I am desirous of con- 
 ducting myself lionourahly in all circumstances. I do not walk 
 in craftiness, nor do I handle the word of God deceitfully ; but 
 my rejoicing is this, the testimony of my conscience, that in 
 simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by 
 the grace of God, I have had my conversation in the world.' ^ 
 
 ^ aXvaiTiKig, one of the (2'ral hsyofMVK, SO far as regards the New Testa- 
 ment. By a common figure, it is used to mean more than it expresses. It 
 is = ' hurtful.' "We have a curious illustration of the meaning of the word 
 in the address which the comic poet, in Athenseus 1. iv., puts in the mouth 
 of a drunkard, to an abstinent philosoi)her or water-drinker, — a teetotaller 
 of those days : — 
 
 ' AXvatn'h'^g si rji Tco'hii^ Trivav v^up^ 
 
 Tov yxp lyiupyou Kdl zov efi'^opou axxolg' 
 
 'Eyu Ss raf Trpoaodovg fiiSuuv xxT^ec; ■rroiu. 
 2 This passage is quoted with great effect by Richard AUeine in his vale- 
 dictory discourse to his people, on leaving them in consequence of the Act 
 of Conformity, 1GG2. 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 261 
 
 He presses his request on them from a reference to his pre- 
 sent circumstances. The Apostle had been among the Chris- 
 tian Hebrews formerly ; he wished to be restored to them. He 
 considers their prayers as means well fitted for gaining his 
 desire, knowing that, in the government of His Church, Jesus 
 Christ has a great regard to the prayers of His people. Whether 
 the Apostle obtained his wish or not, we do not know, nor is it 
 at all material. Whatever appears to us duty in any particular 
 case, we may, we ought to desire and to pray for, though the 
 event we wish for may never take place. The secret purposes 
 of God are not the rule of our prayers. If Apostles needed the 
 prayers of the churches, how much more ordinary ministers ! 
 " Brethren, pray for us." 
 
 One of the best methods of enforcing our recommendations 
 of duties to others, is to exemplify them ourselves. This is the 
 plan which the Apostle adopted in reference to the duty of 
 mutual intercession. He had just been requesting an interest 
 in the prayers of the Hebrew Christians, and he immediately 
 shows them that they had an interest in his. He had just hcen 
 bidding them pray for him, and he straightway commences 
 praying for them. He had just said, " Brethren, pray for 
 us," and he now says, vers. 20, 21, "Now the God of peace, 
 that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His 
 will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, 
 through Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen." 
 
 This sublime and comprehensive prayer — which, properly 
 speaking, forms the appropriate conclusion of the Epistle, for 
 what follows is plainly a kind of postscript — deserves, and will 
 reward, our most considerate attention. Our attention must be 
 directed in succession — (1) to the descriptive appellation under 
 which the Apostle addresses the object of prayer — " The God 
 of peace, avIio brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
 great Shepherd of the sheep, by tlie blood of the everlasting 
 covenant ;" (2) to the prayer itself — that God, as the God of 
 peace, would " make them perfect in every good work to do His 
 will, working in them that which was well-pleasing in His sight, 
 by Jesus Christ ;" and (3) the doxology or ascription of praise 
 
262 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 with which the prayer closes — " To Him be glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen." 
 
 Let us then, first, consider the import of the descriptive ap- 
 pellation tinder which the Apostle addresses the great object of 
 prayer. Before we enter on an inquiry into the meaning of 
 this appellation, it will be proper to endeavour to settle a ques- 
 tion respecting the construction of this clause of the verse, the 
 determination of which materially affects the sense. The words, 
 " through the blood of the everlasting covenant,' may either be 
 connected with the phrase, " brought again from the dead," or 
 with the dignified title given to Jesus Christ, " the great Shep- 
 herd of the sheep ;" — they may either be viewed as descriptive of 
 the manner in whicli His resurrection was accomplished, or of 
 the manner in which He became "the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep." A good sense may be brought out of the words accord- 
 ing to either of these two modes of connecting them. The 
 usage of the original language admits of either. Looking merely 
 at the Greek words, I should be disposed to say the latter method 
 of connecting them is the more natural of the two, and that the 
 Apostle's idea is, that Christ became the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep by means of His voluntary oblation of Himself ; i.e., ob- 
 tained for Himself that supreme authority over the Church 
 which is implied in His being " the great Shepherd of tlie 
 sheep." Yet when I consider that — though it is most true that 
 Christ purchased the Church with His own blood, and was ex- 
 alted on account of His expiatoiy sufferings as " Head over all 
 things to His Church" — "in the days of His flesh" He takes 
 to Himself the appellation, "the good Shepherd," and that it 
 was as " the good Shepherd," in the discharge of the duties 
 rising out of this character, that He " laid down His life for 
 the sheep," it appears to me more probable that the first method 
 of connecting the words is that which gives us the Apostle's 
 idea: that His resurrection from the dead was "through the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant." What is the meaning of 
 that assertion, will appear, we trust, by and by. 
 
 Having settled this question of construction, let us proceed 
 to the exposition of the descriptive appellation here given to the 
 object of prayer. In order distinctly to bring out the thoughts 
 involved in such a complicated form of expression as that noAv 
 before us, it is often found advisable to reverse, or at any rate 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 263 
 
 considerably to change, the order in whicli they stand. The 
 following are the thoughts in what I apprehend is their natural 
 order — the order in which they presented themselves to the 
 Apostle's mind : — Jesus Christ our Lord is the great Shepherd 
 of the sheep. As the great Shepherd of the sheep He sub- 
 mitted to death. As the great Shepherd of the sheep He has 
 been brought again from the dead by God. When God brought 
 Him again from the dead, He did so through the blood of the 
 everlastino; covenant. In bringing Jesus our Lord from the 
 dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant, God acted as the 
 God of peace ; and it is to God, as having manifested Himself 
 to be the God of peace by bringing our Lord Jesus from the 
 dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant, that the 
 Apostle addresses his prayers in behalf of the Hebrew Chris- 
 tians. Let us shortly illustrate these most important truths. 
 
 (L) Jesus our Lord is " the great Shepherd of the sheep." 
 What class of persons is described under the figurative deno- 
 mination, "the sheep?" What is to be understood by Jesus 
 our Lord being their Shepherd ? and what by His being the 
 great Shepherd ? To the first of these questions a most satis- 
 factory answer will be found in the words of our Lord in the 
 tenth chapter of the Gospel by John. The description ex- 
 tends from the 11th verse down to the 30th. The sum of His 
 statement is, that the sheep are those whom the Father has 
 given Him, both Jews and Gentiles, for whom He laid down 
 His life, who hear His voice and follow Him, to whom He gives 
 eternal life, and who " will never perish, because none can pluck 
 them out of His, and out of His Father's hand." They are 
 plainly that innumerable multitude out of every kindred, and 
 people, and tongue, and nation, which He redeems to God by 
 His blood, — the same class of persons who in the preceding 
 ]iart of the Epistle are represented as " the heirs of salvation ;" 
 "the many children to be brought to glory" through "the 
 captain of their salvation being made perfect through suffer- 
 ing;" the "holy brethren" of the Messiah; the "partakers of 
 the heavenly calling ;" those that through believing do enter into 
 the promised rest; "partakers of Christ;" "the heirs of the 
 promise ;" " they that are called ;" " they that come to God by 
 Christ ;" "the sanctified" ones by the offering of Christ's body 
 once for all ; those who have " received the kingdom that can- 
 
264 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25; 
 
 not be moved." " The sheep " is just another name for genuine 
 Christians, viewed as separated from the rest of the world, and 
 placed under the peculiar care of Christ as their Shepherd. 
 
 This naturally leads us to inquire what is meant by His 
 being termed the Shepherd of the sheep. Many veiy learned in- 
 terpreters have considered that the figurative expression " shep- 
 herd" is intended chiefly, if not solely, to convey the idea of 
 teacher, instructor. I apprehend, however, that this is a mistake, 
 and that this idea, if included, is but a subordinate one ; that the 
 word " shepherd," when used figuratively, both in the Old and 
 New Testament, denotes one who presides over a collection of 
 people, who governs, guides, and protects them — a leader, a 
 guard, a defender, a chief, a king. David's being raised to the 
 supreme government of the Israelitish people is represented as 
 his being made their shepherd : Ps. Ixxviii. 70-72. In the 
 First Epistle of Peter, chap. ii. 25, shepherd, and bishop, or over- 
 seer, are used as equivalent expressions. The idea intended to be 
 conveyed is obviously this : He is placed over them for the pur- 
 pose of doing everything that is necessary for promoting their 
 happiness. It is just a figurative expression equivalent in mean- 
 ing to the literal expression " Saviour." 
 
 But our Lord is not only termed " the Shepherd," but " that 
 great Shepherd of the sheep." He may receive this appellatioi> 
 to distinguish Him from all others who are called shepherds, 
 as He is termed "the King of kings, and the Lord of lords;" 
 or to mark Him as the superior of all those who in His Church 
 receive the name of shepherds or pastors — in which case the 
 phrase is equivalent to that used by Peter — the chief Shepherd ; 
 or to mark His transcendent personal dignity, as in the use of 
 the same epithet in the expression, " A great High Priest, Jesus 
 the Son of God." I have' sometimes thought that, both in this 
 expression, and in our Lord's own expression, "the good," or 
 that good " Shepherd," there is an allusion to the numerous pre- 
 dictions of the Messiah under the character of a Shepherd in 
 the Old Testament prophecies. The following are specimens of 
 the predictions I refer to : "0 Zion, that bringest good tidings, 
 get thee up into the high mountain ; O Jerusalem, that bringest 
 good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength : lift it up, be not 
 afraid ; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God ! Be- 
 hold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm, 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 265 
 
 shall rule for Illm : behold, His reward is with Him, and His 
 work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd ; He 
 shall gather the lambs with His arm, and cany them in His 
 bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." " And 
 I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, 
 even My servant David ; He shall feed them, and He shall be 
 their Shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and My 
 servant David a prince among them : I the Lord have spoken 
 it."^ The full import of the expression seems to be — 'Jesus 
 our Lord, the Divine Saviour of the spiritual people of God, 
 promised to the fathers.' 
 
 (2.) This " great Shepherd of the sheep " submitted to death. 
 This is not indeed stated in so many words, but it is obviously 
 implied, both in the phrase, " brought again from the dead," and 
 in that of " the blood of the everlasting covenant." He sub- 
 mitted to death ; and He submitted to death as a victim. His 
 blood was the blood of a victim, or expiatory sacrifice, shed to 
 ratify a covenant of peace. " The good Shepherd gave His 
 life for the sheep." " All we hke sheep had gone astray ; we 
 had turned every one to his own way ; and the Lord laid on 
 Him the iniquity of all. Exaction was made, and He became 
 answerable. And He was wounded for ova' transgressions. He 
 was bruised for our iniquities : and the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon Him ; and by His stripes we are healed. He 
 gave His soul a sacrifice for sin." But as "the great Shep- 
 herd" laid down His life in order to save His sheep, in obe- 
 dience to the will of His Father, so He laid it down " that He 
 might take it again." It was not possible that He should con- 
 tinue bound with the fetters of death. 
 
 (3.) God "brought Plim again from the dead." These 
 words represent the resurrection of our Lord as an act of divine 
 power. No power inferior to divine could have accomplished it. 
 The question of the Apostle to king Agrippa, " Why should it be 
 thouglit a thing incredible that God should raise the dead ?" im- 
 j)lies tliat it might well be accounted an incredible thing that any 
 one else should. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is sometimes 
 spoken of as His own work. " Destroy this temple," He says, 
 " and in three days I Avill raise it up again. This He said of 
 the tem]>Ie of His body." And, "As the Father raiseth up the 
 1 Isa. xl. 9-11 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 2i. 
 
266 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-L>5. 
 
 dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom 
 He will." This will not, however, in any degree appear to be 
 inconsistent with the declaration in the passage before us, by 
 any one who understands the principles of the economy of re- 
 demption. The Father in that economy is the representative 
 of divinity — the sustainer of its majesty, the vindicator of its 
 rights. The Son acts in a subordinate character. Whatever He 
 says. He says in the name of the Father ; whatever He does, 
 He does by the power of the Father. " The Father who dwelleth 
 in Me, He doth the works." When He was raised from the 
 dead, He was raised by the power of the Father ; i.e., by the 
 power of God. But the words before us do not so much repre- 
 sent the resurrection as an act of mere power, as an act of 
 rectoral justice. 
 
 (4.) God brought " the great Shepherd of the sheep " — who 
 had given His life for the sheep — " from the dead, by the blood, 
 of the everlasting covenant." The covenant here referred to 
 is obviously that divine constitution or arrangement by which 
 spiritual and eternal blessings are secured for the guilty and 
 depraved children of men, through the mediation of the incar- 
 nate Son of God. This covenant is termed "the everlasting 
 covenant" to distinguish it from other covenants or arrange- 
 ments made by God, and especially from that covenant or 
 arrangement which was made with the Israelites at Sinai, and 
 which, as it referred directly to temporal blessings, was intended 
 only for temporary duration. This new covenant is never to 
 give place to any other. 
 
 " The blood " of this covenant is the blood by the shedding 
 of which this covenant was ratified. When illustratingtthe ninth 
 chapter of tlie Epistle, I had occasion at considerable length to 
 show you that it is the doctrine of the Apostle, that in all cove- 
 nants or arrangements made by God for conferring blessings on 
 sinful men, there has always been an assertion of His rights as 
 the just and holy Moral Governor of the world ; and that the 
 form this assertion of His rights has uniformly taken, has been 
 that of the death of a pi'opitiatory victim ; and that the dignity 
 of the victim necessarily bore a proportion to the value of the 
 benefits secured, by the covenant. The blood of animal propi- 
 tiatory victims confirmed the fii'st covenant. The blood of the 
 incarnate Only-begotten of God confirmed the new and better 
 
PACT II.] CONCLUSION. 2G7 
 
 covenant ; i.e., the obedience to the death of the incarnate Son 
 of God as the substitute of sinners, makes it consistent with, 
 ilhistrative of, the divine hoHness, and justice, and faithfulness, 
 as well as goodness, to bestow pardon on the gviilty, and salva- 
 tion on the lost children of men, believing in Jesus. 
 
 The resurrection of our Lord is represented as the result of 
 this shedding of His blood, by which the everlasting covenant 
 was confirmed. He was " brought again from the dead by the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant." His obedience to the death 
 was the procuring cause of His own resurrection, as well as of 
 the salvation of His people, which is the result of that resurrec- 
 tion. The Father loved the Son, had complacency in Him, be- 
 cause, in compliance with His will. He laid down His life for 
 the sheep ; and this was the manner in which He manifested 
 His complacency. Because He humbled Himself, therefore He 
 highly exalted Him. 
 
 (5.) In bringing our Lord Jesus from the dead, God acted 
 in the character of " the God of peace." This is an appellation 
 of the Divinity peculiar to the Apostle Paul, and frequently oc- 
 curring in his writings : Eom. xv. 33, xvi. 20 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 33 ; 
 2 Thess. iii. 16. The word "peace" is often used as equivalent 
 to 'prosperity," happiness in general ; and "the God of peace" 
 may be considered as equivalent to — ' the God who is the author 
 of happiness.' The proper signification of the word, however, is 
 ' reconciliation ;' and I think there can be but very little doubt 
 that it has its proper primary signification here. " The God of 
 peace," or reconciliation, is the pacified, the reconciled Divinity. 
 It is just equivalent to the more fully expressed character of 
 God — " God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not 
 imputing to men their trespasses ; seeing He has made Him to 
 be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in Him." God was displeased with man 
 on account of sin ; i.e., in plain words, not merely was man's 
 sin the object of His moral disapprobation, but, in tlie ordinary 
 course of things, man's final happiness was inconsistent with tlie 
 honoiu' of His character as the righteous Governor of the world, 
 and (what is but another way of expressing the same truth) with 
 the principles of His moral administration, and the happiness of 
 His intelligent subjects generally. This incompatibility could 
 be removed only by some display of the divine displeasure 
 
268 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 against sin, and of the rigliteousness and reasonableness of the 
 law man had violated, fully equivalent to that which would have 
 been given by the condemning sanction of the law being allowed 
 to take its course in reference to the offenders. This has been 
 given in the substituted obedience and sufferings of the incar- 
 nate Son. These have " magnified the law, and made it hon- 
 ourable." God is now " just, and the justifier of the ungodly" 
 — " the just God and the Saviour." " His righteousness is de- 
 clared through His Son being set forth a propitiation in His 
 blood." And the first display, and the satisfactory proof, that 
 God is now " the God of peace," is His raising His Son, our 
 Surety, from the dead, and giving Him " all power in heaven 
 and earth," " that He may give eternal life to as many as the 
 Father has given Him." 
 
 It is finely said by Dr Owen : " The well-spring of the whole 
 dispensation of grace lies in the bringing again our Lord Jesus 
 Christ from the dead, through the blood of the everlasting cove- 
 nant. Had not the will of God been fully executed, atone- 
 ment made for sin, the Church sanctified, the law accomplished, 
 and the threatenings satisfied, Christ could not have been 
 brought from the dead. The death of Christ, if He had not 
 risen, could not have com-pleted our redemption ; we should 
 have been yet in our sins. For evidence would have been given 
 that atonement was not made. The bare resurrection of Christ, 
 or the bringing Him from the dead, would not have saved us ; 
 for so any other man may be raised by the power of God. But 
 the bringing of Christ again from the dead by the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant, is that which gives assurance of the com- 
 plete redemption and salvation of the Church." 
 
 Now, it is to God as having manifested Himself to be " the 
 God of peace" — the pacified Divinity — by "bringing again from 
 the dead our Lord Jesus," when, as " the great Shepherd," He 
 had given His life for the sheep, that the Apostle addresses 
 his prayers in behalf of the Hebrew Christians. Indeed, this is 
 the only character in which the Divinity can be rationally ad- 
 dressed by sinful men, or in behalf of sinful men. Without a 
 reference to that atonement which was completed in the death 
 of the Son of God, and the completeness of which is demon- 
 strated by His resurrection, no spiritual and saving blessing 
 can be reasonably expected by sinners from Him who is 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSIOX. 2G9 
 
 " glorious in holiness," and " can by no means clear the guilty." 
 But from the pacified Divinity every heavenly and spiritual 
 blessing may be expected ; and, contemplating God in this cha- 
 racter, we may go near Him, even to His seat, asking blessings 
 both for ourselves and others — " drawing near with boldness to 
 the throne of grace," in the faith of Him "who was given for 
 our offences, and raised again for our justification," "that we 
 may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need." 
 Such is the appellation under which the Apostle addresses his 
 intercessions for the Hebrew Christians to the object of prayer — 
 the pacified Divinity, manifesting His reconciled character in 
 the resurrection of Jesus, " the great Shepherd," on the ground 
 of His having fully satisfied the demands of His law and jus- 
 tice, in giving His life for the sheep, in giving Himself a sacri- 
 fice and an offering that He mi^ht brino; them to God. 
 
 We proceed now to inquire into the import of the prayer 
 which the Apostle here presents. He prays that " the God of 
 peace " would make the Hebrew Christians " perfect in every 
 good work to do His will, working in you that which is well- 
 pleasing in His sight." 
 
 The prayer consists of two parts ; the one referring to the 
 end, and the other to the means of gaining that end. The 
 Apostle prays that the Christian Hebrews might be " made 
 perfect in every good work to do His will ;" and He prays that, 
 in order to do this. He would " work in them that which is well- 
 pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ." 
 
 The first petition is, that God would "make them perfect in 
 every good work to do His will." These English words do not 
 convey any very clear and distinct signification. The word 
 translated "make perfect," properly signifies 'to set to rights 
 what is out of order,' thus preparing it for its proper use. 
 Its meaning will be best illustrated by referring to some of the 
 passages where it occurs. Rom. ix. 22, the "vessels of wrath" 
 are represented as ^^ fitted''^ — the same word as that used here — 
 "for destruction." "The worlds" are said to have been ^^ framed" 
 — i.e., ' arranged, put in order from the chaotic state,' and thus 
 fitted for their several purposes — " by the word of God : " Ileb. 
 xi. 3. " A body" is said to be " prepared " for our Lord : Heb. 
 X. 5. And it is said, Eph. iv. 13, that Christ " gave some 
 teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
 
270 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 ministrj" — i.e., to fit or prepare lioly men for the work of the 
 ministry, — "that the body of Christ — i.e., the Church — " may be 
 edified." We apprehend the word has the same meaning here 
 as in the passages to which I have just referred. The Apostle 
 prays that " the God of peace" would fit or prepare the Hebrew 
 Christians " to do His will in every good work." We are all 
 by nature utterly unfit to obey the divine Avill ; we do not know 
 it, we do not love it. God alone can render us fit for doing 
 His will ; and this is true, not only with regard to unregenerate, 
 but with regard to regenerate men. " Without Him we can do 
 nothing." " Our sufiiciency is of God." 
 
 The Apostle's prayer is a very extensive one. He wishes 
 not only that they might be prepared to do the will of God, but 
 to do the whole will of God — " to do Plis will in every good 
 work;" i.e., in the performance of every duty, moral and re- 
 ligious. The will of God is our sanctification — our sanctifica- 
 tion wholly, in the whole man — "soul, body, and spirit;" and 
 it is the Apostle's prayer that the Hebrew Christians might be 
 enabled by God to be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 
 
 The second petition refers to the means by which this end is 
 to be gained. The Hebrew Christians are to be prepared for 
 doing the will of God " in every good Avork," by God's " work- 
 ing in them that which is well-pleasing in His sight, by Jesus 
 Christ."^ In order to external good works, there must be in- 
 ternal good principles. In order to conformity to the law of 
 God in the life, there miist be conformity to the will of God 
 in the heart. That in us which is " well-pleasing in God's 
 sight," is just a mode of thinking and of feeling which is 
 conformable to His will. The way in which God does this, is 
 not by miraculously implanting such a mode of thinking and 
 feeling within us. That God could do this, if it so pleased Him, 
 we have no reason to doubt ; but He acts according to the laws 
 of our intelligent and moral nature. In Plis word He has given 
 us a plain, well-accredited revelation of His mind. By the in- 
 fluence of His Spirit, Avhich our depravity renders absolutely 
 necessary, He leads us to understand and believe this revelation. 
 The revealed mind of God, understood and believed by us, be- 
 comes our mind ; and our mind being brought into accoixlance 
 with God's mind, our will, according to the constitution of our 
 
PART. II.l CONCLUSION. 271 
 
 nature, is brought into accordance with God's will. It is tlius 
 that God, by His word and Spirit, " works in us that which is 
 well-pleasing in His sight." 
 
 It is plain from these remarks, that God's working in us 
 does not make us passive. It is plain that, in order to our having 
 in us " that which is well-pleasing in His sight," we must care- 
 fully study the Scriptures, and accompany our study of the 
 Scriptures with earnest prayer to God for that divine influence 
 without which they cannot be understood and believed. While 
 we use the means — and we act like madmen if we do not use the 
 means — and look for the end, we are never to forget that His 
 working in us is necessary to enable us " both to will and to do ;" 
 and when the use of the means is effectual, we are to ascribe 
 to Him all the glory, saying, ' It was not I, but the grace of 
 God that is in me. It is not so much I that live as Christ 
 that lives in me.' 
 
 The expression, " by Jesus Christ," admits of a twofold 
 connection, and, of course, of a twofold explication. It may 
 either be connected with the phrase, " that which is well-pleas- 
 ing in His sight," or with the phrase, "working in us," In 
 the first case the meaning is, that whatever good is ^ATought in 
 the mind of man is acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ. 
 We owe to Him, not only the pardon of our sins and the sanc- 
 tification of our nature, but we owe also the accc})tance of our 
 imperfectly sanctified hearts and lives to His mediation. In the 
 second case the meaning is, that, while the Holy Spirit is the 
 direct agent, all God's sanctifying operations on the mind of man, 
 are carried on with a reference to the mediation of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. There is no communication of divine influence 
 from " the God of peace," but in and by Jesus Christ, and by 
 virtue of His mediation. 
 
 The third thing in the Apostle's prayer which requires con- 
 sideration is, the doxology or ascription of praise with which it 
 closes : " To whom be glory for ever and ever." It is impos- 
 sible, from the construction, to determine with absolute certainty 
 whether this ascription of praise refer to " the God of peace " 
 or to Jesus Christ. We know that both are worthy of eternal 
 honour and praise, and that both shall receive them. We find 
 that glory is ascribed to each separately, and to both together, in 
 other passages of Scriptui'c. To the Father separately : Phil. 
 
272 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 iv. 20, "Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen." To the Son separately : Eev. i. 5, 6, " Unto 
 Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own 
 blood, and hath made us kings and priests vinto God and 
 His Father : to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
 Amen." To both together : Rev. v. 13/ " And every creature 
 which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and 
 such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, 
 Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." 
 It appears to me, however, that though Christ be the nearest re- 
 lative, yet, as " the God of peace " is the person addressed and 
 principally spoken of in the prayer, the ascription of praise is to 
 be considered as addressed to Him. " The God of peace" well 
 deserves to be praised and glorified for ever, for all He has 
 done for, and for all He has done in, His redeemed people. 
 The " bringing again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great 
 Shepherd of the sheep," and His " preparing His people in every 
 good work to do His will," by " working in them that which is 
 well-pleasing in His sight," are themes worthy of the songs of 
 eternity. In these dispensations He displays a power and a wis- 
 dom, a holiness and a grace, which richly deserve everlasting 
 praise. And as they desen'e it, so they shall receive it. The 
 Apostle's pious wish, in which every Christian will cordially 
 acquiesce, will be fully realized. A song ever new shall be un- 
 ceasingly raised by the nations of the saved to " the God of 
 peace," who reconciled them to Himself by the blood of His 
 Son, and declared the reconciliation by His glorious resurrec- 
 tion ; and who, by the instrumentality of His word and the 
 power of His Spirit, " prepared them for doing His will in 
 every good work, by working in them that which is well-pleas- 
 ing in His sight." " Amen," adds the Apostle. So it ought to 
 be, so let it be, so shall it be. " And let all the people say. 
 Amen, and Amen.^^ 
 
 This' is, properly speaking, the conclusion of the Epistle ; and 
 a more appropriate one could not have been conceived. What 
 follows in the four following verses is of the nature of a post- 
 script. This is a usual practice with the Apostle. Similar 
 postscripts are attached to the Epistles to the Romans and 
 Philippians, and to both the Epistles to Timothy. 
 
PART II.l CONCLUSION. 273 
 
 The 22d verse contains an affectionate request that they 
 would take kindly what on his part was meant kindly. " I be- 
 seech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation ; for I have 
 written a letter to you in few words." The Hebrew Christians 
 were, like all other Christians, Paul's spiritual brethren ; but I 
 think it very likely he here referred to the natural relation in 
 which they stood to him as Hebrews. It was as Hebrews — as 
 persons possessed with Jewish prejudices — that they especially 
 needed, and were in danger of not " sufferings the word of 
 exhortation." It is equivalent to — ' Remember, I am your 
 brother, and both feel the affection, and am warranted to use 
 the freedom, of a brother.' 
 
 " The word of exhortation" is just equivalent to — ' this hor- 
 tatory discourse.' Some have supposed that the Apostle refers 
 only to those parts of the Epistle that consist of direct exhorta- 
 tion, such as the beginning of the 2d chapter, the 6th, the latter 
 part of the 10th, the 12th, and the ISth chapters. We rather 
 apprehend that he means ' this hortatory discourse' as a general 
 description of the whole Epistle. And a juster one could not be 
 conceived ; for what is the Epistle, from beginning to end, but a 
 most impressive and well-supported exhortation to persevere in 
 the faith and profession of the Gospel, notwithstanding all the 
 temptations to abandon them to which they were exposed ? 
 
 To " suffer," or bear, this hortatory discourse, is a phrase 
 which obviously implies, that in it there were many things 
 opposed to their prejudices, and which, therefore, they might be 
 dissatisfied and displeased with. I do not know that the mean- 
 ing of the exhortation can be better given than in the words of 
 Dr Owen : " Let no prejudices, no inveterate opinions, no ap- 
 ■preliension of severity in its admonitions and thrcatenings, pro- 
 voke you against it, render you impatient under it, and so 
 cause you to lose the benefit of it. Christians should beware 
 of turning away from statements and exhortations merely be- 
 cause they are not very agTeeable to them. That may be the 
 very I'eason why they are peculiarly required by them." 
 
 The reason of this injunction is given in the close of the 
 
 verse : " For I have written a letter to you in few words." ^ It 
 
 may appear strange that the Apostle uses such lauguage with 
 
 regard to this Epistle, as it is the largest of his Epistles, with the 
 
 ^ oiic (ipuxiuu (^}j,44«TWfc) ; i.e., o<' oXiyav, — 1 Pet. V. 12. 
 
 VOL. II. S 
 
274 EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 exception of that written to the Romans, and as he seems to have 
 considered his Epistle to the Galatians a long one : " Ye see 
 how long a letter I have written to you with mine own hand." 
 The remark in the Epistle to the Galatians refers either to the 
 size and form of the Greek characters, which the Apostle does 
 not seem to have heen accustomed to write, or to the letter being 
 long for an autograph, he being in the habit of employing an 
 amanuensis. Length and shortness are comparative terms. A 
 very short letter on an unimportant subject may be too long, and 
 a very long letter on an important subject may be too short. The 
 Apostle's meaning is, ' I have written to you concisely.' And 
 who that has read the Epistle is not convinced of this '? ^ I have 
 delivered nearly one hundred lectures of an hour's length on 
 this Epistle ; and yet I am persuaded 1 have but very imper- 
 fectly brought out those " treasures of wisdom and knowledge" 
 which are contained in these brief terms. 
 
 The force of the conciseness of the Apostle's style, as a 
 reason why his brethren should " bear the word of exhortation," 
 is not difficult to perceive. It is equivalent to — ' If there be 
 anything apparently harsh and unpalatable in the exhortation, 
 impute it to the circumstance that I have had so much to com- 
 municate within a moderate compass, that there was no room to 
 smooth down all asperities.' 
 
 The 23d verse gives some interesting information respecting 
 a distinguished Christian evangelist, and the Apostle's intention 
 of speedily visiting the Hebrew Christians : " Know ye that our 
 brother Timothy is set at liberty ; with whom, if he come shortly, 
 I will see you." Timothy, of whose history we have a number 
 of notices in the Acts of the Apostles, seems to have accom- 
 panied the Apostle in very many of his journeyings, and to have 
 served with him as a son with a father in the work of the 
 Gospel. Having been with him in Judea, his worth and ex- 
 cellences were well known to the churches there. He does not 
 seem to have gone to Rome with the Apostle, but he probably 
 followed him there ; and it would appear from this passage that 
 he had been cast into prison as an associate of Paul, or for 
 preaching the Gospel himself. From this imprisonment he had 
 
 1 " It is reasonable to suppose that the -vn-iter means to say that he had 
 written briefly, considering the importance and difiiculty of the subjects of 
 which he had treated. And who will deny tliis?" — Stuart. 
 
PART II.] CONCLUSION. 275 
 
 been delivered ; and it seems to have been his intention to avail 
 himself of his deliverance to visit the brethren in Judea. The 
 Apostle intimates his intention to accompany Timothy in this 
 journey, if he should undertake it soon ; at the same time, hint- 
 ing that, if Timothy could not come speedily, it was doubtful 
 whether his work would permit him to do so or not. We do not 
 know whether these expectations were ever fulfilled. 
 
 The words in the 24th verse seem plainly addressed to those 
 individuals to whom the letter was sent, and by whom it was to 
 be communicated to the Church. He charges them to " salute" 
 — i.e., to express his kind and respectful affection, first to the 
 ofiice-bearers, and then to the members of the churches of Judea. 
 The members are called sai)its — separated ones, set apart by 
 God for Himself — separated from " the world lying under the 
 wicked one" — devoted to the love, and fear, and service of God 
 and His Son. Such are the only proper members of the visible 
 Church ; such are the only true members of the Church in- 
 visible. " They of Italy salute you ;"^ that is, ' The Christians in 
 Italy send you the assurance of their cordial regard.' How does 
 Christianity melt down prejudices ! Romans and Jews, Italians 
 and Hebrews, were accustomed to regard each other with con- 
 tempt and hatred. But in Christ Jesus there is neither Roman 
 nor Jew, neither Italian nor Hebrew : all are one. Christians 
 of different countries should take all proper opportunities of 
 testifying their mutual regard to each other. It is calculated 
 to strengthen and console, and to knit them closer and closer in 
 love. Proper expressions of love increase love on both sides. 
 
 The Epistle is concluded with the usual sign in the Apostle's 
 Epistles, written probably by his own hand. " Grace be with 
 you all. Amen." "Grace" here is the grace of God — the 
 divine sovereign kindness. What a comprehensive, kind wish 
 is this : ' ^lay you be the objects of the continued love of the 
 greatest, the Avisest, and the best Being in the universe; and 
 
 ^ 0/ oLtto TV); 'It«a/«j may signify, ' those who have come from Italy' — 
 those ItaUans who have been obliged to leave their country and come to 
 some other country. In this way some interpreters render it, especially 
 those who deny the Pauline origin of the Epistle. It may signify Italians 
 generally, including Romans ; but supposing the Epistle to have been 
 written from Rome, it probably signifies the Christians from other parts of 
 Italy, at the time residing in Rome. Tholuck's note deserves to be read. 
 
27(3 EPISTLE TO THE HEBKEWS. [CHAP. XIII. 15-25. 
 
 may He constantly bestow on you proofs of His peculiar love 
 and care !' " His favour is life, His loving-kindness is better than 
 life." Nothing better, for time or for eternity, can be desired 
 for ourselves or for others than the grace of God. Infinite power 
 to guard, infinite wisdom to guide, infinite excellence and love to 
 excite and gratify all the affections of the heart for ever and ever. 
 
 And now I close these illustrations of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. Happier hours than those which I have spent in 
 composing these expository discourses, I can scarcely expect to 
 spend on this side the grave. 1 trust the study of tlie Epistle 
 has not been without some improvement, as well as much enjoy- 
 ment, to myself. I shall rejoice if at last it shall be found that 
 others also have been made better and happier by it. All is now 
 over with the author and bis readers, as to his illustrating the 
 Epistle, and their listening to these illustrations ; but there re- 
 mains the improvement to be made, and the account to be 
 given in. God requireth the things which are past, and so 
 should we. Let me request those who have accompanied me 
 thus far, seriously to review the whole Epistle, and ask them- 
 selves, Do we understand it better, and do we feel more strongly 
 the sanctifying and consoling influence of the doctrines which 
 it unfolds ? Can we say with greater conviction of the truth 
 than formerly. We need a High Priest — we have a High Priest — 
 we are well pleased with our High Priest ; we have acknowledged 
 Jesus as our Hioh Priest ; we will hold fast our acknowleds- 
 ment ; He died for us — we will live for Him ; and if He calls 
 us, we will die for Him ; we will trace His steps on the earth, 
 we will wait His coming in the clouds ? If this be the case even 
 in one individual, I shall not have laboured in vain : if it has 
 been the case with a number of individuals, I shall have re- 
 ceived a full reward. 
 
 TIpo<i E^paiov^ erypdc^rj airo Trj<i 'IraX/a? hta Ti/jboOeov. 
 
 The 23d verse of the 13th chapter sufiiciently proves that 
 this hypograph is not genuine. Like many of the other hypo- 
 graphs of the Apostolical Epistles, it is the mere conjecture of 
 an ignorant and inconsiderate transcriber. " These inscriptions 
 are," as Hallett well says, " not of the least authority. It is a 
 pity they should be printed in the Bible." In some JNISS., after 
 ijpdcjir], 'E^pac(Trl is added. Instead of aTro t?}9 'lTdX,La<;, one 
 codex has cltto 'P(ofX7]<i, and another, air 'AOrjvcov. 
 
DISCOUESES 
 
 ON SELECT PORTIONS OF THE 
 
 EPISTLE TO THE HEBEEWS. 
 
DISCOURSES 
 
 ON 
 
 SELECT POETIONS OF THE EPISTLE. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S PEIVILEGE AND DUTY. 
 
 Heb. IV. 14-16. — " Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that 
 is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our pro- 
 fession. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the 
 feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
 without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that 
 we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 
 
 There is an intimate connection between truth and holiness, 
 doctrine and precept, faith and practice, the ilhimination of the 
 mind and the transformation of the heart and hfe. The prin- 
 ciple now announced is deeply founded in the constitution of 
 .human nature ; and it is one of the many corroborative evi- 
 dences of the divine origin of the Scri})tural revelation, that it 
 uniformly recognises this principle. Its statements of truth 
 always look forward to practical results, and its injunctions to 
 duty look back to announced principles. TJds is t7'ue ; there- 
 fore that is right. This is right, because that is true. 
 
 We have an exemplification of this in the passage of Scrip- 
 ture which forms the subject of discourse. It consists of a 
 statement and an exhortation ; the statement originating the ex- 
 hortation, the exhortation based on the statement. The state- 
 ment is fourfold : — We Christians have a High Priest. Jesus 
 Christ is our High Priest. He is a great High Priest, being 
 
280 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 tlie Son of God, and having passed into the heavens. He is 
 a compassionate High Priest ; He is « not a High Priest who 
 cannot be touched Avith the feeling of our infirmities ; but Avas 
 in all points tempted like as we are, yet Avithout sin." The 
 exhortation is tAvofold :— " Let us hold fast our profession ;'" and, 
 "■ Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that Ave may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." The duties 
 enjoined in the exhortation are inferences from the doctrines 
 contained in the statement. The doctrines contained in the 
 statement are motives to the duties enjoined in the exliortation. 
 The Christian's jmrihr/e, the Christian's diiti/, and the influence 
 Avhich the one ought to liaA^e on the other, are all here strikingly 
 placed before us. 
 
 The statement runs thus : " We have a great High Priest, 
 that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. We 
 have not a high priest Avho cannot be touched Avith the feeling 
 of our infirmities ; but Avas in all points tempted like as Ave are, 
 yet Avithout sin." This complex statement naturally resolves 
 itself into these four simple ones : We Christians have a High 
 Priest ; Jesus Christ is our High Priest ; He is a great High 
 Priest ; He is a compassionate High Priest. Let us attend to 
 these in their order. 
 
 I. Li the first place, then, the text teaches us that "avc Chris- 
 tians haA^e a Hirjli PriestP Had man continued innocent, and 
 therefore safe and happy, there Avould have been no high priest, 
 for man would haA'e had no need of one ; and had his fall been 
 irremediable— had it been impossible to avert the dangers, to 
 escape the miseries, in Avhich he Avas involved— there Avould 
 equally liaA^e been no high priest, for there avouM have been 
 no use for one. " The angels who kept their first estate " have 
 no high priest ; and neither have they avIio, having sinned, are 
 "reserved under everlasting chains to the judgment of the great 
 day." 
 
 The high-priesthood is an institution rising out of the 
 peculiar circumstances of our race, as lost, but not hopelessly 
 lost. " A high priest is a person taken from among men, or- 
 dained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer 
 both gifts and sacrifices to God." 
 
 While man AA\as innocent, he needed no one to come betAveen 
 him and God and transact his business Avith Him, Avith whom 
 
THE CIII^ISTIAX'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 281 
 
 priiicipallj every intelligent accountaLle being has to do. God 
 was pleased with His innocent child, and delighted to do him 
 good; and man, fnll of veneration, and love, and confidence, 
 fomid his happiness in such fellowship with God as was com- 
 petent to his natm'e. 
 
 But the introduction of sin produced a sad revolution. God 
 became displeased with man, and man alienated from God. 
 All direct favourable communication was at end, and must have 
 been at an end for ever, if some means were not employed at 
 once to make the restoration of man to the enjoyment of the 
 favour and fellowship of God consistent with the perfections 
 of the divine character, and the principles of the divine govern- 
 ment, and to effect such a change in man's dispositions as would 
 fit him for acceptable intercom'se with God. 
 
 To make atonement for sin, so that it might be pardoned, 
 and so to purify men as that they should be capable of yielding 
 acceptable obedience to God, and of finding supreme ultimate 
 happiness in God — this was the great design of the institution of 
 a high priest. 
 
 The priesthood under the patriarchal and Mosaic economies 
 could not effect these purposes ; but it was at once a striking 
 representation of what was necessary to effect them, and a 
 gracious intimation that, in the fulness of the times, they should 
 be effected. So far as the heathen priesthood was not a cor- 
 rupted resemblance of the patriarchal or Mosaic institution, it 
 was the expression of the natural feelings of fallen man, con- 
 scious of guilt, and afraid of punishment. 
 
 The High Priest man needs, we Christians have. We know 
 that an atonement of infinite value has been offered and ac- 
 cepted, and that an influence has been sectu'od, fitting men for 
 that I'enewed favourable intercourse with God, a way for which 
 has been opened through the merits of the great sacrifice of 
 expiation. 
 
 A high priest is the first necessity in a religion for fallen 
 man. Clear statements of truth and duty, with corresponding 
 evidence and motive, are good, necessary things ; but Avhat can 
 they do where there is no atoning sacrifice, no sanctifying in- 
 fluence ? Teachers, lawgivers, are very valuable ; but they can- 
 not make up for the want of a high priest. 
 
 Under the Christian dispensation, all the external appear- 
 
282 - DISCOURSE I. 
 
 ances of a priestly institution are wanting. ISTo material temple, 
 in the proper sense of the word — no altar — no human priest — 
 no animal sacrifices — no lustratory rites. Yet ice have a High 
 Priest ; and it is just because we have Him that we have none 
 of these. The unbelieving Jews would be very apt to say to 
 their Christian compatriots, Your new religion is deficient in 
 the very first requisite of a religion for fallen men. You have 
 no high priest. How are your sins to be pardoned? you 
 have none to make expiation for you. How are your pollutions 
 to be cleansed ? you have none to sprinkle you tliat you may 
 be clean. How are your wants to be supplied ? you have none 
 to make intercession for you. 
 
 The answer to the cavil is contained in the words of our 
 text, " We have a High Priest." The high priest among the 
 Jews was the principal religious minister of that economy, the 
 inferior priests being merely his deputies, executing such parts 
 of his office as he could not personally overtake. The import 
 of the institution was, as I have already remarked, that God 
 was offended with man, and would not have direct favourable 
 intercourse Avith him ; that He was disposed to be reconciled 
 to him ; and that the medium through which He was disposed 
 to confer saving blessings on him, was that of vicarious sacri- 
 fice and intercession. When, then, the Apostle says, "We 
 have a High Priest," he means, We have one who has offered up 
 an availing expiatory sacrifice in our room ; who has done what 
 renders it consistent with, and illustrative of, the divine chai*ac- 
 ter to pardon and save us ; and one, too, who makes intercession 
 for us — continually interposes in our behalf with God, so as to 
 secure for us everything that is necessary to final and complete 
 salvation. Such is the import of the statement, " We have a 
 High Priest." 
 
 II. I remark, in the second place, that Jesus Christ is our 
 High Priest. 
 
 None could be our high priest unless divinely commissioned 
 to_be so. None can be our high priest who has not executed, 
 and is not executing, the functions peculiar to that office. In 
 Jesus Christ — in Him alone — are to be found those necessary 
 and indubitable evidences of being our High Priest. 
 
 " No man taketli this honour of high-priesthood to himself, 
 but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." So also Christ 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 283 
 
 glorified not Himself to be made a high priest ; but His Father 
 God thus glorified Him. He who said to Him in a divine 
 oracle, " Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," 
 said also in another divine oracle, " Thou art a Priest for ever, 
 after the order of ^lelchisedec." He came not of Himself — 
 His Father sent Him ; and He came to give His life a ransom 
 for many — to give His flesh for the life of the world. I have 
 power, says He, to lay down ^My life for the sheep. I have 
 power to take it up again. " This commandment have I re- 
 ceived of My Father." 
 
 And as Jesus Christ was commissioned to be our High 
 Priest, so He performs for us the functions of high- priesthood. 
 He is "the Mediator, the one Mediator between God and man." 
 He has offered for us an atoning sacrifice of infinite value. 
 He did not, indeed, offer animal sacrifices in that temple which 
 "served as an example and shadow of the heavenly things;" 
 but He did offer a sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices offered in 
 that temple were figures. Being a High Priest, He was ordained 
 to offer gifts and sacrifices. It was of necessity, therefore, that 
 He should have somewhat to offer. The Eternal Son, our 
 appointed High Priest, though the Inheritor of all things, the 
 Proprietor of the Universe, had in that character nothing that 
 He could offer as a sacrifice. The suitable, the only available, 
 victim must be obtained by His becoming incarnate. " A body 
 was prepared Him ; " and in that body, once for all, He offered 
 Himself for us, a sacrifice and an offering of a sweet-smelling 
 savour. He laid Himself as the Lamb of God, bearing, and 
 bearing away, the sin of the Avorld, on the altar of divine jus- 
 tice. His perfect conformity in disposition to the divine law, 
 his spotless obedience to all its commands, and His cheerful 
 submission to its penal sanction in the room of men — this was 
 the sacrifice by which the requisitions of justice and the pur- 
 pose of mercy were harmonized. We are "sanctified by the 
 offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." " The blood 
 of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
 
 And on the ground of this all-perfect atonement, having 
 obtained eternal redemption for us. He has entered into the 
 true holy place, the heaven of heavens. There He ever liveth, 
 making intercession for us, so as to be able to save to the 
 uttermost all coming to God by Him. By the blood of His 
 
284 DISCOUESE I. 
 
 atoning sacrifice sprinkled on the conscience — that is, by the 
 effect of the truth respecting this atoning sacrifice, understood 
 and believed, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, whom God 
 lias shed forth on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour — we are at once disposed and qualified for habitual 
 holy intercourse with God, in Christ reconciling the world to 
 Himself, and are enabled to present ourselves to Him as living 
 sacrifices — sacrifices of eucharist, not of atonement — ^lioly, ac- 
 ceptable, which is rational worship. Thus is Jesus Christ our 
 High Priest — our only High Priest. 
 
 None can, without imminent hazard, intrude on His func- 
 tions. They are strictly appropriated to Himself. Whosoever 
 attempts to take His place, or to substitute any other in His 
 room, will not only lose the advantage of His priesthood, but 
 incur guilt peculiarly deep, and expose himself to punishment 
 peculiarly dreadful. 
 
 III. I proceed to remark, in the third place, that the text 
 teaches us that Christ Jesus is a great High Priest. " We have a 
 great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son 
 of God." Our Hio;h Priest is a ffreat Hio;h Priest. He is so 
 both comparatively and absolutely — great in contrast to the 
 Gentile high priests, who were impostors ; great in com])arison 
 with the Jewish high priests, who were but shadows. He was 
 the reality as a High Priest : a real High Priest in opposition 
 to pretended high priests; the real High Priest in contrast 
 with figurative high priests. And He was a great reality. In 
 the nature and measure of qualification for the office which He 
 possessed and displayed, in the manner in which He discharged 
 the functions of that office, and in the nature, variety, and 
 value of the results of His discharge of these functions, there is 
 a manifestation of an intellectual and moral grandeur such as 
 the universe never before witnessed — a display of infinite know- 
 ledge, and wisdom, and righteousness, and kindness. 
 
 The greatness of our High Priest is a boundless theme. The 
 studies of eternity will not exhaust it. Here it is brought be- 
 fore our minds in two aspects, similar to those in which His 
 greatness, viewed alongside of that of the angels, is exhibited 
 in the previous context of this Epistle, when it is said that He 
 has been made as much higher than the angels, as He has ob- 
 tained by inheritance a more excellent name than they. In 
 
THE CIiraSTIAX'S TRIVILEGE AXD DUTY. 285 
 
 essential and in official greatness He is infinitely exalted above 
 all other high priests. His essential greatness is marked by the 
 expression, the Son of God ; His official greatness, He is passed 
 into the heavens. Let us look a little at these two aspects uf 
 our High Priest's greatness. 
 
 First, our High Priest is a great High Priest ; for He is tlie 
 Son of God. This is an appellation which is peculiar to Him. 
 It is not applied, it cannot be applied, to any other being in the 
 universe. Holy angels and sanctified men — to mark their origin 
 as intelligent holy beings, their likeness to God, their being 
 the objects of His complacential regard, and His being the ob- 
 ject of their supreme veneration, love, and confidence — are 
 termed sons of God ; but Jesus only receives the name of the Son. 
 He is " the only-begotten Son" — " God's own Son" — " the Son 
 of Plimself.*' To none but Him did God ever say, " Thou art 
 ]My Son, this day I have begotten Thee." This name indicates 
 identity of nature, and, of course, equality of perfection. 
 
 The proper Deity of Him who is our High Priest is one of 
 the foundation principles of our most holy faith. The names 
 most descriptive of divine excellence are given Him — God, the 
 Lord, Jehovah. The attributes most strictly peculiar to Deity 
 are ascribed to Plim — Eternity, Immutability, Omniscience, 
 Onniipresence, Omnipotence. Works competent only to Deity 
 are represented as performed by Him — He is the Creator, Up- 
 holder, Ruler, Judge of the world; and He is the object of 
 worship on earth and in heaven. 
 
 We need go no further than the first chapter of this Epistle 
 to learn how infinitely great is our High Priest as the Son of 
 God. He who has purged our sins, — made the v/orlds, is the In- 
 heritor of all things, is the brightness of the Father's glory, the 
 express image of His person, upholds all things by the word of 
 His power, has obtained by inheritance a more excellent name 
 than the angels, even that of the only-begotten Son, while 
 their highest name is, created spirits, spiritual creatures. He in 
 the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens 
 are the works of His hand. They shall perish, but He remainetli ; 
 they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture will 
 He fold them up, and ther/ shall be changed : but II k is the 
 same, and His years shall not fail. 
 
 Such is the essential iiTeatness of Him who is our Iliirh 
 
286 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 Priest. And tliis essential greatness must stamp an incon- 
 ceivable grandeur on all that He is and does in His official cha- 
 racter. What limits can be set to the value of the sacrifice, to 
 the importance of its results, and to the dignity of Him who 
 presents the sacrifice, and works out its results — 
 
 " When God Himself comes down to be 
 The Offering and the Priest ! " 
 
 But, secondly, our High Priest is a great High Priest ; for 
 *' He has passed into the heavens," or rather. He has passed 
 through the heavens. The fact stated here, and, still more, that 
 which is necessarily implied in the fact, are striking proofs of 
 the greatness of the High Priest of our profession. 
 
 The fact proves His greatness. The fact referred to is His 
 ascension through these heavens into the heaven of heavens. It 
 is thus described in the Gospel history : Forty days after His 
 passion, having given His disciples " many infalhble proofs " 
 that He was risen from the dead, and having "through the 
 Holy Ghost given commandment to them," and spoken to them 
 " the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," " He led them 
 out as far as Bethany, and lifted up His hands and blessed 
 them ; and it came to pass, while He blessed them. He was 
 parted from them." " He was taken up, and a cloud received 
 Him out of their sight. And, while they looked stedfastly toward 
 heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white 
 apparel ; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here 
 gazing up into heaven f this same Jesus, which is taken from 
 you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen 
 Him go into heaven." Thus was Jesus our High Priest " taken 
 up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God ;" " angels, and 
 authorities, and powers being made subject to Him." 
 
 The mere fact is a proof of transcendent greatness ; but we 
 do not see half the evidence which it affords of the greatness of 
 Jesus as our High Priest, if we do not attend to the import of 
 the fact, as that is distinctly unKilded to us in Scripture. 
 The vail which divided the holy place from the holy of holies 
 was an emblem of the visible heavens — the vail between the 
 earth which is the outer, and heaven which is the inner, 
 temple of Jehovah. Through the vail the Jewish high priests 
 passed once a year, on the great day of atonement, after having 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S TRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 287 
 
 offered up expiatory sacrifice for the peoj)le, to present before 
 the Lord the evidence that atonement was made according to 
 the due order, and to receive tokens that Jehovah Avas recon- 
 ciled to His offending people. Our Lord's going up through 
 these visible heavens into the heaven of heavens, was a function 
 of His high-priesthood ; and places in a striking point of view 
 His greatness as a High Priest, whether you consider what led 
 to it, or what it led to. 
 
 What led to it ? His incarnation, obedience, suffering, and 
 death. The Son of God, taking to Himself a holy human na- 
 ture, full of the Holy Ghost, qualified Himself for His priestly 
 functions. Li His obedience, sufferings, and death, we have the 
 great expiatory sacrifice which He came to offer up — that which 
 was to make the salvation of man consistent with, and illustra- 
 tive of, the perfections of the divine character and the prin- 
 ciples of the divine government, and lay a foundation for that 
 change of character in men which would fit them for holy hap- 
 piness in the service and enjoyment of God. Li the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead and the ascension to heaven, we have the 
 most satisfactory evidence that this sacrifice has served its pur- 
 pose — that the supreme Judge is satisfied — that the sacrifice, as 
 it was a sacrifice of infinite worth, and in every point offered up 
 in entire agreement with divine appointment, is indeed a sacri- 
 fice of a sweet-smelling savour to God. The High Priest of 
 our profession, raised from the dust of death to never-ending 
 life, is raised from earth to heaven ; and as a token at once that 
 what has been done by Him is acceptable, and that it never can 
 require to be repeated. He is set down for ever on the right 
 hand of the Majesty on high. Is He not a great High Priest, 
 who has done what numberless priests, divinely appointed, had 
 by numberless sacrifices, during a long course of ages, been 
 attempting in vaini This proclaims: He has finished transgres- 
 sion ; He has made an end of sin ; He has brought in everlast- 
 ing righteousness ; His blood cleanses from all sin. He has, by 
 His one offering, perfected for ever all them who are sanctified. 
 He is set forth a propitiation in His blood. God is just, and 
 the justifier of the ungodly believing in Jesus. God is in 
 Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing to them 
 their trespasses ; seeing He hath made Him who knew no sin 
 to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
 
288 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 in Him. Who sliall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? 
 It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even 
 at the right hand of God. 
 
 If the consideration of what led to our High Priest passing 
 tlu'ouo-h those heavens places in a strong light His greatness as 
 a High Priest, the consideration of what this passing through 
 the heavens led to, gives additional evidence of the same truth. 
 It led to His receiving from His Father power over all flesh, — 
 all power in heaven and in earth. Jehovah said to Ilim, Sit 
 on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. 
 The Lord sware, and He will not repent. Thou art a Priest for 
 ever, after the order of Melchisedec. There, then, sits our 
 High Priest, a Priest on His throne ^ — the regal and sacerdotal 
 dignities gloriously harmonized in Him — a covenant of peace 
 between them both — having the government of the universe 
 committed to Him, external event and inward influence being 
 equally under His control, coming and going at His bidding. 
 He is able to save to the uttermost all coming to God by Him. 
 Nothing without them, nothing within them, can withstand His 
 saving omnipotence. Having made His soul an offering for 
 sin. He sees His seed. He prolongs His days, and the pleasure 
 of the Lord prospers in His hand. He sees of the travail of 
 His soul, and is satisfied. The righteous Servant of Jehovah, 
 the great High Priest, justifies many through the knowledge of 
 Himself, having borne their iniquities. All this is the result of 
 Plis successful discharge of the functions of high-priesthood. 
 It is all because He poured out His soul unto death, and was 
 numbered among the transgressors, and bare the sins of many. 
 Such is the result of Jesus our High Priest passing into tlio 
 heavens ; and is He not then a great High Priest, every way 
 qualified for the work of a high priest — to bring men to God, to 
 His favour, image, fellowship, and enjoyment ? 
 
 IV. I proceed to the illustration of the fourth statement. 
 ' Jesus Chi'ist, our High Priest, is a compassionate High 
 Priest.' In Christ Jesus, our great High Priest, who has 
 passed into the heavens, " we have not a High Priest who can- 
 not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but we have 
 a Hio-h Priest who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
 without sin," and who therefore can be touched with the feeling 
 of our infirmities. After explaining these words, I will shortly 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 289 
 
 illustrate the sentiment they convey, and then proceed to tl.e 
 illustration of the exhortations founded on the statements. 
 
 " Our infirmities," is a term expressive generally of our 
 weaknesses and afflictions. The Apostle explains his declara- 
 tion, " I will glory in my infirmities," — I take pleasure in in- 
 firmities, — i.e., " in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in 
 distresses." 
 
 To have a fellow-feeling with, or to sympathize in our in- 
 firmities, is to compassionate us while suffering under these 
 weaknesses and afflictions, — so to compassionate us, as he only 
 can who has himself sustained similar weaknesses and afflictions. 
 Sympathy is a law of our nature : when we see oiu* fellow- 
 creatures in distress, we are affected with a feeling similar to 
 theirs. The foundation of this feeling lies in the possession of 
 a common nature ; and its proximate cause seems to be the ex- 
 citement of those feelings which we have experienced, or know 
 that we should experience, placed in similar circumstances with 
 the sufferer. A benevolent being, incapable of suffering, ma}', 
 must pity sufferers, but cannot, in the strict sense of the word, 
 sympathize with them. 
 
 Our High Priest can sympathize with us ; for He is a man — • 
 a suffering man. He is not a holy angel, who has never expe- 
 rienced weakness or pain. He is not merely a Divine Being, 
 who is, because merely divine, essentially impassible. While 
 He is the Word who is God, He is " the Word made flesh ;" 
 while " God's own Son," He is " the man Christ Jesus." " For- 
 asmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood. He 
 also Himself likewise took part of the same." And He not only, 
 in consequence of His incarnation, became capable of suffering 
 ^suffering as men suffer; but He has actually suffered — suf- 
 fered as men suffer. " We have not a High Priest who cannot 
 be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but," on the con- 
 trary, we have a High Priest who " was in all points tempted 
 like as we are," and therefore can be touched with the feeluig of 
 our infirmities. 
 
 Our High Priest " was tempted ;" that is, He was tried. 
 The strength and steadiness of His loyal regard to the divine 
 honour, as connected with the execution of the great work com- 
 mitted to Him, were subjected to numerous, varied, severe, 
 searching tests. He experienced in an unparalleled degree 
 VOL. II. T 
 
290 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 " the ills that flesh is heir to ;" and they were all to Him, as 
 they are to us, trials ; so that He could sympathize with us in 
 them both as sufferings and as trials. He knows from expe- 
 rience what bodily uneasiness, fatigue, pain, agony are ; and 
 knows, too, all that man can suffer from grief, sorrow, shame, 
 fear, disappointment, and regret. 
 
 He was tempted " in all things" — in every point. He was 
 exposed to trials suited to all the various principles of human 
 nature ; so that, wherever the test of affliction was applicable, it 
 was applied. With the single exception of the misery neces- 
 sarily connected with remorse and depraved feeling, there is no 
 kind of suffering of which He was not participant. 
 
 He was thus tried " like unto us." The precise force of 
 this expression, which, literally rendered, is, " according to like- 
 ness," is not very easily determined. It may signify, what our 
 translators obviously understood by it, ' In every way in which 
 we are tried He has been tried ;' or it may signify. He was tried 
 in all things in a conformity to the likeness of His nature and 
 circumstances to ours. That conformity was extensive, but it was 
 not complete. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh — He 
 was made flesh ; but He was not made sinful flesh. He was 
 tried in all things, so far as His conformity to us admitted. To 
 all trials, except those which are inseparably connected with 
 present guilt and depravity. He was exposed. The general 
 meaning is plain — ' being assimilated to us in all manner of 
 trials.' 
 
 The qualifying vrorfL3, " yet without sin," may be variously 
 understood. They may either indicate that His trials did not 
 originate, as all ours do, in our personal sin ; or that they did 
 not lead to sin in Him, as they always, in some degree or other, 
 do in us. Both are truths. We are sufferers, because we are 
 personally sinners. He, though the greatest of sufferers, was 
 completely free from personal fault and depravity. He suffered 
 for sins, but not for His own sins. " Messiah was cut off, but 
 not for Himself." He was " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
 from sinners." If He had had sins of His own to expiate. He 
 never could have expiated ours. As our trials originate in our 
 sins, so none of them are undergone by us without discovering 
 that we are morally imperfect — that we are depraved beings. 
 There is always something wanting — something wrong. Our 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 291 
 
 trials, even when tliey are ultimately salutary and sanctifyino-, 
 bring out our deficiencies and faults. It was otherwise with 
 our High Priest. He could say to Him who tried Him, the 
 Holy, Holy, Holy One, the Searcher of the hearts, the Trier of 
 the reins, what the holiest mere man never durst say, — « Thou 
 hast proved My heart ; Thou hast visited Me in the night ; Thou 
 hast tried ^Me, and shalt find nothing in ;Me." When the tempter 
 comes to us, he finds something of his own in us on which to 
 practise ; and his temptations, in consequence of being imper- 
 fectly resisted, even when not entirely complied with, seldom 
 leave us without our contracting, additional guilt, — a strong 
 reason why we should avoid unnecessary trials, and earnestly 
 present the petition. Lord, lead us not into temptation. 
 
 There is something peculiar in the language of the Apostle 
 in describing the compassion, the sympathy of the Saviour, in 
 the passage before us. He is " not a High Priest who cannot 
 be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." We should have 
 expected him to say, We have a High Priest who can be 
 touched, or who is touched, with the feeling of our infirmities. 
 There must be a reason for his adopting so strange a circum- 
 locution ; and I do not think we have far to seek for it. In the 
 preceding verse he had represented our Lord as a great High 
 Priest— both essentially and officially great — the Son of God ; 
 and as having " passed through these heavens" into the heaven 
 of heavens. The thought would naturally occur: Such a 
 High Priest cannot be touched with the feeling of our infinni- 
 ties. He is too high above us to enter into our perplexities, and 
 fears, and sorrows. No, says the Apostle ; this High Priest, not- 
 withstanding all His essential and ofiicial grandeur, is not inca- 
 pable of sympathizing with you, for in His assumed nature on 
 earth He was in all things tempted like as ye are ; and though 
 unlike you in this, that before trial, under trial, after trial. He 
 was without sin, this no more than His essential and mediatorial 
 greatness interferes with His capacity of thoroughly sympathiz- 
 ing with you under all your infirmities. 
 
 His sympathy is not impaired by His divine perfection, nor 
 by His glorified state. His divinity, which did not hinder Him, 
 when on the earth, from suffering, cannot, now that He is in 
 heaven, interfere with the capacity and exercise of the sympathy 
 growing out of these sufferings. His exaltation to the right 
 
292 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 hand of God has not made Him less a man than He was on the 
 earth. The same human heart beats in the bosom of Him who 
 reisns in heaven, as in Him who on earth shed tears at Lazarus' 
 grave, and as He drew near to Jerusalem. " His compassion is 
 the same essentially as it ever was. A change has taken place 
 in its degree and mode of exercise. Everything that was pain- 
 ful in it, as felt by Him in the days of His flesh, is now re- 
 moved. He no longer groans and weeps ; but He retains a 
 lively recollection of all He suffered on earth, and of the man- 
 ner in which He was affected by it, which, acting on the essen- 
 tial principles of His humanity, prompts Him to exert His 
 boundless mercy and power in supporting, and relieving, and 
 comforting His afflicted people." ^ 
 
 Nor does our Lord's entire freedom from sin make Him " a 
 High Priest who cannot be touched with the infirmities" of His 
 people. It is finely remarked by the writer quoted above, that 
 " the consciousness of their own moral infirmity, or liability to 
 sin, was fitted to make the priests under the law, and should 
 make the ministers of the Gospel still, tender in their dealings 
 with fellow-sinners, ' considering themselves, lest they also be 
 tempted.' Yet sin dwelling in any man is itself an evil ; and 
 in proportion as it prevails, instead of helping, hurts the exercise 
 of compassion, as well as of every other good disposition, ren- 
 dering him less qualified for discharging his duties to others. 
 From this sinful infirmity our Lord was perfectly free ; yet 
 being made sensible of its power over us, by His having felt all 
 the natural infirmities which in us are connected with sin, and 
 by which we are often drawn into its commission. He is per- 
 fectly qualified for sympathizing, not indeed with the sin, but 
 with the weakness which gives occasion to, and, in our case, 
 yields to the temptation." " As a person who successfully 
 resists the violence which may be used to draw him from the 
 king's highway, knows the strength of the assailant better than 
 one who yields, with little or no resistance, so Christ knows the 
 force of temptation, which He uniformly resisted, better than 
 we who but too easily comply Avith it." 
 
 From these illustrations of the words in which the Apostle 
 asserts the sympathy of the Eedeemer, it appears that his senti- 
 ment may be thus expressed : ' The divine nature, the media- 
 
 1 M'Crie. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 293 
 
 torial gloiy, and the absolute slnlessness of Jesus Christ, while 
 they fit Him to perform for us the great functions of effectual 
 atonement and intercession, in no degree prevent His tender 
 sympathy with His people — His being to them " a merciful and 
 faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God;" for "in the 
 days of His flesh" " He suffered, being tempted, so that He is 
 able to succour them who are tempted." " He was in all things 
 tempted like as we are," so that He is not — as might be supposed, 
 from thinking merely of His absolute sinlessness and His divine 
 and mediatorial glories — a High Priest who cannot be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities ; but even more than the 
 Jewish priests, who were compassed wnth moral infirmities, as 
 well as those for whose benefit they performed the priestly 
 functions, He can have compassion on the ignorant, and them 
 tliat are out of the way.' It is plain that, while this is the 
 direct force of the statement, it seems intended also to suggest 
 the idea, that our High Priest is not only not a High Priest 
 who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities — who 
 can be touched, but also that He is touched, that He cannot 
 hut he touched, with them. 
 
 How full of comfort to the people of Christ — " compassed 
 about as they are with infirmity," liable to suffering in such a 
 variety of foi'ms — is this consideration that they are sure of their 
 Saviour's sympathy in them all ! Are they in languor, debility, 
 pain, agony ? He who sat by the well of Sychar, weary and 
 way-worn — He who felt the pain of the scourge, and the deeper 
 agony of the cross — comprehends all they feel, pities them, and 
 can and will give them the necessary support. Are they poor, 
 and do they find it difficult to meet the demands made on 
 them ? He who had not where to lay His head, and, when the 
 tax-gatherers came to Him, had nothing to meet their demands 
 — He sympathizes with their honest anxiety, and, though He 
 may not send the needed supply in a fish's mouth, can and will 
 give the needed relief. Are they mourning the death of valued 
 relatives and friends ? He who wept at the grave of Lazarus — 
 He who had pity on the bereaved widow of Nain — feels for 
 them, and will comfort them. Are they pained by the unkind 
 conduct of living friends ? He whose relations did not believe 
 in Him, whom one disciple betrayed and another denied, and 
 whose best friends deserted Him in the hour of trial, — He has a 
 
29-1 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 fellow-feeling with this affliction, and will prove Himself " a 
 friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Are they perse- 
 cuted and reproached for righteousness' sake ? He who for the 
 sake of His Father's honour and their salvation bore reproach, 
 and was persecuted even unto death, cannot but take a deep in- 
 terest in those who suffer in the same cause ; and they cannot 
 take a more ready way to prevent their being " weary and faint 
 in their minds," than " considering Him who endui-ed such con- 
 tradiction of sinners against Plimself," and realizing His pro- 
 mised presence, sympathy, and relief. Are they suffering from 
 the temptations of the wicked one ? He who experienced the 
 hour and power of darkness " will not suffer them to be tempted 
 above what they are able to bear " — He will pray for them, that 
 their faith fail not. 
 
 " He knows what sore temptations are, 
 For He has felt the siime." 
 
 Are they weighed down with a sense of guilt, oppressed with a 
 feeling of the loathsomeness of sin 1 Though He never knew 
 remorse — for He always, in thought and feeling, language and 
 action, was entirely conformed to the will of God; though He 
 never knew what it is to say, " Wretched man that I am, who 
 will deliver me from this body of death ?" — for sin never dwelt in 
 Him, never found entrance into Him ; — yet none know as He 
 knows the demerit and the hatefulness of sin ; and none can 
 understand as He does how a sense of these pains weigh down 
 the heart ; and none but He, in His atoning blood sprinkled on 
 the conscience, and by His purifying Spirit shed forth abundantly 
 on the heart, can give the needed relief. Are they deprived of 
 divine consolations, and going mourning as those Avithout the 
 sun ? He who agonized in Gethsemane — He who on the cross 
 uttered the bitter cry, ";My God, My God, why hast Thou 
 forsaken Me ?" — He can understand, what their friends can only 
 very imperfectly do in many cases, — He can understand their 
 sorrows, and, touched with compassion, will give seasonable 
 comfort and deliverance. Are they, through fear of death, sub- 
 ject to bondage ? He whose human sensibilities would have led 
 Him to say, " Father, save Me from this hour," can pity and re- 
 move these distressful feelings. Finally, are they in the article 
 of death ? There no mortal friend can help, no mortal friend can 
 fully sympathize with them. He, the First and Last and Living 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY, 295 
 
 One, became dead — died that, among other and higher ends, this 
 might be gained, that He should be able to sympathize with His 
 people when dying. He knows the great secret of what it is to 
 die; and His compassionate heart moves His powerful arm to give 
 His dying people all the needed help in that peculiarly trying 
 hour. AVhen heart and flesh faint and fail, when no man hath 
 power over the spirit to retain the spirit ; but when, naked and 
 alone, so far as earthly friends are concerned, it must wend its 
 mysterious course to Him who gave it, — even then, moved by 
 sympathy. He is with them, and they find they are not alone — 
 the Saviour is with them. 
 
 Surely, then, the Christian, amid all his trials, may, ought to 
 make this Jiis song in the house of his pilgrimage : — 
 
 " Where high the heavenly temple stands, 
 The house of God not made with hands, 
 A great High Pi-iest our nature wears, 
 The guardian of mankind appears. 
 
 " Though now ascended up on high, 
 He bends on earth a brother's eye ; 
 Partaker of the human name, 
 He knows the frailty of our frame. 
 
 " Our fellow-sufferer yet retains 
 A fellow-feeling of our j^ains ; 
 And still remembers in the skies 
 His tears. His agonies, and cries. 
 
 " In every pang that rends the heart. 
 The Man of Sorrows had a part ; 
 He sympathizes with our grief. 
 And to the sufferer sends relief." 
 
 Now for the application of these glorious truths : 
 
 " Wlien gathering clouds around I view, 
 And days are dark, and friends are few. 
 On Him I lean, who not in vain 
 Experienced every human pain. 
 He sees my wants, allays my fears, 
 And counts and treasures up my tears ; 
 
 " If aught should tempt my soul to stray, 
 From heavenly wisdom's narrow way, — 
 To flee the good I would pursue, 
 Or do the ill I would not do, — 
 Hr., who has felt temptation's power. 
 Will guard me in that dangerous hour. 
 
296 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 " If wounded love my bosom swell. 
 Deceived by those I priz'd too well, 
 He shall His pitying aid bestow, 
 Who felt on earth severer woe ; — 
 At once betray'd, denied, and fled 
 By those who shared His daily bread. 
 
 " When vexing thoughts within me rise, 
 And sore dismay'd my spirit dies, — 
 Then He, who once vouchsafed to bear 
 The bui'den of our guilt and care. 
 Shall sweetly soothe, shall gently dry, 
 The throbbing heart, the streaming eye. 
 
 " When mourning o'er some stone I bend, 
 Which covers all that was a friend. 
 And from his hand, his voice, his smile. 
 Divides me for a little while, — 
 My Saviour marks the tears I shed. 
 For ' Jesus wept' o'er Laz'rus dead. 
 
 " And when I shall have safely passed 
 Through every conflict but the last, 
 Th' unchanging Friend will watch beside 
 My dying bed, for He has died ; 
 Then point to realms of cloudless day, 
 And wipe the latest tear away." 
 
 So much for the ilkistration of the Apostle's fourth state- 
 ment, that in Jesus Christ we have a compassionate High 
 Priest. 
 
 Having thus considered the Apostle's fourfold statement, 
 let us now turn our attention to the double exhortation he 
 grounds on it. " Let us hold fast our profession ;" and, " let us 
 come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 
 and find grace to help in time of need." 
 
 I. The first exhortation the Apostle gives is, " Let us hold fast 
 our profession." " Our profession " is a phrase equivalent to — 
 ^ our acknowledgment.' " The High Priest of our profession" 
 is ' the High Priest whom we have acknowledged ;' and the pro- 
 fession or acknowledgment here referred to, is our profession or 
 acknowledgment with regard to Him. Now, what is our pro- 
 fession with regard to Him ? It is just that contained in the 
 Apostle's statement : ' We have a High Priest, as we as sinners 
 deeply need one ; Jesus Christ is our High Priest ; He is a 
 great High Priest — essentially great, officially great ; and He is 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 297 
 
 a compassionate High Priest.' This is what we profess to be- 
 lieve. 
 
 Now, to "hold fast" this profession includes two things: 
 the holding fast, the continuing stedfast in, the faitli of what 
 we profess ; and the holding fast, or persevering in jyj'ofessing 
 this faith — publicly acknowledging it as our faith. 
 
 Christians should continue in the faith of what they have 
 acknowledged respecting Christ Jesus. They should hold fast 
 their acknowledgment. It must not be let go. It must not be 
 lost sight of. We must habitually keep it before our minds, and 
 keep it before our minds as the truth — the truth which we have 
 acknowledged. The great reason why we should do so is, that 
 it is the truth most sure. "What we profess about our High 
 Priest is the testimony of God, who cannot lie. When we re- 
 ceived it, we "set to our seal that God is true." We cannot 
 let it go without calling Him a liar. While this is the primary 
 reason for holding fast the truth we have professed in reference 
 to our High Priest, another very powerful reason is, that it is 
 only in holding fast this truth that we can enjoy the advantages 
 connected with Jesus being our High Priest. All the saving 
 results of His high-priesthood come to us through the belief of 
 the truth. Pardon, justification, free access to God, sanctifica- 
 tion, support under trials, consolation amid afflictions, all come 
 to us through faith, and are enjoyed by us as believers, and ac- 
 cording to our faith. Hence the great weight which the inspired 
 writers place on faith — true faith, persevering faith. 
 
 But to hold fast our profession refers not merely to the 
 holding fast the truth professed, but to the holding fast the pro- 
 fession of that truth. Some might be disposed to say. It is quite 
 right we should hold fast the truth, but may we not " hold it to 
 ourselves before God," and shield ourselves from the evils to 
 which we are sure to expose ourselves by an open profession of 
 it ? No, says the Apostle ; Ave have professed this truth ; Ave 
 have openly aA'owed that this is our profession ; and Ave must 
 persevere in this open avoAval. Faith in the heart is the first 
 thing ; confession Avith the mouth, the second. Both are required 
 to make a consistent Christian. The pi'ofession referred to in- 
 cludes in it not only the acknoAvledgment made by connect- 
 ing ourselves Avitli the Christian community, and observing the 
 ordinances of Christ, but also the giA^ng expression to our in- 
 
298 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 ward convictions on every proper occasion to our fellow-men, 
 and the exhibiting, in the entire conformity of our temper and 
 behaviour to the law of our Lord, that our profession is an 
 honest one. We must not be " ashamed of the testimony of our 
 Lord Jesus," which we have made our profession. 
 
 A regard to Him, a regard to ourselves, a regard to our fel- 
 low-men, all require this at our hand. Is our High Priest not 
 worthy to be acknowledged ? Have we any cause to be ashamed 
 of Him ? Has He not required us to acknowledge Him in 
 terms as explicit as He has required us to believe in Him "? Is 
 not confession with the mouth to salvation conjoined with faith 
 of the heart to right conversion ? And is not our interest deeply 
 involved in this matter 1 Has He not told us what will be the 
 result of our not being ashamed of Him, and of our being 
 ashamed of Him, in that day when He appears in the glory of 
 His Father, in His own glory, and in the glory of the holy 
 angels ? It is the honest, open, consistent professor of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus that has the promise of the crown of 
 righteousness at last, and who only, in the very nature of the 
 case, can have the joys and consolations which even here are 
 bestowed on those who hold fast what they have received. And, 
 still further, this holding fast the profession of our faith is the 
 way of our doing good to our fellow-men ; — to our fellow- 
 Christians, by strengthening and comforting them ; to our 
 unbelieving fellow-men, by holding forth to them the word of 
 truth, by the knowledge and faith of which alone they can be 
 saved. 
 
 We have but to look into the Apostle's statements to find 
 abundant reason why we should comply with his exhortation. 
 If it be indeed so, that Ave have a High Priest — that Jesus Christ 
 is our High Priest, and is such a High Priest as becomes us, 
 as we absolutely need, as completely suits our circumstances as 
 guilty, depraved, weak, helpless creatures — a High Priest so 
 great, a High Priest so compassionate, — surely, having acknow- 
 ledged Him as such on abundant evidence, we should hold fast 
 the truth acknowledged, and hold fast, too, the acknowledgment 
 of the truth. Where can we find a substitute for Him 1 Who 
 can be compared to Him ? Where shall we find expiation, for- 
 giveness, acceptance, sanctification, comfort, eternal life, but in 
 Him ? What is there that we want, that is not to be found in 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AXD DUTY. 209 
 
 Him ? And can the universe of being do for us what He has 
 done, what He is doing, for us ? What blood but the blood of 
 our High Priest's sacrifice can cleanse us from all, from any 
 sin ? And who but He, who ever lives to make intercession 
 for us, can be able to save us — as we need to be saved — to the 
 uttermost, and for ever ? Does He not deserve to be clung to 
 by persevering faith ? Does He not deserve to be honoured in 
 persevering public acknowledgment ? 
 
 II. The Apostle's second exhortation is, " Let iis come boldly 
 to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace 
 to help in the time of need." The language and the imagery, 
 here, exactly correspond to the view the Apostle has been giving 
 us of Jesus Christ as the High Priest of our profession. They 
 are borrowed from the most sacred and recondite portion of the 
 Old Testament worship. In the expression, "the throne of 
 grace," there is without doubt an allusion to the mercy-seat in 
 the holy of holies, over which the Shechinah, or cloud of glory 
 — the emblem of the divine presence — occasionally, if not con- 
 stantly, hovered, and which therefore might with propriety be 
 represented as the throne of Jehovah, who dwelt between the 
 cherubim. 
 
 The question of greatest importance here is, What is that 
 which, under the new economy, answers to the mercy-seat 
 under the old dispensation, which was a figure of good things 
 to come ? What is that throne of grace to which the Hebrew 
 Christians are exhorted to come boldly? Some consider the 
 mercy-seat as emblematical of our Lord Jesus Christ, ground- 
 ing their opinion chiefly on what the Apostle says, Rom. iii. 
 25 : "Whom"— that is, Jesus Christ—" He hath set forth to be a 
 propitiation ;" or, as they would render it, 'propitiatory or mercy- 
 seat.' There is no doubt that it is the same Avord which is 
 rightly rendered 'mercy-seat' in the 5tli verse of the 10th chap- 
 ter of this Epistle ; but in the passage in the Romans there can 
 be little doubt that the word refers to a propitiatory victim or 
 sacrifice, and not to the sacred gold-covered chest, on which the 
 blood of the sacrifice of atonement for the congregation was 
 sprinkled ; and it obviously better suits the whole connected 
 system of eml)lems, to consider the whole of the mystic furni- 
 ture of the holy of holies — the Shechinah hovering over the 
 ark of the covenant containing the law, sprinkled with atoning 
 
300 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 blood — as a figurative representation of the Divine Being, the 
 Righteous Governor, propitiated by sacrifice. 
 
 It is common in our own language, as well as in that in 
 which this Epistle was originally written, to speak of a monarch 
 under the name of things which are characteristic of his royal 
 dignity. We speak of the prerogatives of the crown, and of 
 addressing the throne, when we mean the distinguished indi- 
 vidual who wears the crown and sits on the throne. In like 
 manner, the throne of grace is a figurative expression for God, 
 as seated on a throne of grace, dispensing pardon and all 
 saving blessings to sinners — the God of Peace, the pacified 
 Divinity, who was angry, but whose anger is turned away; 
 God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing 
 to men their trespasses, seeing He has made Him who knew no 
 sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of 
 God in Him ; for, as the Apostle expresses it in his Epistle to 
 the Ephesians, chap. iii. 12, it is " in," or by, " Christ Jesus 
 that we have boldness and access — that is, to God — in the faith 
 of Him." 
 
 To this propitiated Divinity the inspired writer exhorts the 
 believing Hebrews to " come " — to draw near. It is plain that 
 this expression is figurative, denoting mental, not local move- 
 ment. To draw near to the propitiated Divinity, as seated on 
 His throne of grace, is, in the firm faith of the truth respecting 
 His reconciled character, and in the exercise of those affections 
 which the belief of this truth naturally excites, to render Him 
 religious homage — to present the desires of our heart before Him. 
 
 When Christians thus worship the reconciled Divinity, they 
 are to do it "boldly;" that is, not with the trembling appre- 
 hension with which the Israelites approached, not to^ but to- 
 wards the mercy-seat, who, wdien their high priest, having offered 
 a sacrifice of atonement for their souls, had entered in their 
 name within the vail, to present and sprinkle the blood of the 
 sacrifice there, were ignorant wdiat might be the event — whether 
 the sacrifice would be accepted or rejected, — but with a holy 
 reverential confidence, arising from the assurance that our High 
 Priest, having completed His one infinitely valuable and avail- 
 ing sacrifice on the earth, has passed through these heavens into 
 the heaven of heavens, with the blood which cleanseth from all 
 sin, and, ever living there to make intercession for us, is able to 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 301 
 
 save us to the uttermost, coming to God by Him. Boldness is 
 not here opposed to reverence, but to slavish apprehension 
 and appalling terror, which estrange men from God. 
 
 The object of our coming thus boldly, like cherished children, 
 to Jehovah propitiated in Christ, is, " that we may obtain mercy, 
 and find grace to help in time of need." The Avords mercy and 
 grace seem nearly synonymous ; and so do the two phrases, to 
 " obtain mercy," and to " find grace." Both of the words are 
 primarily expressive of the principle of benignity in the divii.e 
 mind : the first, in its exercise to us as miserable ; the second, 
 in its exercise to us as imdeserving. But here, as in many 
 other places, they, by a common figure of speech, are used to 
 denote the manifestations of this principle. To obtain mercy, 
 to find grace, is to receive manifestations of God's mercy to us 
 as miserable, and of His grace towards us as undeserving — to 
 receive proofs that God is our loving Father, our eternal 
 Friend, who for His own sake, for His name's sake, for His Son's 
 sake, will supply all our need. And those proofs are afforded 
 by Him in answer to our believing prayers, in his conferring 
 upon us such assistance as is needful for us in the time of trial, 
 to enable us to hold fast our profession. The words literally 
 are, " that we may obtain mercy, and find grace for seasonable 
 help." The direct reference here is not, as ordinarily sup- 
 posed, to pardon of sin — though we are to be ever coming to the 
 throne of grace for that blessing, of which we are ever in need 
 — but to those kind assistances of the good Spirit which are re- 
 quisite amid the trials of life, to enable us to hold fast our pro- 
 fession. 
 
 This exhortation is plainly based on the statements which 
 precede it. We were at variance with God. As the righteous 
 Judge, He had condemned us. But a High Priest, a great 
 High Priest, the Son of God, has interposed in our behalf. 
 He has given Himself a sacrifice for us ; and as a token that 
 that sacrifice has been accepted. He has passed through these 
 heavens into the heaven of heavens, and is there a Priest on 
 His throne. This High Priest is as gracious as He is great ; 
 and notwithstanding His divine and mediatorial glories, not- 
 withstanding our sinfulness and His sinlessness, He is, both 
 physically and morally, capable of such sympathy with us in all 
 our infirmities, as to secure that His unbounded powers of 
 
302 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 supplying our need shall be put forth at the right thiie, for the 
 supply of all our wants, in the best and kindest way. The way 
 into the holiest is made manifest; and why should not the 
 believer by faith enter in and approach the throne of mercy ? 
 Why should he hesitate ? Why should he fear 1 Having such 
 a High Priest — having acknowledged Him as our High Priest 
 — should we not hold fast our profession ? And that we may 
 hold fast our profession, should we not be constantly, in the 
 exercise of faith in the truth, going to our Father and God, 
 that we may obtain from Him, for the sake of our great High 
 Priest, everything that is necessary to secm-e our holding fast 
 our profession ? 
 
DISCOURSE II. 
 
 CHRIST, THE AUTHOR OF ETERNAL SALVATION, MADE PERFECT 
 BY SUFFERING IN THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH. 
 
 Heb. v. 7-9. "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up 
 prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was 
 able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared : though He 
 were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the thing-s which He suffered ; 
 and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all 
 them that obey Him." 
 
 Ix reading, we must have often found that nothing is of greater 
 importance towards the right understanding of an author's par- 
 ticular statements, illustrations, and arguments, than a distinct 
 apprehension of his general object. Without this, the most 
 accurate statements may seem incorrect, the most apposite illus- 
 trations irrelevant, and the most cogent arguments inconclusive. 
 For example, there is no understanding the meaning of the 
 passage which I have read as my text, unless we perceive the 
 design the Apostle had in writing it. Happily, it is not diffi- 
 cult to discern that design ; and in apprehending it, we may find 
 the key which unlocks the precious treasures which this some- 
 what difficult passage contains. 
 
 Those words form part of the Apostle's demonstration of the 
 superiority of the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ to that of 
 Aaron and his sons. He introduces the subject by asserting the 
 fact, that in Christ Jesus we Christians have a High Priest ; a 
 great High Priest — essentially great, for He is the Son of God ; 
 officially great, for He has passed through these heavens into 
 the true holy place, the heaven of heavens ; and a compassionate 
 High Priest — one who can be, who is, who cannot but be, touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities — having been tempted like 
 unto us in all things, yet without sin. Having asserted this 
 fact, he has proceeded to produce the evidence that Jesus Christ 
 
304 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 is a High Priest — such a High Priest. As a necessary pre- 
 liminary, he has given a concise but comprehensive description 
 of what a high priest is : ' A man divinely selected and ordained 
 to manage the religious concerns of his fellow-men, by offering 
 in their stead, and for their benefit, gifts and sacrifices for sin ;' 
 and on the basis of this description, he proceeds to prove that 
 Jesus Christ is a Priest, having been divinely selected and 
 ordained to the priesthood, and having successfully performed 
 its functions. The substance of his first argument is this : He 
 did not take this honour to Himself, He was called of God as 
 was Aaron ; He did not glorify Himself in making Himself a 
 High Priest, but He who in one ancient oracle had said to Him, 
 " Thou art My Son, this day I have begotten Thee," had said 
 to Him in another ancient oracle, " Thou art a Priest for ever, 
 after the order of Melchisedec." 
 
 The three verses now before us form the second branch of 
 the evidence of the reality of our Lord's priesthood. As He 
 has been divinely appointed to the office, so He has successfully 
 performed its functions. At first view the words may not seem 
 very distinctly, if at all, to convey this idea. But if we will 
 but examine them with sufficient care, it will become clear that 
 this is their meaning. 
 
 These three verses form one long and complicated sentence. 
 To the right interpretation of such a sentence, the first step is 
 its right consti'uction. A distinct apprehension of what is the 
 main body of the sentence, and what are the members attached 
 to it, — or, to vary the figure, what is the trunk, and what are 
 the branches which grow out of it, — often goes far to make a 
 sentence perspicuous which at first view appears obscure or 
 even unintelligible. The leading idea becomes distinctly marked, 
 and the subsidiary ones are seen in their relation to their prin- 
 cipal. 
 
 The body of this sentence — expressing the great leading idea, 
 that Jesus Christ has successfully performed the functions of 
 the high-priesthood to which He has been divinely appointed — 
 is to be found in these words, " He learned obedience by the 
 things which He suffered, and is become the Author of eternal 
 salvation to all who obey Him." He has done what He, as a 
 High Priest, was appointed to do ; He has obtained what, as a 
 High Priest, He was appointed to obtain. The other clauses 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. 305 
 
 are, all of tliem, expressive of subsidiary ideas, defining and 
 qualifying the primary ones. The body of the sentence divides 
 itself into two parts : " He, as a High Priest, learned obedience 
 by the things which He suffered ;" and, "He, as a High Priest, 
 is become the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." 
 The three clauses, " In the days of His flesh ;" " when He had 
 offered, or, having offered, up prayers and supplications, with 
 strong crying and tears, and was heard in that He feared;" 
 and, " though He were a Son," qualify the first statement, " He 
 learned obedience by the things which He suffered :" the first 
 of them defining the term of His priestly obedience ; the second 
 being illustrative of the nature and extent of those sufferinfirs 
 by which Christ, as a High Priest, learned obedience ; and the 
 third intimating that the dignity of His nature did not prevent 
 in any degree the learning of all the obedience and the enduring 
 of all the suffering which were required of Him as a High Priest. 
 The clause, " being made perfect," qualifies the second part of 
 the sentence, connecting it with the first, and showing how 
 His " learning as a High Priest obedience by the things which 
 He suffered" — which is just the same thing with His being, 
 as " the Captain of salvation, made perfect through suffering" 
 — led to His being the Author of eternal salvation to all who 
 obey Him — the same thing with " bringing the many sons to 
 glory." 
 
 If we have at all succeeded in resolving this considerably 
 complicated sentence, it expresses this great thought : ' Jesus 
 Christ has successfully performed for us the functions of a 
 High Priest.' And it offers two very important and appro- 
 priate topics for our consideration. First, what He did as our 
 High Priest ; and secondly, what He has obtained as a High 
 Priest by doing this — His discharge, and His successful dis- 
 charge, of the priestly functions. As to the first — He learned 
 obedience by the things which He suffered ; He did this " in 
 the days of His flesh." While doing so. He offered up prayers 
 and supplications, with strong ciying and tears, to Him who 
 was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He 
 feared; and He i/iws learned obedience though He was a Son. 
 As to the second, He was made perfect as a High Priest by 
 thus learning obedience ; and having been thus made perfect, 
 -He is become " the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey 
 
 VOL. II. U 
 
306 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 Him." Such is the outline I will attempt to fill up in the re- 
 maining part of this discourse. 
 
 Let us first, then, consider the account contained in the 
 text of what our Lord did as our High Priest : He " learned 
 obedience by the things which He suffered." (1.) "He suf- 
 fered;" and (2.) "He learned obedience by the things which 
 He suffered." 
 
 First, " He suffered." And what were the things He suf- 
 fered ? We may rather ask, What were the things He did not 
 suffer? What suffering, of which an innocent, holy man is 
 capable, did the Saviour not endure ? He was " the man who 
 saw affliction by the rod of God's wi'atli " — " a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with griefs." To borrow the words of an old 
 divine : " If hunger and thirst, if revihngs and contempt, if 
 sorrows and agonies, if stripes and buffetings, if condemnation 
 and crucifixion, be suffering, Jesus suffered. If the infirmities 
 of our nature, if the weight of our sins, if the malice of man, if 
 the machinations of Satan, if the hand of God could make him 
 suffer, our Saviour suffered." 
 
 These sufferings He was subjected to as our High Priest. 
 He stood in our place. He was appointed to offer sacrifice for 
 our sins. He suffered, " the Just One in the room of the un- 
 just." Being without sin. He was not personally liable to suf- 
 fering at all. But " the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us 
 all." " Exaction was made " of the desert of our sins ; " and 
 He answered" to the exaction. " He bare our sins." " He was 
 wounded for our transgressions ; He was bruised for our iniqui- 
 ties ; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him." These 
 are the things which He suffered, — the multiplied, severe, 
 varied, penal, vicarious sufferings which He endured. 
 
 Now, secondly, by these sufferings, it is said by the Apostle, 
 our High Priest learned obedience. " He learned obedience by 
 the things which He suffered." The meaning of these words 
 is, I apprehend, — ' In these sufferings He became practically 
 acquainted with the full amount of that obedience which the 
 divine law exacted from Him, as our divinely appointed high- 
 priest,' — submission to these sufferings forming the great act 
 of atoning sacrifice, to perform which was His primary duty as 
 our High Priest. 
 
 The words have often, usually indeed, been otherwise inter- 
 
CHRIST MADE TERFECT BY SUFFERING. 307 
 
 preted ; but this seems the only interpretation which equally 
 suits the facts of the case, and the purpose for which the 
 Apostle introduces the statement in the passage before us. It 
 is readily admitted, that when it is said of a person, ' He 
 learned obedience by the things which he suffered,' the thought 
 naturally suggested by the words is that of a person, originally 
 indisposed to obey, disciplined into obedience by a course of 
 sufferincj risinoj out of his disobedience. But the lansuaire is, 
 in this meaning, utterly inapplicable to the High Priest of our 
 profession. He never disobeyed ; there never was in His mind 
 or heart the slightest bias towards disobedience, in the form of 
 nascent error, or rising irregular desire. He never was in the 
 way of disobedience, to be driven out of it by being made to 
 feel that the way of transgressors is hard. It was as natural to 
 Him to obey as it was to breathe. 
 
 Not more satisfactory is the mode of interpretation which 
 makes " learned obedience by the things which He suffered" equi- 
 valent to — learned by sufferings how hard and difficult a thing 
 obedience is, how painful it is to be entirely subject to the will 
 of another. For it is our depravity, in the form of pride and 
 desire of independence, which makes obedience a painful thing 
 to us. These principles did not exist in His mind. What in 
 itself was disagreeable, became to Him desirable, just because 
 God had enjoined or appointed it. This sweetened to Him the 
 bitterest cup ; this lightened to Him the heaviest load. So far 
 from obedience being to Him a difficult thing, as obedience, " it 
 was His meat to do the will of His Father, and to finish His 
 work." " To do Thy will I take delight," says He ; " Thy law is 
 within My heart ;" — though He knew that that will was " the 
 offering of His body once for all," — that law, " that He should 
 redeem men from the curse, by becoming a curse in their room." 
 When the intensity of His sufferings suggested the question, 
 " Shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour ?" the reply was, 
 " For this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." 
 To leam obedience, is to become practically acquainted with 
 obedience, — to know what it is, — to experience the length and 
 breadth of that obedience which He, as the Saviour of men, 
 was required to yield in order to their redemption. When 
 it is said of our Lord, that " He knew no sin," the meaning is 
 not, that He did not know what is sin, or what sin is in its nature 
 
308 DISCOURSE 11. 
 
 and desert. In both these senses, none ever knew sin as He did. 
 But the meaning is, He was experimentally unacquainted with 
 sin ; He was an entire stranger to depraved principle and to guilty 
 conduct. So, when it is said, He learned obedience, the mean- 
 ing is not, that He did not before fully understand what was re- 
 quired of Him as ovxr High Priest in order to the gaining of the 
 great object of His appointment — the expiation of our sins ; but, 
 that it was by the means of the sufferings laid on Him in that 
 character that He obtained an experimental knowledge of the 
 obedience which was requisite for this purpose. He could 
 tlius learn this obedience in no other way. The commandment 
 which our High Priest received from Him who appointed Him, 
 was that He should lay down His life for the sheep ; and He 
 learned what obedience to that commandment was in the only 
 way in which it could be learned, by His becoming obedient to 
 death, even to the death of the cross. The Jewish high priest 
 could become practically acquainted with the duties of his office 
 only by performing them ; and so it was with the great High 
 Priest of our profession. The law of the Levitical high priest 
 was, that he should offer gifts and sacrifices for the sins of Israel ; 
 and he learned obedience in performing these functions. The 
 law of our High Priest was, that He should offer Himself for 
 us a sacrifice and an offering in our room ; and it was not till 
 that sacrifice was completed that He experimentally knew the 
 full extent of the obedience required of Him. 
 
 The language seems to intimate two things : the docile spirit 
 in which He thus gradually acquired an experimental acquaint- 
 ance with obedience ; and the absolute completeness of this ex- 
 perimental knowledge. He was a learner, seeking to know all. 
 " The Lord opened His ear, and He was not rebellious ; neither 
 turned He away back." He was always ready, to use a familiar 
 phrase, for the next lesson. " He gave His back to the smiters, 
 and His cheeks to them who plucked off the hair : He hid not 
 His face from shame and spitting." And He persevered in learn- 
 ing till there was no more to learn. Who of the sons of men 
 knows experimentally the full extent of the precept of the 
 divine law I Who knows the power of God's anger, as the 
 penalty of that law ? are questions which can be answered in the 
 affirmative only of our High Priest. He knew the breadth of the 
 divine law by perfectly obeying it. He knew the power of the 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. 309 
 
 displeasure of God against sin by enduring it. He knew what was 
 necessary to finish transgression, make an end of sin, make re- 
 concihation for iniquity. He continued learning obedience, so 
 long as obedience was required, till, knowing in Himself that 
 the things concerning Him had come to an end. He said. It is 
 finished. The work was done ; obedience had been completely 
 learned. He had experienced the full demands of the divine 
 law on Him, the High Priest and Surety of men, and fully met 
 them all. The law was satisfied, atonement was made. He 
 has no more to suffer — no more to learn. He was obedient unto 
 death, the death of the cross. 
 
 This, then, is the grand statement in the first division of the 
 text. The reality of our Lord's high-priesthood is proved not 
 only by His divine appointment to that office, recorded in an 
 ancient divine oracle, but by His actually performing its func- 
 tions — becoming personally acquainted, by His sufferings, with 
 every part of the obedience required of Him as our High 
 Priest. This general statement is attended by three subsidiary 
 clauses. 
 
 1. It was in the days of His Jledh that He learned obedience 
 by the things He suffered. 
 
 2. While learning obedience by the things He suffered. He 
 offered up prayers and supplications^, with strong cryhuj and 
 tears, and loas heard in that He feared. 
 
 3. He thus learned obedience, though He was a Son. 
 Let us attend to these in their order. 
 
 1. It was in the days of His flesh that Pie thus suffered, 
 and thus learned obedience by Plis sufferings. The word 
 "flesh," and the phrase "flesh and blood," are often expres- 
 sive just of human nature. "All flesh" is "all men;" "no 
 flesh," no man. The Word was made flesh, means. The 
 divine person called the Word became man. " Inasmuch 
 as the children were partakers of flesh and blood" — i.e., of 
 human nature — " He also likewise took part of the same." The 
 expressions are, however, sometimes used to signify human 
 nature, with the superadded idea of that frailty and liability to 
 death that belongs to it in its fallen state, when " made lower 
 than the angels ; " as, " He remembered that they were flesh," 
 poor, weak, dying creatures — " a wind that passeth away and 
 returns not again." "Flesh and blood" — i.e.^ human nature 
 
310 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 in its present frail, mortal state — " cannot inherit the kingdom 
 of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorr option." In the 
 former sense, the " days of our Lord's flesh " commenced with 
 His incarnation, and will continue for ever ; in the latter sense, 
 they commenced at His incarnation, and terminated at His re- 
 surrection or ascension. There can be no doubt that it is in 
 the latter sense that they are here to be understood. The days 
 of our Lord's flesh are plainly contrasted with His present con- 
 dition, as having been " made perfect, and the Author of 
 eternal salvation to all who obey Him." During the whole of 
 His humbled state, from Bethlehem to Calvary, from His 
 cradle to His grave, "He learned obedience by the things 
 which He suffered." He was always suffering — always learn- 
 ing obedience by His suffering. The whole of His humbled 
 life was that one gi'eat continuous act of obedience to the will of 
 God of the Second Adam, w^hich is opposed by the Apostle to 
 the one act of disobedience of the first Adam, that " brought 
 death into the world, and all our woe." This is the great act 
 of expiation, by which the sin of the world was taken away. 
 
 2. While, " in the days of His flesh," our High Priest 
 learned obedience by that which He suffered, " He offered up 
 prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, to Him 
 who was aible to save Him from death, and was heard in that 
 He feared." From the manner in which the words are ren- 
 dered in our version, it is natural to conclude that our Lord's 
 learning obedience was something posterior to His offering up 
 prayers and supplications, and being heard : ' When He had 
 offered up — when He had been heard — He learned obedience.' 
 This does not, however, appear to be the Apostle's meaning. He 
 seems to intimate to us what was the fact, that the learning of 
 obedience and the offering up of prayers were contemporaneous. 
 The word rendered "prayers," properly signifies, requests 
 for support under, or deliverance from, evil already experi- 
 enced ; as, " Father, let this cup pass from Me." The word 
 rendered " supplications," means prayers against evil viewed as 
 impending ; as, " Lead me not into temptation." These prayers 
 of our Lord were offered up "with strong crying and tears;" 
 they were expressive of keen sensibility and intense desire — 
 they were urgent, importunate prayers. 
 
 These prayers, the utterance of His inmost soul and heart. 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. 311 
 
 were presented to " Him who was able to save Him from 
 death." They were addressed to God His Father, under the 
 character of Him who was able — i.e., who had at once a bound- 
 less capacity and disposition — to save Him from death, and who 
 He knew would assuredly save Him from death. It is worthy 
 of notice that our Lord's express words in one of these prayers 
 are, " Abba, Father, all things are possible with Thee. Take 
 away this cup from Me." 
 
 To " save from death " does not here seem to mean, to 
 deliver from the necessity of dying. Death — death under the 
 curse — was the ultimate term of that obedience which Jesus 
 as our High Priest was learning by suffering. It was neces- 
 sary to the gaining of the great object for which He had 
 become a High Priest, it was necessaiy to the completion of 
 the sacrifice of atonement He was appointed to offer, that He 
 should be obedient to death — to the death of the cross. Any 
 suffering, any obedience, short of this, would not have gained 
 the end. No doubt, abstractly speaking, God, who is omnipo- 
 tent, could have prevented His incarnate Son from dying ; but 
 He could not do so in consistency with the economy of human 
 salvation. To save or deliver from death means, here, to deliver 
 from the power of death, — after that power has been exerted, to 
 deliver from the state of the dead. God manifested Himself 
 as Him who is able to save from death, when, as the God of 
 peace — the reconciled Divinity, whose law had been magnified, 
 whose justice had been satisfied, in the obedience completed on 
 the cross — " He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, 
 that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlast- 
 ing covenant." 
 
 It has been common to consider the Apostle, in these words, 
 •as referring entirely to the " prayers and supplications " offered 
 up by our Lord in the immediate prospect, and in the midst, of 
 Plis last sufferings. I do not see any satisfactory reason for 
 such a restriction. "The days of His flesh" include more than 
 the hours of agony in Gethsemane, or of torture on the cross : 
 they include the entire period of His humbled life. As the 
 pressure of human guilt habitually weighed down His spirits, 
 so His love to, confidence in. His Father habitually led Him to 
 pour out His heart into His bosom ; so that He was at once a man 
 of sorrows and a man of prayer. We read in one instance, that, 
 
312 - DISCOUKSE 11. 
 
 after He had dismissed the multitude and His disciples, He re* 
 tired, not to repose, but to devotion : " He went up into a moun- 
 tain apart to pray." On another occasion we read, that " in the 
 morning, rising up a great while before day. He went out and 
 departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." On a third 
 occasion, we find Him going out " into a mountain to pray, and 
 continuing all night in prayer to God." And we are told that, 
 after the observance of His last Passover, He went, as He was 
 wont, to the Mount of Olives ; and we know He then went there 
 to offer up prayers and supplications, " with groans, and blood, 
 and tears." According to the ancient oracle, " He cried in the 
 day-time; and in the night season there was no silence for Him." 
 But although I see no reason for supposing that there is 
 an exclusive reference here to what took place in the immediate 
 prospect of His death, yet, at the same time, as His prayers 
 then are more circumstantially recorded than those on any 
 other occasion, as a specimen of His devotional exercises, they 
 are strikingly illustrative of the declaration in the text, and in 
 all probability were directly in the Apostle's view when He 
 made it. " Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say ? 
 Father, save Me from this hour 1 But for this cause came I 
 unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." " Then cometh 
 Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane ; and when He 
 was at the place, He saith to His disciples. Sit ye here, while I 
 go and pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the 
 two sons of Zebedee, James and John, and began to be sorrow- 
 ful, sore amazed, and very heavy. Then said He to them, My 
 soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here 
 and watch with Me. And He went forward a little, withdraw- 
 ing from them about a stone's cast, kneeled down, and fell on 
 His face on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, 
 the hour might pass from Him. And He said, Abba, Father, 
 all things are possible to Thee. O My Father, if it be possible, 
 take away this cup, and let it pass from Me : nevertheless not 
 what I will, but what Thou wilt. And He cometh to the 
 disciples, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, 
 Simon, sleepest thou f couldest thou not watch one hour ? 
 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit 
 truly is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again He went 
 away the second time, and prayed and spake the same words^ 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. '313 
 
 Saying, O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me 
 except I drink it. Thy will be done. And when He returned. 
 He found them asleep again ; for their eyes were heavy, neither 
 wist they what to answer Him. And He left them and went 
 away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words : 
 Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me : neverthe- 
 less not My will, but Thine be done. And there appeared an 
 angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being 
 in an agony. He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was, 
 as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." 
 " About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying^ 
 Eloi ! Eloi ! lama sabachthani ? that is to say, being interpreted, 
 My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Such 
 were the prayers and supplications which our High Priest, 
 when learning obedience by the things which He suffered, 
 offered up in the days of His flesh, with strong crying and 
 tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death. 
 
 Nor did He offer up those prayers in vain. " He was heard 
 in that He feared." He was " heard " — all His supplications 
 were ultimately answered. The sum of all He asked, was support 
 under them while they continued, and deliverance from them 
 when they had served their purpose. And both were granted. 
 Even the prayer, "Let this cup pass from Me" which many in- 
 terpreters, considering as referring to death, have represented as 
 arising unheeded and unheard, received a gi'acious and speedy 
 answer. " This cup " seems to refer to that intense mental 
 agony which He at that moment experienced, and which threat- 
 ened, if prolonged, to dissolve the connection between soul and 
 body. That cup passed from Him, inasmuch as an angel was 
 sent to comfort Him, and He regained composure to act with 
 propriety before His judges, and to suffer with unshrinking 
 firmness what He had yet to endure before He reached the ap- 
 pointed hour of dissolution. The whole history of our Lord's 
 humbled life may be summed up in the words of the Psalmist : 
 "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved 
 him out of all his troubles." His prayers for support under 
 and deliverance from particular evils were heard, even in the 
 days of His flesh ; and all His prayers were fully answered 
 when God brought Him from the dust of death, and crowned 
 Him with glory and honour. Then "the Man of Sorrows," who 
 
314 DISCOUESE II. 
 
 had said, " My God, I cry in the day-time, hut Thou hearest 
 not ; and in the night season, and am not silent," — exclaimed, 
 *' Tliou hast heard ^ie : I will declare Thy name unto My 
 brethren ; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. 
 Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him ; all ye the seed of Jacob, 
 glorify Him ; and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel. For He 
 hath not desj)ised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted ; 
 neither hath He hid His face from Him ; but, when He cried 
 unto Him, He heard." 
 
 " He was heard in that He feared." This last clause, " in 
 that He feared," has occasioned much trouble to expositors. 
 Some have rendered it — 'He was heard on account of His pious 
 reverence for God;' as if in meaning it was equivalent to the 
 oracle in Ps. xlv. 7 : " Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest 
 iniquity : Hierefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the 
 oil of gladness above Thy fellows." There is no doubt that the 
 words thus rendered convey a truth, and an important one ; but 
 I do not think that either the original words or the coherence 
 of the thoughts will warrant us to consider it as the truth 
 taught here. Others consider the expression, heard, as equi- 
 \-alent to — deliver, as in Job xxxv. 12 : They cry, but none 
 giveth answer, or heareth ; i.e., delivers. Ps. xxii. 21 : Thou 
 hast heard Me ; i.e., Thou hast delivered Me. Ps. cxviii. 5 : 
 The Lord answered, heard Me — i.e., delivered Me — in a large 
 place. In this case the clause would run : He was delivered 
 from that which He feared — from His fear — from all those 
 evils which, according to the constitution of His human nature, 
 could not but be the object of aversion and fear ; i.e., from all 
 suffering in every form, and in every degree. A third class, 
 with our translators, consider the words as meaning, " was 
 heard in reference to that which He feared" — had His prayers, 
 for alleviation of, support under, and deliverance from, the evils 
 to which He was exposed, completely answered. 
 
 It may be asked, What was the Apostle's object in connecting 
 this statement with his leading assertion — that, by His sufferings, 
 Christ, as our High Priest, became experimentally acquainted 
 with the obedience He owed as the divinely appointed High 
 Priest, or, in other words, fully performed all the functions of 
 that office ? Now, I think he had a threefold object : first, to 
 anark the peculiar character of His obedience as pious obe- 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. SIS 
 
 dlence ; secondly, to indicate the severity of His sufferings, and 
 the intensity of His desire that His work should be completed in 
 the most perfect way ; and thirdly, to intimate that the suffer- 
 ings were over, and the obedience perfected. The obedience 
 was prayerful obedience. He set the Lord always before Him. 
 " Lo, I come to do Thy will." When our High Priest, the 
 God-man, obeyed, He did what God required — in the way God 
 required it — depending on the promised divine assistance, and 
 seeking it in the appointed way of prayer and supplication ; 
 thus setting us an example, that we should follow His steps. The 
 severity of the sufferings, and the intensity of His desire to have 
 His work of obedience completed in the most perfect form, are 
 also indicated in this subsidiary clause. No ordinaiy suffering 
 could have produced in Him strong crying and tears. The 
 work of our High Priest was no easy work. If the question be 
 asked. Whence? The answer is: The expiation of our sin re- 
 quired a wdiole burnt-offering. The prayers and supplications 
 were expressive of intense desire, as well as of severe suffering. 
 They embody the same sentiment as the emphatic words : I 
 have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I straitened 
 till it be accomplished ! With desire have I desired to eat this 
 Passover before I suffer. The clause referred to also intimates 
 that the sufferings are over — the obedience is completed. He 
 has been heard — He has nothing now which can be an object 
 of fear. He has obtained His heart's desire, and the request of 
 His hps has not been withholden from Him. It is finished. 
 The will of God is fully done : no need for additional obedience 
 or suffering ; suggesting the idea which, in the next clause, is 
 expressed : He is made perfect. The days of His flesh are over. 
 Frailty and mortality are left in the grave ; the body of His 
 humiliation is superseded by the body of His glory. 
 
 Thei?e is still a third clause dependent on the Apostle's 
 general statement — He learned obedience by the things which 
 He suffered — which requires consideration ; and that is, " though 
 He were a Son." " Though He were a Son, yet learned He 
 obedience by the things which He suffered." These words 
 look back to the declaration in the 14th verse of the preceding 
 chapter : " We have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God." 
 Son of God, as applied to Jesus Christ, intimates that He was 
 a person of the same nature with His Father, intimately related 
 
^10 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 to Him, dearly beloved bv Him. Now, though this was the 
 truth with regard to Him, yet, notwithstanding, by severe suf- 
 fering, He became experimentally acquainted with the full 
 amount of obedience He owed as the divinely appointed High 
 Priest. The mention of our Lord's dignity is fitted to suggest 
 the thought of the infinite efficacy of His priestly functions ; 
 but the direct purpose of the Apostle seems to have been to in- 
 dicate that the divinity of His nature, and His infinite dearness 
 to His divine Father, did not interfere with His fully meeting 
 and discharging the obligations to do and suffer, which rose out 
 of His being divinely appointed our High Priest. As they did 
 not lead to sparing Him from suffering, they did not lead to 
 sparing Him in suffering. " Though in the form of God," 
 He " emptied Himself " — " took on Himself the form of a ser- 
 vant, humbled Himself, and becaine obedient to death, to the 
 <leath of the cross." Though " the brightness of the Father's 
 glory, and the express image of His person," He yet " purged 
 oiu' sins by Himself." 
 
 I may be permitted to remark in passing, that this is one of 
 the many passages which prove that Son of God and Messiah, 
 though appellations of the same person, are not convertible 
 terms ; and that the first of these expressions is often, indeed 
 usually, the expression of an essential personal relation, not of 
 an ordained official relation. Suppose that Son of God, here, 
 were just equivalent to Messiah, or divinely appointed Saviour, 
 and there is no point in the Apostle's remark. In that case we 
 would have expected him to say, Because He Avas a Son, He 
 learned obedience by the things which He suffered; not, Although 
 He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which 
 He suffered. But considering Son of God as an appellation 
 descriptive of identity of nature and equality of perfection with 
 His divine Father, there is inexpi'essible energy in the remark : 
 Though He was the fellow of Jehovah, He yet learned obe- 
 dience by the things which He suffered. He did all and suf- 
 fered all that was necessary to the full accomplishment of His 
 duties as our divinely appointed High Priest, in offering gifts 
 and sacrifices for sin. 
 
 Thus have we considered the account contained in the text 
 of what our Lord did as our divinely appointed High Priest. 
 Dunng His humbled state, He became experimentally ac- 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. 317 
 
 quainted, by the severe sufferings which He endured, with the 
 obedience required by His office, in offering sacrifice for sin ;. 
 and, while acquiring this painful but necessary experimental 
 knowledge, the severity of His sufferings, the intensity of His 
 desire to accomplish His work, and the holiness of His character, 
 were manifested in His habitual, earnest supplications — all which 
 supplications were, as a token of His Father's approbation, heard 
 and answered. The reality of Plis priesthood is thus proved by 
 the discharge of its duties. It is further proved by the success- 
 ful discharge of His duties. The second statement in the text 
 refers to this. It informs us of what He has obtained by thus 
 learning obedience by the things which He suffered : — " Being 
 made perfect, He is become the Author of eternal salvation to 
 all who obey Him." A few illustrative remarks on this part of 
 the subject will form the conclusion of the discourse. 
 
 Allow us, in the meanwhile, to call on you to yield your minds 
 to the impressions which the truths we have been considering 
 are calculated to make on the heart ; wondering at the condes- 
 cension and kindness of the Son of God, our Divine Redeemer, 
 in voluntarily becoming our High Priest, and cheerfully submit- 
 ting to such degradation and suffering in order to the full dis- 
 charge of the functions and attainment of the object of this 
 office ; penetrated with a deep sense of the malignity of sin, the 
 expiation of which required such labours and sufferings on the 
 part of one so great and excellent ; rejoicing in the abundant 
 evidence we have, that the Saviour's work has completely served 
 the purpose for which it was intended — in the answer He has 
 received to all the prayers and supplications offered up by 
 Him during its performance ; determined, by the promised help 
 of His good Spirit, in our immeasurably inferior sphere, " to 
 learn obedience by the things we suffer;" and in the midst of 
 our labours and sufferings in the days of our flesh, seeking sup- 
 port and deliverance, in prayers and supplications, from Him 
 who has saved Him from death, who is able to save us through 
 Him from death — who has heard and answered all His prayers, 
 and who for His sake will hear and answer ours, offered up in 
 His name — delivering us, as He has delivered Him, from evil 
 felt or feared, in every form, and for ever and ever. 
 
 Let me now turn your attention for a little to what your 
 Lord, as your High Priest, has thus obtained both for Himself 
 
318 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 and you. " He has been made perfect," and has " become the 
 Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." 
 
 " He has been made perfect :" this is what He has obtained 
 for Himself. The perfection here spoken of, as well as in the 
 parallel passage — " It became Him, for whom are all things, and 
 by whom are all things, to make the Captain of our salvation 
 perfect through sufferings " — does not refer to moral excellence, 
 but to official qualification. In the first sense, the Captain of 
 our salvation, the High Priest of our profession, was ever per- 
 fect — holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners — without 
 sin — knowing no sin — without imperfection or fault ; He needed 
 not to be perfected. In the second, from the very nature of 
 the case. He did require to be perfected. There was merit, 
 rising out of voluntary obedience to the precept, and submission 
 to the penalty, of a law which man had broken, but to which 
 the great High Priest was not naturally subject, necessary as 
 the means of expiation, the ground of forgiveness; there was 
 authority, to be bestowed as the reward of this merit, to warrant 
 Him to bestow the blessings of salvation on mankind, who de- 
 served nothing but punishment ; and there was sympatliy — the 
 capacity of entering fully into the sufferings of those whom He 
 was appointed to save. All these were necessary to His being 
 an accomplished High Priest, a perfect Saviour. None of 
 these belonged to the Son of God as a divine person ; all of 
 them had to be acquired by the God-man. He had thus to be 
 made perfect. And it was by the obedience which He learned 
 by the things that He suffered that He obtained these accom- 
 plishments — that He acquired this perfection. His obedience 
 to the death is the price of our souls. He took on him our 
 demerit, and suffered Its legal effects ; and He obtained for 
 Himself such a fulness of merit, so magnified the law and 
 made it honourable, that it became a righteous thing in God to 
 treat as innocent — as righteous — the greatest sinner united to 
 Him ; so that God is just, and the justifier of him that believeth 
 in Jesus. His obedience to the death in our room, as it obtained 
 merit on the ground of which sinners might be pardoned, ob- 
 tained for Him that power and authority in His official charac- 
 ter which are necessary to this merit becoming availing to the 
 salvation of men. It was because He finished the work given 
 Him to do, that the Father gave Him all power in heaven and 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. 319 
 
 earth, that lie might give eternal life to all whom He had given 
 Him — exalted Plim a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance 
 and remission of sin. And, still further, it was by this obedi- 
 ence, which He learned by what He suffered, that our High 
 Priest, the incarnate Son of God, became capable, both physi- 
 cally and morally — obtained both the capacity and disposition — to 
 sympathize with those whom He was appointed to save in all their 
 anxieties, fears, afflictions, and sorrows. It was necessary that 
 He should be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a 
 merciful and faithful High Priest. Had He not Himself suf- 
 fered, being tempted. Pie could not, in the same way and degree, 
 have been able to succour them who are tempted. But having 
 been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He is 
 not a High Priest Avho cannot be touched with the feeling of 
 our infirmities. No ; He is a High Priest who can be touched, 
 who cannot but be touched, with the feeling of our infirmities. 
 Thus did our High Priest, by the obedience which He learned by 
 the things which He suffered, become an all-accomplished High 
 Priest. He obtains all the merit, all the authority, all the sym- 
 pathy, necessary to the gaining, in the most perfect manner, to 
 the fullest extent, of the great ends for which He assum.ed the 
 priestly ofiice. 
 
 And being thus " made perfect. Pie is the Author of eternal 
 salvation to all who obey Him." This is what He has obtained 
 for you. Salvation is deliverance from sin and all its effects, 
 including restoration to the divine favour, image, fellowship, 
 and enjoyment — perfect, holy happiness. 
 
 The epithet eternal is emphatic. The Jewish high priest, 
 when he had performed his functions in behalf of his country- 
 men in the due order — when, accomplished for his work, with 
 his hands filled with the blood of the completed sacrifice and 
 the sacred incense, he entered into the holy place made with 
 hands — obtained for them a salvation, a deliverance from cer- 
 tain evils to which they were exposed, according to the prin- 
 ciples of the peculiar economy under which they were placed. 
 But that deliverance, as it was inferior in nature to that which 
 our High Priest has accomplished, so it was temporary in its 
 duration. The Jewish atonements could not remove moral ffuilt, 
 and therefore could not secure permanent salvation. But Jesus 
 Christ has secured a complete and never-ending deliverance 
 
320 DISCOURSE li. 
 
 from evil, in all its forms, and in all its degrees. The gift of 
 God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Of this eternal salvation our perfected High Priest is the 
 Author. To be the Author of salvation, is, in the fullest sense 
 of the word, to be the Saviour. He is the procurer and the 
 bestower of salvation. It is Pie who, by His obedience unto 
 death, has done all and suffered all that was necessary to make 
 the salvation of men consistent with, and illustrative of, the 
 perfections of the divine character, and the principles of the 
 divine government ; and it is He, too, who — in the dispen- 
 sation of the Holy Spirit, and in the administration of the 
 government of the world, obtained as the reward of this obe- 
 dience — actually saves His people from guilt, depravity, and 
 misery ; actually makes them really holy and happy here, and 
 Avill certainly make them perfectly holy and happy hereafter. 
 
 Our all-accomplished High Priest is thus "the Author of 
 eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Obedience necessarily 
 presupposes a revelation of the will of the j)erson to be obeyed. 
 I cannot obey Christ if I do not know the will of Christ. It 
 not merely presupposes a revelation of the will of Christ, but a 
 belief of that revelation. Without faith there cannot, in the 
 nature of things, be anything that deserves the name of obe- 
 dience. And where the revelation of the mind and will of 
 Christ is really understood and believed, obedience to that will, 
 according to the measure of faith, is the natural and uniform 
 consequence. He then obeys Christ who, crediting God's testi- 
 mony concerning Him, submits to be saved by Him in the way 
 of His appointment, and, trusting to Him as the only Author of 
 eternal salvation, acknowledges Him as his Lord and Master, 
 who has bought him with His blood, and subdued him by His 
 Spirit — pays a conscientious regard to Plis will, so far as he 
 knows it, and seeks to walk in all His commandments and 
 ordinances blameless. 
 
 To all persons of this description, and to persons of this 
 description alone, will Jesus Christ ultimately prove the Author 
 of eternal salvation. All, whether Jew or Gentile, however 
 great their previous guilt and depravity, who thus obey Him, 
 will be assm-edly saved by Him. But there is, there can be no 
 salvation through Christ to any man living and dying in impeni- 
 tence, unbelief, and disobedience. 
 
CHRIST MADE PERFECT BY SUFFERING. 321 
 
 Those persons miserably misunderstand and abuse this pas- 
 sage, who consider it as forbidding the greatest sinner, beheving 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, to hope, and immediately to hope, for 
 eternal salvation through Christ, and as making our sincere, but 
 imperfect obedience to the will of Christ, in any degree the 
 ground of our expectation of eternal life through Him. It 
 merely characterizes the persons who are saved by Christ Jesus, 
 and teaches that it is only in obeying Him, in believing the truth 
 about Him, and in living under the influence of this faith, that 
 we can enjoy that eternal salvation which He died to procure, and 
 is exalted to bestow. 
 
 Such are the glorious results of our Lord, as our High Priest, 
 learning obedience by the things which He suffered ; and so 
 direct and abundant is the evidence that we Christians are not 
 destitute of a High Priest, but have in Christ Jesus, the Son of 
 God, one Avho, taken from among men, has offered an all-effica- 
 cious sacrifice for sins, the blood of which, sprinkled on the con- 
 science, cleanses from all sin, and the meiit of which has opened 
 up for Him the way into the holiest of all, where at the right 
 hand of God, with all power in heaven and earth. He is able to 
 save to the uttermost all coming to God through Him. 
 
 These views of the character and work of our great High 
 Priest have not served their designed and appropriate purpose, 
 if they do not send us away with hearts full of admiration, 
 and love, and joy, and hope, — with entire confidence in the 
 perfection of His sacrifice, the prevalence of His intercession, 
 the power of His Spirit, the freeness and the fulness of His 
 salvation, — with stronger yet humbler resolutions than ever, 
 that, constantly looking to Him as the Author of our salvation, 
 we shall, taught by His grace, " deny ungodliness and worldly 
 lusts, and live soberly, and righteously, and godly; while we 
 look for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great 
 God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, Avho gave Himself for us, that 
 He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us to Himself, 
 a peculiar people, zealous of good works." That they may do 
 so, may the Father Himself, who loves us, shed forth on us 
 abundantly the good Spirit, through Christ Jesus the Saviour. 
 And to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the one Jehovah and 
 our God, be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 VOL. II. X 
 
DISCOURSE III. 
 
 CHRIST'S CHAEACTER AND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 
 
 Heb. IX. 11, 12. — " But Christ being come an High Priest of good things 
 to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, 
 that is to say, not of this building ; neither by the blood of goats and 
 calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having 
 obtained eternal redemption for us." 
 
 These words naturally call our attention to two importanfc 
 topics. First, the official character with which our Lord is 
 invested. He is come a High Priest of good things to come. 
 And secondly, the ministry whicli He performs in that character. 
 He obtains eternal redemption for His people ; and having ob- 
 tained eternal redemption for His people. He enters into the 
 holy place ; He enters in there through a greater and more per- 
 fect tabernacle ; He enters in there, not by the blood of goats and 
 of calves, but by His own blood ; and He has thus entered in 
 there once for all. This is the outline which I will endeavour 
 to fill up in the sequel of the discourse. 
 
 I. Let us then, first, turn our attention for a little to the 
 official character which our Lord is here represented as sustain- 
 ing. " Christ being come a High Priest of good things to come." 
 Our Saviour is spoken of by the Apostle, in this Epistle, under 
 a great variety of appellations. Sometimes He is termed Jesus, 
 sometimes Christ, sometimes Jesus Christ, sometimes the Son, 
 sometimes the Son of God. These appellations are all of them 
 significant. Each of them is descriptive of some aspect of the 
 many-sided character and work of our Lord ; and they are by 
 no means used indiscriminately by the inspired writer. The 
 attentive, well-informed reader will find little difficulty, in most 
 cases, in discovering the reason why, in a particular place, one 
 of these appellations is employed in preference to all the others. 
 It is easy to do so in the case before us. Christ — or the Mes- 
 siah, the Anointed One — describes our Lord as the great, 
 
324 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 divinely appointed, qualified, and accredited Saviour, promised 
 to the fathers as a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec ; 
 and the sum of the declaration in the text is, The 'Messiah, in the 
 person of Jesus, having come in the character in which He was 
 promised, has done all that it was predicted He should do.' 
 
 The character in which our Lord came, according to the 
 promises which went before concerning Him, was that of " the 
 High Priest of good things to come." " Good things to come," 
 here, is a description of that economy, dispensation, or order of 
 things, under which Jesus Christ is the High Priest, viewed in 
 contrast with the Mosaic law — the Jewish economy, under which 
 Aaron and his sons were high priests. This economy receives 
 the name of things to come, to mark its enduring nature, as — 
 what is and is to come — in contrast with the Jewish eco- 
 nomy, which had been, but was passed away ; and good things 
 to come, to characterize it as a salutary system, — an order of 
 things, the great design of the establishment of which is the 
 securing for, and communicating to men good things — blessings 
 of the highest order, which well deserve the name of good 
 things — better things than any preceding divine dispensation 
 made provision for. The idea does not seem to be, as some 
 interpreters suppose, that the best blessings of the economy 
 under which Christ is the High Priest are future blessings, not 
 to be enjoyed on earth, but laid up in heaven — not things of 
 time, but things of eternity. This is no doubt an important 
 and delightful truth ; but here the Apostle seems to have in 
 view the distinction which prevailed among the Jews as to the 
 times before the Messiah, and the times under the Messiah. 
 They spoke of the Messiah as " the Comer," — He that should 
 come ; and of the state under Him as " the world to come." 
 " Things to come," as opposed to things that are or have been, 
 thus came naturally to be employed as a description of the state 
 of things under the Messiah ; and as the object of His mission 
 was exclusively and in the highest degree salutary, this state of 
 things was termed not only " things to come," but " good things 
 to come." The Messiah was not to be a High Priest of the old 
 covenant ; He was to be the High Priest of the new covenant, 
 which was to be an everlasting covenant, and transcendently 
 good — the better covenant, established on better promises, or in 
 reference to better promised blessings. 
 
CHRIST'S CHARACTER AND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 325 
 
 Of this covenant our Lord Jesus is the High Priest. He, 
 He alone, is under this economy " ordained for men in things 
 pertaining to God, that He may offer both gifts and sacrifices 
 for sin." His sacrifice of Himself is the only sacrifice of ex- 
 piation under this economy ; and it is on the ground of this 
 sacrifice, and through means of His intercession founded on this 
 sacrifice, that all the transcendently good things, the heavenly 
 and spiritual blessings of this economy, are conferred on men. 
 The appellation, " the High Priest of good things to come," is, 
 as to meaning, quite equivalent to that appellation repeatedly 
 given to our Lord in other parts of this Epistle, — " the Mediator 
 of the new covenant," " the Mediator of the better covenant." 
 
 H. Having thus endeavoured, with as much clearness and 
 brevity as I could, to explain the import of the terms in which 
 our Lord's official character is described in the text, I proceed 
 to consider what I mean to make the chief subject of discourse — 
 the account which the text gives of the ministry which in this 
 official character our Lord has accomplished. That account is 
 contained in these words : — Christ, as the Hio-h Priest of good 
 things to come — the divinely appointed and divinely qualified 
 manager of the religious interests of man under the new and 
 better economy — ordained for men in things pertaining to God, 
 " having obtained eternal redemption for us, has entered hy, 
 or rather through, a greater and more perfect tabernacle, that 
 is not of this building, by — that is, by means of — not the 
 blood of calves or of goats, but His own blood." His mini- 
 stry as a High Priest is thus represented as consisting of two 
 great parts, the one rising out of the other. First, the ob- 
 taining eternal redemption for His people, by the sacrifice of 
 Himself ; and secondly, the entering into the holy of holies, to 
 present the blood of that sacrifice before the mercy-seat. Let 
 us shortly attend to these two great acts of our Lord's sacer- 
 dotal ministry. 
 
 The first gi'eat act of our Lord's ministry as the High Priest 
 of good things to come, is the obtaining eternal redemption for 
 His people. Men, in consequence of sin, in consequence of 
 being guilty and depraved, are exposed to the judicial dis- 
 pleasure and the moral disapprobation of God ; and if this guilt 
 is not expiated, if the removal of this depravity is not secured, 
 this judicial displeasure, this moral disapprobation, must con- 
 
326 DISCOUKSE III. 
 
 tinue, as long as God and man continue to exist, that is, for ever ; 
 and must manifest themselves in a way fitted to display to other 
 intelligent beings the holiness and justice of God, and the in- 
 trinsic malignity of human transgression. What man needs, is 
 redemption, deliverance, — eternal redemption, everlasting de- 
 liverance. Now, what man needs, Jesus Christ as our High 
 Priest has obtained. The high priests under the law obtained, 
 by the offering of certain appointed expiatory sacrifices on the 
 great day of atonement, redemption or deliverance for the 
 Jewish people ; but it was only a temporary redemption — from 
 external evils. It was deliverance from the evils to which their 
 transgression of the law of Moses had exposed them, — the being 
 shut out, cut off, from the congregation of the Lord, — exclusion 
 from taking part in the worship of the temple, and other evils 
 connected with this. And it was but a temporary deliverance 
 from these evils : new transgression incurred new guilt, and re- 
 quired new expiation. " The sacrifices which they offered year 
 by year continually, did not make the comers thereunto perfect : 
 for then would they not have ceased to be offered?" " In these 
 sacrifices there was a remembrance again made of sin every 
 year." 
 
 " The High Priest of good things to come," by the offering 
 of Himself, according to the will of God, as a sacrifice in the 
 room of His people, obtained for them redemption, or deliver- 
 ance ; biat it was redemption not only from a certain class of 
 external evils, it was redemption from all evils, — from evil 
 physical and moral, in every form and every degree, and re- 
 demption from all these — for ever. The expiation made by the 
 Jewish high priest was shadowy and imperfect, — that made by 
 the High Priest of good things, real and complete. 
 
 In plain words, the incarnate Son of God has, by yielding a 
 perfect obedience to the law of God, which man had violated, 
 and by a satisfactoiy endurance of the evils in which God's 
 displeasure against sin is expressed, — this obedience and en- 
 durance being the voluntary fulfilment of a special divine ap- 
 pointment for man's salvation, and invested with infinite merit 
 from the divine nature of Him who obeyed and suffered, — 
 made the deliverance of mankind from guilt, and from all the 
 consequences of guilt throughout eternity, compatible with all 
 the glories of the divine character, and all the interests of the 
 
CHRIST'S CHARACTER AND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 327 
 
 divine government, and has absolutely secured sucli a deliver- 
 ance for all whom God from the beginning had chosen to sal- 
 vation, through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the 
 truth. Pie took away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He 
 finished transgression, He made an end of sin, He brought in 
 an everlasting righteousness. His blood cleanseth from all sin. 
 In Him we have redemption, eternal redemption, through His 
 blood, the forgiveness of sins. The effect of the act of sacri- 
 fice in the case of the Jewish high priests, and of the High 
 Priest of good things to come, respectively, is very strikingly 
 represented in the words which follow the text : — " The blood 
 of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the un- 
 clean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh ;" and thus ob- 
 tained a temporary redemption from external evils. " The blood 
 of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself with- 
 out spot, purges the conscience from dead works, and qualifies 
 and disposes to the service of the living God ;" and thus obtains 
 eternal redemption from all evils. So much for the illustration 
 of the first great act of our Lord's sacerdotal ministry as the 
 High Priest of good things to come, — the obtaining of eternal 
 redemption for His people by His infinitely meritorious vicarious 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The second great act of our Lord's ministry as the High 
 Priest of good things to come, is His entering into the holy place. 
 When the Jewish liigli priest, on the great day of atonement^ 
 had finished the first part of his ministry, in obtaining redemp- 
 tion for the people from ceremonial guilt, by the expiation of 
 their sins by the appointed vicarious sacrifice, he went through 
 the outer sanctuary into the holy of holies, with the blood of 
 atonement to present before Jehovah, the covenanted God of 
 Israel, dwelling between the cherubim — sitting as it were on the 
 blood-sprinkled mercy-seat as a throne of grace, — evidence that 
 atonement had been made according to the due order ; and to 
 make intercession, if not verbally, emblematically by the offering 
 of incense, that as the reconciled Divinity He would pardon 
 and bless His people. The whole of what he did in the holy 
 place, as well as the act of going into it, is pointed out by 
 the phrase, " entering into the holy place." In like manner, 
 Christ, as the High Priest of good things to come, the substance 
 of these shadows, when He had finished on the cross that great 
 
328 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 work of expiation, which embraces all He did and all He suf- 
 fered from the manger to the sepulchre, entered into the true 
 holy place, of which the inner sanctuary in the tabernacle and 
 temple was the figure, to present there, as it were, in the imme- 
 diate presence of God, the Judge of all, the evidence of the com- 
 pleteness of the atonement which He had made, and to follow 
 it up by a never-ceasing interposition in behalf of His people, 
 founded on his all-perfect, infinitely meritorious atoning sacri- 
 fice. All this is included in His entering into the holy place. 
 
 By the holy place, into which Christ as the High Priest of 
 good things to come has entered, we are to understand the 
 heaven of heavens, — the place where the Divinity most remark- 
 ably manifests His excellences and communicates His blessings 
 to the unfallen and restored portions of His intelligent offspring, 
 the elect angels and the redeemed from among men. " Christ," 
 says the Apostle at the 24th verse, " is not entered into the holy 
 places made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but 
 into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." 
 When our Lord entered into heaven, he entered in His public 
 character — as an accomplished High Priest — with His hands 
 full of atoning blood, and incense of a sweet-smelling savour to 
 God, having been made perfect through suffering. 
 
 His very entrance there was a proof of the perfection of His 
 sacrifice. And additional proof of this delightful truth is to be 
 found in the place which He occupies there, and the manner in 
 which He is employed there. When He entered there, it was 
 not to stand there for a short period ministering before the 
 throne of God, and then to come forth, that He might again 
 resume the work of expiation by sacrifice ; it was to sit down 
 for ever on the throne of God, on the right hand of His Father. 
 It was to reign along with God ; for the Lord said to our Lord, 
 Sit on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. 
 And He must reign there till even the last of His enemies be 
 destroyed. Power over all flesh, ay, all power in heaven and 
 in earth, has been given Him ; and all this power He employs in 
 completing the salvation of those whom He has redeemed from 
 their sins by His own blood, in conferring the eternal redemp- 
 tion which He obtained by His sacrifice. The following is the 
 prophetic testimony respecting the exalted and beatific state of 
 Messiah, the Priest upon His throne, when He had entered into 
 
CHRIST'S CHARACTER AND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 329 
 
 the holy place : " The King joys in the strength of Jehovah : in 
 His salvation how greatly does He rejoice ! He has given Him 
 His heart's desire, and has not withholden from Him the re- 
 quest of His lips. He has prevented Him with the blessings of 
 goodness : He has set a crown of pure gold on His head. He 
 asked life" for Himself and His redeemed ones, the covenanted 
 recompense of His atoning death, " and He gave it Him, even 
 length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in Jehovah's 
 salvation : honour and majesty has He laid upon Him. He 
 has made Him most blessed for ever : He has made Him ex- 
 ceeding glad with His countenance." 
 
 And this is the apostolic testimony : Christ having become 
 dead in the flesh, " the just in the room of the unjust, has been 
 quickened in the Spirit, and is gone into heaven ; and is at the 
 right hand of God, angels, and authorities, and powers being 
 subject to Him : able to save to the uttermost all coming to God 
 by Him, for ever ; seeing He ever liveth to make intercession 
 for them." In the intercession which, as " the High Priest of 
 good things to come," He makes in the true holy place, there 
 is nothing humiliating. His intercession, and His mediatorial 
 power and dominion, are but two phases of the same glorious 
 object. The great primary truth contained in both these re- 
 presentations of our Lord's present state is, ' that it is in conse- 
 quence of His expressed will that every exertion of divine 
 power, directly or indirectly connected with the salvation of 
 men, whether in the production of external event or the putting 
 forth of inward influence, is made.' 
 
 Into this glorious state and place, " Christ, the High Priest of 
 good things to come," is said by the Apostle to have " entered hy 
 a greater' and more perfect tabernacle, that is not of this building." 
 What is the meaning of this ? By this tabernacle some pious 
 and judicious interpreters have understood our Lord's human 
 nature, in which as in a tabernacle He dwelt among us, and 
 in which He performed His sacrificial functions as a High 
 Priest ; and they have explained the phrase, entered hy this 
 tabernacle, as if it were equivalent to — entered in through means 
 of, in consequence of, services performed in this tabernacle. No 
 doubt this is truth ; but we much doubt if it is the truth here 
 stated. That the entrance was the result of sacrifice oifered, 
 is stated in the second clause : " not by the blood of calves or 
 
330 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 goats, but by His own blood." The allusion does not liere seem 
 to be to the priest entering into the holiest of all in conseqxience 
 of what he did in the holy place — for the sacrifice was offered, 
 not there, but on the altar of burnt-offering, before the first taber- 
 nacle ; but to his passing through the holy place — the holy place 
 being the only way to the holiest — bearing the atoning blood into 
 the holy of holies. Nowhere in this Epistle is the human nature 
 of Christ represented as emblematized by the outer tabernacle, 
 though in one place it has been supposed, I think erroneously, 
 to be emblematized by the vail which divided the holy place from 
 the holiest of all. The meaning of the inspired writer may, I 
 apprehend, be thus correctly represented: — Our Lord offered 
 His sacrifice on the earth, as the Jewish high priests did theirs 
 before the tabernacle ; and having offered His sacrifice on the 
 earth, .He passed through the visible heavens into the heaven of 
 heavens, as they passed through the holy place into the holiest 
 of all, the emblem of heaven. He entered into the holy place 
 through the visible heavens, which are represented in the Old 
 Testament Scriptures as the tabernacle of Jehovah, His ante- 
 chamber, as earth is His outer court, — an ante-chamber replete 
 with manifestations of beauty and grandeur, suitable to the 
 entrance into the presence-chamber of the great King, the Lord 
 of hosts — a tabernacle certainly incomparably greater, more 
 magnificent, and more perfect, more highly finished than the 
 Mosaic tabernacle, with all its curious embroidery and costly 
 ornaments — a tabernacle formed immediately by the hand of 
 God, " who in the beginning stretched out the heavens alone — 
 stretched them out as a curtain, and spread them out as a tent 
 to dwell in." 
 
 This tabernacle through which our Lord passed is said to be 
 " not of this buikhng," or of this creation or establishment. The 
 words are plainly intended to complete the implied antithesis be- 
 tween the High Priest of good things to come and the Jewish 
 high priests. They offered animal sacrifices ; He offered Himself. 
 They obtained temporal, temporary redemption ; He obtained 
 spiritual, eternal redemption. They entered into the holy of holies 
 made with hands, on earth ; He entered into the celestial sanc- 
 tuary created by God, in heaven. They entered into that material, 
 earthly holy place, through a tabernacle, suited to it, framed in 
 the same way, forming a part of the same constitution or build- 
 
CHRIST'S CHARACTER AND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 331 
 
 ino-; He entered into the lieaAen of heavens, which Jehovah 
 had formed for His own dwelHng-phice — the adytum of His 
 temple — through the visihle lieavens, which He too had formed 
 as a glorious vestibule to the presence-chamber of His majesty. 
 
 The following is the inspired history of the glorious event to 
 which the Apostle refers : — Having " showed Himself alive after 
 His passion by many infallible proofs, He," on a day never to be 
 forgotten on earth or in heaven, " led forth His disciples as far 
 as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them : 
 and it came to pass, as He blessed them, He was parted from 
 them — He was taken up ; a cloud received Him out of their 
 sight — and carried Him up into heaven. And while they looked 
 stedfastly up towards heaven, as He went up, behold, two men 
 stood by them in white apparel, which also said. Ye men of 
 Galilee, why stand ye gazing up to heaven ? This same Jesus 
 that is taken up to heaven shall so come in like manner as ye 
 have seen Him go into heaven." 
 
 What took place when, far beyond the sight of mortal eye 
 and hearing of mortal ear, He entered into the holy place in the 
 temple above, the sacred history does not tell us. But the Si)irit 
 of prophecy, which is the witness of Jesus, does. " God — God 
 with us — is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of 
 a trumpet." " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thou- 
 sands of angels. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the 
 holy place." " The Son of man came to the Ancient of days, 
 and they brought Him near before Him ; and there was given 
 Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, 
 nations, and lano;uao;es should serve Him : His dominion is an 
 everlasting dominion, and His kingdom that which shall not be 
 destroyed." " The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, 
 till I have made Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord hath 
 sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a Priest for ever after 
 the order of Melchizedek." We cannot doubt that the whole of 
 the attendant cherubim in the heavenly holy of holies, if not 
 awed into reverent silence, poured forth their choicest melodies 
 when the perfected High Priest of good things to come sat down 
 on the burning throne, sprinkled with His OAvn blood, on the 
 right hand of Him who lives and reigns for ever and ever. 
 " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
 and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 
 
332 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be to Him that 
 sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever." In- 
 deed, the oracles in the 7th chapter of Daniel and in the 5th of 
 Revelation seem to refer to the same event — that described in 
 the text as the entering in of the High Priest of good things to 
 come into the true holy place. 
 
 It is still further stated in this account of the ministry of 
 the High Priest of good things to come, that He entered into 
 the holy place by blood — "not by the blood of calves or of 
 goats, but by His own blood." The reference does not ap- 
 pear to be to the Jewish priest entering with blood, to be 
 sprinkled with his finger upon and before the mercy-seat seven 
 times on the gi'eat day of atonement, but to that of which this 
 was the appointed sign and evidence. The reference is to the 
 fact, that the Jewish high priest entered in consequence of the 
 shedding of the blood of the bullock and the goat, as sin-offer- 
 ings for himself and the congregation. Without this blood- 
 shedding, there was no entrance into the holy of holies. It 
 was on the ground of the expiation thus made that there was 
 warrantable safe entrance there. In like manner, it was on the 
 ground of the all-perfect expiation made by the blood of the 
 sacrifice of the High Priest of good things to come, which 
 sacrifice was Himself, that He has entered into heaven, sat 
 down on the right hand of God, and, ever living to make inter- 
 cession, is able to save to the uttermost all coming to God by 
 Him. He ever lives, because He once died, the just in the 
 room of the unjust. He lives and reigns in the power of 
 God, because He died in weakness, the victim for the sins of 
 men. Because He humbled Himself, and became obedient to 
 death, the death of the cross, God has highly exalted Him. 
 His beina; a Priest on His throne is the result of His being a 
 Priest on the cross. 
 
 The only other circumstance mentioned in the text respect- 
 ing the ministry of our Lord as " the High Priest of good things 
 to come," is, that He entered into the holy place once^ — i.e., 
 once for all. The Jewish high priests had to enter often — once 
 every year. A new year accumulated much new guilt; this 
 guilt required a new sacrifice, and a new entrance into the holy 
 place. But by the sacrifice of Himself, a sacrifice of infinite 
 worth, the High Priest of good things to come has obtained 
 
CHRIST'S CHARACTER AND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 333 
 
 eternal redemption for us ; and the expiation being complete — 
 having by one offering perfected for ever all them that are 
 sanctified — the entrance into the holiest of all is final, once and 
 for ever. The Jewish high priest could not abide in the holy 
 place : he had work to do which could not be performed there. 
 He must return to the altar to oifer sacrifice for unatoned-for 
 transgressions. But our High Priest comes no more out to per- 
 form the ministry of atonement. That is over, completely over. 
 He has finished transgression, made an end of sin, taken away 
 sin by the offering of Himself. Jehovah has heard His vows, 
 and " He abides before God for ever." He will indeed once 
 more come forth. Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every 
 eye shall see Him. When He came the first time, it was with a 
 sin-offering — with a human nature so constituted as to be a fit 
 sacrifice for the sins of men ; but when He comes the second 
 time, it will be without a sin-offering : not without a human na- 
 ture ; for He who entered is to come forth, and that was the 
 God-man Christ Jesus. But the human nature He brings 
 with Him, as it is not fitted, so it is not intended, to be a sacri- 
 fice for sin. He comes to confer, in all its glorious complete- 
 ness, the eternal redemption which He obtained by His sacrifice. 
 "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with 
 hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, 
 there to appear in the presence of God for us : nor yet that 
 He should offer Himself often, as the Jewish high priests 
 entered into the holy place every year with the blood of others ; 
 but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared, to 
 put away sin, and sin-offering, by the sacrifice of Himself. 
 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the 
 judgment ; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many : 
 and unto them that look for Him will He come the second 
 time, without sin, unto salvation." There is a striking analogy 
 between the deatli of men and the sacrifice of Christ, which was 
 consummated in His death. They are both events which, by 
 the constitution of God, can take place but once. And this is 
 not the only analogy. Death is not the end of man : the sacri- 
 fice is not the close of our Lord's saving work. Men must come 
 back again to this world ; but it is not again to die — they die no 
 more ; it is to be judged. The High Priest of good things 
 to come also comes back again : He comes forth from the 
 
334 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 holy place into which He has entered. But it is not again to 
 offer sacrifice : there is, for there needs not be, any more sacri- 
 fice for sin. He comes forth to judge the world, and to com- 
 plete the salvation of those whose sins He expiated in His death, 
 and who, having believed in Him, are looking for Him. May 
 we, my brethren, all be among that happy company who, when 
 He Cometh, cometh to judge the world, will welcome Him with 
 holy exultation, saying, This is our Lord ; we have waited for 
 Him : He has come, and He will save us ; — who, when at the 
 sound of the archangel's voice, and at the sign of the Son of 
 man, the kindreds of the eai'th are wailing because of Him, 
 shall, unmoved amid the solemnities of a dissolving world, have 
 all feelings lost in delight in the thought that He comes to take 
 all His redeemed ones, soul and body, a glorious assembly, 
 without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, into the many 
 mansions in the heaven of heavens which He entered in to 
 prepare for them. May our ears be opened to the voice which 
 is ever coming forth from the holy of holies, within the vail, 
 from above the skies — " Lo, I come ; " and let the response 
 of our heart be, " Amen. Even so come ; come quickly, Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 Thus have I shortly illustrated the view which the text 
 gives us of the official character of our Lord as the High Priest 
 of good things to come, and His ministry in this official charac- 
 ter. And " of the things which have been spoken, this is the 
 sum : " — Under the new and better economy, Jesus Christ is the 
 one Mediator between God and man, who opens up, and keeps 
 open, favourable intercourse between them ; and in this charac- 
 ter He has, by an all-perfect, infinitely meritorious sacrifice, 
 obtained eternal redemption for His people ; and, on the ground 
 of this sacrifice. He has, as an all-accomplished High Priest, 
 passed through these hea^vens into the heaven of heavens, where, 
 " for ever blessing and for ever blessed," on the right hand of 
 the Father, He reigns Head over all things to His body, the 
 Church, communicating to them the eternal redemption He has 
 obtained for them. 
 
 What gratitude, then, my brethren, is due by us to the High 
 Priest of good things to come, for what He has done, is doing, 
 will do for us as our High Priest ! How confidently may we 
 rely on His infinitely meritorious sacrifice, His all-prevalent in- 
 
CHRIST'S CHARACTER .VND MINISTRY AS A HIGH PRIEST. 335 
 
 tercession ! How should we rejoice in Him, as rich in mercy, 
 mighty to save ; and how ghidly should we embrace every op- 
 portunity offered of expressing these sentiments in a believing, 
 affectionate observance of His ordinances, in which He puts us 
 in mind of what He did for us in order to obtain eternal re- 
 demption for us, and in which He bids us look for Him from 
 heaven to complete the communication to us of that eternal 
 salvation, the obtaining of which for us was completed on 
 the cross ! Jesus the Savioui', who will deliver us from the 
 wrath that is to come ; Jesus, the Saviour, who will bestow 
 on us " the salvation that is in Him, with eternal glory ! " 
 O let us make melody to Him in our hearts ; and let this, 
 as it has been the theme of oiu* discourse, be the subject of 
 our sons;. 
 
 " The true Messiah now appears, 
 The types are all withdrawn ; 
 So fly the shadows and the stars 
 Before the rising dawn. 
 
 " No smoking sweets, no bleeding lambs, ' 
 Nor kid nor buUock slain ; 
 Incense and spice of costly names 
 Would all be burnt in vain. 
 
 " Aaron must lay his robes away, 
 His mitre and his vest. 
 When God Himself comes down to be 
 The Offering and the Priest. 
 
 " He took our mortal flesh to show 
 The wonders of His love ; 
 For us He paid his life below, 
 And reigns for us above." 
 
 " Not all the blood of beasts, 
 On Jewish altars slain, 
 Could give the guilty conscience peace, 
 Or wash away the stain. 
 
 " But Christ, the Lamb of God, 
 Takes all our sins away — 
 A sacrifice of richer blood 
 And nobler name than they. 
 
336 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 " Believing, we rejoice 
 
 To see the curse remove ; 
 We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice, 
 And sing His bleeding love." 
 
 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. To Him that loved 
 us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us 
 kings and priests to God, even His Father, be glory and do- 
 minion. Hallelujah. 
 
DISCOURSE ly. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST SUPERIOR IN EFFICACY TO THE 
 LEGAL SACRIFICES. 
 
 Heb. IX. 13, 14. — " For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes 
 of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; 
 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit 
 offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
 works, to serve the living God ? " 
 
 Jesus Christ, the High Priest of our profession, has re- 
 ceived from God a more excellent ministry than that conferred 
 on Aaron and his sons. This proposition is laid down by the 
 Apostle in the 6th verse of the preceding chapter ; and the 
 illustration of it occupies him down to the conclusion of the 
 doctrinal part of the Epistle, at the 18th verse of the next 
 chapter. The particular point which the Apostle states and 
 establishes in our text, is the superior hind of efficacy which 
 belongs to the expiatory sacrifice offered up by Jesus Christ, as 
 the High Priest of our profession, when compared with that 
 which belonged to the expiatory sacrifices presented by the 
 Aaronical priesthood. It was intended to gain — it was fitted to 
 gain — it has actually gained — a much, an infinitely higher, ob- 
 ject than they gained, or indeed were intended or fitted to gain. 
 This most important proposition, lying at the foundation of 
 all our hopes for eternity, is in the text clearly stated, and satis- 
 factorily proved. The statement is in these words : " The blood 
 of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the 
 unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh. The blood of 
 Christ purges the conscience from dead works, to serve the living 
 God." The argument is thus expressed : — " If the blood of 
 bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sanctifieth to the 
 purifying of the flesh ; how much mo7'e shall the blood of Christ, 
 who throiujh the eteimal Spirit offered Himself, purge the con- 
 science from dead works, to serve the living God ?" To point 
 VOL. II. Y 
 
338 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 out the meaning of the statement, and the force of the argu- 
 ment, are the two objects which I mean to prosecute in the re- 
 maining part of the discourse. 
 
 I. Let us then attend, in the first place, to the Apostle s state- 
 ment ; and first, to his statement as to the efficacy of the Leviti- 
 cal sacrifices. " The blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of 
 an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of 
 the flesh." " The blood of bulls and of goats," here plainly 
 refers to the blood of animals offered as sacrifices for sin, ac- 
 cording to the law of Moses.^ The phrase, " the ashes of an 
 heifer," refers to a remarkable usage, of which we have a 
 minute account in the 19th chapter of the book of Numbers, 
 vers. 2-9. There it is commanded that a red heifer, or young 
 cow, without blemish, on which no yoke had come, should be 
 taken without the camp and slain in the presence of the priest, 
 who was to sprinkle of the blood seven times before the taber- 
 nacle of the Lord ; that the carcase should then be burned en- 
 tire ; that into the midst of the fire should be cast by the priest 
 cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool ; that the ashes which re- 
 mained should be preserved ; and that, on a person having con- 
 tracted ceremonial defilement, from contact or contigbity to a 
 dead body, a portion of these ashes, mixed in running water, 
 should with a bunch of hyssop be sprinkled on him by a person 
 free from ceremonial defilement. The sprinkling of the blood 
 of these sacrifices, or of this mixture of the ashes of the heifer 
 and running water, was the appointed means of interesting the 
 defiled individual in the expiatory and cleansing virtue of the 
 death of the victims ; and when the sacrifice had been offered, 
 and the lustral water prepared according to the due order, this 
 sprinkling availed to the removal of the ceremonial defilement — 
 unfitting for fellowship with Jehovah and His people in the 
 services of the sanctuary — which had been contracted, freed from 
 the punishment which had been incurred, and restored to the 
 privileges which had been forfeited. It " sanctified to the puri- 
 fying of the flesh." It " sanctified :" it set apart the individual 
 from the great body of the common, or profane — those who were 
 unfit for the divine service, who were by statute debarred from 
 taking part in it, — and anew conseci'ated him as a servant of 
 Jehovah ; it removed that which had excluded him from the 
 1 Lev. xvi. U, 15; i. 2-5, 10, 11. 
 
SUrEEIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. 339 
 
 congregation of tlie Lord ; it made him, in a ceremonial sense, 
 " holy to the Lord." 
 
 " It thus sanctified to the purifijing of the jieshr " The 
 purifying of the flesh" does not mean the cleausing of the body ; 
 for sprinkling with blood, or with a mixture of ashes and water, 
 was fitted to soil rather than to purify. It marks the kind of 
 sanctification or purifying. It was of the flesh, as contrasted 
 with the spirit — of an external, not an internal kind — of a 
 ceremonial, not of a moral kind. The purifying of the flesh 
 is contrasted with the purifying of the conscience — the inner 
 man — the seat and subject of moral guilt and pollution, and of 
 the corresponding forgiveness, justification, and sanctification. 
 The sprinkling of the blood, and of the mixture of ashes and 
 water, was the vehicle and the token of that forgiveness of cere- 
 monial guilt and removal of ceremonial pollution, which the ex- 
 ])iatory sacrifices procured — of the offering of which, this blood 
 and mixture were, as it were, the evidence ; so that the person 
 thus sprinkled was, as to his relation to Jehovah, and his right 
 and fitness for engaging in His service, in the same state in 
 which he was before the guilt and defilement had been con- 
 tracted, and thus placed on a level with his fellow-w^orshippers. 
 
 The sacrifices of the Mosaic institution are often spoken of 
 by divines as if they had been utterly, and in every sense, in- 
 efficacious. This is, however, by no means an accurate repre- 
 sentation. It is utterly irreconcilable with the statement in the 
 text, which at once declares the efficacy of these sacrifices, and, 
 in explaining the nature of that efficacy, defines its limits. If 
 they had not had efficacy, complete efficacy, for their own pur- 
 pose, they would have been quite unfit to serve the end for which 
 we know they were intended — to foreshadow the all-efficacious 
 sacrifice of the great Redeemer of mankind. They had no 
 efficacy, indeed, for removing moral guilt and spiritual defile- 
 ment. " It was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats," 
 shed in sacrifice, " should take away sin ;" and therefore it was 
 not possible that that blood, when sprinkled on the body, could 
 sanctify to the purifying of the conscience. It could not ex- 
 piate moral guilt, so as to lay a foundation for forgiveness, and 
 sanctification, and final salvation to him who had contracted 
 that guilt. The sanctifying efficacy of a sacrifice must be ap- 
 propriate and proportioned to its expiatory power ; and both 
 
340 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 must correspond with the natuue of the sacrifice, and the pur- 
 pose it was appointed to serve. 
 
 These sacrifices, then, were efficacious, completely efficacious, 
 for their own appointed purpose. This is very distinctly stated 
 in the law of Moses, Lev. vi. 1, 7 : " If a soul sin, and commit 
 a trespass against the Lord, he shall bring his trespass-offering 
 unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the fold, to the 
 priest, and the priest shall make an atonement for him before 
 the Lord ; and it shall be forgiven him for anything of all that 
 he hath done in transgressing therein." And it is stated of the 
 person defiled by the dead, that " if the water of separation has 
 not been sprinkled on him, he defileth the sanctuary of the 
 Lord," if he approach it ; but if he be sprinkled with it accord- 
 ing to the due order, " he is clean." 
 
 It Is of importance to remark here, that though these rites 
 were efficacious only to the purifying of the flesh, to the removal 
 of ceremonial guilt and defilement, they were the figure of that 
 which is efficacious to the removal of moral guilt and defilement. 
 They were " shadows." In these rites were embodied these prin- 
 ciples : that God is displeased at sin ; that the violation of His 
 law forfeits the high privilege of favourable Intercourse with Him, 
 and unfits for its enjoyment ; that God is not inexorable ; that 
 though He is disposed to restore sinning man to His favour and 
 fellowship, this must be In the way of showing His displeasure 
 at sin, and of their being qualified for the enjoyment of His 
 blessings — It must be by the removing, the taking away, of the 
 guilt and the defilement. And how this is to be done, was dimly 
 shadowed forth by vicarious suffering, and by that vicarious suf- 
 ferino- being made to bear on the conscience of the sinner. In 
 the deo-ree in which this reference was apprehended by the 
 Jewish worshipper (and what that degree was, we have but im- 
 perfect means of determining — it was likely very different In 
 different individuals, even among the truly pious of the Jews — 
 but in that degree), these rites were the means of a higher kind 
 of purification. The Gospel in a figure, like the Gospel in plain 
 ■yvords — in the promises and predictions — wherever it was under- 
 stood and believed, produced its appropriate effects on the be- 
 lieving mind and heart ; but in this case it was not the efficacy 
 of the Jewish sacrifices, but the efficacy of the Great Sacrifice 
 prefigured by them, which produced the effect. The sins that 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. 341 
 
 were forgiven under the old covenant, were forgiven with a re- 
 ference to the propitiation which was completed on the cross, 
 and is set forth in the Gospel ; and all purification of the con- 
 science under that economy proceeded from the same source. 
 It is this purification the Psalmist prays for, under figures 
 borrowed from the Levitical economy : " Purge me with hyssop, 
 and I shall be clean ; wash me, and I shall be whiter than the 
 snow." 
 
 For the illustration of the Apostle's statement as to the 
 efficacy of the Jewish sacrificial rites, it is only necessary fur- 
 ther to remark, that this was an efficacy confined to the Jewish 
 people, and the proselytes joined to them. It would have been 
 a profanation of the sacrificial blood and the water of separa- 
 tion, to have sprinkled them on one of the uncircumcision. The 
 Gentiles could have neither part nor lot in this matter. They 
 had no portion, nor right, in these rites of expiation and lus- 
 tration. 
 
 Of what the Apostle states on this point, this then is the sum : 
 The sacrifices for sin under the law, when duly offered by the 
 priests and applied to the worshippers, were effectual in ex- 
 piating ceremonial guilt, and removing ceremonial defilement 
 from the ancient people of God. 
 
 Let us now, secondly, consider his statement with regard 
 to the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, offered by Himself, and 
 applied to all who believe. " The blood of Christ purges your 
 conscience from dead works, to serve the living God." The 
 blood of Christ is the blood which He shed, when by His death 
 on the cross He finished the great sacrifice which He came to 
 offer for the sins of mankind. This blood is in the text repre- 
 sented as " sprinkled" on the conscience. The conscience is the 
 soul, the spiritual part of our nature, the inner man. It is ob- 
 vious, then, that the language must be figurative. The soul can 
 neither be sprinkled with blood nor washed with water. It is 
 not, however, difficult to perceive at once the meaning and the 
 fitness of the metaphorical representation. It was by sprinkling 
 the blood of the animal sacrifices under the law on the indivi- 
 dual for whom they were offered, that that individual became 
 personally possessed of the advantage to obtain wliich they 
 were offered, — that is, deliverance from the ceremonial guilt and 
 defilement which prevented him from drawing near to God in 
 
342 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 the temple along with His people. Now the question is, What 
 is it under the new covenant which answers to this ? How is a 
 man interested in the expiatory, justifying, sanctifying efficacy of 
 the sacrifice which Christ Jesus finished on the cross by pourhig 
 out His blood, His life. His soul unto death? An answer to 
 that question will explain what the sprinkling of the blood of 
 Christ on the conscience, so as to cleanse it from dead works, 
 is. The priest who offered the sacrifice, sprinkled the blood on 
 those for whom it was offered ; and it is the work of the great 
 High Priest of our profession to sprinkle His own blood on the 
 conscience. Let us translate these figures into literal language. 
 By the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit, Christ leads the 
 individual so to apprehend the meaning and evidence of the 
 truth respecting His sacrifice, exhibited in the Gospel revelation, 
 as that, according to the arrangements of the new covenant, he 
 becomes personally interested in the blessings obtained by that 
 sacrifice. The expiatory, justifying, sanctifying influences of 
 the atonement are thus shed abroad in the heart by the Holy 
 Ghost given us ; the man is pardoned, and accepted, and sanc- 
 tified ; the conscience is thus " purged from dead works." 
 
 The phrase, " dead works," is a singular one, and has been 
 variously explained. It plainly denotes that from which the 
 blood of Christ, when sprinkled upon the conscience, purifies. 
 In other words, it refers to that spiritual pollution which makes 
 man the object of the divine rectoral displeasure and moral dis- 
 approbation, which prevents favourable intercourse with God, 
 making man both unworthy of it and unfit for it — that state of 
 guilt and depravity in which all men are by nature ; and it is 
 likely that that is here described by the somewhat strange 
 phrase, " dead works," with a reference to that defilement by 
 contact with dead bodies, from which sprinkling with the water 
 of separation was intended to cleanse, spoken of in the preced- 
 ing verse. " Dead w^orks" are " defiling works," having, in com- 
 mon with dead bodies, this quality, that they produce defilement. 
 
 The word " works " is not to be restricted to external acts, 
 but includes all the activities of the thinking, feeling, acting 
 being — the workincrs of the mind and heart as well as of the 
 hands. 
 
 By these sinful works man is defiled ; and that defilement is 
 removed by the sprinlding of the blood of Christ. He who, 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. 343 
 
 under divine influence sent forth by the Saviour, believes the 
 truth respecting His sacrifice, is purified from the defilement of 
 guilt, w?iich sin's dead works produce. He that believeth is not 
 condemned ; he is justified. He cannot be condemned, for he 
 is united to Him who was delivered for his offences, and raised 
 again for his justification. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, 
 cleanseth him from all sin. And he is also delivered from the 
 defilement of depravity, which sin's dead works at once indicate 
 and mcrease : his heart is purified by faith. The belief of the 
 truth respecting the sacrifice of Christ destroys his natural 
 alienation and enmity, and leads him to love God, and to de- 
 light in His fellowship and service. It becomes a fitting thing 
 in God to admit him to favourable intercourse, and he is quali- 
 fied for this high and holy privilege. 
 
 The conscience being thus purified from dead works through 
 the sprinkling of the blood of Christ's sacrifice, the man for- 
 merly shut out from, as unworthy of, unfit for, favourable in- 
 tercourse with God, in consequence of the pollution rising from 
 his dead works, "now serves the living God." The proper 
 meaning of the word " serve " here is, religious ministration — 
 worship. The Israelite who violated Moses' law, and incurred 
 ceremonial guilt and pollution, shut himself out of the enjoy- 
 ment of his highest privilege — that which, indeed, may be con- 
 sidered as including them all — access to Jehovah as his covenant 
 God. The sacrifices of the law, when duly attended to, re- 
 stored him to this privilege. He went up to the temple and 
 mingled with the congregation of the Lord. Men, by the 
 pollution connected with dead works, are shut out from the 
 favour and fellowship of God — i.e., from true holiness and true 
 happiness. The sacrifice of Christ, applied to the conscience 
 by the truth in reference to it being imderstood and believed, 
 brings men to God — opens their way into the favourable pre- 
 sence of the Divine Being, as God in Christ reconciling the 
 world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them ; seeing 
 He hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for them, that 
 they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. They are 
 made priests to God, and are enabled, influenced by the mercies 
 of God manifested in the sacrifice of Christ, to go boldly to the 
 throne of grace, and to present themselves living sacrifices to 
 Him, the living God, holy and acceptable, which is rational 
 
344 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 worship, or service. They who are thus interested in the effects 
 of the great sacrifice, are even here " a people near to Him." 
 They dwell in His house ; they serve Him without fear, in 
 righteousness and holiness ; they offer to Him continually the 
 sacrifices of praise ; and the ultimate result of the great sacri- 
 fice, the blood shed and sprinkled, will be their being taken, like 
 their great High Priest, body and spirit, fully sanctified, without 
 spot or wrinkle or any such thing, into the immediate presence 
 of their God and Father, where they shall no more go out, but 
 serve Him day and night in His temple, for ever and ever, the 
 living worshippers of the living God. Such, then, is the 
 Apostle's statement respecting the efficacy of the sacrifice of 
 Christ when applied to the conscience. 
 
 It only remains, on this part of the subject, to remark, that 
 the efficacy of the Saviour's sacrifice is not, like that of the 
 Levitical sacrifices, confined to the Jewish people. He gave 
 Himself a ransom for all ; He is the propitiation for the sins of 
 the whole world. It was predicted, not only that He should 
 bear the sins of many, but that He should " sprinkle many 
 nations." The guiltiest and the most depraved of our race are 
 not excluded from the benefits of the blood of this sacrifice, shed 
 and sprinkled. " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
 sin." However defiled the previous state of the inner man, the 
 sprinkling of this blood purges from dead works, and converts 
 the dead worker into a living minister of a living God — the holy, 
 happy participant of the mind, and will, and enjoyments of the 
 holy, holy, holy, ever blessed God. It must, however, never be 
 forgotten, that though the value of the shed blood is in itself 
 infinite, it is only in the event of its being sprinkled on the 
 conscience that it is efficacious in reference to individuals. It 
 is by the blood of sprinkling — the sprinkled blood — by it alone, 
 that there is sanctification. 
 
 II. Having explained the Apostle's statement as to the supe- 
 rior efficacy that belongs to the sacrifice of Christ, in comparison 
 with the sacrifices of the old economy, let us now proceed to 
 illustrate the force of his argument in supjyort of this statement. 
 " If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
 sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, 
 how much more shall the blood of Christ, icho through the eternal 
 Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your con- 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. '345 
 
 science from dead loorks, to serve the living God ?" The argu- 
 ment is twofold. If the legal sacrifices had efficacy to cleanse 
 from ceremonial guilt and defilement, the sacrifice of Christ 
 has efficacy to cleanse from moral guilt, spiritual defilement ; 
 and if the legal sacrifice had efficacy for its appointed subordi- 
 nate purpose, the sacrifice of Christ must much more have 
 efficacy for its appointed far higher purpose. Let us endea- 
 vour to place in a clear light the force of these two arguments. 
 
 The first of these arguments rests on this fact, that the 
 sacrifice of Christ possesses all that gave the legal sacrifices 
 their efficacy. If the question be put, What was it that gave 
 the legal sacrifices their efficacy ? the answer plainly is. Their 
 divine appointment. In themselves, they could have no efficacy. 
 They were instituted by God to serve a particular purpose, and 
 they served it just because they were so instituted. Now, it is 
 not more certain that these sacrifices were divinely appointed 
 for their purpose, than that the sacrifice of Christ was divinely 
 appointed to serve its purpose. " God gave His Son to be the 
 Saviour of the world ; " He " laid on Him the iniquities of us 
 all ; " He has "set Him forth a propitiation in His blood ;" He 
 came, sent by His Father, to " take away sin by the sacrifice of 
 Himself ; " and " God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin 
 in our room, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
 in Him." He who said to Him, " Thou art My son, this day I 
 have begotten Thee," said also to Him, " Thou art a Priest for 
 ever, after the order of Melchisedec." The legal sacrifices 
 were efficacious for their purposes, for they were divinely ap- 
 pointed ; and for the same reason, the sacrifice of Christ is 
 efficacious for its purposes. 
 
 The second argument will require a somewhat more ex- 
 tended illustration. Its substance is, "If the legal sacrifices 
 served their purpose, much more must the sacrifice of Christ 
 serve its purpose." This argument rests on facts which the 
 Apostle brings forward. Not only is the element which gave 
 efficacy to the legal sacrifices for their purposes present in the 
 sacrifice of Christ, but there are other and most potent elements, 
 fitted to secure for it the far higher efficacy which was neces- 
 sary to its answering its far higher purposes. The legal sacri- 
 fices owed all their efficacy to their divine appointment. The 
 sacrifice of Christ could not have been efficacious, it could not 
 
346 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 have existed, without divine appointment ; but it was in its own 
 nature fitted to be efficacious, and it is to this fact that we are 
 to trace its divine appointment. The legal sacrifices cleansed 
 because of their appointment. The appointment of our Lord's 
 sacrifice took place because it was fitted and adequate for cleans- 
 ing. (1.) The blood of His sacrifice was "the blood of Christ;" 
 (2.) The sacrifice He offered was the sacrifice of " Himself ; " 
 (3.) That sacrifice was offered " without spot ;" and, what most 
 of all goes to prove its efficacy, (4.) That sacrifice was offered 
 "through the eternal Spirit." Let us look a little at these 
 statements, and we will see that they fully bear out the Apostle's 
 argument, that the sacrifice of Christ must be held much more 
 to have efficacy to serve its purpose than the legal sacrifices to 
 serve theirs. 
 
 The blood of His sacrifice is "the blood of Christ." And 
 who is Christ ? The Messiah, the Anointed One. And what 
 does that mean ? Nothing less than the divinely qualified, ap- 
 pointed, sent, accredited Saviour. His blood must surely be 
 precious blood. His blood — His sacrifice — must be fitted to be 
 effectual for any purpose, however great, that sacrificial blood 
 can answer. What, in comparison of this, is the blood of the 
 cattle on a thousand hills I What, in comparison of this, the 
 sacrifice of the whole race of man ? It is likely that the Apostle 
 meant here, a contrast not only between the Levitical sacrifices 
 and our Lord's sacrifice, but between the Levitical high priest 
 and our Lord Himself. They, the priests of a nation ; He, the 
 Anointed One — the Priest of mankind — " the Christ," accord- 
 ing to the Samaritan creed, " the Saviour of the world." 
 
 Then, the sacrifice offered by om* High Priest was the sacrifice 
 of " Himself." There is much more in that expression than is 
 ordinarily apprehended. What our Lord offered was nothing 
 extrinsic ; it was Himself, His whole self. The sacrifice offered 
 by our Lord was all He was — all that He had done ; that entire, 
 most willing subjection both to the precept and to the sanction 
 of the law — holy, just, and good, and exceeding broad — which 
 man had violated ; a subjection reaching from the moment of 
 His incarnation to the moment of His death — so continuous and 
 perfect as to be represented by the Apostle as one act of obe- 
 dience, corresponding with the one act of him who was His 
 figure, by which death and all our woe came into the world : 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. 347 
 
 it was this which He, as the appointed, qualified High Priest, 
 presented to God as that which was fitted to be a declaration of 
 His righteousness in the salvation of man — that which should 
 take away sin, in procuring the expiation of sin, the forgive- 
 ness of sin, the absolute destruction of sin. Who that knows 
 what that sacrifice was, and tolio it was that offered it,»can doubt 
 that it must have been efficacious for its purposes ; and that, 
 when offered to God, it must have been a sacrifice of a sweet 
 smelling savour in His estimation, — a magnifying of the law, and 
 a making of it honourable, so as that " grace might reign through 
 righteousness unto eternal life?" 
 
 Still further, when He who is the Christ, by the shedding of 
 His blood, offered Himself an offering to God, the offering was 
 a spotless offering. This is, indeed, implied in the sacrifice being 
 the sacrifice of Himself. But it is separately mentioned, from 
 its essential importance. The absolute sinlessness, the absolute 
 perfection of our Lord, is an essential element of the efficacy of 
 His sacrifice. Had Jesus been a sinner in any degree — had His 
 flesh been sinful flesh — had His humanity been, strictly speak- 
 ing, fallen humanity, He would not have been " Christ, the 
 Holy One of God ;" He would have been utterly disqualified 
 for achieving the great work of our salvation. He would have 
 needed for Himself that blessing He came to confer upon others. 
 The Levitical law made men priests having moral infirmity, who 
 had. to offer sacrifice for their own sins as well as for the sins of 
 the people ; but our High Priest is such an one as became us, 
 " holy, harmless, separate from sinners." He needed not to 
 offer sacrifice for Plis own sins, for He had no sin. He was 
 thus fitted to sei^'e the purpose for which He was manifested — to 
 take away sin ; for in Him was no sin. As a High priest, He 
 was perfect ; as a victim, spotless. The blood by which we are 
 redeemed is the blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and 
 blemish. We have thus, in the sacrifice of Christ, a perfect 
 oblation, offered up in a perfect manner by a perfect High 
 Priest. How much more, then, must it be efficacious ? 
 
 But the primary element of efficacy in the sacrifice of 
 Christ, for the purposes it was meant to serve, remains to be 
 stated. This sacrifice of Himself which Christ offered to God 
 without spot, was offered " through the eternal Spirit." There 
 is some difficulty of fixing the reference of the appellation, " the 
 
'348 DISCOURSE IV. 
 
 eternal Spirit," and the meaning of the phrase, " through the 
 eternal Spirit." Some consider the appellation as referring 
 to the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity, and 
 view the expression as equivalent to — Christ, in whom the Holy 
 Spirit dwelt, offered Himself ; or, under the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit, He offered Himself ; or, according to the declara- 
 tions of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament Scriptures, He so 
 offered Himself, as Paul says. He died for us, according to the 
 Scriptures. Each of these interpretations brings out a meaning 
 true in itself, and not alien from the argument of the Apostle. 
 But I am disposed to go along with those interpreters who con- 
 sider " the Eternal Spirit" as descriptive of our Lord's divine 
 nature, — " the spirit of holiness," according to which He is the 
 Son of God, while " according to the flesh" He is the Son of 
 David, — " that Spirit" in which He was justified when He 
 was manifested in flesh, — that eternal life which was with the 
 Father, the eternal Word in which was life. The words are 
 strictly applicable to the divine nature, as existing in the Person 
 of the incarnate Son ; and it would have been strange if the 
 Apostle, in indicating how the blood of Christ's sacrifice was 
 much more efficacious than that of the legal sacrifices, had 
 omitted that which was necessary to its efficacy, and which more 
 than all other things put together demonstrates that efficacy — 
 His true divinity. When it is said that our High Priest offered 
 Himself " through the eternal Spirit," we apprehend the 
 thought meant to be conveyed is, that the efficacy of that sacri- 
 fice was closely connected with, indeed primarily produced by, 
 " that union with the eternal Spirit of Godhead" which formed 
 the most extraordinary feature in His person. Had not Christ 
 been a divine person — a person not naturally subject to the law 
 man had violated — meritorious obedience and satisfaction would 
 have been in the nature of things impossible, no creature being 
 capable of doing more than his duty in obeying or submitting 
 to the divine will. When he has done all those things which 
 are commanded him, he must still say, I am an unprofitable 
 servant ; I have done that which was my duty to do. It is 
 otherwise with Him who is the Word made flesh — God manifest 
 in flesh. " The assumption of human nature by the eternal 
 Spirit, in the person of the Word, or Son, was the act of an in- 
 finite mind, looking to all the results of that assumption. The 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. 349 
 
 union, once formed, was constant and invariable ; so that all that 
 He did, in and for the execution of His mediatorial office and 
 work, were impressed with the essential dignity and moral value 
 of His divine perfection."^ This, then, requires us to attribute 
 to our Lord's sacrifice a value properly infinite. He is worthy, 
 with all the worthiness of the Godhead. 
 
 It is deserving of notice, how closely connected in the in- 
 spired declarations are the divinity of our Lord and the efficacy 
 of His atonement. " Look to Me and be saved," says the !Mes- 
 siah by the prophet, " for I am God." " Surely in Jelwvah^^ 
 says the Church, " I have righteousness" — justification. " In 
 Him," says the Apostle, " we have redemption through His 
 blood, the forgiveness of sins ; in Him, who is the image of the 
 invisible God, the first-begotten of every creature, the Prince of 
 the whole creation, by whom, for whom all things were created, 
 who is before all things, and by whom all things subsist." " The 
 Son of God, the appointed heir of all things, by whom also He 
 made the worlds — the brightness of His glory, the express 
 image of His person — by Himself, i.e., by the sacrifice of Him- 
 self — being what He was — what He only was — purged our 
 sins." When we think what " purging the conscience from 
 dead works" is, and what is requisite to its accomplishment, we 
 see that the labours and sufferings of men and angels combined 
 could not effect it ; but what can the labours and sufferings 
 of Him who is an incarnation of God not effect ? " Is any- 
 thing too hard for the Lord ? " We thus see, that beside the 
 element of divine appointment — which equally belongs to the 
 sacrifices under the law and to our Lord's sacrifice, and warrants 
 the conclusion, that they both must be efficacious for the pur- 
 poses they are respectively meant to serve — there are in our 
 Lord's sacrifice elements peculiar to itself, — in the nature of the 
 sacrifice — " Himself," in the manner in which it was offered — 
 " without spot," in the official character — " Christ," and in the 
 personal dignity — divinity — " the eternal Spirit," of Him that 
 offered it, — elements which warrant the conclusion, that if the 
 legal sacrifices were efficacious for their purpose, mucli more 
 must His sacrifice be effectual for its purpose. 
 
 There is yet one other remark necessary to complete our 
 view of the Apostle's argument. From His sacrifice possessing 
 
 1 Pye Smith. 
 
350 DISCOURSE rv. 
 
 these qualities, it follows that it has the quality of intrinsic suit- 
 ableness. It is quite adequate to the purpose — the " purging the 
 conscience from dead works ;" i.e., as we have seen, expiation, 
 justification, sanctification. There is a more glorious display 
 given of the holiness and justice of God, of the excellence of 
 the law, and of the demerit of the transgression of it, and at the 
 same time of the love and mercy of God, than there would have 
 been in the everlasting destruction of a sinning world, or in the 
 everlasting happiness either of an unslnning world, or of a sin- 
 ning world pardoned by mere amnesty, without satisfaction. 
 And this glorious display, when made the subject of a revela- 
 tion — if understood and believed, under that divine influence for 
 the communication of which it makes provision — delivers from 
 the power of sin, and at once disposes and qualifies men for that 
 favourable intercourse with God in which consist thelr^iollness 
 and happiness, and which it is now consistent with, illustra- 
 tive of. His righteousness, as well as His grace, to vouchsafe to 
 them. It would take a volume to exhibit fully the truth packed 
 up in these two sentences. I repeat them, that you may employ 
 your thoughts In comprehending and unfolding them. " For if 
 the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
 sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; 
 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
 eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your 
 conscience from dead works, to ser\'e the living God?" 
 
 I have thus illustrated the Apostle's statement and argument. 
 — His twofold statement : The blood of bulls and goats, and the 
 ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the puri- 
 fying of the flesh. The blood of Christ purges the conscience 
 from dead works to serve the living God. His argument, which 
 is twofold also : — If the blood of bulls and goats sanctifies to the 
 purifying of the flesh, the blood of Christ must purge the con- 
 science from dead works. If the blood of bulls and goats does 
 the one, the blood of Christ will much more do the other. The 
 two contrasted sacrifices have equally the element of divine ap- 
 pointment ; therefore, if the one Is efficacious, so must the other. 
 But the second has additional elements, in the nature of the sacri- 
 fice, in the manner in which It was offered, in the official cha- 
 racter and essential dignity of Him who offered it, and in the 
 intrinsic suitableness to serve its purposes, resulting from these 
 
 ] 
 
SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE. 351 
 
 elements ; therefore it may much more be lielcl to be efficacious 
 for its specific purposes. Most appropriately does tlie Apostle 
 express the last conclusion interrogatively,— How much more 1 
 This is a question which neither man nor angel will be able to 
 answer to all eternity. 
 
 And now for the all-important question, Has this efficacy of 
 the Saviour's sacrifice, so clear a point of Christian doctrine, 
 become a matter of personal experience with us ? Have we had 
 our conscience purged from dead works, so as to become the 
 holy, happy worshippers of the living God ? 
 
 If we have not, how miserable is our condition ! Our hearts 
 and conscience are defiled ; we are guilty and depraved ; there 
 is no other sacrifice for sin — no other means of sanctifica- 
 tion. Unforgiven, unsanctified, vmworthy of, unfit for God's 
 fellowship and worship, what is, what can be before us, continu- 
 ing in this condition, but banishment from Him, condemnation, 
 ever-growing guilt, depravity, and misery in the lake of fire, 
 prepared for the devil and his angels ? 
 
 But why should we continue strangers to the efficacy of this 
 sacrifice ? The value of the sacrifice is absolutely infinite : no 
 sin it cannot expiate, no pollution it cannot cleanse. The blood, 
 thi'ough which alone there can be expiation and sanctification, is 
 still being sprinkled ; and its power is put forth on all who be- 
 lieve. If you are strangers to its efficacy, it is just because you 
 do not believe the truth respecting it. And why do you not 
 believe the truth respecting it ? Is it because it is so abstruse 
 that you cannot understand it, — so self-contradictory, or ill sup- 
 ported, that you cannot believe it 1 No, no. It is because, 
 however you might like expiation and forgiveness, you have no 
 heart for the purified conscience and the spiritual service of the 
 living God ; and rather than submit to be thus made holy and 
 happy, you will run the hazard, nay, incur the certainty, of being 
 miserable for ever, — trampling under foot the Son of God, — 
 treating the blood of the covenant, through which alone there 
 can be sanctification — the purifying of the conscience — as a 
 common thing, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace. Can 
 madness go beyond this ? Yet this is the madness which is in 
 the heart of men while they live ; and afterwards they go to 
 the dead. 
 
DISCOURSE v. 
 
 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 Heb. IX. 15. — " And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new tes- 
 tament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions 
 that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive 
 the promise of eternal inheritance." 
 
 The Bible is a book very imperfectly understood by the great 
 body of those who profess to receive it as a divine revelation. 
 In many cases, this is very easy to be accounted for. Multitudes 
 who profess to receive the Bible as a divine revelation, seldom 
 or never read it ; and it would be a strange thing, indeed, if a 
 book could be understood without being read. Multitudes more 
 read the Bible more or less regularly and frequently ; but they 
 read it with such an almost entire absence of everything like 
 intellectual effort, that understanding it is quite out of the 
 question. Indeed, understanding it is not the object they 
 have in view. Where there is any design — where it is not 
 the mere result of early education and confirmed habit, it is 
 not to find out the meaning of the Bible : it is to be able 
 to quiet an ill-informed, but still not entirely benumbed con- 
 science, by telling it, I have not only said my prayers, but read 
 my chapter. 
 
 But there are instances in which it is not so easy to account 
 for the fact of the Bible being but very imperfectly understood. 
 There are persons Avho read the Bible with an honest, ay, Avith 
 an anxious, desire to understand it, Avho are painfully conscious, 
 that wliile there is in it much that is plain to them, there is not 
 a little also that is obscure ; that there are many passages to 
 which they can attach only very indistinct and unsatisfactory 
 ideas, and not a few to which they can attach no idea at all. 
 In many cases, they cannot see what it is that the inspired writer 
 VOL. II. z 
 
354 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 is illustrating or proving ; or they cannot see the appositeness of 
 his illustrations, or the conclusiveness of his arguments. It is 
 not my purpose just now to make a full enumeration of the 
 causes why such persons so imperfectly understand the Holy 
 Scriptures. These causes are of very various kinds in different 
 individuals, and even in the same individual. But I have no 
 hesitation in saying, that the imperfection of the translations, 
 through the medium of which the great body of Scripture 
 readers must derive their acquaintance with the inspired writers, 
 is one of these causes. All translations of the Scriptures are 
 the work of uninspired men, and therefore they are necessarily 
 imperfect. This is true of all versions from the inspired origi- 
 nals, and of our own very excellent translation among the rest. 
 There are some worthy men who are exceedingly indisposed 
 that such a statement as I have just made should even go forth 
 among Christians at large, lest it should shake their confidence 
 in the infallibility of the Holy Scripture as the rule of faith 
 and duty. But surely he must be very ignorant who needs 
 to be told, that translations are the work of uninspired men, 
 and therefore must bear the traces of the imperfections of their 
 authors ; and if any man among us is so deplorably ignorant as 
 not to know this, it is surely desirable that without loss of time 
 he should be better Informed. And I cannot satisfy myself that 
 a Christian teacher acts an honest part, who, though he is per- 
 suaded the translation he, in common with his audience, is using, 
 does not in a particular place accurately express the mind of the 
 inspiring Spirit, yet conceals this from them, and leaves them 
 uninformed, or misinformed, about the mind or will of God in 
 that particular passage, for the purpose of preserving unbroken 
 their undue veneration for the work of great and good, learned 
 and pious, but still fallible men. He acts a part worse than 
 foolish who finds fault with our translation merely for the sake 
 of finding fault, and thus figuring, in the estimation of the 
 thoughtless and superficial, as an acute or learned man, or who 
 indeed suggests changes that are not absolutely required to 
 bring out clearly and fully the meaning of the inspired writer ; 
 but, on the other hand, he surely does not deserve the praise of 
 ■wisdom, who, from reverence for man, or fear of possible bad 
 consequences, does neither more nor less than " shun to declare 
 the whole counsel of God." Here, I believe, as in every other 
 
CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. 355 
 
 similar case, the safest as well as the most dutiful course, is to 
 tell the truth — all the truth — nothing but the truth. Indeed, 
 every Christian minister, when expounding Scripture, should 
 speak as warily and as explicitly as if he were on oath. An 
 intelligent hearer, if he find his minister always treating the 
 English version of the Scriptures as if it were immaculately 
 correct, must arrive at one of three conclusions : that his 
 teacher is very imperfectly acquainted with the original Scrip- 
 tures ; or that he does not use the knowledge of this kind he may 
 possess as an instrument of interpretation ; or that, for some 
 reason, he is afraid to tell what he knows respecting the occa- 
 sional mistranslations, which are universally admitted to exist, 
 in that, as in all other versions of the sacred writings. While, 
 on the other hand, when by a well-informed teacher the whole 
 truth is unostentatiously told, an enlightened impression of the 
 general accuracy and excellence of our translation is deeply 
 lodged in the mind, when it is seen how comparatively few are 
 the passages in which one who has devoted himself, as every 
 minister should, to the study of the original text, and who is 
 obviously fettered by no superstitious veneration for the trans- 
 lators, and no fear of the bad consequences of telling all the 
 truth, if it be but the truth, finds it necessary to represent it as 
 exhibiting an imperfect or mistaken representation of the divine 
 original. 
 
 The paragraph of which the text is the commencement, must 
 undoubtedly be numbered among those which mistranslation 
 has rendered obscure, and indeed unintelligible. I say it con- 
 siderately, that no mere English reader can make a consistent, 
 satisfactory sense out of the paragraph, beginning at the 15th 
 verse of this chapter and ending with the 23d. What meaning 
 can he attach to the phrase, " mediator of a testament," or 
 last Avill? In a testament, we have a testator, and legatees, and 
 executors ; but a mediator of a testament is as incongruous an 
 expression as the testator of a league or bargain. It is difficult, 
 not to say impossible, to see how the new covenant, whether in 
 its formation — the purpose of mercy, or in its execution — the 
 plan of salvation, can be represented as a testament or latter 
 will. The only point of resemblance is, that death in it, as in 
 the case of a testament, was necessary to the enjoyment of its 
 blessings ; though, even in this case, this leading idea is not 
 
356 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 accurately expressed, the death of a testator not being the pro- 
 curing cause of the blessings to the legatees, as the death of 
 Christ is to those who enjoy the blessings of the new covenant, 
 but merely a conditional occasion of the obtaining the legacies. 
 Besides, if the new covenant were figuratively represented as a 
 testament, the testator would not be Jesus Christ, but God the 
 Father ; for it is God who blesses us with all heavenly and 
 spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, and He never dies. And even 
 supposing that Jesus Christ was considered as the testator, it is 
 plain that His resurrection destroys the congruity of the figure. 
 It is, if possible, still more difficult to attach any consistent idea 
 to the term " testament," as descriptive of the " first covenant," 
 or the order of things established at Sinai. Who was the tes- 
 tator here, and how was the testament confirmed by death ? It 
 was a law imperatively enjoined : and what is the meaning of 
 transgressions under the first will, which the maker of the second 
 will dies to redeem 1 Besides, it is impossible to make out the 
 force of the Apostle's reasoning, on the supposition that the 
 word rendered testament means a latter will. He is obviously 
 accounting for the death of Christ, dignified and exalted as He 
 was, by showing that it was absolutely necessary to the gaining 
 of the great object for which He was constituted the High Priest 
 and Mediator of the new covenant. Now, it requires but little 
 perspicacity to see that there is absolutely no force in such an 
 argument as the following : — ' The new covenant may be con- 
 sidered as a testament, inasmuch as its blessings cannot be en- 
 joyed without the death of Christ, who in that case is viewed as 
 testator. Now a testament, in order to be valid, requires that 
 the testator should be dead ; therefore it was necessary that 
 Christ should die.' That is the argument as it stands in our 
 English translation, — an argument which, taking for granted 
 what it professes to prove, proves nothing. Setting his inspira- 
 tion out of the question altogether, the author of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews was obviously a person of too clear a mind to 
 argue in this way. Now, all this perplexity, in which an intel- 
 ligent English reader of this paragraph, determined, if possible, 
 to understand it, must feel himself involved, — and the more in- 
 telligent and inquisitive he is, he will be but the more per- 
 plexed, — arises out of a mistranslation of a very few words, in 
 which our excellent translators have paid less regard than they 
 
CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. 357 
 
 ordinarily do to tlie original, and more than enough to the old 
 Latin translation, which the Church of Rome holds as authen- 
 tic. It is right that all readers of the Bible should know that 
 the word translated " testament" in this paragraph, is the same 
 word that in the preceding and in the following context is ren- 
 dered " covenant ;" and not only there, but wherever it occurs 
 in our New Testament, with the exception of Matt. xxvi. 28, 
 Mark xiv. 24, Luke xxii. 20, 1 Cor. xi. 25, 2 Cor. iii. 6, 14, 
 Heb. vii. 22, Rev. xi. 19, in every one of which it ought to have 
 been rendered covenant. The substitution of the word cove- 
 nant — understanding by that, arrangement, economy, order of 
 things — in the room of the word testament, with a few slight 
 changes which necessarily rise out of that substitution, gives 
 perfect distinctness of meaning and conclusiveness of argument 
 to a passage obviously of high significance and importance, 
 which, as it stands in our version, appears to me altogether in- 
 explicable. 
 
 Let us now proceed to a somewhat minuter inspection of the 
 various parts of the text ; but before doing so, it will be re- 
 quisite to say a word or two as to the design of the paragraph 
 of which the text forms a part, and the manner in which it is 
 introduced. 
 
 The Apostle is proving that Jesus Christ, as our High Priest, 
 has received a more excellent ministry than Aaron or any of 
 his sons. He has briefly described in succession their ministry 
 and His. He has, in the words immediately preceding, shown 
 that His ministry excels theirs in the kind of efficacy that be- 
 longs to it : theirs was efficacious to remove ceremonial guilt 
 and defilement, and to fit for ceremonial worship ; His was 
 efficacious to remove moral guilt and pollution, and to fit for 
 spiritual worship. And in the paragraph, from the 24th to the 
 28th verse, he shows that His ministry had a corresponding 
 superiority to theirs, in the completeness and permanence of its 
 efficacy ; theirs requiring to be indefinitely repeated, His being 
 performed once for all. The paragraph to which our text be- 
 longs, comes in between these two proofs of the superiority of 
 our Lord's ministry. It is a kind of digression, but a digression 
 closely connected with, naturally rising out of, the argument. 
 It is intended to meet the Jewish prejudice, which may be ex- 
 pressed in the question — a prejudice having a deep root in 
 
358 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 human nature — But why did this great High Priest die? And 
 the substance of the answer is just this : — Death, and the death 
 of a person so ilhistrious, was, in the nature of things, abso- 
 lutely necessary to the gaining of the great ends of that new 
 and better covenant, of which Jesus Christ, as our High Priest, 
 is Mediator. 
 
 1 intend to confine myself to the illustration of the 15th 
 verse, which resolves itself into the following propositions : — 
 Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant. The great 
 design of the new covenant was, that they who are called may 
 obtain the promise of everlasting inheritance. In order to this, 
 there must be a redemption of the transgressions which were 
 under the first covenant. To the redemption of them, death, 
 and death of adequate value, is necessary. Such a death is the 
 death of Jesus Christ. And for this cause, for all these things 
 taken together, Jesus Christ is " the Mediator of the new 
 covenant." What a rich field of spiritual pasture opens be- 
 fore us here ! 
 
 I. The first proposition in the text is, — Jesus Christ is the 
 Mediator of the new covenant. The word covenant, in our lan- 
 guage, means a league, or a bargain. The words in the ori- 
 ginal Scriptures rendered by that word are of more compre- 
 hensive meaning. They signify a disposition, arrangement, 
 settled order of things. A league is a covenant, and so is a 
 bargain ; and they are so, because they are arrangements. But 
 so also is a law, or a promise, or a testament, or, indeed, any 
 regularly fixed disposition of things. The arrangement that 
 there is not to be another general deluge, and that the seasons 
 are to follow each other in regular order, is called God's cove- 
 nant with the earth. God's promise to Abraham and his seed 
 is called a covenant. The institution of circumcision is called 
 a covenant. The law at Sinai is called a covenant. The Mes- 
 siah, as God's ordinance, appointed means for saving men, is 
 termed " a covenant to the people." We are accustomed from 
 our infancy to hear of two covenants, — the covenant of works 
 and the covenant of grace. The first of these is the arrange- 
 ment under Avhich mankind were placed immediately after the 
 creation, and by the violation of which we all became guilty. 
 I am not siu'e that this arrangement is ever termed a covenant 
 in the Scriptures, though quite certain that it might have been 
 
CIIKIST THE MEDIATOR OF TBfi NEW COVENANT. 359 
 
 SO. The second of these covenants is the arrangement by 
 which God, in the exercise of His sovereign mercy, saves lost 
 man, through the mediation of His Son. In the New Testa- 
 ment we read also of two covenants. The first of these is the 
 old covenant, — the arrangement made known in the law of Moses, 
 according to which the people of Israel became in a peculiar 
 sense the people of God, and had secured to them a variety of 
 privileges. The second, or new covenant, nearly, if not entirely, 
 coincides with the second in the former division — is the arrange- 
 ment, fully revealed in the writings of the New Testament, by 
 which an innumerable multitude from among mankind, of all 
 nations, in all ages, become God's people in a peculiar and much 
 higher sense, and have secured for them much more exceeding 
 great and precious blessings. The Aaronical priesthood was the 
 mediator of the first covenant. Of the second covenant Jesus 
 Christ, the High Priest of our profession, is the Mediator. He 
 comes between us and God. He brings us into a state of recon- 
 ciliation ; He keeps us in a state of reconciliation. It is through 
 what He has done, and is doing, that all the blessings of the 
 new covenant come to those who are interested in it. That is 
 what is meant by His being the Mediator of the covenant. We 
 come to God through Him, and God comes to us through Him. 
 But what are the blessings which this new covenant is intended 
 to secure for those interested in it ? The text informs us ; and 
 this is the second point to which we must attend. 
 
 II. The great object of the new covenant is, " that they 
 w^ho are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." 
 They who are called, or " the called ones," is a descriptive ap- 
 pellation of the true spiritual people of God, borrowed, like so 
 many other of their descriptive appellations, from a denomina- 
 tion bestowed on the Israelites, the external people of God. The 
 appellation originates in the call of Abraham out of the idolatry 
 of Ur of the Chaldees, and of his posterity out of the bondage 
 of Egypt. " I called Abraham alone. Israel is My son, ]\Iy 
 first-born ; I called him out of Egypt." Abraham and his pos- 
 terity were supcrnaturally called by God to the enjoyment of 
 peculiar privileges in the land of Canaan ; and hence we find 
 the Israelites termed by Isaiah, Jehovah's called ones. The 
 leading idea is, invited and led by God into the enjoyment of 
 certain privileges. In the New Testament this appellation is 
 
360 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 transferred to the spiritual people of God, the spiritual de- 
 scendants of Abraham, whether they be his natural descendants 
 or not. They are often termed the called of God the Father, 
 called in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, called unto the king- 
 dom and glory of God. These are those whom the Apostle 
 represents as saved and called with a holy calling, — men who, 
 under the influence of the Holy Spirit, are made to listen to, 
 understand, believe, and obey the call of God in the word of 
 the truth of the Gospel, — to whom the word comes, not in word 
 only, but in power ; with the Holy Ghost, and with much assur- 
 ance. These called ones are the same as the chosen ones, pre- 
 destinated in love before the foundation of the world ; for it is 
 whom He did predestinate that He calls. Their calling is not 
 according to their works, but according to His own purpose and 
 grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. To 
 these, the spiritual Israel, pertains the new covenant, as the old 
 did to Israel after the flesh ; and the great design of the cove- 
 nant with regard to them is, " that they may receive the pro- 
 mise of eternal inheritance," — literally, of tlie eternal inheritance. 
 We will mistake the meaning of these words if we consider them 
 as signifying, that they might have the everlasting inheritance 
 promised to them — that they might obtain a promise of at some 
 time receiving it. That is secured in the covenant ; but there 
 is much more than that secured. The intellio;ent reader of the 
 New Testament must notice the word " promise" often means 
 ' the thing promised,' just as " faith" often means ' the thing 
 believed,' and " hope," the thing expected. To " inherit the 
 promises," is to enjoy the blessings promised. The patriarchs 
 " died, not having received the promises," — not having obtained 
 in this world the promised blessings. " The promise of the 
 Spirit," in Gal. iii. 14, as well as " the Spirit of promise," Eph. 
 i. 13, means the promised Spirit ; and in like manner, " the 
 promise of the eternal inheritance" is equivalent to ' the pro- 
 mised eternal inheritance.' Under the old covenant there was 
 a promised inheritance, the inheritance of Canaan, to be enjoyed 
 by the called Israelites in peace, under the peculiar blessing of 
 Jehovah. A promise was given them of entering into this rest 
 of God ; and the various arrangements of the covenant were 
 intended to fit them for that inheritance, to secure their en- 
 trance on it, and their continued enjoyment of it. It was only 
 
CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. 3G1 
 
 tlirouirli the covenant that these ends were to be ti;ainecl. Now 
 to us, under the new covenant, as well as to those under the 
 old, are good news proclaimed. An inheritance — a better in- 
 heritance than Canaan — a spiritual, a heavenly, an everlasting 
 inheritance — holy happiness, in being acknowledged by and 
 knowing God, being loved by God and loving God, being like 
 God, thinking along with Ilini, choosing along with Him, en- 
 joying along with Him, — this is the inheritance incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away, laid up for us in heaven. 
 This inheritance, this everlasting inheritance, is promised to all 
 the called ones. For thus runs the covenant of promise, — " God 
 so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life." " He that believeth on the name of the Son of God 
 hath everlasting life." Now, as the arrangements of the old 
 covenant were intended to secure for the Israelites their pro- 
 mised inheritance, so the arrangements of the new covenant are 
 intended to secure for " the called ones" their inheritance. The 
 question naturally arises. And what was necessary for this pur- 
 pose ? ]\Iany things were necessary, all of which were secured 
 by the covenant ; but the Apostle fixes our attention specially 
 on one thing absolutely necessary, and which, if secured, would 
 secure everything else. This he does in the third proposition, to 
 the consideration of which we now proceed. 
 
 III. In order to the called receiving the everlasting inheri- 
 tance, " there must be a redemption of the transgi'essions which 
 wei'e imder the first covenant." The transgressions which were 
 under the first covenant, is not an expression equivalent to that 
 in Rom. iii. 25, " sins that are past, through the forbearance of 
 God ;" that means, ' sins that had been pardoned, though not 
 expiated,' from a regard to the fore-appointed propitiation which 
 is set forth in the Gospel. Nor does it appear to be synonymous 
 with sins that were committed under the old covenant. Looking 
 at the expression in connection with what is said in the preced- 
 ing context, vers. 11-14, and in the succeeding context, ver. 23, 
 it seems impossible to doubt that the words mean, those trans- 
 gressions of the divine law which remained transgressions, and 
 therefore unforgiven, because unexpiated, under the old cove- 
 nant, — for the expiation of which, in other words, the old cove- 
 nant made no provision. It made provision for making atone- 
 
362 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 ment for ceremonial guilt, for removing ceremonial pollution, 
 and thus for obtaining and enjojdng the earthly inheritance. 
 But the deeper transgressions remained ; they still were. The 
 transgressions which draw down on man the judicial displeasure 
 and the moral disapprobation of God, and thus stood in the way 
 of God's bestowing and man's enjoying the spiritual eternal 
 inheritance of perfect holy happiness, in the favour, image, and 
 fellowship of God, — these must be removed, or the promised 
 eternal inheritance can never be received by the called ones. 
 God can by no means clear the guilty. It was not possible that 
 the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin. The old 
 covenant can open the way to the unclean Israelite unto the 
 temple — it can, by its rites properly observed, secure to him the 
 possession of Canaan ; but it cannot save man, wdiether Jew or 
 Gentile, from hell — it cannot carry them to heaven. This species 
 of transgx'essions, the most serious of all, which wet^e, notwith- 
 standing all the expiation and ablutions of the law, — these must 
 be dealt with, or not one of the called can receive the promised 
 eternal inheritance. There must be a redemption of them. The 
 phrase is peculiar ; but, viewed in its connection, it can scarcely 
 be called obscure. A ransom, a redemption-price, must be paid, 
 in order to these transgressions being forgiven, — without the for- 
 giveness of which, the everlasting inheritance is unattainable by 
 any of the called ones. Expiation must be made. Something 
 must be done to make God's conferring the inheritance on the 
 called ones, who had been guilty of these transgressions, con- 
 sistent with the perfection of His character, the honour of His 
 law, the declarations of His word, the stability of His govern- 
 ment. And what was this something, which all created intelli- 
 gence would have sought for ever to discover in vain I The 
 Apostle tells us in the fourth proposition. 
 
 IV. Death — an adequate death — must take place. It is " by 
 means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions which 
 were under the first covenant, that the called ones can obtain 
 the promised everlasting inheritance." Nothing but death could 
 serve the purpose. Death is the penalty of the law. Death is 
 the wages of sin. Without the shedding of blood there is no 
 remission. There must be a manifestation, an adequate mani- 
 festation, of the displeasure of God against the sin and the 
 sinner, to make pardon honourable to God, or safe to the sub- 
 
CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENiVNT. 363 
 
 jects of His moral government. No such thing as mere amnesty 
 exists in God's government. There must be something besides 
 repentance and reformation — something in order to true repent- 
 ance and reformation. There must be blood. The blood of 
 bulls and goats will not serve the purpose. That, vicariously 
 shed, may serve as a protest against God's overlooking ceremo- 
 nial guilt, and giving external benefits to those who deserve them 
 not ; but it cannot expiate moral guilt — it never can afford a fit 
 reason why a just God should forgive a guilty, condemned male- 
 factor. The death of all men can effect nothing in the way of 
 expiation. It does not exhaust the curse ; it lays no foundation 
 for pardon. The death of the whole angelic host incarnate 
 could not serve the purpose. They had neither the disposition 
 nor the right to devote themselves victims for men. This sacri- 
 fice would have been deficient in both the constituent elements 
 of an effectual sacrifice — divine appointment, and intrinsic in- 
 finite value. A death was necessary which would fully answer 
 all the requisitions of the divine character and government. 
 The death of one who had a right to lay down His life for such 
 a puqiose — for it was His own independent property, — and 
 whose one life was in value incalculably superior to that of all 
 the lives He by His death rescued from destruction ; — such a 
 death was the death of Jesus Christ. And His death is the 
 only such death to be in the wide extent of God's universe, from 
 eternity to eternity. 
 
 V. The fifth and concluding proposition comes out, then, 
 with resistless power. " For this cause He is the Mediator of 
 the new covenant." He is Christ, the divinely appointed, the 
 divinely qualified Eedeemer. He has paid the ransom for the 
 transgressions which remained unexpiated under the fii'st cove- 
 nant. Pie has died for us in our room — died for our sins, on 
 account of them — died, the just for the unjust. He has offered 
 Plimself unspotted, an all-perfect sacrifice — materially, formally 
 perfect. He has done so through the eternal Spirit, His divine 
 nature, which imparts an infinite value to His sacrifice. And the 
 blood of that sacrifice can do what the blood of no other sacri- 
 fice ever could do : it can not only sanctify to the purifying of 
 the flesh, it can cleanse from all sin — it can purge the con- 
 science from dead works, to serve the living God. It can not 
 only exhibit, but exhaust, the penal sanction of the divine law, 
 
364 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 and harmonize in the divine character and administration the 
 apparently incompatible glories of perfect righteousness and in- 
 finite grace, the just God and the Saviour. And thus the death of 
 the incarnate Only-begotten of God, which appears at first sight 
 so unaccountable as to make us doubt the reality, the possibility 
 of the whole economy, of which it is the chief constituent ele- 
 ment, is seen to be indeed the unsearchable wisdom of God, 
 though the wisdom of God in a mystery. It is this — which to the 
 Jew is a stumblingblock, and to the Greek foolishness — which 
 qualifies Him for being, what no other being in the universe is 
 qualified for being, the successful INIediator of the new covenant. 
 It is thus that He, crucified in weakness, is the power of God to 
 salvation. It is thus that He secures for all the called ones the 
 ineffable blessing of the promised everlasting inheritance, an in- 
 heritance which otherwise could never have been possessed by 
 any of the fallen race of Adam. The meaning of our text, we 
 trust, now stands out clear before you. " Because the blood of 
 Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without 
 spot to God, purges the conscience from dead works, to serve 
 the living God," while the blood of bulls and of goats, and the 
 ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, could do no more than 
 sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, — for this cause He is the 
 Mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, "for the 
 redemption of the transgressions which were under the first 
 covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of 
 everlastinor inheritance." 
 
 If these things are so, is it not meet that this death should 
 be held in everlasting, most grateful remembrance by those 
 who, but for that covenant which it ratified, must have suifered 
 for ever the fearful consequences of that forfeiture of the ever- 
 lasting inheritance which their transgressions had incurred — 
 transgressions which nothing could expiate but the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant? The voice first uttered in the upper 
 chamber in Jerusalem now comes forth from the most excellent 
 glory : " Tliis cup is the new covenant in My blood, shed for 
 remission of sins unto many. Drink ye all of it." Over, then, 
 the instituted memorial emblems of the ratification of the cove- 
 nant by the death of Christ, who is the Mediator, both as the 
 High Priest and as the atoning sacrifice, let us, when observ- 
 ing the holy ordinance of the supper, devote ourselves entirely 
 
CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. 365 
 
 to Him AA'ho devoted Himself entirely for us, and cherish an 
 undoubting confidence that the confirmed covenant shall be 
 followed out to all its blissful intended results ; and that, as we 
 have the promise and pledge, we shall in due time obtain the 
 full possession, of the everlasting inheritance, blessing God that 
 He has shown us, manifested to us, this His holy everlasting 
 covenant, ordered in all things and sure. O that all of us, in 
 the full assurance of faith, may be enabled, like David, to employ 
 these as our last words, " This is all my salvation, and all my 
 desire!" 
 
 " 'Tis mine, the covenant of His grace, 
 And every promise mine, — 
 All sprung from everlasting love, 
 And sealed by blood divine. 
 
 " On my unworthy, favour'd head, 
 Its blessings aU unite — 
 Blessings more numerous than the stars, 
 More lasting, and more bright. 
 
 " That covenant the last accents claim 
 Of this poor faltering tongue. 
 And tlMt shall the first notes employ 
 Of my celestial song." 
 
 With these views before you, Christian brethren, suffer, in 
 conclusion, the word of exhortation ; and this chiefly in the lan- 
 guage of the Lord Himself, and His Apostles. 
 
 " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your 
 good works, and glorify your Father that is in heaven. Be the 
 children of your Father in heaven, who maketli His sun to rise 
 on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 
 the unjust. Lay not up treasures on earth, where moth and rust 
 doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal ; but lay 
 up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust doth 
 not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal : 
 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let 
 your eye be single, that the whole body may be full of light. 
 Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all 
 things shall be added to you. Whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and 
 
36G DISCOURSE V. 
 
 tlie prophets. Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; 
 knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh 
 receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh 
 it shall be opened. Pray, and do not faint. Fear not them 
 who, after they have killed the body, have no more that they 
 can do ; but fear Him who, after He has killed the body, can 
 cast both soul and body into hell-fire. Fear Him. Believe in 
 God ; believe in Me. Let not your heart be troubled, neither 
 be afraid. Abide in Me, and I in you. Continue in My love. 
 Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Love 
 one another. Love one another as I have loved you. Watch 
 and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Reckon youi'selves 
 to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Let not sin 
 reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts 
 thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of un-. 
 righteousness unto sin ; but yield yourselves to God, as those 
 that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments 
 of righteousness unto God. Present your bodies a living sacri- 
 fice, holy, acceptable to God, which is rational worship. Be not 
 conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of 
 your mind, that you may prove what is that good and accept- 
 able and perfect will of God. Know that your body is the 
 temjile of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of 
 God ; and that ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a 
 price : therefore glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits, 
 which are God's. Whether ye eat or drink, or Avhatever ye do, 
 do all to the glory of God. Covet earnestly the best gifts. 
 Follow after charity. Let all things be done in charity. See 
 that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. Come out frora 
 the world, and be separate. Touch not th.e unclean thing. Love 
 not the world, nor the things that are in the world. Cleanse 
 yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfect 
 holiness in the fear of God. Standfast in the liberty wherewith 
 Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled with any yoke 
 of bondage. Live in the spirit. Walk in the spirit. Be not 
 deceived. Do not deceive yourselves. Be not weary in well- 
 doing. Do good to all as you have opportunity, especially to the 
 h.ousehold of faith. Put off the old man ; put on the new man. 
 Be followers of God, as dear children ; and walk in love, as 
 Christ also hath loved you. Have no fellowship with the un- 
 
CHRIST THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT. 3G7 
 
 fruitful works of darkness. Give thanks always for all tliintrs 
 to God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Cln-ist. 
 Pray always, with all prayer and supplication for all saints. 
 Let the mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Look not 
 every man on his own things onl}^, but every man also on the 
 things of others. Let your moderation be known to all men, 
 and be anxious about nothing. Seek the things that are above. 
 Set your affections on them, and not on the things on the earth. 
 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Walk in wisdom 
 to them who are without. Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, 
 do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and 
 the Father by Plim. Let the rich in this world not be high- 
 minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, 
 who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good ; 
 be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communi- 
 cate; laying up in store for themselves a good deposit 'against 
 the time to come, that ye may lay hold on eternal life. Let the 
 poor see that they be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. 
 Let husbands love their wives, as Christ loves the Church. Let 
 wives be subject to their husbands, as the Church is to Christ. 
 Let parents bring up their children in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord. Let children be obedient to their parents 
 in the Lord. Let mr.st.n-s give to their servants the things 
 that are just and equal; and let servants obey not with eye- 
 service, as men-pleasers, but with singleness of heart, as serving 
 God. Let every soul be subject to the higher ])owers. Let 
 the elders feed the flock of Christ ; let them watch for souls as 
 they who must give account ; and let the brethren submit them- 
 selves to their self-chosen elders, and esteem them very highly in 
 love, for their work's sake." These are some of the command- 
 ments of our Lord Jesus, and of His holy Apostles. Lay them 
 up in your hearts, practise them in your lives ; and remember that 
 " this is love, that we walk after His commandments," and in 
 keeping these commandments there is great reward. Look to 
 yourselves, then, brethren, that we lose not the things which we 
 have wrought, but that you and we may both receive a full 
 reward. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
 ever things are honest, Avhatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
 things are pure, Avhatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things 
 are of good report, if there be any virtue and any praise, thiidc 
 
368 DISCOURSE V. 
 
 on these things. Now may the God of all grace, who hath 
 called yon unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, make you 
 perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. And unto Him who is 
 able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before 
 the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise 
 God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, 
 both now and ever. Amen. 
 
DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 
 
 Heb. X. 19-22. — " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into 
 the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath 
 consecrated for us through tlie vail, that is to say. His flesh ; and having 
 an High Priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart, 
 in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science, and our bodies waslied with pure water." 
 
 The text resolves itself into two parts, — a statement of facts or 
 principles, which are taken for granted, as already fully proved ; 
 and an exhortation to duty, grounded on the admission of these 
 facts or principles. The statement is in these words : — " We 
 have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by 
 a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through 
 the vail, that is to say, His flesh ; and we have a great High 
 Priest over the house of God." The exhortation is in these 
 words : — " Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance 
 of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." 
 To the illustration of this statement and of this injunction, in 
 their order, I mean to devote the following discourse. 
 
 I. We begin with the statement of the principles taken for 
 granted. These are two — the first of them more largely and 
 particularly stated, the second more generally and briefly. The 
 first principle which the Apostle takes for granted as sufficiently 
 proved, as stated in our version, is, that " we have boldness to 
 enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living 
 way, which He hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is 
 to say, His flesh." What is this principle ? What do these 
 words mean ? for they certainly are not self-obvious. 
 
 It is not often that we have reason to complain of our ex- 
 cellent translation of the Holy Scriptures, that it is not suffi- 
 ciently literal. It is, indeed, in consequence of its extreme 
 VOL. II. 2 A 
 
370 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 Uteralness, sometimes obscure, if not unintelligible. But in the 
 passage before us, there is ground for such a charge. The 
 words, literally rendered, are : " Having therefore," or ' thus,' 
 " brethren, boldness, or confidence, in reference to the entrance 
 into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus," or 'the entrance of 
 Jesus by blood into the holiest,' " which" — i.e., which entrance, 
 or by which entrance — " He has consecrated for us a new and 
 living way, through the vail, that is to say, of His flesh." The 
 declaration, even thus rendered, is somewhat obscure, and, as a 
 very acute and learned interpreter has remarked, " few seem to 
 understand it." ^ 
 
 The first question to be resolved here is, What and where 
 is that " entrance into the holiest," of which the Apostle here 
 speaks ? It has been common to consider the entrance into the 
 holiest, here, as the entrance of believers ; and that entrance 
 has been explained of the thoughts and affections of Christians 
 being fixed on, and their devotions directed to, the reconciled 
 Divinity (of whom the glory hovering over the mercy-seat, 
 sprinkled with blood, in the holy of holies, in the Jewish sanc- 
 tuary, was an emblem) by which they, as it were, approach God, 
 come to Him, even to His place, enter His peculiar dwelling- 
 place, — in plain words, have all the intercourse with God which 
 is compatible with a state in which the capacities and activities 
 of the mind are limited by its union to a material body. But 
 to this mode of interpretation there are strong objections ; for 
 throughout the whole of this Epistle, " the holy of holies" is 
 the emblem of heaven ; and to enter into the holy of holies, is, 
 in other words, to go to heaven. Besides, it is plain that the 
 Apostle is not here stating something new ; he is referring to 
 something which he had already illustrated. Now, what the 
 Apostle has been illustrating, is neither that Christians have a 
 present spiritual access to God, as a reconciled God, who is in 
 heaven, nor that they shall have a future real bodily entrance 
 into heaven ; but that Christ, as our High Priest, has really and 
 bodily entered into heaven, the true holy place, the antitype of 
 the holy of holies in the tabernacle and temple. I cannot 
 doubt, then, that the entrance here spoken of is this entrance 
 of our Lord, by His own blood, on the ground of the accepted 
 sacrifice which He finished in shedding His blood on the cross, — 
 
 ^ Valcknaer. 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 371 
 
 the entrance which took place in consequence of His ascension 
 from Mount Olivet. 
 
 Thus has one main point been ascertained — ' the entrance 
 here spoken of is the entrance of our Lord into heaven ;' but a 
 few remarks on the construction of the passage, which is con- 
 siderably involved, will be necessary, to open the way satis- 
 factorily to a distinct apprehension of its meaning. These 
 remarks I shall endeavour to make as brief and as plain as 
 possible. 
 
 The words, " by a new and living way, which He has con- 
 secrated for us," are, literally, " by which entrance He has con- 
 secrated for us a new and living way," and are, I apprehend, 
 parenthetical. 
 
 The phrase, *' through the vail," if I mistake not, is imme- 
 diately connected with the entrance of Jesus into the holiest of 
 all by blood. It is a further description of this entrance. The 
 entrance of Jesus by blood, through the vail, into the holy place, 
 is just that described in chap. ix. 11, 12 : " Christ being come 
 a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more 
 perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this 
 building ; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His 
 own blood, entered in once into the holy place, having obtained 
 eternal redemption for us." 
 
 The concluding explicatory phrase, " that is. His flesh," has 
 commonly been supposed to refer to the expression Avhicli im- 
 mediately precedes it — " the vail," and has been considered as 
 teaching that our Lord's body, which He Himself compares to 
 the temple, was the antitype of the vail which in the tabernacle 
 and temple divided " the holy of holies" from the holy place, 
 the second sanctuary from the first, and that the rending of that 
 vail was symbolical of His death. However plausible this inter- 
 pretation may be on a cursory survey, on a closer inspection, it 
 will be found liable to great, and, as I conceive, insurmountable 
 objections. Throughout the Epistle, as the holy of holies is the 
 emblem of the heaven of heavens, the place of God's glory, so 
 the holy place, the tabernacle and its vails, seem plainly to be 
 the emblem of the visible heavens, by passing through which 
 our High Priest entered into the heaven of heavens. Beside?, 
 though the rending of the vail, taken by itself, and in its con- 
 sequences, as laying open the holy of holies, may not unfitly 
 
372 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 represent the death of Christ, by which the true way into the 
 hohest of all was made manifest, yet the figure would not hold 
 in the point here referred to. The high priest left the vail be- 
 hind him, when through its opening he passed into the holy of 
 holies ; whereas Christ carried the human nature 'which suffered 
 death, by its component parts being rudely torn asunder, with 
 Him into heaven, and is there in the midst of the throne, " a 
 Lamb as it had been slain." 
 
 On these grounds, I am disposed to consider these explana- 
 tory words, " that is, of His flesh," as referring not to our Lord's 
 human nature, but to the entrance of that human nature into the 
 holiest, the word enti"ance being understood here as repeated from 
 the beginning of the sentence ; just as in the parallel passage 
 which I have quoted, " a greater and more perfect tabernacle, 
 that is, not" the tabernacle " of this building." The passage, 
 without the parenthesis, would read, " Having then, brethren, 
 boldness, or confidence, respecting the entrance of Jesus by His 
 own blood into the holiest of all, through the vail, that is, the 
 entrance of His flesh." ' Being assured that Jesus Christ has, 
 in His human nature, in consequence of His sacrifice, entered 
 through the visible heavens into the heaven of heavens.' The 
 parenthesis is, " which" entrance, or by which entrance, " He 
 has consecrated for us a new and living way." 
 
 Havino; thus endeavoured to ascertain the true construction 
 of this somewhat involved, and therefore obscure sentence, let 
 us shortly illustrate the glorious truths which it unfolds. Jesus 
 Christ, our great High Priest, has entered into the holiest. He 
 has done so by His own blood ; He has done so through the 
 vail ; He has done so bodily ; and He has thus consecrated for 
 us a new and living way into the holiest. Li noticing these, we 
 will perceive that these are just the great truths which the 
 Apostle had been establishing, and were the heads of his dis- 
 course in the preceding section. 
 
 1. Jesus Christ is " entered" into heaven. He is no more on 
 earth, dead or living. Pie has, as Mark says, been " received 
 up into heaven, and set on the right hand of God." " He was 
 carried up into heaven," says Luke. " This same Jesus," said 
 the angels to the Apostles, " is taken up from you into heaven." 
 " God," says Paul, " hath set Him at His own right hand in 
 the heavenly places." " He is," says Peter, " gone into heaven, 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 373 
 
 and is on the right hand of God." Tliis is what tlie Apostle 
 has repeatedly stated in the previous context. Ch. i. 3, " He 
 has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Ch. 
 iv. 14, " Our great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, has 
 passed into the heavens." Ch. viii. 1, " We have an High Priest 
 who is set on the right hand of the tlu'one of the Majesty in the 
 heavens." Ch. ix. 12, 24, " Christ has entered into the holy 
 place" — " not into the holy places made with hands, which are 
 the figures of the true, but into heaven itself." 
 
 2. Jesus Christ has entered into heaven " by His own 
 blood." He has entered as a High Priest, not without blood — 
 not with the blood of animal sacrifices, but l)y the blood of His 
 own sacrifice. He could not have entered in this character, but 
 on the ground of expiatory sacrifice offered and accepted. It 
 was " because Pie humbled Himself, and became obedient to 
 death, the death of the cross," that " God so highly exalted 
 Him." His entrance into heaven was the fruit of His dying 
 on earth. This, too, is stated in the previous illustrations. Ch. 
 i. 3, " Having purged our sins by Himself, He sat down on the 
 right hand of the ISIajesty on high." Ch. ii. 9, " For the suf- 
 fering of death. He was crowned with gloiy and honour." Ch. 
 ii. 10, " As the Captain of our salvation, He was made perfect 
 through suffering." Ch. v. 9, " By learning obedience through 
 the things which He suffered, He has become the Author of 
 eternal salvation to all who obey Him." Ch. ix. 12, " He is 
 entered in, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own 
 blood." Ch. X. 12, " After He had offered one sacrifice for 
 sin, He for ever sat down on the right hand of God." 
 
 3. Jesus Christ has by His own blood entered into heaven, 
 " through the vail ;" that is, as I have attempted to show, through 
 those visible heavens which, like the vail in the temple, conceal 
 the glories of the true holy of holies, and must, in our concep- 
 tion, be passed through in order to entering it. On that memor- 
 able day on which our Lord led out His chosen Apostles as far 
 as to Bethany, and lifted up His hands and blessed them, "while 
 He blessed them. He was parted from them, and carried up into 
 heaven," — " He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of 
 their sight." To this also the Apostle refers in the preceding 
 context. Ch. iv. 14, which may, probably should be, rendered : 
 " Our great High Priest, Jesus Christ the Son of God, has 
 
374 
 
 DISCOUKSE VI. 
 
 passed through the heavens." Ch. ix. 12, " He is entered into 
 the holy place by"— through— " a greater and more perfect 
 tabernacle, not the tabernacle of this building,"— even that ex- 
 panse which He has set as a " tabernacle for the sun." 
 
 4. Jesus Christ has entered bodily into heaven. The en- 
 trance is the entrance of " His flesh." " Flesh and blood," 
 in their present state, " cannot inherit the kingdom of God." 
 But the human nature of our Lord, though gloriously trans- 
 formed, substantially went up into heaven. His entrance was 
 not a metaphorical one ; it was a real one. His entrance into 
 heaven was as really a bodily entrance as that of the Jewish 
 high priest into the holy of holies, which was its emblem. The 
 same God-man Jesus, who died on the cross, ascended up 
 throvigh these heavens into the heaven of heavens, and there, as 
 the representative of His people. He appears in human nature 
 in the immediate presence of God. Thus Stephen, being full 
 of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly to heaven, and saw the 
 glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 
 and he said, " Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of 
 man standing on the right hand of God." Acts vii. 55, 56. 
 
 5. The only other truth contained in the words before us, is 
 that expressed in the parenthetical clause, that Jesus Christ " has 
 consecrated this entrance of His a new and living way to us 
 into the holiest;" or, "by this entrance has consecrated for us a 
 new, a living way into the holiest." To " consecrate " signifies 
 to set apart, to open up, to sanction,— to make at once possible, 
 lawful, and safe. Originally, there was a way for innocent, holy 
 man into the holiest of all— the way of perfect personal obe- 
 dience. Sin shut up that way. For man the sinner there is no 
 entrance into the holiest. " There shall in no wise enter into it 
 anything that defileth." But a way has been re-opened ; and it 
 has been re-opened in the entrance of Jesus by blood through 
 the vail into the holy place, the entrance "of His flesh ;"— that 
 is, in plain words, in consequence of this entrance of our Lord, 
 provision is made that all who believe in Him — forgiven, justi- 
 fied, and sanctified through His atonement and Spirit, and raised 
 and transformed by His mighty power, whereby He is able to 
 subdue all things to Himself— shall, like Him, in their complete 
 nature, body and soul, pass through these visible heavens into 
 the heaven of heavens, enter into, and permanently dwell in, 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 375 
 
 the immediate presence of God. His entrance secures theirs. 
 It was " as the Forerunner that He for them entered into that 
 within the vaih" "I go," said He, just as He was about to 
 enter, " I go to My Father's liouse to prepare a place for you. 
 And if I go, I will come again, and take you to Myself ; that 
 where I am, there ye may be also." " I am the way. No man 
 cometh to the Father but by Me." The merit which opened 
 the way to Him, and the power with which that merit has been 
 rewarded, will open the way for them. Their spirits made per- 
 fect, in bodies changed like unto His glorious body, they shall, 
 like Him, be caught up in the clouds, and go into heaven. 
 
 This way of entering heaven, for men, is " a new and living 
 way." It is new — altogether different from the old original way 
 of perfect personal obedience as the condition of eternal life, 
 now inaccessible by man ; it was not made manifest under the 
 former covenant, but is a way belonging to the new covenant, 
 where all is new — newly opened up, newly proclaimed. And it 
 is living, life-giving. Any attempt to enter by the old way ends 
 in the second death. This, this alone, is the way of life. 
 
 Perhaps there may be an allusion to its contrast with the 
 entrance of the high priest into the holiest in the temple. He 
 entered alone ; and his entrance was not sanctioned as a pattern 
 to others. He who should have attempted to follow him would 
 have met death, not life. This, then, is the first great fact or 
 principle which the Apostle states as a matter of undoubted 
 certainty : We have confidence that Jesus has with His own 
 blood, on the ground of the sacrifice of Himself, in His human 
 nature passed through these visible heavens into the heaven of 
 heavens, and has thus secured that, in due time, all His people 
 shall do so likewise. 
 
 The second principle which the Apostle represents as the 
 object of confident belief, will not require such extended illustra- 
 tion. It is, that " we have" — plainly in Him who has entered — 
 " a great High Priest over the house of God." The figurative 
 expression, " the house of God," does not seem here, as in 
 chap. iii. of this Epistle, to represent ' the family of God,' but 
 ' the temple of God.' An overseer belongs to a family ; a high 
 priest to a temple. For a high priest to be " over the temple 
 of God," is rightfully to do, prescribe, and administer all that is 
 necessarv and fit in reference to the religious relations and in- 
 
376 . DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 terests of those for whom he acts. In Christ Jesus, gone into 
 heaven, we have one who has offered an all-prevalent atoning 
 sacrifice, and who, on the ground of that atoning sacrifice, is 
 doing all for and in those for whom He ministers, which is 
 necessary to bring them into the most intimate and permanent 
 fellowship with God in the heavenly temple. This, indeed, is 
 the sum of the things that have been spoken in the whole of the 
 preceding discussions, from the close of the 4th chapter : " We 
 have in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a great High Priest," 
 taken from among men, one ordained for men in things per- 
 taining to God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins ; who 
 has, by the one offering of Himself through the eternal Spirit, 
 expiated their guilt, and, on the ground of the acceptance of 
 that sacrifice, " is set on the right hand of the throne of the 
 Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the 
 true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man ;" "able also 
 to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, seeing 
 He ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
 
 n. Having thus cursorily illustrated the Apostle's statement, 
 let us now consider the exhortation he founds on it. " Having 
 confidence that Jesus has entered with His own blood through 
 these visible heavens into the heaven of heavens, entered in His 
 flesh, and that in Him we have a great High Priest over the 
 house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assur- 
 ance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
 science." Here there should be a point. What follows is 
 connected with a second exhortation, contained in the 23d verse, 
 based on its own proper foundation, which I do not intend at 
 present to illustrate ; thus : " And having our bodies washed with 
 pure water," — having in baptism made a solemn profession of 
 our faith, — " let us hold fast that profession of faith without 
 wavering." This, then, is the exhortation to which for a little 
 our attention is to be turned : " Let us draw near wath a true 
 heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 
 from an evil conscience." 
 
 Here three things call for our consideration : The duty re- 
 commended — " to draw near ; " the manner in which it should 
 be performed — " with a true heart, in full assurance of faith ; " 
 and the means by which we are to be enabled tlius to perform 
 it — " having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience." 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 377 
 
 " To draw near " is an elliptical expression, but it is easy to 
 supply the ellipsis — " to draw near to God." The reference seems 
 to be to the Levitical service. When the high priest entered 
 into the holy of holies, the congregation of Israel stood praying 
 without in the court of the temple, not drawing near, and 
 waiting for the return of their representative, who was never <to 
 lead them into the holy of holies. But Christians, having con- 
 fidence that their High Priest has entered into the true holiest 
 of all, and that He has thus made preparation for their entrance 
 in due time there also, need not stand at a distance from the 
 Divinity fully reconciled — God in Christ reconciling the world 
 to Himself, — but may and ought to " draw nigh," waiting for- 
 the coming forth of the High Priest, which is to be the prelude 
 of their being taken up, — looking for the blessed hope, the glori- 
 ous appearance of Him who is the great God and our Saviour, — 
 looking for His coming, not with a sin-offering, but for the 
 complete salvation of those who are waiting for Him. The 
 phrase is figurative. It does not express a movement of the 
 body, but a state or exercise of the mind and heart. It is often 
 explained as equivalent to worship ; but it is an expression of 
 wider extent of meaning. Man's natural state as a fallen beino- 
 is a state of alienation from, non-intercourse with, dislike of, op- 
 position to God. ]\Ien do not like to retain God in their know- 
 ledge. They think of Him as little as possible ; they are afraid 
 of Him ; they have no complacency in worshipping and serving 
 Him. To draw near to God is the reverse of all this. It is, in 
 the knowledge and belief of the truth regarding Him, to make 
 Him the chief siibject of our thoughts, the supreme object of 
 our affections; to cling to Him in love and confidence, habitually 
 to realize His presence, and to seek happiness in conformit}- to 
 and fellowship with Him ; to have the mind and the heart 
 always going forth towards Him, always drawing nearer and 
 nearer to Him. Christians, on hearing the trumpet of the Gos- 
 pel, are not, like the Israelites at Sinai, to " remove and stand 
 afar off," but they are to " come near, even to His seat." This 
 is to be their habitual temper, but specially exercised in the 
 offices of religion, secret, private, and public. 
 
 The manner in which this duty of drawing near is to be 
 performed is thus described : " With a true heart," and " in the 
 full assurance of faith." 
 
378 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 The first of these expressions is nearly equivalent to our 
 Lord's description of acceptable worship — "in spirit and in 
 truth :" — with the heart, the irmer man, in opposition to for- 
 mality ; with the heart influenced by truth, really influenced by 
 truth, in opposition to hypocrisy : not a bodily, but a mental 
 approach ; not a figurative, but a real approach : with the 
 understanding enlightened with the truth, and the affections 
 filled with the objects that truth reveals : not under the in- 
 fluence of the evil heart of unbelief, which leads away from the 
 living God, but under the influence of the good and honest 
 heart, made so by the Spirit through the truth, which unites 
 man's mind and heart to the mind and will of God, and gives 
 fellowship with Him, in knowledge, and holiness, and true 
 felicity. 
 
 The second expression descriptive of the manner in which 
 Christians are to draw near to God, is, " in the full assurance of 
 faith." The phrase, "full assurance of faith," is just equivalent 
 to 'the fullest, most assured belief.' The question naturally 
 occurs, The full, assured belief of what ? Not of our own in- 
 dividual salvation, though that assurance naturally rises out of 
 this, but of the great truths respecting Jesus Christ as our great 
 High Priest, especially of those stated in the immediate con- 
 text : — that He has, on the ground of His perfect and accepted 
 sacrifice, passed through these heavens into the heaven of hea- 
 vens, there to appear in the presence of God for us ; and that 
 He has entered as the Forerunner, — having secured that in due 
 time all His people shall, like Plim, pass through these heavens 
 into the heaven of heavens. It is the faith of the truth respect- 
 ing the reality and the efficacy of the sacrifice of our Lord, and 
 the hope that springs out of that faith, that emboldens us to draw 
 near to Him, from v/hose presence, but for this faith and hope, 
 had we just views of His holiness, justice, and power, we would 
 seek for concealment under falling rocks and overturned moun- 
 tains. It is well remarked by Dr Owen, that " 'the full assur- 
 ance of faith' here does not respect the assurance that any may 
 have of their own salvation, nor any degree of such assurance : 
 it is only the full satisfaction of our soul and conscience of the 
 reality and efficacy of Christ's priesthood to give us acceptance 
 with God, in opposition to all other ways and means thereof, 
 that is intended." 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 379 
 
 It now only remains that we attend to the means by wliicli 
 Christians are to be enabled to comply with the Apostle's ex- 
 hortation, to "draw near with a true heart, and in the full 
 assurance of faith." " Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil 
 conscience." 
 
 There is no drawing near to God with a heart defiled by 
 an evil conscience. There is no obtaining deliverance from this 
 defilement but by the sprinkling of blood on the conscience — 
 " precious blood, the blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot 
 and blemish." 
 
 An evil conscience is a mind and heart burdened and pol- 
 luted by unpardoned guilt. A man who has offended God, who 
 knows that He has offended Him, and who has no solid ground 
 of hope of forgiveness, is naturally alienated from God, indis- 
 posed to think of Him, altogether unfit for enlightened affec- 
 tionate intercourse with Him. A stranger to confidence and 
 love, he is full of jealousy, fear, and dislike. He must get rid of 
 the evil conscience in order to his coming to God. 
 
 The removal of this obstruction in the way of drawing near 
 to God, is described by the Apostle as the having " the heart 
 sprinkled from an evil conscience." The evil conscience must 
 be removed ; and this is to be done " by the sprinkling of the 
 heart " with the blood of atonement. There is here, as through- 
 out the whole section, a reference to the Levitical order of wor- 
 ship. The Israelite could not be fitted for drawing near to God, 
 through the sacrifice offered for him, unless he was sprinkled 
 with its blood. Now, what in the spiritual economy answers to 
 the sprinkling of blood under the external economy, which was 
 its shadow and type ? Plainly, that which gives the individual a 
 personal interest in the expiatory and justifying efficacy of the 
 great atonement, by which alienated man is enabled to draw 
 near to God in spiritual service. Now, what is this, but the 
 faith of the truth respecting salvation through Christ, produced 
 in the soul by the effectual operation of the Spirit of Christ? 
 When men believe this truth, God is seen in His tnie character 
 — infinitely excellent, amiable, and kind ; the enmity of the heart 
 is slain, the jealousies of guilt are destroyed, and, instead of the 
 constant attempt to exclude God from the mind and affections, 
 with the heart they desire Him, with their spirit within them 
 they seek Him early. The desire of their heart is to Ilhn, and 
 
380 DISCOURSE VI. 
 
 towards tlie remembrance of His name. They draw near to 
 God, and find it good to draw near to Him ; and the habitual 
 language of their heart is, ' Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? 
 and there is none upon the earth whom I desire beside Thee.' 
 It is just in the degree in which, through the faith of the truth, 
 we realize the expiatory and forgiving, the soul-transforming 
 and heart-satisfying influences of the atonement of Christ, that 
 we can with a true heart draw near to God, and walk with Him 
 in humility and love, " serving Him without fear, in righteous- 
 ness and holiness, all the days of our life;" looking for the blessed 
 hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has 
 entered through these heavens into the heaven of heavens, and 
 will be retained by them till the times of the restitution of all 
 things ; but who, according to His promise, will then return to 
 earth, to gather together into one all His chosen people, and con- 
 duct them, soul and body, by the new and living way, which as the 
 Forerunner He has opened up and consecrated, into the temple 
 of God in heaven, where, before the eternal throne — near, very 
 near. Him who sits on it — they shall serve Him day and night, 
 uninterruptedly, eternally. And good reason have loe thus to 
 draw nigh. Our Saviour is in heaven; He has made all pre- 
 paration for taking us there ; He has promised to do so : — I go 
 to prepare a place for you ; and if I go, I will come again, 
 and take you to Myself, that where I am, ye may be also. And 
 He is faithful that has promised. All men have not faith — are 
 not trustworthy ; but the Lord is faithful. Though He is a 
 man. He is not such a man that He can lie ; though the Son 
 of man. He is not such a son of man that He can repent. If 
 it had not been so. He would not have told us so. So much for 
 the illustration of the statement and exhortation of which our 
 text consists. 
 
 It now only remains that, as the practical improvement of 
 the discourse, we to-day endeavour to comply with the Apostle's 
 exhortation, " Let us draw near." The command is not to us, 
 as to Moses at Horeb, " Draw not nigh hither ; " or to the 
 Israelites at Sinai, " Go not up to the mount, touch not the 
 border of it ; " " break not through unto the Lord to gaze." 
 No ; it is, " Draw near. Come boldly." " We are not come 
 unto the mount that micjht be touched, and that burned with 
 fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the 
 
ENTRANCE INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 381 
 
 sound of a trumpet, and tlie voice of words, wlilcli they that 
 heard entreated that the word sliould not be spoken to them any- 
 more ; but we are come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
 living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ; and to an innumerable 
 company of angels, the general assembly and the church of 
 the first-born, whose names are written in heaven ; and to God 
 the Judge of all ; and to the spirits of just men made perfect ; 
 and to Jesus, the jNIediator of the new covenant; and to the blood 
 of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel." 
 Seek, then, my brethren, that through the faith of the truth 
 your hearts may be anew sprinkled from an evil conscience, 
 your conscience purged from dead works, that you may be en- 
 abled to serve the living God, not in the oldness of the letter, 
 but in newness of spirit — acceptably, with reverence and godly 
 fear ; but yet with holy boldness, free from the fear that has 
 torment, in the full, assured belief of a completed and accepted 
 atonement ; in the firm though humble expectation of the sal- 
 vation that is in Christ with eternal glory ; in the faith that 
 your Lord is bodily in heaven and spiritually here ; and in the 
 hope of seeing Him spiritually here, and in due time of seeing 
 Him face to face, very near Him, and find it good for you to 
 be thus near Him. Thus will ye go not only to the altar of 
 God, but to God Himself, your supreme portion, your chief joy. 
 Thus shall you know that " truly your fellowship is with the 
 Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 
 
DISCOURSE VI I. 
 
 THE JOINT PERFECTION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS 
 IN HEAVEN. 1 
 
 Heb. xr. 39, 40. — "And these all, having obtained a good report through 
 faith, received not the promise : God having provided some better tiling for 
 us, that they withovit us should not be made perfect." 
 
 The remark of the Apostle Peter, that " in the Epistles of his 
 beloved brother Paul there are some things hard to be under- 
 stood," will be readily acquiesced in by all who have made these 
 Epistles the subject of careful study ; and to none of these in- 
 spired letters does the remark apply with greater force, than to 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, to which he seems, indeed, to have 
 had a direct reference in making the observation. What is hard 
 to be understood, is, however, by no means equivalent to what 
 is impossible to be understood. Of this I trust that we have 
 had satisfactory proof, in some of the illustrations of select pas- 
 sages from this Epistle, which at intervals I have laid before 
 you ; and that we have found, too, that when the Apostle's mean- 
 ing is somewhat difficult to be apprehended, its importance, when 
 discovered, far more than compensates for all the pains bestowed 
 on the investigation. Another of these somewhat difficult pas- 
 sages comes now before us for consideration. May God open 
 our understandings, that we may understand this portion of the 
 Scriptures. INIay He open our hearts to receive the love of the 
 truth which it contains, that it may thus contribute to our sal- 
 vation. 
 
 The remarkable words before us are the conclusion of the 
 Apostle's historical illustrations of the importance of faith, as 
 that which can enable a man to do what otherwise he could not 
 
 ^ This was the last Action Sermon prepared by the lamented Author. 
 On finishing it, he expressed his persuasion that his work was about done. 
 
384 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 have done, suffer what otherwise he could not have suffered, 
 obtain what otherwise he could not have obtained. They con- 
 sist of two parts : — First, " And all these, having obtained a 
 good report through faith, received not the promise." Second, 
 " God having provided some better thing for them, that they 
 without us might not be made perfect." 
 
 I. The words, " all these," have by some interpreters been 
 considered as referring only to the whole of those who, in the 
 immediate context, are represented as having suffered under 
 the influence of faith, in contrast with those who, in the words 
 preceding these, are represented as having acted under its in- 
 fluence. The latter, according to the Apostle, ver. 33, " by 
 faith obtained promises ;" the former, though they have '' ob- 
 tained a good report through faith, received not the promise." 
 While Gideon, and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samson, and 
 David, and Samuel, by their heroic deeds, performed under the 
 influence of faith, " obtained promises," i.e., obtained possession 
 of the blessings promised to them, those who, when exposed to 
 the fury of the Syro-Macedonian king, through faith endured 
 tortures of the most exquisite kind, vers. 35-38, obtained indeed 
 a good report, but died without obtaining any such blessings : 
 " they received not the promise." On carefully looking at the 
 passage, however, it is scarcely possible, I think, to doubt that 
 the contrast is not between two different classes of the ancient 
 worthies — between the tcorking believers and the suffering be- 
 lievers, but between believers under the ancient economies — the 
 patriarchal and IMosaic — the elders who received a good report, 
 mentioned at the 2d verse of the chapter — and believers under 
 the new economy — the Christian ; and that what he says is this, 
 ' All these persons (to whose history the Apostle, in the preced- 
 ing chapter, refers as an illustration of the power of faith, — all 
 those whose names are so honourably recorded in the book of 
 God, on account of their faith, or its results), " all these re- 
 ceived not the promise." ' We should have expected just the 
 reverse of this declaration — ' All these did receive the promise ;' 
 but the Apostle's assertion is, ' All these did not receive the 
 promise.' What can this mean ? 
 
 The words, " did not receive the promise," taken by them- 
 selves, may signify, ' had not the promise made to them,' or, ' had 
 not the promise fulfilled to them.' There are interpreters who 
 
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS MADE PERFECT. 385 
 
 adopt each of these views. Those interpi'eters -who take the 
 first view of the words, explain them thus : — ' Those ancient 
 behevers had a number of promises made to them, " exceeding 
 great and precious pi'omises ;"' but there was one promise, which 
 by way of eminence may be called the promise — the promise of 
 " the resurrection," and " eternal life" in heaven, — that promise 
 was not given to them. They obtained it not ; we have. " Life 
 and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel." This 
 better thing is provided for us^ 
 
 This explication is, however, by no means satisfactoiy ; for 
 it is evident, from the statements made in the preceding part of 
 this chapter, vers. 11, 13—16, as well as from our Lord's argu- 
 ment from the declaration made to Moses at the bush, in the 
 desert, that the promise, " I am the Lord thy God," — ^wliich all 
 these worthies received in the sense of its being made to them, — 
 included the promise of resurrection and immortal happiness, 
 Luke XX. 37, 38 ; and it is clear also, that it was understood by 
 them to include this promise. This promise, no doubt, is more 
 fully unfolded to us than to them ; it is expressed in much plainer 
 terms in the New Testament than in the Old ; but the promise 
 of eternal life, though forming no part of the Mosaic law, was 
 yet given to the people of God, both to those who lived before 
 the giving of that institute, and to those who lived under it. 
 
 The expression here, " received the promise," must then be 
 understood, not of the having the promise made, but of having 
 it fulfilled to them ; just as " to inherit the promises," Heb. vi. 
 12, means, to inherit the promised blessings. But still the ques- 
 tion remains. What is that promised blessing, which none of the 
 Old Testament worthies, though renowned for their faith, did 
 receive? The great blessing promised to the ancient Church, 
 both before the law and under the law, was salvation, in all the 
 extent of meaning that belongs to that most comprehensive word, 
 through the Messiah. It was promised to them that " the seed 
 of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent ; that in 
 Abraham's seed all the families of the earth should be blessed ; 
 that to them a Child should be born, a Son given, whose name 
 should be Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Ever- 
 lasting Father, the Prince of Peace ; and that Israel should be 
 saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." 
 
 Now this blessing, which is indeed a congeries of blessings, 
 
 VOL. II. 2 B 
 
386 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 these ancient believers did not receive durino; their mortal life/ 
 They died before the Messiah became incarnate, and suffered, 
 and died, and rose again ; and consequently they could not en- 
 joy the blessings which originate in the fuller and clearer revela- 
 tion of the truth respecting the salvation of the Messiah, and 
 in that correspondingly enlarged communication of divine influ- 
 ence, which were the natural consequence of that great event. 
 They saw the promised blessings afar off, and were persuaded 
 of them, and embraced them, and lived under their influence ; 
 but they "received" them not (ver. 13). On their death, indeed, 
 they entered on a state free from sin, and suffering, and fear ; 
 but still they " received not the promise." They were " saved," 
 but " in hope." They waited in paradise — some of them thou- 
 sands of years — expecting the manifestation of the mystery of 
 mercy; but till that took place they could not have the full 
 knowledge or enjoyment of the promised blessing. We have 
 no reason to think that the departed spirits of good men, who 
 died before the coming of Christ, knew more of the plan of sal- 
 vation than the angels did, who had to learn from the divine 
 dispensations to the Church that manifold wisdom of God : 
 Eph. iii. 10. On the Word being made flesh, on His finishing 
 the work on the earth which the Father had given Him to do, 
 and on His taking possession of His mediatorial throne, great 
 accessions were made both to the knowledge and blessedness of 
 these happy spirits. But even yet " they have not " fully " re- 
 ceived the promise." The promise of a glorious resurrection, 
 and an immortal, celestial life in their entire natures, remains 
 •yet unperformed. It is not to them a matter of enjoyment, but 
 of expectation. They are, in reference to these, but " saved in 
 hope." Their flesh rests in hope, in the silence and quiet of the 
 grave ; and their spirits, looking forward to the glorious con- 
 summation, breathe out the longing desire, " How long, O 
 Lord ! how lone ! " Thus did all the ancient worthies, though 
 celebrated for their faith, 7iot receive the promised blessing. 
 
 It would have been, as I have already observed, more in 
 accordance with our anticipations, had the Apostle said, ' All 
 these, having obtained a good report through faith, did receiA^e 
 the promise.' After all the difficulties and trials, labours and 
 suffering, to which they were exposed, they at last obtained, in 
 the fulfilment of promises made to them, a rich recompense for 
 
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS MADE PERFECT. 387 
 
 them all. And this might have been justly enough said ; for all 
 true believers under the former economy did, immediately on 
 death, obtain blessings which had been promised them, and which 
 far more than compensated for all their toils and sorrows. And 
 further, such a statement would have well comported with the 
 Apostle's object, which was to support and animate the Plebrew 
 Christians amid their trials. But the statement contained in 
 the text, as we have seen, is equally true, that these excellent 
 men, notwithstanding their faith, were not immediately, Avere not 
 soon, put in possession of the great blessing ; and it was at least 
 equally fitted to prevent the Christian Hebrews from becoming 
 faint in their minds because not fully invested immediately 
 with the blessings of the Christian salvation, and to induce them 
 to persevere in doing and suffering the will of God, though the 
 promised blessing seemed long in being conferred on them. 
 What a delight to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob, and Isaiah, and Paul, and all the prophets, in the king- 
 dom of God ! What a comfort to think, when parted by more 
 than sea and land from a dear Christian friend, we are not 
 parted for ever : we will meet again — meet again to be made 
 perfect, to be made perfect together — perfected together with 
 brethren — glorified too;ether with our Lord ! 
 
 Some have supposed that the intended practical application 
 of the Apostle's remark may be thus brought out : ' These 
 ancient believers persevered in their attachment to Jehovah 
 and His cause in life and in death, though the great object of 
 their faith and hope was not bestowed on them. How much 
 stronger the obligation, how much greater the encouragement, 
 to persevere in the case of the Hebrew Christians, and of all 
 Christians in all ages, who have received the promise, to whom 
 the promised Deliverer has come ! How comparatively easy to 
 continue to believe in a well-established, past fact, in compari- 
 son with continuing to believe in a future event, in itself very 
 improbable, and for which there was no ground of expectation 
 but the divine promise ! How much more, then, are your 
 circumstances calculated to facilitate perseverance than theirs!' 
 There is undoubted force in this reasoning, but we do not think 
 that it is the argument suggested by the Apostle's train of 
 thought. It is obvious that he represents the enjoyment of the 
 promised blessing as future — not yet realized even in the case of 
 
388 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 the Christian Hebrews. " Ye have need of patience," says he, 
 chap. X. 36, " that after ye have done the will of God, ye may 
 obtain the promise." It is as if he had said in the words before 
 us, ^ Let not the fact, that the great object of your expectation is 
 yet future — something which you do not yet enjoy — something 
 that you are never to enjoy in the present state — something that 
 will not be realized till the mystery of God is finished, at the 
 consummation of all things, — let not this prevent you from per- 
 severing. All those elders who, by living and dying in faith, 
 obtained a good report — so noble a memorial,, and are now 
 entered, though but entered, on the possession of the promised 
 inheritance, — all these, during their whole mortal life, many of 
 them for ages after their death, did not obtain what is by way 
 of eminence called "the promise." Nay, none of them even 
 yet are in full possession of it. You have no cause to complain 
 that you are to be here, or saved in hope, not in fruition — that 
 you are to live in faith, die in faith — believing, not seeing or 
 possessing.' 
 
 That this is the practical bearing of the words, will, I trust, 
 become more apparent as we proceed to the illustration of the 
 second part of our text, contained in the 40th verse, which is 
 certainly one of the most difficult in the whole Epistle. " God 
 having provided some better thing for us, that they without us 
 should not be made perfect." 
 
 II. There can be no doubt that the pronoun " ws," here, re- 
 fers to Christians — to those who live under the new economy. 
 For them " God has provided some better thing." The ques- 
 tion naturally occurs. Better than what? And the answer or- 
 dinarily returned is, ' Better than anything which the saints 
 under the former economies received.' They received many 
 good things, of which you have a catalogue in the begiiming of 
 the third and ninth chapters of the Epistle to the Eomans ; but 
 they received not the promise, i.e., the promised blessing, by 
 way of eminence. We have received it. The Messiah is come, 
 and we ai'e blessed with heavenly and spiritual blessings in 
 Him. " Blessed," says our Lord, " are the eyes which see the 
 things ye see : for verily I say unto you. That many prophets 
 and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, 
 and have not seen them ; and to hear the things which ye hear, 
 and have not heard them!" "The mystery which was kept 
 
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS MADE PERFECT. 38S> 
 
 secret from former ages and generations has been unveiled." 
 The great propitiation has been offered to God, and " set forth" 
 to men. The way into the holiest of all has been made mani- 
 fest. The influence of the Holy Spirit has been more copiously 
 shed forth, and more efficaciously exerted. Life and immor- 
 tality have been placed in a clear, full light by the Gospel. A 
 rational, spiritual, easy system of worship, has taken the place of 
 the carnal, complicated, and burdensome ordinances of the law. 
 The Church has passed from a state of minority, subjected to 
 tutors and governors, a state of pupilage, into a state of mature 
 sonship. 
 
 Now all this is truth, important truth, delightful truth, in- 
 fluential truth ; but still I cannot but dovibt if it be the truth 
 here stated. The promise here spoken of does not seem to be 
 the promise of the Messiah — the promise that the Messiah should 
 come ; still less the promise of those blessings of His reign which 
 are to be enjoyed in this world ; but " the promise of eternal 
 inheritance," — a promise, the full accomplishment of which the 
 saints under the new economy do not obtain in the present state, 
 any more than their elder brethren under the former economies 
 — a promise, the full accomplishment of which they are not to 
 obtain till after they have done the will of God, as the Apostle 
 states, chap. x. 36. These better things, which God has pro- 
 vided for us, or foreseen concerning us, are to be enjoyed, not 
 here below, but when we and our elder brethren are made per- 
 fect together above. It is this being " made perfect " that i$ 
 the sum of the better things. 
 
 The answer, then, which we feel constrained to give to the 
 question. What is the reference of the word "better" in the 
 clause before us ? — with what are the things provided by God 
 for His New Testament people, and not for them only, but all 
 His people equally, compared ? — is this : The comparison is not 
 between what the saints under the old economy enjoyed, and 
 those which saints under the new economy enjoy on earth ; but 
 between what the saints under the new economy enjoy on earth, 
 and what they are ultimately to enjoy in heaven. He marks, 
 not what is the difference between the two classes of believers ; 
 he refers to something in which they do not differ, but agree, 
 God has provided for us something better than anything we can 
 attain to in the present st^te, just as He prepared for them 
 
390 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 something better than anything they could attain to in the pre- 
 sent state. The ultimate object of their faith and hope lay 
 beyond death and the grave, and so does ours. The good things 
 provided for us by God are thus described by the inspired 
 writers : " We know that when the earthly house of our taber- 
 nacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens. When we are absent from 
 the body, we shall be present with the Lord. We know that 
 them who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him. When He 
 who is our life shall appear, shall be manifested, we also shall 
 appear, shall be manifested, with Him in glory. When He shall 
 appear, we shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is. Seeing His 
 face in righteousness, we shall be satisfied with His likeness. 
 We look for the Saviour from heaven, the Loi'd Jesus Christ, 
 who shall change these vile bodies, and fashion them like unto 
 His own glorious body. For this mortal shall put on immor- 
 tality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption ; and then 
 shall be brought to pass that which is written. Death is swal- 
 lowed up in victory. And so shall we be for ever with the Lord. 
 We shall dwell for ever in the presence of God and the Lamb. 
 We shall serve them day and night in the celestial temple ; and 
 we shall go no more out for ever." These are the things which 
 God hath provided for us ; and surely these are infinitely better 
 than anything, however good, we can attain to here below. 
 
 But it may be said, These things are not provided exclusively 
 for us Christians ; they are laid up for all that love God, who 
 ever lived, whether under the patriarchal, the Mosaic, or the 
 Christian dispensation. We very readily admit this, but do 
 not think that there is anything in the Apostle's words to lead 
 us to conclude that the good, the better things he is speaking of, 
 are the exclusive possession of Christians. For, indeed, if his 
 words are carefully weighed, it will appear, as I have already 
 hinted, that he is pointing out, not a contrast, but a resemblance, 
 in the circumstances of Old Testament and New Testament be- 
 lievers. Old Testament believers did not obtain the promise in 
 the present state, and neither do New Testament believers ; for 
 God has provided for them better things, in the better world, 
 than any bestowed on them in this world. We, as well as our 
 elder brethren, must live believing, and die believing ; we must 
 die in faith, as well as live by faith. 
 
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS JIADE PERFECT. 391 
 
 It now only remains that we turn our attention to the con- 
 cluding clause of the sentence, " That they without us should not 
 be made perfect." Some interpreters connect these words with 
 the first clause, considering the second as a parenthesis ; thus : 
 " All these, having obtained a good report by faith, received not 
 the promise, that they might not without us be perfected." We 
 consider them as equally connected with both clauses. Their 
 meaning may, I apprehend, be brought out more distinctly by 
 a very slight change, which the original warrants, if it do not 
 require. "These all, having obtained a good report through 
 faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better 
 thing for us, that they not without us" — i.e., that both they and we 
 — "might be made perfect;" — made perfect simultaneously, not 
 one after another, no one preventing or getting before the other 
 (1 Thess. iv.), at once. God has so arranged matters that the 
 complete accomplishment of the promise, both to the Old Testa- 
 ment and to the New Testament believers, shall take place 
 together — at the same time. They shall be made perfect, but 
 not without us. We and they shall obtain perfection together. 
 The Old Testament saints died without receiving the promised 
 blessing ; yet their faith was by no means of no avail. In due 
 season they shall be perfected — the promise, in its full extent, 
 will be performed to them. And as God has provided for us, 
 too, better things than any that are enjoyed by us here below, 
 when they are perfected, we shall be perfected along with them. 
 " To be made perfect," is the same thing as to receive the pro- 
 mise — for the promise is a promise of perfect, holy happiness, — 
 or to obtain the better things that God hath provided for us; for 
 this is better, far better, than anything enjoyed here below. 
 
 " 'Tis heaven below to taste His love, 
 To know His power and grace ; 
 But what is this to heaven above, 
 Where I shall see His face ? " 
 
 This exactly corresponds with the representations in other 
 parts of Scripture. The whole, whether they lived under the 
 old or new dispensation, of the saved are together, either through 
 a resurrection, or a miraculous, instantaneous change, to obtain 
 the perfected glorified body, and are together to be put in pos- 
 session of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal 
 glory. There is to be a gathering together of all the saved at 
 
392 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 the coining of our Lord Jesus Christ : they shall be presented, 
 not one by one, but a glorious church, not having spot or 
 wrinkle, or any such thing. As one assembly they shall be 
 invited to enter into the kingdom prepared for them from the 
 foundation of the world ; and, caught up to meet the Lord in 
 the air, they shall be conducted to those many mansions, in the 
 house of His Father and their Father, in which righteousness 
 dwells, and into which imperfection in no form can find entrance 
 for ever. 
 
 And is not this being made perfect — is not this some better 
 thing than anything enjoyed here below ? Here we know but 
 in part — we see through a glass darkly ; but when that which 
 is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. 
 Then we shall see face to face ; then shall we know even as we 
 are known. How many heavenly and spiritual benefits are 
 bestowed on the people of God — many exceeding great and 
 precious promises fulfilled to them! They are made truly holy, 
 truly happy ; but till the resurrection of the dead they will not 
 attain that perfect conformity to God and His Son in which 
 perfect holiness and happiness consists. Then they shall be like 
 their God and Saviour. They shall enter into the Saviour's 
 joy, and be holy as God is holy, perfect as He is perfect — the 
 objects of His entire moral approbation. His unmixed com- 
 placency. O how great is the goodness which He has laid up 
 for them that fear Him ! Eye has not seen it, ear has not heard 
 it, heart has not conceived it. 
 
 What a glorious anticipation for every believer individually! 
 And hoAv is its delight increased by the consideration, that all 
 are together to receive the promise, all together to be made per- 
 fect ! — an innumerable multitude, out of every age and country, 
 tongue and nation, made perfect at once ! 
 
 This places in a peculiarly glorious light the power and grace 
 of the Saviour — of Plim wdio is the Author of all our blessings, 
 good, better, best. Had all the dead saints at the resurrection 
 of Christ — a goodly company, but still comparatively a little 
 flock — been set free from the bonds of death, received in full 
 the promise of eternal life; and had, since that time, every saint 
 been freed from the necessity of dying, and been quietly clothed 
 upon instead of being unclothed ; the scene would have been in- 
 comparably less striking than that vrhich will be exhibited on 
 
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS MADE PEEFECT. 393 
 
 the last eventful day of the world's histoiy, when the merit and 
 the power of the Redeemer will bring the whole human race 
 out of their graves and before His tribunal, and enable Him to 
 confer on all of them an endless existence — on His own redeemed 
 ones an endless existence of perfect holy happiness. What a 
 day of triumph to the Redeemer as well as the redeemed ! How 
 glorious will the King of Israel be that day, at the head of His 
 reanimated legions, all of them now more than conquerors, 
 through Him that loved them ! With what a benignant eye 
 will the good Shepherd contemplate His sheep, now no more a 
 divided and little flock, but a multitude no man can number, 
 yet of that number not one lost ! Oh, in that gathering together 
 at His coming, how glorious will He be in His saints ; how will 
 He be admired by the angelic millions, in them that believe, 
 who through faith have now obtained the promise ! 
 
 Such views were surely well fitted to encourage the Chris- 
 tian Hebrews to persevere in believing and professing the truth, 
 amid all the difficulties and trials they miglit be exposed to — to 
 live by faith, to die in faith. Valuable as are the blessings they 
 enjoy here, better things, absolute perfection is awaiting them 
 at the coming of the Lord. This is promised, and He is faith- 
 ful that hath promised. The blessed hope, the glorious appear- 
 ance of om- Lord, with which the receiving of the promise is 
 connected, is absolutely certain. For yet a little while — as He 
 reckons time with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a 
 thousand years as one day — and He that shall come will come, 
 and will not tarry. Living by faith, dying in faith, is the only 
 way of realizing this better thing, this absolute perfection. They 
 who draw back, draw back to perdition. It is they only who 
 persevere in believing that attain to the salvation of the soul. 
 That is, in every sense of the word, the end of our faith. 
 
 Such is the interpretation of this passage, somewhat hard to 
 be understood, which appears to me the most probable. It is an 
 interpretation that gives cohesion to every part of the Apostle's 
 statement. The meaning; brouiiht out is in accordance with the 
 doctrine of Scripture generally, and bears directly on the object 
 which the Apostle has in view — the impressing on the minds of 
 the Hebrews the pre-eminent importance of persevering faith. 
 At the same time, it is but right to state that it is not the ordi- 
 nary mode of interpretation, and it may be well to state in a few 
 
394 DISCOURSE VII. 
 
 words the manner in which the passage is generally understood : 
 " The ancient worthies persevered in their faith, although the 
 Messiah was known to them only by promise. We are under 
 greater obligations than they to persevere ; for God has fulfilled 
 His promise respecting the Messiah, and thus placed us in cir- 
 cumstances in which continued faith should be found a com- 
 paratively easy thing, and in which apostasy must incur guilt 
 peculiarly deep, and expose to punishment peculiarly severe. 
 So much is our condition superior to theirs, that we may say 
 that their happiness is completed in the benefits bestowed on 
 us." This is, no doubt, good sense and sound reasoning, but I 
 cannot bring it out of the Apostle's words. 
 
 The practical use to be made of the important truth, that 
 the great object of our hope, as well as of that of the ancient be- 
 lievers, is jet futitre, is abundantly obvious. It is to guard us 
 against the undue influence of the present world, and to bring 
 us under the power of the world that is to come ; to make us 
 look, not at the things that are seen and temporal, but at the 
 things that are unseen and eternal; to walk by faith, and not 
 by sight. Since our life is hid with Christ in God, and since 
 we are not to appear in glory till we appear with Him, surely 
 we should willingly be in the world even as He was in the 
 world ; surely we should set our affections on the things which 
 are above, and not on the things that are on the earth ; surely 
 we should seek the things that are above, where He sits at God's 
 right hand. We should mortify our members which are on the 
 earth. We should crucify the flesh, with its affections and lusts. 
 We should have our conversation in heaven, whence we are 
 looking for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change 
 these vile bodies, and fashion them like unto His glorious body, 
 according to the working whereby He is able even to sub- 
 due all things unto Himsdf. Surely we should be habitually 
 looking for, longing for, the coming of our Lord Jesus, which 
 has for its object the complete salvation of His people. We 
 should gird up the loins of our mind, be sober, and hope to the 
 end, for the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of 
 Jesus Christ ; and, taught by His grace, which brings salvation 
 to all, of which we have heard in the word of the truth of the 
 Gospel, which word we have received, not as the word of man, 
 but, as it is in truth, the word of the living God, we should 
 
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS MADE TERFECT. 395 
 
 " deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, right- 
 eously, and godly in this world, looking for that blessed hope, 
 the glorious appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave 
 Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
 purify us unto Himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works." Thus may we, my brethren, be enabled to improve it ; 
 thus may we, by a constant continuance in well-doing, seek for 
 and obtain glory, honour, and immortality. May we all of us, 
 habitually looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal 
 life, find mercy of the Lord in that day; and, along with the 
 venerable assembly of the patriarchs, the goodly fellowship of 
 the prophets, the glorious company of the apostles, the noble 
 army of the martyrs, the holy Church of God in all countries 
 and ages, receive the promise — obtain the better thing provided 
 for us — be made perfect in knowledge, holiness, and happiness ; 
 in one word, receive the complete salvation of the body and the 
 soul, the " salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." 
 
DISCOURSE VII I. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR. 
 
 Heb. XIII. 10. — " We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat 
 which serve the tabernacle." 
 
 It is a fact as honourable to Christianity, as disgraceful to 
 human nature, that the difficulty with which that religion has 
 hitherto made its way in our world, has been owing, not to 
 faults, but excellences in it ; and that those qualities which 
 chiefly recommend it to the higher and uncorrupted orders of 
 intelligent beings, are the very qualities which have excited the 
 contempt and loathing, the neglect and opposition, of mankind, 
 and led the great majority of those, in every age, to whom its 
 claims have been addressed, to consider it as absolute foolish- 
 ness. Purity, simplicity, and spirituality are the leading fea- 
 tures of Christianity ; and it is just because it is pui'e, simple, 
 and spiritual that it is so much admired in heaven and despised 
 on earth, that holy angels " desire to look into it," and that 
 depraved men " make light of it." 
 
 The fondness of man for what is material in religion, and 
 his dislike of what is spiritual, is strikingly illustrated in the 
 extreme difficulty which was experienced by the primitive 
 teachers of Christianity in weaning the Jews — even such of 
 them as had in profession embraced the Gospel — from their 
 excessive attachment to an order of things which had so much 
 in it to strike the senses as Judaism. The manner in which 
 these inspired men seek to attain this end, discovers " the wis- 
 dom from above" by which they were guided. They showed 
 the Jew, whether converted or unconverted, that everything 
 that was excellent in the economy which was vanishing away 
 had its counterpart in the order of things which Avas in the 
 process of introduction in something still more excellent ; that 
 
398 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 the spiritual reality was far better than the material shadow ; and 
 that that which was glorious had no glory by reason of the glory 
 that excelleth. They showed them, that if Christians have no 
 visible, material representation of the divine glory on earth, 
 towards which they draw near in bodily worship, they have the 
 spiritual Divinity in heaven, to whom in spirit they approach, in 
 exercises which employ their highest faculties, and interest their 
 best affections ; that if they had no splendid temple like that of 
 Jerusalem, within whose sacred precincts, at appointed seasons, 
 acceptable worship can be presented to Jehovah, they have 
 access to the omnipresent God at all times, in all circumstances ; 
 that if they have no order of priests, like that of Aaron, to 
 transact for them their business with God, they have, in the 
 person of the incarnate Son of God, a great High Priest, who 
 has by the sacrifice of Himself expiated all their sins, and, 
 ever living to make intercession for them, is able to save them 
 to the uttermost, coming to God through Him. 
 
 In the passage that lies before us now for explication, we 
 find the Apostle applying this principle to the subject of sacred 
 meats, on which the Jews seem to have valued themselves. Of 
 many of the offerings which were laid on the altar of Jehovah, 
 part only was consumed by fire, the rest being reserved for food, 
 either for the priests, or for the offerer and his friends. This 
 food was accounted peculiarly sacred, and the eating of it viewed 
 as an important religious privilege. In the verse which imme- 
 diately precedes our text, the Apostle had said in effect, in 
 reference to these meats, — The grace of God — His free favour 
 to sinners manifested in the Gospel — if understood and believed, 
 will do the heart more good than the use of any kind of food, 
 however sacred. And in the words we mean to fix your atten- 
 tion on, he goes on to say, that Christians had a species of 
 spiritual sacred food far more holy than any which the Israel- 
 itish people, or even the Aaron leal priesthood, were permitted 
 to taste. " We have an altar, of which they have no right to 
 eat who serve the tabernacle." 
 
 The train of thought in the paragraph these words introduce 
 is natural and beautiful. It is as if the Apostle had said, ' If 
 ye will hold to meats, know that as Christians you have a 
 holier food than you, or even your priests, ever had as Jews. 
 You have the flesh of Him who gave Himself as a sacrifice for 
 
THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR. 399 
 
 you to feed on — that is meat indeed ; Ilis blood — that is drink 
 indeed. The thought of His sufferings for tliem naturally in- 
 troduces that of the fitness of their readily submitting to suffer- 
 ino; for Him, under the beautiful imao;e of o-oino; without the 
 camp to Him, where He was crucified, bearing His reproach. 
 And then comes the concluding thought, that as Christ is the 
 true sacrifice, all our sacrifices are of a figurative and spiritual 
 kind, — no longer sin-offerings and expiatory sacrifices, but simply 
 offerings of thanksgiving, sacrifices of praise — praise to be ex- 
 pressed in the life as well as in the lips. 
 
 The language of the text is elliptical. Something must be 
 supplied to make out the sense. But there is no difficulty in 
 filling up the ellipsis. " We" — i.e., we Christians, in opposition 
 to " ye Jews" — " have an altar of which we have a right to eat, 
 but of which they who serve, who minister, in the tabernacle — 
 the ]\Iosaic sanctuary, the temple — the Jewish worshippers, and 
 even the Levitical priests — have no right to eat." By " the altar," 
 we are either to understand sacrifices laid on the altar, or, what 
 comes to the same thing, to " eat of," or from, " the altar," is 
 to be understood as equivalent to — ' to eat of sacred food which 
 had been laid on the altar.' " Those who serve the tabernacle," 
 or rather, " they who minister in the tabernacle," are, I appre- 
 hend, the Levitical priesthood. 
 
 There were, as I have already had occasion to observe, cer- 
 tain sacrifices of which the offerer and his fi'iends were allowed 
 to make a feast ; and of by far the greater number of sacrifices 
 a considerable portion was assigned as the food of the priests. 
 You may consult Lev. vi. 26, vii. 15, 34, xix. 6 ; Num. vi. 19, 
 xviii. 9, 10. But there was a class of offerings of Avhich neither 
 the offerer nor the priest was allowed to appropriate even the 
 smallest part. The victim was considered as entirely devoted 
 to God, and was wholly burnt with fire, either on the altar, or in 
 a clean place without the camp while Israel was in the wilder- 
 ness, and Avithout the city after the erection of the temple in 
 Jerusalem. For information respecting this class of sacrifices, 
 you may consult Lev. iv. 3-12, xiv. IG, 27. Now it appears to 
 me that the Apostle refers to this peculiarly sacred species of 
 offering, of which even the priests were not allowed to partici- 
 pate as food ; and that his assertion is. We Christians, as to 
 sacred food, have higher privileges than the Jews — higher than 
 
400 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 even their priests. We are permitted to feast — spiritually, of 
 course — on that sacrifice of which that class of sacrifices, of 
 which not only no ordinary Israelite, but no priest, not even 
 the high priest, was allowed to taste, was a typical representa- 
 tion. 
 
 The sacrifice referred to as being the food of Christians, is, 
 without doubt, the sacrifice which our great High Priest, Jesus 
 the Son of God, offered up once for all — the sacrifice of Him- 
 self. Of the class of Jewish sacrifices to which the Apostle 
 alludes, Avhicli was not a large one, the sacHfice for the sins of 
 the people offered up on the great day of atonement was the 
 most remarkable ; and it is probable that this saci'ifice was in 
 the view of his mind when he made the declaration we are now 
 considering. No part of that sacrifice was to be used as food 
 either by the people or the priests. The blood was to be brought 
 into the holy place, that is, the holy of holies ; and, after certain 
 portions of the carcase had been burnt on the altar, all the re- 
 mainder was to be taken without the camp, or beyond the walls 
 of the city, and there consumed to ashes. Instead of any part 
 of it being allowed to be eaten, it was considered as entirely a 
 devoted thing ; and he that even touched it was not permitted to 
 mingle with the congregation of Israel till he had submitted to 
 certain instituted lustratory rites. Now the sacrifice of our 
 Lord was emblematized by this peculiarly sacred kind of offer- 
 ing. When He suffered, it was that He might, by the shedding 
 and sprinkling of His own blood, sanctify the people, i.e., ex- 
 piate the sins of all the Israel of God, and fit them for accept- 
 able intercourse with their covenant God. To mark the corre- 
 spondence more closely. He suffered death beyond the gates of 
 Jerusalem, as the bodies of the victims offered for the sins of 
 Israel on the great day of atonement were consumed without 
 the camp or the city. And this sacrifice, of the emblems of 
 which no Israelite, no Israelitish priest, was permitted to taste, 
 is the great staple article of spiritual food to Christians, who are 
 all a holy priesthood, as well as a peculiar people. He " gave 
 His flesh for the life of the world" — He shed His blood " for 
 remission of sins to many;" and they who believe in Him are 
 permitted to eat this flesh, which is meat indeed ; to drink of this 
 blood, which is drink indeed. It is their privilege to be allowed 
 habitually to feast on the sacrifice M'hich has been an effectual 
 
THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR. 401 
 
 propitiation for their sins, and for the sins of the whole Israel 
 of God. 
 
 The sentiment of the Apostle is not — We are allowed to eat 
 the Lord's Supper, which no Jew, nor Jewish priest, continuing 
 such, can have a right to do. It refers not to the Lord's Supper, 
 but to that of which the Lord's Supper is an emblematical ex- 
 pression. Nor is it merely — We have a sacrifice, on which we 
 spiritually feed, of which no Jew, no Jewish priest, continuing 
 to be so, can participate. But, we are allowed — really, though 
 spiritually — to feast on the propitiatory sacrifice for our own 
 sins, and for the sins of all the people of God, which, even em- 
 blematically, the Jewish people and priests were not permitted 
 to do. 
 
 It thus appears that these words contain a statement, and a 
 proof of that statement. The statement is — We Christians have 
 higher privileges with regard to sacred food than the Jewish 
 people, or even the Jewish priesthood, possessed. We are per- 
 mitted to feast on a sacrifice of the highest and holiest kind, 
 which they were not. The proof is — The highest and holiest 
 kind of sacrifice was that offered on the great day of atonement 
 for the expiation of the sins of the whole congregation of Israel. 
 Of that sacrifice even the priests were not permitted to eat. 
 The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was a sacrifice of this highest 
 and holiest kind. It was the sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices 
 offered on the recurring great days of atonement, for ages, were 
 but the shadow. On this sacrifice Christians are permitted 
 freely to feed. They eat the flesh and drink the blood of the 
 Son of God, offered as a sacrifice for the sins of men — for their 
 own sins. The conclusion is direct and inevitable. The Chris- 
 tians have higher privileges with respect to sacred food, not 
 merely than the Jewish people, but than the Jewish priests. 
 
 " We have an altar, of which they have no right to eat who 
 serve the tabernacle." Fully to bring out the meaning and force 
 of this statement, so satisfactorily proved, it will be necessary to 
 inquire into the nature and value of the privilege possessed by 
 the Israelitish people and priesthood in feeding on sacrifices ; 
 and then inquire into the nature and value of the privilege of 
 Christians in feeding spiritually on the sacrifice of Christ ; and 
 then, by a comparison of these, to evince the superiority of the 
 latter to the former. 
 
 VOL. II. 2 c 
 
402 DISCOURSE vm, 
 
 I. With regard to the privilege of the Jewish people and 
 priesthood in eating of the sacrifices, it is manifest that, what- 
 ever superstitious notions might be cherished by them, the flesh 
 which had been offered in sacrifice was not better, as food, than 
 other meat of the same quality, and that the mere eating of it 
 could be of no spiritual advantage to the individual ; just as, 
 whatever superstitious notions may be entertained by professed 
 Christians respecting the emblematical elements in the Lord's 
 Supper — bread and wine — they have no qualities, as bodily 
 nourishment, different from other bread and wine; and the 
 mere eating the one and drinking the other can communicate no 
 spiritual benefit. Sacrifice was emblematical ; and feasting on 
 sacrifice was emblematical also. Eating the flesh which had 
 been offered in sacrifice seems to have been emblematical of two 
 things, or, to speak perhaps more accurately, of two aspects of 
 the same thing. Eating the flesh of the sacrifice was emble- 
 matical — plainly fitted to be emblematical — of deriving from the 
 sacrifice the advantage it was calculated and intended to secure ; 
 namely, expiation of ceremonial guilt, removal of ceremonial 
 pollution, and access, along with the people of God, to the ex- 
 ternal ordinances of the tabernacle or temple worship. More- 
 over, as the altar is in Scripture represented as God's table, and 
 sacrifices as placed on that table, — for example, Mai. i. 7 ; Ps. 
 1. 12, 13 ; Ezek. xxxix. 20, xli. 22, — eating of the sacrifice, im- 
 plying sitting at table with God, is a natural emblem of a state 
 of reconciliation and fellowship with Jehovah, in a state which 
 gives an interest in the blessings promised, and security from 
 the evils threatened, in the old covenant. This, whatever ex- 
 travagant notions the Jews might have formed on the subject, 
 seems to be the true nature and value of the pi^ivilege which they 
 enjoyed, of feeding on sacrifices. 
 
 II. Let us now inquire into the nature and value of the 
 corresponding blessing enjoyed by Christians. That privilege 
 may be thus described: "They eat the fl^sh and drink the 
 blood of the Son of man, who was also thp Son of God, who 
 gave Himself for them a sacrifice and an offering, that He 
 might bring them to God." I need not^say that these words 
 are highly figurative. Eating and drinking the flesh and blood 
 of Christ, are to be understood in a sj^Htual, not in a literal 
 sense. The doctrines of tr an substantiation and consubstantia- 
 
THE CHRISTL\N ALTAR. 403 
 
 tion are insults to reason, and caricatures of Christianity. To 
 eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, is to derive, 
 by an appropriate exercise of mind — believing, — from the sacri- 
 fice of Christ, the advantages which it was intended and fitted to 
 secure. As it is by eating and drinking that we derive nourish- 
 ment from food, so it is by believing that we partake of the 
 benefits obtained by the sacrifice of Christ. In the faith of 
 that truth, we enjoy the forgiveness of sin, the acceptance of 
 our persons and works, the spiritual transformation of our na- 
 ture and character, and favourable intercourse with God as our 
 reconciled Father. We have in Ilim redemption through His 
 blood, even the forgiveness of sin. We are justified through the 
 redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We are washed, justified, 
 sanctified, in the name of the Lord Jesus. We have access with 
 boldness, on the ground of His sacrifice, to the throne of grace, 
 and are blessed with all heavenly and spiritual blessings in Him. 
 In the Lord's Supper we have an emblematical representa- 
 tion of all this. But we have not only the emblems, — we have, 
 if we believe, the blessings emblematized. In the faith of the 
 truth respecting the sacrifice of Christ, and the great end which 
 that sacrifice was intended to serve, and has actually served, 
 and been proved to have served by His resurrection, we person- 
 ally enjoy all these invaluable blessings. In spirit sitting in the 
 heavenly places, at the table of the reconciled Divinity, we, as 
 it were, feast along with Him. That which satisfies His justice, 
 magnifies His law, glorifies all His perfections, and gives Him 
 perfect satisfaction — even the obedience to death of His incarnate 
 Son — the sacrifice, without spot and blameless, which He offered 
 up for the sins of men, — that quiets our conscience, transforms 
 our nature, rejoices our heart. We find our enjoyment in that 
 in which God finds His enjoyment. " Our fellowship is with 
 the Father." Brought near to Him, we hear Him saying, in 
 reference to the completed sacrifice of His Son, I am fully 
 satisfied ; and our souls re-echo the solemn declaration. So are 
 we. And while He says, This is My Son, in whom I am Avell 
 pleased, we say, This is our Saviour : He is all our salvation, 
 all our desire. This spiritual feeding on the sacrifice of Christ, 
 so as personally to realize the benefits that sacrifice was in- 
 tended to procure, — this is the blessing enjoyed by Christians 
 which corresponds to the privilege enjoyed by the Israelitish 
 
404 DISCOURSE VIIL 
 
 priests and people, in feasting on meats which had been offered 
 in sacrifice, on the altar of Jehovah, in the tabernacle or temple. 
 
 III. It will not require many words to show the superiority — 
 the infinite superiority — of the privilege of Christian believers, as 
 to sacred food, above that of the Jewish people, or even priests. 
 In eating of the sacrifices offered under the law, they had 
 merely the emblems of blessings : we, in spiritually feeding on 
 Christ's sacrifice, have the blessings themselves. They had but 
 the emblems of expiation, and forgiveness, and purification, and 
 fellowship with God : we have expiation, and forgiveness, and 
 purification, and fellowship with God. 
 
 But this is by no means all. The blessings, the emblems of 
 which, in eating of the sacrifices, the Jewish priests and people 
 possessed, were of a far inferior kind to those of the substance, 
 of which we Christians, in our spiritual banquet, participate. 
 What a disproportion in value between the shadow and the 
 substance — between expiation and forgiveness of ceremonial 
 transgression, and expiation and forgiveness of moral guilt — 
 between external purification and inward sanctification — be- 
 tween external communion and spiritual fellowship ! 
 
 Nor is even this all. The circumstance, that it was but a 
 part of any sacrifice that the Israelitish people and priests were 
 allowed to eat, probably intimated — what the circumstance, that 
 there were certain sacrifices, and those of the most sacred and 
 solemn nature, of which they were not permitted even to taste, 
 was undoubtedly meant to teach — that the expiations under the 
 law, and the forgiveness founded on these expiations, were in- 
 complete. The law made nothing perfect. They were allowed, 
 as it were, crumbs from Jehovah's table, to show that He pitied 
 them, and was kindly disposed to them ; but they were not ad- 
 mitted to feast, along with Jehovah, on the great sacrifice of 
 atonement. Christians, in the faith of the truth, are admitted 
 into the presence of a reconciled God, and there have set before 
 them the whole sacrifice which has taken away the sins of men. 
 We eat the flesh of that sacrifice ; we di'ink its blood. We 
 enjoy the full measure of benefit which the sacrifice was in- 
 tended to secure. Our reconciliation with God is complete — 
 our fellowship with Him intimate and delightful. 
 
 There is yet another circumstance which must be adverted 
 to, to show the superiority of the privilege of Christians to that 
 
THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR. 405 
 
 of Jews as to sacred food. It was only at intervals — compara- 
 tively rare intervals on the part of the body of the people — that 
 the Israelites enjoyed the privilege, such as it was, of eating 
 meat which had been placed on the altar of God ; whereas 
 living by faith on the flesh and blood of the Son of God is the 
 expression of the habitual experience of genuine Christians. 
 This is their daily food. Their spiritual health and strength 
 depend on their habitual use of it. On a communion Sabbath, 
 there is, in eating the Lord's Supper, but an emblematical repre- 
 sentation of what every Christian is habitually doing every day 
 of his life, — exercising faith in Christ Jesus, delivered for his 
 offences, and thus deriving from Him all things that pertain to 
 life and godliness — all that is necessary to sustain and cherish 
 spiritual life, and activity, and enjoyment. As there is a 
 spiritual Sabbath to the believer every day, so there is a spiritual 
 communion-table ever ready spread, at which, at all times, in all 
 circumstances, he can eat the true bread of life, and drink of 
 the wine of the kingdom. 
 
 The bearino; of the statement, the meanina; and evidence of 
 which I have thus shortly attempted to lay before you, on the 
 great design of the Apostle in the whole of this remarkable 
 treatise, is direct and obvious. That design was to show the 
 Hebrews that in Christ Jesus they had all that they had had 
 under !Moses, and much more. ' Let your unbelieving brethren 
 boast themselves of their privileges with regard to " sacred food:" 
 you enjoy far higher privileges than they, or even their vener- 
 ated priesthood. Even they durst not taste of the sacrifice of 
 atonement offered for the congregation of Israel ; but you are 
 permitted daily, hourly, without ceasing, at all times, in all cir- 
 cumstances, to feast on the sacrifice of the incarnate Son of 
 God — 'the great victim for the sins of men, who suffered, the 
 just in the room of the unjust, who gave Himself a sacrifice of 
 a sweet-smelling savour for all the sanctified ones. Truly, " ye 
 are complete in Him." ' 
 
 The practical use which the Apostle would have the Hebrew 
 Christians to make of the truth contained in the text, is indi- 
 cated in the words that immediately follow. " Let us go forth 
 therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach." 
 The inference may seem inconsequent to a careless reader ; but 
 the connection is quite natural, and the conclusion is fairly 
 
406 DISCOURSE VIII. 
 
 drawn. This food of tlie soul, of which the Apostle was speak- 
 ing, was the flesh of the Son of man who had come down from 
 heaven, given in sacrifice for the life of the world. Jesus Christ, 
 the great atoning sacrifice for men, to verify the type in refer- 
 ence to the remnant of the sacrifice of atonement for the people 
 being burnt without the camp, was crucified beyond the walls 
 of what was once the holy city — died for us in circumstances of 
 deep degradation and bitter agony. He calls His people to the 
 fellowship of His suffering. He requires of every disciple to 
 deny himself, and take up the cross and follow Him ; to hold 
 himself ready for whatever sacrifice his allegiance to his Lord 
 may require. This is to " go forth to Him without the camp." 
 To come oat from among the world lying under the wicked one, 
 doomed to destruction, and be separate, and to cast in his lot 
 with the Crucified One on earth and in heaven, for time and 
 eternity, holding fast the faithful sayings : " If we be dead with 
 Him, we shall also live with Him ; if we suffer, we shall also 
 reign with Him ; if we deny Him, Pie will also deny us." And 
 surely it is most meet that we should devote ourselves entirely 
 to Him, who devoted Himself entirely for us ; that we should at 
 all hazards, by an honest profession and corresponding conduct, 
 confess Him, who made a good confession before Pontius Pilate, 
 and who has promised, if we confess Him before men, to con- 
 fess us before His Father and the holy angels. 
 
 While there is a peculiar propriety and beauty in these 
 words as addressed to the Plebrew Christians, in their substance 
 they are thus applicable to Christians in every country and age. 
 Christian faith and duty are unchanged, unchangeable. All 
 who by faith have feasted on the great atoning sacrifice, are 
 bound by duty and gratitude to submit cheerfully to all the 
 reproach and suffering that may be involved in an open pro- 
 fession of attachment to Him, at once the Priest and the victim, 
 and a regular observance of all Plis ordinances. It is their duty 
 to renounce the world as a portion, and all that is in it. Even 
 their lawful enjoyments are not to be clung to, when these come 
 in competition with their adherence to Christ. We are not, as 
 has been justly remarked, to steal out of the camp or city, 
 but we are boldly to go forth. We are distinctly, in word and 
 in deed, to say, We are not of the world, as He was not of the 
 world. It was the icorld that murdered our Lord; and the 
 
THE CHRISTIAN ALTAR. 407 
 
 world lias not changed its character. Shall we not leave them 
 and go to Him, though on His cross ? There He is, cast out of 
 the holy city, as unworthy even to die within its walls ! But 
 who is this hanging on the tree of shame and agony ? A man 
 approved of God — the Holy One and the Just. And He is 
 wounded for our transgressions, He is bruised for our iniquities. 
 He is undergoing the chastisement of our peace. He has borne 
 our sins, our liabilities, in His body to that tree ; and He will 
 leave them there, no more to burden either Him or us. Shall 
 we then seek to secure and enjoy the wealth, and honours, and 
 pleasures of the world, by remaining among His murderers ? 
 Shall we not leave the city, and take our place by the Saviour's 
 cross ? Would it be anything unreasonable that, in support of 
 His cause, we should be required to be crucified for Him who 
 was crucified for us ? Our hearts are not in the right place if 
 we are not prepared for this, should this be required of us. 
 
 The period for exertion and suffering in His cause will soon 
 be over. Here we have no continuing city ; this is not our 
 home. But we have a home. He has prepared for us a city — a 
 stable residence, where we shall dwell for ever with Him. Let 
 us be habitually seeking that city to come. It has foundations, 
 and its builder and maker is God. Strengthened by the spiri- 
 tual provision of which we have been discoursing, let us prose- 
 cute our pilgrimage, leaving every day the world, the city of 
 destruction, more and more behind us, and drawing nearer and 
 nearer that city of the living God of which we have become 
 denizens — the citizens of no mean city, the freedom of which 
 has been obtained for us at great price, not of corruptible 
 things, as silver and o;old, but of blood — the blood of a sacrifice 
 — the sacrifice of the Son of God. And while moving onward 
 and upward, let us through Him, our great High Priest, Avho 
 offered for us Himself as the great, the only efficacious, atoning 
 sacrifice, offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the 
 fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name ; and in the ordinary- 
 duties of life, as well as" in the solemn ordinances of religion, let 
 us present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to 
 God. This is reasonable service. This is rational worship. 
 
DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 
 
 Heb. xiri. 20, 21. — " Now the God of peace, that brought again from 
 the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to 
 do His will, working in you that which is well -pleasing in His sight, 
 through Jesas Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 It has often been remarked, that one of the best methods that 
 a teacher of morals can adopt for securing the desired practical 
 effect of his instructions on the conduct of others, is to exemplify 
 them in his own. Recommendations, however urgent, are not 
 likely to be complied with, or indeed attended to, which are 
 habitually disregarded by him who gives them. On the other 
 hand, exemplified precept is calculated to serve the double pur- 
 pose of direction and of motive. We find the Apostle adopt- 
 ing this plan, with reference to the duty of mutual intercession, 
 in the passage which now lies before us for illustration. He 
 had just been requesting an interest in the prayers of the 
 Hebrew Christians : " Brethren, pray for us ;" and he imme- 
 diately proceeds to show that they had an interest in his. He 
 asks them to do nothing for him, but what he himself does for 
 them. He requests from them only what he was ready to give 
 to them. It is as if he had said, ' Brethren, pray for me : I 
 pray for you.' And what is his prayer ? It is a brief, but a 
 most comprehensive one. " Now the God of peace, who 
 brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shep- 
 herd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, 
 make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working 
 in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus 
 Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 This sublime prayer, which is to form the subject of our 
 
410 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 discourse, well deserves, and will richly reward, our most con- 
 siderate attention. It is full of instruction — full of consolation. 
 " A glorious prayer it is," says Dr Owen, " enclosing the whole 
 mystery of divine grace in its original, and in the way of its 
 communication by Jesus Christ." It divides itself into three 
 parts, to which, in succession, your attention shall be directed : 
 The ADDRESS ; the petition ; the doxology. The prayer is 
 addressed to God, the only proper object of prayer, as " the 
 God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord 
 Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of 
 the everlasting covenant." The petition presented to this God 
 of peace is, that He would make the Hebrew Christians " per- 
 fect in every good work to do His will, working in, them that 
 which was well-pleasing in His sight, through Christ Jesus." 
 And the doxology is contained in these words : " To whom be 
 glory for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 I. Let us then, in the first place, consider the address of 
 the prayer, or, in other words, inquire into the import of the 
 appellation here given to the great object of prayer, — " The 
 God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord 
 Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of 
 the everlasting covenant." 
 
 Before, however, we enter on this inquiry, it will be proper 
 that we endeavour to settle a question respecting the proper 
 construction of the clause, " through the blood of the everlast- 
 ing covenant," the determination of which materially affects 
 the meaning of the passage. These words may be connected 
 with the clause, " brought again from the dead," or with the 
 dignified title here given to our Lord — " the great Shepherd of 
 the sheep ;" or finally, with the prayer that God would make 
 the Hebrew Christians " perfect in every good work to do His 
 will." A good sense may be brought out of the words accord- 
 ing to any of these modes of connecting them. In the first 
 case, they, teach us that it was in consequence of, in reward of, 
 our Lord Jesus shedding His blood, as the sacrifice by which 
 the everlasting covenant was confirmed, that God raised Him 
 from the dead. In the second case, they teach us that our Lord 
 became the great Shepherd of the sheep by the shedding of 
 this blood of the everlasting covenant. And in the third case, 
 they teach us that the perfecting men in every good work to do 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 411 
 
 God''s wni, — i.e., all divine influence and operation necessary to 
 the sanctification of men, — are the result of the sheddinir of this 
 blood. These are three important truths, all of them clearly 
 revealed in other portions of the New Testament revelation. 
 Looking merely at the words of the original, I would be disposed 
 to say that the last mode of interpretation is the least probable, 
 if not altogether inadmissible ; and that, of the two others, the 
 second seems at first siWit the more natural mode of connectin<x 
 the clause, bringing out this idea, that Christ became the great 
 Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant ; 
 that is, in plain words, that He obtained for Himself that pe- 
 culiar property in, and supreme authority over, the Church of 
 redeemed men, which is indicated by the appellation — " the 
 great Shepherd of the sheep." Yet when I consider, that though 
 it is most true that Christ purchased the Church with His own 
 blood, and was exalted in consequence of His expiatory suffer- 
 ings as Head over all things to His body, which is the Church, 
 " the fulness of Him who filleth all in all," He yet in the days 
 of His flesh takes to Himself the appellation of the Good 
 Shepherd, and that it was as the Good Shepherd — in the dis- 
 charge of the duties rising out of this character — that He laid 
 down His life for the sheep, it appears to me more probable 
 that it is the first method of connectino; the clause which brino-s 
 out the Apostle's true meaning ; and that he intends to repre- 
 sent our Lord's resurrection from the dead as havino; been 
 effected by the God of peace through the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant. What is the precise import, will, we trust, 
 become apparent in the course of our illustrations. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to settle the question of construc- 
 tion, let us now proceed to the exposition of the appellation 
 here given to the object of prayer. In order to bring out dis- 
 tinctly the different thoughts in their natural connection, con- 
 tained in such a complicated form of expression as that now 
 before us, it is often found advisable to reverse, or at any rate 
 considerably to alter, the order in Avhich they stand. The fol- 
 lowing are the thoughts involved in these words, in what ap- 
 pears to be their natural order : — Jesus Christ our Lord is the 
 great Shepherd of the sheep. As the gi'eat Shepherd of the 
 sheep, He submitted to death. As the great Shepherd of the 
 sheep, He has been brought from the dead by God. When 
 
412 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 God brought Jesus Christ, as the great Shepherd of the sheep, 
 from the dead, He did so through the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant. In bringing Jesus Christ our Lord, as the great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, from the dead through the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant, God acted as the God of peace. And 
 finally, it is to God, as having manifested Himself to be the 
 God of peace by bringing again from the dead our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant, that the Apostle addresses his prayers in 
 behalf of tlie Hebrew Christians. These are the traths involved 
 in this appellation, and this seems to be their natural order. Let 
 us endeavour shortly to illustrate them. They embody in them 
 much that is most important and peculiar in the wondrous eco- 
 nomy of human redemption. 
 
 I remark, then, in the first place, these words Intimate 
 that our Lord Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep. Here 
 three questions meet us. Who are the sheep — what class of 
 persons is described under this figurative denomination ? what 
 is to be understood by our Lord Jesus being their Shepherd ? 
 and what is to be understood by His being their great Shepherd ? 
 
 To the first of these questions — Who are the sheep? — a 
 most satisfactory answer may be found in the words of our 
 Lord, in the tenth chapter of the Gospel by John, from the 
 11th to the 30th verses, which you will do well to read care- 
 fully in your retirement. The sum of our Lord's statement is, 
 that the sheep are those whom the Father hath given Him, both 
 Jews and Gentiles, — for whom He laid down His life, — who 
 hear His voice, and follow Him, — to whom He gives eternal 
 life, and who shall never perish, for none can pluck them out of 
 His or His Father's hand. They are plainly that innumerable 
 multitude, out of every kindred, and people, and tongue, and 
 nation, whom He redeems to God by His blood, — the same 
 class of persons who, in the previous part of this Epistle, are 
 represented as the heirs of salvation, — the many children to be 
 brought to glory by the Captain of their salvation being made 
 perfect through suffering, — the holy brethren of the Messiah, to 
 be presented by Him to His Father and their Father, — the par- 
 takers of the heavenly calling, — they that, through believing, 
 do enter into the promised rest of God, — partakei's of Christ, — ■ 
 the heirs of the promise, — they that are called, — they that come 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 413 
 
 to God by Christj — the sanctified ones, by the offering of the body 
 of Christ once for all, — those who have received a kingdom that 
 cannot be moved. The sheep is just another name for genuine 
 Christians — Christians not in profession, but in reality possess- 
 ing the peculiar privileges and distinguished by the peculiar 
 character of Christians, — viewed as separated from the great 
 body of mankind, and placed under the peculiar care of Christ, 
 as their Shepherd. 
 
 We are now naturally led to inquire, What is meant by His 
 being represented as the Shepherd of this flock ? Many learned 
 interpreters have considered the figurative expression. Shep- 
 herd, as intended chiefly, if not solely, to convey the idea of 
 teacher, or instructor. This is, however, a mistake. If this 
 idea be intended, as I do not doubt it is, it is a subordinate 
 one. The word Shepherd, when used figuratively, either in the 
 Old Testament or in the New, denotes one who presides over a 
 collection of people, — who governs, guides, and protects them, — 
 a leadei", a guardian, a defender, a chief, a king. David's being 
 raised to the supreme government of the Israelitish people is 
 represented as his being made their shepherd. " He chose 
 David also, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds : from 
 following the ewes great with young. He brought him to feed 
 Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he fed them 
 according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the 
 skilfulness of his hands." In the First Epistle of Peter, ch. ii. 
 25, shepherd and bishop, i.e., overseer, are used as synonymous 
 expressions of our Lord, — " the Shepherd and Bishop of our 
 souls." The thought intended to be conveyed is this : He is 
 placed over them for the purpose of doing everything that is 
 necessary to obtain and secure their happiness. It is just a 
 figurative expression, intended to express some of the inex- 
 haustible meaning that is contained in the literal expression, 
 Saviour. 
 
 But our Lord is not only termed the Shepherd, but " that 
 great Shepherd of the sheep." We come now to inquire. What 
 is the meaning of that appellation? Our Lord may receive this 
 title to distinguish Him from all others who receive it, just as He 
 is termed the King of kings and the Lord of lords ; or to mark 
 Him as the official superior of all those who, in His Church, re- 
 ceive the name of shepherd or pastor, — in which case the appella- 
 
414 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 tlon is equivalent to that used by Peter in the 5th chapter of 
 his First Epistle — the Chief Shepherd; or the epithet, great, is 
 used to mark His transcendent personal dignity, as when it is 
 said, We have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God. I 
 am strongly impressed with the conviction, that, both in the ex- 
 pression before us, and in our Lord's own declaration, I am the — 
 or that — good Shepherd, there is a reference to those Old Testa- 
 ment predictions in which the Messiah is promised under the 
 character of a Shepherd, a good Shepherd, a great Shepherd. 
 The following are specimens of the predictions I refer to : 
 " O Thou that bringest good tidings to Zion, get Thee up into 
 the high mountain : O Thou tliat bringest good tidings to 
 Jerusalem, lift up Thy voice with strength ; lift it up, be not 
 afraid : say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God ! Be- 
 hold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm 
 shall rule for Him ; behold, His reward is with Him, and His 
 work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd : 
 He shall gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in 
 His bosom, and gently lead the ewes with the young. Thus 
 saith the Lord God, I will take the children of Israel from 
 among the heathen. I will make them one nation, and one 
 king shall be king to them all. David My servant shall be 
 king over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd." The 
 full import, then, of the appellation, " Our Lord Jesus, that 
 great Shepherd of the sheep," is, Jesus our Lord is the divine 
 Saviour of the spiritual people of God, promised to the fathers. 
 I remark in the second place : The words before us intimate 
 that our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, submitted 
 to death. This is not indeed stated in so many words, but it is 
 plainly implied, both in the phrase, " He brought Him again 
 from the dead," and in that other, " through the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant." He submitted to death, and He submitted 
 to death as a victim. His blood was the blood of an expiatory 
 sacrifice — blood shed to ratify a covenant of peace or reconcilia- 
 tion. The good Shepherd had power to lay down His life, and 
 He actually did lay it down for the sheep. All we, like sheep, 
 had gone astray ; we had turned every one to his own way ; 
 and the Lord laid on Him the iniquities of us all. Exaction 
 was made, and He became answerable ; and He was wounded 
 for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities ; and the 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 415 
 
 chastisement of our peace was on Him, and by His stripes we 
 are healed. He died, the just in the room of the unjust. He 
 poured out His soul unto death, in making Himself a sacrifice 
 for sin. But, as the good, great Shepherd laid down Plis life in 
 the room of His sheep in order to save them, in obedience to the 
 will of Plis Father, so Pie laid it down that He might take it 
 again. It was not possible that He should continue bound by 
 the fetters of death. 
 
 This leads me to remark, in the third place, that the words 
 before us intimate that God brought this great Shepherd of the 
 sheep, when He had died, again from the dead. These words 
 represent our Lord's resurrection as the work of divine power. 
 No power inferior to Omnipotence could have accomplished it. 
 The question of the Apostle to king Agrippa, " Why should it 
 bethought an incredible thing that God should raise the dead?" 
 seems plainly to imply, that it might well be accounted an in- 
 credible thing that any one else should. The resurrection of 
 our Lord is sometimes spoken of as His own work. Destroy 
 this temple, said He to the Jews, speaking of the temple of His 
 body, and in three days I will raise it up again. As the Father 
 raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son 
 quickeneth whom He will. I have power to lay down My life, 
 and I have power to take it again. Such declarations will not, 
 however, appear to be in any degree inconsistent Avith the state- 
 ment made in the passage before us, to any one who understands 
 the fundamental principles of the great divine economy of 
 human redemption. In that economy the Father is the repre- 
 sentative of divinity, the sustainer of its majesty, the vindicator 
 of its rights. The Son acts in a subordinate character. What- 
 ever He says. He says in the name of the Father ; whatever He 
 does. He does by the power of the Father. The Father who 
 dwelleth in Him, He doeth the works. When He Avas raised 
 from the dead, He was raised by the power of the Father, that 
 is, by the power of God. 
 
 But the words before us do not bring the resun'cction of 
 our Lord before our minds so much as an exertion of divine 
 power as the administration of divine righteousness. The re- 
 surrection of our -Lord is the great manifestation of the entire 
 satisfaction of Jehovah, as the supreme Governor, with the death 
 to which He had submitted as the victim of human guilt. For 
 
416 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 I proceed to remark, in the fourth place, that these words inti- 
 mate, that when God brought again from the dead our Lord 
 Jesus as the great Shepherd of the sheep, who had laid down 
 His life for the sheep, it was " through the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant." 
 
 The covenant here referred to, is vmdoubtedly that divine 
 constitution or arrangement by which spiritual and eternal 
 blessings are secured for the guilty and depraved children of 
 men through the obedience unto death of the incarnate Son of 
 God. Of this constitution or covenant we have a clear, though 
 brief account, in the close of the 53d chapter of the prophecies 
 of Isaiah. " When He shall have made His soul an offering 
 for sin. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and 
 the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall 
 see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied : by His 
 knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many ; for He 
 shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a por- 
 tion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the 
 strong ; because He hath poured out His soul unto death : and 
 He was numbered with the transgressors ; and He bare the sin 
 of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." 
 
 This covenant is called the everlasting covenant, to distin- 
 guish it from the other covenants or arrangements made by 
 God, and especially from that covenant or arrangement made 
 with the Israelites at Mount Sinai, and which, as it directly re- 
 ferred to temporal blessings, was intended only for temporary 
 duration. This new covenant is never to give place to any 
 other. It is an everlasting covenant, securing eternal blessings. 
 The blood of this covenant, is the blood of the sacrifice by which 
 this covenant was ratified. In the 9th chapter of this Epistle 
 the Apostle shows, that in all covenants or arrangements made 
 by God for conferring blessings on fallen man, there has always 
 been an assertion of His rights as the just and holy moral 
 Governor of the world, and that the form this assertion has uni- 
 formly taken, has been that of the death of a propitiatory 
 victim, and that the dignity of the victim necessarily bare a 
 proportion to the value of the benefits secured by the covenant. 
 The blood of animal propitiatory victims confirmed the first 
 covenant. The blood of the incarnate Only-begotten of God 
 confirmed the second — the new and better covenant. That is— 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 417 
 
 The obedience to death of the incarnate Son of God, as tlie sub- 
 stitute of sinners, makes it consistent with, aye, illustrative of, 
 the divine holiness, and justice, and faithfulness, as well as 
 goodness, to bestow pardon on the guilty, and salvation on the 
 lost children of men, believing in Jesus. 
 
 The resurrection of our Lord is represented as the result of 
 this shedding of His blood, by which the everlasting covenant 
 was confirmed. He was brought again from the dead by the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant. His obedience to death was 
 the procuring cause of His own resurrection, as well as of the 
 salvation of His people. The Father loved the Son — had entire 
 complacency in Him — because, in compliance with His will. He 
 had laid down His life for the sheep ; and raising Him from 
 the dead was the appropriate manner of manifesting this com- 
 placency. Because He humbled Himself to death to do the 
 will of God, in making expiation for the sins of men, and thus 
 confirmed the holy covenant, God highly exalted Him ; and as 
 the first step of this high exaltation, brought Him again from 
 the dead. It is substantially the same thought (though the con- 
 nective particle is different) which is expressed, chap, ix., when 
 Christ is said to have " entered into the true holy place by His 
 own blood." 
 
 I proceed to remark, in the fifth place, that the words before 
 us intimate, that in bringing again our Lord Jesus, as the great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, from the dead by the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant, God acted as "the God of peace." This ap- 
 pellation of the Divinity is peculiar to the Apostle Paul, and 
 occurs frequently in his writings. " The God of peace be with 
 you all." "The God of peace shall bruise Satan luider your 
 feet." " Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always, 
 by all means." The word, peace, is often used as equivalent to 
 prosperity, happiness in general ; and the appellation, the God 
 of peace, may be considered as equivalent to — the God who 
 is the Author of happiness. The proper signification of the 
 word peace, is reconciliation, and the tranquillity and happiness 
 which is the result of reconciliation ; and there can be little 
 doubt that it has its primaiy and proper signification here. 
 The God of peace, or reconciliation, is synonymous with the 
 pacified, the reconciled Divinity. It is just of the same import 
 as the more fully expressed character of God given us by the 
 VOL. II. 2 D 
 
418 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 Apostle in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians : "God was 
 in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing to 
 us our trespasses ; for He hath made Him who knew no sin to 
 be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God 
 in Him." 
 
 God was displeased with man on account of sin ; He was 
 angry at him. That is, in plain words, not only was man the 
 object of His moral disapprobation, but, in the oi'dinary course 
 of things, man's final happiness was inconsistent with the honour 
 of the character of God as the wise and righteous Governor of 
 the world, and — what is but another way of expressing the same 
 trath — with the principles of His moral administration, and the 
 happiness of His intelligent subjects generally. This incom- 
 patibility could be removed only by some display of the divine 
 displeasure at sin, and of the righteousness and reasonableness 
 of the law which man had violated, fully equivalent in moral 
 influence to that which would have been given if the condemn- 
 ing sanction of the law had been allowed to take its course in 
 reference to the offenders. Such a display has been found in 
 the substituted obedience and sufferings of the incarnate Son. 
 These have magnified the law, and made it honourable. God 
 is now just and the justifier of the ungodly, united to Jesus by 
 believing in Him — the just God and the Saviour. His right- 
 eousness is declared in His Son being set forth a propitiation in 
 His blood. And the first display, and the satisfactory proof, 
 that God is now the God of peace, is His raising His Son, our 
 Surety, from the dead, and giving Him all power in heaven and 
 earth, that He may give eternal life to as many as the Father 
 hath given Him. 
 
 It is finely said by that master in Israel, Dr Owen, " The 
 well-spring of the wdiole dispensation of grace lies in the bring- 
 ing again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting cove- 
 nant. Had not the will of God been fully executed, atonement 
 made for sin, the Church sanctified, the law accomplished, and 
 the threatenings satisfied, Christ could not have been brought 
 from the dead. The death of Christ, if He had not risen, 
 would not have completed our redemption. We should have 
 been yet in our sins ; for evidence would have been thus 
 given that atonement was not made. The bare resurrection 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 419 
 
 of Christ, or the bringing Him again from the dead, would 
 not have saved us, for so any man may be raised by the 
 power of God ; but the bringing of Christ again from the 
 dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant, is that which 
 gives assurance of the complete redemption and salvation of the 
 Church." 
 
 I have only further to remark, in the sixth place, that the 
 words before us intimate, that it is to God, manifested as the 
 God of peace, the pacified Divinity, by bringing again from the 
 dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant, that the Apostle addresses 
 bis prayers in behalf of the Hebrew Christians. Indeed, this 
 is the only character in which the Divinity can be rationally 
 addressed in the way of petition by sinful men for sinful 
 men. Who durst go to God, and ask Him to deny Himself by 
 violating His word ? And this must every man do who goes to 
 God for pardon, apart from the atonement made by the incar- 
 nate Son. Without a reference to that atonement which was 
 completed in His death, and the perfection of which is demon- 
 strated by His resm'rection, no spiritual and saving blessing can 
 be reasonably expected by sinners from Him who is glorious in 
 holiness, and who can by no means clear the guilty. But from 
 the pacified Divinity declaring, by the resurrection of His Son, 
 who died, the just in the room of the unjust, that as it was our 
 offences that caused His death, so, that which secured His resur- 
 rection was the laying of a foundation for our justification, — it 
 is rendered certain that whosoever by faith becomes connected 
 with Him cannot perish, but must have everlasting life. To 
 him in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation, — to him in Christ 
 Jesus there is the salvation that is in Christ, with eternal glory ; 
 and God, who is rich in mercy, through the channel of His 
 Son's atonement, can, in perfect consistency with His righteous- 
 ness, for the great love wherewith He loved us, bless us with all 
 heavenly and spiritual blessings in Christ. In this character we 
 may all come near to Him, and ask for ourselves and others 
 every blessing we need, for time and for eternity. In the faith 
 that God is the God of peace, and has proved Himself to be so, 
 we may come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help us in the time of need. Christ 
 died ; Christ rose again ; Christ sits at the right hand of God, 
 
420 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 making intercession for us. God is well pleased for His right- 
 eousness' sake, and has showed that He is. He is well pleased 
 with Him — well pleased with us coming to God through Him. 
 So much for the address of the Apostle's prayer. 
 
 Such is the import of the appellation here given to God, the 
 great object of worship : The God of peace, who brought 
 again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that gi'eat Shepherd of the 
 sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant. 
 
 It is my purpose now, somewhat more briefly, in the remain 
 ing part of this discourse, to illustrate the other two topics 
 suggested by the text, — the Apostle's petition and doxology. 
 
 II. I proceed, therefore, in the second place, to call your 
 attention to the Apostle's petition. He prays the God of peace 
 that He would make the Hebrew Christians " perfect in every 
 good work to do His will, working in them that which is well- 
 pleasing in His sight, through Christ Jesus." The prayer, 
 when looked at attentively, will be found to resolve itself into 
 two petitions: — the one referring to an end — the making of them 
 perfect in every good work, to do the will of the God of peace ; 
 the other referring to the means by which this end was to be 
 accomplished — the God of peace working in them that which is 
 well-pleasing in His sight. Let us attend to these petitions in 
 their order. 
 
 The first petition is, that the God of peace Avould make the 
 Hebrew Christians " perfect in every good work to do His will." 
 The natural meaning of these English Avords is, ' May the God 
 of peace make you perfect, that, being thus made perfect, yovi 
 may in every good work do His will,' — a prayer which will 
 assuredly be answered in reference to all the sheep of the great 
 Shepherd, but not till they are brought into His heavenly fold. 
 But this does not seem to be the Apostle's meaning. He is 
 praying for something which he wishes to be immediately con- 
 ferred on the Hebrew Christians. 
 
 The force of the petition will become apparent, if we attend 
 to the meaning of the word rendered " make perfect." That 
 word properly signifies, to put a thing into proper order, so that 
 it may be fit for serving its purpose. The meaning will be 
 made plain by attending to the manner in which it is employed 
 in some other passages of Scripture Mhere it occurs. In Rom. 
 ix. 22, " the vessels of wrath" are said to be " fitted" — the same 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 421 
 
 Word used liere — " for destruction ;" i.e., prepared, made ready, 
 by their own self-depravation, for that state to which they are 
 doomed. They have made themselves fit for nothing else but 
 for destruction, — utterly unfit for any purpose but to be fuel for 
 the fire unquenchable. In Ileb. xi. 3, the worlds are said to 
 have been " framed" — the same word — " by the word of God ;" 
 that is, 2)ut in order, reduced into fit shape, from the formless 
 state in which these materials were called into being — without 
 form and void, — and prepared for the several purposes which 
 they were intended to answer. In Heb. x. 5, " a body" is said 
 to have been " prepai*ed" — the word before us — for our Lord, 
 referrino; to the formation of a human nature fitted to serve the 
 purposes of His mediation. In Gal. vi. 1, the spiritual are 
 called on to " restore'^ — the same word — the brother who has 
 fallen into a faidt; that is, to employ means for fitting him 
 again to perform his functions as a member of the body of 
 Christ. To refer only to one passage more : in Eph. iv. 12, 
 Christ, having ascended to heaven, is represented to have given, 
 among other gifts to His Church, " some teachers, for the per- 
 fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry ;" i.e., to put 
 in ordei', to prepare the saints, i.e., individual Christians, for 
 ministering to, for promoting the welfare of the body of Christ, 
 the Church at large. 
 
 The word seems used in the same, its ordinaiy meaning, in 
 the passage before us ; and the Apostle's prayer, in plain 
 English terms, is, ' that God, as the God of peace, would fit, 
 qualify, prepare the Hebrew Christians, for the great business 
 of their high and holy calling, " the doing of His will in every 
 good work.'" 
 
 We are all by nature utterly unfit for obeying the will of 
 God in any good work. We are not destitute, indeed, of any 
 physical faculty necessary for this pvu'pose. We have a mind 
 and a heart, we have head and hands, to serve Him in our 
 bodies and in our spirits, which are His. But all these are out 
 of order, unfit for tlieir proper purpose. In our natural state, 
 we do not know His will, and we have no desire to know it. 
 When urged on our attention, we discover a dislike to it, and 
 will not do it. God alone can put to rights this disorder. God 
 alone can make any man fit to do His will. And this is true 
 not only in reference to men in a state of unregeneracy ; it is 
 
422 ' DISCOUKSE IX. 
 
 equally true in reference to the most advanced Christian. It is 
 God who works in him hoth to will and to do. God hath made 
 us, says the Apostle, " ahle" i.e., qualified, fit ministers of the 
 New Testament ; and if any man is a strong, healthy, active 
 Christian, fniitful in every good word and Avork, it is because 
 He is God's workmanship, because God has made him fit for 
 doing His will in every good work. Left to himself, he would 
 not desire to do good ; and even were he desiring to do good, 
 evil would be present with him. We need not merely to be 
 once for all put to rights. There are disordering elements in 
 the most thoroughly renewed man. We must be kept in order 
 as well as put in order. Without God w^e can do nothing : our 
 sufficiency is of Him, of Him alone. 
 
 The Apostle's prayer is, that the Hebrew Christians may be 
 prepared to do the will of God, — i.e., to yield a cheerful obedi- 
 ence to the will of God, as made known in His written word 
 and by His providential dispensations ; denying ungodliness and 
 worldly lusts ; living soberly, righteously, and godly in His 
 world ; doing justly, loving mercy, walking humbly with God 
 in His commandments and ordinances ; in one word, actively 
 doing, and patiently suffering. His will. 
 
 The Apostle's prayer is a very extensive one. He wishes 
 not only that they may be prepared to do the will of God, but 
 prepared to do this will in every good work. His desire is, that 
 they may be "perfect in all the will of God," — " entire, Avanting 
 nothing." The will of God is our sanctification — our entire, 
 our complete sanctification — our sanctification " in the whole 
 man, soul, body, and spirit," — every word, every action, every 
 thought, every feeling, being brought into entire conformity 
 to the mind and will of God. The Apostle's prayer is, that 
 Christians may be enabled by God to " cleanse themselves from 
 all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and io perfect holi- 
 ness in the fear of God;" so that no demand of duty, however 
 heavy, no crisis of circumstances, however unexpected, may find 
 them unprepared, but that they may be ready to every good 
 work. 
 
 The second petition refers to the means by which this most 
 desirable end is to be accomplished. This preparation for doing 
 the will of God in every good work, is effected by God's "work- 
 ing in men that which is well-pleasing in His sight, by Jesus 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 423 
 
 Christ." " Out of the heart are the issues of life." If the 
 streams are to be clear, the fountain must be pure ; and if it is 
 defiled, it must be purified. External good works can be secured 
 only by internal good principles. In order to conformity to the 
 law of God in the life, there must be conformity to the will of 
 God in the heart. 
 
 "That which is well-pleasing in God's sight" in man, is 
 just a habitual mode of thinking and feeling in accordance with 
 God's mind and will. The man who thinks along with God, 
 wills along with God, chooses along with God, loves what God 
 loves, hates what God hates, seeks and finds enjoyment in that 
 in which God finds enjoyment, — that is the man who in his in- 
 ward part is well-pleasing in God's sight. God approves of. He 
 has complacency in, this state of mind and heart. It is His 
 own work ; and He sees it, He looks on it, contemplates it, and, 
 behold, it is very good. This state of mind is not natural to 
 man in his present state. God works in him this new and 
 better frame of thought and feeling. He gives the right mind 
 and the new heart. In the new creation, all things are of God. 
 He does not do this, however, miraculously, — making us imme- 
 diately, as by inspiration, at once, without the intervention of 
 means, to know and love Himself and His will. I do not 
 say that such a revolution in the inner man is impossible, 
 but I do say that it is not in this Avay that we are to expect 
 that God will " work in us that which is well-pleasing in His 
 sight." 
 
 In this matter He honours Plis own work ; He acts in ac- 
 cordance with the established laws of that intelligent and moral 
 nature which He has given us. In His word He has given us 
 a plain, well-accredited revelation of His mind. By the influ- 
 ence of His Spirit, which our depravity has rendered abso- 
 lutely necessary. He leads us to understand and believe that 
 revelation. The revealed mind of God being understood and 
 believed by us, in the degree in which it is so, becomes our 
 mind ; and our mind being brought thus into accordance with 
 God's mind, according to the constitutioii of our spiritual na- 
 ture, our will is brought into conformity with God's will. It is 
 thus that God, by His word and Spirit, " works in us that 
 which is well-pleasing in His sight." 
 
 It is plain from these remarks, that God's "working in us 
 
424 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 that which is well-pleasing in His sight," by no means makes 
 us the mere passive subjects of His operation — entire recipients, 
 in no sense agents. Christians (I am speaking, not of the 
 origin, but the progress of inward sanctification) must study the 
 Holy Scriptures, and accompany their study of the Scriptures 
 with fervent believing prayer for that divine influence without 
 which these Scriptures, given though they be by inspiration of 
 God, never are savingly understood and really believed. While 
 Ave thus use the means — and we act like madmen if we do not 
 vise them, diligently and perseveringly use them — and look for 
 the appropriate result, we are never to forget that Plis working 
 in us is necessary in order to our either willing or doing ; and 
 when the use of the means are effectual, and we are enabled to 
 walk at liberty, keeping His commandments, serving Him with- 
 out fear, in righteousness and holiness, let us give to Him, as is 
 most meet, all the glory, saying, It is not I that live, it is 
 Christ that lives in me. It is not I who work, but He, working 
 in me, by me ; not I, but the grace of God that was in me. He 
 works all our works in us. 
 
 The expression, " by Christ Jesus," admits of a twofold 
 connection, and, of course, of a twofold explication. It may 
 either be connected with the phrase, " that which is well-pleas- 
 ing in His sight," or Avith the phrase, " working in us." In the 
 first case, the sentiment expressed is, that whatever good is 
 wrought in the mind of man, is acceptable to God through 
 Christ Jesus. We owe to Him not only the pardon of our sins 
 and the sanctification of our natures, but we owe also the ac- 
 ceptance of our imperfectly sanctified natures and lives to His 
 mediation. We and our services are accepted in the Beloved. 
 God sees Christ Jesus in us, and is well pleased with us, be- 
 cause well pleased with Him. In the second case, the meaning 
 is, that all God's sanctifying operations on the mind of man, 
 while the Holy Spirit is the direct agent, are carried on with a 
 reference to the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is 
 no communication of sanctifying influence from the God of 
 peace but with a reference to the atonement and intercession of 
 our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the slieep. We are 
 washed, we are sanctified, in the name of our Lord Jesus, as 
 well as by the Spirit of our God. God is in Christ reconciling 
 the world to Himself ; and it is as the God of peace in Christ 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 425 
 
 tliat lie blesses us in Christ with all heavenly and spiritual 
 blessings. 
 
 III. The last topic suggested for consideration by the text 
 is the doxology with which the Apostle's prayer concludes, " To 
 whom be glory for ever." It is impossible, from the words or 
 their construction, to determine with absolute certainty whether 
 this asci'iption of divine honour refer to the God of peace or 
 to Jesus Christ. We know that both are worthy of eternal 
 honour and praise, and that both shall receive the eternal 
 honour and praise to which they are entitled. We find that 
 glory is ascribed to them both separately and conjointly. To 
 the Father separately: Phil. iv. 20, "Now unto God and our 
 Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen." To the Son 
 sejiarately : Kcv. i. 5, G, " Unto Flim that loved us, and washed 
 us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings 
 and priests unto God and His Father ; to Him be glory and 
 dominion for ever and ever. Amen." To the Father and the 
 Son conjointly: "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, 
 be unto Him that sitteth on the throric, and to the Lamb, for 
 ever and ever." 
 
 It appears to me, however, that though "Jesus Christ" be 
 the nearest antecedent, yet as "the God of peace" is directly 
 addressed, and chiefly spoken of, that the ascription of praise 
 ought to be considered as offered to Him. It is natural that 
 the doxology should be addressed to the same person as the 
 prayer. 
 
 " The bringing again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
 great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant," the blessing acknowledged, — and the preparing Chris- 
 tians to " do His will in every good work, by working in them 
 that which is well-pleasing in His sight," the blessing sought 
 for, — are themes worthy of the songs of eternity. In these dis- 
 pensations God displays a power and a wisdom, a holiness and 
 a grace, which richly deserve everlasting praise ; and as they 
 richly deserve, so shall they certainly receive it. The Apostle's 
 fervent Avish, in Avhich every loyal intelligence on earth and in 
 heaven will cordially acquiesce, shall be fully accomplished. 
 A song ever new shall be unceasingly raised by "the nations of 
 the saved" — a number without number — Avith sweet voices utter- 
 ing praise to the God of peace, who reconciled them to Himself 
 
426 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 by the blood of His Son, and declared the accomplishment of 
 this reconciliation by His glorious resurrection ; and who, by 
 the instrumentality of His word and the agency of His Spirit, 
 prepared them for doing His will in every good work, by work- 
 ing in them that which is well-pleasing in His sight. " Amen," 
 says the Apostle. Eternal, universal praise be to the re- 
 deeming God ! So it ought to be. O that it were so even 
 now ! So it shall be ere long, and so it shall continue to be for 
 ever. Who does not feel disposed to reiterate the Apostle's 
 expression of conviction, and desire, and faith — Amen and 
 Amen ! 
 
 Such is the prayer with which the Apostle closes his Epistle 
 to the Hebrew Christians. It is a prayer which all Christians 
 should habitually present to God for themselves and for each 
 other. It is a prayer which cannot be presented but by Chris- 
 tians. They only know God as the God of peace, the recon- 
 ciled Divinity — reconciled by the bloodshedding of the great 
 Shepherd, showing Himself reconciled in His resurrection from 
 the dead. Till men know God and Jesus Christ in these 
 characters, they cannot come to God by Christ — they cannot 
 come boldly to the throne of grace to seek spiritual and hea- 
 venly blessings, either for themselves or for others ; and it will 
 be in proportion to the firmness of their faith respecting the 
 completed and sealed reconciliation in the blood of the everlast- 
 ing covenant, that they will be desirous and hopeful of obtain- 
 ing, either for the one or the other, a personal interest in its 
 benefits. Let every Christian, then, present this petition for 
 himself. Let progressive holiness, the blessing here asked for 
 — holiness of heart and of life — be the great object of his desire 
 and pursuit. In our times there is a very eager thirst, indeed 
 a diseased appetite, for what is called comfort among professors 
 of Christianity ; — a very good thing if it rest on solid founda- 
 tions, and be obtained in the right way. Comfort is to be 
 sought in increased faith and holiness ; or rather, faith and 
 holiness are to be sought, and comfort, in the measure that 
 will do us good, will follow as a matter of course. That Chris- 
 tian enjoys the most comfort who thinks more of his duty than 
 of his comfort — more of God's glory than his own inward satis- 
 faction. Believe what God says — do what God commands, and 
 you will never want a due measure of comfort. Seek to grow 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 427 
 
 in faith — seek to grow in holiness : that is the way to secure that 
 the peace of God shall keep the heart and mind. Sensible at 
 once of the obligation that lies on him, to be perfect in all the 
 will of God, — of the close connection there is between his doing 
 the will of God and enjoying tokens of the favour of God, — 
 of his own utter incapacity to do God's will in every good 
 work — in any good work, and of the disposition of God to 
 give good gifts to them who ask them, let his prayer be : " O 
 that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes. Teach me 
 the way of Thy statutes. Enlarge my heart, that I may run in 
 the way of Thy commandments. Make me to go in the path 
 of Thy conmiandments. Hold Thou me up ; so shall I be 
 safe. Let Thine hand help me. And that it may be so, work 
 all my work in me. Work in me to will and to do of Thy 
 good pleasure. Incline my heart to Thy testimonies. Put 
 Thy law in my heart; write it on my inward parts. Make 
 Thy grace sufficient for me, and perfect Thy strength in my 
 weakness." 
 
 And let us remember that we are but mocking God in pre- 
 senting such supplications to Him for ourselves, if we are not 
 diligent in the use of all the means appointed by God for ob- 
 taining that preparation of the mind that is necessary for the 
 acceptable service of God. He who expects these blessings, 
 while neglectful of, or negligent in, the duties of reading the 
 word of God, meditation, careful observance of the dispensa- 
 tions of divine providence, and regular waiting on the instituted 
 public ordinances of divine worship, cherishes a presumptuous 
 expectation. He is like a man professing to have a great desire 
 to reach a particular place, who, though the road lies plain 
 before him, stands still or moves in an opposite direction. It 
 is in spiritual as in worldly aifairs. The hand of the diligent 
 makes rich ; the mere talk of the lips, however specious, tends 
 to j)overty. It is they who " wait on the Lord" in prayer, and 
 in the use of means, that " renew their strength." It is they 
 who "put on the whole armour prepared by God," and prove 
 it by habitual exercise, that will approve themselves good soldiers 
 of Jesus Christ, be made more than conquerors, and meet the 
 complacent smile and kind invitation of their Lord at last : 
 " Well done, good and faithful servant," thou hast done My 
 will ; enter into My joy. 
 
428 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 And while we present this prayer for ourselves as indi- 
 viduals, let us also present it for all our brethren in Christ 
 Jesus, How often did the Apostle show his love to his brethren 
 by praying for their progressive sanctification ! Let us imitate 
 his example. If we do not, is there not indicated either a 
 want of love for the brethren, or an unduly low estimate of the 
 value of spiritual blessings, or a deficiency in our confidence in 
 prayer, or rather in the Hearer of prayer, or something of all 
 these united ? Let us often " bow our knees unto the Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," the common Father of us all, for " the 
 whole family on earth called by the same name," that they 
 may be " filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by 
 Christ Jesus, to the praise and glory of God;" that they may 
 " walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in 
 every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God ;" and 
 that for this purpose they may be " strengthened with all might, 
 according to God's glorious power ;" that God may " work in 
 them, both to will and to do of His good pleasure;" that " the 
 very God of peace may sanctify them wholly, and preserve 
 their whole spirit and soul and body blameless unto the coming 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ;" that "the God of all grace may 
 make them perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle them ;" and 
 that " He who is able to keep them from falling may present 
 them faultless before the presence of His glory, Avith exceeding 
 joy." Such prayers for the brotherhood would bring down 
 blessings on om'selves. 
 
 And let us be encom'aged, in presenting such prayers for 
 ourselves and others, by remembering that God is the God of 
 peace — who was angry, but whose anger is turned away — and 
 who delights in bestowing benefits, especially spiritual benefits ; 
 that the blood of the covenant which sprinkles His throne is 
 of infinite atoning virtue ; that Christ, the great Shepherd of 
 the sheep, has laid down His life for us — has risen from the 
 dead — ever lives to make intercession — able to save to the 
 uttermost all coming to God by Him. With full assured faith, 
 and with confident hope, let us thus draw near to the throne of 
 grace, and ask these and all other heavenly and spiritual bless- 
 ings in the all-prevailing name. 
 
 And while we seek blessings, let us not neglect to render 
 praise. In all our prayers, as our Catechism teaches us, let us 
 
THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. 429 
 
 praise the great object of our worship, "ascribing kingdom, 
 power, and glory to Him." Let us declare our sense of His in- 
 finite excellence, and our desire that that excellence may be 
 universally perceived and felt, and worthily acknowledged by 
 all intelligent beings. And in testimony, equally of our confi- 
 dence that our prayers for ourselves and our brethren shall 
 be heard, and that our earnest desire that the universe may be 
 filled with His glory as the God of peace shall be fully gratified, 
 — let us say, Amex, Amex, and Amen. Nor let Christians, 
 when praying for themselves and one another, that God would 
 prepare them for doing His will in every good work, by work- 
 ing in them that which is well-pleasing in His sight, forget 
 those who still are what they once were — vessels " self-fitted for 
 destruction." He who has made you what you are, can create 
 them anew. He can make them, too, vessels fitted for glory. 
 He can arrest a man in the full career of rebellion, and convert 
 him into a loyal subject. He converted Saul the persecutor into 
 Paul the Apostle, and made him who seemed, if ever man did, 
 bent on fitting himself for destruction, " a chosen vessel to Him, 
 to bear His name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the chil- 
 dren of Israel." And what He has done, He can do. His jiower 
 and His grace are unchanged, unchangeable ; and the prayers 
 of the Church are one of the means to be employed for the 
 conversion of the world. Lift up, then, unceasing, ardent prayers 
 in behalf of your perishing brethren, who are every day becom- 
 ing fitter for destruction. Oh Thou who canst do all things ! 
 of these stones raise up children to Abraham. The valley is 
 full of bones — very many, very dry. But these dry bones can 
 live. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cause breath to 
 enter into them, and they shall live. But we, who by God's 
 mercy already live, must prophesy unto these bones, and must 
 say to the Spirit, Come ! come from the four winds, O Spirit, 
 and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. And as we 
 prophesy and pray, we have reason to hope that the breath 
 will come into them, and they shall live and stand up on their 
 feet, an exceeding great army — prepared by the God of peace, 
 who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, working in them that which is well- 
 pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ — prepared to do His 
 will in every good Avork — all ready to give glory for ever and 
 
430 DISCOURSE IX. 
 
 ever to their divine Benefactor. O that it were so ! "Our 
 Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thj king- 
 dom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For 
 Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. 
 Amen." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 I. 
 
 PRINCIPAL MATTERS. 
 
 Abel's sacrifice better than Cain's, ii. 
 40. 
 
 Abraham, the promise and oath to, 
 i. 313 ; his faith, ii. 55. 
 
 Altar, Christian, ii. 243, 399. 
 
 Angels called " spirits, and a flame of 
 fire," i. 52 ; "a little lower than," 
 the meaning of, 93 ; ministry of, 
 144 ; ministering spirits, 69 ; not 
 the objects of Christ's incarnation, 
 130. 
 
 Assurance of faith, ii. 8 ; of hope, i. 
 311. 
 
 Author of salvation, i. 258. 
 
 " Baptism and laying on of bands, 
 doctrine of," i. 279. 
 
 Barak's faith, ii. 127. 
 
 " Better things provided for Chris- 
 tians," what, ii. 387. 
 
 " Blood of Abel," ii. 203. 
 
 " Blood of the covenant," meaning 
 of, i. 418. 
 
 " Body, a, hast Thou prepared Me," 
 signification of, i. 441. 
 
 " Boldness to enter into the holiest," 
 the meaning of, i. 6. 
 
 Brotherly love, ii. 219. 
 
 " Built by God, all things," its im- 
 port, i. 163. 
 
 Christ, the Apostle and High Priest 
 of our profession, i. 150 ; addressed 
 as God, 54 ; brightness of God's 
 glory, and express image of His 
 person, 29 ; Creator, 60 ; counted 
 worthy of more glory than Moses, 
 ii. 161 ; entered into the holy place 
 by a greater and more perfect ta- 
 
 bernacle, 327 ; Forerunner, i. 327 ; 
 " Heir of all things," 25 ; a High 
 Priest, and great High Priest, 226 ; 
 who has passed through the hea- 
 vens, 228 ; who can sympathize, 
 231, ii. 288 ; without sin, i. 233 ; 
 such as became us, 353 ; iu heaven, 
 365 ; of a superior covenant, 867 ; 
 our High Priest, ii. 282 ; of good 
 things to come, i. 391, ii. 323 ; 
 " He learned obedience by the 
 things He suffered," what it means, 
 i. 249 ; made perfect by suffering, 
 108, 257 ; become the Author of 
 eternal salvation, ii. 318 ; a mer- 
 ciful and faithful High Priest, i. 
 135 ; obtained eternal redemption, 
 ii. 325 ; offered up prayers and 
 supplications in the days of His 
 flesh, 309 ; a Priest by divine ap- 
 pointment, i. 242 ; like unto Mel- 
 chisedec, 261 ; by an oath, 349 ; for 
 ever, 350 ; His priesthood similar 
 to Melchisedec's, a proof of sujje- 
 riority, 335 ; superior to the Levi- 
 tical, from the solemnity of its 
 institution, 345 ; more efficacious 
 than the Levitical, 398; He re- 
 ceived a more excellent ministry 
 than the angels, 39 ; His sacrijice 
 more efficacious than the Levitical, 
 ii. 341 ; offered tlirougli the Eter- 
 nal Spirit, 347 ; is the Captain of 
 salvation, i. 105 ; superior to the 
 angels, 36, 42 ; to Moses, 148 ; to 
 the Aaronical priesthood, 222 ; He 
 is a successful Priest, 248 ; by suf- 
 fering, brings many sons to glory, 
 146 ; suffering, being tempted, 138. 
 
432 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Christians, lioly brethren, and par- 
 takers of the heavenly calling, i. 
 
 152. _ 
 Chastening, not joyous, but grievous, 
 
 ii. 177. 
 " City which hath foundations," what 
 
 it is, ii. 59. 
 Cloud of witnesses, surrounded by, ii. 
 
 147. 
 Confidence, not to be cast away, ii. 
 
 31 ; of hope, 168. 
 " Conscience, evil, sprinkled from," 
 
 meaning of the expression, ii. 50. 
 Consuming fire, God is a, ii. 218. 
 " Country," meaning of the word, 
 
 ii. 65. 
 " Covenant, everlasting," ii. 416 ; 
 
 new, different from the old, i. 373 ; 
 
 old, what it had, 376. 
 Covetousness, the Scripture meaning 
 
 of, ii. 229. 
 
 David's faith, ii. 128. 
 
 " Dead works," the meaning of, i. 
 
 403. 
 " Death, the power of," its import, i. 
 
 126 ; of Christ, the extent of, 101 ; 
 
 and judgment, analogy between 
 
 men's and Christ's, 428. 
 Destroyer of the first-born, ii. 106. 
 " Divers doctrines," what these were, 
 
 ii. 240. 
 Doxology, ii. 425. 
 
 Epistle, author of, i. 5 ; canonicity, 
 8 ; interpretation, 9 ; language, 
 style, and place, 7 ; subject and 
 division, 8 ; to whom written, 6. 
 
 " End of the world," meaning of the 
 phrase, ii. 427. 
 
 Enoch's faith, ii. 45. 
 
 " Entrance into the holiest," signifi- 
 cation of, ii. 2. 
 
 Esau's finding no place of repentance, 
 ii. 190. 
 
 " Eternal Spirit," meaning of, i. 401. 
 
 Faith, the substance of things hoped 
 for, ii. 36. 
 
 " FaUing away, so as not to be re- 
 newed to repentance," in what 
 case, i. 289. 
 
 First principles of the doctrine of 
 Christ, what, i. 275. 
 
 Fear of entering into God's rest, in- 
 culcated, i. 200. 
 
 " Field often rained upon," what it 
 is, i. 299. 
 
 Gideon's faith, ii. 126. 
 
 " Grace given us," what it means, ii. 
 
 216. 
 " God of peace," the import of, ii. 
 
 417. 
 
 " Him that speaketh from heaven," 
 Avho, ii. 204. 
 
 Holiness, its proper meaning in Scrip- 
 ture, ii. 185. 
 
 Hope, an anchor of the soul, i. 320 ; 
 confidence of, 168 ; rejoicing of, 
 169. 
 
 Hospitality, duty of, ii. 224. 
 
 Incarnation of Christ, its design and 
 
 end, i. 124. 
 Isaac's offering up, ii. 67 ; blessing 
 
 Jacob and Esau, 75. 
 Israelitish history improved, i. 172. 
 
 Jacob's faith, ii. 80. 
 
 Jephthah's faith, ii. 128. 
 
 Jei-icho, the falling of its walls, ii. 
 
 117. 
 Jesus, the Author and Finisher of 
 
 our faith, ii. 159. 
 Joseph's faith, ii. 84. 
 
 " Ejngdom which cannot be moved," 
 what, ii. 213. 
 
 Law, the, a shadow of good things to 
 come, i. 432. 
 
 Levitical priesthood, its nature, de- 
 sign, and functions, i. 237 ; sacri- 
 fices efiicacious, ii. 338. 
 
 " Majesty in the heavens," meaning 
 
 of the phrase, i. 362. 
 Marriage honourable in all, ii. 227. 
 " Mediator of the new covenant," 
 
 meaning of, ii. 358. 
 Melchisedec, who and what he was, 
 
 i. 261 ; a type of Christ, in what 
 
 respects, 322. 
 ^Messiah, as promised, not a Levitical 
 
 l^riest, i. 343. 
 ^Icsos, faithful as a servant, i. 165 ; 
 
 faith, ii. 89 ; and Christ faithful 
 
 over their house, 165 ; parents, 
 
 their faith, 85. 
 Mount that might be touched, ii. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 192 ; Zion, the city of the living 
 God, 199. 
 
 Noah's faith, ii. 49. 
 
 " Obedience by the things He suf- 
 fered," learned by Christ, ii. 305 ; 
 to spiritual rulers, 257. 
 
 " Oracles of God," what are they? i. 
 266. 
 
 Passover, keeping of, ii. 105. 
 
 " Patience, running with," the mean- 
 ing of, ii. 153. 
 
 Patterns of things in the heavens, 
 what these wei'c, i. 420. 
 
 " Perfect, made," meaning of, ii. 145. 
 
 Perfection not by the Levitical priest- 
 hood, i. 337. 
 
 Postscript to the Epistle, ii. 273. 
 
 " Priest taken from among men," 
 meaning of, i. 239. 
 
 Profession, holding fast, ii. 296 ; our, 
 what the expression means, i. 154, 
 229. 
 
 Promise made to Israel conditional, 
 i. 193 ; of eternal inheritance, 411 ; 
 Gospel, its nature, 195 ; not re- 
 ceived, meaning of, ii. 140, 384. 
 
 Psalm Eighth, the bearing of it, as 
 quoted by the Apostle, i. 90. 
 
 Race, Christian, ii. 152. 
 
 Rahab's faith, ii. 122. 
 
 " Recompense of reward," meaning 
 
 of, ii. 95. 
 " Redemption of transgressions," 
 
 what the phrase means, i. 412, ii. 
 
 361. 
 Red Sea, passing through, ii. 111. 
 Repentance from dead works, wliat it 
 
 is, i. 277 ; no more, for those who 
 
 sin wilfully, ii. 16. 
 Reproach of Christ, what it means, 
 
 ii. 92. 
 Resemblance between Christ and 
 
 Moses, i. 158. 
 Rest of God, what it is not, i. 206 ; 
 
 left to the people of God under the 
 
 Gospel, 198 ; remaining, what it is, 
 
 208. 
 Rulers, Chmxh, to be remembered, ii. 
 
 234. 
 Revelation, the Jewish, described, i. 
 
 16 ; the Christian, described, 21. 
 
 Revelations, the two, contrasted, i. 
 15. 
 
 Sacrifice of Christ, ii. 253. 
 
 Salvation, the great, i. 76. 
 
 Samson's faith, ii. 128. 
 
 Samuel's faith, ii. 129. 
 
 " Sanctify," the meaning of the word 
 
 in the Epistle, ii. 22. 
 Sanctifier and sanctified, of one, i. 
 
 11,5. 
 " Shaking heaven and earth," the 
 
 meaning of, ii. 209. 
 Shepherd of the sheep, Christ, ii. 262, 
 
 412. 
 Short, coming, and seeming to come 
 
 short, meaning of, i. 199. 
 Sitting down at the right hand of 
 
 God, what it is, i. 11, 446. 
 " Slip, lest we let," meaning of the 
 
 phrase, i. 73. 
 Son of God, what it means, i. 22. 
 Spirit of grace, ii. 23. 
 Spirits of just men made perfect, ii. 
 
 202. 
 Superiority of Christ to angels, i. 37 ; 
 
 to Moses, 160 ; to Aaron, 224. 
 " Surety," the meaning of the word, 
 
 ii. 347. ' t 
 
 Tabernacle, first, what it means, i. 
 385 ; greater and more perfect, by 
 which Christ entered, 394. 
 
 Tasting of death, i. 101 ; of the good 
 word of life, 285. 
 
 Testament, Mediator of, the render- 
 ing of the word, i. 407. 
 
 Testator, meaning of the original 
 word so rendered, i. 414. 
 
 Throne of grace, what it means, i. 
 234 ; come boldly to, ii. 299. 
 
 Translations necessarily imperfect, ii. 
 354. 
 
 " Vail, tliat is to say, the flesh of 
 Christ," meaning of, ii. 3, 371. 
 
 Walking with God, what it means, 
 
 ii. 45. 
 Word of God, quick and powerful, i. 
 
 214 ; of righteousness, meaning of, 
 
 270. 
 " World to come," signification of the 
 
 phrase, i. 87. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 2 E 
 
AM 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 II. 
 
 GREEK WORDS AND PHRASES REMARKED ON. 
 
 Ayayoi/ra, i. 143. 
 
 AyysXoig, i. 17. 
 ' Kyyikog^ i. 37. 
 'Ay/a^£/v, 1, 114. 
 
 Ayia6[j.()\i, 11. 186. 
 ' Ayiov^ 1. 379. 
 'A5&x//xog, i. 301. 
 ' A&iTriSag^ \\. 19. 
 A/'wi', i. 26. 
 Aiuviov, 1. 401. 
 
 AX>]^/i/)^ xaphia^ ii. 7. 
 
 AXXa, i. 188. 
 
 AXikt/t-sXec, ii. 260. 
 
 AvaXoy'isaak, ii. 164. 
 
 AvaarrjSac^ i. 44. 
 
 A^arsraXjcsv, i. 341. 
 
 AvTiXoyia iic avrov, 11. 164. 
 
 Ai/T/Vjffa, i. 425. 
 
 Avoj, i. 324. 
 
 AvapdiSarog, i. 351. 
 
 AOT/^s/ac, i. 212. 
 
 A'Trl, i. 257. 
 
 AcToXE/VtT-a/, i. 211. 
 
 AToaroXov xa! ap^iipsa rrig o/JjO- 
 Xayiag rj/MUJV, l. 155. 
 
 Apx,r,y6g, i. 107 ; ii. 160. 
 
 Ap^Yjv AuBousa XaXs/ir^a/j i. 79. 
 
 Apyr^v Trig V'TTOffrdaBug, 1. 185. 
 
 Apyjipibg, i. 227. 
 
 AffrsTog, ii. 86. 
 Ai/ro 7-£ ro BS'kiov^ l. 418. 
 Auro'j, i. 446. 
 Ai/roD, 1. 32. 
 AuroD, 1. 82. 
 Ai/rw, i. 105. 
 ' A<paipsTv afxapTiacy i. 438. 
 'Aip.'ba/, i. 276. 
 ' A(pci}//jOiC))ijjivog, 1. 328. 
 
 BaSiXsiav TrapaXafMJSdvovTeg, 11. 
 
 214. 
 
 Bf/Sa/ai/, i. 170. 
 BXsVOfJ.iV, i. 97. 
 
 B^oi/iara, ii. 243. 
 
 rap, i. 88, 94, 161, 313, 353. 
 
 TiyovoTig^ i. 348. 
 Tiv6/j!,i\iog, i. 41. 
 TiUaSai, i. 101, 286. 
 r^, i. 298. 
 
 As, i. 55, 175, 232; ii. 228. 
 
 AedsKaTMrai, i. 334. 
 Asfffzloig, ii. 29. 
 Ati'tov, i. 130. 
 
 A/' avTou, 1. 33. 
 
 A/a fSpa^iuv, ii. 273. 
 
 A/' ^c, ii. 42, 48. 
 
 A/' rli/ /ca/ 5/' oi;, i. 28. 
 
 A/' o'^j, i. 299. 
 
 A/a 'Tra.drjfxdruv, i. 108. 
 
 A/d vavTog rov ^tJi/, i. 129. 
 
 A/d iriOTioig xa/ /Mazpo6v,'jjia,g, i. 
 
 311. 
 
 A/« 'TTVihfiaTog aiuiiou, i. 402. 
 A;d roc ^povov, 1. 266. 
 A/a^=//-si'oj, i. 408. 
 A/a();5?(?], i. 346, 407. 
 Aidzpiffiv xaXou ri xai xaxoD, l. 
 
 272. 
 
 Aidvoia, 1. 373. 
 
 Aox^^, i. 200. 
 
 Auvd/Mig, i. 288. 
 Auvd/jbsvov, i. 232. 
 Avvuffdai, i. 139. 
 A&j/3a, i. 240. 
 
 'F.avroi-g,i. 294 ; ii. 30. 
 'EavTO-jg, i. 182. 
 "£771/05, i. 347. 
 Eyyijg d(paviG[Mov, l. 374. 
 'EyEv^^jjcrai/, ii. 135. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 435 
 
 ^ Eyxs-KahigTaiy i. 417. 
 Eyu iffo>Ma,t auruj ug Tartpa zai 
 aiiTog 'israi imoi el; v'lov, i. 45. 
 "Edrixev, i. 25. 
 E/ 'zocidilav yTO/MsvEri, ii. 171. 
 
 Elg, i. 387; ii. 176. 
 Eig 7^v, ii. 57. 
 Elg Jj/Aocf, i. 81. 
 
 E7^^B, I 378. 
 
 'ETiddiSiv savTov, i. 34. 
 "EvXTiiav, ii. 135. 
 ExXuo'Msvoi, ii. 163. 
 ^E-/.(pipouc!a, i. 301. 
 'EXarrow, i. 91. 
 
 EXsTj/jiijv, i. 136. 
 
 "E/Madiv, s'7ra6iv, i. 249. 
 'E/i,T£(rr/i/ B/g Tag -^iTpag^ ii. 25. 
 ^ Eix<paviZ^oveiVy ii. 65. 
 'Eu, i. 17. 
 
 'Ei/ Tapa/3oX7J, ii. 71. 
 'Ey TO/; Trpopyiraig, i. 17. 
 'Ev u/ci7, i. 23. 
 'El/ oi,' i. 137, 316. 
 
 'Evo;>/og, i. 129. 
 'Eg bk -yafrfg, i. 115, 116. 
 ' E-'zayysXla, ii. 32. 
 E'lrayyOJa rr^g aiojvloD y.Xrjpovo- 
 
 fiiag, i. 411. 
 'E'jrayyeXiag ibovng^ ii. 64. 
 'E-te/ oux av, i. 436. 
 ^Exiipdo&TiGaVy ii. 138. 
 
 'EW, i. 166, 278, 338, 368; 
 ii. 7, 19. 
 
 E'3' sdydrou rojv ri/xipuv, 1. 21. 
 'Et/ vixpoTg, i. 408. 
 'E-T/%x/a, ii. 229. 
 
 E-TTr/csi/jbiva, i. 389. 
 'Eff/Xa^Or/Sai/Era;, i. 130. 
 'ET/frxoTOL/iTfc, ii. 189. 
 
 ET/o'ui'ayWy'jji', 11. 13. 
 "ET^£T£, i. 109. 
 
 "EoTjiJcg, i. 445. 
 EL/apsffT-oi' evoJ-TTiov avrov, ii. 270. 
 Etlxa/pof ^oyjSiiaVy i. 235. 
 Ei/XoyE/y, ii. 77. 
 Eu'Zipiararovy ii. 157. 
 
 "E;^^£ff^a/, i. 306. 
 
 "e^uv, i. 125. 
 
 ZuvTog, ii. 25. 
 
 'H /cara 'Trlanv dixaioauvrj, li. 53. 
 'H/xe/'s, ii. 151. 
 
 'HfieTg ouk h[i,iv urrooroX^j f/j 
 aTwXs/ai/, li. 35. 
 
 'H[/.uv, i. 16, 33. 
 
 "m, ii. 2. 
 
 ^Hf, i. 302, 308. 
 
 ©jpa-Toji', i. 165. 
 0u/Miar7}piov, i. 380. 
 Quelaiy i. 240. 
 
 'iXatfxso'^a/ rag d/u^apriagj l. 135. 
 'iXaarriptov, I. 234. 
 
 Ka^' Tl/Mipav, 1. 358. 
 
 Ka^' ofMiorrira, 1. 233. 
 
 Ka^' oVoi', i. 161. 
 
 KadapiSfjbhv TonTff^ai, 1. 33. 
 
 Kadapig/xog, i. 33. 
 
 Ka^oic, i. 205. 
 
 KaSijg sDog risiv, ii. 14. 
 
 Ka^wj Xeys/ ro Uvsu/mu To"Ayiovy 
 
 i. 172. 
 Ka/, i. 75, 165, 174, 175, 334. 
 
 Ka/ xar'ssrrjSag avrov Jr/ Ta spya 
 
 TUV yiip^'i ffOU, 1. 93. 
 
 Ka/ rpoyjdg op^dg 'iroiYisari roTg 
 
 vogiv v/xu)V^ 11. 181. 
 KaiTsp wv v'log, i. 252, 253. 
 Ka/ro/, i. 206. 
 KaXsTrai, i. 182. 
 KaXo\jfJi,Bvog ' A(3pad/J,y 11. 55. 
 Kapdia, i. 373. 
 Kapdici oc'T/ffr/as, 1. 177. 
 Kara xaipov, 1. 355. 
 Kara rh hoxoZv^ li. 175. 
 Kara^oXr, S'TripfxaToc, li. 62. 
 KaraXe/To/j!,£i'?;s STayysXlag, 1. 1 98. 
 Karai/o?5(ra7"£, i. 157. 
 Kara^ys/i', i. 128. 
 
436 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KaTapTi^siVy ii. 38. 
 KaTaaxo^oug, ii. 122. 
 Karsxpivi roi' xoff/xov, ii. 51. 
 Kalyjifia, i. 169. 
 KXjjpoi/o/xs/i'j i. 39. 
 KXripov6/j,og, i. 25. 
 Koff/A//coi', i. 378. 
 Kpar^gai, i. 320. 
 YiparujiMiVj i. 229. 
 Kpn'rToffi dvffiaig, i. 422. 
 Kr/V/s, i. 219. 
 
 AaXsT^, i. 16. 
 Aaijbj3dm\>, i. 244. 
 Aajj,^av6/j,svog, i. 239. 
 Aaoc, i. 135, 159. 
 Aarpivu;j,sv, ii. 217. 
 A£y£/, i. 49. 
 
 Asynv xara fispog, 1. 382. 
 AsiToupyog, i. 363. 
 Aoyixri Xarpiia, ii. 217. 
 Aoyog duffipfMyjvsvrog, i. 263. 
 Ao'yoj r^s dxoTig, i. 203. 
 
 MsyaXoiCui'Jij Ji/ j-4/>]>wO?j, l. 34. 
 Mf/i'>5 roc /x?5 ffaXsvofLsva, ii. 212. 
 
 Ms?vXoi-ra, i. 391, 432. 
 
 Mfcouoai', ii. 30. 
 Mspig/xoTg, i. 82. 
 Meravo/a, ii. 190. 
 Meroy^ovg, i. 58. 
 Msrp/o-aiJs/i/ Sui/a/xsfoj, i. 241. 
 Msypi 7iK0\)C^ i, 170. 
 "Mi^pig a'i/xarog, ii. 166. 
 Mri £x (patvofxsvMVy il. 39. 
 
 Nao'sj i. 159. 
 
 Nsas, ii. 203. 
 
 Ns^o; fjuapTvpc/iv, ii. 150. 
 
 NDv, i. 425. 
 'o 0£o$, i. 55. 
 
 O Xoyoc rrig opKuiMosiagj 1. 358. 
 "07x05, ii. 154, 155. 
 °o&sv, i. 134 ; ii. 71. 
 
 0/ d^ro TYig ^IraXiag, ii. 275. 
 
 0/ -ffiersugavTig, i. 204. 
 Olxovo/ila Tou irXripo^iMarog roov %at- 
 pojv, i. 22. 
 
 OlZOV/MSMTJ, i. 89. 
 
 Oixw a\jTO\Jy i. 159. 
 
 'o.,'i. 388. 
 
 ' Oviihsix,hg 701) Xpiarou, ii. 93. 
 'Ottcoc, i. 100. 
 
 'Opy^, i. 175. 
 
 'Opishig, i. 44. 
 'opui/x$v, i. 97. 
 "Orai/ ^2 'rdXiVy i. 47. 
 Ou /z.)^ — ojS' ou /Jj?i, ii. 231. 
 
 ii. 208. 
 Ou o/xoc, i. 167. 
 
 Oux i'xaisyJj'viTa.t^ i. 116. 
 
 oSi/, i. 185, 336 ; ii. 3. 
 naX/v, i. 47, 291. 
 
 Ildvra Ocrlra^aj, i. 94. 
 Ilapd, i. 41. 
 nap' a'jTovg, l. 39. 
 
 riapd Thv"Aj3iX, ii. 203. 
 
 napayEi/Ojasvos, i. 390. 
 TiapaTi'^rTiiv, i. 289. 
 IJttpa'jrXrisiooc, i. 122. 
 YlapappuufMiVy i. 74. 
 na/PovT-a, ii. 230. 
 UappriOia, i. 169. 
 TLuppTicIa iig, 11. 2. 
 UccTipig, ii. 85. 
 IlaT-j;/' 7011/ Ti'£u,adTwi', 11. 175. 
 
 nscTE/ff/ia/, i. 306. 
 
 TiB'Zoirixs, ii. 105. 
 
 n£ro/>3,aii'wv, ii, 211. 
 
 Ili~o'jQi iTfipashicj i. 138. 
 
 Tlipixiirai ds6i\isiav, l. 241. 
 
 UipiCSOTspoig, i. 71. 
 
 nlayi, i. 212. 
 
 n/ffrw, ii. 48. 
 
 li'iGTH fiiyag ysvofisiiog Mwuff^f 
 
 dvi7}.iVj x.r.X., ii. 89. 
 UtCTog, i. 136. 
 ^iXs/om, i. 162 ; ii. 40. 
 
 n>v£/OVO£, i. 161. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 437 
 
 nXsovi^ia, ii. 229. 
 Iiviv/xa, i. 37, 215. 
 
 HvnjfJjariKuc, ii. 199. 
 
 UoiiTv, i. 160. 
 
 IloXXoi, i. 429. 
 
 IloXu,u,spuig xui 'TroXvTpo'Trujg, l. 19. 
 
 Uou, i. 90. 
 
 Upsmt, i. 110. 
 UpialSuTspoi, ii. 38. 
 Up6dpo/x.o;, i. 321 ; ii. 5. 
 upog, i. 52, 55, 60 ; ii. 175. 
 UpoirsvrjvoyiVy ii. 71. 
 UpoalyjiVj i, 71. 
 Upuirri, i. 376. 
 npw7&Vo;coc, i. 49. 
 Uupog fiAoya, i. 52. 
 
 'P'/),«,a, i. 32. 
 
 ^al3t3ariaij,6g, i. 209. 
 
 Sapx/xTj;, i. 342. 
 
 2z/a, i. 365. 
 
 Itoi'/jjo, Trig apyTJg,, i. 267. 
 
 2i/yxsxpa,«,£';o?, i. 204. 
 
 liiVi'XliMapTUpS?^ 1. 82. 
 
 SuirlXs/a rwi' aiijjvu)v, l. 22. 
 2'^ryip!a., i. 78, 106, 143. 
 
 Ta Ta/3/a, i. 122. 
 
 Ta TCt-ira, i. 164. 
 
 Ta Tpos T-oi/ Qiov, i. 135, 240. 
 
 Tl, i. 285, 287. 
 
 TiXiiojv, i. 271. 
 
 TsXs/wrijc, ii. 160. 
 
 TfXsy-wi', ii. 84. 
 
 Ts'Ati tuv aluivuvj l. 22. 
 
 TeXos, i. 302. 
 
 T£;)^i'/Vj)5 xai drjiMiovpyog, ii. 61. 
 
 T^s ^o^vi, i. 29. 
 
 T/xT-ouffa, i. 299. 
 Ti/MTj, i. 243. 
 T/'/x/o; ydfjjog, ii. 227. 
 T/i/ss, i. 187. 
 
 Ti rrXripu/jLa roij ypovou, 1. 22. 
 
 To'i/, i. 48. 
 
 Tov rrjg apyr^g ro\i Xpiffroj Xoyov, I. 
 
 276. 
 
 Tov or/.ov, i. 162. 
 
 TOVTOJV, i. 21. 
 
 Tu/M'^ravov, ii. 136. 
 
 Tw TposuTTw rou 0£oD, i. 425. 
 
 Twi' aylcov, i. 363. 
 
 TWV ^^yOU/^CiVWl/ V/J,U)V, 11. 233. 
 
 *T^£/>, i. 215. 
 'T':r6diiy/j,a, i. 365. 
 ' T'^rofMovYi, ii. 32, 153. 
 •T(rr£f£/1/, i. 199, 200. 
 "fenpov, ii. 179. 
 "r-^iGTog, i. 325. 
 
 <l>spsiVy i. 31. 
 
 (t>iXapyvpia, ii. 229. 
 
 (!>o(3cpa s-/.hoyJi zpisiCijg, 11. 17. 
 
 <t>ol37^i3Sj,'Msv, i. 200. 
 
 <I>wi'?5 pri/xuTC/jVy 11. 205. 
 
 Xapax-TYip v-TToffraTixog, l. 30. 
 Xa^/i*, ii. 216. 
 Xa^/; ©sou, ii. 187. 
 Xupig, i. 431. 
 Xupig Qsov, 1. 103. 
 
 YriXatpco/xsvoj opu, ii. 192, 193. 
 Yu;^ry, i. 215. 
 
 ' nds fih, SKiT h's, 1. 332. 
 
 'rig i'TTOg il'TTiTv, 1. 335. 
 
 III. 
 
 AUTHORS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Abresch, i. 9, 37, 42, 81, 89, 116, 119, I Alexander (Dr W. L.), i. 21, 43. 
 129, 164, 165, 167, 169, 176, 205, Alleine, ii. 260. 
 206, 211, 222, 228, 283, 299, 387. | Anacreon, i. 298. 
 
438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Appian, i. 409. 
 Aquila, i. 55. 
 Aquinas, i. 155. 
 Athanasius, i. 44. 
 Athenseus, ii. 260. 
 Augustine, i. 44. 
 
 Basil, i. 30. 
 
 Bauldry, ii. 212. 
 
 Baumgarten, i. 6. 
 
 Bengel, i. 6, 33, 103, 166, 228, 358. 
 
 Bertholdt, i. 7. 
 
 Beza, ii. 39. 
 
 Bleek, i. 7. 
 
 Bloomfield, ii. 34. 
 
 Bohme, i. 9, 32, 294, 407 ; ii. 39, 62. 
 
 Braunius, i. 6, 9, 10. 
 
 Bretschneider, ii. 57. 
 
 Burmann, ii. 204. 
 
 Cajetan, i. 8. 
 
 Calraet, i. 380. 
 
 Calovius, i. 155. 
 
 Calvin, i. 48, 101, 201, 205, 212, 
 
 311; ii. 39, 225. 
 Camerariiis, i. 246. 
 Capellus, i. 9, 332 ; ii. 197. 
 Carpzov,i. 9, 90, 138, 163, 205, 211, 
 
 289, 338, 351, 422; ii. 15, 131, 
 
 151, 205, 208, 212, 230. 
 Catullus, ii. 94. 
 Chrysostom, i. 9, 23, 31, 107, 122, 
 
 139, 155, 157, 161, 376,417; ii. 
 
 39, 155, 250. 
 Cicero, i. 118, 268; ii. 160. 
 Clement (of Alexandria), i. 7. 
 Clement (of Rome), i. 8. 
 Cramer, i. 6 ; ii. 62. 
 Crellius, i. 17. 
 Cunseus, i. 8. 
 
 De Rhoer, i. 129. 
 
 Dick, i. 18. i 
 
 Dindorf, ii. 119. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, ii. 150. 
 
 Doddridge, i. 18. 
 
 Drusius, i. 9. 
 
 Duncan, i. 9, 402. 
 
 Ebrard, i. 9, 16, 87, 90, 100, 114, 
 120, 121, 125, 140, 143, 197, 200, 
 240, 334, 344, 346, 347, 365, 366, 
 378, 380, 409 ; ii. 38. 
 
 Eliezer (Rabbi), i. 54. 
 
 Eisner, i. 301. 
 
 Erasmus, i. 8, 9, 166. 
 
 Ernesti, i. 9, 81, 228, 230, 371 ;' ii. 
 
 62. 
 Euripides, ii. 62, 85, 150. 
 Eusebius, i. 6, 7, 8, 210, 325. 
 
 Forster, i. 6. 
 Frommann, i. 131. 
 
 Gellius (Aulus), i. 239. 
 
 Gesenius, i. 371. 
 
 Gouge, i. 9. 
 
 Greverus, ii. 68. 
 
 Griesbach, i. 28, 33, 93, 166, 204, 
 
 388, 436, 446 ; ii. 203, 228. 
 Grigentius Sephrenensis, ii. 83. 
 Grotius, i. 9, 135, 164, 239, ^.301, 
 
 347, 438. 
 
 Haldane. i. 18. 
 
 Hall (Robert), i. 382 ; ii. 109. 
 Hallett, i. 7, 9 ; ii. 41, 276. 
 Hasseus, i. 7. 
 
 Heinrichs, i. 6, 9, 81, 371. 
 Hemsterhusius, i. 10. 
 Henderson, i. 18, 19. 
 Hengstenberg, i. 44. 
 Henley, i. 55. 
 Henry, ii. 254. 
 Herodian, i. 243 ; ii. 150. 
 Herodotus, i. 249. 
 Homer, ii. 135, 150. 
 Horace, i. 267. 
 Hutchinson, ii. 190. 
 Hyperius, i. 9, 378. 
 
 Jahn, i. 64. 
 Jay, ii. 226. 
 Jebb (Bp.), i. 358. 
 Jerome, i. 7 ; ii. 15. 
 Johnston (Arthur), i. 174. 
 Josephus, i. 324, 379 ; ii. 86, 87, 88. 
 Justin Martyr, i. 8. 
 Juvenal, i. 243 ; ii. 94. 
 
 Kimchi, i. 208. 
 
 Knapp, i. 93, 436, 446. 
 
 Kohler, i. 7. 
 
 Kuinoel, i. 6, 9, 206, 228, 301, '391, 
 
 407, 422 ; ii. 36, 39, 62. 
 Kypke, i. 19 ; ii. 35. 
 
 Lachmann, ii. 228. 
 Lactantius, i. 176. 
 Lawson, i. 9. 
 Limborch, i. 9, 407. 
 Livy, i. 342 ; ii. 150. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 Lucretius, i. 241, 299. 
 Ludwig, i. 7. 
 Luther, i. 165. 
 
 M'Crie, ii. 41, 292. 
 Macknight, i. 88. 
 M'Lean, i. 9, 202, 382, 437 ; ii. 
 Maimonides, ii. 245. 
 Martial, ii. 94. 
 Matthise, i. 94, 204, 436. 
 Meyer, i. 18. 
 
 Michaelis, i. 7, 57, 65, 78, 115, 
 209, 217, 219, 246, 294, 348, 
 Middleton, i. 57. 
 Mill, i. 33, 93, 204, 436 ; ii. 89. 
 Morus, i. 33. 
 Munburgh, i. 44. 
 
 Nemethus, i. 9. 
 
 Oecuraenius, i. 90, 363, 436 ; ii. 
 
 Oederus, i. 94. 
 
 Olshausen, i. 347. 
 
 Origen, i. 6, 8. 
 
 Owen, i. 9, 107, 136, 209, 210, 
 
 285, 294, 448 ; ii. 8, 136, 167, 
 
 259, 268, 273. 
 
 Parry, i. 18. 
 
 Peirce, i. 9, 102, 115, 116, 120, 
 
 228, 332, 409, 442. 
 Philo, i. 29, 90, 268, 269, 437 
 
 43, 196. 
 Photius, i. 116. 
 Pothill, i. 145. 
 Proclus, ii. 175. 
 Prudentius, ii. 136. 
 Pye Smith, i. 29, 406, 422, 441 
 
 253. 
 
 Quintilian, i. 267. 
 
 Rosenmuller, i. 18, 64. 
 
 Salvian, ii. 71. 
 Sampson, i. 212. 
 Sanconiathon, i. 325. 
 
 219. 
 
 125, 
 395. 
 
 39. 
 
 228, 
 
 222, 
 
 186, 
 ; ii. 
 
 Schlichting, i. 347. 
 
 Schmid (C. F.), i. 6, 9, 200, 418 : ii. 
 
 39, 62, 71. 
 Schmid (Sebastian), i. 423. 
 Schmidt, i. 7. 
 
 Schoetgen, i. 90, 118; ii. 83, 190. 
 Schott, i. 7, 94, 294, 436. 
 Schulz, i. 130, 363 ; ii. 39. 
 Seneca, i. 31, 241 ; ii. 172. 
 Sophocles, i. 101. 
 Stanley, i. 6, 7, 11 ; ii. 186, 188. 
 Stephens, i. 166. 
 
 Storr, i. 6, 155, 292, 294 ; ii. 39. 
 Stow, i. 56. 
 Strabo, i. 301. 
 Stuart, i. 6, 9, 57, 82, 100, 102, 139, 
 
 206,253,294,320,387,407,442 
 
 ii. 22, 82, 274. 
 Sykes, i. 9. 
 
 Theodoret, i. 31, 90, 322 ; ii. 39, 55. 
 Theophylact, i. 9, 25, 122, 220, 335, 
 
 389, 417, 436, 445 ; ii. 7, 39, 155. 
 Tholuck, ii. 3, 39, 64, 72, 202, 243, 
 
 275. ' > , , 
 
 Turner, i. 9, 201. 
 
 Valcknaer, i. 15, 31, 39, 48, 76, 88, 
 
 360, 445 ; ii. 2. 
 Vater, i. 93, 436. 
 Vaughan (Dr), i. 18. 
 Virgil, i. 221, 298, 302, 320, 348, 
 
 377 ; ii. 64, 150. 
 Vitringa, i. 262. 
 
 Wakefield, ii. 61. 
 
 Wardlaw, i. 209, 210. 
 
 Weber, i. 7, 44. 
 
 Wetstein, i. 7, 93, 166, 204 ; ii. 197. 
 
 Wickelius, i. 166. 
 
 Winer, i. 338 ; ii. 39, 253. 
 
 Wolfius, i. 135. 
 
 Xenophon, i. 135, 243. 
 
 Zeller, i. 129. 
 
 IV. 
 
 TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Genesis iv. 1, 5, . 
 „ V. 24, . . 
 „ vi. 12-18, 
 ,, xii. 1-4, . 
 
 II. 40 
 
 II. 44 
 
 II. 49 
 
 II. 55 
 
 Genesis xiv. 18, 19, . . . I. 326 
 
 7> XV. 14, ... . II.' 25 
 
 M XIX. 24, ... . I. 28 
 
 „ xxii. 1-18, ... II. 67 
 
440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Genesis xxiv. 3, 7, 8, 
 
 
 
 1.417 
 
 Isaiah 1. 50, . . 
 
 
 
 I. 441 
 
 „ xlviii. 8-20, . 
 
 
 II. 82 
 
 Jeremiah i. 10, 
 
 
 
 I. 45 
 
 „ 1. 24, 25, . 
 
 
 
 II. 84 
 
 ,, xxxi. 31-34, 
 
 
 1.371 
 
 Exodus i. 21, . . . 
 
 
 
 I. 162 
 
 Hosea i. 1-7, . . 
 
 
 
 I. 28 
 
 „ ii. 1, . . _ 
 
 
 
 II. 86 
 
 Habakkuk, ii. 2-4, 
 
 
 
 II. 33 
 
 ,, iii. iv. V. vi. 
 
 
 
 II. 101 
 
 Haggai ii. 7, . . 
 
 
 
 II. 209 
 
 „ xii. 1, . . 
 
 
 
 II. 105 
 
 Zecliariah vi. 12, . 
 
 
 
 I. 163 
 
 ,, xiv. 1, 
 
 
 
 II. 112 
 
 Matthew xix. 26, 
 
 
 
 I. 292 
 
 „ xix. 1-20, . 
 
 
 
 II. 196 
 
 „ xxvi. 28, . 
 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 Numbers xiv. 14, 21, 29 
 
 1 • 
 
 I. 176 
 
 Mark xiv. 24, . . 
 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 „ XV. 30, 31, . 
 
 
 I. 384 
 
 Luke xxii. 20, 
 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 ,, XXXV. 11, 12, . 
 
 
 I. 319 
 
 ,, xxii. 24, 
 
 
 
 I. 199 
 
 Deuteronomy i. 35, . . 
 
 
 II. 176 
 
 Acts XV. 10, . . 
 
 
 
 1.389 
 
 „ iv. 11, 
 
 
 II. 196 
 
 Eoma.ns viii. 39, . 
 
 
 
 I. 220 
 
 V. 22, . 
 
 
 II. 196 
 
 „ _ ix. 22, . 
 
 
 
 II. 420 
 
 ,, xiii. 6-9, 
 
 
 II. 20 
 
 1 Corinthians i. 9, 
 
 
 
 I. 153 
 
 „ xvii. 2-7, 
 
 
 II. 20 
 
 ix. 7, 
 
 
 
 I. 42 
 
 Joshua ii. 9-11, . . 
 
 
 II. 123 
 
 X. 11, 
 
 
 
 I. 22 
 
 „ V. 13-15, . 
 
 
 II. 119 
 
 _„ _ xi. 25, 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 „ vi. ]-20, . . 
 
 
 II. 119 
 
 2 Corinthians iii. 6-14, 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 Judges vi. 25, 27, . . 
 
 
 II. 127 
 
 Galatians iv. 4, . . 
 
 
 I. 22 
 
 1 Samuel xii. IG, 18, 
 
 
 II. 129 
 
 iv. 26, . 
 
 
 
 . I. 261 
 
 ,, xvii. 46, 47, 
 
 
 II. 129 
 
 „ vi. 1, . 
 
 
 
 II. 421 
 
 2 Samuel vii. 14, . . 
 
 
 I. 45 
 
 Ephesians i. 10, . 
 
 
 
 I. 22 
 
 1 Chronicles xvii. 13, 
 
 
 I. 45 
 
 1 Thessalonians ii. 1. 
 
 1 
 
 
 I. 411 
 
 2 Chronicles xx. 12, 
 
 
 II. 25 
 
 Titusii. 11, . . 
 
 
 
 I. 78 
 
 Psalms, ii. 7, . . . 
 
 
 I. 245 
 
 Hebrews iv. 14, . 
 
 
 
 II. 373 
 
 „ viii. 5, 6, 7, 
 
 
 I. 90 
 
 „ iv. 14-16, 
 
 
 
 I. 279 
 
 ,, xviii. 2, . . 
 
 
 I. 118 
 
 „ iv. 16, . 
 
 
 
 I. 382 
 
 „ xxii. 22, . 
 
 
 
 . I. 117 
 
 „ V. 7-9, . 
 
 
 
 II. 303 
 
 „ xl. 6, . . 
 
 
 
 . I. 438 
 
 „ vi. 12, . 
 
 
 
 II. 385 
 
 „ xiv. 6, 7, 
 
 
 
 I. 54 
 
 „ vii. 22, . 
 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 ,, Ixxxvii. 1, 
 
 
 
 II. 60 
 
 ix. 11, 12, 
 
 
 
 II. 323 
 
 ,, xcv. 7, . 
 
 
 
 II. 172 
 
 „ ix. 13, 14, 
 
 
 
 II. 337 
 
 ,, xcv. 7, 8, 
 
 
 
 . I. 173 
 
 „ ix. 15, . 
 
 
 
 II. 353 
 
 ,, xcvii. 7, . 
 
 
 
 . I. 46 
 
 „ ix. 26, . 
 
 
 
 . I. 22 
 
 „ cii. 24-27, 
 
 
 
 . I. 59 
 
 „ X. 5, 
 
 
 
 II. 421 
 
 „ civ. 4, . 
 
 
 
 . I. 62 
 
 „ X. 19-22, 
 
 
 
 II. 369 
 
 „ ex. 1, 
 
 
 
 . I. 64 
 
 „ xi. 3, . 
 
 
 
 II. 421 
 
 „ ex. 3, 
 
 
 
 . I. 322 
 
 „ xi. 39, 40, 
 
 
 
 II. 383 
 
 „ ex. 4, 
 
 
 
 . I. 246 
 
 ,, xiii. 10, 
 
 
 
 II. 397 
 
 Proverbs iii. 26, . 
 
 
 
 . II. 181 
 
 xiii. 20, 21, 
 
 
 II. 409 
 
 Isaiah vi. 10, . . 
 
 
 
 . I. 45 
 
 1 Peter i. 12, . . . 
 
 
 . I. 382 
 
 ,, viii. 18, 
 
 
 
 . I. 119 
 
 Revelation i. 12, 13, 20 
 
 
 . I. 382 
 
 „ ix. 8, . . 
 
 
 
 . I. 214 
 
 ,, viii. 3, 4, 
 
 
 . I. 382 
 
 ,, XXXV. 3, . 
 
 
 
 . II. 181 
 
 „ xi. 19, . 
 
 
 II. 357 
 
 „ xlviii. 12, , 
 
 
 
 . I. 411 
 
 
 
 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 MURRAY AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. 
 
arks ^itHislj^Jj 
 
 WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO., EDINBUEGH. 
 THEOLOOiCAL AND EXPOSITORY WORKS 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 EEV. PKOFESSOR JOHN BROWN, D,D., 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 I. 
 
 Discourses and Sayings of our lord Jesus Christ. HIus- 
 
 tratod in a Series of Expositions. Second Edition. Three large volumes, 
 8vo, 31s. 6d. 
 
 II. 
 
 Analytical Exposition of tlie Epistle to the Eomans. One 
 
 large volume, 8vo, 14s. 
 
 III. 
 
 Exposition of tlie Epistle to the Gralatia-ns. In one large 
 
 volume, 8vo, 12s. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Expository Discourses on the Eirst Epistle of Peter. 
 
 Second Edition. Two large volumes, 8vo, 21s. 
 
 V. 
 
 Parting Counsels. An Exposition of Second Peter, Eirst 
 
 Chapter. With four additional Discourses. 8vo, 8s. 
 
 vr. 
 
 Sufferings and G-lories of the Messiah. Signified before- 
 
 hmd tij David and Isaiah: An Exposition of Psalm xviii., and Isaiah lii. 
 13-liii. 12. 8vo, 8.S. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Discourses Suited to the Administration of the lord's 
 
 Supper. Third Edition, 8vo, 8s. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Hints on the Lord's Supper, and Thoughts for the Lord's 
 
 Table. Foolscap 8vo, 2s. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Hints to Students of Divinity. Eoolscap 8vo, Is. 6d. 
 
WORKS PUBLISHED BT WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO. 
 
 KITTO'S DAILY BIBLE ILLUSTEATIONS: 
 
 Being Original Readings for a Year, on subjects relating to Sacred History, 
 Biography, Geography, Antiquities, and Theology. Especially designed 
 for the Family Circle. By John Kitto, D.D. In eight volumes, foolscap 
 8vo, with fine Frontispieces, Vignettes, and numerous Engravings. 
 
 ^0^- MORNING SERIES. 
 
 I. THE ANTEDILUVIANS AND PATRIARCHS. Eighth Edition. 
 II. MOSES AND THE JUDGES. Seventh Edition. 
 
 III. SAMUEL, SAUL, AND DAVID. Sixth Edition. 
 
 IV. SOLOMON AND THE KINGS. Sixth Edition. 
 
 EVENING SERIES. 
 V. JOB AND THE POETICAL BOOKS. Sixth Edition. 
 VI. ISAIAH AND THE PROPHETS. Sixth Edition. 
 VII. LIFE AND DEATH OF OUR LORD. Sixth Edition. 
 VHL THE APOSTLES AND THE EARLY CHURCH. Sixth Edition. 
 
 The last volume contains an elaborate Index. Each volume is complete in 
 itself, and is sold separately, price 6s., cloth. The set forms an appropriate 
 and useful present, in cloth, bevelled boards, L.2, 8s.; in half morroco, L.3 ; 
 handsomely bound in antique calf, L.3, 12s. ; or in antique morocco, L.4, 4s. 
 
 ' I cannot lose this opportunity of recommending, in the strongest language 
 and most emphatic manner I can command, this invaluable series of books. I 
 believe, for the elucidation of the historic parts of Scripture, there is nothing 
 comparable with them in the English or any other language.'— Rev. John 
 Angell James. 
 
 ' Dr KiTTo's usefulness, and, perhaps, his fame, will permanently rest on his 
 Daily Bible Illustrations, completed just before his death, in eight small 8vo 
 volumes. They contain an immense body of information on biblical subjects, 
 historical, archaeological, and physical, and are particularly serviceable to the 
 clergy, as containing illustrations which may be appropriately introduced into 
 their discourses. To young persons they have been found of extraordinarv at- 
 traction ; while persons of all ages rise from their perusal refreshed and charmed 
 with the light they throw upon the Scripture.'— C/e??ca/ Journal. 
 
 'This work has obtained, as it merits, a wide popularity. The topics are 
 selected with admirable skill, and are usually founded on some striking scene 
 or novel adventure, some fact or sentiment, some attractive feature of character, 
 or remarkable incident in eastern life and enterprise. Thus, in the first volume, 
 you pass from the manners of the tent to the bravery of the camp, from the fire 
 on the hearth to the flame of the altar; and whether the paper be on a mar- 
 riage or a funeral, a sacrifice or a scene of revelry ; whether the theme be Abel's 
 death, LameCh's polygamy, Jubal's harp, Enoch's piety, Noah's ark, Sarah's 
 veil, Hagar's flight. Lot's escape, Jacob's pillar, Joseph's bondage, or Pharaoh's 
 signet, each is told with a charming simplicity, surrounded with numerous and 
 beautiful illustrations, and interspersed or closed with pointed and just reflec- 
 tions. Dr Kitto throws light throughout the series on many obscure allusions, 
 says many tender and many startling things, opens his heart to the reader, as 
 he unfolds the stores of his learning— all his utterances being in harmony with 
 his avowed design, to make this work " really interesting, as a reading book, to 
 the family circle, for which it is primarily intended.'"— Pro/essor Eadie, in his 
 'Life of Dr Kitto. 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN KITTO, D.D., Editor of the 
 
 'Pictorial Bible,' Author of 'Daily Bible Illustradons,' etc. By John 
 Eadie, D.D., LL.D. Sixth Thousand. With Portrait and Illustrations. 
 Extra foolscap Svo, 6s. ; foolscap Svo, 3s. 6d. ; cloth boards, 2s. 6d. 
 'Full of the noblest lessons of faith, and patience, and indomitable self-con- 
 trol. Would that it were in the hands of every young man in our country.' — 
 Christian Treasury. 
 
WORKS PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO. 
 
 Opinions concerning Jesus Christ. Containing the State- 
 ment and Examination of the Jewish, Infidel, Socinian, Arian, and Catholic 
 Opinions; with an Appendix and Copious Notes. By the Rev. P. David- 
 son, D.D., Edinburgh. Second Edition. Extra foolscap 8vo, 4s. Gd. 
 
 The Law of Moses ; its Character and Design. By the 
 
 Rev. Davii> Ddncan of Howgate. Foolscap 8vo, 6s. 
 
 Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. By Eohert 
 
 Haldank, Esq. With remarks on the Commentaries of Dr Macknight, 
 Professor Moses Stuart, and Professor Tholuck. Eighth Edition. 3 vols, 
 foolscap 8vo, 15s. 
 
 The Pilgrim Psalms : a Practical Exposition of the Songs 
 
 of Degrees, Psalms cxx.-cxxxiv. By Professor M'Michael, D.D., Dun- 
 fermline. Foolscap Svo, 4s. 6d. 
 
 The Edenic Dispensation ; with Strictures on the Eev Dr 
 
 Payne's Opinions on Original Sin. By the Rev. James Meikle, D.D., 
 Bejth. Foolscap Svo, 3s. 6d. 
 
 The lature of the Mediatorial Dispensation. Post Svo 5s. 
 The Administration of the Mediatorial Dispensation. Post 
 
 8vo, 5s. 
 
 Practical Exposition of the Book of Jonah, in Ten Lectures. 
 
 By the late James Peddie, D.D. Foolscap 8vo, Is. 6d. 
 
 Old Truths and Modern Speculations. By the late Eev. 
 
 James Robertson, D.D., Glasgow. Second Edition. Crown Svo, 6s. 
 
 One Hundred Addresses and Meditations suited to the 
 
 Administration of the Lord's Supper. By the late Henry Belfrage, D.D., 
 Falkirk. Sixth Edition, complete in one volume, 6s. 
 
 The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah. By John Pye 
 
 Smith, D.D., F.R.S. Fifth Edition. With Biographical and Critical 
 Estimate of the Author, by John Eadie, D.D., LL.D. 2 large vols. 
 8yo, 21s. 
 
 The Sacrifice and Priesthood of Jesus Christ, in Eour 
 
 Discourses. By the same Author. Fourth Edition. Foolscap Svo, 5s. 
 
 The Communicant's Manual. By the late Eev. Henry 
 
 Thomson, D.D., Penrith. Foolscap Svo, 5s. 
 
 The Song of Songs Unveiled : a ISew Translation and 
 
 Exposition of the Song of Solomon. By the Rev. Benjamin Weiss, 
 Algiers. 12mo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 lew Translation, Exposition, and Chronological Arrange- 
 ment of the Book of Psalms. By the same Author. Svo, 5s. 
 
 lew Translation and Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes. 
 
 By the same Author. Foolscap Svo, 2s. 
 
WORKS PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND CO. 
 
 Just published, with Portrait, in handsome crown 8vo, price 7s. 6d., 
 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
 
 GEORGE IiA'VCTSON, D.D., SEIiKIRK, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY TO THE ASSOCIATE SYNOD. 
 
 With Glimpses of Scottish Character from 1720 to 1820. 
 By the Rev. John Macfarlane, LL.D., Author of ' The Night Lamp,' etc., etc. 
 
 ^^inions of tlje ^r£ss. 
 
 'We were not prepared for a vohime of !-uch' singular interest as this which 
 Dr Macfarlane has produced. Students of divinitj^ will find a model for their 
 imitation in acquisition, and professors a model for imitation in teaching. 
 Seldom have we takeii up a volume so full of anecdote, fresh and racy. To 
 those to vvJiom such books as the "Autobiography of Jupiter Carlyle" and the 
 yive]y facelue of Dean Ramsay have any interest, this will be the very book.' — 
 Eclectic Review. 
 
 ' Scottish character has of late received ample illustration in the autobio- 
 graphies of Drs Carlyle and Sommerville, and in the collections of anecdotes and 
 ana whicli Dean Ramsay, Dr Rogers, Alexander Leighton, and Mr Kennedy, 
 have given to the press. Dr Macfarlane has cultivated a distinct field of the 
 same period, and has produced a work of equal interest, full of anecdote, 
 thoroughly Scottish, and delineating the life and labours of a man of high 
 scholarship.' — Meliora. 
 
 'One of the best biographies we have read for long — one of the best, if not 
 the very best, Dr Macfarlane has yet written. The work is professedly a col- 
 lection of memorabilia; and when we remember what Xenophon did for 
 Socrates, and Boswell for Johnson, we feel perfectly persuaded that, in adopt- 
 ing the plan he has pursued, Dr Macfarlane has chosen by far the best he could 
 have followed. In its general style it is correct, chaste, and simple ; nay, some 
 of its descriptions are most beautiful, and there is over it all a rich glow of 
 afFoctionate interest, which gilds the whole horizon of the heart, as a fine sun- 
 set does the evening sky.' — The Scottish Recieiv. 
 
 ' Our opinion is, that this is the most sjiirited of all the author's productions. 
 He has fairly risen to the height of his subject. His (Dr Lawson) memorial is 
 still like fragrance on the breeze; and this volume, like a golden casket, has 
 collected within it much of the perfume, whith will be there retained to regale 
 generations to come. We have little doubt of the coming popularity of this 
 work, and of the high esteem in which it will be held by all classes. No minis- 
 ter, no student, and no congregational library in the United Presbyterian 
 Church, should be without it.' — United Preshijterian Magazine. 
 
 Life and Correspondence of the Eev. Henry Belfrage, LD., 
 
 Falkirk. By the Rev. Drs M'Kereow and Macfarlane. With Portrait. 
 8vo, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Memoir and Eemains of the Eev. John Brown of Hadding- 
 ton. Edited by the Rev. William Brown, M.D. Foolscap 8vo, Is. Gd. 
 
 Memoir of the Eev. John Brown of Whitburn ; with his 
 
 Letters on Sanctification. By the Rev. D. Smith, D.D., of Biggai\ With 
 Portrait. Foolscap 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 Life and Diary of the Eev. Ealph Erskine, Author of 
 
 ' Gospel Sonnets.' By the Rev. Dr Fraser. With Portrait. 12mn, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Life of the Eev. Hugh Heugh, H.D., of Glasgow. By his 
 
 Son-in-law, the Rev. H. M. MacGill. New Edition. 12mo, 6s. 6d. 
 'A work full of interest to all Christians; to ministers, perhaps the most 
 truly valuable biographical volume that has been published since " Orton's Life 
 of Doddridge."' — Late Rev. John Broavn, D.D. 
 
 Memoir of the Eev. Alexander Waugh, D.I)., London. By 
 
 the late Drs Hay and Belfrage. Third Edition. With Portrait. Post 
 8vo, 5s. 
 
BS2775.B878V.2 
 
 An exposition of the Epistle of the 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00070 0452 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 NOV 
 
 HIGHSmiH #45230